#Things Rex Wrote

[alicepao13]

"I'll rewrite the fucking scripts myself if humans can't do their jobs."

[raaorqtpbpdy]

A Rift Forms

In this world, nanites exist inside every living thing, and can activate without warning, turning ordinary people into mutants and monsters. Danny is separated from his family during the chaos of the initial Nanite Event, after his sister is mutated. Before he can reunite with his family, Danny himself mutates as well, and the emergence of strange new powers transports him to a mysterious island.

This fic was written for Crossover Danuary Week 2024, Day 2: General Cartoons Generator Rex | Voyage Thanks @crossoverdanuary for running this event, and thanks @nefres for beta reading this for me 🧡

You can also read this fic on AO3, as well as Let Sleeping Dogs Rise, which this fic is a prequel to.

[Warnings for graphic body horror, violence, and manipulation]

The time immediately following the Nanite Event was pure chaos. It was days before anyone knew what happened, and all the while the nanites were spreading throughout the world, infecting everything—from plants and animals, to humans, to the very ground they walked on.

It was the most significant catastrophe in human history.

The Fenton family was on vacation.

Ten-year-old Danny, his twelve-year-old sister Jazz, and his mom and dad, who were both scientists, were all in Bulgaria for a big science symposium. They'd traveled all the way from the United States that summer for the event. 

Though only his parents would be attending the symposium, the whole family was brimming with excitement. It was Danny and his sister's first time out of the US. And while their parents were at the symposium, they got to explore the city, as long as they stayed together. 

Balchik was beautiful, if a bit crowded this time of year, and there was so much to see and do. Even if most of it involved frantically flipping through an English to Bulgarian phrasebook.

It was such a shame. Their timing couldn't have been worse.

It was a few days into their trip, and the family had just met up for a late lunch at a seaside restaurant when it happened.

A massive explosion, audible for miles.

No one knew what happened at first. But within the first hour, the changes began. In every country on the Black Sea, a mysterious dark cloud swept through in an ominous wave. It eclipsed the sun, and turned the sky a terrible red.

Then the monsters appeared.

What once had been a rat, a flower bush, a child—became something entirely else. Their bodies twisted, engorged, constricted, features vanishing, or multiplying. Their forms warped and mutated until they became unrecognizable as anything but abominations.

And these were not peaceful monsters.

They raged and rampaged. Attacked indiscriminately, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. They did not respond to pleas or screams of terror. And it didn't seem as though it was going to wear off any time soon.

Some people tried to fight back. Most recognized the hopelessness of such attempts, and chose to run instead. The Fentons were the latter. They slipped down side-streets where they were less likely to be seen and targeted by the monsters and kept moving.

"Stay calm, kids," Mom said. "We just have to stick together. Remember those camping trips we used to do for survival training. Everything will be alright."

Danny nodded and followed closely. The last thing he wanted was to be separated from them during a crisis of this magnitude.

"What's happening?!" Jazz shrieked over the sound of a building collapsing. 

"I don't know. But that sounded close," Dad observed, his huge shoulders tensing.

"We need to get out of the city," Mom said.

Even though the rest of them were barely holding it together, she was staying remarkably calm. It was like the air around her had changed. Her expression was severe, her shoulders squared, her gait confident. 

Danny didn't think his mother had ever experienced something like this before—heck, he didn't think anyone had ever experienced something like this before—but she suddenly carried herself like the knew exactly what she was doing.

His mom was always good in an emergency, but this was incredible, even for her.

"We have to see if this is happening other places, or just here," she continued. "Even if it's not just in the city, we'll be safer someplace there are fewer people. The last thing we need right now is to get caught in a huge crowd."

"The rental car is still parked near our hotel," Dad remembered. His voice was steady, but Danny could see his hands trembling, and knew he was just trying to stay strong for the rest of them. "If it hasn't been crushed, I mean." 

They'd already seen quite a few cars get crushed, so that was hardly a guarantee.

"That's a start," mom said. "It'll get us out of town, but it's low on gas right now, and I hardly think now's the time to stop and fill the tank."

"As long as it gets us out of town, we can wing it afterwards, right?" Danny said. "I just don't want to spend any more time around here if we can help it."

"Good enough for me!" Jazz agreed.

With that decided, they adjusted course toward their hotel, with their mother leading the way and father bringing up the rear. Mom held up a hand to stop them, looking around to ensure their surroundings were clear before they crossed through an open area.

When she was sure it was safe, she started moving again, and they cautiously started through square. There were still a few people running, trying to get to safety, but this area had been among the first to clear out, most people opting to hide in their homes or back-alleys. 

After seeing so much destruction already, though, Danny didn't think it was wise to entrust their safety to the structural integrity of these buildings. 

They were about halfway across the square.

It seemed like they were going to make it across safely.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Jazz stopped walking. She grunted and doubled over.

"Jazz?" Danny asked, stopping as well.

"Hold on!" Dad called forward to halt their progress so she wouldn't be left behind. "Jazz! Jazzy! What's wrong?"

Before their very eyes, she started to change. Her skin turned to gray, her hair dark blue, her eyes a glowing red. Sharp mandibles sprouted from her jaw, and hideous bulbous growths from her back, tearing her clothes. Her arms and legs grew longer, and spindly, fingers twisting together, joints inverting.

And all the while, she screamed. She screamed and screamed, the sound becoming steadily less human, until finally—agony gave way to rage.

"Jazz, no!" Danny shouted as the thing that had once been his sister attacked. "Stop, please!"

He dove out of the way of a spray of black acid that sizzled and ate a crater into the ground where he'd been standing an instant before. He shouldn't have looked back. Horror gripped him so he couldn't even move.

His parents rushed to his defense, but Jazz was strong, and wild, and they couldn't hold her down. She roared and screeched, and spat acid and spun webs. She moved at incredible speeds, and it was only thanks to his parents' strength and skill that Danny managed not to be killed in an instant.

"Danny, run!" his mother screamed. "Go north! Get as far away from here as possible! We'll find you!"

Danny hesitated. This didn't feel right. Rule number one was stick together. If they got separated they were done for. But... he couldn't fight this. He wasn't strong like his father, and he wasn't a karate master like his mom. He was good for a kid, but he was still just a kid. He was only ten, and he couldn't fight monsters.

"You heard your mother!" his dad yelled, keeping Jazz's attention firmly off of Danny. "Run!"

And so Danny did something he would always regret.

He ran.

He ran as fast and as far as his legs would carry him. And when his muscles burned and ached and he felt like he couldn't take another step, he kept running. 

He ran north, just like his mother had told him to, and didn't stop until his body collapsed from exhaustion. Then he dragged himself to the nearest shelter, an abandoned book shop with a shattered glass door, and tried to catch his breath. He'd run for miles by now, and had to be near the edge of town by now. The sun was still out, but steadily sinking in the west.

He was sheltered for now, but he wasn't safe just yet. There were still monsters around. As soon as he recovered, he had to find food and water, and then keep going. His parents would look for him outside of the city limits, since that's where they'd been planning to go.

Danny forced himself to take slow, deep breaths, even as his lungs screamed against them, and tried to come up with a plan. The electricity was still on, except in parts of the city where some creature had downed power lines, so it stood to reason that there would still be running water. 

Looking around, it seemed the book shop also sold things like book-bags and water-bottles. A backpack would be better, but a book bag would do. He knew stealing was wrong, but given the circumstances, he didn't think anyone would blame him. There wasn't any food here, but it was a bookstore, so maybe there would be a book about edible plants in this region.

It was twilight by the time Danny was back on his feet, bag packed. He'd picked out a dark green bag with black letters claiming Обичам да чета!, which, according to Danny's pocket phrasebook, meant 'I love to read!'. He'd found a book on regional plants, too, but it was also in Bulgarian. Luckily, he'd also found a Bulgarian to English dictionary, and had already memorized the words храна: 'food', and ядивен: 'edible'.

He'd been able to fill up two water bottles in the employee restroom, and had already drunk plenty enough to stay hydrated for a while, so he could preserve them. He'd also found some promotional matchbooks with the name of the bookstore on them, and stuffed a whole bunch in his bag. He knew how to start a fire without them, of course, but they still made things easier. He didn't know why a bookstore, of all places, would advertise with matches, but he wasn't complaining.

Since it was starting to get dark, Danny thought about hunkering down in the bookstore overnight, but changed his mind when all those building collapses he'd seen that day flashed through his mind. He had to stay alive until his parents found him again, and he couldn't do that if he was crushed under rubble while he slept. He had to get out of the city limits as soon as possible.

He couldn't run anymore, but he kept moving forward. His legs felt like jelly, and with each step, he worried they might give out on him, but he pressed onward. His stomach groaned, but he grit his teeth and ignored it. There was little chance of him being able to find something to eat before it was fully dark, and even less chance afterwards. He resolved himself to go to sleep hungry tonight.

It was well after sundown when he finally reached the city limits. Once he crossed an empty highway, he entered a forest. The stars were completely blotted out, and the light of the red-stained moon was not enough to build a proper shelter by. 

Searching mostly by feel, Danny found a nest of fallen trees that had naturally formed something like a lean-to. The boy was just small enough to crawl under it and be protected from predators and the elements. He wrapped his arms around himself and thanked whoever or whatever might be listening for the warm summer weather. Then he fell into a fitful sleep.

