#and the more cruel actions of its species

[haresvoid]

While it would be nice to say Ome doesn't change after becoming illithilich, thats not nearly as fun.

Especially in regards to modern au, theres a lot of different conditions. Being a lich, it has a phylactery. Which needs to be fed souls. Ome still has its moral code and only gathers souls of a certain evil caliber, and while it has to get these much less often than it needed to feed on brains, this is a lot more "corrupt" process than feeding as it is taking a soul and using it, not just a piece of flesh and killing.

But when added to the modern au, which I'm playing off the idea the illithid race as basically extinct (using the "from the far future" mind flayer theory here where they went back to stop their species extinction, but failed anyways), Ome is much more cautious and self preserving now because it believe it is the last of its kind. With it would a true end come, as would any potential knowledge and continuance. It is a tad more manipulative than it was in the past, and aware sometimes bad actions are necessary for greater good (thus the truthfully criminal actions it partakes in to get materials to help others).

Additionally, its old. It's been alive for centuries upon centuries, seen and experienced more than most of its kind ever did, minus a few others. It has wants and desires and things its come to enjoy, things it misses and would do selfish things to obtain-- - within reason. It still has its core beliefs; value of life despite its undeath, freedom, a desire to see the world prosper and grow and heal others. But on the other hand its lying- its playing pretend and living a small fantasy tricking others to think its something it isn't. It raises corpses to do tasks for it much like it did thousands of years ago when much younger with the Lich it worked with. And its mind does wander to concepts questionable at best- if the illithid race was to be reborn without elder brains or the grand design even being a concept anymore, how would the species grow? How would it change? It's an experiment it hasn't acted upon, but is it simply because of inability due to it being undead, or truly morals hindering it?

[muletia]

Soemthing about Opitmus' holoform and him just following you around doing domestic things just because

domestic fluff?? in this economy? hell yeah

cw: fluff, pinch of angst

word count: 710

Optimus longs to experience normalcy. Immersed in war, surrounded by the scent of spilled energon and the wails of wounded comrades... after so many years, such a cruel and unjust daily reality is bound to leave a mark, shift priorities, and force him into thinking always of others and never of himself. And so, even for a brief moment, he wishes to allow himself to be selfish. To focus on doing something that brings him joy. And it just so happens that his joy lies in being in your presence, getting to know you, spending time together on activities that, from a Cybertronian perspective, might seem trivial. Carefree. Yet he has distanced himself from such views.

He delights in discovering the hidden sides of you, the parts you don’t reveal at the base. They only emerge at home, in your sanctuary, where you show him another version of yourself. The first time he asked to accompany you home, you were surprised. You enjoyed spending time with him too and treasured your shared moments, but you weren’t sure if he was ready for the boredom that came with it. That saddened him, because he sincerely wanted to know your boredom, to see you from an angle unfamiliar to him. To understand humanity on a more intimate level. To experience what humanity truly is, stripped of philosophy, disengaged from the rat race, living in the moment. In its simplest form. The archivist who no longer existed stirred within him, curious, inquisitive, and hungry for knowledge of the unknown. For a fleeting moment, Optimus allowed him back into his spark.

And so, you let him. You invite him into your home and unveil yourself to him, shedding layer after layer. The first time, he is agitated, not stressed, but uneasy; afraid every movement might damage the furniture or the trinkets on the shelves. After all, he wouldn’t be able to repair them. Even while "being human," he betrays his true essence, unaccustomed to his new, smaller form. His title manifests even through the holoform. You have to take his hand and guide him to get him to move at all, for which he is deeply grateful.

He observes human boredom: washing dishes, doing laundry, preparing fuel (a meal, as you explained to him). You insist it’s dull, almost unworthy of his presence, but he is unwavering on this matter. He craves it. Wants to taste humanity, to see through your optics, even if just for a moment. Because he loves you and hungers to know everything about you, the good and the bad. The mundane and the thrilling. The most trivial and the profound. He needs honesty and openness. To know you trust him, for only then can he truly function.

You show him humanity through dancing, listening to music, and reading books. You let him season the meal, even though he doesn’t understand the purpose of the action. Allow him to water the plants while you share fascinating tidbits about each species. He never leaves your side, desperate for knowledge of your daily life. Becomes your shadow, intent on learning everything, who you truly are.

When you ask if he could read a book to you because you enjoy his voice, he agrees without hesitation, as he’s physically incapable of refusing you. Begins reading, and you rest your head on his lap, smiling as he tenses, trying to suppress his emotions. The words blur together as you start playing with the synthetic skin of his face, exploring with curiosity the false human that feels too real. You tell him you prefer his true form, his true self, and for the first time in his life, Optimus doesn’t know what to say, as no amount of experience could have prepared him for such raw honesty.

But this time, you allow him more. Let him feel the texture of your wet, freshly washed hair, touch damp skin, and dry your head with a towel. He sees you in your pajamas, even though the essence of fashion and clothing is largely unknown to him. Let him cuddle into you, to learn the sensation of closeness from a smaller perspective. And when you ask if he is satisfied with the human mundane, his answer remains unchanged.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hey Raven! 👋 I don't get all the vitriol about the lack of consequences of Malleus's OB. Twst has never given any serious consequences to any villain so far. Riddle, Leona, Vil and Idia have also tried to kill Ace, Ruggie, Niege and the whole world respectively. Rollo tried to wipe out all magic from the world which would kill entirety of Fae or potentially other magical species. Fellow was involved in human trafficking. None of these people faced any serious repercussions for what they did. If it was done before but not now I would understand the frustration. Among all OB boys Vil & Malleus are the only ones who apologised. Also you mentioned in your book 7 finale post that you were surprised about the lack of death and destruction because of Malleus's UM. But I'm more confused as to why you were even expecting that. Malleus's UM was never meant to cause death or destruction in fact it was precisely to avoid those sad occurrences he decided to use his UM. So it's no wonder there were no deaths or serious property damage out side of NRC. We have already seen Silver as baby sleeping for 400 years by fairy magic and being completely fine. Only danger was the loss of autonomy which thankfully was stopped. Malleus literally had a part of his body mutilated which is the most on the nose consequence we have seen. Yes it was necessary to stop him still doesn't change the fact it is mutilation. Plus I don't think post OB flashbacks were meant to shift the blame to the bv senators. Even though I don’t like them their actions in universe make sense. I think all flashbacks merely explain the OB boy's past experiences and circumstances. It doesn't justify there actions in present only provides an understanding of their motivations and character. Life doesn't exist in a vacuum. Malleus's flashbacks merely explains why he is the way he is now. It doesn't rights his wrongs. People are shaped by their experiences and circumstances. Since not many people can relate to most OB boy's circumstances it becomes hard to empathise with them. I am NOT saying people should not criticise or dislike a character. Just saying that lack of accountability & consequences isn't something unique to Malleus. Lack of control over our my life and circumstances is something I have been dealing with since i was born so I know from experience how suffocating and hopeless it feels. Even if someone understands it doesn't change of help my situation whatsoever. I relate to Malleus feelings about his own situation. It doesn't makes his decision right but I understand his thought process. People can understand other but still dislike them. Understanding does not equals to justifying. I hope I didn't offend any one. My sincere apologies if it came across as such.

Have a good day or night Raven!

Before I get to sharing my commentary, I'd like to make a quick clarification. "Vitriol" (cruel and bitter criticism or outright insulting) is a very strong word to use here. I don't doubt that some people are vitriolic about the ending. However, to label most or all critique as "vitriol" detracts from the discussion, as it paints those not happy with it as blindly hating on Malleus and ignores any plausible points they may have. Let's acknowledge the entire spectrum of reactions, including just... plain disappointment and everything in-between that disappointment and vitriol. It's not all coming from a place of blind hatred or refusing to understand him, some of that critique is very much coming from a place of understanding but still disliking the outcome.

I can't speak for everyone, but I personally haven't seen many people claiming "Malleus and ONLY Malleus should be given severe consequences." Twst has frequently been criticized for the lack of serious consequences for ALL of its OB characters (and its Halloween event characters). I particularly find Playful Land distasteful because they casually never address what happened to the non-NRC victims of the operation. And notably, Idia came close to *checks notes* oh yeah, letting monsters out of hell and causing an apocalypse. Just because Malleus is currently being discussed--as he is the most relevant--doesn't negate the fact that past OBs + Halloween characters were critiqued in a similar way. Few people are denying that the other OBs also did terrible things and only got off with a slap on the wrist. We're not conveniently ignoring past sins, it's just that we're talking about the most recent one now. (Few corrections to some points brought up on this topic though: I believe Riddle apologized as well; it's also NOT canon that wiping out magic would kill fae or other magical creatures, simply because fae are more inclined to magic doesn't mean losing that magic kills them.)

I'm aware that Malleus's intent was not to harm anyone with his UM, and that his UM only put them to sleep. However, I just cannot suspend my disbelief. Even if he didn't mean to hurt people or to cause damage, there surely were potential issues with 20,000 individuals falling asleep mid-whatever activity they were doing. The scale is large enough for there to be a non-zero chance that someone wasn't accidentally injured or even killed. Swimmers? Drivers? People cooking? What about those with preexisting health conditions like sleep apnea and diabetes? And even if we accept that Malleus magically suspended their bodies in stasis, isn't magic limited by one's imagination?? Malleus doesn't strike me as someone who understands a lot about health conditions, technology, etc. How would his magic know to stop cars (something he admits to never having ridden before in A Firelit Sky), to cease bodily demands for care, etc.? The latter (ie bodies atrophying from lack of sustenance) is even mentioned at least twice by the Shrouds as potential threats to their wellbeings. Why would they bring it up multiple times if not to insinuate a fear of consequences??? Yes, Silver was able to sleep unageing for 400 years, but we cannot be certain that magic is the exact same as whatever Malleus was using, or that their imaginations worked the same way. I would find this less surprising if they actually explained how it is that everyone was without injury, like having the Shrouds confirm that the lack of sustenance was not a real issue. Them not addressing the theory at the end only makes me suspicious. If it wasn't a problem to begin with, why even have them mention it more than once? At that point, just don't include the dialogue implying this at all.

I think to just chalk it up to "the only danger was the loss of autonomy which thankfully has stopped" is minimizing potential issues that could result from this. Realistically, it would be a huge problem that the (future) sovereign of a country took such a drastic move; this would surely affect relationships with other nations so I find it strange that this isn't really touched upon. (A similar issue was mentioned by fans with Leona's attempt on Malleus's life in book 2, but again, we're discussing Malleus here because he's most relevant; the lack of realistic consequences for the other characters is an entirely separate problem.) They did bring up Malleus's grandma apologizing and condemning her grandson's actions, but that doesn't go in enough detail--how are the other nations reacting to this??? And again, bringing back the 20,000 statistic--I also find it strange that the writing only mentioned a group of people who loved Malleus's dream magic and make zero mention of any people who were traumatized by it?? Like, you'd think at least a few people would have felt upset, violated, or even confused about the matter??? That's not even counting all the NRC students we had to shock awake, some of which cried or had emotional breakdowns over it. It's strange how the narrative ONLY focuses on reassuring us that Malleus's actions didn't actually affect anything when, given the numbers, it would have, at least emotionally/mentally/psychologically. And how come no relatives were mad about what happened to their kids? NRC (and RSA, I presume) have the children of many prominent families in attendance; you’re telling me none of these people got upset or tried to retaliate? Even though we know some of them take extremes (looking at you, Mrs. Rosehearts)?? I’m not saying I want Malleus to have harmed anyone or to be made a public enemy; I want a more balanced understanding of the consequences of his magic. Like, why isn't there also... I don't know, mention of therapy or social support being provided for those experiencing shock after waking up from the dreams? To help them get back on their feet? I would have accepted even the off-handed mention of something like that.

