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starryeyed-seer · 9 months ago

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What Lurks Within: 99 whispers and what they might mean

The 6th Coil of the Labirynth of Tigers is full of Mystery but some of the most intriguing are found in the rare occurrence of the sealed door. Investigating it reveals one of 99 texts depending on random chance. They're a mix of everything, from deep lore to literature references to invitations to join a monstrous polycule.

Below the cut, I'm going to look at all of them and some thoughts as to what they might mean.

Spoilers for everything.

I've sorted them by topic, aproximately, so we're starting with the coil and moving out from there.

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The Story of The Sixth and Seventh Coil

A lot are clearly snippets from the love affair of the seventh coil, and the tiger keeper too. These get a shoutout for being unabashedly Pretty Horny in a perfectly monstrous, sensual way. Congrats whoever wrote those.

Once a tiger prince and a finger king fell in love, the tiger welcomed the fingerking to live inside him and they became a new entity, the Seventh Coil. Everything about the union was forbidden, and they were locked away out of fear in the Sixth Coil.

"—two kings apart and a king together and it is only right and proper that you kneel—"

The Tiger Prince+The Fingerking are both kings, of a sort. As the shared body of the Coil, they are still a king. Being in their presence causes an inclination to kneel.

"—amusing that they thought this a prison, and not a sanctuary—"

The Labirynth might be a prison, but it is also a safe place they may be together considering their union is Very Illegal. As much as the Coil is trapped, they are together (and not fully cut off from the outside world either)

"—presence is a joy at last, after time-outside-of-time spent with a recusant court—"

"—it would have been better if they knelt of their own free wills—"

The tributes sent into the Coil exist as the 'court', and seem lost in a dream-like haze, which the liminal Is and Not nature of the Sixth Coil causes.

"—o lover, I see thee only in mirrors—"

"—the labyrinth has been so very cruel to you, dearest—"

The Tiger Keeper encountered the Coil in dreams, and fell in love. Seeing one's lover only in mirrors also can refer to the Prince/FK affair.

"—Consort dearest, your eyes will fill with scales—"

Being possessed by a fingerking changes one's eyes, but this also reminds me of eyeless skulls: the change of the nadir, where skulls will grow plating to cover the eyes entirely from enough exposure. Considering the links between light and sight, I do wonder if this is related: your vision of the world will change forever, away from that of regular vision (and the way Judgements prefer you to see the world?)

"—your devotions reached us on the dreaming airs, so sweet upon our tongue—"

"—rest among my coils. You have travelled far to be here—"

"—show me your paws; let me test thine sharpness—"

"—claws of silver and eyes afire—"

"—and of your pelt I shall make my bed—"

—pierce me, run me through, let my blood wash over your fur—

"—sip my venom; let me into your vein—"

"—and in these knots what limbs are bound—"

"—do you shiver as I bind you?—"

"—tighter and tighter until your bones collapse—"

"—and with this knot, I take thee—"

"—nothing to fear but each other—"

"—of banded fur and speckled bands—"

"—for a tiger to change his stripes—"

"—do you love what you have become?—"

"—are you sated?—"

"—there exist no two hearts that cannot be joined—"

Do I need to say anything about these.

Parabola and Dreamin'

Parabola is the home of Fingerkings, and where Tigers conduct their sacred war against them to keep the waking world safe, a duty they were raised up for by Stone herself.

—those cold seas beyond the edges of Parabola, where dreams die—

Parabola seems to be only part of the 'Is-Not', or an aspect of it. For example, Irem isn't what Is, but isn't Is-Not either. I'm not sure what this means: perhaps a link to the Slow River.

—the weeping pus of dead dreams—

—the dense dreams of the extinguished—

There's a lot of focus on dead/th dreams, and I have a theory on that I'll get to. Let's just enjoy how many there are.

—the extinguished dreams of the one they drowned—

Oh this is easy, that's Mr E------ (violently silenced by the Masters)

—the black dreams of flukes, the icy dreams of catankeri—

Many flukes are on a whole bitterly angry about the deal they made with the Bazaar long ago. While rubbery men, their creations, dream of the Sea of Spines, Lorn-Flukes (the pissiest ones) are probably in darker dreams. Cantankeri are from Sunless Skies, in the High Wilderness, very grumpy isopods creatures which attack anything they dislike (most things)

—the faceless dreams of Snuffers—

Snuffers were long ago exiled from the Garden after the first Snuffer, the Thief-of-Faces, stole diamonds from Stone's womb and created Mt. Nomad as a 'weapon to serve its hate'. We don't really know a ton about what went on here. The Thief-of-Faces made the Snuffers in the Garden, but seems to have come from outside it. What is it? What does it want? Unknown. Hate. Snuffers are shapeshifters who can remove people's faces and wear them, so their dreams being faceless is likely because they lack a 'true face'. Faces/lacking is a reoccurring theme in FL tied to identity, with one of the things the Sapphir'd King requires before consuming souls in SSkies being the removal of one's Face and Name.

—if the Sun has a skin, does the Moon—

The Parabolan sun is called The Skin Of The Sun, it was made during the second city and is a glass bulb of iron, glass, and Cosmogone light. The Moon in Parabola resembles a sleeping cat, but we know little else of it. It's never been called 'the skin of the moon'.

