#how to connect to spirits
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How to Connect with Your Spirit Guide: A Beginner's Guide
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Learn how to connect with your spirit guide in this beginner's guide. Discover the signs that your spirit guides are at work and how to open yourself up to their guidance. You won't want to miss this insightful video!
#how to connect with your spirit guide#spirit guides#how to connect with your spirit guides#spirit guide meditation#spirituality#law of attraction#how to connect with spirit guides#guided meditation spirit guide#meet your spirit guide#connect to spirit guides#spirit guide messages#how to know your spirit guides#how to connect to spirits#spirit guide help beginner#connecting with your spirit guide#spirit guide contact meditation#spirit guide intuitions#higher self#Youtube
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I had a dream that buffy died by being impaled on a sword during some big battle, and her spirit leaped out of her body and looked like a giant orange tiger made of flames. and spike was so devastated he followed her, and he also had a spirit for some reason and his was a lithe blue buck made of stars. and then their spirits intertwined as tiger-buffy pulled them up towards the heavens together. idk what any of this means but it was pretty cool
#and then imagine the entire thing in the style of wolfwalkers#which. okay. just now connecting that I was probably subconsciously thinking of wolfwalkers and my brain made this in response#but that doesn't explain why their spirits r the way they r!! I'm very curious why I made spike a star deer#admittedly I had this dream a while ago but I can't stop thinking about it#thought it would be cool imagery to put into ur heads since it certainly won't leave mine#btw if you're wondering why I'm squinting at the fact spike has a spirit#it's bc idk my brain gave him one when he was soulless in my dream. like idk how I knew but he definitely didn't have one#anyways. hope my dream was interesting to read about lol#spuffy#spike btvs#buffy summers#btvs#buffy the vampire slayer
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I know you mostly focus on the Marika/Messmer relationship in your works (which can i just say i fucking ADORE IT IT'S SO GOOD GAAAH) but i wanted to ask, what do you think of the other parent? Who do you think Messmer's (and by extension Melina's) father is and what his relationship is with him? Is it Radagon? Godfrey? A secret third option perhaps??
im glad you enjoy my work!! as for your question, i think Messmer and Melina are like... parthenogenetic offsprings?? they are born of Marika only, which is why the game groups them in as brother and sister and they are the ones inheriting everything closest and most personal to Marika.
but i don't necessarily think they know each other exist, or at least it's my personal headcanon that Melina was born after Marika shattered the Elden Ring (at which point Messmer was already stuck in LoS, so he didn't know).
i actually think Marika only split into Radagon on the eve of Liurnia war, when Messmer had already been a grown young man fighting alongside Godfrey for a while. so technically, Messmer existed before Radagon. but on paper i guess the guy could be counted as Messmer and Melina's dad? cuz he's Marika still? (ugh my head)
but imo to Messmer and Melina they don't consider him their dad (and he doesn't consider them his. i lowkey think Messmer and Radagon despise each other 😭). they only regard themselves as Marika's children. at the same time, Messmer respects and trusts Godfrey, which is the closest he'll ever regard anyone else as a father figure.
#axydoesstuff#godfrey loves marika so much he passed messmer's vibe check 😭😭#ask#reply#also that's why i still dont know how to integrate Melina in my fanarts yet. because i feel like she has no connection to other siblings#if you subscribe to the theory Marika is Torrent's original owner and she gave him to Miquella (i also think she gave Ranni the spirit bell#when Miq divest himself of all things about his mother i guess he also abandoned Torrent and Melina just takes Torrent back from there#con of diving too much into the lore: i cant draw stuffs out of a vacuum anymore...#but im thinking of a way to put her into the reverse parenting AU#er brainrot
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I wonder if the sword and the eye symbol on the new artbook cover are a reference to DA2 and DAI (as in, it looks exactly like Meredith's sword Certainty and the eye on the Inquisition's symbol?) since we had both Meredith and Corypheus on the 2020 teaser mural, too... but how exactly do they tie into the narrative of Veilguard? 🤔
Like the 2020 mural, is it another hint at both the red lyrium idol and the orb, maybe? Both of these artifacts did kinda set the events of each game in motion (less so in DA2 but it was still a big plot device). AND they both belong to Solas after all... 👀👀 Also....
There is the flippin dagger again. 😂 I've seen people speculating that maybe our choices might have an influence on the dagger somehow and that it could become corrupted (again? Since there's still a chance that this is the red lyrium idol but "purified". So maybe Solas cleansed it somehow, but without him, it transforms again?).
