#I suppose I'll get more detailed about this au eventually

[luc3ks]

I really like michael because every further progression I make of his character it just makes him a worse and worse person. like oh wow. he is awful. and he knows it

[galaxygirl8880]

an au I thought up of where Cale does actually decide to run away and helps the roan Kingdom from the shadows and stuff-

It'd be funny if Cale just slapped all of the information from the five novels he read into a stack of paper and sent it to Alberu, his reasoning being "I don't wanna do shit, you deal with the war(s) :D" you could also have a moment where Cale sends another letter basically saying "your current commanders are shit not bad but could be better, have some war strategies (If you don't send me money for this I'll break into your office and move everything two inches to the left)"

Before running away, he collects enough allowance from Deruth to last him a while, gets the shield ancient power, and he gains the trust of the cats so they follow him. On the night that he's supposed to meet Choi han, Cale gives him something (a sandwich?) he bought earlier to eat and directs him towards the Henituse mansion with a letter that was mostly prepared beforehand so the guards (and Ron) let him in.

Cale saves the dragon with the rented devices from billos with a bit more difficulty (and injuries) but he manages to free him anyways.

Then he begins to head towards the capital (because as much as he'd like to go to the ubar territory, there's a chance amiru could see him-) and plans to stay there for a while before the plaza terror incident. He takes the healing ancient power, gives advice to Taylor while doing his best to avoid him and cage, and unofficially officially adopts the dragon into his party. Not exactly in that order but oh well-

---

Ron and Beacrox are mighty suspicious of Choi han because he's brought a letter that was obviously from their young master but without the young master. And shit gets worse when Cale doesn't come back home that night-

Choi han gets interrogated, fights Ron (only a lil), and sets out to find the person that helped him in his time of intense despair, memories of the kind stranger feeding the cats and handing him something to eat when he hadn't eaten anything in two days(Choi han).

He feels grateful, and chooses to ignore the rumors about a "drunk, trashy young master" because the person who helped him and the person from the rumors seem like completely different people. (Later, when he finds the redhead, he'll notice that he was, infact, completely correct.)

Ron and Beacrox join him because he smells like the organization that attacked their family and because Choi han is, unfortunately, the only lead they have on finding the young master that they took care of.

When they eventually find cale (new additions including lock and Rosalyn, yay) Choi han is deadset on repaying his meal and the help they received during the plaza terror incident

This Choi han is a tad more mentally unstable and latches onto the only source of somewhat warmth he's received since Harris village-

Ron is being a dad in the background and scolding Cale for not telling them his plan of running away and Beacrox is looking disapprovingly at the fact that the young master has gotten skinnier-

(Alberu is shooketh in the background because that letter he got detailing the bombing and a few other things days ago actually came true and is this person an ally or a threat-)

---

A draft from a while ago, with some things that were added-

[drconstellation]

Once and Future Royalty

Just, stay with me on this one. I know its going to look crazy at the start, but trust me, I know where I'm going.

It all started with the 537AD scene in Wessex in the opening montage of "Hard Times," S1E3. Yeah, the one where Aziraphale is supposed to be a knight of the Round Table and Crowley is role-playing the Black Knight, and they are both so super-squeaky shiny clean - not a speck of dirt or mud on them. wtf! It looks out of place, unrealistic, and was bugging the crap out of me, like a stone in your shoe. It just didn't fit. I mean, why put a myth, a legend, into that sequence? Oh, OK, yeah, the preceding stories from the Bible, like the Garden of Eden and the Flood, aren't "myths" as well, you say? Hmm. In the context of the Good Omens AU, being a biblical based story, they belong there far more than the legend of King Arthur.

King Arthur, who supposedly united Britain under his rule during the late 5th century and early 6th century, was shown to have the divine right to rule by wielding the mighty sword Excalibur. Some stories tell of Arthur pulling Excalibur from a stone. Some tell of him receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Either way, it was bestowed upon him by divine grace. Despite his triumph in battle, he left no heirs, as his queen, the fair Guinevere, was barren. She had a long-running love affair with the greatest knight of the court, Sir Lancelot, but despite this being an open secret in court Arthur would not put her aside. The knights of the Round Table in the court of Camelot were near-paragons of Christian virtue, and there are many tales of their search for the Holy Grail, the cup from the Last Supper of Jesus Christ.

In the end, mortally wounded in battle, Arthur was taken away for healing, and never seen again. It was said he would return when Britain was at it most direst hour to save the day once more. A "messianic" return.

The Once and Future King.

Now, I'm no Arthurian novice; I drank up all of T. H. White as a teenager, read the Dark is Rising multiple times, Marion Zimmer Bradley's interpretation and what ever else I could lay my hands on for a good couple of decades. And there is LOTS of King Arthur stuff around. You are not left wanting for anything new to read or consume. And I'll bet there are a fair few of you also out there who know a quite bit about the legend as well. Oh, and I can't tell you how many times I have watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I still walk around quoting it day-to-day, like the good little Gen-Xer I am, having grown up on that stuff. So I really should have listened to my intuition when bits of Monty Python kept popping up in my brain in response to other parts of GO I was thinking about. (Staaay, I said, stay with me here....)

I kept chewing away furiously on the Wessex problem, growling in feral frustration at it, but also kept reading and sorting out some other ideas and metas at the same time. Eventually I found the key in a tiny little post, about a small detail in the 1941 Blitz episode S2E4, of all places. I wanted to slap myself with how much was staring me in the face so obviously once the door opened. And the damn beauty of it is, that I already written about some it, out of context, without knowing the why.

OK. Where to start this journey...hmmm, back to Monty Python, because, guess what - the Wessex scene is actually riffing off one the more famous skits out the the Holy Grail. The scene is a masterpiece of political satire, from start to finish, but the relevant part here is this sequence:

In case you missed the salient points: Arthur claims he is king by divine providence, because he was given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake. Dennis the peasant protests this waterlogged method of determination, mentioning ponds, watery tarts and a moistened... well, I hope you get the idea about where this is going.

Meanwhile, in 537AD, Wessex, as the mist swirls around them:

"It is a bit damp," complains a shiny silver Aziraphale.

Yes, Excalibur would be a bit damp after it emerged from the Lake. (vidavalor! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm trying to have a serious discussion here! Please! And I wasn't even going to go anywhere near what the sword in the stone is really meant to be referring to...it's not even relevant to the discussion at hand, I swear! Well, there is going to be sexual relations mentioned but - oh, never mind...)

Right. Where were we. Lets leave those super-clean elite pretendy knights to swim off through the swirling mist back to their dry homes to write and file reports to head office, along with Patsy and the hired Igors, and Dennis can keep playing in his lovely muddy filth after he finishes protesting being repressed by the divinely-deluded Arthur. I've got a bit more to say about what Aziraphale and Crowley might represent here later but you need some more context first, so lets move on. I just needed to show you the first bit so you can see the Arthurian theme stretches across both S1 and S2, and will likely appear in S3 as well. More about that towards the end.

Ah, before I forget...another ref from the Holy Grail we need to cover:

This GIF, unfortunately, doesn't have the full exchange between the peasants, which is this:

P1: "Who's that then?" P2: "I don't know. Must be a king." P1: "How can you tell?" P2: "Because he doesn't have any shit on him."

Ah. Er. OH!

Have you made the connection?

Who have I been emphasizing as being unusually clean in their Arthurian setting? That's right, Aziraphale and Crowley.

What's this implying? That they are royalty. Celestial royalty. Maybe not kings, but how about princes? You know how we've been discussing whether Crowley was a once at least an Archangel, and there is even a hint that he was a fallen prince of Heaven given during the replay of Gabriel's trial? (Not the prince, but a prince - a seraphim) And that Aziraphale may have once been Raphael, and may be again in the future? Once and future royalty. To me it adds weight to the past discussion, and helps to explain the assumed authority expressed in these two scenes here: On the left, Aziraphale takes control inside the book shop as the angels and demons argue who is going to punish Gabriel and Beelzebub (finally found it after several months!) and on the right, Crowley is shouting at the assembling demons in the street that they are "out of order."

Onward, Patsy. (I hope you're still with me.)

1941, the Blitz part 2, minisode.

We've found Excalibur! On to Camelot!

[Edit note: I've added a few GIFs and screen shots into the sequence of parallels above because I was thinking over a few things since I posted and felt this actually sat better. To try and explain, as they don't exactly match as I would like, in the Holy Grail movie, King Arthur and the knights he has gathered rock up at the foot of Camelot and gaze up in awe at it. "Camelot!" Arthur declares to the party. "Camelot!" Galahad echoes in excitement. And a third "Camelot!" comes from Lancelot. What do we get in GO? Aziraphale leaps out of the Bentley (Crowley's black horse) and declares "The theater! Sophocles! Shakespeare!" I swear, if you put the two side by side, they would match. It's not just a reminder of how much time Aziraphale has seen pass by, or that we are seeing a tragedy play out. But damn it, I could so just see Aziraphale attending a Sophocles performance in Athens back in the day...]

Camelot was King Arthur's castle and home of his court. In S2 of GO the Windmill Theater is established as our court of Camelot where our 1941 Blitz-era Arthurian drama is to play out, involving Furfur and the zombies.

Yes, poor old Furfur. Two's company, three's a crowd, as they say. Now we know we're in Camelot, we need to be reminded of the central tragedy of the Arthurian story, that ultimately led to the golden kingdom's fall. Lady Guinevere, Arthur's queen, famously loved Sir Lancelot, and the two were passionate lovers. It was essentially a love-triangle at the top, with Arthur being jilted, but he wouldn't/couldn't discard his queen. Where do we see this playing out in 1941?

