#changeling troubles

[eielaitsellensa]

wanhat, but it's silly-pathologic-finnish-au

[meowuff]

Fourth part of the "Changeling/Mimic Sky Kid Creature" Series

VALLEY OF TRIUMPH

Before we start digging into the Creechurs of the Valley of Triumph I have to add that I prolly had the most trouble so far getting a clear idea of what I imagined down on paper. If this realm seems a bit scattered or less deep it is simply because I had trouble converting my ideas into the rules of my own AU without completely going off track. I still hope my thoughts are understandable and you enjoy this chapter of the Changelings :)

The Valley of Triumph is a realm covered in snow and cold. To adapt to that climate the Changeling Creatures developed a thick fur and a general high resilient against low temperatures. I like to compare some features of them to the ones from polar bears, but I will call them “Snow-Kids” for the sake of it below.

The Snow-Kids sleep for multiple days to weeks in caves they dug deep under the snow, similar to a short hibernation. The burrows may seem unstable, but they perfected their building technique to the point where the hollow is as stable as a stone cave, unless an avalanche rolls down the hill (but this didn’t happen in a few hundred years so there is nothing to worry about). Each Kid has their own cave where they sleep in alone. Their social interactions with other individuals of any kind ends at the entrance to their hibernating cave, due to the risk of someone exploiting their defenceless state of sleep being too high. The entrance to their caves is very well hidden, not an obvious opening but instead hidden between rocks or even closed by thin layers of snow itself.

The Snow-Kids of the Valley of Triumph are quite playful beings. When they´re not hunting or hibernating they enjoy playing in the snow or racing down the hills together. Their thick fur is as white as the snow and keeps than warmer than any kind of clothes could. As a result of this, they are one of the few species not disguising themselves as Skylings.

Their hunting technique acquires them to blend in and be as mobile and aerodynamic as possible and additional protection against the cold is not necessary for them. They do tend to play around with the clothing and masks of dead Skylings, but only to humour themselves.

To survive in the icy cold mountains the Snow-Kids grew quite tall to produce and preserve as much heat as they need. If you see them standing from afar it may look just like a kinda tall hill of snow, their fuzzy outline blending in well with the flaky snow blowing down the hills. The average Snow-Kid is around a full head taller than the Skylings but they can grow up to two and a half heads taller if they are able to find enough food to fuel their growth.

Their Hands are quite usual, except for the fluffy fur covering even their palms and their retractable claws which they use most often for hunting or, if needed, digging through harder snow.

If they were to disguise them, they would look no different to those of normal Skylings as long as they keep their claws hidden.

Their feet didn’t develop any singular toes and instead formed into a flat, solid foot, similar to the ones the Skylings have, which gives them the advantage in succeeding high speed when sliding down the mountains.

Snow-Kids have small black eyes to protect themselves from the bright light of the sun being reflected by the snow. Nevertheless, may it be their eyes themselves or them still getting snow blindness, their vision is terribly bad. Most things they see are shapeless blobs, not being able to properly see any sharp contours. They find their way around thanks to having memorized every nook and cranny of their habitat and even if it may happen that they don’t see a wall they are sliding face first into, then the hit is softened by the thick layer of snow covering the whole realm.

Their mouth is filled with small, very sharp teeth, except for their upper canines, which are more pronounced and a lot longer.

Their diet mostly contains sky mantas and birds. When the spirits still lived in the Valley they used to regularly hunt them but since the spirits vanished at one point, they had to change their quarry. But with the Skylings traveling through the once empty realms again, they started to pick up their hunting games again.

When going on a hunt, Snow-Kids prefer to go in groups of 2 or 3 individuals, not only to keep the upper hand in numbers but also to compensate for their bad vision. In general, there are two ways for them to go about a hunt.

One strategy is to split up, one of them hiding under the snow in a higher position or further down in a narrow passage, while the others give chase to their pray. Even if they are able to easily outpace the Skylings, they keep a bit distance and instead herd them precisely to the one Kid hiding. In the right moment they let out a short high-pitched screech, signalling the hidden one to jump out and bring down the unsuspecting Skyling.

The second strategy is a simple chase down the hills, killing their prey with an accurate bite at their neck, their canine teeth bringing it to a quick end.

But more often than not, the Snow-Kids like to not end their game too quickly. They tend to only wound their prey, backing off and then wait for it to get back up and start another chase. The strong wind canals in the Valley cancels the flying abilities of the Skylings, binding it to the slippery ground of the snow slopes, inadvertently playing into the cruel game of tag of the Snow-Kids.

