#it all goes downhill rapidly from there

[chiclet-go-boom]

/slurps soda aggressively

so.

on a scale of 1 to WhatTheEverLovingFuck, what's your feeling on Urianger keeping you out of the loop again?

Sooooo I just finished The Crown of the Immaculate and I'm Not Okay

[codecicle-archive]

waiting patiently for my mutuals to hit a certain silly part in the feywilds that they're going to be irreversibly changed by. just waiting day by day to get the "ok hey ash. What the Fuck" dm when I open tumblr LMAO

[charyou-tree]

I need people to understand that Uranium is an eldritch horror

I'm not talking about radiation, or nuclear weapons, or anything that you can do with uranium, I mean its mere existence on Earth is a reminder of cosmic horrors on a scale you can barely conceive of.

When a nuclear power plant uses Uranium to boil water and spin steam turbines to keep the lights on, they're unleashing the fossilized energy of the destroyed heart of an undead star.

Allow me to elaborate:

In the beginning, there were hydrogen and helium. The primordial fires of the Big Bang produced almost exclusively the two lightest elements, along with a minuscule trace of lithium. It was a start, but that's not much to build a universe out of. Fortunately, the universe is full of element factories. We call them "stars".

Stars are powered by nuclear fusion, smooshing light elements together to make heavier elements, and releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process, powering the star and making it shine. This goes on for millions to billions of years depending on the stars mass (although not how you might think, the bigger stars die young), the vast majority of that time spent fusing hydrogen into yet more helium. Eventually, the hydrogen in the core starts to run low, and if the star is massive enough it starts to fuse helium into carbon, then oxygen, neon, and so on up through successively heavier elements.

There's a limit to this though:

This chart shows how much energy is released if you were to create a given element/isotope out of the raw protons and neutrons that make it up, the Nuclear Binding Energy. Like in everyday life, rolling downhill on this chart releases energy. So, starting from hydrogen on the far left you can rapidly drop down to helium-4 releasing a ton of energy, and then from there to carbon-12 releasing a fair bit more.

But, at the bottom of this curve is iron-56, the most stable isotope. This is the most efficient way to pack protons and neutrons together, and forming it releases some energy. But once its formed, that's it. You're done. Its already the most stable, you can't get any more energy out of it, and in fact if you want to do anything to it and make it into a different element you're going to have to put energy in.

So, when a massive star's core starts to fill up with iron, the star is doomed. Iron is like ash from the nuclear fire that powers stars, its what's leftover when all the fuel is used up. When this happens, the core of the star isn't producing energy and can't support itself anymore and catastrophically collapses, triggering a supernova explosion which heralds the death of the star.

What kind of stellar-corpse gets left behind depends again on how massive the star is. If its really big, more than ~30 times the mass of the sun and its probably going to form a black hole and whatever was in there is gone for good. But if the star is a bit less massive, between 8-25 solar masses, it leaves behind a marginally less-destroyed corpse.

The immense weight of the outer layers of the star falling down on the core compresses the electrons of the atoms into their nuclei, resulting in them reacting with protons and turning them all into neutrons, which creates a big ball of almost pure neutrons a couple miles across, but containing the entire mass of the star's core, 3-5 sun's worth.

This is the undead heart of the former star: a neutron star.

If, like many stars, this one wasn't alone but had a sibling, it can end up with two neuron stars orbiting each other, like a pair of zombies acting out their former lives. If they get close enough together, their intense gravity warps the fabric of spacetime as they orbit, radiating away their orbital energy as gravitational waves, slowing them down and bringing them closer together until they eventually collide.

The resulting kilonova explosion destroys both of the neutron stars, most likely rendering the majority of what's left into a black hole, but not before throwing out a massive cloud of neutron-rich shrapnel. This elder-god blood-splatter from the collision of the undead hearts of former stars contains massive nuclei with hundreds to thousands of neutrons, the vast majority of which are heinously unstable and decay away in milliseconds or less. Most of their decay products are also unstable and decay quickly as well, eventually falling apart into small enough clusters to be stable and drift off into the universe becoming part of the cosmic dust between the stars.

However,

Some of the resulting massive elements are merely almost stable. They would like to decay, but for quantum-physics reasons decaying is hard and slow for them, so they stick around much longer than you might expect. Uranium is one such element, with U-238 having a half-life of around 4.5 billion years, about the same as the age of the Earth, and its spicier cousin U-235 which still has a respectable 200 million year half life.

These almost-stable isotopes were only able to be created in the fiery excess of energy in a neutron star collision, and are the only ones that stick around long enough to carry a fraction of that energy to the era where hairless apes could figure out that a particular black rock made of them was emitting some kind of invisible energy.

So as I said at the beginning, Uranium is significant because it stores the fossilized energy of the destroyed heart of an undead star, and we can release that energy at will if we set it up just right.

When you say it like that, is it any shock that the energy in question will melt your face off and rot your bones from the inside if you stay near it too long?

[casualaruanienjoyer]

Flowers

"Yes, this one will do..." Armin mutters to himself as a gentle gust of wind ruffles his hair over his face.

It's early morning, the sun is lazily gliding up the horizon and there's no clouds on the sky. It's the perfect day for Armin to be off cadet duty. The perfect day for him to be out in the field.

But being off duty today doesn't mean he's not on a mission.

"This one too, for sure!"

He looks down at the small pile he's been delicately building by his side and adds yet another one on top.

Flowers. Wild flowers.

Bundles of striking colours and intricate shapes. Poppies, bluebells, daisies, buttercups... the list goes on.

He's been out and about for 30 minutes now, scouting the field for anything that catches his eyes. Anything that reminds him of-

"Aha! You, little one, are coming with me!" He reaches out for a bundle of Forget-me-nots.

He gazes at the beautiful blue petals. Blue like the ocean that he dreams of seeing one day. Blue like the sky above on a beautiful sunny day. Blue like her-

"This. She'll love this" he whispers so quietly, as though it was a secret only between him and the flowers he's turning between his fingers.

Armin reaches out for the rest of the blossoms he'd gathered, but his eyes jump to his watch.

He stands abruptly.

"Shoot! I'm going to be late!"

He starts running back towards the camp, flowers in one hand while the other reaches for some loose string in his cardigan pocket.

He tries his best not to trip while he wraps the delicate string around the flower stems, bringing them all together with a small bow.

"Perfect!"

Armin makes a mental note to thank Mikasa for teaching him how to twist, braid and knot string. He never knew it would come in handy one day.

He admires his work, turning the bouquet from side to side to fix any stray leaves, and for a second he forgets to check his steps.

"Whoa-!!"

Armin suddenly slips, losing his footing for just a second. He rapidly slides downhill towards one of the cadet cabins, though his arm stretches out just in time to stop him from running right into the wooden wall. He stops with a light 'thud'.

"That was... too close..."

He's never usually this reckless, but today he's on a mission. And he absolutely cannot be late because-

"Um...?"

Armin freezes.

He'd reached his destination either too late, or too loudly and now-

"What are you doing here... exactly?"

Now, she's here.

"Uhh..." for a moment he doesn't lift his head to meet the presence peeking out through the window above. The window he already knows too well. The same window that he's been visiting early in the morning for some time now. The window that belongs to-

"A-annie! Good morning!" he does his best to hide the flowers behind his back, laughing awkwardly.

But when he finally lifts his eyes to meet hers he can't help but blush. She's... well. A bit of a mess.

Her hair sticks up in several places, her signature tight bun is absent, replaced by waves of hair that reach just past her shoulders. She has dark circles under her eyes, darker than usual. Her gaze is sleepy and she squints her eyes as if to see him better.

Then she yawns. Annie's just woken up.

Shit.

Shit!

He's just a little too late. If only he woke up earlier himself, he wouldn't have ended up in this position. He wouldn't have had to find an excuse to be-

"Snooping around the girl dorms, Armin?"

"What!? No, that's not-!"

There's a pause. Armin's thoughts are racing, trying to find a way out of this.

When she lifts an eyebrow at him, he can't tell if she's annoyed or amused by this encounter.

It certainly doesn't help that she's so... so...close to him.

He's standing at eye level with the window sill, doing his best to look anywhere else but at her slightly open shirt and the blonde locks of hair tickling her neck. He curses his eyes for wandering.

