#might add more to this idea later

[pilots-and-protons]

Had a crazy idea the other day, when I was thinking about how Tom Paris is one of the only main crewmembers who didn't have some kind of Borg stuff happen to him (other than the Doctor, of course).

Obviously Seven is already borg, but Chakotay briefly experienced the mini-collective in "Unity", Neelix and Harry were both cured by Borg nanoprobes (plus Harry had started to be assimilated by the Borg children), and of course Janeway, Tuvok, and B'Elanna were briefly assimilated too.

But because I'm me, I started pondering about "Threshold" and the fascinating potential of Tom being everywhere in the universe simultaneously, but how it all "slipped away" when he tried to remember - to process it after the fact. Because surely, a human brain simply can't comprehend something of that magnitude.

But what if it all was still there - just inaccessible, in a way. I imagine it would be like trying to run a game on a computer that isn't powerful enough - the basic game can download (barely), but if you actually tried to play it, nothing would properly load or function. What if everything Tom experienced at Warp 10 was in there somewhere, but just too vast and incomprehensible for him to access?

And then what if a Borg drone tried to assimilate him?

I like to imagine a scenario where Tom gets caught on an away mission during some Borg fiasco - but when those tubules go into his neck, when the drone links into Tom's mind to bring him into the collective, that Borg gets the surprise of a lifetime. Suddenly it's not one human brain unable to access this vast expanse of experience and memories - it's millions of species, working like one giant super-processor, and suddenly that "inaccessible" part of Tom's mind comes flooding out.

It would be like sending a feedback-loop through a machine to short-circuit it. Suddenly every Borg on the ship (maybe even others close enough within the collective hivemind), are flooded with more information and memories than they can possibly process at one time, coming from a singular source. Every cybernetic implant in the drone who initiated the assimilation overloads, and it collapses in an unresponsive heap.

Of course, Tom would hardly be much better off. It's like his brain exploded, first forced to try and comprehend the expansive collective of the hivemind, then flooded by memories and experiences he thought were all lost. Everything he saw, everywhere he was - all mixed in with the terrified screams of thousands of voices being overwhelmed and dying. When the drone collapses, Tom follows suit - his poor human brain unable to comprehend it all and shutting down to save itself.

When the others find him, he's unconscious, blood oozing from his nose and the injection sites in his neck. He's pale and clammy, but not the ashen color of a freshly-made Borg. The drone is lying beside him, dead - yet signs of struggle are clearly minimal. No one is sure what actually happened.

Tuvok and whoever else are in the away team are all completely perplexed. One moment they were trying to fend off the Borg in other parts of the Cube, then they heard Tom's screams echo through the ship and suddenly one by one, every drone seemed to fritz out and collapse. B'Elanna and Harry try checking the Borg systems, but they can't understand what they're seeing. All they can tell is that it looks like something burnt out every system, spreading from the inside out - both in the ship and the drones themselves like some kind of cascade failure.

Taking their chance to escape, the away team beams back to Voyager, with Tom sent straight to sickbay. When the Doctor gets ahold of him, he's shocked to see that the assimilation process had been started - but something had halted it. Nanoprobes have to be removed from Tom's body, but the interlink node that should have connected him to the collective is completely burned out even before the Doctor removes it. After surgery to remove the Borg tech and to repair some damage done to Tom's brain, they have to wait for him to wake up.

In the meantime, the other senior staff share what they know and what knowledge they gained from the Borg cube. B'Elanna and Seven come to the conclusion that there was some kind of cascade failure, and that the interconnectedness of the Borg meant that when it hit one, it hit all the rest. Janeway is excited by the prospect - that the Borg's greatest strength, their hivemind, could become their downfall if they can only figure out how to recreate what happened. Seven takes what scans she can from the Cube's systems before they depart, but it will take time to reconstruct all the damaged and fragmented data.

Of course, when Tom wakes up in Sickbay, he's initially pretty disoriented. He doesn't remember exactly what happened, too confused by the voices from the collective, and once more unable to comprehend the Warp 10 experiences. He explains that he remembers feeling the injection tubules piercing his skin, feeling terror and disgust at the idea of losing himself as a Borg, but then it's like... static in his brain. Just a faint memory of pressure and pain that he can't understand. When the Doctor assures him that there's no longer anything physically wrong with him, Tuvok suggests that perhaps a mind-meld will be able to help them. Tom's memories may be fragmented due to his injuries and the trauma of the experience, but Tuvok may be able to parse out what happened with the Borg.

The Doctor is, as usual, skeptical of the dangers of such a thing - especially so soon after Tom's recovery. But when he hears what the others experienced and why Janeway wants to know what happened, Tom agrees to the meld anyways.

