#highway side barrier

[utkarshindia]

FAQs on Road Safety, Crash Barriers and More

With millions of Indians on the road every day, road safety is of utmost importance. Road accidents are among the biggest causes of deaths in the country. According to the NCRB data, over 1.55 lakh lives were lost in road crashes across India in 2021. That is an average of 426 daily or 18 every single hour. Given these figures, road safety needs the much-needed attention. Here are some FAQs and their answers on road safety, crash barriers and more: 

Question 1: What are common road safety rules for motorists? 

Here are some common road safety rules for motorists; 

They should always wear a seatbelt

They should avoid distractions such as using mobile phones, listening to too loud music, or talking over the phone while driving 

They should stick to the specified speed limits

They should get their vehicles serviced regularly

They should follow traffic rules

They should drive carefully during bad weather

They should maintain a safe distance from other vehicles

Question 2:  What is a road safety audit?

A road safety audit is a formal procedure to assess how safe a road is. The audit tries to identify the causes of accidents and take preventive measures. For instance, it checks whether there are any blind spots that are hindering the driver's view of traffic. These audits are done for existing and proposed roadways. This is a proactive approach to improve road safety and reduce the number of accidents. 

Question 3: Why do local authorities conduct a road safety audit?

Auditing roads is important as it helps to:   

Identify areas where speed bumps, crash barriers and, proper signage are needed 

Incorporate road safety features 

Remove obstacles 

Reduce the possibility of legal action against authorities and contractors 

Question 4:  What are vehicle barriers?

Vehicle barriers refer to devices that help cars to slow down deliberately. They are most often used in areas with high pedestrian traffic. For instance, areas near schools and hospitals have had speed bumps to slow down vehicles. 

Question 5: How do crash barriers work?

Coated in zinc, crash barriers have a shiny appearance. This helps in first capturing the motorist's attention and then forcing them to slow down before reaching the barrier to avoid a crash. Motorists do not miss barriers as they come in bright colours and have reflective coating that makes it hard to miss. They also sometimes come with signs to ensure drivers know they need to slow down. 

Crash barriers also help in streamlining traffic. Not just that, in case of an accident they prevent vehicles from veering off the road or smashing into oncoming lanes. They can be used on roadways, flyovers and bridges. Metal crash barriers are often preferred over concrete crash barriers as they are more durable. Crash barriers are also called metal crash barriers or highway side barriers. 

Question 6: What are different types of crash barriers?  

W Beam Crash Barriers: These barriers have a 'W' shaped beam rail element.

Thrie Beam Crash Barriers:  These barriers feature a triple wave shaped beam rail.

Pedestrian Guard railing

Looking for reputed road safety crash barriers manufacturers? 

Utkarsh India is one of the reputed road safety crash barriers manufacturers. They manufacture crash barriers and anchorage components, conforming to Indian and international standards. They source finest quality raw materials from SAIL, TATA and Hindustan Zinc. Their metal crash barriers are hot-dip galvanised for longer life. Beyond road safety solutions, you can also trust Utkarsh India for Street Light Poles, High Masts, Traffic Signal Poles, Steel Tubular Poles, CCTV Poles, Signage Mast, Gantry poles and other traffic structure solutions. To generate a quote, contact them.

[shouts-into-the-void]

Me, cutting all ties with everyone and starting my life completely over at the slightest inconvenience: ✨Self-care✨

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Mission Control 5

Warnings: non/dubcon, violence, stalking, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Character: Captain Hydra

Summary: a man marches into your life on a mission

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging ❤️

The man walks you straight through a yard and into the thicket of trees behind. If he wasn’t so confident, you would think he had no idea where he’s going. His hand stays locked around your arm as he has you staggering over peat and leaves.  

You come out on the other side of the trees to the open highway. A car zooms by but he doesn’t stop. He keeps going, the force of the cars whipping by blowing around you, horns honking. He pushes you towards the cement barrier. Before you can lift your leg, he lifts you. 

He puts you on the other side and follows. He doesn’t miss a step. On and on, across another three lanes and down into a ditch. Across the field. You look back and he yanks you, nearly taking you of your feet. 

A chill creeps through you, numbing you to the terror boiling in your gut. Your legs tremble but don’t stop either. You’re too scared to resist. 

The sky darkens and the moon peeks out from behind another line of pines. On and on. At last, your body gives out. 

Your legs burn as the fold. He catches you. He puts you over his shoulder and presses on. That’s when it really sets in. It’s happening. You don’t know what just that it isn’t good. Your body wracks as your tears flow free, rolling down to your hairline as you hang upside down. 

When he stops, you’re in a clearing. He puts you down. You sit on the dirt as he squats in front of you. The moonlight barely limns his figure. He reaches to his belt. He pulls out a pair of thick cuffs and dangles them. He tilts his head.  

You sniffle, “please, I won’t go.” 

He stares then slowly hooks them back on his belt. He stands and looks around. You hear him in the dark, twigs snapping, leaves rustling. You catch a glimpse of his shadow now and again. The crickets hum and dampness rises from the ground. 

A spark, then a full bloom of flame goes up. The fire casts a light over the barrier built with large rocks and the pile of thick sticks broken to fuel it. The night flickers with the cinder and he approaches you again. He moves you to sit closer to the heat. 

He lowers himself next to you, legs bent, arms resting on his knees. He just sits and watches the flames. You look down and slump. You’re exhausted. 

You flinch as he grips your shoulder. He lowers his legs, crosses them, and pulls you down until you’re on your side. He guides your head onto his thigh. He holds you there. He doesn’t need to give the order. 

The adrenaline never quite evaporates, merely recedes. Your eyes close on their own. You plummet into a pit of darkness. Your head and body ache with the sheer senseless sleep. 

You wake with a chatter. The man still sits. He hasn’t moved. You flutter your lashes at the lightening horizon. 

His hand drifts from your shoulder and crawls up your neck. He brushes along your cheek and over your hair. You hold your breath. Your scalp aches as you brace for another cruel yank. He retracts and pokes your shoulder instead. 

You sit up and stand only when he does. He reaches for you and you cower. He rips your knapsack from your arms as he spins you. He hurls it away into the trees. Then, it’s back to walking. 

You’re stiff from a night sleeping on the ground. Your clothes are damp from the dew and a frigidness lingers in your skin. He keeps you moving until the sun meets its apex. 

You come to a lot in the middle of another highway. It’s empty but for a black motorcycle. He marches you to it and guides you onto the back. He straddles the front and flips up the kickstand. You’re too tired to be confused, to wonder about how and why and what. 

He taps his shoulders. You hesitate but grab onto them. It might not be so bad to fly off but you’re still human. You still have that need to survive. 

He takes off with a roar of the motor. You yipe and squeeze tight. You fight against the wind and lean forward, hooking your arms around him as you feel your grasp slipping. He doesn’t seem to mind as you cling to him. He has a heart. You can hear it through his back. 

You close your eyes as the wind tunnels around you, whipping around the bike and your bodies. He’s a barrier to the brunt of it.  

He rides through the night and beyond. You have to keep awake to stay latched on. He keeps on and on, into another crowd of trees, one so dense that it darkens the daytime.  

When at last you are still, you as good as fall off the motorcycle. You stumble until he grabs onto you. He moves you in front of him and puts his hands on your shoulders. He leads you from behind. Twisting and turning you in a deliberate path.  

