#EXCEPT IN FRAGMENTS

[bronzebtch]

something something abt rhea actually being lowkey insane bc she would find the thought of getting the attention of any targaryen thrilling, getting their attention when they're angry? even better.

[serpentface]

Retconned Wardi firearms- a basic handgun, a highly decorative ceremonial handgun (belonging to Faiza), and a lance-gun.

Gun tech has officially been nerfed down to hand cannons (press F) (this has been a long time coming but I'd been fallacy of sunk costs-ing myself out of retconning).

Handguns are held similarly to a shotgun, with the butt pressed into the user's shoulder, one hand gripping under the barrel, and the other free to ignite the gunpowder. These represent the most advanced firearms in contemporary usage, both in make and in their use of uniform iron projectiles built to match the gun's bore for greater range and efficiency. Lance-guns are the more basal form, usually larger and mounted with the pole held over the shoulder, and are most effectively used by two people (one to hold and aim, one to light the gunpowder).

The spread of firearms is currently mostly limited to the Eastern Inner Seaway peoples (with some additional distribution via overland trade), and actual manufacture of hand cannons and gunpowder at Significant scale is limited to the region's core powers.

The reason for this limited spread is partially due to specific elements of the technology's history. Gunpowder was first synthesized by Burri alchemists and considered to be the discovery of the legendary divine weapon + solar fire of the deity Inanariya, and its formula (along with techniques for ideally refining its components) remained a closely guarded state secret. It was used predominantly in priestly contexts to generate flame and explosive sounds (in conjunction with earlier practices of generating multicolored flames with use of other chemicals), then integrated into combustible weaponry in the forms of fire lances, which would eventually develop into early handcannons.

The treatment of gunpowder as a guarded sacred or semi-sacred substance continued with Wardi adoption, where knowledge of its making is considered a closed rite. It's name (inya tsatsul or just tsatsul, a derived adoption of the Burri iñazatsūya) still reflects a divine solar association (the Burri word means 'sun's thunder', the Wardi 'inya' invokes the sun, 'tsatsul' is an adapted loanword and has no meaning independent of the substance itself), though its priestly use is now predominantly associated with the firearm'ed Odonii (rather than priests of the solar Face Inyamache). The composition of gunpowder can no longer be regarded as a Secret by any means, though efforts to obscure the methods of its creation are still moderately successful and has kept knowledge of gunpowder manufacture more limited than the total sphere of firearm usage itself.

The actual strongest limiting factor of firearm usage is the rarity of natural saltpeter deposits necessary for making gunpowder. The practice of actively producing saltpeter via nitraries has not been developed anywhere in the setting, and all is instead obtained via natural sources. These sources are rare and limited within the current spread of firearm technology, and result in gunpowder being a limited and expensive substance to produce. The weapons themselves are also very expensive to manufacture (a good quality steel SWORD is far too material-cost prohibitive for most people to own), particularly high quality firearms designed for use with standardized ammunition.

These guns are also very basal, and logistical difficulties in their use (weight, very slow loading and firing speed, high visibility, Relatively low reach and accuracy) along with the restrictive cost of production has kept firearms far from rendering conventional weaponry, armor, and projectiles obsolete (even within the societies that have access to them). They are still, however, very devastating in use within their contemporary context, particularly in that high quality guns have a longer range than the best arrow-based projectiles, and utterly negate most contemporary forms of armor at close range.

[saetiate]

the bridge verse in best by gracie abrams is how sae feels if you both ever break up. he will forever feel like he was never good enough for you but that feeling is less like an emotion and more like a knowing for him. he understands if you never want to talk to him again. he even understands if you hate him. (you don’t hate him. you just want him to come home.) (he’s more critical of himself than he admits. the love was always enough. he is always enough.) (tell him this. tell him so he can rest his chin on your head again and you can hear the way his heart thumps in his chest at finally having you back in his arms.)

