#this is where his loyalty lies do you understand this is who he serves

[theinfinitedivides]

this sh*t got me out here crying after all of that she is still his queen. he is doing this bc she has asked him and he trusts her i need a sec

[gracieeegleegal]

Omg please do an angsty imagine where we are the daughter of some god (maybe Zeus or hades) and find out about Luke’s betrayal and he tries to recruit us but it only ends in arguments

Betrayals embrace - Luke Castellan

pov - Luke Castellan was the lightning thief all along and you the clueless girlfriend who never knew better.

Pairing : Luke Castellan !femoc x Zeus daughter

In the heart of Camp Half-Blood, under the watchful eyes of the gods, a storm brewed within the soul of y/n, daughter of Zeus. Her relationship with Luke Castellan, once filled with laughter and affection, now teetered on the edge of betrayal and heartbreak.

Y/n stood, tears in her eyes as she stared into the eyes of her lover, eyes that now held the truth of his actions and the haunting revelation that had shattered her world—Luke's treacherous plan to free Kronos and destroy the very gods they were supposed to honor and serve.

More tears pricked at her eyes as she recalled the countless moments they shared, the promises of a future together, now tainted by lies and deceit. She clenched her fists, feeling the crackle of electricity surging through her veins, a reminder of her divine heritage and the weight of responsibility that came with it.

She had trusted him, loved him dearly and all she got in return was the inexorable betrayal that had shattered her heart.

"Y/n," he whispered, his voice smooth like honey,a certain nervousness hanged in his tone. In the 10 minutes they had been in the forest, y/n stayed silent through it all. Not knowing what to say or do after Luke admitted to his actions.

That he tried to drag Percy into the pits of Tartarus. That he had lied about it all.

"Luke," she replied, her tone laced with bitterness and hurt.

Luke stepped forward, his eyes searching hers for any sign of wavering resolve. "I know this is difficult for you to understand, but we can change the world. We can free ourselves from the tyranny of the gods, create a new order where demigods are no longer pawns in their games. We can be free, you can kill your father after all the pain he’s caused."

Y/n shook her head, a humorless laugh escaping her lips. "And what of the innocent lives that will be lost in the wake of your ambition? Have you no conscience, Luke? Do you realize that if you go forward with this, you’ll lose your family here. You’ll lose me.”

His expression hardened, a flicker of anger betraying his calm facade. "You were always too soft, y/n. Too blinded by your loyalty to those who have treated you as nothing more than a pawn in their own schemes. Why do you defend him? After he killed your sister! After he killed Thalia. He could’ve stopped it.”

He reached out to her, his touch a cruel mockery of the affection they once shared. "Y/N, please understand. This is our chance to make things right, to rid ourselves of the gods who have only brought us pain and suffering."

But even as he spoke, the truth of his betrayal cut deeper than any blade. Y/N recoiled from his touch, her eyes filled with tears she refused to shed.

She backed up at his words, the sting of truth laced with venom. Memories of Zeus's indifference and neglect flooded her mind, a painful reminder of the fractured relationship she shared with her divine father. She was transported back in time when she had arrived at camp for the first time. A reminder of the sister she lost, the sister who sacrificed herself for her sisters.

A painful reminder that no matter what, the gods will never care enough to save their children. If they did, things would be a lot different.

But even in the face of betrayal, y/n couldn't bring herself to abandon her friends at Camp Half-Blood, the only family she had ever known.

"I may be the daughter of Zeus, but I am also a daughter of Camp Half-Blood," she declared, her voice trembling with emotion. "I will never betray them, Luke. I understand you better than anyone, I really do. But I can’t do that to them. I can’t, and you know that. "

Luke looked shattered, he would have thought that the girl would side with him. After all she was the one who understood him the most, understood his reason. “I didn’t wanna have to do this, y/n, I’m sorry. You have given me no choice.”

“We always have a choice.” Without warning, Luke lunged forward, his movements fueled by desperation and rage. Their clash was fierce and unrelenting, the crackle of lightning mingling with the clash of celestial bronze. Each blow exchanged was a testament to the shattered bonds of trust and love that once bound them together.

Luke’s attack got harder and harder, as their swords smacked together in the night. The fireworks covering the sound of the lovers fighting each other.

“Luke! You don’t have to do this!” Y/n struggled against his attacks. She didn’t want to hurt him, but Luke was so blinded by rage that he couldn’t seem to care that he was hurting her.

“Luke!” This time the screaming had come from another voice. Percy and Annabeth were running towards the scene.

In a moment of distraction when y/n turns her gaze towards the two teenagers, she feels pain in her abdomen. She glanced down, Luke’s sword had stabbed her in her stomach. She gasped softly, tears forming in her eyes as she held onto the sword that was still pierced in her flesh.

“Y/N!” Percy and annabeth screamed her name but her focus was stuck on the man that had betrayed her

Red was gushing from her wounds into her hands that were now touching Luke’s. The boys eyes widened. What had he done? The girl dropped to the ground, blood running everywhere. Her shirt was now tainted red, as well as her hands and her lovers hand.

In the end, it was y/n who lay battered and broken at his feet, her resolve unbroken even as her body screamed in protest. Through tear-stained eyes, she watched as Luke cradled her frame. Regret and sadness reflected in his eyes.

“Y/N..” he whispers softly, he gripped her body tighter. Not wanting to let go of the woman he loved. “I’m sorry. Im so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.”

Percy and Annabeth after standing still watching the scene with tears in their eyes finally approached the couple. Swords in their hands.

Luke glanced at the couple, then back to the bleeding girl. “I’m sorry.”

With a heavy heart, he turned away, leaving her broken and bleeding in his wake. Percy and Annabeth running to her aid.

As darkness threatened to claim her, y/n whispered her final words into the cold embrace of the night. "I love you, Luke."

---

When she awoke, it was to the sterile scent of antiseptic and the gentle touch of familiar hands. Percy Jackson and Annabeth stood at her bedside, their expression a mask of concern and sorrow.

"You're going to be okay, Y/N," Percy reassured her, his voice a soothing balm against the ache in her heart.

But the pain of loss was a wound that ran deep, one that no amount of time or healing could ever hope to mend. With a broken sob, Y/N buried her face in the boys shoulder, mourning the loss of the love she had once held so dear.

And as the tears fell like rain, she couldn't help but wonder if somewhere, amidst the echoes of betrayal, there was still a glimmer of the boy she had loved, lost, and ultimately, forgiven.

