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rourhksapocolypse · 2 years ago

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So, scene from way far future, dedicated in part to @deadcatwithaflamethrower , who partially inspired this particular section near the end of what's written for OtherWhen pt2 (aka, The Vote).

I hummed, sitting cross-legged and meditating in Yoda's quarters, and letting the Force speak to me. I pondered in my empty head how I was going to get the Council to Not Die, or to actually acknowledge the fact that I was a walking impossibility and they needed to get their heads out of the sand and look that impossibility in the face to recognize it is, in fact, not so impossible.

Midichlorians below my actual Force Connection, a toddler with full skill with Force Illusion, enough to look and act like a Jedi Master if I was so Inclined (I wasn't, so I looked like an experienced Knight instead), and the fact that I wanted to slap them upside the head.

If I wanted them to wake up and smell the coffee (preferably before it became ashes), then they needed to wake up to the fact that less than a hundred midichlorians per milliliter does not make you dead or a Force Null (that the world is so much more than they realize).

One of the great things about having been raised on the Rabhitta was the fact that I could use a variant of psychometry to view stories I'd read, like Re-Entry...

I frowned. You know, I hadn't thought about that story in... years, by this point. Why is it important? Or Olga Marie talking about "Proper Human History", a complete crock of-

The One.

I opened my eyes as realization blossomed in the empty air hidden behind the ivory dome.

The One, eventually makes the Three, which eventually makes The One again, much like the self-corrective action of Alya and "Proper Human History"...

"Gravity." I breathe. Prophecy, completing because it is a fact, not self-fulfilling, but because it Will Happen, and might fulfill itself in a way that doesn't result in a happy path. "It's a matter of Gravity."

Acting quickly before I could forget, I wrote down a number of directly related points to lead me back to this realization fast and turned to the tiny green being and said, "Gather the High Council. I need to speak this to them."

Then I ran to grab my art supplies rather than waiting for a response. Force Illusion does a great job, but only if you remember what you want to display.

-`-`-`-`

I grinned at the annoyed and glaring faces of the High Council (and the fact that my 'Curse' to keep them at "Regular People" levels of stiff rather than "Diplomacy within a snake's pit" that I'd once resorted to within the Empire and never wanted to touch again was still in play) and decided to strike while the iron was hot. "So, I'm gonna try and keep this brief and on point, so that I don't forget why we're here in the first place - and to that end I would prefer a complete lack of interruptions, because that might make me forget too.

"So, I've been trying to get you people to pull the sticks out of your asses for a week now, and I'm not willing to go a Sith route and use either Domination or intimidating you into agreeing with me because I'm being terrifying, so instead, I'll use a thought experiment." I paused to consider that. "Okay, bad metaphor, but hey, metaphors are interesting things. Anyway, my view of the Multiverse is as simple as it is complex: there are as many universes, alternate or parallel timelines, as there are stars in the sky - and some of those are similar enough to forms of fiction as to be all but impossible to separate, such as the story of the Phantom Menace, where the Trade Federation blockade Naboo, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his student Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent in for negotiations, and a Sith tries to gut them both. Apprentice, I should add that in." Throughout, I'd been using Illusions to better demonstrate my point - stars of light which were actually tiny corded braids if one looked close enough to show the many timelines, a small line pointing at several such points to help group them as similar, and a few changing color to demonstrate their difference, and a ghostly image of the poster for the Phantom Menace when I brought it up.

"Or perhaps, instead, I should start with a more historical account, given that the Phantom Menace hasn't happened within this timeline yet, but the Knights of the Old Republic, the story of Jedi Master Revan and his wife Bastilla actually has. About Four Thousand Years ago, we have a Mandalorian-Republic War about Mandalorian conquest, which ends because the Jedi High Council of the era sat on their asses because they saw a greater threat on the horizon and ignored the war on their doorsteps, leading Revan and his buddy Malak to join the military and all but purge the Mando'a - eventually falling and coming back as conquerors."

I sat there for a moment to let them digest that. "In another timeline, where the Force is just an artifact of a series of movies known as Star Wars, we have a video game called Knights of the Old Republic, where a member of the Republic military gets thrown into galactic conflict without so much as a by-your-leave, discovers Jedi Padawan bastilla and Captain Carth Onasi, followed by getting the heck off of the blockaded planet of Taris and finding out he-slash-she is a Jedi-to-be, and despite the misgivings of the Council, none of which are explained at that moment, and the adult is trained by Bastilla Shan in lightsaber combat, ending the journey by killing Darth Malak. But, spoilers, they discover partway through, after getting kidnapped by Malak himself, that the main character is actually Revan, whom was mind-wiped by the Council, which neatly explained their unvoiced disquiet." I'd shown several scenes from the game - and a few from my own memories as Terra - to help give them a narrative, things to put names to as I gave an overly short description of that chaotic period of time.

"In another timeline, this is science fiction." I showed them the cover art for the game's release box.

"Here, it is historical fact."

I wait for them to digest this particular nugget (darnit, I kinda miss my kid now- refocus) and send little calming ripples through the Force to keep them from speaking up. Yes, incomplete explanations of my own personal worldview and how it pertains to this conversation is awkward, but we're racing against my attention span here. "It also, tangentially, relates to another video game called 'Fate/Grand Order, where you're a time traveller trying to keep the human race on a pre-spaceflight planet from getting incinerated by magic - mostly because of a concept they called 'Proper Human Histoy', a ridiculous notion, but worth it to bring up, because when details are forgotten or misremembered or minor bits of time travel get involved, the essence of Time smooths it out, but some changes become persistent. I'll explain why that's relevant in a moment.

"In another timeline, which I will label as The OtherWhen, Obi-Wan Kenobi lived, died, woke up in a parallel timeline just after Taro Tre, lived about four years of time- five, sorry, and then met a collosally powerful and monumentally stupid being whom decided the best thing for Obi-Wan and his Padawan Anakin on their road to healing was to send them back to the timeline their souls were born in - AKA, the OtherWhen - and made a crack in time as a result, as well as a pair of rather spectacular migraines caused by multiple examples of the same quantum signature within the Force existing at the same time. Long story very short, he met up with his apprentice, his grand-padawan, and a few good soldiers they'd made friends with more than twenty years before their respective deaths, and ended up chucked into a Force Vision, showing the future of the timeline they were in." I started showing an image of what I'd imagined it to look like, two temples in two forests - organic and shelled ships above the abandoned temple on Yavin 4, and First Order destroyers above Maz's home on... whatever that planet was called, I don't recall its name at the moment. And a grey-black fog, impossible to penetrate between them, a near-chasm in the ground leading up to it, three Jedi and three clones standing around it.

"That was a simple, three-part thing. On the left, the Yuuzong Vong appeared and tried to devour the galaxy because Jedi or more probably Sith had messed with their existence a thousand years before or more and they were vengeful. That, I'm calling Legends. On the other, right-handed side of possibility, there's Disney, where the Sith Empire rose up again as the First Order, the Jedi was wiped out to just, like, two siblings and a desert rat scavenger, and there was idiocy all around including turning Illum into a planet-shattering kabewm gun. Yes, a planet, turned into a gun. A turbolaser designed to shatter planets from entire star systems away." Illum with its deep trench and massive gun barrel was shown, blasting multiple planets in one scattergun shot. Luke in black garb using currents of the Force to break a number of Vong ships, despite their sheer resistance to the Force as much as conventional weaponry. And Darth Talon's master, parasitic Vong excretions making him look like an evil version of Dovahkiin, side-by-side with Kylo Ren's attempted Sith Master and a black-faced cloak-only version of Palpatine, if only for form's sake, because I'd never seen past The Force Awakens and didn't care to now.

"But that's not important, compared to the third timeline, which they were in. See, the being, Emmaltine, had chucked them into their original timeline without any restrictions or safety measures, which basically cracked a Shatterpoint - not like paradox-broken time, but like cracking pavement where instead of going left or right like usual, now there's space for new growth, an unexpected change. Obi-Wan and Anakin where they should not have been changed the course of history there.

"That, the three Jedi and about three clones, being tossed into a Force Vision then led to a conversation about Quantum Mechanics and Temporal Physics, which pointed out that all three of those timelines were 'The Real Timeline', and that eventually, the three would recombine as multiple, if conflicting, accounts of the same time period, because Time, from our perspective, exists as much as an Imaginary Number. Something that doesn't classically exist until we measure it, unlike a rock or something, but when you start measuring it gets you something - imaginary numbers making certain equations consistent or properly measuring particle physics, time acting similarly to photonic matter where it can be a lot of things until you start to measure it, and similarly brain-hurting concepts. In simpler words for Time, 'Everything happens all at once. It is only linear to us, because that is how we percieve it, cause leading to effect - and when you can see time for what it actually is, it becomes much easier to be lost within it, but also easier to navigate it'.

"And finally, a set of words that don't really make sense unless you apply it to those three timelines, because we're explaining things backwards today. 'The One becomes the Three which becomes the One again'." Here I wiped away all my previous Illusions and showed them Obi-Wan's explanation of time within the OtherWhen timeline. A long, braided rope of many colors with two sections where it had untwisted enough to have several strands hanging within thin air but still connected, before everything twisted back together.

I pointed to the left gap. "That is Knights of the Old Republic. Male character, female character, light-side focus, dark-side focus, balanced focus, physical focus rather than the Force, different choices made along the way, all of them start and end the same way: Revan in their new identity wakes up on the Endar Spire, makes their way to Taris, finds several maps which lead them to the Star Forge" an image of that massive station appearing to my right "and Malak dies, the Sith Empire fracturing in the process, the Jedi all but purged but ready to start anew. No focus on Living versus Unifying, because that did not matter within the war, only the kind within the Light and the evil within the Dark. 'Proper Human History' reasserts itself, and we have but the basics of that story in the aftermath, all differences smoothed out and eaten by time."

I pointed to the gap on my right. "The Galactic Civil War and its consequences." the lonely thread on the left, I pointed at and a holographic label with 'Legends' on it, small images of Luke and Leia and Han and the Imperial Remnant and the Vong under the label. I pointed at the lonely thread on the right and a holographic label with "Disney" on it, showing the symbol for the First Order, and every major character of that timeline I could remember - or had met - under that one.

The third I labelled "Re-Entry: Journey of the Whills", showing Obi-Wan and Anakin standing near Rogue Squadron with all of the Spectres and Luke and Mara nearby, Obi-Wan in a tank top for the sole purpose of showing a blurred bit of blue-green shimmershade ink in representation of his marriage to Qui-Gon within the Re-Entry timeline. I sighed, knowing that I had loved that world, and that I would never see more of it, not in this galaxy.

We were far away and long ago, after all.

I shook myself. I had my own timeline to deal with, after all.

"So, why do I bring any of this up? Well, within Re-Entry, Obi-Wan was trying to show the Council the past. The way the Jedi of four thousand years previous, before the schism that would create the Sith in that timeline, saw the Force. Not the original view, which came before Emmaltine's time, which is parallel to my own view, not the absolutist stricture it is today, but as it was in Ood Bnar's time. Largely without the political structures of 'Living' Versus 'Unifying', because there was only The Force." My mood soured so heavily those ripples of calming Force energy started making the council's faces, even with what little attention I paid to them, crinkle with unease and fear. "And he got stonewalled by dogma, The Code, and fucking politics." I spat those words with venom, unable to keep my own sense of decorum over my distaste.

"Too little willingness to see anything but what they were already seeing. Eyes wide shut, and ears too - and Obi-Wan wasn't the only voice being verbally punched into submission. The Jedi were dying, the Council too stubborn to actuallly look at and think about what he was giving them - and likely to erupt into civil war because he found that Ood Bnar had grown up with a simpler, practically reversed version of the Code he'd grown up with. Instead of a 'There is no blank, only blank' formula, it was the same words with a yet; Ignorance, yet knowledge, for example. A far truer set of words, I find. Ignorance within the individual, yet knowledge beyond what should be possible through the Force."

"This is Impossible-" I barely acknowledged anything about the councilor who'd spoken in outrage beyond being male, having both expected someone to overcome my little calming 'spell' at some point and set up little knots of force energy to act as underpowered grenades to remind them that I would like to actually speak, not be spoken over.

"Much like the Council has spoken against myself, this past week." I added, a little more sharply than intended at the interruption. I glared at the floor, closing mental ears to everything because I did not want to hear anything negative about myself - I had been tired of such treatment more than a century ago, even before my first breaths within any Star Wars timeline. "I have been ignored, but I'm not so stubborn, so caring, as to yell at deaf ears, so I will simply say this once, and leave where I am not wanted.

"In the OtherWhen, it was time, split into multiple paths that would one day merge together. Here? It is a single timeline, but the cyclical nature of the universe has prophesied an end to this ignorance, the Jedi opening back up to the fullness of the Force. It is not some self-fulfilling prophecy, where I declare it and make it happen, or declare it in a way where you try to keep it from being fulfilled and it fulfills itself because of that action or any other variation. It is fact that I have felt and seen, a point that is as solid as Cortosis Red and Durasteel. The present has not been written, so all that is left is finding the road that would lead to it. In the end, it's simply a matter of gravity, and inevitability." A short pause as a long forgotten story came to mind, so I began to speak it, handing out wisdom I'd almost forgotten.

"In another world, I heard a story about a Jedi who knew about a prophecy about himself. Or, something to that effect. He became arrogant about knowing he would one day save a species, growing lax in his training and when the day came? He saved them.

"By getting sucked into an engine."

Even with my mental deafening, I could hear the startled silence, horror and dread of what could be connected to this story.

"I know that the Jedi will reach out to the Force, in its fullness, and grow again. But will it be reached through meditation, self-acceptance, and willingness? Or will I need to suffer the Jedi being purged in my lifetime again, a third time, allowing ignorance of political lines within a religion and so very few Jedi existing at all, to be the impetus that reaches it?"

"We are loved-"

"We have no idea how the public actually views us!" I snapped. "As for how it could happen? Calling the Sith as Extinct is a bit of a stretch." I drawled. "Kill every jedi, and you can still make more with knowledge and tools and the Force left behind. Or start again from within the Sith culture. The Sith? Are as much of a fact, an Idea, as the Jedi are at this point. You can't kill an idea. You can kill those who think of it or by it, you can ransack Korriban, but unless every bit is destroyed beyond doubt, every spirit excsized and Korriban itself turned into space dust, every bit of writing hunted down and burned like the Bible and Torah within Nazi Germany, the Galaxy will never be truly rid of them. Not unless they are destroyed by friendlier means, a method I never expect to see work, not within my lifetime." "Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him my friend?" Came to mind, much as Obi-Wan and his fogbank metaphor, but they weren't going to listen to that, not after ignoring me so much.

"The Sith, much like Criminals, were never eradicated, only driven underground, and they want us dead. It is up to those who live today to make decisions that will affect our descendants for the better. We can't do that if we're dead."

And with that, I turned, leather trench coat swirling behind me like their own cloaks as I sneaked as fast as possible away, heading for an unpopulated section of the main tower - a task far too easy to accomplish, given how it was built to house far more Jedi than now lived.

Running through stretches I'd known for more than six decades would be a decent, mindless distraction, however little it would actually help. I ignored the salt water, presumably from the dust if I was willing to care.

I'd said my piece. Now all that was left was to let them come to their own conclusions. Their lives were their own, not mine to do with as I saw fit.

#story rambles #writing stuff #story thoughts #writing #Echoes #future stuff #gfy

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aether-asterisk · 3 years ago

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merry .exemas, here’s yet another edgy glitch demon virus caffy

#normally i don't get into Newgrounds Stepmania 2020™ but man.....how about that vs .exe mod you guys #literally every song is a bop and not just the main story #but anyway! i might make a 'reformed' version of her as soon as i come up with an at for it #(at = alternative timeline because universes are considered to be completely separate worlds)#(like trees in the woods; and timelines are the branches of each tree. which may branch off into variants of itself)#(and that's how it works baby!)#caffrin #caffrinverse #amber!caffrin #caffrin posts #caffrin draws

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sarenhale · 3 years ago

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Haiiiiiiiii

May I ask politely if you would like to tell us more ab Zenos and Aydee friendship/relationship???

🥺👉👈

Ooohh aaaghhhh sgfgsh yes of course!!!

It's honestly still weird to think about it, considering the nature of Zenos' relationship with the Wol... it's a bit of a mix of my interpretation of it, and what I want to do with these characters.

First of all, the Zenos/Aydee relationship or friendship only exists in a separate timeline from the 'canon' ffxiv storyline, it completely diverges from the canon story for Aydee at some point, mostly because:

How the hell do you justify a relationship with the crown prince of Garlemald who killed a bunch of people for fun, and also destroyed an entire nation?

How the hell do you explain this to your family? To your friends? To the Scions?

How the hell isn't Aydee automatically an enemy of the state (imagine the booty shorts on her with that written on it...) since she hangs out with him, and not labeled a traitor?

How the hell does Aydee even cope with it???

