#At some point I think I'll leave the desert maybe

[soonysy]

Day 98 — You were the SUN and I was just the MOON

Shall I leave the desert?

[dragqueenstarscream]

Thinking about what could have happened if Orion in the season 2 2-parter had just a bit more time with Starscream, like what if he’d chosen to leave with Starscream, and what if they’d grown close while camping out somewhere together? Orion knows that he should probably contact the Autobots, clearly from all the info he’s getting now that he’s away from Megatron it’s pointing to things being very clearly in the favor of them being the good guys here, good guys who need the help of their leader. But Orion isn’t Optimus and there’s a part of him that likes being here with Starscream in the harbinger. A part of him that feels like it's been yearning for something like this, a weight off his shoulders. Orion falls for Starscream and Star, despite all the warning signs going off, falls for Orion too.

Eventually, conflict ramps up and Orion out of the goodness of his spark can’t sit by. Orion becomes Optimus, and just like in the show, he can’t remember any of being Orion. Starscream is devastated when he realizes it and he doesn’t know what to do. He stays in the harbinger, surviving and feeling bitter because of course something good couldn’t stay for him. Of course Optimus’s bleeding spark had remained in Orion and couldn’t help sacraficing everything just to help others.

Optimus though, begins to have dreams of memories he can’t recall. All involving starscream. There’s one of them bantering as they go through the harbingers system, his optics catching a genuine smile on Starscream’s face as he laughs at a terrible joke Orion made. There’s them watching the sunset over the desert. There’s a moment of intimacy, Starscream’s legs wrapped around him, condensation on their plating, both of them puffing out exvents. Its all so real and twists his spark until finally he contacts Starscream himself to talk. Just the two of them, at the Harbinger.

And when they talk, when Starscream forces himself to be honest, it comes back to him. Its in pieces, some bits harder to remember than others but the feelings are there and thats what matters. He takes Starscream gently in his arms and tells him how sorry he is for everything, and that if Starscream would be willing, he would want him to join the autobots and stay by his side, to keep him in check.

(its uh, very awkward for the rest of the team at the start, but they’ve also never seen Optimus quite as happy, so maybe, maybe its wirth giving ol screamer a shot as a team mate.)

anytime i see tfp starop fanfics with this premise (which isn't often, but i'll always seek it out), i go absolutely wild because YES. this is honestly one of my favorite premises for tfp starop besides the whole cave scene.

if i had to write the episode myself, i'd write it so that it takes place after orion becomes optimus again, so we can experience everything that happens as starscream and optimus piece it together. optimus is having these dreams once he returns to the outpost, but he can't tell anyone because of who they're about. how is he gonna explain to ratchet that he's been dreaming of starscream's laughter, him and starscream exploring the desert by sunset? how can he tell someone that he's been dreaming of the two of them interfacing beneath the stars? they'd all think he was crazy.

meanwhile, starscream is remembering the bitter end. he's remembering when orion remembered who he was and eventually leaving. of course he's hung up on the end. maybe he'll have brief flashes of their good times together, but he always thinks of optimus leaving him. of course he can't have anything good. everyone who loved him has always left him. optimus is no different.

except optimus actually comes back to him. optimus actively seeks starscream out and tells him that he's remembering what they had, and that, however brief it was, he actually enjoyed it. starscream doesn't believe him at first, but then optimus starts listing off specific details, and starscream knows he's telling the truth.

since starscream's rogue from megatron at this point, he takes optimus up on his offer. it'll be a long road ahead, but they'd learn how to make it work.

[blluespirit]

i wish that there was more time between the day of black sun and sozin's comet bc zuko's official desertion from the fire nation would have the most insane ripple effects (and it would be nice to see the gaang interacting a bit more than we got but hey i'll take what i can get)

zuko's desertion would have been essentially impossible for the fire nation to bury since it was such a big deal that he returned at all. so i imagine the smear campaign against zuko would have been craaazy. i think it would have been interesting for the gaang to try and deal with that when navigating the FN. zuko would be very recognisable i think at this point, and it would have made staying hidden much harder. would they still have chosen ember island? maybe the kids didn't recognise zuko and azula during The Beach , but with the prince of the fire nation committing treason would there be more wanted posters? would there be more talk around the island? would zuko have to remain hidden while the rest go out and get food?

i wonder if zuko deserting and very meaningly committing his loyalty to the avatar influenced other soldiers in the FN to also desert? or would it have had the opposite effect and made people feel more patriotic since zuko was banished, returned under the guise of having killed the avatar, and then left when aang announced his survival to world during the failed invasion?

SPEAKING OF THAT!! the rumours around this would be INSANE. we know what really happened, but the public don't. did zuko and the avatar plan this so that there would be an inside man during the invasion and then zuko used that chaos to escape? what really happened in ba sing se if zuko didn't kill aang, but azula thought that he did? (again: we, the audience know the truth, but the general public don't). if zuko and the avatar where working together... for how long? was iroh involved somehow since he also disappeared the same time that zuko did? did iroh get captured on purpose to be close to zuko to possibly help him if needed? did zuko break iroh out of jail or did one of the guards or was iroh alone? you could spiral on this as just an average person in the avatar world for years like. if youtube existed in atla imagine the video essays breaking down all the conspiracies

its a kids show so obviously Nothing Bad Happened BUT in the Boiling Rock, zuko getting found out as not only an imposter (already, a very bad situation), a traitor (extremely bad), AND the traitorous (ex) prince of the fire nation (devastatingly terrible) would have been... incredibly dangerous for zuko. in zuko and iroh's original wanted poster, the official translation says “Permission is granted to kill them on sight” and this was before zuko has gone right ahead and committed Treason On Purpose. the warden is not going to be nice. when the warden visits zuko in his cell he literally tells him "If these criminals found out who you are, the traitor prince who let his nation down, why they'd tear you to shreds." the boiling rock would be hell trying to survive. it also puts a lot more weight on zuko refusing to leave sokka in their first escape attempt. also ozai obviously knew that he has his son was in prison bc he... broke in to the prison bc azula was there but then zuko manages to escape with sokka (another imposter) and suki and hakoda (POWs) and chit sang (a prisoner) and two of azula's trusted friends end up in prison for treason as well i just. that is literally insane for the average person to hear about. again, THE CONSPIRACIES!!

when zuko eventually does take the throne there's a lot of conjecture around what zuko did while he was banished and moreso, what he did the second time he left, this time voluntarily. i think zuko's loyalty would be questioned a lot; by other world leaders who are understandably wary about the fire nation and its motivations, but also by its own people - some who believe that zuko is a traitor to his country and is trying to sabotage it since he helped end the war.

idk these are all just me rambling but it would been so interesting to explore the implications of zuko leaving the fire nation and how that would have impacted the gaang and how they interacted with others in their travels. there are so many fic where zuko joins the gaang early, but neither myself with the aus that I have written, nor many that ive read have explored this very much or at all.

[dragonridernoobie]

Hello! I don't know if you're still staring intensely at your inbox bored... but! I can give you something to do for a little while if you'd like . It's my first asking, so I'll try to be simple.

How about a one-shot of Ganondorf x reader, where they both used to know each other well romantically before ganondorf became the god of power. (When he was still the king of gerudo), the reader could've been a simple traveler who traveled through the desert (they could be injured due to battles against monsters on the way there) and found themselves in the gerudo town or something where they met him in the market in disguise cause he try sometime to find peace away from all the responsibilities once in a while and they bond over thing they both like.

Some time passes, and their feelings to each other grow more and more until the reader has to leave because of an emergency at their hometown (idk a family member is sick and they need special treatment that is very hard to get) so they leave while promising to ganondorf to come back once the situation is over. But they never do.

Heartbroken and angry ganondorf becomes the god of power, and after some times the reader goes back only to find out by the new ruler of gerudo that he became the man that brought hyrule to ruins.

Idk maybe something with a little bit of hope at the end? The reader could meet link and help him get to the palace. Like they see the man they fall in love with still inside the corrupted being in front of them. And tries to bring him back?

It's a long ask, and it's totally fine if you don't want to write it or have the time to do it (I know it's a lot energy to write) But if it gave you ideas for a new story or inspired you little than that's all that matter 😉. Anyways! Have a wonderful day or night.

A ask is never too long, I'm sorry if this took so long. I was trying to think of a way to make this a good way of writing it. Since I write in so many ways. So, I decided to make it seem like a story. I hope you like it or love it, I'm fine with either. Thank you for being Paitent!!!! (Also, i changed the story a bit since I've never seen or played BOTW2, and I rather not spoile it for my self.)

The story of the human and the Gerudo King

Long ago, when life was still new and people were still new to the land. Lived 6 different races that rule these lands.

The first hylians came to the land from the goddess Hylia. They created the Hylians as the first race of Hyrule.

And from that race, came all 5 other races.

Rito, hyilans who became one with the sky. Zoras, hyains who became one with the water. Gorons, hyians who became one with the ground. Gerudos, hyians who have split off and became one of their own.

They are a unique species since they only live in the desert. Where they first became is unknown hut they are known for being made of woman and woman only.

But every 100 years, a male is born from a Gerudo, and it becomes the new king of the Gerudo.

The six species are unknown. No one rarely sees them, no one knows about them, but we only know one thing.

They are wise. They have ways to cure the most evil sickness. They know how to survive in places that shouldn't be possible, and they are hard to kill.

Sadly, at one point in time, a king who was ruler of Hyrule found where these humans were and declared war on them. He slaughtered all of them. Their species were lost in time, and no one them about them.

And this is where our legend begins

Before calamity himself became, to be, there used to be a simple king of his lands of the Gerudo. His name was Ganondorf.

His people lived in the desert. They struggled but were happy. Ganondorf traded with people across the land. People always wanted to trade with the Gerudos.

So this is where ganondorf met his love.

He was on his way to a city when the bridge he rode on collapsed. He fell great distance and fell in the river below.

Ganondorf disappeared for weeks and his kingdom feared the worst. Intel Ganondorf arrived and even more unexpectedly that he had a few people with him.

Word spread around in the city that the king was alive and the city was happy.

