#For liberty and beyond

[ultrakill-fanatic]

HELLDIVERS 2 AAAAHHH

This game has had me in a chokehold

[hurlyburlytopsyturvy]

huh? guar— whuh???

↓↓ up close guardian spook below ↓↓

[kiryma]

Felt like drawing them over a frame from the Mesmerizer MV, there's not any vague connection like with my other drawings

[holographings]

screenshot redraw time, i missed doing one-off pieces so much

[steveharrington]

ted wheeler honestly being a well written and realistic depiction of an oblivious father who loves his family but doesn’t really understand them as people and then somehow having his fanon characterization turned into this abusive monster who actively antagonizes his children and leaves them with lifelong trauma like. hello. nancy literally complains that her parents are boring and cookie cutter and they don’t really love each other but they’re complacent enough to just keep on living their little suburbia life. and yet somehow it’s such a common characterization to have ted be like Evil. it’s just so silly to me. esp on the evil dad show where characters like el or jonathan or max have actually been explicitly shown to have faced abuse from their father figures

[shelfperson]

i guess some people think they won’t do devil’s minion in the show but that just makes no sense to me??? i’m not even that gung-ho of a DM shipper it just makes sense with where amc’s going with the show.

like they’ve waaaaaaaay boosted daniel’s role in the story, (i for one could totally see him encompassing david’s arc and not just parts of his personality, to keep him in the show) and devil’s minion is like. daniel’s ONE thing in the books. like he interviews louis, devil’s minon happens, and then he just kind of fades into oblivion. that’s obviously not what rolin&co want to do with his story, so why get rid of daniel’s One Thing.

[moiraimyths]

Before we call anon rude because let’s see it from their perspective, imagine getting an entire feast to eat. That can be pretty hard to start with so much that’s going on, but if they start with one thing they know they’ll like (aka one character they like) that can be the start for them leaping to other characters to finish the story and the bigger story. I struggle the same way to start book series if I don’t have at least one character that drives me to read it, it’s all about what can be the hook to push them through. Sounds like the anon is neurodivergent (just a guess) so they might genuinely not see it as rude and see it as a solution to even play the game to start with.

Btw absolutely adore the game, the complex and rich characters making them all so unique is amazing. The art is so pleasing to the eyes I love it!! I’m waiting for it all to get out at once so I don’t get too impatient. Shae however interests me the most, which routes will have the most lore for them? Will there be routes that give more lore in general based on decisions you make or do they all share the same amount? (I mean general lore not just Shae lore)

Apologies; we are not trying to accuse any asker of being rude! We are simply explaining our perspective as the developers / are trying to broadly encourage folks to dip their toes into other areas of the story outside of the main route(s) they're interested in, especially considering some routes will be made available sooner than others, and these other routes will likely contain additional scenes/lore of everyone's fave(s) regardless! We want to give each main cast member an equal amount of love (and lore) regardless of their overall popularity, so our goal is not to tut-tut anyone for having strong preferences for one character over the others, but rather to explain that you may be surprised by how much *more* you learn about your preferred characters in the other routes. That's all!

For Shae... Well, they were a foot soldier for one of the worst periods of the War. Lore wise, any other story that touches on the War will likely have content relevant to them and their experiences. ^^

[lucyhasnoidea]

redraw.

(original: april 21/22 2023.)

honestly, the only reason I redrew fanart instead of something original is because this was the only thing i drew in april last year

[deusvmachina]

I'll say it with my whole chest that I believe that Songbird lying to V about the neutral matrix was never done out of malicious intent. She knew the risks of reaching out to V—for putting her faith in V out of sheer desperation and involving them in what would become a dire and bloody escape. She just wanted to stop losing more of herself physically and mentally to what's beyond the Blackwall, to stop being a weapon of mass destruction for Myers. A tool for the NUSA.

She joined their ranks to keep herself out of trouble for breaching that Militech data fortress (among other things I'd imagine). And she was probably hoping it was a huge opportunity to become one of the best netrunners with all of this top-of-the-line tech at her disposal but she just didn't realize back then that she'd be pushed into breaking international laws or be forced to reach beyond the Blackwell to the immense power beyond. She paid the price tenfold. So yeah, players can be mad that Songbird dangled a carrot (the cure) in front of V's nose. Most people likely are mad or feel played and that's valid. But the choice is there to not take that anger out on someone just as desperate to survive as V is and have them push through to the end and help as they had promised. V states several times throughout the game that they keep their word and do what they say they will do. V and Songbird are mirror images of each other: Songbird losing her memories/identity and organic body to the AIs just like V's brain is being forcibly overwritten by the biochip and her body is slowly degrading. During that conversation she and V had on the couch and through texts, Songbird expressed how she couldn't trust anybody in the FIA. She was alone. Wanted a way out.

Even Reed who thought he could help her was only making things worse. So when she discovered V and their dilemma (probably after she delved into the Cynosure Project is my guess), I say it's what drove her to finally break the (wires) and chains she'd been bound with. She devised a plan with Hansen—always two steps ahead as Reed had said—and reached out to V on the day of reckoning knowing them being in the same boat would be enough to make V fight like hell. It's possible she knew about V for weeks or even months prior. V can question (sorry, forget which part of the game they mentioned this) if perhaps a 'backdoor' was created when she went past the Blackwall with the Voodoo Boys. Songbird then used the Blackwall protocol to tap into the Relic, as confirmed by Slider.

The stakes were too great so Songbird withheld the truth, not wanting to chance V refusing to help her otherwise. She didn't have anyone else, didn't have much time left either so she lied.

I think it boils down to this: V can decide to put someone ahead of her own survival and sacrifice that guaranteed cure OR she can be just as shitty as Myers and let Songbird be the pawn that's sacrificed. What separates humans from anything else is how we are driven by our emotions and our hearts. We take leaps of faith and we make mistakes but what matters is the content of our character. Sometimes 'doing the right thing' isn't doing the right thing.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. And I leave you with this quote:

"I always marvel at the humans’ ability to keep going. They always manage to stagger on even with tears streaming down their faces." —Markus Zusak

[kuragesoda]

the block party song previews experience

[national-hockey-gay]

evgeni malkin + redemption

A NOTE FROM THE DESK OF A NEWBORN ADULT, by Lorde.

[solivagantingrebel]

The Psychology of a Dead Man (Ghost x Soap)

Ghoap angst below the cut! An excerpt from my fic, wanted to post it because I could. MW3 spoilers btw.

Eternal rest was an illusion, a prayer offered to the person that didn’t exist, a hope that was extended to someone who could never enjoy it. 

There was no peace after death. 

But, what of the ones they left behind? 

What of the promises they couldn’t keep, the words they couldn’t speak, the future they didn’t have anymore?

Simon Riley was intimately familiar with Death. 

It had followed his entire life as a silent spectre. Overlooked from his shoulders, watched in anticipation as he took part in its cycles, and finally, in that desolate grave of betrayal, it crawled to his neck and constricted violently, asking him the only question that mattered,

‘What are you willing to sacrifice to escape me?’

Simon Riley became ‘Ghost’ after that day.

He became the one forever marred by the reaper. After all, what can death do to the one who already belonged in its embrace? A dead man cannot die again.

But those surrounding him could, he learned this the hard way.

Again. 

Simon Riley thought he already lost everything he could that year; including himself.

He had closed himself off, nailed the coffin shut from the world. To most that were present in the world, he was dead, buried in the tomestone near his family’s graves — an empty coffin for an empty man. 

That was the end of his story. Whether he died again in a foreign land, far away from everything he had known, protecting the world from dangers it would never see, did not matter much. It would’ve been a fitting end, his presence, and absence, would’ve barely been felt. He would die doing what he knew best. That was the ‘life’ he had cultivated.

John Mactavish was a breath of fresh air.

If Simon had to describe him, it would be simple; ‘like life itself.’ Radiance, in their line of work, hardly persevered and Soap stood as the single most steadfast hope, the strongest one Ghost had ever witnessed. He was bright, warm and every bit of life to his death. Johnny had done the impossible too. He had reached into that grave, dusted off the forgotten ashes and shared his breath with a heart that had frozen over. Overtime, without notice; it had melted. 

Simon Riley didn’t realise that he was starting to feel alive again.