Furfur, pleased with himself for catching an angel and a demon in the act of consorting together (with the help of the zombies,) barges into the backstage dressing room, and confronts the lovers with their crime. But who is playing who in the Arthurian love triangle? I would say Furfur is clearly caught in the role of Arthur here. Consider the following exchange:

FURFUR: Hmm, well, well, well… What have we here? AZIRAPHALE: Sorry, have we met? FURFUR: Oh, no, you never had the pleasure, but… we have, haven't we? CROWLEY: Have we? FURFUR: What do you mean "have we?" You know we have. We were in the same legion. Just before the Fall. Doing dubious battle on the plains of Heaven. Remember? CROWLEY: I remember going into battle, I don't remember being there with you. Sorry. FURFUR: I was right next to you. We did loads together. You use to jump on me back, little monkey in the waistcoat. Anyway, whether you do or whether you don't, it doesn't matter. I'm here to inform you, as a representative of the Higher Powers of Hell, that you, Crowley, are in breach of the Infernal Code. Consulting and collaborating with an angel, Fell the Marvelous, aka… [opens book] Azirapalala. Azirapapap. Aziphapalala. AZIRAPHALE: [annoyed] Aziraphale

Furfur claims a past intimate relationship with Crowley, which Crowley spurns offhandedly. Crowley is playing Guinevere here, jilting Furfur/Arthur, which leaves the demon-smiting Aziraphale standing in for the handsome hero Lancelot (with his French connections, no less), and doesn't he make us weak at the knees when he drops his voice an octave in dominating disgust. (Is it suddenly getting hot in here...? Phew!)

Interestingly, looking back in S1 at 537AD Wessex, though, I would say that Crowley was Lancelot as the Black Knight, a role that Lancelot sometimes played in the legends, and Aziraphale would then be the fair maiden Guinevere. It certainly plays into Crowley's long term role of playing the knight who comes to the rescue of Aziraphale's princess in distress. Excalibur was no where in sight, perhaps still beneath the waters of the lake. Nor Arthur. Perhaps it was still too early in the story then...

I had originally suggested in my very first post that Furfur was given a stag as his demon avatar because he was wearing horns for being cuckolded by Crowley. But I wasn't quite thinking about it in context with the Arthurian legend! The stag is also often associated with royalty, plus while wandering around the medieval bestiary website that someone linked to, it interestingly notes that the enemy of the snake is the stag and the stork (Shax's avatar.) Ah ha!

So how can we extrapolate this knowledge into a possible appearance of the Arthurian theme in S3?

Will we see the love triangle of Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot come back into play and cause more chaos? I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the Fall.

Or will our lovers bring down a divinely-appointed ruler via their committed behind-the-back defiance of expected propriety?

Will Excalibur appear from beneath the waters, perhaps in another form, to declare a new king?

Could it even be a combination Jesus/Arthur, King of the World, returned? And they turn out to be a very naughty boy, disappearing into the night clubs of Times Square, New York, and that's how they lose him? (Social media viral sensation, anyone?)

I wouldn't be half-surprised if Greasy Johnson's name turns out to be Arthur, actually.

And no, I haven't forgotten that Adam's dad was named Arthur as well.

Bring on S3!

**Bonus**

If you've made it this far and you're thinking:

Let me leave you with this last connection.

In the back stage change room, remember Furfur delivers these lines:

FURFUR: What do you mean "have we?" You know we have. We were in the same legion. Just before the Fall. Doing dubious battle on the plains of Heaven. Remember?

On the first level, he is referring the Great War in the Good Omens AU.

On the second level, Furfur is paraphrasing Milton's Paradise Lost.

On a third level, I can (and will in a future meta) connect this back to the training initiative paintball fight at Tadfield Manor in S1.

And even deeper on a fourth level, if you do know the Holy Grail movie well, you'll remember there is an odd little subplot in it, that infers that the whole King Arthur and his knights thing is merely a full-on violent cosplay that is murderously rampaging across the countryside in the present day with the police in hot pursuit. It's a strange juxtaposition between reality and dream, and you aren't quite sure what it is real or not. The ending is bizarrely and abruptly surreal as the two story lines collide in the heat of battle, as the police turn up and arrest the combatants. A bit like this:

[blueisquitetired]

Astral Shards AU

TLDR: The Boys are in space and they have a Bad Time. (Lady Sneasler is there too)

(This is technically a No Man's Sky AU, but you don't need to know anything about the game to follow along just fine)

Welcome to the pitch! All art for this AU will get their own posts, so everything here will be in game screenshots. There's also a lot more to this story then just what's written here (As this is, you know, the pitch) so please leave any questions, thoughts, or ideas in my inbox. This bad boy isn't getting a fic anytime soon, so it's tumblr only for now!

(In game models of the boys. I'll post a drawing of their actual designs sometime in the future)

Post proper under ReadMore!

This is honestly half fic if I'm being honest.

Length: ~3,000 words or so. Sorry not sorry.

Disclaimer: I don’t know every single No Man’s Sky lore detail, and I’m not going to scour the wiki for every piece of information and spoil the whole game for myself, so not everything will be 100% lore accurate. And I’ll be ignoring the giant late game twist (if you know you know) because, as cool as it is, it’s very much a twist that consumes all narratives set in this universe, and I’d rather not make my story *also* about that. (Also, as with all AUs not currently written down in fic form, details are subject to change)

Anyway did you know the No Man’s Sky protagonist suffers from amnesia?

Picture this- Ingo wakes up on a frozen planet next to a crashed starship. He's a bit confused and lost- but his space suit is damaged and that kinda takes priority. Because of that, it takes him a hot minute to figure out he has no memories- but as he’s gathering the materials needed to not die he figures it out

The starship recognizes him as its owner and he feels relatively confident in his ability to fix all of this jazz, so he did exist before... but besides that he’s kinda stumped

But this place sucks- he’s constantly freezing to death, stuck either recharging his hazard protection with sodium or siting in his (still wrecked) starship until he warms up enough to go mine stuff with his handy dandy laser again.

And he’s alone

It’s very lonely

(He’s not supposed to be alone)

So the tentative plan is this: fix the starship enough for space flight, launch into space, and then fly to this solar system's space station. (which he has a gut feeling exists. “Every solar system has one” he mutters to himself. He’s not sure how he knows that)

It’s….. slow going. But it’s going

There’s a lot of mining involved, a lot of looting crashed space junk, a lot of mind numbing boredom as he goes to the same spaces over and over and-

And then he sees something weird in the distance.

(This is a monolith. In game it’s used to learn space language words and history and to get  l o r e. I’m taking advantage of it)

It’s kinda a hike over there, and it uses up a lot of his sodium reserves, but eventually he comes face to face with….. whatever this is

So he walks around it, trying to figure out what it is, before eventually finding a platform he can interact with.

Stepping up to it, he’s filled with strange sensations and knowledge, a story of an alien race that is familiar yet he hasn’t actually seen yet-

And then the world shatters in front of him

He steps back in shock as a tear in reality forms, a crack in the cosmos widening and fracturing, the sound of breaking glass as everything s h a t t e r s-

And then everything is fine

He stands there, dumbly for a moment, mind reeling….

Until he notices something that wasn’t there before

A shard of purple glass

Carefully, he picks it up, holding it up to his visor-

It whispers

It’s faint, too faint. He can’t hear it well- but it’s important. The whispers are familiar and he needs to know what they’re saying.

So he treks back to his ship, filled with a purpose he hasn’t had in his entire remembered life.

It takes a bit to wire his radio receiver to accept strange reality shards as a valid form of input, but eventually he figures it out. Connecting the last few wires and attaching the shard to it-

“Ingo, where are you? Please respond.”

That’s- that’s- that’s his brother!!!! His TWIN!!! Ingo doesn’t know much but he knows that’s his brother and he’s not supposed to be alone and what happened, why did he crash and why is his twin not here, where did he go? What happened?? He needs to find him!! He needs to find him NOW!

This lights a fire under him

Suddenly it isn’t “hey let’s fix my ship because I have nothing better to do” it’s “I have to fix my ship so I can find my brother” he’s working in overtime

He visits the monolith once or twice too, hoping to get another hint, another clue, maybe even respond- but it has no more answers. Reality is stable, and there are no more shards of glass

It takes forever and the fixed spaceship is…… not great- but at least it flies.

It works well enough, and Ingo has enough oxygen for his life support and enough fuel for his ship to get to the space station- even if it’s on the other end of the solar system.

Ingo…. reeeeaally wishes it was better put together, but this is the best he can do for a previously totaled starship.

So, he lifts off.

And things go great at first!

His radar manages to locate the space station without much trouble, and his pulse engine should get him there fairly quickly.

He charts a course and gets going, little purple shard tucked into his suit. (He’d listened to the message on repeat hundreds of times. Over and over “Ingo, where are you? Please respond.” He’d combed through his ships logs as well, but they were almost all corrupted, left with nothing but fragments of his brother’s voice. This was his only true connection)

And then the engine dies

The engine dies and Ingo is in the middle of nowhere, ages away from any planet, stuck in the middle of empty space with no hope of getting anywhere.

No debris, no friendly ships, no nothing.

He’s going to die out here.

He's going to die out here and his brother will never know, will never see him again, will think he just forgot him-

He has a nice panic, looking at his limited supply of oxygen and mildly freaking out

(Majorly freaking out)

But at least he has his radio.

He doesn’t…. know any frequencies or anything, doesn’t know what to tune it too, but he has to try something.

So he just, turns it on and hopes for the best.

“Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Tune the frequency one more decimal point “Hello this is Ingo. I am stranded in deep space and require assistance.” No response. Turn the dial-

And so on and so forth.

Eventually, his wordy message turns to just a hoarse plea of “help”, and he’s started switching the stations willy nilly, no longer one decimal at a time.

He’s going to die out here.

Hours of this, hours of desperately pleading into the vast depths of space-

The frequency changes without his input.

“….help?” He asks hesitantly, staring blankly at the radio transceiver. How did it do that? Why did it do that? Why was the display filled with random symbols instead of numbers-

“With what?”

Ingo jolts upright in his seat, adrenaline rushing through his veins and his heartbeat in his throat “I am stranded in deep space and require rescue.” He wheezes out, his throat sore and dry

“Oh yeah that’s no good. You sound awful- you must have been stuck there a while.” There’s the sounds of buttons beeping and fingers tapping before- “Ah found you. We’ll open a pocket near your location. Sit tight.”

And then reality warps and-

That’s new

It’s uh…. A bit too far from his ship though. It’s a nice, rational distance away, but his ship can’t move.

