#all i still see is love war and mushrooms so far

[thrandilf]

the S6 puzzles are gonna be fun!

[skipppppy]

I still think the most tragic part about Betty’s character is she might’ve actually been able to save Simon and stay together if she hadn’t jumped into the future. We know that he only became the Ice King because he kept wearing the crown despite what it was doing to him. And for a good chunk of time he was so devastated about losing her that he didn’t value his own life enough to resist putting it on again. When PB and Marceline go into the labyrinth they learn that some people (like Santa) had only put on the crown once, gone a little crazy, but still retained most of their sanity and lived relatively normal lives. Even after a few years of wearing the Crown (in Simon and Marcy), he’s still mostly there, and only goes crazy when he puts it on. It STILL takes another 4-5 years of him wearing it for him to decide he’s too far gone to be around Marceline without hurting her. If Betty had stayed she might’ve convinced him to get rid of the crown after he wore it the first time and prevented any further suffering- he would’ve lived with the condition in its most manageable form. They could’ve been okay. They could’ve been happy. Her love for him, her need to save him might’ve been the very thing that ruined him in the first place.

But then they might’ve just died in the Mushroom war if that happened. Without his Ice Powers he wouldn’t have been able to protect young Marcy or himself. None of them would have made it. Which presents a really fucked up paradox. They all survived in the current canon, but at the worst possible price. I’m SO excited to see what Fionna and Cake does with their characters I just know it’s going to have me sobbing in a heap on the floor

[moiteneia]

Mentorship

Hypocrisy, war and empathy. Since we arrived in Purgatory, we have seen the birth of a group that has an almost family-like relationship. The red team or BOLAS treat each other with affection and emotional dependence. But, especially, for q!Philza.

— As always, I will do the analysis from q!Cell's POV, but know that I love this team and the relationship between all the members.

q!Cellbit had already participated in very similar games. Nothing the Great Eye says or urges is new to him. In the hunger games he needed to face much more than three big groups and he knows what it takes to survive in games like that.

The thing is, when he was thirteen, his mentor was cold. Although q!Cell had affection for him and everything they went through by each other's side, q!Bad never worried about him or the fact that at the end of the day his partner was just a child.

No. q!Bad believed and did everything so that his partner didn't care about what he had to do to survive, be it eating human flesh or killing another child his age or older. q!Cellbit grew up in an environment where killing and dying was routine and if q!Bad had mushroom soup for him, it was more than he deserved.

He grew up learning that he himself was a monster and that he had to live with this reality.

However, this is not the view of all the mentors he has had.

q!Philza understands that all members of his team are human, just like those on other teams. For him, what they are doing is terrible and far from what he believes is right.

And although he agrees to do whatever it takes to protect his own, he will go toe-to-toe with "his children" so they can still try to be fair and, most importantly, humane. He fought for q!Cell to return q!Bad's things. He always reassures them that it's okay if they lose or if something happens, always offering help, something that q!Cellbit never had.

Despite all the bad memories that q!Cell is reliving, in addition to the cruelty he is committing and suffering without many obstacles, q!Philza accepts him, sees him as a human and a precious member of his team that he always tries to understand and listen.

q!Cellbit doesn't feel so alone.

We don't know what will happen returning to the island. I would really like the Bolas to take with them the relationship they have built.

Although I really want the continuation of Murder Husbands and the murders of Federation employees, I would also like some of what q!Cellbit learned from q!Philza to continue with him. In addition to asking for help to deal with all the pain and confusion he feels after all the discoveries about his life.

The relationship between mentor and apprentice, father and son that q!Philza and q!Cellbit can become even more beautiful. For now, I'm very happy with the fruits of Purgatory.

[an-actual-attack-helicopter]

Book 6, Episode 2: Love, War, and Mushrooms Analysis/Commentary

"You certainly didn't go to any of my Crownguard Bonding Barbeque game Night Extravaganzas"

I am adamant that Soren mostly threw these hilariously named parties so Corvus would come. As far as I know, there are only two Crownguards it could be referring to. Or maybe he just made that name up in this scene to make a point. So actually I'm not quite as adamant as I suggested in the beginning of this paragraph lol

This scene follows one where Janai expresses frustration with the Six Horns' masks. She sees Karim in her crown's reflection; she's associates her crown with Karim's obsession with tradition. That's just my interpretation.

lol sorghum. apparently that is a type of plant. ig i can see how they got the words mixed up.

beep beep beep gaydar

Still waitin' on a explanation for Ezrans animal telepathy. We all know the dragon prince doesn't have such a soft magic system lol.

mushpal stimmies. seriously they are like the Autism Creature's cousin or something.

"no homo" my ass

No, I'm not transitioning to male, or female. I now identify as THIS ⬆️

Janai is down below her subjects in a small theatre while Karim is elevated far above.

Janai begins her speech by acknowledging the struggles and mistakes her and her people have made. She is humble and empathetic. Karim, however, speaks of violence, supremacy, and of course, faith. He's like the equivalent of an abusive priest, using faith to justify his actions. Meanwhile, Janai states that Karim uses doubt - or rather, fear - to his advantage. Just like how politicians will convince people to fear a demonized "other" to be seen as a messiah.

Bro really said "sure, more people disagree than agree with me, but like...I'm right." Bro just destroyed democracy with the power of Because I Said So.

Still trying to figure out this one. Guess he is rolling the Key of Aaravos and marking stuff. When it landed on Sky he marked Duren territory. The crown lookin thing is on Katolis, triangle for Southeast of Lux Aurea, rectangle for the Storm Spire, and circle for Umber Tor. Is this some sort of game I don't know?

[originallymarysue]

Avatar Peach AU Introductory Post 1

(UPDATED)

(Information that is crossed out is info that isn't my known to most/some other characters in the AU).

Since I've started making my crossover fic that includes my au I've been thinking that I probably need a explanation post of the au and it's characters, so here this is!

(Crossover Fanfic Below)

The Avatar Peach AU is an SMG4 AU which replaces Mario as the avatar with Peach, following her adventures as a royal princess.

In this AU's 'real world', The Mario Franchise never existed and is replaced with 'Princess Peach's Royal Duties', an open world task simulator that lets you play as Princess Peach herself, doing her daily duties, not being kidnapped, developing relationships etc.

Main Characters/Cast

Princess 'Peach' Toadstool

Peach is a childish, bratty and vain princess who only really thinks about herself. She constantly seeks to be the centre of attention all the time and doesn't understand when it's time to stop.

Even with all her flaws though, she does care about people though in her own way. She loves to shower the people she deems worthy with gifts and titles, with no thought what-so-ever. If she loves you though, your set for life. Money? Power? You name it, it's yours. You'll just have to hope you want her back.

With her being a princess though, she doesn't do her job very well and has two royal advisors to help her (or do her job for her).

Pear ? (aka SMG9)

Pear is one of Peach's Royal Advisors, working for her for the longest amount of time that he's even forgot. By working for her the longest, he knows her inside out and because of that, his other role (though unofficial) is being her babysitter. Pear can often been seen trying to keep her in check and doing her duties for her (that she neglects).