[gay-simple-and-chaotic]

Fuck it, tumblr can have the pureshadow flash fic I blasted my qpp with, fic below cut

Torments my boy by typing for 12 minutes. Fic is small and a bit angsty; contains self-use of it/its implied as a dehumanizing tactic. I also just like he/it/they Smilk but I think it's fun to think of how he thinks of himself. I've also not gotten to Beast Yeast yet I'm just insane about them.

"..I do not quite...understand."

His voice is as soft as always. So gentle. Undeservingly kind. Perhaps this is why he was so loved. No matter the truth he'd speak, he would say it in that voice, with an innocence belying his age.

He looks at it with that innocence. Eyes closed, lashes dainty against his cheeks, and after silence presses on, he opens them, perplexed.

They do not see what is there.

Not merely due to their inability; it is close enough that he could surely count crumbs on its face. But he has always been one to see the light where there was none.

"Shadow Milk Cookie." Its name falls from his tongue like the heaviest of truths, yet wrapped in the levity of the lie it knows it to be. Nobody remembers the truth, after all.

It made sure of that.

It scoffs. Rolls its eyes at him. Sticks out its tongue. Plays flippant.

"Oh, precious silly cookie," it lets words flow like syrup, sickly saccharine and suffocating in their false warmth, "what's there not to get?~"

"Why it is that you've not yet crumbled me."

Why?

Why?

It has no answer. It stares at him, face frozen in the grin it donned. Why not? Why not? What did he mean? What was it to say?

"You want the souljam," he says, and those words are true. It thinks so, at least. "But yet you refuse to simply take it from me. What motivates this game of yours?"

"Fun!~" It cheers before it allows itself to dare think. "You're just terribly adorable when you scream and wail for help, don't you know?"

"...You're not telling the truth."

"Duh!" The scoff comes out with dismissive force. "Why would I, silly Vanilly?"

It doesn't like how he looks at it. It doesn't like it. It doesn't like it it doesn't like it it doesn't like it it doesn't it doesn't IT DOESN'T--

Why doesn't it?

What is the truth?

Why hasn't it crumbled him?

It has been silent too long. It has stared into his eyes too long. It detests that kind, weary, familiar smile on his face. It despises his pity.

"...I don't need you to look at me like that," it spits, turning on its heel and fleeing. It will come back. It has to.

It...wants that souljam, right?...

[ottisbuns]

The lobcorp mod for Slay The Spire is really good if you want to experience a card roguelike where your own deck actively loathes you and wants you dead just as much as the enemy.

[thesoulfragmented]

deliver me and carry me away.

Ask blog for the Soul Fragments. After thousands of loops, Soul is at his limit. The helplessness causes cracks to form in his subconscious as the parts of him struggle to find a solution. One day, they finally shatter.

Nous - The Mediator. Responsible for communication and problem solving. Has fallen into apathy in this cycle of meaningless pain. Represents the part of Soul that's tired of this and just wants to end it already. There is no salvation at the end of this ride. Their god abandoned them a long time ago.

Eros - The Devotee. Represents Soul's persistence and connection with Harmonia. Spiraled into an almost manic state of devotion after being repeatedly denied Him. Still refuses to blame Him for the loop. It must be something wrong with them. They can still fix it.

Thymos - The Sacrifice. Meant to be Soul's emotional processing. Has since broken down into something more akin to fight or flight. Holds all of Soul's emotional distress from the time loop. Acts more like a cornered animal than a person now. Just wants the pain to stop.

Also here are Heart and Mind, who are left to pick up the pieces after Soul's split. Not an easy task, considering the fragments now represent Soul's traits taken to their worst extreme.

Nous uses he/him pronouns, Eros uses they/them pronouns, and Thymos uses it/its pronouns.

[crimeronan]

last time i got an irl writing critique there was one moment of pretty mild body horror and the universal reaction was "oh i'm nauseous. well done" so now i'm writing my next chapters like. gotta turn that up to one thousand :) sorry devin.

[amitiagailec]

Wowie what's this? Me active in Tumblr (and Discord again??)

