#that battle and the whole aftermath is going to just destroy me

[inksandpensblog]

Lopee IS The Game

Ever since the devs announced we'd be getting a way to destroy Painter, I've wondered how they'd have Sebastian respond to it.

The most I could imagine was something similar to Sans' response when you kill Papyrus in Undertale: once Papyrus has been dusted— regardless of what neutral run you're on —Sans seems to disappear from the game entirely, until his mandatory encounter in the judgement hall. The only hint that he's still around to keep an eye on you is a bit of flavor text that you only get if your battle with Shyren progresses into a concert.

I wondered if the devs would do something similar with Sebastian, and make it so that killing Painter took away our ability to interact with Sebastian at all. If Painter's room generated before Seb's shop, then maybe said shop would be empty of its merchant and we would be unable to buy any gear. Maybe when Seb yoinked files from our grasp, he would do so silently, rather than with a quip. Maybe if we died, he would refuse to appear on the death screen or give us any information on what had killed us. Things would only go back to normal once the progression of time reset itself and the player started a new run with a still-running Painter.

I don't know much about game design, much less that of Roblox games, but I was trying to think of what the devs would be capable of doing within the limits of programming hosted by the platform. In that vein, I was also trying to think of what the writers would be able to effectively justify while still allowing the gameplay to progress as normal.

Which is why Sebastian's actual response, not to mention Lopee's interference in the aftermath, blew me away from more than just the characterization or lore perspectives.

The objective of the main expedition is to retrieve the crystal.

After ripping our heart out with his bare hands, Sebastian declares his intent to remember us (which we already know he can do, given that he recognizes us when we visit the shop on every run) and to kill us on sight every time we return for a new run.

If Sebastian were to follow through on this, it would effectively mean that destroying Painter has hard-locked the player out of ever completing the main expedition.

Sebastian's response breaks the boundaries of the game. It interferes with game progression in such a way as to make achieving the win-condition impossible.

It's entirely fitting that Mr. Lopee interferes so directly and harshly. His existence is all about making sure nobody goes out of bounds. It's just that up until now, those efforts have been concentrated mostly on players.

This whole time, I'd been thinking of how Sebastian might respond within the boundaries of the game. I never considered that his response might actually be game-breaking, much less that the game itself would penalize him for it and then reset to correct course.

This game, man.

[rooniearts]

Two questions i have about your hedgehog swap AU

How do each variant act? Example, do the Shadow and Silver versions of Sonic act like a quiet and energetic version of him respectively?

Also more importantly, how would each group act together? Would the Green Hill gang joke about how different they all are and hang out with their little bro Tails while the Time Travellers wonder where in the timeline they are?

Lots to dig into here! Bear with me, this might turn into a wall of text haha :'D

1) How do each variant act?

Basically, they still have their base personalities, just the baggage they're carrying changes how the react to things. But here's a quick rundown of everyone;

For the Green Hill boys, Shadow is quiet and reserved, but he is so sweet and helpful. He tends to prefer thinking before acting, but he's not immune to an impulsive action or two. Silver, on the other hand, is very impulsive which, combined with his hotheadedness and his naivete, can land him in some serious trouble. He's probably a little less brash than Sonic, but he has his moments. He, too, is very sweet and kind though <3 He very much reads like the average shounen protagonist to me

The Ark boys are complex because they change over time. Sonic is at the beginning very, very volatile and very angry. He's cocky and throws out quips and insults like they're candy, and also constantly derails from his mission to pick fights with any living being he sees. After his character growth, he really wants to be friends with everyone, but doesn't really know how to go about it, so he just kind of ends up insulting people and coming off as a jerk. Someone described it PERFECTLY as "bully who wants to be friends but doesn't know how" in the notes on one of my posts, and that's exactly what he's like!!!!!

Ark Silver is a whole can of worms. When he first emerges, there is no second thought and there is certainly no stopping him. He just makes it his mission to destroy and ruin everyone who wronged him, who he has decided is all of planet earth, and he doesn't care who gets in the way. They only manage to defeat him by having him tire himself out until a breaking point. In the aftermath, he turns into a bit of a recluse who just wants to be left to his own devices. Although he's pretty cold, he's still outwardly a bit kinder and easier to get along with than the other two Ark boys, and he still has moments of pure naivete. But he also has a hell of a temper and will crash out at any provocation, despite trying really hard not to.

The Future boys aren't as set in stone, but here goes! Sonic is very similar to his canon self, except a bit more level-headed and clever. He's less brash, because any injury or exhausting yourself mid-battle could lead to certain death in his world. With Shadow, he's taken on a very stoic and almost warrior-like personality. He likes to thoroughly consider any move he takes before he commits to it, and is constantly up to date on what rescources he has access to. For both of them, I think they're much less likely to actually believe Mephiles, but they both end up following his orders anyway because it's their only tiny glimmer of hope for a better future

And that should be about it! Up next is;

2) How would the group act together?

I already made comics about how every Sonic, Shadow and Silver react to their variants!

Now how they would all react really depends on each one, but I feel like Green Hill!Silver and Ark!Sonic would probably be the least likely to get along. Silver would just take the bait every time, and Sonic presses his buttons knowingly. However. I think Future!Sonic and Future!Shadow would get along so naturally and become such fast friends <3 I find their dynamic really really cuuuteee <3<3<3

[dilfdater420]

listen this has been in my head for awhile,, Cecil with an assistant who's battle beasts daughter(half alien/half human, so she has a beast form and human form)- now listen, reader isn't much of a fighter, espically after her whole childhood being in a crime ring and going to jail and such- but for Cecil? she'll fight. If he wants her to fight, she does. When he calls her to heel, she does. It's pretty much like an assistant/bodyguard. If you're inspired, could you do some headcanons based on this? romantic or platonic is fine with me! :3

Hey Anon! This is super cool! I love the idea. Feel free to request more and expand on it if you have ideas afterwards because I feel like this is an interesting dynamic to be explored, I'm so serious I'm invested

I’ll make the reader gender neutral though because that’s honestly how I write LOL.

#dilfdater420 : Cecil Stedman x Half Human!Half Alien!Reader who’s Battle Beasts’ kid. little --romantic?? platonic?? idk they're complicated-- headcanons post, feel free to request more from me! more under the cut

Cecil, at first, found you as a means to an end. Something to use to his advantage, and to be evenly matched with Invincible at least. Cecil remembers the damage your own father did to the kid, to have that kind of power even on a small scale at his beck and call could reap bountiful results for himself and the world if Invincible decided to jump ship or worse, Viltrum uses its force and Mark isn't enough.

He found you through intel that there was a powerful threat on Earth that needed to be dealt with from an unknown source. He expected it to be a trap and sent two of the Guardians and himself, finding it to be an actual report.

But the one fault with the report was that it wasn't completely true. You were this defensive, clingy thing that jumped on the man as soon as he outstretched a hand to shake. You were weeping, had almost gave Cecil a heart attack and set his hairline a foot back, but he ended up returning the embrace and awkwardly cuddling you.

This was the beginning of an imprint. After going back to the GDA, never parting with the hand that reached to you in the process, you were put through a series of tests and then therapy. That's where the story of child abuse and violence devolved, and the knowledge that you were the spawn of Battle Beast. After that, Cecil was a lot less annoyed by your closeness, in fact, he banked on it.

With you acclimated enough to be normal and not freak out when you two were separated, Cecil had you become his left hand.

You got his coffee, was something he could air his frustrations to--and no one would ever find out, debriefed him on the current state of the world every morning, and was ready to die if he so little as suggested the notion. It was a match made in heaven, but a high maintenance one.

You talked a lot whenever you could, curious about everything. You were definitely not a child, but incredibly childish. You'd just reach out for anything, Donald even had to make a habit of slapping your hand before you got hurt.

Not to mention, living together? His personal space sacrificed for the good of the world. He doesn't get paid enough.

You improve Cecil's home situation in some circumstances. He could wake up to the kitchen sink once clad with utensils in the aftermath of eating takeout too many times for it to be healthy suddenly clean and tidy. How'd you know he wanted it to be cleaned without telling you? He sighed at it when you first moved in while showing you around.

On the flipside, you could also destroy Cecil's couch and decorative pillows with your claws because you think the sound of fabric ripping is satisfying.

Now, the final question is, how are you faring well as an actual bodyguard? Yes you come from a strong parent, but your actual combat skills and specs lack in comparison, sizably so. You were never much of a fighter and it showed. Yes you could meet Invincible at his level and probably overpass him with a burst of thirst for blood, but an actual Viltrumite?

Despite this, you were good enough for Cecil, so he kept you. Everything cog has a use, and Cecil has gotten really good at seeing which peg a gear can fit in. He's the Global Defense Force Director after all.