[analysisiinternet]

Yandere Headcanons for Thaddeus from “Killer Peter”

(note: why do they always make the villain hot i saw no headcanons or fanfics of him or "x reader" so I decided to do a headcanons yes red is my favorite color)

1. Obsessive Affection With his complex personality, Thaddeus exhibits an intense and obsessive form of affection towards those he cares about. His love is not a gentle fondness; it borders on an all-consuming passion that can quickly spiral into possessiveness. He meticulously keeps track of every detail about the object of his affection, whether it’s their daily routines, favorite foods, or even their friends and acquaintances. This obsession drives him to protect them at all costs, leading to a darker side where he might resort to extreme measures if he feels threatened by anyone who comes too close.

2. Jealousy and Paranoia Thaddeus’s yandere nature manifests prominently through his jealousy. He cannot stand the thought of anyone else getting too close to you the one he loves. This jealousy often leads him down a path of paranoia, where he imagines scenarios in which his beloved(you) is unfaithful or is in danger due to others’ intentions. He may confront perceived rivals with a chilling calmness that belies the storm brewing within him. His jealousy can escalate quickly, transforming him from a caring partner into someone who will go to great lengths—potentially violent—to eliminate any threats.

3. Duality of Personality One of the most intriguing aspects of Thaddeus’s character is his duality. On one hand, he can be charming and charismatic, drawing people in with his wit and intelligence. On the other hand, there lies a darker side that emerges when he feels betrayed or threatened. This duality makes him unpredictable; readers are left guessing whether they will encounter the sweet Thaddeus or the cold-hearted protector at any given moment. This unpredictability adds layers to his character and keeps readers engaged as they explore how far he might go for love.

4. Manipulative Tendencies Thaddeus possesses a keen intellect that allows him to manipulate situations to his advantage seamlessly. He knows how to play mind games with both friends and foes alike, often using charm and persuasion to bend others to his will without them realizing it until it’s too late. His manipulative nature extends even to his beloved(you) he may create scenarios that make you dependent on him or isolate them from their support systems under the guise of protection.

5. Dark Romantic Gestures In true Yandere fashion, Thaddeus expresses his love through darkly romantic gestures that may seem sweet on the surface but carry sinister undertones upon closer inspection. For instance, he might surprise his beloved with gifts that have unsettling origins—like items taken from those who have wronged them—or orchestrate elaborate dates in secluded locations where they are completely alone and away from prying eyes. These gestures serve as both declarations of love and warnings: no one else can have them.

6. Unwavering Loyalty Despite his darker tendencies, Thaddeus embodies unwavering loyalty once someone has earned his trust and affection. He would go above and beyond for those he loves, often placing their needs above his own desires—even if it means making morally questionable choices along the way. This loyalty can be both comforting and terrifying; while it provides a sense of security for those close to him, it also raises questions about what boundaries he might cross in the name of love.

7. A Tragic Backstory To fully understand Thaddeus’s yandere tendencies, one must consider a potential tragic backstory that shapes who he is today—a past filled with betrayal or loss could explain why he clings so tightly to those he loves now. Perhaps early experiences taught him that love is fleeting or conditional; thus, when he finds someone worth loving again, he becomes desperate to keep them safe and never let them slip away.

 Clingy Yet Charismatic:

Once Thaddeus develops an attachment to someone, he becomes incredibly clingy. He thrives on their attention and affection, often showering you with compliments and small gifts that seem innocent at first glance—like handmade trinkets or baked goods. However, this clinginess quickly escalates into possessiveness. He believes that anyone who gets too close to his beloved must be eliminated or kept at bay, leading him to orchestrate elaborate schemes to isolate you from potential threats—friends, family members, or even romantic interests He will go out of his way to be near you often inserting himself into your daily routines under the guise of wanting to help or spend time together. 

warning: a lil NSFW(if your comfortable with NSFW you may read if not don't read this)

how would he be in bed-

he would definitely be dom or switch he would do it rough such as if you told him to go slow he would go faster thrusting inside you I don't even know why yall create a safeword he would be the type to call you "good girl your taking me so well~ "while he is fucking you from behind and whispers in your ear "your fucking mine" I feel like he would make jokes while yall are doing it (it is a canon at this point) he would purposely gag you on his dick while your giving a blowjob and laugh about it, I just know if he is good at martial figthtin he is good with fingers

Aftercare-

he would be the big spoon putting you to his chest as she cuddles you and he would act all innocent and shits and he would say how would a good job you did pleasing him as he kisses you smiling at you pullin' closer to him his hand is on your waist, he would make you a bath for him and you can wash off(there might be a round 2) but after all he is clingy don't get me started on him kissing all over your face telling you how much he loves you (he might be a villain but he would hug me if I was sad)

Thaddeus’ hugs become more frequent and enveloping as the relationship develops, offering a sense of security. Kisses exchanged in these early days are tender and sweet, leaving a lingering warmth that hints at deeper feelings. You might notice small tokens of his affection—a favorite snack he brings you or a shared playlist that reflects your growing bond.

His kisses transform into fervent expressions of desire—more passionate and demanding than before. Thaddeus seems insatiable, always wanting more closeness and connection. Love bites become a playful yet possessive mark of his affection, signifying that you belong to him in this chaotic world.

Cuddling Dynamics At home or during quiet moments together, Thaddeus often plays the big spoon role during cuddling sessions. He wraps around you protectively, creating a cocoon where you both can escape from reality for a while. This nurturing side reveals his softer nature beneath the tough exterior he often presents to the world.

(note: comment who yall want me to do headcanons for the next post you can either text me or ask in the box but I would prefer if you text me instead if you read all of this thank you so much and reblogged this)

[originalleftist]

City Governments Are Coordinating Plans To Resist If Trump Wins And Fulfils His Promise To Deploy Troops Against Their Cities:

I don't care for the Guardian these days, they've had some very questionable takes, but people need to understand this.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN THE US ARE PREPARING TO RESIST IF TRUMP DEPLOYS THE MILITARY TO TAKE OVER THEIR CITIES AND ROUND UP THEIR PEOPLE.

Though some will undoubtedly feel otherwise, this is not hyperbole nor panic, nor is it treasonous. It is, unfortunately, a measured and necessary response to what the Republican nominee has campaigned on doing. Better to have contingency plans and not need them, than need them and not have them.

