#creating chimera rant

[technicallydelightfulpenguin]

In my rewrite, Meanie is a biblically acurrated wrath bissexual imp who really care about the others, like Sallie May who is a cis woman and a lesbian imp. Moxxie for me is a biblically acurrated hybrid between a wrath and a greed imp who is heterossexual/straight cis men (no, i don't think he is bissexual, for me he is straight).

controversial opinion ahead; Millie should have been bisexual

💀 For the longest time, I thought Millie was bisexual thanks to the fandom gaslighting me. Only to find out that Loona is the bisexual one and Millie is the token straight girl.

[bonefall]

i dont think people are upset that the erins "weren't creative" enough with Moonpaw, they're upset that she's just. not a chimera. thats just a longhaired tortie and they justified it with chimerism. which is extremely insensitive because chimerism is a real medical thing that can cause issues in every species, including humans for those that dont know, and thats like. a big thing.

like, yay some disability rep (depending on how they write it. it wont be good. ughh) but like. its not going to be considered a disability when it can be in some cases. they are just going to say "ohh shes so special!!" like some people say with autism in this age (the infantilization of it) and its gonna be. weirdddd

anyways. sorry for ranting in your inbox.

Hey. Woah. THIS is insensitive and I don't know where you're getting this from. NONE of the three types of natural chimerism are a disability and it is extremely rare that fusion chimerism leads to medical complications.

Do not spread misinformation about a genetic condition because you're annoyed about the writing team confusing a common tortie fur pattern with chimerism. THEIR mistake is ultimately harmless. What YOU'RE doing is stigmatizing.

Quite frankly, after seeing a bunch of posts and receiving several asks about this, I don't think half of the people who are getting mad actually know anything about chimeras. I sure as fuck hope it's just ignorance, and that you aren't out here trying to call the state of being intersex a disability.

But I can fix ignorance. No need to assume malice. I will explain what chimerism is, and why you should stop going around implying it "causes issues in every species."

Chimerism is when a single individual is comprised of cells from two or more fully fertilized zygotes. There are two BROAD types of chimerism;

Artifical

Natural

Artifical chimeras are common with the advent of modern medicine. Ever had a blood transfusion? Organ transplant? You are a chimera. Or at least were for a while.

THIS can lead to complications and can cause disability, but it's not what Moonpaw is. She would be a type of natural chimera, which in and of itself has THREE subtypes;

Micro chimerism

Blood chimerism

Fusion chimerism

Microchimerism is so common that I could make a Your Mom joke out of it. It's caused by the passage of cells between the fetus and placenta during pregnancy. Everyone who has ever been pregnant is a microchimera.

While it can lead to complications, it can also be beneficial. Pregnancy could be considered a type of temporary disability, but no one would expect disability rep from every character who had ever given birth.

Blood chimeras are common in species whose twins typically share a placenta, such as cows and marmosets, but very rare in animals like humans and cats which usually don't. It occurs when tissue between two twins is exchanged through the umbilical chord. This type of chimera often ends up with a mixed bloodtype, hence the name.

This is the cause of freemartinism in cattle, when fraternal cow twins cause a sister to share her brother's hormones and act more like a bull. A type of intersex condition, not a disability-- so I sure HOPE you aren't trying to imply THIS should be "disability rep."

And even in the other case, would you automatically expect disability rep from a character that has two blood types?? No. Just like you wouldn't automatically expect disability rep from every character that had ever been pregnant, or every character who had ever needed a blood transfusion

And lastly, the one that Moonpaw ACTUALLY is. A fusion chimera. These are created when two fully fertilized zygotes fuse into a single individual.

These are extremely rare because you can't usually TELL when an individual is a chimera. There is no obvious physical difference between the "halves," with some cases of doctors insisting that patches are just weird birthmarks. They live their entire lives with normal health problems like non-chimeras. It mostly causes complications when DNA testing results in a false negative-- because the offspring of a fusion chimera occasionally end up being their genetic nespring.

Or, the two "halves" are male and female, causing gonadal differences. These people aren't disabled, there's nothing wrong with their bodies, but they're subjected to unneccesary cosmetic surgeries as children because they are intersex.

Say it. SAY IT. INTERSEX. I N T E R S E X. IM GRABBING YOU BY THE SHIRT AND SHAKING YOU THEY ARE INTERSEX.

Can some intersex conditions cause disabilities? YES. Are intersex conditions inherently disabilities? NO. Even when you're discussing infertility as a disability, tread VERY CAREFULLY because intersex people are fighting very hard to lift the stigma over their bodies.

Speak with care. Do not equate being intersex with being disabled. They are two different things.

You can be both and sometimes one could contribute to the other, but BEING intersex IS NOT a disability.

VERY rarely, even MORE rare than standard chimeras which are already very very rare and massively underreported because they are so unremarkable, a fusion chimera will happen LATE in utero. THIS can contribute to a chronic autoimmune condition where the cells reject each other, which is a disability.

And by rare I mean one case. Literally one. Of the 50 reported fusion chimeras in the review I'm referencing, Taylor Muhl was the only one with this. 4 were discovered via congenital abnormalities (unknown if connected to the chimerism b/c they were only tested because something was already wrong), 17 had fertility issues, and the remaining 28 didn't report immune conditions or birth defects but INTERSEXUALITY.

ANOTHER condition is often lumped in with chimerism, by people who do not know what chimerism is, which is mosaicism. Mosaicism, when there are two different sets of genes resulting from the same zygote, is NOT chimerism. MOSAICISM can be a cause of disability. CHIMERISM is usually not.

(Read the review in depth, as it includes mosaic cases for the sake of completion.)

They can both be fertilization errors, but are not the same thing. Follow me, I'm only going to woefully simplify a complicated topic once,

CHIMERA = Two zygotes in one body

MOSAIC = Two bodies in one zygote

CHIMERA = usually fine

MOSAIC = usually bad

And the last possible places you could be getting the idea that chimerism "causes disability" from, to my knowledge, is 1. This study that says the loss of a twin in early pregnancy increases the chance of congenital defects in the survivors (has barely anything to do with chimerism, this link is tangential, vanishing twin syndrome does not necessarily mean it was absorbed by its sibling)

Or, 2, this study of several animals where they correlated rates of benign tumors to % of chimerism based on SPECIES. BLOOD chimeras. It's COWS AND MARMOSETS AGAIN. The study ITSELF calls for further targeted research of chimerism cause of susceptibility to cancer.

It couldn't even link new growths or malignant tumors to chimerism in the mammals of its study. WE'RE mammals.

Correlation does not equal causation. Statistics 101.

So no. That's not "a big thing." Chimerism is fine, they're just very likely to be intersex if they're a fusion chimera of a male and a female zygote. Do not imply intersexuality is a disability. Please get mad about the actual ableism in the series, not the team being clueless about tortie patterns.

Also everyone say you're sorry to intersex Moonpaw. I better see you people making intersex Moonpaw pride flag edits as penance IMMEDIATELY.

UPDATE: Anon apologized! Growth! I still think this is an important post, especially in the context of the wider fandom conversation, so I'm leaving it as-is. Please feel free to reblog.

UPDATE 2: Clarification on infertility as a disability because I didn't word myself very well in one section!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ryan Adamczeski at The Advocate:

Donald Trump has nominated out lesbian Tammy Bruce to be the U.S. Department of State's spokesperson — though the Fox News contributor would likely take issue with the gender neutral term. Trump recently made the announcement on Truth Social, in which he cited Bruce's background as a “liberal activist in the 1990s" who supposedly “saw the lies and fraud of the Radical Left, and quickly became one of the strongest Conservative voices on Radio and Television.” “It is my great honor to announce that Tammy Bruce will be joining our incredible Nominee for United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State,” he wrote. Bruce, who has been a contributor at Fox since 2019, has a history of making inflammatory comments on air, including claiming she regretted getting the COVID-19 vaccine and going on several bizarre rants against gender neutral language. She said in a 2021 segment with Fox & Friends co-host Pete Hegseth that she wished she could “give back” the vaccine. "We've got an order that is frankly going to compel some people to not get the vaccine because of this kind of distrust that continues," Bruce said on Fox News Primetime. "In certain ways, it's like, 'If I could give it back!' at this point, you know?"

Bruce was president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women in the early 1990s and a member of NOW's national board "until she saw the conservative light," according to her official Fox News biography. She went on another tirade in 2021 slamming President Joe Biden for saying "all women and men are created equal," which she was widely mocked for at the time.

Donald Trump nominates lesbian quisling Fox contributor Tammy Bruce to be the State Department’s spokesperson.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: Trump nominates lesbian Fox host who believes Dems are making “human-animal chimera” from Hell

[ksbbb]

I have an ask that’s turned into a rant, sorry, buckle up!!

I always find it interesting that The Dread Doctors took Liam. They knocked out everyone else to get to Hayden but took Liam, which as far as we know is unusual because they have never taken a pre-existing supernatural. Genetic chimeras are humans with current or past DNA abnormalities or organ/tissue issues, which is cured when turned into supernaturals with healing capabilities. The only medical conditions this does not apply to are ones that are neurodivergent. And which character has a neurodivergent condition in the show… Liam Dunbar with I.E.D. So logically speaking wouldn’t this technically make him an advanced version of a genetic chimera?

I personally think it’s a missed opportunity to not explore Liam’s time with The Dread Doctors, was he a contingency? did they want to experiment on him?, did want to create a new form of chimera with Liam?, did they think Liam was unique because he’s stronger the most other werewolves?

AND just imagine chimeras Liam and Theo… complete power couple. Either way if you’re interested in writing something with this and Thiam I would be eternally in love with you.💜

This is a fun idea! I love season 5 too. It’s one of my favorites. I’ll definitely keep this as something I can write when I have the chance. Anything with the chimeras can be developed more. There’s so much potential.

[siriuslysatorusimping]

HAVE U READ THE NEW JJK LEAKS

"(ง'̀-'́)ง

MY SWEET FIGHTING ANON, HOW ARE YOU??

I’ve seen a few lil snippets but I’d stopped really keeping up with the leaks. I will say I LOVE that some of you immediately messaged me upon seeing the leaks 🥹😂 it made my morning to see messages in my inbox 💕 (this is my not subtle nudge to everyone that I love hearing from you guys, even if it’s just life updates or random shit. Pls, I get lonely 🥺)

Side note for the other sweet anon who messaged, I can’t answer that ask rn bc of obvious reasons, but I SEE YOU AND THINK OF THIS AS MY RESPONSE TO YOU AS WELL!!! IT MADE ME SO HAPPY INSIDE THAT YOU CALLED ME 'LOVE,' BTW. MY HEART DID A LIL JUMPY. 🥹💕

As for the leaks?

Me @ everyone losing their shit:

Spoilers for JJK 260 and a huge fucking Kiko rant below the cut.

I’ll believe it when it’s really confirmed. From what I saw, it was the last panel and there’s speculation on whether it’s really him or if Sukuna is seeing shit as he dies or any of the crazy possibilities.

That being said, if Gojo really is back, WELCOME BACK, YOU WONDERFUL, TRAUMATIZED BLUE-EYED BEAN OF A MAN. WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH.

And now my rant begins…

I’m on the fence. In all honesty, I think I’d finally accepted his death tbh. Because I remembered something that’s actually really interesting: some of the very best stories have stakes. They have death because it’s unfortunately a part of life. Gojo isn’t the MC of JJK, even though he’s an incredible character and I adore him and I still hate how he went out.

