#sanctuary of the lost

[lou-wilham]

Sometimes a family is . . .

The crew of Sanctuary of the Lost are always a lot of fun to write, and not just because they're all so different. But also because they all work together so well.

BLURB:

Of Love & Ruin is the first book in a LGBTQ+ urban fantasy novel for fans of Hailey Turner's Soulbound series, and Ashley Shuttleworth's Hollow Star Saga.

Sometimes, love comes along at exactly the wrong time.

For over a hundred years, life for Ander and Mab has been a series of parties and adventures spanning the world over. Once the two finally decide to settle in Miami to open a nightclub, the last thing Ander expects is for the love spell he cast over a century ago to come back and bite him. The Fates seem to have a sense of humor when they lead Maximus Schields, son of Ander’s nemesis, through the club doors. Max, who is beautiful. Sweet. Kind. And part of an ongoing investigation concerning missing young women that leads the Sanctum directly to Ander.

As the tangled web of Miami’s underground draws tighter, Ander will be forced to face demons from his past in order to protect what he cares for most. Will Max and the rest of the Schields family task force find the true culprit and prove Ander’s innocence? Or is he forever destined to be shackled by the one he loves?

Grab the series

[mybiggaybooktour]

It's giving Criminal Minds meets paranormal fantasy vibes and you're gonna want to add it to your fall reading list.

Join the team for Lou Wilham & Christis Christie's October tour for Of Love & Ruin before September 4th.

To sign up to be a host click HERE

Blurb:

Sometimes, love comes along at exactly the wrong time.

For over a hundred years, life for Ander and Mab has been a series of parties and adventures spanning the world over. Once the two finally decide to settle in Miami to open a nightclub, the last thing Ander expects is for the love spell he cast over a century ago to come back and bite him.

The Fates seem to have a sense of humor when they lead Maximus Schields, son of Ander’s nemesis, through the club doors. Max, who is beautiful. Sweet. Kind. And part of an ongoing investigation concerning missing young women that leads the Sanctum directly to Ander.

As the tangled web of Miami’s underground draws tighter, Ander will be forced to face demons from his past in order to protect what he cares for most. Will Max and the rest of the Schields family task force find the true culprit and prove Ander’s innocence? Or is he forever destined to be shackled by the one he loves?

A LGBTQ+ urban fantasy novel for fans of Hailey Turner's Soulbound series, and Ashley Shuttleworth's Hollow Star Saga.

Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy

Representation: Gay MC, Pansexual MC, Gray Asexual MC, Demisexual MC, PoC MCs

TW: drinking, eating disorder, abusive relationship, sexual assault, depression, drugs, kidnapping, misgendering, profanity, PTSD, sexually explicit scenes

[2001hz]

The Art of Angel Sanctuary: Lost Angel (2007) Lucifer Artwork Illustrated By: Kaori Yuki

[thinwhitedoc]

SHERLOCK | Martin Freeman as John Watson

[geekgirles]

Loking good Ankama, looking good.

[holographic-mars]

MARS. need you to imagine ravage laying on soundwave's chest while they're both struggling to go into recharge and ravage purring in time to the music soundwave is playing from his systems. warm rumble-y cuddle pile. that is all

GGUH thank you Blight I need soft Ravage and Soundwave cuddles to heal.

Ravage and Soundwave both have horrible sleep habits and poor sleep in general , so yes absolutely it’s cuddle pile time n Soundwave plays some nice music from his systems and Ravage is curled up all warm on Soundwave’s chest with her head mushed under his chin and purring so loud to the time of the music. The warmest, rumbley-est cuddle pile ever.

Also this reminds me of my hc that Soundwave’s sleep is so messed up that he RARELY sleeps a full cycle at night and only sleeps for a couple of hours and then wakes up. Because of this, he’s more prone to taking short naps throughout the day so he doesn’t pass out from lack of recharge. And you know who always joins him? Ravage. They nap together all the time (to keep eachother safe. It’s dangerous to fall asleep alone in the Dead End and during the War, so they always fall asleep with the other to keep eachother safe). Megatron found them napping in little nooks throughout the Nemisis all the time during the war.

