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thewertsearch · 6 months ago

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Ask Comp 12/8

@williamjakespeare asked: One of the recent posts concludes that the circumstances around Vriska's god tiering were "so much worse than anything I thought was going to happen" and I'm curious. What exactly did you think was going to happen?

Back before I knew how God Tier ascension worked, my theory was that Vriska's Quest Bed might grant her access to a special dream moon, and that Tavros's presence there might throw some sort of spanner into the works. I wasn't sure what kind of spanner, and my theories were very vague.

Vriska's a huge taskmaster, and I thought she might have given him an instruction that he was unwilling or unable to carry out. Like, maybe she told him to leave her God Tier Moon, and he was unwilling to abandon her to a fate he didn't understand.

I guess I was right. In the end, she did give him an instruction he couldn't carry out.

Anonymous asked: For the kid who was the most vocal about her 'distaste' for their guardian, having Mom be the reason that Rose snaps is actually very sweet, in a sad way. ~DJ

The above line from Rose implies that she had a lot more affection for her mother than she was letting on.

Their relationship was complicated, but if Rose viewed her as a sister, I think there had to have been some camaraderie between the two. We just never saw it on-panel, because the narrative began on the most stressful day of Mom Lalonde's life.

@elkian asked: So, fun fact about that time John joked about rescuing Rose from the Broodfesther Throes and you were going "yes it's a joke BUT IT'S ALSO SERIOUS JOHN!!!": Hussie's author note for that page is almost verbatim your reaction. Homestuck is as serious as it is silly and typically both at once.

Every time Hussie and I share the same thought, a subtle chill runs down my spine.

@gl1tchypyr0 asked: In regards to the thing about LOWAA potentially corrupting Eridan, itd be a little smart to remember what Sollux said in his conversation with Terezi about a prophet has to go blind to earn their stripes or how an angel earns its wings, Sollux states that 'angels are terrible feathery demons that paradox space uses to usher in the end' and Eridan was actually killing them even if he wasn't Supposed to. If you really think about it I actually kinda find it sad? If he was already a troubled individual Before Sgrub and then was on a planet of 'terrible feathery demons' that whisper prophecies in his earfins for an entire month that he was made to feel he Had to kill, honestly it makes me nervous imagining just how many doomed timelines there are where Eridan snapped far earlier. Not to mention the fact he's also on the Blue Team ie Derse players ie most susceptible to waking up in his sleep and seeing tentacles and eyeballs staring back at him (not that he wouldn't be /used to that/ back on alternia with his job of feeding glybgolyb so Feferi wouldn't have to). Not really defending eridan but just, food for thought kinda? About how LOWAA might have affected him enough for Doc Scratch to bring up such a hypothetical. The idea that Eridan was already pretty bad before the inevitable Sgrub trauma and then LOWAA made thinks /worse/.

Oh, don't get it twisted - Eridan's just as much of tragedy as any of the other trolls. He's certainly written to be less sympathetic, but he didn't deserve to be raised in the Alternian Empire. Just like Vriska and Equius, he could have been a much better person, if only he was raised in a less violent and oppressive culture.

Of course, he could still be an asshole if he was born on Earth - but at least he'd have a chance to be better. Alternia stacks the deck against you in ways that simply aren't fair.

@galaxa-13 asked: It is very satisfying watching you pick apart everything Doc Scratch says without playing his game. Rose wishes she could, but unfortunately she is a child and not as smart as she pretends to be. Usually it's fun to watch people theorize because of what they don't know, so it's extra fun when someone as smart as you doesn't have the pieces I already do. Just chortling to myself, "Oh ho ho, just you wait!" @elkian asked: I may have sent this before but I ADORE your Doc Scratch dissertations. What few liveblogs (and fandom during/after the run) I've followed have other strengths and focuses, so these moments where you stop everything to shred his dialogue to see if fhere's even a GRAIN of truth are novel and absolutely fascinating. I think you've done the most thorough analyses of any 1 of his convos let alone all of them and I'm here for it. Rip that shady motherfucker apart! :D

Despite myself, I am enjoying puzzling out the true meaning of what he says. I've just got to remember that he is fully capable of lying.

I do think, on balance, that there is some hidden meaning to his words - it's just hard to find. His '50% chance of ascending' statement is definitely foreshadowing something, I just can't figure out what. I think it has something to do with the reboot session, but I'm waiting to learn more about the reboot before I really start theorizing about it.

Anonymous asked: In case the 7 Gates haven’t been fully explained yet — the Gates over a player’s house are all either entry (transport to somewhere on their planet) or exit (destination of a gate on the planet of the previous player in the chain). Using John as example: Build to gate 1, which takes him somewhere on LOWAS. Find gate 2 elsewhere on LOWAS, this will take him to the matching gate over Rose’s house — build up to her gate 3, which will lead to somewhere on LOLAR, then find the planet’s gate 4, etc.

Here's my old interpretation of the Gate system, from way back in Act 4. I'm fully in agreement with you about John's path here - the problem is that when you use it to extrapolate Rose's path, things start to fall apart.

See, this ordering method implies that in a four-player chain, your own Seventh Gate is located on the Land preceding yours, rather than your own. This means that Rose's Seventh Gate is the one that got John killed on LOWAS - the one which leads to his Denizen. It additionally implies that John's Seventh Gate should have been on Jade's Land instead. It's all very confusing.

Anonymous asked: Something I love about how this god-tier immortality system is described, however it works, is that "remaining neutral" will PROBABLY keep you alive… but when you think about it, remaining neutral means not making a REAL DIFFERENCE. As a God, if you want to make a difference in the world around you -- good or bad -- you have to be willing to stake your life on it.

True! It's an interesting balancing mechanism, where each God Tier has to decide whether their life is more valuable than their personal agency. Gods who avoid Heroic and Just situations are almost invincible, but they're also completely ineffectual.

I'd obviously try to game the system somehow, but the vague, subjective definitions of Heroic and Just make this a difficult system to game.

@spyril4132 asked: with the reveal of the heroic-just system, there's now a reason you might not want to god tier immediately: sacrificing one of your selves for a heroic cause and then doing what aradia did (but intentionally)

Good point. Although, I'm not sure I'd want to rely on the Quest Slab for my resurrection - at least, not yet. We don't really know the rules are, and how they differ from normal Quest Bed rules.

Anonymous asked: "I don't really care if Paradox Space sanctions his actions - he needs to be taken down, and if that upsets the natural order, then it's time for a new natural order." i think you for sure lean more lifeways on the life/doom player axis lol. oh, the laws of the multiverse say death is inevitable? well, that fucking sucks and i hate it, so i'm gonna wedge myself into the cracks and loopholes and *make* it evitable one day at a goddamn time, life finds a way motherfucker.

Life finds a way, motherfucker!

I actually find both Life and Doom fairly interesting, as Aspects go. I think, at this point, I'm committed to giving one to my kidsona, and the other to my trollsona.

If another Aspect ends up catching my eye, we'll have to start workshopping a Carapaciansona!

Anonymous asked: I think you got it kinda twisted what's going on with Rose. Yes she is slightly corrupted by the Horrorterrors powers/boons and Scratch's… Sheer Existence. But in her mind, she's doing this to Save her session, so if she does go God Tier and gets killed, her death wouldn't be Just, it would probably be Heroic. As she probably would've died tryong to save her session, which would cancel out the corruption from Scratch and Horrorterrors. Either way she still dies, but it's the difference in Why she dies that's important. […]

See, this is the whole problem, isn't it? These terms are incredibly subjective.

I personally think Rose's attempt to save her session is extremely Heroic - but Skaia couldn't possibly approve of her assault on the game, so I don't think it would cancel out her Horrorterror corruption. Sburb itself is probably the last word on what qualifies as a Just death, so I think that's what she'd get tagged as, if she died as a God Tier in the Green Sun's explosion.

I'm also not sure if getting tagged as Heroic would cancel out a Just tag. They're not necessarily opposites - Vriska, for example, is designed to have a controversial alignment, and could easily die in a way that counts as both.

@ben-guy asked: Small correction, you referred to the Alternian empire as "intergalactic" when it only exists within one galaxy as far as I'm aware. Yes, kind of a silly nitpick, and one that I could be wrong about, but I happen to enjoy thinking about the comparative scale of space faring societies lol. If there is a quote contradicting that, I'd like to see it! Pretty sure it's merely a galactic empire tho :)

Nah, that's fair - that's the kind of nitpick I'd point out, too.

Galaxy, singular. I think I parsed the Empire as intergalactic because massively faster-than-light travel is clearly possible in this setting, via time manipulation. We don't actually know if Alternia had access to time manipulation before Sgrub - but Earth seemingly did, so who knows?

@abacusdictator asked: Found your liveblog a few days ago and furiously binged it. Happy to find another Homestuck liveblog! Especially one I can see happen in-progress! I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

Thanks - and you're certainly coming in at an interesting time!

Anonymous asked: Scratch "chooses not to lie," but he also has the privileged position of knowing in advance that Rose will misunderstand what the Scratch is, leading to her doing what he wants. If he knew that not lying wouldn't get him what he wants, or even if he didn't know for certain that it would, would he lie? If so, that basically means it's pointless to try to figure out his true meanings, because if you succeed, he'll have retroactively lied about it anyway.

Yeah, this is pretty much my take.

Does it really matter if he 'doesn't lie' if he can foresee all the truths that will mislead you? When you're playing at his level, the actual truth of your statements barely matters.

@skelekingfeddy asked: to my knowledge this has never been commented on by hussie, but i feel like doc scratch doesnt lie in part because he was made from the cueball. its a fortune telling device that predicts the future with remarkable precision and accuracy. you wouldnt expect it to lie, would you? its just that the difference between scratch and the cueball is that he can pick and choose WHICH truths to reveal at which moments. (his penchant for jokes thus probably comes from cal (‘haa haa hee hee hoo hoo’) i feel like him never lying is also a way to feed his own ego. its a self-imposed(!!!!) restriction, and yet despite it he effortlessly plays everyone like fiddles. and he KNOWS it. he CHOOSES never to lie. he VOLUNTARILY hands the people he manipulates an advantage on a goddamn silver platter, and he STILL wins. ‘Isn't it funny how during our various matches, I can tell you what my moves will be in advance, and still win?’ hes so fucking smug. what a pompous dipshit. i love him Anonymous asked: I think that when Scratch say he don't lie, he mean it, and not because of some vilainous valor but out of sheer ego. Scratch is prideful, he love beating other by "playing with cards face up" and tricking them with exact word, he doesn't tell the truth because it's "honorable", he tell the truth because he doesn't need to lie to win.

Also, this. He's just a smug fuck.

Do we know for sure if the cueball is always truthful, actually? Scratch heavily implies it here, but he's only stating it as a hypothetical.

Anonymous asked: Scratch is like a fae, he doesn't lie but you better watch out how he word what he say.

I'd be so screwed against the fae. Not because I couldn't parse their statements, but because I'm only halfway competent with human social customs, let alone weird alien ones.

@manorinthewoods asked: Honestly, I think it's great for his character if Scratch is actually completely dead of emotion inside, possibly even thoughts, and is just near-mindlessly carrying out the necessary parts of his role in the story so that his desired outcome is achieved. He's omniscient, he doesn't need to think. On the other hand, he does seem to have experienced genuine emotion, on occasions… ~LOSS (24/7/24)

A pseudo-omniscient character, mindlessly following the optimal path to their ultimate goal? This smells suspiciously like a Certified Contessa Moment...

Anonymous asked: In the trolls game all the trolls got to see and speak to their lusi after they died because they put them in the sprites. Meaning Gamzees dad coming back wouldn’t get him sober. Ideally Gamzee would be able to interact with his dad way more then he ever had in the past because his dad now had to guid him as his sprite.

Fair point. Although, we know that prototyping tends to affect your personality, and shifts your priorities towards guiding your Player through the game.

Goatsprite's sprite knowledge might have informed him that Gamzee needed to be on Sopor Slime, or game would become unwinnable.

@heliotropopause asked: "Well, no! That’s the problem! The cueball’s omniscience is completely redundant, because the MEOW code already contains an omniscience gene! According to the Scratch loredump, any ‘intelligent’ host for the MEOW code will be granted near-omniscience. Scratch didn’t need the cueball," I think it's worth considering the what exactly he meant with that- it seems perfectly plausible that the teleportation-based powerset established for bequerel would make an intelligent agent very good at observation, either by physically hopping around, or by teleporting light around to see distant places, or by sending out telekinetic "feelers"; we know bec has the capability to separately manipulate individual objects in physical contact from afar. None of this would give him knowledge of the future, or of physically disjoint spaces like the human session, so the cueball is not at all redundant.

It's possible. See, this is another situation where we're really being hampered by our small sample size. We've only seen two First Guardians, and only one of them has been a 'standard' First Guardian, unaltered by HONK. As such, we don't really know how First Guardian clairvoyance is supposed to function.