But while I still hate how that played out, I was actually thinking recently about how much credit we really don’t give Akutami. Writing is hard. World-building is hard. And he’s created a universe that’s truly incredible. The countless number of cursed techniques he’s written into the story, the number of characters he’s given depth possible without even meaning to? Genuinely incredible. He’s done something amazing. I had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment of realization that he’s actually an incredible story-teller. The story he’s built in his mind is amazing and I’m so glad he’s decided to share it with us. We’ve questioned him because we didn’t have all the pieces he has, but he’s said time and time again that he has things planned and he’s had things planned since the beginning. The medium he’s using to tell the story necessitates it being a bit choppy because he can’t explain every little thing every single time. There will be holes and gaps and things he reveals over time for the sake of the story he’s planned, and I know I forgot that fact when I was angry and grieving. (I’ve also been just losing my shit lately at how stupid some people are saying Akutami hates anime fans just because he killed Choso off. The number of comments I’ve seen about ‘hot characters aren’t allowed to die’ is just… these characters are more than eye candy. They have a purpose and emotional value in the story, specifically Choso as a big brother figure for Yuuji.) okay, fun lil side rant over lol

I think we forget that this is a shonen manga. Shonen are notorious for killing characters. I think of Hunter x Hunter, which Akutami has said is a big inspiration for him, the Chimera Ant Arc seemingly killed over half the cast. I’ve also seen a lot of anger at Akutami for him saying that he doesn’t care how many characters die as long as it’s a good story, and I think people missed the point because they were angry their favorite character died. But the thing is, he has a point. If the character deaths push the story forward, then it works. Yuuji has clearly had a power up that wouldn’t have happened if Gojo hadn’t died. On top of that, we criticized the month-long time skip, but these big reveals couldn’t have happened without it. So while it felt jarring, and it still doesn’t sit quite right with me, I understand why Akutami’s logic now. Again, I think of Hunter x Hunter’s chimera arc and how Gon had to watch Kite die and then fight his puppet corpse. Talk about traumatizing a fucking twelve year old. And adding to that, Akutami has literally said that this is meant for adults. He’s writing with an adult, predominantly male, audience in mind because that’s been the primary demographic for shonen for decades. So no, he isn’t writing with the female audience, or the young female audience, in mind because that’s not the genre he’s targeting. It just so happens that there’s been a huge surge in American teenagers obsessively consuming Asian media in the past few years and now it’s wildly popular among that demographic.

Basically what I’m saying is that gen z has developed the female counterpart for the fedora-wearing weirdos with waifu pillows in the obsession with hot guys in manga/anime. The difference is that they’re raging about a story following its chosen genre. But this is me generalizing things a lot and it obviously doesn’t apply to the majority of fans. I’m pretty sure a large part of our lil corner here is on the older end of gen z or younger millennial, but I could be wrong. Actually, I’d love to know what that split is 🤔 maybe I’ll do a poll.

ANYWAY, SORRY FOR THE RANT. IT WAS ME WORD-VOMITING TO START THE DAY. I HOPE YOU HAVE A LOVELY DAY OR AFTERNOON OR NIGHT!

[mysteriousmaninthesmoke]

Start - Previous - Next - Latest

HELLO!!

I'm back with more PROJECT CHIMERA. I also decided to uses this little space as a short rant before getting into the story. It just doesn't feel right just going in with the title and making a long looking post. So theses rants will be above the the title keep reading section.

Also, I got an ask about if you can do fanart. I'm totally cool with that but I suggest you wait till I give you some actual descriptions which will come later. Thats right you will be seeing more of Thorn and O'hare (and maybe some other test subjects).

I also decided to do separate paragraphs so it's easier to read. Yeah sorry about the first one I was excited and wanted to get that out as soon as I could.

Before I begin if you like this story may I ask you to reblog so more people may have the chance to see it. You don't have to if you don't want to but I would really appreciate it. Now onto

PROJECT CHIMERA Part 2

As the metal doors opened General Samuel let out a gasp in fear. The scientist walked forward onto the catwalk. "Say hello to the true Project CHIMERA!" He said with a massive grin on his face that went ear to ear. Infront of Sam was a massive reinforced glass vat with filled with green bubbling. But that was not what Sam was afraid of floating in that liquid.

The creature had a dragonic face that sported razor-sharp teeth and bull-like horns. Around its neck was a mane of blood-red fur, and its shoulder and chest were like hard armadillo shells. On its back was a turtle-like shell with spikes covering it. Its arms and legs were covered in scales, and its hands and feet had razor-sharp claws. It even had three tails that ran from its rear, each ending with sharp stingers. It must have been at least 200 feet tall.

The general was in shock. "This was not part of the project." he said staring at the beast in front of him. "Hm, what was dear general?" the scientist said. Sam picked the scientist up off the ground by the lab coat "WHO THE HELL DID YOU TURN INTO CREATURE THANATOS!" He yelled. "This project shouldn't go this far. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

The scientist's only response was a laugh. "Oh, dear general I'm not Dr. Thánatos." Sam was in shock again that he dropped the man. "What" "Oh, more questions dear general guess I'll answer your second question later." The scientist walked to the catwalk rails, admiring his work.

"My name is Vector Tallyon, but Tallyon is just fine. You could call me a disciple of Dr. Thánatos. He is such a brilliant man that he can't just let his knowledge be contained to one person. As for why he isn't here, he unfortunately can do only so many projects at a time. So when he heard about the project from his sources he decided I was a perfect fit. I pride myself on my work on how body way adapts and how a species evolves."

Tallyon turned to face the general "Now you do not need to worry. This is not one of the soldiers the government gave me. When I saw this project I was a bit disappointed. Only changing one soldier into one creature. That seems so wasteful when there are so many wonderful traits that they could have, but they only get a few. And why give this project the name of CHIMERA. A chimera is a creature with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail, a fusion of beasts" Sam growled "I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR TWISTED THINKING! WHO IS IN THAT VAT OF LIQUID!"

Tallyon just chuckled. "Oh them. Their no one" "WHAT!' Sam yelled. "You see I was told to evolve your soldiers. But I was not doing that. I was adapting them, changing them. An evolution is the next generation. SO THAT IS WHAT I CREATED!" Tallyon spread his arm out into the air, with the creature floating behind him in its vat.

Sam was in shock once more "You mean to say-" "THAT'S RIGHT DEAR GENERAL! It's child's play for me to bring new life into this world with science, and it is very simple to alter its DNA and hormones before it is born. It is only 12 months old and look how powerful it is."

Sam couldn't handle it anymore. "That is enough! I am shutting this project down. You have deviated from what the government has tasked you to do and have broken multiple laws. You are finished." He turned around to leave when something landed on the catwalk in front of him.

"Let me tell you something General Samuel of the United States army. You will not be shutting anything down." In front of him stood an orange and white bipedal tiger with black stripes on its shoulders, head, legs, and upper body. It also had one black claw coming out of each of its wrists. "

"Ah, I think it's about time I answer your second question in general." Tallyon said from behind the general "This is Doctor Tony Harris. He was once a field surgeon for the army before he was dismissed for his suspected unnatural medical practices on an enemy soldier. After he did surgery on that soldier, they showed strength which they used to escape that was beyond what they were capable of doing before. No one could prove a thing so he was just let go."

Tallyon moved past the general and to the side of Harris. "Me and him hit off so well that I decided to make him my right-hand man." Sam was having enough of all these surprises. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Tallyon. "I suggest you call off your beast before I fill you with lead Tallyon."

Tallyon only smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't do that dear general. Not unless you want people finding out about March 27." Sam had to take a step back "What?" Tallyon continued "March 27 a camp Starig. That was quite a day for you General. When you were just a private. Now toss the gun aside or you won't be the only one who knows what happened that day."

Sam was shaking. No one should know about that. He hid it so well. NO ONE SHOULD F*CKING KNOW! He quickly tossed the gun aside. "Fine. I won't do a thing. I'll give a report that everything is going as planned." Tallyon kept up his smirk "Good boy. You were smart enough to know what I wanted."

Tallyon began to walk away before turning around. "Oh, I never did tell you what happened to Private Gorgonzola and Private Tompson. Well, Dr. Thánatos got in contact with me a few days ago. He told me someone was poking around in some business of his that he want me to take care of. Private Tompson failed in his mission, though I believe Private Gorgonzola will not. The funny thing is our person of interest should be meeting the one who started this all. Dr. Thedore Hans Erian."

Miles away Dr. Thedore was finishing up some paperwork when he heard a knock at his door. "Just a minute." He got up from his desk and opened his door. Then suddenly he was punched straight in the face by a man wearing a black trench coat and a fedora hat.

This is the end of part 2. I finally got to the part where @ayviedoesthings doctor gets punched. That's not all I want to do with him but that will have to do for now. If you liked this I would appreciate it if you reblogged so more people will be able to see. I will see you when part 3 comes out.

Oh before that some patient-doctor confidentially is about to be broken. If any of you want to send me an ask or message with your character name and what creature they want to become you might be mentioned.

[dailyrandomwriter]

Day 567

Since today is Sunday and I don’t have plans for today, let me talk (rant) a bit about the weirdness of writing a Dungeons and Dragons fan comic. There is a lot I can talk about because the way Dungeons and Dragons work outside of modules is that it encourages players to use their source material as building blocks to create their own stories. This means you can just ignore the source material completely or pick and choose from that source material. Having the source material is not necessary but it does relieve some of the creative burden of having to create something from scratch.

That being said, let’s have a chat about the Find Familiar spell, because spoiler, the kids are going to learn that at some point. For those who aren’t familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, Find Familiar is a 1st level spell (meaning it is most likely baby wizard’s first spell outside of cantrip spells).

The first paragraph of that spell (because it’s a weirdly versatile spell for 1st level) reads as follows:

“You gain the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes an animal form you choose: bat, cat, crab, frog (toad), hawk, lizard, octopus, owl, poisonous snake, fish (quipper), rat, raven, sea horse, spider, or weasel. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the familiar has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of a beast.”

The first paragraph as shown above is vague enough that both players and dungeon masters definitely can take advantage of it.. Players can use the different forms to be able to spy or gain access to isolated places with their familiars, and there’s at least two spells a dungeon master could use that prevents a celestial, fey or fiend from gaining entrance to a location.

But that is on a game mechanic level.

The fact that you’re summoning a spirit that is either celestial, fey or fiend means something in a narrative, the question is… what does that mean? @wereah and I have had several conversations about what this means to have a familiar using this spell. Normally in a D&D game, this stuff is primarily flavour text and familiars don’t really have a personality.

Though that isn’t the fault of any of the players. There’s a lot going on in a game, and even players that want their familiar to be more than just a spell that they can use, it can be very hard to remember you have an existing creature with you. Even Frumpkin, the familiar of Liam O’Brien’s character Caleb Widogast, often became more of a prop, coming out in role play only when there was a comedic gag or emotional moment that required Frumpkin’s presence. And Liam really tried to make Frumpkin an important part of Caleb’s life, he was after all, accidentally, Caleb’s emotional support cat. It’s just really hard to do, and the fact that Frumpkin has several fanfiction stories dedicated to him speaks to how much effort Liam put into making Frumpkin his own character.

But what does this have to do with Chimera Academy and baby wizards?

Everything, because Chimera Academy is a narrative story, not a role play. It is much easier to give these familiars personality through a story to tell, rather than through role play. However, it brings the question… What does it mean to summon a familiar into your service?

More importantly, what does it mean to summon a celestial, fey or fiend spirit into your service?

How smart is this spirit?

What is the agreement when they come into your service?

Why would they come into your service?

How much independence do they really have?

It’s not something the spell as a game mechanic talks about, but it is something to consider if you’re writing a story and decide to shove a familiar into it.