OUHH LET TJEM SLEEPP,,,, sooo sleepy,,,, the kitties,,,,,,, theyre too sleepy,,,,,,,,

[cookie-sheet-toboggan]

[alifelongpassed]

Shadowlands- Halsin's sanctuary- just Kar'niss things story fragment after keep reading

_

“Kar’niss, Kar'niss!”

“What do you have there, my small majesty?” He could not recall all their names, not yet.

She held out a puffy flower, her eyes happy and bright. Fearless. The drider took it, but no matter how delicate he tried to take hold of it a few seeds still came loose.

“A wish! Blow it to make a wish, like so!” The little girl took a deep breath, and blew, sending the tufts of white twirling into the air. She jumped up and down, excitedly. “Now you, now you!”

To be handed a wish, but what could he possibly wish for? He had no wishes, not now, not anymore.

“What did you wish for?" He inquired kindly.

“That I could stay here forever!”

He smiled, took a deep breath, and blew. Watching how the seeds danced up into the air and scattered on the ground not far away – a thousand wishes in the making.

“What did you wish?”

He smiled. "That I could stay here, forever.”

[alpaca-clouds]

Lucifer - Not Quite Like You Think

Alright, @greenpeacocks asked about the Ars Goetica and Lucifer. And I will do this in two different blogs, because both are more than enough for me to ramble on about for like 1k words. lol Because, oh boy, demonology and history are so interesting to cross over.

I will start with dear Lucifer.

Let me start with one question: Where does Lucifer come from? And what was he?

Chances are, you said, Lucifer was an angel who rebelled against God (with a capital-G) and because of that was cast out of heaven together with other angels, who rebelled. And now he either has become Satan, or is one of many demons/fallen angels in hell.

And with that you would be wrong.

See, something you have to understand about the Lucifer story, as written in the bible, is, that the Abrahamitic religions - as long as they had been Abrahamitic - had been monotheistic. Yes. However this religion came out of the Canaanite religion, which was a polytheistic religion, that eventually went back to Sumerian religion. I will for now not go into detail how that polytheistic religion became monotheistic. The tl;dr version of what religious scientists right now believe is this: There was an Egyptian weather god called Yahweh, that got imported into the Canaanite religion, where he eventually merged with the god Ba'al. One of the Canaanite tribes had this Yahweh/Ba'al eventually merge with the highest god of that religion, El, also known as Elohim. Which is why the bible uses both names for God. The last bit - him merging with El - is the important part.

Because in the Canaanite religion (probably going back to the Sumerian myths) there was a myth about the Morning God, Helel or Helal, who was the manifestation of Venus (aka the Morning Star), challenging El's position as the upper god of this pantheon. He was prideful because he was shining brighter than all the other gods, but for this challenge got eventually exiled from the realm of the gods for a while.

This does sound a bit familiar, right?

Well, what if I tell you, that in the untranslated version of the Bible the supposedly "rebelling angel" was actually called Helel?

Yeah, for some reason this big of old mythology just happened to survive into the bible. Helel was there, never being fully defined as an angel, but just as "a bright being of the sky", which was eventually by scholars interpreted as an angel.

"But," I hear you asking, "why do we call him Lucifer?"

Well, this is because of the Latin translation of the bible. See, when the bible - which originally was partly written in Greek, and partly in Hebrew - got fully translated into Latin, the people translating it realized that the name "Helel" did not mean anything to their audience. However, they were still aware of the origin of this story, and new that Helel was a name for the god of the Morning Star. So they just used the Roman name for the god of the Morning Star, son of the Aurora: Lucifer. A god, that in Roman mythology was not really meaningful. He shows up in a couple of Roman manuscripts that we have, but does not appear to have been prayed to a whole lot. And they put this name into the bible for this god/angel trying to take God's throne.

So, yeah. That is how we got Lucifer. A left over from an old religion.

Now, some of you might also have heard that Lucifer was originally a dragon. And of course, most of you think of Lucifer as Satan or the Devil. Why is that?

Well, both of these are related. Satan is twice described as a dragon in some parts of the bible. And in one of the scenes Satan is also cast down from the heaven. Now, Lucifer is not mentioned anywhere near that - but people went: "Huh, someone gets thrown down from heaven, so I guess that only ever happened once, so Lucifer and Satan are the same person and they are both an angel and a dragon!"

