#god you write him SO WELLLLLLLLL

[kameyyy]

#recs

(did nawt fit in anymore😭)

off balance - h. iwaizumi x reader smau

chapter two: thank you?

off balance masterlist

more:

𓇼 yn lied and said she had to go to the bathroom after the whole "thank you" fiasco becuase she truly did not know how else to get out of that situation (and she was drunk and panicking)

𓇼 iwa just kinda assumed she got sick after drinking and went home

𓇼 mattsun had to physically drag yn out of bed for practice at 5am. literally pulling her onto the floor like a slinky (she was pissed)

𓇼 yn genuinely doesn't really know what a man thanking her when she kisses them means. she does know that is NOT a positive reaction

𓇼 yn spent at least 6 minutes chasing mattsun down and throwing all the ice cubes in their apartment at him after that tweet

𓇼 sakusa and yn just match each others freak. they bonded so fast.

𓇼 iwa has literally never shown any interest in anyone else during college until this (oikawa bugging about it)

𓇼 iwa is acting very cool and nonchalant about the fact that she hasnt texted him yet (he is not feeling cool and nonchalant at all)

taglist: 50/50! (closed!)

@softpia @kagsoup @honeyfewr @punkhazardlaw @xxblackroses623xx

@bakugouswh0r3 @beckxisxinxlovexwithxjin @honeycrispappletree @diorsz @theycallmenanamisgirl

@milliondollagirl @lees-chaotic-brain @jaynawayna @elliott0o0 @spicana

@nbcvs @dazqa @bambinos22 @toomanygoldfish @mfcherry

@cherrypieyourface @itsdragonius @lilchubbyyy @kuroosmikasavolleyball @viscoolreal

@reignsaway @dragonictears @st4vk1nmybra1n @sunakeiji @whosmarjj

@kxttqi @snufflesw @rrosiitas @sunnyskiezzzz @gsyche

@tsukiesimp @gigiiiiislife @gangsterthomasbrodie @hanniesdegree @kameyyy

@evilari111 @manhattanstrawberry @oshygoshy @darling-eos @loveyislost

@yunirgo @s6rine @sickpatientt @s777athv @hanniesdegree

[aajjks]

we’re a team okay? i’ll piggyback off of you. just write what comes to mind 😊

mommy issues!JK

“i’m so sorry jungkook. i just…i can’t take it anymore!” you pant.

“OK calm down she deserved it. I’m so proud of you”

jungkook takes the metal baseball bat from your hand and does his best to calm you down. he slowly caresses your face before bringing you in for a hug; God, he’s so proud of you. never in a million years would he foresee something like this and despite him being a little shaken up (including eunwoo) he’s jumping for joy right now. nara has met her match and it’s you.

“i’m pretty sure nara is going to sue you, y/n but don’t worry. i’ve got a good lawyer for you”

“thanks eunwoo”

it’s so good to know that despite your impulsive and illegal actions, there are still people rooting for you. pedestrians walking the streets and even jungkook’s coworkers gather to watch nara lose her mind over the damages you’ve dealt to her car and when she sees you and jungkook together, that’s the final straw.

“HOW DARE YOU HUG THIS BITCH AFTER SHE DESTROYED MY PRECIOUS ROSY!!!” you roll your eyes. she even named the stupid the car?

“you know what? you’re FIRED!!!!!!! YOU, EUNWOO, AND ALINA ARE FIRED!!!! and you? you’re dead. you’re soooo fucking dead. i’d watch my back if i were you, bitch”

after that, nara angrily storms off leaving the three of you to reap the consequences of your actions. “i’m-i’m so sorry you guys. i shouldn’t have done that. what was i thinking? i should’ve just—,” you don’t even want to look at jungkook’s or eunwoo’s face because you’re sure they’re angry at you.

“hey, don’t cry. it’s okay, y/n” says eunwoo but you just shake your head. your hands are covering your face and you can’t help but feel awful for what you’ve done.

“alina is gonna kill me. i’m so sorry, guys”

“y/n it’s okay! we were already thinking about quitting anyways. remember that job in incheon? welllllllll alina works there. that’s why she hasn’t been here. i can get her to put in a good word for us and BAM!”

“but it’s not close to busan—,”

“it’s a teleworking job. she only goes to incheon like once or twice a month”

you wonder if eunwoo had this planned the whole time. he’s always looking out for jungkook and he knew this nara situation would blow out of proportion one day. there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his little brother and after seeing you stand up for jungkook the way you did he can’t help but like you a lot more.

“so quit crying, alright? i got it handled. our main focus is your protection. she threatened to kill you and knowing her family, they can easily arrange that”

~🫧

“if she even touches a hair on your body, I will actually murder her.” Something inside him snaps when eunwoo mentions the possibility of the Jang family hurting you for hurting their precious princess.

And he’s not too worried about losing his job because a few tears in front of his mother and he will become the CEO of the JH INDUSTRIES. His Mother is from a very rich background herself.

She fell in love with his dad and they got married, of course his father is quite rich too, but he’s just so greedy always wanting more… but they’re old and he’s their only child… and he’s got an heir.

He knows that his mother misses him because she’s always texting him, calling him longing to see her only grandchild, but jungkook did not allow it because she did not protect him when he needed her protection and support.

“Yn how about you quit your job at the school? I mean you’ve got quite a qualification if you want I could get you a job at my mothers company.” Jungkook suggests.

“I know teaching is what you love to do but seriously I don’t think it’s worth it… she has tarnished your reputation and you deserve better… and honestly it’s a huge problem because you cannot date me and I really want you to date me without any shame or guilt.”

This is a golden opportunity and he’s taking it

You have no idea about his background and it’s gonna be a hassle to explain that he’s actually from a rich background.., are you gonna think of him of him less?

“And eunwoo is right. I’ve got the incheon job too…” he winks. He cannot stand to see you so stressed out and so guilty because this is not your fault you only took your revenge.

And as for him killing… he killed his father’s mistress. She deserved to die. And the mistress was Nara’s auntie.

How could his father even think of betraying his mother who loves him more than her life? Nobody knows how she died because it was disguised as a suicide.

He’s not a killer and he didn’t want to become one, but.. he just cannot stand it when someone tries to hurt the ones he loves.

