#take this idea and go nuts with it!

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[raiiny-bay]

some WIPs from the 80s AU i never finished

[pandafruit]

Ok, I’ve been tossing this AU around in my head for AGES, and I have to get it out or I’m gonna explode.

So in TEC, it’s made pretty clear that there are numerous risks to reviving Butler that even the fairies can’t fully account for. No healing like his had ever been attempted before, and there was really no telling what was gonna happen.

What if, in the face of all this, Holly refuses to heal him?

She’s not a trained medical warlock. She’s on her own. And she’s being asked to desecrate the body of her friend, with unknown, possibly catastrophic results. She refuses, tries her best to console Artemis and goes home.

Now, a lot changes from here.

Artemis obviously isn’t giving up hope. He transfers Butler to longer term cryogenic storage and has human surgeons fix his wounds as best they can in the meantime.

Artemis and Holly’s friendship is shattered. Artemis could never forgive her for not even trying to heal Butler. Holly doesn’t hate him in turn, but she does (mostly) believe she did the right thing, and wishes he would see her point of view. The LEP might still occasionally contact Artemis for help (though not for long - I’ll get to it) but the two of them remain, at absolute best, frosty around each other from then on.

Spiro and Blunt are no longer getting the “off to prison” treatment lmao. Artemis contacts Carla Frazetti and convinces the Chicago mob to turn on Spiro and assassinate both him and Blunt. Afterward, Artemis ends up taking Spiro’s place as benefactor and strategist for the mob. In return, Carla provides him with a security detail when needed (which is how I’m getting around Artemis not dying without Butler every 5 minutes lmao). The relationship proves very beneficial to Carla, and absolutely horrible for Artemis’s moral compass.

Artemis becomes obsessed with learning how to use magic - if the fairies won’t heal Butler, he’ll do it himself. This strains his working relationship with the LEP to the breaking point, and he eventually becomes a fairy fugitive. (I’ll be honest, this one is just bc I think Warlock!Artemis is cool as hell. They should’ve let him keep the magic >:(((( ) (Also cue tragic-yet-awesome scene where Holly is trying to bring him in and they get into a magic fight. The drama. The cinema).

Speaking of his magic! Artemis is no longer actively monitoring Foaly’s work, and the calculation error for the demons goes unnoticed until far too late. Thousands die in Hybras’s return to Earth, and the fairies come dangerously close to being revealed altogether.

When Artemis’s Atlantis Complex hits, because of his decidedly more amoral life path and extra dabbling in magic, it’s a hundred times worse. He has full blown hallucinations, panic attacks, multiple alters, and can no longer access fairy help for any of it. He stumbles by with human OCD treatments, but it’s not nearly as effective. He still refuses to see a psychiatrist.

Eventually, years down the line, Artemis masters magic well enough to revive Butler. It’s both better and worse than it would’ve been had Holly healed him - he no longer has to deal with the Kevlar strands thanks to the human medical intervention, and Artemis was able to train for years specifically to heal him, but the extra time in stasis means it takes even more of Butler’s life force to revive him.

When Butler finally awakes, he no longer recognizes the cold, paranoid, angry young man he used to dutifully protect. Butler may have been the one who was revived, but it’s Artemis who came back wrong.

There’s a million different ways this AU could go, but this is the stuff I’ve been tossing around. Also I know for a fact I haven’t hit every plot hole - PLEASE please share what you guys think would happen with me!! As of rn, I have no name for this AU, so I would appreciate suggestions for that too lmao

[1495-gauge]

there's that fucked up three-eyed thing that lives in the woods. whose turn is it to chase it off again??

[lucabyte]

i am looking at nohats au 👀 please share more

So! NoHats! I'm going to grab you and use this to ramble. A Lot.

The NoHats AU is @samhainian's it's just that I'm the strange little freak who takes the words said unto me and executes on them. But I can still do a little explainer on what our overall thoughts and vibes are. (And, that we are in fact propping up a little box with some cheese under it here. 🪤 Please (PLEASE) feel free to pick up what we're putting down.)

