#I'm not going to speculate because that's not helpful for anybody

[artemismoorea03]

DP x DC: Original Serial Adopter

When Bruce adopted Dick Grayson the Media was in a frenzy. The billionaire and playboy adopting an orphan after some kind of freak circus accident? Nobody expected it to last more than a month. The media called this action an "Act of Charity".

Then a few years later he adopted Jason Todd. Jason was much more scrappy and after a while some media started calling him the "Wayne Stray".

When he took in Tim after Jason's "accident" they called Tim a rebound. But instead of a relationship Tim was just being used to fill the void that Jason left. The media eventually called him "Jason Todd's replacement."

The media got much more suspicious when Bruce adopted Cassandra and crossed lines with their speculations that resulted in a lot of lawsuits. Though nobody in Wayne's circles believed the rumors for a second, so rumors were wiped out pretty quickly. The least offensive of these things called Bruce a "Bleeding Heart" when the media saw the scars Cassandra had.

Stephanie was never officially adopted - at least legally - but anybody who saw her with the family knew that Bruce had adopted her as a daughter. Like Cassandra she got some negative comments but they learned after the first time. "Another Wayne Joins The Manor".

When Damian came into the picture the media exploded. Comments along the lines of "The Bastard Child" which made Bruce's blood boil but kept quiet. Damian had only known violence and aggression growing up, and while his mother loved him she had exposed him to a life he didn't need to see. Bruce wasn't about to make everything worse by loosing it on the media for being jackasses.

When he fostered Duke the media exploded again. Showing the ugly side of human ignorance but Bruce and Duke were both able to ignore it (while Tim and Oracle found ways to rip every person apart who dared make a comment against them).

Bruce didn't care what they said, because at the end of the day he had children who he loved with all of his heart and was learning to do the best for. Sure, he made plenty of mistakes but he tried to learn from his mistakes.

Though the rumor about Bruce being a "Serial Adopter" was one that would be one that would never leave him.

But he had to learn it from somewhere.

A fact that was ignored until Alfred showed up back to the manor after a shopping trip with a scrawny child walking hesitantly behind him, carrying some of the groceries'. He was prime "adoption bait". Underweight, messy black hair, blue eyes that were just a bit too blue, and bruises that were in view despite the kids best attempt to cover them with his hoodie.

A large hand print bruise around his neck, scraped knuckles, and a bruise peeking out from under his hairline might as well have been ink in the pen that Bruce was going to use to sign that kids adoption papers and sign the receipt for the shovel he would buy to bury the bastards responsible.

After the groceries were put away Alfred properly introduced the kid. His name was Danny and after a series of unfortunate events while Alfred was shopping Danny had been forced to jump in and help him. Bruce thought that maybe Alfred had been in danger and never called them but when it became clear that luck just wasn't on his side and that he was never in danger for anything despite being late it made Bruce even more concerned about the teen that currently was eating his third apple as though he had never eaten anything in his life.

He stayed small, stayed silent, looking around the room anxiously. He clearly kept tabs on every window. Every door. Every exit but hardly paid any attention to the valuables. He was scared but not a thief.

Finally they have to ask about Danny's injuries. Was he safe at home? Did he have a place to stay? Why was he so thin? Did he need them to call somebody.

Danny was quiet for a long time.

"I don't have a home to go to. The bruises are fine, I'm just clumsy. I don't need a place to stay. Thanks for the food and the hospitality but... I don't feel like being kidnapped and tortured by another millionaire so if Alfred doesn't need anything else I should go."

Danny tried to get up and move, the pain obvious but before anybody could say anything else Alfred simply said.

"Sit."

Danny hesitated, then sighed and sat down again.

"You promised you would allow me to treat you before you left. I am a man of my word so as soon as you finish your apple I will bandage your wounds and you will be free to leave if you wish."

Classic Alfred trap.

One that worked flawlessly.

Fresh bandages, a full stomach, warm clean clothes and a cup of hot chocolate on the comfortable couch in the living room was all it took to lull the injured teen to sleep.

Alfred continued this trend for three more days managing to trick Danny into helping him with minor tasks around the manor, offering him another meal because he 'made too much and didn't want to waste it' and countless other things.

It wasn't until day four when Danny seemed to accept his fate and allowed them to help him. Which prompted Cass to point at Alfred.

"Original Serial Adopter."

Making the entire table laugh while Danny just looked increasingly confused.

[chatonarya]

I've talked about Karlan Trio a decent amount, but I can't help but still feel that there isn't enough conversation about how inherently funny it when you look at it through the lens of Degenbrecher foremost.

Degenbrecher's besties are Enciodes Silverash and Gnosis Edelweiss. These are the two people she trusts the most, cares about the most, and is open with the most. This is not speculation: this is canonical and textual.

Enciodes is the CEO of Karlan Trade and best known for being a wily schemer adept at manipulating his opponents to gain capital and political power for himself; Gnosis is just as cunning and even more ruthless and radical than his partner and has spent most of his life an outcast. They're also both generally fairly emotionally isolated and have problems with their family and only seem to trust and rely on each other for company...

With the exception of Degenbrecher.

Enciodes and Gnosis are good people at heart with noble motives even if they go about it in less than noble ways; and while Enciodes is admired and liked by the Kjerag populace and his employees, and Gnosis has regained a degree of general respect by the time of RS, and while they aren't evil per se, to anyone who knows them even slightly on a personal basis, their methods (and personalities) make them disliked and distrusted...

With the exception of Degenbrecher.

Degenbrecher willingly chooses to hang out with them. She likes them. She knows them better than anyone else, and even knowing that personally they might be total disasters, she sticks around anyway. Degenbrecher could hang out with literally anybody she wanted to, but she chooses to hang out with the two people who are probably some of the least hang-out-able people in the country. Look at them: Enciodes blathers on enough that Degenbrecher has repeatedly told him to shut up and explicitly says she hates overly-chatty smartasses (except him); Gnosis is, well, Gnosis, who uses insults, affectionate they may be, with almost every other sentence.

Yet it's implied that they regularly go out for dinner together and even have their own in-jokes and running pranks with each other. Degenbrecher says Gnosis has lousy taste and prefers Enciodes to pick the venue; Degenbrecher offers to take them both sightseeing in Leithanien; Degenbrecher tells them they can come spar with her (and she'll kick both their asses at once with one hand behind her back). They're the best of friends.

And you know what? That's really funny. You'd think, surely Degenbrecher can find better company than these two. Surely Degenbrecher doesn't lack for friends, given her popularity in Kjerag. But no, she picks these two. I hesitate to call them "losers" because I'm very fond of them and it's undeniable that they're extremely successful people, even if it comes at the cost of their personal lives, but one could very well call them that.

She also willingly chooses to take care of them. She carried their drunk and broke asses home in the snow after Walden's instead of just dumping them on the side of the road and letting them fend for themselves; she continues to carry medicine for Gnosis and fetches papers for Enciodes when he forgets them. She doesn't have to do any of that, but she does it anyway, because she cares that much about them. This immensely powerful woman has chosen to take of these two walking arguable messes and has done so for ten years. Her EP is explicitly about her desire to protect them. She loves them a ton.

These two might be trash, but they're her trash. Degenbrecher is the superpowered possum guarding the dumpster that is Enciodes and Gnosis and she's perfectly happy doing it.

[gingersnaptaff]

who are the main characters in welsh arthurian mythos?

Hi anon! You know, I looked at this question and just fuckin DIED with GLEE! Ehdhdjdhdjd I LOVE SHIT LIKE THIS!!!!! SHDJDJDH

First off, Arthur is pretty big. He's less a king and more of a warlord, but there's still a lot of cultural reverence for him in Welsh things. Seriously, Henry VII - a notable faux-Welshman - named his firstborn son Arthur purely because he was going to be Prince of Wales. Also, in Culhwch and Olwen his retinue has TWO Welsh GODS in it - Manawydan and Pryderi (my beloveds.) Idk what they're doing in it but I am inordinately pleased that they are there.

