#Chaos Trails

[blood-starved-beast]

Can't believe Chaos trails can solve Minor Prophecies. I had been putting off doing the "fight Hecate sans cards" prophecy for a bit and then I did the moonstone axe + Hephaestus Chaos trail and then I solved it? Real easy fix there ha.

[swan2swan]

Hey, CampFam, so...a thought just occurred:

Kenji isn't calling his mom this week.

There's gonna be a news story about how Daniel Kon died in a dinosaur attack, and his son was unavailable for comment. Also that Yaz's campus suffered a dinosaur breach and three people were killed or wounded, also there was a van that got rammed off a bridge. A van whose plates will be matched to a Ben Pincus, whose friend was living on the campus, and who was spotted with Sammy Gutierrez a day or so prior at a roadside show disruption. No bodies will have been recovered, but neither will at least one of the bodies from the campus.

Obviously DPW will provide forensics on the Becklespinaxes' waste (assuming the PH level is low enough), and probably find that only two humans were devoured (maybe even positively identify whom), but the fact remains that for at least a week....

All of the Nublar Six's families are going to think their children are dead. Again.

[wigglys-dikrats]

in trail to oregon, jack bauer sees ‘the watchers with a thousand eyes’ when he’s high off snake venom, the earliest reference to blinky

nick lang said he thinks the starlight theatre would’ve put on a production of trail to oregon

at the beginning of trail to oregon, jeff breaks character to say ‘i don’t know if you know this about me but i wrote the show’

that means that jeff blim is canonically a hatchetfield character

[j-trow-95]

Six Sentence Sunday

It's the first Six Sentence Sunday of 2025 (even though I'm posting this on Monday, shhh, the executive dysfunction kicked in last night as I was typing this post!)! Thanks for the tags @artsyunderstudy @nausikaaa, @martsonmars, @bookish-bogwitch and @mooncello, love seeing what you're all working on.

I haven't written anything new yet for either of my WIPs, but I thought I'd share a little something from both.

First off, The Trails We Blaze. I'm hoping to crack back on with this WIP in earnest in February, once I finish off my three month PaWriCo challenge with ASR. The last few days at work all I've been able to think about is the later plot points of Trails and I'm so excited to get back into this world.

I think this snippet is new, but apologies if not. This is Baz POV, way more than six sentences, and I've redacted one character name for spoilers!

The bedroom door slams shut and I slowly turn to face [redacted] and Fiona, both of whom are glaring at me and blocking my path out of the room. I cock an eyebrow and it sets [redacted] off. “What the bloody hell d’you think you’re playing at?” “Good morning to you too, [redacted].” “You think you can just waltz in here—” “You’re going to answer some questions,” I say, my tone brooking no argument. “Like hell I am.” “Leave it, Baz,” Fiona snaps, standing at [redacted]’s side, hands on hips and a scowl on her face. “Tell me everything I want to know, and I’ll leave.” [redacted] scoffs. “That simple, is it?” I nod. “It is.” “You jumped up little shit.” “Flattery will get you everywhere.” I perch on the edge of the desk, leaning back on it and playing with one of the figurines,

Now, onto the gremlins! I've been deep into ASR rewrites since November, and while I don't think I'll hit my target of a full rewrite by the end of the month or 100k (whichever comes first), I'm still plugging away at it.

In my last post I mentioned the change up in tense and how that's really helped, and I think working on Trails for the last couple of years (my God, it's been 2 years since I started working on that fic 🤯) has been a game changer for me.

Action has always been something I struggle with, but everyone has been leaving such lovely comments on the action scenes within Trails that it's given me a little more confidence when it comes to ASR. ASR is HEAVILY action reliant, and I still don't know why I thought this would be a good idea 😂🤦🏽‍♀️

That being said, read on for a snippet with Lauren being extra stabby.