Due to all this work, he's become extremely tired, easily annoyed and serious all the time, not wanting to deal with Peach's antics 24/7. He's also very secretive and nothing is known about his life before Peach. If he isn't doing his job though, he is in his room, making memes doing something not even Peach knows about.

Though he's very reclusive, he's extremely polite to people who he cares about opinions of him (mainly other royalty).

Ochi Alternia

Ochi is Peach's newest Royal Advisor and is always ready to lend a hand. Though she's very shy and over-apologetic, she is a chatterbox and is extremely curious about the people around her.

Just over 19, she's had quite the life so far. Born and raised in Inkadia, she was a child soldier and engineer for King Octavio's Army. Until one day, she heard a special song while fighting a certain agent which freed her from her mind control.

After experiencing having to escape to the surface and fighting a AI telephone, she tried to find her place in the world and arrived at the Mushroom Kingdom. This was were she was given the job of becoming Peach's Royal Advisor by the Princess herself. Forever in debt to Peach, Ochi is much kinder to the Princess than Pear is.

Due to her life experience, she has a vast knowledge of geography and for some reason, machinery and warfare. If you ever want to pass the time, just ask her the history of war and you'll waste 5 hours in no time.

Mario Mario

Mario is the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom and the main target of affection from Peach. Though he doesn't any more hold romantic feelings for the princess anymore, he has just learned to accept that Peach might forever see him that way and just goes along with whatever she does.

He also still rescues Peach whenever she's kidnapped and still enjoys her company, being dragged along on adventures with her advisors most of the time.

He's also a man of many jobs, always one to help out someone in need. While being extremely friendly and supportive, he does struggle with a hero complex as he feels like he needs to be up to everybody's standard all the time and can be quite self-sacrificial.

He also sees the best in people, even villains, which doesn't help with the fact he's often oblivious to people who are clearly evil.

[atomic-crusader]

Godzilla Minus One thoughts (SPOILERS)

TLDW: Godzilla Minus One is easily one of the all time best films in the franchise so far. While it isn't my personal favorite, it absolutely deserves the praise fans and critics seem to be giving it. Outside from some personal nitpicks, I'd say this entry is worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the best.

10/10

THOUGHTS AND SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!! GO SEE IT!!!!!!

Boy does this movies come in swinging! Koichi setting up the main conflict of feeling like he is a coward (he's not, as the movie goes on to point out) and then the whiplash of GODZILLASAURUS

I know its just an unmutated Godzilla but HOLY FUCK the similarities are there and I love the design.

Personal nitpick #1: was hoping the movies would go more in depth with the origin of its Godzilla but the movies isn't really about what Godzilla is but rather what he does and represents to the story. As a result they don't really say what he is other than he is known to Odo Island's folklore. I like that, it gives him a mysterious vibe.

I gasped because I thought he ate a guy be then he yeeted him

Poor Koichi Can't Catch a Break the Movie

Noriko was great. It's clear she isn't used to being looked after and it shows.

Speaking of which, ALL the characters are wonderful. The Reiwa era looks like it is being defined by stronger human characters and stories and I am all here for that!

I'm actually surprised that the trailers (or at least the 2 I watched) didn't show to much Godzilla action. Or at least the final battle.

Godzilla REALLY has it out for folks in this movie. That lack of a clear origin helps actually. His attacks are sudden and brutal. He is REALLY visibly pissed off too.

SPEAKING OF BRUTAL HOLY FUCK!!! For as much damage Godzilla does to everyone, he gets FUCKED UP! Half his face blasted off! It's cool the see his regeneration ability realized in CG

Personal Nitpick #2: I do wish they had made Godzilla a more obviously tragic character. He is just as much a victim of war as he is a symbol of it. Again though, that isn't what this movie is about, and the ending does at least suggest a sequel isn't completely out of the question, so maybe we can still see why Godzilla decided that All Humans Are Bad.

His atomic breath is wild man. Creating mushroom clouds and massive creators is some nightmare fuel shit.

NORIKO NOOOOOOOOO :(

(dont worry she lives)

The plan to kill Godzilla was interesting. Explosive decompression is not really the first thing I would have thought up for a sea monster that brings up deep sea fish but the speed at which it happens is important.

KOICHI NOOOOOO (its okay he ejected)

Personal Nitpick #3:... I don't really like how they defeated Godzilla. I thought it was overkill. Like, yeah I get that Koichi needs to have is moment and all but blowing his head up I thought was a little much. and then he crumbles away? I guess he was frozen? Cool visual though. I imagine it was hell to convince Toho to have Godzilla die that way.

I heard Yamazaki was a big GMK fan, and the last scene really makes it obvious. I wonder if he isn't available for a sequel, Yamazaki would request Kaneko to direct...

Hey Noriko is alive!!!! Hey what's that on her neck? Why does it look like Godzilla's dorsal plate? Oh God Please Let Koichi Be Happy He Has Been Through Too Much.

The overall message of the movie is so goddamn moving, Live. That isn't a request, that's an order, a demand. Live, you should be happy to be alive. You may not think it, but people love you. People can forgive you. You don't deserve to die. Live and fight for the next generation so they don't make our mistakes. It is tough but you and people around you can make it better. You. Will. Live.

[witchofthesouls]

You know what trope I love, the whole ‘eldritch horror/aspects of nature in physical form in human form’ specifically with death. Death the endless from the Sandman is my favorite character due to how refreshing it is to not see a natural part of nature not be demonized.

Imagine a physical manifestation/embodiment of death in the transformers universe. They are so old, older than the gods that preoccupy the universe they share and has reaped many. Death ingrains themselves into every species, sharing with their love and their lust of life, for self enjoyment and to sympathize with the souls they will one day charter. Every soul, no matter what age or species, recognizes them.

Than the Great War of Cybertron breaks out. Death knew war was bound to happen to its petty societal class systems, but never imagined it would directly cause the death of Primus. They can still remember the sadness on his face when he took their hand to be carried to his fate. The death count grew higher and higher, and death did as they have always done since the beginning, with some faint glimmer of hope that they would see what they had done now that their god is dead. Death never took pleasure in the brutality and savagery of war nor in the fear and anger and sorrow in it.

Now, it’s once expansive population was reduced to a scathing thousands. Now Death faces their own crisis. Reap all cybertronians who are the one causes of their extinction or interfere and give them a second chance?

Death’s mind is made up when they take the form a young human girl, making it easier to get close to the so called ‘Autobots’, to see for themselves if they and the ‘Decepticons’ are worthy of a second chance.

Plus, they missed human food. Especially, ice cream.

(If the bots do discovered their/her identity and they ask why Death would help. They/she would simply smile, a bit of ice cream on the corner of their lips. “I am death. I am inevitable. What’s a little while longer?” Was all they/she said as she ate another spoonful of ice cream.)

Okay, commentary because this tickled my brain so much like Woah and I do have things along those lines.

And same here, anon, but more like Aspects that take on a humanoid/mortal form or have Avatars to take on very specific Aspects because such entities are far too immense for a true physical embodiment.

But that's a different topic, so the embodiment of Death in Transformers does exist, depending on the universe and how viewers want to take it.

