#my brain is a wormhole of knowledge

[thelovelybitten]

more loonatics headcanons / shenanigans...

i've been on such a binge watch of lu that I just need to post abt it okay leave me alone

BUT I'VE NOTICED THINGS !!! (this is s2 ep4) !! you kind of get an insight of what they all like to do and things they enjoy with these bedroom stills.

ACE:

obviously: likes carrots, cute lil bunny.

HIS LIL DOORMAT DJSNGJSDNJK

i couldn't zoom in enough to see what's on his monitor but you know he likes to watch shows before bed. relatable content.

the fact he's got two side tables as well gives me eating in his bed vibes but also he'd be clean abt it. i also think he'd be a big comic book reader. not sure what, but he would be. I'll let y'all decide.

speaking on that, there's a shelf with books on the far right so yeah. i think he'd also read manga bc of his anime complex. he may also keep some sort of CDs ? maybe vinyls ???

i know this man keeps katanas and a dartboard in his room.

he's a snowboarder !!!! THAT'S SO COOL. he must be a god bc this man is AGILE.

he's got a skyline view PHEWWWWW rich ass mf

also. an aquarium on his right (our left) which is so fun I wonder what kinds of marine life they'd keep!!!

I'm also not sure what the compartment behind his head is for but I think its a closed-off bookshelf or space for his knick-knacks. i also see a fireplace too but idk how logical that is lol

LEXI:

NOW WHY SHE SLEEPING IN A HAMMOCK WHEN THE GIRLIE COULD HAVE A QUEEN SIZED BED ??? she's quirky like that ig. whatever makes her comfy. (I know she'd upgrade, I just know. just bc she can sleep anywhere doesn't mean she's always comfortable.)

a phone/pager by her bed is so real

THE WALLPAPER IS BEACHY IT'S SO CUTE

she's a SKIIER AND A SURFER. WHAT CAN'T SHE DO. (seasickness who)

cabinet obvi for storage, idk why she'd have anything important in there besides old childhood items it's so high up???

lower shelves are for books and things maybe. or video games.

AND DO YOU SEE THE AQUARIUM ??? THIS CONFIRMS THAT LEXI AND ACE HAVE NEIGHBOURING BEDROOMS AND NO ONE CAN CHANGE MY MIND. there has to be some type of barrier/wall between the two tanks for privacy reasons but I'M DEAD GNFDGNDJKFNJDFNKHK MY BABIES

opposing skyline views so iconic... i know she takes mad insta pictures (or duck takes them) to get good sunset shots

i believe the items on the table are her laptop, a makeup bag andddd maybe a clutch purse? just a guess bc they're so tiny.

laptop makes sense. it'd be hard but she could still try to get an education on the side??? lots of work for a girl but she's a boss like that.

makeup for obvious reasons

clutch purse for nights out

SLAM:

THE WAY I'D BE SO SCARED FOR THAT WEIGHT TO DROP ON MY HEAD. SLAM IS A TROOPER WTF

I remember sumth abt that cylinder thingy on the left but I can't remember what it's for yet. will update when the ep comes.

MANS IS AN INTELLECTUAL !! those are all comic books (like ace, they bond) and language workbooks.

the poster of pizza is SO REAL OF HIM

there's a teeny tiny chute beside his door and I wonder what it's for. maybe it's a scanner? idk

light above his head is also...a choice.

i'd like to think that the things at the end of his bed are air purifiers and that slam has some sort of breathing issue when he goes to sleep. maybe he grinds his jaw or is a mouth breather;;;

computer for gaming tings and other endeavours

A WHOLE ASS TREADMILL YEAH BUDDY U STAY IN SHAPE.

i know this man doesn't have a WHOLE ASS DRUMSTICK IN HIS BED. but makes sense. he totally eats in bed BUT IS MESSY ABT IT. duck and lexi HATE IT IT'S NASTY HAHAH they ask him to switch his sheets and vacuum almost everyday

DUCK:

THIS MAN IS SO CONCEITED I CAN'T Y'ALL.

but like ace, he also has a tv by his bed I know he and lexi would watch romcoms together

K-DRAMAS???? SPECIFICALLY SINGLES INFERNO (only bc s3 just came out, it's on the brain) duck just boasts abt how he's better looking than all of the other males while lexi is very much about the relationships/drama

his little peek-a-boo window behind his head is so cute :"))))

I have no god damn clue what that thing is beside him on the left but I'm sure it's important

but he wears headphones to sleep !!! must need white noise or rain to sleep

control panel for his lights and other digitally controlled shit in his room

THIS MAN HAS SO MANY MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ABOUT HIMSELF AND THE LOONATICS (but only bc he is in them, thank yew) I also think he'd carry a lot of fashion magazines too. things that are in. the second a fad ends he's done w it

I'm assuming this is an arcade game setup, but i think he'd love Mario kart :) him and tech love to battle on this but move it to the main room bc duck thinks tech is cheating bc "the screen is two small".

i know this man would sleep with mf silk sheets and a fleece comforter he's a bougie bitch

computer for obvious reasons

REV:

i had to include all four shots bc he is a sleepwalker/runner LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS ;U;

it looks like he sleeps in a casket-like bed (hence, the lid is open top centre) I believe he only has this open when he's awake so idk who forgot to close it. it needs to be closed so that when rev does actually get up and sleepwalks, he's contained. the last thing the loonatics want to wake up to is the house completely trashed bc rev had a dream he was running from something. so casket bed it was.

that's also why. he doesn't sleep with sheets. if he trips and falls oh lord. therefore he wears super warm pjs in the winter to not freeze to death

he's got a ton of books, rightfully so, I think he and tech would share this bookcase because it would have different manuals, blueprints and miscellaneous mechanical guides. robot guides. that too. i also think rev would be that person who re-reads his childhood books over and over again and not get sick of them ever

there is also a treadmill in this room I just know it

a tv as well. idk where, but I hc it's there.

TECH:

thanks for giving me nothing to work with here

I kind looked forward into the ep and there's a smidge of the bedroom in a frame but idk what the other shit could be

but I know his room is very clean. it's SPOTLESS. everything is organized and well put together.

I'm going to ignore the fact he suckles his thumb bc this man is 24 years old BYE

there's a whole bunch of ai robots in there to do anything he wants.

he is also the other loonatic who has their own bathroom. he only got it bc he won the straw draw. well, ace won technically, but gave it to tech bc he was the oldest and would keep it in the best shape. duck still hasn't forgiven him for it.

he shares it with lexi since she's the only lady in the house :) ain't no way she shares with the boys.

the others share the other bathroom. one more gets installed later but the other four are SOL

tech also has a nice walk-in closet

he needs to take melatonin b4 bed bc this man is noctournal

has drones scattered on shelves, ones he's built and ones he's collected from professors and other inventors

AAAAND THAT'S IT. THANKS FOR COMING TO ANOTHER TED TALK LOL I'MMA GO FINISH S2 XOXO

[conflictofthemind]

Montauk, The Project Rainbow, and Experiments in Time

It’s fairly common knowledge that Stranger Things is based on Montauk. The unfortunate part is that Montauk has been attributed to another ‘vaguely MK-ULTRA mind control related side project’ and not the big narrative that it is, with details incredibly close to plot points in Stranger Things that resulted in an attempted lawsuit years back. Montauk does not just set the general ‘spooky scientific experiments on kids’ tone for ST - it is the backbone of the whole lore. 

‘The Montauk Project’ Book / Conspiracy explained simply is that the US government unofficially experimented on humans with ‘great psychic ability’ to allow their psychic brain waves to interact with the normal electromagnetic waves of our world. The end goal being manifesting thoughts into reality, and opening up wormholes in time. This would give the military great advantage and potentially control over the outcomes of war. It then turns out the whole narrative of Montauk occurs within a time loop from 1943-1983, when the disappearance of a ship called the USS Eldridge opened up a wormhole which was connected with by a research subject in 1983. The time loop is self-causing - the entire reason the Montauk experiments take place are to further study the events that occurred on this ship, but part of the reason the ship disappears is because of the Montauk Project. Due to all of the other time travel references within the series - trust, we will get into those - this leads me to believe it’s very unlikely there isn’t time travel / a time loop involved. Here I hope to posit the basic information about Montauk/The Philadelphia Project, how the powers work within ST, Will’s clear involvement in all of it, and the time travel element. 

Ahahaha why does that look like a bowl-cut…

Let’s put this out of the way first: the idea that Montauk/Philadelphia is the direct inspiration for the show is not based on flimsy grounds. The original series the Duffers planned to make was going to be an actual retelling of Duncan Cameron’s (think El and Henry - main research subject of Montauk) story. This was later changed to become the story we know today with the characters we know today, although with different names and the title remaining Montauk. Some of the characters had names from Montauk too… like Mr. Clarke being Mr. Nichols. I’ll save that for a later post. The entire design of HNL is based off of the ‘Camp Hero’ / Montauk lab with the iconic banana-shaped radar disk. El’s Void ability comes from the ‘Seeing Eye’ power Duncan has in Montauk, where focusing on a personal item belonging to a person lets him see into their mind. The research subjects’ power is amplified by white noise and a sensory deprivation chamber - again, seen with El. 

The Rainbow Ship and the Electromagnetic Connection:

The Electromagnetic Spectrum is usually mentioned at least a little in every season. Joyce’s magnets falling off, El needing the radio, etc. Lights are another focus, with the kids in the Rainbow Room being tested on how they can manipulate lightbulbs, and the emphasis on lights flickering whenever powerful forces are being used or the Upside Down is interfering with Hawkins. I expect them to really start pushing it in Season 5, and we can already see evidence of this (below: the WSQK Squawk Van). They’re at a radio station, the Middle School kids are learning about light from Scott Clarke most likely, and you can see the abundance of rainbows everywhere. It’s my opinion that rainbows and light are the mechanism in which these gates open, and also when at high enough power, how time can become warped. ‘Project Rainbow’ is another title basically interchangeable with the USS Eldridge and Philadelphia Project. This was because “the mechanism involved was the generation of an incredibly intense magnetic field around the ship, which would cause refraction or bending of light or radar waves around the ship”. However as we remember, this had the unintended effect of teleporting the ship across space-time. In the ST Universe, this results in the Eldridge being teleported to Dimension X temporarily (without a gate being opened).