—the brass from which their sun was forged—

The Skin of the Sun was forged, but it's never been called brass. Brass is devil associated, you could also call the orange-ish colour of Cosmogone 'brassy', but this is an odd reference.

I FORGOT ABOUT THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN THESUNTHESUNTHESUNTHESUN---

(thanks to @barnabusbarnabus for noting the dawn machine is made of brass!!)

—our caught kin in their galleries and prisons—

'Serpent Galleries' are a way of containing FKs. In stone, I think, I'm not 100% on the specifics but it's certainly a way of trapping them.

—and what blood seeps from their Boil—

The Boil of Calamities is a notable Fingerking who guards the Dome of Scales and the Parabolan Sun, AKA The Skin of The Sun. I'm not sure about it bleeding.

—to knot, to boil, to conjoin, to grow, to blister—

Fingerkings have a tendency to join together into Congregations, many FKs becoming one complicated knot-entity. The 7th Coil is knotted like this in a way.

It's notable how often this is a reoccuring theme in FL: rats have rat-kings, spiders have spider-councils, there's a lot of creatures out there who present power through unionizing into some form of joined/hiveminded entity.

—the sourceless source of the Writhing River—

The Writhing River is in Parabola, and made of snakes. (There's non-fingerking snakes in Parabola, FK may be more the 'royalty' of sneks). You travel to the source in becoming a Silverer, where you find a rock one snake at a time emerges from, silver trees, and cosmogone sap you made your glasses from.

—can tell you why the Hanging Mountains despise the Smoking Sea—

Places in Parabola, I couldn't tell you why they hate each other though.

—a banner of shed skin—

Parabola is dominated by war, banners and snakeskin, pretty straight forward.

—a hollow shell for hollow kin—

Hard to say exactly. FK can't exist in reality without a vessel, and part of their history with devils is the fact devils are hollow.

—seven marches for seven cats, along the borders of dreaming—

Stone gave cats (and tigers) a mission to protect humanity from FK and the Is-Not, watching over the borders of dreaming. Seven is the number. 7 cats specifically occurs in the dreams you get after drinking Hesperidean Cider, in the 'dreams of the Garden'

The woman stands, her work done. Seven holes in the rich, springy soil. Seven neat mounds. All seven together The woman whistles, and cats slink out of the trees. They play, tumble and purr. Seven cats. The woman is overjoyed. She embraces you. She starts gathering the cats, near the holes.

—she who gave them the spear—

—our spear went slither-slice—

—not come to bring a sword, but a spear—

Spears come up in two places, both might be related: There's the spear the cats have, which was 'liberated from the Sleeping King'. it's used in Light Fingers to crack the Skin of the Sun and is a sacred relic to them.

There's also "a sky-spear" which Might Be A Thunderbolt. I'll get to the Storm connection later but I'm mentioning it now.

Kings and reality and unreality

—Parabola, and the hypocrisies of its creation—

Oh boy!!! LET'S GO! you know how crazy I am about Judgement lore.

Parabola being a 'hypocrisy' is expressed a lot. With Judgements dictating existence and deciding what Is, they're responsible for the line of what Is-Not, and likely the reason Fingerkings aren't allowed to exist.

—admitted unreality so they would not have to fix reality—

So. In ruling reality, the Judgements may have exiled things which didn't belong in their vision of what Is, and created the idea of What Isn't as a way to deal with that. Parabola may be then a dumping ground, or aftereffect of how Judgements prune reality to suit their ideal, hidden away by Being Illegal so others won't realize the reality they control is innately flawed.

—the place where they bury their mistakes—

The Neath has been referred to as something like this a lot. The 'their' may again be Judgements, and Parabola could be where mistakes are buried.

—no king has ever made a law without wishing for exceptions—

Judgements are Kings. They present as infallible gods, but they aren't. They're definitely hypocrites.

—none live by their own rules. It is not only the Mountain's parent who sins—

An accusation that (likely) Judgements do not follow the rules they enforce on others. With that in mind, 'the mountain's parent' is almost certainly the Sun, Sol, rather than the other parent of the Bazaar. The Bazaar is a sinner, but the Sun is the one who still acts as a proper Judgement while having had a secret affair and hiding his daughter in the basement.

—the forsaken products of furtive experiments—

Similar to 'burying their mistakes'. The Neath has been referred to as the Sun's experiment, it's a hiding place of illegal Shames, it's not a far reach to suggest this might be talking about the Neath. It also may be the case Parabola is like this for Judgements.

—what Law forbids, and what dark abides—

The stars have strict laws, but you can get away with a lot in the dark.

—they war as they play, toying, feinting—

Part of other clues around the Sixth Coil is the suggestion the war between FKs and Tigers is a false one or unnecessary one. They're in an ancient, endless war serving ancient forces and grudges... but why must it be this way?

—of dream, they made a cage—

Calling the 'they' here to be Judgements. Parabola is a cage for the Is-Not. Dreams are a prison for what can never be.

—and shapes are dreams before they are born—

But where do dreams come from? What does this mean?

—the burning dreams of wayward words—

—the words afire and the words excised—

—sulphurous and thought-executing fires—

The Correspondance is a language of fire, and the language of reality-defining Judgements. There's three references here to words being forbidden, exiled, violently stopped.

