#OPPOSITE: SHRIKE.

[nikomedes]

realizing like a fool that shrike is, in both looks and temperment, just the dad from yotsuba&!. what have i done. can u even imagine. u hear dread whispers the bhaalspawn carved of the gods own flesh has returned to drown the world in blood, and u look over, and he’s

[chanranghaeys]

☀️ the boy who was the sun

How fitting that you meet him once again under a sky that casts a million colors, the same way that your life turned into a million colors all at once from the moment you first met him?

pairing: lee seokmin x gn!reader word count: 1.6k+ genre: angst to comfort to fluff rating: g tags: exes to second-chance lovers, implied breakup off the page, dk is like the sun :(, sunsets are also beginnings warnings: mentions of family and career pressure

a/n: this is completely inspired by @svtreverie and her words, in turn inspired by hozier’s “shrike,” so in turn i have lifted some passages from you and your brain. i love you, c. please note that i started this in april 2024 because of you, and i finally have the chance to finish it now. i dedicate this to you. dedications also to fellow cuties g @tusswrites and @miniseokminnies bc i can hehe. happy dokyeom day! ☀️

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ masterlist . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

The sunset came upon you suddenly as you turned the corner, the sun coming out from behind the buildings that shielded its setting rays. You always thought that the sun shined brighter when it set, as sunrises were always softer. Besides, you never really caught the rising of the sun as a self-professed night owl, waking up when it was already high above the world at its peak.

It was the peak of the golden hour. Today, it was a hazy rose gold mixed with pinks and purples that were still warm with the glow of day. You preferred sunsets this way, calmer and less harsh than the torrid streaks of red, yellow, and orange. You wondered what was so special about the past few hours for your eyes to be blessed with this sight.

You didn’t frequent this city often, but that has changed recently. In past years, you used to come here as a young adult starting out in the corporate life. You would wait for your father to fetch you after work so you could come home to a house that lacked a certain warmth, a warmth that you have only felt in numbered moments—memories that were branded in your mind, with some that you’d rather forget.

But time has changed you, and you now shadow your father’s footsteps as next in line to his company. It took a while for you to—as your parents put it—“come to your senses,” but fate had you surrender to it. Your feet moved on impulse as you followed your father’s footsteps, denying that it was against your will.

Besides, did you really have a choice in the matter? In the end, nothing did, anyway.

Today you were alone, and the end of the work day allowed you to finally take a deep breath in this corner green of the bustling business district. Some voice in your head told you to take a walk rather than book a car to take you straight home to the solace of your room in the cover of night.

Maybe subconsciously, you were also looking for the motion of your feet in a place separated from the confines of your comfort zone. Just for today.

The park was busier than usual, with more people both strolling and rushing on opposite sides of intersecting paths. Thankfully, you found solace in the anonymity that the crowd provided you; The joggers in their pace, the kids blowing bubbles at their parents’ faces, the dog walkers and cat lovers, the cliques that perched on their picnic blankets—no one knew who you were, the heir to one of the country’s largest conglomerates. A title whose weight you wish was never hung on your shoulders.

You looked up at the sky once more, savoring the brief moment that nature’s canvas was showing everyone before it was swallowed by the inevitable dark. Phones were raised and camera lenses pointed at the stunning scene in an attempt to capture the fleeting phenomenon. You decide to do the same.

You snap the sky at every angle, finding the best one you can while turning around in place. You realize that you must’ve looked so silly doing so, but again, no one knew who you were anyway. Just when you thought you were satisfied, you raise your phone once more for one final photo. You look at the screen and through the lens of your phone camera, you see him.

Wait a minute. You shake your head and lower your phone to look at the person with your own eyes, making sure that they aren’t deceiving you. They weren’t.

He was in front of you, a few meters away. He was transfixed by the colors above him, doing the exact same thing you were doing just moments ago—but you knew even until now that he’d work harder for the photo. He wasn’t using a phone, but his trusty mirrorless camera snapping away at the sky. He lowers the camera to eye level, capturing the chaos through his lens of calm.

His lens traveled, looking for the next subject to immortalize in a photo. Before you knew it, the lens was aimed right at you.

He froze.

You could just imagine the thoughts going through his head as he lowered his camera. You didn’t care if you were standing in the way because you couldn’t see anyone but him.

Him. The boy who was the sun—your sun. The boy whose light was so bright that it was blinding that it always hurt, but in a good way.

The boy whose light was so bright and blinding, that in the end it just hurt.

Instinct took over. And while it hurt your heart to do it again, you looked down and turned around, away from the only source of light to ever grace your life.

Because you could not do it any longer.

You could not burden him with pressures that were beyond his control. You could not bring him back into a world where the only words for him were, "You don't belong." You could not let him back into the darkness you have made for yourself. You could not protect him from yourself if he reenters the tall walls you have built around you.

In the corner of your eye, you see him start to move, and you begin walking as quick as you can. Your mind started to fill with thoughts you worked so hard to push away—thoughts, memories, unspoken words, and everything else that was for him and no one else.

You refuse to believe the heavy footsteps growing louder as they neared you. You refuse to believe that he would actually still reach for you after the way you pushed him away all those years ago. And even when you felt the grip of a hand on yours, you still refused to believe that it was his fingers and his palms that caught your wrist, how naturally it fit, closing around it as if was a sheath to your sharp edges.

You hear it—your name from his voice, so indelible in your mind, for all its lilts and tones when he both spoke and sang. His voice, that you have not heard in five years, immediately brought you back to the day you first met and all the days since then.

His voice that, in one second, immediately broke down the walls that you put up around yourself since that last day.

You find your voice, surprising yourself that you did. “Seokmin. Hi.” You were breathless, and your voice showed it.

“Hi.” He replied, and he smiled, the most beautiful smile you’ve ever seen, breaking out from his face, one that could not hide the pure emotion. “I’m so happy to see you here.”

Before you could register what happened, you found yourself replying involuntarily, “Me too.”