Also, Uther Pendragon / Uther Ben. Taliesin wrote a poem about him which is super fun. (Also, oddly enough Taliesin himself HAS been linked into Arthurian legends on multiple occasions. He's also another Arthur-type in that he's still regarded as tooling the line between mythical and real.)

Gwenhwyfar is also important even though she takes a back seat. Speculation is rife about whether she had a quest/myth about her (sorta like Culhwch and Olwen) and also her name means 'white phantom!' BRING IT BACK. I, for one, think she definitely did have a quest attributed to her in which Arthur had to do something to get her hand in marriage but idk WHAT.

Also, she's a GIANT!!!!!!!! EJDJDKDKDKD

Gwalchmai is also Super Important. There's speculation as to whether he was a mythical character who got implanted into the mythos or if he was always Atthur's nephew. Basically, he's a giant and he kills giants. Seriously, he's CONSTANTLY killing giants in the mythos. Plus he is called 'Gwalchmai Golden / Silver-tongued' in poetry too. In the Mabinogion, he's very often the one to soothe discord between the other knights so he's very diplomatic too.

Cai and Bedwyr, obviously! They come as a pair. Do Not Separate. Now, Cai is sometimes also seen to be a giant but his dad is Cynyr Ceinfarfog who was a real king. He ruled Dyfed and was the dad of Saint Non and, therefore, grandad to SAINT DAVID. (Wales' patron saint!) So Cai, like Arthur, has a saintly lineage. Before the French Romances shifted his character into the more recognisable Kay, Arthur's grumpy seneschal, Cai was a warrior of great renown. And literally superhuman. Like, nobody would received from.a blow from his sword, he could brave fire and water like nobody else, he has the ability to go nine nights and days without sleep or the need to breathe. He's a ledge.

Now, Bedwyr! Again he's a great warrior and ONE-ARMED. He's called Bedwyr Bedrydant (Bedwyr of the Perfect Sinew) and he's HOT SHIT. Seriously, he's like the most beautiful Knight in Arthur's court. The 10th-century poem 'pa gur' says that assailants 'fell by the hundred / before Bedwyr of the Perfect sinew ... fighting with Garwlwyd/ furious with sword and shield.' (Also, BTW Garwlwyd is possibly a werewolf.)

They have to put up with SO MUCH SHIT from Arthur's escapades it's ridiculous. They had to convince Arthur not to intervene in a King abducting a princess and carrying her back to his court, ffs. Give them a HOLIDAY. WITH SALMON TAXIS.

Now, I would say Merlin BUT he is added later into the mythology. He isn't there straight off. But he is Welsh. He's FUN. He was apparently based on Myrddin Wyllt. He went mad, and lived in a forest. His bestie was a king who died.

Now, I also think Owain, and Geraint on account of their having stories written about them but they're two kings who got folded into the mythos a bit later. Urien (Owain's dad) is another example.

Also, Macsen Wledig too. But again writers melded him in later. And I mean this in the sense that he and Arthur share similarities in how they're perceived in Welsh culture.

Anyways, anon, I hope this helps. I'm probably forgetting a TONNE of characters (Peredur, for one.) But I Don't want to bore you or make anybody trawl through this unwillingly so I shall stop! Hopefully, this helps! Thank u for the question!!!!

[herefortheships]

If anything, this could be a good idea for a fanfic.

I was thinking earlier, what could they do with Astrid for Beetlejuice 3? There are many possibilities for her character. She doesn't have to be reduced to moody teenager angry at her mom, especially now that her issues with Lydia were resolved after Beetlejuice 2. There's also the fact that now she knows there truly is an afterlife and that her dad is okay. She also now has the ability to see ghosts and interact with them, so there's a lot for Astrid to get to know about herself and her new abilities.

And that's what I'm getting at. She now has to get used to her newfound ability to interact with the dead. For a girl who was skeptical of ghosts only days before she discovered all of this, it won't be too easy to get used to her new life. Lucky for her, she has her mother; Lydia might not have had anybody to help her. Sure, she had the Maitlands, but she had no psychic, living person to teach her how to handle her ability, and we can see how a life of being able to see and talk to ghosts did take a toll on Lydia's mental heath. Astrid has Lydia to help her, but, and here's where we go into head-canon speculation territory: what if Astrid's abilities to interact with the world of the dead go beyond Lydia's? What if she feels alone with her new powers, realizing her mom can't help her? Heck, what if Lydia herself realizes she can't really help Astrid? You guessed it: enter Betelgeuse.

I can see Astrid being the one to call him, though, in this story idea. Here's a good reason to summon him: he might be the only one Astrid can turn to for help now. As I've said probably too many times already in this blog, Astrid doesn't really know Betelgeuse yet. She only knows that her mom says he's bad news, that he's crazy about her mom, and that he saved her life. That's it. She doesn't really have evidence of him being really bad news (if we discount the influencers lol). He did puppeteer her into a dance around the wedding cake, but, is there anything truly harmless in that? He just put on a show for the wedding. This only served to show how scary powerful he truly is.

Astrid might come to the conclusion that she will need someone else to help her navigate this new life with what she can only describe as supernatural powers, and Betelgeuse might be the only one who can really help her. Maybe Lydia and her even get into an argument over something Astrid realized she could do with these abilities she gained not only through her bloodline, but also through having died and then returned to life in the Netherworld (we're in speculation territory here, so let's go crazy). Maybe what Astrid discovered she could do now, which scared Lydia, was the ability to control others just like Betelgeuse and the Maitlands and likely other ghosts can do.

So Astrid goes to someone she knows will help her navigate all this, and that is Betelgeuse. Here's where the writers can get creative. I love the suggestion about Betelgeuse helping Astrid if she helps him win Lydia's heart. That'd be fun to watch and also a plausible storyline if the screenwriters sit down to think a little. They just have to come up with the antagonistic force, and that one's pretty easy too. It could be Delores again, or it could be a threat from the world of the living. OR better yet: a threat from the Netherworld coming after Astrid because of her Supernatural abilities. They just have to get creative. But this idea for Astrid I really like, tbh; her figuring out she will need more help than what her mom can give her. Alternatively, here's also where they can bring in Lydia's mom. Lydia could think her mom has the answers to everything about their ghost-seeing powers. And I really like the idea of Astrid having gained something more from her brief ordeal in the Netherworld. I've seen a few fans suggest this one about Astrid’s powers here. (Reply so I can tag you if this was you; I believe they mentioned Astrid having powers being something similar to Danny Phantom but not quite. I gotta scroll through my blog to find it.)

[lover-of-mine]

https://www.tumblr.com/lover-of-mine/764982199056580608/a-little-bit-weirded-out-by-buck-help

Could this be T*mmy learning about the will? Could that be the thing that weirds him out?

Look, dude, I don't want to shit on anybody speculation, I know a lot of people are saying this is about the will, I know a lot of people want the breakup to be about buddie. But the thing is, I don't think that the breakup or the conflict is going to be directly about Eddie. Oliver said it's not going to be a problem, and I think that everyone is giving Tommy too much credit inside the narrative. I think the will is too big of a thing for them to hand it over to bt to create a conflict that they could make happen about a thousand different ways. I don't think that that's something that's going to happen, I don't think that the idea that anything like that would be the type of thing that makes Oliver say that Tommy is going to be weirded out. I could be wrong, I'm open to being wrong, but I think that I have said this very clearly since s7 that I don't believe that the relationship is going to end directly about Eddie. I think that Eddie is going to be adjacent to the issue. I think that we're going to see the contrast about the way that Eddie reacts to something and the way that Tommy reacts to the same thing, the same way that the show has been doing for a really long time. But I don't think that the narrative is going to give something as big as a conversation about the will to bt. I think that everyone is speculating in a way that gives Tommy too much power in the narrative when the guy has been in like, 95 seconds of the show since 710, you know what I mean? Like you can't speculate that he's going to have that big of a role in the situation in my opinion, because the narrative does not care about him enough to give him that much power.