I slip into another group of scientists who are frantically racing to the opposite side of the lab. No one notices as I slip the already knotted fabric over my head and tighten it. With my face hidden I shuck the lab coat and flick up the hood of my dark coat. Immediately the scientists are reeling away from me, shouting warnings to everyone close to them. They don’t get far. Throwing knives embed themselves in the lower spines of two, my sai plunges through the back of one man’s ribcage and out the other side, and as I’m pulling it from his limp body I sense someone coming up on my left side. The mercenary lunges with his combat knife, the blade whistling past my waist and stomach in a gutting motion; I’m now to the side of him, his momentum keeping him travelling forward as I angle my sai to penetrate his throat. His warm blood gushes down the blade and slicks my hand around the grip, the weight of his dead body threatening to rip the weapon from my hand. The whole thing happens so quickly it’s like the rest of the lab enters slow motion. I watch the light leave his eyes as he crashes to the floor, blood splattering around his head. Then the screams begin in earnest.

Tagging for other WIPs days this week:  @artsyunderstudy @aristocratic-otter @blackberrysummerblog @bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla

@emeryhall @erzbethluna @hushed-chorus @iamamythologicalcreature @ic3-que3n

@ileadacharmedlife @ivelovedhimthroughworse @letraspal @martsonmars @nightimedreamersworld

@orange-peony @shrekgogurt @theearlgreymage @you-remind-me-of-the-babe 

[hold-him-down]

One Day

Notes: Maybe like 9 months in?

CW: vague references to noncon, references to noncon drugging, all the typical CW for this story.

✥ ✥ ✥

Leo is shivering as he pulls off his sweatshirt; he feels another wave of dizziness wash over him and he swallows. It took three days of skull-splitting headaches and increasingly persistent nudging from Luke before he agreed to go visit Rob. They left with a prescription for antibiotics and a word of caution to take it easy for a few days. Leo waited in the car while Luke got the medicine, and, while his desperation for relief was palpable, the bottle of pills that he turns over and over and over has his stomach in knots.

The relief will be worth it, Leo tells himself, closing his eyes. It will be worth it. On the peripheries of his worry is the pain that constantly accompanies being drugged, the disorientation, the nausea. Further back is the feeling of hands on him, of not being able to lift his arms, of people looking down at him whispering that it’s okay while lower, his legs are prised apart. And then, the one where everything is dark, and everything hurts, and he doesn’t know what’s real. That one is even further, so far back that Leo blinks the thought– no, the memory– away as quickly as he can, as he swallows and puts the bottle down. Luke won’t hurt you. 

He wraps his arms around his stomach and sits on the edge of the tub, waiting for it to pass. He hears Luke’s footsteps down the hall. If he can act okay, he thinks, maybe Luke won’t make him take them. Maybe, if he can make himself feel better, or at minimum, if he can make Luke believe he’s feeling better, then Luke won’t be worried, and he won’t make him take them.

He swallows again, and his shivering fingers moving to grip to the side of the tub; he sucks in a deep breath through his nose and holds it. His vision swims as he blinks against the fluorescent light.

"Leo?" Luke knocks softly on the door before pushing it open.

Leo opens one eye, squinting in his general direction. His grip tightens on the ceramic, trying to keep himself both upright and still. He’s okay, he tries to say with an easy half smile, but his vision is a little blurry, and he’s distantly aware that unshed tears are the culprit. He can’t pinpoint when that happened, but it’s too late to do anything about it. He shakes his head, offering his best approximation of a smile.

Luke drops to a kneel in front of him, his hand brushing against Leo’s forehead.

"I'm really okay," he hears himself saying, his voice warbled in his ears. He knows he isn’t convincing– not to Luke, and not to himself– but his words come out ahead of his thoughts. “I’m feeling… I think a little better.” He swallows, pinching his eyes shut again. “I think I can… I think it’ll be okay without–” 

At Luke’s expression, he trails off. 

"Right.” Skepticism colors Luke’s tone, but he smiles warmly in spite of it. “You still dizzy?"

