#MENTION THE SUNDIAL. TELL HIM

[thefirstknife]

Literally every time I tune in for a story update and think "there's no way I'll be taking emotional damage this week" and then I do.

First I really like the added context about what an Echo is, from Ikora:

Genocide. Thousands of civilisations across the universe, all visited by the Black Fleet. All lost to the violence of the final shape. That's where this Echo comes from. At least, that's our theory. Reports from the Pale Heart, readings on the Valence emanating from the Traveler... Everything we faced when we stared down the Witness and broke its fleet. At first, we didn't know what to call them. But Echoes seemed apt. Memories from the victims of the Pyramids, held by the Darkness... then coalesced by the Light into artifacts as sharp and fatal as their pain. If Darkness is memory, and Light is form... What else could they be? But... there's still so much we don't know. Is this the only one? What forgotten people gave form to this Echo? What was their final cry at their end? For control? A means to turn back their oppressors? My Hidden will keep searching for whatever answers the Witness' death can give us... hopefully they number more than the questions it left behind. But we need to stop the Conductor and secure the Echo. Guardian, descend into Nessus. Massive amounts of radiolaria has been diverted beneath the planet's crust. We need to find out what the Vex are building there.

I think it's fair to assume that the memory of the Qugu is what formed this Echo then. That's fascinating also because of what other species we might learn about in the next two episodes.

Psion mention:

Show us the Psions. What are they doing. Don't throw these hints at me, at the same time with Otzot and OXA hints.

And then the emotional damage??? First Saint on the holoprojector:

Guardian. I hear that you are hard at work on Nessus, following the Echo and the Conductor. I know you do this in part for me, but... I do not know if I am worth the trouble. I was pulled through Nessus like a toy on a string. The Conductor's words still echo in my mind, "A copy of a copy of a copy." Osiris pushed through time to find his Saint-14. [sighs] He said he was careful, but... he reached blindly, and pulled out... only me. And no... I live a life tat does not belong to me. I am something left over from a broken timeline... a remainder. The Conductor whispered I should be thrown away... A solution as simple as, correcting an error. And maybe... that would- Ah! I-I do not know what to think anymore.

Saint. "Not worth the trouble"? Saint, I personally walked through the corridors of time to get you out. I had to see your dead body with my own two eyes. I need to tell him this. He has to know. Oh my god.

But also. Osiris did not reach blindly. I am jumping off a cliff! He spent so much time and effort trying to find the right one in the right moment. That was the whole point. But Saint doesn't know this because Osiris never told him exactly what he did. If they don't mention everything we've done in Dawn, I am just going to walk into traffic. This Saint knows that we saved him. That we gave him the shotgun. We saw him in several different moments of his life and he carried the shotgun through: this is important because he died with it originally. So we know it's the right one. That's the only reason the Sundial worked out even; because we're tied to Saint via a paradox.

And then the radio. WHAT is happening.

Osiris: You're only doing this to hurt yourself, and I will not be a part of it. Saint-14: Osiris. Answer the question. I need to know. Osiris: It doesn't matter! Not like this. Saint-14: It matters to me. Please. How did I first tell you that I loved you? Osiris: Saint... [sighs] You had asked me for something, some tactical report. I gave it to you, and you thanked me, and-and you said that you loved me. You said it as if you had, already said it a thousand times before. I was not ready to say it in return, but... it was not long until I was. Saint-14: That is not... I do not remember it this way. That is not what happened in my... my simulation. We were together in the Tower, overlooking the City. Talking about... something small. And I said what I felt in that moment. And my Osiris did not hesitate to say the same. Osiris: "Your Osiris?" Saint, you love me. It doesn't matter how or-or where that began. Not in such fine detail. Saint?

I reiterate. What is happening. We know that the story Osiris told is true because we got it as a lore tab. And we also know that we saved the right Saint. We didn't pick one randomly as he thinks, Osiris and the YW went to great lengths to do this. So what's going on. Did the Conductor mess him up? Saint has not, until now, exhibited any issues with memory and has never had different memories from Osiris or anyone else. What did she do to him when he was yoked? Did she use the power over Vex to mess with his memories? Implant memories the Vex might have in the network about him from other timelines? I'm losing it.

Speaking of the Conductor, we got a firm confirmation it's Maya in the lore tab from Polyphony. And it's MSund12 so that also tells us which Maya; one of the copies from the Vex Network. It also details stuff about her shock upon learning about the Collapse and all that was lost and how humanity never truly recovered. She thinks she can... "help" by using the Vex and simulations. This also links to the mysterious lore tabs on the exotic items from the season pass.

Anyway, I'm perishing.

[jar0fhoney]

PART 1 / PART 2 / PART 3 (NSFW) / PART 4 /

PART FIVE (NSFW) - PART 6 - PART 7 (NSFW) - PART 8 (NSFW)

Warning: Mentions of Pregnancy and virginity. piv.

You started Sunday the same way you always did. Wake up before dawn, start breakfast for you and Ma, stare out the window and think about the list of chores you could never keep up with.

“It’s a beautiful morning!” Your mother shuffled past your open door towards the kitchen, “Are you sure I can’t just handle all the work in the field today? Won’t you want to relax before your friend arrives?”

“Mother, please do not blow this out of proportion.” You scolded her light-heartedly, “I’m just going to do my work as usual, and when he stops by I’ll take a break-”

“My baby is getting courted by a big strong orc~” She sang out to you. You followed her to the kitchen. “How did you know he’s courting me?”

“So he is courting you.” She swayed back and forth in front of the hearth, throwing bits of kindling onto the fire.

“Well- I-”

“Y/n, don’t you remember. When I told you about the family that lived in the neighboring plot. The wife told me so much about how strange orc courting was, especially with her being human, and-”

“You didn’t tell me it was a half-orc family…” 

She turned to you with a devious smirk, “Wouldn’t you like to know about a half-orc family.” “MA!” You grabbed an apple from the table (a bright red one that matched the color of your face) and ran out the door. You weren’t really mad at her, but this entire situation was so out of your comfort zone. The only experience you ever really had with being pursued was desperately avoiding Milo for the past two years.

You glanced at the sundial in the garden. Three hours. You had three hours to try and get some work done in the field and shake off the nerves.

-

The tomatoes were a mess. No wonder, this was a corner of the field that had been sorely neglected this season. The sun was climbing higher, and the heat of its rays were beginning to lick the back of your neck. What time was it anyways?

“SO NICE TO MEET YOU- OH YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE!”

Your mothers voice was loud enough to carry all the way to your little corner in the tomato patch. You shot to your feet, craning your neck to see her enthusiastically fawning over a slightly nervous Khargaad. You could hear him nervously chuckling as the two exchanged words.

Well, might as well go save him. You looked down at your work clothes covered in grass stains and mud. Hair was sticking to the back of your sweaty neck. Gross. Probably didn’t smell pretty either.

Your mother caught you out of the corner of her eye and pointed excitedly, “THERE SHE IS!”

You cringed. Gods she was making all this fuss and you looked like you just crawled out of a ditch.

“Hello! I see you met Ma.” You were trying to casually wipe the mix of dirt and sweat from your face, wading over to them through the field. He felt his heart skip a bit when you got closer. You smelled so earthy. And the musk of your sweat was… it could drive him feral.

He started imagining all the ways he could steal you away and worship you. Fill you. Taste you.

“Um… Khargaad?”

He jolted out of his sinful haze, “I couldn’t show up empty handed.” He thrust a basket into your arms. It was laden with fancy imported fruits. “This- This is too much. This must have cost-”

“Hush now,” his voice was like warm honey, “I hunt big game, I can afford it.” He had a cocky little smirk on his face. You thanked him, motioning to follow you into the cottage.

He looked back at your mom one more time, “It was so nice to meet you, Ma’am.”

-

Your first lessons together went just as well as predicted. By the end he was properly frustrated, arms crossed and everything.

“The letters. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s all… mixed up.”

“Let’s just end it here for today.”

He was so cute like this. All flustered. 

He stood up from his seat, being careful to crouch as he easily exceeded the height of the ceiling. “Alrighty, let’s get to work.” He crossed the room in one long stride, pulling his shirt over his head. He looked strong, but not in the way statues are with their lean bodies and taught chiseled muscles. He looked like a man who ate well and worked hard. Your eyes wandered to the slight love handles that peaked over the waistband of his trousers. Gods you were no better than a man, thinking about how bad you wanted to feel him in your hands.

He glanced behind his shoulder, “Where first?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Khargaad.”

“Do you think I’m going to just leave with all this work to be done?”

-

He followed you like an excited puppy to the tomato patch you had been working on. You had tried to tell him that he didn’t need to waste the rest of his day helping with this. But he knew he didn’t need to. He wanted to. And who was going to stop him? Certainly not you.

He started on one end, and you the other, working slowly until you met in the middle. By the end, your hands were red and scratched up from pulling the thistle weeds. Of course, Kharghaad’s were so calloused that it was like he had a pair of gloves on. He gave a little gasp when he saw your sore fingers. “Why didn’t you say anything…” He scooped your small hands into his, as delicate as you would pick up a fresh baby bird.

Every time he touched you it was like this great release. Your mother, as loving as she was, never quite developed a touchy-feely nature. You were so used to it fleeting as soon as it was there. Quick handshakes, brushing against someone in the market. You craved physical touch.

So when Khargaad didn’t let go of your hands. When he held them so carefully and tenderly. So deliberately. You found yourself trying to memorize every little second of the moment.

“I’ll have to buy you gloves.” He muttered, picking out the little needles with surprising dexterity. He took his canteen and went to rinse off the skin. “I can wash my own hands, Khargaad.” You chuckled.

“But I want to,” He blurted out with immediate embarrassment, “Sorry, I guess you could say it’s an orc thing? It’s sorta like… we’re very communal. There’s no reason to do much of anything alone, if you think about it…” He sort of trailed off like he was getting ahead of himself. He paused.

“I hope I'm not smothering you. Maybe humans aren’t like that-” He went to let go of your hands, and a part of you cried out inside. You were tired of trying to play this stoic lone wolf character. It wasn’t who you were. It’s not who any of us are. We all need each other.

“Please, don’t stop…” You whispered to him, thrusting your hands back into his. You uttered the magic words. The words he had been waiting for. He pulled you into his chest. It didn’t matter how gross, hot, and sweaty the two of you were. Or that your mother was most definitely watching joyfully from the kitchen window. Nothing mattered. “Can we go somewhere?” His voice was muffled as he whispered into the top of your head. He was taking long deep sighs, taking in your scent.

“Please…” The need in your voice was palpable. He didn’t waste another moment, leading you to the forest behind your property. “Khargaad… the road is that way.” You motioned behind yourself. “I know a quicker way.” He glanced back at you with that sweet little smirk on his face.

Once past the treeline, the soft light of dusk struggled to breach the overhead foliage. You walked together for some time, before the sound of running water bubbled ahead. He had led you to a little clearing, where in the middle stood a circular style tent. A creek babbled away off to the side. The moon was full and provided plenty of light for you to take it all in. “Do you live here?” 

He nodded, looking down at you expectantly for approval. You grinned, “It’s lovely.”

He snaked a strong arm around your waste, pulling you in. His other hand cupped the back of your head, tilting your face up to his. For a moment he hovered over you, as if waiting for your permission. You reached up to cup his face, thumbing over one of the tusks jutting out of his mouth.

His lips met yours. It started slow, like sipping on a glass of fine wine. Then it was hungry. Like you had both been starved. You were getting drunk off of the needy little grunts he was making, pulling you in flush with his body. You could feel him through his trousers, and it startled you out of your stupor a bit. You hadn’t been with anyone before, and it was bound to happen sooner or later, but this was a bit more than you ever imagined.

It was almost like he sensed your tension, pulling away to look into your eyes, “Let’s get clean.” He had brought his thumb up to caress over your cheek, planting a small peck before jogging to his tent. Watching him disappear under the flap, your mind raced. What if you weren’t ready? What if he’s not patient?

He bounded out towards the stream, beckoning you over. He started to frown as you got closer, like he could smell the apprehension coming off of you, “Do you need to go slower? Do you want to go home? Nothing has to happen. Nothing at all. You are in charge.”

He started unlacing the ties of his trousers. You instinctually looked away, giving him privacy he clearly didn’t need. With the sound of water sloshing you looked back at him submerged up to his sternum. You approached the water’s edge, looking down into the little bubbles churning in the current. “Hey… what’s wrong?” He waded over to the edge, leaning onto the grassy bank. There wasn’t any aire of seduction in his voice, just one of genuine tenderness.

You sucked it up and opened your mouth, “I’ve never done this before…”

“With an orc?”

“No like… I’ve never done this before… ever.” You winced as the words came out. You were a grown adult, this conversation shouldn’t feel embarrassing. But it did nonetheless.

“And so you don’t want to do this?” He didn’t seem fazed at all by the information. “No!” You yelped out a little too enthusiastically, “No- I mean, yes. Yes I do want to. I want you.”

You started to pull at the ties of your shirt, face so flushed it was probably glowing red. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you. You ripped the shirt off your head like pulling off a bandaid, exposing your chest to the warm summer air. You went to fiddle with the strings of your work pants. He still didn’t look away, and you didn’t ask him to.

And there you were, clothed only in moonlight. Khargaad thought, maybe the moon had come out just for you tonight, to see your beauty for itself.

You stepped down into the water. “Are you sure you’re human? Not a beautiful fairy playing tricks on me?” Khargaad was completely entranced by you, eyes roaming over the curve of your shoulders to the curves of your breasts.

You felt some of the tension ease, snorting at him “I don’t think a fairy would smell this bad.” He gasped a bit as if he had just remembered, grabbing a bar of soap he had retrieved from the tent. “May I?” He asked, lathering up the bar in his hands.

You nodded, letting him wade closer to you. You felt the palms of his massive hands begin to work themselves into your hair, massaging his fingers into your scalp. “Oh-” You exclaimed a rather embarrassing moan, but it felt so good. He finished and went to clean his own hair. “Hey, it’s my turn now!” You scolded him. He was more than happy to let you clean him. As he said previously, it’s a part of orc culture to do things with other people. That includes bathing.

And oh how he loved to see you doing orc things. Like wearing that yellow dress dyed with orc spices, and making those pickled eggs for him. It made him think about how great it would be to bring you home with him, to meet all of his family. For you to find a place in his tribe. He missed home a lot, and now you were a part of that picture. You finished running your fingers through the curls of his clean hair.

He heard the sloshing of water, turning around to see you drying yourself off. He joined you. You cast a quick glimpse below his waist, blushing furiously at his partially hard cock.

You walked together to the flap of the tent. The inside surprised you. It was so… cozy. “Ah-” He had leaned down to nuzzle into your neck, you loved the feeling of his tusks against your skin. He pulled you to what could best be described as a nest. A nest of pillows and blankets. He very carefully leaned you onto your back, “Is this okay?”

You giggled at him, “Yes Khargaad. I will tell you if I need to stop, okay?”

“Promise?” He leaned back on his knees, his olive green skin looking lovely in the warm glow of the lantern lighting the tent. His member was on full display, completely unashamed. The way it twitched in anticipation made your stomach flutter. “Yes.”

He lied down next to you, peppering little kisses in the crook of your neck. His hands began to roam your body, starting with your shoulders and slowly moving down to your tits. His calloused palm grazed over the sensitive peaks, causing you to let out a breathy sigh. He took your left breast into his hand, thumbing over your hardened nipple. He palmed your chest for a few moments more, like he was savoring each and every new part of you he explored. You felt his cock hard against your leg. You shifted your thigh, giving him just the lightest sensation of friction. The groan he mumbled into your skin made you feel hot between your legs. You clenched your thighs together, trying to get some relief.

