#then they'll survive without any physical consequences

[dandelion--darling]

Lowkey kind of interested in writing an angsty mobrei fic involving the hanahaki trope... I was thinking of a plot where Reigen has been secretly in love with Mob for years but has been in denial and such deep repression about it that he winds up getting a hanahaki curse. Reigen has been nursing these feelings for far longer than he'd ever admit and he had hoped that Mob going to university in an entirely different city would have curbed the feelings. Reigen knew he was a fool for thinking that, but he was just so desperate for these feelings to go away because he knew they're disgusting and repulsive. As if he would ever be good enough for Mob, as if he deserved someone as wonderful as him... and he would never dare drag Mob down or clip his wings, never again. So, he was perfectly fine letting these feelings burn him alive from the inside out and just act like everything was fine, as it always has been.

But, Reigen ends up attracting a hanahaki curse because of his refusal to acknowledge and accept his feelings for Mob. There is a way to exorcise the curse, but it would end up with Reigen losing all love for Mob, and he outright refuses to do that. Reigen isn't quite sure what to do, but he can't tell anyone that he's cursed because they'd start asking questions, and he can't handle their inevitable disgust... so he just decides to hide it. His health begins to deteriorate, and he just pretends that he has no idea what's happening to him once Tome and Serizawa begin to get worried. Reigen tries his best to hide it and act like the constant exhaustion and pain aren't wearing him down, and he's successful for the most part.

Until he's not able to hide it anymore. Tome and Serizawa are worried sick over him, and Dimple is the one who finds out he's cursed with the hanahaki sickness. He's old enough that he knows exactly what it is, but no amount of prodding will get Reigen to admit just what it is that's driving those flowers deeper and deeper into his lungs. It gets bad enough that Reigen needs someone with him at all times to actually help him and make sure he doesn't choke on all of the petals. Tome, Serizawa, even Ritsu try to make him talk and admit what he's keeping under wraps, but Dimple is the only one who gets close.

Now... what happens when Mob returns from university and immediately takes over Reigen’s care the moment he heard Reigen was so sick-

[brightvelvet]

From just looking around and my definite knowledge up to S1E5, it seems like a lot of people are in agreement that there is something going on between Galadriel and Sauron. The 'cosmic connection' being the literal name for it. I'd like to put forth however that we've only seen the beginning of this dynamic, if it can indeed be described as this kind of powerful connection.

For one, I don't think there's any solid standing between the two yet. All that I've seen and heard suggests that both Sauron and Galadriel have no idea on how to handle or treat eachother. Which, to be fair, this ia a relationship that's never happened in canon before, and tRoP explains why. Both Sauron and Galadriel are deeply messed up. Sauron moreso, and its been demonstrated several times how this guy uses anger, manipulation, and sadism to convey himself to others. His persepective is that his power and spite, among the other cruel defense mechanisms like compartmentalization and instigation he learned to survive, are his most valuable traits. He has no experience genuinely connecting with people and it shows. His pride has never allowed him to connect with others with the exception of Melkor, which turned out to be an awful and false enterprise anyway. Even his friendly manner and touches as Halbrand come off as deliberate and fake in the first season. He learned these movements without their ingrained positive connotations. We see very much in season 1 how Sauron can suffer just like anyone else, and how it consumes and influences him. Ultimately, Sauron allows his suffering to isolate him in a way that coincidentally looks the same as Galadriel's coping mechanism with grief. Both of these characters are struggling with very prominent feelings of abandonment and loneliness, something which both recognize to differing extents. Both have their identities questioned, and both are incredibly jaded about it. This results in the meeting of two individuals who can see themselves reflected in the other, for all the qualities that make them a danger to society. And where Galadriel has somewhat grown to value these darker traits working on her lonesome, they're really all Sauron genuinely understands. At this point, it's loneliness calling to loneliness in a fellowship built on negative feelings.

For two- the Halbrand identity was something particularly freeing if fleeting for Sauron. As easily manipulated as humans are, as gross and undeserving, Halbrand can express himself more as one that he ever could in his previous positions. And isn't it something that the Light of all the elves finds something redeemable about him in this piteous form? And she's open with him in a way that invites verbal sparring and quips and a sense of equal standing. Sauron doesn't have to think further into the consequences of such a dynamic because both are too emotionally stunted to be vulnerable around eachother. It's a long line of excuses ro say that Sauron feels better about himself with Galadriel thereas a reflection of the traits he's survived with. It's a boost to his ego as well. Likewise, Galadriel also finds the relationship a small comfort, to hold someone at a distance is still holding someone. This understanding of their dynamic won't stay long though, and it'll likely get more confusing before it begins to make sense. So to reiterate, the characters themselves are deeply unstable while working through fleeting dynamics that are situational more than anything.

Before we see any further development between these two and their cosmic connection, I think they both need to stand apart and grow on their own. It's just a closed feedback loop between them at the moment. I also don't think they'll ever get genuinely or emotionally physical in a way that could clearly label their relationship (they're both similar in their pride/sense of independence), both seem to mostly stay away from touch apart from a few select Galadriel friendships, but I think the 'cosmic connection' description negates a future of physicality anyway.

[melonteee]

My point about losses wasn’t that it's only about the physical injuries, it's that injuries get played up yet never stick to the point that it becomes difficult to tell if an injury a character obtains is actually deadly or worth worrying about. Characters get peirced, blown up, electrocuted, poisoned, but all save for Luffy (and of course Ace) basically sleep it off and are a-ok. We'll never see the consequences of Luffy's shortened life span because unless he was only ever going to reach 30, well, he'll find One Piece before that.

Of course I care about the other things that stand to be lost, but if the character's are never actually putting their lives at risk, why should I be worried when they enter so-called death matches? Why should I be concerned, they always survive with little lost time or lasting consequences. Yes, Oda has been more willing to kill off some side characters, but I can't bring myself to really believe or feel their losses. Pedro's was a good example of their bittersweet successes coming with genuine loss that can be felt.

