#I was born all wrong but I'm dying alright

[oblique-lane]

"Just a bunch more biblical paintings then I'll go back to drawing yaoi" Or you can do both, renaissance style, Michelangelo or Raphael I honestly forgot who drew those naked men on the Sistine Chapel's ceilings ok bad joke aside: I'd love hearing more about your headcannons, specifically about the childhoods of the characters (ranging from the mercs, to Miss pauling, the Administrator, hell anyone you have ideas about!)

Childhood headcanons... How did you know I've had something about that on my mind? Alright, let's talk about...

Little Sniper

(Lots of trigger warnings ahead, check tags!)

Mundy was obviously an unhappy child. When I imagine the surroundings he grew up in, I see miles and miles of empty landscapes, dry yellow grass, unkept barns destroyed by rust and a deep choking sense of loneliness.

The closest neighbour woul be so far away you better bring a bicycle with you if you want to visit. School and Church were the only places to go, which were also very far away. No kids his age nearby. And even if there were peers at school, no one wanted him anyway.

Mundy was "weird", he didn't quite understand other kids' jokes, didn't get what was so fun about what everyone else enjoying to do; he was weaker, always loosing in close fights; he didn't even look very local for whatever reason. Even if he tried to get along with someone, it either ended up with him being ostracized or with him experiencing the greatest boredom imaginable. And the kids quickly picked up on his "difference", making him an object of bullying.

It started with making fun of everything Mundy does, his habits and speech patterns, his morals and ideas... Which wasn't anything too big for him but it was still very annoying and upsetting, he grew to hate school very quickly.

Coming home being exhausted from this kind of socializing, no one would really comfort him. Being very little, he used to tell on his bullies to his parents, telling how hurt he was by their words... And it would only made a mess in his family.

Overreactive mother: "Poor baby, I'm so sorry, I'll tell their parents to stop being mean, my little little baby, maybe we can go homeschooling..."

And a strict father: "Are you a man or what? Yeah, he will end up a bloody baby if you keep spoiling him like that! Suck it up! Of you can't stand for yourself, no one will. At this pace you'll end up a nobody, with no home nor respect from the world".

Mundy didn't want to be neither a baby nor a disappointment. He figured that sharing his feelings with parents wouldn't be that good of an idea, they won't understand anyway. And also that he must fight somehow.

If he can't win in close fights, he thought, he could hit them from a distance: throwing small rocks at the bullies from up the tree...

–He was punished for that. For some reason, every time Mundy fought back, he was scolded by the elders, who for some reason always believed the bullies that HE was the one starting the fights. They forbid him to fight back. He closed his feelings shut and stopped paying attention to almost everything around him.

Why was it like that? Why was he so different from other kids, why couldn't he understand them? Why couldn't he understand anyone in this world? The world was a mess of unspoken rules and suffering, overcoming oneself, pain; he couldn't fit in. He was always on the wrong even if he didn't do anything. He felt like an outsider everywhere he went.

Sometimes he wondered if he was born into a wrong family or that he wasn't a human at all. Looking at the night sky, he was thinking about aliens, maybe they would come to him someday and take him to the planet he truly belongs, being accidentally swapped at birth. Maybe then he will be happy, he will leave this sickening place and finally start living. He thought about dying, too.

He started to spend a lot of time in the forest any chance he got. He was alone here, unwatched, somewhat free. It was easier to breathe here. He was alone but it didn't feel worse than being with those people. He played by himself. He started to believe that he actually liked loneliness.

As Mundy and his peers grew older, the kids started to become more and more savage, thanks to the hormones and age crisis. Bullying intensified as those kids started to feel the need to assert themselves. Mundy was maliciously beaten (he fought back as much as he could and even win sometimes, but the beating only got worse each time). They used any chance to humiliate him.

And each time after that Mundy would take the knife or his father's shotgun and go to the forest to take his anger on animals, "hunting", since he couldn't do anything to fix the root of the problem.

He would hunt for something small, like birds or feral rabbits so he could butcher them and cook on fire to eat. At moments like this he felt like a beast, and somehow it was the most pleasant state for him to be in.

There were no words available to form his pain into, so the pain came through violence. The more violent his abusers became, the more violent he was at his "hunting". The more he felt his father's gaze piercing him with disappointment, the sharper his knife movements would get. Sometimes he would let the bodies to just rot like that, completely butchered in a very non-culinary way.

(Maybe someday he would lure one of those bastards to the forest and kill him the same way and blame it on an animal attack)

And at some point... His classmates would came up with something that would cross all the lines of forgivable. Somewhere there was the peak of what they could do. Something beyond.

There wasn't a known way to him to deal with that. No known words. Everyone would be so grossed out of him if they knew. He was beyond disgusted with himself, too. What was the point of living now?

That day he would shot a wild boar, take his machete out and cut it open, butcher it the way his father would when they wanted a pork dinner for the night... And reached to its heart.

The heart is where the love is stored, right? That's what people say when referring to this "love" he'd never seem to know. A dark read bloody organ that feels like sponge inside of thin rubber. There's something about this that Mundy lacks. He has a heart too, it's pulsating inside him, but for some reason it was unable to produce the "love", a very necessary fluid for a human body. He wondered if it's sweet. He wondered if he was even able to taste it.

He took a bite... And realized what he was doing.

He was, indeed, a monster.

When he went back home, later than usual, he would be met with his father's gaze. He was always throwing gazes, for every occasion, Mundy was used to feel small and guilty under them. But this time... It felt somehow much more personal. More disturbing.

His father looked at him as if he was a dirty little creature, a rat, a maggot. He looked at him the way one would look at a criminal who wronged their whole family. He looked at him like he knew.

His father didn't say anything that day and it wasn't brought up ever again.

Mundy was indeed a monster who was utterly terrified of this though. He didn't want to be one. He made a promise to himself that everything he does will be morally justified, he promised himself to become a good... decent person. He would earn his place in the world, even if his father, everyone else denies it.

It gets blurry at this point. Sniper doesn't really remember his life before about 17, when he was finishing school and starting to work on his sniper licence. For some reason he always knew he would be good at shooting and killing. When remembering his home, Sniper would recall the smell of grass, mother's cooking, the warm sun, and a steady life he had. He knew it was boring, but it still somehow felt like home. Home he felt was lost somewhere he didn't remember.

Either way, he was always a loner.

[ellephlox]

Castle in the Sky

Summary: You try sparring with Matt because he wants you to learn self-defense. A minor bump to the head, as it turns out, opens up many doors.

Pairing: Matt x f!reader

Warnings: Hit to the head, some physical intimacy (but no smut)

A/N: Haven't written in months because I've been working on a writing project of my own but here I am again!! I'm absolutely THRILLED to see the new photos of Born Again and I'm also dying to watch Kin season 2 (haven't been able to watch it yet unfortunately).

"Matt, I know it probably pains you to hear this, but I'm seriously going to be a waste of your time."

"You could never be a waste of my time."

"I appreciate the sentiment, but really, I don't think you understand just how bad this is going to go."

"It'll go fine. Just give it a shot." Matt was in a tee and shorts, an excited energy in the way he beckoned you forward. Training, he called it. Self-defense lessons.

It sounded more like a painful exercise to you.

"Besides," you continued. "Let's say I was walking down the street and some malicious guy approached me with a knife and was all, Give me your money or I'll kill you—"

Matt scowled. "If that ever happens, I'll kill him first."

"In that situation," you pressed on, "I guarantee that I would freeze. Any punches or flying kicks or whatever that you have tried to teach me would be sitting uselessly in the recesses of my mind. I'd be scared or disbelieving and I wouldn't even move. Really."

"It wouldn't hurt to try learning, sweetheart."

You sighed. "I'll try, for your sake, but don't think that I don't see through your motivations."

"My motivations?"

"You just want to kick my ass and then laugh as I succumb to your ninja skills."

"It might possibly be a contributing factor."

You gave him a light push. "Alright, then. So you really think you can teach me something?"

"Sure. Anyone can learn." Matt quickly pushed the sofa backwards and faced you, suddenly appearing much more imposing than he did when... well, when he wasn't about to spar with you. You lifted up your hands uncertainly, trying to mimic the boxing pose you'd seen him take on in Fogwell's.

"Okay. That's your first mistake," Matt said, stepping forward to grab your wrists and adjust them.

"How did I already screw up? I only lifted my hands."

"When you're assuming a defensive stance, you don't want to keep your hands that low. It's better to keep them up a bit higher to protect your ribs and face."

He moved your hands upward. "Good. You've got your thumbs right."

"See, I know what I'm doing," you said dryly. "Next time I get attacked on the street they'll be intimidated by my correct thumb placement."

"And you'll be grateful that your thumbs aren't broken after you throw a punch. I learned that the hard way." Matt paused for a moment. "I made the mistake of putting my thumb out. Stick didn't tell me. He said he thought it'd be a good way for the lesson to stick if there was a physical reminder."

"Bastard. Now I want to learn how to fight." You lifted up your fists. "Because if I ever get the chance to meet Stick, I assure you that he will be very familiar with my fists."

"I appreciate that support, but if that ever happens, I very vehemently would recommend against that." Matt held out his hands. "Attack me. I want to see what your fighting style is."

"You mean my fighting style or lack thereof?"

"Just go for it." Matt stood there confidently, his hands crossed in front of him casually and his eyes trained on your collarbone.

"I don't want to hurt you," you said uncertainly. "I mean, I know how dumb that sounds, because you're freaking Daredevil, but it feels wrong to just... throw a fist at you."

Matt only laughed. "Sweetheart, you won't hurt me."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Um." You considered your hands, feeling suddenly self-conscious. "Don't judge me, okay?"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Tentatively you sent a fist towards the left side of his abdomen. You expected him to just sidestep it, especially since it was a slow-moving punch — you didn't have the heart to put all of your strength into it, no matter what he said — but instead he blocked your arm, braced his other arm against your own, and forced you to twist around until your back was against his front and his arm was around your neck. "Come on, sweetheart, you can do better than that."

He was taunting you, and it worked. "Fine," you said, and you tossed your elbow back with the intention of slamming it into him, but it hardly did anything at all; he took the blow as though you'd thrown a marshmallow at him.

"Go for the groin," he advised.

"Don't have to tell me twice," you said, lifting up your knee with the intention to nail him, but he took the opportunity to sweep your other leg out from under you. You fell to the floor, groaning. "I thought you wanted me to try getting you in the groin?"

"And I wanted to show you how that makes it easy for an assailant to knock you down. One foot on the ground is a surefire way to have zero feet on the ground."

"Come on, you kick all the time — flying kicks, spinning kicks, twirly-whirly kicks—"

"I don't do twirly-whirly kicks. And you can go for the groin, occasionally, but only when the timing is right and you won't get knocked down."

"I promise you that if I somehow manage to get in a fight with someone, the last thing I'll be doing is analyzing whether or not the timing is right for a groin kick, Matt."

"Okay. Try a heel palm strike." He took your arm and guided you through the movement, flexing your wrist and showing you how to pull your arm back quickly. "And go for the nose, or throat, if you can. That's effective. The ears are a good target, too. It's disorienting, even for someone who doesn't rely on their hearing to move around."

You gave him a look. "Please tell me that you don't get your ears boxed on a regular basis."

"Only twice." Matt kept going before you could say anything else. "There's several escapes I want to show you, in case you're ever being held against your will."

He proceeded to demonstrate to you the different ways you could free yourself, whether you were held in a headlock or your hands were tied; for his sake you tried to do as best as you could, though you felt fairly certain that each time you "freed" yourself, it was Matt letting you go, so you could experience the maneuver fully.

"Now get down," he said.

"On the floor?"

"For escaping while mounted. Lie on the floor, on your back."

"Why do I feel like you have ulterior motives?" you asked, smirking at him as you obeyed. He climbed on top of you and grabbed both of your wrists with a devious glint in his eyes.

