#Because I like explodies

[dragonner0]

Leshy - an Understanding

He hadn't quite had the time to think about it, but now he realized. He was near-enough invulnerable to any conventional means of war with his cataphract armor, his footsteps thundered in his wake, he could cut through most light armor with the Champion sword at his hip, and now, he could finally see again. He felt amazing, but there was a part of him that whispered something he couldn't quite discern.

Leshy felt like a god again, and yet something was missing. But what?

He was contemplating that question when he was approached by Emanuel. "May I sit here?" He asked, gesturing to the seat Leshy's legs covered.

Leshy hummed, then grunted and shifted so that he was sitting upright. "Seat's open," he said.

Emanuel didn't like him. He knew that. They tolerated each other, if only because there were only eleven or so people in their settlement, but the fire-loving yellow cat would much rather sit with someone other than Leshy, if the other couch cushions weren't bein replaced after a mold problem. He'd never said why. To be fair, one could easily infer.

Emanuel opened his book, the title reading simply "the Kindly Panda" at the top of a simple cover. There were several bookmarks in it, Emanuel's being a fiery orange-yellow at about the halfway mark.

"Is it good?" Leshy asked absentmindedly. His own bookmark was sitting in one of the tomes on the bookshelf, but he really wasn't a big reader. The tomes were weird, anyways.

Emanuel didn't answer for a second, but eventually said, "it's the best we've got. Which isn't much."

Leshy merely hummed, tapping his foot lightly. The two of them were silent for a long time, then a lifter rolled up next to Emanuel and set a small note in his lap. The worm apparently didn't get to see what the note said, but he was pretty sure he saw a list and some coordinates.

Whatever it was, Emanuel sighed in annoyance and put his bookmark back in the book. "The one time I get to rest," he said, patting the small mechanoid as he stood. "Oh no, we can't just make some vegetarian meals for a while, no. We need to get meat and keep hunting and never stop, not even when we're exhausted, because we're out of steel and we're-"

"Would you like a companion?"

Emanuel stopped in the middle of his spiel. "I- you're offering to accompany me?" He asked, staring bewildered at the worm.

Leshy shrugged. "I don't have much else to do."

Emanuel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, of course you don't. Why would you. You're our friendly neighborhood cataphract, of course."

"I have a champion sword," Leshy offered, patting the grip at his waist. "Plus, a fresh extra pair of eyes has to count for something, doesn't it?"

Emanuel stared for a few seconds, then sighed. "Let me get my gun first. Then you can go mess around in the snow with your blasted sword."

>---

As it turns out, giving a man a sword that can cut through nearly anything without substantial armor is a great way to keep them from shutting up. This was sis fifth - or perhaps it was sixth - time asking Emanuel if he could just run in and use his sword.

"For the last time, no," the yellow cat said, exhausted already. "Your big, heated sword will probably burn up all the good meat. I, on the other hand, intend to be precise with my shots."

"Yes, because your exploding gyrojets will be so much better at preserving your game's condition," Leshy teased, grinning beneath his helmet.

"I have accuracy and well-laid traps on my side," Emanuel said in return, focusing back in on the sights of his LMG. "Gyrojets are instant and deadly, unlike your sword, and I can know exactly how it will affect the victim." As he said that, he let loose a couple rounds, three of which sent wood chips and soil scattered along the snow, and the fourth went straight into it's target - a stallion - exploding in its chest.

"My, such good preservation of meat," Leshy mocked when the sound of small explosions stopped echoing between the mountains. "We could definitely salvage... a couple legs from that. So long as Heket remembers her centuries of practice butchering, at least."

Emanuel growled, but stood to collect his kill anyways. "I was trying to scare it further into the trees," he said, slinging his weapon around his back. "Every time I want to hit something I barely hit my mark, but the moment I'm not shooting to kill... lamb damn it."

"I would've done better with a sword," Leshy mused.

That was Emanuel's snapping point. "Oh, well I'm sorry big guy, but I don't know if you noticed, but I'm the one hunting and you are the one who decided to stick along, so could you please either-" He stopped for a moment. "Actually, why am I offering you to stay? Go back to the temple, worm. And stay there."

"Eh, the temple's noisy," Leshy said simply. "I prefer it out here."

"I did not offer you to go back I told you," Emanuel hissed. "Go do- whatever. I don't care."

Leshy, of course, couldn't quite do whatever. Since Andrea, Damios, Yocum, and Rozzie were all out doing something-or-other in the Mule, they didn't have any new work being qued up, and the hydroponics farming was all that survived for winter. All that needed harvesting was the cotton, for which they happened to have an Agrihand. The last thing that Leshy wanted to do with his new sight was operate some drill or carve stone chunks in the quarry, especially since they also had a Tunneler named "Mr. Krabs" specifically for that.

He, of course, summed all that up as "I'd rather stay."

Emanuel simply hissed, before turning sharply and trudging through the snow to claim her kill. Leshy followed, finding it much easier given his attire weighed several times as much as he did. "Go find the rest of the stallions, and don't talk to me," he growled, kneeling just outside the puddle of blood and burned gore that sank into the snow.

Leshy frowned, but listened to the cat nonetheless. Annoying people was fun, especially getting people to start a fight with him, but for some reason, it felt... different with Emanuel. Sure, it felt different with his siblings and the Lamb, but he understood why. Everyone else usually just ignored it for the most part, which was fair, and he gave them all space.

So why does Emanuel feel different?

Rather than focusing on the odd feeling, which meant tucking it away into a far corner of his mind, and instead stopped to listen for the sounds of hooves on the snow. They would be muffled by the snow, but after more than a millennium of blindness, he had learned to pick up on far softer sounds.

There was a bird somewhere, singing its rather serene song. His branch-like antlers twitched as a gust of wind rattled a few leafless trees, and somewhere he heard a loose branch fall.

He heard something running. Something big - a muffalo or a bear, if he had to guess. Maybe it was chasing Emanuel's game.

...

It was getting closer. Not to him, but to the still-in-the-open Emanuel. He whirled around on the spot and saw that Emanuel had perked up, his ears swiveling as he listened to probably the same thing as Leshy.

Then he jumped up and yelled "Shit!" as he scrambled to get out his gun, only for a maddened megasloth to headbutt him to the ground before he could get his first shots off.

Leshy, being quick to respond, charged at the large mammal, his hand going to the hilt of his sword and swinging it at the attacker, the not-yet-solidified living metal leaving a deep gash on its arm. Rather than focus on him, however, it bit into Emanuel's ankle and thrashed, somehow not quite managing to rip the foot off. As its head swung toward Leshy, the worm quickly brought down his now-solid sword on its neck, cutting through the spinal cord. As the body collapsed, lifeless, he passed the blade to his off hand and wedged his foot between the creatures jaws, using his and his free hand to pull them open.

Emanuel's foot... had seen better days. Leshy was sure that, even with Glitterworld medicine, he'd need a prosthetic. He'd live, despite his swearing.

But there were two megasloths in the area. Leshy was violently reminded of that when a two-ton beast tackled him, sending them both rolling into a deep ditch, his sword lost in the process.

