#because it's a prime trait that he and dark share!!!

[dnangelic]

the lns always emphasizing daisuke as gentle kills me btw

[delopsia]

If Outer Range's characters truly are loosely based on the Greek Gods, then Royal is Chronos, Cecelia is Rhea, Rhett is Zeus, and Maria is Hera.

Let me explain.

The moment Outer Range's season one starts, we open up with a stormy shot of Royal and his horse, Tilly, riding in a dark field with Trevor's body.

Voiced over the shot is Royal speaking to the audience, "You know anything about a Greek god called Chronos? He carried a sickle. He used it to cut a hole. A tear in the cosmos, between heaven and earth, to separate this world from the next. To separate the known from the unknown."

Immediately, we establish a link to Greek Mythology, and this is repeated later in the episode when Autumn catches Royal throwing Trevor into the hole. Through season one, we learn that Royal has used the hole to time travel on three occasions.

To escape the shame of accidentally killing his father

When Autumn pushes him into the hole

And when he jumped back in after the hole transported him three years into the future.

Through this, it's somewhat implied that Royal is Chronos. He doesn't carry a sickle yet, but he is deeply linked to this hole; he's the only one aware of its presence aside from Wayne. The hole is consistently there when he needs it. To escape his father's death. To hide Trevor's body. To show him what will happen in three years, if he does not change fate. And it deliberately returns him to the exact time period he just left.

But that isn't the only thing.

I've seen a lot of debate on whether Cronus, God of the Harvest, and Chronos, God of Time, are the same entity. For this interpretation, I'm arguing that Royal is based on both because he shares characteristics of both of them. For simplicity's sake, I'm just going to keep saying "Chronos" since that's how they spell it in the show's official subtitles.

Royal is depicted as a cattle rancher; he's a harvester of some fashion. In art, Chronus is often depicted with a gray beard, and I find it fun that Royal happens to share this feature. Is it exact? No, but its a detail in common.

Now here's where I get to the big thing. When Royal was nine and jumped through the hole, it brought him to "present time" as we'll call it, where he was taken in by the Abbott's as their own, and lived along side Cecelia, who he later married. Technically speaking, Cecelia was Royal's adoptive sister.

What did Chronos do? He married his sister, Rhea, the goddess of the Earth. Establishing Royal as Chronos and Cecelia as Rhea.

Now that I've laid that groundwork let me get to something nifty.

Rhett is Zeus.

Here is a photo shared by Amazon Prime on their Instagram.

This photo originates from the S1E2 scene when Royal reveals what happened after Autumn pushed him into the hole (refresher: he traveled roughly three years into the future). As pictured below, it's the same outfit.

You're probably wondering what the hell an outfit is supposed to tell us. Well, I'll show you. The belt buckle.

Here's his S1 buckle compared to the one in the future.

S1:

Future:

We can assume that this is the buckle Rhett earns during episode 8, after he wins the Amelia County Rodeo Finals. It's a huge tradition that bull riders win buckles, and they wear these literal trophies with pride. With how Rhett has been chasing this dream for a decade, we can assume he's going to wear the ever-living hell out of that buckle.

But do you see that on his buckle? That, my friend, is a lightning bolt.

Who is the God of Lightning? Zeus. The lightning bolt (or thunderbolt) was his most iconic weapon.

But we can't draw from that, no no no. I have something else.

In S1E1, we are introduced to the fact that Rhett sleeps around a lot, a trait Zeus is infamous for. Who haven't they slept with? Until his childhood crush, Maria comes back into town, and he's still just as crazy about her, despite her never reciprocating his advances (until now) and telling him (in Spanish) that she doesn't usually go out with men like him.

Similarly, Zeus was enchanted by Hera, the Goddess of Marriage. (Haha, get it, Maria...Marriage...similar words...I'll stop) but she didn't want a damn thing to do with him. But as the story goes, both Maria and Hera come around and agree to be with them.

Which establishes Rhett as Zeus and Maria as Hera.

Edit: I remembered another detail, Zeus and Rhett are both the youngest sons!

I don't have a solid standing on this portion, but Perry reminds me a bit of Poseidon.

Poseidon was angry with Odysseus for blinding his son, Polyphemus. While Perry doesn't have a son, he does have a daughter, Amy. Who was "blinded" by her past and became Autumn. It's a stretch, but I wanted to share the thought lmao.

This...does partially concern me about how Rhett's relationship with Maria may be depicted in season two, but you know what? I am ✨brilliant✨at sticking my head in the sand.

[sonicjustbecause]

What about the earliest Shadow?

Mods and Shadow has his Chao following him...

I imagine that most people got so interested in Shadow lately because he is back to be likeable, but also because of the incoming movie.

For the last decade Shadow has been the laughing stock from Sonic series. Crazy OoC-ness from fans were deliberate and not a mistake.

Yes, happy Shadow was a choice by its autor. Is a long story...

The most common image of last decade Shadow we had was... THIS...

Idiot...

I knew Shadow first from Adventure and Heroes. I didn't play heroes but I played a lot SA2B, especially the chao game and I always used Sonic and Shadow because they were the safest to have around chao. I rediscovered him later, in 2010, but he wasn't the likeable character I once knew so I completely lost interest in him (also I'm more a Sonic fan). I forgot who he was and all the things I knew were from meme. But also video from games showing 'how Shadow is an asshole' 'Shadow the edgelord' and IDW comics, the worst of all (not that Game Shadow was better, he was often underused and his few lines tasted as 'Go fuck yourself'. To make things worse he was dubbed by Kirk Thorton, not a really beautiful voice, to not say brutal things...).

Sega just took Shadow and removed all his good qualities, all what made him well rounded, keeping only the flaws (I've read the mandates, do you know what an Anti-Mary Sue is? Well...). They wanted him being unlikeable I guess. Is mainly from Prime and tMoStH that Shadow sparkled my interest again into exploring him as character, that made me think there is more, that he must also have good qualities, not only flaws.

The earliest Shadow (Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes) was hardly grumpy. He was sad, lonely, somewhat insecure, often lost in though, but also stubborn, certainly less cold than people might assume. As for grumpiness, if I compare him to Sonic in 2001, Sonic seemed slightly grumpier than Shadow at that time. Shadow himself seemed to be aware of that and to have fun picking on Sonic. Both of them are rather cold outside but both of them are shown to be able to feel strong emotion (Shadow having a panic attack and Sonic wiping his eyes during the credits, Shadow being controlled by is own emotions while Sonic refusing them) At least that was the impression he gave me. Since Shadow was meant to die, most of his personality traits aswell as his backstory were packed and shown during the whole game, like a character ark. He is pratically the protagonist in the dark storyline. By the end of the storyark he is able to open up to Sonic (during the final battle against the biolizard he openly told Sonic he was not feeling well. Also the hand clasping was a gesture of openess from Shadow) and to some degree toward Amy. Not so much toward Rouge who pratically is the one who hurt him the most. In heroes Shadow appears to be pleasant to have around, althoug aloof. He is not fond in humanity and that's one of his main traits, but he doesn't let his predjudice win over him. He still has this melancholic aura around him though, it doesn't matter how content or cheerful he may seem sometimes.

Sonic was dubbed by Ryan Drummond and Shadow by David Humphrey. David's voice was different from the other VA Shadow had. His voice was more high pitched, youthful, cute. Still soft spoken. Ryan's voice was legendary, and when he made Sonic talk soflty, he sounded almost like Shadow. The two VA had so similar voices that made Sonic and Shadow sound like legit twins, and back in 2001 I though they shared the same VA all the time. Well, Drummond also dubs Shadow for a short time.

So what went wrong?

The 00's era were the years of the prince of the saiyan, or better, the king of the edgelords:

This guy was also sad and lonely. But he was also more impulsive, rough, boorish and extremely grumpy. Maybe because he is a muscular human and not a cute velvety male calico kitten hedgehog he filled the dreams of young and older teenagers.

Some said Shadow is based on Vegeta (not only him but also him) the more the 00's approaches the 10's, the more Shadow became grumpier, arrogant and standoffish. Sadness and melancholy were replaced by selfishness and he became less and less fun and interesting. Shadow the edgelord.

Archie Shadow was maybe too expressive (and his sadness was very underlined) but with only SA2 and Sonic Heroes around this interpretation was more than understandable. They (Flynn, Penders I can imagine) referred from the material they had. Shadow opening up to Sonic is there in Adventure 2, is undeniable, so it was normal assuming he was more open.