You look up at the faded planks on the side of the reclusive house. You clatter up the steps beside him. He stops and tugs the back of your jacket. You think he wants you to stay still. There’s a beep and something clicks. Then something else. 

You look around in confusion. He flicks your cheek. Hard. You wince and hiss and look forward. He points over your shoulder. You follow the gesture to the door as the latch rolls back on its own. 

You stop before the door and just stare. Where the walls are covered in wooden siding, it is metal. You gulp. He reaches around you, stepping flush to you. He pushes the handle down and shoves the door inward. His other hand nudges your lower back. 

You enter and automatic lights flash on. You gape at the room before you. It’s like any other cabin you’ve seen. On television, you were never rich enough for vacation homes. There’s a floral couch and a matching armchair on a round area rug, right before a fireplace, a table with a lamp by the chair. It’s all startlingly normal. Not like him. 

[robinsno1lesbian]

Ok ok last one for tonight I promise (maybe🤭) but I’m thinking about car sex with Robin

Driving the highway home and you’re getting all needy with Robins hand on your thigh so you pull it down further, under your skirt to your panties. She gives a lil groan at how wet you are and then decides to pull off on the next scenic outlook.

She parks away from any other cars and grabs your neck to kiss you, whispering “couldn’t wait till we got home? My needy girl”

Let’s go if you only to climb into the middle seat in the back and beckons you after her. You follow eagerly as she undoes her belt and zipper. Y’all makeout for a hot minute, you grinding on her strap before she finally pulls it out of her pants and pushes your panties to the side so you can ride her. And you do, bouncing up and down on her lap, Robin’s hands lazily holding onto your hips until she decides to take your top and bra off so she can watch your tits bounce with you, taking turns sucking on each pert nipple as you work her strap to find your release🥵

OK IM DONE NOW I SWEAR (this one got long oops)

𝐢’𝐯𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 ᭝ ᨳଓ ՟

-r.b. x reader

summary: the car ride back home with your girlfriend turns into something more…(lesbian sex in the back of her car) (1.7k)

warnings: SMUT!! (mdni), semi-public sex/car sex, strap-ons (reader receiving), nipple play, dirty talk, pet names (baby, good girl), praise kink, for the sake of this fic robin does have a license!

a/n: @maladaptive-day-dreams i finally wrote this! this has been in my inbox for a hot minute (6 months?) so it was about time! as always i couldn’t be arsed to beta read lmao

perhaps you should’ve seen it coming from the moment her hand first landed on your thigh. robin’s eyes had been on the road ahead, one hand holding the wheel, delicate fingers drumming to the rhythm of whatever tape she’d put on whilst the other found its way onto your skin.

or maybe long before, when you’d been by the lake where you’d spent the day, and she couldn’t keep her eyes off of you the entire time, tracing the shape of your outline with her hungry gaze.

she probably would’ve gone down on you right then and there if she had the chance.

now, with the sun setting outside and the two of you being the only people in the car, she’s making good use of it. you feel the cold metal of her rings against the warm flesh of your inner thigh, where she’s tracing circles upon it.

“you’re so pretty, you know?” she rasps, eyes still on the road. you let out a shuddered breath, your legs parting further on their own accord. robin’s gaze darts towards them momentarily and her tongue flicks out to wet her lips at the sight.

still, she seems to be keeping her teasing at a low for now. her fingers don’t reach any further up your leg, they just linger so close yet so far from where you want her.

instead of whining for her to touch you some more, you take matters into your own hands: reaching for her fingers, you pull them under your skirt so that she can feel the heat radiating from your center herself.

you catch her eyes widening when she sucks in a breath at the feeling of your wetness coating her fingertips, no panties or any other barrier in her way.

“fuck” robin mutters. you grind against her instinctively (and to tease her some more), hips rutting back and forth on her leather seat to rub yourself against her index- and middle finger.

“baby” she croaks. by now, her gaze is constantly darting from the road and back at you. it’s a sight robin wouldn’t want to miss out on: your head thrown back and your hand tightening around her wrist as you use her to get off like this.

“fuck it” she finally says, pulling off on the next scenic outlook you guys pass. by the time she parks the car the sun has pretty much set and even though there’s no one else around, you’re grateful for the extra coverage of the night.

the second the engine is off, she grabs you by the neck and kisses you hungrily.

“couldn’t even wait till we get home?” she murmurs as she removes the hand from underneath your skirt and pulls her fingers apart. your wetness is evident on each digit. “my needy girl”

you can’t help but whine, earning yourself a pleased grin from robin.

“backseat” she commands. “now”

immediately, you’re crawling into the backseat of her car. it’s awkward and you’re but stumbling over the other’s limbs but she makes up with kisses to your mouth and laughter you taste right from the source and muffle with your own lips.

once she’s sitting on the middle seat, legs spread slightly, and you’re lingering above her with one leg on either side of her thighs, you understand why she was so stubborn about not joining you in the lake earlier. why she insisted on keeping the denim shorts on, instead of undressing into beach wear like the rest of you: you can feel the bulge of her strap nudging your center.

“didn’t have time to pack this morning” she explains with a toothy grin. “didn’t know how else to get this to your house without anyone noticing”

you lean down to kiss her once more. “get it out” you murmur against her lips, your own hands already reaching for her belt. she helps you undo it, skilled fingers pulling it off before unzipping her pants. your mouth practically waters when she kicks them off, leaving her in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts, the bulge even more evident now.

robin pulls your weight down so that you’re straddling it, the silicone cock pressing against you through the fabric of her underwear. she runs her hands up your back, pulls up your top and discards it quickly.

“smooth” you grin against her lips, fingers fumbling with the buttons of your skirt.

“no” robin shakes her head and removes your hands. “leave it on”

you raise a brow at her and tilt your head.

“it’s so hot” she admits under her breath.

she does have a point, you figure. riding her in the back of her car in your mini skirt without any panties on is hot. so instead of protesting, you go back to kissing her.

your hips start grinding against the toy without you even noticing. only when robin puts one hand to your hip and the other up your skirt once more, you become aware of your desperate rutting.

“robbie” you whine. she hushes you, running her index through your wetness before pushing two fingers into your heat. your eyes roll back immediately.

“robbie please” you find yourself babbling as she scissors and parts those two fingers inside you, making sure you’re nice and open for her. “i’m ready. i can take it. please”

“mhm i know” she hums against the crook of your neck, where she’s sucking marks you’ll probably have to cover up for the next couple of weeks. “that’s my girl”

the praise goes straight to your center and you feel the vibrations of her low chuckle when you flutter around her.

finally, she seems to have enough of the teasing too. she leans back against the seat enough for her to pull the strap free from her boxers, using what’s left of your wetness to coat it and lube it up.

you watch as she pumps her fist along its length for a moment before she finally lets go, leaving the toy glistening with your arousal.

“come on” robin says, guiding you to linger right above it. “sit”

and you do. your breath comes out ragged when you lower yourself down onto her cock, feeling it push into you inch by inch until she’s pushed it in as far as it’ll go and your bodies are nestled together.

“good?” she whispers, forehead pressed against yours while her eyes are watching where her cock as slid into your body.

“mhm” you tell her with a firm nod of your head.

“ready to move?” her hands hold onto your hips, rings digging into the skin as the toy presses against your walls just right. you can feel her everywhere and for a moment you wish she could feel you too; around her, sucking her into your wetness hungrily. the stretch of it is all consuming, it makes your lashes flutter and you feel embarrassingly close already.

you nod again.