"Never said I wouldn't enjoy myself," he said. He locked his legs around your waist and grabbed both of your wrists, pinning them to the floor. "So, if you ever find yourself in a position like this — God forbid — then what you're going to do is—"

"Panic and wait for the devilishly handsome Daredevil to show up and rescue this damsel in distress?" At Matt's expression, you backpedaled. "I'm kidding. Kidding. I'll fight back."

"Even though your wrists are pinned, your hands themselves are still free. Try to grab my wrist with your left hand."

You tugged, and Matt allowed you to pull your hand over so that you had your left hand securely locked around his wrist. "And what if my assailant is too strong and I can't do this?"

"Odds are that no matter how strong they are, if you can start kicking with your legs, spit in their face, or scream — anything to distract them — they're not going to be 100% focused on your one left wrist. They'll be contending with your flailing legs."

"Okay," you said doubtfully. "So I just grab your wrist... then—"

"Put your foot on my hip, push, and pull at my wrist simultaneously."

"But you've locked yourself around me," you said, struggling fruitlessly. "How am I supposed to move my legs?"

"Roll onto your hip. It'll create space. And if you can, reach up and grab the ear of the assailant, then pull them to the side."

"I'm not testing the ear move on you," you said firmly. "Nope."

"I second that," he admitted. "But try the hip roll."

To your surprise, it actually worked. And this time, you felt the natural shifting of your bodies, so that you could even slightly believe that it would work on your assailant no matter how big or strong they were. You rehearsed the move with Matt several times, swapping out which hand you used to reach up to him.

"Okay. Again, and faster. Real-time, if you can. And at the end, I want you to roll out all the way, and get out from under me," Matt said.

"Okay," you said, feeling that things wouldn't bode too well for you if Matt was going to put an ounce of effort in, but you got back in position. He grabbed both of your wrists, this time digging his knees painfully into your ribs, just enough for it to hurt without doing any real harm. You gasped, struggling for breath, and lunged forward to loosen yourself slightly, trying to roll over to no avail.

"Try again," Matt said, and you did, spontaneously leaning upwards as you jerked to the left and reached for his wrist. Once you had it, you pulled as hard as you could, pushing your knee against him. You could feel him yielding a bit, going easy on you — which slightly pissed you off even though you knew you'd have no chance against him otherwise — but at the same time it was still exhilarating.

Finally you freed yourself, and rolled out to the left and onto your knees, just as Matt followed through with your shove and lunged to block you.

"Keep going," he urged. "Get back on your feet."

You obeyed, adhering to his commands as he gave them, and it really was like a waltz once you got into the rhythm, dodging and learning to recognize which hand motions meant what.

"Now try dodging a new type of punch," he said, as a way of warning. "I'll be coming from this side over here."

"Which way do I go? To the left?"

"Right. And be ready, because this time I'm going to fight back more."

You weren't quite sure how it happened, though. The sweep of his arm, as you put all your weight to the left, resulted in you losing your balance and toppling over the follow-through of his leg, your arms to the side and unable to get forward quickly enough to brace yourself as your head made a beeline for the edge of the coffee table.

The impact it made felt as though someone had hammered a nail into the top of your forehead. You yelped, hand now free so that it could jump to the spot of impact.

Matt's reaction was visceral; like a TSA agent oddly eager to frisk, he had his hands out and seeking the exact spot where your forehead currently felt like the site of an excavation. "Dammit, I'm sorry — are you okay?"

"I'm okay. Sorry. I didn't think that would happen."

"Why'd you go left?"

"You told me to go left."

"No, I said right."

You snorted despite yourself, closing your eyes against the ebbs of pain. "I interpreted 'right' as 'correct'. My bad."

"No, it's my bad, I should have—"

"Not your fault at all," you managed, brushing at your head. You expected blood, but it was dry. "Just a bump. I should have seen that coming."

"You probably have a concussion." Matt's tone was strangled, his left hand cupping the back of your head while his right grazed the bump. "I could call Claire, and have her come over—"

"Uh, no." The thought of having Matt's practically on-call nurse drop everything she was doing to come help you was mortifying. "I don't even think I have a concussion. Ask me my name. Bet I can ace any question you've got." Physically you pulled his hand away from your head. "Matt, really. It's okay."

"You're trying to mollify me."

"You're too worried," you said playfully. "It'll take more than a little bump to take me out. If you can get sliced up by the Yakuza, I think I can handle a love tap from the coffee table."

"That wasn't a love tap. I could hear the impact on your skull. And I can feel the heat already from the bruise forming."

"See, we don't need Claire. I'll never need to go to a hospital again with you around." You patted at your head and ignored the accompanying stab of pain that would otherwise have made you flinch if Matt wasn't there to detect it. "Can we go through the move again?"

"No."

"But you were the one who wanted me to learn in the first place."

"We'll go to Fogwell's another time," he said. "Someplace with floor mats and no sharp coffee table edges."

You rolled your eyes, but you could already see that his mind wasn't going to budge. He sat in a crouch, his head still tilted towards you as though he couldn't help keeping a constant monitor on your head, and it struck you, with the position he was currently in, how easy it would be to knock him over.

"Cow tipping!" you hollered at him, diving forward and throwing all of your weight against his side; from his crouched position on the tips of his feet, there was nowhere to go but sideways, and for one delicious microsecond, Matt Murdock, the same man you had seen balance precariously on fire escapes and jump nimbly from roof to roof, was forced to fumble his arms out in time to catch himself as he fell to his left. You leapt atop him, straddling his chest with your knees.

"You took down a blind man who was trying to help you," he mocked. "Shame on you. Were you faking the head pain, too?"

"I'm not that devious," you said. "Say mercy and I'll let you go."

Matt tipped his head back against the floor, his eyes reflecting the evening sunlight as it came out from behind the clouds. Without seeming to notice, his hands crept up the outside of your thighs, making goosebumps prickle on your skin. "You think that I need your acquiescence in order to get up?"

You leaned forward, pressing your hands against his shoulders. The muscles tensed under your fingertips, the biceps under your thumbs ready to spring into action at any moment. "As far as I'm concerned, right now I've conquered you, and if anyone were to see us then I think they'd agree with me."

"It's touching to see how much this means for you," he said. "I'll let you enjoy your victory for a bit longer."

"And then?"

"And then I get to win." His voice was lower, reminiscent of the devil, and your stomach dropped. Still you could feel the muscles poised under your hands, and you could feel your blood rising into your cheeks as his own hands crept lower.

You egged him on. "You can try," you said. "I'm warning you, though, that I could beat you whenever I want, easily. I just like to pretend I'm not as strong as I actually am. Wouldn't want to hurt the ego of Daredevil."

"Of course. How thoughtful of you, sweetheart."

"Yeah, you know me."

"I'm guessing that was you who took down the trafficking ring a few nights ago, then? Left all those men unconscious in the alley?"

"Uh, obviously." You leaned in closer. "That's why you've got to play nice, Murdock. If I get mad, I might just go all Hulkish on you and you'll be begging for my mercy—"

Quickly enough that you jumped, startled, Matt rolled out from underneath you with even more ease than you would have expected, and with a swift grab of your wrists, he pinned you down beneath him, just like earlier when you sparred.

"You were saying?" he asked, grinning. Immediately you tried the move that had worked on him previously — he definitely was going easy on you earlier, then — but this time he blocked it. You scowled, and tried again; once more it yielded nothing.

"You're not getting up until you make some amendments to what you were saying, Y/N."

"Well, let me clarify," you began, and Matt's lips lifted upwards as he began to smirk.

Nope. He's not getting any satisfaction yet.

"I'm currently giving you the impression that you've won," you continued, and his expression shifted, as though he were trying not to laugh. "It's an important part of keeping your ego up, of course. Every so often I like to give you these little nuggets of delusion."

"Nuggets of delusion," Matt repeated.

"Sure. I'm selective with them. But when I feel like you need a bit of a self-esteem boost, then bam, you've got it. So right now, I'm giving you a nugget. It's all part of my strategy." You lay beneath him, the floor hard on your back, as he seemed to mull over what his response was going to be.

Instead, he simply took your wrists and moved them above your head, where he pinned both to the floor with his left hand and then moved his right hand down to your throat.

"What?" you managed. "You don't like delusion nuggets?"

"I want you to admit you're lying."

"But you already know I'm lying."

"I want the verbal confession."

"I confess to nothing," you said stubbornly, your heart picking up as his thumb brushed over the center of your throat.

"Try again, sweetheart. And remember that I know where you're most ticklish."

"Uh... you are by far the strongest man I've ever met and I could never compare to you?"

"And what else?"

"I love you?" you said, your voice higher than usual, because damn, Matt leaning directly above you was distracting.

"Better." He released your wrists and pulled you up into him.

You buried your head into his chest, sighing. "Can't believe you just tackled a concussed person to the floor."

"That was not a tackle. That was... one percent effort. Even half a percent." He paused a moment. "And you said the bump wasn't anything to be concerned about."

"Mm. Did I lie?" you asked him, kissing his hand.

"No," he admitted. "But I still don't trust you."

"You shouldn't. Because the next time you're tying your shoes, or cleaning out underneath the oven or something, I'm totally going to cow tip you again."

"Seriously? 'Cow tipping'? Did you make that up?"

"For a guy who knows everything, I'm appalled you don't know what cow tipping is."

"Please tell me you've never actually shoved a real cow over."

"You really do think poorly of me," you said, stretching. "Just you wait, Murdock. When you least expect it, you shall be cow tipped again. Just you wait."

[reidfucker]

mitski songs that make me think of reid + a specific lyric

spencer reid is very mitski. but these were the first to come to mind. i do not take criticism.

- working for the knife

honestly, the entire song reminds me of reid, but this in particular:

I always thought the choice was mine

And I was right, but I just chose wrong

I start the day lying and end with the truth

That I'm dying for the knife

- liquid smooth

I'm liquid smooth, come touch me, too

I'm at my highest peak, I'm ripe

About to fall

How I feel this river rushing through my veins

With nowhere else to go, it circles 'round

- class of 2013

Mom, would you wash my back?

This once, and then we can forget

And I'll leave what I'm chasing

For the other girls to pursue

Mom, am I still young?

Can I dream for a few months more?

- i don't smoke

Just don't leave me alone

Wondering where you are

I am stronger than you give me

Credit for

If your hands need to break

More than trinkets in your room

You can lean on my arm

As you break my heart

- abbey

again, the entire song is very reid, but:

I am something

I have been something

I was born something

What could I be?

There is a light that I can see

But only, it seems, when there's darkness in me

There is a dream that I sometimes see

That only appears in the dark of sleep

- i bet on losing dogs

Will you let me, baby, lose

On losing dogs

I know they're losing and I'll pay for my place

By the ring

Where I'll be looking in their eyes when they're down

I wanna feel it

I bet on losing dogs

I always want you when I'm finally fine

- the deal

Then of course, nothing replied, nothing speaks to you in the night

And I walked my way home, there was no one in sight

Save a bird perched upon a streetlight, watchin' me

So, I stopped and let it watch 'til I found that it said

"Now I'm taken, the night has me

You won't hear me singin'

You're a cage without me

Your pain is eased, but you'll never be free for

Now I'm taken, the night has me"

- fireworks

this is perhaps one of the reid-est. here's the particular lyric:

One morning this sadness will fossilize

And I will forget how to cry

I'll keep going to work and you won't see a change

Save perhaps a slight gray in my eye

I will go jogging routinely

Calmly and rhythmically run

And when I find that a knife's sticking out of my side

I'll pull it out without questioning why

- i don't like my mind

again, the entire song is reid, but this is my pick:

I don't like my mind, I don't like being left alone in a room

With all its opinions about the things that I've done

So, yeah, I blast music loud, and I work myself to the bone

And on an inconvenient Christmas, I eat a cake

- first love / late spring

very cliché, but i HAD to include it! here:

And I was so young when I behaved 25

Yet now, I find I've grown into a tall child

And I don't wanna go home

Let me walk to the top of the big night sky

- there's nothing left for you

You could touch fire

You could fly

It was your right

It was your life

And then it passed

To someone new

It'll keep passin' on

Long after you

- nobody

And I don't want your pity

I just want somebody near me

Guess I'm a coward

I just want to feel alright

- because dreaming costs money, my dear

I once lived in the sea

Bring me to your ear, you can hear

The tide where I used to be

Though now I'm but a shell

- a pearl

Sorry, I don't want your touch

It's not that I don't want you

Sorry, I can't take your touch

It's just that I fell in love with a war

Nobody told me it ended

And it left a pearl in my head

And I roll it around every night

Just to watch it glow

Every night, baby, that's where I go

- real men

Real men keep cool in the face of a fire

Go down with the ship

And real men don't eat

'Cause they're above that, damn it

Oh, I'm gonna be a real man

- crack baby

It's been a long, hard 20 year summer vacation

Both these 20 years tryna fill the void

Crack baby, you don't know what you want

But you know that you had it once

And you know that you want it back

Crack baby, you don't know what you want

But you know that you're needing it

And you know that you need it bad

[blasphemous-lies-and-deceit]

if you're doing that soft prompts meme, i ask for some gerrymichael for 4 and 9 ((:

4. neck kisses & 9. shoulder kisses

"Alright Gerry, its time."