We're far from the only ones exploring a "what if siffrin fucking died" AU, though the main difference with NoHats is the placement of the death in the timeline. Instead of being 'Mal Du Pays Wins' or 'Act 6 encounter goes horribly wrong', the death is… Just after the (literal) falling action.

(This placement is because Sam is a comic book fan who thus has become used to characters being ripped away at the cruelest times by shitty writers. THANK FUCKING GOD adrienne is not that and isat is delightful yippieee, but, back on topic.)

Giving the party the full understanding of What Happened that you get by putting the death after black hole siffrin, but before the A6 encounter leaves an interesting gap to be filled. See, making Siffrin's death very much not Loop's fault means that… this once again reads (when not read as simply a tragedy...) as the universe doing what it sees fit to fulfull Loop's wish… Thus making Siffrin's death Loop's fault again, but only in their eyes. And only in a way they could express if they were honest about who they were…

And this is where having had excuse to waffle about my general Postcanon Loop thoughts the other day comes in handy, because Sam and I have that as our canon-compliant reading to begin with, NoHats plays off of a lot of the same readings of Loop's character. Namely: Uh Oh Somebody's Lying By Fucking Omission Again. (BECAUSE TO BE FAIR THIS TIME… HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU HANDLE THAT?)

Now, neither Sam nor I are fanfic writers, so this has been a little bit trapped in our heads and DMs (and my unfinished art but,)

But our thoughts on how NoHats like… Goes.

Siffrin's death is peaceful, but that does not mean the aftermath of it is. I can't imagine the party takes it well, especially after understanding the circumstances of the Loops. (And, of note, in A5 where nobody had the discussion on what to do with each other's bodies should something happen…) But I'd imagine it traumabonds them somewhat (understatement of the century) and now knowing how the rest of the party feels, they resolve to travel together for the forseeable future.

The party track down Loop to deliver the terrible news, since they were clearly Siffrin's friend too, and invite Loop along to travel at least long enough to (let them grieve) get the burial over with. Loop, here, can be helpful in knowing what Siffrin would've wanted where the party would be at a loss. Loop, I think, takes a bit of a lead on the funerary aspects of it all, because, um. (Performing rites on your own body, huh?)

Then, as things are after a death, life just… Kind of has to continue on as normal. The party travel, pick up Nille, and get to know Loop as this mysterious new person. Maybe in this situation they might stay in Bambouche for a while to give Bonnie more stability since. They are probably taking it the worst. It would've come out of absolutely nowhere for everyone in the party obviously but god, for a kid? For A Kid?

It should be stated NoHats is not intended to be grimdark, just y'know. An exploration of grief. This is also why it's got a bit of a lopsided focus on Bonnie vs the rest of the party because hhrrhghghhghghhhghhghhh <- incoherent

Now, a crossroads.

How does the party discover Loop to be Siffrin? How long does it take. How much have the party embraced them as part of the family (especially with something as intense to bond over as this)?

There's the Odile option. Have her put it together and have to bring it up somehow. This could also be done by Isabeau, perhaps. He's smart. (which. God. If anything's the real Isabeau Torment Nexus it's this)

Then there's the other option batted around by Sam and I. The: The Universe Dislikes Duplicates option.

The items in the house that fzzt away when inspected. The Universe doesn't like there to be two of something, at least not when they're acknowledged. But one of something is just fine…?

Which is to say. I'm not a personal proponent of 'Loop getting their body back'. EXCEPT …… except this one time.

There's only one Siffrin now, so they don't need to be obfuscated to exist.

Consider, if you will. Loop swallowing their guilt for long enough to be comfortable. Falling back into old habits. Without another Siffrin around to compete for the niche of, they actually begin to act like Siffrin again. Not intentionally, it's just… The party is as welcoming as they've always been. And the party swears they keep catching glimpses of a face under all the light.

Then, one day, while still not fully human again, the resemblence becomes undeniable. Loop having not even noticed until everyone looks at them like they've seen a ghost.

Has it been months? How long have they kept up this lie? Is it even a lie, to them? They're Loop. But they were, once, Siffrin.