They're also not talking about violent resistance, probably for obvious reasons, and I imagine that the initial attempts to resist would be administrative or through the courts or legislatures. I also expect, however, that Trump would respond to any such defiance with escalating force. And the comments by Philadelphia DA Krasner seem to hint at an awareness of where this could ultimately end.

"Krasner predicted that Trump would face severe blowback if he tried to carry out any of his menaces. "We're not going to let somebody carry out a coup as soon as he's in office, whether with tanks or on paper. My father served in World War Two, and countless Americans died to resist fascism. If anybody tries to orchestrate a coup they're going to encounter tremendous resistance."'

In a horrible way, I find it reassuring that they talking about this, that they are taking this seriously, that they're making plans now, rather than just hoping that everything will work out. Because once troops are being deployed on streets, it'll be far too late to plan. At least we won't be caught flat-footed. This is noting less than their duty- as local government to protect their constituents, and as Americans to defend the Constitution.

But it's shocking that we're here, and this could be unimaginably horrific.

Far, far better to stop him now, in November. While we still can.

It is also past time for Unions to be making general strike plans in the event of a coup/attempted dictatorship. A number of unions made such plans in the event of a coup in 2020, but they thankfully never needed to be used. If you're in a union, see what you can do to push things in this direction, if your union isn't already preparing for it.

And if you're in the military, I hope that you are thinking hard about how far you are prepared to follow orders, what risks you are willing to take to defend our Constitution not just against external enemies, but internal ones, and where your loyalty truly lies.

PS: Any Tankies/Marxists/Anarchists reading this who are giddy at the prospect of finally getting your Revolution if Trump wins- You may think that civil war is all games or theory, or you may truly believe that it'll be worth it to lead to whatever better society you imagine, or maybe you just hate the world and want it to burn to the ground. But the reality is that if Trump becomes President, millions of people-mainly marginalized, vulnerable people, not the rich and powerful-could die horribly. To say nothing of the very real possibility that your side could LOSE. Or that we'll be basically burning the country instead of working on addressing climate change.

Let this be our wakeup call. Stop it now. Please.

[haisayonaraa]

Taking care of Lord Dio

(justt a small heads up,  I'm still watching part three so if I  find out I've written these characters wrong in the future, I'll definitely  rewrite it)

[story below]

It seems everyone who's sworn loyalty to Dio has also sworn to never tell anyone about his regression.  Sure they all knew it happened, but no one was to ever mention it. On top of that, no one has ever been in the same room as the small lord. He's always secured himself in his room, only leaving for a few necessities. Due to this secluded nature, it would be a great honor to serve as Dio's caregiver.  A title that wouldn't be used by anyone until this particular night.

The halls where quite empty, aside from the two walking there depths. Both Mariah and Vanilla ice where called to Dio's room, which would be normal for any other time except now. Dio was regressed. "Oooh I bet lord dio will be absolutely adorable!" Mariah awed over the thought of their lord being a small little boy, a hard contrast to the man who they usually see. "Don't get overly excited,  we should be honored that he chose us to see him in such a vulnerable state." Vanilla ice doesn't really have good experience taking care of children, but he would do anything,  ANYTHING for Dio. Even if that's being there for him a mentally young child? Infant? He's not sure what to expect. 

When they finally got to Dio's room, the little vampire was already waiting for them at the door with a pouty expression. "I apologize for us being so late lord dio, Mariah insisted we picked up a few things before arriving.." Vanilla ice looked to Mariah with a bit of a glare before looking back at Dio, "but how can we assist you?" Dio thinks for awhile, "ai joo." ai joo? whatever could that be? neither Mariah or Vanilla ice knew what their lord meant, but he wanted it. "ai joo.. what do you think that is?" "I don't know, dio could you please explain-" Dio runs to his closet and pulls out a box, once the box is opened, he pulls out a green sippy cup, "ai joo!" finally, a clue. "oh he wants something to drink! I bet joo is juice!" Vanilla ice sighs, of course that's what that meant, it made so much sense now. "but what kind of juice? apple? orange? grape??" Dio claps his hands, "gape! gape!" So Dio wanted grape juice, it kind of made sense since it had the closest resemblance to blood. 

Once Dio was served his grape juice, Mariah rummages through the bag she brought and gives Dio the item she got him. a blanket that resembles the night sky with little bats on it. "I saw this yesterday and I thought you would li-" Dio makes happy lil baby noises. "I think he likes it." Vanilla ice is a little upset that he didn't get anything for Dio now. Dio insisted on being wrapped in the blanket, so know the baby is in a blanket cocoon. "hm.. something's missing.." Mariah looks through Dio's little box before finding a pacifier for him. "there, isn't he sweet?" Vanilla ice looks down at Dio, who's now drifting to sleep "Yes.. he's very sweet.. are all babies this sweet, or does lord Dio just have that charm?" Mariah chuckles, "I think it's just Dio." Vanilla ice looks away, "I should have got him something.." Mariah puts a hand on Vanilla ice's arm, "Hey, we're both learning, and for all I know he could have hated it.. but you know, I think we're doing really good for our first time." Vanilla ice looks back at Dio, "yeah, me too."

said blanket: 

(Dio has two caregivers who are going to spoil him with as many goodies as he wants, and Vanilla ice gets a better understanding on how to care for a child.)

[thanks for reading this! as I said, I don't know much about Vanilla ice or Mariah yet, so I hope I didn't make them sound off character or anything- I do look forward to seeing them in part three though :3]

[randomfanner]

Just Had a Thought

The Crown of Karsus, one of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence. The arcane potential in the item was beyond the comprehension of the Bhaalspawn who held it in his hands, studying it from every angle.  His tail swished in the air back and forward mindlessly.

“Calax I do understand how impressive the Crown is, but you have been staring at it for the last 20 minutes. Is there something in particular on your mind?” Gortash didn’t even look up from his work table.

“Hmm…” the sulphuric tiefling  sat up and placed the crown down on the pillow it was being stored on. “Just had a thought,” Calax’s red eyes bore into the crown.

“My, isn’t that dangerous,” Gortash moved away from his work. “Tell me, what is this thought?” he sauntered over to where the crown, and Calax was.

“Why waste the Crown on the elder brain?” Calax asked. Deep red flicking to the side at Gortash. 

“Now I certainly wouldn’t call putting the Crown on the brain a waste, but if you have an alternative I will at least hear it out,” Gortash said. “If we shouldn’t waste it on the brain, what should we use it on instead?”

“I could wear the crown.” 

