#I am defiance

[starriskiesstuff]

when you fall down a 'but what about the german children' ww2 rabbit hole and read Projekt 1065 and I Am Defiance in the span of a few days (and having read and reread The Wave soon before)

then you have a project in school and you have to write from the perspective of a character in the book your class was reading

and she idolizes FDR

and then you get certain "beginning of I Am Defiance" vibes from what you're writing

and oh shit this was not supposed to happen what have i done

this is my reality

[firstfullmoon]

Jackie Sabbagh, “Having a Great Time Being Transgender in America Lately”

[im-smart-i-swear]

coming back home.

@barrenclan

[treasureplcnet]

btw i love revenge stories i dont think anyone should ever move on peacefully. a bit obsessed with the way weissman went to the synagogue and rabbi and asks, "my choices killed a child. would god take mercy on someone like me?" and the rabbi says "it's not god's mercy you should look for. its the child's" and like you think that would spur this man into charitable activities and to maybe look out for orphans but instead he goes on a 24 hour revenge bender that ultimately ends in two revenge killings and his own death. what's better than righteous anger and wrath and love twisting someone into the worst but also a truer version of themselves <3

[elodieunderglass]

in his delicious materials, do you have any thoughts about what chilchuck's daughters' daemons/bee's sons are like? Is puckpatti's even settled yet?

(In reference to His Delicious Materials: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56658973/chapters/144024799)

Bee’s boys - Sangwine, Pantoufle and Eglantine - gave her an absolute run for her money to raise, although given how much they worked away from home in the early years, she left most of the logistics to her wife, a mouse daemon. As a result she and Chilchuck would come home to “do some parenting while you’re here, why don’t you” and incredibly tricky and complex grievances and disciplinary problems, lots of “Bee will hear about this when she’s home!” Which didn’t set her up for much success, in retrospect.

Bee was an impatient and often angry young parent, but tried her best, made an effort to educate herself, and was exceedingly good at carrying her sons around by the scruffs of their necks, which was good - since they all all liked being absolutely unsuitable and enormous things, like ferrets, for a lot of the time in their wild youth. She wasn’t always the bad cop, but they all had very few models of Effective Parenting growing up, so she wasn’t as good then as she would be at it now.

Pantoufle’s the only one who is likely to give Bee grandchildren in her lifetime, but he’s also a little nightmare, so she doesn’t have much hope. Pan isn’t so good at the daemon’s role of “externalising the human’s voice of conscience.” He is, instead, evidence that their middle child has no conscience whatsoever. He has zero moral fiber and criminal instincts.

They are all long, long since settled.

I have no idea what forms they are, though. Literally was not planning on it ever being relevant. I am doing a 65k commission gift fic over the summer and MOVING ON, I said.

Then ended up having a conversation in the comments where it was like . Oh no. The political implications of being the only weasel daemon in your village. that could be genuinely rather funny. Oh no. What if there was a social landslide as a result of Bee settling, with large political implications swirling around, and it’s genuinely Just Some Awkward Scruffy Tall Guy And His Weasel Soul Who Are Pretty Oblivious To It All, and you turn around and suddenly your people’s daemon pool is completely changed in a generation??? Hilarious. Self-indulgent. Nothing to do with any given canon whatsoever, literally just playing in a sandbox. Someone should write that.

And then the baby didn’t sleep for a few nights in a row (oh no):

[runespoor7]

You think JGY ever looked at WWX like a cautionary tale for himself and an object lesson in what not to do (do not ever outlive your usefulness; do not ever forget that biting the hand that raised you up is more dangerous for you than for them, unless you remove it; genuinely is he so fucking stupid that he doesn't get what he's doing or does he not care; why is he throwing all that power away)

was he too jealous (imagine being the sect leader's bastard and being raised as the future second in command! having the future sect leader's confidence! being so fucking familiar with the main family! And then what does WWX do? throw it all away!! like it's nothing like it's worth nothing like it means nothing, god jgy would scratch wwx's eyes out)

does he very occasionally think about it when he's going to sleep. when darth jgy, or xue yang, is whispering aren't you tired of being nice, don't you wanna go apeshit

[bonefall]

Does leopard still have 3 lives in her final battle? Or was that changed?

Yep. I think she drowned her once, then Leopardstar lunges up refreshed, and she gets the upper paw on Mistyfoot with 2 lives to go.

(MAYBE tw gore, but I really did try to be tasteful about a head being smashed on a rock.)

On her back, splashing and thrashing furiously against Leopardstar's claws dunking her head under, Mistyfoot glimpses a wave breaking just over the tip of a stone-blue rock. Her only chance.

With a surge of power, her claws sink into her leader's golden shoulder and they tumble and roll to the right. Before the tyrant even realizes what's happening, she's yanked up, and then whipped backwards with a wet CRUNCH

And then again

And again

And again, until Mistyfoot can't even make out what's left of her leader anymore. All she can see is that it's a red, brown, and yellow blur, because her eyes burning with salty tears and her whole body is trembling.

She drops the corpse onto the stone and it slides into the water, lifelessly. After a moment it spasms aimlessly one last time, like an insect does after its head is bitten off, unlike the deliberate, agonized throes of Tigerstar suffering through his doomed lives. And then it's still.

There's only the tranquil sound of bubbling water, and Mistyfoot's frenzied panting. Her pounding heart makes it hard to hear either.

The blood is carried off by the shallow water in scarlet swirls, but the lake runs pale red as if it's washing it away. Some were aware of this prophecy, but Mistyfoot was not.

It isn't closure to her, or a fulfillment of divine decree. It's just blood that should be on her paws, slicked away by the complicit river. She wished it could feel like it's over, but she's smart enough to know the truth. Has been through enough terrible events like this to understand what comes next.