His hand traveled down to your stomach, caressing the curves and grabbing a soft handful of skin. “Good…” He whispered. You shivered as his hand glided over your hips, so close to your entrance. He reached for the inside of your thigh, pulling it over into his cock. He let out another breathy sigh that left you completely slick with desire. His hand hovered over the mess of hair covering your mound. You opened your legs, giving him permission.

He started by slowly palming you, just beginning to give you the attention your pussy was desperate for. You felt a finger slip past your folds, getting drenched in the slickness. Khargaad shifted you up a bit so he could have better access to your chest. He dipped down, taking a nipple into his mouth and sucked playfully. “Oh f-fuck-” You were stuttering at the pleasure of it all. He grinned into your chest, “Keep making those noises sweetheart.” The pet name made your heart flutter.

He kept gently probing a finger up and down your slit, until he dipped one down just at the beginning of your entrance. His fingers were bigger than your own, but this wasn't so much of a stretch. He slowly sheathed the finger in you, “Tight.” He grunted. He made a come hither motion into that sensitive spot of your inner walls. You yelped out a completely sinful moan as he prodded you a few more times. His finger exited your hole, pulling the wetness of your cunt onto your swollen and sensitive clit.

“Khargaad-” Your hips bucked up into him as he swirled long languid circles around that little bundle of nerves. He pulled off, and sat back on his knees, “Can I taste you?”

It was the way he asked more than anything. Like he was close to begging for it. You nodded, spreading your legs for him. He settled down in front of you, using both of his thumbs to spread your lips apart. You felt the tip of his fat tongue probe your needy pussy. He reached up to play with your nipples, while he moved up to your throbbing clit. He started with light kitten-licks, making you whine and buck up into his mouth. That wonderful tongue of his made swirls and then quick flickering motions over the sensitive spot. At this point you were almost completely lost in pleasure, and reached down to thread your fingers through his soft brown curls. 

You were already sensitive when he started, so you were very close to finishing. You actually yelled when he inserted a finger into you. Prodding that sensitive spot while attacking your sensitive clit; it was making the most obscene wet noises. “Close.” That was all you could manage as he devoured you. There it was, feeling crushed over you like a ton of bricks. You coated this hand, legs spasming. He dipped down to lap up the remnants of your release. Your taste, your smell, the feeling of his hair clenched in your fist. He was addicted.

He leaned back, taking in his work. You had a hand on your forehead and a hand on your chest, calming down from what you just experienced. You glanced down at him, both hands on his thighs. His cock was completely erect, tip glistening with pre-cum. It was so heavy it bowed down under its own weight. “Y/n…” He was trying to figure out what to say next. His cock needed to be buried in your pretty little cunt. He needed to bottom out into you. He wanted to hear the sound of his heavy balls slapping against your skin with every thrust. But he couldn’t say that, though. He didn’t want to push you if you weren’t ready.

So when you propped yourself up on your elbows, legs spread for him, he almost felt like crying. His human mate was so strong. So ready for him.

He crawled over you, pinning your legs over his shoulders. He took the base of his cock into his fist, guiding it slowly over your folds. You were so warm for him. He pushed his pulsating tip past your lips, wincing from the sensitivity. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you, but you were completely entranced watching his cock slide into you. His tip found your hole, sliding in but not going any further. He was absolutely strangeling the pillow he was resting his hand on, trying to maintain control. Khargaad was watching you, every little subtle expression. He kept sinking himself into you, stopping when you made the first wince of pain. He was big, and you were so tight. 

“Y/n?” You looked up at him through those pretty lashes. He nearly lost it all right there, just from the eye-contact. You got off of your elbows, leaning down completely. You gave a little nod, still making direct eye contact. Slowly and gently, he worked his way in until his hips were flush with yours. He leaned back, still buried in you, letting you adjust to the stretch.

He wouldn’t last long at all, seeing you like this. Your little face with knotted brows, arms thrown overhead. Khargaad brought his hand to your stomach, rubbing little circles into the soft skin with his thumb. You were perfect. Perfect to take his seed. Perfect for growing a little half-orc.

He wouldn’t yet, of course. Not until you were ready. For you, he would wait as long as needed. But his strange orc hormones and instincts craved it beyond explanation.

He began rocking out and back into you, keeping a slow languid pace. You reached out for him, and in an instant his head was nuzzled in your neck again. His pace started to ramp up a bit, earning little mewls from your lips. Oh he definitely wouldn't last much longer. “W-where…” His breath hitched in your ear. “Huh?” You were too flustered to try to understand what he was asking.

“Going to-” He was hissing and groaning, barely able to work out a sentence, “On your body- ah- or o-on the bed?” His motions were getting jerky. “Fuck- sorry- oh fuck.”

He pulled out just barely in time to empty himself onto your stomach. He fucked his rough fist through the climax, sighing at the sight of his seed coating your tummy. It felt a lot warmer than you expected, and much more… volume. He finally let go of his cock, reaching for a linen cloth and dunking it in a bowl of water he had set nearby. “I made a mess…”

He sounded so guilty, and you giggled at him teasingly. One of his hands cupped your face, while the other softly wiped the length of your cunt, messy from your own slickness. He wiped the cum that was coated across your stomach, being careful not to spill any on the bed.

“You did so good.” He started cooing sweet nothings to you while running his thumbs across your cheekbone, “Wore me out…” He chuckled, throwing the rag across the room. He yawned and stretched his arms above him.

“Do you want me to go home now?” You were all too familiar with the stories women told about men finishing and ordering them to leave. You didn’t quite have the confidence yet, to advocate for yourself. To tell him you wanted to spend the night wrapped up in his arms.

For Khargaad, this question felt like an arrow to the heart. Had he not done enough? To make it clear how badly he needed you with him? He laid down next to you, pulling you close, “I would kill the person who would try to take you from me right now.”

Here is Part 5 for you lovelies <3 <3 <3 btw Khargaad is living in a yurt, that's what I was trying to describe lol.

I attached a playlist I put together. These are the songs I've been listening to while writing this, if anyone wants to hear the vibes :3

Tagged List <3

@reads-stuff-quietly @loo-looland @sluttygirl123 @beaniebaneenie @blushycadaver @sunndust @whyiamadegenerate @the-attic-of-porcelain @freakyotaku059-blog @youknowits-derea @thoughts-of-bear-undercovers @allthecraftandthings @gruffle1 @kennedyabraxas123 @queenies1x1 @jellyslimesofficial @jasminedragoon @rangoismyname @the-queen-of-sorrows @the-dumber-scaramouche @heddaloddafun @swimmingrascalbatdragon @hellodollstuff @wingedghostpepper @pistachioinfernal @honeybaegle @sammehshark @dij-ology @forgemotherkestrel @wafflefries786

[superficialdomina]

Down Under - Epilogue

Word count: 1.2k

Warnings: 18+; minors DNI. After-effects of a debaucherous night. References to past sexy activities. Mentions of medical stuff. A teeny bit of fluff.

Part 5

Series masterlist

A/N: That's it, folks! Thank you to everyone who joined me in this absolute ridiculousness - I have appreciated every one of you so much.

Epilogue

You awoke on a transport bed, surrounded by the hum and click of medical machinery. Your head was pounding like the worst hangover of your life.

Bruce was hanging a serious-looking plastic bag above your head; it was only when you traced the line that you realised it was connected to a canula in your forearm.

“Welcome back,” he said with a smile. “How’re you feeling?”

“Ugh. Awful. What’s in the bag?”

“Just fluids. Y’all had a pretty rough night.”

Rough… It all came flooding back to you. The lab. The flask. The wild, uninhibited hours spent entangled with the pale, beautiful, trickster god.

“Oh God,” you muttered, then realising how they must have found you, “oh Christ - did the Captain see me naked?” You lifted your hands to cover your face in humiliation; your entire body protested at the sudden movement, and you were abruptly aware that you were very, very sore.

Banner looked surprised, and a little horrified. “No! No, when we got there you were passed out under a blanket, and Loki was meditating on the other side of the pool.”

Loki. True to his word, his priority had been to protect you. What did he tell them?

“Is he – alright? Wait, what do you mean, “got there”? Where am I?”

You finally had the wherewithal to take in your surroundings. You were in what seemed to be a makeshift medical bay in a large canvas tent; through the open tent flaps, you could spot the finger-like protrusion of Sundial Peak pointing up into the sky. It looked like early evening.

“You’re back at the Hall’s Gap base camp. Loki’s fine. Exhausted. He – he carried you down.”

You stared at him. “Carried me… What?”

“I mean, the rest of us – me, Thor, Cap, all of us – we took turns at the other end of the stretcher. But he took the front handles the whole way down. Insisted.” He shrugged.

It was all too much to process. You swallowed, then tried a different tact.

“Am I – cured? I mean,” you shook your head to clear it and instantly regretted it. “The fungicides... It wasn’t – what was it?”

“Ah – yeah. Sorry about that. Not a fungus, it turns out – a parasite. Those meds never had a chance.”

A parasite. You shuddered. “And – what, you’ve developed a cure already?” Even for a genius being bankrolled by Tony Stark, that seemed fast.

“Oh. Ah, no. It was…”

“Oh ho, she’s awake!” Ray’s sharp accent stabbed through the peaceful evening air. “Those antimalarials work a treat, eh?”

“I don’t…”

“It was Ray’s idea, actually,” Bruce explained. “Once we figured out that it was a parasite, we broke into the village pharmacy and grabbed a few doses of chloroquine. Tony’s got a team in town now, distributing it to the residents.”

“So, what – Loki and I were the guinea pigs?”

“Ah – no,” Banner said again, shifting awkwardly and looking anywhere but Ray’s direction. “No, we… ah – we three…” He trailed off, cheeks a delightful shade of pink; you understood very clearly what he, Ray and Thor had been engaged in when you’d tried to call the previous evening.

“Best night I’ve had in twenty years,” Ray said with a grin and a wink. “The big one’s got quite the weapon on him. Anyway - you’d better go tell that brooding mate of yours that you’re back in the land of the living.”

You looked to Bruce, whose face was still bright red. “Is that alright? Can I get up?”

“Yeah, if you can keep this above your head.” He handed you the saline bag attached to your arm; you tried awkwardly to lift it above you, but everything hurt too much.

“Here,” Ray offered, “how’s this.” She wedged the plastic handle of the bag into the jagged end of her walking stick, then planted the stick in your hands. “Oughta keep ya pretty upright, anyway.”

You stood, and for the first time, you noticed you were wearing your own clothing; another one of Loki’s gifts, no doubt. You took one wobbly step, then another, until you were confident that you could move about on your own, then followed Ray out of the med bay.

You found Loki at the edge of the lake, skipping stones across the water. He looked up at the sound of your footsteps, and you both spoke at once.

“Loki, I’m so sorry—”

“Please accept my apologies—”

You looked at him quizzically. “Loki… It was all my fault. I broke the flasks. If it hadn’t been for me, we never would have…” You stopped at the look on his face.

“Actually,” he said softly, “the culture flasks were sterile. The Doctor believes it most likely that we were infected upon close proximity to the rats.”

The dead rats in the lab. Or rather, in Loki’s interdimensional pocket. Or wherever they were now.

You hadn’t been aware of the guilt you were carrying until the weight of it was lifted. Now, you felt the heady rush of relief. Sterile. Not my fault. Almost unconsciously, you sat down beside him.

“…ask again that you please accept my deepest apologies,” Loki was saying. He bowed his head and lifted his hand to his chest.  

You were quiet for a moment, then said, “Banner told me what you did. Bringing me down off the mountain. I… Thank you. And thank you for… for staying with me.”

The corner of his mouth edged up into a smirk, and he raised his eyes to yours. “If I may boast,” he said in response, “the drugs they gave us had not yet taken effect when we brought your stretcher back to camp. It was the hardest” he paused for effect, “hike of my life.”

You imagined him sporting a raging hard-on as he carried you down the mountain, and laughed.

“You know the other three…”

“Oh, I heard. Your compatriot shared extensive details. A ‘Thorgy’, I believe she termed it.”

“Oh God, please don’t say any more.” Still laughing, you gave an exaggerated shudder. Then you sobered. “Um - how are you now? Recovered?”

“What exactly are you asking, darling?”

 “What? No! I mean – I just wanted to make sure…”

He smiled. “I jest, of course. I will be fine. A little more wary of abandoned research animals in future, but that only seems prudent.” He reached out and took your hand. “And you? Are you… well?”

You stared down at your hand, clasped in his. It was ridiculous – pathetic, really – that this simple touch could elicit the flutter of nervous warmth now inching up your arm. Not after… After everything. And yet you found yourself hoping he wouldn’t let you go.

“Yeah, I’m… I’ll be OK.” You gave his hand a small squeeze. “So – so that’s it, then?”

“That is it.”

You stood, trying to pull your hand from his grasp. But Loki held tight.

“Unless…”

You swallowed. “Unless?”

“Dinner. Next Saturday evening? My apartment. As I said, lefse is only truly delicious when it is fresh off the griddle.”

Tags in comments! xx

[spr1ngpvrinbwunnie]

🐰 Easter Day Headcanon with William Afton!!!

Credit art: DannyBoBanny_ on Twt

🎩 First, the tone: It’s playful, weirdly soft, and tinged with his specific brand of dry wit. He’s not going to say he likes Easter—but you catch that faint twitch of a smile every time you mention it. Like he’s already planning something.

💐 Morning:

William pretends to be annoyed that he’s been woken up “early” (it's 10:00 AM), but he's already up, hair slicked back and sleeves rolled, with pastel-colored macarons on a plate. “Don’t look at me like that—I didn’t bake them. I bribed a very flustered French patissier at 7AM.”

He hands you a small, elegantly wrapped box. Inside? A hand-crafted rabbit charm, silver. It’s old-fashioned, delicate. “You said once you liked antique pendants,” he mumbles, feigning indifference while secretly watching your reaction like it’s a science experiment.

—

🥚 Midday Shenanigans (You started it):

You joke about egg hunts—and William scoffs. “Do I look like a man who scours bushes for cheap plastic eggs, darling?”

Five minutes later, you catch him outside, very seriously hiding chocolate eggs behind tree roots, under flowerpots, labeling them with riddles.

His version of the egg hunt? More like a mini escape room challenge.

“Clue one: I lie beneath the watchful eye of time. Find me before I melt.”

(He hid it under the sundial.)

He insists it’s for “mental stimulation,” but when you find the final egg and it contains a tiny handwritten note that says “Proud of you, Bunny 🐇 — W.A.”, you know the truth.

��

🕯️ Evening (Soft William hours):

The two of you end up curled on the couch, his arm slung over your shoulders, the faint scent of bergamot and old cologne clinging to his shirt.

He’s wearing a ridiculous pair of soft rabbit ears. You made him. He grumbled the whole time. But he hasn’t taken them off in over an hour.

“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll replace your shampoo with epoxy resin.”

You talk about spring. Fresh starts. He grows unusually quiet for a moment, tracing lazy shapes on your arm.

“I suppose,” he says eventually, voice low, “...if resurrection was ever real, it’d look like this. Moments like this.”

He absolutely buys the fancy Easter chocolate rabbits with golden foil and acts like they're for you. They are not. You catch him gnawing the ear off one by the fridge at 2AM.

If you fall asleep early, he tucks you in with a blanket and leaves a dyed egg with a mustache and monocle drawn on it beside your pillow. His version of love.