“Come yn- and eunwoo. We will have lunch together somewhere. I guess I am starving.”

“DUDE I am completely famished and I guess I will eat you if I don’t get to eat something right now.”

You both laugh at eunwoo.

And God knows you have the most gorgeous laugh.

[weirdprophetess]

been seeing people talk about Ethel Cain a lot and had chills the entire time i watched her perform Morning Elvis with Florence so I'm playing Preacher's Daughter for the first time and writing notes as I go

fair warning this is an incredibly long post

first of all i have to say i love this album cover the dark warm browns are gorgeous and really give off that rural small town vibe and i read a few articles about her so i know she grew up in a place like that and the album title is describing her because her dad was a deacon of the church her and her family grew up in

the basssss the bass starting family tree ooooooohhhhh i love that

these crosses all over my body remind me of who i used to be and christ forgive these bones im hiding from no one successfully jesus can always reject his father but he cannot escape his mothers blood W H A T

THE BEATSSS THEYRE SO DARK AND DRAMATIC AND ATMOSPHERIC IM SCREAMING IM ONE MINUTE IN AND THIS IS MAYBE THE BEST ALBUM INTRO IVE EVER HEARD

my brain chemistry has already been altered i instantly need this on vinyl

loveee the guitar starting off american teenagerrrrrr

the suspended vocalization tooooooo)(U*U@PIHF@

i love love love her voice its so rich and she does deep and high notes both so amazingly welllllllll screaming

the melody the flow of the lyrics the beat the synthy floaty sounds im deadddd i love thissss i want to rip it apart like soft hot bread and eat ittttt

SAY WHAT YOU WANT BUT SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT WITH YOU F I S T S FOR ONCE

MAIN CHARACTER TYPE SONG I LOVE THE IRONY I LOVE TEH SADNESS IM GOING TO WALK AROUND TO THIS SO MUCH THAT IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST HONORS I CAN GIVE A SONG @mothercain YOUR HAND IN MARRIAGE BITCHHHH

I HAVE FINISHED TWO SONGS AND ITS ALREADY MY NEW PERSONALITY TIME TO HYPERFIXATE FOR MONTHS AND LET IT TAKE OVER THIS WHOLE FUCKING BLOG

THE SUSPENDED PIANO NOTES FOR HOUSE IN NEBRASKA???? Y E S

THE ECHOEY VOCALS MAKE ME INSANE IM CLAWING AT THE WALLS RENDING MY GARMENTS GNASHING MY TEETH OH MY GODDDDDD

I STILL CALL HOME THAT HOUSE IN NEBRASKA WHERE WE FOUND EACH OTHER IN A DIRTY MATTRESS ON THE SECOND FLOOR WHERE THE WORLD WAS EMPTY SAVE YOU AND I WHERE YOU CAME AND I LAUGHED AND YOU LEFT AND I CRIED WHERE YOU TOLD ME EVEN IF WE DIED TONIGHT THAT ID DIE YOURS

YOU KNOW I STILL WAIT AT THE EDGE OF TOWN PRAYING STRAIGHT TO GOD THAT MAYBE YOULL COME BACK AROUND I HAVE FULL BODY CHILLSSSSSS

THE ROCK GUITAR SMASHING IN AND BEING SO CRUNCHY GODDDDDDDDD

He's never looked more beautiful on his Harley in the parking lot breaking into the ATMs sleeping naked when it gets too hot from what ive heard people say about Lana Del Rey's music this sounds like she might've been an influence

show me how much i mean to you while im lying in these sheets undressed id hold the gun if you ask me to but if you love me like you say you do would you ask me to troubles always gonna find you baby but so will i crying only because im happy hold me across every state line im never gonna leave you baby even if you lose whats left of your mind cause you know ill be right there beside you riding through those western nights

ooh there's another song called family tree the first one was family tree (intro) but there's track five without (intro) delicious

oohhhhhooohohoho same first two lines but then new lyrics

give myself up to him in offering let him make a woman out of me ooooh hoo hoo hooooo

so family tree is a banger

i immediately thought emo cowboy on hearing those lyrics and google actually gave me that so thank you whoever made this image because its truly the essence of this album

the next one is hard times and the first thing i thought of was paramore ive been obsessed with that song lately

nine going on eightaayynn lay it on meeeeeeheeeeheeeee yessssss

im tiiiiired of you too tiiiiired to leave im tiiiired of you still tiiiiied to meeeee

I MET YOU THERE IN TEXAS

MY ASS WHO LIVES IN TEXAS👀👀👀

i met you there in texas somewhere on the thoroughfare on the side of the road with a pistol in my pocket i didnt trust no one but you said baby dont run ill take you anywhere

AND YOU SAID HEY DO YOU WANNA SEE THE WEST WITH MEEEHEEEEEE CAUSE LOVES OUT THERE AND I CANT LEAVE IT BEEEEEE AND I SAID HONEY LOVES NEVER MEANT MUCH TO ME BUT ILL COME WITH YOU IF YOURE SURE ITS WHAT YOU NEED

love love lovvveeeeee the beat that comes in a bit before that part

sad cowgirl winter lets go girls

i am halfway through this album and ive made more notes than i have for some albums twice the length thats how good 13 track albums always are

its not a real cowboy album if youre not spending the last two minutes of a nine and a half minute song just vocalizing

oh the nexts songs called gibson girl ive heard of that but i forgot what it is hang on

a type of drawing by a man named Charles Gibson of the ideal woman of the 1890s ooh should be interesting

the intro for this songgggg

the production is the fucking besttttt

the echoes for this one too yesss i love this shitttt

i dont even know what image to put this over but just youre all the same black leather and dark glasses pourin another while i shake my ass hes cold blooded so it takes more time to bleed obsession with the money addicted to the drugs says hes in love with my body thats why hes fucking it up

the guitar breakkkkkkk:PO(*&^%$^;l;pqokpiaw

next ones name is ptolemaea so lemme go look that up too

oh yeahhh that greek astrologer dude okay

ooh the distortion in the beginningggg

the intensity building is so horror-like i love it

the screech on the last stop made me jump a lil goodbye

I am the face of loves rage what the fuck

the guitar and drums all getting more intense after that line remind of of the end of I Know The End by Phoebe Bridgers ill take ten million more songs with that please

the entire ending um???