Gerry's head flew up, startled by Michael's surprisingly firm tone. "What?" he asked, ready to expect the worst before Michael deposited a plastic bag on the table before him. Inside were refreshingly familiar boxes of his usual brand of hair dye, in his usual black, but also one of a medium brown, a packet of gloves, and a stiff-looking brush. "Wha-"

"We're coloring your hair today," Michael announced, planting his hands on his hips. "We're going to do this properly, and it'll look great, I promise."

"My hair is fine," Gerry protested, grabbing the box of brown and eying it critically. As terrible as he looked as a blonde, brunette was much worse on him.

"My love, you clearly can't reach the back of your own head," Michael told him, circling around the table to stand behind him, pulling Gerry's hair back and fanning it out. "You've got banding, and patchiness, and it's uneven all over." Despite his criticism, his hands were gentle as they carded through the strands. "Bit like a big cat in the shadows, you know?"

Gerry frowned, feeling the tiniest twinge of shame. "Is it that bad?" he asked uncertainly. It wasn't like he cared overmuch about his hair, except for when the roots got too blond, but apparently he'd been missing more than he knew.

"Of course not," Michael said at once. Gerry felt him bunch up his hair in one hand, then felt his lips brushing over his neck, soft and light and sending shivers all over him. "I only notice because I notice every single thing about you." His lips moved over his skin with his words, ending in a deliberate kiss to his neck. "In fact, I think it's charming. It's very...you." One of his hands dropped to wrap around his middle, giving him a squeeze. "I'm not...demanding you do you hair better, or that it needs to be fixed. I just want to do this for you."

Gerry relaxed, leaning back to give Michael more access to his neck. "Are you sure you want to get your hands dirty?" he goaded with a laugh that broke into a moan when Michael sunk his teeth in a bit. "Have you ever dyed hair before?"

"I have a good enough idea," Michael assured him, pushing aside the loose collar of his shirt to kiss the crest of his shoulder. "At least I can help. Four hands are better than two, and I can see the back of your head."

Gerry laughed. "That's true," he agreed. Michael's kisses continued, from his shoulder and back up his neck, sweet and tender and full of affection. Gerry knew that Michael's fussy attention was borne of love, wanting only the best for him. And if Michael wanted to try his hand at making his hair look better than he ever could, he was welcome to try. "You can't do any worse than me, at least."

"Just you wait." Michael teasingly tugged on his hair before he released it, coming back for one last kiss on his shoulder. "I might do it wrong and it'll come out green."

"You know," Gerry shrugged as he grabbed the supplies. "That might not be a bad look." It might also look terrible, but it couldn't be as bad as what he'd done to himself. No matter what, he'd appreciate anything Michael would do to him.

[allllium]

Hi, Love! ❤️ It’s me again and I came here for Remus and his crazy people 🤪

As I have a birthday (age-should-not-be-named) maybe you could write something about celebrating the reader’s birthday?)

Speaking about the reader, she feels sad about the upcoming age (just because of the number, if you know what I mean) and she is a little bit harsh about it. So her boyfriend (Remus) decided to make a little cozy party with all close friends 😌 so they have fun 🥳

It may be a 18 celebration or they can be older, it’s up to you and your incredable imagination ❤️ I love your writing, so you’re free to everything you want 😉 especially your brilliant jokes 👌🏻

Sorry for bothering you 🥹 I just feel a little bit lonely at my day… my own marauder’s company lost in the time…

Birthday

~ I'm so sorry this took so long to get to, the writers block is real bad rn 😭 and also I apologize in advance but it ended up a little different than the request, if you want me to rewrite it closer to the ask I would be happy to, but either way I really hope you like and happy late birthday, I hope you had a wonderful time <3

~ WC:1,888 [Hurt/Comfort, Fluff]

~ Reader celebrates a birthday

“Good morning Angel!” You recognize your boyfriend's voice even as you dig your face further in the pillow to tune it out. “Happy birthday!”

“Let me sleep.” Of course Remus doesn't listen to your plea, opting for dragging you out of bed himself. “No no no.”

“Yes yes yes. C'mon love we've got to celebrate!” When you turn to face him, he looks genuinely excited to celebrate with you.

“Okay let's go.” You give him the best smile you can muster, not wanting to disrupt his excitement.

“Okay great!” He immediately grabs your wrist to drag you out of his dorm.

“Rem, wait, I need to get dressed first.” You laugh.

“I think you look fine like that.”

“I’m wearing pajamas and my hair is a mess.”

“Exactly my type.” You shake your head at him and turn to pull some clothes you've left in his dorm.

“Celebrating can wait a minute.” Or forever you think silently. It's not that you hate your birthday, you would rather just not have it. Why celebrate another year passing by that you'll never get back? Why celebrate another year closing to dying?

“Fine but only one minute, I'm counting.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?” You ask him once you're dressed.

“Because I love you, I want to show you how happy I am that you were born.” His words make you grin, he always knows how to make you feel better especially when he doesn't know he needs to. But why celebrate getting closer to the end of the time you have with him?

“You're a sweet talker Mr. Lupin.” You pull him down for a soft kiss before allowing him to pull you off to whatever he has planned.

“Okay, first hour picnic breakfast.” He tells you happily. Wait what?

“I'm sorry, did you just say the first hour? Did you plan this hour by hour?”

“Of course I did, my angel deserves nothing but the best.” You stop walking for a split second. Why does he care about this so much? It's not a miracle, or an unusual thing. It's just a birthday. All it means is that you're getting older, losing more time.

Remus notices your stillness, “C'mon, love, we have a full day ahead of us.”

“Alright on to hour Three.” Remus announces as you both clean up your picnic blanket.

“Well what's next?” You ask, a little reluctantly. Spending alone time with Remus is always amazing but you're a little worried about adding more people into the mix. Your anxiety about it has been low for now but you know it's gonna get worse.

“Next is my present for you.”

“Rem this is enough, you've already planned a whole day for me.”

“No it's not, I got you the perfect gift.”

“You are the perfect gift.”

“As flattering as that is, wrong.” He pulls up off the ground, and gives you a quick kiss. “Move it.”

“Woah being mean to me on my birthday.” You joke.

“You'll be fine, angel.” His smile makes the butterflies in your stomach erupt. Maybe a birthday isn't so bad if you have him with you.

“Hmm I want my present.”

“Then hurry up and we can go get it.”

“It's not my fault. You're so tall you walk a million miles an hour.”

“And it's not my fault you're so small you walk at a snail's pace.” You throw a hand over your heart dramatically

“How dare you, this is bullying.”

“No it's not, it's a fact. We're almost there anyway.”

“Where is there?”

“It's in my dorm.”

“No it's not, I looked.”

“And I hid it because I knew you'd do that.”

You sigh dramatically, “I would never.” You defend.

“You just admitted it!” He accuses.

“I did not! Let's go! Faster!”

“Oh so now I don't walk fast enough, make up your mind.”

“I will not. I shall continue to be indecisive.” He lets out a throaty chuckle at your statement.

“Oh you shall?” He questions, still laughing.

“Don't make fun of me, I'm being fancy.”

“You are a lot of things but fancy isn't one of them.”

“Hey, what does that mean!” You smack him lightly on his chest.

After a walk way longer than it should be, you finally reach his dorm and sit on the bed expectantly.

“Where's my present?” You immediately demand.

“Woah not even a please.” He jokes and stands in front of you.

“Well someone got my hopes up, this better be good Lupin.” He grins at you and orders you to close your eyes.

“This is too good of a hiding spot to give up.” He tells you.

After quite a few moments of shuffling happening behind you and quite a few “oh fucks” as your clumsy boyfriend unsurprisingly bumps into a couple things, a small box is placed gentle in your awaiting hands.

Your eyes fly open the second you feel the strange-feeling material in the palm of your hand. The first you notice is that the box is heart shaped with an engraving on the top, saying “My angel”

“Remus, this is amazing.” Without even opening it you already know this is the best gift you've ever received.

“You haven't even opened it yet, dove.” He sits on the bed beside you, putting his arm around your waist.

“Doesn't matter, I love it.”

“Open it, angel.”

Following his advice you open the heart-shaped box and immediately fall in love with him even more. In the box sits a simple charm bracelet, already adorned with three charms. All right next to each other is an angel charm, a heart charm, and a moon charm, all in that order.

“Do you like it?”

“Rem, I love it. This is the best thing ever.”

“I highly doubt that but I'm glad you love it.”

“Why did you do a moon and not a wolf for you?” You ask him, trying to distract yourself from the rush of emotions running through you.

“Well I was gonna but it looked very dog-like and Sirius said he was honored to be included.” He lets out a deep sigh of disapproval.

You can't help the laugh that bursts out, “Oh of course he did. Thank you Remus, really.”

“Well I would love anything you give me but this is incredible.”

“I couldn't give you anything but the best for this special day.” Special indeed.

“Welcome to hour five.” Remus declares while you enter the kitchens. After spending hour 3 and 4 in Remus’s dorm gushing over your new bracelet, and demanding his help in putting it on, he rushed you on to the event of hours 5 to 7. You are very curious as to why he pulled three hours out for this event.

He pulls you into the kitchens and you see the counters covered in enough ingredients to make a hundred cakes.

“What's this?”

“Well I wanted to make you a cake but realized I don't know how to make a cake without magic.” He looks down a little ashamed to be asking you to help make your own birthday cake.

“I believe this was a very smart choice, I wouldn't want you to burn down Hogwarts.” You grin at him.

“I'm sorry, I know I should've asked someone else first.”

“I'm glad you didn't, I like baking.” Despite the growing feeling in your stomach, his smile makes you smile.

After 3 hours of baking, 2 failed cakes, and 1 kitchen covered in cake ingredients that didn't seem to make it into the bowl, you and Remus have successfully acquired a birthday cake. It's not the prettiest and probably not the best tasting, but it's something you have created together and that's more than enough for you.

Hour 8, aka the final hour Remus has planned, is making you freak out. Despite preparing all day for this, the pit in your stomach has continued brewing and now feels too much to handle. As long as it's just you and Remus, alone, it doesn't feel like much of a birthday. Even with the cake and present, and Remus telling you happy birthday every two seconds, as if you'll forget, it feels natural. Not celebratory. Now, however, more people are getting involved.

You shouldn't be feeling this way. All of your closest friends getting together in the common room to celebrate your birthday should be exciting, not scary. Well it's not exactly scary, more of a feeling you can't seem to place.

You and Remus part ways for the first time of the day so you can get ready in your dorm. Once you're ready, you begin to head for the common room, hand freezing on the doorknob. Without thinking, you back up, taking a sitting place on the bed. You can feel the tears forming in your eyes for reasons you still can't understand.

As you sit there trying to cover your strange emotions, Remus comes into your dorm. Without saying a word he sits on the bed and gives you a hug.

“I'm sorry.” You tell him, knowing the effort he put into this perfect day.