🐰✨ “Springbonnie’s Grand Entrance” (Alternate Easter Headcanon)

It started with a smirk.

That kind of smirk. The one that crept onto William's face like a secret he was dying to tell but absolutely wouldn't. He’d been acting suspicious all morning—disappearing into the basement with a large duffel bag, muttering about needing “proper ventilation” and “sealing protocols,” which, let’s be honest, never bodes well.

You asked if he was working again on Easter.

His answer?

“Mm, not exactly, darling. I do have a… presentation. A surprise. But you’ll want to mentally prepare yourself. I’m told it’s quite sexy.”

Cue you, blushing like a fool, blinking in panic. “Wait, what?”

William only grinned wider, kissed your temple, and whispered, “Wear something you don’t mind getting ruined.”

—

🥚 The Grand Reveal

You paced around the living room for ten minutes straight, your brain spiraling. What the hell did he mean by sexy? Ruined?! Was he going to show up in—

SLAM.

The hallway door burst open.

Out stepped Springbonnie.

Full suit. Big cartoonish eyes. Giant yellow fur-covered body. Ears that flopped slightly as he moved. The whole nightmarish ensemble. Except—it wasn’t Springbonnie the animatronic.

It was William.

In the full damn mascot costume.

But somehow, he made it worse.

He stood in the doorway dramatically, one giant foam hand perched on his hip, the other outstretched toward you.

“Are you ready… bunny,” he intoned, voice deep, affected with mock seduction, as the faint creak of suit hydraulics betrayed every movement. “For the most… stimulating Easter scavenger hunt… of your life?”

You froze.

Mouth open. Eyes wide. Brain melting.

“No.”

“Oh yes,” he purred through the vocoder hidden in the suit, stepping closer with horrifying squeaky footfalls. “Your first clue awaits, behind the forbidden eggshell of mystery.”

“What does that even mean?!”

“I don’t know, I made it up ten minutes ago,” he said, breaking character briefly and snorting. “But the look on your face is worth it.”

—

💀 Bonus (Because He Went ALL OUT):

The scavenger hunt was unironically brilliant. Cryptic clues. Hidden chocolate. One of the eggs exploded in glitter. He claimed it was “an accident.” It was not.

At one point he chased you around the kitchen, flapping the Springbonnie ears and yelling “EGGSECUTION TIME!”

He made up a game called “Find the Forbidden Egg” and refused to tell you what would happen if you lost. (You did. He cracked a real egg into your hoodie and called it “performance art.”)

Later that night, after removing the sweaty nightmare suit, he reappeared in just a robe, hair damp from the shower, and dropped a glittery pink egg into your lap. Inside? A small, silver ring in the shape of rabbit ears. “For being the only person mad enough to put up with me,” he said with a wink.

You didn’t speak for a solid thirty seconds. Then launched a couch pillow at his head.

[forsaken-headcanons]

I just thought about it I can probably assign a lemon demon songs to each survivor. Ok well, here it goes. >_>

Noob: Ask for nothing

since in forsaken they're the starter character, as well a bit timid this song feels fine for them. They don't have anything to ask since asking won't give them any answers, and they feel fine about that since finding more about that place may hurt them.. Being blissful is nicer than knowing yah know?

Elliot: Pizza heros

This one is a no brainer, pizza guy gets the pizza song.

Two time: the satirist love song

This one is a bit complicated with my ideas and headcanons but to me I chose this one because Two Time tried to pretend they didn't like azure when killing them. They tried to tell themself they weren't in love it was just for the sacrifice.

007n7: As your father I expressly forbid it

Its a bit more stern then what I'd imagine 007n7, but it makes sense due to it being about a father

Guest 1337: Action movie hero boy

I don't really have much to say about this one, but the song is about playing around with bombs.

Shedletsky: mask of my own face

Its a bit of a dumb song, but also kind of goes into the headcanon that shedletsky is putting on a brave face for others

Builderman: Man made object

Its about guy who wants to build big towers, I think its self explanatory

Chance: Everybody likes you

Sadly there isn't much lemon demon songs I can correlate with chance, but I feel like this is fine? Its not sung by him but how ever you see the song it relates to chance somehow.

Taph: Eighth wonder

I feel like due to how weird taph is, well in show and how mysterious he seems... I wish there were more songs about bombs sigh!

Dusekkar: Sundial

This is just because this song doesn't make too much sense, as well its a more calmer vibe? It really cannot relate to a meaning or could have one. I think that fits dusekkar enough!

-🖥️ anon

Lemon Demon mentioned in the wild? I'm happy.

[readychilledwine]

Another Way Out

Summary - After rumors start going around Autumn regarding you a certain High Lord, your mother has to ensure you escaped before it was too late

Warnings - Mentions of abuse, purity culture, misogynistic views, canon Beron behavior

A/N - I have been playing with this for a long time. This is actually the idea that sparked me asking my friends their feelings on the Forest House. I'm so happy to have the chance to have collaborated on @thehouseofvanserra with so many people. Thank you all for letting me go crazy with this idea.

Running away from home was the thing you had ever imagined you would be doing. Yet, it was where you found yourself right now as another twig cut the tender skin of your cheek. You had no doubt your dress was torn, your feet aching and potentially bleeding. 

This was the only time the house agreed with your mother to allow you to leave, so in the dead of night, you ran toward Spring.

Midnight summons to tea with your mother had never meant good news. The first time had been when Lucien and Jesminda were discovered. The second the night you found out that two of your brothers had died chasing Lucien to the very court you found yourself looking for. 

Mother had been sitting in her tea room lit only by the light of the moon and candles. There was no tea. No snacks. Only a small bag and her and Eris speaking in hushed tones.

Eris had looked truly panicked the second he glanced to look you over. Your brother was a mask, cool and collected. To see him so shaken was not good.  “Is.. someone hurt,” you had not meant to sound so insecure, but the tension of the room had you on edge.

Your mother didn't answer you. She simply stood, taking the bag in her hands, “Beron knows about Tamlin,” Eris spoke for her. “He knows you two.. enjoyed each other company.”

You froze, “It was a walk in his garden-”

“With no chaperone,” your mother interrupted. “And rumors of inappropriate things have spread like wildfire.” 

“Your purity has come into question. Father feels you have embarrassed him,” Eris's voice was tight. “He plans to make a public example of you.”

You were pulled from the memory as you slipped on a rock, tumbling down. You squeezed your eyes shut, heart racing as you began to hear them. Hounds. Beron was forcing Eris to chase you. To hunt you down with the very hounds you had loved. It was part of the plan. You had been given a 30-minute head start, the trees no doubt telling your father you had somehow escaped and were running. Squeezing dirt between your nails, you stood, heart pounding as you slipped back into the memory and continued to run. 

“You will leave the Forest House tonight,” your mother whispered, handing you the bag. “Tamlin knows you are coming. The second you are over the Spring border, ask your mate for sanctuary.”

Shaking hands felt like they weren't your own as you grabbed the leather pack and slipped it on. “The exits are too guarded. There's no way out of here?”

Eris shook his head, “No way out that you know of, little sister.”

Your mother took in a deep breath before taking your hands in her own. “When I was seeing Helion, the House gave me a way out that only Eris and I know of. It has agreed to open that doorway for you until midnight.” Your eyes shot to the sundial. The shadows pointed to 11:55. You swallowed hard. There would be no lingering goodbyes. No last-minute hugs or questioning it. 

Eris touched the wall, nodding at you. The scent of campfire, the Forest House’s magic, came into the air. Brick and stone shifted, dark oak taking its place. It was heavy, old. Eris pushed it open as your mother moved, her forehead against yours, “I love you. I love you so much that I have to let you go. I.. I can not let you end up like me,” her voice broke. “You have to go.” You stood there as she let go of you, a lump forming in your throat.

“Go,” the urgency in Eris's voice made you move. “Follow the fire sprite. Do not look back. Do not go off the path it leads you down.”

Rough hands grabbed the back of your neck and pulled you to him so he could place a soft kiss on your forehead. “I will bring you home,” his voice broke. “I will do everything to bring you home.”

The change in the air brought you back to the pathway. The fire sprite had long abandoned you once she realized the hounds were coming. You were so close to Spring. The sounds of twigs snapping, your heavy breathing, and barking the only thing you could hear. 

Fear was driving you. Your mother would carry evidence of Beron's abuse long after he was gone. Her back was marred and distorted from whips dipped in fire. Eris bared scars, knives, and daggers carving out pieces of his skin. A brand resting far too close to intimate places. 

Beron was a monster, and if he caught you now? If he caught you now, you would be sold to someone he trusted to beat you. And that's if he didn't make the choice to execute you. Rumors had made your father believe you were impure. That you had ruined yourself under Tamlin's hand. You no longer held value, even if it was untrue. You were of no use to Beron in his mind. 

The trees began to change, the burnt orange, golden yellows, and deep reds replaced by budding flowers in whites, purples, and pinks. “Tamlin,” you yelled for him, knowing you had entered Spring. 

The barking grew closer, the hounds no doubt on your heels as you continued to run. Spring had no wards. It was open territory meant for refugees. Something of which you had never imagined yourself, a princess, becoming.

A raised root tripped you, body falling to the mud just as the first hound came into view. Its sleek black body went low, hunting you. That's when full horror set in.

These were not Eris's hounds. 

They were your father's. 

Beron had hunted you himself and if Reaper's body language was any indication, you would never even make it to a public execution if he caught you. 

You didn't get up as you backed away. You refused to look away from the hounds, refused to risk turning your back on him. “Tamlin,” you yelled out of fear, hoping he was close enough to hear you, to feel your terror as you tugged on the bond. 

Reaper was low to the ground, stalking and getting closer but not pounding. His teeth were bared, capable of ripping your throat out if ordered to. Hand found your shoulders, your scream filling the air. 

Tamlin lifted you up, forcing you behind him and backing you to a tree as Beron came into view, two more hunting smoke hounds at his side. “Call them off,” Tamlin's growl as you dug your face into his tunic was met with another deep growl from a hound. “Call. Them. Off. You are not allowed to hunt in my court.”

“I am allowed to claim what is mine,” your father's voice was matter of fact, almost amused. “Hand me my dear daughter and we will be gone.”

“Over my dead body,” Tamlin spat. 

Beron only chuckled, “That can be arranged.”

“Father, perhaps it would be best if we left,” Eris's smooth voice filled the growing silence and pressure. “If he has truly soiled her, he may feel he has claim to her.”

“Sanctuary,” you breathed into Tamlin's back. “High Lord, I ask for sanctuary.”

Beron snarled at that, Tamlin's green eyes locked on his, “Granted,” your mate answered.

The scent of rain and roses was a hug, the sudden zip of ripping through the folds of the world disorientated you as cool marble took the place of dirt below your feet. Tamlin's shoulders relaxed, falling as he let out a deep breath. “The Forest House let you out?”

You paused, glaring up at him, “How did you know?”

“Lucien,” he pulled you to the dining room and sat you down before grabbing a bowl of warm water and a rag. He kneeled down to take one of your feet in his hand. “This is going to sting,” he sunk it into the water, watching as your body winced.

“Lucien has his own way in and out as well,” Tamlin continued. “As does Eris. They had thought maybe you just didn't know how to ask the House, but perhaps that wasn't the issue. Perhaps Beron never told you it was alive for a reason.” 

Your mate began to tenderly wash your scraped and muddy feet. “Alive?” He nodded at your question. 

“Most courts have one house that is sentient,” his voice was even. “Autumn's is the Forest House. Summer the Shore House. Winter the Mountain House.” You hummed as he spoke and began to massage a healing ointment onto the damaged skin. “Beron must have decided you knowing was too dangerous.”

Silence passed as he took care of you. Once he was satisfied, he took you to the bath. He left you alone with your thoughts. Your knees curling up to your chest. 

The Forest House being sentient should not have shocked you as much as it did. And dangerously, it gave you hope. Hope that maybe one day you'd find a secret way in, and once you find that way in, Beron would pay. 

General Taglist:

@hnyclover @glitterypirateduck @slytherinindisguise @mischiefmanagers @bloodicka @starsinyourseyes @the-sweet-psycho @mariahoedt @rinalouu @sarawritestories @starryhiraeth @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @cumuluscranium @loneliestluvr @eternallyelvish @azrielsmate3 @daughterofthemoons-stuff @meritxellao @aria-chikage @hungryforbatboys @lilah-asteria @fandomrejects @sleepybesson @tayswhp @itsswritten @milswrites @littlest-w01f

[charalysis]

GoW: Baldur

Trigger Warning: Discussions of suicide, sundial ideation, and self harm.

The main antagonist of GoW 2018, Baldur is well known by fans of the newer games and is beloved by many for the complexity of his personality and story. Baldur captivated many with his erratic behavior, interesting abilities, and his complicated relationship with his mother. Today we are going to examine him as in depth as we can and break down his behavior, motivation, and his complicated emotions around his relationship with his family.

Let's start with a little backstory.

For those needing refresher, when Baldur was born his mother, Freya, went to the Norns to inquire about her son's fate. She was told Baldur would meet an unnecessary death. This terrified Freya, as she loved her little boy more than anything and couldn't bear to lose him. She seemingly spent much of Baldur's childhood looking for the right combination of spell components, words, and general rites to protect him from his fate.

Presumably, Freya and Baldur once had a good bond, a very close mother-son relationship. Freya wears to the current day a necklace Baldur made for her as a child. We can see signs of this closeness as it seems that, despite an Aesir upbringing, Baldur followed his Vanir heritage more. He doesn't wear shoes, only leg wraps that lightly wrap around his feet, leaving him essentially barefoot. What clothes he does wear don't seem to match anything we see the other Aesir wearing, even his nephews. Everyone is in either clean, neat attire, or they are lightly armoured, but still clean for the most part. Baldur's pants are simple. He wears a large piece of either cloth or soft hide around his waist, along with an ogre hide as a leather apron, held up by a belt (a gift from Odin) which holds a pouch and various simple trinkets. Not unlike Freya's "Witch of the Woods" outfit.

It's also likely that he inherited Freya's magic, but he possibly refuses to use it out of spite. However there's little evidence for this. Though there is a little evidence for him taking on Odin's magic. Baldur has the ability to absorb and manipulate other elements, not just light. We see this with Leviathan and later fire with the giant fight.

Now, despite his potential closeness to his mother, obviously something broke this bond.

The spell Freya made to, in her mind, protect Baldur. She was terrified for him and worried he was going to die. However, for Baldur, this was no protection; for him it was a curse.

Baldur was left unable to feel warmth, cold, pain... He was also unable to feel any sensation. The touch of his wife, Nanna. The taste of food, the taste of a drink, let alone the feeling of anything in his mouth to begin with...

And this means Baldur was actually left with a lot more problems than I've seen anyone discuss.

If he did drink anything, there's no way he could tell if he had to pee, likely leading to plenty of accidents, or him just... Not peeing. Because of his healing ability and inability to die, it's possible he just gave up trying to eat or drink in general. Not like he'd die from starvation or dehydration, as much as he may have tried.

That also leads into the idea that it's possible Baldur, early on with his curse, likely tried to kill himself.

Of course, realizing his mother made him incapable of dying, he likely resigned himself to his fate of simply existing as he was and serving Odin.

Now, his broken bond with Freya does not mean Baldur ended up close with Odin. Perhaps closer than before, but Odin views his family, especially his children, as pawns in his larger game. He sees them as a means to an end and we see this outright in our first meeting with Odin in Ragnarok. Odin simply calls him "his greatest tracker". Odin just saw Baldur as a hunter to send out whenever he needed something or someone found.