The humans showed the Gerudos their ways, showed them how to get food in unique ways, showed them how to fight aginst sickness and even showed them how to plant foods in the desert.

While the humans showed them their ways, a human named (Y/N) and ganondorf grown feelings for each other. They were happy, and for years, the humans lived with the Gerudos. Even the human males.

Sadly, (Y/N) had to leave. They had to cross the land to reach another human settlement that are in need of help. They told ganondorf they will return and set corse.

Weeks past and ganondorf waited, and waited, and waited, he waited for days, weeks, and months. After so long, ganondorf became angry and hurt. Angry since (Y/N) has left and that the hyilans have caused trouble.

Hurt because he believes (Y/N) abandoned him. So he decided to declare war on the hyilans and kick out the humans.

This is where calamity came to be. When (Y/N) found out what has happened, they were stuck with grief and hurt.

When link awakened and they met (Y/N), they both agreed to defeat calamity. When link was able to defeat calamity (The first BOTW) (Y/N), talked to him before he was slayed by the light bow.

"I promise to keep fighting for you love. Please do the same...."

Once he was slayed, they fled away. Zelda and Link never saw them again. Though, they wernt gone forever. They where just praying and helping their remaining village survive.

Though (Y/N) hopes to have her love once more.

[ghouljams]

how do you rp with real people

literally the exact same way you would role play with a bot if that's what your starting point is.

But if you've never rp-ed in your life I'll break it down into the fundamentals for you under the cut.

Stage 1: Advertising

You have to start somewhere. Usually that's going to be finding a partner. This is going to read a little bit like a job posting but that's also sort of what it is. Here's an example, your ad should, vaguely, look like this:

Wanted: RP Partner I play: John "Soap" Mactavish You play: Simon "Ghost" Riley tags: apocalypse au, "came back wrong" Soap, gore, smut, angst What I'm looking for: responses once a week with a minimum of two paragraphs. Must be 18+. Potential kinks: stalking, objectphilia, blood, knifeplay, gunplay, whatever Starter: words words words

Give it a few tags and let people know you're open to discuss then you just gotta wait for someone to respond. This is an example of a character rp, VERY DIFFERENT from an OC rp. People will expect you to know the character well and be able to stay in character, that means there's a higher risk of people leaving the rp if they think you're not faithfully representing the character. I have left character rps because I thought my partner was butchering the character.

OC role playing is much more forgiving, but it's also unpredictable. You won't have any idea how your partner's character will respond to your actions, so this is where stage 2 comes in!

Stage 2: Getting to know you.

The first part of any good rp is going to be getting to know your rp partner. bare bones this means: getting a kink list with hard limits and "maybe" kinks(if it's an nsfw rp), getting character information, discussing schedules(when do you have time to rp), and what you want out of the rp(plot, au, reply length, activity, smut/fluff/angst/whump).

Kinks don't have to include every kink in the world, just the ones you know you're interested in and the ones you know you're not. This stage of the game is all about discussion. Sometimes you(or your partner) will be replying to a prompt and sometiems you'll be responding an open call for partners, either way you'll be talking about what sort of story you're looking for and workshopping the plot together.

I suggest making some sort of easy to supply bio of your character, plus any images you might have of them. And keep your kinks list somewhere that you can easily find it if prompted. You don't want to scramble trying to find kinks you think will fit an rp, just supply the list you have and discuss from there. Role playing requires a lot of vulnerability so be prepared for that.

Also important to discuss is what pov you're writing in, most rp will be either in third(most common) or first person. So get used to writing "name did this." This makes it easy to remember who is talking as you're building the story with your partner.

Stage 3: the plot, and the starter

Plotting an rp should be loose and fun. It can be as simple as "I want my character to accidentally curse yours and then they have to work together to break the curse" or as complex as a full book outline. I would try to avoid a full outline, because you'll have trouble sticking to it and you'll be too worried about satisfying specific beats.

let's say you've got your story vaguely plotted and your partner asks if you would write the starter. The starter is just the first response that prompts the rest of the rp. Your starter should include, roughly, these things at the length that you and your partner have agreed upon for replies:

A brief introduction to the world, this is a chance to flex your descriptive muscles and have fun:

The charred remains of a city smolder in the distance as the sun sets over a man-made desert. The sand is red beneath the man's worn boots. It's been a little over six months since the plague swept over the continent, turning friends and strangers into monsters. Three months since those monsters rotted to the point their muscles couldn't propel them forwards anymore. Three weeks since they sprouted and started releasing spores. The man adjusts his gas mask as he walks, hitching his pack higher on his shoulder.

A brief introduction to your character, if they're a known character in an au you should focus on how the world has changed them(within reason), if they're your oc give a brief description of notable physical features and a short background:

Known character:

The man can't even call this a desertion. Sgt. John "Soap" Mactavish, former SAS operator, left the service as quickly as it abandoned him. Too many people in too close an area, once the fevers started it swept through the barracks like wildfire. The higher ups left their dogs to die, and the smart ones ran. Soap wishes he could say he was one of the smart ones, but he was just lucky. Out on leave when the shooting started, his priority had been to his mother in Scotland, not to king and country. He felt like a coward leaving his brothers in arms, but what else could he do once lockdown went into effect?

OC:

The man can't even call this a desertion, more like a mercy killing. "Hush" had survived the fever, survived the horrific drug trials that had been pushed on the military first, and survived the open grave they'd shoved him in when he was deemed too far gone to save. But in the military too far gone only meant one thing: no longer following orders. When the virus had chewed up his brain he'd lost everything, except what his brothers in arms had called him: Hush. It's enough to keep the man moving forwards. He needs a shave, and a haircut. Six months have grown his hair shaggy, and his new diet has taken the softness from his cheeks. It's easier hunting when he doesn't have to cook his food.

And finally what the hook that starts your rp is. With an OC you can use this as another way to introduce character traits or another physical trait, with a known character this should be how they fit into the world. For this we're going to say that you and your partner want to do a "trying to get home" plot, and your character is going to meet their character by finding them passed out in the desert:

Known Character:

As Soap crests the next dune he stops to survey his surroundings. The desert is rough, and it'll only get worse at night. He squints at the blobby shadow that fades like a mirage in and out of his vision. He sucks in a breath. A shadow without an object to cast it can only mean one thing, it's not a shadow. He slides down the dune and races towards the blog, stopping short as it comes into focus. The huge body of a man left for dead out on the dunes. He picks up his pace and drops to his knees to grip the man's shoulder and shake. "You alive?" He asks, almost giddy at the thought of another human out here.

OC:

As Hush crests the next dune he stops and surveys his surroundings. 100 yards from him he spots a dark blob, a shadow that's been cast with no discernable source. He blinks and rubs at his eyes, since the fever they aren't as sharp as they used to be. A shadow without an object to cast it can only mean one thing, it's not a shadow. He slides down the dune and races towards the blog, stopping short as it comes into focus. The huge body of a man left for dead out on the dunes. He picks up his pace and drops to his knees to grip the man's shoulder and shake. "Hey," He moves his hand to check the man's throat for a pulse, "you alive?"

believe it or not that is actually shorter than my usual starters/replies lol, but that's the basics of a starter.

Stage 4: keeping up the rp!

No comes the fun part. Your partner will respond to your starter(hopefully) and then you'll be able to get going. But how do you respond? They just sent you this great response and you're not sure where to go from here, well there are two parts to a good response.

responding to their character's actions or words.

prompting them to respond.

This is why I like a 2 paragraph minimum for rps. You should always respond to their character, but you also need to give them something to respond to. Say their character is alive but they need water or food or medical care. Your character should:

respond to that need. "Thank god you're alive, hold on."

give them something to respond to as well. "Here, do you think you can hold a canteen? or- no let me hold it."

By giving your partner something to respond to you don't run into bumps of "what are you hoping for in my response." It's a lot like dating when you're starting out, you want to ask questions and prompt them to keep the conversation going so that you can both participate.

Dos and Don'ts

Do: write your partner's character doing something they did in a previous response

Don't: tell your partner what their character is doing.

This happens a lot if you're writing sex scenes between two characters. You can say "my character is fucking your character" but don't talk about how much their character is loving it and pushing back on your character if your partner didn't mention that in their response. This is a personal pet peeve of mine, but I've dropped rps because my partner was saying "oh yeah your character loves that" and I went "don't tell me what they like."

Do: describe how your character sees your partner's

Don't: include details that are not in the character's description.

You can talk about how your character likes their character's eye color or hair or skin, but make sure you're getting their character descriptions correct. "my character thinks your character's eyes are like swimming pools, sparkling in the sun, it's going to make blue their favorite color" <- fine. "your character's (unmentioned in the description) tits are so big" <- not fine.

Do: respond in a timely manner, and apologize if you're going to take some time off from the rp

Don't: disappear for 9 months and then send 15k words without an apology or explanation only to disappear again right after, and only communicate with me through tiktoks.

.... self explanatory

Basically be respectful of your partner's character and give them the space to say "actually can we go a different direction with the story. It's their rp too and you want the both of you to have fun!

Happy rp-ing!

[fuckyeahisawthat]

dune part two timeline (a guess)

One of the things I had to do for Maybe I'll Show You the Way was figure out roughly how much time was passing between different events in the film. Fortunately, we have a convenient calendar, which is Jessica's pregnancy. We can only get so precise, because we often don't know how much time passes between one scene and the next, but we can set some outer bounds for a timeline. (We are also forgoing the complications of measuring time in a multiplanetary society and assuming something approximating Earth-length days and years here. Which is not very interesting from a worldbuilding point of view but vastly simplifies things.)

In Part One, when Paul tells Jessica he knows that she's pregnant, she says, "It's only been a few weeks." How many is "a few," given that Bene Gesserit have preternatural awareness of and control over their own fertility? Four weeks? Six weeks? Up to you, but seemingly not long enough for Jessica to expect anyone else, including Leto, to be aware of it.

The Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen seems to take place that very night, and the remainder of Part One takes place over only a couple of days. So let's say Jessica is six weeks pregnant at most when they arrive at Sietch Tabr and she undergoes the Water of Life ceremony.