[autisticlalna]

Stuck in Limbo, or "You don't really leave super hell."

okay. let's go over what happened last night in the Skyblock Kingdoms Community Discord.

that sounds ominous. it's not anything bad! what happened is that in the lead-up to releasing his new song, Limbo, Avid decided to drop some story info that he's already been hinting at. a few things have been confirmed and a few things have been debunked.

i consider my job to be "lore archivist", and seeing as this all happened on discord i want to make sure anybody not in the discord is able to at least get the gist of it. SO: what exactly did Avid confirm and debunk?

let's start with this: Avid isn't getting out of Limbo.

okay, no, sorry, that's clickbait, that's not actually what we're starting with because i'm scrolling back in the lore-discussion channel and we get a different reveal first. so let's talk about the Nameless King of Incendium real fast first.

ive been speculating for a bit that the Nameless King is Avid's boss, and that he's responsible for Avid getting fished up out of Limbo. Avid has alluded to it before, but we now have confirmation on who the Nameless King is: they're Olm, the main antagonist of his adventure map Avid Adventures.

so... what is Olm doing here?

oh. that'd do it. (side note: Xaleem is another antagonist in Avid Adventures that's stuck in a dimension called Otherside. they're beefing.)

this means that Olm was using Avid to get rid of the Dark Lord / Demon of Darkness, and then presumably dunked Avid into Limbo for fun-- they have a history of tormenting Avids.

Avid also confirmed that Olm isn't the other person in the song that's helping Avid escape Limbo (...okay, yeah, i'm getting why the "cc!name" thing caught on) and that it's someone else, and followed that up with...

again, context: Trog bungee jumped down into the Void as part of a ritual, but while down there they spotted a shadowy figure calling out for help and sobbing. before they could reach out to it and try to help, they were hit by the research station's beam and dragged back up out of the Void.

so where is Limbo?

there's a risk every time you fall into the Void that you could fall all the way and end up in Limbo.

and now we get to the bombshell that sparked this post:

the chat, uh, exploded. Avid didn't say anything else on this topic besides "More to come", but the song dropped not long after and has added fuel to several fires. WE HAVE ENTERED A NEW ERA OF WILD MASS GUESSING.

im going to avoid putting my own theories in here, because this is supposed to be informative instead of another "Leo loses their mind" moment. but i will pull up another quote, from back at the start of the discord being open:

wait no actually not that one but im keeping that in here anyways because "STUCK, HUH? I SEE." anyway:

You don't really leave super hell.

[marshmallowprotection]

Mystic Messenger 7th Summer Event

I was on the money with my speculation. I was right on the money and there is nothing you guys can do to stop me from talking about this photo in its entirety. Oh, my God. I am frothing at the mouth at this very moment because Cheritz gave me everything I could have ever wanted in a photo.

It's Ray DRESSED as Unknown, and that is someone I never saw coming.

See, I have egg on my face because they said Ray in their post last night and I never thought they were going to throw this at me. That's because they've never done something like this before. Usually, when he is mislabeled, it's just one of those things that happen now and again because of marketing or trying to avoid spoilers, but in this case, they actually went out of their way to bamboozle me.

I never could have expected something like this. I am most definitely not complaining because this isn't something I didn't know I needed in my life. Unknown and Ray are my favorites so the fact that they are combined in this situation is sending me. I didn't know I needed this but I'm happy that I have it.

On that note, does anybody have commissions open because I need more Idol Ray in my life? I want my MC to be in the audience cheering him on with a penlight.

When I tell you guys I cried when I saw this, I am not kidding about that. I cried. There are a lot of reasons why I cried and we'll get into that in a second. First I think we need to appreciate this for what it is. I think this is the first time in a long time my speculation has been 100% accurate.

This photo is split into three different parts just as I expected it would be, Rika is trying to pedal the soda, and V is in his believer robes which I joked about because the color was accurate but I wasn't sure if they would actually go through with it, and Ray painted his fingernails and that's sending me to Heaven.

V cannot believe what he is seeing. Need I remind everybody in this fandom that his mother was a musician and knowing that fact makes this a hell of a lot funnier when you consider this was Rika's plot. I would not put it past her to have thought about using music as a ploy to mess with him, not only because it's something they shared with her love of Zen, but because she wants to use everything she has against V.

The context in this situation is amazing. I don't know if any of you have seen the new Twitter thread but I'm going to share it with you.

[Link]

When I tell you guys I screamed, I mean it. I screamed because Ray was so smug when he said he has a cute face. That was a lot of confidence in a short amount of time, and if he looked at me after saying that, I would have melted and done anything he told me to do. I mean, I would already do that in general, he knows what I am.

She literally decided out of the blue that she was just going to sell him out because he has a cute face. I mean, she's not wrong, but that's such a Rika thing to do. After all, it's not the first time she pushed him into being an idol.

So, what I'm going to say here is a little silly. I have to tell all of you the implication of what this photo means. This is Ray and he is dressed as Unknown. He has no means to be able to dress that way without us helping him.

That means the MC is the one that chose his wardrobe for him.

That means we are the ones who looked at him and his princely attire and decided he needed to look like he just walked out of Hot Topic. See, my favorite type of character is a toss-between princely and edgelord, so that's even funnier to me. Saeran Choi is my full package deal when it comes to aesthetics, I swear.

I wouldn't want to change Ray out of his magenta coat to dress like Unknown. Well, I say that, but if I tell him to wear that and he takes off the jacket, then I can put it on... oh, yes. That's the best way to get a boyfriend's sweater.

But it is the single-handed thought that the MC is the one that put him in this outfit that is sending me to another plane of existence. Can you imagine doing that to him? Because that is way more funny to me than the idea that Ray chose to wear that himself. But it is always possible that he did choose to wear it himself because he often says that his taste and clothes are nothing like the outfit Rika gave him.

I also need to point out that that tattoo would have had to have been drawn on with Sharpie or temporary ink. He doesn't have the tattoo in Another Story. That is a fact that a lot of people get confused about despite the fact that we are shown a visual of him in the shower that proves he doesn't have a huge tattoo.

I suppose you could read this as a bonus AU where in some universe, Ray is the one who gets the tattoo first... which, ouch, I don't know if I can handle that... "I proved myself, body and mind, to my Savior so it isn't possible she'll throw me away. If I brand myself with the cause of Mint Eye... I'll... I'll be safe."

But, what that also implies is that there is a picture of him with that tattoo drawn in some capacity lingering in his room at Magenta. It also means that despite the fact that he and Suit Saeran inevitably disappear after not being able to live up to the potential the Savior wants them to, Unknown stumbles across that design.

Ray: QUICK, I HAVE TO DESIGN SOMETHING EDGY FOR THIS OUTFIT.

Ray: A dragon!

Ray: ME for Mint Eye!

Ray: This certainly won't effect anything later in life!

Two and a Half years later...

Unknown: I don't know who designed this tattoo but it's sick. I need it on my body.

It is so gut-wrenchingly painful for me to think about that. It means that a piece of Ray still exists. Unknown does not even know where that tattoo came from nor does he know who designed it. Because he doesn't get to know Ray one-on-one since I personally believe he isn't Suit Saeran. I view Unknown and Suit Saeran as separate people, after all.

