#immense detail.

[theganymedes]

if you ever see me having a three page long internal monologue socratic seminar ted talk video essay breakdown discussion post in someone’s reblogs, just know that you should read that story expeditiously.

[veveisveryuncool]

MOVE OVER MAGOLOR DAY (TDOV EASTER) ITS TIME FOR MARX DAY (APRIL FOOLS)

[ravencromwell]

Fuck, just had a hell of a Holland realization, which everyone else probably realized years ago but indulge my horror: The Danes have their stone statue garden of traitors. And the only thing we've ever seen in WL that can turn people to stone is As Staro. The command Holland used to kill his fucking brother. The idea of him having to replicate that kill over and over with the traitors the Danes wanted to make sharpest examples of, and then walk past those kills every fucking day? I have nothing else to say except it's a fucking crime Holland didn't get the same sort of triumphant, bloody fight against the Danes Lila got against the earth mage who tried to kill her in the tournament, because to say he deserved it so much more is the flimsiest possible understatement.

[bonefall]

For Riverstar’s Heir, do you have any idea where you want to land themeatically? Because from my reading of the possible themeatic directions, with the whole story being about this crisis of politics and succession, it feels like the character who “should” become the next leader of RiverClan narratively should be the Most ruthless/aggressive/willing to resort to dishonorable methods of dealing with rivals (reinforcing RiverClan’s entry into/building up of the early Clans’ emerging systems of battle society)

The alternative “most interesting” option I can imagine would be one that is least likely/least aggressive/some otherwise sort of underdog candidate (maybe not even technically “legal” depending on what qualifications there are for heirship?), but I’m not sure exactly what themes that would play into, other than maybe how the pursuit of power can change someone?

That said, your themeatic instincts are strong enough that I can see you having a strong idea for a “middle-of-the-pack” candidate winning out over the others just as much, so— I am genuinely curious what your thoughts are for where you Want this crisis of succession to end, narratively, even if you don’t have an exact cat picked yet.

Good ask because I'd not been clear about the theme yet, I think. What Riverstar's Heir is trying to get at, at the heart of the issue, is that this is a bloodbath caused by naiive optimism and greed.

The commandments to establish borders and prevent killing are nice, but not enough. You can't just have a society on good will, not when POWER is up for grabs in the scramble. It's about collapse, and how innocent, well-meaning people get caught up in the devastation. Not JUST the troublemakers.

Riverstar was an EXCELLENT king, beloved and wise, but if you don't prepare a proper successor, everything you worked hard to build might crumble to ruin.

Something unique is lost in this shuffle. It's no longer the River Kingdom, and the Wind Coalition also becomes WindClan at this point. For better, and for worse, they both lose a bit of what made them special. Redscar's choice at the end also solidifies the early political power of Clerics, which is eventually broken many generations later with Larkwing's Strike.

So, fragment time,

At LEAST three "heirs" end up getting killed.

So, because these ones are gonna die, I have Three Heir "Slots" that I'm committed to and just need to fill;

The Eldest, Riverstar's oldest living biological child.

The Chosen, Riverstar's adopted heir, a rather meek prince easily pressured into backing off his rightful claim. This one is likely going to be the BB! version of Mossfire.

The Firstblood, directly descended from Riverstar's FIRSTborn child. This one is likely going to be the BB! version of Jumpfoot.

I also have two tentative slots.

The Accomplished... who is a blood relative of Riverstar, but more of a "puppet" for WindCo. Someone they're intentionally propping up hoping for power.

The Diplomat, from WindClan, who is a lot like WindCo's puppet but this one is more subtle about it. Poetic. Happy to purr and remind the world of the wonderful, deep ties that had existed between King Riverstar and Thunderstar.

And, LASTLY, there's The Deputy. The most qualified choice, who served Riverstar, but was no relative.

It feels right that the Deputy is the one who is chosen in the end... hm.

Anyway

After a smaller conflict near the start of the story, either The Eldest or The Firstblood seems to be the favorite to win... but decides to wait for the morning to set out for the Moonstone and take their lives.

In this time period, without selecting a successor, this heir is assassinated.

In fact it might be VERY fun if this heir, being so much like King Riverstar himself, decided to throw a pre-emptive celebration.