There's been plenty of assumptions and guessing going on throughout this, but here's my big swing:

Thoughts, dreams, words which cannot be by Judgement law are what make up Parabola. Fingerkings themselves may be some aspect of those exiled ideas, or born of them. I keep thinking about the name Fingerkings and the fact Judgements are also kings.

Could they be at all, y'know... the fingers... of Kings...?

Stars burn without end, creating eternal light and in most cases eternal day. Do stars sleep? I doubt it. Do stars dream? Not in sleep.

Do you think stars might want things which cannot be? As much as they shape and dictate reality, they obey the law of each other (to some degree, what with the hypocrisy). What happens then, to daydreams? To forbidden desires? Perhaps those things are burned before they can be born, exiled to unreality before they corrupt the Is.

—a cracked and broken Curve—

Reality, the Is, is called the Curve. It's called this extremely rarely, with my first immediate source being one of the endings of SMEN. It makes sense though: if reality is a Curve, than the reflection is another Curve, forming a Parabola. It's not been called cracked and broken before, but especially with SSkies there's an idea of the cosmos failing and dying. The stars are dying. They can't keep this idea of reality together like they used to, no matter how hard they pretend.

I have another thought on FKs and Judgements, but it involves

Storm!?

—eldest brother, eater-of-aeons—

Storm is an Aeginae, a cosmic dragon which consumes time. He's dead. There's another aeginae in the Neath, but I doubt we're talking about Nook here. Dragons are 'mercenaries' of the stars, and specifically are said to have an 'ancient pact' with them, which is different to how most being who serve Judgements are referred to.

Eldest brother is not something I believe has ever been connected to Storm before though.

—the thunder speaks not to us, my love—

—the mouths of thunderheads—

—the invisible worm, that flies in the night in the howling storm—

The fact there's so many of these connected to Storm really interests me. Especially since I'm about to add a few more. Storm being dead makes him 'invisible', one could say, and language-wise there is very little separating Worm from Wyrm. In fact, you can extend that out a bit: Dragon=Wyrm=Worm=Serpent=Snake.

Aeginae have a shared mother, the Burrower Below, who is said to gnaw at the roots of the world, something which invokes Níðhöggr, a dragon/serpent from Norse mythology. Storm is connected to Norse motifs in other ways, like the urchin Valkyrie.

The use of 'eldest brother' above also means we can tie some of the whispers that refer to siblings and family potentially to Storm:

—pale and wriggling imitations of he who hatched first—

—a thousand thousand siblings—

—do you see me, siblings? Do you hear—

The latter is the Coil calling out to FKs, but the link between 'siblings' 'eldest brother' and 'he who hatched first' seems like... something. Especially when you consider what dragons do, which is eat time.

—a thing that eats is a useful thing, if its hungers can be directed—

In Firmament, at one point there's a bit of an illegal timeline hanging around, and it is consumed by Storm. Beyond eating time as a concept, dragon's role may be to eat forbidden timelines. What pact do the Aeginae have with the Stars? Perhaps it's a mutual one: the dragons eat and exile all timelines the stars do not approve of, leaving one Is, and dragons in turn get lots of tasty treats.

Perhaps then Fingerkings are related to this. Born of eaten timeline which can never be, meaning they can never be. Related to dragons, but never allowed to be them. Maybe up close an Aeginae is just a billion tightly wound serpents. They do have enough eyes for it.

Other Lore Bits

—clocks, maps, glass, breath, hearts—

Treacheries!! These are ways the Neath isn't quite Right, the way existence can be a bit unreliable. Basically. The treachery of maps is why distance and location are unreliable or inconsistent. The one of clocks is why you can do an action which the story says takes 3 weeks but still have it be Auguest 22nd at the end of it. There's said to be seven of them, and 'hearts' is new to the list.

—all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well—

This is a common phrase that appears all across FL in a variety of ways. The Bazaar is often linked to it but so is everyone else. It's from Julian of Norwich

—Salt spoke to us before he left, but we do not remember—

Omg hiiii Salt!! The notion Salt spoke to the Seventh Coil is a mysterious one. How, when, and why did he stop by? Who's to say. After, he exited east out of the universe

—when the Nadir touched the Zenith—

The Nadir is the place of forgetting, full of irrigo, and part of what hides the Neath from Judgements so well. The Zenith is on the roof. I'd bet it's a place of remembering, but we haven't seen it yet. It's full of scribes. When they touched would be before the Neath was carved out of the earth.

—the cleaving-places where gravity is shorn—

Gravity is surprisingly consistent in the Neath, for being a rather lawless place. There's some idea of messing with and changing it using red science. The use of 'cleaving-places' calls to mind the roof to me, and the idea of the Nadir/Zenith once touching.

—needles to bind, bones to fold, glue to keep—

Very evocative of the Librarians in the Stacks, part of Firmament. There's much to the idea of people, timelines, realities as books, so there may be something to 'bind' and 'keep' here: laying down exactly what Is and Isn't by the process of archiving and defining it. Perhaps

—amalgamy that begat the Hound of Heaven—

Not totally sure still what happens when you 'Breed' monsters in the Labirynth, but this is how the Hound of Heaven is made: a snake that sniffs out devils. the amalgamy here is the act of creating a weird hybrid offspring, and similar to the creation of the 7th coil in that way.

