#i was so happy to do this shoot as working with fire effects has been a dREAM of mine for years

[shu-box-puns]

Hello there mate!

Hope you're doing good and I'm here to say I ADORE you're Dad!Tsu'tey works and they bring me my daily dose of serotonin.

But also, since I've read (and reread) the "Grumpy dad and his feral son" work I've been having some thoughts. Like, what if Tsu'Tey was just a second too late and they managed to take Spider away? How would he react (I mean obviously he would hunt the shit out of them down) ? When would he and Spider reunite again? In the forest while he was with the recoms? In the battle of the Sea Dragon? I mean he would most def come to his rescue if the letter is the case to come and get him (+ to aid the Sullies), but then I also wonder what would happen. Would the whole Neytiri holding him hostige infront of Quaritch so he would release Kiri thing happen? How would he react to that? Or what if he got shot instead on Neteyam (not dying tho cos I want both my faves to live a happy life) ? I bet Tsu'Tey would be fucking terrified cos it woul remind him of how he got shot and almost died.

Anywho I'm sorry for the long line of questions and suggestions I left but when my brain finds something to hyperfixate on it will not stop coming up with questions and possible scenarios for the said thing 😅

I love the way your brain thinks Anon. (The fact I literally had most of these scenarios either thought out or planned :D) This got long. All the questions just gave me so many ideas and I RAN with it. Enjoy the memes and I hope there's no obvious spelling mistakes.

>_<

If Tsu'tey were too late to grab Spider before Quaritch got to him:

I could definitely see him tearing off after the recoms. Maybe he springs from the bushes too late, and Quaritch has already hoisted the boy up over his shoulder. Naturally, Tsu'tey still tries to attack him with his bow, but Lyle opens fire too fast and he old instinct has him retreating. Man definitely has some PTSD from getting shot during the war, and although mentally he still wants Spider back, his body goes on auto-pilot and throws him out of the line of fire. Lyle keeps shooting in his direction as the recoms retreat, but Tsu'tey isn't gonna let something as silly as instinct keep him down for long.

That's his boy, they'll have to kill him to keep him from getting him back. Thankfully, Jake knows exactly where his brain went and literally had to throw himself at this man so he didn't end up getting himself shot (again). Jake likes Spider well enough, but he thinks regrouping is a better course of action than charging in guns blazing - shocker, he's actually matured since having his kids.

Tsu'tey definitely fights with all he has against Jake, cursing at him and trying to wrestle himself free. He can't focus on anything but the distant roar of the enemy ship as it soars in close to the canopy. He can see the lights, and through the trees, the vague outlines of the recoms strapping themselves in. Lo'ak definitely has to wrestle the hunter's knife out of its sheath before he remembers it is there. But no one can save Jake from Tsu'tey biting the shit out of him. Man does not give a shit at this point.

When he gets free. (Of course it's a when not an if.) The airship is already long gone. A distant hum in the distance, even to his superior hearing. The pure, unbridled rage on this man's face is terrifying. Instead of explosive, loud anger, he's cold, almost unnervingly calm. A whole new level of terrifying.

Jake is definitely too scared to try and coax him out of the clearing and instead focuses on reassuring his children. Neytiri has to approach him, she's known him the longest afterall. Had stuck with him through the loss of Sylwanin, the fall of HomeTree, the war, she knows how best to handle him when he is like this. That doesn't mean her words are effective however. Tsu'tey needs a moment of stillness to collect his thoughts and recollect himself after the adrenaline burst, but Neytiri is already grabbing him roughly by the bicep and trying and drag him to his ikran.

He's still seething. Barely seeing straight. Half baked plans of him attacking the demon airship before it could get to Bridgehead were sounding more tempting by the moment.

Somehow Neytiri drags him out of the clearing and into the branches of the trees. Hauling his weary body to safer ground. But in his musing, Tsu'tey recalls the figure of Neytiri in the trees when Spider fell. He remembers seeing her dragging Kiri away with half a nod of acknowledgement sent Tsu'tey's way. It sends a fresh wave of rage crashing over him.

"You left him." He suddenly snarled, ripping his arm from her and pointing an accusatory finger at her. "He was right there, and you abandoned him!"

Neytiri's ears droop and she doesn't deny it. She doesn't back down either. "My priority was Kiri. I assumed you could handle it." She doesn't apologise for her actions or inaction. Just holds his gaze and holds her ground. Her expression neutral.

Tsu'tey knew she'd never taken much of a liking to Spider, despite her relationship with Jake and his heritage. Despite Tsu'tey unofficial adoption of the boy. There had always been a sense of hostility between the two. With Neytiri acting colder to Spider and the boy refusing to call her out on it. Tsu'tey had never thought to address it or try and help them mend that gap, now look at them.

And that's the real kick to the teeth. Not that Neytiri didn't care enough to be sorry that it was his kid taken instead of her own. It was the truth in her words that had his anger faltering. He should've been able to handle it. Spider was his son. And he let him slip through his fingers. He should've fought harder, dirtier. Should have resorted to teeth and nails if he had to.

So what if he got shot? If he'd angled it right, he would've had enough time to get Spider to safety.

If it had been Neteyam or Lo'ak in Quartich's hold, Jake would've torn himself apart to ensure their safety. Neytiri would've fallen into a blind rage to keep her children safe. Would have used every resource at her disposal to protect her own. She would have stared death in the face and kept snarling. And what had Tsu'tey done? Allowed a past experience to still his movements. To make him hesitate, and now he might have to pay the price for the rest of his life.

His retort dies on his tongue as his heart clenches painfully. But Tsu'tey had never been one to give up easily. He kept a tight hold on his anger, allowed it to guide him as he shoved past Neytiri and called for his ikran. His face was set in his trademark scowl, but there was a predatory fluidity to him that only came out during the war. When what he loved was threatened.

As his ikran lands beside him and he makes the bond, Lo'ak sidles up to his side, offering him back his knife. There is a familiar fire burning in the depths of the boy's eyes. A desire for vengance, and a sea of guilt and pain. Tsu'tey allows his face to soften for a heartbeat, he bends over the side of his ikran and squeezes Lo'ak's shoulder tight. "I will get him back." He promises.

Lo'ak chews on his lower lip, his eyes flickering to Tsu'tey and holding his burning gaze. He must see Tsu'tey's determination, his drive, his stubbornness, because he cracks a small smile and nods.

The family prepares to return to High Camp. Jake warning Tsu'tey that any attempts to go after Spider now was a suicide mission. He didn't argue, but neither did Tsu'tey agree. He also chose to ignore Neytiri handing Tuk off to him. Just kept his gaze ahead, and his hand loosely wrapped around the little girl's stomach so she was secure in the saddle in front of him.

If they reunited in the forest:

Lets say by chance Tsu'tey gets word of the Demon ship in clan territory again, or he's just riding around the forest on a pa'li because it helps him clear his mind.

He hasn't slept since Spider was taken. He's worried for his boy and severely regretting not letting him know what he meant to him before this shit show got so out of hand. In typical Tsu'tey fashion, he's been spending his time gathering Spider's belongings for when he returns.

Norm had already handed over most of the boy’s prized possessions when Tsu’tey asked for them from his bedroom in the compound. He’d packed everything away neatly in preparation to wherever Jake was planning to flee, so his son would have what he needed the minute he was retrieved. Spare exo pack, rechargeable batteries, etc. 

He's in his head so deep, that he takes a double take when he spots Spider through the trees. His pa'li makes an abrupt stop, the large animal mirroring Tsu'tey's shock as he stares wide eyed at the image of his boy stood on a log, above a group of recoms. Even from a distance he can see the bruises. He can see the tense set of his shoulders, his swift glances to the forest, despite pretending to be at ease.

Tsu'tey's shock melts into a scowl as his bow groans under the tightening on his hands. He steels himself with a long, deep inhale, mentally calculating the space within the small clearing. The sight of the guns on the recoms have his heart pounding, and his scars tingling with phantom pain. He knows deep down that his bow will be useless in a one on six fight. His only advantage is surprise, and he only gets one chance.

Tsu'tey's mind is made up before he takes his next breath. He knows he needs to try. Even if it ends with a bullet between his shoulders and his pa'li throwing him off from the pain, he needs to die trying. Whether it kills him or not, he needs to return Spider to the clan, where he will be safe. Where Jake and Neytiri can take him to a fresh start, a safer alternative to the clan at war.

The recoms are distracted. Only one wearing sunglasses is actually taking stock of his surroundings. Spider is talking, commanding most of the group's attention.

Sucking in a deep breath, Tsu'tey lets out a sharp call that could easily be mistaken for some distant herd animal. None of the recoms react but he sees Spider visibly stiffens. Tsu’tey grins despite himself and readies his mount. 

He notches an arrow into his bow and urges his pa'li forward. He erupts from the undergrowth with a war cry, and skewers the closest unsuspecting recom. It scatters the group like startled yerik, who immediately scramble for their guns.

"TSU'TEY!" Spider yells, sounding shocked and elated to see him. The hunter spares only a moment killing a second recom before he's charging for that log. His pa'li races past faster than the enemy can load their weapons, and it gives Tsu'tey large enough of an opening to lean down and grab Spider's by his extended hands. The child immediately latches onto him, grabbing whatever he can as Tsu'tey swings him up into the saddle in front of him and together they disappear off into the undergrowth.

Shots were fired at their back but no one got hit, much to Tsu'tey's relief. But the adrenaline rush isn't over because Spider turns around and yells in a rush about a tracker in his mask.

Not to worry though, because Tsu'tey is very up to date on all the old compound location. Even as his triumph sours, he takes confidence in the distant yells of the recoms and the light pressure of Spider at his front. He snarls softly to himself as he makes his pa'li change course.

Yes they get the masks switched out without issue and toss the bugged one into a fast moving river to send Quaritch on a wild goose chase and buy the Sully's more time to run.

Side note: In this possibility, Tsu'tey was definitely convinced Spider wasn't safe enough with him and he had to go with the Sully's to the Metkayina clan. And Tsu'tey was NOT planning to go with him. HAVE ANGST!!

If they reunited on the Sea Dragon:

In this scenario, Tsu'tey ends up visiting the Sullys when the Sea Dragon turns up. He just wanted to check up on his friends and see if they've heard anything about Spider, and the next thing he knows, he's got nieces and nephews to save, and a score to settle.

Tsu'tey is definitely going straight for the ship.

It's during the stand-off where the Colonel has his gun to Lo'ak's temple and Jake isn't telling anyone over the comms what is happening - preparing to hand himself over like the idiot he is. Tsu'tey was circling above the clouds on his ikran with Neytiri, carefully listening to his ear piece as he tries to decipher what is going on. The minute he catches sight of Spider being escorted back into the ship, all rational thought leaves this man's head. Of course he has enough sense to remain undetected - he's not stupid - but he's also not on board with Jake's self-sacrificing bullshit. In Tsu'tey's books, failure is not an option this time around. He is getting Spider back if it kills him.

Tsu'tey and Payakan being on the same wavelength.

The tulkun YEETING himself onto the ship's deck and giving Tsu'tey big enough of an opening to land his ikran and send the beast back up into the sky undetected. He makes brief eye contact with Neteyam who's circling the shallows around the belly of the ship, getting ready to leap up and help out his siblings.

The oldest Sully boy points to the kids tied to the railing, Tsu'tey nods. He motions behind him, where the RDA sailors took Spider and Neteyam nods his understanding.

On the horizon, the Metkayina clan are inbound. Tearing through the waves and heading straight for the ship.

Tsu'tey decides that they've got this covered and finds the nearest doorway that will lead him into the belly of the metal ship. He's too tall for the corridors and either has to knuckle crawl or walk at a constant stoop. His bow is a pain to hold loaded in the tight space, so he opts solely for his knife.

He navigates the ship blindly. His ears pricked for Spider's voice, but otherwise killing anyone he comes across and moving swiftly. He knows the destruction caused by Payakan would've damaged something valuable and he needs to move fast.

I love the idea of Tsu'tey stumbling across the control room in time to find Spider steering the ship towards the rocks and then brutally killing the controls with a fire extinguisher. (Boy was eyeing that lever heavily whenever he was in the same room as it). Just Tsu'tey letting out a half formed growl as the crewmates try to tear Spider away and fix the lever, but his oncoming attack getting put on hold as the enormous ship speeds for the rocks and promptly takes off.

The minute that bitch lands back in the water, you can bet Tsu'tey is the first on his feet. He erupts into the room with a sound so unnerving that the crew forget that they are armed. It's an unfair fight. And despite the tight quarters and being outnumbered, Tsu'tey wipes the floor with everyone.

They find Spider an exopack and get the fuck off the sinking ship to meet back up with the Sullys out on the rock.

Just the crew out cold or dead at his feet, and Tsu'tey closing the distance between himself and Spider. He drops into a crouch, all hard scowl and sharp eyes, and gently tucks Spider's dread behind his ear. "Are you unharmed?"

Spider nods, dumbfounded and thrown off by the raw concern in Tsu'tey's voice. Tsu'tey grumbles. He can see spots of blood all over Spider, small grazes and nicks that shouldn't be there. His stripes are faded and his hair needs a retwist. But he's alive, and Tsu'tey isn't going to let anything else happen to him.

Bonus:

The standoff:

I feel like throwing Tsu'tey into the mix would throw so many scenes off course with his sheer presence that the stand off between Neytiri and Quaritch where they're holding the kids hostage wouldn't happen. There would be too many variables changing for it to occur the same way, but lets pretend it does.

(Neteyam is alive btw, just resting on his rock with Tsireya kindly mixing him up a poultice she learned from her Tsahik training. Lyle didn't kill him, but Neteyam definitely had to protect Lo'ak's dumbass in some way. That child is accident prone.)

Anyway, we've got Quaritch holding Kiri hostage. Jake is trying to keep Tuk out of harm's way. No one knows where the fuck Lo'ak is, but he's slippery enough to get himself out of anything. And then we've got Neytiri making a last ditch effort to protect her daughter by threatening to take away the last thing Quaritch loves; Spider.

In the background, we've got Tsu'tey. Breathing hard, slightly wounded from throwing himself around on a ship with broken equipment and guns getting fired at him from all directions.

Raised voices draw his attention. He's standing on the walkway overlooking the deck where the standoff is occurring. He spots Spider first, under Neytiri's blade, begging for Kiri's life instead of his own. Anger like he's never felt before curls hard in his stomach. The betrayal is worse than when Jake and Neytiri first mated. It was one thing to let his son get captured, it was another to murder him right in front of Tsu'tey.

Kiri's voice stops Tsu'tey from doing anything stupid in his blind rage. Every molecule of his body screams to defend his child, but common sense makes him take in the situation.

His head snaps to Quaritch holding Kiri hostage. To Jake within arms reach, but preoccupied with Tuk. To the knife drawing blood at Kiri's neck.

Tsu'tey also takes note of the clear shot he has from his vantage point. There is no conflict within him as he notches his bow. No concern for Spider's reaction, or the conflicted feelings he might have towards his birth father. Tsu'tey's mind is clear. His hands are steady. And his mind is made up.

He takes the shot, and nail's the recom through his right eye. The arrow - fired with all the strength he could muster - goes straight through bone and wedges in up to two thirds of its shaft.

Quaritch sways for a heartbeat, his knife clattering to the metal deck as Kiri tears away from him and throws herself at Jake. Then he collapses with a painful thump. Limps sprawling and his head lolling.

