#that’s why I gave him a starring role in my lore

[ghoulfriendfangs]

It is kind of funny to me that Lucio is a comfort character to me but in my oc lore I made him actually even worse and meaner than in canon

Your honor I’m not guilty of being a hater I love my blorbo I just love drama even more. It’s essential to the lore that he is partially responsible for the death of my oc’s family and that he broke their little heart.

[jellitchi]

vat7k designs in my head...

i thought their canon designs were a eensy weensy bit Unpolished so i made these mostly for myself. erm if u rly want it i think varian is 19 here, hugo 19, nuru 18, yong 12.

i also made rhem all playlists and had to draw them a cover so thats what the last img is I linked each of em under my notes for all of em... Under the cut is Like a Huge Infodump of notes i have for each chara,,,,,,

i kept varians design basically the same, i dislike the design w the orange neck thing so i just Nuked it😭... Here's Varians playlist

Hugos design i just wanted to put him in something more Loose. hes a thief, a professional escape artist. i dont think wearing clunky metal is ideal for him. i also gave him a prosthetic arm (blond w no arm design trope!) but u cant see it in the ref so i added another drawing of him in his under layering👍 i vaguely referenced russian(?) clothes for him as well... Yeah not too much changed w him i just tried to make him slippery-er. Here's Hugo's playlist

yong came relatively easy to me, if it wasn't obvious i did rip gaming from g*nshin's hoodie. i thought the lion hood was Adorable and freaking perfect for what i had in mind for hos character. since the og notes said the fire kingdom is loosely Chinese inspired i basically just kept that. i mashed tgt a buncha diff dynasties though sorry for how inconsistent i was... i think he looks Okay. anyways i changed yongs role a bit, ill explain why im adjusting some of their roles later but i kept yong as the Jinx Type character. hes the eldest in his family and has a buncha younger siblings, hes a lion dancer and does performances w his family/siblings. he rly like special effects n keeps tryna incorporate his fireworks into their performances (it flops and he has to sew up the dmg) ill explain more of yongs role in another post maybe shrugs... Here's Yong's Playlist

miss nuru was a bit of a struggle for me i might share my full design process with her coz i did a Bunch of mockups for her😭😭😭... i didnt have a specific country of reference for her but i chose to make her vaguely south asian inspired. i also really wanted to keep the sheer fabric w the star / constellation map. i love that idea its so cute so shes still technically the navigator. but she also wields a sword too, fencing or whatever. (her and varian r Huge Cass fangirls which is probably why she started tryna use a sword (snuck out to watch cass compete) Okay ill talk abt this later) in my head, okay ill Probably make a whole nother post talking abt how im interpreting/writing each chara, but in my head i think nuru is the youngest and her kingdom's archivist. shes mostly in charge of like Her kingdoms history / artifacts / etc. ok im getting too side tracked ill save the lore dump for later but thats Nurus role in the party. Here's Nuru's Playlist

uhm below i made their character stats mostly to help me with planning / role developing. the yellow is their base stats the color behind is their end stats i guess. i was gonna explain my reasoning for their stats but ermm this post is kinda Really long so sorry😭... varian max int for obvious reasons, also max charisma just coz i feel like u kinda learn a thing or two being around a couple manipulators and spending time in jail idk shrugs... (also lets not forget the "ud b surprised what ppl would do for a cookie!") Hugo slippery guy, if a brick is thrown at him as hes running hes gonna try n run faster to shatter it, his mindset is Run Run Run! i think hes relatively agile too but yeah mostly a Speedster. i think he n varian got no Physical strength varian maybe just like A little coz Farm boy but I rly doubt quirin is making him do a Lotta heavy lifting. yong has incredible stamina and agility because hed a performer. nuru is the strongest coz this team would literally Flop without a proper Offense😭... i think varian n hugo r able to outwit plenty of their opponents but i think nuru is pretty good in a fight, same w yong. Yeah Okay Sorry for a Long Long Post thanks hope u guys enjoy

[novaursa]

Of Gods and Men (contact)

This is Dune/GOT/HOTD/FAB/ASOIAF crossover AU that you've voted for. If you always wanted to see House Targaryen in space, I got you. Please note how some of the lore of both universes is bent to blend in both worlds. This is my original idea that I've been cooking for at least two years. Be gentle with my work, and enjoy the ride.

- Summary: House Targaryen survives their ancient exile after being overthrown by House Corrino and the Bene Gesserit. Fleeing to the unknown planet Albiron, the Targaryens build a hidden civilization powered by drakaon crystals, reviving their dragons and creating advanced technology. Millennia later, whispers of their survival begin to surface as the Bene Gesserit confront a mysterious Red Woman on Arrakis, who warns of a coming Prince That Was Promised destined to challenge their control. The Targaryens secretly prepare to return, ready to reclaim their legacy.

- Paring: reader!Daenys Targaryen/Leto Atredies

- Note: For more details about House Targaryen and their technology, please check out the masterlist.

- Rating: Mature 16+

- Previous part: exodus

- Next part: daenys

- Tag(s): @sachaa-ff @alyssa-dayne @oxymakestheworldgoround

- A/N: The reader will have much more larger role in the next part as plot is established better.

The transport starship of House Vex shuddered as it emerged from the shimmering folds of space, settling into the cold, dark void at the exact coordinates it always did. This part of the unknown universe was rarely traveled, its stars dim and uncharted, hidden far beyond the grasp of the Imperium’s prying eyes. The black and sleek ship, known as Vassel's Edge, gleamed under the faint light of distant stars, its wing-like solar collectors retracted as it prepared for its next stage of the journey.

Captain Harl Vex, a stout man with sharp green eyes and a graying beard, stood at the helm, his fingers tapping methodically on the command console as he surveyed the coordinates. This route was familiar to him, yet today something felt different. His ship was not carrying its usual crew; today, several guests from House Ix were aboard, their curiosity piqued by the mysterious buyer House Vex delivered to.

Harl glanced over his shoulder to where the members of House Ix were seated—three of them, watching the starfield with a mix of intrigue and impatience. The leader of the group was Serus Ix, a tall, thin man with cold blue eyes and a keen intellect that had earned him a reputation as one of the finest minds in his House. Beside him sat Xyla Ix, his younger sister, who shared her brother’s sharp features but had a more cautious demeanor. Lastly, there was Daric Ix, an engineer known for his fascination with all things technological, his mind always whirring with possibilities.

“Coordinates confirmed,” Harl muttered under his breath as the ship's scanners hummed to life. “Now, we wait.”

As if on cue, the space before them flickered, and a green light began to sweep over the ship. The Ixians exchanged glances as the green light pulsed along the ship’s exterior, scanning it methodically from bow to stern.

“What is that?” Daric asked, his curiosity piqued as he leaned forward. “Some sort of advanced scanning technology?”

Captain Vex glanced at him but continued monitoring the readouts. “Precautionary measure,” he said calmly. “From the station where we’ll be delivering the spice. They’re very particular about security, especially with the type of cargo we’re carrying.”

Serus leaned in, his eyes narrowing. “Station? I thought we were meeting a buyer directly. Why all this secrecy?”

Harl gave a thin smile, knowing better than to reveal too much to his guests. “That’s how things are done out here, Serus. House Hightower controls the sentinel stations in this part of space. They keep watch for intruders. We deliver the spice there, and it’s transported elsewhere. And today…” He turned to face Serus fully. “…the mysterious buyer has agreed to meet with you, as per our arrangement.”

Before Serus could press further, the comms crackled to life.

“Vassel’s Edge, you are cleared for docking,” came the calm, authoritative voice of the station commander. “Proceed to docking bay three. You have passengers aboard from House Ix?”

Harl nodded, toggling the comms. “Confirmed. House Ix representatives are aboard, as agreed.”

There was a brief pause before the commander’s voice returned. “They will be escorted to the meeting hall upon arrival. Follow docking instructions precisely.”

The communication ended abruptly, and Harl guided the ship forward, feeling the slight pull of the station’s gravity field as they neared the massive structure. The sentinel station loomed ahead, a dark silhouette against the backdrop of stars. Its angular design was distinct, built for both defense and secrecy, with long spires extending outward, each armed with powerful weapons and sensors capable of detecting any intruder who dared approach this part of space uninvited.

The docking process was smooth, as it had been many times before for Harl. The massive bay doors of the station slid open, revealing the illuminated interior where several other ships, all smaller and less significant than Vassel’s Edge, were docked. The ship glided in silently, its wings folding back as it gently touched down on the docking platform.

As soon as the docking clamps secured the ship, the bay doors sealed shut behind them, and the interior lights of the station grew brighter. The docking platform was already bustling with activity—station personnel moving about, preparing for the next phase of the spice transfer. But amidst the commotion, a group of armored guards stood waiting by the entrance to the station’s inner corridors.

Captain Vex stood and turned to the Ixians. “This is where we part ways for now. The commander will escort you to the meeting hall. I suggest you tread lightly—our hosts are not known for their patience.”

Serus, Xyla, and Daric rose from their seats, adjusting their formal House Ix attire. “We can handle ourselves,” Serus said coolly, though his eyes betrayed a flicker of uncertainty.

The group exited the ship together, stepping down the ramp onto the station floor. The guards were waiting for them, each clad in dark, matte armor that seemed to absorb the station’s artificial light. Their helmets were faceless, their identities concealed, but their presence alone was enough to signal the station’s seriousness about security.

“Welcome to Sentinel Station,” one of the guards said, his voice distorted slightly by the helmet’s modulator. “Follow us. The meeting will begin shortly.”

Without another word, the guards turned and led the group down a long, sterile corridor that wound through the heart of the station. The walls were smooth and metallic, illuminated by thin strips of white light that cast long shadows as they walked. The air was cool, almost too cool, and there was an unsettling quiet that settled over the group as they moved deeper into the station.

As they walked, Daric couldn’t help but whisper to his sister, “This place feels…off. Like there’s something they’re not telling us.”

Xyla gave a subtle nod but kept her gaze forward. “Keep your thoughts to yourself, Daric. We’re guests here, not investigators.”

Serus remained silent, his mind turning over the possibilities of what they might encounter. The technology they had seen so far—advanced scanners, cloaked guards, and now this hidden sentinel station—was far beyond what they had imagined. Whoever this mysterious buyer was, they were clearly operating on a level House Ix had not yet attained. And that intrigued him more than anything.

Finally, they reached a large, reinforced door at the end of the corridor. One of the guards stepped forward and keyed in a code, and with a soft hiss, the door slid open, revealing a dimly lit meeting hall. The room was circular, with a wide table at its center and chairs arranged neatly around it. The air here felt different—charged, as if something unseen was watching them.

As they entered, Serus glanced around, his sharp eyes scanning the room. “Where is our host?”

Before anyone could answer, a new voice echoed from the shadows at the far end of the room.

“Patience, Serus Ix. All will be revealed in time.”

The Ixians turned as a figure emerged from the darkness—a tall, slender man with sharp features and piercing eyes that seemed to glow faintly in the low light. He was dressed in dark robes that shimmered like liquid, and though he moved with grace, there was an unmistakable air of authority about him.

Serus stepped forward, his curiosity now fully piqued. “And who might you be?”

The man smiled, though it did not reach his eyes. “I am simply a representative of the one you seek. And today, we shall discuss matters of great importance. Matters that will shape the future of your House…and perhaps the galaxy itself.”

Serus, Xyla, and Daric exchanged silent, uneasy glances as the figure before them—the one who had introduced himself as their host’s representative—lingered in the shadows. But something else caught Daric’s eye.

In the far corner of the room, barely visible in the low light, a creature crouched silently, watching them with glowing yellow eyes. Its body was massive, covered in thick, jagged plates of rock-like exoskeleton. Its breath was slow, rumbling, almost volcanic in nature. Daric stiffened, recognizing the creature from his brief studies on unknown ecosystems. It was a Volcanic Stalker, one of the creatures rumored to inhabit remote planets in uncharted territories. The beast’s eyes locked onto him, unblinking and watchful.

Xyla noticed it next, her hand reflexively inching toward her belt where a concealed blade rested. But before either of them could act, the man from the shadows spoke again, his voice calm, almost amused.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a hint of a smirk. “It doesn’t bite—unless commanded.” He stepped fully into the light, revealing more of his features: dark, sharp eyes, and long silver hair tied back in a neat braid. His presence was both regal and intimidating, every movement deliberate. “I am Vaegor, Master of Whispers for House Targaryen. You’ve been brought here to discuss matters that transcend your understanding, but first, sit. We have much to discuss.”

As the Ixians sat, the doors to the chamber opened with a soft hiss, and four figures entered the room. Serus, Daric, and Xyla turned to see who approached, and their breath collectively caught in their throats.

Leading them was Dragonlord Aenys Targaryen—a figure of unmistakable authority. He was tall and broad-shouldered, his regal face framed by long silver-blond hair, eyes a deep violet that seemed to glow with the intensity of one who commanded dragons. His presence filled the room with palpable power, his black robes embroidered with a subtle red three-headed dragon, the sigil of his House. His gaze was calm but fierce, the weight of centuries of tradition behind him. He moved with the grace of someone who had nothing to fear.

Behind him were his three children. First, his eldest son Aelor Targaryen, a young man with strong, chiseled features. He shared his father’s silver-blond hair, but his eyes were darker, like polished amethyst. He wore armor under his cloak, displaying his role as both prince and warrior, his expression cold and unreadable.

Next was Maelor, the younger brother. His resemblance to Aenys was striking—almost identical in appearance except for a faint scar that crossed his left brow, a mark of some past battle. His lilac eyes scanned the room with a playful glint, though his presence was no less commanding. His movements were more fluid, almost casual, yet there was an undeniable danger lurking beneath his calm demeanor.

And finally, you, Daenys Targaryen, Maelor's twin. Your pale blonde hair framed a regal face that bore the marks of your father’s lineage, though it was softened by a scattering of freckles across your cheeks. Your eyes were lilac, like your twin brother’s, but there was a depth to them that seemed to flicker with fire, as if the very soul of a dragon rested within. You were dressed in dark, flowing garments embroidered with symbols of your House, and you carried yourself with the grace of someone who spent more time on dragonback than on land.

Vaegor’s voice broke the silence, gesturing toward the newcomers. “May I present Dragonlord Aenys Targaryen, and his children: Aelor, Maelor, and Daenys.”

At the mention of the name Targaryen, the Ixians immediately stiffened. Serus, who had been the most composed, shot up from his chair, his face a mixture of shock and disbelief. His hand instinctively reached for a weapon that wasn’t there.

“House Targaryen?” Serus blurted out, his eyes darting between the four figures. “Impossible. You—you’re supposed to be—”

“Sit,” Aenys commanded, his voice cutting through the air like a blade. It wasn’t a shout, but the sheer authority behind the word was enough to make Serus’s knees buckle. He slumped back into his chair, unable to defy the Dragonlord’s presence. The room fell deathly silent, the tension thick enough to choke on.

Aenys’s violet gaze lingered on Serus for a moment longer before he slowly took his seat at the head of the table, his children standing behind him, their expressions unchanging. He leaned forward, fingers steepled beneath his chin, as he addressed the Ixians.

“I believe you called this meeting to negotiate an exchange,” Aenys said, his voice measured, cold, and powerful. “You seek our technology, and in return, I wish to know—what do you offer?”

Serus, still visibly shaken, struggled to regain his composure. Xyla, quicker to adapt, took over, her voice steady despite the tension. “We… we offer you more spice, the strain your House has required in the past. We can increase the quantity and—”

Aenys waved his hand dismissively. “We have no shortage of spice,” he said. “What you fail to realize, Ixian, is that on this side of the universe, spice is not the driving force behind power. We care little for your melange beyond its limited use. Now…” His voice darkened slightly, “I suggest you rethink your offer.”

Xyla faltered, unsure of how to proceed, but Serus quickly interjected, trying to salvage the negotiation. “Perhaps, then, we could offer something more… lasting. A mutual exchange of knowledge. We control a harvesting field on Arrakis—one with access to the specific strain of spice you seek. We can offer you independent access to it, so your House may harvest the spice for your needs without reliance on intermediaries.”

Aenys’s eyes narrowed slightly, and a smile—more predatory than pleased—touched his lips. “Interesting. It seems you understand your position well, Serus Ix. You’re desperate, I see, but clever.”