With little else to do, Leshy punched at the creature, but Scaria wouldn't let the animal stop, even as his bionic arm broke its rib.

He thought for a moment that he'd be killed there, once it managed to dig its claws in his devilstrand fabric. Pain sprang up in the side of his head as one of his antlers was snapped. He thought he saw something moving at the top of the ditch, before a large paw blocked his sight.

Then he heard gunshots, and he was showered in deep red. The megasloth went still, noticeably lighter than it had been originally. After a moment, he heard Emanuel call down, "Leshy? Fuck, I didn't hit you did I?"

Slowly, Leshy heaved the animal corpse off of himself and got into a sitting position, looking up at the yellow cat. Then he began to laugh as the adrenaline in his system did its work.

"Stop laughing!" Emanuel called down. "I need - fuck, I need help! I-I'm sorry for earlier but- fucking Lamb, my leg!"

Leshy found it quite hard to stop laughing, despite the circumstances.

>---

...

...

Watching Emanuel was boring.

The cat did nothing but read, really. Sometimes he said something, sometimes not. Leshy tried to get him to play a game, no budge. So then he tried getting some spare Smokeleaf(even though Kallamar would probably be very angry to learn his brother got his patient high), just for a reaction, but still almost nothing.

And yet he kept coming back. He didn't know why, it wasn't like Kallamar would have any other patients, but Leshy was almost always with Emanuel.

The only word he got came lust before his injured leg was going to be replaced by the bionic one Lambert got off a caravan.

"Thank you," he said. "For saving me. I just wanted to say that before I went under."

Leshy nodded. "Your welcome," he responded. "I guess you owe me one."

"We're even, at best," Emanuel said before he took his anesthetic. A few seconds of silence passed before Emanuel asked, "what exactly does it feel like... having a bionic limb?"

Leshy thought for a long moment, rolling his mechanical arm and feeling the servos twitch and flex. "It's like... having a part of you that isn't a part of you, I guess. It's... not exactly something I can describe."

Emanuel hummed. "Well, I guess we'll see."

Leshy nodded again, then stood. "I should go. The healroot needs harvesting," he said, despite it already being hours after he perhaps should have gone to harvest it.

There that same feeling was. He still couldn't quite figure out what it was, but Emanuel had something to do with it. Curious. He'd have to ask Shamura about it sometime.

[homoquartz]

shoutout to lae'zel for being the only companion (it appears) that's just a dude. no weird secret contracts with demons n shit.

[dxrksong]

Jason 13 au

PLOT WITH MEMES

-----

Jason: you ever have that moment where you're relaxing on a rooftop with a nice cup of tea.

Jason: and then you get kidnapped by your reanimated bicycle from the GZ?

Danny, desperately trying to steer: NOT HELPING JOHNNY!!!!!

Jason: I know.

The Bike: :)

------‐---

Jason: so what the hell am I supposed to do with zom?

Danny: considering they're the only thing keeping you alive rn? Not much

Jason: how the hell-right right, acting as a vein system....

Danny: in theory if you do manage to absorb the blob ghost, you won't have to deal with the rage anymore? That's a plus right?

Jason: I know we use them as snacks sometimes but they're also PETS, phantom!

Danny: wait, you're keeping it?

Jason: CaN YoU NoT SaY It lIkE ThAt?!

--------

Constantine: what the fuck......*walks out*

BatMan: ???

Constantine: Manor's haunted.

Bruce: *cocks gun* always has been

Constantine: WTF?!

Batman: yes?? I know??

Constantine: byyyeeee

Batman: Constantine get back here!

--------

Jason: shit. Goin' ghost! Damn you kid, for infecting me with your stupid phrase! *transforms*

Kon, Jon, and Superman: *physical and visual distress as they immediately scramble out of their chairs*

Jason: ??? What's wrong with you??

Jon: YOUR HEART JUST STOPPED!!!!

Jason: oh. OOH! Yeah, it does that.

Superfam: *visible distress and confusion*

-------

Danny @ Jack with a little dance: you are my daaaaaad YOU'RE MY DAD!! Boogie woogie woogie!

Jack: AWWWW DANNO!!! *shamelessly shedding tears* IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE YOU'VE MADE LITTLE JINGLES FOR US!!!

Jason:

Jason: hmm

[Later]

Jason: *slides into the batcave*

BatKids: ??

Jason: *DEEP INHALE*

Jason, trying to mimic Danny's dance: YOU ARE MY DAAAAD! YOU'RE MY DAD!! BOOGIE WOOGIE WOOGIE!!!!!

Batkids:

BatMan:

Batman: "Dad.....?"

-------

Batman: check out how hard I can cry! SUSHAUAABSIDBESJDDKEDB

[Note. May or may not be immediately after the previous meme]

--------

Danny: *dies screaming*

Also Danny: *screm powers*

Jason: *died in explosion*

Also Jason: *Explody powers*

-------

Jason: say hello to my BOOM STICK!!!!

The boom stick is a ghost glock. Jason can imbue it with his powers to make the targets explode upon impact.

-----------

Gotham:

Jason:

Gotham: *starts crying*

Jason: SHIT-Gothi, what's wrong?!

Gotham: Why must you grow up??! Why can't you stay my little birdy!

Jason:

Jason: look just because I said you don't have to mother me, doesn't mean-

Gotham: MY BABY DOESN'T LOVE ME ANYMOOOORE!

---------

Jason: *gets hurt*

Shades: so you've chosen death

--------

Duke: shit, we're cornered!

Jason: don't worry, I got this! *High pitched scream*

Shades: *come rushing in to defend the baby*

Duke: WHAT THE-

Jason: relax, they're friendly.

Duke: I'm talking about how fucking girly that scream was J-*gets elbowed in the ribs*

Jason: You sure your name ain't Dick? Cuz you're sure acting like one!

---------

Bike: *in batcave*

Also Bike: *suddenly in the dining room, just sitting there*

Damien: ?!

--------

Damien: Todd, can you not leave your bike in random places in the house?! It's annoying!

Jason: my bike?? Oh, OH! That's just squishy, he moves on his own time.

Damien: are you saying your bike is alive Todd? Tt do you mistake me for an idiot?

Jason: why don't you ask the bike then?

Bike: *beeps*

Damien: *jumps 5ft into the air*

----------

Dick: Jason, we need to talk.

Jason: *sigh* fine, I admit, I put him in the nicu, but he deserved it!

Dick: what?! No, I mean about your bike! What the hell are you talking about?!

Jason: ooh! Nevermind then, carry on!

Dick: Jason, this conversation isn't over.

Jason: jeez, you're starting to sound like Bruce, just tell me what you wanted!

Dick: your bike is crying.

Bike: *just realized it was stuck like this*

Jason: ?! Squishy?! *runs off*

[shieldofiron]

Eddie and Jason have a very healthy and hot relationship in the bedroom right? But Jason is a little annoyed because Eddie won't do innocent pda. Hold my hand? What? No, I'm smoking. Tries to put arm around Eddie's shoulder, is shaken off as a joke.

"It just feels like you only want sex."

"Babe, I love you."

"Then what the hell?"

Later Jason will complain to Chrissy who tells him what she thinks.

"Thats dumb. You've accidentally walked in on us enough to know he isn't shy."