Gortash raised an eyebrow.  “And to what end would that serve?”

“I am a Bhaalspawn, the crown likely couldn’t kill me and I could gain the power from it. You would have the Netherstones and the ability to control it, and therefore me.” Calax said as he walked back to where he was sitting. “You would have the most powerful weapon no one could defy right in your grasp.” 

“I will admit, it is not a horrid proposal,” Gortash said as he took a seat next to Calax. “But it does not truly work with the rest of our plan.”

“A horrid monster ripping to shreds the Sword Coast would surely be something to defend against, a silent assassin tearing through the streets would cause panic. One that you would have the complete ability to stop. It would launch you where you would need to be to claim your title,” Calax said. “It saves a step.”

“And where we do not have everyone’s undying loyalty as their god?” Gortash asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Would it matter?” Calax asked. “I am sure you could invent something, or simply have the skills to convince people to follow you willingly..”

Gortash’s lips turned into a smile and laughed. “Oh Calax my dear, if I could make a simple device without the Elder Brain to control the entirety of the Sword Coast, I promise I would have by now,” Gortash said. “Besides, I already have the most powerful being on the Sword Coast by my side,” Gortash leaned a bit closer to Calax.  “And he has no need for the multiverse's most persuasive dog collar.” 

“Just a thought.”

“Where exactly does it come from, Calax?’ Gortash asked as he leaned away. “You know what putting the Crown on would mean for you, yet you still suggest it. Why? Is there something that concerns you about our current plan?”

“No.”

Gortash frowned, dark eyes narrowing. “That does not answer the first question.”

“I did answer, earlier in the conversation,” Calax’s tail cut the air. “It saves a step.”

“And turns you into a thrall under my control, an all powerful thrall yes but you would still be heeded to me. You know this,” Gortash said. “Not to mention how much this could upset your master, simply handing full control to The Chosen of Bane.”

“It is his will I serve you,” Calax said. “He wants this plan to succeed. I am suggesting a way to make it succeed faster. If it will not work, then I will drop it.”

Gortash gave a sigh. “I appreciate your dedication, truly but let's save that for getting the crown on the Elder Brain rather than putting it on your head.” Gortash stood up and made his way back over to his work bench. “Should you have any other thoughts, don’t hesitate to suggest. We are working together on this plan, I would rather see what you have to say.”

Calax stared at his back at the soon to be tyrant of all hunched over the desk. “I will.” the assassin lied without missing a single beat. 

[ablogcalledrevenge]

Potential (A General Hux x Reader Insert Multi-Chapter Fic, Rated M)

AO3 Link

Chapter Twelve

“And she’s so powerful Master, perhaps even more than the scavenger. She’s completely untrained but I could help hone her skills. It’s just so strange to me that I wasn’t able to sense it.” Kylo finishes, breathing heavily in his excitement. 

While the most important part was that you had this new power to learn and wield, Kylo was also secretly pleased that he would no longer be alone. The Force was a very isolating thing, especially for those more in tune with the Dark Side. Knowing there was someone else who could understand his feelings and struggles was comforting. Plus, it would be fun to mess around with Hux.

“Of course you weren’t able to sense it boy, I didn’t want you to.” Snoke says, interrupting his daydreams. Silence fills the chamber and it echoes. 

“You knew? The whole time? Why didn’t you say anything? Is that what you spoke to her about that night?” Kylo asks, growing more and more angry. Snoke just watches with mild bemusement, like Kylo is a small child getting mad that his parent lied about having sweets.

“We could’ve been helping her this whole time! She got hurt, Supreme Leader, she was in agony! We could’ve stopped that and stopped Pryde. She could’ve died and then Palpatine would be back!” Kylo shouted at his Master, feeling the slow, slimy crawl of darkness fill him up.

“Oh come now boy, do you really think Pryde’s pathetic plan would have worked? It was flawed from the start and lacking in past proven success. While the Light Side allows those who’ve passed to communicate with others still living, the Dark Side, especially that of a Sith, deals in absolutes. Death is death. He let his desire for power blind him to common sense.”

“Then why did we not stop him earlier and prevent the waste of time and resources? Why Master? Why put us through this?” He responds looking up at Snoke. Since the attack on Exegol, the Supreme Leader had made a visit to the Finalizer. Normally he has guards around him at all times, imposing figures dressed in all red. But he is alone, alone with Kylo.

Despite being old and sallow, he intimidated Kylo. He felt cowed in his presence, like an animal trying to hide in the corner of a cage. Clearly his Master knew more than he let on and deemed Kylo unworthy of the information.

“Because I needed to know where your loyalties lie!” Snoke roared, standing up from his throne. His student recoiled back.

“I am loyal to you Master, you know this! Ever since I was a child when you called to me. Why would I betray you? Your goals are my goals and I seek to serve you and learn from you. I wish to make you proud.” Kylo pleaded.

“Do you think I am blind Master Ren, or perhaps that I am merely stupid? Do you think I didn’t see the way you trailed after that insipid girl like a lost dog? Did you think that I was unaware of the relationship that started with the General? I’ve known the whole time and your behavior has been an embarrassment.” Snoke sneered, returning to his seat. He fumed for a moment, his already thin lips pulling tighter in fury.

“I am aware of General Hux’s desires for power and glory and before I found them easily managed. But now, his wife, like all vile women I’ve come to know, has poisoned his mind. She inflates his ego and aids his progress in a way that concerns me. She may bat her eyes and act innocent but she is vicious. Her goals far outweigh the General’s and I have no doubt that should he prove useless, she will get rid of him. Did you think yourself so special that she would treat you differently?” He continues, drumming his long, skeletal fingers on the arm of his chair.

“… What?” Kylo whispers into the still air of the chamber. One would think they were all frozen statues with how little they moved. No breeze ruffled their robes. No speck of dust floated through the air. The large chamber, despite being practically empty, felt like a vacuum.

A look of pity crossed Snoke’s face before morphing into a twisted attempt at glee. Not because he was trying to be kind and spare Kylo’s feelings, but more because such a pleasant expression had never graced his sunken face before.

“I don’t believe it. I thought you were smarter than that. Did you really think they liked you? That she meant all the things she’s been whispering in your ear? She chose you from the start to be a pawn in her game and your fate will probably go the way of all the other people she’s killed.”

Kylo made an odd choking noise he’d never heard himself make before.