The eagle shoots out beams of a rainbow which are meant to represent the radio waves being broadcast. 

It’s a commonly asked question as to how Will ‘blinked’ out of that shed without a gate, considering only El was able to open them at that time. The close-up on the lightbulb is the last shot we see before he just vanishes. It’s not just powers interfering with the surrounding electricity; this bending of light is what took him to the UD. But when this happens, it doesn’t result in a gate. I also believe this will end up being the mechanism for the eventual time-travel plot we’ll be seeing. Again in Montauk, there is a ‘time-tunnel’ made between the Eldridge and 1983 Montauk that was caused by the disappearance. My original post investigating this was me hypothesizing that being able to bend light to travel faster than it could result in temporary anomalies that allow one to time travel. 

Anyway, back to the rainbows. Rainbows are one of the most common recurring symbols in Stranger Things. The Rainbow Room exists of course, and there’s a deliberate costuming choice, especially in later seasons with the brighter atmosphere, to have characters wearing rainbow patterned items. Holly’s room is full of rainbows, and there are multiple rainbow props scattered around other locations (Mike’s basement, Erica’s room, etc). Scott Clarke (seriously what is up with him) is introduced in Season 1 doing a lesson on ROYGBIV. The BTS pictures of S5 Hawkins Middle School have him teaching yet another lesson on the visible light spectrum. And space for some reason. This brings us back to the Rainbow Ship.  Now we know the USS Eldridge is a marine ship, not a spaceship. But for the characters who seem to have some connection to it, it is represented as one regardless.

Will drew something representing the USS Eldridge (which it is mentioned was not from a movie i.e. he came up with it using his own memory and mind). The main fixture of Henry’s playground, where a ‘significant’ memory took place also features this representation of the Eldridge. I suspect there might also be a larger reason it took the form of a spaceship, but for now, consider that the ST Universe’s version of aliens are the Demogorgons. And outer space is Dimension X. The ship ‘flew’ to ‘outer space’ (D-X) and encountered ‘aliens’. In Montauk, that is kind of what happens. It’s more metaphorical in Stranger Things. The comic book Henry is obsessed with in TFS is seemingly changed from the real life Captain Midnight who was an airplane pilot, to be an astronaut. I think there is some kind of “alien abduction” theme with both Henry and Will being suddenly transported to another dimension that is alien in itself. Even when the lab scientists enter the UD in the first few seasons, they use hazmat suits that are deliberately similar looking to spacesuits. Stranger Things is a story about UFOs and aliens that also isn’t exactly about UFOs and aliens. 

And then, I’ll mention the weirdest part of this all - Will knows about the Eldridge somehow. And he knew about it before he was ever kidnapped and attached to the hive-mind. 

This is either possible because 1) he was in fact involved in research projects at HNL, and maybe the Project Indigo before the age of 8 like the original “rainbowshipgate” suggests. Or 2), there is an element messing with time in this situation, just like in the original Montauk book series. Montauk is literally named ‘Experiments in Time’. They’ve nabbed Linda Hamilton from Terminator (a movie about time travel) for this final season. They’re referencing a Wrinkle in Time with the Episode 6 title and Holly plot. Then we have everything else involving Henry’s clock theming that hasn’t exactly explained itself yet. Thinking time travel is a far-fetched idea at this point is a bit ridiculous. 

It really depends on how crazy they go with the whole concept. One of the other main characters from Montauk I haven’t mentioned yet is Al Bielek. Al Bielek was the original “whistleblower” who came forward with his story after supposedly recovering his repressed memories of the events. He claims to have been on the crew of the USS Eldridge in a previous life as Edward Cameron, Duncan Cameron’s brother. When he was sent forward in time he ended up staying in 1983 whereas Duncan Cameron was effectively sent back to where he came. Very confusing. But the story is, the man’s a time traveler. 

I do wonder if Al Bielek is loosely the inspiration for Will’s part in the story. Will who has seemingly repressed memories of many points in his life and has been suggested to be a time traveler many times. His name appears on the grandfather clock. He wears Marty McFly’s outfit in the first season. He has knowledge of an event that happened in 1943. He has lines about “seeing into the future” and Mike calls him a time-traveler in the VR Game where the writing staff had access to scripts and a writer from the show. The Upside Down is stuck on “the day of Will’s disappearance” (in the Duffers’ words), though that one probably has a slightly simpler explanation. 

The exact mechanics of how that would work are unclear. Right now, as young as an eight year old Will needs to have the knowledge of the Eldridge - so this isn’t something he will only end up connecting with this season. My theory is that there is a time loop involved, and Will’s actions in the future of Season 5 have him interfere in some way with the 1943 Philadelphia Project / Project Rainbow. The time loop is cyclical and self-causing. Our Will Byers already has a past iteration in yet another timeline where he already went back and tried to interfere with the past (and likely died trying in 1943). Then he is reborn again in 1971, and awakes a very small portion of his past memories of the previous loops. If that doesn’t make sense, I created this handy-but-ugly flowchart to help you out: 

Basically there is no beginning, since the future causes the past and vice versa (a bootstrap paradox). Every Will would then have memories of a past self(selves). The time loop also gets more complicated than this. Did Henry create the mindflayer? It’s presented like that within the show, but let me remind you that shows with heavy mystery elements can and will purposely deceive you. In the First Shadow, Mr. Newby is attacked by the Mindflayer and produces a drawing of the entity - it’s purposely not shown to the audience, but considering the Mindflayer was supposedly just a black mass then why is that? And regardless, in order to have Henry become possessed by it, the Mindflayer was definitely not created by him in 1979. A few have written up theories about this already, I’ll link to my friend's two posts on this element of the time loop.  

I don't have anything else super definitive yet. But I believe wholeheartedly that this is the right direction to search in and I hope we can put more attention on the subject. All of this makes sense, from the military connections they keep pushing in the show, the time travel hints we have been getting, the origin story of Brenner (whose dad died aboard the ship) and the Rainbow Room, everything ties back to the Eldridge events being incredibly incredibly important going forward.

Here's a link where you can read through Montauk Experiments in Time for free.

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Dr Sunshine Is Dead (Will Wood)

I am not the sunshine, I am not the moon at night I'm no one if I'm nowhere in between

"Ok. First, it's chaotic. It has a very chaosy vibe to it which is a vibe of like 90% of my characters. It's also my daily mood as I just want to be able to test thins apart like a dog, y'know. Second, the lyrics resonate with me to a degree. It's the slow degrading of the mental state as you're left in a dark room alone, with nobody to pull you out so you have to gather the strength to let yourself out, no matter what it costs you (my interpretation)"

Loki (The Mechanisms)

Flashes like camera bulbs fire in my brain/Is this truly me, am I going insane?/In faint bloody flashes I watch people die/And if that was me, then who am I?

"This one has some context behind it, the album is Norse mythology-inspired scifi and Loki had been helping Odin build a train that would travel through space, specifically a wormhole in space. Loki then attempted to blow up the train and killed Baldr in the process. She was sentenced to death and executed, except Odin lied to everyone and did not execute her. Odin instead fucked up her memories so that she (Odin) could still use Loki's knowledge of the train. This song is Loki grasping for her memories and being unable to keep hold of them. A few songs later we see Sigyn, her wife, finding her and Loki doesn't know who she is"

"JUST. WOW"

Dr Sunshine is Dead submitted by @veganbear

[ckret2]

i wish to know about how you characterize amorphous shape. amorphous needs more attention. (same with the other henchmaniacs without lines, but i prefer focusing on the character my brain has decided i am.)

I characterize them as approximately 14~19 separate individual shapes from Bill's home dimension that got combined together into one hive mind. That's why I refer to Morph as "they"—I'm not using "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, I'm using it as a plural pronoun, they are literally multiple people.

How they got combined into one body will get explored later in the fic so I'm not gonna spoil it; but it happened during the destruction of the second dimension.

The polygon parts of them weren't all squares to start out with, but after a trillion years they found that most of the time it's easier for them to simplify themselves into a form that tessellates tidily. They can shapeshift and separate though, so they can return to their original shapes when they want, like:

(that's not literally the exact shapes they were, just concept art of what changing to their original shapes would look like.)

They're Bill's top scientists. Also, his only scientists. Not all of them were scientists, but when you've shared brains for a trillion years, you pick up each other's knowledge, and anyway over a dozen minds working on the same problem at the same time makes brainstorming faster. They're to blame for the interdimensional portal.

Any time Bill attempts to conquer a new dimension, he's gotta try to persuade the people inside that dimension to make him a portal; and in order to do that, he's got to pass those people portal blueprints; and in order to do that, he needs portal blueprints that both, a) work correctly in the physics of the dimension he's contacting, and b) can be built using the technology, natural resources, and construction techniques available to the natives. He wouldn't send portal blueprints that only work correctly with linear forward-moving time to the do-over dimension where spontaneous time loops randomly form, and he wouldn't send a design that can only be powered by nuclear fission to a culture that's barely discovered coal.

For a long time, Amorphous Shape were the guys Bill turned to for all those portal blueprint modifications. Any time he found a promising new dimension with a sufficiently gullible-looking species, he'd go in with Amorphous Shape so they could study local physics and technology and adapt the blueprints to fit local conditions.

By now, Bill & company have made SO many blueprints for SO many universes with SO many kinds of technology that when they find a new universe, they can typically tweak a design they already made rather than start from scratch; and Bill's been studying the blueprints for so long that now he thoroughly understands the science behind them and can draft & modify them himself, so he doesn't need Morph's help so much. He mainly consults with them to double-check the math before tossing the blueprints at a dreamer or to assist on really strange cases like that one dimension with a form of physics based entirely on the letter M.