Slowly, Tsu'tey lowers his bow, his gaze narrowed and his tail whipping behind him. He catches Neytiri's eyes as the huntress and her family follow the direction the arrow had come from.

"Unhand. My. Son." Tsu'tey snarls, his voice ringing out over the soft crash of the waves and the pop of fire. His gaze is venomous, fingers twitching for another arrow if Neytiri doesn't back down. There's still a crazed edge to her gaze, a look Tsu'tey is sure he shares. He hasn't felt this shaken since Spider was taken.

Neytiri nods once. An acknowledgment. And lets Spider go.

His son stumbles away, furiously scrambling to put distance between himself and Neytiri. Kiri was quick to soothe him, check him for injuries as Jake carefully approached Neytiri to take the knife off of her.

Tsu'tey leaps down from the upper level. He can't be bothered to find the stairs and the height is nothing compared to what he has to deal with back in the forest. He keeps an eye on Neytiri, but knows that Jake has her now. Ears pricked in case of further enemies, Tsu'tey spares a few moments to kick Quaritch's corpse and make sure he fired a killing shot. The last thing he needed was to grow comfortable again and then in fifteen years have to deal with this bullshit all over again.

"Dad?" The quiet utterance has panic straightening his spine. It's not one of his nieces asking for Jake's attention. It's Spider's voice. Quiet and shaky and so vulnerable that Tsu'tey just wants to wrap himself up in his arms.

Instead, all he can think about is Quaritch's body at his feet. Tsu'tey's arrow protruding from his eye socket. His blood pooling at his feet.

Then it hits him all at once. Spider's birth dad is dead at his feet, and Tsu'tey put him there. Tsu'tey killed him. He didn't even ask. Spider spent months with this man - against his will - but not everything is black and white. They might have come to some understanding. He might of grown to know him outside of his video logs and the fleeting stories he overheard from the Omaticaya. Spider may have gotten to know Quaritch without the biased lense of hate everyone else talks about him with. And Tsu'tey murdered him. What's worse, he felt triumphant doing it.

Tsu'tey can feel his hands shaking, regardless of how tightly he grasped his bow. His ears were flat against his skull, his tail tucked in close to his legs. He prays he just looks like he's reflecting, in contrast to being crushed by the weight of his actions. And he keeps staring at Quaritch's corpse. The arrow. The blood.

"Dad?" Spider says again. A little louder. More confident. And it kills Tsu'tey as he cringes, eyes squeezing shut against the guilt.

A brush of a hand to his wrist. His eyes snap open, and there's Spider. Gazing up at him with wide, tearful eyes. His mask is slightly cracked and he's bleeding from his chest where Neytiri caught him with her blade. But there is no hatred in his expression. Only relief and exhaustion.

"Dad, are you okay?" Spider asks him, and he looks at Tsu'tey as he says it.

The realisation hits him like a sturmbeest stampede. That Spider was calling him Dad, not the corpse at his feet.

With a deep, shuddering breath, Tsu'tey pulls himself together. "I am." He reassures his son as he drops into a crouch. It is evident from Spider's expression that he doesn't believe him, but the boy doesn't push.

Instead, he throws his arms around Tsu'tey's neck and burries his face under his chin. Tsu'tey chuckles wetly, his arms wrapping around Spider and dragging him close. It soothes every raw instinct in him to finally have his boy back in his arms. Tired and injured, but safe.

Around him, he can hear the Sully family beginning to wade into the surf, so Tsu'tey tucks his arms under Spider's thighs and hoists him up onto his hip, like he used to when his son was still a toddler. Despite his age now, he's still the perfect size for Tsu'tey to carry unhindered out of the shipwreck.

BONUS:

[charmwasjess]

So, let's say George Lucas was more self aware producing/directing the prequels and hired you to reign him in/keep him on track. How would the prequels be different?

What a fucking FUN question. :D I've been chewing over this in my inbox for a couple days.

Honestly you couldn't pay me enough to write for Star Wars, and that's not just because I'd be fired on my second day for making it so gay. I think there absolutely are problems in the prequels, but I also think no matter what films they made, it was going to be a difficult tango of trying to keep an existing fanbase happy while attracting new ones, doing the old story homage but also not just retreading stale territory, and the fact that an entire generation came up with headcanons for what the Clone Wars or young Obi-Wan or Vader was like in that era, and no matter what you do, someone was going to be disappointed.

I also have a ton of sympathy for Star Wars writers in general - I see stories like Mike Chen who wrote the Brotherhood novel having to get the book together in three months over 11 drafts or the Rebels writers working unpaid nights and weekends to try to land the story they loved decently because they weren't given enough time or money. I don't know what it's like to write or create content for Lucasfilm, but I can't help but think of Warren Fu, who created the iconic General Grievous design for Lucas, later drawing himself as Sifo-Dyas being drained of blood to create Grievous. The metaphor he chose there is, um, interesting, to say the least, and I wonder how it reflects on his time at Lucasfilm. I see these anecdotes all the time of writers and creators working incredibly hard for little money or recognition and then their passion project gets changed or sidelined by the powers that be within the franchise.

ANYWAY THAT SAID HERE'S HOW I'D FIX THE PREQUELS- I think it's really a matter of redrafting what's there because so much of it is really good and has great potential. I just rewatched the Phantom Menace, so that's on my mind. Yeah, I remember being little enough that Jar Jar Binks was funny to me - I love Ahmed Best - but having just rewatched it, Jar Jar gets a ton of screentime and that could be better balanced. AND oofa-doofa, the racist accents/stereotypes. Cut cut cut. Rework.

Otherwise, I think there's a tendency - and some of it was the popular movie tropes at the time the films were going out - to rely on Idiot Plot. OOPS, Anakin didn't mean to go to the big space battle!!! He just won the day on accident!! To a lesser degree, many other characters make it through the movie by just sort of guessing and lucking their way into it as a narrative choice. Just going by the fact that the films need to be about the good guys losing because it's a prequel for a saga with no Jedi, I'd like a little bit more agency for them. More moments of saying "yes, I want to do this" and less "wow, what the hell is going on?!"

The other big change I'd make is give Obi-Wan a much larger role in the Phantom Menace, and Padme a bigger part in both AotC and especially RotS. (Actually, she really kicks ass in TPM. That moment where she shoots through the window and the duel of the fates music swells? Ascension guns!! I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.) I think Anakin is the most sympathetic when he's seen through the eyes of characters who love him and vouch for him. And Obi-Wan is honestly barely in TPM - it's all Qui-Gon, who I love, but I could see the film being really successful through him as our perspective/focus character instead. The way that Luke Skywalker takes us with him on this adventure and shows us the story. Obi-Wan could do that very effectively. And as much as the prequels are about Anakin's fall, they're also ultimately a story of Obi-Wan's survival.

And I'd cut Count Dooku, for no reason other than I don't like how weird I got about that guy.

[television-overload]

of our own making

(an X-Files fanfic)

Chapter 28/34 - cigarette smoke

[Read on AO3]

The scent of cigarette smoke wakes her, burning her nostrils with its offensive odor.

It reminds her of the days before—when he’d come in the night, speaking in hushed tones with her husband and effectively plotting the end of her life and happiness. The downfall of the family she’d worked so hard to hold together.

It had been a long time since family meant more to her than heartache and regret. She’s not about to let him take it away again. Not when she might have just gotten it back.

“Get out of my house,” she says, her voice coming out strong and commanding despite the late hour.

“Teena,” he intones, as if surprised to find her in her own home. “How nice to see you.” 

She flicks the light on above him, depriving him of the precious darkness he likes to hide behind. He’s always been too theatrical for her taste. It used to intimidate her, even scare her. Not anymore.

She grips Bill’s old shotgun in her hands.

“Are you going to shoot me, Teena?” he says, squinting at her and chuckling a bit under his breath. It doesn’t look like she’ll need to, at this rate. He’s already run himself halfway into the ground without her help.

A pity.

She adjusts her hold on the weapon anyway. It’s loaded, of course. She isn’t a fool. 

“What do you want, Spender?” she asks impatiently. “There’s nothing more for you here.”

“Is there not?” he asks coolly, leaning toward the coffee table where he has set out a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. “I thought you might like to celebrate. I heard the good news, of course.”

The hairs on the back of her neck begin to rise. Of course he’d heard. He has eyes and ears everywhere. She’d given up long ago trying to keep things from him. It never ended well.

“You stay away from my son and his family,” she spits, raising the barrel of the gun toward him. He doesn’t so much as flinch.

“Don’t you mean our son, Teena?” he asks, smirking up at her. “I think that makes them my family too, if I’m not mistaken.”

She reels back in disgust. “You don’t know the meaning of the word,” she says accusingly. “And you are not his father.”

The smoking man chuckles heartily again, taking a long drag of his cigarette before speaking. “Oh, I assure you, I am. I’ve had Fox’s DNA tested on several occasions. The results are quite conclusive.”

“I don’t care what your results say,” she says, a fire burning in her eyes. “DNA doesn’t mean one thing when it comes to family.”

Spender purses his lips, but otherwise doesn’t respond. He knows there’s nothing he can say to that.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he says after a tense silence. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t be convinced. I don’t need to be his father to leave an impression on him, do I?” 

He gets to his feet, approaching her one step at a time, unbothered by the weapon she holds.

She holds her ground.

“I can be very persuasive, if you’ll recall,” he says, reaching up to touch a stray tuft of hair on her head.

Enough.

“You relinquished any hold you may have had on him the day you entrusted him to Agent Scully,” she spits, jabbing the mouth of the gun into his side and pushing him back a few inches. “Now, you can either heed my warning, or face the consequences.”

He tilts his head curiously, the ever-present smirk on his face unwavering.

“Is that so? And what might those be?”

He has no idea, does he, how much damage she could do. Decades of righteous anger stored up inside her, a front row seat to some of the most horrific and evil acts of mankind…

“Do you forget that I was there, Spender?” she asks, the corner of her mouth twitching. “I was there from the beginning. I’ve heard it all—seen everything. Can you really risk letting what I know get out?”

“You seem to think I can’t kill you where you stand,” he says, leveling her with a menacing stare, dropping his earlier unaffected demeanor. “If sleeping pills are your method of choice, that can easily be arranged.”

She scoffs at him.

“You won’t kill me,” she says confidently. “And I will not be intimidated by you.”

For all the times she stayed silent, for all the fear that once controlled her—this is her redemption.

C.G.B. Spender is a stain on humanity, and she will not allow him to meddle in her life any longer.

“There are two ways this can end,” she states, her voice low and serious. “Either you disappear, and never come near my family again—or I watch you bleed out all over my grandmother’s rug. Your choice.”

He lifts his cigarette to his lips. As he exhales, a cloud of smoke envelops her face, but she does not waver.

“I’ll go,” he says evenly. “No need to desecrate such a lovely antique.”

That’s the thing she had never noticed as a younger woman: that this man is nothing but a coward. Everything he does, every action he takes, is to save his own skin and nothing more. Only her son was bold enough to stand up to him. He had shown her the cracks in Spender’s armor.

“You’ll stay away from Fox and Dana,” she states, watching as he turns to leave.

He glances back at her.

“Your threat holds no real power over me,” he says offhandedly, notably not agreeing to her terms. Bending down over the coffee table, he picks up the glass of whiskey he’d poured for himself and takes a sip. “Anything you might reveal of my business would be dismissed as the ravings of a madwoman. And you’re right, I don’t want to kill you. But I will, if you force my hand. Nothing will be revealed that I do not wish to be revealed.”

“Ha,” Teena laughs humorlessly. He thinks so highly of himself, like he’s some kind of all-knowing god, controlling the events of this world like some grandiose puppetmaster.

She’s seen behind the curtain, though, and she knows better. She’s learned how to play his game.

“If you think my death would stop the truth from coming out, you’re more of a fool than I thought,” she says. “How long have I known you, Spender, that I wouldn’t have put in failsafes in the event of my death?”

Oh, is that a flicker of fear, she detects?

“I’ve had the better part of three decades to plan for your downfall,” she continues. “I do not fear death as you do.”

His lips remain tightly closed, his whiskey forgotten.

She leans in close, meeting his cold, unfeeling eyes head on.

“And that is why you will always fail.”

There’s a kind of delirious satisfaction in watching him go. It’s a waste of oxygen, she thinks, that he continues to live, but she will not stoop to his level. Not unless absolutely necessary.

He slinks back into the shadows from whence he came, and she prays that’s the last she will ever see or hear from him again. She’s prepared to follow through with her threats, if it’s not.

The shotgun goes back to its rightful place under her bed, with all her husband’s old things. He had been a good man, before he got swept up in Spender’s world. She tries, now, to remember that side of him, and not the one that came later. Enough of her life has been spent being angry, and she’s tired of it. She’s tired of the sadness and the bitterness.

It’s time for her to move past all that.

She lays back in her bed, the one that had almost been her deathbed, and breathes in deeply. Once upon a time, she had needed copious amounts of sleeping pills just to get through the night. The horrors that awaited her when she closed her eyes were unbearable, so traumatizing that she’d even experience nightmarish hallucinations.

But now?

