#tempted to change the title but i don't have anything better to replace it with

[undertale-fic-librarby]

Dust to Dust

An angsty drabble focused on Dream to celebrate reaching 100 followers. This has not been beta read but I briefly skimmed through it for mistakes. This was written in one sitting, & may be fast paced as I was very high energy while writing it. Trigger warning for character death! Happy reading!

At first, Dream doesn't even notice that his brother has stopped attacking. With all the chaos going on around him, attacks flying from every angle & shouts coming from different directions, it's not a surprise.

So Dream keeps fighting, not stopping until he's startled by a loud cry from Killer. "Boss!" A little shaken, Dream looks around himself quickly to make sure no one is sneaking up on him before looking towards where the yell had come from.

He spots Killer easily, seeing him crouched over...Nightmare? That can't be right though, Nightmare was just attacking him moments ago! It has to be some kind of trick, he thinks to himself.

But as the moments pass & the fighting dies down as more people start to notice what's going on, Dream starts to worry.

Had he actually hurt his brother? Why wasn't Nightmare getting up? He'd walked off Dream's arrows before, why was this one any different?

Dream stumbles towards where Nightmare lay, now surrounded by the gang that his brother had collected, subconsciously. He doesn't pay attention to his teammates yelling for him to come back to them, nor his brother's followers yelling at him to stay away.

The only important thing is that none of them try to stop him as he approaches, falling to his knees & putting both of his hands on Nightmare, bow long having dissipated from his lack of concentration to keep it from fading away.

Shaking his brother's shoulder slightly, as if that would make him sit up & say that it was all some horrible joke to make him feel bad, Dream whispers out a broken, "B-Brother?"

But there's no response, not even a groan or a twitch to show that Nightmare was even still alive. He had to be though, Dream couldn't have actually killed him, right? This was all some big trick, or maybe a bad dream, as ironic as that would be.

As unaware as he is, it takes a moment for Dream to register the body beneath his hands starting to dust, parts of his brother drifting away in the slight breeze slipping between the monsters surrounding them both.

Dream starts to tear up at this, a sob building as he frantically tries to stop it, to no avail. Muttering senselessly under his breath, drops of liquid magic drip down his cheeks as his hands & forearms become covered in more & more dust. "No no no no no-"

Panicked as Dream is, he doesn't register the whispers around him, both his own teammates & Nightmare's muttering about what was going on. Had Dream truly defeated his brother once & for all? It certainly seemed so.

Unable to contain it any longer, he bends down until his skull is resting against Nightmare's body & lets out a scream of anguish, fists clenching around nothing as the arm they previously clung to faded into dust.

Dream screams for as long as he can, panting for breath between sobs as his tears hit the dusting body of his brother below him, mixing with the dust & causing it to clump. As he tries to regain his breath, he finally registers the sharp pain all over his body & looks down...

Oh. It would seem that he was dusting as well.

Dream has the sudden urge to scream again, but can't seem to find the energy as he slumps over Nightmare's partially dusted body.

Perhaps this was his punishment for killing his twin, the one that he had grown up with & known for both of their lives. Perhaps this was mercy, allowing him to be with his brother again & not forcing him to live without the other.

Whichever it was, Dream had little time before he could no longer think, the pain of his body dusting away while still conscious consuming him. Before long, the only thing that remained of the two was a pile of dust & a single golden circlet resting peacefully on top.

[afterthegreatunknown]

re-reading the original 'hold you in his arms, yeah you can feel his disease' , which i dub 'the chaperone', and comparing the two:

one. i don't really talk much how i headcanon ishmael and widdershins' relationship and i ought to make a proper post about it. but all i can say is that i'm 100% certain ishmael would never do what the og chaperone did to widdershins.

two. i used the sebald code for a tiny section of the fic because i wanted to see if i could make it work and it did and i love how i made sure gustav reacted badly when widdershins deliberately didn't response correctly. there's a reason why i wrote widdershins to not response correctly too.

three. speaking of gustav, his role was major in the rewrite, but in comparison to the chaperone, it's a downgrade. gustav in the chaperone might as well hold the title of widdershins' best friend (i don't headcanon anyone with that title as of present). also: gustav's chaperone is a presence in this version.