And with that simple statement, something shifted in you.

Five years have changed you, there’s no doubt about that. And in those five years, you’ve come to terms with the painful truth behind why you let him go, with the question of “Why?” still haunting your every moment of regret.

On the worst nights, you find yourself wrapped in the jacket he put around your shoulders for the last time, right before you parted. The one that granted you his faithfully unfailing warmth in the cold, grateful it was there to catch your tears.

On the best days, you absentmindedly hum the tune from the LUCY song he said was his favorite, the one that you came to love just as much as he did. Whether you knew it or not, he was still in everything you did.

Because one thing you knew and you were sure of—you loved him, with every piece and fiber within you. You loved him hard, too hard, so much so to the point that you had no choice but to let him go.

Yet here you are, with the life-shattering realization that you still love him, titles and labels and families and the whole world be damned, because the man standing in front of you was the same man who still had his heart on his sleeve. You could see it in his smile.

How fitting that you meet him once again under a sky that casts a million colors, the same way that your life turned into a million colors all at once from the moment you first met him?

In the midst of the crowd and the afterglow of the sunset, in a place where you could trust to remain unseen and unknown, you find once again the only person who was and is still the light in your darkest days. How could you have ever denied this plain and simple truth?

It was with his smile that you felt it again—it was so bright that it was blinding, and an ache in your heart spasmed at the warmth that spread from it. It hurt, as it always did these past years, but now…it was in a good way again.

The setting sun gave way to the dusk. Artificial light replaced the natural glow of the day to keep the surroundings lit. But underneath its canopy, you couldn’t help the light blooming again from within you, slowly making its way to the smile that formed on your lips.

With the glimmer of this newfound light, you resolve to fight every single instinct within you—to walk away, to move your feet in the opposite direction, to run from the feelings that you have always avoided.

You start small, with one, two steps towards him. You could whisper, and he would hear it because he knew that as long as it came from you, it didn’t need to be shouted. He knew that you’d fly like a bird to him now if you could.

Because nothing else but your truth can illuminate the path ahead of you. And your truth was standing right in front of you.

[dock57]

[Jumping over to EP 3 as I was taking screenshots from it for future posts. I actually have noticed this a few times from watching it, but I would like to point it out as well. I love how these four paired up in this episode. You have Scratch and Shrike who are constantly at each other's throats, while you have Beebs and Scritch who are getting along.

I love how Scritch stays to Beebs' side for the rest of the episode. Scritch sticks with Beebs because right now, Beebs is the leveled headed one here. He's the voice of reason. Scritch is just as tired of this crap as Beebs is as well.

Scritch never says a word, but I love how helpful he is. How concern he is for their wellbeing but for Beebs' as well. Giving him little guidance and help to safety for all of them.

I love this shot too! You can see Scritch is concerned for Beebs. How much energy Beebs is using to keep them alive, but to see that he is doing it damaged as well. I love how Scritch looks to him with concern and wants to help, rather than complain or cause any further problems unlike his brother, Scratch. He's looking at his cybernetic arm and wondering how that affects Beebs and how it can be fixed.

Its hard to tell, especially since this shot is focused on Shrike, but you can also see in the background that Scritch is helping Beebs at pulling away the green veins from the console. Then you have Scratch, who is, doing nothing...

It is funny for him to let Beebs know that well, the ship is heading straight towards the star/sun. I feel like that was already a known fact, but I love how Scritch still has to point it out to Beebs. Like in this moment, he looking to Beebs and asking with those eyes "what are we going to do?"

I think about it now, but, I also think that maybe the reason why Scritch sticks to Beebs' shoulder is because he knew Beebs would listen to him. His brother and Shrike as of right now are being irrational. They're trying to prevent from you know- burning up into a star, but still are fighting with each other while doing so. Scritch would probably have no way to be able to get their attention, especially Shrike who is not the best at reading others anyway...

Beebs is a rational guy and right now, the one thinking the most rational... So I love that Scritch reaches for Beebs' attention because he knows that he can trust Beebs to make the right decision. I mean man, don't blame Scritch- I would trust Beebs with my life too...

And of course, at the end of the episode. They're out of danger finally, where they are gather to say goodbye to Us- and of course get Scratch to apologize for well, you know...

I love how in the end, Scritch decides to help Beebs one last time and at least patch up his cybernetic arm so that Beebs can play his guitar to communicate with Us. Gives it a little pat to make sure its sticking on tight. I love how its green as well, the same green that matches' Scritch collar/backpack. I love this little friendship that these two seem to have.

I mean really I love the dynamic between the four as well, this episode really captures the 'brother relationship' that they all share. Which once again, is something else I would love to talk about in another post!

Scritch you are such a precious little bean. Thank you for keeping your brother Scratch in check...

Also-

These silly moments I captured too. Lord these two are such polar opposites from Beebs and Srcitch and I love that. I love the dynamic between them so much.

Also if you noticed any grammar issues- this is what happens when you write a post at 3 AM, whoops!]

[spagheddiesquash]

so ive been thinking about that post on the official MW blog from back in september 2023

the one with the upcoming characters on it!!! and ive been looking at two of the guys on there mostly. deadeye and maybach..

HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS. IK ONE OF THEM APPEARS IN EP 6 AND THE OTHER IN EP 8 SO WE HAVE A LONG WAYS AWAY BEFORE WE REALLY SEE THEM BUT YKNOW. THOUGHTS.

ive been looking at their designs and i thought.. what if they end up being like. foils(?) to shrike and beebs?? because im just saying. they do look a little similar but also like they directly contrast each other….. using shrike for scale i was able to put all four of them together

AND. I SPENT THE BETTER HALF OF MY SATURDAY AFTERNOON FINDING SOME SIMILARITIES AND OPPOSITES IN THEIR DESIGNS….. TEEHEEHEE :^)

I KNOW THESE MIGHT BE STRETCHES BUT LIKE. HEAR ME OUT!!!

alsooo

AND THIS IMAGE FROM THE MERCH STORE

again we have a long ways away before we see either of these guys. i could be COMPLETELY wrong like that grim reaper jawbone post i made god knows how long ago (after all i AM only able to go off visuals here) BUT this was indeed very fun to come up with. if i have more thoughts i shall add on later.

do YOU GUYS have any thoughts about this??? questions, comments, etc?? LET ME KNOW!!! PLEASE I LOVE HAVING DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THEORIES/PREDICTIONS

[toastedclownery]

The Monkey Wrench Five Sun Theory

Basically, my theory is that the characters of Monkey Wrench are the reincarnated Aztec pantheon. The more important they are to the story, the more likely they are to be part of the Legend Of The (Five) Suns, the Aztec creation myth.