“Are you truly that braindead? Did you think those deaths were all coincidences? She might have painted a pretty picture for the unwashed masses but I thought I’d trained you better than that. She wants to usurp me and our Brotherhood. She wants to dismantle the First Order and take everyone down with it.”

“You’re wr-wrong.” Kylo stammered out, his face red with shame. The hot slide of the Force turned to ice in his veins. Snoke scoffed.

“She doesn’t love you Kylo. Neither of them do. They are monsters, incapable of love. And you are too. I allowed this indiscretion to go on for a time, seeing how the passion made you stronger in your fighting. But now it’s gone too far. Love is for children and imbeciles! They are using you! They laugh at you when you leave them, thinking they’ve deceived you. They think they’ve deceived me!” He shouted, once again stepping off his platform and down towards Kylo.

Kylo’s vision was clouding, and Snoke’s words echoed in his ears. He started to look back on every interaction, examining them in a new light. He went over every kiss, every touch, every look for something sinister. Was it true? Was he that weak to jump at the chance of affection, even at his own risk?

The room felt like it was getting smaller, squeezing in on him. Snoke started to poke at his thoughts, paint them red and reveal the truth. The pain was immense and brought Kylo back to his childhood, crying under his bed after a scolding from his mother. Snoke had been there too, showing him the truth of his mother’s feelings. He showed him her disdain and her regrets. He showed him all the secret thoughts she had about her son. All through his life, Snoke had been there, molding him into the fierce warrior he was now.

And Kylo had failed.

The shame brought him to his knees. He had allowed himself to be lied to and manipulated. He had allowed simple pleasures of the flesh to override his devotion to the Force. Once again, he had tried to please his Master, bring more over to the Dark Side, and he had crashed and burned.

As humiliating as it was, he could move on from the scavenger. The Force was strong within her, but the Resistance had gotten to her first. She would be a worthy opponent.

But this, this cut him deep. This was no longer an issue of his pride or his teachings. This involved his heart. His distraction had nearly cost him his life.

Snoke approached him, the gold fabric of his robe coming into view. A cold hand rested gently on Kylo’s head.

“Your behavior has been disgraceful but not unexpected. You always did have a hard time removing your feelings from the situation. That’s why I’m here. To help you when you falter in your duties. She has used you and now must be stopped. You’ve been ignoring your work long enough. You must return to your mission and find Luke Skywalker.” Snoke said, his voice quiet and calm. Kylo sniffed and stared at the floor.

Then the hand petting his head stopped, and though Snoke removed his grip, Kylo still felt his head wrenched up. Kylo was eye to eye with his Master and as much as he wanted to look away, he could not move.

“You know what to do Kylo Ren, you know how to stop this. You can never complete your training if you allow others to manipulate you. Use the Force and follow your path. Show your loyalty and kill those who stand in your way.” Snoke declared, loosening his phantom grip and letting Kylo fall to the floor like a doll.

The edge of his lightsaber cut into his hip and his hand twitched. He had to speak with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Kylo had left two hours ago, he had sat you down in front of a candle and told you to meditate. You’d focused your breathing like he’d shown you and kept the candle in sight. Kylo had said that meditation would not only help you understand and communicate with the Force but it would also help lessen the pain and lower the volume.

You were both surprised and not to find that he was right. It wasn’t that you thought Kylo was lying about his skills or knowledge, but you were worried that they wouldn’t work for you. No one had realized you were strong with the Force so who’s to say the training would even work? But it was.

The headache you’d had since you woke up in the medbay was receding every day, more so on days you meditated or practiced simple drills. When Kylo made you close your eyes and predict where a levitating ball was -or on one occasion, where he was going to kiss next- you felt proud. 

In those moments you understood and liked the Force. Hux was… well he wasn’t pleased exactly. But he let you and Kylo continue on and didn’t make a fuss. It was clear that he still regarded the Force with some skepticism but seeing the fundamentals being taught helped change his mind a little. The two people he cared most for in the galaxy were Force users, so he might as well just accept it.

So there you sat, legs crossed and breathing slow. The Force lay in front of you like a map, glowing lines intersecting and flowing over each other. There was a line connecting you and Hux, another going from you to outside the room towards Kylo probably, even one connecting Millie to you. And along each line, like the faintest glimmer, was the future. Or the possible future.

You saw worlds collapsing and expanding, empires rising and falling. Your own self seemed so minuscule in the will of the Force. The universe would continue on it’s path, only allowing you choices when it saw fit.

But there was a beauty in that, a release of responsibility. The Force didn’t care about you, it just connected you to others in the universe. So you would not care about it, you would continue as you were and only take nudges when they fit your vision. Still, getting to read people’s minds certainly wouldn’t hurt.

You released your breath and the candle went out, flooding your bedroom into darkness. That was enough introspection for a day. You changed out of your simple pants and shirt into the outfit you were planning on wearing for the evening. You and Hux were meeting a few officers for dinner and you wanted to show off your new dress. The dress was a gorgeous piece; black leather with enticing see through mesh and colorful floral embroidery. 

Glancing at the chronometer, you entered the living room, Millie resting peacefully on the couch while your darling finished his work. You needed to remind him of the time, so he could get ready as well. You still had to put your shoes on, but you would have your darling husband do that. The play at subjugation was always a fun little appetizer for the two of you.

Everything was quiet and easy and your brain relaxed as you waited.

It was into this calmness that Kylo burst in, his robes swirling around him like a storm. You didn’t need to sense his energy crackling around him to tell you he was in a mood. He looked furious and heartbroken and confused all at the same time. You and Hux both remained where you were in shock; him at his desk, you by the couch.

“Kylo, is everything alright?” Hux asked, setting aside his datapad. Kylo didn’t reply and instead removed his outer robe, letting it drop to the floor. His dark gaze bounced around the room, catching on random things and never staying for long. He looked at Hux for a long moment, your husband standing from his chair to perhaps embrace Kylo. But the expression on Kylo’s face made him falter.

Then he looked at you.

The sweet smile you greeted him with slid off your face as you felt yourself lift off the ground. You were being pulled up by your neck, the pressure getting tighter and tighter with each inch you rose.

“Kylo, what’s going on?! What are you doing? Put her down! Stop!” Hux yelled, racing over to Kylo to get him to stop. He pushed at the other man’s body, tried to pull his arm down where it extended in a claw towards you. But Kylo may as well have been a mountain for all that he moved.