Well, for the first time in years, Teena Mulder has a peaceful night’s sleep.

~~~

I can't make you go a day without Mulder and Scully in the update...

He knows he should be sleeping. Scully is snoozing away on the bed, and has been for quite some time now. Then again, once her head hits a pillow, he knows she’s hard-pressed to stay awake for even five minutes.

Chapter 29/34 - rocking chair

Him, however…

He sits up on the ugly upholstered couch, stretching his neck in a futile attempt to straighten out the kinks.

He’s a father.

The thought is almost beyond comprehension. If he’d actually been asleep, he might have thought it had all been a dream. But, no. He’s sitting in a hospital room a mere ten feet away from Scully, and they’re parents.

It feels both sudden, and like it was years in the making.

Casting a quick glance over to his sleeping partner, he rises to his feet and tiptoes to the doorway, pulling the door open as quietly as possible. The brightness of the fluorescent lights in the hallway causes him to squint momentarily until his eyes can adjust. A sign comes into focus in front of him on the wall, pointing him in the direction he wants to go.

A few hours ago, the nurses came by to check on the three of them, ensuring that they had everything they needed for the night. They’d offered to take the baby to the nursery so that the new parents could rest, and though it was tough to see that little cherubic face go, he and Scully both knew that their nights of getting a somewhat acceptable amount of sleep were numbered. They eventually agreed, and like magic, Scully had slipped into her silk pajamas and under the paper-thin hospital sheets before he even knew what happened.

Now, though, he figures he might as well do something useful with his insomnia-induced awake time, so he heads down the hall until he comes to a large glass window. Behind it, the lights are dimmed, but bright enough that he can see the seven or eight babies sleeping peacefully in individual plastic bassinets.

His cheeks twitch with the beginnings of a smile as he takes in the gentle rise and fall of their little bellies, their first soft breaths of this new life.

Each one has a name tacked onto the plastic bin of the bassinet, proudly announcing the date and time each was born. His eyes roam over every one until he spots her. His little girl.

Madeline Samantha Mulder May 2, 2000 10:13 a.m. 6 lb. 4 oz.  /  18 ¾ in.

Though he’s already had the better part of a day to get to know her, the sight of her still knocks the breath out of his lungs.

Almost as if she senses she is being watched, she begins to fuss, the hat that was keeping her head warm beginning to fall off. He can see wetness building around her eyes, tears leaking out and drying on her rosy cheeks.

Mulder puts his hand on the glass, wishing there was something he could do.

Thankfully, a nurse comes bustling in, bunching the little pink stocking cap back onto her head and whispering soothing words that he can’t hear.

He taps softly against the glass, not loud enough to disturb the other sleeping infants, but sufficient to get the attention of the nurse. After adjusting the baby’s blankets, she looks up, offering Mulder a small smile.

“Can I see her?” he mouths, pointing at his daughter. He raises his wrist and points to the hospital band that declares him the baby’s father, and the woman’s smile widens. After double-checking that Madeline is back asleep, the nurse comes around to the hallway, clipboard in hand.

“Already on that new parent sleep schedule, I see,” she jokes, eyes scanning down a list of names.

Mulder chuckles. “Been practicing for years,” he says.

“Can I see your band?” she asks, and he presents it to her. She checks the ID number on it against the information on her documentation, and nods. “You wanna take her back to your room?”

He hesitates. “Uh, my… wife’s still sleeping. I don’t want to wake her.”

He doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to calling her that…

“Not a problem, Mr. Mulder. We’ve got a room back here you can use, if you like.”

“That would be great.”

The nurse leads him back to a side room at the back of the nursery equipped with a few chairs and all the necessary supplies.

“Let me go get your little girl,” she says, before disappearing through the doorway. She’s back moments later, the baby now blinking awake in her arms.

Mulder mentally kicks himself.

“I shouldn’t have had you disturb her, she needs her sleep,” he says, a tinge of regret causing his shoulders to slump as she rests little Madeline in the cradle of his arms. Parent rule #1, if your baby is sleeping (by some miracle), don’t even breathe in the wrong direction. Just count your blessings.

He’s already messing it up.

His self-chastisement is cut short by the warm chuckle of the night nurse. “She’ll go right back to sleep, don’t you worry. She’s all tuckered out from her busy day!” she assures him.

Mulder relaxes, smiling a grateful smile up at her.

“Let me know when you’re heading back to your room,” she says, taking her leave.

Once she’s gone, Mulder’s attention falls to the wide-eyed little creature staring up at him. Her eyes are baby blue, a different shade than Scully’s, but he’s probably the only person on the planet that could tell you so. The flutter of her eyelashes mesmerizes him.

“Hi,” he breathes, tears involuntarily pooling in his eyes for what must be the millionth time that day. Maddie wriggles in her tightly swaddled blankets, and Mulder tugs on them to make sure they don’t fall loose.

After some effort, one tiny little arm escapes its confines despite his attempt at stopping it. He shakes his head with a breath of laughter, reaching out with his free hand to let her wrap his finger in her miniscule fist. With his thumb, he begins tracing soft circles on her warm, baby soft skin.

Has he ever held a hand so small? Five perfect, pudgy fingers on each hand. The tiniest fingernails he’s ever seen. That cute button nose and chubby cheeks. Rosebud lips and a chin that he’s noticed juts out just a little when she’s about to cry.

She’s perfect, his Madeline. And he vows to protect her from all the harm in this world.

“Sorry for waking you up, baby girl,” he whispers, lifting her fist to his lips and placing a kiss there. “Don’t tell mommy.”

Her wide eyes stare up at him, trusting and content.

“Come here,” he says, and he shifts her so she’s upright, then transfers her to his chest. The second her cheek—still sticky from tears—falls against his chest, her eyes flutter shut. He can feel her every breath, laying like this. From the rise and fall of her chest to the almost imperceptible exhales of air from her nose, there is a living breathing person relying on him now.

What had he ever done to deserve this?

He rubs her back, patting lightly at a steady rhythm that he hopes is comforting and relaxing. The repetitive motion plus the rocking chair ought to be enough to put any person to sleep—even himself.

Her fist curls against the neckline of his worn, gray t-shirt, fastening it in her iron grip. He lets his cheek fall against her head and breathes in deeply. This is a moment he wants to remember for the rest of his life.

“Can I tell you a secret?” he mumbles, his lips brushing against her head before he pulls back.

He pauses for a moment, as if waiting for an answer. He thinks he can hear a clock ticking somewhere in the hallway, and a door somewhere in the distance snicks shut.

He lowers his voice even further, speaking so only his baby can hear.

“I’m in love with your mommy.”

The words are barely audible, but they’re the truth. And a truth spoken softly is better than nothing.

“What do you think of that, huh?”

On his shoulder, Madeline’s face has gone slack, a little bubble peeking out between her lips with each even breath she takes. She’s fast asleep, and in hardly any time at all.

He prays the pattern will continue when they get home.

For a good half hour, he stays planted in that chair, humming softly to every song he can think of that might qualify as a lullaby. Eventually though, after two rounds of Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis, his own eyes begin to droop shut.

He’s loath to part with her, but the nurse stops by again asking if he’d like her to take the baby back to her bassinet, and he agrees. Before long, he’s back in the hall, the phantom weight of Madeline on his shoulder as he carefully opens the door to suite 509.

“Mulder?” he hears her voice, raspy and disoriented. The sliver of light from the hall illuminates her face, and she blocks it out with a raised hand, squinting adorably. “Why are you up?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” he answers, making his way back to the couch.

“Were you trying to sleep on that thing?” she asks, looking at the couch in disdain. He wants to laugh at the messiness of her hair sticking up every which way, but instead he feels his heart clench at the sight of her.

I love you, he thinks.

“Mulder…”

He realizes he hasn’t answered her question, so he clears his throat. “Uh, yeah. Might be a little short, but not bad,” he says.

The furrow of Scully’s eyebrows is visible even just by the light of the moon streaming through the horizontal window blinds.

“I sat there earlier. It’s terrible,” she says, confusion lacing her features.

Mulder shrugs, not sure what else to say.

She purses her lips, the expression on her face one he recognizes to be her puzzle-solving face. He’s seen it plenty of times at crime scenes, but he doesn’t have a clue what it may mean in this context.

“Come over here,” she says.

He looks up, his eyes meeting hers.

She’s serious.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he stands from the couch, approaching Scully cautiously lest she change her mind.

But instead of changing her mind, she shuffles backward, making space on the not quite queen-sized bed for Mulder to lay down.

“How is she?” Scully asks knowingly as the bed dips below his weight.

He toes his shoes off, swinging his legs up on the bed and tucking them beneath the covers.

“She’s perfect, Scully.”

She smiles. Her hand reaches out as he’s settling into the mattress, and catches his hand in hers. Their fingers intertwine like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and he hopes she can’t feel his heart hammering in his chest.

This somehow feels different than the other times they’ve shared a bed. Unlike those times, there’s no great need for comfort and security, and no cow has flown through the roof of the building.

It’s just two parents trying to catch some shut-eye. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Thanks for being here, Mulder,” Scully mumbles sleepily, her eyes having fallen shut once again. “Thanks for being her dad.”

He squeezes her hand once in acknowledgement. There are too many words he wishes he could say, gratitude he wants to express for allowing him to do this with her, to be a part of it. For giving Maddie his last name. For honoring his sister. He doesn’t even know where to begin, but now isn’t the time anyway. He is rendered functionally mute.

The air conditioner hums in the silence that settles, and he counts the seconds, sure that she must have gone back to sleep.

Just as he begins to feel himself drifting off, he hears her again.

It’s almost inaudible. Spoken like a secret into the night, an accidental admission that wasn’t meant for his ears. Part of him isn’t sure it’s her he hears at all, merely a wishful auditory hallucination experienced on the cusp of a dream.

“I love you.”

And, even if it’s not real, he thinks he hears himself utter back, “I love you too.”

~~~

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[herrlindemann]

Max DE, 1998 - Interview with Richard

Thanks to Ramjohn for the scans!

Martial lyrics, videos with Riefenstahl images and flamethrowers on stage. What critics in Europe dismiss as Nazi aesthetics, the Americans think is great - and nominated the pop group for a Grammy.

The British magazines hit it hard. “To hell with the Germans!” headlined Select magazine, and another, Q, fumed at 'the Krauts triumphant'. It is well known that Germany often has to take a hit from the Insel press. But what happens this time? Rammstein, flagship of the Teutonic rock wave, underlaid the Depeche Mode song 'Stripped' with scenes from Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film 'Olympia' - causing a scandal in England. Dance music guru Goldie demanded:”You should shoot the guy who gave these Nazis a record deal.”

Negative headlines are not new to Rammstein. Because of their macho image, the coquettish game with right poses, Till Lindemann's rrrolling Feldherrn-Rs and a brute-bombastic brutal show, the band is controversial in Germany. Again and again the heavy metallers are pushed close to the right camp. In the MAX interview, guitarist Richard Kruspe, 31, wants to clean it up.

MAX: Rammstein was nominated for a Grammy, the music industry's Oscar. Is that a satisfaction after all the criticism?

Richard: We are happy to be nominated for the biggest music award in the world. A German band with German lyrics has never been nominated for a Grammy. Rammstein can handle criticism well. But when other musicians become unobjective in public, we find that unprofessional and pure provocation.

That's Rammstein's business too.

I don't think Rammstein just provokes.

You really want to say that lyrics like 'bend down, turn your face away from me' or 'rammstein, a person is burning' shouldn't provoke anyone?

I don't hope that we only live from that, but that our music counts. I consider our lyrics to be honest poetry.

Rammstein has repeatedly distanced himself from the right-wing scene. Then why do you play with the suspicion of fascism by using Leni Riefenstahl images in your video 'Stripped'?

I think that image and music merge fantastically in this video. When I saw the pictures for the first time, I didn't even know who they were from. I was only overwhelmed by the visual aesthetics. However, I did not expect these reactions. Since we only unnecessarily poured grist on the mill of our critics, we now believe that this video was a mistake. However, Rammstein is an apolitical band that has never had anything to do with the right-wing scene.

What is Rammstein then?

Rammstein is theater and show with heavy guitar music. We don't need an attitude, because we make entertainment.

Is that why you're so successful in America?

Certainly. People go to concerts there to have fun. A distorted guitar riff is a kind of religion there, the lyrics don't interest in this context because singing and words are felt more as instruments.

That sounds as if Rammstein was invented for America.

We were on the road for six weeks and played to sold-out halls almost every night. Sometimes in front of 16,000 people. There were actually only problems with our pyrotechnics. In America there are fireworks marshals who control everything. In Chicago, for example, we weren't allowed to perform with fireworks. In New Orleans it was then "Good show, no penetration ".

You have to explain that.

Our singer Till wears a dildo during one song, from which he squirts water into the audience. However, one regulation of the American authorities read: "No liquids may be discharged from the abdomen into the audience.” So we could forget about the dildo show.

Does a Rammstein concert work without a fire spectacle?

If people would only come to our concerts for some effects and fireworks, then we would have done something wrong. We've had concerts without effects before. The people stayed anyway.

Do you think your music is innovative?

We have created something unique. Hard guitars with melancholy melodies. Now we were nominated for a Grammy, our music can't be that wrong.

What luck are you still missing?

Almost all members of Rammstein have children, but the mothers are missing. What intelligent woman is waiting for someone who is only at home two months a year and then in a bad mood. Only the 'Girlfriend' model works. But maybe a harmonious life would also be creative death, because suffering and pain are also part of our inspiration.

[infinitethree]

Lee awkwardly sits at one end of the large, round table in the dead center of the room. The five people who have kept a frankly absurd secret from everyone else are crowded on the other end.

“So let me summarize this,” he says, hands pressed together in front of his mouth. “The Swords and Shields were never Aster’s idea, but Daz’s. Daz is actually kind of an asshole–”

Aster opens his mouth, but Lee shoots him a glare that makes him shut it and slide down in his seat.

“--which functionally means that Aster was right to be worried about him at the start. Aleph and Khons got roped into…this, for reasons I still don’t really get. And Raine just– was traumatized and triggered by me being near Dee and Theo, and him trying to protect me from them made him an ideal candidate for the secret cabal at the core of not just the Swords and Shields, but the safety of the entire server.”

Daz studies him for a long moment, and then nods.

Closing his eyes and taking a long, deep breath, Lee lets that soak in for a long moment.

His initial vibe that Aster and Daz would be close had been something that never seemed to fully manifest. It’s been a nagging worry, because Aster’s awkward standoffishness had made Lee sure that he was just wrong about that.

And if he was wrong about that, then what else might he be wrong about? Did it misinterpret the vibes, or were the vibes simply giving him wrong clues?

But he had been right, and more right than he could have fathomed.

In a way, he feels humbled by the revelation of such a massive secret. The five of them have done…Prime only knew how much work behind the scenes, making sure the server remained safe.

Hell– he knows Aster treasures his friendship with Theo. From the way he’s watching Lee, with fear and guilt and tensed like he’s expecting some sort of punishment…this has been a heavy burden for him to bear.

At the same time, though? He feels so very, very small.

What makes him so special? What makes so many people take up his banner, when he already has so many others who are dedicated to helping him?

Aster alone is so much more than he needs. Hell– his family is overprotective as it is!

…In their own, weird way.

But having four more secret Asters, one of whom is actually some sort of freaky expert actor, all entirely devoted to the cause of him?

He doesn’t understand.

At the same time, though…it’s not just him they’re helping. Even if the core of their goal is to make sure he never gets hurt, they do that by maintaining the peace of the sever.

Not through force, but through defusing situations and putting out fires that might otherwise get out of hand.

Ultimately, then, he can’t be mad. A part of him can’t help but be a little hurt that it’s been a secret for so long, but…really, it’s not that awful of a thing.

Lee isn’t a stranger to the idea of operational security. The more people who know, the less effectively they can do their work.

“Okay,” he finally says, opening his eyes. 

He straightens up in his stool– chosen so that he doesn’t have to bother with his wings and one of the regular chairs– and studies them.

“I’m a little hurt that you all lied to me. But it was for a good cause…and, really, it was for everyone.”

Daz smiles at him, full of so much relief and warmth that he finds himself smiling back. The others are smiling too, clearly glad that he’s not too pissed off about their…everything.

He continues, “But there’s a reason you told me this now, right?”

A jarringly serious expression falls over Daz’s face. “Have you heard about the entity that’s been talking to a few people? Your dad and Theo definitely heard them.”

Lee nods, grimacing. The two of them had been…upset, to put it mildly.

Taking a deep breath, Daz says, “Their name is the Scribe, and we made some deals with them. Multiple deals, actually.”

“For what?” “To keep our secrecy, and…a few other things. The Observers like me, apparently,” Daz tells him.

From his expression, he’s not happy about that fact.

Lee presses, “Things like…?” “When one of us gets a question, the others can hear if they’re nearby. We also can tell when we’re being watched.”

A shudder goes down Lee’s spine. That’s definitely useful to have.

“And we’re being watched right now,” Aster says, brow subtly creased.

Well, shit! That’s not something he really wants to have happen.

With a sigh, Daz continues, “And…if you’re nearby, and get a question, we can hear it too.”

It sounds a hell of a lot like the Council gets special treatment. But Daz had said deal, meaning a price was paid.

He looks at the evident ringleader and asks, “What did you give up for that?”

A laugh, tired and slightly bitter escapes Daz. “We’re required to answer. I…had to do something that I can’t really explain.”

Quietly, Raine rests his hand on Daz’s shoulder. It’s subtly leaned into, like he needs the support.