"I'm telling you, he is. No one that brazen can take cuteness without exploding from it. You make Eddie all...explody."

"..."

Jason surprise holds Eddie's hands, their fingers lacing together and watches as deep red crawls up from Eddie's chest up his face to his ears.

"Oh my God."

"Shut up."

"OH MY GOD"

"Stop!"

Kisses the tip pf Eddie's nose just to be sure and gets a fluster, shy eyed, stuttering Eddie.

"You are shy!"

"N-no I'm not! Maybe it's my love for you, huh, you punk? Ever think of how happy you make me and thats why I'm all like this?"

"So if I gave you a peck on the chin and hugged you right now?"

"Dont you dare. I have a reputation, babe. I gotta be dirty not...this."

Chrissy, watching from the sidelines with an unimpressed Billy, giggles.

"They're so cute."

"They're so stupid, you mean. All this time, all those dirty little things Munson does to Carver and a little hand holding and a kiss on the nose does him in?"

"Hey Billy? Are you shy?"

"N-"

Steve, overhearing, winks at Billy causing him to turn bashful.

Chrissy smiles brightly

"Aww"

Billy groans.

"Stop."

All the boys in Chrissys life except for Steve and Jason are shy beans and I think thats adorable.

Jason force feeding Eddie PDA that he can barely handle is sooo real @oopsiedaisiesbaby are you seeing this???

[claypigeonpottery]

I'm sorry to hear about your explody & injured pieces :c

If it's ok to ask, do you know what likely caused the pottery to explode? I think i know a couple of the basic causes (i'm not a potter myself, i just like knowing stuff) but i'm sure you're plenty experienced enough to not make a hollow sealed piece on purpose, so i guess i'm just wanting to get a better idea of more subtle accidental causes of this, if you happen to know.

I'm glad most of your pieces survived though, and that you were still able to share photos of the un-fired pieces with us!

thanks, the anguish is lessening lol. having pictures of them does help. and I’ll be recreating all four of them over the next couple months.

the reason they exploded was because they were slightly damp in the centre. the water in the clay expands so fast as it turns to steam that the clay literally explodes.

and, fun fact, you can make a hollow sealed piece and fire it safely. I’ve seen someone make and fire a hollow sphere. but that’s a very common misconception. my first pottery teacher taught me that, and I didn’t learn it was false for a few years.

[midwesternvibes]

Hi! Love your One Jump au is so interesting!!! If you don't mind, I'll ask some questions ... Please feel free to not answered them if you're not in the mood ... So, is Leo like street smart? Those he still goes to Run of the mill? How Splinter, Big mama and Draxum found out the others are alive? How is the dynamic between the brothers?

OOO ONE JUMP I haven't thought about these guys in a while I miss them.... (I'm gonna divide these by question lol)

(Also cut because I cannot summarize for the life of me lol)

Is Leo street smart?

Yep! The name "One Jump" is actually after the song in Aladdin, so think of him very much like Aladdin! He's gotta steal to eat, gotta eat to live, he'll tell ya all about it when he's got the time! All jokes aside though, he's very street smart. He's all but been raised by the streets, so he quite literally knows the Hidden City like it's his own home. He knows all the vendors by name, and they know him. Whether or not they *like* him is an entirely different story......

2. Does he still go to Run of the Mill?

He used to. I'll leave it at that 🩵

3. How did the adults find out each other were alive?

In a different post I talked aboit how Raph got sick and needed to come down to the Hidden City, where he ran off and ran into Mikey (linked here). Big Mama basically saw this lost child who looked eerily like a child she once wanted to raise and took him in. Cue Draxum freakimg out for several days until he realizes that woah, Big Mama is still alive??? He goes knocking on her door and finds her playing tea party with His kid and another litfle turtle who looks just like the kid he wanted to raiss with her.....

Happy reunion all around! Raph and Mikey are excited to move in, and while Raph continues to go to school on the surface world, they still hang out all the time and the adukts are working out some kind of way to get between the surface and Hidddn City easier. Meanwhile, Big Mama and Draxum just keep wondering, well, if they're both alive, and their two kids, then what are the chances of their other two children and partner being alive as well?

4. DYNAMICS! (i live for these kids of questions!)

Raph and Mikey - Bestest of bros! Met each other first, hang out all the time, both prodigies in their fields and love to talk about their interests! Both have a pretty poor perception of safety, so they get into trouble from time to time, but are also pretty good at getting out of it. The silliest of guys, nothing wrong with them at all and I'm sure there's no danger to their relationship on the horizon! : )

Raph and Donnie- Overprotective brother extraordinare. Draxum drilled it into Raph's head growing up that Donnie is a bit squishier than the rest of them, and he kinda internalized that idea that he needs to protect Donnie, even though Donnie is a very capable person and can handle himself! They fight a lot about what is and isn't appropriate for Donnie to be doing, but they really do love each other, and outside of thise fights, they get along really well (especially when Donnie lets Raph help with explody experiments)

Mikey and Donnie- Mikey is just a touch overbearing for Donnie tbh. Donnie's used to being an only child, so Mikey's clunginess is a bit much for him a lot of the time, which drives a bit of a wedge between them. Parallel Play is their favorite thing, they love to just exist together. Mikey also doesn't treat Donnie like he's made of glass, so they like to sneak out and cause mischief and sometimes even solve crimes! They are silly, and their newest crime to solve is who in the world dares to steal from the children of Big Mama, Baron Draxum and Lou Jitsu, they're famous dammit!

Raph and Leo- Leonardo? The fourth turtle? Dad's mentioned him sometimes, but he gets pretty sad when talking about him, so it's best to just not think about lost things!

Mikey and Leo- Who? A slider? Like a sandwich? Now that you mention it, she's pretty hungry, maybe Mama will take Mikey to go get some dinner!

Donnie and Leo- There's a blue spark somewhere, in a place Donnke can only reach when he's truly trying to connect with his ancestors. Maybe a distant cousin? He's not sure, but he's got pressing matters at the moment, don't bother him!

And I think that's it! That was fun, keep asking me questions! If you get specific enough I might answer the more vauge ones better lol, I love secrets!

First // Previous // Next

[elsa-rain-world-stuff]

is Artificer your favorite Slugcat? is there a second favorite one? and why!

(Thanks for reading, love your art <3 :D)

Oh boi oh boi

Yeah Arti is my favorite because of 2 reasons: she reminds me of my other fav character (Undyne Undertale) and, well, ANGST

Yeah, the more angst the character has in their story, the bigger chance that they have to become my favorite

OH AND HEY, WANNA FUNNY THING? So, like, revenge theme was always, like, my thing. I wrote a THREE fanfics in HTTYD fandom with this theme. The first one was Hiccup killing people for Toothless' death, then vise versa, then (really funny) they both killed for each other, thinking that the other was dead. Fun thing that Toothless' style of revenge was similar to Arti's. I mean, kill everyone. No you can't read them (unless you know russian)

Sorry, i got distracted haha

So, you can guess that on the second place i have Hunter and Saint. Yes, both of them. Why Hunter isn't the first place? Weeell... Idk? When character dies, they just die, the end. When character loses someone they love... They get to live and suffer. Yeah. But still, being on a countdown? Angsty enough.

