#its a good overview tbh

[xxplastic-cubexx]

In your professional educated psychology opinion. why is cherik Like That

i cannot give a Professional educated psychological opinion until at least may but as far as i can tell queer people cant be normal bout anything so thats why theyre like that

[sam-keeper]

so this is months after the fact, but i'm wondering if you read dean kissick's now infamous harper's piece about "representation" making art banal, because while it seems to me he has some kind of a genuine frustration, both he and the people responding to him are sort of talking around the actual issue in question, or misplacing blame (classically by pointing the finger at "minority" artists)? my first instinctive response to the assertion that no interesting art exists because of the nebulous project of representation, was that, well, skill issue - interesting "minority" artists exist, very much so, perhaps the more interesting question is WHY they don't make it into shows and what would have to change structurally beyond the lip service of institutions to elevating non-white, queer artists.

...but at that point i realised i know literally nothing about the visual art world lmao and while i can confidently point to why this happens in publishing, i was wondering if you had any thoughts abt the actual piece and some of its very blithe (and what seems to me!) and sweeping assertions?

oh my god I had not seen this piece and it BODIED me. WHAT AN OPENING PARAGRAPH! I read the opening line out to Sarah and she looked like I had thrown a flash grenade in her face. she was blinking the spots out of her eyes. the whole thing is so incredible it's sort of hard for me to get my thoughts together--though, I think it's very Psychological that he keeps complaining that the art world has lost the vitality it had when he was... in his 20s? and my man surely you're not writing a whole article grousing about identity then in one of the last paragraphs dropping a line like, "In the Nineties, when I was a student at a Christian boys’ school in Oxford,"

but that opening though. oh my goodness lmao.

ok confession though on the main subject: I generally feel pretty disconnected from the contemporary high art world myself honestly? I've always had trouble getting an overview of Scenes cause I tend to burrow pretty deep into the stuff I'm most interested in, I've always been a bit too autistic and working class (complicated term for me but w/e) to really... fit in with my peers even when I was in grad school for contemporary art history... you're probably more knowledgeable about contemporary publishing than I am about contemporary art tbh. it's something I actually feel self conscious about as a self professed materialist haha

the annoying thing is I do sort of get what he means, for like, 6 paragraphs or so in the middle of the piece. there's definitely a strain of contemporary identity-focused art that leaves me kind of cold or just nonplussed in part for the reason he lays out: that there's all these things that are supposedly signifiers of this or that or "call to mind" or "invoke" some historical marker... but all of that is present in the descriptive text rather than the piece itself? like, you would need an incredibly specific and *narrowly focused* repertoire to see a chain made of salt and immediately jump to "ah yes it's like the ancient greek slave trade, in particular".

I don't think this is necessarily a problem of bad art though so much as bad ad copy?

like, I do encounter a lot of artist statements that leave me going, like, ok but *does it decolonize the body through the inversion of subject and object* though? or whatever. like what would that actually feel like, to have happen to you, intellectually and affectively? there's a lot of bold claims about what radical things the work is doing and it often feels like upselling, to me. but that doesn't necessarily mean I dislike the art! actually at multiple shows in my area I've seen stuff that I really enjoyed and then looked at the artist statement and learned that in fact what seemed like a shocking, surreal expression of an inexpressible inner experience was actually banal old "social anxiety". like the art has to fit into a consecrated schema of psychotherapy or sociology or ethnography to be marketed or justified. I don't think that's a problem of identity, or politics, I think it's one of commodification, but I empathize, I think, with the author's *frustration* about it.

also, tangentially, I have this whole thing I wrote recently that might make it into an article or might not, about Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA)", his famous interactive/conceptual piece where a pile of candy weighing the same as his lover's ideal body weight is continuously depleted by gallery attendees and refreshed by gallery administrators. the Smithsonian recently showed that with just, a comically blithe description that cuts out the entire context that this is artwork about gay men during the AIDS crisis. and that's actually a good example imo of a place where it's really important to have contextualizing information because the contextualizing information is part of the piece and shapes how everyone involves participates in the work. like, you might come to the conclusion that it "invokes" communion, and that's great, though I think saying that in the museum guide maybe is a bit over-determining? but you can only get to that invocation if you already have a context about the performance that you've been invited to engage in, if that makes sense. the accompanying explanation is a script that the participants are using to guide their interpretation--interpretation the way an actor interprets a line, I mean. and I think Kissik would just throw this out along with everything else, which is unfortunate.

but! like! I don't really know because he also seems to enthusiastically cite things pretty similar to this as pluralistic art that is of the present instead of the past. why is Wael Shawky's Cabaret Crusades good and Puppies Puppies's bronze nude self portrait bad? I have no idea. (well, she's transsexual so.......) or, like, is he suggesting that the Symphony of Sirens, an avant garde whole city performance honoring the October Revolution, is good because it's not... about anything? sometimes it seems like he just has a problem with people painting in traditional ways but then in others he's like hey look at this cool traditional painting! I find this so genuinely perplexing lmao. I genuinely do not know what I'm supposed to come away from this piece doing, as an artist.

oh, well, except that the bit about Louis Fratino sort of hits, too. his critique of Fratino is that he may be making gay cubism but the fact that it's cubism still makes it aesthetically conservative. I actually think about this a lot, the tendency for marginalized artists right now to paint themselves into history, as it were. it's directly relevant to my own practice, since I'm drawn to art primarily from the turn of the century, or I guess broadly from something like 1860-1960 maybe? I was classically trained, I do a lot of figure drawing, and I love drawing nudes of my queer friends. is that aesthetically conservative, or is depicting trans people happy and horny and beautiful surrendering to bourgeois aesthetic values? if I draw a fat snake furry in a pose based on Ingres's Odelisque is that a clever detuning of the canon, or is that a concession to the canon's authority and an admission that I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said by a cishet male european?

it's definitely an anxiety for me. (I'd say it's table stakes for him but I guess the opening paragraph's point is that it's all fun and games until somebody loses a leg.) no idea what to do with all this but I do think about it, and I do feel frustrated with how... inward focused so much art now can be? that's not something that appeared in the last 8 years though lol that's the whole postmodern turn! like, architecture for example--yes there's all sorts of ironic quotations of classical greek elements and forms but it represents a historical return that contrasts the break represented by say brutalism. lichtenstein does dot painting renditions of cubist art. practically everyone in the Lowbrow Movement that comes out of comix are addicted to quotation and citation from both fine art and pop culture, and those guys are almost all cishet white guys!

so, whatever. the piece touches on some stuff I've thought about too, basically, but in such a garbled way that I'm not even sure what to really do with it. also I found out from this piece that he's associated with the Dimes Square people. once again I feel vindicated in being prejudiced against New York City and its people, though I can't say more about what kind of performance piece I'd like to see introduced to Dimes Square without getting put on some sort of List. oh, also Helen Lewis thought this article was brilliantly written. lol. and also, lmao.

I feel like there's probably more that could or should be said but I can't really think of what else to say so I'll stop rambling now.

[ashipikaur]

ASHI’S 24 MANKAI CHALLENGE REVIEW! ☆

overview HERE ↑ ashi comments DOWN BELOW ↓

↑ my opinions and takes on how the a3! boys look in my style!!! 😭😭😭 and then VS how drawing them went……….. ↓

<\3 the correlations are strong on some BUT OTHERRSSSS… EEUUUUU. the banri azami was a struggle but at least it paid off 😭😭. otherwise thru out the entire process i did reviews on every chara!!! you can see my individual notes about them allllll below. and in order!!! this post will be very long HAHAHA. tho i did the tierlist after doing them so 🧍‍♂️ their rankings and numbers may not correlate……..

HARU 🌸

MASUMI 8/10

- eyes lowkey suffered me THEYRE HARD FOR ME TO STYLIZE. MAYBE IF I TOOK MORE TIME ON THEM cuz tbf these are more on the doodle side 🤔 could do them better but they’ve always lowkey been a struggle

- thought the colors would kill me BUT SURPRISINGLY NAWT. my only issue was that I was afraid his skin would be too light but ISSOK!!! was really funsies to work w

- hair is gen so peak i love his ahoge. it’s peak

- his highlight thingies have me questioning my rendering sometimes 😭😭 i can’t think too hard about them

ITARU 6.8/10

- ikemenisms are a hit or miss sometimes. HIS EYES ARE STUPID. HARD TO STYLIZE ALSO!!!!! stupey face ong

- hair is very funsies I LOOOOOOOVE DRAWING IT ITS SO FLUFFY AND RENDERING IS SUPER FUNSIES TOO

- his fit is butts tho. ITS SO DULL AND LIKE SAD TO RENDER ITS A FLOP <\3 he’d probs be better to draw in other fits but review is for this experience overall

CITRON 8/10

- WHIMSY. HOW MUCH WHIMSIER CAN YOU GET

- thing is that citron’s energy is just hard to capture…… he’s Saur ethereal…….. AND HIS EYES ARE HARD!!!!

- funsies to render tho a good chunk of detail and his hair is hard to render at times

CHIKAGE. 2/10

- IF I KILL MYSELF BLAME CHIKAGE UTSUKI.

- nothing about him is fun. HIS EYES ARE HELL. VIBES ARE HELL. HAIR IS LOWKEY HELL. CLOTHES ARE BORING!!!!! GLASSES SUCK TO DRAW 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

- he turned out fine but made me go thru hell. the cheeb is best way to illustrate chikage

SAKUYA 6/10

- his hair is very funsies. that is it

- 😭😭😭😭 LIKE HE ISNT HARD TO DRAW? BUT HES LIKE NOT THAT INTERESTING. he’s fine

- 😔 unfortche i hate rendering and drawing hoodies and his fit is a little boring. eyes can be inturrestin cuz I’m not used to drawing them saur big 🤔 uuum. YA. I DUNNO. OK

- he gets bonus +1 point because his hair is just fun to draw I LOVE FLUFF

TSUZURU 5/10

- the most mid guy to ever mid

- LIKE SAKU. NOT HARD TO DRAW. JUST THERE. tbh their vibes are both kinda hard to like show

- ????? for some reason i feel like my tsuzurus give off like a maekawa yuuki (stage actor) feel to them

- his hair isn’t fun AND I HATE DRAWING HOODIES so ya 🫶 mid

NATSU ☀️

TENMA 6.2/10

- i really wish he wasn’t this low but GOD

- i really dislike rendering jean jackets. i dunno if yall have tried but i do NAWT recommend and as much as i wuv tenma’s jacket as a concept I DONT LIKE DRAWING THE SHAPE EITHER. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 HELL!!!!!!

- his eyes kill me everytime i draw him and his face in gen he never turns out right SORRY TENTEN

- my second fave 🧍‍♂️ i swear. plea

YUKI 4.8/10

- he causes me visceral pain

- I LIKE GENUINELY DONT REALLY KNOW WHERE I THOUGHT HE WAS MY FAVE TO DRAW ??????? BECAUSE HE IS REALLY HARD TO DRAW. IM SOAAAUUUUR BAD AT DRAWING BIG EYES and especially like the judgy eyes IM SAUUURRR BADDDD. his hair is fun if you don’t think about it too much. it killed me here

- i finally found out how to draw his collar w/o making him look stupid 😭😭😭😭 AFTER FIVE YEARS. bow is fun to draw slightly annoying to render

- he turns out cute at least. Eu

MUKU 9/10

- PEAAKKK MAYBE WHAT I USED TO SAY ABOUT YUKKI IS ACTUALLY JUST TRUE FOR MUKKUN NEOW

- his eyes are so cute. his face is so cute. his hair is SOOOOOOOO FUNSIES HIS FIT IS SO PEAK!!!! I LOVE HIS SLEEVES

- all of his colors are so nice to render i have sm fun like it’s saur funsies. quick and easy. peak

- not a 10/10 cuz his hair and skin can merge at times <3

MISUMI 8.3/10

- yessu the three is especially for him

- IVE DEFO GOTTEN A LOOOOOT BETTER AT DRAWING SUMI WITHIN THE PAST YEAR i’m actuallys satisfied w how he turns out 🫶 . the thing be that

- his hoodie kills me. REITERATING I HATE RENDERING HOODIES

- HIS HOODIE IS ALSO!!!!!! HARD TO RENDER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 ISSODARK. SO DARK. alsos half the time i barely know how to render the yellow accents but i think I’ve figured it out neow. maybes

- i can’t think too hard about his hair or else it makes me tweak. it’s annoying to render

- good things are his eyes cuz sankaku pupils are v fun and ALSO HIS SLEEVES ARE SOOOOOOOO IM ACTUALLYD OBSESSED E THEM I LOVE THE SHAPE SM. PEAK <3

KUMON 4/10

- he’s saur. average

- LIKE. I DUNNO I THOUGHT HE WOULD BE A LITTLE HARD TO DRAW OR SMTH BUT HES NAWT HES JUST KINDA MID TO DRAW? 😭😭😭😭 he’s kinda hard to stylize but it’s just cuz i don’t like small pupils

- whiter than i thought he was. too used to fanon kumon

- YA I DUNNO HIS FIT IS OK TOO. KINDA DETAILS BUT YOU CAN SCRIBBLE IT SO I DUNNO

- ended up docking a point because his colors wacked me up

KAZUNARI. 7.2/10

- it’s been 5 years and i still don’t know how to draw this stupid twink

- IVE COME TO REALIZE KAZUNARI IS VERY. STYLIZED. LIKE IMMENSELY IN MY STYLE AND I DUNNO IF THATS A GOOD THING OR NAWT? 😭 😭 like it’s fine but I DUNNO. oftentimes i feel like he’s missing that spark………..

- his spring outfit isn’t v funsies to draw for me personally cuz it is a LOT of white and doesn’t give a lot of diverse fun colors to work w. the blue is kinda dull and he just looks kinda empty w/o the hat but EEUUU. whatev

- stockholm syndrome

AKI 🍁

TAICHI 9/10

- immensely funsies to draw I LOOOVE DRAWING HIS EYES AND HIS HAIR AND HIS ENERGY

- the chain is so peak btws. Saur peak

- only downside is that his face is ugly sometimes and I have to fix it cuz I always draw him :D

- his sweater is kinda wack to render

SAKYO 8/10

- HIS HAIR HAS TO BE DRAWN IS A VERY SPEICIFC WAY. IT LOOKS SIMPLE BUT ITS KINDA NAWT?

- glasses are a downside obvi

- SAUERRR CUUUUUUUTEEEEEEE i really wuv rendering him it’s REALLY funsies 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶 peak colors. i really like rendering like this yellow???? shade

- lotta black/dark coloes but tbh it was fast and simple to render. it’s like a 50/50

BANRI 3/10

- i’m gyonna kill banri settsu

- HIS FACE IS FUN TO DRAW. HES FUN TO SKETCH. THATS IT. BECAUSE WE DONT FLIPPIN TALK ABOUT THE RENDERING

- rendering banrj is gen saur butts. you suffer and cave and go like ok whatever i’ll render his eyes then he looks BETTER but then his hair still looks like SHITE!!!

- FOREHEAD /NEG

- sm details on his jacket for what. AND FLANNEL. FOR WOT

- what i have realized from this expiernce is that i draw banri like a woman 🫶. take that as you will

- his eyes are his only saving point

AZAMI 2/10

- honestly braur probably the reason for the azashi drought

- 🧍‍♂️ . where do i start

- EYES ARE HELL. SO HARD TO STYLIZE AND MAKE SURE HE DOESNT LOOK LIKE A DEAD FISH.

- hair is whatever to sketch but GOD the rendering is so BADDDDDD 😭😭😭😭😭 GEN HELL. LIKE. braur

- he’s so white. i actually cpuldn’t like i needed to add like the tiniest bit of overlay color because i genuinely couldn’t

- his jacket is fun to draw but butts to render. IT GETS MUDDY REALLY FAST 😭.

- sorry azamin </3

JUZA 4.8/10

- pretty average guy

- if i draw banri like a woman i draw hyodo like a GREASER.

- his hair is really funsies but hard

- ALSOS he just comes out kinda Stiff so it knocks him down

- his everything takes me a while to sketch

- I DUNNO. both the hyodos are fine 🫶

OMI 5/10

- average guy

- HIS FAIR IS FUN. IF YOU DONT THINK ABOUT IT TOO MUCH

- outfit is fine

- i do think he looks super cute in my style tho <3 that’s about it

FUYU ❄️

TSUMUGI 5/10

- he really is just a fellow guy

- I DUNNO. HES NAWT LIKE HARD. HIS FAIR IS FUN? fun to render skin + hair wise too

- i just don’t think i captured his tsumuginess 🧍‍♂️ it could be the eyes. maybes. OR I DUNNO. it’s a mystery he doesn’t really look like Tsumu to me. he’s missing the freak my Tsumugi looks too nice IMO

HISOKA 5.2/10

- hair is a liiiittol hard to draw but it’s fun when you get it

- smol

- I HATE HOODIES. otherwise fine to render <3 hair is fun to render. again

- he gets +0.2 cuz i just think he’s cute in my style 🫶

HOMARE 4/10

- i don’t like drawing his face

- his hair would be really funsies if it wasn’t for the Long Strand

- his hair is very funsies to render and his eyes are SUCHHHH A PRETTY COLOR

- clothes suck to render

- 😭😭😭😭😭😭 homare is a lot of extreme highs and low but unfortche the lows overpower by a lil. SO. less than average

TASUKU 2/10

- hecks naw bro

- I DONT THINK HES NECESSARILY HARD TO DRAW. I THINK HES NATURALLY LIKE. THAT BUT I MADE HIM LIKE REALLY UGLY

- his hair is really fun and that’s the only plus i think everyone should draw his hair

- his fit is so boring. nawt fun at all

- INSANELY BORING TO RENDER

- hair was the only saving grace and I’d feel bad placing him at a 1 cuz that’s like REALLY bad and he wasn’t THAT bad

AZUMA 9/10

- amazing 10/10 stunning BEAUTE

- i didn’t expect him to be this high but <3<3<3<3<3<3

- i really like how he looks in my style too. everything is great and amazing

- only downside is that he face is kinda hard to capture but OTHERWISE everything is PEAK

- simple and easy to render. clothes aren’t a lot but they’re at least fun

GUY 6/10

- better than average 🫶

- his face is hard to capture but after that you’re all clear

- i like his hair!!!

- 🤔 details kinda

- i wouldn’t say fun but like. enjoyable

[universe-prime]

Are you in need of transport A.S.A.P?

Looking to deliver some goods across Cybertron faster than a turbo-fox chasing its own tail?

Tired of having to keep track of overbearing passports just for a single ride to the nearest colony??

Well look no further than Cybertron's finest—

The mighty Click-Clack and Co.~!!

I've been thrown back into my transformers love HARD and decided to revamp/create a bunch of ocs to cope with it lmao. Anyway, meet Click-Clack and(a small part) of his dandy crew~! Click-Clack(or just Clacker for short) specializes in delivering all manner of goods and services across the vast expanse of Cybertron in just a few days time. Whether it be weapons, medical supplies, building materials, or simply an independent company needing help traveling from point A to B, he doesn't really discriminate and just LOVES doing his duty as a gigantic mailman train

To really put Clacker into perspective, I put him beside a few iconic bots from tfa...👀💦

And as an added fun bonus, I even made a map of his internal layout when he's in train mode(which is pretty much his default tbh)

But what's a train without his helpful crew, ey? This is only a small part of it, my pal @simplych4i has ocs that cover a good majority, but I can at least give a quick overview on my own fellas!!