But it’s close enough he could probably jet pack over there.

Making sure his shard is close to his chest and firmly secured, he opens up his cockpit and leaps, propelling himself into the docking bay-

And oh

Artificial gravity kicks in, and he falls to the floor in a crumpled heap right by the entrance.

Impossibly, a ship flies in a mere moment later, even though there had been no ships anywhere nearby Ingo before. Several more soar in and out as he ungracefully shuffles to the station proper. Somehow.

And by the stars, is it loud.

(Please imagine this area being far more busy than it is. I took this photo on a weekday, but even on its busiest days it’s still a game that probably maxes out at lobbies of thirty or something. Since, you know, it’s an indie game)

After weeks of total isolation, the sheer hustle and bustle of hundreds of people is far too much to handle, the echoing reverb of ships landing and taking off sending spikes through his skull.

But, as uncomfortable as it is, it’s still people- and Ingo is so so glad to have company

“You okay?” A young voice asks as he clambers up to the parking space nearest to the entrance. “You took quite a tumble there.”

There's a short being on the platform, one that helps Ingo up. It's a youth, maybe female- and she almost seems to be the same species as Ingo. (Ingo has the feeling that he doesn't meet members of his own species much... or ever)

“Everything is operational.” he reassures, standing at full height and towering over the girl. He hunches down slightly, as to not seem intimidating. “I am just relieved that I am no longer trapped out there.”

The girl nods and gestures him forward, walking towards the station proper and expecting him to follow. He does

“Yeah I bet! If your ship wasn’t even working well enough to fly in….” She shakes her head. “Well enough of that. I’m iteration Akari! What’s your name?”

“Ingo.” He replies, a little more directly then he prefers. His voice is still hoarse. “What is this place?”

“The anomaly!” Akari replies, as they get closer to the crowd proper. “I guess this is your first time then?”

“Yes it is.” What in the world is this place? And where are all these people coming from??

“Then you should meet with iteration Adaman and Irida!”

Akari begins leading him past the crowds and towards a curving ramp.

“Iteration?” He asks, noticing the pattern in their titles.

“Oh yeah uhhhh… I’ll let one of them explain that.”

Akari chatters to him as they walk along, pointing out different landmarks and explaining their purpose

Eventually they reach a wide room that seems to overlook the entire station, just as bright and colorful as everything else.

“Hello!” A voice calls, and an alien decked in dark blue greets him. “You took quite the fall there! Are you alright?”

He is iteration Adaman apparently, and iteration Irida stands nearby. She waves when Ingo and Akari approach.

They are the leaders of this place- the founders of the anomaly. A place between dimensions, a safe haven for people like them- one's who are alone in the worlds they inhabit.

They ask about his lack of spaceship and Ingo tells them of his plight, eventually explaining his goal.

“I need to find my twin.” He explains, pulling out his shard of glass. “I remember little, but I know we are not meant to be separated. I fear for his safety.”

“A twin???” Irida sounds completely shocked, the plants she was monitoring forgotten as she turns to the group. “That’s not possible.”

“It could be.” Adaman counters. “In the infinite reaches of spacetime anything is possible.”

“The odds of such a thing are so astronomically low. Do you mean a brother in arms? A family chosen by bond alone?”

“No?” Ingo responds. “He looks like me.” He saw his reflection in the ice, his brother whispering in his ears. They shared a face.

“Impossible. Mathematically impossible”

“Improbable Irida. Not impossible.”

“The odds are far too low-"

“Plenty of people have siblings. And plenty of twins exist.” Ingo interrupts, irritation coloring his voice. “It is not that rare.”

“But not travelers.” Akari pipes up, finally joining the conversation. “Travelers are always alone.”

“Traveler?”

“That’s what you are.” Irida explains. “A traveler. We all are actually- everyone here. A being cursed to wander the stars, one with no home of their own. They may stop and rest, may find a place to settle down- but there is no place that is theirs, no community for them. No sky they rest under calls them its own.”

“Only one can exist at once.” Adaman adds. “Every dimension can only host a single one.”

“Hang on.” Ingo shakes his head. “That does not track. You just said that everyone here is a traveler. Which contradicts your earlier statement.”

“We are in an in-between space.” Irida explains, her tone pitying. “We founded the anomaly so travelers could find each other. So that the iterations could finally interact.”

“So we wouldn’t always be alone.”

“I…. I need to sit down.”

Adaman pulls up a chair and Ingo slumps into it, his head and helmet falling into his hands

“You can stay as long as you need.” Adaman reassures, his tone soft. “Our home is open to all, a bastion of safety.”

“I cannot.” Ingo sighs, before straightening back up. “I must find my brother.”

He holds out his shard of glass, reflections of multicolored light gleaming off it.

“This is the only clue I have”

“May I?” Adaman holds out his hand and Ingo hands it over reluctantly, watching as he holds it up to the light. His face falls as he examines it.

“Oh dear. Irida is this….?”

“Yes.” Irida's tone is grave, somber and mourning. “A shard of the glass world.”

“Your brother is almost certainly gone.”

“No!” Ingo leaps to his feet, his hands clenched in fists. “He is not! He sent me that message-“

“There are many in between spaces.” Irida interrupts. “We are in one, a stable pocket that hides us from the world, from the gaze of the Atlas.”

She frowns.

“Larger ones are far less stable. Refractions, cracks. The-"

“-world of glass.” Adaman finishes for her. “Any living being unlucky enough to fall in there will cut themselves on its fragments, their very being torn to shreds. Your brother would not survive."

“Not necessarily.” Ingo counters, his voice tight. “If I could get him out-” 

“He would be nothing like he was before, shattered beyond compare.”

“But he would be THERE!” His voice is loud and booming, his throat stinging in pain. “I refuse to let him suffer and die in there. I refuse to just…. give up on him! I will get him out!”

“It will be difficult.” Adaman hands him his glass back. “To find a way in will be tricky enough, but to find a way out….”

“How do I get in.” Ingo holds the shard to his chest. “How do I find him.”

“Well…."

Adaman frowns, drumming his fingers on his arm.

"Entering the world of glass shouldn't be much trouble. It's a vast space, and opening pockets in spacetime is our specialty."

"But finding him is the actual problem." Irida adds, her face grim.

"Yup. Which makes your encounter at the monolith even more strange." Expression contemplative, Adaman once again holds out his hand. "May I see your message again?"

Tentatively, Ingo places it back in his palm, still reluctant to part with something so precious. Adaman hardly seems to notice, casually turning it back and forth in his hands as he re-examines it- before eventually scanning it with a tool on his table. Data streams onto his screen, and he hands the shard back to Ingo before examining what he received.

The group is silent as he scrolls through the data, a tension in the air.

".... I think you could probably find more of these shards. Going off of your account of the event and the frequency of the shard itself..." He trails off, expression contemplative. "They seem to be... tuned to you somehow. Connected somehow. Maybe it's related to you two being 'twins'."

He hums.

"Maybe your predecessor was split into two. Maybe you are connected more than you know."

Ingo has... questions about that, but he keeps silent for now. Better not to interrupt him and break his train of thought.

"If you can find weak spots in your universe, places where the boundary between the world of the living and the world of glass is thin... Maybe you can find more of these."

"And then what?" Irida asks, her tone annoyed. "What good would more of those do?"

"Why, that's where you come in my dear friend!" Voice light and face playful, Adaman turns to his partner and grins. "With enough data points, I'm sure you can triangulate his location!"

"And send this man on a suicide mission?"

"I will find a way." Ingo interrupts the two before their argument to escalate, his determination swelling. "A way to travel there without losing myself. I will not go in unprepared."

"You heard the man!" Adaman claps his hands merrily and Irida groans. "He's already made up his mind! Better to help him where we can, hmm?"

Irida shakes her head.

“Fine. I’ll rig you up a scanner. A way to find unstable areas.”

"And then you can gather more of those shards!"

“But you’ll need to go all over.” Irida huffes.

“Not just yellow stars. Red, green, blue. You’d need to build an intensive warp drive, which is expensive and requires so much materials and nanites and you don’t even have a ship-”

“We surely have an extra we can spare.” Adaman interruptes, flashing Ingo an apologetic look. “And while the trials will be difficult, I’m sure your determination will see you through. Akari?”

“Yes?” Ingo startles as the girl speaks. He had forgotten she was there.

“Can you check the hangers for a ship we could gift our friend? I’m positive we have a few that have been abandoned.”

“Of course!” Grabbing Ingo’s hand, the girl leads him onward. “Let’s find you something good!”

Unfortunately, ‘something good’ was a tall ask when looking through old abandoned spaceships. Most had been left behind for good reason, old piles of junk that barely flew and would require extensive repairs. Certainly not anything close to the state of the art traveling ship Ingo would require.

“Okay this isn’t looking great,” Akari started, no doubt noticing Ingo’s discouragement. “But you could probably break one of these bad boys down for parts and then buy a better ship? Work your way up?”

“I suppose.” Ingo frowned as he brushed his hand over one of the ships, a part coming off under his hand.

“Or maybe….” The girl trailed off, and Ingo gave her an inquisitive look. “I mean it’s kind of a long shot- but I do know a ship that has all the required technology you’re looking for already.”

“Really?!” Hope bloomed in Ingo’s chest, his hands shaking in excitement.

“Yeah. But uh, don’t get your hopes up too high. She’s really picky.”

“…..she?”

‘She’ was a ship by the name of ‘Lady Sneasler’, a living breathing organism that happened to also be a spaceship. A marvel of biology that was like nothing Ingo had ever seen before, a pure wonder and the most beautiful thing Ingo had ever laid eyes on. And he told her as much.

(Living ships are a very canon thing in game and they are so cool! I'll post some art of Lady Sneasler later, but for right now, here's my personal in game living ship, Darling)

She was flattered, and was even more flattered when Ingo broke into an excited ramble as he examined her thoroughly, reverently running his hands up her flank when she gave him permission. She was a prideful one apparently, and had refused a pilot for centuries- but Ingo’s genuine wonder managed to easily win her over.