#a/n : I hope you liked this, I'm operating on smoke right now I haven't slept since Saturday haha. Forgive me for any grammer/syntax errors charge it to my head not my heart

This turned into something way longer than I thought it would. But you can't stop until the words and you reach this equilibrium of satisfaction. I could go further but then I think I'd fumble it. Better to stop while you're good and come back later yknow

Ok me go sleep sleep **passes out

[mswyrr]

I did my dissertation on post WW2 veteran mental health. The realities of that war got erased and remembered in the US as "the good war." But there is no such thing. It broke people; a lot of them. During Criston's despairing speech I thought of these lines from Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five":

Vonnegut was one of the artists who wrote about the ways in which WW2 was very much not good, because war itself is never good, not even when it's necessary and people have no choice. There was an evil side in that war, clearly! But that doesn't mean anyone was good or that war can be good.

All of the lies of honor and masculinity Criston told himself have just collapsed under the the reality of war. I might find the lies he told himself disgusting--the man is deeply patriarchal, sexist, etc--but that's what he was given by his society and now it's collapsed and his will to live along with it. Those lies are, in fact, designed to dupe men into willingly going to war and having their bodies and minds broken like this.

I feel like HOTD is committed to being an antiwar narrative -- not in a preachy way, in a very "show, don't tell" way -- and I love that. It's been decades now since US pop culture has had a genuinely, bone deep antiwar narrative.

The fact that the one major battle they spent money on was gut-wrenching and horrific. That the aftermath is that so many people are now mentally and physically maimed for life. There is no glory, only despair and human beings (and loving animals like poor Sunfyre and Meleys) slaughtered and maimed.

"And for what?" is the question that hovers over the whole scene. For what? Do the lies this system tells hold up under the reality? Can any throne (of conquest!) be worth this? Any notions of honor?

And all of this is happening at the same time we see what striving for that throne of conquest and believing the deep, long-term lies (of conquest!) is doing to Rhaenyra -- Aemond is becoming monstrous, someone who will burn innocent people, and [as I go into detail about in this meta] so is she. The "show, don't tell" of that when we see how little Aegon, the brother they want to knock out of the way, actually wanted any of this! The whole set of lies is empty; it's certainly not worth burning cities full of people to death for it.

But their pride, their identity, their sense of family love, and now their very survival is all caught up in that. They're more tragic to me than the people who have seen it's all empty and not worth this. *That* is what Helaena was trying to tell Aemond - she wasn't trying to hurt him! She was trying to say: can't you see, it's not worth this? It doesn't matter.

(And, to be clear, the Rhaenyra parallels with Aemond are about how this thing is not worth all this death for anyone, son or daughter. Seeking after it destroys you and everyone you love. Not because you're a girl, but because the thing itself is broken and poisonous - there is no good way to sit on a throne of conquest, erected by people who burned innocents alive to dominate the population).

All of this is why I don't think the story hates or dismisses the male characters! Rather, I think women are being allowed to be total messes in plausible ways and it's showing a side of what is asked of men that isn't shown enough - when you fly off to battle thinking it will be grand (because societies tell boys from the time they're small that it will be) and then die in horror or have to live mentally and physically disabled as a man in a society that thinks that makes you less of a man (and therefore not a worthy person at all). Or you come home and physically hurt your sister and scare your mom. Criston thought it would be noble - all he wants now is to die. Similarly with Aegon too. And with Aemond... he went into this never intending to be someone who would engage in domestic violence against his sister, his mother. But now he is. He hasn't despaired, like Criston and Aegon, he's become even worse than that.

Violence has been depicted by Hollywood as something external to the characters largely over the past few decades. Something they do that gives them power. Maybe it makes them sad, traumatizes them, but it doesn't fundamentally change them forever inside in ways that make them feel lessened and warp their relationships. But that isn't what it is. At best, it is a necessary thing that leaves people deeply scarred. And most of the time it isn't necessary at all; the system and people making those decisions are corrupt and don't care about morality or spending human lives carefully.

Even when the writing falters (due to being screwed over by the studio! A month before production the studio cut the episodes from 10 to 8 - and then they forced them to film even when the writers' strike was going on and there was no way to adjust in rewrites anymore) they're aiming so damn high on so many levels that I just love it. And, no, not just because of the canon queerness! That is one of several difficult things they're trying to do simultaneously while being kneecapped.

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

i love kendrick lamar so much for how clearly he sees rap and how intentional his actions are when it comes to upholding and honoring it. the drake diss saga is so fascinating to me because that's exactly what he did AGAIN.

rap is the most intellectual and literary genre of music because in no other genre does the musician also assume the role of speaker, of orator. it's a speech that's also a poem that's also a song that's also often a history--a tool to raise consciousness, to give voice to and teach its information-starved people what harm was done and sometimes chart a path to undoing it. and you can dance to it! it's multipurposed and embedded in the daily life of the culture that created it, using the full complexity of music as technology for a communication highway. if rap was a car and i slapped it on the hood, it would be to express "there's so much going on under here, i don't think anybody understands all of it, but goddamn does she go so so so fucking fast." I genuinely believe that we should respect and interact with it as an oral history tradition. perhaps early in its development, but it's not just another type of music.

and lamar loves rap like rap loves lamar; rap is his perfect ecological niche and his presence strengthens the ecosystem in turn. in interviews, he talks about the wordplay, assembling bars and songs like puzzles, literally playing with the meanings and how the words influence each other. embedding different messages that require you to listen to it over and over to catch all the meanings, that require it to age with along you and accrue its true depth in your mind as you accrue experience and comprehension. i couldn't imagine a more involved and complex demonstration of pure literary skill or a mind more suited to take the challenge and treat it like his elementary school playground.

whole fuckin books could be written about Euphoria, Meet the Grahams, and Not like Us individually. like Not Like Us is the least complex of all of them and it's STILL this perfect distillation of the soul of hiphop. a club track on a classic west coast beat denouncing an injustice/exploitation and affirming the values of its people while describing and educating on a historical context of extraction. the others hit a different height of the genre or create a new one. euphoria is a classically great song that gets better in the aftermath of the battle when lines that didn't make sense are revealed to be direct statements about future events. the complexity of the wordplay and the strategy it describes epitomize the competitiveness and sport of the genre.

in meet the grahams, kendrick invented the epistolary diss in order to double a diss track as an evocation of Black generational trauma. he ripped drake's character to shreds by addressing every member of his family and explaining the ways in which uniquely Black trauma that drake ignores and preys on and extracts is destroying his own soul and his family. how his lack of respect and connection to his people translate to a lack of respect and connection to himself, to disconnection from his children that they will have to puzzle over and recover from in their own adulthood. demonstrating its cyclical nature, and how vicious that cycle is. enunciating through drake the step by step process of generational trauma caused by rejection and alienation, building a bed of empathy and comprehension for the listener while denouncing drake for the cowardice and betrayal of his response to it, for his selfishness and decision to hand the trauma down again. by addressing it first to adonis, showing both how necessary and culturally embedded it is to step in and provide mentorship when parents are dropping the ball.

a lot of the reactions were almost scared by it and immediately distanced themselves from it. someone on dead end hip hop said "he's talking directly to drake, he's not talking to us anymore." (around the same time as he had his head in his hands and said "i think this might help this dude.... later" which made me laugh so hard i cried.) but kendrick is so much smarter than that. it's not just for drake. it's a mirror to the pain and dissonance that made drake, the culture that allowed drake, and the living futures he and men like him destroy.

and i haven't even talked about the music. how embedded his music is in Black art, how he pulls forward greats from previous musical eras like George Clinton and embeds the literal soundscape of Black musical history. it's incredible. this isn't to say other genres of music are worse in any way. music doesn't need to be a song that's also 17 other things in a trench coat. rap just did something else that we haven't begun to really take stock of. and tbh i think it's fun to have somebody run circles around you when you can admire the sheer awe-inspiring skill of the loops.

[meowcats734]

[Soulmage] The house you just rented is beyond compensation - staircases and extra floors coming and going, rooms rotating and changing places. You just ignore it. On the fourth day, the eldritch horror informs you that you are the first to stay inside it for more than 72 hours without going insane.

There was a numb sort of peace to the aftermath of a cataclysm. I’d felt it before, at the raid that froze my village solid, when I’d stepped out into a world of white over red. Emerging from the cramped, stinking theater after what felt like years but was likely less than an hour felt the same way. Aimes’ lecture hall was leveled, the clock tower was a broken spire, and the once-gamboling hearth dragons littered the floor like fallen stars.

But it was over.