The reason why he has the tattoo is because Ray drew it. I have long wondered where he came up with the idea for the tattoo, and it turns out it wasn't Unknown at all. Ray was the one who drew it and I don't know what to do with that information other than cry.

The Savior only gave him a short amount of time to figure out how to be an idol and he said I'm going to have a tattoo. Sure, should we just assume this is an Easter Egg and the artist might not have known all the details involved in the story of Mystic Messenger? Sure, you can think that, but for the sake of my enjoyment, I'm going along with the theory that I'm right, lol.

That's something that an idol has. Ray says. He draws a sick dragon and a twisted ME. That tattoo is so large and ridiculous, but I love it dearly. Ray, honey, You Are My Forever Babe. But I don't know what to do with you sometimes.

[If you want to know how I think Unknown gets the tattoo, I have a post on that.]

Rika looks amazing here and there is no lie about that. I actually really like the outfit she's wearing even though we can't see a lot of it. It speaks to a music festival because of how simple but trendy it appears. She's trying to be that friendly face that can do no wrong. She wants you to buy her homemade soda, and you should do that.

You should do that right now. It's good for you. There's nothing wrong with it.

A little bubbly soda won't hurt you. What do you mean it's burning your throat as we speak? It's not doing that at all! You're just excited by the electric energy of this concert! Drink more soda! I think the important question to ask ourselves here is how many cans of soda did she bottle and does she think it's going to work out as well as she thinks it does?

I don't think we need to talk about the fact that she is wearing a cross necklace. I don't want to unpack her religious trauma right now. I don't have time to do that right now but I will say it made me laugh my ass off. On a side note, her hair looks good here and I'm jealous of it.

This man looks like his soul just left his body.

I don't know what he's thinking at this very specific moment in time but I know he's not happy to realize that Rika has decided to sell out Ray as an idol. I mean that's probably the last thing he expected to happen. But, it makes sense, Rika loves music and if she thought it would work, she would absolutely push Saeran, Ray, Unknown, etc, into doing that for her. But, it hurts to think about V... to think about those complicated feelings he holds about his mother...

He kind of wanted to learn how to play the violin to get closer to his mother... He's already got complicated feelings about musicians and I don't know if his adopted son here being an idol is doing much good for him. It reminds me of the bad ending in the RAE.

He wasn't particularly comfortable in that situation either and this just reminds me of that. Which is a shame, because that ending is so horrible. It is one of the worst endings that you can get in this entire series.

I don't think we need to get into that in general, but just know that if you want to hurt yourself, aim to get that bad ending. If I can say nothing else, I'm really happy to see his long hair because I think it's the most attractive aesthetic for him. I've always liked that style on him a lot more than the traditional one. I don't know what it is about that look for him but it just works. He's like a wet kitten in a cardboard box.

I can't believe she decided to hold the concert at 7:00 p.m. I mean, I can most certainly believe she would do that, but it feels like spitting in Ray's face. Why would you do that, Rika? I know it's just a cute little Easter egg to remind us of his brother but oh my God that's awful.

I don't think anybody I've seen talking about this has pointed it out but the background colors are literally the same as Ray and V's hearts. It's the magenta and teal hearts. I thought that was a good touch. I do know that it's also in homage to the fact that it's Mint Eye and the building is called Magenta. It's a 2-in-1 package deal. Just like the fact that I got to see Ray dressed as Unknown. This is a two-for-one deal!

I do think it's interesting that they chose to make the penlights white. That means his image color is white. Oh, yeah, idols have image colors that correlate to those penlights so those things are very important! I didn't expect white. But, I didn't expect him to be an idol ever again after that bad ending. I mean that ending is horrible but he has great hair in it so like we're winning and losing.

Best day of my life. I won Unknown and Ray.

[arcofacatboy]

is it weird to say i feel like i'm mourning arc of a scythe? like it'd be one thing if the book was actually just not that great n whatnot like harry potter but. the book is actually good. i almost wonder if neil tripped and fell into writing a book with good commentary when he seems to be so incapable of understanding those same things

its not that its nessecarily that its just good, perse, but it made me want to read again. i felt like this series was meant for me, and it permanently affected my taste in books

sorry if it seems like im venting in your askbox its just. im kinda just wondering if my feelings are just felt by me or if others understand

No it’s okay - I’m gonna break some of this down with my own thoughts where I can.

First of all, I can’t really say how you should label your feelings about Neal and his books. I’ve personally tried to avoid using words like mourning or grieving due to the context of why I’m retracting support from Neal in the first place. People, children, are being ruthlessly murdered every day. Me being upset that my (now former) favorite author is completely apathetic towards the victims of genocide will never compare to the grief, pain, and trauma that the people of Gaza and Palestine have been made to face for months now. That doesn’t mean you can’t label your feelings that way! That’s just something I try to keep in mind when talking about Neal myself.

The reason I shifted the focus of this blog, while keeping its original branding, is because I want to at least try to help in a way Neal is refusing to - making his fans aware of the absolutely inhumane treatment of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government. Like Neal, I’m by no means an expert on… anything going on right now. I try my absolute best to spread accurate information, but that doesn’t make me a professional or expert. I’m not Israeli, and I’m not Palestinian. I’m a white person living in the relative safety of the USA, who isn’t going to be the target of antisemitism or Islamophobia. I should not be anybody’s primary source of information. But, unlike Neal, I feel like I’m at least doing something, and I want to keep trying to do as much as I can. I’m not trying to one-up Neal here, this isn’t a competition - but I’m saying that all the excuses he’s used for saying nothing could easily be applied to me, and many of the people who have spoken out against him. And yet, here we are.

I haven’t reread Arc Of A Scythe with knowing the additional context that Neal is okay with being completely silent on a genocide, but I have been rereading Dry while keeping that in mind, and, yeah. Neal makes a lot of parallels to real-world crises in that book, and how governments, people in power, and regular people treat them - with where I am in the book right now, everyone not affected by the Tap-Out seems to be completely apathetic and not concerned, because the Tap-Out hasn’t made their life any worse… so it can just be swept under the rug while the people of Southern California lose access to potable water. Literally most of my notes are pointing out how hypocritical Neal is being with his commentary - he’s doing things right now that he portrays as bad things to do in the book. The most egregious example so far is linked here.

So, I can’t say why Neal has taken the stance that he has right now. There’s no point in speculating if he was always this performative in his activism, or if he’s fallen into the Israeli propaganda trap, because it ultimately doesn’t matter. He’s being ignorant and harmful, and he deserves to be condemned for that either way.

You’re not alone in how you feel, I think - a lot of former/current AOAS fans have been really thrown for a loop by Neal’s shit. We have to move forward from here, but no one person can tell you how to do that. (Also, none of this was me trying to be rude or disrespectful, so I’m sorry if it came off that way. One adjustment I’ve had to make for this blog is not talking like a YouTube shitpost, so my tone probably seems a little different from posts I made pre-“Neal being a colonialist sympathizer”.)

P.S about the Harry Potter thing: I’m not sure what you mean by “not that great”, but I agree with you there. There’s so much “not that great” stuff in Harry Potter that the average person doesn’t even know about - the entire franchise is rooted in these really weird ideas about race, class, and a million other things, so it’s bad beyond “oh the goblins are antisemitic caricatures and the author is a terf”. Those things are still extremely bad, don’t get me wrong. But if you want to know more about how bigotry permeates into every part of the franchise - not just the movies, books, and Hogwarts Legacy! - I recommend this video essay by Lily Simpson. It’s ten hours long, but definitely worth a watch. (Yes I did watch the entire thing over like, a week this summer.)