And so Ingo got himself a ship.

Thus, the two begin their cosmic journey together, traveling through the galaxy to gather all of Emmet’s messages and eventually save him.

It’s long and arduous, rife with danger and trials... but eventually they manage to force their way into the world of glass, and pull Emmet out.

And boy howdy is he messed up….. but that just means they get a healing arc lol.

But yeah, that’s the basics! Feel free to ask questions if you’re curious, (I have a lot more I haven’t shared yet) and I hope you enjoyed! There’s a very decent chance I might end up writing a fic about this in the future, but that’s so far off that you shouldn’t hold your breath.

Thank you for reading!

[thecatundertheladder]

how about fsm's and lloyds first meeting in the fsm lives au?

First of all thank you so much for asking!!! I had a lot of fun writing this even if took ages. Right so I haven't completely figured out when the ninja actually meet Fsm, but I'll get to that later. I do have a rough timeline so probably in between seasons five and six (Possession will obviously get retconned a lot). Garmadon is alive btw.

Lloyd had never really made the connection between his grandfather and the First Spinjitzu Master. Like sure he knew it logically, but there was a real difference between 'my grandfather is the First Spinjitzu Master' and 'the First Spinjitzu Master is my grandfather'. And besides, the guy was dead, as far as he could tell, so it didn't really matter other than 'hey I inherited cool powers and also his arch nemesis'. Honestly, the only things Lloyd knew about his grandfather were that he invented spinjitzu, used the golden weapons to create Ninjago, fought the Overlord, and he had two kids, who happened to be Lloyd's dad and uncle.

So naturally it was quite a shock when one day at breakfast Wu announced that his father was coming to visit in a few days.

What resulted from that statement was a rather long and, uh, productive (not really) conversation (a very loud debate).

Cole: What?! But he’s supposed to be dead! Kai: No no one of my village elders said he just left this realm and would return when we need him most. Morro: Nah grandpa just does whatever he likes. Though he was in another realm last time I checked, at least that's right. Jay: What the fuck does that even mean?!

That ,of course, sparked a whole other debate about why Morro knew that. It got sorted out in the end, eventually, after a few thrown noodle bowls.

But while the others seemed to calm down after that, Lloyd steadily got more anxious. Because this was his grandfather, the man who had created Ninjago itself, and fought the Overlord the first time. Yes, Lloyd had done that as well, but what if he didn’t met his grandfather's expectations? What if he was disappointed in him?

Morro, on the other hand, was pretty excited to see his grandpa again; it had been two years, and despite Morro taking advantage of Fsm's omniscience to inform him about various coming and goings, he hadn’t had an actual conversation, and he had a lot of things to show him as well. But Lloyd had seemed pretty anxious since Wu’s announcement, so, like any good older cousin, Morro cornered him on the way to breakfast.

Morro: What’s up with you? You’ve been anxious ever since dad told us grandpa was coming here. Lloyd, mumbling: What if I don't live up to his expectations? Morro: Huh? Lloyd, louder: What if he's disapointed in me? Morro: As someone who's actually meet him, his expectations are don't die, and don't kill innocent people. Pretty low expectations if you ask me. You'll be fine.

This makes Lloyd feel a bit better, but he's still anxious, and he refuses to talk to anyone else about it because, to him at least, it seems a bit dumb to be anxious about meeting his grandfather when no else is (they are, Lloyd just hasn't noticed).

Anyway fast forward to The Day of The Arrival. Lloyd gets up earlier than usual in order to mentally prepare himself for meeting God. And, since he's expecting to have a few hours before the First Spinjitzu Master arrives, he doesn't really bother to make himself presentable before making his way to the kitchen.

This was a mistake.

Because when lloyd enters the kitchen there's man(?) sitting at the table wearing a black kimono with gold detailing. And Lloyd's first though is 'fuck, its the First Spinjitzu Master' before he realises that the man (? seriously why is it so hard to tell) is in his late thirties at most. So Lloyd's next thought is 'why is this random person in my kitchen?'

Lloyd, suspicious: Who are you and why are you here? Fsm, smiling: I'm your grandfather, and I'm your grandfather. Lloyd: You can't be my grandfather! You're like thirty! Fsm: I am not thirty, I'm a shapeshifter. Fsm, now vaguely concerned: You didn’t know that? Why didn’t you know that?

So, luckily, Fsm, by being themself, manages to almost completely allay Lloyd’s anxiety by getting up, telling Lloyd to follow him, and going to find both his children so they can smack them on the head because come on you two this is Morro all over again (Fsm can't really talk though, his godly domain should really be 'forgetting to tell people important information'). Because he can understand Morro not knowing that Fsm - and subsequently their descendants - isn’t human, but Lloyd is actually related!

Lloyd, meanwhile, is shocked. God, his grandfather, is in his house, looking all of thirty, and stalking through the monastery all while grumbling under his breath about his kids not telling Lloyd something, all while Lloyd trails behind him like a lost fawn.

It’s then Lloyd remembers his pyjamas and bed hair, and he just, internally cringes. Like, c'mon, this is the First Spinjitzu Master, and here he is looking like he just got out of bed (that he actually did just get out of bed is completely pointless in Lloyd’s mind). But something about this thought process must have shown in his face and body language (never mind that Lloyd is behind his grandfather), because suddenly the First Spinjitzu Master (man Lloyd really has to get his name) is turning around, stopping Lloyd in his tracks.

Fsm: Stop that. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. I am 25,000 years old, and I have raised two children, I have seen a lot worse than bed hair.

That makes Lloyd blush, but his grandfather is already on the move again, seeking out his children.

Of course, once Fsm does find their children, Lloyd has the pleasure of finding out that his grandfather his half oni, half dragon (“dragoni”, his father says, “easier on the tongue”).

But once Lloyd processes that he’s not fully human (and, like in the show, he’s pretty calm about because it makes a lot of sense when he actually thinks about) he starts to bond with his grandpa and damn the First Spinjitzu Master is not anything like he expected him to be, but honestly, Lloyd is actually kinda relieved about that. He’s a lot more approachable than Lloyd expected, and it seems he’s where Wu and Garmadon got the more, um, eccentric sides of their personalities. Lloyd is still a bit nervous around him, but that slowly goes away over the few weeks that Fsm is staying for.

Throughout those weeks, Lloyd kinda starts to get comfortable around Fsm. Lloyd shows Fsm a bunch of video games (I've decided this includes Minecraft because, listen, Fsm would be great at Minecraft (specifically creative mode) and you can't tell me otherwise), as well as board games, which leads to the interesting revelation that Mystake (Mystake?! Who runs the tea shop?!) banned Fsm from playing uno a few months after it come out because he tackled someone after he had to pick up 16 cards.

Hope you enjoyed!

But yeah I’ll probably do a separate post for the family bonding.

Also I feel like I need to give fsm a proper name at this point. I’ve been calling them imaragami (ih-ma-rah-gar-mi) since I started thing this whole idea up but tbh it’s just a bunch of random syllables put together (I’m kinda attached to it at this point tho). But anyway what do you think?

[needfantasticstories]

No need to post if you don’t want to, but wanted to say I really like this point. I’ve spent hours combing books and lore to try to get things right because you never know who will point out it’s wrong. For something that’s a hobby, that’s often too much work for casual fans/writers.

And personally, I like having my own takes on the character vs sticking to canon or the comic

I'll go ahead and preach to the choir, lol.

Your art has made me THINK. Has made me incorporate new ideas. It's been an absolute joy to watch you develop your Wing Bois AU and the thought behind the process and the JOY you're getting out of it is CONTAGIOUS and I feel like that's part of the fun, part of the point.

So yeah, I'll try and make sure I'm more considerate with tags, and once again MAD respect to all content makers and sharers. Let's PLAY!

More nonessential jabbering below the cut:

LU became more fun when I started to create my own fics rather than get mad about running out of ones to read. I learned fast that I have unusual tastes (specific flavors of angst) and that I wasn't alone, and that reading and collaborating with other authors is hella fun and teaches me a ton.

We all know how hard it is to "get into" this fandom. But that's supposed to be FUN, not a test. It's a million Easter Eggs we get to hunt. And we are SO SPOILED with a glut of content! It's AMAZING! (and with challenges like whump/fluff, or course there will be shorthand for characters and dumbing things down/glossing over and ignoring some dynamics and facts because we've only got a month and we need to write 28-31 fics! I only got halfway through)

I love squishy Hyrule as much as a good feral-enough-to-bite-a-man's-fingers-off Hyrule. Mine will eventually shove pottery shards into an enemies eyes when he's run out of other weapons, and then he'll cry in Legend's arms because I like it when he's both! And you can justify so much! Like what if he becomes squishy because he's gotten comfortable with having so many others who can help him chill for a change, and he discovers when he's relaxed for more than a few hours, for the first time, he is deep down kind of squishy and affectionate! Or that he hates it! It's fun to explore them. Each character version is a new dungeon to examine. Familiar isn't bad, nor is new. I love traumatized, I love not traumatized.

I'm guilty of having preferences, but heck, I've learned to embrace some of the angles I didn't like at first because I learned new details, or an author introduced a justification I could buy into and I loved it. I never would have shipped Rav and Legend, but I'm glad for all those who did so now I can enjoy MORE ships, depending on my mood or the direction of the story. And sometimes we make these boys a bit weaker than they are in their games because they're so stinking powerful, and we need them to question themselves.

[kimium]

It's time for another Saw AU ask!!!!!!!!!!

If the NRC staff found out what their alumni are up to...do you think they would turn a blind eye or turn their former students in? (Or, Secret Third Option: would they offer a helping hand?) Please explain, in as much detail as you like, for each staff member!

Hi friend! Thank you for this ask! It's funny you send this to me because a couple months ago I was thinking about this exact topic! I'm excited to answer this!

For anyone who doesn't know, me and @m34gs have created a Sort of Saw Franchise AU for Twisted Wonderland. See the link if you want to read our work!

Let's get started with my answers!

