#i made it long oopsie (╯▽╰ )

[iilmunchkiin]

Comfort

[zoneofsmites]

Ok so. my running theory is that Bhaal only took back his blood. because that is what you see leaving their body. But the Dark Urge is made from Bhaal's flesh too - and that still means that any of your spawn will still be fundamentally bhaalspawn. That means that they are still fundamentally bhaalspawn, just that Bhaal cannot directly control them anymore. Bhaal's flesh freed from his blood with its own soul.

my other running theory - which might be true but I cannot fact check in game documents at the moment - is that the Dark Urge was not supposed to be his 'most perfect spawn' but an avatar. An attempt at resurrection. (either from Bhaal's intent or that of his worshippers).

The web 'game' Blood in Baldur's Gate shows us that Durge was canonically active during 1477 DR. This is 15 years before the events of the game in 1492 DR and 5 years before Bhaal is resurrected.

Bhaal is resurrected in 1482 DR as of the adventure module Murder in Baldur's gate where it claims that the last bhaalspawn die, thus freeing enough of his blood for Bhaal to return. But we know that this isn't every bhaalspawn because Durge, Orin, Saravok are around still.

The point being that Bhaal is very much still dead long before the conception of the Dark Urge. We know that durge was a child and as shown in Blood in Baldur's Gate they are depicted as an adult (and could at the least be a teenager, hard to tell with dragonborn I suppose). So they were made and existed long before Bhaal returned and were likely made around a century post-his death in the second sundering (around 1358 DR).

Which thus leads me to believe the Dark Urge isn't supposed to be daddy's perfect little spawn but Bhaal's new body. A body that became obsolete upon his proper resurrection, so it was given a different purpose.

It does bring into question the creation of Sceleritas Fel - supposedly made by Bhaal to guide them. Hard to do so from death and powerless. Perhaps a subconscious thing by Durge? Knowing they needed help - and as a demi-god the closest thing to Bhaal's will that was left?

[cloudiness]

Carlando: wedding edition

[skitskatdacat63]

2005 Australian Grand Prix[Redux] - Giancarlo Fisichella, Rubens Barichello & Fernando Alonso(my personal post-race highlights)

[ohtendril]

two of you. always in sync

[hiroshotreplica]

ive been playing pikmin bloom recently

[eatmy-customjorts]

another night out on earth

[oohbuggypie]

THANK U 4 THE LOVE ON MY FIRST POST I FEEL SO WELCOMED !! here r some frame redraws/studies of Aran Ryan + a singular Soda Pop i did 🥹 Aran is grody but unfortunately soo much fun to draw and i have an unwavering love for Soda so it works

[sunnixsunshine]

I had this very strong urge to draw the Netherlands so I fucking did, featuring some nedame from @rosethreeart ‘s America design because OUGH ❤️ prebby gor,l

[kashmirichaiwithmehr]

.

[bloodwards]

when you have a long and arduous stardew valley day setting up all the machines in your new shed+doing lots of farming+multiple cutscenes and then your pc decides to have an aneurysm when you're on your way to bed

[todayisafridaynight]

Mutual on Twitter was talking about Daigo instinctively feeling the need to put the pieces of Mine's ruined life back together and make him feel at ease... Is That Not The Appeal Of AraSawa As Well... like they might not know the depth of what their lives were like before in full but surely there are some details safe to share and there's very little that wouldn't sound bleak... but it's also a MineDai But To The Left sort of moment because Mine has always felt he deserves basic human decency, even if he has to earn it, but that's never been the case for Jo... [SORRY I'LL GET TO PENDING RESPONSES I'VE JUST BEEN LOST IN THE SAUCE for better or worse it feels wrong not to write in every day at this point 😭😭😭]

i remember telling my twitter mutual that arasawa was minedai but with dads and the way a light bulb seemed to go off for her was just perfect LMAO

but on the real arasawa IS a lot like minedai when it comes to some themes, and moreover they still maintain their individuality (aside from the dad aspect LMAO) in the parties involved, ESPECIALLY mine and jo

it's weird to explain, but daigo, in a sense, was an 'end goal' for mine. maybe not in THAT way, but just having his comradery was a sample of the thing he'd been striving for his whole life. ergo, mine joins the yakuza specifically due to interest in daigo, and decides to stay and commit himself to it because of daigo- and as you said, mine understands his worth and wants his efforts to be reciprocated. the problem is that he's not exactly sociable..

