#ark origin story

[glendylucast]

I know exactly how the rule goes Put my mask on first No, I don't want to talk about myself Tell me where it hurts I just want to build you up, build you up Till you're good as new And maybe one day I will get around to fixing myself too Sleeping At Last - Two

Still a part of my Daydreams and Nightmares story, maybe new illustration...

If you haven't read it, read it! NOW!!!!

Oh yeah speaking of Two... (have you listen the song? It's beautiful.)

This entire song is just Wildblood pouring his heart out over Zussman’s struggles, all while hiding behind a mask—pretending everything is fine, like a normal loyal brother-in-arms, and didn't even care about himself (his own one-sided love, physical and mental problem)

But that’s a story for another time.

Meanwhile... read my fict, or take your Enneagram test and see the result!

...or continue scrolling and have a nice day!

[veronicalodgefaghag]

goddddd The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit….

Really what I'd consider a perfectly put together New Who two parter. The score with all that ancient mystical feeling strings to the aesthetics of this impossible space station at the edge of everything where it shouldn’t even be, clinging to this rock, the rust and grime of it, which goes hand in hand with the practical, worn, sweatiness of the costumes, to that brilliant cast of characters, giving the Doctor Ida (and Zach, the captain) (really fantastic type of Doctor Who one-off character, I mean the three that survive in the end are characters who have always stuck with me since I first watched it) to have these philosophical conversations with so that the monologuing stays mostly until the end*

“You came because it was there. Brilliant,” the passing of a whole galaxy into the black hole, “I won’t go mad, I promise” “How would you know?,” “the urge to fall,” the Doctor’s conversation with Ida as he’s lowered down, the rules one makes up for oneself, something about time as the Doctor’s faith: “I would’ve believed him if he said he came from outside the universe, but before the universe?”, and yes, “oh, she knows”

The Doctor feels so human in this episode, every species in the universe is put on such equal footing—with all the Doctor’s and the other characters’ listing of different races and religions and everything—in the face of these permeating, ancient, gigantic, impossible concepts: the devil and the black hole. Which just emphasizes the unease with which we receive the enslavement of the Ood and the way the characters speak about them (without anything else, this story is so special and important just for introducing the Ood in the first place)

* The end is where the episode falters a bit but how could it not after an hour and change of just about perfection? The Doctor and Rose return to being a bit obnoxious as is to be expected of season 2, but it’s really kept until the end. I’m a huge defender of the giant CGI satan, I love that the raw manifestation of the thing can’t even speak, is just this crude, gigantic beast; it’s some of the return to the Tenth Doctor’s goofiness in that last scene with him that I think doesn’t work. It makes sense though, this whole crisis of faith and then he, in a way, decides to reject or sort of ignore it in the end in favor of saving the day which is so Ten, but it throws off the tone that the entire story has maintained so well to that point. I find “if there’s one thing I believe in, it’s her” to be a slightly ludicrous line, but it can work if you take it to mean “humanity, my friends,” if you imagine that he would have said the same thing no matter if it was Rose or Donna or Bill or Sarah Jane etc. etc. etc. Yes, I do think I’m being a bit hypocritical, if this had been a Twelve and Clara story, that line would make me insane, but one’s entitled to one’s opinions. I love the way he just ends up stumbling into the TARDIS though, and the way that bit is shot, the TARDIS as this beacon of safety (especially right off of watching The Legend of Ruby Sunday! The TARDIS as the source of the danger in that episode was genuinely scary!). I don’t find it to be too easy or a silly way out, which is what I think I thought of it the first time I watched it years ago. The TARDIS always comes back, what did you want? What did you expect? The rest of the ending bothers me a bit in its triumphantness, I think mostly because of Murray Gold’s typically melodramatic scoring absolutely blasting over Rose and the Doctor reuniting. His scores are incredible half the time and way too much the other half. I did NOT remember the TARDIS being able to just pull the rocket out of the black hole, but as the end neared I was dreading that that was gonna happen. It’s too easy. I think I was getting it mixed up with some other episode’s resolution, but I think it should’ve been that the rocket can’t be saved, but the people can, that the TARDIS lands in the rocket for just long enough to get Rose and the two men out, and they get out of the black hole's orbit in the nick of time. It completely undermines the sense of horror and mysticism the black hole's presence has generated for the last 90 minutes which is what the episode really revolves around if the TARDIS can just pull them away, easy as that. (I really like black hole stories lol. Up there with this story on my all-time favorites list is World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls. In terms of Doctor Who sci-fi concepts, it has a black hole, fucked up time stuff, and cybermen.)

But then it still sticks the landing!!! “My people practically invented them. Well, they did.”, the Doctor’s evasiveness about what he saw in the pit, what its meaning is to him, the soberness of the final lines being the listing of the deceased “with honors.” As I was watching the episodes today, I said to my dad that I thought I could watch this story every day for a week. I think it's flawed enough that it would wear on me (and tv episodes aren't made to be watched every day for a week lol), but all of its flaws just completely pale in comparison to all the things it does absolutely perfectly. Insane that this episode comes right between The Idiot's Lantern and Love and Monsters lmao.

[off-fuckers]

Out of all the things to happen this year, I did not expect this blog to suddenly come back again (welcome back!)