Even after explaining it, does that make it better or worse?

Bonnie cuts through the betrayed, struck-nerve reactions with a sobering "I missed you."

… Anyway !

Yeah so that's the vibe for NoHats. As for LoopLoops? That's more nebulous. I think it can go anywhere really in the NoHats timeline. I err personally toward the "Loop continuously replays the last 10 minutes before Siffrin's death almost immediately after they find out and have to parkour their ass up the House in the most distressing situation possible to try and get them to hold on, just please hold on." (Remember! Siffrin can remember the contents of Loop's loop backs in the A6 fight!)

But there is the possibility that this happens months, or worse years down the road. One last Loop back. Throw it all away for the chance to just get that one thing you didn't know you even wanted but now know you NEED.

Misc:

Okay miscellaneous time.

This is where I admit that I have a bunch of unfinished NoHats art that I haven't gotten around to yet because I feel like a right tool being so obviously Loop-Centric with my fancontent (I AM . . I REALISE I AM NOT DOING MUCH TO BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS.) So like if people want to see that please say because euaghghghhfh <- the nervous.

this is like the most fucked up place to do isaloop fr. anyway.

one of Sam's mid-game observations that I'm just going to share for no particular reason is that Bonnie's hair shares a bunch of shapes with Siffrin's. The flick up at the top, the 3 pronged shape of the fringe… just something to think about.

Without 2 Siffrins around to compare each other to it'd likely be a lot harder to notice Loop's similarities. Doesn't mean that those similarities don't sting more in this context though.

If you do NoHats without LoopLoops. The concept of this all fading into memory years down the line while they just have slightly-glowy but otherwise regular Siffrin hanging out is fucked up to think about. Just like real grief. Augh

6. a peek into the original dms as a treat from us

[teecupangel]

Random thing: I just wanna imagine that scene where Desmond gets hit by Bill and just the second that his fist connects Desmond’s mom appears ready to go mama bear on this jackass for punching her son.

Desmond has no idea what just happened.

One moment, he felt then the pain blossoming from his cheek, his feet staggering a few steps back, his mind reeling as his body reacted instinctively to weaken the blow he just received.

Then…

Shaun and Rebecca shout.

For a moment, he had thought they screamed because of what happened to him.

But that was impossible.

Their reaction was a second too late.

They did not expect Bill to hit him but they also didn’t believe they had any right to go between them.

His head was still ringing when he saw her slap Bill with enough force to topple him to the ground. She wasted no time, kicking him while he was down.

Their shout had been a warning of her appearance.

Her movements were meant for speed, not strength, but she had always used that to her advantage. She tried to teach him that.

She also taught him to fight dirty and always aim for the weak spot. And that was what she was doing.

Her first kick was aimed between his legs.

As was her second.

Her third.

On and on, she continued to focus her quick strikes between Bill’s legs.

It was the Assassins who came with her that tried to drag her away from Bill, begging her to stop and to calm down.

It took three of them to drag her away.

He recognized them.

They were from the Farm.

What were they doing here?

Desmond has no idea.

She didn’t bother to say anything, pulling away from their hold and walking away from Bill who remained on the ground, twitching as he coughed up saliva.

She walked towards Desmond and placed her hands on his neck, his hands warm.

“Desmond…”

When he was growing up, he had always found her to be cold and distant.

But reliving Altaïr’s memories…

He finally recognized the softness in her gaze. The way her tone would becomes a bit gentler.

She reminded him of the many Levantine Assassins Altaïr had seen, unable to show their love for their children under Al Mualim’s reign.

So he smiles even if his cheek ached.

“Hey, mom.”