Vaegor, the Master of Whispers, stepped forward, pulling out a piece of parchment from his robes and placing it before Aenys. The Dragonlord signed it with a flourish and then slid it across the table to the Ixians. Xyla’s breath hitched as her eyes fell on the parchment. In the corner of the document was the unmistakable seal of House Targaryen—a three-headed dragon in red wax, sealing the agreement.

Aenys leaned back in his chair, his gaze still fixed on Serus. “You will deliver this agreement to your Emperor,” Aenys said, his voice soft but laced with an unmistakable threat. “And let it serve as a warning to him. House Targaryen has returned, and the things to come will make even the most powerful Houses of the Imperium tremble.”

Serus, his heart pounding in his chest, nodded stiffly, unable to tear his eyes from Aenys’s cold, violet stare.

As the Ixians gathered their things, preparing to leave, one thought echoed in their minds: House Targaryen, the House thought to be destroyed millennia ago, was not only alive—they were stronger than ever. And they were preparing for something that could change the balance of power in the galaxy forever.

The grand chamber of the Imperial Palace on Kaitain, with its towering columns of polished marble and intricately woven tapestries, was unusually quiet. Normally bustling with courtiers, representatives from the Landsraad, and the Emperor’s various advisors, today it was a scene of growing anticipation. Serus Ix, along with his House delegation, stood before the Emperor himself, flanked by the shadowy figures of the Spacing Guild’s representatives.

Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV sat upon his gilded throne, his expression unreadable as he held the parchment in his hands. His elaborate robes, adorned with the finest silks and jewels, did nothing to soften the cold fury building in his gaze as he scanned the document. The Imperial Court had never been known for warmth, but today annoyance in the room was well felt.

Serus shifted his weight uneasily. He had delivered the parchment just as instructed, but now that it was in the Emperor’s hands, the weight of what he had seen on that distant sentinel station seemed heavier than ever. The Targaryens—an extinct House by all accounts—were not only alive, but they were thriving, powerful enough to conduct negotiations that would change the galaxy. And now, the Emperor was reading their terms.

As Shaddam’s eyes reached the bottom of the parchment, they landed on the seal—the unmistakable sigil of House Targaryen: a red three-headed dragon imprinted in wax. His expression darkened, and the room seemed to grow colder.

Shaddam’s gaze snapped up, fixing Serus with a piercing look that seemed to burn through his very soul. “Is this a joke?” the Emperor asked, his voice low and deadly, laced with disbelief and a simmering rage. “You bring me this? An artifact of some long-dead House? Have you lost your mind, Serus?”

Serus straightened, trying to steady his voice. “It is no joke, Your Majesty. I saw them with my own eyes. I spoke to the Dragonlord himself, Aenys Targaryen, and his children. They are very much alive. They control a strain of spice unlike anything we’ve encountered—”

Shaddam stood abruptly, his robes billowing as he stepped down from the dais, his face mere inches from Serus’s now. “And you claim to have made a bargain with them? With ghosts? With the very House that once tried to challenge the rule of House Corrino?”

Serus swallowed hard, his mind racing. “Yes, Your Majesty. House Targaryen is no ghost. They’ve remained hidden in the unknown regions of space, and they have advanced far beyond what we could have imagined. They agreed to terms—”

“Terms!” Shaddam interrupted, his voice echoing through the chamber. “They have no right to terms.”

The Emperor’s fingers tightened around the parchment before he thrust it toward the nearest representative of the Spacing Guild, a tall, pale figure with a cloak that seemed to shimmer unnaturally in the dim light. The Guild Navigator, whose face was obscured by the folds of his robe, took the document without a word, but the air around him seemed to shift as he examined the seal.

For a long, tense moment, the chamber was silent as the Navigator carefully inspected the parchment. Then, slowly, the Guild representative turned his head slightly, his voice a low rasp. “This sigil…is authentic.”

A murmur rippled through the chamber, but Shaddam silenced it with a single gesture. His fury had turned to cold calculation now, his eyes narrowing as he looked back at Serus.

“You claim to have spoken to this Dragonlord,” Shaddam said, his voice calmer but no less dangerous. “And you saw his…children?”

Serus nodded quickly. “Yes, Your Majesty. They are powerful, and they are not afraid to make their presence known. They have offered House Ix a chance to share in their technology in exchange for exclusive rights to a specific spice field under our jurisdiction on Arrakis.”

Shaddam's eyes darkened further as he processed this. His mind was already calculating the implications of this revelation. House Ix, aligned with a surviving Targaryen faction—this was more than just a political inconvenience. This was a threat to his rule, and to the entire balance of power in the Imperium.

He turned sharply to Serus. “You and your House will not speak of this to anyone,” Shaddam commanded, his voice brokering no argument. “Not to the Landsraad, not to the Spacing Guild, and certainly not to the Bene Gesserit. This stays between us until we confirm the validity of these claims and until this…danger is contained.”

Serus hesitated for a moment but then bowed low, his heart racing. “As you command, Your Majesty.”

But as he straightened, his mind was already working. The Targaryens had offered something far more valuable than the spice itself—knowledge, power, and a chance to align with a force that could potentially rival even House Corrino. If what Serus had seen was real, the balance of the entire galaxy could shift. And he knew one thing for certain: whichever side he chose in this coming storm would determine the future of House Ix.

The Emperor, meanwhile, turned to the Guild representatives. “You will investigate the location of this spice field. I want every detail. If there’s any truth to what Serus claims, we cannot let this go unchecked.”

The Navigator’s cloaked head dipped in acknowledgment, though the inscrutable expression behind the robes remained hidden. “We will investigate, Your Majesty. But be warned… if House Targaryen has indeed returned, they may not be as easy to contain as you think.”

Shaddam’s jaw tightened at the Navigator’s words, but he gave no reply. Instead, he turned back to Serus, his gaze sharp and unyielding. “You are dismissed, Serus Ix. You and your House are now bound to this silence. Fail to obey, and the consequences will be severe.”

Serus bowed once more, backing out of the room as the Emperor’s gaze followed him, cold and threatening. The doors to the chamber shut behind him, but Serus’s mind was already far from the gilded halls of Kaitain.

As he stepped into the shadowed corridors of the palace, Serus felt the weight of his decision pressing down on him. On one hand, obedience to the Emperor. On the other, the potential alliance with the most powerful House the galaxy had never forgotten—House Targaryen, reborn in exile.

For the first time, Serus truly understood the danger that lay ahead. But his mind, ever pragmatic, began to turn toward the future. The Emperor could issue his orders, and the Guild could investigate all they liked. But once dragons returned to the stars, no command from Kaitain would be able to stop them.

And Serus Ix would need to decide—whether to stand with the crumbling Empire of Shaddam Corrino or to pledge his allegiance to the rising flame of House Targaryen.

For in the coming war, neutrality was not an option.

The icy winds of Arctis howled across the desolate expanse of the frozen planet, biting through even the most advanced thermal suits of the Atreides forces as they huddled in the shelter of a hastily constructed outpost. The sky above was a constant swirling gray, the heavy clouds thick with snow, casting an eternal twilight over the ice-covered landscape. This world was a brutal, inhospitable place—its temperatures always well below freezing—but it was also strategically vital. Positioned at the very fringe of Atreides territory, it served as a critical point of control in the ongoing struggle between House Atreides and their bitter rivals, the Harkonnens.

Duke Leto Atreides stood at the edge of the outpost’s overlook, his cloak flapping in the wind as he stared out across the snowy plains. His breath formed faint clouds of vapor in the frozen air, but his gaze was steady, focused. This was not the first time the Harkonnens had made a move in contested space, but something about this situation felt different. Strange. And it concerned him.

Duncan Idaho, his most trusted swordmaster, approached from behind, his footsteps crunching in the snow. “My Lord,” Duncan said, his tone quiet but urgent. “Our scouts have confirmed Harkonnen forces are moving deeper into the eastern sector. We’ve also detected strange activity near their base. It’s… divided their attention.”

Leto turned, his expression darkening. “What kind of activity?”

Duncan glanced toward the tactical console set up inside the shelter. “Unknown, my Lord. But it’s enough to pull Harkonnen resources away from their main defense. They’re not focused entirely on us.”

The Duke’s brow furrowed as he considered this. “They’re being distracted?”

“More than that,” came a gruff voice from behind them. Gurney Halleck, Leto’s loyal warmaster, approached, his scarred face creased with concern. “We’ve picked up starship signatures entering and leaving Arctis’s orbit—unknown ships. Our sensors can’t get a clear reading, almost as if they’re cloaked by some kind of technology or interference. The planet’s extreme conditions are messing with our equipment, but it’s more than just the cold.”

Leto’s eyes narrowed. “Cloaked ships?”

“Or something close to it,” Gurney replied grimly. “Hawat is already analyzing what we’ve got, but he says whatever’s happening here is beyond what either the Harkonnens or we have access to. This is something… different.”

Thufir Hawat, Leto’s master of assassins and the greatest Mentat in the Imperium, stood nearby, watching the exchange with his cold, calculating eyes. His mind worked faster than most, and he had already drawn several conclusions before any of them had finished speaking.

“We don’t have much data,” Hawat said, his voice clipped, efficient. “But we know this: someone else is playing in this frozen field, and they don’t want to be found. They’ve drawn the Harkonnens’ attention, but we’re not immune to the consequences of whatever game they’re playing. The unknown activity is concentrated near the Harkonnen base, but it’s close enough to our location that it could interfere with our operations.”

Leto’s expression hardened. The cold winds of Arctis might have frozen the planet, but the battle for control here was heating up. The Harkonnens had escalated their presence on Arctis, no doubt hoping to force a confrontation, and now it seemed they weren’t alone in their schemes. The unknown starship signatures added another layer of complexity to an already volatile situation.

“If the Harkonnens are distracted,” Leto said, “this might be our best chance to strike before they consolidate their forces. But we can’t ignore this other activity.”

He looked to Duncan and Gurney. “We’ll investigate both—whatever the Harkonnens are doing, and this unknown presence. I want answers before we engage in a full-scale confrontation.”

Duncan nodded. “We have a tactical advantage if they’re divided, my Lord. If we move quickly, we can investigate the source of these unknown ships and the activity near their base without drawing their full attention.”

“I agree,” Gurney added, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade. “But we need to be careful. Whoever’s out there isn’t playing by the same rules. They’ve got technology that’s far beyond what we’ve seen, and if they’re operating here, it means they’re invested in this conflict. We don’t know what they want yet.”

Leto paced for a moment, weighing the risks. The cold bite of the wind and the ever-present tension between the Atreides and Harkonnen forces swirled in his mind, but there was something deeper gnawing at him—this unknown factor. The possibility that a third party was manipulating the situation couldn’t be ignored.

He stopped and turned to face his men. “We can’t wait for the Harkonnens to make the first move. Duncan, Gurney, prepare the men. We’ll send strike teams—one to probe the Harkonnen base and watch for retaliation and the other to investigate the unknown activity. We’ll hit both targets simultaneously and find out what’s happening here.”

Hawat stepped forward, his voice calm but firm. “I’ll oversee the scouting of the unknown presence. If there’s a larger plot at work, I’ll find it.”

Leto nodded, his decision made. “We move at dawn. Prepare the forces. We’ll take control of this planet, but we’ll do it on our terms.”

Duncan, Gurney, and Hawat all gave sharp nods before turning to leave, their tasks clear. As they walked away, Leto stood alone for a moment, staring out at the endless white expanse of Arctis. The wind howled louder, and in the distance, he could see the faint glimmers of movement—Harkonnen forces, just on the horizon.

But beyond them, there was something else. Something hidden. Something dangerous.

As Duke Leto turned back toward the outpost, preparing for the battle ahead, one thought kept echoing in his mind: the Harkonnens weren’t the only threat on this frozen world.

And whatever this unknown presence was, it could change the balance of power in the galaxy.

He only hoped they were ready for what they would find.

The winds of Arctis were relentless the next morning, cutting through the layers of thermal gear worn by Duke Leto and his elite soldiers as they pressed forward into the endless snowfields. The cold was so biting it seemed to seep into their bones, but the Atreides were disciplined, their determination unwavering despite the planet's hostile environment. The icy terrain crunched underfoot as they made their way deeper into the region where the strange activity had been detected.

Duncan Idaho had split off with a squadron to the east, tasked with probing the Harkonnen base and the surrounding areas, while Gurney Halleck led another group to the west, scouting for potential ambushes. Leto had remained with Thufir Hawat, the Mentat whose abilities made him invaluable for solving the riddles of this mysterious situation. Their own squad of Atreides soldiers—veterans of countless engagements—moved like shadows in the frozen landscape, their black and green armor stark against the white snow.

As they pressed on, one of Leto’s men, Sergeant Kellor, held up his hand, signaling for a halt. His visor was scanning the horizon, his breath clouding in the freezing air.

"Sir," Kellor said, his voice crackling over the comms. "We’ve picked up a strange communication frequency. It's intermittent, but definitely coming from somewhere nearby. We can’t make heads or tails of the language used, though. The computer’s unable to translate it."

Leto's brow furrowed as he glanced at Hawat, who had moved closer, his analytical mind already at work. "Play it," Leto ordered, his voice calm but with an edge of curiosity.

Kellor nodded and tapped a few commands into his handheld device. The crackling static of the transmission cleared for a moment, and then a strange, melodic language filled the airwaves, harsh yet flowing, each word clipped yet carrying an odd rhythm. The sound was like nothing Leto had heard before—alien, otherworldly.

The Duke exchanged a glance with Hawat, who remained silent as he listened carefully, his sharp eyes narrowing as he absorbed the unfamiliar cadence. The rest of the soldiers stood quietly, their faces tense with confusion as they waited for Hawat’s assessment.

After a moment, Hawat shook his head, still staring at the ground as if deep in thought. "This… this is unlike anything I've encountered," he said, his voice quiet, as though admitting the strangeness was something unnatural for a Mentat. "I've processed hundreds of languages, dialects, and communication codes—this doesn’t match any known language or communication in the Imperial database."

Leto frowned, feeling the weight of the moment. "Are you saying the language is alien in nature, Thufir?"

Hawat looked up, the cold wind making his aged features appear even more severe. "I can’t say for sure, my Lord," he replied carefully. "But this language isn’t recorded in any of the archives I’ve accessed, not even in obscure historical records. If it's from the known universe, it has evaded detection for centuries. It could be something ancient… or it could be something entirely unknown."

Leto's eyes flickered with unease. "Could it be something the Harkonnens are involved with? Perhaps they’ve found some way to mask their communications."

Hawat's lips pressed into a thin line, calculating. "Possible, but unlikely. Even the Harkonnens don’t have the capability to create an entirely new language that doesn’t register in the databases. They might be brutal, but they’re not that subtle."

Leto folded his arms across his chest, looking out over the icy landscape as the strange transmission continued to play softly in the background. The language—though unrecognizable—held a sense of power, a kind of ancient authority that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. What was happening on Arctis? Who—or what—was behind this?

Before Leto could respond, the communication channel crackled again, this time shifting to a frequency they recognized all too well: the harsh, guttural tones of Harkonnen comms.

A voice came through, cold and authoritative, instantly recognizable. It was Feyd-Rautha, the sadistic nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and heir to the Harkonnen dynasty.

"All units, this is Feyd-Rautha," his voice came through the comms, clear despite the interference. "We’ve detected Atreides forces in the region. Press forward and engage them if they approach. Do not let them interfere with the operation. Prepare artillery in the ravine and set an ambush. I want her captured alive. No mistakes."

Leto’s head snapped toward the comm device. "Her?" he repeated under his breath, exchanging a puzzled glance with Hawat.

Hawat’s keen mind was already racing, analyzing the situation. "Whoever this 'her' is, it seems important enough for Feyd-Rautha to mention specifically. And they’re setting an ambush, expecting her to fall into it."

Leto's face hardened. "Who could they be after? We haven't received any reports of an allied presence here, and no one outside House Atreides should be involved in this sector."

Hawat nodded thoughtfully. "It’s possible the unknown presence we've been detecting is their target. They could be focusing on this other entity—whoever or whatever it is—and they’re trying to capture it alive. This would explain why their attention has been divided between us and this unknown activity."