“And because the Scribe is talking to others, you’re worried?” “Mhm. The Observers are getting more active, too– and thus more dangerous.”

For a moment, Daz seems to hesitate. Then he takes another deep breath and tells him, “And the Scribe told me to make things interesting. If I didn’t, they’d find someone else to entertain them. This…is something that always would have happened. I really would have rather it waited until you were older, but–”

“But your hand was forced,” Lee supplies. Daz nods in agreement.

That’s definitely not a scenario that Lee is interested in happening. This Scribe entity is clearly powerful, and might even be the source of the Observers.

Or…at least, linked to them.

Raine finally speaks up again, but he’s not looking at Lee. He’s looking at Daz, looking worried. “I think you need to explain what actually happened, how you got here.”

Oh? There’s a secret to Daz’s past?

Actually, that makes perfect sense. You don’t just become like this overnight.

Another bitter laugh escapes Daz. “Fuck…yeah. With everything that’s gonna– there’s no point in hiding it from you.”

Lee watches him withdraw a butterfly knife. It had been a gift from Theo, made by Dee; the shimmering, rainbow-tinted knife is something Daz uses on occasion for various tasks. He always unfolds it carefully, cautiously, evidently unused to properly wielding it–

The other four scoot their chairs away from him a little, and Daz begins spinning the knife. It dances over his fingers like a magic trick; like it was always meant to be there.

“I willingly joined hands with my Dream in Pogtopia. I swore to do anything for him, if he helped reclaim L’manburg from Schlatt,” Daz begins.

So all the horrible shit he went through was because of that deal? Fuck, no wonder he’s so messed up about being a good, useful person.

Voice almost hypnotic, Daz continues, “The price that Dream asked was to be my mentor. Unbeknownst to me, I had the rare, precious spark that would allow me to become an admin. He was terrified of being alone, abandoned by others who weren’t trapped in the prison he’d made for himself. I was what he had prayed and longed for; a true companion, someone who was capable of standing at his side. Not as his student, but as his equal.”

Lee swallows. He’s not an idiot; he can hear the resentment and bitterness lurking underneath those words.

He also remembers what Daz was like, when he first got here. That’s not something you do to someone you care about.

“When he told me what I was, what I could become…it was everything I had ever dreamed of. Wilbur had nearly killed me, taken one of Tubbo’s lives, and left the server with a real bang. L’manburg was exploded mere moments after he left with Techno. I had nothing but Tubbo, and Dream had saved me. He rescued me from my final death, and he bared his throat to beg for the chance to teach me.” Daz takes another deep breath.

“So I accepted. And…it was good. For a long time, it was nearly perfect. I hid that I could be an admin, but the two of us were able to do our work, do our training, far from the rest of the server. You should look at the coords.”

Curious, Lee does as he was asked.

Holy fucking shit, they’re so far out. It’d take days to get back to the central area from the overworld.

“What the fuck,” he breathes, and Daz grins at him. “I knew this area, so I figured I might as well make use of it.”

“But what about San? You can’t get this far without them knowing–” “I have my ways,” Daz tells him, eyes sparkling a little. “They’re a little weird, though. I’ll explain it later– this’ll be a rabbit hole, otherwise.”

Huffing a bit about not getting the answer right away, Lee settles back in his seat to listen to the story.

Daz’s knife– Bismuth, if he remembers correctly, named for an oddly-shaped stone that has a similarly rainbow tint– is still dancing flawlessly across his hands. Actually, it’s turning into tricks.

He might be showing off a little. Lee isn’t sure if that’s a vibe or just a hunch, though.

“So we were pretty safe from being found out. And in our base, I was able to learn quickly, easily, and without fear of someone seeing something they shouldn’t. I grew quickly, because I wanted to be worth the effort.” Brow furrowing, Daz emphasizes, “I wanted, desperately, to be good enough to stand at his side. He’d become…” the words falter for a moment, and the knife suddenly slips from Daz’s hands.

Idly, he brings his nicked finger to his mouth for a moment before he says, softly, “He was my brother.”

This is clearly, blatantly, something that was deeply traumatic for Daz. It was so horrible that he buried everything about who he really was, only letting it out in places that are in his complete control.

“What happened?”

The question makes Daz’s eyes flick down to the knife. “...Eret and Connor were killed for the third time in a surprise attack. In hindsight, I think it was Karl, but I’m not sure. Tensions that had been rising between us and New L’manburg–”

“So you weren’t close with Tubbo?” “Ah. No…no, Tubbo was my best friend. I would have died for him. But he was president; Quackity was. We never had a war, never had any reason to justify expelling the existing chain of command. Schlatt and Wilbur were banned, and Quackity was the VP. So, he got a promotion,” Daz clarified.

That’s a surprise. A memory wiggles at the back of his mind, and then suddenly pops out. “Wait, didn’t you say he tried to kill you–?”

“Yep. Using Eret and Connor as an excuse to act and information about their deaths as bait, they lured me out. I got trapped in a one-block cage while Quackity, Niki, and Fundy rained poison and instant health pots down on me. Fun fact– splash pots soak into fabric if you use enough of them. Especially gags.”

Prime, that’s terrifying. “And– that’s just torture. Why would they do that?”

Daz sighs. “Nobody knew admins were tied to the server. Nobody but me, Dream, Sapnap, and George. And…George had left. It caused some problems. Quackity assumed that if he could kill Dream and kill me, then he’d be able to take over the server.”

Ah. That…tracks, upsettingly enough.

Despite others’ best efforts to shield in, he’s not unaware of the way things went for the timeline that they can never touch. The base timeline, the blueprint.

Power and greed are good motivators, and Quackities often chase them to a horrifying extent.

“Dream got me out, but it was close. The magic…would have been lethal. He spent all night with me cradled in his arms, watching my code in the hope that if things got worse, he could fix it.”

Lee frowns. “So…you were still on good terms, then.” “Mhm. And then he wanted to kill everyone. I refused to let him touch Tubbo, and…and, well. He always did have terrible taste.”

Before he can ask what that means, Daz explains, “He chose blackstone bricks for the floor of our base. The base he left less and less; the base that held the only person who understood him. It wasn’t until I came here that I even considered it could be a problem.”

“But– wouldn’t he have noticed the server getting quieter?” “Our servers weren’t sapient; no barrier between admins and whatever information they wanted. He was always so fucking stupid about using those skills, though. Always wanted to believe the best in others. And in the end, the sudden stress of nearly losing me made him snap. He took the project we’d been working on, retrofitted loyalty into it, and shoved it in my code.”

Daz’s voice is uncomfortably calm as he says, “Every order felt like my soul was being atomized. I knew it would kill me, eventually. And…after he made me kill Tubbo, I stopped resisting that idea.”

His breath escapes in a horrified rush.

Gods, he can’t even imagine. He knows Tommys– knows that, at their core, a single shining truth remains crystal clear.

Tommys are loyal. They are loyal to the death.

“I frayed at his already waning sanity, forcing him to layer order after order on. Meanwhile, I had disabled all the alarms and laid a breadcrumb trail right to our door.”

His heart aches at the idea that someone he cares about was ever so low. “You wanted them to kill you, and the enchantment was a backup plan.”

Daz smiles a little sadly. “Yeah. I decided I would choose death over defeat. I made sure that no matter what, he would be left exactly as he always feared; alone, broken, and rotting in the ruins of his self-made prison.”

Suddenly, Daz’s tone shifts. “But then the T3 showed up. I was given a sudden, expected chance; I could walk away. It would be even worse than dying, to him. If I was dead, he would kill himself quicker. But…if I was alive, somewhere, with some small chance I might go back…?” An expectedly cruel smile twists across the usually-bubbly man’s lips.

“He would cling onto that hope. He would suffer in agony, in the vain hope that I might one day return to him.”

A shiver goes down his spine, and Daz’s expression shifts to a less distressing one.

Well! That was– that was pretty fucked up. Lee knows, and this time is aware it’s a vibe, that Daz hasn’t been honest in his therapy.

Great. Awesome. Someone who desperately needs actual therapy is instead the only person able to lie well enough to fool not just San but the entire server.

Daz takes the knife and puts it back into his inventory. “So, yeah. I was trained to be an admin, and that’s gonna be useful.”

He doesn’t follow. “Useful for…?”

“I asked Lucid to train me, too.”

Lee stands up, protesting, “Daz, you don’t need to–”

Calmly, Daz interrupts, “I do, though. It gives me the chance not just to monitor Lucid more closely, but to have access to a mod console. With a console, I can teach you better. I don’t want to be a full admin. The idea is kinda of my worst nightmare, actually! But a mod…a mod, I can handle. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.”

Goddamnit. He hates that it makes sense. “But you’re going to be actively triggering yourself constantly. I don’t like that.”

“Tough fucking luck. Life is cruel and unfair, and like or not, I’m going to make sure you never have to learn that lesson the hard way,” Daz tells him.

When he stands up, his posture is one that echoes people that Lee knows all too well.

Technoes, Dreams, Wilburs, even the few Schlatts that he’s seen.

Instinctively, Lee understands that Daz will not budge on this. No matter what Lee says or does, he’s made up his mind.

And, at his core, he still ultimately a Tommy. The other truth of Tommys is that are stupidly, infuriatingly, breathtakingly stubborn.

If a Tommy digs his heels in, it will take an unfathomable amount of force to drag him away.

He sighs, scrubbing a hand through his hair. At his back, he can feel his wings fluttering anxiously.

Lee hates the idea of Daz living and breathing his trauma like he’s planned on doing. At the same time, though, he knows that it will be useful.

Fucking hell. This isn’t really what he thought Aster might be bringing him to face.

As he thinks that, he sees that same man stand hesitantly, awkwardly, just a step away from him. His hands hover and his muted emotions clearly convey that he desperately wants to hug him.

With a soft huff, he steps forward and hugs one of his closest companions.

Aster sighs in relief, wrapping his arms around him.

Something deep inside of him hums in satisfaction. Aster is one of his people, someone he trusts and treasures. He would do horrible, ugly things to keep this person safe– things that sometimes appear in his nightmares, things he doesn’t want to think about in the light of day.

“I know it’s…kind of a lot. And maybe worse because we’re not alone,” Daz tells him. He does sound apologetic, but is probably so for the wrong reasons.

“I told you he wouldn’t hate you,” Raine says, with a soft thump that indicates he lightly smacked his friend in some way. “Paranoid dumbass.”

Scoffing, Daz retorts, “Fuck you, you’re not the one who had to reveal you’re actually kind of a monster to the supernatural embodiment of sunshine and rainbows–”

Lee breaks from the hug to point at Daz, who seems surprised. “You’re not a monster.”

Daz blinks at him, seeming to consider something. Raine hisses, “Don’t you dare, save your weirder shit for another time!”

The Tommy snorts, and states, “Yeah, that’s probably better. But let’s say I disagree, and leave it at that.”

Eyes narrowing, Lee leans his weight across the table. He warns, “I’m going to fix you, so fucking help me.”

After a moment of surprise, Daz grins and leans forward as well. “Good luck, kid. My issues have issues. I’ve got a whole fucking magazine subscription kit in here.” “Good! Fine! If all of you think I’m so damn special, then I’ll make sure you’re getting your stupid money’s worth!”

Daz’s expression suddenly turns dark. “Don’t talk like that. You–”

Oh, wonderful job! Bravissimo; bravissimo! I was so fucking right to make you–

All of the Council members straighten up, but none become more severe than Daz. “Achilles, this is the Scribe.”

The unexpected, disembodied, and clearly powerful voice laughs, Hah, yeah, that’s definitely me, I'm the Scribe. They coo, Aww, you look so mad! And here I was, thinking you were up to snuff. 

Shoulders thrown back, Daz states calmly, “He is. In fact…” a slow smile spreads, like cracks across thin ice.

“In fact,” Daz repeats, “He’s so good, so worthy, that I think we should hold a vote.”

His eyes flick to the others. “All those in favor of making Lee an official member of the Council?”

Oh you clever little shit. I hate you so much right now, the Scribe says. Contrary to their words, though, they sound delighted.

The others nod their approval, and Daz’s smile grows. “And, Lee, do you accept this position?”

Clearly, there’s something more going on than is immediately obvious. This group, and especially Daz, are smart.

If they’re pushing for this, there’s a reason.

“Yeah,” he says, and can’t help but feel a little sting of pride when all of them perk up a little.

Daz claps his hands. “Excellent. With Lee’s induction into the Council, that makes this official business.” His hands spread wide, Daz laughs as he says, “Which means our audience needs to leave.”

[askfallenroyalty]

Here's some more deleted scene panels that never made it in

sorry there's no captions, there's just too many panels to describe and i'm tired. hopefully i'll have the energy/rememebr to do so tomorrow ):

IM REALLY SAD THIS ONE DIDN'T GET IN. I even drew asriel shutting flowey in a box for this joke to work. There was going to be a visual gag of it being a "soap" box. Haha.

Asgore was originally going to tell Asriel to think of something nice to get his mind off of his panic attack.

Which, while funny, took away the feeling of intense panic the audience and asriel should have been feeling at the time. It just didn't fit the pacing/mood. It also showed that -well, i don't know if this is a legitimate grounding technique or if it'd be read as "its ok just think happy thoughts <3 then ur panic attack would end" which... is not.... how that works. Even if it was only to give Asriel a moment of respite, it's shown as effective until Asgore brings up a bad memory. So. bad comic sequence.

more stuff under the cut

I had a really, really hard time balancing the tone of the scene that is currently happening in the redraw. it's why i'm so behind in my drawings, so i'm only now sketching the next couple month's updates.

This chapter has gone through SO MANY changes. I feel that comes with it being the first chapter to completely diverge from the original tumblr version.

Asriel was originally going to have a very on-the-nose nightmare about Flowey feeling excluded from the family and fearing drowning. Now, the whole darkness/water metaphor for suicidal depression will be introduced when that stuff starts to come into play in chapter 4...

i mean, just to really hammer home how much i had to delete for this: i actually did sketch out the original tumblr version here. I had it all ready before chapter 2 began posting. But as I was finishing the color for the warship section I realized, shoot, I don't wanna repeat it.

When I first made the tumblr version, i was getting burnt out and the characters just became so much... meaner? rude? to each other. some bickering or annoyance is fine but I have a bad habit of going overboard. That's something I hope to correct in the rewrite -and focus more on less drama and more wholesome/loving moments.

(note the above scene is shown not in full. its jumping around a bit)

Even tho I was mostly keeping chapter the same the first time I sketched it for the redraw, I added this scene. The idea was that when the house was on fire, Frisk would of ran off to the right of the house to where you can see Old Home.

There, even tho Frisk can't verbally talk, the two have a nice heart-to-heart. Chara remember Frisk has [spoilers] issues. Chara was going to own up to their bad behavior.

Now well, hm. Chara's got a lot of shit going on. Frisk of course has forgiven them (like they do for everyone in the underground -_- oh frisk...) and it's going to be something that's addressed down the road. for now, they've held hands, and shown solidarity for each other. As kids, they're going to goof around and be buddies and not let the cruddy stuff chara did earlier matter. things are so much less of a big deal when you're a kid.

[hrodvitnon]

So I reread Shamhat on a whim and came up with some more questions:

So wouldn't Goji and San's coming brawl (or at least them beefing with each other) violate the sorta unspoken rule about being civil to each other on Infant Island? I ask because Vivienne previously stopped a potential problem between Goji and Rodan in an earlier chapter and just generally feel like Mothra wouldn't be very happy about either of them banging each other up.