“Whatever for love? This is your day, feel however you must.” He gives you a kiss on the forehead and slowly pulls away from the hug.

“I don't understand why I feel like this, it's just an age.” You try to explain. Luckily your amazing boyfriend knows you way too well.

“Because it's scary,” he begins to explain, far better than you did, “and it's new. I mean no one wants to get older but you gotta think of the upside.”

“And what would that be?”

“Well we get a little older, we leave school, we get married and get a ton of plants we'll never be able to keep alive.” He seems to have put a lot of thought into your future together. “Even though it feels like we're saying goodbye to a part of your life, we're also beginning a new part. One that we can form yo be whatever we want.”

“How do you always know just what to say?”

“I speak from my heart, most of it is nonsense.”

“Maybe but it always works. I love you.”

He smiles at you for the thousandth time today but it still gives you that funny feeling in your chest. “I love you too, angel. Ready to go celebrate?”

“Yeah I think so, thank you.”

“Anytime, love.”

And so you celebrate. A small party with all your friends and everyone you love. But for some reason you no longer have that pit in your stomach. You no longer feel the tears building as you blow out the candles on your perfectly imperfect cake. You no longer feel as if growing older is a curse you can't get out of.

You head back into Remus's dorm for bed. You can't help but keep your eyes stuck on the bracelet dangling off your wrist as you do your nightly routine. As you cuddle in bed next to Remus, you no longer want the day to be done with. Instead, wanting it to last forever as you talk and laugh with him. You no longer worry about the past and instead focus on the future. Now understanding there's still so much more you have to look forward to.

~ This is actually so relatable to me due to my anxiety, I was actually late to my last birthday party for this exact reason 😭 I hope everyone reading this knows that birthdays are a reason to celebrate, you have so much to look forward to as you age and I'm very glad you were born <3

[roleplay-evil]

Resident Evil 7 Biohazard Starters

"You know what they say—once family, always family."

"You're part of the family now."

"Welcome to the family, [name]."

"That's family business, [name], and not your concern, understand?"

"This is my home. Apparently, I belong here."

"So, why are we in hell this time?"

"They're relying on me. Everyone is relying on me. Everyone!"

"You don't exactly seem like you're playing with a full deck yourself."

"Goddamnit, how am I gonna replace this?"

"Ah, shit! I knew I shouldn't have worn my good shoes."

"You came to the wrong house, [name]."

"I told you to stay out of here."

"Alright, new deal. We-we find [name] and we go."

"You, my friend, you are one lucky son of a bitch."

"I'm sorry... but they're, uh, they're dead now."

"Yeah, it is your fault. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna let you die."

"You kill me, and I just come right on back!"

"I'm going to enjoy watching you die."

"Motherfucker! You were supposed to die!"

"Sure as shit beats the hell outta dying."

"Idiot—you can't kill me."

"Do me a favor and stay dead."

"Leave me to die!"

"Forget that you ever knew me."

"Come on—don't you die on us now. You have work to do."

"You don't understand or is it that you just don't care?"

"Don't worry, I'm still here."

"Now, we got several calls about some missing persons lately."

"[name]! Thank god I found you. It's me. It's [name]!"

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead! It's time for supper."

"Glad I had my shots."

"You better now?"

"Well, come on. Take a chance. You never know."

"That is not groovy."

"What the fuck? That's special."

"You can't hide from me, [name]!"

"Don't you go anywhere!"

"Alright, you little cocksucker, let's get down to business!"

"I know you and [name] are plotting. I know you are scheming."

"Where'd you get yourself to, hm? Where are you?!"

"Thought you'd just slip out before dinner was done?"

"It won't be long before I find you and kill you."

"I'm gonna squash you like a bug."

"You think you can hurt me?"

"You're going to wish you'd never been born."

"I'm gonna take you for a ride!"

"This is going to be fun. Just you wait."

You're gonna die in this hole and you're gonna like it!"

"Fuck it! I'm gonna kill every one of you."

"I will find them and I will make them suffer."

"You better start running, [name]!"

"They're dead! They're all dead!"

"I can't let [name] catch me again!"

"What's wrong? Step on it!"

"You're the first I've ever seen make it this far."

"Gotta say, I'm impressed. Not only are you still alive, you have all your fingers and toes."

"You're gonna have to do better than that, [name]."

"You're wasting your time."

"Here I come."

"You need to go. I won't be able to resist for much longer."

"You gotta give me your gun!"

"Oh! Good news! I'm going to be coming home soon! Yay!"

"Who the hell else was I gonna choose?"

"Are you having fun yet?"

"You got yourself a booboo?"

"I told you, don't you fuck with me."

"Not now. We need to get out of here first."

"You were right. I did lie to you."

"You gotta earn your way, [name]!"

"What is this place? What did they do to you?"

"There's another door here. I'm sure of it."

"You're a son of a bitch!"

"Now look what you've done, motherfucker!"

"Fuck you and the horse you rode in on."

"Kiss my ass."

"Dumb son of bitch wouldn't know good if it hit them!"

"Goddamnit! I bet it's that cop again..."

"I only work with professionals."

"I'm an old man, [name]. You can't take on an old man?"

"Hey! One of those is mine."

"Why are you putting me through this?"

"Well, don't just stand there—do something!"

"I know I can't expect anything from you. Not after what happened. After what I did."

"I am sick and tired over being sick and tired of your bullshit."

"I'm tired of waiting."

"It has taken me weeks to finish this, and it is finally ready." And it's all for you."

"What the fuck are you, [name]?"

"I got the gift running all through me! All through me!"

"I don't understand you at all. This is a gift."

"There are known unknowns here, and you are not paying fucking attention!"

"Do I have your attention, [name]? You're about to see something wonderful."

"We love you... Why can't you see that?!"

"Why does everyone hate me?"

"You see, [name], not everybody wants to turn back the clock."

"This joy? Why, you can't fake this."

[unreadpoppy]

An heir is born

Raphael x Gwen

The sequel to this.

A/N: Not my best but today was bad brain day, so i'm glad i was able to finish it. Finally, actual, dad!phael.

tags: @bg3fan

Someone had smacked Raphael on the chest while he was asleep.

Hard.

He sat in a hurry, looking around the room, worried that someone might have entered and tried to attack him.  

Instead, when he turned his face, Gwen was standing next to him, holding her belly. 

“What happened?” He asked, a frown on his face. He covered her hand with his. 

“The water broke…” She whispered. 

In the months leading to the delivery, Raphael had spared some time to read upon childbearing, including labor. Although he knew that any child he produced would be a tiefling, a very small part of him still worried that they would come out as he did - murdering their mother. 

And so he was ready for this moment. Raphael quickly stood up and called Korilla. 

“Yes, master?” She asked in a tired voice. 

“Go call the midwife.” The warlock nodded and left. Raphael held one of his wife’s hand and placed the other on her back. Together, they walked out of the room, and slowly went to Gwen’s old chambers. 

“Remind me why you can’t just snap us away?” She asked, hissing. 

“Walking will help put the child in the right position.” 

“Hmpf.” Was all she could reply. Eventually, they arrived in the room, and he helped Gwen sit down on a rocking chair. 

They stayed there in silence, the only sound in the room being Gwen's breathing. Raphael paced around, not sure what to do with himself. 

“Are you alright?” Gwen asked. 

“I should be the one asking you that.” He replied. She chuckled.

“I’m managing, but your pacing around is making me nervous.” Raphael walked towards her and she held one of his hands, and kissed his fingers. “Everything will go well, my love.”

“I know.” He sighed. He didn’t want to worry or care about this as much as he did, but the thought of either of them dying put some fear into him. 

Raphael was taken out of his thoughts by the arrival of Korilla, alongside the midwife. The woman was also an old dwarf and she had brought along her assistant, an elven maiden. 

The women explained how things would go on from now and politely asked Raphael to leave. 

“No.” He said. 

“Sir, please understand that it would be better if you stayed outside.” The elf tried to reason. Raphael took a step back and placed a hand on Gwendolyn’s shoulder. Before he could rebuke, she spoke up.

“I think they’re right, Raphael.” 

“What?” 

“Look, things are going to get messy, and we all know how you don’t like chaos. Besides, I don’t want you hovering around these ladies and trying to bark orders at them if anything went slightly wrong.” She told him. 

“Are you sure?”

Gwen nodded. “I promise they’ll call you as soon as the baby arrives.”  He sighed but obliged. 

Raphael waited outside, to what felt like hours. He even had time to change his clothes. As he heard the screaming from inside, he couldn’t help but want to barge in and see whatever the hell was going on. But, alas, he remained outside. 

After only the gods knew how long, the screaming stopped and the door opened. The elf smiled at him. “Come in.” 

He walked past her, looked at Gwendolyn. She was still sitting on the rocking chair, though by the look of where the blood was, she had not given birth there. Her purple hair clung to her sweaty forehead. In her arms, she held the babe, who was wrapped in cloth. She gave the child a tired smile. 

Raphael walked towards them. “It’s a girl.” She said, in a raspy voice. Gwen raised her arms towards him, and he was able to take a better look. 

The girl’s skin seemed to lean more on Gwen’s color, pink. She didn’t have much hair, so they would have to wait to figure out the color. He could see two small stumps on her forehead, that one day would grow into proper horns. She was asleep, so later he would figure out the color of her eyes. 

With a careful finger, he gently rubbed her cheek. “Have you thought of a name?” He asked Gwen. They had discussed names previously but hadn’t arrived at a conclusion. 

She nodded. “I think… something to homage my mother, without giving her the same name. Maybe…Natahlia.” She paused for a moment. “I know it’s very human sounding but-”

Raphael interrupted her. “If that is what you wish, then Natahlia it is.” 

…

It was late at night. Gwen had finally put Natahlia to sleep. The two weeks since her birth, the girl had been very vocal. Because of his duties as Archdevil Supreme, he hadn’t had the opportunity to spend as much time with his newborn, which caused a conflict between him and his wife, who was stressed from taking care of the child. 

Due to that, when Natahlia suddenly began crying, Raphael told Gwen to stay in bed while he walked towards the crib. 

Now that it had been some time since she was born, some of her features were slightly different. For once, her skin had darkened to a more red, raspberry color. She was a big baby, with chubby cheeks, but he could already tell she had his nose. The small tuft of hair she had was a dark shade of purple. 

He picked her up, shushing her. She kicked her little legs, still crying as he rocked her up and down. 

“Shh…you have to go back to sleep, little lady, before your mother awakens again.” He whispered to her. “You have a grand legacy to carry on, my heir. But do not fret, under my guidance, you’ll do great things.” 

She began to calm down, looking at him with big eyes, which were both blue, the same shade as the one blue eye Gwen had. Most lords would have preferred a boy, but he had secretly wished she’d be a girl, one that would be as beautiful as her mother. 

He smirked and began to lower her back on the crib. Once he fully settled her down, she started to cry again. Raphael sighed and gently rocked the crib. 

“Maybe you’ll prefer a song.” He said, putting a finger on her wet cheek. “How was that one your mother sang?”

He thought for a moment, remembering the lyrics and began. The lullaby had been originally written in infernal, which was how he sang it, but the translation to common was this: 

The carnation fought the rose 

Underneath a balcony 

The carnation left hurt and the rose shattered 

The carnation got sick, and the rose visited him

The carnation fainted and the rose started to cry 

It was not one he particularly enjoyed much, but it got the job done, and soon, Natahlia was fast asleep again. As he looked at her belly gently raising and falling, he couldn’t help but genuinely smile. His legacy would live on.

[lividria]

Everything You Need To Know For Metroid Prime 4

I finally have an excuse to use all of my Metroid knowledge for something. Metroid Prime 4 is a BIG deal, but we've waited for it for so long, so people might not know/have forgotten some important information they're gonna need beforehand, so here's a big post detailing basically everything you definitely need to know or may need to know, depending on what happens in the game. I'm of course assuming a familiarity with the series, though, so I don't have to explain what Metroids are or who Samus is, but even if you're still really into it, maybe you missed one or two things I'll hopefully be able to explain.