[amethystskeleton]

Whoops my hand slipped, here's the whole essay :)

I’ve gotten a few requests for the full essay on this, which I am more than happy to oblige (really it’s only enabling me to rant about this idea and the mess that the writers caused by creating Theo as a character, which I am thrilled to talk about). First and foremost, warning for a long post. Secondly, I am genuinely so pleased that other people were interested in this when I posted it, because as I said, this has been something that has been rattling around in my brain since FOREVER. This is half a theory that comes from the writers not really understanding exactly what the existence of Theo as a character meant for the show (which is a whole other essay), and half from actual in-show evidence. This is all a personal interpretation though so please don’t take this as me trying to explain or follow canon perfectly. 

This will also deal with Theo and Malia specifically during Season 5A and 5B. Stiles is also pretty heavily prevalent with both Theo and Malia during this time frame, and there is a particular  theory I have that ties Stiles in here as well. However, it takes too long and requires too much suspension of disbelief to put in an essay like this rather than in fanfic format. So if anyone is specifically interested in a Stiles scene or moment from the show and how that might tie in, feel free to ask, but I’m not going to include the Stiles' involvement in all of this in essay formatting. (Maybe it will be a future fanfic or smth lol)

Also in general, yes I have watched all 6 seasons and I have seen 5A and 5B recently, but I’m not watching them while writing this, so everything here is based off of what I remember. 

That said, let's get into the essay!!

So the main question here bothering me about this was ‘what was the mission given to Theo by the Dread Doctors when he showed up in Beacon Hills?’

We know that the Dread Doctors showed up and got Theo to kill Tara between the ages of seven and eight. However Stiles then tells us that Theo didn’t leave town until he was nine or ten, so depending on exactly when things happened, there was at minimum 1-2 years where Theo was a chimera and still hanging around Beacon Hills. 

For me, this indicates that the Dread Doctors were willing to keep him around for a reason outside of just the Beast experiment. They clearly had a use for him and it was enough that they would keep him around and keep him safe despite being a “failure” in their eyes. I believe that this manifested in the form of Theo completing missions for the Dread Doctors that they themselves couldn’t do. 

When Gerard caught up with them in the tunnels and stopped them with the frequency emitter we see that they do have weaknesses. Being with them for eleven years Theo could have those weaknesses trained out of him as he wasn’t bound by the same limitations as the Doctors. Even though he is naturally more vulnerable to high pitched noises like Scott and other supernatural creatures, over time that resistance to noise could be built up. Which could lead to him being able to defend the Doctors against their weaknesses if the need arose.

So then we get to Episode One of S5A and Theo shows back up in Beacon Hills after eleven years. At this point he has survived and thrived with the Dread Doctors. He is very clearly good at his job and good at what he does. When Belasko breaks out of that wall with the assistance of Parrish, the first thing Belasko does is go after Scott. Now, if the Dread Doctors had placed Theo there to kill Scott, it makes no sense to send Belasko first. Belasko was already bleeding black liquid (mercury?) and doesn’t seem to be doing too well. There was no way he would have survived a fight with an Alpha, let alone a True Alpha with a full pack backing him. 

And yes the Dread Doctors could have placed him in the wall in order to keep him from breaking out on his own. Something which Parrish reversed by breaking him out, but if they were so worried about Belasko getting out, they would have just killed him. It seemed like they wanted to see if he was able to get out and survive like Theo did when he had his experiments. 

Additionally, with Belasko showing up as he did, it allowed for the pack to find out about the existence of chimera’s way faster than they probably would have without Belasko. Doing this and having Belasko out in the field, put Theo at a higher risk of discovery. Now the Dread Doctors probably didn’t care that much about the risk to Theo, however, at this point in time a risk to Theo was a risk to them as well.

Scott ends up ripping the talons out of Belasko. But Belasko didn’t seem to be doing too well before them anyways. Due to the lack of any other evidence of experiments being done to him, it’s reasonable to assume that the claws were the thing his body was rejecting. 

We see with both Theo and Corey that it is possible for a chimera to remain somewhat stable and not die from the experiments. I believe this is because the DNA needs to “match” in order to maintain stability whenever something is added to the body. Belasko’s talons were not something that he showed evidence of being able to retract, this implies that they were added onto after the fact and after being fully created separate from Belasko. With the talons, I theorize they were a mixture of eagle DNA and coyote DNA. Thus why the werewolf side of Belasko rejected them. They had the eagle chimera DNA in them but not a wolf’s DNA to match with Belasko who was a werewolf and garuda (i.e. wolf and eagle chimera). 

The reason I theorize it was coyote DNA and not wolf DNA was after Theo betrayed Malia and Braeden to the Desert Wolf, she tosses Theo the talons and when he catches them we see his eyes glow at the same time as the talons. This could happen due to the coyote DNA within Theo. Since he is a mixture of wolf and coyote DNA it would be a 50/50 chance of the talon’s working for him. If the coyote side was strong enough he would be able to steal power, but if the wolf side of him was too strong it would have killed him like it did with Belasko.

When Stiles shows up at the McCall house with the talons later on, Malia gets them onto her own claws and we see her eyes glow. Since the 100% coyote DNA within Malia matched to the coyote DNA in the talons, there was a 100% chance of it working and her being able to steal that power from her mother. 

Now prior to this when Scott gives Stiles the talons to bring to Malia he says that it was “something he had been working on for a while” and that it “was plan A”. He obviously knew about the threat of the Desert Wolf to Malia long before this; he just didn’t know how personal it was. I believe that he realized; a, what the talons did, when Belasko tried to steal his own power and b, that letting Malia go through with it was the best way to keep Malia safe against her mother as the Desert Wolf would let nothing but death stop her from getting her power back from Malia. 

Additionally, since he went through with the plan after his own death, Scott may have thought it was the only way to regain Malia’s trust and show her that he still trusted her in turn. We see in his conversation with his mom after she resurrects him that he feels like he’s lost his whole pack. She points out that he still has hope to give them. Scott sending the talons to Malia was him giving hope and trust over to her hands. He believed in what she was doing, and while he might not have liked that it came down to that, he knew what he was doing by sending her the talons. These realizations wouldn’t have been possible without Scott’s own death and the loss of his pack, both of which Theo facilitated.

During the conversation with Stiles at the gas station/while picking up Kira, Scott reveals that he always believed that he should be the one to “get blood on his hands” as a repayment for asking his friends to give up so much for him and his mission. I believe that by sending the talons, it's Scott’s way of dipping his own hands into the blood as well. He’s making sure that Malia doesn’t feel isolated in her guilt over the death of her mother. 

With bringing in Deucalion Theo knew Scott would ally himself to Deucalion, (although he probably didn’t know the full extent of their alliance until the big reveal) and would be able to tell Scott about the talons. Deucalion would confirm how they worked with Scott which would cement Scott’s plan for Malia into place. Deucalion would also be able to steal the talons back and get them to Scott who could get them to Malia. 

While there were other, less dramatic, ways to go about getting Scott to understand this point, Theo killing him and separating the pack up, worked as a distraction to get Scott behind Malia’s original plan, to get Malia behind her original plan, and split the pack up so they never realized that everything happening was intentional. 

Malia is the one character who’s goals/plans never seem to change throughout Theo’s appearance. We see Liam go from wanting Scott to save Hayden to then wanting to kill Scott to save Hayden. We see Stiles go from wanting to stay close and protect Scott to then wanting to keep Scott from finding out what happened with Donovan. Malia’s goals stay consistent from the beginning and are only invigorated by Theo’s words, actions and choices.

Additionally, during 5A we see that Theo’s main people who he manipulates are the three people most heavily involved with Malia and the death of the Desert Wolf. Obviously there is Malia who did the killing. Then there’s Scott who got Malia the talons in order to help steal her mothers power. And then there’s Stiles who brought Malia the talons. Before his reveal as a villain however, we see that these three are the main ones Theo focuses on. He becomes the therapist friend for Scott, he helps Stiles cover up the death of Donovan and he helps Malia with the plan to kill her mother. 

Focusing on the actual process of Theo’s mission however, there are two key things that don't make sense if Theo’s mission had been to kill Scott. First and foremost is his focus on Malia. We see time and time again he puts all his energy into getting close to Malia (and Stiles but he’s not important rn). He intentionally interacts with her and makes it very clear from the get go that he’s willing to help her go after her mother. 

He’s allying himself to Malia’s cause more than to Scott’s cause if he was just trying to gain access to the pack. He could have just as easily gotten himself into Scott’s pack by making them all push Malia away in fear of what she was going to do to her mother and then taking that spot of trust for himself. But he didn’t, he made Malia trust him specifically in regards to her mother and plan.

The second thing that doesn’t make sense about this, is when Liam goes after Scott. We don’t see any part of Theo’s conversation with Liam prior to Liam entering the library. All we have is the word of various different characters stating Theo’s involvement in that process. In fact the first time I watched S5 I thought the reason that we never saw Liam and Theo’s conversation outside of the library was because it was going to be revealed that the Liam in the library was another chimera shapeshifter who had shifted under Theo’s orders to look like Liam. 

Overall, if Theo’s goal had been to kill Scott, steal his power and get him out of the way, it would make more sense for there to be a greater focus on Theo’s relationship and direct manipulation of Liam. With it the way that it is, it seems as if Liam was more aware of his own actions and choices rather than being the focus of Theo’s manipulation. Not to say that Theo played no part in Liam’s fight with Scott because he undoubtedly did. But if the focus was on the stealing of that power, then Theo would have needed to put more focus into Liam rather than Malia 

That might be a small piece of evidence comparatively, but it’s such a poignant thing to me. 

However, the one thing that really tied this whole idea together for me was right before the Desert Wolf broke into the McCall house. Braeden sees the mountain ash was broken and then Tracy walks by the door. Tracy and the Desert Wolf had never interacted on screen before that. So that means that the Desert Wolf had some form of contact with Theo in order to get in contact with somebody who could get her past the barrier.

I highly doubt Theo would just share the fact that he was a chimera with random people that he had never met before so the Desert Wolf had to have known about the existence of chimera’s and the fact that they would be able to get her over the barrier. In fact, given how desperate she was to get her power back, I wouldn’t doubt if she had gone to the Dread Doctors before in an attempt to get her power back through them. 

This would have given the Doctors experimental access to the Desert Wolf and untapped coyote DNA. They would have taken that deal 100%. And if they never gave her more power, they would have a coyote who was constantly returning to them in an attempt to gain more power. They would be keeping her addicted to the idea of more power, without actually providing it. However, the Desert Wolf realized they weren’t helping her and decided to try another route. 

This route being through Deaton and the supernatural way of stealing back power. The Dread Doctors would have heard about this or figured out her plan and sent Theo to interfere and help Malia steal the Desert Wolf’s power. With Malia now having the power, she would be in Beacon Hills with the Nemeton, closer to the Doctors and their lab, and have even more power due to having the full power of the Desert Wolf and being a Hale by birth. Malia getting the power would have been more appealing to them than the Desert Wolf getting the power.

Right after Tracy breaks the barrier, the next time we see her is after Theo’s fight with the Beast. I highly doubt Theo was planning on getting injured during that fight (cocky little shit) but I do think he was still planning on killing Tracy regardless. Due to her involvement in the Malia/Desert Wolf plan it left her as a loose end. If Braeden ever saw or recognized Tracy after the power transfer, she might have figured out what was going on, or told someone who could figure out what had happened. This realization would have put Theo and the Dread Doctors at further risk. So Tracy wouldn’t be allowed to live. Thus leading to the messy nature of her death with Theo being too injured to kill her in any other manner than how he did. 

With hindsight of Theo betraying Malia for her mother we realize that Theo must have been able to contact the Desert Wolf on his own. If she had been using the Dread Doctors as a power supplier Theo would have been able to easily track her down. We find out when Braeden returns that the Desert Wolf has found out about Malia’s plan, but we never find out just how she knows. But with Theo’s betrayal it opens a pathway there. He could have gotten into contact with the Desert Wolf (either pre-meeting Scott or post-meeting Scott when he first returned to Beacon Hills) and offered a trade. Malia for the talons, which he knew Deaton would be carrying. He most likely also knew where Deaton would go for more information on the Dread Doctors and told the Desert Wolf how to find the Doctor’s second lab to kidnap Deaton. This trade got the talons back into the Beacon Hills circulation where they were more accessible to Scott and Malia for the final plan.