its a good thing i decided to listen to this album around noon and not the middle of the night because i love demonic speaking parts but not when my eyes arent adjusted to the dark girl

ooh august underground is an instrumental i went to look up the lyrics and apparently its named after a horror film trilogy so ill probably check that out soon

televangelism is also purely instrumental and genius says its ethels ascent to heaven as music god this sounds gorgeous

what i wouldnt give to be in church this sunday listening to the choir so heartfelt all singing god loves you but not enough to save you so good luck on your own baby so i said fine cause thats how my daddy raised if they strike one once then you just hit em twice as hard but in the end the fire bent under the weight they gave me and this heart would break and fall twice as far eating these lyrics

WE ALL KNOW HOW IT GOES THE MORE IT HURTS THE LESS IT SHOWS BUT I STILL FEEL LIKE THEY ALL KNOW AND THATS WHY I COULD NEVER G O BACK HOME E T H E L THERE IS NO NEED TO EXPOSE ME LIKE THIS???

SO I MET HIM THERE AND TOLD HIM I BELIEVE SINGING IF ITS MEANT TO BE THEN IT WILL BE AND I FORGIVE IT ALL AS IT COMES BACK TO ME IM STILL PRAYING FOR THAT HOUSE IN NEBRASKA BY THE HIGHWAY OUT ON THE EDGE OF TOWN DANCING WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN I CANT LET GO WHEN SOMETHINGS BROKEN ITS ALL I KNOW AND ITS ALL I WANNA KNOW

one more song i have no idea what to say

freezer bride, your sweet divine look i have been obsessed with the locked tomb for over a year im not going to NOT think of Alecto when i see this

when my mother sees me on the side of a carton in winn-dixie's dairy aisle like the one promo picture for this right

and arlington's in texas👀👀👀

f.inisheddd thea lbum(*&#!OHPI#!HFo

wow what the hell was that im going to obsess over it forever

if there is not a colored vinyl of this i am going to fucking murder someone this deserves something gorgeous for me to stare at while its playing

in conclusion i cannot in any way let my religious mother know im trying to get this album so im going to work with my friend who helps me get explicit/gay music my mom wont let me because spotifys alright but i need to listen to this on my little portable cd player with headphones on full blast on the floor in the middle of the night because truly every album experience is better that way but especially shit like this

ethel if youre reading this how the everloving FUCK is this your debut album this literally deserves a grammy we all know they havent been shit for a while but if you dont get one for this im going to maul the entire Academy for real. keep doing weird shit i literally heard about you from Morning Elvis with Florence, my number one weird music woman and her taste has not failed me yet, especially not after an hour of being immersed in this

[saltlickmp3]

okay so i am listening to tbi again as i write this i was going to do it earlier but didnt for. idk reasons got distracted BUT here i am anyways with my thoughts, so -

obligatory 'old norse mythology' *looks inside* *retrospectively added christianity warping the story* mention cos ahjsgahjgnshnghjengrnfregrhnhrrnnregh. explodes. anyways. you make a really good point about how in modern media, stories are often Very driven by & focused on character dynamics, whereas older stories, up until really quite recently, are often focused more on Plot & Things That Happened, & by extension this makes Loki's role as a trickster god within character dynamics quite complex - because we dont want to see our protagonist doing anything Too Awful or we wont like then & arent invested, But if the story removes things that make loki Actuallu Interesting that it can sort of. fall flat in other ways. like making baldur secretly evil, or alternate universe evil in the marvel comics (taking your word for it i havent read them), is?? a weird choice? like the point of the story, iirc, is that baldur was the specialest golden boy of the universe & everyone loved him & loki thought lol wouldnt it be funny if i got him injured with the only thing that can LMAO (or was it a grudge thing? i forgor :( ). which obviously doesnt work well making her a likeable protagonist in a retelling.

also trickster character lend themselves well to sort of anti hero / rebelling against the system characters, which is probably why reimagining the other gods as tyrants is common & works well - like in the bifrost incident (to my understanding. im not quite sure whats going on in there exactly) even though loki (& sigyn?) have done some pretty bad things its like, welllllllll, the other gods are trying to wreck her cool space train so she's obviously in the right there :). in teh same way how the doctor can commit untold war crimes & he;s still the sympathetic adored protagonist of the show universes specialest guy etc. as long as loki is portrayed to have a righteous cause, which she often doesnt in the myths iirc, she could get away with quite a bit but some retellings kind of...... dont use that

ALSO a while ago i saw a thing saying something like the bits of the thor etc movies where loki is the coolest & most charismatic & most likeable (& most genderWHO SAID THA-), is when he is being the most Problematic, like making people bow before him etc generally causing destruction for funsies, & in parts of the loki show where he literally says 'uhm hi im a narrcissist & im afraid of not being good enough' or whatever he says, it makes him Less Cool because you Want him to be sauntering around causing havoc b/c he can. but they put him in a collar & make him apologise. & then kiss his clone like girl wgat. (i had Thoughts on sylvie as a character but im gonna be honest its been A While since i saw that show so i've mostly forgotten them raghhhh).

but anyways THAT WHOLE THING YOU WROTE IS REALLY INTERESTING /GENUINE you can ramble about loki at me as much as you want hehe :]

can i talk to you about something norse mythology related which i have been thinking about a lot

YES OF COURsE you definitely can ✨

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Maya?? Maya!!

also Athenas lmao

finally i am free to work on this

boy i sure hope we don’t get more info soon *squints at Amara’s character trailer just around the corner*

tl;dr: athenas. wow. uhhh temple areas with the weird vault-shaped statue things might be a teleportation hub or something like a Stargate cuz, uh… they’re probably not Vaults. i mean. given what we know maybe they are Vaults but not like vaults with important stuff inside, just teleportation vaults. you know what im trying to say? i mean it’s not like the eridians had any spaceships we’ve seen. but they had to get around somehow. 

also it’s possible the big temple area we see is on Athenas, is in that giant fucking pyramid in the background that i completely and totally did not notice for the longest time. 