Over the next few days, Danny shifted into survival mode. He studied his book of plants religiously, and foraged like his life depended on it—because it did. Survival mode was exhausting. When his life hung in the balance, a day felt like a week, and when he slept, he had to sleep lightly.

There were still monsters in the forest. But the ones that had once been plants were easy to avoid because they stayed rooted in the soil, and couldn't reach him if he ran away. And the ones that had once been animals were easy to avoid because they weren't very smart, and couldn't usually find him if he hid. Some of them could find him by scent, but so far, none of them could climb trees, so he'd found a way to avoid them as well.

He'd never been more grateful in his life for all those survival training camping trips his parents have made him and his sister do. Without them, he knew he would have been dead already.

Each day he watched and waited for his family to come and find him. He listened for his parents' voices calling his name. For his sister's voice, too. Although he hadn't yet seen any of the monsters return to their original form, a small part of him hoped that Jazz would be the exception. As annoying as his older sister was, he still wanted her back.

It was on the third day that the infection came for him as well. One moment, he was flipping through his guidebook to figure out whether a certain type of mushroom was edible or not; the next, all his muscles seized up. 

He howled in agony as he felt his hand and arms warp, bones stretching, muscles engorging, skin bulging. A splitting pain ripped through his sides and he screeched. Behind his eyes, he felt a horrible pressure and his vision blurred and refocused over and over again in rapid succession. He didn't know or want to know what was happening there.

Desperately, grunting and panting, he stumbled to the nearby creek, finding it mostly by sound, hoping to find relief in the cool waters. 

Something was seriously wrong. 

No.

Everything was seriously wrong.

He tried to reach up to push a branch out of the way, but his arm was so heavy. His vision cleared up again just long enough for him to see something swollen and flesh-colored where his forearm had once been, but it hardly looked like a forearm. He felt like a gorilla, pushing himself along with both his hands and feet, just trying to move. The angle was wrong. Was he standing? Were his arms always this long?

He never made it to the creek.

His shouts had attracted a group of hungry monsters that probably used to be wolves. He could see them clearly now, but he almost wished he couldn't. He scrambled back, despite his body screaming at him to stop moving! It hurts, god, it hurts so much! 

The once-wolves surrounded him, were practically on top of him. 

One of them leaped.

Unthinkingly, he swiped at it with an absolutely massive hand, the force of the motion dragging him off balance so he fully collapsed onto the mossy ground. He didn't know what his goal was, to let it gnaw on his fingers, or bat it to the ground. 

What actually happened was a rip in space appearing between him and the once-wolf, bright green and pulsing with energy. When the creature ran into it, it fell right through and disappeared. Then the rip closed.

The rest of the once-wolves snarled, snapping at him with two sets of teeth in their wide maws, their eyes glowing red and fixed right on him. But they didn't seem too eager to get close.

They were afraid.

Danny was afraid too.

Now that he could see again he glanced down and saw that the pain in his sides was caused by two bony protrusions that had ripped right through the sides of his shirt, small now, but slowly growing. He tore his eyes away, first looking up into the dark branches above and taking a sharp breath in, then looking back at the creatures.

He just wanted to go home. He wanted to be with his family again. Really, he would take being anywhere but here, as long as he wasn't alone. He forced himself not to squeeze his eyes closed and wish everything away. Not now, not when he was surrounded and in pain. There was a more immediate problem to deal with.

Another once-wolf decided to take the leap, and Danny swiped a hand again, and again, a glowing green rip opened up. But this time, the creature dodged it. At a loss for anything else to do, and without enough time to think of a proper plan, Danny summoned all the strength he had left and jumped through it himself. Then it closed behind him. 

He had no idea where he would end up, or if he'd even survive, but he hadn't really been thinking. He'd just acted.

He landed prone on dark, damp soil and rolled onto his back with a groan. He could hear the sound of waves nearby, but he didn't have the energy to lift his head. The sky above him was red. The land around him was barren.

Either he hadn't gone very far, or the whole world was like this.

He didn't know how long he laid there, taking slow, deep breaths, and willing the pain to fade. He was pretty sure his transformation was over. His arms were almost as long as his body now, and grew inhumanly larger below the elbows. His forearms and hands had engorged to a terrible size. The things protruding from either side of his torso had grown into a fully formed and functional second set of arms—otherwise ordinary, save for the placement. 

His legs seemed to be the same as before. His head was still screwed on straight. Whatever had happened to his eyes, he still didn't know, but thankfully it was over now, and he could see clearly again.

His body had changed, but his mind was the same. Was it the same way for Jazz? Had she just been freaking out about being turned into a monster? Would she be the same annoying sister he'd always known once she calmed down again?

No... probably not.

Danny had seen a lot of those monsters in the last three days. 

Some of them had clearly been human before. And they clearly weren't anymore. None of them were calm or reasonable. They were animalistic, their actions primal, and instinctual. Now he'd been transformed just like they had, with no signs of being able to turn back. But somehow he wasn't like the rest of them.

Danny had spent enough time around his scientist parents to know what an outlier was, and in this instance, he was one.

His parents.... 

How would they ever find him now? Even he had no idea where he was anymore, so how could they know? He was pretty sure he wasn't in the woods north of Balchik anymore. Not even close.

How was he going to get back to them?

He didn't know.

Finally, when the pain had eased to a dull enough ache that he could ignore it, Danny got to his feet—wobbling from the unexpected weight of his arms before he found his balance—and properly examined his surroundings. 

In one direction was a beach. Dark sand and dark water reflecting the red light of the sun. In the other direction was a forest, though all the trees looked dead, charred and blackened with ash, their branches bare. Not like the woods he'd just come from, which were still green and full of life. 

It seemed like something very bad had happened in this place. 

Danny didn't really want to find out what.

He'd dropped his book bag at some point, in his panic. Losing the books wasn't so bad. He had no idea if he was even in Bulgaria anymore, and if he wasn't, those books wouldn't do him much good. Losing his water bottles and his matchbooks, on the other hand, made things difficult. Luckily, he still had his knife in the pocket of his jeans, and one matchbook with three matches left.

"I guess I might as well test the water," he said to himself. 

If it was freshwater, he might be okay. He didn't have anything to boil it in, but he could risk it in an emergency. If it was salty, then he'd have to head into the woods and look for another water source. 

He reached one massive hand into the water and tried to bring it to his nose to smell. The size of his hand made him cringe, and using it was awkward. Instead of gently holding it near his nose, he overshot and smacked himself in the face, splashing himself with the water and knocking him onto his butt.

"Eugh!" he yelped, in a mixture of shock and disgust. 

Now that it was all over his face, he knew right away that it was salt water. He tried to wipe away the water with the back of his forearm, but he wasn't adjusted to the size and nearly smothered himself. Bruised and damp, he realized that he was going to have to get used to this. It wasn't going away, so he would have to learn to live with it, one way or another.

Danny took another deep breath, his chest shaking, his hands trembling—all four of them. His eyes watered and he blinked back tears. He had enough salt water on his face between the seawater and the sweat, and crying wouldn't help him, it would just make him even more vulnerable to attack from predators.

Thinking that didn't really help either though. He was just a kid, and he was lost, afraid, alone, separated from his family, and as if that wasn't bad enough, now he was a monster.

"Why is this happening?" he asked himself, his voice small and broken.

He'd never been so stressed in his entire life, and it was hard to push that down to focus on staying alive like his parents had always taught him to. Everything was hard. He just wanted to bury himself in the sand and cry until he was too dehydrated to think.

But now was not the time to succumb to his childish urge to cry. Now was not the time to curl up in a ball and give in to his fear and loneliness. Now was not the time to give up. If he gave up, he might as well be dead already. He had to survive. He had to, or abandon all hope of seeing his family again.

"First, find a source of fresh water," Danny recited with a wavering, choked up voice, reminding himself of his wilderness survival training. "Then build a shelter nearby. Then search for familiar-looking plants to forage, and small animals to hunt only if you have the means to safely prepare them."

Each footstep felt monumental as he started into the woods. Each step was harder than the last. He clenched his fists, too many of them, sending weird signals that his brain didn't quite know how to translate, and he gritted his teeth, and he pressed onward, struggling to stay on his feet. 

He kept going, deeper and deeper into the woods. Watching and listening for any signs of a river, or creek. All he heard was the wind through the dead trees, and all he saw was dust and ash.

As time passed, he began to notice a new problem.

Green crept into the edges of his vision. Not a dark green like the leaves of trees—certainly not in these woods. No, it was a bright green, toxic-looking, the same color as those rips he had created before. When he looked down, he noticed that green pulsing under his skin, in his veins, glowing in the dim light of the forest.

It didn't hurt—not yet, at least—but it felt like pressure was building up inside him. 

Then those green openings started to appear again. Small tears at first, like the ones he'd opened before, except he wasn't opening them on purpose anymore. He waved a gigantic hand at one, hoping to make it go away, but it only grew larger. A wide, round portal, big enough for him to walk through upright when the ones he'd opened before had barely had room enough to dive through headlong.

He swallowed anxiously, but stepped through. 

Maybe, he thought, it would take him home, or to his family.

The portal only took him even deeper into this same forest. Frustrated, Danny opened another portal, thinking of his mother, of hugging her tightly.

More dead, empty woods.

The pressure kept building. It felt like it was starting to push against his bones, now, like if he kept going they would crack. He clenched his jaw and tried to slow his breathing and stay calm.

