#stories-from-the-warp

[lunarsprincess]

Setting Prompt 007 @stories-from-the-warp

SETTING PROMPT 007: the ruins of an ancient structure lost to time.

❝ Through me... Is the way to the city of woe. Through me... Is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below. Abandon... ❞

The Princess' hands are smeared in dirt, gravel stuck between each finger and in the folds of her red palm. It had taken the better part of five minutes to clear the cellar hatch well enough to read, and another five before that to pull the corpses off it. Her tongue moves in guttural clicks and pops, faithfully repeating the inscription in its original dialect: the extinct language of an extinct people, the first colonists of Bela Tegeuse.

It left a bitter taste. She corrects it with a candy. And another. And perhaps one more. Switching to her cleaner hand, she sulkily licks off the sugar as she continues reading.

Even now, when she could no longer remember what age they built this temple before she consigned them both to the fire, the disappointment of having her own creation used for the compliments of Slaanesh lingered —— now, it festered into anger. How could it not? Yet another crop of obscene idiots had sung princely praises in her words, had writhed in that creature's name, and yet again, it had been her chore to send them to their master.

So lost is she in her poetry, she does not notice @stories-from-the-warp is stood behind her until her eyes fall to the last sentence, a candelit shadow upon the floor overlapping her own crouched one. The shock is palpable; she blushes, refusing to turn her head out of sheer shyness, and stretches out her bag of candy.

❝ Ah! My apologies! If I had known I had an audience, I would have read it in Low Gothic... Please, help yourself to a treat... Ahh, how rude of me... ❞

[viciouslyfilthy]

@stories-from-the-warp continued from HERE. 🐀

The she-vermin slowly made her way around the rodent corpses before her, she seemed unphased or neutral of their existence, as if they were just rocks obstructing her path; she just gently poked and shoved some aside, out of her way, with her cane.

'Why all Skaven sleeping? Bright-bright, bright! Light bother Quotittak too much to nap.' She thought. Her mind far too naïve and witless to comprehend on her own that her fellow ratmen were dead, not asleep. She couldn't seem to differentiate between the smell of filth and the smell of death; but then again, can you blame her? She practically lived all her life among filth, immbolized.

She sniffed the hat through and through to better process it's scent, before sniffling the air around her and continuing her walk forwards with the help of her trusty staff. Whatever this strange contraption was... aside from the musty, old person scent- from looks alone, it just had to belong to a man-thing, or elf-thing. They always seemed to carry all sorts of odd items!

Even from a distance... her silhouette was clear as day: a Skaven. But her size and... well, overall behaviour were nothing like the average ratman the Ubersreik Five were used to slaying. She innocently carried Victor's hat as she kept her eyes on the ground- mostly just so she was careful not to trip over anything.

[warhammer-fantasy-muses]

@stories-from-the-warp | x

"That remains to be seen, Warlord of Vishus." the booming sound of Ferrik continued to echo all around them, before he would motion to one of the clanrats next to him, who would bring a large cloth sack up towards Skreech, clattering as it moved. Inside would be a lot of Skaven-designed blades and weapons, all gleaming with that same silvery mithril, as this was undoubtedly a gift from Ferrik to Skreech.

"For now... how about we settle down? My journey here has been long and arduous... and if anything, I am here as a visitor to the Under-Empire. To see how it has... grown in my absence."

Curiously, the way he said 'grown' was almost certainly hinted with a bit of sarcasm, as if he wasn't really excited about it.

[gingermintpepper]

One of my biggest pet peeves is the assumption that something has to be sad for it to be tragic.

I've always been a big believer of the 'Apollo has an awful love life'/'Apollo is plain unlucky with love' line of thinking but it does bother me that the general reasoning for that statement is given to the concept of 'Apollo is somehow undesireable and thus rejected' (Cassandra/Daphne/Marpessa) or 'his lovers die young and thus their love is unfulfilled' (Cyparissus/Hyacinthus/Coronis). I personally think that's a very unfortunate way of looking at things - not only because it neglects the many perfectly cordial entanglements and affairs Apollo has had, both mortal and divine - but because it presents a very shallow interpretation of the concepts of love and loss and how loss affects people.

Apollo can still grieve lovers that have a long, healthy life. The inherent tragedy of an immortal who knows his lovers and children will die and cannot stop it does not stop being tragic simply because those lovers and children live long, fulfilled lives. The inherent tragedy of loss does not stop being tragic simply because someone knows better than to mourn something that was always going to end.