How long this kind of hunt goes on for depends mostly on the hunger of the Snow-Kids, as it can either end in seconds or can be drawn-out for hours.

In general, it can be said that one should not venture to far into the snowy land alone. If you think to see one or two persons standing in the distance you should stay calm and try to stand as still as possible, hoping to be mistaken for a rock and pray to be left alone. If you get lucky, you have not entered a region yet where you are unable to fly out yet...

Signs to distinguish a Snow-Kid from a Sky-Kid

no cape

no clothing

tall

covered in white fur

watch from afar

> Reference of the Valley of Triumph <

[innytoes]

Dark fantasy AU?

-In hindsight, as he's being chased through the forest, hunted by mythical creatures is not where Reggie thought he'd end up when his folks told him they were moving to Los Angeles. Honestly, considering how he used to roam the woods and fields near his Meemaw's farm, the fact that he'd stumbled into a fairy circle near the beach was almost insulting.

-It's not even that he manages to outrun them. It's that one night (he thinks it's night, though time moves differently here and light and dark are all tangled up and is the purple haze of the sky supposed to be dusk or dawn or just a dark stop of the forest?) he'd decided to just... give up.

He couldn't remember how long he'd been running, running from the pounding of hooves and the yapping of dogs that did not look anything like what a dog should look like. He couldn't remember a time where he wasn't hungry, or thirsty, or tired, but something inside of him just kept making him run and run and run

-But he'd had enough. So he just sat down, with his back towards the noise, and hoped they'll kill him quickly. And to comfort himself, he sang the lullaby his Meemaw used to sing when he was scared of the thunder.

-That's what saved him. One of the fae, Caleb, was so charmed by the song that instead of doing whatever it is they did with their prey, he bundled Reggie up and took him to his... castle. Dwelling. Domain.

-He was dressed in finery and made to sing as Caleb and the other fae danced and ate and did things that Reggie very much had not wanted to see, thank you very much. But eventually, they slept, and Reggie met... the other humans who were trapped here.

-Luke, a young boy who had run away from home to become a musician in 1875. He was distraught to hear Reggie tell him it was the nineties now. Even more distraught when Reggie clarified it was the 1990s.

-There was Alex, who had been cast out of his village for reasons he did not want to share, but that Reggie figured out pretty quickly when he saw the way he looked at Willie. He'd fallen asleep near a fairy circle, and the promises he'd been made had been so tempting, he'd said yes before he fully understood the deal.

-And then there was Willie. The boy who had been stolen from his parents, a changeling left in his place. Who had grown up here, a part of this world yet not really. Who did not know what the other boys meant when they talked about years, or America, or really the whole concept of 'family'.

-Luke's the one who tells them of their escape plan. Alex is worried they can't trust Reggie not to rat him out to Caleb, and Reggie is like: um excuse me I was just hunted for sport for who knows how long you think I wanna help that guy?

-But before he can Willie just tilts his head and says: his heart is pure.

-Which is very sweet but also a little creepy.

-Anyway, they do manage to escape Caleb's clutches somehow, and end up back in the human world.

-Being yeeted out of a little ring of mushrooms in the soil of a plant Ray overwatered in the big plant wall of the Molina studio was not particularly pleasant, okay. Considering a real human should not be able to fit through that. But Willie explained that as soon as a fairy portal grew, it was only a manner of time that the fairies would notice it and stake it out to see what they could lure to their realm.

-Somehow, Luke and Alex get thrown clear across the room, Luke slamming against the door, Alex dropping onto the concrete floor.

-Reggie's not sure if him crashing against a pretty wooden piano is better or worse. The sound it made was definitely worse.

-Somehow, Willie ends up sitting crosslegged on the little piano bench, and he turns and quickly crushes up the mushrooms to destroy the portal.

-Julie, of course, is screaming, Alex and Luke and Reggie are screaming. Willie is trying to explain to Julie she over-watered her fern and pouts when she runs away.

-No they're not ghosts but they are changed and they all have weird powers. Luke nearly cries with joy that he can still summon his guitar. Alex is really not okay with this whole 'walking through walls' thing. Reggie is sad he cannot summon a puppy or a pizza.

-Willie can teleport short distances and is shocked to learn humans can't just do that? You have to walk everywhere? Or ride a horse. What's a car? What's roller skates? He needs to see one of these skateboad things immediately, let's summon the human girl back to ask for one. What can they trade for a skateboard?