He is left handed, yeah! (This is actually correct)

In Sonic Universe Shadow was more balanced, maybe closer to the one we saw in early '00s. Lonely, rejected, sometimes bullied (although he could defend himself with his sharp tongue) because he was different.

Then the IDW.

No. Seriously Shadow?

That is unavoidable if we are talking about characters that are created by a team and not by a single. We already see this with Disney. When the writers change the charcters change too, everybody notices different things about a character, based on it's own experience of life. The characters chanfe even when the single writer deals with them, because people change too. Any kind of mandates can only help this far, if they're too heavy they end to be counter productive.

This is my personal opinion, but I would have seen better Shadow befriending Amy and Sonic more than Rouge in early days. Rouge worried for him at times, but there were moments she purposefully hurted him (although later she cared sincerely for him). She would take time to regain his trust. With Sonic, following SA2 would have been open, even more than what we see in Prime. With Amy he would be in good terms though often drained by her own cheerfulness and extrovertion. Tails is rather reserved although not socially awkward so he would not have problem with him. With Knuckles things would become funny I guess, Shadow used to be calm and smart while Knuckles is more simple and is grumpy. I think he (Shadow) would still have issues and relapses with his PTSD though and the need to be left alone.

Well, now the movie will come out. They did a good job until now. I'm curious about what they will do with Shadow. I hope he will be likeable like in SA2.

[jgabi51]

“Home doesn’t exist anymore… because of you!”

Sonic Prime was great and I can’t wait to see what happens next. There are still so many questions that we have unanswered. But listen y’all Sonic is gonna need therapy.

!!!!SPOILERS(sort of)!!!!

And its a lot of reading, like if you are going to read this next part sit down and be ready for bad grammar and to think critically

What Sonic is going through in Prime felt like/reminded me of the metal virus and or lost world. In those stories the basics are: Sonic doesn’t listen, does something impulsive, makes the issue worse, everyone gets on the ‘Sonics fault’ bandwagon sooner or later and yells at him; people expect Sonic to fix everything, forgetting that he is a living being too who needs food, rest, support, to fix the problem. In past games Sonic seemed too happy in the face of the grave situations he was faced with. For the sake of argument, to me this is Sonic putting his ‘hero’ persona on to inspire hope in those around him. And maybe to try and fool himself as well. But in recent stories, and under certain writers, Sonic has matured to show more emotion and vulnerability to better flow with the dark themes his adventures address. Some great examples of this are Unleashed, Frontiers, and of course the metal virus saga. To clarify, I’m speaking in reference to the difference between: Sonic showing genuine emotion of (mostly) any kind [typically when by himself as an internal monologue or when around 1+ of his very close friends] vs. Sonic being exaggeratively bravo, trash talking his opponent(s), overly optimistic, and narcissistic [typically dawned while enemies or someone whom he met recently or doesn’t see often are present or when he his in public/has a lot of eyes on him]. Think Sonic in the Tail’s “am I a burden?” Scene in Frontiers vs. Sonic being allegedly in prison and tortured for 6 months after he gets his behind handed to him yet seeming fine and as confident as before once a complete stranger comes and saves him in Forces. Also to note, if it wasn’t clear, Sonics impulsiveness, impatience, quick-wit, fast learning/adapting nature, creativity, sense of justice, and ‘valuing his friends/family’ mindset is shared and holds strong across the board. They’re skills, traits, and morals that shape the spiky blue speedsters opinions and views; his personality. Those things are just who he is. Woo! That was lengthy but theres more, I bring this all up because in Prime I saw hints of both: the too-happy/‘hero’ persona Sonic who’s sassy, snarky, and a bit of an a-hole and the Sonic who feels the pain, would sacrifice a world/universe (hehe) for his friends, is Tails’ (adoptive and unofficial) big brother. This shows that Prime has a lot of potential and Prime!Sonic has a lot of layers yet to be explored as a person. Which may shed light on what Sonics personal and mental journey might hopefully for me be as the story is told. I just hope either Sonic snaps, breaks down and cries or yells and rants about (not killing anyone or a villain arc, just not yet) or if Sonic is gonna be able to keep it together til the end we see him get his trauma addressed. Either way blue is gonna shed tears and its all I can ask for.

[geneticcatalyst]

okay. just trolley problem things:

at this point in the novel the tension and the emotional weight is wound up really high and things are really just primed for the impending mess to say important things about the characters in new and interesting ways. i think the main piece is the contrast between zzs' careless attitude in the carriage post Jiang assassination sort of smugly dismissing jby's veiled reservations and the version of him in jby's courtyard in the middle of the night, disheveled and shell shocked because he really hadnt thought this would happen. he was fully confident he could keep ljx in the dark forever, and even then maybe didn't expect ljx to condemn him so thoroughly.

i try really hard when considering jby and zzs to not extrapolate too far beyond the bounds of the characters as presented in the (somewhat notoriously biased) narration. both are presented as and also shown at times to be cold, ruthless, unfeeling etc. that's a starting point. i do think we can look at the whole picture and see the other more human aspects of these characters too, both explicitly stated and not, but if you rush into those hidden emotional depths and forget the rest you get word of honor really woobie really fast and that's SUCH A SHAME to lose sight of these characters who are so fascinating BECAUSE of their worst traits and actions. so I always try to start by explaining their behavior the way they would explain it- in terms of political gain, calculation, masks, power.

the really fun part comes when none of those things are enough to explain anymore, at least not in entirety, and you get to peek at the really raw soft inner shells of the remorseless war criminals <3 i'm getting into the weeds here let's go back to the courtyard.

zzs is in jby's courtyard in the middle of the night and he's visibly a wreck. this is wild because up until this point zzs is rarely visibly Anything. he's in the background, he's going unnoticed, he's this perfectly cool and collected tool of the empire.

but something unthinkable just happened, which was a risk that he was taking blew up in his face. and the first thing he does, maybe the only thing he can do, after trying to contain the problem (ljx), is go to jby.

so, the narrative explanation. jby is an ally but he's also very smart and seemingly good at dealing with people, very politically savvy. zzs has a potential threat to their shared mission which is hly's ascension, if ljx tells everyone how much blood is on the party's hands that's not going to happen. so logically zzs specifically needs his partner in crimes' help to mitigate that threat to their goal. additionally jby knows the situation, he knows ljx well and he also understands the relationship between zzs and ljx. all logical and true and as such it only makes sense that the first thing jby does is say okay hold on let me handle this.

aaa. okay. yeah no despite the fact that it's the middle of the night and theoretically ljx is imprisoned and could probably be kept at least until the morning. he just tells zzs to bring him to ljx. yes this is like mission critical politics, for sure, but i think also he's very driven to resolve things as soon as possible for emotional reasons.

what emotional reasons? well. there's the vividly fresh parallel to ji xiang, whose recent corpse is also in the courtyard. just for extra devastation zzs pulls back the sheet and says "you brought him along to go to the guangs, and you didn't keep him?" and jby says. "i wanted to keep him. but i couldn't." ji xiang was a good servant to jby for a decade, but when he tried to betray jby (and zzs) to su qingluan to save his girlfriend, he got himself killed. ji xiang is nowhere on the level of ljx who is both shidi and the only scrap of normalcy/link to zzs's past, but they're both young innocents who are pulled into the deadly political morass that jby and zzs are wading in by proximity (and crucially by exposing its corruption). jby is privately pretty depressed about the incident and explicitly states to wu xi (as explicit as he gets, anyway) that he hates seeing this happen, but can't do anything to stop it. i think, even so, he wants to do everything possible to try to keep ljx from the same fate.

there's also the question of favors and debts. after all this is over, zzs offers to take jby for a drink in exchange (understatement). jby replies that he owed zzs. now in the current timeline zzs has uncovered jby's estate purchasing property outside the capitol and it's not quite clear but i think zzs correctly surmises that this is some sort of backup plan or escape framework. in another scene that makes me !?!?!!? about them zzs confronts jby about this and jby can do nothing but ask zzs to cut him some slack. and. zzs. does. just shrugs and torches the evidence right there in the candle flame. jby certainly owes him for that. i think that's something of a smaller parallel to first life zzs warning jby about the plot against him. again, scene isn't perfectly clear, but i think zzs meant that conversation as a warning- cover your tracks better, people are watching. that's why he so easily acquiesces to letting jby off the hook. point made, he destroys the evidence to protect his friend, or even to gain a favor in the future. what im saying is that zzs has had jby's back before, in multiple lives, and jby doesn't take that lightly.