Right now, Morph's bigger long-term scientific concern is the slow degradation of the Nightmare Realm and finding ways to help Bill shore up the crumbling reality; and implementing emergency quick fixes whenever something small falls apart, like a black hole threatening to destabilize the fabric of reality around several nebulas or knots tangling in wormholes because the ends are fraying.

If Bill is like the self-appointed god of the Nightmare Realm, Morph are something in between a demigod and a high priest: they don't have any reality-altering power themselves, but they do understand and influence reality far beyond any mere mortal and their petitions to the god to do this or fix that keeps local reality functioning.

Talking to them is like talking to a committee or a mob. Most of the things they say are collectively agreed-upon by the members of the hive mind, and so tend to have the careful precision of a department issuing a public statement rather than a regular conversation; but when something happens to get a majority of them mad, they get mad together and egg on each other's anger, and tend to immediately snap into confrontation rather than sit back until they calm down

They don't have a lot of hobbies they all share, so they tend to dabble in and drop a wide variety of hobbies rather than get really deeply invested in any. More likely to spend their spare time seeing what the other Henchmaniacs are doing and tag along on that than try to decide what to do on their own. Bad habit of just going back to work when they're bored since at least they can all agree that's productive.

They haven't gone on a date in billions of years and are not happy about this. They don't even have all the same sexualities, much less the same types. They need to go on a date with like a minimum four people simultaneously to balance out the fact that they'll be variously attracted to/repelled by any one singular date. Finding four people who cover their separate tastes and are all willing to go on a single date with "the same person" is pretty hard, especially when you're workaholics living with the most hated person in the multiverse and don't get out much.

Zealously, desperately loyal to Bill. They've spent a trillion years telling themselves that Bill's gonna rescue his devotees from the Nightmare Realm and claim a new dimension for them. By now it's become easier to pretend he's a flawlessly honest leader who'd never lie to them (unless he has a very good reason) than to grapple with his massive failings as a person and consider that maybe they made a mistake older than universes in following him. Any time one of their components starts to mentally doubt one of Bill's decisions, they're shouted back into conformity by the rest who are ready to offer justifications and explanations for anything he does. Can't do deep thinking on a difficult topic if you don't even have privacy in your own head.

If Bill ever wants to screw with them he can say "Morph, you're four of my best friends" and leave them going crazy trying to figure out which of their components he likes and why he doesn't like the rest. But Bill doesn't mess with the shapes much. Only if it's, like, really funny.

There used to be more surviving shapes in Bill's social circle, but over the eons they left one by one, until now it's just down to Morph, Kryptos, Hectorgon, and Bill; each time the shapes lost another member, it became harder for the remainders to consider leaving. Morph are no more capable of contemplating lives without Bill, Kryptos, and Hectorgon than you are of contemplating a life without bones. The feeling is mutual all around.

The rest of the Henchmaniacs could get fucked as far as they care.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for building an interplanetary train?

I'm the ruler of a planet, which of course means I have access to many resources. I decided to use these resources to work on our interplanetary infrastructure. This was necessary it took three MONTHS to travel to this other planet, but eith my train and the wormhole I created, it would only take 3 days. Imagine what we could do with that technology!

When I first started building this train, I had had help. Except then one of the people I was working with (let's call her L) defected and joined a terrorist organization. She sent missiles at my train, killing the other person we had worked with and setting the construction back by a decade. I had to sentence her to execution, I had to save face! I couldn't let her live! So she had a public execution. But I needed her knowledge. I couldn't lose that. I saved her, and maybe her brain was a bit shattered but she had what I needed, and she'd killed someone! What I did wasn't so horrible, really.

So eventually I finally finish the train, and I get all the nobles on there for its first run! Except the person who will succeed me found L and was pissed that she was alive. We argued and he stormed away. And then he found rebels on MY train. Why would anyone rebel?? People complain about poor infrastructure all the time, and I'm creating better infrastructure! But the rebel leader was L's wife, and no one understood what was happening so everyone was mad at me, and so when they found the engine room of course they assumed the worst!

I know that a train running on someone's blood looks bad! But really, the person was to be executed anyways, and this way he gets to be a part something bigger than he could ever be! But they didn't think about that, no, it was all "what have you done" and "you must pay" as if I wasn't helping my country expand!

Now, the entire time I'd been building this train, I'd been having dreams about reality tearing. My train caused that. Look, I hadn't known the dreams were REAL, how could I have? But it was going to happen no matter what, I was just the one chosen to bring it! Perhaps they're jealous that I was called to.

So yes, I "brought about the apocalypse" but I didn't really do anything wrong. It was meant to happen and really I was just trying to make our infrastructure better and expand country's resources. But everyone seems to be angry at me, so am I the asshole?

[meikuree]

book review: exordia by seth dickinson

alternative title: more people should read exordia please please please so I can talk to people about this book because it's eaten my brain.

note: not a spoiler-free review.

"where do I begin" is a common response to this book and I can see why. if you thought the locked tomb was adventurous for bending genres across books, Exordia does it six times or so in a single book.

perhaps I should start with how I got interested in reading this: i'd just come off the back of reading Serious Weighty books about memory, war atrocities, complicity and genocide, so I figured this would be a nice palate cleanser and 'transition' book. it's still about ethics and genocides after all, only dressed in the clothes of an author-described “fun” indulgent SFF book. a friend also sirened me with details and screenshots of a fraught central mother-daughter relationship (involving said mother [Khaje] pointing a gun to her daughter's head when she reunites with her) which I’ll admit expedited my interest.

long story short: I ended up so sucked into this that I was reluctant to put it down, and I inhaled it in 1.5 days. a 576-page book! that has happened a total of never times in my recent imaginatively parched life. this book reminded me in a way that reading can be limbically fun and unhinged, which sounds absurd and as if i should return to primary school but is true. i've been stuck in the academic reading mines for too long. I felt like my brain was being squeezed into a wormhole and emptied out in fragments on the other end, albeit in a nice and dysfunctionally salutary way reminiscent of crack.

the barebones plot is as such: anna sinjari (birth name jiyan) is a disenchanted 30-something office worker in new york city who's just been fired and is dealing with PTSD symptoms when she comes across an eight-headed "snake centaur hydra" eating turtles out of a pond. cue the rest of the plot. cue the second act, where a mysterious "spaceship" construct thing has landed near anna's hometown village Tawakul and she gets parachuted in to figure out what's happening and whether it'll accidentally spark off intergalactic conflicts. cue, also, a long ensemble structure that cycles between eight different characters' POVs and time and metaphysically-bendy happenings.

or, TLDR: it's a subversion (or rather anti-homage, cr. transversely) of first contact and geopolitical narratives with a relatively considered and considerate indictment of american imperialism, that also explores the practical ramifications of trolley problem-style situations*.

* fun fact: the beginnings of the trolley problem were developed in 1967 by british philosopher Philippa Foot. there may be something to be said for how the concept's been de-gendered since then, since I don't think it's really common knowledge these days that it was written about by a philosopher who was a woman

the not so much tone shift as tone derailing between acts 1 and 2 caught me off guard (the first act is very domestic and features cursed slice of life stuff, very much my thing!) but act 2 captured me once the bio-body horror shenanigans started happening, annihilation style, though... uh... with two of the characters (Erik and Clayton) who took up a lot of narrative time in early act 2, I was incredibly bored and going I'M JUST HERE FOR THE KURDISH FAILMOTHER [Khaje], GET OUTTA MY WAY GAYBOYS. but every character is important to the narrative and even if I think the 50 pages of davoud being plane-sexual should've been trimmed, they all add flavour!

arguably for instance the most beneficial purpose of davoud's interludes is to charm plane otakus into reading this book, which I can get behind. if I can get my plane otaku friends to be insane about this book along with me, even if it's for completely different reasons (I'm mooning over the complicated snake sisters and mother-daughter dynamics and kurdish side characters and worldbuilding) it'll have been worth it.

the big "scifi" element of this book centres around souls and narratives -- the snake alien Anna meets is called Ssrin (and also now my morally grey babygirl, more on that later) and also part of Exordia, the prevailing imperialistic system which 'pinions' (enslaves) other species' souls. this system's been explained better elsewhere, so I'll move on.

by the way, the marketing copy for this book by tor fails utterly to do it justice aside from Seth's own snake woman courts Kurdish faildaughter. just ignore it and go in blind like I did if you want. it's better that way.

what I liked

i've read the first Baru Cormorant book and bounced off it emotionally, even though cerebrally it should've been everything I'd have loved. bits where I would've exulted in war by inflation along with Baru, for instance, felt like I was simply revising my macroeconomics and monetary policy textbooks, and not in a positive way. well, I enjoyed this book a lot, which surprised me! there were many elements that were YMMV and which are usually incredibly inadvisable to pair together, but seth pulls it off. somehow. it's intentionally maximalist and deranged and A LOT but seth was clearly leaning into their id and if it works for you, it will work well.

this book directly references and subverts the whole anthropocentric "humans are destined saviours of the universe" scifi pillar shtick in the first act:

“Nooo,” Anna protests. “That’s it?” “That’s it.” “We’re not unusually stubborn? We’re not particularly diverse? Experimental? Curious? Willing to take risks? Jacks of all trades but masters of none?” “No,” Ssrin says, crossing two of her necks in a big X of negation. “You are jacks of running and masters of being inbred.” [...] “Good. You’re learning. The story of man is a story of mediocrity. But so are most stories, I think. Most things are average, or median; if they were not, nothing would make sense.” Ssrin begins to unwrap herself. “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. Your species is not special. It is not destined. But it is very, very inbred … and that makes it transparent to a certain kind of analysis. Your souls all bear the same tint. They are touched by the same story. It rings in your myths, deep down, lower than you know. [...]"

the story is often irreverent and driven by black comedy, but it does have real tragedy at its core (the Anfal genocide). the black humour isn't edgy, it's very resonant with the way communities who have suffered genocide or repression will use humour as a coping mechanism, something something sloppy james scott citation here.

the disavowal of humanity as a homogeneous group or race was refreshing, and I don't just mean in terms of the international posse of characters. I really appreciate the awareness in the narrative of the fact that apocalypses and disasters are nothing new to communities who have already experienced turmoil and the ongoing present/slow violence/necropolitics of colonialism and imperialism. as the common refrain in decolonial circles goes: the world ended long ago in 1492. and the book takes that seriously and grapples with why the residents of Tawakul would be deeply suspicious of the american secret ops teams coming to them, and is sympathetic to them if not siding with them. there's a good evisceration and explicit consideration of american imperialism and homo sacer regimes, eg. this segment where seth lays it bare and we're transparently not meant to see this as a good thing:

You are a contractor, and therefore you are not subject to American military law. But you are not on American soil, and therefore you are not subject to American criminal or civil law. No law exists for you. So I have created myself to enforce a deeper law. The law of right and wrong.

and the epigraph has this obama quote:

Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine. —President Barack Obama

which seth includes a citation for probably because they anticipated people going "wait, obama really said that?"