i also discuss Maya and her thoughtlock skill (if she gets her powers taken away from her) and if she’s gonna die or not. because she’s got the Cloud Kill legendary (’oh noo she ded’), an apprentice (let’s be real, the cliches aren’t looking great), and she seems to working beside rampagers in that giant temple area (also another reason i think it’s on athenas) and tbh i didn’t see her tattoos in either of those shots (but that could be cuz she’s so smoll). so that’s cool. 

oh also the order of the impending storm was probably pretty respectable back in the day, since they can track sirens (maya’s assassin in son of crawmerax), and maybe that’s how maya figured out ava was gonna be a siren even tho she hasn’t manifested her powers yet. and Maya’s probably unearthing all this buried Siren/Vault knowledge and bringing the Academic District back into power while also protecting the Order from Maliwan. who’s still v sus.

wow we have a lot to go over

so to start, im taking a wild guess and saying the temple is on Athenas. why? because we really haven’t gotten a lot of looks at either of those areas too much (compared to promethea and eden-6) and the architecture lines up to me. 

also i, an idiot, was all like ‘mannnn Athenas is super mountainy, that’s wild. love it’ and neglected to realize there’s literally a giant fucking pyramid in the background of a lot of shots

on the right

behind the tower

to the right of ava

on the left

so i feel really dumb right now for not noticing this sooner and writing it off as a mountain. It's literally the fuckin Vault symbol like. ~triangles~. i played skyrim i should know what mountains look like when they’re not 1 polygon

either way, if that’s not at least part of the temple, it’s definitely important. somehow.

but let’s talk about the temple. the parts we know.

let’s try to look out the windows of this wild place

see cause this looks like inside a mountain

so my first instinct was eden-6 because we see a volcano on there

i mean im under the assumption this is eden-6???

bc all the plants match up

… maybe there’s more than one temple?

oh god i don’t wanna separate these by temple that’s going to be IMPOSSIBLE

but yeah i guess it’s possible there’s one on Eden-6 and one on Athenas… dear god…

but yeah my first instinct for that was ‘inside a volcano’

possible mountain on the left there

very rocky all around. im assuming this is underground or smth?

it feels like we’re underground

so maybe it’s a thing where it just keeps going further down. iunno.

it’s hard to place exactly where this is going to be because of the whole ‘underground’ thing

the part that’s throwing me off the most is this

because this looks like Pandora bc of Elpis and the rocks

and it looks like we’re walking outside a temple with the same friggen tiles on the floor, which means it is possible that this is The Temple, but you think we’d know about a giant-ass temple just on pandora. especially with the big dig site

but then we see a super similar dig site (supposedly on promethea). so what the HELL

im almost inclined to believe this is some sort of Eridian teleportation system. i know, i know, we have Sanctuary-III so it’s pointless. but… will we always have Sanc-III throughout the story? yada yada orange/gray -> blue/yellow/red markings. you get the dealio by now.

to

when taken by the cult or smth.

idk it’s possible we won’t have sanc-III for the entire game (just like normal sanctuary in bl2, in that we’ll get it back eventually (or ill kill someone for taking my room decorations)) and then we’ll have to use this wicked eridian tech to move between planets with these gateways. sort of like a stargate…

this thing is a stargate. I’ll call back to this in a hot second.

what kinda shit am i tripping on? i don’t really know. but given how it seems like these temples could be on ANY of the planets we see, im trying to figure out wtf the connection could be.

and give me this: we have never actually seen an eridian spacecraft, but we know they’ve traveled across the galaxy, putting vaults on different places. how in the fuck could they have done that if, you know, they didn’t have spaceships to travel through… space?��

well we know they have the power of teleportation down pat. i mean down so hard they were able to create a ‘teleportation gland’ that allowed a giant vault monster to teleport at will. (now im wondering if lilith has one… hm.) 

this blue thing (which… is the same color as siren stuff. okay. im sorry. i won’t get off topic this time. but it’s stewing in my gray matter)

and given that we know all the (okay, we only know for certain some) vaults open up into this other dimension (space place), would it be so hard to believe that they’re created links between planets using this dimension? i just… something isn’t right here and this seems like the most logical solution. 

take a look at Eleseer. look at all those holograms of labeled planets. of galaxies and stars in the distance. it’s possible eleseer is like the Hub for this teleportation system (explaining why it’s always open) and explaining why it’s got all those weird planet holograms sitting around. could also explain why Moon = Key.

These aren’t Vaults, they wouldn’t show up on the Vault Map- explaining why we never saw this one on Pandora- these are like… gateways or something, iunno. name pending until sept. 13th i guess.

so why tf am i going off about this on a post about maya and athenas?

because i think athenas has a gateway in it too

yeah you should recognize that thing in the background!

that’s this place!!! from the behind closed doors demo!!

and it still

doesn’t look like a vault to me

it’s intact (also it looks like stairs…). all the Vaults we’ve seen are 100% not intact. they’re all chunky and in pieces (we’re gonna ignore eleseer and uhhhh all that business right now, but even thinking about how the sentinel tried to emulate a vault by spawning it in chunks and THEN assembling it)

chunky

im just saying there has to be a reason these vault-like shapes are intact. they’re either just statues/monuments or they have a purpose.

so why tf am i convinced they have a purpose?

bc we’ve seen one light up

taken straight from the void itself (seriously it’s like a gradient back there. which is weird.)

so there’s gotta be a reason it does this right? and if it’s not a Vault, because it’s on Pandora and the Crimson Raiders would have seen it on the Vault Map, then what the fuck is it?

welllllllll i just don’t know. but my best guess right now is some sort of teleportation system to travel between planets. if there are ‘temples’ on every planet then it would make sense that there is some way for eridians to travel btwn them. 

personally i think there’s one on eden-6 (maybe in that volcano area??) and one on Athenas (cause we really haven’t seen a lot of athenas yet and… i dunno i just have a feeling). and there’s apparently one on Pandora (given we see it with elpis in the background) and possibly one on Promethea. i don’t know what that instagram video was trying to imply. i don’t wanna think too hard about it right now my brain hurts enough already as it is.

but uhhh i was gonna talk more about athenas than this

i promise this is gonna lead into maya

the academic district, with a Vault symbol on the door, to boot.

so this place is really interesting to me for a lot of reasons.

