#it was a mural with little to no relation with those two

[ehatnow]

i love kinich and his lore but ive been trying to find out more abt ajaw recently. its making me feel like a 1920's investigator or something. i was exploring ochkanatlan for such a long time and rereading the "open your heart to me" quest only to come up with this:

ajaw mightve been an actual dragonlord and was sealed away by och-kan so he wouldnt rule over humans. i say this because och-kan was dead set on having humans rule humans and not any other living being. when he ruled over humans he hated himself for it, claiming that only xbalanque could be the ruler since he was human.

he also mightve known ixlel and been a dragonlord alongside her as she said she had colleagues and was the one to have the words "destined" and "rulership" translate to "k'uhul" and "ajaw" respectively during her dialogue.

im not sure if ajaw named himself "k'uhul ajaw" or if that IS his actual name. its definitely intentional that they pointed out that "destined rulership" or "destined ruler" translated into "k'uhul ajaw" if that makes sense. like it wasnt just something to throw off to the side and ignore it was put there for a reason.

ixlel and ajaw also have very similar ways of talking. they regard themselves to be of a very high status and dont really like paimon.

all this effort and i still have zero concrete lore besides the fact that he was sealed away in some ruins, is evil, and will take kinich's body when he dies.

im hoping that theres a world quest with the saurian relics association and theyre like "hey we're gonna go explore the ruins where kinich found ajaw to see if we can find out more about him do you wanna join us?" im on some serious hopium that this will happen though. currently ajaw just seems like a gag character.

[galaxygermdraws]

Finally designing the Sonic cast. or. at least. Some of them. There are too many characters in this franchise these are just the ones I think about the most often. So uh. Ya. I will leave any notes under the cut since I have a lot, although not every character will have notes because we haven't explored every character (and share them with @shadesofvermillionvoid)

(reblogs with tags/comments are appreciated. Thankyu)

Sonic

Sonic's earring is Chip's bracelet. I don't think Sonic particularly likes having anything on his wrists, and Sonic Forces made that worse

The regulators are based directly on Sonic Prime, as I love the regulators in that show and think the idea of giving Sonic something similar to Shadow's Inhibitor Rings makes a lot of sense

He got those little markings due to accidentally absorbing some of Chaos' DNA

Tails

Tails has goggles like in Sonic Boom, because I like Boom Tails' design

He still has his robotic bits from Sonic Lost World, he still managed to keep his free will, but what happened was Zavok used his ability to control robots to force Tails to fight Sonic. Since then, Tails has updated his cybernetics so he can filter out any suspicious frequencies that could take his free will.

The cannon arm from Lost World is now basically like the guns from Mario and Rabbids, where you hold it in your hand and it like covers your arm. It's like that

Tails is a skeptic. This is the funniest bit but also thanks to Boom (the bad luck episode) it has some precedence

Knuckles

Knuckles in our lore is deeply spiritual (we are developing Mobian belief systems because we are Insane) , and the first time he saw Sonic he noticed he looked similar to the murals in Hidden Palace. So when Sonic turned out to be good, that made sense to him, as Sonic was common in a lot of prophetic murals around the island.

Knux actually thought Sonic was a god at first. Then he saw him choke on a Chili Dog.

He put beads around his spines after the events of Sonic Forces, since the war was over and he could relax for the first time in months.

Amy

Amy, like Knuckles, actually has a deep connection to her belief systems. We haven't figured out everything exactly, but she and Knuckles quickly bond over this aspect of their lives

I styled her quills differently because I kind of like giving her something that makes it obvious she is a hedgehog

Similarly, I gave her a back spine, and the hedgehog nose, since I had never realized she has the same kind of nose as Tails or Cream

Shadow

Shadow wears eye makeup. He puts it on every morning. For a while he had to have help with it (from both Rouge and Amy), but eventually figured out how to do it himself

He has yellow sclera due to the Black Arms blood. Similarly, he has a longer tail than most Mobian hedgehogs, and he cannot retract his fangs. His blood is green

He has some less favorable urges. Mostly related to the whole "Black Arms feed on living creatures" things, but they don't crop up often

He and Rouge have matching earrings

Rouge

I based her design off of Sonic Prime because I honestly prefer that design more. One because she looks like an actual spy, and two because it's based on her Sonic Heroes design. Similarly, she has Prim's hair tuft

Gave her the bat nose a lot of people do because I like the way it looks

I don't have a lot of thoughts about Rouge as of right now I am so sorry.

She and Shadow have matching earrings

Silver

Silver has a lot more scrapes and burns from his future, even though it's been fixed several times

He is displaced from time. He doesn't feel connected to his current future, especially since in our lore he is one of the few people to remember Sonic 06 (it's because in our lore, Timeline B Silver got his powers from Mephiles, in the sense that those time powers had to go SOMEWHERE after the timeline reset.)

I am going to be designing a weird messed up form for Silver (like Werehog or Doom Morph for Sonic and Shadow) based probably on Mephiles to some extent

Blaze

Like Silver, she has remnants of powers from the previous timeline. She already had fire powers in Timeline A, but she has much stronger ones now, as she still has Iblis inside of her, although the powers are no longer destructive, as they were never provoked

Her dimension is actually a result of Solaris ceasing to exist. That power still existed and had to go somewhere, so it ended up resulting in the Sol Dimension.

[alex-thegiraffeboyy]

Chapter 5: A Dreamer and a Haunted person

Bewitched masterlist.

Summary: A little bit of reader's life trying to adapt to everything that has changed in her life. And also a glimpse of what Vi's life was like in Stillwater.

Words: 1.6k

After the whole incident with Jinx you decided it was time to quit your job at the brothel to dedicate yourself to helping your brother build the firelight society.

So that's what you did. You allowed yourself to be a dreamer.

It took quite some time. But little by little you two were able to create a network of trustworthy people who helped you get people off the lanes to give them a better life in the tree.

What started as a dream full of hope between you and Ekko was now taking more shape.

Since the firelights started to succeed in rescuing people from the rails you started to become more and more active and to heal little by little (but never completely) the wounds of everything that had happened in the last 3 years.

Trying to get you to stay in one place was almost impossible (unless you were building a new artifact). If you weren't in the warehouse where you were overseeing supplies you would be in your room creating something new, or on some mission, even playing with the kids in the tree. Sometimes you would help in the communal kitchen preparing food or washing dishes, sometimes you would spend some time at the mural of their loved ones touching it up a bit or adding new faces. It was almost impossible to stay immobile. But that was how you dealt with the trauma. Being in everything so you wouldn't think about it so much.

There are even seasons when you leave the sanctuary for a few weeks or months at a time to track shimmer shipments around town. You usually do part-time jobs in those seasons (anything but going back to Babette, honestly). You sell your tech from time to time, your only rule is to never sell anything that firelights use. Sometimes you even work on commission.

You have become an expert in many things and are always trying to learn a little more (you're a bit of a nerd, to be honest). But if anything, the trauma left you with attachment issues.

You find it hard and no at the same time show affection. The problem is that you never know when the time is right.

With Ekko there is no problem, he is your brother, and you are really afraid of losing the opportunity to show him how much you love him (as it happened with Violet). So sometimes you hug him or spend time with him making updates on skateboards or talking about different situations that the tree society is going through. You try to give him as much affection as you can because you never know when you might lose him.

But if we're talking about affection towards other people... It's complicated.

You are afraid of getting too attached to someone (although you have allowed yourself to do so from time to time to create good friendships). You are afraid of loving someone too intensely only to lose them the next day. So you avoid getting into relationships. Especially romantic ones.

For a few years you tried. You had a few flirtations, flirted with a few girls (you discovered that, in fact, boys weren't really your thing), but you never wanted to go much further than casual.

You also attribute it to your former job at the brothel.

You spent so much time cooped up intimate with so many different people that you didn't want a soul around anymore. At least not in that way. So eventually you stopped relating to people in a sexual and romantic way. You preferred it like that.

But you allow yourself to love your friends enough, despite the fear and anxiety this causes you. Because, again, you never know when the last time you'll see them will be.

But loving the children in the grove? That doesn't cost you. They are such adorable children and have been through so much that they deserve only as much love as you can give them. It makes you wonder what your life would have been like if you had grown up in a place like the one you were helping to create.

It reminds you of those who were once your friends. Who you came to call siblings (except for one, who was always more than that), and what would have become of them if they had grown up here too. That helps you to keep going with this.

For some years you allowed yourself to dream, especially around the time you found Jinx. And you never found any remains to the contrary, so why not?

You allowed yourself to dream that Violet was alive somewhere.

But little by little that hope was getting smaller. Until this moment, 6 years later, you started to lose it. And that also had an effect on her.

Vi was not alive, she repeated herself almost every day, but why did she still have this feeling in her chest? It didn't make sense.

So she tried again. She went back to start meeting people. But she couldn't take the empty, emotionless small talk anymore. Not when she still couldn't get over it.

While this feeling seemed to get smaller every day, it still clung to her (or maybe she was clinging to the feeling). It wasn't the same as it used to be, she knew that much. But she also knew that her grief wasn't over yet, so she decided to give herself a little more time to get over it. She didn't need to do it today, and, feelings for Vi or not, she still didn't feel ready to try to connect with someone. Not after all.