He tried again, thinking of his father, of sitting on the large man's shoulders, and looking down at everyone, and feeling like the king of the world.

Again, the portal only led him deeper into the woods. But now, he could see a hill, covered in more dead trees, with a crumbling castle on the hilltop. Was that where these portals were trying to take him? Maybe he could find help there.

The pressure was too strong now. Painful, and impossible to ignore. A throbbing, burning sensation boiling inside him. His breathing grew heaving. Sweat poured off him. That painful pressure kept building and building until he thought he might burst.

A sharp pain shot through Danny's bulging upper arms and he groaned through gritted teeth.

More portals opened. And more. And more. Around him and through him, green light tearing openings in the fabric of space right through him. 

He screamed. He screamed for what felt like hours as he fought to remain conscious.

It was useless, screaming.

No one was around to hear him.

Or so he thought.

Green turned black as he fell through yet another portal before finally passing out from the pain. The last thing he registered was landing on cold stone.

———

Danny could hear an electric humming sound. Before he even opened his eyes, he heard that sound, like an old refrigerator, or a space heater. Neither of those things belonged in the woods. That meant he couldn't be in the woods anymore. Cautiously, Danny opened his eyes.

Hanging directly above him was a big, round hunk of metal which appeared to be the source of the humming sound. It looked heavy, like it might crush him if it fell, and he decided he'd better get up before that happened.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a man's voice came from somewhere to Danny's left. "That magnet is the only thing keeping you alive right now."

"What?" Danny's voice was hoarse from screaming, and his throat was dry. He never had found a source of water. He swallowed.

Looking over, he saw a man sitting at a desk, tinkering with something. He wore a bulky gauntlet on one hand, made of bronze or brass, or one of those brownish metals. His long, gray hair was greasy, but pulled back into ponytail, neat on one side and messy on the other, like he'd been wearing his gauntlet when he put it up for some reason.

"Who are you?" Danny demanded, though he could barely raise his voice, so it didn't sound much like a demand. "What's going on?"

"I am Vlad Masters," the man said, turning in his chair to look at Danny for the first time. "Most people just call me by my surname, but you may call me what you please. I'm a scientist. You fell through some kind of portal into my lab, and were suffering from unstable activated nanites. To put it simply, you were dying. I saved you."

"But only as long as I stay under the magnet."

"For now," Vlad replied. "It was never going to be more than a temporary fix. I'm currently designing a device that will keep you alive long-term. Something much less crude and more effective than a simple electromagnet."

"And the magnet... attracts nanites away from me?" Danny asked, putting together the pieces of what this man had told him. Nanites were one of those sciencey things he'd heard his parents talking about back home. "Nanites like super tiny robots? Why are there nanites in me?"

"Well, that... is a longer story, but I suppose I can sum it up for you," Vlad said, frowning. "Not far from here, a group of scientists was experimenting with nanites, creating and programming them. But a few days ago there was... an accident. An explosion led to a massive containment breach. The nanites they had created were spread far and wide, but they were unfinished, and instead of helping people as they were intended to do...."

"They created monsters," Danny realized, anger rising hot in his chest. "The nanites did this! They made me like this! They mutated my sister!"

"I'm sorry," Vlad said. "I've faced off against a few mutated creatures and people in the past few days—around here, so close to ground zero, the only ones who survived were changed—you're the first person I've seen besides myself who didn't lose their mind. Is your sister like you?"

Danny looked down at his hands, but it wasn't long before he had to look away. They were wrong and disgusting, and he couldn't stand the sight of himself.

"No... she.... No."

"I'm sorry," Vlad said again. "What about the rest of your family?"

Danny didn't respond for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, his voice was even quieter than before.

"I don't know." It was the first time he had admitted that to himself, or at all. "My parents were still normal the last time I saw them, but that was days ago. We were supposed to meet up again north of Balchik in Bulgaria, but then... this happened to me, and I don't even know where I am anymore."

"You're on an island in the Black Sea," came the answer. "Officially, it's unnamed, but I call it Abysus."

Danny said nothing. Now that he'd said it, he couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that his parents had turned, like him... like Jazz. What if they weren't themselves anymore? What if he did manage to find them again, but they'd lost their minds and they tried to kill him?

"That's not your primary concern, is it?" Vlad surmised.

Danny inhaled sharply, shoulders tense, and shook his head.

"How old are you?"

"Ten," he answered.

"You need someone to look out for you then," said Vlad, thoughtfully. "I'll tell you what. I plan to turn Abysus into a safe haven for people like us. For those of us who were changed by the nanites, but still possess our reason and consciousness. If you stay here, and join me, I can take care of you. I can create a device that keeps your new powers from overwhelming or harming you like they were."

"What if I choose to leave and find my family?"

"Then I'm afraid I can't help you," came the response. Vlad's voice was gentle, but firm. "The device I'm designing to help you must be regularly drained of the excess nanites you attract, and I'm the only one who can do that. You see, when I changed, I gained the ability to manipulate nanites to an extent," he explained. "I am the only one who can help you."

"Can you help me find my family then?" Danny asked. Surely as long as the two of them stayed together they could still look.

"I'm afraid not," Vlad refused with a mournful shake of his head. "You see, I am dependent on the nanites here to survive. I was too near the explosion, I would have been vaporized. This nanite-rich environment is the only thing keeping me alive. If I leave this island... well, I don't know what could happen. I could very well crumble to dust.

"Perhaps... someday, once things have calmed down, I'll be able to invent something that allows me to leave, like I'm inventing something to help you."

Danny frowned, his brows furrowed. If that was the case, then he didn't have much of a choice, did he? He could either stay here with Vlad in the relative safety of Abysus, or he could leave and die. And if he died, then he would never see his family again. If he stayed, at least there would be a chance of reuniting with them, even if it was a long time before Vlad found a way to leave.

"Alright," he said. "I'll join you."

"Excellent," Vlad said. His smile was wide, but it still made Danny's stomach churn. "What's your name, son?"

"I'm not your son," Danny sneered. "My name is Danny."

"Oh, come now, we can do better than that," Vlad said dismissively. "You're a new man, you should have a name to reflect that." He thought about it only for a moment before saying, "How about Rift?"

"What's that mean?"

"A rift is a crack or opening in something," Vlad explained. "Like you create openings in space. What do you think?"

What Danny thought was that this man held his life in his hands, and arguing with him would be a really stupid thing to do.

"Alright," he agreed. "Rift is fine."

"I look forward to working with you, then, Rift."

"Sure," Danny—Rift agreed, though it wasn't true. Not in the slightest.

[rexscanonwife]

WAIT I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT THE WHOLE ASS SEPARATION ARC THAT I JOKINGLY CALL THE DIVORCE ARC 😭😭😭

[gravitydefyingbikedude]

Page three of Idiot World

Cayden immediately launched into the role of the victim, talking about how they were just walking and I tripped on a rock, fell and dropped my notebooks. And when two of them were trying to help me up he picked up my notebooks for me, then I went insane and punched him! The principal asked if this was true, and immediately the rest of the gang backed him up. Then she turned to me and asked me for my side of the story. Logan was standing out of her sight range and pulled his finger across his neck to let me know if I snitched I was dead. Now here's the thing: I don't get scared easily, not even a little bit, that’s another reason I'm an idiot. I told her that they took my notebooks and I just punched in self defense. Of course they said I was lying, and since it’s thirteen to one they obviously won. Next thing I know Rufus was on the phone and being told I was suspended for three days for fighting. The principal left the room for a minute so she could get yelled at and asked questions by Rufus in private. I was mad, but also a bit happy, or maybe proud. I mean sure I got suspended, but I also stood up for myself, and I get to miss school for three days, sure there will be rumors and attention will be drawn to me but it won’t be that bad right? Okay so here's the thing I usually underestimate how bad things can get. That’s another one of the reasons I keep referring to myself as an idiot. The principal comes back out of her office and the gang starts playing the victims again. That’s when she dropped the thunder, she told the gang that they were suspended for three days as well. I thought this was amazing, I was only half right.

We went to go get our stuff and left the building. Rufus called me and he seemed mad, no mad isn’t the right word he was furious. He said since he was at work I couldn’t come home yet so I just had to go to the park. I decided to walk instead of taking the bus. When I got to the park I sat on the swing underneath the blue cloth pavilion. Since school wasn’t even halfway over no one was at the park yet. But apparently the gang's parents had the same idea as Rufus. I saw Cayden, Logan, Grant, Trey, and the others walking towards the playground area. I decided to move off the swing and over to one of the benches. I heard someone yell “Hey Rex!” 

[mechahero]

@pzfr asked- ‘ NOTE ‘ send me  ‘ NOTE ‘  and i’ll tell you what my muse would write on a note left for yours (accepting!)

Hey Rex!