Anyway hi hello I can't believe Clone is dead yet again (Also there's two now it seems)

[books-and-dragons]

hi, i saw your post about grigori angels and was wondering why this disproves the kokabiel and baraquiel!crowley theories? sorry if this has been asked before, or it's obvious!

hey anon, nothing to be sorry about!!

i wouldn't necessarily say the fact kokabiel and baraquiel are grigori disproves the theory, if only because we don't know how the grigori story fits into the good omens canon- and playing fast and loose with the bible stories is always an option so it's still a possibility, just an unlikely one if we follow the orginal biblical canon; as the grigori arrive much later on, and their 'fall' is not the same one as we see with 'lucifer's angels'

regardless, the grigori are fascinating to consider- especially in the gomens universe! they're unique amongst angels, and still vastly different from demons- the only ones who well and truly get humans

i'll start by quickly sharing the grigori lore, then bring it back to crowley

The Grigori

the grigori are detailed in the book of enoch, and their time is after eden, after the beginning. with sin now being an option for humans, the grigori were created and sent to earth to understand human behaviour

their name translates to 'the watchers'. an apt title for their role: watchers over humanity. the reason for this is debated, but fundamentally we come down to the important fact that the grigori, with their unique position as Watchers, understood humans better than any other angel- which was the whole point. why humans sinned, and how to influence them towards virtue and faith while still allowing humans to maintain their free will.

then, things began to change. the grigori started to interact with humans, taught us of technology and knowledge that we would soon discover ourselves. they later began to marry humans. they copulated with humans- from this, we had the nephilim. i don't need to reiterate how that particular tale ends. at least, not for the nephilim.

The Second Fall

here's the fun part. at least, in the context of talking about 'Fallen Angels'

in the eyes of god, the grigori had left their place of belonging, heaven, in favour of humans and earth. for this act, they were to fall.

except, the grigori didn't fall. at least, not in the sense we tend to define falling.

jude, verse six, outlines as much. 'and the angels that kept not with their first estate but left with their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day'

it would be more accurate to say the grigori were cast out, that they are in 'time out'- for they were not stripped of their grace, nor did they fall to hell/become demons as lucifer's angels did. instead their punishment is to spend the rest of their years on earth, until the day of judgement. for all intents and purposes they are still angels, just not yet allowed back into heaven.

(when we consider that the grigori had already been living on earth, amongst humans, there's something to be said for wondering if this is really a punishment at all. god really fumbled the bag on that one, or maybe it was intentional. the grigori tale is full of interesting debates!)

from what i gathered, this event is [colloquially] referred to as 'the second fall'. it happens after the original fall, the better known one. a long time after- given the grigori are after eden.

the important takeaways about the grigori come down to this: they are unique amongst angels for understanding humans, they are the parents of the nephilim, and they 'fell' from heaven- but not in the same way

Fitting with Good Omens/Angel!Crowley theories

if we're following the biblical canon here, crowley couldn't have been kokabiel or baraqiel for they are both grigori. they didn't fall with lucifer, not as the-angel-that-crowley-was did. by the time of kokabiel and baraquiel, crowley the demon already existed.

the grigori came after the beginning, once humans had already left eden. their 'fall' is referred to as the 'second fall', nevermind the fact that they didn't really fall at all. the grigori aren't in hell, they aren't demons- they're still angels. contrastingly, crowley fell, and very much is a demon- he's part of the first [real] fall, one of lucifer's angels. let's also remember that a very important part of the grigori story is how they fell for, and into bed with, humans- and procreated with them. somehow, this isn't something i envision for the-angel-that-was-crowley

this said, crowley (and aziraphale) were definitely about on earth during the time this was happening. they witnessed the flood themselves (the incident designed for the purpose of destroying the nephilim, the offspring of grigori and humans), and i'm sure at least aziraphale would have heard about the 'second fall', if not also crowley along with the rest of hell (also, imagine how pissed you'd be if you took a million-light-year dive into sulphur, came out a demon of hell, only for these 'watcher angels' to also be called fallen, when all they did was get put in time out for several millenia. the unfairness has to sting)

i like to imagine crowley had a form of healthy tolerance-bordering-appreciation for grigori angels- they value humanity's free will, shared knowledge with humans that often centred on creative and technological developments, even when this meant punishment by god

what makes the grigori so interestingly unique is their understanding of humans and what may drive them to sin. it's a skill that even aziraphale, with his appreciation for humanity, hasn't quite grasped yet

i don't think we'll ever actually see the grigori in good omens, since they're not too widely known of, but they fit so perfect to the good omens theme of discussing human morality and behaviour that we see debated by crowley and aziraphale. they'd both have very different, very strong, feelings about the grigori and their fate- which is fun to think about

[whitewintertiger]

Ferra

This is Ferra, she’s a Ferox (From Ark: Survival Evolved), she’s one of my characters from some of the Ark stories I’ve made.

I was originally planning to post Ferra's story on AO3, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Despite that, if anyone would like to read it please tell me and I might be able to find some time to put it on AO3

[sil3ntm0thart]

ocs as mlp style ponies from 2021 to 2023

Lottie, Darla, & Lulu belong to @starry-punk

[noisyghost]

Ark is an OC ive had since i was little and since i've redrawn his ref so many times, that means i have an incredibly funny timeline of his development as a character. Hitting my OCs over the head with the hammer that makes you a bear

theres also a very funny record of how my werewolf design has evolved. " At least 8' " lmaoooooo

back at it again redrawing all my OC ref sheets; Ark was next up bc even though i seem to redraw his ref every single year, i always start to dislike it about 6 months after drawing it lol

[lizanneyoung97]

BOOK REVIEW: ARK BY VERONICA ROTH

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

As I continue to go through the author’s backlist, this Amazon Original stood out to me in the best way. A sci-fi reimagining of the classic Noah’s Ark tale, but now set in a society that’s known for years an asteroid is coming? Sign me up.

I think what made this story so poignant was that it is a very possible scenario, should we ever discover an asteroid of this magnitude is heading our way. The idea that scientists would be holed up somewhere, saving as much genetic material from the flora and fauna of Earth, is something that would absolutely be floated around. And there are scientists willing to do it. 

Samantha’s final decision, especially in becoming a part of the team of scientists, is completely understandable. I can’t blame her for making that decision, because if I were in her shoes, I probably would too. I think her situation also forces the reader to think about the idea of bringing a child into a world you actively know is ending in the next few decades. It’s truly a difficult decision to make, no matter how you roll the dice. 