inversely, arakawa was, on the contrary, an accident for jo: sure, he swore up in order to be closer to his son. but now By The Fate Of The Cruel Universe jo's found himself becoming attached to arakawa too, whether he wholly admits it or not. A Cruel Fate not only in that jo undoubtedly doesn't believe he'd be deserving of something special with arakawa, but that he also shouldn't pursue something special with arakawa considering their positions in the clan (also masato would probably throw a fit and he can't be upsetting his baby boy </3)

BUT THIS IS THE SIMILARITY OF DAIGO AND ARAKAWA RIGHT so often comparing mine and jo, i never touch on how the other two relate... but of course with them, daigo and arakawa try to become closer to mine and jo (evidently we see daigo have a little more success on account of rgg refusing to let arakawa and jo be in a room together for more than five minutes). its unfortunate that we don't get to hear much of arakawa's thoughts on jo, but if it's anything like daigo and his concern over mine (i.e. worrying that mine is only concerned with money/only sees value in himself through his wealth, wanting to be closer to him and get rid of the 'stiffness' between them) i imagine he harbors similar sentiment (and being a Bonafide Father instead of a proverbial one like daigo, i wouldn't be surprised if he could be more anxious/concerned over jo, especially considering the- albeit small- age gap absent in minedai).

[killuaisaprincess]

happy new years to the person who stalked and bullied me with their 1,000 plus twitter followers while I had like 30 lol

Stillll was the best thing that ever happened to meeee NOT JOKING

THANKS FOR HELPING ME BECOME MY TRUE SELF ALMOST THREE YEARS BABY OF BEING TRUE ME

AND HAPPY NEW YEARS FOR EVERYONE ELSE LOOK AT THE PRECIOUS BABEY PRINCESS 🥺🥺🥺🥺 I AHHHHHHHH

[flamboyant-king]

We saw the beginning, now I be thinking about all the possible...uhh the word is like aftermath...epilogues? Seeing as the narrative will be left open ended, we can hypothesize and fantasize just about anything!

This one is Harvey carrying on with what he idealized as a normal life, getting married, having kids, going out with the boys, stuff you see on TV. But Cammy is still there, still a part of his life. And that's pretty neat. And also I cry.

[corvidmasters]

the only parts of the story that matter after lb4 are the ones that include arjuna anyway so its fine <3 i keep track anyway

anyway i would like to know what her thoughts are on karna- obvs since shes so close to arjuna (and it seems like karna is contracted to another master in their chaldea) shes probably got an opinion on him and theyve probably interacted at some point and im curious what kind of relationship, if any, they have.

same w ashwatthama if youre up to it.

"what does macha think of karna" is truly the million dollar question isn't it. what DOES macha think of her partner's rival. (and also answered here: what does macha of her partner's now-awkward childhood friendship). this is going to be a liiittle long for some brief context and also because it's two answers smashed into one so i'm breaking out the readmore.

context

Like was said in the ask I'm answering here, Karna (and Ashwatthama as well) are contracted to different Masters in Macha's Chaldea. Karna is contracted to Tanya (the girl in the second image), and Ashwatthama is contracted to Aimi (the one saying blow up). As such, she doesn't have the same chance for a deep relationship that a Master and Servant would.

karna

She has an amiable relationship with him that's occasionally a little troubled by her distaste for his talent at seeing through facades (specifically when it's hers, it's useful when he's doing it to other people though!). For the most part, she finds his straightforward nature easy to tease, and she's actually quite fascinated by watching him and Arjuna compete in things and will even actively encourage it. Macha also appreciates his diehard loyalty; Tanya was her first friend that wasn't family or imaginary, so if she's going to rely on someone to protect Tanya when Macha herself can't, her ideal choice is Karna because of this.