Until one day you decide that you're not going to let anyone or anything continue to consume you like this. Ekko called you crazy a couple of times for the way you executed it, but he knew it was your way of dealing with it. You refused to accept any more flirtations from your peers. You declared yourself totally and completely out of that market. Leaving you in what you had done many years ago; Concentrating solely on the dream (which was becoming more real every day) of the firelights.

But last and not least. You allowed yourself to let go of what you felt for Vi (which is not only love, but also guilt and other things). The memory and the feeling of innocent love would probably always stay there. But the guilt, the anger... You would take it as gasoline to go on with this. To keep on being a dreamer.

So you closed your heart more and more, leaving only a space for Ekko and your closest friends. All so that no one could get through your porcelain heart.

You'd do anything you could to keep going. For children like you once were.

You'd do what you could so no one would kill the dreamer in you.

Prison had not been pleasant with Vi.

Not by a long shot.

At first it was difficult. A 15-year-old girl locked up with, for the most part, adults. It was hard to make a place for herself. And if she thought it was being in hell before, now she would really get a taste.

The beatings were dreadful, years later she realized that she began to endure them until she was 19.

Sometimes, when she was half unconscious after receiving her punishments, she seemed to see you sitting next to her, giving her words of encouragement. Giving her company.

On difficult nights she liked to remember that day on the roof of The Last Drop. The day they made up.

The day you shared your first kiss.

She could still remember the softness of your lips against hers and the warm feeling that accompanied that kiss. It was among her most cherished memories.

But as the haze of the daze began to fade, so did the image of you in front of her. And as much as she loved seeing your face so clearly, Vi didn't want to sleep. If she had learned anything in Stillwater, it was that being vulnerable is your undoing. And Vi's most vulnerable time was while she was sleeping. So for a few weeks she hardly slept at all, she would doze or stay in an alert slumber. Until she discovered that if she got into enough trouble she would be taken to an isolated cell. So she started getting into trouble three or four times a week just so she could get some rest.

The first night she spent in isolation Vi almost cried with relief. She could rest, even if it's only for a few hours. She could allow herself to dream.

That night, in front of the pale moonlight that managed to filter through, after so many others where she was alert, Violet allowed herself to sleep that night.

She remembers dreaming of the life she had before, of her brothers, of Vander and Powder....

She also dreamed about you. Quite a lot.

She never knew if you loved her as much as she loved you....

She tried to hold on to that dream as long as she could until the last moment. But reality always seemed to hit her in the face.

And there, in front of the lightning that was coming through the wall, while the guard was walking to wake everyone up, Violet promised herself that someday she would get out of there and come back to you and Powder. No matter how long it took. She needed to get back to the two of you.

🦋

And 7 years after she arrived, her bedtime routine is holding up pretty well.

She bangs on the wall for a while to keep fit, stretches a couple of times and then lies down on her bed and relaxes for a while. She hears the guards playing cards in the background, so she tries to concentrate on her breathing and imagines what it's like in her sister's and best friend's life these days, it helps her sleep. The hope of someday getting out and sharing some of those lives with both of you.

Until one day her pleas seem to be heard, a girl, an enforcer named Caitlyn, seeks her out for help.

[waywardsunlight]

Compiling all of the canon evidence about Caleb because I noticed sources are getting muddled. Below the cut is all the canon info I could find with the episodes and who said it/ where it came from.

Caleb was alone as a child raising his little brother, at some point they moved from an unknown location to Gravesfield (Masha, TTT). The two of them played a witch hunter game where they dressed up in costumes. We see Caleb playing a witch, stepping in a trap Philip set. They also churned butter together and Caleb whittled Philip's mask in Gravesfield. (Portraits, Hollow Mind) Caleb met Evelyn at an unknown point, and bonded over birds, where she was disguised as a human. (Dana Terrace) Later, as a teen, Caleb and still child Philip went on a witch hunt. They found Evelyn in the woods (may or may not be related to witch hunt) and discovered she was a witch. Caleb was accepting of her and the duo began traveling back and forth between Gravesfield and the Boiling Isles, developing a secret code to travel, leaving Philip behind from his perspective. (Portraits/ cut portrait, Hollow Mind. Masha, TTT). As an adult, Caleb cut his hair. (Statue, Yesterday's Lie) At an unknown time, he acquired the cabin near the Noceda house. He had his (implied in KT/TTT) blue coat embroidered with the symbol of a bird in a cage, and this coat became Philip's at an unknown point in time. (King's Tide/TTT) Caleb or Evelyn also hid the Rebus Box under the floorboards and created said Rebus and hid the Titan's blood near the portal with an owl stopper. (TTT) At some point, as Caleb and Philip were adults, a fire started at the current day historical society and Caleb + Evelyn vanished. Philip followed after, leaving a diary behind which was used to understand the situation by the townspeople (Jacob, Yesterday's Lie. Masha, Storyboard for TTT, considering canon as complacent). Philip states that it takes him five years to find the Titan's blood and in the image he is growing a beard (Eclipse Lake). He has a medium length beard when he confronts Caleb and Evelyn first in his beast form, transforming back when Caleb hugs him. At this point, Evelyn is pregnant with a child and she and Caleb are holding hands. A later shot shows Philip holding a knife behind his back as Caleb smiles and Evelyn is turned away. Philip is wearing the blue coat. At a later point, Caleb has his hands up, holding a flat edged knife looking worried as Philip walks to the right. Caleb is on the ground with flames around him, and those flames die down as he dies. Philip sees himself in the reflection of the dagger with blood on it. Evelyn returns and uses a gold magic, hitting Philip as he runs away. (Portraits, Hollow Mind) At an unknown point, Philip obtains Caleb's remains and begins several failed grimwalker experiments until the episode Elsewhere and Elsewhen where he meets the Collector.

Missing/fragment evidence: Philip and Caleb are missing information for most of their adulthood, and Evelyn has extremely scare information. A mural in Belos's castle representing wild witches burning a town resembles Eda with short hair in a green dress and a blonde witch with rounder ears, likely Evelyn and her daughter. (Watching and Dreaming) The blue coat has never been proven to belong to Caleb, other than Masha using a similar blue coat in TTT and Belos's sensitivity to the coat being mentioned/ him always wearing it. There is no canon explanation as to how Caleb ended up alone with Philip, where their parents are, or how they got the cabin. It is unknown if Philip confronting Caleb in his beast form and Caleb's murder happened at the same time or on different days, or where Flapjack or Evelyn is for the murder (although she returns from the right, the same direction Philip was facing with the knife) (Hollow Mind). Flapjack has limited information but is likely Evelyn's bird (Dana Terrace). Caleb was a whittler and may have carved Palismen, as that later becomes the family business of the Clawthornes, and Evelyn is a Clawthorne. However this isn't provably canon.

[number-one-shadisper-shipper]

I really love the Sonic movies and their whole found family dynamic❤️❤️❤️❤️ I've seen some great headcanons about them, and I wanted to make some of my own!

Wachowski Family Headcanons: ✨Movie Night✨

Movie night has always been a tradition at the Wachowski house. Tom and Maddie did it, and once they got Sonic it became an even more special time. Now Sonic is super excited to share all his favorite movies with his two new bros.

They have to buy a new TV since Knuckles punched Sonic through their old one when they first met. The whole family goes to the nearest bigger city since Green Hills is too small to have a good electronics store.

Knuckles has no knowledge or interest in technology so Maddie takes him window shopping at the nearby stores

Tails is so excited when they step into Best Buy. He's never seen this much tech in one place! Tom has to remind him not to take anything apart before they buy it.

Sonic immediately runs off to look at all the new video games

The salesman keeps trying to sell Tom the more expensive and "fancier" TVs. Tails is able to see through all the fancy talk, points out the actual specs, and calculates what will give them the best bang for their buck. Tom has no idea what he's talking about but buys the one Tails points to.

They finally get it home and set up. Knuckles is still confused as to what exactly a "TV" even is. It shows things that aren't really there? Is it like a some sort of window? A portal? Tails's in-depth technological explanation does not help. Sonic finally explains it as a "magic wall mural" and he's relatively satisfied.

Time to pick a movie! Sonic wants to watch "Speed" or one of the "Fast and Furious" movies for the millionth time. Knuckles wants to watch an action movie once he hears there's fighting in them. Tom and Maddie are a little worried those might be too much for Tails. Everyone agrees to watch one of the Disney movies Maddie picked up.

They pick Lilo and Stitch (partly because of the ironic parallels of adopting a funny little blue alien with a fear of water, and just getting back from Hawaii after Rachel's wedding)

Everyone curls up on the couch or on blankets on the floor. Even Ozzie comes to join in the fun. Tails and Sonic use him as a pillow.

Maddie brings in some fresh-popped popcorn (and grapes for Knuckles). Tails is a little skeptical of the new snack, but one bite of the buttery goodness and he's obsessed. He and Sonic keep stuffing handfuls in their mouths and throwing kernels at each other. Soon both the couch and the floor is covered. Knuckles tries a few bites. He says it's okay, but swears it's better with grapes.

All the boys love the movie and think it's hilarious, although some of it goes over Tails's and Knuckles's heads due to their limited understanding of Earth culture.

Sonic finds the scene where Stitch almost drowns a little triggering, although he doesn't say anything.

Knuckles's favorite character is Cobra Bubbles. Sonic's is of course Stitch. Tails relates a worrying amount to Jumba the mad scientist.