And Saint... Well, i like them mostly for their brainblast power. Yeah, if the character is strong and/or has some cool power i will probably also like them.

On the third place i have Spearmaster, and i should mention them because back in 2021 i thought they would be my favorite. Because that time we already knew many things about Downpour (which wasn't a thing yet, it was just More Slugcats, legendary mod). And there were like few gameplay videos and a whole stream with Spearmaster's campaign. And i remember that the person was told not to go to shoreline because of the massive spoilers (we were like WHY IS TGAT, IS IT BECAUSE MOOOON IS ALIIVEE???) (we were right lol). Instead they went to five pebbles and he ripped out the pearl from SM. And i was like OMG SO CRUEL I LOVE IT LOOK THEY'RE BLEEDING THEY'RE BLEEDING THEY HAVE FUCKING SCAR!!! and i immediately got few headcanons, that after the Wanderer (from Drought mod) failed their mission on bringing the gold pearl to Five Pebbles, SRS was mad so he took another slugcat, modified them without asking, sew a perl in them so they won't lose it and won't give it to Moon and sent to FP. And i was like OMG ANGST MM YUM YUM

And now it turned out that SRS is actually a good guy and actually cares about Spear and it's no fun ☹️ but the pearl episode is still great yum yum yum

Funny thing that about Arti we knew that she is, well, SHE, and that she fights scavs, has explody powers and cant stay underwater. And karma 1 locked. About Saint we knew that they have brain blast powers and were wondering if they gonna have it in the new version or no. Btw, i started shipping Artisaint in that time too. Like, strong, loud killer and weak quiet saint who can't even hold spears.

Oh well. I'm talking for too long now. Thanks for the question i guess 😅

[insomniaruler]

Making my hyperfixations intersect bc I can!

Soooo….. some of the emperors and the Fear I think they’d serve

Scott

S1: The Lonely

- based mostly on aesthetic

- the cold

- died alone

- all his relationships failed kinda-

- rich (was a king)

S2: The Spiral

- once again based on aesthetics alone

- shifting colours

- two tone eyes

- just ✨appears✨

- kinda tragic if you want him to be (like Micheal:()

- gay

Shubble

S1: The Corruption (maybe the End)

- mushrooms and assorted fungi

- once again fucking tragic :(

- spread Xornoth’s corruption

S2: The Hunt (maybe the dark)

- Skulk-by Skulk-by Skulk-by

- easily angered

- seems normal at first

- took her shirt off <3

- lesbians

- in love with their gf / would kill for their partner

Jimmy:

S1: The Vast (or the Lonely)

- the ocean = the vast

- left everything and everyone behind = the lonely

- skrunkly little shit

- weird

- gets killed easily

S2: the End (maybe the Web)

- hnnngggg deaths canary goes brrrrrrr

- get’s killed a lot

- uh- mostly chose bc of the Canary Curse

- The Web because of the Watchers :P

Joel

S1: The Spiral

- colours <3

- was called the mad king

- lost everything because of a couple of decisions outside of his control :(

S2: the web (the stranger has a toe in the door

- mostly because of ‘Fear of change’ because of the fan theory that S1 = S2 joel

- the web because yknow, God

- also puppet Jimmy with Joel at the strings

Pix

S1: The Eye (or the end tbh)

- saw deaths come and go

- smart

- curious

- not much physical strength

- sarcastic

- Seemed to know things he shouldn’t have

- has the capacity for lots of violence (Phantom Assassin)

S2: The Web

- the lore man™️

- Seems to always have a hand in everything

- lots of spiders in the catacombs?



Lizzie

S1: The Vast (maybe the Lonely)

- the ocean

- ate a bit of the ocean = the sky ate my son ?

- alone out there on the ocean

- lots of boats

- almost scary?

S2: The Flesh (maybe not 100 on this one)

- animal

-

Fwhip (right off the bat The Eye because Admin)

S1: the Desolation

- haha funny explody man

- explosions are his jam

- burned his life to the ground

S2: The Buried

- lives underground

- uhhh- affiliated w death bc of Jimmy?

- funky

- can be ignored by sheer force of will alone (Joshua Gillespie my beloved)

[brandwhorestarscream]

Cryptoid Seeker SS courting Megatron by bringing him his enemies (injured from capture, not dead. Still fun to hunt).

I imagine seekers having a specific ritual for non-seeker mates. Maybe zooming around, doing general Arial feats, bring their mates the injured enemies as an offering (similar but dulled down version of the seeker to seeker wing offering)?

Btw, the zooming and offering thing is found in Falcons. That, or they bring them Shiney things. But eh.

I also feel like cybermorphs courting would be super stupid. Like a wasps. Like, sitting on the ground, staring right at their desired mate, making a very specific buzzing sound kind of stupid. That, or maybe something like a white pufferfish (who draws weird geometric patterns in the sand to attract a mate). Imagine both. Megs draws a circle thing, sits in the middle, and stares at SS. That'd be hilarious.

Maybe some hidden horror with some mantis like behaviors? But combined with some wasp behavior, resulting in a bite to the neck cables that numbs the mates senses, making them unaware enough not to hold back? That'd be fragged up.

Or even? Some hidden secret that only seekers get affected in a different way than most. Like, they end up with seeker eggs that hold the cybermorphs eggs inside? And when the eggs do the explody thing, the cybermorphs are the squishy inside, having already combined with the seekerling to make this super parasitic version that makes housing one 10x worse.

Sorry for the long rant. I love the cryptiods.

Do not ever apologize for going on long rants, they genuinely make my day so much better 💖 first of all I love everything you've put here, but BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE!

I need to know more about the seekerling-cybermorph crossover. Tell me everything. Like the inside of the eggs, I wanna know every little detail about it. When you say the explodey thing, do you mean the cryptid seekerlings rupturing from their egg sacs early and seeking host in nearby fuel tanks? Cuz that's not always what happens with them, and is in fact an emergency defense mechanism to maximize survival chance. Usually they just carefully break free of their shells when their development is complete. So, tell me about these eggs, squishy cybermorph filling, I need to know! Gimme every. Single. Detail 👀 cuz like. All my mind is envisioning is like. A two layer egg, whetein the baby cybermorph is the center, kinda like the yolk, and an individual baby seekerling is in the outermembrane, and. Obviously that's not what's happening 😅 but super parasitic babies that are 10 times worse? I need to know!!