Meanwhile, I also like to think that this strange occurrence was felt by the Borg Queen. Due to the time it would likely take for information to reach the center of the collective, I imagine only the drones closest to the away team's Cube would have been destroyed or otherwise incapacitated. Because of this, the Queen would have some knowledge of what happened - gleaned from fragments of the dying drones' collective consciousnesses. Mostly, she just felt hundreds of drones inexplicably ceasing to function and knew that, at the heart of it, somehow the crew of Voyager were involved. So she sends out a sort of scouting party, to find the ruined cube and to gather more information. Whatever had created this unknown threat - it has to be eliminated.

Back on Voyager, the meld doesn't exactly go as planned. Tuvok had melded with Tom once before after the Banean incident - but this was entirely different. He sees, experiences the sensations, as Tom is captured and the tubules are injected. But then everything becomes... almost incomprehensible. There is pain, fear - and the voice of the collective, their multi-faceted mantra of "resistance is futile, prepare to be assimilated". But intercut with this is something else entirely - space, a shuttlecraft, a feeling of inexplicable freedom. Then Earth, Starfleet headquarters, and a Klingon battle cruiser - voices from the Romulan high counsel, and the inside of an abandoned Cardassian station. Even more flood his mind - some arguing Kazon, though it seems to be a sect unfamiliar to them, a planet unknown to Federation star charts, creatures and places and people that Tuvok has no point of reference for. The images and sensations keep overlapping and coming faster, more intense, until Tuvok can also feel the screams of the Borg, feels the pain pain pain - and he has to force himself to sever the link before his own mind is drawn asunder.

In Sickbay, he stumbles back, caught by Janeway and Chakotay. Tuvok is surprised by the toll such a meld had on him, and even more so at the blood dripping from his own nose. Janeway kindly brings him a tissue and asks if he is alright. The Doctor is hovering, going back and forth between scanning Tuvok and Tom - the latter of which is only just coming around. He eventually asks what happened, trying to sit up but being overcome by a wave of dizziness. The Doctor insists he lie down, and for once Tom doesn't argue. He does admit, however, that partway through the meld it was like his mind just hit a wall and he must have passed out. He doesn't really remember anything.

After much fussing and a few hyposprays, the Doctor tells them that both Tom and Tuvok will be alright - but that they both need to rest for at least the next twenty-four hours. Whatever happened put a great deal of strain on their bodies both physically and mentally, and he once more chides Vulcans on their "recklessness in playing with the humanoid brain". He also give Tom a mild sedative to ensure that he doesn't try to overexert himself.

While Tom sleeps, Tuvok takes the time to meditate and regain his bearings. Afterwards, Janeway brings him some tea in her ready room and asks if he can try to explain what he saw. Tuvok says that the experience was quite disturbing, but that after familiarizing himself with Tom's records, he has begun to come up with a plausible hypothesis. He says that many of the things he saw in Tom's memories shouldn't have been possible - such as the unfamiliar Kazon sect, and the various worlds and humanoids that they have no record of. When Janeway asks if this could have come from the Borg, Tuvok says that it is unlikely - each person's perception leaves a sort of imprint on their own memories, like an artist's signature or the codes used to denote a federation signal in a communique. While the thoughts of the collective were briefly present in Tom's mind, as soon as he became linked to it, these other memories exploded out. The only explanation Tuvok can offer forth is that Tom's brain retained some encoding of his experiences with transwarp flight, which were previously too vast for him to consciously comprehend. The capacity of the humanoid brain to process information must have expanded exponentially with the aid of the collective, and these experiences were once again accessible. However, the onslaught was too much for even the Borg to handle, which completely overloaded their inorganic systems.

He expresses that it seems, Tom unintentionally became a living, breathing Trojan Horse for the collective - without anyone being aware of it. The supposed "weapon" that Janeway was hoping for is, unfortunately Tom Paris himself.

[andykilgore]

Yknow what? I really don’t blame all the TikTok users for not moving to Tumblr. I’ve noticed a lot have come here, but MOST of them moved to Rednote. And it’s because Tumblr is simply a different genre - it’s something I thought of when i read all those ‘tips for refugee’ posts - this is NOT a video platform. Tumblr is, in fact, pretty bad about videos. Posting funny videos of your dog, or news videos or edits or gameplay won’t work here, you won’t get interaction - and THATS what TikTokers want. Interaction.

Tumblr is not a ‘blow up and have fans’ website, this is more of a ‘talk about your niche interests with strangers’ website. In the least mean way possible, I don’t know if it’s possible to convert a community built on the mindset of views and interaction to a community built more on just sharing ideas.