Sorry, I guess I'm not sure how to get it across right, because of course the mental fight is important, but if Luffy and crew can just constantly tank every injury and eventually keep going without consequences that we'll actually see, why should I worry about them when things look tense? They'll be fine. They'll throw a party before the day is over. Like, this isn't MMA or chess. It's not all fighting nor all mental gymnastics, it's got both. But if the physical has no weight to it, then why should I be conserned about Alabasta or Dressrossa? Luffy will just stand back up and win because attacks types and power levels mean nothing. Zoro takes two Emperor's attacks but gets a little miracle drug (that, once again, the only consequences is a shortened life span) and he's back up and fighting.

Ah, OK, I think I got it. To use MHA as an example, Deku vs Todoroki held a great deal of weight not only because of what they were fighting over but because Deku was willing to continue over-straining his hands/arm to make his point. And we see this over-straining have lasting consequences in the damage done to his hands and his later need to make better use in fighting with his legs. But he doesn't regret doing this damage to himself because Todoroki needed help in that moment. So, compared to Luffy and Zoro having this far off consequence we'll likely never see, Deku carries with and has to adapt to his rash choices in series.

(Heck, Treffy actually losing his arm because of Dressrossa would of been a good example of a consequence like that. But no it got reattached like nothing...)

Lol we'll just have to agree to disagree cause the only reason Luffy even upped his gears is BECAUSE Rayleigh told him he can't get through everything with what he had, the whole point of the timeskip was them improving themselves due to being too weak for the new world. And EVERY Shonen protag gets back up I'm unsure what that point is meant to be, but the thing with Luffy is it's in his character to keep getting back up. That's the thing we rely on him for, that's literally what Wano emphasised.

They're risking their lives all the time, and again, physical injury isn't the biggest aspect of any fight. Luffy very nearly died and awakened a new gear to beat Kaido, he couldn't even beat big mum and got totalled by Katakuri to the point they had to RUN AWAY from Big Mum. I think you're focusing far too much on physical injury of character rather than the stakes of the actual series. Like I get where you're coming from but to say it's a huge flaw that one piece battles have no risks is totally untrue, especially compared to an mha arc where they're in a SCHOOL COMPETITION where no one was going to die 😭😭 the only risks mha CAN have at that moment IS physical injury since they're not trying to save a whole nation LMAO.

But if you're talking about improvement of strength from said injury, One Piece doesn't rely on body pain to improve oneself and look for other options, it relies on the risk of losing overall - death or not - to make each character improve. We literally just saw Sanji, Zoro AND Luffy improve on themselves mid battle due to the risk of losing unless they thought on their feet. Yes Zoro got given that 'miracle drug', but due to that, he realised he couldn't face the emperors and unlocked a new power against King. He faced consequences against the emperors and sought after King instead, accepting that wasn't his battle.

I honestly can't see what you're seeing cause the battles are really engaging for me, and again, I'm not into battle shonens at all. Maybe the reason I like it is the reason you dislike it lol

[duckapus]

SMG4 Faces the Consequences of Not Buying Physical or Pirating

AKA The One Where the CCC Avatars Get Got

We start off with Jayin and Mr. L going over the plan, which goes like this; L, Reboot Saiko, Brobot and Rhythmi will each go after one of the CCC Avatars with their respective purchase key, represented by actual big goofy-looking gold key props Because Cartoon. They have to actually stick it into the Avatar in order for the Recall to take effect. When it does take effect, anyone and anything that's not meant to be in the game (memes, Code-Level beings, SMGs, visitors, etc) will be left behind, presumably to fade away into the code-dense ether if it isn't something that can survive in that. (I know the initial plan was for the Recall to just Happen all of a sudden but I've been having Ideas this whole time and it grew into an action setpiece). The only exception to non-native entities getting left behind is Tama, thanks to her recent Full Integration into the game's code.

Mr. L's going after Juliano, Saiko for Tulip, Brobot for Nimbus, and Rhythmi for Irene, and they'll also have basic Twilight enemies from CCTG as backup, and will be employing L's Anti-Admin tech to keep the USB avatars (and Emulator) trapped in their Podspace and block anyone from getting in so they can't interfere (it'll also somewhat weaken any Code-Level entities already inside so they'll only be Very Difficult to deal with instead of an instant loss).

Juliano

Mr. L strolls into the Showgrounds with an army of weird shadow monsters like he owns the place and demands they hand over Juliano, who has no idea what's going on, then sends the monsters to attack without waiting for an answer. Everyone there quickly works out that something really weird is going on, because Mr. L's almost always been focused on the Mario Bros before and suddenly switching to Juliano specifically while the whole mysterious amnesia thing is going on is kinda sus. Most of the crew along with a bunch of Leggys from the Meme Factory (there were tons of them I insist that they didn't disappear when Meggy went back to normal) sticks around to fight off the monster horde and distract Mr. L while the Bros, 4, Meggy, Bob and Toad throw Juliano in Luigi's RV and book it.

Mr. L eventually gets away from them and makes chase using the tank version of Brobot L-Type. So now there's a car chase through the streets of New Donk City, which the police and army get involved in since Mr. L's an extremely wanted criminal. Luigi tells everyone to use all the modifications from the demolition derby that Mario was supposed to get rid of but totally never did, and Toad gets to use a roof-mounted machine gun turret. Mr. L actually questions why Toad is helping since last he remembers he doesn't even like the rest of the group, and Toad's response is of course to just flip him off and yell "SUCK MY DDDDDD!!!!!" Because Toad.