-They're kind of freaked out at the whole 2020 thing, but hey, Reggie's like: at least it hasn't been a hundred years like when I told Luke about the 90s.

-Queue canon but it's even worse and more chaotic.

[postsfromtheportalfuture]

(sorry I don't know how to format this in any way)

Snowonwinter asked onesmallstep

So, did you ever find out what the Changelings thing was about? I'm looking at doing pre history next year, and will be heading to earth for my foundation year - is that something I need to know about? I can't find any information by searching.

onesmallstep:

buddy, i have learned enough about changelings and runners in the past week to give me nightmares for a lifetime.

from what i can gather based on the helpful links that other users on this site have sent me, it's a topic that's not very well known outside of Earth, and it's not going to be covered in your foundation course, if that's what you're asking.

that being said, i do think it's something that people in every sector should learn about, ESPECIALLY history and medical students who are coming to Earth for their studies. it's one of truly dark parts of human history, but it's something that Earth children have to come to terms with at a very young age, something that continues to affect them to this day, and as guests on their planet the least we can do to show them proper respect as our hosts is to not turn a blind eye to all the terrible things that have been done to them.

[HERE] is a helpful link from University Earth America, for an article titled "Changelings and Runners: How a centuries-old tragedy continues to affect the children of today"

trigger warnings for: child abduction, murder, generational trauma, genocide, systemic discrimination, dehumanisation

#changelings and runners #cw changelings and runners #history #offworlder

[roraimae]

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: James Kirk

By Ames

We’re starting a new blog collection here on A Star the Steer Her By in which we’re shining the spotlight on each main character, series by series. It’s mostly so I don’t have to think of new topics every week, but it will also be a fun time to consider our favorite moments from all our Starfleet friends, and also some moments in which they don’t come out so shining.

Of course, we’re kicking it off with the man himself, Captain James Tiberius Kirk! He’s the model captain in a lot of ways, helped by the fact that he’s the first one we really get to meet and see as a fully realized character. He swashbuckles. He kisses SO many women. He juliennes fries. He does it all! Join us below and in this week's podcast discussion (Shat Chat starts at 1:08:30) as we boldly go with the biggest name in Trek.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best Moments

Leave any bigotry in your quarters In the season 1 episode “Balance of Terror,” Kirk shows us the kind of forward-thinking, inclusive captain he is, telling Stiles, “Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the bridge.” It’s good to see our heroes making anti-racist statements like this, whether that be back in the 60s or today.

The advanced trait of mercy By refusing to kill the Gorn in “Arena,” Kirk impressed both the Metron and the viewers by showing that compassion and belief in the right to coexist can trump hate and war. These lizard-faced bullies may be our enemy, but Kirk reveals that deep down under that rubber suit and disco-ball eyes, we’re all just people.

No Kill I Similarly, not long after that episode, we see Kirk again protect a species being treated as the villain, this time the Horta in “Devil in the Dark.” And it’s a good thing too, because the Horta made it onto lists of both our favorite characters from TOS and our favorite races from TOS!

A dazzling display of logic We could have listed each time Kirk talks a computer to death, but our favorite was when he outsmarts Nomad in “The Changeling.” It was an impressive showing of quick thinking and cunning to make the robot admit he was in error and thus require sterilization. Unlike Kirk in this moment, this unit was not perfect.

My dear Captain Koloth The way Kirk wraps up the mystery at the end of “The Trouble with Tribbles” is spellbinding, like a good Agatha Christie story. He sees through disguises, he finds the culprit, he saves the grain! But all that is slight in comparison to how he gets one over on the smarmy Koloth, and it just feels so good to rub it in his goateed face.

A royal fizzbin An honorable mention on our list but worth including comes in one of the best comedy episodes of the franchise: “A Piece of the Action.” While many of the moments were clever and amusing indeed, it was Kirk’s spontaneous invention of fizzbin as a way to distract the gang members that we’d wager on any day.

Competition on the bridge This one is a more subtle moment, but worth a little bit of accolade. Kirk is fully ready to browbeat Decker for contradicting him on the bridge during the incident with the space potato in The Motion Picture, but when Kirk understands that Decker had more information on the subject than him, it makes for a humanizing and humbling scene.

Hours will seem like days Sure, this one might be a little bit more of a Spock moment, but we’ll count it for Kirk anyway. The Wrath of Khan is just full of tactical moves, strategy, and outwitting your opponent. And kudos to Kirk because his opponent is a superhuman genius. And whether it be 3D thinking, hacking into computer defenses, or using coded messages, he got it done!