To me, the dagger on the artbook cover looks almost like it's covered in vines or roots? And that in turn reminds me of the vinyl cover with the tree branches and the dragon (Mythal?) and how Mythal's vallaslin looks also like tree branches and all that mention of vegetation and flora in the visions about Mythal's war against the Titans in Trespasser..
Or, speaking of "roots", Titans and Mythal, we might as well look at all these "lyrium veins" in The Descent again (the dagger is likely made of lyrium after all)...
And doesn't THAT in turn remind you of the new design of the demons we've seen so far in DA4 and that "nervous system", and how the devs just recently confirmed that there's a lore reason for that redesign?? 👀👀👀
"They made bodies from the Earth, and the Earth was afraid."
Hmmmmmm. 👀👀👀👀👀
#how is it all connected?? w(゚Д゚)w#grrrrrrrr#da4#datv#datv spoilers#solas#speculation time#dragon age the veilguard artbook#mythal#titans#thinking of nordic myths again and the serpent/dragon Nidhogg coiling around the roots of Yggdrasil the Tree of Life 👀#the evanuris mining the blood of the Titans to make bodies for spirits to manifest 👀👀👀
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I miss them so bad (Dick and Damian)
#ramblings of a lunatic#dc comics#damian wayne#dick grayson#ITS JUST NOT THE SAME MAN#idk i was reading nightwing must die (again...) bc i was in a funk and saw another post saying how fans exaggerate the closeness btwn them#and on the one hand i get it. there is a very rosy portrayal of their relationship you'll come across in fanon#and they weren't very close at the beginning of their relationship#but man. reading Nightwing must die again was like#YES they fight. damian instigates it and while dick tries to exercise patience he does fight back/lash out on occasion#but despite all that it's still emphasized how important the two are to each other#when dick is forced to picture a future where he's lost his way he pictures damian being the one to bring him back#not necessarily bc damian is his favorite person on the planet but bc he gave damian robin. for a lot of practical reasons-#-but also bc how far damians come is (i think at least based on this arc) a testament to dick that hes doing Something right#both as a hero/person#damian is more than just a burden saddled on him (although there's an element of that in their batman and robin run)#he's also a last remaining connection to bruce when he's gone (remembering where he comes from) AND he's training damian+#-his own way! with a dash of tough love and workaholic spirit inherited but also a lot of patience and focus on being More than the darkness#idc what ppl say nightwing must die makes sense for these two. its a retcon but one that works imo#that dick buried his head in the sand about how much damian meant/the responsibility he had to him bc it was a commitment he was afraid of#and how damian ultimately was a point of maturation for dick even if he went back to being Nightwing#they were SO goddamn close and now they're still close but only in ways that are implied#and their bond is deemphasized in comparison to each others bond w/ say bruce. which i think is a shame#it was a wrinkle! a fun wrinkle that the batfamily had that in some ways dick understood damian better than Bruce-#-even if he didn't feel like he could handle the responsibility of raising him full time#it kills me that bc of the n52 we never got the handover of the batman mantle (and damian) from dick to bruce#next nightwing writer...include a flashback to that moment AND have damian appear in the book in present....AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!#anyway. dick is damians brother but also damian a little bit imprinted on him like a baby duck and its rubbed off on dick#they're partners they're mentor mentee but most importantly they were batman and robin. and they were the greatest#NOT bc it was all peaches and roses but bc they cared for each other exponentially despite all that
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One of my favourite little things about Apollo is how casual his and the Fates' relationship was.
Now, this isn't to understate how grave the Fates were in any way, as a matter of fact, it's written multiple times about the complex interplay between the Fates and Zeus (Stobaeus even wrote that the Fates were given the seat closest to Zeus' throne so he could better give counsel on all things from their machinations)
Indeed, even Zeus was beholden to them and even though the Fates usually left things up to natural course (and Zeus in his position as Moiragetes - that is, the Leader of Fates could even intercede on these events, even interrupting when a someone was set to die) in a lot of ways, there are many, many things that even Zeus could never interfere with, things that were above even the King of the Heavens. Some really good examples are things like Persephone's Abduction which the Fates ruled as necessary for the propagation of the seasons and his marriages to Themis and Hera.
By all accounts really, the Fates were incredibly stern, incredibly grave deities who presided over law, order, birth and death and even worked with the Furies to punish those who broke the sacred laws!