Tom and Maddie were prepared for Tails to get scared or emotional over the movie, after all, he's still really young. He ends up being fine and really enjoys it, although he points out all the inaccuracies with the spaceships and technology.

But none of them were expecting Knuckles to start choking up at Stitch's "This is my family. I found it all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good." speech. He denies crying and claims he was only sniffing because he got popcorn butter on his nose.

After the movie, everyone stays cozied up in their blankets for a while talking and eating more popcorn. Tails falls asleep and Tom and Maddie decide it's time for bed. They carry Tails up to the boys' shared room in the attic, but Sonic and Knuckles insist on climbing up themselves even though they're both so sleepy they can barely walk.

Sonic falls asleep the moment he hits the bed. Tom puts Tails in bed, and he and Maddie tuck all the boys in. Knuckles actually allows himself to be tucked in for the first time since they got there. Maddie even gives him a little kiss on the forehead. She swears she hears him mumble something about "Ohana means family" before they go downstairs and no she's not crying why would you ask

Thus marks the end of another wonderful Wachowski Family Movie Night!

Alrighty there you go! Thanks for reading!

[youjusttryandstopme]

I don't know if anyone has specifically talked about this and I haven't checked, but I'm gonna put it out there.

This is a theory about Muse from Daredevil and the whole poking out the eyes of his víctims (or at least the publicly shown ones). There is a TLDR at the bottom, but I like to think I make some good points in the main text :)

Initally I was relating Muse's eye thing to what he does to Blindspot in the comics, where he just blinds him and I thought maybe it was a reference to that- but then I thought about it a little more. (I just finished reading Soule's run so comic Muse is very fresh in my mind)

New Rockstars made a point that it could be a statement about how Justice is blind or a mockery of that (my addition to that is that the police were blind to the fact Muse been unnoticed until now with a body count of 60 UPWARDS) which yeah, good point, he's definitely making political works, but I have another theory/reasoning. Could be both or one or none, but hey, it's a Theory.

So why eyes? Well, eyes are how you view art, mostly. Not to say its entirely dependant on your ability to see, but as Matt himself once said: "sight helps". In the comics, its stated a few times that Muse didn't want people to see his unfinished work and indeed used it as a reasoning to kill those who did, or at least attempted to, like in tbe case of Blindspot who came across him in his studio working on his next project. And he poked out Blindspot's eyes first.

So perhaps hes poking the eyes out bc they "saw" the unfinished work, either because they came across him painting them or because they were apart of it. Like the two girls who asked for a selfie- that's something straight from the comics about "unfinished work" and then deciding to add them to the mural.

Also we don't get a good look at it but I'm like 85% sure the first body found without eyes was an art display- something about the fabrics underneath me makes me think that. It just wasn't elaborated on.

TLDR: Muse is poking out his victims eyes cause they saw his unfinished art. Youch.

[mezzy303]

One Piece mythology from chapter 1138

Major lore dropped!! I'm freaking out!!!

I've been at the edge of my seat waiting for when the story of the Ancient Birkans would become relevant!!! Like hello?????

There's so much to unpack on just this page, both in the text and this mural. I'll start with the text first and look into the translation differences from the scans and the official, taking a page from the Elbaf giants and consider every interpretation as valid lol.

In my interpretation, in the First World, the world may have been engulfed in war by the greed of humanity (fire = war). Then Nika appeared when the enslaved prayed for him, and he battled the "god of the land/earth god" and a "serpent of hellfire," which resulted in the destruction of the world. There's some differences in the translations with who touched "forbidden sun/star." The TCB scans say is was the slaved, which the sun then might refer to Nika himself, since it has already been said that those in power fear him and how he brings a new era, aka their own fall, thus his presence is something taboo. But the other two translations say is was humanity that reached for the forbidden sun, which makes me think this is an Icarus and the Sun situation. Man was greedy and tried to go reach for something unattainable. I think this first world is from thousands of years ago, and the result of this war was when the Ancient Birkans moved to the moon and created the underground colony there. We don't know when this happened, but we do know that around 1,100 years ago, they returned to earth due to lack of resources (and they would then become the Skypieans, Shandorians, and Birkans). I'm so confused on who the "they" is in the final lines of each section, but if it's the Birkans vs the earth god, then it would make sense considering the Birkans moved away from the earth, and even when they returned, they all lived on the sky islands (even the Shandorians eventually).

The Second World is a bit harder to interpret, but the last few lines are pretty clear. They refer to the end of the Void Century when the Allied Kingdoms killed Joy Boy/Nika and became the World Nobles. The "wrath of the sea god" refers to how the sea rose 200m. I saw a very interesting theory on twitter that the "forest god" refers to whoever created the devil fruits and I'm going a little insane over that. And with the enraged sea god mentioned at the end, the "they" in the last line could mean how devil fruit users can no longer swim. I'm unsure which side the forest god was on and what the different moon references mean, besides possibly those descending from the Ancient Birkans? There's also so many other people that are related to the moon too, like the Minks and the Kozuki clan (the kanji in 'Kozuki' are 光 'light' and 月 'moon').

The Third World, obviously, is the present and looks into the future. How the World Govt was unsuccessful in completely erasing the memory of the Great Kingdom, how Nika would rise again and bring in a New Dawn. And "half-moon" is once more mentioned, but it seems related to the memory of the Great Kingdom. Could be the poneglyphs, which the Kozuki clan created. Maybe the "they will surely meet" means a peace between all peoples will be achieved, which makes me think that the "they" in all these sections refers to the opposing sides in the wars. "They will/could/would not meet" as in "they couldn't see eye to eye" in the end. But the prophecy for the third world suggests that finally, or at least hopefully, all races will find harmony with each other.

Something I noticed in this mythology is how there's mentions of a sun god, a land/earth god, and a sea god, which matches with the ancient weapons: Uranus - god of the sky, Pluto - god of the underworld, and Poseidon - god of the sea. Idk where to go with these interpretations but it's interesting nonetheless lmao.

Turning to mural, the images kinda match up to the text above them.

The first section, we see an industrialized city, likely being run by the Ancient Energy that Vegapunk talked about. The energy also seems to power a giant ship(?) that reminds me a lot of the mural Enel found on the moon. At its head is a king, indicated by the crown. And also the serpent of hellfire mentioned in the text. Other points to note is the flying ship spewing lighting which could be Uranus (I've been theorizing for a while that Enel's Maxim could mirror the weapon and this image could confirm it!!), the moon above, and another ship with a wing figure an animals that could depict the Ancient Birkans moving to the moon. That imagery is also very similar to Noah's Ark with the people and animals around it. Maybe the construction of the current Noah was history attempting to repeat itself.

The tree may refer to the "forest god", and if that's true, the bird might be the "sun" that spreads the fires of war. The bird being the sun would also match how its battling the serpent of hellfire in the first section. Is the tree a depiction of the Treasure Tree Adam? The Sun Tree Eve? I'm not sure, but in the original Romance Dawn chapters before One Piece was ever serialized, the devil fruits were called "dream fruits" that came from a "legend tree" (幻の木/maboroshi no ki in the first version) or "devilish tree", and maybe this mural depicts that very tree that bore the devil fruits.

This picture fucks so hard. There's multiple races depicted, from the top down we have: lunarians, whale people? (how fascinating if people living in land whales used to be a thing), minks, the iron giant aka Emet <3, Nika, the ancient giants, the people of Wano (they have topknots and hold swords like a samurai), the fishmen, the dwarves, and regular giants. There's also people on a boat with a sun symbol that's suggested to be the symbol of the Great Kingdom. And a couple of more people in boats that I'm not sure what race they represent. But they all are facing a large figure holding the sun and another boat of people, which probably represent "chaos" aka Imu possibly holding the Mother Flame and the World Govt/Celestial Dragons.

I feel out of breath. Mentally at least ahaha. I'm gonna think about this page nonstop and consume any other theories I can find on it!! Many thanks for reading my thought dump <3

[karlachismylife]

I have four fresh asks in my inbox that all bring me immense joy and I wanna give all four quite lengthy answers, so asking for a lil bit of patience from my beautful anons, the brain juice is juicing (is this an appropriate thing to say considering that two out of four are piss-related? i dunno) 🙏🏼 I am once again sleepy for god knows what reason so I came here to ramble sleepily. Surprisingly no unhinged feral thoughts tonight.

Just Karlach, Soap and Ghost. Probably from the anarchist!Karlach au, but far, far down the line, when everything between them is finally resolved and their little weird and unlikely family is together.

Holy shit it somehow became a oneshot.

All The Leaves Are Brown

(Title from "California Dreamin'" by Hi Standard)

Dingy little apartment, messy and a tad bit unlivable, smelling like petrol, paint and cigarette smoke, partially stripped of furniture, half-painted murals on just recently plastered walls, window frames old and frail, letting draft in. It's okay, though, it's not that far into the autumn cold yet, so no need to whip out whatever hermetic paste they decided to try this year.

Just a little bit chilly.

Chilly isn't a problem for them. Not when both Karlach and Soap are living, breathing furnaces, tank tops and matching boxer briefs letting the heat evaporate from the big surface of their naked skin. And there is plenty of heat as they laze about on the old couch, casing coming apart in the most rubbed on places, pillows dipping almost down to the floor, a single spring trying to bite into Karlach's ass as she sits there, Johnny perched on her thick thigh with his hands running up her stomach, the fabric of her loose top bunching up over his wrists.