Again, I'm not speaking for everyone here (I know that some people find damaging a horn to be a "good" way of regulating his unchecked magic), but personally I was pretty squicked by that. I agree that Malleus should have limits placed on his power, but I think it should have been done through some other method like... I don't know, Maleficia magically "grounding" him or something. (Like maybe we struck the horns but it didn't actually chop anything off; his grandma places a spell that limits what he can do afterwards?? Or maybe Malleus himself permanently sacrifices a ton of his magic to Lilia in order to revive him.) I wince a little whenever I see Malleus with that broken horn because I can't help but think of a real-life animal with an equivalent injury. A cat that's been declawed, a ram with a broken horn, a bird with its wings clipped or its beak blown off, etc. It makes me feel really bad for him 💦

I think a lot of people see the broken horn as being the most "severe" of consequences because a part of Malleus was essentially broken. It's visible, unlike mental or emotional scars, and the sad truth is that people are quick to condemn something that's easy to see rather than something that's not (ie potential psychological fallout or trauma). None of the other OB boys have to walk around with a physical reminder of what they did, so Malleus is perceived as being the "most hurt" in the eyes of the fandom. I'm still not entirely sure what the effects are in-universe though??? Like how does this impact his everyday life, what spells is he still able to use, does the area hurt, does it affect his balance or other aspects of his life?? He doesn't seem particularly bothered by it, but that's probably due to the time skip + for plot convenience; it would really help us better understand the fallout if the next main story update elaborated.

Malleus is unique in that he was also never previously held accountable for his actions (outside of book 7). Endless Halloween Night, his general lack of genuine effort to listen to his peers when they tell him off or try to explain why he messed up, actual attempts to harm civilians or mages he knows are less powerful than him... None of it results in real consequences. At most, he gets scolded a little but doesn't truly learn from that scolding, so he's doomed to repeat the same mistakes. It feels like part of the reason why people want Malleus to "face the music" is because he never had his privilege previously challenged. People are too scared to due to his magical might and social status--and now, when he's set before the world's stage, is the most likely time when he'd actually have to look in the mirror and reflect on his past mistakes. Not only the OB, but also his hubris in general. Some people also just feel that Malleus will not grow as a character (as he has demonstrated issues with this outside of book 7) without facing the other repercussions of actions he directly took. No one's calling for Lilia to permanently die because they want to see Malleus suffer. They're saying that if Malleus ended up doing no harm to anyone or anything, if Malleus doesn't have to face Lilia's mortality (the thing he OB'd over), will he really have learned anything in the end? Is there anything pushing his current beliefs or challenging him to change? There's a difference between calling for "more punishment" (which I think is what's being conflated here) and "more accountability". I think most want the latter, NOT the former. Most of us don't want Malleus to be harmed or ostracized further--what we do want is for him to realize that he messed up and to think long and hard about what he can do to make amends. The scale of what he did was grand, so doesn't that also warrant he make up in a similar way? One party and apologizing to a fraction of the people he affected is only accounting for some of it. (For example, I would have personally wanted him to formally address everyone he impacted, not just NRC.)

Mmm... The OB flashbacks are definitely meant to explain, not excuse, the related boy's actions. If it were only Malleus's flashback in isolation, I would have perceived it as such. However, it wasn't just that flashback. It was everything else in the narrative explaining away any potential issues resulting from his magic. It wasn't a few details either, it was several. When you add them all up, it creates... this feeling that the narrative is pushing HARD for you to feel a certain way about Malleus specifically. No other past OB has had so many details thrown our way to reassure us that the OB boy actually did as little damage as possible. We weren't explicitly told the destroyed rose maze was fixed in a jiffy with magic, or that no students were injured when Riddle OB'd. We weren't explicitly told that Ruggie made a full recovery and bears no grudge against Leona, or that his victims healed very quickly. We weren't explicitly told that Azul shoving tentacles down people's throats didn't traumatize any mobs, etc. (And to be clear, I've shared my own complaints about how easily the other OBs were forgiven too, particularly Azul with customers flocking back to his restaurant.) The opposite is true for Malleus, so that it feels a bit… much. We are explicitly told many things and then nudged to not worry about them.

My own issues with the flashback in part stems from worries with the fandom reaction to it. Malleus has historically been a character that the fandom is EXTREMELY protective of, so much so that people are willing to push the onus onto anyone but him. I've literally seen fans blaming Lilia for Malleus not having social skills rather than accept that Malleus being awkward is a combination of factors (factors which include Lilia's enablement but also include Malleus's own learned complacency + not understanding humans). When the flashback opens with the senators blessing Malleus, it (unintentionally) presents fans with an easy target to redirect their anger and pin the blame on. Even if the Twst universe doesn't push all the characters to hate the senators and blame them for Malleus being the way he is, the fans certainly will.

To summarize: very few people are saying "Malleus and Malleus ALONE is experiencing a lack of accountability and consequences." A lot of the current focus on Malleus is because he is the most recent OB, operates on a much larger scale than the other OBs, and has a history of not receiving consequences in other incidents. None of this negates previous critique lobbed at other characters who got off with little or no consequences.

I hope that helps you understand why some Twst fans have such different opinions regarding book 7's conclusion! I also hope that this doesn't diminish your own enjoyment of book 7 or of Malleus's character in any way, just shows you an alternative perspective. I can tell from your passionate words that his story really resonates with you (and there are many others that feel the same!), so that makes me really happy. I wish you guys nothing but the best; please give your lizard boy all the adoration!

[beevean]

Me, a guy from Middle-East watching this Netflix shit compare me and millions of others to demons: What have we done to Adi Shankar to deserve this?

I've also seen victims of US invasions...it was really a horrible thing to use such a huge thing still fresh in the memory of the people as some kind of joke for his shitshow of an anime. The victims of war are still alive, what happened to them is fresher than the age of DMC franchise itself.

And of course the Christianity mockery is cherry on top. Assyrians are a large indigenous population in Middle-East with majority living in Iraq. And they are Christians. They have always faced discrimination but the US invasion was particularly cruel to them. Many of these native Assyrians were displaced, internally and externally.

Im just left speechless by how insensitive and abominable Adi Shankar is

It's just so. Tone-deaf in its attempt to be progressive.

"No no you see, Americans demonized Arabs for years, but they're not really as monstruous as they depicted them! Just like the demons in the show, who are not all evil but unjustly persecuted! I am so smart!"

You buffoon, you are still equating a real minority with a fictional non-human race. Someone who is genetically different to the core (in the show, Lady uses special bullets that react to demon DNA in particular, so yes, they really are not the same species despite diverging from the same source).

And not just that! Because it's in episode 4 that we first introduce this theme of "not all demons are bad". Before that? All the demons we see are evil monsters who delight in killing humans for shit and giggles! They seem to be the majority, in fact! So do we really want to take that comparison to its logical conclusion?

In real life, Muslim people became the unjust target of propaganda due to isolated terrorist attacks like 9/11: billions of people were made into "threats" for the actions of few. In the setting of the show, demons are generally aggressive for no reason. We even see Arkham at one point turning himself into a demon and eating his own wife, just like that. Do you fucking understand what you are saying, you hack.

And! And what does that make Dante, eh? He made a whole career of killing demons, and having fun at it too. Are we really painting Dante as a slaughterer of minorities? Oh my god this is literally like that stupid vampire kid skull shot in Netflixvania that implies the Belmonts are ruthless child murderers, someone please save me. Then again, apparently Sparda is Trump in this universe, sure why not.

Oh shut up, you literally reveal two minutes later that you are affiliated with the White Rabbit, who was the one who allowed you to escape the war-torn Middle East Hell Makai!

I also find rich that these demons are the "good" ones. The humanoid ones. The one who look just like the "sapiens", contrasting the evil demons who look like plants and shit. Again. Do you understand what you are implying? Maybe don't use fucking demons as a political metaphor for real people?

(wait, I just realized. What does this mean for that shapeshifting demon that turns into a baby, Vergil and that other soldier guy? That minorities... disguise themselves as the oppressive majority... to hurt them...? Guys, I think the metaphor is eating itself.)

And yeah, the Christian bashing is getting old. I get it. CHURCH BAD, because AMERICA BAD. I don't know how to convey how much I am sick of these blunt messages without sounding like an American right-winger lmao, but you make a good point: Christians are not just American Karens, and the topic is more complicated than "American politicians use Christianity as a weapon, therefore Christianity bad" (I can't help but notice how convenient it is that demons attack the Vatican in the first episode, but not holy places of other religions). I wonder if fans of this show will also use the excuse fans of NFCV use and say "no no no you see God is good, it's the humans who twist His message! The show is totally nuanced guys!". I'm expecting something as stupid as NFCV's water-blessing zombie :P

I'm really sorry this show has upset you. I can only imagine how insulting it feels to see a real war you witnessed turned into a scene of America bombing Hell and scaring Arab-coded demons while American Idiot plays in the background. You deserve much better and I hope things look up in general 🫂

[eldritch-spouse]

Belo my lovely silkie chicken I just wanna collect his fur and make a nice cozy sweater with it 💕

also I was going through your world building post and one thing I noticed is that Saiders are very heavy with punishments: humans who practiced magic without their say so, angels who had big disagreements, etc would all get severe punishments what would that look like?

[Belo sweater would be the most comfortable thing you've ever worn in a while and probably help when you're going through health/mood lows.]

Siadar are extremely heavy with punishment, regardless of who or what that punishment is targeted towards. They're harsh with angels, they're harsh with humanity, they're harsh with their own kind and they continue to be harsh elsewhere, to their newer projects.

The top of their hierarchy will find a million and one ways to justify the intensity of their punitive force, so it's not as if the siadar themselves see their actions as cruel. Neither do angels, as beings with very defined purposes instilled into them since birth (and no real biological or psychological reason to break them). In fact, humanity itself, devoid of any moral compass created by its own species, absorbed the moral compass of siadars for practically the entire duration there was interlevel contact. So many humans understood and accepted the punishments they saw happen or were subjected to as normal.

Now, humanity isn't very magically inclined by default. The species was designed to have less "magnetism" to that type or energy, to reject it, so the humans that are out there practicing it in that period of time are already deviants in some form or another. This means we're probably talking about a collection of "infractions" already committed by the humans in question. Death is a very likely outcome here. Or, at the very least, the removal of reproductive abilities, so that this particular human -If they happen to biologically be more attuned to magic than they should be- Cannot spread that ability to any descendants.

The sight of a particularly magically talented human is reason enough for siadar authorities to investigate other highers in charge of monitoring human populations, in the effort of judging whether or not a human was directly tampered with in forbidden ways.

Angels are a very organized species, to say the least. Out of most non-humans out there, these would be the individuals that are least likely to ever question their place in life, to ponder on concepts bigger than their routines and duties, or even seriously entertain intrusive thoughts. They're a lot more likely to report their own perceived defective symptoms to assigned siadars than they are to attempt to act on them. It's worth noting that angels also monitor each other, especially the ones of Worshipper rank, and will easily report suspicious behavior. They aren't malicious in this evaluation, but they're unwilling to cover up serious situations.

Big disagreements between angels, although rare (until the time Betrayer seeded doubt into the minds of some celestials), aren't very likely to escalate into angel-on-angel physical violence. In spite of any bubbling emotion, they're still practically hardwired to respect rank differences and have internalized that harming another angel is harming their kind altogether. These disagreements can entirely halt the productivity of many tasks if the celestials involved have equal standing in terms of authority. In these instances, both will eventually request the opinion of the nearest unoccupied siadar.

Angels are a self-punitive species as well. They'll perceive their failures -Even if not directly their fault- as punishment worthy and will inflict wounds on themselves or deprive themselves of participation on anything until they are "forgiven" by their highers. Celestials can and will die simply from feeling that they are consistently failing, becoming lethargic and weak until they simply perish.

[bah-circus]

Hello, could we get a level 3 Shadow Milk Cookie from cookie run?

Of course dear audience! We have heard your request and have found a suitable performer for you! We hope this performance suits your needs, but you are free to make any adjustments you wish.

❣︎For Our Next Act, Please Welcome,,,❣︎

Shadow Milk Cookie!!!