"Well...?"

Armin's eyes land on her lips as she speaks and the redness of his cheeks instantly travels down his neck.

Shit.

There's no way out of this.

"I-I um..." he starts, clearing his throat. "I guess there's no point in hiding it." He straightens his back, taking a deep breath. He gathers all his confidence to steady himself.

"Here"

Armin pulls the bouquet from behind his back, lifting it up in the air. His fingers are a sweaty mess around the stems and his arms are shaking ever so slightly.

But despite his body language, his expression remains determined when he meets Annie's eyes.

Her beautiful blue eyes.

"They reminded me of you."

(The Aruani fic gods were with me tonight, I hope you liked this!! AAAAA. Now up on AO3 as well!)

(Also dedicated to @annawayne who encouraged me to write this fic based on a Cadet Aruani post I made not long ago. Thank you 🥺🙏)

[aziraphales-library]

Hello lovely mods, just wanted to start by saying a big thank you to you all 💖 Do you happen to have any new fics for Crowley being summoned? The whumpier the better! Have a great day 💖

Hi! We have #summoning and #demon summoning tags. Here are some more whumpy fics to add...

Valley of Darkness by EdosianOrchids901 (M)

A summoning interrupts plans to see the newly-popular Hamlet. Can Aziraphale rescue Crowley and deal with his injuries?

A Flat Circle by cassieoh, EdosianOrchids901 (M)

Hell is full of rumors about demons vanishing and coming back haunted by whatever happened to them. Crowley isn’t convinced, but his opinion quickly changes when he’s summoned for the first time. Will Aziraphale rescue him?

Ensnared by Bazzpop, EdosianOrchids901 (M)

Something heavy and blunt slammed into the side of Crowley’s head, hard enough that it made his ears ring and pain erupt through his temple. He staggered for a moment, blinking rapidly, clearly fighting the urge to pass out with a disoriented groan, before ultimately crumpling onto the stone floor in a heap. Well, so much for trying to talk his way out of this one. — A rather nasty summoning leaves Crowley injured, weak, and in dire need of help. His only hope for escape relies heavily on Aziraphale’s involvement in busting him out, but will help arrive before it’s too late?

may love thrive in hiding by Melime (M)

Only a few years after being given the Holy Water by Aziraphale, Crowley is faced with a threat he hadn't expected. He's summoned by a human wishing to gain eternal life, and that man won't take no for an answer. Meanwhile, Aziraphale overhears a conversation at an occult bookshop that makes him worry for Crowley. By the time Aziraphale finds him, Crowley is severely injured and may beyond hope for healing, but his love won't allow Aziraphale to stop trying. Can Aziraphale find a way to save him, or is he too late?

Six/six/six by Nyariewen (T)

It's 2006. A new films is coming out on a peculiar date due Crowley's involvement. Aziraphale has a bad omen about it. And he's right.

A Very Unfortunate Whumptober by theRavenMuse (E)

Crowley gets summoned by a nasty human and his whumptober only goes downhill from there. This is one cohesive fic with each chapter filling the prompt while building on all of the previous ones. This is NOT a series of one shots.

- Mod D

[faynthearted]

a/n: a drabble for @rainy19days, who requested the boys having a snowball fight. I decided to extend upon the ski trip chapter from last year's Christmas update. enjoy! <3

-----

“This was the worst fucking idea.”

“You’re doing great,” He Tian says. He offers both gloved hands to Guan Shan, who sits flat on his ass in the middle of the slope. His thighs and calves burn from the exertion. His core has started to ache, too, from the effort of pulling himself back to his feet every time he falls. He has half a mind to unclasp his boots from his snowboard and walk the rest of the way down the mountain.

Guan Shan slaps away his hands. “I’m never doing this again,” he grumbles, a bit breathless, ski goggles pressing imprints on his face. He Tian smiles.

“Well, we’ve still got two nights left at the resort. I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of the trip in the saunas and hot tubs with you, though.”

Guan Shan gives him a look. “I’m sure you wouldn’t.”

He Tian winks, then offers his hands again. “Come on. We'll take a break at the lodge. I can carry you back down the slope again if you’d like,” he suggests warmly, and Guan Shan has a scathing rejection on his tongue when he suddenly hears Zheng Xi, further upslope.

“Left, Jian Yi! Left!”

There’s the sound of scraping snow, rapidly and frantically approaching from behind, and He Tian’s expression as he looks up tells Guan Shan there’s no avoiding what’s inevitably coming. He Tian reaches for him — to do what, Guan Shan has no idea — but there’s no use.

Guan Shan hears, “Oh shit!” before he’s plowed over by Jian Yi’s skis.

It knocks the breath out of him, a knee knocking his temple as he's shoved forward in a plume of snow, a momentary tangle of limbs and equipment leaving bruises underneath his outerwear. The impact is gone just as quickly as it came, leaving him disoriented. He’s going to feel this in the morning. He Tian curses.

When Guan Shan gets his bearings and pulls himself out of the snow, contorted and wheezing but intact, he looks up to find Jian Yi still on the move — slower, but still out of control. He’s in a half-squat, somehow upright, wobbling and flailing as his skis point directly downhill, quickly gaining speed again.

“I’m sorry!” he’s crying over his shoulder. “I can’t stop! Fuck me!”

“Fuckin’ — help him,” Guan Shan chokes out, because there’s a crowd of other skiers sharing the slope with them and the last thing they need is a lawsuit. He Tian, who narrowly managed to avoid becoming a casualty, grimaces as he helps brush snow off Guan Shan, holding his face, checking for injuries.

“I’ll help him alright,” he mutters, low. He turns to follow Jian Yi just as Zheng Xi catches up, skidding to a stop next to Guan Shan.

“Shit, you okay?” Zheng Xi asks, though he’s looking after the other two. They can hear Jian Yi's cries for help growing distant. He Tian is moving with purpose, weaving down the mountain.

“Concussed, maybe, but what’s fucking new. Help me up. He Tian is going to kill him.”

By the time Guan Shan and Zheng Xi find them at the bottom of the slope, it’s too late. He Tian has already dragged Jian Yi to the tree line to avoid traffic, his snowboard discarded. Jian Yi is scrambling backward in the snow, skis also unlatched from his boots, pleas falling flat as He Tian advances on him.

In a panic, Jian Yi flings a wad of snow at He Tian’s face. It all goes downhill from there.

He Tian and Jian Yi are wrestling on the ground as Guan Shan and Zheng Xi try to pull them apart. Jian Yi, seeking vengeance for the snow shoved down his jacket, continues slinging makeshift snowballs despite Guan Shan’s warnings to knock it off. Scruffing the back of He Tian’s jacket, Guan Shan is in the middle of telling him off for causing a scene when a stray snowball smacks against his goggles, ice slipping down his face. Everyone freezes.

“Okay,” Guan Shan growls, swiping it off. “Fuck this.”

Jian Yi has the good sense to run, dragging Zheng Xi with him. The four of them stumble and trip and race through the snow until Jian Yi decides to stand his ground along the side of one of the main cabins, Christmas lights strung along the roof. He and Zheng Xi maintain their self-preservation with a flurry of snowballs, which Guan Shan and He Tian return in kind, scooping up handfuls as they give chase.

The group runs circles around the cabin, ducking around corners, hiding behind trees, snowballs shattering against their bodies, and when Guan Shan looks at He Tian, there’s a thrill on his face that he realizes he hasn’t seen in years. Not since middle school. He looks just as young. Guan Shan feels just as young. But when Jian Yi and Zheng Xi eventually stoop behind a large tree stump, breathless and exhausted and calling for a truce, Guan Shan plops down on the ground, splayed out on his back, lungs heaving and burning from the labor and the cold. He Tian joins him, unceremoniously falling back.

When he feels like he's got enough oxygen back in him, Guan Shan turns his head to look at him in profile. He Tian’s eyes are closed as he catches his breath, small clouds escaping his open mouth. He’s flushed. Guan Shan never tires of seeing it.

Jian Yi comes into view above them, grinning.

“You good, Red?”

“Screw you,” Guan Shan mutters. He pushes his goggles up to his forehead, relieving the pressure, then adds: “Yeah. I’m good.”