I had the same issue moving to Tumblr, I only got this app to share characters. But I had come from YouTube, and I remember first couple weeks on Tumblr were ROUGH because it hurt bad to not get interaction. There isn’t an algorithm here, it’s disorienting when your only previous platforms have one. You feel like you’re failing at the website if you don’t get interaction.

I’m not saying it’s impossible for TikTokers to move here, but they’ll need to adapt in more ways than just what the big ‘for the refuges’ posts are helping with. They need to be able to change their whole mindset on this website, and simply telling them clout means nothing won’t do a thing.

[bluerosefox]

For Them

About to go to bed and this plot idea came into my head so I'm gonna be quick.

Danny and Dani (or Ellie) are on the run from well... everything. (Bad Fenton parents? Vlad? GIW? IDK pick)

They almost escape into the zone when Ellie gets hit by something that starts destabilizing her. They escape but toss themselves into a random portal that opened up and crash land in a dark gloomy city alleyway. For a moment they think it's okay, they're safe for now but they gotta keep moving. So they do, they run and run into the city until they find a place to finally rest.

It isn't until then they realize what's happening to Ellie. Her body is destabilizing now that the adrenaline she had was going down. She starts panicking and freaking out cause she knows they don't have any ecto-dejecto.

Danny, freaking out and desperate to save her freezes her body with ghost ice to make her stop melting (basically it doesn't hurt her despite not having an ice core but instead kinda puts her in a status)

And it works.

But it sends Ellie into a deep sleep as well.

Danny, stressed and on the verge of passing out from using his ice core (and willing some of his protectior spirit into as well to keep Ellie safe in the ice), looks up when he hears footsteps coming towards him.

He passes out when he realizes the place they had hidden in, a warehouse, had already been pretty cold even before Danny had used his ice powers.

When he wakes up, he realizes hes been moved from the warehouse and freaks out and tries to find Ellie. When he opens his door from the room he was in, hes greeted by cold (but Danny isn't bothered by it) and a man, a Dr. Victor Fries, who just so happened to had been at that warehouse that night looking into stealing some valuable equipment being imported but instead had watched a young, badly hurt teen desperately try to save and have to freeze his 'sister' as she was melting in front of him.

[milf-harrington]

hi i wrote a short little something inspired by this post bc it wouldn't leave my head

season 2 canon divergence, in the aftermath of Steve being taken in by Hopper (don't ask me why it's happened, bc i dont know it's just how the story took shape in my head)

--

Steve was pulling a pizza out of the oven when El drifted into the kitchen, bumping hear head against his arm like one of the Henderson's cats. Her hair was starting to curl at the ends, longer than when he'd met her.

"Can you please tell Hop to go to the store? We are out of Eggo's."

She was already holding the walkie when he turned to give her a look, eyes wide and quietly expectant in that intense way of hers. He rolled his eyes, sucking pizza sauce off his knuckle as he reached for the walkie.

They had a quiet stare-off as he held the button down.

"Hey Hop, you there? Over."

Soft static buzzed through the speaker as El leaned further into him, turning her gaze away to inspect the pizza, before Hopper's voice came through with a crackle.

"I'm working." A pause, and then a reluctant: "Over."

He and Hopper shared a similar opinion on walkie-talkie etiquette, but the kids were insistent so they did their best. El looked from the walkie and back to Steve without blinking. He sighed a short laugh. Pressed the button again.

"Jane needs you to go to the store. Over." Better to use her other name if he was working.

"Eggo's?"

"Eggo's."

Satisfied that her demand request had been passed on, El slipped out of the kitchen and plopped down in front of the tv, crossing her legs underneath her as the screen flickered to life. The remote remained untouched on the bench. She wiped her nose with her sleeve.

"Well, I currently have an 18 year old in the back of my car and I'll have to run him to the station first." Another pause. "-ucks sake, over."

The words fell out of his mouth without any real thought, a years worth of comfort in himself dissolving any filter he might've had. "Is he cute?"

The walkie crackled. Steve wanted to smack himself in the head with it.

"My son wants to know if you're cute."

Oh, he was going to kill him, even if he did feel warm and fuzzy over being called Hops' son.

"Uh, I want to say yes, sir?"

There was a second of loud laughter before the walkie cut off and Steve pressed it to his forehead in silent mortification. From the living area, canned laughter from Happy Days burst out of the speakers like the universe was mocking him.

When he looked up, El was smiling at the screen in bemused wonder, colours flashing across her face.

He cleared his throat, eyes shut as he held down the button again. "Please remember the Eggo's on your way home, we're having pizza. Over and out."

He pressed the antenna down for his own dramatics, before quickly pulling it back out again so he could be reached for emergencies.

It wasn't that big a deal, it's not like he'd ever actually meet whoever had been in the car.

[moeblob]

Reverse!Gavin

[thorough-witness-enjoyer]

Looking for Community Perspectives on Destiny‘s Themes and Main Conflict for a Cultural Project!