Taking all of this into account, I believe that Theo’s mission from the Dread Doctors was to get Malia to kill her mother, thus transferring the power of the Desert Wolf into Malia. He chose to go about this by first splitting up the pack but allying himself to Malia so that when she had nobody else she would turn to him for support. When she did turn to him for help Theo used her to track the location of the Desert Wolf/Deaton who he knew was carrying the talons. He then contacted the Desert Wolf and offered the trade of Malia for the talons. After “falling prey” to Deucalion’s manipulation and leaving the talons behind Deucalion was able to steal them away and get them to Scott which allowed for Scott to get the talons to Stiles to get to Malia. Then sending Tracy to break the mountain ash barrier, and with Theo being busy with the Beast, he allowed the Desert Wolf to get to Malia. After which he killed Tracy to cover his tracks and make sure that the pack believed his mission of killing Scott and stealing his power to be a failure. Then once Stiles arrived with the talons, Malia was able to put them on and kill her mother and steal her power, thus completing Theo’s mission without him being suspected or the pack trying to stop him. 

Presumably the Dread Doctors had further plans for powered-up Malia after this, however with the success of the Beast experiments they forgot/moved on quickly and were then killed by the Beast. 

In conclusion Theo’s manipulation abilities are significantly more terrifying than previously and the writers missed out on such a great opportunity to go full out in the later seasons. Again as I said in the beginning, this is all really just a theory so it might have some holes but I am always open for discussion if someone wants to add something or discuss parts of this. 

If you made it this far, congratulations, you have reached the end of the analysis.

Hopefully you enjoyed it!!

amethystskeleton

💜💜💜

Theo Raeken’s original mission in Beacon Hills, given to him by the Dread Doctors, had nothing to do with killing Scott, and was actually about getting Malia to kill her mother instead. In this essay I will-

[flightless-rising]

Made a new Flight Rising iceberg and also wrote an explanation.. man, this took way longer than it should have.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy :D

Iceberg explanation

( If there are any mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this asap. Also, English isn't my first language so please forgive me for any grammatical errors)

EDIT 28/06: Added some new info! Thanks to everyone who tagged and responded with new stuff to add, I really appreciate it!

The Sky

Naomi

Back in the day, whenever you bought or sold something on the auction house a message would show up in your inbox confirming the transaction. These messages were sent by one of the dragon couriers: Pearl, Spitfire or Edgar.

On January 2016, a strange glitch occurred that replaced the images and names of couriers with the ones of a female fae named “Naomi”.

It goes deeper than that, though: if you looked up her name in the user search menu, a clan would pop up with over 15 million dragons.

It was quickly discovered that all exalted dragons had somehow become part of her clan. Naomi herself apparently didn’t exist, and clicking on her page redirected to an error page. This was later fixed and the original Naomi page can be now visited.

What exactly caused this glitch is still a mystery and today Naomi is still a well-known piece of Flight Rising history.

Missing Tidelord

In the official lore, the deity of the water flight disappeared in early 2018, as described in the short story “Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow”.

In the follow up story (Mixed Elements) posted in April of the next year it is confirmed that the Tidelord is still missing, but alive. This coincides with the fact that the Tidelord account hasn’t made any forum posts aside from festival announcements.

Emperors

Emperors are a type of unobtainable dragon that are formed when several Imperial corpses are left in close proximity to each other, which then fuse forming a multi-headed chimera.

Emperors are described in the lore as having an animal-like behavior and destroying everything in sight. They are extremely difficult to kill, which is the reason why in-universe Imperials have such strange burial rites.

An emperor named Luminax is first described in the Raising a Family short story, and their sprite can be seen walking around on the world map.

The Surface

Old color wheel

Originally, there were only 67 available colors for dragons. On June 8th 2016, 110 more colors were added, meaning that currently there are a total of 177 colors available.

When making a custom progenitor dragon, it is only possible to choose among the 67 original colors because it would be otherwise unfair for those who made their account before the new colors were added.

Imperial breed scrolls

Imperial breed change scrolls are one of, if not the most, rare type of item on the site. They were given only to those who pledged 30 dollars or more on the original Flight Rising kickstarter.

At the time, this was the only way of obtaining an Imperial dragon, which meant that the breed as a whole was pretty valuable. Now that Imperials are abundant this is no longer the case, but First generation Imperials are still extremely sought and probably the most expensive type of dragon on the site.

There were also other items that were only given to Kickstarted backers, namely Skycats, Bonefiend, Golden Idol and Cogfrog familiars, and those are also pretty much impossible to obtain.

Baldwin breed change

When Baldwin was introduced in 2015 he was originally a Pearlcatcher. On September 14th of 2016 however his site art started to gradually change, until his transformation was completed five days later.

In-universe, Baldwin started to change after a lightning strike hit his cauldron during an experiment, which made him slowly mutate into the breed we now know as Bogsneaks.

Trans Fiona

When Fiona was added as a trading post dragon people speculated that she was trans, because the female pose for Skydancers only displays two antennae, while the male one has four.

Since Fiona has four antennae in her site art, many wondered whether it was an oversight or actually intended. Aequorin later confirmed in a forum thread that Fiona is indeed trans.

Boolean

Speaking of rare items, the Boolean familiar was only given to a handful of Flight rising beta testers and as such is extremely rare and valuable.

Plaguebringer coli team

On the Plaguebringer’s page she is listed as being part of a coliseum team.

As of now we have no clue as to why this is, and even more strangely she is the only deity that does this.

Boston & Hope

This story is a bit complicated. I’ve scoured the forums in search of info but it seems like there are still some pieces missing. I’ll try my best to explain anyway.

So, for a long while the Lightweaver was the only deity that had other dragons aside from herself in her lair: these dragons were a Spiral named Boston and a Tundra named Hope. Strangely, they were both Earth dragons and apparently have been there since the beginning (?). When asked why (this happened back when deities would interact on the forums) the Lightweaver responded that they were having a dinner party together.

In August 2014 during a pretty heated dominance battle between Shadow and Light Boston and Hope disappeared from the Lightweaver’s lair.

The Shadowbinder now had them, and both their elements were alsochanged to Shadow. The two deities acknowledged this and changed their broadcast messages accordingly.

If I had to guess this was some kind of inside joke that the admins had, although some people got angry that the Shadowbinder now had both Hope and Boston. Some time later(?) Boston was returned to the Lightweaver and for some reason his element was changed to wind.

I don’t have any more info on the matter but if some of you do I would appreciate it if you tell me.

Shallow Waters

Eyepocalypse

On June 8th 2018 eye type variants were introduced. This update was pretty controversial for a bunch of reasons, and the topic is still discussed today. The majority of people(?) seemed to be upset by the fact the “best” eye types (primarily goat, primal and multi-gaze) could only be displayed on dragons that were born with them, and the fact that every dragon born prior to the update couldn’t have these eye types at all displeased a lot of users.

Another problem was the fact that most of the non-special eye types (i.e the only ones that could be applied to already existing dragons using a vial of Scattersight) were not clearly visible on the grand majority of adult dragons.

A smaller(?) complaint was that two of the primal eye types, Shadow and Plague, were seen as kind of disturbing by some people.

Three years later staff attempted to fix this issue by adding Eye type vials for every available eye type. This resulted in a market crash for special eye typed dragons, as now these eye types could be applied to any dragon. The value of Scattersights also tanked, and the people bought them and hadn’t used them yet lost money as now they were infinitely less useful.

EDIT 28/06: Goat isn’t actually obtainable via breeding, faceted is. Bad mistake on my part.

Also, Scattersights were given away freely by Galore on Flight Rising’s fifth anniversary in 2018 and could not be bought afterwards. I admit that I thought people could be able to buy Scattersights due to how upset people were that the value went down, but whatever.

Courier Breed

The courier dragons (Edgar, Spitfire, and Pearl) are part of an exclusive dragon breed that is currently unobtainable. Even though their eye color still reflects the flight they were born in, in-universe they are considered to be “neutral” and they are granted free access to all domains. This raises the question as to which deity created them, as every other dragon breed (Bogsneaks being the only exception) has been created by one of The Eleven.

Multiaccounting

According to the site’s terms of service, no one is allowed to have more than one account. This is pretty standard for pet sites, as having multiple accounts grants unfair advantages and can mess up the site economy. This doesn’t completely stop people for having more than one account, and the practice as a whole is called “Multiaccounting” or “having multis”.

Some people only do this to have multiple clans or reboot their account without deleting their old one. They mostly do no harm but it is reasonable that the site wouldn’t allow this because of how easy it is exploit.

The real harm of multis comes from a practice called “funneling” which is when someone creates multiple accounts only for the purpose of giving items to their main account. This practice violates the game’s rules and can result in a ban. Funneling is not limited to multiaccounting though, and having an account only to feed another is against the site’s rules whether or not the account in question belongs to another person or not.

Some people fear of being banned for multiaccounting even if they haven’t done so, especially if they share a computer with other people.

Purble

“he purble” is probably among the most famous Flight Rising memes.

In 2016(?) a rant was submitted to the original Dramarising blog by a very angry user that wanted to buy an XXX Purple Ridgeback back when triples were pretty expensive, but got beat by someone else.

I’m not going to copy paste it here because in my opinion it’s one of the funniest Flight Rising related posts ever and I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading it for the first time. You can find it pretty easily by searching it up.

Tert Picking

This is something that refaced recently, even though I’ve seen people talking about this for a while. Some people vividly remember being able to pick their custom progenitor’s tertiary color, even though the developers have made it clear that such thing would be impossible. This is without a doubt just one of those weird situations where a lot of people somehow remember the same thing wrong.

Still, it’s fascinating just how many people claim to remember doing picking their tert.

Swiftwings

Swiftwings were a dragon breed that was scrapped in development. The design was rejected because it didn’t fit the 2 arms 2 legs 2 wings format that every dragon design had to follow before the introduction of ancient breeds.

The reason for this rule is that otherwise it would mess up apparel placement. Although the concept was scrapped, echoes of the design were scattered throughout the site: for example, the empty dragon slots that were present prior to 2019 had the silhouette of a Swiftwings dragon. They are also mentioned in the April Fool’s update of 2018.

“Real” Lore dragons

Most people don’t know that some of the dragons featured on the lore stories are actually real, and you can visit their pages. This is the case for Tetra, Cracklinne, Velya, Liefa, Garote and Mirth, which are currently chilling in Aequorin’s lair.

All of the other dragons in the developers’ lairs are not canon and are used to test bugs and features on the site.

The Middle ground

True deity names

When the site first started the deities used to have actual names instead of titles. Some of these names were based off of the site founders’s usernames on other sites.

The names are the following:

Amogayvhi - Gladekeeper Xhaztol - Arcanist Rhenik - Tidelord Akiri - Flamecaller Thrage - Stormcatcher Undel - Shadowbinder Jhortanas - Plaguebringer Ghurab - Windsinger Artaios - Earthshaker Rhiow – Lightweaver

As you can tell, Xhaztol, Akiri, Thrage and Undel are the usernames of some of the admins of the site, and the flight they are a part of corresponds with the previous name of their deity.

No leg coatls

On January 16, 2015 an iconic thread was posted in the flight rising discussion forum, which displayed a photoshopped image of a coatl with its legs removed. Quickly the thread devolved into a general photoshop thread were people took official site art of dragons and modified it.