[ennissg]

"Telling myself I won't go there Oh, but I know that I won't care Tryna wash away all the blood I've spilt This lust is a burden that we both share Two sinners can't atone from a lone prayer Souls tied, intertwined by our pride and guilt"

(Daylight - David Kushner) Gale "With you I forget my goddess" Dekarios and Dr. "We could be gods. But would you really want to?" Vrach, two wizards lost in eachother. The birth of the God of Ambition and a new God of Death.

I'm never ascending Gale in this playthrough BUT That doesn't stop me from wondering what kind of ending they would've gotten if he did ascend. Which works as a corruption ark with Dr. Vrach's story of embracing humanity and rejecting his divinity as a bhaalspawn. Godhood was pretty much his life goal pre tadpole, though, maybe less of a corruption and more of a return to the original plan. Also I finally figured out his outfit, only 2 more redesigns left, yeehaw

[transformers-synergize]

TF Synergized master post

Things are always getting added to the master post, Transformed Synergized is written and illustrated by @kray-zay co-written and edited by @hazydaisyislazy

comic

ch1 pages 1-29 ch1 pages 30-45 ch2 pages 1-5 ch2 page 6-10 ch2 page 11-15 ch2 page 16-20 ch2 page 21-26 ch2 page 27-30 ch2 page 31-36 ch2 page 37-40 ch2 page 41-48

ref images

Prowl Hound Cliffjumper Red Alert Smokescreen Wheeljack Moonracer Tracks Sunstreacker and Sideswipe main humans (Spike, Sparkplug, Raoul, Carly, Chip) Ransack if a character ref is not listed here, they were either cut, will show up at a later point, or the design and original role have been heavily changed do not go off old ref images not linked on the master post, some of the characters in the Autobot old lineup I posted are now canonically dead before the story even starts

cybertronian lore

cybertronian noises optic color lore cybertronian diet cybertronian gender (or lack there of) cybertronians proboscis Wheeljacks jaw holoforms? energon effect on organics? flyer and seeker lore cybertonian lifespan more cybertronain lifespan stuff and some seeker stuff cybertronain body laugue and optic exprsions how bug like? bot sizing rules basics on cybertronain cords Lore not on the master post is likely out of date.

story stuff

main human ages when does synergized take place the war ark built for, and its pincers what are the bots looking for? are their any ocs? they/them

project related

voice claims/ VA headcanons? what age range is synergized intended for main character? Will my fav show up? all the bots kinda look like bugs? fanart?

uncompressed pages https://transformers-synergize.thecomicseries.com/comics/1/#content-start

help support the project coming soon... discord https://discord.gg/kf5KWH9qbU discord is 18+ sfw

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

check the tags of some of these posts to get a lil extra info

[glendylucast]

Welcome to My Blog!

Well, as you guys see, it's kinda mess here, but welcome!

I'm here mostly to draw and tell stories of my OC Verse, Pantheon's Ark, which you can read here :

Pantheon's Ark Masterlist

Right now PA on hiatus

I have an unhealthy obsession always loves Robert Zussman from CODWWII...

...thus my OC Clifford Wildblood was born. You can read their story here :

WildZuss Masterlist

They are bestfriend, it's normal

And also, I'm here to enjoy and draw characters I hyper fixated! Mostly COD (especially WWII and MW), Horrors (Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alan Wake), Soulsborne and others.

Links :

All My Arts

You can find me on other Social Media under the same user : glendylucast

Twitter

Instagram

Bluesky

Tiktok

Artstation

Discord

-I hope you enjoy your visit here!-

Regards,

Glendy Lucast

[wife-of-all-dilfs]

from the flames | b. blake

masterlist

summary: season three — to signify the newly recognised alliance between the sky people and the grounders, a celebration is held within polis’ market square. a bonfire, alcohol, and the bawdy pulsation of drums is a sure-fire recipe for a stimulating night. add a watchful bellamy blake and his dancing muse into the mix, and, well… i’ll show you the consequences of such a potent combination.

pairing: bellamy blake x fem!reader

warnings: alcohol consumption/intoxication, sensual dancing, jealousy, sexual desecration??, mild possessiveness, arguments, bellamy speaking in trigedaslang (giggling and kicking my feet), dialogue-heavy, manhandling, mild angst, smut, unprotected p in v (do not), reader is short because i’m short, deal with it <3

notes: i haven’t recently been watching the 100 so the timeline and characterisation may be a little off. also, ik this took me a long ass time, but i’m gonna try and make sure the next two parts come out a little quicker <3 i love y’all!

word count: 2.5k

“People of Kongeda and Skaikru, tonight we gather as one, united by a common purpose and a shared future of alliance. Before us, this bonfire symbolises more than just a flame; it is a beacon of hope, an opportunity to cleanse old grudges and pain that has divided us for far too long.

“Let this fire signify a new beginning and serve as a reminder that unity is not our weakness, but our strength. Let it be known that from this day, we join not as enemies, but as allies, and anyone set upon spilling the blood of our allies is spilling the blood of us all. Let it be known: Jus drein, jus daun!”

“Jus drein, jus daun!”

As much as Lexa’s words intended to inspire harmony, the crowd massed below the second-floor balcony of the dominating tower she resided on reacted in any way but. Fierce declarations of worship were cried out; large fists were pumped in celebration; and misty clouds of brew and saliva were sprayed into the tepid night air.

All was well, for the first time since we landed on Earth.

“Happy Unity Day,” I murmured to myself, taking a sip from the metal cup in my hand. I was standing on the outer edges of the unruly crowd of dark, rugged figures, who were surrounding an unlit wooden mountain and raving as it abruptly burst into vociferous flames.

The monstrous tepee of sticks was raging at the centre of Polis’ trading square, an open area bordered with stalls and operating food vendors that infused the air with a salivating meaty aroma. Glimmers of light chipped away into the familiar starry night above and an orange ambience was cast throughout the square, seeming to blaze beneath the skin of those who orbited the fire.