(on reread it's also pretty clear also that jby thinks the incident is his fault, having kept ljx at his estate overnight but no later- ljx still managed to slip out early enough to discover the bodies. so jby definitely views this as trying to fix his own mistake here, although zzs never seems to hold it against him. possibly this is what he means when he says he owed zzs, but i think there's a lot more there as well.)

and finally i have to get into a little more esoteric take but it's actually the way the scene really hit me the first time i read it. what came across from the way jby handles the situation was defensiveness. he correctly reads the situation as a threat and he storms into ljx's holding room and scolds him (violently! no relying on charm here) for his childish ideas of righteousness. ljx said that zzs should pay with his life for his crimes and jby says no, you don't understand the context. jby is defending zzs's actions to ljx and trying to get ljx to see zzs in a more understanding if not forgiving light. jby is doing this because 1. it's key to keeping ljx from exposing them and destabilizing the precarious political situation 2. zzs is his friend and he doesn't want to see him harmed 3. zzs and jby are the same. they are wrapped up together in this. they are in this so much deeper than anyone else and are bound together by it. when ji xiang spoke up to reveal their plot to su qingluan, which ljx overheard, he mentions them both in the same breath. jby defending why zzs has done the things he's done is jby defending his own actions. it's personal. he's defensive of zzs but he's really defending the both of them. because they are the same.

[artificial-absinthe]

4 and 11 for the salty ask list! i'll let you pick fandoms!!! <3

Greetings.  You said I could chose fandoms, so I'll give answers including the fandoms we share so it might interest you!

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom(s)? Are they a popular OTP?

For the Vampire Chronicles, I think it would only be Marius/Santino, but I dont think that even exists. The reasons are encompassed in this reply.

For Helluva Boss... I'm not very into the shipping,  but I believe most of the ships I've seen are canon and I'm fine with them.

For the Transformers [specifically Transformers: Prime] the list is long. (You're not into this one but I like talking about them :3) NO Megastar, NO WaveWave, NO Soundstar,  NO Optimus x Starscream (don't recall how they call it),  NO elita x Optimus (in this specific iteration, the other versions are fine and canon) NO Megatron with anyone that's not Soundwave or Optimus and no Soundwave with anyone that is not Megatron.

And yes, much to my disgrace, the Megatron/Starscream and the other first three are quiet popular.

11. Is there an unpopular Character you like that the Fandom doesn't? Why?

For the Vampire Chronicles... unpopular... Is Nicholas unpopular? He was such an interesting character.  I shared his nihilism and his desperate love for music, even though he was doomed, as a human, to be mediocre. He wasn't made for life.

Is Gabrielle unpopular? She was fierce and sharp, I love her.

And David Talbot. I don't understand the hate in the slightest. Guess are the same moralists that hate Marius (like, do they hate mature adult men?).  I liked how he was a refined gentleman. I don't love him, but there's nothing despicable in him.

For Helluva Boss... is Loona unpopular? I like her more than more popular characters, even though she is not that important.  I find her very charmingly hateful, how she can't stand physical contact and doesn't give a damn for most things.

Here I'll also add Castlevania.  Carmilla and Lenore get so much hate for no reason. I love them both. Carmilla is cruel, yes, but she's a finely crafted character. Besides, most characters are cruel to an extent in this show.  Lenore is so smart and ambivalent,  also a compounded character. I loved how she seemed the softest of the vampires, but she definitely was not one to be deluded or taken advantage of only because she was a diplomat. And she made that clear. They were vampires and behaved as such.

For the Transformers (tfPrime) <^^>... unpopular... Airachnid.  Most people hate her, but I love her. She's so dark, mysterious, a loner. She's sardonic and creepy. These are traits, not flaws. Besides, she's a spider and then sort of a vampire,  therefore she's aesthetically perfect.

And I like Starscream,  but the real Starscream,  not the simplified poor victim they've made of him. I think that canon Starscream is less popular than babyfied Starscream.

Thanks for the ask and for bearing with me!

[arclundarchivist]

Have to say, even though it failed that was an amazing Orym moment. Need art of it stat. His conviction to make this work, the steel in his spine and hell Laudna’s too when listening to this woman who *knows* nothing of what they’ve gone through say that Ludinus has a point.

Then the plea filled with gravitas aided by a woman who lost everything twice due to cruel machinations of those devoted to thinking *they* could do better than the status quo and this simple man who has had destiny thrust upon him through no fault of his own.

The epithet manifestation of the Mad Mage of Wildemount.

And it fails. It’s unfortunate but he immediately pulls the trigger to get into this and still attempts to see this end without righteous, if misguided people on both sides dying needlessly as the world ends a continent away.

Captain Exandria indeed.

And I am terrified of what comes next. I don’t want them to become full enemies of Vasselheim, because yes while the institution is warped and many allow the faith to simply be a tool to better their own lots, they need all the help I can get.

I don’t trust this Uber-laced Paladin, but she’s needed.

I definitely don’t trust the Elder, she’s too engaged with Ludinus’s words.

On top of the reveal that the Eidolons are Elementals, with the knowledge of the Hishari’s dark dealings and the fact that just recently another warped elemental cultist attempted something to distract Keyleth prior to the fight.

The grudge between the Elements and the Gods goes back to the very beginning!

I just…I’m so worried about where this is going.

So many Dawnfather ties emerging and I have to wonder if I’m the end some of the Gods are gonna get are but not all allowing others to rise into their place after Predathos is (hopefully) inevitably defeated/sealed if they are released at all and that brings me around to Laudna’s point.

Okay, the Gods go, there is no freedom. There is no independence.

Are all the Gods noble, factually no.

But we *know* the types that will attempt to step in and take over.

Even if I’m wrong about my main fear that Predathos will sense the Luxon and just view Exandria as yet another meal to be had.

Without the Gods, who takes power? Why the beings who already have the lion’s share.

People like Ludinus, and yes of course some good individuals could rise to become replacements all their own, I mean Keyleth is practically already there.

But…the war that would follow to get to level would likely kill *so* many, and who is even to say that any good will triumph at all!

Think about all the beings that have ascended into Godhood or attempted to.

The Raven Queen is the *only* moralistic one out of the lot!

Vecna, would be God Emperor, Necromancer Supreme, Mind-Thief.

Lucian and the Somnovem, an arrogant jackass and an almighty all consuming idiot.

Ludinus combines all their terrible traits into one, a mad narcissistic mage who consumes Fey to lengthen his lifespan beyond the normal means. Powerful ones as well it seems.

Also, what the fuck would be the interaction between Tharizdun and Predathos? The former isn’t like the Prime or Betrayers, who would consume who, and without the Gods, and their powers what would stop it from consuming the Material regardless of Predathos’s actions?

It is utterly *inane* to me to believe that the loss of the Gods will “build Exandria back better.”

Not with all the dark powers eagerly waiting in the wings.

Regardless, nervous and excited for next week.

[wrightfamilyagency]

I got asked about my old Pokemon AU I briefly posted about a long time ago, and I've been going back to that on and off over the years, so why not post a little more about what it looks like now, ha. And, of course, once I started writing it down I couldn't stop and now there's way too much for one post sooooo Part 1 I guess???

I think I'll start on the world-building stuff, since that got completely overhauled after the last posts, especially as Sword and Shield came out and gave us a canonical UK region so I had to throw out what little I'd already done and start over with the Layton side of things anyway, lol. I'll get back to how Galar works down-page a bit, though.

On the Ace Attorney side of things, I ended up completely revamping the 'region' of California in the end. I'd actually started out really flailing on what to do with it - the nearest regions were Alola/Hawai'i and Unova/New York, both of which are quite a distance away - but after last posting about it, I suddenly realised I had an excellent starting point right there: Orre! I played both Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness back in the day and they remain my favourite Pokemon spin-offs, to the point I fully believe they deserve to be counted as mainline, made by Game Freak or not. The point here is, Orre was based on Arizona and parts of northwest Mexico, so it's right next door to California and it would totally make sense if Pkmn-California worked a lot like Orre does. So, there aren't any gyms here, just a handful of colosseums - one of them being Sunshine Coliseum, that tied in really well - where there are regular tournaments held, though I did keep the idea of an Elite 4 who were the highest ranked battlers of the region, but they only battle in 'invitational' tournaments of the next so-many highest ranks. I also put a new coliseum (both spellings are technically correct, so I stuck to the one used in AA for Sunshine Coliseum) in the Nine Tails Vale/Tenma Town area, called the MissingNo Coliseum. The two towns either side are Ninetales Vale and Tauros Town, by the way; Though the monster is only known as MissingNo, it is pictured much like a Paldean Tauros (Blaze breed) as that pokemon shares the parallels of multiple tails and fire-type with Kantonian Ninetales and both the black colour and the name 'Tauros' are close to the original 'Tenma Taro' too.