Crowley - Help them out/Blind Eye

I'll start with the one that is the hardest to pin down: Crowley. Even though he's consistently in every chapter I believe we haven't seen his true personality. I firmly think he's putting on a facade. There has to be a secret with him and I hope we'll eventually find it out in canon.

This means for my assessment of Crowley in this AU is a bit incomplete. While I cannot see him turning the dorms in, I'm undecided of he'd "help the students out" or "turn a blind eye". I suppose given what we've seen of Crowley in canon, I could lean more towards "turn a blind eye", but I can also see him helping everyone out.

Trein - Turn them in

Without question Trein would turn his former students into the authorities, no questions asked. He's not the kind to condone murder and isn't going to believe the dorm's logic (ends justify the means). I also think if Trein moved to turn them in the dorms wouldn't do anything against him. In this AU he's Yuu's adoptive father. Killing him would only cause Yuu to be devastated. Plus, if they ever found out they killed Trein, Yuu would never forgive them. No one can risk that.

Crewel - Blind Eye

You may think I'd say Crewel would help them, but it's so much work. All the work for the traps is exhausting and tedious. Crewel may be a workaholic (I think he's a professor and maintains his presence in the fashion world at the same time.) Also, it's garish work and Crewel is not into watching people die slowly and painfully.

Though I think that doesn't mean he wouldn't help out a little. He'd 100% be fine covering and providing alibis for the dorms (mostly Pomefiore). I also think he wouldn't mind procuring items (such as deadly potion materials) for anyone's traps.

Vargas - Help Out

At first, I thought Vargas would be the same as Crewel, but I changed my mind. He's 100% helping out. I think what makes him ultimately decide to help is I can see him with a hunter mentality. It's a cruel world out there and if survival of the fittest means your actions are judged in a life and death situation?" That's not Vargas's fault people dig their own graves. That's karma.

So, he's more than willing to help build or haul materials for traps. He'd be right there chasing down any victim and aiding in the kidnapping. (See: Camp Vargas event where he took out the students one by one to create a high tension challenge.)

If you want to know which dorms he usually ends up helping, I'd say it's Ignihyde and Scarabia. They're the dorms with the least amount of people and would appreciate the physical labour. Especially Idia who remains hidden in his room. Vargas helping can ease some of the burden on Ortho.

Sam - Help Out

Similar to Crewel, I think Sam mostly turns a blind eye but helps out in small ways. He's more than willing to sell items to the students or lead them to the direction of a great deal. With his "friends from the other side" he'd also be valuable in collecting information where most people cannot go. Speaking of information, his shop hears everything and you bet anything said in his shop has been heard and recorded.

If you want to know what dorm he helps out the most he helps all but especially Octavinelle (for selling items).

I hope you like my answers, friend! Let me know what you think!!

[the-owl-tree]

I know you haven't posted a profile leader of the isekai girls' clan yet, and if you don't have all the details for them ironed out yet (besides Honeypaw and Frostblaze both being the leaders kits) that's all good. But while looking at your latest post about the au, it got me thinking: how do you think the leader feels about 'Honeypaw''s sudden personality change, unnatural (because they're human moves) new fighting style, and tendency to walk on her hind legs? Because I'd imagine even if they weren't particularly close before Honey replaced her, it'd definitely be eyebrow raising to someone who knew her beforehand.

i'll definitely be putting the parents on my to-do list since I have thought of them, mainly because my inspiration is a mix of things that made go oooh yes or pissed me off so badly i stole them JUST to tear them apart in this lol

Honeypaw's relationship with her father, Owlstar, is strained. His relationship with her mother is purely political: he wants an heir, she wanted to join their Clan. In the books (from Frostblaze's perspective), he's written as an aloof but noble cat who can be stern but only because he cares. In the "real" world of the book...he's a standoffish, absent father who cares little about Honeypaw (due to her lack of resemblance to him) and often speaks of his disappointment (despite him having little presence in her life to guide her).

When the real Honeypaw is killed, he is sad and he does grieve...but doesn't stay for the ceremony. When she does come, he's happy! He welcomes her, nuzzles her in greeting, and visits her in the medic's den as she recovers...but it's also stilted, awkward, and suffocating for them both. He says very little and sometimes scolds her for her recklessness (and while in the book this is passed off as him "caring but struggling show it", in practice...it just comes off as apathy to Honey & Honeypaw).

I'd imagine her first few moons of weirdness is him passing it off as a cry for attention until it continues...and not only does she no longer seek his approval, she actively avoids him. Honey would realize his and Honeypaw's relationship is strained pretty early on and, to keep Honeypaw from being in a bad mood and also to avoid having her own father scold her (her body more than her soul), basically stays out of his way.

I can't imagine he'd investigate too much, he's more preoccupied with his successful heir (even if he can't reveal her yet). It's only when Honeypaw continues to poke around, find out more secrets than she's supposed to that he begins to really question what's going on.

Honeypaw's mother, Beesnap, is also different than in her story form. In the book, she's written as a volatile, self-absorbed mother who defends Honeypaw with her fierce temper no matter what her daughter does. When Honey actually meets her? Beesnap is a rogue-born she-cat and her status as truly a member of the Clan is always being questioned. As a result of being isolated and demeaned, she put on a facade of confidence and snootiness, intent on not letting them get to her. When Honeykit was born, her only daughter, she vowed to make sure her child had a better life in the Clan than she'd be given - resulting in her fierce outbursts to defend her child. Owlstar is absent in Honeypaw's life and that only made Beesnap more focused on protecting her.

Beesnap knows something's going on with her kid but doesn't confront her for some reason. She becomes a cat that Honey goes to advice to often when Splashpaw is busy. Eventually I think Honey does try to reveal the truth...but Beesnap probably doesn't take the fact that her beloved daughter's been body snatched very well.

Her unnatural behavior does freak them both out, Beesnap keeps having to whisper for her daughter to stOP WALKING LIKE THAT EVERYONE IS STARING AT YOU-

ty for asking!! i kind of went off topic but your question got me thinking so i ended up rambling lol both of these guys are mainly inspired from how wc and these specific webcomics treat parents and i think that shows

[i-hate-liking-batman]

Hogwarts Volleyball AU

Okay so it might sound dumb, but I was getting back into the haikyuu fandom and I was just seeing some Hogwarts Kagehina aus. And they were super cute! But now that the manga is over it really cements for me just how important volleyball is for Hinata and Kageyama. And so I thought about it, and what if muggle Hinata comes to Hogwarts with his love of volleyball, and ends up dragging Quidditch star Kageyama with him. It's just so funny to me.

The Idea:

Kageyama likes Quidditch. He's good at Quidditch. But volleyball calls to him like nothing else ever has. Kageyama goes with Hinata to see an official volleyball match, and he's entranced. He sees the main game ball moving in ways that can't happen from only throwing on a broom. He sees the way each team can make plays without getting hindered, that only go south from lack of talent of the players. He sees a game locked on the ground but the potential endless. And Kageyama knows he needs to play.

When Hinata and Kageyama met, it was the second year of school. Hinata was a Slytherin and Kageyama was a Gryffindor. It was lunch, and Kageyama had run away from the people wanting to talk to 'the beater who made the team as a first year'. Quidditch was simple. People weren't. When he makes it outside, he sees a boy hitting a ball into the castle wall.

Kageyama can't seem to stop his words as he calls out. "That's not how you play Quidditch! Are you stupid?"

The boy turns around and grins so brightly he has to squint. "Who said anything about Quidditch?"

I don't actually have the time to write the whole thing out right now, so I'll give the general details I'm thinking.

Hinata has already started his volleyball love since before Hogarts, living as a muggle. He's determined to be the first wizard volleyball player.

Hinata likes flying on brooms, but quidditch doesn't inspire him the way the little giant does. Sometimes the things people accomplish without powers are just cooler.

Hinata doesn't care about any of his classes, though he always tries not to fail. He's gotten a reputation as a fake Slytherin because of it. He lacks the ambition he's supposed to have. Little do they know his ambition is volleyball.

Hinata has friends, but no one understands his love for volleyball. Even fellow muggles. To them, magic is everything. Hinata likes magic, but he would give it up in a heartbeat to play volleyball like the pros do.

It hurts when no one gets his passion, so Hinata often goes to practice on his own. He knows he needs to, or he'll never improve. He's still not sure how to get into a team, but he'll figure it out. Eventually.

When the famous second year sees Hinata practice and yells about Quidditch, Hinata decides to try one last time. To show someone volleyball, and all it can offer. Kageyama listens to his explanations but actually seems a little interested. Hinata can't let that go.

Kageyama is extremely curious about this 'volleyball' Hinata is so passionate about. He can't picture it at all, since he was a wizard his whole life. So when Hinata suggests going to the muggle studies teacher to see if there are any records of games, he agrees.

The game they watch is a national match between Japan and Argentina. It's quick. It's decisive. And it's the best thing that's ever happened to Kageyama. Hinata's explanations were terrible in comparison, but made all the more sense. There weren't any words to describe how he was feeling. And he turns to Hinata and demands to learn how to play.

Hinata knows they need to be an actually good volleyball team to actually get good. Wizards who just learnt volleyball aren't enough. Kageyama makes a plan.

Said plan gives them the means to join a school volleyball team for a trial year. If they reveal themselves or simply want to stop, the trial finishes. Hinata wonders how this all got pulled off, and Kageyama doesn't mention his family connections in high places.

Hinata and Kageyama love playing on a team. They aren't good enough to start, but training with people better than them was exhilarating. They train, and train some more. It's everything they hoped.

Kageyama gets so invested in volleyball he finds himself getting more emotional than he's used too. Frustration, elation, determination, defeat, they're all things he's felt before but never so much at a time. It makes him scarier to the public, since his neutral face now scowls in thought about his next volleyball play.

Kageyama's scary reputation is contrasted with his new best friend that never seems to leave his side. They bicker all the time but always sit next to each other at meals. The school was also interested in why Kageyama wasn't playing Quidditch anymore.

With his new grouchy face, rumor has it he didn't make it this year. (Kageyama did not bother trying out. He needed to focus on volleyball.)

Timeskip through all the hogwarts years where Kagehina rises and falls in rumors, from whether they're dating to their latest incident of trouble from one of their fights.

