#astral trauma

[strangepersonthefirst]

So, I'm going to say something here.

Your astral trauma is fucking valid.

“oh but the astral isn't real, it's all mental” One, shut the fuck up why are you on this fucking blog

Two, IF IT'S HAPPENING VIVIDLY AND TRULY TO YOU, IT'S REAL ENOUGH AIN'T IT?

oh sure, my physical arms aren't being sawed off, but holy fuck does it feel like it!

A great majority of my trauma just comes from the astral, and admittedly I don't talk about it because I do not feel valid.

But I basically child soldiered myself. you found little 14 year old strange out in the battlefield, warping dead bodies and making it rain the blood of his enemies, alone because he was so convinced he was a monster for being a killer, and unsure how to grapple with that reality.

You found 13 year old strange fucking brutalizing gangs, trying to establish order in a 2-person child government as he clung to the only person he thought could help him.

You found 15 year old strange exhausted and angry, trying to stab anything that looked at him funny because he was a monster and everyone treated him like one, and he decided it was better to accept it than fight back.

Your astral traumas are valid. your astral traumas have shaped you. I know mine have.

[aventurineswife]

Hello :) I'm not very used to sending requests so I hope this is okay 😅

Can I request Aventurine with a teen reader who has a similar backstory to him but got picked up by the astral express instead of joining the IPC? I'm sorry if that isn't enough info but that's the premise. Have a good day and ty in advance

Life’s little gambles

Summary: The Astral Express crew makes a stop at an IPC station where you, a member of their team with a dark and strategic past, encounter Aventurine, one of the Ten Stonehearts. Aventurine recognizes your shared experiences and offers wisdom about embracing your new path while acknowledging the allure of your past. Your conversation leaves you reflecting on your journey and the power of choice.

Tags: Aventurine x Reader, Teen!Reader, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Conversations, Mentorship, Self-Reflection.

Warnings: Mentions of past trauma, Themes of loneliness and inner conflict.

A/N: I wrote something similar like this before too🤔, here's the one if you're curious about it!

(artist: srro_yo on Twitter/X)

The hum of the Astral Express served as a soothing constant against the ever-shifting backdrops of the universe. Aboard the train, the crew was abuzz with their usual activities: March 7th snapping photos, Dan Heng engrossed in research, Himeko brewing her signature coffee, and Welt poring over galactic maps. Among them was you, the newest addition to their family. A teenager with a past as jagged and raw as a broken mirror, you were still finding your footing among these kind strangers.

Your quiet demeanor and strategic mind had piqued their interest, but it was the fractured look in your eyes that truly bound you to their hearts. You’d shared snippets of your history—a harsh upbringing in a desert-like world, gambling with your survival, and the scars that came with being a pawn in someone else’s cruel game. Himeko had been the one to coax out these stories during quiet nights over tea, while March sought to draw out your smile through her infectious energy.

Today, however, the Express made an unexpected stop at an IPC station. The platform gleamed with opulence—gold-trimmed structures, bustling workers in sharp suits, and the distant sound of a roulette wheel spinning somewhere. It was there you met him: Aventurine.

He was hard to miss. Standing tall with his hair swept back, eyes scanning the station with a mix of boredom and sharp calculation, Aventurine looked every bit the enigma his reputation promised. He spotted the Express crew almost immediately, his gaze lingering on you for a second longer than the others.

“Astral Express,” he greeted smoothly, his voice like a velvet gamble. “It’s not every day you cross paths with one of the Ten Stonehearts.”

March tilted her head, a mixture of curiosity and suspicion evident in her expression. “Ten Stonehearts? That sounds… important.”

Himeko, always composed, stepped forward. “A pleasure, Mr. Aventurine. To what do we owe the honor?”

Aventurine’s lips curled into a faint smirk. “Just business as usual. But…” His eyes returned to you, sharp and knowing. “You… You have the look of someone who knows how to play the game.”

Caught off guard, you stiffened, unsure of what to say. It wasn’t often someone recognized the shadow of your past so quickly.

Dan Heng, ever protective, subtly stepped closer to you. “Do you know each other?”

“Not yet,” Aventurine said, his tone light but laced with intrigue. “But I see the marks of the same battlefield. Life hasn’t been kind to you, has it, kid?”

Your breath hitched. How could he see through you so easily? You glanced at Himeko, whose reassuring nod gave you the courage to respond. “No… it hasn’t. But I’ve found a better path now.”

Aventurine chuckled, a sound both amused and bitter. “Good for you. Most of us aren’t so lucky. Tell me, though—do you ever miss it? The thrill of the gamble, the rush of defying fate?”

For a moment, you hesitated. The truth was, you did—sometimes. The chaos of your past had been painful, but it had also been exhilarating in its own twisted way. Before you could answer, Aventurine stepped closer, lowering his voice so only you could hear.