So yeah, all things considering, I struggle to imagine how an Aydee/Zenos relationship (or even friendship for that matter) would effectively be possible in the canon ffxiv story she's going through.

My personal interpretation is that in this timeline, Aydee actually puts an effort to try to understand him, bond with him and actually realizes they have a lot in common and she enjoys his company. At this point, she probably also starts doing her own thing and separates herself from the Scions and her duties, to go on her own path instead. I like the idea of Aydee and Zenos roaming the world together, I love their chemistry and I think they would make for very interesting companions, both in a romantic but also not-romantic way!

The inheritely sad part about this reality is that Aydee and her family, and Aydee and her friends can't co exist with her also being with Zenos- as I said, how the hell do you explain THAT to your loved ones?

But maybe after a lot of time passes, things can change for the better for them, some people may learn to accept them, who knows? We don't know what EW has in store for us in terms of Zenos's story and development, maybe that will yield some interesting turn points for him!

But as much as difficult to imagine it is- I do like the idea of Zenos getting a peaceful life somewhere with the person he loves. It's very cheesy and maybe unrealistic, but hey who gives a shit, I think they both deserve it. I like to imagine that after years of roaming and adventuring, maybe they can settle down and open a tavern somewhere, have a family? Zenos can stop living with the weight of his family and legacy on his shoulders and start being who he is. I like that! It's a bit unrealistic under some aspects - for example, how do you even excuse Zenos's actions and all he has done - but the whole Aydee/Zenos couple is honestly built upon something that isn't realistic to the story itself, but more for my self- indulgent canon, and need for domestic cute times between these two. This couple literally exists for my own enjoyement and is kept together by my hopes and dreams AHAHAH

I also thought that maybe connecting this alternate time where they can be together could be something interesting (and very heartbreaking) to tie up why in canon they feel so drawn to eachother. Maybe one of those 'we were together in another lifetime' things, and neither of them can reconcile their feelings and understand why they feel this way in canon.

I also have another alternate universe, a modern AU, which I LOVE for them, where they're both university students or something and they just HANG OUT. Zenos is the weird neighbor kid with the powerful rich family and Aydee's dad sees him around one time and invites him in to eat lasagna. Maybe him and Aydee were childhood friends when they were little??? That sounds so precious... also weaboo university student Zenos who has a katana collection and hangs out at Aydee's house to eat good food and watch Bake off with her. Fucking YES. I need to draw more of this dbcgvdjgh

#thanks for the ask omg!! i could go on talking about them for the rest of my life dhgcdjh #answered #ffxiv #aydee #zenos

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doitwritenow · 5 years ago

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IronStrange Starter Kit - Master Fic Rec List for all Y’all Because You’ve been Asking and I’ve been Avoiding

Hi! All you anons and askers, I made a list!!! Hopefully some of these are what you’ve been after. :D

(Please reblog this, lol, I spent too much time on it...)

General rules: These are complete unless indicated otherwise, and end happily unless indicated otherwise. There’s a variety of ratings, as I have no qualms against smut, but I don’t usually read it outside of a larger plot. So I don’t think there’ll be many explicit stories on here. Word counts vary; I indicate general length but don’t go into specifics. What else, uh... Bold stuff is the headers and general subjects. I link the titles. Block quotes are author summaries. Enjoy!!

Okay so first off, there are a couple of Fandom Staples who just have leagues worth of good short stories, and if you haven’t read them, then definitely treat yourself to the array:

A Thousand Futures of Me and You - VisionaryGalaxy (Vishanti, what a legend, ily so much). This is a series of unconnected one-shots, each their own and covering a variety of tropes and moments and themes and AUs. They’re so fun (and/or painful and/or thought-provoking and/or tense and/or sexy)! In-character and amazing, consistantly.

Prompt Collection - amethyst-noir (Arbonne). (Also a legendary human). This is exactly what it sounds like: a series of prompt fills in all sorts of tones. You’ll almost certainly find something here that feels like it was just made for you!

Alright, onto the individual stories and series!

Long fics/series:

The of overqualified hands and pi figures series - lantia4ever. (This was my first Ironstrange story, and it is no less magical now.)

A series of one-shots, all set in the same alternate verse in which Tony and Stephen first meet following the events of the first Avengers and then continue to meet after that throughout the canon up until Infinity War and eventually beyond it. Becoming friends - and more along the way.

Time After Time - fancylances. (I love love LOVE this one. Highly recommended.)

Tony Stark is unstuck in time. Stephen Strange might just be the only person in the universe qualified enough to help.

Citizen Erased - Imagined. (This author. Just... such a wonderful, talented, stunning person who makes wonderful, talented, stunning works. This story is masterful.)

What do you do when no one in the world ever manages to remember you?

Anyone who sees Tony Stark promptly forgets he ever existed after mere seconds. When everyone he has ever cared about has lost their memories of him, he goes to Stephen Strange, possibly the only one who can help him lift the curse. But a terrifying danger is coming, and saving the world isn’t an easy job to do when no one can remember who you are.

if only the gods had mercy on us and it’s sequel a soul too deep - orphan_account. (Vishanti, this series... It’s so beautiful and emotional and heart-breaking and heart-warming. And it has so few views for so many words! One of my absolute favorites, VERY highly recommended.)

Tony Stark loved Stephen Strange. He loved him more than anyone could ever imagine. But then a terrorist group attacked the convoy. Then there was a car accident. In the middle of it all, there is tired, battered love. (And, maybe, a little bit of genius)

From the Top - lucifersfavoritechild. (Everyone reads this fic. Written by the blogger Monarch Of The Ironstrange Ship, it’s an MCU rewrite around the relationship. Very fun.)

“Stephen, if you’re . . . there somewhere . . . when I drift off, I’ll be with you again. I can’t wait.”

|| Personally, I think the MCU would be much better as a love story between Stephen Strange and Tony Stark. Don't you?

Starting from Iron Man, and going all the way to Endgame, with all the appropriate stops in between. Let's take it from the top.

UNFINISHED: Skin Deep - Mystical_Magician. (Super cool premise, and super interesting to read! The dynamic here is very fun.)

A battle that should have finally killed Stephen instead launches him into a parallel universe. Exhausted from centuries as Sorcerer Supreme, he chooses instead to explore this new world in any animal form except human. Having hoped for peace at last, he can't stand to be looked up to, to be responsible for others, to have the world on his shoulders.

If he'd hoped to avoid excitement, however, he really should have stayed away when he noticed an enormous explosion and a falling metal suit of armor as he passed through Afghanistan.

UNFINISHED: The End of Infinity - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec. Very long, very slow-burn. Canon-compliant Endgame fix-it. I’m trying so hard, lol.)

In 2023, the battle for the universe has been won. At a cost no one can forget, the fight is over—for all but one. Stephen Strange has an idea. An impossible idea spanning dimensions and timelines, life and death, and the lines of good and evil. But he's played impossible odds before—perhaps he never stopped.

All that Loki wanted was to fight, one last time, for the fate of his universe. So when he finds himself fighting for another, crashing into the past, he has a few intended words for the wizard that forced him there. But not before he finds a boy. Or, more accurately, before the boy finds him.

Peter Parker had been waiting for the next mission. He just doesn't expect it to come from the future, armed with a ridiculous story demanding a ridiculous quest. And he doesn't expect not to be able to tell Mr. Stark.

Tony Stark is trying to rebuild from the Civil War, knowing that someday, something will come that he needs to be ready for. And he doesn't know it yet, but two universes are trying to rebuild around him, and that something is already here.

Seven Stones. Five dead. Two universes. And one impossible quest to tie it all back together.

UNFINISHED: Sunrise in Exile - Ragdoll (Keshka). (Another fandom favorite! And for good reason. This is really really good!)

Tony does the math and realizes their best chance to save the universe is by... not confronting Thanos on his own turf.

So he steals a wizard and a spider and a space ship. And he runs.

(Three humans and an A.I in space, the alien friendships they make along the way, and discovering how science and magic might coexist in a universe where they can be one and the same.)

Shorter plotty ones:

Out of Suffering - Mystical_Magician. (So this author??? THIS AUTHOR??? Very very good, much yes, very good.)

Stephen Strange does not like people, but 14,000,605 lifetimes of fighting and dying alongside this small group have worn down his walls. He likes them, gods help him. He might even consider them friends. It’s really for the best that they all go their separate ways once Thanos has been defeated. In their eyes, he’s barely even an acquaintance.

Now if only Tony and Peter would stop surprising him.

moros - spookykingdomstarlight. (Almost got a spot in the angst section. Very good).

There were fourteen million universes Stephen had birthed into existence and let die and, in far more than he cared to count, the visitor standing before him had become something… dear.

Shaking is Caring - mariadperiad20. (This is just STUNNING. Highly loved.)

5 times Stephen's hands would shake, +1 time they didn't.

It's Kinda Chalky - DestielsDestiny. (This one’s pretty short, but definitely worth it.)

You can live an entire lifetime by looking into someone’s eyes. His sister used to say that all the time. Stephen never gave it much thought back then. These days, he can think of little else.

Something Magic - Imagined. (Beautiful!)

There is only ever one rule that matters:

do not fall in love with the enemy.

An Idiotic Theory - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec! I tried to be funny.)

His wizard has been cursed, again, and Tony's already used up his luck for the day.

(Stephen says it's not a curse. He says Tony's whole daily-allotted karma-based luck theory has minimal merit, citing the fact that Tony had come up with it while he was drunk.)

Tony really should have saved his miracle.

Love Through Time - babywarg (morphaileffect). (I love this one. It sticks with you.)

Tony discovers an old drawing of, and finally remembers, his invisible friend Stephen from when he was a child.

Alternates - doobler. (Super cool!)

After being punked by a lowbrow magician, Stephen finds himself falling through doors to otherwordly dimensions. How will he ever get home?

132 - 28ghosts. (Soulmate AU! Very fun, incorporates Stephen’s time-loop with Dormammu.)

Ninety-nine point eight percent of humans have a soulmate mark that tells them the age their soulmate will be when they meet them. Tony Stark has a mark. It's just that his is...different than most people's.

(Or: six people who aren't Tony Stark's soulmate, and one who is.)

and when the world falls (I will fall with it) - HeavenChild. (Another multichap soulmate AU. Absolutely lovely.)

Tony will give anything to those he loves.

People will take everything he gives before leaving him in shambles.

Rhodhey, Pepper and Vision have had enough.

Or the five times Tony had his heart broken and the one time he didn't.

i saw the end of the world - JumpToConclusions. (Why has no one read this fic??? It’s so good!!! Stephen knows the future since he saw it on Titan, and things grow more complex from there.)

Tony and Strange are trying to make this work, this being remaking The Avengers. ...And maybe they'll stumble into something else along the way.

Tiresome heart, forever living and dying - Mystical_Magician. (R e a d t h i s p l e a s e. The mythology is so cool and the symbolism is so beautiful and the prose is so satisfying. One of my absolute faves.)

As a fledgling crane, Stephen was too curious for his own good, and it was this curiosity that led to Eugene Strange finding and stealing away his feather robe. Trapped in human form, cruelly forged into the perfect son, not even his father's death freed him when his robe was so well hidden. He only managed to break his father's mold after breaking completely in the aftermath of his accident, and slowly gluing those broken pieces back together at Kamar-Taj, but not even magic could find what had been hidden. Enter Tony, after the defeat of Thanos.

Fluffy ones:

From The Outside - Live. (Hilarious.)

Being a sentient life-form surrounded by humanity can be hard. Especially when said humans just can't admit their feelings for each other.

Sleeping Iron Man - Golden_Asp. (Another fun one. Perfect balance of ridiculousness with a touch of angst to make it interesting.)

Stephen Strange stared at the Avengers on his doorstep, Tony Stark flung over Steve Rogers' shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "He touched something, didn't he?" "Yuup." or The one where Tony touches Sleeping Beauty's spindle, is put into an enchanted sleep, and everyone, even Rocket Raccoon, take their turn kissing him. But Tony only has one prince charming.

Doctor Ob(li)vious - lantia4ever. (One of my very favorites. So cute.)

Stephen starts getting some weird looks from the Avengers, spanning across disturbed, confused and even scared all the way to curious. He dismisses it at first until weird turns into knowing.

And knowing turns into realizing...even if the scheming teenagers had to all but paint it on the walls for him to do so. Oh wait...

Applied Combinatorics in Two-Player Games - 28ghosts. (Short and fun and full of snark.)

After a battle, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange argue about games.

“Chess is not a solved problem.”

“Has been since ‘97, Kasparov versus Deep Blue. Kasparov, 1; Deep Blue, 2; three draws.”

“Chess is a game, not a problem.”

The Courtship of Peter Parker's Father (Figures) - flyingonfeatherlesswings. (Peter plays matchmaker! Adorable.)

Peter couldn't stand to sit by while Tony and Stephen danced around each other any longer. Something had to be done.

Speaking Eyes - Vrishchika. (Not Steve Friendly. Tony is amazing in this. And Stephen is so fantastically dramatic.)

Tony has always had expressive eyes.

The Signs of Sleep Deprivation - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Another self-rec. <3)

"Tony said to put the potato in the dishwasher, so that's what I did."

Sometimes, Avengers just show up to say hi. Sometimes, they all show up at once, and Tony makes an party out of it. Sometimes, he invites the snarky, oblivious, somewhat insecure wizard because, and Peter quotes: "everyone else is coming".

Sometimes, something needs to be done.

Show Me Your Scars (And I'll Show You Mine) - Imagined. (Adorable. Lovely. Imagined does it again.)

The worst part is that Stephen keeps tucking his hands away, just as Tony wants to hold them. He keeps hiding them, surreptitiously, no matter what they’re doing. It’s only when Tony kisses Stephen, or hugs him, that he feels the hands settle on his back, uncertain, ready to pull back within seconds.

It only makes him want to cuddle up to Stephen even more, but he backs away, not sure if it’d be welcome.

Promise? Promise. - sharonscarters. (AU, kidfic, absolutely adorable.)

A four year old Tony Stark runs away from home and finds his Guardian Angel.

What The Doctor Ordered - wakandan_wardog. (Post CW. Kind of not Rogues friendly? So fun, makes me smile. I re-read this one a lot.)

The Rogue Avengers are called back to New York because the heavy hitters are going to be needed against Thanos. Of course, there are some truths that Steve Rogers will need to accept sooner rather than later. Tony Stark has moved on and Stephen Strange will not suffer fools lightly.

Hurt/Comforty ones:

Among The Chaos of The Stars (You're My Safe Harbour) - ShootMeDead. (Oh my vishanti. OH MY VISHANTI. So so so so SO good.)

Stephen has always been able to hear the stars. Tony is the only one who can silence them.

each night like a white noise frequency - Phierie. (I ADORE THIS FIC. OKAY. I LOVE IT. READ IT.)

Stephen is no stranger to making hard choices. He doesn’t regret his actions on Titan, but months later they weigh on his mind heavier than ever; the cracks begin to show.

Just An Accident - CucumbersInGold. (I really like fics with Stephen’s hands and the difficulties thereabout. Idk, just one of my favorite things. This is beautiful).

Stephen's hands act up.

Learning, Unlearning - Caaaaaaas. (More character study than anything else. Really good.)

Whatever Stephen wanted with life, life just didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

In which Stephen learns and unlearns some very important lessons.

your eyes have their silence - doctortwelfth. (Oh look it’s another scars fic. I told you I liked them.)

Tony is gentle with Stephen’s hands even when Stephen forgets to be.

Burning Lines Into The Snow - petroltogo. (Not very Steve friendly. Short and sweet.)

Post CW: It's not just the team that's so broken they are barely able to comprehend how many parts they're missing now, how many have been ripped and twisted and torn. It's Tony as well, right down to the core, the damage so far-reaching even he doesn't know how to fix it.

And then there's Strange, who has his own way of covering the cracks.

Old Bones - CJtheWeeb. (Owch. Dumb geniuses trying to be invulnerable.)

Sometimes Stephen Strange has great days, where he was nearly pain free and his hands still enough to where he could pick up a cup of water and barely spill a drop.

Today was not one of those days.

something taken, something new - meowrails. (So in-character. The premise was a little off to me, but I’m so glad I decided to read this one. I really really like this fic.)

The ChronicConnection implement and app allows a person that lives with chronic or illness-induced pain to transfer their burden temporarily to a willing loved one.

Tony and Stephen sign up as beta testers.

Angsty ones (happy ending unless otherwise mentioned):

day one - days4daisy. (THIS IS SO GOOD OKAY IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE ON THIS LIST READ THIS).

Three days in Stark Tower. Stephen must be in bad shape if he just agreed to this.

His Merlin - babywarg (morphaileffect). (This author keeps showing up on this list because they are A LEGEND. A LEGEND I TELL YOU.)

As a child, Tony imagined himself a Knight of the Round Table. Little did he know he would grow up to be a king. And that he would have a wizard by his side to lead him to either glory or destruction.

there is no heart for me like yours - turtle_abyss. (Soulmate AU! Wonderful. <3)

Being able to feel your soulmate - a phantom touch, a bone-deep awareness - is a divine torture. To know, but not see. To seek, but not find. To feel someone holding your hand and not be able to hold theirs.