Kageyama and Hinata become the first wizard pro volleyball players. They're happy to be pros, and play until they can't anymore. It's only then where they return to the Wizarding world, to play Quidditch which is easier on the body. They take the world by storm.

In an interview someone asks why they took so long to start pllaying quidditch. They smile at each other and answer at the same time. "It wasn't volleyball. And that always comes first."

AND THATS THE FIC GUYS. IM NEVER WRITING IT BC I HAVE NO TIME. Feel free to use it for anything but please @ me so I can see what you made! Hope you enjoyed this super long post lol.

[agenericarcadebot]

[Out of Character Pinned Post!]

[the old one didn't explain much]

"What is this blog about?"

This is a roleplay/ask blog for Ruin in my AU! He's silly with some dark lore, identity issues, and fully innocent unlike in the show. This blog is also a game of choices, and all actions have consequences, whether good ones or bad. The story will progress with or without input through what I call "events", which are things that happen around Ruin that cause him to post the things he does. He's very vague and gives little to no detail on what goes on, but you can always ask him to elaborate.

(more below the cut ↓)

"Are non-sams roleplay blogs allowed to interact?"

Yes, always! Sams is all about dimensions and Ruin himself isn't even from the main dimension. Roleplay blogs of any kind are allowed, just keep in mind that you don't actually appear in the main dimension (aside from special cases, such as @blip-cluster needing to communicate through the cabinets)

Ruin is always looking for more friends or people to talk to.

"Will there be a way to sort through posts?"

Yes, soon. I'm thinking of tags to better categorize his posts. This was originally supposed to be anonymous so I didn't want to add any tags or anything that would give me away, but I've told pretty much anyone who keeps up with this blog who I am, so you can easily search through things soon.

"Magic anon?"

Absolutely. Torture him if you'd like. I mean with. With fun things don't pull an Eclipse—

"What does the colored text mean?"

The colored text is based on his eyes. He's still a fusion of Sun and Moon, but... Well... I think that's a question for him.

Blue text is for his blue eye, usually tied to fear or stress, and isn't "Ruin is sad so he's speaking in blue text."

Red text is for his red eye, usually tied to extreme emotions or heavy stress, and isn't "Ruin is angry so he's speaking in red text."

Green text is for the virus. Does it show up? Possibly in the future. It's up to the players to figure it out.

"What about names and pronouns?"

This is a bit tricky as the name will likely change over the course of the blog, and pronouns are up for debate as well. But currently the character goes by "Ruin", and uses any pronouns he's assigned. He typically uses he/they, so anything else would probably surprise him, but he wouldn't stop you.

"Who is Egg?"

Egg is Ruin's plush. It was originally supposed to have a proper name, butttt I got a bit bored of needing "names that mean something for the lore", and decided eggs would be funny since it's my comfort meal.

Egg was originally a Moon plush but its head got torn off by a raccoon that a magic anon summoned. He found an extra Sun plush that was already quite worn down and wouldn't be missed as well as a small doll hat, and someone stitched it back together for him.

Feel free to ask Egg questions, it's Ruin's favorite plush, and I assure you that he'd love talking about the little stories he's made up for Egg.

(And maybe there's secret Egg lore, I'll never tell.)

"What's the lore like?"

Well, buckle up, and I'll tell you the story.

Ruin was infested with the virus for the longest time, and when confronted by Moon with the cure, he was fully cured. He was shoved to the side and took to life in the arcade, fixing cabinets and getting better by the day, singing and performing to a crowd of nobody but himself in his room during his free time, and avoiding the cabinets that "smiled at him"

He eventually made the blog as a sort of escape, where he met his friends @eclipseoftheapocalypse and @eclipse-cluster, and eventually @blip-cluster as well. He also encountered some magic anons which summoned plushies of Sun, Moon, and his friends. Moon eventually became Egg as mentioned previously.

His mood only gets worse as time goes on, but the reason why is a reason the players will have to find out for themselves. There are many things that contribute to it, not just Moon's distrust.

"Admit it. You named the blog after a reference."

Yeah and what're you gonna do about it? Get a snack at 4am, probably.

Ruin's blog name, "agenericarcadebot", is a reference to the store in GASA4 (Get a Snack at 4AM, a game on Roblox. Absolutely recommend it), which is named "A Generic Convenience Store." I thought it would be funny. Also he's self-deprecating, so it fit.

(Special thank-you to my friends who are currently keeping this blog alive. I have so many plans for him and you guys keeping up with it makes me happy. I was scared you guys would get bored with it the second it was no longer anonymous, but seeing you guys' reactions to things he says makes me happy. I made this blog so I could see people smile, that's the whole reason, I made this blog so people who like Ruin could interact with him and have a good time. I'm glad that the original purpose wasn't retconned the second I revealed myself. So thank you, and I love you.)

[adreamoverlife]

Hey ur post about gabriel and loki seems rad as hell but im kind of stupid. In your version what exactly is loki switching?? Is lucifer still in the cage in this version?

Hellooooo, Nah trust me you're not stupid, Just my writing brain always takes over while I'm making posts and makes them way more convoluted than they need to be lmao. I'm gonna use this as a jumping off point to explain more about this AU. So to answer your immediate questions, Loki switched places with Gabriel when he was supposed to be rescued in order to pretend to be him and Lucifer is out of the cage while Michael and Adam is still trapped.

And for a more detailed answer heres this:

So, this would happen in season 13 (I originally wrote this without thinking about Jack so I'm just gonna put him off the table for now.) Normal season 13 is Loki - Left Gabriel with Asmodeus and seemingly was playing mafia god in a few hotels before getting killed by Gabriel

Lucifer - Out of the cage and messing around on earth

Gabriel - Was in hell and then was rescued and brought to Sam and Dean

Michael - Still trapped in the cage with Adam

In the AU I Wrote up Loki - Took Gabriel's place in hell when the angel was supposed to be rescued and was taken to Sam and Dean under the guise of being Gabriel. For believability and to tie up a loose end he did still kill Asmodeus like Gabriel did in the show. While his main objective is to make Gabriel suffer it's also a little deeper than that. We know Lokis father had him chained to a rock with a snake dripping venom into his eye but he still speaks fondly of him, He doesn't just wanna destroy Gabs relationship with his brothers (because lets be real it's already dead as hell) but to prove that Gabriel COULD have had his family back and they COULD be happy together. Before eventually destroying it. It should be noted that whether or not Gab ACTUALLY could fix his family is a dubious claim at best, it's more about how Lokis forgiveness of his abusive family makes him toxic to everyone else. (I'll be referring to him as "Gabriel" when he's pretending to be him to other characters)

Lucifer - Still out of the cage but who was sought after by "Gabriel" in order to repair their relationship. This actually managed to tap into Lucifers softer side for a while before he mysteriously vanished after a late night convo with "Gabriel" in the bunker. Sam was the last one to see him before said convo. He is still alive and is most likely the one causing all of nature to start reclaiming the earth.

Gabriel - Was never saved from hell by Arthur Ketch but Loki had him put somewhere "better" aka somewhere he can watch what Lokis doing to his brothers. The idea that he might be literally trapped inside like a radio or tv station is really interesting to me and probably where he is. If Castiel can get turned into a clay figure why can't Gabriel be trapped behind a TVs glass screen?

Michael - Since the cage is canonically damaged by this point in the show I don't find it too impossible a powerful god like Loki could sneak in a wisp of his illusion magic. I imagine Michael and Adam are having their own kinda hell right now. And if Loki managed to break Michael out of the cage after winding him up a bit to cause maximum damage who knows. I'll have to think more on Michael specially.

I've written a few Ficlets for this but I haven't exactly given this au a beta reader so there might be a few plotholes or things im forgetting that happened in the actual season 13 but honestly I'm kinda just having fun with this idea. Hope its not too illegible lmao. If you have anymore questions please shoot me an ask

[livewireprojects]

Old Solaris Twins Refs(Lost Prince AU/Butterfly Effect AU)

This is kinda why I finally worked on the post for the Butterfly Effect AU so I could finally post this cause the post explains stuff.

This is an old ref cause I've edited post-reboot Mephiles's design & I plan to edit Iblis's casual outfit.

Here's how post-reboot Mephiles looks now for context

I'll explain as best I can but I'm going to try keeping summarizes & stuff for a remake of the designs when I get to them.

Just so there's some sight context before I eventually summarize them in a redesign ref post Iblis is cheerful, a little like Sonic, likes to tease but is a caring person. Reboot Mephiles is calm, kind, tries to be gentle & sometimes worries about his pre-reboot actions as he's a different person now that still remembers the past.

Soleanna outfits:

I got some inspiration from Cylent-Nite on DA for some of this.

Originally Iblis was going to be male & look similar to Sonic but I went with this after seeing others' art of Iblis as a Mobian. While still having quills similar to Mephiles/Shadow, her quills are also based on her original form's spike/horn things. She also has some features(claw hands, third eye & sharp teeth based on her original form's mouth) that come from her original form kind of like how Mephiles still has his eyes & is mouthless.(And in the redesign his quills are more like his crystal form's quills)

Their outfits are based off of Elise & her dad's outfits because I attempted to look up Elise for outfit ideas, these outfits are for when they're suppose to be doing royal/guardian business or have to dress up.

Casual outfits:

I drew outfits for Iblis & Mephiles when not doing their jobs/traveling, Iblis doesn't travel much but she still has an outfit.

Iblis got an outfit meant to be a mix of Sonic's & Blaze(also a little based on Marnie from Pokemon Sword/Shield because I've become obsessed with her outfit recently), might fix it up some when I do a digital version of the ref. Mephiles got a remake of Shadow's old outfit before I gave him a biker outfit, he still has the old outfit but for special occasions when not in his royal outfit.

Iblis is hiding her 3rd eye(but also making sure she can still see threw it) because she worries she'll scare people.

Alt forms:

I might repost this pic to the redesign post cause I hate drawing these forms because of all the details that go into them. It's hard to draw these two like this.

