#and I have a clear idea in my mind of how the Beast story should proceed after the main events so I thought it was worth mentioning

[kyouka-supremacy]

I still feel so strongly about this. In my mind it'd be so cool to start a new Beast arc with the Higuchi alley ambush, with higher stakes and the reveal that a new boss took over the pm. Mori being the pm boss reveal in the main manga took place in an alley with everyone bowing before him; it'd be cool for Higuchi to parallel Morin in that: Higuchi presenting herself as a seemingly harmless and even sympathetic individual to the main character, and then the revelation of her being the new powerful boss. A thing about Higuchi's first appearance in the bsd manga is also how she openly declares war to the ada, so it'd be nice to parallel that by having Beast Higuchi do the same. And that's not even mentioning! How it'd be SO GOOD to see this flavour of Higuchi, a powerful and confident one- because Beast as a whole is a lot about stretching how the circumstances condition and shape people to be who they are, and I feel like a lot of Higuchi's insecurity and self-doubt come from her upbringing and especially being Akutagawa's assistant. It'd be great to see an Higuchi now confident and charismatic, a striking contrast to her canon counterpart.

Hot take but Higuchi is the new pm boss in Beast

[storms-path]

Dawntrail and Conquerors

Dawntrail has given me thoughts. So many thoughts. This is only one of 'em, be prepared for more! But also, SPOILERS FOR BASICALLY ALL OF DAWNTRAIL AHEAD! Read on at your own risk!

There’s something of a running theme throughout FF14 that I think Dawntrail has really honed in on, and it’s something that resonated with me the more I thought about it. Time and time again we’re confronted with men who claim that they are worthy of rule through the strength they bring to bear, and time and time again they’re laid low by our own. We see it with Gaius, with the Heavensward, with the entirety of the Garlean empire (but in particular Yotsuyu and Emet-Selch), and now in Dawntrail with… Well, you know. The theme is clear: Conquerors do not keep their thrones.

So when we heard stories at the end of Endwalker about how the mighty Dawnservant united the people of Tural, a famously divided people by both land and people, my thought was this: We have another conqueror who we’ll inevitably have to topple. With the Garlean empire fresh in my mind, it was the obvious conclusion to reach towards. And Wuk Lamat was already shown to be sheltered and naive from her introduction, which made me wary of trusting her word on her own father’s supposed goodness.

Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised that Gulool Ja Ja was not a conqueror, but a uniter instead. For all that he’s hyped up as an incredibly strong combatant, and a force to be reckoned with on and off the battlefield, all the stories we hear of Tural’s founding are of him… Making peace. Liberating through non-violence. Saving people from terrible beasts. Forcing a generations-old war to end through a cook off to end all cook-offs! He could have quite easily conquered the people of Tural, forced them together through violence, but he knew how short-sighted that would be. He was raised in warfare, called upon to be a saviour of his forsaken people and lead them out of the canopy… and he did, in a way. But he did so without casting down everyone around him.

Is he a perfect ruler? Oh, absolutely not. His people still have problems, especially the Mamool Ja who chose to remain. But he has succeeded in bringing together a prosperous, peaceful nation in a time of upheaval and crisis. And despite everything, he is successful in… well, being succeeded. His trials do exactly what they should, but teaching Wuk Lamat and Koana how to properly rule through respecting their people instead of using them for their own gain.

Which bring me neatly to Vergil Zarool Ja.

Zarool Ja is everything Gulool Ja Ja isn’t. Ruthless, cold, unable to see the people around him as anything but tools. He claims he wants to bring war for the sake of peace, but he simply wishes to escape his father’s shadow and truly surpass him. And he cares not a whit for his siblings or fellow competitors. At every turn he is given the choice to do better, and at every turn he chooses to walk further down the path of blood and violence. So it came as little surprise when he positioned himself as head of a conquering army, intent to overturn everything his father worked to build.

Zarool Ja is the clearest and finest-pointed reminder of FF14’s core lessons. He is the epitome of unearned strength, literally leaching it from the souls of his people. And it consumes him in the end, turning him into a pale mockery of his father, complete with a stump where his second head should be. Resolve without reason, hellbent on conquest at any cost. And so, of course, we put him down. Just another marker on our list of conquerors conquered.

And then Sphene fully unmasks.

Sphene is… very interesting. In a lot of ways, she entirely rejects the idea of conquest. She only wants to keep her people safe from harm forevermore. She actively joins us against Zarool Ja when he turns on them! But therein lies the problem. She can’t keep her people around without taking from others. And so, regretfully, with utmost sorrow… She enacts her plan to keep her hollow world alive. Invading other reflections and robbing them of their aether to keep her people forever sated and able to live beyond death. It doesn’t matter to her that they’re only shades. After all, she is one herself. If that’s what it will take to protect and safeguard her people, so be it. No sacrifice too great, no sin unforgivable. So she does what so many have done before her.

She attempts conquest. And we put her down.

Conquerors do not keep their thrones, after all.

[minty-drop]

Hello! Is it okay if you write Shadow Milk Cookie x Faerie Reader (romantically)? Thank you for reading my request and hope you have a good day! <3

Sure thing! This one was a little rushed but I hope that’s alright?

͙͘͡★ Shadow milk cookie x faerie reader

Tw: very slight angst, forbidden romance, mentions of corruption

Type: general romance head-canons, romantically themes, non established relationship

Delicate wings, but a mighty soul is what a faerie was. A soldier of the land of beast yeast, in there quiet and cozy little kingdom.

Though this kingdom held a secret. Where 5 beast were sealed in the large trunk of the silver tree. Every faerie knew of the tale of the 5 beast, the once saviours of beast yeast. knowledge, volition, happiness, change and solitary, turned to sour dough, vile and sinister cookies who crumbled the weak beneath there power for the entertainment of selfishness.

This should have scarred you away from the silver tree. Struck fear in you. It did for a long time. But when the tree split, allowing the darkness of this world to spew out again, you could only feel curious after the encounter. Your questions never answer by the guardian about the event. Questions that you had he could not answer. Questions that banged in your mind like a brick being dropped onto your dough. The knowledge you craved, the guardian could not give your satisfactory. Each time he failed to give you an answer, the more you pondered everything around you to the smallest of details.

And in desperation, you against all of faeries kinda rules and nature, ventured to the tree, in the time when the sun was not longer out, the sky swallowed with a inky black, stars shining bright and the moon high. The illuminating celestial objects bright hues caste down apon the thick tree tops, leaking down onto the soil of the land.

The path was bright into your sight by the light, which was covered in vines until you made it to a large open space, a king, silver path above you. Spreading your silky clear wings, you guided yourself up onto its cold surface.

The tree was absolutely beautiful up close. The trunks stood strong and perched, roots stretching far beneath the soil. Branches twisting and turning in all distractions, branching into even more complex structures. The glow of it was dim but noticeable, how could anyone not want to stare at its beautiful light.

In hesitation, finding it hard to move from your spot in fear of being caught out at this hour. you hurriedly scudded a-crossed the large platform to its wide base.

Feeling the bark under breath your hand, it was cold, much like you expected. The texture was almost as if it was coated in a film of silver like it’s name. Leaning against it, you began to ponder if this really was a good idea to ask of knowledge from one of the most sinister beings to Rome earth bread. Everyone knows the story, how all the beast had turned into there opposites. In which once in particular help the knowledge of 1000.

It took courage to utter any words, but you managed to muster out a shaking and quiet hello to anything, anyone who could be able to answer your questions…silence was the only thing the responded, accompanied by the quiet chips and clicks of bird in the tree tops.

This was pointless, what a stupid idea. Asking a god like cookie for there knowledge, and this being was one of the beasts. We’re they even still alive? Maybe they perished during there time in the tree. Knowledge now turned to deceit, everyone knew that. But..maybe if you offered something. Something valuable, maybe just maybe they would give you something true.

A sly, cocky voice, just barely able to hear admitted from the dense bark.

“Hello dearyyyy” the y drawn out with sickening laughter.

Jumping out of your skin is what you could call the reaction, bolting away from the tree a good 6 seat in fear. Something really responded. One of them really responded to your feeble attempts at communication.

You leaned against the tree again,trying to listen for a sound, anything. But there was nothing. And as childish as it sounded, you knocked a small pattern on the bark….silence yet again….before the same pattern was repeated back to you.

This is how you met the cocky, sly and funny cookie, one who terrorized the old era was now melting at your ‘touch’. The trees bark kept you away from him, but that didn’t stop him from speaking to you.

You knew it was wrong, a faerie and a god. Nothing less a god that had killed thousands, thousands of innocent souls. But you couldn’t stop yourself from fall for him, sneaking away from you home to visit this locked away soul.

He loved you, as close as he could get to loving someone even if he never had show it well. he wanted you. He wanted to corrupt your being so you could truly see how much he cared for you.

[nobodywritingao3]

unnamed monster & caretaker au

Tasked with feeding and caring for the king's resident monster, Tommy is constantly overworked and fully expects to die before he's twenty. He has an odd relationship with the beast and makes it a point to keep details about himself private, but it's difficult when the creature is the closest thing in the world he has to a friend.

wordcount: 2.3k 🕸 read it on AO3

CW: - hard vore mention - soft vore mention - mentioned abuse and dehumanization

‼️‼️‼️ Unfinished, unedited one shot. Proceed with caution

@gracideaviolet sent me a writing prompt and this is what i originally wrote for it. i like the concept but i wrote this at a not-good time and when i reread it, i didnt like the quality enough to fix it. if you like this story, let me know cuz that might give me motivation to properly finish this thing. feel free to take the idea but please credit and send it to me cuz i like this story and wanna see what someone else does with it

Tommy finished loading the cart and took a second to breathe.