This is mostly off of memory, and I am very confident in my memory, but I checked a Metroid wiki for multiple points, so hopefully I'm accurate, but if I miss something, get something wrong, or you just have something you want me to add, let me know, since I want this to be comprehensive. Alright, let's do this.

This is LONG, so all the facts (& idle speculation) are under the cut.

One caveat I almost forgot about, I have a confession, I... Haven't played any of the Prime games besides the remaster of the original. I tried to emulate Hunters, but it didn't end well, and I was led astray into believing that ports of Metroid Prime 2 & 3 were going to be ported to the Switch "soon"... Last year, and now I don't have nearly as much time on my computer as I'd like to play them on an emulator. I can only hope they get ported to the next console, or get released with 4, or something. I'd like to think I know about as much as I need to, though.

A "Brief" Summary of the Metroid Prime Series

So far, the entire sub-series has taken place in-between Metroid 1/Zero Mission, and Metroid 2/Samus Returns. It's relatively self-contained, and only acknowledged in the main series once (to my knowledge), meaning you could be a big Metroid fan and still know nothing about Metroid Prime, so just to be sure, here's a summary of the Metroid Prime games we've had so far.

Metroid Prime 1: Samus responds to a distress signal from a Space Pirate research ship, discovering they were performing genetic experiments with a mysterious mutagenic substance. The ship is destroyed by an escaped Parasite Queen, but Ridley, injured after Metroid 1 and enhanced with cybernetics (now dubbed Meta Ridley), escapes to the planet the ship was orbiting, Tallon IV. Samus gives chase, discovering that the planet is also being effected by that same mutagen, named Phazon, that the Space Pirates are experimentig further on the planet, and that the Chozo once thrived here before dying out due to the Phazon's destructive effects. Samus confronts Meta Ridley, who is shot into submission by Chozo technology and launched down a pit, and enters a passage in that temple into a Leviathan, a living asteroid filled with Phazon that spread it onto Tallon IV in the first place. Samus finds a Metroid mutated beyond recognition, the Metroid Prime, and confronts it, eventually destroying it, though it consumes her Phazon Suit upgrade that made her immune to Phazon, and Samus escapes the Leviathan as it explodes, leaving Tallon IV behind. However, it's shown that the Metroid Prime reanimates in the image of Samus. Dark Samus is born.

Metroid Prime Hunters: Though it was released after Prime 2, it chronologically takes the place of a 1.5, so yeah. A mysterious message is sent out from the Alimbic System, claiming that ultimate power can be found in said system. The Galactic Federation dispatches Samus to claim it, who finds that multiple other characters are hunting for it, who I will get into in great detail in a second. However, it was a trick by the malevolent entity Gorea, who was sealed away in the Alimbic System and freed by Samus & her rivals in their search. Gorea is blown up, and everyone leaves.

Metroid Prime 2: a group of Galactic Federation soldiers are lost on the planet Aether. Samus goes to investigate, finding that the arrival of a Leviathan has split it into two alternate dimensions: Aether and Dark Aether, and Dark Aether's inhabitants, the Ing, have almost driven Aether's, the Luminoth, to extinction, and could threaten the galaxy in the future. Dark Samus is here, and has allied itself with the Ing in order to feed on the Phazon on the planet. The Space Pirates are here, too, but are getting destroyed by Dark Samus & the Ing, and those GF soldiers are dead. Samus ends up destroying the entirety of Dark Aether after a climactic showdown with the Emperor Ing & Dark Samus, the Luminoth are saved and presumably repopulate, and Samus leaves. However, Dark Samus reforms in space, and finds it's way on a Space Pirate ship that escaped Aether with a bunch of Phazon.

Metroid Prime 3: Dark Samus has brainwashed the Space Pirates, Ridley included, and together they're throwing Leviathans all over the galaxy, so the Galactic Federation has enlisted Samus and 3 other bounty hunters to help stop them. However, Dark Samus infects all 4 of them with Phazon, resulting in all of them but Samus turning evil, and, as Samus travels across planets to destroy the Leviathans, she is forced to kill off her allies. Eventually, Samus confronts Dark Samus on the living planet Phaaze, the source of all Phazon that wants to infect the entire universe. Dark Samus is defeated, but they fuse with the stolen Aurora Unit 313 (Aurora Units are basically Mother Brains but used by the GF) that was being used by Phaaze for the entire Leviathan campaign. Samus blows it up, the entire planet explodes, Phazon as a whole just kinda... Disappears, and she escapes to go on other missions. However, in a post-credits scene, a ship owned by Sylux, one of the rivals from MP:H, is stalking Samus.

Metroid Prime Federation Force: The Federation has made it's own, clunky armor suits that are much worse than Samus' but better than whatever else they were doing at the time. Space Pirates are doing things, so you go stop them. They have a beam that makes things bigger, and they use it to take over Samus' suit, trap her in Morph Ball mode and make her bigger and make her fight the armor guys, who defeat her and blow up the Master Brain, which is just a lamer Mother Brain and the head of the operation. The Space Pirate bases are destroyed, the day is saved, but it's shown in an unlockable post-credits scene that Sylux stole a Metroid egg from the Federation and hatched it. Uh oh.

Who To Worry About

Characters, wahoo!

Samus: It is unknown if she will return in Metroid Prime 4... No, obviously she's the main character.

Dark Samus/Phazon: I sincerely doubt they're bringing Phazon back, it was shown to have been thoroughly eradicated in Prime 3 and they're clearly open to Prime games not involving Phazon judging from H and FF, so, unless they come up with a damn good explanation as to how Dark Samus is still around, I wouldn't hold my breath.

The Space Pirates: They're shown to be back in the trailers, duh, but note that throughout the entire Prime series, besides for Federation Force, they're shown to be a secondary threat. One of the rivals in Hunters was a Space Pirate, and they were of equal importance as everyone else, too, which is... Not really. They're shown to be with Sylux, who has been built up for years now, and are like... The main part of the trailer, so I'm not saying they aren't going to be important, I'm just saying that something else might crop up we haven't seen yet.

Ridley: Will our beloved purple dragon bastard come back? I'm gonna go with... No. For one, he wasn't in Prime 2, but was in 1 & 3, and bringing him back multiple games in a row would be kinda lame, and Nintendo already seems to be phasing him out if you look at later titles. I doubt they would've made him a 3 phase final boss in the Metroid 2 remake if they had big plans for him elsewhere (But then again, I have no idea if MercurySteam and Retro Studios are on the same page about lore), though he is shown to still have the Meta cybernetics there, so Prime is probably canon to the main series, at least, if it's not just a red herring reference that doesn't mean anything in particular. There's also another thing I'm going to bring up later that's another point against him showing up.

Kraid: I have no reason to believe they'd bring him back, but I just wanna note Meta Kraid was a scrapped Prime 1 boss and he was brought back in Dread for no clear reason, so... Mmmmaybe?

Galactic Federation: You're shown to be at a GF Research Facility in Prime 4, and obviously these guys are important again, especially after their bigger role in Prime 3 & Federation Force. I know they introduced a new captain character in Prime 3, I think his name was Dane? So he might show up. Sylux has a huge grudge against the entire organization, and stole his gear from them, so there's a possibility we'll see the same darker side of them we saw in Fusion and Other M to justify that. Worth noting that Fusion had a translation error where it was supposed to be specified that the bad actors were part of the "old Federation army", or something to that effect, so it isn't the entire Federation that's sketchy, but if they were active in Fusion, the current penultimate game in the timeline, they almost definitely could've been active for whenever Sylux's grudge began. Other M also has dubious canonicity at this point, but still, it shows Nintendo isn't opposed to showing a darker side of the GF.

Federation Force: It seems Prime 4 takes place after FF due to Sylux having Mochtroids, the GF are being directly attacked by Space Pirates in the trailer, the FF have previously taken on a Space Pirate attack on the GF and won, and have even collaborated with Samus in the past. Maybe they'll be the equivalent of Prime 3's bounty hunters, minus the turning bad part. Probably. But FF is also the lowest rated Metroid game in the franchise, so...

Sylux: One of the rivals in Hunters, and as mentioned, shows up in Prime 3 and Federation Force post-credits scenes. He's the blue & green guy in the Prime 4 trailer. All we really know is that he hates the Federation (and by extension Samus), and stole his armor & weapon, the Shock Coil, from them. His species is unknown (People assume he's human but it's unconfirmed), and his homeworld, Cylosis, is also not elaborated on anywhere, giving us no leads. We see some kind of snowy wasteland location in his Hunters intro, but we don't know if that's Cylosis. (Cylosis seems to derived be from the word Cyclosis, which is something like cytoplasm getting circulated throughout cells, so... No idea.) He inexplicably changed ships between Hunters and 3, and is shown with Metroids in FF, but in the Prime 4 trailer has Mochtroids. He is also seemingly allied with the Space Pirates, and is absolutely going to be a big problem. (By the way, I tried to keep these summaries relatively brief, but @ postal-ech has a great post going over each Hunters character in detail if you're interested... hey wait why is that underlined none of the other usernames I've added here got that, is that actually gonna notify the guy? oops, spacing it out just in case because I know they already saw this post lol)

Mochtroids: Yes, I'll elaborate. Weak, failed Metroid clones made by the Space Pirates in Super Metroid, distinguishable by only having one nucleus. Sylux has Mochtroids in the Prime 4 trailer, which is probably why they aren't lashing out at anyone yet. It's unclear how important they'll be, but they haven't shown up anywhere besides Super Metroid, and even then were only in Maridia, so... Neat. Unclear what this means for the Metroids, especially Sylux's in specific. Fun fact, Mochtroids were in Hunters' demo, but not the actual game.

Weavel: A Space Pirate previously encountered by Samus in Metroid 1/Zero Mission, almost killed, and brought back as a cyborg guy, which is how we see him in Hunters. He obviously has a strong hatred towards Samus because of this. If they're bringing Sylux back, another Samus hater from Hunters, and bringing the Space Pirates back, Weavel's faction, I'd wager it's a pretty safe hope to have that Weavel may show up again.

Trace & the Kriken Empire: Trace is another Hunters rival, a representative of the Kriken Empire, described as "space cockroaches" so problematic the FEDERATION AND SPACE PIRATES WOULD TEAM UP TO ERADICATE IF NECESSARY. At a certain age, a Kriken is sent out to claim a planet for the Empire, which is presumably then conquered, though Trace specifically set his sights on the ultimate power from the Alimbic System, which he failed to collect. It's unknown if he was then disgraced, orrr if he claimed a planet after the fact. Maybe one we saw in Hunters? I could see these guys serving a similar role as the Ing in Prime 2, but I have no actual evidence they'll have a major role beyond it just being a logical choice based on what we already have.

Noxus & the Vhozon: Noxus is another Hunters rival, of the Vhozon species, who wanted to secure the ultimate power so that it didn't fall into the hands of evil, as their species places a lot of emphasis on peace and balance. Their homeworld, Vho, is also called out as having subzero temperatures, for whatever that's worth. In case it isn't obvious, I'm just listing off every Hunters rival because at this point it's a coin toss on whether or not they'll bring back more besides Sylux and who it'll be.

Spire & the Diamonts: Spire is another Hunters rival, and the last of the Diamont species, some weird, golem-like things that went extinct at some point. Spire was a good guy, and wanted the ultimate power to figure out what happened to his people. This is like, the fifth extinct/near-extinct race, isn't it? I did the math, there's like 8 now, actually.

Kanden & the Enoema: Final Hunters rival, Kanden is a lab experiment from his species, the Enoema, in an attempt to make essentially an ultimate life form for combat, though Kanden escaped and got a big ego. He wanted the ultimate power just for power's sake. He's essentially the wild card of the crew. He has an electric field around him, whatever that means.

Gorea: The final boss of Hunters, some random creature that just showed up in the Alimbic System to kill the Alimbics before being sealed away. It's shown to be immensely powerful, and we have no idea if there's more. If there is more, though, there could be another Gorea in Metroid Prime 4. But I wouldn't count on it.