We then have some indeterminate period of time when Paul is learning the ways of the desert and getting to know Chani, before he starts actively fighting with the fedaykin. Chapter 1 of MISYTW starts in this time period and continues through the morning after the harvester attack.

The next time we see Jessica after the day of the Water of Life ceremony is when she is talking to Alia in the sietch hallway. She says Paul is "training" with the Fremen and will be back at the sietch soon. She is this much pregnant:

Just barely showing, so maybe three months? Maybe a little more?

The next scene after this one is the harvester attack, but we don't know how much time passes in between them. We also don't know for sure that the harvester attack is Paul's first battle with the fedaykin, but that seems likely based on the reactions afterward--he seems to have proven himself, gets "sworn in" as a fedaykin and gets his Fremen names.

So there's some wiggle room, but it seems like a solid guess that the period from Paul and Jessica arriving at Sietch Tabr to the harvester attack is somewhere in the neighborhood of two months.

After the harvester attack and the next morning, when Paul and Chani have their first kiss, we have this approximately one-minute montage of Paul fighting with the fedaykin and Paul and Chani falling more in love.

Those 58 seconds actually cover several months--long enough for Paul's eyes to turn blue.

I perpetually forget that this montage is a mere one minute long because it manages to pack in a lot of subtle detail in just a handful of shots. Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 of MISYTW all take place in the span of this 58-second montage. The three-sietch joint operation that Chani describes at the beginning of Chapter 4 is this one:

Let's just say I have watched this 58 seconds of the movie a lot.

After that montage, we have a very short scene between Rabban and the Baron, and then the next sequence after that is the worm ride. Once again, we don't really know how much time passes between, say, the shot above and the worm ride. But we know that we next see Jessica on the day of the worm ride, and she's now this much pregnant:

Six or seven months, maybe? In any case, significantly further along than when we last saw her. I think it's safe to assume at least three months pass between the harvester attack and the worm ride.

Jessica leaves for the south shortly after this, and by the end of the movie she has not yet given birth, although I am assuming she is more or less full term by that point. So there are at least a couple (two...ish?) months when she is in the south before Paul arrives. This is the time span in which the spice depot attack, Paul's reunion with Gurney, and the attack on Sietch Tabr all occur. (Chapter 6 of MISYTW takes place some time after Jessica leaves for the south, and the entirety of Chapter 7 takes place on the day of the attack on Sietch Tabr.)

This means that the entire arc of Paul and Chani's relationship, from them meeting each other to the end of Part Two, takes place over the course of about...seven months at the absolute max. And in plenty of normal circumstances I would find that an implausibly fast burn, even for two young people who are clearly experiencing their first Big Love. But they are not in normal circumstances--they're in some of the most intense circumstances of both their lives. They're risking their lives in combat together, they're engaged in a high-stakes, all-consuming political project together, and they are living together 24/7 on the Known Universe's most dangerous Outward Bound trip. Those are all things that will bond people together hard and fast. So their comrades-to-lovers speedrun actually makes TOTAL sense to me, and imo feels a lot more plausible than their relationship in the book.

But fucking hell, man, it really heightens the tragedy to shorten the timeline this way. Because Paul has this window of time in his life when he's not the future of House Atreides or the Voice from the Outer World or the Kwisatz Haderach; he's one among equals fighting for a better world and he has friends who are his peers for the first time in his life and he has the love of his life by his side as an equal partner in the struggle. And that window of time is measured in months.

[justsigma-bsd]

A Blank Page, Torn From A Book Without Name

Well, I ended up trying to put the word salad in my head into actual, coherent words after all.

First of all, everything here is just my take on things. The theories and thoughts I've had on certain things. I don't think any of it is official, but if anything of it is, in fact, confirmed to be true or false, feel free to tell me!

Some of the panels were taken from a YouTube video, which I'll link at the bottom!

TW for: Human trafficking, dehumanization

Ok, so first things first, some of this stuff I've already written down a while back for writing reasons. I found some of my old notes, and noticed that, after rereading the panels, they make more sense than I previously thought.

Let's start here: what stands out the most to me isn't that he's in the desert, not even the ticket. No, it's the simple »[...] or even who I was«

Because who, indeed, is Sigma? Sigma does not have an identity. He has no history, no nothing. Just the clothes on his back, a ticket that seems to be useless and earrings, for some reason.

Without a name, you don't have an identity and without identity you don't have a name.

Then there is this, too:

»I gave myself a name. Sigma. A man of the casino«

I don't believe he had a name upon being created. I don't think he had one for a long time, because in the same panel that he mentions giving himself a name, he also mentions the casino- which came much, much later. Sigma existed for three years by the time the series started. However, the timeline is wonky as heck.

Because how long did he stay with the traffickers? How long was he on his own after escaping? How long ago did Fyodor find him? Questions upon questions, but since I've already mentioned the lack of a name and the traffickers, let's get to my thoughts on that, specifically:

»They captured and enslaved me« along with »And once they knew that I had a skill [...]« makes me wonder: how long did it take for them to find out?

I haven't researched anything about human trafficking, but it's basically slavery, from what I've gathered through the previous things I've heard and read. And he does say so himself, too.

Sigma, three days alive, spent his early life a slave. It's confirmed that he was shackled, seeing that he is wearing them in the panels.

(As a side note, I do believe that he has scars from the shackles around his wrist. He wears a tight, wrist-long turtleneck beneath his coat, and I think it's to hide the scars. Both from others and himself.)

His first human interaction was plain horrible. Did he know and understand that? Did he understand that this wasn't normal? I don't think he knew how wrong this was at first. I don't believe that he understood it immediately. If he didn't know who he was, why would he know that being treated like this is wrong?

I believe that he realized it at some point, but not as soon as it started. I think he lived like that for a while, thinking it was normal, before getting some sort of wake-up call. Perhaps through his ability, or a fellow prisoner. Maybe both, or neither.

He must've gotten whiplash, once people genuinely looked up to him when he was the manager at Sky Casino.

I also think that he, probably, does tend to forget that being treated like that is, in fact, not normal or okay. Our upbringing leaves some sort of mark on all of us, experiences define us, give us habits and a feeling of what's normal and what isn't.

Which means that his "normal" is skewed and he expects being used rather than kindness, probably even after learning that some people are genuinely kind. I'm guessing that his mindset is, due to that, a simple "If I'm alive I'm alright".

I don't think he'd complain about being treated wrong and or left behind, or admit when he's injured. Or at the very least attempt to keep it a secret as long as possible- especially from those he sees as authority figures.

However, I also think that he was isolated, as per this panel:

Not only the text, but also the background paint a picture that causes me to believe that.

I almost skimmed past this panel while making my analysis, before pausing and taking a closer look. I thought this was in Sky Casino at first, until I looked closer and realized three things:

1, the background does not match Sky Casino in the slightest

2, he isn't wearing shoes or his current outfit, but the old clothes he had when wandering the desert

3, the shadows aren't from the light of a window, they're bars from a cell

While I did believe before that the traffickers kept him isolated from others (due to wanting to keep him unaware of the wrongness of his situation as well as to make sure he doesn't learn things he should/other prisoners finding out things that Sigma got to know by accident), this sort of put the final nail in the coffin for me.

But, at some point, he did realize that it was wrong. Perhaps he'd had a bad feeling from the start. Maybe he hated being treated like this. Who knows? Point is, he escaped. This brings us back to this page:

»No matter how kind someone seemed, they used me and then tried to kill me for knowing too much«

Sigma, after escaping the traffickers, after escaping the life of a slave, probably still didn't know much about living.

And I firmly believe that Sigma is smarter than even he himself thinks. There's just one issue: Sigma is naive (at least in my eyes), and it's not even his own fault. He simply tried his best to survive, and what was the reason the traffickers kept him around? His ability, most likely.

Problem is that his ability truly is something people would love to exploit, and it seems as if they did. Which makes me believe that he has a talent for running into murderers thinking they're nice people, only to get a not-so-nice surprise.

»The last one to use me [...]«, this specific line is the reason why I believe Sigma to have been used a lot. We don't know how often, exactly, his ability was taken advantage of. But we know the latest person who did.

Fyodor was the last one to use him, which means that, at that point, he was probably used to it. Used to being treated like a pawn, and used to people trying to kill for knowing too much. And I believe that he was, quite plainly, exhausted.

Imagine, your entire life consists of being forced to aid others with crimes, with being shackled. You don't know the difference between working for someone and being used by someone.

If you were offered what you wanted most, wouldn't you accept, too? Even if you know that you're once again being used? I mean... this time around, you gain something for it. Doesn't that make it worth the risk?

It's a gamble Sigma took... and lost.

This page involves two quotes that give me pause:

»Don't you wish for a home?«

We don't know why or how he knows what a home and a family is, but he does. And he wants it. He says it was never within his reach. But it is perfectly clear to us, while reading the Sky Casino Arc, that he wants it. He wants a home and a family.

He'd rather sacrifice his own life than see Sky Casino fall. »Home« and »Family« are, to him, more important than staying alive. Because it's something he never had, and something he clings to. Simply because he doesn't have anything else.

»I, who was originally 'nothing'[...]«

Is the second line that makes me pause. Because like previously mentioned, Sigma was a slave with no name or identity of his own. We don't know when he found out about being created by the book (and I firmly believe that he found out one way or another), but I believe he didn't see himself as a human before, and this "confirmed" it for him.

Think about it, would traffickers care about their victims? Would they treat them as human beings? Call them by their name? What about a person who has no name to begin with?

He wasn't treated like a human being in the beginning, and thus considered himself nothing. Considered his home and "family" to be worth more than hid own life.

He was literally created from nothing. His story doesn't have a beginning. He has no memories prior to being created, he had no name nor identity. How his story will end is unknown. We don't know what's written on his page.

I believe this, combined with being with the traffickers, makes him doubt his humanity. Not only because he was created through the book, but also because for the first (months? Year?) of his life, he wasn't treated like a human.

His sense of self-worth is probably down in the dumps.