Sorry for being so busy lately! I've been kind of swamped with stuff. Um, anyways. There's an ice cream shop that opened up in your dimension and they're really good. You should check them outside some time. Also, if you check in on the news and see anything about the heroes here getting their asses kicked um... you saw nothing. It wasn't me. ^_^'

[fisksaturday]

this makes sense!! my speech loss episodes usually subside once im out of whatever situation triggered them and i don't have the problem of losing it for several days, mine usually last a few hours

and yeah it kind of. i mean this is just my opinion as an autistic guy and stuff and im sure other people disagree but i feel like a lot of fanfics just have... characters that are randomly really informed on how to handle disabilities/illnesses? like i think it's a really good idea to learn sign language, but most schools don't really offer it as a second language course and a lot of people don't learn any language if they don't need to, yknow?

idk if all of that makes sense but yeah i just think a lot of ppl in fandom will like... pay lip service to issues of disability without actually wanting to tackle them, i guess

idk if anyone else has a problem with this but one thing i feel like i see in headcanon posts and fanfics a lot is like. someone being like "this character learned sign language so they can communicate when they go nonverbal"

and i just feel like. idk. have you guys ever watched people using sign language? have you ever had a speech loss episode? bc like, it's not like a speech loss episode just shuts down your vocal cords or something, it very much affects your ability to communicate AT ALL. and like ppl being able to sign full sentences during a speech loss episode and not just disjointed words is. idk it makes me feel weird

like i understand my experiences are not universal and im glad to be corrected if any of you guys do switch to sign language during speech loss episodes but i feel like some people just. make a character vaguely use sign language so that they don't have to actually confront the problems that come with making a character unable to communicate because of autism

[physalian]

Your colloquialisms are ruining the immersion (or, non-contemporary dialogue)

I am no expert here! Whenever I wrote historical fiction it was anachronistic historical fiction. This advice is from a reader’s perspective and from my experience writing high fantasy.

So what’s the deal with immersive dialogue? I’m going to ignore writing dialects and accents and so-called “old English” with the thee, thy, thou and such. Solely focusing here on the narrative telling me this isn’t set in present times, and yet the dialogue being painfully colloquial like present times.

This is coming from a book I had to read set in HRE times. In it, characters were spouting modern curse words, tacking on verbal tics and crutch words like “or something” and “um” and drawing out words like “daaaamn” and “nooooo”. Rip out the dialogue and toss it in a script with zero context and it would read like two high schoolers from 2009, not two adults from the Holy Roman Empire. Which is a problem, because it completely shattered the immersion. —

1. On so-called “formal writing”

Everybody knows that nixing contractions doesn’t do a damn thing to help your writing look more “formal”, it just looks robotic and stiff, right? We’ve gotten past this as a society? There’s a time and a place for replacing contractions with the full words, but not for every single sentence.

I swear this show keeps creeping into my writing advice but here we go. Transformers Prime. The context for Optimus’ dialogue has a lot to do with his aging voice actor, Peter Cullen, and the perception of the character over the decades from the corny 80s paragon hero everyman type leader to the grizzled and wizened old soul type leader. Optimus isn’t “one of the guys,” he’s old. Very old. He’s the dad of the group (one dad, his grumpy medic is the other dad).

So he gets lines like:

“I fear Megatron’s ambition is at its zenith.”

“But if his return is imminent as I fear, it could be a catastrophic.”

“I bore Skyquake no ill-will.”

He doesn’t curse like the other Autobots. His voice only raises in surprise, horror, or rage. He doesn’t go “um/ah/so/but/eh” and always thinks about what he’s going to say well before he says it. Despite him, Ratchet (the dad medic), and Megatron all being very old, Optimus is the only one who’s “proper” and collected and dignified with his lines. The writers didn’t achieve this simply by omitting contractions, he gets them where necessary and removes them when effective (e.g “We do not.” / “We don’t.”)

2. Thesaurus Rex

Continuing with the Optimus example, no other character in that show would use “zenith” unironically. Or “ill-will”. This doesn’t mean crack open and abuse a thesaurus but there’s a huge divide between:

“Megatron’s gone crazy and he’s going to implode soon” and “Megatron’s ambition is at its zenith”.

I can’ think of a better word to use than dignified, perhaps distinguished to describe his dialogue.

He doesn’t say “what?” when he’s confused, he pauses and says something like “please elaborate”.

This is both word choice and a syntax issue so if you’re struggling to fit a non-contemporary vibe for your work, pay attention to both.

3. When to abstain from cursing

There’s something very special about the dialogue in the Lord of the Rings movies: It’s PG-13 so they can’t curse, but if they had, it would have probably ruined the trilogy. These characters are able to yell in rage and anguish, spit vicious insults at their enemies, and stare down armies that are determined to kill them, all while never breaking the immersion.

Insults like:

“Late is the hour in which this conjurer chooses to appear.”

“Keep your forked tongue behind your teeth, you witless worm.”

“Your words are poison.”

And all three were said by or about Grima Wormtongue.

Characters aren’t dumbasses, they’re fools, with the exception of Gollum’s insults toward Sam, the “stupid, fat hobbit”.

Even devoid of name-calling, Denethor absolutely trounces his second son by asking (and I’m paraphrasing) “Is there any man here willing to do his lord’s bidding?” right after Faramir expresses some apprehension about a suicide charge with his remaining soldiers, completely ignoring him and implying that he’s not a real man.

LOTR is full of juicy lines beyond curse words, too. One of my absolute favorites is: “Dark have been my dreams of late” as opposed to “I’ve been having nightmares lately.”

Do you see?? It’s poetry. The motif of Shadow and Darkness as if they’re real, physical things, all the lines of poetry pulled straight from the books like Theoden’s “where is the horse and the rider” monologue just before Helm’s Deep.

It’s dignified.

—

This one was a bit harder to, ironically, put into words without doing a full-blown case study into either franchise’s ability to write dialogue and monologues. I didn’t even talk about Ratchet’s several monologues (one of which was done perfectly in the sound booth on the first take) because Jeffrey Combs has a voice like ambrosia.

TLDR: Immersion goes far beyond your vivid setting descriptors and the clothing or the names and languages. I mostly write fantasy and sci-fi and whenever I read or watch fantasy and sci-fi that isn’t meant to be a world different from our own, or about characters who don’t speak modern English, and they go off with modern slang, syntax, and verbal tics, it just feels sloppy and weak. Pay attention to the following:

Syntax

Modern slang and jargon

Filler words/verbal tics

Curse words/curses

Flat, unmotivated vocab

*All of the quotes were from memory because I watch both of these franchises way too often. So apologies if I got any wrong.

[david-talks-sw]

Debunking more myths in the GFFA: the Jedi and the clones.

I wrote a post debunking the various myths about how "the Jedi condone slavery", a while ago. Something I had omitted (because it's such a big topic) was the following two statements that concern the clone troopers' relations with the Jedi:

"The clones were genetically bred to have accelerated growth, so they're technically child soldiers."

"The clones were slaves of the Jedi."

Both the above statements are inaccurate, let's explore why. 

"The clones were child soldiers"

Let's get the easy one out of the way first, because it's a logic that cuts both ways. If age is our only determination of the maturity of a Star Wars character, then Grogu is not a baby. He is aged 50, and is thus a middle-aged man.

Who cruelly eats the babies of a woman...

... and knowingly tortures animals for his own sadistic pleasure.

Of course, I'm kidding. Grogu's none of the above things.

The narrative frames him as a cute baby who does innocent baby stuff. Him eating the eggs is played off as comedic, as is him lifting with the frog. To this day, some fans still call him "Baby Yoda".

Conversely, despite the clones being 10/14-years-old, their actions, behaviors, way of thinking, sense of humor, morals etc, are all those of an adult.

Like, Ahsoka is technically older than Rex in this scene.

The scene doesn't portray them as peers, though. This isn't written as "a teen and a tween talking". No, Rex looks, acts and behaves like a grown-up and is thus framed as such by the narrative.

You can make the argument "they're child soldiers", but (unless you're doing so in bad faith) you'd also have to argue that "Grogu's an adult".

"The clones were the Jedi's slaves"

Nope. For all intents and purposes, they're in the same boat as the Jedi, who George Lucas stated multiple times had been drafted to fight in the war.

Again: both the Jedi (monk/diplomats untrained for fighting on a battlefield) and clones (literally bred en masse only to fight) are being forced to fight by Palpatine and the Senate.

Though, on paper, the clones were commissioned by Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, it was actually done by the Sith (who either manipulated or assassinated Sifo-Dyas then stole his identity, depending on the continuity you choose to adhere to). The rest of the Jedi had no idea these clones were being created.

So while the clones are slaves... they're not owned by the Jedi.

They're the army of the Republic, they belong to the Senate. This isn't exactly a scoop, they refer to the clones as something to purchase...

... and manufacture.

As far as the Senate’s concerned, clones are property, like droids. 

Like there's a whole subplot in The Bad Batch about this very point: after the war, the clones are decommissioned and left out to dry because they literally have no rights, they served their purpose.

The only trooper to ever canonically blame the Jedi for the clones' enslavement is Slick, who the narrative frames as having been bribed and manipulated by Asajj Ventress into betraying his comrades.

Also, the only canonical Jedi shown to ever be mean, dismissive or mistreating the clones in any way, is Pong Krell.

And it's eventually revealed he’s in fact a full-on traitor, hence why the story frames him as an antagonistic dick from the moment he's introduced. He doesn’t represent the Jedi in any way.

We know this because the other Jedi we’ve been shown are always prioritizing their clones’ lives over theirs, if given the chance.

Finally, if we wanna get even more specific... as Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the clones belong to Palpatine. 

Palpatine who is a Sith Lord. 

Palpatine who arranged for the creation of the clones and had them all injected with a chip that would activate upon hearing a code-word...

... and forced them to murder their Jedi without hesitation or remorse.

When you bear all that  ⬆️  in mind and when you read this quote by George Lucas...