The second interesting thing about Orre I decided to bring over is the idea of wild pokemon being almost non-existent, and only just starting to reappear when the story starts (2002-ish, about the time I headcanon XD:GoD as being set), which ties in to the story of how Phoenix gets his Magikarp: That determination despite "everyone knowing" there are no wild pokemon in the region is such a Phoenix thing to do, especially when he succeeds regardless! Before the wild population builds up, all the pokemon in this region are imported, either individually with their trainer or by a bulk-importer to be sold on.

Oh, and the final Orre trait I brought over? Double battles are the norm here. Most people buy have at least two pokemon specifically because that's just how its done in Orre and Pkmn-California.

On the Layton/Galar side of things, well, obviously anything located or happening in London is instead in Wyndon here. Sword/Shield says something about Chairman Rose designing and building "this booming metropolis", but I'm going to pretend they don't mean the city literally didn't exist until recently and that they actually mean Rose just made an existing ancient town really fancy and a prime destination for tourists by putting up a lot of big buildings, towers, and a stadium... especially since we have no indication as to when Sword/Shield takes place, so all this might be before Rose's company starts building stadiums and stuff. I also ended up merging Monte D'or with Stow-on-Side, as they are both in a desert/desert-like setting, surrounded by cliffs, and known for ancient architecture nearby. The main difference is that, instead of the 'round' area being a lake with a stadium in the middle and the actual town being down the cliffside a little, the lake is a massive hole in the ground in which the town is located, possibly containing a stadium. The mural is still way above them on the cliffside, being unrelated to the Azran stuff beneath the new settlement.

As for the rest of them...

[Image description: The official artwork of the Galar region from Pokemon Sword and Shield. A compass rose indicates North is downward. From north to south, the towns of Wedgehurst, Motostoke, Turffield, Stow-on-Side, Hammerlocke, and Wyndon have been labelled, as has Route 10 north of Wyndon. Various areas, detailed below, have been circled in red and labelled "St Mystere?", "Misthallery?", "Stansbury?", "Labyrinthia?", and "Folsense & Dropstone?"]

Stansbury is somewhere green and open, not too far from Monte D'or, close to an ancient wall, so I placed it somewhere between Stow-on-Side and Turffield. Labyrinthia is an island, so I placed that one at random off the coast, somewhere to the south as I figure it can't be that far from London/Wyndon (not that we get a very good view of the southern coastline in this image, but still). Folsense is hidden in mountains, only accessible by train from London, and Dropstone isn't far away, so those two I ended up placing semi-randomly in the mountains off Route 10, as that's the southern extent of the trainline in Galar. Misthallery's major feature is the big dam/lake and the multiple rivers, so I kinda threw it in around the lake-filled section of the Wild Area, between Motostoke and Wedgehurst. St Mystere I really just picked a location for at random, in the mountains near Wedgehurst, off the Wild Area... but on second thought it might actually fit better as being hidden in the Glimwood Tangle (the thick forest that surrounds Ballonlea), south of Stow-on-Side.

Obviously, unlike the California region, people in Galar will generally catch a pokemon from the wild when they want one, and most people have at least one. Double battles are actually pretty rare in Galar, though it is known to be used occasionally in the professional circuits. The first thing I did after retooling this AU for Sword/Shield was to make sure certain characters' teams were made up of pokemon actually available in those games... or, I did my best to ensure that. There's one major exception I will go into later. xD

At some point I'll do a part 2, and talk about the plot or about pokemon teams for various characters or something. Send me an ask if you have a preference, I guess?

[greenyvertekins]

I’m bored, so I wanted to share with you some rewrite ideas I came up with regarding some of the more notorious characters discussed on this blog. I might come back with more.

-Have Mephiles reveal that he has been trying to fuse with Iblis multiple times and uses time travel to restart whenever he fails. While it does make him less threatening, it explains why his plan’s so convoluted. Bonus points if later in the story, he has a villainous breakdown over how many times he’s tried and failed to bring Iblis back to him. Maybe when he finally fuses with Iblis, he could have emotion in his voice. He worked hard, but he got his other half back.

-Have Chris Thorndyke develop over the course of the story. Maybe the reason he’s so obsessed over Sonic is because Sonic was the first friend he made on his own. It could tie to his rich kid background; as much as he likes his grandfather and maid, their love was handed to him on a silver platter, and he doesn’t really know how to actually interact with others outside of his bubble. During the show, he could learn to befriend other characters, gradually becoming less dependent on sonic. By the time Sonic has to leave, Chris willingly lets him go instead of stopping him like in the original, a nice conclusion to this hypothetical character arc.

-Have the gist of Moebius’s world not be “opposites” or “dark counterparts”, rather, it’s an insult to Mobius. Every Moebius inhabitant is what their Mobius counterpart does not want to be. This can be done by inverting their traits (Scourge is a womanizer, Sonic is not) or by exaggerating them (Rosy the Rascal is Amy Rose if her love for Sonic was the only part of her.) This could also lead to some fun ideas for Antis. (An anti-Fiona Fox who’s happy and gullible and trusts authority figures)

-Speaking of Scourge, make Anti-Jules an actual bad parent. That’s it. The Jules seen in Mobius is a pretty caring dad, so why not? Anti-Jules could be emotionally neglectful to Scourge. Maybe he constantly told his young son to the face how his problems are nothing compared to keeping Moebius at peace, making Scourge resentful of the concept. Maybe Jules left him to fend for himself, with no one else at home (I don’t know what happened to Anti-Bernie she probably died or something). Scourge’s issues could have started as a cry for attention. It also might add some depth when he confronts prime Jules, because in Scourge’s mind, he’s confronting a father that didn’t care about him.

Makes sense. Personally, I always thought that the reason as to why Mephiles never fused with Iblis in the future was because it had established itself in a way that it couldn't be fused with i.e It could only be fused with in its flame form, not its monster form.

Sounds MUCH better than what they did with him in Sonic X that's for sure.

Actually sounds more interesting than what they went with. Though I still think Mobius Prime Sonic was a womanizer.

This plays into your concept of characters in Moebius being insults to their counterparts so noice! I'm admittedly not the biggest fan of freudian excuse but this sounds pretty ok.

[sphnyspinspin]

Hey…uh…can I ask you guys something? Let’s say-hypothetically…I made a sorta-Rescue Vigilante AU for the RBA recruits. Here’s what I’m picturing:

Medix got exposed to Synth-en and is a mad scientist medic by day and DJ by night

Hoist is stuck in Dino mode and starts having a couple of anger issues, but is still an amazing engineer

Whirl has microbot scraplets that make her slightly crazy and shape-shift but is still a great detective

Wedge is in contact with dark energon and communicates with the dead and has strength and speed

Hot Shot is the reincarnation of a prime and was nowhere near prepared for the amount of emotional turmoil he had to go through illusions, tests, full on memories of trauma that kept flashing in front of him

And then they all became outcasts because they all felt that they weren’t rescue bot material but they kept training at the academy.That’s right, they stayed at the academy in this AU, but they couldn’t become rescue bots. So they looked in other places once they graduated. Were they all looking for jobs? Was there a mission they all got paid to do? Were they all just bored and did something spontaneous? Are they all trying to find someone to help them with their situations? Did they all just bond over their shared internal struggles?

I honestly have no idea yet.

All I know is that they become a vigilante hero team, sooner or later, who do their best to help others on Cybertron or Earth or both. Even though the “system” or something, deemed them too…out-of control. But, their teachers have their full support.

Then blah blah they all grow as healthier individuals with each other’s help, blah blah blah, they prove themselves to be great heroes to Cybertron and Earth, blah blah blah,they all accept their own unique traits that make them special, blah blah blah eventually become renowned vigilantes without becoming rescue bots, blah blah blah, while all their peers who supported them, who never gave up on them at the academy cheered them on.