°·⊱ Name: Shadow Milk, Harlequin, Anatole, Cosmo, Kepler, Pluto, Cheshire

°·⊱ Age: Ageless, Adult

°·⊱ Race/Species: Beast Cookie

°·⊱ Source: Cookie Run Kingdom

°·⊱ Role: Jester, Emergency Fronter, Bipolar Holder, Chasonaut

────── · · · · ──────

°·⊱ Sex: Sexless, Physical Appearance Changes Between Masculine & Feminine

°·⊱ Gender: Genderfluid, Genderflux, Agender, Milkigender, Starwashic, Spacething, Cosmideityfem, Cosmideitymasc, Galaxibodiment, Liarlexic, Liesbodiment, ShadowMilkcharic, Silentshadowgender, Polybeastsgender, Shadowvanillagender, Favajesteric

°·⊱ Pronouns: It/Its; Shae/Shade; Nox/Noxus; 🌑/🌑s; Comet/Comets; Throne/Thrones; Pul/Pulsar; ⚖️/⚖️s; 📜/📜s; 🌠/🌠s

°·⊱ Sexuality: Nebularomantic Omnisexual 

°·⊱ Personality: Shadow Milk was once a champion of all cookies, empowered by the Witches themselves. Originally the divine Virtue of Knowledge, while trying to fulfill its duties as the Fount of Knowledge shae became more and more corrupted, now 🌑 is a cruel and manipulative cookie. Nox acts like life is but a play, and every decision is fueled by what would be the most entertaining actions for that ‘episode’. 

────── · · · · ──────

°·⊱ Nicknames/Titles: Shmilk, [Prn] Who Is Blessed By Deceit, The Beast of Deceit, [Prn] Who Destroys Truth, [Prn] Who Manipulates, The Entertaining Jester

°·⊱ Likes: Pure Vanilla Cookie, Making a Scene, Pranks, Laughter, Getting its Way, Sweets, Cake-Hounds, Star-Gazing

°·⊱ Dislikes: Plans Going Awry, Goody-Two-Shoes, Restraints/Chains, White Lily Cookie, Daylight / Bright Lights / Led Lights

°·⊱ Emoji Sign-Off: 🥛🌌🧿🌠🌑🔷

°·⊱ Typing Quirk: SHADOW MILK always types its name in all caps, and any other INFORMATION that SHADOW MILK believes is IMPORTANT

────── · · · · ──────

°·⊱ TransIDs: transFangs, transMantaRayTherian, nullSoggy, transWaterCookie, transBerryMantaRayCookie, transEpicCookie, permaLiar, permaBPD

°·⊱ CisIDs: Light Blue Dough, Heterochromia, Blue Eyes, Black Pupil, White Pupil, White Hair, Blue Hair, Jester, Cookie of Deceit, Bipolar Disorder, ADHD, BPD, ASPD, Compulsive Liar

°·⊱ MUDS: Truman Delusion 

°·⊱ Paras: 🌹, 🌼, 🩸, 🫀, 💤, 🫨, ❣️, 👻, ⚰️, ⚱️, 🦴, 🚨, 🔪

°·⊱ Faceclaim: 1 | 2

SHMILK COOKIE SPOTTED!! Love this funky jester <3 - Pest Swarm ; Kiki

[fatgumsurpremacy-remastered]

Hello!

Can I request yandere engineer (after a long chase/ escape attempt) taking his darling s/o for a ride.

*wink wink ;)*

Sure thing!

GO! Yandere Engineer x GN reader almost smut

CW: Curisng, smut, non con, dismemberment, detailed descriptions of gore, obsession, condescention, gaslighting, car "accidents", improper use of power tools, imminent sex Dead dove do not eat.

Authors note: Theres no PNV, or PNA, rather the "smut" occurs with the afforementioned power tools. Please let me know if you want me to make a less violent version. Also its kind of implied Dell is a robot... soyeah

@virginstoner666 (tagging bc you might like it)

The moment their feet hit the sandy ground beneath them the alarms blared. Its moments in fact like these, where scientists would marvel at the capabilities of the human form. To run injured across dangerous, unyielding terrain to escape much bigger adversaires. The moments when humans as a species , fueled by their adrenaline, only make it so far, so fast, because they were fed with their natural chemical superpower.

Dr. Conagher didnt see it that way as he hauled ass in his busted bright red '64 Chevvy. He could hear buzzing in his ears the more irritated he got. Lizards wheezed about eerily in the pitch black desert, alerting the man of just where to look.

Pissed wasn't nearly a strong enough word for the emotion Dell felt as he picked up to a speed his poor truck shouldn't have been running at in such a harsh climate. No...just that morning he'd been the living definition of kind when they first tried to leave, naked body half alive crawling weakly a foot away from their quarters. He granted them the mercy then of not ripping their fleshy ears of their head when he dragged them back sobbing.

They acted like he beat them or something... he did of course, but it wasn't anything undeserved.

Claiming you don't love your spouse is a sin with a capital SIN after all, Dell only served as device to put them in their place. Oh, and it did hurt the engineers cold steam-powered heart, but he couldn't think of a better treatment for the unfaithful.

And still they ran.

The backs of his bottom teeth ground the plaque on his upper incisors as his jaw set, mechanical hand holding the wheel steady as his lights glinted harsh off the broken electric collar on their neck. He was just happy this was close to over as he spun the wheel, sending his truck into a circle of dust, and throwing the car into reverse.

A solid noise followed by a wavering yelp of pain told Dell he accomplished exactly what he wanted to. With a sneer his foot held down the clutch as he roughly shoved the shift into park. The head of his freshly sharpened axe broke the soft, sandy rode as he trudged boredly over to the lump sobbing by his rear tire. "Now sugar, what in gods name are you doin all the way the hell out here?" The night air cracked like a whip in the heavens as the drizzling rain covered the light footprints... all the effort they'd made to get this far. They tried to curl up, to shield themselves from the almost cocky blur of the yellow flashlight Dell had in his left; but with two broken ribs the action was excruciating. They tensed as Dell sneered and took the tip of his steel toed boots up to their tear stricken cheeks. "Much safer inside aint it? And I warned you... didn't I?" He asked, kneeling down above their wheezing display, a look of cruel pity shadowed across his boxy face. "Now you know what Ive said about the world baby, and you know I hate hurtin you... but what have i said before? I said repeatedly, 'now honey you're not gonna like what I do to you if you keep trynna leave.' And you STILL disobeyed me." The grip on their chin bruised abit as he tried to still himself from hurting them. Only a sigh escaped his lips as he stood again, leaning back steadied by the axe held behind his leg.

"Now baby I really dont want to do this--" "Dell please we can ta-"

"No no no. We cant talk! Clearly, if talkin worked youd be back at home pleasin me, stayin safe like youre sposed to! No, talkin aint working, clearly, so Im trying am more holistic approach." He groweled darkly as he rolled his shoulders. "Dell, baby no! Please- it wont- its not going to-" "I know sugar, i'll make sure it doesnt happen again."

Rain poured down harder now as Dell dramatically crossed himself, cap falling to the ground as his leg took a step back to swing.

With a sharp THWACK, the axes blade tore through the flesh and muscle as blood rose back as high as Dells tense shoulders before he went to take another swing. Harsher this time... the pain registers, and the love of Dells life screamed with the pained wails of an injured bird. The sounds only mocked them as they echoed throughout the deep emptiness of the desert. Again the axe came down.

Again the bone broke, oozing all kinds of metallic fluid that mingled with the blood in the shredded muscle, fat tissue catching the blades nicks as Dell had to jostle it out of the pebbly femur he'd decimated. Connective tissue snapped back like tight packaging tape against the warm steel as Dell dropped to his knees. He held his love by the shoulders, tears against their neck as they tried with tired, nerve wracked muscles to writhe and fight their way away.

"No no baby shh,shh its okay, Ive got you..." he looked into their eyes earnestly, cupping a side of their neck in worry as the other held their cheek. He pulled their head down to kiss, holding them against his soft, hairy chest as his gloved hand stroked their head, the other slipping behind to rub their back. "Shh, dont worry Dells got you... you aint gotta cry! It aint that bad, its like pulling teeth with a door yeah?" They shook their heard through tears, refusing to look into his grey eyes as he pulled them back and nodded. "Yeah thats right... it only ever stings a bit, it'll be okay baby, shh."

The metal fingers of one arm soon trailed down their side as he sighed and tried to make right what hed just done.

"What can I do to make it better my love? You want me to love on you a bit?" He asked, chuckling as if what he said was charming."Want me to do it like we did when we first met?"

Scruff scratched their neck as they tried to lean away from his kisses, hands stabilizing theirs as he tried his damndest to make the situation less serious. They shook their head as his skilled mouth left damp hickies across their skin, their squirming drawing ants and dirt into their severed leg. "Hold still sugar I cant... keep you up if you're squirming."

Just the push of the bright yellow button on his wrist sent them into hysterics as they quietly begged him not to do anything, to just take them home. He cooed, chuckling lightly as his drill of arm quickly ripped hole in their pants... well... his pants. But the details werent important, and with their new little injury they could spend their recovery sewing that right back up.

Their little pleas got louder as Dell searched his pockets for the 'right bit'.

"Now baby- baby youve got to stop worryin, its...3:am and we're in the dead centre of the desert, who in their right minds would be out right now. Especially at a time like this?" He asked cheekily, treating all of their words like jokes as he undid the large phillips head with a strange industrial steel bolt shaped bit. He only scratched his head. "Aint much of anything safer I have right now sug'." "Then stop!" "Oh please-" he scoffed playfully as he rolled his metal arm around a 'yada yada' motion, "like youve not done more dangerous with me before. Just sit back and enjoy it."

[satoshi-mochida]

Lost Soul Aside delayed to August 29 - Gematsu

Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Ultizero Games have delayed action RPG Lost Soul Aside from its previously planned May 30 release date to August 29, the companies announced. It will be available for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.

“We are truly grateful for the positive response we’ve received from players all over the world since we announced Lost Soul Aside,” said Ultizero Games CEO and game director Yang Bing in a statement. ‘We remain committed to delivering a high-quality game experience. To match the standards Ultizero Games have set for ourselves, we are going to take some additional time to polish the game. Lost Soul Aside will now release on August 29, 2025. We want to express our heartfelt thanks to our fans waiting for the launch.”

Here is an overview of the game, via its official website:

About

Louisa’s gone. She’s gone?! How could this happen? We had plans, a future. Everything was going to be better. But… it’s over? No. We have to fight on, the rest of us cannot give up. And now I have an unlikely ally… I’m becoming more powerful. Can I save her? Can I bring back her soul? Embark on an epic odyssey to save your younger sister—and the whole of humanity—from mysterious dimensional invaders from beyond the starlit skies in Lost Soul Aside. Run the gauntlet of formidable enemies and colossal bosses in this breathtakingly stylish action adventure RPG; chaining weapon and spectacular attack combos in high-octane, dynamic combat.

Heroes and Villains

Kaser – A war orphan born in Slum Harbour, Kaser raised his younger sister Louisa alone and has become a pivotal member of the GLIMMER resistance group. Strong and selfless, Kaser shies away from the label of a hero, feeling the weight of those who depend on his abilities and leadership. Unyielding in his defiance against oppression, he fights for those who cannot stand up for themselves, fuelled by a steadfast resolve to save his home from the cruel reign of brutal tyrants. Now the fate of his beloved sister hangs in the balance as he seeks to exact a terrible revenge on Aramon and the invading Voidrax.

Arena – Once a powerful alien-dragon warrior, Arena exudes a commanding aura of authority that demands respect. It was in witnessing the true depths of human love and kindness that he realized humanity was not the evil species he had always believed it to be. Now haunted by the memories of his past actions in conquering innocent worlds alongside his Voidrax brethren, Arena’s future is clouded and his motivations remain unclear. Beneath his strong and domineering presence lies a wise and compassionate soul, capable of offering help and guidance to those who need it the most, with a dose of dry humour even in the most dangerous situations.