Grace - StrangeMischief. (*cries in beautiful fic* Happy ending!)

“Pain’s an old friend.”

Us...Me - StrangeMischief. (This will hurt you. So melancholy. Pepper and Tony live their life, and Tony remembers. Not a happy ending.)

“I don’t believe in happily ever after.”

One-Thousand Cranes - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec, sorry. Hopeful ending.)

After it all, a man with shaking hands makes a wish.

courtesy - deathofglitter. (Dealing with the fourteen-million futures. So good.)

Stark looked at him like he looked at the amulet that rested on his chest like a steady promise - dutiful, a bit burdened, and trying to hold a profound lack of personal emotion whatsoever, still personal enough to protect as anyone would a precious object.

La Douleur Exquise - BananasofThorns, StrangeMischief. (More pain. Pepper and Tony, and Stephen watching and trying not to wish. Very good, no happy ending.)

The before was easy. There were fewer boxes in their minds and no chains around their hearts. There was no hurt. No tears. No dreams.

But those days were long gone.

Stigmata - babywarg (morphaileffect). (AU! Soulmates again. Very interesting, beautifully done.)

Since Stephen was little, mysterious wounds have appeared and disappeared on his body, leaving mysterious scars. His mother says it's because he's one of a Pair, and he's absorbing pain meant for someone else.

*wipes brow* PHEW! That gotta a little more in-depth than I first intended... Have fun, my MysticIron friends. Happy quarantine.

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neutral-emerald · 4 years ago

Text

SILVER THE COSMIC TIME-JANITOR (or: dude, what's with all the alternate futures)

silver the hedgehog has a very simple backstory. he's a kindhearted, sorta-naive but altogether very driven psychic hedgehog here to save the world by time-traveling to the past (also known as present-day) to prevent the apocalyptic future he was born into from coming to pass!

[ID: A screenshot of Silver from Sonic 06. He’s glowing with cyan energy as he flies over a dark, post-apocalyptic city.]

...wait, if he's time traveling 200 years into the past to completely change the shape of the timeline, how do the stars manage to align such that he manages to be born at the exact same point in the new timeline with the exact same genetics? how are his parents born? does silver have parents?? and how does he do this no less than THREE SEPARATE TIMES??!

hey everyone, i'm tumblr user neutral-emerald here to make good on the idea i vaguely gestured at yesterday and point out silver's wildly inconsistent backstory(s) and then explain to you how this isn't just sega playing hopscotch with the concept of time travel, but actually TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE if you don't mind a whole lot of conjecture and "fuck dude i just think it'd be cool."

LET'S GO.

before i get started, a few things to establish.

first, this is about… half serious, tops. it’s less of a theory and more of an observation of something that’s weird and then throwing some possible explanations at it because i am a massive sucker for time-based nonsense. if you wanna take my observations and build your own conclusions, go for it. i’m not your boss.

second, i'm basing my conclusions off of both the games and the idw comics. the conclusions i draw are applicable to either continuity, but the logic does rest a decent amount on the comics, so just a heads-up in case you were expecting pure game canon from this.

and third, i'm working off like half a brain and very intermittent checks of the wiki and cutscene compilations, so there's probably many things i'm missing! if you notice something i said was wildly off-base, go ahead and correct me in the replies and i'll either edit the post or explain to you just how that detail doesn't actually matter, depending on whether it. y'know. matters.

with that out of the way, let's get into the first topic of discussion!

part 1: the future is inconsistent, y'all

now, i'm not sure if you've heard, but in the year 2006 sonic team released this little indie game creatively entitled Sonic the Hedgehog. it was a smash hit, won countless awards, and for some reason went down in history as a messy, incomplete bugfest. but that's not what matters. what matters is that it introduced Silver the Hedgehog.

silver hails from 200 years in the future. the world is a bleak, fiery place, and has been since the monster iblis was unleashed after princess elise's death. silver was born into this world, which we know since it's literally the first thing he says in his story.

[ID: A cropped line from Silver's story in Sonic 06. "This world was devastated before I was born."]

i'm not going to drag you through a beat-by-beat summary of the entire plot of sonic 06, you should know it already. silver meets mephiles, gets lied to about who caused the apocalypse, mephiles yeets him and blaze into the past, he tries to murder Sonic the Hedgehog™, and so on. eventually he helps kill god, and then sonic and elise travel further back in time to kill god even deader so that none of the game ever happened, and the bad future into which silver was born never happened, thus thoroughly scrubbing silver's existence from the timeline!

...until.

sonic rivals.

i'm not going to speak much on sonic rivals, mostly because i'm not super familiar with it. but what matters is that silver is back! he's still from the future, he's still here to change the past, and most importantly he wasn't deleted from existence by the destruction of solaris, unlike everything else from sonic 06 including everyone's memories of it. and obviously, whatever state his future is in, it's not the same as it was in sonic 06.

now, i don't have a single clue what is going on in rivals 2, so do inform me if there's some big information i'm missing from that one. all i know is he's fixing yet another possible apocalyptic future, like always. correct me if i’m wrong, i don’t have the patience to trawl through it myself.

then we've got sonic colors, in which silver is again from the future. notably, he’s definitely not from an apocalypse!

[ID: Some screenshots from the DS version of Sonic Colors, again cropped to just the text. Tails and Silver are talking to each other.

Tails: What's the future you came from like, Silver? Silver: A lot brighter than this. Silver: The sky is blue, and everybody's got a smile.]

sonic generations doesn't add much. again, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we learn anything about what kind of future silver is from, and he's definitely not here to fix it this time. that's sonic's job! he's just hanging out like everyone else.

now, up until this point the future has been reasonably consistent, setting aside my somewhat abstract understanding of the rivals games. there's nothing to say that silver's not coming back in time from the same point in a single timeline, which is the one and only version of the future ever since the destruction of sonic 06.

UNTIL.

[ID: Two panels from the comic Sonic Forces: Stress Test. In the first panel, Silver looks worried as he lands in front of Knuckles, who looks skeptical.

Silver: We've got big trouble! Eggman— Knuckles: How can you be here? I thought you returned to the future?

In the second panel, Knuckles looks away with a self-assured grin, while Silver looks more panicked.

Knuckles: Oh wait— I must be dreaming! Silver: What? No! I've come back with a dire warning from the future!]

i have a lot of issues with sonic forces, especially with how its story is written. something i do NOT take issue with is the supplemental comics, mainly because they are WONDERFUL evidence for my crackpot time travel theory.

like i said, up until this point we don't really know whether silver has been experiencing separate instances of the future, or simply traveling back in time to prevent an also-time-traveling eggman nega from messing things up in the past. but here, we get some very juicy information:

[ID: Knuckles and Silver again. Knuckles has his arms crossed and is looking at Silver, who has a nervous look on his face as he slams a fist on the palm of his other hand.

Knuckles: Come again? Silver: Something happens that brings the world to ruin! But the historical records are sparse or make no sense. I came back to hopefully head off whatever's about to happen and save the future.]

silver travels back in time to prevent a terrible apocalypse. this is not the beautiful future silver came from in sonic colors— but this is the same silver. everyone recognizes him. he recognizes everyone. and yet, the future he came from is different.

part 2: silver is a walking paradox

allow me to remind you of what i pointed out when i was talking about sonic 06. silver was born into the iblis-apocalypse. considering no elaborate timeline nonsense happened to him before the events of the game (by his reckoning) i think we can safely assume he was born like a regular person with parents.

in the first post-06 timeline, silver was probably also born. let's be charitable, acknowledge that sonic team doesn't overthink the butterfly effect like i do, and say that silver was born to the same parents, because the universe likes to keep things nice and simple and contrive itself to make this particular character exist in this time period.

so, it's entirely fair that silver comes to exist in a post-06 timeline at the equivalent point in time, aka 200 years in the future. it's also fair that he travels back in time to prevent some kind of apocalypse, because that's his narrative role! it's what he does. when it's time for him to exist in the story, that's what he's there to do.

what isn't fair is the fact that it keeps happening.

[ID: A panel from the IDW comics. Sonic is stretching his legs while looking faintly exasperated at Silver, who is nervously holding his arm.

Silver: Er… No. I came back because defeating Eggman didn't save the future. Sonic: Couldn't even play along. Had to bring the mood down. Sonic: *sigh* Okay, what happened this time?]

[ID: The following panel, cropped to just Silver's text bubbles narrating over a starry sky.

Silver: When I left, my time had been conquered by the Eggman Empire. Everyone lived in fear, choking on polluted air. Silver: When I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone— but so was everyone else. Silver: There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery. Only water and sparse, metallic plant life.]

allow me to summarize my understanding of all this: silver is from the future. normally, the future is good. sometimes it isn't. when it isn't good, he goes back in time and fixes things, then returns to the future to check if that fixed things.

the least conjecture-y interpretation i can come up with is that sometimes silver will go into the past, then go back to the future but end up in a Bad Timeline and thus go into the past again to fix things. there's no weird warping directly between bad timelines, he only gets there by way of the past.

but that's boring, so here's my PREFERRED interpretation.

silver hails from a good future, but sometimes it just changes. he's unstuck from time— if something weird happens in the past, he's the only one to know that the passage of fate was changed, because he went to bed in one timeline and woke up somewhere categorically worse, and the only way he can fix it is by figuring out just what caused this and going back in time to fix it.

or, to say it in a meme:

[ID: A picture of someone lying in a hospital bed with a nurse standing next to them, edited so that Silver is in the bed.

nurse: sir… you've been asleep for 2 hours silver: oh boy i can't wait to wake up in the same timeline i went to sleep in]

part 3: how did this happen?

it's one thing to point out that silver doesn't experience time like a normal hedgehog, and another thing to explain how and why this happens.

fyi, this is the part where i go wildly off the rails and start saying whatever i want. there's a ton of explanations one could come up with, most probably stemming back to sonic 06. i'm just going to go with my own, and probably not come up with a whole lot of concrete evidence because i'm just spitballing. this is me having a fun time. going "heeheehoohoo time traveling hedgehog go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

so. something i haven't touched upon is that in all games after sonic 06, silver can time travel. we never see him do it, it's never explained how he does it. all we know is that he's doing it under his own power.

which is kinda odd, don't you think? should he be able to do that?

in sonic 06, we see three mechanisms for time travel. first is the chaos emeralds. if two people perform Chaos Control with a chaos emerald apiece, they open up a swirling rift in the air which can send them to different points in time and space. silver can't be doing that, for obvious reasons— he's only one hedgehog, and he's not exactly running around with a chaos emerald at all times. that can't be how he does it.

second is a time machine eggman built. that obviously can't be it; the machine doesn't exist at all after the timeline gets wiped, and again, silver is doing this on his own. he's actively antagonistic towards eggman, even. absolutely not this one.

third and finally is mephiles, who can make big purple orbs to take himself and passengers to different points in time. this obviously can't be it either, for similar reasons to number 2, right? after all, mephiles is one half of solaris, who was destroyed before he could be split off. he doesn't exist to be silver's time-traveling uber driver.

...right?

well, obviously. i'm not going to try and tell you that mephiles is secretly alive and shepherding silver back and forth between timelines for no reason. that's ridiculous. no, i'm going to try and tell you that silver is mephiles.

or rather, he's solaris. or RATHER, he's the new solaris, sorta-ascended to the role of Time God after the old one got blown out like a birthday candle.

like i said, i'm going wildly off the rails and as such don't have any concrete evidence to explain why it's this instead of something else, but hear me out. after elise blew out the flame of hope, the universe was left in an interesting situation. someone needs to be in charge of the flow of time, but the previous time-god was just unceremoniously destroyed. but all the power and energy of a time-god has to go somewhere, in some form, in some time.

with nothing else to go off of, the role of time-god starts flipping through every notable being it had interacted with. they're all solidly accounted for in the timeline, except for one. silver the hedgehog was born into a timeline that cannot exist. silver the hedgehog does not, and cannot exist. silver the hedgehog interacted quite a bit with both sides of solaris— he spent a substantial amount of time fighting back iblis, and associated with mephiles, even being one of the few people to directly experience his time travel abilities. silver the hedgehog tried and failed to absorb iblis into himself.

here's my theory: after sonic 06, the universe reasserted itself such that silver was the new Solaris. silver is not consciously aware that this is what he is, but he knows that he can time travel. sometimes the timeline will rearrange itself around silver. he is unaffected by this because he is a higher being unaffected by such petty trifles as "an origin" or "paradoxes".

silver the hedgehog probably doesn't have parents. he sprang into existence one day and everyone just kind of went with it, himself included.

oh also something i thought was neat but couldn't think of where to put:

[ID: More cropped dialogue, this time from Team Sonic Racing.

Silver: I'm fine. It's just, something bad is gonna happen. I can't explain it. I just feel it. Blaze: Have your travels through time given you precognition? Silver: I don't know. Maybe they have. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much.]

silver might be becoming psychic in a future-vision kinda way. that, or he’s riddled with anxiety. possibly both.

TL;DR

silver hails from no less than three separate timelines, his existence is a tangled web of who-knows-how-many grandfather paradoxes, and i choose to believe that he's god.

if anyone who cares more about evidence wants to gather up like, little one-off clues that support or conflict with my conclusions, go right ahead. or just throw your own arbitrary headcanons for what's going on with this at me. or incorporate these ideas into an au or something! i just want more people thinking about what the Fuck is up with silver post-06, because by god there is a WHOLE lot of potential packed in there

anyway thanks for reading make sure to like comment and subscribe—

#hey guys check out how hard i can gesture at a corkboard #is it remotely coherent? not a clue! i cannot process my own writing #sonic theory #silver the hedgehog #text #dot txt

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houseki-no-suffering · 5 years ago

Note

I love all your analyses on gem society and what makes it so fatally flawed, (from how childish gems are to the collective ideal of conformity for the benefit of all) and I've recently been thinking a lot about how much of a role Adamant plays and has played in how gem society has turned out. It's not fair to say he's completely to blame for it, being a machine who is just trying his best for his gem kids, but what are your personal thoughts on Adamant's role in how messy hnk society is?

ty! i think sensei played a fundamental role in shaping gem society, if nothing for the simple reason that he comes from a specific cultural and social framework that was built for humans, not gems, and that he tried to share with the lustrous.

this prevented the lustrous from going through a long period of experimentation, at the end of which they would form their own culture and society.

The best way I can reply to your answer is by imagining a timeline where the lustrous were left alone to develop, an island where there is no sensei (and, consequently, no lunarians). What follows is an analysis of the society these rocks could build.

Time & Technicalities

Not being able to build on any preexisting input about civilization, on any direction or clue, these rocks will develop a civilization only much, much later than the lustrous we know. They have everything to learn and all the time in the world to do it.

Keep in mind that societies are born around a large-ish group of individuals and it takes each gem thousands of years to be born, so it will take a very long time before they reach a relatively high number of members. But lustrous don’t die and, since without sensei there would be no lunarians and thus no way for lustrous to diminish in numbers, their society would keep on growing.

With larger numbers comes greater job specialization (and thus technological development), greater complexity, greater diversity. When societies grow to a certain extent, in-groups start to form and separate from the original group. The lustrous could build cities and form separate sub-groups and cultures.

Language & Communication

The gems are taught human speech by sensei. Without him, they would communicate in whatever manner lustrous are naturally attuned to.

If gems are unable to naturally produce sounds unless someone chisels their throats (how gems speak is still a mystery to me: they have no vocal chords, they don’t even breathe) and if they naturally possess the intelligence required to process language, they could develop a complex form of sign language.

Gems are also unable to see as we understand it: sensei has to make eyeballs for them sot that they can focus the light that filters through their crystal eyes. So that will definitely play a role in what type of language they can come up with. And how complex that can get. For example, if they eventually invent writing, it could be similar to braille. Or something so alien we can’t conceptualize it.

Values

Sensei chisels gems to make them equal. I’ve gone over this a lot in the past: sensei is forcing his own values on the gems. He thinks equality is of absolute importance, but what if no one teaches the gems about (sensei’s own brand of) equality?

The gems are prone to gossiping, they’re childish, without anyone to chisel them, the lustrous will be able to be physically different and difference breeds conflict. The perceived dis-equality could stem from something as simple as beauty.

Even the gems we know have a concept of beauty, but what happens when they’re free to carry it to its extreme consequences? some gems will be deemed beautiful, others won’t, some will be considered less worthy, inferior, or superior, and this can be manifested in a variety of ways.

Desirability and social status will no longer be dependent solely on your work and what you can do for the society. If all gems are different and allowed to be different (with or without repercussions), they will come up with different values and there is no telling which vision of the world will become the dominant one.

Gems are naturally childish, but this could have been accentuated by sensei’s presence. If left alone to develop and grow, will they eventually mature? learn from their mistakes? Or will they become selfish and hostile?