Whether or not Satan and Lucifer are eventually portrayed as the same character is very depedend on what source you might use. (Note, demonology developed during the second half of the middle ages and came up with a whole of its original rules for both demons and the hell or hells. In fact, a lot of depictions of hell and evil gods we see in modern fantasy and horror media, like DnD, Castlevania and so on, is more based on this demonology, than actual religious doctrine.) In a lot of Demonology they are differentiated, but once you are go more into Catholic depictions, they often get merged into one character.

I will probably write about the Ars Goetia later this week or on the weekend. Because that needs a whole lot of context. xD

[dr-futbol-blog]

Epiphany, Pt. 16

Between the prelude to Teer bedding Sheppard and the aftermath of the night that seems to have lived on in Sheppard's nightmares later, we get a scene outside of the cave where McKay is also about to experience a powerful woman overriding his will for her own purposes, and it is probably not on accident that these scenes are presented back-to-back. What I find interesting is that we do not transition from Sheppard being kissed while wearing McKay's shirt to McKay, given that we have frequently seen such transitions, but instead move on to the disembodied voice of Weir. This serves the purpose of further concealing McKay's presence from the previous scene where he was tangibly present, his shirt a loose but protective layer around Sheppard.

Weir: OK, I think I've got it. I am interpreting a bit, but it seems the field was designed as a sanctuary from the wraith, but a place the last of the Ancients could travel to and hopefully ascend without fear of attack. McKay: Of course! They could potentially spend entire lifetimes inside the field before the wraith even discovered the place. Beckett: And if they ever attacked, their ships would get torn apart just as the probe did.

We begin with Weir announcing that she thinks she's "got it," just like Teer probably thought that she got "it" with Sheppard where, in truth, the man seems to want only one thing. We get some exposition as Weir has finished the thing she had come to do, which was to translate the Ancient writing on the wall that she seems to have done with the help of a machine that appears to be a cross between a massager and an epilator. What she tells them is a little odd because the second "but" confuses the syntax. That the place was designed "as a sanctuary... but a place" makes no sense, but let us jot it down for her attempt at translating Ancient syntax.

Regardless, we learn that the whole reason for creating this one-way door was to protect the inhabitants from the wraith, which also connects this episode to Sanctuary (S01E14). We may remember that in the episode Sheppard was so weighed down by his own role in releasing the wraith that he had been desperately looking for sanctuary for his people, for all the people, and he was willing to do nigh anything to secure it. It seems as though since that time, especially in light of his own incarceration in this place, Sheppard has learned that security and freedom require a delicate balance.

Teyla: And so it has remained for ten thousand years. Weir: This writing here, this serves as a sort of welcome, as well as a warning for any of the humans under their protection looking for sanctuary, but I think it was left there for anyone...

We see McKay sigh deeply as Weir mentions that there was an actual warning written on the wall, kicking himself with both feet. It seems like an especially egregious lapse in judgement given that in Lost Boys (S02E10) he had told Jace that his Ancient was "OK," meaning passable. They should have taken the time to read the text but Teyla had been the only one of them with any interest in it at the time. McKay seems to be feeling so uncomfortable here that he can barely stand to be inside his own skin. Also, as mentioned, 2,5 million years have passed inside the time bubble which would mean that at least the flora should have evolved in wild ways -- unless the Ancients had somehow made sure that although time is accelerated inside, it also effectively stands still, nothing changes.

Weir: ...who wanted to seek the path to ascension on their own. Dex: And what's the warning? Weir: That once you cross the threshold, there's no return. McKay: That is, unless you have the exact location of the power source and the expertise to turn it off.

McKay sounds confident, nigh arrogant as he advertises his ability to turn the Ancient power source off while inside, and this is likely most of all to assuage his own fear. He knows he is going in, there is not a chance in hell that he isn't, but he is apprehensive of what they might find inside. He does not know what has happened to Sheppard, if he is even alive, if he has lived to old age, if he has ascended, if he has forgotten all about him. A thousand things could have gone wrong and it was all his fault, it was his negligence that had caused this, like Weir had just reminded them all. With all this, failure was not an option for him. He was going to go in and he was going to turn that thing off if it was the last thing he did. And so, to spare everyone else from feeling the fear he was feeling, he chose to project confidence instead.