Another Guardian with human-level intelligence is desperately needed, for science. It's almost enough to make me want the Scratched Guardian of Earth to be made from a human...

@manorinthewoods asked: As an alternative explanation for the double-omniscience problem, one could say that the cueball, in being used to create Scratch, retroactively and conceptually gained his omniscience - so effectively, any use of a cueball allows you to attune to Scratch's awareness (as long as he's alive, perhaps?). This would subsequently imply that First Guardians are all linked to their components - for instance, there would be some link between Bec and all dogs, or specifically Halley. ~LOSS (23/7/24)

As this ask points out, I might just be drawing the causal arrows in the wrong direction. If the cueball is omniscient because of Scratch, rather than the other way round, then there's really only one root cause for his clairvoyance.

I'm not sure why it would work like that, but I do like the idea of Colonel Sassacre running around the early 1900s with a suspiciously powerful dog.

@manorinthewoods asked: The link between 'Skaia's final gate of defense' and 'first to find Alternia' is something I just didn't notice (because I didn't really pay attention to the words and botched my experience by not watching the Flashes), but it would imply, to me, that the gates run in reverse order, Skaia to World - first meteor in, last meteor out. This would mean that the moon which dropped on Jade was the last meteor to hit […]Skaia. ~LOSS (23/7/24)

Hey, good catch!

Jade's meteor was the last to arrive on Earth. By this logic, wouldn't it have been the first thing to leave the session, rather than the last?

That makes a sort of sense, actually. A meteor this enormous would dwarf the entire Incipisphere, so the game would probably want it out of the picture as soon as possible.

@manorinthewoods asked: You seem to have run with the interpretation that all First Guardians run on the same fundamental genetic code, identical to MEOW but using different letters. Not really how I thought of it - I interpret that every FG's code is different, although I also didn't think too hard about the FGs. No reason that they'd necessarily all have to have the same genetic code - after all, Bec's a dog and Scratch's a Scratch. You'd only really need a single gene to code for Green Sun powers… ~LOSS (23/7/24)

It does say they share a genetic sequence, rather than an entire genome. Becquerel presumably contains some dog DNA - the 'host' - which is absent in Scratch, so their genome can't be identical.

Unlike Becquerel, Scratch's hosts were entirely synthetic. They didn't have DNA - which, to me, implies that his entire genome is just an amalgamation of the BR8K H34DS T1CK T0CK HONK sequences. His DNA is just the First Guardian sequence, plus whatever is in HONK.

...what the hell is in HONK, then? If it's DNA, it has to come from some living thing, and I have a horrible feeling that Gamzee spliced his own DNA into the sequence. Why else would he call it HONK?

@skelekingfeddy asked: ‘…the fucking bow-tie! He’s wearing Cal’s Alternian clothes! The proof’s been staring us in the face this entire time, and we were none the wiser!’ look at what regular cal is wearing underneath his blue ‘CAL’ shirt :)

My guy's been pulling the long con.

@morganwick asked: "#but now that i have an antimatter pellet I can feed it to my bees. they can create nuclear waste honey without all the fission rigmarole" Minecraft, Sollux style. (Or maybe Minecraft, Problem Sleuth style?)

Sollux would be a Productive Bees specialist, wouldn't he? That, alongside every computer mod in existence.

@elkian asked: Sorry if I'm the 80th person to mention this but Vriska's 8r8k could also refer to the act of shooting the cue ball at the group of pool balls at the start of a game, known as a "break". @ben-guy asked: Fun fact: In pool terms, the "8r8k" actually refers to the opening shot that sends all the balls flying everywhere. Additional fun fact: The game of pool has a history of being used as a metaphor for causality, which lends some interesting metaphorical weight to Doc Scratch as a cue ball.

Oh, that's true - pool balls are often used as an analogy when talking about causality. Surprising that that's never occurred to me before.

I like to think that when the Felt storm a rival gang's lair as a group, they call their maneuver The Break.

@manorinthewoods asked: Oh my god, Aradia uses Jack to go to the Green Sun. That's such a cool detail. It's so fast, I didn't even see it. To be fair, although the timing is ridiculously impressive, Aradia is both a god and specifically a god of time. Although it's never stated, perfect timing is an obvious power for Time God Tiers to have, which does mean that Aradia would be a half-Flechette. ~LOSS (18/7/24)

And Kanaya's a fashion designer, too. Aradia x Kanaya when?

Anonymous asked: Hey, unfortunately the reqs list link seems to be janked out on my mobile client so I hope this is ok but if you haven't already heard of it I highly highly reccomend Jon Bois' 17776: What Football Will Look Like In the Future It's about football in the same sort of way that homestuck is about video games

Love that story - and I still have to read the sequel, actually!

Anonymous asked: Forwarding another question from the person without a Tumblr account: ~DJ. [I think the change in Equis and Nepeta's behavior is explained by "being together and solving problems together for a long time was great for Equius' and Nepeta's relationship" and "the destruction of Alternia helped Equius realize some facets of Alternian culture he believed where false" (because unlike Eridan he is able to change his mind about stuff like this). - RM]

I really want to see what Equius and Nepeta got up to for a month, as well as all the other trolls. It'd be great to get an 'untold stories of Homestuck' anthology at some point - and hopefully, that's something we'll see in some of Homestuck's tie-in media.

Anonymous asked: I’ve been thinking about Bec prototyping himself and I think I’ve got an answer that works for me - not necessarily the whole answer or the only answer, but I think it’s got something. Basically, Bec knows he can’t / shouldn’t get rid of the meteor entirely (he came down in a meteor that built the frog ruins, so even if we’re just going off what he’s experienced we can say that he probably on some level understands that these meteors landing is important) but he also understands he doesn’t have the type of power or the finesse with that power to only delay it until Jade can take the shot. After all, he could’ve just teleported the living room junk to a different part of the house, but he sent it into deep space because his doggy brain can only deal in absolutes when it comes to perceived danger to his best friend, and the only power we’ve seen First Guardians use (to my recollection) that would in any way help with slowing the meteor is teleportation. He can’t reliably teleport it back only far enough that it will keep falling, but won’t yet land, and he doesn’t have anything else at his disposal - except becoming a sprite, who we’ve seen use beam attacks, which allows Bec to push the meteor back as a delaying measure. Don’t know if he knew it would help so specifically, but even so, I can see Bec understanding it as the only option he has that isn’t either ‘send thing as far away as possible’ or ‘let thing squish most beloved person’. I do think the weakest parts of this theory are What Bec Understands, but puzzling through that devilbeast’s thoughts is hardly a new impossibility. If nothing else, we can all understand that he did this to save Jade, because he loves her, and we love him for that. -Megido (am a new anon, just spent the past couple days catching up and have enjoyed this liveblog immensely)

I think this theory is a good one, and Hussie's comments support it.

The meteor needed to be destroyed in a very specific way for the timeline to retain its integrity, and Bec should instinctively know that, born from Sburb as he is.

Anonymous asked: There are three lenses I think you can view troll romance through: the Xenopsychology lens, the Propaganda lens, and the Parody lens. The Xenopsychology lens is that trolls do in fact experience alien emotions which cannot be felt by humans. It's not just that troll society chooses to categorize the same types of feelings and relationships that humans have differently; these are genuinely unique and original emotions, like a new color that a human couldn't imagine. Describing kismesissitude as hatemance or rivalry or abuse, or moirallegiance as bromance or besties or queer platonic partnership, or auspisticism as third wheeling or mom friending or refereeing are all fundamentally incorrect, because there is no human analogue. You can take this a step further and say that matespritship is also fundamentally different from human romance, even if it appears similar. Therefore all attempts to analyze or write troll romance should be forays into xenofiction, attempting to understand things within a nonhuman framework. The Propaganda lens is that actually troll emotions aren't really any different than human ones, but the quadrant system benefits the hemocasteist militaristic empire by keeping trolls divided enough to become either fucked up killers or submissive victims by the time they reach maturity, but have the minimum support structure needed to actually reach maturity. Kismesissitude is fundamentally unhealthy, auspisticism serves as a counterbalance to keep everyone from killing each other, and moirallegiance serves to prevent trolls from having multiple close friendships or from being fully open with their matesprit by arbitrarily sequestering who it’s appropriate to have certain positive interactions with. None of this is really romance except the one that’s analogous to human romance, but trolls are raised to buy into the system under threat of death. It’s hard to form community and contemplate uprising if everyone confines the meaningful relationships in their life to like 4-5 other people, half of which are based on negative interactions. Also it’s a commentary on how human rules about love and relationships and where the platonic ends and romantic or sexual starts are socially enforced rather than wholly natural and can be arbitrary and unhealthy. Anonymous asked: The Parody lens is that this is all Hussie making fun of fandom shipping tropes. All sufficiently devoted rivalries are actually romantic love. All sufficiently strong friendships are actually romantic love. These two are so hopelessly oblivious to the fact that they actually want to get with the guy they hate, or that the other person they think just wants to be friends actually feels the same way, they need a third party to push them together. (Okay this one doesn’t work because auspisticism seems to basically be the opposite of that? Maybe auspisticism is supposed to be like, contrived elimination of competing romantic options to assure an OTP. Idk if anyone really knows what auspisticism is supposed to be, least of all Hussie.) Also because this was early 2010’s Hussie, there’s maybe a certain level on which trolls being societally obliged to polyamory and bisexuality is also making fun of shippers, although if it was I think Hussie turned around pretty quickly to actually being cool about it. Much like how light is a wave, and a particle, and a ray, all of these are true at different times. This is because the nature of Hussie's writing is that even when things are serious business, they are also jokes. And this is also why the Homestuck fandom will never agree on the correct way to understand and depict the quadrants.

Great breakdown. As you could probably predict, I lean a lot more towards the Propaganda lens, with a healthy dose of Parody mixed in.

The Xenopsychology lens isn't necessarily untrue - it's just that, as I've discussed before, the trolls read as extremely human to me. I honestly believe that if you raised a human on Alternia, they'd probably be compelled to form the same quadrants as everyone else.

I once got an ask stating that, according to Hussie, each of the quadrants are meant to be exaggerated versions of human relationship dynamics. I'd really like to check out that full quote, so if anyone's got a link, send it my way!

#asks #full liveblog #act 5.2

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catofadifferentcolor · 1 year ago

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Terrible Fic Idea #84: Star Wars, but make it the Outer Rim

I've been reading a lot of Star Wars fic lately, much of it involving time travel in some shape or form. Most of it is wonderful, but after a while some of it starts to read as let's fix the Republic so we can bring the light and civilization of the core to the outer rim. Which, while possibly disingenuous, feels a little too much like the justifications made by Europeans for their colonial empires.

As I said, I'm probably reading too much into certain tropes, but can't help but wonder: what if one of these fics started in the outer rim as a way of bringing light and goodness back to the core? Or: Save Tatooine, save the galaxy.

aka the One Prairie Outpost fic

Just imagine it:

Several years have passed after The Book of Boba Fett in the original timeline. While the New Republic calls Daimyo Fett's leadership just another crime syndicate masquerading as good government, anyone who's actually been to the planet knows it's the other way around. Most crime syndicates don't care for planetary infrastructure or public vaccination programs.

Boba has encouraged Din to use his palace as a base for his bounty hunting activities - and as a home planet for the small community of Mandelorians building around their Mand'alor. Ideally, this would be the start of a courtship that wouldn't be moving as slowly as it is if Din wasn't an oblivious idiot about 1) his feelings and 2) traditional Mandalorian courting, but it could also simply be vod'e being vod'e. Dealer's choice.

And so Din is on planet when someone tries to bribe Boba for one reason or another with an ancient Sith artifact.

Din calls in a Jedi from Luke's school to investigate - Cal Kestis, who is one of a handful of trained adults in the new Jedi Order and the most knowledgeable about weird force osik...

...which doesn't stop Cal from accidentally triggering the artifact and sending Boba, Din, and himself back in time to the year 53 BBY, shortly before Jaster Mereel is set to die in the Battle of Korda VI.

As if finding themselves on Tatooine approximately 66 years in the past - well before any of them were even born - isn't enough, all three find themselves in their teenage bodies. Boba and Din are somewhere between 15 and 17, when they have most of their adult height but none of their bulk, while Cal is disgusted to find himself a particularly short 12. This in no way reflects their real differences in ages, and they are forced to attribute it to more inexplicable force osik.

Despite their ages, this proves an opportunity to stop the Empire from ever forming. But how? None of them know enough about the precise course of events to begin to stop it, and even if they could manage to get the Jedi Council to listen to them, waltzing into the Jedi Temple and declaring themselves time travelers is bound to put them on Palaptine's radar in a way that is likely to end their painful deaths.