1. that vault symbol on the door

2. they’re flying flags with the vault symbol on it

3. giant pyramid in the back

it’s staggeringly huge

4. they have siren tattoos on the building in the back there. specifically, amara’s tattoos

yeah. maybe this is Partali? a smaller area on Athenas, like Meridian is a city on Promethea, and this is Amara’s way of tagging her presence/an area under her protection as the Tiger

more shots of Athenas from the amd horizons e3 stream

it’s a very pretty planet

so if anything, this is the place we’re going to go to learn about Sirens.

and i don’t know how much the Order of the Impending Storm actually KNOWS about Sirens, because all we know about them from maya’s backstory is that they were assholes and using maya to keep the people scared and giving them money

also that they knew how to track sirens

that’s probably important…

“Maya, you’ll like this next dude. He’s a Siren tracker named Mordo Sophis, Father of Brother Stephen Sophis, that dude you ganked back on Athenas. And boy, oh boy, is he just itching for vengeance.”

who isn’t, mr. mordo, sir? get in line

anyway apparently the Order knows how to track Sirens. Which could explain how Maya has a Siren apprentice when Ava uhhh apparently hasn’t manifested her powers (or tattoos) yet. might also explain how they got their hands on Maya when she was a baby. cuz yeah… i got the feeling they stole her and killed her parents… just a feeling.

y’know if tannis didn’t kill that siren tracker dude maybe she could’ve learned something from him first. that could’ve been interesting.

anyway, idk. maybe at one point the Order was respectable and, like, didn’t force people into giving them money by using sirens as a scare tactic. 

it looks like they have/had an academic district (which im sure maya is helping cultivate) focused on Sirens/Vaults.

and there’s a lot of importance on books this game

seriously

apparently

there’s

a

lot.

but let’s get back to this in a minute, because i do wanna talk about the name of the Order.

it’s full name is the Order of the Impending Storm.

I know while writing bl2 they probably didn’t know that they were gonna be building towards a war in tps, but it’s still interesting that they decided to bring them back into play now. because they 100% could have just left them as a background monastery that Maya came from and have maya refuse to return/start her own organization. but they made her specifically return there.

so does their name have significance now? i’d be willing to bet a yes. I mean, war is coming. Impending Storm sounds like it’d be a pretty fitting name for an organization that knew this. Especially because according to Maya’s cosplay guide, they worshipped her like a God (seriously lol are all Sirens worshipped as minor deities? most people know Sirens are Sirens right? like just people with magic powers..? hmmm)

And if Maya returned to learn more about Sirens, then isn’t it implied that the Order did, in fact, know more about Sirens than Maya did? hell, maybe even Tannis…

especially if the temple or eridian ruins are nearby. Say… In this giant pyramid…

so this doesn’t fit in with the aesthetic of Athenas at all. it’s almost like those are caution colors on the bottom strip there. warning you to not go inside. i don’t know if this was built by the eridians or by whoever is on Athenas to keep whatever’s inside… inside (cough Rampagers cough)

either way that pyramid is FUCKING HUGE

seriously, just compared to the academic district, it’s insanely big (that is the BASE in the background)

also guess who just realized this would be a hilarious joke by gearbox

to have pyramids built by ancient aliens. oh, you.

also, side note, there’s a crew challenge for moxxi in the academic district

i just have no idea how we’re getting up there…

oh but the Order. yeah i get the feeling they know A LOT about Sirens/Eridians. maybe even what’s about to go down. but maybe a majority of that was lost in the archives when some corrupts assholes came into power. and now Maya returned and is slowly but surely unarchiving everything we need to know about Sirens.

perhapith this book has some Siren-y knowledge within it? from someone who went into the temple on Athenas and… never came back out.

and I would bet Maya is waging war against Maliwan at the same time as she’s uncovering all this buried info (protecting the Order) because Maliwan is trying to get this info as well. 

Seriously, anyone else notice Maliwan is SPREADING?? They’re not just on Promethea. they’re on Eden-6. They’re on Athenas. They’re even fuckin on Pandora in some trailers (although I would not trust any trailer with roses at this point. something’s really fucky. I will make a seperate post about that i think, once we get Amara’s and Fl4k’s trailers). I’m really suspicious that Maliwan has either joined the cult, or they’re going to become the main villains. which, y’know, given corporations are the big bad in borderlands always… that seems about right.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if Maya/the Order knows something about the Children of the Vault. Given that one pic of her holding a book with the CoV symbol on it.

that she seems to be passing on to Ava

I dunno. I don’t think Children of the Vault is a name that the cultists/Calypsos just HAPPENED to come up with. And I still don’t think that the broadcast easter egg is from the Calypsos. it doesn’t make sense. I know I went over this in-depth in the Promethea post but god damn it im going to do it again because i feel so strongly about this.

i feel like the cult stumbled upon this name and decided to adopt it as their own. or tried revive an old cult with the same name. and if they didn’t, why in the hell does the message say ‘Do Not Open the Vaults’? How do the twins know about Tannis by name?

i mean, okay, granted we don’t know exactly how she fixed the Vault Map and it could be that the twins know how she did it. Because I still haven’t been able to place that one shot of them walking outside the Recruitment Center 

this one

and we know tannis fixes (??) the Vault Map in the recruitment center, so, maybe they saw it happen or there’s some sort of record in the vault map? that shows her fixing it and when they get to Promethea they send out that message?

i meannn she seems pretty surprised it’s functioning, herself.

so maybe they come while/after tannis fixes the key/map to get it back and Lilith like alright everyone let’s book it to Ellie’s garage with the Map. she’ll help us get to Sanc-III.

and in that they see that she’s able to fix it (possibly with weird Siren/Destroyer/Slag/pickurpoison powers) and that’s how they know Tannis is not what she seems.

and maybe the twins just don’t want their cultists opening the vaults because they want to be the ones to open it.

Sure

BUT that’s boring sauce to theorize about because it’s all just there. I’m still partial to the idea that Children of the Vault is actually referring to Sirens tho. It would explain why Maya has a book with the symbol for the CoV on it and is offering it to Ava. Because why would Ava need a book about the Calypsos? who would WRITE a book about the Calypsos?? and make it look THAT old? like… c’mon.

At the very least, it’s an old name for a cult that got revived by the Calypso twins.

At the most, it’s the name for Sirens.