His was the most… Human One of Kirk’s most praise-worthy moments (or maybe just one of Shatner’s) is the whole ending of The Wrath of Khan. His scene with the dying Spock is stunning. McCoy and Scotty having to hold him back from the contaminated chamber is some nice work. But the cherry on top of this tragic sundae is that lip quiver during a perfectly delivered eulogy.

I have had enough of you! On the flip side of that, there’s just something about Shatner’s delivery in dispatching Kruge in The Search for Spock that transcends campiness and ends up great. Is it the punctuating kicks? Is it the Shatnerian pauses? Is it Christopher Lloyd spinning off like a CGI paper doll into some flames? It’s all of it.

Row, row, row your boat Say what you will about Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, but it’s actually got some good moments scattered throughout a lot of weirdness. And one of those highlights is the whole camping scene. I’d put it almost entirely on the charm of McCoy or the delightful strangeness of the marshmellon dispenser, but Kirk’s little speech about death and being alone is up there too.

Excuse me. What does God need with a starship? Okay, I just couldn’t help myself with this one. Again, there’s a whole lot of The Final Frontier that doesn’t work, and having some kind of god entity running amok is weird no matter how you slice it, but Kirk deciding not to put up with his nonsense is just classic Kirk. If only he’d tried to talk it to death...

—

Worst Moments

I’m Captain Kirk!!!! Some people could dismiss Evil Kirk’s behavior in the deeply problematic “The Enemy Within” because it’s just his villainous half conducting it. But we are not those people. Listen, if any half of your personality is a rapist, that is just not okay, and the fact that Kirk and crew just barely support Yeoman Rand during this ordeal before sending her away is disgraceful.

Untended space seedlings While it does lead to one of the best Star Trek movies (to some, the best overall), Kirk’s decision to strand Khan and his followers (and a Starfeet officer as well!) on some planet in “Space Seed” strikes us as just plain unfounded when you actually think about it. Is this how Starfleet sentences people? And then to never go back and check on him just adds neglect to insult.

A rice-picking accident There’s a ton in The Original Series that doesn’t age well, and it’s kind of a shame that an episode as good as “The City on the Edge of Forever” has such a cringe-worthy moment. But when Kirk proclaims to the police officer that his friend here is obviously Chinese and the ears are like that because of a rice-picking accident, it’s tough to set our jaws straight again.

Clouded judgment Throughout the season 2 episode “Obsession,” we see Kirk at probably his least professional. He puts the whole crew in danger because of some old grudge (and who can even say this is the same cloud as the one he encountered before? It’s a CLOUD!). For a captain as competent and cool-headed as he’s been portrayed to be, this is not a good day for Jim.

Brothels are the best medicine Kirk just plain wears his incompetence on his sleeve when he keeps leaving Scotty alone with women in “Wolf in the Fold.” Just, over and over again! Perhaps this episode’s main problem is that the writer decided that having one bad experience with women will turn you into a sexist asshole, but frankly, Kirk should have known better anyway.

Serpents for the Garden of Eden This infamous action made it deep into the “Don’t do this!” corner of our Prime Direction chart a while back, and for good reason! Kirk deciding to supply the Hill People with guns in “A Private Little War” is unconscionable. I know we break the Prime Directive all the time, but it’s usually for a better reason than “the Klingons started it”!

Keep it in your toga, Kirk While we usually just roll our eyes and go with it when Kirk smooches all the women (so many women!) throughout The Original Series, it is just uncomfortable to watch his scene with Drusilla in “Bread and Circuses.” She has no ability to consent because she is Claudius’s slave. And when he lends her to Kirk for the night and Kirk goes to town, I vomit in my mouth. Bad, Kirk! Bad!

Any excuse to play dress up While “The Enterprise Incident” ended up on a couple of our Tops lists from TOS, you do have to admit that Kirk’s plan to get himself captured by Romulans, convince them he was acting alone by being a jerk to his crew for days (if not weeks?), fake his own death via the Vulcan death grip, and then return dressed only slightly in Romulan makeup is absolutely convoluted.

One big happy fleet While we described above some of the mastermind planning that Kirk exhibits in The Wrath of Khan, it was just a fool’s move to refuse to raise shields against the looming Reliant. Saavik outright quotes General Order 12 and how you are required to raise shields when communication cannot be made, but Kirk has the wool thoroughly over his eyes at that point.