“Let me guess,” he murmured. “They saved you from the abyss. But there’s a part of you that wonders… what if you had learned to swim instead?”

The rest of the crew had stepped away, giving you space to talk. Aventurine leaned against a railing, his gaze never leaving yours.

“I’m not trying to pull you back,” he said, his tone uncharacteristically soft. “But I know what it’s like to live with those questions. To wonder if you could’ve played your cards better.”

You frowned, crossing your arms. “And what about you? Are you happy with where you ended up?”

Aventurine tilted his head, his enigmatic smile returning. “Happiness is… a luxury. But power? Control? Those I’ve earned. The IPC is my table, and I always leave with the house’s winnings.”

You studied him, torn between admiration and pity. “That sounds… lonely.”

“It is,” he admitted, surprising you with his honesty. “But it’s better than being someone else’s pawn. And you—” He pointed a gloved finger at you, his eyes alight with intensity. “You’re not a pawn anymore. Don’t forget that, no matter how tempting the old game gets.”

His words lingered with you long after he bid the crew farewell. As the Express pulled away from the station, you sat in the lounge, staring out at the stars. Dan Heng approached, his presence steady and grounding.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

You nodded, though your thoughts were far away. “Yeah… I think so.”

And for the first time in a long while, you felt a strange sense of peace. Aventurine’s words had stirred something in you—a reminder that while the past might always call, you had the power to decide your future.

From the station platform(?), Aventurine watched the Astral Express disappear into the cosmos. A rare, genuine smile crossed his face.

“Good luck, kid,” he murmured to the stars. “Play your cards right.”

[whitehairandtraumatized-bracket]

White Hair and Trauma Brawl Round 1; Poll 50

remember, voting is based on swag, trauma, and favoritism!!

trauma and propaganda under the cut!

Trauma! 

Lady Maria: A noble born to a house of murderous blood-sucking decadence, she elected to join The Hunt, an effort to defeat the werewolf-plague running wild in Yharnam. However, most hunters were bloodthirsty and half-mad themselves. When word spread that a small fishing hamlet had apparently discovered the corpse of god (spooky eldritch god, aka Kos), the huntsmen decided they had to investigate. This led to the wholesale slaughter, torture, and ruination of the village, as well as desecration of the corpse. 

Lady Maria fucking killed herself out of guilt and horror in equal measure. 

In the vengeful nightmares of Kos's Orphan, Lady Maria's spirit stands watch, hoping to keep anyone curious from discovering those atrocities. 

Lotor: He’s got mommy AND daddy issues, he’s a former prince, the planet he was working with got absolutely demolished, and then he got banished, traumatized by bad late season plotlines.

Propaganda!

Lady Maria: She's almost universally referred to as a kind, gentle figure before the player meets her, with many of the lucid patients in the nearby research ward asking after her. 

Then, the player finds her corpse, throat slit and unmoving in a chair, she stands up and looms over them, instructing them, perhaps hoping to get through to them about the horrors beyond. 

"A corpse should be left well alone."

Also like, the style, the grace, the flaming blood attacks. She has it all.

Lotor: He’s purple!! He’s good!! He’s evil!! The prettiest war criminal you’ve ever met

[justuraverageweirdo]

Lil Pollux doodle bc I’m working on my art style againnnnnnnn

[soath]

the fact that the archheart took selena because he loved her and wanted to give her peace, and in the process left her suspended in an eternal static torment because he doesn't understand how something as fragile as a mortal soul works feels like a summary of the good intentions/bad long term outcome situation with godly soul custody. it makes sense that the gods would end up keeping some of their special followers! the first mortals to get in tight with the gods probably asked for it! the ego death of proper reincarnation is terrifying compared to staying up late hanging out with your buddy pelor. asmodeus and the hells aren't being half as kind about it yet the core motive remains—that hoarding instinct to keep what you love(or hate) and never let it go.

but you and i aren’t meant to be eternal. the kryn use anamnesis to ensure the continuity of self through endless lifetimes and they’re still losing themselves to it. selena was turned into a nighmarish human-faced star because the god she made out of metal thought that they could understand each other and she hung there in his domain burning, her last wish forever repeating on her lips, for a thousand years until he could release her. mortals don’t want to fully die and gods don’t want to let them go but nobody can stay in their frozen crystalline palace of eternity forever. eventually everything in the Real gets to change.