Needlepoint

The one and only medic! If there's an incident or injury, she'll take care of you with a patient servo and a caring spark

She was assigned to Clacker due to a recent scandal that ruined her career. Her patients mysteriously wound up dead or missing memories while under her care, and enough of these reports piled up to the point where her license was revoked and no respectful hospital would ever hire her again

Overall she's a doting maternal figure to the crew and, although a bit quiet and reserved, she's always happy to lend a shoulder to cry on or a listening audial fin

Rocket

Self proclaimed demolitions expert and part-time mechanic! Should the train ever be attacked by Decepticon's raiding it for it's cargo, or any other outside threat, she's there on the front lines ready to blast them back to the hole they crawled out of

Former Elite Guard, Rocket was quickly demoted and shunned from her station due to her "sudden" fatuation with explosives and anything that could cause them. After a near-death experience that nearly extinguished her spark, she went off on a personal mission to recreate the enlightening blast that started it all in the hopes of "seeing utopia" once again....whatever that means

Nowadays, Rocket is just as explosive as her passion. Loud-mouthed and unafraid to speak her mind, she's always ready to slam a fist into anyone who crosses her path while also gleefully spreading a few headaches across her fellow crewmates

Tag

And lastly, our head of navigation! Despite their age, Tag has a natural gift for plotting out routes, understanding complicated maps, and making sure that there's always a backup route should the current one ever be interrupted

(Former)delivery mailbot by day, graffiti street artist by night, Tag often explored the seediest parts of Cybertron along their route and saw injustice firsthand. Using their artistic talent and the access they had to private letters, they'd anonymously paint rebellious ideology and personal defamation against elites as a way of speaking out. Tag's artistic trail was eventually traced back to them, and they were swiftly demoted to a spot on the Click-Clack

Tag is overall what you might expect from a young bot who was practically raised in the underbelly of Cybertron. Cute and sweet one minute, then cutthroat and petty the next, Tag is just a bundle of energy constantly looking to prove themself alongside the much older "adult" bots of the crew they're with. They can't quite grasp why everyone insists on protecting them so much, but slowly Tag has learned to accept this ragtag group of weirdos and ex-convicts as their true family

[friendofyourboyfriend]

Hi! My name is Arrow! I noticed you're a fan of the Boyfriend's Webtoon (Dw, I'm not here to be hostile, I'm simply curious) Could you explain why people think it's problematic? I didn't enjoy it that much while reading it, mainly due to the grammar and the weird stereotypes, but I'm curious to what your opinion is!

hiya arrow! a lot of people are waaaay more eloquent than I am. I know its not for everyone and I don't want people to feel obligated to like something that just isn't a good fit. however, I'll do a lil overview of all the shit refrainbow's been accused of. warning, will make you want to slam your head into a wall!

drawing porn of a bts member when Ray was 17 and the BTS member was also 17 (I think it was Jungkook). while Real Person NSFW art seriously icks me out on a personal level, I need to say that there are currently 61,508 EXPLICIT FICS of the BTS boys on ao3. the culture of sexualizing them is really fuckin weird and I'm not touching it with a ten foot poll, but odds are if you're a specific age, you or a person close to you has been somewhat guilty of this sin.

Using the N word in a tweet over a decade ago.

there's no real defense for this except the fact that while a lot of people are making fun of him in the comments of this tweet, there is a majority of black fans commenting about how they forgive him and how they're eye-rolling at all the non-black fans who are clutching their pearls about this. also, he is not a native english speaker and would have been about 14 in the post...

Drew Venti in a sexual-ish way

Venti is a 2,000 year old loli situation who honestly looks anywhere between 13 to 21 depending on the artist, and you really need to get into his lore to figure out what he is. whether or not sexualizing him is okay is a masterclass in it of itself...anyway, refrain apologized

"Anti semitism"

I am jewish so this one feels particularly stupid. in simple terms, a hate group in indonesia was trying to ban pokemon go because they thought it was a part of a jewish conspiracy. in an old tweet, Refrainbow was making fun of this thought process, but his tone might've seemed a little flippant. he apologized. this was dumb.

apparently as a joke in a deleted tweet nerd was said to be a pro-shipper? I cannot find the tweet and I'm currently of the opinion its just a rumor? refrainbow has never reblogged or made art of anything bizarrely "problematic" to the best of my knowledge, and the original tweet is often referred to as being a poorly received joke. idk what to tell you, I don't think its currently canon if its been deleted, or if it ever was. refrainbow's media opinions are vanilla as can be.

"having an all white cast" - no they aren't

"being a white woman projecting fantasies for fujos to get off on-"

THIS IS A TRANSGENDER QUEER MUSLIM ASIAN MAN FROM INDONESIA, A COUNTRY NOTORIOUS FOR BEING SHITTY TO GAY PEOPLE. LEAVE HIM THE FUCK ALONE

ahem anyway

the boyfriends webtoon is NOT problematic, it never WAS problematic, and it's probably never going to get the chance to be problematic because the internet successfully cancelled it!

if the stereotypes are a problem, tbh I'd reccommend skimming the first season and then getting into the second with fresh eyes. the characters do have a few subtle traits that go outside their basic personalities, but those get fleshed out more in the 2nd. and sometimes something isn't for everything -- doesn't mean you gotta be an ass about it tho!

whenever I see hate for this comic, I take a moment to look at the pictures of refrainbow that he sometimes posts on his twitter, and think that's a person who is being emotionally impacted by actions on the internet. that's not anonymous, that's a guy.

[emoviolencx]

┈ 🎸 SONIC TEMPLE 5/10

DAY 3: screamo day!!!

fit went the hardest 2day!! i got a lot of compliments & even sm1 asking 4 a picture with me

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🫀 | Nevertel

not a band im familiar with at all but they played at the same stage as ismfof before them, so i got 2 watch them while waiting. i thought they were pretty good

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🫀 | I Set My Friends On Fire

heres a pic of me w the narwhal i brought bc i was too excited to get pics of ismfof 😋

ismfof is my 2nd fav band evr so i have been so excited abt this 4 months now & i wasnt disappointed they were so hype!! there were crowd surfers standing on top of each other & shit it was crayzee

i had so much fun & knew every word but i gave myself whiplash so bad 💔💔💔 ended up giving the narwhal 2 the girl next 2 me & she hugged me :3

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🫀 | Set It Off

i sat in the grass a distance away during most of their set bc i needed to recover from ismfof 😣 but they sounded so good

they opened with wolf in sheeps clothing which was super nostalgic bc i was obsessed w that song when i was little

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🫀 | Scary Kids Scaring Kids

didnt stay 4 their full set bc i wanted a good spot for escape the fate but what i did stay 4 was awesome

dude the lead singer looks NOTHING like how he sounds lmao i was lwk shocked

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🫀 | Escape The Fate

another one of my all time fav bands and they killed it i had sooo much fun! craig was just made 4 the stage i think bc ive seen dead rabbitts and he killed it then too

they played gorgeous nightmare and i flipped out bc thats one of my fav songs evr, its literally the song on my pinned post

there were also like 4 walls of death which was so kewl

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🫀 | The Devil Wears Prada

tbh i dont rlly care for tdwps newer stuff and that was mostly what they played but they closed with hey john whats ur name again and i got rlly excited for that

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— OVERVIEW —

REALLY wanted 2 see silverstein & underoath too but my head was hurting so bad from whiplash that we had 2 leave early :( this was still the biggest day 4 me i think & im soooo happy i got to see ismfof and escape the fate

[ad-ciu]

what are the best resources for learning more about medb

Good question!

I would generally recommend reading a bunch of stories about her first, and then (if you can access them) looking at some scholarly articles about her. Possibly the most important article I think has been written on Medb is: Sheehan (Sarah), 'Loving Medb,' in Gablánach in scélaigecht: Celtic studies in honour of Ann Dooley (2013): 171–186. This article gives a great overview of previous scholarship and does a good job questioning a lot of the assumptions that have been in play.

For stories about Medb, well! If there was a big website database that contained an annotated list of every single story in the Ulster Cycle and a list of which characters appear in them, as well as the inverse (a list of every text a character appears in), that would sure make this easy, right?! If someone maybe had all that data on hand and just needed funding to host it and have a website.

It'd be crazy if someone had all that.

And just needed funding.

Anyways, if you want a list of recommended stories, I'd check out the following:

Táin Bó Cúailnge (Recension 1; Recension 2).

Táin Bó Fráech: Medb is awful to her daughter mk. 1 (mk. 2 is the Táin).

Tochmarc Ferb: Medb is inexplicably Hector?

Fled Bricrenn: Medb is here (briefly) doing funky stuff.

Mesca Ulad: Medb is here doing other funky stuff.

Ferchuitred Medba: Medb is here, this is why she's queen of Connacht, this is why her sons all have the same name, and tbh, she grooms Ailill and its pretty messed up.

Aided Ailella 7 Chonaill Chernaig: Medb reveals her brutal double standards and has Ailill murdered.

Further, if you have any more specific questions that pop up in relation to these stories, you can just ask me and I can answer them.

[dejasenti99]

well hi :3 welcome to deja’s skinblending guide. this is my first full written tutorial so excuse me if its not very good LAWL before we get started, here's the tools i'll be using

sims4studio

tray importer

photoshop 2022 (theres cracked version everywhere on tumblr)

blender 4.1

sims 4 ripper

blender + the ripper aren't required to make skins, plenty of people don't go that extra step, but i love using it for placement help

okay lets fuckin go gamers heres my very in depth process for making my ocs skins

miss dolly is gonna be our model today. she already has a skin but im gonna add some little details for the sake of example + some tats cause ive been meaning to anyway.

so when i first get started on making someone a skin, ill find a good base to use and then add details from other categories like nosemasks, eyebags, contours, etc.

my fav skin creators are @sims3melancholic and @thisisthem. my bases are usually thisisthem, and then i'll pick through a couple s3m skins and make notes on my phone about what parts i wanna take off of them (like, say, i like how a certain s3m skin's nose looks. i'll use that instead of a nosemask)

my goal when im gathering things i wanna add is to free up as many slots as i can. id rather add cheshire's freckles onto her skin than use up the freckle slot in skin details that i could use for something else, yknow?

ill repeat this process for makeup next. obviously im not giving my ocs permanent full glam, but some lipsticks can add better texture, you can get highlights/blush from........the blush section LOL and i love using this obscurus eyeliner at a low-ish opacity

just adds an extra level of detail i love. i think what keeps my sims looking consistent next to each other is that i tend to use some of the same details all across the board

make sure for all makeup/skin detail/tattoo category swatches you use, you make note of what swatch it exactly is. when you go into s4s to export the file, you're gonna have to manually select it and if u cant remember what skintone u chose out it can be annoying :/

note that she is completely nakey aside from her piercings while i pick what im gonna use for her skin! no clothing but u can keep on their hair. this is so we have a clear view of everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) for blender.

after you make sure u save the sim/household to ur gallery, you can close out of cas and save ur game! i forgot to do this bc im a fucking idiot but its okay bc you will not. its not REALLY necessary to do this as long as you know exactly what packages you need to locate for texture exporting

step one is done!!!! close out ur game

i have a million fucking characters so i made a deja senti skinblending folder to keep it all organized :-)

this is what it looks like inside. gives u a pretty good overview of what ur gonna be doing tbh. the 't' folder is all the textures we're about to export

thankfully i do have a version of dahlia saved in my gallery so even tho i didnt go it before i closed my game i can still show u what to do in tray importer lol. i have multiple sims in one household, so i narrowed it down by going up top and selecting dahlia / human / and her everyday outfit.

since im gonna give her this blush, i right click and hit open w package viewer so itll find it and open s4s for me

anime wow sound. im gonna change the color manually in photoshop so it doesnt matter to me what swatch i export. hit that green export button under the list of diffuse/shadow/etc (u dont need to worry about all those options, just diffuse) and save it to ur folder!

once ur done gathering ur textures ur good to close out of tray importer and s4s(we'll come back to s4s later tho)

thats step two! the quickest step lawl

this is where i start being a little extra. u dont have to rip ur sim and use blender if u dont want to, but i think it can rly help bc the default sim in s4s doesn't have ur sims facial features and can make ur skins look wonky/wont give an accurate representation of how itll look in game. this cuts out having to go in game/out of game over and over to check

so in simripper once u load up ur sim, the important part is to make sure u have it set to export the dae with separate meshes. once thats done u can import it into blender and there's plenty of other tutorials out there how to use simripper n all that.

so once u get the dae loaded into blender im gonna send u on a little side quest over to this ask i answered where i explain how i separate eyes from the head mesh. next thing ur gonna open is photoshop! or whatever u have thats similar

say hi to flat dahlia. u should have ur own guy but flat open now too :-) along with everything else ur gonna combine. in my case its blush and a titty mask. im gonna start w the blush so i zoomed into her face in blender. i went into the blush file and copied, then back into my base skin file and pasted into place with crtl+shift+v

please do not be like me. make sure u rename ur layers as you copy and paste them into the main skin file. do this because it DOES matter what order ur layers are in. u dont want to put ur highlight under ur nose mask cause the nose mask will just cover the highlight etc etc. i already lost what layer the new blush i added is. what is wrong w me

so when u have ur first detail pasted on and in place, ur gonna save the base skin file as a psd. then go into blender, and in the little textures window ur gonna replace the diffuse file ur dae came loaded with with ur new psd file

u should see the change u made but mine was super subtle so im gonna show it to u when i put on the cleavage overlay

when it comes to stuff like this, ur obviously gonna want to pick the closest to ur skintone swatch as u can. i did not do this, because again, im an idiot

mine is way too pale LAWL whoops. we can fix this tho

i add a hue/saturation adjustment and make it a clipping mask using that square w the arrow so the adjustment will ONLY affect the mask

from there i just make little adjustments until the color match up is as perfect as i can make it. for example for this, ik that it needs to be a little warmer and a little more saturated, so im gonna bump the hue and saturation sliders to the right and it was pretty much perfect

tiddies with no mask > with mask no adjustments > with mask and adjustments

and ur gonna go ahead and repeat that process with every single thing u wanna add to ur skin.

so as for tattoos! this is another thing ur gonna wanna rename the layers for because depending on how heavily ur sims can be tatted it can get A LOT

here's psyche's neat little tattoo folder. its separated into where the tattoo is and then

what it is

i find all my tattoo inspo on pinterest using flash sheets/keywords in the search. my ocs usually have sub-boards that i hoard inspo in for them specifically. dahlia doesnt have one bc ive never seen her as the most tattooed person, but i think she'd have some at least

this process is pretty much the same as putting on skin details! its all about adjusting to what u like. for example, i like when my sims tattoos are a little faded and a bit blurred at the edges cause it looks a little more real

when it comes to images i find on pinterest, ill save the image and first try to make it as clean as i can

for example, this lil guy

a curve mask made the whites brighter and the blacks darker as u can see. then ill go into filter > reduce noise to soften the harsh edges

then i flatten it, copy and paste to the skin file, n place it wherever i want it to go :-)

louder anime wow!!!

okay so now ur gonna want to make sure u .psd file is saved (it should be bc we've been checking our progress w blender) and then merge the visible layers (NOT flatten, merge visible. we need the transparency around the skin to be in tact)

ur done in photoshop and blender!!! good job :-)

step whatever number we're on. back into s4s!

ur focus is over here. make sure the option filled is the top one, and then hit the cas button

this menu will open, ur gonna go up to part type and find the option skin details, forehead. pick the first forehead wrinkle option that appears and hit 'next.' itll prompt you to save ur new file n give it a name, i usually just make it my sim's name cause i have a folder in my mods folder for specifically my cc

remember wayyyy back when we were exporting the skin details? ur gonna go back to that same section and hit 'import' instead of export. select ur skin's .png file, and poof !

ur skin :DD it looks great man good job

this part is EXTREMELY important. go up to the warehouse tab

in the 'data' section ur gonna see a box at the top labeled 'filter.' thats where i typed in 'compos' just so it would show me JUST the compositionmethod section since theres a lot of shit in there lawl. yours is initially gonna say '3,' but we're gonna change it to '0' mind you, this is because MY skins are all alpha. maxis match overlays do not show up on my skins because my comp method is set to 0, meaning it has top priority essentially.

after you do that, you can hit save and place that .package file you created into your mods folder!!! and GUESS WHAT BESTIE UR DONE!!!!! U DID IT :DDDD

of course, as always, you can always dm me if youre stuck on anything or need any more clarification. i am always open to help as much as i can. i rly hope this helped :-)

[riddlesmoon]

okay fine ill write out my thoughts on Nezha because i have a bunch of them. tbh i feel kinda weird about being perceived about anything related to Nezha... not least because of yume so im tagging this veryyy sparingly. edit from halfway through writing the post: this shit is SO FUCKING LONG??? im colouring and bolding and smalltexting everything so it isnt a big block of white.

1 day later edit: its over 5000 words lol help me. also edited and added a few clarifications

and obviously, MAJOR SPOILER WARNING for both Nezha films.

TABLE OF CONTENTS NEZHA 1 1. the jokes 2. the story 3. other notes NEZHA 2 1. the jokes + overview 2. the story PERSONAL NOTES

NEZHA 1

1. the jokes

we must start with the first movie. i have said this so many times in every review to my friends and family and on Letterboxd but i will say it again. i believe Nezha 1 suffered from what ive dubbed the "Wandering Earth effect", where they put in a lot of cheap jokes because theyre worried the film wont do well. but then they get greenlit to make a sequel and now have the confidence to go all in and blow everyone away.

slight tangent to talk about Wandering Earth—its a Chinese film about the sun dying so earth has to rocket away from it and find a new place to live. Wandering Earth 1 was extremely underwhelming for me, littered with a lot of random jokes i was kind of meh about, and it felt kind of disjointed overall. which is why i barely remembered it when i went to watch the sequel, which i was absolutely floored by. then i went to rewatch the WE1 and was like "what the fuck is this?!?!" like, my ratings for WE1 and 2 are 1.5 stars and 5 stars respectively. not that my ratings are very good metrics honestly but the point is the quality difference is so big.

after i finished Nezha 1 (before watching Nezha 2 the very next day lol) i had this hypothesis because Nezha 1 had a lot of cheap jokes as well and since Nezha 2 was now the fucking bestselling animated movie of all time, there had to be a jump in quality.

i really felt like the quality of the first movie steadily increased as the number of jokes decreased lol. like at first there were a lot of gags (ugh "guy screams like a little girl" trope my beloathed. okay we get it ha ha its funny when a big tough guy acts like a girl ha ha isnt he such a pussy!!!!!) but the story started getting more serious and they decreased. they didnt vanish completely, but thats fine tbh. they just need to be tasteful and not overwhelming or over-the-top, which i think Nezha 2 did fairly well.

2. the story

but back to Nezha 1. i think it has all the elements of a good story. there are very obvious themes around "not letting your birth dictate who you are" and "fuck destiny and fate, your life is what you make it" and "prejudice is fuckin Bad" and on a smaller scale "isolating and treating a kid like an outsider is definitely going to stunt his growth and make things worse". but they felt kinda... faint? i think they couldve, shouldve leaned into them more. like be SERIOUS!! stop trying to make it a lighthearted comedy this is a really moving story :((

for example, the dragons' whole issue is they helped Heaven defeat demons and for that they get to guard the demon jail... which doubles as a jail for them too. we only get Shen Gongbao's motivation reveal later in the film which is fine (i thought his initial appearance was very funny though. yeah guy-who-looks-like-Pitch-from-RotG, im sure you are not going to be the villain later (in retrospect this is me making assumptions based on stereotypes, which is what the movie is literally arguing against, but in my defense this was the beginning of the movie when i still thought this was going to be a silly casual kids movie. i will elaborate later))

i just wish this was emphasised a little more. less for the audience and more for Nezha himself, because he doesnt know why Ao Bing is going sicko mode on Chentang Pass. he runs away before Ao Bing's dragon heritage is revealed to the village and they realise the dragons stole the Spirit Pearl, so his motivation stopping him doesnt include "bro you are NOT evil like people say you are. i would know." or "bro you did not have a say in the circumstances of your birth. i would know (2)" its just "bro stop trying to destroy my fucking home?"

i cant remember when he even realises Ao Bing is the Spirit Pearl, i dont think Shen Gongbao wouldve told him that part. like... im thinking about it... he does seem to know by the time they hold hands under the lightning, when did he find out.......

anyway. obviously the lesson can be extrapolated by the audience, but i think it wouldve hit harder if Nezha was aware (and i think the movie was still meant to be somewhat directed at kids, so i thought theyd be more overt about it...) like Nezha clearly has heard some rumours about the dragons, because he laughs at Ao Bing's horns the first time he sees him (though it feels like more of a "u look stupid" laugh than prejudice from being taught the dragons are untrustworthy) (though it could stem from the same place, just that he doesnt take it seriously.) (but he does readily accept that Ao Bing is on his side vs the yaksha)

of course you can also say "well, that actually does help get the message across better because it shows that from the start, Nezha doesnt have any preconceptions about Ao Bing('s kind)!" but idk. i think not being prejudiced is slightly different from understanding and actively choosing to go against/unlearn prejudice. mostly because its a more realistic thing for viewers to learn rather than "just never be prejudiced in the first place!"

but i guess if its a movie for kids they should be learning from Nezha's perspective? no that doesnt work because the village kids are actively hostile to Nezha... ALSO IM NOT SAYING their prejudice isnt justified. of course he hurts the villagers and theyre understandably afraid, but we are watching from Nezha's perspective and (should) know that hes acting out because no one is willing to give him a chance, which just feedbacks into a negative cycle and it really should not be on the kid to break that cycle but alright

of course of course you can also say that the unlearning prejudice part is for everyone else to learn, not Nezha himself. but he should still be aware of it, imo.

iirc what happens is Ao Bing says something along the lines of "you cant beat me without using the full power of the Demon Pill, also please stop youre gonna die anyway and i have to do this" and Nezha is like "去你妈的 shut the fuck up, i dont HAVE to do anything (WE dont HAVE to do anything), I MAKE MY OWN FATE (WE MAKE OUR OWN FATE)"

technically on Ao Bing's side he can interpret this as the correct 'lesson' ("i dont think you being a dragon means youre evil, you can make your own choices") but on Nezha's side hes going thru his crisis and learning he doesnt have to be the demon people think he is, not fully understanding Ao Bing's struggle with the expectations his father laid on him. its sadly not fully explored, which is kinda fair since Nezha is the fuckin protagonist, but their journeys are parallel and mirrored, and theyre both on the fucking poster (BOMB fucking poster to use the scene where Nezha holds his spear to Ao Bing's face btw. WHY did he have to stand so cuntily huh. not standing straight no he had to lean to one side slightly. SERVING!!!)

what the hell was i talking about? right so. Ao Bing's character arc isnt emphasised as much as Nezha's which is fair but i think it wouldve made for a better message if they did. or maybe im talking out my ass.