(Desmond’s mom’s main combo is Altaïr’s bitch slap followed by nuts or nothing)

[ptr-sqloint]

Hi hello. I am on the journey of art self-discovery. May I be extremely inspired by you (read: steal your artstyle) for one (1) artwork please. Like a study. Yes, a study. I'm not an artstyle mosquito. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee cough; sorry, that wasn't me. If not, that's completely cool too; whatever you're comfortable with is good

Absolutely, go ahead :D get as much inspiration as you want

and um it's not necessary, but I would love to see the artwork once it's done (no pressure if you don't want to)

[femmesandhoney]

some of yall come into radical feminist spaces where many are just rad-aligned or feminists in general and then weirdly assume every woman you speak to must all subscribe to every radical ideology ever made just because they agree with radical feminism as if people on radblr aren't all at various stages of agreement and disagreement with radical feminism and label themselves many things besides radfem. if you come for women on here for not being "radical" enough for you despite knowing this i think you're just looking to stir up problems for no reason tbh

[wolfisland]

like if you think a femme bi woman is basically just a gender conforming straight girl you have not only some bimisogyny to unpack but some serious shit when it comes to your perception of femmes, period. go to hell.

[minophus]

sorry if this is weird but what do you think sisyphus would smell like. i was thinking pre Hellificafion he wore those arabic perfume oils

Hmm. I think he has a twinge of (literal.) heat, like the kind where you're stepping outside or sitting infront of a vent and heat is just blowing into your face. There's also the stink that would come with ~However many years~ of sweating upon sweating all over that it sort of just becomes a part of his natural scent...For some reason I can't picture it as being super strong, its a balanced kind of thing... Think it'd be nice

You can smell a lil bit of blood too...from menstruation or a wound? you decide. Smells like rock/stone, earthy but not in the Dirt kind of way.

This ones a lil hard to specifically describe but he smells like Hard Work. Given that he's been pushing a boulder and thinking up a plan for the insurrection in his mind for 1million years

To sum it up i think hed smeel good oihhhh hyeah

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

au where sonic (mostly) has the exact same canon except the sonic 2 bad ending happened. sonic occasionally sees the ghost of tails and doesnt know whether to laugh or cry. worse still, if sonic so happened to have 'memories' of tails getting along with his other friends.

he accidentally says to knuckles, 'oh, and remember how scared tails was the first time we met?'

'who's tails?'

does kit exist? is he quite so bent on revenge? how do they interact with whisps? does anyone fly the tornado for sonic? does the ice cream ship still sell vanilla?

[fakeasmr]

hey why does youtube give me the ability to content match other people who streamed the nintendo direct

[aquaquadrant]

Hiii question!!!

What would the hels be for each member of the soup group, and what part of the original players do they represent?

I remember we know Pearl's already, but I forgot her name and what trait she is. I think it was something about 5 am Pearl with less chill?

Impulse.. I don't think we've met his yet? My guess just knowing Impulse probably has something to do with pettiness and also untrustworthiness (3rd life)?

And Gem! This is who I was really asking about but I decided to add the rest of the soup group in because why not :) My guess is that it has something relating to Geminislay? I would also assume based on 4+ years of watching her that her hels counterpart would likely being very sarcastic and have very dry humour. Like the rare times Gem pulls the sassy card are always hilarious and I think that hels!Gem should get to speak like that all the time :)

Also would you be okay with me taking this au/universe and writing some of my own stuff using different characters? As of right now I don't think I'll actually post it anywhere, but I have a lot of silly ideas mainly regarding the soup group and empires crew, but since this is you and Lunar's au I wanted to ask first before actually going anywhere with them <3

oooooo ok so first off, absolutely. while i’ve done a lot of worldbuilding for the HTP au, i def don’t own the concept of hels or helsmits- that was a gift bestowed to the fandom by welsknight and my interpretations are just one of many. all i can claim to really own are my original versions of the helsmits, who again, are one of many, and my storyline. so i’ve got no prob w you doing your own thing, and if i did, that’d be pretty unreasonable of me imo.