The most explicitly direct is Mortilus of the Guiding Hand from the 2005 IDW, and then there's Unicron himself -Lord of Chaos, Chaos Bringer, and Planet Eater.

Primus and Unicron are stated to be brother-twin entities. Opposites, yet equals.

His self-proclaimed mission is to end all creation, which is very ironic considering he is a being of Chaos. The spark of that brings forth Life. Unless that's the point. He is the Bringer -the harbinger of Chaos, so he is the embodiment of Death and Finality; the End before the Beginning. 

So if Unicron is steadfast in his role of Uncreation or the herald of the ending/beginning cycle, then now it raises the interesting question in TFP, what if Earth is its own entity? 

In the wise words of the mushroom meme: Decay is an extant form of Life.

Because would make so much sense:

This would neatly tie into the Autobots' confusion and dismissal over the many Earthen inhabitants' biological necessity and/or enjoyment to eat other creatures and living byproducts. (This raises questions about the lack of dietary options and possibly a far more limited fauna and flora amongst modern Cybertron.)

As well as the nature of Earth and its inhabitants since Death and Chaos touches many associated concepts: conflict, renewal, rejuvenation, evolution, illness, decay, destruction, change, regression, mortality, and so much more.

Could have been incorporated into the mythos of the Age of Antiquity, and a linkage to Optimus’ past as Orion Pax’s role of an archivist. There are very, very few things that Optimus could truly keep of his old self, so perhaps he would enjoy looking into databanks and open-access libraries. This could have opened dialogue with their human charges on the differences and similarities between the strict strata of Cybertron and the role of the internet in the modern day.

It would fill in the plot hole of Unicron, somehow not destroying the world when he switched to a bipedal mode, nor does he have a fondness for any creature of Earth.

(The place most likely galls him since there is life even at the most extreme conditions on the planet, and the dominant lifeforms mimic his brother-twin's own creations.)

Patterns form and patterns break, but some Laws are absolute. So by Unicron's own nature, Earth was born to follow the cycle of the universe. (Or unknowingly formed in his slumber to keep his own self alive. Otherwise, Unicron shall become obsolete.)

So not only Earth is deep in the galactic-equivalent of the boonies, this planet is the Cybertronian-equal of Space Australia. 

Which becomes even far more terrifying should the cyberization process have been successful because Earth is not Cybertron. It is its own entity. It would look at these newcomers and say Challenge Accepted on nightmare mode.

Truly worthy to be classified as a Death Planet.

And on a side note: If Megatronus Prime was the closest reflection of Unicron by Primus’ own hand, then would that mean he was supposed to fulfill a role or be an Aspect of Death on Cybertron? Anon, my mind is reeling here!

[jakesuit0]

Video Makers Review

“Video Makers” is probably Adventure Time’s most effective use of its side characters thus far. Pretty much every main and secondary character besides Ice King and Gunter show up. All of Finn and Jake’s closest friends are at movie club: Marceline, BMO, Princess Bubblegum, Lady Rainicorn, Tree Trunks, Lumpy Space Princess, and Shelby. While several of these characters were also in the opening scene of “Power Animal”, this is much more intimate. It’s really cool how each guest gets a unique drink that fits their character. Princess Bubblegum has a sentient candy drink. She uses candy biomass to control her age. This must be how she maintains the body of an eighteen year old despite being about 835 in this episode. I also love her rocking a casual outfit this time. I mentioned in my “Go With Me” review that Finn’s friendships with Marceline and Bubblegum caused them to see each other more frequently. Even though they are sitting apart and not seen chatting, it’s interesting that they both attend a small, weekly get together. Marceline actually gets a couple of lines, making it her only speaking cameo in the first four and a half seasons. 

It’s funny how worried Finn is about adhering to the copyright warning. It totally fits Finn’s character, but obviously it isn’t referring to showing the movie to a few friends. And Jake is right that those laws aren’t in effect anymore. We get our first mention of The Great Mushroom War, another example of significant lore being dropped so casually. It was pretty obvious already that Ooo was post-apocalyptic, especially from “Business Time”, but this was further confirmation for people who hadn’t pieced it together yet. 

I love all the scenes of Finn, Jake, and BMO filming Ooo. It feels like they are making an art movie or a documentary. It does a terrific job capturing the beauty and weirdness of the mundanity in everyday Ooo. Despite Finn and Jake calling it “random junk”, I’d totally watch it. They basically filmed Adventure Time season six. Finn and Jake try to film more structured scenes. The scenes don’t play out the way Finn and Jake intend, causing them to argue over what genre they want their film to be. The way the actors go off script is much more funny and entertaining. Finn and Jake should take their movie less seriously, and just go with the flow. We get appearances from more recurring characters: Slime Princess, Cinnamon Bun, Mr Cupcake, and Peppermint Butler. This episode is a real milestone in Adventure Time’s worldbuilding, showing off a structured world with various established elements they can naturally pull from. Shelby also says his iconic catchphrase, “check please”, for the first time. 

The ending of the episode is fantastic. BMO’s reaction to Finn and Jake feels like a child reacting uncomfortably to their parents arguing. BMO’s song is very touching. In addition to BMO finally getting to tag along with Finn and Jake for an entire episode, it provides his first truly impactful scene, which still holds up as one of his best moments. I like how quickly it causes Finn and Jake to make up, who of course wouldn’t stay mad about this long. Lumpy Space Princess’s intense reactions to all of this are also really funny. She’s eating this drama up. 

Grade: A-

[nevesmose]

Can I be a huge nerd about a piece of writing that has had a very big influence on my own style?

It's from an alternate history timeline called Protect and Survive that was posted between 2010 and 2013 which can be viewed chapter by chapter here. In summary, it deals with the before during and after of nuclear war breaking out in 1984 with a focus on what happens in the UK but some diversions to the US and Europe as well.

It's a very bleak story inspired by Threads which is something I've yapped about many times and, stylistically, by David Peace's novel GB84. But that's not super important really - I hadn't read anything by David Peace before I read Protect and Survive so, to me, it feels emotionally like the origin point of a lot of the tools it uses.

I recommend the whole thing but what I want to focus on is the fifth chapter in which the nuclear attack actually happens. It's not that long so give it a read if you'd like to but then come back because I have lots of things to say about how it tells its story.

Back yet? Good. Depressed yet? Yeah. There's so much worse.

Anyway, to begin at the beginning:

The Fire Brigade may not be able to reach you.

Each main chapter title and opening line comes from the real life Protect and Survive publications that would have been distributed in the lead-up to nuclear war. So they're the framework for the story and almost always used in a way that illustrates how optimistic and/or deliberately deceptive each piece the advice is. For example here we've already been shown in an earlier chapter that all the emergency services have been withdrawn from likely target areas in order to preserve them for the aftermath. The Fire Brigade is not coming, ever. You really think the government would do that, just go out and tell people lies? 🤔

The Constable didn't see the mushroom cloud. He'd made for a shop's cellar the second he heard the siren. He had pushed people out of his way to get there. When it hit, he wet himself.

The Shopkeeper didn't see the mushroom cloud. He'd been down in the shelter since the siren went - his wife had frozen up, the silly bitch, but he'd got her into the shelter.