What is tragic is not that Apollo loves and loses but that loss itself follows him. Apollo does not love with the distance of an immortal, he does not have affairs and then leaves never to listen to their prayers again. He does not have offspring and then abandon them to their trials only to appear when it is time to lead them to their destinies. He raises his young, he protects the mothers of his children, he blesses the households that have his favour and multiplies their flocks that they may never go hungry. He educates his sons, he adorns his daughters and even in wrath he is quick to come to his senses and regret the punishments he doles out.

Apollo loves. And like mortals, there will always be some part of him that wishes to protect the objects of his affections. Apollo, however, is also an emissary of Fate. He knows that the fate of all mortal things is death. He knows that to love a mortal is to accept that eventually he will have to bury them. There is no illusion of forever, there is no fantasy where he fights against the nature of living things and shields his beloveds from death. Apollo loves and because of that love, he also accepts.

And that, while beautiful, is also tragic.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

messy doodles plus with some picked ramblings with them as i process, learn, and progress. yes only some out of many. i talk far too much. i missed so much too im just too tired to talk abt those aspects rifht now

[bunnieswithknives]

WEB + STRANGER AVATAR DAVID

[hypermascbishounen]

There's a deep irony in Berserk being so admired by people who really really hate what Berserk is about on an emotional level, but especially when writers want to take influence from it. Because Berserk is very strong thematically, and someone who can't acknowledge subtext is going to whiff on emulating anything good.

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

literally so done with rhaegar antis at this point. we know practically nothing about this character besides all the good things other characters say about him and the fact that robert baratheon hates him and says things about rhaegar that ned disagrees with. and robert baratheon is a pos so being hated by him only does favors for rhaegar’s character imo.

but somehow all these characters who think well of rhaegar are just lying. even though almost all of the characters who have spoken/thought well of rhaegar come from different families and have different allegiances. make it make sense. explain it to me like i’m five. what do jamie and ned have to gain by thinking positively about rhaegar? what about jorah? and barristan?

seriously. stop with the “prophecy obsessed freak” and the “rhaegar was mad” bs. none of this is supported in the books.

for 1) the prophecy is real! this is a fantasy series! and it’s very likely that jon snow (his likely son) is one of the azor ahai/prince that was promised figures! the other completely certain azor ahai figure is his own sister! so yes this prophecy seems to be centered around rhaegar’s family.

2) rhaegar being “mad” is not supported whatsoever. prophecies and magic are very real in asoiaf. so believing/trying to figure out prophecies is not an act of a madman. if anything, we should praise rhaegar for having the foresight to be actively concerned about this world ending threat! he was right. and one mention, if not the first mention, of the song of ice and fire comes from a vision in the house of the undying… from rhaegar. please remember what the title of this series is…

now, it is fair to criticize rhaegar for how he treated elia at the tourney at harrenhall. he was wrong there and that was a terrible thing to do to elia. however, saying that rhaegar was awful to elia throughout their whole marriage is not supported. and saying that rhaegar was awful to his children is not supported at all.

also, getting angry at a fictional character for needing a son to secure the succession to the throne is hilarious, especially since it was necessary for not just rhaegar, but also for elia to secure their own positions at court. they both needed a male heir, but elia needed to have a son more than rhaegar to secure her position. so why are people so mad that rhaegar and elia had aegon? andal tradition says that a son comes before a daughter and a daughter before an uncle… but aerys had viserys to threaten rhaegar with because aerys was king and had the power to change the succession. having aegon was very important for both rhaegar and elias futures and protected rhaenys position as well. just look at what happened to alys karstark when all of her male brothers were gone. she was almost usurped by her uncle. do you really think aerys would let the throne pass to a girl? aerys??

anyways, we don’t know enough about rhaegar and elias relationship to actually make any concrete statements about them, but, from danys house of the undying vision of rhaegar and (likely) elia, their relationship seemed fine and they seemed open with each other. not every marriage of duty ends in nedcat and five kids, but their marriage was clearly far from the robert and cersei nightmare.