“alright baby, come on” robin instructs. “ride me”

you do as you’re told, put your hands down on her shoulders as you lift your weight up before slamming it right back down. the feeling of her cock against your g spot has you seeing stars immediately and you find yourself moaning in relief.

robin meets your thrusts, lifts her hips a little reach time you drop back onto the strap so it hits all the right spots. you’re bouncing on it in no time, the sounds of it sliding into you echoing through the small space of her car.

“holy shit, baby” robin grunts from beneath you, watching you through heavy lidded eyes. your grip around her shoulders tightens as you try to move faster, chase that heavenly height of cumming around the toy.

she reaches out as you keep riding her, hungry to have just a little more of you. she fumbles with the clasps of your bra. it takes her a moment, especially with the constant movement, but eventually she manages to take it off.

your breasts are right in front of her face like this and her mouth is on them immediately, kissing and sucking on your pebbled nipples as they bounce for her.

your orgasm is building quickly now. you’d been close from rubbing yourself raw against her hand already, but with her strap buried inside you to the hilt and her lips sucking on your chest for dear life, pleasure takes over entirely.

“robin” you cry. “robin, baby- i’m so close”

“yeah?” she rasps teasingly, one hand reaching between your thighs to rub your clit in slow circles.

“yeah” you nod, both eyes closed as you lose yourself in the feeling.

her nose brushes over your chest as she breathlessly watches your thighs shaking for her.

“don’t stop” you beg, regardless of the fact that you know she won’t. “don’t fucking stop baby, fuck. feels so good”

a harsh press of robin’s fingers against your clit and her hushed words of “cum for me. be a good girl and cum for me” is what sends you over the edge.

“fuckfuckfuck” is all you manage, over and over again like your only prayer. it’s all you can say before your orgasm rips through you. the force of it would’ve pushed the strap right out of you it wasn’t for her hands holding you down against her to guide you through it. your hips are moving back and forth, whines and moans spilling from your throat.

“holy shit” robin mutters beneath you. “holy fucking shit, baby”

your body goes slack and you fall against her, whilst her cock is still inside you. she soothes you immediately, wrapping her arms around you as she whispers sweet praise against your temple.

“you did so good baby. fuck. so, so good”

the two of you stay like this for a while, enough for you to catch your breath and ground yourself. just enough for you to find your top and pull it on and for robin to zip her jeans up before the two of you spot headlights in the rear view mirror.

„shit!“ robin exclaims, immediately climbing back to the front, her belt dangling loosely from her jeans. „shit shit shit!“

you laugh as the engine howls to life and she drives off before anyone can catch the steamy windows of her car.

[riotdyke]

One of the strangest USAmerican things that comes into my mind a lot is the tendency to wrap wreaths and laurels and flowers around telephone poles, highway signs, barriers on the side of the road - a colorful and small reminder that a life was lost here because we built our society around cars and personal responsibility. Who were they? Were they drunk? Was it an accident? It always makes me wonder, who this person I've seen as a bouquet on the roadside was in life.

[merymoonbeam]

Thin places – The Void – Cauldron – Elriel

So in hofas we learned about thin places...

“No,” Aidas agreed. “But Helena knew that Midgard possessed its own magic. A raw, weaker sort of magic than that in her home world, but one that could be potent in high concentrations. She learned that it flowed across the world in great highways, natural conduits for magic.” “Ley lines,” Bryce breathed. Aidas nodded. “These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop. “There are ley lines across the whole of the universe. And the planets—like Midgard, like Hel, like the home world of the Fae—atop those lines are joined by time and space and the Void itself. It thins the veils separating us. The Asteri have long chosen worlds that are on the ley lines for that exact purpose. It made it easier to move between them, to colonize those planets. There are certain places on each of these worlds where the most ley lines overlap, and thus the barrier between worlds is at its weakest.” Everything slotted together. “Thin places,” Bryce said with sudden certainty. “Precisely,” Apollion answered for Aidas with an approving nod. “The Northern Rift, the Southern Rift—both lie atop a tremendous knot of ley lines. And while those under Avallen are not as strong, the island is unique as a thin place thanks to the presence of black salt—which ties it to Hel.” “And the mists?” Hunt asked. “What’s the deal with them?” “The mists are a result of the ley lines’ power,” Aidas said. “They’re an indication of a thin place. Hoping to find a ley line strong enough to help her transfer and hide Theia’s power, Helena sent a fleet of Fae with earth magic to scour every misty place they could find on Midgard. When they told her of a place wreathed in mists so thick they could not pierce them, Helena went to investigate. The mists parted for her—as if they had been waiting. She found the small network of caves on Avallen … and the black salt beneath the surface.” (hofas)

It is long but what we get from this is that

Ley lines are used for moving magic and...communication between worlds

Ley lines are joined by time and space and void

The mist is a big give away for thin places

So how all of this connect to Elain and Cauldron?

When Elain got out of the cauldron...the water was "smokey"

And as if it had been tipped by invisible hands, the Cauldron turned on its side. More water than seemed possible dumped out in a cascade. Black, smoke-coated water. And Elain, as if she’d been thrown by a wave, washed onto the stones facedown. (Acomaf)

Maybe it is not smoke but mist...as in Cauldron is a thin place?

When Feyre threw the book of breathings into the Cauldron...it went to Crescent City. How? We dont know. is it bc Cauldron being a thin place between worlds?

Also Cauldron has "void in it"

I managed to stand. To take one step before I felt it. The … thing in the Cauldron. Or lack of it. It was lack and substance, absence and presence. And … it was leaking into the world.I dared a step toward it. And what I beheld in those ruins of the Cauldron… It was a void. But also not a void—a growth.It did not belong here. Belong anywhere. (Acowar)

And who cauldron is obsessed with? Elain...a seer.

In my mystics&seers post I talked about the connection between void and elain more. But in the same post I talked about Mystics and seer connection and they seem to be the same.

In hosab mystics are described like this

The old male cut in, as if he hadn’t heard a word of their hissed argument. “Most astronomers and mystics have been put out of business these days, you know. Thanks to fancy tech. And self-righteous busybodies like you,” he spat toward Bryce. She snarled at him, the sound more primal Fae than she liked, but he waved that hateful, ring-encrusted hand toward the mystics in their pools. “They were the original interweb. Any answer you wish to know, they can find it, without having to wade through the slog of nonsense out there.”

And we know how one of the mystics "went" to hel and talked one of the hel princes.

what do we know about ley lines? 👇🏻

“These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop.

So what if ley lines and being mystic/seer is connected? Did that mystic use the ley lines? As in they are the communication between worlds?

And we have world walkers...

“The black salt only repels the Asteri; the mists repel everyone else. But certain people, with certain gifts, can access the power of thin places—on any world. World-walkers.” Aidas gestured gracefully to Bryce. “You are one of them. So were Helena and Theia. Their natural abilities lent themselves to moving through the mists.”

Theia was one of them.

In myths theia is:

Theia (/ˈθiːə/; Ancient Greek: Θεία, romanized: Theía, lit. 'divine', also rendered Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa (Ancient Greek: Εὐρυφάεσσα) "wide-shining", is one of the twelve Titans, the children of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus in Greek mythology. She is the Greek goddess of sight and vision, and by extension the goddess who endowed gold, silver, and gems with their brilliance and intrinsic value.

Maybe sight and thin places/ley lines are more connected than we think?