Greetings everyone!

I‘m currently working on a personal project that ties in Destiny‘s themes and main conflicts with encouraging people of my ethnicity to tell our own stories, even if they include thematic elements that may not be traditional in Western media or have been actively discouraged by oppressive powers in the past!

My focus will be on how others perceive portrayals of social issues/powers we have struggled against as they are depicted in fiction, and to bring Destiny to the table, I want to connect it back to the Witness as a main antagonist and people‘s understanding of the role it plays in Destiny‘s main narrative!

I‘m coming here to ask some questions and have a space for people to engage with the thoughts of others in order to understand what people take away from the story of Destiny! These questions are asked for the purpose of steering my further research and conclusions; nothing will be published and identities of those who participate are not recorded!

My main questions are:

1. What do you think Destiny tries to say about the nature of existence and humanity’s place in it with the philosophies surrounding the Veil and Traveler?

2. What do you think Bungie‘s intentions were with creating the Witness and it’s beliefs to be the main antagonistic force in the Light vs Dark saga?

3. How do you view the Witness‘ relationship with the Traveler and Veil (and what can that tell us about humanity)?

4. What stands out to you about the religious influences in Destiny‘s story and how do they enhance and/or diminish the narrative it is trying to tell?

5. Has any aspect of Destiny changed your worldview and why?

6. Do you believe the Witness to be an evocative villain? Why or why not?

7. Do you have personal experiences that affect the way you view the Witness?

8. Why do you think Bungie decided to make the Precursors and the Witness separate?

9. Why do you think Bungie made the Witness a collective of a civilization’s ethos instead of a singular being/person?

10. Is there anything about the Witness‘ design/influences behind it that you would like to point out (especially in regards to its nearly human look?)

11. What can be taken away from the Witness‘ methodology for obtaining disciples, what it seeks in a potential disciple, or the relationship it has with its disciples?

12. What lessons can be learned from the Witness‘ formation and the affect it had on the universe?

13. Do you have any resources (novels, shows, philosophical concepts, mythologies, etc.) that relate to Destiny‘s main themes or my inquiry in general?

Feel free to comment, reblog, or tag this post with any of your responses to any of the questions (or even any additional thoughts that are related!!) You don’t have to answer every question, so feel free to choose the ones that speak the most to you!

I also open my dms with welcoming arms as well if you have any follow up questions or resources that might aid in my project!

All and any help, even the mere act of sharing this post, is deeply appreciated as this project is very dear to me and I could use all the insight I could get!!

Thank you all for your time and I’m excited to hear from you guys!!

[mediocretosubpar-soup]

inspired by this post by @whumpbby and @marudny-robot but posted on its own because of the zhanchengxian vibes that don't fit the original post and the length. this really got away from me.

may i butt in here with the alternative idea of lan wangji and jiang cheng working together to revive wei wuxian?

for this to work three things must be a given a) jin ling must be grown up ideally with a family of his own b) yunmeng jiang inheritance is rock solid, c) the circumstances of wei wuxian's death must be harrowing. (yet another unasked for self-sacrifice would put jiang cheng into the correct headspace, i think)

so, lan wangji and jiang cheng work together to revive wei wuxian and they find out that the best body given the absence of an original body would be jiang cheng's.

lan wangji finds out first. this puts him at an impasse. because he does want wei wuxian back and he swore he would get him back morality be damned. and yet wei wuxian loved jiang cheng, unconditionally, beyond sense and reason. he would hate lan wangji for doing that.

lan wangji decides to test jiang cheng. he leaves the scroll for him to find. if jiang cheng reads it and never mentions it again, lan wangji can still decide to force him into the ritual. if jiang cheng reads the scroll and decides to go along. well, it's his choice, isn't it?

of course, the next day jiang cheng slams the scroll onto their shared table and says, he found a solution. lan wangji is stumped, he didn't expect jiang cheng to choose this. not really. so large is his surprise that he blurts out, why? do you want to die?

jiang cheng looks at him for a long moment, then his mouth twists into a wry smile. "i was always supposed to die for wei wuxian." he doesn't elaborate. instead jiang cheng sets a plan into motion, first he says, we must make sure that the other sects don't go to war with you. only, yunmeng jiang and jin ling will know of lan wangji's involvement, jiang cheng decides, if they find out some other way, they will assume you tricked me somehow. they'll probably still hate you but they won't persecute you or wei wuxian. the other sects can't know because that would damage lan wangji's reputation and your reputation is what protects wei wuxian.

as for wei wuxian, he doesn't need to know about your involvement, jiang cheng reasons, he hates other people doing what he does so callously and you'll be a prime target for his anger. lan wangji still shell-shocked by jiang cheng going with the self-sacrifice just stares. jiang cheng misinterprets his stare and goes, even if he does find out he'll forgive you, he only ever sees the best in you.

jiang cheng writes a few very long letters to jin ling, to his heir, his disciples.