And then you have Apollo who was also known by the title Moiragetes (In Delphi, there were only two Moirai depicted and in place of the third was Zeus and Apollo Moiragetes according to Pausanias) but who did things like, checks notes, send the Fates to be the midwives of his paramour Evadne when she had to deliver his son alone in secret (by the way, he also sent the actual goddess of childbirth to help. The Fates absolutely did not need to also be there, he was taking every precaution:
and get the Fates drunk so they would agree to save his bestie Admetus' life:
Keep in mind btw - this con Apollo pulled for Admetus was multi-layered and even included getting Heracles to wrestle Thanatos and keep him still so Apollo could proceed to help Admetus cheat Alcestis away from Fates when Admetus expressed regret for making his wife die in his place:
And I cannot stress enough that Apollo faced zero consequences for this nonsense. NONE. The Fates weren't even cordial with other Gods - they're almost never referred to directly, they were often depicted apart from other deities or described as old, ugly and unable to walk (though, generally speaking they were artistically depicted as young maidens!) and apart from comforting Demeter by going to personally explain what happened to Persephone in some versions of the story, they didn't really get humanised the way most of the other gods or spirits did. Usually they're referred to euphemistically, or someone will speak distantly about a prophecy they once heard was designed by the Fates but Apollo? Apollo knew the Fates! He was good friends with the Fates! And I think it's even cooler when you consider that both instances of Apollo showing off his Fate's Favourite privilege have to deal with birth (of Iamus) and death (of Alcestis/Admetus) which were the two points most deeply associated with the Moirai and why there were usually depictions of them as a pair over that of a triad.
(Excerpts sourced from Theoi, Aeschylus' Eumenides, Pindar's Olympian 6 and Statius' Silvae; though just a note, one instance of the Fates' involvement with Apollo is misquoted on Theoi - that is the Fates being present for Apollo's birth, that's actually a misinterpretation of Evadne's birthing of Iamus.)
#ginger rambles#No because the amount of super cool relationships Apollo had with gods and spirits of different domains is crazy#THE SHIT THIS MAN CONSISTENTLY GOT AWAY WITH Y'ALL#He was everybody's favourite fr#Some fun extra stuff about the Fates#Despite modern depictions usually having them in the Underworld in some deep dark hole most mythological sources agree#That their station of operations was Olympus 99% of the time. There's also a ton of sources agreeing that the Erinyes were the Fate's#And that they sent the Erinyes after those that explicitly broke Fate's ruling#Which is why murder was such a massive no-no#Cutting another mortal's thread before Fate ordained it was a direct and violent violation of The Rules#(Which the Fates also helped write)#Apollo was also partially raised by Themis btw#Something a lot of people neglect or overlook when talking about his connections with laws and truth and all that stuff#I like imagining this boy was raised on a steady diet of law books treaties and oaths#Also one of the instruments of the Fates was a Sundial#Considering Apollo's popular portrayal as a sun-god despite that technically coming much later#Please imagine child Apollo in the Fates' hall learning how to tell time with the sundial by watching Lachesis#That is all#Apollo#Apollo greek god#The Fates#The moirai#Greek mythology#greek myths#ginger chats about greek myths#This was definitely inspired by Pen's way of doing big posts#OH ALMOST FORGOR#evadne#iamus#admetus
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Every day I get closer to making an unhinged behemoth of a post listing all of the things about Kaeya and his possible connections to mythology & stuff that I notice but NOBODY ELSE SEEMS TO BRING UP IN THEIR THEORIES
(edit: OMG I reached the tag limit I'm so sorry)
