#charles berg

[postcard-from-the-past]

"Porphyre" from the "Le Zodiaque Etrusque" postcard series

French vintage postcard, illustrated by Charles Berg

[isa-ko]

Hallo 😀🧸 Happy late new year post? It’s been a while, I have a big doodle/WIP napoleonic dump from 2024 June to present. Many of these I couldn’t find time/energy to finish so…dump >:D

[wishchip106]

“I had felt it was the best thing for her,”

“And for you?”

“It doesn’t really matter what was best for me”

i feel like Charles lost so much in his life that he started to believe that his needs come after everyone else’s

he feels like his feelings don’t matter when it comes to his dream

the world takes so much from Charles that the only thing he knows how to do is keep giving

[yaggy031910]

A fun little ask: the Marshalate is informed there is cake in the break room. How do each of them react?

Who ever you are, thank you for this sweet little question and I apologise for my late response. 🙈💕

I have ideas for some of them, however I am **not** aware of the maréchals eating habits so any input is welcome here. Also, I don't know all of the marshals well enough but I will try to include as many as possible. Don’t expect any historical accuracy in this.

See this post as a very big headcanon and as one ongoing story where I am going to try to mimic the marshals characters and miserably fail.

Shall we begin? :D

Les Maréchals and cake

Berthier would hear about it and quietly get excited by the idea of having a nice little piece of cake, just for him to be too busy with everything so that he isn't able to leave his desk. Either this or someone (probably one of his adcs) would be nice enough to get for Berthier his piece of cake.

Murat: You bet he is one of the first ones to look at this cake. His reaction might depend on how the cake looks. If it's a huge cake with a lot of golden details, Murat will carry it around so everyone admires this phenomenal cake because it deserves to be looked at.

Augerau and Masséna wonder why there is such a fancy a cake in the break room in the first place and who might have put it there. Augerau asks Masséna with a low voice: “How much money do you want to bet on the cake being poisoned?” Before Masséna is able to answer, Lannes enters the scene.

Lannes runs after Murat with the cake knife demanding to finally get his damn piece of this cake while Murat can't make himself to cut it because this cake is “so damn beautiful that it would be a waste to eat it.” This little game goes on for a minute or two until the other marshals grow impatient, one of them being Ney.

Ney who is known for his hotheadedness tries to save this cake from a disaster aaaaand fails. :) The three of them dispute over who is the actual culprit of this mess.

L: Murat, what have you done? M: I have done nothing. You followed me with a knife. N: You let the cake fall. M: You intervened in my business with Lannes.

The cake has fallen to the ground as Davout, Suchet and Macdonald watched. “Aaand here goes the cake”, Macdonald says; “At least the floor was able to taste it.” Suchet asks: “What do you think was its flavour?” ”Chocolate vanilla.” Davout answers. After a moment of silence, he adds. “Soult has a good recipe.” Mortier walks in, seeing how Lannes, Murat and Ney are loudly disputing while Masséna and Augerau get themselves black coffee and Davout, Suchet and Macdonald talking. Lefebvre who was walking right behind Mortier gestures him to move away from the door so he can get into the break room: “What is going on?”

Suchet: “We found a cake-“ Davout interrupts him: “We found a chocolate vanilla cake which we don’t know how it got here or if it was poisoned and now it’s inedible because his royal highness, the King of Naples, made it fall.”

Murat shouts from the back: “I didn’t let it fall.” Lannes: “Oh, you did.”

Lefebvre offers a solution like the good fatherly figure he is: “Do you still want cake? We could bake a new cake, messieurs.” Davout replies: “This sounds like a smart idea, Monsieur. Maréchal Soult knows an excellent recipe.”

Lefebvre: “Ahh, excellent. Where is our maréchal?”

Mortier: “He is in his office.”

“Then this where our journey goes next.” Lefebvre slams the door open and accidentally hits Oudinot. “Ah, Monsieur, my apologies. If I had known you were there, I wouldn’t have slammed the door as hard as I did. Are you alright? Yes? Until the next time then.”

Davout walks up to his friend to make sure how Oudinot is doing and explains to him in the meanwhile what is going on and also promises Oudinot to bring him a piece of the cake they are going to bake.