»In the end I never did understand what I was born for...«

I don't think he knows the details of his existence. The content of his page, the words that brought him into existence. He doesn't know why he was born/created. He doesn't know what things were predetermined.

He doesn't know what's real and what's just writing on a page.

Sigma, in three years of being alive, went through hell. He was enslaved, his ability was taken advantage of over and over, he was used by multiple people who all ended up trying to kill him and when he thought that he finally found a home? A family? It was taken away from him.

Genuinely, he needs a plate of cookies, a hug and a ton of therapy.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little analysis and theories? I never did something like this before, so criticism is welcome!

Here's also the link to the video from which I got the screenshots: https://youtu.be/KwsSvFYAKjA?si=R_IvH-S8GYut_hrG

[x-bee-x]

What's this? A fic from me in the DSMP category because there was canon lore? In 2024?

I was watching or getting ready to watch someone else, I had my follower list open at least, and saw Jack was live and there was something about logging onto the server later in his title and wait what. I knew as soon as I updated some friends about said happenings, I muted the Discord channel I sent it in in case people wanted to talk more about it and maybe sent spoilers later, and I was on here very little because I knew even though I'm not 100% in the fandom anymore and certainly not a fan of all the members, I would like to see it for myself. So I watched the vod the next morning and oh my god.

I did not expect to get literal chills the moment he logged on and the first thing we saw was the bench. And I almost cried when we saw Las Nevadas. And I did cry a bit when we saw Tech's house. Regardless of how much I care about the streamers who were part of that as of late, I did at one point, very much so. This was something I did not expect, it was so nostalgic and emotional and actually warmed my heart a bit seeing so many fans come together during and after it happened. This was a really unexpected and lovely way to tie things up, I thought they kind of were already in all areas for me at least, but I think that this was a good way to finally properly say goodbye.

Epilogue

No warnings

1,438 words

Tommy was. Somewhere.

He wakes up he thinks, he opened his eyes at least, running a hand through his blonde curls.

And.

He didn't think he was alone this time. Or well, he wasn't always, Tubbo was there sometimes, but this was a different sort of person feeling.

"H-hello?"

He typed into his communicator for the heck of it.

"Hey."

Jack?

"Wh-where have you fucking been?"

"Casino.

Been here for years mate.

Made loads."

He was.

He was in Las Nevadas?

This whole time. This whole time?

Tommy stood at the top of the hill at the entrance of the faux desert and sure enough.

Someone with one blue and one red eye, a head of buzzed hair with a headset on top, a blue short sleeved hoodie, and camouflage pants stood at the bottom.

"Let me bless you, my boy, it's been too long."

He threw a couple of diamonds at the feet of younger, who probably looked just as puzzled as he felt.

"Jack. Seriously.

What happened?"

"What do you mean? I've just been here. Playing roulette."

This whole time? This whole time.

"Wanna know where I've been?

Come with me."

"Hold on, can't leave on a loss, gotta get that big win."

Jack came out eventually, and they walked out of Las Nevadas and along the Prime Path together, he has somewhere to show him.

"It's good to see you."

"You too, man."

"I've been here."

"Here? Under the bridge?"

"Out in the distance. That way.

I've got a house. It's nice."

"I haven't seen anyone for a loooooong time.

Well, maybe Tubbo, every now and again."

Tommy and Jack walked, or well, Tommy walked, and all the sudden Jack's voice became quieter and quieter somewhere behind rather than beside him.

"Me either, casino's been empty.

Honestly, I just steal money from the safe's to gamble with. I could take it all if I wanted, but the thrill keeps me in there.

Gambler's addiction, they call it. One day I'll win big. 99% of people quit before then.

But not me. I'll make it. It's been years, but, it's coming."

He turned his head to the boy with heterochromia behind him, blonde waves bouncing lightly.

"You're not very good at catching up, are you?"

"Just telling my story, man."

Jack said while he jogged to be once again beside him.

"Never thought I'd be around these parts again. I moved far from here to get away from it.

It brings back too much. Joy, fun, sadness, pain. Too much of all of it.

But it's nice to see a familiar face."

The path they took to get to their destination was familiar, and this time he knew it was safe as well as convenient, no one with a mask he had to worry about being on the other side, or worse yet, chase him.

A bridge of cobblestone among the dark red brick and close to unbearable heat, from one swirling purple transparent gateway surrounded by obsidian to another, and they were spot out onto a soft cold white blanket.

"I don't live around here."

"Oh. I thought that's where we were going?"

"No, god no. Do you know how long it took for me to get back here?

I come here a lot though"

A house, a cabin to be exact, sat the same as them in the nearby distance.

It was cream colored with chestnut colored accents, a matching wooden roof and front door, and a chimney that stood tall and sat bare, no plumes of smoke emitted which once came from it.

"Cool. It's quaint. I like it.

Maybe I'll bye it when I win big!"

Tommy looked to the older boy with two colored eyes beside him, opened his mouth but decided against saying anything, then opened it again to say something after all.

"This is Technoblade's house."

"Oh. Maybe I won't do that then."

"How long do you usually sit here like this?"

"As long as I need to.

Sometimes minutes. Sometimes hours."

There were areas of fences close by on the surrounding property, the occasional bray or bah or grunt echoed through the air, and sat in the otherwise quiet.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Hit me."

Tommy fidgeted with the fingers on one hand in his lap as he found the right words and considered them being actually spoken.

"Do you ever.

Like, despite all the war, and the fighting, and all the- well, all the mess- how much it sent me a fucking mess.

Do you ever miss it? Those days? The people? Or, well, the way they were. The way it all was."

Jack looked at him, something like softness in his features.

"Sure. It was all a bit much at times, and I'm not sure I'd wanna do it all again.

But I miss it sometimes. It was fun, really."

"Yeah, I don't think I'd do it all again either. But. I don't know, I've tried to move on. My little cottage far away, my humble paradise. But that trails a lot into my mind."

"I think it trails onto all of our minds sometimes, wherever we all are.

But we all have to move on, find our own destiny sometime."

"Okay. Phew. I'm glad it's not just me."

"Chasing the win keeps me happy.

I like who I am now, probably more than I was. But that doesn't mean he was bad."

"You like being a gambler? Over an incompetent fight loser?"

Jack laughed, soft and genuine, and Tommy fidgeted a bit harder.

"I guess they're not great options are they."

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh, I don't see many people."

"One of them means I might win someday, I was never gonna win back then."

His face held that expression again, soft, almost sad maybe.

"I've still got my one life. One canon life.

And I intend to use it the best way I can."

"What do you mean? How do you wanna use it?."

"You know. I've not got a clue.

But I'll figure that out later.

For now, I've got my cottage, and my new pet! Oh she's adorable. Mareep, she's a little sheep I caught.

But you know, things are okay for me.

Tubbo and his fucking bees I see also every now and then. He's doing pretty well for himself. Selling fucking honey."

"Oh, that's good. I thought he exploded when I blew up everything.

I can't actually die I don't think, so I never know whether these things are bad for everyone else or not."

"I guess being the president of L'Manberg teaches you a few logistical things, aye?

Not that either of us would know anything about that."

"Well."

"Well."

"I haven't seen anyone else besides Tubbo."

"Yeah, you two are hard to separate."

"Tell me about it."

"I think I like it that way for now though.

The quiet life."

"Quiet is nice. This is nice."

"It's good to see an old face though. I know I said it before, but it really is."

Tommy pushed himself up and off the snow beneath them, a couple joints popped, Jack did the same, they stayed standing with the cabin behind them.

"Well, I can't stay for long, I've gotta do things like feed Mareep."

"Yeah, I got some places to see, now that I'm out.

Haven't left there in a while, probably should go check on some things."

"Is there anything else you wanna ask me? I have no questions for you."

Jack looked like he might have something to say, but was going through the roster of words in his mind, carefully considering them.

"Are you happy?

I guess that's really all I'd care to know."

Tommy opened his mouth to respond, closed it, gave a whisper of a smile, ran one of his hands along his pant leg in a partial fidget and a partial way to rid himself of the cold, then opened it again.

"Getting there."

They both nodded gently.

"I'm glad."

"It's good to see you, Jack."

"It's good to see you too, Tommy."

"I hope you get that big win someday.

Oh, and hey. Don't let anyone bye this house."

"I won't."

"I might not see you again. But I hope to lhear about it if you win big."

That's okay. You will. I can deal with just knowing that you're happy."

Tommy held out a hand.

"So long J Money."

Jack shook it.

"Bye Big T."

They both looked to the cabin once more, gave a two finger salute, and went their separate ways along the snowy path.

[141trash]

AN: so I know its not exactly simon x reader its all platonic, but I wasn't sure how else to tag this. Actually if you squint it could be Ghost x Soap I'll let you decide :) Sometimes my brain says things should exist so I write them. Loosely borrows the Master of Death concept from the HP series because yes. She's my OC if you want to know more just let me know I mostly just wanted to practice writing Simon idk and wanted him to be comforted :(

"Let's say I believed you," the exhausted lieutenant's voice broke the quiet hiss of sand shifting in the warm breeze. He laid staring up at the cloudless blue sky, knife held limply in one hand. His balaclava was torn off and cast aside, leaving his face exposed to the unrelenting sun.

"Mhm?" Came the sweet voice, acknowledging his words and probing gently for him to continue.

"If I believe you're the master of death or whatever," he croaked out, throat parched, "Why me? Why save me? There're billions of people who deserve to be saved over me."

Her head cocked to the side, observing him for a moment.

"Why do you believe you're not worth saving?" she asked instead of answering. Simon let out a harsh laugh interrupted by a bout of coughing and a resigned grunt of pain.

"y'just need to look at me to know that love. My mask. I'm a killer. Got my family killed. My mum, my brother." he swallowed, voice cracking as he continued, "His beautiful wife, and their little boy."

He gulped feeling the hot sting of tears and used some of his waning strength to swipe them angrily away. When she didn't say anything he turned his head in her direction. It was hard to believe that he wasn't hallucinating. Sitting next to him in the middle of the desert was a six year old in a pink tutu and a burnt tiara of some sort, perched in her golden curls. Small hands drew shapes and patterns in the scorching sand as if the temperature didn't affect her. Big innocent green eyes bore into him in a way that very much felt like she was staring into his soul.