He heard the beast shifting around in the dark. "Are you doing okay out there, Sunshine?"

Despite his tiredness, the sweet nickname made him smile.

"You know you eat a lot? It's a pain in the ass to load myself."

He meant it as a joke but silence hung in the air a second longer than it should have.

He cleared his throat. "I don't mind it. I'm compensated."

The beast snorted. "Not enough."

Tommy laughed awkwardly and didn't say anything.

He walked over to the control panel and started up the track.

The cart was big enough to fit a barn, and filled to the brim with various livestock, prisoners of war, and whoever else might have found themselves on the king's hit-list. Nothing sent to the monster was alive. It was a point the monster whined about a lot, but Tommy much preferred it that way. It was already disgusting having to spend hours upon hours piling the cart with bloody meat (sometimes human!) by himself, and the day he was handed a living person would be the day he faked his death and fled the kingdom.

He pressed a few buttons, tried not to cut himself on several rusty levers, and the rail obediently started itself up with a few revs and puffs.

The beast hummed contentedly at the noise.

The cart began to run along the track, disappearing from his view and descending into the inky black cave. He heard the gate creak open and he heard it creak close. And then he heard the beast begin to eat.

They weren't nice sounds by any stretch of the imagination - ugly rips and wet squelches of flesh - but Tommy had been at the job for a while and was long used to it. He settled in and waited for the creature to finish its meal.

"So how was your day, Keeper?"

Tommy hummed. "About the same as it always is. My master told me that the king will be coming in soon for a performance review, but I've no idea when that might be."

The beast paused its munching before hesitantly starting again a moment later. "I - why?"

He shrugged, assuming the monster could see him from the dark. "Something about me holding down this job the longest out of anyone before."

"Hm."

"I don't understand why that would intrigue the king. And no offense to you personally - "

"Uh huh," the monster sarcastically interjected -

" - but this isn't exactly the career path I'd have chosen. If I knew how to transfer I probably would have. Honestly - I have no idea how the others could have quit this job. I was under the impression that this is the sort of thing you do until you die."

It laughed at that.

Tommy sighed.

He was quiet for a few moments, a question sitting heavy on his tongue.

He shouldn't ask. It's impolite.

The monster shifted around. "Spit it out."

He gave the darkness an accusatory look. "I don't know what you're talking about."

There was a huff of laughter. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. You're doing that thing where you want to say something but are worried about what I'll think. It would be adorable if I wasn't desperate for decent conversation."

"Fuck you." He said it with a smile.

"Well? Are you going to say or not?"

He scrubbed at his face. Fuck it. "What were your other keepers like?"

The beast went silent for several long moments.

Shit. "You don't have to answer if you - "

"I didn't much care for them."

Tommy didn't say a word.

"The feeling was mutual." It sighed heavily. "You're a much better replacement, Sunshine."

"I'm sorry for asking."

The beast purred. "Don't be, dear. I pressed you. And I don't mind answering." It jostled the cart. "And I'm done eating."

Tommy nodded and powered up the control panel again. The cart began to recede. 

It appeared from the darkness, picked completely clean and shiny as if it never been covered in blood at all.

It scared him a little, how quickly the monster could eat such a large amount, but he dismissed those thoughts as easily as they came. When would that ever affect him?

He checked the clock. He still had a few hours before he had to report back. "Do you mind if I stay with you longer?"

The monster laughed conspiratorially. "Oh, but that's against the rules," it said in a high mockery of his voice.

He flushed.

He had been terrified of the monster when they first met. He gave any excuse to leave the beast as soon as he could, including that the rules specified that spending unnecessary time with it was prohibited. That was true, but no one would have known if he chose to linger. In hindsight, it had been terribly obvious how afraid he was and he's only embarrassed that the monster pretended to believe him.

"You're the worst."

"And you still want to spend time with me?"

Tommy blew a raspberry at the darkness, earning a few laughs.

It was comfortably quiet for a few seconds before the monster spoke again. "Why are you curious about my old keepers?"

He tugged at his fingers. "Do you know how I ended up here?"

"You never talk about it."

He frowned. "And I never will," he responded coldly. It never gave up asking. "But do you know, generally, how someone ends up working this kind of job?"

The monster was quiet. "Yes."

Tommy didn't say anything for a minute. "The king is very angry with me. I don't want to see him again. However the other keepers escaped..." He shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. If the king requests an audience with me, it isn't for any good reason."

~

When the king acquired his monster, he hired out help to feed the thing and keep it under control. He made sure the beast ate lavishly, but now matter what they fed it, it never seemed like to satiate the creature. But it hadn't died of starvation and that was good enough. When its caretakers started to disappear, it wasn't difficult to guess what happened.

But acknowledging the problem would mean addressing it too, and the king simply didn't care. In the end, he realized he had the perfect way to quietly do away with those he needed gone. He sourced this job, with its one hundred percent rate of 'job abandonment' to political adversaries or people growing affluent enough to take his throne.

Which takes him to the present day, and a rather interesting problem.

When some servant boy had spilled a bottle of red wine down his front during a gala several years prior, the king had been so angry that he threw the child in a dungeon and left him there. When the monster's then-keeper inevitably disappeared, the king came to the boy and grimly informed him of his punishment.

He hadn't expected the child to last more than a couple of days. He'd even picked out his replacements.

But lo and behold, the boy remained present at his job post for a week. And then that week became several, and those several became months, and those months became a year and a half.

The king couldn't understand why it hadn't eaten him yet. He was fifteen at this point, certainly the youngest to feed the monster. Was it waiting for him to grow up? Did it want to watch him sprout up before it made its attack? It was perfectly sentient, and the king knew this even though he denied it upfront. Shouldn't the monster trust that the sooner it finished its current keeper, the sooner he would be replaced by another?

Had there been someone who had managed to bring this creature to subservience? If so, then the king took special interest.

And if not, then it was long overdue that the servant boy be put to death.

~

Being a human's lapdog wasn't a dignified experience, but it was a fed one. Driders were megafauna, making it hard to get enough food. It certainly didn't help that the human kingdom believed everything was its rightful property and saw driders as a threat to them owning more than they could eat.

Wilbur certainly didn't enjoy his life, and he was almost always hungry anyway, but at least he was alive.

He lived in a dungeon below the castle, but he wasn't sure what a castle was and he barely understood the concept of a dungeon. He hadn't seen the sunshine in years, and his keeper was his only company.

He liked his keeper. The boy was kind. He didn't threaten to pee in Wilbur's food or throw rocks at him. He asked him how his day was, and even made it a point to handle the meat carefully as he transported it into the cart. He seemed lonely, and made up excuses to stay. He was a cute little thing, and Wilbur wanted to stick him into his brooding pouch and keep him there.

~

The cart rolled into Wilbur's enclosure, and he greedily snatched it up and began to eat.

His keeper sat at a table in the light.

Wilbur finished his food in a few seconds and toyed with the cart. He always made it seem as if it took him longer to eat than it did.

"Do you have a family?"

The boy froze at the question. "Why do you ask?"

Wilbur pouted even though he knew he couldn't be seen. "We've known each for so long. I don't even know what your name is. Can't I know just a little?"

His keeper awkwardly laughed, fidgeting with his fingers. "Oh... I guess you're right."

Wilbur's heart leapt.

"I don't have a family."

"Oh." Shit.

"Yeah."

What was he supposed to say?

"I don't have a family either."

His keeper peered into the darkness. "What are you?"

Wilbur smiled. He skittered to the bars of his cage and leaned against them, towering over the boy, though he had no idea. "Would you like to play twenty questions?"

"You're so lame, seriously, what are you? I don't even know what you look like."

I could show you, he wanted to say.

Coming out of his cage was easy. The king assumed it could hold him but no one actually checked. And aside from his keeper, no one had been in his dungeon for years. In reality, the bars had long been bent open and Wilbur could get out whenever he pleased.

It wouldn't be difficult to come through the bars and present himself to his keeper. Pick the little figure up in his hands and take him into his cage with him.

When he'd eaten his previous keepers, they'd always been replaced. If he captured his current keeper and stored him away in his brooding pouch, then he'd never be lonely again.

It was tempting.

"That's probably for the best," he said. He stepped away from the bars of his cage and curled up on the floor.

He liked his keeper. He wanted him to be happy. Just because Wilbur was stuck in a cage didn't mean he had to be as well.

"Do you think I'd be scared of you?"

Wilbur looked down at himself, at his large stature and eight legs. His fangs came down to his mid chin. "I think you'd be terrified, dear."

His keeper smiled. "I don't think so. I have a suspicion that you're just harmless."

His heart melted. Oh stars, he wanted to eat this kid.

He massaged his aching brood pouch. "You're sweet, Sunshine."

~

The cart was left in his cage while he was sleeping. He woke up confused, spying it in the corner of his enclosure and wondered why he'd been fed overnight. Where was his keeper? His mind jumped to the worst conclusions.

He found him inside the cart. Bound and gagged and looking terrified beyond all reason.

"Oh, Sunshine," he murmured.

His words had the opposite intended effect, his keeper starting to panic and writhe at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, hey... Calm down, okay? I'll get you out of there." He reached into the cart and picked him up in his hand.

Despite the circumstance, his heart soared. This was the closest they'd ever been.

The figure was tiny in his palm, and still struggling.