"Mhmm." Leo presses his head into Luke's palm, a half-hearted bid to ease the tension there, as Luke brushes the hair away from his too-warm flesh. It's Luke's favorite way to show concern, or, if he’s lucky, sometimes affection. It's become one of Leo's favorites, too. He lets his eyes close, even though he knows there’s danger there. His body, his mind, have been forced to accept this, and to find comfort in it, and to long for it. But he’s never been forced to let his guard down, and he’s never been forced to find safety in this. 

“You’re shivering,” Luke whispers, pressing his fingers into Leo’s palm and uncurling his fingers gently. When he withdraws, he places the plastic bottle in the void, then wraps Leo’s fingers around it.

“How bad is it?”

“Better than before,” Leo replies carefully. “I probably can just… sleep it off.” The bottle in his hand makes the shivering more noticeable.

No response immediately comes from Luke, but he squeezes Leo’s forearm. There’s a long silence, where Leo knows that Luke searches for the words to convince him without commanding him. 

“I don’t want to take them,” Leo eventually whispers, so soft that he’s not sure Luke even registered that he was speaking. He shrinks back automatically, his body readying itself for the pain that’s sure to follow. Slowly, he brings his eyes up to meet Luke’s.

Luke nods, but he’s not happy. 

It’ll help–You’ll feel better– Take these– It doesn’t matter if you want to or not– You can swallow them or I can force them down your throat– We gave you something to help calm you down– We gave you something that’ll make it difficult for you to eat for a few days– We gave you something that might make it hard for you to stand– Take them, Leo. 

Take them. 

Take them. 

Take them.

His head is pounding, the lights are too bright, the sounds too loud. His arms are wrapped around a bucket with doctors surrounding him, he hasn’t eaten in days. He wakes up restrained. He doesn’t know where he–

“Alright,” Luke says, wrapping his fingers around Leo’s, which are gripped tightly around the bottle. They both stare at it.

It doesn’t matter if you want to or not. 

“I’m sorry,” he chokes out. “I’ll– I shouldn’t have said that. I’ll take them, just… just give me a minute?”

Luke takes the medicine and sets it on the counter. The absence of the bottle in his hand is an immediate alarm bell, and he reaches out to Luke. “I’m sorry,” he says again. “I want to take them.” He clears his throat, wincing as he does. He has more planned to say,  but Luke cuts him off.

“Hey.” Luke pushes his fingers into Leo’s hair. Something in Leo’s face, which, Leo suspects, is half a decade of anxiety manifesting itself in unshed tears, must have Luke on edge; he tries to fix his expression. “If you want to take them, take them. If you don’t, it’s fine. You’ll survive either way,” he says, his tone overtly lifting. He moves to sit on the ledge of the tub next to Leo, nudging his shoulder with his own. “Probably,” he amends, and Leo forces a smile. 

There’s a silence as they both stare at the pill bottle, innocent-enough looking but wreaking absolute havoc on Leo’s anxiety. 

“You don’t have to take them,” Luke says again. “Why don’t you lay down for a little bit, and once you’re in a better headspace we can reassess? I’ll grab dinner?”

Leo nods, and Luke squeezes his arm. And then, at the risk of unraveling every ounce of confidence he’s gained in the last six months, he says, “It used to be a whole thing.” He stares straight ahead, but he can feel Luke’s eyes on him. “They knew, I think. Early on, that it fre– That it scared me. So they–” He shakes his head. He swallows. His fingers tangle together in his lap. “I don’t know. I just… I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Luke eventually responds, when it’s clear that Leo doesn’t plan to go further. “I hope you do, though. That one day, you’ll tell me what happened?”

Leo nods, taking a deep breath and blinking back the unshed tears, and stands. He picks up the bottle from the counter and turns to face Luke.

“One day,” he says, nodding. 

Luke trails behind him as he walks back toward his bedroom, and at the door, he says, “I mean that, Leo. I’ll help you, in any way that I can. But I need you to know that you can talk to me, and it won’t go anywhere you don’t want it to go.”