What we Knew About Prime 4 Before the Trailer

Side note, most of this is from this Metroid wiki's timeline segment on their Prime 4 page, but it's also mostly after a certain point just people being hired by Retro Studios who may or may not be working on Prime 4, so I'm leaving all that out because it's incredibly unimportant and boring.

Metroid Prime 4's first look video only gave us the logo, but the video depicted the screw attack symbol forming out of space dust in space, the letter 4 appearing in blue flame and then the blue & black original Metroid Prime 4 logo as the Metroid Prime 1 title theme played. I'm too lazy to find the video, but that sounds like Dark Samus reforming at the end of Prime 2, who was also blue & black. Phazon returns?

There's a chance that multiplayer, or unique Morph Ball gimmicks, may show up, as they were brought up in an interviewer with Kensuke Tanabe, the main director of the Prime games, when he was talking about future Prime installments. If they're bringing back at least one rival from Hunters, one of the games with multiplayer, and also gave each rival a Morph Ball equivalent, hm... Hunters released before that interview, by the way.

It was also said in a different interview (I think) that Prime 4 might focus on a single planet again, and a time travel gimmick might be involved. I assume it'd work similarly to the dimension hopping from Prime 2 but I dunno, it was left vague.

BUT, development reset at some point in 2019 after all of this was shown and said, so I have NO CLUE how much of this is still applicable or now a red herring. However, due to the logo change, I will say that logo in specific probably no longer means anything.

The guy behind Hunters in specific mentioned in a 2020 interview that they have a backstory for Sylux written up that has "a lot of threaded storytelling" and thus made using him in future games "a good fit". He specifically called out wanting to talk about what's under his suit, so make of that what you will.

There was a specific job posting for Retro Studios that mentioned writing emotional scenes that will resonate with people, and given that the main trilogy gradually ramped up that kind of thing... I dunno, I don't want to plant ideas in people's heads before I write my big post where I just make shit up based off all of this as a part 2.

There was also a Retro Studios Twitter banner of MP4 concept art showing Samus in some weird blue & black hallway... Hey, wait a minute. We don't know if this concept art predates the development reset, though, but since it's Retro Studios which came on after the development reset, so... May be a coincidence, but I'm calling it out anyways.

THE IMPORTANT PART: Trailer Analysis

Quick side note, huge shoutout to all the people who dissected the trailer on their own pointing out a bunch of individual observations I bring up here all together (Plus my own field work). I won't be able to track down all the posts to credit them all and it'd feel unfair to only link the one or two I can probably find, but still, thanks, guys.

COSMIC YEAR 20X9 Galactic Federation Research Facility

Pause right here, right now. This is IMPORTANT. The research facility is just the setting for the trailer, it doesn't matter too much, but THERE'S A DATE. One of the rarest things in the entire franchise, even rarer than Samus leaving a planet without blowing something up on it. Or just blowing it up in it's entirety. So, what does this tell us? Well, I had to fucking to find a list of every mentioned date, mostly coming from instruction books & the like, so have it all. Get ready for contradictions!

2000: The Galactic Federation forms. One specific thing says it was 2003, but 2000 is neater.

20X5: The Space Pirate attack on a GF research vessel that prompted Samus to go to Zebes in 1/Zero Mission, also in 20X5. Metroid 2/Samus Returns supposedly takes place less than a year afterwards, but it's unclear if this'd overlap into the next year, as we're only given years, not months.

20X6: Federation Force occurs, but somehow takes place several years after Prime 3. It's also mentioned somewhere Prime 1 also takes place years after Zero Mission, so, uh... I dunno. The X in the format when we had 2000 earlier already throws a wrench in just about everything we know about calendars. X in roman numerals means 10, so maybe it's representing a decade? That'd work.

20X7: Super Metroid. This came from a random Japanese ad, so, uh, I dunno. Especially since it's supposed to happen, like, immediately after Metroid 2?

20X9: Metroid Prime 4.

So, look, I don't know if this is accurate anymore, because that's... A lot of dubious sources, but it's all we have. If that is accurate, especially 20X7, that is FUCKING HUGE. This means, among other things, that the Metroids are wiped out, Ridley and Mother Brain are dead for real (unless...), Zebes is destroyed, the X are beginning to propagate again, and this is after Federation Force. Unclear if this is before or after Other M, though, if anybody cares about that game being in the timeline, but it's obvious from Samus' suit in the trailer (We'll get to that) that this is before Fusion & Dread, unless Metroid 6 has her regain her old suit somehow.

Samus flies into a rocky region with her ship from Prime 3 & Federation Force, with slight design alterations, such as Samus popping out the top instead. This... Doesn't make sense, since she had a separate ship for Super... Unless this is actually after Fusion where that ship got destro- Wait, no, she has the purple ship, after. So, that may mean the date inconsistency is actually a red herring. Up to you. For a split second, when Samus is jumping out, you can see these ships in the sky. Are these Space Pirate ships, or GF ships? I don't know, I haven't looked into fucking spaceship lore. Let me know, if you know.

(@codylabs has let me know that this is a type of Space Pirate warship shown in Prime 3, just without that game's version's indications of Phazon fuel, and also clarified that Samus probably owned the Prime 3 ship used here and the Super ship simultaneously, thanks, go read their reblog for more detail on all that and detail on all of Samus' ships in general if you care)

(I'd have used more screenshots, but I'm writing this on an iPad, so it's a lot more annoying when you can just go find what I'm talking about in the trailer. If you're here, you've probably watched it already. I might go back and add more if I edit this later.)

I saw someone say that Samus' suit is slightly different, too, but I... I don't care. I'm here for the notes about story & gameplay, not every little design differences (Same goes for pointing out the new intro jingle & the visor redesign). I know some of you are, so if somebody gives me, like... A comprehensive list of all those little things, I may add it if I'm not lazy, but that's not my point here. (@nathaniel-prime reblogged this pointing a ton of the design changes out, but they had... A lot to say, so just go read all that yourself.)

Whatever's happening here, it's happening big. A massive purple laser blows up a turret shooting into the sky at those ships (probably), there's fire, there's more gunfire in the distance, you get the idea, there's a big fight. There's even a Space Pirate shooting at other Space Pirates. Can enemies get angry at each other due to AI shenanigans, or is that plot relevant? Will that mean anything for Weavel?

In the bottom left, where there'd usually be the beam selection, there's the missile launcher, instead, meaning you're probably going to have different weapons down there instead of just different beams. Maybe the Affinity Weapons of the Hunters rivals? There's 4 slots, one taken up by missiles, so that'd leave... 3 rival weapons. Will that happen? Probably not, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sylux's Shock Coil is added here. Or they do something like Prime 2's Beams that have ammo.

Space Pirate theme remix, new Space Pirate designs, destroyed buildings (Presumably the Research Facility), wounded Space Pirate scan like with Prime 1's Frigate Orpheon (Scan Visor's back), so it's a fight between the Federation and Pirates.

You can see an Energy Tank, those are back, you see the Morph Ball is obviously back, Federation scientists are wheeling something away when Space Pirates break in (may or may not be relevant depending on what they're researching), the Space Pirates launch themselves into the building with capsules... Is it just me, or does some of this building look like the concept art from earlier? (I later rewatched it and no longer see the resemblance.) Also, there's Federation soldiers in armor resembling the Fed armor seen in Other M, so there's that. I wonder how much else they'll take from Other M.

Now for the moment. Cutscene where Samus rolls onto the ground as a wall explodes in a big room perfect for a boss arena, revealing 4 Space Pirates, 2 Mochtroids, and our boy Sylux, who gives Samus a stare. Samus gives a stare back. You could see that the room was mostly empty besides for some random thingies in the corners, so I'd assume this is where the first Sylux boss fight would take place, as that's the perfect reveal cutscene for him.

Then we get the logo, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Looks sufficiently space-y, but it also resembles a black hole. Now, if this is after Super, when the Space Pirates are pretty much backed into a corner now that all of their leaders besides fucking Kraid (and maybe Phantoon) are dead (unless Zebes wasn't actually a big deal for them), I could see them doing something drastic, like, I dunno... Building a black hole generator? Or weaponizing one? Wouldn't be the first time black holes are a big plot point in a space-themed Nintendo game, though I don't remember if Bowser made the black hole in Mario Galaxy (Or was it Galaxy 2?), I never played it. If time travel is a gimmick, I could see you having to go back in time and preventing it from being used... Or the black hole is just for a space-y graphic, or it's used as this planet's native race's symbol or something. (Future me here, I'm stupid and didn't think about the whole time travel gimmick here even though I brought it up despite black holes and time travel being discussed together all the time, the black hole could be what's used for time travel to some extent. What if Beyond in the title means beyond the black hole? Or, like, the future?)

After the logo, you see a lush forest environment with bird-like things, green mist, Samus walking out of a PORTAL (The time travel gimmick?), giant trees (one has a big opening to walk into it at it's roots), giant cliffs revealing nothing but clouds, one REALLY BIG TREE. Probably a major landmark. No architecture in sight, too, so maybe it's the past? And the date 2025, for our release window. I saw something in the Metroid Prime 4 info timeline from earlier that was Reggie, former Nintendo of America president, saying (I'm paraphrasing) that Nintendo likes to do extended reveals of the games six to nine months before the game's release. Is this an extended reveal? I personally don't think so, but I may be stupid.

Conclusions

in no particular order, here's the main takeaways. Of course, I could be wrong about all of these, we don't have much to go off of.

Phazon is probably not around anymore.

Space Pirates & Sylux are (two of?) the big bads, and the Galactic Federation is probably important. Space Pirates may be in-fighting?

The game may take place after Super Metroid, which has all sorts of implications.

Time travel & black holes may be relevant.

Out of all of of the other rivals from Metroid Prime: Hunters besides Sylux, Weavel seems the most likely to return, but it's unknown if any others will return at all.

Mochtroids return, whatever that implies.

The beam swapping system seems to be replaced with different weaponry, but the core Prime gameplay seems in tact (Though the state of visors besides the Scan Visor are entirely up in the air).

It may be released in early 2025? Maybe? Probably not.

Hopefully this helps at least one person out there. Again, let me know if I should add or change anything or anything like that. I plan on making a part 2 where I just baselessly speculate about what could happen in the game with all of these crumbs, so if this post pops off, I'll probably do that. (Hey, I did that.)

[secretsofdbz]

Alright, timelines. (link to my old post)

Today I'm going to walk you through the cluster fuck of Toriyama not paying attention to what he writes from the Trunks arc to the epilogue of the Perfect Cell arc.

Reminder that I divide the "Android Saga" in 4 arcs:

Trunks arc (arrival of Frieza to 3yg training),

Android arc (until the time machine is discovered)

Imperfect Cell arc (until Cell absorbs 18)

Perfect Cell arc (+ epilogue of Trunks killing imperfect Cell)

I will also pull Toei and Daizenshu content if needed just to show how bad it gets, BUT that's just to enhance my argument. Everything here is manga-deductible without extra context or content.

As I've shown in the link above, the manga implies 4 timelines:

Forgotten timeline (Cell kills Trunks and steals his time machine),

Lost timeline (the timeline that dead!Trunks traveled to, which did not have a Cell pop in the middle of its Android Saga, otherwise Trunks would've known about Cell),

Future Timeline (the one we know and see, Trunks traveled to a uni where Cell traveled to first, so there's changes and Cell pops up in the Android saga),

Main Timeline (the one we know and follow, to which Cell and Trunks traveled to),

Let's go into details about dates and math and everything first. (under the read more because LONG)

When Future Trunks discovers dead!Trunks' time machine, he states that it comes from age 788, which is 3 years from where he comes from (which means he comes from 785), and that the Machine landed here "4 years ago". 4 years ago was about one year before Trunks first came (aka one year before Meca Frieza stuff).

During the first trip, Trunks states he comes from 20 years into the future.

That means during his first trip, he went from 784/785 to 764.

