#in which I ramble about the Ship of Destiny.

[blackwaterbbq]

https://www.tumblr.com/blackwaterbbq/745656665186140160/i-thought-i-was-being-obsessive-seeing-everything?source=share

can i ask what references you're talking about, i am genuinely interested?

Hnnng it’s been forever since I got an ask. I forgot that was a feature! Thank you so much, I thought I was the last person on this site, lol.

Specifically, I was reading massive KafBlazer parallels into Turandot, the play Nessun Dorma is the climatic number for (in which a hero jumps through hoops in single-minded obsession for winning the hand of an icy, unrepentant villainess.). And I was thinking my interpretation was shipping-goggles-welded-to-the-skull behavior.

Only for someone to point out that a poem Kaf leaves for Trailblazer back when you’re chasing her on the Luofu is a reference to an ancient Chinese love poem about a wife whose kept away from her love by circumstances and a great distance. Which seems really on the nose, more so than the rather unsubtle parallels I was trying to make.

Mobile app ate half my reply twice so had to go with the short-short version. Hope it makes sense~ I’m prepping The Opera Chapter of my big, Kafka x Caelus omnibus to time it with the game’s anniversary so I’ve got KafBlazer on the brain atm. If I’d know the context of the poem though I’d have worked that into the early chapters.

[goldentigerfestival]

The 30 day Tales challenge... in one post or else it would never get done!

Favorite Tales game: Legendia

Favorite Main Male Hero: Yuri and Senel

Favorite Main Female Hero: Kohaku

Favorite Side Male Character: Moses

Favorite Side Female Character: Stella

Favorite Canon Pairing: Senel/Stella + Shing/Kohaku

Favorite Non-Canon Pairing: how official is stahn/leon at this point i wonder

Favorite Opening Song: Destiny

Favorite Location: ??? idfk the entire Legacy??? I'll go with Werites Beacon for simplicity I guess. feels like home

Favorite Mascot: Giet. don't tell me he's not a mascot, I'm not listening. (and if you want to try having that discussion my answer is still the Oresoren so we're not getting far, are we)

Favorite Monster: ??? also dfk, probably something cute except i don't like hurting cute so i guess we're stuck

Favorite Boss Battle: UHHHH listen it hurts to say but Vicious; bc the raw emotion that went into that entire storyline ate me whole

Favorite Villain: since I'm avoiding antagonists here (such as Duke who aren't explicitly villains) and prefer to go full villain, Creed.

Least Liked Character: not opening THAT can of worms!!! :D

Your First Tales Game: boooo boriiiing. Symphonia like the other half of the western population. no fancy answer here

Your Favorite Scene: ??? I mean, there's... a lot I guess??? Stahn pleading with Leon moments before disaster??? Kanata crying that Vicious was okay and came back to them??? Moses saying literally anything ever in any scene ever??? the end of Innocence but when you choose Spada as your soulmate bc I'm a bias little fuck??? anything with Yuri and Flynn being happy together??? the entirety of Legendia???

Funniest Scene: idk but it either had Moses in it, Vicious in it, or it was Spada's "I can't believe you mixed up Frosty the Snowman with the Abominable Snowman"

Saddest Scene: Moses' Character Quest cutscene (if not the whole fucking CQ), moments during disaster with Leon, moments during disaster with Asch

Favorite Quote: a lot of stuff Vicious said ngl. can't think of nor pick one off the top of my head but every time he Gets Serious it's one of those and I fall in love further every single time. but if we wanna be REEEALLY simple? "Yeehaw". thanks, Moses. maybe Yuri has said something cool enough to get on the top list, but I'm not sure anything is trumping "yeehaw", and maybe that's equal to something Vicious said

Favorite Piece of Gameplay Music: Scutum - Decisive Battle. Pour one out for Rebirth having the fucking BEST battle theme ever.

Most Shocking Reveal: ??? I'm... not sure at this point. Giet??? was it Senel??? maybe Mathias and Ruca??? Ratatosk and Emil??? I kind of want to say Ratatosk and Emil because I remember being very impressed with the direction of the plot, in that the main protagonist/player character was actually the villain the whole time that the antagonist was trying to kill the whole time. definitely not a plot direction you usually get in JRPGs. Giet's story still hit like an entire brick building 100 storeys high falling on me though

Favorite One on One Fight: that was actually FUN??? uhhh idk Vicious against Kasque. what did you expect me to say???

Favorite Skit: way too many skits to have even a semblance of an idea. I'm going to assume it was either something related to Yuri and Flynn, Moses, Vicious, Spada or Stahn. that's about the closest I can pinpoint

Favorite Tales Spell: I don't... think I have one...

Favorite Tales Weapon: -bangs fist on desk and gets really obvious really fast- BLOOD SINS, BLOOD SINS, BLOOD SINS. after that the Swordians

Tales World You Want to Live In: honestly Legendia's and Graces' seem the most reasonably normal compared to the rest, but also shiny fingertips and Moses is a pretty solid Legendia

Favorite Animated Tales Series/OVA: (don't say rays don't say rays don't say rays don't say stahn/leon) probably First Strike if only because it focuses on Yuri and Flynn who I love, but Abyss' anime was very solid compared to the other Tales animated series that were just heavily condensed versions (or worse in Eternia's case, not even being relevant to the main story). like, I would not recommend the animated series to anyone prior to playing the game except for Abyss, which is the full major story and I have inarguably rewatched that anime more than I've played the game. I guess in terms of general animated, FS, but in terms of actual consistency to the game it came from and dedication it had in retelling the story faithfully without skipping 80 percent of it, Abyss

Favorite Tales Outfit: RICHARD??? HEEEELLO??? not arc F though that shit is too fruity for me. also Leon has VERY enjoyably bright colors that make him stand out and as a Very Deeply Definitely Not Obsessive Leon Enjoyer, I very much love that. Aegis also has a really nice outfit. Asbel's is pretty but definitely not Richard level of I'm obsessed with this look

Favorite Game Plot: -breaks everything in your room and your neighbor's room for good measure- TURN IT BACK ON NAMCO I'M PAST MY LIMIT SO I'M PROBABLY IN OVERLIMIT (Crestoria. it's that or I'm saying Legendia again. Innocence and Hearts both are really close runner ups tho!!! definitely the most unique in the franchise imo out of the mainline games and sadly confined to "nobody fucking cares about them and never did")

Favorite Game Ending: so that's got... layers. it really depends on the sub topic. I guess in terms of a happy ending, Graces (the Wii version specifically, getting Richard back. don't really care for the ending of arc F and lean more toward disliking it). in terms of a depressing fucking ending that makes me Very Upsetti, Destiny. there is literally nothing happy about Destiny's ending for me. like yeah we saved the world, but at a LOT of cost and it's just depressing. I've wanted to make a post about that anyway, but basically it's a type of ending they don't really make anymore (especially in Tales), and the emotional impact for me was a lot heavier than the other games, with Destiny 2 lingering right behind it. both Destiny games were just DEPRESSING, and no matter how bittersweet Destiny 2's ending was, it's still DEPRESSING. Vesperia at least had a more outright happy ending (that wasn't completely changed by a post game ending arc with a totally different ending) and I finally at that point didn't lose my favorite character to Certain Final Boss Death or Recurring Side Character I Came To Love Dying Unceremoniously and Undeserved. only a couple of top favorites actually came out of their games alive for me by Vesperia in terms of games I know + release timeline (to put it into perspective, by the time of Vesperia in release order (so not the order I played in bc I don't really remember the whole actual order at this point), out of all the games I know, my favorite character death toll was five to three survivors not counting Vesperia. still haven't played Eternia so I'm not counting that one). so I guess like, my answer is a whacky combination of Graces for the Wii, Destiny and Vesperia. maybe if Hearts hadn't killed my mans off then it could've had it all. 😔

[cheaptaxidermy]

JRWI SWAP AU Designs, Doodles and HCs (AU by @lui-gen )

Captain Gill

With how much OG Chip’s design changes over the course of Riptide I thought it would be cool to do a more mid-campaign design of Gill. The scribbles on his arm are supposed to be lightning tattoos that would parallel chips water ones, they seem like a cool way that gill could show his oath to the open sea, inspired by Finn. Unsure if he would have a prosthetic pinkie but i added it for now until the details of what happens at each island is figured out. I hc that the ship they were on before the albatross would go from the Big Chipper to like Destiny’s Tide or smth like that.