The thread was eventually locked due to spam and quote pyramids, but spiritual successors of the original “phoatlshop” thread still exist today.

Dress slot unlocking

A thing that a surprising amount of people don’t know is the fact that when buy an additional apparel slot, the slot opens for every dragon in your lair and not just the one you bought it on.

This is something I also discovered very recently and it’s kind of funny that so many people that have been on the site for very long don’t know this.

Clanbound scatterscrolls

I think the wiki explains it best, so I’ll just copy paste this here:

“Tri-Color Scatterscrolls suffered from an issue where they would only scatter a random range from colors 1-47 (white through sunshine) rather than 1-67 (white through rose). They have been fixed and are now functioning correctly with a random range within the 67 color set. The affected timeframe was from August 15th, 2013 until September 22nd, 2013. The admins allowed users who were unsatisfied with their bugged Tri-Color Scatterscrolls to receive the same amount of them back in the form of Clanbound Scatterscrolls to try scattering their own dragons again with the full color range.”

Beta Mirrors

Ever wondered why they’re called Mirrors?

According to Undel, the main artist of Flight Rising, mirrors originally were supposed to have every part of their body “mirrored”, meaning they had two sets of eyes, two pairs of wings, two tails, and so on.

This design ended up being too cluttered and looked weird shrunken down. The name was kept the same, even though the only mirrored part of the design are the eyes.

Dragons are evil

If you read the “Beastclans on the rise” lore bit, the dragons come across as… very evil, stealing territory from the beastclans when they have been living on Sornieth way longer than the dragons have and killing them for loot.

Furthermore, in the Bounty of the Elements lore bit the Beastclan rebellion guided by Talona is seen by the dragons as unreasonable and wrong even when in canon Beastclans are framed as the innocent party.

The Depths

Scroll of Divorce

In the alpha stage dragons were supposed to be monogamous and could only breed with the dragon they were “paired” with. To break their bond you had to use an item called “Scroll of Divorce” which even featured broken marriage rings in the art.

If I had to guess, this item and the concept as a whole were scrapped because the idea of dragons having “weddings” and needing to divorce before breeding with another dragon felt kind of weird, especially in a game targeted towards teens.

First Festival

The first Holiday festival in Flight rising history was the 2013 Brightshine Jubilee. The items that were available for this festival only are incredibly rare, particularily the Light Sprite which is one of the most valuable items on the site. Apart from that and the fact that the skincent contest only had 6 winners, not much is notable about it.

Offsite drama

Flight Rising has had its fair share of drama both on and off site, but due to the fact that it’s against the site’s rule to discuss user drama on the forums most of the notable drama happened off site (mainly tumblr).

Egg rot

Egg rot was a very early mechanic that was pretty quickly removed from the site. If you forgot to incubate your eggs, they would “rot” and no longer hatch.

It’s the reason why in the nesting grounds the text reads “Eggs healthy” and also the reason why on the stats section of the Account settings it says “Eggs discarded”. The mechanic was removed because it heavily punished casual players and the frequent downtimes of the site meant that even if someone logged in every day they could still have their eggs die.

Also, the images of egg rot look extremely cursed.

Pablo

From what I could gather, Pablo is a dragon which became somewhat popular after user “Desmondtiny” wrote a very long and detailed backstory of them being the Arcanist’s lost boyfriend.

I’m pretty sure it gues deeper than that but I couldn’t find any further information. As usual, if you know something more let me know.

Latest News

On November 12, 2014, a glitch(?) occurred that let anyone post in the Announcements thread. Anything that was posted went directly to the front page, which resulted in quite a bit of chaos.

This was fixed only half an hour later, but the screenshots people have from that time are extremely funny.

Lameforger

On the 2014 Flameforger’s festival announcement Undel accidentally misspelled “Flameforger” as “Lameforger”, which prompted the official account of the Flamecaller to respond aggressively. Lameforger is still jokingly used by users, even after the typo was fixed.

Festival of one (1)

On the first day of the 2014 Greenskeeper Gathering a glitch occurred which switched the site banner for the Starfall celebration banner instead of the Greenskeeper one.

It didn’t end there, in the coliseum Magical shards dropped instead of Bladed Flatleaves, even though skin chests dropped as normal(?).

The weirdest thing about it all was Joxar’s Space inventory, which didn’t display any items at all and had glitched dialogue.

The event was nicknamed by the fanbase “Festival of 1” and even the deity’s official accounts acknowledged the incident.

Vape Juice

As far as I know the original forum thread as been lost, but the vape juice fiasco will always remain cemented in Flight Rising History.

A company called Vape Daugz was making vape juice with Flight Rising dragons plastered on their packaging, completely violating the site’s policy.

The company’s site still exists, and browsing through their products I found that the products that previously had Flight Rising dragons on them still exist, but now feature completely different packaging.

I have no idea whether they changed the packaging spontaneously or staff did something about it.

I think there’s a potentially interesting story buried down there, but we’ll likely never the truth behind the Flight Rising vape juice.

The Abyss

Humans

There’s been some speculation over the years as to whether or not humans are canon in the Flight Rising universe. Some people believe that the “Mages” of the second age in the official lore are actually humans, but we can’t be sure because they are depicted with long robes that cover their whole bodies.

The idea of humans existing in canon has spawned a couple of memes, most infamously Thomas.

Plague healers

Again, I think the wiki explains this one better:

“According to Aequorin, Plague healers are an interesting bunch because rather than administer treatments that counter illness, they use a mixture of magic and contagion that stress the affected dragon further, allowing them to reach a stronger, healed, and resistant state faster than other elements. Plague healers will treat physical injuries with sutures, bandages, and braces, but they won't clean the wounds or apply ointments."

Akitla

As described in the original thread, Akitla was a dragon that user “qunii” saw on the front page, but noticed that she wasn’t accompanied by the username of the person owning them.

After clicking on her, an error page loaded. It was discovered that putting her color combination or ID in the search bar would result in an error page. This was later fixed, and both Akitla and her mate were now displayed as being exalted to the Arcanist. T

here are some theories as to what happened to the Akitla’s user, some think that she belonged to a deleted account, others that it was the result of an incomplete account creation.

As with a lot of things on this iceberg, it will likely remain a mystery forever.

Arcane sprite book

“what is the arcane sprite reading??” is probably one of the oldest still active threads on the forums.

On September 25, 2013 user “Kaadashi” started a joke thread were they wondered what exactly is the arcane sprite reading, and playfully suggested that it could be erotic fanfiction. People went crazy of course, and started to wonder what kind of juicy secrets were hidden within the pages of that book.

I don’t want to say too much because I really don’t want to spoil the experience of reading through this very cursed tread.

Sunshine

Sunshine is one of the most… interesting lairs on the site, and certainly one of the most well-known.

They(?) have a lair (almost) completely full of triple basic sunshine dragons, most of which are Tundras. So far they have collected about 320 triple hundred Sunshine dragons, almost all of which are also named “Sunshine”. They’re not all the same, some of them have apparel, some of them are gened and some have unique art and descriptions.

They’re dedicated and I respect that.

EDIT 28/06: Apparently some people seem to think that the sunshine-dedicated lair is based on a meme concerning the announcement of the color wheel expansion, which became so discussed that the itself site broke. The two things are unrelated however, as the Sunshine lair has been around for much longer.

The announcement of the color wheel expansion was cryptic, with only a few post showing off differently colored coatls and then 3 pages of reserved posts, with no explanation whatsoever.

Simple Farmer

Another very famous thread is the “I am but a simple farmer” thread started by user “someKindOfGenius”. It’s not really about anything specific, it’s just a rather silly thread were people photoshop flight rising dragons onto various crops.

Still, this thread is iconic so I had to include it.

Dragon Deaths

Way back in 2014 former flight rising programmer Thrage revealed on a forum thread that way back before the beta, dragons could actually starve to death if left unfed.

Yep.

Obviously they had to remove this mechanic because it would have been extremely harsh to casual players and make people frustrated with the game.

Zalvador

User “manojalpa” became fairly well-known for the extremely dark lore they(?) had written for their Clan, it was so dark in fact that every single one of their dragon’s bios had to moved to their tumblr where they couldn’t be easily seen by the site’s mainly underage usebase.

Their lore centered around their progen dragon, a tundra named Zalvador, which behaved and had the same powers as a flight rising user: buying dragons off of the action house, having “breeding projects”, exalting dragons, etc.

These things seem pretty normal when done by a player, but when taking them as actual real things that happen in universe… yeah, it was way too morbid for the site.

The Pit

Black linen neck wraps

For some weird reason, the apparel piece “Black linen neck wrap” when put on a male pose Coatl wraps around the dragon’s throat instead of it’s neck. It’s kind of subtle and hard to see, but if you compare it with the female pose the difference is clear. This is probably just an art error, although it’s weird that it hasn’t been fixed yet, since linen wraps are a very old piece of apparel.

Another weird thing about linen wraps in general is that the wing wraps just sort of… go through the membrane? This is not possible. These dragons are in pain.

Icewarden ears

Another very remarkably popular thread is the Icewarden ears thread.

In 2014 user “Llanai” simply makes note of the fact that the Icewarden has teeny tiny ears.

As we have come to expect from these threads, it quickly devolved into nonsense.

Forbidden Snapper lore

Snappers used to have a way different lore section that was changed because it deemed too similar to the lore of another petsite.

This is what the original section read:

"Snapper dragons do not sleep, but exist in a constant state of reverie. They receive and catalogue all experiences and stories told within their dreams. This persistent state of awakened dreaming awards them the longest memory of any dragon species. They are living encyclopedias, and any dragon who is seeking difficult-to-obtain information will have the most luck unearthing it from a Snapper clan - provided they have the patience for it. If you want two dozen quick answers, talk to a spiral. If you want a fully developed answer, camp out around a Snapper. These dreamers move at their own pace, which varies from dragon to dragon. For some, the awakened dream can prove to be more interesting than their surroundings. This leads to a focus upon the dream, and the waking world as filtered background noise. Interacting with these sleepwalkers can be a trying and repetitive task. Other Snappers may be fairly lucid, with a focus upon their surroundings and the constant hum of the dream pushed aside."

Bee movie script

I’ve seen this story around the forums a few times but I’ve never been able to learn the details.

From what I’ve heard someone copy pasted the entire bee movie script into their clan bio in a drop down text format, which completely broke the page for anyone who visited it. This was fixed, apparently, although I have no clue as to who this user is.

EDIT 28/06: Zeus

Zeus is an XXX gold g1 permababy imperial that used to belong to user "happywing".

Their account is now locked because Zeus was created with the use of a duplication glitch on an imperial breed change scroll, which is obviously not allowed (although I've heard some people say that the dragon was hacked in altogether). Before the account was locked, people speculated that Zeus was the most valuable dragon on the site, because an XXX g1 imperial is impossibly rare.

Wegg shaming

On July 2017 user “Dreamnorn” made a thread were they(?) claimed to have a dream where everything was the same except people used the term “wegged” when two dragons would lay only one egg in a nest.

Ex. Aw man! I’ve been wegged again! = Aw man! I bred two dragons and they only had one egg!

The dream ended up being prophetic, as the term catched on and people started to use it unironically.

The practice of “Wegg shaming” I think refers to the trend of people posting pictures of the dragons that “wegged” them in order to “shame” them.

Plague nest skull

The site art of the plague nest features an unique dragon skull that doesn’t match with any currently existing dragon breed or creature: It appears to have two sets of eyes, like a mirror, but also long and curled horns.

It’s probably just for decoration and it likely doesn’t have any significance whatsoever, but personally I believe it would be pretty cool if when they eventually release plague ancient it at least somewhat resembled this skull.

EDIT 28/06: On second thought, the skull doesn’t seem to have two pairs of eyes, It just has the generic shape of a carnivore.