"The Jedi won't lead droids. Their whole basis is connecting with the life force. They'd just say, 'That's not the way we operate. We don't function with non-life-forms.” So if there is to be a Republic army, it would have to be an army of humans."    - The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, 2020  

... narratively-speaking, everything falls into place.

Sidious knows that:

If he orchestrates a war designed to thin the Jedi's numbers, corrupt their values and plunge the galaxy into chaos...

If he wants to draft the Jedi - peace-keeping diplomats who’d never willingly join the fray - to fight in his war...

... then the only way they won't resist the draft and abstain from fighting is if they think joining the conflict will save lives.

So he creates a set of cruel, sadistic villains for them to face, opponents who will target innocent civilians at every turn...

... and instead of lifeless droids, he prepares for the Jedi an army of men... living, mortal people who, despite being well-trained, will be completely out of their league when facing the likes of Dooku...

... Ventress...

... Grievous...

... Savage Opress...

... or the defoliator, a tank that annihilates organic matter.

Thus, in order to save as many clone and civilian lives, the Jedi join the fray despite knowing that doing so will corrupt their values. 

And as the war rages on, a bond of respect is formed between the two groups.

Clearly, the Jedi don't like the fact that the Republic is using the clones to fight a war, but for that matter, they don't like being in a war, in fact they advocated against it.

However, it's happening regardless of their issues with the idea or personal philosophies. Said The Clone Wars writer Henry Gilroy:

"I’d rather not get into the Jedi’s philosophical issues about an army of living beings created to fight, but the Jedi are in a tough spot themselves, being peacekeepers turned warriors trying to save the Republic."

And bear in mind, the Jedi are basically space psychics, the clones are living beings that they can individually feel in the Force... 

... so the Jedi feel every death but need to move on, regardless, only being able to mourn the troopers at the end of every battle.

We see this in the Legends continuity too, by the way.

(that is, when the writers actually try to engage with the narrative)

Also, if you ask the clones, they’re grateful the Jedi have their backs.

When Depa Billaba voices her concerns about how the war is impacting the Jedi's principles, troopers Grey and Styles are quick to make it clear how grateful they all are for the Jedi's involvement:

So the clones aren't the Jedi's slaves. If anything, they're both slaves of the Republic (considering how low the Jedi's status actually is in the hierarchy).

Only I'd argue the clones have it much, much worse. 

The Senate sees the Jedi as "ugh, the holier-than-thou space-monk lapdogs who work for us"... but a Jedi has the option to give up that responsibility. They can leave the Order, no fuss or stigma. 

A clone trooper cannot leave the GAR! If they do, they’re marked for treason and execution. Again, they’re not perceived as “people”.

And it doesn’t help that the Kaminoans, the clones’ very creators, see the troopers as products/units/merchandise. A notion that the Jedi are quick to correct whenever they get the chance.

How The Clone Wars writers describe the clones' relationship with the Jedi.

George Lucas hasn’t spoken much about this subject aside from the quote from further up. But to be fair... the Prequels aren’t about the clones’ dynamic with the Jedi, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t talk on that subject so much.

He did mention that part of The Clone Wars’ perks is that he could:

“Do stories about some of the individual clones and get to know them.”

But that’s as far as it gets. 

So for this part, I'm just gonna let Dave Filoni, showrunner of The Clone Wars and the upcoming series Ahsoka, and TCW writer Henry Gilroy - both of whom worked closely with Lucas - take the wheel. They make themselves pretty clear on how the clone/Jedi dynamic is meant to be viewed. 

Here’s Henry Gilroy:

"In my mind, the Jedi see the clones as individuals, living beings that have the same right to life as any other being, but understand that they have a job to do."

"The clones see the Jedi as their commanding officers on one hand, but also, at least subconsciously, they look to them for clues to social/moral behavior."    

"Some clones may find themselves getting philosophical leadership from the Jedi that helps them answer some of the deeper questions of life."    

"We thought this was a great opportunity to show how the Jedi interact with clones. Specifically, Yoda in a teaching role of the clones, who were socially new, who kind of grew up— who were created to fight, and he really broadened their horizons and helped them realize there was a great big universe out there that was bigger than just fighting and killing."    

And here’s Dave Filoni’s comments:

"I truly believe that the Jedi try to humanize their clones and make them more individual, as Henry says."    

"I think we saw that in Revenge of the Sith, when the Clones were colorful and named under the Jedi Generals, and then in the final shots of the film with Palpatine and Vader near the new Death Star, the ships are grey, the color and life is sucked out. The Stormtroopers are only numbers and identified by black and white armor or uniforms in A New Hope." 

"The soldiers have become disposable to the Emperor."    

"That is something the Jedi would never do."    

"Yoda teaching the clones much like he taught Luke. ‘Cause that was kind of natural for [the Jedi], a natural instinct to take to these clones like they’re students."    

None of the above quotes from two different writers of The Clone Wars, who had many interactions with George Lucas, frame the Jedi and the clones’ relationship in a negative way. 

How much more proof do we need that "the clones were slaves of the Jedi” isn’t the intended narrative?

My point being that while the clones' ordeal is indeed horrible, the Jedi have nothing to do with it. The narrative of The Clone Wars always frames it as the fault of the Sith, the Senate and the Kaminoans.

If you go by the intended narrative, the Jedi were the clones' teachers and brothers-in-arms. The clones and the Jedi were not just comrades.

They were friends.

[earlycuntsets]

"DEATH COMES RIPPING" - SPOOKY ISSUE

'THE BLACK PARADE, THE TRIUMPHANT NEW ALBUM BY MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE MAY HAVE A TRAGIC STORYLINE, BUT IT'S NOTHING COMPARED WITH WHAT THE BANDMATES ENDURED TO BRING THE DISC TO LIGHT

PHOTOS BY JON WIEDERHORN PHOTOS BY JUSTIN BORUCKI

STANDING ON A BALCONY nine floors above the teeming streets of New York, Gerard Way overlooks the city in which My Chemical Romance began assembling their ambitious new album, The Black Parade. The newly peroxide- blond frontman takes a deep drag from a cigarette and exhales with a sigh. He knows he shouldn't smoke, but it's his only remaining vice.

"If I hadn't been sober, I think The Black Parade surely would have killed me," says Gerard, who climbed on the wagon in 2004. "We were going insane the whole time, and I had to cling to my sobriety to stay even a little lucid. The album became like this beast that was consuming us."

Following up a release as successful as 2004's Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, which sold 1.4 million copies in the U.S. alone, is never an easy task. And the various scares the band experienced as they worked on the new record-drummer Bob Bryar had a near-fatal staph infection, Gerard seriously injured his foot, and some restless spirits at the studio where they recorded kept them all on edge-did not help matters. And neither

did MCR's decision to make The Black Parade (Reprise) a concept disc. Together, Gerard and his bandmates-Bryar, guitarists Frank lero and Ray Toro, and bassist Mikey Way (Gerard's younger brother)-decided to craft a record about a dying young man who is visited by a cast of strange characters that help him examine his short life.

But diving into the conceptual deep end proved well worth the hassle. The Black Parade is not only MCR's most realized offering; it's also one of the most eclectic, enjoyable rock records of the year. One listen to tracks

like "House of Wolves," "The Sharpest Lives," and "Dead!" makes it clear that My Chemical Romance can still rip a good metallic punk tune. But the bandmates are now equally influenced by epic albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Bowie's The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, and Queen's A Night at the Opera.

"A lot of bands from the scene we came from try to strip down their music to 'keep it real," Gerard notes. "But the real you is what you've always had inside you and what you strive to be. So when we started compiling the material we had written, we were like, You know what? This has to be a huge, theatrical record."

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE started working on ideas for The Black Parade in the back of the bus while on 2005's Warped Tour, after which they flew to New York and rented a rehearsal space for two months. And that's when things started to get weird.

"I was living in Queens, and I had to commute on the subway every day," Gerard says. "I was suddenly very scared and paranoid. I felt more like an outsider than I ever had, and I had no confidence, which is bad when you're trying to work on a record. And I had no anonymity because there were a lot of teenagers on the train." In reaction to the young fans he encountered on the underground,

Gerard wrote "Teenagers," a T. Rex-style romp with the chorus line, "Teenagers scare the living shit out of me." "The song came directly from commuting when school let out and being so terrified of them," the singer says. "I was like, Wait a minute. These are the same people that listen to our band. Why am I scared? And I realized it was because they're scared, too. Teenagers are made to feel like they can only solve their problems with violence. They lash out at each other in a really volatile way." After several months experiencing the joys of mass transit, MCR had completed only a handful of songs and felt like a change of scenery (and climate) might do them some good. "I couldn't keep working in New York," says Gerard. "We wanted isolation."

id: Gerard leads the way to what will likely be the band's second platinum record

So the group relocated to Paramour Mansion, outside of L.A. Nestled high in the hills, the deluxe estate overlooks the trendy Silver Lake area and boasts spacious rooms, a gorgeous pool, lush gardens, a state-of-the-art recording facility-and a few special guests.