Eventually the chase leads them to SMG3's old Gauntlet of Gloom. The good guys run in, and L tries to follow them only to be met by Stu and Pid, who tell him that to brave the challenges of the tower he must first answer their Riddles Three. He of course asks why he can't just kill them and move on, and in response they introduce their new manager; Slenderman.

...He answers their Riddles Three.

(I should note that in an actual episode we'd be periodically switching scenes between the four capture attempts, but since this is a summary I'll not be doing that. I'm putting this note here since it's the most obvious place for a jump-cut so far.)

Anyway, after getting up to the control room he gets into a fight with the group, and has clearly prepared to exploit all their weaknesses, so eventually they're all defeated and he approaches the spot where they've stashed Juliano... only for it to actually be Old Man Hobo in a wig, a recolored outfit and Juliano's top hat (as an explanation for why his CCTG model doesn't have it). The real Juliano is with the Haltmann kids, Marcy and Saiko in the Meme Factory's Great Glass Elevator, headed towards a safehouse in the Splatlands.

Mr. L gets so pissed that he fucking snaps and starts laughing uncontrollably, Super Jumps through the ceiling to the roof, pulls out Domains Western Spaghetti Headset, summons his Circuit model around himself as a sort of Code-Level power armor, and takes off towards the Elevator. I should also note that he made an exception for Circuit in the Program Weakening Field because why wouldn't he. He actually straight-up rams through it, sending everyone inside flying and falling onto the hard desert ground, and they do their best to fight him but with their injuries from the fall are no match for a full-power Program, so he grabs Juliano, sticks the Key in him, and flees through a portal.

Tulip

Tulip's being checked over by Kelsie when the attack comes due to her more volatile condition compared to the other three, and Kelsie actually manages to get out a very brief, may-or-may-not-have-even-gotten-out distress signal because Reboot Saiko was a little bit careless and only activated her anti-Admin tech right when she attacked instead of preemptively. Tulip's got no idea why a purple ninja and a robot girl with a hammer (who she can somehow understand despite not speaking Japanese) are fighting over her and would rather not stick around to find out, and Dale, 7 and 10 are inclined to agree with her (even though they do actually know who the two are), so they all try to make a break for the van...and there's a bunch of shadow monsters between them and it because of course.

Fortunately, it was one of Ashley's modeling days so he shows up, does a Team Rocket style quick-change-reveal (Tulip: how do you yank off a sundress and suddenly have more clothes than before!?), sends out whatever Pokemon he has on hand, then jumps into the fray himself because he has Aura Powers and can Do That Now. The Kelsie vs Saiko fight bursts through a wall into the front lawn where the Pokemon vs Twilight fight is already going on at some point, so Ash, Pikachu and Primeape switch from fighting the mooks to helping with the boss because the rest of the Pokemon have crowd control more-or-less covered.

It's very fast paced, at one point Primeape gets in enough Shadow Punches to Evolve into Annihilape, but they're fighting a Murder Drone (and one who has its normal weaknesses mostly removed no less) who has built-in Anti-Admin tech and happens to be Saiko FUCKING Bichitaru in full Hyper-Sadistic Yandere Mode, plus it's going on long enough that though there is now a path to the van every Pokemon except Pikachu Gengar and Staraptor is knocked out, so things aren't exactly going great, especially when Ash gets thrown through one of the few parts of the front wall that's still standing.

And then suddenly there's blue stiletto knives in Saiko's wing joints.

Everything stops and they look up to see Cursor of all people on the roof since apparently she was close enough to both get Kelsie's distress call and get in before the portal jammer went up. So now Saiko's up against two Admins, one of which is specifically designed for combat and is used to fighting at a disadvantage, and her quarry is getting away. So once she gets an opening she breaks off from the fight and flies after the van, and once they check on Ash (he's fine, he's actually already getting up and telling them he'll catch up) Kelsie and Cursor turn into a barn owl and a giant prehistoric dragonfly respectively and take off in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile in the van, Pikachu is doing his best to help Tulip calm down, which considering his attitude, the fact he's a giant talking rat, and the whole "Dale is breaking every traffic law in existence trying to get away from a psychotic killer robot" thing, is going about as well as you'd expect. Anyway, Saiko manages to catch up and is now having to deal with Gengar and Staraptor attacking her, and then SMG7 gets on the roof with a TF2 minigun to provide supporting fire Because Odd Number SMG, and eventually Saiko gets thoroughly sick of everything and throws her hammer at the van so hard it blasts clean through the back, the dashboard, the engine, all the way through the front and into the road causing the whole damn thing to fucking backflip.

With 7 still on top of it.

This is just about where another one of Tulip's lucid moments starts.

Meanwhile back at the mansion, Ash has apparently been chugging an obscene number of X-Speeds and fully intends to straight-up run on foot fast enough to catch up with everyone. And considering he sets off a small sonic boom when he starts running he's probably gonna manage it.

Kelsie and Cursor arrive on the scene where there is just Absolute Carnage. The van's a flaming wreck, Dale and Gengar are unconscious, 10's hysterical and clinging to 7's broken body, Tulip's seemingly in the midst of a panic attack while Pikachu and Staraptor are barely standing but still keeping themselves as a shield between her and Saiko, and everyone who can be injured is. Kelsie immediately goes Medic Mode and makes a beeline for the SMGs while Cursor hurls herself at Saiko like a bat outa hell, soon joined by a Supersonic Ash Ketchum.

Kelsie finds out that 7's broken most of her bones, including her spine, and has several ruptured organs, (also she's somehow still awake and can't feel her legs) so it's taking everything she has just to keep the poor girl's condition stable because this is bad enough that even Vitality would've had trouble and Kelsie's good but she's no Vitality yet.