McKay: Hey, we may even get a ZPM out of this. Dex: Now you're talking. Weir: Lieutenant, this is Weir. If you haven't heard from us in... Rodney? McKay: Well, an hour would give us months in there, but, Elizabeth, of all the people who should stay, it would be you. Weir: There may be writing by the power source that needs translating.

Not wanting to risk any more lives than necessary, McKay suggests that Weir should stay outside. And he is correct in this not only because Weir is crucial to the mission but because he has to go himself, which would then put the whole leadership of the expedition in jeopardy needlessly. The royal family do not all fly in the same airplane, and all of the senior staff of the Atlantis expedition should not be going where they do not know for a fact they can ever return. This is the kind of idiocy that would make Caldwell tear out the rest of his hair. And although Weir gives the excuse that there may be texts inside that need translating, we are to understand that she is doing this for personal reasons. She is so very, very worried for Sheppard given how they have that special bond of shared responsibility and all.

The audience are given the option of reading some UST into their relationship even though here, just as we did in Sanctuary, if this episode does anything it is to establish that neither Teyla nor Weir have any romantic interest in Sheppard given how the only person who a) notices and b) cares that he has fucked someone (else) is McKay. Regardless, even though McKay has good reason to ask her to stand this one out, she overrides him, insisting to come with. And a major reason for why McKay is uncomfortable with this is that he knows Sheppard would not want him to risk his own life doing this for him, let alone hers. He does not want to go against what he knows are Sheppard's express wishes.

Also, we have got to talk about his math here. McKay really does not seem to have a knack for mental math. An hour on the outside translates to around 10 days inside, not months. He might be exaggerating and 10 days is surely enough time for them to do what he intends to do inside but this still shows us that math is not his strongest suit.

McKay: OK, but if there is a slight chance that when we go through the-- Weir: Rodney, I'm going! Lieutenant, one hour, then head back to Atlantis and see if Zelenka can think of anything. Pilot: Understood. Beckett: Well, he may need medical treatment and I'm the only doctor here, so I should probably just... McKay: Carson, it probably won't hurt so much if you just go through quickly. Weir: Alright, let's do this.

Where Weir does not seem to want to even hear what McKay is saying, McKay is at least trying to make sure she has informed consent going through the portal. We see her literally overriding him here where he is merely trying to keep her safe.

We have to wonder what her motivation for needing to do this for Sheppard is, at the end of the day, given how it does not seem to be romantic in nature. It is possible she feels like she owes Sheppard for some reason, or that she really needs him to secure her own command of the expedition given how hard she fought to get him the post to begin with. Regardless, we are invited to contrast her and McKay here, especially with what McKay did in the previous episode. Weir is risking her life here, it is true, but this is a far cry from the severity of what McKay felt compelled to do. Him risking his life was not an abstraction, he literally took a lethal amount of substance because saving Sheppard was more important to McKay than his own life. That is not what she is doing here. She is going in risking everything on McKay being able to get them out, and we have seen that she has more faith in McKay's abilities than he has in himself. Weir is betting her lunch money where McKay went all-in, putting not just his life's savings on the line but money he did not even have, metaphorically speaking.

But as much as McKay may think that it is for the good of the expedition that Weir should stay back, he does not extend the same to Beckett, insisting that he come along. McKay had heard how much pain Sheppard was in and if there is even a slight chance that he needs healing, McKay is not just ready to sacrifice the chief medical officer of the expedition but his own best friend. And let us just make a note of the fact that we see Sheppard do something rather similar very soon in Grace Under Pressure (S02E14), where Zelenka does not want to risk his life on a dangerous attempt at saving McKay and while Weir tells him she cannot force him to accompany Sheppard, he makes it clear that he does not have a problem forcing Zelenka even if he has to take him with at gun point. And that is not the last time we see Sheppard do that, either. During The Shrine (S05E04), he comes damn close to pulling a gun on the chief medical officer of the expedition at the time. If McKay thought for a moment that they might actually need Weir to save Sheppard, he probably would not hesitate to take her with too. These fools have gotten into "the habit" of saving each other, after all.

Weir: That wasn't so bad! McKay: Hmm.