"you're not writing to wei wuxian?" lan wangji asks.

jiang cheng puts down his brush. "it's better if he hears it from you." he explains. "my words, wei wuxian will find a way to twist them. he respects you, believes in you, it's safer for you to tell him if we want to stop him." lan wangji understands. "he'll try to bring you back." of course, wei wuxian loved jiang cheng. the man himself rolls his eyes, "yeah, the bastard thinks he's still indebted to my father."

"wei ying doesn't mention your father often. yet he speaks of you once a day, often more than that."

jiang cheng snorts, can't be anything good.

on the contrary, lan wangji drank vinegar more often than not when wei wuxian spoke of yunmeng jiang and the jiang siblings. adoration in every word about that past life. the vitriol he spared for jiang cheng of today and even for him his voice took on a wistful quality. if jiang cheng offered, would you still stay in gusu? lan wangji wondered in the morning gloom when wei wuxian still slept next to him. his mind only settled when he remembered that jiang cheng held nothing but resentment for wei wuxian and would never offer or ask.

"you don't think he cares for you." lan wangji concludes.

jiang cheng sighs deeply. "he didn't have much of a choice, did he?" he turns back to his writing. lan wangji cuts in, "you know better than to think him so opportunistic." jiang cheng pulls his hand from where it's reached for the brush and redirects his attention to lan wangji. "it's not opportunistic for an orphan to choose safety. maybe he was fond of me back then but he was young and didn't know what the world had to offer." lan wangji realizes, he isn't going to convince jiang cheng otherwise, unlike lan wangji, jiang cheng has no doubt who wei wuxian would choose.

-

"we have a problem." jiang cheng states because he doesn't believe in social conventions like greetings and disingenious niceties, a trait lan wangji begrudgingly approves of.

"wei wuxian will have access to his golden core once he's inside my body, he could fuck the whole thing up." yet another thing of jiang cheng's that lan wangji must bitterly approve of. jiang cheng, lan wangji has noted, never refers to the golden core as anything but wei wuxian's. lan wangji insinuated the same thing to wei wuxian only once and wei wuxian's face had gone dark. the next day, he went on an impromptu three months trip after which he acted like the words and their subsequent argument had never happened.

"are you listening?" jiang cheng's brow is furrowed. "listen, i know the plan was for you to find wei wuxian a few days later but if wei wuxian fights me, ...."

"back in the cave, wei wuxian always believed you would come for him." lan wangji says instead of anything reasonable such as i wonder if you're fully commited which would light a zealous fire in jiang cheng to prove him wrong. jiang cheng stares at him. "lan wangji, i've never beaten wei wuxian at anything. we can't fail."

he's not looking for reassurance. what could lan wangji offer him other than insincere (sounding) platitudes. jiang cheng is not a man who leaves things to chance, his planning is meticulous, he has considered the jianghu turning on wei wuxian, prepared enough money and identity passes to dongyin and beyond. he expects wei wuxian to resist maybe even to overcome him, lan wangji is supposed to be the ace up his sleeve.

something churns in lan wangji's insides, he nods his assent anyways.

-

wei wuxian fights, furiously, viciously. but jiang cheng is equally furious and far more vicious.

"didn't you say you wanted to live your life? that you wanted to see the world? what about all those talismans you were going to invent?" jiang cheng mocks the plans wei wuxian made, he must have been listening at every discussion conference at every night hunt. then even more cruelly. "what about the people you left? what do you think happened to your lan zhan?" it's perfect, wei wuxian falters, heart suddenly cleaved in two.

lan wangji has his fingers on the guqin's strings, he plays,

"--"

the summoning array goes dark, the body inside collapses. lan wangji shoots up and runs inside the cottage. the body is lying unmoving on the ground. lan wangji rushes towards it, he's killed them both, what was he thinking?

a fist meets his face, hard enough for bone to crunch and teeth to rattle. it's instinct more than will that responds to the attack, either man would have the right to kill him. he ceases his defense and allows the other man to throw him on the ground.

above him jiang cheng's face twists into a jovial grimace. "husband," wei wuxian says. "what have you done?" lan wangji sags in relief as wei wuxian carefully places jiang cheng's booted foot on lan wangji's sword hand.

there's a flaw in jiang cheng's plan that lan wangji never pointed out.

"we brought you back." lan wangji's never been able to lie to wei wuxian. the boot grinds down.