Anyway, the thing about X-Speeds is that eventually they wear off (and they're not exactly safe for human consumption, especially as many as Ash just used) so the boost from them doesn't last too long, and the fight's been going on long enough that even Cursor's getting tired despite being and Admin and robots don't get tired, so soon enough all the little mistakes accumulate to the point where Saiko can get past them and finally tag Tulip with her Key.

The world starts fading away around them with some very conspicuous exceptions, and Cursor very quickly realizes what's about to happen and comes up with a plan, yelling at Ash to make a portal to anywhere but there and then once he does grabbing the edges of it and pouring everything she's got into it, with the resulting supercharge sending every non-native element on the server to the location Ash set, which was of course his own world.

Him, his Pokemon, the two Admins and the SMGs land in his mom's living room, since that was the first place he thought of, and as you can imagine Delia is very surprised so suddenly have a bunch of very injured people and Pokemon in her house. Once they land it's like a switch flips and he goes into full Regional Champion Ash Ketchum mode, sending Kelsie and the SMGs to Viridian Hospital with Delia so they can handle 7 (and also 10 since she was also in a massive car crash but she's not the one actively dying so it's a slightly lower concern. Delia's going to keep the poor girl from falling apart), sending Pikachu and Staraptor to Oak's Lab with the balls of the rest of the team both to get them healed and so Pikachu can tell the Professor and Ash's SMGs what's going on, has Mimey keep an eye on Cursor who's completely knocked out on the couch and will be for a while because between the fight and her crazy portal trick she's completely drained, and Ash himself needs to call basically every Major Official-Type Person he knows to get the refugees from Renata handled, starting with the other Champions, as well as call the other Avatars when he's got that squared away.

Nimbus

Dedede and Tune are both in town when shit goes down. Brobot shows up in his Mr. M body with Twilight monsters, and unlike with the other two it's not going his way at all, because he's got an entire army to deal with, Harmonian light magic is super-effective against creatures of pure Darkness, they have a goddamn mythical Pokemon (though the anti-portal field does apparently work on Hyperspace Hole so Hoopa doesn't have it all his way), they have an Absol so they had advanced warning that something was about to go down, they have King Goddamn Dedede and a Megaman Ripoff with a full arsenal of special weapons who fights dirty, and Canon Nimbus is very much not defenseless, nor is she going to stand idly by while whatever this thing is attacks her and her home.

They actually manage to outright destroy Brobot. Or at least, his current body.

Turns out there's now plenty more where that came from. And he can control several at once without any issues. So now instead of dealing with a near-endless swarm of mindless shadow monsters they're dealing with a near-endless highly coordinated army of Mario robots, which is significantly more of a challenge.

Especially when one of them manages to get his hands on Tama and decides to use her as a hostage.

Even when she has no memory of this kitten who's calling her "Mama," Nimbus absolutely can't let anything happen to Tama, so she actually end up turning herself over willingly. And when the world starts fading away, there's no Admin to save them. There is however the Hyperlink Gates, which gives Tune a crazy, stupid idea. The group (at least, the ones that aren't getting taken away) runs for the gate and inputs the coordinates for Dreamland, then Tune wires her arm into it and tells 8 and 9 to boost her as much as possible. The result is similar to what happened in Renata, except for two details.

Number one is that something went funky with the coordinates due to the rewire and they landed in the Anime Dreamland in the middle of Cappy Town's main square (that circular spot with the big tree).

Number two is that Tune's arm blew up and she needs some medical attention.

So, the group runs for Doctor Yabui's clinic, Dedede starts organizing Search and Rescue and temporary housing for the Harmonian refugees (both the local memes and any tourists) by barking orders at everyone in earshot (both getting some of them to actually start the search parties and getting others to send messages to the actual authority figures in the castle, including, unfortunately, his local counterpart). Cappy Town is thankfully familiar with this bigger, nicer more impressive Dedede, so they're immediately On It. He also calls Bandana Dee and finds out that about half of the refugees did get to the right Dreamland and the Star Allies already have things handled there even though they don't exactly know what's going on.

In the meantime 8 and 9 get in touch with 11 and 12 to let them know what happened to Tune, since I imagine they're kind of freaking out about sensing that their Avatar is suddenly seriously injured somewhere when she was supposed to just be checking in on Nimbus.

Also Dapple is very much freaking out because this whole situation is way too similar to her tragic backstory, and she needs something to take out her rage on that isn't breakable and/or important (there's just so many breakable and important things, you know? Cities, people, planets...). Fortunately, she landed in Cloudy Park, and Kracko is an unrepentant asshole who can't die in a way that matters.

Hello misplaced aggression.

Irene

I've unfortunately not got as much detail here as the rest of them, both because there's just not as much to work with with Irene and because this has been a very long post.

When we get our first look at the scene, Rhythmi's already got the SMGs and Comets wrapped up in her webs, and is slowly closing in on Irene, clearly having decided to drag this out and savor the poor child's fear.

And then a giant green flyswatter flattens her.

What follows is an absolutely insane, utterly hilarious fight sequence where Timmy, Cosmo and Wanda show off just how much Anti-Admin tech doesn't work on Fairly Oddparents Fairies. But one slip's all it takes and the fact they aren't allowed to kill her is a massive disadvantage considering the kind of person they're up against, so eventually Rhythmi stops playing, finds an opening, and goes in for the kill. Timmy realizes what's about to happen to all the memes and wishes that everyone was somewhere safe, and they all get Poofed to Equestria.

End Result: All CCC Avatars (and their games) captured, zero casualties, three hospitalizations, the Admins will now know who was controlling Circuit, Cursor's a hero and everyone somehow has to live with that now, and there's a 95% chance SMG7 will never be able to walk again.

[titanicfreija]

"These will be more personal questions, and possibly upsetting."

"Oh-kay?"

"When you die, are you frightened?"

"... No. Haven't had a good reason to be. There's places where I would be, but I haven't been."

"Is it painful?"

