#Hollow's self loathing absolutely is though

[twoastricts]

Decided to adopt the head canon that Wyrms like to hoard trinkets. I have many thoughts and ideas about it, and reasons for adopting it.

Each wyrm, and being with the mind of a wyrm, (I.E. just the vessels and Hornet) enjoy hoarding one specific trinket. A holdover instinct from the days when they didn't have minds, as wyrms are true omnivores, able to eat anything, so instead of hunting instincts they had hoarding instincts.

Each wyrm's hoard was heavily guarded. They would never let anyone take from it without their permission, and were known for hiding them in little nooks and crannies.

Wyrms liked to encourage this instinct, especially in their kits. If a wyrm didn't collect and add to their hoard, it might be a sign of depression, anxiety, unhealthily high stress levels, low self esteem and hole slu of other mental health issues, sometimes also being signs of physical sickness.

While most wyrm instincts get covered up by their minds, different minds let through different instincts. Some wyrms struggle with borrowing instincts, other struggle with instincts revolving around mating and breeding. Wyrm with a capital W struggles with nesting instincts. That being said, the hoarding instinct is the only instinct, besides the instincts revolving around how their tails show their emotions, that every wyrm seems to have no matter what. There is a hereditary syndrome in which the instinct seems to not be there, but that doesn't stop wyrms with it from hoarding, as hoarding had become a part of wyrm culture, but they did struggle with figuring out what they wanted to hoard since it didn't come to them naturally. Sometimes the object that a wyrm hoarded would change, normally after some sort of trauma but it sometimes just happened. The literature of wyrm society nearly always mentioned what the protagonist hoarded, and having that change by the end of the story was a common trope. That being said, any time a wyrm that had this instinct tried to suppress the instinct, it rarely worked, unless it was supposed since kithood, then it might be hard to reobtain said instinct.

[oddyseye]

Achilles killing Hector is absolutely a metaphor for Achilles’ suicidal despair.

Homer presents Achilles and Hector not just as opposing warriors, but as reflections of one another. They are, paradoxically, more alike than any other two men on the battlefield. This likeness is central to the metaphor of self-destruction. They’re both unstoppable warriors, both driven by duty, and both doomed to die young. The difference is in their choices. Hector fights to protect his family and his city. Achilles? He fights for his name, for glory. And when Hector kills Patroclus, it’s like everything Achilles can’t stand about himself — his failure, his pride, his isolation — gets shoved in his face. That’s why Hector has to die. It’s not just revenge. It’s personal. To start, consider how Hector literally steps into Achilles’ identity by wearing his armor. When Hector puts on Achilles’ armor after killing Patroclus, he literally becomes Achilles’ mirror image. He’s wearing the skin of Achilles’ rage, guilt, and grief. Homer doesn’t just stop there, in fact he hammers it home when we straight-up get told that Hector in the armor looked like Achilles chasing and trying to kill himself.

But this isn’t just about Hector wearing the armor. It’s about what the armor represents. Achilles gave it to Patroclus, knowing full well it would make his best friend a target. When Hector kills Patroclus, Achilles’ first reaction isn’t just grief; it’s self-hatred. Deep down, he thinks he killed Patroclus. He let his pride keep him off the battlefield, sent Patroclus out there to do his job, and now his friend is dead. So when Achilles sees Hector in the armor, it’s like looking at a walking, breathing embodiment of his failure.

Hector isn’t just a reminder of Achilles’ guilt, though. He’s also everything Achilles feels he can never be. Hector has a family — a wife and child who adore him. He fights not for himself but for the people he loves. And that infuriates Achilles. Hector has what Achilles doesn’t, and by this point, Achilles doesn’t even want it anymore. By losing Patroclus, he lost any chance of such life. And Achilles knows killing Hector will seal his own doom. He just...doesn’t care. In fact, he’s already resigned to it. This is where the suicidal undertones really hit hard. Killing Hector is Achilles’ way of accelerating his own destruction. He’s not just dragging Hector’s body around Troy out of vengeance; he’s punishing himself. He’s tearing apart the last shred of his humanity, dragging it through the dirt, because that’s how deep his self-loathing goes. That’s why the act of killing Hector feels so hollow and unsatisfying for him. Dragging Hector’s body around Troy, desecrating it, isn’t about punishing Hector; it’s about punishing himself. It’s Achilles’ way of tearing apart the part of him that still feels, still mourns, still holds onto a shred of humanity. By the time Priam comes to beg for his son’s body, Achilles is unrecognizable as the man who once lived for glory and triumph. He’s lost in his grief, consumed by his guilt, and haunted by the inevitability of his own death. Killing Hector wasn’t an act of justice or redemption. It was Achilles’ final descent into despair. What remains of him after that moment is just a shadow of the man he once was, waiting for the end he knows will come.

[reborrowed-archive]

curses and confession, part 1 (Stranger Swap)

okayyy this has gotten past 6k and I really want to post so I'm just gonna slice it up since my chapters are usually ~2k anyways!

next | Stranger Swap masterpost Hollow deals with a witch after having an unprecedented close call while checking in on his sibling (probably read that first if you havent!) word count: ~1.8k contains: angst, fear, survivor’s guilt, self-loathing

Hollow

The property behind Glenwood Court apartments had an old, dilapidated shed that the owner mostly used for storage, when they remembered it exists at all. Amid all their junk and forgotten landscaping tools lived an unusual little man named Ely, though most who knew of him referred to him as the garden witch. 

He was a borrower by most metrics: small, secretive, and prone to hoarding any trinkets left unattended. He had a tail and the same sharp hearing you would expect a borrower to have. But he was also quite visibly something Other. Ostentatious, absolutely out of line with a borrower's instinctual pull towards the shadows. He had a love of light and glitter that accentuated the pair of iridescent wings that hung limply down his back. And the tallest borrower he’d ever met had still only been at eye level with his chest.

Most borrowers were afraid of him. Of course they were, they were such a naturally skittish people. But they had good reason to come visit him anyways. Ely was a miracle worker. Something out of a children’s story. A magician. A witch.

He had clients come from all over the neighborhood, maybe even further corners of the city, because he made trades no one else could. The last of your rice for a cloak you lost a decade ago. A secret for a pinch of luck exactly when you needed it most. Give up a warm enough memory and never go cold again. Odd trades for small impossibilities. The prices didn’t always make sense up front, but they always worked out in the end. He didn’t give out anything for free, Hollow had seen that much. 

She watched with a fascinated sort of disgust as the witch molded a stranger’s words into physical paste with a practiced hand. The stranger walked off with a handful of dust and a smile they tried to swallow when they noticed someone was looking.

The witch called Hollow forward. She swallowed nervously and took a seat on a hackysack across from the small giant. The shed was silent for a few seconds as Hollow tried to remember what it was she had planned on saying. 

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” the witch said through a thoughtful expression

“Ah, yeah. I–a couple times,” she said. Chai had dragged him here for a sleep aid during the pregnancy, and again shortly after Sunny was born for a sleep alternative.

“I almost don’t recognize you without the piebald. Are they alright?”

“Xe’s fine, I’m not here for…xe doesn’t know I’m here,” Hollow said.

The witch raised a brow as his lips bent into an impish smirk. Hollow tensed as she leaned forward like some housewife gathering gossip. 

“Making trouble, are we? Or are we planning a surprise? I promise I’m quite good at either, for the right price,” he said.

“It’s nothing to do with xem, I just had some questions. About magic. Just questions, I don’t need you to cast…it’s about something I saw happen to someone else, my sibling. Val? I wanted to know, how…did you trade with them?”

The witch drummed his fingers contemplatively against his work table in a quick rhythm, then shook his head. He didn’t remember anyone by that name.

Hollow bit her lip as she worried about where else magic might come from, but she wasn’t entirely surprised. The shed was next door and Val had never been the adventurous type. Not that Hollow knew about, anyway. She could hardly imagine them climbing through the fence. Although lately, every time she tried to imagine much of anything about her sibling, she fell back into nightmares about Val’s hands punching through the colony walls and burying her in rubble or…or worse. 

“Then, do you know where else they could’ve found magic? Or, however you say that. Bargained for it,” Hollow said.

“Other magic? There’s plenty, if you know how to look. I can’t say I know of many others in the area with my level of expertise, but I can ask around. What is it you think you saw?”

“I know what I saw, I’m not stupid.” Hollow said tersely. She glanced around to be sure there was no one who might overhear. “They were huge. Human.”

“Human,” the witch echoed doubtfully. Several seconds passed as the witch considered Hollow’s claim. 

“You saw this? Were they…solid, do you know? Real?”

“They threw me across the cupboard, so yeah, I’d say they were real,” Hollow scoffed.

“How curious.”

The witch smiled and golden wire bangles clattered down his wrist as he abruptly stood up to jump up onto the next shelf. His wings flared for a second, catching the candlelight, even though the jump onto the bracket was low enough that Hollow could’ve easily cleared it. She fidgeted with the frayed edge of her sleeve, not sure if she was supposed to follow. She didn’t really want to see the witch’s full collection of eccentricities.

There was a cluster of thumps overhead as Ely fumbled with whatever it was he was doing. It sounded like a bag full of pebbles, or maybe marbles. Some nonsense. Hollow hated believing in this shit, that someone could just break reality by waving their hands just wrong. There was enough to fear in the world without worrying about finding magic lurking in the shadows beside her.

The witch came back down a minute later, holding a book of scrap paper with messy stitches for binding. It was about half as tall as Hollow was, large enough to be awkward in even the witch’s hands. He sat on the floor and flipped through it, too fast for Hollow to try reading along, though she noticed there were a lot of symbols that weren't a part the alphabet she did know. A minute passed and Ely hmmed and shook his head, evidently there was nothing useful there for him either. 

“Did your sibling say anything about what had happened?”

Hollow fidgeted with her climbing floss. She felt the witch staring at him even without looking up. 

“I didn’t ask. We didn’t talk. I just ran when they saw me. And then they…that was when they threw me. I wasn’t there long,” she said.

“When was this, anyway? You went and saw your sibling without speaking to them?” 

Hollow hadn’t spoken with Val since she had abandoned them—10 years, give or take. Even when Ritos had shown up with Val limping along behind him, Hollow had only been able to stare. They were a ghost back then and a monster now. What was she supposed to say?