3. other notes

well, moving on, loved the reveal of his dad's plan to take the lightning for him, and the overall revelation that he always believed Nezha could be reformed, contrasting with his portrayal up to this point as the 'rod' to his wife's 'spoil' ("spare the rod, spoil the child"), which gave the pessimistic impression that hes harsher on Nezha because a part of him still believes he is a demon. so you find out he had faith in Nezha the whole time, he was just hard on him for his own good etc. what a typical Asian parent line honestly but i dont have a huge issue with it because that reveal was really good.

also liked the portrayal of Nezha's mom as a general alongside her husband. yes #girlboss and all but paired with her unending love for her son, it doesnt feel like a flat "strong woman who is not weak (feminine)" trope. theres something to be said about mothers in fiction but i will Elaborate on that in the Nezha 2 part of this meta, because oh boy.

its also an interesting way to ensure Nezha grows up even more isolated—a typical portrayal id expect would be his dad does the demonslaying and his mom stays at home and pampers Nezha the whole time. but that wouldnt jive with Nezha's need for validation and attention that causes him to sneak out and cause trouble for the village. (yeah at this point i was like ohhh this movie is actually about childhood neglect (half-joking))

which begs the question, what if Yin couldve spent all her time raising Nezha? if she could give him the attention he craved would he have still turned out like this? perhaps not, because the criticism Nezha receives does cause him to "live up to" the villagers' perception of him being a demon (as i said, feedback loop); so if that didnt happen we JUST WOULDNT HAVE THE STORY... which was also why it was a genius move to send Li Jing up to Heaven for a year, forcing Yin to take over the demonslaying job and not be able to spend time with Nezha.

this is really convoluted and messy i dont really have any rhyme or reason when writing this. i just felt unsatisfied with the first film; i thought if they didnt try to have so many comedic moments, and really sincerely told a story about two children fated to be 'good' and 'bad', subverting those expectations and then joining hands to truly take fate into their own hands—like, just take it seriously, man. but, whatever, it wasnt done THAT badly, i still enjoyed it.

NEZHA 2

1. the jokes + overview

ooooh boy. lets start with the comedy—VERY much toned down compared to the first movie. there are definitely still jokes, but they arent as... obnoxious? honestly im not sure how to articulate my distaste for the jokes in the first movie, might have to rewatch and analyse every one of them and why they didnt contribute to my enjoyment lol. maybe cuz its 2019 and the jokes are dated? would 2019 me have enjoyed them? unsure.

but anyway. 2 hour+ movie, absolutely GORGEOUS animation, seriously, i actually wanted to rate this 4 stars but scenes like the big fuck off tree pushed it to 4.5 stars. seriously, i usually advocate for pirating movies, but this was truly an Experience to watch in the cinemas. like it genuinely conveyed the amount of GRAND that Heaven should be. and the moment i left i heard another hall playing Nezha and was like "damn i wanna sneak in and rewatch it". i did not want the experience to end.

2. the story

so anyway, Nezha 2 definitely takes itself more seriously than the first, which i think is very good for it. it also has a LOT more going on, goddamn. from the get-go we've got Ao Bing fucking DYING AGAIN, Ao Guang giving them an ultimatum or hes blasting Chentang Pass to bits, training montage with plany off jokes, gut-wrenching Nezha's brothers scene that was preceded by Deer guy's incomprehensible targeted racism to the dragons—

(seriously, he sounds like he has a vendetta against them for no logical reason. like Doylistically its obviously just to make Nezha/Ao Bing/Taiyi uncomfortable and angry at the injustice, but Watsonianwise it just reads like he very specifically dislikes the dragons? which may make sense if they are considered a major enemy of the demon hunters, but theyre just... not. theyve literally been chilling for years (ok to be fair we dont know this for sure but it definitely comes across like that, with the way Ao Guang places his hopes and expectations on Ao Bing (as the third son) to finally save the dragons' reputation)

i guess it could make sense with his reveal of being a deer demon so maybe dragons helped defeat their kind (??? though all the demons the dragons are shown to be suppressing seem very oceany) but it really just felt so out of left field. regardless of reason, its still a strange outburst from someone who has acted quite dignified the rest of the time. does he just have a very strong grudge. thats fair, but still feels random. especially because the rest of the Immortals clearly do not think this is as serious a problem. like youd think they would be more pressed than the demon who bought into their rhetoric but okay! well i suppose thats also possible... the pick-me minority who is a stricter cop to prove theres worse ones out there and theyre the good one right haha)

which reminds me i actually did not really SEE the immortals/demons, oppressor/oppressed allusions until i read this meta. i mean like, i did, but only the oppressed side. like yeah theyre unfairly discriminated against for their birth and theyre lich rally trying so hard to get on their oppressors' good side (trying to become xian) and failing (the sect was always planning to siege their village) but i did not really SEE Heaven as active oppressors. like, as a whole. till now im still interpreting this as Wuliang specifically just being a bad egg, because the rest of the Immortals have not been shown to be anything like him, or as bad as him (granted we only meet them for a short time, but just goes to show how readily i accept that the establishment is inherently good lmfao... i suppose we'll find out in Nezha 3 if theyre all racist too :) which would fit the themes way better if they did, honestly) edit from the future: not oomf telling me its obvious i dont watch any wuxia because i did not see the Heaven=oppressors allusion 😭😭😭

btw what the fuck is the Deity War or whatever. like they keep saying that shits coming but did they ever actually explain what thats about lol. and ughhhhh i just knowwww the Jinzha Muzha shit in the 3rd movie is going to be soooo much and also why the fuck did they just drop Ao Bing having two brothers as well but theyre dead or some shit. i mean its to show that he understands Nezha's pain, but thats all we get!? like youre just gonna leave it there like is Ao Bing just Ao Guang's 3rd try at this "appeasing Heaven" plan (in which case, nice, dude, no wonder your siblings double-cross you instantly) or did they just die completely unrelatedly like bro we cannot rely on the original legend because (according to Wikipedia) Ao Bing's character is radically different from the original story (a villain) so WHO ARE THEYYYYY. but fine sure maybe theyll elaborate in the 3rd movie...

bro i cannot stay on topic to save my life where the hell was i. oh yeah i was actually planning to add one more note which was i actually cannot fucking remember the Deer and Crane's names. like i thought the subs said Deera and Crana for some reason, but i cant find anyone online talking about it lol.

um right then weve got Shen Gongbao's family which was... yeah heartbreaking honestly. really kills me that Ao Bing kept holding onto Zhengdao's hand for so long that Xiaobao, who took a WHILE to reach the scene, managed to catch him holding it. but i guess he cant really just... drop it... so i dont really blame him. its just an unfortunate coincidence all around but thatssss how we get plot rolling! i was just like ohhhh nooooo Shen Gongbao's gonna be pisseddd and Ao Guang told them to follow his orders oh nooooo

also it wasnt really clear like... why Xiaobao rushed back. iirc what happened was his dad used the rainmaking spell, and Xiaobao perceives that as a sign that something is wrong, but this isnt really explained? i think the demon hunters also get a bit !!! when that happens? and Taiyi wanted to pull Ao Bing out at that point (i might be misremembering when he has this urge lol, couldve been before Ao Bing froze the river) so it seems like a last resort move.

i suppose since his power is teleporting between electric currents in the water, making it rain could be a sign that he has to turn the battlefield in his favour, and either 1. the demon hunters think this is not something he should be able to do (as in, they want to keep him weak), or 2. its a spell that he is literally like, legally not allowed to use, but desperate times call for desperate measures. is it really desperate though. its just a xian wannabe beating his ass... well, pride is a helluva drug. OKAY no he probably did feel like he was defending his village. see up to this point i:

actually thought these were like. deadass constructed test grounds for the xian trials. obviously this isnt the case because after Ao Bing defeats the groundhog marmot (interesting, i did not know that meme was a marmot. or what a marmot even was. i was honestly losing it in the theatre and i could feel my mom sitting there impassively because she doesnt know the meme LMAO) leader they all swarm in to capture them.

so the trials arent like, designed specifically for candidates but just, "bring them along on their usual demon hunting route and let them have a go." which to be very fair, i think they did say that. but the way they all watched from afar and it looked like a goddamn set piece for a film crew really gave that vibe, so i at first really just thought "ok Nezha is just joining some class" and that was the trial lol. but no he was actually supposed to fight Shen Zhengdao.

very unfortunate and then bambambam Chentang Pass is completely obliterated, wow. tbh i was not very believing at this point i was like yeah no im sure they found some way to survive and then the yaksha appeared out of the rubble and i was like OH YOUUUU YOU ARE HERE FOR THIS EXACT REASON.

of course we later find out that Gongbao did not decide to kill the entire village over this, but that Wuliang appeared (??? for some reason i cant remember why he decided to pay a visit) and was like damn son what the hells goin on here. Ao Run mentions the Spirit Pearl and Demon Pill swap (and deadass this doesnt get elaborated upon so Wuliang's actions are not a result of knowing the switch) and Gongbao accuses him of orchestrating this attack because he knows that Nezha was supposed to do those demonhunting trials... (very sad that Xiaobao dies without knowing Nezha/Ao Bing were innocent in all this)

and Wuliang's like ohh too bad so sad anyway you guys are like one step away from destroying this place? and offers to free them in exchange for scapegoating Ao Guang as the evil dragon king who destroyed an innocent town. and theyre like lol yea sure lets do it

Gongbao making a last stand when he couldve survived with the yakshas help was also so damn touching. as this fantastic meta says, Gongbao's backstory reveal in this movie really reframes him from a villain to someone more sympathetic, who isnt just powerhungry but also a filial son and brother (and we Chinese love our filial piety dont we). and now that his family is dead there isnt a point in trying to ascend to godhood, so he throws himself into a frankly doomed and already-finished battle.

and then we later find out he survived; maybe Wuliang foresaw using him (since he wouldve presumably already have kept Zhengdao alive by that point. oh did he go find Gongbao specifically to use his fathers death over him?!) and saved him or at least mustve whisked his body away. excellent excellent. moving on

so Nezha goes ballistic unable to find his parents and heads off to finish the third trial and become xian. gets the elixir to revive the lotus (which... okay... i cant not say it... it looks like... milk :) right... just milk... hahaha.......) and shoots off to go fuck up Ao Guang. Ao Bing wants to stop him but Taiyi is like you cant do ANYTHING until you have a body anyway so please sit your ass down.

then by this point Wuliang has gotten ready to start cookin (demons and dragons into immortality pills) and Nezha and Ao Guang are pingponging off each other until Taiyi, his parents, and Ao Bing arrive, redirecting Nezha and Ao Guang's hostility to Wuliang. then the epic Nezha/Ao Bing vs the three dragon kings battle kicks off (of whom Ao Run is truly the only formidable one seriously theyre all like "oooh Ao Run has this SPECIAL CLAW that can create rifts in space" what the fuck do the other dragons have??? absolute fuck all!!). ngl im not sure they would be more powerful as human(oid)s than dragons but we wouldnt get an epic fight sequence otherwise, so, fair enough.

the part where Ao Bing and i dont remember which dragon king, the thin one, their weapons are glued together by Ao Bing's bing and they have to fuckin juggle Nezha's spear was quite cool though i really do think they couldve had an easier time just breaking the ice and fighting normally. but yes kings show off your footwork! (and it is more visually interesting, i admit)

and i was so expecting a scene where Ao Run redirects one of their attacks into each other. thank you Homestuck for making that teleportation/rift-in-space tactic live in my head rent free. honestly she... probably couldve solo'd them like she just has to send them to the bottom of the lava pit or something LOL. but yes that wouldnt be very fun...

oh and this whole time Nezha's parents, Tianyi, and Ao Guang are fighting the Deer and Crane demons (i wont lie i thought Crane's power reveal was super awesome), until finally they all get stuffed into the big OMMMMMMMMM cauldron (dgmw it was an epic sound effect. but once it plays more than three times, it starts to lose its lustre...) oh and Wuliang literally sticks pins and needles into Nezha and Ao Bing's bodies which was pretty fucking horrifying. but also, visually, kind of funny that theyre stuck A-posing for a while. i mean i know theyre in excruciating pain, sorry guys, sorry.

honestly when they got fucking thrown in i really thought they could solve shit by just. picking them up and bringing them together so they could utilise the energy/power-absorption abilities of the Chaos Pearl, but uh i guess no one thought about that! despite the fact that thats literally the whole reason they split apart the Spirit Pearl and Demon Pill in the first place cuz it was tooo powerful! (i mean they do it later but maybe we couldve *sniff* done it a little quicker *sniff* and prevented Yin's death)

ugh the whole scene with Nezha and his mom was heartrending. the hug in the beginning not being returned so she hugs him now, when its going to pierce her so horribly, her being the first to believe in him ever since his birth (dont forget she had to carry a fetus for THREE WHOLE YEARS BTW), just being a Loving Mother in general... then Wuliang offers Nezha the Oblivion Pill in exchange for letting his parents live (okay so in retrospect this is a pill that erases memories and presumably Wuliang would employ him as a servant afterwards? but while watching i had no idea what it was supposed to be lmfao. i was just like okay. it has the colours of the Chaos Pearl. what does that mean.)

but Yin knocks it away, Nezha and his parents have a breakdown over not wanting the other to die for them and then his mom deadass just FUCKING TURNS INTO A PILL. i cannot believe thats how the pill formation works but it is comically horrible. eat it and your mom will be with you forever, Nezha!

so that was really sad, but i could not help but think ahhhhhh the "mom sacrificing themselves/dying for their children" trope strikes again! and a woman dying for a man's character advancement! like it was incredibly incredibly sad and i cried, but i was still keenly aware of that in my head lol, as someone who has read a bunch of Lily Evans meta recently...

like i know it can be WAY more gut-wrenching to have the mom die. its a trope for a reason. but they already subverted things with her being a general, couldnt they have had the dad die maybe... it couldve made for an interesting Nezha/mom Ao Bing/dad parallel afterwards but okayyy fine. side note this film does not pass the Bechdel test, does it. which is not a real test it was just a joke between two lesbians but well... we can see the lack of women here.

Nezha's body being perfected by the fires of Samadhi was cool as fuck though. especially since they literally hinted it not two minutes ago with "hes the only one who wont burn in here" lol. bishounen Nezha woohoo!!! grabs Ao Bing's hand and everyone pushes the cauldron open a la Finding Nemo fish net scene.

and—i mentioned this at the start but the fucking TREE thing, with the demon hunter legion forming the golden leaves of the tree, was fucking beautiful. really shows off the scale of things. then the cauldron breaks and they have the big fight in the air, Oubing go beat the shit out of Wuliang and do their handholding energy absorption inside his tree prison thing (nice going dude, maybe instead of crushing them together you should have held them separately?)

Wuliang admits defeat and leaves, and i immediately thought "oh my god we are getting a 3rd movie. or are they gonna wrap things up real quick i cant tell if its been 2 hours already" and then. oh my goddd. the final scene, Ao Bing leaving and Ao Guang telling him he can go back if he wants and they hug ARHGHGHGGHHH. and he comes back to Nezha (edit: AFTER NEARLY THE WHOLE DAY HAS PASSED BTW, someone pointed out the sun is in the sky when he leaves and is setting when he comes back. Nezha really waited there for hoursss 😭) and Nezha says his "because we're still young" YES! YES!! flipping a phrase that is usually used in a "youre so young of course you dont realise that life is cruel and thats just how it is" and turning it into YEAH SO WHAT??? we're young and not yet beaten down by the hardships of life. why does it have to be so cruel? why cant we make things BETTER? YEAHHH!!!!!!

also the ink painting credits was pretty until they DELIBERATELY put the Nezha/Yin hug back-to-back with the Ao Bing/Ao Guang hug like OKAY JUST FUCKING KILL ME WHY DONT YOU??????

and the post-credits (its really funny that they made drawings to specifically remind you to stay for post-credits. why the hell were people getting up to leave during the credits BRO THEY SAID THERES POST-CREDITS?????) with Wuliang getting trapped in the prison was really fucking funny. face recognition joke just like Nezha 1's fingerprint authentication joke (i do like it when fantasy media includes references to modern technology. like yeah, some of this stuff would sound magical to someone from that age?) and Deer and Crane beating the fuck outta him was the funniest thing in the whole movie to me. though on a deeper note i wonder how Deer and Crane really feel about Wuliang. it could just be for laffs... it could also show that they do have some compunctions about their roles...