#genshin impact#kaeya alberich#kaeya#kaeya theory#genshin impact theory#the unhinged behemoth of a post would also include all the reasons I DON'T think Kaeya is up to anything nefarious#if I see 1 more “kaeya will betray us” or “kaeya is allied with the abyss” theory ISTG I'm gonna break something#also WHY. WHY IS NOBODY AND I MEAN NOBODY MENTIONING THE POSSIBILITY THAT#EVEN IF KAEYA IS WORKING “WITH” THE ABYSS ORDER#IT'S AS A DOUBLE AGENT?!?!!?#LIKE HE'S GETTING INTEL FROM THEM FOR THE PURPOSE OF FEEDING IT TO THE KNIGHTS OR TO DILUC OR SOMETHING#AND HE'S ALSO STABBING THE ABYSS ORDER IN THE BACK#IT'S A SNEAKY TACTIC THAT'S NOT EXACTLY HONOURABLE AND PUTS HIM VERY MUCH IN HARM'S WAY BUT IT'S FOR THE SAKE OF KEEPING PEOPLE SAFE#HOW IS THAT NOT THE MOST KAEYA THING EVER?!?!?#WHY AM I SEEMINGLY THE ONLY ONE THINKING ABOUT THIS?!?!?!#I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS#also why is no one bringing up Kaeya's possible connections to king Arthur???#I mean HELLO?! secret possible royal lineage raised as a ward/foster child/adopted child of a noble family alongside an older brother?!!#and why aren't more people talking about Kaeya's connections to Lord Krishna???#again spirited away from his actual family to be raised in another family alongside an older brother figure who has less chill than him???#not to mention peacock feather imagery and being pitted against an evil uncle#if you believe that Clothar is Kaeya's uncle rather than a direct ancestor#there is so much more I could bring up and I'm not even an expert in any of this nor am I the best at research#but I should probably save those for an actual post#plus I don't want to flood these tags more than I have#I have so so so many things to say about Kaeya#he lives in my heart rent free he makes me feel and think so much he is truly the most beloved of all my beloveds#truly the blorbo of all time for me#if even 1 person expresses interest in all my theory-esque thoughts on Kaeya I will have won at life#this is an invitation guys please ask me to talk more about kaeya
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The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice / Jesus Christ Superstar: The Crucifixion, lyrics by Tim Rice
#Armand just said it is finished and i screamed#like this might mean nothing to people but all the talk about god and satan makes me want to connect the dots somehow so bad#armand's words could be read like he's giving up but wasn't letting lestat win his intention?#so “it is finished” can mean his plan#like god's plan in jcs#also by letting lestat win he “commands his spirit” into lestat's hands#this is probably a normal sentence but i'm not normal about jcs OR iwtv#also note how both lines are written by a rice it's gotta mean something#lestat#armand#iwtv#interview with the vampire#jesus christ superstar#my post
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hot take ame is the interdisciplinary studies major of the coven of elders
#she's all about the connections and relationships between the domains#like how community and human-ness interacts with nature and the spirit writ large#i wanna write an essay on this but for now have a poor quality meme#worlds beyond number#the wizard the witch and the wild one#ame#wbn#wbn spoilers#mirara is english because she certainly can't be social studies and grimoire got stuck with it - pack tactics i guess is my justification#indri stars and constellations and wind equals math to me#hacaea obviously science with all her plant stuff goin on#hence ame being real world problem/ interdisciplinary- the other domains not only affect hers but are fundamentally entwined#she's all the stuff that overlaps in the venn diagram of the coven rn plus all the other ones that departed over time#which makes the “give your report but don't talk about us” retort all the more ridiculous
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Webbys board is actually my favorite thing
Personal favorite bits:
Della <—❤️best friends❤️—> Penny <—just friends.—> LP
Drake mallard <—?—> Gosalyn
Fenton<——> Gizmoduck (don’t tell!!)
(Phooey??)
#ducktales#webby vanderquack#dt17#launchpad mcquack#gosalyn mallard#drake mallard#penumbra ducktales#della duck#fenton crackshell cabrera#gizmoduck#darkwing duck#webbys family board#she’s missing a few connections but she’s got the spirit!#I like how this implies several things#she (or someone) made Fenton pose for a photo while like every bone in his body was broken#she has no clue Fenton and gandra are dating#she also has no clue that Gosalyn is drakes daughter??#she just thinks they’re both people Launchpad knows#also that Launchpad or Dewey just straight up told her that Drake was Darkwing 😭#yeah I think too much about ducks.
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save me dog hob... dog hob... dog hob, save me......