Lefebvre takes the lead and walks straight to Soult’s office while Davout and Mortier follow him. Suchet decides to stay behind while Macdonald thinks about it. Lefebvre knocks on Soult’s office door: “Monsieur, le maréchal? Are you here?” *Lefebvre knocks again with his energetic manner.* “Monsieur, le maréchal, it’s me, Lefebvre. Open the door!*

Soult opens the door with his usual unimpressed demeaner: Hm? Lefebvre: “Excusez-moi, mon maréchal, I heard you have a recipe for a delicious cake?” Soult: Cake? What cake? Davout: The chocolate vanilla one… the one you baked for your daughter Hortense’s birthday. The delicious one. Soult: Ah, yeah. That one. What of it? Mortier: We would like to bake this cake, which is why we want to ask if you mind us borrowing the recipe? Soult stares at his co-maréchals for a second, he shuts the door, opens it again with a piece of paper in his hand which he gives to Lefebvre. “Here. Is there anything else you need?” Macdonald who decided to join the baking group walks up to them and asks Soult: “Would you mind to lend us your baking equipment?” - “No. Have a nice day.” Soult shuts his door while Lefebvre shouts: “Thank you for your help, Monsieur Soult.” Macdonald asks: “What are we going to do now?” “We are going to bake the cake now, my good friend”, Davout answers. Mac: “Where? Where do you want us to bake the cake? Do we have the right ingredients?” D: In the kitchen and I don’t see why we shouldn’t have the ingredients. Macdonald looks at Davout with suspicious eyes about the matter if they are going to manage to bake this cake… The group of maréchals appear in the imperial kitchen where they start to gather the right ingredients. While the group is busy with the preparations, les maréchals Pérignon and Sérurier appear, wondering what is going on. As Lefebvre is explaining these two their baking journey up until now, Pérignon and Sérurier decide to join them: “A cake made by maréchals for maréchals.”

What could possibly go wrong with two additional heads in the kitchen? As it turns out: Everything. Pérignon and Sérurier manage to overdo the cake by confusing salt with sugar. The cake tastes salty, the icing itself is fine because it was made by Davout who religiously followed Soult’s directions. In addition to that, monsieur Lefebvre manages to mix up usual paper with baking sheets.

Bernadotte walks into the kitchen as he sees his fellow maréchals working on their baking project. He comments on the scenery: “This is just pure chaos without any discipline, a chaos which can’t possibly create something edible.” Davout replies “Well, have you ever baked anything in your miserable existence which you so call your life?”; to which Bernadotte says: “wELL, no, BUT-“ Davout continues: “Then get out of this room and give me my peace back or shut up.” Bernadotte decides to leave.

As Bernadotte is leaving, Jourdan walks right into the scene with an apple in his hand. A fire starts to break out in the oven and Jourdan, like the team player he is, turns and leaves this mess to his co-maréchals without saying one word.

Nothing is going as Davout had it planned. He sits in a corner, mourning this beautiful chocolate vanilla cake he had in mind. Macdonald sits right next to him with a spoon, telling him: “Well, at least the frosting you made yourself is delicious.” Davout, completely shattered by the fact that he wasn’t able to make his desired chocolate vanilla cake, puts his face into his palms until a surprise visits the kitchen: It’s maréchal Soult. With a cake. A chocolate vanilla cake. A chocolate vanilla cake which is neither burnt nor oversalted. A chocolate vanilla cake according to the recipe. Next to Soult is Oudinot who cuts two pieces of the cake: one for himself and one for his good old friend, Louis Nicolas Davout.

After Soult, Ney and Lannes enter the kitchen. Ney silently takes a piece of Soult’s cake, saying nothing except a simple “thank you”. So do Macdonald and Mortier. Soult tolerates Ney’s presence. Lannes on the other hand goes straight to the oversalted and burnt cake which the older maréchals made and are also eating. Kellermann and Grouchy, as late to the party as ever, also go for Lefebvre’s bad cake while Soult’s good cake is still sitting there. Soult can’t hide his look of disgust.

At some point, Bessières and Murat join or rejoin retrospectively the scene, walking up to Soult’s cake. Bessières, as well mannered as he is, takes one piece of a cake to which Murat comments: “I know how much you like this lovely type of cake, Bessières, take a second piece.” - “No”, Soult replies: “That’s not your cake. Take your piece and leave.” Murat adds: “For whom are the other pieces then? I don’t see anybody who would possibly want to eat this gorgeous baked good. We want to eat your delicious creation of a fabulous cake.” - “One piece each. You can give him your piece if you like to.” Bessières interrupts the two: “I am content with my piece.” Murat doesn’t listen to what Bessières says and continues his conversation with Soult: “My fellow maréchal, I don’t understand, why do you struggle so much with allowing somebody to have one additional piece of cake than the other ones?”