So I'm assuming Mothra lets out the pheromones because she's a moth, and that's a thing that Moths do and not just a kaiju thing. Or... is it? Like if Tiamat went into heat would she also start shooting out pheromones? Or does each female kaiju have like a unique heat thing that works to attracts mates?

We've been told that the rut/heat relationship works on a Female - Male basis. Female goes into season, triggers male rut, the fuck happens. Is this constant across all sexual orientations? Like, if there was an exclusively gay male kaiju somewhere would a female's heat just have no effect on them? Would they need another male to trigger their rut?

Was the weird thing with Vivienne in the chapter where she bit Tiamat because of the baby developing and instincts bleeding over, or something else? (if the answer to this is a spoiler than by all means be vague about it)

Has Rodan and/or Vivi thought of a name for the kid yet? (refer to the previous question if you don't want to answer this yet)

Final spicy one: What's the projected spike in the Demi-Titan (Titan/Human Hybrid) population looking like when word that the Titans are biologically compatible gets out? Or just the spike in Titan/Human relations?

Whoo!

Mothra certainly won't be pleased that the boys are fighting on her island and plans to make them both sleep on separate couches once all is said and done (she doesn't care "who started it," only that it started at all, and also San knew what he was getting into when he agreed to come and that Goji was playing with fire for seducing his rival's mate). Her ire will be a bit lessened considering what the beef will quickly turn into, though...

I wanna say the sex pheromones specifically are a Mothra-species staple, while others have different ways of drawing in potential mates. In Tiamat's case, it's her bioluminescence and frills fanning out, like a male peacock. Some species will announce their "current state" through body language or straight-up screaming to get a male's attention ("FOR FUCK'S SAKE I NEED A DICK IN ME RIGHT THE FUCK NOW MY ESTRUS IS FUCKING KILLING ME!!").

I want to be careful about this for obvious reasons, but I want to say that a female's heat signals wouldn't necessarily work on a gay male Titan. Maybe the male is aware that a female is in heat, it just doesn't do anything for him because he's naturally not attracted to the opposite sex. It would work on a bisexual Titan, but I digress. Maybe thanks to how intelligent many Titans are, there's a social agreement among the various species that the "breeding zones" are to be separate from zones where gay Titans can go looking for a mate; in which case, a Titan would react to the "call" of a potential mate of the same sex. Sort of like the gay bars of the wild.

If memory serves correctly, it might be a mix between the baby developing, Rodan's instincts bleeding into Vivienne's more dormant "ancient human" instincts, and her being in close proximity to multiple males in rut, which caused her angry bitey cavewoman reaction. She wasn't just defending her mate, Vivienne in the moment was perceiving Tiamat as a potential threat to her expecting family. (It also makes sense to me that a mama bird would flip out if she spotted a snake anywhere near her nest.)

They haven't had an opportunity to brainstorm baby names yet, on account of the whole rut happening at the moment, but once things calm down and Vivienne begins showing, they'll have plenty of slow days where they can relax and test what names work... or rather, Vivienne will test names. Titans don't always refer to each other with specific names, so Rodan is getting used to that.

I wanna say that there won't be an immediate spike in Demi-Titan births; the chaos of 2014 and especially the Mass Awakening is still fresh in many people's memories, but the revelation that Titans can communicate on a human scale will make it easier for many humans to come to terms with all the Everything that's happened and continues to happen. Platonic Human/Titan relations will gradually improve over time... and once some brave souls get over the initial hurdle of "am I attracted to a big monster" and accept their newfound sexual awakening, intimate or even romantic Human/Titan relations will slowly follow.

Bonus, because The Elder Scrolls just turned 30 years old, a bit of Shamhat baby lore based on how "mixed" baby-making works in TES lore: Demi-Titans take after their mothers; in the case of Titan father/human mother, they naturally need to be human-sized babies in order for mom to give birth without, y'know, dying. In the case of of Titan mother/human father parents, the same applies but on a larger scale.

[bulkyphrase]

Project Rebirth does something different: a fic rec list

These are all stories where the supersoldier serum works just a little differently on Steve. Some are cute, some are sad, some are porny, and some are just plain weird.

A Fire to be Kindled by drifloon (Stony, Teen And Up Audiences, 15,685 words)

Summary: It makes perfect sense, of course. The serum gave Steve the perfect body, so why wouldn’t it also give him the perfect mind? In the quietness of his own mind, Tony can admit he’s a little stung Steve didn’t tell him, but he’s not really surprised. (Or: the one where Steve is smarter than Tony, and neither of them deal well.)

Steve Rogers was a Good Man by AnonEhouse (Stony, Mature, 2,089 words)

Summary: Something went really, really wrong during the super soldier experiment. Instead of the best man he could be, he became the best... well...if it's big, reptilian and shoots flames, Howard can't think of anything else to call it, but a dragon. Steve is still a patriot under the scales. He's just got a slightly different world view, that's all. (past and future relationships hinted, but no explicit).

A Good Man by quigonejinn (Steggy, Not Rated, 1,541 words)

Summary: The one where the Super Soldier Serum causes lycanthropy.

The rest are below the cut!

Chrysalid by IamShadow21 (Gen, General Audiences, 2,819 words)

Summary: You're not ashamed of them, not really. You just wish that if the serum was going to give you super strength and health and ridiculous head wings, the government would have at least given you something less humiliating to do than parade around in fancy dress.

woof by Anonymous (Gen, General Audiences, 5,085 words)

Summary: For a prompt on the avengers kinkmeme: "...something different happens when Steve gets Dr Erskine's serum plus the Vita ray treatment... Steve does get taller and stronger, but when the first full moon hits, he turns into a big friendly looking dog. Yes, he's a weredog, not a werewolf."

We're Different Now by sassbandit (Stucky, Explicit, 9,727 words)

Summary: "Told you I was different," Steve says, trying to make it sound like a joke but not really succeeding. "Told you I don't care. You're still you, whatever they did to you." He throws himself at Steve and hugs him hard. "You coulda told me," he says.  Ever since the serum, Steve's been uncomfortable in his own skin. Ever since Azzano, so has Bucky. Written in response to the prompt: "Steve has tentacles as a side effect of the serum, but they only appear when he's topping Bucky."

The Miskatonic Project by copperbadge (@copperbadge) (Gen, Mature, 26,451 words)

Summary: Abraham Erskine may have invented something new with the Serum -- or maybe he re-created something very old. Something...Elder. And now the elect of some very peculiar new heroes are gathering for a fight against horrors they can't even imagine yet...

Needing Your Touch (The 199999 Remix) by Firelightmystic (@firelightmystic) (Stony, Explicit, 10,131 words)

Summary: Steve has never been a stranger to pain, and the serum only seemed to gift him with more. Tony, however, knows how to work around the trickiest of situations. For my Stony MCU Bingo Shield Free Square.

You Ten-tickle My Fancy by the_genderman (Samsteve, Explicit, 1,950 words)

Summary: Steve's got a secret that he's afraid makes him un-dateable. Sam finds out a new interest he didn't realize he had. PWP fun with tentacles.

Is That a Tentacle in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me? by the_genderman (Samsteve, Explicit, 1,548 words)

Summary: Sam finds out what other things Steve’s tentacles can do (both silly and serious).

Trigger Happy by KandiSheek (@kandisheek) (Stony, Explicit, 5,401 words)

Note: This is the first in a series and they're all great!

Summary: When Tony wakes up to find himself naked and taped to Captain fucking America he thinks the worst that could happen is an inappropriate boner. He doesn't expect anything to actually happen. But it does. Of course it does.

Instinctual by mariana_oconnor (@mariana-oconnor) (Stony, Teen And Up Audiences, 17,095 words)

Summary: The true effects of the super soldier serum are top secret. Only a few people know the truth - the serum turned Steve Rogers into a werewolf. Steve still hasn't found a way to tell Tony, even though they've been in a relationship for months. He can't bring himself to explain that he's a monster. But when they are clearing out an AIM base, that decision is taken out of his hands.

Angel Among Men by ABrighterDarkness (@alwaysabrighterdarkness) (Stony, Teen And Up Audiences, 42,655 words)

Summary: “I dunno, Cap,” he said at last. “You’re not exactly human either, though, are you?” Steve had considered the man for a long moment and then shrugged. “Not anymore, I don’t think.” “That isn’t something that just changes, Rogers. Not on your scale. If you aren’t now then I’d wager the entire outcome of this war that you never were. Sounds about like you’ve always been this way. Just bigger now. Maybe this isn’t all wrong. Maybe you were all wrong before.” ________ Steve went into Doctor Erskine's experiment a man, he came out something other entirely. With the highly secretive nature of the serum and Doctor Erskine's assassination, Steve has to learn this new form the hard way. An avenging angel sent by God was what the old woman had called him. But what kind of angel burned everyone they touched, marked everyone they kissed for death? By the time SHIELD recovers him from the ice, Steve was certain that he was no angel, avenging or otherwise. It's lucky, then, that Thor has the patience necessary to prove to Steve that he's not the monster he fears he's become either.

If I had a tail, I'd wag it by LovableKillerWhale (@team-cap-for-the-win) (Gen, General Audiences, 898 words)

Summary: The first time Bucky noticed, it was late on a September night of 1943, when the Howlies were huddled around their makeshift campfire. Far from warm but well-fed, they traded stories before they'd retire to their tents. Steve was nodding off to his right, head slumped right on Bucky's shoulder. Bucky slightly shifted to accommodate him better and - did he imagine it with all the crackling of the fire, or did Steve… did he just purr? *** Just what did they put in that damn serum? *** A bunch of drabbles from the point of view of different Avengers realising just how weird some of Steve's serum enhancements are. In spite of the super soldier program aiming to create the perfect human, they sure created something not quite "human" at all.

[paperbunny]

S2, E1: The Arrival, Pt. 2

Not a meta, just a tribute.

[Starting at 22:22] Ep 1, Pt. 1

('Allo 'Allo 'Allo) Muriel is perfect and I am so happy that everyone instantly loved her.

(General Omens) The matchbox says "Out of his mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire leap out." Job 41:19 This is interesting because it doesn't seem like it applies to Gabe or Jim, unless the sparks are the prophesies that he says, which seems redundant since those were pretty clearly prophetic and don't need any extra hints. Crowley as Aziraphale did shoot flames from his mouth, though. The extended passage is all about the Leviathan which could be a reference to Crowley the Serpent but I hope it's a more interesting forewarning of Guardian!Aziraphale when he gets to work upstairs. It could just as easily be a warning about the power of God as wielded by the Metatron though. Important but not clear to me where to point it.

(General Omens) The coffee cup on the wall of the shop outside (above the outdoor seats, near the "or") has orange flame-like whisps instead of white or light grey that one would expect to signify steam. Ominous coffee business. The coffee shop is blue whilst the record shop is orange. Opposing colors.

(Nina the Mirror) Interesting that the coffee shop is called Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, considering the lack of liberty Nina clearly has in her personal life. Nina and Aziraphale both taking up for others whilst trapped themselves. Sure, Az is technically unemployed, but he's certainly not free.

(General Omens) Not sure if there will be more to the story about the coffee shop being essentially USA-themed, such as a Greasy Johnson tie-in, but for now it just seems like another little UK joke about things getting set in the US or otherwise America-coded for the sake of mass marketing.

(Aziraphale the Comfy) He wants Crowley to be calm, he wants himself to be calm. He's also not familiar with the effects of espresso. And neither he nor Crowley are acting like it's at all unusual to be hanging out together, though they've not been together in this shop it seems. Eccles cakes? *pointed look at Crowley* Some eccles cakes please. He's just as nervous to show Crowley as he is about the problem itself, but not telling Crowley isn't even on the table. Because Crowley is there allll the timmmeeee and is an integral part of his world, too, of course.

(Nina The Shit Stirrer) How's your naked man friend? NINA. You know that this little book man has never brought this slinky goth fellow into your shop and you have no idea what their business is. But you just HAD to mention the naked man in front of Aziraphale's man-shaped friend. And she was so happy to do it. Has she seen the Bentley and Crowley coming and going? How much does she suspect? Is she poking that situation because of the volatility of her own?

(General Omens) "You're a dark horse Mr. Fell" First Dark Horse mentioned, of at least three.

(Aziraphale the Comfy) Immediate embarassment! Where was that embarrassment when it was the WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD? But no, in front of Crowley suddenly you're shy.

(Domestic Moments) The tone of "go back a long time" is so sweet. They really aren't trying to hide much at this point, despite aggressively refusing to Address The Situation. And how nice that Crowley gets to be introduced. No "friends" no obfuscation. No labels, either, but there's a real tide change even so. And Nina does a cute little curtsy-ish move in response. Maybe she has a sense about how long "a long time" could be.

(Crowley With A Purpose) He's so happy that he has actual news. Is he happy that there's something to do, or that something bad might be happening to Gabriel? Both? The IMMEDIATE interest in getting into the bookshop. I can't imagine that he thinks Aziraphale would be harboring a recreational naked man for sexy reasons, but he certainly isn't laughing about it either. He asks Aziraphale if he can help, and poor Az seems to have had whatever his plan for a soft launch of the problem was completely obliterated by Nina's bomb dropping. Also that coffee cup was SO EMPTY.

(Domestic Moments) Despite Az clearly getting his plan for easing Crowley into the problem messed up, they are off to the shop. Whole plate of eccles cakes in hand, and no "after you" needed at the door. This is a well oiled partnership opening doors and holding things as needed. Nina watches them steal her plate. Why is the closed sign stuck on with tape? It's like he's not even trying to pretend he is ever open.

(Maggie the Strange) She stops Mr. Fell to thank him, while he's clearly in a rush, and he tries to give her eccles cakes. No intro for Crowley this time. Was her purpose just to make sure we noticed the Eccles Cakes? Because we did. Everyone is upset that he just stole the whole plate. People need to slow down on the "not going to parties" and "not being that kind of teenager" meaning that she's some inhuman being, because some of us were also not that teenager. More talk of names. Maggie gives her a record because it's the same name, Nina hasn't accepted Maggie giving her name yet. She's still Skinny Latte.

(Aziraphale the Comfy) (Domestic Moments) Why are you closing all the blinds, sir? Jim!Gabe has been in here for awhile with the blinds open, so maybe it's more about the reaction of Crowley that's concerning? Crowley who has his own place for his glasses, who seems entirely at ease in the shop, and who says "Do we know a Jim?" we! I love that we. And the casual conversation. Go on and guess. I know a storm comes later, but we really did get so many soft, romantic moments.

(Heavenly Scandal) (Domestic Moments) So much of the Jim!Gabe is scandal but also tied up in the sweet domesticity. Crowley is pissed and scared but neither lashes out at the other in a real way. Aziraphale isn't scared of him, just worried about the whole mess. Jim!Gabe already trusts Az enough that he looks to make sure there's nothing wrong when Crowley first confronts him.

(Domestic Moments) The warm yellow-ochre walls. I thought people were exaggerating the yellow thread through the story but no. That's pretty intentional looking. I don't know if it's Az's favorite colour, but it certainly seems to be a color that makes him feel at home. Is there more than one room up here? Is this the room that Jim!Gabe ends up staying in? No bed up here it seems, though I don't know if our collective hearts could have handled A&C standing alone in a room near a bed. Az doesn't seem against the idea of getting rid of Jim!Gabe at first, just unsure of what to do. Crowley immediately is ready to dump him in Dartmoor. Az can't bring himself to not help. Would he go to Gabe to help him? Likely not. But once the person-shaped-being is in your care, is it your fault if harm comes to them?