—no mouth—

oh hey no-king :) This is a phrase related to the Discordance.

—from the First, a bronze mirror—

—from the Second, a dream of sunlight—

—from the Third, the taste of blood—

—from the Fourth, iron bars—

—from the Fifth, a craving of feathers—

The bronze mirror means 'the first mirrors' aka the entrance to Parabola. We didn't have perfect glass mirrors for a long time historically.

The dream of sunlight is the creation of the Parabolan Sun.

The third city is notable for being when the god-eaters and Mr Eaten occurred, though that's less Parabola related.

The fourth city was marked with a lot of conflict with Parabola. I'm assuming this is connected to that somehow.

I don't know what the craving of feathers means. I immediately think of flight, the desire to ascend, icarus, but how that links specifically to London and Parabola I'm not sure.

—pay with a little of the Will-Be rendered into the Might-Have-Been—

This is from if you take a certain Terrible Deal in Irem. Irem is 'will be',. 'What might have been' could be Parabola, could be the Stacks, could be something else.

—a lie, of course. But all lies can be made true, in time—

The division between true and false comes up often. What is true? Who decides it? A king can lie and that lie can become reality.

Literary references

Shoutout to house-of-mirrors for pointing out most of these. I. don't know my Old Proper English Literary references very well </3

—in that sleep of death, what dreams may come—

Hamlet. The dreams of the dead can be visited with Cardinal's Honey, or black honey, though those dreams seem to be unique to the honey rather than 'the dreams of people who are dead'.

—to break one's staff; bury one's book—

The Tempest. Very evocative of giving up power and leaving it behind, as it is in the original context.

—blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage—

King Leer. Also about storms and raging, like a certain dragon we know!

—vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts—

King Leer again, from the same scene. Few notable words to FL here: thunderbolts for Storm, but also courier relating to the Bazaar. (I doubt in this case courier means the bazaar though, just pointing out)

—shall I compare thee to a moonlit night—

Sonnet 18, originally is 'summer's day'. Moonlight represents possibility and dreams.

—but a walking shadow—

Macbeth.

—you have but slumbered here—

Midsummer night's dream. Link obvious.

—did he who made the Lamb make thee—

The Tyger, by Willaim Blake. Poem was referenced with the reoccurring dreams had during the Estival. Lamb like this usually means Jesus, it in full context of the poem is a line like 'did god who made the goodness of the lamb also make the ferociousness of the tiger? why?'. The poem also has a line of 'When the stars threw down their spears' which might be relevant to the several mentions of spears already covered.

EDIT:

"—of banded fur and speckled bands—"

Sherlock Holmes short story!

—the invisible worm, that flies in the night in the howling storm—

The Sick Rose by William Blake!

Other dregs

—what you think is a labyrinth may be a maze—

A labyrinth is traditionally actually a singular winding path, where a maze has branching paths and dead ends. Is the labyrinth of tigers a maze after all, with wrong ways? Or perhaps reality is not a singular winding path but one with many branches, constantly being sheared off...

(lost it when this hint came out because the labyrinth/maze idea of reality and judgements is something I'd just written into the latest chapter of my suncrab fanfic lol)

—see your heat, little mouse—

The 7th Coil is talking to us directly here as we search the coil.

—the heart is the heart is the heart—

Also the name of the play the bohemians put on during the Estival! Hearts are important. There's a lot of em out there.

—yes yes yes yes yes—

Similar to the want want want want want want text you get for Temptation's presence within the coil.

—animal that you are, little more than squirming fluid—

Probably just the Coil watching us.

—writhing in the shadow they cast—

Hard to extrapolate much specific meaning here beyond the fact the FKs exist in the shadow of reality (and the Neath does too). The use of 'they' in this has often been suggestive of Judgements, so yeah: light is needed to cast a shadow, a shadow is a place without light, certain things writhe and live there

—those things which preceded them—

I try not to be stuck with my head in the stars but also another case where I think you could read the 'them' here to be Judgements. But it's been put here in the dregs because it's another very vague one that could mean anything.

With the idea of Judgements as unjust-kings who claim to be truly divine but are as fallible as their subjects, you have the idea of what there was before Judgements. Was there a before? If the Judgements truly aren't all-gods who have always dictated reality, then there must have been. Probably.

—and I shall not climb upon the scaffold they have made for me—

A very evocative phrase I can't confidently sort!

I think it could be related to the rejection of power and the way of kings: both the Tiger Prince and the Fingerking who became the 7th coil rejected their elevated places to commit the sin of love and chose each other. 'I will not stand up there above all, though they say it is My Place'

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Anyway! These have been my many thoughts. I'm sure I'm missing stuff or a bit off or anything else... Please, feel free to talk about it with me! I want to know people's thoughts. I've held a torch for the Storm/Dragons/Snakes link for a while so seeing a bunch of hints that back me up was really exciting, but I also know I can be a bit blinded by how open to interpretation a lot of FL lore is. I see that crab everywhere....