Of course, Karna is very happy that both his Master and Arjuna have someone who's always in their corner. He knows very well that most of the time when Macha approaches him she's going to ask him to help her with some bullshit, but so long as it's not going to endanger Tanya he'll help out, why refuse?

He won't lie though he didn't like her LB4 stunt. Was not a fan of the betrayal. He can see why she did it but it put Tanya in danger so that caused a small Sims relationship minus sign to appear over his head.

ashwatthama

Back during the Indian Lostbelt, while Ashwatthama was pissed at her for betraying her team and trying a nonsensical gambit by becoming a worshiper, Macha was literally too anxious and CPTSD-fueled to think of him as anything other than one of Ashiya Douman's chess pieces. She was actually so relieved when he helped Chaldea out her relief nearly wrapped around into a panic attack.

After that, he's summoned proper by Aimi. Macha finds the two a good fit and, like with Tanya and Karna, considers Ashwatthama one of the most trustworthy Servants to have by Aimi's side. By this point she's both read the Mahabharata and heard plenty of stories from Arjuna, so she's well aware of Ashwatthama's sins and his complicated relationship with Arjuna. Of course as is evident from her relationship with Karna, those things don't have much bearing on her opinion of him; if anything, she thinks he's an exemplary man that's she's almost a little envious of for being able to feel so intensely. In some respects, he reminds her of how her younger bother Badb is, which cultivates a sisterly fondness in her that she keeps to herself.

In turn, Ashwatthama, uh...still thinks Macha is batshit fucking crazy, but now he's getting that she lost her shit that one time because he has eyes and can see that Arjuna is pretty important to her. And he can't lie, when she's Normal she can be actually pretty fun to be around. I firmly believe that if he knew about Macha and Badb's past he would go back in time again to kill their parents. Don't worry though with Aimi there are still people he's gotta go back and kill.

[transingthoseformers]

Now that i think of it you can say that in the tfp au kindled Cybertronians go through metamorphosis

Most of these things are just completely unknown about in the tfp au, but a lot of it will be recorded as Silverlight grows up (and as the whole additive thing comes to live and as the study of kindling is further documented and researched in the future) I'm gonna make this as bearable to read as possible, using indentations and rainbow text my beloved

Naturally, kindling isn't as immediately easy as being created from the Allspark. But, like, I mean this in the way that the statistics would be wildly skewed from the Allspark as that wasn't supposed to be as heavily relied on as it was (well let's be real Solus wasn't quite meant to die but Primus said "fuck it let's use this to try again" and had intended this to be merely a way to establish an initial population) bUT, of course, they relied on the Allspark too much. The Quintessons saw this as the superior (and more controllable) method of reproduction and implimented this rhetoric along with the caste system. Canonically i believe the whole asexual ritual methods of mass producing sparked mecha was fucked with? Anyways this was a major factor in the Allspark petering out and making Cybertron go dark.

Kindling as a process, from what you may be able to guess, is sexual reproduction and is more familiar to us because uwu convergent evolution. Spike go into valve, overload, (not sure if i want to also include spark merging into this baby recipe or not), and there you go you're knocked up. Now, here is where things vary a lot based on not only environmental factors and genetics, but also the frametypes of the creators and plain old chance. The frametype factors are mostly for size reasons, bigger parents will often mean a sparkling that will be marginally bigger and gestate for longer. In general, a carrying Cybertronian will show less than say a human would and would have an easier time with emergence (which again would vary on the carrier/sparkling size ratio, ie example how Megatron didn't give any outwardly visible chance. A lot of things contributed to Silverlight's relatively short gestational period)

(I'll leave the further effects of kindling, carrying, emergence, and raising sparklings on the adult mecha involved¹)

After emergence, sparklings start out as small, silver with white optics as they lack pigment and squishy, heavily reliant on their creators for pretty much everything. They cannot move all that much, so they magnetically cling to their parents (the majority of kindled mecha will lose this ability as they approach the next stage, but some lose it later than that— with V few actually retaining it all the way into adulthood!) Soon after creation, sparklings will begin to use binary to communicate their needs/emotions, which the carrier will reciprocate to comfort and find said sparkling. Yes, all mecha are onlined with this binary, but outside of childhood and parenthood it's considered a little silly to use binary to communicate. The structures that allow the binary are separate from the rest of the vocalizer, so if one was damaged then the other method of communication is still available (this is my tfp au explanation for Bumblebee's whirping I suppose?)