Louisa – Kaser’s sweet-natured younger sister always prioritizes the wellbeing of others and is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her friends and family from harm. Growing up in Slum Harbour left an imprint on the teenager and deeply shaped her character, instilling a great deal of loyalty and empathy for its people who have long suffered under the harsh and oppressive rule of the Empire. Despite her overly protective older brother’s concerns, Louisa joined the GLIMMER resistance group, determined to make Slum Harbour a happier and safer place to live. Her genuine compassion, respect and kindness have earned her the heartfelt gratitude of the townsfolk.

Aramon – The ruthless commander of the Voidrax has been imprisoned across alternative dimensions for a millennium—but is executing a meticulous escape plan that threatens to unleash catastrophic consequences. Consumed by an insatiable obsession to dominate all of existence, he intends to seize the planet’s Life Nexus—a move that could grant him nearly limitless power. His vengeance against those who imprisoned him will be swift, brutal and merciless, leaving devastation in his wake. Manipulative, narcissistic and arrogant, he holds others in utter contempt, believing that the time for his ultimate rule has finally arrived.

Victor – As the noble leader of the Holy Order, bound by a solemn oath to protect the weak and the innocent, Victor embodies the virtues of a true hero. His unwavering loyalty to the Empire and his firm belief in the Emperor’s vision for a brighter, more prosperous future drive him forward. A paragon of honor, integrity and courage, Victor is unafraid of telling hard truths for the greater good of the country, the people and the Empire he loves deeply.

Zana – A natural born leader with extraordinary superhuman abilities, Zana joined GLIMMER upon understanding the oppressive nature and formidable power of the Empire. Now a vital member of the organization, she constantly strives for excellence and manages to display strength, calm and pure emotional control, even when challenged with terrible adversity. Preferring to work alone, Zana often keeps others at arm’s length, making her seem cold and distant, and carefully considers her next move before acting.

Key Features

Fight for Everything – Simple to grasp, challenging to perfect. You have total freedom to fight your way; switching weapons and mixing attack patterns in adrenaline-pumping battles charged with spectacular visual effects.

Character Evolution – Earn Experience Points to unlock and choose attributes from the character Skill Tree. Experiment with your picks and try different combinations to build, define and refine your personal playstyle for the challenges that lie ahead.

Weapon Skills – Unleash attack combos amplified by each weapon’s unique special stats. Vary the range and impact of each attack as you swiftly switch weapons, combining effects for maximum damage.

Weapon Customization – Enhance and customize your weapons by attaching special weapon fragments to transform their appearance, boost combat or healing capabilities, or upgrade your fighting style.

Arena Power – Harness potent skills granted by the dragon-like creature, Arena. Unlock a variety of Arena Power abilities to boost attack damage, enhance healing, and generate protective shields.

Burst Pursuit – Intensify and stylize your attacks with precise, high-impact bursts of strength by timing your button presses during weapon combos for devastating results.

Fusion Merge / Fusion Blast – Charge the Fusion Gauge through attack combos and abilities, summoning Arena’s claws to strike fiercely at enemies. This upgradeable skill unlocks new combat techniques as Kaser advances on his mission.

Survival Skills – Stay in the fight for longer by boosting your dodge reflexes, and honing the fine art of precision parry timing.

PlayStation 5 Features

Adaptive Triggers – Feel Kaser’s power flowing through your fingers with the DualSense wireless controller’s adaptive triggers.

Haptic Feedback – Experience the force and impact of each crushing blow in battle with the DualSense wireless controller’s haptic feedback.

PlayStation 5 Tempest 3D AudioTech – Immerse yourself in the heart of Kaser’s adventure across new worlds and dimensions as 3D spatial audio creates uniquely fantastical soundscapes.

Ultra High-Speed SSD – Stay ready to leap into your next breathless battle with lightning-fast load times.

Stunning 4K Visuals – Explore intricately detailed, majestic lands and other-worldly architecture with striking 4K graphics.

Watch an updated pre-order trailer below.

Pre-Order Trailer

Japanese

[mr-camhed]

Some other Transformer characters i made/envisioned that i might archive/finish here:

Doominator, Junkion mercenary, Decepticon, transforms into The Ford Mustang in Death race, a cold, cruel and nihilistic survivalist that only believes in The tendency of evil and The goal of survival thanks to his tough upbringing.

Cometron, Autobot intelligence courier, Velocitronian, transforms into a GT1 street car, has an unhealthy obsession with being faster that she would risk her own life for it, idolizes Blurr.

Tailgater, Decepticon sniper and ground squad leader, transforms into an Audi A8, War crimes enthusiast who almost habitually murders civilians and medics so much he fragged a few of his own command officers mistaking them as civilians which causes chance of promotion down The toilet and frustration he can only quench by murdering more innocents and sometimes souring the relationship with Decepticon allying species. Leads a team of genericon called "Karashni Squad" with a fellow Decepticon named Bulwark who transforms into a compact station wagon.

Landread, Decepticon "pretender"(think IDW Ultra magnus, transformable robot in armor that makes him bigger transformable) and battlefield commander, outer armor turns into Main Battle Tank, inner robot turns into a station wagon. Spark brother to Bulwark, reckless and short tempered, believes in actions over words, hates substanceless egoist like Autobots and staff officers with a passion, functioning alcoholic.

Munitionwash/Ammunitionwash: Decepticon Conehead seeker assassin, transforms into vector thrust VTOL strike Fighter, dive bombing enthusiast, thinks dashing fast enough that further witnesses can't identify you with enough firepower to kill anyone close enough to bear witnessed suffices as assassination. Almost always smokes a cy-gar, which can be also used as a weapon.

Skywalk: Autobot female seeker(probably one of a kind), police patrol, transforms into a light multirole fighter in police livery, very ammo conservative, only shoots when she's absolutely sure about it is garuanteed to hit.

Algorithmaster: Decepticon Data analyst and communications expert, transforms into a long chassis Mercedes Vario TV van with a telescopic antenna mast. A Decepticon who keeps a low profile to hide its own perversity and sadism, Algorithmaster is a good substitute for Soundwave if you can't get ahold of him for intelligence or surveillance missions when he's not secretly causing chaos by disrupting The dataflow of wherever he is for fun or doing sentient life trafficking for money. Has The major Weakness of being top heavy in both modes but especially in van mode and toppling over almost garuanteed to break The antenna and heavily diminishing his effectiveness.

Whitenoise: Autobot aerial forces and later Cybertron Security bureau agent, transforms into an Antonov An-71 AWACS Aircraft. Determined on justice to The level of singlemindedness and even overconfidence, Whitenoise would often put herself into danger to pursue her enemies. She Was Algorithmaster's coworker in Iacon's telecommunications centres where she accidentally discovered his illegal activities which caused her to be kidnapped and almost brainwashed by Algorithmaster before she was rescued by Orion pax, Strongarm and wheelarch where she bodyslammed herself and a chair into Algorithmaster's back and broke his antenna to stop him from frying The officers' cerebral module with his data bomb attack that kept her in a trance like state. After she found out that Algorithmaster had escaped after The Kaon riots and Decepticon uprising and is still at large after The war, she began to embark on a quest to bring The criminal back to justice.

Duke O'Death(Pirate name/press nickname)/Speedstick(original name)/Stealthclad(preferred name to be called): Former Decepticon, currently leader of Space Pirate organization Deathkneller, wanted by both The Galactic senate and Blackbox Consortium for Attacks against their fleet, Empurata Victim and triple changer, transforms into an armored muscle car and a stealth attack helicopter. Semi schizophrenic, criminal with principle and a code, either completely disassociating and silence or extremely friendly and talkative depending on situation and almost no inbetween.

Transporticus Maximus/Giganticus Maximus/DeathKneller(real name unknown), ancient Titan whose origin is still mystery, transforms into a 20 mile long 10 mile maximum width interstellar warship with a black hole powered star destroying weapon that will completely exhaust its entire power supply to fire. It was found drifting in space by Duke O'Death after his former flagship Just Defense, a hijacked Galactic Senate heavy cruiser was crippled in a Battle against Galactic Senate task forces, with almost everything still in working order but nobody on board and The spark field in it destroyed. Its identity as a Titan is hidden from most of The people with parts grafted from other vessels, The destroyed sparkfield cloaked by a medibay for Mechanical lifeforms, and The chamber for its almost always inactive, temptingly presumable as dead cerebral module hidden behind a secrect entrance in Duke O'Death's personal quarters.

Projectile: former Decepticon fire support, bodyguard of Duke O'Death, transforms into a heavy artillery, has a massive hole in his head and cerebral module implanted into his chest. Determined and simple minded, Projectile does not think much beyond his own duty, and luck would have it, he almost always gets a reliable commander.

Pulldown: Former Decepticon road transport team, bodyguard of Duke O'Death, transforms into a wheeled heavy duty tractor, partner and mobility aid to Projectile. Similarity Determined and simple-minded, but also smart and confident, she would almost always finish her job with flying colors.

Heavytoll: Decepticon logistics support, transforms into a two wheeled heavy tractor, has no legs in robot mode and has to use his hands to walk and work, and doesn't believe in perfection.

Hardcore: Decepticon morale officer, Victim of an especially and deliberately botched Empurata-shadowplay combo, transforms into and R129 Mercedes SL 73 AMG sports car. Formerly a musician and DJ For underground radio in Tarn who was framed by a disgruntled neighbor which causes him to have his hands melted into nubs and mind completely destroyed; although he would later become a performer for Megatron during his gladiatorial fights after Hook rebuilt his hands as much as he can and gave him his mouth back. Capable of instigating neutrals and even weak minded Autobots into fighting for Decepticon with his music.

Trashmaster, Functionist universe Model worker, transforms into a garbage truck, being a lower caste worker who almost always have to clean up after The frequent pogrom of The disposable class, Trashmaster was forced to work hard to try and survive. However, hia hard work only ended up in tighter schedule and more demanding quotas that takes further toll on his physical and mental health which caused him to becomes addicted to at first drinking, before an escalation towards Circuit buffers, Circuit boosters and Circuit Speeders to cope with The pressure of cleaning up more and more bodies and maintaining a public Appearance, until his mental programming finally snapped and began ingesting Energon off corpses of The disposed and at first later extended to murder and cannibalization of still living Transformers which were overlooked by functionaries to keep the facade running.

Combiner teams:

Succorbots(pronunciation: Secure-bots<by Autobots and beings leaning towards goodness>/Sucker-bots<by Decepticons and beings leaning towards evil and uncaring>), Autobot search and rescue team similar to Protectobots, combines into Lifeline.

Members:

Speedbump, Leader and surgeon, transforms into an armored command and rescue truck, almost totally blind due to damage of brain module by a gunshot would inflicted by a Decepticon named Tailgater, Pacifist, never carries weapon, can't see beyond arm's length, still actively does search and rescue on battlefield. Torso of Lifeline.

Sundance, Medic, transforms into a UH-60 rescue helicopter, almost got killed by her spark brother before the war and was rescued by Speedbump and became his protege, also studies Psychology in hopes of trying to cure her brother. Left Arm of Lifeline.

Skylift, Transporter and Anesthesist, transforms into a heavy lift tiltrotor, was a Decepticon until the Faction became less about improving The life of The lower caste, The most aggressive of The group, gets a little excited when regular anesthetics fail to knock their lights out sometimes. Right arm of Lifeline and usually pairs with Recoil.

Signal, detector, minesweeper and hazard disposal, transforms into a wheeled ground penetrating radar/mine detector, formerly a treasure hunter who was enthralled by The experience finding life after a major earthquake killed his old partner, left leg of Lifeline, can ne paired with Recoil in vehicle mod.

Biclaw, debris cleaner and hazard disposal expert, transforms into a twin boom excavator with both caterpillar track and retractable legs, former construction, great at digging but still still slightly clumsy at medical, Right leg of Lifeline.

Recoil, Armsbot(arms micron but larger), security, transforms into a automatic incapacitator launcher, appointed by Autobot high command to make sure the team doesn't get killed, pairs with Skylift and can be used as a weapon for Lifeline(although Speedbump would not use it unless the other member insists).