[christopherleefan]

You’ve heard the story the Howling II director Philippe Mora said about Lee telling him he was involved with the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and there was a military greeting for him in Czechoslovakia, but did you know Mora has also more recently said other completely wild things Lee supposedly told him that are increasingly ludicrous?

If you haven’t heard, Mora has claimed in interviews for sites like Bloody Disgusting, Fangoria, and Oregon Artswatch that Lee “personally” (Mora’s words) arrested Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the head of the Gestapo, and - I hope you’re sitting down for this - WAS AN ASSISTANT HANGMAN FOR THE NUREMBERG EXECUTIONS???

Maybe there’s a kernel of truth in his recountings, and Mora is supposed to be a pretty respected WWII documentarian, but I’m thinking he might be making shit up. I heard Lee could embellish his life slightly but it seems beyond him that he would tell Mora such outlandish things.

I found an article from 1981 for WET Magazine written by Ann Bardach where Lee told her basically that A. The people he worked with didn’t go after the big fish Nazis, they went after anybody else on their lists they were given. B. They had nothing to do with Nuremberg. C. He was present for more than 50 but less than 100 executions (he declined to specify how many exactly) but didn’t say if he was even so much as present for the Nuremberg Trials.

Also not helping Mora’s case is that he incorrectly identifies the Nuremberg hangman as Albert Pierrepoint when it was actually John C. Woods, who Lee mentions by name in the WET article, and I doubt someone who was as interested in executioners as Lee was would get that wrong. Also, how the hell would Lee get involved with assisting the hangings? As far as I’m aware it was American soldiers who carried them out witnesses and correspondents from other countries watched.

Mora is making a documentary called Dracula: Vampire Hunter that’s supposed to go into this. If these ridiculous claims are somehow true he better bring proof.

BTW did that new Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee doc reveal anything new about Lee’s WWII service?

Hello :)

Yes, I've heard about the story that there was a military greeting for him when he arrived in Prague for Howling II and I also saw your recent post about it. I've also read the interview from A. Bardach and it looks a bit to me that Christopher really doesn't wanted to talk about the war but Bardach just keeps asking anyway.

His time during the war was always attached by some mystery because he didn't want or wasn't allowed to talk about. I also think a lot of people came up with their own speculations and storys and say Christopher was involved with this and that even it isn't true.

But I'm afraid I can't give you a decent answer because I don't know what is true or not. Also I don't know very much about the war. Sorry.

But to answer your question, the Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee documentary doesn't reveal anything new about his war time. It's just a short part in the documentary about his training in Rhodesia and the time he was in Tunisia and was wounded in the buttocks.

[inflame]

if you saw this last night when it was just a reblog piggybacking on one of my other posts. i was drunk and devoid of standards at the time. but here she is. for posterity.

i know bobby TECHNICALLY calls this out in the fourth/funeral episode, but i still think it gets overlooked, and it is relevant to the meta i'm working on, so.

people don't feel so guilty because they Didn't See It. is the thing. people feel so guilty because they did. i mean, sure, it's not like everyone knew what they were looking at: the vast majority probably could not have guessed that, for a bunch of reasons. but the town has basically been watching her fall apart for... if not the whole five, then at least the past couple of years. they've speculated about it. they've kept her in their prayers.

they've just never actually asked her what was up --- they've just never actually tried to help her. they don't think it's their place. and that's typical, really, especially for the era/setting. what would her parents think, right? and there are good people in twin peaks. there are people who love laura. who even genuinely believe they'd do anything in the world to help her.

but they ... don't.

the most haunting scene in the film to me is actually this one (i've cut it to the pertinent bit but i strongly rec the whole thing, For Context, or at least the part beforehand): laura's over at the haywards'. they've been trying to cheer her up kind of collectively. the phone rings. it's laura's dad. he wants her to come home. there's very little dialogue after that --- laura kisses doc h and mrs. h goodbye. they say they'll see her tomorrow. donna walks her to the door.

and they both just... sit there. staring at each other. they both understand that something is so, so off. it scares them. and they certainly know how scared she is: they know what she's actually like better than just about anybody. they've known her her entire life. he is literally the doctor who delivered her. she's been best friends with their daughter since kindergarten, if not before that. she is at their house EVERY week day of EVERY school year. and these are the good ones, you know. this is the one man in town i usually never can say anything bad about. but he lets her go, too.

and he won't. he won't see her tomorrow.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Okay quick question about Behind the Hockey Mask, how come Angle hasn't told anybody about her dad? Did Casey tell her not to, or did she learn not to tell?

The reason Angel hasn't told is mostly for the reasons Casey's never told anyone.

Both of them are used to this.

Angel was 2 when her mother died, now she's 7.

She doesn't remember life being any different.

To Angel her dad is sick.

That's what Casey believes and told her.

This what happens when dad is sick.

If anyone asks about him that's what she says.

Do people have speculations, especially say teachers when Casey goes to her parents evenings and school plays and is the one to pick her up?

Absolutely.

But Angel doesn't have so much as a scratch on her.

Arnold has never hurt his daughter.

And so their is no proof.

Casey has tried his best to sheild her from knowing about any of this.

But she knows.

But it's what happens sometimes when dad is sick.

He gets confused.

He gets angry.

She has to let him rest.

But... Their have been occasions when Casey has gotten hurt and Angel has witnessed it.

She froze.

A bloodsoaked Casey crawled over and held her in his arms.

Hushing her, rocking her in his arms that it's okay it's okay.

She's scared for him and no your hurt Casey... Dad hurt you.

And Casey smiles, he's missing a tooth and kisses her head that "dad's having a bad day today, but he's okay now."

"Are you okay?"

"I've got you hear Angel cake, your all I need." He says with a pained smile, using his non bloody hand to ruffle her hair.

"But you can't tell anyone about how sick dad is okay? That he gets like that."

"But why? Than they get dad to a doctors, that's where you go when your poorly and than you won't get hurt anymore."

"Your a real smart cookie aren't you? But, if that happens they'll take us away from each other. You'll have to go live with some other family, dad will be sent somewhere we can't find him and I'll be off somewhere else."

Grabby hands clench his hoodie.

"No!"

"So I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone."

"... Even Mr hippo?"

"Heh, okay you can tell him but no one else. And keep an eye on Mr hippo, I've seen him talk to Lady Jezebel at tea parties he loves to gossip."

Giggles "okay, I pinky promise."

I imagine the day the turtles find out, Angel grabs Casey's phone and calls April for help.

Because she's scared.

Because she doesn't know what to do because her brother isn't moving and her dad's left and Mrs Smith down the hall is out.

And she's met April, April's kind and sweet and makes Casey smile and he calls her Red and there best friends.

And friends help friends, right?

"Casey! Please tell me you changed your mind and are coming to movie night."

"...."

"Mikey wants you to know he even bought mint chocolate ice creams just for you."

"... I..."

"Casey? You there?"

"April...I'm Angel"

"Angel? Hey, what a suprise... Hey, hey what's wrong?"

"He won't wake up."

"Who won't wake up?"

"Casey. He won't get up and he's hurt and dad went out and I don't... Crying"

"Angel, where are you?"

"His room"

"Okay, okay I'm coming as fast as I can okay. You stay with him, is Casey breathing?"

"Y-yeah, your really coming?"

"Sure am"

She sees the others all getting up, no words are needed.

"I'm gonna bring some friends too. But he's going to be okay, I'm going to make sure of it."

"Please hurry."