Also just, hear me out 👀 I love all these courtship ideas, but I'd like to pitch something to make it even funnier. Cybermorphs are very recent development on Cybertron in the grand scheme of things, and have only been around for a handful of generations (probably less than 5). Megatron is from the very first gen, so consider: even he doesn't entirely understand courtship. It's entirely instinctual and the logical part of him doesn't understand these weird urges. Like... what about this weird vibration/frequency he's giving off is attractive? The weird geometry, why is that considered attractive? He's a stranger to his own biology--the entire planet is, really--and secretly he's rather frustrated and embarrassed about it. He tries to match Starscream's energy, but what can he do for someone that can cross the entire planet in only a few megacycles? He can't just leave his hive and go gallavanting around just to impress the potential sire of his future children. Maybe he turns to tactics and battlefield prowess to impress him; it's a good thing too, because Starscream loves some good bloodshed 🤭

I'm also super down for the numbing bite. Cryptid seekers already spit venom, and the cybermorph biology is largely underdeveloped, so honestly either of them could. Maybe Starscream is venomous, Megatron is poisonous XD maybe he produces some kind of intoxicating pheromone that dulls the senses or hypnotizes, as a queen variant 🤔 or maybe it's a toxic, addictive aphrodisiac? Maybe he can produce multiple varieties! Something that releases inhibitions and makes his partner go hard, fast, and uncaring, with fertilization being the only important thing

Regardless. Terrifying parasitic Megatron and Starscream being fuck buddies that coparent? I love it

[platonicallylovesick]

And now, some excerpts from my watch notes. Spoilers.

Today's victim: Bakugo. I'll highlight the ones that arent just recapping events, from the beginning of the show, to where i am now, partway through season 3.

this is the best pic i have of him rn bear with me

"You don't stand a chance without a quirk🫵😒"

"People look at them and just know they're destined for greatness" Baby, all people see when they look at you is a near miss for FAS be so fr

I know you prolly wanna go to the big leagues hero school to escape your shitty home life or whatever, but honestly take a peek in the mirror, this is what peaking looks like

Kacchan needs to chill tf out. Dude is like 99% rage and 1% confidence. Okay so you moved up ONE GRADE and aren't the coolest bestest ever anymore, but seriously that is why it is a SCHOOL babe, it is for you TO LEARN.

this kid needs like... so much therapy. when tf do we get his backstory because like what the actual hell.

I LOVE and ADORE Bakugo and Kirishima's relationship. He's kinda Kacchan's only friend. He can make himself as hard as a rock with his Quirk, so Kacchan's explosions have no effect on him. In a symbolic sense, his explosive personality doesnt phase him either, he's really the only one who not only tolerates Kacchan, but actively chooses to hang out w/ him. Kirishima drags him to every event and hangout to force him to get some kind of social time with the rest of the class and kinda tempers his rage. Its REALLY REALLY sweet and I love it so much

"I dont care if theyre my classmates, I wanna beat them up so Im the strongest >:(" "Yeah whatever man I love your determination >:)"

"That kid's got spunk!" "He's like a mini version of you." "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! YOU NEED TO SHUT YOUR MOUTH BEFORE I BLAST YOU ALL THE WAY TO HELL!" "Yeah sure."

obsessed with him actually

"cmon get it bakugo!!" (Kirishima is) HIS #1 SUPPORTER

UGH I LOVE THEM SM SM SM SM SM

Kacchan and Tokoyaki (the explody angry guy and the bird headed guy) got turned into marbles and stolen by the villains

I KNOW I mentioned how much I LOVE Kirishima Because he's currently fighting with several people to let him go after Kacchan. Because he's literally his only genuine friend.

Kirishima and Kacchan are freaking everything to me right now.

okay so... they got away with Kacchan but Tokoyami was rescued AND I SWEAR DUDE THE AMOUNT OF SPICE AND ANGST BETWEEN KACCHAN AND DEKU IS INSANE THE PLEADING FOR HIM, THE WAY KACCHAN BARELY CHOKED OUT FOR DEKU TO STAY BACK SO HE WOULDNT GET HURT ANY MORE WHILE HE'S BEING HELD BY THE THROAT DUDE ITS SO FUCKING GOOD HOOOLLLYYYY SHITTTT THIS IS MY JAM

UGH NOT KIRISHIMA THROWING CAUTION AND REASON INTO THE WIND TO GO AFTER BAKUGO ON HIS OWN

THEY ARE BESTIES AND DEFINATELY MORE. I DONT KNOW WHAT KIND OF MORE, BUT THEY'RE DEFINATELY MORE.

HE PAYED KIRISHIMA THE MONEY HE SPENT TO BUY NIGHT-VISION GOGGLES FOR THE RESCUE MISSION AWWWW

WTF THATS LITERALLY THE NICEST THING WE'VE SEEN BAKUGO DO ALL FUCKING SHOW AND WE'RE ON SEASON 3

"Now i'm not in your debt" UH HUH YEAH MAN NICE COVER

I NEED to see their ship content

[chiangyorange]

Soda stabby <3

THE WRETCHED SODA.

(v excerpts taken from chapter 6 v)

sherlockcorn: explody sody Bootyyyshaker9000: … Bootyyyshaker9000: I hate how compelling that argument is. sherlockcorn: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sherlockcorn: its finally time for that nasty cough syrup elixir to perish

first of all; they are teens, theyre gonna do stupid meaningless shit sometimes and it means SO much to me. ALSO!! presenting this implies that this isnt the first time they exploded sodas!

sherlockcorn: then i saw a pack of 12 mini bottles with a cute little cherries on them and i had to try them cause u know chchchchchcherry bomb i had to

april is gay cherry bomb is my reference to show that she is gay. thats it thats all i have to say on this.

sherlockcorn: they were cheap for a reason ig and now ive just been waiting for an excuse to get rid of them sherlockcorn: they haunt my dorm sherlockcorn: so now they DIE

april had been HAUNTED by these sodas and ofc, like any friend group, when you discover the most heinous shit ever, you make it everyone else's problem too to share the burden of knowledge.

then the actual sodie splosions

NeonLeon: [video description: Mikey is seen standing away from the camera in a darkly lit parking lot at night. He is holding his arms up and behind him with a bottle of soda in his hands. Leo’s voice is heard, “Okay go!” Mikey throws the soda down hard on the concrete. It bounces two times before the neck of the bottle breaks and soda burst out of it, making the bottle spin more times. Surprised shouts are heard when the bottle spins towards the camera. /end video description]

leo has always been mikey's hypeman and its SO endearing to me. THATS HIS LITTLE BROTHER!!!!! HE CARES ABT HIM SO MUCH!!!!! and gah. GAH. when the older sibling lets you do something cool instead of them that literally means the fucking world are you kidding me?

esp with how much mikey looks up to leo, this moment is saying "i am good enough to do this dumb stupid shit because if i do thisi dumb stupid shit im more like my brother and i love my brother"

ILL CRYYYYYYYY

green2: A story in 3 pics green2: [image id: A picture of the same dark parking lot from the previous video. In the dark, two eyes are seen reflected from the distance. /end id] green2: [image id: An open soda bottle is thrown at the eyes, the liquid visibly spilling out of the neck. The picture is blurry with motion. /end id] green2: [image id: Leonardo is standing in the view of the camera with eyes closed. There is soda splashed on his face, neck, and shoulders. /end id] 

fleo unintentionally scaring the kids and being immediately punished by having soda thrown on him is fucking hilarious to me but other than that, he was checking up on them!

its late at night and while splinter is used to the late night teenage shenanigans, fleo ISNT. casey jr is a good boy and i dont rlly personally imagine him as being the type to go out alone and fuck around during the apocalypse, and its a habit the present teens are trying to slowly break out of him.

so obviously, fleo would kiiiiinda get worried about where the teens were so late at night and went out to check on them after asking splints and checking on casey sleeping in the lair