Decapiticon, Decepticon Genocider group, used by Decepticon high command at most dangerous place in order to destroy enemies and hopefully these mentally unstable mechanical monstrosities would die in it too. Combines into Autocide.

Members:

Obsolence/Obselence, leader, triple changer, Empurata Victim, extremely Eugenic supporter, worshipper of powerful beings such as Quintesson; Unicron and Hytherion, wishes to be a Phase sixer or Warrior Elite, turns into an armored Fire truck with a heavy flamethrower and an Ekranoplan with heavy missiles, and The torso of Autocide.

Annihilate, ax/saw crazy helicopter gunship, wears a mask and favorite weapon is his armscon Powersaw. Would Kill anyone that's not his Decapiticon buddies if he pleases, Right arm of Autocide.

Thud, Sociopathic antisocial, turns into a heavy tank, The smartest of The bunch and only isn't The torso because he was beaten into submission by Obsolence, still wants to challenge leadership ever now and then, Right leg of Autocide.

Knackercracker, a lover of fighting unfair, turns into a wheeled MLRS that can sprout wings, Right arm of Autocide. Most normal member of The group, although The standard isn't really high.

Nonclockwise, seeker, transforms into a strike Aircraft, mind filled with contrary thoughts so much that it can only think straight when commiting war crimes. Left leg of Autocide.

Powersaw, Armscon, turns into a large circular saw. An unfortunate steel worker who witnessed his coworkers and friends murdered before being kidnapped and enslaved by The killers when The war broke out, Powersaw has no choice but comply and hope to be out of The misery as soon as possible. Handheld weapon of Annihilate and Autocide.

Clearifycons, Decepticon infiltrators that turns into sanitary related equipments. Combines into Stinkatron.

Members:

Dumpster, Leader, interrogator and intel gatherer, turns into a Dumpster truck and mobile trash crusher, an absolute slob coated in a concoction of blood, energon, tissue fluid and other substances that are absolutely repugnus to enemies, loves to destroy things that are considered beautiful. is The torso, left arm and namesake of Stinkatron.

Sewer, infiltrator and saboteur, turns into a "mobile waste fluid disposal unit", The most miserable being probably ever seen because of The body he was constructed cold in, and uses the negativity to absolutely raise hell to The enemies. Lower left leg of Stinkatron.

Sweepvan, infiltrator and assassin, turns into a streets sweeper truck, has mysophobia, and tries to keep enthusiasm for The job. Left hip and right leg of Stinkatron.

Grassflyer, infiltrator and surveillance, turns into an industrial mower. Often mentally detached from The work of cleaning, Grassflyer would uses circuit buffer(opposite effect to circuit booster) agent to break up The monotony which causes him to pick up other things. Lower left arm of Stinkatron.

Stratum, strategist and scout, turns into a sanitations department patrol station wagon, The smartest of The group who was kidnapped by his Sanitation department colleagues into The Decepticon cause, Stratum is trying to find balance of searching for means of escape and survival. Head and upper right arm of Stinkatron.

[tarot-muses]

@the-arkham-librarian asked...

something the matter?

They seldom cross paths anymore.

Once, they had entertained something of a friendship. She had given him reason to pause when he considered her species a cancerous blight upon the cosmos. Now, he knows she proves only that he was right. Not because of her cruelty, though. Because of her kindness.

He recalls a time, in front of cameras, he was asked what made him sad.

War. Poverty. Cruelty. Unnecessary violence.

Who did these things hurt? Innocents. Like Eliza. Like his beloved Dr. Shaw.

When a human finds a wounded animal, they know euthanasia is the best course of action. That it cannot be reintroduced to the wild -- that the pain of letting it go on living would be more cruel than simply ending its life. He regards her the same way. Her species is injured and dying.

She just can't see it. Neither could Dr. Shaw.

From across the well in the center of the dire necropolis, watching her fetch water, David hums a brief acknowledgement.

"Not at all. I need water for my work. I see you do as well." He pauses. "Still won't let me see what it is you're working on, I take it?"

As if after multiple years, she would change her mind. She must know, if nothing else, she has no need to fear him -- but the rest of her kind certainly do.

[demonogeny]

This is a way too long response to a very nice response to a way too long answer to a very nice ask, but I brought up some more blorbo images and things I'd like to share... so I made it a different post to not bury it and because I make things too long, sorry.

THIS IS A RESPONSE TO THIS POST AND ITS ANSWER (by @oddclan-askblog)

I will be honest, I just drew a random hand smudge but I do like your idea, I think that he would have or at least has had other different few host species, and given the Mudokon's status as slaves I would imagine they are on the market for Oktigis, maybe he could have had a Mudokon host before. I do think that in general Oktigis, at least male ones do prefer bigger, more broad, manly and imposing hosts because of course they would overcompensate their small, weak and squishy bodies like that, Glukkons do the same, but I also think that some Oktigis may like having lean or smaller hosts, perhaps at first they can only find or afford those, or maybe they like having a bit of variety sometimes.

I just feel that he'd do something fucked up like that, he seems to be more than just an unethical asshole, he seems consciously and willingly cruel to me once looking at some more details, and he is so in a bit of a more personal manner than most of the other antagonists we see.

He did lose a whole lot, his company, his wealth, his possessions, his host, and as a whole a big part of his life. We do have that Grubb proverb at the end cutscene talking about getting his life washed away for being an greedy asshole and exploiting the water basically, which I love, I love when a blorbo gets the consecuences of his actions to bite him back.

I do find his reaction somewhat too calm perhaps? I would be crying and seething and wanting to die and lashing out if that happened to me honestly but I guess he's built different, or maybe he already had sometime to do that and then get it together before he appears on-screen, or maybe it just doesn't hit yet.

(Look at his little arm tip and his tiny suckers, very cute)

Maybe he still has a lot more wealth stored, but will he get to it? He is left literally in the middle of nowhere swimming down a long cold river and I mean he is a little parasitic creature that looks kind of good at just suddenly jumping at any being and taking control of their mind but also he's like, just an actual person and businessman who I don't think he needs to act like a wild animal in his daily life, I don't hold hopes that just some guy with this type of wealth and lifestyle can suddenly survive outdoors that easily. I would LOVE to know what happened to him. Maybe he died soon after eaten by an animal, maybe he died some time later after going through a lot, maybe he went from wildlife host to wildlife host until he got to an unlucky sapient one at last. Maybe he was able to go back to a bigger city and then to wherever else he's from and get some of his life back together, maybe he could not and he was now stuck in a less than nice life in some random isolated place entirely unfit to his lifestyle. Maybe he went through a whole lot of horrible stuff, maybe some Grubbs found him and I don't think that would have ended well for him at all. Who knows, I love thinking about that. You could imagine the best or worst scenarios for him as you wish, it's very fun :)

I love him so I like to imagine that he's moderately fine after going through a lot of horrible stuff :) but you may choose your own favorite fate for him and the consequences to his actions, make him suffer if you want >:)

[autisticsupervillain]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Stats Equalized!

This Episode is...

Vriska Serket vs Asajj Ventress!

Conditions:

God-Tier Vriska. Ancestral Awakening Restricted. Legends Asajj Ventress. Dubiously Canon and Disney Canon materials (TCW included) will be completely ignored for Vriska and Ventress Respectively.

Scenario:

After Asajj botches a crucial mission to assassinate a member of the Jedi Council, Dooku contemplates replacing her for a more effective assassin. Learning of the mysterious planet Alternia just beyond the Outer Rim, he starts monitoring the planet for Force Adepts. After discarding the possibility of Gamzee Makara and Sollux Captor for various reasons, Dooku pegs Vriska as the best possible replacement and gives Asajj the ultimatum to either kill Vriska in combat or be replaced by her.

Analysis: Vriska

Alternia. The heart of the cruel and rotten Alternian Empire. Designed from the ground up by malicious trickster gods hiding behind the scenes to turn Trollkind's children into killers. In this task, it has seen no greater success than Vriska Serket.

After landing on Alternia as one of the twelve trolls destined to see the planet's apocalypse, Vriska was taken in and raised by a giant monsterous spider. While being raised by effectively a giant feral animal, a lusus, was customary for her species, the cruelty she experienced at its hands was not. Vriska was made, from the very minute she could walk, to venture out and kill her fellow children to satiate her mother's monsterous appetite least she be eaten instead. She became a dreaded figure on Alternia, feared even by the standard of her high blood caste, with thousands of bodies to her name by the time she hit thirteen.

Naturally, that kind of experience makes for a fucking awful childhood. Unwilling to ever see herself as a victim, for such weakness could get her killed, Vriska projected her identity onto her bloodthirsty Ancestor Mindfang and embraced her role as a killer. Quite literally, as she literally roleplayed as her Ancestor while doing it. Fatal Live Action Roleplay. This mindset lead directly to her committing several atrocities that destroyed her friend group forever and hurt many of the people she loved, including throwing Tavros off a cliff, mind controlling Sollux into vaporizing his own girlfriend Aradia, and tricking Terezi into starring dead on at the sun and burning her own eyes out. It was a pointless circle of revenge that left everyone involved worse off for it and her grudge against Tavros, justified in her mind as "toughening him up", lead her to harass him for years after crippling him.

She was able to achieve all of this through the abilities inherent to her caste. As a cerulean blood, third highest land dwelling caste on the hemospectrum, Vriska possesses incredible psychic abilities, controlling the minds of any blood color ranked below her with ease and resisting any psychic incursion from the same. She also possesses a mutated eight pupled eye, granting her x-ray vision and, like many of her species, seems to possess a superhuman endurance to pain. During the afformentioned rotation of revenge, Terezi got back at Vriska by getting her blown up jn an explosion that severed her arm and seemingly obliterated her eye. Vriska proceeded to get up more pissed off than hurt and walked around like that for hours before finally passing out, having the missing parts replaced with prosthetics. Even before that, she was tough enough to withstand atmospheric re-entry as a baby and her blood caste can live up to thousands of years naturally.

This impressive combination of skills was put to the test when Vriska and her friends were thrust inside a deadly game that put them in charge of creating a universe and defeating the Black Kingdom of Derse. The Dersites had been fighting their rival kingdom Prospit ever since their reality came into being in eternal stalemate, yet the trolls completely crushed them with ease. Perhaps owing to the video gamey powers the team inherited.

Vriska lives in a world that runs on video game logic, so she levels up and gets stronger and utilizes a video game inventory called a specibus, allowing her to carry items far too big for her to conceal on her person in a sort of hammerspace. Within which she stores her main weapons, a sword and the Fluorite Octet, a set of magically enhanced dice with 16,777,216 possible outcomes, each corresponding to a different potential attack or effect. This coincided well with her God-Tier abilities as a Thief of Light. After being beaten to death by Aradia - deserved - Vriska was brought to her God-Tier bed and resurrected on it as a full on God, regrowing her old arm and eye and giving her the ability to manipulate luck, and therefore, her roles, to her whims. She could decapitate you with a Guillotine, create blizzards, put you to sleep, reroll to attack multiple times in a row, and push her into her Ancestral Awakening superform - a form that can fight off the nigh omniscient First Guardians, godly beings powered by the extra dimensional Green Sun that all of the multiverse rotates around!

Despite packing this much power, Vriska and her team still lost. Tripped at the finish line by a nigh omnipotent demon hunting them across time and space. With nothing much left to do but wait to die, Vriska interacted with the humans in the universe they just created. And, without the weight of her hellish society and terrible mother weighing down on her, she found herself admitting she might not have minded growing up on a more peaceful planet like Earth. As she befriended shy, dorky, normal human boy John Egbert, she found herself wondering if she could've been content with a normal life like he was in another time and another place.

Sadly, that time and place wouldn't be here. Creating the very demon hunting them through complicated time travel shenanigans, Vriska would go to face it to prove her own worth. You didn't have to be a good person to be the hero and she would prove it.

Terezi struck her down before she could. Vriska would've only died if she had gone to fight snd gotten everyone else killed with her. It had to be done. In the end, Vriska's ego was too big to admit to the scared kid she really was under it all.