"The place is definitely haunted," Gerard says. "Doors would slam, and the faucets would turn on. You'd get a bath drawn for you of freezing-cold water in your room, and you wouldn't know why." As unnerving as its mischievous spirits could be, the Paramour was also inspiring, and contributed to the haunting vibe of songs like "The End" and "This Is How I Disappear." More important, it led Gerard to come up with the bleak, surreal concept for the record. "I would have these night terrors, where it would feel like someone was choking me, and my heart would stop and I would stop breathing," he says. "I would wake up in the middle of the night and write these notes to myself, and one of them read, 'We are all just a black parade.' So I started thinking about how this band is kind of a black parade, like a funeral-procession rock thing. And I used that idea to piece together this story about the idea that when you die, death comes for you however you want." Gerard molded his concept into a narrative about a character he dubbed the Patient, whose strongest memory from childhood is of his father taking him to the city to see a parade. Two songs into the album, he dies, and the black parade comes for him.

"During the rest of the story, he meets this entity of death and all these characters, like Mama, who represents anyone who's ever lost their son in a war," Gerard explains. "It's almost like these Canterbury Tales, where he goes along on this journey, and at the end he decides whether he wants to live or die." With the concept in place, My Chem made the songs as sweeping and theatrical as Gerard's lyrics. They accomplished this, in part, by combing through their own eclectic record collections and pulling choice elements that would set them even further apart from other melodic punk bands.

The first two minutes of "Welcome to the Black Parade" stemmed from Gerard's love for Broadway musicals, the horns in "Dead!" came from Mikey's interest in Blur and Britpop, and the jaunty feel of "Mama" was informed by Tom Waits and Nick Cave. But the most poignant moment on the record, "Cancer," was (unlike its morbid moniker) something of a pleasant surprise. "I was very upset about something in my personal life, and that's when that song came out," Gerard says. "It was really spontaneous, and it was recorded pretty much live with Rob [Cavallo, the record's producer] on the piano and me in the vocal booth. Then we added layers of drums, which gave it a certain urgency. It's the song I'm most proud of because it was the most pure emotion we've ever captured, and it gets such an immediate response. You can't shake what the song is about."

As the CD approached completion, some members of the band began to show signs of nervous exhaustion. The group was scheduled to fly to England to play the Reading Festival, and as the date grew near, Toro, who has a fear of flying, got noticeably agitated. Then, after the band tracked "Welcome to the Black Parade," which was originally called "The Five of Us Are Dying," the guitarist lost it.

"I thought I had this premonition," Toro explains. "I was flipping through the TV channels, and on the news. there would be something about a plane crash, and every time I woke up in the morning, the clock would say 9:11. I was playing Tomb Raider the night before the flight, and on the level I ended up at, there was this whole flashback to a plane crash. So right before the flight I was like, 'That's it. I'm not flying."

Despite his misgivings, Toro boarded the plane, and when My Chemical Romance returned to L.A. (all of them still very much alive, thank you very much), The Black Parade was completed without further incident. Listening back to the record, the band members were in awe of what they had achieved and eager to share it with their fans. "There was a real confidence that came to us," Gerard explains. "Having survived it, we felt like we were changed forever. I feel different as a performer now, and I think we really finally discovered who we were as a band." But just because MCR were done with the record didn't mean that it was done with them. About a month later, the band was shooting a video for "Famous Last Words" with director Samuel Bayer (Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins) on a set featuring walls of flame, when-seized by the moment-lero grabbed Gerard's throat from behind and wrestled him to the ground. The singer rolled one way; his foot went the other. "It bent completely backwards, and I heard a crack and felt this agonizing pain," Gerard recalls. "I tore all the ligaments in my foot, but I got up and continued to perform." "I didn't know what I was doing," says lero, shaking his head. "I wasn't trying to hurt him. I felt awful. I still do." Gerard's injury was serious, and he still walks with a cane, but it paled in comparison to what happened to Bryar. At the end of the shoot, the pyro was so intense, the drummer could feel his leg burning, but he stuck it out for the rest of the song. By then, he had a nasty third-degree burn. And the misfortune didn't stop there. Bryar didn't take his antibiotics regularly, and he failed to keep the wound clean. By the time the band got back from a brief tour of Japan, the burn was severely infected. Then Bryar's face swelled up and, after doing the MTV Video Music Awards preshow telecast and a special club show, stumbled into a hospital emergency room in intense pain. "I thought I'd be there for 10 minutes, but as soon as they saw me, they got all serious and gave me an IV and said they had to do a CAT scan," recalls Bryar."They did all these blood tests and kept me there for 14 hours." Doctors discovered that Bryar's leg infection had spread to his blood and caused an abscess in his face that was creeping dangerously close to his brain. If it had been left untreated for another two days, he could have died. "The whole thing was such a nightmare," Bryar says. "This doctor stuck my cheek with a needle about six inches long and the width of an IV tube. Then he went in and out of the inside of my mouth with the needle about 10 times. Fortunately, the treatment worked, and Bryar left the hospital three days later. With tragedy averted, My Chem are now focusing on touring for The Black Parade. They'll be in Europe for most of November, and when they get back at the end of year, they'll start rehearsing for a U.S. arena tour that starts in February. "We want to put on a full show with props and staging like The Wall," Gerard says. And MCR plan to keep the Patient alive long after they're done touring for the CD. "I would love to see the story turned into a play or a musical, and it could easily be a movie," enthuses Gerard. "Making this record, we cut ourselves open every day, pulled out every organ, and lay them on a table so it would be something we're completely happy with. We want The Black Parade to exist for a long time." "The whole hole thing nightmare. This doctor stuck my cheek with a needle about six inches long and the width of an IV tube." -BOB BRYAR

"I felt more like an outsider than I ever had, and I had no confidence, which is bad when you're trying work on a record."

-GERARD WAY

12/2006 revolver - mcrhollywood on flickr

[ziaxkawaii]