We then find McKay already sitting in the cave inside the barrier as Weir enters through the portal, telling us that McKay had been the first one to go through because, just like the voyage of the Daedalus in the previous episode, this is McKay's rescue and the others are merely along for the ride. Some time has obviously passed and McKay has made himself comfortable seemingly on the same exact spot that Sheppard had occupied when he had been waiting to hear from them at the beginning of his stay in the sanctuary.

Let us also recall that because he had only just fetched the bag from there, it was not that long since Sheppard had actually been in the cave and it might be that McKay can even sense him. At the very least he seems to be taking comfort in the fact that Sheppard had been here, however long ago. Let us also note that McKay does not respond to Weir's comment about the way through having not been that bad, because he had heard the pain Sheppard had been when he was being pulled in which was not something he was likely to soon forget, and commenting on how easy-breezy the way through had been for them seems to be borderline offensive to him.

Weir: You were just... McKay: Mmm. That's weird, huh? Well, we may as well relax. The others are gonna be at least five minutes. Judging by the location of the power source, we've got a long walk ahead of us, so...

Even though the probe was able to get telemetry from the other side, McKay seems much more relaxed now that he is actually inside, now that he is living the same time with Sheppard. Let us first note the fact that Rodney "Why did you have to park so far away?" McKay seems to think nothing of the long trek they have ahead of them, seeming not just ready but eager to get going. McKay tells Weir to take a load off, offering her a place to sit by his side and for some reason, Weir opts to sit further away, which is somewhat strange. It is doubtful Weir has anything against McKay but it might be that the frantic energy with which he is occupying himself as he studies his device is a little intimidating to her.

What is interesting is this: in placing McKay to sit against the wall here, he is essentially sitting just like Sheppard had sat when Teer asked him to join her on the floor; he is in mirror image of Sheppard. And here, McKay is alone with a woman that he has no romantic or sexual interest in but even though he is not afraid to ask her to sit by him because they are friendly, he also does not care that she does not. McKay thinks nothing of Weir's presence, seems oblivious to it. He is, as per his own words, relaxed. He is, in other words, everything that Sheppard was not as he was sitting with a woman that he had spent six months with and who wanted to bed him. The way McKay sits here throws Sheppard's body language and discomfort in the previous scene into sharp contrast. And next, as we arrive at the aftermath of their encounter, we can see that Sheppard is not feeling any more comfortable around her the morning after.

Because McKay makes the universal sign for "sit with me," it is also possible the scenes are not just paralleled but are meant to happen synchronously. That McKay had entered the sanctuary just as Sheppard walked in the door to the cabin. This might be corroborated by McKay's observation about the artificial day-night cycle within the sanctuary later, which also happens at the exact same time as Sheppard is talking about the artificial atmosphere within the sanctuary. And if these events are purported to take place at the same time and are not contrasted only thematically, it invites us to ask what it means that Teer had waited until McKay was actually inside the time dilation field to essentially, nigh literally pounce on Sheppard.

It very much seems like she had waited until the last possible moment to have him -- and she had waited for him, as per her own confession. We know that missing McKay played not an insignificant role in why Sheppard gave in to her, given how he was wearing McKay's shirt like a second skin when she came on to him. But the question is, did he feel McKay when it started going down? Was he confused by the sudden uptick in the "telemetry" between himself and McKay?

Again, we obviously cannot prove that this is what happened but the juxtaposition of the scenes is nonetheless interesting. If McKay patting the ground next to him coincided with Teer telling Sheppard to sit, it would explain his near Pavlovian reaction to the command, the way he literally dropped everything to comply. We have seen him do this for McKay previously, and in fact started the episode with Sheppard dropping down to his knees to fulfill his request for tape. And being so, it would make Teer's seduction, the seduction by a woman who is capable of both precognition and remote viewing, much more calculated. She had no intention of taking no for an answer.

Continued in Pt. 17

[lou-wilham]

My co-author and I worked with @oblivionsdream to have her do up artwork of our characters from Sanctuary of the Lost and they are SO beautiful.

When I say Christis and I have lived with these characters rent free in our heads for probably close to a decade, I'm not joking. So to put pen to paper, and then to see an artist bring them to life in this way, means so much to both of us. And they truly did come out just how we imagined them!