Also I have been fascinated by this all this time but we have "pocket" realms or any pocket related thing...theia can do it, rhys can do it, apollion and maybe...azriel?

With theia we see this:

By the grace of the Mother, she was paranoid enough about any new allies or companions that she hid the Horn and Harp. She created a pocket of nothingness, she told me, and stashed them there. Only she could access that pocket of nothingness—only she could retrieve the Horn and Harp from its depths. (Hofas)

with apollion we have this:

The seventh and most lethal of the demon princes of Hel was in his mind- “I am not in your mind, though your thoughts ripple toward me like your world's radio waves. You and I are in a place between our worlds. A pocket-realm, as it were.”

Acomaf rhys:

Rhys reached into a bag I hadn’t realized he’d been carrying—no, one he’d summoned from whatever pocket between realms he used for storage.

And with azriel we have this:

Azriel didn’t give them a chance to exchange another word before murmuring shadows swept around them. Nesta couldn’t help clinging to Azriel, gleaning on some innate level that if she let go, she would tumble through this space between places and be lost forever.

We always known azriel's type of winnowing is different...BUT HOW DIFFERENT?

Also side note...Fionn probably has Shadow powers bc Helena and Silene both have shadow and starborn power so them taking the shadow from fionn is possible. I went into more detail about elriel connection to fionn in this post you can read it there.

So...pocket realms maybe they can somehow access space between the worlds? Thin places maybe connected to it?

Also side note this is maybe kinda crack but elriel scene also has "space between"

I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring vibrant behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two. The only bridge of connection … that knife.

Maybe Im reading into it but the fact that the only connection "the space between" them is TT...THE KNIFE THAT CAN UNDO THINGS...the knife with gwydion can create Void. The void that is connected with the ley lines/thin places.

The end. 🫡💜

[sapphire-weapon]

So. Here's my thing.

In OG, Cloud couldn't have killed Sephiroth without Rufus. Rufus's call to move the cannon from Junon to Midgar -- as well as his relentless fight against Sephiroth and the Weapons -- resulted in the destruction of the barrier around the North Crater.

And in Advent Children, even though there is no more Shinra, Rufus still has the Turks recover Jenova's head -- which Rufus himself keeps safe on his person, until he personally destroys it.

In the novella The Kids Are Alright (written by Kazushige Nojima, who's writing the remake series), Rufus says:

"My father [...] invested most of [the immense fortune and power he'd gained] into new fields – on a massive scale, and without ethics. And one of those was the research of, and experimentation on, Jenova. Eventually this gave birth to a monster named Sephiroth. [...] My father took his leave from this stage early on, abandoning those of us left behind to suffer the nightmares in his wake. I am not my father. I will bring it to an end, once and for all."

Rufus is a real threat to Sephiroth.

That's why, at the end of Remake, the Whispers make it a point to draw Rufus's attention to the highway so that he can see the bullshittery going on around Sephiroth so that he focuses on that instead of getting lost in the political sauce.

And so when Rufus says during the ending of Rebirth: "I'm onto you. This war's nothing but a ploy to distract me from Sephiroth." and Sephiroth cops to it, this is an acknowledgement of that threat.

So, like. Rufus's motivations are not unclear to me. He used the name Sarruf, funded the Wutai resistance in order to depose his father, and then, once he was in office, saw the existential threat that Sephiroth posed and shifted his attention to that -- partially because he feels a responsibility to as the president of the fucking world, and partially just as a "fuck you" to his dad.

So why not just kill him? Why distract him with a war when you could just fucking kill him?

It made sense why Kadaj never killed Rufus in AC -- he wanted Jenova's head, and Rufus was the only one who knew where it was, so Kadaj couldn't just kill him outright.

But that's not an issue here. So why doesn't Sephiroth just kill him?

This is where the whole "multiverse" meta aspect of the plot completely fucking breaks down, because like -- it's framed, during that ending scene, that Sephiroth is keeping Rufus alive because he believes that Rufus will actually lead him to the promised land, but like

Not only is that weird because, in OG, it's the other way around, and Rufus follows Sephiroth thinking that he'll lead him to the promised land -- but it's weird because Sephiroth's clearly been peeking at the OG script, and he follows Aeris through realities and tells her to accept her fate because he knows she has to die because that's what the OG script says, but like

In that case, wouldn't he also know that the promised land doesn't really exist and/or is either the North Crater or Midgar it's not really clear?

And how the fuck is a war with Wutai going to allow Rufus to stumble on the promised land? He'll be busy fighting a war.

And how the fuck is he going to fight that war in the first place?! HE'S THE HEAD OF THE ARMY OF BOTH SIDES

AND SEPHIROTH KNOWS THIS

Like, I don't understand Sephiroth's motivations here at all. They don't make any fucking sense when you actually sit down and think about them a little bit (as opposed to not at all).

Is he trolling? Is that it? Is Sephiroth just being a big old fucking troll? Doing it for the lulz? Got a nice taste of Rufus's despair when he got infected with Geostigma and was like "mmm delicious daddy issues I wanna go back in time and taste that again"???

It's very stupid. It's very dumb.

[probablyasocialecologist]

There are so many different road- and traffic-related ecological problems that it's hard to know where to begin. I think that one of the most pernicious ones is the barrier effect. The steady stream of traffic that rolls down so many busy highways forms what some biologists have called the moving fence, this impenetrable wall of vehicles that animals don't even attempt to cross. And I think that's a difficult problem to solve, because we've all seen the the dead deer or opossum or squirrel by the side of the road. But what you don't see are the animals that never even attempt to cross. And those animals can really suffer as a result. And in some ways, that barrier effect can be worse than roadkill itself.

[cityofmeliora]

Ghost and Southern California

i'm from California, so a lot of the locations in the Ghost lore are familiar to me! i wanna use this post to show / explain Ghost being set in the Los Angeles area.

though it hadn't been explicitly stated yet then, there are actually hints that Ghost is based in Southern California as early as Chapter 4: The Accident. when Sister Imperator is driving, you can see palm trees on the hills along the road. of course, lots of places have palm trees, but the specific combination of palm trees with the rocky cliffs and sparse vegetation feels distinctly Californian to me.

the Dance Macabre music video shows Nihil met Sister Imperator at a mansion in LA (as explained by the intro). don't know the exact location, but if i had to guess, i'd place it maybe somewhere in Beverly Hills, which has a lot of mansions like this.

the Kiss The Go-Goat music video again confirms that they're in Los Angeles. it features the Whisky a Go Go, a real music venue in West Hollywood. the Mary On A Cross animated music video accurately places it on a corner along the Sunset Strip.

the Mary On A Cross lyric video shows Sister Imperator walking through the Ministry building before leaving to see the show at the Whisky a Go Go. this is another indicator the Ministry building is in the LA area since it's within driving distance of the venue. scenes in the Ministry building are filmed at a real mausoleum northeast of LA, but i'm not going to name the location because the Ministry is supposed to be a fictional building. interestingly, the lyric video also gives us the exact time of the concert.

after the events of Kiss The Go-Goat, the Mary On A Cross animated music video starts with Sister Imperator driving to her house, which is in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood near the Hollywood Sign. you can see from the road that they're in the hills looking over the city.

then Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil run from their house to the Hollywood Sign. there are hiking trails that go from the surrounding neighborhoods up to the Hollywood Sign. you can go behind it just like they do in the video.

Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil cross a body of water that is most likely the Hollywood Reservoir, although the video places the Hollywood Sign west of the lake instead of east, as in real life.

Sister Imperator and Papa Nihil make out in a cemetery (which i did not attempt to locate) and then end up at a motel. this is not a real motel, though. it's the Bates Motel movie set at Universal Studios Hollywood. i laughed so hard because recognized it instantly in Rite Here Rite now. (i've been on the same tour that the Nameless Ghouls were on.) Universal Studios Hollywood is both a theme park and an actual film studio. there are people filming when Nihil calls Mr. Psaltarian to come pick him up in the The Future Is A Foreign Land music video.

so to summarize some of the locations in those videos: the Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood Sign, and Universal Studios are highlighted in yellow. the red outline on the map shows the boundary of the Hollywood Hills neighborhood. the Hollywood Reservoir is the body of water in the middle of it.

The Future Is A Foreign Land music video and Chapter 13: The Beach Life feature Mr. Psaltarian's beach house, which is on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. though there are beach houses all along the SoCal coast, Malibu is closest to LA, and is pretty much the only place where houses are that close to the water without some kind of barrier. it's a real house and i've driven past it. i know the exact location but i'm not sharing it, for obvious reasons.

here is Malibu on a map relative to Los Angeles:

as a side note, it appears Cardi now drives Mr. Psaltarian's old car, a 1968 Buick LeSabre convertible. it has California license plates, of course, but the plates must have been replaced at some point, since that California license plate design wasn't in use until 1988.

lastly, Rite Here Rite Now is set at The Forum (now called KIA Forum), which is in Inglewood near the LAX airport. Inglewood is technically its own city, but it's completely surrounded by LA.

when Rite Here Rite Now released, TF said in an interview that it's "common knowledge" that Ghost is based in LA. i found it a bit funny because i've read very few Ghost fanfics that are actually set in LA, so i don't know how 'common' that knowledge really is, LOL. but i hope this post helps!

WHAT WAS BEHIND THE DECISION TO SHOOT THE FILM AT THE FORUM IN L.A.? TOBIAS FORGE: [...] There’s this common knowledge that the HQ of the band seems to be in L.A. So the Forum is not only a classic venue, but it’s sort of their home turf. Had we placed the story someplace else, we would’ve had to justify: Why are they there? Why is this show special? Revolver (June 2024)

[mariacallous]

Just shy of half past 1 in the morning, the MV Dali, a giant container ship, was sailing gently out of the port of Baltimore when something went terribly wrong. Suddenly, lights all over the 300-meter-long vessel went out. They flicked on again a moment later, but the ship then began to veer to the right, toward one of the massive pylon-like supports on the Francis Scott Key truss bridge—a huge mass of steel and concrete that spans the Patapsco River.

The Dali’s lights went out a second time. Then the impact came. The ship plowed into the support, with large sections of the bridge’s main truss section instantly snapping apart and falling into the river. It took just 20 seconds or so for the structure to come down.

Now, a major US port is in disarray, and several people who were working on the bridge at the time of its collapse are missing. A rescue operation is underway. President Biden has called the disaster a “terrible accident.” Ship traffic is currently stuck on either side of the crash site, and a major roadway through Baltimore has been cut off.

“It’s a dreadful tragedy and something you hope never to see,” says David Knight, a bridge expert and specialist adviser to the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers. But commenting on footage of the bridge collapse, he says he is not surprised by the manner in which it crumpled.

Large steel structures may seem invulnerable, but steel, explains Knight, is relatively lightweight for its size. As soon as it is pushed or pulled the wrong way with enough force, it can fold like paper. In this case, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a “continuous,” or unjointed, bridge that had a 366-meter-long central truss section. (Truss bridges use steel beams, arranged in triangular shapes, to support their load.) The central truss was made up of three horizontal stretches, known as spans, with two sets of supports holding these above the water. It was the third-largest structure of its kind in the world.

“When you take a support away, there is very little in the way of robustness,” says Knight. “It will drag down, as we saw, all three spans.” The separate approach spans remain standing. There is nothing in Knight’s view that immediately suggests any structural problem with the bridge. An engineering firm, Hardesty & Hanover, confirmed to WIRED that it performed an inspection of the bridge in 2019, and that other inspections have been carried out since, but did not provide any additional details on the state of the structure. WIRED has approached H&H for further comment. In June last year, the US Federal Highway Administration rated the condition of the bridge as satisfactory.

The immense force of the container ship impact should not be underestimated, adds Knight. Such vessels require a lot of power and time—perhaps many minutes—to come to a complete stop. The Francis Scott Key Bridge was completed in 1977. In more recent decades, bridge engineers have commonly incorporated defenses to reduce the potential damage by ship strikes when bridges are erected in similar locations, Knight says. These include hydraulic barriers and additional concrete around the base of bridge supports, for instance. However, even with such fortifications in place, heavy strikes can still cause devastating damage.

It is not clear why lights turned off and on again on the Dali, a Singapore-flagged ship built in 2015. “That is an indication of a massive problem,” says Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian at Campbell University in North Carolina and a YouTuber who has analyzed the crash.

At the time of the accident, two pilots—mariners who board a ship to help it navigate particular stretches of water, including in and out of ports—from Baltimore were on board. The Dali was broadcasting its position publicly via the automatic identification system (AIS) and was traveling at a speed of over 8.5 knots. It then slowed to around 6 knots in the moments before the crash, according to AIS data.

Both pilots and all crew members on the Dali are accounted for. There are no reports of injuries, the ship’s management company, Synergy Group, said in a statement on March 26.

ABC News reports that the crew of the vessel made a desperate mayday call in an attempt to warn transport officials that the crash was about to occur. A report from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, seen by ABC, says the Dali “lost propulsion” and that the crew were aware they had “lost control” of the ship. Maryland governor Wes Moore told reporters that, thanks to the mayday call, officials were able to stem the flow of traffic over the bridge, an intervention that he says “saved lives.”

Mercogliano says it is very difficult for ships of this size to make rapid adjustments to their trajectories. Video footage shows a sudden outpouring of smoke from the vessel’s stack, indicating a change in engine activity of some kind. What is particularly disturbing is that, in this case, the vessel ends up plowing straight into one of the key supports for the bridge, clearly off course. No information as to why this happened has become public.

Photographs of the aftermath show the bow of the ship pinned beneath fallen sections of the bridge. The anchor chain is visible, meaning that at some point the anchor was dropped, though it is not certain whether this happened before or after impact. The chain appears to be at an angle, however, which Mercogliano says could be a sign that it was dropped shortly before the crash and dragged for a brief time.

Lawyer James Turner of Quadrant Chambers in London specializes in, among other things, ship collisions. He says that there would have been no automated systems on board a merchant ship of this kind able to prevent the impact. Information from radar, AIS, and visual observations would have been available to the crew, however.

But data-collecting systems may now reveal exactly what happened. As on airplanes, commercial ships have data and audio recorders on the bridge, which are often a key source of information for investigators post-incident. “The master will hit a button and that ensures that the last two hours of audio recording are preserved, as well as all the data from the various parts of the ship, like the engine and steering and so on,” explains Turner. “That can be downloaded and queried.”

He adds that estimates of the ship’s speed at the time of the incident as recorded by AIS are likely “99.99 percent accurate.”

For now, the focus of responders will be on locating survivors from the fallen bridge. Two people have been rescued, one of whom is in the hospital. Six construction workers remain missing.