“You’re sticking to the bunny slopes from now on,” Zheng Xi says, coming up from behind Jian Yi to pinch his red ear that was exposed sometime during the scuffle. Jian Yi yelps but Zheng Xi rubs away the pain before pulling his hat back down properly. “Until you can prove yourself, at least.”

Jian Yi groans. “The bunny slopes are for kids, Xixi. My pride can’t take that.”

“Yeah? Can your pride handle being sent to the ER because you crashed into a tree at Mach 5?”

“Well, I actually—”

“No,” Zheng Xi tells him. “I’m not letting you kill yourself out here. You’re lucky you only hit Guan Shan.”

“Lucky?” He Tian asks, and Guan Shan elbows him.

“You know what I mean,” Zheng Xi says. He reaches out to help He Tian up, and Jian Yi does the same for Guan Shan.

“C’mon, you grumpy people,” says Jian Yi, flinging an arm around Guan Shan and the other around He Tian. There's snow in their hair, melting into their clothes. Jian Yi squeezes them, elated. “Lunch is on me!"

[mysteryofthedawn]

WARNING FOR BLOOD ON SOME PANELS

Lackadaisy's color scheme and lighting analysis Pt.1

A thing that many people have already noticed in the Lackadaisy comic, though intrigues me very much is the color palette changes. You see, in the beginning of the comic, we have a soft sepia, but when the Pig Farmer's raid happens, the soft ambiance gradually darkens to expose the tension and character's feelings better. (This can be considered as the lighting of the night time, too.)

By the end of Volume One, the light colors are back, though the readers are aware of the hidden climate, seeing the car window full of bullet holes in the background (Not necessarily related to the raid, but general gang violence).

At Lackadaisy Demurral and Lackadaisy Hamstring, they both darken, making us, the viewers, focused, so we pay better attention. We get to see Mitzi's attempts to keep the Speakeasy functioning (Although not so strong, unfortunately) along with a small, yet essential piece of Mordecai's plans working as one of the Marigold's, frantically unraveling every piece of information he can find at his reach (Which is in fact, quite important to the story as it goes on).

Jumping to Lackadaisy Briar-patch and Lackadaisy Mephistopheles, Mitzi and Sedgewick sit in a generally dark room, as a single sun ray shines through the upper window, hitting them both as Mitzi discusses her proposal with Wick, reflecting the hope she has on that deal. In a way, he used to be her angel of salvation, but it did not take long for her attempts to go downhill.

When Mitzi goes to Zib in Lackadaisy Mystique, there is a light behind her, full of moths. I'd like to say this represents their relationship in some sort of way. Moths follow the moonlight, Mitzi is Zib's light. He loves the light so much he gets hurt because of it. Mitzi, on the other way, used to be the moonlight, she was everything he cared for. But now, she is artificial, damaging the one who follows her.

We can also see this lighting metaphor in Lackadaisy Blood-money. Zib looks up at her right after being hit by the same. The remains flicker ever sightly behind Mitzi in the form of a streetlamp. Slowly yet, desperately, she is rapidly transforming onto what her husband was, trying her best to take his place in this cruel world of crime. Zib is aware of it, it pains him to know that once the light that shone the musician a path became cold, artificial and careless unless for interest. He needs that money, but at what cost? Watch Mitzi lose everything she had. Her money, her happiness, her husband, her soul. I see the streetlamp Mitzi walks forward to as a sorrowful representation of her dead husband, Atlas. The fact that had he had done dirty work multiple times on his career is what Mitzi is transforming onto. Zib knows the origin of all the blood money he received, but now having Mitzi as the giver is painful. Yet, there is nothing he can do about it. She sacrificed everything to become an empty shell of what Atlas once was, trapped in the delusion doing so will save his business, almost entirely dead, like Mitzi's and Zib's relationship, along the once successful band, destined to drift away to the country, featuring the loss of their star; Mary Ellen.

And this is end of part one from my Lackadaisy analysis! Feel free to comment or reposting if you feel like doing so.

[raaorqtpbpdy]

The Divergence Point

Wes finally succeeds in revealing Danny Phantom's true identity, and everything immediately goes downhill so fast some old ghost named Clockwork steps in.

For the prompt: Wes has done it. He has exposed Phantom to the world. So why can't he get rid of that annoying tick-tock from his head? And why is everything burning? [from @kalifa100]

Read also on AO3

[Warning for mentions of violence]

He... he'd done it.

Wes could hardly believe it himself, but he'd done it!

He'd tricked Danny into transforming in front of everyone, and now no one could deny that Wes had been right all along. They'd all seen the truth with their own eyes, and he'd done it!

He'd exposed Phantom to the world.

But he never expected it to turn out like this.

Why couldn't he get rid of this annoying tick-tocking sound in his head? And why was everything burning? How could achieving his greatest goal be a bad thing?

People were rioting as an unconscious Danny got carried away by the Guys in White. Fights broke out. A fire started. The mayor was trying to get everyone to calm down to absolutely no effect whatsoever. Everyone was freaking out, and no one was even paying any actual attention to the truth Wes had just exposed which started all this in the first place.

He'd just wanted to show them the truth; he never wanted anyone to get hurt.

No. No way. He could fix this.

The ticking had been growing steadily louder in his head, louder and louder until he couldn't focus, couldn't even think, and he was clutching his head in pain, his eyes squeezed shut.

Then, all at once, it quieted to a soft tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock in the background, and the air grew cold.

Wes opened his eyes. He was no longer standing in the second floor window of City Hall. Instead, he looked to be in some kind of clock tower. But the colors were all wrong, eerie and unnatural like they were glowing and absorbing light at the same time.

"Wesley Weston," said a voice.

Wes jumped at the sound and whipped his head toward it. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"I am Clockwork, the Master of Time," the ghost replied, because there was no doubt in Wes' mind that it was a ghost. "And you seem to have gotten yourself in quite a bit of trouble."

Most Amity Parkers would be scared out of their wits if they found themselves face-to-face with an obviously powerful ghost, in what was obviously his home turf, being told that they were in trouble. Wes Weston was not most Amity Parkers, and he wasn't afraid of any ghost, no matter who they were.

Wes narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Clockwork rapidly aged before Wes, then waved his hand through the air, causing a line to appear. At a single point, the line split into dozens of lines.

"This, is your timeline, and that point," Clockwork said, sticking a gnarled finger at the spot where the lines diverged, "Is today."

Wes wanted to speak, ask a question maybe, or say something in his defense if he did indeed need to defend himself. But the words didn't come to him, so he just listened, waiting for Clockwork to finish his explanation, which would hopefully include why the hell Wes was here.

"Each of these lines that branch off from today, is a direction in which your timeline might go," the old ghost continued. "But you may have noticed that only one of them goes straight forward."

He indicated the line that continued straight amongst all the wild and diverging paths.

"So?"

"So this is the line that you have forced because of your actions," Clockwork pointed to a wiggling, looping line going way off in another direction.

"Again, so?"

"So... this is how that line ends."

Clockwork gestured broadly to a screen where Wes could see a world on fire, ravaged by war. His eyes widened in shock.

"Wait, you're telling me I'm responsible for that?"

"There are billions of people on your world, making trillions of decisions every day, but at any given point in time, there is only one decision that matters, and the person making it changes all the time."

Clockwork jabbed his finger once again at the point where the lines diverged.

"At this distinct point, there is only one person on Earth whose decisions determine the future of the world as you know it," Clockwork said. "And at this distinct point, that person is you. Ordinarily, there are a few potential vital decisions that will result in the safe continuation of the timeline, and one of the right ones is made."

Clockwork waved his hand again, and showed another timeline, side by side with the first. This one, too, branched off after a certain point, although it only had about ten possible outcomes, and three of them kept the timeline going more or less straight ahead, with only slight deviations, where the others spread wider.

Evidently, that was the standard situation, and the divergence point where Wes' decision mattered was atypical to say the least. His had lines that turned around and went backwards, lines that formed loops and waves, and only one that went forward.

Clockwork pointed once more at the divergence point where Wes' decision was the only one that mattered.

"At this divergence point, there is only one right answer," he said. "Only one way to avoid catastrophic consequences. You must not reveal Daniel's secret to the world."