While Murat and Soult continue their dispute which leads to nowhere, one adc enters slowly the kitchen. He looks at Soult who recognises this man as one of Berthier’s adcs. He came to get a piece of cake for his marshal. Soult lets him take one of the few pieces left. All of a sudden, Kellermann seems to be chocking on his salty cake piece. All the maréchals are gathering around him and in the chaos, the last few pieces of Soult’s cake fall to the ground. Soult looks at his cake or what’s left of it. One could argue that everyone who wanted to eat it was able to eat it. One could argue that these fallen pieces can be ignored and Soult could go on with his day never ever thinking about the pieces again. However, we are talking about maréchal Soult here who sees the art in baking. The love, the accuracy of it. Today he didn’t just bring cake to his fellow maréchals. Today he witnessed how some of them have no sense of dignity for what it means to be able to eat good food. Good cake. Soult is leaving the room, not bothered about Kellermann as he wouldn’t be able to help anyway. He is going to his wife, his Louise Berg, who asks him about his day. He tells her the whole of it. How he was surprised by his fellow maréchals who wanted to bake a cake. How he knew that they are going to mess up his recipe. How he baked that cake properly and how a part of it went to waste. “Some of them ate oversalted and burnt cake. Who eats bad cake? Who likes bad cake???”

Davout on the other hand was thankful for Soult. With a smile on his face, Davout enjoyed his so desired chocolate vanilla cake, unbothered by the event surrounding him. The end. :)

[randomrichards]

NEVER SURRENDER: A GALAXY QUEST DOCUMENTARY

The cult following

For a Star Trek parody

A surprise success

[ozkar-krapo]

V/A

"Cold Turkey Press / Klacto presents : A Cold Turkey Press special"

(LP. Rotterdam '72. 1972) [US]

[jazzdailyblog]

"Serenity": Bobo Stenson's Timeless Jazz Odyssey

Introduction: In the vast realm of jazz, where innovation often intertwines with tradition, certain albums emerge as beacons of artistic brilliance. Bobo Stenson’s “Serenity,” a double album recorded in April 1999 and released in 2000 on the ECM label, is a testament to the enduring power of musical exploration and collaboration. Clocking in at 90 minutes and 33 seconds, “Serenity” is not just…

[jackjolene]

BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr - Ultimate Evil AU

I’ve had this one sitting in my drafts for a while now. I was hoping to finish my main story for BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr first before posting this one, but this is too perfect for Halloween to wait. 

In my BioShock/Sinking City/Vampyr multiverse, this is the worst possible world. Here, we’ve got Bad Ending Jack, Worst Ending Delta, Worst Ending Reid, and Abandonment Ending Charles. Of course, the worst ending in Sinking City is Annihilation, but that pretty much destroys the world long before the events of BioShock and BioShock 2 can take place, so here we go! 

Subject Delta chose to harvest every Little Sister he came across, destroying not only his soul, but Eleanor’s conscience as well. After forcibly assimilating her father’s ADAM and taking his powers and knowledge for herself, Eleanor leaves in Sinclair’s craft. 

Taking inspiration from Sinclair, she then sells Rapture’s technology to the highest bidder, raising much-needed cash. To her surprise, the winner of the auction is none other than Jack Ryan, and he’s not too happy about the amount of money he had to spend in order to maintain his monopoly on Rapturian technology.

In Rapture, Jack Wynand chose to harvest every Little Sister he came across, gaining power at the expense of the innocent and helpless. Tenenbaum took the Little Sisters she had saved and fled Rapture while Jack’s splicers, bribed with Fontaine’s ADAM, aided him in boarding and hijacking an American nuclear submarine.

After making it back to the States, Jack killed the splicers and then began rebuilding Ryan Industries with the money he gained from selling the submarine and its warheads. Jack had embraced both of his “fathers”, Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine, taking up the former’s surname and the latter’s ruthlessness and business strategy. Jack Ryan, the secret son of Andrew Ryan, rose to rebuild his father’s company after his untimely death with amazing new technologies, supplementing his income with crime, especially in the production and sale of a horrifying new drug, produced in the bellies of kidnapped little girls.

After the auction, Jack meets with Eleanor, learning that they are both children of Rapture. Eleanor is surprised and happy to learn that Jack is very similar to her; he was her inspiration for escaping Rapture, and he is just as ruthless and power hungry as she is. Seeing the other’s similarities to themselves, and also the potential benefits, Jack decides to mentor Eleanor and nurture her ambition and power.