Her body will move foward. Her mind will need to consider her deputy. Her paw will come down on code-defying cats like Blackclaw and Greenflower. But her heart will stay here, next to the remains of Leopardstar, the same way another piece of it remains at Stonefur's side across space and time.

[maiagaru]

Celebrating 10 years of Defiance

[sharkdays]

"That despite having experienced inhuman suffering, she has nonetheless been able to gain the strength to face life."

[gideonthe9]

i just reached prometheus in hades 2 and WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

[wraithdance]

Fine you twisted my arm! I will ride the muttonchops off that burly man!

[thefirstknife]

I'm here to distract people from the sadness because there's some super WILD shit going on with Avalon and Asher's discoveries within the Vex Network.

So when you find all three secrets (not chests, extra three secrets that involve destroying the three Vex type pyramids with Vexcalibur in each section), you get an extra section to teleport to where Mithrax shows a simulation of what Asher has been working on. He simulated... well. The Veil.

This is exactly the same as the one from concept art, aka where we can see the full thing. The stuff on the left? People theorised egregore, but it didn't look like egregore to me, but also I never figured what else it might be. And here we can see what it is. It's the Tree of Silver Wings.

My other post with pictures of the Tree, both the one Io (which this one is identical to) and the one from the raid (which is more evolved so to say).

This feel like some sort of a joined manifestation of both Light and Dark. Perhaps some primordial entity. Or as the artist put it: "physical manifestation of incomprehensible cosmic energy. Window into the mind and memory of the universe." Something from Before(TM)? From the original Garden or from the beginning of the universe? Something from the Witness' "first victims" as Nezarec put it, but who were they? The Garden itself? I am losing my mind.

The garden grows in both directions. Ulan-Tan's symmetry. Etc etc.

Video with Mithrax's dialogue.

[taonpest]

Do you ever think about the fact that Vorador and Raziel were burning with rage the moment Janos died

[tacticalgrandma]

Idk man imagine if Defiance had actually cared about female relationships. Imagine Petra or Suraya instead of Devrim: getting to learn how Petra and Mara’s dynamic has evolved outside of just them talking about Crow, Suraya bonding with Amanda and challenging Mara with how important she feels Normal People are to the fight. Fucking kestrel jokes with Mara and Louis man idk.

Or even just take what we got! Have Mara and Amanda actually develop a relationship! The lines they had together were already my highlights! Let Mara’s human side be something other than “I’m sad that man sad :(“, maybe let it be the joy and fear of connecting and opening up to another person after isolating so much. Maybe let it be being so shattered after making herself vulnerable then losing someone all over again. Or if you really can’t be assed to develop a relationship between two women, maybe just have Mara talk about her guilt that someone died on the front lines while she stayed safe and guarded, again! About the weight of command! About any of her own feelings, not just men’s!

Christ, I just cannot do another year of seasons pointed squarely into Crow’s navel.

[elodieunderglass]

A Weasel Heart in Defiance

Chapter 2 (don’t sleep on the labour implications here)

And if they were bastards, the audience was also calling out things that sounded enough like tips that they sometimes managed to trick Chilchuck, like "whack it to the deep crease under cover" - when that was the opposite of what Dan, his team captain, would actually want him to do. This trick only worked on Chilchuck, a half-foot blessed with his people's ability to confidently whang a missile at any given target, and cursed with the tragic absence of desire to do so; and further, a truly unnatural lack of interest in the rules of wickets.

[deaddoveadventures]

@fiendishfinesse cont. from (x)

Raphael’s laughter, soft and resonant, spilled into the dimly lit inn like a velvet curtain, rich and inviting, yet edged with something far sharper. His brown eyes, warm as a summer’s day but with a depth that hinted at endless nights, locked onto Curumë’s with an intensity that could melt the will of weaker men. He leaned casually against the counter, fingers tracing idle patterns on the wood as if he had all the time in the world. "Ah, my dear half-elf," Raphael drawled, voice laced with amusement. "It is a thrill. Rebellion is the sweetest perfume, is it not? A scent that lingers and draws the eye, even in the most unexpected places." His gaze flickered around the shabby inn, a subtle mockery of their surroundings that danced behind his words. "But let us not trade barbs like common thugs in an alleyway. I am merely a traveler, intrigued by the rarest of things—a man who wears his defiance like a crown and his past like a shackle." He straightened, his presence suddenly commanding yet not overbearing—a magnetism that pulled at the very air. "Tell me, what brings a soul like yours to a place so...mundane? Surely you’ve stories worth more than the dust that gathers here." His lips curled into a smile, not of condescension, but of genuine curiosity, as if he truly relished the prospect of peeling back the layers of this enigmatic stranger.

"I'm afraid my stories are as mundane as this establishment here," the Half-Elf smiled and continued to lie through his teeth while those dark, commanding eyes of the man next to him sought to stare him into submission and yet failed to succeed. "Tales of thrill, adventure, riches. I’d say you know the song and dance, but you don’t look the part." Curumë's playful smile twisted into a razor-sharp smirk. "Dare I say, you don’t look like a man who should know as much as you do?"

The other’s subtle hints alluding to his past, his present even, hadn’t gone unnoticed by the warlock, and it was his turn now to pin the man with his gaze. "You’re right, let’s not ‘trade barbs like common thugs in an alleyway,’ as you so eloquently put it, and get straight to the meat of this conversation."

While the Half-Elf didn’t reach for his dagger just yet—having a fight in front of the tavern keep seemed like a bad idea if he didn’t want to spend another night curled up in his bedroll with nothing but the stars above his head and the cold wind rattling his bones— he was ready to do whatever it would take to get rid of the stranger, should things go awry and no longer in his favor.

"Who are you, and more importantly, what do you want?"