Meat! Merriment! MURDER!!!

Having them go out via poison would be a fun way to send a character off.

This is going to be why the "DEPUTY BEFORE MOONHIGH" rule is established, but it's also what kicks off the bloodier parts of the plot.

Thinking about it... a cleric and/or the deputy should probably tell this heir, "Hey, buddy, you should really get going" and they're ignored.

With Eldest Heir gone, the small conflict from earlier becomes an LARGE conflict.

And, like they did back in DOTC, families start to rally together. Especially Eldest's offspring, who think they're just as entitled to the Throne as The Firstblood/Jumpfoot

King Riverstar used to encourage cats to enter the River Kingdom freely. The borders were essentially open, and everyone was allowed in, as long as they were willing to cross the river.

(maybe I'll even have him pull down the tree from Riverstar's Home intentionally, happy to accept other cats into his Kingdom. Then he defends it from Skystar, specifically, but refuses to destroy what he built.)

This had allowed River Kingdom to grow large and powerful, but it also meant everyone in River Kingdom had connections to the other Clans.

Which meant there were cats supporting OTHER bids to the Throne, like the one from WindCo and the one from ThunderClan.

Smelling a way to grab power, Duststar supports his favorite heir, and Whitestar of ThunderClan also begins to stick his nose in.

Each Heir tries to run the River Kingdom, and things start to get hostile. If there's more than just the three heirs, even more of them start to get openly attacked, chased out, killed, until there's only The Chosen and The Firstblood left.

Somewhere around here, River Kingdom is invaded. Probably by the leader of SkyClan at the time, claiming that they don't even NEED an heir to take what these cats clearly don't deserve.

And that's when the internal conflict becomes a FULL-BLOWN WAR between four Clans.

In those days, the camp was at Sunningrocks, right in the middle of the river.

ThunderClan jumps in to help its "Ally" against SkyClan, just like historical precedent, but they have NO IDEA who they're fighting against, because the whole Kingdom is divided. It's not as simple as it was in DOTC anymore.

WindCo came to support its favorite heir, but its cats don't obey Duststar's orders when it comes down to fighting their own friends and family, meaning they're functionally fighting EVERYONE and losing a TON of cats

SkyClan is getting pummeled because EVERY group is pissed at them as well as each other, getting a painful awakening that they are NOT being run by Skystar the War God anymore and they're no longer the biggest, baddest bananas in the bunch

(shadowclan is watching all of this and eating popcorn. moisturized. in their lane. unbothered.)

The climax here, between The Chosen and The Firstblood, is a battle that matches the chapter from COTC. They launch at each other, in a battle to the death.

The first Sunningrocks Battle.

They both wear "crowns" on their head, one custom made for Mossfire's short-furred head, and traditional, braided into Jumpfoot's long, lush fur.

As they claw, bite, and tumble, they plunge into the river.

Fighting and hissing, they try to pull apart to rise up for air-- and can't.

They're STUCK

The crowns became tangled in their skirmish, and neither one can work with the other to bring them both to shore, against the current.

Both heirs, the last with a proper claim to the throne, drown together in the river.

At the end of the bloodbath, the tone is very somber. The rules were meant to prevent The First Battle from ever happening again... but The Second Battle had just taken place.

The body count wasn't AS high as the First Battle, but it was still a bloody loss. Every Clan lost warriors. Even ShadowClan, who hadn't even been IN the conflict, checked its ranks to find that powerful warriors had run off to go fight with their Kin.

Now they could be buried with them, too.

And now, there was no proper heir. If any descendants were still kicking around, they were refusing to take a throne that so many cats had died for. Jumpfoot and Mossfire never emerged from the River, their bodies, and their legendary crowns, were never found.

At first I'd been considering Redscar being swapped to become a RiverClan Cleric, but now I'm thinking it actually makes sense he's still from ShadowClan. ShadowClan was the ONLY neutral group-- it's reasonable for the clans to turn and request their partiality.

So, Redscar peruses the options, having followed the situation from afar.

His choice, in the end, was The Deputy. The most experienced advisor who knew Riverstar, and probably tried to stay at his adopted daughter's side as well. The closest thing they'd had to a leader all along.