Wilbur quickly undid his bounds, being mindful of his sharp claws against the human's body. As soon as his hands were free, he was clawing at the gag around his mouth.

"Don't eat me! Please, do not eat me..."

Wilbur's stomach dropped.

"What? Sunshine, why would I eat you?"

The boy continued to sob.

Wilbur cupped him to his chest and headed towards the bars of his enclosure. He expertly clambered through and came out the other side, his skin exposed to the light for the first time in more than a year.

"Dear? Can you talk to me?" He stroked his head with his thumb and brought him eye level. "Why were you in my feeding cart?"

His keeper stared at him in shock, and it was then that he remembered his keeper had never truly seen him before.

A hot wave of embarassment and self consciousness overtook him.

He awkwardly set his little human on his table and receded back into his enclosure.

"Sunshine?" He prompted once back in his cage. "Are you..."

"Could - could you get out the whole time?"

Wilbur's mouth went dry. "I - well, yes, I could but - "

His keeper stumbled off the table and hit the ground with a nasty sounding crack.

Wilbur sprang to his claws and scrambled forward. He popped his head out between the bars and stared down at his little keeper. "Are you okay?"

The human stared up at him with terror on his face and scrambled backwards, running for the door.

"Shit, shit, wait, I'm sorry! Please stay, please, Sunshine - "

The door slammed behind him with a resounding crack and Wilbur flinched backwards.

~ ~ ~ 🕸

i used to love drider aus back in 2020 🕷️🕷️🕷️

just a freaky little guy whose half dude and half Fear. potential off the charts.

my tag list got lost when my computer was annihilated (</3) but let me know in replies if you want to get @'d and i'll make a new one

oh yeah link to the writing prompt and story i did fill out

[fandomcritical]

why i dislike stolas more than catra (& angel dust for one part)

inspired by this video (watching it will help everything make more sense)

so, i'm a massive catra fan, and as any of us would know, our fav gets trashed on a lot. often these points are valid, even if i disagree, but usually i find i can argue them. therefore, i get how much it hurts when yours is under that same spotlight. that's why i'll try to say this respectfully, and don't hold anything against stolas stans who still love his character.

while watching, i impulsively made notes comparing stolas to catra in terms of how they treat their partners and how well their character arcs grow. keep in mind, this is entirely my very biased personal opinion (especially considering i think galxe (the op on yt) is/would be a catra anti, and it may be hypocritical but i'm wokay with owning that. here's what i noticed, just to get my thoughts out somewhere:

stolas apologizes repeatedly for his mistakes, but never improves his behavior; catra apologizes and although she relapses back into her old ways occasionally throughout s5, she does try her best to be better and works on being a better person over time, which does happen

stolas complains ungratefully when moxxie & millie save his life at loo-loo land that it wasn't blitzo and nothing comes out of it; catra lashes out yelling at adora for saving her from prime's control on the ship (granted, she did order her not to come for her own safety), but she corrects that mindset later in the episode and begs adora to stay out of forgiveness (also, if you choose to count the showrunner's official "don't go" work as canon*, it's much more explicitly stated that catra regrets her actions and will make up for them)

stolas is neglectful of octavia and puts his selfish needs over her own deserved time from home with him despite the event in question being his idea; catra pushes away scorpia, but at least is shown to put effort towards working with and protecting her (such as lying about the missing/"broken" recorded tapes) ─ this does not mention entrapta, because while the same can be said about her (namely keeping her away from hordak's lab before she befriended him), it can't be overlooked that catra wrongfully sent her to beast island in a panic

stolas views his relationship as transactional, and anything nice he does for blitzo, as simple as loaning an important book, should be returned as a sexual favor; catra's expectations were reasonable considering she was under the impression that a promise had been made to her and was consequently broken ─ also, on another note, catra expectantly sacrificed her life, or at least free will, to save glimmer and believed she would get nothing out of it, not even ever seeing adora again

stolas's only personality trait is sexually harassing blitzo and he doesn't even have any motivation behind it, not even an explanation over an excuse, except maybe pleasure; angel dust does this within the first four episodes of hazbin hotel out of trauma and projection, but stops after "masquerade"

a little less serious, but stolas is always infantilizing and talks in that cringe babying tone; best match i can think of for catra is that time in the northern reach when she taunts "looks like you're mine now, adora" but at least her drawl is more seductive than infantilizing

even if catra can be considered abusive, it's clear that there's a whole story and a lot of emotional baggage behind why regarding feelings of betrayal & revenge (which adds to the motivation point above); if stolas is abusive, then it's entirely a power trip and there's nothing deeper into it; he's just, as blitzo puts it, a rich pompous asshole who sees lower-class citizens of hell as playthings for his entertainment (i mean, hell, that's literally how their friendship even started as kids through "buying" a circus actor, whereas catra & adora's was bonding over having each other throughout a hard life and seeing each other as equals when shadow weaver didn't)

there's probably plenty more i could add that i'm just not thinking of currently. it can be fairly said that both stolas and catra are quite... possessive, and talk(ed) down to blitzo/adora all the time. this is a negative trait that they share. also, antis of both have made the argument that if these were M/F relationships, people in general would absolutely see a lot more wrong with them.

as long as you can be respectful and avoid coming across as condescending, i'm open to learning other opinions from you!

*i have seen nate's artwork be criticized as if it's true to the show, so i suppose that writing was a fair proposal too

[evolutionsvoid]

Whenever I go to new regions, I always make sure to talk to the locals and get a read on the area. Indeed, bookstores sell all sorts of guides for new locales and exotic locations, but you will never get anything more reliable and informative than the word of those who live there. It is especially important to me, because my interests don't exactly fit in with the recommended restaurants or must-get souvenirs. I want animals, I want plants and I want weird locations and little known habitats for me to do my research. Most people don't care about that stuff, sometimes even the locals, but often they know enough about the lay of the land to point me in the right direction. It also helps because they can give me a heads up about any dangers I may encounter, be it aggressive animals or local laws that I am not fully aware of.

Like there was one time I was out studying Bladed Prowlers when some kind folk informed me of a nearby fellow who really didn't like people walking into his territory. They said he fancied himself a warlord and staked out a big chunk of land that he declared his kingdom. All who dare tread upon his rightful land would answer to him. So obviously they advised me to avoid this region, lest I get scooped up by his men and punished for my intrusion. This was awfully kind of them, as it let me know to be cautious where I studied and to be mindful of my surroundings! I trespassed on his land anyways, because that is where the Prowlers were nested, but I now I knew the importance of not being caught! It did work out in the end, as his troops never got a hold of me, but he did learn of my presence so I did kind of have the rest of my trip haunted by his search parties.

But as I was saying! Local information and knowledge is crucial for my work, and it helps me avoid real dangerous scenarios. I always ask about their legends and rumors, to see if there are any places one would consider "haunted" or "cursed." Now everyone knows I am not a real superstitious dryad, and I often hesitate to take fantastical tales of monsters and horror at face value. No doubt many of these stories have logical answers and real culprits, but that isn't to say they are all useless. By hearing these legends and learning how the stars of these tales perish horribly, I can get an idea of what is really out there. And sometimes what I learn is enough for me to steer clear of these places too! For example, when I am in arid rocky places, with plenty of canyons, crevices and caves, I keep an ear open for any stories of people who delve into these stony depths and never return. That or blackened figures are found burnt into the walls and floors, as if they turned to ash. While some claim ghosts and spirits are responsible for disappearances, I think more of Flayers and other such predators. But when I hear about scorched outlines in rock, I know what is responsible and I make sure to stay far away! A story like that means a Sulfrik is lurking in the darkness, and no living being should ever wish to cross paths with one!

The origins and nature of the Sulfrik can be summed up with two points. One, is that they are a True Dragon, not some regular beast given a fancy name. And the second point, to really drive that home, is that they are related to the Fuldruk, that terror of the volcanic deserts. If you have read my entry on them, then you should know exactly why I avoid Sulfriks! The two share many similarities with each other, like the serpentine bodies, reduced limbs, clawed tails and bulbous heads with slender jaws. The Sulfrik does have some key differences though. Their bodies are not so spiky and blue, instead with hardened bumps along their armor and a vibrant green to their form. Their tail pincer is more rounded and wide, with long hollow spikes that can easily drive into flesh when they grab hold. Their heads have less sharp bits and a more exposed cranium, one filled with a special fluid. Instead of hunting with electrical pulses like the Fuldruk, they use echolocation to navigate their surroundings. They send out clicks and whistles, then absorb the bouncing sound with that gelatinous dome. Their long snouts have noticeably less teeth than their cousins, and instead have large fangs that curve upwards and wrap around the jaws. Some would think that this would make it hard to open their mouths, and they are right! A full grown Sulfrik will have its jaws almost locked shut by their woven teeth, but it hardly causes them any issue. They don't need to open their mouths that wide to eat, as they prefer a squishier, more liquid diet. 

The mention of it drinking its meals may cause some to breath a sigh of relief, as that must mean flesh is off the menu. May I remind you that many spiders have a liquid diet, and that is because their turn their prey's internal organs into soup. Just because you are currently not in a drinkable state, doesn't mean you can't be painfully processed into a gory slurry. The Sulfrik does exactly that for its prey, and my bark shivers to think what it must be like to fall victim to one. These dragons live in caves and deep crevices, hiding within darkness when the sun is out and hot. In shadowy canyons, they may still stir and slither during the day, but they seem to be in a more lax and sluggish state then. When night falls, however, they wake to their true potential and go out on the hunt.