The teachers were already cordoning off certain areas as too dangerous to enter—here was where a riftmaw had scarred the face of reality, there was where Iola’s sickness-spell had poisoned the very land—but there was still plenty of room for the students to spread out. Still, Lucet and I held onto each other until we found a quiet corner with only a few blast marks and wearily collapsed.

“I’m numb,” Lucet finally said.

“I know.” I’d heard that battle-shock was the death of witches, and now I knew why: in my rattled, distant state, the emotions that normally swirled within my soul were a distant, ethereal thing, too thin to be touched, much less formed into a spell.

“They’re going to side with Iola,” she said.

“I know.”

“We can deal with that later,” she decided.

I leaned against her and closed my eyes. “I know.”

An Academy official who I didn’t recognize passed by, paused, then shook their head and kept going. I heard them calling out names—searching for students who had either been killed or taken, I assumed—until their voice was swallowed by the falling snow.

Somehow, we fell into an uneasy sleep, lying against each other in the shadow of a ruined building.

When I next awoke, Lucet was gone.

###

Rebuilding came slowly, and then all at once. One day, we were attending speeches and funerals and swearing we would never forget; the next, we were looking for housing and lining up for food.

That was how I found myself at the House of Warp and Weft.

The House of Warp and Weft had, if nothing else, good marketing. "Roomy, especially when you're not looking. 3.2 bed -1.3 bath, on average. Pet included." It made me feel slightly better about the whole situation. I wasn't exactly looking forward to staying in a house that had once belonged to a witch of space, but it wasn't as if I had a choice.

Rooms for rent near the Silent Academy for Witches were always a sparse commodity. Especially now that a demon had rampaged through the school, stealing a tenth of the students and destroying most of the dormitories, a good place to stay was in high demand. And since I'd pissed off the witch in charge of redistributing housing, I'd been shoehorned into getting what Witch Aimes lovingly and oddly specifically referred to as "a house suitable for hormonal boys who try poaching an elf's girlfriend in the middle of a demonic invasion."

So two days after the demonic attack had ended, I found myself with a suitcase of my clothes in front of the House of Warp and Weft.

"You know, you could always crash at our place," Jiaola said from beside me. The old man had one arm in a sling; he'd only survived the demonic incursion thanks to a last-minute warning from an oracle. "I know your soulsight is still developing, but trust me—there's a lot of magic twisting this place around."

I shook my head. "I like my privacy, and at least this place is dirt cheap. Plus, I'll be pissing off Witch Aimes for every night I stay in her pet hellhouse without going crazy."

Jiaola's lips quirked. "I may know a thing or two about making statements by where you choose to live," he said. He clapped my shoulder. "Stay safe."

I bumped his fist, wished Lucet was here, and stepped across the threshold into the House of Warp and Weft.

###

I could handle the infinite staircases. I could handle waking up in a different room than I fell asleep in. I could even handle the occasional time that I opened a door and saw myself from behind, looping off into infinity like a house of mirrors. I'd stared into my own soulspace and witnessed the Witch of Warp and Weft herself bending space into a weapon. The House was manageable in comparison.

But what I couldn't handle was the rift.

I'd grown up in the Redlands, where the rifts in the sky spat the very elemental destruction that had killed my father, and I knew the signs of a rift when I saw one. For one, the spell animating the house just didn't end. It had been twenty years since Witch Aimes had accidentally turned the house into a psychedelic nightmare land; spells simply didn't last that long unless there was a rift powering them.

And if I was living on top of a rift, I needed to know, now, before things started coming through the rift.

Then again, if the rift had truly been somewhere in the House for over twenty years, things had already had plenty of time to come through.

Great.

I'd already reported my suspicions to the Silent Academy for Witches, but they gave me the "that's nice, dearie, now go back to bed" expression they always had whenever an uppity Redlander thought they had a say in the workings of magic. So I took it upon myself to investigate.

I got utterly lost on the first day, walking for half an hour in a straight line without making any progress. On the second day, I brought snacks and a picnic blanket, and just waited for the House of Warp and Weft to rearrange itself whenever I found an obstacle I couldn't understand. By the third day, I was starting to see the familiar patterns of the magical energies around a rift—the constant, uneven spew of energies that twisted space had a source, and I was slowly but surely charting my way to that source.

On the fourth day, the source found me.

"Witch Aimes created this place through the sheer power of her arrogance," a voice from behind me mournfully whispered. "You must be her successor, if you believe you can reach its heart."

I turned around to see... it had to be from beyond the rift, because there was no way something with its biology could have been born in realspace. Its arms were noodly, elongated things that pooled around its hulking, tree-trunk legs. Its chest was bloated and twisted, and its bizarrely normal-sized head looked like nothing more than another lump of disgusting flesh.

It also looked inexplicably similar to my Theory of Magic teacher.

I snickered. I couldn't help it. The part of me that had grown up next to the rifts was screaming at me to run, but the disgusting, corpulent entity looked like Witch Aimes, and I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

"You really are a witch of arrogance, then," the entity said. "To laugh in the face of an angel."

Angel. For rifts' sake, it called itself an angel. That, too, was such a Witch Aimes move. I reined in my laughter, and the rational half of my brain kicked in. Well, maybe a rational third or fourth, because if I had a working sense of logic, I would've just bunked at Jiaola's instead of living in this nightmare plane to spite my teacher. Whatever the entity was, it was probably the "pet" that had been in the stupid little advertisement Witch Aimes gave me, so she knew it was here—and, as a result, that it wasn't going to kill me. Aimes' sense of morality was as twisted as her old house, but she didn't let her students die.

"Sorry, sorry. You just... reminded me of someone I know," I said.

The angel tilted its... wobbly-bits. "Interesting," it said. "I am comprised of the memories of the dead. For one such as you to know one such as me..."

Huh. I hadn't had permission to access the restricted texts on soulspace entities—but now that I thought about it, being able to interview one myself was a step above what I would've found in the Silent Library anyway. "What do you mean, the memories of the dead?"

"It is beyond your comprehension," the angel placidly said.

Wow, it even spoke like Witch Aimes. I rolled my eyes. "So was this clownhouse, but I still got used to it. C'mon, throw me a bone."

The angel hesitated. "You... are the first since the Witch of Warp and Weft herself to remain here for so long without being driven mad." It considered something, hesitant, then said, "Very well." The angel stepped to one side, casually twisting the floor into a blackboard, and once again I was reminded of Witch Aimes. Whatever else the angel was, it was also... a teacher, of sorts. "As you should know, all magic stems from emotion."

I nodded. "Happiness for light, passion for heat, freedom for wind."

"And arrogance to twist space," the angel added. It used spatial distortions like a stick of chalk, raising bumps in the floor-blackboard into the shape of letters. I suppose that made this an angel of arrogance, then. "But if magic stems from emotion, the question naturally follows: from whence does emotion flow?"

From whence. How annoying. In the spirit of that, I tried, "From... interacting with the world?"

The angel of arrogance clicked its many tongues in disapproval. "Close. Emotions come from how you perceive your interactions with the world. In other words, emotions stem from memories."

I nodded. That tracked with the kind of high-level witchcraft I'd seen Witch Aimes display, wielding the memory of a spear instead of the physical thing in combat with a demon.

"The collection of memories one accrues over a lifetime is the source of a witch's power, and is commonly known as the soul." The angel of arrogance created another blackboard, outlining a body with a core of thoughts and memories in its center. "But by the first law of thaumatology, souls cannot be destroyed. So the question then arises: where does a soul go when its body perishes?"

I am comprised of the memories of the dead, the angel seemed to whisper in my memory.

My eyes widened. "They go here," I said. "They become angels and demons and everything in between."

The angel... seemed to approve. Its mouths curved upwards, at any rate. "Precisely." It started to say something else, but then cocked its head, as if listening to a song only it could hear. "I must go," it said. "The rift at the heart of this house... disgorges entities. My duty is to unmake them before they can reach the world outside."

Of course Aimes had coerced an angel of arrogance into serving as a glorified watchman. I only half-nodded, my mind already racing.

Demons were comprised from the memories of the dead.

That meant that there was a chance, however slim, that someone who had died could be brought back. Someone who had been killed when I was just a child.

Someone who'd been killed with forgiveness on her lips.

I bid the angel of arrogance farewell as I retreated to my room, my thoughts racing.

They said the House of Warp and Weft drove its inhabitants insane.

But my mind felt the clearest that it ever had.

A.N.

Soulmage is a serial written in response to writing prompts. Stick around for more episodes, or join my Discord to chat about it!