#fallen london #fallen london spoilers #coilheart games #okay :) done

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fox0war · 1 year ago

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I must've forgotten to give them their bribe sandwiches and money smh let me fix that for you scurries off ....why is the person giving you cinder blocks a fox standing on its hind legs? Maybe its best not to question it, but hey the construction workers have been paid off to give the cinder blocks over so that's good

Came here from the Longlegs care guide! Love to see the work y'all are doing, here's some cinder blocks for your Longlegs's enclosure <3

Thank you for your donation! However, these appear to be guarded by angry construction workers who have been swearing at us and are combatative when we attempt to retrieve them. Please tell them to stand down so we may collect them.

#zooliminology #zooliminology lore #liminal #ramblings from a den dweller #I love chaos

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caffeinatedvigilantewriter · 5 months ago

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MENTIONS OF ARSON

Idk if arson counts as a trigger warning but just to be on the safe side TRIGGER WARNING

GIW and Fentons are now widely respected, and the ecto acts are in place.

But what’s done is done. The ex Fenton children were not going to stay in Amity. They strike a deal with CW and he transports them to Gotham, hundreds of years back. Vlad becomes their guardian.

Danny 15 and Jazz 17 get adopted by Vlad. Them, along with Dani 13 and Jor(Dan) 19 (who Vlad claimed as bio kids) moved to Gotham. This was back when Gotham wasn’t as violent or cursed or crime ridden

They changed their last name to Wayne.

They live their lives in relative peace for about three years when the Fentons created a time portal if you can create a portal to the afterlife, I think a time travel portal is easy and burned the manor to the ground in green fire (ecto fire)

Danny, Dani and Jordan die. Vlad and Jazz survive and lives a long life. They rebuild the manor, Jazz has a son named Nathaniel Wayne and passes away.

Vlad and Jazz passed peacefully. Their spirits moved on.

The same can’t be said about the Phantom Trio.

Duke moved into the manor and became Signal. Everything was fine until he got his powers and started seeing the ghost kids.

Duke is not going to mention being a meta, he place in the family isn’t secure, so he just doesn’t mention the ghost kids.

They weren’t dangerous, just had a penchant for trouble and Duke seemed to be their new favorite person. And the help out whenever they can. And their dad an and older sister visit often and help Duke whenever they can.

It took them a while to trust him, but they got around

By the time he confident within the family, he forgot to mention the ghost kids.

There are a couple ways this can go

- The Dead kids made Duke liminal with ecto exposure. Everyone thinks he’s been possessed by a ghost and lock him up in the cave. Meanwhile, the Dannie’s wreck the house in subtle ways. Partially opening the blinds to disturb their sleep, moving furniture, etc.

Meanwhile the bats call the Drs. Fentons, experts on ghosts

- the bats find an old locked boxes with a belonging that belonged to the ghosts. This was when Duke was out on day patrol. The entire house can now see the ghosts, but Duke decides it would be funny to mess with them and pretend he doesn’t see the ghosts

- same as above but on Jason and Damian can see the Bats and Dick doesn’t pretend he can’t see them

- same as above above but they only find the things of one one ghost, so they can only see that ghost.

- Jack and Maddie Fenton, both respected scientists, contact the Wayne’s to do a ghost check scone the manor is so old. They find that Duke is a liminal and take him

- the Dannie’s are limited to the manor and its patron, and since Duke can see them, they go out on patrol with him

- the JLD visit the cave and manor and instantly tell something is wrong, so they put the manor on lockdown.

Any more ideas or thoughts? I’m not well versed on the Wayne Family lore, so this is probably not very canon (but it’s a crossover, so who cares) but I would love to learn more :))

#danny phantom #dpxdc #dc x dp #dc x dp crossover #danielle phantom #dc x dp prompt #dani fenton #dp x dc crossover #batman #bruce wayne #dark danny #dan fenton #duke thomas #jazz fenton #vlad plasmius #time travel #arson #cvw fic summaries

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i-am-snowils-admiral · 4 months ago

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So the dpxdc fandom has been trying to come up with more ways to get Danny into Gotham without relying on the old Bat-adoption trope (though it's a fun trope that I love), which typically either means aging him up or giving him a fake id and making him live alone in Gotham pretending to be aged up, but personally I think we can streamline the process a bit by borrowing liberally from Marsalias' fic Adoption (if you haven't read it, definitely do, it's a really good fic) and sticking Actual Master of Time Clockwork in Gotham as yet another weird rich cryptid.

For those who haven't read that fic, the basic premise is that Clockwork decides to adopt Danny completely legally through both ghost and human methods. He is required to establish a human persona for this, which I find hysterical. He and Danny end up living in an incredibly creepy manor that they both love. We can easily uproot that thing and plop it into Gotham. If we want to be particularly funny about it, we can sandwich Wayne Manor between Clockwork and the Drakes to make them all neighbors.

Now what you do from there is obviously subject to whatever story you're wanting to tell, but there's a couple fun things I want to suggest:

Clockwork doesn't try very hard on his human persona. He still dresses like a time god in a fantasy novel (I'm a little in love with 13thcat's designs so I like to imagine his human form looks a little like this). You have to live, what, 40-50 years in a city to be established? Sure. Why bother aging visibly in this time? That's not necessary! What does he do for work? Uhhhh he's a woodworker who makes clocks. That's why he has millions or even billions of dollars, obviously.