four. josephine was not in the chaperone. kit was the other major sbg character to appear and i forgot how i had her throw herself on top of the snicket taxi (okay not really the snicket taxi but lemony is mention and it's his) because gustav stole the key to sneak out at night. the rewrite changed the time period to atwq era, so kit had to be replace (because she's like...in jail), and i picked josephine due to her canonical presence in the atwq era.

five. the og chaperone is a ghost of sorts in the rewrite. he is mention several times, but never appears. he's still a terrible chaperone to widdershins, but the worst of his traits/actions are gone or changed (or maybe not yet shown to widdershins, given the second chapter that is ishmael's pov providing details of the chaperone). also: the chaperone has/had a second crew mention and present, who is omitted in the rewrite (but she still exists, just not as a crew member and not mention due to her role being no longer necessary).

six. going back to point one, ishmael didn't do anything awful as the og chaperone, but his actions at the end of the second chapter still made widdershins uncomfortable as hell. but again; ishmael would never do what the og chaperone did. he has standards and his own moral code, which is i think factor into why i rewrote the chaperone to have ishmael in it, as ishmael was a ghost of sorts, only mentioned.

i'm honestly tempted to post 'the chaperone', or at least the parts i'm okay sharing with. some sections i re-read, and while they were certainly better than the original drafts, i don't feel comfortable sharing just yet (or maybe never at all).

[direwolfrules]

Star Wars As Star Trek AU

Exactly what it says on the tin. Specifically, Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Star Trek.

The Various Political Entities

The Federation- The Republic becomes the Federation, and the Jedi and GAR are now Starfleet. The Jedi in this AU are typically high ranking officers on ships. The Council are all Admirals except for Obi-Wan, who pulls a Picard and declines promotion for as long as he can. There is no Force, but I'm going to make them more sensitive to psychic phenomena, or in the case of some Jedi, just straight up psychic if the species fits.

The Senate is now the Federation Council, the Chancellor President of the Federation.

The clones are still clones, but because of the general good vibes/hope for a better tomorrow thing Trek has, they all got citizenship as soon as they were discovered. The Anti-Augment laws are just going to be thrown out the window for the most part. Because they inconvenience me.

I don't know, the Kaminoians are all Soongs now, because if anything Morally Dubious and Unethical happens, it's typically the work of a Soong.

The Hostile Superpower- The Separatists either replace the Cardassians or the Romulans, or maybe a weird mash up of both. There is a Neutral Zone buffer in the Outer Rim between the two major powers, but unfortunately a Federation starship violated the treaty, so now it's war time. The violation was baited by former Starfleet Admiral Dooku, who defected.

The Mandalorian Empire- Mandalorians replace Klingons, for obvious reasons. I can easily mash up events and stuff to make them work. Like, the Khitomer Massacre can easily be mashed together with Galidraan, the most major change I'd have to make is it's not known House Vizsla was behind the Massacre. Also, I kinda have a specific plot point for the Children of the Watch that would work with a canon Klingon storyline (please, please tell me your guesses. I want to see if anyone can figure it out from the clue(s) in this post).

Also, I can make Korkie/Alexander parallels, because I am a Korkie Kenobi Truther.

The Mandalorians are ruled by the Aii'aliit (closest thing to parliment or meeting of the clans, literally means clan of clans). Noble Houses are all represented on the council, and those Houses all have vassal Clans. Adonai Kryze is alive in this AU for plot reasons, and he's the High Chancellor of the Council (I'll look up or make a Mando'a title later). Satine's the Ambassador to the Federation, and Bo's joined the Mandalorian Protectors.

The Mandos have had a complicated legal debate over the status of the clones for years. After the Galidraan Massacre House Mereel lost a lot of status, so suddenly giving a House with a claim on the Mand’alor title several million soldiers seems...less than prudent. And what's to say the Clones aren't a trap from the Federation, meant to destroy them from the inside out. The memory of the Dral'han and the Taung Extinction Virus (I'm co-opting the Augment Virus) run deep in their people.

The Hutts- The Hutts are the Ferengi. I...don't really think I need to explain that one.