I am still uncertain how I want to go with this but I am motivated by the idea of making an AU in CRK. Look if you want content you gotta make em yourself.

Not much is decided but here's the idea so far:

Fragment!AU. SM is named Ternate Milk Cookie/Fragment!SM

•Inspired from how a part of WL (or WL herself now) "survived"/stayed lingering despite DE, I just decided maybe the Beasts will have a manifestation of their own, be it just remnants/manifestations of them that continues to walk Earthbread despite their true selves being sealed.

Just as how the soul jams can kinda imitate and preserve the will of their holders it seemed, I think they'd be somewhat like that in that regard, in the middle of the Darkness and Light of the Virtues.

•TM Cookie as manifestation of SM is often at Ghost City and Blueberry Yogurt Academy, because of connection to his past, a continuation of what he started as the Virtue, and the source of power/dimension of this place.

•There's also SM's territory in Beast Yeast. But he doesn't always do so.

•This decreased after PV inherited the Light of Truth, but not completely.

•Every headmaster of the academy is aware of TM. From every predecessor to a new one he is to be regarded as a "guest" providing him things when he needed it, and only be cautious when he is displaying...tendencies. Every once in a while, some professors would find an unknown Cookie wandering the school and disappearing before they could find him. Most times they'd forget but the quiet rumor of a ghost lingers from time to time.

•Students when familiar are very much warned when they were found to have seen or interacted with him for there have been a few cases of...luring.

•Despite the wariness, TM still provides support every once in awhile. Correcting formulas for spells and potions by professors, returning books to the library when someone forgot and often arranging them, making suggestions to the headmasters themselves, and teaching young cookies when they passed by him. The last one be how he will bond with a certain Cookie.

•As a manifestation, TM cannot interact with anything in his surroundings unless he puts his effort into it, drawing from what energy and magic he can, another reason why the place is important. Appearing alone draws a lot from him if he were anywhere else.

•He can recall what knowledge he still has from before, but anything related to Beast Yeast, his comrades, and his own deeds are always blocked from his mind. Any trigger makes him uncomfortable. He'd eventually forget that happened.

•TM is still connected to his real self SM, who would often show when his attitude changes. Just another way of SM to interact and spectate outside of his prison, mostly showing when his expression darkens. What TM forgets, SM remembers very well.

[kiisuuumii]

Dorothea Lasky, "Love Poem," Awe

[broken-clover]

It's eternally a little funny whenever I see someone say something along the lines of 'everyone in Strive is so happy now! Everyone's stories are getting resolved! It'll be hard to make a new game when everyone's retired and living peacefully and resolved their problems' and then there's a haunted semi-sentient mecha corpse in the corner constantly screaming from being trapped in limbo

[kagooleo]

@ultra-zine digital orders are now up, go get em now!!!1!1!!!

here’s my piece for vol. 3! my piece was on haruki and zett, styled like the access card used in the z-riser!

chant their names!! <o/

[mournfulroses]

Kōtarō Takamura, tr. by Hiroaki Sato, from Chieko & Other Poems; "The Snow Has Piled White,"

[nigesakis]

finally watching BoB

[ghostdrinkssoup]

idk how controversial this is but I’m actually such a big fan of s3a. it’s the exact kind of phantasmagorical bullshit that makes me kick my feet and grin like a fool. the whole show goes haywire and completely abandons the generic structure of the police procedural, and it totally gets away with it because at this point the narrative has unravelled so much that the show can safely let go of whatever conformity it was barely hanging onto in s2b. and on a metafictional level the shift in external genre strangely parallels the progression of the two main characters: just as will and hannibal have changed each other, the show too has revealed its true nature

[hungrydolphin91]

Talestober day 23: Eggbear/Gentleman

So there's this easter egg enemy in Tales of Vesperia... may I present to you the secret third Scion of Lorelei 😂

[shatterthefragments]

Am I just stressed (mostly bc of 爸爸), getting sick, or getting sick bc I’m stressed?

Completely related I want to lay down and sleep for a week. (I cannot. I have class and homework and meetings and work).