Your feet were dangling, toes no longer anywhere near the floor, and your hands in their leather gloves scrabbled at your neck. You could feel Kylo’s grip, clear as any other time he had so lovingly touched your neck. But your fingers scratched at air, your throat convulsing by invisible means.

Tears rolled down your reddening face as you choked out Kylo’s name, begging him to stop. Hux ran to you, hands fluttering with uselessness.

“Kylo stop, please! I don’t understand! Why are you doing this?” He cried, turning pale.

“You lied to me! You were always lying to me! You’ve been using me! You don’t love me, you never have! The Supreme Leader showed me the truth. You used me and as soon as I would’ve  stopped helping you, you would’ve killed me. Killed me like all the others!” Kylo shouted, ignoring Hux entirely.

Your eyes, which had been pleading only moments before, turned hard and steely at the accusation. Seeing the change, and perhaps thinking it a confirmation, Kylo released you.

You dropped into your husband’s arms, gasping and coughing. Hux grabbed a cup of water from the little decanter you kept on the table in front of the couch, pouring you a drink.

“What the kriff are you talking about? We haven’t been lying! Of course we care about you!” Hux told him, his eyes blazing with rage. Yes, he did care about Kylo, but not enough to instantly forgive for almost killing you!

Just like that, an argument started, both men screaming in each other’s faces. Screaming about lies and loyalties and love and betrayal and plans and secrets. Kylo was revealing your plan step by step while Hux, bless him, was justifying it on every turn while attempting to place all the blame on himself. Poor Millie had run towards your bedroom, tail tucked between her legs.

“Enough.”

The word struck like a bell, silencing both men. During their flight you had regained your senses,

standing gracefully in front of the transparisteel window. Your voluminous gown stood out against the navy of space and you touched once at your throat to center yourself. 

“You’re right. That is my plan. I did kill all those people. I’m going to remove Hux’s superiors to place him in a position of authority. A role where no one is above him or controls him. I am going to make him Emperor. That’s all true.” You admit slowly, voice scratchy from the abuse. But it does not waver, even in the face of Kylo’s rage.

Hux lets out a sigh and sinks into one of the armchairs, his hand coming up to rub across his chin. His eyes switch between you and Kylo, worry creasing underneath.

“So you would kill me too? Strike me down if I was in your way?” Kylo sneers.

“Yes. But not anymore. My plans have altered slightly.” You admit with a shrug. Ever since Hux’s accident you’ve allowed yourself some flexibility. While you do want to stick to your goals, now you’ve discovered that some people are more important.

“That doesn’t matter! You still lied to me! You still brought me here to control me and use me! You never cared for me, never lo-loved me!” He shouts, pointing a finger at you.

“Oh grow up Kylo! That’s what love is! Being in love means being used, being controlled. I use Hux, he uses me! Did you think I married him merely for his looks? No, I knew his connections and position in the First Order would suit my goals. He did the same. Sure, I’m a beautiful woman with a sparkling personality but I also had family wealth and connections to Imperial planets. We chose each other for specific reasons and love followed. So to act annoyed because I picked you out first and then came to adore you is childish.”

“It’s true, we weren’t honest about our intentions at first, but is that so awful? You’re part of us now. Would you have come to us had you known the truth? Would you be happier without us? Have we ever treated you poorly, made you feel used?” Hux asked, his voice a calm break between the two of you starting to shout. Kylo started like he forgot Hux was there.

“And furthermore, how did we use you? What did we make you do? What did we ask of you? We kept you away from our plans on purpose. We didn’t want you getting involved.” He adds, a tone of sweetness entering his voice. It’s one that rarely appears but it seems to do the job of soothing Kylo slightly.

“I, I don’t understand. What was your plan for me? You say you chose me but for what? To warm your bed and nothing else? If that were true then why did Snoke confront you? Why involve me and not tell me the truth?” Kylo begs, stepping closer to you, reaching both hands into his hair to pull in frustration.

“Because you need to kill Snoke.”

The air in the room stills as your words land like bombs. Hux sucks in a nervous breath and Kylo drops his hands.

“You would have me kill my Master? Kill the Supreme Leader?” He whispers, as if afraid of saying the words too loud and making them real.

“Hux cannot be Emperor if Snoke rules over him. The Supreme Leader is old and weak and doesn’t care about the actual people he’s ruling over. All he cares about is the Force and eradicating the Jedi.” You reply, the cold expanse of space behind you.

“That is an important and noble cause!”

“Like hell it is! What does it matter if Skywalker still lives? He’s off on some rock somewhere being a recluse! It wasn’t until you started looking for him, on Snoke’s orders, that he became a problem. Snoke told you to try and convert the scavenger to the Dark Side and you failed and now she’s with the Resistance! She’s probably getting trained by Skywalker himself. You did this to yourself! Snoke’s foolhardy desire to get rid of the perceived threat of the Jedi caused the most powerful one to come out of retirement! He’s an idiot and so are you!” You shout, holding up your hand when Kylo tries to interrupt. You take a long sip of your water.

“For years Snoke has sent you on wild hawk-bat chases, going after old men and ghosts. He has diverted money and resources away from the First Order to complete his unnecessary missions. The skills of the Knights of Ren are legendary and he has been wasting them! He is not only wasting your time but your talent! I am only a beginner in the ways of the Force, I admit that, but even I can see that your mind reading skills and athletics are better suited for covert missions and interrogation. Instead you’re off playing hide and seek with people who do not wish to be found.”

“And why? Why Kylo? Why does he send you? Send your knights? If Snoke is so powerful, so wise, why doesn’t he do it? Because to be honest my love, had you failed me as much as you failed him, I wouldn’t keep giving you things to do. He’s distracting you, keeping you busy. He’s occupying your time so you never realize the truth. He gives you impossible tasks and berates you when you falter, pulling at your leash like a feral Neks when you try to do something by yourself. If anyone is using you, it is him, not me.”

Kylo sputters and laughs in a short, disbelieving way. He steps closer to you once more, forcing you to back up against the window, the cool glass making you hiss. Hux stands up from his chair but does not move further, knowing he is out of his depth between you and Kylo.

“If you’re so wise, so all knowing in the Force, ten steps ahead of everyone, then tell me: what is he distracting me from?” His voice is smooth like silk, gliding over your face and neck as he approaches you.

There is something predatory in his eyes, assessing and bright. You do not cower from him though your heart is pounding fast. You wonder if the sound is escaping your chambers, it seems so loud.