PERSONAL NOTES

tbh didnt know what to name this section the entire meta/review is my opinion after all. anyway this part is just about how i came to know/watch the films.

i remember when Nezha 1 came out in 2019. there was another Nezha movie that came out alongside it, which i only remembered as Nezha: somethingsomethingsomething (it's New Gods: Nezha Reborn lol) and i remembered hearing that one of the Nezhas was really good and one kinda meh. but i had no idea which was which. so i just shelved it for the future.

then bam. Nezha 2 out. is it that good? whatever. i still dont know which was the good one. its the fucking ALL TIME BESTSELLING ANIMATED MOVIE????? goddamn! my parents started talking about watching it. we checked Netflix, they had a Nezha film but my dad said it was the wrong one.

skimmed over some clips and pics of Nezha 1 and i literally only saw clips of kid Nezha (which makes sense, he is a kid for 80% of the movie), and mostly gag clips so i thought oh its a kids movie or something? and i did not have high hopes for Chinese animated kids movies after Little Door Gods disappointed me so hard.

my parents were still asking to watch it. i was still putting it off by saying "well we have to watch the first one so we have to figure out where to pirate or stream it." then i saw some fanart online of Ao Run and i was—i was like theres girls in this film? theres characters that arent the little kid??? incredible because that person actually drew Ao Bing right there and i did not give him a second glance. but now i love him lol.

and then we watched Nezha 1 on some Chinese streaming service that would play ads, like, every 5 minutes. granted, the 'basic' premium we paid for allowed us to SKIP the ads, but they would still play like fucking youtube ads. fucking insufferable, i hate capitalism. anyway i was like ohhh!! because Ao Bing was really cool, and i was like "no one told me theres a PRETTY BOY in this film???"

then Nezha also turned into a pretty boy. i was like DAWG OKAY WHAT???? (ironically i wouldve known this or expected it if id bothered to look up the poster which just has him. right there. but instead i got entirely jumpscared)

then he turns back to a kid at the end. okay. THEN IN NEZHA 2 HE TURNS INTO HIS BISHOUNEN FORM AGAIN, SLAY, AND DOESNT CHANGE BACK. therefore i would like to say this represents the movie moving past the 'kids comedy' genre and onto more serious pastures and the 3rd movie will probably have even less jokes. just kidding they probably will have the same amount of jokes as the 2nd, it was an alright balance.

also. i dont actually know a lot of Chinese mythology, like, ive never read the books or legends or anything. so when Nezha got his ribbon, and the gold bangle(?) goes onto his wrist, i did not recognise it from knowing my own culture. i recognised it from a dont starve together mod i played ages ago.

my final note is: im honestly scared for Nezha to get popular in English-speaking spaces, because Oubing, and i just know some dense mfs are gonna be like "HES A KID???" (i mean ive already seen some Tiktok caption going like "ummm they have a BROTHERLY relationship akshually" like girl 1. most people are shipping their bishounen selves 2. theyre both three fucking years old 3. just close your eyes

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[heartkaji]

[ ★ ⸻ @gojoracle ]

★ OVERVIEW

hi maru !! your ask was such a good read, your oc’s personality is rlly interesting. i was also surprised to see you asked for loki ?? he’s so underrated omg 💔 anyways, i feel like sakura and loki are pretty similar in the sense that they’d give off nearly the same first impression : distant & reserved. tbh if you ask me i can imagine them being rivals to an extent. not exactly, but i feel like sakura would be distrustful and really cautious about loki at first. she doesn’t buy his kind facade and is convinced he’s wearing some sort of mask. loki can sense how sakura is always trying to get a read on him and i can imagine him being almost playful about it, doing things to mislead her perception of him (think of how suo from winbre might do that cuz that’s exactly what i’m imagining). either way, they both find each other very interesting and make for an unexpected couple💘

Q1 — WHO FELL FIRST, WHO FELL HARDER ?

sakura fell first. it’s something she never saw coming too. like i said she’s not too fond of loki, she’s usually good at reading people but to her loki is just different. it’s like when she thinks he’ll do one thing, he does the exact opposite. i can imagine sakura getting to a point where she’s almost obsessed with getting a read on him—she begins to fixate on his habits and mannerisms, and soon starts to pick up on little things about him : the way he absolutely refuses to drink from a teacup without a saucer, or how he carries those mini tissue packs in his short pockets, or how he seems to squint whenever he’s on his phone. after some more observing, she finds herself growing almost fond of him, though his nearly teasing comments never fail to snap her out of it . sakura doesn’t even realize when she’s fallen in love with loki. all she knows is that when loki accuses her of staring with a knowing grin on his face, she find herself almost struggling to say no

julian falls harder. at the beginning of your relationship i can imagine sakura being the avoidant type. she leaves him on delivered for hours simply because her chest aches at the idea of responding. she has no idea why either. even though at this point the two have warmed up to each other, sakura remains somewhat distant to a degree. that, combined with how sakura seeems to show a strange warmth to certain people like shidou never fails to confuse loki. he wonders why she won’t look at him with that soft and familiar gaze either, despite them being a couple. its impossible to notice, but it makes loki go crazy. he turns into a full fledged simp. buying her flowers and expensive jewelry, showering her with affection in all sorts of love languages, etc. julian does all this with the hope that he can get sakura to open up to him a little bit faster, but fortunately for him it’s slowly but surely working 💘

Q2 — AT WHAT MOMENT DID THEY FALL IN LOVE ?

the first time he saw sakura laugh !! she’s asked him this question and that’s what he said, he’s so cheesy my god 😭 at this point in time the two already have some sort of affection towards each other. feelings if you will, though both of them would deny that if you asked 🤦‍♀️ like i said, i can imagine loki being a tease suo style and please bear with me when i say that as a flirt this man is the BIGGEST cornball 😭😭 he thinks he’s so slick and suave with his one liners but whenever karasu and the other members overhear him they side eye each other 🚶‍♂️also trust me when i say that shidou and charles mock him behind his back 😭 they call him the rizzlèr (notice the french) and everything. ANYWAYS, loki hardly flirts. it’s mostly subtle teasing, but as the two sort of grow on each other he (sadly) becomes more comfortable using pick up lines on her. sakura was practicing dribbling one day when julian walked in. he watched her play for a while until she mis-kicked the ball and it rolled straight towards him. he picked up the ball and with his whole chest he said,

“do you play soccer ? because you’re a keeper.”

sakura grabbed another soccer ball lying on the pitch and promptly shot it at his face.

!! it was worth it though. his nose was aching from the shot and he was rubbing at his eyes but his ears perked up at the sound of her laugh. it’s a quiet giggle accompanied by a few snorts, but julian thought it was the prettiest thing he’d ever heard. at that moment his chest felt warm and suddenly the ache of his nose couldn’t compare to the ache in his heart 💓

Q3 — AT WHAT MOMENT DID YOU FALL IN LOVE ?

like i said, sakura fell first. it was definitely a gradual thing though; i can imagine her slowly becoming swayed by julian’s subtle teasing and witty remarks. at first she shoots all sorts of sharp comebacks at him but soon her comebacks become flustered stammers 💔 poor thing, she’s frustrated and wants to rip his head off and loki’s subtle grin isn’t helping matters at all ☹️ he’s such a bastard and sakura should hate him but for some reason her chest feels warm ?? and her cheeks too ?? she definitely panics at the feeling and tells shidou and charles about it and they tell her she’s in love but she’s so quick to deny it 🤦‍♀️ she’s in denial for DAYS and shidou and charles hate it. like she can’t be this dense ?? they make it a point to tease her by calling loki her boyfriend and lover but when she doesn’t deny it they know they’ve caught her red handed 🤞 shidou also makes sakura say that she likes julian out loud or else he’ll call him and tell loki himself but hey that’s between you and me !!

>> 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓 <<

© ─ heartkaji ; do not steal, copy, edit, translate or reupload

[vacantgodling]

Hi, I hate to be a bother but is chapter 1 of Paramour (hope I'm spelling that right) the only chapter you've shared or are there more posted? your writing is so good and I've fallen in love with the story after seeing your anniversary art. Also, do you post it anywhere outside of Tumblr? unfortunately, the color scheme of your blog and the size of the font makes it hard for my poor eyesight to read (No hate to you btw I just zoom in real close)

hello hello!! firstly you are not at ALL a bother <3 (also you're spelling it right lol) regarding my desktop blog, i bumped up the font size so i hope that's helped it be a bit more readable? i'm planning on changing up color schemes and the like at the end of this year, but i hope the size change makes it more bearable ;3;

secondly, hearing that people like my writing enough to want to seek more of it has me giggling and kicking my feet so THANK YOU for enjoying chapter 1 and the art so much--there's some details that may or may not get added in whenever i eventually make a third pass at writing this behemoth and i spent 6 hours slaving over that drawing LMAO SO i really appreciate you reading it AND telling me you enjoyed it im so EEEE

at this time, i'm not formally publishing / putting out paramour because its still very much a work-in-progress (essentially, i'm working on draft 2 right now bc i'm doing some major outline renovating, but tbh i'm thinking that when i DO feel like i'm at the point that i want to publish it, i'm kinda leaning towards a serial style like @/stjohnstarling's what manner of man... but those are details for several years from now, i'm just rambling at this point) BUT FEAR NOT!! its my main obsession at all times and i have posted a TON about it on my blog. but for your convenience, i've compiled all the 'main' writing bits that i've posted on this blog over the past several years into this ask so that way if you wanna just read the 'main' meat and potatoes that i've decided to release from the vault so to speak... then here they are.

but, if in general you want to peruse my main wip tag, i talk about paramour so much its Ridiculous lmao -> s: paramour and you can check out the overview powerpoint intro i made for it here, just to get a clearer picture of what the heckie is going on lol -> powerpoint intro

anyway though, the list of main writings, broken into a couple of sections. i will also preface, that chapter 1 doesn't make it too apparent--but there is a LOT of sex, kink, and romance involved in this story. so proceed at your own disgression dear anon since i'm not sure how you feel about that lol.

MAIN WIP WRITINGS (in chronological story order)

paramour draft 2 chapter 1: pre-wedding

paramour (title drop 👀 but this scene is gonna end up slightly different in draft 2)

midnight query (amon and erecia talk in some undetermined chapter)

the bird & the worm (flashback to amon at 12)

but i am not (a bit from chapter 9 of draft 1)

masquerade (the first time hya and amon fuck—there is smut proceed with caution. also the latter half of chapter 9 draft 1)

an invitation (excerpt from chapter 10 draft 1)

displeasure (a relationship snippet from an undetermined chapter)

nervous (just hya and amon being kinky)

ties that bind (kink interrupted by feelings from some undetermined chapter)

divine (some sappy shit from an undetermined chapter)

hiccup (excerpt from chapter 20 of draft 1)

AUS & JUST FOR FUNZIES (meaning not in the main wip)

jealousy (amon & hya slums au—where both of them grow up in central halifax)

pleasure (amon’s birthday present 2023-> this is sex/smut so proceed with caution)

a fool’s errand (role swap au—aka the au where amon is rich and hya is the butler)

laundry (role swap au)

wedding invitation (role swap au—amon being friends with myrtus makes me insane actually)

i know what you’re saying (amon & hya slums au)

[stormyoceans]

We are really that good? I'm scared off by the large number of couples. Is each of the couples sufficiently disclosed in the script? You're so excited about this show. I'm skeptical, but maybe I should try?

I MEAN. MUST A SHOW BE GOOD. IS IT NOT ENOUGH FOR IT TO SPARK JOY AND GIVE YOU A BRAINROT SO DEEP THEY HAVE TO GET YOU INVOLUNTARY COMMITTED BECAUSE OF IT

but all jokes aside, let's talk about it. when it comes to reviewing shows, i always try to be as honest and objective as i can, so im not just gonna lie to you and pretend we are is a masterpiece. it's very much not. if you enjoy plot driven stories then this series is very much not for you because the plot is basically non-existent, or rather.. all the different dynamics between the characters ARE the plot. to me the show is a slice of life in the connotation that's given to it in anime and manga: a narrative that takes place in a recognisable everyday setting, often in a school, and that focuses on interpersonal relationships. this isn't to say slice of life shows with a character driven story can't be masterpieces, they absolutely can, but we are is not..very refined, there are some things that do not make much sense to me and the way the story is told can be a bit frustrating at times, not to mention that for a director who likes to show a million angles of the same moment you'd think the editing would be top notch but it's just. it's not, okay, it looks like my hair after i chop it off over the bathroom sink at 2 am when i cannot sleep, that shit's ROUGH

all this being said, im still enjoying this show TREMENDOUSLY. and believe me, no one is more surprised about this than i am. tbh i can't quite explain to you why it works for me when other (maybe even better) shows don't, it just feels very genuine, the humor isn't over the top, the characters are all extremely likeable, and i love that they're giving the platonic relationships the same weight and importance as the romantic ones. and i mean..im mostly insane about phumpeem because apparently that's THEE Dynamic™ for me, but since there are four different pairings i feel like there's something for everyone

although when it comes to development, since you asked, i do want to point out that pondphuwin and winnysatang's pairings are clearly the main ones (before anyone comes at me, i do remember the cast saying this), but aouboom still get a fair amount of screentime and they're the heart of the show tbh. the only pair that's suffering in this regard is marcpoon, but honestly it makes sense considering they had to reshoot stuff

so, um. yeah ;;;;;; this is way too long and it's probably a mess but i wanted to give you an honest and complete overview so you know what you're getting yourself into if you do decide to give it a chance. i actually started to like the show more and more after episode 3, so maybe if you have a free evening you could just try it out and see if you can get into it!!!!!!

tl;dr: it's not a masterpiece and it has its shortcomings but it's highly enjoyable and although not all couples have the same amount of screentime and development i think everyone could find something to like in the show

[sharp-silver4795]

You once said that E.J. is a simp, how does it show?

EJ’s Social Life

I went WAYYYY off topic with this. It was an accident tho- the simp stuff is at the end! Tbh this is long lol

Hmmm this might be a long one, it might not- we’ll see!!

Side note: I write the notes under the header BEFORE writing whatever it is. The notes ABOVE the header are written afterwards.

General/Overview

Socially, it sticks to Liu like fucking glue and it isn’t exactly obvious. Privately, though, he spoils the hell out of them in passive, direct, or… violent.. ways-

This is mostly going to be talking about its social behavior without and privately spoiling Liu. I will talk a bit about how he specifically spoils Liu, so get ready for some CWs

Its social life in general

It regularly interacts with people on either side The Dungeon AND The Mansion

He’s kinda forced to interact with the proxies, but gets along with a lot of the members of The Dungeon.

The Dungeon has a lot of nonhumans and it makes him feel a little more confident/comfortable around them.

But, he would NEVER go to the other side… not after all this

I love leaving vague info so people might give me more asks and I can feel popular

Who is it on GOOD terms with?

BEN, Jason, Clockwork, Candy Pop, Tim, and Kat.

Zero, Dark Link, and Doll Maker.

Ann.

Who is he on BAD terms with?

Puppeteer, Nathan, Wilson, and Rouge.

Bloody Painter, Chest Master, and Judge Angels.

Smiley.

Its friends

Jeff, Toby, Hoodie, Cody

Ani, Scarecrow, and Bloody Angel

Social Shit (without Liu)

Most of us act differently around different people, so does he!

Introvert go brrrr

Average Social Behavior

Typically, it’s really reserved. Especially without Liu.

He’s kinda a wall flower and knows what’s going on most of the time.

He has good hearing, so it might as well eavesdrop.

On His Good Side

His ‘good side’ is what most people would consider a neutral relationship.

He won’t talk to you.

He won’t interact with you.

But, he won’t eat you or try to hurt you when he’s mad

On His Bad Side

THIS is its default relationship with people.

He will NEVER speak to you. If he has to interact with you, it will be growls, huffs, or juts body language.

If it’s hungry, he is not opposed to eating you.

He might talk to you, but it won’t be good. It might just be your last words!

Friends

Yup! He has friends.

Granted, it’s not a lot of friends- but he has friends

It would love to be as roudy as them and rough house with them, but he’s too scared he’ll break them.

Although mature by human standards, by his kinds’ idea of it, he is extremely immature.

Social Simping (with Liu, duh)

You can call it possessiveness or social anxiety but, I assure you- he’s just a fucking simp!!

Vibing

Liu is just chilling and talking with others, Jack needs to be there.

It’s not like it cares that they have friends as much as it’s the fact that he’s fucking touch starved!

If she’s sitting, he wants to lay its head on their shoulder or put all of his body weight leaning on Liu with its chin on his head.

If he’s standing, its arms are wrapping around his waist with its head resting in the crook of his neck.

Private/Personal Simping

Some of this is just general partner behavior ngl

⚠️CW!!! Murder, “bringing Saw to life,” torture, etc. And some s3x at the end.

Working

EJ is ready to help.

Liu is pretty strong, so they’re sometimes asked to move heavy stuff around-

After a few hours, it gets to be a bit much. However, Jack won’t let them get to that point. EJ is helping ahead of time. It’s helping before she even gets there, even.

As for running around the Southern Rebellion lines, it will beat itself up every time he has to leave to eat.

It HATES leaving Liu alone to defend the border. But, it needs to eat.

So, when it gets back, it brings some Wendy’s for Liu to eat.

Wood and Metal

Jack will find broken down cars, the metal rings of tires, or broken tools that he breaks and brings to Liu for building their torture devices.

It will find old sheds and rip the wood off or use wooded handles form the tools mentioned and give them to him so he can make cool stuff!

Watching Him Break People ⚠️

When Liu goes to his little underground space, EJ will follow.

It will just sit and watch Liu lock someone in a usable remake of the reverse bear trap.

It will watch him poor hot wax on a victims face and make them asphyxiate from their air ways being filled.

He even cheers them on. He just gives her some love~

Speaking of ‘Love’ 🔞

He will let her do anything they want to it.

They once put a muzzle on him and let them tie it up in pretty knots…

It would (and has) let her put it on a leash and give him a collar…

It will also do anything they want to them.

He will try any position, any kink, as long as they’re happy and satisfied.

Divider Creds: sister-lucifer

Header Creds: MEEE!!

[greyplainsttrpg]

5e Villain Arc 5.5 2024 One Next

The last post was a diatribe into specifically the absurdity of turning into a Brown Bear at Level 2. My problem with turning into a Brown Bear is that it is really easy and really powerful for a Level 2 Character to be able to do consistently. My complaint is not that the Brown Bear is the best thing that the Moon Druid can turn into. No. What makes the Moon Druid so unbelievably ridiculous is that the Brown Bear is THE FLOOR of what you can do at Level 2. The Floor, mind you, is twice per day getting a bunch of temporary HP, literally healing as you do it, getting a bunch of Str and Con, getting Longstrider, getting multi-attack, getting to-hit bonuses, etc. The Ceiling is MUCH higher, especially in comparison to what every other Class can do at Level 2. This ceiling is also far and above what every previous iteration of the Druid. Yes, including "omega-busted 3.5." The 3.5 Druid IS good, but not that good.

Let's first start with an overview of some of the crazy animals that a Druid can transform into at Level 2:

Dire Wolf: Fast, strong, bulky, stealthy, solid perception (best skill in the game).

Giant Eagle: 80 flying movement, strong, advantage on sight-based Perception (not a Spot Check btw inshallah) (still the best skill in the game) (also, the druid keeps THEIR Wisdom, btw).

Giant Spider: We'll circle back to this in a moment, HOWEVER, Climbing Movement, +7 stealth, stupid bite attack that does a crapload of damage, web projectile to control any non-martial Str-based Character (worst Ability Score, btw).

Lion/Tiger: The two are pretty similar, tbh. I think they are okay. They have a conditional multi-attack triggered off their pounce action, but like this is clearly just a worse bear in most situations. Getting advantage to attack as a lion (so long as sduifbewivb) is AN upside.

Reef Shark: This is not a CR 1 monster, but it is important to note that the Moon Druid gets immediate access to a pretty solid aquatic option on command. If the DM planned a "hard fight because water" and they forgot that they have a Moon Druid in the party, well that fight is pretty much over now. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but it adds to the overall stew of "why being a 5e DM sucks." The Moon Druid has a solution to basically every problem at Level 2 via spellcasting or wild shape. It peeves me a bit that the shark does not specifically require salt water to function, but whatever.

This is just what is available in the Player's Handbook. This does not include everything in the Monster Manual that the Druid gets access to. Granted, these are actually pretty slim pickings. The Giant Octopus is an upgrade to the Reef Shark in many cases. Nothing else stood out to me at CR 1 that was not better than the ones in the Player's Handbook, tbh.

Let's compare this to what every other Class gets at Level 2:

Barbarian; Reckless Attack and Danger Sense: The Druid gets ways to have Advantage via its various forms without the downside of giving opponents Advantage to hit them. Danger Sense does not matter if the Druid turns into a literal spider that cannot activate traps, a bird that flies above traps, just tanks the damage from the pathetic traps in 5e by being a self-healing bear, or is turned into something with excellent Dexterity.

Bard; Jack of All Trades: Why have 1/2 Proficiency when you could have +7 Proficiency to the skills you need by turning into the animal that accomplishes it? Yes, I know that an animal form will NOT give you all the skills you might want. The Druid cannot perfectly replicate this, but they can often outperform it when possible.

Cleric; Channel Divinity: Turn Undead and maybe a feature from their Divine Domain. If you happen to be fighting undead, this feature is great. If you are not fighting undead (most of the time), then this feature does literally nothing.

Fighter; Action Surge: This gets better, but for now Action Surge is strictly worse then being a Bear and always having more movement and multi-attack.

Monk; Ki and Unarmored Movement: Ki for multi-attack and Unarmored movement for bonus to movement. Literally just being a worse bear with more resources and without the option to have a flying movement speed of 80.

Paladin; Spellcasting, Divine Smite, Fighting Style: The Druid already has better spellcasting. many of the wild shape forms are similar to paladin fighting style. Divine smite is somewhat similar to the Druid healing themselves with Spell Slots during the transformation into Wild Shape in how they work. I think Divine Smite is better, but the average damage of being a bear out-performs the paladin with divine smite until the paladin receives Extra Attack. Even then, the bear is still doing pretty solidly at Level 5 with fewer resources.

Ranger; Fighting Style and Spellcasting: Strictly worse than the Paladin because no Divine Smite. Otherwise the same (excepting that the Ranger has Fighting Styles that the Druid cannot emulate).

Rogue; Cunning Action: LMAO. Okay, buddy.

Sorcerer; Font of Magic: Being able to shift how your magic works a bit is not overall as good as the inherent flexibility of being able to turn into so many different animals at Level 2. I'm strictly comparing the depth of flexibility between the two features, and I would rather be able to turn into anything.

Warlock; Eldritch Invocation: Again, in a purely flexibility comparison, whenever you have to choose anything you are losing to the Druid which does not really need to compromise.

Wizard; Arcane Tradition: A few of these are quite good. Portent, from Divination, is maybe the single only feature that is similarly potent to Wild Shape. Twice per day, the Divination Wizard can replace any d20 roll with an alternate roll. Depending on those dice rolls, that could be more critical to success than turning into a Brown Bear. On average, turning into a Brown Bear or anything else is probably better, but it is is debatable. Other than that, Abjuration is pretty good. Enchantment is okay. Evocation is okay.

