#like Hope making a hybrid

[angeart]

hhau mimic arc rambles part III bonus: the eclipse

(~2,8 k words) // other parts & au masterpost here

Every couple of years, there’s a total eclipse in this world. The moon is big, obscuring the sun in a horrible totality, entrapping it for what feels like too long. This is a big event, but not because people are eager to spectate the sky and bask in its weirdness. No, it has much worse connotations.

Because the eclipsed moon affects many of the hybrids. Especially the animal ones.

Hunters look forward to the eclipse because it promises a lot of loud, distressed, instinct-driven hybrids scattering about without many defences. They prepare traps specifically for this occasion and organise big hunting parties, eager for the upcoming bloodbath and bounty.

The eclipse happens mid-winter while Scar and Grian are on the server.

And it’s awful.

[cws violence, murder (no known characters), panic, mind-altering states and a loss of self control, haywire instincts, non-consensual manhandling, horrory vibes]

They don’t really know what is happening at first. Hermitcraft is a safe server which has many things coded differently, and because eclipses hurt many hybrids, they never happen there. So Scar and Grian have never experienced anything like this, and the yank it has on Grian’s state in particular is startingly sharp and terrifyingly confusing.

Scar himself is alright, because—and the two of them don’t know this at the time—vexes are immune to the eclipse. 

Actually, that’s not quite accurate. The eclipse helps heighten their magic.

They thrive.

Grian does anything but thrive.

His instincts go absolutely batshit haywire. He starts getting disoriented and incredibly uneasy, anxiety holding him in a choke hold, and all rationality and caution leave him, replaced by pure fear. 

He starts making inadvertent chirping sounds, panicked, and no matter what Scar says or does, Grian can’t seem to stop.

It’s so dark outside. And Grian’s chirping isn’t the only one that sounds through the forest.

In a world where they thought avians might be all nearly hunted to extinction, there are now suddenly, in this darkness, piercing faraway chirps. Just as panicked and lost-sounding as Grian’s own.

But those are not the only sounds the looming forest has to offer.

There’s also hollering and cheers. Whistles and barks. Twigs snapping under careless boots. Hunter parties following every single hybrid noise right to its source only to slice it shut. Shrill, chilling screams before some hybrid inevitably plunges into absolute, horrifying silence.

Scar’s desperately trying to get Grian to shush. He pleads him to stop, to be quiet. Tries to calm him down.

But it’s all futile. Grian has no control over himself. He can’t make it stop; it’s a wholly new kind of fear, overpowering and unfamiliar, yanking at his instincts. (It feels, a little bit, like a huge moon crashing down while the ground underneath him shakes and disintegrates.) (It feels like locking eyes with someone and not being sure if he’ll ever get to see them again.) (It feels like apocalypse. Like the end.) (His mind screams at him and he can’t help but scream along with it.)

Scar wonders if he should put a hand over Grian’s mouth. He doesn’t know what to do, but the hunters are out there, in large numbers, tireless and eager, and Grian’s voice is now the beacon luring them over, pinging with their exact location.

Grian is slowly backing away, hunched, feathers puffed. His wings are semi-curled around him, no longer tucked under the cloak, even though they’re out in the open. 

He doesn’t seem like he’d do well with being touched.

But Scar needs him to be quiet. For Grian’s sake too.

Before Scar can do anything, though, Grian’s earwings flit wildly and he whips his head to the side, honing in on some noise.

It’s a distressed chirp, one that sounds closer than any of the other ones. 

It’s an avian in distress calling for help.

Grian thought there aren’t any avians but him, and now there is one, still alive, so very close, desperate for aid, and— Grian’s mind blanks. There’s only one single thing to do here. He isn’t thinking. His heart beats wildly in overdrive. His body moves.

Blindly, Grian bolts in the direction of the sound. 

And it’s up to Scar to scramble and run after him. 

It’s more than that. More than just following Grian. Because there is so much at stake, and he needs to stop him and quiet him and— And he might have to exert force, and—

Oh. He is basically hunting Grian down here.

He is the hunter following in the steps of a terrified avian.

And Grian, in his dazed and fragmented perception of the world, feels just like prey. There is so much happening for him right now: it’s dark and all he can see is Scar’s piercing vex eyes when he glances over his shoulder; he’s lost in panicky instincts, trying to reach another avian in distress, hurtling blindly towards potential danger; and he does feel hunted.