"What?" Wes shouted. "No way! I worked hard to do that! There has to be some way I can keep the timeline from devolving into chaos and still expose Fenton's secret. I worked too hard for too long to just give up!"

"If that's so, then you will repeat the day over until you find it, or realize the futility of trying," Clockwork told him. "Failure will not be tolerated."

The next thing Wes knew, he was gasping awake in bed.

It was eight in the morning on Saturday, and Phantom's public appearance hadn't happened yet, meaning Wes hadn't even gotten the chance to enact his latest plan, and it hadn't caused absolute chaos.

Weird dream.

[anticidic]

Chronic hanahaki skk AU

Dazai jokes about the whole 'that's why I love you' back when they were fifteen, but that's where it all began. Chuuya's 'ew' hurts—that's when it starts and it's all downhill from there.

The flowers come and go over the years. Sixteen was perhaps the worst year of Dazai's laugh between almost losing Chuuya several times and almost losing his own life many times over. And he's never been more thankful than at that time for living in a shipping container in the middle of nowhere. Makes it easier to hide the flowers.

They've also evolved over time. The flowers started off as daisies. An innocent love. A first crush. Ew, indeed, even Dazai thinks it's a little gross. By 16 they become daffodils when the dark days end and the new beginnings are upon them. Things are looking up even if they still bicker and argue over things like cheating in video games and Dazai running off with Chuuya's belongings. But it's less vitriol and more just stupid teenagers being stupid teenagers. Dazai doesn't mind it as much. The pain ebbs and flows. Some days are worse than others, but he goes on.

Eighteen is when they rapidly change from purple hyacinths to forget-me-nots the day he leaves the mafia. Silence and longing, but also grief tears him apart. Grief for the world and a lost one. It might as well be dying because it's a different kind of rejection when Oda leaves the world. But Dazai keeps going because he has to.

At 22 they've become hydrangeas. All sorts. They began as green with rebirth and turned a shade of blue over time up until now. There's still someone important to him in his heart that he has not lost and focusing on what he has still instead of only mourning the past and all the what-could've-beens is what's important.

Chuuya's never rejected him since 15, not since that 'ew', but the trepidation about losing a loved one puts the fear into Dazai. He's not sure he can take that step forward and try again. The worst that could happen is a swift death, but even dying doesn't sound so enticing anymore. The pain's barely there. He's been able to suppress the growth of flowers thanks to Yosano and the medicine she got for Dazai.

He doesn't want to die; he wants to keep going. There's still that important person in his heart, waiting. But there's others he surrounds himself with now, too.

One day, he thinks. One day he'll show Chuuya that same brazen courage he had at 15. Chuuya's empty threats roll off of him, but it's still Chuuya at the end of the day.

[anons-has-hlvrai-aus]

Vortal Incarnation [Chapter 1]

Observation Terminated

Next Chapter (TBA)

Summary: Gordon Freeman declines the G-Man’s offer and faces the consequences of those actions. Twenty years later, a vortigaunt with some of Gordon’s personal effects shows up outside of the City 17 train station, and it only goes downhill from there.

Chapter Summary: N/A

Word Count: 3,972

Ao3 Version

Notes: If I had a nickel for every time I wrote a story about a guy named Gordon Freeman turning into an alien…you know the rest of the meme. One of a handful of Half-Life related projects that has been bouncing around in my head for at least a month now. The rest will possibly get releases while I’m working on this and Metamorphosis, or they might not, we’ll just have to see. Notes are hard rip. This project is also one of two AUs in which Gordon is a vortigaunt! I’ll see about getting something written up for the other…maybe…possibly.

Between binding himself to a man he couldn’t trust, and certain death…he unfortunately would have preferred certain death. After all…he’d gotten lucky with everything else these past two days…either he got lucky again, or his luck ran out. It was a significantly more trustworthy gamble than whatever the man in the suit had prepared.

At least, that’s what he’d told himself when he backed away from the door of the tram and politely declined the strange man’s offer.

“Well, it looks like we won't be working together.”

The words, etched with sparsely concealed disappointment and anger, now repeated in Gordon’s head like a scratched-up vinyl record while he lay crumbled to his side in a pool of his own blood. He was almost totally blinded. His glasses had shattered spectacularly and gotten into his eyes. One side of his vision was totally gone while the other was blurry and red. It was either a miracle, or another sign of his “luck,” that he wasn’t dead from the head trauma he was suffering from.

The HEV suit was utterly destroyed. He could feel the breastplate split in so many parts that it scratched at his exposed fingers if he brushed against it with more than the faintest touch. His legs had lost their feeling long after the suit’s morphine supply had run dry and long before he’d finally tripped up and fractured something from his dominant hand from the impact.

The aliens he’d been confined with had seemingly decided against the use of their biological weapons in exchange for chasing him around with the vague threats of violence just long enough for him to finally lose his footing; after that, they’d gotten their anger out in any way possible short of an actually painless death. Gordon figured that if they were smart enough to hold grudges, they would obviously want to take their sweet time tormenting him over the loss of their leader.

He’d heard them snarling between themselves in conversation, likely debating how else to prolong his suffering, but that had been so long ago now that he wasn’t sure if the silence was them quietly relishing in his pain or from his ears being destroyed without his knowledge.

Gordon had to wonder if he was even still alive at this point. He wouldn’t have to wait long for an answer.

His confirmation that his body hadn’t failed him quite yet came in the form of something flipping him onto his back and dragging his body along the ground. It wasn’t the big guys, this felt like something closer to his size, like those alien slaves with the lightning powers.

He seemed to guess correctly as he now heard a group of the worker species chatter in their strange tongue while they took Gordon away. He would have fled the moment he heard them if he had the strength for it, having rapidly learned to jump for cover at the first sign of their presence; he didn’t even have the strength to jump out of his skin, now.

For a moment, he was sure he heard one say “Free Man,” but perhaps he was imagining it from all the exhaustion and blood-loss.

Consciousness began to slip from him, but he tried his damndest to keep himself awake, despite the pain that coursed through his body. He knew if he let go now, he likely wouldn’t wake up. He doubted that anybody was looking for him, or would find him if they were, but he felt compelled to veer away from the clutches of death regardless.

As strong as his will was to live, however, the same could sadly not be said for his body, now catching up with all of Gordon’s injuries.

As his heart gave up, a voice spoke to him. It was a guttural voice that didn't belong to anyone he could remember, but for some reason it felt familiar and like he’d heard it very recently. He hadn’t time to ponder where or when he’d heard this voice, only the time to hear its one message to him:

“The Free Man will live.”

And as the last syllable escaped the lips of this familiar stranger, so too did the final breath of Gordon Freeman.

-

Between his responsibilities with the Resistance and his duties as a Civil Protection Officer, Barney Calhoun was a very busy man.

He didn’t particularly like his Civil Protection job, but he was good at it. He’d had to do some unsavory and cruel things to keep himself away from suspicion, but the illusion of unshakable loyalty had given him a good reputation with his coworkers at City 17’s primary train station. Anything he said could be trusted, and anything he wanted to ‘handle’ was his to take.

A sigh escaped his throat as he stood idly in the interrogation room he was sharing with one of his morally bankrupt coworkers, whom he had mentally codenamed as ‘Snitch’ with how quick he was to rat out any civilians he thought were acting out of line. Barney had heard somewhere that Snitch had his brain surgically destroyed by the Combine; he was willing to believe it, if only so he didn’t have to consider the possibility that a human could naturally decline to that point of cruelty…that he could possibly decline to that point as well…

Barney focused his attention to one of the monitors in front of him to see a passenger train arrive at the station. There was nothing noteworthy about the new arrivals that he could use to warrant one of his ‘surprise interrogations’ for recruitment, such as a history of legal but subtly rebellious behavior, but that thankfully meant Snitch wouldn’t be pulling anybody aside for a petty excuse to beat the shit out of them, either. No interrogations also meant no excuses to get Snitch out of his hair, unfortunately, so he’d have to listen to the man brag about how he was probably going to get promoted soon.

After a couple of minutes, there was a knock at their door.

Snitch opened the spy hole to see another of their coworkers, turning to look over at him after they had shared a brief exchange between themselves.