So, besides the Divination Wizard, no other Class can compete with the Mood Druid at Level 2.

The counterargument I have heard a lot is "yeah, but the Moon Druid is not as good at higher Levels." Well, considering D&D 5e falls apart at higher levels anyway, idk how much I believe that or care. For one, the Druid is still a full Caster. For another, they eventually get to turn into an elemental which is... okay. I see it like this: between levels 2-8 or so, the Moon Druid is the party's primary combat threat and best utility option. After that, they shift solely to the party's best utility option and remain a solid combat threat. Also, by the time Combat Wild Shape becomes less good, the Druid can just cast Polymorph instead to be a CR ridiculous beast. Let me say it like this: I would prefer to be a level 15 Moon Druid over a Level 20 Fighter (any archetype). This is purely for the utility/power of being a full spellcaster with a huge upside of being able to quickly spam out extra HP as a Bonus Action. What the Moon Druid eventually lacks in offensive output with their Wild Shape they make up for in being the bulkiest spellcaster in the game (and it is not even close). I would likely prefer to be a Moon Druid over anything else in the game at basically any Level. Adaptability, speed, and bulk are just that good.

The Druid was not always this way. Combat Wild Shape has a lot in common with the bizarre power-creep of Dexterity (discussed in Villain Arc 4). In an attempt to simplify the nature of Wild Shape for players, the result is something obviously over-centralizing. It's not a perfect 1-1, obviously, but they share a number of aspects in game design failure. What is interesting about Combat Wild Shape is that it was actually fine in the D&D Next Playtest. In fact, it was actually way more interesting in that version. Let's take a look at what Wizards was cooking up before they burnt the house down.

So the text formatting describing what you get after the entry itself is... questionable, but this is not a final product so filing an actual complaint about that is actually unfair. This is the kind of thing I was expecting to change going from the Playtest to the Final Release. Not whatever the hell happened.

The important thing to note with this version of Wild Shape: You get access to kinds of forms over several levels. So all Druids start with the Hound, and then the Moon Druid gets bonuses to being a Hound. Then all Druids get the Steed, and then the Moon Druid gets the Bear and Cat. All Druids get the Rodent and Fish form at 7th Level. Finally, the Moon Druid can turn into a mammoth or some other huge animal. The Moon Druid gets access to a couple of unique forms (Bear, Cat, Behemoth) and they get bonuses to being them. It is a pretty okay subclass. In its current form, I would argue that it is actually somewhat weaker then Land Druid. If I were to make some edits to this Druid Circle, I would add a bird (or "Raptor") option instead of Cat. I think the Cat is too much of an in-between of the Bear and Hound and does not provide enough utility over what a Raptor would provide. Additionally, I think they should get Proficiency to the relevant Saves in their Wild Shape forms. Infinite uses of Wild Shape is a bit silly, but it is Level 20 so I don't really care. Like, it basically means that the Moon Druid can always heal themselves back to at least half-health+. It's not THAT overpowered though, so it's fine I guess. Now that I'm thinking about it, I would probably increase the healing from reverting from an animal form to be Double Level or Level + WIS MOD + PROF or something. It needs a little more sauce, in my opinion because the Druid doesn't just, like, get an infinite number of health-bars. I also think the bonuses to STR and DEX could actually go up. +2 and +4 are not amazing.

That's the primary difference between this Druid and the released Druid. This Druid assumes the SHAPE of an animal, but they can also fudge it around with room for player expression. The Release Druid just IS a bear (or whatever). One of the reasons that Release Moon Druids are so overpowered is because they do not need to spread their ability scores out, like, at all. They can roll up with a 8, 8, 8, 15, 15, 15 pre-species point-buy and do totally fine. Because in what situation are they not using the physical attributes of a better form? When they are casting spells in the background? The Next Druid needs to actually consider their ability scores. They are not a Bear, they are a Druid with the appearance of a Bear. It is a huge distinction that sets a wildly different tone for the game.

Another interesting thing to note here is that the small forms (fish and rodent) are locked away to a higher level than the more obvious combat or utility forms. That's because being Small but with the HP of a Druid is actually pretty epic and powerful. This is why CR is NOT a good metric to determine what is or is not reasonable for a PC to be able to turn into at X Level. Small is kinda cracked actually, and being able to access these forms should be gated to a higher level.

This leads us to the elephant (CR 4 btw) in the room. Binding the Druid to the worst thought-through mechanic in any TTRPG was always going to lead to disaster. This is my conspiracy theory, but I genuinely believe that the Moon Druid in particular is responsible for the entire cascade of nonsense that is the CR system in 5e. Maybe not intentionally, but certainly functionally. Let me explain.

Let's pretend that I am a WotC Designer in the years 2013-2014. We have come up with this system called "Challenge Rating" that clarifies what a party of 4 PCs should be able to fight and defeat with using some amount of resources. Similar to WoW and Skyrim, some of the early enemies a party should be able to fight are animals. I'm not sure WHY this is the case, but it is. However, there are now two questions: 1) what Level should a party be to fight the animal and 2) what level should the moon druid be able to turn into it? The result has beast-master results. Because I don't think the average person knows just how truly nightmarish and kaiju-adjacent brown bears are. They are faster than horses, can run as long as horses, they weigh several hundred pounds, their claws are razor-sharp, they consistently carve and powerlift their way through cars to get a baggy of peanuts, they can climb trees and other objects as fast as they run. Do you know how bears deal with wild fires? They run INTO the wildfire to get to the other side as quickly as possible. Their survival strategy for the kill-everything button is to just tank the damage. And it works. Bears are more powerful than your wall of fire spell. Bears have some of the most sensitive noses in nature, exceeding dogs by a fair amount. The actual power of grizzly bears is not properly reflected on their stat block. Why are they so terribly nerfed? Probably so that the Moon Druid can turn into them at Level 2. All the animals in 5e are not accurately portrayed. They are all much slower, weaker, and less adapted than their real-life counterparts. Take for example the expected Strength Score of a Brown Bear. It naturally has 19 Strength. As a game mechanic for a Player to turn into, that is a pretty impressive number, but for an actual bear that number is pretty terrible. Think about it like this: the strongest humans can temporarily power-lift something as heavy as a sedan car for a few moments by a few inches. Bears have been known to simply push these kinds of cars over for scraps of food. This is funnier when you think about elephants. Elephants have 22 Str? That's it? Like, no. They don't. Bears should probably have like 25-30 Str, and elephants probably have like 50 Str. HOWEVER, this would be really weird game mechanics in the situation that something were to turn INTO a bear or an elephant. Imagine being an elephant for a moment. You just are the biggest thing on land currently existing (that is alive and can move). One mid-level wizard and a couple of elephants could probably defeat most dragons.

Think about it like this. Ignore the the total number and consider just the modifier as it presents on a d20. Each number on a d20 is equivalent to 5%. RaR, a Brown Bear is 20% (+4) stronger than a guy/gal/gaul (first thing that came in my head and I thought it was funny--don't tell Caesar lol). An elephant is 30% stronger than a commoner. Like, think about that. What the hell? What--the hell. That's not how elephants work. 30% stronger? If you could deadlift around 250lbs with some practice, then an elephant could deadlift 325bs. Now, how much can an Elephant deadlift is a confusing question because they don't/can't do that. However an elephant can lift over 650 lbs with their trunk alone. So an elephant's trunk, not the elephant itself, is 260% stronger than an average-ish human. And an elephant does not practice specifically to be the swolest elephant, so we don't really know what the peak strength of an elephant's trunk is. Anyway, put into 5% increments and then added to 10, the elephant's trunk should have a Strength of 62 and possess a modifier of +26. That is not the elephant itself. That is the trunk, okay. Now, as game design, should the elephant's trunk have a +26 to attack and damage? Probably not. That's why it MIGHT not be a good idea to give enemies the same kinds of ability scores as player-characters. Would you believe that D&D did not use to do enemies this way?

Is AD&D/2nd Edition perfect? No. Does this game properly represent an elephant? Probably not. However, the elephant has an effective +11 to attack, 5 attacks that each do 2d6 or 2d8 damage, has an average of 55HP (you have to understand, that's a pretty solid amount of HP for AD&D) or more if you assume max role (many GMs do, thus 88HP), and they appear in groups of up to 12. What is the CR of AN elephant, let alone 12 elephants? You might say, "but Mr. Greyplains, this is not strictly more powerful than the 5e version!" True. Again, this is not a perfect translation of an elephant either. However, the numbers that are smaller are scaled to a game that generally has smaller numbers. Assuming a Character is the same level as the Elephant's hit die, a Wizard will have an average of 32 HP at Level 11, and a Fighter will have an average HP of 61-70 (if they have at least 15 Con for the second number). So 2d8 + 2d8 immediate damage could high-roll 1-shot a Level 11 Wizard. It could then Trunk/Stomp the fighter for 2d6/2d6 and then stomp something else for another 2d6. Then up to 11 more elephants get to resolve. Back to the primary subject at hand.

This leans the conversation back into Villain Arc 4 territory. I think that the solution to Strength's problems, in particular, is to just let it get unbounded from the other ability scores. You want to have super-heroic strength? Sure. Put enough levels into Fighter, and you can have like a 26 Strength or something. Pop-off king/queen/themperor. I'm not against super-heroes being as strong as bears. I'm against bears being as strong as a strong guy. Strength can be less useful overall (as per Villain Arc 4) if the number is allowed to get gigantic. This hits on the similar subject as Villain Arc 3. The Beast Master Ranger is partly so bad because of how weak the animals they control are. The real-world elements of Dungeons and Dragons 5e are worse than their reality equivalent IN ADDITION to being worse than their magical alternative. Truly, it is the Strength Ability Score, in particular, that is the actual through line of WotC's terrible game design.

What level should 4 adventurers be able to fight a brown bear? Like, a real one. I have no idea. You see, the problem with CR is that I have no idea who the party is, what their levels are, what their equipment is, what the temperament of the Players are, what the temperament of the GM is, etc. A PC that is optimized to fight a bear could probably do it pretty easily with planning. Say for example you had a character who could train several dogs (impossible RaR, btw) who could spook a bear into a specific position. At this point, the character would take their very powerful projectile to the place wear the bear is cornered and then kill it from a safe position. This is how bear hunting works. It is terrible for the bear but also the dogs because the hunters VERY OFTEN just leaves the dogs in the woods, however people CAN kill bears with a winning strategy. Is this hunter a Level 1 Player character? Are they part of a Level 1 party, they being a Level 1 character and each of their three dogs also being level 1 characters? People hunt elephants. It sucks, but it is achievable. It's not that hard. The general trick is to 1) have a car and 2) have a gun.

The Moon Druid is just the perfect synthesis of everything wrong with 5e. The Moon Druid is too powerful, yet they are also too weak. They are too weak because otherwise the non-casters would not be able to compete with their most common form--the brown bear. The same kinds of non-casters that historically are absolutely capable of killing the un-nerfed, real-world bear with proper strategy (without character levels). The Moon Druid should not be able to turn into a bear because turning into a bear should be essentially game-ending. The game is fundamentally vexing because the elements which are based in reality are weird and video-gamey to a comical degree. I can see an anti-simulationist argument here of "yo, this is a game, it does not have to be realistic." Sure, but if the designers want to use real creatures in their game, those will be used as touchstones to compare all other elements of the game to.

The result of this nonsense is that 5e is not a power-fantasy game. The PCs are not that powerful, really. The universe they inhabit is just so incredibly flaccid that it crumbles to the slightest bit of organic strategy and exploits of mechanics. It is a daycare. You are a child in a padded room with little toys to smash into each other with no actual risk. And I, as the DM, am the underpaid daycare worker who is begging you to play with the toys fairly and to stop hitting the other children with the toys. The parent, WotC has LEFT the building and only comes back to reprimand me for not allowing their precious little child to do whatever they want because "I'm paying for this service" in the sense that we only are working daycare because they provided the context to allow it to exist. Not a perfect analogy, but that's how it feels DMing a 5e game with a Moon Druid PC. "Oh yeah, I turn into a bear! Oh yeah, I turn into a giant spider! Oh yeah, I turn into a shark!"

Fucking kill me.

#transrights

#freepalestine

#buymybook

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[blackbatcass]

im so happy u turned ur anons back on they rlly thought they were baiting you, huh?

anyways! im sooo excited for the cass rebirth fic skdfewkd but in the meantime i DO wanna get into some arrowfam. ollie, roy, mia and connor just interest me so muchh but i havent read muc except for fics and even though i was supposed to follow my super specific reading order i wanna take a break from nw and the batfam and read something else.

like you said ga can be very healing!

anyways do you have a read list for me that includes all of them? thankss!

p.s nightwing vs green arrow was a question dc posted on their insta and the answers really surprised me! any insight on this?

LOVE YAAA

hey! <3333 tyyy i hope it lives up to expectation. LITERALLY reading ollie is so healing its good for the soul.

so this is like a comprehensive list of ollie comics, and this is a guide to everyone in the arrowfam. they’re super helpful if you want a broad overview

for my own personal recs, i think it's nice to start with green arrow: year one or green arrow stranded, to get a feel for his origin & time on the island. the hard traveling heroes (green lantern/green arrow) stories are also essential reading in that they basically established the modern version of ollie's personality and they're soo much fun, just beware of snowbirds lol.

from there green arrow vol 2 (1988) is the big one! pretty much Thee green arrow run, especially if you want to get to know ollie better. it's a lot of solid street-level ga stories in seattle, dinah's there, eddie fyers is there, and connor's introduced towards the end! if you're specifically interested in connor #102-137 was his original green arrow run. though word of caution that anything written after mike grell is a bit questionable.

if you're more interested in the 'arrowfamily' as a whole then you're looking for green arrow vol 3 (2001). it's 75 issues and a lot of fun. this is where ollie comes back to life, mia is introduced, ollie legalizes gay marriage, etc. it's pretty much just ollie hanging out with connor and mia and having some more street-level star city shenanigans, and i am very fond of it. that being said when judd winick takes over there is some questionable shit (you might want to just skip the arc with joanna pierce) but overall it's a fun time. roy shows up occasionally, dinah comes and goes. it's probably the best run to read if you want to get to know the arrowfam as a whole.

do not read green arrow/black canary unless you're desperate. it's bad. it's hilariously bad. do not trust anyone who tells you it's good. it is pretty harmless so if you just want to skim through for mia funny moments go ahead but...yeah it's trash.

post-new 52 there is not a lot unfortunately. a lot of it's garbage. the jeff lemire run is probably the most salvageable? and the rebirth one (volume 6) isn't as nauseating so that's also an option. but obviously you can read & enjoy whatever you want, maybe new52 ollie is your favorite ollie. i would say to read through some of this if you're interested in emiko but i can't really recommend it per se.

and that brings us to the current ga ongoing! you've probably heard us bitch about it a lot on here, but tbh it's been less bad & more mediocre. mediocre comics are just really frustrating to read through in real time. i might give it a try though, it has some nice moments even though it's not great, and williamson is leaving the title next month! chris condon is set to take over and has said the first arc is about street-level crime in star city, influenced by grell and o'neill. so i am VERY excited, it has the possibility to be peak. i think condon's run (issue 18) could be a great place to hop on!

so those are my green arrow recs! if you're more interested in roy, he usually features more in titans titles than ga titles so i have a separate list in my comic recs tag for him.

i couldn't find the ig post you were talking about? i have no clue how a fight between dick and ollie would go if that's the question. power scaling is not my forte by any means. i'm not sure how ollie's archery and dick's hand to hand fighting would match up. so i don't have a lot of insight on that sorry!

[maccreadysbaby]

you like destiny 2? You????? Like destiny???

IF YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH PUT BENTLEY AND ASTEN IN IT 🔫🔫🔫

Oh MAN this is the whackiest crossover I've ever done and I'm STOKED about it... also there's a little synopsis of destiny under the cut for my bentley followers that have no clue what I'm on about. bentley and asten would not even be remotely similar in this au, therefore there's actually TWO little stories in this post, one for each of them... yeah I went a little overboard but ITS FINE IM HAVING FUN *unintelligible weeping*

Project: Killcode Drabbles

tw: destiny typical violence, gore, emeto, cursing (only in asten's)

wanna read the extended fic? here’s the table of contents!

⚠️ THIS IS NOT PART OF BENTLEY’S MAIN STORYLINE, THIS BENTLEY & ASTEN INSERTED INTO AN AU (ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.)

Hi! here’s the briefest of overviews for my Bentley peeps that have no clue what Destiny is:

(I’m sorry destiny is so detailed you can’t actually be brief about it, these are the things I think are fundamental for understanding these pieces)

Destiny is a first person shooter/space travel rpg set in a time when the world has collapsed and the remaining facets of humanity live largely in a city called The Last City on Earth. In order to protect humanity from (a lot of) invading alien forces, the Traveler (a giant floating ball that helped humanity stay alive during the bad times) released hundreds of thousands of small robots called Ghosts into the solar system — these Ghosts were to find one specific person among the dead, resurrect them as a Guardian, and give them the Traveler’s magic (called Light) so they could protect humanity. (Basically, the Traveler makes the Ghost, and the Ghost raises their specific Guardian from the dead and gives them epic superpowers in the forms of Fire powers (Solar Light), Electricity powers (Arc Light), and The Void powers (Void Light)). Ghosts can resurrect their Guardians every time they die, rendering them immortal, but the downside is that these individuals don’t remember any of their lives before they were raised as a Guardian and have to start completely anew. The only way a Guardian can die for good is if their Ghost dies as well.

There are three Classes of Guardians: Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans. Guardians don't get to choose which they are, and the nature of their powers are determined by which one they turn out to be.

In this work, Bentley is a Guardian (A warlock, specifically, while the other character featured in this is a Hunter named Crow). Bentley does not have guardian superpowers (yet)

Anyways, I'm rambling, but I hope I helped you understand this just a wee little bit! I don't even understand destiny fully tbh don't feel bad. Maybe it was enough to help you enjoy the story... lmaoooo I tried. 

Also here are some pictures of some of the things mentioned to help you imagine them...

<< aka me trying really hard to help you imagine this so you have a good time

Crow ↗︎ (aka the love of my life, also the only reason Asten and Bentley meet each other in this AU.)

A Ghost ↗︎ (little floating robot; bentley’s is named sevyn, crow’s is glint, asten doesn’t have one)

Fallen ↗︎ (aka the only alien race you see in these stories)

BENTLEY ↴

THE COSMODROME, OLD EARTH, SOL SYSTEM -- 7:48PM —

“FOR THE RECORD, I THOUGHT THIS WAS A HORRENDOUS IDEA,” 

Bentley sighed heavily, glaring over at the small robot that was hovering a few inches from his face. It was purple, fashioned from small floating segments with one glowing blue eye -- which was glaring right back at him with just about the most irritated look the little machine could muster.

“Because I didn't hear you the first five times, Sevyn,” Bentley mumbled. He was stationed with his back pressed flat against the surface of a large boulder, wedged on top of a layer of moss and mud, the stone wall of a cliffside ahead of him sandwiching him into the tight, damp space. 

He’d never seen Old Earth before, besides looking off the balconies of the Tower he'd spent his entire Risen life in — which, in hindsight, was not great preparation for teleporting himself directly there on a whim. Everything looked the same, but bigger, and more expansive up close. The whole place was also crawling with various species of alien... which was a bit of a jarring experience considering he’d never actually seen one before. (He definitely hadn’t expected to teleport to Old Earth just to appear face-to-face with a four-armed freak of nature Sevyn insisted was a Fallen; hence why Bentley was now hiding between a rock and a hard spot.)

“You do realize you’re not allowed out of the Tower, right? That the Commander is gonna have your head?” Bentley's Ghost questioned anxiously, his segments spinning freely around his eye in a twitchy kind of way that let him know he was pretty irritated. “You do realize that you don’t know how to harness the Light for battle, right? That you have no guns? That no one knows where you are to come save your excruciatingly impulsive person?”

Bentley, again, rolled his eyes, pressing the soles of his tall brown boots harder into the stone wall ahead, to better hide himself from the Fallen he could hear clicking and hissing in the distance.

“If I die, you revive me. I’ve got my savior right here,” Bentley muttered, reaching up and tapping on Sevyn's eye, looking to his left. The sun was setting over the sector of Old Earth he was in -- called the Cosmodrome, if he remembered correctly. Being stuck there at night would not be a fun experience in the slightest.