They're just kissing, slow, sloppy, sensual makeout, puffy and sensitive - they've been going at it for quite some time already - lips catching onto each other. Johnny catches Karlach's lower lip ring between his, tugs carefully, gliding his tongue over the steel piercing and further into her mouth - only for it to be caught by the tiefling, sucked on and melted in the clove aftertaste of the pretentious black-wrapper cigarettes she spoils herself with.

Pulling back a bit, he slurps the excessive drool loudly, as if he was offered a really sweet caramel candy, causing them both to giggle, Karlach's nose wrinkling irresistibly. Johnny kisses those wrinkles with his wet lips, then brushes them against the snake bites piercings at the corners of her mouth, touches her little eyebrow ring and finally presses a soft, barely audible "chu" to her forehead, rendering Karlach completely soft and peaceful, yellow cat eyes fluttering close and her big palms coming to rest on the small of his back, not even noticing that it makes the hem of his tank top ride up just like hers.

"Tryna heat up the place, are ya?" Low chuckle startles them just a little bit - after a certain amount of time you just come to terms with living a literal ghost, able to move silently even when the ancient floorboards of the cheap apartment creak even under cockroaches' tiny little feet. Simon's quiet appearance still elicits simultaneous "fuck"s from his two warm sunshines, and he looks pleased with himself as he detaches himself from the wall he was leaning on for god knows how long. Watching them. Soaking in their love he had to learn to accept.

"Aya, dinnae want ye tae freeze yer auld bones, LT." Soap grins at him, sliding off Karlach's thigh onto the couch that immediately lets out the most pitiful and drawn out plea for mercy a piece of furniture is capable of. Karlach next to him crinkles her nose again and slaps her bare thigh in a more than clear invitation.

"Come on, soldier. We missed you."

Something buried, rotten and probably almost dead flutters in Simon's chest at this simple, fearlessly sincere and thus invincible in its vulnerability admission. He thinks everyone in the room can hear the disgusting sound of raw meat, chopped up and disfigured, fed to the worms and rejected even by them, churning in place of his heart - but neither bright-eyed Johnny with a mischievous smirk on his face, nor visibly excited Karlach with her tail twitching and coiling around nothingness on the floor, seem to be turned off by the gloom and darkness that Simon is.

Even after everything he put them through, they are just as eager to have him, if not more.

He comes closer, big, looming shadow, wrapped in all black from head to toe - from the hood of his skeleton hoodie obscuring his eyes to the socks, probably not a pair since he can't find a single matching one after that one time he let Karlach deal with the laundry. Doesn't matter, though, Simon just needs them to be warm, and that they are.

Autumn is his season, season of wet decay and exposed death, but he still barely handles the cold. Winter will be hard.

Two hands grab him at the same time, a considerable effort put into pulling him onto the couch between two buff bodies. Giving in just for the sake of the pleading puppy eyes, Simon carefully lowers himself onto the poor thing barely holding up - and finds himself in a heatwave.

Karlach and Johnny are searing hot as they wrap themselves around him, muscular thighs thrown over his manspread, one leathery tail coiled under his knee, burly arms holding him down by his waist and chest as if he might wrangle himself free and run away.

He would. Just some months ago, he would. Run away and leave scorched ground behind himself, empty shells and shattered hearts.

His, whole, reborn and red-blooded, gives away everything Simon would like to keep to himself, as it pumps like crazy, sending cold, viscous blood to his skin to get warmed up by the external heat of his lovers and come back as red surf washing over the internal organs.

"Should've come to us sooner, mate, you're freezing," rings Karlach's genuine worry in his ear. Booming voice that used to bring some deep-rooted hate from within muffled as Simon watches her grab his hand and shove it under her tank top generously. Her chest is burning hot, like he dipped his hand into boiling water after holding it in ice.

"Stubborn bastart." Soap grumbles into his other ear, lifting Simon's second palm and pressing hot kisses to his scarred knuckles. Black hoodie starts to get hot. "Hiding from us won't fly, LT."

Karlach's fat scar glides under his fingers - she leans closer, careful with her remaining horn, and Ghost half expects her to kiss him like she was kissing Johnny - hungrily and sensually, but instead he gets a soft nose brush and a peck onto the little bump with a scar he has after breaking it how many times.

"Why so shy all of a sudden, lass?" It's a weak attempt to regain control, and Karlach has no one control her. She shushes him with a quick peck to his mangled lips. Then on his cheek. His temple. Split eyebrow. Corner of his eyes.

"Just taking my time to look at you, soldier. And I like what I see." Her smile is blindingly bright and genuine. Simon's ears feel hot - he can't believe he would blush from a single compliment.

Turns out, it's just Johnny breathing open-mouthed breaths onto the tips of his ears to warm him up. Caught in broad daylight, he just snorts with a grin and latches onto Simon's neck, bringing out the shivers. Now that his hand is free from distracted Johnny, Ghost can bury his fingers in the outgrown mohawk and pull, earning an immediate moan and a more eager bite to the neck from his predictable mutt.

"Wanna take this off? We'll keep you warm, Si," Karlach's impatience is too obvious - in the way her tail squeezes his knee tighter and her fingers tug on the hem of the hoodie, urging Ghost to get rid of it.

The thought of shedding his thick cotton hide is cold. But when he does pull it off with a casual tug somewhere behind his scruff and over his head, Simon doesn't even get a chance to shudder, two living heaters plastering themselves over his both sides.

Slowly, without much coordination and with apologetic giggle from Karlach at the sound of suffering furniture, they all lean onto the back of the couch and pull their legs from the floor, tangling them and her tail together.

"Ye good?" Johnny tucks his head into the crook of Ghost's neck, his hot, wet breath hitting his pale collarbone peeking from the T-shirt's collar.

"I'll fix the windows tomorrow, don't worry, soldier. Someone from the commune brought good stuff from the city and promised to share." Simon frees his hand from Karlach's tank top and wraps it around her shoulders, scratching at the base of her broken horn absentmindedly. He would've refused help from her people proudly not so long ago. Nothing he needs from the scum like them.

But that scum is family now. And the windows need fixing. And finally someone is doing or for him, not waiting until he deals with all his problems himself.

Karlach's heart can't beat too fast nowadays, but her ears still twitch and her eyelashes flutter when he presses a kiss to her forehead.

"S'alright, love. I'm already plenty warm."

[digo3d]

I am going to spit out some random ass headcanons cos it's been a minute and you have no choice but to watch (a long list as a treat)

T.C. definitely goes to the spa and gets a mani pedi and gets acrylic claw caps sometimes to make his claws look bigger cos that's a status symbol in alley cat culture and also because he likes the clicky clacky sounds (this is based off a dream I had)

T.C.'s ashcan is like Snoopy's doghouse where it's small on the outside but it's impossibly roomy on the inside he's got a whole king sized bed in there complete with a mini fridge, sink, and wardrobe

Benny was falsely accused of murder at one point and T.C. and Dibble had to tag team to convince everyone that Benny is as harmless as a teddy bear (because he is)

If you're aware of the theory of Cadwallader being Benny's brother and since Benny's Ma is Benjamin B. Ball Senior I'm saying that Benny's father is Cadwallader Ball Senior

Chooch's kidneys really like to beef with him so the last time he went to the vet they sent him home with a prescription for urinary kibble that he has to eat at least once a day. Spook made a little kibble bowl for him and Fancy painted it as sort of an inside joke but Chooch eats his kibble out of that bowl religiously

Related to the last one, the gang keeps score of Chooch vs. His Kidneys. His kidneys are winning currently (this is based of my Sims game of the lads and also because Siamese cats are more prone to kidney problems also he looks like he has kidney problems)

Spook can breakdance like a fucking boss and tbh this should be canon he will fuck you up in a dance battle and he will do it with ease

Spook has %100 slept for at least two days straight and when he woke up he was the most confused man alive for a solid 15 minutes. The gang kinda thought he was dead tbh

If you dare put ANYTHING near Spook's face his first instinct is always to bite. ALWAYS. This includes food, sticks, hands, etc. Dibble nearly lost a finger once by pointing at him accusingly after having caught him for vandalism

Spook is a graffiti artist and usually paints on buildings where he knows the owner is a dickhead to piss them off. A few store owners have actually offered him money to paint murals on their stores

Addon to that last one, Chooch paints as well. He's more of a canvas guy but has also been offered money to paint murals, although his are a lot more intricate and time consuming than Spook's

I like to imagine that Fancy is actually a huge fucking dork when he's not being a suave playboy, he especially dances like one (he does the sprinkler unironically in The Movie) he actually loves country music, and he's just a little goofy in general

Fancy's always fiending for chocolate despite him having a food sensitivity to it. He's also a huge foodie and has a hard time holding himself back when presented with good quality food. When he was younger he had to really think about it to contain himself but he's gained a lot more self-control since then

He's also one of those people that gets hangry so usually when he's moody one of the gang will ask him if he's had anything to eat and the answer is usually no because Fancy's usually well-tempered unless someone insults the gang, his grandmother, or himself

Fancy has absolutely opened a can of whoop-ass on a few people for mocking Brain's mental disabilities and he'd gladly do it again at the drop of a hat

Brain absolutely loves learning even if it takes him longer to do so. He loves doing little science experiments and T.C. has occasionally distracted him with books about various scientific topics like outer space, biology, geology, and chemistry. He's actually better at reading than the rest of the gang contrary to what one would believe, but has to stop and process what he's read occasionally

Brain is very difficult to get genuinely angry. Most of the time you'd irk him at most and he'd just give you the silent treatment but he has snapped at T.C. a few times and really yelled at him for a few reasons, mostly for underestimating him

God forbid you ever get him mad enough to attack you, because then almost nothing can get him off. When he was younger he finally got fed up with his worst bully and mauled him so bad to the point of disfigurement. And he didn't even bite him then, if he bites you he's definitely taking a chunk of you with him as a souvenir (because of those canines I've talked about before)

Brain is a fiend for muffins, his favorite being almond poppyseed muffins. He gets so excited to eat them he sniffs them aggressively before running off to a secluded spot to eat them. He sniffed one so hard he got an almond slice up his nose one time and didn't even notice until he blew his nose later

Bagels too. Loves bagels. Sesame bagels are his favorite. Hates the cinnamon raisin ones though.