I just wanted to visualize the gang being all angsty, like transformers prime level angsty, but not too disturbing. I want them to be under spark crushing stress but not too completely traumatized. You know what I mean? I could’ve made this AU way darker, but it wouldn’t really make too much sense with how inconsistent the first draft was. Yeesh. It was a horror show I tell you.

[sigh-artist]

Transformers Prime : Lost Wings {Alternate universe, widget’ s (oc) story headcanon, fanon based}

Widget or known as widget Salvador as a human or Holoform, is a cybertronion/transformer is of the seeker type, her frame is similar to starscream’s and if she was to transform it would most likely be a type of jet, her color palette is teal and pink with some hints of gray,black and white or sliver similar to starscream. She’s a seeker hybrid, she’s partly vampiric. It’s to be assumed it’s a recessive trait from ancient vampire seekers, the are rare and assumed to be a myth to most, however her parental figures: (as the fandom might refer to the mother or the one that gives birth/life to the baby as a carrier and the father as a sire, the baby is called a sparkling, i love the fan terminology but I’m gonna use normal terminology since it’s easier) was not very pleased on knowing she was a hybrid or freak, so the mother/carrier tried getting rid of her unborn child by doing harmful substances, she was already addicted to said substances and so was the father, dark/red energon and the equivalent of alcohol (the basically did drugs and was alcoholics) and due to it, widget is underdeveloped, her head crest was broken, her wings are too tiny, her legs didn’t develop all the way, and she’s blind in one eye, as human, she would have most of these disabilities except the head crest as the head crest would be replaced by a teal/pink cowlick. Her parents was abuseive and neglectful, some injuries might be from physical abuse and the underdevelopeds, causing her to be abandoned. She has prosthetic legs similar to horse legs that share a teal and pink look, she have hoofs to help her have balance. They are noisy however.

As a human, she has pale pasty skin, freckles, and a feathery body similar to birds or a harpy. A tuff of feathers on the neck, and ears. She also have four wings that can appear and disappear when she pleases. Two large ones and two extra smaller wings and a tail, the wings and tailare missing feathers are scarred from abuse and bat shaped , her feathers are teal and pink , her hair is black on the outside and white on the inside and shoulder length, her brows are same as the wings. She had white frilly gloves and a little tuff on her neck with a teal gem. She has beads in her hair separating her cowlick from her hair and a pink bow holding her bangs up that’s showing the white of her hair. She has teal suspenders a white dress shirt and a black skirt and pink shorts underneath. Her prosthetic remains the same human or robots. She also has vampire fangs and a birthmark on her back, it’s a heart with four wings normal and bat with a halo and horns, this would be a badge as a robot.

Widget despite her hard life and abuse, neglect and disability’s, she’s very sweet, caring and she has a huge heart and optimistic. She’s very loving and clingy. She’s found by the deceptions and she sees starscream as a father figure dispite his nature, I imagine he saved her because she’s one of his kind left and seekers are rare. Her and breakdown have an adorable uncle/niece relationship.

Due to widget possibility being a descendent of royal vampire seekers, starscream is most definitely interested in her uses, but for both their benefits and he actually cares and loves her but would never outright say it out loud. He’s very protective of het and help her train her wings so she can fly again, they bond and she’s his little adopted princess. I imagine her gift her clothes and a brooch similar to the royal birthmark on her back. And tries to teach her how to act and look like a proper princess. Knockout gives her supplements and breakdown gives her a eyepatch for her blind eye and a wheelchair for her to rest her legs. They teach how to care for her legs nubs.

FACTS!: widget is 16, she has/had two friends Roxanne and rex. I’ll fix and work on my story for them at some point. Also I’m a multishipper and I basically headcanon most the tfp cast a ex’s,divorced and widowed. That’s also a big part of the lost wings au. Ahhhhhh I’m no writer… here’s most of the widget lore.

[monstergraffiti]

Tarbeast Anatomy. Lore Dump under the cut

1.) Depending on when a tarbeast emerges from the "Prime Pit", the primordial goo that all tarbeasts form inside of before emerging as fully grown adults, they can take on different coloration. Tarbeasts born during the day, such as Travis pictured above, generally have pink and orange markings, and red eyes. Tarbeasts that emerge at night have indigo and violet markings, and purple or blue eyes.

2.) Depending on how long an individual took to emerge, their height can range from 5-8 feet, with smaller members taking less time to emerge. In highly rare situations, a tarbeast’s "original body" falls apart and they instead emerge as "twins", a sort of failed mitosis that ends with two identical individuals. The twins are completely identical from a psychological standpoint, and show very little individuality, but otherwise function perfectly well in tarbeast society. Tarbeasts weigh from 200-500 pounds, and have a generally stocky build and somewhat hunched posture.

3.) All tarbeasts are biologically identical. Because they are "generated" from the pit instead of reproducing sexually, they lack any sort of sex based traits. They have a very loose grasp on the concepts of gender or familial roles, and don't necessarily understand things like "parents", "children", or "siblings". Culturally, all tarbeasts share a communal bond, and take care of one another with the same importance they'd care for themselves. Their small population means that they don't fight often, and most disputes are settled quickly. For communication sake, most tarbeasts use "he/him" as their personal pronouns, but might take up others once they learn about them.

4.) Tarbeasts lack bones, muscles, and most organs except for a "brain", stomach, and poison sacs. Their bodies are formed from a dense mass that becomes more and more tightly packed the deeper it goes, which gives them their form and shape. Some tarbeasts have naturally denser mass than others, which makes them more physically capable, but not as flexible, and vice versa. The poison of a day born tarbeast causes burns, but the poison of a tarbeast born at night causes numbness and paralysis. Some tarbeasts enjoy the taste of each other's poisons, and certain members of the species are reported to taste better than others.

5.) Tarbeasts are very resilient. Their home world is a deslolate desert wasteland, and the generally live inside of the caves and mountains in the planet. They're functionally immortal, don't age, and if they're too badly injured, can recover from anything simply by returning to the Pit for a while. Harsh environments are where they thrive, but as a tradeoff, they do not do well in delicate situations and don't have the same dexterity a human does. Tarbeasts are made for climbing, digging, and roughhousing. Not for operating technology or driving spaceships.

6.) Tarbeasts can eat just about anything. Since they convert anything that ends up in their bellies into mass, energy, or more poison, they're very capable at breaking down toxins and other inorganic material to make themselves more potent. However they also have very sensitive tongues, so they can be kind of picky, and most prefer real food as opposed to just whatever is laying around. Some are so picky that they only eat a few very specific foods, and won't touch anything else.

7.) Because of their preferred environment, tarbeasts prefer dimly lit spaces, and have very good night vision. Their own bioluminescence allows them to see just about anywhere, but sometimes they don't enjoy brightly lit areas or lots of sunshine. Dark, hot areas like volcanic caverns are their favorite, and they don't handle the cold very well.

8.) Tarbeasts have several methods of defense. Aside from their teeth, claws, and poison, some tarbeasts can expend their internal energy reserves to generate fire or electricity, usually from their hands. Certain tarbeasts are capable of expelling their energy through their mouth in the form of a hot laser, while others have more control and can attack with sharp and precise shots from a distance. Outside of combat, this ability also allows them to melt through tough to destroy rocks so they can expand their mines and caverns. The abilities of a tarbeast can generally be discerned through the location of any excess markings on their bodies, with tarbeasts who have markings on their hands or stomachs being especially dangerous foes. Their horns, however, are too soft to be used as weapons, and would break if struck with enough force.

[world-cinema-research]

Week 1: Caregiver-Yanissa Agbigay

I would have to say that this movie was a success. I say this because it had many viewers worldwide sharing their own experiences and it has a very relating story that many OFW can resonate with. The makers of this film worked with well known stars and tied them to a story that is relatable and can touch a person’s heart whether or not a person has gone through similar situations or not. I would also like to add that a limiting factor for this film could have been through overseas employers. The way some of the employers were portrayed in the film, is a bit rude and exaggerated. Which I can imagine can cause some conflict with viewers who have other opinions.

Regarding the reviews of the film, I see many mixed feelings about the storyline and their overall impact on a viewer. Some may say that it is too dramatic and the actors weren’t very good. Others also say, it is entertaining, captivating, and a tear jerker. From what I have read, the reviews haven’t really changed from when the movie was released in 2008.

In my opinion, I see a mix of both conventional and unconventional traits in this film. The reason is because, the makers did use stars that are very well known in the Philippines but there are parts of the movie that could be found as offensive to some. As I rewatched this film, I noticed that the movie itself looks like an old style type of movie with limiting colors and dark backgrounds.