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[themculibrary]

Peter Quill Needs A Hug Masterlist

Don't Touch the Walkman (ao3) - blazingstar29 G, 1k

Summary: Every one on the Elector knows not to mess with Peter's Walkman. Some wackjob new recruits decide to ignore that rule.

i can feel it coming ( in the air tonight ) (ao3) - dormant_bender gamora/peter T, 3k

Summary: There were some moments that Gamora would always cherish and keep with her until the end of days.

I'll Be There When You Want Me, Someway, Somehow (ao3) - LegoTea gamora/peter T, 3k

Summary: “How do we get the spores out of him?” Gamora asked, trying to remain calm.

Kraglin winced. “Gotta wait it out.”

“For how long?” Drax asked.

Kraglin looked down at Peter, who was still trembling on the bed, and he said, “I don’t know.”

(While the Guardians search for the Milano on Berhert, Peter loses his voice.)

Knowhere (ao3) - TenSpencerRiedPlease peter/tony N/R, 6k

Summary: "You’re the best thing that has ever happened to be, man. We’re gunna be roommates,” Peter decides. Thankfully Tony agrees.

My World Is In Your Eyes (ao3) - KassandraScarlett peter/tony G, 30k

Summary: The whole galaxy know about the metal hero who destroyed Thanos' fleet. Now, as Thanos plans, the Guardians recruit the Terran hero and two gods to alert the universe as secure their support. As they travel together, Peter falls deeper and deeper into the black hole personality of Toni Stark. But Toni has too many scars and too much fear and a deep-seated distrust of people who seem sincerely interested in her. So how does Peter get through the walls she's put up too protect herself?

Stages (ao3) - laylabinx N/R, 10k

Summary: Peter is 100% Not Okay™ after the fallout with Ego. The others help him cope in the best way they can.

Static (ao3) - RainingPens peter/tony T, 36k

Summary: "No don't- don't engage!" Tony yelled, frantically pulling harder on the Infinity Gauntlet. "We almost got this off!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew it was useless. He could see the despair and anger on Quill's face, and Tony's first thought was that he probably looked like that back on Siberia, before everything went to shit. Which was why Tony opted to shoot Quill instead.

The Aftermath of Not Being Able to Sleep (ao3) - Groot_Is_God gamora/peter G, 6k

Summary: Peter can't sleep because of nightmares leading to some issues during a mission.

The One Where Peter is Thor's Weakness (ao3) - JinxQuickfoot gamora/peter T, 3k

Summary: After the final battle against Thanos, Thor has fit in well with the 'Asgardians of the Galaxy'. So well, in fact, that a frost giant bent on revenge goes after their captain.

There is trouble a head (ao3) - Kindred peter/omc, peter/thor M, 1k

Summary: Peter Quill 17 years old and pregnant... Yondu needs to shoot the daddy, the problem is Peter doesn't know his name.

The Widower (ao3) - Fighting4Fandoms gamora/peter M, 4k

Summary: Peter's not exactly coping after losing Gamora but life just loves to screw him over

True parents keep you grounded (ao3) - lelianasong G, 2k

Summary: Taserface takes his abuse of Peter too far, and Yondu reacts accordingly. Peter is left with his emotions all bottled up inside his chest, and as Yondu knows from experience, that's the last place you want them to be.

We All Know that Something is Eternal (ao3) - enigma731 gamora/peter T, 1k

Summary: “I’m dead,” says Peter, finally.

“Yes,” says Gamora, her tone light, like they might be discussing the weather. “For now.”

He clears his throat, nods, not even considering that last part for the moment. “Then why am I in Missouri?”

She glances around, realization of some sort dawning on her face. “Oh, is that where this is? I was wondering. These flowers are huge.”

You Can't Carry It With You (If You Want To Survive) (ao3) - FoundInTheStars T, 2k

Summary: After everything, Rocket and Peter learn to let go.

[deepwaterdreams]

To acknowledge one's anger is already to refuse being consumed by it (Star Wars : Remnants)

I'm writing a fic set in an alternate universe, where Cal doesn't destroy the holocron and become an Inquisitor on ao3, here's a snippet of the fourth chapter

Summary : The Order has fallen. The Jedi are hunted. The survivors are nothing but remnants. But some refuse to vanish.

In the aftermath of Order 66, an unlikely group tries to come together: Neera, broken but defiant, Jarek, a young almost Jedi haunted by fear, Greez, an old pilot with a broken heart; and BD-1, an uncommon bearer of hope. Fleeing a relentless Empire, they uncover a harrowing truth: their pursuer is none other than Cal Kestis, once a friend, now an Inquisitor. Together, they must face the ruins of a fallen Jedi legacy and the scattered pieces of a forgotten hope.

Perhaps, sometimes, the remnants are stronger than what tried to destroy them.

______________________________________________________________

“Master Yoda said fear leads to anger." Jarek said. "Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. And all that leads to the Dark Side. And BD… I’m so scared. I’m so angry. At everything. At everyone. Even at myself… I don’t know what to do anymore.”

BD-1 let out a sad beep and bumped his little head against Jarek’s arm, just as he buried his face in his hands. When he looked up, eyes glassy with tears, BD had hopped down from the bed and was projecting another hologram.

It was Cal, smiling. Before the fall.

The image leaned against a table, back turned to the droid. He let out a long, tired sigh. He looked tenser than in the last two recordings BD had shown.

“I don’t know what to do anymore, BD…” the hologram began. “I feel like I’ll never make it. My research isn’t progressing fast enough, and if I don’t hurry…”

The hologram ran a hand through his hair, visibly frustrated, before turning around, arms crossed, leaning back against the table. It was insane how different he looked from what he’d become. Like two separate people. And yet… Jarek could already see it. The change in his eyes. He looked exhausted. Dark circles under his eyes, his features drawn too tight.

“I’m so scared, BD… We have more and more younglings with us, and they’re all terrified of being found. I try to reassure them, tell them we’ll keep them safe, but… If only you knew how hard it is to make that promise, knowing the Empire is everywhere.”

Jarek sighed. In a way, he’d been right to see himself in Cal. The doubts, the fears, they were the same. BD-1 wasn’t exactly reassuring right now… So why was he showing him these recordings?

“Sometimes I’m scared that fear’s going to swallow me whole,” Cal’s hologram admitted. “And that fear… only makes it worse. It’s a vicious cycle, I know, but I just… I feel lost.”

“Advice = Cal talk to Cere,” BD-1’s little voice chirped in the recording.

“I don’t know… I don’t think it’s a good idea. I don’t want her to worry for no reason. She already has so much to deal with. But you know, it reminds me of something she told me once. That every Jedi has to face the Dark Side, face their fear, their anger, and that the real battle is always a battle against yourself. But I’m scared I won’t win that one. Sometimes… I really think I won’t.”

“Cal = not alone.”

“Yeah… Thanks, buddy.”

The recording ended. Jarek frowned. There was something about the way Cal had said that last line… He didn’t sound like he believed it. And for some reason, that made Jarek sad. Really sad. BD-1 hopped back up onto the bunk, antennae straight, eyes locked on him.

“Jarek = not alone.”

The little droid stared at him intently, like he was trying to make sure the message hit home. And Jarek got it. He understood.

Cal hadn’t believed it. He hadn’t spoken to Cere like BD-1 had told him to. He’d kept searching for a solution on his own, for the sake of everyone, yes, but alone. Always alone. He’d sunk deeper into his fear.

He and Cal were alike, yes. That much was clear. But that didn’t mean he had to make the same choices. He could learn from Cal’s story. That’s why BD-1 had shown him the recording. That’s what he wanted him to see. And for the first time in what felt like days, Jarek smiled, for real.

“Thanks, BD.”

[xroggensaux]

Heavy spoilers for the Cazador fight and aftermath under the cut ^^

The Cazador fight was so hard in my first playthrough. I probably made dozens of attempts until I finally finished him by 1) turning him into a sheep before even talking to him, 2) blowing up one of the sacrificial spawns so he couldn't ascend, 3) killing off his minions until only he was left (it was a race against time before the sheep spell would have worn off), and 4) having Karlach and Shadowheart patiently chip away at him with radiant damage until they eventually finished him. Our whole party except Karlach was dead by (4), but Karlach resurrected Shadowheart because she had enough radiant damage spells to be worth the effort of resurrection mid-battle ... T^T

This time Cazador got Astarion before we'd had a chance to turn him into a sheep, but by some bizarre dumb luck, Cazador was so stupid that he went to hang around right where Karlach dropped the explosives by the sacrificial spawn that we were going to blow up. I'd summoned some ghouls with my necromancy skillz, and they all focused on Cazador, so maybe they were what distracted him? Anyway, when we ignited the gunpowder, he took serious damage even as a gaseous cloud ... It was all over pretty quickly, almost anticlimactically so, even without Astarion to help us for most of it, when I'd put so much effort into carefully preparing and equipping us ... ^^;

(It seems I've been racking up XP and levelling up very quickly in this run, as well as playing as a monk/nun, which is said to be a pretty overpowered class lol. Now I'm looking forward to all the other boss battles that were kicking my ass last time :3)

I enjoyed it too, so much :D Very kathartic, loved that for Astarion <3

(Astarion decided on his own to set the spawns free, since Sebastian had agreed they could probably control their hunger, just like Astarion can.)