And here we're gunna have some HC specifically based around laughter

Spook and Fancy have THE LOUDEST laughs when they're together. Spook usually wheezes loudly for an extended period of time before absolutely SCREAMING and cackling like a dying seagull and Fancy has this very hearty belly laugh and he also snorts when he laughs, which only makes the both of them laugh louder. They have in fact been kicked out of restaurants for laughing way too loud.

Brain's definitely one of those people who usually doesn't laugh very loud but will absolutely HONK if he laughs loudly enough. He also giggles something similar to the Scooby laugh.

T.C. will either freeze when he laughs or he falls over. No in between. He does not laugh like a normal person. He giggles and chuckles just fine though

In addition to Chooch's goofy little 'muhuhuhuhuh' he does sort of an oddly maniacal 'MUAHAHAHAHA'. As you can see, all of his funny hahas start with an 'M' sound.

Benny sounds like squeaky toy when he laughs and he really puts his whole body into it so it also looks like he's being squeezed like a squeaky toy

Dibble sounds like a duck when he laughs. Y'know the WAUGHKAUGHKAUGHKAUGHKAUGHKAUGH

Anyways yeah I bet you all are sick of me well too bad go take some antibiotics and call me when you feel better 💃

[facelessxchurch]

What would you look for in so (specifically serpine) merch?

Well, looking at what merch I actually bought I seem to be partial to jewellery So Serpine/Faceless themes earings, necklaces and bracelets.

If we are going for more basic/more realistic stuff (because I don't trust the quality of anything SP enough to pierce it through my flesh):

Pins (I really line enamel pins but acrylic or classic button pins would be fine too)

Key Charms (metal if actually using it for keys, otherwise acrylic would be preferred)

Acrylic Standees (which are pretty much figurines but for poor people)

Stickers/Sticker Sheets

Temporary tattoos of Nef's crest, the Facless Church Symbol and/or the Sceptre of Ancient

Like, pins, stickers, acrylic key charms and acrylic standees are the cornerstones of every indie shop because they are easy and cheap to make, so I don't get why there are none in the SP shop??? I guess the cheap ass Redbubble-like service he uses doesn't allow for those options.

Of course, I would be down for nasty boi figures given they are done by a proper artist and not his brother.

In terms of unrealistic things, I found this on SHEIN and if this existed for Nef and Mev I'd buy them in a heartbeat

Tarot cards (all that art would be so expensive tho)

New Battle Cards (slightly less expensive since it would be all busts)

Since it's a book series how about some book-related stuff like

a bookmark that shows a mural you would find in a Faceless church showing Mevolent as a saint, perhaps his two generals as saints too??

or one of those metal clamp bookmarks (like this) but as Nef's red right hand or the same but as Acryl-Journal-Clips (like this or this (metal version))

Essentially I have a thing for pretty, little trinkets.

And of course, all of these should be done by decent artists and not by Landy himself or a family member.

EDIT: Add self-stick notepads to that bc stationary stuff like pretty notebooks and pens make me unreasonably happy. I mean, look at these Helluva Boss ones, they are so cute! :3c

[source]

[mamarosehearts]

A Note on Helping Riddle Decorate His Space

A bit of extra background and information on a list item from my "101 Things I'd Do As Riddle's Parent", specifically the item that mentions helping Riddle decorate his space freely.

Most of this is meant to show why something as simple as this is important to me, and the remainder is more of a ramble on how I'd help Riddle decorate.

Notes: mentions of home loss and related trauma, first two paragraphs could be considered trauma dumping but were meant as background, familial yume/selfship content

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄

On my list of 101 things I'd do as Riddle's parent, I wrote that I'd help him decorate his room however he wants, but there's kinda more to it than that, actually. Since I was like 17, I've never really tried to decorate any space I lived in, or even unpack, since I got so used to moving. My family has lost two different homes (I got blamed for one of them as a teen), and we were always bouncing between apartments and my grandparents' house.

Every time I think about decorating and feel any sort of excitement for it, it gets killed off almost instantly by this mental reminder that this home, too, is probably temporary. There’ve been times where I felt physically sick just trying to take things out of a box or put something on a shelf. I know it probably shouldn't be that serious, but it is. Because what's the point in unpacking or decorating when you're just going to have to tear it all down and pack it all back up?

I think helping Riddle decorate his space freely, when he was never really allowed to, would be kinda nice. Maybe even healing, for both of us. It seems so simple. Like, a lot of people got to pick the color of their bedroom walls or put their favorite stuff on shelves without being afraid it’d be taken away or that they'd get in trouble. But Riddle and I didn’t get to have that, even if for different reasons.

I'd love to take Riddle to look at paint samples and play with those little screens that show how the colors would look in different rooms, then watch the employees mix up the paint with that satisfying little machine. I want to go furniture shopping with him at all kinds of places, from little family-owned thrift stores to IKEA, and see what kind of stuff he gravitates toward. Maybe he makes a moodboard, maybe we just wing it. Either way, part of the fun is finding stuff in the wild. I’ll even suffer through hauling the furniture in and building it, no matter how bad the instructions are. If he wants something we can’t find anywhere, you can bet I’ll figure out how to make it for him. Even better since it’s custom-made. We could hang up art prints or posters, maybe frame photos of him with him with his friends or display little trinkets that matter to him. Pick out curtains, choose new bedding, maybe string up some lights or plants if he likes those. He could even paint a mural if he wants to, anything that makes the space feel like it belongs to him.

But I wouldn’t want Riddle to feel like he's limited to just his room, either. A lot of the time, growing up, my entire existence was confined to my bedroom. I couldn’t leave a book, or a pen, or even a glass in the living room, even if I planned to come right back. It was always met with someone saying, “Get your stuff out of here,” and shoved back into my room like I was in the way. For some reason, that always really got to me. I wouldn't do that to Riddle. If he wants to leave a book on the coffee table, or a sketchpad on the dining room chair, or just sprawl out on the couch with his school stuff for the whole day, that's perfectly fine. His presence wouldn't be treated like an inconvenience. He'd know he belongs in the whole house, not just some corner of it.

Maybe after doing all that, Riddle could even help me figure out how to unpack and decorate my own space, too, since I might finally feel safe enough to do it.

[beigetiger]

The origins of the Forgotten Ark

Lore post! Using the murals on the Ark to interpret how the Forgotten Ark (and it’s magic) came to be. I will be using screenshots taken in order of going around the boat so you can all see too if you don’t want to go through the effort of actually going there in-game to look at it.

So first off, screenshots!

I’m going to presume this is the first one and say that this is a krill and some clouds! Totally not an obvious observation, but if this is the first mural, the implication that krill may have existed for much longer than the Kingdom’s corruption is definitely an interesting one.

Next up, a storm. There are also a few murals after this that depict light creatures and stars appearing from that storm, but I didn’t take pictures of them.

Some people hanging around, and what looks to be an aurora borealis.

A bit hard to tell in this pic, but it basically depicts stars falling down and the people collecting them and turning them into spells.

People learning to use said spells and magic to do things, including create fire apparently!

Bunch of people going off on a big boat (presumably the Ark) and carrying their spells with them.

Said boat being flipped upside down by a storm and the people all falling out.

So, those are the screenshots I’ve taken, and now I will share my interpretation of them!

I already talked a bit about the Ark in my super-long lore post, but I wanted to go into more detail here.

I know I said this already, but I do find it interesting that krill seemingly existed before anything else did, presuming that this is the origin story of the spellcasting community.

I also find the storm that appears to produce the light creatures and the stars very poetic, because it is also the thing that ends the lives of the people on the boat.

Now, the people. It seems that they are at first hiding under umbrellas, probably to protect themselves from falling stars. And did the original spell stars come from an aurora borealis? It’s also a bit odd that falling stars seem to produce both sentient children and things such as spells. Makes you wonder how much these two things are related.

The next image, they are taking those stars from the ground and transforming them into spells. I argue that this can be compared to humanity’s discovery of fire and how useful of a tool it could be. I also find it interesting that in the first image with the Skyfolk, none of them have those little crests on their heads. By the image where they are discovering spellcasting, a few of them actually do have the little head-crests.

And to add to the “Skyfolk’s discovery of spellcasting versus humanity’s discovery of fire” thing, the next image prominently features a campfire that has presumably been produced by a spell. It also seems to contain people practicing using the spells.