"The skull mask was an interesting choice," She agreed dryly, "I won't disagree that you're a killer either, given your chosen profession. But you didn't get your family killed. The actions of others are not yours to take the blame for."

"Y'r surprisingly wise for a kid."

The master of death rolled her eyes and smiled, revealing a set of pearly white teeth, "Today I'm a kid."

"Sure. like tomorrow you're not goin' to be."

She gave a shrug of her shoulders, "Maybe, maybe not. It's not exactly my choice."

"Y'didn't answer my question." he coughed again, "If you're the master of death. Why me?"

"I don't make those decisions. I think death would be rather cross with me if that was the case. Everything dies at some point. It's part of the cycle. But death says I'm still ruled by my human emotions. If I had the choice, I don't think I would let people die. And then there really would be no point to life."

He laughed again and then groaned, the side where he'd been shot throbbed horribly.

"You sure you ain't just here to kill me?" Simon wheezed out, hands tightening into fists, "Because it sure feels like it."

Tenderly she reached out and smoothed one of his hands, grasping at it with her much smaller one.

"Of course not Simon." she clucked her tongue as if to scold him, "Pain means you're alive. Keep living. Find your reason to keep living. It's important. You're important."

His vision was darkening with each passing second and her voice was growing murky, like he was hearing it underwater. Gasping in panic he forced his eyes open.

"It hurts," it came out as a whimper. She smiled sadly at him, bright green eyes wet with sympathy.

"I know sweetheart, but it won't be forever."

Then she was gone. The small, but reassuring grip she'd had on his hand disappeared and the panic fully settled in. He tried to call out to her. He didn't want to be alone again. Anything, but having to face the world alone again. He wanted to beg and plead for her to return, but his mouth refused to listen.

Rough hands grabbed hold of him, jerking him back to consciousness. When he managed to get his eyes open again he saw a familiar tanned, if a little blurry, face staring back at him with worry in his eyes. Johnny. Johnny was there.

He saw the sergeant's mouth moving, but he couldn't hear. All of his senses were on fire, everything was too loud, to rough, too painful. No part of him didn't hurt.

He was alive and Johnny was here. Weakly he lifted a hand to grasp the shoulder of the Scottish man's vest.

"You're here." was all he managed to gasp weakly attempting to smile before his mind gave out and he fell into darkness. This time he gave in willingly. He wasn't alone anymore.

[pinkorchidsinspring]

EVELYN is that you?! For the Straights, and gays who have never had the soul crushing pleasure of reading (and those who have ;) “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, Allow me to elaborate ⬇️

To be clear: Evelyn Hugo Marry’s seven separate men in order to cultivate her Hollywood image, at the expense of her true love interest and sexuality. Aka lavender marriages, aka bearding. She was bi however we barely have one actual male love interest for her..

let’s meander some of the lovely connections our blonde woman-who-is-attending-an-award-show-with-a-woman-on-her-arm-to-✨dispell✨-the-gay-rumors has with the ever amazing Evelyn Hugo 😍

Green is quotes from the book, anything else is Taylor’s lyrics 💗

"It shouldn't be wrong, to love you. How can it be wrong?"

They say I did something bad / Then why's it feel so good?

I love you ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?

Is Evelyn Hugo going to tell me just enough to keep me on the edge of my seat but never enough to truly reveal anything?

What a Mastermind wouldn’t you say?

I did it because I want to climb the ladder as high as I possibly can. I did it because I want my name, the name my father gave me, in big, bold letters one day. This is my chance.

He wanted a bride, I was making my own name

People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth.

I want to wear his initial / On a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck / Not because he owns me / But 'cause he really knows me / Which is more than they can say

Celia was starting to get goose bumps, so I suggested we go back into the living room, where it was warmer. The desert winds had swooped in and turned this June night into a chilly one. When I started to get cold, too, I asked her if she knew how to make a fire.

He built a fire just to keep me warm

Wine went all over her white shirt.

The burgundy on my T-shirt when you splashed your wine into me

I was in emerald green again.

“Evelyn, who was your great love? You can tell me." "Celia St. James.”

I just had to put this in here- no need whatsoever but 😍

Don was off somewhere else, leaving me before I could leave him. Instead, right on my doorstep, was Celia St. James.

Stand there like a ghost / Shaking come the rain, rain / She'll open up the door / And say, are you insane, -ane?

🤭And that's how it works / That's how you get the girl🤷‍♀️

She literally told you-I anyway

You wonder what it must be like to be a man, to be so confident that the final say is yours.

A little side note: The way in which she naturally uses those two fingers is very audacious to me.. but that’s a topic for another time…

I’d risen from ashes more than once by that point. But I didn't want to have to do it again.

And I know I make the same mistakes every time

I'm getting tired even for a phoenix / Always risin' from the ashes / Mendin' all her gashes / You might just have dealt the final blow

"Everyone's a pawn.”

Checkmate, I couldn't lose

One day I'll watch as you're leaving / 'Cause you got tired of my scheming

The black beaded dress I wore that night. Two slits on either side of the skirt went up to my mid-thigh. I loved that dress. (For the nomination for a film called Cornelia Sunset, might I add…)

And what I wanted was to move to the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Where were the original Polaroids for 1989 shot? Oh in manhattan…

Where does Taylor live? In New York… maybe not manhattan… but you get the point..

Welcome to New York, Taylor wrote this song specifically about moving there, and the very diverse people there…

In the pursuit of a great cause, I think people can be of service in a number of different ways. I always felt that my way was to make a lot of money and then channel it to the groups that needed it. It's a bit self-serving, that logic. I know that. But because of who I was, because of the sacrifices I made to hide parts of myself, I was able to give more money than most people ever see in their entire lifetime. I am proud of that.

"Evelyn, you are not capable of giving it up. And you never will be. And it will be the tragedy of my life that I cannot love you enough to make you mine. That you cannot be loved enough to be anyone's.”

"Do something, babe, say something" (say something) / "Lose something, babe, risk something" (you're losin' me) / "Choose something, babe, I got nothing (got nothing) / To believe / Unless you're choosin' me"

Which is about the cruelest thing you can do to someone you love, give them just enough good to make them stick through a hell of a lot of bad.

You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love / The slowest way is never loving them enough

And let me just say bring a woman who promised to be Taylor’s “invisible bride any day”, to an award show after that homophobic piece of 🔥🗑️ NYT article calling her only straight…

Not to mention her name starts with a K..

Look how happy tree is, because this Evelyn Hugo won’t be hidden forever 💚🤍

[rosesradio]

I've been having so many thoughts about Lukethan recently omg.... I don't even know who else to send this ask to because I've never seen anyone else really post about the ship, so I'll send it to you. xD Sorry if it's kinda spam mail.

Anyway, nonsensical headcanon time!

So, Ethan was in the Hermes Cabin for a while, right? Annabeth says at some point that she recognizes him as one of the unclaimed kids there.

I was thinking- because both Luke and Ethan clearly wanted to leave camp- they were probably scheming for a while against the gods before either of them had a concrete plan. I can imagine them sneaking upstairs while most of the other kids in the cabin are asleep and just venting to each other, talking about their issues with camp and with the higher ups and saying that they wished they could do something about it.

Perhaps they even start to become a team of sorts, helping the kids in the Hermes cabin together. Luke as the cabin leader and Ethan as a sort of intermediary whenever there are arguments or disagreements... because he knows what is fair and what is balanced. The kids love them- it feels good to have some sort of structure (even if it is annoying if one is trying to steal one's brother's socks. *ahem* Stoll brothers. *ahem*).

Maybe over time the two get closer and closer from just being two people who don't like the gods, and they start imagining something bigger. Something with substance. Something that would actually accomplish their wishes so they could be free at last. (Because as long as you're a half-blood you're only a plaything of the gods.)

But as the idea forms, Luke starts to get more and more radical. He starts talking about Kronos and getting contact with the titans, and then eventually about the plan for Kronos to take his body. This whole time, though, Ethan has been gradually falling for him. While Luke was imagining destroying the gods once and for all, Ethan was imagining the life after that. The life of peace where they could be together. But if Luke is taken by Kronos, they can't have that.

Still, what is he to do?

Ethan probably helped Luke sneak in the pit scorpion and the other monsters- probably helped along the way to try to confuse Percy and the others on the quest. The whole while, something inside him is saying that this is wrong (something about it is off-balance, but he isn't sure what). Still, Luke's dove head first in so Ethan has no choice to follow him.

When Luke's betrayal is revealed and he has to flee, Ethan finds out too late to follow. He knows where Luke is going next, though, at least in general. He knows about Kronos and about the plan for Luke to sacrifice his body.

He has to follow, too, because he has to protect Luke even if he knows the end goal isn't pretty. And then, in the middle of the night, he slips away. He's the first demigod other than Luke to desert in the Titan War, but no one pays any mind to it. He's just an unclaimed kid, a monster probably got him or something. It doesn't matter.

The Hermes Cabin remembers Luke and Ethan's closeness, though, and they can almost sense the war on the horizon.