another thing rhaegar antis love to harp about is how he is a pedophile. i’m literally so sick of it. rhaegar, someone who seemingly struggled with some form of depression, finally found some joy outside of a marriage of duty. the author himself called rhaegar a love struck prince. ned never thinks ill of rhaegar, even though if the stories robert baratheon would have us believe were true then ned would be the first character who thinks rhaegar is some sort of monster. but ned doesn’t. back to the pedo argument… anyways i have issues with the age gap as well. but i know where to lay my criticism. with george. he’s weird about ages and it pisses me off. however, i won’t let this change the way i see a character, especially since westeros doesn’t have any age of consent laws.

god just criticize george already.

but to be clear, rhaegar, a tragic character who died trying to protect his family, who’s daughter hid underneath his bed for protection, is not some monster. he was born in grief, lived in grief, found some joy, and died whispering the name of the woman he loved. that’s sad. and it’s horrible that he’s blamed for his family’s deaths even though he fought and died trying to protect them. and then robert baratheon sat on his throne and drunk and whored the realm into debt. thank you mr. boar. and good riddance. cersei slayed with this one.

now if you want to blame someone for the war and what came after, then blame aerys for his cruelty. blame brandon for his foolishness. blame robert for his warmongering. blame tywin for his monstrous actions. blame gregor and amory for their terrible violence.

stop blaming the guy who died trying to protect his loved ones.

and tbh, we literally have so little knowledge of what happened before the rebellion and after harrenhall. we just don’t know what happened between rhaegar and lyanna besides what george has told us and whatever small scraps we get in the book. we don’t know if it was a rash decision or if there was some plan in place when rhaegar and lyanna ran off. we just don’t know.

so please stop treating your headcanons like canon facts. especially when your headcanon isn’t supported anywhere in the books! it’s so tiring to see! i get it! you hate this character! whatever! but stop acting like what you’re saying is canon!

rhaegar is simply a ghost haunting the narrative. but his legacy lives on in dany and (likely) jon. and both of them are saviors fighting the good fight. and based on the descriptions we have of rhaegar, i can say that he’s likely very proud of his sister and son.

[congregation-of-the-spiral]

thinking about writing a jmart fic inspired by my original story. would y'all read it or nah

[widowshill]

If you're still doing character bingo and haven't gotten her yet: Laura Murdoch Collins <3

a few people requested her and i think it's because everyone knows that i'm batshit (ha) insane about this woman. what if bertha mason was a blonde femme fatale in the middle of collinsport's most toxic manslaughter polycule. i'm in love with her. laura collins wants to grill me to a crisp? medium or medium well my beautiful beloved terrible wife?

[ftl-faster-than-life]

The first crime the CW Flash show committed against Iris was to not let her be the one who pursued Barry.

[warhammer-fantasy-muses]

INDEED. HERESY, OF THE HIGHEST ORDER

ESPECIALLY SINCE WE WERE GONNA HAVE SPACE SKAVEN IN THE FORM OF THE HRUD

BUT THEN GW SAID, "NAH AKSHUALLY, THEY ARE SENTIENT BLOBS OF DARK MATTER WITH RAPID AGING FORCEFIELDS-"

TIL that Warhammer 40,000 has legit furry people in its lore.

They are simply various strains of humans known as "Abhumans", but some of them are just straight-up furries, such as the LITERALLY NAMED 'SCALIES'.

[cha1cedony]

Thinking about Darryl and Casey. again

[mittensmorgul]

There’s another post going around about this, but tumblr won’t let me reblog it but...

When I read a story written by a human being, I’m not just reading it because I want to read a coffee shop AU with a specific plot description. I’m reading it because it’s making a connection to another human storyteller and seeing a piece of them carved into the words. Storytelling is a human act of sharing joy, angst, tension, resolution, satisfaction. It’s an act of love.

Writing and reading a story isn’t just an act of creation and consumption. I hate that commercialism and AI are reducing it to that sort of transaction. Like oh, you need words on this subject and that’s the end of it. Like what we really needed was just a vending machine we can push buttons on to get a fix, as if the human creating the story wasn’t a factor. That the author’s life experience and views and feelings haven’t infused the words with their own unique touches.

I’ve read hundreds of coffee shop AU’s over the years (and thousands of fics in general). I’ve seen many similar tropes reused across stories, and just like an AI would, I’ve learned things about writing them that I will always carry with me. But unlike an AI, a human author is not just the sum total of coffee shop AU’s we’ve consumed. Even if we used the same prompt, the same sets of tropes, the same characters. I will always choose the human-crafted story over the computer generated one.

Because again, I’m not just looking for a very specific fix via a series of words. I’m looking for a human connection through story.