The next image is probably a long timeskip later, but it shows a group of people (and now ALL of them have headcrests) on a boat, carrying spells to some distant place. I could not guess for the life of me why they were moving, but they seemed to act as a close-knit community.

And finally, a storm comes and knocks the ship over, scattering the people inside and presumably killing many if not all of them.

So, two things. First, the headcrests. The more adept the spellcasting community seems to be at magic, the more of them are depicted with those little crests. Many of the people in Vault have those crests, including the Levitating Adept, whose whole thing is making objects float; and the Meditating Monastic, who can levitate in the air. My conclusion? Those little headcrests are symbols of magical prowess, and people who have them have a fair bit of skill and experience in some form of magic.

The second thing is those smaller boats that are depicted in the mural alongside the bigger one. When I initially saw the bigger boat flipped over with none of the smaller boats in sight, my reaction was “oh hey! Maybe they made it away to spread their influence elsewhere!” But then I went back to check and NOPE. There are definitely smaller boat ruins around the Forgotten Ark, and also this really big anchor.

Look at this cool anchor I found.

Anyways, using this anchor as proof that the whole area was a body of water (maybe a body of clouds?) when all the boats sank. But clearly someone must have survived them, they seem to have been spruced up post-crash to make it viable for use as a storefront.

Anyway, that was my ramble about the Forgotten Ark, I spent too much time putting this together 😅

[lindira]

Reflection Ruesday

It's actually just barely Saturday. XD I was tagged by @ghostoftheyear to do this meme thing! I'm not tagging anyone cuz it's 2am and my brain isn't working, so if you'd like to do this, consider yourself tagged!

How to Play: Go through your writing, art, gifs, etc. that you started but never finished and find something you love. Brush it up a bit if you want and share it.

Uh... holy shit, I wrote this just over 10 years ago! It was gonna be a whole Dragon Age crossover thing between Paikea's and Aeric's timelines. It never panned out, but here are the two scenes I wrote! I haven't edited this AT ALL, so please excuse any mistakes/weirdness/repetitive prose. Enjoy!

"Closure"

Paikea stared up at the paintings surrounding her in the rotunda. It wasn't the first time - nor the last, she supposed - that she had sat there on the couch, in this place that had once belonged to Solas, searching the paintings for answers.

She never cried once. No tears for their ended relationship, none for his sudden departure. Part of her felt that it wasn't over. It was clear in his face, in his words, that Solas still loved her. Wherever he had gone, whatever secrets he kept, she knew that much. She only wished she knew what those secrets were, and why they meant he had to stay away.

"I thought I might find you here."

Pai looked up to find Dorian entering the rotunda, strangely not coming down the stairs from the library. Instead, he entered through the door to the Great Hall. He sat down beside her and stared up at the paintings as well. "Still looking at these old things, are you?"

Paikea sighed. "Have I ever mentioned how much I hate mysteries?"

Dorian turned to her with his eyebrows raised. "Now that's a bald-faced lie, and you know it," he said with a chuckle. "You're the most curious creature I have ever met."

"I mean the unsolvable kind," she said with a smile, still gazing at her adventures documented with care on the walls. "I keep thinking there must be something hidden here. Perhaps some clue as to why he left?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure there are answers to be had here. I've probably been wasting my time."

Dorian was silent for a moment, head turning as he considered the murals. "What about that one?" he asked, pointing at the last painting. "It looks unfinished. And… what is that? A dog?"

"A wolf, I think," Paikea said softly. "There are more in the earlier paintings.  The wolf is prominent in Dalish lore, particularly relating to the god Fen'Harel, but Solas said much of what the Dalish believe is wrong."

"And you believe him, that he knows better than your people?" Dorian asked with a frown.

"I think so. After the Temple of Mythal, after meeting her myself, I think there is a great deal that the Dalish don't know about our own history." She studied the last painting again, furrowing her brow. "When I look at this last one, the Well's voices whisper in my head, but I can't understand them."

"You'll forgive me, my dear, if I still find your new gift… unsettling." Dorian cocked his head to one side as he looked at her. "Are you certain you're all right?"

"Don't worry so much," Pai said, giving him an affectionate pat on the arm. "So long as Flemeth doesn't command me to kill everyone, I should be fine." She grinned.

"Hmph," Dorian grunted. "You might be fine in that scenario, but what of the rest of us?"

"Oh," she said airily, "I promise to make it quick."

Dorian smirked. "You're too kind."

Paikea laughed then considered the mage for a moment. "Was there something you wanted? You didn't come from the library."

"Oh, yes!" Dorian said, brightening. "I need your help with a little project I've been working on. If you don't mind taking a break from your obsessing, come with me."

Without waiting for an answer, he stood and beckoned her to follow him. Unable to resist the pull of her own curiosity, Pai followed, wondering what he was up to. For the past several weeks, Dorian had been studying hard in the library or, conversely, consulting with Alexius in the prison. She trusted Dorian implicitly, though she heard nervous whispers sometimes about the two Tevinters talking. Though Dorian was now mostly in everyone's good graces after he helped with Corypheus' defeat, there was still a wariness when people talked about him. That he was speaking with the magister they had in custody wasn't helping.

They crossed the Great Hall to the door that led to Josephine's office and the War Room. Instead of going to either of those places, however, Dorian led her downstairs, to the giant abandoned hall that adjoined the prison.

"This should be as good a place as any, I think," Dorian said, almost to himself.

"Lethallin, a good place for what?" Pai asked, looking around. She expected some sort of equipment or tools, but the room was empty as always. "What are we doing here?"

Dorian grinned and reached into his pocket. "Do you remember this?" He pulled out a familiar amulet, a square green stone on a golden chain.

Paikea frowned as she looked at it. The thing had caused no small amount of grief. "That's Alexius' amulet. The one that sent us through time."

"Ah, but now it's my amulet." He held the amulet out in front of him on top of his open palm. "The time magic was only theoretical before Corypheus opened the Breach. Once that occurred, however, I believe it was the raw magical energy from the Fade that fueled the amulet, making time travel possible."

"You're… not thinking of going through time again, are you?" Pai asked, eyeing the amulet warily.

"No, don't be ridiculous," Dorian said before he paused. "Well, it's a possibility, but we'll get to that later." As he gazed at the amulet, he stroked his mustache thoughtfully with his free hand in smooth, rhythmic motions. "Anyway, what I wondered was whether the magic could be used not only temporally but spatially as well."

She frowned, studying the amulet herself. "What, like a Fade Step?"

"A giant Fade Step, yes," he replied, his eyes twinkling with excitement. "Imagine, if you will, a portal that could take you from Skyhold to Minrathous in mere moments. Can you imagine the possibilities?"

Pai smiled. She loved to see her friend so passionate. "That would be incredible, Dorian. But that would take an equally incredible amount of power. Where would…" She trailed off, then looked down at her left hand and the scarred lines that ran across the palm. "Oh no."

"Oh yes," Dorian said, his voice rumbling. She thought he sounded like a purring cat. "The power you wield is pure Fade energy, and if the Breach could activate this amulet, then I think so can you."

"I don't know if that's such a wonderful idea, lethallin," Paikea said slowly. "After all, the last time we used this, we got sent into a future where the world was ending."

The mage gave a rueful smile. "That's true. But that's why we're here in this secluded area. If anything goes wrong, it's just us who will be affected."

"I'm in no hurry to die, Dorian. Or to get lost in time with you again."

"Neither am I!" he laughed. "But I'm confident that the both of us can control our respective powers well enough to limit its power. I don't want to go through a portal, if one is created. I merely want to test it."

In the back of her mind, she imagined her brother Aeric frowning in disapproval. This was probably a terrible idea. "All right, count me in," Pai said with a smile. She never was very good at following poor Aeric's advice. "What did you need me to do?"

Dorian grinned. "I knew I could count on you!" Taking her by the shoulders, he positioned her a few paces away then went back to where he had been standing. "Now, activate the Anchor. When I tell you, channel some of its energy into the amulet. Small amounts at a time, mind you. We don't know how strongly the amulet will react."

With a nod, Paikea closed her eyes and concentrated on her Mark. After a few moments, she felt it flare to life, and she opened her eyes again. Green light flowed and flickered from it. "Ready."

Dorian turned his attention onto the amulet, his brow furrowing as he focused. He held out his hand over the amulet, spilling a small amount of dark green energy into it. The amulet began to float in midair. "Now, Pai. A little at a time."

Paikea thrust her hand out, sending out a tendril of green energy, as if closing a rift. It was small, tentative. As small as she could make it.

As soon as the tendril touched the amulet, a cascade of crystalline energy burst from the amulet, ripping open the very air between them. A portal opened, swirling in a vortex that howled and whistled. Two figures, shadowy and distant darted back and forth on the other side.

"Paikea!" Dorian shouted. He clung to one of the pillars, reaching out a hand to grab her from the pull of the vortex.

The very air itself seemed to have held her in a fist. "Dorian!" She reached for him.

Her boot slipped.

She tumbled to the floor, but instead of hitting the marble, she was caught in the whirlwind. She spun once, then twice in the air before being pulled into the portal, her fingers catching on the gold chain of the amulet.

Dorian's face beyond the portal's mouth was the last thing she saw before she was lost in a sea of dark green light.