Social Classes

Currently, high hardness gems and fighters are an elite group in lustrous society, and this depends mostly on the war between lustrous and lunarians. Even with no war, I believe the gems will still develop a hierarchical society, if nothing because they managed to create one even under sensei’s imposed ‘equality.’

I can see older (and thus more knowledgeable) gems taking up positions of power. More beautiful/more durable gems could also be in a position of power. Keep in mind that with no one teaching the gems about hardnesses and minerals, they will have to learn it all on their own. They’ll probably come up with different scales and that’s why I wrote ‘durability’ not ‘hardness.’

Mostly, though, i can see doctors becoming an elite group. Since gems don’t eat, the only indispensable job would be that of doctors: a broken gem is as close to a dead gem as you can get.

Medicine is an indispensable craft for the lustrous and with this comes power and with power comes control and influence. Depending on how cooperative gem society is, doctors might even repair gems on the condition of payment, or refuse to repair certain gems.

Medicine and body modifications could also develop in an opposite direction than the lustrous we’re used to see: no longer pressured to be identical, the gems might develop surgeries to diversify themselves, attach new parts to their body, increase their hardness, or for merely aesthetic reasons. Body modifications could be linked to symbolic, possibly magical reasons or to status.

General culture

Technological development takes a long, long, long time. The gems would come to be in what is essentially a stone age, with the exception that they have no natural predators and so no natural danger that doesn’t come from their own society (ie conflict) and nature (ie shattering).

When (if ever) will the gems discover the wheel? weaving? house building? tools? how advanced can their technology become? what about their history? will they come up with laws (like confinement, shattering, loss of privilege…)? will they come up with religion? magic? a mythological system?

The gems seem naturally more predisposed for math and memorizing detailed information than for more artistic endeavors. For example, I always found it odd how sensei never taught gems music since music is such a fundamental part of being a human. Will the gems eventually invent music? What about literature, sculpture, theater, dance, visual arts?

Finally, overpopulation would be a huge threat. With endless lifespans and a limited amount of land, the gems’ numbers will keep increasing until they reach a critical point.

War could ensue, shattering could become a punishment or a routine solution to prevent overpopulation. For example, gems might decide that, past a certain age, a gem must be shattered (a social and symbolic form of death) to leave room to the new generations. Or, on the contrary, prevent new gems from being born by patrolling the shore of nascency and shattering newborn gems.

Alternatively, gems could colonize the seabed, maybe befriend the admirabilis and form an alliance with them, exchange goods and knowledge... Without being under the constant threat of lunarian war, gems and admirabilis both would have the numbers and time to develop complex political and economical systems, which would be extremely unique in the case of the lustrous because gems don’t age, don’t die and don’t need to produce food to survive.

In the end, anything could happen. It’s like playing with ‘universe sandbox,’ except with an alien civilization.

#houseki no kuni #land of the lustrous #hnk #photoshop-and-chocolate #meta #best #today on: the cultural sociology of hnk

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random-thought-depository · 4 years ago

Text

One of the things that’s interesting about Space Seed is the way it makes the Star Trek universe a de facto alternate history setting. Based on the bits dropped there and elsewhere in TOS, their later twentieth and early twenty-first century looked very different from our later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries!

The Eugenics Wars supposedly happened in the 1990s. The Star Trek original series ran from 1966-69, so this would have been about 25-30 years in the future at the time; the 1990s were for 1960s people what the 2050s are to us in 2020. So, not a bad time frame for events that were supposed to be near-future-ish but not immediate.

Or, another way of looking at it, from the viewpoint of 1960s people, the Eugenics Wars would have been about as far in the future as WWII was in the past. I get the impression history felt faster in the ‘60s, because of proximity of the great upheavals of the earlier twentieth century, and because the space race and the counterculture were ongoing big things, and because after 1970 or so technological progress slowed because a lot of the technological “low-hanging fruit” was picked. Think about how much the world changed from 1940 to 1967! People expected that pace of change to continue in the future. Thus all the middle twentieth century expectations that we’d have moon colonies and commercial fusion power and so on by the early 2000s; the sort of expectations you see in science fiction like 2001. The original Star Trek series was very much part of that trend, projecting manned space exploration of the other solar system planets and suspended animation technology and genetically engineered superhumans in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. There’s a line in Space Seed when Kirk, Spock, etc. are first taking a look around Khan’s ship, that went approximately “Yeah, they used suspended animation in exploration ships back then cause back then it took years just to reach other planets of the solar system, interplanetary travel with faster ships that didn’t need suspended animation only started in 2018.” As somebody sitting in a timeline where it’s now 2021 and Luna is still the most distant world a human has walked on, hearing that sure made me feel something!

I remember somebody once commenting that Star Trek TOS’s vision of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries reflected an idea, common during the ‘60s, that very soon we’d either get our act together or blow ourselves up. And I think what that comment was getting at was... There was an expectation that failure to do the former would quickly result in the latter so it was going to be one or the other. Something like our timeline, where we just sort of muddled through for the next fifty years, wasn’t expected; they’d have expected a scenario like that to have ended in the blow ourselves up outcome by now.

I think later Star Trek tried to kinda soft-retcon the timeline of the Eugenics Wars but never committed to explicitly changing it. According to First Contact, the “Third World War” happened around the 2050s (and this was building off stuff we saw in TNG). I think the implication is supposed to be that WWIII was the Eugenics Wars, but that requires ignoring some very explicit statements of dates in Space Seed and Wrath of Khan, and as I said, they never explicitly committed to a retcon. If we take what we see in the show at face value we’d conclude the Eugenics Wars and WWIII were two separate conflicts separated by about 50 years. Which makes it seem a bit weird that the Eugenics Wars apparently weren’t counted as a world war; based on the descriptions of them in Space Seed they were very destructive! Maybe the United States and the rest of the Americas and Australia and the Oceania nations stayed neutral, so they’re considered technically not a world war? Maybe they were less a single big war with two clearly defined sides and more a big mess of smaller interconnected conflicts like IIRC the Hundred Years War and the Thirty Years War?

Which... Star Trek has a reputation as the big optimistic science fiction, but this is making Star Trek Earth’s history from 1950 to 2070-ish look rather dystopian! We won’t be able to fully judge their history against ours until 2070 or so, but so far our post-WWII history looks more peaceful than their post-WWII history! One of the defining and good features of the post-WWII age is that it’s a long period of relative peace; it doesn’t sound like the people on Star Trek Earth would be saying the same thing from the vantage point of their 2021. I guess civilization blowing itself up every two generations would still be an improvement on the early twentieth century pattern of civilization blowing itself up every generation...

I think there have been some Star Trek novels written about the Eugenics Wars, and they squared it with real history by portraying it as a covert conflict that most people are the time were completely unaware of, kind of like the stuff that happens in Stargate and Men In Black? Eh, the descriptions of the Eugenics Wars in Space Seed really don’t fit with that idea. And I’ll just say that I don’t really like that “it’s all secret and the regular people have no idea any of this happening” trope; it’s OK in the right context but it’s got implications that limit storytelling and undertones of elitism I don’t like and I think a lot of the time it’s kind of lazy. If I were to just roll with the dates given for the Eugenics Wars, I’d take the approach of just leaning into the Star Trek universe being an honorary alternate history setting; I’d headcanon Star Trek Earth’s later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as being 2001-ish, with commercial fusion power and moon colonies and crewed expeditions to the other planets of the solar system and lots of “futuristic” stuff (like, y’know, the process that created Khan) by the ‘90s and ‘00s. Admittedly I’m not sure how to square this with Star Trek: the Voyage Home, which mostly takes place in a 1980s that seems real-world-ish; it’d take some creative interpretation to reconcile them.

And, y’know... In some ways, Star Trek Earth’s late twentieth and early twenty-first century look better and more interesting than ours. Their world is clearly much more technologically advanced! Their space program is far more advanced than ours! On the other, looking at the descriptions of the Eugenics Wars ... if we had to choose, I think it might be a good thing that we got our history and not their history. Khan Noonien Singh sounds like a guy who’s inflicted a lot more death and suffering than Donald Trump and COVID19 ever will. Compared to Star Trek Earth’s late twentieth and early twenty-first century, our late twentieth and early twenty-first century is kind of boring, and sometimes boring is good.

And all this makes me think of something Chris Wayan (the Planetocopia guy) said about the Randomia principle:

“Let's say you're contemplating Randomia, an alternate Earth no better or worse than ours, with roughly the same biomass, same amount of arable land, about the same population... just re-distributed. Now, what regions will you notice the most? First, your home, of course, and then, other well-known regions--and well-known means inhabited.

Randomia will always look inferior! For, by definition, most readers will be from our world's high-population zones. Random changes will, on average, degrade them. And the lands that improve, that become the heartlands of Randomia's civilizations, are likely to be barren obscure lands in our world, mere names (if that) to non-Randomian readers. The Turnovian version of Europe is cold (millions of European readers groan), while the green Sahara nurtures great civilizations (a handful of Saharan readers cheer). If you love civilization, Randomia will probably kill or cripple the ones you love, and plant its greatest civilizations in places you associate with backwardness.

So the grass always looks browner in a parallel world--because what you value most, what you KNOW to value, is generally lost. This principle makes it hard to see alternate worlds fairly.”

The long post-WWII peace is something that hadn’t happened yet in the 1960s, therefore when Star Trek writers wrote a future history that didn’t contain it, they didn’t know they were writing a history that didn’t contain something important and good about the real history that was actually going to unfold. From the vantage point of 1967, it was optimistic to assume there wouldn’t be a nuclear war in the 1970s or 1980s! We, in 2021, can look back on the post-WWII period of relative peace that stretches 70 years long behind us, and know that our timeline contains this important good thing.

On the other hand, my perspective is also influenced by this Randomia effect; the more advanced technology of Star Trek 2021 Earth likely implies less poverty and more advanced medicine, which over a few decades might have saved more lives than the Eugenic Wars ended, making their timeline net better than ours (though containing great tragedies we avoided). One could certainly choose to imagine their world as being that way!

#Star Trek #warning: long

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Loki spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

The ending of the Loki season finale made one pretty substantial change to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The introduction of a full multiverse, caused by Sylvie killing He Who Remains, is an enormous shift in the cosmogony of the MCU. And it opens up some fascinating story possibilities for Marvel’s film heroes. So what does the introduction of a full, unlimited multiverse mean for the future of the MCU?

Hopefully, everything. Literally.

There are obvious near-term implications to Loki’s finale. It answered questions that Spider-Man: No Way Home (with its purported multiversal Sinister Six) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness asked back when Loki first premiered. Specifically: “What do you mean there’s only one universe?”

The beauty of time travel is that now, there is and has always been a full multiverse in the context of the MCU. Because whatever Kang War happened far in Loki’s subjective past (because the timelines were left to run wild when Sophie killed He Who Remains), the entire history of the MCU is now potentially subject to retcons as necessary. So the strong implication from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that that movie and all its various spider-people existed on Earths parallel to Tom Holland’s MCU can now be considered accurate, even though the movie came out years before Loki was even a twinkle in Kevin Feige’s master MCU spreadsheet.

Time travel is a trip, man. It’s also beautiful. Literally anything is possible now.

What Does the MCU Multiverse Mean for Marvel TV?

This sort of thing happens all the time in comics. The slang is “retcon,” comics-speak for retroactive continuity, where creators reach into their characters’ pasts to change something that impacts their present.

Loki’s infinite multiverse sets up the entirety of Marvel history for any number of retcons that the folks in charge might deem necessary. It allows current MCU casts and crews to cherry pick what they liked from old MCU projects and fold them into this new normal. All those times Agents of SHIELD didn’t quite line up with what the movies were doing? The show was on an alternate Earth! Want Ghost Rider back without the TV baggage? Blame it on a Kang!

And grabbing the stuff that worked from old projects means porting in the good actors, too. That means people like J.K. Simmons, the Platonic ideal of J. Jonah Jameson, can continue playing the role across from three different Spider-Men, or Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio can show up as Daredevil and Kingpin in Spider-Man: No Way Home while Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings nukes Netflix’s Iron Fist continuity from orbit. Wondering how Ms. Marvel could potentially deal with concepts from the Inhumans without ever mentioning that disastrous TV show? Now we know.

Could the MCU Multiverse Retcon Marvel Movies?

This same ability to pick and choose the continuity most appropriate for the story applies to decisions the movies made, too. A full multiverse lets future filmmakers bring back Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow (OK…maybe not ScarJo) without burdening the MCU with yet another time paradox. As far as we’re concerned, pre-Marvel Studios curiosities like all those crazy old live action Marvel TV shows or Howard the Duck or Dolph Lundgren’s take on The Punisher are now officially canon somewhere within the multiverse.

Phil Coulson could show up in Phase 6 leading a Squadron Supreme (just like in the comics), out for vengeance against the Avengers because they let his Earth 20085 brother die. Hell, if they really wanted to get dirty, Nick Fury could hire Deadpool to kill Coulson in retaliation, like in the comics. Wait, that was Secret Empire,wasn’t it? Never mind, don’t do that.

Anyway, you get the idea.

The possibilities are as infinite as the imaginations of the writers, limited only by Kevin Feige’s patience/sense of humor. Don’t expect anything too crazy: the time travel solution in Avengers: Endgame was wild, but before Loki, that was far and away the most ridiculous comic book science the MCU had trafficked in. Typical MCU adaptations include much more modest nods to comics’ wackier elements – Eternals pending – like secret societies that had taken over SHIELD or Kurt Russell being Chris Pratt’s dad. So that ultra-maxi series that starts out a movie, moves into a TV show, has a comic tie in that directly crosses over with the show, and wraps up in Avengers 6 that we’re all hoping will come to pass is probably not on the horizon.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths Problem

An infinite multiverse doesn’t just mean possibility. It has a trap built in, too. The biggest multiverse story of all time, probably the one that set the template for future interactions with the concept, was DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths. That book set the standard for multiversal destruction, collapsing DC’s infinite comics timelines down to one single Earth and one single timeline. Gone were the separate Earths for the modern Justice League and the World War II Justice Society, replaced by one, unified timeline. And while the comic itself was a masterpiece, miraculously balanced by Marv Wolfman and beautifully drawn by George Perez; what it wrought on the DCU was 30 years of explainers why the Green Lantern of World War II still looked 35, or why Batman has only been operating for five years but went through six Robins in that time.

The cautionary tale here is one of inward looking stories versus expansionary choices. Post-Crisis DC retcons were about fixing problems the writers and editors perceived with the new timeline, and not about telling the best story they could with the characters and continuity they had. This is an easy trap for a new, expanded (but not all the way expanded) MCU to fall into. There are key pieces of the comics that haven’t been ported to the films yet.

The Fantastic Four

The temptation is likely huge to use this new, beautiful, infinite multiverse to introduce the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to the MCU. That’s probably half of a good idea.

The cosmogony of the multiverse is ingrained in who the Fantastic Four are. Their story begins as explorers of the unknown – Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm are bombarded with cosmic radiation after an unauthorized space launch. That origin is very of the time when they were created, and would probably hit different now when the only unauthorized space launches are led by giant assholes. So why not take a page from the end of Secret Wars and have them get their powers exploring the new multiverse? It makes so much sense to do it that way that one is almost suspicious of this entire retcon. But that doesn’t make it any less cool.

The X-Men in the MCU

While introducing the Fantastic Four to the MCU by saying they’ve been off exploring the multiverse would make a certain elegant sense, if Marvel tried to introduce the X-Men that way, it would be hugely problematic.

The core concept of the X-Men is the mutant metaphor, the idea that mutants are hated and feared because of who they are. On a completely superficial level, this is nonsense: what’s the difference between Cyclops’ eye blasts and Captain Marvel zapping Kree ships with fist beams? Why are mutants singled out for scorn and bigotry when someone like Doctor Strange has MUCH more terrifying abilities?

The difference is the idea that mutants are humanity’s destiny. There’s no concern that the majority baseline human population is going to someday be replaced by handsome super-soldiers or radioactive Catholic lawyers. But that genetic distinction – the idea that Magneto and Apocalypse and Pixie and Skids all share a distinct identity, while Captain America and Daredevil and Dr. Druid and Tigra do not – creates tension that allows real world out groups to superimpose their struggles onto X-Men comics and makes them infinitely relatable.

As superficially attractive as the idea of plopping the mutants on their own parallel Earth might be (and trust me, this definitely seems like the simplest justification for keeping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool in the MCU while jettisoning anything else that is less appealing for audiences or studio execs), putting the mutants on their own separate Earth strips that struggle from the story and makes them just another cape crew.

Worse, using the multiverse as justification that suddenly mutants are here because they came from a parallel timeline disrespects the marginalized people who identify with the X-Men who, like left-handed people, have been here the whole time. Whether society noticed or not.

The Sony Spider-Man Problem

What keeps me up at night about the new Marvel multiverse is the Spider-Man family. The Marvel/Sony relationship has always been…complicated.