We also know he's 17 at this point and "will be born in 2 and a half years"

(Baby Trunks is supposed to be ~6 months old by May 12th, 767, so "I warn in 764, I'll be born in 2.5 years, so I was born in 766" works. Ignoring the wikis about Trunks' birthday being June and Future Trunks' birthday being in November, it doesn't matter here, we just need the years))

For Trunks to be 17 during his first trip, he needs to travel from 784 (before his 18th birthday). So by the time he comes back the second time, it needs to be in 785 (so he is 18!); since it takes 8 months to charge the machine (Trunks the Story manga chapter), that works out.

So in terms of trips, we have:

Trunks (both versions) : (early-mid) 784 to 764

Trunks (both versions): (early-ish) 785 to May 12th 767

Cell: 788 to 763

(handy recap sheet)

At the time, for Toei, there were only two Timelines (aka it was both multiverse theory AND dynamic time travel theory, because Trunks becoming aware of Cell who killed him means Trunks isn't killed by Cell... yeah it's all sorts of EHH ??):

Anyway, you'd think this would be fine right? The image of Cell killing Trunks while he still had his sword (which he shouldn't since he broke it on 18's arm he never used it again in canon) is anime filler, we're all good.

Except... no. This fucking panel right here. Cell explains "(the machine/bots collecting dna) could've gotten Trunks cells but didn't because we had enough Saiyan cells".

Cell supposedly comes from a timeline where GOKU killed Frieza and Cold. But this god forsaken panel contradicts that. (of course it's just that Tori forgot, but we are DB fans, we take things seriously and word of god of the manga is supreme and can't be wrong)

This means that THIS particular version of Cell doesn't come from the Forgotten Timeline.

The Cell we know and love/hate comes from a timeline in which a future Trunks killed Frieza and Cold, BUT everything still went to shit (Goku + gang dying, dead!Trunks traveling to the past, and coming back to destroy the Androids).

In this timeline, Bulma met Future Trunks (who killed Cold and Frieza) in 764, presumably the gang got all the warnings like in the main timeline, but everyone STILL died. So she invented the Time Machine to send her Trunks to the past (perhaps with different instructions so as to not repeat the mistakes of the Future Trunks she saw 20 years prior).

Here's the thing. There is a way for this timeline to exist. You "just" gotta work on the postulate that "each time there's a time travel to the past, a new branch is created". And "if the time machine travels back in time a second time, it lands in the timeline it first branched out unless it travels back further in time". Rephrased: The "784 to 764" trip created a new branch in 764. The "785 to 767" trip landed in that new 764 branch. However the "788 to 763" trip created a whole new branch in 763.

The Time Machine that was piloted by dead!Trunks actually "traveled further back in time", creating an earlier "branch"... which is why Trunks noticed changes, including Goku's late arrival (or Frieza's earlier arrival, we don't know).

Yes, because Future Goku did not use Instant Transmission to fight Frieza and Cold. We know he didn't because Future Bulma had the coordinates where Goku landed, which is how Future Trunks got said coordinates. If Goku had IT to fight Frieza and Cold, Bulma wouldn't have known where the pod was going to land 3 hours later.

So timelines and where does Cell come from? Well you need a timeline from the Branch that started in 764 (with a Future Trunks' arrival to kill Frieza and Cold) but in which everyone died to the Androids, and in which, when Trunks traveled back home, he was able to destroy the Androids...

Anyway here's my final recap of all the timelines in Z, in which "one time travel is one interference creating a new branch". And this is how we can see where Cell comes from :D

This opens a realm of possibilities!!

Did a version of Trunks stay in the past, during his first trip and got a wish to Shenron to have a way to destroy his androids, so he didn't come back in 767 and didn't grow strong at all? Did the future trunks that warned against the Androids but that timeline still went to shit approached the problem differently?? who knows! Time for fanfics and doujins I guess :D

Peace!

[griseldagimpel]

Cytherea’s Cancer

A post about Cytherea’s cancer and why it took her thousands of years to turn against John.

I want to acknowledge at the start that characters in The Locked Tomb sometimes make statements that are true from their perspective but not necessarily objectively true. Like, Mercymorn insists that no one liked Alecto, but then Pyrrha speaks up and says that hey, she liked Alecto. But if there's not a contradictory statement, I'm going to hazily accept character statements as more or less true. Getting too far down the path of, "Well the character is probably lying." can get an analysis on shaky grounds.

The other thing I want to acknowledge is that writers are imperfect humans. For a series, one book gets written at a time, and even within a book, the author may come up with Problem X and not see Solution Y, even if it seems obvious to the reader. (I certainly have spent enough time wracking my brains trying to figure out if I missed something obvious!)

Alright, I do tend to think that John could have healed Cytherea’s cancer because healing cancer is one of those things that's within the realm of Things John Can Do, as opposed to, say, mind reading, which is not. John is depicted as extremely powerful, but not in all aspects.

However, John healing Cytherea’s cancer wouldn't have stopped her from dying. It would have just stopped her from dying right then of her cancer. If Cytherea wanted to Not Die, she needed to become a Lyctor.

The Nine Houses is a setting where the afterlife is confirmed to exist, their ruling deity can resurrect the dead, and people still die.

And I don't think John is terrible for this, for letting death happen even though he could stop it. With a lot of the Houses being space installations, either the Nine Houses can be a place with a static population that never dies but no children are born OR people can live out their natural lives. Cancer sucks lemons, but it's a natural cause.

And from that perspective, it gives Cytherea’s decision to pursue Lyctorhood a lot of autonomy. Se wanted to Not Die - cancer makes one very aware of one's own mortality - and so she took action to achieve it.

That's why she didn't turn on John right away when Lyctorhood wasn't all it was cracked up to. Maybe Palamedes was wrong, and Cytherea’s cancer really did give her a power boost she thought worth the cost. Maybe she got Mercymorn to turn off some of the pain pathways going to her brain and has been in less pain over the Myriad than Palamedes thought.

Regardless, Cytherea feels that, even if Lyctorhood had unforseen costs, that this is her decision and not something she blames John for. Hence John saying that Cytherea never indicated anything was wrong.

But it does weigh on Cythera, and three hundred years before the first book, she begins toying with the idea of Ending It All.

And then there's a call for new Lyctors, and that's what makes Cytherea act.

When she's asked why she hates John, she denies it. She says she loved him. That's why John shouldn't have asked her or anyone else to become a Lyctor: because their love for their emperor would make them agree to something they should have said no to.

The Locked Tomb is a series about the horrors of love.

[shanesbluechicken]

Hi <3!

If you're not busy can you do a vampire headcanon with Penny? I just love her! First bachelorette I plan to marry <3

Thanks! Take care!

The farmer is a vampire (Penny, Harvey)

Look at all the Penny-love!

Shane

TW: mentions of blood, heavy language

Gender: neutral

Penny

So you know the spot under the tree where she is always chilling at? You don't know it's hers and it gives you great protection against the sun light so you find yourself hanging out there during your free time.

I mean, you can't just isolate yourself from the other town members even though the sun might burn you alive. They'd get suspicious of you and you wanna build trust.

One afternoon after you did all your work at the farm you find yourself sitting under that tree again, feeling the nice spring breeze on your face and listening to the chirping of birds. Penny, with a book held close to her chest, walks up to that exact same spot and turns away almost immediately as soon as she sees you there.

"Hey, wait! There is no need to leave! I can go away if you want me to. I didn't realize this is yours."

"No, no, please. I wouldn't want you to get up just for me. I can still read."

Her voice is so quiet and soft that you nearly didn't understand a word she said.

Penny finds it a bit strange that you're always completely covered in clothes. Even your face is barely recognizable with the huge straw hat and the sun glasses.

But no matter how curious she is she never asks you about it, afraid that you could take offense. The other residents did ask you a lot of stuff in the beginning though so she heard it all from them.

"Have you lived with your health condition since you were born?"

She nearly gave you a heart attack, but not because of her question. The two of you usually sit in silence under this tree and you sometimes forget that she's even there.

"I'm sorry for invading your personal life like that. Forget I asked."

"No, it's fine. And no, it hasn't always been like this, but it did start many years ago."

She finds herself feeling more and more comfortable in your presence and even brings snacks. Much to her disappointment you decline them.

"Are you allergic?"

"Uuuhhh yeah."

Every lie you tell her makes you feel a little bit worse, because she's just the sweetest woman you've ever met. You can see on her face that she has tons of questions for you, but she simply can't bring herself to ask them.

It's difficult since of course it's convenient that she doesn't ask many questions, but at the same time you're dying to tell her every single one of your secrets. You're slowly, but surely falling for her.

Little do you know that's the case for her as well.

She opens up more and more to a point where is even starts to rant about the latest books that she's reading. You love how passionate she gets with the small library in town and it's as clear as the sky that she adores teaching Jas and Vincent.

You find yourself walking her home one night and it's killing you to see her beautiful smile disappear upon seeing the dark trailer. Her mother is at the saloon again as it seem.

"Do you wanna stay at my place? There's something I've been meaning to tell you anyways."

Yes! The moment of truth!

You have no idea how she will react. The only information you have of her opinion about the supernatural is this one romance book she once read where the main love interest is a vampire. Though, you know better than to mix fiction with reality.

When you break it down to her and tell her that you're far from human she...wants to leave.

"Please don't get me wrong, I'm not scared or anything, but it is a lot to digest. I'd like to be by myself for now...if that's alright with you."

"Absolutely."

It takes her around two days until she shows up at your doorstep in the morning. The sun hasn't even come up yet and you still look like you just woke up from the dead.

Immediately you get a thousand apologies thrown at you for visiting you in this early hour, but it's your Penny. The door is open for her at any time of the day. Or night.

Something heavy seems to fall off your shoulders when she tells you that she'd love to continue where you guys left of.

But in return you have to answer all her previous questions where you lied about your health conditions and allergies.

And she's taking it surprisingly well? Wow? But she has seen her fair share of life.

Nothing really changes between you two and why should it? Only difference is the bond between you and the kind woman that grew stronger than ever after your confession.

You stopped hiding your peculiar eye color behind those dark glasses and Penny even found a particularly thick umbrella between her old stuff that could protect you more than your simple hat.

Late night walks are a daily ritual now, because that's the only time she can SEE you.

Your cold body temperature I very welcome in summer and during particularly hot days she tends to cling onto you, but winter. You could chase her.

Harvey

Out of all town members he's the biggest problem. Obviously it's going to be pretty hard to hide your not so human identity from a doctor.

When you introduce yourself to him he of course suggests to give you a check-up some time of your first week here. You're a new patient and he wants to see your condition. Another solution would be that you give him the name and address of your old doctor so he could request your medical file.

Little does he know that you haven't been to a doctor ever since you turned into a vampire. Why would you need one after all? You're immortal! So how the fuck will you get out of this mess now?

After this you kinda try to avoid him. Not in an obvious way where you run the other direction as soon as you see him. It's more of an awkward attempt to escape conversations with him when he starts one.

He's not stupid. He notices it after a couple times.

"Hey, listen. Did I do something to upset you? If I'm being too pushy with the appointment then please tell me."

The fact that he lowkey has a crush on you isn't helping his sad state either.

You quickly explain to him that you're just scared of doctor's appointments and clinics which is kinda the truth.

That's a huge relief for him  because he was afraid that you might not like him.

Now he's a grown man and knows how to deal with a crush, but he's still so nervous around you. It's your good looks that intimidate him so much and there's something weirdly enchanting about you as if you're not from this world.

Harvey still gets his shit together and asks you out for a drink in the saloon just to find out that you "have a sensitive stomach and have to be careful with consuming drinks and food".

Quickly you add that you'd love to go out with him anyways! Just not into the saloon.

So our hot doctor organizes a cute date night at the beach with candles and a blanket.

This dating thing you guys got is going extremely well so far until one day you're nor feeling like yourself.

The blood that was donated to you ran out and its difficult to stock up here. Back in the city there was a special clinic just for vampires where people who knew about them donated their blood. The times where your kind hunt others down to feed on them are long over.

One thing leads to another and eventually you end up at Harvey's clinic. He enters the room with the most terrified look you've ever seen on anyone and as soon as his eyes lock onto you all color leaves his face.