Sometimes, love finds you anyway. Burned by her first love, Mab has spent the last several years content with her brother, their club, and her Miami beach front property. The last thing she wants, or needs, is for the arrow cast by Erotes—god of love—to rear its ugly head. But trouble disrupts Mab’s hard-earned peace in the form of a dead inanimi washed up on her private beach. Not wanting to disturb Ander and his newfound bliss, Mab calls the only person she can think of—Quintus Schields. Life for Quin used to be simple. Second in command to his brother Maximus, Quin has always been a hardworking and dedicated creature of few words. He wants nothing to do with the owners of Inferno or their drama. Especially with his new responsibilities as caregiver to an ignis youngling. So, when Mab Duchan asks for help, he has to decide if he wants to keep his world as is, or accept there might be more to life than he expected. As Miami’s criminal underground returns to sink its claws into them, Fate forces the four to face old demons, and question just what they’re willing to do for happiness.

GoodReads | Purchase

[roxynani9292]

F4 strippers 🐦‍⬛🍎🦭🐇

[puddle-of-creativity]

A little redraw of Rune, the Protagonist of one of my little Fics, as well as a reincarnation of my beloved boy Balance.

She is a Albino Orca (implied by her colors). In her old design the red parts where a lot more dull and grayish which didn't really sit right with me tbh. It looked to close to the body and wasn't really that noticable. So I made these spots a bit redder with more vibrant red points. I also made the tips of the fingers and tail a bit reddish. That, plus the tattoo and the now more outstanding eyes? She looks a lot better!

Do I have to rewrite a few chapters because of this now? Yes. Did I plan to do that anyway? Also yes! So it's simply a Win-Win in my eyes😌

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Queensrÿche - No sanctuary

[holographic-mars]

Mars... there is no coswave fix it au... there is no good post-war everyone lives au.. please give us your thoughts on the ideal happy ending for coswave

SAY LESS YIKEZ SAY LESS,,

Mars Coswave fixit AU is as follows:

Cosmos goes back to the Sanctuary station with Soundwave post Unicron. It takes them some time to recover but they do bc I said so. Also everyone else is alive including Buzzsaw, Lazerbeak, Rumble n Frenzy, and Sky-Byte. Also Ravage is alive as well. She still hangs out with the Lost Light which is still around and in this universe so that Ravage can visit Soundwave whenever she’d like. Which she does. Regularly.

Cosmos and Soundwave start off as just friends and Cosmos is Soundwave’s number one supporter in getting the Station up and running again. Soundwave feels so safe and secure and genuinely loved by this that it’s kinda easy to just lean in and kiss Cosmos right on his blastmask (which Cosmos is elated to return with a zap of static. They smooch for what feels like hours before finally going to bed warm in eachothers arms).

The Sanctuary Station is thriving better than before. There are Decepticons, Autobots, neutrals, and everything in between taking refuge in Soundwave’s home. Ravage has begrudgingly accepted that Cosmos will be a permanent part of her Soundwave’s berth, and is forced to admit he is quite warm and quite cozy to sleep against. The avians love their new round perch that they can tease and peck at. Rumble and Frenzy find way too much joy in roping Cosmos into their stupid pranks and then blaming him when it goes badly.

Thundercracker visits regularly too. He brings along Buster, specially fitted with a suit that supplies her oxygen, and Soundwave likes how soft she is against his plating. They sit for hours parallel playing—TC writes while Soundwave works on his projects for the Station. They take naps together, and eventually wake up with Cosmos and some cassettes in the pile asleep as well.

Aileron and Arcee come by too. Soundwave considers Aileron a friend and Arcee considers Cosmos a little brother , so they like to have group hangout sessions where they play games and throw stuff at Sky-Byte when he’s not looking.

Starscream and Soundwave form a begrudging friendship that consists of threatening eachother with physical violence when they get on the other’s nerves. Cosmos and Bumblebee get closer because of this, and Wheeljack enjoys the company.

Cosmos eventually asks Soundwave to be his Conjunx because Soundwave is the only one for him. There is no without Soundwave—his spark belongs to the mech and he would do anything to make him truly his. Soundwave agrees readily , breathily, and kisses Cosmos’ mask so hard his lips hurt.

Soundwave’s recordicons are invited to the ceremony , along with Thundercracker and D0C. It’s small and intimate , but it’s perfect for them.

[sanctuary-official]

she endagers on my species till i extinct :(