Chip, Jay and Pretzel :D

the designs are so fun argh also i can totally imagine Jay’s armour getting more like mechanical if that aspect of her is still there

Caspian aka Captain Trench

I’m not the best at designing but wanted to have fun drawing a sinister little Caspian. Notable things are the feathers that Price had in his design is flowing water, which is actually also his water whip that he can magically summon the handle for. Also had him and Gill have matching scars across the nose because its fun 💥

Captain Ruben of the Navy

Kept his missing eye and thought the backstory behind it could change so that he lost it in some sort of fight, so the navy replaced it with a magical one and now he uses it as the main weapon in combat (it shoots beams n shit). Initially just drew him in a looser brain but maybe a bun would be more fitting since its more practical. (Far left image is him as a kid)

Origins headcanons

So obviously, in this swapped au Gill and Chip/Bellamy would meet first. Here, Bellamy works as a bartender and is curious about this trion that claims to have been on the same crew as Arlin, but not enough to answer honestly to any of Gill’s questions. So Gill tries to prove his worth by making Bellamy a drink that he hasn’t had before: a squirty! Thats what I thought of last night at least there could def be a cooler things for them to do,,

Jay having been brought up very isolated on Fetherbrook, she is not used to seeing people like Gill, so upon her first instinct she assumes he’s some sort of monster and shoots at him (to Chip’s amusement.)

I will surely draw more of this AU as it gets fleshed out but these are all my insane ramblings as of right now

[aixeko]

/// TD;LR Erise hating on Trailblazer x Kafka [ Includes both genders, idgaf I HATE THEM ALL ] and the random slander against Childe, Aventurine and Ayato

I hate Trailblazer x Kafka with my ENTIRE SOUL. I thought I would hate Kafka and blade more considering he's heavily implied to be gay but nope.

LIKE LOOK AT THEM THEY'RE HER KIDS THEY'RE OUR KIDS. SHE BIRTHED THOSE RACCOONS. Fun fact: I had a raccoon obsession since 2022 and have been referred and symbolised as a raccoon by my friends plus my LOVE for classic music Like they're literally my children and wife 😕😕

"But Kafka called them her destiny" SHUT UP. LOOK CLOSELY. REALLY CLOSELY.

THE GAME SUPPORTS HER BEING A MOTHER FIGURE COUNTLESS TIMES. (It's the middle of the night if I must, I would continue rambling when I'm awake)

I hate the amount of art I see of them and cry inside a little when it's genuinely good art too. Like Himeko is RIGHT THERE. Leave Caelus and Stelle to firefly and march (Dan Heng too ig) omg 😭 call me possessive idc, Kafka deserves better... Himeko the only one and best choice for Kafka right now. This is coming from someone who was loud and proud about being a kafhime hater btw, I'm a changed person now. They're my darlings, I love them both to death. Literally, ahem hime ahem.

I can tolerate it enough but don't ever shove any piece of media regarding Trailblazer x Kafka into my face else I will go on a lost ass essay about the many reasons why they're so... DISTASTEFUL. They even beat my hatred for Childe, Aventurine, and Ayato (Don't come at me, it's just projection, except Ayato.) which is a great feat considering the absolute disgust I feel towards them. <- has toned down lately because of kafblaze, whatever the ship name is

[yuttikkele]

ok so I saw that anon giving very persuasive reasons to be a zukaang shipper, and I like was writing a bunch of tags on the reblog so I just decided to make my own post 😭😭 it was way too many tags. I have a lot to say about zukaang guys.

Everything’s under the cut, but this gets very chatty very ramble-y fair warning.

anyways the part I was mostly talking about was how zukaang has a lot of what mainline ships have to offer. but like, more. and like no offense to the ships mentioned, I think they’re cool banger ships! I'm just biased towards zukaang. ofc I'm gonna think it has everything those ships have to offer and more.

though I do like these ships, there might be a little negativity towards them in this post, but I assure you, I do not mean it in any mean-spirited way.

zkka for example. I liked it a lot at first, but then I got into zukaang, and, it's just no comparison. zkka is still amazing tho it's a really silly and heartwarming ship, and sokka deserves a popular gay ship as a treat. I like them 💙❤️

but text wise?? zkka went on a two part prisonbreaking journey. zukaang spent the whole show revolving around each other with multiple key episodes exploring their dynamic. zkka can't compete with that.

and sorry to bring ztara and ktng into this as well but I gotta.

Listen, ktng is great. I think they’re really cute! Though there’s tons of discourse about which ship should’ve been canon, I think the creators made the right choice making this one canon (it was set up from the beginning, and I do think it’s the more popular ship. I think they would’ve gotten MORE backlash had they not made it canon). BUT, they’re literally middle schoolers. Of course they DO end up together, but the chances of that actually happening are off the walls! They only stayed together because of bryke, fan popularity, and what the show ended on (it would be really awkward if it ended with them getting together, and then bryke saying they broke up later. I get that. I don’t think they made a bad decision there). It’s just a liiiiiiiittle unrealistic (and I don’t wanna hear nothin bout “this is a fantasy world everything’s unrealistic.” You know what I mean go smart off somewhere else). Zuko and Aang, on the other hand, are bound by fate. They’re best friends, and they stay best friends for like, ever. Platonic soulmates, ying yang, does that not ring a bell? They’re not separating, it’s in the code. Though Katara and Aang don’t break up, I still think, realistically, it’s possible that they’d last a couple years then grow apart. Meanwhile, Aang and Zuko get closer and closer and then boom: just as much gay tension as roku and sozin. But not doomed this time.

ztara I can’t see happening based on the text. they have a lot of sweet moments from them talking about their respective moms' death (kinda sorta death) to like zuko accompanying her for "revenge" (not really revenge) to katara fighting azula with zuko. and their dynamics are cute like rivals to lovers and stuff. but, I just can’t see it. Plus, zukaang has that.

zuko’s mom was taken away from him, and aang’s father figure was threatened to be taken away from him. but it doesn’t stop there. no, shortly after these events, zuko was banished from his nation while aang fled from his. (MIRRORING CHECK DO I GET A MIRRORING CHECK???) zuko might’ve gone with katara to tie up loose ends of her past, but zuko went with aang to learn from the past for the future. and not to mention, on that journey, zuko and aang met mirroring red and blue dragons that formed a heart around them then proceeded to shroud them in rainbow flames while they learned firebending from the first firebenders not unlike oma and shu who were lovers from opposing sides of a war. (DO I HEAR SYMBOLISM AND STORY COMPARISON???) and zuko? he said “it’s my destiny for me to help the avatar.” and he DID. Yeah fighting azula was a culminating moment of his character arc and was imperative to taking down the imperial fire nation, but do you think zuko would just go attack his sister if she wasn’t a threat to Aang and peace? No, he would not. And you may be saying “uh yeah you said ‘and peace,’ zuko’s doing this because he believes it’s the right thing, and to take down his corrupt family, and for peace, not Aang.” BUT DO YOU SEE IT. AANG AND PEACE ARE LIKE SYNONYMS TO ZUKO. THEY COINCIDE. THEY’RE THE SAME THING. And in that Azula fight Zuko was given a MIRRORING scar with Aang. Aang’s back scar and his chest scar. (DO I HEAR DEVOTION???)

also headcanon-wise, I just really think Zuko is gay, so the ztara thing also kinda falls apart at that for me. Zuko just doesn’t?? Treat women very well??? Sorry, it IS kinda true tho. For so much of his life being spent with his main friends being only girls, he does not treat the women he dates very well. He actually treats Katara the best out of the girls he interacted with in my opinion even though he totally crushed her trust first try. (Some ships are about to get stray shots here while I explain this so sorry 🙏🙏)