(Thought: Maybe this character will be the POV. Make it like a bit of a fake-out title, you THINK Riverstar's heir is Mossfire. But it's actually been this one all along.)

He creates his famous false sign, and from there, the five groups discussed how they could prevent this from ever happening again.

They create the Law of the Deputy, commanding that ALL Clans have a single Deputy who will inherit the Clan after the leader passes away, ending dynasties in WindCo and River Kingdom and centralizing power in the other 3.

With the massive losses that WindCo and River Kingdom experienced, they also restructure, forced to accept a lot of help from ThunderClan and ShadowClan.

The borders began to close up, leading to the sentiment that would lead to Commandment 4, the Law of Loyalty, in just one more generation.

[serpentface]

As someone who watches a lot of insect husbandry videos who also enjoys imagining OCs based in other folks lore—- could an Archin colony be raised by/live along side another species? Or does the wider consciousness make it too hard to find Queen without some kinda Entourage Unit to be like ‘no we don’t wanna hang out with your unit’. Your world seems to have a p set timeline (or at least set in the sense it seems ur focusing on specific eras) but I can’t help but wonder what the future will be like for all these folks. I truly wish them the best. But they also feel very. Human (sophonts all grown in disapproval). So I could see them gettin into all kinds of trouble down the line as we do.

I haven't entirely thought about this notion before..

'Adoption'-esque events are unlikely because a colony of archin is entirely self-sustaining (it may form wider allyships but does not require external support to continue existing)

The closest thing would be a single unit of archin surviving the destruction of the rest of their colony + the queen. An archin colony can rebuild itself from virtually nothing so long as they have their queen (though any units who die in the meantime will not be reformed, this is a unique 'person' that will never truly exist again), but without their 'womb' they will slowly die. In most cases where units are severed from their queen, the unit will be absorbed into an allied colony, or possibly killed by a hostile one.

If an archin colony that has reached the mainland ends up in this situation, finding another colony to merge into its unlikely, so that's a circumstance where an adoption-esque event could occur. If they managed to establish mutual communication with a sophont individual, they could become attached and treat them as a surrogate for a colony.

The unit would look for a sense of purpose in working towards a shared goal of themselves and their individual colony surrogate, in this case likely placing their ally's priorities above their own (archin units have personalities and can be highly opinionated, but will usually defer to group consensus in their colony- if their 'colony' is them and one individual person, they would still conceptualize that person as a group majority- they are not psychologically equipped to truly understand being simultaneously individual and sapient). They would seem very needy, wanting to remain in near constant communication and contact. Their ally would be basically covered in ants.

This dynamic would be 'unhealthy' by the standards of both species. I'd compare it to a parrot forming a mate bond with its human owner, it's using a human as a surrogate for social needs that they cannot truly provide, and at best merely approximate.

Units are an emergent property of a shifting group of 50+ individual archin who are constantly being replenished by new births, so this partnership would not last long, and within a year or two all members of the unit will have died. They would also slowly grow less communicative as their numbers drop (the lower number of individuals would simplify the computational power of their collective 'brain') until it's just a dwindling handful non-sapient ants, still bonded to their non-ant ally by scent.

A much likelier and less sad variant would be a colony (or an individual unit still attached to a colony) bonding with an individual person as an ally. I HAVE thought of this sort of thing before and it definitely happens.

This isn't like an adoption, more just an allyship and friendship. The bond would likely form as one mutually beneficial towards shared goals. The unit/colony involved would see this as a partnership between equals, and would not automatically defer to their ally (and may be very argumentative), but would be quite 'fair' in distribution of resources, and predisposed towards compromise and teamwork, so long as they remain convinced you share mutual goals and good intentions.

I've been thinking that most positive relationships between archin migrants and human mainlanders have formed around agriculture. An archin colony settling on your land and working towards a shared harvest would be highly beneficial for both parties, so long as there has been very effective and comprehensive communication methods developed. The archin get a safe place to nest, defense from predation, and access to a stable resource, the humans get sapient, tiny people on their lands who can perform excellent and near-constant pest control, and identify diseased crops and other issues much more effectively than humans can. Even in the case of a large colony that could eat a lot of crops, they would not necessarily compete heavily for resources, and can use some types of agricultural waste material to farm their own food (mostly types of fungus).