Or it’s the symbol for the Order of the Impending Storm, back when they were respectable. tho you think we’d see maya wearing the symbol somewhere in bl2, so maybe not. unless she took it off her clothes because they had her try to kill unarmed civilians.

I mean, why is the cult’s symbol the Vault symbol upside down, anyway? We know that the symbol for the Vaults in Eridian is the upside-down V in a circle, because Tannis tells us so in bl1. So why would a cult of people who believe the Vaults to be their birthright go around slapping what is essentially the opposite symbol everywhere?

i personally wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the symbol for Siren or something, given how closely intertwined they both seem to be to that alternate dimension.

regardless. let’s keep going

so let’s talk about Maya’s fate in BL3. Is she gonna die? is she not gonna die? i dunno. let’s discuss.

i personally would not be surprised if she does, but i’d be a little disappointed regardless. if any Siren is gonna die… Lilith is going to finish her character arc this game. not that I want her to die, but still. I get that they gotta keep the Siren cycle going.

sooo one big point in the ‘maya dies’ category:

“Oh noo she ded” i mean. that’s just mean, gearbox. 

of course we don’t know if that’s talking specifically about Maya, could be talking about Tyreen, or a miniboss, or something. but i do think it’s interesting that it’s on maya’s legendary. plus uhhh given we had a death out of Roland in BL2, and in TPS 2 of those VHs died as well, I think it’s a given at least one BL2 VH isn’t gonna live to see the end of 3. as much as that actually physically pains me to type. 

And… to tip the scales further to Maya, Zer0 has crew challenges, which probably means they won’t be biting the dust anytime soon, unless you wanna completely ruin doing all the crew challenges by beating the game before doing the assassination quests. which doesn’t seem like something they’re keen on doing, if Roland giving out side quests had anything to say about it. Of course there’s always the argument that someone will take over Zer0′s crew challenges if they die, but… who would? Rhys? maybe. i get the feeling he might be too busy with Atlas though. Lorelei..? … i don’t know her well enough to make a statement on that.

taken from K6′s awesome legendary loot vid

Back to the legendary. we know it’s hers based off the name ‘Cloud Kill’, which is one of her best skills (after the buff lol). It’s a corrosive only Maliwan smg (as far as i can tell. it doesn’t look like there’s the option to swap elements. so it’s cool to know uniques might throw out their manufacturer’s alternate firing modes). i’m gonna take a guess and say it mimics cloud kill by spawning a cloud on top of enemies that are shot with it. that could clean out an entire room in seconds, especially on Amara with Phasegrasp.

anyway i got more

so Ava is Maya’s apprentice, hmmmm?

well i dunno about you guys but whenever a character gets an apprentice/kid/whatever, it’s not good news for the character. and given that borderlands definitely doesn’t need children to keep the premise fresh, I’m a bit worried for Maya.

Ava must be important to the main story, or they could’ve taken her out or put Gaige in. The devs themselves said they only wanted to bring in characters that they knew had significant importance to the plot and so that characters wouldn’t feel shoehorned in.

so there’s a few ways things can go down with Ava, using apprentice stereotypes:

1) She takes over after Maya dies/has her powers stolen/is brainwashed and helps us bring Maya back by proving herself using the stuff she learned from Maya (or, the stuff she taught herself that Maya said wasn’t important)

1b) she inherits Maya’s powers and Maya trains her in the way of Phaselock

possibly maya handing over her class mod or smth

2) she’s evil and the cult is using her to get info and secretly hates maya or whatever

Given Ava is like… 12… I wanna believe she’s not evil. of course we don’t actually know if she’s 12 cause apparently the Siren lore got messed up knowing Angel had her powers manifest at 5. but that’s not canon until mentioned in-game, so fuck it: let’s believe Ava is 12 and not evil and is just Maya’s kickass Siren apprentice.

The apprentice Maya was able to find because the Order knew how to track Sirens/determine if someone is going to exhibit Siren powers.

yes, let’s go with that.

So… what’s gonna happen to Maya, then?

I personally believe she’s going to have her powers stolen and used against her. One major part of her powers is that she’s able to ‘Thoughtlock’, which basically brainwashes an enemy to fight for her.

That sounds like it would be insanely powerful in the hands of the Calypso twins, especially since Maya has gotten more powerful since bl2, and tbh I can’t see them wanting to pass it up. Of course it could also be story-breaking, but let’s say they can only have one person ever Thoughtlock-ed at a time and suddenly it’s a lot less troublesome.

so this scene makes me do a big thonk

(also, another reason im thinking this temple area is on Athenas is bc Maya’s there! plus there are triangles everywhere. Triangles… pyramids… iunno. just spitballing)

also idk if this is just cause she’s super teeny-tiny buuuut

im worried i can’t see maya’s tattoos

she’s also entirely focused on the player instead of… oh, idk, the giant rampager right next to her

and idk it looks almost like she’s holding a gun and aiming it at us?

which hey, i wouldn’t jump to conclusions right away because she does have a skill that allows her to heal allies by shooting them

but also… if she doesn’t have her siren powers, then that’d just be like… regular shooting, wouldn’t it? and if she DOES have her Siren powers, why in the hell is she not using them on the giant monster right next to her???

we see her again in the background of this shot

again… tattoos not 100% clear.

she also seems to be taking radiation damage from the rampager! which is good. but also she doesn’t seem to care that much about it.

we can also see her gun here

sorry it was kinda being obscured by the youtube progress bar

but uhhh it’s not looking good.

boy i really hope Maya doesn’t die

we also know it was hinted that Krieg might be making a return! from his voice actor’s twitter:

tho, he also soon made a tweet after that was all like “this doesn’t confirm nor deny that krieg is returning” which, yeah i get that.

either way, if Krieg is coming back, it’d be interesting to see what goes down with him, especially if Maya dies. or even if Maya’s ‘just’ in trouble, I could see him going absolutely apeshit.

maybe krieg will sacrifice himself to save maya, somehow. maybe he’s have a moment of pure lucidity and save her. maybe she’ll die and he’ll lose his mind and become a boss battle. maybe she’ll save him and they’ll live happily ever after ;w; who knows~

maybe ava will have heard about Krieg through Maya and will go to get him to try and help save her. that’d be really interesting to see- krieg smashing through a wall with Ava riding on his shoulder lol

anyway, holy shit im exhausted. i gotta wrap this up because it’s like 1am and i’ve been working on this post for like… 3 days straight now. ech.

if maya does die, it would be interesting to see is Ava inherits her powers after we kill the Calypsos. like, would the powers try to go back to their original host? would they see she’s dead and just find another Siren to give the powers to? i wonder if maya dying/being about to die would be enough of a traumatic experience for ava to unlock her siren powers.

ohh it’d be cool if Ava unlocked her siren powers and used them to save Maya from the cult/brainwashing/whatves

alright. im tired lmao

good night.