I need my pain “I don’t want my pain taken away; I need my pain,” says Kirk in The Final Frontier. While the sentiment is there and the message sounds a little like what Kirk had once said in “This Side of Paradise,” there’s just something about this scene that Chris wanted to make sure landed on our list. It’s somewhere between the Shatner acting and the Shatner writing that it falls flat.

They’re animals Ya know how we were just commending the captain for speaking up when Stiles was being a racist twat? Well, when suddenly Kirk is calling all Klingons “animals” in The Undiscovered Country and stating that we should “let them die” (even Koloth?!), it’s kind of a bad look, and frankly a little bit rushed as a character element. This is not the Kirk we know and love.

A bridge too far In Generations, Kirk gets dealt a death scene so milquetoast and unsatisfying that it sours our final impressions of the character. Not only does the movie end up barely using him, as does the fist fight with Malcolm McDowall look like two old men puttering around, but to get crushed by a bridge just seems like an insult to a character we loved for so many years. Oh my.

— Surely, that’s all skipping over a lot of other great or lamentable Kirk moments from across the series. What did we miss? What were your favorite moments from the command gold of yore? We’ll have more character scutiny next week, as Spock is up on the chopping block, so definitely keep your eyes on this space, follow along as we start a full watchalong of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, transport over to Facebook and Twitter, and watch out for that Finney-eject button! It’s so perilously close to the coffee button!

[changeling-rin]

Hi, I just binge-read your fic and first of all, it's SO great ?? Your writing style is immaculate, like I definitely laughed out loud several times, but you also master dramatic descriptions so well ! So thank you for this wonderful fic !

However, I am having a bit of a struggle understanding its state. From scrolling through your blog I saw several things that have not happened yet in the fic (like mentions of 'Oni'). I understood that it was a rewriting, but is the original fic still somewhere ? And also, do you plan on continuing writing this ? I'd love to read the rest but know how hard writing can get...

(Last little comment : even if you said you didn't enjoy writing it, the trains fight were amazing. Steam's first appearance is what made me go from "reading a nice fic" to "I think I am replacing some of my braincell with this fic" lmao)

I started writing DL on FF.net, and I got pretty far along before deciding that some things needed an overhaul. I believe there are 59 chapters total?

So if you're reading the AO3 version, which I only began to upload after I started rewriting (and thus made the executive decision to not deal with the hassle of changing everything the way that FF.net was having to deal with), then there's about thirty or so chapters of content that you just... haven't seen

This would be where Oni comes from, and also probably everything else you're seeing that doesn't quite make sense yet!

And also, I one-hundred-percent plan on continuing. I know it's been a while, and I apologize for that, but I'm plugging away at the next chapter as best as I'm able. I am currently 7,107 words in and am attempting a schedule of 500 words a day; I would estimate that I'm about halfway done, given everything that I want to cover. (I seem to have made the mistake of writing myself into a mindscape battle, and somehow this has made things worse than the trains ever were. I don't know why this is, but I'm annoyed about it, and I will be finishing this story through sheer spite if absolutely nothing else)

[sonderden]

❤️ Happy WorldBuilding Wednesday! ❤️

What are your cities or towns like? Feel free to talk about the layouts or the people or the architecture, etc. and to talk about more than one if you'd like!

Happy WorldBuilding Wednesday (what's left of Wednesday where I live) and thank you for the ask, this was really helpful to think about! It actually answered some of the questions I had about the plot of A Place to Return, one of my novel WIPs I've been stuck on for awhile.

It's long-winded as usual, so I'm putting my answer under a cut.

As a refresher for those who've seen me talk about it before and a quick summary for those who haven't, APtR is about a pair of boys who live on different worlds: a version of Earth similar to ours and a fantasy world called Ryedenne. When they're still preteens, they switch bodies and the story revolves around them growing up in cultures that are completely unfamiliar to them and having to pretend that they understand how these worlds work and that they belong in lives that aren't truly their own.

A lot of that story takes place on the (unnamed) main continent of Ryedenne, and the towns and cities there are what I thought about to answer this question.

A lot of the culture on [unnamed continent] is defined be 2 things: people's occupations and a berserker curse that affects people and animals almost entirely at random. It manifests at any age, hitting its most violent and unpredictable stage in the summer months. As a result, the cities here are shaped around career schools (called training halls), headquarters for specific careers (work halls), and the facilities (sealing and sanctuary halls) used to quarantine the cursed during violent surges and protect the non-cursed.