Leto ran a hand through his hair, his mind racing. Between the mysterious language, cloaked starships, and now a Harkonnen ambush set for an unidentified target, things were growing more complex by the minute. This was no longer just a skirmish for control of Arctis—it was a web of intrigues with more than two players. The unknown ships that had evaded detection, the strange communications in an unrecognizable language, and now the Harkonnen pursuit of someone—or something—they wanted alive.

Leto turned to his men, his voice steady and commanding. "We proceed as planned. We’ll investigate the source of the unknown activity first and gather more intel before engaging the Harkonnen forces. Be prepared for anything—we don’t know who or what we’re dealing with, and we need to avoid getting caught in Feyd-Rautha’s trap."

The men nodded, tightening their grips on their rifles and checking their equipment. Kellor and the other soldiers moved quickly, their faces hard with focus as they prepared to head into the cold unknown.

Leto glanced at Hawat. "Stay sharp, Thufir. If this is something beyond what we understand, we’ll need every ounce of your expertise."

Hawat’s face remained impassive, though his eyes gleamed with the intensity of a man whose mind was already unraveling the strands of a complicated puzzle. "I’ll do what I can, my Lord. But this situation is like nothing I’ve encountered before."

The wind howled as the squadron of Atreides soldiers began their march across the frozen terrain, their black silhouettes cutting through the snow. Somewhere ahead, in the icy ravines and under the gray skies, lay answers to the mysteries that had plagued this mission from the beginning. The Harkonnens were closing in on a target they desperately wanted captured, but Duke Leto knew there was more to this than just a battle over territory.

There were new players in the game—players who wielded unknown languages and technology that defied Imperial understanding.

And whatever forces were converging on Arctis, Leto was determined to uncover the truth.

The cold air bit into his face as they pressed forward, the distant hum of unknown ships hidden in the clouds above, while Feyd-Rautha’s voice still echoed in the back of his mind.

"I want her captured alive."

Who was she?

And what secrets did she hold that could sway the balance of power in this frozen war?

The biting wind of Arctis clawed at Duke Leto’s face as he and his men pressed forward, the ice beneath their feet cracking with each step. The cold felt more oppressive now, not only because of the temperature but because of the growing tension. The mysterious communication, the Harkonnen ambush, and now the unknown forces—it was all a dangerous puzzle, and Leto knew they were walking into something far bigger than a mere territorial skirmish.

They rounded a bend in the frozen terrain when Sergeant Kellor, moving ahead of the group, stopped abruptly and signaled the others to halt. His visor focused on something embedded in the ice just ahead, partially hidden by the snow. Leto stepped forward, his eyes narrowing as he approached.

There, carved into the rock face and faintly illuminated by the low light of Arctis’s sun, was a sigil. A three-headed dragon, carved with precision, its wings stretched wide in a majestic, powerful pose. It was unlike any emblem Leto had seen in his years as Duke, and as he studied it, he felt a strange chill run down his spine—something beyond the cold of the planet.

“I don’t recognize it,” Leto said quietly, running his gloved fingers over the smooth carving.

One of the more experienced soldiers who had been trailing behind with the rest of the men, stepped forward to examine the sigil. “Nor do I, my Lord,” he said, his voice thick with caution. “It’s nothing like any House sigil we’ve encountered in the Imperium.”

Thufir Hawat, ever calculating, approached last, his eyes scanning the sigil with intense focus. “It’s not in any of our records,” he confirmed after a moment. “No known House or faction uses this symbol. This is… ancient, perhaps. Or new—something we’ve never encountered before.”

Leto stared at the three-headed dragon for a moment longer, his mind racing. Something about the design felt intentional, as if it held a deeper meaning. He didn’t know what it was, but he could feel its significance like a weight pressing on his chest. The unknown forces they were dealing with—whoever they were—had marked their presence here, and it was clear now that the Harkonnens were aware of them too.

“We press on,” Leto ordered. “Whatever this is, we need to know who or what we’re dealing with.”

As they continued deeper into the icy landscape, the faint sound of distant gunfire reached them. It was intermittent at first, but quickly grew louder as they approached. The sounds of a skirmish—blaster fire, the roar of engines, and the unmistakable clamor of combat—echoed through the frozen ravines.

Before Leto could issue new orders, the comms crackled to life, and Duncan Idaho’s voice came through, tense but composed as ever. “My Lord, we’ve just engaged Harkonnen forces. They’re not willing to negotiate—they’re attacking on sight. They’ve set up an unauthorized military base in this region and appear to be mining something.”

“Mining?” Leto repeated, his eyes narrowing. “Any sign of the unknown presence?”

“None yet,” Duncan replied, his voice carrying a hint of frustration. “So far, it’s just angry Harkonnens. But whatever they’re mining, they’re guarding it fiercely.”

Before Leto could respond, the sound of engines roaring overhead made the entire squad stop and look up. Through the swirling snow, they saw Harkonnen ornithopters streaking across the sky, their dark, beetle-like bodies weaving through the clouds.

But they weren’t alone.

Leto’s eyes widened as he spotted other ornithopters engaged in a furious dogfight with the Harkonnen craft. These new ornithopters were unlike anything he had ever seen before. Their design was sleek, almost organic, with dragon-like wings that flapped in a rhythmic motion, propelling them through the air with an uncanny fluidity. Their hulls were dark, shimmering with strange patterns that shifted in the light, making them difficult to track as they maneuvered with extraordinary agility.

“Those aren’t Harkonnen,” Kellor said, his voice laced with astonishment. “Or any craft from the Imperium. I’ve never seen designs like that—not even from Ix.”

Leto’s mind raced as he watched the alien ornithopters engage the Harkonnen forces with brutal efficiency, their strange, draconic forms weaving through the air as if they were living creatures rather than machines. Blaster fire lit up the sky as the Harkonnen ornithopters desperately tried to keep pace with their attackers, but it was clear the unknown craft were superior in every way.

“What in the name of the Emperor…” Leto muttered under his breath.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled, and the sounds of combat intensified from the ravine ahead. Without wasting a second, Leto signaled for his men to follow him as they moved to a nearby vantage point overlooking the ravine. What they saw below sent a ripple of shock through the Atreides forces.

The ravine was a chaotic battlefield. Harkonnen soldiers, their black-and-yellow armor standing out against the snow, were locked in brutal combat with unknown forces. These new combatants moved with an elegance and ferocity that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. Clad in dark armor that shimmered with the same shifting patterns as the alien ornithopters, these warriors fought with a combination of energy weapons and what appeared to be swords—sleek, deadly blades that carved through Harkonnen soldiers with ease.

Leto scanned the battlefield, his heart pounding. The unknown forces were smaller in number, but they fought with a precision and intensity that was overwhelming the Harkonnens. And above all, there was something… regal about them, something that reminded him of ancient stories of noble warriors, legends of long-lost Houses.

“What are we seeing?” Kellor whispered, his voice filled with disbelief.

Leto didn’t answer immediately, his eyes locked on the chaos below. He could see the Harkonnen forces were struggling, and the sounds of artillery preparing in the distance confirmed that Feyd-Rautha’s plan was already in motion. They were trying to capture someone—whoever these unknown forces were, they were the target.

“We need to make a decision,” Hawat said, his voice low and urgent. “Do we engage the Harkonnens now, or wait?”

Leto’s mind raced. The Harkonnens were setting up an ambush, preparing to take one of the unknown fighters alive. The mystery of who these new players were gnawed at him, but one thing was clear—they were not Harkonnen allies. And in this frozen war, an enemy of the Harkonnens might just be an ally worth risking.

Leto made his decision, his voice firm and steady. “We aid the unknown forces.”

Kellor nodded, already moving into position. The Atreides soldiers, disciplined and battle-hardened, began their advance, preparing to enter the fray below.

Leto glanced at Hawat, who simply gave a small, knowing nod. Whatever was happening here, the Atreides were about to gamble on a new piece in the deadly game of Houses.

The battle was chaos, pure and unrelenting. Leto and his men charged down into the ravine, their rifles and blasters cutting through the freezing air as they joined the fray alongside the unknown forces. The sound of energy weapons echoed across the icy terrain, mixing with the clatter of steel and the guttural shouts of Harkonnen soldiers. The Atreides elite moved with precision, each strike calculated, their disciplined tactics overwhelming the scattered Harkonnen forces caught in the heat of battle.

But as the skirmish raged on, the sky above began to darken further, the winds of Arctis growing fiercer. A blizzard was rolling in fast, the snow whipping around them in thick, swirling clouds that obscured vision and muted sound. The temperature plummeted, the icy wind slicing through their gear with cruel efficiency.

Leto ducked behind a rocky outcrop, scanning the battlefield. The unknown warriors fought like a well-trained phalanx, their movements fluid, graceful even. They fought hand-to-hand with swords that shimmered with a strange energy, their forms difficult to track in the blizzard, while Harkonnen forces struggled to hold their ground.

Just then, a sudden rumble beneath the ground signaled the arrival of more Harkonnen artillery. Leto’s comms crackled to life as one of his soldiers shouted over the noise, “Heavy Harkonnen reinforcements inbound, my Lord! Artillery moving into position!”

The ground trembled as Harkonnen tanks and artillery rolled into the ravine, their massive cannons swiveling toward the embattled forces. Explosions rocked the frozen ground as heavy artillery shells began to fall, sending plumes of snow and ice into the air. The battlefield had descended into a brutal slugfest, and the freezing winds only made it harder to see, hear, or strategize.

“Push forward!” Leto shouted, his voice barely carrying over the storm. “We can’t let them surround us!”

The Atreides forces continued their advance, but as the blizzard intensified, something strange cut through the howling wind. It was a sound, sharp and high-pitched—a shriek that seemed to come from above, distant at first but growing louder with each passing second.

Leto looked up, straining to see through the swirling snow. His heart pounded in his chest as the shriek pierced the air again, this time closer. He could make out flashes of something—dark shapes moving through the storm, circling overhead. He tried to focus, to make sense of what he was seeing, but the blizzard was too thick.

Then, suddenly, fire exploded from the sky.

Two Harkonnen ornithopters, their engines roaring as they maneuvered through the storm, were struck by something unseen. They burst into flames, spiraling down from the sky, crashing into the icy ground below in fiery explosions. The shockwave knocked several Harkonnen soldiers off their feet, while the remaining ornithopters struggled to evade whatever had attacked them.

Another shriek cut through the storm, followed by the faint whistle of something large slicing through the air. Another Harkonnen ornithopter was struck, its hull exploding in a brilliant flash of fire as it fell in a blazing arc toward the ground. The heat from the explosions briefly warmed the frigid air, casting flickering shadows through the blizzard.

Leto’s eyes narrowed as he tried to discern the source of the attack, but the storm obscured everything. All he could hear were the shrieks and whistles, and then more explosions as Harkonnen forces began to retreat, their voices echoing in panic through the comms.

“They’re retreating!” Gurney’s voice came through, his tone both surprised and urgent. “The Harkonnens are pulling back, my Lord!”

Leto crouched behind the cover of a large boulder, his breath coming out in heavy clouds as the explosions gradually subsided. The sounds of battle were fading, replaced by the howling wind and the eerie quiet that followed. Whatever had attacked the Harkonnens had forced them into retreat.

Suddenly, through the snow, Leto saw a figure approaching, emerging from the storm like a ghost. The figure wore sleek, dark armor that shimmered in the dim light of the fading explosions. As the figure drew closer, Leto could make out the faint glow of a symbol on the armor’s chest—the same three-headed dragon sigil they had seen carved into the ice earlier.

The figure stopped a few paces from Leto and his men, lifting the visor of his helmet to reveal a young man’s face, though most of his features were still obscured by the armor.

“I am Aelor,” the young man said in a calm, confident voice, his eyes sharp and piercing beneath the helmet. “And I believe I owe you thanks for your assistance, Duke Leto of House Atreides.”

Leto blinked in surprise, his breath catching for a moment. The man had spoken his name with certainty, as though he had known exactly who they were all along. “You know who we are?” Leto asked, his voice steady but filled with curiosity.

Aelor smiled faintly beneath his helmet. “Of course. We have been watching your House for some time, though you may not have been aware of it.”

Leto’s eyes narrowed. “And who are you exactly? This planet is under Atreides jurisdiction.”

Aelor’s expression became more amused, the cold wind whipping around him as he crossed his arms. “This planet,” he said slowly, “and all the others you call your domain, once belonged to us. Long ago.”

The cryptic response only deepened Leto’s unease, but before he could press for more answers, Aelor gestured toward the stormy landscape. “This is no place for conversation. There is much to discuss, but not out here in the cold. Our base is not far from here. Follow me, and I will explain everything.”

Aelor spoke a few quick words in the same unknown language Leto and his men had overheard earlier, and moments later, several alien-looking vehicles rolled up through the snow. Their design was unlike anything Leto had seen in the Imperium—sleek and organic, as though they were crafted from living metal. The transport vehicles stopped beside Aelor, their hatches sliding open with a hiss.

Leto hesitated for a moment, his instincts warning him against walking into an unknown situation, but there was no denying that Aelor and his forces had saved them from being overwhelmed by the Harkonnens. Whoever they were, they had power—power that Leto needed to understand.

He turned to his men, his decision made. “We’ll follow them. But stay alert.”

As Leto and his men began to climb into the alien transport vehicles, he activated his comms, reaching out to Duncan and Gurney. “Duncan, Gurney, report.”

Duncan’s voice came through, steady despite the wind. “My Lord, we’ve just secured the area. The Harkonnens have retreated, but they’ve left behind traces of their mining operation. Whatever they were after, they were pulling resources fast.”

“Did you encounter the unknown forces?” Leto asked, his eyes scanning the strange interior of the transport vehicle.

“Negative,” Duncan replied. “We’ve only dealt with Harkonnens so far. No sign of anything else.”

Leto paused, glancing at Aelor, who was giving orders in his own tongue to the other soldiers. “We’ve made contact with an unknown force. I’m following their leader now—he’s taking us to their base. Keep an eye on the Harkonnens and secure our position, but be ready for anything.”

“Understood, my Lord,” Gurney chimed in. “Be careful. Whatever this is, it’s not something we’ve seen before.”

Leto cut the comms and settled into the transport as it hummed to life, gliding smoothly over the snow and ice. As the vehicle moved through the storm, he couldn’t shake the feeling that they had just stumbled upon something far greater than they had ever anticipated.

The transport vehicle hummed steadily as it glided through the blizzard, cutting a path through the thick snow that swirled around them. Inside, the atmosphere was stifling. Duke Leto Atreides sat near the front of the transport, observing the man seated across from him—Aelor, the leader of these unknown forces. Beside Leto, Thufir Hawat sat in silence, his sharp mind undoubtedly racing to process the implications of everything they’d witnessed. A few of Leto’s most trusted men, who had managed to fit into the vehicle, remained quiet but alert, their eyes darting around the strange alien interior.

Leto, his curiosity piqued but tempered by caution, turned his gaze to Aelor. The young man sat with his helmet still on, but through the visor, Leto could see the faint glimmer of his eyes, steady and watchful.

“What are your people doing here?” Leto asked, his voice measured, though his instincts told him there was far more to this situation than a mere skirmish with the Harkonnens.

Aelor leaned back slightly, his armored form relaxed yet commanding. His voice was calm when he replied, though there was an edge to it. “House Harkonnen became aware of our presence some time ago. They’ve been trying to dig out what remains of our underground structures—structures that have been buried for centuries. They seek to take what does not belong to them.”

Leto raised an eyebrow, intrigued but wary. “And what exactly were these underground structures used for? They must be important to draw the Harkonnens’ attention.”

For the first time, Leto saw Aelor hesitate, his eyes briefly widening behind his visor, though he quickly composed himself. There was something deeper here, something that Aelor wasn’t revealing.

“They can’t use what’s inside,” Aelor said after a brief pause, his tone more guarded now. “But it is not theirs to collect. The Harkonnens are digging for something they don’t understand.”

Leto studied Aelor carefully, but before he could press further, Hawat leaned forward, his cold, analytical voice breaking the silence. “We intercepted Harkonnen communications before we engaged them. Feyd-Rautha mentioned they were after someone—her specifically. Who is this person they’re so desperate to capture?”