Alright now here’s Zuko just not being the best with girls in general with romantic and platonic relationships. Not saying he hasn’t had his good moments, but, if I knew him irl I’d be trashing him for how he treats girls. Him and Mai always had continual problems on both ends. Zuko never really seemed interested in her genuinely, but on top of me just not really feeling the chemistry, Zuko was unhealthily distrusting and jealous of her like an object, he broke up with her through a note, and she risked her life for him and he didn’t even think about busting her out of jail. he really didn’t think about Mai much at all when he was with team avatar, and when he did, it was usually with weariness. he never really seemed upset that he was away from her. Now there was the “that’s rough buddy” conversation, but that’s when Zuko said “oh yeah leaving the Fire Nation was EASY” to which Sokka brought up leaving behind loved ones and Zuko went “Oh yeah, I had a girlfriend. Bummer I had to leave her to go FOLLOW THE AVATAR. AGAIN.” I was never convinced either of them actually liked each other romantically. The best thing I can say about their relationship is that Mai didn’t want Zuko to die, and the hardest part about Zuko’s easy decision to leave the fire nation was leaving Mai. For Katara, obviously, he severed things with her pretty early on, but was able to regain her trust so kudos to him. I guess he and Suki’s minimal interactions were positive I don’t really remember them sorry. Zuko DIABOLICALLY denied Toph her field trip. And Jin from Ba Sing Sei. j1nko is actually the Zuko het ship I like the most and that’s just cause I think they’re cute, and also this is like one of the times Zuko does something romantic that the girl actually likes. And he just never saw her again. Like I understand he was in a bit of a complex situation, but he could’ve gone to visit her or give condolences once everything settled down?? imagine you go on a date with this guy and the next day he’s ghosted you so hard he’s not even in the same city anymore? Jin was probably so heartbroken and then she sees HE’S THE FIRE LORD?? Nah I’d be so mad. Zuko has issues with girls. Men tho? I don’t see this problem arising. He just really reads as a gay dude to me.

Switching topics abruptly here, angsty zukaang has its place, but me personally, zukaang is not one of my angsty ships 😭😭 they worked so hard to be together y’all let them have it. There’s multiple solutions to the kid problem in my opinion, some more ideal than others but yknow. they could find out they loved each other after they already had kids and got a divorce? They could get surrogate mothers? They could say “screw you” to having to have bio kids and just adopt (and probably not announce it publicly cause how would the people know? Just keep them believing.). My personal favorite, they could avatar magic it and bring in some storks ectobiology and poof! magic bio baby they’re both blood related to. Hey, crazier things have happened. And zukkang has made a world where they can both be together and it’s beautiful and lovely and sweet ❤️🧡

and like, I don’t think it’s an all-out solution to the ship war. I think zutaraang is the all-out solution to the ship war. BUT, zukaang is a solution. It’s that one Thomas Sanders Prince vine where he goes “you’ll never have her! because I want you…”

uhhh anyways thank for comin to my tedtalk ramble about zukaang. Enjoy the rest of your day, and God loves you :DD

[razzle-zazzle]

Whumptober Day 31: Asking for Help

"I'm alive, I'm just not well."

2376 Words; Coleverlord, various points pre-pilots and end of s1

TW for bugs, body horror imagery

AO3 ver

The sky darkened, Pythor’s laughs echoing across the empty city.

They were too late. The ground trembled, ancient stones creaking and cracking under the sudden strain. Cole stumbled back as the spiral in the arena gave way, a million marching ants blotting out the sun as a giant moving shadow lifted from the ground. The darkness shifted, parting to reveal scales and fangs and two baleful eyes—

She’s gorgeous.

More powerful than I ever imagined.

Beautiful, pure DESTRUCTION—

Yeah, yeah, Cole got the picture. He reached out to steady Kai as the Devourer slithered all the way out of her hole, frills flared. Off to the other side, Pythor was singing similar praise, as though the massive size of the Devourer wasn’t intimidating to him in the slightest.

Which made it all the more satisfying when the Devourer swallowed him whole.

(Cole’s chest lurched when he realized that Wu had been swallowed, too.)

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student wasn’t what Cole expected.

Though, to be fair, Cole wasn’t sure what he expected. So maybe this was normal. Just…

The guy would not stop yapping! He’d introduced himself as Jay Walker, which Cole was pretty sure was a joke except the guy seemed completely serious, and hadn’t given the words any chance to breathe before rambling on about how high up the monastery was, seriously, why did every mysterious mentor figure have to live in fuckass nowhere, did this place even have running water, and wow this mountain air was so much different from the desert, not that he would know that of course because he was totally from the city and not some weird place like a scrapyard, haha, hey where are you from, what’s your name, is there any way he can get his hands on some scrap metal to work with—

“You talk a lot.” Cole commented, the moment Jay stopped to take a breath. It had been a neutral observation, the termites crawling along his bones more confused than annoyed.

But there must have been something about the wasps in his chest, or the worms in his gut, because Jay suddenly deflated, drawing in on himself. “Sorry, I—sorry.” And he scurried away, down the hall to where Wu had pointed out their bedroom, leaving Cole standing alone in the hallway.

“I didn’t mean…” Ugh. Whatever. Cole knew the effect he had on other people. Wu seemed to be somehow immune to it, probably because he was some kind of dragon in disguise according to the spider in Cole’s brain. But Jay wasn’t a dragon—heck, he was probably nervous talker. Cole should have known it wouldn’t take long to unsettle Jay—it never did.

Cole sighed, and made his way out to the yard to train.

+=+=+=+=+

“It’s gone.” And so was the Destiny’s Bounty, shattered pieces spread wide across the sand. Cole walked to the back of the cave, trying to calm the wasps buzzing in his chest.

“That was too intense.” Kai was panting as he removed his hood, chest heaving as he leaned against the sand bank.

“There’s no time to rest.” Zane urged. “We need to warn people, before it becomes bigger.”

I say let her play, Vessel.

“Bigger?” Jay stood up, “BIGGER?” His voice was edging into hysteria, now, and Cole wanted to take the spiders that were crawling up Jay’s back and snuff them out, “That thing in one bite just crushed our entire ship!” He started to pace around, gesturing wildly. “We need to save as many as we can, we need to find some kind of refuge—oh! The Serpentine Tombs! Yeah, they’re underground, sure, we’ll be without sunlight for months, but they’re perfect!”

“What, and just give up?” No, no, Cole couldn’t give up, he always kept going on no matter what, because it was what he was good at and because ninja never quit—

“We have no chance against that thing!” Jay argued back. Cole wanted to punch him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake him—

To find every shadow that made him doubt himself and BURY IT—

Protect your own, Vessel. Let the Devourer play.

“Guys! Is this what Sensei Wu would have wanted?” And there was Kai, interjecting himself into the argument so seamlessly, “Just running and hiding? Giving up?”

A tactical retreat is not giving up, Vessel.

“But… he’s not here anymore.” Lloyd mumbled. The conversation continued on, Kai urging them all to remember Wu’s teachings—

The spider in Cole’s brain sang so sweetly, spinning a web across his thoughts. He lost the thread of the conversation as shadows blotted out his vision, so many worms starting to eat at his flesh. He imagined his chest splitting, ribs opening up into bloodied wings as a spider emerged from his head, every inch of his body shifting to accommodate its new master—

“Cole?” Zane’s voice cut through the premonition, his hand on Cole’s shoulder.

Cole shook his head. “Sorry. Lost focus.” It wasn’t the first time It showed him that—Cole knew how his path would end. But it wasn’t time for any of that, yet—there was a snake to catch. Zane and Cole ran out into the sands, calling the vehicles hidden in their golden weapons to join up with the others.

+=+=+=+=+

Jay was… Cole was pretty sure Jay was still avoiding him. Sure, Wu insisted on them training together, and Jay didn’t skip out on that—not after Wu saddled him with scrub duty for skipping—but Cole barely saw Jay outside of the training yard. He could hear him, of course, either chattering to Wu or doing something with metal that was loud—

But Cole doubted Jay would ever really like him. And he didn’t have high hopes for the new student Wu was bringing in soon. Or… today, it looked like, Cole coming to a stop at the edge of the yard as he noticed the new arrival.

“New student?” Cole asked, drawing Wu’s attention. The guy next to him turned as well, regarding Cole with not quite hostility, not quite interest. At least, insofar as Cole could tell.

“Hello. I am Zane.” The new guy introduced himself, holding out a hand. Cole took it, ignoring the isopods scuttling under his skin and the centipedes biting at his spine. Zane’s pleasant smile did not change as he and Cole shook hands—was he like Wu, then? A dragon in disguise, unbothered by the spider in Cole’s brain?

No, he feels as normal as you mortals come.

Okay. That was… huh. “I’m Cole.” Cole said, waiting for the moment where Zane would yank his hand back and find somewhere else to be. The moment where the shadows clinging to his feet reached over to Zane’s ankles—

“It is nice to meet you, Cole.” Zane said instead, releasing the handshake normally. “I sense we will do great things together.”