Sevyn sighed heavily, shaking his head — well, technically, shaking his whole small robot self. In a disapproving, head shaking way. “If the Commander says you can’t leave the Tower, then you probably shouldn’t leave the tower. Following Crow, of all people! He’s so reckless; you know how many times Glint had to revive him in his pursuit of that Fallen Captain on his Hunt last week? Twenty-five! In one day!”

Bentley rubbed his hands together — it was getting cold now that the sun was setting, and his fingerless gloves weren’t exactly designed to help with warmth as much as they were to look cool. “He’s on a patrol. Patrols aren’t dangerous. I just need to find him.”

“Patrols aren’t…?“ Seven made an exasperated sound, his segments twitching wildly. “I know you think it’s unfair that you have to stay in the tower, but you were resurrected at thirteen! The Commander isn’t gonna send a thirteen year old Guardian into battle! There are good reasons you don’t know how to wield the Light!”

“So what, he expects me to stay in the Tower for my entire immortal life just so he doesn’t look bad? I’m never gonna get any older,” Bentley huffed, zipping up his brown bomber jacket. “Crow said he was going to The Forgotten Shore, didn't he?”

Sevyn bobbed up and down anxiously, his blue eye flicking around the area in a practiced, mechanical way. “And there’s about three hundred Fallen signals between you and there. How do you expect to get there?”

The teenager shrugged, eyes tracing the stone cliffside covered in vine. “Sneak?”

“Sneak around the aliens that can turn invisible and have the hearing of a wolf. Why didn’t I think of that?” Sevyn deadpanned. “I’m just going to teleport you back home so you can go sit in the corner and think about what you did.”

“What? No!” Bentley argued, reaching out to grab at the floating robot, who dodged his hand readily. “Stop it! I can do it! And if I can’t you can revive me!”

“Or we can go home and I can talk to the Commander about field work,” 

Bentley made a humph noise. “He would never let me do field work. He thinks I’m five.”

“Technically speaking, you’re a few centuries younger than most Guardians,”

“Sevyn!”

“Just saying!”

Bentley sighed softly, daring to peek out of his hiding spot just enough to catch a glimpse of his surroundings. He’d managed to find himself in a small canyon of sorts, with a shallow creek running through it, illuminated gold by the sunlight that was bound to fade soon. Rocks and boulders jutted out of the sparsely grassed terrain, gracing him with just a little bit of cover to utilize against the Fallen he could see skittering around the rocky landscape.

The sight of them made him grimace. He’d never really seen an alien before — not up close, and definitely not alone. Their quartet of blue eyes were glowing in the dimming sunlight, lanky, strange bodies adorned with metal-bent armor and shreds of fabric organized into some semblance of clothing. They moved, some like people, some like apes, some like spiders. They weren't much larger than him, but they carried guns, and knives, and grenades, all situated on themselves and clasped tightly in the extra hands that sprouted from the sides of their bodies. Aliens with two arms were creepy enough; Bentley wasn’t sure why Fallen needed four.

He glanced around until his eyes lingered on another boulder, maybe four or five yards from his current one, close to the cliffside and large enough to render him hidden.

Sevyn made a mechanical beep. “Don’t even think about it.”

Bentley moved his legs, forcing himself to crouch in the small space. “Thinking about it.”

Sevyn, with an exasperated sigh, de-materialized himself, dispersing into atoms that fizzled into the air and disappeared, waiting to re-materialize again when his Guardian called for him.

Or, the more likely situation, when Bentley got himself killed and needed to be resurrected.

(Oh, well. Real Guardians were well versed with death. Some of them died like thirty times a day! Bentley had never died before — well, he had, obviously, but he didn’t remember that one. Since he was technically a Guardian, dying now that he had a Ghost didn’t matter all that much. It was what Guardians did! He’d just come back, like everyone always did. No big deal. It wasn’t like it would be scary, or terrifying, or horrific, or anything, if he just came back to life afterwards...)

With a small noise of effort, he propelled himself forward so quickly his boots left skid marks in the mud. He kept low, ran lightly, slipping from one place of cover to the next without making much of a peep at all.

Ducking into the shadows and pressing his back hard against the new rock he was hidden behind, he exhaled heavily. Beyond that boulder, there weren’t many more large enough to hide him — smaller stones and a few sparse trees, too young and thin to conceal him from view. The walls of the canyon curved up and above him, but they offered no protection, besides maybe darkening the cover of night that was approaching. Maybe if he waited until it was pitch black, he could slip past unseen. The Forgotten Shore was only on the other end of the canyon; surely he could make it.

If Crow was even still there come nightfall.

Bentley flinched when something clattered against the cliffside to his left with a shrill clang. Glancing over, he caught sight of something small, flashing. Suddenly, Sevyn's disembodied voice emanated from his immaterial state:

"Grenade!"

Fortunately for Bentley's appendages and organs, it was only a flashbang -- which still had to have been the absolute worst experience of his whole risen life. Before he could as much as flinch away, the thing had erupted with a BOOM! that left his ears ringing a pitch that threatened to split his skull, a blinding flash of light sending a ripple of searing pain through his eyeballs and into his brain. Everything went white.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as the piercing pitch screamed in his head, completely enabling him from thinking about anything else. He seemed to bring his hands up to his face at a snail's pace, scrubbing at his eyes as he was rendered temporarily, completely, terrifyingly blind.

"Eyes up, Guardian!" Sevyn called.

Bentley willed his eyes open just enough to be greeted by a bright white fog and the faint, dancing colors of stone and sunlight filtering through the blindness, if only a little. The faint colors of stone, sunlight, and some dark blob that was moving right toward him.

He wasn't sure what kind of sound he made, but he was sure it was embarrassing as he all but threw himself out from behind the boulder, still vigorously rubbing at his eyes with one hand, scrambling away from what he assumed was an alien with the rest of his strength. A loud crack! echoed from beside him, and he flinched, though he couldn't see what it was.

He continued to scramble until the effects of the grenade faded enough for him to decipher that yes; the thing chasing him was a four-armed alien with glowing blue eyes and...

Four knives?!

He rolled to the side just quick enough to miss the Fallen when it jumped, all four knives sinking into the dirt where he had been with four bone-chilling shinks!

Bentley must've kicked up dust with the speed he forced himself off of the ground, eyes flicking around wildly -- in addition to the one with the knives, there had to be at least ten more Fallen closing in on him. There were two wielding a quartet of knives just like the first -- and two with nothing, but they seemed hungry for blood all the same, like they were ready to physically bludgeon him to death. The rest of them seemed to have homemade guns of various shapes and sizes -- guns Bentley wasn't very keen on examining any closer than he already was.

The alien with the knives lurched again, and one of the weaponless ones dove straight for his legs, both of which he managed to dodge by tumbling ungracefully backwards -- hitting the ground and forcing himself up again, fast. A blue laser flickered in his still foggy eyes, and he jerked to the left, a long trail of blue electricity shooting past his head with an audible zing! from one of their rifles.

"Oh my God!" He managed to squeak as he ran full-speed, hurrying back to the first boulder and jumping behind it with a thump. Strings of lightning and other identifiable projectiles from their guns barraged the ground next to his cover so vigorously the electricity made his hair stand up.

"Sevyn, what do I do?!" He practically begged, the dull sounds of ammunition and electricity against stone and dirt finally warding off the ever-present ringing from his ears. His chest was heaving, heart pounding in his chest -- how did Guardians do battle every day?

"Run!" Was his Ghost's panicked reply.

So Bentley did, and just in time, too -- all three of the fallen with the knives, and one with nothing, came crawling and leaping over the boulder just as he moved away from it, banging their blades and fists against solid stone.

Bentley's boots pounded on the mud as he fled as quickly as his body could manage, blitzing past his second cover-boulder and continuing full-speed deeper into the canyon, toward where Crow said he'd be. It couldn't be that far. It couldn't.

The cracks and zips and bams of projectiles shooting past him were nearly deafening, a few of them close enough to take the hair off his head. One lucky wire of electricity hit it's mark, leaving a graze of searing agony streaking across his left shoulder and tearing the fabric of his jacket away.

Bentley's response was a shrill: "Ah!" That bounced along the walls of the canyon, and bringing his hand up to touch the would only made it explode into an even worse pain. He bit his lip, hard, and forced himself on as fast as his legs could pump, farther from the way he'd come, deeper into uncharted territory.

It took about thirty seconds of running for his surroundings to quiet, for him to slow to more of a jog. His wound was already throbbing uncomfortably, and the leather of his jacket was singed and curled up there -- the whole thing was unbearably nasty and the longer he looked at it, the more he thought he might pass out. He searched for cover but there wasn't any; only a few young trees, the creek, and rocks too small to hide him. Surely the Fallen were chasing him -- he needed some kind of plan.

He didn't get any longer to think about it -- something he hadn't seen nor heard grabbed his ankles mid-jog and sent him hurling face-first into the mud. His head hit with a slam that threatened to leave him disoriented, but he couldn't afford to be disoriented right then. Instead, he flipped himself over on the ground, and a Fallen appeared out of thin air, shrieking indecipherably in his face.

(He'd forgotten Sevyn said they could turn invisible.)

"Ah!" He cried out in terror, writhing under the alien that was looming over top of him, straddling his lower-body with all six of its appendages. In a panic, he wrenched his left foot out of one of its hands and used every available ounce of strength to kick it directly in the head with the heel of his boot. It shrieked again, releasing his other ankle. Bentley scrambled back and off the ground, taking off again with nothing but sheer panic coursing through his veins.

His first instinct was to scream: "Crow!" As if the far-off Guardian would be able to hear him all the way from the beach. Yelling was a horrible idea, yes, but he didn't seem to comprehend that at the time.

Nevertheless, he continued to pitifully shout: "Crow!" as he weaved through the darkening canyon, searching for cover but getting repetitively let down. Tears were burning behind his eyes now, though not just from the pain of the gunshot. He could hear footsteps behind him, some skittering, some booming, and others thumping quickly just like his. He didn't dare turn around -- he might've died from horror.

"Sevyn -- Crow!" Was all he could manage at the speed he was moving, with the amount of terror that was coursing through his body. There was a mechanical beep that came from nowhere that let him know Sevyn was trying to contact Crow's Ghost, Glint. A moment later, the sound of a failed communication line returned.

Bentley sprinted, biting his tongue so hard the metallic taste of blood blossomed on in his mouth. The scuffling, screeching sounds of the Fallen continued behind him, the zing! of a rifle shooting past his head every so often. The canyon he was following veered hard to the right, so he did, too, hoping the new direction would provide him with cover.

He skidded to an ungraceful stop as soon as he took the turn, dread washing over him like a shockwave.

Right around the corner were three more Fallen. Not the ones that were chasing him, but bigger ones, with better armor, nicer clothes. They had the same lanky build, the quartet of arms, but they had to be at least two, maybe three Bentley's tall, carrying guns that were probably the size of his entire body.

Bentley stopped, heart ripping a hole in his ribcage, breathing so quickly he was starting to feel lightheaded. All three of the giant Fallen looked at him curiously, one of them stowing its gun on its back and pulling out two blades instead -- large ones, and curved, like katanas.

Bentley glanced back the direction he'd come, the smaller Fallen stumbling over themselves and falling over each other in pursuit of him. He couldn't get past them, there were too many -- but he couldn't get past the big ones, either... and the canyon left him nowhere else to run.

(He was going to die.)

In his moment of hesitation, one of the big aliens lunged forward and grabbed him by the ankle, picking him up and making him dangle completely upside down.

"No! Crow!" Bentley screamed, thrashing and writhing in its grip. He wasn't sure why, but the alien tilted its head at him like a confused dog before rearing back and throwing him -- yes, throwing him, probably ten yards before he hit the stone wall of the canyon with a slam! and crumpled to the dirt.

A terrible pain radiated through his body, the entire right side of his person stinging like fire from the impact.

“Sevyn…” Bentley mumbled, but he didn’t have any time to move — he was suddenly grabbed and flipped over violently, landing on his back with a harsh thump. One of the big Fallen was there — the one who’d pulled out the knives. The other two big ones were looming behind it like guards, and the little Fallen that had been chasing Bentley were skittering around and making noises, but they didn’t come near, like they were afraid of the larger ones.

Bentley attempted to scramble backwards on all fours, but the alien, with a few inhuman clicks and a tilt of its head, jumped on top of him and crouched there. Two of its hands found his shoulders, a third finding his forehead, all but drilling him into the dirt with such force that his right shoulder popped and cracked with a searing pain that made him cry out.

The Fallen’s glowing, beaty eyes seemed to bore into his skull as it held a knife in its free hand — the long, sort of katana looking weapon with machine parts at the hilt and coil wrapped around the blade. There were tiny bolts of electricity sparking and arcing around it.

(He was going to die.)

Bentley couldn’t see very good, and he quickly realized it was because he was starting to cry. “Crow!”

“Sh, sh, sh,” The Alien tutted, and Bentley writhed and thrashed under its weight when he realized they could talk. The thrashing didn’t do much good — the alien had to be nearly five times as heavy as him.

“Crow!” He tried, desperately — he could feel tears streaking down the sides of his face now, still obscuring his vision and blurring the image of the alien whose head was only about a foot from his. The Fallen pushed him harder into the ground, making his other shoulder crack and pop with a jolt of terrible pain.

His response, this time, was sobs.

“Now, now, little Light,” The Fallen started, its voice strange, like gurgling and clicking overlaid on top of a human voice. It was low, and gravely, too, like an old man who smoked too much. “It will hurt only for a moment, yes? I will aim directly for your heart, yes?”

Bentley writhed again when it reached down and simply tapped the blade of the knife on the left side of his jacket, right where his heart would be.

“Yes, I have had much practice,”

Bentley sobbed, trying to move, to escape, but failing miserably. “Sevyn…”

He didn’t want to die. He knew he could come right back to life, but he didn’t want that alien to sink its electric knife into his heart — he could only imagine what it felt like. An agony that wouldn’t even come close to any sensation he’d ever felt before.

How did other Guardian’s die every day?

With one last round of animalistic clicks, the Fallen lifted the knife far above Bentley’s chest, tilting its head again when the teenager tried one last time (and failed one last time) to wriggle out of its grip. He wasn’t strong enough — all the strength in his entire tiny body wasn’t strong enough.

“Please,” Bentley choked.

SHNNK.

It took Bentley about a whole five seconds to realize that there was not a knife in his chest.

Instead, there was a flash of something white.

Crow was suddenly on the large Fallen’s shoulders, his combat knife buried deep into the alien’s skull. Bentley had never been happier to see his blue skin and bright, cheesy armor. He didn't think he'd ever been happier to see a human shaped creature in his life.

The alien’s grip on Bentley’s body loosened, and Crow leaped off of it, kicking it to the side so its massive weight didn’t crash down on top of either of them. He landed a perfectly executed flip, his Hunter cape settling over his head and face so he had to shove it off.

“Bentley,” He scolded, though Bentley didn’t really hear it. He was too focused on staring at the body of the Fallen that was now laying beside him, twitching menacingly but showing no further signs of life.

That thing had almost… almost…

All of the other Fallen, small and large alike, leaped into action, charging at the battle’s newest arrival with shrieks of rage for their dead friend. The zips and bams of their guns returned, and Bentley stayed low to the ground, the body of the dead Fallen large enough for him to use as measly cover.

Bentley watched in a silent sort of shock as a full-blown battle played out before his eyes. Crow dodged the Fallen’s projectiles with some kind of backwards summersault the child couldn’t even seem to comprehend, whipping Hawkmoon — the largest revolver Bentley had ever seen — out of a holster on his hip. He spun it around his fingers before he began repeatedly flicking the hammer, sending out eight back-to-back bam, bam, bams, each one resulting in a Fallen crumpling into an unmoving heap on the ground.

One of the large ones, now armed with a giant, electricity-sparking sword, swung for Crow’s head, which he ducked and slid away from just in time to not get decapitated. He dropped the cylinder from Hawkmoon and replaced it just as fast, turning and unleashing a lightning-fast stream of eight bullets into the monster’s chest. It roared, staggered, and hit the ground.

Its roar echoed and bounced through the canyon with a chillingly repetitive melody. Bentley watched in silence as Crow extended his hand, a ball of fire forming and spluttering in the air above his palm until he threw it right at the smaller Fallen that were attacking as a group — it exploded into a huge wall of flame that charred and burned the aliens into lifeless crisps on impact.

“Eyes up!”

Bentley looked up, coming face-to-face with Sevyn, who was hovering right in front of him. The little Ghost’s segments spun and twitched worriedly, his robotic eye flicking about Bentley’s form with a little bit of pity in its mechanical iris. “I’ve got you, Guardian.”

Sevyn then moved toward Bentley’s left shoulder, a small spray of light shining from his eye onto the teenager’s wounds that almost felt like a layer of cold mist. Bentley couldn’t help but sigh in relief as the pain was warded away, the Ghost’s Light slowly rebuilding and reattaching the very atoms of his flesh — closing up the gunshot wound and shifting his shoulders back into place in mere moments. The scratches and bruises he could already feel forming across his body from hitting the cliffside dulled in discomfort in seconds, until they disappeared entirely from existence.

In only a moment, Bentley was whole again.

Sevyn moved forward, tapping himself gently against Bentley’s forehead in an affectionate gesture, before fizzling into atoms again.

When Bentley looked up, all of the Fallen were dead, and Crow was standing in the midst of the corpses, revolver in one hand, his Ghost, Glint, hovering just above the other. The little crimson robot moved about the older Guardian, shining his healing light on his injuries and mending them in a blink. He disappeared into a fizzle of atoms right after.

Bentley exhaled shakily, bringing a dirty hand up to wipe and his still watering eyes. He scooted slowly away from the body of the Fallen he had been using for cover, cringing at the still sparking knife that was laying in the dirt not a foot from his boot -- the knife it was going to sink into his chest. Into his heart. He brought one hand up to his jacket and tugged at it, eyes unmoving.

It was only then that he noticed how badly his hands were still shaking — how hard his heart was pumping, how shallowly and quickly and shakily he was still breathing. He couldn’t really get much air into him at all. And he couldn't seem to stop crying.

Crow’s boots came to a stop in front of him. “What are you doing outside of the Tower?” He all but demanded.

Bentley opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, eyes locked solely on the alien corpse. After a few moments of that, Crow moved forward and hauled him off the ground, gently, setting him on his wobbly feet and checking him over for injuries. The older Guardian was speaking, but Bentley couldn’t really hear it, his eyes still lingering on the knife. The crack, crack, crack of the electric blade made him want to throw it off a cliff. He sniffed and hiccuped as softly as he could, bringing a hand up in an attempt to quiet it.

“Hey, focus on me, Little Light,”

Bentley blinked when Crow manually turned his head so their gazes met. He was taller than the teenager by maybe a foot, maybe more, his dazzling skin a pale blue that looked foreign next to Bentley’s pasty beige. He pushed some of his black and white hair back from his eyes, the glowing, orange orbs locking onto Bentley’s and staying there. He wasn’t sure how old Crow was — he looked to be in his early twenties, but for all the teenager knew, he could’ve been hundreds of years old. But however old he was, he was familiar -- and that was comforting enough.

Bentley broke their eye contact to look straight down at his own boots, rubbing at his eyes, pushing his red hair out of his face.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered.

With a sigh, Crow put his hand on the back of Bentley's head and tugged him into his chest. “You’re okay, kid.”

Bentley squeezed his eyes shut and kept his hands over his face, the sudden hug only seeming to make the crying worse. “That was so scary.”

“I know,”

There was a little whoosh that let Bentley know Sevyn had materialized by his side, and a second whoosh, which must’ve been Crow’s Ghost appearing, too.

"Let's get you out of here, yeah?" Sevyn's voice came, close to his head.

Before Bentley could respond, a low rumble shook the ground beneath their boots, the loud, menacing whir of an approaching ship piercing the air. Bentley pulled away from Crow to glance up to the sky — in not a millisecond, a large ship was hanging there, casting a huge, dark shadow over them. It looked almost primordial, cobbled together skillfully with metals and machines.

Bentley was no expert on alien things, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t a Guardian’s ship.

“Sevyn, get Bentley out of here. Now,” Crow demanded, pulling the shiny silver revolver from his hip and replacing the cylinder in one swift motion. Glint, his little crimson Ghost, spun and then disappeared in a fizzle of atoms.