5-year-old Bruce Wayne is OBSESSED with Clockwork (aka Charles Worth). This is baby's first incredibly pure crush. This is your really cool kindergarten teacher that you remain a little in love with well into adulthood, except instead of being nice CW is just really weird and doesn't care about what 5-year-olds are able to discuss. Baby Bruce does that little kid "I'll marry you when I grow up" thing that everyone finds adorable but CW says "there are many timelines where you get married, though never to me. Some options are better than others, but I won't tell you about them" because what else would he say.

When Danny shows up in Gotham decades later as CW's adopted kid Bruce is zeroed in on all the gossip. His interest is based entirely on his childhood obsession though so he uses absolutely zero Batman skills to investigate the situation and therefore finds nothing weird about Danny's background. The batkids find this hilarious because there is Clearly something weird going on with that kid.

Clockwork could easily solve all of the Bats' problems and tell them the answers to all the investigations they're doing but why would he do that???? That's boring. He's vibing in his new house with his cool liminal son why would he be worried about *checks notes* the hundreds of people dying to rogue attacks nearby.

Despite never being genuinely helpful he DOES randomly drop in-universe lore that no one would've figured out otherwise. Usually he does this about six months after it would've been really nice to know.

He doesn't do this out of malice he just doesn't intervene in things normally and if he does, it's only by request. The Bats (besides Batman because he's still oblivious) are too worried about what he might ask for in exchange to make requests though they know he's powerful but they are totally wrong because he's just sitting there baking bread thinking "hm I wonder why Timothy never asked me to help him get Batman back from being lost in the time stream, I could've done that really easily without changing too much. Oh well, whatever makes him happy."

Danny also never makes requests but that's because CW went a bit too hard on teaching him messed up karmic lessons about interfering with time so Danny just assumes it's always a bad idea to ask.

#dpxdc #please I just need Clockwork to be in the background as the adult supervision who's just a bit too unworried to be helpful #CW: *freezes time during a massive fight because Danny forgot his patrol snack at home* are you winning son? Remember it's a school night #there should be a rogue in Gotham who HATES him but CW doesn't really care #if anything he finds it a bit cute #like a squirrel in the yard that always yells at him

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spiralhouseshop · 5 months ago

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Restocks at The Spiral House at Portland Button Works for December 2024!

Scavenged Rituals #4

Weave The Liminal: Living Modern Traditional Witchcraft by Laura Tempest Zakroff

Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux

The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices by Claude Lecouteux

City Witchery: Accessible Rituals, Practices & Prompts for Conjuring and Creating in a Magical Metropolis by Lisa Marie Basile

Keep Loving Keep Fighting Zine #6 by Hope Amico

The Boring Guide to Staying Inspired by Hope Amico

The Do-It-Yourself Guide To Fighting The Big Motherfucking Sad by Adam Gnade

#zines #books #adam gnade #city witchery #lisa marie basle #laura tempest zakroff #traditional witchcraft #claude lecouteux #scavenged rituals #3d glasses #3d art #witchcraft #witchcraft*#witchblr

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str8rat · 7 months ago

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ISAT / FEAR AND HUNGER AU

MADFRIN

( PSSSSST I'VE GOT AO3 BOOK WHICH IS DEDICATED TO THIS AU AND SIMILAR ART RELATED STUFF AND SNIPPETS God Forgives All - Str8_Rat - In Stars And Time (Video Game) [Archive of Our Own] *DISAPPEARS* )

( more alt pics below lore )

What if BigFrin *won* the battle against his party, forever preventing them from returning home? In this AU, there could be multiple endings- branching paths that lead to different fates. The canon ending, of course, exists, but what if there was a darker, more twisted conclusion? A *bad ending* where Siffrin, in the heat of battle, ascends to become a New God, his overwhelming power reducing his friends’ health to a mere thread- single digits.

In this ending, Siffrin would trap his party within a dimension of his own making, a warped reflection of the Forgotten Island. This realm would be unstable, a liminal space, neither fully there nor entirely gone, a place where time and reality bend under his will. His friends, worn down from their futile struggle, would be kept on the edge of life, their health eternally low but never allowed to tip into death. It was an endless state of painless exhaustion. He would protect them from harm- safe in his grasp, too weakened to resist, too exhausted to escape.

In this distorted paradise, Siffrin would finally allow himself to be affectionate, no longer restrained by fear or rejection. He would cling to them constantly, seeking the physical closeness he had always craved but never allowed himself to ask for. His voice, once hesitant, would now be calm and soothing, laced with an eerie tenderness, his smiles soft and oddly genuine, as if completely oblivious to the circumstances surrounding all of their existance now.

He would cup Isabeau’s face in his hands, his touch gentle, as if handling something precious. Mirabelle, while barely conscious, would have her hair brushed so carefully as Siffrin would keep her head in his lap. Bonnie would be the one he held most often, pulling them into long, lingering embraces, holding them close to his chest, protectively. And Odile, with her quiet strength, would find her hand entwined with his, as he clung to her in silence that the two of them always shared while spending time together.

He would seem completely oblivious to the damage he was causing, blind to the harm of keeping them trapped in this limbo. In his mind, this was love- keeping them close, forever safe, forever together. His family.

And if anyone dared to threaten this fragile world he had built, or the people he kept in it, anyone who tried to take his loved ones away, Siffrin would not hesitate. He would kill without question, without mercy. His kindness reserved only for the ones he held dear, his wrath unleashed on those who stood against him.