Through Jack and his connections, Eleanor gains an introduction into the world of high society, business, and politics as his ward, “Eleanor Ryan”. With Eleanor, Jack gains good PR for adopting an orphan, a veritable genius to aid Ryan Industries’ R&D department, an agent to carry out the most dangerous and illegal of criminal assignments, and finally a protege to carry on after him.

And in private, the two of them find...comfort, with each other.

While at university, Eleanor meets a “Johannes Van Der Berg”, who she senses knows far more than he lets on. From him, she begins to learn about things far from the beaten path, old, mystical, and eldritch things. Through him, she learns of an isolated Massachusetts town, cut off from the world since the ‘20s, and of the secrets hidden within.

After piecing together the little puzzles that Van Der Berg gives her to solve, Eleanor learns of the greatest secret of all time - a way to gain ultimate power, to become a literal demigod. It would also involve unleashing a horror beyond comprehension upon the world and destroying Humanity, but that’s of small consequence when becoming a being of untold power.

Eleanor knows that Jack wouldn’t go for it, though. As power hungry as he is, he likes the life he has built well enough and wouldn’t be willing to destroy the world to become a near-god. Being a powerful CEO/crime lord is enough for him, but Eleanor believes in dreaming big, and she’ll need the resources of Ryan Industries to realize her dream. And all she has to do is kill Jack and two other men.

From Johannes, she learns that in order to unleash this “Hidden Daughter”, she needs to become the “Seed” - a person who was chosen to choose whether to awaken the Hidden Daughter or to restart the Cycle. However, the Seed of this Cycle, a man by the name of Charles Reed, chose to walk away. Because of him, there is a zone of unnatural flooding and reports of monsters extending from somewhere in Massachusetts.

In order to become the Seed, Eleanor will need to take the essence of the Seed from him. A man by the name of “Ebernote Blackwood” tried and failed to do so; however, Reed’s decision to walk away has made the forces that chose him willing to allow another to become the Seed. All Eleanor needs are the abilities of an “Ekon”, a vampire, and she will be able to become the Seed herself and finish what Charles refused to do.

Johannes knows of the perfect man-well, Ekon, for the job: Dr. Jonathan Reid, who terrorized the night shortly after the First World War in 1918.  A heartless monster, he used his silver tongue and gifts of medicine to keep the citizens of London alive and healthy while he learned their secrets to maximize the purity of their blood for maximum power. Not even his own mother, butler, and best friend were safe from him. After losing his vampiric love, Reid returned to war-torn Europe to take out his rage and thirst on any unfortunate enough to cross his path.

All Eleanor needs is for him to turn her into an Ekon. The good news is that Dr. Reid doesn’t need to be willing; all she needs to do is to take his blood. And with her Big Sister needle, that’ll be as easy as pie should he refuse her.

Jack is the first to go. On the anniversary of the day they met, Eleanor and Jack, her hero, her inspiration, her ward, her mentor, , and her secret lover, have one last roll in the hay. After Jack falls asleep, Eleanor takes out her Big Sister needle and aims to kill Jack with one good jab and take his ADAM too. It turns out Jack wasn’t as deeply asleep as she thought, and the NYC penthouse where they reside becomes the site of their battle. Bullets riddle the walls, fire and electricity burn the furniture, and in the end, Eleanor stands triumphant over Jack’s body, his ADAM and mind joining Delta’s.

With Ryan Industries’ connections in the media, Eleanor is able to pass off Jack’s death as an assassination at the hands of Soviet agents, tears running down her face on live TV. Later, she is completely dry-eyed as she officially inherits Ryan Industries and all its assets, both legal and illegal.

With Ryan Industries’ resources at her fingertips, Eleanor is able to fully devote herself to the search for Dr. Jonathan Reid and Charles Reed. Finding Reed is easy enough; after Boston flooded, he’s stayed one step ahead of the strange events extending outwards from Massachusetts. As he’s useless without the bloodthirst of an Ekon, Eleanor orders her men to keep an eye on Reed, while the search for Dr. Reid continues.

Finally, after some hints from Van Der Berg, Dr. Jonathan Reid is found. Eleanor is able to set up a meeting between herself and the good doctor. Eleanor finds him charming, in the same way that she is charming: All polite words and gestures, with a tension like a coiled snake waiting to strike. 

Dr. Reid listens politely to Eleanor as she outlines her offer to him: In exchange for turning her into a vampire, an Ekon, he will gain access to Ryan Industries’ connection with the Human trafficking business - they have to get their little girls for ADAM production from somewhere, after all. He’ll be eating well and easily for as long as Ryan Industries exists.