The average village has one sanctuary hall, the average town has a sanctuary hall and at least one work hall, and most cities have at least one sanctuary hall, at least one sealing hall (an official one that isn't just someone's house or a blocked off cave), at least one work hall, and at least one training hall. Sealing halls are typically situated on the outskirts of towns and cities to they avoid casualties if the cursed escape and to act as barriers against new arrivals.

The bigger the city, the more each work and training hall gets to diversify. Instead of occupational categories being grouped together in wings of a building or in singular offices, they can each have their own independent halls. This means that bugger cities are more valued, and those who got their training done there are more desired by customers, clients, etc. Smaller cities are seen as way-points and places where traveling workers gather temporarily. Towns are often seen as places for the untrained and the retired. Villages are seen as resting places for merchants and shoddy sanctuary from the curse and not much more.

Leo, the APtR lead born on Ryedenne, grows up in a village and has to travel to a distant city for mercenary training -- just like his older brothers did for medical training. Owen, the lead born on Earth, doesn't see this village for years. By the time he does get to visit, he prefers to stick close to cities in case the curse that manifested in him as a teenager spikes and he has to turn himself in to a sealing hall for a few weeks or months to keep others safe and avoid legal punishment.

I still have a lot of development to do for these cities, this continent, and the APtR story itself but this really helped me put their hierarchy and facilities into perspective and give me a better hold on Ryedenne as a world. So again, thank you for this ask!

[missing-sector]

What if instead of dolls they were ukagaka/ghosts?

Made with the help of this tutorial: https://www.ashido.com/ukagaka/walkthrough.html Designs heavily inspired by this work of art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jigpuThh3Qo

[bread-blogs]

If I may intrude upon this post with a couple of shots that made me burst out laughing

I just love star trek TOS so much???? Like it's so good and so stupid at the same time xD i can't watch it with a straight face xD The amount of absurdity is unimaginable xDDDD and it's still so good dunno if it's 60's TV or smth but they make it too good

[itslilacmoon]

what if a changeling replaced you, acted nothing like you, and yet no one noticed. no one cared, because they were a better version of you in every possible way. would you be mad? or would you be grateful?

(closeups/notes under the cut)

i saw this comic about gravity falls about a month ago and it made me go completetly insane because luz wouldn’t even be mad. anyways i think a LOT about vee coming in and acting like a “better” neurotypical version of Luz and (to Luz’s knowledge) no one noticing and maybe even liking her better that way. would that be fucked up or what.

anyways ive had this like 80% done for a while but ive been busy with schoolwork BUT now that im done with classes i can sit back and finish a bunch of drawings ive been meaning to for thr past like 3 months. woohoo! this piece gave me so much TROUBLE because the file was juuuust too big for tumblr so i had to try and resize it by miniscule amounts bc i wanteds to keep maximum quality. hopefully tumblr doesnt compress it TOO much… anyways here are some closeups!!! this is my first time doing a piece like this with a bunch of overlapping stuff (reminds me of how my sketchbooks used to look in high school lol) so it was challenging but also super fun!!i might post a timelapse for this because it is pretty Big,,,,,

[ficandkaboodle]

Analyses of Most Ghost Characters be like…

Terzo was a tragic and extremely deep figure who, based off observations provided by his ghouls and Bishop Necropolitis, was a brilliant mind whose ideas were bastardized and squandered, which resulted in a disappointed and bitter husk of a man who still made an effort to display kindness. However, we will likely never truly know the full story of who he was because he lied so damn often.

Most of how we perceive Secondo is arguably the result of Sister badmouthing him as well as ghouls being brutally candid about how he acted in interviews. However, there’s reason to believe Secondo might’ve been just as multifaceted as Terzo, in that he wasn’t being his complete self to the audience. There’s evidence that could suggest Secondo did not enjoy being Papa in its entirety so much as the perks, which were ironically also hindered by him being Papa at the end of the day. It’s not hard to interpret him as someone who might not have enjoyed being a part of the bloodline at the end of the day because of what it meant he had to sacrifice.