"we?" wei wuxian tilts his head. "who's this we you speak of, i wonder?" bones are ground into flesh. "you're here whole and hale."

and here's another flaw, lan wangji suspected but wasn't certain of until now. wei wuxian won't forgive him. which is fair, he's not sure he could forgive in wei wuxian's place. wei wuxian leans in.

"how did you do it?" if he presses down any harder lan wangji's hand will be ruined. "how did you convince jiang cheng to...." wei wuxian's voice breaks off.

"i put the notes on the table for him to see." lan wangji says. the next moment, wei wuxian's hands are around his neck. "some notes? as if that would have been enough?" his nails scratch at lan wangji's skin, no pressure on lan wangji's throat. lan wangji is glad for that, wei wuxian would be upset if killed him, he thinks. at the very least, he would be upset if he killed him quickly. lan wangj can't decide if fighting him or staying still would prevent that.

"did you tell him, i was better than him?" wei wuxian hisses as if he hasn't said that a thousand times. lan wangji doesn't think pointing it out would help. but wei wuxian's eyes take on a hysterical gleam. "and the fool believed it, didn't he? all your lies. of how he couldn't make anything out of himself without me, how he was only ever half as good as me? how everyone always preferred me?" wei wuxian jerks his hand back and brings it down in a swift strike.

the hand stops an inch from lan wangji's face. zidian sparks to life, whacks wei wuxian in the chest hard enough to knock him off lan wangji. the whip wraps around wei wuxian in tight coils. lan wangji sits up, avoids looking at his throbbing hand.

jiang cheng's face glares at him familarly. "lan wangji," its mouth spits. "how dare you mess this up? a wrong note? of all the things, i expected to go wrong, you weren't even in my cards." jiang cheng hangs his head. "trust a lan to screw me over." the body goes stiff. and then hisses, "you planned this together?"

jiang cheng laughs, "what did you expect us to just accept your magnanimous sacrifice? fuck you, wei wuxian. you fool. you idiot."

"and your plan was to kill yourself? great job, jiang cheng, very original."

"aren't you the one called a genius? how could we, the mediocre brained possibly come up with an alternative when your first solution to every minor inconvenience is falling on a sword?"

"minor inconvenience, we were trapped! we all would have died! you and lan zhan had better chances of getting out. it was obviously the best choice."

"you decided." wei wuxian and jiang cheng focus on lan wangji. "you never asked us what we thought."

wei wuxian glares at him. "i didn't need to. i could tell what you were thinking. between the two of you, the choice would have been jiang cheng. you because you love me. jiang cheng because he's still hung up on the golden core. i wasn't going to let that happen."

in lan wangji's head a youthful rage sprouts again, he can't open his mouth, he doesn't know what will come out.

"maybe so. but if only you were open to discussing anyone but you, who knows maybe the rescue parties would have found us before we got to a decision. too bad, we'll never know, wei wuxian because you went and tried to do everything on your own."

"that's a bit of a leap, no one even knew we had been on a nighthunt. there is never going to be any situation in which i'm going to let you die for me, jiang cheng. do you hear me? i don't care how you feel about it as long as you're alive to so."

"it still could have been me then." lan wangji interrupts their spat. one of them frowns at him like shufu frowns at imbecilic sect heirs. lan wangji thinks that must be jiang cheng.

"lan zhan, don't be ridiculous how is that any better? you think i wouldn't be devastated by your loss? where would i even go without you?" wei wuxian asks as if current events left any doubts.

"you could have brought me back. if you called, i would come." lan wangji states earnestly.

"unbelievable," mutters jiang cheng. as if he wouln't have helped wei wuxian steal the remains of the yin tiger seal, just like he followed them into the temple. and then the body keels over.

-

the ritual drained jiang cheng's spiritual reserves. it's only sleep. lan wangji drags them over to the comfortable cot to rest and hovers over them, whistling inquiry while feeding qi into jiang cheng's body.

a groan. lan wangji blinks, tilts and jerks up right. a dark eye slides open, blinks twice to focus.

"lan wangji, why the fuck haven't you taken care of your hand? what the fuck is wrong with you?" jiang cheng calls back zidian and drags himself from the bed.

"stay down." he snarls at lan wangji. he stumbles over to a cabinet from which he drags a medical kit. he comes back and begins pulling out supplies. "you didn't even cool it. can you bend."

"it's not broken." jiang cheng shoots him a dark glare. lan wangji refuses to cower under it. "no just bruised like.... what the hell was he thinking."

"i enabled you on a suicidal endeavour." lan wangji says. "i never expected another reaction." jiang cheng has a very narrow minded view of wei wuxian but even he isn't bold enough to deny that wei wuxian had been upset. "he would have gotten over it." which is a bold statement after hearing wei wuxian swearing that he'd do whatever it took to ensure jiang cheng's safety. jiang cheng peers closer at lan wangji's neck and huffs, "made a right mess." whether he's talking about lan wangji's neck or the entire day, lan wangji can't say.