Anyway yeah, something like that. Idk. Sorry for the long ask ToT

ughhh i love this so much, you're so eloquent in describing this concept & i'm just sitting here like 🧍 but i love this so much

i see an alternative in that ethan definitely crushed on luke during their camp days, though luke didn't really register ethan as a person (not to get into Age Gap Disk Horse, though i believe ethan's five years younger than luke? richard wouldn't know lol). just for my comfort level, i think luke would only start to see ethan as like a love interest potential once they're older in the TA, which goes along with what you're saying. he's so jaded, he only wants to bring down the gods, nothing more.

but ethan is always balanced. there's the Before, with the gods & their injustice & all the unclaimed kids. then there's the Middle, the war, justice being served. and then there's the After. & thought of the After is the only thing keeping ethan going sometimes, though he can't help but feel drained from luke's lack of interest. when asked, luke would say something along the lines of "let's worry about getting through the war first". he has no time to even envision the world of equality he's striving so hard to create.

i had this idea of ethan being just like every other unclaimed kid in the hermes cabin. he's like 14, no one glances towards him, no one cares that he's there. he's taking up space. and goddamnit, he just wants attention.

he's not sure if that's balanced. he's not sure if he deserves attention.

ethan would sneak out of the overcrowded cabin one night, making his way to the lake. he heard the new kid, percy, only had a talent for rowing a canoe on the lake. that probably meant he was going to take up space in the hermes cabin as Unclaimed Numero Uno Million, though ethan was too jaded to care at this point. he just wanted some space and open air to think.

when the cleaning harpies would inevitably find him, ethan wouldn't care. he would ponder the balance of them killing him for sneaking out. he would ponder the balance of his death in relation to the new kid staying.

then luke would approach, telling the harpies to stand down. luke is the only camper they actually take a moment to listen to. he tells them he's going to take a moment with ethan before getting him back to the cabin (ethan didn't think luke knew his name). he tells them that if they try to attack, luke will send them back to tartarus in moments.

the harpies, surprisingly, listen, though not without their fair share of squaking. they tell them luke has a few minutes, no more.

luke comes to sit down next to ethan. he slides off his sandals and dips his feet in the lake, just the same as ethan.

and he asks ethan what's going on, voice gentle as if he knows ethan. but he doesn't. he knows nothing besides ethan's name. he's just another body in head count before dinner. another duck to keep in line.

shattering the balance of composure, of dignity, ethan breaks down. he becomes putty in luke's hands, a child in need of comfort, forcing luke into that role if he wants it or not.

but luke takes it well. he wrapps his arms around ethan, running his fingers through ethan's hair as he sobs into luke's chest.

ethan's shaking. he wants to explode. he doesn't want to exist anymore. his whole life throws things off the balance for the things he wants.

he tells luke this, all of this and so much more. the things he's saying are treason, though he doesn't care. he rambles on as if decending into madness, grasping luke's arms to an almost painful extent, as if that would get him to understand.

but he does. thank the gods—thank something more honest—he does. he tells ethan that he knows, and he feels the same. but he has to stay in line for everyone. he loves them too much to do anything about it. he loves them so much, he has to let them suffer instead of risk them being killed.

he tells them that they have to keep their views a secret. it was the only way to keep them both safe.

ethan's sense of balance is skewed as the tears dry on his cheeks. everything is in tangled knots, and nothing makes sense. but still, in the name of order, he nods. he thanks luke for comforting him. he wants him to stay and care for him more. the moment is too fleeting before luke comes to a stand. he offers ethan his hand, and the two head back to the hermes cabin.

ethan tries to approach luke again, though nothing comes of it. he's always busy, which may or may not be true. he seems to make time for each and every other individual in his cabin and others.

he's avoiding him.

ethan's pissed about it, of course. the one time he's shown someone gives a shit about him, and they avoid him. perhaps he was too much, flying too close to the sun, to the epiphany.

still, he can't help but think of luke's low, comforting voice. the way his touch felt. he smelled nice, too, and when he looked at him...his gaze was gentle. caring.

ethan wants to punch him for giving him the cold shoulder. he wants to be allowed to expand upon his ideas, because gods-literally-forbid he think his own thoughts.

he wants to kiss luke. he wants to form the future alongside him.

as soon as ethan can even notice this pattern within luke, he's gone.

he left a note in ethan's sleeping bag. ethan didn't know luke even registered where he slept.

come with me if you really want to make a change. tell no one, unless you trust they will be useful to the cause.

he left a few drachmas with the note for iris-messaging. that's probably the eqivalent of a boy giving you his phone number, right?

of course, ethan goes after him, with a little time to enjoy the freedom of the mortal world first (as he doesn't officially join up until botl). he wouldn't want luke to think he was too desperate for his affections, of course.

[deeptrashwitch]

Promise of a vengeance

This one-shot happens during Severed Ties and Ghost Killer. And this is an inflexion point for J.J as a person and as part of the Ghosts.

Taglist (just to show :3): @alypink @stuffireadandenjoy @snootlestheangel @islandtarochips @spookyrares

@cynicvice @midnight193 @mutantthedark @justasmolbard @welldonekhushi

@tapioca-milktea1978 @imagoddamnonionmason @stargazing-sapphire2 @milkteaarttime @blacktacmopsi

@maymaylyn @thatonesillyducko @seraphiixiao @me-is-confused @gunnrblze

"How are you feeling, kid?" Keegan asked her when he noticed her looking at the landscape.

"Sad, tired...angry." J.J murmured with a sigh.

"I can guess, but hey, Merrick is guiding the Walker brothers. They'll be fine, and by the end of this, Rorke will die finally."

J.J laughed tiredly. "I hope you're right, Keegan. What will you do when Rorke and the Federation fall?"

"Who knows? Maybe find a place to settle down, a reconstructed city."

"You? Sounds nice."

"And you, kiddo?"

"Go back home, or stay, I'm not sure yet."

Before Keegan could answer, their radios cracked to life and put them both alert. They shared a look and got near the path they had at their right, staring at the desert while they awaited for orders. Soon, Merrick's voice became present.

"J.J, go to the nearest explosion site. Hesh and Logan are alive, I need you to find them and give them first aids while extraction team arrives to their positions." Merrick ordered with a discrete sigh.

J.J nodded towards Keegan, then went to steal a vehicle while she opened the coordinates on her watch. "Copy that, on my way to them."

It was some minutes before J.J saw the explosion site and as soon as she hopped down, she noticed Hesh's unconscious form. As she ran towards him, she also noticed the drag marks as well as the trail of blood. She attended Hesh's wound first, worried by his panicked expression even in that state.

"What the hell happened to you? David? David! Wake up!" She muttered, worried. "C'mon! Please wake up!"

She tried to wake him up while she attended his wounds. Without a doubt, she turned his location so Merrick could send the medical team, or at least someone to rescue Hesh.

As soon as she finished, something called her attention. Logan's gun was on the sand, charged, and near it there was a well known knife. A shiver went down her spine at that.

"Merrick, here J.J, you copy?" She said through radio, making sure David was okay one last time.

"Send traffick, J.J, I hear you."

J.J started to run and turned on her location for them to find. "Hesh was wrong, Rorke isn't dead."

"Excuse you? Repeat that."

"Rorke is alive and he has Logan." She informed as she ran up to the mountain. "I'm following a trail of blood that seem to be his or Logan's, my location is on."

"Don't you even try-"

"We need Logan back, one way or another." She said before cutting the comms and turning off her radio.

J.J kept running for a while until she noticed a figure that was dragging another one. Her blood run cold when she noticed how Logan was already unconscious, then a rage took over when she saw Rorke. Without really thinking, she shoot and the bullet passed near Rorke's head and made him look back.

"Leave him, Rorke!" She shouted with a frown.

"Look at that, the little bird finally opens her wings." He mocked her, raising a gun. "What a shame that you aren't a hunter yet."

Then he shot, and it was so precise that it passed through and through in J.J's leg. She fell to the floor with a scream, and even then, she grabbed her rifle and tried to shoot again. To her surprise, even after the shot he seemed to have, Rorke was quick to leave Logan and get near her.

He kicked her wrist to make her loose the rifle, then grabbed her face to force her to look at him. To his amusement, her eyes were now frozen as she stared at him.

"Now you're just like Mario." He said with a smile, taking her knife form its stash. "What a shame you don't have his experience."

"Mark my words, Rorke. I'll kill you, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do." J.J promised, staring at him with a frown.

"You aren't even a Ghost yet, what can you do to me?" He asked, putting the knife point a bit higher than her eyebrow. "And what makes you think you'll even reach me when I finish with your friend over there?"

J.J's eyes darted to Logan's unconscious form, then back at Rorke, shining of fury. "Don't touch him, you-"

"Keep this as a reminder, I won't kill you and you won't even get near me. That boy will find you first, just like I did with your father."

And right before J.J could even glare at the man, Rorke slashed down her eye. She let out a bloodfreezing scream as her other eye filled with terror and rage, all while the blood ran down her face. Then Rorke leaned to turn on the radio, and immediatly Merrick's voice started to ask for her status.

"Come find her soon, Merrick, before she bleeds out." Rorke said, while he smiled coldly at J.J

"What did you do, Rorke?!" Merrick shouted furious.

Then, with a movement, J.J took out a hidden knife and tried to stab Rorke's face without success. With an angered scowl, he let go of her face, kicked her wrist again and then took his gun, pointing at her.

"Let's make this quicker for me."

"NO-!" Merrick shouted, just before a shot echoed through comms.

J.J screamed in pain as the bullet passed through her shoulder, then Rorke smiled a last time and walked away. All she could see was Rorke grabbing Logan's leg and start dragging him again, all while she tried to crawl to stop them. While her head spinned due to the blood loss, she managed to hear Merrick telling her that Keegan was on his way and that Hesh was evacuated.

She extended a hand towards the distant figure of Rorke and Logan, then the weakness and cold took over her. With a thud, her head fell on the ground and as she panted in pain.

Then, she fell unconscious.

[missin-you-already]

Resident Evil Fic Masterlist

I've been meaning to get around to this. Gonna start posting new fics on here for the hell of it, but also gonna put drafts + the Ao3 links since that's the main place I post at.

[Rain x Alice] – Pre-Extinction (2k) – With the Desert Heat – Since the start of the end, things have not been going Alice's way. It's not that she thinks anybody else who survived has it much better. Or that there isn't a part of her that thinks she deserves it.

[J.D. & Rain + Rain x Alice] – Post-Resident Evil (2k) – Turning, Turning – Is getting a peaceful night of shuteye seriously too much to ask for?

[Bad Rain x Bad Alice] – Pre-Retribution (<1k) – I've Leave With You (Someday Soon) – Rain often finds herself thinking about the world outside the walls of Umbrella Prime.

[J.D. & Rain] – Resident Evil (>1k) – Right Between the Eyes; Over the Shoulder – All she can hear is his agonizing screams, the pleading repetition of her name as his hand slipped out of hers.