Copia is a manchild, likely as a result of how he grew up: Orphaned, likely a social outcast, very likely undiagnosed. As a result, he might’ve become convinced that the only way to rise above it was to become someone worthy of adoration: Papa. But even after he ascended, his troubles didn’t stop: He had to learn his parentage, didn’t address the fact that his brothers were now dead, and spent the last few months he had with the woman he now knew was his mother dissociating because he developed a fear of death. This fear, mind you, that easily ties back into the theorized likelihood that he placed his self-worth into his success. And this is before getting into his willingness to be a puppet —

Papa Nihil’s complexities come in the form of his tendencies to escape reality and the consequences these brought. He was very likely an absent father, which would have had effects on his sons (say, attention-seeking tendencies; a distrust in authority; abandonment issues). In fact, the only things he seems to seek from his youth is his extremely short-lived music career and his unstable relationship with a woman who ultimately kept quiet about their son(s) they conceived together and ultimately played his lust and delusions against him to play nepotism. And by leaning into this, he got his own children killed. He only “became a father” after he died, and it’s sad that he actually seems his most lucid then. What’s all the more mind-boggling and makes you wonder about his tenure is his ability to be in the moment and try and convince Cardi to learn to do the same. It makes you curious: Was Nihil actually a good Papa when he wasn’t distracted?

Sister Imperator is willfully emotionally constipated and will justify it as being “for the good of the church”. She has definitely been affected by her decisions and what she’s done, from her relationship with Nihil to her giving up her babies and watching them at a distance, only interacting from a work standpoint. She lies, keeps secrets, has people killed off, all to tie her spawn into the position as Papa, which is curious considering her position means she’s already above the station of Papa. She does care about Cardi, but she doesn’t care for him the way he needs to be and, as a result, arguably only exacerbates his anxious tendencies. She’s an extremely interesting character but it’s so easy to water her down to just being manipulative and evil.

………………

Analyses of Primo —

Primo is fucking crazy man I don’t — Like, he might be a serial killer; he would punch a panda for profit; we aren’t even entirely certain he’s human like I would legit headcanon that Primo is a changeling and the fandom would run with it because what choice do we have, he honestly actually could be!!!

[rexscanonwife]

If you kiss a prince will he turn into a frog?

Little sketchy thing since I've been revisiting my ship with Flycatcher! I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with an outfit that nods to my self insert's origins as the Swan Princess but I'm guessing she mostly wears white, and usually with feathery or lacy accents. I wanna draw something a little more polished but for now have this! ^_^ 💚🐸💚

Taglist♡: @me-myself-and-my-fos @flowering-darkness @sunstar-of-the-north @changeling-selfship @cherry-bomb-ships @rosieaurora @tropgothships

@little-miss-selfships @starlos-soulmate @limey-self-inserts @candyheartedchy @space-sweetheart @clancykisser @squips-ship @berryshipbasket

@soulnottainted @saturdaymorningcartoonz @severants @tex-treasures @sparkyscissorhands @iwishihadfangs @fictodreamer @adoredbyalatus

[anim-ttrpgs]

April Fools! Eureka: The Fanservice Files

April Fools! Or, not really. What started out as a complete joke has turned into a complete little mini-expansion for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, because we really have a lot of trouble doing anything half-way when it comes to game design.

In this little expansion pack, you will find one new Mundane Trait; two new Supernatural Traits, one monster and one misc.; and two new Mage Powers, usable by Mages, Witches, Fairies, and Changelings in various capacities - all based on in-jokes within the fanbase and/or jokes about the reputation of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy at large.

Initially these were supposed to be “fake” Traits, but that idea lasted all of about 5 seconds before we decided first of all that would be mean, and secondly it’s funnier if they’re real Traits played straight, and it wouldn’t be that hard to make real, interesting Traits out of theme. Thirdly, selling a “fake” expansion is called “a scam,” but if we put the little extra effort in to make them real Traits, we can put it up for sale for real while laughing about it and giving a certain subset of the fanbase and critics alike “what they want” without adding to the already overinflated page count of the main Eureka rulebook.

Download it and give us a few dollars if you laugh, or for any other reason.

[ladykailitha]

Steve is powered AU.

It's after Vecna and the Upside Down collapsing on itself before anyone finds out.

When Steve was seven, his mother had a psychotic break, saying that Steve was a changeling and tried to drown him the large bath tub in his parents' bathroom.

It was during this time she was admitted to Pennhurst.

They're cleaning up the Harrington Estate when his mother comes home and just starts screaming about the mess. Steve finally gets her calm down and tells Eddie that she didn't always used to be that way, she used to be a sweet and loving mother.

That's when Stella Harrington comes screaming back in that she didn't change. He did. He was the imposter. She knows her son and this creature before her isn't him.

But she won't explain how she knows.

Then a couple days later Nancy was talking to Robin about how someone should go back to Pennhurst to tell Victor Creel, that his son survived and is the cause of the all the destruction.

Robin is against it, because his mind was already shattered and that might destroy it. Nancy thinks he would want to know that he wasn't crazy.