So pretty much the two have alternate forms that are pretty much Mephiles's crystal form & Iblis's 3rd form in a more mobian form similar to crystal form Mephiles

They don't go into these forms that often but they have them especially if they need more powerful forms or something.(I dunno where I was going) Mephiles sometimes uses his second form as a Halloween costume, his son thinks it's cool, his wife thinks it's funny he cheats by using it.

Link to master post for Lost Prince AU

[penumbralwoods]

LOOKING AT YOU. INTRODUCE ARIES PERHAP ?

OKAY. PLOPS HIS ASS DOWN.

so for some context. @/queenburd made an AU a while back about TSP. basic concept: when the narrator and stanley exit the game via the escape pod, only stanley makes it out, and the narrator is transported to another copy of the game. the narrator keeps landing in games with super toxic/abusive versions of himself and helping the stanleys get out. also: aries is actually a nickname; this guy still goes by and mostly knows himself as stanley. but there's a lot of stanleys. so i'm gonna continue calling him aries. aries' parable is. rough. his narrator is Very emotionally abusive and manipulative; basically verbally beat the idea that aries is a "broken" version of stanley in until he fully internalized it. "god, why did i get stuck with the only stanley that can't function properly?" etc etc. (also. aries' narrator does not have a name and will never have a name because we have an agreement in place and you all know it.) so. aries himself. he has some weird feelings about his narrator. he hates his guts, wants NOTHING more to get away from him- but he's all he has, and he wishes so, so much that they could just find some sort of middleground, and he keeps trying despite himself to make him happy. at one point aries had half-baked feelings for his narrator and he took advantage by being extremely affectionate... while still insulting aries and calling him a mistake. aries' narrator is obsessed with trying to "fix" him- he honestly believes that stanley is SUPPOSED to be subservient, obedient, and naive, even though WE all know not a single goddamn stanley is like that. so over the many many years, he's worked to essentially break his spirit enough to get him to give up and listen. you know how i always talk about how unhealthy and weird and fucked up my usual pair are? yeah. they're still worse but these guys also fucking suck (though there is very much a clear victim in THIS dynamic) back to aries. he is extremely aggressive and violent and often trashes the entire office just to cause destruction. all of the physical contact with his narrator's model that wasn't aries being manipulated was aries beating the absolute shit out of him. he is so fucking angry all the time. there are lots of other little details about their parable i've thought of (skip button (OBVIOUSLY), zending, etc) but i'll save those for specific posts.

so. when the narrator (going to be calling him atlas from now on to keep from confusion) arrives, aries flat out fucking ignores him. assumes it's some dumbshit his narrator is pulling, flips him off, and walks the other direction. but uh after they get past that. aries doesn't want to leave without his narrator. his narrator's abuse has fostered a pretty strong trauma bond, and despite everything, aries really doesn't want to just leave him behind. it doesn't go well, to say the least, and aries escapes with atlas. this is getting LONG so i'll save the specific post-parable thoughts for another time, but basically: aries doesn't recognize- much less try to fix- how badly his narrator affected him and it leads to a lot of bad habits. the main one being him doing dangerous shit just to prove that he can. he gets injured super often and does not take care of himself properly in general. it also takes him a while to foster any real friendships- he keeps self-sabotaging and ghosting people. i haven't drawn him very much, but may (creator of the AU) has. here's during and post-parable ::)

so. yeah. in summation: was horrifically abused, didn't recognize that what he went through wasn't normal and normal people aren't going to do that to him, and became a huge asshole to everyone including himself for a while. eventually he does go to therapy and makes serious effort to process and get through his shit, though.

[association-of-ideas]

I finally found a name for the AU! I'm calling it Until I Found You from the song It Takes Two. I thought it was fitting considering how much of the AU is centered around finding lost family.

Anyways, considering how much traction the last post got, I thought I should make a more detailed post on Viva and how she fits into the story. Let's go!

Until I Found You AU: Viva

The AU (and fic, when I get around finishing the first chapter) follows the path of the second movie w/ Barb's world tour, but with a lot of found family

In this, Viva takes what would be JD's role in Band Together by coming back to Pop Village to warn her dad about Barb's tour

After her mom was eaten, the responsibility of caring for Poppy gradually fell more and more onto Viva's shoulders

W/ Peppy grieving the death of his wife and dealing w/ his duties as king, he spends less and less time w/ his daughters

Viva grows up under a lot of stress and pressure put on her by both her father and her people

Before she left, Viva said goodbye to Poppy, leaving her her hug-time bracelet to remember her by (a parallel to Branch and his vest)

After her departure, Viva took on a more adventurous life, hopping from place to place and never staying anywhere for longer than a couple weeks

20 years later, what is supposed to be a quick in-and-out heads up to her dad about the tour quickly becomes an overwhelming flurry of reactions

Poppy is shocked, suspicious, and very unhappy about her sister's return and her out of character behavior surprises everyone who knows her

The rest of Pop Village, like Branch, have been under the impression that Viva died all those years ago

Trying to settle down the chaos spurred by Viva's arrival, Peppy accidentally slips up about Branch's brothers

Before she left, she had seen Branch's brothers around and known of their existence and can't fathom why her dad would hide something like that

Viva's generally a lot better adjusted to the world around her, but she certainly has her reservations

Viva and Poppy still have their It Takes Two song number, but the context is them rekindling their relationship, learning to understand each other, and coming to terms w/ how much the other has changed

Viva would have come back sooner, but didn't because she was worried that if she did, she'd immediately be put back under all that pressure she ran away from

Or that no one would like her after seeing how much she's changed

Or Poppy wouldn't recognize her

Eventually, too much time had passed and Viva convinced herself that if she went back now, Poppy would hate her, so she just didn't go back

For as extroverted as she is, she doesn't really talk about herself, something that will eventually lead into a good old heart-to-heart w/ her sister

Viva struggles a lot w/ guilt and self-loading over leaving, but she's reached a point where she doesn't regret it because she had to do what was best for herself, even if it meant hurting the ones she loves

I just—she means the world to me. I have more I want to say about her, but it's primarily related to her design, so I'll include that in the next post with the other AU character designs.

[cathalbravecog]

since you have a lot of thoughts of whats out there in the toontown universe i wanna throw my 2 sents: so "toons" is short for carTOONS, the much is obvious. but as you & i both know cartoons can be so much more than your typical loonytunes slapstick humor. so i like to think there are other islands out there which represents a different genre, such as: a fantasy adventure land, a sci-fi land, a western land, a horror thriller land, a rom-com land, a detective mystery land, a preschool land. so on so forth. with all their own unique animation styles. with the only consistent thing is that all the land's inhabitants are anthropomorphic animals (GOLLY sorry if this is long)

OHOHOO. you caught me in a rambly day, so prepare for a long one, lol!! (i JUST talked about some world building for my deltarune AU in private) (and i just spent my whole day listening to video essays)

this MAY be ttcc specific but aside from some ttcc details, this could apply to just... toontown in general. but i am a ttcc blog and that's my hyperfixation so that's what i'll talk about.

-----

i love that idea! honestly, something like that is what i've had in mind, too! maybe not everything being placed on island - but a majority of them being. (perhaps similar themes being on bigger islands or just masses of land with some wilderness and such between?)

i already have my idea for a prehistoric toon land, but it's also still based on your looney tunes type cartoon - just populated completely by dinosaurs! it's where my OC, archie archaeopteryx comes from.

an idea like this in general would allow for a lot of interesting places to be made, stories to be told, characters to be made... all that could eventually get into toontown and interact with our typical toons and interact together in interesting ways and have jokes and themes based around their different animation styles and genres.

it would also let the toons to be expanded upon even more, since, in my opinion at least, ttcc can lack that a little bit in some ways. (but going out of my way to look at toons a bit more rather than just the cogs does bring some small interesting things into the light, even if just singular pieces of dialogue, lol. sadly, i don't have examples on my mind right now.) i'm a big cog fan and all, but i wanna see more from the toons! but then again, we play in the role of the toons - so i suppose that's our stories to tell! :]

I also like the idea of everything being anthro animals (ignore the fact i'm a furry for a second) it just allows for more fun, diversity, and just consistency. human-ness being reserved for cogs is what makes this work more in my opinion, but even with that not even all cogs are humanoid. (i am so glad ttcc brought us more robotic cog designs!!)

but the sheer contrast of a human-like robot interacting with ANY cartoon animal is what works in it's favor, y'know? makes the division more clear - even if there's a lot of stories and themes of these lines being blurried more. (like cog and toon friendship -> william and rain, misty in general, whatever dave has for the player toon, thomas warming up to the toons...) which i really like! gives more ideas for stories to be told and explored, and question the laws and logic of the world.

i guess this could also explain art style changes and design choices - like, for example, i don't exactly like the way flesh colored snouts look, it just doesn't fit my art style and so i leave them out. obviously, that's for all toons i draw - and honestly all art styles for just our regular toons are to be loved and celebrated. but y'know, this doesn't have to be! just a little idea i wanted to throw on the table as well.

one thing that could be interesting would just be different medias - i know toontown is a 3d game based on traditionally animated cartoons - but imagine the mixing you could do in art and in story telling! a classic cartoon coming across a pixar-esque cgi animated cartoon and them interacting, both baffled by one another - but still connected by their tooniness deep down!

it's a really interesting idea i like, thank you for sharing this with me and letting me ramble a bit! now, i'm going to list some genres or artstyles that i would like to see! based VERY OBVIOUSLY on my personal interests.

old kids edutainment game, i'm talking 90s - early 2000s. the jankier animation, bit-crushed voice acting, pretty off-model art... but all just very jolly and meaning to educate a young audience! could mix in cgi elements as well, since old games like this would have this. and y'know, some of these would be based on pre-existing thing.

honestly, just old games like that in general... the type of ones you don't see a lot, especially when spoken about online between more mainstream gaming places... but games you probably owned! games of mysterious origins, with very good charm tied to them despite their obvious lower production value... but maybe also something like pf magic petz! oh i'd die i'd love to see petz toons running around - except perhaps more anthro, but still four-legged since there are cartoons of non bipedal animals living more human-like lives.

just... digital in general? perhaps low poly cgi... listen i just like old games and their vibe. but we could do modern animated cartoon toons! both things from studios - but also indie things!