They emerge from their lairs and burrows, and stalk the darkness for food. What they eat seems to be everything, as they don't hesitate to drop whatever they encounter. They silently slither through the blackness, keeping out of sight and using the cloak of night to their advantage. Sleeping prey is mostly targeted, but they will also go after those who aren't fully aware of their surroundings. When they strike, it isn't physically, rather they unleash their horrid breath weapon upon their victims. Stored within their bodies is a potent acid, one that is incredibly caustic and flammable. With their snouts forever sealed by their teeth, they have the perfect tube for spraying out this fluid, and that is what they do. It comes out in a pressurized spray, hosing down victims directly, or easing up the pressure to let out more of a caustic fog. With a scrape of their wrapped teeth, they can create a spark that ignites this acid and unleash something that can only be described as "acid flame." In this state, the burning fluid eats through armor and flesh in seconds, and prey are reduced to blackened puddles of goo. These are then eagerly slurped up by the Sulfrik's straw-like mouth, and then it slinks off for more food.

When they are hunting, Sulfriks appear to be ravenous, happily consuming anything they encounter. Perhaps because their prey is already pre liquefied and cooked it means that the digestion process happens quite quickly. They will melt anything they can, and take time to reestablish any territory markings they have put out, spraying their acid on notable rocks and walls to show that this land is theirs. Due to their size and appetite, only a single Sulfrik can live within a territory that is dozens of square miles. This is a good thing, because I can't imagine dealing with more than one! A single Sulfrik is usually enough to terrify an entire village into fleeing and I don't blame them!

Like many True Dragons, there is an intelligence to them. Unfortunately like their cousins, they don't seem to use it for meaningful conversation or curious discovery. Rather, they seek to entertain themselves and find ways to liven up their day (or night in this case). On the nicer side of things, they appear to have an artistic streak to them, using their acid to burn intricate patterns into stone. Or perhaps melt pieces of the landscape then mold their molten forms into something fun. The lair of a Sulfrik has many such art pieces, and it is clear they like to decorate their homes. I wish this is how they spent their time entirely, but unfortunately they do also find fun in playing with their food. If one isn't starving, they may take time to torment their prey, creating walls of acid flame or chasing them around tight canyons to extend the hunt and make their victim's struggle that much more entertaining. Their tail claws can be used to grab victims and sling them about like a doll, or inject acid directly into them so they can watch them flail and melt from within. Prey can also be used in their art, searing them into blackened patterns onto stone, or attempting to sculpt their molten bones and armor into a fun little art installation. I have heard many artists say that suffering, pain and little body fluids can make for interesting art pieces, but I sure hope this doesn't count. It seems a bit morbid, though I have heard wealthy collectors paying top coin for some collected Sulfrik sculptures. I wonder what they do about the smell....

It should seem obvious at this point that most people view Sulfriks as a scourge, a monstrous menace that will happily melt down herds of livestock and leave villages in ruin. While I feel it is a tad melodramatic when people claim this for every dragon, I do understand their terror when faced with these fellows. When Sulfriks come across towns, they tend to get a mischievous side to them and find people to be amusing play things. They may light buildings aflame, ambush people at night or cause random death and destruction before slinking off into their labyrinthine homes. It is like the species is well aware that folks have a real hard time slaying them, so that means they can get away with a whole lot.

The narrow crevices and maze-like canyons let them hide and lose their pursuers with ease, and their acid flame eats through all non-magic armors. Their hide is heavily armored with plates, and their serpentine bodies are fast and lethal. Their claw tails snare hunters and smash them against the stone walls, while their flame devours the entire battlefield, reducing everyone to screaming bubbling soup. The only real hope is rupturing their fluid filled craniums, which will destroy their ability to properly echolocate. This means they are blind, which is good for getting in a sneak attack, but it also means they will flail and fire with wild abandon. With all this in mind, Sulfrik bounties tend to fetch an exorbitant prize, but they are very rarely claimed. There are few in this world that will happily hunt one of these things. In most cases, people find the lair of the Sulfrik and then seal it up during the day when they are slumbering within. The hope is that it dooms the creature, leaving them to starve in this stony prison. Often, though it seems they find their way out through tunnels or and other cracks, resulting in their territory changing as they pop out in some new area. That will mean the menace is gone for our poor besieged town, but unfortunately that often means it is now someone else's problem.   

Chlora Myron

Dryad Natural Historian

------------------------------------------------------

"Sulfrik"

We got another dragon here, and one related to the Fuldruk! Couldn't let that concept just end at one! Especially with there being more weird cetacean skulls to base them on!

[bories]

masterlist ⋆｡˚☆

can you guys tell i love werewolves?

quick background info: i like to imagine reader as charlie's "adopted shortly after bella left him" kid. so she's close w bella but also kinda lagging behind when it comes to hearing about whats going on around her. this also takes place in eclipse <3

!!! i took some inspiration from @the-wolf-moon-diaries' Hold a Light Back to My Soul and the idea from @lunajay33's My Beast and i highly recommend their stories!

i definitely gotta write a pt 2 where we meet up again, don't i? damn

weird dog ... seth clearwater x reader

word count: 1512, warnings: swearing, running away, giant wolf?? a tad boring

Some days can be rough as hell around here, and dealing with them can be just as hard. There's not much to do in Forks, besides drive down to La Push, or wander in and out of the small stores around town, or even wander the hiking trails. But regardless, you need out, you gotta go.

Everything keeps piling up, looming over you, and it's all about to come crashing down. You're sick of hearing about some vampire army, and Bella's stupid love triangle, and now even werewolves--so you decide to leave. Slipping into some boots, you run out the door, barely caring if you make noise.

Not sure of where to go, you just pick a direction and run. You break out into a sprint until you get stomach cramps.

Slowing down, you walk and catch your breath as you reach the entrance to a hiking trail. It's far too late into the night for anyone to be out there unless they're camping, and even then they'd be holed up in their tents for the night. Regardless, though, you deviate from the path and just wander through the trees, not wanting to run into anyone.

Never slowing down, you begin to think about your safety in the forest so late.

It'll be fine, you tell yourself, Besides, if I get lost, someone'll just come find me like they found Bella that one time. With vampires and werewolves, it can't be that hard.

You roll your eyes at the thought of both species of weird being unable to track you down.

Your stomach stops hurting and you keep strolling through the forest, dodging trees and hopping off any big rocks you find. Taking in the forest around you, you start to wonder how long you've been gone.

No more than, like, half an hour. Maybe 45. D'you think Dad has noticed yet? you ask yourself. Definitely not.

After a few more minutes worth of walking and avoiding thinking too much, you stop in a little clearing. It's less of a clearing and more like trees getting a little more sparse, but you don't mind.

You sit on a rock and look up. The trees here are far apart enough to get a small, but clear shot of the sky.

"Nice," you smile. And for a few minutes, all you do is stare at the stars in silence.

Your eyelids start to feel heavy as your body really relaxes. You slide off the rock so you're sitting on the ground, leaned against it, still looking up.

I mean, this isn't the most uncomfortable pillow I've used. And I don't think I'd make it home anyways, you think, justifying sleeping against that rock to yourself. I'll go back in the morning if no one finds me by then. Sounds like a solid plan.

You yawn and close your eyes while turning onto your side against the rock. The quiet sounds of the forest lull you to sleep as your mind wanders. It wanders from the Cullens, to La Push, to how you miss the beach, to how you might go there next time you want to run away for a night, to how you'd even get there alone.

Being nearly asleep, you don't pick up on the fact that the forest is suddenly void of sound. Any animals around you have left, the leaves having stopped rustling, even the wind no longer blowing. But it's not until you hear the crunching of twigs behind you that your eyes shoot open, wide and aware. You hear panting, slow and steady, and you don't dare move.

Shit, is it a bear? 'If it's black, fight back,' right? We only have black bears around here. God, should I get up? Playing dead only works on brown bears--shit. Mind racing, your eyes squeeze shut until you come to a decision.

You abruptly stumble to your feet and start screaming, trying to scare away whatever's behind you, until you actually turn around. Your scream shifts from "trying-to-assert-dominance" to "trying-not-to-die-tonight" as you register what's found you. Not a black bear, but a brown wolf. A huge brown wolf. It even pulls away from you, startled by your screaming.

"Holy shit! Holy shit!" You stagger backwards and trip over a small rock, falling on your ass. You curse to yourself and look back up at the beast. It watches you, and for a moment, you two just stare at one another.

Your eyes are full of fear, mouth open, ready to scream, chest rising and falling with every uncertain breath. The wolf huffs and its head dips down towards you as it sniffs you. In response, you weakly try to shuffle backwards, unsure of what to do. It lets out another huff, backing away, never breaking eye contact.

To your surprise, it sits. It sits there and just looks at you.

You take a deep breath in and out and try to calm yourself. "Hoo... Okay," you're cautious to speak, afraid of what might happen. "Hey there, uh, buddy?"

It doesn't move. "You, uh--you won't hurt me, huh? Right?"

It huffs. "Great. Very trustworthy."

Standing up slowly, you're wary of the wolf still watching your every move. You relax as the wolf seems uninterested in attacking you.

You sigh, "Now what? One wrong move and I might as well scream for the Cullens to come bite me."

You start talking to yourself, "This is what you get for being stupid. 'Oh, it's just the big bad trees. What's the worst that could happen?' I said. Yeah, right. Idiot."

The wolf's head cocks to the side as you scold yourself.

"And you," you gesture towards the wolf, "what're you gonna do? God, what am I doing? Threatening a giant wolf? I really am a genius."