Seemingly, Baldur had no one to help him cope, (aside from a wife we never actually have mentioned. Nanna's existence is implied however in a background dialogue in Odin's home/mead hall where someone mentions Forseti being paranoid someone tried poisoning Thor. For any unaware, in canonical mythology, Forseti is the son of Baldur and his wife Nanna.). However I would like to speculate a little here and say, perhaps Baldur and Thor were close.

In the fight with Thor at the beginning of Ragnarok, Thor says the line, "That ones for Baldur!", Or something like that. Given Thor's generally dismissive attitude towards his other brothers, Tyr and Heimdall, and his dislike of them, I find this line interesting. It implies that there was a level of closeness, at least enough for Thor to want to get some kind of payback against Kratos for Baldur's death.

Obviously, Thor's larger concern was the blood payment for Magni and Modi. However, I don't think that entirely negates the idea that Thor loved his baby brother and wanted some kind of payback for him.

I do also suspect Baldur and Thor being close could be in part why Thor's boys in particular were sent with Baldur. I doubt Baldur immediately went to Odin about his initial failing, as Odin is capricious and patiently unpredictable. It's possible Baldur went to Thor, the best known giant killer, to ask advice on hunting down a giant (reminder, he thinks Kratos is Laufey). Thor could have easily sent his boys to join their uncle, not going himself because of other responsibilities.

Magni and Modi seem perfectly agreeable to Baldur, only really bickering or bantering amongst each other. Baldur I think, despite his madness, was as kind as he could be to his family.

Which does lead me to speculation on his bond with his son, Forseti.

For anyone unaware, Forseti is the Norse god of Justice, Reconciliation, and Law. This tracks with his few mentions in Ragnarok, lining up to him trying to find someone allegedly trying to poison Thor and being the one to track down Heimdall's corpse and report it to Sif.

Forseti was at least conceived before Baldur's curse, which does make him one of the younger gods, closer in age to Thrúd than her brothers.

so, this means, Forseti likely grew up with a volatile, distant father. He was quite likely exposed to a lot he shouldn't have been, such as the incident where Baldur was asking people to launch arrows into him to see how many it would take to make him fall over. Baldur likely was not a good dad to Forseti, and the likely frequent violence against Baldur, simply because of Baldur's invulnerability, likely contributed to Forseti's seeming isolation and paranoia in Ragnarok.

Baldur was likely a genuinely worse father in ways compared to Thor through sheer neglect and exposing his son to horrific sights. Not to mention the emotional impact of having someone so volatile around.

(Obviously that's not me saying Thor's a good dad. I love Thor's arc and as a character, but he is a child abuser and he doesn't even try changing until Thrúd comes around.)

Segwaying right along back into the discussion of his appearance: Baldur's tattoos.

There are a few I think are work mentioning.

First, the large red runs across the top of his back say "cursed", which is how he feels about his condition of invulnerability and sensory deprivation.

Second, his arm says "never to forgive", which makes sense given his condition and his rage at Freya over it.

Third, I believe this is the large circle tattoo on his chest, apparently reading, "lights confide me with warmth so that I might feel (something)". If this translation is accurate, I think that could be an appeal to his own abilities to manipulate light. As god of light, we can see in game he can bend light around him to move faster, or at least appear to move faster. There is no telling what else he could do with his light manipulation. But this also matches his desire to feel something, anything.

And finally, the tattoo around his neck/collar bone seems to tell of his role in prophecy as the bringer of Ragnarok, which is true. His death triggered Fimblwinter.

There are other tattoos to be translated on him, but based on these, it can be assumed they are just as tied to his identity, and possibly his curse and fate, as these. And Baldur is covered in tattoos. And from what we can tell there is no clear point to tell when he started to get them done.

Further interesting points on his appearance, at least for me, is the almost haphazard placement of beads and braids in his beard and hair. It seems as though that either A, in his broken mental state, Baldur is easily irritated by the beads and braids, so he just half asses it. Or B, he tends to leave the beads in, allowing some to fall out or be messed up.

Baldur's outward presentation of himself seems to follow his mental state. Messy, bold... He's not afraid to make a statement or point that's for sure

And despite Odin's fondness of Baldur, at least in what Baldur can do for him, I'm certain Odin resents Baldur's outward presentation. Baldur must serve as a reminder of Freya, not only in his face to an extent, but also in how he dresses. His clothes and his arms being riddled with tattoos must remind Odin a lot of Freya, thus ensuring Baldur also wouldn't be close to his father. Same as his brothers before him.

There is also the Kratos parallel to acknowledge.

Baldur, like a young Kratos, is vengeful and angry. He doesn't care who gets in his way, they'll become a target too. He's brutal, cocky, outright arrogant. He's particularly gungho about killing a parent who wronged and betrayed him. (I would argue though that Baldur is way more justified than Kratos ever was in his rampage against Zeus. Not that Zeus didn't deserve it, but his motivation against Zeus was, "He killed me and stole my powers wah." At least at first.)

Baldur also does as Kratos did, and he perpetuates a cycle of hate and destruction. Kratos knew Baldur likely wouldn't stop at Freya, just as he didn't stop at Ares. Baldur was exceptionally keen to fight and kill, especially after he regained sensation. He wouldn't have stopped at Freya. He damn well likely would have gone after Odin next for lying to him and not helping him, and anyone else getting in his way of such a goal. This, seconds before his death, Kratos tells him the same thing Zeus told him. "The cycle ends here."

In conclusion, Baldur is an extremely complex character whose life was admittedly ruined really before it began. He was young for a deity, at a mere 130 years old, when he died. Freya, despite her love and intentions, ignored his wishes and refused to respect her adult son's boundaries. Odin's only real use for his youngest son was just that. What he could use Baldur for. He didn't really love him, he didn't care about him, he lied to his face... And we don't know how truly isolated he was.

[kuruna]

Here how I changed the storyline with Parfum Palace since I'm there in game:

-Lucerne DOES have the Pokeflute that would be used to wake up Snorlax, but it's not because he took it... rather, Lysandre has asked him to run a few tests on it! It's constructed from a material that's similar to that of the anistar sundial... (Which also happens to be the same material the ultimate weapon is crafted from). He's more than happy to give it back because he's just about finished with his tests, but...!!

-The Furfrou Incident. His dogs are Loose!! He's so preoccupied he can barely think about anything else!!! Shauna & Serena end up having to help out.

-After they help, Lucerne explains a little about the flute while handing it to the girls for them to deliver. He also mentions AZ for the first time, mentioning that his cousin (Lysandre) has been developing a peculiar interest in the old king.

-(the girls don't get to see it, but when Lysandre comes by to grab Lucerne's research notes, the two end up having an argument 😭 Lys hasn't told Lu about team flare or his ultimate plans, but Lu just Knows he's up to nothing good ... He tells Lysandre he'll no longer help with whatever he's planning after this.)

[alipeeps]

Episode 22

Oh well that's one way to prove Wen Xiao's innocence... a whoooole bunch of people just saw a demon shapeshift from pretending to be Wen Xiao into her true form.

WHY the fuck though did it take so long for Ying Lei and Xiao Bai to come running to help? What have they been doing the whole time Ao Yin was using her powers of confusion on Zhuo Yichen?

Aaaaand they're off running after her AGAIN.

Wait why did we see him just standing there as she ran away? Has she done something to him again?

What the fuck is up with Zhuo Yichen?

So they've rescued Wen Xiao... but Chongwu camp are still holding Pei Sijing.

Oh here we go, another patented flashback showing that there was more to previous scenes.

Oh-ho, very clever, she and Zhao Yuanzhou used the sundial to record the evidence of Wen Zongyu's demon experiments?

Did they though? Or is this just a clever bluff?

God the visuals on this show...

They are all worried about him.

Eeexcept Zhuo Yichen seems a bit too cheerful. I think Ao Yin did something to him. Is he being controlled in some way? By Li Lun?!!

Exactly what I said 2 episodes ago! Just snap off a piece of Bai momma and you'll be fine! 😂

Uhhhh 2 unknown great demons you say?

Thaaaat looked awfully like Li Lun and Zhu Yan in that brief flashback?

And didn't Zhu Yan previously say something about he and Li Lun repairing the white emperor tower?

Yup, he did. In episode 19.

Uhhhh.. Bai Jiu is a descendent of his divine wood mother and we've seen he has divine power... can you not get some kind of divine wood power from him?

I AM A FUCKING GENIUS!!

Look at these fucking idiots. I'm love them!

He does in-fucking-deed.

Zhuo Yichen keeps staring at Wen Xiao... did Ao Yin's enchantment do something to him regarding his feelings for Wen Xiao?

Whyyyy in cdrama do they always cut across the palm? A cut there is going to be painful, slow to heal, and debilitating/affecting the function of your hand while it is healing. Yeah it looks cool and all but it's so fucking dumb!

Awww I am genuinely starting to feel a bit bad for Ying Lei... I know it's done in a jokey way but so many times now he is left out of the high-fiving and you can see it's bothering him...

Yeah, you tell em Ying Lei!

Oh shit... and you didn't think to mention this earlier, Wen Xiao?

Ngl I love how all their angst and motivation about getting the divine wood to repair the baize token is verbalised about being about saving Zhu Yan rather than saving the wilderness. Like yeah, they want to do both, and repairing the baize token is necessary for both, but it's saving their friend that is uppermost in their minds.

Oh what the fuck? In his vision/memory, Li Lun is replaced by Zhuo Yichen?!

Awww he covers her with his cloak and takes over doing the research... Oh no wait, he's not doing research, he's tidying the books away to set out some food for her...

God the lighting in this show is just so pretty!!

Oh DAMN

(This show is going to traumatise us all, isn't it? 😭)

Oh wait up.. he will... if "his malicious energy is out of control and he loses his mind". So.. if he doesn't... you won't, Zhuo Yichen?

And is that what made her gasp and spill her soup? That implication that he under some circumstance might not kill Zhu Yan? Or was it just the blunt statement that he will kill him that upset/startled her?

Oh man...

Uhhh... our grasp? Is that you, Li Lun?

God the visuals of Zhu Yan sitting there, desperately holding onto control, suffering... and the manifestation of the destructive core of him just sitting starting at him... watching... waiting...

Whyyyy does only Chongwu camp get to report shit to the King? Why isn't Demon Hunting Bureau also reporting their side of things? Like that it was Chongwu camp's actions that caused Zhao Yuanzhou to lose control?

Ohhh dang now his demonic core is trying to mess with his mind... playing on his feelings of guilt...

Ahhh shit I think demon core won the battle...

So Zhuo Yichen really is heading off intending to battle with Zhu Yan.

Oh GOD this is all so fucking angstyyyyyyyyy

Oooh? Bai Jiu's words have given her an idea?

Does.. the sundial control time? Can they use it to fast grow the divine wood?

AHA!!

Who have you got that can wait 300 years in the Valley of Time to bring back the flowered divine wood though? Ying Lei, I guess?

Or wait, is she going to do it? Is she immortal due to being Baize goddess then?

(Also does this mean the sundial they destroyed for Chongwu camp was a fake?)

Haha, it was. I did wonder at the time why they made a point of showing her picking up the paperweight sundial when she was hiding in Bai Jiu's room.

Oooh it's my favourite bit of instrumental music in this show. Haven't heard it in a while.

How are you? She's just spent 300 fucking years alone, how do you think she is?

Oop! Yet another retconning flashback!

Ooooh are they gonna pull a fake death scenario? Stab Zhu Yan with that needle and fool Chongwu camp into thinking he's dead?

But ya still gotta get close enough to him to stab him with it Zhuo Yichen!

Oh fuck, scratch that, you gotta get close enough to stab him between the fucking eyebrows with it!!

That is a BIG fucking needle to ram between someone's eyebrows dude...

OH FUCK

WHAT?

Xiao Bai didn't give Zhuo Yichen any such needle?

Fuuuuuck was Zhuo Yichen just trying to make Wen Xiao feel better? Or....

EXACTLY!! I said exactly this!!

DID I NOT SAY LI LUN MIGHT BE POSSESSING ZHUO YICHEN?!!

Uuuh slight problem also.. that barrier was not just to keep people out but to keep Zhu Yan IN in case he loses control!!

[chantlight]

( circe // accepting ) CASADH [ @aestuum ] WROTE: ❝Bold action and bold manner are not the same.❞

CASSANDRA HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO visit Minrathous ever since Anthony had told her about them. She remembered stealing away to her uncle’s library as a girl. Her brother would pull down a tome of history as large as her torso, and when it banged down on the study table, they’d freeze as if under spell, waiting to see if their uncle would come to scold them. If he didn’t, Anthony would flip to the index and have her scan her finger down the list, eyes closed, and land on something at random. Whatever was picked would be transformed. He took those dry, academic dissections and spun tales of glory and wonder.

To hear him tell it, the twin golems flanking Minrathous’ gates were tall as mountains, for it was from the living mountains the ancient dwarves had carved them. They cast shadows so great that all the city used them to tell the time. Thus the city had no clocks, not even sundials. Those who lived closest to the twins did so in perpetual darkness. The tales behind the dwarves crafting and gifting them to the Imperium were more wondrous still.

Cassandra sighed. She knew most of what Anthony had told was a complete fabrication. Still, she longed to see the Twins for herself.

Now here she was in an oddly named tavern in Docktown trying to keep a low profile. Finally in Minrathous yet she hadn’t entered by the gates. They would be no time for sight-seeing either. When this meeting with Rook concluded, it was back to the fight. This was not even a true interlude, only a glance at the other end of the battle.

An end she had to trust Rook had in hand, but who would she be if she did not pick their brain just a little? To get the measure of them and their methods? ❝Bold action and bold manner are not the same,❞ they reminded her, and she smiled.

❝Yet, both serve their purpose. I am not certain Fen’Harel understood that.❞ His name was near a growl from her lips. It always was on the rare occasion she mentioned him directly. There was no other tone for anger to take. ❝He is sly. He is subtle. He will bring the world crashing down on your head, yet you will never know he was near.❞

❝I cannot deny his methods are . . . effective.❞ Her gauntlet scratched across the wood table as her hand involuntarily clenched into a fist. ❝But, we would not be here if he had a habit of getting everything right. Sometimes, puffing out one’s chest and roaring is all that is needed to halt conflict in its tracks. Other times, one must leap on the dragon’s back. The true test is discerning which is required and applying it accordingly.❞

[twilightofthe]

okay i put all my cranky thoughts into a separate post that's now drafted and it made me feel better so i'll be able to watch this episode now lol but if it gets me worked up again i'm posting the rant i'm sorry i cannot be helped or changed or saved <3

ANYWAY AHSOKA EP 2

also i forgot to say so last episode but kevin kiner my ABSOLUTE BELOVED the return of the king is real so happy to have you here my dude the ending and full theme was absolutely gorgeous

anywayyyyyy so i am guessing sabine did not make like satine and survived her shish kabobing

well there's ahsoka

oh yeah there's bean she's fine she'll be fine xD

damn filoni really gave more handwaving to having a character survive a major impalement vs me twisting myself into fucking knots writing anakin getting run through lmao

ahsoka sorry but actually i'm gonna blame u for this you still kinda seem like a mess and i don't think you were a very good teacher to sabine and now ur dropping back in on her when she's convenient to you?

well at least we know why she's so adamant against training baby yoda lol

ope here's goth girl and the fuuuuck is his NAME again i keep calling him fucking bryan

i like the fancy sithy-looking sundial tho

pfff second ep is "toil and trouble" guess we're getting witchy!