[desolate-rose]

Chapter 11 growing, glowing, knowing

This plant is super weird.

Like seriously, I had expected that the seed the korok gave me was going to be weird but wow.

A few days after the picnic mother had followed through on her promise and a small pot filled with rich soil had been delivered to my room. It was a pretty little thing all white ceramic with graceful blue lines sweeping across its surface to create a stylized dragon swooping over small blue flowers.

It honestly made me a little nervous. It looked way too expensive to be placed in the clumsy care of a toddler. A smart toddler but still a toddler. It seriously looks like some sort of antique ming vase or something that should be in a collection at a museum or on a shelf in a mansion some wear housing an equally prettily expensive bonsai of some sort.

I mean technically I am a princess who would have these sorts of things, but my solidly middle class broke teenager mindset was shying away from touching something that looked so expensive and breakable.

So I had gently, gently placed the little pot on the floor in the corner of my room right in a patch of sunlight from the window. (I was too short to reach the top of my dresser or the table by my bed without climbing on something and I was NOT risking the vase by climbing with it.) Then I carefully planted the little seed in the damp dark soil.

That's when things got weird.

Within seconds of planting the dimly glowing seed, it had sprouted. I had still been patting the soil down when it had sprouted into my hands. Literally sprouting into my finger tips. The little sprout hasn't grown since.

I had diligently watered the little sprout daily since. Carefully experimenting with the amount of sunlight and water it received each day. I had even started talking to the thing based on the half recalled hearsay that plants grew better when you talk to them. (his name was now neville.) It was surprisingly nice to have an excuse to babble away in english again and be able to express my true thoughts. (even if no one could understand me.) nevertheless nothing had seemed to affect the little sprout. It was still perfectly unblemished and unchanged.

It was weird.

I had decided to start a field journal to record my observations of the odd little thing. It was a part of my push to be more organised in my research. I had finally reached a point in my literacy to be able to make the most simplistic of notes. It was also good writing practice. (I would have probably started earlier if I thought of it, but welllllllll, I had been distracted.)

I had separated my notes into three journals, one for Neville, one for the history of the world that I had discovered so far (and what I remembered from the games), and one for what I could find out about magic.

The first two were progressing decently, Neville's journal being mostly data tables recording his nonexistent growth and the amount of water and sunlight he had gotten that day, whereas my history and plot journal had been filling slowly but steadily from what i could read and the stories that granny or dotty would read me before bed.

My magic journal on the other hand. It was frustratingly empty. All that i can find is either one, stupidly beyond my level, two, stupidly complex in a way I don't understand, three, stupidly simple in a way that doesn't explain any thing, or four some how a stupid mix of all three.

All in all, I'm feeling frustrated.

But it's fine, I'm fine.

Oh! That reminds me! It's been a week or two, surely that squire has returned my (hopefully undamaged) book!

I had kinda forgotten about it with all the commotion but I never had gotten to finish reading that book on special plants! Neville! I know what we're going to be doing today! carefully adjusting Neville's too pretty pot so that he was fully in the sun, his two small perfect leaves practically glistening in the golden sunlight. Perfect!

“Granny?” I looked to where Granny was carefully filling out some probably important forms on the couch while watching over me, white hair carefully pulled up and away from her tan and careworn face.

“Yes, my princess?” she replied, clever hands carefully placing her quill down.

“Can we go to the library?”

“What’s the magic word?” Ughhhhhh, I somehow keep forgetting how annoying being three is.

“Can we go to the library please?” I said, giving her my best puppy eyes.

She elegantly stood sweeping up her paperwork. “Of course my princess.”

Off we go!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

THERE WAS SOMEONE ELSE IN MY SECTION OF THE LIBRARY!

it wasn’t unusual to see people other than myself and Mr. Tommieson, it was a semi public library after all, But the section of simple childish books I could actually read was usually empty other than myself. I mean why would you go to the royal library for children's books? And yet, there was a knight in my library.

Looking again, he wasn’t quite a knight yet. His dirty mud covered tunic had the symbol of a squire instead of the distinctive armored appearance of a knight, but the point still stood. What was he doing in my haven of literature!

Now normally, I would be all for people getting educated, (go get you an education man!) but I was decidedly wary after my unfortunate encounter with those in my father’s army. (The Hylian royal line was matriarchal, my father had married into royalty. Before that he was a general of the Hylian army and he still kept in the practice of overseeing the troops.)

I shouldn't judge an entire contingent by the actions of two lazy soldiers. Still I hesitated. He didn't look too intimidating, tall and gangly in the way that all teenage boys were after a growth spurt, messy brown hair, brown eyes, and a non discriptly perfect face in the way that all hylians had perfectly even features.

All in all just a normal teenage squire who is for some reason holding MY COOKING PRIMER!

Before I had consciously thought to move I was at the young man's side staring up imploringly at the startled squire.

“Ummmmm, hi? Are you lost?”

“Is that ‘How to Cook and How it Works’ by Lana Dodson?!” I was practically vibrating as my eyes locked on my target. I could finally finish my book. My magic notes will finally be more filled out. I was a literary shark and had locked eyes on my prey.

The squire blinked surprised, “Oh, yes…”

There was a moment of silent dead air between us as I buzzed in place.

“...Did, did you want it?”

“If you're finished! I wouldn’t want to interrupt you!” I would just make you incredibly uncomfortable by staring at you until you were done to insure that the book wasn’t damaged.

“Uhh, go crazy with it kid.” He hesitantly handed me the book with a bewildered expression on his face.

I bobbed into a clumsy curtsy with the book that was aporoquamently half my size clutched in one arm. “Thank you sir!” Sucker, I mentally cackled. now to go enjoy my book and finally get some info to add to my note book on magic.