The County Controller didn't see the mushroom cloud. When the warning came in he thought of his grandchildren and burst into tears. When the bomb shook the very foundations of his basement bunker, he hit his head and passed out.

The Old Man and his Wife didn't see the mushroom cloud. They saw the flash, though. They never saw anything ever again.

I love love love the rhythmic list-like format here that is telling us what the various POV characters we've met so far are doing at the moment the bomb hits. There's a regular beat all beginning with the same phrase and all telling us what the various characters are doing with the use of the most relevant details to give us insight into their character through their thoughts and actions.

The Constable is a very scared young man far out of his depth and behaving accordingly. The Shopkeeper was in the shelter and although he made sure his wife got in too he still thinks of her as a silly bitch for freezing up which is indicative of his ruthlessness. The County Controller who is supposed to be safe in a bunker, exerting control over everyone else, is still just a individual person whose thoughts are of his own family and, in any case, ends up having his "safety" completely subverted when it KOs him at the vital moment.

And then, speaking of subversion, we get to the last paragraph which plays the kind of bait-and-switch I will never ever stop using because it always works to throw off the reader and make them feel, however unconsciously, unsettled by what's being described because the pattern has been broken which is jarring on a very instinctual level.

They saw the flash, though. That itself is further unsettling because it's phrased like a helpful, positive kind of conversational interjection when the descriptions of the others have been much more clinical and functional. And what it's describing is anything but positive.

They never saw anything ever again. And so we have another quick change not just of tone, going from a statement about what they did see to what they won't ever again, but also in terms of scale. In the space between sentences we've zoomed out from a description of one single event that did happen to literally the entirety of time in which something will never happen.

I'll give you a little spoiler here too when I say that this is also foreshadowing that will come back to haunt us later. We aren't being lied to or anything, it's just that the only specific information being given to us here is that they never saw anything ever again. It means exactly what it says, no more and no less, but coming to it for the first time it's easy to read it as just a roundabout way of saying "they died". This is a very effective trick to mess with people.

As it happened, the fears of a 'four-minute warning' were unfounded. From detection to impact, the first missile to hit the UK took just over five and a half minutes. Airbursting near RAF Scampton, this burning cloud marks the start of the Russian attempt to neutralise Britain's bomber fleet through short - range submarine launched missile attacks. Although the EMP arising from such attacks plays havoc with air-traffic control and navigation, it is not enough to stop the V-Bombers. These crews have trained for thirty years so that these few moments are survivable. The Vulcans and Victors are already off the ground. They have their orders. The 'go' order (Britain's submarines are launching, too) was not issued by the Prime Minister - she will be dead within two minutes of the Scampton attack. In fact, two separate 'go' orders are relayed. The Deputy Prime Minister (already deep underground in CHANTICLEER) is a 'Nuclear Deputy' - he gives the order almost before the tearful radio operator finishes his dispatch. The Air Chief Marshall, steaming around an undisclosed location on HMY Britannia, gives the same order some thirty-five seconds later. This is academic however; by this point, flight suits have sprinted across tarmac and are checking their aircraft as if in fast-motion. Beneath the waves, the 'doomsday letter', handwritten by the PM, has already been opened with shaking hands. It consists simply of two words - 'Strike Back.' We do.

Look how much this section is a big, solid wall of text compared to what's come before. It's the kind of detached factual description you'd get in a Tom Clancy novel with lots of acronyms and technical terms being thrown around in long, detailed sentences with lots of different clauses, hopping quickly from idea to idea, person to person, and place to place as a large number of different things happen all at once. The fact that RAF Scampton has actually been hit, with all of the suffering that entails, is kind of lost in the middle of the big flurry of activity happening.

My favourite part is "these crews have trained for thirty years so that these few moments are survivable" - once again we have a zoom effect but it's a zoom in this time, collapsing down from thirty years into the very short, busy space of time that this section is conveying to us.

I also find this part really interesting:

The 'go' order (Britain's submarines are launching, too) was not issued by the Prime Minister - she will be dead within two minutes of the Scampton attack.

Like I mentioned before, this section is portraying so many things happening all at once, so much so that the tone starts to get almost breathless as what the submarines are doing has to get compressed into brackets within a larger sentence.

And then we get some more little meaningful word choices, like sometimes it's a lot more effective to describe what isn't happening rather than what is. "The 'go' order was not issued by the Prime Minister" is a really effective way of communicating the idea "something is going wrong here and things are not as they should be" and then in the next bit of the sentence we find out why - "she will be dead within two minutes of the Scampton attack." Not only is it another indicator of how quickly the different events are all piling on each other but saying "she will be dead" brings in a feeling of inevitability, of events being outside anyone's control.

For comparison, you could convey much the same information by saying something like "the 'go' order was given by the Deputy Prime Minister, underground at CHANTICLEER, since the Prime Minister died within two minutes of the Scampton attack." But I feel like it loses so much of the sense of chaos and events blurring together, in flux but coalescing inevitably towards an end point that will happen soon.

No-one is quite sure what's going on with Her Majesty.

Communications across the UK are severely disrupted by the first bomb. And the second. And the third.

The panic, the vomit

The dust and the screaming

The big bombs hit the cities.

London gets ten.

In isolation this part looks almost like a poem doesn't it? Things are suddenly very disjointed and staccato compared to the long sentences we just had. The repetition of "the first bomb, and the second, and the third" is good here, piling one upon the other.

And as it goes on even the word choices reflect how much things are breaking down - "the big bombs hit the cities" and "London gets ten" are both infantile ways of describing it. Like the events have robbed everyone of any control they have, turning them into powerless babies panicking and vomiting and screaming as things happen that they can barely comprehend. There are no more highly trained people rushing around doing well-prepared things like we just had. And I like the almost embarrassed tone of "no-one is quite sure what's going on with Her Majesty" as though this was the comically belated last rational thought someone had before the end. We do find out eventually by the way.

I'm not going to go through the whole thing in this level of detail but the first sections of the chapter are doing a huge amount of work very effectively and I wanted to make sure I talked about all the things I noticed.

Newcastle is 'spared' a direct hit - the megaton with its name on it undershoots, airbursting over a chip shop in Heddon, a few miles to the South-East.

I cannot over-emphasise how important it is that it mentions the bomb hitting a chip shop. I've been to Newcastle once in my entire life and I have never heard of Heddon so as a reader I don't have a very strong mental image of either place.

But I can imagine a chip shop, a mental image that comes ready-made with a long list of related memories and sensory inputs that I, as the reader, am doing all the work of remembering, connecting it to what I'm reading and making it feel real. I can remember the smell of the fryers and the taste of salt and vinegar on hot, fresh chips and I can see the tiny white drifts of spilled salt on the counter. And so when I read about the nuclear apocalypse hitting a chip shop I can form a very strong image of what that's like. And all this just from the choice to say that it happened to "a chip shop in Heddon" which is a really big impact from so few words.

The Central European front is now silent, save for the crackle of flames and the cries of young men - something of a ceasefire occurs, as there is no-one left to fight.