Rock bottom

CAPTAINPLANET

…this is CAPTAINPLANET. Somehow, user “Decres”' managed to overlay a Fae skin on top of a Tundra, creating this horrifyingly fascinating abomination.

I have no idea how she did this, and she seems pretty adamant to tell.

EDIT 28/06: People have pointed out that this skin overlay glitch was actually somewhat common (although I still haven't found another dragon like CAPTAINPLANET). What you had to do was breed change a dragon while attaching a skin to them in another tab.

This glitch has been patched and such thing is no longer possible.

Lair 46264

A cursed lair.

Dreams

I’ve seen a lot of people, both on forums and on Tumblr, sharing dreams they had about Flight Rising.

A lot of people dream of just being on the site, while occasionally weird things happen.

I’ve read of people who dreamed the distribution of a new breed, buying an exclusive item, a new Fiona feat or Swipp trade, or just browsing the forums.

The most common type of Flight rising-associated dream I’ve seen however is being caught multiaccounting and having their account banned.

I’m no psychoanalyst, but I think it’s pretty clear that these nightmares stem from the paranoia of being banned from their beloved petsite instead of showing any actual intention of doing the “crime” in question.

Anyways, I think it’s fascinating how so many people dream about this site, and it reminds me of the dreams people claimed to have about Mario 64 where completely new levels were added or a scary monster appeared.

Dragon Slime

Dragon Slime was an infamous thread which was supposed to be start off point for an ARG.

It was deleted because it was considered too “spammy” and also because ARGs are banned from the forums. The thread has been lost, unfortunately.

EDIT 28/06: Thanks to @randompurple-fr for providing screenshots of the dragon slime tutorial! You can find them here

Cucumber

Cucumber is the only dragon ever to have been exalted with a skin, which is something that should not be possible. This raises some questions as to what exactly did the person that exalted them do to achieve this, but we have no way of knowing who Cucumber belonged to.

EDIT 28/06: Actually, we do know who used to Cucumber belonged to! Its owner was Osiem: an official flight rising artist. I couldn’t find the thread where they(?) acknowledged the glitch though, if someone has it please let me know!

[asknarashikari]

Hiromi simp: So that's why I think you should beat the living daylights of one George Karizaki.

Nozomu: I don't know...

Nozomu: I get what you're saying.

Hiromi simp: You don't understand.

Hiromi simp: If he didn't have the need to surpass his father, than that driver wouldn't have been made.

HS: and your parents and best friend would still be alive now.

Nozomu: No

Nozomu: Yes, I'm angry that he made the thing that killed my best friend and my parents.

Nozomu: But he did not use it on them.

Nozomu: Should we be punishing the Riders themselves for causing a lot of property damage?

HS: N-no...

Nozomu: I know you want me to beat him up, but that won't accomplish anything.

HS: I guess you're right.

Nozomu: Last I heard, Hiromi-san is getting a cure for his sickness.

Nozomu: I should know, he let me go with him when he got himself checked up.

Me loving to rant about how much I hate George

Well... those Riders didn't destroy public property on purpose, now did they?

George, on the other hand, knowingly let Hiromi use a dangerous Driver even though the effects on him became apparent. And he also gave Daiji the TwoSiDriver despite knowing that Daiji was losing his control to Kagerou. Not to mention how he had Daiji in mind for a Driver that required a demon partner to operate when Daiji himself was unaware of said demon's existence.

Maybe this is just my deep-seated suspicion of George still rearing its head, but these incidents don't exactly reassure me that George wouldn't have tested the Chimera Driver in similar methods before he perfected it.

I mean, the guy took out a bunch of rando Demon Squad people just to test out how far he could go with the Juuga Driver. They were just cannon fodder to him.

And while he's not directly responsible for what Azuma did or for what happened to Nozomu's best friend and parents, it wasn't like he acknowledged that he had a role in it, either.

I can't help but notice how he never owned up to having created the Chimera Driver. Or how his use of it released Chic (who subsequently stole it and then used it to perform the experiments in Nozomu's hometown). Or how he designed it specifically to utilize Giff's eyes which could separate inner demons from their hosts (like the ones the Igarashi sibs had) and brainwash them.

I understand Nozomu's (and Hiromi's) reasons for not wanting to punch George... It's just that George himself isn't that reason :P So yeah... still not opposed to having that guy's face punched in a few times.

[creepypotroast]

A month or so ago you showed an image of your A.U.(?)’s protagonist’s mother as part of a response to something I sent over; call me stupid but who’s the dad? The image itself implies Slenderman, but written and image posts of (who I believe to be) the protagonist and Maw implies the opposite, and tbh I’m just a bit confused.

op i am so sorry for not seeing this sooner. you are not stupid at all i'm just bad at explaining myself and my silly little au. long answer will be under the cut because i do be ranting incomprehensibly.

WARNING: pregnancy mention, warlord-ism, situationship, general non-canon out-of-touch blubbery. also kinda badly written tbh

The short answer is that Wendy is May and Slendy's kid, and Maw is May and Zalgo's kid. As to why that happen... that goes back a long way in blackbirch AU.

Zalgo/Shormash Urdal is a primordial Lovecraft-esque elder god in the au, and this guy eats worlds, literally. He seeks out civilisations, devours their guardian deity/ies, and then drains the life out of their habitat until the whole realm or planet crumbles into dust. Sometimes he takes a few of their people, generals, warriors, concubines for his 'court', bound to him by arcane silver chains. They are called the right and left hand court, respectively.

When his court inevitably rioted, they took out his right hand and the surviving members scatter to different worlds. Some came to ours, assimilating into human host bodies selected among Zalgo cults, headed by former generals and sycophants who remained loyal to the elder god. But some pick their own hosts randomly as they come across it, which is the case of one of his wives.

Back to the human world. May Rosewood is an orphan whose single mother wasted away, and she lived in foster care til her grandmother contacted, wanting to adopt the kid back into the family. The day she was supposed to leave, eight-year-old May ventured out in the woods and saw a ghostly woman whose shape shifts and ripples painfully with each move she took. The woman turned into a child to lure May out, then took over her body as she blacked out.

May woke up, shaken but otherwise unharmed, and was immediately took to meet her grandmother. The shock became a forgotten memory and she lived the rest of her childhood with relative inconsequence.

Moving back home at age 34, an adult May confronted the truth about her origins. She also discovered that she was carrying Zalgo's offspring, a plan orchestrated by Zalgo's cult and her fiancé. Betrayed, she furiously delved into elder mythos to find a way out, and that was when Slender came into the act.

She stole a summoning sigil, gathered what she needed and managed to call upon Slender, who took her under his protection as they look for a way to eliminate/mitigate Zalgo's influence on the fetus. Slender has been trying to create Slenderkin children/spawns of his own for a while; he does this by uhhh [GORE WARNING] vivisecting infants and injects his own blood into their spine [END GORE WARNING] Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

But waiting until May gave birth was risky, as some Zalgoid can be extremely powerful even as newborns. So he fed her his blood directly and kept her on close watch, intending to kill her if anything went remotely wrong. But it never happened, and they instead developed a sort of wacky relationship, unlikely friends slash romantic partners, right up until the baby was born.

this is their relationship dynamic. no i don't take constructive criticism.

And then you have Wendy, who apparently has no Zalgoid influence except for Maw who lives inside her head (for now). In other words, Maw was the original Zalgoid spawn that their mother carried, but eaten by her chimera twin Wendy at birth. Her Zalgoid powers are subdued but it's still there, hidden inside their shared body, waiting for a chance to come out.

As for if Slender knew this... I'd say he is aware there might be a chance his daughter could fall back under Zalgoid influence, but he couldn't have predicted they'd be two different people.

anyway Thank you OP for asking the vital question that made me actually sit down and realign my silly little plot points!!!!! this is me the entire time i wrote this:

also enjoy some good ass art from my amazing insta mutual Sandie!!would die maim kill for them

i just love them so much ok. thank you OP and sandie for sponsoring my disgusteeng little brain vomit.

[animemental]

FMA Forever

Why Edward Elric changed my view on anime for mental health. 

Also, please share this post if you or anyone else finds it interesting, informative, helpful in any way. I love to write and other than a few books I have going on through Wattpad and drafts, this is a good way for me to get out some thoughts and connect to others!

Anyways, onwards to the good stuff!

Photo from: Fullmetal Alchemist Fandom -Wiki

So, here we are, four or five posts deep into the crevices of my brain. I have a new idea for formatting these posts so bare with me. Please. It will be my interpretation of an anime with some actual facts thrown in; thoughts on the series as a whole; answering the question/statement from subtitle or previous pose. 

Background of Anime:

Fullmetal Alchemist is a manga by Hiromu Arakawa, serialized in 2001-2010. It tells of two young brothers living in a steampunk world of alchemy in a fictional country called Amestris . They commit taboo, pay the ultimate price and set off to fix everything. Edward is the oldest and Alphonse is the younger brother. Their father is a lot to deal with and their mother is... well, I don’t want to spoil it for those who have not seen the series. Though trial and tribulation, these bros fight tooth and nail for what they believe in and meet fantastic characters along the way. Ultimate goal: Figure out how to reverse their punishment. 

Series As I View It:

When it comes to overall mental health, I would say that FMA was not the most helpful in regulating emotional stability. This series had me up and down, riding a rollercoaster of emotions. I came to the FMA a bit later than others, getting the chance to binge the whole thing versus waiting each week for a snippet of the story. From the get go, I was horrified and downright pissed at fate. These boys are just trying to do the right thing out of desperation and life did them dirty. Thankfully, my life at the time was pretty calm, so I didn’t have to add anything into the mix other than watching a good plot and intriguing characters. The idea of alchemy is so wonderful; having the ability to change matter into other matter. In the Elrics case, their world took it a step further and includes automail; metal limbs. This made Edward and Al’s struggle even more sad. But then you get swept away by the detailed fight scenes and you are screaming for them to kick ass with those metal limbs. Overall, the series was equal parts entertaining and frustrating. You want the underdogs to win, but the author made sure that reality catches up to the viewer pretty quickly. They cannot win every fight, save everyone person in distress or always make it in time. Just watch episode 7: Night of the Chimera’s Cry and you will truly know pain and heart ache. 

To Answer the Question:

Why did Edward change my view on mental health?

Guys and gals, this kid is thrown every shitty thing possible and still manages to live his life. The dude has trauma galore and his soul mission for many episodes is fueled with regret, anguish, guilt, self-blame. I thought he was going to break in episode 7. He did struggle with the idea of not saving everyone and the unfairness of life, but fate did not give him a moment to breath. Reminds of the the webtoon Random Chat. LET OUR BOY HAVE A MOMENT TO JUST CHILL AND GO ON A DATE WITH HA-MIN, PLEASE. 

So, when I think mental health, I picture a functioning brain. It may have some troubles and need a moment to process life events, but overall is healthy and content. The person can cope with life stressors and feels okay with life majority of the time thanks to self-care, coping skills and other resources. Edward Elric was given the fewest resources but continued to push through to his ultimate goal. His problem-solving skills grow with each situation and he learns to depend on Alphonse as a brother and partner in fights more and more. He is creating his own coping skills and strategies to deal with immense stress. He doesn’t get the option of a therapist, a coping skills app, friends. He and his brother have to figure it out on their own 99% of the time and hope they live to the next day. It gives a lot of inspiration when you feel like nothing is going right and you will never feel better.  

Having a mental health disorder/illness sucks. Plain and simple, none of them are fun to experience and no one wished to feel that way. However, I believe that everyone has some spark in them that can help change some of the maladaptive thoughts and behaviors. It may be buried way deep down, but it is there. Edward discovers his many episodes into the series. 