Cole’s face burned. That was—oh, wow.

Vessel, don’t get attached.

The spider in his brain bit down, millions of termites digging into his bones. Zane’s smile finally faltered, face returning to a neutral expression, and Cole pulled back. Shadows curled at the corners of his vision—he should leave. Zane was already walking away.

Wu had disappeared somewhere—to go find Jay, maybe? Zane was poking around the training course curiously. Cole should definitely leave, before he unsettled Zane further. Maybe he shouldn’t have accepted Wu’s offer. Maybe he was doomed to always be stuck in the spider’s shadow, only truly loveable by the very thing that made him so unloveable—

“Do you want to run the course with me? I’m afraid I don’t know how to start it.” Cole flinched, stumbling over flat ground and falling to the dirt in surprise. He rolled over, looking up at Zane, face getting progressively hotter—

“I.” Cole sat up slowly. “You startled me.” Which was definitely not what Cole was used to.

“My apologies.” Zane offered his hand, but Cole stood on his own.

Hm. Maybe Wu taking on other students wouldn’t be too awful.

+=+=+=+=+

“ZANE!”

Shadows clawed at Cole’s brain, and the Devourer withdrew back into the earth. House centipedes scrabbled at Cole’s bones, a million buzzing flies in his ears as he fought to escape his seatbelt. “Is everyone okay?” He needed to get out out out—

Vessel, calm—

“Right here.” Zane’s voice cut through the buzzing, canisters clanking as they fell away. Cole winced—half of Zane’s face had been scraped right off, revealing the metal beneath. “That was close.”

You still want me to let her play? Cole wondered, even though he knew—whatever the spider wanted, It would get. And It wanted the Devourer to cause havoc, to “play.”

I will not let you come to harm, Vessel.

It was the most that Cole could expect It to concede. He picked his way out of the wreckage, making his way over to the others. He didn’t care if he got hurt—he just wanted his friends to be okay. Was that so much to ask?

“Too close.” Kai agreed.

“Perfect. Now that was a total failure!” Jay complained.

“Not total!” Kai argued, “Did you guys notice, on its forehead—it has a weak spot!”

I thought I removed that…

“Ohhh, great, lemme make a note of that.” Jay chirped, miming writing a note. “Giant snake has wee itty bitty weak spot that’ll be TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AT BECAUSE THE THING IS TOO RIDICULOUSLY HUGE TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!”

“Are you done?” Nya asked. Jay heaved, hissing through his teeth before, “Yes.”

“Guys, where’s the Devourer going?” Lloyd asked, pointing to where it had surfaced again and was beelining away. Cole flinched the moment he recognized the route—

“It’s going to Ninjago City!” Zane announced.

Ohhhhh, that was not good. If it ate something that big—

Shadows bloated out Cole’s vision. He stumbled, feeling the vague sensation of a hand on his arm through the haze of worms squirming under his skin. The spider still wanted the Devourer to play, still wanted Cole to stay out of the way—

But how was Cole supposed to do that? Jay’s parents were in Ninjago City. Jay would be devastated if they were eaten. Cole couldn’t just stand by and let that happen. He was supposed to protect his own, wasn’t he? There was no way Jay wouldn’t go to Ninjago City—

Fine, then. Go and throw yourself into the jaws of death.

I’ll pull you out, but I won’t stop you.

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student was brushing his teeth. Cole, Jay, and Zane watched from the rafters, waiting for the perfect moment to strike—

The new guy shifted, glancing over his shoulder. The spider in Cole’s brain spun a web of shadows, Jay and Zane shifting in response—

“What the—” Now! Cole jumped down, scythe flashing in the lamplight. Twin thuds signaled Jay and Zane’s arrivals, the three of them completely surrounding the new student, who tightened his grip on his toothbrush.

The next several minutes were a riot of chaotic thrashing about. The chase brought the four of them through the halls, back up into the rafters, out onto the roof—at some point, the four of them had eschewed proper technique entirely, devolving into a chaos of thrashing and grappling. Cole’s head was pounding, the spider in his brain biting, shadows swirling into his vision as they all fell from the roof out into the yard—

The new student grabbed a training sword and hit Jay with it, forcing him back. Cole untangled himself from Zane and stood, leveling his scythe at the new guy—

“Enough.” Cole muttered, the pressure in his head intensifying. The shadows clawed their way up the new guy’s pajamas, making him flinch back as Cole tried his best to loom. Cole advanced a step, and the guy fell backwards onto his ass, face contorted in a scowl as he scrabbled for his weapon—

“Enough!” Wu’s voice cut through the night, bringing them all to a halt. The wasps in Cole’s chest subsided, the shadows retreating. The new guy stood quickly, knuckles white around the hilt of his sword—but he was otherwise fine, standing tall like he hadn’t just taken the brunt of the shadow in Cole’s mind.

Wu explained—wait, had he not told this guy that he had other students? Really? Cole shrugged—Wu withheld the strangest things. Their practice gis were exchanged for new ones; Cole’s new gi was just as black as before—

The color of the earth, and the shadows that hide within it.

The shadow sounded vaguely proud. Cole’s shoulders hiked, his face flushing behind his mask—

“What was that?” Kai was asking, gesturing loosely towards Cole.

“That was you getting totally Coled.” Jay bragged, before launching into a litany of his habits. “…a little bit of poetry—”

“More like mouth of lightning.” Cole commented, focusing in on the current conversation. He nudged Kai with his scythe. “Nice to meet you, kid. I’ll watch your back.”

+=+=+=+=+

Slime exploded outwards, splashing across what felt like the whole city. Cole stumbled back, grabbing onto Kai’s arm—the sheer force of the wave was almost enough to knock him to the ground. But he stood, shadows lacing into his bones to hold him steady, and the wave subsided.

Ewww, everything was sticky now. And the spider was scurrying around Cole’s skull, hissing displeasure at the Devourer’s death.

They made their way down to street level, Jay running over to his parents and being pulled into a hug. Garmadon was nowhere to be found—

(“You won’t give them back.” It wasn’t a question. It was barely even an accusation.

Garmadon shrugged. “What other choice do you have?” There was no point in denying it.)

Cole gasped. “Sensei Wu!” And there he was, standing up in a particularly thick patch of slime, looking none the worse for wear.

Of course he survived. Did you expect anything different, Vessel?

All six of them piled into the slime, tackling Wu in a hug from every direction. Cole’s arms ended up around Jay and Zane, his face pressed into the junction of Wu’s neck and shoulder. He got a faceful of slime for it—but he just didn’t care. His friends were all together and safe and whole—

Cole was doomed, he knew.

But he could still enjoy these moments while they came.

[carnelianwings]

Something I find really funny is how for all the rumors that Seed’s staff/writers don’t like Cagalli, Orb under her leadership just keeps ending up in a better (political) position with each addition - Seed Destiny ends with Logos wiped out, Blue Cosmos severely hampered, and the entire Seiran family wiped out, including Yuna. This leaves Cagalli with almost no political opposition in Orb (since the second Battle of Orb would’ve flushed out a majority of the Blue Cosmos/Logos sympathizers within the government/military), along with giving her a boost in popular and military support thanks to her actions and field leadership during the battle.

(Cutting for me just rambling on a bit about the in-universe politics after Seed Freedom)

You can tell with how much she’s managed to get done in the years between Seed Destiny and Seed Freedom - in that short year and a half to two years, she was able to propose and found COMPASS, secret away and upgrade the Impulse, Destiny, Strike Freedom, and Infinite Justice, arrange for ties between Orb and Terminal to investigate/exchange intel (Athrun and Meyrin), and put into place all the evacuation/defensive protocols in case of another attack on Orb (as seen vs Foundation and Requiem, even if she needed Kira to pull an “I lived, bitch” to Aura 😅).

And it doesn’t end there - thanks to Foundation, Cagalli arguably has an easier time internationally now, because the Eurasian Federation leadership also got hit and the Eurasian Federation, while not necessarily Blue Cosmos sympathizers like the Atlantic Federation, was very staunchly anti-PLANT, which I think would’ve caused some problems for Cagalli, especially post Seed Destiny with Lacus joining her for that broadcast.