[piowasthere]

PIO

DROP ART OF REZ

AND MY LIFE

IS Y O U R S

Rizz. i mean Rez-

Buggy, plz calm down, i already own like 4 of your lives please- (both vers with and without the glitch effect, bc i honestly have no idea which one i like better)

also, my brain turned off here i forgot they talked smth 'bouta worm, i did not understood what they meant atm

i 100% stand behind the snake hc, but i forgot it for the life of me and realized way too late 😭

i promise i'll fix it next time- it'll be right- 😭😭😭

[illegiblehandwriting1]

my obsession with people waking up to start a scene in their pov is showing again

[thebiggestfuckgiven]

ihaveaproblemihaveaproblemihaveaproblem

the very few voltron fanart that popped up on my dash has brought upon me repercussions. I also blame my friends, who provoked me

anyways now im going down a dangerous rabbit hole… Voltron x DC crossover…

okay i know how it sounds, i do. BUT! consider this: Shiro and Jason Todd not only in the same room, but forced to work together. My reasoning for why these two characters should be obvious:

both have white tufts of hair

both have died

both have an alien bestie (Allura and Starfire, respectively)

Shiro has been cloned, and Jason has best friend who’s been cloned (according to Young Justice canon, at least)

I literally cannot stop thinking about this and i may start losing my mind over it. Like, there’s so much more, too.

Shiro, who spent so long fighting in gladiator arenas for the Galra, who killed against his will and lost himself in the haze of fighting. He spent his time with Voltron trying to be a good example and trying to get back to being the person he used to be. Someone with honor and justice and no unnecessary violence.

Meanwhile you have Jason, who has always been aggressive due to the way he had to live as a kid. He has always had a strong sense of justice; an eye for an eye. Then he died, and that violence got fed by this unending anger against the world (and Batman ofc) so he became all the more aggressive.

They would clash so much at first, with Shiro trying to keep Jason from hurting people unnecessarily, especially to the point of crippling them. Jason would write him off as a Boy Scout and get defensive/sarcastic.

But then they start to orchestrate plans. Shiro appreciates the almost clinical and really clever approach Jason has, meanwhile Jason learns that Shiro can be brutally efficient when it comes down to it.

There’s obviously so much more to go into but god, icanticant

i should write something. should i write something with them? ahHH

[fantomette22]

This bad boys can fit so much freaking trauma in it

[jediknightjameslunagazer23]

So, I've been thinking about easing back into drawing some Trauma Center stuff and posting it here again, and thus I made this drawing the redone astral realm attire Doctor James "Lunagazer" Kalveria, inspired from Aileen and Storm's Trauma Center Manga for how Derek appears in ancient Greek attire as an Asclepiad for some of the cover arts, I decided to have another crack at it from how I've done it the first time nearly 3 years ago now.

In this take, I intially planned it to be a sort of cross between Apollo and Artemis' attires as I did consider having James connected to two Greek Mythology gods, but I decided to stick with Apollo connections alone for him in terms of what I'm currently planning out his story arc as the co-protagonist of an altered version of UTK 2 alongside Adel Tulba and Heather Ross.

But the biggest departure is that unlike the Greek God he's connected to, James doesn't have a bow or arrow, but instead, he uses a sword shaped with parts of Apollo's lyre, as James would more prefer to fight in close range rather from a distance, and it also represents his want to be a strong protector of everyone close to him, hence the more Knight-inspired armor, making him kind of a mix of mage and Knight.

However, he also has winged boots as a not only a reference to Hermes and his connection with Apollo but also for another reason, as unlike Derek, James doesn't manifest energy wings when tapping into his power... yet, since he's still in training as a doctor, and the crown on top of his head plays a major factor in his own superpowers of enhanced vision, far stronger and wider than that of a regular medical ultrasound but it will be revealed when I get to my own take on UTK 2.

[kairukitsuneo]

When Pom-Pom spray you just as you abroad the Astral Express...

(I dint manage to screenshot the moment Pom-Pom spray me but here are some continuation after the spray below cut)

[thefallenangelsgang]

Last Line Challenge

In a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or however many as you like).

Tagged by @fablewritesnonsense

Fable you have got to be clairvoyant in some manner because your timing is scary accurate. I just put down my writing for today not even a half hour ago. This is the first time narrative has felt easy in months. UNFORTUNATELY THE LAST LINE IS SHORT AND NOT NARRATIVELY INTERESTING *SHAKES FISTS AT GOD*

From a unfinished maybe chapter of what could become my Baldur's Gate 3 Fic:

And reality comes crashing down.

(fuck it I'm going to post the incomplete chapter and link it here)

Tags (no pressure, I just really appreciate these peeps writing/art styles!):

@helena-bug @caesarflickermans @druidgroves @roystory4 @rosegardeninwinter

[seeinginthedark]

More things coming to me now , in this psychosis of mine :

I want to go back to the astral realm like fuckn ASAP. But the only way I can get there is through sleep paralysis. So I’ve stopped using because I remember the other times I’ve had sleep paralysis was when I going through withdrawals from the substance I used to have a lot of.

I need to go to the astral realm to confirm what is going up there . Yesterday someone told me that the matrix extends “ up /into” the astral realm, not just here.