[icarianarts]

Playing this game has me drawing side by side political cartoon style commentary on how much I hate bronies in 2023

[whatudottu]

What better way to practice new prosthetics then to piss of the bitch that got you to need them in the first place!

In other news, my pirate ocs Gali and Ido (with a third Meridi not present) who are the two sides of the fulmini cult escapees :P

A bit of backstory under the cut since they're the only fuckers I have WITH a backstory! Which btw does detail cult shit so :P big fat warning for that-

The inciting incident on Petropia that introduced it's modern underground population to the surface named the Surface Craze was in all due part because of fulmini interference at the behest of the High Override, who saw what was initially just a planet entirely made of quartz-like crystal the Override Fleet could use as a power source. Having instead found that the planet was not only populated but by a species of the living variant of that same quartz-like material - electrical properties and all - but that additionally they can regenerate their crystalline body so long as they have the energy to pull from.

Seeing this as a solution to the fulmini's energy crisis - a perpetual machine at it's finest - the High Override sought to heh... acquire some petrosapiens for themselves. To their collective benefit, a community of petrosapiens had found their faith and world shattered, previously having been extremely devoted to the Sugi religion (derived from the ancient texts of Thuugi back when their tongues were long enough to be bitten off). Instead of needing to drag away dissenters who fought tooth and nail against the invaders, this community had already shifted their faith onto the false prophet of the High Override, which already had them fall into the Coupled Override head over heels.

The cult has now expanded it's pool of prey, and like the unwilling fulmini who gives the High Override their tithe (their minds, their central colony), the petrosapien cultists pay with their arms.

50 years (or the closest equivalent) into this arrangement, 50 years Petropia spent experiencing the surface for the first time in generations, Ido was born into the cult far away from the planet she should have known as home. Any doctor worth their salt had enough brains and stubbornness to not fall into faith-based trust of the Coupled Override, so between the lack of those and the remainder pseudoscience physicians left to echo chamber themselves, when Ido began developing Excessive Compression Disorder (ECD, a nerve-equivalent disorder that causes tension fractures throughout a petrosapien's crystalline structure) despite the rather obvious visible signed she went undiagnosed and improperly treated. At the age of 200 - a petrosapien's coming of age, and 50 years after Petropia's destruction - it was Ido's time to pay her tithe and begin her offerings to the High Override.

Gali - her sacrifricant - was to sever her arms below the elbow, as was procedure. What wasn't was the near explosive response from external pressure, or the last compressive force needed to completely shatter what had already started to break.

Cutting people's arms off is technically already a violent act however, though the lower arms survived the procedure as expected, the elbow and even upper arm had scattered shards of glass-fragile crystal in a visceral radius and physically severed through the sacrificant's central colony; then Gali was abruptly severed from the High Override after they felt as if a limb began necrotising. Sacrificants nor executioners really need an active memory to do their jobs, so Gali didn't need to have memory for however long their colony was one with the High Override's. Forcefully amputated from the larger system like an infection without any of the memories of being apart of said system however, kind of rewinds a colony back to the people they remember being long before any interference.

While Ido was caught staring wide-eyed, fearful, and newly lacking the limbs she thought she could regenerate easily - her arms try and try but they shatter like glass, crumble like sand, and she violently shudders like gravel grinding into each other - Gali regained access of their long unused senses and found a sea of hostile enemy combatants staring back. With all the training of a military general with none of the present self-awareness to realise they were the cause of the currently very panicky rock's lack of arms, Gali almost like a flick of a switch reverted to the many rules of engagement regardless of the fact that they were sporting exposed central colony that may or may not have been another's with their own collection of memories.

Seeing to rescue someone who had all their rights to fear them, Gali and Ido fled to the stars.

With a few language barriers mixed with someones learning they haven't spoken much longer then anyone thought they did, discovering how planets that were meant to be each other's home have been destroyed and irrecoverable, and learning the before and after to the horror story that is the High Override and their cultist network of external nerves and collective colony, Gali and Ido may or may not have gotten arrested :P

And they probably would have been tried for crimes neither of them could particularly understand not having learnt any of the common universal languages, up until the point the prison ship was raided by a collective of pirates only working together for equal cuts of the profits (the Plumbers used a prison ship to transport the Annihilargh while they still thought it to be a threat, what's to say they wouldn't simultaneaously transport prisoners - aka, the fucking point - with some high sought-after McGuffin). The pair would meet Meridi, a galvan with a penchant for mechanics and especially the kind that deceives an observer like - for instance - an android suit.