After giving her offer, Dr. Reid smiles and tells Eleanor that while her offer is generous, he prefers to hunt his prey rather than have it handed to him - and then he grabs at her. Putting his hand to her forehead, he begins to try and override her mind so that he may more easily feed on her. He is surprised when he is resisted and then thrown back - while she may have drained their ADAM against their will and imprisoned their minds within her subconscious, Jack and Delta aren’t going to let some bloodsucker kill their girl.

The fight between Eleanor and Dr. Reid is very different from her fight with Jack; Dr. Reid’s Ekon abilities are a far cry from the powers granted by plasmids and gene tonics, blood and shadow giving him advantages that no splicer could hope to have. Despite these advantages, however, the combination of Eleanor’s original Big Sister powers, Delta’s powers, and Jack’s powers, is more than enough to beat him. 

After draining Dr. Reid of every ounce of his blood, Eleanor sets his body alight with Incinerate! She watches as one of the most powerful vampires of the modern age burns to ash before injecting the contents of her Big Sister needle into her veins. The rush is nothing like anything she’s ever experienced before. In fact, the last time she was as close to death was when Sofia Lamb smothered her.

Upon awakening, Eleanor feels like Hell itself. She is beyond thirsty, the only color she can see other than black and white is red from bloodstains, and other than the strange chanting, everything she hears is muted and distant. 

Upon leaving the meeting room, a group of silhouettes approach her, each black with a cardiovascular system within. One of them moves to help her from falling, and that’s when she falls upon its neck, bites down, and drinks deeply. A few minutes later, the color comes back to the world and the horrified cries of her bodyguards reach her ears. Standing up from the bloodless body of one of her bodyguards, even as his final thoughts sound through her mind and his memories are archived in her mind, she orders them to have someone remove it.

A few things change. Eleanor can no longer go outside when the sun is out, so she conducts business from the safety of her office and board room with the blinds drawn. She only appears for social events if they take place while the sun is down. She no longer eats, now drinking blood from the poor souls that she orders from the Human traffickers they buy from and faking a lack of appetite during social dinners. With every new victim, her new powers grow and adapt.

She finds her final victim trying to ward off his hallucinations and memories with alcohol in a seedy bar. In his state, it’s easy to overwhelm Charles Reed’s mind and walk him out the door and into an alley. Despite the state of his mind and body, Reed’s blood gives her the most she’s ever had from a meal. The Seed dies in a dirty alleyway, and a new one stands over his cooling corpse, looking down at him as she reviews his memories.

When Charles Reed chose to abandon his destiny and leave Oakmont, he wasn’t alone. He took Joy Hayden with him and tried to build a life with her back in Boston, but the madness stayed with him, prompting him to take up drink to cope. His relationship with Joy soured and she left him, their unborn son going with her. That son, “Jonathan Hayden”, is none other than Johnny Topside, Subject Delta. Without a father in his life to teach him the value of justice, Jonathan Hayden never developed an instinct to protect the innocent, hence his ability to harvest Little Sisters. Eleanor looks down at her “grandfather” one last time before leaving him alone.

The next night, a fully empowered Eleanor Ryan leads Ryan Private Security as they penetrate the security measures set up around the “Massachusetts Quarantine and Disaster Zone”, making for the very center of it. Between her powers and the armaments her men possess, Eleanor has no doubt of accomplishing her mission.

Over the past 50 years, Oakmont has gone ever further into Hell. The floodwater have only deepened and the rain is now a permanent torrential downpour (or a blizzard during the winter). The Wylebeasts haunt the entire city now; few places are safe from them. Those originally trapped in the city are all dead, their surviving descendants now few in number and all members of the various cults that sprang up as social order finally dissolved. In the wake of Charles’ flight from Oakmont, stagnation, decay, and insanity now rule the day.

Eleanor Ryan and Ryan Private Security hit the city like a thunderclap, their boats and helicopters making landfall and complements of troops and drones swarming into the city. The Wylebeasts emerge from their hiding places, ready for a fresh meal, only to be slaughtered in droves by Eleanor’s powers and her men’s bullets. Crazed cultists attack in droves, only for Ryan Private Security Drones to swarm them. A few hapless men fall to the beasts, to the cultists, and to the tentacles that dwell in the water, but Eleanor calls for no retreat.