FIGHTER TAG LIST: @whump-cravings, @afabulousmrtake @crystalquartzwhump @maracujatangerine @pumpkin-spice-whump @distinctlywhumpthing @thecyrulik @highwaywhump @batfacedliar-yetagain @finder-of-rings @dont-touch-my-soup @skyhawkwolf @suspicious-whumping-egg @also-finder-of-rings @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump @peachy-panic @melancholy-in-the-morning @urban-dark @nicolepascaline @quietly-by-myself @pigeonwhumps @whump-blog  @seasaltandcopper @angstyaches @i-msonotcreative @mylifeisonthebookshelf @anonintrovert @whump-world @squishablesunbeam @considerablecolors @whumpcereal @whumperfully @pirefyrelight @whumpsday@whumplr-reader@lonesome--hunter@darkthingshappen

[daily-rayless]

Happy Birthday to world-class Bracer and absolute heroine Estelle Bright from the Trails series.

[potpourrifandoms]

Hell yeah I loved tactical breach wizards and your telling me I get to see cool Gracie fan art of it hell yeah

Well... I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it "cool", but I definitely have been drawing Steve and Bori a lot lately. Not in their in-game clothes (those look too hot/difficult to draw), but I mean... I gave them comfy PJs, so that's something. They can have a slumber party while holed up in a safehouse waiting for Liv to finish doing her Big Important Liv Things.

It's such a fun game, though. I did not expect the story part to punch me in the gut as much as it did!!

[autopsiedsage]

a bakery has invaded my notes.

[breezere]

Ok but.....that one au of shuichi as a cat.....but swapped so Kokichis a cat :>

weird cat finds emo detective and now it refuses to leave him alone

[caprishiz]

Auguste sleepwalked. Little Laurent would trail behind him giggling without stopping him or waking him up because he thought it was funny.

(Aleron, after the 3rd time that week his heir apparent burst through the door to his bedchamber rambling with incoherent urgency about the dangers of brocade sheep or something equally nonsensical, did not.)

[swan2swan]

Okay what does this map even mean.

[storiesofthenight]

meta + aemond's relationship to his brother and sisters

Aemond and his siblings.

Let’s start with Rhaenyra since well, she is his half-sister. Due to the circumstances of Rhaenyra living in Dragonstone and all, he hasn’t really known her all that well. He knows enough to know she is a gentle mother, and that she cares greatly for her children, which he is reminded of at a later age. But he doesn’t know much more about her at all. He knows that Viserys loves her greatly, and it makes him jealous. He doesn’t realise it’s jealousy, but he looks at her and the love that Viserys gives her and wishes that he too could receive such love.

By the time that he sees her again at Driftmark, he is already told over and over that when Rhaenyra becomes Queen, she will most likely kill her half-siblings. He sees her, sees the way she holds herself and is worried. He knows his father loves her more than him and his siblings and worries for their lives, which results in a slow but certain hatred that begins to build up inside him. When he loses his eye mere moments later and he finds that Viserys does not only prefer her, but also her children, his hatred for her grows even stronger. He loses an eye and never even gets an apology. It makes him bitter, reminding him of how little he means to his father and the rest of the family outside of his siblings and mother.

Then there is Aegon. As a child he loves his older brother, looking up to him and how rebellious he is in a way. He watches him and wishes he could be more like him, but he isn’t. He struggles with fitting in with the other children in the family and instead takes to putting his mind to books and training. It is this, in addition to his lack of having a dragon that makes him the target of Aegon’s bullying. He’s hurt, but he tries his best to ignore the pain it brings him. On one side because he was told to get over it, on the other side because while at one moment Aegon ridicules him, on another, he will clap him on the back and grin at him during training.

Aemond’s feelings for Aegon are a mixture of hate and love and will always be like that. When asked, he finds himself unable to answer if he loves or hates his brother. Though he will, automatically say that he loves him of course. Yet, despite the conflicted feelings, he will always be on his brother’s side. His family is all he has, and he considers loyalty the greatest virtue in life.

While some debate about the events at Rook’s Rest, Aemond had not intended for Aegon to get hurt by Vhagar’s dragonfire. Yes, he had been agitated by the events in the pillowhouse before, yes he was irritated that Aegon had appeared at the battle while he was expected to stay safe in King’s Landing, but nonetheless Aemond’s sole purpose that day had been to deal with Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys.