"Sometimes. I'm pretty good about dying fast, so not often. Surviving to flee hurts, though. Poor Sunny'll about cry if I do it too much, pretty sure she'd rather repair a corpse than heal a bullet wound that didn't kill me. Don't really blame her, they get pretty ugly. Crucible was hard on both of us for a while, but I'm pretty good at running before my shields break, these days."

"Is there a preferred or most hated death?"

"Ummm. If I've just really gotta die -- I don't like it. Even if it's not painful or scary, it's inconvenient-- but if I've really gotta pick the best and worst, it's Drop Pods and getting sniped by psions."

"You flatter us. Why?"

~

"Drop Pods are so fast they feel more like teleporting than dying. Psion snipers-- there's a few others that do this, but the psions came to mind because of you, I guess-- but so, the ones with the right firepower, I guess they're LFRs , they open whatever they shoot on the first hit. Sometimes it'll take them two, but they bust shield and plate and hit flesh before I can even register I've been shot, too busy reeling and confused, much less can I tell where it came from. Opens my helmet, ruins my visual feed, fucks with my hearing; clears armor off a chunk, at the very least a deep bruise; cripples or takes off a limb. They never kill me outright, though, so it's only going to damage and hurt. A lot. If I move fast enough, can get my barricade up-- and I have to start that as soon as I hear the charge up, I can't wait 'til I've been hit--and they're gonna hit me while I'm doing it-- I can save my ass and Sunny can heal me up before I try to run. Odds are decent that they'll pop me again before I can escape or chase me out of cover and into their allies. Prefer they get me than allies."

"How visceral."

"What's that mean?"

"It means the way you're talking about it makes it easy to imagine."

"Oh. So, yeah, I hate those things. They take juuuuuust long enough to kill me to be particularly memorable, and they're some of the hardest to escape and kill back with any kind of plain reaction-- gotta aim, they usually have friends a lot closer, and just... Yeah."

"Are you ever frightened on the battlefield?"

"... Of what? Consequences of loss, sometimes? Stakes aren't always high, but they get that way."

"Does dying frequently affect your mood?"

"... I get pretty angry after a minute. I'm usually trying to get something done, some loot or clearing somewhere important to Vanguard or civilians, and having to start over or start and stop, any time I can't get a job done when I wanted to, I get. Uh. Mean. And angry."

"It's okay. By the time she's lashing out at me, she's throwing herself into death head first over and over and I can just listen to her scream without having to hit back."

"Oh-ho!"

"Did you just make her laugh?"

"Shh."

"Hmph! Are you concerned for the lives and physical well-being of your Guardian friends?"

"Yeah to an extent. Rise hates being shot. And she's better at helping me up than I am at helping her up, so it's better for her to live than me. It's generally best to keep as many alive and healthy as possible just for the backup."

"What would you say was the worst death you can recall?"

"Woof...."

"I think that one--"

"I'm fine. It bothers Sunny more than me, because of when it happened but I was weak and reloading and a pair of Taken Knights rushed me, screaming fire all over. My shields were hardly up in the first place so it sank in quick and took way too long to kill me. And my own fire made it worse, trying to save me."

"I take it this is the advent featuring the shell with whiskers?"

"Yep. Sank deep. Hurt. Worth it! It's perfect and there's at least ten shaders that fit her look and even more that just look good. You've seen the bouncing and bobbing, we should have named her Bunny. Only thing she really asked me for, and I got it."

"Hmph. Is this pride common in Guardians?"

"I dunno? Probably?"

"Do you feel fear at all?"

"Yeah, but I'm not sure why, half the time? And I have a phobia that you will hear nothing more about."

"I already snitched. She defended you."

"I'm still not talking about it."

"Truly?"

"I-- no. Nope. Nope, don't wanna, even if I could, and I can't 'cos my mouth is doing a thing."

"Ha!"

"I know, right? What's it gonna do, kill me?"

"The methane would have."

"True. But nope. Just can't and don't wanna. How about you?"

"..."

"Sorry. Nerves."

"Forgiven. Do I frighten you?"

"Uh... I think the word is intimidating? Imposing? You being in a room makes me want to be smaller."

"I will accept this. Do you fear pain?"

"I mean... Yeah? Certain kinds and levels, I guess, getting shot hurts a lot, but I hardly think about that anymore? It's... No. I don't. I should and I don't. I didn't wanna tell you that but Sunny just 'matted out of my pocket to drive her little eyeball into my visual, and I'm pretty sure that shell is strong enough to beat some dents in."

"Your Ghost intimidates you?"

"I have to live with her. Whole other kind of damage, trauma, and fear."

"She says as though she's not the one that lashes out inappropriately."

"You knock stuff over when you're grumpy, and push stuff off the fridge."

"Freija!"

"You snitched on my thing!"

"Sunny has a temper?"

"Caiatl!"

"I'm not gonna tell you it's worse than mine, but when I piss her off, she punishes me by talking over my head, refusing to help in combat. When we're all but in love, she'll put a requested gun in my hands, but when she's mad at me, she'll put it on the ground nearby. Steps away nearby."

"Can't believe this..."

"Gives me the silent treatment and vague visual cues. The first one that goes is coordinates-- she makes me punch in my own autopilot settings and coordinates. First clue, a thing she does when she's upset and my first chance to apologize, she has a nook on the fridge she runs to. I don't blame her, I am an absolute ass sometimes."

"sometimes!"

"Do Ghosts often "punish" their Guardians?"

"Rex is fuckin' mean. Sorry."

"You also know this Rex."

"Him and his Guardian live with us. Or I live with them. They make me feel bad, won't even be in the same room most of the time, but they're not the worst. I've heard about a hundred year silence, before. One that left hers down, that's probably the worst. I've heard a lot but I don't know how true any of them are. Comfortable guessing the Ghost is at least sometimes in the right."