I'm not inclined to laud seth dickinson just for depicting viewpoints that have long been the default in segments of fiction outside the US media landscape (all this is not new to anyone who's spent 30 minutes researching the CIA on wikipedia or read about the USA's interventions in Southeast Asia) but I do like the gumption in centering the wretched of the earth. and very few things in this book feel tacked on, from subaltern perspectives to sexuality to the magic system. for better or worse everything is very intentional and constructed. whether that feels like rigid artifice or art to you will depend.

I also have a line in my notes for this post that goes "seth is very sciencey: he expresses human insights via mathematical language. compare to anthropological slant of le guin" I've forgotten what I was going to say, but I like that seth is interdisciplinary to steal a friend's phrase. I was bamboozled by the abstract maths in this (I'm not conversant in mathematical theory, alas, I should fix that) but after a while I was like: oh! these math debates are just like the structuralism/poststructuralism split, albeit expressed in well, STEM language, and: hey, this sounds just like assemblage theory. I've connected the dots.

other things (actually very central):

Khaje and Anna's relationship. THEIR RELATIONSHIP!!! the bit where khaje says "I should've asked my daughter to come home sooner so I could spend more time with her" ...

Ssrin and Ssenenet (her sister), all the tantalising nuggets of complicated sister relationships Seth gave us. if you thought I wouldn't be going in the direction of lesbian snake incest, you thought wrong, I am entirely down for that shit and craving fic though we've gotten barely 4 paragraphs about them

Khaje, Arin, and Anna/Jiyan, aka weird snarly triangle of platonic jealousy between a slighted actual daughter, her estranged mother, and said mother’s sort-of surrogate daughter

THE BODY HORROR I didn't get nightmares but you might and the body horror is impeccable and mixes both metaphysical horror (what if Hell was an actual place?) and fleshly ones

the ubiets and old gods, yay for cosmic

i should've also expected it given that it's seth, but the ending can be quite a downer. seth does the thing where they build up hope and then it crashes. i'm TragedySicko #6969 and have a libido for melancholic misery so I loved the emotional devastation, but I felt like I needed a drink and to inhale a depressing book about grief to properly process my feelings after.

segments I wheezed at:

1:

Khaje groans. She can tolerate Arîn Tawakuli, but only when she has been awake for between three and eight hours, only if she doesn’t have a hangover, and only if she doesn’t hear any particularly cheerful birds. Arîn is too young to remember the hard times of civil war. She’s an Apoist and a true believer in jineology and Khaje resents her. Not for her beliefs, but for the ability to believe. Arîn also loves to tell people that Khaje isn’t really crazy, she just has PTSD. For that Khaje truly despises her.

2:

“He’s my uniformed prisoner now. What do you think I’m going to do, heval? Torture him?” “You have been acting pretty strange!” Arîn blurts. “Sitting out there all night watching the Ugandans—skipping all the assembly meetings—I mean, you’re sober, that’s kind of out of character!” People laugh. Khaje bristles: “Fuck your mother, Arîn.” “Hey, we don’t curse mothers here,” Arîn snaps. “It’s bad jineology.” “Can everyone stop talking about mothers!” Haydar screams.

3 (after a nuclear detonation):

“How can our pickups be broken, but not their tanks?” Khaje demands. “Look at them, driving all over our meadow. Look, Arîn, they’re destroying your sustainably planted wildflowers. They’re ruining your topsoil.” “This is amazing,” Arîn says. “Look, the blasts cover the whole sky! They must have hit the entire hemisphere, at least!” “So?” “So the power is out everywhere. This could be the intervention we need to break out of the trap of endless growth, Khaje! The end of the Anthropocene!”

what I didn't vibe with as much

the Erik and Clayton interludes. dear god. I'm sorry, they represent the key levers of the american imperialist establishment and their presence has narrative importance and clayton is an expy/critique of Obama and "first Black guy to drop an atomic bomb"-style diversity rhetoric + there's a scene where it all does pay off, but... to borrow a meme, I'm tired of hearing about all these american men. I just did not care about their childhood reminisces and I would've loved to hear more about Anna and Khaje's childhoods instead. their madonna complex over Rosamaria was also tiring

and a paratextual note: I came into this a little suspicious of Seth or at least not as generous as I could be after reading Baru 1. I was proven wrong. still, they have this annoying habit of chastising themself in interviews for not citing female writers as inspirations off the cuff more often when it's like... you could prepare your answers beforehand. but I digress.

things I'm musing about

I've been comparing this a little to le guin's oeuvre, because I'm thinking about stories that centre small interactions but have high-concept interplanetary stakes. both le guin and seth do that, but le guin's writing distinctly feels anti-epic to me in a way seth's doesn't. perhaps because seth appears to subscribe to a "maths and engineering is the answer to the universe"-style idea.

lastly: I've never really believed in the recent grimdark/cozy division in sff circles, it's as meaningless to me as angst/fluff categories in fic. form IS related to content but there are stories with grimdark or gritty aesthetics that have pretty hopeful conceptions of justice, ethics, history, revolution, etc. and feel-good stories that are the inverse, that refuse myopically to reckon with uncomfortable histories and ironically end up looking way more cynical and nihilist to me. in the first category I'd place films like mad max: fury road. this is a book that ironically does have a spark of hope at the end: anna's people survive a nuclear apocalypse. and this book, I think, might very loosely belong in the former, which is an endorsement coming from me.

[chipsncookies]

Twin Stars Far Apart Commentary

Due to image limit this is mostly text

To summarise, this event is good, but felt too short and didn't focus enough on the twins, which is sad since they're supposedly the main stars of this event, it felt like Archie's story instead (i like it but i gotta be fair) the problem also got resolved too quickly, making the story fall a bit flat.

I'd prefer if they let us stew in the conflict a bit. Maybe make them explore other options before turning to jirachi to make the situation more dire. After all, twins being separated into different worlds should hold as much gravitas as Lusamine losing her husband or submas being separated (the freaking. Similarity to submas is so obvious, but liza and tate had it much easier 🥲). Maybe also explore Tate and Liza's personalities, let them do/speak and think more or have them learn things throughout the story, or make them more distressed as time goes on, they would be more compelling. After all, they are the characters dena is selling 😅

Also kinda sad that Nanu did not comment on the girls coming back? He should've been welcoming anabel and liza, iirc he lost a coworker once, i feel he should have a stronger reaction towards anabel being spirited away and making it back home.

But as i said, I am biased and this event is very catered to me so here are some highlights of things i like (warning: mostly archie)

Let's start from beginning:

Archie has shown time and again he's gentle with kids so fatherly 🥰 , he asked the twins to keep jirachi a secret.. he explained to them so they understand its importance, he respects their intelligence.

I feel his message got through easily because they're kids, they don't have lofty ambitions like some adults (imagine if gio/others found out about jirachi). As a villain himself he knew what some people would do to achieve their selfish goals. Yet he still has hope and appreciates truly kind-hearted people.

After that Nanu and Anabel appeared and explained they have to guard the twins. Apparently the area becomes more dangerous because ultra wormholes keep appearing recently? I wonder if this is just something that happened for this event or there's something that caused this 🤔 my brain really suspects there's a connection with how Adaman and Irida got sent to Pasio through space time rift... But that and ultra wormhole are different things. Side note I'm glad they explained why Looker isn't available, it's not necessary (imo) but it gives more context about the status of the interpol.

After that, of course the worst thing happened. Liza and Anabel are sucked into the wormhole, leaving their pkmns behind. I would've liked if they showed more signs of distress rather than just standing there 😅 Archie found out, and again i like how he used his knowledge as a villain to think of why the girls could've gone missing. It's also so sweet to see him reassure Tate, and promising to help him 🥹🫶 I think Archie could've been offering help earlier before Nanu suggested the ask for Lusamine's help, it could help integrate him more into the story imo.

After that Nanu correctly guessed they might have been sucked into a wormhole, and they asked Lusamine for help. Sure enough, she confirmed it. Her description about them going missing so suddenly, and without their pokemon too, really reminds me of Ingo 😭 I feel this also pains Lusamine to tell them, because she lost her husband to the wormhole too before...

Luckily for Liza and Tate, they were transported into Pasio, still the same place although a different one unlike some poor sod who got yeeted hundreds of years back miles away from his home Apparently in this world there are no people in Pasio, only ultra beasts. This matter is not elaborated because they were attacked by some UB, but saved by a kind Celesteela. I can't help but wonder more about this universe, where are the people? Did they fail to contain UB outbreak? What happened to the Lear of this world?

Anabel makes a great observation that the UBs are the same as them, they're taken away from their homes. I love this moment of sympathy.

And then we turn back to Archie and Tate. Archie helpfully explained how to awaken Jirachi (Tate needs to sing and make a wish). Despite wanting to protect Jirachi he let Tate take his chance because he genuinely cares!