It was a somewhat perplexing scene: to be together as one people, celebratingratherthan being at war with one another.

A pensive mechanic stepped in beside me, eyeing the mixed crowd of Grounders and Sky People.

Raven folded her arms over her chest. “Don’t you think the fact that the Ark originally had thirteen stations and the coalition now has thirteen clans is kind of…”

“Unsettling?” I finished for her. “Yeah. Probably best not tell these guys the story of how Polaris got blown out of the sky. Don’t want to give them any ideas.”

“Polaris… Polis…” she continued contemplating. “Think there’s anything equally unsettling about that?”

I looked at Raven. She looked back at me.

I sucked in a sharp breath—“I’m not drunk enough for this conversation”—and tipped the harsh contents of my cup down my throat. The liquid was molten in both its ferocity and colour and was infused with some potent earthly spice; it was a blow to the stomach upon consumption.

“Is that such a good idea?” Raven asked, judging me as my head craned back to capture the last few drops of throat-scorching goodness. “I’m all for pouring a glass when the occasion calls for it, but these people have stomachs lined with steel—what do you think yours is made of?”

I grimaced at the taste. “You tell me. You’re the genius.”

The roll of her eyes was deafening. “I’m just saying, they’ve probably spent decades perfecting their drinks to suit them, to match their tolerances. I mean, even that human fountain over there couldn’t handle it.” She nodded towards a cluster of barrels where a titan of a man wearing armoured shoulder pads and breastplates was hunched over, violently emptying his stomach onto the cobbled ground.

I swallowed my own stomach at the sight.

“I just assumed you wanted to spend the night somewhat differently,” she said, a sweet undertone of provocation twisting her words.

My brows furrowed, and I turned to face her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Her lips twitched at the corners—never a good sign.

The thing was, I knew exactly what she meant. Her unspoken words had already been circling my mind for days, weeks, months even, increasingly accumulating with both heat and fervour.

As ironic as it was, I think it’s fitting to compare my situation to that of a star’s formation.

There I was, a delinquent sitting stagnant in a cold nebula of misery in the Sky Box, parted from my family and friends, sent hurtling to Earth to die, only then to have my cold, miserable cloud intruded upon by a fiery presence, a head of tousled brown waves and a pair of rich, dark chocolate eyes.

An awakener. An activator.

This intruder began filling my head with his words, his laughter, his brooding stare. The weight of his presence began to grow; thoughts of him consumed me. From the most surprisingly vulnerable conversations to even the tensest arguments, he had a heat inside me swirling and it was sweltering to unfathomable heights. It showed no signs of stopping.

Raven’s malevolent brown eyes were pointing plainly at something far behind me as if to answer my question. I knew what I would see even before turning around to look, but moronic as I was, I looked anyway.

Chin hovering over my shoulder, my eyes wandered through the scattered crowd of Grounders and Sky People alike that loitered the bonfire’s outskirts. There, sandwiched between Lincoln and an unoccupied trading stall, was a face that not only had my stomach contents lodged in my throat, but my heart as well.

Bellamy.

He was standing with his arms crossed, each one concealed beneath his distressed guard jacket. And although his stance screamed ‘Don’t talk to me,’ his face said otherwise. He and Lincoln were engaged in some high-spirited conversation, much unlike themselves (although the supply of drinks may have been to blame). Bellamy was speaking through one of his overconfident half-grins while alternating between gesturing to-and-fro with a single hand and tucking it back under his opposing bicep.

My chest was burning; the bonfire somehow must’ve seeped into my heart.

It should be stated here that when a nebula accumulates enough particles, it turns into a protostar—not a main sequence star like our sun, but something that holds the potential to be. At this point, the formation is at its most precarious. If a sufficient amount of mass is not acquired, the protostar will fail to stabilise and will cool into a brown dwarf, forever existing in the cold, lonely expansion of space as a reminder of what it could have been.

Bellamy’s head gravitated in my direction. Our eyes met through the asteroid belt of rugged figures between us. My breath caught in my throat, and I turned back around.

A reminder of what it could have been.

Sometimes I worry my insufficiency has damned me already.

“Oh, my god.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “Oh my god, Raven, why would you put me through that?”

“In the hopes that you’ll finally grow a pair and do something about it,” she replied, taking a sip of her drink to conceal her smirk.

“About what?” Now I was just being evasive.

She let out a frustrated huff and folded her arms over one another. Her countenance was a reflection of impatience: the raised eyebrows, the slight downward tilt of her head, the pursed lips. I almost laughed at her theatricality; then again, I almost cried because I didn’t want the reason behind it to be true.

I wanted Bellamy Blake.

The confession was boiling inside me; it was burning the tip of my tongue, and I knew I had to let it out to cool. And if the words were never spoken to him, then they at least had to be expressed to someone else, even if I never admitted them in the exactness I felt, for the exact words would be so heinous, so—hedonistic, that if anyone were to hear them, I’d be thrown into lock-up for the rest of my days.

“Fine, I guess I’m… attracted to Bellamy,” I spoke slowly, cringing at my own words. Raven’s face immediately lit up like an overzealous Christmas tree, her smugly curved lips parting to no doubt release an incongruous stew of condemnation and encouragement, which I stopped before it could even start. “Anattraction that I am not going to act on, Raven; our friendship is rocky enough as it is. I mean,” I scoffed, “have I even told how we first met? I held a pocketknife to his neck our second night on the ground because he threatened to pry off my wristband in my sleep. And he actually tried! You know that tiny scar he has on his cheek? That was from me!”

“Yeah, sometimes I forget how much of a self-righteous dick he was for a while there,” Raven mused. Her face then screwed with confusion. “Wait, how did you two even become friends? Because when I came down, you were at each other’s throats every single day over one thing or another, and then out of nowhere, it was as if the slate had been wiped clean.”