In the next post, here are some questions to answer:

1. Is there any other instances or aspects of the anime that you want to point out?

2. What is the beef with episode 7?

3. Tell me more about how Ed discovers his inner spark.

Okay, folks! This concludes Part 1 of my FMA rant. I think this may be a three part series. I could go on and on about FMA but I do have A LOT of series to get through. 

[ging-pegger]

an unwarranted rant abt my oc 😩😩👍

ok anyways im like head empty only my hxh oc rn bcs i got talking about her earlier w some of my friends 😩😩 but her names opal and she is gon's older (half) sister. I know the whole gon's sister thing is cliche but she actually isn't... like the really how do i word this. questionable.😀 freecss ocs.

she has her own storyline / and motives and doesnt want anything to do w their dad at all (she actually strongly dislikes him 🤪 100% would fight in a denny's parking lot)

In order for hher to exist ging's canon age wld have to be older but thats rlly not that big of a change tbh and honestly 🙄🙄🙄 whats a few wrinkles in exchange for such a swag person to exist i mean who cares if he could die at any minute /jov

So anywayz shes about 25 during the exam arc and is a member of the phantom troupe 😩😩😩

So bcs i created her like back in december i think (it was for a takeover thingy on a different platform) WE HAVE THIS RUNNING JOKE THAT SHE KILLED BONOLENOV AND ACCIDENTLALLY JOINESD THE TROIPEPREPROEPRIEO because he is freaky asf 😦😦😦 and chrollo was like "join my cult 😀👍" and she saw a pretty man went awooga and joined 😩

Obviously for more canon events she would probably just have been recruited idk but bonolenov is stupid and shes way cooler so who really cares tbh 😩🙄

Anyways she isnt rlly all that into killing ppl and shit she kinda does it when she has to but it usually isnt unnecessary.

I came up w her hatsu before i hit the chimera arc so unfortunately its rlly similar to knov's but

opal's hatsu abilities are void of vengeance: the ability to open nen portals to any place she's been to or seen (if she has not ever physically been to a place she is attempting to portal to, her nen may transport her somewhere random that she visits frequently.) And spatial slots: in which she creates a nen "save slot" where she can store physical weapons and draw them at will during combat.

I have a picrew 😩😩😩😩

Um Chile anyways 🙄🙄 i have another oc as well (his name is teru and hes an absolute himbo) but i wont bore ygs with him considering this rant was absolutely unwarranted

[f-identity]

in which canon M.E.C.H. activates Nad’s 2004-era “villain writer” mode

This took up an entire B5-sized page. Bentham understands. Back in 2004, Nad used to really rant about stereotypical villain tropes, at one point even obsessing over what it is that easily makes villains lose (besides the protagonists/heroes’ plot armor).

Full transcript below cut:

Criticism of TFP Canon depiction and use of M.E.C.H. as human antagonists [to our robot pals]: “What an irresponsible way to teach kids about para-military organizations. Did succession planning just get ignored like signal indicators on a BMW?”

POSSIBILITY, THEN: Consider the organization’s leadership style. The culture. Autocratic leader? Unprepared for changes, despite the dynamic environment they proclaim they have the capacity to adapt to?

“Irresponsible” remains the name of the game. “Learn from my mistakes - do not fall to the same.”

The shadow partner (henceforth TSP) tries to “improve canon”, as per usual.

Common mistake: First instinct is to open up the robot and figure out how “it” works. Living technology - at the least, respect sentience. This is sapience - way above! They have history, and they may have knowledge of even better tech or military tactics they’ve seen. “Every autonomous, sapient being has some dignity. Some desire we can capitalize on.”

Lacking ambition: Project Chimera.

Secret technological innovative - an attempt to create a new generation of weapons - living machines based on Cybertronian tech. Project culminated in Nemesis Prime, remote-controlled transforming giant robot. What it does: attack military bases near Autobot hideout, also try to eliminate the Autobots.

“You know what? I have several contentions with this.”

WHY: oh my deity. Eliminate the very beings that gave you materials to study and replicate? I cannot find the logic behind this reasoning.

WHERE: Just attack a totally-not-public military base (or more) which is equipped with guns and other battle-ready vehicles and equipment? What for, to prove yourself superior over “outdated” human-used tech?

HOW: A remote-controlled Transformer? Please - maybe it’s just a product of the time, but seriously, airstrike drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) can do more damage with less sophistication.

WHAT: It’s a new weapon put up against targets meant to experiment with its firepower. Really? What impact did you want to achieve beyond playing with dangerous toys?

TSP has a massive headache from this. But then, what’s to come after is even worse.

Why in the world: Okay, Silas got gravely wounded. But have you ever considered succession planning? “And you call yourself a surgeon?” It’s not even about ethics and professional code. Just because you CAN transplant your leader in the husk of a giant alien robot, it doesn’t mean you should! Where did you even find the logic to - Never mind.

Silas/CYLAS pls: Hey, how long did you spend working to build this organization and gather its skilled personnel? And here you decide to throw it all in the trash just because you decided you’re now a fellow robot? Even if this operation wasn’t a decision made of your accord? Can you even survive without breathing oxygen?

If CYLAS killed the surgeons so they can’t make anyone else like him: You want to be unique? What’s the point of being the ONLY formerly-human Transformer? Why waste the potential of creating an army of newly high-tech soldiers who have the chance of being more cunning than those visiting Cybertronians?

TSP ends on this note: “There is nothing to fear about being replaceable. Uniqueness is overrated.”

(In the end, these criticisms may fall more on the writers than the characters/organization they wrote. But a particular shadow partner has many, many ideas on making M.E.C.H. seem at least credible. Heck, even give it an actual name. More canon-alteration to come soon, courtesy of Amalgam Cybertronia.)

[domesticated-feral]

Steo Week 2020, Day 4

Title: Well, this is your wish come true

Prompt: “I came for Void Stiles” Rating: Teen Warning: Nothing really, small use of profanity? WC: 1884

You can also read it on my AO3

Summary:

"Let's see if you really wanted it," 

Theo’s car rolls up behind Stiles and he quickly walks to the car. Theo stops the car and walks out of it.

“Sorry, I got here as fast as I could,” Theo huffed, running up to Stiles.

“I got to go now, Parrish has got the bodies,” Stiles said, walking quickly to the passenger seat.

“Hey, wait up, Stiles, wait-” Theo said.

“Parrish is out, he’s got the bodies, we got to find Scott, we got to tell him,” Stiles quickly said as he opened the car door.

“Stiles!” Theo shouts, stopping Stiles in his footsteps.

Stiles closes the car door and takes a step closer to Theo who was standing in front of the car.

“ I don’t think Scott wants to talk to you right now,” Theo warned Stiles.

“Yeah, thanks, I’m aware of that,” Stiles acknowledged, “doesn’t matter, he needs to know about this.”

He steps back and goes to open the car door.

“Stiles,” Theo said, his voice lower, “Scott doesn’t want to talk to you.”

Stiles walks closer, and Theo pulls out his library card that he had thrown in the hospital trash can earlier.

“But I think your dad does,” Theo muttered.

Stiles’ heart quickens, afraid of what his dad was going to say to him.

“Your dad was looking for you, Stiles-” he started to walk with the card in his hand- “found me instead,” he said.

“Where is he?” Stiles asks as he follows Theo.

Theo looks at Stiles and shows Stiles his library card, “I covered for you, this was taken care of. Melissa didn’t find it at the hospital, I guess even the son of a cop can make mistakes.”

“Did you hurt him?” Stiles asks, referring to his father.

Theo stops and looks Stiles straight in the eye, “I never lied about why I came back to Beacon Hills-” he pauses for a moment- “I’m here for a pack.”

“I came for the werecoyote, the one whose first instinct is to kill. I came for the Banshee, the girl who is surrounded by death,” he said as he circled Stiles, “I came for the dark kitsune, the beta with anger issues. I came for void Stiles, that’s the pack I want!”

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t include Scott,” Theo said as he stops in front of Stiles.

Stiles felt his anger rising, and so does Theo.

“Your heartbeat’s rising, Stiles,” Theo commented, as he walked to his car, “it’s not because you’re afraid. The nogitsune is gone, but you’ve still got more blood on your hands than any one of us.”

“I’m about to get more,” Stiles threatened Theo.

“I’ll tell you where your dad is-” Theo places the library card on the hood of his car- “if you promise not to help Scott.”

Stiles’ anger takes the best of him and he punches Theo, he stumbles but doesn't fall.

Theo chuckles despicably and he stands back up, “There he is! That’s Void Stiles! It felt good, didn’t it.”

Stiles punches his right in the nose, and Theo falls onto the gravel floor. Blood pools as his nose bleed, but he tilts his head back and spits the blood out onto the gravel.

“We won’t tell Scott, cause you can’t lose your best friend right, even though we both know you never needed him,” Theo said.

Stiles paces before he lunges towards Theo letting out a grunt of anger as he does so. He holds Theo by the jacket he was wearing.

“You hate me now, but you’ll get it eventually,” Theo retorted.

“This is the hard part, you can’t help Scott and save your dad’s life,” Theo said.

Stiles' mind was racing as he tried to calm himself down by taking deep breaths.

“You still got time, Stiles,” Theo warned, “you still got time.”

Stiles’ body tenses up and his grip on Theo’s jacket was getting stronger and stronger. Stronger than he should be feeling.

“You said you wanted Void Stiles,” Stiles said through ragged breaths, “well, this is your wish come true.”

Stiles stands up and lifts Theo with ease. He stares at Theo before throwing the chimera towards his car. Theo’s body hits the bumper of the car and falls onto the gravel.

Stiles’ hand trembles as his breathing levels out, he stares at Theo. Theo was staring back, pain and shock expressed greatly on his face.

“Let’s see if you really wanted it,” Stiles said, his voice neutral and unwavering.

Stiles, well more accurately, Void Stiles turns around and walks away, disappearing into the dark.

~

It’s been ages since then, Stiles remained Stiles, and everything unfolded, the ghost riders, anuk-ite and even Theo became a good ally to the pack.

Everyone was having a great time in college, and everyone was back in Beacon Hills for summer break. It was a cool summer night and Theo was woken up by shouting.

“Stiles, Stiles!” Theo said, holding Stiles.

Stiles calms down as he wakes up and Theo loosens his grip on him.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Theo said, concerned.

“I’m fine, I jus- I just had a bad dream,” Stiles panted.

“A bad dream, or a night terror?” Theo asked.

“Theo, let’s go back to sleep,” Stiles mumbled, brushing the subject off.

“Stiles, I know you’re lying and these night terrors, you’ve been having them every night,” Theo said.

“I- I don’t want to talk about it,” Stiles said, his eyes locking with Theo’s.

“Babe, it hurts me to see you hurt,” Theo said.

Stiles reaches out and turns the bedside lamp on. He sits cross legged across to Theo on the double bed.

“Well, I’ve been having night terrors, about things that I shouldn’t be bothered by anymore, things that are in the past, thing that-” Stiles began rambling.

“Stiles, it doesn’t matter if the thing is in the past if it’s bothering you now,” Theo cut in.

“I’ve been having night terrors about the Nogitsune, and about Donovan, about my mother during her last days,” Stiles said, “I don’t know why, but it started after we had the pack picnic near the nemeton.”

“We couldn’t have released the nogitsune, you told me that it’s buried where it can’t be disturbed.” Theo said.

“But we both know who could’ve, remember when the nemeton was disturbed while we were in college, there were holes in the ground around the nemeton,” Stiles said, “whoever it was, didn’t release the nogitsune though, Derek found the capsule, the fly was still inside and he hid it deeper, in a place no one can find it.”

“He hid it in the hale vault,” Theo said.

“Yeah, and there’s no reason I should be this on edge about it, no reason I should be thinking about turning void, no reason at all,” Stiles ranted.