I actually think Orb probably has fairly decent diplomatic relations with PLANT (I think Chairman Lament mostly cut off that call after everything went south in Eldore because of the whole nuke situation), especially since Lacus is COMPASS’s inaugural president, plus the time both Dearka and Waltfeld (I’m not sure if he’s in Orb or PLANT as of Seed Freedom since his silent cameo has him helping to stop the coup in PLANT in Seed Freedom) spent there. And we have a very prominent all-Coordinator team with the Yamato Team - truth be told I actually wonder how much the Earth Alliance invested into COMPASS because everything we see on screen is either contributed by Orb (Archangel, Murrue and crew, Kira, Mu, and the Murasame Kais), PLANT/ZAFT (Millenium, Konoe and crew, Heinlein, Shinn, Lunamaria, Agnes, Gelgoog, and Gyan), or arguably both (namely, Rising Freedom and Immortal Justice). Unless I missed a minor crew member along the way. Which is possible.

Also pure speculation on my part on this - but the fact Seed Freedom has Athrun going into intelligence with Terminal (which we first see as having a presence in the PLANTS) from the Orb side and Yzak and Dearka going into intelligence from the PLANT side can’t be a coincidence. I want to think the three of them decided on it together because being in intelligence/covert ops gives them the chance to work together without having to force anyone to change their current loyalties - I don’t think Athrun can be truly loyal to anyone except Cagalli after Seed Destiny, and Yzak was always loyal to PLANT, and if Dearka hadn’t been captured and made to realize how extreme PLANT had become under Patrick Zala he wouldn’t have switched sides to Orb/Three Ships Alliance during Seed either. Which also indirectly feeds into Orb and PLANT having better political relations than Orb and Earth Alliance.

Which brings me to my final point - I would be very surprised if Orb isn’t the primary target for the antagonists in a Seed Freedom sequel. At this point Orb’s capable of doing too much with the limited resources it has as a small nation with too much military strength at its command. And there is room for a sequel (setting-wise) because while Earth Alliance took another major hit with during the Foundation Conflict, the ideologies that led to the First and Second Earth Alliance-PLANT wars still exist - even if Blue Cosmos lost another leader, even if the believers of Coordinator Supremacy lost another leader (in Jagannath) those ideologies still fundamentally exist. All the Foundation Conflict did was serve to take down the military leadership of those ideologies - even if the public on both sides see those views negatively it doesn’t make them go away.

[gamergirl-lumine]

I saw that you are ready for questions, and that you’re up to be asked about ships, so…please tell me your top three Monkie Kid ships! (And feel free to ramble.)

I have a lot of ships.

1: Shadowpeach.

They are just so adorable and fluffy and cute! They are so flirty with each other, and if they really wanted each other dead, they would have by now. I love the idea of Wukong stealing Macaque’s scarf sometimes, just to cuddle up in it and smell Macaque’s scent. Which, while as humans it might sound odd, he’s a monkey, so it’s not.

Tang and Pigsy.

I can never quite work out how I ship them. They are always either head over heels in love with each other, of MK’s platonic dad friends, who are each other’s platonic soulmates. Either works. But they are definitely a cute ship if ever there was one.

Dragonfruit.

This one is so great, and really fun. But… I also ship the throuple of Mei, Red Son and MK all together. It just makes sense! Mei and MK don’t scream “we’re into each other”, but I get really strong vibes that they are both into Red Son. I think that, if Red Son is romantic,y interested in anyone in canon, it’s probably Mei. Still, all together they look great!

Dragonfruit on its own is also fantastic. Red Son is one of my absolute favourites and he’s sooooo awesome.

And… even though they never actually interact in canon… I ship Nezha with Chang’e. I just think they would look amazing together, and he put the ring in space. It found its way to her. So what if destiny was trying to get those two together? They would be soo adorable, and they could go on awkward triple dates with Wukong and Macaque, and Mei, Red son and MK. Mei and MK are the only ones who actually like the triple dates. Everyone else just comes because they want to make the kids happy.

Bonus head cannon:

Wukong chews his tail. It’s a nervous tick he has had since he was a cub, and it stuck with him. He only does it in private, or when he’s around people he trusts massively. So it was a big deal for Macaque when Wukong started doing it around him. It was symbolic of how much Wukong had grown to care about him, and that he really does trust him now.

Thanks so much for the great ask! Please send me more if you ever want to.

Peace, Love, and a whole lot more Love!❤️

[blaperile]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon (reactions page 667 - 694)

Ok it's been a busy few weeks but I finally got around to writing this reaction, haha

So, I was correct that we'd be getting a perspective switch to someone other than Vriska. The question is how long it will take before we see her again.

In a meta way I think page 888 would make the most sense. I suppose that means Vriska wouldn't play a role in the huge upcoming confrontation flash? Unless Vriska does escape 'hell' WITHIN the flash? Maybe we just get to see a silly montage of Vriska refusing to hug her other self, as a comic relief betweeen some other intense scenes, until she eventually does and then still plays a role in the confrontation.

We'll have to see!

But anyway, dang this was an intense update.

Jade made a shield to protect the ship in the upcoming battle. Does it mean Jade, Vrissy, Yiffy and Harry won't play much of a role in the confrontation then? I could see Yiffy and maybe Vrissy sneaking out like Tavros did but we'll see.

After reading this interaction between Rose and Jade I had to briefly reread the previous conversation between them and Kanaya again to fully understand what they were talking about (I mean wow it's already been 8 months since that update, time flies).

I love how they referenced the "hamster guy" again, which Jade talked about in that previous update as someone who cooked their hamster and apologized about it to Jade.

I'm very worried about where this is going with Rose. Her internal rambling about there being no truth reminds me of the early conversation with John about where the Candy timeline would be headed if John didn't face Lord English.

Rose claims she sees the future; that both Vriska and Jane will fail and "just about everyone" is going to fail. Calliope will sacrifice herself fruitlessly, Rose will be shot in the head…

That all sounds bad. Really, really bad. "[S] Game Over" type of bad.

But, the fact that it's stated out loud right now makes me think… it won't happen? Maybe Rose has it completely wrong and it's just impossible to get a definite look into the future of the Candy timeline. Or maybe Vriska will be able to change the tide here, to have things go completely differently.

If Rose does get in a comatose state however, that sounds eerily similar to the state of her physical body in the Meat timeline.

This does explain why Rose is not making a true effort to salvage her marriage with Kanaya though, because she wants Kanaya to move on from her if Rose is comatose.

I just hope it all doesn't go down that road.

Unless the plan of the creative team is to utterly decimate the Candy timeline and leaving only the ones who don't have a "duplicate" in the Meat timeline? I hope it doesn't come to that.

For one thing, let's not forget that the last time we saw Jade we saw she still had a captchalogue card of a corpse, implied to be Dave, which I assume will still play an important role in some way.

This update makes all of them look like Ancestors/Guardians again, especially the shot of Kanaya, Karkat and Meenah together. So epic. And also Jake coming from the shadows with only his glasses visible, feels like a classic Grandpa moment.

That scene though, holy shit… My thoughts went all over the place.

First I thought Jake successfully killed Jane when he shot her in the head. Then I thought Jane killed Jake when she started bashing him with his gun. And then I was so relieved to see Jake was still alive.

Poor, poor Jake. Just when you think he finally gets to do something incredibly important and stand up, destiny fails him.

But after Rose implied that a lot of people are going to get killed in the upcoming conflict, and Jake didn't die here yet, makes me hopeful that things will turn out differently than Rose expects them to.

I suppose there's nothing left to do but anxiously wait and see where the next update will go!

James Roach said in his news post an old, existing Homestuck song will be used in the flash. That makes me very excited.

But I wonder what unused song could be appropriate here? Is it Penumbra Phantasm? Something from Volume 10, or something way older? I have no clue, but I'm excited to find out.

[goldenappledelicious]

Please. Tell. Me. More. About. WhiteSwan (Apple x Duchess), I must know more. I never thought of this, and I'm so happy I found this rarepair.

Oh yay! My favorite rarepair. Honestly it all started cause I was trying to think of the most train wreck ship I could for EAH, but then I started thinking about it and it wouldn’t leave me alone. I love them so much now. I’m gonna just kind of ramble/rant about my thought on them.

SO. The thing is that we don’t get a whole lot of interaction about them but it’s very clear that Duchess has like a strong jealousy and resentment towards her. Duchess is a princess, a very fervent Royal, and works super hard to be the best. She’s very like Apple really. But while Apple gets rewarded with a kingdom and constant adoration for her story, Duchess is left trapped alone as a swan forever. And no one at school even seems that sympathetic to her really awful situation. And that’s the less tragic ending of her story.