The four main characters are the Four Tezcatlipocas, the four sons of the original creator couple. These four are the most important since they are responsible for creating the world.

We are currently following Huitzilopochtli as Shrike and Xipe Totec as Beebs. The other two, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, are coming a bit later.

The characters can be identified with their respective gods because almost all of them have hidden iconographic elements in their designs. Some of them can be really obvious, like for example in episode 4 we have three of the most obvious

Tyneen as Cipactli, a giant crocodile lady,

Jawbone as Mictlantecuhtli, a literal skeleton,

And Ajax, who is a humanoid walrus alien, with Tlaloc's iconic fangs poking out of his mouth.

In some cases the designs may not be as clear, but their personalities also come into play! For example we have Scratch and Scritch, a pair of kitten-like aliens who have crossed paths with the protagonists a couple of times.

Scratch is an arrogant and self-centered black cat that loves to have expensive things (or act like he does). Meanwhile his little brother Scritch is a cute orange Scottish Fold who is the opposite of him, he is generally much nicer and more cooperative, and he "doesn't speak". These are Tecciztecatl and Nanahuatzin.

I plan to make a post dedicated to everything I've found for each character, but I'm also going to make posts about the recreation of some myths, and other things I've noticed. Plus my predictions on how the show is going to develop with this in mind! And I haven't forgotten about the godhunt, I have things to say that relate to this too

Speaking of the godhunt, IDEALLY I would post these weekly like I did with that one, but my productivity fluctuates a lot. I am posting Shrike together with this at least.

Here's a list of all the public characters I've found so far, it will be updated with links as I go!

[monkey-wrench-series]

Is cabbage the opposite of pizza?

I look to Shrike creators as the authority on this matter.

[ask-postcrash-curly]

[Slowly, but without warning, a succession of images begins to trickle into Curly’s mind. Vivid but distorted, as though someone were attempting to project a film from beneath a running stream. Faces are watercolor splotches void of detail. A song plays from a tinny radio somewhere, though looping in and out of sequence. If heard closely… “Free Bird”?

An elegant woman, platinum-haired, tall, and slender, sits with her back turned. She is surrounded by an endless sea of birds - blue jays, mockingbirds, pigeons, hummingbirds, swans, robins, shrikes, kestrels, starlings… and a single large raven perched on her arm. She swoons, and suddenly every bird erupts into flight like an explosion of feathers. The woman is left lying still, illuminated by moonlight. Faint wingbeats in the distance. She sinks through an invisible floor and falls into a sea of stars below.

A stage light cuts through the dark. Standing beneath it, another woman - young, with a short mess of brunette hair, wearing a rusty skirted leotard. A flock of small songbirds fly about her as she dances with a growing intensity and urgency. She breaks into an astonishingly fast and long series of pirouettes before stopping, tiptoeing backwards, and swooning off of the invisible stage floor. Below, a man with dark hair catches her in his arms. She looks at him endearingly before they share a kiss. When she looks back again, though, he is not the same man - she panics and thrashes in his grasp. Tries to scream, but finds no voice within her throat. A flock of mockingbirds enshrouds the couple.

“And this bird you cannot change…”

A tall and broad man, curly and blonde, sits in a pilot’s chair encircled by glowing screens. He reaches for the control panel, but another pair of hands grasps his own, stopping him. That of a young blonde woman sitting in the co-pilot’s seat beside him. She caresses his arm, stands behind, guides his wrists - and slams his fist through a glass case and into a large button. Blue jays fly in every direction as everything goes red and alarms blare and scream. The man runs from the woman, from the cockpit, only to find himself running back into it. The alarms are overlaid by the wails of a crying infant. The control panel is melted, frozen, gashed apart by an axe. Helplessly the man huddles to the floor, head in his hands, as the locked door behind begins pounding violently. The window explodes, and a flock of shrikes pours in from the other side.

“Lord knows I can’t change!”

Back to the pair of brunettes. The young woman, lying in a bathtub pooling with blood. The man, kneeling over her with a large, dirty knife in hand. He grabs her by the jaw and forces a fistful of smashed red velvet cake into her mouth. Blood flows freely like a running tap, the drain clogged by the same cake. Then - a dark-eyed pigeon dives into the man’s head, scratching and pecking at his face incessantly. He takes a few swipes with the knife, stumbles, and then falls backwards into the sea of stars.

The blondes, now. The man lies paralyzed on the floor, while the young woman straddles his waist and whispers drops of venom into his ear. Tears stream from his eyes. She picks up a bird in her hands - a juvenile kestrel - and seems to enjoy its panic as she torments it. Nearly tries to pull its wings apart, until a gray dove swoops down and frantically beats its wings upon her, forcing her to drop the fledgling. The dove chases the woman off of the man and out of the cockpit. The alarms cease, but the infant’s cries do not.

“Lord, help me! I can’t change!”

High in the air, a mockingbird and a shrike fly wildly at one another, swooping and diving and shrieking and chasing one another in and out of view. The squabble suddenly ceases; they split off into opposite directions.

“Lord, I can’t change!”

The shrike now flies to the young brunette woman as she slips out of the sordid bathtub, her limbs tightly wrapped in stained bandages. The mockingbird finds the blonde man in the cockpit as he drags himself towards the injured kestrel. Both birds twitter and call as they dive; the man and the woman startle before breaking into a run.