The solution, they decide, is to get the Jedi to come to them. After all, if they repeat Boba's actions from the future, overthrow the Hutts, and free the slaves on Tatooine, someone from the Jedi is bound to come and investigate.

Taking over Tatooine proves easier than their wildest dreams.

Killing Jabba the Hutt in his own throne room and transmitting a signal that jams slave chips across the planet is all that's needed to spark a general uprising against the slavers and Jabba's criminal empire.

It's a little less easy getting the representatives of the colonists, freed slaves, and native peoples to believe that a pair of teenage Mandos and a half-grown Jedi took out a member of the Grand Hutt Council, but once they hear Boba's plans to convert the planet's slave-based economy to a viable democracy funded in part by the wealth of Jabba's vaults, they're more than willing to vote him Daimyo. His actions more than make up for his apparent age.

The Republic is naturally less sanguine. Mandalorians on Tatooine? Is this the start of another war of conquest? (To say nothing that several of the more corrupt members are in the position to lose a lot of money if crime and slave trade is disrupted in the outer rim.) The Senate orders the Jedi to investigate.

The Jedi are also in an uproar. Not only do holos show a young force sensitive helping a pair of Mandos take over Tatooine, but one of those Mandos has a lightsaber the likes of which they've never seen. (Tensions between Jedi and the Mandalorians are such that no one recognizes the Darksaber for what it is or what it means.) Could this mean some dark side sect has sent some of their apprentices to help rebuild the Mandalorian Empire?

The Mandalorians are also unsettled - Death Watch because the Darksaber seems to have disappeared overnight, only to end up with a child in unpainted beskar half a galaxy away; the True Mandalorians because it looks to them that Death Watch might be sending children into battle to build the empire they're always going on about; and the New Mandolorians because this is exactly the kind of violence that gives Mandalore a bad name.

And all of this fails to take into account the Sith, who are naturally upset that the fear and despair they've worked so hard to cultivate on the edges of the Republic has been disrupted with something so light as hope.

All parties converge on Tatooine.

The Mandalorians arrive first. The True Mandalorians are just beginning to investigate when Death Watch decides to attack first and ask questions never.

Boba, Din, and Cal were expecting this and so have a plan in place that allow their forces to take down most of the terrorists while ensuring Jaster Mereel survives, thereby preventing Korda VI, Galidraan, and all that follows. Montross is killed in the fighting without his double cross ever being known.

This also manages to convince the True Mandalorians that they're just a bunch of kids trying to make their way in the galaxy, and while they ask why take over a planet? why not just join a mercenary guild?, Jaster can't deny that they're doing a good thing. He stations some of his people on planet and leaves them be, content Din isn't going to try to push his claim as Mand'alor and/or build another extremist terrorist sect around the Darksaber.

The Mandalorians leave right as a large number of Jedi arrive. In this party are most of their best lightsaber dualists, including a less jaded Yan Dooku and a young Qui-Gon Jinn (who is only a few months out from Xanatos' Fall and in desperate need of a mind healer). Forced proximity has made the later very clear to all the Jedi Masters involved, and this alone prevents many of the tragedies of Obi-Wan's early apprenticeship.

Qui-Gon's mental health aside, the Jedi presume they'll be attacked by dark siders the moment they touch down on Tatooine. Instead they're invited to the Daimyo's palace, given refreshments, and brought before the planet's new ruling council. Which includes two freed slaves, a wizened Tusken grandmother, a pair of moisture farmers, and a representative from one of the cantinas in addition to a pair of teenage Mandos and a young force sensitive.

This meeting goes a long way to convincing the Jedi that what's happening on Tatooine could be a good thing - particularly after Boba turns over everything they could find regarding some of Jabba's dealings with several shady senators and businessmen within the bounds of the Republic. Including one young senator, Sheev Palpatine of Naboo. While several are able to talk their way out of trouble, it removes the worst of Palpatine's future lackeys from power.

The Jedi also invite Cal to come back with them to the temple to "finish" his training. Cal invites them instead to build a satellite temple on Tatooine. After all, there's no reason why a religious order should be tied to the Republic government, and setting up a temple in the outer rim would allow the Jedi to help those on the outer rim more easily, without waiting for the approval of the Senate.

The Jedi obviously don't agree right away - but it does mean that they come back fairly often to discuss the particulars, meaning that someone is on planet when the Sith decide the best way to fix their plans is to try to assassinate the young Daimyo and his allies, revealing the Sith's continued existence decades early.

Which is where my plot bunny starts to fizzle out.

With Jaster Mereel alive, the True Mandalorians have a real chance of stopping both the terrorism of Death Watch and the cultural genocide of the New Mandalorians, leaving Mandalore in a position of strength versus the Republic. So long as this remains the case, plans for a New Sith Empire must be put on hold.

With the shadiest characters removed from the Senate, it's harder for a Sith to take charge of it - especially when a strengthening Tatooine continues to disrupt smuggling and slave trafficking in the outer rim, reducing the darkness and the funds he has access to.

And so though the details are up to the dealer, taking over Tatooine disrupts the Sith's machinations enough that they're forced to show their hands too soon, and thus defeated before they can ever give rise to the empire. It's not easy, but it involves a lot less suffering than the original timeline.

Bonuses include: 1) Merrin and Grogu also traveling through time as a result of the force bonds that they have with Cal and Din respectively. They wake up on the currently uninhabited planet Luke's school will occupy in the future rather than Tatooine and have to go through a quest of their own to get off planet and rejoin the others. This should involve accidentally helping the other's plans to prevent the empire, such as by disrupting a crime syndicate or blowing up the Trade Federation's first droid factory; 2) Teenagers being teenagers. These kids may have been adults in the future with all their adult memories, but they've got teenage bodies now and it shows; and 3) Boba and company never outright admitting they're time travelers, but dropping enough hints to the relevant parties that they eventually come to that conclusion on their own. Only then do they share the details of the horrible future they've prevented.

And that's all I have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More SW Fic Ideas | More Terrible Fic Ideas

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a-wartime-paradox · 1 year ago

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Paradox of the Thirteenth, or "There's a surprising amount of Faction Paradox in Series 11-13"

Despite not being many fan's top choice, the Thirteenth Doctor's era shared concepts with the Faction Paradox series surprisingly often. Some of these were explicit, such as The Paradox Moon featuring Siblings Same and Different (although these Siblings' Faction is otherwise unrelated to the FP Faction, as of 2023), whilst others are simply similarities in creative choices, again varying in how obvious they are, from the "Ashad" (Series 12 - The Timeless Children) resembling FP's technosapiens, to Time Lords "binding" time in Once, Upon Time (part of Series 13/Flux)

So, here I will attempt to list every possible connection between the Thirteenth Doctor/Chris Chibnal's era of Doctor Who and the Faction Paradox mythology

Firstly, an explanation as to why this is all happening...

Explanation as to why the Thirteen Doctor is meeting Faction Paradox-esque entities.

The War has been ended for a long time, and the Great Houses have finally, actually, fallen (see The Timeless Children) leaving no one to hold up their imposed metastructure of history. Why didn't anyone invade in Series 1-7, before the Time Lords returned?, you ask. Well, it's not because The Day of the Doctor is a bootstrap, as I don't believe in perfect bootstraps, but rather because well... They did. During Series 1, the Reapers arrived, explicitly due to the lack of Time Lords (Father's Day), and so did a lone Dalek (Dalek), and finally the original Dalek Emperor's last Time War fleet (The Parting of the Ways). Then in Series 2, the Cult of Skaro arrived (Army of Ghosts/Doomsday), followed by Davros (The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)- who along with the Supreme Dalek, somehow survived the Crucible's fall (The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar)- and then the New Dalek Paradigm emerged, from survivors of the War (Victory of the Daleks). All this interference from War-time participants is what's preventing pre-Anchoring entities entering the Third Universe, as it echoes the status quo which was so hostile to their very existence.

Oh, and "Dvapara Yuga" means "the Dark Times, as understood to not be an early period of universal history, but rather the state of history metatemporally predating Rassilon's anchoring of the thread"

She is born out of an interaction with a past Doctor (Twice Upon a Time) - if it wasn't for acausal (and unintentionally) intervention of the First Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor never would have existed. This is a bit of a stretch, as interference forwards in a timeline is much less paradoxical than the reverse, but this is her first appearance so...

The Solitract, from It Takes You Away, is an intelligent & conscious universe, exiled from the main universe in order to allow for it's creation. "Creation" here probably refers to Event One/The Big Bang, but, if one is on the train of "the universe before the Anchoring of the Thread didn't have a beginning, and the Big Bang was retroactively added by Urizen [Rassilon]", then this is very easily re-interpreted as a mention of the early Sun Builders (a.k.a Time Lords) cleaning up their area of spacetime in preparation for imposing rationality on it. To be even more bold, I may suggest that this isn't a universe at all, but instead an intercreational, a class of being first mentioned in The Book of the War, although one type was first mentioned in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Taking of Planet 5, as a "Swimmer". I propose that the Solitract is not a Swimmer, or a Leviathan, but rather a smaller intercreational, perhaps growing out of the Third Universe (the main DW/FP universe), before being banished by the Great Houses. See Explanation as to why the Thirteen Doctor is meeting Faction Paradox-esque entities at the top of this post.

The Ux, from The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, are clearly some gods from the Dvapara Yuga.

Orphan 55 features a future version of Earth which deviates heavily from most other depictions of it. Speculatively, this means the Thirteenth Doctor travelled to an aberrant timeline, or that the Ghost Point has somehow worsened since the degradation of the Great Houses's imposed metastructure, rather than healing.

During Fugitive of the Judoon, the Doctor interacts with Gallifrey's distant past. I can't really explain this even by the standard explanation at the top of this post. However, one thing interesting to note is that the ancient Time Lord "Gat" considered "Mutter's Spiral" to be a "tiny galaxy". This is notable because Gallifrey is basically always said to be in the centre of Mutter's Spiral - that is, the Milky Way - and naming a galaxy as "tiny" kind of implies that you aren't from it. Maybe Gallifrey wasn't always in Mutter's Spiral, and got moved? Or maybe Gat and the Division come from some alternative Gallifrey? I don't know, just interesting to note.

The novel At Childhood's End (written by Sophie Aldred, actor for Ace) featured Ace meeting the Thirteenth Doctor, and descriptions of the former's fractured timelines. Notably, the next time Ace and the Doctor met (in The Power of the Doctor), neither one of them mentioned this, almost as if the timeline in which it happened had fractured...

Rakaya and Zellin from Can You Hear Me? are clearly some kind of pre-anchoring gods like the Ux. In Time Lord Victorious short story The Guide to the Dark Times, it was confirmed that they were, specifically, Eternals (not the MCU kind), and another Time Lord Victorious text, a novel called The Knight, the Fool, and the Dead, claimed that Eternals were among the other inhabitants of the Dark Times, the "Old Ones". Interestingly, multiple Eternals do indeed appear in the "classic" series of Doctor Who, implying that the Anchoring did not fully remove them, but as they didn't appear in NuWho until now, I feel safe in speculating that the War somehow barred them from it - perhaps they'd joined the conflict, on the side of both the Time Lords, Daleks, the Enemy, and others, "helping out" wherever it benefited them?

Ashad, first appearing in The Haunting of Villo Diodati, and then in the following serial Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children, is an "emotional Cyberman". Any readers of Faction Paradox could immediately draw the connection between this and Faction Paradox's "technosapiens", named as such partially to avoid infringing on the BBC's trademark, but also because The Book of the War showed that many sects of posthumanity had become cyborgs, but many were not emotionless and evil like the Cybermen.

The Timeless Child, first appearing in The Timeless Children, is vaguely reminiscent of the idea hinted upon in The Book of the War that the Great Houses stole the power of regeneration from another species, in The Book of the War being the Great Vampires, and in The Timeless Children being the titular Timeless Child. This note of continuity was expanded upon by the writer @aristidetwain in his short story Out of the Box introduced the "Child-That-Was-Taken", intended to be a member of the Yssgaroth species, and to be the Timeless Child itself. Additionally, this Child was the motivator for the Great Vampires' war with the Great Houses, the Eternal War (a.k.a First War in Heaven).

In The Timeless Children, Tecteun is shown alongside Rassilon and Omega. Previously, the figure alongside Rassilon and Omega was the Other, a version of the Doctor from before he was the Doctor. My personal fix for this, which I admittedly took from @/aristidetwain, is that there were many Others, assisting Rassilon and Omega at different points in time. Other Others may be the human Dr. Who from the novel Human Nature, the Eleventh Doctor "Cheesemaker" (The Lost Dimension), Osiris (in his car future), and the Sixth Doctor (The Scrolls of Rassilon)

In Shadow in the Mirror, the Thirteenth Doctor released Aphasia / Daughter of Mine from her mirror of entrapment, despite the fact that Aphasia mentioned a "ginger haired doctor" who "believed himself to be the last" (likely Muldwych/Merlin), meaning that the Doctor had been interacting with Aphasia out-of-order, which is... Reasonably dangerous.