Resistance is Futile- And, because I enjoy breaking my own rules, the Yuuzhan Vong are now the Borg. That's right, I'm bringing the EU into this bitch. Listen, the parallels between the two threats make it too tempting not to do.

The Main Cast

Aboard the USS Resolute, a Venerator-class capital ship and flagship of the Federation fleet we have:

Captain Obi-Wan Kenobi- A man who just wants to putter around the galaxy with his found family and get into wacky space hijinks. He keeps turning down promotions to Admiral, partly because he feels like taking a desk job will be absolute torture and partly because he doesn't think anyone else will be able to keep Anakin from blowing up the warp core.

While on the surface Kenobi looks like a Picard style captain, he's actually closer to a Janeway. No, I will not elaborate on this, it's just how I see him.

Commander Cody Fett- Obi-Wan's second in command. Hyper competent, under caffeinated, and wondering what he did in a past life to deserve serving on the same ship as Skywalker. At least his Captain is a decent sort, even if he is a bit too crazy. And too flirty, but Cody's pointedly not thinking about that.

Thanks to the Kaminoians' fuckery (I'm undecided on how willingly involved Jango is in this timeline) Cody has trouble connecting with his Mandalorian heritage. He tries to study the writings of Tarre the Unforgettable and participate in the ceremonies and culture, but it's hard. The Mandalorian Alii'aliit hasn't been able to come to a consensus on whether or not the Clones are actually Mandalorian, and House Mereel's disgrace after Galidraan doesn't help matters.

Lieutenant Commander Anakin Skywalker- Head of Engineering. Captain Kenobi's unoffical/official little brother, who got assigned to the Resolute partly because he's such a brilliant engineer, and partly because there's genuine worry that without Obi-Wan there to serve as a functioning brain-cell, Anakin will blow up the warp core.

He's married to Naboo's Representative on the Federation Council, Padme Amidala. Their marriage isn't a secret here, which just means they're insufferable everywhere. Anakin has more demerits from outlandish PDA than from almost-blew-up-the-warp-core incidents, which is saying a lot, because there have been quite a few incidents.

Lieutenant Commander Rex Fett- Head of Security. This poor man. This poor, foolish man, made the horrible mistake of befriending Anakin Skywalker at the Academy and now he gets dragged into all the man's crazy schemes. Said schemes usually involve Rex eventually getting thrown through the air, because of course they do.

He's the designated Ahsoka and Anakin wrangler. Jokes on Captain Kenobi, if the idea doesn't involve potentially blowing up the warp core Rex just might join in with the chaos.

Ensign Ahsoka Tano- I wanna say she's the helmsman. She graduated from the Academy at a young age, and has kinda latched on to Admiral Plo Koon as a father figure. Plo Koon is thrilled by this, because it's Plo Koon. The man once stopped a civil war through pure dad vibes.

She's everyone's unofficial little sister and somehow always manages to finagle her way onto away missions. Her and Anakin aren't allowed to be alone together because they'll probably blow up the warp core.

She programs the best holodeck simulations; a large portion of them are dedicated to combat and hunting (she needs to fulfill the Togruta instincts somehow and it's very hard to do so in space). Some of them though, are just silly things like a traditional Barolian amusement park or Starfleet Academy but everything is a musical (Say, you know the usual "trapped in the holodeck" episode?).

Also she may or may not have a crush on the cute Mirialan junior Lieutenant in Astrometrics. The one that Lieutenant Commander Unduli has taken to personally mentoring.

C-3PO and R2-D2- Honestly, almost the same as canon, but the Trek "what makes a sentient" episodes focus on them. "The Measure Of A Man" is C-3PO fighting for rights not just for himself but for all droids.

Commander Kix Gilamar- CMO of the Resolute. A lot of clone doctors took Gilamar's name, because the man looked at all these sad, small children and decided to care. The clones with the Gilamar name are still under House Mereel, so it's not an added complication legally. (Listen, the whole reason Gilamar exists is because the initial Kal Skirata toy design looked too young, so I'm giving him Skirata's adoption instincts)

This guy has the dubious pleasure of serving with some self sacrificial weirdos. Like, Kenobi's diligent about going to medical, but in a crisis he won't let Kix treat him until everyone else gets checked and treated and Kix is very annoyed by this, because triage. Kix logs the most hypospray sedative usage out of any CMO in Starfleet.