Didn’t realise that he was starting to let his guard down, didn’t realise he was starting to get comfortable with the feeling of having a home again. There was comfort in that certainty, a sense of peace in their close-knit taskforce. Ghost didn’t trust anyone yet he was starting to trust his new life. The one with John ‘Soap’ Mactavish in it.

Simon Riley was starting to fall in love.

Loving someone always came with a cost. Love, implied many things. For him, it implied the presence of a heart that could beat. That could feel. 

A heart that was alive.

John Mactavish had done the impossible.

With his lips alone, he resurrected a man that had died a long time ago. Dug him out of that pitiful grave, forced him to look at the burning sun and kissed him without an inch of care, ignoring the dirt and dust that had settled everywhere on man who wasn’t meant for this world.

Simon Riley finally found someone that he couldn’t bear to lose.

But life had other plans, life was cruel. 

Simon Riley was meant for Death. 

John Mactavish was Life itself.

Simon Riley lost his Life for the last time that day.

It happened when he wasn’t looking, most tragedies in his life did. Johnny, beautiful, vigorous and everything he could have asked for, was dead when he rushed to the scene. He had already bled out on the ground, shot and mangled in the pool of dark crimson. With him, he took the only strand of love that Simon Riley was ever allowed to have after Death. There would never be anyone else again, there would never be Johnny again. 

Simon Riley died for the third, and final, time that day.

In his place, Ghost stood. The grave that overlooked the Scottish cliff, the sea that was silent in his mourning, it was where he laid rest to his heart as well. 

‘Simon Riley’ didn’t exist anymore. 

There was never going to be a ‘Simon Riley’ without a ‘John Mactavish’. One could not rip a soul in half, burn it to ashes and call it whole again.

Ghost finally accepted what he was.

A mirrored spectre awaiting his judgement, a restless soul in purgatory.

John Mactavish was dead.

He took Ghost’s salvation with him, filled that coffin with both of their souls resting together, intertwined forever in death. It went beyond the vows of anything the world could have allowed them to promise.

Death was never peaceful.

His days were barely of note anymore, everything blended together without a distinction, the colour drained from life like Johnny took all of them when he left. He had dipped his eyes in a forever greyscale, one that promised to follow him till the end.

The only memory of any hues were stored in the time he had shared with him. It haunted him every waking moment, the bright blues that followed him just out of reach, flirting at the edge of remembrance, the vivid canopy of feelings that weighed heavily in its absence. It made his chest feel heavy, limbs sluggish from the weight he didn’t want to carry.

Life never felt this burdensome before.

This was his forever.

[Fic link: Beyond Life and Death]

[aceghosts]

“Total control” for Rooney? :>

Thank you for this prompt!

[Microstory Prompts]

Prompt: Total Control Warnings: None.

“Songbird….,” Rooney eyes the Chimera warily, that familiar sense of ‘oh fuck’ dread washing over them, “Please tell me you have total control over that goddamn thing.”

“Shepard, I…,” Her voice glitches out as the Chimera suddenly collapses, red electricity coursing through it. A shiver runs up Rooney’s spine, their feeling of dread intensifying.

“Get behind me,” Rooney orders Myers, placing themself between her and the Chimera, “Songbird, if you’re there…”

Songbird doesn’t answer; instead, the Chimera lurches to it’s feet, slightly unsteady. As the Chimera focuses on Rooney and Myers, they instantly recognize the menacing, red, glitchy static emitting from the robot. “GO! NOW!” Rooney shouts, the machine gun preparing to fire as both sprint towards the closest exit. Why the fuck was it always something from beyond the Blackwall?

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Spaghetti Westerns Part One of Two it has Apache Blood 1973, Between God,the Devil and a Winchester 1968, Beyond the Law 1968, China 9 Liberty 37 1978, Death Rides a Horse 1968, The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe 1972, Find a Place to Die 1968, Fistful of Lead 1970, God's Gun 1975,and Grand Duel 1974

[fumizous]

don't fuck with us yokai watch 2 fans there's like 3 of us and we all have an individual niche

[subjxctseventeen]

no spoilers i promise but quantum break fans how are we feeling about alan wake 2 because i am LIVING