Throughout Flux, the villains "Swarm" and "Azure" attempt to remove the Mouri from the planet Time, effectively de-anchoring the thread. They're method, strangely, is to try to destroy the entire universe using "the flux".

Village of the Angels features the first instance of Weeping Angels being shown to posses proper intelligence, as they ally themselves with Tecteun, presumably in exchange for something, and even more interestingly, they have a rogue member, suggesting power structures in their ranks. This isn't particularly Faction Paradox -related, but it feels like it is, and I hope Faction Paradox writers use Weeping Angel - analogues to continue to explore this.

Eve of the Daleks features the Doctor "resetting" the TARDIS, causing a localised time loop. However, perhaps more notably, the Daleks which appear in this episode are "Dalek Executioners", which make their debut in Time Lord Victorious.

The Power of the Doctor won't be mentioned here, perhaps I'll grant it a full post going over all of its batshit-insanity (affectionate?) some other time.

This post was made after I saw @familyparadox remark at the high amount of Faction/Thirteen content

#faction paradox #doctor who #dweu #thirteenth doctor #jodie whittaker #chris chibnall #ashad the lone cyberman #eternals #long post

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tytarax · 1 year ago

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Lasso of Lust

Lemon🍋

-Kill a supreme kai

-Take the position of supreme kai

-Exchange body with the most powerful Saiyan in Universe 7

-Travel to a timeline where the destroyer god was not a problem

-Ally with his future self

-Kill the supreme kai of Universe 10 and kill him... again

-Start the "zero human plan"

....

Those are some of the things that caused Black and Zamas to be in big trouble against the supreme Kaiosama Gowas and the god of destruction Ramoosh...

____ stopped Zeno from disappearing them, of course in exchange for something, and that something was that Black and Zamas were punished... they were condemned to live among mortals... for a time, in the case of Zamas, since he was the successor of the supreme kai, but Black had a different destiny, he had to live among mortals for the rest of his life, with his mortal body.

Knowing that Black couldn't live among humans... ____ invited him to live with her on the planet Vegitta, to which he gladly accepted, he preferred to live surrounded by Saiyans, the most powerful race in Universe 7, the race that lives from other planets, exterminating their inhabitants and selling the planets at a good price, perhaps only then, his dream of exterminating the scum of planet Earth would come true.

That was approximately 1 and a half years ago, a year without Black being able to kill or exterminate any race, first, he had to adapt to his new life and second, he wanted to complete his punishment quickly, until he did, a year of punishment, and until now, half a year of happiness for Black, they still did not go to planet Earth for certain reasons...

The thing is that Black could finally live happily, fulfilling his dream little by little, although without realizing it, exterminating races was already his everyday life, he no longer did it because of his dream but because it was his normal life. Wake up, eat, go on a mission, kill, come back... and fuck ____ from time to time... who am I kidding, that was also part of their daily life... except in certain times when Saiyan females got pregnant of course.

They weren't even a couple to have children, they were 2 Saiyans who loved each other without knowing it, they loved feeling, testing each other, and spending as much time as they could together on the same surface.

____ as a Saiyan female, she loved how that male dominated her, he made her his whenever he wanted, we would call it toxic, they would call it... they didn't know what to call it, maybe love? Or just wish? Or it was how Saiyans expressed that they liked spending time with someone specific.

Black loved how that female allowed herself to be dominated, how she made him feel, he loved hearing her scream his name, begging him for more of her, being her pet, obeying him in everything he asked for. . . . .

____! Come here right now!

Damn... and there he is again, I couldn't say that this is the Black that I like or the one I don't like, he was... a little less rude when it came to intimacy, but what can I say, I'm a Saiyan and I like being treated bad...

(IT'S LEMON TIME!)

I knew that it was useless to escape from him, so I resigned myself to doing what he asked of me, when he arrived, he was already waiting for me with his exposed member.

"You already know what to do, don't you?"

Of course, taking off my clothes, kneeling, with my hands behind me, had already become normal, and that was precisely what I did.

"Do it now"

I knew this was wrong, he was one of the worst enemies of my family and friends, but I couldn't help it, I wasn't one of those females who lived by satisfying the males, but satisfying only one, and that one alone

He was satisfied with me and made me want to do everything possible and impossible with him... so I didn't hold back, and I did what he wanted me to do so much, I submitted once again

"Good..."

I approached my mouth to his member and he pushed my head impatiently towards his manhood. I was very nauseous and wanted to take him out of my mouth, but he kept me in that position. I no longer had any other option. I began to suck him deeply and lick him.

He let out loud muffled sighs while we were in the act, I already wanted to take him out of my mouth so I could breathe but he kept my head there.

"You're not going to take it out until it's over."

Already starting to get used to it, I started sucking harder, and he started pushing my head faster, that meant only one thing, all that was left to do was prepare myself.

"Relax your throat!" I order myself

His cock hit the deep part of my throat while I did my best to swallow everything he gave me.

"Ah...ah..."

"Way to go. Did you miss me?"

"A lot"

"Good girl, you won a prize, I'll let you choose."

"Would you make me yours?"

"Is that what you want or is that what you think I want?"

"I want it, I can't take it anymore to have you between my legs"

"I can't deny you that... Stand up! Now!"

I stood up and kept my hands to myself, no matter how hard I wanted to touch him.

"Go to the bedroom"

I went to our room, and before sitting on the bed he stopped me by grabbing my tail.

"AH!"

"Not yet, wait." He made me lie down on the bed and he slapped me on the butt "Ngh!" He settled behind me, I thought what I longed for would arrive, but he just started rubbing his member with my entrance.

"Mh... you feel so good, and so wet"

"Ahhh..."

"Do you want more?"

"Yes... ah... please"

"Please what?"

"My....my god"

"Hmmm... wait a little longer."

Damn, I can't take it anymore... what do I do!?

"Nggh... I... I missed you so much"

"Oh yeah?"

"Y...yes, I had to try very hard not to touch myself"

"That must have been difficult" he says as he places me on the bed, I tighten my tail around his arm and he puts his on my thigh, he brushes my entrance a little generating a moan from me.

"You know I hate leaving you."

(tytarax: *looking at the computer* What am I doing with my life)

"Are you ready?"

"Please"

I moved my tail a little lower and he settled at my entrance, I squeezed his arm tighter as he entered, earning a pained moan, since I would never get used to his size, I clenched my fists a little from the tension.

"Don't squeeze or I won't do anything," he said, knowing that would make him finish faster.

"I'm sorry" He grabbed my hips and pushed, letting his manhood touch the deepest spot inside me.

"Squeeze when I tell you"

"Y-yes" he was fighting the urge to stay still, he was testing me. Black came out and came back in suddenly, establishing a very fast pace, still testing me as he did it to me roughly. He held me still with his hands on my hips. "Be a good girl," he warned sharply. ...

"Mhmm! Please don't stop!"

"Damn! You're so tight!"

"Do you want to cum?"

"Y-yes"

He slammed into me again. "Come, now!" I moaned and felt how he touched that point again.

"AHH... RIGHT THERE!" I said as I made myself through orgasm.

"Good girl"

"Please come inside me"

"Squeeze and beg me to do it"

"Please do it, I need it!"

"That's good, but you can do better"

"G-god!"

The moment I said it, he slammed into me again and it was over. It filled me as he moved inside me. He growled as he squeezed my hips, making me his.

Masterpost

DBS Masterlist

#black goku x reader #black goku #dragon ball super #dbs one shot #oneshot #one shots #black goku one shot #dragon ball #goku black

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hungrydolphin91 · 1 year ago

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ok I had to go make my own post about Eugene Cassette Beasts, it's not fair for me to fill up everyone else's tags w how much I love this guy. I wanted to speculate a little about his backstory here cause it honestly fascinates me and I feel like I havent seen this happen much in other media, much less turn based monster collecting RPGs.

So Eugene is from a future world (seemingly the only party member who is except maybe Barkley but he's a dog so.) It sounds like he's from the turn of the century, maybe 2100 or so, and mentions in his rank 3 friendship that in his world, there was a massive reformation when society as a while realized they couldn't keep fucking each other over and destroying the planet, so everyone worked hard to abolish the kinds of structures that unilaterally hurt people (for instance, capitalism). Sounds like a utopia right?

Eugene only says good things about his world really, how much people value acts of goodness and kindness. But he says it all with such a sad tone, like something he's missing out on, because he thinks he is, he didn't fit in. He says that he wasn't great at being helpful all the time, which is why he wants to do better in New Wirral, a world removed from his own where he can be a better person than he was in his own world.

But the thing is, he IS a nice person. Maybe that's by design, everything he does in New Wirral is about him playing the hero, but it's also oh so clear that he brought his own expectations of goodness from his own timeline and they're just as much of a burden here. Even when hes succeeding, he won't cut himself slack, he says he needs to have a cause to rally behind, or what that archangel said to him would be proven true: he IS empty. Or at least, useless, which is probably the same thing to him.

What really grabs me about all of this though (besides the usual love of angst and guilt complexes and hero complexes and whatnot) is this future of moral reformation. Those are a pretty common historical phenomenon, often involving moral panics and an emphasis on presentation--- what matters is that you LOOK pure compared to others. And poor Eugene just felt like he couldn't keep up just because he has some small selfish impulses, or something in that nature I'd imagine--- I think he'd rather throw himself off a bridge than admit whatever the reason was that he didn't fit in in his own world.

It's easy to see his world being our future, in a way. I'd be delighted if terrible oppressive governments and economic systems were torn down in favor of ones that promote equality and universal well being, but currently moral purity is just as much of a trend as ever--- look at any discussion of book banning, not to mention transphobic legislature, fandom antis and so much more. So this hypothetical future is one where even though the 'right' thing has been done, there's still a subtle form of policing going on to enforce it. Maybe that is successful at keeping cruel practices from coming back. Or maybe it's just traumatizing people like Eugene who feel judged by their every action and pressured to be a saint every single moment of their lives.

One last thing I thought was interesting--- as part of his level 4 friendship rank, Eugene mentions how his parents' generation still seem scarred by the cruelties they endured before this reformation. But Eugene is too young to have lived through it himself so you know what that means?? Generational trauma babyyyyy. He's inherited guilt about a time he wasn't even alive for, along with a pressure to make sure it never ever happens again, so no unkindness is tolerated. It's no wonder this boy has so many issues.

So that's my late night rambles about this guy, probably like 50% of this is just me projecting but it's also fun to dissect what's happening here. Like I said before, it's unusual to see a unique concept like character like Eugene and his world in what appears to be a fun little indie game about turning into monsters with cassettes.

#eugene cassette beasts #cassette beasts #i think eugene might be from the future US too going by his accent and our history of protestant moral purity culture would add up #hope this was coherent i really am just rambling #i am most definitely projecting but mannnn. sometimes the characters just resonate w you

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deconstructivesurgery · 11 months ago

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this is my first attempt at a poll because I'm genuinely curious and I've been thinking about my Borderlands rewriting plans and shit and I can't decide which of these alternate-to-canon scenarios I want to go with for katagawa jr

Context: I am insane about the funny Maliwan guy. Lord knows I have a habit of latching onto characters with like 5 minutes of screen time and getting so fixated on their potential that I go mad over it, and he's no exception to that rule.

I also have a huge Borderlands AU in the works that overhauls pretty much everything I didn't personally like in the series and integrates all of these one-off headcanons into one timeline. If I ever finish writing the goddamn document with all the information about this on it, I'll post it 😭

With that said, which one of these four potential arcs for him I could execute do you think would be most fun? Important to note, I'm not necessarily picking the most popular. I'm just curious :3

ALSO, regardless of his penultimate fate I plan on doing a lot more with him and the general Promethea arc in BL3 in terms of insight into Maliwan, his family, and the way it works. That's inevitable. This is just what happens to him after all that.

explanations for the last 2 since they're pretty vague

(***) This one is less realistic, but I don't always care much for realism and him and Rhys' dynamic is never not hilarious to me. Long story made short as possible: this one takes place in a world where getting Maliwan's ass off of Promethea wasn't just as simple as kicking Katagawa in the shins. Even in his absence (presumed death initially), Maliwan's heads (and the disgruntled parents of 13 corporate children) continued to attack the planet in order to recoup losses by taking control of Atlas, a profitable company. (You know, the reason they wanted it in the first place.) Jr. himself plays into this because he survived the VH attack, retreated to Maliwan safe quarters, and then was promptly nearly executed by a family deeply unhappy with his performance. Packing his shit and escaping in another war vessel sent down to Promethea, he decided to use his excellent backstabbing skills to take not only his technical capabilities (I like to assume he made and designed the mock-up Zer0 suit himself, but that's a rant for another day) to his insider knowledge of the company and their weaknesses to Atlas' front fucking door.