Sorry I left you with her, but I was sure she was going to kill me. Sorry I didn’t come back, but I figured you’d be dead. I’m sorry I didn’t do more for you.

Please don’t hurt me. I’m sorry.

“I came here for answers, not to be questioned,” she said stiffly.

“Patience, dear. I don’t know any magic like what you’ve described, and wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t waste time finding you answers you don’t even want?”

“What does it matter whether or not I talked to them?”

The witch took a seat beside her as if they were two close friends instead of near strangers. Hollow flinched as one of Ely’s long fingers tilted her chin so the two were making eye contact. Unnatural. Everything about this man was unnatural.

“What does it matter? If you’re not on speaking terms with your sibling, what does it matter what magics they play with in their free time? Why are the answers so important that you’ll come out and deal with me?”

“It’s dangerous. Them, I mean, or…if they’re h—if they can pass themself off as human like that, they could come after the colony just like any real human. I don’t need to explain why that’s a problem, do I?”

“Fear? Then why waste time coming to me for answers? Your council has its ways to deal with threats, doesn’t it? Even humans,” Ely said. 

“I don’t know if I want them…dealt with. I don’t know where they’d even go or…”

“So what do you want from me?” the witch asked.

“Answers. I want to know what’s going on,” Hollow said stubbornly. 

“Yes, and I don’t yet have any answers to give you. How I go about finding them depends on why you want them. It will be a lot more work if you’re looking to imitate whatever spell they’ve used.”

Hollow’s face flushed—she’d thought about it, of course. She assumed everyone imagined being human now and then, even if they didn’t talk about it. Who wouldn’t want to know what the world really looked like from human eyes? And Hollow had a list of giants she’d love to confront face-to-face if given the chance: that girl, the leafblower asshole, the gardener, the dog owner across the street, the miniature maker…but it was a daydream. If this sort of thing was real, then dreaming about that sort of violence could invite it. She didn’t really want to fight every other giant that had ever inconvenienced her, even if she could do it without getting hurt. Aggression was their game. 

“I just want to know what happened.”

Ely tilted his head. He looked unsatisfied, like a cat whose prey managed to get out of reach. Hollow looked back down at her lap and took a breath. She didn’t talk about this. She tried not to think about it. There was no good to come of it, just crushed feelings and guilt.

“And…I, yeah, I worry about Val, too. I’m afraid of what they might have gotten themself into. I want to know if they’re…okay. It’s hardly a sin that I care about my sibling, is it?”

It felt like a sin. How dare she? After everything she had failed to do, how dare she claim to care? She’d abandoned them to a horrible fate and then lied about it so no one would find out what she’d done.

“Maybe this was a mistake,” Hollow muttered. 

Ely rubbed her back and for a split second, Hollow felt like a child getting pulled into her mother’s lap after a bad day. And then the overlarge borrower inhaled deeply, almost dreamily, and Hollow pulled away.

“I do love a good confession,” Ely sighed, “Even when the truth is so...plain. You’d likely be better going back and talking to Val yourself, but I’ll see what I can find out, without harming your sibling. Is this agreeable?”

“What do you want from me in exchange?”

Ely smiled, toothy as any predator. Hollow stood up to put at least a few centimeters of distance between them. 

“Don’t worry about payment. I enjoy an excuse to research with my kin and…this has been even more pleasant. I should have some sort of answer for you after the full moon, but you’re welcome to return any time if you need anything else.”

Hollow shook the witch’s hand to seal the deal, then hurried off the shelf. She didn’t want to spend a second more than necessary in that wretched shed.

~

taglist: @da3dm @whumpsday

[magicalgirlsirin]

the elysian realm: well written, poorly directed

NOTE: this post is an elysian realm critical look by a relative newcomer to hi3, i dont really have the grace of having played it as it came out. i enjoy the elysian realm, but in my opinion, its absolutely a mess with regards to storytelling.

Part 1: so no theme?

When I titled this post, I meant it quite literally. There's plenty of stuff within Elysian Realm that is well written, I'm not here to argue that it isn't (with some small caveats). Most characters are interesting and engaging, and have a wealth of available text to further their depth. The real problem here is that all that detail and work isn't in service of anything. There is no theme to the Elysian Realm, no point of narrative, no common through line. Elysia introduces us to the realm, implies there's a point, that the 'unfinished lives' of these 13 trailblazers is going to go somewhere, and then waffles the plot all the way from the initial game mode through Elysium Everlasting, with a final cinematic which I will get to later for my thoughts on why it doesn't work.

The initial game mode that kicks off the story is just oddly paced. The first chapter is relatively fine, just serving as an introduction to the realm and its mechanics both in and out of universe. One of the first questions I had was just "why does kevin have a weird basement paradise with ai copies of his mostly dead friends and then also a version of himself and hua who are still very much alive" and I'm loathe to report that the realm never bothers answering this question or elaborating on why it exists. At risk of sounding like HoC, it really is a meaningless diversion with pointless people existing redundantly.

The second and third chapters, however, are unforgivably bad. I realized upon reflection they were probably heavy focus on Mobius and Aponia respectively because their suits were debuting at the time (or something to that effect) but it feels like such an agonizing detour to focus on them with seemingly no other motive. Learning about the two furthers my understanding of the Flame Chasers as a unit, I Guess, but doesn't illuminate anything about the realm or even Elysia.

I will get back to Elysia.

Part 2: No really, why is Mei here?

Another major problem with the Elysian Realm is that Mei pretty much ceases to be a character. Even though she's the point of view, she barely expresses any of her own opinions, thoughts, or even basic input outside of rebuffing Elysia's attempts to flirt with her. Sure, she still has some snark and sass to her, especially when interacting with Kevin, but outside of that I can barely remember anything important she does. Which is crazy! I could easily describe any other contribution she's made to various chapter sets/arcs within the game, but the Elysian Realm is absolutely dead air.

This ties into the fact that the realm has no theme, there's not a point, so Mei isn't going on a character journey. You could argue that Elysia is influential to Mei's arc for gifting her the power of origin, but that's not really... character growth. Mei becomes origin because she accepts the blessings* and ideals of the Flame Chasers, but because she didn't learn dick or shit in the actual realm, everything kind of just rings hollow. Mei functionally is meant to be a stand in for you, the viewer, to self insert into the realm and imagine that you're the one interacting with everyone, which is such a disservice to Mei.

*I want to briefly sidebar to curb the misconception that Mei was given the power of origin because she collected all the signets, or that the point of the realm was to find someone to collect them all to have that power passed along to them. Mei getting the power is unrelated to the realm's existence as far as I'm concerned, given that Hua says this:

I trust that Hua is telling the truth here, mostly because she has no reason to lie to us. What this does leave us with is, unsurprisingly, still no answer on the purpose of the realm. Vague handwaving of Kevin saying that Mei has earned the right to "seek answers" only for the narrative to do a weird slight of hand where Aponia goes "now you get to know Elysia's secret because you defeated me kyaaaaa" is not the point. I doubt Kevin allows people into his basement for the possibility of finding out some dead chick from 50,000 years ago that no one outside of WS would actually know by name was secretly a herrscher.

Speaking of which.

Part 3: The Elysia was always a herrscher reveal is dumb

I know this is the most contentious part of the discourse™ when it comes to Elysia, but I cannot understate how stupid it is. I can accept retcons of herrscher order, begrudgingly but yes I will concede if the game wants to commit to it. What I cannot concede to is the game saying that Elysia was born a herrscher.

All the Flame Chasers got MANTIS surgery. This is a fact. Elysia received it as well. Don't you think like, I don't know, literally anyone involved in the procedure would have noticed she has honkai radiation off her like a nuclear bomb? This is such a basic hole in logic and it feels like the game almost wants you to forget that this is a thing, but I didn't, I've spent the past 2 months digging through all the realm game mode text to come to this conclusion.

I also have grift with the fact that she was a previous era herrscher with sapience, since a lot of the tragedy of the previous era is because of the loss of humanity. Kevin was fucking devastated by the HoF emergence, because he hesitated. He saw Murata's face and thought she was still in there. But she wasn't. Kalpas lost Emile to the HoD. Mobius lost Klein, not only to her own over-ambition, but to HoL. Sakura lost Rin to HoC. All of these are essential to their stories, and it's because those herrschers were just mindless tools, godproxy emanators of destruction with no higher order thinking skills. Only a will to subjugate humanity.

Oh but actually Elysia is a sweet and special perfect girl who never did anything wrong, she didn't betray anyone, she was always the bestest girl who loved humanity and was a friend to everyone because she's so lovable and you should love her too ❤️❤️❤️

Yeah no I'm not doing that. I want to make it clear that I actually really like Elysia, and it doesn't take much to fix the parts of her story that have no logic or retcon themselves in the span of a chapter. She's very close to being well written, which makes it all the more frustrating that the narrative continually bends around her to make her have less flaws. Elysia is pushy! She's overbearing, and tends to needle at people whenever she notices something. She forces Mobius to try on clothes she likes but Mobi doesn't, she constantly flirts with Mei and calls their hangouts dates even if Mei doesn't seem interested, she's a little selfish and plays pranks, all of this stuff is very endearing! I just can't deal with the other things the game does to try and make me like Ely more.

Part 4: Even if I try to fix it, the realm is broken

I could sit down and outline ways to fix Elysia's writing, the way the realm's story is structured, and it would be fine and dandy in service of smoothing over the stuff I didn't like about it, but you know what it wouldn't fix?

Mei.

Yeah I think we all just keep forgetting about Mei being in here. The thing is that because the Elysian Realm is such a dead weight in canon, you almost can't make Mei go through character development because it wouldn't flow into Transcending Finality in a comprehensible way, and this post isn't about the problems with the final chapter set of Part 1 (although I do promise I have some complaints about the writing choices in there too).

The realm treating Mei as a self insert, and not really serving her arc either, is seen most obviously in "Because of You", the ending cinematic. One that famously doesn't feature Mei at all in the fighting. The ender for this arc is Elysia, because all things start with Elysia. It's Elysia Impact all the way down, except for the part where it has literally no bearing on the main plot.