[Rain x Alice] – Retribution (3k) – Where've You Been? – It seems a lot of time has passed since that nightmarish night in the Hive, which feels like only yesterday to Rain. What the hell is going on?

[Alice & Kaplan & Rain & Matt] – Afterlife (3k) – Unexpected Reunion – After one hundred and twenty-seven days with no signs of life, Alice finally came across something of interest.

[Rain x Alice] – Post-Resident Evil (<1k) – Glad You're Here – Sleep is never something that Alice looks forward to.

[Bad Rain x Alice] – Post-The Final Chapter (>5k) – You and Her (Me?) – Rain doesn't understand Alice. She doesn't understand any of this shit.

[Rain x Alice + J.D. & Rain] – Pre-Resident Evil (>2k) – Remember Us – Rain already knew Alice's name before the whole shitshow began. Alice knew hers. Both of them were quite familiar with each other, actually. Well. More than familiar. They were close. They had something. Not that anyone would know.

[Rain x Alice] – The Final Chapter (<1k) – Before I Go – It's been nearly a decade, and Alice still finds herself thinking of Rain. Maybe in another life, fate was kinder to them. Maybe things didn't start and end here for both of them.

[Good Rain x Suburban Alice + Good Rain x Alice + Good Rain & Becky & Suburban Alice + Alice & Becky] – Retribution (>5k) – For You, Anything – Rain feared that her wife and daughter had died in the midst of all this chaos. Thankfully, that's not the case. They're perfectly fine ...In fact, it seems Alice has even had the time to change her hair and clothes, find three burly guys with weapons, and grab some guns...

[Rain x Alice] – Resident Evil (1k) – Still a Chance – There is still a chance. The Red Queen wouldn't say it. She "didn't deal in chance", after all. But that didn't mean there wasn't one. Kaplan fried her, they seem to have lost the monster that killed Alice's asshole ex-boyfriend, and now they just need to get to the train and get the antivirus in time. Whether or not the antivirus would work at this point is up to debate, but overall, chances aren't looking too bad. That's what Alice keeps saying. Rain wishes she could believe her.

[Rain x Alice] – Extinction (>1k) – At the End of the World, I'll Stick By Your Side – Alice has been on her own for years now. She felt it was a necessity. That doesn't mean she isn't a little sick of it, though. More than a little.

[Rain x Alice + Good Rain x Alice + Bad Rain x Alice] – Retribution (2k) – It's Like You Never Left Me – Alice is no stranger to danger. At this point, she comes close to dying on an almost daily basis. Some brushes are closer than others; occasionally, it's less of a "close brush" because she does die. She's used to it, though. That's not the hard part anymore. "Just when I think there's no more shit left to hit the fan... you always find your way back here." It's coming back. "It's not so bad. I get to see you again."

[Bad Rain x Alice + Good Rain x Alice] – Post-Retribution (<500) – Content in the Downpour – It feels like a dream. Pure bliss up in the clouds. Being in Rain's arms. Having Rain in her arms. She can almost ignore how they hate each other.

In Progress...

[Rain x Alice] – Retribution (4k+) – Day In and Day Out – It was long ago that Rain lost hope. Spending day in and day out being forced to work for the same scumbags that started the whole mess with the virus, having to constantly look at the faces of people you've lost in the form of clones, having zero control over your body but a clear view of what you're doing... It's hell.

[Gen + Rain x Alice + Past J.D. & Rain + Past Spence x Alice] – Resident Evil, Apocalypse, post-Apocalypse (48k+) – Burning Up – Something wasn't right. If Rain had finally turned, if she was dead, then why was she still aware? Why could she see herself trying to dig her teeth into Matt's neck, desperate to tear open the flesh?

Pending drafts...

This is partially for me to get poked about finishing shit, and partially for me to actually keep track of my fic ideas because my past attempts haven't worked :^)

[Claire x Alice] – Afterlife – When those crows pop out of the plane and scare Alice before Feral!Claire jumps her, instead of that happening, Alice finds Claire mutated into an avian monstrosity that tries to attack her.

[Jill x Rain] – Retribution – Bad Rain is just OG Rain controlled by a Scarab like Jill. They both break free of the Red Queen's control and escape Umbrella Prime together (in a gay way).

[Gen] – Apocalypse – Matt and Rain and Kaplan mutate into mysterious monsters that stalk Alice in RC.

[Claire x Alice x Rain] – Extinction – Rain already joined the convoy and started dating Claire before Alice shows up. She's still into Alice, though, and Claire quickly catches on, which eventually leads to her also catching feelings for Alice.

[Rain x Alice] – Resident Evil – Time travel bullshit. So like, at the end of Apocalypse where Alice straight up dies? She wakes back up during the first film when that tank explodes, knocking her and Matt to the floor. She remembers the destruction of RC, remembers everybody dying or turning and has a chance to try and change how things end.

[Rain x Alice] – Extinction – Rain's DNA ends up being what creates the Super Undead. When Alice goes down to find Isaacs, she finds Rain imprisoned in a glass cage in a semi-zombified state.

[Bad Rain x Alice] – Retribution (kinda) – Alice gets captured by Umbrella. Rain is in charge of transporting her and they end up bonding during the long journey, resulting in Rain refusing to hand Alice over like she's meant to.

[Party Dress Rain x Alice] – Retribution – "Party Dress Rain" is the third Rain clone that didn't end up in the final cut. When she runs up on Alice and Ada, she's not a zombie, she's still alive... but infected.

[Good Rain x Alice + Good Rain & Becky] – Post-Retribution – Alice's attempt to save Becky and Rain takes a little too long. They end up separated from the strike team and miss the choppers, leaving them to get out of Kamchatka on their own.

[Rain(?) & Alice & Becky] – Retribution – Y'know that room full of racks of clones? When the Uber Licker shows up again, one of the Rain clones unknowingly gets knocked down. Without any of the memory imprints or programming Umbrella would typically give a clone, the Rain just kinda starts following them around and Alice... doesn't know what to do.

[Alice & Rain & Kaplan & Matt] – Resident Evil – EXTRA bad ending where the case with the virus/antivirus falls through the doors with the burning licker, and none of them make it to the doors before they seal.

[Rain x Alice] – AU – They're all motorcycle street racers and Alice is the mysterious, talented new chick who starts getting Rain all worked up and extra competitive. That's it.

[Kaplan & Rain] – Resident Evil – Kaplan encounters zombified Rain.

[sniffanimal]

Salt the Earth... it is poetry to me

Salt the Earth is a story idk what to do with but basically it's about this group of 5 people and a chicken who are all trying to get to the Southwest US from the PNW as some sort of lichen mutation virus thing causes all plants, fungi, and algea to grow unreasonably large and out of control and maybe dangerous? They figure the desert is the safest place for them (maybe). But the journey is hard especially when you just have a golf cart. I kind of wanted to explore themes of personal growth and returning home after changing as a person through it. It came about because I realized I hadn't written any sort of extremely personal works lol. I think I planned on just having it be something I do VisDev for and never write, though I think it would make an interesting animated series or something if it became a thing.

Salting the earth is a historical practice/metaphor for preventing things from regrowing after being conquered. I kinda wanted to invoke it as a title for making things uninhabitable, somewhere between knocking down a house and burning a bridge.

My WIP document for it just has some character bullet points in it that were a little vague so I'll expand on them here:

Cricket (they/them; on top of the golf cart) is the protagonist of sorts. They're from Arizona and are trying to get back to their family there. They've been away from home for a long time, since they were a young preteen, and have no idea what to expect, and how their family will receive them. They like bugs and are outdoorsy in general.

Hau (he/him, driving) is ferrying these youngin's on his way back to New Mexico, where his daughter lives. He's been kinda nomadic the last few decades, and not really in her life, but since the world is ending he's decided to make some changes. He's upbeat and a little silly and also has every disease ever. The chicken, Hattie (she/her) is his, a show chicken who is remarkably intelligent. For a chicken. He calls Hattie his daughter and it's really obvious she's a metaphor for his real daughter.

Raelynne-Brooklynn "Ray" Holdfast (she/they? it's complicated; passenger seat) left Utah the second she turned 17, getting legally emancipated. She immediately moved to Seattle, dying her hair, getting piercings, slutting it up. Her family was part of a small fundamentalist christian sect, and were family vloggers. Now that the world is ending she wants to go back and save her little brothers (twin 9 year olds) and bring them to Arizona with Cricket's family. Yes that's probably kind of kidnapping but who cares, her parents will find a way to get content out of it anyways. Her and Cricket are in wuv

Laurie (she/her, glasses back seat) is a biologist researching what the fuck is going on. She's trying to find the border of the incident, and study it's spread. She's also studying her boyfriend, Aiden, who was consumed by the fungus itself. She's processing leaving her home behind, potentially never to return. Her and Aiden are t4t and through them I want to explore personal change from that angle as well.

Cordy, previously known as Aiden (they/he/it, asleep in the backseat) is a human that is being puppeted by a sentient fungal hivemind. Its unable to infect the rest of the party since they're all on a potent antifungal medication, but it doesn't seem too interested in spreading to them anyways. It's a little sluggish and spacey, but particularly good at problem solving and also doesn't seem to ever lie. Also it makes better music than Aiden ever did. Cordy refers to Aiden's body as 'home', which unnerves everyone except Laurie, somehow. Aiden's still in there, she thinks, and hopes he's at home too.

That's about it, idk where to go with them, i don't really have any major plot beats planned out, but tonally I feel like it's between Scavengers Reign and Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts.

[theragamuffininitiative]

1, 14, 27, 49, 71, 87

Tash I adore you.

1. The Sun Will Rise Over the Year by Roo Panes (😉the wink is bc anybody who is connected to me in discord must have seen that as my status at some point because it was there for months on end, but for good reason. Released in 2020, but I found it later, it's a song about hoping even when there's no immediately accessible reason to hope, because the sun will rise "and maybe you'll be surprised." The line "so you take it to the streets, sing it to the empty seats" I'm sure is deeper coming from a recording artist who has probably dealt with a lot of empty seats, but hearing it as this idea of you have to keep going, keep hoping, even if no one is there hoping with you, even if no one sees or hears you... it just hits, ya know?)