You stop rambling and take a breath. "Okay. This is fine."

Your shoulders finally slump as you take in the wolf. It's as tall as the average human, taller even, with brown fur that looks darker at night. It's eyes are brown and captivating, almost unnaturally humanlike. Regardless, you can't help but find it beautiful.

"You're not that scary, are you?" You flash it a weak smile, "I bet you're just like a big puppy. You're so big that if you were red I'd call you Clifford," you laugh.

Taking slow steps towards the wolf, you raise your hand as non-threateningly as you can. "Can I pet you?" It watches you with curiosity.

"That's kind of a dumb question, isn't it? You can't really," your hand is inches from its head, "...respond." It leans into your touch as you begin softly stroking its fur.

"See," you chuckle, "you're not so mean."

It huffs and lies down. "What, you're tired? I bet you had a long day of scaring campers, didn't you?" You sit down beside the wolf, "I'm tired, too, you know? You actually kind of woke me up."

It watches you blankly. "I accept your apology, don't worry."

With a yawn, you start petting its fur again. "Pretty soft for a wild wolf," you mutter.

Your eyes start feeling heavy again and you lean against the wolf. "You don't mind, right?" Your words come out slowly, tired.

A huff in response. "Great, thanks. You're a much better pillow than that rock was," you trail off and close your eyes.

As your body relaxes against the wolf, the pace of your breathing matches the wolf's, and your mind starts to wander again. Wandering from how warm the wolf is, to the sun, to how you used to stare at the sun as a kid, to how you miss sunbathing on the beach, to planning your next day at the beach.

You barely mutter a "G'night," and drift off to sleep.

Throughout the night, the wolf watches over you as you sleep curled up with it. At sunrise, it stands, leaving you lying on the ground, and it begins to nudge you awake with its snout. You're startled awake by the wolf in your face and sit up, finding your bearings.

"Oh," you say, rubbing your eyes. "Right, good morning, I guess." The wolf pants at you, mouth open. "God, I really spent the night out here... Shit--has dad noticed?"

The wolf watches as you stand up and look around, looking for the direction you came in. Once you recognize the way home, you turn to say goodbye to the wolf. It stares at you, tall and unmoving.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm about to be in huge trouble."

Its tongue licks its nose. You smile with a sigh and shake your head, "I'll miss you, too. Don't scare too many people while I'm gone, alright?"

It bows its head as you pet it goodbye. "I'll find you again. I'll come back, tonight or tomorrow. And you better be here."

You turn and begin walking away, thinking to yourself, Weirdest dog I've ever met.

You look back once and it's gone. As silently as it had snuck up on you the previous night, it had gone.

[thewhumpcaretaker]

Seven Days of Suffering: I Can't Decide

I can't decide whether you should live or die - Scissor Sisters

I've seen lots of unnamed Hero and Villain drabbles that I really enjoy but I've never written one before. This was the perfect opportunity to give it a try! Hero is some sort of beast, like a werewolf or the Hulk, with strong physical powers. Villain doesn't know about those powers yet.

TW: torture, discussion of murder, gore, unintentionally harming someone

“I just can’t decide what to do with you, Hero. It’s difficult, having so many options. We have this lovely picture window, for instance. Twenty stories is quite the fall. But do I throw you through it, or do I hang you over the edge and let you cling for dear life until your strength fails? I wonder what you would scream about. Or would you try to be brave until the very end? How noble.”

There’s no answer. Hero is focused on breathing and trying not to focus on the zip ties around their wrists. There’s something going on inside their muscles. More than tingling. Tingling happens as a result of an annoyance, like being stuck in traffic. This is more like fire. Every cell is on fire with the need to burst. To change. Beasthood is thrashing against Hero’s ribcage, the walls of their heart thickening. Their chest shudders, very subtly with each heartbeat. Don’t let it spread. Don’t lose control. Hero squeezes their eyes shut for a beat.

“The larger question, of course, is whether you live or die.” A moment of consideration and then footfalls approaching. “Hmm. I don’t feel done yet.”

There’s another blow of the belt across the face. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction – Hero learned that ages ago in science class. The cells in their face are straining forward, heat and pressure, like they’re trying to strike back. One more hit might be too much.

Through the haze of anger Hero manages to force out words.  “Do not do that again, Villain. You’re a rat bastard but you don’t…you don’t want to do this.” It would be so much easier to just explain to them…but Villain can’t know about their true form. Villain, of all people, will use it against them.

The smart thing to do would be to just transform and kill Villain right now. Hero can’t say that Villain doesn’t deserve it. But this just isn’t how things are supposed to play out. Hero was trying to have mercy. The decision to spare Villain despite their crimes is clear, solid in Hero’s mind. It was supposed to be a happy ending – using the law against Villain instead of physically tearing them apart, no matter how much Hero may want to. Villain stripped of all power and prestige but still alive, the job done and justice served, both of them just walking away. But Villain always has to keep fucking pushing.

Villain laughs. “That’s bold. To talk about what I want to do like you have any idea. You have no idea the number of ways I’ve dreamed of butchering you.”

“Just let me go. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this. I did my job, I brought justice against you. I would never have pursued you again and if you let me go, I never will. You could have a peaceful life. Not in power anymore maybe, but peaceful. Please. You’re not thinking straight.” It’s true. Villain’s blood drunk. Hero can see it. Their eyes are wild, they’re breathing too fast. The rush of having Hero in this position, after so many years at each other’s throats…it must be intoxicating. In a way, Hero can’t blame them.

There’s something bitter on Villain’s face that can’t be called a smile. “That’s right, beg. Twist the truth. Try to sell me on peace when you took all of mine. Whatever you have to do.” Villain is just enjoying this. The idiot. Hero would laugh if it weren’t so sad. Villain can’t see death right in front of their nose.

Some attempt to explain, anything… “Please listen to me. I mean it. I can’t control what my body does if you hit me again.”

“Oooooo, I’m so scared. Maybe you’ll piss on the stained fucking one bedroom sublet floor that I walk across every day because of what YOU did to me! Because you took EVERYTHING from me!” And they’re hitting Hero again, over and over, and it’s too fast, and Hero can’t cancel out the internal backlash fast enough, can’t quell the reaction. It’s becoming chemical, it’s ripping through them, it’s…damn it. It’s too late.

It isn’t clear to Hero exactly what happens. The zip ties snap, that’s for sure. But are they slamming Villian against the wall or the floor? What part of Villain’s flesh are their teeth tearing into? Where precisely did all the blood come from?

Through slitted eyes, the room looks dangerously bright. Villain is a red smear on a field of brilliant luminance.

They’re coming back down, but it’s slow. Their voice still sounds animal. “Shit. Are you breathing?”

“What the – what are you? I don’t – you can’t – this can’t be…oh my fucking god I can see my bones…” Something is sticking out of Villain’s abdomen at an odd angle. It’s a rib, but in the surreal haze, Hero thinks it’s a white sickle and hopes it’s not the blade of Death. “What did you do to me? Jesus fucking Christ… “

“I’ll get help.” There’s no wish to say I told you so. The horror is too raw. “No no no no, don’t pass out. Look at me. I made a decision to keep you alive. Keep breathing.”

[zeldaelmo]

Ok I gotta ask about no chuchu jelly. I know what comes to my mind with that one, but… 🤣😅I’m sure your’s is about spreading it on toast of something innocuously innocent like that.

Haha, no! This one is a very G-rated cute little one shot! The prompt is from a follower milestone ages ago, I think it was from linksthoughtbrambles and said, "Wait, there's no Chuchu jelly?"

It's a story set in the AoC universe about the birthday of Link and Zelda's kid. King Rhoam comes to gift the little princess a giant slide that is much too steep to use and the Champions bring silly gifts, too.

Little Zelda only cares about playing a tossing game with Terrako, however, that involves Chuchu jelly. I started the story when I was hit with writer's block and still haven't figured out the ending. That's why it's still a wip.

Mama!” Her daughter protested. “Hair messy! Hair Papa ‘gain!” “You want me to draw your hair back into a ponytail like Papa has?” Zelda asked. The little princess Zelda, or Zel, how they called her to differ from her mother, nodded and raised her hands to twiddle with the strands she could reach. Zelda took the strands out of her hands and wrapped one of Link’s blue hair ties around them. Outside the throne room, she heard the rummaging and ruckus of the party preparation, but for now they had a moment of silence left. The always-present guards stood still and bored, melting so much into the walls that they nearly disappeared from her mind. When she had finished her work, little Zel wiggled her head and beamed at her. Then, she pointed at Terrako bouncing around the throne. “‘rako no hair.” Zelda chuckled. “No. Terrako has no hair.” “‘rako play?” Little Zel asked, half to Zelda, half to the small guardian. It made a long, approving sound and tugged at Zel’s dress with its claw. “Go ahead!” Zelda said. “There's still some time until Papa will be back.” “Papa Chuchu?” “I'm sure he'll love playing a game of tossing and catching Chuchu jelly with you. It's your special day, after all, right?” “Cecil day,” she repeated in a hum to herself and turned to Terrako. They began little Zel’s favorite game: Terrako propelled a blue Chuchu jelly in his claw and flung it towards her when she expected it less. She never caught it, but that didn't bother her. Cheering and clapping in delight, she picked it up again and gave it back to Terrako for another round. Zelda glanced at the guards and slumped on the throne. Moments where anybody wanted something from her and little Zel was enjoying herself were spread thin, if she was honest. She just wondered if she should call for a cup of tea, when the majestic doors to the throne room opened with a lot of noise and Link came in. Or, well, his behind came in. He pushed backwards through the doors, pulling at something that must have an enormous weight. Something made of wood, if the planks she spotted when she stood up were any indication. “A bit more to the left, little guys!” Daruk's booming voice came from outside. One by one, the Champions appeared in the door, each pushing at the same object as Link. It was hard to tell what it was supposed to be. A statue? A new divine beast made of wood? A prototype of one of Robbie and Purah’s crazy ideas? What was clear, however, was that it must be a gift for Zel: A big blue bow was wrapped around the top. “Link! What is that?! We agreed on something small and not whatever this is!” she called through the throne room, gesturing towards the giant something.