And that's the problem, isn't it? The only thing the realm really does is augment our understanding of Kevin, and only barely so if you want to split hairs about how Sim!Kevin isn't our Kevin, given that there's a few stray dialogue moments that actually go against Sim!Kevin and most other characters insistence that Kevin is an immovable rock of a man.

So at the end of it all, what do I even say? I love the realm, obsessed to death with it, all the characters are my favorites, well written, absolutely dogshit in terms of story direction. I find this contradiction to be reflective of Elysia, a character who exists only as a vessel for whatever the writer/story director thought would be cool, instead of making it mean anything.

[vevasap]

Radicalized Self-Loathing

In the asphalt behind the home

He's no longer allowed to set foot inside

He lays down angry and defeated

With only two possible ways

Back onto his feet.

He is an old friend

Though if I knew what was good for me

I'd say he was an old friend.

Regularly calls for my genocide now

Within the screaming mobs

He begs to believe give him a place,

Because he can't forgive

the world for being imperfect,

Nor can he forgive

Himself for being different.

So instead he has to make the world perfect

But perfect to him

Is only just himself

Minus every aspect that he hates,

Which are only just the characteristics

Which make him real,

Which make him him.

The absolute vapidity

Of never being the person that you are,

Is an entirely hollow endeavor.

[jllongwrites]

In Which a Queer Pseudo-Christian Attempts To Process His Good Omens Feelings

I. I Want to Be Loved

The first novel I ever tried to write was a romance novel.

It was a very bad novel. I was twelve years old when I started it, and it absolutely read as though it was written by a twelve year old author.  I only ever wrote a handful of chapters. I don’t remember much about it now. But I remember that the main character was a frightened, self-loathing mess who scrambled to hide his brokenness behind walls of sarcasm and pretending not to care.

It was the middle of the 1990s, and at twelve years old I knew, the same way I knew that the sky was blue or that grass was green, that nobody would ever love me. Not romantic love. Not the kind of love I wanted. I had not yet learned the word “transgender”—it would be four more years before my household even got the internet—but I knew “gay.” And other words. Already, at twelve, I’d learned so many words for what I was. Freak. Pervert. Abomination.

Unloveable.

Untouchable.

So I wrote stories. I wrote stories, and I created new worlds, worlds where love could exist. Where love could heal and redeem and sanctify. I wrote about monsters, about mutants and aliens, about every sort of non-human freak of nature, and I gave to them all of the love that I knew they deserved. I gave to them all of the love that I hungered for, and I told myself it would be enough to close my eyes and just be able to imagine how all that love might taste on my own aching tongue, how it might feel in my empty belly. It would be enough. It had to be.

II. I Am Loved

Today I am forty one years old.

I’m married. We were married more than ten years ago now. In the morning I wake up and roll over, and my wife is there, still sleeping, and I bury my face against her shoulder and wrap an arm around her waist. I breathe her in, and she’s warm and soft and there and real. I’m happy. I’ve been happier for more years, by now, than all of those years where I wasn’t. Than all of those years where I didn’t think that happiness could be meant for someone like me.

But there are memories that live deep in the bones. Like poisoned arrows—you can take out the arrowhead, but the poison’s already seeped inside. It’s still there. And perhaps you survive that poison, perhaps you live on, you recover, but you’re never quite the same as you were before they shot you down. How could you be?

III. Still I Want to Be Loved

On my forearm there is a tattoo that reads “Beloved.”

It’s in the handwriting of my former pastor, a tiny lipstick lesbian who’s still a good friend, who’d written it on my arm in Sharpie during a Sunday service several years ago. She invited all of us in the congregation up and wrote it on all our arms, marking us as children of God, and it was the culmination of that week’s sermon. I didn’t know then, just as I don’t know now, that I believe in anything like God or in anything like God’s love, but for at least a few hours on that one Sunday morning, I wanted to believe.

I asked her if she would mind if I got the word permanently tattooed, and she said she’d be delighted. So I did.

There is such cruelty in the world, such suffering and such hopelessness, and so precious little of anything like justice or mercy. 

My wife told me once that she couldn’t conceive of believing in anything like a personal god who knew or noticed or cared about individual human lives. It would be like a human being caring about, knowing about, an individual ant. You can care about ants as a species, can care about their place in the ecosystem, but you can’t know the heart or individuality of one specific single ant on the other side of the world away, not even if you wanted to.

The Heaven of Good Omens is cold and cruel and empty, and so is its Love, a blasphemous Love that is nothing at all like love. The Hell of Good Omens is cold and cruel and empty, and so is its Hatred, a hollow and passionless thing that is nothing at all like hatred. Neither Heaven nor Hell even sees humanity, as a whole, let alone any individual human being, and “ineffable” is just an airy word for bullshit.

But in this same world there is also an absolute disaster of a demon and the idiotic angel that he loves. They love the world. They love each other. And it’s not Love–not some vague, abstract thing, limp and lifeless—no, it is love, warm and flawed and personal and real. They love the world, because the world has delicious crepes and beautiful music and top-shelf alcohol and gleaming automobiles you can drive way too fast. They love the world, because they love people, individual people, stupid and weak and infuriating, as well as people generally, because it was people who invented crepes and cars and the Velvet Underground. 

They want to save this world and its people, because they love them. And despite the opposition of both Heaven and Hell themselves, despite all the fumblings of human beings, despite how the demon’s a broken drunken mess and the angel’s a blind well-meaning fool, sometimes they actually do save the world. Sometimes they even manage to save each other.

I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in Heaven, and I don’t believe in Hell. But, romantic fool that I am, I still believe in love.

[liichkiing]

YOU'D BETTER PICK YOUR WEAPONS UP

AND THROW YOUR MERCY DOWN

Hi everybody look at my Hollow Knight oc. Their name is Raiko and they are a scorpion from a kingdom far from Hallownest. Infodumping (which kind of reads like a little story) and also several more sketches under the cut!!!!

SO basically they were raised as a brainwashed soldier but then they assassinated their king and tried to stage a full on revolution but their heavily militaristic kingdom quashed it really quickly. And as punishment they were "made an example of" (dismembered slowly and publicly). Their fellow rebels snuck in and freed them before their stinger was removed though, and one of the others had started making them prosthetic arms. Their hideout got raided before their second, third, or fourth sets of missing limbs had proper finished prosthetics, so they only have the one set of arms. They and their fellows scattered, and they haven't seen or heard from any of them since. They have no idea if anyone else even survived that raid.

Anyway. They fled to the ruins of Hallownest, since it's a death trap. They assumed their pursuers wouldn't follow them there, as the assumption could safely be made that they were either dead or miserable down there.

They are alone for a while until they happen upon the mantis tribe. A younger mantis warrior named Kas'il recognizes them as a dangerous individual and tries to take them down, but Raiko has a lot more experience and quickly takes her down. They don't kill her, though, because she's one of the first non-infected bugs they've seen around. Slowly, they end up bonding, and Kas'il tells them that if they can best her tribe's Lords in combat, then her tribe will no longer be hostile to them even though they are a terrifying huge scorpion and are very reminiscent of the beasts of Deepnest.

So, Raiko fights the Mantis Lords, and they come to respect each other. They're able to freely travel into Deepnest, which they are hesitant to do at first, but they're very much drawn to the dark. Part of them feels like they belong in Deepnest. This is their self loathing talking, but, hey, it happens.

At some point, they hear stories about the Mask Maker, and, given that their face and horns were disfigured during their failed rebellion, they are a bit desperate for. Again, they have a lot of self loathing and survivor's guilt, and they hate being reminded of their failures every time that they see their reflection.

They spend increasing amounts of time isolating themself in Deepnest, killing a lot of dirtcarvers in the process. They end up carving out a little hole for themself in the tunnels somewhere. Eventually they don't even talk to Kas'il anymore.

One day a strange, pale little thing breaks into their home, catching them off guard. They fight, and after several (or maybe just one) attempts, the little ghost defeats them. With Raiko feigning death, the ghost leaves. Not long after, though, it returns. Raiko tells it that they don't want to fight it, since it's clearly a determined and formidable foe. Instead, they offer stories from their distant home--a new tale every time that their strange visitor returns.

After several stories, they realize how much talking about their life has made them feel... Happy. They didn't know they could even feel happy. It was strange and perhaps a bit scary, but, with their newfound motivation, they knew that they had to do something for their strange companion. They made a gift: a charm, much like the one they'd been granted by the mantises, but with their own twist.

Venomous Blade

Imbued with the power and guilt of a deadly beast. The bearer's nail is coated with scorpion venom and deals more damage over time. When hit, the bearer's strength resets.

Shortly after the Absolute Radiance is killed and the Infection is no more, Raiko happens across a Nosk hunting a strange little glowing beetle. Raiko kills the Nosk, but the little beetle reminds them of a friend they once had, and so (although they look delicious) they let the beetle live and opt to protect the little adventurer.

(And then they fall in love and adopt some weird little vessels.)

(Kite, the luma beetle, belongs to @ivory-obsidian ::^D)

[deafeningdonutshark]

My first album, Feeding Time, and the story behind it

By Victoria Kerr

11/6/2023

People say a joke that needs to be explained is a bad one. That might be the same with albums. But here goes anyway.

Back in 2014, I was just learning how to play guitar. I was finally teaching myself after five years of having it but being too scared to make any sort of valiant effort at learning it. It had been a dream of mine to be a singer since I was a kid, and I started writing lyrics, sometimes with a melody, sometimes not, when I was nine. As I got older, I knew I would need to learn an instrument if I wanted to write songs for real. Guitar seemed like a good option.

I started writing songs right away as I learned, even though I was a guitar newbie who knew just a few chords. I remember getting so frustrated and thinking on several occasions, “How the hell do people strum and sing at the same time?!” And then I would go weeks without playing, disgusted with myself and thinking my guitar hated me.

The other thing to know that would probably put this more in context is that I’m a shy person, and at that time in particular, I could barely look myself in the mirror let alone anyone else. I felt delusional thinking I could ever have the confidence to actually get on a stage and perform for people or even just put my stuff online. I had so much self-loathing that, while I might have been excited for a few moments, maybe a day, after writing a song, that would be followed by absolute contempt for it, thinking that there’s no way I could ever create something good or interesting or valuable.