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While the new multiverse provides creators with endless storytelling opportunities that could expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also sets up an easy out for the studios to separate the Spider-Man movies from the rest of the MCU. Cleaving off the Spider-family movies wouldn’t be great – I don’t need to be reminded of complicated business deals while I’m at the movies. Dedicating all of a future Spidey movie to explaining why Pete isn’t in the master MCU and can’t talk about Iron Man anymore would almost certainly be a nightmare.

But these inward-looking continuity fixes are the types of stories that Marvel, on page and on screen, has generally avoided (before you jump in the comments to shout “CLONE SAGA” please take into account how much work “generally” is doing in this sentence) with its big multiverse stories. Hopefully they’ll keep making those wise decisions going forward.

The post MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Vqw7iX

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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deadmomjokes · 4 years ago

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For me, part of being asexual means that I get really, REALLY grouchy about a lot of romance in media. Rather, the obsession with romance, sex, and sexuality in media. I am that person that will roll my eyes and turn off a movie if it looks like it’s turning into some steamy nonsense, and I will never willingly sit through a romcom even if you paid me. Sex scenes? I’m out. Passionate kissing? Peace, I’m going to the kitchen, want anything? Call me back when the actual story gets back on. Ridiculous ‘ooh they have such SEXUAL TENSION and chemistry, let’s see how close we can get to making them kiss and just have them breathe heavily in each others faces to get our audience all bothered’? I will end you all. I HATE when books or movies or shows throw in a romantic or sexy subplot just for the lols, at least what I perceive as the lols. Basically, a romance has to be really super duper well-crafted for me to get behind it and not be just utterly enraged or completely turned off from the story.

(Also please note that when I use the term romance in this context, I’m using it as a catch all for ship-based storylines that, due to our culture’s obsession with sex, usually include or hinge on sex or kissy scenes.)

That being said. When a romance is done well, and I mean really well, I absolutely 100% lose my mind. I feel that mess in my soul.

So with that introduction, allow me to lay out a few of my favorite (and, in some instances, most maddeningly painful) romances/canon ships in media.

(read more because I went off. like I said, I feel this way too deeply when it’s done well.)

Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric in FMA:B. Slow burn, mutual pining, mutual cluelessness, what’s not to love? So soft and tender and funny all at the same time, and the mad respect Ed has for Winry is absolutely delightful. She does her own thing, and he’s totally supportive, just as she is of him. And a happily ever after??? UGH, I can’t, it’s perfect. The most straightforward and least convoluted of my whole list, and it’s comparatively easy to breeze through. FMA:B is great anyhow, so do yourself a favor and go watch it.

Audrey Parker/ Nathan Wuornos in Haven (with major caveats). Caveats first: they went overboard with the sexy stuff in my opinion. It got too smutty for me, but my tolerance for that stuff is super low, and it did still air on TV, so evidently it wasn’t as bad for the target audience as it was for my sex-in-media-repulsed self. I also find the final seasons to get a bit stale and repetitive in terms of them trying to advance the love story narrative (all the plot points for it got addressed in earlier episodes/seasons, so why are we going over it again??). They also have a bit of an issue in some episodes with dragging out conflicts because the characters just won’t talk to each other like adults. But overall, taken as a whole, it hits hard. Again, we have a slow burn, mutual pining dynamic that starts as a genuine platonic friendship, and transforms into a dimension and time defying chosen soulmates love story for the ages. The things they would do to save each other, even if it means they can never be together, just so they have the joy of knowing that their beloved is okay. The tiny ways they take care of each other- Audrey testing Nathan’s coffee to see if it’s too hot, Nathan slowing down so he doesn’t out-pace her, it’s just adorable.

Faramir and Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings BOOKS. This is an interesting one because it happens really quickly and between two minor characters. But Tolkien did this really interesting thing where he established these two characters separately, and then brought them together and played off what we knew about each of them in context of everything else that had happened with the main story, and suddenly it has, as one of my professors would say, “the illusion of depth.” Faramir absolutely falls head over heels for Eowyn but won’t act until she can deal with her own crap and be emotionally available. Eowyn realizes that she was hung up on ideals, illusions, and false dichotomies. Faramir has been through a lot and is looking for peace. Eowyn is looking for who she really is when she realizes she has more than two choices in life. They find healing together, and in the process, find what they were looking for in each other. And all that happens in the space of, like, 4 pages. I LOVE IT.

Sam Carter and Jack O’Neill in Stargate SG1. This one will hurt you to no end. You will hate life. But gosh dang if they aren’t perfect. This is the slowest burn and most mutual pining of all slow burn mutual pining ships to ever grace media. I’m talking 8 seasons of these two sharing feelings but being unable to express it for one reason or another. What are those reasons, you ask? Jack is her superior and respects her too much to put her in that position. No fraternization on the team. Sam has career aspirations, he won’t ruin her life. He’s got his own issues to work through and knows he isn’t emotionally available. Sam is clueless for a while, then when she realizes she has feelings for him but it couldn’t be because of their work dynamic and because he’s still dealing with his own crap, she tries to move on but keeps coming back to the unspoken fact that she still loves him. To the point that she breaks off her own engagement to a great guy because she realizes she was only trying to move on-- and wasn’t successful. They are clearly in deep for each other, and yet they keep making excuses why they can’t say it.

In the whole series, they never officially get together, and I HATE THAT. There are multiple alternate realities and timelines where they are together, and happy, but in the main timeline, they can’t get over themselves, and it hurts so bad because they’re so perfect. Jack knows she’s the smartest person in the room, and he supports her and defends her and listens to and defers to her. He respects her first as an expert, then as a colleague, and then as a woman whom he deeply loves even though he can’t find it in him to love himself. She appreciates his experience and leadership, and trusts him implicitly. She knows she’s got more book smarts, but relies on his judgement and ability to remain calm under pressure. She also knows she can be real with him, and he knows that when she calls him on his BS he better listen. She is his conscience, and he is her backbone. And in between episodes where they’re clearly pining for each other, and even during, they’re really great friends and a great team. I could seriously write an essay on why this ship is both perfect and intensely frustrating, but then again, you could just watch a great and classic series and see what I mean for yourself. (Then you’d also get to meet the perfection that is Teal’c, and watch Daniel Jackson’s transition from Milo Thatch in Space to sassy beefcake demigod who still loves archaeology.)

Beren and Luthien, Tolkien part 2, electric boogaloo. A love so powerful it transcends death, fate, hell and heaven all at once. It’s kind of wild and not what you’d expect if you’ve only read LotR (or only seen the movies), because it’s more a classic fairy tale than anything, but hot dang if it isn’t still one of the most powerful, moving, deeply impactful love stories in all of writing. It’s even a “love at first sight” narrative and I STILL fall hard for it. This story legit moves me to tears every dang time I read it, or even think about it too hard.

It starts as a simple “forbidden love” story, but these two loved each other so much that they defied one of the most powerful kings in all the world at that time (who was also Luthien’s dad, oopsies), defied Satan himself and marched into Hell just for the chance to be together, and then changed the very way the world works forever just so they could stay together and not be parted. Luthien is a total BEAST, while never giving up her gentle, loving, and tender nature. For the love of this man, she defies her father’s wishes and breaks herself out of her own dang tower to go rescue her prince instead of the other way round, she sends Sauron (yeah, he’s here too!) scurrying with his tail between his legs, wrecks his house, and frees all his slaves and prisoners just to try and get to Beren, drags his butt out of heck part 1, then willingly walks into literal, actual Hell with him and proceeds to enchant Satan and all the demons within. Then she gets her bf outta there after he loses his hand, and goes back to face her father unafraid. Basically, Beren undertakes a literally impossible task just for the chance to be with Luthien, but Luthien is the one that makes it happen because she loves him too much to sit around knowing he’s going to die. She’s willing to die with him rather than live without him, but more willing to dare death to come at her and get some because ain’t no way she’s losing him.

Then, at the last, when all should have been their happily ever after, everything goes wrong and she loses her beloved, and instead of mourning forever, she yeets off her mortal coil out of pure “Oh no you didn’t, not after all we went through” just to go stand before the God of Fate and the Dead and plead with him to change the rules of the universe itself just so that she can be with Beren. And he does it, because their love is so strong. Just for them, all of existence is rewritten so that they might never be parted.

And if you don’t think that’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard, consider also: these two crazy kids were so wonderful that the Goodest Boy in all the world, a functionally immortal and super-intelligent dog sent from heaven itself by a literal god, willingly turned on all his masters and spontaneously learned intelligent speech just so he could help them out and be their Good Boy til the bitter end, thus (in Tolkien’s mythos) starting the whole “man’s best friend” thing with dogs. So yeah. And, uh, Tolkien based it on him and his wife, to the point of ripping their first meeting frame-for-frame from real life. It’s too much y’all.

Anyhow, this post is way, way too long, but I was just feeling the need to get that out there. Maybe I’ll have more in the future, but for now, this is what was on my mind. Particularly the last two.

#long post #romance #asexual #stargate sg1 #haven #fmab #tolkien #lotr

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muffintonic · 3 years ago

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Alright, I think i’m done BOTW 2 spamming for today. Anywho, time for some thoughts in general!

1) I hated how the shrines in BOTW were so cold and dark compared to the bright and lively nature outside (I wish they had all looked like the Master Trials challenge where there were trees and stuff incorporated inside), so I hope if we’re forced to have dungeons they’ll be more like the Wind Waker ones. 2) I hope they don’t make us use the grappling hook or anything like in Wind Waker to move around the sky islands (I hated that mechanic). 3) I’m probably one of the few people who wanted less Zelda and more of the Champions in HWAOC since i’m only really attached to BOTW (and we saw a fair amount of Tetra in Wind Waker)/apparently Zelda’s been sidelined in all the other games, so i’m hoping in vain that we get more Champions material in BOTW 2. Also, Link could stand to have some more cutscenes centered around him as well (the few we got in some of the sidequests in BOTW were great). 4) I only really somewhat care about Riju and Sidon, so I won’t mind if the new gang gets sidelined in BOTW 2 (I still think Nintendo wasted the found family/band of brothers aspect on the dead characters--I love them so much and they’re all I want!! The problem is, they’re dead and I don’t really care all that much about their replacements!!! I dunno, maybe i’m hampered by the fact that I can replay the original champions’ memories whenever I want/read their diaries, but I can’t rewatch the new gang’s cutscenes AKA i’ve forgotten their characterization since they don’t talk to me much now that the game’s over). It’d be great if they have some weaving storylines in BOTW 2 that will get me more invested in them, but currently i’m not that interested. 5) Speaking of which, I know it’s 100% not going to happen, but goddang if I don’t want the Champions to have been returned to life. Nintendo totally squandered HWAOC by not making it a true prequel/canon to BOTW (the Champions Ballad confirmed that the Divine Beasts had trials in order to be synced to the champs, so the new gen use of them wouldn’t have happened without that + Mipha thought Link had changed in BOTW yet says in HWAOC that he hasn’t changed + some scenes like “Champion Revali’s Song” never happened at all/got replaced with alternative scenes that really changed some dynamics + basically all of Revali’s time-relative characterization from his diary/pre-100 years of solitude got thrown out + I feel like Daruk got totally sidelined), so i’m still craving that Champions content. Also, I feel like it’s totally unfair that Zelda came out of 100 years totally unaged while everyone else died. Life seems to really suck for people in the LoZ universe who aren’t chosen by divine powers. 6) They’d better keep it open world and non-linear. I can’t go back to being forced to backtrack/trudge through things, I just can’t. BOTW was everything i’ve ever dreamed about in a game (truly open world + non-linear + interactive + meaningful story + lots of outfits + beautiful landscapes) with Skyrim previously being the only thing that came close to what I wanted, so I really hope BOTW 2 doesn’t deviate too much from that. 7) I really liked Kass in BOTW, but i’m not sure what direction they’d go with him in BOTW 2/i’d be fine if he sat BOTW 2 out. I worked so hard to complete all his quests in BOTW so he’d go back home to his family, GODDANGIT, KASS. 8) Someone mentioned that since the first trailer had underground aspects, we’re probably going to be playing as Zelda with the Slate there, and I agree. They didn’t make a playable model for her in HWAOC for nothing. 9) I want to be able to stable the deer and bears and stuff, but I know that won’t happen. Being able to ride the moose and rhino things from the Hebra area probably won’t happen either, but I want to ride them!!! 10) I hope there’ll be at least a few new buildings and stuff in the towns/they’ve started construction on some areas in Central Hyrule, but I guess that’ll depend on how long it’s been in-universe since BOTW. Or maybe not, considering how there’s still Karson and Hudson even though Bolson retired from Bolson Construction--insta-towns like Tarrey Town could totally be feasible if they wanted! 11) I have one foot in the camp that believes there’ll be time shenanigans in BOTW 2. HWAOC totally threw me off with it being an alternate timeline, so i’m not sure whether we’re going to be experiencing that again or time travel itself, but I definitely won’t be surprised this time around if Nintendo goes that route again (and it would be super interesting to see the Link from 10,000 years ago). I’m not entirely convinced that the Link we see exploring the sky in the second trailer isn’t our Link, mainly because he seems to still have on the blue boxers from BOTW. 12) I also heard that maybe this will be the last LoZ game ever since something something Demise something Skyward Sword something something lore from games i’ve only vaguely looked into (i’ve only ever played BOTW --> Wind Waker --> HWAOC)??? If so, it kind of sucks that I came in just when they started making games with playstyles palatable to me (I had to look up every single thing when playing Wind Waker, but BOTW let me solve things according to MY logic/I missed being able to explore in HWAOC), but at least it’ll end on a super high note/I won’t experience later disappointment, I guess. If BOTW 2 involves breaking the reincarnation cycle for the Triforcers, I would be really surprised. (On a related note, Nintendo making Ganondorf good would also be a 100% shock to me, but it would be great to end on that as a subversion. Yes, I want them to bring back the semi-complicated Ganondorf from Wind Waker.) 13) I hope they don’t rush releasing it. I heard they pushed back BOTW originally (I got it in 2019), but it came out fantastic for it! I know COVID’s been affecting things, so I really hope they’re treating their staff right and are mindful of crunch. 14) I want even more outfits (there seem to be at least two new ones, if the variant of the Hylian Tunic crossed with Link’s Champion’s Tunic counts). Give me all the outfits!!! Also, I hope we get even more hair variations in addition to the hair down option (which is all i’ve ever wanted since I saw the mod that altered the Ancient Helmet). 15) I wonder if we’re going to get a bonus for having both BOTW and HWAOC save data. 16) I wonder if we’re going to be keeping the Champions’ skills. I’m going to miss being super overpowered, if not. 17) I hope Nintendo doesn’t cave in and make surfaces climbable in the rain. Having that limiter is more realistic and Link would otherwise be too overpowered with a super climbing ability. 18) I liked BOTW’s scattered music that got more noticeable in populated areas because it was fitting for the post-apocalyptical/nature aspect. Hearing your footsteps in an open field and the buzzing of insects was super nice and prevented me from getting music fatigue (which i’d probably experience since whenever I play BOTW it’s for 5-10 hours at a time). I hope Nintendo either keeps that or makes audio options. 19) I heard that BOTW 2 is going to be super dark or something, and i’m okay with dark, but not GRIMdark, so I hope it doesn’t go that far. From what we’ve seen in the second trailer it still looks beautiful, but I hope it doesn’t do that thing that some games do where after the midpoint/a certain story point all the scenery permanently changes to be dark and scary (that’ll seriously hamper post-game playability for me if so). 20) If they expand on the Zonai, that would be super cool! Doubly cool if the time travel shenanigans involve them/ancient Link being one! 21) I kind of want windstorms to be a weather feature. We had lightning, heat, and cold, but no wind! No, I don’t count the wind geysers and the occasional breeze in Tabantha. 22) I want a chest in my house to hold more weapons than just the gear mounts. BOTW only had enough mounts for the champions’ gear, but it also had rare items like the Kite Shield and Forest Dweller’s Sword that you can’t get anymore once you use them up! 23) I want to be able to stable my horses at my house. What’s the point of that little area if you can’t stable your horse there! 24) Speaking of Link’s house: where is Zelda going to live? If the castle’s not reconstructed, it’d be neat if Link adds an extension to his house for her. 25) I hope they open up part-time jobs (think Mabinogi) as an option to earn rupees. Having to hunt for Luminous Stone deposits or feed Trott to make money can be such a chore. I think some of BOTW’s minigames/sidequests might count as those, but those minigames were either frustrating if your goal is to earn money (since most of them cost money to play in the first place and the mechanics weren’t always easy), or didn’t earn that much in general. 26) I wonder if Kilton is going to have updated items since the monsters seem to have changed. 27) I want to be able to dive underwater (mainly so I can explore the beautiful reefs over at Lurelin). A dive meter like the one from Super Mario Sunshine would be cool. Also, it’d doubly be neat if you had a separate stamina wheel for swimming and could permanently upgrade your swim/diving stamina (the speed+ swimming items just consumed your stamina faster, which was a pain)! 28) It’s definitely too late for this, but it’s a shame that the Hylians have so many face/body/hair and outfit variations, but the Zora, Rito, and Gorons don’t. The Gerudo were kind of okay with the hair and body variations, but the other races seemed to have a serious copy-paste problem. I guess technically some of the more important NPCs (ones with quests/cutscene triggers) had different coloring, but they were severely lacking in clothing variation. Also, the only old Rito was the elder??? At least the Gorons and Zora had some old folks besides their leader walking around. Very weird, but I don’t think BOTW 2 can fix any of this. 29) I wonder how they’re going to do the final boss battle, considering how epic/cinematic the BOTW 2x battle was. What can top fighting (on horseback, no less) a giant, flaming boar made out of malice? 30) I wonder what the Yiga are going to be up to, considering how Ganondorf seems to be somewhat kicking in BOTW 2.