I wonder how much of the ‘magical’ ingredients in cooking are magic and how many are hormonal reactions like coffee or chocolate? I had so many things to investigate!

The next two weeks were spent in a fevered state of research and questions where I would haunt the library until Granny or Dottie would literally drag me out.

But even through my focused daze, I noticed the odd squire repeatedly visiting my section of the library, by the time I surfaced from my research I had decided that I needed to talk to him.

I was curious, sue me. it wasn’t often I saw a squire repeatedly visit the children’s section of the library.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

This was it.

I was going to talk to him.

I can do this.

I've had 17 years of social interaction before this, I might be a little rusty, BUT talking to people couldnt be that hard could it?

Who am I kidding? I KNOW it is that hard.

But nothing worth doing is easy, so I squared my shoulders, gathered my courage and approached the wayward solder.

Eye contact! Eye contact is important! My teacher would tell me to make eye contact during an interview, the same rules probably apply here right?

God I hadn't tried to talk to anyone in the last three years. Keep it cool Zelda.

“So uhhhh, you come here often?”

Granny muffled a surprised snort from behind me.

ABORT ABORT MISSION ABORT.

OH S-

“Oh I'm sorry did you ask me something?” The squire tilted his head curiously looking up from where he had been studiously scanning a simple book on the animals of hyrule. It was basic, elementary even not going into detail on any of the creatures and only listing a few but interesting from what I've managed to gather from it.

“Um uh, I've seen you all the time here i'm just uh, wondering what brought you to my side of the library?”

God someone, kill me now. I have completely forgotten how to people.

“Oh uh, I’m uh,” the kid flushed, rubbing the back of his neck, “I've been teaching myself how to read.” He glanced at granny hovering behind me and winced. “Before I became a squire I didn't have access to a library, we don't have much access to anything beyond the basics out in the countryside.”

My eyes widened. “Really?”

He shrugged, uncomfortably glancing away.

“That's so cool!” I gushed excitedly and unconsciously started to beam at him. “What?” he whipped his head back around to look at me surprised, why was he surprised? I fully understood the hell that is learning to read and write in this stupidly pretty language.

“It's super impressive that you're teaching yourself how to read! Hylian is super hard to read and write in! I'm having the worst time at it! Do you have a teacher or tutor to help you?”

He still looked a little shell shocked as he shook his head. “Uh no, I've been pretty much teaching myself.” I gaped, it’s been hard enough learning to read with the help of granny spots and mom to do it on your own!

“Wow! Thats incredible! I would have never been able to read without the help of my teachers! Do you think you could help me with my reading too!” This was awesome! Finally I could talk to someone who understood! Learning to read and write was hard!

He flushed a darker red. “Umm, I’m not all that good at it yet. I’ve mostly been guessing and trying to work out what words mean from context.” relatable! God finally someone who understood my struggle!

I gave him my biggest grin, “That’s okay! I'm pretty much doing the same thing! Do you want to work together? Having someone to help always makes things easier!”

“Uh,” he glanced once again at granny hovering over my shoulders, I ignored the sassy eyebrow she lifted at him as if to say ‘I’m not the boss of her’

He shrugged and gave me an unsteady grin, “Sure, why not. Where are you at with your reading?”

“Oh!” I gasped smacking myself on the forehead. “I forgot to introduce myself, im so sorry that was terribly rude of me!” I dropped into a proper curtsy before beaming up at the still bewildered looking squire. “Hi! My name is Zelda, it’s a pleasure to meet you!”

His face turned white then green as he glanced again at Granny, a new wariness in his gaze. My heart dropped and I could feel my smile dim. I had forgotten the whole princess thing in my excitement of meeting someone new, who had the same hobby as me. It wouldn't be entirely unrealistic for him to try and bow out now that he knew-

He looked at my face and let a tired resigned sigh, the color returning to his face as his grin reserfaced, smaller and far more exasperated but also more real.

He swept into a half bow from where he was sitting. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, your majesty. My name’s Jiro.”

It turns out that I was better at reading than him, that's okay. I was happy to finally have a study buddy. Perhaps even a friend.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

A few weeks later, I was helping my young padawan in the ways of the stupidly complicated symbols once again when I noticed he was slightly down.

I frowned “hey Jiro, what's wrong? Are you feeling okay? Should we cancel today's session?”

“No no, I'm fine, it's just...” He sighed dejectedly.

My brow furrowed in worry. “It's just what?” I gently prodded, I couldn't have my only friend upset!

He frowned before putting his charcoal stick down.

“The captain of the guard and his family just died.”

“What!” I gasped in shock. I had never met the man, but my father spoke of him fondly. “What happened!” Surely nothing good could take down one of Hyrule's best soldiers.

“His family was attacked by a group of monsters on their way to visit some friends for a wedding. I didn’t even know him that well, but from what I saw he was kind, and… they never even found his son's body. He was only 4.” I felt a chill go down my spine. This was the first real mention of monsters that I had heard and it made my heart drop to my toes. This was real people dying, and there was nothing I could do about it. This wasn't a video game where you could just respawn when you died. It was real and these people’s deaths were permanent.

He glanced at my white face before his eyes widened and he hurriedly back tracked. “But you don't have to worry about that princess! You're perfectly safe here in the castle! No monsters could get past the guards, or more importantly the queen!” I could literally see the moment he remembered I was only 3 and not the young adult I tried to project myself as.

The young adult I used to be.

I gathered myself and took a deep breath falling apart now wouldn't help anyone.

“Are they certain that his son did not survive? You just said that they didn't find his body.”

He wavered, not wanting to hurt me with the truth but also knowing I was smart enough not to believe the pretty lies one would usually tell.

“Please,” I asked, conviction in my gaze.

He sighed, “I highly doubt it, he was only four he would have no chance to out run the monsters, besides even if he did…” he sighed again face grim. “They found the wreckage beside the lost woods. If he ran and ended up their… he’d be as good as dead.”

My throat went dry. He had only been four, really for not four plus seventeen extra years of a past life. I swallowed. Even before the Calamity, the world was growing darker.

________________________

*Zelda gushes about how cool he is and gives him the kicked puppy look when he looks anxious about her being a princess*

Jiro: well I guess I’m a big brother now

Also on FanFiction.Net! https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13547505/11/