(Husbands at War) This fight is well-trod soil. Neither seems legitimately angry at the other, but rather they fall immediately into defending their side in well-worn territory. Az wants to stay and help/fight/fix, Crowley wants to not make themselves a target/save their peace/refuse to get involved. There's strong arguments for both sides and we have our seeds of future conflict. Az tells him if he wants to leave he can, and that reaction from Crowley, "Is this how you want to do this?" as though this is one of a few versions that the argument takes.

(Bookshop Omens) The eccles cakes. Four of them. Next to a horse. Four horsemen? What are the cakes about!?

(Existential Crisis Crowley) His peaceful existence is at risk. He's so mad he's recognizing his own lack of control and tries to self-regulate. Did you learn that from a Richard Curtis film, Crowley? Or does Az have a self-help section?

(Nina the Observant) She sees Crowley smoking before the people on the street seem to. Everyone stops and watches though. There's no way that there isn't some kind of low grade miracle on this street that prevents these strange events from sticking in the brains of the passersby. Man smokes and yells and then is hit by lightning. Everyone watches and no one seems to retain it except Maggie and Nina. Also Nina I'm pretty sure those aren't auto locks. There's no sign of anything auto about the regular looking deadbolt.

(Heavenly Scandal) Why do I like Uriel so much? Michael does have the best claim to be Supreme Archangel Pro Tempore, as Duty Officer. I love the bureaucracy. It's great. Micheal is basically pulling a Dwight Schrute move. Saraquel is the one Muriel went to. Is Saraquel not an Archangel? Or are they just a more approachable one? It doesn't seem like they have a dog in the fight over who is the next SAAPT.

('Allo 'Allo 'Allo) Muriel is a scrivener, which immediately makes me think of Bartleby the Scrivener. I've been told that the job of scrivener comes up in games and stuff enough that it might not be a direct reference but it seems pretty pointed to me? Maybe it's just English Nerd Brain. The story tracks though, potentially, for where Muriel could be headed. From google, about the meaning of Bartleby: "...as the narrator is forced to admit, “Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.” Refusing to kow-tow to the demands of his employer, and working to his own individual rule, Bartleby represents a challenge to capitalist, corporatist ideologies." Part of Bartleby's problem, from what I remember, is living in a place with no joy or interaction, and realizing that he can actually say no. Isn't that eerily similar to Muriel?

(Heavenly Scandal) Uriel looks at Micheal like, you want to be in charge so you get to touch the Material Object. Michael is not thrilled.

(Existential Crisis Crowley) He's sitting in that street, in his car, looking like the Saddest Boy-Shaped Husband. He's not having a good time, and now his little corner of peace is in high danger. He looks SO SAD. I didn't notice how sad he looked on previous watches. It's interesting to me that C always uses the honorific for Beeze. Lord Beelzebub. He also slides riiiiight into being cool and collected as soon as he realizes he's not actively in trouble. It's not a kidnapping, it's an offer. Watching him squirm immediately when he realizes this is about Gabriel is pretty fun. Crowley the suave, chill snake is just a flimsy cover for Crowley the clingy movie dork who uses affected disinterest as a defense mechanism. He's still one of Hell's best (ex)employees though. He's not suprised that Beeze wants to use his talents, but he is surprised that it's coming with an offer of a reward. "Doesn't seem like the kind of thing you're likely to say". Neither of them actually say anything solid. Hell is clearly better with contractual language.

(General Omens) Crowley says Extreme Sanctions don't exist. Beeze says they do. This remains to be seen.

(Nina The Mirror) More being mean to Maggie for no reason, then trying to make it up.

(Maggie The Strange) Maggie doesn't drink. That isn't weird. The "No Judgement" that feels awkward is a little strange. Especially since she waits til Nina is in the middle of a sip to say it.

(Maggie/Nina) They have a *moment*. It's a nice little conversation but doesn't seem very weighty. Not what you'd expect from a meet-cute.

(Husbands at War) I liked the use of Loverboy here. I seem to be in the minority. I hope it comes back again in S3, but I thought it was sweet. He's hauling ass to get back to his Angel. When it comes down to it, he's a good old fashioned loverboy. He always comes back.

(Eldritch Tendancies) I know things were a bit different in S1 but there seems to be NO concern about hiding from the human folk. Just explode on the street and then magically power-on the whole cafe. No big.

(Maggie The Strange) (Nina The Observant) Why doesn't Maggie seem to have the same level of awareness that Nina has? Also, one of Lindsay's texts says "I'm a real person. I Matter. Why don't you care about me?" Is someone not real? When the text is on the screen, the camera is on Maggie. [38:53]

(Domestic Moments) Aziraphale you petty bitch. He is just sitting in the chair waiting. Crowley sails in (does he have a key or did Az leave it unlocked for him?) and then suddenly Az puts on his glasses and starts pretending to look at his random papers. Our stage is set for the Dance of the Repressed and Afraid. This scene is so much funnier now that I've noticed that Az is clearly being a bitch on purpose. And that he is possibly delighted to have the chance to make Crowley do the dance, since Az clearly has done all the Dances lately.

(Husbands at War) The dance erases the tension and lets them move on without actually resolving the fight, but that's not really an issue here because Crowley has new intel. They immediately shift into planning and figuring things out. When it comes down to it they are both always on eachother's side. Az is nervous about doing a miracle, and it does sound like they've never done one together. Why they do it together this time isn't totally clear upfront but I guess it keeps the power used smaller on each side and shielding him from the other side helps prevent red flags being raised.

(Jim!Gabriel) He and Crowley don't like eachother, in this moment. Crowley is being "nice"-ish. But they make great faces at eachother.

(Husbands at War) Az suggests splitting the miracle and Crowley listens. Later we see Crowley not listen and steamroll Az. Unfortunately this isn't a great argument for listening to Az, since the teeny tiny miracle does NOT fly under the radar. There's a lot of wide angle or fisheye lens used here. And the chair Jim!Gabe is sitting in is on top of the portal. That might be a red herring, might not. Portal isn't active, but it could explain why alarms went off in heaven but not hell.

(Good For Me) I noticed the portal being under the chair. Also note that the rug is currently a general faded beige-y rug. Also Jim!Gabriel offers his hands crossed, left offered to Az and right to Crowley. They look distasteful (?) about it and awkwardly reach across to take the "correct" hand.

(Husbands At War) Crowley tests the waters, so to speak, and pokes at the air to feel the miracle. Az is happy that things seem to have worked. He reassures Jim!Gabriel and Crowley is still only in the fight to protect the Oasis, not Jim!Gabe.

(Heavenly Scandal) Michael seems to be ignoring the klaxon alarm on purpose? And Uriel is like, if you want to be Assistant To The Regional Manager, then you need to fix this. The miracle shows up as pink, and Saraquel is the one operating the globe thing. They refer to Aziraphale as a former angel, and there's no reference to Crowley. I really don't think that heaven or hell knows or understands much about the Az-Crowley situation. They clearly know there's something odd there, but I don't know what their impression of it is.

End Ep 1.

Ep 1, Pt. 1

[3416]

What do you think the narrative(s) are for marns and matts?

fjldfdsklfjdks oh boy, here’s some more ranting about them, lol. i'm tired so truly... pardon me

well for auston… the media already has the whole thing laid out for him tbh. you can just search his name on youtube and find 4829439 videos or short docs interviewing him or his parents and talking about how he was raised in the desert of arizona… one of the most unlikely places to ever get into hockey. and he had a pretty unorthodox method of getting to the nhl. instead of playing at a college or junior league before he was drafted.. he went to switzerland to play professionally which is very uncommon for high level nhl prospects, and then he ended up being drafted by toronto and like. kind of immediately became the face and savior of the franchise a bit, from what i can tell. literally scored 4 goals in his nhl debut like.. that has never happened fslfjds. franchises have whole rebuilding efforts and auston is one of the people, if not THE person, at the center of torontos. and since then, he’s just been breaking toronto records and putting up insane numbers for a young player, on track with some of the best to ever play. for the 21-22 season, he won the hart, the ted lindsay, and the rocket awards which are all prestigious individual trophies in the nhl, and even though this year, his numbers aren’t tracking as high as the past couple, he’s clearly focused on putting up a fight for best defensive forward of the year bc he is ON IT. still arguably the most effective player out there a lot of nights even when he’s not the one scoring. many (goofy imo) people think that him going back to arizona to play for the coyotes is in the cards some day because like… it’s kind of a popular thing in the nhl to return to your “hometown” and play with the team you watched growing up but. there is also something to be said for how many of the greatest players have career-long stints on these teams they’ve dedicated themselves to and succeeded with. and auston is just a crucial part of the core of the leafs and the leadership in the room and him having an unconventional path and being half mexican and being unafraid to bring some personality and style into areas of the nhl where it’s been frowned on (like his magazine shoots, pushing the fashion on game days, his custom skates and sticks, his charity work, etc etc) is just superstar level stuff. people of his caliber get a huge say over their own futures in these sports, and i have a feeling he’ll be with toronto for a long time. he bELIEVES IN THIS VISION like i was explaining and has a super great relationship with kyle dubas and all his teammates.

and mitch marner is just…… toronto boy gets drafted 4th overall by his HOME TEAM… the team there’s footage of him saying was his favorite when he was just a little guy… in a pretty highly competitive draft year (like.. connor mcdavids year, lol) so it feels like fate that mitch ended up on the leafs of all teams. he’s magic out there, but was a bit underestimated because of his size, esp at first. when mitch was a rookie, he took lots of heat for all sorts of stuff AND it came out later that mike babcock used some pretty demeaning tactics to try to coax mitch into.. working harder? i guess?? but he got fired for that and everyone worthwhile sided with mitch, so lol. i’ve seen so many articles suggesting he be traded or that he wasn’t a worthwhile investment for the leafs from that time period, and i think it’s one of those things where… he didn’t especially totally fit the hockey player mold either (just in a different way than auston)? like he’s SO happy and outgoing and affectionate out there, super crafty with the puck.. crazy good playmaking… king of assisting… and everyone on the team loves him, and he’s not a physical player at all, but then the media or outside shit takes hold and next thing you know… he’s soft and undeserving and should be traded, lmao. he’s always had a harder time with the media and dealing with it, and also, one of the first ever vids i saw of him was this local news story that showed his dad absolutely yelling at him from behind the glass and going nuts about his hockey and his effort when he was liek.. 8, lol, and i think that tells you what you need to know about mitch and his daddy issues. his dad has inserted himself in some of the nhl stuff when it came time for his contract negotiations, and THAT was a whole big thing, and i just find that the toronto media has been super hard on mitch, especially considering how crucial HE is the core of this team. even just the beginning of this season when he had a stretch of off games (like the whole team had, lol), people were calling to blow up the franchise and trade him and how it’s over and they don’t have the drive, it’s like ???? then mitch goes on to set a franchise record point streak. he’s just clever and doesn’t rely solely on brute or goal-scoring to make his impact on the ice, and people are crazy. mitch is just a goofy, lighthearted guy who makes it his mission to keep the mood of the room and the team up even when it’s hard, and i feel like he’s such a key to their resilience and their seeming closeness as a team, and i love it. and all the sweet personality stuff is just an insane addition to his unreal hockey sense and iq on the ice.

and mitch and auston as a duo is just……………… when they were rookies, they became friends pretty quick. mitch even tells a story about chanting along with a crowd when auston got drafted to the leafs, and they have such a unique position as these two guys that have been faces of the franchise since they basically entered the team. i feel like… if the responsibility to Carry this team is on anyone, at least on it’s face, it’s on auston and mitch. like.. jt’s captain but hasn’t been there as long, and mo and willy are also crucial parts, but they came in at different points and aren't like... as impactful as mitch and auston imo. they're in such a unique position, alternate captains who understand the team and intense individual scrutiny and who have matured on this team together, even when they haven't been on the same line. in the early days, they didn't play on the same line at all, although according to reports..... they were "dying to play together." in their very first practice.. auston legit broke a pane of glass off mitch's pass like. if that wasn't a show of what kind of powerhouse stuff was going to come from them.... idk what wouldve been. i just think it's poetic that these wildly different ppl from different backgrounds ended up becoming these bff star players in one of the most historic hockey franchises. like they play their best hockey when they're together.. they've developed little rituals and traditions together (like drawing on their gloves to remind themselves hockeys supposed ot be fun, being the last ones on the ice during warmups just blindly passing and shooting, etc) and they've even like. gotten attached to the same ppl and infiltrated other ppls family lives like patrick marleau and jumbo and freddie.... even just earlier this year.. i forget which game and i forget which commentator but someone said "they are who they are because of each other" and i feel like that rlly sums it up.. their impact on each other's game has lead to record setting stats for both of them in different ways and i hope hope hope they end up being the lifelong leafs like i think they're capable of. it's amazing to look at some of the most longstanding and successful pairs and trios in the league and know that mitch and auston could be that and have that together some day. like they clearly enjoy hockey the most when they're playing it together too and i hope the very best for them. they rlly make hockey loook fun and joyful.

[crazy56u]

And so Kevin has ruined dinner. 👏

Ben is having a breakout right now, smooth one, Kevin.

“Ben, what the fuck, you’ve been here for like two hours!”

Ben is playing with fire right now by hugging another man’s wife.

MORAL OF THE STORY: The Slow Path is real and horrible and makes time travel love stories a bitch and a half to deal with.

“Don’t tell me there are more Nazis in New Jersey…” I was about to make a Blues Brothers joke, but then I remembered that was Chicago.

Addison, I swear to God, to quote Radiohead, you do it to yourself, and that’s what really hurts.

Meanwhile, Kevin and Josh have been screaming this whole time.

Kevin is about to blind someone, I swear to fucking God.

Hannah has her priorities in check, clearly…

Hannah has invented the Spinny Thing.

“Do you think it’s possible to love two people at the same time?” Ben is about to discover polyamory.

“You have a child, your heart expands, it then explodes, it’s a real bad thing.”

Oh fuck, Hannah’s family has been sitting on a gold mine of teddy bear smugglers.

“Why take loose diamonds?” Why ask stupid questions?

Oh goody, Ben just caused the ending of Red Dead Redemption.

Okay, Kevin, crash course time: Ghosts are real, Hannah knows more than you, and you’re all about to experience Red Dead Redemption.

…or this turns into Home Alone, that works too.

“Look, honey, you don’t want to know how I really know Nick, just go hide upstairs while we do Home Alone.”

Okay, now this is turning into the laundromat scene from Breaking Bad, Quantum Leap is a versatile show.

At least Kevin is aware of how much of an idiot he is.

Calling it: Kevin is going to intentionally get himself shocked in order to help take out the others.

Kevin, you need to work on your tight five the next time you want to rant about encyclopedias.

I am surprised she didn’t just shoot him then and there.

“At least the Accelerator has a sense of humor.”

Ben, if the next Hannah leap involves the two of you in a house fire, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Selling weapons to dictators =/= stuffing blood diamonds into teddy bears.

DANGER, DANGER! HIGH VOLTAGE! WHEN WE TOUCH! WHEN WE KISS!