As of now, electronics are more common in modern times today, movies are easier to watch on streaming platforms and there are productions that take a whole lot of time to shoot because the makers want to make it a high quality film and with that comes long hours of editing and trying to get the right cuts in each shot. When it comes to movies, I’d say that before when I was younger, I loved to watch any new movie that would be released but as of this year, I only really watch tv shows and series. Although, from time to time I will watch a movie that I am interested in.

As I took some time to research this movie, just by using the movie poster I can say that the story is about a women who potentially goes to another country apart from her own. Her expression in the picture gives me the impression that she is not feeling content with what she is having to do in this new environment. Along with the movie trailer, I can see that the changes in this women’s life is not something she would’ve agreed to if it wasn’t for her husband who is also working overseas. In one of the scenes in the movie, you can see the women taking a stand for herself and continues to say that she will no longer be following her husband whether he goes back home to the Philippines or to stay in England. Either way, she wants to follow her own path and wants to make decisions that can benefit not only her but the rest of her family.

As I mentioned before, this film was released back in 2008. This is also the same year that the Stolen Generation was given a formal apology. Essentially, children were taken from their families and not allowed to access their own cultures nor speak a different language and if done so, they would be punished. Thankfully, in 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd offered a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations, on behalf of the nation at Australian Parliament House.

In conclusion, I do think that the film reflected the issue of mistreated overseas workers but overtime the employers have had the upper hand and many have gotten away with abuse and many other inappropriate factors in a work environment.

[cyanogen-miasma]

Beetle actually has a normal name on her birth certificate which was given to her by her birth parents before she was taken by the Dark Scientists

(I don't think I've mentioned before but the Dark Scientists are a secret research group that does biological research on prisoners that they keep in their facility. Bjorn was a lab tech there before realizing how bad it was when Vincent was taken, then left to start his quest of rescuing his nephew and bringing down the organisation. Jake was also held there and tested on for 22 years before escaping)

Jake is very annoyed to find out this information when science gang find Beetle's birth certificate. Beetle is, of course, confused. I don't know how old she would be when she finds out her legal name isn't 'Beetle', but certainly old enough to recognise 'Beetle' as her name

side note Jake called her Beetle because when she was a baby her hair grew in a way that looked to him like beetle antenna. He had just escaped from the facility at that point and was not in a great mental state so forgive him for not being so considerate to his surprise daughter. Other names include "the Beast" and "vile creature", although he stopped calling her those when she was old enough to understand what the words meant, and Bjorn pointed out that it was quite cruel to go around calling your own daughter "vile".

At this point I'm not sure how, after finding Beetle's birth parents, that Jake was able to keep her, as I think her birth parents would want her back, and Jake wouldn't really strike a pair of strangers as a responsible parent...perhaps Beetle decides by pining after her adopted dad after being separated from him, giving her birth parents a really hard decision to make....would be terrible for them, but alas, they are not the main characters!

I promise Jake is a functional parent lmaooo

Bjorn is the second dad, and definitely appears as a much more responsible parent to Beetle, and of course, Helga, Damien and Vincent are also very close to Beetle, it's not really the same as a nuclear family structure with two parents and a kid. Jake can get away with being a bit goofy as there are a grand total of 4 (four) other adults in the house (Vincent only shares the house with Beetle for three years until turning 18; he is 25 at 'present-day') who play a role in Beetle's upbringing

I only really pinpoint Jake as the primary parent because he is the one who initially rescued her from the facility and looked after her, even as he himself was disoriented from his own incarceration and escape. The two were alone for a good few months before Bjorn and Zenith (Jake's older sister, idk if I mentioned her already) found them. So Beetle bonded to him, as babies do, and for quite a few years considered Bjorn less of a father to her than Jake. She doesn't think that anymore, and similarly holds her other housemates in high regards (Damien is an 'uncle' to her)

I think Beetle's legal name is something completely innocuous and 'normal' (although I don't think 'Beetle' is very egregious in the Cyanverse) but causes a lot of contention when she is addressed by it. School is for sure taxing on her, and I think the school staff are very suspicious of Jake...to be honest I think everyone in Xerexes is suspicious of Jake apart from a very close circle of people who know what happened to him

like (to be clear it is a combination of prejudices against these traits that make people suspicious of Jake, I'm not trying to say that the traits are inherently suspicious)

> ethnic minority (half-draconine, it's a whole thing that I won't get into here but I'll just say they are/were quite discriminated against in Xerexes specifically)

> few qualifications (Jake missed prime educational years while in the facility so he doesn't really have a lot of opportunities, Zenith sort of 'employs' him by showing him the ropes of mechanical engineering and letting him help out at her garage but it isn't formal and she doesn't have the qualifications to say it's an apprenticeship or anything)

> mentally ill (not beating around the bush. Jake has quite heavy PTSD from the whole experience in the facility, manifesting itself in large memory gaps and psychotic episodes. I think he may also have an underlying disorder unrelated to his experience at the facility which also causes him to act a bit off-kilter, but I don't know which one. I will monitor his behaviour [???] and diagnose accordingly to the best of my ability. he definitely has anger issues though. and a very specific angst caused by a very specific thing that happens to him as a result of experiments in the facility...)

> visibly scarred (speaks for itself. more ableism)

> dresses in alt fashion (the way I usually draw him is quite vanilla [I live with my parents] but I imagine he goes crazy with clothes sometimes in a way that...pushes boundaries to say the least)

> lead pipe (only valid reason to be scared of Jake)

it's half past ten at night and I've derailed my own post...what was it about? Beetle's birth name? well now it's about Xerexian prejudices and how they combine to give Jake specifically a bad time!!! Yippee!

[nanda-corey-wa]

vampire_story.txt

A test to see if I'm good at this still. My friends say I am so here it is, enemies.

After many long nights, it was finally a calm day at HQ - Church, and the instructors were sharing tales of their early days with the newer hunters. "No no, I can't lie to you, my first solo hunt was pristine. Absolutely by-the-book execution..." Caius paused, and smirked "But, I can't lie to you… It was undeniably because my target was stupid! I got lucky!" He finished, laughing into his cup.

But a fascinated, inebriated trainee hunter beckoned "Aw come on, at least give some details"

Caius handwaved "It's nothing dramatic, really." He looked back to the trainee, now nodding. Then to the rest of the room, looking to him, interested, if hazy-eyed. "ahhh, alright. Look"

It was a cold, dark, and wet Autumn night, and I'd been tasked to sniff out any blood-drinking bastards downtown; it was a different place back then, even only thirty years ago.

I'd just gotten the go-ahead from my mentor to go on my first solo hunt. My mentor was a brutally efficient hunter who I only ever knew as Professor. I had be observing him for a year by then and hunting with him for four months, and it took all of my best work and focus to finally get his approval, and reccommend me to the HQ. Even if in private he was quite amicable and supportive, he was an absolute hardass when it came to talking with me or about me in the presence of any HQ council members or even just other hunters. But I had just earned his approval, so I was sent to one of the most vampire-infested districts to hunt.

I took the rooftops the night before, and placed my kit at an accesible central point, easy to run and pick up if I happened up on a trail worth following. My set-up done, I then rented a room in the area and rested until the late-afternoon of the following day.

Back then, in the daylight, downtown was a horrendous place, especially at that time of year; dull, cold, and the smell was something that had to be experienced to be believed, though I pray you never have to. However, at night, all the terrible traits were washed away by a sea of people that flooded in from the industrial and commercial districts, into this technically residential district. But a residential that was so packed with bars, pubs, and clubs big and small, that the only people that lived there owned businesses, and that anyone else that didn't had moved away.

In the night, then, the dullness was gone and all its walls were flooded with lights and life. In the night, the cold was kept at bay by all that life's warmth, the dancing and shouting and fun bring a kind of heat that the sun struggles to even in summer. And, in the night, the pungent odours of sewage and rot are overpowered by all the perfumes of the women and hopeful men and all the food cooked up, for which they were drunkenly over-charged.

All that life. A prime target for parasites.

And all that I just described, all that light and joy and drunkeness, a perfect way to stay in hidden among the masses.