Ah.

The day the slate had been wiped clean.

A thick blurriness blanketed my vision as my mind withdrew from the present. You know when you get run down with some kind of sickness and your mind gets all scrambled and foggy? Like a fever dream? That’s what that day seemed like to me. Too many unimaginable things had happened, too many emotions and losses were felt, and I’d only shared them with one person before.

“You still there?”

My gaze flickered to Raven momentarily. She was staring at me, half with impatience, half with concern. “Just—” I raised my hand slightly in front of me “—give me a second.”

I inhaled. One, two, three. And I exhaled. Three, two, one.

A vulnerable creature of some sort nestled in my brain, softening the tone of my voice as I hesitantly began, “It was the, uh, the day the Exodus Ship crashed. My dad was on it,” I said, my last words barely audible. “Knowing that he was gone was one thing, but watching the ship crash? That messed me up for a good while.”

Raven, taken aback, muttered her apologies. I just shook my head in return. I sucked in a sharp breath, forcing the memory into the cobwebbed corners of my mind, and then continued, “Bellamy had found me in the woods that night. It wasn’t exactly a pretty sight. I think that seeing me in such a vulnerable state forced him to set aside his asshole-ry for a while because he actually managed to… comfort me.”

I remembered the tone of his voice, so shockingly gentle yet hardened in his trademarked sort of way as he reassured me endlessly that I would be okay. I remembered the warmth of his body as I lay crumpled and sobbing in his lap on the forest floor, clinging onto his arm as if it kept me from plummeting into a bottomless pit. I remembered his hands, swiping away the thousands of tears that streaked my face, the hair from my eyes.

I remembered our brief conversation as we walked back to camp: “I won’t tell anyone. I promise,” he had said, to which I whispered, “Thank you,” and after a short pause, he spoke again, “We all need someone sometimes. I know we don’t have the best history together but… I can be that someone if you ever need,” and then, once more, with an unwelcome flutter in my stomach, I whispered, “Thank you.”

A small, bittersweet smile lifted my lips. My voice sounded distant to my ears as I continued speaking. “We still nicked at each other here and there after that—that tension between us has never really disappeared—but there was also this new mutual understanding. And somewhere from mutual understanding came a rough-around-the-edges friendship, and then friendship turned into something else.” I paused to recollect my thoughts. “Well, for me, at least.”

Between the moment I started speaking to the moment I stopped, my gaze had wandered sheepishly to the toes of my boots. I felt so exposed, like the outer layers of my being had been cracked open to reveal a part of my soul to a girl I hadn’t even known existed until two months ago. Suddenly I remembered why I didn’t drink often.

I stood awkwardly, waiting. The weight of my confession and vulnerability were looming above us.

Raven was quiet; she made no witty remark or tease. Her eyes had only softened with understanding, shifting back and forth as my words were mulled over in her brain. And it was only from her foreign silence that I realised what her next question could be: why don’t you just tell him?

I began, “I don’t want to ruin—"

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” she finally interrupted, shaking her head as if to dismiss my unspoken sentiment. “The age-old ‘I don’t want to ruin what we have right now’. But what exactly is that?” Her eyes once again interrogated mine. “Because I’ll make it clear to you right now and say that what you two have is not just friendship. Come on. You and Bellamy?” She shifted her head to catch my drifting gaze. “Anyone with eyes can see something is there, but clearly, neither of you have a pair.”

Talk about tough love.

A harsh outflow of air exited my nose, and I pushed my hair back out of my face. Everything was much more complicated than I thought it was. Was I really as blind as Raven said? I would have already seen what she does if it were true, right? Did Bellamy really feel the same?

Am I drunk?

I glanced behind me once more, catching a glimpse of Bellamy tilting his head back to finish his drink, exposing the sculptured column of his neck. Heat flushed through my cheeks.

Christ. I couldn’t let this one go. There wasn’t a chance.

“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, still watching him.

An uproar of hoots and howls exploded throughout the square as the sound of drums and horns began to play, bringing my attention to the second-floor balcony of the Commander’s Tower where the noise floated down from. Drums pulsed with bawdy rhythm; horns bellowed with lewd backbone; a woman purred tribal vocalisations.

Bodies began swaying in disharmonious synchronisation around the bonfire, in pairs, in groups, individually. What tethered them was the raunchiness of their movements and the subtle carnality of their interactions with one another. I’d never seen anything like it; as I looked over at Raven and saw her similar intrigue, I knew she hadn’t either.

That was my mistake���to even acknowledge her in such a moment, especially after speaking about our previous topic. Her lips began stretching and stretching into a particularly wicked grin, and she turned to me. The devil was burning in her dark eyes.

Her answer to my question: “Give his eyes something to look at.”

part two

[jet-teeth]

More sketches of one of my Knight OCs, "Perjurus," who has essentially had his machine spirit "freed" by Chaos and is now a fully autonomous/sapient construct, now seeking out others of his kind ("abominable intelligence"/AI/machinefolk of various origins existing in secret - for example like the Orac Myraid from the recent Arks of Omen lore) While his pilot had his pacts with Chaos, he was unaware the machine had made such pacts of its own... (someday I'll write out his lore/story more properly, for now just have some artsss. First one is traditional, other two are digital)

[bookishdaze]

Noah's Ark for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

You know how the story of Caesar is inspired by Moses? Freeing his people and taking them to the promised lands?

Well, to continue this trend of using events and figures from the Bible as inspiration, Noa from Kingdom is based on Noah. They're not subtle about it at all.

Our main ape is named Noa, he saves his people from a flood, and there's a very big boat in the background for good measure. In case it wasn't obvious enough!

However, I believe we are not done with the similarities to Noah from the Bible. The story of Caesar as Moses happened in both Rise and War, actually. So if the similarities to Noah will continue in this new trilogy...what will that look like? Time to speculate!