The disaster has come at a difficult time for shipping, with drought afflicting the Panama Canal and Houthi attacks striking multiple vessels in the Red Sea in recent months. Somali piracy is on the rise again, also. The grounding of the Ever Given in the Suez Canal is very much still within recent memory—it occurred a mere three years ago.

The Port of Baltimore insists in a statement that it has not been shut down—road vehicles are still operating within the port—however, all ship traffic in and out is suspended until further notice. AIS data reveals around a dozen commercial vessels at anchor outside the port, their entry now blocked by the stricken bridge and the Dali. It will take some time for the US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the steel pieces of the bridge, which present a significant threat to passing vessels, from the river.

“Whatever ships are in the port are now stuck,” says Mercogliano, who notes that Baltimore is an important port in terms of car deliveries and coal exports.

Overall, he argues, maritime operations are extremely safe today, though the volume and velocity of trade mean that when things go wrong it can be especially serious.

“We move goods a lot faster than ever before, and there’s very little margin for error,” he says. “When there is a mistake, the mistakes tend to be very large.”

[lordgrimwing]

Friends and family #12

Ecthelion blasted the horn of a shiny red convertible car. Leaning out the window, he shouted across the street. “Glorfindel!”

Glorfindel was skimming a magazine in his bedroom when he heard the horn. He’d been shut in his bedroom all morning with the new magazine as it wasn’t exactly the kind of material he wanted his parents to know he had. When Ecthelion called, he shoved the glossy magazine under his mattress and scrambled to his window.

“Thel?” He asked, confused to see the other teenager behind the wheel of his step-father’s new car. Behind the wheel and very much alone.

“Get out here,” the black-haired elf called. He pointed at the passenger seat. “Let’s go!”

Glorfindel didn’t need any more encouragement than that. He ran outside, barely tossing a word over his shoulder to his mother as he shoved shoes on his feet, and sprinted across the recently mowed, patchy lawn. Ecthelion threw open the passenger door and he dove inside, sliding across the cream leather seat. The engine roared with gas and they shot off down the street before he finished closing the door.

“Let’s go to the beach!” Ecthelion hollered over the engine and wind whipping past them.

Glorfindel fought with his golden hair, trying to wrestle it into a ponytail while the wind whipped it around his face. “Your step-dad let you take it?”

The stoplight ahead turned yellow. Ecthelion stepped on the accelerator and shot through the intersection. “Chris is out of town and this girl’s got a full tank! I can’t leave her in the garage all weekend.” 

“Let’s go,” Glorfindel agreed with a whoop as the car skidded around the bend that took them to the highway. 

The ocean wasn’t far from their town. Certainly, at the speed Ecthelion kept up once they hit the nearly-deserted highway they’d get there in half an hour. As they drove, they talked, the thrill of the adventure fueling their voices to shout over the noise. 

Sports came up first. They’d both be on the high school football team when junior year started in a few weeks, and that was at the forefront of their minds most days. They might have to give up track and field if there were too many conflicts, but the coach said they could give it a go and their parents were okay with it as long as they made time for homework. Glorfindel had his heart set on doing as many sports as he could. Coach suggested if they really put themselves to it, they could get scholarships to go play at a college.

After sports came girls. Glorfindel didn’t have much to say on the topic, but Ecthelion made up for it in one-sided enthusiasm. In a bold declaration of his adoration of the female sex, he proclaimed that he’d be making out with a girl—elf, human, dwarf, or hobbit, he wasn’t picky—on the hood of his step-dad’s red sports car that very day. 

It was a very nice car. Glorfindel supposed that out of anyplace else at a beach, a girl would probably like to make out on the car, though personally he thought the leather seats would be a better spot for it.

It wasn’t long after that that they turned off the highway and into the sparsely populated dirt parking lot. A group of idle seagulls patrolled the lot for forgotten food. They screamed and scattered when the car roared toward them.

“First one in the water wins,” Glorfindel said, vaulting over the passenger door and sprinting toward the sand.

“Hey!” Ecthelion shouted. Turning off the engine and stuffing the car key into a pocket in his khaki shorts, he followed his friend.

They hadn’t brought any swim trunks. This wasn’t exactly a well thought out trip, after all. The lack of swimwear was no barrier, though, especially with the beach being mostly deserted still (it was early yet. Give it an hour or two and other kids would be bound to show up to take advantage of the last of the summer). A few feet from the waves, they shed their shoes and clothes. Neither of them were strangers to swimming mostly naked. 

Ecthelion kicked sand at Glorfindel, trying to distract and slow him down while he undid his button up shirt far enough to yank it off over his head. Glorfindel still made it in the water first anyway, diving into the cool waves until he was far enough out to tread water like he belonged in the sea while he waited for the other teen to catch up. 

When they were done racing and watching schools of small fish beyond the surf break, they swam back in. A group of human and dwarf boys were playing volleyball on the warm sand, and they happily let the elves join. After that, their new friends invited them to the lunch cookout they were having further down the beach with other kids from their high school.

Glorfindel volunteered to help grill hamburgers. Ecthelion slipped away with one of the girls who brought the ice chests. They came back about ten minutes later, in time for greasy burgers on cheap buns with store brand condiments and mounds of potato chips. They weren’t wearing enough clothes to look rumpled, but Ecthelion’s cheeks were a little red and he kept twisting one of his braids around his finger.

Glorfindel supposed the girl was pretty enough. Tall, thick brown hair cut in a bob, swimsuit leaving a little to the imagination. There was a dab of white sunscreen on her left ear that hadn’t been rubbed all the way into her dark skin. She wasn’t anymore interested in Ecthelion after they got back compared to before, though. Did that mean she didn’t like kissing him, or that she did and didn’t want her impromptu partner to know it? Glorfindel wasn’t sure, and wasn’t invested in figuring her out. Girls were still a mystery to him.

More people arrived during lunch. Some brought more snacks, others helped themself to what was already there. Everyone laughed and joked, and before long they dissolved into smaller groups again for games. Ecthelion and Glorfindel split up for a while but eventually met up again in the water.

Eventually, they had to say bye to their new friends. The sand was hot under their bare feet as they carried their clothes back to the parking lot. 

“That was great,” Glorfindel said as he flopped onto the white leather seat. With a small shout, he sprang up again. After so many hours in the sun, the leather was scorching hot on all his exposed skin. Maybe they should have closed the fabric top.

Ecthelion laughed at him, then spread his clothes over the driver seat to cover all the leather before sitting down. “Way better than anything we could’ve done in town.”

“Totally.” Glorfindel laid out his shirt and shorts and then gingerly sat again.

“Hey,” Ecthelion fished out the keys, “you should drive.”

“Me?” He’d only really driven a couple times. He’d certainly never thought he’d ever drive a car this cool.

“Yeah! Come on, at least part of the way. I can’t keep her all to myself. Besides, when are you gonna have a chance like this again?”

This was very true. 

They changed spots, and he settled behind the wheel. The parking lot was fuller than it had been when they arrived, cars lined up on either side of them. Luckily, there wasn’t anything blocking the way forward, so he didn’t need to back out of the spot. After some good-natured teasing about driving like a grandpa, they made it onto the road.

“Let her loose,” Ecthelion encouraged, giving Glorfindel’s shoulder a light shove. 

He did. As they cleared the last bend before the relatively straight road up and down rolling hills, he let his foot press the gas pedal further and further. The car nearly flew across the hill tops, a red streak against the green and brown landscape. The red needle of the speedometer turned further and further until it couldn’t go any more.