“They need some more hands next door.”

“Go for it.” Barney told him.

“Not gonna join us?”

He shook his head.

“You’re going to fall behind on your quota if you’re not careful.”

“It’ll get done.” He assured with feigned cruelty. “I’ve got my ways.”

Snitch shared a glance with the other officer before sliding the spy hole shut and backing out of the room.

Precious seclusion at long last.

He cut off the cameras in the room and pried off his mask with a loud, deep sigh while he watched the passengers of the last train file through the station.

“This shit was much more tolerable in Black Mesa…” He told himself.

One of the monitors pinged him about his room’s lack of camera feed, which he quickly acknowledged and hand-waved as being part of the room’s regular maintenance routine, which wasn’t far from the truth. This room didn’t agree with something about the Combine’s camera setup and was prone to spontaneous blackouts; to the frustrations of the almighty space empire, the only solution that seemed to work was turning the cameras off at semi-regular intervals, so that was now a permanent maintenance requirement for this room. So…one point for the glorious fickleness of machinery!

He smirked a little over the inkling of freedom he got from such a strange little coincidence. He didn’t have anything to report to the Resistance today, so he would hold off on calling Doctor Kleiner for now. The man was busy anyways and wouldn’t have appreciated being distracted. Instead, he would monitor some of the cameras that lined the outside of the train station. They were there to catch anybody trying to sneak in or out of City 17 through the train station, but nobody had tried anything of the sort for years now.

Monitoring that area was still a requirement, of course. Due to the lack of commotion behind the building, Barney’s computer was oftentimes the only one listed as checking these cameras when he popped in on them, not that he actually used them to check for humans. He spent more time getting a dopamine boost from watching crows meet up than he did looking for people trying to sneak around, but he was technically following protocol when nobody else was so this somehow earned him popularity points with his peers. One point for…laziness, he supposed?

“I bet you guys haven’t even noticed the world’s gone to Hell…” He said when the first camera caught a small murder of the little black birds. “Lucky little fuckers…”

Somebody knocked at the door again, Barney took this as a hint to put his mask, and the cameras, back on.

He opened the spy hole to Snitch.

“I’ve finished cycling them, they’re online again.” He huffed, knowing his coworker had only been sent back to nag him about the cameras.

“Yeah, yeah.” He looked behind Barney at the monitors. “Birds…” Snitch scoffed.

“As always.”

“Nice to know your years of experience are paying off…” The venom in his comment could be heard through his mask’s voice filter. “You should accept those promotions, you know. You could be getting compensated big time to watch birds from the fucking Citadel by now.”

“Do you want in, or not?”

“What’s wrong?” Snitch chuckled at Barney’s attempt at deflecting. “Scared of a few body mods?”

“Do YOU want to be the one that gets ‘bird-watching duty’ in my absence?”

The man backed away from the door and shook his head. “Hell no. Nobody else here would be caught dead checking those cameras.”

“I rest my case.”

“Enjoy your birds, you fucking weirdo.” Snitch pointed at him before turning tail towards the front end of the building. “You’re wasting your time.”

Barney, wanting to get the last word in, decided to tease the man before he left. “One of these days, there’s gonna be something other than birds out there, and I’m gonna be the one to find it.”

“Like hell you are. I’m going to harass citizens near the rations dispensary.”

“Not even going to pretend to be modest today, I see.”

“Fuck you.”

With Snitch gone, Barney let out a small laugh and returned to his crows. He switched through the cameras a few times. Some had more crows than others, but definitely no people.

After a couple more minutes of flipping through, Barney had more or less gotten his fix of corvid shenanigans for the day. Just before switching the screen to someplace interior, he noticed something…odd.

There was a blind spot beneath every camera, just small enough that one could never hope to fully utilize it to evade being caught during surveillance. There was something hiding in one of those blind spots, and it was driving the crows crazy.

Barney fixated on the blob of movement at the bottom of the screen, switching screens to see if any of them had a better view.

Soon, the blob moved further away from the wall and into a clear shot for Barney to process what he was seeing.

There was a vortigaunt outside.

How the hell did a vortigaunt get all the way over here? He didn’t think they were teleportating in from Xen anymore, but maybe he would need to double check that?

The vortigaunt was…wearing something. It looked like…was that Uriah?

No, no it couldn’t have been.

It was stupid for Barney to assume that any vortigaunt wearing a lab coat was Uriah.

And obviously it wasn’t him, because while the lab coat this vortigaunt was wearing was draped over his shoulders, it was obviously fitted for a human. Barney couldn’t speak for any other vortigaunt scientists, because he didn’t know any others, but he knew for a fact that Uriah had his coats modified to fit his longer arms. So at the very least, Barney was pretty sure this Vort wasn’t somebody he knew.

But that just led to more questions about who this was and where they’d come from…

Kleiner said something about trying to get that teleporter of his working not that long ago, hadn't he? With how spontaneously this guy had shown up…were they connected to that project somehow?

Had Kleiner taken some poor vortiguant from Black Mesa East or White Forest and made them the subject of a test? It was morbid to think the older man would haphazardly throw something alive into that machine after the last time but…then again, Last Time had involved that cat…

Barney shuddered.

He wasn’t going to rule out “test subject” as a possible answer for who this vort was.

Upon further investigation, this guy didn’t even seem to be aware of his surroundings. He not only seemed clueless of where he was…he seemed clueless of how he’d even gotten here.

Barney saw that…and the first thing that came to mind was when he escaped Black Mesa with Doctor Rosenberg and had experienced that “Harmonic Reflux” thing. Yeah, Barney had known he jumped through a portal the first time, but getting caught in the reflux made him so disoriented that he very nearly forgot how he’d gotten to the places he’d ended up. If it was that bad for Barney after only a couple of bad teleports…how bad would it be if it was that vortigaunt down there?

The Kleiner test subject theory was becoming more likely…

Of course, this guy could have also just been drugged or something by the Combine.

He’d have to go outside.

That vort may have been safe right now, but if they started wandering into the city, they would definitely be captured and tortured, and Barney simply wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he let that poor fella be taken into custody.

He slowly reached over to cut off the cameras again, then hesitated. No, that wouldn’t do. He needs to wait before cutting off the cameras, to keep it realistic.

He stepped back towards the door, keeping an eye on the screen to make sure the vortigaunt didn’t go anywhere, then bolted into the hallway and out the back.

The back door was heavy and slammed loudly against the exterior wall. Crows scattered everywhere as Barney approached.

“You-!” He said with a commanding tone, pointing a finger at the startled and confused alien. He paused, trying to remember what the ‘correct’ term to use was while in-character since vortigaunts hardly counted as citizens in the eyes of the Combine. His mind failed him, and he decided the ‘formality’ wouldn’t matter here.

“Come with me.” Barney motioned towards the door he’d just come through and then walked around to shove the vortigaunt inside.

He ignored any questions he got from his coworkers as he kept pushing the vort forward into his interrogation room…which was locked.

Damnit.

Barney knocked at the door, the spy hole opened in front of him.

“Where the hell did you run off-?” Snitch started to whisper before seeing the ‘detainee’ he was dragging along. “Son of a bitch.”

“…Told ya.”

“Just get the hell inside.”

The spy hole slid closed, the door swung back open, and Barney’s new friend was escorted into the interrogation room.

“…Need any help with this one?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

Snitch didn’t complain. He and Barney didn’t get along, but he still respected him enough to take what he said at face value. As such, he stepped out of the room once more.

Barney mumbled to himself while cutting out cameras, and then pulled his mask off.

“H’okay…” He sighed, “we’re safe to talk for a little bit…”

The vort drearily looked at him. Either his suspicions that they were drugged were correct, or they weren’t much of a talker.

“Hey, are you…can you understand me alright? Nod your head two times if you can.”

They tilted their head, as if trying to process the question, before awkwardly nodding their head twice.

“Okay, are you able to speak?”

They waited a bit before shaking their head.

“I see, sorry about that…” He was terrible at reading VSL, so getting the vort to sign for him was off the table for now. “Do you know where you are, or how you got here?”

They took significantly less time to answer this question, shaking their head again for both questions.