Apple very much represents everything Duchess can’t have and thinks she deserves. (I also headcanon that Duchess is so into Daring specifically because he’s Apple’s prince. If he’s Apple’s True Love then he must be the best And she should have the best!! I think she quickly loses interest in him once Dragon Games happens) Like Duchess hates Apple in a way that means she’s thinking about her constantly. There’s resentment there, but she also kinda has to think highly of her to be that jealous. And I just always think there’s an intimacy in that kind of obsession.

Also every once awhile in the show we see Duchess hanging out with the gang (like that scene in Thronecoming) and I know none of the other girls invited her so it had to have been Apple.

I think they’re actually rather similar is some fundamental ways and very well could have been the other had their circumstances been different. They each need someone who can match their level of intensity. Which intrigues me I wanna see the car crash of their relationship.

I think they’re both gonna be left pretty lost after Dragon Games since their destinies were such deep parts of their identity. Who are they when they aren’t doing what’s expected of them? If they aren’t perfect? And what does that mean for them and what they’ve done if it’s all truly been for nothing? I think they have a lot in common but also are such complicated people that it’d be fun to see them really discover themselves and each other.

Like I don’t really think they’d be a particularly happy or healthy relationship, but they’d be unhinged that’s for sure.

Also Duchess absolutely had a thing for Ashlynn but that’s neither here nor there.

[bitesizedgummie]

HOLY FUCK AN INTRO POST!!

hi. hihi. its gummie!! here with an intro post!! finally! so here's some info about me

call me gummie, pickle, or....wtv ig idk man

i have names i’ll have u call me if u know me more personally as well! :3

he/they (🏳️‍⚧️❤️) also a femboy oops

aceflux! usually aroace (lmk NICELY if aceflux isnt the right term, i know it as like sexual/romantic prefs can vary)

taken. by my wonderful partner @danganronpagayedition

runs the ask blogs @little-guy-little-mouse (ryunosuke), @hearing-a-lot-of-things (athena), and @dolphin-luver (bachira)

i am a minor!! no inappropriate stuff pls :(

feel free to mention me in anything as long as it’s not weird or anything, i don’t mind :3

dni list

proshipper

racist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, etc

former school friend i no longer talk to

heluva(?) boss/hazbin hotel fans (idk what’s up w y’all but i heard some of y’all nuts. if ur chill ur fine though)

overly religious (sorgy i have minor trauma regarding religion/religious friends so i don’t wanna risk it)

unnecessary info(+tag directory) has been banished to under the cut

tag directory!

gummierants - random rants or rambles that i manage to spit out

gummiedraws - doodles/art i manage to spit out

gummievents - vents that i usually spit out when i’m a bad mental state and need guidance

gummie watches (game here) - comments about a game im watching (current tags: gummie watches dual destinies, gummie watches blue lock)

gummiepolls - polls i run for sillies! i have this tag so you can check it for any ongoing polls about whatever the fuck :3

fandoms i interact with (not limited to this list, probably forgot a couple) ds = DON'T SPOIL!!! if i include this i am not yet finished/caught up w the series!! pls dont spoil/mention anythign past the specified point unless i specifically ask!!

ace attorney (ds - turnabout academy)

danganronpa

blue lock (ds - s1 ep 13)

rhythm heaven

yuri on ice

parappa the rapper

legend of zelda (ds - just finished botw)

death note (on like. ep 7 but feel free to spoil bc i dont think ill finish it)

mouthwashing

bungo stray dogs (ds - just finished vol 1)

omori (not finished but same for death note i probably wont finish it lmao)

stuff i ship!! i dont push the less popular ones a lot bc im scared ill get like cussed out or something but yea

saioma

komahina

naegami

amaguji

wrightworth

franmaya

asoryuu

klapollo

claypollo (which technically makes me a multishipper! yippee!)

junithena

blackmadhi

viktuuri(? is that how u spell it)

zelink

rockershipping

rap women

lawlight

nagireo

bachisagi

ryusae

soukoku

ranpoe

shin soukoku

considering gregbadd and manosouta

[nights-at-crystarium]

January 9 is Vivi’s birthday \;w;/ The date’s cheeky, it’s when I reached ShB on him ingame. A year ago. JUST A YEAR. No other oc of mine had such an intense development process. I wanted to try writing a disaster, and, well....

Lemme have today as an excuse to ramble about his influences. Of course I didn’t merely lump these together, I kept realizing the likeness as time went on.

The concentration of unhinged blondies and literal idols is past the critical level, take cover, it’s gonna blow.

Spoiler warning for everything.

Anarchy Panty

Because his full name’s Vivien Fucksalot Rell x’D A good number of their tropes match perfectly.

This speech could as well be copypasted into his final battle with Emet:

Panty: You're right, I'm just a little bitch and I'm proud of it. But guess what, douchebag? That's not the point. News flash, I don't need special fucking powers to beat the shit out of you. You know why? Because I'm a bitch who doesn't give a fuck. You and your half-dead face can preach about hymens and demons and other weird words that supposedly mean shit, but that doesn't change the fact that if any of you fuckers get in my way, I'm gonna kick some twisted-ass ass. You hear me dick? I'm a hot bitch angel named Panty. And no matter what anyone says, I DO WHAT I FUCKING WANT!

Princess Ai

An edgy fashion icon that I'm still in love with. Brainstorming the visual styles for Vivi, I simply decided to indulge as hard as I can.

Howl

Howl gets his redemption arc, Vivi, uh.... Surprise, the entire ShB part of Fragments is his redemption arc of sorts. But he exists outside ShB as well. He’s not meant to be a goody two shoes. But hey, his drama queen moments are entertaining to watch.

Raha has a lot of Howl in his character too. With Vivi, he’s basically this, except he doesn’t swallow him.. Okay he does but in a different way *kicked*

Arataka Reigen

Because I’m physically incapable of writing a classic hero.

Vivi has a complicated relationship with his career and a pragmatic approach to most things in life. He also prefers words to violence, will fight only if that fails.

When confidence and persuasion carry so hard you don’t really need anything else. Vivi firmly believes in everything he says and does. He doesn’t derive any fucked up joy from being right, but he knows as a fact that he IS right.

Sakuma Ryuichi

Duality my beloved \o/ And dorkiness. Other than that, Ryuichi doesn’t have as much influence on his character, but the visuals?

I mean I literally use this shirt and necklace as an easter egg/homage. Gravitation triggered my queer awakening in the faraway 2006, might as well give it the acknowledgement it deserves.

And, lastly, the he.

What else do you expect from a character tailored for a ship \o/

Short. Sassy. Dorky. Gremlin. All of their direct likeness stems from ARR, while the more subtle parallels and extreme opposite values form later.

If Raha’s eccentric, Vivi takes that just a tad bit further, simply because he’s always been allowed to.

What Raha keeps repressed, buried deep down, Vivi embraces in full. He’s an unruly, effervescent spark of life, he’s meant to be Raha’s “manic pixie dream boy” according to tvtropes, to slowly lure him out of his shell and teach him confidence, the joy of living, and find a way to stop him from killing himself over and over again.

Words of praise and affirmation have no effect on them. Both are competent in some field, but never brag about it. While Raha has a severe imposter syndrome, Vivi knows he’s cool as a fact, which still doesn't mean he loves or values himself as he should. He just acknowledges and uses his status for his own benefit as openly as the world keeps using himself.

Destiny (affectionate) and destiny (derogatory).

Raha’s The Adult (tm) Vivi needs to stay somewhat stable. This’s the reason they don’t quite get along in ARR yet, Raha must go through that century of suffering that, despite all common sense, refines him into something delightful, Vivi must go through HW-SB to realize his priorities in life and frankly get fucked up enough to form a perfect chemistry with Exarch.

Raha has a moral compass that he may adjust at will, Vivi has none at all. How much more questionable would they be if they weren’t cute and charismatic :’D

They’re feisty and competitive towards each other, Raha especially so. Vivi has a red cloth effect on him. Forever wrestling for that imaginary control (yep, in bed too). On the emotional side, it’s forever “you matter, I don’t”. They’re mirrors of each other, reflecting some parts as they are, twisting others in most peculiar ways.