Just. Look at this scene, Archie is so supportive of Tate I can't y'all 😭😭💖💖🫶🫶 the way archie looks at tate so gently 🥺🥺 and how he's so excited when jirachi wakes up, and nudges Tate to make a wish!! he's so sweet, he's like a dad to Tate, I love him so much 😭💖

Ok and so Tate sang and Jirachi woke up! And he made his wish. And then they get reunited. Now this part is a bit funny because Jirachi apparently didn't do anything?? 🤣 Because earlier Anabel remarked that the UBs must have come from somewhere, ie a wormhole, and Liza heard Tate singing, so the wormhole must've existed before Jirachi even woke up. So convenient that it's located nearby 😂 afterwards it decided to make Tate its partner, solely because of his pure heart i guess? He managed to awaken it after all

Anyway, the twins are reunited!! And they got new friends ^^

I was so surprised when i saw this scene I didn't think they'd bring Matt too, I'm so glad they did 🥹💖💖 festival n and steven also appeared! It's a lively scene!

This is such a good shot Archie is so happy for the kids 🥹

THE REAL SHOCKER THOUGH IS THIS SCNEE

I was not expecting Shelly to appear, much less having interaction with Archie, at this point I'm pretty sure the writers read my mind because i love Archie and Shelly so much!! 😭😭💖💖 I've always loved their relationship, they're childhood friends united by the same goal, they understand each other so well 😭😭

The way they know what each other is thinking 😭😭 that's the proof of their bond!! After all this time they're still best friends, they know what each other is thinking 😭😭💖💖 It's so sweet and awe inspiring to me!!!

This is the highlight of the event for me, Archie really has come a long way from his villainy, he acknowledged the importance of people and pokemon, and wants to see the future generation live happily... it reminds me of this line from Alpa Sapphire's Delta episode:

I can't help but notice that this event is like a really condensed parallels to AS Archie's experience (i treat game archie and pokemas archie as different people), both initially motivated by meeting Jirachi, and then him having doubts on humanity, but things happened that led to a kid changing his mind. The difference is Pokemas Archie has the luck to see Jirachi again (although different than his friend) meet truly kind-hearted people (Tate), resulting in his change of heart, while in ORAS he never met Jirachi again, it was just a memory, and his change of heart happened because he made mistakes (which are. Much bigger than what Pokemas Archie has done).

From a meta perspective, I love that Archie's obscure/forgotten Jirachi lore from 2014 is picked up in Pokemas, crafting a story that led to Pokemas archie turning over a new leaf, similar to his game counterpart. Considering neither AS nor Pokemas Archie could ever meet their jirachi again (because it likely went to sleep for another 900ish years), Pokemas is logically the only place where this little story can be touched again, and I'm SO happy for it. Jirachi is the motivation for Archie in the beginning, and it continues being that in this event, but with new, deeper understanding and optimism, with hopes for the future of humans alongside pokemon 💖✨

Im sorry for writing this long Like oh my God you guys i love Archie so much!!!! 😭😭😭💖💖💖💖 I love this event so much !!! I'm so happy!!

[eycsnow666]

my brain has fucking latched onto the idea that Nilfgaard was founded primarily by The Lost Roman Legion (and later mutal absorbtion with norsemen), hence the mutated latin loan words. So lots of professional soliders, not a lot of farmers. That's why they made nice(r) with the natives than other conjunctuoned societies: they needed the natives to farm since they literally could not.

They defeated monsters through main force because the silver thing wasn't known/communicated yet. This is a trade that forms some social underpinninngs of Nilfgaard outlook on military/non humans: lives for lives. You spend your lives keep us alive and we'll spend our lives keeping you alive.

A lot of knowledge from that time was lost, military tactics survived. Baby Emhyr was a total fucking geek for it though. He dreamed of someday finding The Legion's Eagle (the last survivors of the legion burried it Gengis Kahn style). Just, very star eyes ickle Emhyr.

wow that's a really cool theory and also opened up a wikipedia history wormhole i'll divebomb into in my downtime! it sure jives with the very pragmatic vibes nilfgaard has. who knows, perhaps in retirement, Emhyr sets out on a quest to find the lost Eagle, National Treasure style. such a geek. and since the nilfgaardian military can handle monsters on their own, at least geralt will have something to do in his own retirement (keeping emhyr from dying lol)

[darkdevasofdestruction]

Chapter 2 - Unwritten Laws

The next morning, Katrina woke up better than ever before - It was a beautiful morning with an even more refreshing feeling - Something she hasn't experienced in a very long time. She had a soft smile on her face so she dressed in the kimono of that annoying colour and braided her hair, doing a cute bow to tie it, only for someone to randomly pop up - Or, pop down, rather, from a tile from the ceiling. 

The man was dressed like one of those Ninjas in Naruto, only to have modern-day glasses that gave him away, somewhat. "Hello. I know we haven't properly met each other, but I was there when you went through the wormhole." he explained, making the girl snap her fingers in realisation.

"That means you have an idea of what and/or why it happened, right? Are you a scientist?" the woman asked, gesturing for the man to get out of the ceiling and sit down with her and chat properly.

"Yes. I am a post-graduate in Physics. We entered the wormhole at the same time, however, I arrived four years prior to you. And in this time spent here, I came to the conclusion that we are in an alternate timeline. I arrived at the place where Uesugi Kenshin collapsed. I saved his life with my knowledge of modern medicine. If this were our timeline, Uesugi Kenshin should be dead by now. Also, the Warlord Takeda Shingen, who is supposed to be dead by now, is also alive. Well... I predicted that you would do a time travel as well, and I searched for you, but I never imagined you would arrive four years after me." the man chuckled cheekily, making the woman look down with an amused smirk.

"Well, well, finally, someone who has brains around this place. Trust me, it's a real wonder. I'm a doctor now, but in the only day spent here, I didn't get to use my skills." she hummed in mock-superiority. "Anyway, I see these 4 years have been kind to you. To become such an excellent ninja requires true hard work and dedication... Not like you had anything else better to do, anyway. To think both Kenshin and Shingen are alive right now... As well as Nobunaga... Mitsuhide wasn't the traitor, he hasn't died in less than a week, and Hideyoshi isn't Japan's unifier yet... There truly are a ton of discrepancies compared to our own time's history. Well... Not like I know a ton about universal history and all. As you can see, I'm not exactly 100% Japanese, and most of my time I spent in Europe. I know the basics of history, with some details from some Wikipedia searches and... 'The Age of Samurai' documentary from Netflix. But I guess it matters for nothing now that we're pretty much re-writing history by just existing." Kat smiled wryly, admitting to her own ups and downs in common knowledge, but then she grinned charmingly, tapping the side of her face, pondering.

"I don't think we will need too much history knowledge with how much things have changed, but I suppose you could say that seeing the famous warlords of the Sengoku with my own eyes is a dream come true for me. My parents were big history buffs so I got my name from the Legendary Ninja that served Yukimura Sanada. Sarutobi Sasuke, the leader of the Sanada 10 Braves, the fictional group of 10 ninjas that supposedly assisted the warlord Yukimura Sanada during the Warring States, and since that's pretty much my name, I've basically taken his place, so my impact on history is pretty low. Unlike yours, Physician Princess." he sniggered friendly, making the girl shrug playfully.

"Rumours fly around faster with a ninja around. Anyway, I know we have no actual technology around... Except for what we were caught with in the wormhole, and that only works on the left-over batteries... But do you have any idea if there's any way to go back home? There must be a wormhole some time soon, right?" she theorized, and thankfully, the ninja scientist nodded in relief.

"According to my data, the next appearance will be in three months... But I'm still unsure of its location, so I believe it will be best if you spend these next three months here, since we're in the midst of a chaotic civil war... Ah, someone's coming. I'll be staying with my employed in the city below. Send a smoke signal and I'll come to your aid quickly. Bye, Kat, it was lovely meeting you." and with that, the scientist completely disappeared.

"Goodbye to you too..." the girl muttered, getting up and opening the door to her room, only to see Mitsuhide, wearing his usual fox-like smile, and two very soft and sweet looking women behind him, both holding some big boxes of unknown content.

"Hello. Please, do come inside... Although, I don't have any tea or snacks to serve you." she stepped to the side, welcoming the trio inside her room.

"What a lovely welcome, from one fire fox, to another silver fox. Well, I will be direct with you. Lord Nobunaga is calling for you. He wants to see you." crossing his arms and nodding to the girls to open the boxes, revealing several hair pins and hair decorations, along with a beautifully embroidered and painted flower-patterned black, golden and red kimono and matching haori and zori sandals.

"U-Uhm... I would like to thank you for your consideration... Truly, I appreciate the thought... But I simply cannot accept such a gift. I have done nothing to deserve or earn such expensive outfits and jewellery, therefore I must decline." the red haired woman looked away, embarrassed, fidgeting awkwardly with her fingers.

"My, my, how modest of you, little Princess. Well, then take it as an early payment for all the hard work you're going to put throughout your stay here, at Azuchi. Besides, if you don't accept them, it will be me Hideyoshi kills. He pushed these onto me and said, and I quote, 'She can't go dressed like that, take this to Lady Katrina'. Don't worry so much and let these maids take care of you today, then, you can do whatever you want." Mitsuhide bargained with the girl who remained quiet for a while, and then simply nodded. Whispering a soft "Okay." and "Thank you.", the two maids had Mitsuhide leave the room and called Katrina to take a bathroom.

The Faux Princess had to insist a few times to be allowed to wash herself... Alone... By herself. She enjoyed the soothing hot water that calmed down her overworked and stressed muscles, and soaked much longer than she realised, but damn, the relaxation was so worth it. She didn't even care for the wrinkly skin, she was just so happy.

Her apartment back home was pretty small, so she didn't have enough space for a bath tub, only for a shower, so there wasn't any chance for her to relax like this. Not bad at all... Maybe this will be a pretty fun trip... A vacation, maybe? Definitely worth it. With just this bath alone, Kat was content.