Makes pair with my cat dream
#weeeewoooooweeeeewoooooo#hob gadling#dog!hob#dreamling#finally can tag it dreamling nice#furry dreamling lol#for this nice art I paid the price of 1 (one) back pain#don't use improper tables/chairs while doing art kids!#I wanted to make him a breed of work dog (cuz duh) that existed at least since the 1500s#so I mixed mastiff retriever and something else I forgot#and for the flower I looked it up#first I searched for flowers that meant “wonder (for life)” and then “immortality” but what came up was too connected to divinity and shit#and I didn't like that cuz I read Hob as too... earthly I guess#more like too human#you know a proper mammal of flesh and bones and blood#so I instead looked up flowers that meant hunger#and the lupine came up#I got yellow for “willingness to take on new challenges; adventurous spirits; never-say-never attitude; struggle to survive"#and I got red for “passion; admiration or adoration; endurance”#I didn't get the other colors cuz even though they can be associated with parts of Hob's life#they didn't really associate with all of it#I like how the red one can be associated with Dream's ruby#which makes me think that I completely forgot to draw it in the cat dream one wow#way to go me#ahhhhhhhhhhhh anyways#mine#fanart#debellARTis
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back on my zelda thoughts
idk about you but i got sick of zelda running after people with big sorrowful puppy eyes begging them to listen to her(they wont) or to help link in totk pretty fast
#ganondoodles talks#totk spoilers#i just can stop thinking about how dirty she got done#she can be a tragic character without being constantly sad and scared#dare i say she contributed more positive to the game when she was a dragon#the only scenes she didnt look super sad was pretty much when talking about link at the teacup memory bc .. you know she actually knows him#and where shes essentially forced to decide to half kill herself in order to do literally anything for her own time#now that im thinking about it how the heck did anything on the tutorial even work with her giving her powers to you#and you sending the master sword to her#just feels like they scrambled to somehow get you her pwoers and the mastersword to her#some random bubbles of time magic idk lol#if the game went different#wouldnt it have been cool if those had been caused by zelda learning how to reastablish a connection to her own time#creating those weird time bubbles#and through the course of the game you find more and they let you interact with her more and more as shes learning how to use her powers#until at some point she finds a way to return herself#maybe even her spirit as a companion for a time before she gains control of it further#you know so she can actually at least TALK to you#giving her time powers out of nowehre and then not doing anything with it exept send her back in time somehow and time reverse a dagger#like what#wouldnt it just have made more sense when at first she did it unknowningly and then learned how to use it herself#and then .... well travel back again#ham fisted way to introduce a neat lil game gimmick i guess#and nothing more bc how dare she do anything on her own except .. sacrifice herself lol#i guess its meant ot be uwu tragic bc sonia got fridged too quickly for zelda to learn from her or whatever#which is why i said she learns on her own#idk man this game is driving me nuts
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#dragon age#dai gifs#trespasser#cole#solas#my gifs#it's been 84 years since I made a gif set lol#I wonder if that's what happened with the Forgotten Ones 👀#after eight years I'm also still baffled that no one really talks about Solas wiping someone's memories from god knows how far away..#..and made them forget about his true identity in a matter of seconds lol#you could argue that he was only able to do that because of who or what Cole is#and obviously they had a strong connection#but it does raise the question..#what if he's able to do that to anyone?#you know.. *just like Cole* (when not made more human)#Solas your spirit features are showing lol#also how does this ability relate to Solas saying that ''only if the memory of a spirit is strong enough'' it will be reborn after death?
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Not sure if I will ever write this, but here's my idea of what Time and Guardian's first encounter would be like:
From canon, we know that:
Elemental banished Time out of the timeline and Time came back during the Elemental arc of the Steve Saga.
One way to return to the timeline is to create a portal to the Spirit World and enter through it. This was how Sabre returned to the timeline in the Origin arc.
So if you put those pieces together, it's possible that Time escaped his banishment by creating a portal to the Spirit World. But since he was alone (Galaxy had Sabre to help him in the Origin arc), he possibly:
Used a lot more energy than Galaxy to create the portal and escape through it. He much passed out once he arrived in the Spirit World. That lead to Guardian finding him and going like, "omg, you're not a newly passed Steve. You're not supposed to be here, but you also look so tired. Let me help you recover so you can return to the Overworld."
OR called out for someone in the Spirit World to help him, and that person was Guardian.
However it happened, these two met when Time returned to the timeline via the Spirit World. He would rest in the Spirit World before returning to the Overworld. During that break, Guardian and Time would chat and befriend each other, enjoying each other's company. Guardian was the first person Time had talked to in a very long time, so Time was very appreciative. Despite Time's presence in the Spirit World not being allowed, Guardian still offered him kindness. He felt curious about Time and his noble goals and didn't know why.
For the second encounter, Guardian would head to the Overworld, wanting to talk to Time again. Time would find him and say, "Hey, thanks for helping me, so I'm returning the favor by asking you to leave. Elemental Steve and Nightmare Steve are out there and I don't want you getting hurt."
Not sure what would happen next, but that's how I imagine their second encounter starting.
#extra note: I know that in the Illusion arc Time returned to the timeline with Sabre by just teleporting to the Overworld.#so no Spirit World was involved.#but my argument is that Time directly returned to the Overworld because he was stronger in the Illusion arc than in the Elemental arc.#that or he figured out how to directly teleport into the Overworld by learning the Spirit World's properties before the Illusion arc.#how did he learn more about the Spirit World's connection with the universe? from his dates with Guardian :)#shipping#time steve#tss!time steve#guardian of the spirit world#time x guardian#eternal guardians#steve saga#steve saga au#writing rant
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Whumptober Day 21: Body Horror
Spirit Possession
2432 Words; Coleverlord, pre-canon
TW for injury, emotional abuse
AO3 ver
Cole drifted.