#in other words: BOTW 2 HYPE REAL #i'm still going to queue things so there'll probably another BOTW 2 glut from me in a few days bwaha #(and probably some general BOTW stuff because MAN am i hyped)#i'm so glad i got into BOTW in 2019 because there's been content for me every year since and i am Living #botw 2

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phoebehalliwell · 4 years ago

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I’m so glad you like Bianca. She is underestimated As for Bianca and Chris they had little screen time in the show, however I can see some parallels between them and Piper and Leo. For example, both, Leo and Bianca were very protective of their respectful loved once and ready to risk everything for them. Do you think Chris and Bianca could really be destined for each other?

ooh interesting to draw parallels between chris & bianca and piper & leo, especially considering both of them are going against the rules of their organization (leo against the whitelighter & bianca presumably sent to kill chris but choosing not to therefore betraying the phoenix). as far as “are chris and bianca destined for each other?” i think (and i do plan on writing this scene in my fic somewhere but its so far off i’m just telling you) if chris and bianca met and had a relationship in the altered/true timeline and also knew of their relationship in the dark future, and you asked them whether or not they were destined for each other, chris would say yes and bianca would say no

chris i think really believes in fate & destiny & soulmates as these have been elements that have surrounded him growing up. i think he takes the fact that in both timelines, they have been brought together in circumstances that should not result in love, yet have fallen in love both times, clearly speaks for something, and, in his mind, means theirs fates are intertwined (y’know the i’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, i’d find you and I’d choose you shtick) (this is also why for me at least i think it’s incredibly important that neither chris not bianca knows about their relationship in the dark future until they have already fallen in love with one another because knowing in some alternate universe you were in love engaged and they sacrificed their life for you when you guys barely have a relationship in your current universe,,,, it makes things to cloudy. i think, especially with both of their characters, who are more of the guarded, brand themselves as emotionally unavailable types, an organic growth of a relationship completely separate from any expectations is really important. if they both go in trying to make it something it’s not at that point, Especially bc we never saw them fall in love in the dark timeline, it’s just,,,, i don’t like it)

from bianca’s point of view, i don’t think she would call it destiny. less of the world has something great etched out for me and more what about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? we learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. we learn to wring magic from the ordinary. that was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. when the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway. haha read the grishaverse books plz because bianca really wasn’t raised in an environment where they believe in fate and destiny. they’re whole shtick is that the world wanted them dead but they refused to died. coupled with their abject amorality, i think bianca’s belief of fate, destiny, karma, & justice don’t resemble chris’s remotely. i think she thinks that if there genuinely was some higher power punishing the wicked for evil deeds, she would have never made it this far. she’s seen enough evil out there to know there’s no cosmic defender out there rooting for good and punishing the wicked, that’s just a lie people tell themselves. because of that, i think her view of her relationship with chris is that it was made with intent. in fact, she kinds hates the idea of them being “destined” bc that implies there’s a path she was always going to follow, a cosmic map she can’t really be shaken from, and that’s not what she considers their relationship to be at all. while the fact that in both cases they really shouldn’t have fallen in love is only further evidence for chris that it is fate, for bianca it’s further evidence it isn’t. everything they did to move them closer together was a choice. the way they fell in love was through conscious action. if there was a ready string secretly tying them together, they wouldn’t be put in situations that make it inherently difficult to fall in love. but they were, and they ignored it, and they fought, and they fell in love with each other. the universe didn’t make that happen. they did.

now my personal perspective gets a little more meta: we really don’t know that much about bianca in canon. what they gave us was so many different facets and layers i truly don’t know if the writers realized what a complex character they were making. she’s also the only real, concrete relationship we saw from chris. there was his one charge he hooked up with and there was the vague implication of something going on with that valkyrie, but those can all be chalked up to his whorish tendencies. with bianca, it was established they were in love. so, naturally, if you were to write a continuation of charmed, i think a really great way to call back is to bring back bianca, an established canonical love interest for him, especially if in your writings he has memories of the dark future. the show itself does harp a lot on destiny and fate and soulmates, and bringing chris and bianca together again would pay homage to the attitude of the original. it’s because of this, from my point of view, in my writings, yeah, they are destined. but other people in their next gen fics might chose the ignore that plotline as a whole and build an entirely new endgame love interest for chris. i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. but for me, personally, i would much rather bring bianca into my writings than forge a new character (also bc i love bianca and i love the idea of the phoenix and the morally gray love interest and the this that and the other)

#charmed #chris halliwell #bianca bishop #chris x bianca #💌#margaretsminiessays

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darks-ink · 5 years ago

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Absurdism Chapter 9

It’s the Danny show today, featuring MVP of this chapter: Danny’s phone.

Rating: Teen/K+ (a lil swearing, because teenagers, man) Warnings: - Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort Additional Tags: Sibling Bonding, Family Bonding, Alternate Universe - Halfa Jazz AU, Jazz makes friends

[AO3] [FFN] [more Absurdism on Tumblr] First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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Chapter 9: Doppelganger

Danny let loose a barrage of (low powered) ecto-blasts, watched as Jazz’ shield wavered but held. His core rumbled in his chest, proud.

Because, sure. His presence here wasn’t ideal, and he supposed it wasn’t strictly necessary either. Based on what he had seen, Jazz would’ve managed alright on her own, too. But he was here, wasn’t he? So he might as well help.

Plus, there were only so many situations in which he got to help, and he got rewarded by people actually liking him. As Phantom, he saved Amity’s people over and over and over, and what did he get? Hatred and vitriol. Even the few that liked him changed their minds on a whim, like when Walker—

Oh.

Like when Walker attacked with Wulf.

Danny had completely forgotten about Wulf in this universe. Jazz never went into the Zone, so she never got in Walker’s bad graces. Which meant that the prison ghost never sicced Wulf on her.

Uh. Well. That was… That was something he needed to deal with. This Wulf might not know him, but still. He couldn’t leave the ghost in Walker’s hands.

“What are you thinking about?” Jazz asked, her voice snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” he said, eloquently.

She rolled her eyes. “You zoned out on me. What were you thinking of?”

He debated not telling her, but… he would have to go in the Zone to free Wulf. She needed to know if he wasn’t around to fight ghosts for her.

Instead he shrugged, a sheepish smile on his face. “I just remembered something I did in my timeline that hasn’t happened in this one. So I, uh. Figured I should go do that.”

“Why would you do that, instead of me?” she asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. “It’s my universe, isn’t it?”

Danny made a face. “I mean, yeah, but it’s… complicated. Look, Jazz, it was a really rough confrontation, and one you avoided in this universe.”

“Okay, so?” she challenged, crossing her arms and looking every bit the stubborn teenager she was.

“So,” he said, “it makes more sense for me to handle it than for you to handle it. Besides, in my timeline I wasn’t strong enough to win, and I’m not gonna make you go through the same.”

“If you weren’t strong enough then, what makes you so certain you are now?” Her eyes were narrowed, bright and set.

He rolled his eyes. “Because I’ve got two years of additional experience. It’ll be fine, Jazz. And even if it won’t be, I need you to stay here. In my original timeline I got Sam and Tucker to bail me out when I took too long. I need you to be that backup in this universe, alright?”

She glared at him for a moment, before inclining her head in a nod. “I guess. But I’ll need to know where you’re going, then.”

“Right. In the Ghost Zone, kinda close to the Fenton Portal, there’s this huge purple building. That’s Walker’s prison, and that’s where I’m going to free Wulf. If I’m not back for our next training session, I need you to come look for me there.”

Her eyes grew wide. “A prison?! You’re expecting me to break you out of a prison?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a Ghost Zone prison. Regular world stuff, including us in our human forms, can go right through it. Which is why I’m not expecting it to be much trouble, but, well.” He shrugged. “You never know with Walker.”

Jazz squinted at him, but nodded, slowly. “I guess,” she grumbled, low. “Go flail at Walker. And Phantom… Danny?”

“Yeah?” he asked, meeting her eyes. She barely called him Danny anymore, wanted to keep him and her own brother separate. It was saved, now, for the special moments.

“Stay safe,” she told him.

He grinned back. “I promise, Jazz. I’ll be back before you know it.”

---

“Bye Mom, Dad!” Jazz yelled, and the front door closed. Danny peeked over the edge of the building he’d spent the night on, meeting her eye when she glanced up.

Jazz waved, a friendly gesture. Her eyes were narrowed, however, a warning. A non-verbal “stay safe”.

He waited for another moment or two before turning himself invisible. Go time.

Invisible, he left the roof. Phased through the walls and floors of FentonWorks until he reached the lab. It looked like his parents’ lab usually did; shiny chrome, with all kinds of half-assembled inventions scattered everywhere, and everything lit with the sharp white light of the ceilings lights, combined with the eerie green of the Portal.

Well, no time to get nostalgic and homesick. He had a job to do!

Determined, he pushed onward and through the Portal. The Ghost Zone was…

It was just like always, really. Maybe it was just because he didn’t go there all that often, but the place always looked the same to him. That’s kind of why he insisted on making maps, but he would just have to do without those for once. That would be fine, right? It was only one time.

It only took one time without supervision for him to get trapped in a different universe, his traitorous mind whispered to him. He ignored it.

Walker’s prison was pretty close to the Portal, but… but Danny didn’t want to go directly there. It was selfish, yes, but he wanted to see a little more of the Zone first.

Amity Park was always his home, but this Amity wasn’t his. He never felt quite right, quite at home. Always had to hide, stay out of sight. In the Ghost Zone, he could just be. No ghost would be able to tell that he didn’t belong, and even if they could, somehow? They wouldn’t care.

It was just… freeing. To go where he wanted to, and have no one care, not really. Because in here, the ghosts could tell how strong his core was. Most wouldn’t be eager to pick a fight with someone like him.

He flew, directionless and course-less. No destination in mind. Just flying for the sake of doing it.

Which, of course, was the moment he stumbled upon a familiar face.

The brakes of Johnny’s bike screeched as he tried to stop before hitting Danny, twisting the handlebars to dodge. Danny jerked himself the other way, but it wasn’t quite enough; his foot hooked on Johnny’s leg, forcing them both to a sudden stop.

Danny coughed, pushing himself back onto his feet. Johnny hadn’t fallen all the way down, but he was clinging onto his bike rather perilously.

“Shoot, sorry,” Danny apologized, one hand coming up to rub his neck. “Should’ve been paying a little more attention to where I was flying.”

Johnny squinted at him, a suspicious air about him. “Yeah, man. You lookin’ for more fights, or something?”

“No, just too caught up in my thoughts. Sorry.” He grinned sheepishly at Johnny, then realized… “Hey, where’s Kitty? Aren’t you two usually glued to each other’s sides?”

“How would you know?” Johnny asked, eyes narrowing even further. Then he scoffed, shook his head, and looked away. “If it matters, we’re fighting. Kitty’s jealous because I keep looking at other ladies even if we’re out together.”

“Ah.” Danny made a face and dropped his hand back to his side. “That’s… unfortunate. Not to get all up in your business or anything, but… have you tried talking it out? Communication is important, y’know.”

The biker ghost grumbled. “I don’t want relationship advice from a little punk like you. What’s it even matter to you? It’s not like we’re causing trouble in that city you and the girl are protecting.”

“You aren’t, no.” Danny finally placed this moment. If this matched with his universe, and chances were that it did, this was when Kitty overshadowed Paulina to make Johnny jealous. And he really didn’t want Jazz to deal with any of that—if she would even fall for it, knowing that it had happened to Danny. “Look, Johnny. I know Specter and I didn’t make a great impression when we met, but we’re not just fighting ghosts to protect humans. We want to make Amity a good place for everyone, and that includes you and Kitty whenever you come by. I don’t want you two to drag innocent humans into your fight, alright? Just talk it out like grownups, yeah?”

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Like grownups? You sound like a kid. How old do you think we are?”

“Not that old.” Danny shrugged. “Look, you get what I’m trying to say, don’t you? I might not look like it, but I know a thing or two about relationships. Talk with each other, and even if it doesn’t work out, at least you’ll know what’s up. Now you’re both agitated and frustrated and neither of you knows what’s up.”

“Ugh.” Johnny grunted. “Yeah, I guess that that makes sense.”

He settled back onto the bike properly, then leaned over the handlebars to point at Danny. “But I ain’t doing this for you, you hear me? I’m doing this for me, and for Kitty.”

“Of course,” Danny agreed peaceably. “Wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“You’d better believe it, punk.” Johnny squinted at him for a moment longer, but whatever he saw seemed to satisfy. His bike roared to life as Johnny drove off, following the narrow rocky pathways towards the Portal.

Danny watched him go for a moment, then heaved a steadying sigh. Well, that was one problem less for Jazz to deal with. But enough stalling; he should get going, before he runs into another (un)friendly face.

He made his way to the prison quickly, and then promptly realized that he hadn’t actually planned ahead this far. Well, unless you count “break in and free Wulf” as a plan, which… well. Danny might consider it a suitable plan, but Sam, and Tucker, and Jazz all keep telling him it’s not, so. Maybe he should plan ahead a little better.

The whine of a siren snapped Danny out of his thoughts and, oops. He probably should’ve moved a little further away from the prison he was trying to break into.

Some of Walker’s guards approached him, clubs raised threateningly. Danny’s muscles tensed, fingers balling into fists, energy pouring from his core.

But, no. He forcibly relaxed himself, let the guards drag him into the prison. Who needed to break into a prison, when you could just get brought into it? Sure, it was a little unconventional, but he managed to break free just fine in his own universe. The timing was a little off, but he was sure he could still count on the same ghosts.

Actually, that would explain why he hasn’t seen some of his regulars in a while. He had completely forgotten that Walker had arrested them in his timeline, and that they hadn’t gotten free until their mutual jailbreak.

Whoops.

Rather than face off against Walker, Danny is brought directly to the regular cells. Huh. Guess that he’s considered a regular rule-breaker now. More proof that Danny had so far been successful with hiding his half-ghost nature from the others, which was… good, probably? He wasn’t keen on Vlad figuring out that there were two half-ghosts around for him to convince.

It didn’t take long for the guards to return to bring Danny to the canteen and, ah. Yep. There were all those ghosts he’d been halfheartedly missing. He felt kind of bad—he should’ve remember sooner. None of these guys deserve to deal with Walker. Oh well. Live and learn, right? He could deal with the guilt later.

Danny quickly moved over, sitting down at the table with Skulker, Technus, Desiree, and the Lunch Lady. All four look rather confused to see him. Lunch Lady, especially, was squinting at him rather suspiciously.

“Whelp,” Skulker said, cautiously. “What are you doing here?”

“Organizing a jailbreak.” He shrugged, faux casual. “I could try to break in first, but, well. This was easier.”

Skulker nodded thoughtfully, but it was Desiree who spoke up, an odd tone to her voice. “You really are something else, aren’t you?”

“I try.” Danny grinned at her, then inclined his head towards Lunch Lady, remembering that they hadn’t met in this universe. “Hi, sorry, I don’t think we’ve met yet. I’m Phantom, and you’re the Lunch Lady, yeah? I heard about you from my sister, Specter.”

The suspicious expression faded from her face now that they had finally been introduced. She nodded back, hesitantly. “Yes. The girl, she was most helpful with fixing the menu.”

“Yeah, she’s good at that.” Danny turned back to the group as a whole, where Desiree nodded in agreement. “Anyway, like I was saying. Jailbreak. Any of you guys want to help?”

Skulker’s metallic face split in a ferocious grin, and Technus followed suit, baring his oddly angular teeth. Lunch Lady nodded forcefully, and Desiree gave an affirming smile as well.

All things considered, the actual jailbreak was almost laughably easy. Hell, Danny had managed it once while he was fourteen, and on much worse terms with these guys. Doing it now, with much better standings? Piece of cake.

They overwhelmed the guards quickly, storming through the prison’s hallways. Danny flew along for most of the way, until he reached the junction where everyone else would head to the exit.

“Skulker,” he called out, moving over to the empty pathway. “I’m gonna split. You guys stay safe, and remember Amity’s rules, yeah?”

Skulker, still grinning viciously, saluted him. “You have my respect, whelp. Don’t disappoint me.”