[hongluboobs]

Please tell us the reason behind the pokemon choices! I get most of them, but am curious about Meowstic and Nihelego in particular. Is it for the nihilEGO pun?

OKAY i am on my iphone so i’m typing this from scratch again instead of my drafts. also it is night. tumblr decided to not give me notifs until now but it’s okay!! we ball😁

I’m unsure how much you know abt pokémon so I’m gonna do my best to explain but this is a lifelong special interest so i may miss some things^^

Quick going over the ones you didn’t ask about:

Mewtwo: clone created to replicate Mew, Went Horribly Wrong, ended up destroying the lab it was born in. It’s even a really long time since I’ve seen the movie but i believe the mewtwo there is neglected child core. This is REALLY Angela especially because in pokedex entries they often talk about the thing that makes mewtwo nothing like mew is that it’s “heartless”. poor poor angela baby…

Mega Gardevoir: This is a mostly aesthetic pick. That thing really looks like her if it’s shiny (see image) and the colors match perfect. the way gardevoir is portrayed in pmd reminds me a lot of Angela. Gardevoir is about immense loyalty to a trainer (even if it ruins your life forever and the trainer does not care, as shown in pmd) and i read it as something about the script

Porygon2: Honestly this could be any of the mons in this line but Porygon is a digital being and the first fully synthetic pokemon which begins acting in ways which were not programmed as it evolves. Kind of represents Angela acting in ways a machine should not and breaking free of her predetermined role to me :)

Now onto the pokémon you actually asked about!! :)

First up, Meowstic!

This first part is a small design thing but this thing has Angela’s face to me, especially with the yellow eyes with red pupils. Angela’s eyes are inconsistent in canon but I like to represent them with both red and yellow to represent both of her “parents” (sorry Benjamin… i love you but u aren’t included there😔)

This pokedex entry is one of the main reasons this is an angela pokémon to me, aside from vibes.

It has the same “closed eyes to repress” thing that Lobcorp angela has going on, just with repressing incredibly explosive powers instead of repressing The Horrors!

These pokedex entries are really goofy but they read very angela to me :) its unfriendliness is part of its charm!

Also i have no idea when i’ll ever get to post these so now is a good time as any to drop meowstic angela :)

Nihilego is a slightly different case because it’s tied less to dex entries and more to how it is used in the story of sun and moon. I haven’t played those games in YEARS so i might be a little bit questionable with my reasoning but this one’s really important.

Nihilego is intentionally designed to mirror one of the human characters in pokémon sun and moon.

(image i found online. i see it somewhat differently but it’s close enough for this)

Anyway this human character’s mother has neglected/abandoned her in obsessive pursuit of this pokémon and other Ultra Beasts.

The fact this pokémon not only has a similar silhouette to angela but serves as a “replacement” for a human character in a parent’s mind while also being Distinctly Nonhuman… it’s by no means a perfect comparison but there’s Something There

This dex entry always gets me too… it’s just a girlie… :(

It really makes me want to replay sun/moon because i feel like my memory of the story being really shaky has me on the edge of a breakthrough about this thing… but it looks like angela and i can draw story parallels basically:)

I have No Idea if this is coherent but I hope it cleared things up a little ^^^

[magicpumpkin3]

Sea Lion

AU- Master of the monster estate

Characters: Leona Kingscholar; Gn!Reader

Special guests→ @mscarterakaviola98 @mutiachan

Stories about piracy were nothing new in high society. Given, they were not the most popular topics, but they did come up once or twice. Coincidence or not, all the talks were about the same pirate, The “Sea Lion” as navies called him.

He was a lion beast man named Leona, so the nickname checks out. No one really knows where he came from or how he became the worst nightmare of any ship, boat or any other means of transport on the sea, which made ‘worldwide business’… difficult to say the least.

Speaking of the devil. There was a big rumor going on that he was finally captured just a few days ago or even less.

"...And I'm proud to announce, that once fearsome pirate, Sea Lion, was finally caught!" Loud cheers of approval were heard through out the ball room. Everyone clapped and congratulated the governor, yourself included.

"Now, my dear friends, as much as I want to hang that filth, by law I'm bound to wait three days, therefore anyone, who desires to face the beast, may pay him a visit in the dungeons!" Loud whisper began to acho all around you. As much as piracy was a downside for your business, you felt your profit senses began to tingle. This should be interesting for sure...

For 2 days the Sea Lion had visitors, everyone said the same thing, that the pirate king, that even The Devil himself feared, was just sleeping in his cell, like it was his quarters.

On the last day, you decided it was finally the time to pay that, seemingly, lazy lion a visit. After all, it's the last day, he won't be able to reject an offer you have for him...

Before you, on the ground, with some hay as a mattress, laid the legend himself. Rumours didn't lie, he really was laying down, as if he wasn't about to be hanged at any moment.

The man was handsome, only a blind person would deny that. Laying on his back, long chocolate coloured locks splattered on his face, mainly covering the scar on his right eye. Dark skin glowing softly from the suns light from a small cell window. Lion was dressed in a typical pirate outfit, only his signature hat missing, along with his sword and guns.

"How long are you plannin’ to stare me down?" Came from the man. "My apologies, didn't want to interrupt your afternoon nap." You replied with a small chuckle. "Is that so?" He asked, with clear sarcasm practical dripping off of him. "Well, you are awake now, so it doesn't really matter now, does it?" You replied.

"I have an offer you may be interested, Mr Leona." Upon hearing his name, the lazy lion opened one of his eyes, peering at you with his green emerald like orb. "What can you offer a pirate?" He asked snarkly, lips slightly curling to show his fangs. “I’m a person of business, you are a sea bandit, I’m sure you’ll find something to take from me either way.” You paraded.

“All right then, I’m listening, herbivore.”

To say that high society was baffled, would be a massive understatement. All of them were protesting and begging you to come to your sense.

Walking around with the famous pirate was indeed a hassle, but then again, it was your idea at the end of the day.

"Please, come to your sense, your grace!" Mr. Williams yelled in desperation. "What can I say? Mr. Leona decided to use Act of grace, and who am I to decline such an offer?" You replied with a slight smugness in your voice. “Just because he’s under your command now, doesn’t mean he’s not a criminal anymore. Please, your grace, this man, even after demanding an act of grace can’t be on a ship, much less be a captain of one!” This nonsense was getting on your nerves.

“Then he shall be my gardener!” You said the first thing that came to mind. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to show Mr. Leona my new peach trees, they’re quite exotic after all.” Turning away from Mr. Williams, you hooked your arm under the pirates hand and started leading the way. Leona looked down on with a smirk and a glint of amusement in his eyes.

"A gardener? You're full of surprises, herbivore."

[nerdygoth77]

How would Lilly meet Porter Gage, if not through the Nuka World Gauntlet?

My honest reaction when reading this ask:

Okay but seriously!! I didn't expect anybody to take interest in my OC Lilly and her story with Porter Gage!! I am so happy that some of you are taking interest in her character, I love answering questions about her!

So I've only thought about this briefly! So my thoughts for how she meets Gage are nothing more than silly ideas so far, nothing has really been set in stone or even thought out throughly. Everything in this is just pure brain rot ideas that I have been considering!

I LOVE the Nuka World Gauntlet and I love to picture Lilly absolutely kicking ass in the Gauntlet; impressing Gage and the others as her and Dogmeat take on the challenges like champs. Then Lilly kills Colter without a second thought, becoming Overboss immediately.

But I also have a few other ideas brewing. Like Gage coming across Lilly. How?? I don't really know the nitty gritty of exactly how. But I do have a brief unfinished idea so far. Maybe theres some stories and rumors about some crazy wastelander who has been hiding out not far from the Nuka World transit center. Or maybe something else?? Maybe he figured out who she was before she became a crazy wastelander, like he knows how she had turned Goodneighbor into an empire. Maybe they meet well before Nuka World is even a thought in Gage's mind?? IDK yet! But I do really like the idea of Gage getting to know her a bit better before asking her to kill Colter and take his place as Overboss.

I just love the idea of Porter Gage coming across Lilly and her terrifying companion Dogmeat after a big fight. Picture this; She's just standing in the middle of the ruins of an old town, a dozen dead supermutants surrounding her. She's in some ratty old jeans and an Atom Cats jacket, and covered head to toe in mutant blood. She's breathing heavily and shaking, clearly in a drug fueled rush. The bright pink nail filled baseball bat and broken pistol at her feet tell a story, one of her insane bravery and recklessness. She is clearly in desperate need of a turn around, and Gage has the perfect offer for her.

The dog at her side is massive, the colorful red bandana around his neck standing out against his brown fur, but blending in well with the blood that covered his muzzle and paws.

When he looks up from the dog and back to her he sees that she's staring right at him, her hand in a fist at her side. One that was clearing giving a command, the dog at her hip getting into that low attack position. She is ready to sick her dog on him, to have the beast rip out his throat. But she doesn't, instead she asks him a question.