Theo softly caressed his lover’s arm, “you’re stressed that you might turn void again, and you won’t. There’s no chance of it ever getting out of that container made out of rowan wood.”

“There could be, the nogitsune can create illusions, it’s a fox, a trickster, what if the fly was an illusion and the real fly is possibly out there,” Stiles theorized.

“You figured it out, Stiles,” Theo said, except it was the raspy, guttural voice of the nogitsune.

Theo shifts into the nogitsune’s body, well the dead body of Rhys, Stiles jolts out of bed as the nogitsune reaches out to him.

“Stiles! Babe!” Theo said as Stiles once again wakes up, in his hold.

The collar of his shirt was wet with sweat, his heart was racing and so was his breath, his throat felt hoarse like he had screamed for hours. Theo was panting as well.

“Get away from me!” Stiles said, jumping out of bed and backing away from Theo.

“Wha- Stiles, are you okay?” Theo asked.

“N-no, you’re the nogitsune,” Stiles stammered as he slowly backed away from the bed until his back hit the closet.

“Stiles, that can’t be true, it’s me, Theo, your boyfriend,” he said.

“Prove it,” Stiles said.

“If I was the nogitsune, wouldn’t I already be causing chaos?” Theo asked.

Stiles felt something change with him. He felt as if something crawl up his neck. In a second’s time, he was gone.

“Stiles? Are you okay?” Theo asked as Stiles face gained a neutral, evil stare.

“Never better,” he replied.

Stiles’ eyes turn a dull white and Theo realized, this wasn’t his boyfriend. Stiles disappears out the bedroom door and Theo quickly dials Scott.

“Theo? It’s 4 in the morning, wh-”

“It’s Stiles, he’s, he’s not him anymore,” Theo said.

“What do you mean he isn’t him anymore?”

“The nogitsune, it’s in Stiles’ body,”

“But the nogitsune is in the hale vault, in the-”

“Stiles was talking in his sleep, the nogitsune could be out, an illusion in the container, or something, and he’s gone,”

“Gone? What do you mean gone?”

“He walked out our apartment, I don’t know where he went,”

Theo puts the call on the speaker and begins to change out of his nightwear into what he was wearing yesterday.

“I’m calling the Sheriff, he needs to know,”

“Ok, I’m going out to find him,” Theo said, pulling his jeans on and taking his phone from the bed.

He ends the call and walks out the bedroom, he takes his keys and walks out the apartment. He jumped down the stairs, he couldn’t wait for the elevator. Going to the sub-level floor, he runs to his navy blue truck, Stiles’ jeep was parked next to it, meaning the nogitsune was afoot.

He gets in his car and drives out the apartment parking. He scans the streets as he drives, hoping to see his boyfriend, not the nogitsune.

As he drives down the empty streets, he glances at the rear view mirror for a second and sees the nogitsune sitting in the back seat.

“Oh, fuck!” He screams as he swerves the car left and goes off-road.

He stomps down on the brakes before it rams into a tree and it was barely half an inch away from the tree when stopped.

Theo glances at the rear view mirror once more, and nothing was in the back. He gets out of the car and sees Scott pull up behind his car.

“What happened?” Scott asked as he took his helmet off.

“I saw an illusion of the nogitsune, I swerved,” Theo explained.

Scott seemed to catch a scent, a very familiar scent. Theo smelled it too, strongly, and it was Stiles’ scent.

“Stiles,” Theo said, taking off his clothes and shifting into a coyote to track the scent better.

Scott shifted, his eyebrows ridging and hair growing on his cheekbones. Scott takes Theo’s clothes, knowing he’d shift back at some point. Theo runs following the scent with Scott leaps alongside. They found Stiles, scared in the middle of the woods.

“Theo?” Stiles said, seeing the coyote run up to him.

Scott runs into the moonlight as well and Theo shifts back. Scott hands Theo his clothes and he puts his boxers on.

“Stay away from me, I don’t want to harm you,” Stiles stammered.

“Stiles, what did you do?” Theo asked, noticing Stiles’ hands were bloodied.

“I- I don’t know, Theo, I don’t know,” Stiles said.

~

[bigskydreaming]

Okay, what lightning based creature from folklore and mythology might you interpret Josh being spliced with? Same with Corey, because "chameleon" don't cut it lol

Ugh, so many.

Corey:

My first thought would be any of the practically endless variety of household spirits and fairies attributed with invisibility - most of them usually denoted as being mischief makers, not inherently good or evil but more aligned to like a chaotic-neutral kinda thing than any particular morality.

These include, but are not limited to, various kinds of goblin-esque creatures that aren’t necessarily what one would picture when thinking of goblins in terms of like, Lord of the Rings. But brownies, hobgoblins and trow from various Celtic regions of Europe, or something like the duende from Iberian folklore perhaps, some takes on the domovoi from Russian legends, or maybe French lutins though they’re a bit more malevolent in nature than most of these others....but any of those could easily acount for the invisibility/camouflage Corey’s capable of, and there’s a lot of them that like, being part of Corey’s ‘nature’ could pair well with the fact that he’s small and unobtrusive in appearance, as well as being a shy, insecure kid not above expressing (justified) resentment or letting that dictate his actions or behavior towards people.

A boggart could also be interesting because there are as many takes on the boggart being a physical flesh and blood shapeshifter or fairy as there are it being a kind of spirit, and invisibility is as much a part of its nature as taking on the appearance of something someone fears....and there’s a lot of potential IMO in the almost irony of making Corey of all characters be part ‘boogeyman’ - since the boggart is the basis of boogeyman legends.

A sylph could be interesting, but it would have to be a Teen Wolf take on the actual sylphs of legend, like putting its own spin on it like it does with a lot of the other supernatural creatures that show up. Because as is, a sylph is one of the four elemental types of beings along with salamanders, undines and gnomes, and so its literally just a creature of air - but invisible and spritely, etc. So a Teen Wolf version of a sylph that’s flesh and blood at least some of the time and even CAN be ‘spliced’ into the chimera genome in some way....like, you’d definitely have to tweak your version to make it work, but it could work. And sylph fits a lot about Corey as a character, and it opens up doors for him to have powers beyond just invisibility, such as maybe giving him a kind of telekinesis or even the ability to levitate.

There’s a couple of Finnish beings of legends that could fit the bill, like keiju (kinda a Finnish version of pixies or sprites) or even tonttu, which are like a kind of....proto-Christmas elf, almost? LOL. But again, both are attributed with invisibility and discretion, though the keiju tend to be less concerned with human affairs while the tonttu are normally seen as helpful beings and friendly to humanity.

A bodach could be interesting too, they’re Scottish tricksters, usually more malevolent than neutral but not necessarily. Again, normally invisible, often follow people and frightening them with the sound of footsteps while there’s not even footprints in sight.....BUT the thing that’s interesting about this at least in terms of Teen Wolf, is there are various kinds of bodach like the Bodach Glas, the Dark Grey Man, who are also perceived as death omens. Like they’re normally invisible, and the only time you see one is if you’re going to die, and so given the other death-omen related beings in TW like banshees and hellhounds, Corey actually being part Bodach could have some interesting implications or associations....like, maybe if it turns out that he can turn invisible whenever he wants, but occasionally he realizes someone sees him even when he doesn’t want them to....but when that happens, that’s actually just because or a sign that the person is destined to die soon. Especially given the way Corey was used in 6A during the Wild Hunt storyline, like....you could definitely tie that into things there or go in similar directions with that.

Tbh though, I’m most intrigued I think by the idea of what if Corey was part....leshy, or one of the various analogues to the leshy in different regions like the borovoi in Russia or the Lithuanian mishkinis. But the leshy, and other related beings are like....a nature spirit, albeit a physical being rather than like a true spirit-spirit. But they’re usually nature GUARDIANS, specifically, and most associated with woods and forests. There’s also a fun kind of irony because one of the attributes of the leshy, aside from its invisibility or ability to disguise itself among the trees by blending in with its backgrounds, is like....the leshy is a size changer as well, and typically defaults as an enormous being, as tall as a tree....but who can also shrink to the size of a blade of grass. Given that Corey’s on the small size, this kinda amuses me, but also could make for a fun twist if he eventually realizes his powers don’t let him just turn invisible or fade into the background, but like, he can change his size and height as well. Make him like an Ant-Man kinda character.

But another thing that’s particular interesting about the leshy, and makes me lean towards it, is that the leshy isn’t just a generic forest spirit or guardian, but is associated with hunting in specific. But not in the human kind of way, but the hunters of nature.....as in, the leshy is often surrounded by or depicted as always being in the company of...packs of wolves. Occasionally bears, too, but they’re most associated with wolves. Which makes making Corey part leshy and part of a wolf pack particularly fitting, I think. And also sets up some interesting conflicts with hunters like Argent, even if Corey doesn’t even KNOW why he’s so antagonistic towards them, but like, as part leshy, he would likely be prone to very Not Good vibes about human hunters. Which also creates some interesting implications about the WHY of the Dread Doctors of all beings choosing to make a chimera that was part leshy aka anti-hunter....given that the lead Dread Doctor, Marcel, pretty much did everything he did because he was super obviously in love with Sebastian aka the Beast, the prime target and enemy of hunters everywhere, and the whole reason the Argent dynasty began in the first place.

Josh:

I’d need to give some more thought to him. I have seen people headcanon that Josh was spliced with some kind of raiju, which is a creature from Japanese legends typically associated with various gods of thunder. The raiju is a kind of thunder-beast, and usually takes the form or appearance of a blue-white wolf shaped from lightning, though it can also take other forms like that of a weasel, a badger or even a dragon.

I mean, this one definitely does work, its just I’m kinda like.....eh, just because TW has fucked around with and fucked over Japanese legends enough on the show without putting any real effort into prioritizing or centering them or the characters associated with them....aka all our rants about Kira and the nameless/barely-a-character nogitsune. I suspect my resistance to having Josh be part raiju is less that like, it doesn’t fit or make sense than it is mostly just.....I don’t trust the execution of most of the people I’ve seen do the headcanoning him as such, lol, so I’m knee-jerk inclined to just run the opposite direction with it, lol. Also, along similar lines, just NO times infinity to having him be in any way part thunderbird because Leave Native American legends alone Teen Wolf, You’ve Done Enough.

There are a number of other kinds of lightning birds though, from regions all around the world, like Slavic mythology and folklore has a couple, particularly associated with Perun, there’s a few in South American regions, Zulu folklore has a lightning bird called the impundulu....but even just going back to Eastern Europe with this, in the sense that since so many of the other creatures TW focused on originate there and that’s where the DD are from, its not a stretch to imagine beings or creatures from that region being particularly central to a lot of their experiments....like, for instance in terms of that reasoning, my personal preference would be to go with one of the various takes on the shtriga or strigoi that associate them with lightning (mostly ball lightning) that could work and be something a bit different. 

Because the strigoi are basically the basis for Stoker’s take on vampires in particular, so instead of being specifically derived from some kind of lightning-specific creature or being like the raiju, making Josh part strigoi would mean his electricity powers were really only incidental to his chimera nature rather than the focus of it, and since the Teen Wolf chimeras are all one third human, one third werewolf, and one third something else....Josh being a strigoi chimera would effectively make him TW’s version of a vampire-werewolf hybrid.

(Also, like with the leshy, the strigoi makes a certain kind of sense to be spliced with werewolves or associated with a wolf pack, because the strigoi is pretty much definitively THE version of a vampire that having vampires have strong connections to and imagery associated with wolves, or vampires being able to shapeshift into wolves specifically.....like the strigoi are where those legends and takes in particular all stem from).

And I mean, Josh as part strigoi definitely puts his teeth when he’s in his shifted form in a totally different light, lolol.