Meridi isn't here but gist is, she pilots both her own ship and an android resembling a human, and spies a pretty prize of walking talking taydenite. Instead of scoring a deal, she takes into consideration (perhaps with a cold calculation rather than a warm sympathy) the condition of ECD affected crystals and how much effort it would take to actually refine it and deems turning Ido into pocket change isn't worth it. In fact, further taking note of the explosive volatile footwork of crystallokinesis with the additional muscle of a fulmini veteran, actively helping Ido (and Gali by proxy) would potentially turn out more of a profit.

Gali isn't in dire need for hiding, but Ido uses shadow and a human-mouth jaw mask as tools to conceal what price her skin costs, while Meridi attempts to make prosthetics for a species that doesn't have nerves that also takes into account the unstable electrical currents produced by the compression of crystalline motor functions.

A bit of a tangent in a very long not-even-bothering-to-summarize backstory, I want to talk about petrosapien prosthetics, at least ones that can have 'motors' like Ido's arms (not like Chio's leg). With no external muscles to help strap in and extend the remnant of tendons humans have running through limbs, petrosapien exoskeletons do not offer the same interconnectivity and do not have easy ways to extend what had been cut off. Myoelectric limbs again by human standards also do not fit petrosapien nervous systems either, especially since the only nerves they have are in their equivalent of the central nervous system which also interacts with internal organs, the peripheral nervous system of a petrosapien operates with the highly structured yet individually unique non-standardised crystalline formations and compression. What Meridi does however is take material from Ido's crystal to create the joints in a conductive copper rod prosthetic (insulated in rubber to prevent harm to others), where Ido's compression triggers electricity to run down to remotely compress the crystal joints, which compress under the pressures of electricity and send the signal to be compressed again until motility is achieved.

And that is a lot of context :P woops- I either make no backstory or I make this convoluted piece of moving puzzle pieces, the duality of man I suppose :P

[zeldasadork]

musing outloud. ford clearly liked and cared about mabel but he was also. kindof dismissive of her as someone to trust OR worry after too much? up until she was directly put into mortal peril to threaten him and (more speculatively) up until she was the only one who kept trying to help stan. he didn't consider her until it affected him.

he did similar to dipper, he liked the kid well enough but didn't really take him into consideration until he could see himself in dipper (and even in that consideration, he didn't really see dipper's relationships as something to consider. don't tell the others, trust no one)

of course I say this with all the love in my heart because him being self-centered is very much a compelling and well-considered character trait. the times he'd relied on others- with stan and with bill and with fiddleford- had all fallen apart, with him alone and left hurting or having hurt. interpersonal relationships weren't really something he thought of with anything warmer than the bittersweet. and in that blindspot of relationships he didn't really seem to fully grasp the responsibility that comes with his 'teen' grandnephew's trust and admiration, what would come if the apprenticeship as proposed went through. or the staggering enormity of love that was stan rebuilding the portal for 30 years despite every single warning and hardship despite all odds to get ford back

[revvethasmythh]

i love reading speculation as to rook and caterina's potential relationship in the future because look me in the eyes and tell me what reason at all caterina would have to have beef with rook. none. there is none. rook saved her favorite grandson and her city and the world and killed a god. if rook and lucanis are romantically involved, this is probably a good thing from her perspective, because while power is a commodity constantly in motion (something she is very much aware of), the demon of vyrantium who is a godkiller and his partner who is ALSO a godkiller are at a VERY strong political starting position for him taking over as first talon. if everything caterina has done, all questionable and abhorrent decisions included, were in pursuit of the safety of her remaining family, she would probably be highly supportive of rook's involvement with lucanis. someone as intimidating as him (demon of vyrantium; abomination; godkiller) in the position of first talon already secures him at least some safety for the time being, but rook strengthens that by being another godkiller who saved the entire city of treviso. if caterina is a political animal intent upon ensuring the survival of her meager remaining family, she has no reason to be against rook at all and every reason to want to keep them happy

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

Rereading the last few chapters and wondering: Euphemia seems worried about James’ future/prospects/him striking out in his own. Is this just her ‘enthusiastic’ parenting? Or a result of an actual issue?