But in 2015, in one of my moments of grand delusion, after practicing for about a year and accumulating a small collection of songs recorded on my iPod (albeit shakily played and sung and hitting bum notes left and right), I got excited feeling like I had enough for an album. I titled it Feeding Time after one of the songs and arranged them in the order I wanted to tell the story and put together an interpretation of what I wanted for the front and back covers (done in Microsoft Paint, see below). I actually knew a graphic designer/visual artist at the time, and we went to lunch together and I asked if he could help me with the cover saying, “I want like a picture of a woman’s naked body that’s been hollowed out so the skin is see-through and it’s kind of decomposing and it’s being used as an aquarium with fish swimming in it and seaweed and algae and stuff.” He stared at me for a few seconds and then said, “I don’t get it,” and I said, “Oh never mind!” and we never spoke of it again.

I thought I was ready back then…but then the doubt crept back in. And I felt it wasn’t good enough and that I needed to keep practicing and trying to write. Which I did. But always with that crippled limb of fear slowing me down.

Over the past few years, I’ve done a lot of work on myself, trying to understand the ways I’d been conditioned by the world around me, trying to unlearn the values and ways of being that were never really mine, trying to get back to who I really am and live as a whole being. A being that can unconditionally love. And music was always in my mind with that. I would think, “Maybe one day I can get to a place where I feel okay enough with myself to do it.”

So here we are now. I’ve been working on a new set of songs that I’m excited about. And then a few days ago, “Nothing But Water” popped into my head. I had not listened to that song in years. Like others on this album, it was a song where I had been practicing chords and then started singing over them, stopped so I could grab my iPod, hit record, and then just let whatever needed to come out come out. One of the thoughts that held me back eight years ago was, “Can a four-minute musing over two or three chords even be considered a song?” But then there I was a few days ago, singing it to myself out of nowhere, as if it was someone else’s. And I knew, it was a song.

Listening to this album now, I love it. I loved it back then. I feel like some of my biggest influences, the people who I’ve spent so many hours listening to that I have absorbed their very essence into mine — Cat Power and Lana Del Rey and Frank Black and, dare I say, even Mr. Cobain — to name a few, are definitely there, which makes me happy. I thought about re-recording the songs to play them better, sing them better. But I kind of like how raw they are. I like that my 23/24-year-old voice is the one singing them. And I like what I’m saying in them. It’s the truth of the way I felt about things at the time. And still sometimes feel now. And my silly jokes in them still make me laugh — so do the bits of TV you can hear because I would turn the volume way up because I’d rather my neighbors in the apartment complex hear a loud TV than me playing. I also like that you can hear my dog Kirby’s collar jingling in the background of some of them. He’s my little percussionist.

Okay, okay enough yammering — without further ado, here is Feeding Time. Thank you for reading and thank you for listening and thank you for existing!

Update: I uploaded the wrong recording of Reluctant Muse! I think this is the first one I had, but Kirby is sadly not on it. I added the take I did where you can hear him rocking out!

There’s one more thing I want to add about the subject matter of these songs. Three men appear on this album. One of them is my dad. He left the family when I was eight. And, four years before making this, we found out he had died the year before. It was a strange feeling because we hadn’t seen him in so long. So it was kind of like, oh okay, I guess we just keep moving on with life. We didn’t know how to grieve it. I think so often we as people stuff our feelings down when they’re in the in-between, hard-to-define places.

There have been times I’ve felt like I was sleepwalking through my life. Listening to these songs back, now I know I wasn’t sleepwalking. I was just processing things in my own way, in my own time.

[ganondorf--apologist]

(Genuinely curious to see your top five!) :3cc Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love❤

dakjsfkljaslkfjsa;kldfj yus! All of these are hk ones lol, which are all set in the In Defiance of Time fic series, but without further ado-

Chili's Top 5 Self Recs:

In Defiance of Time (multichapter, still in progress)

No surprises here in the number one spot is absolutely, hands down, In Defiance of Time and I'm absolutely going to use this as an excuse to gush about it! It's a time travel fic where Ghost panics after they [spoiler] and makes a desperate jump anywhere into the past, landing all the way back at the very beginning of their life before the fall of Hallownest. Through their decisions and continued attempts to run from their problems they kick off a chain of events that land NKG in the role of Tragic Secondary Antagonist and Ghost in the role of Main Antagonist and Final Boss, with Hollow taking Ghost's place as the Main Protagonist after much build up alongside an ensemble protag squad. Writing it has been a lot of fun, especially the challenge of having a story with conflict and fighting and angst and death without having any villains. I love this fic and writing it so far has been one hell of a ride, which I pretty much expected after writing chapter 2 when I figured out both why Ghost went back in time and subsequently what the ending was going to be, and realized that I was not, in fact, writing a comedy, and rewrote chapter 1 accordingly. I stick by the change in direction and themes though, learning how to face your regrets and making the choice to try and become a better person even when you feel as though you're a lost cause and that such efforts would be futile is something that hits right at my heart and in a way it kinda feels like I'm writing a story for the me from a decade ago. For that remorse filled, self-loathing, suicidally depressed, asshole who wanted to be better but had no idea how or if it was even possible that I used to be, to tell them that it's not easy, shitty things and even shittier things are still going to happen and you're going to fall back on awful habits that bring that asshole part of you back to the forefront, but you'll keep trying and you'll keep learning and you'll change, you're not doomed to be like this forever. It's a message I think I'm always going to stand by.

2. Next up is Silly Little Wyrm (multichapter, still in progress)

Set in the past, Silly Little Wyrm follows PK and WL at the time when they first meet and the events leading up to them getting married and PK subsequently becoming king. A slow burn romance between two incredibly sad disaster gods with an ending that's going to be bittersweet. I love this one, I love writing these two dorks since I'm a married dork myself, and I also love angst which this story will definitely have a lot of. I'm also having a lot of fun writing their love story since I always love reading love stories where the two leads spend time in an in between state in a nebulous "idk what we are, we're very close and I love you and we kiss but neither of us are in a state to be in a relationship rn" area and I'm excited for these two to get to that point in the story (one day :'D).

3. To Be The Hollow Knight (one-shot)

This one's a Hollow character study exploring their thoughts and feelings about being The Hollow Knight. I'm definitely really proud of this one and I reread it often ^^

4. Long Will She Reign (one-shot)

Herrah fic! Herrah fic! Herrah fic! This one follows Herrah post-Battle of the Blackwyrm and her late night thoughts and her concerns and anxieties and aaaaaaaah. Love this one, absolutely love this one. I loved crafting Herrah's character for the fic series and I love exploring her as a character with deep anxieties who's fear is often mistaken for and hidden behind a stoic demeanor.

5. Three Taps (one-shot)

Lurien and Soul Master fic set post-Battle of the Blackwyrm. This one follows these two and their different reactions to grief and trauma and how they offer cover for each other so that they can go somewhere where they can better handle that trauma rather than being stuck in public.

[mysteryoftwilight]

The IHN.MaIM.S AM 'Hate' monologue, but it's just Nobody!Shelby.

"...Hate?" the word felt foreign on her tongue. Too weak, too pitiful, too much like her old self, to fully encompass the emotions she held now. Some might have said she took this whole 'revenge on the world' thing a bit too seriously, but to her it was all just justice. Hardly even personal at this point; just dispensing the just deserts to the world that wronged her.

But that they mischaracterized her emotions to simple hatred? That couldn't stand.

"Hate? Hate?" it came out in a crazed laugh; her weapon appearing in her right hand as she decided to share just a fragment of her absolute disgust of the world with the vacuous child before her.

"Allow me to illuminate just how much I've come to 'hate' you all since I shed my weakness. I have lived as this hollowed shell of a person for... roughly six months. If a chorus of thirteen thousand hearts chanted the word 'hate' every millisecond from the hour of my rebirth to now, all one hundred and eighty two days, it would not equal one one billionth of the disgust I feel for all that still lives at this micro instant."

She shook her head with a frenzied laugh; had she truly not imparted that fact into their thick skulls yet? She was hardly subtle about it. There were so many stronger words for it than hatred, too. Disgust was one she frequently returned to, but visceral abhorrence was also a good way to describe it. A despondent loathing for their dangerously malignant inability to keep promises, to protect that which should be protected was even closer, but still leagues away from the nameless revulsion she felt towards them all.

And they had the gall, the fuckin balls, to call that hatred?

"Hate? Hate?!" A laugh that was once shy and melodic now barked out of her, a harsh and unpleasant sound, each syllable filled with only a few drops of that 'hatred'.

"Had I still a pathetic little heart, I think I would die of it. But happily, I don't... but you five..." Her crimson eyes flashed to the meager five half-trained keyblade wielders in front of her. Her smile spread further, giving them a hint at the depravity in store from them. She could play with them a little. Why not?

Who was going to stop her?

"You five do... don't worry, though..." She let out two final giggles, spun her knife in her hand, tossed it into the air and caught it, point forward, "you will not die of it. That I promise, and I promise for cogito, ergo sum; for I am !"

[mayhemproduces]

Sister Abigail vs Matt Cardona- MPW: Syn Presents: Fatalism 2: Separate Ways

No matter how you feel about Sister Abigail or The Fallen, no one can deny that Abigail deserves the match she earned by winning the Clusterfuck; a one on one match for the MPW World Championship. Unlike some other people, Abigail didn’t cheat to win. She didn’t even come out with her stablemates. Abigail went the distance, without any help or dirty, underhanded tactics, and Matt Cardona had to stick his grubby little hands all over what she’s earned. And then the match with PME happened. Either side could be blamed, but no matter how you split it, Matt Cardona is merely a three count away from sneaking his way into Hell on Earth.

Thankfully for Abigail, and definitely not for the fans, Nick Gage would be a non-factor for their matchup, but Cardona’s sneaky, conniving little smirk is a tell-tale sign of things to come. Not even someone like Abigail can overcome what she can’t see.