Sevyn hovered up next to Bentley’s head, his purple segments spinning, emanating a few small beeping sounds. “I… I can’t. Something in that Fallen ship is jamming my signal! I’ve never felt anything like it before — like a solid wall between us and the Vanguard!”

“Splicers?” Crow whispered. Bentley didn’t know what those were, and he decided he probably didn’t want to. Crow glanced back at him, reaching back and squeezing his shoulder. “Hide. And Sevyn; stay out of sight.”

Sevyn fizzled away, and Bentley quickly returned to the only cover in the area — behind the body of the big, dead Fallen.

Not a second after he was hidden, the bottom of the ship sprung open, and several mechanical arms came out of it. They each held an alien, and dropped them from the ship onto the ground before retracting and fetching another.

Bentley immediately noticed three things about this particular group of Fallen:

1) They were all the big kind, some even bigger than the dead one he was hiding behind. And their armor was nicer, cleaner, better. They dawned capes and hoods that looked like they could’ve been made by people instead of the rough looking outfits the little ones had been wearing. 

2) They all seemed to have some type of machinery on them, wether that be strange, glowing goggles over their blue eyes, backpacks that looked more like a giant radio with antennas, or literal limbs replaced by robotic parts. He wasn’t sure why, but they were more off-putting than the normal Fallen.

And 3) Their weapons looked better, more powerful, though there were more knives and swords and less guns — only three with guns, really; and they all seemed really angry.

There were probably two dozen of them, and only one Crow. The ship whirred and shot off, disappearing into the sky beyond, leaving its warriors behind.

Even starkly outnumbered by aliens twice and three times his size, Crow didn’t hesitate to leap into action. One of the Fallen shot at him with a big, strange rifle — a glowing orange projectile that whirred and made weird noises. Crow dodged it by sliding directly at the alien's feet, coming back up and swiping at the hammer of Hawkmoon, sending three methodical shots into the Fallen — chest, throat, head. It hit the ground.

Bentley stayed crouched behind the corpse as low as he could, and Sevyn’s disembodied voice came from nowhere: “As soon as I get a stable connection, I’m sending you anywhere but here!”

“We’re just going to leave him?” Bentley whispered, watching Crow dodge another electric knife-sword-thing and slide between a huge Fallen’s legs, popping up behind him and jerking on its cape with his full weight. It’s back arched, sending its head down to Crow’s level, and he sent two bullets into it. Its body made a thump.

“He’d appreciate the sentiment, Guardian, but given the fact that you have zero training or abilities to fight with, staying is… well, kind of stupid,”

Bentley said nothing, but watched Crow do another chest-neck-head trio of shots, dropping his cylinder and replacing it with another while dodging a blade with some kind of flip-spin-thing. Three huge Fallen down, twenty-ish to go.

“I’m reading the Tower! It’s faint, but it’s there! Probably only a few more minutes before I can get you there!” Sevyn announced.

Crow released more rounds and dropped two more Fallen, dodging strange orange projectiles and blades like he was nothing more than a shadow. The aliens, big and strong as they were, seemed to be no match for an agile Hunter like him. 

(Bentley wished the Commander would let him learn how to fight like that.)

As if on queue with Bentley’s thoughts, Crow got struck in the shoulder by one of the strange orange projectiles with a ding! sound against his armor. There was no blood, and he didn't seem to be in pain. There was a tiny metal machine stuck to him instead, and orange electricity suddenly exploded out of it with a loud, crackling vengeance.

Bentley heard him cry out, collapsing and convulsing when the electricity pulsed through his body. The nearest Fallen grabbed him by the cloak and lifted him as though he were weightless, slinging him into a nearby cliff with a crack.

Bentley flinched, but before he could even move, Sevyn announced: “Don’t you dare get yourself seen! I mean it, Guardian!”

Crow’s Ghost began to materialize next to him, but he must’ve told him not to, because he waved his hand and the robot never fully appeared. The group of up-teen massive, scary Fallen were crowding where he laid, and like he was being tortured, Bentley had a line of sight directly between the aliens. Directly to Crow.

(He’d never seen another Guardian — or anyone — die before. Did he even want to watch?)

Sevyn answered that for him. “Don’t look, Guardian.”

Bentley couldn't look away.

Instead, he watched Crow flick his hand, summoning three sparks of fire that turned into flaming knives that he launched into the two nearest Fallen. One of the aliens caught two of the fiery blades in the face, stumbling back with a terrible screech. The other blade lodged in another Fallen’s throat; it went limp on impact.

The other seventeen closed in on Crow like a swarm of vultures.

Bentley saw him lift his hand up toward the sky like some sort of last stand — reaching for the final beams of fading sunlight. The Traveler was up there, too, the huge, white orb hovering over the planet like a second moon. Bentley wondered if it ever responded to Guardians… after all, it was what gave them their power, their Ghosts.

Bentley’s eyes drifted back down to Crow, whose hand was still outstretched — and the fleeting beams of sun came down to meet him.

With a loud whoosh and a flash of light, Crow’s entire body was engulfed in Solar Light, setting him on fire from the crown of his head to the soles of his boots without as much as singing his armor. In his outstretched hand formed a pistol made of pure flame — a rapid fire revolver like the one he carried. 

Bentley flinched when the ablaze Hunter fired a fan of six shots into the crowd of Fallen with loud, almost deafening bangs, much much louder than Hawkmoon. The bullets, blazing with a fiery rage, incinerated the massive Fallen on impact and then continued to the ones behind, blowing fiery holes larger than a shotgun slug through their bodies and disintegrating them into piles of ash. A wave of heat washed over Bentley all the way from where he was, staring in shock and awe. Not an alien was left standing.

He’d never actually seen a Guardian do that before — channel all of their Light into a mega-magic-assault capable of destroying entire hordes of massive aliens. Vanguard slang called them supers, the most violent offense a Guardian could have in their arsenal — a final call to the Traveler’s magic for help, a last stand, an unleashing of all the power left within. The one Crow had just performed, Bentley had learned over the years, was referred to as The Golden Gun.

Crow then slumped back against the cliffside, the flames that had swallowed him fading, still convulsing and jerking thanks to the orange electricity coming from whatever little machine was stuck to him. Glint materialized next to him, frantically fluttering about, and Bentley shifted.

“Don’t! I’m still picking up Fallen signals inside the-“

Bentley ignored Sevyn’s orders and sprung to his feet, jogging across the now-empty canyon and little creek to Crow’s side.

“Crow!” He exclaimed, dropping to a crouch next to him. He eyed the little metal thing on Crow’s shoulder that was creating the electricity, and then he reached for it.

“Bentley, no!” Sevyn exclaimed, and Bentley cried out and flinched away when the strange electricity jumped to his hand, not only electrocuting him, but leaving his skin and muscles burning and tingling like he was holding his hand inside a extremely hot fire. 

Sevyn materialized next to him in a blink, shining his healing light on it, immediately cooling it and staving the pain. “Need I teach you not to touch strange alien electronics?”

Bentley glanced from Sevyn back to Crow, who was jerking and writhing on the dirt under the influence of the electricity. His features were contorted into an expression of agony, and Glint was floating about, lost, watching as though Crow's pain hurt him, too.

Bentley eyed the little metal machine on his shoulder again.

"Bentley..." Sevyn started, glancing between him and Crow. "If you're thinking-"

Before Sevyn could continue his likely long-winded protest of his Guardian's impulsiveness, Bentley moved as fast as he could, biting his tongue and shooting his hand forward, ripping the small machine from Crow's shoulder in a blink.

It felt like he got struck by lightning, and he couldn't help but shout in pain when the electricity seared and stabbed its way up his whole arm. He threw the little machine to the side as his muscles tensed and tightened under his skin in response to the electric pulse.

"Sevyn!" He managed, shaking out his arm like it would help; tears immediately springing in his eyes at the strange numb-veins-filled-with-lava feeling it left him with.

"Geez, stop taking after the reckless ones!" Sevyn all but scolded, moving toward Bentley's arm and shining his healing light there, too. In his peripheral, Bentley could see Glint doing the same, moving methodically about Crow's body, starting at the worst of it and moving on from there.

"Will he be okay?" Bentley asked softly as Sevyn finished healing his arm for the second time, the small robot hovering close by his head. Crow seemed practically unconscious -- though Bentley didn't blame him. He probably would've blacked out on the spot, had his entire body been electrocuted like that.

"Of course he will. It'll just take me a bit to patch him up. What were you doing out here, anyways?" Glint questioned, still floating about Crow's battered body. Bentley shrugged.

"Just wanted to... do something. Other than sitting in the Tower all day,"

Glint hummed in response. "Ye old person-isolated-against-their-will-breaks-out-and-nearly-dies act. I could have assumed. No hate, of course -- I'm not one to talk. Crow and I spent a long time living under someone else's will, too."

Bentley's eyes trailed down to the ground he was sitting on, and Sevyn bumped himself against his shoulder supportively. "Chin up, Guardian."

Suddenly, the ground shook again, and Bentley, along with the two Ghosts, glanced around the canyon.

A second ship just like the first swooped down toward them, and a horrendous amount of dread blossomed in Bentley's stomach at the sight of the bottom opening up, mechanical arms extending outward.

He inhaled shakily, shifting on the ground. "Glint?"

Crow's Ghost was now working frantically, beeping in a weird pattern that indicated anxiety. "I'm working as fast as I can!"

The robotic arms reached into the ship and came back out with more Fallen -- the same, massive ones whose bodies were littering the floor of the canyon. It dropped two with a thud, and two more after. They were all carrying the terrible electric blades -- all but one, who had a gun that resembled a sniper rifle whose barrel was glowing orange.

There was a whoosh of Sevyn disappearing. "Hide, Glint!" He said from nowhere.

Crow's Ghost kept working despite Sevyn's words, bathing his Guardian in Light. "I'm almost done!"

"If you get sniped, you could cost Crow his life!"

Bentley barely heard the two robots bickering -- instead, he watched in silence as the huge Fallen zeroed in on him and Crow, clicking back and forth like they were communicating. The ship sped off into the distance and left the four aliens there, alone, with Bentley and two panicking robots; and the only one there that could defend them was hardly conscious.

Bentley blinked, and stared at the aliens, the strange realization that he was actually about to die washing over him and leaving him feeling oddly cold. (Didn't getting revived after make it okay...? Why didn't it feel okay?)

The Fallen with the rifle lifted it and pulled the trigger, a beam of orange electricity arcing through the air right toward them -- though it didn't hit Bentley; It was aimed at Glint, who narrowly dodged it by ducking to the side. The beam cracked loudly against the cliffside behind them.

Bentley reached out and grabbed Crow's Ghost by his eye, getting him out of sight the one way he knew how -- by holding him behind his back.

"Whoa, kid!"

"Bentley!"

Bentley looked forward, and all four of the massive Fallen were staring at him.

(He was about to die.)

But the Fallen didn't rush to take him down, no -- the one with the gun even stowed it, pulling out blades instead. They moved forward at a slow, menacing crawl, clicking back and forth, eyes trained on Bentley like they were mocking him. He stepped backwards until the heel of his boot nudged Crow's leg.

"Tiny Guardian," One in the front said -- it's voice sounded vaguely female, raspy and layered. It swiped its blades across one another with a shnnnnk. "Thought Lightbearers were bigger, yes?"

Bentley said nothing as the four of them moved closer like animals stalking their prey, eyes bouncing between the four of them. Their glowing, empty eyes, creepy, lanky statures. Part of him wanted to run and never stop, but the thought of leaving Crow there vulnerable and in the open made him feel vaguely sick. The fact that he could be brought back to life wasn't good enough to make Bentley's feet move. Glint wiggled around in his hand, fighting against his grip, but he didn't dare let him go.

"The Great Machine makes bad choice, yes," One of the others replied, a lower baritone. Did they mean the Traveler? "Yes; tiny Lightbearer smells of fear. Fear of death. Tiny Lightbearer has not met her yet."

Her? Her as in death?

Bentley cleared his throat, and the four of them glanced back at him with their glowing eyes, curiously. "I'm... right here, you know. Gossiping is bad."

Sevyn made a strangled noise in his immaterial state, likely revolting against Bentley's audacity.

The one closest to him -- that sounded vaguely like a girl -- made a few clicks, coming closer. "Tiny Lightbearer speaks, yes. Has attitude. Reminds Avix of her own son."

Bentley flinched with a gasp when she sprung towards him on all-sixes, crawling across the ground and rising back up mere feet from him. He scrambled backwards until he thudded into the cliffside next to Crow's unconscious form, keeping Glint hidden behind his back.

The alien stood, and stared, tilting her head back and forth with a few clicks. Bentley could practically feel his heart trying to escape his chest.

"Tiny Lightbearer is... harmless, yes." She said, turning to the other three and clicking. Then she looked back at Bentley, holding out one of her three-fingered hands. "Give Avix Little Machine -- then run, yes?"

Bentley tightened his hold around Glint, exhaling shakily, staring at her hand. "Uh... n-no."

He gasped when the giant Fallen -- Avix -- moved forward, forcing him backwards until he was pinned between the cliffside and her, Glint pinned tightly behind him. She reached forward at the speed of a cobra's strike and grabbed his face with her giant, gross hand, squeezing lightly. Bentley let out a sound akin to a squeak, his other hand coming up in an attempt to bat her's away, a burn already threatening to surface behind his eyes.

"G... get off," He said, but it wasn't threatening in the slightest.

Avix kept getting closer, crouching down until her face was mere inches from his own, her glowing eyes staring right into his. The crackling of her electrified blade came from one of her other hands, and his eyes flicked to it momentarily.

"Look at me!" She shrieked deafeningly in his face, and Bentley couldn't help but jump out of his skin, forcing himself to lock gazes with her again. The burn behind his eyes got worse, and his vision started going watery -- he didn't want to die.

"Tiny Lightbearer cries, yes. Has not met death. Smells of much fear, yes, much fear," She stammered, shaking his face when he glanced at the blade again, forcing his eyes back on her. "Give Avix little machine -- Tiny Lightbearer will not meet her. Avix says so. Avix is leader, yes. Others will not kill what Avix does not kill."

Bentley glanced back at the other three Fallen, who were staying in the distance, weapons drawn, lurking here and there in the now almost pitch-black canyon.

The odd feeling of Glint de-materializing between his fingertips made something in Bentley relax.

Carefully, he lifted both of his hands to the giant alien, palms out and open, revealing that there was no robot there.

Avix jerked Bentley away from the wall to check behind him, and when there was nothing there, she made a loud, unidentifiable screech and shoved him into the stone with a thud so hard it seemed to rattle his bones and leave his head foggy. With a few clicks and hisses, she stalked her way back to the other three and turned on her heel.

“Tiny Lightbearer dies,” She growled, and the one behind her pulled out its rifle again. “His body comes with Avix, yes. I have plans for when Tiny Lightbearer rises. He will not disrespect Avix again, yes, yes.”

They were going to kill him? And then take him with them?

Bentley glanced at Crow, who was still unresponsive.

“Sevyn?”

“It’s now or never, Guardian! Channel the Traveler’s Light! Call on it! I’ll help you the best I can!” Sevyn exclaimed from nowhere.

“I can’t use the Light!” Bentley replied, and a wire of orange shot from the rifle, zinging right past his head, only narrowly missing thanks to a well-timed duck.

“Now would be a great time to learn!” Sevyn shouted. “Just imagine yourself destroying all these Fallen using the Light!”

With no other options, Bentley ducked behind one of the massive Fallen bodies and closed his eyes, hoping and praying the Traveler would help him.

“Feel the Light inside of you, Guardian. It is in you, whether you believe it is or not. You can do this,” Sevyn mumbled. Another zing! went past Bentley, and he flinched. “Focus — Concentrate. I have my eye on the Fallen.”

Bentley tried. How was he supposed to feel the Light now when he’d never felt it before? He’d heard stories — that most Guardians found their Light in times of dire trouble, and he was pretty sure getting kidnapped by aliens counted. 

“Tiny Lightbearer!” Avix’s enraged voice came, growing closer to him. “Hiding is futile when Avix knows where you are, yes!”

Bentley focused really hard on his own body, imagining the Light like Sevyn had said. How did other Guardians do this so easily, so fluidly?

“Tiny Lightbearer will make Avix good pet, yes! Fun to watch squirm!” She shouted, her voice drawing nearer and nearer.

Bentley suddenly felt… strange. Not in a bad way, though — strange like something simultaneously cold and boiling was pooling in his fingertips. Like something was moving through his veins, like gasoline -- cool, but also ready to explode. He peeled his eyes open to glance at his hands, and-

They were surging with bright, glowing Arc Light, white-blue bolts of electricity sparking from his fingertips and crackling across his skin, though it didn’t hurt. It felt like his whole being was buzzing, vibrating in anticipation. He felt… empowered.

“Now, Guardian!”

At Sevyn’s mark, Bentley stood up and turned, extending his electrified palms outward. An unknown, never-before-felt power surged inside of him. Electricity seemed to burst out of his entire body, crackling, striking, bolts of lightning crawling across his skin and cracking atop his clothes. It illuminated the entire canyon in the nighttime with a blinding, luminescent glow.

He felt his feet leave the ground. Avix and her three minions were not too far from where he was, now, blades and rifle drawn to attack.

Bentley cried out when power exploded from him, a solid beam of screaming electricity shooting from the palm of his right hand. It slammed directly into Avix’s chest, knocking her backwards maybe six or seven yards, boring a charred hole through her chest and disintegrating her entire body not a second after. Bentley made a sound of surprise as the smell of charred flesh and static electricity filled the air.

“Keep going, Guardian! You’re doing it!” Sevyn encouraged, sounding probably the giddiest he ever had. At his excitement, Bentley turned his sights to the other three Fallen, and the beam of electricity followed where he led. He raked it across the final trio of aliens and it blitzed right through them, severing their bodies in half before incinerating them completely.

As soon as the four Fallen were dead, Bentley’s power, as well as all his remaining strength, fled, and he fell a few feet before crashing hands-and-knees in the dirt. His whole body was still buzzing, his arms and legs tingling with the remnants of leftover power. Everything around him seemed to be swimming a little, sounds muffled and vision swirling around his head. He felt like he could go to bed and sleep for a year.

There were two little whooshes next to his face.

“You did it! You casted a super! Bentley, you’re a Warlock!” Sevyn all but screamed, hovering up close to his face, tapping himself gently on his forehead over and over. “You’re a Warlock! A Warlock!”

There was a small sound of Glint finishing his healing process, and Bentley heard Crow groan, sitting up a few yards to his right. 

“Ugh. That was unpleasant,”

“While you were down, Bentley casted a super! Chaos Reach!” Sevyn screamed at him. “He’s a Warlock, Crow, a Warlock!”

With a grunt of effort, Bentley pushed his vibrating body off of the ground and onto his feet, teetering a bit on reaching his full height. Black dots danced around in his vision, but didn’t fully take over -- like they were taunting him. He couldn’t even seem to process the words Sevyn was screaming right in his face.

In the blink of an eye, Crow had come up next to him, both Ghosts hovering by his side. 

“Yeah, he sure looks like he casted his first super,” Crow said with a snicker, and Bentley felt his gloved hand land on his left shoulder. He looked up at the older Guardian, but he couldn’t really focus on his pale blue face. 

“Yep, there you go,”

Bentley didn't even realize he’d fallen over until he was hoisted limply up into Crow’s arms, settled against the soft front of his cloak. 

“Mm… Sorry,” He hummed.

“Nah, you’re doing great to stay conscious at all. I passed flat out as soon as I came out of my first super. In the middle of a horde of Taken, no less,”

Bentley didn’t know anything about Taken besides the fact that they were aliens, but he also didn’t have the willpower to ask.

“I’ve gotcha, kid. Glint, Sevyn, to the Tower please,” Crow ordered.

“On it!”

Bentley’s world proceeded to fade to black, but his hearing remained just long enough for him to hear Crow inhale and exhale deeply.

“I'm so dead for this.”

Asten’s story is below ↴

IN GAME CHAOS REACH:

IN GAME GOLDEN GUN:

ASTEN ↴

THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE LAST CITY, OLD EARTH, SOL SYSTEM -- 6:16PM

--

YOU SEE, ASTEN WAS A TOUGH KID. Tougher than most. Growing up homeless on the outskirts of the Last City presented him with no shortage of things he had to endure in order to merely survive — muggings, beatings, high-stakes chases, a life of thievery, actually getting stabbed, twice, flashy guns waved in his face, really bad habits, and lots of time spent cursing his existence into the wind. He’d survived more things than he’d like to admit in all his sixteen years. Forcing himself to fight with a knife in his shoulder and still coming out on top, having a Guardian called on him and watching it's Ghost scramble to resurrect them nearly six times before they ever got close enough to put a hand on him. In his mind, he was invincible — or at least he could be, when he needed to.