"Hmph! Would Sunny leave you 'down'?"

"I won't say no, but I will say that if she ever does, I trust that judgement. Whatever I've done, whatever's gone wrong, it'll be for the best."

"Hmph! This is enough. I thank you for your time and honesty, Guardian."

"You're welcome...?"

"Freija...."

"It feels weird to say!"

"Try!"

"She's laughing again, relax."

"She's laughing because she thinks it's funny that I have to beg you to stop being a smartass at the leader of a multigalactic militaristic empire that blows up suns and has the technology to disrupt us!"

"I'm a kinderguardian with a popgun on a private comm channel septillion clicks away. I've also happened to be around for some really shitty days in the last couple years. She doesn't have to hold stature and I'm powerless. She likes that part, that's why she gets to ask all the questions she isn't allowed to ask Zavala no matter how friendly they get."

"That doesn't mean you can be rude!"

"It still feels weird to say!"

"I would allow something more natural if that is what the Guardian would prefer."

"Don't encourage her!"

"Now who's mouthing off the Empress of a multigalactic legion? No problem! Happy to help."

Hard Questions

New Angle

Honest

Radio Chat

Scripted Questions

Battlefield

Fear <-

Enlightening

More like Interrogation

(In)humanity

Underlying

Ghost Affection

@annieruok94 there's multiple again, I'm gonna do links.

[krakenartificer]

Hang on, I got a rant locked and loaded…

OK, so. Here's the thing about being human.

Like any other organism, there are certain physical requirements for continued existence that depend on the structure of your biology. Cats gotta eat meat; they simply cannot get adequate protein from plants. Tomatoes need a regular, even supply of water; they cannot save excess moisture to use during drier weeks -- they have to have about the same amount of water each day. Humans need iron and calcium and soluble fiber.

And humans need social affirmation.

It sounds like some dumb touchy-feely hippie bullshit, but it is not. There is a lot of research on the subject, and it is all quite clear: lack of social connection will kill a human faster than most forms of malnutrition. We can get by without a gallbladder or a stomach or a pancreas, we can get by without sensory organs, we can get by without any of our limbs or with only one-half of our brain or our lungs or our kidneys, but we cannot survive without social connection.

This is a fact that is widely dismissed, ridiculed, or refuted by two types of people … well, by one type of person -- abusive assholes -- but we're gonna break it down for distinctions of methods and response:

1) small-scale abusive assholes (eg: parents, teachers, etc), who want it to be OK that they're depriving you of a fundamental human need that is as essential as water or shelter. They couldn't deny you clothing without having to face the fact that they are, in fact, abusive assholes. But as long as they claim your emotional needs are "unreasonable" and "nothing at all like [physical needs]", then they can abuse you all they want and never have to face the consequences.

They are assisted, in this endeavor, by

2) large-scale abusive assholes (eg: industrial capitalists, politicians, etc), who financially benefit from a) a population that is weak, ineffective, and scarred from long-term emotional malnutrition and b) a population that buys 10% - 1000% more commodities than are actually needed for the population size.

The glorification of "individualism" and "self-reliance" and "standing on your own two feet" accomplishes both of these quite nicely. Let people behave like sensible, rational, self-organizers, and they'll ensure that there are enough lawnmowers in the neighborhood that everyone is able to mow their lawn when they need to. But convince them that borrowing your neighbor's lawnmower is a shameful lack of maturity, and now you can sell 7x as many lawnmowers! And it's the same with so many things: washing machines, hammers, cars, internet access, solar panels, vegetable gardens, child care, … once you start looking at it, you can't stop seeing how many things we're getting scammed into buying by this lie. And then, as an added bonus, that means people don't have to coordinate with their neighbors for things like "who's using the lawnmower today?" or "Could you watch my kids on Saturday and I'll watch yours on Friday instead of vice-versa?", which means that it's much more complicated and intimidating to coordinate with their neighbors for things like "This HOA is bullshit" or "Let's vote against increased police budget" or "My boss is doing [x] … does that seem shady to anyone else?" AND they're also exhausted, from trying to be an entire population of people, and being confused why they're not able to do it, but convinced that they will be able to do it if they only try harder. AND they miss out on the social interaction and support inherent in coordinating these things with their neighbors, which -- as previously mentioned -- is comparable to missing out on magnesium or vitamin C.

So yeah. HUGE benefits to abusive assholes, across the entire spectrum of wealth and influence, for people to believe that relying on other people is Bad™️. Simply convince the populace that it is shameful, weak, and pathetic to ask for -- or even accept -- or even desire -- assistance, and all the rest follows!

TL/DR: helping your friends is punk. Asking for favors is anti-capitalist. Organizing pooled resources for your groupchat is sticking it to the man. Ask for help goddammit!

“Oh boo hoo you shouldn’t ask your friends for favors we’re all adults”

I just spent three hours pulling up carpet and staples for a friend’s home renovation and we all did nothing but chat and joke and have wonderful conversation the whole time.

Helping somebody move or renovate or giving them a ride to the airport is functionally the same as going mini-golfing or playing a board game: it’s an activity that you do that is made more fun by having good company, and which provides something to talk about when the conversation lulls.

[mxgicthot]

Aditya - Rakshasa abilities

Here's some basic notes on how his powers work

Aditya was turned into a demon via a ritual in an attempt to become a more powerful warrior. This process involved allowing an evil entity to possess him, turning him into a Rakshasa. Believing the powers of the demon would give him an advantage in battle. The experiment was successful, but not without consequences.

Basically a Rakshasa is demon or unrighteous spirit in Hinduism that feeds on human flesh.

Aditya is now bound to the will of the demon and his humanity is slowly being stripped away as the Rakshasa proceeds to eat him from the inside out soul wise, hijacking his body and moulding it into a shape of it’s own desire.

The ritual summarized : The blood of an "Imperfect Rakshasa" (which is basically humans that were turned into ravenous carnivores as a punishment for cannibalism. their blood have been magically preserved) - this was injected into the person's heart and brain, then the victim is killed. A large source of magic is then required to complete the spell along with the soul that originally inhabited the corpse's body.

They are capable of assuming a number of different shapes, and so few have seen the true form with which they are associated. Essentially they are master illusionists and shapeshifters.

Adi can shapeshift into any form, often takes the forms of beast-like creatures but his true form is more goblinoid.

Not many people have seen his true form, as he covers it up using illusionary magic - however it becomes more apparent as he gets more angry/loses control, which is very rare but not entirely impossible since right now he is in a place where he is much more in touch with his abilities, but accidents can happen.

This form includes : wild red eyes, a pugish nose, lolling tongue, serrated fangs and tusks, flaming red hair.

Basically it's more folklore accurate look

Since he is older and much more powerful he has multiple arms, and claws, to show off that status.

In this form he's much bigger than his default form (around 10 - 11 ft) and more in a bloodlust mode.

Adi used to have a hunger thing going on when he was younger, but now it's much more controlled. It's no longer base triggered but more of an on/off switch that he can somewhat manage. (over feeding can still set him off tho so he still has to restrain himself)

Not feeding does weaken him but he now eats other creatures to try to satisfy his hunger, but the consumption of humans can allow him to go without feeding for at least a few months.

Powers and Abilities

Invisibility and Illusions

Shapeshifting - can assume the form of any creature. They can also use this ability to alter the appearance of their body, such as shape shifting their fangs into regular teeth in order to hide their appearance from unsuspecting humans.

Size Alteration - can shrink and enlarge himself

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Senses - incredible hearing as well as a sharp sense of smell.

Super Durability: can survive majority of physical punishment. Their body will heal before metals other than silver or brass reach a vital organ and they'll show no physical discomfort from such an attack.

Longevity - Rakshasas age at a slower rate. Rakshasa who are over a centuries old appear to be in their early 40s.

Healing Factor - he'll will heal as soon as an injury is inflicted upon it. muscles will "push" out whatever has impaled them preventing certain materials and metals from reaching vital organs.

Invulnerability - Rakshasas are mostly invulnerable to physical injuries inflicted upon except by brass. When weaker due to their hunger.

Fire magic

Weakness

He can bleed to death from certain wounds such as having his throat slit, beheading or an untreated serious wound caused by a brass weapon

[whoreadsnowadays]

BRO— OKAY. the shatter hcs got me thinking. and at this point it's pretty obvious i live on angst. so yeah, here goes.

so i'm mostly thinking of what if lil bro does survive. because yknow, getting fucking stabbed through the chest is not something you can just walk away from, let alone without some serious physical and mental consequences. and things like that take a long time to go away, if they ever do.

So the little guy will definetely be dealing with some messed up stuff as he recovers. phantom pain, nightmares, the whole package. this wasn't any less traumatizing for him than it was for his family.

he probably keeps to himself about a lot of it because, while he knows he can and should rely on his family, he can see how much this fucked them up and doesn't want to worry them more than they already are.

(also he can probably tell after what happened they wouldn't want him to go back topside, but he doesn't want to be left behind. which could lead to a scenario where he pretends he's fine enough to go, turns out obviously he wasn't ready yet either physically or emotionally and cue the hurt/comfort but that's another deal for another day)

When it gets to the farmhouse arc, he's obviously devastated about Leo.

Everyone's worried about him, and with good reason, but they end up sort of forgetting that Lil bro is still dealing with his own aftermath, even Lil bro himself. He's still dealing with everything, and the added trauma from Leo's recent window adventures definetely doesn't help, but if he was keeping this to himself before it's ten times worse now.

He has to be okay, the others need him to be okay, in Lil bro's mind he's convinced himself he has to be strong for his big brother.

and besides, it's been so long since what happened to him, he should be fine by now.

At some point it becomes too much, and the lil guy falls with a fever from the stress, or maybe Leo finds him when he's in the middle of one of his pain flare-ups, or even a good ol' emotional breakdown.

Then, this might just be me being petty, but to hell with whoever decided to have Splinter tell his son that his pain wasn't real was a good idea, we're gonna wrap this up in a nice little bow when Leo, while still stuck in his own frustration, sees Lil bro struggling with that same mentality, and realizing that he would never be as harsh with his brother as he's being with himself (and can't stand the thought of his baby brother being as harsh with himself either), finally learns that it's okay for him to take the time he needs to heal, that recovery is hard but as long as he leans on the people that care about him he'll be okay.

Leo then goes to Lil bro and gives him that exact same Big Brother Wisdom speech as if he himself didn't just figure it out like ten minutes ago, it still works just as well because at the end of the day, Lil bro still trusts his big bro Leo more than anyone and if he says they'll be okay, then he believes him. and, well, maybe sharing their struggles and understanding each other will make both their recoveries just that little bit easier on their shoulders.

—

WOW alright that was longer than I meant it to be but they make me FEEL things okay-- -G

I love waking up to this shit <3<3

BUT YEAH YEA YEA YEA YEA THIS THIS THIS!!!!! THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABT. Lil bro pushing aside his pain and trauma bc he doesn't want to bring it up and make his family relive what happened, and Leo doing the same thing and getting over it when he sees Lil bro doing it too and it breaks his heart enough that he's like "that's not how he should be dealing with this. That's not how I should be dealing with this.." AND THEN THEY HAVE A HEARTFELT TALK WHERE LEO IS LIKE "listen.. I need you to know you can talk to me about stuff okay? And the others too. What you went through was messed up, and you shouldn't have to go through this alone. And before you say it, I am taking my own advice from now on" AND THEY WORK ON OPENING UP TOGETHER..... gimme a minute I have to explode

[greatwyrmgold]

No fair, I've already got a half-formed cluster.