Dance school had been… Cole still enjoyed dancing, despite the growing distance between him and his father. He did enjoy dancing, he really did—
(“Didn’t you see the way he was staring? He’s totally a creep.” Whispers from other students, having to find his own table at lunch;
“Young man, you need to work harder if you want to keep your scholarship.” The only class he had anything less than an A in was his B in history; the scholarship wasn’t that strict.
“You’re dragging our quartet down.”
“Ugh, why does he have to be here?”
“Professor, I can’t work with my partner. Can I switch?”
“Sorry, all the roles have been filled. Now run along, you’re interrupting rehearsal.”
“Freak.”
“Creep.”
“There’s something wrong with him.”)
It was everything else about school that Cole couldn’t stand. Not that it was anything new; he knew the effect he had on other people, but—
Go west, Vessel.
Yeah. That. So Cole left Marty Oppenheimer’s, threw away the scholarship and left. Nobody had stopped him, either. He considered going home, to the garden he couldn’t stand and the bedroom where the shadows shushed all his worries and the studio he could dance in as much as he wanted when his father wasn’t home—
But the way his father had shipped him out to Marty Oppenheimer’s was clue enough. Cole wasn’t stupid, he knew that the spiders crawling under his skull made other people uneasy. He knew he and his father had grown distant because of that—and because of his mother’s death, which had only upset his father further. Cole hadn’t been stupid enough to believe people would treat him like anything other than a monster since he was nine and sitting in his bedroom, hair still damp from the pond—
So Cole drifted. It said to go west, and Cole was vaguely meandering in that direction, which It hadn’t complained about so the slow pace was probably fine. He passed through some towns on the way, met a few people—
(Always leave by the next sunrise, that was the rule. Linger any longer, and the ants marching under his skin would start to give people fits. Best to keep moving.)
—but he didn’t really settle. Not that he could; It would yell at him to get moving again. So Cole kept moving, kept going even when it got hard—he’d been doing that since he was little, he supposed. He kept going when his mother stopped seeing him as her son, kept going when his friends all drifted away, when his father drifted away. Left Marty Oppenheimer’s at Its urging, and just kept going
and going
and going.
Can’t be a good son, can’t be a dancer. Is there anything I can be?
You are my Vessel, and that is all you will need to be.
Cole snorted, bringing the hammer down to strike the nail. The sun was high in the sky, and the fence before him needed to be fixed. He liked working with his hands; there was something so satisfying about the physical labor. It helped that he was often rewarded with food. So Cole worked, taking off the old pickets and hammering in the new.
The hours passed, and before long Cole was being called away from the completed fence for dinner. He took his meal out to the front step, away from awkward table conversations and away from people he had yet to unnerve. He ate in silence, termites crawling along under his skin and shadows dancing at his feet.
“You can come eat with the rest of us, you know.” Cole turned back to look at the girl at the door—her name was Rose, he was pretty sure, and she was the daughter of the couple that lived here. “My folks don’t bite.” There was hospitality in her voice, invitation in the way she looked at him.
“I’m fine. Sunset’s nice.” Cole deflected. “Thank you for the meal.” He added.
Rose stared at him. The termites under his skin started biting at his bones, shadows creeping towards the door. Rose frowned, grip on the doorframe tightening before she retreated back into the house without a word.
Cole turned back to his meal. All the isopods in his brain all curled up, and his shoulders hunched slightly. He set his plate down where they could find it.
He was gone by the time it was dark.
+=+=+=+=+
Cole drifted.
Mountain towns were interesting. His hometown wasn’t really near any big mountains, though he’d seen them on the occasional school field trip or family outing. His mother had loved the mountains; she and his father used to jokingly argue about moving to her hometown out in the mountains. They couldn’t have those arguments anymore, though, and Cole was no longer around to hear them anyway.
Cole was staring up at a particularly large mountain, now, the peak so high it touched the clouds. His mother used to tell him so many stories about mountains…
“I bet I could climb that.” Cole commented. His mother used to go rock climbing all the time before he was born, and after—though she had never been able to take him with her. The wasps under his skin agreed—and hadn’t It said something about “power over the earth” or something like that, once? It wasn’t like Cole would die if he fucked up and fell—
Vessel.