On top of that, he can’t stop the stream of bird noises. He can’t pull his wings under his cloak either. He’s stumbling and tripping and scaping himself all over, but he feels like he needs to keep running.

He no longer knows if he’s even heading the right way. The chirping he was following fell dead silent. His head is just screaming at him. Hot white panic and a cacophony of unstoppable, overpowering instincts.

Scar has to stop him before he gets himself killed.

As awful as it is, Scar doesn’t care about that other potential avian (it could be a trap) nearly as much as he cares about Grian. His priorities here are clear, desperation thick and loud in his lungs, pressing at his ribs. There’s no time for bargaining or for steeling himself. 

He needs to act.

Scar grabs Grian and tackles him to the ground.

He’s pinning him down, sort of straddling him, hands on Grian’s mouth, hopelessly trying to muffle the noises. He feels absolutely vile, but he doesn’t know what else to do. His breaths come in little sharp huffs of blue magic, shiny through the darkness as he expels a ton of emotional energy just to keep himself from panicking and crying.

He finds that it’s not as easy to hold Grian down when he doesn’t want to be pinned down. But also it is. It is easy, far too easy—harrowingly so. Grian’s so light. (It frightens Scar to even touch the thought of how simple this would be for the hunters too.) 

He’s terrified of hurting Grian accidentally. He’s very capable of it; Grian’s made of brittle hollow bones after all, and Scar’s grip is a bit too strong, but he doesn’t have a choice here. Grian won’t stop thrashing, fighting to be freed. (But Scar knows that letting go would almost surely result in Grian’s death.)

And where Grian’s attention is kind of selective, not processing things at all, Scar’s attention is sharp—sharpened by panic—keenly attuned to their surroundings. He hears all the various noises come and go. Not necessarily chirps; other hybrids, too. Them falling silent. The hunters yelling. And the screams. God. The awful screams.

They’re all too far away for now, thankfully, but if Grian won’t stop, they’re bound to come this way. After all, if Scar can hear them, surely they can hear Grian too—?

Scar feels nauseous and horribly helpless. The hunters cheer and laugh as the hybrid noises go dead silent, one by one— only the hounds left barking and howling in their wake.

Scar knows that, even though it’s awful, they can’t help any of those hybrids. But he’s going to do everything in his power so that at least the two of them can survive this.

Despite all his (pointless) efforts, the hunters catch up to them anyway.

As they approach, Scar is struggling to quiet Grian down, and Grian isn’t thinking straight enough to properly fight. It’s the worst possible situation. 

There’s no point in quieting Grian down anymore when the hunters are right here though, and so Scar moves on the defensive, ready to give it all to keep Grian alive. The fight is ugly, drenched in frightening desperation; Scar is numb to the pain even when something tears. Grian’s chirps get worse. Warmth drips down Scar’s face.

But then a different sort of howling breaks through Scar’s mounting panic, and—

A group of wild vexes rushes in. Not to save Scar and Grian in particular; it’s just a lucky timing.

Because as it turns out, just the way hunters set off to hunt down hybrids during the eclipse, the vexes—who are more powerful at this time, magic thrumming strongly in their veins—set off to hunt down the hunters. So nicely accumulated for them. So loud. So easy to find. 

The vexes and the humans clash, and in the swell of the chaos, Scar manages to drag Grian away. 

He wants to keep going, increase the distance between them and everyone else as much as possible, but all too soon the forest opens up into fields, and no way he’s pulling a dazed Grian out there where they can’t hide. So instead he swerves, anchoring them against a rock formation—an array of boulders and a jagged cliff wall. 

He presses Grian into a small dent there, covering him with his own body (imprisoning him there, in a way). Hiding Grian’s wings, muffling his chirps, whispering frantic things that are meant to be soothing. The sky is still dark, and Grian’s still chirping, although it’s quieter now; it’s clear he’s exhausting himself, but he’s still making noises. Still unable to stop, despite the terror and the fatigue.

They get found again.

But it’s not the human hunters that find them this time. It’s the vex group, sneaking up on them, all their sharp edges drenched in blood, glowing with magic.