And with that, he turned around and re-joined the stream of escaping ghosts.

“Well, no point in stalling,” Danny muttered to himself, twisting towards the special holding cells again. “Let’s go, Fenton.”

He found Wulf’s cell easily enough, the hallways empty and abandoned. All guards must’ve gone to stop the massive outbreak. A lucky break.

Once Danny had located Wulf, he shifted back to human form. He could break Wulf’s cell door, but he was fairly sure that Wulf could escape himself once he was free of the collar and chains. No need to draw unneeded attention.

Danny phased through the door, shivering a little at the weird feeling. It was intangibility, sure, but it wasn’t quite right. It felt differently from regular intangibility. The lack of control, maybe?

It was dark in the cell; Danny could barely make out Wulf’s cowering shape. The ghost was curled up in the corner, his black fur lit jaggedly by the glowing chains around his wrists. Two bright green eyes peered out at him, but they were narrowed to slits. Wulf didn’t trust him.

That was okay, though. He could work with that.

Slowly he crept closer, knowing that Wulf couldn’t get away if he wanted to. Danny crouched in front of the ghost, reached out one hand, then paused. He doesn’t think he has enough power to break the collar in human form. He’ll have to shift, making Wulf the first full ghost in this universe to know that Danny is half ghost.

He swallowed away his hesitation, and backed up a few steps.

Light flashed, the cell lit up bright by his transformation. He tried to make it quick, as if he could coax his shift to do such things, but it wasn’t enough. Wulf had balled up even further, his ears flattened to his neck. Scared. Scared of what Danny might do to him.

Danny crept closer again, hands raised placatingly. He wished he knew more Esperanto, wished that he could assure Wulf of his intentions. Instead he had to settle for trying to emit reassurance, his core rumbling soothingly in his chest.

He didn’t know if it worked, or if Wulf was just too scared to fight back, but Danny got his hands on Wulf’s collar. He swallowed away the hesitation, the worry, and wriggled his fingers in the tight space between the metal and Wulf’s soft fur.

And he pulled.

Energy poured from his core, through his arms and his fingers. Sparked bright green, straight into the metal of the collar.

And he pulled.

With a hiss—or a sizzle—the collar released. It clattered onto the stone floor, emitting a shrill beep as it deactivated.

Wulf opened one hesitant eye, flicking it to the collar and then back to Danny. He tried to shoot the ghost a reassuring grin, taking his hands off of Wulf’s neck again.

Rather than try to puzzle out the Esperanto, he reached for the chains on Wulf’s wrists, pausing before he actually touched them. The wide green eyes followed his movement, and stilled for a moment.

Then Wulf nodded.

With this permission granted, Danny quickly stuck his fingers underneath the metal cuffs. These weren’t electronic, but pure ecto-steel. All he would need for these was a bit of pure ghost-powered strength.

The cuff tore open with the groan and creak of metal. Danny quickly moved over to do the same to the other cuff, freeing Wulf entirely.

When the second chain fell away, clanging against the back of the cell, Danny stood up. Backed away from Wulf again.

Wulf hesitantly raised up as well, shoulders drawn high and head held low. His ears were still flattened, and his tail twitched uncertainly.

The ghost licked his lips, then asked, haltingly, in Esperanto, “Why did you help me?”

“It’s a long story,” Danny answered with a shrug. Even if he wanted to explain, he couldn’t. He wasn’t that fluent in Esperanto. “But you are free now.”

“Free?” Wulf repeated, ears slowly rising up. His eyes seemed extra bright, now, and didn’t move away from Danny. His tail twitched more vigorously, like a restrained wag. “I… am free?”

“Well…” Danny shrugged vaguely, unsure of how to make it any more clear. “Uh, yeah.”

Realizing that he’d said the last in English, he instead settled for making vague shooing motions at Wulf.

This, at least, had some effect on the ghost. Wulf’s muscles coiled, and with a sudden twitch, he unsheathed his claws.

Except the ghost bounded forward, suddenly, lunging towards Danny. He had just a single moment of doubt, had he somehow misjudged this situation?, before Wulf’s furry arm wrapped around him, dragging him along. He could hear a tearing noise, and then suddenly the cell was gone.

Oh. Of course. Wulf had grabbed him and taken them outside Walker’s prison. That made perfect sense.

Wulf had perked up now that they were outside the prison—and the Ghost Zone as a whole—because he stood tall again, his ears perked up and his tail wagging.

“Tell the story?” Wulf asked, cocking his head at Danny. “Why did you free me?”

Danny hesitated, taking a moment to look around them. They seemed to be in the woods somewhere in the human world, but he didn’t know where, exactly. He turned back to Wulf with an apologetic face. “I don’t speak very good Esperanto,” he explained. “Sorry.”

He wished he could explain, though. Wulf already knew about him being half-ghost, and Danny was sure he could trust Wulf. And—

And Wulf could make portals between worlds. Maybe he could even make one home.

Danny’s core churned with an unnameable emotion. Pain, regret, guilt. Could he somehow…

With a flash, he shifted back to human form. He patted down his trousers, quickly, ignoring Wulf’s confused look.

There! Danny pulled his phone out of his pocket, holding down the power button. He had realized, very quickly after coming here, that his phone was almost completely useless. He could use it for entertainment, sure, but no one could call or text him, and he couldn’t charge it regularly enough for it to really be useful. So he had turned it off, intending to save the charge so he could call his friends when he got home.

He opened the internet browser, quickly navigating to Google Translate. His fingers darted over the keyboard, and when he was happy with his message, he clicked the translate button. It wouldn’t be perfect, sure, but hopefully it would get the message across.

“It is a weird complicated story,” his phone started reciting, and Wulf perked up even further. He crept in a little closer, focus entirely on the phone in Danny’s hand as it continued to speak. “I am actually from a different universe. I am half ghost, and I accidentally traveled through a portal to this world. In my own universe, we are friends. Walker tried to have you attack me, but my friends and I took off your collar, and you helped me protect my town. I know that you are not the same Wulf, but I wanted to help you anyway, to repay you for everything you have done for me.”

They waited in silence for a moment, then Wulf nodded, a grin appearing on his face. “I am glad,” he said, tail wagging energetically, “that in another universe, I have made a friend so good that it carried over to another world entirely.”

Danny didn’t quite understand that whole thing, but he thought he got the gist anyway. He grinned back. “Well, you’re my friend.”

“Still, I wish I could help.” Wulf flexed his paws, almost experimentally, but his grin faltered. “I wish I could open a portal home for you, but I can’t. Only between here and the Ghost Zone.”

His core stuttered, churned painfully. That figured. He hadn’t thought that Wulf could, not really, but still. It hurt.

“It’s not your fault,” he assured Wulf anyway, patting his massive furry forearm. “I’ll figure something out.”

“I still want to do something in return,” Wulf insisted, shoving his head against Danny’s shoulder. “Anything to help my friend.”

Well, now his core heaved for an entirely different reason. Danny moved his hand to Wulf’s forehead, thinking it over. With one hand, he tapped out a new message on his phone.

“There is one option,” it started, and Wulf’s ears twisted towards the phone again. “In this universe, someone else is half ghost in my place. My sister. She is just as young as I was, and has less support. I think she will be okay, but it would be nice to be sure.”

Wulf pulled his head away from Danny’s shoulder, nodding vigorously. “It would be my pleasure to watch over your sister in your stead.”

“Good.” Danny rubbed his hand through Wulf’s fur, rugged but surprisingly soft, considering the circumstances. “Thank you, Wulf.”

It would be good to know that Jazz was safe when he left.

If he ever got to leave.

---

Harried footsteps echoed through the street as Danny turned down an alley. The heavy footfalls behind him continued; both Sam and Tucker wore boots instead of sneakers.

Light flashed in front of them, pale blue light bouncing off of the alley’s walls. Danny stopped, Sam and Tucker right behind him.

He cleared his throat, and the ghost mere feet away startled visibly. Its—his—bright green eyes shot upwards, towards Danny. The expression was so human, far more human than his parents’ research suggested. And it was undeniably guilty.

The ghost knew exactly who Danny was.

Slowly, the ghost clipped the Fenton Thermos in his hands back onto his white belt. From this close, Danny could tell that the entire outfit closely resembled the jumpsuit his parents had made for him, with the colors inverted. He wondered, darkly, how often the ghost had spied on them to mimic it so closely.

“Um,” the ghost said, then halted, like he hadn’t quite thought out what he actually wanted to say. He fidgeted with the cuff of one of his white gloves. His eyes, wide and unnaturally bright green, darted between the three humans opposing him.

“We need to talk,” Danny told him, trying to make it sound like a threat. They hadn’t brought anything to trap the ghost, and even if he appeared cornered, Danny knew he wasn’t. Intangibility was a bitch.

The ghost shifted, like he was strongly contemplating leaving. He grimaced. “Well, um. What about? It’s not like we’ve… met, ha ha.”

Really, he could not look any more awkward. It was almost impressive. If only the situation had been, well. Not this.

Danny glared at the ghost, and Phantom made a face. He didn’t leave.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Danny snapped. His nails dug into his palms as he clenched his fists. “I don’t know who you are, and quite frankly, I don’t give a fuck. You can haunt Amity Park all you want, and I wouldn’t give a single damn! But you’re messing with my sister, and I can’t let that fucking slide.”

Phantom shifted guiltily. He opened his mouth, but Danny cut him off before he could speak.

“I don’t want to hear it! Whatever dumb excuse you’re gonna give, I don’t want it. I know Specter is my sister, that she’s Jazz. I saw her go from human to ghost, when you two were fighting that shadow-y ghost. She was knocked out, you know that? And when she got up, she just went back out again, and I had to let her! Because I couldn’t tell her I know! Because you somehow convinced her that— that you’re her brother, or whatever!”

Phantom’s mouth tightened into a thin line. His eyes, still luminous and green, narrowed. He waited for several seconds after Danny stopped talking, before asking, caustic, “Are you finished?”

“No!” Danny snapped back. “You’re a fucked-up mess of a ghost, and you don’t even seem to realize how fucked up any of this is! You fucking modeled yourself after me, like an image of me as a fucking ghost! And somehow you convinced Jazz that you really are me, that you’re her actual brother, yet she barely talks to me. She probably spends more time with you than with me, because she doesn’t realize there’s a difference! And it’s your goddamn fault!”

The ghost lunged forward, and Danny’s heart stuttered, missed a beat. For a moment, he’d forgotten than he’d been yelling at a being strong enough to eviscerate him with barely any effort.

But Phantom didn’t cross the entire distance between them. He landed on the ground with such force that dust blew away, but without a single noise.

Light flashed through the alley again, bright white like lightning. It danced around Phantom, so blinding that Danny was forced to close his eyes. When it faded, when he could see again…

It was like looking in a mirror.

Phantom looked… human. His flesh was visibly warmer, the tone just slightly pinker, and his eyes were as sky blue as Danny’s own. His hair, previously white as snow, was now jet black. And his characteristic jumpsuit, the feature he seemed to have stolen right from the adult Fentons, had been replaced by clothes that could’ve been Danny’s own. A little more ragged than he would normally prefer them, sure, but still…

“Wow,” Sam breathed behind Danny, barely audible.

And the ghost—human?—smirked, wide and cocky. He threw out his hands demonstratively. “And that’s where you’re wrong! Because I am her brother, pal.”

Danny stepped forward before he really knew it, his hands wrapped up in Phantom’s shirt. It was like he was moving on auto-pilot, taking a backseat in the whole process.

His brain supplied, remarkably unhelpfully, that Phantom’s shirt felt oddly real. Not cold or slick like ectoplasmic clothing.

“You ain’t shit,” Danny growled in Phantom’s face, in that mirror image of his own. “You think you’re a big fucking deal, some kinda big savior, protecting our weak pathetic fleshy people from the ghost invasion, but you’re nothing. It’s all a fucking cover so no one can see the damage you’re really doing.”

Phantom’s eyes narrowed, the irises briefly flooding with bright green before they faded back to blue. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, coldly. His hands wrapped around Danny’s wrists. They were chilly, too cold. There was no force behind them.

“Don’t I? You’re out here, pretending to be Jazz’ brother, and you don’t expect me to be pissed about that? Shouldn’t you know better?” He let go of Phantom’s shirt. The last thing he needed was for the ghost to break his wrists when it got tired of being held.

“I’m not pretending,” Phantom hissed, eyes narrowed. “And I don’t give a damn about what you think of me. I’ve lived through the whole town hating me, through my own parents hating me. You’re nothing compared to all that.”

Sam scoffed, somewhere behind Danny, and he jerked. He’d almost forgotten that his friends were here, too.

“If you care so little about our opinions, why are you still here?”

Phantom’s mouth tightened again, his eyes darting over to Sam. His eyebrows were drawn together. He almost looked pained. “That’s… complicated.”

“More complicated than pretending to be Danny Fenton, son of avid ghost hunters?” Tucker asked, scathingly. “More complicated than pretending to be, what, half ghost?”

“None of that is pretend,” Phantom snarled. His eyes flickered green again as he clenched his fists. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, because you’re not telling us, dude.” Tucker huffed, crossing his arms. His eyes were hard.

“I…” Phantom halted, then shook his head. “I can’t. I shouldn’t.” He refused to meet Tucker’s eyes. Or Sam’s.

He looked uncomfortably human.

“You gotta tell us something,” Danny snapped at the ghost. Because that’s what Phantom was. Just a ghost. “You’re messing with my sister. And even if you’re not actively pretending to be me, well. I find it hard to believe that you’re missing the implications here.”

Phantom snorted. “I’m not an idiot, yeah. Why do you think no one but Jazz has seen me like this yet?”

Some cold burrowed in Danny’s chest. No one but Jazz. So that meant that Jazz had seen it. Had seen Phantom pull off a shift so similar to her own, which had made him look just like Danny.

“No one but Jazz, and now us,” Sam pointed out. “Why break the pattern for us?”

Phantom shrugged. His eyes had moved over to Sam, but he dragged them back to Danny almost immediately. “I fucked up.”

“So now what?” she asked, crossing her arms as well. “Are you finally going to tell us why this is all so complicated? Or are you going to continue pretending Tucker and I don’t exist?”

The ghost flushed, suddenly, his shoulders coming up. Somehow, against all logic, it was red.

Ghosts were supposed to flush green, weren’t they?

“It’s—”

“Complicated?” Tucker finished for him, dryly. “Try something new, man.”

“I’m…” Phantom paused again, then sighed. His shoulders sunk down like the weight of the world was on him. He looked so forlorn that Danny almost felt guilty.

Phantom reached into one of his pockets, producing a mobile phone. It looked remarkably modern, if a little scuffed up. Was that stolen?

It was quiet for a few moments as Phantom messed around with the phone. Finally, however, he seemed satisfied. He held it out towards the three of them.

Sam and Tucker leaned in closer, and Danny took the phone from Phantom. On the screen was a photo of… the three of them. But not one they had taken, he was sure. They were in his parents lab, he thought, and they were all smiling.

“Keep scrolling,” Phantom said. Danny did.

The next photo was of just Sam and Tucker. They were still in the lab, and both holding ecto-weaponry. In front of them was some sort of shooting range, with shots clustered on two of the targets. They looked like they were arguing, but it was good-natured.

They definitely hadn’t taken this photo. How had Phantom gotten it? Were there more shapeshifting ghosts like him?

Danny’s stomach squirmed. Sam reached over his hands to click over to the next photo. Sam stood impassively, arms crossed, watching Tucker. Tucker, who seemed to be holding an energetic conversation with an enormous bipedal wolf. A ghost wolf.

“Keep going,” Phantom instructed, quietly.

It was the three of them again, except… except Phantom was there, instead of Danny. His green eyes were scrunched up, his smile wide. Sam and Tucker, on either side of him, were grinning equally widely. A smear of green ectoplasm sat on Sam’s cheek, but she didn’t seem to care.

“You’ll know,” Phantom told them, and his voice was almost impossible to make out over the rushing sound in Danny’s ears. The phone shook with such force that he could barely hit the button to move over to the next picture.

It was a picture of the living room of their house. Jazz sat on the couch, a book held loosely in her hand. She wasn’t looking at it, though. No, she was looking at Danny, who seemed to have fallen asleep next to her. He leaned against her, his head on her shoulder. Danny looked about sixteen, the right age, but Jazz…

Jazz looked like she was eighteen.

Phantom took the phone back from Danny’s stiff fingers. “Like I said. Complicated.”

“What the hell, dude.” Tucker blinked at the two of them, at Danny and at Phantom. “What the fuck was that?”

The ghost shrugged loosely. “I’m sure you can figure that out yourself.” He pressed the power button on his phone, then stuffed it back in his pocket.

“So you’re, what. From another universe?” Sam asked. Her voice was a mixture of disbelief and awe, Danny thought, but it was hard to say for sure.