Cole had learned a lot about living off the land since leaving Marty Oppenheimer’s. So he’d probably be fine.
Vessel, do not climb that mountain.
“Why not?” Cole was already starting up the foothills, jogging along the incline towards a rock face that looked a little more climbable than the others.
There is something among those mountains.
Cole paused. He’d… never felt the spiders pulling back, before. “Are you… scared?” The thought was almost laughable; the shadow in his brain never got scared. The shadow in his brain did the scaring, not the other way around. “I thought you were the Great Calamity that Stalks the Night and Turns All Hearts to Rot.” He added, pulling up one of the more pretentious names It liked to use.
It is not… that.
Somehow, the shadow sounded shifty. Usually it was more direct with Cole.
It is simply something powerful. I fear for your safety, Vessel.
Cole’s eyes narrowed as he grabbed the first handhold he saw. “I thought you said I had nothing to fear.” but you. He hauled himself up onto a small cliff, where there was an incline he could climb more easily. The wasps in his chest buzzed angrily, but Cole pushed past it and kept going. After a moment, the shadows at the corners of his vision thinned, the spider settling back into Its corner. Cole kept climbing, half-forgotten memories of his mother’s stories filtering through his head.
When he was six, she’d taken him to a place full of special rock climbing walls with those colored handholds. He could hardly remember it, now, the memory lost to a haze of cobwebs, like every other memory of the time his mother still loved him. He didn’t try to chase the memory—he wouldn’t put it past the shadow to try and bury it harder. It had never liked Cole’s mother—and she hadn’t liked It, either. Cole had been a casualty of the crossfire.
Cole was pretty high up, now, having scrambled up a more sheer rock face with surprising speed. He actually wasn’t sure how he’d gotten so far without falling—though he could certainly feel the burn in his muscles as he pushed himself higher, higher, higher—
Vessel.
“Oh, what now?” Cole groaned. He got that he was beholden to the shadow, he understood that—but what was so wrong with climbing a mountain? It wasn’t like a dragon was just going to show up out of nowhere—It would have said something if that was the case.
House centipede legs scrabbled against his spine.
If you won’t listen to my words, then—
A spider crawling on his brain, tugging at threads—
Cole’s hand opened of its own accord, palm pushing against the stone to
throw
his body back
away
from the
rock
so that he was free falling, limbs locked up by so many coiling worms. The world spun slowly around him, the mountain rising up at incredible speed as Cole went down, down, down—
The impact knocked the air from his lungs with a sickening crunch. Pain slammed him like a wall of tiny needles, crackling his spine and snapping bones. Cole wheezed, feeling so much like a smear of human paste upon the ground. The world was spinning—was he getting dizzy? It was hard to breathe.
Get up.
Cole whined, as much as his aching chest would allow. He sounded—and felt—like a popped balloon slowly deflating. Not that the shadow cared how Cole felt.
Get up.
“Cuh.” Ohhhhh, Cole’s head hurt. His everything hurt. “Can’t.” How was he supposed to move? He’d just fallen several stories off a mountain!
Get up.
Cole couldn’t move his legs, his shoulders were agony—he couldn’t do it! He knew It knew that, so why—
Get. Up.
I can’t! What was Cole supposed to do? It had thrown him off a mountain! His vision blurred, and didn’t unblur—was he dying? The world was still spinning. His head hurt.
Get up!
Shadows crowded Cole’s vision. Violet light erupted from somewhere in his chest, so many ants marching around under his skin and laying down new threads—
A scream ripped from Cole’s throat as his broken bones started to knit themselves back together, legs and arms realigning in seconds. His chest heaved, seeming to split open for a moment before he could suddenly breathe again. Violet threads raced through his flesh hot enough to burn, knitting it all back together and forcing Cole up until he was standing on knees that threatened to buckle at any second.
Cole felt like he should probably be mad. But he mostly felt shaky and uncertain. Worms dug into his stomach, squirming up his chest at the spider’s direction.
You couldn’t get up on your own.
“Yeah.” Cole grit out. “I noticed.” He stumbled forwards, hands shaking. His bag swung at his side—his bag. Cole nearly tore it open, checking—okay, yeah, he’d need to replace more than half of this. That was what he got for landing on it, he supposed.
I can and will put you back together, Vessel. No matter how broken you get.
“Then why are you scared?” Why would the shadow be so bothered by something in the mountains if it could just put Cole back together?
It is not easy.
That… might have been the first weakness It had ever admitted to.
But the lesson was not so you could act recklessly, Vessel.