While her men and drones slaughter the beasts and the cultists, Eleanor retraces Charles steps, his memories guiding her all the way to Cthygonnaar. As she slips beneath the water in her new and improved Big Sister suit, Eleanor smiles at the irony of her returning to the waves once more.

It’s easy for Eleanor to avoid going mad from the strange, huge sea creatures that live beneath Oakmont; she’s got Delta, Jack, Dr. Reid, and Charles playing defense in her mind. As for the aggressive fish that patrols the waters, she does what Charles was unable to do and kills it. With that done, she proceeds into  Cthygonnaar.

Despite all her preparations, Eleanor was not ready for the sheer horror of  Cthygonnaar. She walks through a recollection of Rapture, London and Oakmont, memories of Delta, Sofia Lamb, Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, Dr. Alexander Gilbert, Father Simon Wales, and even herself, accosting her mentally, saying things that she remembers perfectly, and things she has no memory of. Worse, the memories of Delta, Jack, Dr. Reid, and Charles Reed haunt her as well. Scenes of atrocities committed in London during the Skal Epidemic, in Oakmont when the Flood arrived, and in Rapture during the Civil War. Then, a long walk as citizens of London, Oakmont, and Rapture give into despair.

The last is a woman whose clothing changes from a young girl’s dress, to an Edwardian ensemble, then to a Rapturian outfit, and finally to the Rapturian outfit but torn and stained with dirt and blood.

“This world values children, not childhood,” the woman says, her eyes blank and cold. “There’s a profit to be made...and men who make it.”

After she disappears, Eleanor ventures into a pit of bones, of the Seeds who came before her. She looks up at the memory of one sacrificing himself to restart the cycle, this cosmic wheel of blood, shakes her head, and continues forward.

At the crossroads, she removes the Seal from the pedestal which Charles had chosen, allowing him to escape his destiny. The first Seed to choose not to sacrifice himself, and he chooses to run away? “Pathetic,” Eleanor says to herself.

She takes the Seal to the middle pedestal, the one in front of the cyclopean, eldritch door. Further on, she can see the pedestal that’s been chosen before again and again, the one that would restart the cycle.

Without a second thought, Eleanor places the Seal on the middle pedestal and the massive door slowly rises. Eleanor walks forward, ready to greet the Hidden Daughter. From the strange, ghostly shadows emerges dozens upon dozens of tentacles, surrounding a huge circular maw. Rising into the air, Eleanor screams as she feel her body being destroyed on a molecular level before being drawn into the Hidden Daughter’s mouth.

Back up in Oakmont, the personnel of Ryan Private Security look up at the huge incoming tidal wave and scream in fear. The cultists cheer with insane joy and triumph, and the wylebeasts give up one last roar just before the waves engulfs them all. First Oakmont, then Massachusetts, and finally the entire eastern coast of the continental United States is consumed by the monstrous wave.

From the waves now covering the completely sunken city, the Hidden Daughter, Cthylla, the greatest of all the children of Cthulhu the Dreamer, emerged from the depths. Johannes Van Der Berg appeared to greet her, casting off his suit, both the one of cloth and the one of false Humanity, revealing his true self: Hastur, the King in Yellow. For an eternity, he waited patiently for her to be allowed into the world, so that they could finally consummate their nuptials. The kiss they share is loving, and beyond disgusting.

Far off in the Pacific Ocean, the Dreamer Himself, Cthulhu awakens and rises to the surface, beginning his journey. After all, he is needed to give his daughter away to her new husband now. This wedding will be one to remember the world, and reality, over.

A little ways away from Hastur and Cthylla, Eleanor, or the Thing Who Was Eleanor, rises from the wave herself. The pain of destruction had quickly given way to the bliss of creation as the Daughter remade Eleanor in her own image. 

Eleanor became a fusion of Human traits, and of the Great Old Ones. The upper half of her face could pass for Human, were it not so big and only had one pair of eyes. Her mouth, on the other hand, was now like a great leech’s, and could protrude out from her face like a butterfly’s proboscis. The form of her upper torso was still Human, but colored black and green and perpetually moist. Her legs were gone, replaced by a multitude of tentacles, almost like a living, squirming long skirt. More eyes and leech mouths dotted her body; when a mouth or eye closed, it would open to reveal that it had become the other. The palms of her hands now each had one such eye/mouth, and her nails were replaced with huge great claws. Two huge wings like a bat’s extended out from her back, perfect for flying through the air or swimming underwater.