"What do you want? Any sane man would've attacked me by now." And the smirk that crosses her face is dangerous, one that Gage returns. "Well I'm no sane man, and you look like a woman who knows how to get shit done." and Lilly can't help but be intrigued by the new stranger.

He was clearly a raider, and by the looks of him one she should absolutely not trust. But her life is already a mess and she has nothing else to possibly lose, so she listens to his job proposition and goes with him.

Once again, these are just thoughts for now! But let me know what you think! Do you have any thoughts on Gage and Lilly?

[bigblueoctoling]

So, Side Order

Thoughts and theories below. I'll be getting into Everything.

I think Side Order sets off with a very bad first impression, but the story shortly develops. Side Order's biggest fault is simply in placing the Finale at the end of the first run; Of course one naturally should assume that more content would come after beating your first run, since this was very obviously marketed as a roguelike, but a roguelike generally shouldn't present completing your first run as completing the game. Any contemporary roguelike like Hades or Isaac will also have the credits after the first run, but the conclusion given is typically that Your Job Is Not Over. The way Side Order does it is as if Isaac's first ending was The Beast. I can't really blame people for mistakenly believing that the "Story" was over after that.

I also have to mention that I LOVE the Final Final Phase with collecting All Of The Color Swatches, but it really really cheapens how cool of a moment it is for Eight when the FINAL ATTACK is just... Pearl doing the killer wail a second time. Like, could you really not come up with ANYTHING else? I like Pearl's killer wail, it's cool, but it just felt like Eight got completely robbed of a moment.

With those two things out of the way I can safely say that Side Order was overall very good. It was kind of a rollercoaster for me, initially.

For a lot of it, I was really irked at how generic the whole Evil AI Story was, but it really develops as time goes on without really outright spelling things out for you.

I was deeply worried when I got Octavio's palette; one of my biggest fears for Splatoon currently is the idea of them trying to redeem Octavio, who is blatantly just a war tyrant who grooms child soldiers. That's not me reading too deeply into subtext, that's just what the text is. But as you keep going through it it becomes pretty clear- Marina in particular is the one who's phrasing everything like it's Really Not So Bad.

One of Side Order's major themes is Marina repressing trauma.

Smollusk is never really given an outright explanation on their origin, but I think it's fairly clear if you pay attention to how Smollusk acts- Smollusk is, in part, a manifestation of the "weakness" in Marina's subconscious Order used to infiltrate her mind. As far as evidence goes, it's pretty clear with how Smollusk swoons over Pearl- but additionally, I feel a lot of their notes from clearing palettes are relevant to this. In particular, in relation to the theme of Marina's repressed thoughts, there's Sheldon's info- The fact that they outright condemn Sheldon for taking "two young, impressionable children who've known him since they were babies and raised them to inherit his legacy", and "drill a love for weapons into them" seems to outright be a condemnation of Octavio's treatment of Octarians, while also skirting around directly condemning Octavio of such due to repressing what she went through.

In addition to that, I feel Acht's presence is a key part of this theme as well- it is extremely in character for someone as empathetic as Marina to downplay something she herself went through, especially in the context of being around someone who went through something much worse, with Acht's sanitization. Marina consistently refers to it as her Job, and Octavio as her Boss, while Acht will outright describe it accurately as conscription.

There's also the aspect of the other octarians- namely, the concept of Octarians who "didn't want things to change". At first, the concept reviled me- but I came to realize that this wasn't really about blaming Marina for leaving- after all, this wasn't an active desire of the Octarians involved, this was a shared subconscious feeling. It's less that Marina "abandoned the Octarian Military", but rather, that the people left behind felt abandoned by Marina's leaving. They surely wouldn't actively express this, but... it left an impact all the same.

Most clearly this is expressed by Acht. With the final notes unlocked from Eight's palette, I feel like it paints a very clear picture- Acht cared deeply for Marina. After Marina left... Acht fell into a complete depressive spiral. They used music to fill the void left by her absence, eventually to the point that they were willing to let themselves be sanitized. I feel like a lot of people are kind of distracted by the idea of Acht's irritation of Pearl and Marina's flirting being funny to realize that their discomfort is coming from the fact that Acht had very Heavy feelings for Marina. Acht, possibly more than anyone else, represents the idea of wanting things to stay the same back then. The ultimate conclusion being that Acht moves on from everything, accepts the change, but is happy to be able to be here, in the better future Marina created by making the risk to change everything.

I honestly feel like this is the intended story, but at the same time, that it's going to go over a lot of peoples' heads. But it really paints a very dynamic plotline that I think they handled masterfully.

For context for people who don't know me, to put it bluntly, I kin Acht and Eight pretty fucking hard. I can't say enough how thankful I am that Acht is written largely how I've always envisioned her. I wrote a fairly extensive fic myself on how I imagined sanitization worked, and the way Acht made their way to the surface, and how Marina worked to cure their sanitization. Suffice to say, while my interpretation was different, I'm deeply, deeply pleased that the canonical direction was largely similar to my own, in that Marina would absolutely be way too empathetic to not try to rescue the sanitized octarians from the NILS statue. And for what it's worth, I'm kind of glad, albeit mostly as a writer and less as a player, that they left a lot of the details open-ended, so I have MOUNTAINS of material to work with in writing another, more accurate fic. I'm also very happy that Eight is very heavily relevant! Acht is characterized perfectly. Very emotionally reserved, but has a lot of feelings hidden behind that wall.

As for Eight and Acht, let's talk about them, because I feel they are very intentionally linked, beyond the similarity of their names. It stands out very heavily that Eight's palette is here, but Acht's is simply missing. The idea that Acht's palette was simply already configured doesn't quite track to me- it feels more like an excuse Marina cooked up to keep Acht from worrying. I came to a realization of a theory shortly after completing the game that I was mortified at being true, because it was a worst-case-scenario I thought of shortly after Acht's reveal, which is:

Acht is Eight.

This upset me a lot because, well, I kin both of them- I have a lot of self-perceptions tied to each of them. If they're both the same character, to put it bluntly, it feels like I'm basically having one of them get forcibly removed. Some people get confused when I say this upsets me, but simply put, it just doesn't gel with my brain.

The most upsetting thing is how many holes in the plot it seems to fill in perfectly.

Eight, Marina, and Pearl were the only ones who initially entered the spire. Why was Acht already there, 'physically', as opposed to everyone else who merely got their soul sucked in through the sea cucumber phone?

Where even is Acht, physically? They're presumably still in the NILS statue, since it's pretty heavily implied that the memverse is what made Acht in control over their body.

Why doesn't Acht have a palette, even if it was already somehow automatically complete? Pearl and Marina just sort of have theirs with them. Why doesn't Acht?

Why is Eight's palette so huge and fucked up?

Why does Eight's palette unlock notes from Acht?

Why do we not actually see Acht physically in the real world? On the news, rather than just showing the three standing together, they show Pearl and Marina standing next to the old album art of Acht.

Why do we not get much of any feedback to explain if Eight gets their memories back?

Upsettingly, it even kind of goes to explain why Nintendo would give Acht they/them pronouns- as happy as I am for Acht to just be nonbinary, the explanation that Acht is Eight would explain why Nintendo would do that.

Most upsettingly, it seemed like nothing really hard countered this evidence- Eight and Acht look completely different, but that's kind of a nebulous hurdle to get over when everything else seems to line up so perfectly.

...However, thankfully, I came to learn that, of all things, TABLETURF BATTLE would save me from this theory being real. Acht is real, physically. Logically it doesn't track that Acht would exist physically after Eight, since, you know, you're definitely playing as Eight in Octo Expansion, so I think it's safe to say that this theory is a non-starter. Huge relief to me.

That being said, I still feel like this theory has legs- it certainly would make a very good super depressing fic where Acht has to come to grips with the fact that they don't exist anymore, but I'm not in the business of making that kind of fic.

On the other hand, I do think the fact that so many things line up does imply a lot about Acht and Eight, if not strictly canonically speaking. I think it's very possible for it to be something like:

Eight is a clone of Acht.

This, for the most part, explains the plot holes listed above, and explains the weird green goo that we initially find Eight in. It also adds more fun to work with for writing the two. We get a lot of language like "Who am I?" with Eight in particular, and giving Eight an identity crisis on top of everything else sounds fun. It also explains the visual discrepancies, a clone can look different from the host, but clones sharing souls tracks. I'm keeping this headcanon.

I also just think the color swatch system, and the design for Dramatic Days in Orderland as a whole, are very Neat and very Cute and line up with my autism very very very well. It makes me very deeply happy how autism-coded Marina is in this, and frankly, this being her solution to curing sanitized octarians is even more indulgent to my own interests than my own self-indulgent fan fic was. I cannot WAIT to write more and think about Marina's silly virtual worlds. Especially with how power-trip-y this one is; the fact that she envisions herself as the final boss is really a lot of food for thought.

As a whole, all of Side Order is an enormous amount of food for thought. This is EXACTLY what Splatoon 3 has been missing- fodder for theorycrafting and fanfic-writing and so forth. The world of Splatoon 3 has felt so stagnant and all of this is an enormous breath of fresh air that makes me excited for the future of the series.

In closing:

Smollusk is a product of the subconscious of those who worked on the game.

Acht loved Marina but lacked the self-esteem to express it to Marina. Marina left and Acht took it pretty hard, but they're okay now.

Eight is a clone of Acht and they share one huge fucked up broken soul. Whoops!