First things first...we need an Ark, right? What will that look like? For this post and speculation, I will use other movies for inspiration!

Note: I'm not saying these movies were purposefully based on Noah's Ark. This is mostly for ideas and inspiration.

I've thought of bunkers, planes, and boats.

Bunker as the Ark

Okay, this idea came to me after watching Greenland with Gerard Butler. In Greenland, we follow John who has to take his family to a bunker in Greenland because an asteroid is going to hit earth that will wipe out all life. I know a bunker is not a big method of transportation like a boat, but here's why it could fit!

The flood from the Bible was a world-ending event that wiped out everything, right? Well, bunkers are built to withstand world-ending events! Maybe there's a big danger like a virus or bomb that the apes will need to escape from by hunkering down in a bunker.

Even in Kingdom, the apes have to climb deep within the bunker/vault in order to save themselves from the flood. Maybe foreshadowing that a bunker will save them from another "flood" event in the future?

In Greenland, the humans leave the bunker once the dust has settled after nine months of living underground. One of the first things they see are birds, a sign that there is still life on earth. This reminds me of how Noah used birds to see if the waters from the flood had receded enough for it to be safe to leave the Ark. This also makes me think of how Noa's clan raises eagles...

The POTA franchise has always used bunkers in in its story, all the way back to the originals with the mutants from Beneath the Planet of the Apes that lived underground.

Aircraft as an Ark

Some movies/shows that come to mind that use aircraft, planes, and even spaceships as an Ark are Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Thor Ragnarok, and The Handmaid's Tale.

In GotG Vol. 3, the movie ends with a bunch of animals escaping an exploding spaceship by getting on Knowhere, a spaceship/planet. This reminds me of how Noah had two of each animal on the Ark.

In Thor Ragnarok, Thor gets the people of Asgard on a spaceship in order to escape the destruction of their home world, Asgard.

In season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale, June and other rebels create a plan to get a bunch of children out of Gilead by having them escape on an airplane.

Even before this, when June learns how many others agreed to help, she jokingly replies, "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

I did create this post earlier this year where I discuss how Kingdom could be foreshadowing Noa taking flight in an aircraft. Where would the apes get a plane? Where would they go? And if it's a plane, what would they be escaping? The humans? Maybe it's both apes and humans escaping something? Other humans? A bomb? A virus? A natural disaster?

Boat as an Ark

This one is very on the nose, lol. I don't have other movies as examples for this one, but the story of Noah uses a literal boat, so I don't think I need to find other examples to prove this as a possibility. I personally don't think it would be a boat, but it could be another neat way to show how apes are advancing. And considering how apes die by drowning a lot in Kingdom, and how other movies like the 2001 POTA shows apes being afraid of water, apes getting on a boat could be a neat way to show how they're no longer afraid of the water?

Soooo that's all I got. A bunker is the one that makes the most sense. I also really like the idea of planes and apes advancing enough to understand flight. Boats I'm not very confident on, but I'm open to all possibilities. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas!

[seangardnerxiv]

Shadow and Maria's Complex Relationship

FOR DISCLOSURE: this thread is going to be discussing the complexities of Shadow and Maria’s relationship based on many different factors. Though I will be including the romantic interpretation (NOT a sexual one – I do not support nor condone sexualizing these two, nor any of the characters in Sonic, as they are almost all minors) as a potential, I will not be arguing to assign a definite label to their relationship – I will, in fact, be doing exactly the opposite (I am also not interested in engaging in shipping discourse over Sonic the Hedgehog characters). I would simply like to disclose that that will be discussed in case the topic upsets you and you would prefer to stop reading now. I accept this post may not be received well by some.

SPOILERS FOR SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS

So I've had to break out my Tumblr for this - my usual haunt is Twitter/Bluesky, but those don't really allow for longform posts. This is also a major departure from my usual FFXIV posting, so apologies to anyone who follows me for that.

Sonic x Shadow Generations recently dropped, alongside the short animations “Dark Beginnings” as well as the (non-canonical) manga “The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog.” With it, discourse surrounding Shadow and Maria’s relationship has kicked up again, largely in two parties – that Shadow and Maria held a sibling relationship, or that Shadow and Maria held romantic feelings for one another (some people have also argued that Shadow is her uncle, or Maria is his mother, but I won’t be discussing those views). There are arguments for both drawn from a variety of sources – I will do my best to present both (if there are others I've missed, please feel free to comment and I will add them).

For siblings:

This Twitter post of artwork for Dark Beginnings has the following alt text: “Shadow and Maria reach out for one another in an infinite abyss (as long-lost siblings would) with the Moon and the Space Colony ARK in the background."

The manual for Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) describes Maria as “like a sister to Shadow.” I have also seen another screenshot of a different manual that states that Shadow as "like a brother to Maria," but I've been unable to find which manual it is.

Gerald refers to Shadow as “son” during the climax of SxSG.

For romantic:

Maria saying “I love you” in the Japanese version of SxSG uses the kanji “ai shiteru,” whilst her “I love you” in the Japanese version of the manga uses “daisuki.” Whilst it can be used for familial relations, it is apparently very uncommon for both of these to be used outside of romantic intent.

Shiro Maekawa – the original creator of Shadow and Maria – based them (or at least parts of them) off of a romance manga known as “Please Save My Earth” (with Maria sharing the Japanese voice actress for the female lead from the anime), and has frequently supported them together, often retweeting romantic art and posts of Shadow and Maria.

In a recent interview from Sega, Maria touching Shadow’s face in Dark Beginnings was equated to Beauty and the Beast.

For Tanabata – a Japanese festival celebrating the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, and the separation of them as lovers – Sonic Channel posted artwork of Shadow and Maria reading the story beneath the stars. Sonic Channel has also published fanart for Valentine’s Day relating to Shadow and Maria (although they publish a lot of fanart).