And yeah, while Astarion was strung up as one of the sacrificial spawns, us girlies just destroyed any chance for him to ascend in Cazador's place, without asking him ... but he didn't seem mad about it. ^^; Of course, when we'd discussed it before, I'd always tried to discourage him from it (because I figure it would probably only make him become the same as, or worse than, his abuser). Maybe he actually took it to heart?

What can I say, I have -1 intelligence, after all😎 (I felt a bit meh about doing another het pairing at first, but I think they really do complement each other perfectly, as my character is indeed very patient and a bit stupid lmao, as well as a strong fighter who was never afraid of him and will always protect him ... or at least always resurrect him <3 I also think his romance would be really cute with a big male Half-Orc or similar character with these same qualities <3)

Then we made love literally on top of his grave ^^ - but seriously, it was really sweet that he felt safe to initiate it now, with his traumatic relationship to sex. And that was the most fun place we could possibly do it - celebrating his new life and freedom on his empty grave <3

The next day, we traded Cazador's weapons to Skittle the rat merchant ...

... emptied Cazador's vaults (and a few others :3) at the Counting House ...

... and got drinks at Sharess' Caress to celebrate <3

My boyfriend knows how OP I am lol (But he's not bad himself! And in other dialogue scenes, he says he appreciates that we are equals, that there is no control or manipulation between us <3 <3 <3)

Now that I've done Astarion's romance storyline, I get what people say about Wyll's being underdeveloped. But then, Wyll is a wholesome and wonderful person from the start (which is so nice), so I guess there isn't that much 'character development' with him. And that's not a bad thing to me! Astarion on the other hand was so annoying a lot of the time istg xD But it pays off to be patient and believe in the best version of him <3 His story is honestly quite therapeutic if you (= me) have similar tendencies/ptsd as him. ^^;

(Of course the game allows you to play Astarion's storyline in different ways, so you can also embrace his cruel tendencies and hunger for power if you want ... In general, I like that none of the characters in the game are inherently 'evil' - most of the people doing horrible things have backstories that explain how they got there, and many have chances at redemption, or their story going a different way, depending on the player's choices.)

[i-will-write]

Yeah, it’s Eldritch Coruscant Guard for sure

Tbh @godofgrapes I'm a sucker for that trope so it was only a matter of time until I started planning my own fic. At the moment is still very much in the outlining phase, so there isn't much of a snippet to share, but I can and will talk about it!! >:)

The fic is more like 3 fics spliced together, but before going there let me talk about the plot.

The general idea is that, because of Event™ (I'm partial towards an allergic reaction, but I haven't decided yet), Palpatine is killed while off planet on one of his super-secret-definitely-not-Sithly meetings - this gives the Guard enough time to realize what's happening and disappear without nobody noticing (Fox and Stone have a whole plan about it).

By the time the Senate, the Jedi and the CSF realize that the esteemed Chancellor is gone gone and try to reach for the Coruscant Guard for help is far too late. In the aftermath of the whole clusterfuck that is finding out Palpatine was the Sith (and the war a double-fake game, oh, wouldn't you know it, there are chips in the clones head! Plus all the political, economical, social fallout of those things) the Guard disappearance take second place. When finally the Jedi and the GAR have enough time to start investigating they find a lot of weird stuff - like incongruous numbers of troopers deployed, weird holorecordings, secret reports that don't make sense and more. Initially they chalk it up to Fox being very sly and subtle trying to save the Guard from Palpatine (which... not wholly wrong on that), but the more they dig the more they realize that weird force/supernatural shit is involved and is Out To Get Them.

Returning to the 3 fics Frankenstein: the first is the very offical report made by the Jedi Shadows (I'm thinking Quinland Vos and Tholme), the second fic is what was actually happening in the Guard (narrated through flashback thanks to Quinlans psychometric abilities) and the last fic is Cody experience in searching for Fox while battling against this unknown being (? is it even a being? Who knows!).

The things that made me fall in love with this WIP is how much I can play with the worldbuilding, because there are just so many connection between the Guard clones and Coruscant. So let me start blabber about some of them!

Coruscant is old, like old old, and is also the homeplanet of the Tuang (the OG mandos), also Coruscant is a dying planet and the old gods of Mandalore are dead by now and the clones being intrinsically connect to death because of their upbringing/accelerated aging. The concept of Nature vs Nurture (Coruscant being Nurtured into a city-planet, the clones being nurtured into soldiers, in both cases completely destroying their Nature). Sickness (the city of Coruscant encroaching on the planet like a parasitic host, the clones spreading through the galaxy and bringing - unknowingly, like good hosts - the darkness of the Sith with them). The concept of being forgotten. Coruscant being home to million of different being vs the clones being millions of being all identical. There is just so much potential!!

I won't spoiler the ending, but I am very much in love with this fic, all I need to do is make the various pieces of the puzzle connect the right way, but the outlining is not cooperating 😭

[by-ilmater]

okay i'm a good ways into my second playthrough of datv and i realized i never posted any of my thoughts after i finished the first time. warning for end game spoilers, like big time, i mean it

many of my initial criticisms still stand, for me. like dai before it, i think datv suffers from some pacing issues. it starts off very slow, and i don't think it really starts to open up until after the dragons. i've always thought dai had the same issue, that the game only really gets going after you get to skyhold.

idk how to really phrase this, but the emotional pacing? feels off for me? does that make sense? like, there's several moments in the game where something absolutely devastating happens, and they did a really good job of capturing that. i think the aftermath of the dragons are a good example of this. in my second playthrough i'm playing a crow rook, so i chose to save treviso (did it the other way the first time) and the moment you fast travel back to dock town after that and half the building is just fucking GONE. that was a gut punch holy shit.

but then, so much of the rest of the game feels.....idk. cold? flat? it just doesn't seem to have a happy medium, there's either huge shit happening or....eh.

i will say, i think i'm enjoying the game more on a second run and that's not super common for me. it has let me pay way closer attention to how they actually handled varric after knowing he's dead the entire time, and there's some surprisingly clever moments.

speaking of the dragons, something i do like that datv did that felt more in line with origins is the game forcing you to make fucked up choices and live with the consequences. there's several moments in origins where you can just straight up lose a party member if you say something wrong or do something wrong, and I think that got kinda lost in da2 and dai. especially in dai, you have to go out of your way to really fuck shit up. i like that the dragons are bad no matter how you choose. i like that, if you choose wrong during the final battle, people will just straight up die (that's also very mass effect 2 and i love it). someone will also die no matter how you choose! there's no way to save harding or davrin after that choice, afaik. i like that.

i wish that we had more freedom over our rook as far as backstory and age and things like that. i really hate that the game basically railroads me into playing rook as young, especially during the emmrich romance. that irritates the fuck outta me. why give us the option to give rook wrinkles and grey hair and whatnot, and then insist that they're some naive twentysomething? haaaaaaaaaate that. i think, for a voiced pc that wasn't just a named person like hawke or shepard, dai struck a good balance. i liked that characters would ask your inquisitor questions, and then you got to decide how they felt. rook doesn't get that.

i miss being able to just talk to the companions whenever. like, i do like that they kinda move around the lighthouse and interact with each other, but i think we also could've been given the ability to talk to them while they did that, instead of having to wait til they have their little speech bubble prompt. idk what inspired the decision to make it like this, idk if people complained that there's too much talking in previous da games. but i loved all the talking and i want it back.

this is a petty personal issue, but i am so so sad we finally got to see weisshaupt in a game and it immediately gets fucking destroyed. literally so heartbroken. i've wanted to see weisshaupt since alistair talked about it in origins.

this feels like a mean criticism but.....some of the voice acting does not hit for me. i chose the american male voice for ezra, cuz he's a city elf from ferelden. and man, it bugged me the whole fucking game lol. but with kai i chose the british male voice and the difference is huge.

goddamn this got long lmao sorry. i'm sure i'll think of more later.

[my-weird-news]

🔥 Disaster Strikes: Dozens of Buildings Ravaged in BC Wildfires!