Alright, let's spitball some trigger events which could be, um, triggered by a graduation. Hardly an exhaustive list; just a few ideas which I was supposed to quickly summarize.

The Catalyst

Some kind of physical confrontation, something that gives the other triggers a single moment to boil over. Either the fight itself or the side effects of the catalyst getting powers fucks with the graduation ceremony, providing a pressure point for students who were already freaking out about graduation.

I can't think of any ideas that aren't either incidental to graduation or ridiculous. Maybe a teacher being attacked by a graduate who blames the teacher for...something? Probably something beyond the teacher's control, but the people actually responsible are anonymous and distant. And the graduation seems like a good chance to get away with it, now that the school doesn't have power over the graduates. Or something.

I wanted some kind of disruption, couldn't think of a better teacher trigger, and—where did the last hour go?

The Schemer

A kid who has been struggling with crap outside of school, who hasn't been doing great academically, and who needs to graduate so they can escape their parents' household, for one reason or another. They've given up on college, but figure they'll scrape through with a high school degree and haven't been paying attention to their grades.

They were wrong, but talked with a teacher and figured out a way to trick the kid's parents into thinking they graduated, despite the lack of a diploma. The kid's stuff is already packed in their car; they just need to "graduate" and drive off.

The graduation ceremony being disrupted kinda wrecks those plans, though; the parents will expect to meet with their child, and expect to see a diploma. Who knows what they'll do if they know they were lied to? Would they try to trap their kid in that house for another whole year? Could they get away with it? Can the student survive a year like that?

The Desperate

A student who worked as hard as they could to succeed academically, despite some learning disability (TBD if this ever gets turned into a specific character). Their grades are good but not great, at the point where colleges accept or reject applicants based on extracurricular achievements. And the student doesn't have any, because basically all of their time was spent on homework, studying, or recovering from the work it takes to get goods on standardized tests when your brain just does not work that way.

Their parents are unsympathetic; if the student wants to live at home, and didn't get into college, they'll need to pay rent. That means they need a job, one they'll "work harder" at than the summer job that kicked them out after two weeks. The parents don't care if factors beyond their child's control make that difficult. The student should have worked hard enough to get into college, they didn't, they deserve the consequences.

Whatever chaos happens after everyone in the cluster gets powers should inflict some kind of permanent injury on the desperate—losing an eye, or half a leg, or something. That makes it all the more dissonant when they react to the trigger disaster better than any of their cluster-mates. At last, they have hope. Hero, villain, or rogue, the student finally has an idea of how to survive.

The Empty

This one is valedictorian of the graduating class—the one with the best grades and the most achievements. Like the previous student, the valedictorian spent most of their time studying. However, due to some combination of luck, resources, and neurotypicality, the valedictorian managed to go farther without exhausting themself to the same degree. They have the grades to get into college with no extracurriculars, plus work for the honor society and student council and such, plus a basic social life!

All of that's well and good. But the valedictorian is worried about their future for a different reason. At a time when graduates are supposed to decide what to do with the rest of their lives, how to turn their passions and talents into a career, the valedictorian has nothing to work with. They don't know what they want to study, what careers might interest them, or even what jobs they'd be good at. Standardized test skills aren't very transferrable.

The valedictorian focused on what's ahead of them: The valedictorian speech, their reward for all their hard work. The one fixed point in their future. But then that point becomes unmoored, leaving them completely empty. No hopes, no dreams, no plans, no expectations that any plans they created would work better than the one they followed so far. Four years of toil, only to have the one thing they knew they wanted ripped away by random happnestance.

What about powers?

You can't create powers without having characters, and I don't have characters. I have three loose outlines of characters and one question mark.

I'm not sure I'd post this without the resonance between those three loose outlines. The Empty and the Desperate are clear foils—both academically excellent with uncertain futures, but uncertain for opposing reasons; the Empty has no motivation, the Desperate has no hope. There's some resonance between the Desperate and the Schemer, since both have problems caused by shitty parents.

If I could find a way to connect the Empty and the Schemer, and maybe find a chord to strike between the teacher trigger and the three students...well, maybe someone else will think of something.

deep sigh... High School Graduation Cluster Trigger is an incredibly compelling idea, but I'll never be able to follow through because getting into the headspace of anyone involved would probably make me throw up.

[nam00n]

words can't emphasize the aching i have for villon and the degree i feel for him. he was only 30 and he had already gone through all the pits of hell, been called names and he himself said that he had experienced the type of shame no one had before him. he'd been tortured inhumanly despite being innocent, suffered the consequences of actions he never committed, was degraded to hell and back, had such awful religious trauma and never did they break his spirit, not even once. he was besmirched like there was no tomorrow and had no one by his side

he was much more cultimated than they'll ever give him credit for, he had such high passion for learning and enjoyed it with all he had. the fact that his poems are filled with hidden jokes no one understood but him and names of real people he knew, he told his opinion on them without them knowing what he meant, is completely out of my grasp. he knew that he was above them all yet kept it all to himself. never did he say a bad word about his enemies (not to their faces, at least)

they thought so little of him and even worse, we still do to this day! he had an amazingly forthright and brazen way of writing, he was never diabolical, never amenable, never impertinent!

and i could never have the strength to live down the fact that we know absolutely nothing about his death. one of the biggest figures of world literature and especially french literature died in mystery? absolutely unacceptable! i condemn! i cannot resent to just live with it!

i can only hope that the last few weeks of his life were better than the years before that. he never deserved any of the pain he went through. he was already physically and emotionally strained and he most likely couldn't had survived on his own unless someone took proper care of him. i truly hope someone did. and at least his last moments weren't insufferable