[wazzappp]

@quasar-crew MY BRAIN FINALLY LET ME FUCKING DRAW SHIT LETS GOOOOOOOO.

Ok so all of these ideas are seriously impacted by quaser and polarspaz's amazing fic which you can read here and also this one called undertow. The combined might of these two fics are giving me brainrot that could make Ethan Winters jealous.

I love seeing everyone give Leon mandibles. Seriously. Mandibles for the win. Bug boys stay winning ong frfr. BUT. I wanted to try and do something slightly different because I saw the regenerators in the remake and went JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ITS HORRIFYING and then proceeded to watch like 3 speculative biology videos about how they work.

I have given himb. Teef. When in doubt just add more teef this always works no exceptions.

I had some VERY OBVIOUS Xenomorph inspiration I'm not even gonna pretend like I didnt. However I am very proud of his tail. Ive essentially created a design that allows it to turn into a saw once its impaled someone. If the blade of the tail gets caught halfway through someones torso? Shaboom. The spines flex and you've got an automatic bone saw now cut that guy in half.

I also have some speculation about how the plaga itself mutates the body.

Given that in game the infecting agent is called a 'toxin' I can only assume that the plaga is mutating its hosts with a geneotoxin. A genotoxin is a chemical agent that causes chromosomal damage and/or mutations. Usually these mutations refer to cancer, but the plaga could absolutely be making something specialized to mutate a host in a way it deems beneficial. This would mean that the plaga would probably be pulling nutrients/calories/protien/WHATEVER it needs from Leons body, and using it to create and refine this toxin.

Also, the black blood vessels leads me to believe that the plaga is spreading this toxin through the cardiovascular system, so I made a diagram that includes 'barbs' in the left ventricle and left atrium. I figure the toxin would be essentially 'hitching a ride' to the oxygenated blood that would then spread throughout the entire body. That also got me thinking about how much I see Leon coughing up some kind of black substance. I think that could be his body purging materials that the plaga has deemed 'waste'. So genetic material that it doesn't think is needed would be coughed up. So. Uh. I guess he's basically coughing up his own rotten insides. That gets worse the longer I think about it.

[tactlessrobots]

Orion doesn’t come back as a Prime after D16 shoots him, so megatron and the high guard keep firing at the city until eventually megatron and the guard get arrested. I’m gonna say by Ultra Magnus cause I think he could handle megatron. He may be powerful but I don’t think he has that much fighting experience. He got lucky with starscream when the cannon appeared out of nowhere and I’m gonna say sentinel didn’t have much fighting experience either as a former aide and once he became ‘prime’ he had arachnid. So now megatron and the guard are in prison and megs is not surprisingly ranting about how ‘the supporters of sentinel blah blah imprisoning them after liberating everyone from his tyranny’ and then megatron speaks to idk a lawyer? An enforcer? Ultra Magnus? And finds that he’s imprisoned for all the deaths he caused after killing sentinel

[mysterysnail]

thinking about the song on the eternal diva soundtrack titled “jenis (janice)’s tears.” and what an interesting choice it was to call it that.

this song plays in the scene where melina reveals herself to be inhabiting janice's body—a scene in which she expresses her shock at janice giving up control of her conscience; her joy at being able to finally live and thrive in the world again; her remorse in realizing how wrong this plan is, and her grief, but ultimate acceptance, that she can’t stay and must give janice her life back.

the whole scene is focused on melina’s emotions. how she’s felt throughout the whole process and what she believes now is right.

and yet the song isn’t called “melina’s tears,” or anything about melina. it’s “janice’s tears.” since this is literally the scene revealing melina has been acting as janice, i highly doubt the title-writer was just trying to maintain that secret. so why is it called that?

well, there’s the first answer that came to my mind, and what i assumed reading the title for the first time—it’s simply referring to janice’s grief over losing melina. that seems obvious as a read. melina is choosing to accept her own death, even as whistler and janice beg for her to stay, wrapped in their own grief. the song is shedding tears for melina rather than representing her own tears.

but that doesn’t feel like a truly complete answer. this is still a scene centered around melina’s perspective—why would its song be named for another character?

to figure that out, i want to return to the first statement i made regarding what melina says in this scene:

“…she expresses her shock at janice giving up control of her conscience.”

she’s shocked about what janice chooses to do in this situation. how janice feels about it. none of the other girls & women who whistler tested gave up their entire selves to melina, except janice. she felt so strongly about saving melina, that she gave up her own life just to let her live.

that is to say: janice’s tears are the reason melina got to live again. they allowed melina to feel shock, joy, remorse, grief and acceptance for the last time. and this scene would not exist if not for those tears. if not for janice.