“Alright. I’m gonna do what I can to get you to connected with people who know you, okay? Just gimme a second…”

Now that Barney was up close with them, he at least had a better idea of this guy’s distinguishing features. If they were part of the Resistance, maybe somebody would be able to recognize them from his description and explain what happened to them that way. It was worth a shot…

The first thing Barney noticed was the eyes. They kept their three, secondary eyes closed at all times; whether this was a preference or a result of the vort’s condition was yet to be determined. He was also able to note three specks of yellow in the iris of their main eye that formed a vague triangular pattern, which would prove especially useful for identification. Along the back of their neck were the remnants of some fins or external gills, apparently vortiguants had those in abundance during youth and they were supposed to fall out during adulthood. Barney rarely saw any vortiguants that didn’t have at least a few of those frills somewhere on their body, but they were usually frayed and fragile. The frills along this vort’s neck seemed pretty healthy, suggesting to Barney that maybe this one was on the younger side.

Their abdominal hand fell limp, but it didn’t seem to be broken, at least. In fact, this vort looked about as healthy as he could have imagined a vortigaunt to look, which shouldn’t have been possible if they had been on Earth for a while.

The vortigaunt, unfortunately, kept their lab coat tightly wrapped around them using their two primary hands, making it difficult for Barney to find any notable birthmarks or tattoos. He didn’t want to be intrusive by asking them to undress just so he could find out, so…

“Is it okay if I check your pockets?”

They nodded again, this time pausing to squint at Barney. Did this vortigaunt…know him somehow?

The vort suddenly winced and clutched the side of their head.

“Woah, hey now!” He pulled them aside to a nearby chair. “If you’re trying to remember something, let’s take it slow…I’m sure it’ll come back to you naturally…”

The vort leaned back in the chair, the tension in their shoulders notably diminished once they did so.

“There we go, just relax. Now…let’s take a look…”

The breast pocket was searched first, with Barney able to find a rolled up tie inside, stripped with red and black.

“Heh, I hope you’re just holding this ridiculous thing for a friend.” He joked, getting a silent chuckle from the disoriented vortigaunt. “I haven’t seen a tie like this in a long time…”

As he rolled the tie back up and returned it to his owner, Barney’s gaze was drawn to a familiar angular emblem on the opposite breast of the coat…

“Black Mesa.” He whispered.

The vort, seeming to regain a hint of cognizance, raised a hand to possibly sign something, but they quickly seemed too lost to form anything and instead clutched their lab coat once more.

Barney frowned. A jacket this pristine couldn’t have come from Black Mesa, not after 20 years.

He pushed further thoughts to the back of his mind, figuring that everything would make sense once this vort was, at the very least, identified.

He checked the pocket closest to him this time, it was stretched from an attempt to fit something larger than was possible for the fabric and space provided, but the only thing inside was an ID, also Black Mesa issued if the pattern from the jacket and tie was anything to go by.

Barney pulled the card out with interest, hoping the card’s owner might lead a hint to somebody in the Resistance, maybe even somebody Barney knew.

He gave pause upon seeing the photo, having to will himself to read the name next to it:

Gordon Freeman, Ph.D

The picture, of course, had a youngish man with a dorkily stoic face staring back at him, dark green eyes almost glowing with a hidden sense of mischief.

Barney sighed and used a free hand to wipe away the tears that pricked at the edge of his eyes.

Was it wrong for him to still be grieving? Twenty years was a long time to have your best friend be dead. He knew the vortiguants talked on and on about how ‘The Free Man will return’ but it was hard to believe them when the only thing Barney could see when he thought of that name in connection to those words was his best friend being dragged away by a pair of armed troops, bragging about how they were going to hide the body.

Hide the body.

His best friend’s body.

There was a picture in Kleiner’s lab with Gordon’s face on it, very grainy and nearly impossible to make out who was who, it had done nothing to replace the image of Gordon’s unconscious form for the past 20 years. Looking at the ID Card in his hands, however, pushed away the dread of that mental image; Gordon had always been so careful with his stuff, or even with stuff he had been entrusted with, and whoever had held onto this little piece of plastic had done well to put just as much care into keeping it pristine as Gordon himself would have. It was a perfect picture for Barney to reminisce over, any worries about where and when Gordon died were secondary to the flood of emotions Barney felt seeing a clear glimpse of his best friend during life.

He didn’t know if this was supposed to be a sign from the vorts, or a gift from them, or whatever…but it was relieving to look at.

“Gordon Freeman…” he sighed longingly.

Curiously, the vortiguant looked at him attentively.

“…what?”

They looked at the ID, then back at him, trying to mirror the stoic expression on the card.

Barney pursed his lips, looking at the ID again, then at the lab coat.

They looked at him expectantly.

No.

No, no, no.

There was…no way.

“…Gordon?”

There was NO way in Heaven, or Hell, or Earth, or Xen, or wherever the fuck the Combine came from…

The vort nodded.

Eyes widening, Barney checked the lab coat’s final pocket, immediately finding something plastic that formed a thick frame. He pulled it out.

Glasses.

Not glasses for a vortiguant, although Barney was sure they existed, but for a human. Black rimmed glasses. The glass itself looked like it had been shattered long ago, but the frames were completely fine.

“Gordon??” He asked again, desperation and hope welling up in his throat.

They…he tilted his head in confusion, but nodded again regardless.

“Oh…” the air caught in his throat as he put the glasses back into Gordon’s pocket. He had to control his breathing just to make sure he didn’t scream or burst into tears from the revelation. “…my god, it’s…you’re…” Barney couldn’t help but let out a short laugh.

Gordon Freeman was a vortigaunt. He didn’t know how, but he was. How could he not laugh?

Gordon squinted, once again trying to recognize him.

“I guess it has been a while, hasn’t it?” He didn’t wait for his friend to try any sort of reply “…it’s me, Gordon. It’s Barney…”

[galaxythreads]

MULTI-CHAPTER:

(Death Must be Lonely Like I am):

Summary: After the Battle of New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. claims Loki for punishment and consequently, also HYDRA. When the Avengers are assembled under the belief that Loki is escaping his cell, they rapidly realize what a mistake they've made leaving the younger Asgardian in their hands. (Gen, blind!Loki)

[REWRITE/REVAMP OF STYGIAN]

Fortunately, Unfortunately :

Summary: After Loki goes missing from Asgardian prisons, Thor leaves Asgard to look for him, ignoring Odin’s insistence and threats not to do so. Odin, desperate, decides to resort to drastic measures to force his heir back to Asgard. As in, pulling Hela out of Helheim, turning her mortal, and sending her after Thor drastic. (Gen)

You Screamed For So Long We Forgot To Care Anymore

Summary: Five months after Thor drags his half-dead brother to Earth to plead asylum, things take a turn for the worse. With the older Asgardian out of commission and a sizeable threat overshadowing them, Clint becomes aware of two facts: One: Loki was tortured, mind-controlled, and manipulated into attacking Earth. Two: Loki knows none of this. (gen, no smut)

Loki waking up with his memories of Thanos and is Not Okay

Clint dealing with what Frigga did to him, Also Not Okay TM

No one is Okay TM

ONE-SHOTS:

With Terror and With Fear:

Summary: After Thor overhears a conversation between Odin and some of the councilmen regarding Loki's true heritage, he vows to tell his brother.

Loki just wishes he could figure out why Thor is refusing to talk to him all of the sudden.

guillotine dreams (don't tell me not to scream)

Summary: "Natasha can’t believe that they missed this at first. It’s not as though Loki was doing a good job at hiding the fact that he was in pain or the mind control. Except… except, well, he was. He was hiding it well. Exceptionally so. If she hadn’t aggravated Loki’s master enough to make it want it want to kill him, then she would have proceeded with the interrogation, likely found out some one-off piece of information, and walked off. Loki’s part in this would have remained the initiator.

Not victim."

AKA: Natasha notices Loki is in pain during her interrogation and it all spirals out of control from there.

intervention, intervention (what intervention?)

Summary: Loki gets a gift for his names day. And then everything goes downhill from there.

OR: the one where Nidavellir poisons Loki's magic to force Odin's hand on a treaty and Odin refuses to help, even if it means Loki's death. So Loki does what he does best: creates a disaster and almost gets himself killed along the way.