In this twisted ending, Siffrin’s affection would be both a blessing and a curse, his love so overpowering it suffocates, leaving his party helpless in the embrace of the New God he had become.

Amid this surreal horror, Loop appears, breaking into the New God’s domain. They are the only one who dares to confront Siffrin, disapproving of what he’s done. "This isn’t what *we* wanted for them, Stardust," Loop says, their voice steady yet pained.

Siffrin doesn’t want to listen, glaring at the other. He hesitates, torn between obliterating Loop for daring to interfere with his sanctuary and his lingering attachment to them. His guiding star- Helpful Loop, coming here to confront him about the actions he deemed were right and necessary. But then he notices something, something that causes his eye to slowly widen, as they look at the other more closely-

Loop is fading.

Their light is dimming, their form slowly disintegrating into tiny little stars. Panic flickers across Siffrin’s face, and without thinking, he reaches out, grabbing Loop’s arm in a desperate attempt to stop them from vanishing.

There are no words between them, but Loop’s expression doesn’t change.

It’s a mixture of regret, anger, and disappointment, that cuts through Siffrin like a blade, rendering completely frozen, unable to look away from the cold look he’s being given.

Loop has failed their mission. They were sent here for a purpose, and now that purpose is unfulfilled.

They couldn’t even help themself.

The Universe is unforgiving, and without mercy, it decides to get rid of them for good, allowing them to dissolve into nothing more than cosmic dust.

For a brief, heart-wrenching moment, Siffrin feels clarity. The weight of what he’s done crashes down on him- what is he doing?

He’s hurting his family. He’s imprisoned them in this warped reality, stripping them of their will, of their freedom, keeping them in a seemingly serene state of barely conscious existence. He has twisted his love into something monstrous, something that only serves his own desperate need for connection.

But the clarity doesn’t last.

As Loop fades into the wind, stardust scattering across the endless, peaceful meadow of the domain, Siffrin’s legs give out beneath him, as he’s left staring at the spot Loop has stood just a moment ago. Alas, despite the tears forming in his eyes, the darkness creeps back into Siffrin’s mind. His expression softens once more, serene and unwavering in his conviction.

No. He convinces himself that he’s doing the right thing. He has to protect them. He’s keeping them safe. He’s doing it for their own good.

With Loop gone, Siffrin returns to his family, now alone in this strange, beautiful prison of his making. The meadow stretches out in every direction, soft grass brushing against the skin, filled with vivid flowers painted in forbidden shades. A peaceful mirage.

He crouches down in front of Isabeau, who lies limp in the tall grass, his breath shallow, his eyes half-closed. With care, Siffrin struggles to lift him, cradling his upper body against his chest, hugging him close. Isabeau’s head rests against him, too weak to protest or pull away, or even return the embrace. Siffrin holds him like that for a long time, his cheek pressed against Isabeau’s hair, eyes closing as he murmurs to himself.

"I’m doing the right thing, right? I’m doing this for you… for all of you. I won’t let you go home. I won’t let you go. I love you too much for that. I can’t watch you get hurt anymore. I can’t.. I can’t. You’ll be safe here with me- I’ll keep you safe. I’m keeping you safe."

The meadow sways in the wind, the illusion of peace all around them, and Siffrin clings to it- clings to them- his delusions wrapping tighter and tighter around his heart.

He won’t let them go home.

#in stars and time #art #cute #isat siffrin #digital art #isat #in stars and time siffrin #isat loop #isat isabeau #isat mirabelle #isat bonnie #isat odile #isat au #fear and hunger #fear and hunger au #artists on tumblr

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astro-nomaly · 3 months ago

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also how many AUs do you have in your brain?? because I'm betting there's a LOT and I would love to hear some lore (I'm gonna conspiracy theory the shit out of these)

That’s a loaded question man but uh I’ll try to list them. Ig this is like a master post for my AU’s lol. Ninjago AU’s alone:

1. To Kill A Legend. Ninjago x Breath of the Wild fusion fic where Lloyd is the Prince of Hyrule and has to save all his dead siblings from giant mechanical dragon monsters and also kick Overlord ass. My current fic ofc 🫶

a. Calamity Hero: au of TKAL where the Shrine of Resurrection doesn’t work and Lloyd is reincarnated. New Lloyd has to deal with everyone treating him like his predecessor. Takes place only 16 years after the Calamity and not canon

b. Hero of Legend (is it an au if it’s canon to the main au?) basically just the first ever hero of destiny

c. Hero of Time (canon to TKAL): traveled the time stream to fight the Time Twins and man am I tired of the word time. Doomed by the narrative

d. True Prince (name pending/semi-canon to TKAL I haven’t decided) wherein everyone thinks Morro is the hero of destiny but it’s actually Lloyd, who was adopted into the royal family

e. Oni Hero (canon to TKAL): a hero of destiny who beat back an invading Oni army. TKAL Lloyd’s direct predecessor