[skriak]

TOP 10 NINTENDO SWITCH GAMES 2019 - my arbitrary list!

Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong. I was pretty sceptical when the Switch was first announced, as it didn't seem too different from the Wii U's gamepad. Then I spent two years watching Nintendo enjoy a complete reversal of fortune, to the point of potentially amassing a more compelling library than Sony's or Microsoft's consoles. So that's how I quite suddenly found myself buying a Switch in October 2019, after having resisted the PS4 and Xbone for five whole years, and my free time has since been dominated by this little machine that defied the odds.

Some of Nintendo's business decisions can still seem inexplicable, but releasing a powerful handheld console that can also be docked with a TV at a moment's notice has proved to be an inspired idea, rather than the gimmick the Wii U's gamepad mostly turned out to be. And along with Nintendo's dependable series of top-notch exclusives, the Switch has enjoyed much better third-party support, which is how I ended up buying Dark Souls for the fourth bloody time just because the option to play it portably was too tempting to resist.

The Switch is the first console I've bought since the PS3 and for all Nintendo's quirks, there's a reason the Switch has dominated Christmas wishlists for three years running. Games like Super Mario Odyssey feel like full-size adventures that just happen to have a portable option, as opposed to handheld games you can also play on the big screen. This is the first year in a long while that I've actually played enough topical titles to justify a "games of the year" list, even if my recent Nintendo bias is pretty blatant.

So with that caveat in mind, and in no particular order, here's my entirely subjective list of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2019.

Luigi's Mansion 3

This is a franchise I'd always been curious about and can finally have an opinion on. The process of going from floor to floor of the hotel hoovering up ghosts and solving puzzles is pretty straightforward, but Luigi's Mansion 3 has so much polish and personality crammed into the cartridge. Luigi is immediately lovable as a determined coward, and each level has a wildly different theme that's realised with extravagant audio and visual flair, so progress always feels rewarding. Though this isn't true horror by any means, there can be an unsettling atmosphere and some of the bosses are pretty freaky. I officially love this oddball franchise and am desperate for a chance to play the story again in co-op. Unquestionably a first-class exclusive.

Doom (Switch port)

Not to be confused with the impressive Switch version of Doom 2016, this is the iconic Doom made cheap and accessible. While purists may take issue with some minor technical deviations, this is the first time I've got most of the way through Doom because the portability and *glorious* true dual-stick control makes this easily my favourite version. There's even a cheat menu for when I just want to mindlessly punch hell beasts. The main thing that ages Doom is its maze-like structure, but playing it casually experience alleviates that frustration somewhat. At a grand total of four pounds, this is a BFB (big fucking bargain).

Untitled Goose Game

You know a game is good when the only asterisk I put on my recommendation is that it *may* be overpriced. Untitled Goose Game took the internet by storm this year because it's the quintessential indie game: cute, simple and with anti-authoritarian undertones. As a horrible goose, it's your mission to cause havoc in an unsuspecting English village, interacting with people and objects to cause chain reactions of chaos. Some of the puzzle solutions are maybe a bit obscure, but 90% of the time just messing around with everything in the area will lead to a solution. Untitled Goose Game makes up for its brevity with sheer comedic charm, feeling much better-designed than a "lul so random" affair like Goat Simulator. A honking good time.

Terraria (Switch port)

I have spent literally hundreds of hours on the PC version of Terraria, so when I was broke after buying my Switch the new Terraria port was an obvious cost-effective choice. While the controls aren't as precise, the amount of time spent mining and sorting through loot makes this a great handheld experience. I can't comment on the multiplayer options but few games represent such a sheer value for money, as there's always a new cave to explore or a new boss to overcome. Time has been kind to this 2011 classic, grind notwithstanding.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

While I personally enjoyed the original Yooka-Laylee, it was definitely flawed and I never seriously expected to see a sequel. But Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair launched quite abruptly and did a pretty spectacular job of upstaging its predecessor. All the previous game's half-baked feel has been replaced with clever design touches, like the equippable tonics which grant helpful abilities at the cost of a currency penalty. The titular Lair is actually the final level and available to throw yourself at right from the beginning, but beating it without first obtaining more hitpoints by completing other stages is incredibly hard, which is a great way to incentivize progress without denying more confident players the option of beating the game earlier if they can meet the challenge. Impossible Lair might be this year's biggest surprise, and despite a modest budget I think it's worthy of comparison to excellent 2D platformers like Rayman Legends. Just don't expect to defeat Capital B on your first attempt.