***

Aeric and Dorian stood at the edge of the courtyard, leaning against one of the castle's walls as they watched Cullen and the soldiers run through a drill. Dorian was rattling off several criticisms of the soldiers' uniforms, but Aeric wasn't really paying attention. Smiling, he gazed at Dorian's face, making sure to relish this moment. A warm spring day, their hands linked, Dorian at last comfortable enough to do so in public. It was all going to end soon, and Aeric wasn't sure what would happen when it came time to confront Corypheus once and for all. Surely there would be few quiet moments like this to come. Best savor them while he had them.

He felt the flicker of energy before he heard it. His nerves buzzed as the Anchor came to life, glowing bright green. Aeric held up his hand as he looked at it curiously.

Dorian frowned at him, his face immediately full of concern. "Is it Corypheus?"

"I don't know," Aeric murmured.

A crystalline line of magical energy appeared in the middle of the courtyard, making the soldiers scatter. Cullen circled the rift, sword drawn. "Soldiers!" he shouted. "Stand at the ready!"

Aeric grabbed a bow and quiver of arrows from the table of weapons nearby. As he belted on the quiver, small balls of fire appeared in Dorian's hands. They nodded to each other then approached the rift.

With a loud crack, the rift opened, tearing a hole in the air. Yet instead of demons spilling out of the rift, a small figure tumbled through, collapsing in a heap on the ground. A moment later, the rift closed on its own.

Aeric stepped toward the sprawled figure, bow drawn. She was elven. She looked familiar. She struggled to her feet…

The air left his lungs; he could not breathe. Hot tears filled his eyes. His hands trembled on the bow, and it took all his effort not to drop it. "Pai…" he breathed.

The fire disappeared from one of Dorian's hands, and he squeezed Aeric's shoulder. "Amatus?"

"Well, that was unexpected," the elf who looked like Paikea was saying as she brushed dirt off her trousers. "I suppose that was…" She trailed off as Cullen approached, his sword pointed at her chest. "Cullen, what…?"

"Quiet, demon," the commander said through clenched teeth. "I'll not hear you spin your lies."

Her mouth fell open in surprise. "Cullen…" She looked around at all the soldiers with weapons drawn. And as she scanned them all, her eyes fell on Aeric.

She stared at him for a moment, disbelief warring with sorrow. She bit her lip, a habit Aeric knew was to keep herself from crying. It rarely worked. And all at once, he remembered every time her face looked just like this. Her first heartbreak. The fall that earned her the scar on her left eyebrow. The second after she had received her vallaslin. It was all Aeric could do not to run to her and embrace her.

"Aeric…" she said in a shuddering sigh. "It's not possible… Is this the Fade?"

"You know her, amatus?" Dorian asked in a low voice.

Aeric swallowed. "No," he growled. His grip steadied on the bow. "My sister is dead."

"Your sister!" Dorian repeated, his eyes wide.

She frowned at Dorian for a moment, looking confused, before she turned her attention back to Aeric. "You're one to talk," the elf said, tears falling down her face. "You died over a year ago at the Conclave!"

Aeric didn't answer her, but felt just as puzzled as she looked. It hadn't yet been a year since the Conclave. And, of course, he hadn't been the one who died there. Instead of replying to her implied question, he spotted her left hand, flickering with residual energy from the rift, just like his. "And where did you get that?" he asked, pointing with the arrow held in his bow.

"I'd have you answer the same question," she said, wiping her eyes before crossing her arms over her chest. "We can't both have the Anchor." When Aeric again did not answer her, she sighed. "I got it from Corypheus on accident, when he was trying to kill the Divine."

Aeric glanced from Dorian to Cullen, both of whom looked back at him with questioning expressions. She couldn't be Paikea. She simply could not. "One last question, then," he said, his hands tightening on the bow to keep from shaking. "How did you get the scar on your eyebrow?"

The edges of her mouth quirked up with the beginnings of a smile. "I was hunting and got attacked by a bear."

Aeric couldn't help the small beginnings of a smile at his own lips. "And what really happened?"

"You're awful, Aeric," she said, tears beginning again as she laughed. "In front of all these people? You know I hate telling that story."

"Go on."

She gave a huff of embarrassed frustration and rolled her eyes. "I fell out of a tree because I was scared by a spider."

Easing the bowstring, Aeric dropped his weapons altogether and ran to her, catching her in a rough embrace. Paikea wept openly then, just as Aeric cried silently over her shoulder. His hands shook as he held her, his guilt - at having survived, at having no answers for questions that haunted him - began to lift away. Could he have saved her? Did she suffer? For now, these questions didn't matter. He wasn't sure how it was possible for her to have survived - it should not have been, by any means - but he was infinitely grateful. Of all the impossible things that had happened to him, having his little sister back, his first and only friend for the longest time, was the most unbelievable.

Aeric was dimly aware of Cullen telling the soldiers to stand down and disperse, but there were others about, lingering as they stared. He felt the presence of someone approaching from behind. "The two of you should catch up somewhere a little more private," Dorian said gently. "Somewhere with fewer gawkers, hmm?"

The two elves wiped at their eyes as they pulled away from each other. "Yes, thank you, Dorian," Paikea said, smiling.

Dorian's eyebrows rose. "You… know who I am?"

"Yes, of course, I…" She stopped herself and studied the surprised expression on Dorian's face. "But you don't know who I am, do you?"

"I gather you think I should?" Dorian glanced down at her hands. His eyes widened. "Though, if I'm not mistaken, I do believe the thing you're holding in your hands is the reason we're all so confused."

Aeric blinked in surprise at the crystal cube and chain held in his sister's right hand. He hadn't even noticed. But then, in his defense, his sister had just come back from the dead. "Isn't that Alexius' amulet? Where did you get it?"

Pai pointed at Dorian. "He gave it to me. Sort of." She scratched her head in confusion then glanced over at the stables. "Let's talk over by the horses. Blackwall appears to be away, and we'll have more privacy."

Aeric and Dorian exchanged amused and puzzled glances before following behind this woman who should not be.

[thetawnyowltxmblr]

Presenting…

Tintin: Flames in Versailles

Prologue

January 16th, 1938, London.

Another chilly morning, new year having just passed. I’m looking forward to all the new stories I get to uncover this year. I've always had an appreciation for mystery and a keen eye for detail, so you can bet your ass I’m brilliant at discovering what lies beneath the surface when it comes to an unsolved case.

I begrudgingly left the comfort of my bed and got myself dressed, I was about to be late for work. I’m an investigative reporter for a newspaper called ‘The Daily Anchor’, a small newspaper but it’s kept me employed for the past five years, and it’s been a joy since I can have the adventure and excitement I’ve already strived to have. It may not be as popular as the larger newspapers but I can’t complain, they pay me well.

I walked into the kitchen to find my wife, Lucille pouring coffee into a thermos for me, the usual. Lucille is a librarian, with a wonderful sense of the world around her. She paints in her spare time and her talent is absolutely admirable, our little apartment has become encased by her art and it just fills me with joy how she keeps producing such beauty (even with a lack of sales) she never gives up.

“Morning, my darling. Coffee is ready to go, have you got your briefcase?” Lucille handed me the thermos and smiled. I had a moment of brief panic when she mentioned my briefcase. “Ah- uhh, where did I—” I’m cut off by her holding it out for me with a snarky look on her face. “Aaah, what would I do without you?” I chuckled, taking my briefcase from her hand. “You’d suffer, we know that by now.” She joked. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and I headed out the door.

Thankfully my office wasn’t too far from my apartment, about a 15 minute walk. Especially considering that it was about eight degrees that morning. I watched as I saw the people I saw everyday following their routines, man with a pendulum, lady with a newspaper, those two police officers that I heard apparently AREN’T related despite them being practically twins? The same people every single morning.

I had made it to my office and hung my coat up in the closet, said hello to Mural, our receptionist and made my way to my desk to receive my first amount of paperwork for the morning. I began typing up a story from a previous adventure when all of a sudden, I heard a slam on my desk. I jerked my head to see my boss, Mr. Pincher holding one of our newspapers with my story on the cover.

“Jaques, my boy! Your story on the Woolworths Bank caper just had our sales go up 2 percent in the last week! Well done, kiddo!” He exclaimed, giving me a slightly harder than necessary pat on the back. “Goodness, thank you sir!” I know two percent might not seem like a ton, but considering our size, it’s pretty good all things considered. “After this last one, the people want more big mysteries from us, so I’m putting you on another investigation.” He said reaching into a satchel and pulling out another paper, not from us, but from a way bigger paper company.

“You’ll be encouraged to talk to the other reporter on this case, try and work together. This is a BIG one, boy. I know you can handle it.” He said before handing it to me, then treading back to his office. I flipped it the right way up and began reading the title, wondering what it said. However, when I read it I felt a heavy feeling in my chest that sank right down to my stomach.

“Dubois Estate fire case REOPENED” the text read in bold letters. The subtext read; “After 6 years, investigators have officially reopened the tragic Dubois estate fire that resulted in the death of the young, Bella Dubois, after recent evidence suggests foul play. I couldn’t move. I was in a state of complete disbelief, after half a decade, after thinking I was safe.

Something didn’t make sence and I had to get to the bottom of it, then I saw who was investing, who had written this very article… I jolted out of my chair, grabbed my things (plus the paper) and made my way to the exit. “Jaques? Mate, where are you going?” One of my colleagues stopped me.