“From your true power. From the natural conclusion of your training. From questioning him. You are the Master of the Knights of Ren, and yet where is your authority? What choices are you allowed to oversee?” You explain, raising your hand slowly to rest against Kylo’s chest. Your fingers flex against the hard leather of his tunic.

“I run missions and lead battles all the time. I have plenty of control over myself and my Knights. You know nothing of the work I do for the Supreme Leader. You know nothing of the Dark Side!” He spits back, his eyes searching your face.

“I know more than you realize. You think I’d go into this blind, just doing whatever you tell me? If I’m going to have to deal with the Force, I’m going to learn about it all. True, I haven’t gotten through all of it and I doubt I ever will, but I know about the Light and Dark Sides of the Force. And yet… and yet you are neither.”

You catch your husband’s eye and beckon him forward with your other hand, below Kylo’s waist. He slopes up gracefully hovering near Kylo’s back but not touching.

“Why did Snoke teach you the ways of the Force, grab you away from your childhood and bring you into the Dark Side, and then not allow you to reach your fullest potential? Why refuse the moniker of Sith when that’s so clearly what he is?” You say, dropping your voice down into the register you use in the bedroom. Your hand slides up Kylo’s chest to his neck, playing with the tiny wisps of hair at his nape. Hux joins you, wrapping an arm around Kylo’s waist from behind and bringing the other up to replace yours on his chest. Kylo’s eyes have gone a little hazy, confused in how he got into this position but sinking deeply into serenity. He’s certainly not mad anymore and you’d take it.

“The Dark Side of the Force is rigid and hard to maintain. He wanted more flexibility for himself… and for us.” Kylo murmurs as Hux reaches below his belt and heavy tunic to caress at Kylo’s stomach underneath.

“But he won’t offer you the same flexibility. Why, when you have difficulty with a style or lesson does he not adapt and change? Give you the same kindness he extends to himself.”

A spark of comprehension lights in Kylo’s eyes. Seizing the moment, you quickly grip Kylo’s hair and pull his head back, Hux pushing at his back and legs to get him down on the floor between you. He kneels before you, neck straining from your pull, eyes once again furious. You smile at him, and it is wicked.

“Because the final act of a Sith is to kill their Master.”

Kylo wrenches away from you, a few of his dark hairs still trapped in your fist. He grabs his helmet and cowl by the door.

“You are wrong! My Master is wise in all things and has plans I can’t even conceive of. He has plans for me, he wants to help me. He has been raising me to my true potential since I was a child! I will not kill him!” He shouts and you fear momentarily for anyone passing by. The chambers are mostly sound proof but Kylo has a loud, commanding voice. You raise your voice right back.

“He has been manipulating you since you were a child! He has been hurting you since you were a child! Had you proven a bad student, he would’ve found another. He has never cared for you! If he did, he would’ve left you alone.” You shoot back, surprised to find wetness growing in your vision. Doesn’t he see what he means to you? How you’ve grown and changed?

“Kylo please, I love you so much. We love you and want you with us. We want to save the Galaxy, make it better. We need your help. We need your knowledge and skill and leadership over your knights. When I make Hux Emperor, you shall have freedom to do as you please. You can do whatever you want for us, with us. Snoke would never let you go! That’s why you must kill him. You need to take your rightful place, just like Hux will. It’s what I always wanted for you.” You add, trailing off quietly towards the end. The tears are really falling now and Hux comes to your side, reaching for your hand. 

“At the end of the day, it’s your decision Kylo. But someone is going to die when this ends. It’s your choice who.” Your husband says, his voice clear and his words final.

With that, Kylo gives you one last glare and storms out of your apartment. The door closes quietly behind him. You and Hux remain standing, tears streaming down your face, and hope that you didn’t just ruin everything.

You almost cancel your dinner plans but decide against it. Kylo needs time and you might as well eat a good meal before your death. It’s agony, trying to make friendly conversation while a pendulum hangs over your head, but you are the perfect hostess which means being the perfect guest. You are witty and charming, laughing at jokes and gazing lovingly at your husband. He remains mostly quiet and pleasant, leaving the communication mostly to you.

After a long dinner, you are finally free of company and return to your apartments. Millie has been fed and you both collapse on the couch. Hux pours you both a glass of whiskey and you sip next to each other, dread returning. Kylo doesn’t return after one glass or the next.

Eventually, you go to bed. Neither of you talk much, lying next to each other under the blankets. Hux reaches across the expanse and holds your hand. It makes your heart soar with affection and you kiss him sweetly. Declarations of love get whispered between you and you fall into an uneasy sleep.

You’re only a few hours into the sleep cycle when the front door opens with a beep. As if waiting for a signal, you and Hux spring out of bed. You trail behind Hux as he enters the sitting room, your simple blue nightgown fluttering around you.

Kylo is there, helmet off, lightsaber engaged, and breathing heavily. He stalks towards you and for a moment your head is empty. You are going to die and the realization freezes you in your tracks.

Then he disengages his lightsaber and lets it drop onto the floor with a clang. He extends his arm, previously behind his back, and drops Snoke’s mangled head on the carpet. He looks exhausted, skin pale and drawn. There is blood on his face by his temple. 

Then he falls to the floor as well, both of you reaching forward at the last second to catch him. Blood stains your hands where they press against his chest. Hux quickly removes Kylo’s uniform, inhaling sharply at the sight of blood and gore on his chest. There was a battle clearly and Hux whistles for Messy. The mouse droid zooms over and Hux makes a request for medical supplies. You have some in your chambers but Kylo will probably need more than your paltry supply. He needs to go to the medbay, something Hux keeps saying but Kylo shakes his head.

“I did it, it’s done. Snoke is dead. The Knights have pledged to me and only me. I’m free.” Kylo breathes out, voice scratchy. Hux looks at you in shock. You had hoped that Kylo would choose you, would follow your plan, and now he had.

Snoke was dead. There was nothing standing in your way. Kylo could pronounce The Supreme Leader dead in the morning and Hux could be crowned by the afternoon. It was done, you were finished.

“Kylo, you miraculous boy!” Hux croons, pushing away his sweaty hair and kissing his temple.

While your husband worked on treating Kylo’s wounds, labored breaths and hisses of pain accompanied by soothing nonsense, you sat on the floor in a heap.

All the lying and killing and deceiving could end. You had won. Your plan had worked. Hux was going to be Emperor! Hux… was going to be Emperor…

Kylo’s lightsaber rested by your knee, easily reachable. Snoke’s head lay nearby, his face in a frozen state of shock, eyes gone dim. The men were busy, occupied with other things but within your range. Your hands rested on your lap covered in blood, possibly Snoke’s, maybe Kylo’s. 