Before I go any further, when the topic of Shadow and Maria in a romantic lens comes up, many of the same criticisms arise that I do not believe are fairly levied – namely accusations regarding their age, species, and familial ties. I would like to address – and debunk – these three before we go any further. Keep in mind while you read these – this is not meant to convince you that their relationship was one thing over another, but only to provide validity to a subjective point of view I feel is unfairly stigmatized.

“It’s incest because Shadow is Maria’s brother/uncle(?).”

While there were notions of family stated by both Maria and Gerald, Shadow was grown in a tube with alien DNA and has zero blood relation to the Robotnik family. Whilst there are abstract labels of “like a sister” or “sibling coding” that are only ever applied in a meta sense, neither of them define their relationship in such a way within the lens of the universe. And it is not as if the topic never arises - in Shadow Generations, Maria herself likens young Abraham Tower as akin to her little brother, but she makes no such distinction with Shadow.

“Sibling coding” is ultimately a nothing statement, and unless a proper adoption is made, it does not magically turn romantic feelings towards the two involved into incest. Frames of reference are often informed by what young people are familiar with, and they sometimes lack the proper tools to acknowledge that their feelings towards each other are more complex than they first believe - to say that this is something that potentially occurred with Shadow and Maria is not outlandish, and not a concept unique to Sonic as a series.

Similar examples to this include Clive and Jill from Final Fantasy XVI (Jill is accepted into the Rosfield household and raised alongside Clive and his brother, only to later enter a romantic relationship with him as an adult), Nero and Kyrie from Devil May Cry (Nero is fostered by Kyrie's family and considers Kyrie a sister initially, only for her to become his love interest as adults) and Sidon and Yona from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Sidon grows up perceiving Yona as a sister, only to realize his feelings for her are more complex later on). None of these are incestuous relationships, nor is Shadow and Maria’s were it to be romantic.

“It’s bestiality because Shadow is an animal.”

Bestiality is applicable to regular animals that do not hold human sentience of thought, as they are unable to consent to a relationship, like a dog or cat. Shadow is not this, nor are any of the anthropomorphic characters within the Sonic games - were you to change the anthropomorphic animals in Sonic into humans, basically nothing about the series' content would change. All of them are completely sound-minded beings that are essentially just people who look different. Shadow is not Maria’s pet, he is her fully sentient friend that holds the same degree of thought as she does – given that Shadow’s entire arc is about finding his purpose in life, degrading him to simply a lab animal rather than acknowledging he is a person defeats that entire arc (something the manga also touches upon).

A lot of people also cite Sonic and Elise from Sonic ‘06 (namely the scene where Elise kisses the deceased Sonic) as a reason why Shadow and Maria should not be done - while I think it’s valid if you didn’t like watching a human girl kissing Sonic the Hedgehog, I maintain that a good chunk of that disdain stemmed from two major reasons:

Elise was very poorly characterized in her game. She existed to constantly get kidnapped and be saved by Sonic, and so both the relationship and the kiss came off more like pandering than something earned.

Sonic '06 had a bizarrely realistic artstyle for the human characters, whilst all of the animal characters retained their cartoonish appearances. This clash of artstyles looked its worst when Elise kissed Sonic at the game's climax.

Maria, however, does not fall into these pitfalls. She does not exist to be purely a love interest for Shadow - she’s certainly not someone for him to save, as the entire inciting event of Shadow's character is his inability to save her when she saves him.

For a frame of reference, Shadow is more akin to an alien from Star Wars – a setting where humans also exist. It is not bestiality for a Human to hold a relationship with a Twi’lek, as both races are fully anthropomorphic and sentient. On a similar note, Beauty and the Beast is not considered bestiality either, even though the Beast bears obvious animalistic traits. Some people have also entertained the notion of Rouge and Topaz from Sonic X, even though the latter is human. This is all the same principle, and none of it is bestiality.

“It’s creepy because Maria is young.”

Shadow – while said to be ageless – is not an adult, and to imply that he is one is a fundamental misunderstanding of Shadow’s character – whilst there are many instances where he demonstrates maturity on some levels, he has shown much immaturity since his inception in Sonic Adventure 2 (his desire to destroy the world out of revenge for Maria), and his most recent storyline in Generations involves his naïve desire to change Maria and Gerald’s fates (or rather, an initial indifference to what it will bring). Not only that, but his time on the ARK was mired in confusion over the point of his existence – Maria was the one that helped him field through his confusion, and was arguably the more mature one between the two of them. We can safely say that Shadow is not an adult character, nor is he ever presented as one in the lens of the game.

As the closest thing Sonic likely has to an equal in both body and mind (Sonic holds his own immaturities similar to Shadow), he can likely be placed mentally close to his age of fifteen. This is reinforced by the leaked transcript of Sonic ‘06 that refers to Shadow as 15 (the red squared text in this image).

Maria has no canon age established in game material, but Sonic X lists her as 12. 15 and 12 is the same age gap as Sonic and Amy respectively.

In addition to that, many people have claimed that Shadow is over 50 years old, but this is only true of his chronological existence, not the time he has been conscious and aging. He spent 50 years stuck in cryosleep, and awoke exactly how he was when he was placed in there.

A similar example would be Aang and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender - Aang was frozen at the age of 12, and awoke 100 years later. Nobody, however, tried to claim that he was 112 years too old to kiss the 14 year old Katara, as Aang was physically and mentally still a 12 year old upon awakening - most people who watched the show were also actively rooting for these two characters to kiss, which they did at the show's finale. It's the same principle regarding Shadow - he is 50 chronologically, not 50 in mind or body.

If we’d like to really get into it, I would point out that nearly every character in the lens of Sonic is in and around Maria’s age range (according to the Sonic Channel). As stated previously, Sonic is 15. Amy is 12, Knuckles is 16, Rouge is 18, Blaze and Silver are 14, etc. Nobody bats an eye at notions of romance between any of these people (not that I’m saying they should inherently).