“Won’t you fly high, free bird, yeah?!”

They run, and run, and run, until coming to an abrupt halt at opposite ends of one another. Before either of them, ladders jut out horizontally like diving platforms; far below, the sea of stars swirls and churns in an endless abyss. The birds pursuing them swoop down over their heads before arcing back up, returning to their spat in the center.

Wind barrages the pair. Nowhere left to run. The woman takes a balancing step forward, toe to rung, and another, and another. The man hunches, braces himself, and takes several tentative, full-footed steps. A violent gust blows and nearly sends each of them tumbling over the edge. The woman’s ballet skirt is ripped from her leotard, the bandages around her body coming unraveled. The kestrel flies out of the man’s grasp, and the red-and-yellow patch is shorn from his jumpsuit and blown away.

Ladders’ edge. They lock fear-filled eyes from across the abyss. Two faces unblur and fill in with detail. Blue eyes. Grant Curly, before the crash. Brown eyes. Robin Warbler, before motherhood. The vortex continues to spin.

A car swerves. Glass shatters. The shrike breaks from the mockingbird and falls into the sea of stars. Crackling ice begins to crawl up the ladder beneath Robin’s feet. She tries to take another step and the frozen rung snaps under her. She stumbles; Curly instinctively reaches out to her. She looks up at him; though her eyes are full of fear and uncertainty, her face hardens with determination.

“You don’t know what real love is. You just aren’t capable of it. Probably never will be, not really. But that’s why I’m here, isn’t it?”

Robin turns and executes a reverse swan dive over the edge and into the vortex.

A piercing gunshot follows; the mockingbird is the next to fall. Curly staring down. Feet in cement; not for long. A deafening sound in his ears, impossibly bright lights behind his eyes. A brutal force throws him off of the ladder. Something catches his arm; another hand. He looks up from where he dangles over the edge. Burning heat and terror in his face.

“You know what they say. Pain is how we know we’re still living. You’ll thank me later.”

Time stops. Frozen. Past above. Future below. Hazel eyes. Blue eyes. A ladybug lands on Curly’s sleeve.

“Bye, Jimmy.”

He lets go.

The song fades.

Space. Void. Numbness. Cold.

Free falling. Gravity as a matter of perspective. UP or DOWN?

She sees him now, and desperately reaches out to him. Grabs him by the arms, and he by hers. Tears cascade into the air above like tiny shimmering stars. Despite it, she can’t help but grin at him.

Suspended in flight into uncertainty. Together. Birds with clipped wings.

The void surrounding them begins to alight with stars. Patterns become constellations. A caterpillar. An owl. A sunflower. A possum. A palette. A plush bear. A snowflake. A parrot. A dog. Far too many to behold, pulsing into life, singing, glowing from impossible distances and times.

The elegant woman is suddenly beside them, falling in a perfect swan dive. In her arms she holds the shrike and the mockingbird. Both calm. She falls faster. Hundreds of starlings fly behind her in a trail like a shining cape, the large raven coming up at the very end. She dives below before circling back up, and up into moonlight beaming down from high overhead.

No longer falling. Floating. The moonlight and constellations slowly fade. Robin places her feet down to find the void solid beneath. Curly tries to do the same, but stumbles, falls; she catches him, and helps him sit into a wheelchair.

When he looks up at her, she is no longer a youthful ballerina. Older and wiser, a mother, the beautifully strange woman she is now. The kestrel flies down and perches on her shoulder, preens at her hair.

When she looks over at him, his body has changed. Shorter hair, skin scarred and textured, limbs smoothed out at uneven lengths. But still the same blue iris, the same tired and open gaze. A pigeon settles on one handle of the wheelchair while a hummingbird flies around his head. A swan walks up and pecks at his clothes.

Despite everything…

Curly and Robin turn to face mirrored versions of themselves. He, much the same; though stronger, standing on his own with prosthetics and comfortable crutches. Robin, still herself; though much older and worn, her fading gray hair pulled into a bun. No birds around them. She leans on his shoulder.

The last flickers of her dream linger for a long time, before fading into the comforting sounds of birdsong. One last image accompanies it. A ruffled blue jay pokes its head out from the hole of a simply-painted birdhouse. It glances up as a robin flies onto the roof, happily trilling away. The blue jay disappears back into the house, and the robin follows.]

What am I looking at...? Hello?

Oh. Wow. Hello...? Yeah no I don't think she can hear me. Damn, that's a lot of birds. What is this? Some kind of movie? Bye, birds... Bye mysterious woman too, I guess. What's the plot supposed to be here?

And... now we're on a stage. Interesting editing here. I like it. ...Wow. That... wow. I'll never understand how dancers do it. Okay, so this is a romance...? HAHAH WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT—

That really looked like—

Okay nope couldn't be or I would've—

Is... is that meant to be me...? Can't make out his face, but... Huh, who's that? Oh fucking hell is this going be a crash?! No no no no. shit, not the alarms please i can't— oh fuck i can't breathe it's just a film just a fucking film that looks like me—

oh god what did he do to her why does he look like him—?? is— is that supposed to be anya, maybe—? what is this, i don't like this, what is he doing to her?!? i don't, i don't want to see this please

no. nononononono i don't i don't want to see this! that's a pony express jumpsuit oh fuck is it supposed to be me? i don't . what is she doing to the bird why would she?! ...okay. okay. the— the alarms are over, that woman's gone, it's fine, i'm fine, it isn't real...

okay... okay, back to the grey birds...?

bandages!! bloody bandages!! what is this supposed to be, i don't want—

what is this music for?!

this... looks like my dream...? i... i don't... please...

they're going to jump, aren't they? i hate this... so much...

his eyes are blue. they look like my eyes.

i... know you...

what's happening, what is this, why are you making me—?! she's going to fall do something—

who— i've heard of this before. i...

mum?

shit no no no—! no no no she's gone please what is this why—?!

gah no no make it stop—

stop. stop it nononono don't TOUCH ME—

...

it stopped... i don't... what is this? please... why is it so peaceful now? mum, please, can you hear me, is that you?

Those... are starlings... I remember, they showed me...

Oh God, I'm—

Pigeon, swan, hummingbird... That's... that's what you said they'd be, wasn't it...?

A robin, a... bluejay? They're... Oh.

...

I think... it's stopped. What... was that?

Uh. Mum? That was you, wasn't it? Somehow. Was that a nightmare, or... Can you hear me?

[ifortom]

masterlist

⪼ Tom Holland

⌁ Shrike - One-Shot - angst

Royal Guard!Tom x Reader

A princess and a royal guard live a forbidden romance, hiding their feelings from the world. As they try to keep their love a secret, challenges and moral dilemmas test the strength of their relationship. Will true love triumph over conventions and royal expectations?

⌁ Champagne Problems - One-Shot- angst/fluff

Dad!Tom x Mom!Reader

Tom and y/n, a couple that used to be inseparable, now face a deep crisis in their marriage. Their daughter, Olivie, 4, is in the middle of this emotional turmoil. With busy lives, differences of opinion and fragmented communication, the love that brought them together is slowly fading. After the aftermath they must face their own demons, rediscover empathy, and find a way to rebuild the relationship they once shared. Not just for themselves, but also for the well-being of their daughter, who longs for a united family.

⌁ Bad Decisions - Series - angst/fluff/smut

Tom and Y/N, two students with opposite personalities, join forces to solve a problem: they both desperately need a fake relationship to escape different social pressures.

[beigetiger]

Something about how Jaw Bone and Shrike are actually pretty similar as people, in the sense that they have the same overly aggressive and macho personality, seem to have an at least passing interest in Terrans, and have almost all of the same flaws. Anger issues? Check. Self-righteousness? Check. Toxic masculinity? Not thinking through anything they do? Just being risky and angry and unlikeable in general? All check.

Perhaps the biggest difference between them is that JB is what one would call incredibly, incredibly successful in his line of work. He's got money. The government hates him specifically. He's responsible for the creation of a significant number of Plague Walkers. He seems pretty high in the pecking order of people who work for Secondary Green. He seems to be largely considered to be the default Plague Walker. Despite his heavy flaws, he is where he is and he is exceeding at life.

But Shrike? Oh, Shrike. He's a failure of a Red on all accounts. He'd be dead in a gutter if not for Beebs. He is very, VERY good at making enemies. He's seen as pathetic. A weakling and a parasite. And Jaw Bone is not.

How they can be so similar while being viewed so differently is honestly because of where they come from, situation-wise. Shrike comes from a place that enforces hyper-conformity and rule-following, something we can see he is clearly not cut out for. Jaw Bone, on the other hand, exists within a group for which chaos and rulebreaking is default. Is accepted. Is something to be proud of. He is a good Plague Walker and Shrike is a bad Red. Because Plague Walkers and Reds are opposites of each other. Chaos and conformity are opposites of each other. Green and red are opposites of each other.

We can see pretty clearly that Jaw Bone probably hated his fucking life before he went to become a Plague Walker, where the life he lived before was that of someone entirely normal. Not even working for LAW necessarily, just normal. And he hated it enough he decided that going to the place with a 97% mortality rate was the better option. So really? Shrike would have been better off as a Plague Walker. He would have made an excellent Plague Walker. He was made so much more for living in chaos than he was conformity.

[fyrefrostanimus]

Doing a massive overhaul of my Voice designs, decided on not only the color theming (not changing the colors at all Cold will forever be purple to me) bur also each being a different bird species. I figured I might as well log it down here to not only keep a list for later but also receiving constructive criticism.

Hero: Crow, same as the player himself.

Paranoid: barn owl. Hyperaware of everything around him, especially sounds or visuals. Hunted also has this but Instinct Den forever changed how I see him. Also barn owl calls sound like screaming.

Cold: albatross. "Albatross over your shoulder" referring to numbness in this case (as far as I know that phrase just means something is weighing on you).

Contrarian: hummingbird. Hummingbirds have to be calculated to make sure they don't run out of energy, and that is exactly the opposite of Contrarian. But he still has that energy.

Cheated: cuckoo. Irony. He got cheated out of something (usually slaying The Princess), like how a cuckoo cheats another species of bird out of raising their own chicks.

Opportunist: lapwing. A group of lapwings is called a deceit, plus I decided to switch to him having the wing spur instead (he'd use it to win a fight in an unfair way once he gets an opportunity).

Hunted: loggerhead shrike. They're songbird that would normally be prey, but there's a reason this bird is called the butcherbird.

Smitten: lovebird. What else?

Skeptic: macaw. They're smart and I'm trying to avoid putting another corvid in so Hero is the only one.

Stubborn: eagle. He gives me the vibe of a bald eagle that will interlock talons with whoever he views as a rival (or lover, take this how you will) and plummet towards the ground at full speed.

Broken: dove. Pigeons and doves are closely related and doves works better with the theme of worship (often used as symbols in various religions).

[snickerdoodlesart]

you.. do you have any facts to divulge about the abyssal and the shrike..

I answered a Shrike ask a bit ago so it's now the Abyssal's time to shine. The melatonin rat itself.

In a lot of ways, the Abyssal is Rivulet's opposite despite looking so alike. Number one, they're emo. Number two, they are completely sluggish on land and will asphyxiate and dry up if they stay out of water for too long. They can breathe fine underwater and maneuver it as easily as a jetfish.

They're also completely carnivorous and trying to force feed them plants will make them throw up. They are not designed for the path of veganism.

The rusting iterator gal is Mellow Tide. They don't have a solid design yet so I really just winged it.