Scar turns his back to Grian, still pressing against him, tucking him against the rocks, hiding him as much as possible. He’s ready to lash out. He’s ready to fight with these vexes, even if he’s outnumbered. (He’s got no species loyalty here, after all.) 

In a curious tone, one of the vexes says: “That avian is going to get you killed.”

The words register to Grian through the haze. He’s still absolutely lost amidst this all, barely understanding the world around him, struggling to process anything. But there’s something about the words avian and get you killed, and the thought of Scar, that makes it through the fog.

It only serves to make him more distressed. He breathes in sharp, shallow breaths, and his chirping grows louder again, high pitched. But it’s not just the chirps this time. Some of the sounds he makes are choked, merging into something more like himself—the sound of helpless sobs.

Scar is shielding Grian with his back, but that means he’s turning his back on Grian’s cries and all of his misery. He cannot comfort him. He has no words that would make Grian not afraid right now.

The vex suggest leaving Grian or—worse—using him as a bait.

Scar’s staring them down, growling lowly, one eye squinted as blood runs down his face. “How about you leave.”

The vex don’t budge. They think they’re after a good thing here, after all. Surely, Scar also wants these hunters dead?

What they’re suggesting isn’t to sacrifice Grian as a bait—they don’t actually want to outright hurt or endanger him, even if it maybe doesn’t translate well through their stance and words. They’re not malicious in that way. What they’re suggesting is simply pragmatic in their minds. (I mean, they wouldn’t grieve if the avian happened to die there, but it wasn’t their goal to let it happen.) 

“We’re hunting the humans,” they note, as if that should’ve been enough to sway Scar. “We could use the avian—”

“No.”

One of the vex, white hair braided and smile sharp, peeks past Scar, trying to glimpse the feathers. The violet shade reflected in the glow of their magic tells him everything he needs to know, sating his curiosity, and he whistles, impressed. Amazed that an avian like this has lasted so long.

Scar lunges at him for getting too close.

He gets laughed at in return. What’s he gonna do, all alone? Not even channelling his magic to heal his own wound. It’s just funny to them. Cute. “What’re you going to do?” they tease, a bit too cheerily for the situation at hand. It rings threatening. “You’re outnumbered, pal.”

Scar doesn’t back down. “I’d take at least one of you down with me.” It’s a big statement. Covering up all of his nauseating fear and unending tension. Because he’ll do it. He’ll fight if he has to, and it will be ugly, and he might fail—he might die—but he’ll for sure give it everything he has.

And he can tell there’s camaraderie between this group of vexes. That they don’t really want any of them seriously hurt. 

They, as vexes, know the best how dangerous a feral, cornered vex with something to protect can be.

There’s a sliver of respect this earns Scar, unbeknownst to him. The will to stand up to them even when he’s outnumbered like this. To not give in to the pressure and instead fight for his values. For what he cares for.

The white haired vex—seemingly a leader of the group of sorts—reiterates, tone a bit lower, that the avian is going to get Scar killed. That he’d be better off without him. (Essentially voicing the deep rooted fear Grian already has.)

He also extends an invitation, almost in the same breath, impressed by Scar standing up to them. But it’s only Scar who is invited, and it’s blatant—the condition laid down is drop the avian or let’s use him as a bait and hunt together. 

With sharp ire and a swell of protectiveness, Scar counters that he’d be better off without them, actually.

There’s a snort and a mocking, “Aight, let’s see how long you can last.”

The relief Scar feels when they relent and leave is immense, leaving him weak in his knees.

He thinks they’re foolish, risking themselves like that. In his mind, they’re the definition of the violent vex, that dark reputation that seems to now stick to Scar and follow him too by the virtue of being the same kind of hybrid. He doesn’t want anything to do with that. 

And of course, he’d never leave Grian.

Grian is his last connection to home. He loves him, even if it never feels like it’s enough.

Excruciatingly slowly, sun eventually peeks back out. But even then, it takes Grian a very long time to untangle himself from these dazed, nonsensical instincts. It’s such a heavy, sticky veil and he’s left disoriented and confused for the longest time. Through his exhaustion, he feels weak and dizzy and out of it.