A Hat In Time (Switch port)

I recently reviewed A Hat In Time but at the risk of repeating myself, it's one of the most charming games of the last few years and an incredibly impressive crowdfunded achievement. Mario's offerings may be a grander technical feat, but A Hat In Time is a fast and fabulous journey through a series of weird and wonderful worlds that all feel distinct in content and tone. It's very openly inspired by GameCube-era platformers like Mario Sunshine and Psychonauts and it easily scratches that itch. Simply one of the best original platformers of this generation, and I defy you not to love Hat Kid's cheeky antics.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch port)

As someone who thinks the original Spyro trilogy holds up better than most early 3D games, I'd have actually preferred a simple port rather than a full remake, but The Reignited Trilogy is honestly impeccable. The updated visuals are gorgeous while maintaining the general style of those old, jaggy models, and very little of the gameplay or content has changed except for sensible updates like the ability to immediately warp between every level you've visited. Having full dual-analogue control is also an absolute godsend even for a PS1 veteran like me. Though Spyro may seem a bit basic these days when faced with modern platformer marvels, the Reignited Trilogy makes these old favourites accessible again at a generous price point.

Ring Fit Adventure

Yes, I have a Wii kicking around in a box somewhere. No, Wii Fit never held my attention as anything more than a curiosity. Ring Fit Adventure, meanwhile, is limited only by my cholesterol-encrusted heart and dislike of excessive showering. This is an honest-to-goodness attempt at making an RPG out of a workout toy, and the amount of polish put into the game's presentation and hardware implementation is pretty remarkable. Levels involve jogging on the spot and squeezing the ring accessory to collect goodies and overcome obstacles, and periodically you'll engage in turn-based combat where you use a custom selection of exercise moves to deal damage. It's a fantastic idea pulled off much more elegantly than it sounds. The ring accessory unfortunately makes this quite an expensive game, so it'll take a lot of regular use to get your money's worth, but I can honestly (and surprisingly) say that exercise suddenly becomes more compelling when it's presented as a light RPG adventure with anthropomorphic gym equipment encouraging you to take breaks and drink plenty of water.

Pokémon Sword/Shield

Disclaimer: I can only give my impressions from 25 hours of playing Pokémon Shield, so this is DEFINITELY not a full review. That being said, this is still an easy recommendation to existing Pokemaniacs and a good starting point for any new acolytes. While the core formula hasn't evolved (har har) much since the very first Pokemon, Sword and Shield still has a number of modern quality of life improvements that make previous generations show their age. I've had so much fun building a core crew of cute and/or badass 'mons in a weird Nintendo version of Britain, and the online features combine with a VASTLY improved random encounter system to make grinding far less of a concern. The wild area takes some getting used to, but it's satisfying to come back and capture the huge Onyx you had to run away from a few hours before. Even if Pokémon Sword/Shield has some technical blemishes and could have pushed the series further in some regards, it's still easy to see why this franchise has maintained such a beloved status for so long.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-mars-tered (Switch port)

Along with Dark Souls, Red Faction was a game I never even knew I needed on the go, but now I've got it I can't imagine ever going back. A cult classic due to its amazing destruction physics, Red Faction sees you leading a proletariat revolution on Mars, literally tearing down corporate monuments to free the working class from systematic oppression. The open world is a bit claustrophobic and the shooting isn't exactly mind-blowing, but there's a reason I've beaten Red Faction every couple of years ever since its original 2009 release. The Switch port does the game justice and if you set the difficulty to easy then this is one of the best rage-venting experiences money can buy. So yes, I recommend getting your ass to Mars.