Eleanor could feel her power, now increased beyond anything she could have ever imagined or comprehended before. Her senses, Human and Vampiric, are greater than ever, allowing her to see the entire electromagnetic spectrum and beyond, to hear sounds and thoughts from a continent away, to taste emotions and thoughts, to feel the Earth’s, Moon’s, and Sun’s gravitational and magnetic fields, to smell the decay of the atoms, and so much more. 

She admires her new form in her reflection before looking back up. It’s exactly like the day she escaped from Rapture, the sun now hidden behind a dark bank of clouds, water pouring from the sky, lightning flashing, and now corpses rising from the ruins of a destroyed city to float on the water’s surface. The world had indeed changed, and they had never seen her coming.

Half an ocean away, as Brigid Tenenbaum, Charles Milton Porter, Subject Artemis, and Geoffrey McCullum battle Orrin Lutwidge and his Mutants, they are all struck by a realization that something horrible has happened. Rapture itself then shakes around them as a huge shape ascends from the chasm where Sinclair built Persephone, its bright glow dimming as it awakens. The four would-be saviors of a dying city, having spent years building a new Thinker to create the cure for ADAM, are almost overwhelmed by a single, huge thought.

Tonight, the Good Hunter joins the Hunt.

[letsgofullpogue]

via ig - charles_esten

[mozart2006]

Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie - HOME(land)

Foto ©IHWA/FB La Hugo-Wolf-Akademie, Continue reading Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie – HOME(land)

[1anthophobia]

lets be fr bro would not take that well (especially if he already knew about cat king bothering edwin)

Just thinking about how Edwin is the only one who saw him like this

I want to know how Charles would have reacted if the Cat king pulled this on him

[postcard-from-the-past]

French vintage postcard, illustrated by Charles Berg

[pmg227]

Favorite Reads from November '23

“Books help to form us. If you cut me open, will you find volume after volume, page after page, the contents of every one I have ever read, somehow transmuted and transformed into me? Alice in Wonderland. The Magic Faraway Tree. The Hound of the Baskervilles. The Book of Job. Bleak House. Wuthering Heights. The Complete Poems of W.H. Auden. The Tale of Mr. Tod. Howards End. What a strange person…

[teecupangel]

An Inverse! Au where Desmond or whoever replaced him has Templar origins but, instead of "our" templars, the templars are the good guys and the assassins are evil? Like, Vieri De Pazzi goes on an arduous and wrought adventure to kill (I forgot Ezi's daddy's name rip)?

Since this is an Inverse AU, the Desmond of this AU would most definitely stayed with the Brotherhood and believed him to be the rightful mentor of the Brotherhood, making him the big bad and pretty much what can be considered as the final boss of the series.

So the main character would be either Lucy Stillman or Daniel Cross due to their connection with the Brotherhood and the Order.

Of course, Berg or Numbskull would be a good alternative main character to have a more acceptable way to infodump in the story because they’re new in the whole secret war thing.

The modern day plot would be the Order is now in small teams that have been driven underground thanks to the Brotherhood holding a Great Purge under the last mentor and now the Assassins are hunting for any survivors.

The Animus is the Templars last ditch effort to find a way to create a counterattack against the Assassins’ relentless hunting.

And to do that…

They have to ask help from the descendants of Templars of old who are also being hunted down by the Assassins because they know the Templars are developing the Animus and they have their own.

Unorganized Notes

The start of the Brotherhood’s corruption could be at any time but the three main possible triggers are: 1) From the start with Aya and Bayek being driven by their rage of Cleopatra’s betrayal, making the Hidden Ones much more vicious and more on the side of ‘destroy everything against us’, 2) Loki’s Isuness corrupting the Hidden Ones between Mirage and Valhalla and having long lasting effects even after his death or 3) Al Mualim raising Altaïr to be his heir and son, effectively turning him into the second Al Mualim

Personally I think 1 is the best option mostly so we can have this corruption start at the very core, becoming the foundation of the Assassins themselves.

Al Mualim used the Templars to get the Apple and used it to gain knowledge that would jumpstart the Brotherhood’s technological advancement. Altaïr continued what he started and drove the Brotherhood into the shadows because there’s an ongoing alliance of quite a lot of formidable foes that are trying to destroy Masyaf.

The Italian Brotherhood under Giovanni Auditore used the Medici family as their puppets exert control over the lands. The Pazzi conspiracy was meant to be a decoy to the real plan to destroy the Auditore family. This fails and most of the Pazzi die and Vieri de Pazzi is trained by Rodrigo Borgia to the ways of the Templar. His revenge is half successful in a way that he was able to cut off the strings between the Medici and the Brotherhood and deal a fatal blow to Giovanni (whether he lives or not is up to you). This, however, caused Ezio Auditore to take center stage and destroy the remaining Templars in a rain of blood and fire all the while Petruccio Auditore becomes the pope, effectively making the Church under Brotherhood control for as long as he reigns.