Welcome to the Royal Rumble!

And Red Ryder saves the fucking day!

Kevin, Ben’s patience is running thin, and the episode is almost over, quit while you’re ahead.

“Awkward sibling hug. …pat pat.”

“Thank you for everything; you may have flooded my basement and endangered my family, but you saved my brother, and my wife likes you, so it all hashes even.”

“I could use a happy ending about now.” Annnd mentally setting an egg timer right now…

“…Josh does in 18 months.” Annnd there’s the egg timer.

“I have to tell Hannah about Josh’s aneurysm- GODDAMNIT, FUCK YOU LEAP EFFECT!”

Meanwhile back in 2026, we get more relationship bullshit…

Ben is just batting a fucking thousand today.

[So yeah, Ben can’t save Hannah’s husband, and Addison is now moving on to Tom full stop; fuck it, give him a treasure hunt in 1953 to chew on.]

Okay, this episode was a fucking beauty, and if NBC doesn’t renew the show, honestly, fuck them.

Season 3 needs to happen.

[gutsfics]

I have like. Zero energy today to do anything more than this. so here r some info pages for my It Lives mcs! if you wanna know more about any of them feel free to shoot me an ask <3

Devi Casil

ILITW MC

he/him, but any pronouns work

genderqueer

born October 3rd, 1999

died 3 days before his 18th birthday & was resurrected half a month before his 22nd

5'10 but wears thick soled stompy goth boots that bring him over 6'

LI: Noah

on somewhat shaky terms with Jory because he's kind of pissed that Jory gets to live a more normal life. he tries not to let that effect their relationship but man. it's hard.

on horrible terms with Dent

because of the murder.

fucking shreds at Through The Fire And The Flames on Guitar Hero, even after he comes back to life and struggles with his motor function

his hair is actually 3C curls and the under half is dyed purple

more info can be found about him here

Harper Vance

ILB MC

he/him

trans man

born April 13, 1998

5'4

LI: Tom

he's super friendly and cheerful, and way too psyched about get into fights. he wants to be a pro wrestler

at the same time, he'll try and defuse fights by saying "woah, hey I'm just a little guy! and it's my birthday! I'm just a little birthday boy. you wouldn't hit a little birthday boy?" it really depends on the context of the fight

"has killed before" is in reference to Richard

"will kill again" is in reference to Dent

he and Jory are chill

wishes he could have helped Grandma Josephine move on more peacefully

lowkey struggles with the fact that he killed someone, even if that someone was a huge jackass that really deserved it. especially because that someone's son is dating his brother. plus like who's he supposed to tell? how is he supposed to get therapy for that? "hey i killed someone but it's okay because he tried to kill me first"? yeah. no.

Jory Fields

ILW MC, blood ending

he/him

trans man

born July 7, 1999

died in August 2016 but was brought back by Loha the same day

6'0

LI: Abel

really sarcastic most of the time, but knows when to dial it back. there's being a jokster and there's being a dick and he knows where that line is

lost his eye. wears an eyepatch so people know he can't see through it, but has a bunch of neat prosthetics, which he jokingly compares to wearing lingerie under regular clothes. like having a spicy little secret throught the day.

........he's probably wearing lingerie under his regular clothes, actually

as much as he loves his fully human life, sometimes he feels a sort of.... survivor's guilt? for not fixing the breach and giving his friends the oppertunity to live a more normal, human life.

but ultimately he is very happy with his decision. he loves his life with his silly dorky husband and wouldn't trade it for anything

he did fix Amalia's college issues the second he realized he could! he'd never forgive himself if he hadn't

he did enjoy fighting monsters, but he's glad he doesn't have to anymore

Arthur "Dent" Hemmings

ILW MC, betrayal ending

he/him

the group's token cis boy :(

born January 1, 1999

died in August 2016 but was brought back by Loha the same day

5'8

had the strongest relationship with Lincoln before Everything Went Down, but didn't end up dating him because Joss overheard him being a dick about stringing everyone along

he was also FWB with Jocelyn

and he fucked Luis

and Marianthe

and he wanted to fuck Abel as well but he wasn't close enough with him

and yet for some reason he was Deeply Offended when Connor called him a slut, despite the fact he knew full well he was toying with everyone's emotions with no intentions to stop 🤔

ultimately (obviously) he ends up with Matthias

or maybe he kills Matthias to have the power all to himself

or he could have been sacrificed by Devi to become the new anchor

OR. maybe he and Matthias got a divorce and now he's living it up using his powers to manipulate mansplain malewife people into giving him nice things

honestly i love all of these endings for him & they're all equally canon. in my heart.

anyway. he's an agressive asshole who puts himself first & will royally fuck over everyone around him if it means he gets to have his fun

he did Not fix Lia's college issues. or tell anyone that he's the power made human until he was forced to

he would have just let Connor stay a horror had Noah and Devi not been there

The Real Dent Hemmings absolutely hates what faker Dent is doing with his life and had a hard time moving on because of it. he was still a bit of a brash asshole, but he wouldn't have done any of the shitty things faker Dent did

honestly if Real Dent had been the one to make the final decision, he would have merged with the power to close the breach for good. he's a hardass, but he'll do the right thing no matter what

---

@ila-appreciationweek

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Father of Darkness

https://www.patreon.com/empyreaniris?fan_landing=true

https://starr-fall-knight-rise.tumblr.com/post/182501791735/master-post

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jzEIdDAB4omdO2JcQVMObfrhLJ5kX4ONmSsLypM1ks0/edit?usp=sharing

There was no horizon. Spreading towards infinity, the vast wings of space stretched on to infinity dappled with stars like the crest of a bird. Bits and pieces of discarded metal and scrap  floated in the vast deadness, slowly churning in gentle spirals  shadowed by the stark light of the distant sun. A large piece of this metal, the size of a partial ship’s hull, turned in one slow rotation, convex side spinning to the concave side and revealing five  silent passengers, impossible to notice in their matt suits against the slick gray metal.

Like five misshapen space barnacles, they clung to the side of the debris effectively avoiding their enemy’s radar. No one spoke, fearing that their radio signals would be intercepted,, but that didn’t matter so much as at least three of them had an alternate form of communications.

Admiral Adam Vir turned his head to look at the saint of Anin, who leaned heavily against the metal, her back adhered to the scrap by a series of magnetic grapples that lined the back of her suit. In one hand, she held the shaft of a spear, its cool metal reflecting the distant light of the sun.

“You ready?”

The impression he got was of her humming, a soft sort of noise that Drev liked to make when they were pleased . It was a common sound to hear Drev make when they anticipated a good fight, “The day I  am not ready, is the day you push me off the spiral tower.” She said, the grimm glee seeping into her thoughts.

ISunny liked to fight, but choosing between a world of glorious battle, and a world where her children would grow up to be happy was a no brainer even for a member of the most warlike race in the universe.

“Get  room for you two.”

The two of them turned to look reproachfully at Celex, who floated not some distance away. He wore no space suit, and his long, technicolor hair flowed around him in a halo. His face was partially in shadow.

The other two figures remained oblivious.

Adam made a face at Celex, and then raised his hand for the benefit of their silent partners, who perked up at his signal, and readied themselves to move. He kept his hand up as the piece of metal continued to rotate, giving the order only when their rotation brought them into the perfect position.

As one they fired their engines, briefly, shooting off into the blackness on a gentle trajectory forward.

All except for their fifth party member who  gently began to drift off course, having timed their momentum poorly. Adam reached down and grabbed their third party member by the massive tank on his back, shoving him back into position.

Seeing the gesture, Sunny turned her head and he could practically hear the raised eyebrow in her voice, “Do you really think bringing him along was a good idea. He has about as much combat experience as a kitchen sponge.”

“Probably less,:” Adam admitted, “It was either take him voluntarily or live with the aftermath of letting him follow us by himself because you know that’s exactly what he would do.”

Good point.

Adam kept one hand clasped tightly around the crash handle on the back of their fifth man’s tank as they continued to ease forward . Up ahead something glittered against the backdrop of darkness , icy bluish metal marking it as a Europa  hydrostorage vessel. It should have been in orbit around Europa, but sometime in the last week, the little station had found its way out here, into the quietest part of the system where it was unlikely to be disturbed.

The ruse might have worked if they hadn’t picked a more obtrusive vessel.  The bluish metal, and the big water drop logo on the side was obvious even from this distance, and the outer coating of the station was designed specifically to make the  hull more visible in a low level lighting situation. However,, whoever had decided to hijack the vessel had clearly weighed the cons of its visibility with the pros of having access to nearly several years supply of water right at their fingertips, a decision that Adam could admire in a tactical sense.

Plus the Jovian system was so large that, without the right tip, they would never have  found this place to begin with.

He lifted a hand in another signal for their silent companions, who all readied their grapples in the moments that it took to float nearer to the station. Adam still kept a hold of their fifth companion as he reached out and allowed the grapple to adhere him to the hull proper.

Adam didn’t hear the grapple take, but he could feel the vibration as it passed up through his arm.

This was it.

They waited there for a minute, heads tilted, waiting for any sign that someone inside the ship might have sensed or heard something, but the minutes ticked by and there was no response.

Adam signaled over to their second silent partner who nodded and moved forward attaching a device to the outer edges of the small personnel airlock. A light blinked on, flashed green, and then the door opened, allowing the five of them to pass into the airlock unchallenged.

Inside, the compartment was filled with a sudden hiss as air began rushing in through once sealed vents. Adam’s own breathing, which had been the dominant sound up until that point became less and less prominent.

He gave another hand signal switching communications to  low sound speakers.

Adam cranked up the voice receptor in his SE suit settings,and the others did the same.

He turned to look at their fifth companion, finally able to see the face behind the opaque faceplate.

Older, tanner, and rimmed by rather goofy looking orange spectacles.

“You stay in the middle, got that. Don’t raise your weapon unless it is absolutely necessary and follow every move that we make, just because you’re human now doesn’t make you invincible.”

Krill narrowed human yees, “I seem to recall having said something similar to you on more than one occasion.”

“Yes, but I have been human for longer. You are only here to act as our field medic. If anything goes wrong, it is your job to  duck and stay out of the way.

Krill nodded, lips pursed tightly, though he did his best not to make any disparaging comments, for which Adam was at least partially grateful . Bantering with Krill was all well and good when their lives weren’t at stake, but now was different, and Adam was the one in charge.

Even so, Krill had still managed to get his way in some aspects, bullying his way into the mission. His insistence was stupid, and illogical, a fact that Adam had taken no time in pointing out, though krill insisted that, since he was human now, his job was to be stupid and irrational.

However true or untrue that was, it was clear the little doctor was coming.

Both of him.

After a few tests, some trial and error and at least one accident, they had learned that krill’s ability to manifest his Anima self was  distance based, and could only be maintained in a certain radius from his comatose Vrul body. This had been even more of a reason for Adam to tell him no to going on the mission, but that had worked out about as well as you might expected.

So here Krill was, decked out in his new suit, and wearing himself inside a reinforced specimen container on his back. Adam might have won the argument if it wasn’t  for that damned piece of equipment which was basically perfect for this particular mission. In the end Krill had gotten what he wanted and Adam was forced to babysit.

He motioned with a meaningful look to Ramirez to keep an eye on krill  and then turned them towards the next room.

Sunny stacked up on his right shoulder as they peered into the deserted hallway.

Tilting his head to the side, Adam couldn’t sense  anyone moving within their general vicinity, and raised a hand to motion the others forward. He could sense a sort of distant thrumming, but the sound was too far away at this moment, and too low for him to make anything out.

Together they moved quietly into the hallway and up the dark corridor, keeping their footsteps silent.

Ramirez trailed at the back of the group watching their six and keeping krill as safe as he could.

They passed multiple doors, Adam peering in to check in each and every one of them as they passed, but to his relief they were all silent and dark. The humming in the distance grew with every footstep. If their tip was right, this was supposed to be the hub of Void operation in this area, which meant there was always a possibility of running into Kazna.

It had taken several of them to go against her the last time they met, but this time Adam was prepared.

They came upon the first guards almost halfway into the ship, guarding an open hallway  with clear boredom plastered on their faces. The hallway was dark, the lights dimmed, and the distant humming had grown into a sort of unnerving eerie chant.

Celex got one and Adam got the other.

Sunny shifted impatient at their backs as Adam stole up the hallway with Celex.

Before they knew what hit them, the first man had been clubbed over the haad, and the Tesraki was choked into silence.

Unlike in the movies, their blows had to be lethal as knocking someone out generally tends to last only a few seconds if not just a few minutes.

Adam motions the others forward as the sound of the chanting solidified.

“Oh great one, oh ruler of the blackness.”

Adam motioned Sunny forward and she took point, leading them up the hallway in a rapid but silent sweep. Adam kept at her shoulder and Celex followed. Ramirez shuffled up the hallway sideways keeping one eye on the hallway behind them.

“Oh great one who came before.”

A humming rose up into the room.

“Oh lord of the night and all those who dwell within.”

Red light tinged in orange bled in a slowly spreading puddle down the hallway, lapping at their boots as Sunny came to a gentle stop, raising her hand to slow them.

Adam pulled up at her back, leaning forward to peer into the room with her.

“Father of darkness comes to us!.”

Orange light flared, falling over their faces in a ruby shroud.

Sunny  cursed silently in her thoughts and Adam tried to strike down the Nausea that filled his throat.

Everett was here, and he was back to his old tricks. 

[cobaltswriting]

So, I recently said that I’d side with the Geth over the Quarians, and y'know what? I feel like expanding on that, explaining my reasoning.

In Mass Effect 3, we get to see more of what happened in the war that caused the Quarians to leave Rannock.

The Geth gained sentience, and then one asked a question that had been asked before, but worried the Quarian scientist who it was asked to.

"Does this unit has a soul?"

They did not intend to create an A.I., true, but they did. And their reaction was fear, despite the fact the Geth seemed happy to continue as they were, and remained peaceful.

The Quarians started rounding some of them up, shutting them down. Some of the Quarians sympathised with the Geth and worked to try to keep them safe… and they were often killed alongside the Geth they were protecting.

Until a Geth picked up a weapon and fought. This was basically self defence at this point. The Quarians were the aggressors in that war, and were eventually forced into a retreat from their home world.

As soon as they got far enough from Rannock, the Geth left them be, and were, for the most part, happy to remain there and be peaceful.

You fight Geth in Mass Effect 1, they’re the main bulk of the enemy forces, less so in 2, but in Mass Effect 2, if you activate Legion, you find out that it was a relatively small faction of the Geth, known as ‘heretics', while the majority of the Geth were still peaceful. And then there's a mission in Mass Effect 2 where you can basically either rewrite the heretics to return back to the rest and go back to being peaceful, or destroy them. Whichever choice you make, I don’t know how much it changes things in the long run.

By the time Mass Effect 3 comes around, the Quarians have decided it’s time to wage war against the Geth again, to try and reclaim their home world. And the Geth accept the aid of a Reaper, allowing the Reaper to have control over them for the power to defend themselves. Not the best choice, but done in self defence, once again.

Are you seeing the pattern here? The Geth, for the most part, just want to exist in peace. The only time the entire race has fought against the Quarians was because they needed to defend themselves.