#KelownaInferno: A Comedy of Fiery Follies! So, there's this place called Kelowna in British Columbia, and let me tell you, it's been having a real "hot" party lately. Like, the kind of party where even the buildings are getting a taste of the action. 🏠🔥 But don't worry, folks, it's all in good fun, right? Imagine, at least 50 buildings turned into roasted marshmallows in the name of wildfires! Not your regular marshmallow-toasting bonanza, mind you, but a legit wildfire fiesta. 🍢🔥 Officials, the same folks who always seem to crash the party, declared that it's not over yet. They're like the party poopers who tell you the party's still going on even when the chips are burnt. This dude named Jason Brolund, the big cheese of firefighting in West Kelowna, says the worst-hit neighborhoods are yet to reveal their true crispy potential. Picture him saying this with a straight face, while behind him, buildings are playing their sizzling symphony. 🎶🏢🎵 And let's talk about the chaos of trying to assess the aftermath. It's like they're playing a game of "Let's Find the Address" but with melted street signs and destroyed house numbers. Can you imagine firefighters wandering around with Google Maps and Siri, going, "Nope, this is definitely not 123 Fire Lane"? 🗺️🔍 But wait, there's more! The party crashers list includes felled power lines and trees, just to make sure the firefighters have a proper obstacle course. It's like someone combined "American Ninja Warrior" with a barbeque festival. 🌳🔌🍖 So, this whole shindig started on Saturday, and the fire decided to take a chill pill for a change. I guess even wildfires need their beauty sleep, right? 🌬️🔥 And for a full 24 hours, the buildings have been saved from becoming extra-crispy nuggets. Can you hear the sigh of relief from the fire extinguishers? Phew! Chief Brolund, our superhero in this blazing adventure, calls it the "day-to-day grind of firefighting." Yep, because what's more routine than battling flames that want to turn your town into a roasted marshmallow festival? 🦸‍♂️🔥 In other news, British Columbia is like the host of the biggest bonfire bash ever. They've got 380 fires on their RSVP list, and around 30,000 people were politely asked to vacate the premises. That's right, folks, the ultimate game of "Fire or Flee" is in full swing. 🔥🏃‍♀️ And guess what? The firefighters are the real party animals here. Around 500 of them from different places are joining the fight, along with the province's own wildfire superheroes. It's like a "Firefighters United" meetup, except with way more flames. 👨‍🚒🔥👩‍🚒 But wait, the plot thickens! A fancy resort got toasted on the shores of Okanagan Lake. It's like Mother Nature decided to RSVP last minute and brought her own fiery marshmallows. Meanwhile, the city's airport has a "Sorry, we're closed" sign hanging during the day, just to give those water-bombing aircraft and firefighting helicopters some VIP airspace. And here's the kicker – the province's wildfire service claims that the sun's throwing shade thanks to all the smoke. I mean, who knew smoke signals worked on the sun? But hey, that's what you get when you invite hundreds of active fires to the party. The whole province is like, "Can someone turn off the smoke machine, please? It's getting hard to breathe." 🌞🚬 Oh, and there's this other fire, like the rebellious sibling, chilling about 100 miles north of Kelowna. It's like they heard about the marshmallow roast and decided to host their own mini-bonfire. Sibling rivalry at its finest, folks. 🔥👫 Now, let's talk about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau throwing shade at the big bad wolf – I mean, Facebook's parent company, Meta. He's all like, "Hey, Meta, stop blocking the news, or I'll give you a timeout!" Apparently, they blocked news for Canadians, and now folks affected by the fires can't find their daily dose of fire-fighting drama. But don't worry, Meta activated an "emergency service," so now you can get your fire updates while you scroll past cat videos. 🐱🔥📰 In conclusion, Kelowna's fire situation is like the wildest party you didn't RSVP for. Buildings are toasting, smoke signals are confusing the sun, and even Meta joined the fray. It's a circus, a carnival, and a marshmallow roast all rolled into one flaming extravaganza! 🎪🔥🍢## #KelownaInferno: A Comedy of Fiery Follies! So, there's this place called Kelowna in British Columbia, and let me tell you, it's been having a real "hot" party lately. Like, the kind of party where even the buildings are getting a taste of the action. 🏠🔥 But don't worry, folks, it's all in good fun, right? Imagine, at least 50 buildings turned into roasted marshmallows in the name of wildfires! Not your regular marshmallow-toasting bonanza, mind you, but a legit wildfire fiesta. 🍢🔥 Officials, the same folks who always seem to crash the party, declared that it's not over yet. They're like the party poopers who tell you the party's still going on even when the chips are burnt. This dude named Jason Brolund, the big cheese of firefighting in West Kelowna, says the worst-hit neighborhoods are yet to reveal their true crispy potential. Picture him saying this with a straight face, while behind him, buildings are playing their sizzling symphony. 🎶🏢🎵 And let's talk about the chaos of trying to assess the aftermath. It's like they're playing a game of "Let's Find the Address" but with melted street signs and destroyed house numbers. Can you imagine firefighters wandering around with Google Maps and Siri, going, "Nope, this is definitely not 123 Fire Lane"? 🗺️🔍 But wait, there's more! The party crashers list includes felled power lines and trees, just to make sure the firefighters have a proper obstacle course. It's like someone combined "American Ninja Warrior" with a barbeque festival. 🌳🔌🍖 So, this whole shindig started on Saturday, and the fire decided to take a chill pill for a change. I guess even wildfires need their beauty sleep, right? 🌬️🔥 And for a full 24 hours, the buildings have been saved from becoming extra-crispy nuggets. Can you hear the sigh of relief from the fire extinguishers? Phew! Chief Brolund, our superhero in this blazing adventure, calls it the "day-to-day grind of firefighting." Yep, because what's more routine than battling flames that want to turn your town into a roasted marshmallow festival? 🦸‍♂️🔥 In other news, British Columbia is like the host of the biggest bonfire bash ever. They've got 380 fires on their RSVP list, and around 30,000 people were politely asked to vacate the premises. That's right, folks, the ultimate game of "Fire or Flee" is in full swing. 🔥🏃‍♀️ And guess what? The firefighters are the real party animals here. Around 500 of them from different places are joining the fight, along with the province's own wildfire superheroes. It's like a "Firefighters United" meetup, except with way more flames. 👨‍🚒🔥👩‍🚒 But wait, the plot thickens! A fancy resort got toasted on the shores of Okanagan Lake. It's like Mother Nature decided to RSVP last minute and brought her own fiery marshmallows. Meanwhile, the city's airport has a "Sorry, we're closed" sign hanging during the day, just to give those water-bombing aircraft and firefighting helicopters some VIP airspace. And here's the kicker – the province's wildfire service claims that the sun's throwing shade thanks to all the smoke. I mean, who knew smoke signals worked on the sun? But hey, that's what you get when you invite hundreds of active fires to the party. The whole province is like, "Can someone turn off the smoke machine, please? It's getting hard to breathe." 🌞🚬 Oh, and there's this other fire, like the rebellious sibling, chilling about 100 miles north of Kelowna. It's like they heard about the marshmallow roast and decided to host their own mini-bonfire. Sibling rivalry at its finest, folks. 🔥👫 Now, let's talk about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau throwing shade at the big bad wolf – I mean, Facebook's parent company, Meta. He's all like, "Hey, Meta, stop blocking the news, or I'll give you a timeout!" Apparently, they blocked news for Canadians, and now folks affected by the fires can't find their daily dose of fire-fighting drama. But don't worry, Meta activated an "emergency service," so now you can get your fire updates while you scroll past cat videos. 🐱🔥📰 In conclusion, Kelowna's fire situation is like the wildest party you didn't RSVP for. Buildings are toasting, smoke signals are confusing the sun, and even Meta joined the fray. It's a circus, a carnival, and a marshmallow roast all rolled into one flaming extravaganza! 🎪🔥🍢 Read the full article

[cosmicjoke]

This just sends me, man. I'm so sick of this.