Vivi literally wouldn’t exist without Raha, both ic and ooc. So I daresay Raha has the most influence on his character, at the same time he’s his own guy enough to stay interesting. I’m so proud of him. I’m holding him by the scruff and helplessly shaking him in the air.

[night-dark-woods]

ok Exordia review time (not spoiler free!) since i finished it a few days ago. this is long and rambling and unedited.

4/5 i love Seth's writing and im glad they got to play with scifi again BUT i think they needed a better editor OR to split it more cleanly into sections- in one of the interviews they said it was originally a series of novellas each from a single POV, and i think the constraint of that would have made it a much tighter story.

one of the best things about their Destiny lore is how much they do with so little- thinking of this section from the Beyond Light CE:

Disaster at the worksite. Clearly we will not be moving Clarity Control like we did the K1 artifact. It reacted violently to the attempt. I have entered 19 casualties into the log, since 19 engineers from the Hannu team were caught in its reaction...though there were many more than 19 bodies when it was finished. I have sequestered the recordings. Especially the sensorium telemetry. Quite upsetting. Yet I do not believe it was an act of hostility. Even this outburst carried themes of duplication...as if Clarity Control wanted to show it could help me.

which i was originally thinking of as a first run at Blackbird, but i think these may have been simultaneous? i'm not actually sure. i know Exordia was started after the first Baru book was published, but i'm not sure how much lead time there is for the CEs.

or the clarity of Unveiling compared to a lot of what felt like similar ideas that took much longer to get thru in Exordia. primes. pink noise. math. alright lets fucking gooo oh wait. five more pages of ethics first. okay sure i'll do that for ya Seth bc i love your prose. which also. a) conway game of life mentioned!!! b) this part from Exordia made me LOSE MY MIND:

But that was impossible. The whole universe came from the same source: the same designers. I was part of one of them. If I could only remember... We were arguing, I think. Or maybe we were the argument, because gods cannot do things, they can only be them. We were in contest over the morality of infinities: the cardinality of all possible souls measured against the mere infinity of souls to ever be born...

(this is the part from Unveiling, for the optimistically two people who will read this who haven't read Destiny lore):

Once upon a time,* a gardener and a winnower lived** together in a garden.*** * It was once before a time, because time had not yet begun. ** We did not live. We existed as principles of ontological dynamics that emerged from mathematical structures, as bodiless and inevitable as the primes. *** It was the field of possibility that prefigured existence. They existed, because they had to exist. They had no antecedent and no constituents, and there is no instrument of causality by which they could be portioned into components and assigned to some schematic of their origin. If you followed the umbilical of history in search of some ultimate atavistic embryo that became them, you would end your journey marooned here in this garden.

at the same time, idk what i would remove- at very few points was i reading something that dragged, with the exception of spending a LOT of time with Erik and Clayton in the middle (this is when i put the book down for a month and a half or so). and i know so many people were like sickos.jpg about them However their dynamic did sooo little for me and i don't think Rosamaria was given enough time on the page (and i think having her Be the ship was weird- i recognize that Blackbird needs to have a voice to make the plot go, but i don't think this was the best or neatest way to do it, and collapsed a lot of what i found fundamentally so interesting about Blackbird into something akin to a standard scifi Ship AI).

again i think the restriction of each section of the story being from a single POV might have been the restriction needed to end up with a tighter story- at no point were the multiple plot threads & POVs confusing, per say, but i'm not sure what the structure did for the story bc we could switch to whoever could tell us the most about what was happening whenever convenient, instead of having to piece things together from a limited POV. i'm thinking again of the BLCE, this time the part where Clovis is talking about Maya Sundaresh behaving erratically- i'm no Ishtar group expert but i believe we are supposed to put together that these are all different iterations of her from within the garden). oh- i also wonder if Aixue and Chaya are another run at Maya and Chioma to some degree...

anyway. i also think i am also less the target audience for this book because seth loooves their trolley problems and i simply do not have the patience for it! i loved the hard scifi and the first contact aspects and the character work (Seth's character work is, as always, spectacular. their characters always feel deeply real and flawed in very human ways, while still being exaggerated in the ways characters have to be to function as plot fulcrums), but this isnt something like Baru where i can be like yes you should read this to everyone i talk to.

I think the language in the book is DELIGHTFUL, as always, especially how Seth plays with the idea of an alien translator that sometimes can get an English equivalent to something and sometimes can't! i think that's very fun. because it's on my mind bc ive been listening to the Shelved by Genre episodes on it, it makes me think of Book of the New Sun, and how the "translator" figure of G.W. talks about picking words that are close but they aren't being used like we would use them now- e.g. "metal" in BotNS isnt the same thing we think of as metal! its used more broadly! but its close enough in purpose and point to work just fine. the destriers have horns. i need to know if Seth has read these books.

but back to Exordia. here are some specific prose parts i fucking loved.

this part of the full-page loving, detailed, and technical description of 40 alien nukes detonating in atmosphere:

In the band of thickening atmosphere twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers above the Earth, these gamma rays slam into atoms of oxygen and nitrogen, stripping their orbiting electrons. The orphaned electrons hurtle away at 90 percent of lightspeed. They want to go in a straight line, but hold on now, it's not so easy to leave home. Earth's magnetic field bends their course. They begin to spiral down. When an electron moving near lightspeed has to turn, it emits synchrotron radiation. Poison light. And beneath each bomb there are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons swerving at once. The result is a blast of electromagnetic noise. No: not noise. A coherent pulse, spiking and faling in harmony. Shiva's own beat drop on electrical civilization. An EMP.

This part. i love Anna and wish we got more of her.

He gives her back her Glock. She accepts it with resignation. "You'd better get your men ready," she says. "It's going to be bad." "Women too," he says, trying for lightness. "The pilot's a woman. We've got a female forward surgeon, a psyops lead, a linguist- she's pretty badass, ran with SEALs in Afghanistan. And Lt. Gainer, she might have some advice for-" "For what?" Anna says calmly. "Advice for what, Erik? How to get killed in a feminine way?"

Seth has such a good and specific way of writing metaphors. a little bit Douglas Adams:

The upshot is: the air around the engine exhaust beam explodes outward with a sound like a tuning fork hit by a Space Shuttle launch. Lung-jellying power. Anything in the beam path suffers the short, severe influence of a needle faster and hotter than a vajra thunderbolt. Anything around the beam eats fireball.

& this part. again. i wish more of the book was Anna and Ssrin's fucked up kismessitude. or whatever.

She slides the barrel of the weapon into the uppermost crater on Ssrin's spine. Slick pain makes Ssrin hiss in psuvoluntary fury: psuvoluntary because it is reflex subject to veto- she could quash it, but the feeling is deliciously wrong, and it is so good to bare her fangs and to unleash that ancient khai instinct of pain-as-motivation. "Questionsss," Ssrin gasps. "I want to know how this story ends." Oh serendura. You'll wish you hadn't asked. You'll wish you'd gone in with your eyes shut and your tongue in your throat so you couldn't smell the poison til it was too late.

which also!!! that's something i love about the Ssrin POV like. Seth is always good at writing aliens and slipping in details that tell us about them. "tongue in your throat" to not smell the poison bc she is a snake alien and smells with her tongue!!! that rules!!!

[windsweptinred]

For the ship ask thing, you said Sandman, I say Hades! Hermes x Charon <3

What are some headcanons you have? Because your headcanons are always top tier.

4. Would you ever consider writing for them? 👀👀👀

9. Which of the characters in the pairing is your favorite?

and I probably should have lead with 2. Do you ship them?

@mashumaru my darling, bless you. ❤️ I've been saving this absolute beauty of an ask for treat. Sometimes stepping away from the Sandman for five minutes to obbsess over my Hades boys is just what's needed.

What are some headcanons you have? Because your headcanons are always top tier.

🥹 Thank you!! Hmmm, well it's not so much a headcannon. But something I haven't as of yet seen explored in the fandom. And that's Hermes roles as Hermes Oneiropompos (conductor of dreams).

"As part of his role as divine messenger, Hermes presided over dreams of omen (messages sent by the gods and the ghosts of the dead.) One touch of his Caduceus could put to sleep, or wake a mortal. And the Greeks offered to him the last libation before sleep."

I find it so important to include this because it means Hermes aids every one of the Chthonic brothers, as a psychopomp and a herald of dreams. Unlike his Olympian relatives it shows his deep understanding and connection with the Chthonic gods. Plus, how can Charon resist this adorable little meteor helping both his baby twin brothers?