Unlike an AI, I have BEEN to a coffee shop. I’ve had experiences in coffee shops. I’ve had funny little meet-cutes with people. I’ve accidentally spilled coffee on myself and knocked heads with someone as we both rushed to wipe it up. I know what it FEELS like. The machine doesn’t.

I’ve also read millions of things that aren’t fanfic, or coffee shop AU’s. I’ve experienced things OTHER than going to coffee shops and having meet-cutes. And I know what all those things feel like when processed through my personal human lens of experience, which is different from every other personal human lens of experience.

All the machine can do is spit out what it THINKS a human experience is, and I honestly don’t care about that at all. Fic is not a “product” to be “generated.” It’s an art form that connects us to other people who share the same love of a thing that we do.

People who, even when all writing the same characters in the same setting to the exact same prompt, will all add something or have a viewpoint about something or bring a completely different personality and life experience to the story that no one else on the planet could. That’s what I’m actually reading.

[catherine-sketches]

Think with me here: it makes sense for a non-book reader?

If it does than the writers were successful in telling a story (if it’s good or bad it’s up to your tastes)

Why is there no food on the city if they can get food from the Reach by land?

The medieval transport of goods by sea vs by land is vastly different (the sea is faster and allows the food to arrive less spoiled) and we see and are told that food IS arriving but is being sent mostly to the palace (hello Criston cleaning your sword with a good lemon while the common people have to deal with spoiled food)

Why they riot in favor of Rhaenyra when she and her faction is the reason for the blockade and their hunger just because she gave some food?

Because starvation does not make you rational. Your royals that you grew up being told are closer to gods than men are warring with each other and you are collateral damage.

You are starving. There is the few fish you can get in the bay but is not enough for a whole city. The prices are skyrocketing because of scarcity and the dragons eat the sheep that you have

The royals didn’t give much of a shit before and now that they are at war they give even less of a shit now

Until the boats

For the starving, any food is worth it

Look how Rhaenyra is generous! Even in the middle of war she thinks of us! (Mysaria was really cunning here)

They throw fish guts at the dowager queen, the only part of the fish they can’t eat

Or maybe it’s a whole fish. Maybe the euphoria of having food finally made someone in the street careless enough to throw food away

After all, Rhaenyra is there to provide what is one single fish?

Why would the people think Meleys head is a bad omen when she killed hundreds of them?

If you see something as a god or god like thanks to years of the Targaryen “exceptionalism doctrine” being feed to you from birth as you live in their backyard, a dragon killing people is just an action of the gods. As the Stranger takes so does the dragons, it’s the natural order of things. People are born, it rains, the sun sets and rises at the same time every day and the giant fire made flesh creatures that fly over your city every day and eat your cows and sheep whole in one gulp have killed someone.

But to strip that creature of it’s divinity and to parede its head around…

You have to think about this as a religious or superstitious person. The head of god is being dragged down the street. This god that gives (the years were Meleys was a protector of the city as the dragon of Princess Alyssa and the years Rhaenys lived in Kingslanding) and takes (the dragon pit incident) is now revealed to be meat

Meat

Not divinity given flesh

Meat

You are hungry, the royal family feasts and their dragons are meat

The head of Meleys is a ill omen because it plants a seed.

You can’t do anything if your gods feast while you starve. They are gods.

But the Targaryens are no longer gods to the people of Kingslanding

The are meat

Just like the rest of them

[akhenaten-imhotep]

Achilles certainly wasn't expecting an ork to show up in this place. He came to Zaraniah VII because he heard whispers of a battle between Imperial Forces and Orks. There should be something he could pick from the battlefield. The moment his eyes fell on the Leman Russ, he smiled. Just some repairs, and it would be as good as new.

The astartes analyzed his current options. He could fight the ork over the tank, or he could walk away empty handed. Right now the first option semt more apetitizing.

He scanned the ork to see what kind of weapons it carried on its person.

“Surprise Me!” (Achilles)

"OI! SPACE MUHREEN!" an angry, near-unintelligible voice called out from above and behind Achilles.

Down came an Ork Mekboy, steering (if you could even call it that) what appeared to be a jump-pack refitted with rotor blades instead of thrusters---powered by a loud, sputtering engine.

"That there's MY Lemmin Russ!" the Ork pointed as he less-than-gracefully landed. "I seen it first an' I made dat big 'ole in its side!"