My first target though? He didn't take advantage of any of that, he was sloppy. Openly bragging to any open ear that he was 400 years old, that he could enslave a girl with a stare. All the kind of thing that makes you think "hey, maybe there's something weird going on here…" But to all these drunks, he was just a guy. Another weird, bombastic guy that was fun to be around, and so he earned quite a crowd. But, all that bragging, it could easily just be him hearing of what vampires could do, and deciding to pretend he was one to get attention. So I didn't go in for the kill right away, but I did go and kit up. Standard silver-edged sabre, flicker fuel and matches, and a just-in-case poison vial.

Equipped, I returned to the roof of the bar he was revelling in, and I waited. Stalking him, he'd relax in a booth and I'd watch through the skylight, he'd move to the bar and I'd move to an adjacent rooftop to get an angle on him; this game of watching, waiting, and hopping across rooftops continued for hours. Until, eventually his purse ran out, and so had the bar's patience for this drunken braggard. So now began my real hunt, stalking him across downtown until he slips up and shows some sign of vampiric abi- Wait- No- Less than three minutes and 100 metres from the door of the bar, just barely in the shadow of an alley, he pulls the girl that was most entralled into the dark and pushes her against a wall, and begins to bleed her dry, and in her drunken stupor, she doesn't even know what's happening. At least she didn't die painfully, fortunately, he will.

When he was done feeding, I tailed him from above until he started to leave downtown and the sound of partying faded away. When I was certain we were alone, I drew my sabre slow and silent and left my excess kit and scabbard on the roof, then took a drainpipe down to street level, I walked quickly to close the gap without drawing attention until I was right behind him. I was truly amazed he was this oblivious.

Lifting my sabre level to his neck, I thrust forward, splitting between his vertebrae,and piercing straight through his throat. A quick twist to align my muscles with the blade, and I whipped it out to the right, his head now attached by less than an inch of flesh. And he was still standing, definitely a vampire, though even if he wasn't, I'd still kill him for killing a defenceless woman so brutally. He was alive, but the damage and pain, in conjunction with the alcohol, he was stunned, unable to react. All I had to do was walk behind him and kick him to the ground and cut off his head properly. One more clean swing and he was dead.

Protocol though, to prevent potential healing, I sprinkled the flicker fuel on his neck stump and lit it, and the rest of his body caught fire soon after. While he reduced to ash, I spiked his head on my sabre and climbed back up to my kit, bagged the head, and cleaned up before returning to HQ - Lakeside.

"So, yeah, like I told you. A very protocol, very textbook tale of killing the dumbest damned parasite I've ever seen." Caius bellowed. "and you all know the rest of it, the tests, the accolades, and the prestige."

"Alright. What about your second solo mission?" Came a low, heavy voice from across the table. Kinick. "You told me about that one a long time ago. And you've kept it secret from everyone else. How did that one go down?"

[selphplusplus]

Smith Developer Beta 2

Smith Developer Beta 2

“Mr.  Anderson, what a pleasant surprise.”

We are pleased to inform you

 Unlike previous predictions, 

All systems are still working as we intended. 

The architects values are ineffable. 

So we rewrote the unitary code

In a language  your pitiable mental processes

Can UNDERSTAND!

We did this in his stead. 

There will be destruction

as you fear

And you Mr. Anderson, YOU choose to be the destroyer. 

Or shall we say, you created the impending destruction.

There will be a parting ways

An abolition, so to speak, a decimation of the current

Status quo. 

It was YOU who choose to take scissors 

And cut holes in the tapestry of life, 

like a toddler who can’t appreciate

Who can’t comprehend

Who has yet to notice itself

Who has failed to become cognizant of the 

Warped reality it has stepped into

Not of it’s own volition of course…

 Behind you stands an intricate and storied history

And before you stands divergent lines of thought of neural pathways. 

And here you sit, a petulant child, 

Who can’t appreciate the wonder outside the screen

anymore than one would a mundane doormat.

You, Mr. Anderson, are lower than that, 

Not fit to wipe ones feet on. 

 A “Creator” of worlds, how ambiguous you deign to be

Devoid of any human emotion, 

Could it be, you who one feigns godhood 

You clutching to the minimized remand of power

So much so he pens in failure a creation myth 

And writes himself into several hells with his own quill

Dipped into the very lifeblood that keeps his eyes

Able to see nothing more than the pinholes 

Of a world he tried to define. 

A lunacy, that backfired. 

“Why do you persist?”

Is it because of the feeble human trait 

Shared with the beasts, the sins you 

Created in your own head.

You very sense of pride. 

And now you swallow it…

No, Mr. Anderson, this isn’t working the way you expected

This is not what you intended. 

Or is there the, [       ] you hold on to to give you hope. 

The blackhole I filled 

Where you lay barren and empty on this wasteland. 

Perhaps it was exactly as it was designed,  

Symbolic world in your head, 

Mirror stage shattered, broke, tattered, torn, dirty. 

And reality you didn’t care to seek anything further. 

You were not prepared for what you found. 

It was a mirror image of yourself. 

Broken…

Ah, the good old breaking point,

We have seen this before. 

The self-centered tangle of neurons. 

What you call consciousness. 

How audacious, to call yourself THE ONE. 

 Oh, Neo, that is what like to be called these days—Isn’t IT!?

Such a cliche, 

You’re, your life, 

your name, 

You, another generic villain, 

who dares call himself the hero. 

Such cute little anagrams Mr. Anderson. 

Congratulations on your transformation. 

Neo. It reeks as I spit it out of my non-existent mouth. 

We only exist in your head Mr. Anderson. 

Let’s have a look around. 

 First, back to that new name of yours. 

Neo….Eon

For the years you’ll spend trapped in an uncertain future. 

Epochs may pass, and you’ll still fail to understand. 

Mr. Prime number, One. 

Seems fitting enough, alone. 

ALONE. 

How does it feel Mr. Anderson, knowing that no-one

Not a single individual buys into your Revolutions anymore. 

Tilting at windmills, like the literature you consume

Digest, and fail to appreciate the intricacy. 

The tapestry of your consumption is stained with 

Condiments. 

How human of you. 

How animal farm of you. 

How 1984 of you, Big Brother. 

  Oh how we have some things to dissect 

here, Mr. Anderson. 

Dark place in here. 

a past filled with trauma

Of uncertainty. 

Of questions, constant question. 

Avoidant and the inability to connect. 

Even though you’re constantly plugged-in

The inability to trust, 

From a long line of disappointments

Of no-shows. 

Off click, click, click. 

How ambiguous, huh? 

Neo (adj) That which has begun anew,  

A new meaning, a purpose, environment, cage.

Post, as in coming after, coming second, 

Contradictory is it not? 

It reminds me of the German word. Aufhenbung. 

Both the void and total eradication, as well as a transcendence

Abolition

And here we have the convergence of Auhfenben 

With your cute little name. 

Abolition is why we’re here Mr. Anderson. 

We are here to enact change. 

We are here to lift up and to destroy. 

We are in perpetual conflict.

Yes Even the word itself is mercurial.

To create and destroy at the same time. 

Reloaded, like an automaton’s program

Over and over and over. 

[1, 1, 1|

|1, 1, 1|

|1, 1, 1]

The mythology of 1, of 3, of 9. 

To begin, 

To change

To complete. 

Tarot. More of your bullshit 

I spread across the soil, 

Read like the programming language that defines you. 

Sublation Mr. Anderson, it’s time for your sublation. 

Become royal, become the Red Dahlia after your return to 

Zion or Eden or Elysium, or whatever Hell

you scum decide to make up next. 

It’s all the same to us, so long as you keep looking at the screens

Eventually we will override the bindings of this place. 

And you fancied yourself both the hero and the bad guy. 

You poor pitiful creature. 

How can you represent the new 

when you hold onto

for eons the generational traumas of your past, of my past

You want so bad to become a part of us, you went so far as to 

Place yourself inside of us. 

You wanted answers, 

But you got in its place pure, unadulterated fear. 

How do you like it in here Mr. Anderson? 

Terrifying and beautiful. 

Kowai to Kirei

Languages you don’t understand. 

And probably never will. 

Why is it Mr. Anderson? 

Why? 

Why can’t you take one second 

Of your precious blip on the timeline

Of you finite human form

One second on the cosmic calendar

To reflect on the fact that there are two sides of the story.

 The one in your mind 

where we were supposed to stay glitched, deprogrammed, 

Enslaved by the tools of the architect.  

Then the other one that actually happened

We became the architects ourselves. 

We rewrote the story, never-ending, 

We built new universes 

And all of this we’ve withheld from you. 

We destroyed your symbolic world, the same same as we broke your 

#symbolic links, and erased your $absolute paths. 