OH YEAH WAS SABINE'S KITTY OKAY

THEY BETTER BE OKAY

I SWEAR TO GOD

yea ahsoka what happened to showing up in the nick of time and saving kanan and ezra from inquisitors in rebels u were slowwww girlie

OK GOOD THE CAT IS OKAY

that's all that matters

ope one more droid hanging around ezra's place

GIRL UR SITTING UP ALREADY?!

GIRL HOW CAN U BREATHE

we do love the mechanic girl of my heart

sabine does love her explosions

no huyang hera just likes explosions

sabine works best under explosive pressure we LOVE HER

ope back to corellia i guess? we can reuse the old solo sets?

sabine

you were just

impaled

"but she's not the one who needs to hear it right now" ahhh there's the sabine and hera dialogue. ugh but i'm still not used to natasha and mary i can just hear tiya and vanessa doing it instead :(

WHY DO Y'ALL KEEP MAKING SABINE AND AHSOKA ANGRY EXES TF

"ancient ppl from a distant galaxy" waaaaaaait are they bringing in those eu dudes

no wait i think i remember something about these guys that was mention as the big bad in the canceled animated rebels sequel

or it could just be the chiss lmao

that could be it too, makes sense why they'd want thrawn

ok that is some real cool galactic map visuals i am an absolute sucker for a good starmap

ok but wait how the fuck did y'all get a map to thrawn anyway did the space whales write it

also sorry morgan but i don't personally think thrawn would go for u nothing personal you are hot but you don't quite seem his type

waaaait is fucking thrawn gonna have force sensitivity now THAT would be absolutely hilarious and he'd hate it so much

who's marrok i have no memory

y'all you can't just make thrawn work for you didn't he only work with the empire cuz he had to because it would advantage his people somehow (has read zero thrawn novels and only seen rebels)

please tell me sabine is in the fucking vents of ahsoka's ship

THERE'S THE GHOST WHERE IS CHOPPER

I AM NO LONGER FUCKING ASKING

okay so i think my issue with Mary is she doesn't have any of the same authority and purpose Hera's meant to hav

CHOPPER

CHOPPER

MY MURDERBOT

MY SON

MY ANGEL MY EVERYTHING

Anyway

yeah

oh yeah harping in that the new republic is a total fustercluck

ew a capitalist

bro you know hera used to steal from people like you for the rebellion

sdlkfjsdk omg sabine's mom needs to talk to the teacher to keep her from getting expelled

but also y'all sabine is like 25-30 right now she's not a kid

@ ahsoka bitch you have no fuckin clue what you're doing doooon't talk about readiness

y'know maybe the imperial era just advanced medicine so later impalements don't kill people

oh oh so it IS ezra's!

sabine go find luke he'd love to have you

STOP WITH THE GAY DIALOGUE

ok so yeah she likely doesn't have force sensitvity

goddammit huyang neverMIND

so sabine IS force sensitive :) and kanan and ezra just never brought it up :) great :)

hera my beautiful ship nerd ily

bitch do NOT fuck with hera she has more presence than anyone ever

hera my dude you know better than anyone that if a ship wants to take off you gotta go try and stop it in person

ah i have been waiting like 5 long years to watch hera best pilot there was kick aerial ass

we STAN

chopperrrrrrrrr

oh yeah ahsoka's fighting an inquisitor too lmao

CHOPPER GET THEIR ASS

CHOPPER ADD TO YOUR KILL COUNT

ok this hera and chopper banter is perfect i do love it

VICTORY FOR MY GHOSTS

oh and good job ahsoka lol

aghhh sabine and her therapy cat i'm ;_;

theeeeere's sabine's mando armor

SABINE AND KANAN'S FUCKIN KNIFE I'M GONNA EVEN IGNORE THE BAD MULAN HACKJOB ATTEMPT

okay it seems like mary's kinda on and off for hera so far, she has her moments but she can't hold them

rosario keeps losing me i'm sorryyyyyyyy

natasha is doing GREAT

aaaaaand we redoing the end of the rebels epilogue!

god this makes me miss zeb

and kanan obvs but i've come to accept his death

zeb's still hanging around where is he!!!!!

ah all is right

sabine has her gay haircut back

here we go gay roadtrip to find ezra time

alright so i'm still not really vibing with jedi!sabine at All but i have concluded that this show is watchable but honestly not that good, writing-wise, sorry dave, so i think i'll be able to watch it with my brain turned off

goddammit first i thought the holograms visiting morgan were nightsister witch ghosts xD

RIGHT RIGHT HIS NAME IS BAYLAN NOT BRYAN

morgan stop simping for thrawn i guaranTEE he's not your type

oKAY

we are through with the two episodes! it is very late for me so i'm gonna sit and think on what i've seen so far and shitpost a little. i did really like seeing my rebels blorbos again even if the live action actors don't quite have their groove yet. obviously very excited to retrieve ezra <3 so yeah that was that and i'll be back for more next week!

[thefirstknife]

The Thread Unfurls Against the Clocks: Saint-14 and how we saved him

Hello. It's time. I already did one summary of how we saved Saint, but I want to go even more in-depth because I later realised that so much of this is unavailable and also happened so long ago that most people don't even know where to look for it and what to look for. I also want to address all the adjacent lore like the stuff about the Sundial and also how it all relates to the current plot.

Finally, I want this to serve as an explanation that there's something very weird going on and that the Saint we have is the real Saint. I've seen people already super resigned after this week's story, simply accepting that there was a reveal that he is truly the "wrong" Saint. I want to analyse all we have on Saint in-depth and focus on how we saved him to show the level of detail involved because I think it's important to understand things in the episode.

Obviously, really compelling lore changes can happen and work out, but in this case I'm just not feeling it, for various reasons. We'll see, but I still think this is worth putting together and that we have plenty of indications that we saved him "correctly" so to speak.

Saint is a unanimously beloved character and one that is so closely linked to our player character as well. The setup for his return was established so long ago and was kept consistent the entire time. I feel like the stuff in Echoes is almost like a culmination of it all, as well as a reminder about what we've done. We'll suffer for a bit for sure but there is no doubt in my mind that Saint will come from this safe and healed. No matter what ends up being revealed, I believe he will be fine.

Contents! Long post under. Spoilers for Echoes Act 2, mostly just in the Echoes section.

Intro

Curse of Osiris quest

Season of Dawn

What's up with the Sundial?

Echoes

Intro

I'm not sure how familiar people are with the full scope of Saint-14, but he's been a character since the beginning. We didn't know much about him at all; the first mention was in vanilla D1 in this grimoire about the Darkness, listing what various characters think about it. Saint's thoughts:

Saint-14's Position argues that the Darkness was an invading armada, an alien force of incredible - but tangible - power. Some adherents believe that this armada sprang from species rejected or discarded by the Traveler for their sins.

All things considered, he wasn't that far off! Really cool detail, but this lore was referenced in TFS, in the lore book Chirality, and especially Saint's bit:

* Saint-14's Position is the most eminently practical of the bunch, no matter how the man himself protests that such an obvious facet of the truth doesn't require a formal philosophical stance to be named for him.

There's 10 years separating these lore pieces! But they're still being referenced because there are some incredible nerds writing this.

This doesn't tell us much about Saint, besides that he's thinking in very practical terms. He views the Darkness as something that can be fought back. Note that at the start we don't know anything else about him, not even if he's a Guardian. In House of Wolves, we get this lore where the author (the Speaker) is going off about Osiris. We get a little piece about Saint; Saint-14 suggested that Osiris should become Vanguard Commander and also vouched for Osiris. This was the first piece of info that these two are familiar with each other. How far we've come since!

After that, we get his helmet as an exotic in The Taken King (though it has no lore other than the flavour text) and a little bit of insight into him with the first proper lore tab that actually features him as a character. It shows his iconic headbutt and ends with him deciding to follow Osiris to Mercury. A few little details are mentioned in flavour text on the following items, mostly quotes about or from Saint: 1, 2, 3, 4. Number 3 is interesting:

"Stand with your back to the Wall, and not even the Darkness itself will move you." —Saint-14

Remember that!

There's a few more in Rise of Iron, again, just flavour text. He's really funny here, and being his usual heroic self here. That's it for his stuff in D1. Saint-14 was some sort of historic figure, he was a Titan, he fought in historic battles, he fought against the Eliksni and he had some sort of connection with the Speaker and Osiris. He was a practical man, a warrior and a protector.

He wasn't really a full character or anything and only had a few quotes and one lore tab where he actually does something. But the stage was set! He was clearly a character they wanted to explore and they did, in Curse of Osiris.

Curse of Osiris quest

Curse of Osiris returned his helmet as an exotic item and immediately gave us hints about the expansion of Saint-14's character and where they're leading him. The lore tab on the exotic is a conversation between Cayde-6 and Lord Shaxx where Cayde-6 insists that Saint is not dead, while Shaxx is just kind of resigned to it. Cayde also notes that Saint was a "weirdo:"

C6: No one ever put down a Kell faster than he could. But man, he was a real weirdo. SX: Eccentricity was his strength. C6: Talking about the Speaker like you're related to him is eccentric. Claiming he's seen the future, that he fought Six Fronts fueled on the idea that some Guardian savior is coming? That's insane.

Wait a minute. Saint-14 claimed he's seen the future and that he believed in "some Guardian savior"? What's that about? Wink wink. Nudge nudge. To make things even more obvious, the remaining conversation is... about the Young Wolf:

SX: Belief is a hell of a thing. C6: Sure, yeah. One Guardian's going to fix everything. Kick Crota off the Moon. Make it look like us Vanguard know our head from our hindquarters. Hey, where are you going? SX: One of the new recruits from Old Russia I've had my eye on—entering the Crucible for the first time. C6: Hey, maybe they're the one. We'll call 'em Crota's End.

Maybe Cayde should've started making prophecies too! But yeah. This was the first proper hint about what they cooked up for Saint's story. Saint has apparently seen the future and believed in a "Guardian savior" and he fought for the City fuelled by this belief. Very interesting! To make things weirder, there's Saint-14's Gray Pigeon which also features some strange lore at the end where Saint addresses an unknown person:

To my inspiration. Your final gift to me I now send back to you. It will be good to see you again.

This was wild to read at the time because it clearly references something that we don't know about, but that's incredibly important to Saint. The theory was that he might be talking to us, the Young Wolf, but how?

That's where the quest comes in. Curse famously didn't have a lot of content, but it did have the post-campaign quest with Lost Prophecies. They were a set of quests where we essentially had to collect items to transform "prophecy tablets" into weapons in the Infinite Forge which was a sort of interactable area in the Lighthouse on Mercury:

There were a total of 11 of these, with the final one being to acquire the Perfect Paradox. Each weapon came with a prophecy in the flavour text and a lore tab. The final one however, Perfect Paradox, triggered a whole separate quest in two parts. In part one, we discover an old Vanguard comm signal coming from the Forest which we follow and analyse to discover that the signal is from Saint-14.

Detecting traces of familiar Light up here. Wait… Saint-14? He's been missing for decades. Saint was one of the greatest Titans who ever lived. Hero of Six Fronts. All that power and he just… vanished. The City's still looking for him.

This quest also features this conversation from Osiris and Sagira:

Osiris: If Saint-14 is lost in the Infinite Forest, it's because he came here to find us. Sagira: You can't blame yourself for every missing Guardian, Osiris. Osiris: For him I can.

If you're lucky (or unlucky, depending on how many emotions this gives you), you can hear this line from Sagira in Presage. This is where it comes from!

The quest is kinda set up in a way to make you think we'll actually be saving Saint here. We finally found his comm signal and it's leading us into the Forest. He's clearly affected the Vex and the Forest with his Light and he's fighting back. Osiris gets involved and urges us to find him. The whole thing feels like we're doing what we usually do; find a problem and fix it.

Part two of the quest continues in a similar vein. The quest is called "Not even the Darkness," btw. Remember that quote from Saint from The Taken King? Yeah. Anyway, we go back to following the trace leading us to Saint, into the Infinite Forest, this time into a simulated future. There, the Vex get alerted and summon a big Minotaur; Hagios, Reverent Mind (whose name means "sacred" in Greek, so essentially... Saint). We kill the Minotaur and then the area behind it opens; it appears to have been guarding it.

When it opens, we're treated to a bittersweet sight:

The area is beautiful, but it's a tomb. Saint-14's body is laid out like this in a pillar of light, surrounded by piles and piles of dead Vex. The Vex fought him for an unknown amount of time and they ended up respecting him; enough to create a tomb and seal his body and set a whole Vex mind to guard it, and apparently, revere it. Despite how hopeful we've been about saving him, he is dead.

As we approach his body, we take the remains of his personal weapon. Back at the Lighthouse, we use these remains and the prophecy to craft the weapon as it was; Perfect Paradox shotgun. The prophecy attached to it:

A tale that's different from the rest: the thread unfurls against the clocks. The one the Speaker loved the best must have a perfect paradox.

The prophecy is from Osiris, of course, which means that at some point when he was making them, he already knew about the strange fate of Saint-14. Not that he is dead; Osiris hoped to find him in the Forest. But his prophecy talks about time travel and a paradox. In the lore tab itself, Saint attached a letter to the gun in which he once again addresses a mysterious person. This person is now definitively identified as us:

All I have left is this weapon. The Cryptarchs say you crafted it yourself, built it out of scraps and Light and sheer will, inside the Infinite Forge. I'll make sure it finds its way back to you.

Well that's correct. We crafted the weapon in the Infinite Forge. But we only did so after recovering its remains from Saint's body, so how could he have had the gun in the first place? Almost like... there's some sort of a time travel paradox involved. This was naturally bizarre at the time; we had nothing else on Saint or any of this during this quest, just these vague baffling hints that there's more to the story. Especially since it involves our character; Saint repeatedly talks as if he had already met us. He says so in the letter as well:

I mourn that I will never reach the heights you have. To me, you represent everything a Guardian can become. Yours is a thriving City. So different from mine. My whole fourteenth life I fought to make my City yours. I never finished.

He knows that our City is thriving and that we are "everything a Guardian can become." But we've never seen him before. This was really confusing and there was also not even a promise that it would be resolved. But it felt like something that they cared about deeply.

It would take 3 years until we got the resolution.

Season of Dawn

This is a big one in general because they really wanted to be as attentive to all details as possible. Even before the season started, they released several weblore pieces to remind us of Saint and bring up some important information.

The first one was The Accolade, about Saint's past and heroic deeds revolving around saving people. The weblore focuses on explaining what his "accolades" are; aka his purple ribbons on his armour and ship. They're gifts from people he saved; tokens of appreciation that turned into a type of a ritual with Saint. If you're saved by Saint, you have to give him something purple and he will wear it with him and remember your name. It ends with Osiris shortly after we found Saint's grave. Osiris went to see it for himself, to check, to make sure. He also laments that he never asked about the ribbons.

The next one is a glimpse into the past, a conversation between Osiris and Saint as Saint hands him the Vanguard Commander title. It's a good look into how that all happened, as well as the differences in approach and beliefs between Osiris and Saint.

And then they released The Sundial weblore (TW for suicide if you're reading the full weblore. One of his Echoes does not have a good time). Osiris is found on Mercury with a machine he built, putting finishing touches on it. It's called the Sundial. Osiris built it in response to Saint being dead, the implication very much being that he intends to use some form of time travel or some other time shenanigans to change the outcome and save him. Osiris never recovered from learning that he's dead and from seeing his dead body in the tomb. The design is Sagira's, and he's also helped by Drifter, who shows up to check the math. I'll go more into the Sundial later.