TLDR: This isn't some "I'm nice now immediately" type shit, it's more of a "bedraggled feral asshole in a suit begs you to let him work with you on equal footing this time because he wants to kick his family's ass and you can't really afford to say no because you're kinda losing a major corporate war right now" leading into fucking Wacky Coworker Shenanigans(TM).

the last one: Honestly similar to the tangent I went on above, except years of being raised a corporate cult patsy only to encounter failure and nearly be destroyed because of it leads to Kat seeing the rest of his family as "in the way" as his siblings were, leading to him waging internal warfare on the company after his scrape with Vault-Hunter induced death behind the scenes as the battle with Atlas continues. Could also segway into a funny unintentional "the enemy of my enemy is slightly less of my enemy than before" thing with the Atlas crew.

#sorry this was so long fuck #long ass post #borderlands #borderlands 3 #katagawa jr #rhys strongfork #bl3 #this is me yelling #my polls

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the-whispers-of-death · 3 months ago

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anyways. red string soulmate au :) wink wink nudge nudge :)

something something the damn fucking imagery of stone staring at the string as it leads into the ocean, horrified at the implications of where it leads.

or maybe in a different timeline, he's with kali there, one of his soulmates he had already found, and both of them come to the conclusion that their 3rd halves are across the pond and them unanimously deciding that *yes* theyre *getting* over the fucking oversized puddle no matter what. they already have each other, yes, but they cant leave their soulmates hanging either.

idk i am a huge sucker for the red string au, but i think ive made it clear with how much my brain rots over it.

take this either as a request or just a general idea. idk, its been a while since ive sent in fic reqs (like. over 2 years at LEAST lmao)

Red String AU, Red String AU!

Chose to have Kali and Stone also be soulmates in this AU, because it's fun like that.

This is just the start, so they might not even meet Sylvester and Butcher (I'm assuming we're adding Butcher into this AU).

A little lore tidbit because it's only kinda explained near the end: Red strings are invisible, but people can feel them around their wrists and can feel the distance between soulmates.

Wordcount: 1,281 words

Vikram stood on his porch, his hands resting on the railing as he looked up at the stars. The stars looked so beautiful and so far away, and he wanted to know what knowledge lay in the stars, how many aeons they had seen over the course of their life, knowing that most of the stars he saw in the night sky were either planets or stars that were so many lightyears away that they were already dead.

"Have I ever told you how breathtaking you look when you gaze up at the stars, baby?" Vikram's boyfriend, Ashok, whispered into his ear as he wrapped his arms around Vikram's burly waist. Ashok leaned down slightly, hunching his shoulders so he could comfortably rest his chin on Vikram's shoulder.

"You have indeed, but you can say it again," Vikram replied, his lips twitching until they eventually pulled into a small smile.

A rumble expressing his satisfaction spread throughout Vikram's chest, melting against Ashok as his soulmate held him. As he kept his hands on the railing of the porch, he could feel the red string on his left hand that connected him to Ashok, and he could feel the other red string on his right hand which spanned across the ocean, his other soulmate being so far away.

Both Ashok and Vikram had two soulmates, one of whom was obviously each other, and both of their other soulmates' red strings went across the ocean. They wanted so desperately to go and find their soulmates, but the only times they were across the ocean were when they were on deployments and had no time to go find their soulmates because they were on duty. They tried to find time to go when they were both not on deployments, but deployments came suddenly sometimes and as soon as they started thinking about booking flights to try and find their soulmates, they'd get deployed.

Like how last week, Vikram and Ashok were talking about trying to find their soulmates and then they both got orders that they were going on deployment this week. It was like the universe knew it wasn't their time to find their other soulmates.

Ashok brought Vikram back to the present, pressing a gentle kiss to the taller man's neck. "What are you thinking about, my sun?" he asked, gently rubbed circles on Vikram's waist. "You've been so silent ever since you got your orders."

"I'm usually silent," Vikram grumbled, turning his head to the side to nuzzle his cheek against Ashok's. He sighed at the touch, his soul feeling less empty than it would be if he hadn't found Ashok, but his soul still wasn't complete. "Thinking about how our plans to find our other soulmates keep getting delayed. It's so frustrating."

"I know, baby. I feel the same way, but it's the way it is right now. That's not a comforting thought, I know. But you believe in fate, so believe that fate is waiting until the right moment to bring our soulmates to us."

Vikram took in those words, not really liking them but he knew Ashok was just doing his best. He rested his hands on Ashok's hands that were still on his waist, intertwining their fingers. "When did you get so wise?" he murmured, leaning down slightly to kiss Ashok's lips.

Their kiss was short, but sweet, the two of them letting the kiss calm their frustrations down. When they pulled apart, they rested their foreheads together despite the uncomfortableness in the position they had twisted themself in.

"I'm not wise, as people love to tell me," Ashok said, chuckling. He squeezed Vikram's hands in his, loving the way his boyfriend's larger hands engulfed his. "But I know you well enough to calm you down, even if it had taken twelve years just to break down your walls and learn all of your quirks. I wouldn't change a single second for the world, though, my sun. And I know I'll feel the same way once we meet our soulmates, it's only a matter of time."

Their conversation died down after that, the two enjoying looking up at the stars. After a while, Ashok pulled back and tugged Vikram inside, murmuring about how they should go to sleep.

Vikram looked back up at the starry night sky before he went inside, as if he could use the stars to decipher the coordinates to where his other soulmate was.

He hoped Ashok was right, that they'd meet their other soulmates soon. He didn't know how long he could wait.

Besides, he'd be on deployment soon, which would keep his mind off the search for his other soulmate.

*************************************************************

Vikram sighed as he drove into base, having been on deployment for a week already and he was missing Ashok big time. As he drove to a parking spot and parked his car, he hoped his soulmate was having a better time at his own deployment.

He knew he shouldn't complain, he was fortunate to be placed as the Corpsman of a really friendly squad who didn't care that Vikram refused to tell them any truly personal information, not even his actual name.

Most squads hated how cagey he was, hated the way he relied on his stoicism to protect himself from allowing himself to get attached to any of them. But this squad only cared if he was a good Corpsman, which he was.

He had gotten lucky at that, and he had also gotten lucky at Ashok being deployed nearby.

Ashok was at another base, but at least they were placed in the same housing base, able to see each other regularly if they weren't away on missions. It made long, stressful days better when he could go over to the house the military had set up for Ashok and to be in the presence of his soulmate.

The thought of his soulmate made him look down at his wrists, feeling the invisible red strings that connected him to his soulmates. The right red string felt shorter, since he had gone overseas for the deployment, but still farther than where Ashok was.

His other soulmate was in the city, but he couldn't tell where. And he had no time to go searching still. But at least he was closer than he had ever been.

He unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car, locking it once he was out. He made his way to the main building, needing to sign in before he could go to the training center to find his squamates.

Vikram merely grunted in response when the receptionist greeted him, simply picking up the pen to sign in. He was about to leave when the receptionist called out for him.

"Stone!" she called out, using his callsign since that's what most people only knew him by. When he turned back around to face her, she continued, "Captain Karev told me that when I saw you, I should tell you that the entire squad is being debriefed soon. They're in Conference Room 220."

Vikram nodded to signify that he heard her, turning slightly to go down the long hallways until he reached where the conference room. Thankfully, they hadn't started until he got there, so he sat down and waited for the captain to tell everyone what their new mission was.

He tried to listen, he really did, but all of a sudden, the red string on his right wrist gave a little tug. He would've sat up straight if he wasn't already doing so, his excitement giving way and flooding his brain.

A tug meant his other soulmate was here. On base.

Finally, they'd meet.

*********************************************

Hehe, and I'm going to end it there. Just Stone's luck that he'd feel Sylvester in the same base just as he was about to go on a mission.

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zalrb · 5 months ago

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Stray-ish Doctor Who Thoughts So Far...

So, some thoughts about RTD's Doctor Who vs. Moffat's and Ten's Era vs. Eleven from what I've seen.

On an episode-by-episode basis, I like RTD's era more than Moffat's, like there are episodes like Midnight or Gridlock or Smith and Jones or Forest of the Dead that I quite enjoyed more than individual episodes in series 5-7. However, when it comes to entire seasons, I prefer Moffat's era because there's a certain grandiose quality to the seasons and Moffat is less episodic so it feels like we're actually building up to something, which in a few ways can make it a more exciting viewing experience. It makes sense to me that he wrote Silence in The Library and Forest of the Dead because they have that overarching/two-parter-leading-up-to-a-climax quality (and of course, there's River!).

I found that Ten's era/RTD's era was more interested in human nature and therefore more interested in consequences, which in turn made the episodes emotionally darker, which I appreciated, so we get episodes like the Planet of Ood where the Oods who were lobotomized and effectively enslaved by the villain of the episode turn him into an Ood and Donna remarks that being around the Doctor, it's getting more and more difficult for her to know what's right and what's wrong. We have Midnight, which I loved, delve into how quickly people can turn on each other out of self-interest/survival and then at the end, no one, not even Ten, remembers the hostess' name (of course I have a few issues with how the Black characters were treated by that is par for the course with RTD's era, it seems).

On the other hand, I find that Moffat had a more "equation" approach, Eleven's era/Moffat's era was more interested in overarching concepts and philosophical moral dilemmas, dealing with matters such as vengeance and war, like The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood and I think he was really interested in ideas, like the idea of Rory waiting for Amy for 2,000 years or Amy having three universes in her head or River being the Ponds' (+ Tardis') daughter and they were cool ideas (not the River thing) but like I mentioned before, I don't think he deals with the consequences and implications and ramifications of those ideas, rather, he tidies it up at the end by being like well that happened in a universe/timeline that no longer exists whereas I think RTD's era would've gotten into the emotional meat of the outcomes of those ideas. And although I thought the previous seasons dealt with human nature more, I found that Moffat's characters (or well, how he wrote them) were more memorable, maybe because I found them funnier and wittier and slicker so I found them more engaging, although in the RTD era, the characters were very much ... human.

With Matt and Tennant. I said it a few days ago, I think Tennant played more emotional nuance as the Doctor, while Matt was more charismatic. I am more inclined to believe companions going along with Eleven than Ten. Also, now that I realize that Ten had three different companions, I feel sort of robbed that Eleven only had Amy, Amy + Rory and then Clara, and Clara wasn't even Eleven's companion too long before he has to regenerate. Eleven did have River but I would not consider River a companion.

I do prefer Eleven over Ten.

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mwolf0epsilon · 1 year ago

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The Umbaran Pathogen - Day 3: Separated from loved ones

Summary: Moments like these made him wish he wasn't such a goddamn freak.

Warning: N/A

Prev / Next

[In which the events on Umbara are worsened by an unknown pathogen taking hold of both the 501st and 212th. These series of drabbles will follow a non-linear timeline based on the AI-less Whumptober prompt list for 2023.]

THIS STORY IS ALSO ON AO3

---

To say there was an air of trepidation as they approached the shadowy planet of Umbara, was a complete overstatement. The atmosphere within the Negotiator was more than a little tense, to the point where an eerie silence seemed to permeate the air of the large Venator-Class Star Destroyer.

It was stiffing. Oppressive. But most of all, irritating.

Not that Peel was one to give in to irritation all that easily. Especially not since the fiasco that had been the mission to Bray. He'd had to learn to be more patient and cautious after that ordeal. And not without good reason...

Running his tongue over his unusually sharp canines, the vampiric trooper had to keep himself from sighing out loud as he noted the aftertaste of battery acid that stubbornly clung to his teeth enamel. Reminding him of things he really wished he could forget. Of his new nature as... This... Whatever this was.

Sure, Canivete had reassured him that his newly acquired habits and instincts weren't anything need fearing, since he'd figured out a pretty easy way to keep himself from succumbing to the urges that had been haunting him after he'd been "cured" of Lord Ravna's influence. But that didn't mean he had to like the way that the vile monster's taint had altered him.

Especially not when he had to preemptively feed himself as much charge as possible before every mission. It was doubtful he'd have a chance during their deployment on hostile planets, so he was often forced to stalk off and hide away in shame, as he sunk his teeth into every piece of machinery that Canivete had pilfered for him in silent solidarity. She was amazing like that. Never shying away from helping even the strangest of cases... Which he supposes came down to the fact she had a batcher who'd ended up in a much worse situation than Peel had.

That said, Canivete was a bit of a mother hen and tended to fuss a little too much when she thought he was neglecting his own needs. It wasn't like he wanted to stay awake late into the night, or that he didn't want to eat a nice tasty meal among their brethren... It's just that, sometimes, all the noise could be a little overwhelming.

Umbara would be overwhelming too... He just knew it. Especially after they'd gone through the rushed briefing. The lack of information they were working with put him and the rest of the vode ill at ease, which was what was causing so much tension all over the ship. What was making it so hard for him to shake off the pre-barricade-busting jitters.