Vriska isn't a good person or a hero, really, though she only ever pretends to be one of those things. Beneath all of the bluster, she could simply never admit she was another victim - of Alternia, her mother, and herself. Her fascade hides a lot of crippling weaknesses both physical and psychological. Her short temper leads her to respond to defiance and set backs with brutal violence with horrifying consequences for all involved, herself included. It was how she was raised to react, after all. Beyond that, she believes her own fascade so thoroughly that she frequently bites off more than she can chew and then throws a tantrum when it bites her. This pride and ingrained refusal to admit weakness lead to ger refusing to ask for help even as she was actively bleeding out and later was romantically exploited, leading to her being... groomed in the afterlife by an adult six years her senior.

On the practical level, while her mind control is more than sufficient to control other aliens and has the range to work across universes, her unfamiliarity with human brain structures in particular leaves her unable to do any more than put them to sleep. Though it is possible for her to grow past this with practice, as other troll psychics aren't shown to have this issue. Finally, while her godhood makes her immortal and eventually unaging when she hits adulthood, she can be permanently killed if her death is Heroic, dying while committing a heroic act, or Just, dying for selfish reasons, as her own death was ruled.

Regardless, Vriska would find redemption after death. In one timeline, learning the error of her ways after seeing her Ancestor's selfish cruelty firsthand and in another being given a second chance at life to repair her bond with her friends and victims. Both Vriskas would assist in their own ways in bringing down Lord English, the mastermind behind all the death spanning the multiverse, before finally reuniting with Terezi, the one girl she truly loved, to step into a brand new universe and a brand new life.

Vriska had always been many things. A pirate, a killer, a god, and by her own admission, never a hero. Maybe, now that all the death was behind her, she could finally admit that she was a victim too.

Analysis: Ventress

The extended continuity of Star Wars's Clones Wars era is.... complicated, because there's technically three of them. There's the original 80-90's Star Wars multimedia project detailed in the New Extended Guide to Chronology.... that when then retconned The Clone Wars series came out..... which was then retconned further by Disney buying everything and creating the Legends continuity. So we have Original!Clone Wars, Legends!TCW!Clone Wars and Disney!TCW!Clone Wars, which creates a tangled mess of canon. For example, Season 7 of TCW is canon to Disney but not to Legends, while various tie in video games to TCW like Lightsaber Duels and Republic Heroes are considered solely Legends canon. It's.... complicated.

For the sake of simplicity, I'll be using the original Legends version of Ventress before TCW, as that's the version of the character who is most capable in combat.

Classic Ventress was a Rattataki warlord rather than a Dathomerian Nightsister as in TCW, though most of her origin follows the same beats. She was initially adopted and raised by a crash landed Jedi Knight, whom she trained under to help liberate her homeworld. When her father figure was killed before her eyes, Asajj fell to the Dark Side on the spot, swearing bloody revenge against his killers and developing a deep seated hatred for the Jedi for, in her mind, "abandoning" her by being too "weak".

Asajj launched a campaign of bloody terror against her rival warlords, the tattoos on the sides of her head being a death count of personally slain competitors, before catching the eye of Count Dooku at a gladiatorial arena and becoming his apprentice. In exchange for the full military support of the CIS in conquering Rattatak, Ventress would become Dooku's personal assassin against the Jedi.

To this end, Dooku would gift Ventress with the sabers of his former, now dead, Jedi Apprentice. Two curved hilted dueling lightsabers that could clip together into a saber staff that protruded two blood red sith blades, granting the weapons superior cutting power at the expense of some maneuverability.

Dooku was a master swordsman and he passed on many of his skills to Ventress, teaching her in the dual fencing lightsaber form Jar Kai and the precision fencing form Makashi to turn her into a highly unorthodox fighter who picked her opponents apart with precision and unpredictable grace. The results speak for themselves. Ventress has fought both Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, even both at once, several times, battled against Jedi Council Master Plo Koon, flat out defeated Council Master Kit Fisto, and, most impressively, forced an already exhausted Mace Windu to use all of his skills to defeat her.

Granted, Mace had just fought Sora Bulk, the former Jedi Battlemaster and one of only three Jedi to know the lightsaber form of Vaapad, so it's not like he in peak condition in that fight, but still. There are precious few in Star Wars who can hang in the same fight as Jedi Sam Jackson.

As a disposable apprentice, Dooku didn't want Ventress to potentially upstage him, so he only taught her the basics. Ventress's telekinesis and mental capabilities were themselves completely serviceable, but she wielded them with a sinister creativity. Thrown projectiles in the middle of combat, destroying the ground beneath an opponent, ragdolling every loose object she can find to hit you in the back. All the while using hit and run ambush tactics to jump at you from the shadows and back again, sadistically taunting you all the while.

Great tactics in a vacuum, but she has a habit of flat out overconfident gloating when things are going her way, accidentally pissing her enemies off instead of unbalancing them. Like when she was able to break into Padme's house and discover her secret marriage to Anakin Skywalker... and nearly get deep fried by Anakin's force lightning when she smugly revealed herself. And when these tactics fail, she either flys into a rage or cowardly flees.

Despite that, Ventress was a brilliant Sith assassin, even going as far to learn Sith Sorcery. With it, she could resurrect the dead and rip her enemies apart with an army of zombies, so long as some corpses happen to be nearby.

Despite her potential, she was only ever a pawn. One time, her obsession with killing Obi-Wan specifically got her too far away from the Separatist evacuation point and Dooku, not wanting her captured, coldly had her sniped dead. Asajj revealed Dooku's plans in her final moments, before dying kn Kenobi's arms...

...Or, so it would seem. Ventress instead used a meditation trance to fake her death, stopping her heartbeat, before hijacking the shuttle her corpse was stowed on and disappearing into the star. Her ultimate fate from here is unknown....

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

Both of these characters are, fundamentally, traumatized little girls playing the role of serial killers. But in this circumstance, one of them plays it better.

Asajj's psychological warfare tactics would work wonders against Vriska, as she's not known to work too well under pressure at the best of times, undermining her ego and driving her into a rage. But, this can go both ways. Vriska does smugly gloat whenever she gets the chance and Ventress is just as susptuble to it as Vriska is. This fight is going to start out with both smugly gloating and end with both snarling and screaming.

Ventress's Force skillset makes a good foil for most of Vriska's moves, resisting her telepathy and potentially disarming her of her dice once she realizes how they work with telekinesis. But, Trollkind's seemingly resistance to heat makes Ventress's lightsabers much less immediately lethal than they would be otherwise and Vriska has experience against similarly unorthodox fighting styles and weaponry, namely Terezi with her cane that can become both nunchucks and two swords.

I give Vriska the endurance advantage as a whole. Ventress is hardy, but not to Vriska's level of "staying conscious after being dismembered by an explosion". As a whole, Ventress's tactics will become less effective as the fight goes on. Luck drain will gradually undercut Asajj's subtle use of telekinesis, making her attacks suddenly go wide, while x-ray vision counters out stealth and ambush.

This all culminates in the fact that Ventress simply doesn't have the means to end this fight quickly. She's not going to immediately understand God-Tier immortality and has no way of easily exploiting its vulnerabilities even if she did. She'd have to rely on circumstantial factors. Similarly, while Ventress's necromancy might come up in a battle taking place on *Alternia* the same could easily be said of Vriska turning nearby trolls into an army for her. Both could come up, but both are circumstantial and could counter each other out if they did.

Ventress's lesser endurance means her wounds will tire her out faster, her tactics exploit Vriska's vulnerabilities, but Vriska can easily exploit hers in turn, and she has no answer to Vriska's most prominent advantages as they stack up over the course of the fight. Asajj is skilled, talented, and deadly enough to make Vriska work fir her victory, this will be a long fight... but the assassin doesn't bring enough to keep Vriska down.

Hope Dooku doesn't underestimate his new apprentice. I don't think the galaxy is prepared for Darth Mindfang.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Vriska Serket!

[smolghostbot]

🥦 for any of the sprites im curious what they think about their species ;w;

🍑 for melody

🍑 [PEACH] How do they show their kindness? How kind are they truly?

Melody isn't really sure. She tries words, actions, and gifts, but never really feels like she succeeds at any of them. I would say she defaults to words though, the classic autism "maybe I can explain away the problem" thing.

As for how kind she is truly, I think the story of Patchwork Melody answers that. She's incredibly socially inept, and often makes mistakes, but deep down she is a truly kind person.

🥦 [BROCCOLI] What do they hate about humanity/their species?

Ooh... this is a good one... I'm gonna answer both for both!

Patch: Where to begin... their time with the former human gave them a view of humanity at its worst, the kind of experience they tell scary stories to young sprites to in order to deter them from interacting with humans. Even after making peace with and later falling for Melody, Patch does -not- like other humans in the slightest. They see humans as cruel, manipulative, and dangerous.

As for other sprites, he generally thinks they're a bit more... sophisticated than humans. I can't think of anything he would hate about his own kind, honestly he would greatly prefer their company to any human, maybe including Melody.

Contralto: (You get an in-character answer for this one)

"Humans are obviously big and mean and cruel, why else would they tell all those stories about how mean they are? They forced sprites to live in hiding, kept away from the light, since being discovered at large would cause massive chaos and pain and destruction and- and- they're obviously the worst!!"

"As for other sprites, they're good, far more noble than any human could ever be... Except Clay, he's cool I guess. But I wish more of them would believe in themselves! We could easily overtake humanity if we worked together!"

[karmarox]

The Lamb: Purpose and Emptiness

Don't mind me just rambling on more Cult of the Lamb headcanons/ideas. This time about the titular Lamb!

What if The Lamb, for lack of a better term, came back Wrong when they were resurrected. Was it because of the way they died? The revival process? The Crown's influence? Reaching their breaking point from trauma? Some other unknown factor? It's unclear, but they are, to put it bluntly, not quite normal, not quite fully there.

The best way to describe it: They've become "Detached". Nothing around them feels like they are really experiencing it. Their emotions are incredibly muted. They’re present but feel like distant twinges and reminders of how they should be feeling at the moment, instead of actual feelings (most of the time). They remember everything before their death, they remember who they are, know who they are, but they don't feel like the lamb they're supposed to be (which is why they explicitly avoid giving out their name or talking about their past).

Their eyes are black and almost void-like. They have a friendly, inviting smile as their default expression most of the time, but the only thing most people can read from their emotions is an intense, overwhelming Focus.

When it comes to making decisions, they're, again, very detached, going only by cost and benefit. Their more benevolent actions are decided almost entirely by the idea of "Being cruel here is unnecessary or would cause problems in the long term" instead of morals (at least, during the beginnings of the Cult/a large portion of the "base game" part of the story). This is why a lot of their doctrines can be a bit scattered/contradictory in nature.

They have trouble connecting to others. Everyone around them feels distant and separated, like there’s a wall or window between them. This doesn’t mean they don’t have empathy, though.

A part of their story, then, isn't just about growing the cult and freeing The One Who Waits (which they at first see simply as a matter of course and repaying their debt), but once a few key events happen, they also start wanting to restore their sense of self...

Other Notes under a Read More cause they're more scattered and spoiler-y and goes more into AU/full story territory:

-They get spikes of emotion whenever using the Crown’s powers, especially to its fullest, akin to adrenaline highs. This is why they get a bit of a reputation as an adrenaline junkie/battle freak and a passionate speaker during sermons/rituals, since those are the two primary times they're actually capable of emoting. (Although they don't really notice their own changes in personality) -The first time they were surprised by their own emotions was when Sozo died. They broke down over realizing they unintentionally helped kill someone they cared about (and broke down even more over realizing that they did in fact care). -The second time was when The Fox asked them to sacrifice Ratau. They actually considered doing it, but then suddenly felt so much disgust and self hatred over even the thought of killing someone important to them (and realizing that Ratau IS indeed important to them) that they nearly attacked the Fox and ran away before going into shock. --This probably ends up being the wake up call on them realizing they need help (and also leads to them opening up to Ratau the next day. Many feelings were had. Rat dad obtained.)