[boltlightning]

ao3 wrapped

hey. i posted 112,888 words on ao3 this year and just wanted to share some snippets i'm proud of among those :)

from any means:

“Then there is still mercy in the world, bitter as it may be,” Norrington says. He finally lifts his head and finds the courage to meet her eyes, then further emboldened, he raises his hand to brush her cheek. The blood is so jarring in the light. He settles on running his thumb over the line of her jaw. “Elizabeth. How can I fix this?” “You already know,” she says softly. “Let go, Atlas.” How can she ask that, knowing how many times he had let her go? Once more will kill him.

from angle of incidence:

She was right. Shera was always right. And he had brought his lance, but then the Bronco had crashed and broken her wings and they sailed to the Northern Continent for the first time since that fateful journey with Ifalna, and Cid was so caught up in following Aerith he had left the damn ship-boat without preparing properly and now here he stands, at a loss again. He wants to see Ifalna again, sure — but when it is his time. Shera deserves better than his running off and dying, trying to save the world without his damn weapon. She would be so disappointed.

from the dance we dance:

But James is on his knees, and his lips are already against her skin, and his eyes are asking something, and, and, and… And Elizabeth knows James. And she does not love him. But she could be surprised.

two, from so hunts the shrike:

Elizabeth pauses, and Norrington pauses, and they both stand stiff in the silence. “James…about last night. We need not burn down the world about it. Carry no regret in that noble heart of yours.” Norrington lets out a long breath, looking aside to watch the shadows dance on the wall. “I mostly wonder if you do. Regret it, that is,” he says, before he can stop the words from leaving his mouth. He is truly God’s greatest fool. He risks a glance back. Elizabeth wears a thoughtful expression, says only, “No, I don’t think I do,” and steps towards the kitchen.

Gallier holds up a hand to halt his army. They stop on the opposite bank of a wide, shallow, slow-crawling stream, the toes of Gallier’s fine boots brushing the water. It is a poor excuse for a Rubicon, but some battlefields cannot be chosen.

and from landfall:

In all his years at sea, Norrington had fallen overboard only once, as a child on campaign with his father. He remembers little of the actual event — only the way fear consumed his every function, even that of his lungs, a process so automatic he did not know it could stop, drowning and drowning him. Well after he had been fished out of the sea did his cough linger, and his mother insisted the ordeal left a mote of cold in chest, one that young James carried every day since. It has been many years since, years of camaraderie and valor that had seared the cold away. Yet now a reprisal of dread darts through him now, verglas over his lungs and heart. He is not afraid to die, had accepted it as a hazard of service, had steeled himself to the possibility the moment he stepped into his first commission. But — God and King forgive him — he does not want to. He does not want to die. Just this week Elizabeth Swann fell from a similar height and survived unscathed but for a brush with drowning herself. Hurtling towards the silver mirror pane of the ocean at such velocity, Norrington does not imagine he will drown: he will merely shatter.

[rhysgore]

top 10 space marines who should be pregnant

fabius bile should be, has been, and will be pregnant again. its literally not even a competition. like we literally read in detail about his water breaking and him being shocked at having a healthy baby even though all of his equipment (ahem) is broken down and unviable and then later on he's like "i should have aborted that thing when i had the chance". the text talks about his womb and his messy divorce and him losing custody of his daughter. he's so mommy it's actually silly.

that guy from the IW pregnancy machine book gets a special mention even though i haven't actually read it simply because of the amount of genital TF and forced impreg stuff i've seen him subjected to. this is not a complaint. also just the fact that i can say "the IW pregnancy machine book" and it's not a joke means im legally obligated here.

abaddon, who does not really project any kind of pregnancy aura but would look great waddling around extremely rotund and pissed about it. we put him in maternity power armor and he's having a bad time. yeah i'm fetishizing him too don't worry. i think he'd be a terrible mother but also he would 100% breastfeed in the middle of strategy meetings and people would just have to deal with it

erebus but crucially it's a rosemary's baby kind of situation. he's chill with it though

i think all blood angels are inherently crazy fertile, being the offspring of the guy who is so fecund he's morally obligated to only do anal, but shoutout to azkaellon specifically for having "deliberately poking holes in the condom" energy.

not a book character but ulfar roguetrader got the opposite of a hysterectomy in commorragh. hysteroplasty??? is that what it is?????? anyways they were breeding him full of elves over there.

ahriman, on this list partially because you COULD argue that he's already a mother to hundreds of beautiful (if somewhat sandy) children, but mostly because i think tzeentch is a shadow contender for "patron god of chaos who would most be willing to make his devotees suitable for pregnancy on a whim". while most people would reasonably argue slaanesh for obvious reasons, or nurgle, transformation stuff is solidly tzeentch's domain and there's no reason to assume that it DOESN'T extend to "genital tf of your funny wizard for laughs". also imagine him big and round and still wearing that fuck ass mask. cute.

rushal. i don't think night lords are physically capable of carrying their own children, being descended from someone whose womb almost certainly has some sort of evil hex upon it, but that will not stop them from knocking up others. it's like a shrike type situation where they drop their young off in other birds' nests but in this case it was him getting an amateur orchiectomy-vaginoplasty wombo combo so sevatar could "accidentally" put a baby in him. ah well.

feels fucked up to have gone this far down the list and not have a death guard guy on here yet especially since i HAVE actually seen typhus pregnancy art (with flies but it counts, to me). DG as a whole somehow go very rapidly from "they would Not be able to conceive at all" to "having to pause mid-battle to quickly lay a few eggs before getting back to it". thank u grandpa\

titus. no specific reason other than i want him to be my pregnant wife

[shyshiny]

Can we get even more info & facts abt diva PLEASE I LOVE HIM SM..

also what does he think of luz & lita btw cuz idk how he would properly react to them :333

I said this once but it's not bad to refresh my memory:

-Although he has "wings", those "wings" can be deformed to whatever he wants, whether it's transforming them into giant hands as if they were Bayonetta (for example)

-He is a divinity, I know his name already gives it away but yes, he is a divinity and he believes that he has ALWAYS been like that when you and I know that they have nothing to do with each other X,D