Well, you said everything that needed to be said @levi-ackerman-ds

People constantly characterize Levi's choice to give Armin the serum as selfish, when it was literally the opposite. It's like the entire surrounding context of that scene just goes completely over their heads. They just flat out ignore it, like it never happened. Like Armin, specifically, wasn't the deciding factor in Levi's choice, when he absolutely, 100%, was. Levi believed in Armin to be the leader humanity needed, and he also knew Erwin was done as a leader. These people never want to acknowledge Erwin's fracturing psyche or overwhelming guilt. Never want to consider the consequences of that on him and his ability to lead, if he'd actually gotten to realize his dream. The comparison between Erwin and Armin is deliberate. The contrast between Erwin's dream having corrupted him and Armin's dream being free of corruption is highlighted specifically to convey why Armin was the right choice for humanity, not Erwin. Levi thinks specifically of the purity in Armin's eyes, the hope of his dream, compared to Erwin's dream, the exhaustion and relief in Erwin's eyes when Levi freed him from it. Why do these people think that deliberate contrast is made in the very panels leading up to Levi's choice? Do they think it's just an accident that Isayama drew those specific panels, in that specific order, and that it has no, actual bearing on how we're meant to interpret that scene? Of course it's meant to be taken into consideration. The continual denial of that is mind blowing to me. We see that deliberate contrast, in that specific moment, because we're meant to understand that Armin is the right choice, because of his purity and ability to let his dream go, while Erwin is the wrong choice, because Erwin's dream had destroyed him, or would have destroyed him, if it had come to fruition, and because he couldn't let it go. The fact it's the moment Erwin, in his delirium, asks his father how he knows humanity doesn't exist beyond the walls, that Levi makes his choice to give Armin the serum, is intentional. Because Levi realizes in that moment that Erwin is still a slave to his dream, and then he thinks of the pure look in Armin's eyes, and realizes the difference between them. That Armin's dream hadn't yet corrupted him. That he still believed in and fought for humanity's future. That he "had the same look in his eyes" as all of Levi's fallen comrades who had died for humanity. That belief in the possibility of a future for humanity. That's the whole point. Armin could do what Erwin was no longer capable of. Erwin was never going to be able to lead again if he had lived, not without becoming a monster. And what path would that have led them down?

Levi understood that, and he understood, because unlike Erwin, Armin wasn't controlled by his dream, he would be able to fill the void left by Erwin and lead humanity toward salvation, not destruction. And again, that plays out in the story. People just don't pay attention. Armin saves humanity, in the end, by being the one to convince Zeke that life is worth living, after all, (something Erwin never would have been able to do) and by negotiating peace between Marley and the Eldian's in the aftermath of the battle. People act like Erwin would have been able to negotiate peace before it ever came to the Rumbling being enacted, which is absurd, because Eren never gave the SC a chance to negotiate peace in the first place. Eren was always going to go through with his plans. It was never about negotiating peace for him. Erwin wouldn't have been able to stop that at all. There's even every chance, given Erwin's extreme guilt, which only would have been exacerbated by the realization of his dream, discovering that he sent all those soldiers to their deaths for nothing but the knowledge that the whole world was their enemy, that Erwin, in his desperation to assuage that guilt by ensuring his soldiers didn't die for nothing, would have gone to extreme and brutal lengths to achieve such. Meaning, as Levi said, he would have had to become a devil. A devil wasn't going to save humanity. A devil was only going to destroy it.

It wasn't selfish of Levi to let Erwin die. He did what was best, both for Erwin and for humanity as a whole.

You’re all right. Mikasa and Levi’s loyalties are different. Mikasa was able to put the world before Eren. Levi thinks Erwin is the greatest hope for humanity yet he still decided to let him rest. Then he clung to the promise he made to Erwin for 4 years. So, Levi put Erwin before the world. Mikasa put the world before Eren. So who’s actually the obsessed one here? Who’s the dog? The selfish one? Certainly not Mikasa yet misogyny dictates so.

What are you talking about? Levi's motivation was for everyone who died in the RtS arc. It was stated in both the anime and manga "for all of you." All of the Scouts who died that day. Not just one person. Did you miss that? Would you like me to hold your hand through it?

It's okay. I missed things first read/watch, too.

[queenwhoneverwasx]

Not me already starting to lose my shit bc of the hotd set leaks. I AM NOT READY TO SEE THAT!!!!!!

They better give both Meleys and Rhaenys the send off they deserve.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Oh I’ve just had a thought about the couch metaphor!!!

So we know that the couch is tied to romantic relationships for Buck, but that it also seems to be tied to familial ones as well. 

Chris being the one to bring up bucks lack of couch, Bucks parents being the ones to buy him his replacement (uncomfortable) couch, Buck falling asleep on the Diaz couch, both Diaz’s falling asleep on the Diaz couch (separately), Eddie not sitting on the couch when he is alone but is talking to Buck etc

We also know that Bucks current couch is the wrong couch - in terms of his romantic relationships. But it is also the wrong couch in terms of familial relationships as well - his parents choosing it for him, not Buck so its representative of Buck not getting to choose the family he was born with - which is why he can’t get comfortable on it before he goes over to Eddies and falls asleep. This is nothing we haven’t already discussed.

But the thing thats occurred to me is; as it seems likely that Kameron’s waters breaking on the couch may play some part in destroying it, that would also be the perfect metaphor for Kameron and Connors family not being the right family for Buck either - the life he helped create not being his family and re-enforcing the idea that DNA doesn’t make a family (double whammy of the Buckley parents and C&K’s Baby not being his family despite sharing DNA) because your family will meet you where you’re at (which also applies to Bucks romantic life but we’re not there yet with him) and that made me think about the fact that bothDiaz’s may comment on Buck not having a couch and that being weird, but they don’t pressure him in to actually replacing it- they just go along with where he’s at. Maddie is the other person - she sits with him on his armchair - symbolic of her meeting him where he’s at as well - she has accepted his reasoning for taking his time choosing a couch because he wan’t to pick the right one.

There is one other aspect in all this - the fact we haven’t seen Buck on the Diaz couch (until 6x12) since the will reveal - we saw him on it a lot in season 4 - playing games with Chris and then sleeping on it when Eddie was in hospital and then anything Diaz house related with buck took place in the dining room, Eddie’s bedroom or half in the kitchen in season 5 (Andrew Meyers I’d like to have a word please because he wrote Chris and Buck on the couch in s4 + suspicion which set up Buck on the couch in 4x14 and then he wrote 6x01 and 6x12 so its likely he is responsible for the whole couch metaphor) and then the first time we see him on that couch again, its in combination with a scene where they actually talk about the shooting - all very telling about whats actually been going on in Bucks head since Eddie ‘Because Evan’d’ Buck - figuring out exactly where he fits in the Diaz family! 

And actually Bucks coma dream and his feeling different in the aftermath all plays into this too - his feeling guilty about Christopher (who he doesn’t refer to by name) and Eddies physical absence - which its implied the Buck has figured out all play into the idea of Buck mentally battling with them being family - the sorry your not real implies that Buck doesn’t believe he’s a father to Chris at this point, but that things start to become clearer in the aftermath - as his math powers fade

So however we see Bucks couch meet its end in 6x18, if we do get to see him end up on the Diaz couch - choose his family - in the end then all those familial metaphors come full circle an that has really been Bucks arc for the season (actually his low key arc since 4x14!)- family and familial love - the thing he needs to feel secure in before he can focus on romantic love.

[blueteller]

TCF Summary Arc by Arc (Part 3/8)

Every TCF story arc in a nutshell

Volume 3: chapters 200-299

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1st Battle – Henituse Territory [Enemy Clopeh wants to fight!] Clopeh: I have an army Cale: We have a necromancer Clopeh: Wait wha- Mary: BONE DRAGON SMASH [Raon used Shield! It's Super Effective!] Cale: Choi Han, I choose you! Clopeh: Wait is that a sword master?? Syrem: Wait is that a dragon?? Cale: Wait is that a dragon slayer?? The Wyvern Brigade: *gets obliterated* [Enemy Syrem Fled the Battle!] [Enemy Clopeh Got Captured!] [You won! You earned High Morale for the Roan Kingdom!] Cale: The shield did not break Everyone: *simp mode levels up* We got a national slogan now *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 6*

2nd Battle – the Ocean Mage & Healer: We're special because we got red stars on our uniforms Cale: B**** please, you don't even get names Mage & Healer: Wait wha- The Fleet: *gets obliterated* [Enemy Syrem Got Captured!] [You won! You earned the unfailing trust of the Roan Kingdom!] *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 7* *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 12*

Aftermath at Roan Kingdom Amiru: So the churches want to burn Mary on a stake Cale: Well f*** them Alberu: And the nobles want to give you a medal Cale: WELL F*** THEM Alberu: *shrugs* Fair enough Cale: Just please let the soldiers eat?? (I am SO hungry! ;_;) Everyone: *deeply touched* C-commander Cale…! Cale: (Surely after the war, everyone will forget about me) Everyone: *simp mode levels up*

Clopeh's Conversion Clopeh: *gets tortured and dis-Armed* (drum roll) Cale: How about you tell me everything you know? Clopeh: *realizes Cale = priest Cale* Clopeh: (I can make a religion out of this) Cale: Now tell your father to surrender Clopeh: Father, this esteemed sir is a god Cale: (WTF???)