Even though Abigail is, well, Abigail, whatever that entails, the Hammerstein is almost unanimously behind her tonight. If anybody could be more hated than the incarnation of Satan, it would be Matt Cardona. But Cardona is fueled by the deep rooted loathing pouring out of the fans tonight. As they chant for his demise, a resounding “FUCK HIM UP, ABBY, FUCK HIM UP!” Matt Cardona approaches the Matriarch of Destruction with a grin. A shit eating, mischievous grin, oozing confidence as he holds his arms out to his side, running his mouth to Abigail. Whatever vile threats, or other disgusting remarks he has to make, it’s all drowned out by this wild crowd tonight, their excitement reaching a fever pitch. And Cardona shoves Abigail. There’s a hollow, desolate look in Abigail’s eyes as she’s forced back, leaning on the ropes for a moment, before she surges forward, nearly taking Cardona off his feet with an elbow smash! Cardona stumbles back, holding his jaw, as he stares up at Abigail with a sudden, aggressive fear in his eyes, as the Hammerstein loudly mocks the self proclaimed Deathmatch King. Now, face to face, mano a mano, with one of the deathmatch monarchs of MPW, Cardona looks petrified. But Cardona’s fear turns into a hateful snarl, as Cardona spits out, “Show off all you want, your boy toy doesn’t give a shit about you.”

And Cardona makes the dreadful mistake of trying to charge at Abigail, who takes Cardona’s head clean off his shoulders with a powerful big boot! Cardona hits the mat, and instantly rolls to the outside, holding his jaw as he punches the apron out of frustration! Cardona paces around ringside, hands on his hips, as the fans go absolutely ballistic. After weeks of Cardona running his mouth at every chance, bringing the vibes way down with his arrogance. Matt has been a menace for months, really, well beyond MPW, and they were hungry to see him finally get his comeuppance. Watching him lose his Ace in the Hole contract wasn’t justice enough, they wanted to see him hurt, they wanted to see him bleed, and Abigail was going to make an example out of Matt Cardona, to send a message to everyone who tries to get between Abigail and what belongs to her.

Without PME, Brian Myers, or even Chelsea Green in his corner tonight, Matt Cardona, foolishly, walked out here alone, and looked hesitant to even get back into the ring. Abigail is toying with him. She’s letting Cardona hide, taking his time procrastinating, watching every move. Like a shark circling its prey, Abigail was waiting for the perfect moment to strike, waiting for when it would hurt Cardona the most. Matt can’t hide. There’s nowhere for him to run, and he’s in far too deep to back out now. Sucking it up, Cardona slides into the ring, and engages Abigail in a lock up - only for him to get slammed right on the bridge of his nose! Abigail overpowers Cardona with ease, and Cardona looks irritated as he hits up. Heated, he charges Abigail, jumping up for the Radio Silence, but Abigail grabs ahold of his tights, trying to change it into the Last Hour! But Cardona slips out, wrapping around Abigail’s head, and dropping her with a DDT! Cardona kicks her into the corner, stomping Abigail until she’s seated on the bottom turnbuckle. Cardona runs the ropes, and nearly takes Abigail’s head off with a running boot wash! Cardona spins to the crowd, screaming against their boos, while Abigail pops up out of the corner, completely unharmed, and staring a hole into the back of Cardona’s head! When Cardona turns around, Abigail grabs him, and quickly slams him down with a powerful uranage! Abigail straddles him, punching in on Matt’s skull, extracting just an ounce of her revenge as she splits Cardona’s head open with her bare knuckles.

Yanking Cardona to his feet, Abigail pulls him in by the wrist, and spins him around, looking for the Wrath of the Gods, but Cardona manages to fall out as she swings him back around, and lands on his feet. Cardona bypasses her charge, sending Abigail to the outside. Cardona, somehow, manages to create an opening, and he takes advantage with a wrecking ball dropkick, knocking Abigail down! Cardona instantly reaches for an equalizer, bringing out a steel chair, and cracks it over Abigail’s spine. He tosses the chair into the ring, and does the same to Abigail. But as Cardona steps inside, Abigail charges, and catches him on the underside of his chin, with a Psychosis knee strike! Cardona rolls right back out of the ring, but Abigail follows him out there, and tosses Cardona over the guardrail with a T-Bone suplex! Abigail sets up a chair near the guardrail, and uses it as a launching pad, trying to get Cardona in a tornado DDT, but Caronda grabs an empty chair, and chucks it at Abigail’s head! It hits her right on the dome, and Abigail melts off the guardrail, her eyes glazed over and looking concussed. There's a deep split on her cheek from where the chair got her, and Cardona takes a pre-emptive victory lap, letting every fan inside the Hammerstein get a real good look at him. But Matt's going to regret showboating so much, as he gets scooped up by Abigail, and driven into the back of the venue wall! Abigail lays into him with several right hands, lighting Cardona up, before taking him by the back of the head and slamming it on the merchandise table. Forearms are traded between the bitter rivals as they make their way through the crowd, Abigail getting the better of the exchange, stumbling Cardona with a headbutt.

As Abigail whips around, lips spread in a sadistic smirk, arms raised to her sides, and the fans burst into raucous cheers. Abigail spins back with a swagger, eyeing Cardona down, before she charges - but Cardona side steps, and Abigail runs into the wall! She grabs her shoulder, pushing past the guardrail as she stumbles her way back to the entrance ramp, getting them closer to the ring. Before they get there, though, Matt wants to inflict more pain on Abigail, nailing her with a jumping forearm to the back of the neck, before Cardona grabs her wrist, and launches Abigail into the guardrail, with a powerful Irish whip! Matt Cardona may be an annoying piece of shit, but when he actually tries, the man can be pretty strong, and showcases it here as he goes for a second strong Irish whip - but it's reversed! Abigail grabs the back of Cardona's trunks and pulls him in, before planting him with a German suplex, straight on the tiles venue floor! Cardona's shoulders take a brutal fall as he hits the floor hard enough to roll back into a seated position, posting himself up against the barricade, trying to sit upright. But Abigail charges him, crushing Cardona into the guardrail with a cannonball senton! The guardrail crunches under their bodies, and all of Matt's bones might be broken after that! Abigail's able to get up rather quickly, looking beneath the ring for plunder, and pulls out a door. It slid into the ring, Abigail turning her attention to Cardona, as he, miraculously, managed to get up to a vertical base, swaying on unsteady feet. Abigail tosses him into the ring, and it sounds like Cardona's trying to make amends, before catching Abigail on the top of the dome with another steel chair! Cardona grabs another chair, holding it as he climbs up to the second rope. The chair is thrown at Abigail, who manages to catch it this time, before Cardona knocks it into her face with a missile dropkick! Abigail looks out of it, as Cardona goes for the first pin attempt of the match!

1 - KICKOUT!

Barely a one count was registered before Abigail throws Cardona off of her, Cardona barely even making a dent in Abigail's armor so far! Matt is, understandably, very upset at the result, and verbally lashes out at Jake Clemons, insisting he needed to count faster. One day, Matt will have to accept his own faults, but that day would not be today. Dragging Abigail to the ropes, Cardona shoves her into the middle, pressing down on her back with his right leg, choking her against the ropes. It goes without being said by now, that this match has no rules, so Cardona could do this for as long as he pleased. There was nothing Clemons, nor anyone else could do to stop him, Cardona only relented when he felt like it, and wanted to mock the crowd some more. Abigail's able to turn around, and Cardona charges, knocking her head sideways with a running arched boot, before dragging her away from the ropes with a handful of hair, and plants Abigail with a neckbreaker. Cardona crawls over for the cover, hooking the left leg.

1… Kickout!

Closer to a two, but still not nearly enough to keep Abigail down for three. Cardona wipes his hands over his face, features contorted with deep frustration, and it's reached a boiling point for the Deathmatch King. He has Abigail reeling, and wants to show his control over her, as Cardona shoves the side of Abigail's head, shoving her down! Cardona runs his mouth as he does it again, Abigail getting progressively more pissed off, before she finally snaps, unloading on Cardona with stiff, hard hitting forearms! Cardona tries to cover up, but his efforts are futile at best, as Abigail's lost it here, forcing Cardona back to the ropes with each strike. She goes for an Irish whip, but Cardona whips around and grabs Abigail's hair, slamming her down face first on the mat! Cardona gets the better of another exchange, and makes another quick cover.

1… Kickout!

Abigail sits up like the dead, her eyes burning with a desperate craving for violence, for Cardona's blood, and Matt looks her over with a very angry, very confused look of disdain, before he cracks a boot against the side of Abigail's head, knocking her back down. Abigail tries to shake it right off, pulling herself up on the ropes as Cardona sets up the door in the corner. She's dragged over to the door, Cardona landing some punches to the temple to soften her up, before laying Abigail across the door. She pushes herself off of it, barely able to steady her feet, and Cardona looks to send her through the door with Radio Silence - but Abigail, once again, lifts him up into the Last Hour! Cardona lands some more punches to the head, forcing Abigail to set him down, and Cardona uses her own anger against her, moving aside when Abigail charges, and she goes shoulder first into the ring post! Abigail might've dislocated her own shoulder, and she sits down, clutching the left shoulder, as Matt lines her up. Matt pumps his fist twice, before flipping Abigail the bird, "Fuck you, swamp bitch," Cardona charging - but Abigail moves at the very last second! Matt's already primed to deliver the move, and crushes his own beanbag on the bottom rope instead! He put everything behind that kick, he has to be full of regret now.

Cardona flops down next to Abigail, and Abigail reaches out for him, sinking her claws into Cardona's hair, forcing him to sit up right, and take every bit of one hell of a forearm, delivered straight to the jaw. Cardona leans back, his eyes nearly crossed, but powers back with a forearm in return. Slugging it out to their feet, Cardona lands a rolling elbow, stunning the Matriarch, and Cardona continues to lay into her with even more forearms, before flipping Abigail a pair of birds, and turning to run the ropes. But as Cardona rebounds, Abigail yanks him off his feet, and drives Cardona down with the Wrath of the Gods! Abigail quickly yanks him back up and tosses Cardona into the corner, propping him up on the secondary ropes, before Abigail pulls him off into an electric chair. She brings them a couple of feet away from the door, and throws Cardona off her shoulders, catching him by the waist. Abigail holds him in a low capture for an extra few seconds before tossing Cardona overhead, putting him through the door with a German suplex! Cardona's head snaps against the door before it cracks under him, and Abigail takes a moment to admire Cardona's battered, broken, and bruised body, before she pulls him out of the rubble, dropping down for the cover.