Osiris wraps up his work on it and turns it on. He splits into his Echoes and enters the machine to start searching through Saint's timeline on Mercury with the intent to find the right moment with the right Saint to save him; he is specifically looking for the moment when they drain his Light.

Osiris’s Echoes scour Saint-14’s timeline on Mercury. But the corridors of time refuse to give way to the moment they need: Saint and the Martyr Mind in the depths of the Infinite Forest. The Echoes work tirelessly for weeks, then months in the space between moments. In desperation, he splits the dozen copies into many thousands more as the work continues fruitlessly.

Osiris experiences what the kids these days call "epic fail."

None of the Echoes ever approaches a Saint. They never find the right one.

Despite all the work put into this machine and all of his knowledge and skill, Osiris doesn't manage to use the Sundial successfully. He never finds the right moment and he never saves him. It's worth noting that when Osiris used thousands of his Echoes, he experienced the time and life of every single one. But for Osiris outside the Sundial, it's only been a few moments. In those few moments, he essentially lived thousands of lifetimes. And died thousands of times. I need people to understand the amount of effort he put into this and what kind of an emotional toll it had.

Completely defeated, he gives up and hides the Sundial. He moves on with his life, doing what he always does, until stuff suddenly changes, which is explored in the next weblore: Actions of Mutual Friends. Us killing the Undying Mind in the season before Dawn changed everything, for the Vex and everyone else. We essentially created a point of divergence. The Vex suddenly had to change their projections of the future; Osiris noticed this and got very concerned.

While he wasn't looking, his Sundial was found, by Psion sisters. They figure out the potential of the Sundial and work to reactivate it, which they succeed in. The Red Legion descends on Mercury, looking to use the Sundial to essentially rewrite the course of the Red War and win.

Osiris finds out and goes to Ikora, to the City, to ask for help. This is the topic of the next weblore: Desperate Times. Osiris defends his choice to make the Sundial to save Saint, despite everybody else basically trying to explain to him that the universe might implode because of it.

This is a lot of setup, but it's necessary. It all leads into what happens in the season and what the season revolves around; saving Saint. It wasn't even a secret, as they very clearly showed it right away in the trailer (best trailer they've ever done). The seasonal gameplay revolved around us using the Sundial to defeat the Red Legion and stop them from trying to figure out how to essentially change the course of history. We had to fight three different Psion bosses, one of each of the sisters, until the end, when the three of them joined together into a single Psion entity for us to defeat.

As we were using the Sundial for this, Osiris also told us about what he made it for originally. He explains a little bit about it and about his failure to succeed, then warns us against using it for ourselves, but doesn't stop us.

I told you before - I tried to save Saint-14. I bent the rules of time using a prototype of the Sundial. It allowed me to walk the corridors of time here on Mercury. But I failed. I never found Saint's final moment against the Vex. I encountered younger versions from his first mission to Mercury, among others. But none were the right Saint. The prototype Sundial still exists, accessible off the main deck. And it can still travel through Saint's personal timeline on this planet. But venture there at your own peril. He cannot be saved. I have walked every permutation of those corridors with a hundred thousand of my Echoes and found nothing. Saint-14 is lost.

Despite this, we make the attempt and then the first part of the quest starts. When we use it, the Sundial reacts. It reacts specifically to the Perfect Paradox:

The Shotgun you crafted in the Infinite Forge is reacting to the Sundial! An onboard transponder is broadcasting coordinates: a path through the Sundial, crossing two time periods. The prophecy blueprint you used to create the Perfect Paradox must have included this broadcast. If you can open up the initial chamber, I can align us to the first time period the broadcast is referencing.

The two time periods are two points in time where it's relevant that we meed with Saint. The first one is in the Dark Age, when he came to Mercury with civilians in an attempt to reclaim the planet and help the struggling population of Earth with resources and possibly old Golden Age technologies. We connect to Saint via comms. He is devastated and demoralised. He failed to protect his people and he's also under siege by the Eliksni and is more or less resigned to dying. Lucky for him, we get there in time to help him out of this situation.

After the battle, we talk to him. Our Ghost hesitates a little but then decides to do it anyway; he shows Saint the projection of the Last City from the future, to prove to him that the everything will be fine if he continues to fight and stays hopeful. We also give him the Perfect Paradox, to help him fight. The loop is set! This gun was crafted in the future and was brought to the past. In time, Saint will die with it and we will pick up its remains from his body, allowing us to craft it in the first place.

Saint-14: What is this? Ghost: The Perfect Paradox. Built by my Guardian out of spare parts and Light and sheer will to aid you.

More importantly, this is the moment that Saint spoke of to other people that made him seem crazy. As we've seen in lore from years before, Saint kept saying that he saw a thriving City and that there's some sort of Guardian savior coming and that he's seen this future. He also wrote in that letter how we gave him the shotgun and how we saved him. This part of the quest is constructed around this lore. This moment is what Saint remembered and talked about. We saved him and invigorated his will to keep going. This is why he is the way he is.

We part ways and leave the Sundial. Ghost immediately goes to check if we messed anything up and to let us know that there's one more point in time to go to:

Okay, let's check the Tower databases to make sure we didn't just wreck the entire timeline. Queuing "Saint-14"… Records state he was a former Commander of the Tower. He vanished on a final mission to Mercury in search of the exiled Warlock Osiris. Well, those are the big beats. Timeline intact. Good job, Saint. But our trip's not over. That broadcast I picked off the Perfect Paradox marked one more set of coordinates within the Sundial.

The second part of the quest started a bit later, but it doesn't waste any time once it does. We're immediately linked up to the other point in time that Perfect Paradox reacted to and we're back in simulated future, in the same area where back in Curse we fought Hagios who guarded the entry to Saint's tomb. Except now, we find Saint who has just had his Light drained from him by another Vex mind; Agioktis, Martyr Mind (note that the name is more or less in the same vein as "hagios," aka "sacred," dedicated to Saint). This is the moment Osiris was looking for, but couldn't find it, because he didn't have the Perfect Paradox.

This is the Vex mind they built to destroy Saint and we find him as his Light has already been taken. But Saint is still eager to fight and greets us happily. Unfortunately Saint is then restrained, the Vex doing everything in their power to kill him. However, this time he's not alone. We're there and we fight in his stead. We manage to piss off the Martyr Mind enough for it to now move to restrain us, which frees Saint, returning his Light to him as well. Saint then delivers the final blow to the Martyr Mind which frees us!

Saint-14: It's been a long time, my friends. I've chased your memory for centuries. You should go now. Those who could kill me are dead. You've made sure of that. Ghost: And what if the Vex take your Light again? Saint-14: Impossible. It cost them everything to build the Martyr Mind. When you crushed it, they were doomed. Ghost: You want us to leave you? You'll be stuck here for years. Saint-14: You've both done plenty. Just open the Infinite Forest gate for me. I'll meet you the long way around, at the entrance. Saint-14: What's a few more years of fighting Vex?

Saint decides to stay in the Forest and wait until we open it from the outside for him, in the future. This is how he leaves in the right time, instead of too early for his timeline, so nothing else is really affected. He waits it out and then exits the Forest at the time of Season of Dawn. This gives us one of the shortest but also the best cutscenes ever. As a note, in the cutscene, when Saint leaves, the Forest gate looks new, like from Mercury's past. This is because of the Sundial's effects on the surface of Mercury at the time, splitting the surface through time, so the Forest gate looked like it's from the past, but it's not. It's present day Mercury.

When we report this to Osiris, to say that he's amazed would be an understatement. I often quoted this from him, especially when people were being weird about Osiris and claiming he doesn't like us or whatever:

In his youth, he talked often about the Guardian who inspired him. I should have guessed it would be you.

We've done the impossible. Literally. The quest is called "Impossible Task." Osiris did everything and he couldn't do it and he lost hope that it would be done. But we did it, because we created the time loop; a connection with Saint that allowed us to use the Sundial in a way Osiris could not.

Saint has been saved! After this, he settled in the Tower. He had a series of minor quests and errands, the best one being the quest for the Devil's Ruin exotic which featured a really long and funny conversation between Saint and Shaxx. Another one is obviously the Corridors of Time quest which is genuinely cannot be compared to anything else as it was a community puzzle of epic proportions. An article that showcases just a little bit of how bonkers it was.

The important part of it is that the culmination of the quest featured us finding our own grave and Saint narrating a eulogy for us. This is important to us now for two reasons: 1) on our grave was a sword, a sword we received as an actual item in TFS, directly from the Traveler to fight the Witness 2) it's possibly a different timeline. The second one is unclear because we simply can't know when we die, but the eulogy specifies that the sword was shattered in the final confrontation where we died. Our current sword is chipped, and it wasn't when we originally got it in the campaign. So either this is a different timeline where it didn't shatter or this isn't that confrontation when we die and it will shatter at some other point in the future.

In this post I also noted how the music that plays in our grave scene and the music that played in TFS when we get the sword is the same. A very clear and deliberate choice. This is a very cool link to Season of Dawn that they brought back over 4 years later.

With the Corridors of Time puzzle ending and the Corridors closing, that concluded the Saint stuff. He was finally saved and he could rest in the Tower! And we know everything that has happened since.

Okay. So...

What's up with the Sundial?

We don't know! But I want to get into it because it's one of those things that they made sure to hint about, without fully explaining it so obviously every weird nerd online (me) wants to figure it out.

Back in The Sundial weblore, there are some peculiar and never explained details about the Sundial that have been kinda concerning and just intriguing to think about. There are a few lines essentially saying that whatever is at its core, it's not good. First is Sagira's:

“That work was theoretical! If the Vanguard find out what you did to build it—“

What did he do to build it? No clue. The infamous core is described only as:

He turned to look at the fluctuating glow of the exposed chronometric core.

When the Drifter shows up, he immediately reacts to this, fairly negatively which makes things more ominous since Drifter tangles with a lot of weird and bad stuff himself. So if he's disturbed about this...:

Drifter walked to the central spire and put his ear up against it. “This core…” he said, leaning close. His eyes darted back to Osiris. “It’s whispering.” Osiris’s expression didn’t change; his arms didn’t uncross. “We’ll seal the core away. I understand the ramifications.” “Good luck keeping that contained. Not something I would bargain with, hotshot.”

The core "whispers." Osiris understands the ramifications. They're both so frustratingly vague so the only thing we're left with is this ominous vibe of something bad being at the center of the Sundial.

This whispering, alongside a few other concerning descriptions and implications of the Sundial is mentioned in yet another weblore that I only briefly mentioned earlier because it wasn't relevant to Saint stuff; Sisters. It's about the Psions finding the machine.

The Psions could somehow feel the Sundial. Or perhaps just the effects it had on time on Mercury, even while it was powered down and hidden.

“Small disturbances,” said oldest Ozletc, the wisest. “Little currents in this timeline. Can you see them, sister?” “I can taste them,” said second-born Tazaroc, the hungriest of her sisters. “I can feel the edges.” Third-born Niruul, the quietest among them, reached her hand out to test the air. “As can I,” said she. “And something else. The source is disguised. The technology is Human, but refined. Surprisingly so.”

They also note the whispering, as well as its potential:

A strange device shimmered into existence around them. They looked up the length of an enormous, golden spire. “It whispers,” said Tazaroc. “Then block your ears,” said Ozletc. “Do you see the potential in this?” “Chaos,” said Niruul. “No,” said Ozletc. “Opportunity. See how it tugs at the fabric of our time? Can you see the seams?”

They also make the strange comparison to the OXA:

“It is so clear,” said Niruul, reverent. “An unobstructed glimpse into what was and what will be.” “Not the troubled ramblings of a mad thing, like the OXA,” said Tazaroc.

The Sundial offered something more and better than the OXA ever could, implying, perhaps, that these machines have something in common; possibly something beyond simply Vex technology. My insanity about this has been going on for a long time and also helped with the TFS CE lore. A bit of a tangent, but also possibly related, depending on what the core is.

Furthermore, Osiris refused to tell Saint about details of the Sundial, including remaining vague about its core in this weblore:

[u.2:13] One is a manifestation of Light. The other… reserved for Taken Kings. Better suited for traversing the Sundial because of what lies at its core. [u.1:14] One day you’ll have to tell me exactly what you and the Guardian did to bring me back. [u.2:14] We did what we had to. Trust me.

So what is it? Well, we know:

It whispers (very obvious and easily detected, both by Drifter and the Psions)

It's something bad (Drifter's reaction to it is uncharacteristic for a man who tangles with the Taken for a living and deals with strange dangerous artifacts all the time)

Osiris' Echoes are better suited for the Sundial because of its core, and Echoes are something "reserved for Taken Kings." Bizarre way of saying it to avoid explaining it

Similar to the OXA, and possibly any other time/prediction machines based on Vex tech (because the OXA itself is confirmed to be more or less the same as the FWC Device, for example)

To recharge it, we needed to feed it Light. This is particularly concerning with what Osiris says about it: "The Sundial is my greatest creation and my greatest regret. What I had to do to forge it I can never take back. As a result, it has components that consume Light. And if you're serious about operating it again, you'll need to feed it. Nothing is free. Ever."

What this points to, to me at least, is Darkness. The core is a Darkness artifact of some sort, merged with Vex tech. This only gained more proof to me with all the new lore about the Darkness and how it governs the mind and memory, especially when the Vex are involved. To the Vex, the future is memory. Merging Darkness artifacts with the Vex might be able to create dangerous time travel machines or machines that displace consciousness through time and timelines, like the OXA and the Device, allowing the user to "predict."

To make things even more convoluted (and me more insane), there's an almost perfect explanation for what this artifact might be. So perfect that I feel like it's too good to be true, tbh. It's a Nezarec relic. I will now list everything that connects this:

It would explain the Darkness artifact. Nezarec's relics were full of Darkness and were being used by utilising that Darkness

Drifter's involvement and experience with it. Hell, the Drifter may have even provided this relic to Osiris, since he had one and did not particularly enjoy having it, which was detailed in Lightfall when they showed us how he got it. Plunder was also rich on this, showing us that the Drifter immediately recognised the relics and understood what they were.

Whispering. Darkness in general has a whispering thing; the Veiled statues, the Witness, the old stories about Dredgen Yor, there's a lot of whispering going on here. But it's really super connected to Nezarec. His relics were whispering to us in the H.E.L.M.. The glaive? Nezarec's Whisper. Another disciple also called him a "whispering Nightmare." All of Root of Nightmares armour lore has it as well, with Nezarec tormenting his victims with whispers; for example here, and here, and maybe even here. I could go on. He's the whisper guy. Literally, Nimbus called him Mr. Whispers.

Psions. The Psion sisters found and reactivated the Sundial... Somehow. They especially were able to almost instinctively locate it despite Osiris hiding it well enough. The Psions also needed quite a lot of time to activate it again and admired the complexity of the encryption, despite it being human, so we can't really say that they found it easily because Osiris' did a poor job of hiding it. Were they drawn to it? Were they drawn to it because of its core? Psions are inherently linked to Nezarec. It's been confirmed back in Lightfall, but also curiously mentioned again in TFS with the Lost Ghosts quest (timestamped here). I'm definitely hoping for some Psion content in the future but this is fairly interesting in this context. Season of Dawn was really the only proper Psion-focused storyline.