AKA: I AM SO SORRY TO MY DEAR FRIEND WHO REQUESTED A LOKI MAGICAL EXHAUSTION FIC MONTHS AGO.

[veliseraptor]

top 5 fictional villains

oh man how am I supposed to choose from my entire villain warehouse. let's see.

1. Xue Yang. I mean, if this wasn't obvious from my [gestures] whole blog. But boy did I fall hard from pretty much scene one of my first watch of The Untamed, and then never looked back from there. He's just! What a guy. An icon. I love him so much. Fucks up his own life irreversibly and doesn't even realize he's doing it until too late. Whoops.

2. Maeglin. #my trash son. I waffled between putting him and Celegorm on this list (I could've done both, but, well, I felt like I should pick one per canon) and decided to go with Maeglin because he's arguably worse? Though I guess it probably depends on your metric. (I'm not really interested in arguing on that one, I don't particularly care, they're both my beloveds and there's no changing that at this point.) Seriously fucked up childhood that's got to fuck some things up in one's head to begin with, and then making some terrible choices later on that just go rapidly downhill, and again, tragedy of condemning oneself but also how doomed was he from the beginning (pretty doomed).

3. Vegas Theerapanyakul. I kind of hesitated about putting him on here because it feels sort of weird to call him a "villain" but like. He did sexually assault the protagonist in an early episode and threaten to kill him later on, so, like. Even if the story turns around and gives him a happy ending (iconic) I feel like he counts. Disaster of a man, kind of an awful person ("kind of?", you say, and okay, that might be so), and it's very sexy of him. Pete thinks so too, apparently.

4. Shen Jiu. Yest all right I know he's technically Sir Not Appearing In This Book but he is technically the titular scum villain so I'm counting him. Awful man. Miserable history, miserable story. I'm irresistibly drawn to tragedies created by characters themselves and that's what this guy's got going on.

5. Moridin/Ishamael/Elan Morin Tedronai. We! Love! A nihilistic villain just craving the end of everything! Of tenuous sanity and an abiding obsession with the protagonist! Anyway I didn't have a lot of feelings about this guy the first couple times I read Wheel of Time but then on my second to latest reread he came roaring out in front and plop, in the villain warehouse he goes.

thought about including He Xuan but he only sort of feels like he counts as a villain somehow; honorable mentions here go to Celegorm (disney prince murderer), Jun Wu (king of creating a toxic work environment), Clytemnestra (queen of my heart), Azula (since I just mentioned her), Jin Guangyao (generator of infinite discourse) and Jinx. I feel like I'm forgetting folks here. but that happens, I suppose.

and this is not including villains who are just so much fun for me to watch, who live in a slightly separate corner of my brain but are beloved of me nonetheless.

[ssaalexblake]

I like the master's monologue over the flashbacks in TTC because it takes a character as messed up as they are to just present the events that he's narrating as something so neutral and par for course.

'the could either abandon the child or take it with her' well buddy you just described her as a risk taking scientist who travels and explores the universe even when it's not necessarily safe. A pioneer! She could have Explored and tried to find the child's family or home. We've established she's a risk taker already. Instead of exploring though, she chose to Claim.

'the child became her life's work' yes. this is normal. FYI this is not normal.

'it lasted through several of the child's regenerations' like buddy i hate to break it to you with how messed up Your youth was but kids do Not typically die multiple times!!! during their childhoods!!! Even the cliff thing was parental negligence (i grew up near cliffs. I know and knew from a young age to exercise cliff safety.) But anyway, Tecteun was researching how to trigger regeneration and poking at the kid's genetic code. She killed the kid a few times during her work. The child in the memories goes from trusting her to looking worried, scared and disorientated to just straight up numb. This is Not how children behave in a suitable environment. This is a horror story, not science hour.

This is one of those moments where you'll never twig what's going on here unless you're willing to accept that the master's a best a terribly unreliable narrator, and at most an outright liar. For some reason people like to, specifically, take This particular regeneration's word as law when the show repeatedly shows to the audience he's lying to manipulate people probably a majority of the time.

In this case, it's more of an instance where this man is Not a decent person and while any decent person would be horrified by all this (read: the doctor's reaction) he's Not (well. he is horrified but for the wrong and entirely selfish reasons) and the narration supplied by him is therefore suspect (the flashback sequence with no audio on it. Just watch the evolution of the child and how they start smiling and it goes rapidly downhill. It's there on screen. He's a distraction). He does say a couple of things that indicate he knows that what's happened here is messed up, but they are passing comments and not the bulk of the dialogue.

Unreliable narrator strikes again.

[ebonysplendor]

My Darling Review 🧑‍❤️‍💋‍👩

TL;DR: Takuya may be our boyfriend, but that doesn't make him any less psycho. He's still cute or whateva.

Game Link: https://water-horse-games.itch.io/my-darling

Notable Features: Yandere LI, Gender Neutral MC, Self-Insert (up to 6 letters tho) Spiciness: 2/5 -- There's a scene where it gets a little suggestive and another scene where the LI straight up mentions sex and making love. Other than that, it's extremely tame (as far as 18+ content). Red Flags: 3/5 -- Gaslighter, locked us in a room, tied us up, drugged us

Wanna know more? Well, let's get into it!

How do I tell you guys about the unhingednessnessness that is this game without spoiling it?

Well, for one, I can tell you that it's pretty damn crazy. Like always, it starts off so cutesy and "Oh, this guy isn't toxic at all! What do they mean 'yandere'?" to "WHAT THE F--K. IS HAPPENIIIIING?!". Okay, maybe not that unhinged -- actually, it isn't as unhinged as I'm suggesting at all -- but it still gets pretty crazy pretty fast.

This review is going to be way shorter than the other ones that I've done because the game itself is pretty short. It's only like 15 - 20 minutes long, maybe a 5 minute difference if you get the same "What the hell?!" reaction that I had at a very specific part that I'm going to try to avoid telling you.

That being said, the intro is about as long as I can make it considering the game is so short, so let's cut the bullshit and start summarizing.

So, boom.

We get off of work, and we are greeted by our man~

His name is Takuya, and...meh, a little basic lookin' but he still cute or whateva. I'd let him hit it.

Anyways, so Takuya and us are making small talk. In the midst of this small talk, he goes on this weird mini rant about technology, and basically, how he feels that it shouldn't really be a thing because it ruins relationships. We just kind've brush him off, like "Yeah, I know", end the conversation there, and eat dinner.

During dinner, we're talking again, and here he comes with the heavy stuff again. He drops the whole "Do you love me?" question because he's like really, really, really insecure about this, but we reassure him, and he's good again; however, now we're like:

"Aha, time for dessert, knowwhatlmean~?" Oh lawd...

And he's just "Shiiit, okay! But let me do the dishes first". Wack...

So, we put our little flirt session on pause for a second for household chores because he's just got to be the perfect house boyfriend, but it's paused for more than a second because we start feeling real dizzy and pass out.

For the sake of not ruining it, we have this pretty gnarly dream and wake up in a cold sweat because of it, but we are pretty damned disoriented because the dream was super vivid which was super weird because it felt so real. Takuya sees/hears us kind've freaking out and was just like "Don't even trip. I got you. Just go back to bed." but it's like, nah, son, because why are you just brushing me off when I'm trying to confide in you?

You already know that this started a whoooole bunch of shit, and it starts to rapidly go downhill from here. No, I am not telling you what happened or even going to give a synopsis because I can't! Lol don't look like that! You already know that I wasn't going to tell you how it ended nor all the juicy details because I need you to play this for yourself! But I will leave you with this very concerning screenshot from the game.

Yeah...this man is a little psycho...

Like I said, 100/10 I would give you more details, and believe me, I really, really, REALLY want to but also like I said, the game was super short and pretty much to the point. It damn near went from 0 to 100 without much warning -- it lowkey did, to be real with you. You deadass just have to play the game yourself, and I promise you'll see what I mean when I say it truly is short and psycho.

For it being so short, this visual novel is pretty damned intense, and it is good!

The best part about this game to me is the visuals of Takuya's sprite. As per usual, you'll know what I'm talking about when you play it yourself. There has been quite a few times that, when I read a visual novel, the imagery around the sprite will startle me, especially if it was meant to be a jumpscare or something, but holy shit, seeing Takuya's sprite change was extremely unsettling this time around. And then--! What made it all the more effective was what he said when the personality flip happened.