And with respect to your duo of little turtles, he labels them both as NPCS no matter how you look at them, of course, those bright colors on the faces of the maidens will catch his attention a little (especially with Luz) but in general terms, they are zeros on the left. ALTHOUGH that is no justification for him to treat them both with education and courtesy, of course, he will be very direct and dry at times but it doesn't matter at this point

And since I'm with them, I think that It would be ironic that he gets along better with Lita, while with Luz,WEEEEEEEEELLLLLL, how do I explain it to you? Leaving aside that he will still not understand why she compares him to Shrike (that's your real name, animal!), well I suppose FINE? Although if she says that she wants to take him, he will say something like "Ahem, young lady, but my queen did not warn me OR GIVE you PERMISSION to be able to take you and, as far as I know, you are not any acquaintance or associate of the queen, along with your companion" or something like that but believe me, from here I see that both of them are going to do it anyway X,D

Although, look, I know Luz has her reasons for being fond of and loving the dark-eyed guardian and everything is fine with that but she must understand something: Divine STOPPED BEING Shrike many years ago, he's so silent and sometimes so serious (and maybe edgy) that it could make many people uncomfortable (I probably think Luz is one of those people) but since I'm here, a piece of advice: if one of them (or both) is into using gestures or whatever to do an action frequently they're in luck because Divine ALSO does that, being quite silent quite the opposite of what he used to be but yes, that's it. Oh yes, last thing, she better get used to me murmuring or whispering when she talks to them, or to others. people or directly in solitude by mere habit of his and also because, I don't know how both of them would feel (especially Luz) seeing how apathetic and coldly heartless Divine can be, so just in case she should prepare herself in case they see him killing someone.

[deadmountaindaughter]

Ok! The promised theory post! Shorter than I thought it would be because the document I thought would have had all my notes did not have those notes, so i'm reconstructing this based off messages to a friend who also read pnat, along with a reddit post i made ages ago. Without further ado, twenty theories:

1. the large subterranean insect spirit is Sandman's real form. First off, here's the insect's leg:

And here's Sandman's "head":

these are CLEARLY the same shape. I think the "sandman" we saw was just a chunk of the real thing. Bonus proof:

yeah.

2.One interesting thing I noticed is that throughout the entire time we see Peekaboo, it never shows any spectral energy. We could assume it's orange, like dimitri, but it's weird that out of all the partner spirits we see, every single other one of them has their energy show up at least once. Except...

we never see the Shadow's energy either. additionally, take a look at those drippy bits coming out of the hole on the right side, and compare:

So here's my theory, illustrated incredibly poorly:

given the reveal of davy's locker spirit, which makes the SAME NOISES when he uses it as peekaboo does(the wrrrwrrrwrrr thing), and that cody describes as "squashing and stretching" space- exactly how dimitri explains peekaboo's powers- i think that spirit is another chunk in here. maybe the missing eye on the left?

3. on page 8-49, cody mentions a time he was "caught sleepwalking after a curfew [davy] commanded" and saw these scars, which he thinks are from shrike:

we've seen shrike's hands in werewolf mode. those hands did NOT make those scars. if davy had been hit by those claws, he would have half his chest missing, not just a few big cuts. but what interests me is HOW Cody found out- he was sleepwalking after curfew on a night that just happened to be a full moon. but every other time we see him talking about davy's commands, it's like they're physically impossible for him to break under any circumstances, and i highly doubt sleepwalking would be able to break that effect.

but werewolves and vampires are apparently mortal enemies and opposites, so maybe a werewolf curse could nullify a vampire command. and cody's hands are pretty small in human form...

4. i think eightfold is in a very important book. take a look:

this is what the book looks like in its spirit realm. davy's symbol is pretty clear there, along with the author (a. beaumont or something) and the title: on the birth of gods. if you ask me, that sounds like the name of a manual for making a wight.

5.

i think lisa is a Witch. in fact, I think Witch is not necessarily a name, or a title, but a descriptor of WHAT someone is. we have fauxbia the fear witch, but what if lisa is the...i don't know, the weirdness witch? someone smarter than me can figure that part out. as for what Witch means:

I think in the same way medium means the host to a spirit, Witch means host to one of these parasites. as for lisa, suzy has confirmed this:

it would be SO zack morrison if that line was literal.

6. ok im not going looking for it but sockpuppy's intro card describes them as not a spirit but an "anomalous spectral lifeform". apparently they were created by mina, who also defeated the witch years ago-did she make them out of a scrap of the witch that was left behind? they do share the same aesthetic.

7. razor rex is weirdly childish in a lot of ways, and apparently sometimes asks for video games as tribute. a lot of her cultists are also teachers, so i'm wondering if her hideout when she's not being a goddess is mayview middle. that's not much on its own, but look at this prophecy:

going off theory 5, this could also refer to Lisa as the Witch in the prophecy. But we see from the second line that occasionally the sphinx of truth switches l's to w's, and i guarantee that zack morrison would not have done that without it being plot relevant somehow. we see from "wiffin" that sometimes other parts of the spelling of a word are also changed... so what if it wasn't meant to say witch(fauxbia or lisa) but instead Lich(razor rex)?

8. doorman mentions that "fearsay" was defeated by the activity club. fearsay. fear + hearsay(something not true). fauxbia. phobia(fear) plus faux(something not real). i dont know what this means but i think it's important.

9. so pj is totally davy's son. he died and thats why davy wants to be such a good dad to cody, and why he's so protective. what if pj died BECAUSE OF davy? he says it had to be a meteorite, but he doesnt know for certain- could it have been the blast from killing a wight? and adding on to that, according to zack ghosts can only do one thing with their spectral energy, and it relates to how they died. it would be incredibly zack if pj's power is some absurdly powerful blast that puts him at the top of the power scale. just. imagine that.

10. when angel is talking to cherub, there are several instances where it seems like she's manipulating his emotions to make him trust her. the way it's described seems oddly similar to another emotion-manipulating spirit in the comic. and we haven't seen ventrilobite since the flashback...