Bootyyyshaker9000: [video description: Leonardo is sitting down with April standing in front of him opening a 16 ounce soda bottle. April says, “Smell first.” and offers the bottle to Leonardo. He takes the bottle in hand and sniffs, immediately backing away with a scrunched face.  “That is not soda, this is a chemical.” he replies. April faces the camera and looks off screen with a pointed look while Leonardo pauses and takes a tentative sip while she is turned away. Leonardo sputters and coughs, doubling over himself. The bottle crushes in his hands and the soda spills all over the concrete. April backs away quickly with a yelp. /end video description]

fleo is still a leo and hes not immune to getting stupid ideas.

sherlockcorn: [image id: a pocket knife is stabbed through a soda bottle right through the middle. The soda inside is leaking out. Donnie is seen in the background looking at something off camera with a soda in hand. /end id] sherlockcorn: nasty soda die <3

sometimes people dont write april unhinged enough and im personally fixing that /lh

no but fr this is a girl who canonically has a canoe and hazmat suit ON HAND. IN NEW YORK.

queen shit

i love her so much she means the world to me. blunt weapon wielders hold a special place in my heart and they just hit different. LITERALLY!!!!!

[tirsden]

"Hey, voice in my head." "Yessir?" "You're in a real bad mood." "Sorry… buncha bullshit going on in the outside world. Too much stress." "Wanna build somewhere? I could use the xp." "The next build is probably Nuka World Red Rocket. Neither one of us wants to go back to that map right now." "Yeah… y'know… I haven't dealt with Covenant yet." "You haven't." "That the plan, then?" "I dunno, the build height is so garbage." "So give it the middle finger and build as high as you can." "Sounds psychotic. Let's do it."

And thus, this nonsense was born. Riddick kind of forgot to go do the Covenant thing before finishing the endgame quest chain and thus auto-failed the Covenant quest. Oh well, settlement acquired the easy way. Its former residents are, uh, down by the lake. Doing… things. Returning to nature. Yeah.

I tried enclosing the sides with glass greenhouse walls during an initial test so that the entire thing would look like a big ol' cage, but the prebuilt concrete walls stair-step at random heights and there's a lot of places the glass pieces don't want to snap in. So, rebar pillars of doom it is. There isn't anything noteworthy inside the houses other than the usual undeletable beds, a carrot garden, crafting stations, and a couple of vendors (medic, weapons). The settlers do actually path up onto the top section, which mildly surprised me since it's almost exactly at the height limit.

Still feel like crap but Riddick got level 105 and I'm thinking his next stint will be tackling the Mechanist plot for realsies. Need to suck it up and break into the General Atomics Factory... high-damage robots + legendary variants of explody doom + tight spaces = bleggghhh.

Update: The flooring choice I'd used was bugging me and I realized it would probably look better with quarter floors. A quick test proved me right, in my utterly biased opinion, so pics of the finished revamp have been added to the top of the post. Curie is based in Covenant now, and I moved Longfellow over as well because he deserves a better roommate than Jezebel where he was at Graygarden.

[stabastian-the-knife]

Summary: Villain’s life has always been the same: threaten the city, taunt Hero a bit, get defeated by Hero but escape at the last moment swearing revenge, rinse and repeat. But when Hero arrives at his doorstep and brings news of a newly arrived Supervillain, he takes matters into his hands. A failed mission later, he wakes in the lair of this new nemesis, and he’s forced to realize: maybe he was a bit overconfident in his abilities…

CWs: captivity, manhandling, collar, implied starvation (feel free to ask to tag/add anything I missed, be safe <3)

Villain stares down from their throne. At his feet kneels a shivering, disheveled Hero, held at gunpoint by two of Villain’s henchmen. He has never seen Hero so terrified before – whatever he had seen, if it was enough to send him directly to Villain’s lair, it must be something serious – or something extremely fun. At least for Villain.

“What do you want?” he spits at Hero. Hero flinches at the edge in the words but doesn’t back away.

“Look, I- I know we aren’t exactly on the best of terms.” Hero dares raise his head, only to meet Villain’s threatening gaze. “But, I think for now we should put aside our differences and-“

“Cut to the point, will ya?” Villain sharply injects, and Hero snaps his head down before continuing.

“There’s a new villain in town, Supervillain. I’ve- I’ve tried defeating him but he’s- he’s too strong and I can’t- I can’t beat him alone, I- I need your help.” He chances another quick glance at his nemesis. “Please.”

Villain glares at him with an unamused face, before suddenly standing up. He takes a moment to appreciate the terror he instills in his henchmen, then approaches Hero slowly, the henchmen backing away inch by inch at his calculated steps.

He bends down to Hero and grabs his chin, forcing him to look up. “All these years, you were so cocky and confident that you could defeat me alone. You’d tell me about all the friends you didn’t invite to our duels because I was, to quote, ‘too easy of a target for multiple people’. And now, some nobody shows up, and you’re running to me for help?”

Hero basically smells of fear, to the joy of Villain. He’d never admit, but he’s actually glad Hero never brought along any of his allies – it is much more fun to exchange witty banter with someone he already knows well. But if Hero’s words are true, and there is a new bad guy in town… that could ruin their dynamic.

Hero’s gaze trails off at the mention of his friends. “He… he already got them. That’s why I came to you. There’s no one else left.”

Villain’s nonchalant ruse drops for a moment. He never even heard of this guy and he already defeated Hero’s team? Who the heck is he?!

He quickly composes himself, and steps away from Hero. “How long has Supervillain been around?”

“A… a few days. He’s really good at his game.”

Implying I’m not, Villain thinks but decides not to hinder the conversation with it. Instead, he sighs dramatically, as if his next words pain him.

“I hate to say this, but… he does sound like a dangerous fella.” He waves his henchmen off. “Take Hero to our most secure and least comfortable chamber. I’m going to plan our next move.”

“Wait, what are you-“ Hero is pulled to his feet but he can only stare in disbelief.

Villain chuckles. “What, you really thought I was going to help you? Nah. We’re enemies, remember? I’m only doing this for myself. After all, if there’s anyone who’s going to take over this city, it has to be me. Not some wannabe supervillain.”

He waits until Hero is dragged out of the room before leaving to meet his generals.

-

“Well hello there!” Villain yells from the debris hill he’s standing on, trying to get the attention of his enemy. In front of him is a giant cat robot – two stories tall, armed to the brim with sharp and pointy and sometimes explody weapons, and currently ripping out the walls of the building in front of it. Villain knows he should be afraid, but then again, his trusty henchmen are surrounding the mech, all protected by their floating tanks, designed by Villain himself. Villain, though on the ground, is also wearing the most advanced armor to be found in miles.

He has no reason to be afraid.

“Hey kitty! I know you can hear me! Your eyes are cameras, aren’t they? Or are you stupid enough to actually sit in your giant furball?”

The cat, no longer interested in the wreckage that was once filled with offices, turns its head towards Villain. Even its eyes mimic the real deal, making Villain unable to see if there’s anyone standing behind them. Would make this problem a lot easier to solve.