The Kenway drama unfolds in a different way with Haytham Kenway becoming a Templar to go against his father who has taken the mantle of mentor. Birch is now the guy who showed Haytham the errors of the Brotherhood’s way and this becomes a story of the Templars were able to destroy the Brotherhood in the colonies thanks to Shay (who, in this one, still defected because of Lisbon but less of a case of ‘people don’t communicate well in this game’ and more of a case of ‘it’s a shame but it cannot be helped’ mentality)

of course, this means Ratonhnhaké:ton becomes an Assassin for revenge because the burning of the village is still becomes of Washington and Charles Lee is a Templar but he still did as ordered (but, instead of hitting a kid hard, he orders him to run and shoots near his feet to force him to run). Ratonhnhaké:ton is trained by his grandfather in this one because Haytham couldn’t kill him and his aunt ends up being an Assassin who is mainly there to kill her own brother because he’s a ‘disgrace’)

Arno and Élise still have their forbidden love thing going on but, this time, it’s the Dorian family adopting Élise after her father is killed by an unknown ‘person’ (this turns out to be Jennifer Scott who was hunting Shay Cormac down). Charles Dorian dies because he tried to unite the Brotherhood and the Order. Eventually, it’s found out that he was killed by Bellec and Arno kills him out of revenge. Élise doesn’t die on this one but they don’t end up together because Arno wishes to remain in the Brotherhood to do what his father tried to do but Élise doesn’t believe unity can be accomplished considering how merciless the Brotherhood is. She’s proven right as even to his death, Arno was known as a great Assassin but his call for peace was deemed ‘poisoned’ because he loved a Templar Grand Master

The twins did everything they did the game but, more chaotic. Maxwell Roth absolutely joined their cause because he’s just like that and this is actually an AU where Jack the Ripper doesn’t happen because Jacob AND Roth nurtured his hatred and wrath into something more refined and much more… well stealthier. In exchange, London has an urban legend about how the Reaper would walk the streets of London during that time, and all he sees will never be seen ever again.

[felassan]

Game Informer:

"Game Here's The Main Voice Cast For Dragon Age: The Veilguard by Charles Harte on Jul 22, 2024 at 11:24 AM We've spent the past several weeks covering Bioware's upcoming RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard as part of our cover story, and part of that content has focused on the game's colorful cast of characters. Today, Bioware has revealed the actors voicing this lineup of characters, including the different options for the protagonist Rook's voice. Here they are, alongside roles you might recognize them from: - Rook will be played by Alex Jordan (Cyberpunk 2077, The Amazing World of Gumball), Bryony Corrigan (Baldur’s Gate 3, Good Omens), Erika Ishii (Apex Legends, Destiny 2), and Jeff Berg (Battlefield 1, NCIS) - Harding will be played by Ali Hillis (Mass Effect 3, Naruto) - Davrin will be played by Ike Amadi (Mass Effect 3, Halo 5: Guardians, Marvel's Spider-Man) - Bellara will be played by Jee Young Han (Perry Mason, Unprisoned) - Neve will be played by Jessica Clark (True Blood, Pocket Listing) - Taash will be played by Jin Maley (Star Trek: Picard, Silicon Valley) - Emmrich will be played by Nick Boraine (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Black Sails) - Manfred will be played by Matthew Mercer (Critical Role, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth) - Lucanis will be played by Zach Mendez (Horizon Forbidden West, Married Alive) Finally, Solas and Varric's voice actors, Gareth David-Lloyd and Brian Bloom, respectively, will reprise their roles from Dragon Age Inquisition. For more on the cast of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, check out our features on Bioware's companion design philosophy, how companions can romance each other, and ways to customize Rook's appearance, outside of their four voice options. Or, feel free to click the link to the hub below."

[source]

[t-s-n]

in sixth grade i was obsessed with 9/11 and the holocaust for a while and then when that died out i got into the stock market and mark zuckerberg i had a mark zuckerberg wallpaper on my laptop. i was also in love with him not even the jesse eisenberg mark but the actual guy like i thought he was soooo cute i told my friend charles i wanted to zuck that berg also he moved schools charles i miss you you were my only friend actually i saw him at target recently but i was stoo scared to say hi. charles not mark.