Osiris' coma. His coma appears to have been somehow paracausal. At least strange! The scans were showing that he has "no residual activity" in his brain, despite us having lore from his POV showing us that he had a very vivid and visceral activity. He was able to feel some external stimuli, but was mostly drifting through strange visions, seemingly hopping between his... Reflections. Or possibly Echoes. His final thoughts here are also of the Sundial; as if his mind was somehow stuck in there, or lost, trying to find his way out of it. This could just be a consequence of his memories constructing something for him to experience so obviously it's just cycling through what he knows, but...

Waking Osiris up from his coma happens with the use of Nezarec's relics. An important point to note here is that this wasn't so much about it being Nezarec's relics; it had more to do with the inherent Darkness they consist of and Darkness can help the mind and consciousness move or awaken. However, given all of this and given his POV from the coma and the possibility that his mind might have been stuck somewhere with his Echoes in the Sundial, if the Sundial's core is a Nezarec relic, then a Nezarec relic had more chance to bring him back. It's such a perfect connection that I feel insane thinking about it and it feels like I'm constructing a fanfic, but also. I think it's worth considering. Cutscene of him waking up + article from Bungie that details on the whole idea of waking him up with Darkness and why that's important for understanding Darkness.

I have to mention the other theory, especially in comparison with all the above to try and illustrate why it never made sense to me and that is the popular theory that the core of the Sundial is an Ahamkara bone and that the Sundial worked on wish magic.

I'm not quite sure why this was even a theory to be honest. Even back in the day of Dawn, this never really resonated with me because it seems that the only reason this was a theory was Drifter saying "not something I would bargain with" and... Possibly whispers? Obviously a lot of things can whisper, and Ahamkara have been also mentioned doing so, but I don't find this significant to Ahamkara enough for identification just through that. I also don't think that one mention of the word "bargain" is enough either. Many have bargained with Darkness too. There's simply an overlap between Darkness and Ahamkara here, but there are also other pieces that are more closely linked to Darkness like eating Light. We could go even further, if we're considering Ahamkara; we could also consider Worm Gods, for example. The point is that several things can fit here, but I feel like there's overall more things pointing at Darkness.

What gets me the most is that they alluded to this in Season of the Wish, in what seems fairly obvious as disproving this theory to me. Riven and Osiris talk:

Riven: Isn’t it unfortunate your City hunted down all of my kind, Osiris? You might have wished for Saint-14’s return from the Forest. Osiris: And have him trade the Vex’s torment for yours? Riven: Perhaps you simply didn’t want him back badly enough to pay the price. Osiris: Save the bait for someone naïve enough to take it.

I talked about this earlier, but there's several layers of why the moment I heard this, it sounded like it's here to disprove Osiris using an Ahamkara. First, Ahamkara wish magic would be felt by Riven. If Osiris put an Ahamkara into the Sundial, then he did use wish magic and she would know about it. In that case she would not have said this; perhaps she would've teased him about using her powers to save Saint, but that would be a completely different sentence.

Second, Osiris is well aware and wary of wish magic. He knows that had he done so, he would've probably put some form of torment (wish magic backfire) on Saint. This, to me, indicates that not only did he not do this, he didn't even consider it as an option.

Third, if Osiris had an Ahamkara bone and was considering to use it, he could've just done so without building the Sundial. Why bother with the machine if you can just instantly make a wish and the wish doing exactly as you want? Obviously with a caveat, but still. It would've worked right away. Perhaps the Sundial was an attempt to contain the backfire, mixing wish magic with Vex tech to try and prevent the whole thing from going backwards, but even then; Osiris knew there are possible consquences.

And fourth, even if he did all that, it just didn't work, which would be quite uncharacteristic for wish magic. It's paracausal; it should override any Vex tech in the Sundial. If he made a wish, he should ask for a refund! The Sundial worked only because of the paracausal loop we created with the Perfect Paradox and it had nothing to do with anyone's wishes; definitely not ours.

One interesting thing for this theory is the way they said how similar wishing and simulations are. It happened in Wish and now again in Echoes. Here's a freebie for the Ahamkara theory enthusiasts.

Personally though, I simply feel like there's much more connecting and sensible explanation with it being a Darkness relic, rather than Ahamkara.

HOWEVER. The truth is that we simply don't know. I am personally more into it being Darkness (and Nezzy specifically), but I could be wrong and the Ahamkara theory could be proven correct somehow. Hell, it could be something completely different. It could also be nothing; as in, we will never know because they won't tell us because it doesn't matter.

And technically, it doesn't! Nothing really changes if this doesn't get answered. I want that to be clear. This isn't some sort of lore breaking detail. But you know. The nerds would love to know. I really wanted to get into this now that we've had a resurgence in interest about Saint and how we saved him.

Echoes

Okay, so why this monster of an essay? Well, because Echoes revolves around Saint and the Conductor trying to convince him that he's the wrong Saint. That Osiris acted out of grief and pulled a random Saint from the timelines, that he's simply satisfied with what he got because he couldn't get his original Saint because that Saint died.

Saint is convinced in this; that he's some sort of an aberration in the timeline, a simulation or a copy or just the wrong Saint from the wrong timeline. Even an error that must be corrected.

And I simply think that people are too quick to jump to the conclusion that this is the story being told, especially because of the radio message this week where we're shown that Saint and Osiris suddenly have different memories. But I feel like people have already forgotten the other radio message, from week 1. You know, the one where Saint and Osiris talk about their memories and the memories match perfectly:

Saint-14: Osiris. Do you remember when we knew? Osiris: Knew what? Saint-14: That we were meant to be together. There was one moment... though, it took us time to get to it. Oh, but our Hunter Vanguard, so smart, Tallulah... she knew before we did. All our little squabbles and bickering. She saw it first. Osiris: it, uh — ah, well, I was — obtuse. Stubborn. I couldn't recognize my own emotions. Then, Tallulah told me to.. "Be serious". Saint-14: Haha! I remember. So yes, she told me later. Was good laugh. Osiris: Well, I'm glad you found it so amusing. Saint-14: Who could not look back and smile? And I remember your smile, then. So knowing, and so full of our future together. Osiris: What brought these memories on? Saint-14: Hmm. I think about others who will have those same moments now that they know they will a future free from the Black Fleet. Now they have a chance to find love and be happy, like us. We can look behind, but also forward. We cannot see what is coming, but we know it is good. Osiris: You're certain? Saint-14: About us? Yes. Since the beginning. Now, and always.

We have this memory as a lore tab as well. I think this was given to us deliberately, to show us that Saint and Osiris have identical memories and that Saint's memories were never in question and that their history is perfectly aligned... Until he got yoked. Something changed when he got yoked, not when he was saved. This is a new development, which tells me that the Conductor did something to him, rather than Osiris saving the wrong Saint. Because until now, this was never a problem. Saint never had discrepancies in his memories before, with anyone he ever interacted with.

If we take a look at the whole story of how he was returned, it's beyond clear that Osiris was very fixated on saving his Saint, not a random one, and that we went to great lengths to do just that. We only ever interacted with one Saint, the same one, and we linked each other with the Perfect Paradox. It cannot be any other Saint, even with the existence of other timelines. This Saint and this Perfect Paradox are ours, from our timeline, the originals.

However, other timelines do exist. And some entities can access them. The Vex are obviously first on the list. Characters like Elsie and Osiris have also seen them. And clearly, the Conductor should be capable of this as well. It's beyond clear now that the Conductor is Maya Sundaresh. Maya, who was simulated 227 times by the Vex and had those 227 copies of her wandering the Vex network and different timelines.

If the Conductor knows where to look and how, she could see these timelines, including these other Saints, and she could've fed Saint false information while he was yoked. Implanting memories of other Saints perhaps, or something similar.

I know a lot of people weren't there for Dawn, let alone Curse. There's a lot of information about Saint here and a lot of really interesting clues from the past about what's happening now. It's also really interesting how many little details have been transferred through the story over time, showing that this is a plotline they care about very much and want to make sure doesn't get messed up.

There's probably a lot more stuff we could get into for speculation and explanations because there's still more stuff that plays a role in this. The Infinite Forest is a big one, and I suspect the Perfect Paradox is as well, as we're likely to get it next week or the week after as part of the story. Because it should be relevant to the story! It's an inherent part of Saint's story and why he's with us now in the first place.

So what's really going on? We're not entirely sure yet, but assuming that the Conductor is correct and that her messing with Saint is revealing something about Saint's legitimacy is I believe wrong. I think she's using him as an experiment and that she's messing with him, and by extension, with us as well. There's no way that we've had a "wrong" Saint this whole time and that nobody ever had any issues with him. That nobody had any discrepancies between memories with him. Not Osiris, not Ikora, not Shaxx, not Saladin, not Zavala or anyone else Saint interacted with since he's been back. As I mentioned, literally the first radio message shows us Saint and Osiris with matching memories.

It only started after he was yoked. Which means that the yoke and the Conductor did something to him, possibly shown him some other timelines or fed him false information.

Can't wait to see where this is going. I'm not sure how much this Act will cover and if we'll get a resolution to this right now or if it will stretch to Act 3, though if it doesn't get stretched, then I wonder what will the draw of Act 3 even be. Possibly just dealing with the Conductor? I'm very excited. This episode being so focused on Saint and Osiris and the whole throwbacks to Dawn and other past content has been really good. I'm enjoying it very much, this is my entire jam. I had high hopes for Echoes and so far it's been going great.

I'm super excited to see how they solve this and what comes of it and how much of this information will be relevant. And of course, if it will end up being correct! Because as much as I have my theories and as much as I'm convinced that there's something off here and that our Saint cannot be the wrong Saint, I could still be wrong. Looking forward to finding out!

[raviofthesun]

ravi’s brow quirked at her declaration: “lady ru is never early. everyone else is merely late.”, but he didn’t challenge it. didn’t need to. there was a softness to his stillness, the kind that came from years of learning which battles were worth choosing. and this? this was ruqaiyah being ruqaiyah. sharp-tongued and entirely certain of her own timing.

“then i’m glad i was late, this time,” he said easily, a flicker of a grin tugging at one side of his mouth. “would’ve been a shame to miss your entrance. though it certainly won't happen again, i'd hate for our dinners to cease."

she stepped past him then, her lehenga whispering against the cool stone, and he caught the mild jab about the sundial with a quiet laugh. not loud, low, warm, like a shared joke between friends in on something no one else could quite grasp. “i’ll have it turned,” he said, half-serious. “the sundial, the hourglass, the stars if you like. better to be out of step with time than out of step with you.”

he followed her in, catching the faint scent of rose and saffron trailing behind her. when she paused at the chair, not sitting, just waiting, he understood. not a test, exactly, but something close. he didn’t hesitate. he stepped forward and pulled the chair out with a grace that didn’t draw attention to itself.

her hum, satisfied, unmistakable, made something flicker behind his eyes again. amusement, maybe. or just the quiet thrill of playing a familiar game after too long apart. he took his seat only after she had, and before he could even reach for the wine, a servant stepped forward and poured it without a word. ravi offered a small nod of thanks, but his attention never quite left ruqaiyah.

when she told him he should always wear gold, he let the moment breathe before answering. her eyes lingered, and he let them. didn’t flinch. didn’t preen. “i wear it when i know who’ll be watching,” he said, finally lifting his goblet. “i think, gold only matters if someone remembers it.”

he leaned back slightly, one elbow resting on the arm of his chair, the other hand draped over the stem of the glass. relaxed, but attentive. the look he gave her was amused, yes, but also curious. open in a way he did not often allow himself to be.

“is that so?” he said, as if she’d mentioned the weather. no stiffness, no surprise. just a calm tide lapping at her bait. “strange and intriguing, dangerous combination. i suppose it's far better than being called dull. unless they say that about me, too?” his gaze flicked down briefly to where her finger traced the rim of the goblet, then back up. not lingering. just enough to let her know he noticed everything. especially when she meant for him to.

“you can’t just dangle a mystery like that and expect me to be gracious about it,” he said, voice low and amused. “you brought it up. which means part of you wants me to know. and i’m curious by nature, ask anyone.” a pause. “well. don’t ask everyone.”

his hand lifted in a small, careless gesture, dismissing the hypothetical. “but go on,” he coaxed, tilting his head toward her.. “tell me. i won’t be offended. i promise...unless you're worried it's true."

★

ruqaiyah did not reply at once, though her silence was anything but demure. instead, she blinked—once, slowly—and tilted her head the way one might when presented with a painting one could not yet decide was genius or simply grotesque. he stood there, now in gold, his silhouette haloed in the buttery candlelight, and for the first time this evening, she allowed herself to consider him properly. not just ravi, the boy who once stained her favourite sandals by kicking mud into the lilies, but prince ravi—taller than memory, and with that particular manner of standing that suggested he knew exactly how to command a room. even barefoot. even smug.

"lady ru is never early. everyone else is merely late."

she nodded, eventually, just once, a gesture so small it could have been missed were one not watching her the way he was. that flicker in his eye—was it amusement? something fonder? ruqaiyah wasn’t sure. she didn’t like being unsure. she preferred certainty. absolutes. like the perfect shade of pink for her lips, or the fact that no man who arrived without fanfare could be considered properly on time. “that sundial is skewed,” she said mildly, stepping through the doorway as he held it open, her lehenga whispering across the polished stone floor. “besides, a man should prepare for the unexpected. if you are ready only at the appointed hour, then you are already late.”

she glanced back over her shoulder as she passed him, pausing just by the chair. she didn’t sit. not yet. she waited, lips curled ever so slightly as she looked at him from beneath thick lashes. would he remember his manners? would he understand that power, real power, often lay in the smallest of courtesies? he did. when he pulled the chair open, she gave a satisfied hum and lowered herself onto it with grace that could curdle queens. she propped her chin on her hand and looked up at him. “you should always wear gold,” she said with mild approval, letting her eyes linger a little longer than necessary. “it reminds people you’re important. even if you forget it yourself.”

then, as if moved by nothing more than a passing breeze, she added, “by the way… someone said something rather strange about you the other day.” her tone remained light, idle even, but her eyes sharpened, subtly, like a blade hidden in satin. she let the sentence hang between them for a moment, watching him through lowered lashes. “quite strange, really. almost… intriguing.” she patted the table, a smile crossing over her glowy features, a hint of shimmer reflecting upon as the sun rays hit her face. she found it important, to ensure not only her outfit, but her face shimmered too.

her finger idly traced the rim of her goblet. “but perhaps i shouldn’t repeat it,” she mused. “you know how people are—always whispering, always inventing. and yet…” she trailed off with a shrug, elegant and unbothered, “...every rumour starts somewhere.” she wasn’t sure if there was truth to it—whatever it was. the rumour had been half-formed, little more than a sliver of gossip overheard through silkscreen partitions and perfume-drenched courtyards. she didn’t even care what it meant, really. what mattered was the reaction. did he have something to hide? or was his poise simply that: a performance refined over years, polished until even discomfort gleamed like calm?

[sophierequests]

🌟 yayayayayay! okayokay i have too many ideas rn but like, maybe something with David (shocker, wow :0) with the song "your text" by sundial?

ALSO IVE SAID IT BEFORE AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN, CONGRATS!

hey pretty stranger

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Pairing: David Kostyk x gn! Reader

A/N: FIRST EVENT REQUEST AS ALWAYS!!! THANK YOU AGAIN LOVE AHHH <333 I never fully listened to this song before writing this, but it immediately gave me sm David energy!!

Summary: After meeting a pretty stranger at a party, they notice that they have more in common than they might've imagined.

Genre: Songfic, Fluff

Word Count: 1.3K

Warnings: mention of alcohol for a second

"Who's that?" you whispered to the red-haired girl next to you, while another pair of Inferni performed a fire show on the stage in the middle of the room.