[13beachesxx]

starting to wonder whether i was neglected between the ages of 12-18 and had to parent myself through it. never thought it was possible since there was always somebody in the house, but none of those people took an active parent role in my life so...what did that leave? mom was gone for the majority of that time, dad was also gone. aunt was there but her day to day responsibilities towards me and my sister were making sure we got our dinner after school. we were left entirely to our own devices after that. i can't remember a single time anybody ever helped me with homework or schoolwork, sure i was always an independent creature when it came to that stuff and maybe if offered, i would have turned it down, but nobody was even checking or keeping track of a single thing i was doing. the only time i remember mom & dad joint parenting was when i got suspended for that card thing when i was 9/10, and then they were gone again. maybe in the same way that her projects are her distractions now, she sought other countries and programs and studies as a means of escape from here, which is not really impossible to imagine given everything that was happening in our home and the kinds of toxicity people unleashed on each other. but why didn't they take us with? why didn't me and my sister get the luxury of also moving to france, to los angeles, while she studied and worked and found herself? it hardly seems fair in retrospect, not for the nice luxury life that would have afforded but for the escape from the crazy abusive person it would have afforded. maybe i wouldn't have taken on so much damage if they had done that. maybe i wouldn't have sunk into the depths of anorexia and all the other darkness. maybe, maybe. it's all speculation and What If's but i'm realizing a lot of major things in this moment.

it feels crazy to say i was neglected because i felt the opposite of that, but maybe i'm only thinking of material issues where i was clothed and fed and in that sense, i never had to worry. but anything above that, emotional and developmental issues, i guess, i was on my own. i figured it all out on my own. i always used to be surprised myself at my independent streak, going off to live alone at 15 in a different country for a summer and not suffering in the slightest for it, not missing home or family. quite the opposite, i felt like i was thriving. maybe that's because i've always been parenting and looking after myself since i could remember, or at least since the age of 7/8 when we left moscow and that close, real family unit i had felt so solidly for a couple of years instantly dissolved. when we were in moscow we were a family unit, the four of us, and even that is crystallized in my mind as the Best Part. whenever anyone else got added into the mix, shit started going sideways. i do believe my parents would've grown apart regardless of all the outside insanity and forces pushing on them, but maybe they would've lasted longer together. maybe even up to my graduation. we could never be a solid unit in that home where She resided, and it's crazy i'm realizing this now and none of the adults could back then. They should've seen the problem clear as day and then moved us out. i would have rather lived in a smaller apartment and do with less than have to share with her (and grandma, love you grandma but you too were perpetuating that bs).

it's taken this video to make me realize all of this, but wow, way too many of these apply to me and even that too is somehow me bearing witness to myself that i did, indeed, experience childhood trauma. even now i'm so reticent to call it that because some Part inside of me is like "you ungateful shit, what about X and Y, and Z". as if abusive dynamics can't exist in families that are well off, in children that are spoiled, that have their every whim fulfilled and then some. as if abuse can't happen to any person in any home regardless of these circumstances and you have to have lived some kind of Tiny Tim upbringing in a house like the Cratchits to have Really Been Neglected.

none of my friends grew up like this, we all had some level of privilege or wealth that afforded us, in the first place, the education it did, and everything else after. But every other person who was in my friend circle did fine, and did not suffer the way I did because their family was not toxic and twisted at its core. maybe A*****'s, but her toxic mother was out of the picture long before she moved here and her dad had seemingly taken on two of his stepchildren with a kind of love and care that would otherwise not be seen in someone not biologically related to their kids. though irony of ironies, that applied to me too. Ana's parents up and left for italy and she too, i'm sure, felt a hole inside and a great neglect because I remember her tears, missing her mother, the diary entries, all of that. In a way we were similar in that regard, except I don't ever remember crying because I missed my mother. Pretty sure i was already shut down and emotionless by then and feeling nothing about it all. it was just the way things were, and i did not mind. maybe everyone just dealt with their shit and stiff upper lipped it, and i'm the big baby who couldn't handle it all. it's either that or what happened to me was Much Worse than what happened to my friends or even to my sister, it can't be any other thing. and i can't work out which it was, as if it even makes a difference, because the damage was done and my body went into dissociation mode and my mind left its home and neither quite fully returned for a good 12 years. i'm still working to put myself back in my body and mind fully, even now. which is crazy. maybe by 40 i'll have gotten there. i hope so. i need to learn to be present once and for all and to do it before i die. it's not my fault in fight or flight mode i took permanent flight, bu it sure is my responsibility and even duty now to restore myself back in order. i'm tired of feeling incapable of doing things and want to feel capable of everything instead.

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

I actually had that concern too but then after analyzing (im pathetic but its okay lol) the promo and stills, I think the "humorous" part will be before they start holding hands and be before Iris is like "you wanna get married?" and then we get that FOOOOND look from Carlos.

I just think it's going to be a bit different for TK and honestly for viewers, for someone to know Carlos in a different way than TK because we've never seen him have someone outside the 126 and adjacent crew. I mean, TK even knows parts of Carlos more than his own parents do. And that's mostly the writers faults for never giving him anybody else he can talk to.

But, then I also felt the same way about TK and Cooper with them having their own established inside jokes. It was weird for me to see them have other people in their life because we've never seen it or have them hint at it LMAO. I blame the writers adhjlkfasd

I'm hoping you're right. I think you probably are. I still just can't help having a tiny bit of nervousness about it, but I'm hoping any fears I have are unfounded.

Also, I'm certainly not one to judge for analyzing the promo and stills...look at me! Look at my blog! Analyzing promos, stills, interviews, episode descriptions and then obsessively thinking and speculating about them is pretty much my favorite activity! 😂

[puff-mmd]

There's one time in his life that Kaisei kissed a girl.

--

He had a friend named Hanako in high school (he had quite a few friends, she was one of many), but she always seemed a little different to Kaisei. Her eyes would linger a little longer on their other girl friends, she didn't seem to be interested when they talked about guys even though she tried to be. He speculated to himself, but of course those notions were kept to himself. He knew being that way could make some people feel differently about themselves, whether they liked it or not.

But he didn't pry, they were friends but not super close. Or so he felt, at least.

One day she asks to hang out with him after school. An odd request since again, Kaisei didn't think they were really close enough to hang out by themselves. But she says it's to talk about something important, so he agrees.

They go to a cafe or restaruant, and Kaisei approaches the subject first, asking what it is she wants to talk about. He's a little nervous since Hanako seemed her calm and cheerful self when they met up after school, but now she was more fidgety and quiet.

'She knows that I'm gay, so it can't be a confession,' he thinks. Unless she's accidentally fallen for him; it wouldn't be the first time he'd had to reject a nice girl who'd fallen for his charms. But this being Hanako, he doubted it even more.

"I wanted to ask you...How did you know you liked guys?"

She's looking at him now, her eyes giving unpoken clues as to why she asked such a question.

'I'm unsure of myself right now, and I may be like you.'

Kaisei explains that it's somerhing he's always felt. He would crush on other boys as a kid, he shared his first real kiss with a boy in middle school, and in high school he's just been more comfortable flirting with guys. Hanako listens carefully, nodding as he speaks.

"I wondered, because I thought I was crazy. When you say things like that, it makes me feel not so alone, because that's how I've felt."

The small smile on her face is infectious, and Kaisei grins too before leaning in closer to her.

He whispers, "I always thought you might be like me."

"Birds of a feather, huh?"

Hanako takes a last sip of her drink before gathering her school bag.

"It's getting late, we should probably head home."

Kaisei offers to walk her back home, and they wait at a bus stop together for a bit. That's when Hanako asks another odd request.

"Kaisei, this might sound strange but...can I kiss you?"

He looks at her rather shocked, and his face must have said it loud and clear because she followed up,

"If you don't want to, that's totally fine! I was just wondering, I've never kissed anybody before after all."

Kaisei sits and thinks for a moment before asking, "Okay, but why? You already know you like girls."