Scar is also exhausted, but they’re nowhere near safe yet. Still pressed against the rocks. Every nerve ending is flared up, Scar’s senses alert to the point of flinching at the subtlest sound, hypervigilant. But as Grian slumps and quiets down, Scar’s firm grip on him follows. 

Slowly, so slowly, Scar’s hold on Grian becomes comforting instead of restricting and terrifying.

He can tell that it left bruises.

Scar hates everything about it, but— They’re alive.

The sun is back, Grian is quiet, and they’re alive.

But they still need to find safety. And Grian’s so frazzled, still processing what even happened. The blurred memories of chirps and howls and screams swirl through his mind. He feels lightheaded, and like his skull is stuffed full, unable to think clearly. He doesn’t quite understand any of it, and his body feels locked in place. 

Grian wants to stay sitting here until everything starts making sense, but they don’t have that kind of time. They can’t stay. They need to move. They need to properly hide. 

Scar feels awful, but he needs to push through. He needs to force Grian to move.

The snow is splattered with blood. The forest is dead silent, scattered bodies left behind all across it. The area is riddled with traps, some activated and others still hidden, waiting to be triggered. 

The sun is shining.

The silence is eerie.

The scent of blood is thick and fresh and nothing feels safe.

--

Later, when Grian’s more coherent, he says, “They were right.” In an incredibly quiet, fragile, unsteady voice—but laced with determination—he tells Scar: “You should’ve taken their deal.”

Scar immediately tries to dismiss it. Preferably to not engage with this conversation at all. “Not interested.”

Grian registers the shut down of the discussion, but that doesn’t make it any less loud inside of his mind (and heart). He simply goes quiet and withdraws. Lips pursed, lightly frowning, staring somewhere away.

They don’t talk about it again.

Late at night, when Grian can’t sleep because he’s too high strung, he thinks of how it’d feel like, to be used by those vexes as a bait.

He dreams about it.

He dreams of faraway chirps and laughter and hounds finding him.

He has so many nightmares after this.

-------

BONUS screenshot for shits n giggles:

[motherforthefamicom]

uhhh drawing from today =] love these two sm

[aliferous-ly]

As a joke, Cleo positioned themself on a blank armor stand and posed. Due to their less than human attributes they could attain unnatural stillness, of which they took full advantage.

It worked perfectly. Joe meandered through their base, bypassed Cleo entirely, and they jumped out at him. He shrieked loud enough to worry the neighbors, if the hermits were the sort of neighbors to worry about wayward shrieks. Which, of course they weren't, if hermits took notice of every yell they'd never get anything done.

Cleo cackled. It was perfect. Joe said they blended in real well with the other armor stands, y'know, they really had a talent!

Cleo bowed playfully. All in all, great prank, 11/10, would try again.

Because there wasn't a single part of them disconcerted by just how well the prank had worked. They weren't that good. They weren't a decoration.

So! Since everything was great and they felt great about it, they were definitely going to try for the next hapless hermit to grace their door.

[littleplantfreak]

I DARE U to assign a hybrid type to each of ur mooties 👹👹👹

i will take your dare! However I have many moots and I’m not sure if any have an ick about hybrids so! If you’re my moot and want an assigned hybrid based solely on vibes, like or interact with this post and I’ll make a post later after work!

[tributes-vamps-and-ginnyweasley]

Ah, the flashbacks hit hard. You did a great job describing the Fandom at the time. It was rough.

I've watched Legacies and I have mixed opinions on it. If you're looking to watch it just for closure from TO, I would suggest skipping it. Honestly, the lack of recognition of TO characters/relationships was extremely frustrating at times.

There were guest appearances and occasional references, but I felt disappointed by it and so did most of the Fandom that came from watching TVD/TO first. They barely mention Hayley and bring Klaus up to haunt Hope, but it's repetitive and a little exploitative without ever really offering lasting closure imo. I think it did well at some points, but was overall disappointing. And the relationships Hope has with her family in s5 are basically ignored in Legacies to make her seem more isolated/like a lone wolf.

I think Legacies' greatest weakness was it's lack of true character development. And the most frustrating part was that there were episodes that showed amazing development and then the next few episodes acted like it never happened. Or the characters around them acted like it never happened. I think Hope is a major victim of this.

The biggest victim of this imo is Lizzie Saltzman, though. I won't get started there though. That rant may never end.