Ugh! It's so frustrating because I want to tell you guys about that scene so bad, but it'll ruin a crucial part of the story, and it's burning me not to include it in this review. I'll leave you with this though, and for like the third time at this point, you'll know what I mean if you choose to play this:

• The way that you THINK his sentence is going to end is not the way it ends, and it ran a literal shiver down my spine the execution was so good • That scene alone made that entire game. It was pretty good, but then that scene carried it on its shoulders. It really solidified the tone and creepiness and suspense of the game

That's pretty much all I have to say! Like I said, definitely play the game yourself, because explaining it without the really intense part just does not cut it. You honestly have to play it because you are missing out on a short, intense little gem of a game. Just as a fair heads up, it's a touch bit predictable, but at the same time it's not. If you're like me, you'll have a very clear suspicion during a specific part, and while you're right, it's not exactly going to pan out the way that you think nor for that particular reason. There's still some surprise to it, so don't let that deter you!

As always, be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they've done a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance to keep making games. Of course, donations are always helpful to them as well! Like mentioned at the very top, here is a link to the game so that you can play it for yourself, and I really suggest that you do because when shit goes down, it goes down. Anyways!

That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around~!

My Darling

[eriexplosion]

Time for everything to go downhill, rapidly, with Tipping Point.

God I remember how stoked and then terrified I was to see Howzer, every second the man's on screen I'm utterly terrified that he's going to get killed.

This place looks great, real vacation spot.

GREGOR <3 ECHO <3 God the wait time to see Echo again was so long I feel aggressive Missing Them just remembering it.

This is just a fantastic opening, watching this tiny ass group strategically take out basically everyone on this ship. It's nice to see Echo get a chance to shine too, their leadership skill gets underutilized sometimes but they are SO GOOD AT THIS.

Nemec and Fireball have amazing armor, I just love the look.

There goes our Random Imperial Dude, electrocuting himself to death. Where do they get these regular dudes that are totally willing to bite an electricity chip or whatever for the like one year old Empire?

MT TANTISS. CROSSHAIR.

I still love the moment when they shove him just a little too hard and he turns around and you are aggressively reminded he is 6'4".

Tol

If season 3 wants me to like Emerie they will have to work pretty hard at it after she helps torture Crosshair.

Hemlock is SO fucking creepy, but also Crosshair catches on quick to what's going on.

What a great second use of the highly emphasized "Wrong" though, completely different from the last season finale.

The squelching sound of the needle going in and seeing him twitching while Hemlock casually talks, god this is horrifying already, love how it manages to get worse next time we see him.

God though, what did Howzer go through to lose five of his men in prison? You would think they'd at least want to keep their potential test subjects alive, but maybe Hemlock only wants the Strongest ones.

GOD SEEING CROSSHAIR'S EYES ROLL BACK WHEN WE GO BACK TO HIM

Shout out to Emerie and this guard for double teaming the dumbass behavior of leaving one of his wrists loose AND putting a gun next to him like what did you think was going to happen?

Mention of the Hounds which I think we see one of in the trailer, excited to see Omega befriend a doggo that is supposed to kill

I know the implication is that Crosshair recognized another clone and that's why he didn't shoot Emerie but I like to think that it was because she reminded him in that moment of Tawni Ames.

God seeing him essentially give up his one chance at even trying to escape in order to send that message, he gave up everything for his batch, and for Omega, and he absolutely assumed that he would die in there after they took him back. I don't want to see Crosshair sacrifice anything else he has been through ENOUGH.

Hemlock and the toxin is creepy as hell too. I HATE THIS MAN. WORST CREATURE ALIVE.

OFF TO THE BRIGHT AND HAPPY WORLD OF PABU

This scene with Wrecker is adorable he's settling in SO WELL. An integral part of this community!

Shep once again laying out the thematic line of the story with "Is that all you are? A soldier?"

I LOVE THE FLYING LESSONS THEY'RE HILARIOUS, TECH IS ABOUT TO HAVE A FUCKING HEART ATTACK.

The collision alarms haven't gone off once! (Because they shorted out during your last lesson)

I forgot that Tech literally lays out his ability to think clearly in stressful situations (like plummeting out of the sky while attached to a tram car?) season 2 is literally just a parade of reasons that Tech is really hard to kill.

THE TECH TURN. If this doesn't come back in particular I'll be surprised.

OMEGA IS SO HAPPY TO SEE ECHO BACK and Tech's happiness is delayed due to the race to the landing zone.

THE HUG. I remember when a blurry screenshot of Omega hugging Echo sustained us for WEEKS.

Hemlock really out here just DESPERATE for test subjects.

Wrecker chasing the girls around the tree, god he fits so well here I'm EMOTIONAL.

God Tech's face when he says Crosshair is one of the prisoners gets me every time.

Back again to torture Crosshair, because he isn't suffering enough apparently.

Hemlock needs to stop getting in close to Crosshair's FACE.

THE FACT THAT CROSSHAIR IS ACTUALLY SCARED HERE. TEARS IN HIS EYES WHILE WE HAVE TO WATCH SPASM AND MAKE HORRIBLE NOISES.

Cannot believe that Crosshair is the unlucky bitch that has to go through the first onscreen use of the torture droid.

[the-kr8tor]

Yes im going to react revenge (its not a good thing because im thinking of it and im already sad. So they are all like on this type of mountain high hilled track btw)

During the race its made to be a tie breaker between reader and hobie. Others are in the race, a couple of mutual friends of hobie and zeze. Ans just friends of theirs in general. Reader knows that hobie is a good person but wont admit it out of competitiveness for their passion. They dont hate hobie as much as they did, but the track they are on is an extremely difficult track that no racers are supposed to race on, stuff easily goes wrong on the track. And it rapidly goes downhill, with how many people have been watching and even joined this race makes it go into pure chaos. All the racers aligned to start, yet last time reader raced on this track it was extre different then how it is now. Something or someone had to have changed it. Readers car keeps drifting but she and hobie stay tied in the same place currently ahead of others. Everyone else is further behind them yet they are also having issues with this track. The curves, swirls, and the height and how horribly tohe track is made. Reader slowly starts losing the ability to even drive on this track as well, it throws them into a panicking mode. This hasnt happened to them one in a race. Trying to stay calm bit its visible thats not happening, the tears blocking their vision makes it immediately worse. Especially since a boulder comes crashing into their pathway. While everyone else notices this, reader doesnt. They are trying to get control back over their car. Reader crashes right into it, its damaging to them and their car. Readers car immediately goes up into flames into where it was hit, the air bags are puffed out. Readers falling in and out of consciousness from the crash as well as having tears in their eyes. Trying their best to get out of the car. Trying to kick open the door, hobie heard the crash and immediately stopped curving to the side and stops his car, getting out of it. Noticing whose car it is, he immediately runs over to it. He sees reader struggling to open it and he also tries to get it open, its not working and the flames are building up getting violently closer. Hobie cant seem to get the door open either so he has to go to the back door and break open the window. Glass sticks to his jacket but thats not what he cares about currently. Reader had already started coughing, choking on the smoke even though its not in their car yet. A couple of bruises will be put on their body from this. Especially since they didnt dress properly nor were they driving properly. A couple of those bruises already show. The cars cramped up and from the crash their legs were injured, probably the worst of it and and once hobie gets in the car, he has to try and get them out in the safest way possible without causing more harm. Somehow and lucky he managers to do that, carrying them out like how a parent would get their sleeping child out of the car. He isnt even most of the eay away from the car before it burst full out into flames now. He shields them the best he can as pieces fly from the car and he has to back away. Another racer pulls up telling hobie that theres a couple of ambulances here. Others got to competitive and ended up also getting fatal injuries. Ones already having to be took to the hospital, number 45 or in other words Gwen. Hobie was informed of it too, miles is with gwen in the ambulance which is on its way to the hospital.

*me asking for angst, gets angst*

This has so much potential!!! Continue writing it, my love bc I think this would be such a great read!! (Only if u want to ofc! No pressure ❤️)

Also me reading gwen: 😲