Well, then it wasn’t exactly a good lesson, because that the first thing he got from it. The spider in his brain bit down, tiny fangs digging in under his skull.
It was a demonstration. You could not get up on your own.
A frame is nothing without the picture behind it.
You are nothing without me, Vessel.
You would do well to remember that.
+=+=+=+=+
Cole drifted.
He drifted mostly westward, but he was still in the mountains, so he couldn’t go straight west. The shadow had been… not exactly quiet, since throwing him off the mountain, but It hadn’t bothered him as much. It had even brought back that old lullaby It used to comfort Cole when he was little. It wasn’t really an apology, but—
Well, it wasn’t like Cole could be mad at It, anyway. He was getting better at this rock climbing thing—it was honestly pretty fun! It was like a dance, him and the mountain moving in tandem to lift him higher and higher.
…he missed dancing. He missed watching his parents dance late at night.
Cole missed a lot of things he could never have again, really.
Cole was really high up, today—he’d gone straight for the peak of this mountain, and had just breached the clouds. The shadow had grumbled, but otherwise let him go, probably sensing the same weird pull that Cole felt.
With a grunt, Cole pulled himself up and over the edge to rest on the very summit—
There was an old man at the top of the mountain.
And old man… drinking tea. “Hello there.”
The spider skittered as far back as it could go, the shadows disappearing entirely. No ants squirmed under Cole’s skin, no worms in his stomach or wasps in his chest, no isopods crawling along his bones. It was all still there, but—It was clearly trying to hide. Which…
This is what It had been afraid of? This old man?
“Um.” Cole greeted, not entirely sure what to say. “How did you—”
That is a dragon, Vessel. Tread carefully.
The old man—dragon—hummed. “Maybe that is a question for me to ask.” He said. “But first: why do you climb the mountain?”
“Because I wanted to.” Because I’ll come out okay even if I fall. “It’s like a dance,” The words were spilling from Cole’s lips, “Me and the mountain, working together. And I like dancing, but I couldn’t stay at that school and continue to learn when everybody hated me—” He swallowed. “I guess I just wanted an escape. From everyone.” He couldn’t say that he wanted to be alone, because he was never truly alone. But he wasn’t lying about wanting space from other people—what was the point in hanging around them anyway, if the shadow was just going to freak them out?
The dragon-who-looked-like-an-old-man nodded. “It is easy to feel discouraged when we are alienated by our peers.” He agreed. “If you knew that they would like you, would you go back?”
“They wouldn’t.” Cole grumbled. “And I can’t go back.”
“I see.” The old-man-maybe-dragon nodded. “You are someone who keeps moving forwards, then.”
Cole felt just a little bit too seen. “Is that good or bad?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Shadows crept around his feet.
“Yes… and no.” The old dragon answered, which wasn’t an answer at all. “Being able to move forwards is an admirable thing,” he explained, “but sometimes one must look back at where they’ve come from. You cannot appreciate the mountain’s height without looking to the valleys below.”
“O…kay?” Ugh, this wasn’t making any sense, and the spiders under his skull were getting agitated. “Why did you climb the mountain, then?”
The old-man-who-didn’t-look-like-a-dragon smiled into his teacup. “Why, to meet you, Cole.”
#whumptober2024#no.21#spirit possession#lego ninjago#zaz writes#injury#emotional abuse#coleverlord#cole ninjago#the overlord#sensei wu#YEAHHHH COLEVERLORD TIME!!!#i didn't have classes today but i did have to finish my laundry + vote + get groceries so i started this one a little late#but i got it done!!!#cole being thrown off the mountain was going to be the main/only scene but then i decided to add wu and cole meeting#bc why not??#and then ofc that gave me the perfect ending line#even if cole and wu's conversation takes a different turn#bc of how well the overlord has severed cole & lilly's connection
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Hi 🎄🎄 i'm starting to organise my xmas cards because as we all know it takes forever to receive things from Australia, and i would like to send my friends cards. please let me know if you would like one! or if you are one of my dear regular xmas card receivers def just lmk if your address has changed. also if we are newer friends i would still really love to send you a card! just let me know where you would like me to send it 💌
#sending these is prob particularly good/important for me this year#since sawyer i truly just dont want to do anything and don't care about anything#but i went to a christmas store last week bc its good to go early when they stock like crazy#and it was such a barrage of capitalistic christmas madness i forgot how i felt for a while lol i was forceforcefully overwhelmed by xmas#so christmas spirit be upon me#also i don't think ive talked to any of you for >6 months so. human connection etc#tp
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