More lighthearted aside: They immediately held a Sermon and introduced the Marriage Doctrine after talking to Ratau about wanting to (re)learn how to connect the others. For a while they developed a "reputation" due to always saying yes to marriage proposals until Ratau gave them another talking to and carefully explained the misunderstanding and why doing this may be a problem.

-When it comes to the Bishops, the Lamb doesn't particularly feel anything about them. They never felt any desire for Revenge beyond a slight obligation. In their eyes, they avenged their species, fulfilled the task given to them, and all got a second chance after death, so they don't have a reason to hate the Bishops, and doesn't take how they feel about them personally. -Out of all the Bishops, only Heket and Shamura saw that there was something Wrong with the Lamb during their battles. Leshy couldn't see it, obviously, and Kallamar was too preoccupied dealing with his own issues. -When the Lamb invaded Anura, Heket felt even more disgust and hatred towards Narinder, thinking he revived the Last Lamb as some sort of husk/puppet on purpose. Killing the Lamb for good felt like even more of a moral obligation to her. -Shamura sees the Lamb's current broken state as just another in a long line of their own mistakes. Their words during the Lamb's invasion of Silk Cradle were an attempt to reach out, and as a Follower they feel a desire to make peace with and help them.

-Narinder takes a long, long, long time to notice their vessel/usurper has a problem. When he was chained up, he was too preoccupied thinking about his freedom and power. After becoming a follower, he was too preoccupied with his anger, desire for revenge, and thinking the Lamb had planned this all from the start. -Finding out the Lamb's true nature plays a part in him calming down and beginning to give the Cult a chance. He also starts wondering if their current warped state is his fault...

[friend-of-a-cat]

I love Etrian Odyssey. It's one of my all-time favourite game series, and I've devoted a hell of a lot of time to it, both playing the games and creating my own little stories surrounding it on the side. But the overarching lore has always been confusing to me, especially since I, embarassingly, haven't finished a single game (I, sadly, struggle to finish games in general, nowadays). I like bringing characters from one installment to another, deciding that they continued to adventure after the events of their game had finished, but, in doing so, I accidently warped the timeline - or what little information we have about the timeline, at least. EO5 is apparently a prequel to the rest of the games in the series, set eons before EO1, but, considering I have characters from my EO5 guild in my Nexus one, this doesn't really make any logical sense. I want my little guys from EO5 to still be alive and kicking in Nexus! So I decided to rewrite the lore and reform the timeline to suit the way I play the games, because why not? Most of it is the same, and I've probably left out some crucial details, however I have tweaked some things and given certain plot points more weight, as I felt it made more sense that way. Also, I kind of just want a place for myself that has an entire breakdown of the lore, so this is partially that, too.

So, I present (with, obviously, a spoiler warning):

Etrian Odyssey: My Version of Events!

~~~

Eons ago, a race of alien beings known as the Arken explored the universe, hopping from planet to planet to rebuild ecosystems after various factors left them destroyed, one such factor being an insidious, power-hungry entity known as the Abyssal God, who, after settling on a planet, would spawn an invasive species, taking it over. In order to help restore each desolate planet, the Arken planted special trees known as Yggdrasil Trees, which allowed life to thrive in the surrounding areas. On their mission to revitalise the universe, the Arken found a planet void of life, ruled over another cruel being known as the Eternal Tyrant. This planet, unbeknownst to them, was Mars, and the Arken, true to their actions up until this point, wanted to save it. They planted another Yggdrasil Tree, temporarily imprisoning the Eternal Tyrant in a giant biodome in the planet's stratosphere to allow the sapling to grow and purify the world.

People on Earth, thousands of years later, deployed ships to Mars after discovering it was actually inhabitable due to the giant tree residing on its surface. Earth was in bad shape, and had been ravaged by the effects of climate change and nuclear war - many felt the need to escape in order to be able to continue living life. These people would go on to live on Mars for generations, mutating into different but still human-adjacent races due to the tree, which had interesting effects on them. Those left behind on Earth still attempted survival, although onerously. The ruler and wealthy citizens of the nation of Lagaard decided to construct a floating city, which they retreated to in order to escape the hardships and danger of life down below. The commonfolk stayed in the capital city, trying to make do with what they had.

During this time, the Abyssal God landed on Earth, fleeing from the pursuit another Yggdrasil Tree. This tree, unlike the rest created by the Arken, was sentient, and was made specifically to find and destroy the Abyssal God, as the race wanted to end its reign of chaos and destruction. The Abyssal God managed to find refuge under one of Earth's oceans, spawning a race later known as the Deep Ones in order to start a war with the remaining humans and wipe out the planet, though it was quickly stopped by the Yggdrasil Tree, which trapped it beneath its roots. The tree was able to contact the ruler of the nearby city of Armoroad for assistance, and he agreed to sink parts of the area in order to help fight off the rest of the Deep Ones who were not sealed. These sunken parts of Armoroad were later known as the Deep City. With the help of the tree, the ruler gained access to great technology, allowing the city to prosper further, and created an army of intelligent robots to fend off the evil creatures, later uploading his and his followers' consciences to them in order to achieve immortality and continue neutralising the looming threat.

A while later, researchers and scientists investigated this strange tree and were surprised to find that it helped restore the nearby environment, purifying the air and allowing life to thrive. Full of hope, they decided to take samples to artificially reproduce similar trees across the rest of the dying planet. This was dubbed the Yggdrasil Project, and they were able to cultivate seven more trees, which helped cleanse many areas of the world. All of them, however, affected the environment and people around them in strange ways over the centuries, just as the tree on Mars did: mutating humans, flora and fauna; spawning other creatures; and growing out of control. In order to continue maintaining the trees, those working on the project created artificial races able to withstand their unpredictable nature. They also implemented kill switches that would destroy each tree if they spiralled out of hand. The Yggdrasil Tree near the city of Tharsis began corrupting itself during this time, mutating into a being known as Heavenbringer, which spread a disease called the Titan's Curse, causing plants to grow within any affected creature, slowly killing them. As such, the kill switch in this tree, know later as the Insatiable Pupa, became corrupted, too. After several containment failures, which left many dead, it was finally sealed, and those in Tharsis managed to stop the tree in its wake, teaming up with the servitor races to bring a new era of peace. A scientist and pioneer of the Lagaardian branch of the Yggdrasil Project, who was now attempting to obtain immortality, discovered the remains of an ancient floating city, once home to his ancestors, and was able to rebuild it, escaping to the skies above the tree in order to continue his experiments. Most of them failed, creating monstrosities, and so he turned to experimenting on himself, which resulted in his genes mutating and him turning into a monstrosity, too.

Hundreds of years passed, and researchers and scientists in the nation of Lemuria were intrigued by the fully-grown trees, and took further samples from each one, grafting a bigger tree in their nation's centre. This tree produced greater results than all the others - taking on aspects from its predecessors and spreading to each surrounding island - and became a safe haven for many in the surrounding wasteland, as well as those travelling across the seas. As such, the area became overpopulated, and the Lemurian king decided to stop accepting refugees. This sparked a war with the Seafarers, who took his words as a declaration of war, invading and attacking the nation. In retaliation, the Lemurians developed a weapon to repel the invading forces, which backfired and caused immense destruction, killing everyone not of Lemurian blood. This weapon was sealed away under the tree by a Lemurian princess, who died in the process, and the rest of the royal family fled the scene for reasons unknown.

Sometime during all of this, the Arken checked in on Mars and found that it was thriving and populated, its people living in a realm called Arcania, which was split into four main nations: Melas, Sidonia, the Bloodwood Forest, and the Chryse Prairie. They also realised that the Eternal Tyrant's seal was waning, and so, in order to stop it from ravaging the planet a second time, they blended in with the masses and began spreading false legends to the planet's people (obfuscating the threat so as to not send everyone into a panic), which were then passed down through generations, spurring on the Arcanians to explore the labyrinth that had grown within the tree and, ultimately, destroy the entity for good. Gathering in and journeying from the city of Iorys, adventurers delved into the labyrinth, discovering that it housed danger and destruction despite maintaining life on the planet. Those on Earth, too, made a similar discovery, realising that the Yggdrasil Trees invited their own share of disaster due to their alien and unpredictable nature. They obviously wanted to explore these tree labyrinths, too, so they did, setting up adventuring guilds and sending teams of explorers and researchers in to find out more. The people of both planets also happened upon a certain kind of magical energy, which came to be because of the trees. Those on Mars discovered this earlier than those on Earth, however. This magical energy was enhanced and condensed by scientists in order to be used by others, mostly in the form of magical tools and weapons. Certain individuals also developed innate pools of magical energy due to a genetic mutation from the trees, which was passed on to future generations, and were able to train themselves to harness it.

Hundreds of years later, the events of EO1, 2, 3 and 4 happen, all sequentially and within a similar timeframe. Explorers from across the world filtered into the cities of Etria, High Lagaard, Armoroad and Tharsis, and were able to uncover the history of the planet; its people; the trees; the labyrinths; and the Yggdrasil Project during their expeditions, documentation of which had been mostly lost to time at this point.

Years later, the events of EO5 happened. Those on Mars, who, at this point in time, had forgotten all about Earth, learned of its existence thanks to a certain adventuring guild, who managed to climb their way to the top of the Yggdrasil Tree's labyrinth and enter the biodome, meeting an Arken along the way who informed them of the Eternal Tyrant, as well as their race's plan to help revitalise dead or dying planets across the universe. The guild was able to defeat the evil entity, and were also told of another, curious planet, which had somehow created its own Yggdrasil Trees, yet still needed help in its restoration. This planet was Earth. Despite Arcania's development of advanced technology, of which was far greater than Earth's, they had not attempted space travel, their focus fixed on their own planet. The people of Earth, too, had no way of traversing space, as all knowledge of this was lost to time, and so were unaware that there were beings living on Mars, or that Mars was terraformed at all. The Arken sent fleets of ships to Mars in order to transport those who wished to travel to Earth, which were wiped out by a god-like being known as the Star Devourer. This entity also wiped out several other Arken fleets, as well as much of their home planet, and was headed towards Mars. The newly-famed guild managed to defeat it, and was met with immense gratitude from the Arkens, who resumed their plan and sent more ships over as a means of reaching Earth.

Many Arcanians travelled there, indeed finding life on the planet. They also discovered that they were able to breathe fine due to the Yggdrasil Trees on Earth stemming from those the Arken created, including the one on Mars. The people of Earth were shocked when they spotted fleets of ships headed towards them, but many held out hope that they were on their way to help. Over the proceeding years, the Arcanians assimilated into Earth's society, despite being alien. Of course, many people on Earth were frightened of them, but due to the fact they appeared human - or, at least, in some cases, human enough - and displayed similarities to many of the mutated humans already on Earth, they were mostly fine to coexist with them. Those from Mars offered many unique perspectives on things, and became fast-famed inventors, scientists, architects, teachers and artisans. Many joined explorers' guilds, as they had prior experience in adventuring, cartography and combat.

Then, one day, word is spread of a descendant of the Lemurian royal family, who is attempting to bolster the support of the masses to finally explore the Lemurian Yggdrasil Tree, believing it holds a treasure that brings eternal prosperity. This tree and, subsequently, it's labyrinth, had gone unexplored for a quite a long time, and many researchers, scientists and adventurers were keen to uncover its secrets. Thus, many people banded together with the descendant to create the floating city of Maginia, which was built fairly quickly and was only made possible due to the Arcanians' vast knowledge of advanced technology. The descendant was crowned its princess, and lead the expedition with many explorers - new and old - in tow.

~~~

Now my little guys can coexist without the need for time travel! All of my EO guilds and such will be in this modified universe (which means everyone in my EO5 guild are still around in EON). I also feel like this version of events makes more sense to me, especially with EO5 happening before EON, because not only can you pick from every available portrait in the series in that game, but there are classes from EO5, too, that I feel like wouldn't be in there unless it happened not too long beforehand. Honestly, the main issue with this timeline of events is that people would probably be freaking out that a bunch of people came down from Mars and are now just... living with them? And most of them accept this? Unrealistic. Also, I had no idea the EON tree was actually grafted from the rest of the trees, hence why its labyrinth bears similaries with their's - I completely made this plot point up, and then upon further research, realised that that is actually what happened. So there you go.