14. Stay/Wander by Handsome and Gretel (this one enters the area of countryfolk flavor I tend to abandon ship on but the lyrics got me. "If I could fly, would I keep walking?" is the primary driving theme to the song, and it's a question I ask myself on the daily. The answer is, it's probably a good thing I can't fly. The feeling of being torn between leaving and staying is one I have been wrestling with for all my life, and particularly the last couple years.)

27. In Bloom by Jon Foreman with Joy Oladokun (🥺 Talked about this one a little in another ask, but this whole album by Jon Foreman is yet another goldmine from him. The haunting sort of quality to the vocals lends so strongly to the ideas Jon is wrestling with, "my broken history decomposes, but it's the part of me that's pushing up roses, I'm a desert in bloom." I was always an occasional Switchfoot fan growing up, well, after I got past the family hangup of "they're only kind of a Christian band, le gasp" lol, but the older I get, the more I appreciate Jon's music in all its forms. He has such a strong spirit but his songs are equally capable of wrapping around you like a warm blanket, and he's not afraid of saying hard things in forthright ways that make them beautiful: "Let the hard times make me wiser, our failure's fertilizer for the flowers on my tomb, I'm a desert in bloom.")

49. Alive by Needtobreathe (I mean. This song effortlessly grabs you and says "hey, remember when you were a kid and you would run down a hill and you couldn't breathe and you might fall but all you could do was keep running? yeah this song is that" in an incredibly obvious way but it works, it works so gosh dang well. One of the Best songs to shout-sing along with at their concerts. "We are children chasing wondrous thrills, chasing a vision baby like we're running down hill... These hills take longer than we think to get down, so I'll get used to running with my feet off the ground." And! Gang vocals! Needtobreathe at their best, imho. I love this band so gosh dang much.)

71. Disaster Hearts by I Fight Dragons (always makes me think of tick tick boom when I listen to it... I don't actually have much to add to that. Watch tick tick boom on Netflix and cry, and then come and listen to this song and uh cry some more? 10/10 recommend the experience. XD I love the simple piano, the bits of techno(?) music, and then the strings coming in. This reminds me I need to investigate listening to more of their music soon.)

87. The Boat by Tin Sparrow (a bit melancholy but i love it, and I did talk about it a little in another ask. this was one of the last additions to the playlist so it is still marinating there a bit lol but I love the lyrics, I love that driving melody of the instrumentation between the phrases too.)

😊

[butterflydm]

wheel of time s2 trailer

First: Aaah!

Okay, spoilers below -- casting spoilers and what we know about S2 and spoilers through The Dragon Reborn in the books.

First impression is that everything looks amazing and I am so excited! But before I watch anyone else's reactions, I want to break my thoughts down for myself on what all the moments that we saw might mean:

okay, first: I love this song (Control) and this edit of it is very haunting and good. Nice choice, really works.

We open with Moiraine in Foregate (looking for Rand, I assume). In her severe and fancy Cairhiein duds. "Everyone has a choice."

So it looks like Moiraine and Rand are going to make a stop at Tar Valon/the White Tower? Because there's this shot here of a blue dress in the White Tower. We see later in the trailer that Rand is in his fancy clothes when he's here, so it would be later in the season -- would it be after the girls have already left/been tricked to leave or are we going to get a Rand-Egwene-Nynaeve reunion (Randlayne meeting? Cauthor reunion?).

Moiraine being Sad in the bath -- heartbreaking but we already saw part of this in the teaser, so I'll move on. "And every choice has a consequence."

Rand in a desert-y area in his Fancy Clothes, so this is maybe their approach to Falme?

"We didn't defeat the Dark One; we set him free." Heartbreaking! I mean, I already knew that, but poor Moiraine. We have her hiding from a Fade. I think this might have been in the trailer too.

Ishy looks good. And he disappears real fast. In TAR or was he using something spoilery there that only he at this point has access to?

We have Egwene in an underground chamber doing some weaves. Is she being watched by Liandrin or is that a deceptive cut to Liandrin there?

Brief look at the Darkfriend social. "No one should have that much power."

Nynaeve looking at Alanna, I think. This was in the teaser photos that were released yesterday. Working in the kitchens. Since Alanna maybe doesn't know anything about Rand at this point (maybe...) then she might be being nosy about Nynaeve specifically.

Ishy doing some channeling (air?). And we get a more full introduction to probably-Lanfear coming out of her blood pool vibes.

Seanchan attacking a poor village via the damane. Might be when Perrin & co encounter them?

13. A door being opened up. A vault/secured door of some kind? Ah, it looks like it's the entrance to the Testing chamber and this is probably when Nynaeve is doing her Accepted testing.

14. Perrin riding down a mountain -- this was in the teaser trailer. But he looks good!

15. "Together we face the impossible. But now we're in our separate corners of the world." Rand protectively cuddles Lanfear, likely going by the name Selene. Looks like he's still in more rough traveling clothes at this point and not in his fancy clothes yet. VERY INTRIGUED by Selene wearing blue and not white. Deliberately linking her to Moiraine?

16. Rand walks down a hallway.

17. Lightning lights up a city and Lan rides on a horse in the dark. "Protecting Rand, guiding him, that is the only thing that matters!" Moiraine says to Lan, and we cut to Siuan in her fancy clothes saying, "You can't control him." Talking to Moiraine?

18. Rand wakes up maybe? Already using the Power (fire?). Is this the same scene where he pushes Moiraine up against a wall? Guessing it's after he's separated from 'Selene'.

19. Perrin looking a wolf. "You know you have something inside you." Sounds like they might do some paralleling with Perrin-wolfbrother and Rand-channeler.

20. Rand (air helping him?) pushes Moiraine up against a wall, looking kinda angry.

21. Egwene captured. You can see what a fight she put up. Her cheek is very bloody and her eyes are bloodshot too.

22. Nynaeve is in her shift, covered in blood. Part of the Accepted test?

23. Mat is staring at the dagger. Dagger is on a fancy table, Mat is still in his Two Rivers clothes. He feels the temptation. Is this part of what happens in his plotline with Liandrin? "Something that calls for blood." Yeah, they're connecting all the Emond's Field mains with this idea in the trailer.

24. "I want to know how to control it," Rand says, and we see the Power swirling around him (I don't see the taint -- is Lanfear channeling here?) as Lanfear stands behind him. He's just in a simple shirt, so I think it's earlier in the season.

25. Rand is talking to Logain here, which another sign that Rand is going to be in the White Tower, since that's where Logain is being kept prisoner. Both of them are wearing blue.

26. "The Last Battle's coming," Moiraine says, as we look at the Seanchan dominating a village and forcing them down. We can see Suroth up on a huge platform (mobile throne) and then we get a close-up to see that she's hanging with Ishy and her Voice. The Seanchan design that the show came up with is AMAZING. I've said it before and I'm sure that I'll say it again.

27. Turak opens the box holding the Horn of Valere (though we don't see the Horn yet) and says, "The whole world will be ours". Interestingly, he's not wearing the face mask but he definitely has the nails.

28. The Seanchan attack Egwene & Elayne via damane. I can't tell here if Egwene has been captured and that's what her look of defiance is about or if she's still fighting back at this point. It looks like a burst of power comes from here, so this could be her fighting back.

29. There's an explosion but it looks like this is a Nynaeve scene -- she's back to wearing Two Rivers clothes so I'm guessing this is part of her Testing. Yeah, the style of the building looks like it matches the Two Rivers.

30. Whitecloaks riding horses fades to Liandrin (in the White Tower) looks at... is that the place they melt old & reforge new Aes Sedai rings?

31. Perrin plays with a little girl. Maybe a cute moment before the Seanchan arrive?

32. Siuaraine kiss! Both of them wearing blue. Reunion in the White Tower (when she brings Rand?) or a flashback? Siuan looks very casual here.

33. Egwene hugs Nynaeve. It looks like Egwene is already dressed in her novice whites while Nynaeve is still wearing Two Rivers clothes.

34. More of Nynaeve's Accepted Testing.

35. "If our friends are in trouble why would I ever stay here." Egwene is talking to Elayne, who looks a bit dusty and thoughtful.

36. Moiraine strides out of a doorway. We get the "no conception of the power they wield", which was in the teaser. Brief shot of Lan on his horse, then we hear him say, "You can't do this by yourself."

27. Aviendha veiling up and fighting some Whitecloaks! Perrin is there. Guessing this is when he/we first meet her.

28. "There are many paths to walk through the night," Moiraine says. I think that's a shot of Liandrin (maybe going to meet Fain?).

29. "It's not always the most powerful who write history," we hear over a shot of shirtless Rand.

30. Nynaeve comes back through the Testing Doorway, covered in blood.

31. Perrin killing a Whitecloak with white hair.

32. Egwene screaming in the damane collar.

33. Rand bound to the wheel in the desert (almost certainly TAR).

34. "It's the ones who survive". And we see here that this is Liandrin speaking.

35. Rand in a plaza in Falme! Fancy clothes partially hidden under a cloak, sword on his back. Looks like this is his confrontation with Turak. We hear him say, "I'm tried of being a spoke in the wheel."

36. We get a pull-out shot of him in the desert on the wheel and it looks like he has an audience, someone in front of him. Maybe Ishy? It pulls away much too fast for me to see.

37. Rand runs someone through with a sword of fire, it looks like? Mat stabs someone (still in his Two Rivers clothes). Is that a regular spear that he's using? There's an explosion -- in Falme? Or in Cairhien?

38. "You're not a spoke, boy," Siuan says to Rand (!). Are they in Tar Valon or did Siuan come to Cairhien? I am not certain from the trailer. There are certain things that indicate they go to Tar Valon but nothing definitive, I think? So it could be that Siuan comes to Cairhien. Because that earlier Siuaraine scene could be when she's dropping off Egwene & Nynaeve or it could be a flashback. "You are the water that turns the Wheel itself."

Wow that was a lot! Okay, I'm going to see what other people think now.