[xejune]

pout

[cartoonsarelife11]

Part 2 to my DWD refs (part 1 is here)

[uwuinhell]

Yo so I checked ao3 and apparently there's ZERO 2012 Donnie/reader coffee shop au fics??? Not even one??? Which is honestly a crime imo

SO I decided to do it myself. But I'm not currently proficient enough in writing fics to actually make anything. Maybe I just need to think about it more/harder...

So I'm writing a.. drabble.. headcannon.. thingamajiggy.. idk what they're called, honestly.

—————————

2012 TMNT Donatello x Reader Coffee shop au ✨

---------

You work at a café, maybe a small mom and pop place, maybe one of a corporate line.

Maybe the café you work at is in a poorly-maintained area of the city and there's frequent power glitches.

(The café is used to this and is prepped for this scenario with at least one generator for all the appliances. As well as an abundance of candles and flashlights, which don't provide Fantastic lighting but it's enough to make by while they wait for power to come back.)

Donnie comes more often and stays a bit longer during these black outs. Otherwise he has only ever ordered to-go.

Donnie also prefers to come when it's less busy. Which is understandable, you don't like large amounts of people either.

Donnie disguises himself with a large hoodie (+ face mask?) and probably pants too. Or maybe a skirt, that'd be cute, I think.

Maybe he hides his hands with mittens or gloves. He'll play off the lack of fingers, if he's wearing gloves, saying it's because of an accident.

If he doesn't wear gloves or mittens he'll keep his hands in his pockets most of the time.

His skin is "like that because of a skin condition" he'll say. He only has 3 fingers because of a deformity, he'll say.

He either pays with straight cash or with a cash-app card. (Because how is a turtle gonna get money??) (The cash is taken from villains or found on the streets)

You don't question his behavior much, writing it off as him being insecure or shy or something.

After he returns a few more times you guys chat more and he meets you on your break to talk more.

After weeks, maybe months of him coming by to get his caffeine hit, it becomes your guy's normal to chill and chat on your breaks.

He also visits and hangs out before the café opens and after it closes sometimes.

[pinkeoni]

Will Byers & Bran Stark Connections

Recently I've been catching up on Game of Thrones after taking a break from the series awhile ago, and I started to think about how Will's powers in season 5 could be similar to Bran Stark's abilities. Considering how much the Duffers like to take from other sources, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case, and I believe they may have taken from GoT already.

(Spoilers for Game of Thrones btw)

For those who don't know, Bran Stark is the second youngest Stark sibling who gains magical abilities. Bran is something called a Warg, meaning he can go into the minds of animals and humans, and see through their eyes and control them. He has possesses an ability called the Sight which gives him prophetic visions. As the series progresses, he becomes more powerful, and is even able to influence past events and becomes practically omniscient. (x)

Some of Bran's abilities already remind me of what we saw with Will in season 2. His warging abilities reminds me a lot of Will's now memories. We haven't seen Will have any visions of the future yet, but we have had this line in season 3, which to me feels like very on the nose foreshadowing.

When Bran uses his powers, his eyes roll into the back of his head, very similar to what we see with Vecna victims in season 4. This also happens to people that Bran wargs in to.

Bran and Will are similar types of characters as well. Being small and defenseless, both rely on others for help in times of danger. But what they lack in physical ability, they make up for with mental abilities, such as Will using his now memories to spy in season 2.

I wonder if in season 5, the show will expand Will's abilities to be more similar to Bran's, such as receiving visions of the future, being able to see the past, or even as far as becoming omniscient or being able to influence the past. I think that this would be a logical progression for what we have already seen in the show, and makes sense with the "Will the Wise" label. And if you choose to believe in leaks, we have already seen talks of Will seeing visions in the new season 👀

[cobra-creampuff]

i feel like i remember people posting happy birthday character posts for mickey in june? is that right? well, even if he doesn't have a canon birthday (or if he does and it's. wrong.) he has a summer birthday To Me. and i've never seen a guy who is more obviously a capricorn than ian, so! if mickey's summer birthday is indeed in june specifically (i'm thinking cancer, but it would also be really cool if mickey and mandy are both gemini - twins who aren't twins), then mickey is technically two years older than ian for about half the time.

[troyssix]

songs that vaguely remind me of tmr:

what about us - p!nk (group a & group b alike just dissing WICKED/WCKD!! :D)

whatever it takes - imagine dragons

cigarette daydreams - cage the elephant (reminds me of newt specifically)

iris - the goo goo dolls (also reminds me of newt, especially after he got the flare)

the room where it happens - hamilton OG cast (i don't know why, it kinda just gives off WICKED/WCKD vibes)