Not even draining the mouse droid he'd managed to corner settled his frantically beating heart. He hoped the poor thing didn't hold it against him. The engineers would be able to easily fix it, but you never knew a droid's temperament until you crossed it.

"Peel." Startling at the sound of his own name, he turned around to see who'd called him. At the end of the hall he'd been pacing in, stood Cani in her medical fatigues. Her hair was down, which meant she'd just recently woken up and hadn't had the time to put it up yet in the way she liked.

Which itself meant she'd been looking for him since she'd woken up.

"Canivete." He greeted, flashing her a quick smile before subconsciously clamping his mouth shut so that his fangs didn't show too much. Even if she wasn't bothered by these bizarre attributes of his, he didn't particularly like showing his teeth to other vode. It made him feel weird. "Do you need something?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." She made her way over to him and ran a hand over her face, trying to shake off the lingering sleepiness from her eyes. "The Negotiator will be breaching the planetary barricade soon. According to the Commander, a couple of squads of pilots from the 212th and 501st each, will be keeping the Umbarans busy while the Generals and the rest of the men engage planet-side via LAATs."

"What are we working with down there? I know we don't have much in the way of intel..." He couldn't wait to get down on solid ground and get some of the nervous energy out of his system. The sooner they landed, the faster they could take Umbara and then go back to Coruscant.

"... That's what I wanted to talk about..." Canivete frowned, her gaze lowering guiltily onto the floor. "You're not going."

"What?" He stared at her, eyes going wide and jaw dropping slightly.

"I've noticed your vitals have been a little erratic as of late..." She explained "And I know you've been downplaying it too. You've been sleeping less and draining more energy than usual. Down there there's no way of telling if we'll be able to meet your requirements, and I don't want to risk a freakout in the middle of the field. Especially not if you start zeroing in on the General or his saber..."

"I... You had me written out of the mission?!" He didn't know what to say. He felt betrayed. "What the hell Canivete?!"

"I'm trying to protect you!" The medic snapped at him.

"I don't need protecting!" He barked back, furious that she'd go behind his back like this. "I'm not a ticking time bomb! I've been preparing for this! Been feeding regularly so I wouldn't have to worry down there!"

"We have no idea how long this might take! You can't possible tell me you think this will be a quick run... Not with how little we have on the enemy or their goddamn tech!"

Snarling, Peel turned away and began to pace again. On one hand, Canivete was right. This was definitely not striking him as an easy campaign and he didn't even know if all the preemptive feeding would maintain him for long. He'd been getting hungrier and hungrier recently. Something deep in him feeling like something big was coming... He wasn't sure what, but he had his suspicions.

And so did his worrywart sister.

If he ended up running on empty down on Umbara... He might become desperate enough to eat his brothers's blasters as a last resort. Or worse... Try to eat their Jedi. And if neither of those things happened? What would become of him? Would he collapse? Would he die? Neither of them knew for sure...

The point was that, by technicality, he was a liability and Canivete was right to request he stay on ship. It was the safer option.

But he didn't want to sit around while his brothers, sisters and siblings fought a bloody battle. He didn't want to be separated from them and be left wondering if any of them would come back safely. Something deep in his core told him they might not.

Not that he had a choice in the matter. Canivete had made sure of it.

"I'm sorry Peel. I really am... But as a medic I have to do what's right by my patients." Cani looked genuinely sorrowful. "And as a sister, I have to do what's right by my siblings... Even if I have to go behind their back to do it..."

"If you die down there, I'll never forgive you." He spat out coldly, uncaring if he hurt her feelings. "I won't say your name in my remembrances, you hear me?"

"...That's fair." He hated that she looked resigned to that. He wanted her to argue with him. Not accept whatever he told her in a fit of bitter anger. "Keep the ship safe Peel. I'll do my best to make sure everyone comes back in one piece..."

With that all said, the medic turned around and left. His words weighed heavier in his heart because she didn't look back. Peel was watching his vode, his loved ones, marching towards uncertainty and potential death. And he couldn't do anything about it. He felt helpless.

Moments like these made him wish he wasn't such a goddamn freak.

#Eps Writes #star wars #the clone wars #whumptober #Umbaran Pathogen AU #clone trooper peel #clone ocs #clone medic canivete

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danoshanter · 2 years ago

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Wait ... they're - WHAT? : A Tale of the Khell'Zentii Research Directorate

This is not the whole story, but I'll give you a link to the thread where I'm posting the story as it unfolds. This is an AAR from the Stellaris game, that I as a crazy writer all the rest of it I've been splattering all over Tumblr the last few, have turned into a story. Contained in this post is the first installment, and a hint that the next installments actually ratchet up the humour quotient and get some descriptive writing in that I'm actually not at all displeased with; following that is a link to the Stellaris game AAR forum on the game company (Paradox)'s website where I am posting subsequent episodes as things become interesting enough in the game to spark a story that I can actually include enough timeline before and after that ... anyway, I just realized that though this is a bit long it really is only leadup to the first revelation, so I'll include first and second installments (I'm up to I think four so far)

:FIRST POSTING:

=========================================

Chief Research Director Arani Khell'Bizar slowly .... ever so slowly ... sank her aching head into her cupped hands. Very slowly, and trying not to be too obvious about it. The subprefectoral attaché who’d been sent over without warning or procedure from Third Under-secretary Brael’yn’s Interstellar Astrogation Department (Riparian Office, Dark Quark Hyperlane Currents Mapping Subdivision, and a few other categories, subcategories, subsubcategories, and subsubsubadnauseam,etc.), and who was currently bouncing off the walls of her meditation chamber, knocking the teaware and beakers all over the place with his flailing arms and raving at her, was obviously highly unstable. Wildly excited. Any usable data irretrievably corrupted by his emotion over … over … well, something or other ... and just a LITTLE incoherent in consequence. That was all. The man wasn't DELIBERATELY trying to make her already gigaparsec-sized headache any worse than it already was. He was just ... She paused, took a breath and sighed.

She tried. She really did. She tried to be so patient with all the echelons, from highest senatorial level department head all the way down to lowest titration pipette scrubber. And look what it got her. She really, truly, deep down in her fundamentally decent soul, really BELIEVED in the Credo. And that was the true beginning of the problem. She left herself too open, too vulnerable. No one, from absolute alpha to the meanest of the most abject omega, even respected her SELF, much less her time, her personal space or the dignity of her elected office. They all just saw her as ... she didn't know what. Someone safe though. Someone so lofty, and therefore paradoxically so inconsequential and objectified, that it was OK to waste her time for twenty minutes with an incoherent, emotional, IRRATIONAL outburst that still hadn't enlightened her as to any actual data, OR any actual poetic truths, except that the ISS D'oh was somehow involved. That was absolutely all she had to go o...

… as that thought brought up memories of all the particularly hellish last few days ... weeks ... months ... years, essentially every single moment since she was first elected, of nothing but trials, challenges, and testpad disasters trying to get this fragile interstellar nation off the ground of one single planet, when up until a decade ago her people hadn't even known hyperluminary interstellar travel was even possible; all the damn fool press releases claiming ... again ... "WE'VE FOUND OTHER SAPIENT LIFE!"; all the shamefaced, very quietly soft=floated followups that, "Um ... Well, yeah, it's ... ah, it's life all right, Jim, but I'm afriad it's just dumb as a box of rocks again and that's all there is to it. Ah... -- Sorry ..." ... ... And now, at the end of a very bad day dealing with the fallout of yet another false alarm of other sapient life being discovered out there by the very same dear but omniverse-shatteringly ANNOYING childhood friend who was currently trying to drive her to madness sending her low level couriers who are absolutely and completely incapable of framing a coherent, logical …

"attaché?"

(Incoherent response)

"attachÉ!"

(What>I>if>the D'oh>the transmiss...>ohmyGODS>...what?)

"this won't work. you are too involved. it impairs the efficiency of your communication. tell Braelie to come and tell me herself."

(But>what>wait>NO!>she specifically ordered … )

"attaché."

(Wh>sh>yes?)

"am I currently Chief Research Director of the Interstellar Khell'Zenti Confederation?"

(Well>b>yes m'…)

pardon?”

(Ah>ah> … )

“its very simple. classic binary reasoning. nothing more involved than that. am. I. currently Chief Research Director. or. am I not? yes/no, on/off, 1/0.”

(Ah>m>ah>0>ah>imean>Yes)

"did you vote for me?"

I>wh>what doe...>...>...> *gulpbreathgulp* "Yes, Director. I did."

*3.141592653589793238 millisecond pause*

"... braelie. "

-- *Same pause x 10* ...

"NOW."

============================================================= :END FIRST POSTING: ===========================================================================================================================

:SECOND POSTING:: ==================================================================== "Director?" Arani paused to reflect that that was probably one of the things she appreciated most about her chief of staff. Bruustian perfectly epitomized the Khell'Zentaii ideal of taking an absolutely calm and rational and at the same time poetically stylish approach to all that one did; to combine within oneself the clear-eyed zeal and the calm abandon of the warrior-poets and the poet-warriors of old. He was a pool of calm water within the swirling maelstrom of the tabik wave around him. All the other raving idiots she was forced to deal with on a daily basis were so flustered by her office that she was lucky if they confined themselves to "Chief Research Director", and didn't throw in some bizarre politicohierarchical grooming ritual of tangled compliments and obscure metaphorical references likening her to the world-elephant that held up the scientific universe from her ivory throne at the pinnacle of the Kkell'Zentaii mountain, and on and on they would flourish while her eyeballs nearly cracked trying not to glaze over, all the while the window of opportunity for whatever wonderfulness it was was inexorably and often rapidly closing every millimuon they nattered on with their floridity. Bruustian, no. HE just called her, "Director", and got the flaming fluctacte on with ... "Director???" She allowed her left shoulder to startle slightly. "Yes, Primus?" The left corner of his mouth quirked up slightly at the antiquated title. That was all. "Third Secretary Brael'yn is here. She's just about to turn into the corridor leading to your conference chamber. You wanted to be apprised." She smiled, for the first time that week. "Thank you, Primus. Please be sure she has her single malt properly warmed, and let her know I'll be there as soon as I finish "

========================================

“Brae. Um. You’re SURE that whiskey’s just the way you like it right? I got it from the old place, the one on the corner of Beaker Street, and … here, I know you haven’t had time to relax in forever, just sit down here and take it easy, and … “Ari. Cut the crap. You’re fussing me like a mother my’erdrtsk, but you’re not listening!” “HOW CAN I POSSIBLY LISTEN, YOU’VE BEEN RAVING YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR THREE HOURS AND YOU STILL HAVEN”T SAID ONE COHERENT WORD I COULD UNDERSTAND. This is not Brae’lyn Nab’taxrani in there, not the Brae I know, now please come back and tell me what. The. Squick. You. Are. Talking. About.” “WE FOUND THEM! AND WE FOUND THEM AND OH GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE FOUND THEM BUT WE FOUND!” “Brae. You have found them on a regular basis for … “ “Direct confirmed videographic evidence.” “WJHAT! Why didn’t you say that FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so sorry, Brae, that’s …” "That’s minor.” "Th … what?” "Listen to me. When the D’oh entered the Yri’dinxi system they were contacted, on VIDEO FEED, by … … MACHINES.” “An automated comm station?” “NO. There is NO evidence of creator species. There is no evidence of organic maintenance techs, no evidence of organic operators, no evidence of any kind of energy feed connection whatsoever to a remote organic operator in or out of system. There was, however, at least residual evidence of DROID personnel performing these roles. Ari. We have not only found our first sentient species in this entire universe, besides ourselves. That in itself would be universe shattering enough, but the inescapable conclusion that all my xenocontact theoreticians unanimously agree upon … UNANIMOUSLY, mind you, and you know that bunch … is that we have also found … an artificial, 100% machine based species that is as completely and fully sentient ...

.. as ourselves.”