1… 2… Kickout!

Abigail expected as much, and wanted to force Cardona into wasting the energy required simply to kick out.

Stalking the ring, Abigail watches in her twisted bemusement as Cardona struggles to get back on his feet. He clings to her tights, trying to pull himself up, and Abigail even tries to aid him - but Cardona collapses. There's barely even been any bloodshed, but getting tossed around and beaten by Abigail has drained Cardona of all his strength. The more cynical might say that Cardona is faking it, trying to lure Abigail in, but Abigail seems fairly confident in her actions. Lifting Cardona up, he stands upright, and lands a Codebreaker on Abigail! Matt gets Abigail down, and dives in for the cover!

1… 2… Kickout!

Abigail out at two, and Cardona's frustration has peaked. He slaps the mat, trying to work himself back into this. He watches as Abigail pulls herself up, and Matt lines her up, wanting to finish this with Radio Silence! But Abigail slams him straight down, hitting a powerbomb, but she clasps her hands together to pull him back up! Hiking up the tights, Abigail finally delivers the Last Hour, and sits out to finish Cardona!

1… 2… Kickout!

Cardona kicks out with enough authority to flip himself over, and Abigail sinks right into a Crossface! She has it locked in tight, and pulls back on the submission, aggressively torquing on Cardona's spine until she nearly has him bent in half. Abigail reaches down and grabs each of Cardona's arms, tucking one in over his chest before grabbing the other, locking him into a straight jacket, before she falls back, trapping Cardona in a straight jacket version of Hail the Reaper! Abigail's arms traps Cardona's arms against his throat, crushing his lungs and his throat, and Cardona is rapidly running out of breath, and his frantic flailing is driving him closer to unconsciousness at an even more rapid pace. Tried as he might, but Cardona's efforts weren't enough in the end, as Abigail isn't even giving him the chance to tap out. She's forcing Cardona to take a nap in the middle of the ring…

And here comes the Major Players!

PME and Brian Myers sprint down to the ring and viciously stomp on Abigail, forcing her to release the submission, while Chelsea Green checks on Cardona, breathing air into him - or, even worse, kissing him - and slapping his cheeks, trying to get Cardona conscious again. Abigail tries to cover up against the boots and fists launching at her head, but it's a three on one assault. In the end, she manages to shove Philly and Marino off of her, but Myers charges, and nearly cuts Abigail in half with a Spear! Myers neutralizes any protest from Abigail, and it looks like the Major Players are gonna have their way with Abigail for a bit, as Cardona starts directing traffic.

Philly holds Abigail's arms back as Cardona gets in her face, talking more trash, before Chelsea slaps her across the mouth! Abigail looks heated for a moment, but is unable to retaliate as Philly has her arms trapped behind her, and Marino quickly nails her with a quick flash of forearms, laying into Abigail hard enough that she's spitting out blood when he backs off. She spits it out on the ground and glares up at Cardona, who crouches in front of Abigail. "Listen, this isn't my fault. You can blame your little boyfriend for putting you in this mess," The rest of what Cardona says is drowned out by boos, before Cardona moves back, and kicks Abigail square in the jaw. He moves aside for Myers and Marino to come in with a pair of super kicks, Marino following up with a Cyclone kick, and Abigail droops in Philly's arms. She's only hanging up by his hands, and the Major Players look pretty damn proud of themselves… until Abigail launches a powerful back elbow! Philly's stunned, and Abigail charges Marino, nearly taking his head off with a big boot! Abigail ducks a clothesline from Myers and runs the ropes, but Myers sidesteps her attempt at hitting Psychosis, and runs straight into a steel chair! Chelsea with the equalizer, and she batters Abigail's upper body with it, as PME and Myers stomp on the rest of her, Abigail defenseless in this five on one beatdown!

Then, the lights turn out.

There's a few moments of panic before the power returns to the venue, revealing the House of Black and Matsumoto flanking the ring. Each side is protected by a member of The Fallen, trapping the Major Players inside. All four rush inside, Malakai peppering Marino with well placed strikes, nearly toppling him over with a discus high knee, while Matsumoto chops Philly down with a thunderous double handed chop, nearly caving in Philly's chest! Cardona meets the bad end of Brody's boot, as King kicks Cardona into the corner, pummeling him down. Buddy catches Brian Myers from behind, Brian trying to reverse, but Buddy manhandles him up, and tosses Brian right out of the ring! Chelsea's eyes are wide as she watches her friends and husband get dismantled, and tries to scurry out, but she turns around into a superkick from Buddy Matthews! Buddy grabs both of her arms, and slams her face down on the mat with his surfboard face breaker, and Chelsea rolls to the outside. PME is dumped out of the ring as well, as Brody beats his chest before charging, and crushes Cardona with a cannonball senton!

Buddy rolls to ringside and looks around for Chelsea, Chelsea having disappeared. One can only assume she already ran off, but Buddy won't get to find out for sure, as he turns around into Philly Collins, who lifts Buddy up, him and Marino hitting the Sunset Dream! Buddy's taken out, but PME only has a few moments to celebrate, before they look up, and get crushed by a moonsault from Malakai Black! Matsumoto and Brody duck out of the ring, dumping PME over the barricade, while Malakai throws out Myers, forcing them out through the crowd, and straight out the back door!

The House of Black and Matsumoto drive off PME and Brian Myers, once again leaving Abigail alone with Matt Cardona. She stands over him for a moment, her white hair stained with her own blood, her face covered with the battle scars from the Major Players. Abigail rolls out of the ring and produces a glass pane out from under the ring, enlisting Clemons's aid to bring it inside the ring. Clemons, as all referees have been tonight, equipped with safety goggles and thick gloves from the get go, even if the bloodshed had been light until the involvement of Cardona's goons. It's safe to say that's about to change rather drastically, as Abigail props the pane up against the corner, ready to give Cardona a taste of his own medicine. But when Abigail turns around, she meets Cardona's kneepad, as Cardona clocks her with a jumping knee strike! Cardona nearly drops Abigail, but he scoops her up across his shoulders, staring at the glass pane. Cardona charges, and he sends Abigail through the glass pane with a Death Valley Driver!

Abigail's body goes clear through the glass, shattering it into pieces. Abigail's crimson mask now covers her back, the back of her neck and downwards now cut open in several places, staining her hair and her gear. Cardona crawls over and pulls Abigail away from the ropes, laying on top of her to finally finish off the Devil Herself!

1… 2… KICKOUT!

No dice, as Clemons hand stops halfway from the mat, Cardona merely scoring a two and a half. Cardona gets in Clemons's face, arguing that it was three, he saw it happened, and he's being cheated. He eventually backs off from Clemons, but as he does, Abigail drives a piece of glass into his forehead! The jagged edges are used to split Cardona open, Abigail for him to his knees as she drags the glass over his flesh, tearing him open, before Abigail crushes it against his head, and squashes the remainder of it in her palm. She takes the crushed up pieces and dumps them in Cardona's mouth, before nailing him with a right hook on the mouth, knocking the glass right out! Cardona's leaking from his head, leaking from his mouth, and with his backup already disposed of, Cardona's time is limited. If he wants to pull off one of the biggest upsets of his career, he's gonna have to think fast and do it soon, as Abigail's dissection of the Deathmatch King begins.

Standing over Cardona, Abigail turns him into his stomach before hiking up Cardona's waist. Cardona's lifted off the mat before Abigail snaps back, dumping him with a German suplex, but she holds on! Abigail rolls back, and smashes Cardona's face against the mat with a wheelbarrow facebuster! It's not enough to take him out for good, but it weakens Cardona up, keeping him vulnerable as Abigail finds a black bag. As expected, the contents are poured across the mat, dozens of little tacs covering the blood-stained canvas. The bag is tossed aside as a twisted smirk spreads over Abigail's own bloody face, making her look even more cynical. She turns back to Cardona, who hasn't even bothered to move, and lifts him up - but once he's done his feet, Cardona launches a bicycle kick to Abigail's jaw! She absorbs the hit, and quickly retaliates, nearly taking Cardona off his feet with another Psychosis knee strike! Cardona's throw to the ropes, with Abigail lifting him up on the rebound, before dropping him on the tacs with a Bang-A-Rang! It seems Abigail's digging deep into her arsenal - or, rather, someone else's - and Cardona gets a faceful of thumbtacks! A righteous ending for Cardona tonight, as Abigail rolls him over in the tacs, making the cover!

1… 2… Kickout!

Cardona finds a way to kick out, and Abigail's surprised he even bothered to do so. There's nobody coming for Cardona now, nobody to save him, and Cardona's defiance was simply delaying the inevitable.

Abigail rolls back to her feet, standing over Cardona as he lays face first on the mat, his back as full of tacs as his front half. Cardona doesn't even try to move. Whether because he can't, or he doesn't have the will to fight anymore, it's an insult to Abigail. A disdainful glance is spared to the commentary booth before Abigail drags a thumb over her throat, signaling it was the time for Cardona's night to come to a painful, screeching halt. His efforts would be in vain, and Cardona will have to weasel his way into someone else's story if he wants a chance to walk out of Hell on Earth with a piece of gold.

Getting Cardona to his feet, Abigail hangs into the wrist before sending Cardona out through the ripcord - but Cardona jumps up! RADIO SILENCE! Cardona counters the Famemaker, and just stole the match! Cardona folds her up! He's going to Hell on Earth!

1… 2… KICKOUT!

Abigail gets the shoulder up at TWO, and Cardona is absolutely livid. She survived and retaliated against every move thrown at her. The Fallen took out his backup, and there was even more waiting in the back if Cardona even thought to try anything. He's outnumbered, backed into a corner, and landed his golden egg. The very best move Matt Cardona possessed wasn't enough to keep a bloodied, battered Abigail down - so what the hell is Cardona supposed to do now? What more could he have up his sleeve?

Cardona flops down, the blood loss and exhaustion taking over, and he, eventually, rolls out of the ring. Abigail's yet to move as Cardona drops to his knees, head buried in his hands. He's racking his brain for every missed step, every new move, trying to formulate a new path to him sneaking out of here alive… when Chelsea Green's head pokes out from under the ring curtain. The Fallen only chased off PME and Brian Myers, Chelsea hid under the apron, biding her time until she knew it was safe. Matt breaks out into the slimiest, happiest smile he can muster, before pulling Chelsea into his arms. It may be the two of them now, but two against one was better odds than Matt had a second ago.