BUT YES, soup group. so we’ve actually met both pearl and impulse’s hels so far in ‘from eden,’ though only very very briefly. pearl’s hels is opalescentmoth, a giant monstrous moth hybrid who lives in a cave and eats players that come across her. she’s huge and has big fuzzy wings and antennae and multiple arms and massive compound eyes. her defining traits would be unhinged-ness (??? however you’d say it) and silliness. so yup, basically 5 am pearl all the time, but now she’s a man-eating monster.

impulse’s hels was introduced more subtly via a chat convo as instinctEV, atlas’s rival in the redstone business. he’s a demon like impulse is in this au, but with all his demon attributes cranked up to 11. big scary boi. horns, fangs, glowing eyes, forked tongue, forked tail, maybe even some kinda freaky demon legs, the works. but one of instinct’s defining traits is insincerity, so he sorta throws ppl off with his supposedly kind demeanor. in reality he’s more preoccupied with his other defining trait, hyper-efficiency, and only cares about other players so long as he can use them.

now, neither gem nor her hels have showed up in the au so far and probably never will. i do have a vague concept for her tho. i’ve always pictured gem as some variation of deer hybrid, whether it’s just an elf with antlers, a faun, or full-on cervitaur. so her hels is capricornslay, a unicorn hybrid (yes i know the actual capricorn sign is a goat, don’t come for me). i haven’t nailed down her traits, mind you, just the Aesthetic. she’s a centaur with a horn, and she’s like the old-fashioned unicorns on medieval tapestries and the side of vans, all delicate with the cloven hooves and lion-like tail. big ‘the last unicorn’ vibes. but her deceptive beauty and gentleness belies a hidden viciousness. she portrays the dark side of the forest, like that creepy old bog and mossy decay vibe, while gem portrays the light side of the forest, the cheer and vibrancy and life. cottagecore and dark cottagecore, u know the vibes.

[stealthrockdamage]

i'm in this weird spot where i have been single for years and i'd like to date but i am also afraid of people and constantly coming up with excuses not to do it. because really Who Has The Time And Energy

[zmpl]

…….

[phoenix-flamed]

Continued from here:

Judging by the weapon his partner had at his side, Otto very much meant business. Which was even more intriguing and concerning, and this time it was more of the latter. The moment the other man turned towards him, Miles began searching his face for any clue, any indication of the severity of the situation -- fortunately, he wouldn't need to wait long for his answers.

And what answers they turned out to be.

As soon as the words Rosalith Castle left the bearded man's lips, Miles paled a shade. His entire body tensed up, pupils dilating; and for that moment, all he could hear was the frantic beating of his heart within his ears. But when Otto's composure started to slip just the slightest fraction, a sheen of wetness glimmering in his eyes, the older man snapped himself out of it, forcing back that steady, serious expression to mask the myriad emotions coursing through him.

An escaped Bearer to track down. Not just any Bearer, but Otto's own son. It was Miles who broke their eye contact, just for a few moments -- after turning his head downward, his blue-green eyes squeezed tightly closed, the furrow of his brow only deepening further. Being separated from a child was a pain he could relate to, and while his own story thus far had a bittersweet ending, in that he now knew his sons were alive, despite him lacking the courage to reveal his truth to them...

... He hoped, and prayed to Metia, that his friend and companion's story would have a happy ending. Of course, he did have questions, or curiosities rather, pertaining to Otto's past; those could wait until later, and he would wait patiently for Otto himself to be ready to divulge the information.

All too soon after, his eyes reopened, now filled with resolve for their mission -- and he nodded. "Time is indeed of the essence, if he is somewhere in Rosalith. Anabella may be gone, but there is ever a chance that her Black Shields may yet linger, or that pillagers have already descended upon the city to take advantage of the chaos."

Not to mention the fact that last he had heard, Rosalith had suffered much and more under the aggressions of Dhalmekia, as led by Hugo Kupka. But that was an entirely other matter that he didn't wish to dwell upon, when combined with everything else the city had suffered.

"But you already know these things," Miles apologized a moment later, before stepping forward to cross the gap between them and place a reassuring hand upon Otto's shoulder. "We will find him. I know the city and the castle both -- if he is still taking refuge there, rest assured that there are no places that he might hide that I am not myself aware of. Now, before we depart, were the new arrivals able to give a description of the area in which they took shelter, beyond simply near the castle? Any detail, no matter how small, will be an invaluable boon."

@hideawaysteward