And in attacking, the Quarians made a LOT of questionable choices. Gunning down their own people if they were Geth sympathisers in the first war, and in the second war, they weaponised all their ships. Including the ones with civilians and were for making food, that also had no shielding. It is even pointed out by Legion that if the ships had not been equipped with weapons, they would not have attacked them, because they pose no threat. By putting weapons on them, they made them targets.

Even by the time you intervene and help, they’re still making poor choices. You get sent onto a Dreadnought with Tali, who is one of their admirals at this point, and they do not even wait for you to be out of the Dreadnought, simply firing upon it at the first opportunity, while you and Tali are still on board and don’t have any immediate plans at the time on how you’ll be getting off. And when the Geth go momentarily offline, and the Quarians could retreat, they instead decide to press the attack, even as Legion is using what remains of the Reaper code to upgrade the Geth to even more intelligence, making each Geth program have the same sort of thinking patterns as a living being. Making them even more sentient, blurring the lines between A.I. and true life. And, unlike when the Reaper had control, they’d have free will.

This is where the decision comes in.

You can either give Legion the ok to upgrade the rest of the Geth, or tell him you can’t allow it.

If you give him the ok, the Quarians, shooting upon the Geth, would get wiped out, the Geth would defend themselves.

If you stop him, the Quarians destroy the Geth.

Here's the thing though, the Quarians were the ones who were the aggressors, in both wars. Lots of questionable decisions, shooting their own person, weaponising their civilian ships… They brought what happened to them on themselves, basically. I do like the Quarians, but the decisions being made by them are… not the best. If there are people who are against this war, you never hear about it, other than a couple of the Admitals, I think. The flotilla seems united for the war, in any case.

The Geth? Most of them are perfectly happy to remain where they are, peacefully. After you destroy or rewrite the heretics, that changes from 'most' to 'all'. They only fought back in self defence. Any organic species would likely have fought back much earlier. Making a deal with a Reaper is definitely questionable, but you are told that the Geth were caught off guard by the attack and had their backs to the wall.

Out of the two species, the Geth are the more peaceful, reasonable ones. Even in the ideal option, where you manage to achieve peace between the Quarian and the Geth, it takes a LOT to get the Admiral to tell the fleet to hold fire.

I honestly don’t really see much of a reason to side with the Quarians over the Geth here. There are a few hard decisions in Mass Effect, but this isn’t one of them for me. The Quarians have constantly been the aggressors, the majority of the Geth only ever fighting back in self defence. Even when given a chance to resolve it peacefully, the Quarian are fairly unwilling to listen unless you yell at them enough. They just… don’t make it too easy to sympathise with them, they bring everything that happens to them on themselves.

Including, if you let Legion upgrade the Geth's intelligence and give them free will, their own destruction. Most of the Geth only ever fight the Quarians in self defence. If someone kills someone else in self defence, it is usually justified.

[sekhithefops]

Ready for Dragonflight: Alliance

Welp! Its almost time isn't it? In just over two weeks we'll be heading to the Dragon Isles at last! I was fortunate enough to get into the beta and have already worked out what my main twelve characters (yes, twelve. I can sleep when I'm dead) will be doing spec-wise and profession-wise... and Imma shoot my mouth off about it now because why not?

Nelen Fullmoon, Master of the Arcane

Nelen is a character I've had since Cataclysm, and was infact my first Worgen character when they became playable.

In Shadowlands I alternated between all three specs as the mood took me, but I've rather fallen in love with Arcane magic for this round. I will have a frost and fire mage, but they'll be separate characters so I can use them in my story.

With Dragonflight comes the return of honest-to-gods Talent Trees, which lets you build your character however you see fit... and with Nelen's build I focused mostly on talents that enhance his clearcasting abilities.

Amplification to increase the number of arcane missiles he fires when he gets clearcasting, Improved Clearcasting to gain the ability to stack clearcasting up to three times, Slipstream so he can move while channeling arcane missiles, and Nether Precision so that clearcasting makes his Arcane Blasts have more OOMPH!

Top this all off with the mages new Spell, Arcane Surge, which consumes all your mana at once to deal a frankly absurd amount of damage to an enemy but then gives you 425% mana regeneration and 35% more spell damage for fifteen seconds and Nelen is taking the term "glass cannon" to its most literal sense. He can't take a beating, but if he's fast with the incantations he won't need to because all that'll be infront of him is a pile of glowing purple ashes!

Jaie Swiftpaw, Monk of Many Talents

Its been a loooooooooong time since I did anything but Brewmaster as Jaie, pre-BfA really. In Legion I did all three specs, but that whole Azerite Armor mess and how it cost gold to redo your abilities on armor really killed a lot of the fun for me (seriously Ion, you knew that was a bad idea dammit.)

Welp, come Dragonflight my panda gal is multi-spec once more!

As a brewmaster I focus mostly on attacks that let her do a lot of AoE stuff for keeping aggro. Rushing Jade Wind (constant physical damage to all enemies within 8 yards,) Shadowboxing Treads (Blackout Kick does more damage and hits up to 3 targets,) Sal'salabim's Strength (Keg Smash resets Breath of Fire's cooldown,) and Dragonfire Brew (when you use Breath of Fire you breathe flames three times instead of once) along with some abilities like Light Brewing and Gift of the Ox for self healing and damage mitigation. I'm going to take Weapons of Order most likely for the ability to empower myself and summon Niuzao as well.

As a windwalker she's very combo focused and does a lot of single target damage, but has some decent multi-target abilities as well such as Whirling Dragon Punch (attack all nearby enemies for solid damage, but can only be used when both Fists of Fury and Rising Sun Kick are on cooldown,) Strike of the Windlord (strike with both fists at all enemies infront of you, dealing quite a bit of damage and reducing their movement speed by half,) and good ol' Faeline Stomp (deal nature damage in a line to up to five enemies and restore health to up to five allies, enemies who stand on it take additional damage as well and standing in it while attacking can reset it's cooldown.)

For mistweaving I'm more of a traditionalist. I tried "fistweaving" but it just wasn't for me. Jaie can summon Yu'lon for backup healing, has Upwelling to enhance Essence Font's power, Bonedust Brew for some extra healing AoE for her allies (and the bountiful brew upgrade so she sometimes just randomly tosses it to her target because thats REALLY useful in tight spots,) and of course the almighty Revival spell to heal everyone an dpurge all Magic, Poison, and Disease effects (saved a few raids with that baby!)

I really can't stress how happy I am about the talent trees letting us have this versatility again.

Samantha Montebank, Voidblade

I was rather surprised by this after how meh I was on it by the end of Shadowlands, but I've fallen in love with Subtlety. I was all set to focus on Assassination, especially with the 'four poisons at once' trick we get for it... but dammit I'm having fun with this!

It helps that Subtlety gets some REALLY nasty tricks this time around. Flagellation is back from our time with the Venthyr so yay for that, but also the fact that they went all in on making Subtlety void/shadow themed which character-wise fits her to a T.

... this is very important to me you see.

One of the best parts of this for me is the Secret Technique finishing move. She creates shadow clones of herself and they attack all enemies near her target, dealing quite a bit of damage at max combo points (which can be SEVEN if you take the right talents!)

See, in my story she's a void elf because of a void entity living in her mind... and in the story that void entity can manifest for brief moments as a shadowy copy of Sam herself.

Thats right! In my headcannon Secret Technique is actually her letting her spoopy friend out to play! I love it when stuff in game synchs up so well with my character ideas.

Also quite possibly my new favorite talent. It seems simple, but listen closely: "Dark Brew, your attacks that deal nature or bleed damage deal shadow damage instead, all shadow damage increased by 10%."

Yeah, it doesn't sound like much, but when most of your attacks already did Shadow damage this becomes a real killer. Like I said, its about as perfectly fittingly thematic for her as I could have asked, so Imma use it. :D

Dareley Steelhammer, Paladin of the Silver Hand

Imma stick with retribution for soloing most likely... but when it comes to almost any group content I say Holy Holy Holy. I just really love being a healadin!

It helps that my build for Dareley means that he's constantly healing multiple allies throughout fights. With stuff like Resplendent Light (Holy Light heals up to 5 targets within 12 yards for 8% of it's healing,) Light's Hammer (Hurl a light-infused hammer to the ground, damaging enemies and healing allies every 2 seconds for 14 seconds,) Divine Toll (cast holy shock on up to 5 targets within 30 yards and instantly cast holy shock every 5 seconds for 15 seconds,) Second Sunrise (Light of Dawn has a 20% chance to cast twice,) and Breaking Dawn (Light of Dawn now has a range of 40 yards) I can carry half a raid through a boss fight just by spamming Holy Light and using Light of Dawn as needed, saving the hammer and Divine Toll for emergencies.

I'm also going to take Blessing of the Seasons once I have the talent points. Yes I know its not a hugely popular one, but remember how I said theme matters to me? Well in my story he's close friends with my druid, and gee... "Blessing of Seasons" sounds rather... druid-y doesn't it?

Yeah, he may have learned a few tricks from her.

SPEAKING OF...

Shalandrae Deeproots, Druid of Many Roles

If I listed everything I was doing with Shalandrae we'd be here all night, so here's the shortened version:

Guardian Druid: Focusing on mainly stuff like thrash, brambles, blood frenzy, after the wildfire, twin moonfire, and such for constant AoE aggro generation. In her bear form she looks like a mountain and thats how I intend to do things. Keep the enemies wailing on the stone grizzly while my allies wail on them!

Feral Druid: Good gods Feral feels good right now doesn't it? I went with Feral Frenzy just because hot damn and I'm going to take Adaptive Swarm once I get the talent points again. Yes I could take Convoke the Spirits and I may yet, but I never did anything with druids and Maldraxxis and the concept intrigues me.

Balance Druid: FAERIE DRAGONS FAERIE DRAGONS DENEIZEN OF THE DREAAAAAAAAAAM! Ah gods thats such a cool idea, Also taking Wrath of Elune, Syzygy, and Sundered Firmament so I can get Three (COUNT 'EM, THREE) death star lasers whenever I dman well please! ... also Force of Nature because I missed my treants.

Restoration Druid: Adaptive swarm is a very useful spell for healers. I'm still experimenting but Verdant Infusion VERY much has my attention as it makes it so Swiftmend not only doesn't consume heal over time effects but extends them instead, along with Natural Wisdom which makes it so my Innervate spell, when cast on another, gets cast on me too (and automatic +5% mana regen bonus!) but overall... still feeling it out. Druids have a lot of options this time.

Zhan-min Irontummy, the Shamanbrewer

Even after the recent nerfs, Zhan-min is a freakin' MONSTER of an enhancement shaman! Molten Assault allows Lava Lash to spread Flame Shock around to up to four enemies, Improved Maelstrom Weapon empowers the damage or healing of his spells by up to 20% per stack, Overflowing Maelstrom lets him consume TEN stacks at once for +200% effect at the full ten, Hot Hand lets him get reduced cooldown and increased damage for Lava Lash on successful attacks with Flametongue, Ashen Catalyst gives Lava Lash +12% damage and reduces the cooldown by 0.5 seconds each time Flame Shock deals damage (and remember how I said that Molten Assault spreads Flame Shock around?) and the like.

Ontop of that Ice Strike and Hailstorm. Ice Strike makes Frost Shock deal 100% increased Damage, but Hailstorm increases Frost Shock damage and allows it to hit up to one additional target per stack of maelstrom consumed, up to five times. And yes, these stack!

So yeah, fire and ice in one big kablooey for my pudgy panda man. They may have nerfed him a bit, but he's still a freakin' powerhouse!

But yes, thats all my Alliance mains. I'll do my Horde roster tomorrow as its 4:00 AM here and my eyes are starting to do the leak-y thing again which usually means I should sleep.

[sacred-stanning]

Chapter 7 Part 2: Neimi stops crying and just goes apeshit. (Also, Sommie math)

So we left off with Ross about to take on a soldier, and Joshua about to take on a fighter and (maybe) dodge a mage's attack.

Fighter result: Dodged, almost finished him off

Pretty good

Soldier result: Dodged, did some good damage in return

(But you need to work on your form, Ross. I don't think that's how you hold an axe.)

Mage result: Dodged

Excellent!

So the next step is to have Neimi move up towards the ballista. On her way there, she shoots the fighter with 1 HP out of existence.

I send Vanessa up to take out the mage. She's got good res, and she needs to be up here to ferry Neimi across the river later. Joshua's job up here is done, and he'll be joining the rest of the army.

Oh boy! We got another pure water!

I put Ross up on this hill to attack the soldier to give him more avoid, but he has 100% accuracy and takes the guy out in one hit, so I didn't really need to do this.

Nice. The only thing I want to see from him is more speed at some point. You need +4 speed to double in GBA FE, so with only 3 speed, even if a unit isn't weighed down by their weapon at all, there's no way to double since effective speed can't go below 0.

The mage to the right moved towards us last turn, so I put Lute up front to trade with him.

And to prevent Moulder from getting totally left behind, I send Seth back to pick him up.

The mage moves in towards Lute and does some damage, but gives her a level up.

Unusually, she didn't get magic, but she got speed, which is her other important stat.

Also, defense?? Lute has like a 15% def growth, but in four levels, she's gotten two points of defense.

I want to keep moving forward, so I move Lute slightly to the side and hit the mage again.

Notice that she doesn't double him. Why is this?

Well, I will take a moment to do the other thing--aside from checking enemy ranges--that we all love doing in GBA FE:

checking stat screens and doing basic math! Yeah!

So a fire tome weighs 4.

(4 what? Good question. I personally think that the unit of measurement for weight in Magvel is "peaches". So since Sommie in Fire Emblem Engage weighs as much as 2 peaches, the fire tome is the same weight as 2 Sommies. That clears everything up, right?)

Lute has only 3 con on joining, and since you can't level up con in this game, she is stuck with 3 con until she promotes into an advanced class.

This means that she loses at least one speed no matter what when she attacks since even the lightest tome in the game, the fire tome, is heavy enough to weigh her down.

Lute currently has 8 speed, so her effective speed with the fire tome is actually 7.

The generic mage on this map has 6 speed, so Lute wasn't going to double him even if she hadn't been weighed down. But notice that this scrawny little dude still has 6 con.

So this guy can run around with 3 Sommies in his pockets without even noticing, and Lute gets out of breath from only 2 Sommies?

I still love Lute, but she is absolutely a skinny, little nerd.

At any rate, Lute not doubling the mage means that she sets him up so that Ross gets the kill and a level up.

I still want speed, but I'm pretty happy with strength and defense.

Now, as the title promised, it is time for Neimi to go from being the bullied, to the bullier.

Once she's in the ballista, she has this big range to work with.

I check out her hit rates and decide to go for the left one since she can hit him more easily.

And she hits!

Yeah, get him, Neimi! Shoot that fool!

So then I take a look at this mage and have an idea.

Checking his range, I see that he can indeed reach farther than either of the soldiers thanks to his two range weapon.

I check his stat screen. I'm pretty sure he won't hurt Vanessa too badly, but I just am curious about the numbers.

Wait, what? He has an energy ring!?

...I guess I should have brought Colm after all.

Oh well. I'm kind of upset about the energy ring, but not enough to start the map over.

I put Vanessa just in range with a javelin equipped, and then I remember that she has a pure water that we just picked up!

YES. Come at me!

"Bring your pitiful 12 attack against my mighty 13 res!!!" <- Vanessa, probably

Meanwhile, on the other front, I send out Franz to tank a hit from the axe fighter.

Next time: We continue to punk on soldiers with Neimi