Ecthelion whooped. He climbed up on the passenger seat, kneeling on it so he could get his head and shoulders over the windshield. Laughing, he threw his arms wide, leaning into the wind as it buffeted his bare skin and pulled his hair streaming out behind him in a mad storm.

Nee-nah Nee-nah!

Red and blue lights flashed.

Glorfindel froze. For a moment, he considered flooring the gas pedal. This car was probably way faster than the officer’s behind them, and if they didn’t get caught then they couldn’t really get in trouble. Ecthelion dropped into his seat and looked over at him. His eyes betrayed the same question: what if we just keep going?

No! What were they thinking?

Glorfindel slammed on the break, suddenly horrified that the highway patrol or sheriff or whoever it was would think they were trying to escape if he didn’t stop immediately. The car shook and fishtailed side to side. A terrible screeching came up from the tires, accompanied by the stench of burning rubber. His heart pounded in his ears by the time the car screamed to a stop on the side of the highway. The front right tire rested in a dirt furrow off the side of the road.

The other car rolled to an easy stop behind them. The siren shut off with a final wail. 

“Oh shoot, oh gods,” Glorfindel whispered, cringing down as the officer opened the door to step out of the vehicle. 

Ecthelion’s knuckles showed white through his skin as he gripped the leather seat. “It’s okay,” he muttered. “We’re, uh, we’re just, uh-”

The crunch of boots against asphalt.

Oh, they were in so much trouble. 

“Alright, boys,” said a terribly familiar voice, “I’m not going to bother asking for your license and registration.”

Glorfindel raised his head and looked. 

Sheriff Thrainn, all four feet nine inches (plus three inch heels) of him, looked back. His curly black hair is pulled back in a ponytail and his thick beard is braided just so to show the badge on his uniform. “Ecthelion. Glorfindel,” he said. 

Sheriff Thrainn had done all the anti-drug and community safety assemblies since they started grade school. He came to the town block party in the spring. He knew exactly who they were and he probably knew whose car they had because Christopher liked to talk about it and show it to everyone who came by but never, ever, let anyone else drive it. 

“Mr. Thrainn,” the boys murmured.

“Does your step-father know where his car is?” This was asked over Glorfindel’s head to Ecthelion.

“No, sir,” was his subdued reply.

“Does your mother?”

“No.”

Officer Thrainn nodded like that was exactly the response he expected. “And do your parents know what you’re doing right now?” He asked Glorfindel.

“Probably not.”

“Does anyone know where you are?”

They shook their heads mutely. 

“You two know I’ve had to tell parents their kids died on this road before.”

They did. Everyone in town heard the story, and it was told every year at the homecoming assembly even though it happened fifteen years ago. Some high school seniors, friends, had gone to a beach party after a football game. Everyone knew there was going to be a lot of drinking and their parents said they couldn’t go, but they snuck out and went anyway. They were all drunk on the way back and the driver missed the turn and took everyone off the side of a cliff. 

But that was just a story to warn everyone off from drinking and partying. Neither of them had any alcohol at the beach today, though Glorfindel saw beer cans in one of the ice chests. That meant they were fine. They were okay. They couldn’t have ended up like those kids fifteen years ago. Right?

Right?

“Glorfindel, you could have killed your friend and yourself driving like that.”

He wouldn’t have. He would have slowed down before they hit the next bend. He hadn’t been going that fast. Right? 

“Ecthelion, today, you stole a deadly weapon and put it in your friend’s hands.”

Glorfindel took his hands off the wheel and stuffed them in his lap. 

“Now, get out and put your clothes back on.”

Obediently, they stepped out. The sun-warmed road burned Glorfindel’s feet and he quickly put his socks on before anything else. He felt extra embarrassed about everything with Sheriff Thrainn watching him struggle to get his shorts on and pull his t-shirt over his head.

Once they were dressed in their wrinkled, sandy clothes, Sheriff Thrainn looked them up and down and said, “This vehicle hasn’t been reported as stolen yet, so I’m going to let you drive it back home. Stay behind me the whole way. If I ever see you two have done something like this again, we’re going to take a ride together.”

They nodded again, relieved to be getting off with little more than a warning (unless, of course, the escort alerted everyone else to their return). Ecthelion sat slowly in the passenger seat and gingerly pulled out the seat belt. Resigned to driving the rest of the way, Glorfindel resettled behind the wheel, awkwardly groping for his own seat belt.

With a quick siren blare, the sheriff car pulled onto the highway again and rolled forward.

Glorfindel cautiously followed all the way back into town.

[hesitationss]

holly black posted the card art for roiben and kaye and people are surprised he's hot...um hello??? he has long white hair, is super miserable and mopey, places self made barriers for accepting love, all black, found bleeding on the side of a highway in new jersey... ofc he's beautiful... like be fr... not to mention frostbite studios is drawing everyone cunty !

[thequeenoffuckoffimsleeping]

Doing research for a fic and—

Goddamn the car accident that killed Makoto’s parents is so fucking confusing. Now I’m not expert on car crashes but I don’t know what the fuck happened here. I can make the assumption that the car swerved and hit a barrier based on the angle of the crash—

The problem is the only barrier visible stops a considerable distance from the crash site—

Now the view of the whole road is obscured by the smoke cloud at this angle but there is another shot where barriers are visible so we can line them up and guesstimate where the other barrier would be—

So it’s possible they hit the barrier EXCEPT— The direction the car is facing would imply they would need to be on the left side of the road since in Japan the drivers seat is on the right side. They would’ve had to have gone way out of control to end up on that side of the road. (For context it’s a four lane highway.) They could’ve swerved, ended up on the wrong side of the road, hit the barrier and slid to a stop, BUT their stop had to be more abrupt than that based on my hypothesis as to how Makoto got out of the car—

We can see that he didn’t crawl out because he begins face down on the ground— why would he have crawled out just to lay down only to stand back up? (Stop drop and roll maybe?) Plus the car isn’t even on its side, there are only a couple of ways he could’ve gotten out:

One, opened the door and fell out (he would’ve had to have come out of the front passenger side based on where he fell, which wouldn’t make much sense considering he would’ve either had to have been sitting shotgun or have climbed from the back seat into the front seat)— but neither of the doors are open and I doubt he closed one as he fell.

Two, have climbed out of one of the windows (presumably they were shattered) and fell, not on his hands and knees or his feet, but flat on his face (again, based on where he’s laying he would’ve had to have come out of the front passenger side) which is possible but weird (He could’ve been sitting in someone’s lap in the front seat— I don’t know how stringent child care safety was in Japan in the early 90s— though he would’ve been six or seven during the crash so it’s less plausible, though he does have that weak sickly Victorian child vibe so he could’ve just been small for his age?).

OR, three: he was flung through the backseat window as of the impact and landed there. (The angle of the crash supports this.) The way Makoto fell is strange for this explanation of course, he shouldn’t be facing towards the camera, and he should also be much more injured— but it’s the best I’ve got.

With this I’ll also add that the car likely caught fire after Makoto was ejected. (The initial crash would’ve been further back and ground to a stop beside where Makoto landed when he was ejected.)

So to summarize I think the car swerved to avoid something, likely another crash, ended up on the wrong side of the road, hit a barrier, wherein Makoto was ejected, the car caught fire and stopped, or the car stopped and burst into flames.