Aelor’s gaze shifted to Hawat, and this time, there was no hesitation. “They’re after my sister,” he said plainly, his voice carrying a note of protectiveness. “She was the one who disrupted their operations. The Harkonnens know they can’t use what’s in the structures, but they believe capturing her will give them leverage.”

Leto exchanged a glance with Hawat, their minds both running through the implications. The Harkonnens were desperate—enough to launch an all-out assault to capture one person. Whatever was buried in those ancient structures, it was important enough for them to risk everything.

Before Leto could ask more, the transport began to slow, and Aelor’s voice cut through the silence. “We’ve arrived.”

The vehicle came to a stop, and as the doors slid open, a blast of cold air greeted them. Leto and his men stepped out into a base unlike anything they had ever seen. The structures were sleek, dark, and seamless, built with a design far more advanced than anything in the Imperium. But what struck Leto most was the banners that hung from the tall spires around the base—banners bearing the three-headed dragon symbol he had seen carved into the ice earlier.

“This way,” Aelor said, gesturing for them to follow.

As they moved deeper into the base, Leto couldn’t help but notice how the design felt both familiar and alien. There was an elegance to the architecture, a flowing, organic quality that reminded him of ancient stories from his studies as a boy.

They entered the central structure, and Aelor led them into a large command center. Inside, a team of soldiers worked at strange, holographic consoles, their faces hidden by sleek helmets. A massive map of the surrounding area was projected above them, showing the positions of both Harkonnen and unknown forces.

Aelor turned to face Leto and his men, and with a quiet hiss, he removed his helmet. The sight of his features caught Leto off guard. Aelor was young—his face regal, with high cheekbones and silver-blond hair that fell in soft waves around his shoulders. His eyes, the same piercing violet that Leto had only seen in old records, glowed faintly in the dim light of the command center.

For a brief moment, Leto took a step back, his heart racing as a flood of recognition washed over him. The sight of Aelor’s face—his silver hair, his violet eyes, the unmistakable grace of his movements—triggered a memory long buried in the depths of Leto’s mind.

“Welcome, Duke Leto,” Aelor said, his voice now softer, more formal. “To House Targaryen’s command center.”

The words struck Leto like a blow. House Targaryen. The name sent a shockwave through his thoughts, dragging him back to his youth, to the old histories he had studied in the Atreides archives. He had read of House Targaryen—once a powerful dynasty, one of the most feared and revered Houses in the galaxy, known for their dragons and their near-mythical strength. But they had been eradicated—wiped out thousands of years ago in a war that had shaped the balance of power in the galaxy for millennia.

Yet here they were. Alive. And not just alive, but powerful—strong enough to face off against the Harkonnens with technology far beyond anything Leto had ever seen.

Leto felt a surge of disbelief as the implications of what he was witnessing set in. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could form words, a sharp voice cut through his thoughts.

“Duke Leto,” Hawat said, stepping forward, his voice a warning. “Stay focused.”

Leto blinked, his mind snapping back to the present. He glanced at Hawat, who was watching the situation with the same sharpness as ever, though Leto could see the tension in the Mentat’s eyes. This was no ordinary encounter. Whatever House Targaryen had been in the past, they were a force to be reckoned with now.

Aelor, watching Leto carefully, smiled faintly. “I see you recognize the name. Good. It saves us some time. There is much to discuss, Duke Leto, and many answers I’m sure you seek. But for now, we must prepare. The Harkonnens won’t stop their pursuit of my sister. And if they succeed, they may uncover things that should remain buried.”

Leto, still processing the magnitude of what was happening, nodded slowly. His thoughts raced, but there was one question at the forefront of his mind.

“What do you intend to do?” Leto asked.

Aelor’s violet eyes gleamed with determination. “What we have always done, Duke. Protect what is ours. And in the process, perhaps we can show you that this galaxy is not as small as you once believed.”

The warning in his words hung heavy in the air, and Leto realized with certainty: whatever lay ahead, the fate of House Atreides—and perhaps the entire galaxy—was about to change.

- A/N: The timeline of these events will be made clear as the story expands. Everything written here has a purpose for future events that will happen.

[strobbylemonade]

canto 7 pt 3 spoilers and thoughts and stuff

i really didn't expect her to be like.. locked up. by herself. its so sad. i feel so bad for her in the lighthouse. also the I WANT YOU poster cracked me up.

vergilius calling her "my lady" was cute. i thought we were going to get more of their friendship this canto but apparently not. maybe later :( but also what's up with his eyes?? who's his old friend??? WHO did he take the eyes from?? it's not don quixote because he still has his eyes, so it's either the bloodfiend moses spoke with, or it's the progenitor?? or there's more first-gen blood fiends we don't know about.

adding more guesses to the dante's identity flame:

dante is bari/the bookhunter

dante is vergilius' "old friend"

dante is the bloodfiend vergilius got his eyes from

dante is verigilius' old friend who IS the bloodfiend vergilius got his eyes from

dante is dante and their old self is destroyed

dante is an extremely powerful unknown character who gets their memories back but after their canto they pull a don quixote and chooses to live the rest of their lives as the dante we know

sanchos expressions were really really awesome. she's just so... augh....

THESE GUYS REALLY PISSED ME OFF.

i'm not smart enough to understand the implications of this. but ??? sinclair standing up for donqui?? yaaaayy!!!! the sign??? and also him paralleling bari is definitely not a coincidence. i wonder what the mark of cain has to do with it all.

i didn't notice while i was playing but sinclair starts blushing when he asks her to open up. they're so cute. and they're trying their hardest to be vulnerable to their fucked up lil family. i love them.

WE GOT OUTIS LORE!!! LET'S GO!!! this was surprisingly vulnerable of her... and dante's response of "I will. As long as they have the will to change, to move forward, I will be there for them." was great. also girl what do you mean TENS OF THOUSANDS??? i'm starting to think outis has a lot more guilt for the smoke war than she lets on.

uhh and speaking of change that's another theme that's popping up more interestingly enough. yi sang, sinclair, and being "unable to change" is what caused heathcliff to distort. interesting narrative theme. (starts side eyeing dante and outis). also change being one of the biggest themes of library of ruina, with roland and angela needing to break the cycle of the City to achieve their good ending.

bari is cool as shit

the cutscene that follows this where they're all talking about how much fun they had with donqui through the stageplay was genuinely both so cheesy and sweet i almost cried.

oughhh i'm not bothered to grab screenshots from every part i enjoyed of the final point so we're doing dot points again!

sancho's backstory of being born alone and wishing to die before don quixote gave her love and life was... holy shit. "That is why you saved my life from the periphery of death... tried to share your love... and made my heart beat again."

again with the themes of suicide. the original don quixote sees sancho as special because she doesn't want to inflict suffering on others and instead simply wishes to "burn myself to ashes like I was never here". and that's how she gets her first family. because she suffered alone. and then don quixote makes his children suffer alone in la manchaland.

"I don't know who I am" lyric in Hero hits really song. YEAH I FORGOT TO MENTION MILI PEAK!!! it really feels like some of their older music, especially something from mahoyaku (the Big Moon in the background during the final phase certainly helped). the second part sounds especially like Cast Me a Spell. or something from miracle milk with the way the instrumentals and sfx sound. i really like it.

DON QUIXOTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WAAAAAAAAAAA WAAAAA

"She was incandescent, like a brilliant star twinkling in the night sky. / That very brilliance compelled me to reach out and hope." OUGHHH. dante's role in this chapter has been really interesting... they're like her, they're chained to their past but are also playing the role of someone who they don't know who they're meant to be. they have a really passive role in bringing sancho back to the Gang, with the other sinners stepping in to help her moreso than dante themselves, and then at the end, it's sancho who saves them, acts as their star, and gives them their dreams back (of having all the sinners together as one big happy family).

and just. holy shit. this entire sequence.

I DID NOT EXPECT A QUICKTIME EVENT!! big cast a spell vibes... i genuinely gasped when the fireworks went off..

LMAO SHE'S MAKING FUN OF HIM FOR THE ROCINANTE THING. also kyaa hong lu's teaching dante how to smile!!! i'm sure this won't have any terrifying implications next canto!!! definitely!! there's some interesting parallels to what donqui said about dante having an "expression" and what demian said about being able to hear them all the way back in canto iii, because donqui/demian listen to their "heart" and not their actual face/voice. interesting

also new dante sprite please???? please??? new dante pose perhaps even??? please????

interesting we're getting the clock ticking closer to doomsday after canto 7 and not 8. with the trajectory they're on, doomsday will happen during or after outis' canto (and before faust's). fun. can't wait for the random lore drop next intervallo/event where they take turns feeding don quixote their blood. please. please. please???

mili peak. pass on peak. feelings peak. augh. i love my idiot family and their pet Cosmic Horror Entity. although i would argue it's a family of 15 and not 12!!! i love found family!!!!

[midnight---hollow]

Ok i need to yap for a second

I love how well written and thought out the ipc is in honkai star rail. I feel in general we dont always get the best discussions about capitalism and giant corps because said giant corps are usually sponsoring or are creating them most of the time so there is usually bias. I just saw some of the boothill story lore leaks and im not gonna talk about them here cus leaks but it gave me real big appreciation for how the ipc is handled.

Im personally a real big fan of complicated situations in my fictional stories. Ever since mob psycho ive gained a new lens of trying to find sympathy and reason for any situation, keeping my own opinions and preferences while still understanding the other side. I feel star rail has done a great job at show casing the many sides of the ipc even if i for one really dont like the ipc and its my least favorite organization

(I feel i should also say this is an opinion piece and im not informed enough on the real life issues as i would like to be. I just want to yap my opinion out and express why i find joy in this and maybe even come back later with more research to make another post but with references and proof to explain why besides what i remember and like. If i do get anything wrong then please inform me cus i would like to learn more about this and plan to)

|Spoilers for basically all the ipc related things in hsr|

I started out hating them cus i just dont like capitalist corps and they just rubbed me the wrong way. When the arum alley event happen i was originally pissed at it because even though it was confirming my beliefs of “big corp bad” it felt cheap and like almost every other story told by a big corp trying to tell us big corps are bad. Yknow the “look at this obviously in the wrong guy dont be like him, look at him get his comeuppances in the end and ignore how we actually are alot more complicated and worse than this super evil and obvious example”

arum alley then did something i didnt expect. It gave nuance to the story. It started out with that obvious example yes but the next one wasnt that obvious, the next part of the event talked about how some workers feel they wont be able to sustain their lives as independent workers and feel they need to work for the big corps for a safe job and it started getting into the logistics of big corp vs independent business. Yeah we where fighting them but there where reasons and concerns and fears to be given. It wasnt just big corp bad it was “yeah big corp bad but here is why and here is also how its good” and it brings up the questions on what can be done so we dont need to rely on big corp

Topaz and her whole arc is another situation i find interesting. Topaz is a character i dont care to much about to be honest but i think she plays a good role in this whole ipc debacle. To me she feels like she represents someone who used the system because they needed to and made it work and flourished in the system. Her planet was basically unlivable and she lived in a capitalist waste that failed. In comes the ipc and they are almost what her world was but better for they offer to help and save them. All they need to do is sign their lives away to join the ipc and they did and their planet flourished because of it. Topaz herself was able to rise the ranks into being a cornerstone. I think her story shows both the light and dark of the ipc because they saved her planet but they only did it because it benefited them, if they didnt sign their lives away it is very likely topaz and everyone on her planet would have suffocated from the toxins and died. They had no choice but to join the system and its stated in game that topaz’s planet is one of the few that where able to be saved.

That’s probably what i like most about the playable ipc characters, it reminds us that these big corps arent just mustache twirling bad guys, it reminds us there are people there just trying to keep going and some of them are genuinely trying to do right and think what they are doing is right. Again topaz for example, she genuinely believes what she was doing was for the good of belabog. She saw a planet so similar to her own and i think she did what she thought was right and tried to help them (i dont think what she did was right but i can see where she comes from in thinking its right) i also think its showing that when she learned their was a way out for belabog that allowed them to not give their lives away to the ipc she gave in and stopped trying to convince them. She risked her own job security to allow them that right and because she didnt force an entire planet of innocent people who just got out of a horrible situation to sign their souls away (including the children mind you) she got demoted. Im not saying that she deserves a pat on the back for doing the bare minimum esp after she tried killing us, she is a rich, a conerstone, owns an exotic pet that she throws into battle and design her gun after, is a high member of said capitalist big corps, im just saying this is a very nuanced and interesting situation that i like to think about because there are so many thoughts and arguments

The whole belabog vs ipc thing was interesting in general for me because i think it was just such a good concept to bring forth the conversation of the goods and bads of big corps. Technically the ipc does have the right to want their century old debt repaid (ignoring the fact we later learned the robots where never used i think idk the end was confusing ngl) yet also at the same time we as people have a hard time siding with them when belabog didnt even know they where in debt because they where so isolated because of the stellaron and they just got out of the stellaron crisis and are trying to make their world habitable and yknow survive. We cant blame them for being unable to pay a humongous debt when these where the same people who stood in awe as march shower them a photo of their planet that she took while on the express. It creates a situation where yeah technically the giant corp has a right to take that money because its theirs but its still feels so cruel to make them have to cough it up right now with only a few days time. Belabog is basically forced to sign that deal because there is no way they could have payed that off they where doomed the moment topaz set foot on the planet. I remember talking to each of the people in belabog and getting their opinions on the matter and constantly having to rethink my stance because there where so many good points for why they should and so many for why they shouldnt. I can go on and on about this but this bit is already to long.

Aventurine!!! Aventurine aventurine oh where to start. Unlike topaz i actually like aventurine alot he is just such a well written character but we arent here to talk about how amazing him and the games writing is we are here to talk about the capitalist cooperation he is a cog in. Aventurine in a sense has a similar story to topaz but its more cruel and less happy. The ipc didnt save him, the ipc what going to arrest him and its thanks to his luck and a deal with the devil (or in this case a bet with a snake) that he was able to become aventurine.

I havent seen the writen stuff for him in his characters story because i dont have him but i will say from what i saw during the main story, something i question alot is what the ipc did during the avgin genocide. This might be a small tangent but the avgins said they had the support of the ipc. What happened that caused for the entire avgin civilization to be wiped out when they had the help of people with better weapons and armor and equipment. Apart of me is nihilistic enough to think the ipc didnt really care for saving the avgins and might have used the katakans attack as a way to know out the two groups that where causing them the most trouble but at the moment i dont know if theres anything supporting this theory so its just a crack theory

Aventurines spot in penacony is again interesting. Penacony is a prison planet of the ipc, that was taken over and turned into a party paradise thanks to the hamrony, family, and a stellaron. Aventurines goal was supposed to be to put penacony back in the ipcs control and to be honest i cant tell if thats his plan or not because of how crazy and confusing the story was (i loved it) but that being said it is another example how how grey ipc is. It isnt just a big bad corp there are people with lives and in avens case, people trying to gain their freedom with any risks necessary. I also think again the ipcs role in penacony is like belabog, very interesting, just for different reasons.

Penacony is based off America and in this case im assuming the ipc is their Britain. I feel like if you ask most people they would say that the ipc is the only group in penacony they hope fails (minus aventurine again i feel everyone wants aven to succeed even if we want ipc to fall) but i think the family being as grey as they are (basically a cult and also a representation of newer day amarica and its “its us or them” mentality in a way. I can make another yap ses about that lmao) adds an air of mystery and confusion on who we want to succeed since they are on two very different sides of the board so if one wins the other loses. It makes it feel like a fight of two big corps against each other and not really knowing who to support. Do you want to support the capitalist or the cult, pick your poison. We need the rest of penacony for me to go more in-depth on my opinion of ipc here and to rant but i can say its already making me question and argue both sides with what we have seen so far

That was fun for me. I havent ranted on tumblr in a long long time but hsr has been my recent hyperfixation and again boothill makes me crazy. While writing this is made me start to think about how much i wanted to talk about the hidden story of immigration i feel penacony is aso trying to tell. I think penacony is handling so many deep and interesting topics and im very excited for the next update. This has made me hyped to talk about the immigration stuff but i want to do reaserch and gain a proper strong stance besides “thats just my opinion.” I think this is an interesting topic and yapping about it made me want to do more reaserch on the topics of capitalism and big corps cus i hate them but i also think its important to know about it and understand there is more to the issue than just stingy old white rich people. I havent even gotten to jade yet. When we learn more about her imma have some words prob

Srry this was long but anyways cant wait till boothill comes out so i can get him and his light cone

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

Nut

Nut, my beloved Goddess of the Sky. Now I am a little biased about Nut––She is the main Goddess that I worship––but I will do my best to retain some semblance of professionalism when it comes to discussion about Her. And remember these are unedited essays. Fact-checked, yes, but I'm not going for journal/publication quality.

For the most part, discussions and essays surrounding Nut focus solely on Her role as the night sky and rarely delve into the deep lore and meaning behind Her role and appearance within Egyptian mythology. However, for the purposes of this essay, I will begin with the basics.

Nut, also spelled as Nuit, is an ancient Egyptian Goddess most easily recognizable by either the pot atop Her head or the stars decorating Her body as She arches over the earth. In this latter form, it appears as though Her arms and legs are kept tightly together; in reality, Her hands and feet touch each of the four cardinal points of the horizon, representing the four pillars of heaven.

Her name comes from the hieroglyph W24, the pot, which stands for the sound nw. The t is added as a feminine suffix pronoun, thus creating the name Nwt. Why Nut bears a pot atop Her head has been debated, but the general consensus is that it represents the womb; a carrying object, filled with water and sustenance.

Contrary to a great deal of ancient civilizations who depicted the earth as female and the sky as male (think Mother Earth and Father Sky), the ancient Egyptians conceived of the sky as feminine, and Her counterpart, the earth, as male, in the male God Geb, often depicted below Nut in a reclined position. The two Gods were siblings; the children of Shu and Tefnut, representing air and moisture, and who Themselves were the direct children of the sun God Ra.

Some epithets (titles that reveal nature) of Nut:

One-who-gives-birth-to-the-Gods

Mother of All

She the Great One

She Who Protects

She Who Holds A Thousand Souls

Great Encloser

Perhaps the most well-known of myths that Nut is associated with is that of the birth of the Ennead. I discussed this myth in my Osiris post, but I will recite it in short terms here.

Nut and Geb were conceived from the sibling-union of Shu and Tefnut and, in similar fashion, Nut and Geb were joined together in a loving embrace. However, since the sky was joined to the earth, there was no space for humans or any living thing to walk or exist. Because of this (though the reason in the variations of the myth can differ), Ra decided to have Geb and Nut separated, and had Their father, Shu, hold up Nut; thus Shu fulfilled His role as the atmosphere, the air. But this was not the only reason Ra took this course of action; Ra had fear of a prophecy which stated that the children of Nut would one day overthrow him. Due to His fear, Ra forbade Nut from giving birth on any day of the year. Nut asked Thoth, the God of wisdom and writing, for help, and Thoth went to the moon God Iah (a more archaic version of the moon God Khonsu) and gambled with the moon God for some of His light. Thoth and Iah played the game senet, and each time Thoth won, He earned a sliver of moonlight. Eventually, Thoth had earned enough to have five extra days in the year––the Epagomenal days––and on those days, Nut gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, and in some versions, Horus the Elder.

This story is a rather late telling and comes mainly from the Moralia of Plutarch. Plutarch is not the best and most reliable source for Egyptian history and mythology, and it does not help that his own sources were skewed by the time in which he lived; that being a much later era of Egyptian history in which the original myths of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms had been changed and altered over time. Still, it gives us some idea of Nut and tells us that She is the mother of some of the greatest and most revered Gods of Egypt.

Another myth that is found in the Book of the Heavenly Cow details another version of how Nut came to be the sky, tying into the myth of the rampaging Goddess Sekhmet who was eventually pacified with beer.

The importance of Nut tends to be underplayed by both modern scholars and modern practitioners of Kemeticism, the revival of the ancient Egyptian religion. Usually, She is relegated to being the mother of the 'main Gods', and simply the sky of the earth. People lack knowledge, or perhaps the desire to find the knowledge, of Her role as a funerary deity. Fortunately, there are still a number of historians and scholars who have devoted some section of their research into Nut and Her roles.

Arching over the earth, Nut was considered as 'the vault of the sky,' and the body through which Ra travelled in both the day and the night. During the day, Ra in His day barque would sail across Nut's body, and in the evening, with Nut's head oriented in the west and Her legs in the east, Ra was swallowed by Nut to be regenerated through rebirth in Her womb, come the next morning. This, of course, gives a somewhat contrasting idea to the fact that Ra is said to pass through the Duat, the ancient Egyptian 'underworld', every night.

Thus we come to a very interesting discussion that I have found a lot of joy in reading about: the argument of whether or not the Duat is a chthonic or celestial afterlife. After all, the word 'underworld' was applied by Western scholars and the Duat itself, as a word, does not denote anything 'underground'. For an in-depth study of this, I highly recommend Silvia Zago's Conceptualizing Life after Death: The Evolution of the Concept of Duat and Related Notions in Egyptian Funerary Literature, a fascinating look into funerary literature throughout the eras of ancient Egypt. She comes to the conclusion that, in the Old Kingdom at least, the Duat is a place in the sky, a definitive region within Nut's body. The body of Nut is described geographically in some sections of the Pyramid Texts, and among those regions, the Duat is named. The deceased is described as ascending to the Duat region in PT U271 390;

"Unas ascends on that ladder* which his father Re has made for him. Horus and Seth seize the arm of Unas and take him to the Duat Region."

*The ladder was often used as a symbol of Nut, representing steps to ascend to Heaven, to Her body.

But this is not a solitary region as Heaven in Abrahamic religions is; the afterlife, as conceived by the ancient Egyptians, was the ability to join the cycle of regeneration that the sun took each night and day.

"... it (is) more appropriate to regard these early funerary texts as expressing a multi-faceted yet somewhat coherent vision of the afterlife, one granting the deceased access to both parts of the cosmic cycle – day and night – in order to be reborn at dawn with the sun and achieve immortality." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

"May you cross the sky, united with darkness (i.e. in the Nun or Duat), so that you may you rise from the horizon, the place in which you have become akhs." (PT 217 §152c-d)

In this way, the deceased joined the eternal cycle in the presence of the Gods, and this regeneration took place within the body of Nut––conceivably inside Her womb, where Ra would rest before dawn when He was born as the rising sun.

"...the caption by Nut’s vulva in the monumental versions of the Book of Nut (Osireion and tomb of Ramses IV) labels her vulva as being the Axt iAbtt, “eastern horizon” (text P, EAT I: 81; von Lieven 2007: 51 §7), namely the point of the sky where the sun reappears (i.e. is “born”) into the world at dawn." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

Additional evidence for Nut and the Duat being related is seen in Pyramid Text 442:

“See, he has come as Orion. See, Osiris has come as Orion... ‘Good One’, said his mother, ‘Heir’, said his father, whom the sky has conceived, to whom the Duat has given birth. Oh king (NN), may the sky conceive you/King (NN) together with Orion, may the Duat give birth to you and Orion.”

Whether the impersonal 'sky' (pt) and the personal Nut (the Goddess) are one and the same as literary subjects, or if they are separate as a physical thing and a divinity is somewhat up for debate. The hieroglyphs used to spell pt and nwt are very similar. But considering how consistently the ancient Egyptians attributed personality to natural phenomena and used little distinction between the two, this stands as evidence that it is Nut, as the sky, as the Duat, conceiving Osiris/Orion.

Altogether, what we can take from this is that Nut plays a large role in the afterlife as a place of regeneration and of rebirth, acting as both the day and night sky. She protects, holds, and revitalizes the thousands of souls under Her care, including those of the Gods. There is a lot more discussed in Silvia Zago's publication and I highly recommend reading through it. Personally, this is something I find very auspicious; the idea that, in death, you will return to the stars. And this is a very clear idea in the Pyramid Texts, that the Pharaoh will ascend to become an 'imperishable star'.

PT 139, Utterance 214: The (glorified) humanity bewail you after the Imperishable Stars have carried you. Enter then into the place where your father is, where Geb is!  PT 141, Utterance 215: "Look at me! you have seen the forms of the children of their fathers, who know their spell, who are now Imperishable Stars". (Referring to past Pharaohs) PT 380, Utterance 269: The father of Unas, Atum, seizes the arm of Unas and He assigns Unas to those Gods who are quick and clever, the Never-setting Stars (Circumpolars).

Due to Her nature as a funerary deity, it is not uncommon to see Her represented on the inner lids of coffins, especially in the New Kingdom and later periods of Egypt, symbolically covering and protecting the deceased with Her star-covered body. Here, the sarcophagus is symbolic of a maternal uterus, thus why the coffin and Nut were connected; Her epithet Great Encloser refers to this connection.

(From the coffin of Peftjauneith, 26th Dynasty)

An important book from the New Kingdom, which I previously mentioned, is the Book of the Heavenly Cow, found on the outermost part of the four gilded shrines of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the tomb of Ramses VI (KV9), the tomb of Seti I (KV17), the tomb of Ramses II (KV7), and the tomb of Ramses III (KV11). The Heavenly Cow is a form of Nut, just as the falcon may be a representation of Horus just the same as His human form.

Here, Her belly is covered in stars, and She is held and supported by Shu and the Infinite Ones, a group of Gods mentioned in the Book of the Heavenly Cow.

To put it briefly, Ra is betrayed in some way by mankind––interpretation differs, as always––and decides that His presence in the earthly realm is no longer needed nor safe for Him. He has Nut, as the Heavenly Cow, lift Him up into the sky to separate Him from humanity.

This God (Ra) then said to Nut,  "It is in order that I may be uplifted that I have placed myself on Your back."  "What's this?"  asked Nut.  And so She is the person that came to be there in both the heavens.    (of night and day) The Majesty of this God said,  "Stay far away from them (humanity)!  Lift me up (so I am visible)!  Look at me!"  And so She became the sky.  (Chapter 3, Divisions 61-65)

Then Nut started trembling because of the height.  So the Majesty of Re said,  "If only I had millions supporting her!"  And so the Infinite Ones were brought into being.  (Chapter 3, Divisions 70-71)

For further reading on the Book of the Heavenly Cow, I recommend this study: https://escholarship.org/content/qt2vh551hn/qt2vh551hn.pdf?t=rzuech

And the whole text of the Book can be read and downloaded here:

https://www.academia.edu/36107603/the_ancient_Aegyptian_book_of_the_Heavenly_Cow

Something else of note in Silvia Zago's book is Nut's relationship to Nunet, the feminine counterpart of the primeval God Nun. This connection is somewhat obscure and came as somewhat of a surprise to me but I found it immensely interesting. It begins with the fact that the sky was conceived of as a watery expanse; hence the use of boats to cross it, and the verbs used describing the journey: 'to row', 'to ferry', or 'to cross'.

"Besides these indirect clues, the most direct piece of evidence of the watery nature of the sky is the very same fact that its regions are imagined as marshlands, separated from one another by a “winding canal” (the ecliptic), and both possessing shores and lakes: to the south was the sxt iArw “Field of Rushes,” and to the north the sxt Htp(w) “Field of Offerings"." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

The reason why the sky was thought of as a watery expanse is, however, rather easily explainable: the sky was thought of as an interface or barrier between the expanse of Nun (the primordial ocean) outside and the earthly world inside. Nut, held up by the atmosphere of Shu, protected the world from these waters rushing in. As an interesting piece of side evidence, Beaux (1998) found that the determinative sign for star (N14) derived from the starfish, likening these 'lower stars' of the earth's oceans to the upper stars of the cosmos. This is mostly conjecture but has some basis in reality, and if true, would explain later funerary text's allusion to stars swimming across the sky.

Nun stands as the third piece of the puzzle in the Pyramid Text's conception of the universe: earth, sky, and the Abyss. This abyss, in the form of Nun, represents everything opposite to what is imagined on Earth: "... where the world is finite, the Nun is infinite, limitless; while the sun brightens existence on earth, the universe outside is immersed in perpetual, uniform darkness. Where the world is characterized by daily life activity ad continual change, the Nun is inert." (Silvia Zago, 2019) This space has negative and positive energy. In essence, it is pure potential. So while Nun can be possibly dangerous, it also contains the full creative potential, and thus the ability to regenerate. As stated in later funerary texts, it is impossible to undergo regeneration in the ordered world––regeneration must take place when submerged in the potential energy of Nun. (Evidenced by Hornung 1982 and J.P. Allen 1988)

This expanse of potential energy is detailed geographically in the Pyramid Texts, and placed above, or on the outer side, of Nut, but also existing underground beneath the earth. Evidence of this is shown by the hieroglyphic determinative for 'sky' (N1) being used upside down. However, when speaking of these underground waters, it is far more common for the name Nunet (also spelled Naunet) to be used––the feminine counterpart of Nun. This phrase translates to 'lower sky' or 'nether sky', and is clearly contrasted with not only Nun but Nut as well.

"The seemingly ambiguous contradiction lying in the fact the Nunet could be thought to represent both the underground waters, as a feminine counterpart of Nun, and a nether-sky, as a counterpart of Nut herself in an underworld, is due to the fact that, once again, according to the Egyptian mindset, more than one explanation was possible." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

A section of the Pyramid Texts that refers to these two heavens––the upper sky and lower heaven––is shown here and again represents the duality and the cycle through which the deceased passes in their afterlife:

"... your arms are (those of) Hapy and Duamutef, which you need to ascend to heaven, and you ascend, your legs are (those of) Imsti and Qebehsenuf, which you need to descend to the lower heaven, and you descend. All your members are (those of) the twins of Atum, o Imperishable One! You did not pass away, your ka does not pass away. You are a ka!" (PT 215 §149)

The idea for a 'lower sky' likely originated in the need to explain what happened to the stars during the day, and what became of the day sky during the night. Thus the 'inverted' sky served as a nether-region counterpart, nearly identical to the heavenly sky down to its' watery nature. When personalized, this means that Nunet and Nut can be seen as counterparts of one another.

"Denn offenbar gehörte Nut ursprünglich als weibliches Gegenstück zu Nun, griechisch Νουν, dem Urgewässer, wobei die Namen altägyptisch als Njw und Njwt zu umschreiben wären und mit dem Wort für Wasser nwjt zusammenhängen könnten, das uns schon in den Pyramidentexten begegnet. Daβ beide Götter eng verbunden gewesen sein müssen, zeigen mehrere Texte, darunter der bekannte Götterhymnus des Alten Reiches, die Nun und Nut als Eltern eines solaren Gottes bezeichnen. [...] Das Urgewässer, das sich sowohl in der Unterwelt wie über den Himmel erstreckte, fungierte dabei als Muttergottheit. Seine Aufspaltung in das Götterpaar Nun/Nut und die damit verbundene Spezialisierung der Nut zum Himmelsozean wären dann ebenso sekundäre Erscheinungen, wie die Existenz der Göttin Naunet, die erst als Nachfolgerin der Nut das weibliche Komplement zum Nun gebildet hätte, und deshalb auch synonym zu Nut verwendet werden konnte." (Barta, 1973)

For your ease of reading, I've run this through Google Translate for you: "Apparently Nut originally belonged as the female counterpart to Nun, Greek Νουν, the primordial water, although the names could be described in ancient Egyptian as Njw and Njwt and could be related to the word for water nwjt, which we already encounter in the Pyramid Texts. Several texts show that both gods must have been closely connected, including the well-known hymn to the gods of the Old Kingdom, which describe Nun and Nut as the parents of a solar god. […] The primordial waters, which stretched both in the underworld and across the sky, functioned as a mother deity. Its splitting into the pair of gods Nun/Nut and the associated specialization of Nut into the celestial ocean would then be just as secondary phenomena as the existence of the goddess Naunet, who only as Nut's successor would have formed the female complement to Nun, and therefore also synonymous with Nut could be used."

Nut and Nun, both functioning as a place of regeneration and rebirth and imagined as a watery expanse, carry a lot of similarities. With this in mind it is much easier to see how the two could be related and, in this logic, how Nut and Naunet can be seen as both opposites and reflections of one another.

Another object of both celestial and funerary importance that is associated with Nut is the Akhet. For those who don't know, the Axt is the horizon, evident in the name Horakhty, which means Horus (Hor) of the Horizon (akht), and it is the final place where regeneration and rebirth are possible, as it is the area where the sun is born each day.

"Throughout the Pyramid Texts, (the Akhet) seems indeed to be meant as the liminal zone through which the night sun passes coming from the Duat, and from which it rises in the morning, thus an interface between two spheres of existence... So the Akhet was both a point of juncture of cosmic realms (Duat, earth, and sky) and a region in itself, endowed with regenerative significance and symbolism." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

Some sections of the Pyramid Texts even mention Nut guiding the deceased towards the Akhet, describing a 'path of the horizon' where the Goddess leads the dead. This path conceivably led from the western horizon, where the sun sets, to the eastern horizon, where the sun is born again. Where exactly the roads are is unclear; they could be underground or within Nut's body. Which one it is is mostly up to personal speculation.

This has been, of course, mostly an analysis of the Pyramid Texts. Later on, the Duat does take on more of a chthonic nature separate from the earlier celestial conception. The afterlife became associated more with Osiris, an earthly figure of fertility and soil, rather than Ra, the solar celestial figure. However, how it is presented in the Pyramid Texts gives a rather good idea of the Duat being something varying and dependable.

"... the use of the sign (N31) (path) could suggest the idea the Duat was regarded as a path of sorts, while the sign (O49) (township) may indicate that it was imagined to be a defined locale in the cosmos... The signs (N1) (sky) and (N37) (pool) also appear in conjunction with the word Duat, pointing to the idea of the (diurnal) sky or more generically a celestial domain and to its watery nature, respectively." (Silvia Zago, 2019)

The use of the hieroglyphic O49 is interesting, denoting that the Duat could be thought of as a city; this city existing within Nut. Nut, being a holder and protector of thousands of souls, can be easily seen as a city in and of Herself, and is referred to as such by Nils Billing:

"The goddess Nut is characterized as "city" as early as the Pyramid texts. 'Make nni, make nni, O Nut; Geb has commanded that you make nni, in this your name of City.' (Pyr. 1596a-b [587]) The passage is found in the longer spell 587 which describes the creation and establishment of Egypt in terms of a city... The earth, i.e. the kingdom of Egypt, is treated in the symbolic form of the Eye of Horus. After being damaged by Seth, the Eye/Egypt/Kingship is reconstituted by Horus. 'It is he who sets you in order in this your name of Settlement; it is he who comes and he makes nni behind you in this your name of City.' (Pyr. 1595a-b, cf. 1597b-c) This description is directly followed by the Nut passage cited above. The path to a correct understanding of these passages is somewhat hampered by the uncertainty of the meaning of the verb nni... Kuhlmann (1991:219) sees movement as the common denominator of (these interpretations), an interpretation supported by the occurrence of the legs as determinative. The type of movement intended is, however, more difficult to grasp." (Nils Billing, 2002)

The final text of gross importance to Nut is the Book of Heaven, also known as the Book of Nut and the Book of the Celestial Cow, but in ancient times referred to as The Fundamentals of the Course of the Stars. This is an astrological text that contains some references to myth but, in general, concerns itself with the course of the stars. It is not a flat text as the term 'book' might insinuate; instead, it is the image of the Goddess stretched out in Her form as the sky, surrounded by extensive hieroglyphs detailing the nocturnal voyage of Ra and the 36 decans through Nut's body. This paper goes into some detail about the contents of the Book of Nut and where it has been found, although it does not contain the text of the book itself.

For further reading on Nut here are some papers and websites I recommend:

A Cosmography of the Unknown. The qbḥw (nṯrw) Region of the Outer Sky in the Book of Nut by Silvia Zago

Cosmic Space and Archetypal Time: Depictions of the Sky-Goddess Nut in Three Royal Tombs of the New Kingdom and Her Relation to the Milky Way by Amanda-Alice Maravelia

Nut, the Goddess of Life in Text and Iconography by Nils Billing (this is not available for free but I highly recommend it)

A Timeline of the Decans by Theresa Ainsworth

Again I recommend Silvia Zago's book The Evolution of the Concept of Duat and Related Notions in Egyptian Funerary Literature, and to read the entirety of the Pyramid Texts you can visit this website or this one to read the Pyramid Texts of Pharaoh Unas, where the first edition of the Pyramid Texts was found.

I have gone over a handful of the more simple subjects regarding Nut but if you truly have any interest in Her I suggest reading some of the above links. She is a fascinating Goddess and, in my religious opinion, one of the most powerful and beautiful of Them all. She is highly underappreciated and I love discussing Her. If anyone has any other links or comments to make on this Netjeret, please add them in the comments.

[spirk-trek]

I would love to hear your thoughts on kirk's backstory and what happened on tarsus iv, I feel like I've read so many conflicting takes on here and none of them actually match up with the episode (conscience of the king)

Hi anon! The way you worded this makes me think you were just looking for information and not a fic request. Forgive me if I was wrong!! 😅

I think the reason there are so many conflicting ideas is because of how vague it is in canon itself (which is cool, leaves a lot of room for interpretation). Because of this, when I recently wrote a thing about Tarsus IV I also struggled with "research" for it. Here's what I came up with:

!!! Disclaimer! I am not declaring any of this the One True Canon™! This is just my interpretation/speculation based on existing lore !!!

To me, it makes most sense for Jim to be sent to Tarsus IV with his mother, and for her to be a civilian scientist/researcher of some kind. I find it very hard to believe the massacre could have taken place if Starfleet were present, which would include George Kirk, Jim's father. George is said to have been absent often due to his work (SNW), so it wouldn’t be strange for him to be separated from his family (this is also just normal in Star Trek in general, i.e. Sulu [AOS] and like… everyone with children in TNG).

A more recent Trek book called Drastic Measures seems to back this exact idea up (depends who you ask which novels are canon, and this book was written for Discovery so take it with a grain of salt).

Sam would, in the TOS timeline, be 10 years older than Jim (~23). That would make it unlikely he'd be tailing after his mother to remote colonies. It's much more likely he was concerned with his own career/family/life.

So, in summary of those points, I think it was just Jim and Winona. Jim is between 12 and 14 years old, and his mother was a civilian researcher (the novel I mentioned earlier made her a xenobiologist, probably for plot reasons).

Something I do see exaggerated sometimes is the method of killing in the massacre. An antimatter chamber appears to be what was used, similar to A Taste of Armageddon, so it would not have been mass carnage or a big dramatic fight in the end. Just... zap. 

SPOCK: "He was certainly among the most ruthless, to decide arbitrarily who would survive and who would not [...] and then to implement his decision without mercy. Children watching their parents die. Whole families, destroyed. Over four thousand people. They died quickly, without pain, but they died.”

However, these are also quotes from the episode, so I can see why people might think the massacre itself was more violent: 

- JIM: “Four thousand people were needlessly butchered.” - LEIGHTON: “I remember him. That voice. The bloody thing he did.”  - JIM: “Are you sure you didn't act this role out in front of a captive audience whom you blasted out of existence without mercy?” - KARIDIAN/KODOS: “Murder, flight, suicide, madness. I never wanted the blood on my hands ever to stain you.” 

There was a revolution of some kind, probably brought about by people easily radicalized out of hunger and desperation.

- KARIDIAN/KODOS: [reading] "The revolution is successful…” - SPOCK: “There were over eight thousand colonists and virtually no food. And that was when Governor Kodos seized full power and declared emergency martial law.”

If Kodos already had his ideas about eugenics, which it sounds like he did, he would have seized this as an opportunity. This would make him an even more solid comparison to Hitler, which they were definitely going for to at least some extent (this was written two decades after WWII which many involved in the making of star trek were deeply affected by if not veterans themselves).

Because of the above quotes, I also think there’s merit to the idea of there being multiple formal executions where Kodos gave his infamous “speech” each time rather than just once (this would be another reason Jim would remember it enough to write it down), rather than one massive execution of 4,000 people. However, this quote could be interpreted to mean the opposite:

SPOCK: “Kodos began to separate the colonists. Some would live, be rationed whatever food was left; The remainder would be immediately put to death.”

Arguably, the even more traumatic suffering would be the period of starvation and upheaval leading up to the massacre. To me, a 3-6 month period of slowly worsening starvation as the food supply shrank and shrank to nothing would make the most sense.

One aspect I don't quite get is that Kodos's body was supposed to have been "burned beyond recognition.” Since we know from Conscience of the King his death was staged, then this fake death can’t have been pulled off in the midst of Starfleet intervention upon arrival (they would have taken him into custody to stand trial rather than kill him on sight anyway). Burning yourself to death is a highly unusual form of suicide, so I’m not sure if that’s supposed to allude to him being fake killed in the carnage following the execution when the people didn't react the way he wanted or expected? My only theory is that there was unrest and rioting for the period of time between the massacre and Starfleet arriving with relief, and he used that to fake his death once he knew he would be put on trial.

Anyway, this is super long so I'll cut myself off there. Hope that answered your question, sorry for being crazy! If anyone has anything to add, please do!

[dragonitepaw]

Hi! I love your super paper Mario AU, could you tell us more about it?

Waaaah Im glad you like it 🥹 i havent got too much on it as of right now but I have plans to develop it more once ive finished my uni project !!

as right now though here are some of the details/character roles:

Mario - Kirby Luigi - Bandee Bowser - Dedede Peach - either Tiff/Fumu (from the anime) or potentially Adeleine I haven't decided on that yet, originally i went straight for Fumu but i got a comment saying Adeleine would be a great fit too !! it all depends on whether i wanna include anime characters or not

Count Bleck - Meta Knight Tippi/Timpani - Galacta Knight (its their love story bc metagala forever 🫶) Nastasia - Sailor Dee O'chunks - Mace Knight Mimi - Javelin (the other meta-knights would be present too but have less of a role in the story as those 3)

Dimentio - Marx ^^^ originally i was gonna have vul as dimentio as i wanted all of count bleck's minions to be the meta-knights, but it also makes sense for the one non meta-knight character to be the one to betray them and marx just fits perfectly thematically >:)

as a little extra Merlon would be Morpho Knight which is my explanation for why Galacta Knight appears as a pixl butterfly, Morpho having the butterfly motif is my justification for the sense around galacta being their own butterfly that isnt just the morpho butterfly :)

okay now with characters done with,, the general narrative is the same destroying the world after galacta/tippi is "gone" but more fit around the ancients and heroes of yore lore being the driving point for meta and galacta meeting and forming a bond which then leads to the events of the game:

Meta's family (the tribe of darkness) were responsible for trying to end the world before using the dark prophecy (to make their own world and have the power to govern it) - meta being younger at this time had no say in what happened, Nightmare is the head of the family and the one who attempting to end the world (but thats not too important as nightmare plays no role in the main story anyways its just context).

The heroes of Yore (which includes Galacta as the hero of heart going off of my own personal hcs) were the ones to stop the family and strike some sort of deal that prevented them from using the dark prognosticus, saying if they were to try such a thing again then the heroes would be less merciful and banish the entire tribe away, knowing the heroes were more than powerful enough to live up to their threat the nightmare gave in, and the dark prognosticus was hidden away by the heroes to prevent the dark prophecy from being initiated once again.

Years down the line (much like in the original story) meta ends up getting injured and galacta comes across him, nursing him back to health. Meta didnt know about the heroes of yore and their threat to the family so wasnt aware of who galacta was, vice verca with galacta they werent aware meta was part of the tribe of darkness at the time. the two bond and eventually fall in love <3

Eventually nightmare finds out about and becomes enraged about his son and the enemy in such a relationship. He scolds meta and tells him not to go near Galacta again as the heroes 'ruined everything for them' and 'befriending them will only ever bring trouble to their family' in attempt to protect his son from them. however, meta doesn't listen as he's head over heels in love with Galacta at this point. In retaliation, Nightmare uses all of his magic to produce a strong spell to seal Galacta away in a crystal, in a far off dimension so Galacta and meta cannot meet again, as a way of protecting Meta and stopping any trouble from coming to their family.

Like in the original, Meta becomes devastated but enraged by the loss of Galacta, thinking they're dead and not seeing worth in a world without them. finding minions through the meta-knights and tracking down the dark prognosticus, Meta decides to bring about the dark prophecy and spawn the void, starting the beginning of the end.

Morpho comes across the crystal with galacta sealed within it. The amount of power needed to unseal them is a lot, and so Morpho not being powerful enough by themself, inwardly uses galactas life force alongside their own magical ability to unseal them, though this results in galacta becoming very weak and in order to save them, Morpho turns them into a pixl, and like tippi in the original story galacta loses all memory of who they were before being a pixl.

--

thats the main stuff i have for now which when looking over it,, is quite a bit 😅 there are still some aspects i need to adjust/change, the main one being the formation of the chaos heart bc if i have tiff/adeleine in peach's role i am not having them get forcefully married to king dedede 💀 for obvious reasons

^^ my initial thoughts are just having the chaos heart form from meta's pain and emotions, we will see i will be developing and thinking about it more once i have the free time :)

Thank you for the ask and I hope this was interesting to read :00

[signor-signor]

SaveWOY’s 8th Anniversary

This is officially the 8th year of SaveWOY, a campaign launched by a user called @peepsqueak when @crackmccraigen mentioned the existence of the pitch/plans for S3 AND Disney’s decision to cancel Wander Over Yonder after two seasons right before S2 premiered, an act that sparked the fire in those who cared about the show (IMO, that fire was stoked more by Disney’s willingness to give Star vs. the Forces of Evil a third season AND a fourth season). Gary Marsh was in charge of greenlighting/renewing shows, so I wonder if his conscience is finally getting the better of him. I also hope the plans for S3 haven’t been deleted.

As obstinate as Craig himself may be, we’re still collecting plenty of useful information about S3 nonetheless. The brief cameo in Future-Worm showed us that Wander and Sylvia would be in charge of the Star Nomad, the CBR interview was where Craig brought up Star Force Enforcement Force, and the live talk at the Nucleus Gallery was where he expanded a bit more on the Star Nomad’s role in S3. Let’s also not forget the handful of hints @suspendersofdisbelief gave away to clue us into the details of S3.

We fans have come too far to give up, so go ahead, show your interest in the show and its need for a proper conclusion by sharing your content based on everything we know about S3. And why not try to expand a little bit on the show’s lore in a way that’s fitting for both the fans and the crew? That’s what I did with my Eye on the Galaxy idea (ask me for the link if you’re having trouble finding it on my page). And what say we get back to Trending 27th? We’re sure to get more answers if we persevere.

[kkat-astrophic]

Danganronpa Manga Rant- Leon and Sayaka:

@yukiteruakari told me about a Danganronpa Manga edition, and OH MY GOD!!! Thankyou so much for this bro omg.

I'm only up to "Junkos" impaling, but it's so much better than the one I have.

I'll put some screenshots below, and the link too because so far it's translated to English.

Why the Manga is better, what it could do for the fandom:

It gives Sayaka and Leon so much more development as characters and seeing as Mondos case is next we might get to see what they talked about in the sauna. (<- there are so many fan theories for that one, and I'm excited to finally get more lore.)

It's hard to be a Danganronpa fan in 2024 because it all happened 14, 12, and 7 years ago. So like... Spike aren't going to just start explaining more lore on twitter randomly because they feel like it, Danganronpa is done, but this manga helps us understand the killers motive.

If ALL of the fandom read it I'd probably assume the "Mondo Brother Killer >:(" cliche that some of the fandom define him as would be gone, because it has his POV instead of a Monokuma flashback and a shitty animated clip of him doing it "for no reason" other than being "strong-strong-strong-strong-strong" (from the canon game and animation 2014.)

LeoXSaya Rant, Manga>>>Animation:

And yes, Sayaka was revealed to be a bit more of a "snake" (she isn't btw) but her motives were humane and we only thought she wasn't because Makoto is the protagonist and wouldn't think bad about any of his friends.

It also gives Leon haters a reason to stfu and enjoy his character design and small role while it lasts, and it's better than playing his FTEs because he's just gloating about picking up chicks and being better than everybody at Baseball despite hating in from what I've seen.

Also, the art is just BETTER.

The dialogue is just BETTER!

They gave Sayaka a reason to invite Leon over. Because in the anime and game yes it's "wow Sayaka is so hot" on Leons part, but wouldn't that mean Leon would've been the person to invite her to HIS room instead?

But in the Manga they explain her thought process, anybody who hasn't read it will probably just go "Sayaka's dumb for inviting a STAR ATHLETE to try and kill!" but she's smart because if she had killed him she already had an alibi. "We were friends! We bonded over music and drank tea together!" or something... saying that, Sayaka couldn't WIN because Makoto knew about the room swapping ofc. And she'd leave evidence and whatnot.

*Sighs* The Animation Butchered Our Boys...:

(BOYS BECAUSE THE ANIMATION BUTCHERED SO MANY CHARACTERS AND GAVE THEM PISSY MOTIVES AND SHIT-)

I hate the anime alot, but the thing that PISSED ME OFF THE MOST (about 1-1 of the animation) WAS LEON'S REACTION. He was having a mental breakdown, which was fine and accurate... probably good as well instead of him screaming "stupid" then losing it halfway through the word and realising his fate quietly.

They give him a moment of remorse.

"I didn't want to... I mean she... she was tring to... kill me... right? I just... didn't know what else to do... okay...?" (quote end)

but then he gets mad.

I don't know about you, but on first watch this ruined it for me. "He's just screaming now..." like... it makes me mad for almost no reason.

He was about to have a very humane moment of "I didn't have a choice..." he's looking down at the pedestal thingy in the court, he's defeated, he's sad, he's been caught. He's in despair.

Then he yells at the others "you would've done the same thing in my shoes!"

And you know what the writers did instead of making him cry after that? Anything... would've been better, but this is the dam animation we're talking about...

"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE OKAY! THE CRAZY SKANK WAS GOING TO KILL ME, WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!"

He did have a choice...

The manga gave him a choice, he tried to save Sayaka. Then he ended up killing her, ON ACCIDENT. That line alone contradicts the fact of any of that happening, he and Sayaka had just bonded hours earlier.

Like, this is my opinion and I've never heard anybody talk about this before, BUT THE WRITERS NEEDED TO WRITE LEON BETTER!!! The game wrote Leon fine, but the animation was a second chance at giving him development!

I liked him trying to escape the court room though. That was a nice touch that I don't think was in the game.

BUT BROOOOO HE CALLED SAYAKA A SKANK HOURS AFTER ADMITTING HE WAS CRUSHING ON HER, DANGANRONPA ANIMATION WHERE'S THE LOGIC!

Like, the scene made me so mad on re-watch and I can't pinpoint why!

Like instead of this: https://youtu.be/CbQ6McYz7U0?t=59

(Good animation though imo, the closeup expressed his emotions nicely-)

HAVE THIS THOUGH, THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER!

IT JUST HITS WAY BETTER-

Anyway, that's my rant of the day because why not.

The game itself had issues, but compared to the animation it was just so much better, and makes me want to give it a 7/10 instead of a 6...

[kirbybecomesastarwarrior]

Birth of the Lone Swordsman

Scenario: Meta Knight passes his exam to become a Star Warrior but is rejected in joining the Holy Knights (A.K.A Knight of the Round table). Arthur claims BS that his student wasn’t allowed to join his squadron by the Ancients and elite but Meta has made up his mind. 

I tried to give the comic an old flash back feel sorry if colors look weird. listen to “ I will make you proud” from tangle the series for emotional effect to fit the theme...

Yeah I know I keep writing MK Angst Kirby ain’t happy either.... (reaction at the bottom/ lore explanation at the bottom.

In the story, I gave a prelude to MK’s past of almost getting killed the moment he was born, because he was born from the fountain of dreams without a warpstar but they find out later that he came from N.M.E which MK was his first attempt in destroying the Fountain of Dreams. When MK didn’t obey Nightmare he sent him through the fountain as a living bomb and was supposed to be dead on arrival. The Ancients and other Star Warriors saw this and were going to kill him off N.M.E’s mistake.

But one lone Star Warrior seeing that he was a young boy stood up for him and plead for his life, Sir Arthur. The leader was someone else at the time Sir Uther  (an OC who I will introduce into the story). He was one of the four legendary warriors and was the first winged astrals to be birth from the fountain of dreams. His persona is based off the Uther from Merlin the T.V. series (which was my fav. show back then) And if you watch you know that he’s basically the @sswhole of the series basically just replace his hatred of magic with N.M.E and we have yourself the corrupt leader of the GSA. But unlike in the series he is not Arthur's father but his mentor and when he stepped up to defend Meta he was pissed.

He straight up told him that if MK turns corrupted or a traitor he’d kill him personally. The Ancients agree to this and assigned him guardianship of MK... which was a first. Usually when a puffball is born education is done by the Ancients (MK wasn’t a baby like Kirby I’d say preteen) and are assigned a senior knight when they are ready. But none of them wanted to raise him since his birth did not come from Void so it was solely up to Arthur. 

Little MK was still shivering when he was out of the fountain, so the red cape was what Arthur wrapped around him to keep him warm. Unlike Uther who was strict and cruel to him when he was his protege; Arthur tried his best to be a good role model for MK. Though Uther influence was strong and to this day Arthur still fears him which is why he made sure to keep MK on the right path... unintentionally hurting him. 

You see the whole time he was training MK he always would encourage him to just hide and conceal his wings. And when MK’s “dark powers” would peak he would immediately correct him (especially if Uther was watching) while he knew he meant well MK couldn’t help but feel a little hurt by his teacher’s action. But Arthur promised him that this was the right way to do it and if he continued they’d surely see that he was capable of being a great hero. And Arthur made sure to nourish and nurture that little hope in his heart to motivate him through the hardship. But unintentionally putting pressure on him to be the perfect soldier. (Similar to Tai Lung and Shifu) But instead, MK is fueled by a lack of self-worth to do better rather than out of pride like Tai Lung ... 

MK already knew of the pressures that were on Arthur so not to burden him MK just kept quiet about his feelings. So what if his teacher winced a bit when his wings peaked out~. While his intentions were good his methods were not right.  Still, MK adored his teacher and was extremely grateful to him.  And promised him that “he’d  grow up to be his right-hand man and fight right by his side.” He knew Arthur cared about him, but still felt upset he would ignore the other side of himself... This was also fueled by the fact that part of Arthur still feared Uther, but also wanted his old teacher’s approval (Uther is truly the worse).

Which got worse over time MK’s powers got stronger which made it more difficult to hide them. This brings us to this seen in the comic, MK takes is final exam he passes but the Ancients and the higher-ups don’t want MK to join the elites. During this time they were looking to make the next generation of legendary warriors which would be under Sir Arthur (basically Arthur’s knights of the round table).  But they didn’t feel comfortable that the cursed star would represent them. So they passed him, MK was indeed a Star Warrior but his position was up in the air. 

Arthur was ready to fight for him but MK had enough and the feelings he had bottled up all these years ago come out. (shout out to MK's old design) This was a very significant turning point that broke student and master.  MK’s red cape while mismatched to him was supposed to be a symbol of hope for him; which was the intention Arthur meant to give... but to MK which became something he could never be. It breaks Arthur’s heart to realize how much he failed his boy... MK felt ashamed and thought he failed Arthur in turn.

He completely shut down being accepted by the higher up/ the Ancients and not wanting to trouble his teacher any longer... he continued on as “the Lone Swordsman” of the GSA. Basically acting as a bounty hunter doing sole missions... Eventually when the GSA started accepting drafts/volunteers.

These made up the front liners of the GSA (the first to be killed) which MK is tasked to train them, this becomes a blessing in disguise on both ends for this is where MK meets his first real friend Jerca and his future-found family. Hope nothing bad happens to them...

[smiles-ocs]

Some concepts and ideas for Castor and Ronan’s story called Starchild. Some of these are… hard to get to drawing, specifically Ronan’s younger siblings, might redesign them, but they’re all very young. Ronan left to join a crew so he could make money for them while his parents physically can’t work, and he made sure that his 12-year-old brother is very helpful. Then some random character ideas. A first mate on Castor’s pirate crew, two important characters named Rigel and Esther, castor as a young boy, and random scene ideas I have.

There’s a lot of crap I’m rambling about under the cut so go there if you want to know more about the characters, lore, and spoilers

I also have an idea of a deity or something of the sorts. It’s bascially a “Star God”, something with incredible power that was given to them from the heavens, and it is responsible for the starchildren that have shown up around the world, hence why this series is called Starchild. The whole thing around the Star God is a mystery, but people do know it exists thanks to the star children. This is a little dark but some explanation on Starchildren:

Starchildren are born every few hundred years or so, it’s unknown how often a starchild is born, but people believe that starchildren are the star god’s children, and that when they reach a certain age, they are sacrificed to deal with all the problems the world is having. They believe that if a starchild is not sacrificed, demons from hell will arrive to destroy the world. I hinted at this on my last post, but starchildren turn into strange creatures, the main one being the Leviathan. There’s also the Kraken and the other one who’s name is so complicated I’m not even going to bother with it dhskdbsk.

Long story short, the whole thing is a lie. Starchildren have incredible power when they become adults and are “awakened” as Starchildren. They remember the person that gave them that power (the Star God) and their purpose, which is watching over the people. However, centuries ago, someone in high power believed that Star children were too powerful, and out of fear, he came up with an excuse to kill starchildren before they grew too powerful, because no one should be more powerful than him. So they killed starchildren when they were young and weak, hiding behind the excuse of it being a sacrifice to the world or something, using the blood to cleanse the world and keep the demons at bay. That way, if the starchildren escape, and inevitably take on the role of “deities”, people will believe that the demons have arrived to punish them for failing, and will try to kill the awakened starchildren.

Starchildren cannot escape their fate, however, because they cannot hide unless they are far away from people. They have blue hair that shines in the darkest fog, blue hair that cannot be hidden, and a star birthmark somewhere.

I suppose there’s no reason to hide this now, but Castor is the starchild of this era, originally called Orion, but he changed his name for safety. He ran away when he learned that he was going to die, trying to escape on a boat. The people almost caught him, but the kraken appeared, seemingly saving his life. As Castor tried to hide from people, he tried to hide his blue hair, but it constantly shines through whatever he hid it in. The best he could do was to wrap it up and put a thick hat on, which helped, but even so, you can see in his wrapping the blue hair. He tried to dye it, hide it in mud, even shaving it, but the blue cannot be covered up, so hiding in plain sight was nearly impossible to him. He left to sea to avoid people, but accidentally became captain of the pirate crew. He’s a very jaded man who is intimidating and skilled in sword fighting. People respect him as a captain, so he is in high status on his ship (obviously 💀). Problem is, there is a very, VERY high bounty on the star child’s head, so even the most loyal crew members may turn on him if he is found out.

Castor trusts no one, but he seems to have a soft spot for Ronan for some reason. Even when he eventually finds out that he is the starchild, he can’t bring himself to kill him. He’s just a boy…

Obviously, Esther and Rigel are starchildren as well. Rigel is an ancient starchild, who lived a good life before the starchildren sacrifices. He roams the ocean, punishing anyone who threatens the innocent or disrespects the ocean. There were a lot of starchildren too, but the creatures of starchildren were hunted and killed, leaving Rigel, Esther, and Castor the last three starchildren. Esther was a starchild who escaped the sacrifice, who is far more cruel and jaded than Castor, and when Castor is “awakened”, she goes after him to use him to punish everyone.

Rigel is that turtle Whale island thing, Esther is the kraken, and Castor turns into the Leviathan.

The star god is no benevolent being, and is not a god at all. He’s a regular human who got magic from some meteorite, idk, there doesn’t need to be any specifics lol, and he grew immensely powerful. He resides away from the ocean, but he is not a good person. He’s greedy, selfish, and does nothing to help the innocent starchildren he “created”. He would love to have the starchildren to do his bidding, but if they die, it’s no matter, cuz he doesn’t need them. Idk maybe he’s not greedy lol. Either way the star god is not a good person, but I kinda want the star god’s role to be similar to Davy Jones in pirates of the Caribbean. There must always be a star god.

Anyways I hope that all makes sense 💀💀 Ronan is just there, being roped up into this nonsense, but he’s a good boy with a good heart and wants to help the starchildren, and he and Castor grow close.

[thunder-shadow]

Finally got to read all the chapters of the Ghe fic (Heaven says (you’re in danger)) after much procrastination, despite how excited I was after reading the first chapter that was published. I LOVED it! just was a bit anxious of reading the next chapters of what would’ve happened next (coupled with me being busy with some wedding stuff).

Anyways, now that I’m caught up I can finally say my thoughts and I’m gonna go in detail. So Brace yourself this might be long and I’d probably ramble and repeat a lot, but you asked for it.

I have to say I just LOVE how you incorporated the actual lore of Ghe with your own ideas and hc’s without losing the plot, everything was just so well explained and written! Let me tell that I’m a Earth centric/angst lover, so I’d usually only read those kind of fics. I’ve only ever read all your your Earth centric/angst or stories (except for the paranoia au (Luna pov) and moon switch (Uranus pov),not that I’m against your other fics just not my cup of tea (As you can tell Earth’s my fave). This fic isn’t an Earth centric fic but it might just be my top 1 fic written by you so far, with hush being close 2nd. I loved the way you included all the characters in this fic and gave them a role, and that we actually got to see the effect of the Iris on the whole solar system. How the Iris was introduced, the multiple pov’s, The Iris’s moons and their appearance! The way you balanced the role of all the characters together was immaculate, it just felt so natural, realistic. (Excited noise’s)

The ability of Iris to regenerate is genius, which would make sense why his as strong as to take down whole star systems. His black blood being deadly or at least really harmful to celestial bodies. His his third eye, the claws and they way you described his ability to mind control and take over their bodies gorgeous. 

Love The Iris as a character, such well written villain. Hate him as planet, but love him as a villain. I’ve noticed his the only mentioned as ‘The Iris’ with word starting before his name, and it just sounds so much more sinister and Menacing that way.

The Earthling pov’s are just the best feels like I’m watching a horror, thriller, suspense movie. It’s hard to find a story which is this good. Honestly your description ability are magnificent, you’re not explaining too little to understand, nor are they too excessive, just the right amount. The camera zooms and movements in general in the 2nd chapter and the glitches that appears whenever they mention something important to keep the suspense and anticipation is brilliant. (Applaud)

Dr. Arke, I’m guessing she is a part of Iris’s mutated creations, or maybe she’s a piece of him in earthling form. I’d like to know more about her and what she left exactly in that meeting room, what type of mutated being- was it natures mockery, woodcrawl…?

I was curious about how the sun was asleep, but got that answered with the supernova gem. Though I wanna know can The Iris use any supernova gem to make a star sleep or does every star have their own gem that can be used against them? And how exactly did the Iris get it?

Man poor Neptune, but I’m glad his moons are ok or at least alive despite some being badly injured and others being traumatised. At least he tried protecting them along side Titania.

I wonder what’s causing Saturn to be so tired. I’m guessing it’s the new moon he got - Chiron’s moon bracelet was tight around his wrist so the mutation might have gone through it? His rings were thinning out too, this might have to do with him being a gateway or whatever, if you’re going with that lore from ghe. Though I’m not sure what him being a gateway means exactly.

The Iris finally got what is meant to be ‘his’. I wonder what he plans to do with Earth and the rest of the solar system?- aside from destroying it and leaving everyone dead (except Earth) once his done with it. Is this gonna be like a platonic obsession or like a one sided attraction. And why is he after Earth, is it because of his life or is that just a factor amongst many others?

Will this story have a bad ending or a good sad ending? Is the Iris gonna get what he wants or will his plans fail? I guess I’ll just have to wait to figure out huh.

I hope you get to answer some of my questions if possible without spoiling too much. Overall I’m rating this fics, and it’s a solid 1000000/10 from meh! Ik you might be disappointed by not getting as much written interaction for your recent chapter, so i hope this compensates for that. 

Anyways I’ve made this long enough. Take care, looking forward to the next chapter! <3

Finally getting to this 😭🙏🏼 I woke up at 3am randomly to see this in my inbox and I was so happy it was hard to fall back asleep so I wasn't extremely tired at work LOL

Thank u sm for the praise, I really appreciate it 🥺 Gonna save this ask and reread it so many times I already know :3

Okay, now into the meat of it!! I'm glad u like how I've worked the Iris into it, I wanted him to have these powers that made him such a threat and I'm glad it's working out like that :D I waffle between calling him the Iris and just Iris sm idk if you can tell in the chapters themselves ;-;

Dr. Arke is a sort of piece of the Iris (the way I view it, he can fracture his mind like infinitely many times so that he can more easily take over systems, because otherwise how could he control so many people at once?) sorta like the men in suits in the original GHE (i forget if that's what they are but yeahhh)

We've got one more piece of human lore to cover, and we're returning to Astrowife next chapter (as well as an Astrodude segment!!!); but I gotta be honest y'all the humans are fucked LOL like even in the actual analog horror itself it's kinda like... useless to fight back, the solarballs/ghe universe earthlings are just lucky the planets actually Can fight back LOL

We're not done with Neptune's moons, especially Triton (I luv Triton sm can you tell), they'll be more of them :DDD

can The Iris use any supernova gem to make a star sleep or does every star have their own gem that can be used against them? And how exactly did the Iris get it?

Supernova gems are meant to be used for any star, there's no like... tailoring application. Iris has used the same gem over and over again, which also means that sometimes it glitches ;) The Iris has had it for billions of years, and how he originally got it... well, still figuring that out ;)

I'm somewhat going with the GHE lore for Saturn? I have no idea what the gateway thing could mean either, so it's a little different in my AU. You'll see!

Iris and Earth - one-sided obsession :D LOL THIS JUST RANDOMLY POPPED INTO MY MIND it's like THIS

and it IS because of his life! you'll see something in the next chapter :D

and on the the ending - just wait and seeeeee <3 :D

sorry, this is so disjointed but thank u sm i literally love u random anon /p

[original-character-championship]

Bracket B Round 1

Poll 32

Felix (@oopsie0503) vs. Luna (@goblinoid-wretch)

127. Felix (@oopsie0503)

He/They

They're my favorite traumatized transgender homosexual little creature. He is so tragic. He is such a kind little soul who wouldn't hurt a fly, he just wanted to be accepted for who he was! His family didn't accept him when he came out as trans and he was in a horrible place when the God of the Sun came along and told him he could give them a better life. Of course when a God, respected and worshipped, offers to give you the life you've dreamed of, you'd take it. Then a lot of really shitty stuff happens to him, I won't get into it here because some of it's really sensitive but you can find all his lore on @lux-loquitur plus some other characters from his lore. He's got two kids, and he loves them both unconditionally even if they are both in some way direct results of his trauma. He gets betrayed by his husband (Moon) who saved him from his abuser, (Sun) and he ends up trapped in a 'star room', or a depiction of his last movements which were so confusing and tragic in so many ways that they ruined his afterlife. He is stuck here for centuries, unable to interact with any of the objects in the room including pictures of his daughters, as well as himself and Moon. He can't figure out why he'd killed him, it's lost on him. Slowly he goes insane, his mind snapping, until he is summoned by Moon after the God finds a strange orb (which the universe itself may or may not have had some role in delivering). Felix, now the only Lux to ever visit the living realm from the afterlife, is more powerful than even the God of Creation, killing Sun, his abuser, and taking on the position of God of the Dead and the Stars.

Felix is a part of a species called the Lux, with dark skin, freckles, a long tail with a tuft of fur at the end, and long pointed ears. His eyes are a vibrant electric blue, matching with the glowing bits of his antenna. His hair is cut halfway down to his neck and is a dark brown. His usual attire consists of a crescent moon choker, a sleeveless crop top, and a pair of dark blue shorts and an arm band depicting hearts. After death he comes back as a spirit (and eventually becomes the god of death) and he is a slightly opaque, vibrant blue. His eyes are a dark cyan and parts of him which once gave off light are now dark. His death wound on his neck as well as his mouth and nose bleed for centuries. His arm band depicts broken hearts and he is able to have either a wispy, genie like body or legs as he pleases.

128. Luna (@goblinoid-wretch)

She/her

I have put her through enough goddamn trauma for both iterations of her life. She has suffered through capture by the faux-SCP Foundation of my universe, had like maybe five years worth of time with her brother before he got killed because she let her guard down for a second, spend maybe another year trying to come to terms with this (with the support of her girlfriend <3) before she was forced to kill her girlfriend (</3), then got like a week to start processing all of this before the end of the universe.

AND THEN THE UNIVERSE RESETS BECAUSE THE CORRUPTED GOD FRAGMENT (there are 3 creator fragments btw) ABSORBED ANOTHER ONE OF THE FRAGMENTS AND MADE A FLAWED AND NONSENSICAL REPLICA OF THE OLD UNIVERSE!!! So now Luna has to deal with inexplicably working for the Foundation after escaping as a D-Class equivalent years before while being haunted by a strange anomaly that she can never remember (her brother acting as a guardian angel). She gets a different girlfriend this time around, who is also helping her through her problems, but because it's the Foundation where everybody has to have something wrong somehow, the girlfriend is intrinsically linked to an exploitative demon that takes control occasionally, exploiting the weaknesses that Luna has shared to further damage her mental state. She also has to cope with their weird hollowness left over from the unresolved feelings pre-universe reset, so there's that.

She just desperately needs a win right now. She's got the anger of a poorly-adjusted teen trapped in the body of a 20-something year old, a theoretically biting wit that often fails her whenever she's trying to make any sort of clever remark, and a seeming curse of absolutely horrendous luck.

She has been my main failgirl-poor little meow meow-scringo for the better part of 4 years now after countless character developments (she started off as the child of two fnaf ocs when I had a brief intersection between interests in fnaf and scp and she just stuck around forever) and I just desperately want her to have some kind of award before I spring the third universe reset on her (sorry luna).

Being demonic in nature, she has dark grey skin, black eyes, and red pupils. Her hair is white, as is her brother's, and she dyes it with orange streaks. She has two horns that break through the hair which extend about three inches out from her forehead and curve. Each horn comes to a slightly curved T-shape split, where the arms of the T extend about an inch below and five inches above where the horn sprouts. Her blood is blue, a color which comes through when she blushes. She has acne scarring on her face across her cheeks and her nose, as well as down her back and on her shoulders. She also has several scars from various battles on various parts of her body. She has a fairly muscular build, though when she initially returns from the Foundation she is somewhat malnourished. She stands at approximately 5'7, a good 7 inches shorter than her brother (a fact that he teases her about regularly), and weighs about 164 pounds.

In the initial timeline, she always wears a black jacket with grey faux fur that her brother got her when she showed up st his doorstep immediately after escaping, which she continues to patch up and wear to this day. She tends to wear cargo pants (for more pockets), sneakers, and t-shirts of various designs, though while going off on missions under the guidance of the fragments she tends to don her old Foundation jumpsuit (inexplicably - she seems to have fond memories, or may be wearing it because of a promise.) Her hair is fairly unkempt,  and tends to fall over her left eye.

Post-reset, she wears her hair pulled back in a low ponytail to keep it out of her eyes. She uses makeup to hide the acne scarring on her face. What she wears changes depending on her mission, but most of the time while she's on the job she wears a black two piece suit with a white work shirt, black dress pants, black dress shoes, and a black tie (the standard uniform for agents within the site where she works.) Her casual wear tends to be the same as pre-reset: t-shirt, cargo pants, sneakers. She also wears a black hoodie as opposed to the pre-reset back jacket, as her brother technically never existed post-reset. The hoodie still makes her feel remorse and nostalgia, though she can't quite place why.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Crisis at the Borderlands

Borderlands was always going to be terrible. In order for that film to be a thing, it needed a hard R rating and there was no way 2K was going to let that happen. Leave money on the table by alienating the children audience? For shame! I’m not a looter shooter guy so I never played the Borderlands games, but I am aware of most of that world’s lore. I understood, pretty early on, that this thing was definitely going to get a film adaption and the only way to do  it, was to lean heavy in the absurdity of it all. I’m talking Guardians of the Galaxy meets Deadpool. You need the crass vulgarity and over-the-top gore in order to properly realize Pandora in real time. Eli Roth is good at that. It’s an odd thing to see because it’s almost as if they were shooting for Guardians and landed on the first Suicide Squad, when the second one was right there as the blueprint. I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing was shot for the R and edited around the PG-13, which would mean there are SWATHS of this film on the cutting room floor. I haven’t seen it and don’t really plan to but I hear there is a pretty great film in to be seen, if you can cut through the mire of mediocrity. A pretty common critique floating around is that Borderlands is simultaneously the most expensive and cheapest looking film you will ever see. All of that ambition, all of that6 potential, all of that budget, lost in the wind. This thing cost a hundred million to make, and had an eight million opening weekend. Hard pass, all across the demos. Who was this movie for? Where did all that money go? I can tell you where a big chunk of it went; The cast.

The worst thing about this film, and the one thing I absolutely knew was going to tank it, was the cast. When I saw Cate Blanchett in that horrendous wig, I knew this film was doomed. Never mind about the atrocious green screen, why the f*ck did you cast Blanchett, a damn near sixty year old woman, in the role of Lilith, a Siren who is very much not that? No shade to Blanchett, she is gorgeous and one of my favorite actresses working today with a range to be envied by anyone, but this was not the look, chief. Jamie Lee Curtis is an even more egregious miss as Dr. Tannis. Just, how? How do you look at Patricia’s model and see a sixty-five year old woman? How do you get Kevin Heart and nor, say, Terry Cruz for Roland? I mean, they nailed Tiny Tina and Mad Moxxi and I’ll even give them Jack Black as Claptrap, but your leads are all wrong. And, more to the point, expensive. Cate and Jaime are Oscar winners, which immediately jacks their rates through the roof. Blanchett is known to do her thing in the geeky pool, no one will come close to her Hela, but Curtis has a disdain for that type of stuff. Her rancor over Marvel proved that much but, her willingness to pop into the One Piece adaption is pretty chill. Either way, you’re paying top dollar for those two and Hart ain’t showing up for less than ten million on any project. Those three right there probably account for a quarter of the budget, if not more. And they’re all miscast! It’s nuts! Sh*t smacks of Corpo panic induced by microtransaction greed. Considering this is 2K we’re talking about, I wouldn’t be surprised.

It’s nuts to me because you could have cast younger, less expensive stars, gave it the R rating it need to thrive, and made this movie for substantially less risk. Someone like a Vanessa Kirby would have been dope as Tannis and I can’t unsee Samara Weaving trouncing about as Lilith. Both of them are excellent actresses, both of them have a solid fan base, and both of them are cheap. I already tapped Cruz for Roland and you can throw the most money David Eddings has ever seen, his way and have him voice Claptrap in the film, giving an organic tie to the games, and allow the rest of that budget for scripting and world building. That’s the strength of those games, the world around those characters, Obviously, develop relationships and make them compelling because no one cares about a journey if the characters aren’t solid but it’s the world around them which drives a lot of that pathos. There is heart in those Guardians films but you’re nuts if you think traversing across space and interacting with alien civilizations didn’t go a long way to bolstering that endearment to those films. Ivan totally see a neon drenched, kinetic ass violence streak, chock full off heartwarming character moments and saturated in CG blood splatter, absolutely killing a January to mid-March box office. There’s no way, especially after the reception to that initial trailer, you release this thing after Deadpool and Wolverine drops. That movie was going to kill, regardless of quality, because it’s the swan song to Fox-Marvel. That was their Endgame. You’re not stopping that momentum as proven by the fact the entire thing has leaked online and the f*cker is still doing numbers in the box office. Corpos are dumb. Avi Arad got his name on this was a huge red flag and guess what? He’s delivered another turd. Bless him for nurturing Marvel in the beginning but it’s readily apparent he needs to step aside. He’s too old school for his own good and just delivered a tepid reminder of what video game adaptions used to be, but without anything to redeem all of the horrible choices made.

[pugscoffee]

If your taking asks:

-Who’s your favourite Heavenhold Champion?

-Favourite 3-Star, 2-Star and 1-Star/NPC?

-What’s your favourite world (Story-wise?)

-What’s your favourite world (Mechanic-wise?)

-What’s your favourite element?

-What’s your favourite weapon class?

-If you were a character in Guardian Tales, what would your element, weapon class, and role be?

-What is your favourite boss fight? And which boss do you hate fighting the most?

-If you play Guardian Tales, who’s usually on your team?

-If you could fight/punch 1 character in Guardian Tales, who would it be?

Before starting i want to say what i won't be answering your questions with "Knight","Garam" or "Craig" as response because (i am literally obsessed with them 24/7,like,the brainrot is in fact real.) i want to take this opportunity to talk about my other favorite characters i am very fond of,so now,let's start!

▪︎Who is your favorite Heavenhold Champion?

-My favorite Champion is definitely Coco! (Sorry Lilith,she always wins my heart 🫶🏻)Ough I LOVE HER OKAY??? (Platonic) I'm being honest when i say what she is a very well written character (and World 16 truly showcases that!),i love her personnality so much ok??? I still don't understand why there is people what doesn't like her,she is so nice! her design is cute,it looks so warm and comfyyy,Coco is a very relatable character too-....at least for me (Me 🤝 Coco= Having trust issues ),honestly,i get very happy everytime i see more content of her ingame (like fr,when i saw what Coco appeared in the second Summer Side-story i legit screamed of happiness 😭).

▪︎Favorite 3-Star,2-Star and 1-Star/NPC?

-Favorite 3-Star: LAPICE MY BELOVED WIFE OF COURSE!!!💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞🩷(Again,sorry Lilith)My silly wifeyyy i'm going to cherish your dreams forever,maybe you don't have that much content ingame (and the Devs are aware of it,and still decided to make fun of it) but i still love you so much 🫶🏻

-Favorite 2-Star: EVA‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ She is awesome! I love her like.....Ourg Eva my beloved you're so amazing I LOVE (Platonic) YOUUUUUUUUU 🩷💞🩷💞🩷💞,best AroAce icon to me frrr 🤞🏻,also! haven't you see the way what she cares about the Princess???? It warms my heart so much ahlskelwwkel🥹💞 She is a very determined person with a great heart,and her knowledge of magic is so interesting,i would like to see the game expanding more the lore of how the magic works in Tetis tbh,and let me tell you her use of magic is cool! Even if is kinda looking goofy ingame tho (like please i would pay a shit ton of money just to have a class about how magic works and how to use it if Eva was my teacher fr 🙏🏻)LET MY GIRL APPEAR IN THE MAIN STORY AGAIN RIGHT NOW‼️‼️‼️🫵🏻

-Favorite 1-Star: AILIEEEEEEE‼️‼️‼️‼️ *fucking explodes*💥💥💥She is my silly underrated girl,she is a bit traumatized but that's understandable,she is capable of committing murder,does shady stuff,her current job is collecting stuff from rotting corpses,a kind of manipulative girl (fitting knowing her job),an Asexual Lesbian with a Boomer Bi Paternal figure what she cares so much of and defend him to dead if possible (according to the worms in my head 💞🩷💞🩷).Someone was stalking her? She knows and completely gaves a fuck about it ma girl can smack their head with a hammer anytime✌🏻,she probably would be a Twitter user in real life and send death threats,she is such a fucking bastard and she knows it✨️

I'm so fond of her unfortunately.

Hoping for her 3-star version soon 🙏🏻 -

▪︎What's your favorite World (Story-wise?)

-Honestly? I don't know..... Maybe World 16? It has so much Lore to dissect here....

▪︎What's your favorite World (Mechanic-wise?)

-None! I have a love/hate relationship with any game mechanics i fear :)

▪︎What's your favorite element?

-Hhhmm this is a hard one.... Light? Because Lapice and my daughters FP and Priscilla are here i guess.

▪︎What’s your favourite weapon class?

-Staff! I love what we can use Scythes there :)

▪︎If you were a character in Guardian Tales, what would your element, weapon class, and role be?

-Easy!

Element: Dark

Weapon: Staff

Role: Support (I know what i would suck at having a fighting role in GT lmao 💀)

▪︎What is your favourite boss fight? And which boss do you hate fighting the most?

-Maybe it was hellish for other players but i love fighting Beth,it was a good challenge! BUT Raid Fairy. I FUCKING HATE FIGHTING HER.

▪︎If you play Guardian Tales, who’s usually on your team?

-Lapice,FP or Priscilla,Hana and Miya most of the time. I need a better team to advance story mode tbh

▪︎If you could fight/punch 1 character in Guardian Tales, who would it be?

-Let me change that "1" to "3" because I want to punch the shit out of Halbal,Kaden and Morrian,and more Kaden honestly 👊🏻.

So that would be! Thank you so much for the questions! They were fun to answer! 🫶🏻💞🩷💞