The Creator needs help

I claim to know s*it about canon genshin impact Teyvat lore or how things work in it. I just wrote something that was on my mind at 2 AM.

~~~~

Teyvat was crying...

No, it wasn't any ordinary rainy day no.

Not only was water falling down from the skies above in the form of tears, hail and snow also came down along with powerful winds in places that rouse concern in humanity and other forms of life alike. 

Thin layers of snow covered parts of the smeltering deserts of sumeru, rain poured down in forever freezing shnesnaya, pillars of ice formed in the waterfalls of watatsumi island in inazuma and such other incidents wreaked havoc all around the land of Teyvat. 

These disasters drove away almost all creatures of nature into hiding and cursed all yields to be near nonexistent due to the extreme conditions, leading to a landwide food shortage and miserable people. Even vision holders report feeling less elemental energy from their visions than before.

Mr. Zhongli, or formerly known as Morax or Rex Lapis, sat at Third-Round Knockout on a rare good day drinking tea as he  watched the dark clouds over the sea creep closer to Liyue Harbor. He sighs, as he already figures that the weather would one again cut his visit short.

Just as he brought this tea cup to his lips to take another sip, his surroundings changed. He was no longer drinking tea he was standing inside a domain of sorts. Where ever he looked, he couldn't see an end to the limitless space.

He wasn't alone though, six others, who he realized were the other archons and people of the highest authority of each nation, were here as well. And from the looks of things, they were just as perplexed as he was.

Since all of them were brought here, it could only mean, a being higher than them have summoned them for a purpose.

"Be not afraid."

A voice spoke, which drew everyone's attention to them.

A figure floated by their lonesome in place with a calm and understanding expression as they gestured at the seven of them. The figure was like a glowing humanoid lamp, glowing brightly with no distinguishable features whatsoever, except a horizontal golden line at their throat that seemed to extend all the way around their neck.

As if their head had been cleanly sliced off...

Wait... He recognized such featured being described somewhere. An ancient parchment that spoke of a deity that was the purest and highest being in all of Teyvat. A being whose purity was reflected on how others would perceive them, for they lost their real body and a line as tough drawn with gold wrapping around their neck symbolizing their sacrifice to the life on Teyvat.

That being being the Creator...

The moment Zhongli realized who was talking to them, he sank down on one knee. Others following suit as they too realized the same thing as he did.

"Be not afraid... I am not here to neither cast judgement nor punishment." Their voice spoke, as though it was coming from everywhere at one. From behind the seven, from above, from inside their craniums. It would of felt almost overwhelming, had they been afraid, but none were.

"Your excellency... why have you summoned us to appear in your presence, if not for a punishment?" Zhongli hears one of the seven ask, as the same question runs in his head.

That was an excellent question. Though many of the Archons have done everything in their power to fulfill their duties as assigned, their disastrous and war filled past and even current lives, leave no room to doubt they too were not above desire.

The same desire that plaques Teyvat and every other being on it. Driving them to satisfy their own desires

to survive

to live

to build

to control

to destroy...

The Archons carry their sins for they are forbidden to forget them, it would be shameful to do so.

What reason are they here?

"My children... heed my words, for I am afraid time is running out." The creator spoke, their hands gently clenched in front of them, without a single waver in their tone as they continued.

"I was afraid that the day when the balance of Teyvat would be disrupted would come, but the severity of this disruption is far too severe. I can no longer watch as the creations I gifted life needlessly suffer." They floated closer to the kneeling seven as they pleaded.

"I beg of you my children, help end this misery that plaques Teyvat."

The Creators plead rang in their ears as giant bells as they looked up at their Creator, heads full of questions.

The Creator requests their assistance?

"Your grace, we do not know the causes of the anomalies on Teyvat, therefore we are powerless to help even our own nations. What can we possibly do to help?" Another Archons spoke.

"To understand our current obstacle, you must understand how Teyvat came to be." They spoke as, with a flick of their wrist, a mist like substance filled the surrounding space. Creating images aiding the Creators storytelling.

"As you are already aware, I, the Creator, was born of and egg and used the shell of said egg to create Teyvat, but that is not all." The Archons watched intently as images formed before their eyes one after another, telling a history never told before.

"After I was born, I wandered among the stars, awaiting for a purpose for my own creation. As time passed, a sudden desire willed me to use my given power for something, so I returned to my first ever home and used it's eggshell to house a new world in another galaxy.

I shed tears to form the seas, I took pieces of my body to create land, I blew air to form the atmosphere... I lent the sun and the moon to occupy the new lands lonely existence...

however... I wasn't satisfied...

what use does a world offer if no one is there to appreciate its beauty?"

The loyal Archons remained on their knees, listening to the tale of creation and birth of the land they call home. Seems as though even the most purest of beings in Teyvat cannot escape the curse of desire.

"So with the last of my strength, I gave up one of my hearts and divided it to millions and millions of pieces and scattered them all around the land and sea to form life. Life capable of growth, capable of feeling emotions and capable of death on the world I call Teyvat.

As a final gift, I gave up a fraction of my power and formed the seven elements. To make sure these gifts are not used wrongfully, I also created Celestia to act as guardians of Teyvat, the elemental energy and its happenings."

Zhongli stood silent in fascination of the history told. Their Creator really was just as benevolent as described in the ancient parchment he read oh so long ago. Even if their intention for Celestia was different from how things currently stand, they were thinking about their creations' well being. How could he disrespect his own creator so severely as to forget them? How could he?

"However...." The Creator continued.

"Just as I basked in relief and excitement of having created something that would have a life of its own... it caught the eye of another deity."

"They were envious of one of their own giving their body and attention to another, and so, they were going to curse the newborn world, which I could not let happen. I sliced off my own head as a distraction but the spell ended up landing on and affecting my own soulless mind and body, leading me to temporarily forget myself and my creation.

After the battle, my body and severed head fell into Teyvat, leaving behind the deity to grieve for hurting a fellow god.

My body collided with the earth while my head went missing, both staying unmoving, for I had no way to control them nor any memory to guide me on what to do. I felt as eons of life cycles passed before me, ground slowly swallowing my body and breaking it down, making me one with my creation." 

The sudden realization hit Zhongli harder than any of his meteorites. All along, the Creator has been among them. They were no spectator above Teyvat or a god who had abandoned them after their duty had concluded, no. They were there... they are...

"Yes, my children... I am Teyvat, and Teyvat is me."

Zhongli was taken aback as their Creator had read through his entire inner battle inside his mind. Now that he was aware of Teyvat's major historical event, he can finally start to string pieces together and think why Teyvat now experiences such instability. 

"Your eminence, since your body is apart of Teyvat itself, does the weather, soil and even elemental energy have anything to do with your physical well being?" Another Archon spoke and all tuned in to hear the Creator.

"I certainly does... Even if my body is no longer, most concentrated amounts of my being and the energy inside still lie beneath the ground, instinctively healing Teyvat and the ley lines from major damage, effectively enabling Teyvat and the elemental energy to remain balanced and flourish. 

However, lately the level of corruption in the ley lines and the amount of abnormal elemental energy surges have risen greatly, leading my "body" to panic and repel the added strain, therefore leading Teyvat becoming unstable." The creator hugged themselves as they explained and all of us understood the current issue and the gravity of it.

The creators physical body is what had been keeping Teyvat and its energy in line even when the Archons, gods and Celestia had abused it, but know that the last nail has been hammered, the creators body is no longer instinctually healing it and the Celestia is not stepping up to the task that was theirs to begin with.

"Your grace, just say the word and we are at your disposal. What can we do to help?" Zhongli himself spoke, voice even and calm for he had his full faith in his creator.

"You need to find my long lost head and bring it over to my bodys remains. Only then, can I reawaken and consciously put a stop to all of this, for in my current state I am a mere piece of your imagination laced with a voice." The creator explained, as though to prove their point, Their voice now sounded from inside their head as they floated higher and addressed the seven once more with a formal order and open arms.

"Please, find my body and bring my head over to it so I can awaken and help put a stop to this disaster! Let my mind be once again one with my body so balance may be restored, and the curse be lifted!"

Zhongli blinked and everything was just as it was before getting pulled into the domain to meet the creator. The tea he was going to savour previously, was still in his hand, steaming, as though no time had gone by at all. He however knew what had transpired mere second ago, was no daydream or a hallucination, his creator had really summoned him and requested his assistance.

With no more interest in the tea, Zhongli set the unfinished cup down while rising from his seat and began making his way out of Liyue harbor, with a newly acquired goal occupying his mind and shoulders.

[suiana]

(yandere! t-rex hybrid x gn! worker reader) (wrote this because i saw this one video where it said t-rexes actually had good eyesight n stuff...) (erm brief violent and murder description)

you thought he couldn't see you.

that's what you were told. they told you that he had poor eyesight, that you wouldn't have to worry about him seeing you.

you saw that he had a mask on. the guards probably put it on to block his nose, so obviously it wasn't that he smelt you. tracks? you and your friend were careful to not leave any obvious ones. noise? surely you two weren't that noisy...

so how on earth did he find you two?!

"haha... oh, your face is so cute."

the hybrid snorts, wiping away the blood on his cheek as he trudges towards you. you take a step back, trying to put distance between you and the volatile hybrid. with shaky breaths, you nervously recall the previous events that had happened for things to have led to this.

you and your friend were tasked to enter the t-rex hyrid's enclosure after hours to look for something that a scientist had previously left inside. a chemical of sorts, one that made the hybrids more aroused and violent.

the guards and higher ups all said that they had tranqualized him and that he wouldn't be awake. they even said that if by any chance he had woken up he would be in poor condition and you two would be able to escape easily.

that was far from the truth.

the second you entered his enclosure, your friend had informed you that he could hear something moving. that should've been your cue to leave but... you were naive and wanted to finish your task. you should've known that there was something going on when the scientists let you two in without any form of protection.

because unfortunately, a few minutes after that, you watched in horror as the hybrid ripped your friend to pieces, mercilessly taking your friend away from you. his screams ring in your ear, forever traumatizing you as his mauled body now lay just a few feet away from you and the hybrid.

which is what brings us to your current predicament.

"you... how did you find us?! they said you were tranqualized and-"

you nervously babble, pointing a shaky finger at the bloodied hybrid who smiles sinisterly at you. you watch as he shrugs, taking long strides as he licks the blood of your friend off his fingers.

"what? never expected me to find you huh?"

he snickers, eyes looking down at you as though you were some sort of ant. you could only let out a soft whimper as you try to back up, only to trip on a rock as the hybrid laughs cruelly.

"oh you really are so cute! look at you! all scared and shaking... do you think i'll kill you?"

the hybrid mocks, smiling at you as his sharp teeth make you dread what he may do to you. shit, those teeth look sharper than knives! it'll be like going through a meat grinder!

"p-please! i only wanted to retrive something that the higher ups told me to do! i thought you had bad eyesight and-"

"me? bad eyesight?"

the hybrid interrupts, pausing in his steps as he raises an eyebrow at you.