Of course none of these explanations are really any good both because of each individual ones improbability and the fact that none of them take into account the other cars visible. This is just the best I can make of something that really doesn’t make much sense.

AND AS FOR THE ORIGINAL CUTSCENE:

ITS ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ROAD!

HALLELUJAH!

We can see the tire tracks that clearly illustrate the path the car took before it crashed. It swerved to avoid hitting Aigis most likely.

NOW: ABOUT MAKOTO.

There’s really no way to know how this fucker got out. What I think happened after is this: he rounded the car, fell to his knees potentially out of shock before being able to stand back up. And then falling to his knees again just further from the car.

There’s also the possibility that the third image is simply the first taken from a different angle but Makoto is facing different directions so I don’t think so.

[deusluxuria]

polnareff: miss you, babe 😔 how are things in egypt tonight?

abdul:

[ID: Photo from the POV of a driver in a car, watching another car in front of them zoom over the barrier between two sides of a busy highway. /end ID]

polnareff: what the fuck

abdul: i'm in cairo fighting for my life

[civilotterneer]

Rescue

I wrote a bit of a story for this art piece below:

Driving in the night, Civ tried his best to leave the town of Echo, but no amount of driving on the old rural highway seemed to get him any farther from the ghost town. The truck's headlights illuminated the road ahead, and the moon lit up the terrain which never seemed to change.

Exhaustion brought Civ to a halt. Pulling to the side of the road, paranoia of the strange creature came back to him, but at this rate, he knew it'd either get him or he'd drive off the road. Neither were desirable options.

Pulling to the side of the highway, the truck engine turned off. Civ took a moment to enjoy the silence of the desert night, the only solace he had for a moment. He looked around, scanning the horizon for the gangly creature he had seen. FInding nothing, he decided to step out of the vehicle to relieve himself, at least giving himself an additional feeling of comfort.

As he stepped out, his heart froze. He looked around frantically until his eyes nailed onto a figure in the distance.

Tall, gangly, with long arms and long legs, a burned body and horrible visage of only three holes where its face should be, the figure stood only a few hundred feet down the highway.

Civ froze, staring at the creature. A moment later it seem to both teleport and vanish as well as shoot towards him. He raised his arms in a flinch.

Instead of the sound of his own flesh being rended, he heard a flash of sparks and thwip noise like a cord being cinched. He opened his eyes, peeking between his raised arms to see the remains of a portal falling and a tall, white-furred cat raising a magical barrier made of violet and magenta light. In its cone sat the halted but still moving creature, its burned skin lit up horrifically in the magical light.

"Lye!" Civ exclaimed.

The feline did not respond, focusing entirely on holding back the creature. She reached down with a hand, waving it into another incantation. Her hand shot forward, blasting an intense wave of violet energy at the creature, blasting it backwards down the highway a hundred feet.

The magical barrier fell, and Lye turned to Civ. He could finally see her glowing red eyes, and could feel her anger even from ten feet away. She approached him at a sprint, the creature in the distance standing back up.

Civ held his hands up, expecting the cat to claw him, but she instead grabbed one of his raised paws, her claws sinking in only slightly. A moment later, she pulled a scroll from her coat and gripped it, making it erupt in magenta flames.

As the scroll burned, Civ saw the creature in the distance vanish again, and he braced for it to appear next to them.

Instead, the world went violet with another snapping noise.

As the light died down, his eyes adjusted, and Civ found himself in the warmly-lit living room of his home. Lye still stood with glowing eyes, but no creature appeared in his sight. The eyes of his feline friend slowly died down to their normal selves, but an intense anger was still roiling in them.

"CIV!" she began.

She didn't continue as he pulled her into a hug. The otter gripped hard and shook, both shock and fear making it hard for Civ to remain standing. The typically-touch averse Lye let him hold on and she held him from falling down.

"You owe me."

Thank you note:

Thanks all for reading! I thought this piece deserved a bit of a write-up to go with it, to kinda explain my thought process with Civ trying to leave Echo after some exploration (AKA: Tumblr Asks, thanks to everyone who pushed along the little narrative I had going).

The asks I had gotten helped create a fun little narrative, and I enjoyed the ride quite a lot. I hadn't intended to make a self-insert story with Echo, and had just kinda joked with the first post about Echo. It had just meant to be a piece of fanart but it went way farther than I expected since then. That original post is currently my most popular post, and I'm sure many of you guys found my little art spot due to it, so I appreciate everyone who started there and followed me as I made more and more art and pieces.

This is an interesting AU, where both the events of Echo occurred, but also happen in a world where magic and stuff like the Socket Head Man would be more likely to exist. It probably has a few issues with how stuff interacts and definitely raises questions, but it's a fun setting to be in.

This isn't the end in any way. I still intend to make fanart of Echo as well as other stuff, but just note that any further asks supposing of Civ being in Echo will be met with a confused response as he has escaped Echo thanks to Lye (and a bit of powerful outside magic). Tho who knows, Civ's a bit dumb and may try and go back thinking he's 'prepared' and intends to explore more.

I also aim to put a pause on it here so I can properly make my way through more of Echo's endings, as well as get into Arches and The Smoke Room.

Thanks again to everyone who's reblogged and liked my stuff! I promise many more renders in the future!

[takami-takami]

Tw trauma

Times like these I feel five years old imagining what heaven feels like and I do think I deserve it. Call me entitled, but I think I do. Everyone does. I deserve a life of retirement and to spend endless seas floating above the ground over rooftops and chimneys. I deserve to be a bird in my next life. Always in the air. Always scared. Feeding on scraps and dandelions and nestling with rabbits on the sides of highways, green and yellow and mayflies— those are always there, too. Always there. My skin carries a scent. I debate saying it always needed to buzz somehow, but I don't think that's true.

And I want to dream again without it making me stir. I want to have dreams where I'm not getting hunted down or my mom isn't making me relive my sexual trauma again like she always does. I live in a circus. A cult. I scrubbed the stove last week and I thought it was rust, but it wasn't. It was oil built up. No one cleans here because we were raised like animals and to pick up filthy things from the floor to use. I don't know what my parents' excuse is, though. Helplessness, probably.

Back to the poetry. What the fuck was I saying? It doesn't fucking matter. What's the point? Like genuinely what the fuck is the point, I think all my words are so horribly fucking childish and nonsensical because I do have words, they're just held down by a barrier. A damsel says, "I don't know, I don't understand anything," but I do. The words, they're just rage. I wish I could kill myself, I have so much hate and anger and as I was downstairs watching a movie my dad kept trying to talk to me and I pictured the times he laughed about how he wanted to do something 20 times worse than murder to me or the times he pictured me getting taken advantage of by men for his own amusement and it makes me feel violent inside.

But I'm not like him. I'm scared to be. I'm really scared that all this hatred in me means I'm like him. But when I allow that part of me space, when I open the door for it, all I picture is what happened all the last times I let it speak. It doesn't hurt anyone. It cries, screaming, making a spectacle and wailing on the hardwood floor. Aching, pained, traumatized howls from my chest. Screaming. And my family, again, looking down at me with their hands hovering a little above and panicked.

Do we touch it? What do we say? Can someone check up on it?

Never, what have we done?

I don't do that anymore. I hate myself for the decision I make every single day to be normal now. Everybody's happier now. It mocks me. Like crows on my skin. It aches me. I don't know what it makes me. It doesn't make me anything.

I deserve something. And asking for that makes me feel like I'm asking for everything.