🚨"Something of an X" alert🚨 since I know this phrase and others like it are ones that I use very very often. Saying a thing is "something of a whatever" is a fantastic way to be ironic, funny, sarcastic, sad etc. A very useful tool. Like for example "the clown smooshing a pie into my face during my job interview was something of a surprise" or as in this case where it's not really any kind of ceasefire at all. It's just death.

First to go was his hair - it caught fire. His scalp melted and his teeth burst. His clothes became his skin and his skin became his clothes, and then both slid off his bones.

This is one of the scenes that has stuck with me ever since I first read it. One of the best, most effective ways of getting under people's skin (lol) with gory scenes is to mention specific things that everyone tends to find personal/intimate/vulnerable. Hair is good for this, as we can see here, but I have always been a big fan of mentioning teeth since it can make the reader think about something that unsettles them and more importantly have a kind of physical reaction to it right there as they're still reading. For example:

His teeth burst. Something I don't like makes my teeth itch. I had a dream where someone replaced all my teeth with marshmallows. All of her front teeth were broken during the crash.

I would be willing to bet the 12p of pocket change currently in my possession that at least one of those phrases made you just a little bit more conscious of your own teeth. Maybe you even poked at them with your tongue or something. Everyone can relate to bad things happening to teeth.

"His clothes became his skin and his skin became his clothes" is also a really evocative way of presenting it. The idea being conveyed is just "his skin and his clothes melted together" which is already pretty bad, but framing it as this cyclical exchange of each object transmutationally becoming the other makes it seem so much more drawn-out and torturous.

A screaming skeleton, caught burning in mid-air, the Cadet's last words are unintelligible, for his tongue has burned out. Although all this has occured in a fraction of an instant, relief still registers in the boy's brain as the coup de grace comes - the blastwave bursting his smouldering scarecrow like a locomotive through a snowman. His remains float up to meet the mushroom cloud like a letter up a chimney. No-one will ever speak about, or think about the Cadet from now until the end of time.

One of the first things that strikes me here is that there are quite a lot of hissing "S" sounds in play. It makes me think of something hissing away in a frying pan which is appropriate, considering. We also have another negative description of what isn't happening in the mention of his last words being unintelligible, and another use of a very large scale kind of zoom out when it says no one will ever think of him "from now until the end of time" just to illustrate the magnitude of how much both the Cadet and the world in which he lives are being destroyed, as though not only is he gone but so is everyone else who would ever be able to preserve his memory.

And the similes! Sometimes a very brutal, alien event needs a very brutal, alien comparison to fulfil the purpose of illustrating what is going on without offering any comfort to the reader. It's like if you say "the roasted xargbulox meat tasted like chicken" that gives familiarity to something strange and also brings in a little bit of the "chip shop" trick where you're using whatever real-life impressions and memories people have of what chicken tastes like to support the fictional thing being described.

Whereas I feel like "a locomotive through a snowman" gives illustration without comfort, instead of falling back on the reader's existing ideas it makes them put in the effort of getting out the metaphorical Lego set and combining locomotive + snowman to arrive at the desired mental image.

That's about all I've got so thanks for sticking with it if you did! There are lots more nifty stylistic bits as the story goes on. Bleak, though. Very bleak.

[huntinglove]

Can you tell us about your. Princess mermaid and ice king.

I want to know ALL, ANYTHING!!!

How they met???

I'm so glad you like her :DD I absolutely can, nonny!!

She's the Ocean Princess! She can shapeshift and control all ocean water

If she has her necklace on, she gets legs and shuts her gills so she can stay on land, if the necklace is off she'll get her tail back and have to be in the water to be able to breathe

Her shapeshifting is strongly tied to her emotions, making herself bigger if she's angry and smaller if she's afraid. She also likes to make water clones of herself for silly shenanigans or when she wants to experiment with her style and appearance

She's incredibly strong and emotional but a huge softie meaning it's really hard to get her mad, so the other elementals don't see her as a threat at all!

At the start of the show she's 200 years old and has only learned about the mushroom war through history books and the debris of now sunken cities in the ocean

She really admires Finn's bravery and even helped Jake build a replica of the tree house in Ocean If Fear, she was a bit upset about scaring Finn but she's glad that he overcame his thalassophobia!

She has always been familiar with Ooo in general, but especially the elementals, since the four kingdoms are all surrounded by the sea. She has a unique relationship with each of them as well:

She's intimidated by Bubblegum because she's incredibly stern whenever they communicate and has never really managed to get too close to her. Plus she's always been a bit jealous because of how Finn and Ice King act towards Bubblegum

She finds Slime Princess fun and is quite intrigued by all of her kingdom and wants to learn more about it when she gets the chance, but she never formed strong bonds with SP so she hasn't visited the kingdom often

She greatly relates to Fire Princess, even though their elements are complete opposites. She has also helped FP with some of her kingdom's development, pushing pieces and machinery to the shore so FP could collect it for herself

And finally there's Ice King. She's always observed him from a far, at first she just enjoyed watching the penguins swimming and playing in the ice, but eventually she started to pay more and more attention to IK, listening to his ramblings and watching his usual routine and shenanigans

Eventually she decided to start approaching him, day by day. At first she would hang around the icy shores of the kingdom and just have him acknowledge her presence before scurrying away, but once she warmed up to him she started talking to him directly

Ice King was very quick to fall for her and trust her, which she found unusual but went along with. He was really puzzled when he understood that he didn't have to keep her locked in his home for her to want to spend time with him, but he was happy to have some company

Eventually they were official and pretty much everyone knew about them, Marceline was a bit protective but once she realized that the Ocean Princess was being genuine and treated Ice King kindly, she became a lot calmer around her, but still keeps an eye on the princess from time to time, just to make sure

She also gave Ice King a mermaid's kiss, which meant that he would never drown while underwater, so they spent almost all of their time together, in either of their kingdoms

Ice King really wanted to marry her but didn't really know how to make things "special enough" for his proposal. So he just asked almost everyone on Ooo and tried to organize everything

When the finale happened, she was ultimately terrified because the man she had fallen in love with was completely different now. Calm, tame and even more polite than before, she was a bit scared that Simon wouldn't love her like Ice King did. She mourned her fiance for an entire month, having heavy storms wash over the land while she locked herself away in her palace

Simon, on the other hand, saw this as a fresh start and a chance to fall in love again, plus he still had some memories of her, even if they were slightly hazy

Since Simon didn't know if the mermaid's kiss would still have an effect on him, he asked for Marceline's help to get a boat or a submarine from the humans who returned to Ooo so he could come in contact with the Ocean Princess once again. Once he managed to reach her he reassured her that he wanted to start things a new and that he still had feelings for her

It took her a while to warm up to his new demeanor but once she recognized the immutable essence of the man she was in love with it was very easy for her to fall for him all over again

They're still working on the wedding though 👀

[breninarthur]

I tried to save a draft of this to edit on desktop, and tumblr decided to completely erase it from existence instead!

For @dadrunkwriting, @syrupwit sent me the prompt "Clover (safety, protection from evil)" from the Plantober 2022 list, for Kallian/Alistair or Kallian & Duncan.