"my dear, my eyes are far from being bad. in fact, i think they may be better than yours."

he laughs at you, shaking his head as you feel helplessness fill your mind. what? his eyesight was... good? did the higher ups lie to you?

"that's how i found you two obviously. this damn... muzzle blocks my senses."

he grumbles, poking the mask that restricted his sense of smell. you watch in horror as he suddenly pins you to the ground, a crazed look in his eyes as you say your final prayers. shit... you were definitely going to die here, weren't you?

"i'm so glad those people kept their promise... wanted you for so long."

he mutters, his tail wrapping around your leg as you freeze in place. ah... so this really was a set-up from the very beginning.

"a-are you going to eat me?"

you stammer, looking up at him as tears prick your eyes. shit, so your employers really were sending you and your friend to your deaths, huh? did they run out of food? and promise? was this damned t-rex thirsting over you and your friend? did the higher ups promise to give you as meat if he did something?

you whimper softly, looking at the t-rex as your body shakes fearfully. meanwhile, the hybrid remained quiet for a second, processing your words before deadpanning at you.

"eat you? ah... so they didn't tell you, huh?"

he mumbles, pursing his lips together before snickering again. little did you know that your fate would've been worse than just being offered to the hybrid as a piece of meat.

"why would i eat my future mate?"

"huh?"

oh. so they offered more than just your body to him.

"oh... so you're not going to eat me?"

"well i will eat you, just in a... different way. i'll eat your friend for real though."

you maintain eye contact with him, fear leaving your body momentarily. you blink slowly, staring at him with an exasperated expression before he breaks the silence with his words.

"what? why are you looking at me like that?"

oh wow, maybe because he just admitted to wanting to eat you? sexually? ugh... you can't tell whether this was worser than just being mauled to death like your poor friend over there.

the hybrid notices how your eyes drifted towards your friend before he pouts. his eyebrows furrow slightly, and the corners of his lips point downwards.

"aw, come on! i'll treat you good, promise!"

you stare at him with a dead expression before replying to him in the most deadpan voice you could come up with.

"you literally live in a dinosaur enclosure."

"hey! it's not my fault that those humans took me away and placed me in here! besides... it's pretty comfortable. they give me food and i don't really need to hunt anymore."

he then pouts before sighing dreamily.

"you really are the prettiest... can't believe i had to adore you from afar."

he shakes his head before using one of his hands to caress your cheek. you freeze as you feel his sharp claws touch your skin. shit, were they always this sharp? and what the hell did he mean by adore? did he like you?

"a-adore me? what, are you in love or something-"

"love? yeah... i am in love with you... even if this is the first time we officially talked."

he mutters, hearts in his eyes as he continues to gently touch your face as though you were a delicate statue.

huh... so he loves you? no wonder he isn't eating you... yeah, you remember doing some tasks in his enclosure before this encounter. maybe that's when he fell for you. wait, didn't he also say something about a promise?

"hey the promise-"

"ah, i said i would stop trying to eat them if they gave you to me."

oh.

so the higher ups really traded you and your friend just so this dinosaur guy would stop trying to eat them.

you continue deadpanning at him before groaning. damn it, why did you have to be subjected to the feelings of this stupid hybrid?

[alicepao13]

Pretty late to this but whatever (you don’t want to know what is happening in this blog’s drafts lol). Since season 5 is over and no extra insight came forth, I must say that it slightly bothers me that based on what we saw, the sole excuse for Charlie’s behavior in season 4 seems to be that he was acting out because he couldn’t have the woman he wanted. There were so many things going on that for this to be the only takeaway, we’d have to choose to brush over the dozens of times he and Rex had their lives threatened and almost died, and that the people close to him were in danger a bunch of times too.

And then he and Sarah get together and that’s like, a magical fix on everything? It would be nice if relationships worked like that.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

By Providence

Here’s my fic for Crossover Danuary Week, day three! I haven’t seen The Secret Saturdays (I know, I know. It’s on my list), so I used the one word prompt: Scratch. DP x Generator Rex ( @amorpho )

Summary: Danny's parents found out about him, and were accepting. When they learned what caused him to become a halfa and why he came home injured so often, they dismantled their ghost portal, deciding it was too dangerous. Everything was great for a while. Danny still flinched when his parents showed him new weapons, but they were all programmed to ignore his ecto-signature now, so he had no reason to worry. That is, until the G.I.W. also discovered his identity. They captured him, doing who knows what to his family to keep them from rescuing him, and ran experiments on him, starting with simple, non-invasive ones, and slowly working their way up to exploratory dissections. After one such dissection, believing he was unconscious, they got a little lax with his containment, and he seized the opportunity to slip away. It is here that our story begins.

[Danny is transported to the Generator Rex universe, where he loses his memory, and ends up being severely injured and taken in by the Providence crew]

Rated T, trauma/medical trauma, ptsd, serious injuries, traumatic amnesia/memory loss, references to past dissection/vivisection, and descriptions of overstimulation and anxiety

[i-know-its-meow]

Athena grew quickly. She heard her mother say that they’d need to get her a new pen. It was bigger, like her, and had lots of new things.

There were things to scratch here and every once in a while she could see Mother’s warmth behind one of the walls. There were other warmths that she could see as well. They’d keep their spots open for a moment, toss in meat, and leave. She didn’t understand why but- Mother was testing her skills.

That had to be it!

Well, Athena had never turned down a test before. When the oval started cracking and she defeated it, she was not only rewarded by a visit but a new area to play in. She’d make mother proud in no time.

-

Mother visited more often, more regularly. Athena must have passed the test. Her food comes from the sky, her mother watching, Athena couldn’t be happier.

-

Athena trills, ecstatic that her mother visited once again. She watches as Mother raise her voice at another being and she growls. Athena knows that sound.

The other is frightening Mother. It raises it’s filthy paw and Athena charges. She bangs her head repeatedly, scratching clawing anything until the other runs and Mother is all that’s left.

Athena calms down. Mother shortens her time between visits. Now she comes to visit her in what mother calls “months” and stays for an “hour.” Mother also has her “pen” “reinforced.”

No others go near Mother while in Athena’s sight. It brings her satisfaction.

-

Mother visits once, not according to schedule. Athena hears an other ask mother if she’s crying and mother sends them out. Then she sits in a chair and rants at Athena.

She listens all about this “date” mother had and she curls up against the wall Mother is in. If Athena ever meets this “board shorts date” she’ll tear him apart. Athena wakes the next morning and Mother is gone but Athena knows she won’t be away for long.

My Mother’s a Little Small.

JurassicWorld Fanfic, imprint AU, done in indominus’s pov.

Warning: very small

-

One of her first memories is falling. And then she’s caught in soft hands that slowly bring her up. Her savior is bright and it takes her eyes a bit to adjust.

“She’s beautiful isn’t she, Claire?” She hears from around her but she can never look away. Not from her savior. She nuzzles the soft paws as the being sets her back on the table.

“The Archaeornithomimus.” Her savior states. “Yes, she will do well.” At this, she feels something burst through her. She’ll do well?! She’ll do well!

“Go on Claire, name her.” Another being comes into view next to her savior and pats her savior- once only because she tells it off for her savior.

“Sir.” The savior sighs and looks her over. She straightens up. “Athena.” And she, no Athena, is excited and hears a couple high pitched sounds before realizing they came from herself as she starts moving around.

Her savior ends up catching her again.

“Mr. Wu, please ensure proper protections are placed on the hatching stations so there aren’t any incidents in the future.” Her savior sets her on the ground again but before they can move away this time Athena jumps on the paw again and starts nuzzling it.

“Look, Claire’s already being a protective mother.” And wasn’t that a shock. Athena’s savior is her mother? This is even better!!! Mother, mother, mother, she chants as she nuzzles into her paw.

Athena and mother stay together like that for a while but mother ends up having to leave. Mother and the other being leave while the third being in a coat stays. Athena recognized him to be a Mr. Wu that mother talked to.

Behind her she hears cracking. She turns to see an oval thing with a moving glow inside.

This won’t do.

[gravitydefyingbikedude]

here's a ranking of Idiot World characters I guess

in order from favorite to least favorite

Rex- rex is a slay

Mara- she's adorable and reminds me of my partner

rufus- NGL he's kinda an asshole but like idc

the gang- they suck and actually exist so like :(

cayden- yes he is part of the gang but like he's the leader and he is he worst so he's my least favorite of the introduced characters .

[cc1010fox]

Rex: That number is your kill count? Fox: Roughly. Cody: I wasn't...expecting that to be honest... Wolffe: He's lying. Look, he wrote a number above it first, then crossed it out. That's the truth. Fox: No, that's the literal kill count. Cody: ... Rex: ... Wolffe: ... Fox: They were alive before we crossed paths. Rex: Oh...Most of our kills are-- Cody: Droids... Wolffe: I don't--How!? Fox: ...Why do you think I have so many awards? Wolffe: You...work hard? Fox: Doing what? Wolffe: Whatever the chancellor tells you to do. Fox: ... Cody: You protect the Senate. Fox: Coruscant. Rex: What? Fox: My duties extend beyond the Senate. I protect Coruscant. Wolffe: Ok, you protect Coruscant. Fox: ...From? Wolffe: Seppies? Fox: That's...part of it. Rex: ... Cody: ... Fox, popping his tongue against the roof of his mouth: Let me lay it out for you three. Fox: While you're out there sniping heads off of comedic relief training dummies, I have to deal with living, breathing, thinking beings. The living and breathing should make them easier to take down, but the thinking makes them unpredictable. I have to account for their individual beliefs, their morals...their sense of honor...all of which throw logic out of the window. It's not easy to land a droid army on Coruscant, so I don't get the pleasure of predictability too often. Rex: ... Fox: Instead, I have to deal with the citizens of this planet, too many of which don't want us here. They shout at us, abuse us, and have even started a market for us. You know...the skin and organ market. Yes and no. Yes, they have actually harvested our skin. No, I don't mean literal skin when I say skin market. Think collars and chains. How many times have you stood between a threat and the people you're duty bound to protect knowing at least one of those people have spat on your men, attacked them, used them like toys, or captured and sold them? My only comfort is knowing I can turn on them the second they're labeled a traitor to the Republic. And I can pick the worst of them off when there are no witnesses. Cody: ...That's-- Fox: On top of that, I have encountered creatures of nightmares because they just dwell in the bowels of this rotting planet or some pieces of garbage brought them here to sell. If you thought I was protected against watching my men get eaten by a wampa, you are sorely mistaken. Although it was the nexu that kept me up at night. For weeks. Who buys those things? Seriously...At least I put some of them down, but who knows how many they sold? Wolffe: ... Fox: The worst creatures are the ones I can't add to my kill count, though. The absolute worst is Chancellor Palpatine. He doesn't know what my job is and assigns me to literally every job in the Coruscant Guard. I have to do it personally. I'm the boss of the people who are supposed to do those jobs. He is the sole reason I will only sleep when I am dead. Fox: The second worst is 99% of the senators. Entitled, egotistical pricks. I would rather be distributed to desperate families looking for organs than catch the eye of any senator. Thire has to remember which ones show a little too much interest in the clones because we are at their mercy. He can't allow a shiny anywhere near them. If a Coruscanti attacks a clone, it's considered damaging government property, making them a criminal. If a senator attacks a clone, it's considered You better do what is best for the Republic and shut your kriffing mouth. Because treating a clone like a complimentary gift isn't betraying the Republic. Risking one of the Republic's delicate alliances is. Cody: Force, Fox... Fox: I deal with all of that while maintaining an impressive record of mission successes. That is why I have so many awards. Wolffe: ...You have awards, but do you want a hug? Fox: Desperately. All day. Every day.