Helaena for him is the most important person in his family. They were always different, the two of them. Though in different ways, he felt like she was perhaps the only one in the family that could understand him. As a child, he more than once, turned to her when he felt hurt or needed help. Though he knew she was likely to be living in her own world, he found comfort simply by knowing she was in the same room.

As they grow older and he closes himself off more from the world and from Helaena. Because the more he builds the walls up around him, the more he realises that she is a danger to exactly that. He doesn’t allow her close anymore, even if he sometimes wants to simply sit in her reassuring presence, believing for a moment that everything will turn out alright. But he knows that if he allows her near, he will not be able to keep up the act that he now only lets slip when he knows he’s on his own.

All in all, the conclusion is simple, he cares about his siblings. And he dislikes them, if it isn't out of fear, then it is because they bullied him, or because they bring out the vulnerable side of him that he tries so hard to disguise. If the family situation had been any different, perhaps he could even have been close to Rhaenyra. Because in the end, all he's ever really wanted is to be seen and loved by his family.

Also yes sorry I know I skipped Daeron but quite frankly, he hardly knows the kid. Heck, he knows him less than he knows Rhaenyra.

[ofgain]

Jacinth giggles at the silly voices her father is doing.

[imber-rose]

Recieved this cute baby in an art trade with @jaeger-wolf-7373

Decided to name him Silas, and he’s a big tall spoopy “not-deer” boy who likes to play pranks on the local hunters

[thewittyphantom]

In Duel Links, I got a new Dennis event and also unlocked him!

Dennis: Shay... Shay: You're... Dennis! [flashback] Melissa Trail: There's only one high-flyin' monster on the field now - and it's not Trapeze Magician! Shay: Drop the facade, Dennis! I'm going to show everyone the true you! When Trapeze Magician leaves the field, Target Flag lets me see what you're hiding in your hand! It's time for the real Dennis to now be revealed! Dennis: Is this what you wanted to see? [shows Polymerization] Shay: I knew it! Only Duelists from a certain dimension use that card! Dennis: Now that the cat's out of the bag, I can hit you with everything I've got! I Fusion Summon! The ground shaking Chaos Ancient Gear Giant! Bet you never saw that coming, right!? Thanks to you, I can now let loose as I have nothing left to hide! These potholes are wreaking havoc on my game! If I drive over one more bump I'm gonna lose my mind! Shay: Even if you suffer, it won't make up for the pain you caused. But I'll get to reap my revenge! For all the victims you hunted down - this is payback! Vengeful Vengeance! Dennis: Ahhhhhh! [end flashback] Shay: After everything you did to trick the Lancers, what does Duel Academy want with me now? Dennis: I just...wanted to apologize to you. And the Lancers. Actually, not just the Lancers - but to everyone. It's my fault that this world stopped smiling. Shay: Apologize!? It's too late for that! You think that'll make up for everything that you've done? Dennis: Of course not. Nothing I do can change the past. But if I can make Heartland City and the Xyz Dimension smile again, I have to try! I know not everyone will accept me...but it's the least I can do. Shay: If you really feel that way...Then battle me! You want to make everyone laugh again? Then why don't you start with me! Dennis: Okay! Why not start with the toughest! My Dueltaining will turn your frown upside down!

Dennis: No matter how many times I apologize, I can't undo what I've already done. That's a reality I have to accept. But I can't allow what i did to cause kids to stop smiling forever! With my Dueltaining, I know I can make them laugh again! That's the least I can do to make up for my past! The show must always go on! Direct your eyes to the skies as I present to you a swinging star performer! Xyz Summon! Rank 4 Performage Trapeze Magician! Trapeze Magician and I are here to make you smile ear-to-ear year after year! It's showtime!

[daily-rayless]

Beryl, one of my favorite NPCs from Trails of Cold Steel. I don't know what her deal is and I hope it's never explained.