So here's both!

In which Kallian lies dying in a field somewhere.

1,054 words. Positive ending.

❀ ❀ ❀

As Kallian lay coughing up blood in a field of weeds and wildflowers, all she could think about was how differently she'd expected her death to go.

The clanging of metal on corrupted metal still rang in her ears, but distant, as though in a faraway theatre she couldn't get into. She could hear the darkspawn's freakish war cries. She could hear her friends, but they were speaking some language she'd never learned.

Kallian thought she would go out in a blaze of glory. Loghain would cut her head off in front of jeering noblemen. The Archdemon would swallow her whole in its great maw. She would push someone out of the way at a crucial moment, and a horde of demons would rip her apart; the battle be remembered forever.

But this was no grand fight. There were no armies, no innocents to save. They had been attacked on the way to Denerim, taken by surprise, and Kallian had been stabbed unceremoniously.

Of all people, she thought of Nelaros. Did it mean something that she was dying in the same way, run through with a sword? She wondered if death had moved this slowly for him too.

Kallian heard a bark, and she almost laughed. She loved dogs. They were never officially allowed pets in the alienage, but that never stopped her from naming all the strays. It was nice that one had come to see her off.

There was a whine, much closer and clearer than anything else, and through the numbing pain, the blood, the tears; Kallian knew him.

"Ci–" she tried, but her voice was a sickening gurgle, and it hurt too much to try.

There was a puff of wind, and she forced her head to turn. Ciarth had plonked down next to her, whimpering as he looked at her with sad brown eyes. He'd placed a gentle paw on her arm. She wished she could feel it.

She wanted to say something, to tell him it was okay, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, she dragged an armoured hand to scratch weakly at his cheek, and gave him a bloodstained smile.

As she did so, she noticed that between them; there was clover.

❀ ❀ ❀

"So, you can just... eat everything you find, basically?" Kallian asked, only half sarcastic as she frowned at the dandelions Duncan held.

He sighed.

"No. Remember what I told you about deathroot," he said with all the airs of a long-suffering teacher.

"Only the flowers!" Daveth piped up triumphantly.

"Never the flowers. Only the leaves," Kallian corrected, and waited for approval.

"Yes. And field mushrooms?" Duncan pressed with a raised eyebrow.

"Not the ones that smell funny," Kallian and Daveth intoned together.

A corner of his mouth twitched. It wasn't a smile exactly, but it was the closest they'd gotten from the Warden so far on their journey to Ostagar. She'd take it.

"What about this?" Kallian asked, pointing at the patches of emerald green that grew around them here and there.

Duncan followed her gaze, and bent to pick one of the little plants.

"Clover," he said, twirling it in his fingers. "Good to eat."

"That's it?" she prodded. Usually there was a cautionary tale, preparation details, or at least a pre-emptive apology for the taste.

"Yes," he said, before pausing. "In Rivain, some believe it protects you from evil."

He stared at it for a moment longer, seemingly lost in a memory. Kallian and Daveth traded a look. This was probably the most personal thing Duncan would ever say to them, which was saying something, really.

"We should get moving," Duncan suddenly continued, as though nothing had happened, tucking the clover into a pouch on his waist. Without waiting, he turned, and kept walking.

The recruits hesitated. Looked at each other again. And hastily plucked their own clover.

❀ ❀ ❀

Didn't do much good for them, Kallian thought, stirring another coughing laugh. Ciarth whined again.

Something was different. Stomping boots weren't so far away. Her blood felt it coming.

Suddenly or slowly, she didn't know anymore; Kallian was helpless at the feet of a hurlock. She couldn't move, and even if she could she suddenly felt as though there was no point. It was too late for her now.

She dimly registered the fact that Ciarth hadn't moved either. Strange. He normally gave his all to protect her, to protect any of them. So why had he come here just to watch her when their friends were still fighting?

Panic set in. She turned towards him again, looking for blood. Where was Wynne? Kallian couldn't reach her poultices. The hurlock would kill him right after her.

No, no, no.

The mabari had been through so much. A dead owner, the taint, the whole fucking Blight. And she'd put him there. Ciarth could have had a nice little retirement somewhere. Kate and Bevin's cuddly bodyguard. Roaming free with the Dalish. A study buddy for Dagna. Anywhere but here.

The darkspawn lifted its sword in slow motion.

She was going to die.

Just as the monster was about to plunge its blade into her heart, it disappeared from view.

Alistair had charged into it, shield-first, knocking it clean off its feet. With his show of strength, more darkspawn gathered, but Alistair was singularly focused on keeping them away. He barged and slashed, spun and shoved and kicked, stabbed and pummeled and protected. As usual, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Twelve hours or five minutes, it took however long it took. When he was done, he dropped to his knees next to her. He screamed something, and pressed his hands into her wound.

Kallian saw red robes in her narrowing peripheral vision, and leather too.

Clover. Fat lot of good that had ever done anyone.

No, she thought, as another pair of hands replaced Alistair's, bare and ice cold. She looked to Alistair, who hadn't moved too far away, trying to smile at her through his tears.

The familiar buzzing of Wynne's magic sung in her skin, and Morrigan's green light shone near Ciarth.

Alistair stroked her hair. He was speaking, but his words were still fuzzy. She laughed anyway, because he'd probably said something silly.

His autumn brown eyes were the last thing she saw before she passed out.

I've got my own clover.

[jgmartin]

THERE ARE NO SONGS AT THE END

Life is funny.

It’s here until it isn’t. Sometimes it wastes away over the course of years. Other times, it’s instantaneous. It’s a spark, or an ember, igniting in one moment and then dying in the next. It happens so fast that you wonder if it was ever there at all.

Hello! Goodbye!

I think that’s what you can expect your life to be. A quick thing. Here today, gone tomorrow. Up in flames, dead in a flash. It’s a bold claim and I’m not calling myself a fortune-teller, but I am saying I'm privy to some details that aren’t terribly fortunate— for you or me.

Politics. It always comes down to politics, doesn’t it? Strings. They pull them, we jerk and dance, praying that somebody somewhere has our best interests at heart. Once upon a time, I was that somebody.

Honest, I was.

I began working in government three decades ago. Back then I was still a wide-eyed and ambitious intern with big ideas about improving the human experience. I wanted to help. Deep down, I think that maybe I still do. But I can’t. Nobody can.

Here’s the thing, the big secret that they don’t want you to know: this is a game. All of it. But I’ve read the rules, and I’ve seen the state of the board, and for you and I— for the world at large, the match is rigged. We’re playing at a disadvantage.

Soon, we won’t be playing at all.

The strange thing, or maybe the depressing thing, is that it isn’t even about us. Not really. It’s not about them either— the shadow brokers at the top, making deals with the devil and trying to leverage our fate. It’s about something greater. It’s about the pretext to human existence and the destiny we’ve been afforded.

The truth is, we’re not alone in this universe. Never have been. There are things out there vaster than stars and more violent than war. Things that have been biding their time. We’ve been fed a steady diet of chaos and fury, of love and pleasure, all in an attempt to fill our insatiable hunger to feel. All in an attempt to ripen us. For Them.