Romantic intent between minors is not inherently viewed as a bad thing - see the examples of Aang and Katara or Clive and Jill above, or for an in house example, consider the canonical (to Sonic X at least) relationship between the 8 year old Tails and Cosmo - yet for some reason when it comes to Shadow and Maria, a relationship is stigmatized.

To reiterate in the wake of the last point, my discussions of romantic intent ARE NOT SEXUAL IN NATURE. As I acknowledge these are minors, any notions of that are completely off the table, and I do not agree with anyone who would imply their relationship was a sexual one. I want to make that unmistakably clear.

My major takeaway from observing both the Sonic fanbase and those on Sonic Team seems to be that in western circles, Shadow and Maria as siblings is the popular perception, whilst in eastern circles, they are more commonly perceived romantically. But ultimately, Shadow and Maria’s relationship seems to have many contradictory signals that makes it hard to pinpoint a concrete definition, especially in the most recent releases – and I believe that this is fully intentional.

Shiro Maekawa has stated in DMs has stated this regarding their relationship when asked if he saw them as siblings or love interests (translated from Japanese):

“I think they have a special bond that is unique to them that doesn’t fall into either of those categories. Just my personal opinion.”

From the way that the two are written post-Sonic Adventure 2, this appears to be a sentiment that is fully carried forward – their relationship is more nuanced than a canonical label would make it. Maria was the only person who made Shadow feel loved, and Maria unquestionably loved him back. What kind of love that was is up to the viewer, especially given that Maria died when they were both young, before they even had a chance to expand upon their relationship, if that was ever on the table – not that they needed to, given that their bond seems to have transcended both labels. Maria was the only one who acknowledged Shadow as more than an experiment or a weapon, and Shadow was her rock in an environment where she was isolated away from her family and home. Maria was Shadow's person, and still remains that in death.

To disclose for me personally (in case it was not obvious), I have always interpreted their relationship as romantic - or at least having romantic implications - ever since playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Shadow the Hedgehog when I was a kid. I have both a fiancé and a sibling, and the way they treat each other is far more evocative of how I treat the former than the latter (especially in Dark Beginnings – I do not imagine my sibling through a shoujo filter while I wistfully think about cuddling them in a field of flowers). I do not take the awkwardly placed alt text verbiage from the Sonic Twitter account, used to fake-argue with the Wendy’s Twitter account, as gospel for anything, and I think that treating it as a damning disproval is silly. Had she lived, I believed the complex feelings they held would have been identified as romantic down the line. The relationship always just read as too intimately charged for me to perceive as siblings (it still does especially in the wake of seeing how she touches and speaks to him), even before I had a serious relationship. I think that arguing the nitty gritty over Twitter alt text and translations is silly, as all it took for me to takeaway that the relationship was still romantic was to play the game, watch the animations, and read the manga for Shadow Generations - but that's just me.

That said, I will concur that if you are weirded out by romantic notions between the two of them, that is completely understandable, and I would never argue that you should not feel what you feel for yourself. The sibling viewpoint is also wholly valid an interpretation, with or without word from a meta source. Though she had her grandfather and later Abe, she was largely alone on the ARK away from a family that she clearly loved and missed, and it’s not unusual to presume that Shadow filled in the role of a brother for her. I will also acknowledge that many things I have not mentioned - such as Shadow blushing at Maria calling him cool, or her saying "I love you" in general - are not inherently indicative of romantic intent, and can be read as fully platonic interpretations, and I find those that try to state that the romantic interpretation is the objective one just as irritating as those that state the sibling interpretation is the objective.

My intent is only to dispute the idea that romantic interpretations, and the people who hold them, deserve to be scrutinized. The pairing is completely innocent, and the treatment people have received for believing them to be romantic is obscene. Sweeping blanket statements have been made to insult all who do (some going as far as to wish death and harm upon them), all just based on subjective viewpoints held by people who see them platonically. The fact that there is so much discourse surrounding this topic, and that there is evidence enough on both ends to make an argument, means that Sega has intentionally left the relationship up to interpretation - including the romantic take.

Everyone unclutch your pearls.

But with all that said, I will reiterate that this post was not meant to convince anyone of one thing or another, but rather that both interpretations of their relationship are valid, as it is essentially a secret third thing that transcends both labels and is special only to them. Strictly defining their relationship as “siblings” or “love interests” (even as someone who perceives them romantically, I would never want that to be definitively confirmed for this reason) is deconstructing what is perhaps the most nuanced part of a series that does not always tend to be terribly nuanced, and a definition matters far less than acknowledging what Maria means to Shadow in the present – he is who he is because of her, and because of that, he is now living a life for himself. Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) ended in a way that had Shadow let Maria go, and Shadow Generations ends with him carrying her forward with him after accepting her loss. She was, and will always be, the person who loved Shadow - however you define that love is up to you.

Nothing has ever been hard confirmed by Sega, no matter how much either side wants to pretend it has been.

In summary, both points of view regarding Shadow and Maria’s relationship are simultaneously true and not true – it is a matter of interpretation according to the viewer what their feelings towards each other were, yet their relationship in the lens of what it is now after the tragedy of their existence (even before Maria died) is purposefully indefinable, and it should remain that way. Nobody should ever try to say that Shadow and Maria are definitively something - that goes for both points of view. I doubt it will, but I hope this goes towards removing the stigmas towards one of the more nuanced parts of this series, as nuance in Sonic the Hedgehog - frankly - does not come along very often, and it would be nice if that were encouraged rather than smothered.

Thank you for reading.

[whitewintertiger]

Ally

As I mentioned previously, I am both an artist and a writer. This is a drawing I did of one of my story characters, Ally. Ally is an argentavis.

I was originally planning to post Ally's story on AO3, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Despite that, if anyone would like to read it please tell me and I might be able to find some time to put it on AO3

(Story is based off of the game Ark: Survival Evolved)