<= *&%&* +>

Cut to the shadowy, vastly impressive Acadame des Artes et Science senate chamber. Time stamp reads previous temporal coordinates plus one hour. Shadows drape their solemn webwork all around, the occasional whir hum and glow of technology is perceptible in the distance. There is no other sound or motion. The scientist/senators are sitting absolutely still, their jaws dropped as far upon their breasts as nature will allow them in a state of total muscular stunnedness. They have been in this state since the Chief Researcb Director informed the legislative body of the news before taking up her place at the Director's workstation and freezing into a similar state. Perhaps there is a young page insufficiently educated to grasp the full ramifications, and therefore not totally unconscious but just high enough level trained to sort of understand the general framework, worriting in the shadowy corners and wondering what the hell to do when they suddenly might as well be in a postapocalyptic scenario as far as the total consciousness-absence of anyone who knows the news is concerned, and they'd know just enough to know they can't get help because anyone they have immediate access and even begin to describe the problem to will immediately fall into a similar state. Cut to the same chamber a month later. The autocomms have just tickered the news that the lower echelons fuctioned just well enough, before freezing up totally, to set the diplomatic corps in motion. The diplomatic corps is made up of individuals whose personality type makes them immune to revelatory brain freeze (if a little inclined to snark at the scientist higher echelons who aren't.) and therefore, the Khell'Zenti Science Directorate is suddenly engaged in direct diplomacy with a hitherto unsuspected alien artificial intellgence hive mind who jus happens to be the first sapient life the Khell'Zenti were aware of in the universe besides themselves. The scientists are completely unaware this is going on. They are in the same position and state they were in the last time we saw our heroes. Except that some clever maintenance tech has rigged up autoIV feed lines and other basic life support technology to keep them at least minimally functional until they can recover from their stun and actually begin to respond to the situation. This is probably a different lower level tech from the one who remarked that after all this star empire was supposed to be a science directorate that followed rationality and objective uncorrupted data wherever they might lead, and that all data sources so far seemed to indicate that while the functions directly associated with the Director herself had indubitably suffered, the rest of the government actually seemed to be functioning more efficiently than it had while the senators were conscious and operational. She went on to say that she at least saw no need to compromise that efficiency by wasting resources trying to revive anyone but the Director herself, and that the rest were probably happier on life support anyway than incessantly wrangling about whether the distance between Belgarion's planet and the location of the accident that tore apart the Prophecies in David Eddings' Belgariad universe was so many parsecs, or so many parsecs PLUS ONE INCH, a question that superheated plasma, ink, CRT photons and blood had (spinning the metaphor out just a little longer) all been shed over before the poor Director had finally managed to coddle the species over the planetary doorstep to even get to space in the first place.

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cultivating-wildflowers · 2 years ago

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Books of 2023 - February

This month I caved to tumblr dashboard pressure and picked up the Lockwood series instead of a few stand-alones I had meant to get to. So it goes. Between that, a short and sweet nonfiction, and some excellent Dorothy L. Sayers, it was a good month for reading.

As for the other books from my 2023 TBR, we'll call them lackluster, which is irritating.

Total books: 8 | New reads: 7 | 2023 TBR completed: 3 (2 DNF) / 5/25 total | 2023 Reading Goal: 21/50

January | March

#1 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff - 5/5 stars

I borrowed this book back in November. NOVEMBER.

What took me so long? Beats me! But I am very glad I kept it (and that I saw one of the tumblr gals rec it) because it was the perfect book with which to launch into February, that most hated of months. What a cozy, delightful, charming book. I need my own copy ASAP. (The library copy's pages were pretty fragile and pulled away from the binding if I wasn't careful.)

Yes, I cried a little bit.

#2 - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers - 3/5 stars (reread, audio)

Well, now I know why I gave this three stars the first time. There were a few things I remembered about it (how well Chambers presents alien worldviews, especially) and a lot I forgot....

#3 - A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers - 4/5 stars (audio)

I don't normally like stories that bounce between timelines, but it worked really well for this. Unfortunately I still dislike the narrator. It's like she has no idea how a conversation works; her inflections are all over the place.

#4 - The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud - 5/5 stars (audio)

So I did have this on my TBR for the year (and it's been on my general TBR for a while) but I only picked it up now because, what with the new show, my dash has been inundated with Lockwood & Co content. I have no intention of watching the show, but I'd like Tumblr to be usable again....

Based on everything I've heard about this book (and series) over the last few years, I went into it with pretty high expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. I even liked the narrator! Everything works so well: characters, worldbuilding, narrative voice…. The pacing threw me off a little but it didn’t detract from the story. I’m definitely gonna recommend this to some people.

#5 - The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud - 4/5 stars (audio)

Unfortunately the narrator for this sequel changed from the first one, and I didn’t like her as much. Fortunately the story itself had all of the pros of the first one! I'll admit I lost it during that final confrontation, man....

#6 - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers - 4/5 stars

Almost a month later, I finished! I really did enjoy this installment (nearly as much as Murder Must Advertise). It's just that for some reason these books take forever for me to get through.

But there's something about how Sayers writes an ending. I don't know it is, but it always seems to work impeccably.

#7 - The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud - 5/5 stars (audio)

Ok. It is rude to leave one book on a cliffhanger and then open the sequel with a completely unrelated action sequence set six months later.

Rude.

That aside, the series is (unsurprisingly) holding strong. Even better: The Hollow Boy does not suffer from Middle Book Syndrome! I wasn't expecting so many pieces from the first two books to carry through and expand here, but I am definitely enjoying it. (Read: Panicking.)

[also we had yet another narrator and I liked her even less than the first two because she butchered George's voice and what was up with the Skull??]

#8 - Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers - 5/5 stars ('23 TBR, audio)

One of my Top Anticipated Reads of 2023!

*screams into carpet*

DNF

Children of the Fleet by Orson Scott Card - It's a no from me, kids. Took me a month and a threat from the library to make up my mind.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier ('23 TBR) - I can see why people like this book, and I agree it's well written; it just didn't grab me. I own a copy, so I'll probably try it again at some point, but I absolutely could not make myself read it this time.

Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang ('23 TBR, audio)

This book was not what I was expecting, and not at all something I normally read. While I liked the premise, Cas was awful. Yes, we get it, you’re the specialist, most edgy little murder girl. Math is you superpower, that is legitimately cool. Why don’t you try paying attention to the plot for two seconds instead of constantly reminding everyone how dangerous and obnoxious you can be.

It will probably make no sense to anyone else, but I had the same issues with this book that I had with Ready Player One, if to a lesser degree than that nightmare. Zero Sum Game felt like it was trying a little too hard to be cool. Cas was trying way too hard to be tough. And yes, I cackled when she pitched a fit every time she saw a Glock for the first 20 chapters only to breathe a sigh of a relief when she picked up a Ruger. I mean, same, but I hate Glocks for different reasons than "they're cliche".

The most personally irritating aspect to me was Rio. Normally I go nuts for this kind of character (think Zero from The City Between, Silas from The Graveyard Book, and Scar from FMA). Here? Again: trying too hard.

#2023 reading list #mine #84 Charing Cross Road #Helene Hanff #The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet #A Closed and Common Orbit #Becky Chambers #The Screaming Staircase #The Whispering Skull #The Hollow Boy #Jonathan Stroud #The Nine Tailors #Gaudy Night #Dorothy L. Sayers

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nicholas-wolfwood · 2 years ago

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"Could you tell me more about your world? From what you've told me, I can see a few differences between here and there." That includes the chatting via mobile apps for example. But then again, when Atem was alive in his original timeline this wasn't even a thing. Wonder if there would be more similarities than differences though?

"Really? Surprised you're interested, there really ain't much." Not that he was opposed to talking about it, there just wasn't that much to get excited about in his eyes.

"Well, it's all desert to start. I hear Earth has different kinds of areas to it, but we never had anythin' more than some more rocky areas, or the sand ocean- which I hear Earth has, only it's all water. Dunno if that's bullshit or not. Sounds kinda like bullshit, but then again this IS a planet of miracles."

"Anyways, there's less tech unless you're lucky or rich enough to come across the Lost stuff from before the crash. Some of the towns're nice, smaller quiet ones, but even then you gotta watch out for bandits, slavers, organ harvesters, yanno." As if this were as common as finding squirrels in the garden. He doesn't know any different.

"Oh, there's also the sand worms. Big, nasty fuckers, but they usually stay outta the bedrock so they ain't too big of an issue unless you go an' piss 'em off."

#ofthepuzzle #*just casually talks about bandits like they're a problem in Domino City too*#*cuz why wouldn't they be?*#ask #v: maximum

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kaisarionwrites · 8 days ago

Text

godtiering.

my oc and my bsf's oc, joeseph. ugh. the angst. i love them

tw: the girls are fighting, gore, semi-descriptive of injuries n whatnot

i hope you enjoy

A brief stutter in the timeline. A soft scratch, a rewind, and life continues on as normal. Damien pauses in his action, drawing the baseball bat from his sylladex.

"Yo. Who's there." He calls, glancing around his surrounding area. Life on Joeseph's planet was a whole lot different then LoTaF. A lot less fire, and a lot less to be paranoid about. His grip on the handle shifts.

A second Damien pushes himself through a bush, looking signifgantly more dishevled and bruised. Worse for ware, he adorns many scars and tattered clothes. He god tiered.

"Holy shit." Delta Damien breathed. He logged the baseball bat once more, pulling out his pocket watch. It did a whole lot more then just 'check the time', but thats semantics. "What happened? Why are you here? You better not be from the future dude."

Other Damien shook his head rapidly, hands up. "No, dude. Promise. Okay. Listen. I don't EXACTLY have much time on my hands." He scoffed at his own comment. "Not like we ever. Okay. Failed timeline. I'm a past version of the Damien of the failed timeline, I dont really know--" Other Damien rambles on and on and on--

"Cut to the chase dude."

"You gotta kill Joeseph."

"I'm fucking sorry?" Damien would've choked on air if he could. KILL Joeseph? His best friend? Is he crazy?

Other Damien waved his hands rapidly, snagging attention back again. "Listen. I don't know why, this isn't a message from 'me', okay well it is, it's from the me-- us-- you???" Other Damien groaned, leaning his head back. "I just need you to trust me. If you don't, this timeline will go to shit just like mine is-- will. Okay?"

"Are you fucking kidding? You want me to kill our best friend?"

"Okay not just KILL him. Kill him on his quest bed. Give that nerd a smooch on the lips and god tier him."

Damien hesitated. "Are you FOR SURE this is what I have to do?"

Other Damien eyed him up and down suspiciously. "Have other Damien's lied to you before?"

Damien shook his head.

"Then yes. Okay, We good? 'kay. Cool. Later dude." A click of a button, and Other Damien glitched out of this world like he wasn't there.

Damien stared at the inprint of the grass that other Damien had just stood. A small object shined at him.

"Fuuuuuck."

Joeseph turned, axe slung over his shoulder as he looks off the edge, into the distance, admiring the view of his planet. A gentle breeze carried the tune of any song if you listened hard enough, and there were always the prettiest clouds in the sky. Joeseph was isolated, standing with a wide smile.

"Dude. Damien!" Joeseph chirped, a pep in his step as he practically flew over, tackling Damien in a hug. The taller male grunted, catching him and stumbling with the body weight.

"Haha- oh my god dude- Yeah its. It's good to see you." Damien said, an awkward pause in his language. A soft click, and he uncaptalogged a small knife Damien had dropped before he left. This was his best friend. Someone who he had only dreamed of meeting in person. Someone he loved.

"Hey, you okay?" Joeseph looked up at him, a small look of concern on his face before it dropped, a gasp falling from his lips.

"I'm sorry dude."

Joeseph stumbled back, grabbing at his chest desperately. A drop of his crimson blood hit the concrete that they stood on. Tears welled in his eyes, and he glared at Damien with a look of sheer fucking anger and betrayal.

"What-- What the fuck? I hug you- I'm so excited to see you-- you stab me??" Joeseph fumbled, grabbing the axe that he slung over his back and wielding it between two hands.

"I trusted you."

He lunged, revenge the only thing on his mind.

A look of terror crossed Damien's face, hands stained with the blood that he just drew from his lover. He didn't even think to dodge until it was too late, a jagged slash cutting up from his chin to his nose. Damien fumbled, grabbing his mouth as blood poured from his face. It dawned on him. Joeseph is trying to kill him.

No moment of regret, Joeseph fell through on the swing, flipping the axe over in his hand to swing down at him once more. Rage was in his eyes, and a scream mixed with pain and frustration echoed through the valley.

Damien unlogged his bat, pressing up and against the Axe that dared to cut the metal in half. Sparks flew, and Damien pushed back, harder, faster, pushing the weight and using it to his advantage as he swung. The timeline. For the timeline. This is what's gotta happen.

Crack.

The bat flew and slammed against the bridge of the axe guitar, popping a string.

Crack

The bat slammed against the cement, rolling some distance away as it was hit from his hands. More blood pooled from where his palm gripped his sleeve, trying to quell the bleeding. Damien groaned in pain, stumbling to retrieve the bat.

"Damien what the fuck is wrong with you?" Joeseph screamed at him, tears of rage falling from his face. He followed behind Damien, dragging the axe behind him as a trail of blood followed. "What are you doing?? Do you really hate the fact that you love me this much?"

Damien froze.

He bent over, slowly, grabbing the bat with his good hand. He turned to face Joeseph, bat used as leverage to lean against. He looked worse for ware. Blood still running down his face, shades cracked and missing glass.

Joeseph took another step towards him. His hand was outreached like he wanted to hold something. His hand. Those weren't tears of rage. It was sadness.

Damien swung.