That invincibility seemed to have fled on this particular day, because he’d woken up having apparently caught the Black Plague. It was hard to move, to think, to breathe, to see, to hear — he felt trashier than a full dumpster from the Fallen District, and given he’d managed a stab wound and cauterization with half as much suffering, he knew he’d be down for the count, and soon.

So, he soldiered through it in his incredibly Asten way, willing himself to fix it before it killed him. He forced his way to the nearest pharmacy, walked in circles around it for about an hour, almost passed out twice, before he was able to form some semblance of a plan within his muddied brain.

And of course, it had backfired. Now, he was in a fenced-off back-alley of The Last City that he often used as a hideout, with a small pack full of stolen medicine, an entire platoon of security searching for him, and about as much will to move as a blade of grass. (Running at full-speed for a solid ten minutes away from the pharmacy hadn’t been the most brilliant idea for a kid sporting a fever so high he could practically hear his brain frying.)

Any other night after stealing something big like a bag full of expensive medicine, he’d be watching his surroundings extra carefully — moving to different hideouts methodically until the initial search was over and security gave him room to breathe… but tonight he wasn’t. Tonight, he was barely hidden from view by various dumpsters and trash cans, curled up, shivering on the cool concrete. It was mostly quiet there, and he could hear the wind whistling through the city. The only things that accompanied him in the dark, gross alley was the trash, a chain-link fence, and the walls. That was all.

While the air was pleasantly cool for the other inhabitants of the city, for him, it was an icy cold that made his skin tingle. He was shivering despite his blackish-blue hair and first layer of clothes being drenched with sweat. The strong smells coming from several different establishments and sewers were only working to make his head hurt worse and his stomach turn unsettlingly. Which, for him, was strange. Usually, the very prospect of food would have him climbing through vents or breaking open windows if it meant he wouldn’t have to go hungry for another day, but right now, he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than disgust at the very thought.

The stars shone brightly above the Last City. He would usually be staring at them, watching them move with a nonchalant air about him, going from here to there and sending guards to the wrong places over and over again. But tonight, he didn’t really have the willpower to open his eyes. Right now, he didn’t even have the willpower to take any of the stolen medicine.

He winced as his head throbbed with a newer, sharper pain than it had all day, probably in response to pushing his body way farther than it should’ve been pushed. He coiled up tighter. He was really glad no one really traveled those alleys, because he must’ve looked more pitiful than a crippled puppy. His arms and legs were aching in a way that made him want to weep, feeling like they were tied to cinder blocks he had to drag around with him. His head felt like it was full of cotton, hazy and blurry and a feeling a little bit like it might explode, like it had too much of something in it. Every organ in his body was revolting its very existence, and he swore he’d rather have a knife in him again than feel like that.

He’d made doubly sure his trusty sniper-rifle was within grasp — an old thing, dropped by a guy in a fight long ago — which, naturally, had led to him clutching onto the faithful firearm like other kids would a stuffed animal. It was smushed against his torso, safety on, because he had his arms wrapped securely around himself as to not upset his body anymore. It wasn’t the best weapon for close quarters fighting like running from security in the city, but it was all he had. He was pretty good at hip firing the thing anyways — not that he was looking to blow anyone’s head off anytime soon.

Even when he was wholly convinced he was dying, vague thoughts still pestered his mind — like the fact that most security knew about this particular hideout, and that most security definitely knew what he looked like, blue hair and all. He would’ve ditched his clothes and hid his hair after a normal heist. Instead, he pressed his burning forehead into the cool concrete beneath him and grimaced.

He drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. Sleep seemed like it would be a sweet release from the terrible state his body was in, but he couldn’t actually seem to fall asleep. Not while he had to keep one eye open for security. When they got here, he’d run, he kept telling himself. Just five more minutes. When he heard them, he’d go.

Those five more minutes turned into an indecipherable amount of time loathing his existence on the ground before a pair of voices flitted down the alley and made his head hurt worse.

“Are you sure this is where they said he went? There’s nothing out here!” Said a small voice — quiet, and somewhat… robotic? “They said he’d been stealing for years, surely he'd have a better place to hide!”

“I’m pretty sure hiding somewhere unsuspecting is the point, Glint. Run a thermal scan,”

Asten immediately forced his heavy eyes open as a realization dawned on him — that the first voice had been too robotic to be a human’s, overlaid with something mechanical. The second, too calm, too unbothered to be a guard on the City outskirts where sketchy people lurked and bad things crept in the shadows.

This wasn’t a pair of security guards — this was a Ghost and a Guardian. 

They’d sicced a Lightbearer on him, again.

He felt his heart rate pick up as he pushed himself upright, the entire world spinning there for a few seconds before he was able to right himself. He fumbled for his bag and his rifle, forcing himself onto his feet only to careen into the alley wall thanks to the black dots dancing in his vision that had invited their friend violent vertigo to the party.

Last time they’d sent a Guardian out to pursue him, the Titan had been so brutal with his magical-superpowers and epic-hand-to-hand-skills that he didn’t let Asten breathe until he couldn’t move. Until he was beaten and battered and had lost enough blood that the huge Titan was able to drag him through the city streets by the collar of his jacket without a single sound falling from Asten’s lips except soft, nearly unidentifiable sobs. He’d been thirteen then. He wondered if all Guardians had a knack for torturing children who were just trying to live.

Something cold and mean blossomed in his chest when he realized that, in this state, he wouldn’t be able to survive a beating like that again.

Instead of deciding on something rational, like turning himself in, or simply begging for mercy and letting them know he was the sickest he’d ever been in his life, his first instinct was to grab a magazine from his belt and jam it into the bottom of his sniper rifle.

This Guardian was not going to touch him.

“I’m picking up a heat signature in the next alley,” Came the Ghost’s voice.

Once the vertigo had mostly subsided, Asten forced himself to move even though it made him feel like passing out and throwing up and maybe even dying on the spot. The chain-link fence on the opposite end of the alley would do little to keep the Guardian out, but maybe it’d give him just a little head-start. At this point, he’d take what he could get. He pushed himself out the back end of the alley, between the old buildings and the the city walls, and went to the left. Forced himself to move quickly and quietly even though it felt like torture, watching buildings pass as he went.

Once he reached a reasonable distance away, he turned back and shouldered his sniper rifle, sliding the lever with a click-click so it loaded a round. Bringing the sights up to his face, he let the reticle rest just on the mouth of the alley he’d left.

He wouldn’t feel bad for killing him. He wouldn’t. He’d just come right back to life… like Guardians always did. Better that Ghost have to work than Asten be reduced to a pretty little stain on the concrete. A pretty little stain on the concrete that didn’t have a Ghost to bring it back to life.

Not two seconds later, a Guardian broke the threshold of the alley — a Hunter, it looked like, for a long cape flowed behind his back. He looked strange, dawning white armor that sort of looked like scales, or feathers, maybe, with pale blue Awoken skin and no helmet. He had a large, shiny revolver in his hand that reflected light right in Asten’s eyes.

No helmet — a rookie mistake.

In one fluid, mechanical movement, his heart thumping wildly in his chest, Asten held his breath and took the shot.

BOOM!

Even though he was crouched, the recoil nearly knocked him over in his weak state, the boom leaving a piercing ring in his ears that threatened to crack his skull. The Guardian’s head exploded in a mist of red.

At the sight, Asten’s entire body twisted — his mind, his conscience, his morality, his guts — and his response in his sickly state was to gag. The ringing was still present in his ears, and he let the sniper rifle fall to brace one hand on the ground, staying crouched in the back-alley. Black dots came into his vision and danced around some more.

He let out a string of curses he barely heard, forcing his eyes back up to the body of the Hunter. His Ghost was hovering over him, glowing, its segments split wide open and spinning around a ball of bright Light.

Asten knew Ghost mannerisms well enough to know the Hunter was about to be resurrected. And he couldn’t be here when he was.

With that realization, he grabbed his rifle and forced himself onto his feet, again, still not hearing or seeing very well, his entire body screaming at him to stop. But he didn’t; instead, he forced himself forward and past a few more alleyways, only taking a right turn into one that he knew contained a fire escape. He fell into a wheezy, barky coughing fit that left him breathless and hardly able to stay upright; The only thing keeping him off the concrete at this point was pure adrenaline.

He reached for the medicine bag to make sure it was still on his shoulder, a terrible ache settling in his chest after the bout of coughing — a kind of soreness in his lungs that made even breathing painful. He wiped at his involuntarily watering eyes and pushed himself up the stairs of the fire escape, settling on the first platform and jerking on the lever of his sniper again, loading another round. The movement sent more pain streaking through his chest, and he coughed and coughed until he was seeing stars, felt unbearably hot, and thought his lungs might splat on the fire escape.

Luckily, they didn’t. Unluckily, the violent coughing made his lava-filled stomach churn, and he knew it wouldn’t be long before it demanded to have his undivided attention.

Despite the fact that his whole body felt like it might cave in on him, he crouched and lifted the rifle to his shoulder again, settling his eye on the scope. His arms proved too weak and shaky to hold it still, so he rested the barrel on the railing and aimed at the mouth of the alley. 

“-this way!” The Ghost’s voice echoed in his head. 

As soon as the white-clad Guardian rounded the corner, Asten wasted no time, a second shot from the sniper rifle ringing out and leaving an explosion of blood and another limp Guardian in it's wake. His Ghost appeared hovering over him — a little crimson robot with a worried air about him.

The recoil from the shot jolted Asten’s entire body. He saw stars again, heard nothing but ringing — a dagger of pain shot all the way through his torso, his shoulder, lungs, stomach, so sudden and sharp that it made him cry out. He reached for his thin jacket in an attempt to stave the pain — a terrible mistake, for his sniper rifle tipped over the railing and, even though he reached for it, his reflexes were botched. It dropped to the ground below with the telltale clatter of concrete on metal.

He looked up at the Ghost, the stars slowly fading from his vision; the little robot was staring at him. 

He stared back.

And it dawned on him — now it was a race.

The Ghost immediately turned back to its Guardian and opened up frantically, expelling a bright light. Asten, with all his senses shot, conscious from nothing more than mere spite, forced himself to stumble back down the metal stairs. He had to focus all of his remaining energy into his legs just to keep from face-planting. And then-

And then another round of ultra-violent coughing sprung forth from inside of him, completely halting him in his tracks. His chest rattled and constricted with a vengeance, putting him in so much pain he actually considered crying. He had to completely stop moving just to keep from hitting the ground, and the coughing continued and continued and continued until everything he’d eaten in the not-so-distant past was displayed on the ground for the Ghost and Guardian to see. He had to move for a wall to stay upright, bracing himself against it and taking a moment to breathe — a painful action that sounded more like horrific wheezing.

Thankfully, his outburst seemed to have distracted the Ghost, who was back in one piece and blinking at him in surprise. For a moment, he thought the little thing might even try and speak to him — instead, it turned and opened up again, to raise its Guardian.

Asten glanced at the sniper rifle laying about a dozen feet from him. Moving for it, reloading, aiming, all while hardly able to make his body obey in the first place would take too long — the Guardian would be awake by then.

So he lunged for the Ghost instead.

The little robot shouted: “Ah!” When he grabbed it by its eye, and in a blind moment of adrenaline, he fumbled around on the concrete until he found the Guardian’s dropped revolver, pressing the cold barrel against the Ghost’s center.

“Oh, not again!” The little thing pleaded, writhing in his hand. “Let me go! I’ll contact the Vanguard!” It threatened.

“And I’ll blow you to bits and leave your Guardian to rot,” Asten hissed. He sent a glance to the Hunter, though he didn’t look for very long since a portion of his head was missing thanks to a bullet he'd let fly. 

“Raise him,” He ordered at the Ghost.

“No!”

“Raise him!” He repeated, louder, though his voice was hoarse now, and his mouth tasted vile. Not that he had been very threatening in the first place. He pulled back the hammer of the revolver with a shrill click that echoed in the quiet alley.

“Okay, okay, okay!” The Ghost murmured, sighing heavily. It opened up, eye still held tightly in Asten’s hand, shining a bright light on its Guardian. For a split second, Asten’s hand that was engulfed in the light cooled off and he felt… okay.

And as soon as the Ghost closed and his Guardian sat up with a groan, Asten felt like a heaping pile of death again.

It took a few seconds for the Hunter to comprehend what was going on, his orange glowing eyes flicking around and then coming to rest on his Ghost.

“Crow…” The little robot begged, wiggling in Asten’s grip. Crow must’ve been the Guardian’s name, he guessed. 

The Hunter — Crow — popped off of the ground, reaching for his holster that had no gun. His glowing orange eyes flicked to said holster, to the revolver in Asten’s hand; to the sniper rifle on the ground behind him. 

“Hands up. You move, he dies,” Asten ordered. Crow obliged, lifting his gloved hands — though Asten knew he could blow him sky high with superpowers if he really wanted to. He just kinda hoped he… didn’t really want to. Or that he was threatening enough to dissuade him… maybe.

Crow and Asten stared at each other for a solid ten seconds, the former sending a glance to his Ghost. He shifted uncomfortably, like seeing the little robot — what had he called him earlier, Glint? —  in such a dire situation physically pained him. Asten knew the relationships between Guardians and Ghosts were insanely intimate, like having a part of their soul manifested in physical form to aid them.

That’s why he kept the barrel of the gun pressed firmly against Glint’s eye when he growled: “Leave me the hell alone.”

“Look, I… I know you're scared. And I wouldn’t have chased you like that if I knew you were just a kid-” Crow moved, maybe to step forward, maybe to reach for Asten, he wasn’t sure -- but he squeezed the Ghost’s eye hard enough to make the robot squeak out a pained sound. The noise all but glued Crow’s feet to the concrete below them, and he stretched his hands out, a desperate look on his face. “Please, let him go. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Bullshit,” Asten murmured. “I’ve been burned enough to know that's a half-assed lie. At least be more original.”

He tried to make it sound venomous, but given that the force he had to put into the words sent him into another moment of rough-sounding coughing, it probably came across more like an angry toddler. 

“All I was told was that I was chasing perp with over a hundred robberies and years of stealing under his belt. I didn’t realize you were…” Crow trailed off, really taking in Asten’s appearance for the first time. He was pretty sure he looked like death incarnate, given he felt like it. His hand that was holding the revolver was shaking from the effort, but he didn’t dare let it move from the Ghost’s eye. “Well, I’m guessing you didn’t raid that pharmacy just for fun.”

“Just get the hell out of here, superhero. Once you’re out of sight, and once you promise not to follow me or come after me again, I’ll let your little pet go,” Coming up with and forcing out words was starting to become way more of a task than it should’ve been, and Asten’s head started getting foggy, everything feeling a little bit… off. More off.

Crow watched him intently with his glowing eyes. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave you out here.”

“Like hell you’re taking me anywhere,” Asten hissed, the sudden, loud words sending a burst of pain through his head that made him wince, though he thought he hid it pretty well under a scowl. “You’re-”

A few quiet noises emanated from the robot, and Asten glanced over with an appalled expression when it shined a bright light up and down his face, like it was scanning him.

“What the f-”

“Internal temperature is one-hundred-four-point-five degrees,” Glint announced, as though he didn’t still have a gun pressed to his eye. “He’s very… well… he’s very unwell, Crow. He threw up on the ground right before you woke. Hardly-”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Asten forced out, gritting his teeth at the pain it sent rippling from his head, down his neck and into his chest. He coughed a few times, muffling them by keeping his mouth closed. His voice was completely and utterly gone when he rasped out: “I just want you to… leave.”

“Sent out to take medicine from a sick kid. Why do I get stuck with all these jobs?” Crow muttered, mostly to Glint, but also to himself. “Look, what’s your name?”

Asten scowled. “Not-stupid-enough-to-answer-that-McGee.”

Crow breathed in and out, visibly irritated, though he pushed it back and kept his composure, trying a different approach instead. “I know you feel like shit -- flu’s been going around the City like no one’s ever seen. Lots of people have been hospitalized. The Vanguard even has Guardians helping out in some of the medical establishments around.”

Asten didn’t reply -- because, what was he really supposed to say to that, anyways? Plus, he was starting to feel nauseous again, so he didn’t really want to open his mouth.

“I spent a long time doing… bad things just to keep myself alive. Worse than stealing someone's food or robbing a place,” Crow started, holding a hand out to him. “I know how hard it is to trust people, to trust Guardians… I spent the first while of my Risen life getting murdered by them over and over again. Like they were playing a game with me.”

Asten vaguely wondered why the other Guardians would murder one of their own, but he didn’t give it much thought. He couldn’t; not really. Not when he was focused solely on not hurling. “Go away. Please. I’ll let him go, just… leave.”

“I want to help you,” Crow tried, stepping closer, daring to edge his hand nearer. Part of Asten yearned for the idea of help. Of letting someone else make sure he didn’t die for once.

The rest of him was revolted at the proximity he was allowing the Guardian to gain on him.

“No,” He breathed, voice still squeaky and wheezy. “I don’t want your pity help. The last Guardian that talked to me like this dragged me through the city half-dead. Like I was some kind of trophy.”

“And I’m so sorry one of them treated you like that,” Crow apologized, and Asten searched his face for a lie; all he saw was dangerous, dangerous sincerity. Sincerity that made the teenager want to cave. “Please let me help you. I won’t let anyone hurt you. You won’t get in trouble. I promise.”

When had someone last spoken to him like that? He wasn’t sure anyone ever had. And every single expression, movement, mannerism led him to believe Crow was being wholly genuine. 

And it made him want to cave so damn bad. A Guardian, of all people.

“Asten,” He croaked.

Crow cocked a brow, his glowing eyes searching his face. “What?”

“My name,” He replied. Part of his conscience was kicking him over and over for giving him his real name -- the rest was whispering for him to give in.

“Asten,” Crow tried the name out, deciding it sounded about right. “How old are you?”

Well, since he was on a roll… “Sixteen.”

He heard Crow curse under his breath. 

“Listen... I’m sorry if I scared you, I really am. You’re an incredible shot,” He started, eyes scanning him repetitively, forcing this little, quick smile on his face. “Please, let me help you. You… don’t look so good.”

“One-hundred-four-point-seven,” Glint chimed in.

Asten just stood for a moment, staring at the Guardian ahead of him. His words bounced around and around in his head. Promises for help, that he wouldn’t get hurt, that he wouldn’t die from the plague. That he wouldn’t be in trouble and thrown into confinement again. It all sounded too good to be true, and most of him knew that. But there was a little voice in his head that was rejoicing because someone actually… cared. In all sixteen years, someone actually…

Oh, shit. All those fancy promises about help and rainbows and butterflies was starting to-

“No,” Asten tried once more, his already gone voice breaking slightly in the middle of the word. He wasn’t sure why, but his eyes began to water. He chose to believe it was the fever and delirium and the fact that he felt like death making it happen, but part of him knew that wasn’t really the case. “Just… stop. Go away.”

(He didn't say stop because he really wanted him to stop, though — he said stop because he was caving and he knew it.)

Pity rippled across Crow's features -- sadness. "If you really want me to, I will. But I don't think that's the case."

Asten said nothing, but bit the inside of his cheek hard, forcing the wetness in his eyes to subside. Of course, it didn't really work.

"Why are you crying?" Glint questioned innocently. His little robot voice was doing that same thing Crow's had -- going soft, quiet, gentle.

"I'm not crying, you little shithead," Asten snapped, blinking rapidly in an attempt to ward the tears off again.

Crow opened his mouth to speak, but with a sudden and violent intensity, Asten’s entire body seemed to go on strike; He threw up all over his own feet, his hands slipping from both the Ghost and the gun to slink around himself instead. The revolver clattered on the concrete and Glint whirred up to his Guardian’s side, turning to look back at him.

His leverage was gone.

That was about when he realized darkness was not only dancing in his vision, but threatening to take in entirely, his whole body going into a strange, numb feeling that Glint seemed to catch onto before it fully took over.

“Catch him, Crow!” The Ghost shouted, before Asten was even falling. 

But then he was — his legs gave out beneath him not a second later. Only, for the first time in his life, he didn’t hit the concrete — instead, Crow scooped him up like a small child, and he let him.

“Glint, take us to the Tower,” Crow ordered.

Oh, Asten was so going to die.

—

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