Once, some force that has long since vanished, dealt with Them— the ancient terrors beyond the veil. It subdued them. Defeated them. In order to do so, it harnessed the power of creation itself: the Big Bang.

We've determined the origin of our universe was not a product of chance, but rather an attack of desperation. It was a gamble to overcome titans too horrible to comprehend. And it worked.

For a while.

Now those Beings are awakening again. Slowly, one by one, they’re lurching up from their slumbers and turning their eyes to the rarest, most empowering energy in the universe: human emotion. Intangible and infinite, forged in the kiln of our souls.

We cannot stop them. We cannot contain them. Some of us are even working to help them, bombarding the masses with multimedia, grooming our thoughts and poisoning our minds. Anything for a reaction.

If that sounds hopeless, then just know that it is. You and I are fuel for abominations. Calories for the cosmos.

Our harvest is coming, and when it arrives there will be no resistance and there will be no songs of our passing. Our spirits will be cremated in the stomachs of ancient things. The fabric of our beings will be scattered far and wide, lost and mutilated, less than a memory.

But there’s another way.

See, the people at the top have a plan, and it’s a plan we’ve been inching closer toward year by year. Soon, you'll see it spring into action. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But soon.

It begins with a panic, and the long drone of sirens in the street. The world stops. Nobody knows what to do, but that's okay because this part doesn't last long.

Soon after, there's a crack of thunder. And screaming. So much screaming. It's terrible and awful, but it's quickly drowned by the low bass of infinity and the rush of a hurricane. Windows shatter. Bones tremble and skin sears. The horizon erupts into smoke and flame. A thousand mushroom clouds ascend into heaven carrying a billion cauterized souls.

Of course, there will be survivors. The unlucky few. Fret not. In the hours following, the sky will split and bleed black, irradiating their flesh and exorcising them of their destiny.

Finally! We will be free-- all of us.

It's frightening, I know. Ultimately though, what choice do we have? Some people won't want me telling you this. They'll be afraid of the shockwaves and what it could do to upset society, but as human beings I think we're owed an explanation.

So make your peace. Say your goodbyes. I don't know exactly when the end will come. I just know that when it does, I recommend a front row seat.

Don't wait for the rain.

[glapplebloom]

So answering the questions I couldn't put into comics below...

Nice to see a Fionna and Cake review. And honestly I like Adventure Time’s answer to the multiverse then others. I mean having each universe based on alternate decisions is interesting, but it has been done so many times that it becomes boring. Especially when they don’t give a good reason too. Having each universe being a wish someone made with Prismo is far more creative and give writers more freedom. ~ @warsmithzodiacragnarok

Thing is, it is pretty much based on alternate decisions. Farmworld is a world where Simon used the powers to prevent the Mushroom War. Vampire World is a world where Simon was unable to raise Marceline. Extinct World is where everyone died suddenly. Having it be done by a wish is still because of an Alternate Decision.

So have you seen Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix? Great show and Bullfrog MVP. ~ @warsmithzodiacragnarok

I have not seen it outside clips.

We know that Bill Cipher defeated Discord but... What about 'Him'? We can guess that Bill could have no chance against it, right? ~ Anonymous

I'm answering this question as honestly as I can. If I made HIM answer it he'll say he wins and based on my own version I would make HIM win. But in a legit Death Battle, sadly I think Bill Cipher wins for the same reason he beaten Discord: that Soul Regen. While I could argue HIM being able to feed off people's evil would make him stronger, unless I can prove he can regen his Soul better than Bill that would be a big key factor.

After all, while Discord has continually shown to not take things seriously until it could have been too late (as seen against Soundwave or when the Evil Alliance stole his power), HIM likes to torture people so Bill will have plenty of opportunities to go for a kill as soon as he can. I would love to be proven wrong, so Craig if you can show HIM's soul being destroyed and reformed in your reboot I would highly appreciate it.

So how will the end of Them's Fightin' Herds affect your story? ~ Anonymous

Honestly, not that much. In fact, them ending it means technically their world is destroyed. And they wouldn't be the first characters I took from a dying Universe.

[finitefall]

Nettles is one of my favorite characters from the Dance and it's just really sad to me that the fandom only uses her as fodder against Daemyra or Daemon. That girl tamed Sheepstealer using her wits, was one of the best dragonriders in the Dance, and went on to be worshiped as a fire witch! She's also very Arya-like, which I love, and her relationships with the other Dragonseeds are superior to whatever went on with Daemon. But Daemyras hate her and antis want Daemon to molest her. I hate it.

I feel you nonnie. But Daemyra shippers don't hate her at all, we respect her, we even love her. The ones who don't like Nettles aren't Daemyra shippers: they hate Daemon, Rhaenyra, or both. They would rather see Daemon molest her than Daemon being faithful and loyal to his family, just to "prove that Daemon is evil".

As I said before, that’s why they say he groomed Rhaenyra (he didn’t, as many people have explained before) and that’s why they want Mushroom’s version of his relationship with Nettles being true. It has nothing to do with either Rhaenyra or Nettles and everything to do with their hatred for Daemon and their need to demonize him as much as possible. Some of them hate Rhaenyra too, so they’re killing two birds with one stone by saying Daemon and Nettles were in a romantic, sexual relationship. “Daemyra shippers are such losers, he doesn’t care about Rhaenyra in the end because she’s too old and fat, he’s with the skinny young girl”: both Rhaenyra and Daemon are being shamed here.

About Nettles being worshipped as a fire witch - excellent point! We’re introduced to the Burned Men in A Game of Thrones - Tyrion VII:

Every clan in the Mountains of the Moon feared the Burned Men, who mortified their flesh with fire to prove their courage and (the others said) roasted babies at their feasts. And even the other Burned Men feared Timett, who had put out his own left eye with a white-hot knife when he reached the age of manhood. Tyrion gathered that it was more customary for a boy to burn off a nipple, a finger, or (if he was truly brave, or truly mad) an ear. Timett’s fellow Burned Men were so awed by his choice of an eye that they promptly named him a red hand, which seemed to be some sort of a war chief.

And we know that Nettles and Sheepstealer were thought to be “somewhere in Crackclaw Point or the Mountains of the Moon.”

We learn more about the Burned Men in The World of Ice and Fire - The Vale:

Mots of these clan names have some meaning, however obscure those meanings might be to us. The Black Ears take the ears of men they defeat in battle as trophies, we know. Amongst the Burned Men, a youth must give some part of his body to the fire to prove his courage before he can be deemed a man. This practice might have originated in the years after the Dance of the Dragons, some maesters believe, when an offshoot clan of the Painted Dogs were said to have worshipped a fire-witch in the mountains, sending their boys to bring her gifts and risk the flames of the dragon she commanded to prove their manhood.