2. The Graveyard Shift aka the love of my life. Modern au with ghost magic. Lloyd, Harumi, and Akita are all best friends - Conduit, Quiet One, and Red are mortal enemies. The unbreakable bonds of love ig. I WILL be writing this trust. (It uh. It has a playlist. Some songs are just for vibes, some directly reflect the characters and no I won’t be saying which is which)

a. Attack Dog au. Harumi blackmails Akita into helping her kidnap the Conduit. My favorite spin-off of the graveyard shift

b. Bad Ending - harumi makes the wrong decision in either one of two situations and dooms the narrative

c. Obligatory swap AU where they swap places lol

d. Mentor AU where Mystake isn’t killed and lives to mentor Lloyd

e. Sidekick AU. Basically what was the original version of TGS where instead of trying to murder him, Red is basically Lloyd’s animal sidekick. She’s only ever in her wolf form while they’re dealing with the Quiet One and he has no idea she’s a person. He thinks she’s a weirdly liminal dog or smth idk

f. Painted Skin AU. Harumi is a Painted Skin Demon, so she doesn’t have to murder people to turn into them. Being a demon somehow makes her more redeemable

g. Jfc this is getting ridiculous okay uhm. Enemy of My Enemy AU (name pending) where Harumi snatches Lloyd before any of the Conduit-Quiet One-Red shenanigans happen, Akita still figures out her best friends are a cultist and the Conduit respectively and goes on a reluctant mission to save Lloyd, Lloyd tries his hand at redeeming Harumi while trapped in a cult, and Harumi realizes how bad she is at her job. I hate myself.

3. Sword and Shield. In an effort to use his son’s power for himself, evil demigod of destruction Garmadon turns Lloyd into a living weapon. Brad finds Lloyd in an abandoned monastery 50 years later and they fall in love on a quest to break his curse. Fluffy ❤️ I’m probably also going to eventually write this bc I love it

a. Armor AU. Garmadon manages to hold onto Lloyd and use Magic Sword Demigod to conquer most of Ninjago. Brad, part of a rebel force, is sent in as a spy for an upcoming assassination on the Emperor. In a twist of fate, he ends up accidentally kidnapping Garmadon’s most prized and valuable weapon.

b. Fuckin uh Helm AU idk I’m trying to theme these aus on weaponry. I blame Missa for this. Basically Lloyd doesn’t get to shapeshift into human form, he’s legit just. Stuck as a sword but he can appear as like. A reflection almost? Like the image of a person in the blade of the sword and Brad can talk to him. Brad is the only one who can hear/see him, and Lloyd is straight up just Stuck like that. Fuck me and my adhd goddammit

4. Magical Girl AU consisting of 3 installments (potentially 4 when I get my shit together)

-> Pretty Pretty Please I Wanna Be A Magical Girl! Origin story of the core five (OG 4 + Nya) and how they all became Magical Girls (this isn’t a genderswap au Magical Girl is just the job title)

-> Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Wanna Be A Celestial Guardian! Lloyd centric but sometimes also everyone else centric. Lloyd really doesn’t want to be a Magical Girl - unfortunately, everyone else does

-> Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Wanna Be A Wishing Star! Lloyd is finally a Magical Girl and constantly duking it out with evils beyond human comprehension or smth

5. Crossroads AU. Instead of staying at the monastery post-merge, Lloyd goes out to find the rest of his family himself. Along the way, he adopts a new friend group of one-off minor characters from older seasons

6. Who You Gon’ Call? Morro isn’t a bad guy in Posession and he and Lloyd team up to trick/sabotage the other ghosts and stop the Preeminent before she can bust out

7. The Final Phonecall. Not my au, it belongs to @thegreengoose22 but I’ve been writing the fic for it

8. Motherfucker. Okay uhhhhhh Key to your Dragon’s Heart AU (yes I know the name is corny idgaf) wherein Lloyd Garmadon is a very powerful, very beautiful witch everyone wants to marry, and Brad Tudabone is not exempt from that list. This is slightly crack and also based off that old tumblr post about the shapeshifting cat witch

9. Coat Rack. Jfc okay Brad meets Lloyd, the restricted and super unwilling spouse of some rich fuck who stole his animal pelt, effectively trapping him in marriage, and helps get the pelt back and falls in love along the way. It’s a selkie au idk what else you want from me

10. I’m accepting my fate: Princess Bride AU. It’s the Princess Bride but with Greenflower idk what else I can say here

11. Bedrock. A random Steven Universe au that hasn’t left me alone for over 3 years but I will literally never write. I go insane making up Gem culture and religion and a whole war doing a societal reformation- I was crazy. I’m still crazy. Don’t ever think I’m not crazy

12. The Thing About Mom. Another Steven Universe au where Lars died during the Gem war on earth and Rose brought him back as a pink zombie. He and Steven meet and become brothers

13. (Jfc-) okay Full Diamond AU where Steven is raised on Homeworld as Pink Diamond, and utterly spoiled but ultimately trapped just like his mom was. For his birthday - or whatever the equivalent is on Homeworld - he’s given a very special present: a human named “Con-nie”. Who is. Less than pleased.

I’m. I’m insane. I have a lot of AUs. I have too many aus. These are just the ones I actively think about. I’ll answer asks about any one of these I love them so much you don’t UNDERSTAND

#lego ninjago #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #ninjago au #the graveyard shift #to kill a legend #my au tag #steven universe au #sword and shield #asks open #send asks #answered asks #ninjago fanfiction #my fanfic writing #my fanfic tag

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