“Basically.” Phantom shrugged. He seemed awkward, now, but no closer to fleeing than he was at the start. “I kind of… accidentally came here. Portals in the Ghost Zone can lead to any point in time, but apparently to different worlds as well. I… didn’t realize. Didn’t realize I wasn’t home until I met… Jazz.”

“So you lied to her.” Danny frowned at him. It sounded… well, like bullshit, but he supposed it was possible. He couldn’t think of a more likely explanation, at least. “You made her believe that you were me.”

“No,” Phantom denied immediately, shaking his head. “No, never. I told her the truth from the start. She knows I’m not you. I’m just training her, just her mentor.”

“Then why does she barely spend time with me anymore? Why does she spend more time with you than with me?”

“You think she enjoys that?” Phantom made a face, lip curled in… disgust? “Fuck, dude. She’s been trying to spend time with you for ages. She hates that she’s spending more time with me than with you. She doesn’t even call me Danny, only Phantom. It’s not me, it’s you.”

Danny’s heart felt like it stopped, like it had turned into a clump of ice lodged in his chest.

“So if Jazz isn’t trying to use you as a replacement for her brother, why is she spending so much time with you?” Sam asked while Danny was still trying to process this revelation.

Phantom rolled his eyes, then raised a hand. Blue light flashed, and then suddenly he had… something. Was twirling something smooth and shiny between his fingers. Ice? Ice was something Phantom could do, right? “If you suddenly became half-ghost, and ran into a half-ghost version of someone you knew, a half-ghost with two-and-a-half years of experience, wouldn’t you spend time with them?”

He clenched his fist, and suddenly the ice was gone. Phantom’s hand wasn’t even wet. “I offered to teach her while I was around, and I help fight ghosts so she’s not as overwhelmed as I was. And the timelines seem pretty similar so far, so I know roughly what’s coming up, and I can help her figure out the tougher ghosts.”

“You’re a source of information,” Tucker said, understanding in his voice. Realization dawned on Danny, too. Phantom wasn’t a replacement; he was the half-ghost equivalent of a library. Jazz didn’t get comfort from him because he was family, but because he knew.

“Yeah, basically.” Phantom shrugged, but he didn’t seem as tense anymore. “And backup. I had… well, you two. If I ever got in over my head, I was backed up by my Sam and Tucker, and later on, by my older sister Jazz as well. But your Jazz, this Jazz, she doesn’t have that.”

“But what about your own world?” Sam narrowed her eyes at Phantom, considering. “If you were the only half-ghost there, shouldn’t you go back? Don’t they miss you?”

Phantom clicked his tongue. “I can’t. Portals in the Ghost Zone are unreliable, so I have no way of making sure I get there. It’s better if I stick around here, where I have some system in place, and where I can help. Plus, if I stay in one place I’ll be easier to find.”

“I’m not saying that Sam and Tucker aren’t great,” Danny said, past the emotions still lodged in his throat, “But are you really expecting those two to find you in a different universe?”

Sam scowled at him, and the itch in his neck made him suspect that Tucker was doing the same from behind him. What? He was just being realistic!

“Them, or Jazz.” Phantom shrugged at his incredulous look. “There’s this invention that can track me to bizarre extents. Jazz once used it to send me a message while I was ten years in the future. And if that doesn’t work, I have a ghost ally who owns an enchanted map, which can find portals to anywhere and anywhen you want, as long as it’s in the Ghost Zone.”

A heavy silence fell. Apparently Danny wasn’t the only one who saw the problem with that.

“So then why aren’t they here yet?” Tucker finally asked, conceding defeat. “You’ve been here for weeks, man.”

Phantom’s shoulders sunk down even further, his face falling. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I know.”

“So… now what?” Sam frowned at Phantom. “You’re just gonna stay here indefinitely?”

“Might as well.” Phantom sighed, heavy and exhausted. “Like I said, there’s no point in going looking for a portal back. Wulf can’t make a portal like that, and Frostbite only let me use the map because I fought the Ghost King. I haven’t done that in this universe, so there’s no way he’ll trust me with that priceless artifact.”

“Sounds rough.” Tucker threw a look at Danny, then Sam, then Phantom again. “Can we help? You, or Jazz?”

Phantom shrugged once more. “I mean, I don’t know. My Jazz figured out my secret at the same time as you guys figured out Jazz, but she held off with telling me because she figured I could manage with Sam and Tucker. It wasn’t until that time traveling thing during the CAT test that she dropped enough of a hint for me.”

“Alright, well…” Danny took a deep fortifying breath. “How about this. You keep up your training with Jazz, but stay in touch with us. I want to know what’s going on, and I want to keep an eye on you. If she looks like she needs us… needs me, we’ll tell her we know. Until then…”

“You want to get closer again.” Phantom nodded, and Danny was startled at how understanding he seemed. “Hey, don’t give me that look. I grew apart from my older sibling too, when I became half-ghost. Then we suddenly got closer again, after she figured me out.”

“Oh.” Danny licked his lips. He wasn’t sure if it was meant to be comforting, but… it made him feel better anyway. Knowing that even Jazz, perfectly brilliant human being, had made this mistake.

There was still room for things to get better.

“Well, let us know if you need anything,” Sam insisted. “As you probably know, I’m rich. I could easily hide you in our mansion if you need to sleep somewhere that isn’t a rooftop, or whatever you’ve been doing so far.”

That startled a laugh out of Phantom. “Jazz has been letting me use her bed while she’s at school,” he admitted, grinning weakly. “But thanks, I might take you up on that. I’ve gotten seriously nocturnal though, fair warning.”

#danny phantom #dp fanfic #phanfic #dp fanfiction #phanfiction #fanfic #danny fenton #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #halfa jazz au #jazz phantom au #dark writes #absurdism

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daesungindistress · 5 years ago

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not sure if you've been asked this before but do you think you will return to writing fic about bb and if so, would you include sr in your stories?

The last time I was asked this was back in March or April. And it’s difficult to give a final answer. I want to return to writing. The thought of abandoning all my WIPs and notes and ideas forever is a depressing one. And if I’m being honest, the longer I go without making something, be it art or fic, the emptier I feel.

Do I think I will? Return to writing? That I’m less certain about. The events of this year have left me feeling a bit disillusioned. Disenchanted. Disappointed. Yeah, they all kinda have the same meaning, but I guess I’m just trying to convey how this thing with Seungri, this tragedy, and the ongoing struggle within the fandom seems to have slowly stripped away my ability to separate BB’s public personas (and private selves) from the fictional versions we as writers play with. It’s broken down some necessary barriers.

The situation we’re in is too serious, too real, too heavy. And in my heart I feel there’s still too much uncertainty about their future. That uncertainty is steadily chipping away at the compartmentalization that let me comfortably turn them into characters and use them to tell stories. When I sit down and stare at all these notes from a happier, easier time I no longer see what I once did. I wonder, “Who wrote this? When? And how?” There’s some guilt too. Like, who am I to toy with them like this, to reduce them to fanfic fodder when so much has gone so wrong? Some fans have successfully escaped into fiction this year to forget; for me it’s the other way around. It’s been nine months but in a way the scandal is still front and center in my mind, and fanfic can’t overpower that. If anything, I’m almost… afraid to touch it again.

For example… the one fic I finished and posted this year, Sugar Kiss, was a smutty ToDae oneshot… and, regrettably, a sequel to a DaeRi fic. It was something I started late last year and had mostly completed by January, well before the scandal reached a boiling point. All the fic needed by then was a little polish, and it took me until July to find the energy for it. The teaser/summary was “It’s Daesung’s turn to be a bad influence” because in the fic before it he and Seungri had gotten up to some ~naughty fun~ together and Daesung decided he liked it enough to pass it on. So in Sugar Kiss Daesung shares what he learned from Seungri with Seunghyun. The joke was that Seungri persuaded him into mischief. Seunghyun even has a line in which he calls Seungri “a bad influence,” which one reader got really upset over, but I didn’t mean it in a bad way when I initially wrote it earlier this year. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Just some silly, sexy, lighthearted fun, nothing more. I felt a little iffy posting it on the heels of Seungri’s scandal but in the end threw caution to the wind and went ahead with it.

Then, a few days later, the news about Daesung’s building broke and suddenly people were saying, “Daesung might be in on it!” and “He’s just like Seungri!” and “Daesung said they’d become close recently!” And I was like 😰 I had a few days to feel accomplished, after that it was pure regret. It’s like nothing is safe. Things I enjoyed before without thought or care… just aren’t that fun anymore. It’s really sucked the joy out of storytelling using real people. The thought lurks: what if some of the questionable stuff I write about them turns out to be, well, real? And then I have to either denounce or defend what I’ve written. People are still leaving kudos on that fic and its prequel, and every time I get the notification I wonder what they really think of it.

Anyway, to answer your other question: even though my view of Seungri has soured significantly since spring, my feelings on the matter of his involvement in my future fanfics, if any, have remained… largely the same. I think. The last time I talked about this I said I might continue to include him, but clarified that it would depend on the timeline (pre/post 2019) and setting (canon compliant, alternate universe). And also what role needs filling. Even after all we’ve learned about him, Seungri is still an interesting character to me with traits that I consider useful for the types of stories I like to tell. He’s a good foil for Daesung due to their opposing personalities, interests, lifestyles, values…. and for this reason I’ve always had a tendency to depict him as someone who brought conflict to the group in some form or another. His fans who found their way to my fanfics sometimes asked me to be kinder to him. Let’s just say now there will be no more pressure to pull my punches. That said, I expect any parts he does have will be small and fairly insignificant. A line or two, maybe even just a mention. My goal isn’t to pretend he never existed, just to avoid giving him undue attention that might, y’know… encourage people to like him.

…there is, however, one possible exception to that. Carnivores. Don’t think I’ve touched on this here yet? I had tentative plans to continue that series one day. Yes, even though I swore it was over. The story and setting is still meaningful to me and those characters feel more divorced from their inspirations, the Big Bang members, than any of my others. “They have lives of their own,” a reader once said to me, and I have to agree. You could change their names and I would still recognize them. I hoped it would be nothing too serious this time, nothing too intricate, just a oneshot catching up with the pack in their new home a year or two down the road. Here’s the problem though: Seungri was finally going to get something he’d always wanted. Something hinted at in the final scenes of Innocence & Instinct. And I wanted to scratch the surface of how they dealt with that.

Too bad 2019 has all but blown those plans to pieces. Carnivores!Seungri is not Big Bang’s Seungri or Lee Seunghyun, he is just a fictional character bearing his name and likeness, but even so, the absolute last thing I want to do right now is give him something he’s always wanted. No matter how I look at it, the thought of writing him into an important role comes off as really distasteful to me right now. So if that’s ever going to materialize, yeah, it’s gonna be awhile.

But wait. What if I give him something he’s always wanted… and then take it away. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It came to me one day months ago, how I could work the events of this year into the series. Some parts of Carnivores do mirror real life events involving BB (such as Jiyong, Youngbae, Seunghyun, and Daesung confronting Seungri in Dreams Like Ashes over fears that he’s going to leave them for his newly formed group of human friends. Though I sort of glossed over it, this was based on things they were saying about him back in 2016, which was when that fic was written). So working his recent rise and fall into a future installment wouldn’t exactly be a new approach for this series. You could even say I’m a little intrigued by the idea.

Still, it’s too soon. Too fresh. And I don’t know how it ends, in this world or that one, or if I even have the creative energy to tackle something so… disruptive. Reality is hard enough. So until then, those plans will stay right where they’ve been all this time, boxed up in a dusty corner of my mind. I hope that one day I can reach back inside that box and share what I find with you all. Until then, I think what I need is a clearer sense of direction from BB… and more time to work up the courage to try.

#sorry this got long and rambling #I don't get to talk about my fanfic much #though I've been giving it a lot of thought #bigbang #fanfic #fanfiction #ask #anon #carnivores #seungri #also I haven't seen my otp together in almost 3 years so there's that too

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transcendtouch · 5 years ago

Text

A Brief Introduction to Immersive Systems: History of VR (part 1)

According to Oxford Reference, “Virtual reality is a synthetic technology combining three-dimensional video, audio, and other sensory components to achieve a sense of immersion.” Merriam-Webster defines virtual reality as “an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment, also: the technology used to create or access a virtual reality.”

Both of the above definitions focus on the technological aspect of virtual reality, describing it as a contemporary means. However, virtual reality is more than an artificial environment. It is a simulated experience that can be completely different to our reality. The Online Etymology Dictionary defines that the term “virtual” was being used meaning “influencing by physical virtues or capabilities, effective with respect to inherent natural qualities," as early as the late 1400s. It is also stated that it has been used in the computer sense of "not physically existing but made to appear by software" since 1959. “The term "virtual reality" was first used in a science fiction context in The Judas Mandala, a 1982 novel by Damien Broderick.”

Trying to pinpoint the exact origins of virtual reality has proven to be quite a challenge, considering how difficult it has been to formulate a definition for the concept of an alternative existence. However, in this post, we too will be focusing on the technological milestones that led to today’s applications of virtual reality, making it an innovative –soon to be essential- tool.

In 1838, Sir Charles Wheatstone invents the Stereoscope, a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image.

A 19th century stereoscope:

In 1935, American science fiction writer Stanley Weinbaum presents a fictional model for VR in his short story Pygmalion's Spectacles. In the story, the main character meets a professor who invented a pair of goggles which enabled "a movie that gives one sight and sound [...] taste, smell, and touch. [...] You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply [...] the story is all about you, and you are in it." This sound a lot like our idea of a tangible painting, doesn’t it? (image source)

In 1956, cinematographer Morton Heilig creates Sensorama, the first VR machine (patented in 1962). It is a large booth that can fit up to four people at a time. It combines multiple technologies to stimulate all of the senses: there is a combined full colour 3D video, audio, vibrations, smell and atmospheric effects, such as wind. This is done using scent producers, a vibrating chair, stereo speakers and a stereoscopic 3D screen. Heilig thinks that the Sensorama is the "cinema of the future" and he wants to fully immerse people in their films. Six short films are developed for it.

In 1960, Heilig also patents the Telesphere Mask (image source ), which is the first head-mounted display (HMD). This provides stereoscopic 3D images with wide vision and stereo sound. There is no motion tracking in the headset at this point.

In 1965, Ivan Sutherland, a computer scientist, presents his vision of the Ultimate Display. The concept is of a virtual world viewed through an HMD which replicates reality so well that the user won’t be able to differentiate from actual reality. This includes the user being able to interact with objects. This concept features computer hardware to form the virtual world and to keep it functioning in real-time. His paper is seen as the fundamental blueprint for VR. “The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.”

In 1966, Thomas A. Furness (a.k.a “the grandfather of VR”), a military engineer, creates the first flight simulator for the Air Force. This assists in the progression of VR because the military subsequently provides a lot of funding for producing better flight simulators.

In 1968, Sutherland, with his student Bob Sproull, creates the first virtual reality HMD, named The Sword of Damocles. This head-mount connects to a computer rather than a camera and is quite primitive as it can only show simple virtual wire-frame shapes. These 3D models change perspective when the user moves their head due to the tracking system. It was never developed beyond a lab project because it was too heavy for users to comfortably wear; they had to be strapped in because it was suspended from the ceiling.

In 1969, Myron Krueger, a computer artist, develops a succession of "artificial reality" experiences using computers and video systems. He creates computer-generated environments that respond to the people in it. These projects lead to VIDEOPLACE technology which is mentioned later.

In 1972, General Electric Corporation builts a computerised flight simulator which features a 180-degree field of vision by using three screens surrounding the cockpit.

In 1975, Krueger's VIDEOPLACE, the first interactive VR platform, is displayed at the Milwaukee Art Center. It uses computer graphics, projectors, video cameras, video displays and position-sensing technology and it doesn't use goggles or gloves. VIDEOPLACE consistes of dark rooms with large video screens to surround the user in "VR". The users can see their computer-generated silhouettes imitating their own movements and actions - the users' movements are recorded on camera and transferred onto the silhouette. Also, users in different rooms can interact with other users' silhouettes in the same virtual world. This encourages the idea that people can communicate within a virtual world even if they aren't physically close.

In 1977, the Aspen Movie Map is created by MIT. This program enables users to virtually wander through Aspen city in Colorado, like with Google Street View. There are three modes: summer, winter and polygons. It is created using photographs from a car driving through the city. There are no HMDs but it is the use of first-person interactivity and it suggests that VR can transport people to other places.

In 1977, Sayre gloves are created by Daniel J. Sandin and Thomas A. DeFanti, at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory, a cross-disciplinary research lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. These gloves are the first wired gloves. They monitore hand movements by using light emitters and photocells in the gloves' fingers. So when the user moves their fingers the amount of light hitting the photocell varies which then converts the finger movements into electrical signals. This may be the beginning of gesture recognition. Furness creates a working model of a virtual flight simulator, for the military, called the Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator (VCASS). Image of a wired glove:

In 1979, McDonnell-Douglas Corporation integrates VR into its HMD, the VITAL helmet, for military use. A head tracker in the HMD follows the pilot's eye movements to match computer-generated images.

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