“Finally! What’s a guy gotta do to get attention nowadays?” He shakes his head. “Anyways, hi! I’m Villain! And you’re destroying my stuff on my turf! So if you could leave and you know, never come back, that would be highly appreciated!”

The cat stares at him, crouching uncannily still. Villain’s breathing quickens a little, but he forces calmness onto himself. “Oh come on, not even a greeting for me? What, cat got your tongue?” He chuckles at his own joke and hears the forced laughter of his henchmen over the intercom.

Loud clicks and metallic scraping fill the air as the mech straightens up. Finally, some action! He tries to get a good look inside its mouth as it opens, maybe it’s filled with speakers and this is how the mech talks? Or flamethrowers, and Supervillain is as creative as a five-year-old. Come on, fire breathing cats?

But before he could see in, a bright white flash blinds him. He yelps as something hits him in the chest, pain like a million needles spreading through his body. His legs buckle under him, and he keeps down a groan as he hits the ground hard. His head lands on a chunk of concrete, nearly knocking him out.

Panic momentarily overtakes him. What the fuck WAS that?! Did he just shoot me with a laser beam? Has he no style?! But even with his swaying head and the world spinning around him, some intact part of his consciousness knows that his henchmen are coming for him, and they’re ready to take him to safety and patch him up. Heck, this isn’t even the worst he has ever been through, he’ll be fine. Probably.

After what feels like an eternity, strong hands grab him and start dragging him away. He hisses as sharp pieces of debris cut his skin. Whoever is carrying him will need to be taught a lesson – but as he pries his eyes open, his vision is too blurry to take out a face. Even the colors of their uniform are wrong – man, I must’ve hit my head pretty hard…

He can’t wonder for too long though. The next moment, he passes out.

-

He wakes in a quite cold room in a quite uncomfortable bed. He finds it strange – he has made it sure that the environment in the med bay is especially welcoming. He might threaten his henchmen for fun, but he isn’t a monster, he knows recovery is a difficult journey. Injured people don’t need more distress than their injuries already give them.

The only other option is that he’s in his own chambers, which is even less likely. What kind of villain would he be if he didn’t live as a king? Nah, there’s no way his bedroom would be so damn cold.

He shifts around, trying to shake the fog from his mind, and ignoring the thrumming pain in his chest. As he moves, he feels an odd tightness around his neck. It reminds him of that one time he managed to get knocked down several flights of stairs and his doctor got so worried she put him in a neck brace. But he couldn’t have hit his head that bad this time, could he?

Slowly, he brings his hand to his neck. His fingers touch not gauze but metal.

He opens his eyes.

The ceiling and what he sees of the walls are a crudish grey concrete. The minimal light is barely enough for him to make out the corners where the walls meet, the source outside of his vision. He’s lying on his back, so he can’t see much else, but even with his limited view, the room feels too empty.

He takes a deep breath. With lots of grunts and tears and heavy panting, he fights himself into a sitting position, and rests for a moment before he focuses on the room again. Yep, completely empty, not even a window, just a barren white door behind him. The only things breaking the monotony are the camera up in one of the corners – creepy –, the drain right in the middle of the floor – weird –, and the heavy chain lying next to it, connecting a ring in the wall to…

No, that can’t be right. He traces the chain, and his fingers end on the same metallic band around his neck.

Well, that can’t be good.

“Um, hey? Hello? Is anyone there?” he calls out, throat sore and chest still hurting. He doesn’t really expect a response, but finds the silence annoying nonetheless.

“Just so you know, I like my bedroom a lot warmer!” He pulls his leg in and shakily stands up, leaning on the wall when the world does some cartwheels around him. “It’s freezing in here!”

Still no reply. Maybe he really is alone. But the red light of the camera tells him otherwise.

He reaches for the doorknob with one last spark of hope. It’s locked.

A shiver runs down his spine and this time, it’s not from the cold.

He stands in his place for a bit, then decides it’d probably be better to conserve his energy, and drops down to the floor in resignation.

-

Another eternity passes by. His panic settles after a while and is instead replaced with anxious boredom. Two emotions that really shouldn’t be allowed to mix, in his opinion.

He’s almost at the point where he considers practicing his monologuing skills when the door finally bursts open. He flinches, but quickly hides his fear with a faked sneer.

Who comes in must be a soldier of sorts, judging by their looks. A wide array of weapons strapped on everywhere, armor that was definitely designed as a uniform, complete with a helmet that covered their face too. Stereotypical henchman attire, though a bit too heavy on the blacks.

“Hey there! Are you the housekeeper?” he tries to strike up a conversation but the other ignores him. They instead undo the chain locked into the wall – magnetic keys? Intriguing choice – in silence, so Villain continues. “I want to talk to whoever’s in charge here, the room is absolutely despicable! I mean the temperature alone, not to mention the offensively hard bed and- Agh!” His complaints are cut short by a sudden tug of his chains, nearly sending him to the floor. “Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming!”

Their way leads through a labyrinth of endless corridors. Villain tries to keep his head up with pride, ignoring the clinging of the chain, tied around the hand of his captor. He focuses on counting the turns and hoping to spot an escape – but the moment he’s a bit slow, the guard yanks him again mercilessly.

“Well, maybe if you’ve given me any food I wouldn’t be so exhausted to follow,” he mutters once, loud enough for the other to hear, but he only receives another sharp pull.

They end up in the largest throne room Villain has ever seen. If not for the circumstances, he might’ve enjoyed exploring the place – it’s intricately detailed pillars, the colorful windows, the way the glass chandeliers refract the sunrays, the brutally bloody but nevertheless beautiful mural on every wall; whoever designed it had a good taste for what a supervillain’s throne room should look like.

Of course, he can’t overlook the guards stationed next to every pillar. Nor the heavy iron reinforcing the windowpanes. Beautiful and secure.

And in the middle of it all, on an obnoxiously spiky metal throne, sits Supervillain, in an equally spiky outfit.

“Ah, you must be Supervillain!” Villain greets. “Tell me, where did you get your costume? From the five-year-olds’ section? Next from the toy section with the fire breathing cat, I presume?”

If the insult annoys him, Supervillain hides it well. He inspects Villain with an unamused expression, eyes coming to a rest on his neck.

“I’m sorry – who the hell is this?” His voice matches his bored posture.

“He’s-“ the guard begins, but Villain puffs his chest and cuts in. “I’m the villain of this town, actually! And just so we’re clear, the only villain this town needs. So I’m only warning you once: leave now, or face the consequences!”

This gets a chuckle out of Supervillain.

“Consequences?”

Villain makes a vague gesture. “My army is the biggest and strongest in a hundred-mile radius, my tactical genius has managed to overcome countless foes over the years! Once they figure out I’m gone, my trusty followers will come for me, and leave no trace of your existence!”

“Ah. Then explain to me, if they saw me carrying you away, why does it take them three days to notice your absence?” Villain’s heart skips a beat. He’s been here for three days? No, Supervillain must be bluffing. He’s trying to scare him.

“Nah, you don’t need rescuing.” Supervillain’s once lazy gaze turns fierce in a second. “You seem pretty worked up over losing your little friends and being all lonely here. I think you need to, how do they say it? ‘Chill out a little.’”