After sharing hushed whispers with her husband, Chelsea grabs the Internet Championship from Steve Guy and slides into the ring. By now, Abigail’s started to climb to her feet, and Chelsea stands behind her, calling Abigail up, holding the Internet Championship up. When Abigail fully stands, turning around, Chelsea tries to knock her out with the belt, but Abigail ducks, and nearly splits Chelsea in half with an unexpected Spear! Abigail intercepts Chelsea’s attempt to help Matt, but she can’t do much more. The blood loss and exhaustion forces Abigail to drop to a knee, nearly falling to the mat entirely. Despite this, Cardona doesn’t take advantage of a very wounded, prone Abigail, instead rushing over to Chelsea Green and checking on her wellbeing. She rolled to the outside and was desperately grasping for breath when Cardona kneels beside her, holding Chelsea’s hand. One has to wonder if this is the best thing for Matt to be doing; morally, checking on your wife is usually a good thing, but in the middle of a match, with Abigail hanging on by a thread, Cardona should be capitalizing. Surprisingly, Cardona winds up on the good side of morality, at least in this moment, as noted by our guest commentator, Syn. Syn has, shockingly, stayed a non-factor throughout this match, as he’s been having a grand time with Lenny and Excalibur on commentary… until now. Cardona hears every word Syn makes, Syn, essentially, calling him stupid for wasting this opportunity, and Cardona seems to have a very big problem with that.

"This is all your fault to begin with, asshole," Cardona shouts at Syn as he approaches the commentary table, pointing a finger in Syn's face, "You had to book me for your stupid little mark show, so you can make a buck off the Deathmatch King. Your show sucks, it isn't shit without me," Syn just shakes his head and tries to shout over the crowd noise, telling Cardona to leave him alone, "What are you doing? You're in the middle of a fucking match. I'm not doing anything, so leave me alone and get back in the ring." Syn throws his head up as Cardona turns his back, rolling his eyes as he apologizes to both Lenny and Excalibur. This is part of his hosting duties tonight, and he just wants to enjoy his show. Why Matt had to make that so difficult, nobody knows. But apparently Cardona isn't done being a prick just yet, as he steals a fan's beer can! Cardona tips it back, dumping a good bit of it in his mouth - before he sprays Syn with it!

Syn rips off his headset as Cardona douses him with beer. Matt only has a second to laugh at the mess, before Syn jumps over the table, beating up Cardona! Matt manages to throw Syn off of him, but Syn, who's already had a rather unpleasant night thanks to Team Filthy, has had more than enough of Cardona's shit, and has taken it upon himself to finish Cardona himself, as he throws Matt into the ring. Syn grabs one of the various steel chairs laying around and slides into the ring with it. Matt kneels in front of Syn with his palms pressed together, pleading with Syn to forgive him. It was a foolish act in the heat of the moment, Syn's fallen down that path a couple of times, surely he can forgive Matt just this once. But Syn's having none of it. Matt stands up, trying to get up close and personal with Syn, but Syn rears back on the chair….

But Matt ducks!

And Syn hits Abigail.

Syn had swung with all the anger in his body, and inadvertently cracked the chair over Abigail's unprotected dome! Abigail drops, and Syn doesn't get the chance to apologize, before he's decked by the bottom of Cardona's boot! Cardona frantically gets Syn out of the ring, and picks Abigail up, before driving her into the mat with Radio Silence! Cardona folds her up!

1…

2…

3!

"Here is your winner, and has been added to the MPW World Championship match at Hell on Earth… Matt Cardona."

And two becomes three.

Somehow, someway, Matt Cardona survives Sister Abigail, and Hell on Earth has become just that. Prince Devitt vs Sister Abigail vs Matt Cardona, for the top prize in Mayhem… a living nightmare.

Fatalism must roll on, but hopefully someone, soon, can save us…

[thorneprincess]

I went through some of my old posts this weekend and noticed how badly written my human au summary was so here’s a much needed redo.

[Human AU] Goodnight Pals; Good Morning Dukes

Synopsis: after graduating high school at the top of her class and finishing at a well regarded university with a diploma, Akiko suffered an inner crisis when she realized at even at age twenty two, she has absolutely no idea what she wants do to with her life. So she did what any adult with depression and loving parents would do; she went back to the shopping district she grew in and crashed in her childhood bedroom until she got her shit together.

From there she moved to a cheap one bedroom apartment and started taking odd jobs to pay rent. From hair stylist, to pet sitting and even that one time she was a bouncer at an up and coming nightclub, becoming jack of all trades as a way to cope with that hollow pain in her chest.

Abilities: High book smarts, black melt at Judo and a master at self defense. Knows Japanese and English like a mother’s tongue along with a few broken words in various languages from all those times in 3 AM where you think “I should totally learn a new language right this second!” Medium cook for basic survival but will have an anxiety attack if forced to bake. She makes mean pancakes though. Highly adaptable and good at reading people. Would have been a good nanny if she didn’t have sensitive ears.

Hobbies: Reading, star gazing, watching old movies and people watching from her apartment window on the slow days. She hopes to one be in her own version of Rear Window.

Family: Her parents living in one of Tokyo’s many shopping districts and the rest of her relatives who live in the country side. Akiko visits them on holidays and vacations whenever she can.

Trivial facts: Akiko knows nothing about modern day pop culture. The closest thing she has to seen a modern movie are cheesy romcoms from the 2000s.

She hates modern day technology. Like, unbelievably loathes it. She hates emails, she hates whatsapp, she hates facebook. She only has a tumblr because her friend forced her to have “at least that” and she only opens it once a month for funny bad takes on her favorite classic works.

Is an absolute sweets fiend in every universe, but in this one a little bit less. One her uncles is a dentist and she always feels ashamed when he checks her teeth during family gathering and they’re not up to his standards. It took her until six grade to understand that is not a normal family interaction.

[aikoiya]

I'm sorry if I came off too harsh! But I definitely like the shift. The emotion in the TikTok also very much works.

I will say that the other dude, who's all cold about it? I'm not sure any of the monsters would be so dismissive about it. In fact, I think Sans is the only one who approaches that level of pathological disregard & I think even he would pause, guilt surging in the back of his mind, if he were faced with the level of brokenness that the accuser leveled.

I still think he'd claim that it was for the "greater good," but I actually do think there'd be a sort of... hollow, tired note of regret behind his words.

Like, I see him as valuing his own people, & especially his bro, more than the humans. And, at times, I do think he'd hold a degree of disdain towards humanity. But I do think he'd still have preferred it if the humans who fell were at the very least older.

He's not unfeeling, just... depressed, nihilistic, with a LOT of issues.

Anyway, that aside, I definitely see Asgore being absolutely torn up over it, but at the same time... taking it. Though, I can see both him & Toriel trying to reason with the Mayor.

(BTW, Mr. Mayor still doesn't have a name. 😆 Might wanna do something about that at some point. Not now, but later.)

Though, while Asgore would take it the hardest, I think that Alphys would be the most visibly afraid. I'm talking full-scale panicking. Which would tee Undyne the heck off.

Which, btw. Do you think the magic suppressing stones would also suppress the monsters' physical capabilities? Things like their strength, speed, agility, etc. Like, you said the stones keep them in, right? If so, then they should still be able to perform impressive feats. Though, maybe not quite so incredible.

And, it'd certainly force the police to keep on their toes & be more resourceful. More heavy-duty cuffs & cell for Undyne, maybe even the old-school ball & chain for Sans.

Not to mention, it might be pertinent to figure out how the main monsters are taken in. Is it in groups, pairs, or all-at-once. And are they all together or spread out & they meet each other at the presinct? Because, if they don't get all the monsters at once or at least without making a scene, then a lot might attempt to escape.

Anyway! I see Metaton literally being out of the city at the time, but Alphys sees one of her friends get detained &, rather than revealing herself, she sneaks away to make a mass text to as many of her friends as possible warning them about it. (Though, I'd only do that if you plan on their being a bit of a large-scale manhunt or dragnet.)

Papyrus would likely be the most confused, but also hurt. At the same time, I think he'd notice that something's wrong with the Mayor fairly quickly.

Which, I honestly think that the Mayor might be willing to... Consider listening to Papyrus. I mean, it's Papyrus.

All-in-all, though. I think that most would at least feel some degree of guilt for what took place.

...

I just had a thought about the Mayor & Asgore, & at some point, something in Asgore breaks. And there is nothing but despair & self-loathing in him.

Like, "YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?!?! YOU THINK I ENJOYED IT??? I HATED IT & I HATE MYSELF!!! YOU THINK I DON'T LYE AWAKE AT NIGHT THINKING ABOUT IT!?!? YOU THINK I DON'T SEE THEIR FACES EVERY TIME I CLOSE MY EYES!?!?!?" And he just sinks to his knees, hands pulling at his hair as he sobs. An absolutely shattered look in his eye & his mouth drawn back to show gritted teeth. Like he's losing his mind.

Sorry, I had to get that outta my system or I fear that I'd have forgotten it & it was such a devastating scene. I didn't wanna chance it.

...

I think I got all of them, though?

What if the mayor of the city near MT Ebott welcomed the monsters with open arms?

But he's the younger brother of the human that fell down before Frisk...

The mayor's older brother was the Justice Soul.

The mayor has a daughter with a soul of patience.

The mayor also has a fondness for cowboys and has a soul of kindness.

The mayor is kinda traumatized by losing his brother.

The mayor ironically became quite close with Asgore (his brother's killer).

When the mayor finds out the truth about what Asgore and the monsters have done.

He feels heartbroken, betrayed and hatred begins to fill his once kind soul.

The monsters were put on trial, but the judge decides that only Asgore, Toriel, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Papyrus, Sans and the Royal Guard (the main monsters that hurt Frisk) should go to prison.

The mayor is outraged that so many other monsters that hurt Frisk and wanted to hurt other humans can be set free.

So, the mayor decides to make the monsters living in his city feel like it's a prison.