11. this one is the hill i will die on even if it gets confirmed false: we know ghosts can kind of stretch themselves into weird shapes(see the faculty ghost from way back in the beginning) so it stands to reason that given enough time dead, their appearance can change radically(has anyone here read everlost? yeah like that).

we also know that ghosts do not have legs, ever. just spectral energy. we see from crush that they CAN make legs out of that energy if they want, but it's still just energy. spirits, on the other hand, ALWAYS have legs. except for one.

he's described as a spirit, but that may not technically be false- after all, ghosts are a subtype of spirit.

conclusion: king c is an aztec/mayan era furry who decided to become really cool in the afterlife, and honestly he was so right. he probably got struck by lightning- the lightning he makes is the same color as his energy, so what we think is a spirit power may just be the spectral energy ability his death gave him.

12. just... this entire page: https://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-5-page-228

is so suspicious to me. she doesnt turn around until the end, and when she does- INHUMANLY fast- her eyes are a blur with a single white line- almost like she's trying to hide the glow of spirit trance by closing them almost all the way. i think everything isabel said there was right, just not in the way she thought it was.

(also- on this page, isabel asks to talk and the principal says "I'm afraid not, child. important meeting to attend. Come by during office hours and-" the VERY NEXT PAGE, lucifer demands to talk with hiSpender, who says "S-sorry, let's talk later. I'm busy right now and-" the parallel here is INCREDIBLY interesting.)

(also why is she so small? it could just be a comic thing...or it could be a medium thing.)

13. The Shadow's power seems to be based on perspective: when the shadow looks like an umbrella, it can become one, and a dark shadow that Mr. Spender sees as a bottomless pit becomes that too. The Shadow is a shard of the Doctors Burger's prisoner, and Dr. Burger tells Spender to "leave Clayview and its darkness far behind". Clayview. Clay-view. Clay(molding, shaping, sculpture) View(perspective). Was the prisoner-the spirit named Clayview- originally able to mold reality based on its perspective, sort of like Superliminal to the extreme? "Its darkness", therefore, would have that only in regard to shadows, and also implies Dr. Burger knows what Spender did.

14. why does zarei have yellow eyes? i don't think she's been confirmed as a medium but that's really weird.

15. Moving in spirit trance is apparently really hard, but Ed just…does full workouts in it without noticing? And runs all the way down the hall without breaking trance? How???

16. More a question than a theory, but how was Polaris captured in the staff without killing the disciples? We know wisped wights absorb everything around instead of tooling up, but Angel somehow got around that.

17. Why was the barrier created? It contains spectrals and spirits, but not ghosts or tools/non-spectral mediums. Theory: it was made to kill a wight twice. If a wight was inside the barrier and killed once, its absorption effect might have been contained by the barrier(while another barrier protects whoever was doing the killing), and if that was still enough to heal it, then there wouldn't be any energy left for it to absorb if it was killed again. Was that how they beat the Great Sphinx, or was it the plan for handling the Doctors Burger's prisoner, except something went wrong?

18. Completely insane theory: Shred Eagle, after leaving his surfing job for TV and leaving that due to the "accident", returns to his hometown and becomes a teacher. Mr. Garcia. I have zero basis for this outside of the "messily dismembered and devoured" thing and their vaguely similar appearances.

19. Flipflop swaps positions. Switchswatch makes me think of color swatches, so maybe swapping energy colors? Hiphop…I don't know, but I feel like they each have one aspect of Polaris's powers.

20. doorman also mentions that "facade" was eaten by the witch. and now we come to the thing that i am 100% certain of and incredibly mad at zack morrison for:

facade sounds like the name of a spirit dealing with disguises. just a wild guess, but what if its power was to make a really bad disguise work as well as a good one?

...

THEY LITERALLY SAW A NORMAL KID. THIS WAS NOT A BIT. SHE WAS USING THE POWER SHE STOLE FROM FACADE TO MAKE A COMEDICALLY BAD DISGUISE ACTUALLY WORK. AND BECAUSE THIS IS A COMEDY WEBCOMIC WE COULDNT TELL. ZACK I AM SCREAMING

i probably have more but these are all for now.

[toastedclownery]

Okay I'm gonna be a bit crazy on the main tag and share a theory

I think Beebs tried applying for Civil service but couldn't because of his... History

I think it went like this

He was studying/training for it and he was about to be accepted

Something... Tragic happened. The "accident" where he lost his limbs? That might or might not have been his fault. But he was charged for it

He was no longer able to apply because he has a criminal record now?

We've seen a couple of times that he's ready and prone to help and protect people, it's just something in his nature

Also he's very quick to adapting to other species' customs or societies, or their biology. Like being respectful to Punti, and being surprisingly chill when he was communicating with the Agari's phantom.

It would explain the speech he gave before attacking Us, it'd be something that he learned from his training

Maybe his glove which is a similar blue to Killix' uniform and his multi-tool?

Now I don't have evidence for this last point but it's giving me vibes okay. I think he might have been banished from his home planet for what happened in the accident, too.

We barely know anything about Walrinian culture, but I figure their tusks are important. At least with real walruses, tusks are a form of status. I think him removing his tusks (or possibly having them removed against his will?) could be a sign of dishonor.

Or maybe he just lost them in the accident and he just filed them down. But either way, the Symbolism is still there. He no longer has a connection with his home planet and culture.

Beebs strikes me as someone who knows what it's like to lose it all, and he really doesn't want it to happen again, so he plays it very safe with everything he does. Like for example how he wants to slowly build up on the Monkey Wrench company

And I'm willing to say he's taking this approach with Shrike's friendship too.

He's the opposite to Shrike, he dislikes risk. I think it was this accident or... Whatever happened that shaped him into what he's like today. And it would make this conversation with Us make more sense.

If all of this is right (or close), that means he's lost so much. The majority of his limbs, the direction he was going to take with his life as a civil servant, possibly the link to his family and his culture. All of this happening so quickly might have motivated him to...

Yeah.