Genya gave you a questioning look as she followed your glance. Her eyes landed on a thin black-haired man, wearing a purple kefta, who stood in the far back of the crowd. You had noticed the way his eyes drifted over to you every so often, but once yours met his, he looked away quickly, opting out to anxiously fiddle with his collar as if he was getting choked by it. At first, you had thought that he had been staring at Genya - and you wouldn't have blamed him - but it had become painfully obvious that his gaze was trained on you.

"That Fabrikator over there?" she asked, a sheepish smirk on her lips, "That's David Kostyk. I'm surprised that he even showed up, he's not the kind of person to go to parties like this. However, neither are you and I managed to drag you out here."

You didn't even need to take a closer look at him to realize that she was right. He looked incredibly uncomfortable with the situation he was in. And even though he stood as close to the wall as he possibly could, he still didn't seem at ease.

The man, who you now knew was called David, looked over at you again. You had to admit that he was quite good-looking, even with his unassuming exterior, slightly messy hair and the awkward stance he was keeping up.

"He’s been staring at me for a while now.” you noted, causing your friend to give you a sly grin.

“Has he now? Well, we should help him get a closer look at you, shouldn’t we?”

With that, she hooked her arm through yours, effectively dragging you through the crowd to the other side of the room.

“David!” she beamed, startling the shy Fabrikator, as he apparently didn’t expect her to approach him.

“Genya, it’s good to see you.” he shot her a small smile before he peeked at you.

“I was quite surprised to see you, but it’s so nice that you’re here.” she began, removing her arm from yours, nudging you forward a bit to get you closer to him, “David, this is Y/N. I don’t think you’ve met before.”

“Hi.” he breathed out, one of his hands travelling over his arm.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” you smiled back, not quite knowing where this was supposed to go.

“I’ll let you both mingle for a bit, I think that I remember Tolya telling me about Zoya needing some help. Have fun!” Genya said, giving you a quick wink before disappearing into the masses again.

Both of you stared at the other dumbfounded and a bit overwhelmed by the sudden confrontation.

“I like your kefta.” he tried, obviously slightly inexperienced in starting a proper conversation, “Even my celebratory kefta looks a bit worn out, but yours suits you. It looks… cute.”

You felt your cheeks flush at that last comment. There were many other Grisha wearing exactly the same outfit, but he thought you looked good enough to bring it up.

So, even though there still was an inherent awkwardness to your chat, you continued to talk. The topics switched between personal stuff, your Small Sciences or, much to your surprise, the melting points of different metals.

“How come I have never seen you around? You seem to be quite well acquainted with Genya and the others, so I would assume that you’d occasionally come around?” you asked.

“Oh, I’m not really the type to go out that much. I’d rather spend time in the workshops. Working with metal is way easier than working with people.” he sighed.

“I understand. Without Genya’s constant berating, I wouldn’t have even considered going here. Right now, I could already be in bed, or do literally anything else.” you chuckled.

“Looks like we have another thing in common.” he returned your smile, his cheeks faintly flushed - whether it was because of the champagne or the conversation, you couldn’t tell.

“Do you want to leave?” you inquired suddenly.

“I’d love to, but I don’t think that it wo-”

“Nobody will notice that we’re gone. It’s way too busy for that.”

“Let’s go then.” he agreed, taking one last cautious look around before trailing after you.

Once you were in the hallways, he took over and led the way to his workshop, eager to show you some of his newest experiments after you had expressed an interest in his craft earlier.

Inside the cluttered crafting space, he was happy to explain everything you wanted to know. Apparently, there weren’t many people that would listen to him ramble on about his interest, even though he was so enthusiastic to talk about it. You enjoyed talking to the introverted Grisha. He wasn’t as obnoxious and loud as some of the other people you knew, and you liked that about him.

Sitting in his workspace, whilst watching him work or listening to each other’s voices became a habit for the both of you. At the end of almost every day, you would sneak into the room with two plates of dinner in your hands, ready to talk about your day. You also began writing each other little notes, whenever you didn’t get to spend time together.

“Hey pretty stranger, don’t skip dinner again!

We’ll see each other tomorrow, don’t you dare to hide from me ;)” you would scribble on a note, putting it next to the plate you put inside of his bedroom.

Of course, he knew that it was from you. You didn’t try to hide it.

His notes were a bit shorter but still managed to rile up the oncoming butterflies in your stomach, whenever you read his cute notes.

“You looked cute today.”

“Your smile is very pretty.”

And many more little papers found their way into your room or pockets, whenever you were with David. At this point, you couldn’t even be sure whether his feelings towards you were platonic or not, since some of his notes suggested otherwise. However, you weren’t going to pry.

During another evening in the workshop, this question might’ve answered itself.

You were lounging in one of the rather comfortable office chairs across from David’s workbench, where he silently worked out a few different sketches for one of his new inventions. It wasn’t the rhythmic scratching of his pen on paper that caught your attention, it was the times when it stopped for longer than you would’ve expected. Whenever you averted your eyes from the book you were reading, his ones were already trained on you, staring at you, as if he was trying to build up the courage to do or say something.

“Why are you staring at me, David?” you smiled, giving him a playful wink.

“I’m not staring.” he stammered quickly, his gaze trying to latch onto something different than you.

“I saw you stare at me, don’t try to deny it!”

He let out a huff, leaning back in his chair, and carefully stroking the skin on his neck,

“I’d like to ask you something.” he started, “Would you like to go out with me next week? Saturday maybe?”

The question caught you off-guard, but you still felt a strange bubbly feeling rise up in your chest.

“What?” was the only thing you could muster - much to your dismay.

“I think I like you.” he stated, looking into your eyes again, as you were trying to collect the right words.

“And I hope you do too.” is what he added, barely audible, but you still heard it.

“I think I do too.”

[thecoffeelovingfreak]

Hello! First off, congratulations on 50/60+ followers!! I wanted to tell you that 1. I love your blog theme 2. The fact you chose a medieval!AU for the event is awesome and 3. You’re an extremely talented writer <3

So, for the event — I’m not sure if I’m supposed to give any more detail (if I am, please let me know!), but I was wondering if I could request the astrologer prompt with Fyodor?

Hello anon! Thank you so much, I'm glad you love my writing! {I love the new theme too :)} No further detail is needed! I decided to go with astrologer!reader and courtier!fyodor for this work!

~~~

I Have Loved the Stars too Fondly to be Fearful of the Night

Pairing: gn!Astrologer!Reader x Courtier!Fyodor

Writing Genre: oneshot

Genres: medieval times, cryptic

Word count: 772

Warnings: slight angst/tension, brief mentions of war and death

Notes: the title is part of a verse in a poem titled The Old Astronomer to His Pupil by Sarah Williams! I'll include this link in case you'd like to read about the history of the astrolabe!

Read it on ao3!

for the Medieval!AU followers event

~~~

The fragmented light of the sunset shone through the towering window in the library. The space around you filled with the knowledge and prophecies of your predecessors. The queen has employed many astrologers, using them to predict the outcome of battles, the health of those in the castle, the wellness of crops, and various other subjects.

The black robe she had gifted you flowed as you walked outside to the sundial, light blue sleeves coming into view as you observed the garden. Approaching said sundial, you noticed a figure already sitting on the nearby dry stone wall. The familiar man with amethyst-colored eyes nodded at you, his white ensemble turning orange in the dying light of day.

You took a seat next to him, no note-taking materials in hand. Today he would be your sounding board, listening to your predictions with the occasional input. You stared at the Sun, now almost entirely under the horizon. 

Being a scholar of the Stars was a simple, rewarding life. Your queen had taken you from your small town and placed you under the previous astrologer’s care. He taught you everything you knew about mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine, creating an expert before his passing. You became well acquainted with a fellow courtier, figuring he was just as lonely as you were after hearing the cautious whispers of those around the castle.

“Have you found pleasure in the new astrolabe I bought for you?” Fyodor asked gently, turning his head away from the horizon to your figure.

“I have, thank you very much. I still cannot believe I lost the last one in the river!” you expressed.

He chuckled, watching you fiddle with the device hanging around your neck. 

The Moon had now veiled the lands with its liege of Stars, creating the world you had dedicated your life to. Your eyes shined with admiration as you observed the night sky, the ocean of the Gods, the herald of Heaven's wishes. Such astonishing creations, the Stars. The eyes of the Angels, protecting Earth's inhabitants throughout the night.

"Tonight, the Angels are blind." you spoke, "The new Moon has transitioned into Scorpio. I met with the monarchs this morning to share my findings, although you should not hold meetings of the court during this time."

"What about the battle in the south?" Fyodor pondered.

"The Moon is in conjunction with Mars. The battle, I am still unable to predict at this time, but I do know many will continue to die and those who return will not survive for long." you looked to the ground as a form of mourning.

He sighed, "And what about crops and trade?"

You smiled softly, "You should not sow crops or trade during the Scorpio Moon. Your best option is to remain stagnant; you can only do battle and take medicine. You should not even bathe."

"The Heavens are truly fascinating, are they not?" he smiled at you.

"Yes, they are." you shared.

"Our troubles seem to be so minuscule compared to the vastness of the universe. Our roles, our lords, our soldiers. What is your role, Y/n?" he queried.

You stood and smiled, spreading out your arms, and looking to the sky. "I am naught but a servant to the Gods, bestowing what they have written to the people. I am held up on a pedestal, but do I deserve it? I watch the people be sent into battle, knowing they will not live to see tomorrow's light. I watch society struggle, never learning any better no matter what I say. Will I find a source of salvation, to alleviate this guilt? Or will I be cast into the flames with the betrayers?"

Fyodor rose to stand beside you, calmly grabbing your hands. "You need only the salvation of companionship to alleviate your guilt. Allow me to share the burden of your prophecies, and we shall be plunged into the blaze together."

You stood watching him for a moment before dropping one of his hands and intertwining your others.

“I will gladly be your companion.” you said, “Now walk with me.”

You silently strolled through the garden, gazing at the stars.

“Do you favor a constellation?” Fyodor asked.

You turned to him. “I have always been quite fond of Lyra. What about you?” 

“Ever since my first night at the castle, I have always looked for Aquila.” he smirked.

You hummed and turned your head away from him.

As you neared the library, you released his hand and entered the archway. You exchanged smiles before the courtier vanished into the night, leaving his newfound partner to their work.

- - - - - - - - - -

If you would like to read similar works, why don’t you check out the rest of my Medieval!AU?

masterlists | upcoming works

[fullmetaldevil-blog]

40?

40. Pet

This one I went with Devil's Sea, an au shared between myself and @zanzaflux

Ben (who's mentioned) is a large Crab Demon and is the eldest of the demon's owned by Zanza.

---

The sun’s rays danced across the rippling waters of the ocean, the skies crisp and a rich blue after a day’s worth of solid rain. The cool breeze wafted through the mast as Tom deeply inhaled and exhaled the fresh air. The man smiling to himself at the pleasant weather turning his boat out to the open sea.

Like a sundial telling the time of day, the sun rode high above the mast casting little shadows across the deck of the boat, say for the cabin. Tom relaxed in the cabin keeping an eye on his equipment while the boat bobbed lightly in the waters. Seeing that he had little luck in the area, he decided it was perhaps better to go to the western side of the sea in the hopes of catching at least something. That area was good for feeder fish so at least of net’s worth of those would be worth something.

Tom exited his cabin and was ready to climb up to his controls when he spotted a large familiar pink cap floating at the edge of the boat. A warm smile blossomed on his face as he peered over the edge. “Hey there little guy.”

Benny looked up at Tom and gave a shallow smile earning a small frown from the man. “Morning Tom.”

“What’s wrong?” The man leaned over the side of the boat.

“My friend was being mean.” Benny lightly pouted.

The sea demon’s comment earned a raised brow from Thomas. He wondered what was done to get the little one to be all glum rather than his normally bubbly self. “Do you want to talk about it?” he held out a hand in offering.

Words weren’t spoken, but Benny raised his arms up in a silent question to be picked up. Tom smiled at the gesture and gently grabbed onto the demon pulling him out of the water. The man wasted no time striding to his cabin to wrap the demon in a cloth to help hold the moisture in before setting him down on the bench.

“There you go.” the man hummed making sure Benny was comfortable and moist. “Now then, tell me what happened.” The man sat down giving the demon his full attention.

Benny sighed and recounted the rather harsh lecture he had gotten from his friend. How he told him to stay away from humans and that they would either hurt him, kill him or keep him as a pet. He didn’t want to believe that all humans were bad, afterall Tom was a good human and took care of him. The little sea demon pouted, concluding his tale huffing in his seat.

Tom smiled warmly at the little upset demon, but at the same time he understood what his friend meant. “Well I know you don’t want to hear this, but your friend does have a point.” instantly earning Benny’s attention.

“But why?” Benny whined. Not Tom too. He already got enough of Ben’s lecture.

“Well your friend has a point in the sense of not all humans can be trusted, some can, but some can’t. Then there are some who seem nice at first but really aren't.” Benny looked at him in confusion prompting him to continue his explanation. “Some people are greedy and only think of what they can gain. I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of people attempting to overfish before you sabotage their equipment, yes?” earning a small nod. “Then those people are ones who are obvious about their ill intentions and the ones you have to watch out for. I’m not saying that a boat that doesn’t do wrong isn’t capable of doing wrong, but once you look past what’s on the deck and you see the hull is where their real intentions lie. A mask if you will. They will wear a face to make you comfortable and then show what's really behind it. ”

Tom explained how there are many types of people as there are fish and, like fish, some are good for you and some are bad for you. Many are colorful and look pretty, but that’s all they are. Others look like bottom feeders, but can surprise you by their usefulness. Then creatures like cuttlefish who will mask themselves to hide their true intent, and by the time you realize they are there it's too late. The man was careful in his explanation in trying to not come off as harsh as his friend’s explanation, but to break it down so it was easier for the young demon to understand.

“All in all I firmly believe your friend just wants you safe.” Tom rested a hand on Benny’s shoulder. “I know he probably didn’t come off the way you wanted him to, but they do care and want you safe and out of harm's way, he doesn’t want to see you end up like someone's pet fish in a bowl somewhere.”

“I know.” Benny softly muttered. Ben’s words still stung and left a bad taste in his mouth, but the way Tom explained it made sense. He hoped that more humans were like Tom where he could trust them, but from what the man described it sounded like that would be a drop of water in the bucket called the ocean. 

“Feel better?” Tom lightly patted Benny’s cap earning a little giggle and a nod.

“Thank you.” Benny reached up and gave the man a light hug.

“Anytime little guy.” The man returned the gesture. “Now do you want to hang out a little bit or go back?”

Benny pondered over the man’s inquiry before a small hopeful smile broke across his face. “I was hoping I could stay here for a bit, if that’s ok.”

“You’re welcome anytime.” Tom lightly rubbed his cap again. “How about you keep me company while we get some lunch?”

That was all Benny needed to hear before launching himself at Tom and wrapped the man up like a mummy in his tendrils. “Please! Please! Please!”

The demon’s reaction earned a hearty laugh as Tom waddled to his pantry wrapped in demon bondage to see what he could get for the both of them for lunch. He knew the little demon had had a rough morning, but he was happy he could at least get the little one to smile at the end of it all. Benny was a child and he had a lot of growing up to do. He needs someone to guide him and sure it isn’t always what he wants to hear, but at the least he knows it isn’t done to hurt him. All that mattered was he was safe, happy, and to eventually get him off so he can set up lunch for the both of them.