"But- but you're dead!"

"Harvey, listen. I can explain-"

"You were dead when they brought you in!"

"I still am. Kinda."

He's checking your pulse, your heart beat, everything. You're right. There is nothing. You're dead. Or should be at least, but here you are sitting infront of him, talking as if nothing ever happened.

You have no choice, but to explain your current situation and much to your surprise he takes out a notepad and starts writing.

"Is there a way I can contact this clinic? We can't have you pass out like this again. You could get seriously hurt."

It warms your heart to see how Harvey still supports you 100%.

In the beginning he was a bit hurt by the fact that you've been lying to him the entire time, but it didn't take long for him to realize how complicated your situation and position was. He wouldn't have told you either.

That man backs you up and makes sure you're being fed properly and regularly.

No joke the best husband you could have gotten.

Masterlist

[adamwarlock]

hi edith as the only other person on here that i follow that enjoys adam what did you think about him in Vol.3? i think in my head once i let myself enjoy movie adam and comic adam as not two separate beings but obvious differences that i really enjoyed will's performance and i would be excited to see him again :)

HIII :) I feel you he's definitely mcu flavored but I liked Poulter's performance, I think he desperately needed a little more screen time but I was actually pretty pleased with what we got characterization wise. I have no faith in the mcu so the fact that I do feel like it IS Adam on screen, in his infancy, even if he's a little goofier than usual, it made me smile and I'm happy with it. I can understand why some people think they completely butchered him though lol but I disagree, I think James Gunn laid decent groundwork from which he can grow into the more serious/independent/insane person that he becomes later. He hasn't quite earned the title "Warlock" yet.

Spoiler thoughts under the read more.

My biggest problem with it all really is that Adam's not woven into the narrative well enough, after Ayesha's death his role in the story feels pretty aimless. It bothers me that we don't even get a hint of how he feels about his Mother dying after trying to save her, we needed at least a single line to address that and I would've liked some sort of final confrontation between him and the High Evolutionary. Everything before Ayesha's death is fine imo, Adam just doesn't really get to do anything at the end of the movie besides saving Peter which is a huge shame because it only needs a small rewrite to make it work.

I feel like his "redemption" is otherwise alright though, I like that he grows attached to that little furry creature and he mentions wanting credit for Rocket's capture so H.E doesn't kill the Sovereign, which gives him a reason to keep hunting the guardians that's not really malicious just misguided. With how young he is he still needs guidance and is seeking purpose and his own moral compass so I think Groot giving him a second chance and Adam taking that to heart is maybe a little cheesy but good, actually.

It's the little things that win me over though; he's obviously arrogant even if he still listens to his mommy, the Pieta and the Creation of Adam references (with Adam in God's place!!!), I love that H.E mentions there's something WRONG with him even outside of being born prematurely & he got to have a classic "WHY?" moment. And Gunn didn't fuck up his speech mannerisms horrifically even though he's British, it makes me giggle when he calls the High Evolutionary a "extraordinary phallus"... the comedy works for me tbh. Also he's powerful!! Wiping the floor with everybody so he has to be stabbed through the chest and blown up twice just to slow him down. Feels good feels organic. :)

Ayesha being his mom is kinda whatever though but we just didn't get enough scenes with them + the High Evolutionary so. Shrug.

OH one minor nitpick but while I don't mind him joining the GOTG at the end because he's still in his baby Him era, Adam's ego is too big to stay on a team where he's not the leader so I'm gonna need to see him butt heads with Rocket next time like he did with Ayesha.

TL;DR I'm shocked the mcu actually kinda pulled through on this for me but I love him. I'm terrified to see where they're gonna take him after this though because a decent start doesn't mean much if they just fuck him up later lmao.

I think that's all the thoughts I have... Overall it was good I liked it :) Obviously they could've done SOOOOO much more with Adam/Ayesha/the High Evolutionary but without any major rewrites Gunn just fumbled the ending a little bit lol. The costume is hideous though and the GOTG uniform is just whatever, I'm still praying on my hands and knees that he gets to have a emotional breakdown that turns him goth later.

[sacredpyre]

PROMPTS FROM LOKI SEASON @*  assorted dialogue from the show, adjust as necessary

"The first & most oppressive lie ever uttered was the song of freedom."

"I Just Want You To Be Okay."

"This game is for the young, the hungry."

"Existence Is Chaos."

"Nothing makes any sense, so we try to make some sense of it."

"We die with the dying. We are born with the dead."

"I know what kind of god I need to be."

"The outcome to this equation remains the same…you lose."

""For you. For all of us."”

“Trying to fix what’s broken is hard. Hope is hard.”

"Soft gets you killed."

"Alright, let's have a little pie while we wait."

"Okay, that sounds like a noise you wanna hear from farther away."

"I don't trust anyone."

"What do… What do you want with me?"

"That didn't sound as reassuring as you hoped it would."

"It's up to us to protect them."

"I have no memory of having my memory wiped."

"is it arrogant if you can back it up?

"I can rewrite the story."

"Doesn't sound like science."

"We're all writing our own stories now. Go write yours."

"Reality isn't what you think it is."

"Of course I'm selfish! I want a life! I want to live! What's wrong with wanting something."

"Don't make me regret this."

"Time is everything. It shapes our lives."

"All science is fiction until it is fact"

[cas-coding]

"don't get your panties in a twist, darlin'," bobby says, rolling his eyes at whatever dumbass thing dean has just said, and dean knows he doesn't mean it like that, he knows, but everyone he's met means it like that, and sometimes he thinks sam means it like that, and it's not fair.

it's not fair those words carry more meaning to him than they do to anyone else.

sam must see it on his face, then, because he's shooting a look that shuts bobby right up, slapping a hand on dean's shoulder. "hey," sam says, his voice tiptoeing on sympathetic, "we should prep more salt shells for it either way. get out of bobby's hair while he figures out what we're gonna eat, yeah?"

dean hates that he just nods along, numb to it all. he can't change anything; he's already changed enough about himself, and he's sure as hell not going back, so what way is there to make them more comfortable with him?

he's not the type to beg for some doctor to give him testosterone, the reliance would only make it worse, make it harder for him to get his job done. he'd thought about the surgery, but the recovery time is several weeks, several weeks of people dying because he was selfish enough to fix something that most people don't even think is wrong with him.

the basement door creaks open and sam's footsteps sound out in front of him, jolting dean back to the reality where he's supposed to be helping sammy instead of getting lost in his own head.

"you alright?" sam asks, looking up at dean's figure at the top of the stairs, tilting his head just a bit, like he'll be able to read dean's thoughts.

dean sighs and clomps down the wooden stairs, each creaking under his weight. "would you even be askin' if i was born with a dick?" he shoots back, shoving past sam at the bottom of the staircase, his anger bubbling up inside him.

"woah," sam laughs, trying to take the weight out of it. "you know you're my brother, i'm just worried about you, dean. you went all freaky quiet up there."

"yeah, well, next time one of you decide it's funny to make a joke about the fact that i wasn't born 'your brother', i'm going to fucking shoot myself, so cut it the fuck out."

it takes dean a moment to realize what he's said, the basement falling gravely quiet around them. he shouldn't joke about it, shouldn't think it's funny that he carries around a gun for himself, banking on its final blood being that of its owner. a couple times, he'd toyed with the ideas, loaded and unloaded it until his hands cramped, deciding he was too tired to pull the trigger.

"dean," sam whispers, and there's that pity, that sinking, deep pity, the thing dean had been avoiding. "i'm sorry. we don't think about it sometimes. it's not because you're trans, honest to whatever god is out there. bobby sees you as his son as much as he sees me as his son, promise, and he probably doesn't even realize that's more offensive to you than me. i can talk to him?" sam offers, shrugging.

"no, don't."

"what do you want me to do then?" sam fires back, instantly taking a step back. "fuck, i'm sorry. i just, shit, you don't get it, do you? we really don't give a shit that your voice isn't all deep or whatever, and we really don't give a shit that your chest isn't completely flat. you're the one who's making all this up, writing this narrative that we hate you for it, all in your own head. we love you, dean, and we don't give a shit that you weren't born with that name. honest."

and in that moment, it doesn't matter; no matter what dean is, he's just glad he's got a body to hug his brother with.

[darkcrowprincess]

Lunter teen pregnancy:

*warnings premi baby, teen pregnancy(luz 16, Hunter 18), cheating(not between lunter), me being salty towards amity, protective and possessive hunter, sad luz. Angst*

(I'm not an expert on primi babies or the NICU. If I get anything wrong I apologize)

Their baby was born early. A little baby boy named Leandro born 33 weeks instead of the full 40 weeks . Leo Luz whispers to him in his NICU crib. Sometimes she even sleeps there right besides their baby. When she can't touch him she leans near him humming Dominican lullabies. Her head on her folded arms just watching him with wide tearful eyes. Their baby is so tiny, but you can already tell he has her skin coloring. When they aren't here and Hunter doesn't force her to sleep or takes care of her they sit at what she calls the hospital Chapel. "I'm not religious, and I know you and the doctors say it's not my fault, it was out of my control. But I can't help but feel guilty and to blame," Luz whispers, tears bubbling and leaking from her eyes as Hunter cuddles her, protective and possessive on the wooden bench. Luz speaks wetly into Hunter's neck, "I can pray maybe to the titan! To make sure he's ok. It wouldn't hurt." Hunter pecks a soft kiss onto her forhead for comfort. The pregnancy wasn't easy on Luz or Leo. Teen pregnancies never were, and the traumatic situation that was their lives wasn't helping either. Dear Titan Hunter was terrified he would lose them both. Though fortunately they both where alright. Hunter speaks calmly in hopes of assuring her, "The doctors say he's strong. His progress is going well, him staying NICU and us keeping up with the skin contact whenever we can is helping. We'll be able to take him home soon we just need to be patient ok." He cups her hands in his. Hers soft, delicate and ink stained, compared to his big scarred hands. Two years after finally putting to rest Belos, the collector and the boiling isles, yet the trauma still haunted them. That's probably why they clunged to each other. Even when Luz wasn't suppose to. Luz looks at Hunter with a deep love, but also incredible worry and guilt shining in pools of hazel brown. Fear in her voice, "Do you think I'm being punished?" Hunter with a shocked look asks, " What do you mean? You think what? Us cheating did this? Hurt our baby?" Luz closes her eyes tight and nods slowly. She hates bringing this up this fear she has. Her love for Hunter was absolute, a burning everlasting sun. Determined and true. She could never regret him, her literal darkness to her light. She regrets the situation; the cheating, the lying, all of it hurting Amity. If only Luz had just been honest from the beginning. Instead hiding and secret keeping like the messed up issued filled girl she is. But there was never any time. Secrets kept piling up, and so did the lies. And the one person other than Eda that fully understand it all was wrapped up in it just as much as she was. They say people formed bonds in the middle of trauma, and that might seem true. But for her and Hunter, it was more than that. Their souls were reincarnations of Caleb and Evelyn Clawthorne. Luz continues and brings up her other fear, " And if it's not the cheating, that what if were just destined for this? Our desties always seemed tied for death, trauma and tragedy. We manged to live, but what if fate wants to punish us for it and take our baby away f-for not-." "For what? For one of us not dying?! Oh Luz!" Hunter just picks her up into his lap, and holds her closer than before. Luz holds him back tight just as fiercely. He speaks into her ear with a strong voice,"Listen to me, we are not cursed. This not punishment. This is us having deal with the fact that we've been through a lot of shit ok. Our lives were stressful and traumatic and were still dealing with the affects of that. But I telling you everything will be ok. After everything we went through? We can pull through this. Our baby is strong. And we our just as strong. I will keep us together ok?" Luz whipes her nosie with her sleeve and looks up at Hunter with a deep need. "You promise?" " Luz you kept me together when I needed you the most, of course I promise to do same for you. For our little family." He seals this promise with a deep lock of their lips coming together. Luz sinks into the kiss, feeling safe and at home.