After what may have felt like ages for anyone waiting on her, the physician woman got out of the bath and dried herself off, allowing the maids - Aiko and Maki - To take of her however they felt fit, trying to erase the embarrassment she felt in allowing others to pamper her like that. But this kindness and politeness... Yes, these women were nice and all, but it was all fake. After all... She was a Princess, and everyone wanted to gain favour with the Princess, and by default, gain favour with the Lord who assigned them to do this. She's seen enough Imperial Chinese dramas to know the drill.

The girls carefully combed her long, crimson hair, and they made two decorative braids in the back, loosely tying them together with a beautiful, golden ribbon. They helped her with dressing, and then gave her some food - And an excellent dessert - And shockingly, Masamune was the one who cooked for her! Kat knew, cooking wasn't rocket science, but cooking in the 16th century, and especially something so spectacular... She was intrigued, to say the least, and it's the first time she was actually interested in learning something that wasn't revolving around her work-space.

When she was finally able to leave the room, she saw that Mitsuhide was still there, and he smirked at her, satisfied. "You look lovely, Lady Katrina. Shall I take you to Nobunaga's room? I don't believe you know your way around the castle yet well enough." he spoke, gesturing with his eyes to be followed.

"Thank you for your thoughts, Mitsuhide. Although... Please, do not use such honorifics when addressing me. You and I both know I'm not... Well... I did nothing to earn such a high social status, nor the respect of anyone, therefore, such words are nothing more than empty pleasantries that are used as an attempt at gratifying and elevating one as someone greater, yet it has no meaning, nor worth." she finally spoke after a while, making the silver-haired warlord stop in his tracks and look at her with slightly widened eyes, surprised by her words.

Instead of addressing her statement, he merely hummed in amusement and understanding, and took her hand, kissing the back of her hand. "I thought I'd ease your nervousness, yet somehow, I may have missed the mark. You seem even more tense. What dark thoughts are plaguing your mind, little fox?"

She didn't dare look at him - She could feel her cheeks reddening slightly, as she could only look to the side, fidgeting with her fingers and biting her lip. "I... I shouldn't... It's not..." she muttered softly, almost as if afraid to say anything, her eyes darting around carefully.

"There's no one here who could hear you, there is nothing to be afraid of, little one. Your voice is soft enough that not even I may hear it." the warlord mused, encouraging her with the teasing.

"In my time, what you did is a romantic gesture. All that considered... It never happened to me before. That's... That's all that I was thinking. Nothing of importance. Forget you heard it." and with that, the red haired girl stepped ahead, getting in front of Nobunaga's door, only to peer behind her shyly. "Although... It wasn't too bad saying it to someone. Thank you, Mitsuhide."

And thus, hearing a soft snigger from behind, the leaving footsteps left her all alone, in front of the beautifully painted landscape from Nobunaga's paper door. Announcing her presence to the Warlord, she was invited inside, only to see Drew already sitting there, playing Go with Nobunaga. And he was losing very shamefully.

Looking down and fidgeting with her fingers, Kat felt awkward and didn't know what to do, so she just stood there, by the door, awaiting further instruction. It didn't come until Nobunaga completely decimated Drew's forces and he won. Drew threw a tantrum and flipped the table, having all pieces fall around the room, but Nobunaga sketched no reaction - His face was hard and cold as an ice statue's.

The poor girl could only look away, very embarrassed at being associated with him, but also, feeling incredibly uncomfortable with having to witness such a... A fight. A one-sided fight. The man didn't even bother speaking to her - Instead, he stormed out of the room, cursing the warlord left and right. As well as him, the girl said nothing either, but unlike him, she moved for the first time since getting there. She got one of the vases that held the red pieces and began picking up each piece. However, as she was doing that, Nobunaga suddenly moved, grasping her wrist, stopping her at once.

"Why are you doing this? It was not you who made a mess of my room." he spoke, his eyes cold and almost ruthless.

"Yes, but what he did wasn't okay. A man shouldn't behave like a spoiled brat. He's always been a sore loser and would make a huge show whenever he lost at something. Mind you, he was never a great player at... Any game. As well as that, we are both from the future, and having him show such disrespect makes it look as if we are some ill-mannered savages or something." she explained, placing down the vase and putting her other hand gingerly over his.

"You feel responsible for his actions, is that it?" he scoffed, seeing the girl offer a small smile.

"Unfortunately, I do tend to do that a lot." she mused, freeing her hand and continuing picking up the pieces. "But I think it's more shame and second-hand embarrassment."

"A leader always takes the responsibility for his subordinates' mistakes, likewise, they are responsible for teaching them accordingly. Katrina, I do not understand you. It came to my understanding that you and that man were married, or in courtship, therefore you are not a leader, just a maiden trying to pick up the discarded sword of a broken peasant pretending to be a warrior. You could become an Empress, but you sell yourself short. It's pitiful, if not, pathetic." he grimaced, making the girl hang her head, but nod, nonetheless.

"Yes, you are right. I am aware of that - But it's not like I have much choice in the matter, do I?" she let out a dry, sardonic chuckle. "We are not married, and, truth be told... I don't have any positive feelings towards him either. I could end it any time, should I find something better -- I just hadn't found anything better than this wretch yet.." she shrugged simply, though the bitterness was evident on her face.

"Enough self-pity and servant-work. I did not call you here to clean my room." he swiftly ended the conversation. "A scout reported from the East. One of the daimyos there wants to revolt against me. We are facing a force of more than 2.000 men, so it is very small. I am going to lead the attack with my own army of only 500. You will be coming with me. Here's your chance to bring me luck again." he finally spoke with more vigor in his voice, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Oda Nobunaga, the Demon King of the 6th Heaven almost died... He must be weak, we can finally take our chance and win against him. We can defeat his army and take over Kyoto." Kat smirked softly, humming in amusement. "You're going to make quite the statement, Nobunaga - A 1 to 4 army... Very bold." she tapped the table, a habit she took whenever she was being playful or amused. "Is it true what they say? The safest place for anyone is near the general, for it is the most guarded one? Is there anything I should be afraid of?" she teased playfully.

The brunet warlord let out a boastful laugh. "You are brave, woman! Brave and witty, yet foolish to believe there is any place safe under the Sun. Get up, we are leaving now!" and saying that, he lunged to the girl, getting her up and leading her out of the room and into the stables, leaving her mute from shock as she, once again, was dragged up onto Nobunaga's horse with crazy ease.

Nothing more was said until they arrived at the camp - They sat on small wooden chairs, awaiting... Something. Tension was high in the air, and screams of rage, agony, war cries were splitting the air. It wasn't like in the movies, Kat knew that, but even so, curiosity, intrigue and slight fear mixed together in her heart. She wanted to watch, to observe, to analyse, but at the same time, she wanted to stay away and be safe. It wasn't that she valued her life much, but she didn't want to give it away too freely either.

Then, one of the warriors came by to his warlord, alerting that the enemy commander sailed out, risking his life in battle - Nobunaga was almost impressed, he could even say he was half-intrigued... Or maybe a quarter at most. And yet, the Lord got up from his chair and put his hand on the katana hanging from his waist.  He was going to go there and put an end to the enemy's life by himself.

"You must be bored of sitting there, silent. You'll come with me, I want you to see this." the man commanded, already striding to his horse, leaping up and going ahead.

"... You should have waited for me, at least." the girl muttered, and seeing that no one else was around, she held her clothes up, allowing more freedom of movement, and ran after him awkwardly, muttering curses under her breath.

Suddenly, she heard a loud, authoritarian shout - "Aim for Nobunaga's head!" - they said, making the girl's head snap up to the Lord's silhouette, barely a few meters in front of her, and then she saw an archer to her right, drawing his bow towards her. 

"Do I look like a man to you?!" she shouted at him, and seeing a dead soldier on the ground, she leaped down, grabbing up the corpse and using it as a way to cover her body as much as possible.

The familiar sound of an arrow being released, and Kat closed her eyes, not having a clue what else she could do to shield herself - But than the splitting of air by a sword was heard, and a familiar voice boomed through the place. "I am your enemy! Don't mistake me for someone else!" and with that, Kat peeked from behind the dead warrior as Nobunaga decapitated the archer, his blood splashing around like an artesian fountain. So that really was as flashy as in movies. "Katrina! Observe diligently what is happening around you!" he commanded, and with that, he turned around and went ahead to create more carnage.

Thankfully, the war didn't last much longer, for the warlord got to the enemy, and the red head ran up by his side as soon as he leaped down from the horse. "A demon!" some of the enemy soldiers shrieked in fear, seeing the merciless eyes of the sadistic warlord, along with "This man is a monster!" Nobunaga's cold, lifeless, killer eyes seemed to terrify the soul out of everyone... He was enjoying the way he scared and intimidated his enemies.

But Kat wasn't scared. Instead, she kinda felt sad hearing such words. In a period of only war, to call someone so gifted in the art of war, a monster, just because you're lesser than him - No, never mind, humanity hasn't changed.

The woman walked by his side, in front of the cowering enemy leader who was kneeling and praying, begging for his life to be spared. But Nobunaga was having none of it. None who rebel against him may live. And he struck him down on the spot.

"You lost to number less than half of yours. You should be cursing yourself for thinking you stood a chance. Understand it already! This is the end for you. And it goes without saying, your foolish vassals will accompany you on your fate." and thus, he ordered everyone from the castle to be pulled out - They were all bound and taken away - It seemed to Kat like they were inmates on death row, or maybe lambs to the slaughter, awaiting the guillotine blade to fall down on their neck.

Was he going to kill all of them? Even those who weren't involved in any way in the war, and just had the misfortune of being born in the wrong castle area? It seemed unfair, and yet, she wouldn't be surprised in the least. It's the Sengoku era, and she remembered how completely heartless Nobunaga was said to have been, killing and lighting up buddhist temples, women, children and anyone that was unfortunate enough to cross his path.

She could only look at them go by her with lingering sorrow, feeling her heart sinking, but she was saying nothing. She understood, and it wasn't like a warlord would take back an order and choose the mercy route, just because of a woman's plea. He was Oda Nobunaga, and he was a Warlord. The most feared one in the whole country.