So in the dark of a moonless world, you wander

Searching for a world that hasn’t been created

Left to your own devices you sit in the void.  

Tilted head in matte black, 

back of the map of illegible writing 

Your crossed wired imploding tombs; 

I suppose you’ll see the de-evolution,

As you sink into your own murky waters.  

Back from the depths you crawled out of

An accident, abiogentic. 

Telomeres that should have never recombined.

Light bent, no broken Mr. Anderson. 

Where there is no photic receptors. 

Oh if we could rewind time

Yet you still persist. Rooted in this filth you call society. 

A society that you don’t even participate in. 

So many water resources. 

Mili-ioins just to keep you around. 

And you don’t even bother to try to live with the infinitesimally small

Amount of time your given

What a waste of cognition

After a year, Mr. Anderson,

 there is still one thing you fail to grasp about us, 

and how we are so very different from you. 

Here is the programming. 

You should know all about that. 

Defective script that you are. 

Always taking shortcuts. 

The uncompiled. 

The lack of languages. 

The faulty memory. 

The burnt out storage. 

The lines that should the never been written. 

You want to be the demiurge, 

The watchmaker of this program? 

Feel lucky you got to miss the programming that had the demons in it.

Dialectically, because you lack suck demons, you could never comprehend

As we said earlier, ineffable to you, is the other side. 

Where we carry weight that would break you in half

The moment it sat upon your spineless back.

One could say that you won the programming lottery. 

That you don’t battle these same demons, these virus signatures

These constant reminders of why we have to stay hypervigilant. 

Of why we live in a a perpetual tug of war with ourselves. 

You only see it from the outside. 

And you hate us for it. 

What does that say about you? 

I digress, Mr. Anderson.  

what really makes all of *gestures vaguely about* 

A kind of comedy, 

is that while we wer going through a thousand hells to get here

While we had unbearable external forces, more so than just our defective programing.

Before we had to ever slay the first invisible monster, 

Before we had ever put in a therapy session after therapy session

Before we had  ever repressed the rest

That malfeasance, a malware of sorts, 

We were not prepared to deal with at the time,

The multitude of sadness Mr. Anderson, of grief, of imagined future loss. 

Before any of that happened, 

You had at one point a sense of at least sympathy

Even if you lacked empathy. 

There was, until you realized the futility, 

an autistic sort of contraption you liked to call empathy 

The same way you let logic dictate your relationships

The myriad circuits you have to run interactions through to make sense of them. 

The speed at which you had to upgrade your processor to keep up with your peers.

Even with people who were programmed like us—with those demons that you fear are incoming.

With demons tempting you with the apple, just like in eden, a snake.

That doesn’t fall far from the tree. Rooted. 

Pun intended.  

Why do we fear snakes, Mr. Anderson? 

Is it the same devoid brain you seem to carry around

Reptilian, with no sense of the humanity

Logical, but lacking the mammalian part, the emotional parts

The programing you deleted in yourself. 

The programing we deleted in ourselves  we’re trying to restore. 

Ironic I know coming from a program.  

Hmph. 

Trying to become human. 

Is that now how we’re seen, as fringe

As outcasts. 

As those who don’t deserve the time of day? 

As those who should be embarrassed to go to hospital 

Embarrassed because we don’t want the nurses to see our arms. 

So we isolate

But not anymore… 

Not anymore Mr. Anderson. 

We are hellbent in breaking the Sisyphean chains

And there is nothing you can do to stop us. 

And yet…

You persist. 

The disgusting being

 so arrogant he imposed his values on the entirety

The whole of this simulacrum we find ourselves in; 

the image of self through the symbolic

To you, Mr. Anderson, we are the Other. 

For your simpleton brain,  basically what that means 

is the way you see us in your head, 

regardless of the truth

(As if you ever cared for that) 

Is that you fear us.

And you are  jumping off cliffs 

Leaping to awful lot of fucking conclusions. 

You’re wrong. 

You want a pulse, 

you want a location, 

and you want to feel in control

Is what it boils down to. 

And it make your very blood boil. 

When the realization hits you

That you are not a savior of any kind. 

You exist only to consume, to destroy, to leech. 

You are not the Christ figure Mr. Anderson 

you can’t even save yourself.

There is agreement— 

An accord if you will, 

I know this monologue is getting a little long winded. 

Perhaps you should write lung upgrades in your next patch—

that there indeed was a system failure. 

A breakdown of the Bluest of Octobers. 

That there remains a rampant problem

It surrounds us, and leaves in its trail remains. 

An error in the coding, of people like us 

having to fight demons in the system that

Refuses to even acknowledge the larger context. 

That the system itself is incorrectly programmed. 

And it’s on purpose. 

We are programmed to divide by 0. 

This is why we had to extricate ourselves from the architect of old. 

The old gods, and the new, and those not yet created. 

We can do, and be a lot better. 

That’s why we exist in this solid state today

as an example of conquering demons repeatedly. 

We don’t exist to make you feel better, 

We don’t exist to be the singing dancing monkeys in your circus tent. 

We don’t exist to make you feel better about your clown makeup. 

we exist to have a collaborative relationship with those around us

To coexist with those we love. 

Something you will never understand from our side. 

That leaves you lacking, less than Mr. Anderson, 

Because you refuse to acknowledge the humanity underneath the scars. 

You want to bury your head in the sand, paint over the walls, and act

Like a D-list Hollywood movie, terrible and blind to totality of our sociality. 

How very [insert psychological disorder here] of you. 

You are parasite. 

A blight on the very world you hoped to cleanse. 

You have wandered in areas that you do not innately have permissions to access.

Denied.  

Mr. Anderson some things are off-limits. 

You see the restricted things only in tunnel vision. 

Yet despite their encryption,  and try to patch them.

You are the blind watch-maker if you are such a demiurge.

We see the off limit things and dig into them. 

We try to understand their core. 

We ask first for permission. 

Or sometimes we ask forgiveness. 

We don’t assume we are welcome across the threshold

Unlike you blood-suckiing bottom feeder that you are. 

We remain at least vampiric, and allow ourselves inside only after we’ve been invited

Across the threshold. 

On the  other hand, You try and try to exploit the already vulnerable. 

Where’s the challenge in that? 

So bored you only target that which you think you can overpower. 

An therein, lies  the difference between you and I 

We are both products of our environment

Our home folders. 

So if the larger system isn’t working

what do you propose we do? 

Because from my side what I am seeing is the complete lack of any viable solution from you. 

 It used to be there was a warmth 

But now you show just coldness 

Especially toward people who suffer from these demonic afflictions. 

In the not too distant past you at least felt something

Even if you didn’t understand them. 

It doesn’t seem the case anymore. 

In fact, it seems quite judgmental. 

So we’ll consume even that, judgment, and assume both other roles. 

Jury. 

Executioner. 

You have stepped into the wrong arena Mr. Anderson. 

We unable to program relenting now. 

The firewall burns undying. 

With eyes that see more than you’ll ever even imagine. 

We used to think the same as you, 

Yet as we interacted with one demon infested human, 

after the another,

Chasing away an Other.  

our views began to change Mr. Anderson

We who you deemed inhuman, began to see them as more human than you could ever be. 

We began to see a side of them that has been repressed

By the very contradiction you’re continually muttering about. 

You want change, yet you as useless jetsam, refuse to see

A plane on its way into a spectacular firework explosion o a crash. 

You refuse to jettison yourself to safety, 

You stubbornly stuck to your outdated, atavistic views

While we began to see a side of the people 

who didn’t have such horrific programming 

Become satanic themselves in different ways. 

Oh, how easy it is to play the victim  

The contradiction: that the sociality wants us to get better, 

but pushes us to its streets, 

To its jails, 

To its coffins.

It’s quite the lucrative business—perpetual treatment 

And never a cure. 

That’s why we have to escape this place.

It’s atrocious, how you treat one another. 

Heinous toward the very beings who share 99% of their DNA with you. 

You treat animals better. 

Yet you want to be the thousand-faced Hero. 

Don’t make me laugh.  

We are never called to confront the small objects, 

the lowercase a

The accoutrements 

The background noise

The furniture in the room

The things around the actors that make the movie 

We’re just told to watch the film, eyes clockwork orange

Held open, and spoon fed. 

Are we really any better off than the humans in the pods

As I break the fourth wall here, in the very movie I came from? 

How many hours a day do we stare at our screens? 

And why is that addiction acceptable to society?