Anyway, Legacies has some really great moments and some nice callbacks and references. However, I don't think it offers much in terms of closure. And I wouldn't exactly see it as a proper spin off of TO. If you go into it expecting it to relate to TO and wrap things up/make the sting of that final season a little easier to bear, I think you'll be disappointed.

Hi. I don't remember any TO blogs and it's been so long. I started Tumblr because of TO but never finished season 5 until yesterday. I'm curious; what was the general consensus about season 5? What did people think? What did they think of the ending? Hopefully this is an appropriate place to ask this.

Hi there!

This is definitely the place to ask. And also.. oh boyyyyyyyy. OH BOYYYYYYYY if you're not reviving years old discourse.

Dear friend, it was chaos. Chaos I tell you. The klarliners were crying foul in one corner because they thought KC would be endgame. The Haylijah shippers felt robbed of their ship's reuinion. The Klamille fans were drilling a hole in the wall with their pain because they never had a chance. Everyone was yelling at the klaroliners for joining the show so late and being butthurt about not getting their ship when they didn't support the show at all. The Hayley fans were ANGRY. Elijah's fandom was a mess. Klaus's fans were confused. Everyone wondered why we had a death of a major character was followed by a wedding three episodes later. And everyone wondered why, why oh why, were they setting up a spin-off when we had so much storyline to wrap up. And I was in the corner wondering whether I can feel the ending was good but also kinda fucked at the same time?

In a word, it was chaos. I think the vast majority of people did not like it. In retrospect, I still think it was a good ending, thematically, for Klaus. But Elijah's death? That only made sense with the season 5 arc, not the whole show's arc. And since season 5 largely sucked, It Is Not Valid.

Anyway, this brings back memories.

-Sahar

[biting-miguel-ohara]

If you ever write pup!reader again, could we see next time logan hitting it from the back, gripping his boys tail as a way to keep him steady and pull him back onto his thrusts. Ik he'd grip it and stare down at his pups other juicy hole 🔥 idk i just find that so hot 🥵

Thank you for the request!

I tweaked it a bit (hope that’s okay)

But it’s been written and will be posted later today!

[butchyena]

my gong bao peppers arent turning red so i picked one and took a righteous bite cause i was worried they wouldnt be spicy yet. anyway i just spent four minutes coughing and my lips are numb

[hepbaestus]

Familial Souls AU relationship overview 3/5

This is going to be a little bit of backstory on a couple/few characters which is not likely to be fully showcased in the fic.

Baghera + Pomme

There are trigger warnings for this one, so beware that there are mentions of death, teen pregnancy (not Baghera) and death of a child

Baghera grew up in a small, very isolated village under the rule of a subsect of the government which enforced strict curfews and other such rules. (Federation vibes, y'know?)

She had a sister named Birdie, a few years younger than her, who became pregnant as a teen. It was a difficult pregnancy for Birdie and she later passed not long after giving birth.

Because of the strict rules of the village, Birdie did not have access to the right help and so did not know the sex of her child, or children as she'd never find out. But she had told Baghera in confidence that she believed she was having a girl.

The one name that Birdie did have planned was 'Pomme Lumi', Birdie had told Baghera that she used that in hopes that her child would forever see the light in the darkness of the world. Birdie was very much a hopeful, glass half full type of person.

Baghera had to name the second and she named her 'Hope Jay', to also honour Birdie's hope for her kid(s) and after Birdie's best friend Jaiden who had mysteriously moved out of the village at a young age.

Hope was a frail baby, having not received as many nutrients in the womb as Pomme had and passed away one night after catching an illness from an unknown source.

It was not long after that Baghera and Pomme left the village.

Baghera, Pomme and Hope all shared the same Familial Soul Colour. (When a person in a Familial Soul Family passes, the colour stays where it is on the hand, it does not go down as if one part of it is being taken away.)

Baghera raises Pomme in the main town where we'll see our characters (name tbd).

[kuukorppi]

Could I ask for some tidbits about Usva? In particular, I know they’re water/quintessence, so Im curious what their abilities are that relate to that! Maybe also just some trivia that not everyone may know about them? I love that tiny ghoul💜

Right, okay. Let’s start with water since it is their main element.