When the name finally pinged in Steve's head. When they were trying to figure out who Vecna was, the name kept ringing a bell in his head. And just then it hit him.

His mother had been admitted there when he was younger.

But he keeps it to himself, because the last person he wants to know his mother was/is crazy is Nancy.

So he calls up the Hospital and requests her file and finds out that someone else recently accessed her file. Her doctor, Martin Brenner, had called just two weeks before the events that would lead to his death.

The receptionist asks if the address in Reno, Nevada is still good.

Steve's blood turns to ice in his veins.

Holy shit.

He corrects the address to Hawkins, Indiana and she brightens. Tells him that it's nice she's home again.

Steve needs to talk to El and he needs to do it away from Hopper. Because Hopper can't know about this. No one can.

Only Eddie starts noticing how withdrawn and twitchy Steve has become lately and manages to show up at the house when Steve gets his mother's medical files.

They learn that only reason Stella survived the Nina Project massacre was because she was on her to another facility for testing.

When Steve was seven his powers manifested so strongly, that his mother who was an empath, tried to suppress it so that Dr. Brenner wouldn't get his hands on Steve and it broke her mind. But Dr. Brenner didn't want Steve. Incorrectly assuming that she had succeeded, he wanted to harness her ability to break other's powers. Because if she could break Steve's, maybe she could break Henry's.

It was that research that led the device that controlled Henry's powers.

But Dr. Brenner realized that Stella didn't suppress Steve's powers. Steve did.

But his exposure to the Upside Down had eroded the block and that's why Steve was able to sense what was wrong with Nancy, knew that Max was in trouble.

He could sense it.

Dr. Owens tries to be respectful when asking Steve if they could run tests on him.

Everyone shouts NO at the same time.

But now everyone knows that Steve is powered, too, and El helps him learn to control it and take the break off completely. The first time they tried Steve got so overwhelmed with Eddie's love and affection for him that he passed out.

They were both pretty embarrassed that that was the way they got together. But Eddie liked to joke that his charm literally knocked Steve over.

Over the years it gets more fine-tuned. He knows Eddie is going propose before he does.

Knows when Max is pregnant with her first. Lucas couldn't keep his emotions down for shit.

Knows when Mike and El finally break up and realize they're better as friends. Their emotions are very angry for awhile before they mellow out.

Knows about Will and Mike's first kiss. Will is practically bursting with it.

[dangerousconnoisseurdonut]

I had a thought today and I've been wondering about something; does everyone remember the original series episode The Enemy Within? Where a transporter accident causes Kirk to divide into two personalities - one good but weak-willed, the other brash and assertive.

What if the same thing happens to Julian? Some kind of anomaly hits Julian and divides him into Jules as he would have been without his augmentations, and Julian, the augment. Everyone is naturally nervous, thinking the augment is evil and has a superiority complex worse than their doctor (whom everyone still thinks is a little full of himself). If this happens on the promenade, maybe Sisko suggests taking them to the infirmary to scan them both, but Jules freaks and possibly scratches Sisko if he tries to guide him to said infirmary, because Jules only remembers doctors hurting him. He runs to Julian, who explains to the crew that Jules won't let a doctor near him, believing they all will hurt him like the ones on Adigeon. Julian suggests asking Garak to perform the scan since, if Jules is like him, he retains the impressions of people, even if the memories are fuzzy (possibly, Jules sees it as a story he was told, but cannot connect the characters and setting of the story with the people and place he is at now - Garak is different because Julian suggested him, letting him connect the two).

I'm having trouble articulating the rest, but how does the DS9 crew handle the two sides of Julian? Jules is non-verbal, prone to fits, and needs a solid routine, and Julian the augment is full of self-loathing and hatred, not wanting to let others get close to him for fear of being discovered so he acts obnoxious to keep people at arms length. Possibly, to add to the heartbreak (as well as the crews problems because I'm still a little salty about their disregard of Julian's feelings after the Changeling incident), what if instead of there being two middle-aged Julian's, Jules is five or six, just before he's augmented, and Julian is sixteen, just after he's found about his augmentations. Julian doesn't understand what's going on but is protective of Jules since he sees this as a chance to make things right (we all know Julian sees his existence as possible because Jules was murdered).

Jules wanders off and finds Garak who recognizes his friend instantly and is charmed by the quiet boy, whilst he and Julian bond over their desire to protect Jules' innocence. That's all I've thought up, but let me know your thoughts on this tricky problem; who's better with Jules and who's better with Julian while managing to get through to him that no one is going to hurt him or Jules?