FLASH ANIMATED

eastern european slav cartoon toons - hey, that's where i am from! i grew up with a lot of cartoons from here (czechia), russia and poland! (these being the most notable obviously) and... the themes, animation styles and vibes are very different to anything anywhere else in the world! i would love to see that! obviously, this is hinted at older cartoons - but newer modern ones could apply, too! i'm just unfamiliar with those.

a bit more on the previous topic, since my country has a big history of this type of animation... stopmotion and/or claymation!!

i'm NOT a comic book person, but oh my god would comic book toons be interesting to see! i don't even mean super hero - just comic book style in general! comes from someone who's only comics they read and own were like... my little pony, astérix and obélix, tom and jerry, smurfs and some ducktales. very toony things!

now, most of these relate to art mediums and art styles... i think those are a bit more interesting than genres, since after all art is an art medium, and genres come second. soo many possibilities. thought there are some genres i think would be interesting to see!

detective/noir type toon world? a mysterious place filled with crimes and mysteries to be solved! could make call-backs to things like scooby-doo, too!

kid's cartoon, like you've said! something cute, fluffy, there to entertain the whole family and teach the kids a valuable lesson. not to be a bluey enjoyer on main here but... bluey toons. that would be very very cute, i think.

on that note, one could argue there could be an adult animated cartoon place, but considering a place like toontown we probably want to keep things pg 13... maybe not! but it's still a possibility - as long as you take inspiration from good animation made for adults. i will not be naming any names here...!

okay, this one is MORE an art genre/style thing but... illustrated children's book type thing? maybe not for VERY young kids, but still filled with fun stories and anthro cartoon animals regardless! could appear as 2d cutouts.

medieval toons, but in the art style of medieval styled drawings...! based on old tales and fables! could also mix with some fantasy elements, of course!

SPAAAAAAACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE (space core portal 2 voice) (BUT LIKE... ALIEN TOONS. NOT JUST SPACESHIP TYPE STUFF THATS BORING TO ME I WAND INVADER ZIM TYPE SOMETHING RAAAA...!)

just anime. toon beastars. shoutout to that one louis fan-toon i saw some time ago

and honestly...im out of ideas for this here! i don't really look at genres too often to be honest! they kind of fly over my head, so i'd probably want these to reference specific types of stories that could be told in one of these, but not enough to base a whole place on. anyways, running a bit low on steam here, and i'd repeat myself on possible video game genre based toon worlds, so...! that's it from me! hope you had fun reading this... and my many callbacks to other medias for reference.

(also, your ask is not long! just long enough to be a delight to read! just look at my own responses here :,] )

also, question- should i get a tag for big rambles like this relating to like... world building and ideas in general? both for the cogs and the toons! would make it a bit easier to navigate, even if i am a little bit shy about people reading back through these, especially as my opinions may change. looking at you old thomas and robert ramble...

[bluegekk0]

Hello! I’m quite new here and have done some reading up, but is there anywhere that explains what the AU is about / could you explain? Only if you don’t mind of course. (I love learning about others’ AUs.)

Also: -pokes PK’s belly-

oh absolutely! be prepared though, this is going to be a long one. also an important note: i can't write, so i haven't written any fics about this, which means many details can change/develop over time as it's something i think about 24/7, but i'll try to write down what i currently have in mind and what i'm more or less confident with

so the gist of the au is that pk went into hibernation in the dream realm, as opposed to dying as he (presumably) does in canon, and then moved to dirtmouth with hornet and hollow. but there's many aspects of the au that trace way back into his past, so i'll go over those first if you want to learn more. i will put a "keep reading" divider here cause it's going to be quite long haha

pk was always an outcast among other wyrms, he was born a runt and had no physical strength for playfighting with the other hatchlings, for which he was often mocked. instead, he preferred to quietly observe and study things, which is how he got interested in mortal bugs. yes, they were food, wyrms are a carnivorous species after all, but he felt it was wrong to treat them as just fodder, like the other members of his kind did. he wanted to create, not destroy, and he wanted to share it with the mortals, as he saw parts of himself in them and wanted to help them reach their full potential

wyrms as a species were highly territorial, so that and the fact that they could reproduce in litters and increase their population numbers ended up being their downfall, as their constant fights over territory became more and more violent, causing them to start killing each other much more frequently. this constant aggression caused their numbers to decrease over time, and eventually they disappeared. that is when pk decided to claim the territory that later became hallownest as his own, and abandoned his form in favor of something more approachable. he met the white lady, married her, and granted the most intelligent bugs in hallownest sapience, leading to the creation of the kingdom

it didn't take long until the cracks began to show. he wasn't used to getting this much attention, so when the bugs started worshiping him, he began hiding in his workshop, away from everyone, having doubts about his self-worth and whether he can live up to those expectations. alas, the worship he received lead to the moths abandoning the radiance, and the start of the infection. he promised himself he wouldn't fail the kingdom, and so he started looking for ways to stop it, eventually deciding on the vessel plan. he's always had doubts about it, but it was his last resort and he didn't have much time, so he had to try. and thus hollow was born, the vessel that was able to climb up the abyss, proving their strength and claiming the title of the hollow knight. unfortunately for pk, as much as he kept reminding himself that the vessels had no emotion or thought, that they weren't supposed to be children, the truth is that he got attached, as his parental instincts told him to do. with this realization, came intense guilt about all of the vessels, something which would haunt him from that point on, made even worse with the cryptic signs he saw in his dreams warning him of hallownest's downfall (this is how his foresight ability works in my au)

but he had to proceed with the plan, he had no other choice, and that prompted the bargain with herrah and the birth of hornet. he immediately got attached, all his instincts which he had to repress with hollow have finally found an outlet. hornet became the light of his life, and they grew extremely close, especially after herrah went to sleep, as pk made sure to be here for her at all times, taking the role of both her father and mother (and going as far as killing and decapitating xero in a blind feral rage when he threatened her). unfortunately, all the guilt about the vessels led to him and the white lady separating down the line, as even just looking at each other caused both of them immense pain. so after that, and after hollow was sealed in the temple of the black egg, it was just him and hornet, which made their bond even stronger as they were the only family each of them had left

but as we know, the plan failed, and the infection returned. this caused pk to completely break down, all his fears and guilt piling up, making him unable to do anything. he wouldn't leave his palace room, he wouldn't do his duties as the king, he was as good as dead. hornet was away at the hive at the time, training with queen vespa and her knights, so she wasn't there when pk's breakdown lead to his disappearance, although she noticed there was something bothering him long before that, he just never talked about it with her. she was shocked to learn that he was gone, and after a period of blaming herself for not being there for him, she grew bitter and angry about the fact that he left her all alone with no word

the reason for his disappearance was hibernation. this is a process that is extremely rare among wyrms, as it's caused by intense distress and fracturing of the mind, and for such a violent species, death often comes way before that point. it's essentially a rebirth, a complete reset of their mind and memories that allows them to continue. in the case of pk, this process was interrupted by ghost, which caused him to lose all of his powers. no powers meant that he wasn't able to sustain himself with soul, and had to find actual food, so he left the white palace behind in the dream realm (while he was able to exit it, he had no means of entering it again) and spent the next few weeks running around hallownest and surviving off of tiktiks and other non-sapient bugs. he wanted to be forgotten, so he avoided any interaction with bugs who still lived there (as a side note, i quite like the idea of him defacing statues of himself, in an effort to make them unrecognizable and to show that he never deserved them in the first place. so you'd find old statues of the pale king with their faces scratched away or horns broken off, and any king's idols you'd encounter would be shattered into pieces)

hornet was not aware that her father was back until she heard zote's panicked warning about a "white monster with a crown who killed and ate bugs" after he ran into pk in greenpath. she had to go and check herself, as she had a feeling the description matched someone she had known before, and she was correct. after stumbling upon pk in greenpath, and following a brief angry exchange, she decided to take him with her to dirtmouth, where he met hollow. seeing hollow forgive their father made hornet realize that she also wants to give him a second chance, as despite her anger, she did miss him a lot

this is also where grimm comes into play, as he and his troupe remained in dirtmouth after the ritual was interrupted by ghost's disappearance in godhome. grimm and pk met years ago, not long after the kingdom was first created, and over time became close friends, which evolved into something more, though neither of them admitted it at the time. their reunion in dirtmouth caused all of those feelings to spark up again, leading to them starting a relationship

all of the sins of the past still greatly affect pk. his fear of failure makes him terrified of making even the smallest mistakes, he's prone to panicking and apologizing for even the most insignificant matters, and he's frequently haunted by nightmares of the vessels, his failure to save the kingdom and all the pain he caused his family. then there's the more feral side of him, something which he tried to repress while he was a king, and now embraces as part of his new life (he is cringe but he is free...). moreover, he's ashamed of his mistakes, and refuses to let anyone call him "the pale king", choosing to go by the name "wyrm" instead. he's grateful for the second chance he was given, he wants to do better and be a good father, especially to hollow, but he's still emotionally broken. hornet's anger with him sours their relationship and makes it much more difficult for them to get as close as they used to, but i definitely see it improving over time, as they still love each other dearly, there's just a lot of emotional baggage both of them have to deal with first

i think that's basically it for the backbone of the au, it all leads to the point i'm at now: exploring the character dynamics, thinking of where they're going to go next, introducing more side characters (i still want to include quirrel, just thinking about his potential design and how he's going to fit in), making up silly non-canon scenarios, and so on. i want to eventually make a doc file, or something of that sort, detailing each character and the au in general. i picture it as kind of like fandom wiki articles, with personality descriptions, backstories and relationships included, just to keep it all neatly organized (and maybe suitable to share in public haha)

i apologize if this is all hard to get through, i tend to ramble quite a lot and, again, i'm not good at writing, so this is closer to an incoherent mess than an actual story overview, but i hope it's somewhat enjoyable to read. do feel free to ask any questions if you want to learn more! i always enjoy responding to them, plus it helps painting a clearer, more consistent picture of the au in my head :)