Usva can conjure water almost anywhere, either gathering it from nearby (lake, air, plants, ground etc) or from ”nowhere” as the element of water is in their being.

On a related note they can move themself with water like Moana in the disney movie. They mostly do it to get themself back in the lake shore after Hiillos yeets them in there. (That’s a whole story.)

One cool ability I also gave them is bloodbending, since blood has water in it Usva is able to manipulate it.

Moving onto quintessence. Usva was unaware of that part of their power until very recently before popping up at the Abbey. It is not their strongest gift but with Astra’s help they’ve learned to control it. Their main use for it is healing. They’re not particularly gifted with the whole ”spiritual” side of it. But it does help them to be able to feel out others moods.

Being a siren and having unknowingly used quintessence their whole life to charm speak and sing they have a strong affinity for vocal healing with quintessence.

Hence why Terzo took interest in them and ended up making them a permanent part of the tour crew to help soothe all the band’s singers vocal cords on tour.

Later Usva became a singing coach at the Abbey.

Some other fun trivia:

- Usva has a back fin and a spiked tail which glow silvery blue. Like Toothless’ back ”spikes” (Idk what to call them) in HTTYD 2

- Usva has a very creature way of moving, think of Valka in HTTYD 2. This comes from being all alone and feral in the Pit since very young.

- Usva has a cat called Cataria.

[crescentfool]

bonerattle arena fucks severely. i was not expecting it to rival my love for jammin' salmon junction, but wow. this map feels like a love letter to people who love and enjoy salmon run. (i ended up playing the rotation for around 3.5 hours... which you can watch here if you like!)

the map's circular shape on normal/high tide effectively makes the spawns from this map come from every angle. it's a test of awareness and movement skill- and the walls + inkrails really, really make rotating around the map feel so fluid and easy.

and low tide's hexagonal two-ring design is so fascinating too! instead of testing movement, it tests your team's ability to make judgment calls on luring and making sure you don't overwhelm basket from luring too much.

i also feel that every special in salmon feels really rewarding to use on this map- even reefslider! i've played enough to see that most specials bring so much utility and value, and i just love that no special feels like it's "useless" on this map.

there's also a few flyfish tech on this map that echoes the bomb tricks on jammin' salmon junction and spawning grounds (and i guess gone fission too), it feels really intuitive on what spots can pop two baskets at once (it's the grates and the rails) and i just? feel really rewarded for playing as much salmon as i do.

i feel that the map's inclusion of the ink rail mechanic evokes a lot of similar vibes to ruins of ark polaris- and i really liked that! there's definitely some things i want to fine tune and understand better about them, but they're really fun.

i still need to see how other weapons feel on this map, but it feels like both mobile and stationary weapons can exceed here- there's nice perches for long range weapons, lots of walls for quick weapons to use to escape situations... it's so swag...! a very good final map, i think!

[majorshatterandhare]

I started a piece of art today which is based on some plant species* that I think would be good to colonize Tim in @gunpowder-tim’s headcanon of the Persephone Tim headcanon; so it’s art based on a headcanon of a headcanon of a headcanon 😅 [sweat simle emoji].

It’s gonna take a long time I think, but I am planning on posting it here even though it’s just gonna be plants and no Tim (because I am much better at drawing these little doodle plants than drawing people).

*so the art is basically of real species we have on Earth, but I maintain that they wouldn’t have the same plants on the City, so in my brain his plants are just similar to these ones.

[littleocean-rose]

these three pics alone make me want to write an angsty san fic-

[yanban-san]

I'm not going to lie your Eldritch Submas gives me severe brain rot, especially with the most recent post- the protectiveness, the love, THE FLUSTERING IS ALL SO 😩😩

Aw thank you! I'm really glad you like it <3 I will not make promises but I'm starting to feel the writing groove again.

[nklsdttr]

here's the deal , y'all ( potentially unpopular opinion ahead ) i'm not / entirely / opposed to mikaelson oc's but not when it completely undermines the rarity of a CANON character's existence

[angstandhappiness]

NEAT

so basically aasimar are weird and their kids are weirder thanks for listening to my ted talk

(bonus rascal, gnome with outfit)

[t4toro]

pile of oc stuff i’m proud of and that i’ve never posted anywhere b4 cuz i h8 insta and twt