"Well, I feel like it would help me be sure. If I can't enjoy kissing a guy as pretty as you, then I know how I feel without any doubt. Plus, you won't happen to fall for me from a little kiss since you definitely like boys."

'Fair enough,' Kaisei thinks.

And so, on a muggy sunset evening at a bus stop, Kaisei for the first and only time in his life, kisses a girl.

When they pull away, Hanako blinks at him. Then she starts to giggle, before it turns into a full on laugh.

"What's so funny?" He asks, clearly confused.

"It's just, a guy who likes guys, and a girl who likes girls, kissing each other like that," she manages out between fits of laughter.

'I guess that is a little funny,' Kaisei thinks and chuckles a little too.

As the bus pulls up, Hanako stands. Before getting on, ahe turns to Kaisei, who's also stood up.

"This drops me off pretty close to my house, sobyou don't have to come with."

She kicks a rock towards him before adding,

"We can still be friends after that, right?"

Kaisei smiles at her, before reaching out to ruffle her hair.

"Of course, us weirdoes gotta stick together, don't we?"

--

I like to think even as adults they aren't super close still or anything, but they do talk from time to time. Hanako probably ended up going to college and doing something a little more average than Kaisei, but she's very happy for him when she sees his social media post about being engaged to Ciro years later.

This isn't something that takes place within the story, but just a little sidenote about Kaisei's past. I feel like it's affirming to who Kaisei is, in that he truly does only like guys but also that he is a good friend to others. He's a listener, and makes other people feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable around him.

[nooelgallagher]

.

[catreginae]

Thou Shalt Not Fall: Vermilion Sky, Vermilion Eyes

Warriors encounters the blood moon. I've had a couple of people here ask or speculate on how Warriors would react to the blood moon, so here we are! Not going to lie, I'm kinda nervous!

[Previous] - [Next]

View the Master Post here!

Hyrule had an itch he couldn't scratch, an itch in his veins and in the very core of his soul.

It was the first time he felt it since he started jumping through the portals with eight other people, but the part that struck him as odd was that it seemed to come on randomly. It was their third day in Wild's era, heading towards some friend Wild had that could make him some arrows that he thought would help them on their quest. It meant that they were passing through some the prettiest damn trees Hyrule has ever seen. He was used to green or brown but these trees were like fire or a sunset – brilliant reds, yellows, and oranges.

He felt fine for those first two days. It was only on the third day where he had this strange not-physical itch. It put him edge all day but thankfully, it was an otherwise peaceful day.

He mulled over it as he ate dinner because by the time the sun set, he noticed that wasn't just the itch anymore. The air felt utterly oppressive and heavy and he couldn't recall the air feeling that way even earlier in the day. There was a lot of tension too, like something was going to snap, but none of it came from the group. Something changed with Wild's era but Wild didn't seem notice or say anything if he did. If anybody noticed, they didn't say anything either. For a moment, Hyrule thought he was the only one who felt it until Warriors suddenly put his bowl down and shot to his feet, making his way to the edge of the camp.

“Wars? What's the hurry?” Wind asked, quirking an eyebrow.

He paused. “Just... need some time alone,” he said, keeping his back turned towards them before putting more distance between him and the rest of the camp. The rest of them exchanged A Look, silently coming to the same conclusion – something was wrong.

“I'm going after him,” Hyrule declared. He usually ate everything that Wild put in front of him and he hated the idea of not finishing any of his meals, but he didn't like the way Warriors left suddenly when the atmosphere was so heavy. Heavy and oppressive was just how he felt about it too – it could be even worse for Warriors if he thought he had to get away.

“I'm worried too but we should give him some space if he asked for it, shouldn't we?” Sky asked with a yawn.

“I just have a bad feeling about this.” With that, he took his leave. It took him a few minutes to find Warriors, crouched at the bottom of a tree. He had his knees drawn up to his chest, with his forehead resting on his knees.

“Wars?”

“Go away.”

Hyrule took a deep breath and stepped closer. Warriors lifted his head up to settle his chin on his knees, glaring at him with his vampire eyes that seemed... different somehow, but Hyrule just couldn't put his finger on it. Warriors looked away and rubbed at his jaw. “I can't put my fangs away. That only happens when I'm super hungry.”

“When did you last drink blood?” It was hard to keep up with his schedule because there wasn't one. Warriors disappeared a lot for a few hours after making camp, sometimes before dinner and sometimes when others were on watch, but just because he left didn't mean he was hunting. If that was the case, he wouldn't have been hungry on the ship because he left several times in Hyrule's era. They didn't how often he was actually hunting.

“Only three days ago. I should be fine but I'm so hungry.”

Hyrule closed the distance and sat down beside him, putting a hand to his back. When Warriors didn't try to shove him away, he started rubbing a circle into his back. He didn't know if it would help or not, but he saw Time use touch to help calm him down. In the very least, it was a good sign if Warriors let people touch him.

“Does the air feel wrong to you too? Something's been bothering me all day and I can't figure out what it could be, but you must feel it too. Maybe that's why you're so hungry?”

“Now that you put it that way, there is something weird with the air here. It's like a heavy blanket or something. It wasn't like this yesterday.”

Oh, thank fuck it wasn't just him.

“Should I get one of the others? So you can eat?”

Warriors shook his head. “I'll just go hunting later. I'm hungry but not too weak to go. I'll let somebody know if it gets bad, promise, I just need to sit for a bit. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize this isn't like the last time I was really hungry. This is different.”

“I'll sit with you until you go, then.” Nothing Warriors said eased any of his worries. In fact, he was even more worried for him. There was something wrong, something very wrong, and Hyrule wasn't going to leave him until he was satisfied that Warriors was getting better.

The captain hummed. “If that's what you want to do, sure.”

Hyrule didn't know much time passed. It was mostly silent, except for Warriors' heavy breathing. He would rub his back, or hold his arm, and just keep a steady hand on his shoulder. Again, he wasn't sure if any of it was really all that helpful, but the captain seemed to relax a little bit under his touch so he considered that a win. Sometimes, one of the others would poke their head around and Hyrule would shoot them up a thumbs up, which seemed enough for them to go away.

But Warriors stayed where he was and how he was, keeping his face buried in his knees with the occasional hiss escaping his lips. The air seemed to grow heavier the later it got. The itch was worse too. In fact, everything was worse. It felt like his blood was beginning to boil in his veins and his heart was racing in his ears. He ignored it the best he could – if he was affected like that, he couldn't imagine what Warriors was feeling.

Then suddenly, Warriors let out a growl and shoved Hyrule's hand away from his arm. It was jarring enough that Hyrule just found himself just staring at the captain. He jumped to his feet when Warriors let out another growl and buried his fingers into his scalp, kicking his feet out as he did.

“Wars...?”

“GET BACK!”

Hyrule blinked and that's when he noticed that the atmosphere changed even more. If it was oppressive before, it was down right suffocating now, and he was pretty sure he wasn't imagining the red, dust-like material in the air. He stared at the sky for the moment as the moonlight seemed to disappear but then he directed to his attention to Warriors as he his changed his position. He was sitting on his knees with his head hanging low as his fingers continued to dig into his scalp. The rest of his body was trembling, shaking like they were out in a blizzard.

He ignored how red the sky was getting.

“Warriors, I'm still here. I'm not going to leave you. Just keep hanging in there, okay?” he said, putting a hand on his head.

The captain responded with a growl, spitting a little bit of blood out of his mouth. Hyrule immediately withdrew his hand.

“Stay... away. Go.”

“I'm not leaving you alone like this!”