“I uh- just, I think I left my… windows open!” I tried to get past him. “Is Lucille not home?!” He yelled after me. “NOPE! BUH-BYE NOW!” I grabbed my coat and ran out the door. I sprinted all the way back home and when I arrived slammed the door open and called out, “Lucille! Lucille, we have a huge problem!”. I saw her run into the room in a panic, “What!? What’s wrong? Why are you not at work?!” Panting from the run, I held the newspaper in front of her face, she adjusted her glasses and read the title, turning pale. “Mon dieu…�� I heard her whisper, she places her hands to cover her mouth from shock.

“They’ve found something, I’m not sure what, but something must have survived that fire and now that they’ve found it, we are in deep shit!” I exclaimed in a frenzy as I started pacing around the room. “Jaques! We need to remain calm, okay?! I’m sure this won’t lead to anything! They never do!” She grabbed my arm and tried to calm me down, but knowing what I knew made it so that her attempts lead to nothing. “My dear… you haven’t seen who they have down there.” I near, muttered. Lucille looked puzzled as I showed her the author of this very paper.

Her eyes grew wide with fear, as we read out loud in unison;

“Tintin…”

***

This has been my first draft of my new Tintin fan fiction, I’m still writing the rest of the chapters and will share them periodically! But for now, have a sneak peek at my first attempt! (It’s not that great right now again, first draft lol, please let me know of anything I can improve on, feedback is always lovely!”

Plus while I’m here, here is the official designs for Jaques and Lucille Beaumont

[spotsupstuff]

I saw the Ask regarding your Ancients and

Yeah I agree with everything they said. Ancients being sea anemones is just... So right. Can't see them any other way (They are funky freaky sea anemones that grew legs!) /pos

I love your own spin on things, too! (even if they aren't meant to stick close to cannon, it's fun to think about!)

It still feels all plausible to me in the Rain World Universe, which just opens so many Avenues to expand on things! Words are escaping me but I just

Love yer stuff so much

the ancients are fucking seafood n i think that explains why they are Like That to a degree ngl GJKLSDCMLSK The Seafood Vibes of a Whole Species....

i do find it interesting though how ya two stand behind the sea anemone thing with "it feels right". cuz like yes, i obviously agree! when u look at the hair bullshit they have goin on in the graffiti/murals, it makes a lot of sense. but i do think most fandom still thinks n stands behind the idea of the ancients being some sort of a land creature, like lizards, scav-related, birds, dogs... which is Very valid n in a way i do perceive those as the basis for ancients as well. i think of myself as an outlier. so the fact ya two go "it feels right" is very "👁👁 o wowie... lookit dat.. look..... (*꒪ヮ꒪*)" to me /in a v pos way

-snaps fingers n points atcha- but YES!!! *YES* THAT'S A BIG THING FOR ME- i can go off wherever i wanna n where the feelings will lead me but it Has to still fit into the universe! if the universe is a little changed because of the way i go about drawing the iterators, then okay, but there is still a certain Rain World vibe that needs to be respected no matter what cuz otherwise i stop writing about RW. which i don't wanna do cuz i love this lil shitlet of a game. and IDEALLY by straying away from the largely canon stuff but staying with the Vibes, i will- exactly, yes!!!!- open up new Avenues for world-building!!!!!

world-building is genuinely one of my favorite things to do. with RW it is especially fascinating because all of the information that we are really offered is all from a singular source that is Moon's/Pebbles' facilities (when it comes to visually/gameplay relaid information) Or what we can mostly safely assume is a singular continent wide network of iterators (since Suns is kinda weird to place cleanly)

RW is fascinating and engaging because while it offers only a small piece of the world for us to learn from, it uses the passage of time to expand upon itself n i fuckin Love it. also the main reason why i'm trynna respect the general timeline as much as possible. thanks to this expansion through time, not space, RW manages to never really feel stifling and claustrophobic when reviewing the lore

i do like to pose the question or my tactic of going 180°- which means that i take what is given, turn exactly the other way n start Marching in order to widen the horizont of understanding of the universe (n i also do that with characters pretty often ngl... i love my 180° rule a lot). if RW is focusing on expansion within time, i'll do my best to focus on expansion within space and then detail That

and thank you!!! i'm glad you enjoy my stuff!!!!

[omegaremix]

Vinyl Bay 777 shopping list, 2018.

I haven’t visited Plainview since the sordid community college days. It was when I set my best-friend Brandon up with Manzana, the girl I was set up with through one of my friends in senior year. We were over her house with some of her friends for what would be my final get-together there. It felt unusual because it was my only visit there during the community-college era and I already was far removed from everyone I was friends with, friends who helped make-then-break situations. Plainview was great for what it was worth until things started to decline.

Caboose, a former staffer of my time at Stony Brook Press, messaged me last year and announced he was a newly-enlisted music-phile. I never even thought anything else of him during our days at the Press. He then tipped me off of Vinyl Bay 777. Plainview now has a record store, but it came with a slight warning: it would be too pricey. I was meaning to go since hearing of it and it looked real good. Owned by artist and Italian chef Frank Napoli, he wanted his store to stand out and he’s succeeded. Everything of Vinyl Bay 777 looks great, a strong mission statement where everything is clean, graded accurately, and perfectly organized by alphabetical order and genre. It had a professionally-built website where it gave you part of a superbly-organized feel. It was also where I started feeling a slight crunch: I started to browse their inventory on their site and the average / median prices were set a little high. It’s not the whole story as it would take anyone hours to get a more accurate feel of what Vinyl Bay 777 had in store. It was still in the cards for me to visit any way to get the true picture.

All it took to get there was a drive down to the Long Island Expressway (L.I.E., not named after Ron Morelli’s label, regretably) and it was right off its’ closest exit. Located in an industrial area, you need to curve through some buildings to get to some tight parking lots. There it was with a double-mural painting of various iconic musicians in front of the store. I walk in and it did look amazing. It’s tight quarters, but no other record store was such efficient in space and pulled it off looing good. Rows and rows of vinyl. Even more under. Tables with crates of 12″ and 7″ on top of it. Rolling caddies of cassette bins. On the walls are collectible classic records. Shelves upon shelves of CDs. Close to any category you could think of with few exceptions, they have it. Look around and you’ll see some shelves of music-related books, documentaries, and live shows on DVD. More collectibles, vinyl records pinned to the ceiling, action figures, star-studded memorabilia, and Beanie Babies down below. At the front of the counter were magazines ranging from Boys Life to about four bins of Playboy. Hugh Hefner is turning over right now. So far, so good.

As I started browsing through the store, I slowly realized Caboose was right. The lowest common price of any title in the store was $5.77 with few lower exceptions. $7.77, $17.77, $25.77, $39.77, $12.77. Notice a pattern? They price after themselves. Inifinity Records has a few vinyl bins mixed with various titles for $2.76 and I don’t even know the significance of those numbers. It wasn’t the $__.77 that got to me, it was indeed the overall pricing. They priced their stock higher than any other store I seen. Records, cassettes, and discs priced for only a few dollars in other stores were priced two, three, even four times at Vinyl Bay. That went for most of their stock regardless, no artist or genre was treated differently. You could walk away with several hardcore and punk 45′s for a dollar or two somewhere else. Not Vinyl Bay. The entire small shelf of those 45′s were priced enough that it prevented me from taking some of it home. Cassettes were selling for mostly $5.77 to $7.77 where other places still selling them do so for a few dollars less. Ouch.

Even though I still felt the pinch, I still continued to walk through its stock. They had a great selection of jazz, rock, hip-hop, industrial, metal, the classics, and etcetera across all formats. I did have ideas of what I wanted to pick up, and that’s all that became of my visit. I couldn’t help but to hold back because I have had about 15 or 20 titles I wanted to buy, but Vinyl Bay 777′s pricing add up quickly in my head. There were no dollar bins as their grading system and overall aesthetic prevented it, which I do understand. Vinyl Bay 777 vied to be different and it does. It does so by offering a lot of rarites, obscure, and hard-to-find titles not found often and at high-quality. They don’t sell “Dean Martin, Barbra Streisand, Mitch Miller, Andy Williams or showtunes…big band, film scores, or soundtracks.” They sell top-notch titles. It’s for collectors, not for pick-up-and-go artists like myself. I can’t blame them.

It’s a shame, really, because they do have lots of great stuff and they do aim for quality. That’s something Vinyl Bay will bat all the way to home plate. I do understand if a store prices specific titles accordingly by rarity and condition here and there. Because Vinyl Bay is for connoiseurs. They do take their rarity and grading 100% which explains why the average threshold of pricing is higher than most stores. On my end, I didn’t feel any bit accessible. I shop to win, not shop for only one or two things.  I don’t shop according to grade or condition, I shop for quantity and value. I do have the money the spend, but it doesn’t mean I’d want to needlessly overpay on titles I could find in other places for half the price. But I have to say, at least they have integrity. They weren’t the Long Island Vinyl Exchange years ago where half their stock was un-priced and their owner made you pay whatever he said off the top of his head. He was out in less than a year. Remember that.

After 45 minutes, I left Vinyl Bay 777 purchasing nothing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great store for those who want it and they do a great job for what they’re set out to do. It’s just not for me. As I walked out, I noticed a sign urging customers to write two reviews on different social media accounts and show them to the store for a 15% discount. Too little, too late. Here’s my review. I’m not coming back.

Vinyl Bay 777 shopping list: no dice.