Grand Nobles Meeting Nobles: We can't send help to some other country! Think about our positions- I mean, our kingdom's position! Cale's allies: *show up all wearing black* The kingdom is fine Alberu: *also in black* Yes, we even collaborated on the color scheme, aren't we fashionable? Nobles: (...Well s***) Cale: Peace out, b****es

3rd Battle – Caro Kingdom Valentino: *gratitude mode activated* Thank you for coming to help! Cale: *awkward* Adin: Also I'm here Cale: *pissed* The Sun Church: You got a necromancer so you're not qualified for us to help you Cale: (…I'm going to end their whole careers) The Bear Tribe: Fear us, we got dead mana bombs! Valentino: Sun Church, can't you do something?! The Sun Church: But that would like, hurt, so no Valentino: …you have literally ONE JOB. Cale: Well f*** them, your highness. I've got a solution Valentino: What solution...? Cale: Dragon simps The Dark Elves: Look, it's free dead mana! The Bear Tribe: Wait wha- The Bear Tribe: *gets obliterated* Cale: Looks like we're done h- Dragon Half-Blood: *shows up* Gasp! That aura! Are you a dragon?? Cale: (Well f***) [Enemy Dragon Half-Blood Fled the Battle!] [You won! You earned the gratitude of the Caro Kingdom!] *Cale mistaken for a dragon counter: 4* *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 8* *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 13*

Aftermath at Caro Kingdom Cale: Speaking of dragon simps - Pendrick, you're up Pendrick: Huh? Cale: You're the healer now Pendrick: *sweats* O-okay? If the dragon wants me to-? Cale: Wonderful. Valentino, Adin and the Empire made the dead mana bombs. You hungry for some delicious REVENGE? Valentino: *pissed* …Starving. Cale: Perfect. Now I'm off, someone's been messing with my backyard entrance

Expansion to the Eastern Continent Mountain Bandits: *carving a statue out of a 10,000 year old seal* We're the strongest people in town!! Cale's group: *shows up* Bandit Leader: Ha! Look at those weak- Cale: Beacrox Beacrox: With pleasure Beacrox: *beats him up* Cale: You work for us now Mountain Bandits: *terrified* Y-yes sir! Cale: (…What's with them?) And you'll be ruling the Eastern underworld under Ron Mountain Bandits: Huh? Cale: But first we'll be fixing your etiquette Mountain Bandits: HUH? Cale: *starts an inn business* Cale: Why the "Hope and Adventure Loving Inn"...? Cale: ...Because we hope to backstab all the bad guys, and love the adventure of looting them

Going Back to Roan Kingdom Alberu: *headache mode on* Cale, can you please pick up your unruly children from the capital? Cale: …What did you two do? Choi Han & Mary: *picking up fights with dumb nobles* Also Choi Han & Mary: *innocently* Nothing dad! Cale: Whatever. I need to talk to the World Tree again World Tree: Guess what, Raon's mom's OP so Raon's also gonna be very OP Cale: But he's already OP? World Tree: Like, Dragon Lord OP. Cale: I see. …Wait wha- World Tree: *Windows shutdown noises* Cale: Darn it Lock: Young master Cale, I can't go berserk ;_; Cale: Doesn't matter. We're adults, we can't just rely on children to fight for us in battle Raon: ...Really? Cale: Yes, why-? Raon: *enters first Growth Phase* Cale: (Well f***)

4th Battle – the Gorge of Death [Enemy Dragon Half-Blood wants to fight!] Cale: *uses up all of his Fire Suppressing Water* Super Rock: Are you trying to sacrifice yourself Cale: No Super Rock: Are you trying to sacrifice yourself Cale: Maybe...? Super Rock: Are you trying to sacrifice yourself Cale: …Yes Super Rock: Wrong answer Cale: Wait wha- Super Rock: *turns the battle around* Cale: (…So all the stress he gave me for solid 100 chapters was for NOTHING?!?) Dragon Half-Blood: So you're going to kill me now, huh? Cale: Nope. I haven't even unlocked your tragic backstory yet Dragon Half-Blood: …Huh? [Enemy Dragon Half-Blood Got Captured!] [Enemies Flame Dwarves and Bear Tribe also Got Captured!] [You won! You earned the gratitude of the Breck Kingdom!] *Cale's Ancient Power counter: 6* *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 9* *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 14*

Aftermath at the Gorge of Death Eruhaben: So you've used up all your water power and your power plate's broken, which means you have 3 days 'til you explode Cale: Ok Alberu: What's going- Cale: This is Raon, my adopted dragon son Alberu: Huh? Cale: And this is Eruhaben, my adopted dragon grandpa Eruhaben: 'Sup Alberu: Huh?? Cale: Also I'm going to explode in 3 days unless I get a water ancient power Alberu: HUH??? Eruhaben: Luckily I know where it is Cale: Sure let's go Alberu: *headache mode on* (That bastard… I'll get him for this)

Fixing Up Cale's Plate Cale: *fights a lake* [Water Ancient Power: Sky Eating Water, acquired!] Cale: Great, that means I'm healed, right? The Ancient Powers: Uh, about that… Cale: Son of a-! *pukes blood and hurts like crazy* Cale: (…At least my friends aren't here to-) Cale's group: *sees everything through video-call* Cale: (Well f***) Cale's group: *casually destroys several palaces out of frustration* Cale: (…I don't even wanna know) *Cale's Ancient Power counter: 7* *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 10* *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 15*

Rebellion in the Empire Plot – Begin! Roan Kingdom: *wins the war* The Empire: *declares war against the Whipper Kingdom* Roan Kingdom's Alliance: (You, sir, just made a big miscalculation) Cale: *masterfully plotting a bloodless rebellion*

Back to the Eastern Continent Cale: Time for some peace and justice Choi Han: *confusion* Cale: …I mean time to mess with Arm Choi Han: Oh, are we looting them again? Cale: Close, but not quite Some Corrupted Guild: (I just wish a Dragon showed up and ripped all those Arm bastards to shreds!) Cale's group: *shows up* Some Corrupted Guild: Who are you?! Choi Han: We. Are. The. Real. Arm! Cale: *facepalm* Cale's group: *loots corrupted Guilds and sets them all up against Arm* Eruhaben: So what will you do with the slowly dying, 900-year-old, homicidal Dragon Half-Blood that you've captured? Cale: Put him on cleaning duty, obviously Dragon Half-Blood: …Huh?? Eruhaben: Sounds reasonable. And what are you going to do next? Cale: Throw some money away Eruhaben: You mean, like on alcohol or-? Cale: *literally burns a ton of money* Eruhaben: … Eruhaben: I'm too old for this Cale: *laughs in Rich* [Fire of Destruction Fortification, acquired!] *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 16*

Back to Whipper Kingdom Cale: *menacingly* Do you wish to live? Flame Dwarves: *terrified* Y-yes…? Cale: (…What's with them?) Great. You're awesome craftsmen, make us some firebirds Flame Dwarves: *respect mode activated* Cale: Do you also wish to live? Bear Tribe: We sure do Cale: (Big bait will sure work out great) Excellent. Toonka: FRIEND!!! Cale: (…not really?) Toonka: *pissed but helpless* Our bastard of a King wants to sell out 100,000 citizens as slaves to the Empire just to save his own skin Cale: …So what's the problem? Toonka: Huh? Cale: *totally-not-being-a-friend* Bro. Just do your thing. I got ya back Toonka: !!! Toonka: *smashes through the door* OBJECTION! Cale: …you could have spared the door tho *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 17*

5th Battle – Whipper Kingdom VS Mogoru Empire [Enemy Huten wants to fight!] Cale: *priest mode on* The Empire: Ha! There's no way those weaklings can stand in our wa- Flame Dwarves: *send firebirds out* Cale: *sets the battlefield on fire* The Empire: Wait wha- The Empire: *gets obliterated* [Enemy Huten Got Captured!] [You won! You earned the gratitude of the Whipper Kingdom!] [Congratulations! You did not bleed or faint this time!!] *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 18*

Working with the Empire – an Among Us Playthrough Cale & Alberu: *Impostor mode on* Adin: (That priest in Navigation… Cale is kinda sus) Alberu: *shows the video of Cale puking blood* It can't be Cale, I was there at the Med Scan with him. He's super fragile right now Cale: That's right. I'm of very fragile health Adin: Oh no, our poor hero… (Score! He's totally dying!) Cale: Yes. But since I'm a hero, I'll still be helping Adin: We're so grateful! (I hope he coughs a lot of blood) Cale: *puts out his own fire* Cale: (Oh how nice, no blood!) The Ancient Powers: Uh, about that… Cale: Son of a-! *coughs rivers of blood* *Cale coughs blood and/or faints counter: 11* *Cale & Co. blow up and/or destroy things counter: 19*

End Volume 3.

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