How could this happen. It fits into my theory that A.I technology/the Artificial Consciousness has infiltrated our afterlife processes , putting us in these never- ending reincarnation loops. I can’t confirm this until I go to the astral realm and see it for myself .

So I’m grumpy and tired as fuck because I’m not using . I know I can’t just Willy nilly enter that realm on a whim, I need to go through the initiation first. The spirits and beings up there put you through some rough times to see how you handle it. A personal sacrifice has to be made, or surviving a trauma also can be an initiation.

Well once again , my lover, my husband, my other half has been put on the chopping block. I told these entities to leave him alone . He’s been through enough. We’ve been interfered with , again. He’s been removed from my life . That was the sacrifice. It’s sad . I miss him . We can’t see each other or he will get arrested. We had 18 beautiful, drug free months together. No fights, no arguments, no infiltration, no violence . Then a sudden personality swap , things whispered in his ears , paranoid thoughts and him lashing out at me. I didn’t even call the cops this time. It was my pesky useless mental health nurse that did. The entities know how much I love this man. They know what it means to me to lose him. That’s why they fuck with his mind, to get to me. To cause me trauma. Force me to survive it. Initiate me . Invite me into their world. Increase my abilities. Continue this on -going mission that I keep trying to complete, life time after life time. My soul is getting so tired of this. And I miss my Inner Earth home and my Inner Earth family and my Inner Earth friends there. It’s been very isolated for me here, on the surface of Mother Earth. It’s so fucked up how people treat each other here. So I have to push on with the mission.

It’s ok. I’m an alchemist so I know how to transmute my pain into something useful and positive. Pain has become my power. It is the gateway. But I hate seeing my husband suffer for it each time . Now he’s addicted again, missing us, not able to see us . Stuck in an addiction loop.

You know that addicts are truly beautiful souls deep down. They are important for this battle we are in. This battle for humanity and for our souls. They get stuck in addiction as it’s part of their plan, the bad entities. Who feed off the addiction and pain that goes along with it. I see addicts as heroes who forgot they were hero’s . Lost track of the mission.

I’m seriously sick of being messed with . I’m done with being trapped in this matrix simulation . I’m coming for the ones that created it and the ones that monitor us . I’m going to destroy them. I’ve known since I was a child we were being watched. I’m not paranoid about it, just aware. We won’t be enslaved anymore . Or tricked and deceived and used like batteries. Putting families through hell. Exploiting us.

Enough is enough .

[abyssalpriest]

Just woke from a fascinating AF dream where there was this sort of boat festival in a town where I lived and people would build boats to be in it, and theyd take around kids/teens from regional schools each year for the festival. My boat is built to work off singing, insert dream (and weird strands of astral) logic where when you sang it filled the sails. Specifically though I'd teach the kids this four line song from a mother's perspective that was basically:

O, (something), have you seen my daughter

Her husband (killed her and left her body at sea)

(cannot remember this line at all)

And so I deliver her his head

Literally just. this song about going out to sea with your daughters husbands severed head to throw it in the depths to show her sea-swallowed body that you got revenge. And honestly. that's the most Red Sky dream I've ever dreamt. There's been times she's been in my dream stirring up storms and shit and no this one? This teacherly captain who, each year, take on the teens from local schools who come to learn about boats and gets them to row by singing THAT song... fascinating

[buggoblin2]

might write a fic about my tlaes oc. idk im scared to show That Thing to the public

[idk-ju]

Crack outlander narwhal theroy has evidince now???

Okay so a while ago I made a post saying that childes trauma whale was an outlander/descender because of the reasons that whales are often themed around the cosmos and outer space and that there are whales on the space train astral express. But now I have some more evidence to back up the theory??(how did this happen)

it is stated in the nymph artifact set in Fell Dragon's Monocle "And before the dragon falls into the chasm that dissolves all things, he will think of the times he once spent with the hero. And at last, he will say: "Yes, hatred shall not fill me. I know that you have not seen the sights I have, and that is why you wish to stop me." "The star-beasts shall drink the amniotic fluid of the world dry. A hundred years from then, all life on its surface shall be wiped away.""

It is stated by the dragon as they fal into the chasam that dissovles all things(Primordal water) "The star-beasts shall drink the amniotic fluid of the world dry" I belive there is a russian tale that speaks of a whale called ivan that drinks the see now i belive that is the narwal and it has also been supported by the fact in the 4.2 livestream(Spoilers for livestream ahead.) That one of its attacks swallows up you and the sea.

The secound major piece of evidince comes agian from the the 4.2 livestream

With both the splash art and the attacks we can see the whale breaking through the sky and with stars comiing down simalar to the Travler desending from the stars. Again another connection to the travller is how themmed with stars they are star all around them breaking childes constallation there are not many othe charchters are. And in the english livestream it Sarah the Eng voice of lumine says this

This otherworldly litralley being descibed as not from this world, so hopefully we shall get and answer in 4.2 baby.