He screeched and whipped his head around to face him. Hyrule knew something was wrong with his eyes earlier but with the sky turning red – and wow, the moon was red now too, that didn't even happen in his era – he could finally place it. His eyes were normally mostly yellow with a little bit of red on the outside, but now his eyes were mostly red, with just a little bit of yellow lining his snake-like pupils. More blood dribbled from his lips as he pulled his fangs out of them. Hyrule could see the holes in his lips where his fangs were previous buried and those holes quickly filled up with more blood that started to drip down his chin.

“Don't... be... AN IDIOT!”

“This isn't the first time I did something stupid for a friend and it won't be the last,” Hyrule muttered.

“I'm... I'm... so so hungry... so hungry. I can't- I just can't-”

Warriors pulled one of his hands away from his scalp but just kept it in the air, hovering between the two of them for a moment before he took it back, rubbing at one of his eyes. He was so agitated but Hyrule wasn't sure how he could help him. He wasn't Time, he didn't have that innate knowledge of what to do when Warriors was struggling. He just kind of copied him and hoped it worked.

“Do you want me to get the others?” Maybe Wild would know what to do. In the very least, he would be aware of what was happening and that could lead them to a solution. Time was good at the whole comforting thing too.

“DON'T YOU DARE!” he cried out, slamming a fist into the tree behind him hard enough to crack the bark. His voice was definitely raspier than usual but with all the growling he did earlier, it wasn't a surprise that he might have worn his voice out a bit.

“This is beyond us!”

“AND BEYOND-” Warriors cut himself off with a blood-curdling scream. He pounced, tackling Hyrule and pinning his wrists above his head. The captain growled at him, a mixture of blood and drool dribbling down his chin. For a second, his red eyes held no recognition but then he seemed to catch himself and his eyes widen with the realization of what he was doing. His eyes were just as large and red as the moon that hung ominously overhead. “Hy-Hyrule...”

“It's okay. We'll get the others.”

Then, there was a shout.

Sky and Wild? It sounded like them but he couldn't see when he was flat on his back since Warriors had yet to let him go. He squirmed a bit, hoping the captain would get the hint but he seemed focused on whoever was shouting.

Hyrule saw the glowing blade of the Master Sword before he saw anything else. The flat of the blade came from behind and was pressed against the captain's chest. Sky's hand grabbed the pointy end of the blade and Warriors was hulled backwards and off of him. Wild came to Hyrule's side and helped him to his feet.

The position of the two knights was a little awkward but the effect was immediate. Warriors was laying on top of Sky like he no longer had any bones in his body and Sky was just laying there, using both hands to keep the flat side of the blade pressed against the captain's chest. The last time the sword had to be used to calm him down, it hurt him, but thankfully, he didn't seem to be in any more pain. In fact, all the tension in his body disappeared and his breathing was deeper, almost like he was sleeping. It was the most relaxed Warriors has been all day.

Even Hyrule himself felt a bit lighter being close to the sword and he wasn't even in direct contact with it like the captain was. Damn, it was no wonder why Sky was so proud of it.

“Warriors, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize that a blood moon was coming until it was basically on us,” Wild said as he came to Sky's side. He motioned for Hyrule to come over and the two of them hulled Sky and Warriors up to a sitting position so that Sky didn't have to move his arms. Warriors was resting his head on Sky's shoulder with his eyes closed, so the only sign of him being awake was a grunt he made in response to Wild's apology.

“Wild, how long until it's gone?” Sky asked. “How long do we have to sit like this?”

“Maybe ten more minutes? It doesn't last too long,” he answered with a frown.

Doesn't last too long, huh? Warriors was agitated by it since dinner and Hyrule felt it coming all day. He wished he told Wild sooner that he felt weird but he didn't want to worry the others, not when he couldn't explain why he was feeling that way. If Wild had a hint, he might have figured it out long before it happened.

“How come this hasn't happened before?” Hyrule asked as he looked up at the darkened sky and the blood-coloured moon in it. Even the red bits of dust still hung in the air. It would be kind of cool if it didn't affect them the way it did. Warriors had it way worse though – Hyrule was uncomfortable with the way his magic twisted and recoiled and the way his blood seemed to be screaming, but he wasn't fighting to stay aware of himself like Warriors. “This isn't the first time we've been to your era.”

“Blood moons are rare now. They were a lot more common when Calamity Ganon was around because they appeared when it was at its strongest, but now it just appears every few months or so. Sometimes it takes even longer than that for it show up. It's not gone but it seems like every time it happens, more of the malice that didn't disappear when Calamity Ganon did seems to vanish. It used be a horrifying thing... but now it's kind of a good thing. It feels like Hyrule is finally healing after a hundred years.”

“Malice?”

“It's like the physical manifestation of Ganon's hatred. It poisoned the land where the fighting was the worst. When it's solid, it can burn the skin but when it's in the air like this, it just brings back monsters I already killed.”

“And make Warriors lose his mind,” Hyrule muttered.

Wild frowned. He looked like he was about to apologize again but suddenly, Sky cut him off. “He fell asleep. Best to save it for when he'll actually remember what you said.”

Hyrule blinked and looked over at the two knights. Sure enough, Warriors somehow looked more boneless than he did before and if it wasn't for Sky keeping him pressed to his own body, Warriors would probably be on the ground and too far gone to even know.

Well, at least they didn't have to worry about Warriors getting out of Sky's grip.

“I'm not mad,” Warriors mumbled from his bedroll. According to Time, it was past four in the afternoon and that's when the captain started waking up. He showed no signs of leaving his bed roll either, not with the way he was still holding his pillow in a death grip. He deserved as much sleep as he wanted though, and the others agreed, based on what Hyrule managed to say the night before. Everybody did their best to stay quiet all day, even though they never managed to wake him up just by talking before.

“You're not?” Wild asked, his voice a whole pitch higher than usual.

“It would have been nice to know that there was a possibility that we could run into something like that so that we could try to mitigate the risks, but I'm not mad. I'm not mad that you didn't know it was coming or that it slipped your mind,” he said with a yawn. He looked like he was about five seconds from falling asleep again. Hyrule was beginning to wonder if they would even travel tomorrow with how exhausted he still seemed to be.

“Still though, if the Master Sword didn't start glowing, we might not have realized what was going on in time.”

“Hey, we're not going to dwell on or blame ourselves for something that didn't happen here, got it? Warriors isn't allowed to do it, so you aren't either.” Wind muttered as he plopped himself down by Warrior's bed roll and patted him on the back for emphasis. All the captain managed to do was let out a hiss but the hiss was completely half-hearted, so he probably wasn't actually too upset.

Wild didn't look convinced though.

“If you want to make it up to me... I accept payments in blood! Damn moon made me hungry and I'll need more blood sooner rather than later.”

Most of the tension Wild had melted and he retrieved a couple of bottles of blood with an easy smile now that he had a way to help instead of just dwelling on his feelings. Warriors was always good at cheering people up. He never seemed to hold anything against the others, even when the lack of information harmed him. He obviously wasn't fully recovered from the previous night if he needed more blood, but Hyrule couldn't find an ounce of anger or annoyance in his features.

If anything, he was almost too excited to drink the blood Wild was giving him. He didn't bother getting out of his bed roll, he just propped himself up on an elbow so that he had a better angle to drink. Once he downed the bottles in record time, he settled back into his bed roll with a yawn.

“Seriously, you're going back to sleep?” Wind asked, eyes wide. “You were sleeping all day!”

Warriors didn't answer. His breathing was already deepening.

“Warriors! No! It's boring without you! Awh...”

Let Hyrule say fuck. :D The way the blood moon works here came from @nitroish! I wasn't sure how to handle a blood moon post-BOTW but I got some ideas after talking with rot. Malice would still be around, but there's less and less of it as time goes on. Most of the malice would be found in the castle, some parts of the Castle Town, and the ruins of the Akkala Citadel. It would be easy enough to avoid in most cases.