Also, as James is returning early, which will then lead to James and Lily being a thing. Will Euphemia be at all worried James is avoiding his future for Lily? Or will it just be a positive reaction because two people she loves love each other?

There is an actual issue, but it's her issue.

Euphemia is a total helicopter parent, always wanting to be involved in her son's life, always wanting to make decisions for him, and always assuming she knows what's best. If she had her way, he'd still be living in her and Fleamont's house with them, and he'd be working for her full time, not because she truly thinks he's incapable of running his own life, but because he's her baby and she wants him to be close to her all the time. It's terribly, terribly unhealthy, but from her perspective, she and her husband spent the better part of two decades desperately trying and failing and longing to have a child, with all of the pain and heartache that comes with that, and then he came along completely unexpectedly when they were both in their forties, their little miracle, so she immediately let all of her fears take control of her. What you see of her behaviour is the result of that. Honestly she should be in therapy, but she's absolutely the type of person who thinks she doesn't need it.

Anyway, when James and Sirius decided to take off for several years to go travelling, she took it badly. Really badly. James knew this, so he offered to make content for her company as a way to keep a link to her, but it only drove a wedge between them because is just gave her another avenue to continue treating him like he was still her little boy. So their relationship has become more and more distant, and while she promised him that she'd try to be less controlling, it goes against her every impulse, and therefore it's a struggle for her to let go. She's not worried that he'll make a mess of his career plans (even if he did, he's hella rich, he doesn't actually need to work, he just doesn't do well with being idle), but that this will lead to him pulling away from her even more. She still has no idea that he and Sirius are planning to come home permanently because if she does know now she'll immediately try to convince him to work for her or his father again. Once he's actually home and able to see her regularly, she'll calm down quite a lot.

RE: Lily, no, Euphemia won't be worried that he's avoiding his future for her because the whole reason he's coming home is because he's sick of floating through life. He'll return to London with a plan for his life and the cogs already in motion to achieve it. Whereas if he didn't come back he'd still be travelling around America with no set direction. His mum will be thrilled to see them together. She may be less thrilled when she realises that Lily is always going to take his side over hers and back him up because she assumes that Lily is her creature, but oh well. She'll just have to deal.

[rockinxrocco]

i wanna watch dungeon meshi but i’ve heard there’s bugs and/or bug like creatures in it (which i’m absolutely terrified of), but like how often are they involved? would it be easy to just look away whenever they come up or would it be easier to just not watch it lol

[monstermoviedean]

i know i tend towards "hand me messages on a plate" in terms of what i want from media, and that's not where everyone falls. totally get that. i do appreciate and enjoy room for interpretation of meaning and i support show don't tell, absolutely. but sometimes (and especially in late seasons spn) i feel like they're not showing anything and they're not telling anything. and when it becomes a persistent pattern, i'm left asking, if you're not showing and you're not telling, is there anything there at all?

[syncopatedid]

The way Suguru keeps poking at his forehead just before he turned to the dark side is significant far as religious themes in jjk go, as it's where the "third eye" (associated with spiritual enlightenment and religious visions) is usually depicted to be. His "third eye" was awakened and he was finally able to see the truth and light at the end of his tunnel, a way out of his endless struggle. And having attained that enlightenment, leaves mankind to burn while he seeks to get closer to god by becoming one himself.

[thegreatyin]

drags these up from the scoundrel's info tag

behold. the OC perspective master of the bazaar tierlist(s). any questions.

[kavehpilled]

asexual wriothesley. im right

[failed-inspection]

Inspectors are my favorite creatures in the game, they're oddly cute in the weird sort of way, they really only ever attack if you attack first or eat a neuron (they won't attack if you just grab a neuron, instead just plucking it out of your hands), but are otherwise quite passive, they'll even try to save you from rot or bug zappers! It's really cool to see them floating around like that, What wonderful creatures

Did you know that an inspector can have a minimum of three propellors/wings? If you modify the code to make the propeller count less than that, they will be unable to move? I find that really interesting from a technical standpoint to be honest