To a lanky feral child who's just starting to get their pigments in and developing more defining traits. They start to molt for a variety of reasons, but it's a subtle and slow process that's akin to paint peeling off. It varies from sparkling to sparkling on how it feels, some feeling exactly nothing during this process and some finding it a little itchy. During this phase they become far more active and well feral. If they're destined to develop sharp bits, that's exactly what starts to harden first (to many creators' and medics' chagrin) During this stage, the sparkling will need to injest metals and minerals, which will spur upon the third annoyance of this stage: a strong urge to chew on just about everything. It's not for the same reasons as humans, considering Cybertronian sparklings online with dentae, but many could compare it to such. In most cases, the sparkling should feel no pain in this stage unless it makes the unfortunate decision to bite into something that's too hard for it. If the sparkling's chewing processes seem to be impeded in any way or are never initiated, medics advise an immediate doctor time and intervention. Rarely, a sparkling will be unable to gain the important nutrients in this stage and specialized injections will be needed.

Later on, the sparkling will start to become a youngling, as their weight starts to catch up with the growth of the rest of their frame. Their temperament starts to stabilize and the chewing ceases². The armor finishes hardening as their kibble is pretty much set but they still aren't done growing, starting to look more like the typical mecha we see if in general having a young vibe to them. Occasionally, the hardening process will take longer, and uwu should be supervised in case of underlying issues. Some kindled mecha will be observed in which some of their plating never hardens, which can/will lead to issues in their adult life, but said mecha can live a happy and fulfilling life. Fuck with a mech for having areas of soft playing and you're an asshole

Then, well, bing bang boom adult Cybertronian who is pretty much identical to cloned mecha or ones from the allspark. The frame abnormalities I've mentioned in above entries are actually identified in some Allspark sparked mecha, though their versions of aforementioned divergences don't develop over time and they are onlined in their fully developed frame with them. Records of times past seem like they indicate these as resent developments, but delving further shows that before the renaissance of kindling adjacent science shows a lot of undiscussed ableism towards such mecha (with many newly sparked mecha being written off as defective or glitched, and excluded from the texts³)

Afterwards, we get the more or less equivalent of late teen stage in organics where young Cybertronians visually are as grown as they're getting without a full frame upgrade. Though, the internals and processor still need to stabilize and you know what I'm going to say "if this organ stabilization process continues into adulthood please tell your pitforsaken PCP as it probably means shit's fucked for some reasons, organs are not supposed to move".

¹_Shortly after the sparkling's emergence, the protective programs kick in. If i were to compare them to human levels of instinct, WOW is it turned up tenfold (though as I've mentioned before in other entries, this can and will vary. Deadbeat moms still happen, just like in humans🥰) Often the sire[s] will also, as well as some mecha who are considered entirely unrelated to all of the above! The mindfuck that is a whirlwind of algorithms will usually fade as time goes on. Though, medics should be aware of the rare condition of these algorithms not self terminating, as it could lead to or be indicative of various issues. During the first couple years the algorithms could lead to the slightly hilarious phenomenon of the carrier misidentifying select organics for sparklings, as say juvenile humans have a very similar EM field to sparklings. Sometimes the sire(s) can find themsel(f/ves) mimicking this behavior, although most of these cases of the sire(s) mimicry is entirely psychological.

²_It is medically advised to plan a visit if they reach the youngling stage and are still chewing, as this could be signs of an underlying deficiency or various other problems. There are cases of mecha retaining this behavior through adulthood, and it's even documented in some sparked mecha! If all medical reasoning is ruled out, this pica is considered a frame quirk and parties involved are advised to watch for problems but otherwise it's not an issue

³_ I highly expect that as the truce and peace goes on and millennia pass, talking about mental health issues and frame divergences becomes more normalized. Especially because of how so damn many autobots and Decepticons having PTSD. Also because I say so, and ~projection~ as I further lean into medical hell.