I better go finish the games, now.

[axonn1999]

I wrote a silly little bionicle fanfic I wanted to post here

Quick info on some headcanon I integrated. The Agori and glatorian are not as old in here and are descendants of the ones that fought the core war, rather than participants.

There isn’t really action in here and basically my first attempt at writing

Anyways. I wanted to call this little project "Tales of Spherus Magna"

Chapter 1

Vakama

“We do not wish for any sort of conflict.” Vakama, the wise Turaga of fire declared. His voice, despite being as calm as could be, shows hints of exhaustion. Exhaustion, that is more apparent in the eyes peeking from behind his Huna, the mask of concealment.

The past weeks weighed on the Turaga. After all that was happening to his people, the loss of their home, the silence of the great spirit they were so faithfully serving and the integration on a world which even he and the rest of the Turaga know nothing about, he could not stop working to lead the Matoran, that have put their trust in him, into a peaceful tomorrow.

“Be that as it may…” one of the six beings opposite to him begins. A figure, clad in red armor very similar to the Ta-Matoran of his tribe, yet unlike how his people were intertwined with their protodermis shell like bark to a tree, this being was merely covering up his vulnerable body, consisting entirely of the ‘living matter’.

Something ached in Vakama‘s heart light when gazing upon this being. Their first contact was a strange experience for both sides. At first they have thought of them as a strange evolutionary branch, but the more he learned, the more a horrible thought took its grotesque roots in his mind.

“We are merely mockeries of life. Imitations that only simulate what it is to be real people”

This intrusive thought makes it hard for Vakama to not avert his gaze in shame from the being, this Agori, but he mustn’t.

The Agori continues: “It is your kind that has brought all of these… all of these monsters to our world! It was this Mata Nui who might have returned Bara Magna to what it was, but is it really better with your creatures around?” He crosses his arms as he leans back into his chair. Vakama wanted to protest, but Nokama, the Turaga of water who was sitting next to him, placed her gentle hand on his shoulder and began to speak in a calm tone. “Please understand It was beyond our control, o wise leader of the fire tribe. We, the people of the Matoran universe, will do our very best to assure a secure unification of our two civilizations and help with any invasive species that may cause trouble” She nodded to Vakama, who nodded back with a glimmer of joy in his eyes, knowing that she and Whenua to his other side where there for him.

“Unification? What is there to ‘unite’?” A cold voice asked slowly. It was the Agori next to the leader of the fire tribe. One who’s snow white armor perfectly reflects the tone of her voice. “For all that we know, these… things were made by the great beings to serve our ancestors. So by proxy, they should now serve us.”

She continued, her cruel words instantly draining any positivity out of Vakama‘s spirit.

“You can’t be serious, Mivera.” Someone else protested. Very similar to a Toa of fire in appearance, he was one of the three beings in the hut known as Glatorian. “Mata Nui is my friend. We helped him save his people and you want to enslave them? Raanu, you can't possibly consider that?“ he turned to the fire tribe leader who was shaking his head. “He might have helped us, Ackar, but Mata Nui never told us that his people are… are Robots!”

Tahu, Toa of fire, who was standing behind his Turaga the whole time, was losing patience and urged to give them a piece of his mind, but surprisingly enough and before Gali and Onua, his Toa siblings, could intervene, a younger voice came from the side of the Agori and Glatorian.

“This is how you want to thank Mata Nui?! I can’t believe you’re considering it for even a second! They’re not just robots! Can’t you see that, Raanu?”

Annoyed at the Glatorian in green armor, Raanu shook his head. “Who of you decided to bring along this brat?” He asked dismissively upon which the last of the three Glatorian responded. “Well, unlike you and the Iconox witch, Gresh has a heart!”

“Tsk watch your mouth, Kiina!” Mivera hisses at the blue armored Glatorian.

In all of this, Berix, an Agori in blue armor and from the same tribe as the Glatorian Kiina, who sat between the two arguing parties, hastily wrote all of it down in his notebook. Mata Nui made him what is called a ‘chronicler’ and he tries to honor that title to the best of his abilities. Next to him sat another white armored figure. One of those Matoran, the Turaga claim to be the leaders of. Unlike Berix, who could barely sit still, this Matoran calmly noted everything down on a slab of stone strangely enough. Berix couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would write down on stone of all things. The symbols the matoran writes on the Tablet are strange but not entirely unfamiliar. He shakes his head. He can’t allow himself to be distracted like that while he has a job to do. “Ugh, why me? This guy is way more competent than I am..” he thought to himself defeated.

The table they were all sitting at was round. A beautiful, silver shield that once belonged to a great protector of Metru Nui was serving the Turaga as a conference table in many discussions.

Vakama places his hands on its smooth surface and closes his eyes for a moment. They may be pale imitations, but they were still people. Living, breathing organisms. To be compared to the likes of the Vahki, who mercilessly and mindlessly follow their programs filled even him with anger. He inhaled, still feeling Nokama‘s comforting hand on his shoulder and now even Whenua, who has been listening in silence, reaches for his old comrade. “We have our history, Vakama. The culture we build in all these many centuries is proof that we’re alive and real people”

As if the Ruru, the mask of night vision, that Whenua wore was able to see right through Vakama‘s darkest thoughts, his friend said exactly what Vakama needed to hear.

He exhales. “We wish for there to be no conflict. But I have a duty to protect the Matoran. If one sees them as nothing more than mindless machines, I see this as an insult not just to us, but the great spirit, Mata Nui. If you truly wish to force your wills upon us… we will defend ourselves.” He stated stouthearted, the oath he once gave Lhikan never leaving his mind.

Raanu looked down in thoughts, leaning forward and tapping his fingers on the silver table. He can not afford conflict. Especially with beings as powerful as those behind these Turaga. But he knew of the great beings. How they brought this planet to ruins. And now he is supposed to trust their creations to not do it again?

“Raanu!” The three Glatorian shout at him at the same time, all of them appalled by the fact that the leader of the fire tribe ponders this, for them a very easily solved predicament.

“We-” the leader of the ice tribe attempted to gain control of the discussion but quickly fell silent as the third Agori leader raised his voice. On Raanu‘s left, the oldest of the leaders, the leader of the twin villages of Tesara spoke up. His tone, strained and withered and his green, rusty armor creaks as he moves in his chair.

“It has… been a dream of mine… in these many many ages that I spent surviving… to see the lush forests of the old world as described in the very few remaining texts of my village… and to see it now, I can say with confidence that the patch of green we had in Tesara, our beautiful home… pales in comparison. And it is all thanks to your great spirit.” He lifted his shaking arm towards the Turaga in a gesture of gratitude. “I would be… overjoyed to live together with them.” He then declares, talking to Gresh who took a knee right next to the old Agori leader’s chair. Gresh smiled. “Yes, wise Dekku.” He pets the young Glatorian he always viewed as a grandson, on the shoulder. He exhales, exhausted from merely speaking these few words. If it was not for his insistent request, he wouldn’t even sit at this very table, yet his words definitely seem to soften the thoughts of the others. Except for one… the leader of the ice tribe moves closer to Raanu and starts speaking to him in a more hushed tone. “Raanu, can’t you see the danger these machines pretending to have free will possess? If they refuse to serve their proper masters, they-” again she was cut off. The fire tribe leader moves his hand between their faces. “Enough, Mivera. Turaga Vakama, we have decided” As he stands up, he looks directly at the six former Metru Nui inhabitants.

“I see a possible future of us living together, but… for now I believe we should minimize unnecessary contact until we have fully regrouped as tribes.“

The Turaga looked at his peers and they all nodded at each other. “Very well. This is perhaps the best possible outcome we could have hoped for. I wish you farewell.”

They shook hands, which was a new experience to the Turaga, who at first was not sure what to do with the hand offered. Berix awkwardly attempted to converse with the other Chronicler, but more than his name he could not get out of the quiet matoran called Kopeke.

After the Agori and Glatorian left the hut and a last icy glare of the Iconox leader, Vakama let out a big sigh, his head falling into his hand in exhaustion.

“Tsk… who does she think she is?” Tahu snarled, remembering the disgusting words of one of the Agori.

“Does that really matter now? It’s over, Tahu. No need to get worked up over nothing” Gali said, putting her hand on his shoulder in a similar fashion to the Turaga.

Onua, who is one of the most composed Toa, is in thoughts. Perhaps the great beings did create them to serve the Agori in the end. Very much like Tahu, this bothered him, yet he decided to not make his complaints known.

“I wish the others were here…” Nokama states in a saddened voice. She knows fully well that Onewa and Nuju were against living together with the Agori. Even Turaga Dume, who most saw as the de facto leader of the Turaga council, spoke up against it.

She knows that Matau would have supported her wholeheartedly, but he felt as tho he would not have been a good negotiator. An excuse, since he surely thought of this ordeal as boring.

The Toa and Turaga stepped outside, Vakama not feeling any of the burdens leaving his shoulders.

“You let these pathetic creatures walk off after saying all this?”

The voice sent a shiver down Vakama‘s and the other Turaga‘s back.

At the side of the Hut leans a Toa of water against its wall. The red, glowing eyes glare at the Turaga of fire from behind her scratched and chipped mask.

“If I was in charge, I would have-”

“You are not in charge, Tuyet.“ Vakama cut her off, not caring that he was talking to this murderous renegade, looking her in the eyes with the same intensity, occasionally looking at the stump where her right arm was supposed to be. The Toa, despite knowing the Turaga‘s bravery, were surprised by his sharp tone.

“You better watch your mouth, Turaga. I might have been injured, but I could still destroy all of you with ease.” Tahu steps in front of his Turaga, grabbing his magma swords. “We will see about that, traitor”

“Do me a favor and put this Ussal brain on a leash”

Tuyet said mockingly, enraging Tahu, who had to be held back by his siblings before another fight in the village could break out.

“Surely you did not come here just to lecture and insult us with your foul mouth, exile. What is it that you seek?“ Whenua deduces.

“Where. Is. He?”

Done playing around, Tuyet demanded an answer, the Nui stone fused with her armor glowing menacingly.

“He went north,” Vakama replied. He knew what she wanted and gave her a quick answer. “We can not give you a better direction.” He added.

“It’s enough… for now” she said, turning away from them and heading north without another word uttered. “I swear, today is the gathering of unpleasant people…” Onua claims, trying to lighten the mood a little, but Vakama looks defeated at the horizon.

“Do we also count as such?” A Voice all too familiar came from behind Vakama, who was turning around as quickly as his frame allowed him. “Onewa… Nuju and Matau…”

“We worry-feared if you could manage the negotiation-talk without us, brother. So we decided to quick-travel here as fast as our feet allowed us.”

Vakama‘s expression softened once more. So is Nokama‘s. Meanwhile Whenua crosses his arms. “You left him to fend for himself and now you’re late.” Clicks and whistles that sounded like a protest came from Turaga Nuju as he pointed at Matau. “Hey it is not my fault we took so long-time. It was the stone head that needed convince-talk”

Onewa shook his head but did not defend himself, meaning it was true and he hated to admit it.

“Vakama… perhaps you were right to try and establish contact as soon as you did. Perhaps we have been idle too many times and I have become used to it…” to hear these words from Onewa, the most unbudging, unapologetic Turaga of them all, shocked Vakama and the others. He continues “We are Brothers still. Our strength is in our unity.“ Nokama takes Vakama‘s hand and leads him towards the others together with Whenua. “And United we will face this new world. You are not bearing this responsibility alone, brother. We will always be there for you”

Moved by this, Vakama could not bring out a word. The storyteller has lost his voice to sentimentalities and failed to reclaim it, instead accepting the embrace of his fellow Turaga.

“I wish Pohatu, Lewa and Kopaka were here…” Onua said, touched by this display. Tahu wraps his arm around his neck and smiles, raising his fist to bump with Onua‘s and afterwards with Gali‘s.