A crack, and Joeseph's body collapsed lifelessly in front of Damien. Blood pooled under his head, and Damien stared down at him with a souless look. He won, at what cost. Knees buckled and he sat down besides his best friends body.

"I am so fuckin' sorry man."

Damien silently sobbed, pushing himself back up and grabbing onto Joeseph's hands like was just an object. Something to push and pull. A cog in the wheel of life. He dragged him, step after step, to the bed that lay in the center of the spire. Blood followed.

With a grunt, Damien hoisted him up and onto the quest bed. Joeseph lay there. It's not like he was alive. Damien stared. What if this didn't work. No one had god tiered before. What if he lied to himself? What if he just killed his best friend and that was it? No more Joeseph.

No.

He had to believe. Otherwise, what would be believe in at all?

His injured face leaned down, and sliced lips met cold ones, and for a moment, Damien pretended like everything was normal.

He pulled away, and waited. A beat. Then another. Nothing happened. Damien growled, just about to yell some explative before the 4 spikes on the bed illuminated with a glaring light. Bleeding hands covered the holes in his shades, and Damien scrambled to get off the quest bed.

A glowing ladybug. Then three. Then hundreds swarmed the bed, and Damien could only watch in awe as they surrounded Joeseph's body. Then with a flash of light, he was gone, and Damien was alone.

It was so quiet.

Damien stared. He reached his hand, gently brushing his lips with a wince. He could feel his teeth through the wound. Another whine of pain, as he looked at his hand, flexing it. Nothing broken, just bruised and cut and-

"Damien."

Damien wiped his head around, broken shades showing just for a moment, he was terrified.

Joeseph stood- no floated above the concrete. Adorned in a god tier outfit, a lighter blue crown apon his head, a small cape flowing in the wind that graced his planet, He looked like nothing had happened to him. No blood. No injuries.

"Joeseph?" Damien scrambled to his feet, stumbling as he hurried towards him. "Joeseph- i am so sorr--"

Damien flinched, a sting on his cheek. He stared at Joeseph, whos hand was still extended from slapping him.

"What in the world were you thinking Damien? You're… ohhh you're SO lucky- oh my gosh. Oh my GOSH." Joeseph was fuming with anger. He lowered onto the ground, a soft tap of his shoes hitting the ground as he paced forward, shoving Damien to the ground. He fell without argument, elbows propping himself up as he stared.

"If that didn't work, you would've just killed me. You realise that right? Dead! Oh my gosh dude." Joeseph rambled, staring down at him. Creases on his face from anger, he groaned with frustration, arms slapping against his sides.

Damien stayed quiet.

"And- don't even get me started on the whole back stabbing thing. Literally?? Did you scheme that up with Atolst or something? HAH- oh that would be just be my luck wouldn't it huh. Wouldn't it b--"

"I love you."

Joeseph paused, mid word, mouth agape.

Damien stared at the space between his legs. He did not move a muscle as he spoke once more.

"Listen-- listen dude I have been such a fucking prick to you. I've kissed you- twice now-- and i've called you homophobic shit behind your back and i've stabbed you and hurt you and--" His head hung low, and a tear dripped onto the concrete.

"And I love you so much and I am so sorry. A version of myself from a different timeline- a failed one, came to me and told me to do it. Otherwise the whole timeline would be fucked. Time shit. I can't-- you know-- my aspect--" Damien rambled, shoulders shaking with every sob that racked his body.

Joeseph looked at him with an unreadable expression. His mouth still open, he lowered himself to his knees, right in front of Damien. Without a word, he pulled him in for a hug, resting his head against the others.

"I love you. It's okay." Joeseph muttered into his ear, hand on his head, fingers tangled in his locks.

Damien's head fell against his shoulder, and he sobbed.

#damien strider #joeseph egbert #delta kids #homestuck ocs #homestuck #oneshot #the girls are fighting #angst #sick ass combat

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beevean · 3 months ago

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I'm sorry, but this argument hinges on some incorrect assumptions

the symbolism of him literally throwing away a picture of his family just seems… Like the opposite of what made this character appealing in the first place?

Why? The symbolism seems clear to me. Shadow spent the entirety of his game trying to remember who he was: because of this, multiple parties were able to pull him on their sides, taking advantage more or less intentionally of his vulnerability. Come the Last Story, and Gerald's message to him, and he decides that he will move forward.

Throwing away that picture symbolized that. Not that he would forget them. Just that from then on, he would Never Turn Back.

Because without context, this can be read as "Shadow is made appealing by his attachment to Maria and nothing else".

Sega begins to pretend that Team Dark aren't even friends in their mandates for a while (despite the fact they clearly care for each others' wellbeing before anybody else's). Shadow becomes practically a popsicle stick puppet for "angry, serious, violent rival", and they never feel a need to explain his motivations or reactions beyond waving at that four word character description again.

No, no, no no no. If you're using Sonic Boom as your example, it's not canon and everyone is a parody of themselves - I'm not going to pretend Boom Shadow is particularly charming, but he is literally a different character than mainline Shadow. If you're using IDW as your example, Ian Flynn straight up doesn't understand the character.

What about Forces? A game that is very much canon, whose DLC is entirely focused on Shadow, where he has good banter with Rouge and Omega and he's shown to care about them (ex: the way he says "Tell me what you did to Omega" when Infinite boasts about defeating him), which is why Infinite uses them to torment him in his illusion - a more interesting idea than the fandom's first assumption that he used Maria's memory to break him?

You (general) may not like the game, or even its main story, but its portrayal of Shadow has nothing wrong with it if not that he's marginal.

(Someone who nearly lets the world be destroyed as revenge for losing his family is the exact opposite of someone who doesn't care!)

Gerald brainwashed him to do so.

He tampered with Shadow's memories so that he wouldn't remember Maria's final words, and therefore assume she wanted revenge for being killed.

It's not a coincidence that in ShTH, you player need to push Shadow to his utmost evil, and make him commit at least one war crime, for him to return to his "destroy the damn planet" mentality - and before G.U.N. Fortress, he remembers Gerald for the first time in the game. Just like he remembers Maria if you go for the Pure Hero ending! The parallel is intentional! Gerald is the reason Shadow went on a rampage in SA2! Violent destruction is not part of Shadow's character unless manipulated to do so!

He has finally, WITHOUT GETTING AMNESIA, IN THE CANON TIMELINE, gotten to become the hero Maria wanted him to be.

I'm sorry, I really don't get why amnesia would diminish his accomplishments? Does him killing Devil Doom and saving the Earth from the Black Comet suddenly not count because he got amnesia beforehand? In fact, one could argue that it makes him even more honorable!

This is the one big difference between Shadow in the Pure Hero-Hero ending and the Last Story. In the former, his only motivation is implied to be honoring Maria's wish ("I made a promise that I intend to keep!"), and you can tell by how many paths reference her and Shadow's promise to her in their name: For Love's Sake, Maria's Testament, The One Who Maria Entrusted, etc.. But in the Last Story, while he still intends to keep that promise, Maria is no longer his only morality compass: he can do the right thing because, well, it's the right thing to do. Just because he didn't mention Maria in '06, the assumption to make wasn't that he had forgot about her: he just became more of his own person.

That doesn't mean his story's over: I'm sure they can still find adventures to send him on.

It would have been nice to do so for this game meant to hype up Shadow, instead of this weird Shadow the Hedgehog 2: Time Travel edition.

Iizuka bluntly admitted that SXSG was nothing more than an advertisement for the movie. And I get it. Movie 3 is about to come out, and kids will want to learn who this cool black hedgehog is: there you go, just buy the abridged version of his arc, instead of experiencing these older games (as if playthroughs didn't exist)! But as a long-time fan, who has been here since 2004, this game just feels redundant to me. Shadow has to defeat Black Doom who wants to use him as a soldier... again. Shadow has to experience Maria and her death... again (he did so in The Doom and Lost Impact too, and those levels also fleshed her out as a character and gave insight on how they lived before the raid. Oh, speaking of which, The Doom as a concept showed more of Black Doom's powers and manipulative cunning than anything in SXSG). Shadow has to confront his past and his genetic ties with Black Doom... again ("Your alien biology doesn't matter!" repeats everyone in the game where the main gimmick is using Shadow's new cool alien biology and can only defeat his father with the biology that allegedly doesn't matter). Shadow sheds a tear for Maria before going and honoring her wish... again.

I've seen this. I've played Adventure 2, I've played Heroes, I've played ShTH, I've played Battle <- another canon game that deals with Shadow post-character development and does it masterfully, but I guess it's too obscure to be appreciated. If Shadow can be his own character and not just the guy who is sad because his friend died, can we please move on? Forces did it, and while again Shadow's role was admittedly minor, he was perfectly fine in that game! More of that, of Shadow doing his own thing and intersecting with Sonic while bantering with Rouge and Omega!

The only new thing in SXSG was that Shadow briefly contemplates freezing Maria and Gerald in time so that he wouldn't have to leave them again, and has to be told by Maria herself to not do that. At this point in his development, he really should be able to make the decision to let them go unprompted.

So yeah, SXSG did give Shadow a conclusion. For the fourth time. He's spinning his wheels by this point. This game is just an ad for newcomers, but it adds nothing new of substance, and it only further cements the idea that Shadow is not interesting if he doesn't angst about Maria. Hell, Team Dark doesn't even get much relevance in the game - you need to go out of your way to talk to Omega. The focus is very obviously not their present friendship, but Shadow's past and biology, again.

(Spoilers for Shadow Generations)

I think what I appreciate most about Shadow Generations is just that it gives Shadow ACTUAL, CANON closure for his struggle between good and evil.

By the end of Adventure 2, he remembered his promise to Maria and made his choice to save the world, but then he "dies".

When Heroes revives him, he doesn't remember any of that.

His namesake game (and I say this as gently as possible), as cool as the multiple endings were, feels so unsatisfying. We get to see Shadow's potential for good and evil, sure, but then the true canon ending comes, and it doesn't specify what he did (or even what exactly he remembered about his past) to get there, and then he just decides not to let his past control him. Which isn't a terrible direction on paper, but the symbolism of him literally throwing away a picture of his family just seems... Like the opposite of what made this character appealing in the first place?

And from there, the games kept giving mixed signals. Sonic '06 shows how deeply he and Team Dark come to care for each other, but then its events get literally removed from the timeline. Sega begins to pretend that Team Dark aren't even friends in their mandates for a while (despite the fact they clearly care for each others' wellbeing before anybody else's). Shadow becomes practically a popsicle stick puppet for "angry, serious, violent rival", and they never feel a need to explain his motivations or reactions beyond waving at that four word character description again.

Shadow's appeal (at least to me) was never that he was a character who didn't care about anything - it was that he cared very deeply, actually. (Someone who nearly lets the world be destroyed as revenge for losing his family is the exact opposite of someone who doesn't care!) He may not be cheerful, he may be quiet and stern, he may have a temper and be capable of terrible things if he isn't careful, but he isn't heartless.

And Shadow Generations FINALLY got it right, I feel.

There's now no doubt that he remembers his past, and that it did matter to him. It still does, in fact, and we're dropping the idea that he'll move on from it like it never happened. That's not how tragedy works.

But he will be able to move forward.

He has finally, WITHOUT GETTING AMNESIA, IN THE CANON TIMELINE, gotten to become the hero Maria wanted him to be.

That doesn't mean his story's over: I'm sure they can still find adventures to send him on. And that doesn't mean he needs any kind of complete personality overhaul, either. He can still be more aggressive than Team Sonic, and more stern, and maybe even more willing to resort to questionable methods to fight next week's bad guy.

But all of Team Dark has gotten to acknowledge that they do, in fact, care for each other, even if their attitudes aren't as chummy as Team Sonic.

Shadow has gotten to hear from his family that they are proud of him, weird alien DNA and all, and that even though he will have to go the rest of his long life without them, their love will always go with him, and give him the strength he needs to overcome any of his darker parts.

Shadow having a darker edge than Sonic and Shadow being a hero are things that can and SHOULD coexist, and I'm so glad we finally got to see it for him without it getting wiped from canon or his own memories again.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic x shadow generations spoilers #i'm happy that you enjoyed the story #shadow is not terribly written and i liked the npc dialogue with maria - she's really cute when she can be more than shadow's fridged girl #it's just that 'finally they gave him closure!' is... not true. provably not true. they did. multiple times.#those past games don't stop being canon because they're old or flawed #the only one i can concede is '06 because that game's canon status is a mess #meta wise though we still experienced it #and shadow was in a good position already he just needed more screentime #between this and all the 'hell yeah they're going to shoot maria in the movie <3' jokes i'm just sick of reheating this soup #in fact they did with shadow the same thing they did with amy knuckles and tails in frontiers. please let us move on #anyway shth is a good game and it's smarter than people give i credit for and i will defend its bright points to the death

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