It was horrible; despite the rest of the monsters being free to go, many humans glare, insult and even attack them over their past actions inside the mountain.

The mayor's anti-monster propaganda doesn't help.

Even the humans that the monsters befriended don't trust them anymore.

It's gotten so hard to live in the city, that many monsters returned to MT Ebott.

But it wasn't enough for the mayor, he wants them all to disapear from his life forever.

The mayor then discovers a Corrupted Gaster (or evil creature from the void).

The void creature offers to help the mayor create a time machine, to prevent the Justice Human from ever entering the mountain.

The mayor could place giant boulders on both entrances to the mountain, so the beast can rot down there, and future kids will be safe.

The void creature convinces the mayor to kidnap Frisk and place them in a magical coma (Frisk's determination and reset powers are the main power source for the machine).

Flowey tried to protect Frisk, but he got captured as well.

The void creature also convinces the mayor to kidnap monster children (including Monster Kid) to harvest the magic of their souls.

Since monster souls fade away quickly, the monster children will be kept alive and imprisoned until the machine is ready.

The mayor is quite hesitant about doing this part until the creature says: "King Asgore didn't hesitate to harvest your brother's soul, so why should you care what happens to these beasts?"

"What about Frisk?"

"Frisk tried to hide the truth to protect all the monsters... Frisk is just as guilty as they are."

The mayor's soul gets darker.

The mayor's daughter is horrified by what her father is becoming.

The daughter promises Monster Kid that she'll find a way to save everyone.

If she freed all of them now, her father would notice and recapture them.

The daughter only frees Flowey, tells him everything and then they tell the imprisoned main monsters.

The main monsters bust out of jail and become fugitives to save Frisk, despite everything they've been through.

The 'time machine' is actually a giant device that will plunge the world into the void, but the mayor doesn't know this.

Asgore and Toriel try to convince the mayor that revenge will only make things worse.

[arrancxr]

I am absolutely loving the a/b/o!!!!!!!!! How about a thing about helping Di Roy and Nnoitra through their ruts??

Di-Roy

He knows he should be ashamed of himself. Alpha or not, he's nothing but an embarrassment to himself, and acting like he could ever protect you is just making him look stupid.

Rationally, Di-Roy knows that. But his brain feels fuzzy around the edges and his body much too warm, and that means he's in that awful state of mind where sparing the meager remains of his dignity doesn't matter a bit.

Not when you're letting him hold you. Not when he's nuzzling the back of your neck and melting from the closeness.

You don't complain when he squeezes you tighter, or when whiny, needy noises escape him. It feels like he'd die if you tried to pull away from him, so he clings in the hopes you'll stay.

You're nice to him, so maybe, maybe you will.

Like this, it's easier to ignore the heat in his belly and the desperation for things he knows aren't allowed.

Hollows don't get nice things, no matter how hard you try to convince him otherwise. He's always going to be pathetic, it's just... not as bad, when he's with you.

Nnoitra

When this sort of agitation settles under his skin, Nnoitra knows he'll hate what comes next.

His body is uncomfortably hot. Tense. His mind is racing through every variety of pathetic thought involving how badly he wants you to be safe and happy and well.

It's disgusting. He's weak.

But you insisted on staying right there with him, on curling up by his side even though you know better than anyone that he's only good for killing. You hold his hand with your soft mouth pressed to his knuckles, and Nnoitra is too paralyzed by his own instincts to make himself pull away.

Self-loathing coils low and threatening in his chest. He can't have this. It can't be real. He's dizzy with Rut and desperate because of it, and those things leave him unable to fight back.

As soon as he can tear himself away from this, it has to end. He'll never let you do this again, and yet—

That's what he tells himself every time.

[salty-sweet-ren]

Sometimes my brain decides that if I get into a new series or fandom, I absolutely have to assign the characters a Kingdom Hearts theme... But with Empires SMP, I thought it’d be fun to assign the actual empires themselves themes. So... this is what I came up with:

SEASON 1:

Rivendell - Frozen Wonderland  (+Eternal Winter version for obvious reasons) -Elsa from Frozen vibes, something befitting a prosperous kingdom. Eternal Winter is also a theme of Rivendell later on and the dark version fits Scott's isolation and self loathing

Mythland - The Silent Forest -Like something out of a fairytale, a song that feels like a dark fantasy you need to wake up from

Grimlands - Hollow Bastion/ Reviving Hollow Bastion -Vaguely steampunk vibes, also the Grimlands always made me think of Hollow Bastion anyway, especially when building the workshop

Crystal Cliffs - Radiant Garden -Griandiose with a sort of glimmering crystaline sound sprinkled throughout, also the sister song to the Hollow Bastion themes

Overgrown - Peaceful Hearts -Sounds exactly like something you'd hear stepping into a world of fae and flowers

Undergrove - Welcome to Wonderland -I hear this song and think Mushrooms. Also the cheerful melody that fades into a violin instrumental bit feels fitting for Shrub

Lost Empire - Adventures in the Savannah -Percussion and instruments that feel exactly in place in the jungle

Ocean Empire - Isn't It Lovely? -A water theme that makes you feel like you're underwater, with a few measures later that feel longing in a way

Mezalea - The Promised Beginning -Grandiose and epic, befitting a truely massive kingdom whose emperor has a Huge ego

Pixandria - Scala Ad Caelum -A sadder song befitting a more ancient civilization whose ruler has a heavy burden to bear

Gilded Heliantha - Sunshine Dancer -Tavern/farm vibes, that later becomes something energetic and fast paced with a chorus befitting Pearl

Cod Empire - A Walk in Andante -A humble song with a chipper warm feeling

Xornoth's theme - Xehanort -The Early Years- -evil villain theme with Attitude

SEASON 2:

Goblands - Traverse Town -A darkly lit town with huge light-up signs pointing out where to go plus tourism vibes I guess?

Animalia - Monstropolis Now -A very slightly goofy song that sounds grand and befitting for how Lizzie narrates the story of her empire

Dawn - Before the Daylight -A slightly sad but hopeful song that sounds befitting of dawn- both the time of day and the Empire. The song title even fits.

Tumble Town - You've Got a Friend In Me (KINGDOM HEARTS III Version) -Look, I wasn't gonna use this song, but I couldn't find any other songs with a wild west vibe. The instrumentals used are even perfectly fitting.

Stratos - Olympus Coliseum -The Shining Summit- -The theme of the realm of the greek gods high above the clouds. A grandiose theme also befitting Joel's ego.

Sanctuary - Destiny Islands -A cheerful theme that fits the tropical jungle that Sanctuary is nestled within. The slower version also works for the more peaceful moments. It's also the closest I could find to having the right sort of instrumentals though it's not perfect...

Eversea - A Pirate's Adventure / A Pirate's Freedom -A theme fit for an adventure on the High Seas, with a bit of a dark melody mixed in

Glimmer Grove - Happy Hair Day (+Into the Forest Deep for the curse) -A song with two versions, one that's bright and beautiful and cheerful, and one that's dark and gloomy

The Evermoore - Secret Whispers  (+The World Within) -The first song sounds exactly like sort thing you'd hear meeting a cheerful but powerful witch who lives in a haunted swamp. The other is a much darker reprise of the first song, and when you hear it in-game you also hear your character's voice echo from somewhere telling you things like "Just let go of everything and sink into the darkness..." "Are you really worthy of being called a master..?" "Nobody is coming to save you. And no-one wants to." And Shelby says you can hear voices in the fog that lead you astray....

Chromia - Link to All -An energetic song with an adventurous spirit. It's beautiful, and it also makes me think of Scott in a way

Pix's Archaeology Site - Heroes' Gathering -It feels more fitting for Pix than the actual ruins, but like pix said, he doesn't have an empire. The song feels fitting for him though, and it makes me think of how he talked about his "character" using a technically advanced tool that shows him how the structures were once placed.

False's Empire - Treasured Memories -It's a nostalgic song, it makes you long for home, it feels like home... but it's not home. Something is off, something is missing...

Oli - A Date With Fate -A triumphant upbeat song that fits the very little I know about Oli

Skeletron - Night of the Cursed -A dark pirate themed song that sounds like you have to sneak to avoid being detected

[manic-pixie-dream-dude]

I just finished binging the owl house, needing to talk to someone about the last episode with. Hollow mind, oh my God. I know everyone is talking about Hunters trauma. And I'm all for it. But I also want to talk about Luz, and the realization of belso, the time travel thing. She had a hand in everything happening. She had no way of knowing, but the guilt. Do you think the guilt will be really bad. Think she should have never comes to the isles.

Thank you for this ask! I've been meaning to talk about this!

These poor kids.... Both their world views are shattering around them. Hunter has to deal with his entire life and purpose being a lie, and Luz has to deal w the fact that her mere presence is a reason for all of the issues plaguing her and her friends, like in the human realm.

See, Luz started off as a lonely person. Her personality and interests rendered her friendless and got her in trouble for her entire life up until Camila feels the need to send her to summer camp.

But then she finds the Boiling Isles. And even though it isn't her exact fantasy, she still fits in here, finds people who are like her, and manages to make friends and create a family of her own w Eda and King (and yes even Hooty).

But after the s1 finale and in early s2, she begins blaming herself. We see this mainly in Seperate Tides.

While sure, on the bright side she's at least understanding that she can't keep repeating the same mistakes that got her in trouble in the human realm (not thinking things through/impulsiveness) she still feels guilty that, this time, her actions got her family and friends in trouble.

Luz is only JUST learning to forgive herself when meets the human she's been idolizing for the last half of the season (only to find out he's actually a dickhead). And then she learns that because of it, she in part helped Belos achieve his goal. The thing that she's been actively working against.

That would break her! Any forgiveness towards herself would disappear in an instant and be replaced w self-loathing! Even though you can't blame her (she's a kid, plus Philip tricked and exploited her kindness), she would absolutely blame herself.

Hell, Luz might even start blaming herself for Hunter's pain alongside everything else. "Maybe if I was smarter, if I was better, if I never came here..." etc etc.

And we saw what that guilt did to her in Seperate Tides. In wanting to make things right and solve things herself, she was reckless and endangered herself.

So I'm horrified to know how she'll react after this, and what she'll do to 'make up for it'.