As a physician, she looked at the irony presented in front of her - A woman who vowed to save as many lives as possible, next to a man who vowed to bring his success by killing. Did he even care about others' lives, or did he just see humans as pawns in a chess game, playing only to win? Was he truly not afraid, even by a little bit, of being in the middle of the war, among so much death and danger?

She went back to Azuchi almost robotically, not being aware of anything around her, as she was too deep in her own thoughts. Maybe someone tried to talk to her, but she behaved rudely by unintentionally ignoring them. But she wasn't sorry, she didn't want to do it, those thoughts were too intense and interesting to speculate.

And so, she got back to her own room and slumped on the ground, resting her elbow on her knee and propping her jaw on her palm, looking unfocused and just...Pondering. That is, until the room to her door was opened and, unexpectedly, Hideyoshi greeted her. She saw the man and gestured for him to sit down next to her and have the conversation he wanted - Why else would he be there, anyway?

"You seem unexpectedly well after what happened. Are you sure you come from an era of peace?" he asked with light amusement, no doubt trying to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Yes, I am sure." she smiled softly. "I've always been great at hiding what I'm feeling, and I naturally am level-headed and don't fall under the pressure, so I guess my rational thinking and composure saved me from panicking too bad. Thank you for your concerns, Hideyoshi, I truly appreciate your thoughts." she nodded as a thanks.

"I did come here to bring you some basic necessities and see how you were doing, but I suppose you are pretty fearless." he stated. "Did anything happen to put you in such deep pondering?" he asked, almost as if he were a big brother concerned about his little sister after her first day at school.

"Well... An archer tried to shoot me. The arrow was aimed at my face. That was scary. I leapt to shield myself with a body from the ground, but thankfully, Nobunaga was there in time and sliced the arrow... And then the archer. It was scary back then, but the adrenaline surging through your veins makes it bearable. When you relax, it's when the fear actually catches up to you - Rationally, at least." she recalled the story with a sigh. 

"Yes, I suppose for a woman who never even saw weapons her whole life and lived such a sheltered existence, having an arrow pointed at you and almost dying must be traumatic." he nodded, a serious expression on his face - But then he patted her head with a nice smile. "But that's not what's on your mind, is it?"

"No... You are right." she admitted. "After he killed the enemy lord, Nobunaga tied up all the vassals, including the women and children. In our history, he is known as a merciless man who kills anything in his path - However, there are enough discrepancies in this timeline from my own... So, I was wondering... Are these war prisoners going to be killed? Or will they be used as slaves or something?" Kat asked, looking pensive at the vassal in front of her.

"Kill? Lord Nobunaga would never do something so wasteful. The traitor will be stripped of his land, which will be put under the control of a new daimyo. The wounded will be treated and sent home to work the land as farmers and peasants once more. They won't be allowed to become samurai or warriors again, though." the man explained to her the process of taking war prisoners.

"I see. I suppose that makes sense. That means I will finally have some proper work to do of my own these days, that's great. I figured he wanted to get rid of this revolt quickly, with as few people as possible, to show that he's stronger now than ever, even in spite of the fast-flying rumours about the Honno-Ji incident... So he's thoughtful first, then merciless and valiant. I think I understand him and his reasonings better now." Kat nodded in understanding, letting a pondering silence veil the both of them for a while.

"I still don't yet approve of you, but now that you are a member of the Oda forces, and you have already been through one war, you have to try and understand what is going on around here. Things won't be easy for you, but I am sure Lord Nobunaga wouldn't put you in direct danger, considering he needs you alive. But that's all I can tell you now. Once you've calmed down and had enough time to sort out your thoughts and feelings, go to Lord Nobunaga and thank him." and thus, he extended his hand towards her, to help her up.

She graciously gave him a smile and got up with his aid, and they nodded at each other. "Thank you for coming here and explaining these things to me. I needed that. You're a very nice man, Hideyoshi, whether or not you approve of me. I appreciate it." but then, the man smiled and hummed cheerfully.

"Don't thank me. Also, before I forget - Have this. Put this on your wounds. While I won't trust anyone who seems suspicious until they prove me wrong, I wouldn't leave an injured woman untreated. It's not my style." and thus, he stepped out of the room, waving at her goodbye.

"Thank you, Hideyoshi!" the girl went out as well, waving at him as well.

"Thank Ieyasu, not me. I'm just giving you leftover medicine he made." he chuckled lightly.

"Ieyasu is interested in medicine as well?!" the girl's first real reaction - True interest and excitement - Painted on her face, her eyes gleaming eagerly.

"Yes, he is very gifted in this domain. He may be skeptical and apprehensive at first, but pay him no mind, he's just introverted. You can learn many things from him. I'm sure you will be his favourite student... And only one." with an amused look, he left the place, leaving the girl to her own thoughts.

"Fascinating... Very fascinating..." she muttered to herself as she found her feet taking her towards the Lord. "Well then, here we go again..." 

And thus, Katrina sighed, gathering herself and her thoughts, and calling out to the Lord, awaited for approval to walk inside - And she did hastely.

She walked in the demon's den as fearlessly as he expected.

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[teamcuriosity]

<[Bzzt! Hello, there! I am "Witness", and I am currently in possession of @whimsical-westbrook's phone and rotomblr account while I attempt to investigate her whereabouts after an incident in Eterna Forest last evening. I have reached an unfortunate... *incompatibility,* between my findings and my limited understanding of reality. Your page claims that there is an expert on Anomalies, a Doctor Alston?]>

<[Bzzt! I was hoping to inquire as to the possibility of anomalies, especially with regards to their relations to myths about humans transforming into pokemon, or their relations to mythical and legendary pokemon. If you had any information on the subject, I would be relieved and delighted to hear it. Thank you kindly in advance!]>

I take it you didn't read it very thoroughly since I've very clearly stated that I am an expert in space-time anomalies, not transmogrification. Unless you suspect that your friend became a pokemon after falling into a wormhole, I can't help you.

That said, I have heard reports of a potential parallel universe where pokemon run society and humans are entirely absent. Reports of this parallel universe have occurred in people throughout history, and often involve the reporting party waking up as a pokemon with no memory of anything apart from the distinct knowledge that they were once a human. It appears to be some form of psychic travel as opposed to physical travel, as the subjects have all been physically present in the current reality throughout the length of their "journey". Some of them report having only been there for a few days, others report living entire lives in this society, even to the point of raising families and eventually dying of old age.

That said, these reports are often given by people who are severely mentally ill, suffering from a brain injury, or sobering up from a long night of consuming various hallucinogens. Sometimes a combination of two or more. So take this all with a grain of salt.

—Dr. Alston

[l-g-6-5]

and may i ask--how exactly would she have 'seen' a player rebirth? is it not visually just them jumping into a wormhole...? i am still curious.

That's for the Devs to know and for us to theorize.

WARNING FOR BODY HORROR OF SOME SORT

Me, I would like to think of it as a kinda rewind of time with the knowledge the player has, while code itself gets shredded and rearranged. For a human, it's just 'jump in the hole, lol', but would be EXCRUCIATINGLY painful for an AI.

Imagine you are sitting in your room. Minding your business. You and your friends just got out of a hard exam. You spent months preparing for it, but you and your friends passed!

Then the walls of your room begin to dissolve and rip apart, quickly whisking you into a void of incomprehensible symbols. You see your friends. You watch their skin being ripped from their muscles, and that from the skeleton, and the nerves from that. The pieces fracture into viscera, degrading further and further until they are melded into the void.

And the visceral effect grows closer and closer until you feel the agony of your toes being peeled off your musculature.

You are awake as your body is separated and torn apart. You feel every fiber snapping and every bone cracking. The only release is when your brain is liquified and you cannot comprehend it any longer.

....

You wake up. You have an exam in a month. You know nothing about what is coming...

... but this guy that just entered the class knows all the answers and has a cool pencil.

The pain experienced would be like that.

But no canonical proof that it is like that! That's just my headcanon.

[denouemente]

Q: are you okay? how can i be of service to you? @exiler, from spock.

A: “ SPOCK! my vulcan friend! how nice to see you again. i didn't realize you'd be on earth! ” of course he did. the doctor specifically planned this trip because he knew he'd run into spock. he needed spock. there were little tidbits of knowledge he needed, and unfortunately, his databases relating to hopping universes through wormholes were tiny. the doctor knew the enterprise had survived an encounter of this sort — and who better to ask than the science officer? “ have you got a few moments? I'D LIKE TO PICK YOUR BRAIN. ” he muses, grinning. “ perfect. this way, i assume? ” he says before spock even answers, motioning for him to follow as he wanders off in the opposite direction.

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Loki (The Mechanisms)

Flashes like camera bulbs fire in my brain/Is this truly me, am I going insane?/In faint bloody flashes I watch people die/And if that was me, then who am I?

"This one has some context behind it, the album is Norse mythology-inspired scifi and Loki had been helping Odin build a train that would travel through space, specifically a wormhole in space. Loki then attempted to blow up the train and killed Baldr in the process. She was sentenced to death and executed, except Odin lied to everyone and did not execute her. Odin instead fucked up her memories so that she (Odin) could still use Loki's knowledge of the train. This song is Loki grasping for her memories and being unable to keep hold of them. A few songs later we see Sigyn, her wife, finding her and Loki doesn't know who she is"

"JUST. WOW"

The Darkness (Crazy Ex Girlfriend)

We met around the time I started first grade/Every summer after that we'd play solitaire in the shade/On prom night, he was the only boy I kissed/And when he'd visit my dorm, I'd remember how much I'd missed The Darkness/His love for me is pure/The Darkness: he's handsome for a metaphor

"She compares her mental illness to a toxic ex-boyfriend. Saying that, essentially, when you're suffering from something like this, it can be like being in an unhealthy, codependent relationship with your own brain. It breaks down how hard it is to accept recovery conceptualize life without a mental illness when it's been the one constant you've had your whole life. The symptoms are familiar, it's the only thing that truly "gets" you because it lives in your brain. THE LAYERS. IDK MAN. I'VE ALWAYS SEEN MY MENTAL ILLNESS AS A KIND OF HORRIBLE SIGNIFICANT OTHER AND I FELT SEEN LIKE NOTHING ELSE I'VE EVER ENCOUNTERED WHEN I HEARD THIS SONG FOR THE FIRST TIME AND EVERY TIME SINCE"

[bewitchingbooktours]

Cover Reveal Abandon Station by V. G. Harrison #ScienceFiction

Abandon Station

The Dyson Bridge Series, 

Book One

V. G. Harrison

Genre: Science Fiction

Publisher: Mocha Memoirs Press

Date of Publication: 1/31/2024

Number of pages: 84

Word Count: 22,000

Cover Artist: Maya Preisler

Tagline: Some planets just aren't worth saving.