Would you ever consider writing for them? 👀👀👀

Writing... Well maybe. Never say never. But I feel like I need to know a ship inside and out, every last intricate little detail about them before I even approach the idea of writing a fic for them. And I'm still so new to Hades and the fandom. But drawing them... Oh yes, it's on the list, it will happen! Can I even claim to be unhealthily feral about a ship until I've captured them in pen and ink on A3? No, no I cannot!

Which of the characters in the pairing is your favorite?

Neither, and that's rare in my ships. I nearly always have a favourite. But in Charmes, both appeal to different parts of my hodgepodge of a pyche. You know I love me some gothicness wrapped in a cloak (added eldest sibling to a bunch of chaos kittens is ways a plus 😅) . We may as well just call Charon, Destiny 2.0. 😆 And Hermes, I love his fire coded asthetic, I love his sense of freedom and trickster nature. And, well you couldn't pay me to run anywhere... But I know what it is to love travelling, to put one foot infront of the other and never want to stop.

Do you ship them?

Ship them!? (Afrronted noises) God no, surely you can see from this incredibly explicit fanart depiction they are just close professional associates! The very thought! The very suggestion!... 😅 Well, yes, obviously... If my above ramblings are anything to go by. They're my all time favourite Hades ship, don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. But there's something about this duo I cannot get enough of. 💜🧡

Thank you so much for this random fandom ask my dear. 💖

[nocturnalfandomartist]

♥️ Zelink Sketch + Headcanon Dump ♥️

(Part 1)

(LONG POST WARNING)

Yes. I know I have already posted something for Valentine's Day. No one can stop me. So here's some sloppy sketches!

BoTW/ToTK Zelink is one of my favorite versions of the ship. They and SS Zelink are the most likely to have gotten together after the story, and they just have been through so much together! Not to mention a certain lyric in Kass's song regarding Zelda's power... Here are some little headcanons I have for them. :)

• Considering the state of Hyrule Castle, Link has let Zelda stay in his home in Hateno Village. She reveals it was his house to begin with, which likely resulted in a lot of frustrated rambling from Link that he had to buy his own house back...

• Zelda has frequent night terrors that she is still with the Calamity, holding it back as she replays the deaths of her loved ones in the back of her mind. When this occurs, Link usually is awake anyway and goes to comfort her. Although he has his memories returned, sometimes he finds it difficult to find the right words since he feels like a different person entirely.

• Despite Link's outward change in demeanor and the worry it initially would bring to her, Zelda realizes he's still the same Link that died in her arms. The only difference now is he no longer has such a heavy burden on his shoulders. And with that being the case, she's quite happy for him.

• Zelda spent a lot of time thinking about what the Deku Tree told her when she returned the Master Sword to its pedestal. Perhaps she's waiting for the right time to say what was on her mind... Or perhaps she already has?

• Zelda is a bit too... Experimental with cooking elixirs. Link encourages this, even if it makes him die a little inside whenever she makes dubious food instead. He'll eat it anyway.

The duo that accidentally got themselves for eternity. Whether they realize it or not, they doomed themselves to always meet again regardless of how they may part. This would probably make them overjoyed, though, if it weren't for all the suffering their new destinies may come with. Some more headcanons:

• Link likes to carve little wooden statuettes for Zelda on special occasions, and she likes to sew things for him. Perhaps she's made him a crimson cloak like the Chosen Hero in the manga by Akira Himekawa?

• Zelda may sometimes have trouble keeping a grasp on herself with suddenly having all of Hylia's lifetime in the depths of her memories. Link never says it directly, but he takes every action to remind her that she's still their Zelda.

• Link confessed his love to Zelda on the statue after they decided to remain in the surface, using a similar buildup that she did while they were riding on their loftwings at the beginning of SS.

• All of the Links and Zeldas after them are reincarnated forms of them in some way. This headcanon is also why I ship these two at every given opportunity. They will always reunite to save Hyrule, no matter what- but they will also reunite to find each other once again.

• Groose accidentally third-wheels a lot but they just allow it and let him hang around. They're all buddies, after all.

• Sometimes, they'll just sit outside and Link will listen to Zelda sing. Occasionally, he'll borrow her harp and play along with her song.

I know they aren't canon in the Child Timeline, but I can't help but love OoT Zelink. I like to imagine that somewhere in the LoZ universe, there's a timeline where Link refuses to be sent back in time and rather chooses to help restore Hyrule without leaving the one he saved behind. Usually, when I draw OoT Zelink, it's under this context. HCs:

• Link actually had a minor crush on Zelda during the events of OoT. They were just little kids, after all, so of course he found himself wanting to impress the princess when they met.

• After losing her own father to Ganondorf, Zelda is quick to comfort Link when he finally confides in her that the Deku Tree was like a father to him and the Kokiri before he withered. Some days, it is easy to think about what they lost and feel remorseful. But even so, they know they must carry on in hopes that the future for those after them is a brighter one.

• Link was going to return the Ocarina of Time, but Zelda let him keep it. Some days, when they aren't busy with restoration efforts, they'll play a duet. Zelda has even taught him some more songs.

• Zelda will occasionally teach Link the combat that was taught to her by Impa, usually techniques unique to the Sheikah Tribe. He finds himself struggling to be as agile, but he's trying. He thinks her skill is pretty admirable, at least.

• Neither is exactly talkative, but they aren't silent either. They balance each other out well in that way.

The children!!! Telink is adorable in my opinion, even if the pair may not be as outwardly affectionate as some of their counterparts. These little pirates are also super fun to draw! I already have a ton of headcanons with these two mentioned in a previous post, but here are some others:

• After the events of Phantom Hourglass, Link is a bit more cautious with going to explore random stuff they find. He respects Tetra's leadership, but he doesn't want to get her hurt (or turned to stone) again.

• Tetra tends to pick on Link, but every so often will soften up. Link hardly ever notices the shift, as this is just how the two are. They bug each other, sure, but they're the other's closest friend and trust each other more than anything.

• Link has convinced Tetra to stop stealing from innocent people, since it's a bad influence on Aryll when she's around. Tetra sort of made fun of him for it, at first, poking at him for not wanting to upset his grandma. However, she... Went with it, anyway, since he sort of had a point. They only steal from their enemies now!

• They have an ongoing arm-wrestling competition and rematches will start spontaneously and without warning. The victor changes so often that the rest of the crew has started betting on who will win at a given time.

• Tetra and the crew increasingly visits Outset Island more and more because they all think Link's grandma is really nice and they're all deprived of parental figures. This is nice and all, but every time they leave they find out Tetra has helped Aryll sneak into the ship (at Aryll's request) and they have to turn back around so nobody gets worried that she vanished. Tetra doesn't intend for Aryll to stick around, she just finds it funny.

Another personal favorite of mine, Spirit Tracks! These two are hard NOT to ship, with how much you can see them bonding over the course of the game. And the fact Link blushes almost every time she makes contact with him.

• These two are one of those pairs who very clearly have mutual feelings for each other, but no one can ever tell if they're actually together or even aware of these feelings.

• Link, while conducting, will occasionally drift off into daydreams about the next time him and Zelda will get to go on their own little adventure (although preferably not one with the world at stake this time). Alfonzo usually has to make him snap out of it and pay attention to the railroad.

• They like to make time to see each other, but if they can't in a given week for any reason they'll send letters to one another. Link's a little less literate than Zelda, but she manages to read his handwriting decently enough.

• Zelda is really affectionate. She's quick to high-fives, hugs, that sort of thing. Link doesn't mind, but he gets as pink as a rose quite often. Everyone finds him to be rather see-through.

• At Zelda's request, Link has begun teaching her to properly use a sword like she did as a Phantom.

Reblogging is fine, but please don't post this anywhere else without linking the original post. Thanks!

[rite-reblogs]

Ok, so I have a few hundred fanfictions I have planned out for a ton of different fandoms and I have no idea which one I should write, so I'm putting it out of my hands.

I'll give the title and the fandom and everyone and anyone else can decide what I write. Includes rewrites of my current fanfiction on Ao3 that I don't like anymore. I'm only doing one story for each fandom on this pole but I'll make a deal where I post one chapter a week and when I finish I will post another poll for a different story. Okay, I've rambled enough and I need to stop or I'll just keep procrastinating. I will start writing when the poll ends. So here: