#the unbidden

[theironwarsmith]

"The war was going poorly for us. These alien machines; the 'Harrowing' we called them but gods know what they called themselves, were slaughtering our fleets and burning our worlds. We put up a good fight, like we did against the Qin'Xarar Consortium but the Harrowing pushed us back further and further, not even Earth was spared.

I saw those pyres, the ancient cities of my homeworld ignited by those genocidal toasters. Billions dead. They terraformed Earth into one giant machine city. No birds, trees nor, hell, even grass was built over. One giant power generator of a city. Almost airless too.

We, the survivors that is, fled into the depths of space. Some fled to the remaining colonies, others to other alien empires. Organic aliens that is, most of us survivors distrust AI nowadays.

However, it wasn't long after the Fall of Earth that the machines sent a message to whatever passed for leadership. A white peace it said, they were halting their relentless advance. No explanation, just a message. Of course, it was happily accepted and we began to peace our lives back together, the few hundred thousand that we now were.

It seemed odd that they suddenly stopped but it wasn't long until we found out why. Somewhere across the galaxy, an extradimensional rift had formed and creatures, known as the Unbidden, seemingly made of energy had begun to pour through, intent on devouring us. So we did what we always do, readied our weapons, begun building more ships and prepared to put up another good fight. Our last we thought.

It was then we hear that even the machines were suffering loses to these beings. Known fleets of theirs that had utterly destroyed our greatest fleets were being scattered, with a huge battle being fought at a wormhole exit deep in their own territory. We didn't know whether to cheer or to cry. What chance did we have if they were losing? We hoped the bots would be destroyed, or they'd destroy each other.

We, the organics remaining in the galaxy, banded together and held the hyperspace routes, wormholes and even the gateways of damned near half the galaxy against the extra dimensional threat. Held them at bay. It didn't take long for us to work out that kinetic and explosive weapons worked better against them than the energy weapons we has become used to, so we began our slow counter attack.

However, the Harrowing had worked that out long before us. Our scouts, well sentinels really, spotted colossal ships of Harrowing design firing incredibly accurate kinetic rounds in battles far behind the frontline we had established and they were carving a path towards the rift with brutal efficiency. They systemically destroyed the Anchors that these beings used to tether themselves to our plane of existence, even fighting alongside a small fleet of those Qin'Xarar.

The Battle of the Rift was started by us organics, when our fleets managed to calculate and fight a route through the Unbidden's territory to it. We began trying to destroy the creatures and the rift, it was a tremendous struggle. We were losing ships every few minutes, disintegration is a horrible sight. Just when things were at their darkest, when hope was about to fail, the Harrowing fleets arrived.

In a few short years, they had quadrupled the number of ships they had when fighting us. Their Titans were a sight to behold, glittering noticeably in the void. They open fire, a storm of kinetic slugs and missiles shredding the Unbidden and damaging the rift. It broke them. The rift was sealed that day and the Harrowing disappeared without a word.

Of course, we didn't know those robots had taken half the galaxy in the wake of the Unbidden's demise."

Excerpt of interrogation of Terran survivor 1056837. Subject exterminated.

So I've been playing Stellaris, as a genocidal machine race. It is pretty fun.

[poorlydrawninstarsandtime]

really specific hangups

[ids in alt]

[tinynerdycthulu]

blah blah blah moshang/bingqiu fic that seems like your stereotypical bodyguard/noble fic but no one realizes shang qinghua is the noble and shen yuan is actually just the third son of a mildly prestigious family who became a knight.

shang qinghua is arranged to be married to mobei-jun and luo binghe, mbj's assistant, is the one whoe escorts him and his knight sy to the castle. the journey is pretty long so they end up talking to each other and luo binghe somehow comes to the conclusion that shen yuan is the prince.

shang qinghua doesnt bother to correct him and he orders cucumber-bro not to. to him it makes sense because hes not really princely. plus he can admit shen yuan is extremely unintentionally seductive and lbh is clearly already smitten anyway. plus its super fucking funny to see cucumber-bro completely oblivious to lbh's desperate pining.

(luo binghe's inner monologue: i can't,,,he's my lord's betrothed,,,but he's so kind,,,so lovely,,,i must Resist my base urges,,,)

anyway they finally make it to the palace and lbh is crushed that shen yuan doesnt seem sad at all (is he just fine with marrying a complete stranger? even his bodyguard is sadder than he is!)

before the "official meeting" shang qinghua literally runs into mobei-jun. b/c he's gotten into the bodyguard role he immediately prostates himself and apologizes. cue shock from lbh when mobei-jun falls over himself (well, reaches down 1% quicker than usual) to help his fiance up.

lbh: is my lord smitten with...the ugly rat man? ths servant? when yuan-ge is right there???

(yes they've dropped honorifics, they dropped honorifics like 1 day into the journey bc shen yuan doesnt know what boundaries are)

mobei-jun for his part is completely perplexed. shang qinghua is obviously his future empress, who else would it be?

lbh ofc doesnt care about the whole trickery thing once he realizes he can court shizun to his hearts desire.

bonus cumplane double wedding. everyone thinks mobing were the ones who arranged it because cumplane get into a violent fight during the feast. actually luo binghe cried for 10 straight hours at his shizun's feet trying to convince him to change his mind.

[demaparbat-hp]

Progression (and digressions).

The first post of the year belongs to the one, the only, the boy you've had for less than a month but if anything happens to him you'll murder me slowly and painfully: Lu Ten II.

His travels through the Earth Kingdom with Zuko are some of my favorite moments in the Spitfire AU! We get to see their dynamic truly flourish and deepen before they're reunited with the rest of their family.

But then the Gaang is forced to take care of Ten Ten as they move through the Fire Nation.

Spitfire grows a lot during the course of the story—and not just in height! He's the hope for a better future and the kindness needed to go through the present. I love him dearly, and I hope so do you.

[snail-friend]

Billy being a child and impressionable this, Billy being sweet and kind that, Billy the little lad etc etc. We know he's kind and pure hearted and has a no kill policy but CONSIDER

Give me the Billy Batson who will lie through his teeth and bite the hand that feeds in a feral survival instinct haze where it doesn't matter if you're an ally or an enemy, if you get too close to his personal life he will do whatever he has to to trick you into leaving him alone.

Billy who will trick you. Billy who WILL convince you the sky is green and the grass is blue if it means you don't get to know his secrets. Billy who is street smart and capable and strong and vicious when needed without losing his moral compass

[bogglle]

cuddles

[felsicveins]

Oh he's not trying

[ghostcouncil]

hidden lord :)

[totalswagisland]

a classic

[shoesallinaline]

Yes Bertie, please tell me more about how Jeeves is sort-of like your wife and how you would do “all sorts of other things” to help him feel appreciated. Be specific.

[porcelaintoybox23]

Describing Honkai Star Rail characters based on the fandom’s tweets I’ve run into incidentally (not an exhaustive list)

(Typical) shonen waifu

Lesbian

Yae Miko

Future incel terrorist

Racist

Honkai Al Haitham

Not a g00mer Makima

Elderly Edgelord

Blade if his trauma made him funny

Ferdinand von Aegir

Chaeya’s love child specifically their mental issues

[morporkian-cryptid]

So I'm rereading Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series, and, well...

I was today years old when I realised that the song "Hiver" in Steeleye Span's album Wintersmith (an album written about that series, which came out in 2013, which I discovered nearly a decade ago and which I have listened to enough time to know entirely by heart), was not, in fact, titled after the French word for "winter", as I had believed for the better part of a fucking decade, but after the Hiver, the main antagonist of the second Tiffany Aching book, which I have read a number of time and should have really recognized because the song's lyrics are almost word for word the hiver's speech in the novel.

Anyway, I shall now turn in my Discworld fan badge and then go shovel a hole in the snow and bury myself in it.

[ravnervn]

[strewwwberry]

I love the idea of characters like meng mo and ming fan being total haters of bingqiu so much, and being like "you unnatural fiends!"

(mainly to binghe but that's totallyyyy irrelevant)

And both lbh and sqq(y) drawing the conclusion:

Oh, they’re homophobic

But then one day they come along and Ming fan is like oh I’m bisexual coz I realized nyy doesn’t love me and sees me like a brother but my “insert male disciple friend” is actually kinda cute, and meng mo being like “I’ve fucked a guy when I had a body”

(-these are my beautiful crack headcanons that I thought of while writing this and reading back in like, that fits actually)

And then bingqiu is like ??????

And then mf and mm are just like oh, i (we) don’t think you’re freaks for being gay, i (we) just think your freaks because… you are

[leighsartworks216]

Necromancy that decays the caster. Their fingers start greying and rotting, always cold, skin sloughing off until they've nothing bones left, hidden by gloves. The stench of rot follows wherever they go. Flies hover around them. They have to pick out maggots before they become consumed - not that they can even feel the wriggling beasts anymore.

Their face sinks in, their eyes fall deeper within their skull, dark shadows accentuation every hollow orifice, waiting to be revealed by slowly rotting skin. Their muscles ache as they atrophy and stop working. Their hair is thin and losing color. It is not long before their eyes become milky white, staring at nothing. Teeth fall out, hair falls out, their skin has patches where the skin is decaying and falling away. The more spells they cast, the closer they become to being the dead they raise.

[madbard]

You know, pink is this year’s black.