And yes, it does fit with what’s been said about Nettles in Fire & Blood - The Lysene Spring and the End of Regency:

High in the mountains, the unthinkable happened one night as Ser Robert and his men huddled about their campfires. In the slopes above, a cave mouth was visible from the road, and a dozen men climbed up to see if it might offer them shelter from the wind. The bones scattered about the mouth of the cave might have given them pause, yet they pressed on... and roused a dragon. Sixteen men perished in the fight that followed, and threescore more suffered burns before the angry brown wyrm took wing and fled deeper into the mountains with a “ragged woman clinging to its back.” That was the last known sighting of Sheepstealer and his rider, Nettles, recorded in the annals of Westeros... though the wildlings of the mountains still tell tales of a “fire witch” who once dwelled in a hidden vale far from any road or village. One of the most savage of the mountain clan came to worship her, the storytellers say; youths would prove their courage by bringing gifts to her, and were only accounted men when they returned with burns to show that they had faced the dragon woman in her lair.

It’s so interesting, because we know Nettles isn’t a witch but was worshipped as one by this savage clan thanks to Sheepstealer. She’s full of resources, but it’s disappointing to only have those bits of information pieced together about her story. I know Nettles isn’t a main character in any book, but I wish we would know more about her story after the Dance.

[awritingcaitlin]

🎶Find the Word Game🎶

Tagged by @legiomiam again! Thank you!!!!

My words are unkempt, dirt, rain, sky, and word

THOUGH I DON'T HAVE UNKEMPT IN ANY OF MY WIPS SOMEHOW?!?!?!?

Tagging: @legiomiam, @juls-writes, @tananaphone, @mjjune, @baroquesse

Your words: step, look, broken, warm, song

Snippets are from: Relic of the Gods aka ViolinHeist

🧱DIRT (DIRTY)🧱

Lelia stepped out into the rest of South Town Berthingtonn.

South Town looked a lot more run-down than the Inner City, generally because wood didn’t last as long as stone and steel. Sure, the buildings may have been built more recently – as in, they were built in the wake of the war between Berthingtonn and Eswaisil sixty years ago – but because they were mostly wood, they fell into disrepair much faster than the stone and steel buildings of the Inner City.

Technically, South Town had a lot of brick too, and some buildings had stone and concrete. Honestly, South Town had a wonderful charm that Lelia had come to love. It was dirty and smelled like fish all the time, but the markets were crowded with genuine people and there was always something lively to do. People seemed to breathe here in a way that wasn’t possible in the constant bustle of Inner Berthingtonn life.

In the past month, Lelia had drifted from bar to meetinghouse to outdoor courtyard finding places to perform. There were taverns run by Seamus Finn and Adelus, and bars belonging to neither of the two. The Goddess Fraiye had a meeting house with open performance times, plus there were plenty of places along the road that she could stop and play at.

This all of course, contributed to Lelia’s thoughts that perhaps she was dedicating herself to the wrong god now that she had switched jobs.

.

🌧RAIN🌧

The ice broken, the two of them were able to make idle chitchat as they walked. They discussed the lack of rain recently, which Lelia commented how she recognized they needed the rain but wasn’t missing the increased humidity either.

“Also have you noticed there’s less bread served with things lately?”

Em snorted. “It’s because we’re getting close to the quarterly grain shipment from Thadenopolis, and South Town is legitimately running out of bread.”

Lelia blinked a few times before going, “Oh.”

“It happens every few months like clockwork. Honestly, you just get used to it and don’t really notice it.”

.

☀SKY☀

It was warm.

As a mage, Lelia could see the shimmery opalescent shield that protected Berthingtonn from every threat on the planet but was still capable of letting rain and sunshine through. She could only see the shield if she really tried to look, the rest of the time it just blended in with the sky. But when she wanted to see it, she could.

The difference between Inner Berthingtonn and South Town was that part of the shield was anchored to the Wall around Inner Town, sitting atop it like a giant dome. Outside the Wall, there was a mushroom cap that extended to the Outer Towns of Berthingtonn, South Town, North Town, Outer East Docs, and technically some far-reaching docks and piers to the West.

Though, the West was also a weird case because the Wall did not extend all the way into the Crater Sea, so the shield was the wall in a way, at least through there. Lelia remembered looking at it once and wondering what kind of magical engineering had to go into that to make it work. Neither of her parents could provide an answer.

Until a month ago, Lelia hadn’t left the Wall at all.

.

🎶WORD🎶

Requests started pouring in for some duet-type songs. Some of which Lelia already recognized, some of which she hadn’t heard of, but she was starting to figure a lot of them out. Loony Benny  looked at her, waiting for her to make a move or pick a song.

Lelia started the opening bars of ‘Wings Over the Sea’, which was a shanty that had almost the same tune as a skipping-rope song she’d learned as a kid on the playground. Sometimes the key was a little different, but on a violin, key changes didn’t matter much if they were in fifths. The words were definitely different, but she didn’t need to know the words so long as she played the notes. That’s what the audience was for.

Loony Benny’s grin only widened as he joined in with the counterpart. The crowd eagerly began singing.

Lelia drunk up every second of it. Her fingers flew across the fingerboard, hitting even the highest notes with ease. She let the music move her whole body. Loony Benny stomped a booted foot on the ground, keeping the beat.

One song led to the next and Lelia found herself working through shanties, traveling songs, mining songs – many with such raunchy lyrics that would make her family back home cringe. But they weren’t here now, and Lelia wouldn’t care if they were. This was the life she’d chosen.

[ammcgee-author]

289. The Love of God

Grace is cool rain falling on a warm summer’s day,

Mercy is clove oil, on a toothache, threatening to take the pain away,

Cynicism is denying all this is magic; and seeing only suffering —

Skepticism is little more than positive and open-minded cynicism.

A remedy to natural and supernatural miracles;

(My mind is far from free of doubt —

I don’t claim to know what the Faithful and Spiritual, the pious and prudent, the virtuous and ludicrous, the bright and the brilliant, the wise and the innocent, have long figured out…

My faith is only as strong as my Inspiration.)

The stuffy air inside a building, rather than the hope in air, to breathe again.

Were my lungs created to take in oxygen, like land-gills?

Or was oxygen created for my lungs, so I can learn what a pleasure it is to breathe in deeply?

(Is it pleasurable to breathe in fresh air, only because it needs to be?

What of the pleasure of breathing in toxic but still sweet-scented mushrooms and flowers?)

Was illness created, to take these things from me?

(Is suffering just the body’s warning system, a “check engine light” for mortals?)

Do I curse my suffering, in world of green grass and ice-cream?

Does ice-cream, like grassy fields, only exist, as a contrast to my pain and suffering?

Is reality really nothing more than subtly and contrasts?

Like good and evil, day and light, sunny days and toothaches?

Happiness and sadness, war and peace?

A philosopher may have the time to fathom it,

To dream metaphysical dreams, but I can’t imagine it…

It’s just so much easier for me to see,

The truth is what men try to write about;

What mathematicians try to figure out,

What moralists debate,

and strategists plan about —

A world of opinions about the Truth you see,

the Love of God, in you and in me.

— A.M. McGee

[Notes & Commentary: This poem hopes to take an Agnostic Theist approach to the problem of science and religion, acknowledging that while neither science nor religion can explain, everything, what they hope to explain probably exists beyond Man’s ability to measure. This poem takes a objective approach to the idea of a God, (or gods) existing, simply because Man believes in God; even if the myths, legends, and superstitions surrounding that belief came later.]