Villain gulps. Despite the incredibly childish choice of words, Supervillain’s smugness shakes him to the core.

“Take him to the freezer,” he finally gives the order. “Should teach him a lesson in respect.”

“I’m sorry, to wh-“ Villain yelps as he’s cut off by the guard once again. He’s dragged away from the throne room, and left to his increasingly anxious thoughts.

[leareadsheresy]

“The Dark King”

This post contains spoilers for "The Dark King," by Graham McNeill, first published as a short story in the 2007 Games Day exclusive two-story anthology Horus Heresy Chapbook on (as nearly as I can tell) September 23rd, 2007, and later republished in the anthology Shadows of Treachery on September 27th, 2012.

This story is about how Konrad "the Night Haunter" Curze, Primarch of the Night Lords Legion, named after Joseph Conrad and the character Colonel Kurtz from Conrad's story "Heart of Darkness," is a monster and has been for a lot longer than the start of the Heresy. It's told through a series of three scenes, connected disjointedly, because Curze suffers from nightmare visions of the future and seems to experience time out of joint.

In the first scene, Kurze is leading his Space Marines in the execution of a bunch of humans whose world the Night Lords and Imperial Fists are in the process of conquering. Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists, shows up and is unhappy that Curze is just executing a conquered people, and Curze goes into a speech about how only by demonstrating the consequences of resistance will the rest of the galaxy be convinced to fall in line. They argue a bit and it's better than the usual McNeill arguments. Curze points to the next guy due to be executed and loudly proclaims that whatever he does, he's not to be punished, and then hands him a gun; the guy tries to shoot Curze and Curze turns around and punches him in the head so hard his skull explodiates, then turns to Dorn and goes "See? He wasn't resisting until he thought he wouldn't be punished." Dorn says that when this campaign is done they'll have words, and that Curze's way is not the way of the Imperium, to which Curze says "...you may be right," and then Dorn leaves.

It then cuts very abruptly to Curze imprisoned by Dorn and Fulgrim; Curze is visited by his equerry who says Dorn is recovering from the injuries that Curze inflicted with his bare hands and teeth, so that talk went really bad. Fulgrim signed off on Curze's imprisonment because around the same time, Curze spoke to him in confidence about visions he was having of a dark future of the galaxy embroiled in endless war and how the Emperor was going to try to kill him (Curze), which Fulgrim took as talk of treachery. Anyway there's a big jail escape scene where Curze plays the part of Batman leaping around between rafters in the dark but with more murder, kills all his captors bloodily, and escapes to the Night Lords fleet who were maintaining formation with the Imperial Fists and Emperor's Children, and they run off.

In the third scene, the first two scenes are framed as Curze reminiscing aboard his flagship, having taken his whole fleet back to his homeworld Nostramo (also named after a Joseph Conrad thing). For context, Primarchs were genetically engineered on Earth by the Emperor to serve as super-generals but then the gods of the warp stole their growth pods and scattered them around the galazy; Curze landed on Nostramo, a cyberpunk world of high crime rates, which he murder-batmanned into perfect compliant order before the Emperor found him. Here he's pondering how since he left, the planet has backslid into cyberpunk high crime, so to send a message to the galaxy he Death Stars it, just in time for Imperial fleets sent in pursuit of him to witness the destruction but not in time for them to stop it or to stop him from escaping back into the warp. End of story.

The exact temporal relationships between the three scenes are not clear, like, we don't know how much time passed between them, which I like; I enjoy a tone piece where the reader is given no more information than needed to establish tone. Graham McNeill continues to improve by virtue of structuring his writing so that the things he's weak at (subtle ideological and practical conflicts expressed deftly and intelligently) do not appear. The conflict between Dorn and Curze is not subtle. The story is also very short -- significantly shorter than "The Kaban Project," which helps; it's easier to be punchy when you're working in short form.

It does kind of raise the question of why Dorn thought the Night Lords would be a suitable force to include in the backup force sent to Istvaan V, but I'm not interpreting that as a plot hole; I assume there'll be some narrative later explaining how the Night Lords were brought back into the Imperial fold somewhat following the events of the second scene of the story, and I also believe it later turns out that the third scene of the story takes place significantly after the events in the Istvaan system.

The only thing that really annoys me is that it occasionally calls him Night Haunter, and my personal preference when addressing a fictional character with a name that's a title is that the "the" always get stuck in front of it, so he should be the Night Haunter, not just Night Haunter. But again that's just me being ultra-picky. Good job, Graham McNeill, solid improvement.

[beardedmrbean]

Hi, it's the 13th of July and while it's not the main event (tomorrow I'll be watching the one in Paris!) it's still time for my annual firework review & thoughts ask.

With the complete bangers they're blasting alongside the literal bangers, why has no one tried coordinating fireworks with a rhythm game in real time ? It would probably be insanely hard but god it would look so cool to watch a screen with ADOFAI and above that screen are perfectly timed fireworks. One day I'll try that.

It's impressive how thought provoking a firework show can be. I'm standing in a field with a mcflurry in my hand watching explosions in the sky making pretty color with a soundtrack played at unhealthy levels, and all I'm thinking is "I should learn to fly a plane". Someone please photoshop the "I should buy a boat" cat in front of fireworks. Please.

The Parisians are surprisingly patriotic. All the songs were in french, back in Rouen the soundtrack had songs like "Born in the USA". I can't say they're not absolute bangers, but it doesn't scream french patriotic holiday to me. Well, considering it's the same town that two years ago made a beautiful recreation of the American flag by mistake, I'm not surprised. Maybe it wasn't a mistake after all...

I don't think I have eardrums anymore.

I've been hoping you'd do this again, I enjoy reading your thoughts on the whole thing every year.

Mixing it with a game would be beyond insanely hard unless the video for watching the game was on a delay that matched up with the fireworks, so they'd have time to launch and get explody in sync with the game, even that would be a pain in the ass because you'd likely need thousands of mortars some of which might not even get used.

Cool AF to watch something like that tho.

and ya they can make you think, don't know how many times I watched "Illuminations" at EPCOT when I was working for Disney, but it was a lot of times and it still got me every time.

I'm also now flashing back to identifying Born in the USA for you some years back because they were playing it in Rouen, but you didn't know what it was called and could only give me a vague description of the song.

Fun times, lol

as for the last one, get some of those squishy foam earplugs next year, they work great, also I hope the budgies didn't get too spooked by the noise this year

[kosmicdream]

I'm asking dumb questions now because I'm not good at thinking critically.

How does like, pop culture (?) work when a chunk of the population is shape-shifting, worm fighting, stretchy, explody people? i forget if humans like, know the hekatons exist....

do they make tv shows with them? documentaries? music? are there products just for hekatons..."shirts that stretch With you!" "bomb insurance for when your loved one bites the big nuclear blast" "this fleshlight will suck all this skin off your face ;)"

like, does the World know and acknowledge them.

I hope you get my Qs okk bye bye 👋

I'd answer this question but.. actually its a lot of things that i will be covering in arc 2! We will be getting more of the perspective of human civilians & their everyday life, as well as a deeper look at cultures of various places and the differences of their perspective on things. Depending on where you are, a lot changes.