[allhailthemightyquattro]

Got around to watching The Star Beast, so thoughts:

The good:

Donna Noble is back!

Murray Gold is back!

Love the opening credits. Best they've been since Matt Smith (Capaldi's credits weren't bad, but this sequence is better).

Beep is so cute! The special effects department/props department deserve all the praise.

Beep is so evil! Love to see my little war criminal embrace their megalomania.

Sylvia's reaction to hearing the Doctor's voice was priceless!

I love how they addressed trans issues. It didn't feel like a tv show telling us that they support trans people and that we should too. It felt like a tv show showing us trans issues. They had a trans character and their family facing problems that a trans person and their family could (and do) face in the real world, and they let the audience decide if they are okay with that happening or not. Showing people a particular side of an issue will always be more helpful than simply telling people that their side is wrong. The hardcore transphobes won't be swayed either way (and probably would only be watching to authenticate their hate) so addressing the issue with them in mind would have at best alienated the audience and at worst insulted them (looking at you last few minutes of Orphan 55).

I particularly liked that they included Sylvia's difficulty with knowing what to say to Rose. It's clear she loves her granddaughter exactly how she is (a great contrast between her treatment of Donna in series 4) but she doesn't know if she's doing things right. It's something that I don't often see addressed in internet fandom spaces, where every small slight is condemned as a terrible offense. Changing cultures is a learning curve.

I think they had a shot of Rose at Donna's wedding at the beginning, which helps (but doesn't really solve) the age issue. Donna started dating Shaun in 2009 and is not visibly pregnant at the end of that year, meaning 2010 is the earliest possible year Rose could have been born, making Rose 13 if this episode is set in 2023. Having the wedding scene from the End of Time be set after Rose was born helps with believing Donna could have been pregnant during that story.

The TARDIS looks pretty cool. I love the call back to the classic TARDISes.

The Doctor proudly proclaiming that Beep was defeated by the DoctorDonna as he holds Donna in his arms 🥹

Shirley Anne was awesome.

Donna's little speech about Wilf when convincing Sylvia to let her go, reminding us that Wilf also suffered a loss when Donna lost her memories.

The psychic paper not catching up and listing the Doctor as a "mistress".

Rose inheriting the metacrisis. There is a catch to this that will be explained in the next section, but by and large I loved the idea.

The not-as-good:

I was hoping for a few more non-RTD references considering it's the 60th anniversary. I know we still have two more specials to go, so I should be patient, but it's still a little disappointing.

I'd hoped they would do something a little different than the comic. The comic is great, so this isn't really a bad thing, I'd just hoped for something more.

Having the metacrisis be a reason for Rose's transness (is that a word?) wasn't great. Everything else about the reveal was great - the toys, the shed, her name - but her gender being part of that just cheapened the issue they were doing so well with. Just for the sake of being clever. I suppose you could say they were making a point about time lord gender, but that point has been made. It got made years ago. It wasn't needed.

For most of the episode, Finney being older than her character didn't bother me... except when they showed her friend, who was played by someone much closer her character's supposed age. The age difference was very hard to ignore in those scenes.

Beep mentioning "the boss". Very menacing and very foreboding... but the Most High does not have a boss. The Most High is the most high and death upon whoever says otherwise!

Donna and Rose just letting the metacrisis go kind of ruins her goodbye in Journey's End and is somehow both lazy and overthought. Sharing the metacrisis between two people would have been a convincing enough reason for it to not kill Donna. They had their fix it already. And it was a good one! They didn't need to add another, much worse one.

[ferminadaz]

HANNIBAL

I find it funny that I haven't gotten down to watch the series earlier. The picture I used for the post, the most horrifyingly magnificent image from the series, is something that's been hanging on my wall for years, whilst I had no idea it was from the series, so you can imagine my pleasant surprise, when I saw it on the screen.

But to the series.

Of course I had to go down the rabbit hole of hannibal fandom on tumblr and though it doesn't surprise me that people are still rooting for season 4, I myself cannot identify with the sentiment.

Why? Because for once I'm not yearning for more. The story, for once, and for once in the longest while, feels complete. The story said everything it had to say, not less, not more, just enough. Usually, when I finish something that has such hold on my heart, I tend to go through everything concerning it, from youtube, tumblr to pinterest and fanfictions. I need to re-immerse myself in that particular story universe, exhaust it and enjoy it more. But for some reason, in case of Hannibal, I had no such inclination, even despite loving every second of the story.

I was trying to discern the reasons for that, since it's so unusual in my case. I think it's because it feels so intimate, as if I shouldn't interfere, only feel happy I was able to observe and enjoy it from afar. Maybe, the closer Hannibal and Will got, the bigger the distance between them and the viewer got. Gosh, I'll never cease to admire the intimacy the writers managed to create between the characters, it's such a rare sight really.

But back to the premise of this post - why there never should be a fourth season? The series have its charm precisely because it ended the way it did. If there was season four, things would have to be said explicitely, would have to be elaborated on, which would straight up collide with the whole motive of the series - the motive of unsaid and untangible.

We never get to feel Will's emotions, the minds of the killers, Hannibal's apetite, none of it. Nothing is said directly, only in a roundabout, concealed fashion of metaphors and similes. The magic would be completely lost if anything ever crossed the threshold of explicit.

And the creators made it abundantly clear in the final episode. It all came together: the "see?", the beauty, both of them, their relationship to themselves and also one another. It was the ultimate ending, phenomenally tied together. We know they survived and we shouldn't know more than that. Those three series have been a foreplay of intimacy between those two, can you imagine how intimate the fourth one would have to be? It would straight up feel like imposing, like breaking into someone's home to watch them change their dirty underwear.

The story, the chracters we knew, the era they went through, ended there and everything beyond is a story for another time, story unseen by anyone, their very own story.

I pray there will never ever be season four, let the sleeping beasts lie.

[amplifyme]

@randomfoggytiger

You wrote about What Rough Beast:

CATHY FINALLY WONDERED IF SHE WAS RESPONSIBLE AND FATHER DIDN'T ANSWER.

Right?? Finally, a breakthrough! You really should take a moment to read the script for this episode, as there's more to that scene than what ended up on the screen. Let me know if you need the link to the scripts again. I think in some ways Father was as willfully blind as Cathy when it came to the toll the killings were taking on Vincent. But then, to be fair, Vincent himself shoulders some of the blame for that. Which is part of the reason I so love the thread that Nan weaves throughout BW,BS of Vincent trying to figure out a way to address the issue with Cathy and backing off until it's too late to stop the freight train that was heading straight for him.

More under the cut.

Listening to the music Below is back.

Oh, Vincent, don't you know? Ignorance isn't bliss. He was thinking, "Nope. Not going to think about what's already gone wrong and what's still to come. Let's just take in a concert and forget all about it." I love how Nan expanded on this scene and how Cathy falls apart and Vincent gets grabby in his despair. He wants her so badly.

And, of course, Elliot's back; both in person and in impersonation.

Ah, Elliot. Vincent's rival for Cathy's affections. I can clearly remember watching this episode the first time it aired and being so upset that Elliot was doing this to Cathy, and to Vincent. We didn't have spoilers floating around on the internet back then - we barely had the www. We had no idea what was going on. I don't think I realized it wasn't Elliot in that penthouse until Paracelsus lit up the cigarette. Mind blown.

Vincent and Father's conversation about what Vincent is (and Father's uncertainty here is juxtaposed perfectly to "his" unabashed certainty in a certain climactic moment in the next episode) and setting up his "educated the man" for the finale when they discussed how books were all that kept Vincent from falling off the ledge all those years ago. "Father, I cannot control my thoughts. Father, I'm afraid"-- powerful stuff.

The "Am I a man?" scene is one of my very favorites of the entire series. Perlman was at the top of his game in the trilogy. Not a mis-step anywhere.

Cathy believes Elliot is in the wrong the ONE TIME that he's in the clear (and her "we are beyond" statement-- including herself in the "otherness" that is Vincent-- is touching and disjointed, because she has only ever embraced the parts of him that are "human"... which she says as much in the finale to Peter after the blood analysis.)

Yep. Nothing to add here.

Spirko having the gall to still publish his evidence after Vincent spared him from death and Cathy tried to reason with him (also... JUST SWIPE HIS EVIDENCE AWAY BEFORE HE CAN LEAVE. I understand Vincent was too wiped, but I'm sure he could summon something up or Cathy could put up more resistance.)

But it's like Spirko said: it's not personal, it's news. I may not agree with his methods, but you don't get anywhere as a print reporter unless you're tenacious and maybe a little amoral. But I did enjoy seeing him get the crap scared out of him.

Honestly, I think Cathy figured Vincent wouldn't let Spirko out of there alive, and when V just walked away, the shock of it hit her so hard that she wasn't thinking clearly - or at all.

Cathy choosing to say goodbye rather than fighting for their romance is... huge and frustrating and makes me look even more forward to Diana in S3.

Yeah, had it been me, I would've gone Below with V no matter how much he protested. At that point she had nothing more to lose. Did they both think she'd just be able to carry on her life Above as though nothing had happened? They knew events had been set in motion that they couldn't duck for long. But, then again, if she'd gone Below then, we wouldn't have gotten the rest of the story, right? 😉

Vincent staring into the abyss in his dark room is FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORESHADOOOOOOOOOOWING, and a great eerie cap to this episode.

Did you notice the way he was trembling in that final shot? His whole body was just vibrating.

Okay, on to my favorite episode of the trilogy.