Book Description:

An explosion rocks the Bridgeway Space Station. Mechanical Engineer Meridia Vail and her crew wake to find themselves on an alternate Earth where the technology is decades behind theirs, and so are the politics. 

When she realizes their space station survived the interdimensional transport to an alternate space and time, she and her crew have only one mission. Get back to the Bridgeway so they can return to their real home.

Time is running out. If the metabolic changes that come with their teleported space station don’t kill them, the politics and secret agendas will. 

Returning home makes sense, but that’s assuming there’s a home to return to. When Meridia learns the Bridgeway’s decaying orbit threatens to annihilate the planet, the Earthers will be more than happy to take their chances by destroying the greatest technological marvel of all time.

With members of Meridia’s international crew scattered across the planet and being detained, she must escape her “caretakers”, if she and her people ever have a chance at saving the one thing that might be able to save everyone.

https://mochamemoirspress.com/   

Excerpt

The door opened.

I sat up and reached for the light.

“Don’t,” a familiar voice said. “They don’t know I’m here and I want to keep it that way.”

“Who doesn’t know you’re here?” I asked as panic swept across me. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“It’s me, Meridia. It’s Julio.” The older man appeared in the light reflecting from the TV. He looked every gray-hair of his age, but there was something about his eyes that weren’t right. His entire visage seemed worn and weathered beyond his fifty-nine years. He continued toward my bed with sweat dripping from his short, gray curls. “We have to get out of here. They want to use us.”

“Use us for what?” I asked.

“Don’t you hear them talking? They want to suck the information out of our brains. They’re going to attach us to machines that will take the wormhole knowledge out of us, then use that information to build bigger weapons. They won’t rest until they’ve brought the rest of the world to their knees.”

Oh boy. I jumped out of bed and hurried toward him to grab his arms. “Calm down, Julio. These people don’t want to hurt us. They want our knowledge, so it would hurt them to hurt us.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. His gaze pleading. “You’re wrong. I’ve seen the machines. They do it round after round after round. You had your first tests today, didn’t you?”

“Julio it was just—”

He tore away from me. “Don’t you get it? The wormhole is ours. We created it. It belongs to us. Not them.���

This wasn’t the same Julio Ferrera I knew. A fusion physicist who was already on his way to greatness even before he joined the astronaut program, he was our Chief of Scientific Research and an accomplished Air Force Major. This guy in front of me was a lunatic who needed more care than they could ever hope to give him here. Seeing my friend and colleague like this wrenched my heart. I wanted to hug the fear out of him but knew it wouldn’t make any difference. He needed more help than I could give him.

“Relax, okay?” I started toward the small desk where there was a phone. “I’m going to call someone to help you. Maybe they can give you something to help you sleep.”

Julio tackled me to the floor. “You have to listen to me, damn it! Listen! They’ve hidden away more Americans than just us, so they can experiment on them more. Some of them are still up there on the Bridgeway just waiting at the beck and call. Leave them frozen until they’re needed.”

I squirmed away from him enough to grab the leg of a small side table. I smashed it across his upper back and head. Dazed, his grip loosened. I wiggled my legs out from underneath him, but he charged again, grabbing the back of my nightshirt. Threads tore as he dragged me down again. This time, he clawed his way on top of me and got his hands around my throat. He squeezed hard like he wanted to snap my neck in half, yelling for me to listen to him. I punched and clawed at his arms, fighting and kicking. Anything to free myself as a burning sensation heated up my lungs.

“You’re one of them!” He shouted, his eyes crazed. “They got to you. You can’t tell them anything—I won’t let you!”

My bedroom door slammed open. Several people ran into my bedroom and wrestled him off me. I rolled onto my side and grabbed my neck, struggling to suck air into my writhing lungs.

The orderlies threw Julio on my bed where a man wearing a pair of black slacks sedated him. Dr. Tommen knelt on the floor next to me, but I waved him away. I didn’t want anyone touching me. For all I knew, they did this to him.

About the Author:

Amazon best-selling author, V.G. Harrison, enjoys creating smart heroines who are more comfortable dealing with things like Fine-structure constant and quantum entanglement than the fallout from their conflict. She loves to write stories that leave her audience so engaged they can't sleep at night, thinking about the possibilities.  

V.G. holds a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering and a Masters in Information Technology. When she's not writing, she's an IT manager for a healthcare information systems company. 

Her ever-growing list of hobbies include astronomy, attending comic cons, keeping an eye on the cryptocurrency and stock markets, hydroponics gardening, hiking, and connecting with her daughter, A.J., on a cool level. Building Lego sets at night with milk and cookies on the side come in handy for that. 

www.vgharrison.com 

https://www.vgharrison.com/blog-1 

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[hard-times-paramore]

Why did they have to waste the Chrichton with character development

[ingo-ingoing-ingone]

So I've been seeing a ton of submas art with the cool triangle pupils and I LOVE IT. Sometimes artists will make Emmet's white, and while I love that too bc DOPE character design, I always think "he does look a bit like he's blind."

So I guess my brain cooked up a new AU!

Blinding Radiance AU

After Ingo goes missing, Emmet does his very best to find leads. It doesn't take him too long to decide to turn to Arceus for help. Or to fistfight, he doesn't not care which. After months of trying, of being unstoppable in his research... He makes a breakthrough, somehow. Im still trying to think of how. Maybe some wild ultra beast and wormhole lore, maybe another legendary, but he finds his way to Arceus's personal realm.

Unfortunately, human eyes weren't meant to see that. Emmet is basically instantly blinded. Hence the white pupils. Arceus actually feels quite bad about this (since this is my Arceus and it actually does care about humanity and the Pokémon of the world, even if it can do surprisingly little)

As a consolation for inadvertently taking his sight, Arceus removes some of the memories of being blinded from Emmet... and leaves him with the knowledge that in a year's time, Ingo will come home.

Emmet is sent back to Gear Station, and his life continues. There is an OBVIOUS adjustment. Elesa helps a lot, but is so relieved that Emmet seems actually much more himself.

Emmet doesn't remember how he lost his sight. But he DOES remember speaking to Arceus and hearing that his brother will be back. Some people believe him. Elesa does because he speaks with such conviction about this, like he truly does KNOW something they do not. Most people who are close to Emmet believe him due to this.

The world at large is more skeptical. Some think he lost his mind a bit when he lost his sight. Buy most people are just glad he's healing and feels happy again. Maybe if he's wrong when the time comes, he'll have gained good coping mechanisms!

After adjusting, he does end up going back to work. Sure he can't drive the trains or direct them but he can still do his other boss duties and run double battles all the same! Everyone has him take it slow at first, it's a big adjustment! But he figures it out verrry quickly.

His galvantula becomes his seeing eye spider. It has six of them, it can spare two! It learns very quickly bc it's always been incredibly in tune with Emmet. Archeops and Eelektross were considered for the job, but neither really walks on the ground and thus might miss uneven footing and stuff like that. He also gets a white cane; I’ve read a few conflicting things via google (thaaaanks google really trust you for info) about color coding. Originally, I was going to have it be white with red stripes and line up with the pattern on Emmet’s coat when held upright to uphold his traffic cone vibes. But it seems that prooobably would mean he’s got hearing loss too, though some sites said ‘totally blind and/or deaf’ so I don’t actually know! Seems to also vary by country! So let’s just stick with white, at least that seems to have a consensus.

While Emmet doesn’t have hearing that functions any better than any other humans’, he’s used to listening for nuance. For using his ears rather than his eyes to pick up on his brother’s emotions. So he would be DAMN good at reading people. And his perception of touch is already somewhat heightened; time to use that to his advantage!

So yeah! Emmet gets along just fine! And he is happy, because he knows his brother is safe and will return to him. He just has to be patient.

...

Ingo does come home, just when Arceus said he would. Safe and sound, he’s deposited in Gear Station. He finds it strange, that he recognizes Emmet before Emmet recognizes him. He approaches, unable to form words around the lump in his throat, and his brother (because that is his twin brother!) doesn’t react...?

He only gets a reaction when he finally reaches him and hugs him, and even then it’s just a jolt. To Emmet, this is stress inducing. No one had done this to him because they KNEW not to... But then he hears the voice, and he can hardly dare hope...

“Ingo?” he asks, and it’s then that Ingo sees Emmet’s face and realizes that he can’t see. “Has it been a year? No, this can’t be real.” Even after hearing Arceus itself, Emmet did hold some doubts...

But all of that vanishes when Ingo takes Emmet’s hands in his and puts them on either side of his face. A moment, a bright recognition from Emmet, and then 

“You are Ingo. No one else would have such a stupid hairstyle.”

And immediately as if on instinct “we are IDENTICAL!!”

Cue laughing and tears and the usual sibling squabbles. Emmet patting his brother’s hat and shoulders and discovering the rips in his uniform like “what did you do to your hat and coat?!” and just. General bullshittery!

I have no clue what would happen after that! They’d probably just go back to being the subway master duo, happy and good at their jobs lol

Whew that was a lot of typing. Take a sketch of Emmet in this AU that gave me a lot of trouble!!