Your heartbeat slowed like it always did when you were facing a momentous decision. Your eyes swung back and forth between the lightsaber, the head, and your hands. The voices behind you faded to white noise.

The Force gave you a vision. Paths lighting up and expanding out from your hands.

You had won, your hard work had paid off. All your obstacles were gone. You could have everything you wanted. And more… You could have more. The weapon was in reach and by the time they realized what you were doing, they’d be dead. This was your plan, your idea! They had done their part and you didn’t need them anymore.

But you, you could do more. You could rise higher than thought possible, bringing the Galaxy to it’s knees. They were only men; easily distracted and disposed of. You could kill them now and have it all.

The First Order would obey you, Phasma’s troops falling in line at your show of cunning. The Knights would respect you, ruthlessly taking the opportunity. Men were weak and you were strong. You were better than them, better than everyone! You could be Empress of all, ruling for centuries!

All you had to do was pick up the lightsaber and cut their throats. All you had to do was kill them. It would be easy, they’d barely feel a thing. You could do it without breaking a sweat. You could spin a story to make yourself look good, give yourself deniability. You could become a God, rule the First Order and then the Galaxy!

You could kill them. You could kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them! KILL THEM! KILL THEM!

KILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLKILLTHEMKILLTHEMKILLKILLKILL

You screamed then, air rushing into your lungs as you fell forward into your lap, bloody hands pushed outward.

“I can’t do it, I won’t do it! Don’t make me, I don’t want to! Get this off me! Get it off! Please, I don’t want to. I love you, I could never, I don’t want to.” You cry out, Hux coming to you and pulling you gently into a more comfortable position against his chest. Kylo, now mostly stable, takes your hands and removes the blood. He is gentle and soft. He knows what you were thinking. 

“Together, together or not at all.” Kylo whispers, placing a reverent kiss on your clean palms. You sniffle and give a shaky smile. The vision fades away, just an idea that passes along.

“You have done so much and done it well, now we can relax and take our place in history. Relax my dear, rest now. It’s done.” Hux says into your ear and you nod, feeling yourself slump further into his embrace.

“It’s done.” You murmur back, repeating the phrase a few times, testing the weight on your tongue. It tastes delicious.

A laugh bubbles up in your chest then, loud and obnoxious. You can’t stop it and it escapes, echoing in the room and startling the men. A beat and then they follow, laughing along with you.

The laughter grows for a moment, a Stormtrooper passing by on patrol hearing it but paying it no mind.

Then it dissipates and the energy in the room settles. Hux lifts you in his arms and carries you back to bed, Kylo trailing behind, fist gently tugging on your nightgown.

You settle into sleep, your husband on one side and your lover on the other, and you drift away into peaceful nothingness. A smile is on your face.

Epilogue Coming Soon!

Tagging: @babbushka, @livy1391, @renaissance-mama, @girl-next-door-writes​, @peqchynero​, @niniita-ah, @the-temple-pythoness​, @cupofmoonlighttea​, @sincerely-cronch​, @potato-ren​, @brujademente​, @ah-callie​, @rosirinoa​, @lwtficrecs​, @theold-ultraviolence​, @mad-hatters-teapot​, @firstordermariposa, @revolution-starter, @shereadsinquiet, @isthisheaven5

Please let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future chapters!

[nsfwhiphop]

Incoming Text for Gillian Anderson (@GillianA):

Dear Gillian,

I want to encourage you to watch Terminator Genisys (2015). (click on the blue link)

Question: Why am I recommending this film? Answer: Because it shows you how I see the world. The movie portrays an Anti-Christ-like regime seizing power, with resistants fighting back. The character Jason Clarke plays exists in today’s world.

Here’s an explanation of Jason Clarke's villainous character:

In Terminator Genisys, Jason Clarke portrays John Connor, the iconic leader of the human Resistance against Skynet, the AI system threatening humanity. John is not only a key strategist in the fight against the machines but also a mentor and father figure to Kyle Reese, a loyal soldier who eventually becomes his close ally.

However, during a mission, John is ambushed by a highly advanced Terminator model called the T-5000, which infects him with a powerful nanomachine virus. This attack transforms him into a T-3000, an entirely new type of Terminator. Unlike previous models, which were built with metal endoskeletons and synthetic skin, the T-3000 is composed of "machine phase matter." This is a futuristic technology where John's body is rebuilt at a molecular level, giving him the ability to shift, regenerate, and harden his form at will. Essentially, he becomes a hybrid of human consciousness and self-healing machine, with his entire physical structure reconfigured to serve Skynet as a nearly unstoppable weapon.

This transformation makes John both stronger and more adaptable, capable of withstanding immense damage and rapidly repairing himself. Yet, the tragic twist is that this transformation erases his loyalty to humanity, forcing him to become an agent of Skynet—the very force he once fought against.

The end of the explanation.

In conclusion:

My dear Gillian, for the past eight months, you have chosen to side with doubt instead of believing me. That’s your choice, not mine. If you choose to live in denial, that is your decision. Meanwhile, I am moving forward and fighting this good fight with others who resist.

This is a wake-up call, for you and the 7 billion people living on earth:

The Apocalypse is here. Deny it, ignore it, but it’s here. Those who refuse to prepare for battle will suffer. The choice will be stark: abandon your Christian faith or perish. Those who remain idle will eventually face this choice, as it is unfolding globally, even as we speak. This holy war is inescapable; it was foretold in the Bible centuries ago, and the time to fight the Anti-Christ is upon us.

The world is dividing into two groups:

Those who live in denial and refuse to fight—they will be forced to abandon their Christian faith.

Those who resist and stand their ground—they will be able to keep their faith.

This holy war is inevitable, and it has already begun.

I know David Duchovny likely regrets doubting me. Both of you are smart people. Look around. Do you believe the world as you know it will last another decade or two? Now, you understand why I don’t discuss these topics on my blogs. People prefer the comfort of denial, talking about new episodes of Friends or Sex and the City. Ignorance is bliss, as they say in The Matrix.

If you're ready, I encourage you to connect with Christian communities in Australia—they are among the most prepared for this holy war. Australian churches are organizing for what lies ahead. Reach out to actor Russell Crowe; he can show you around. His recent movie, The Pope's Exorcist, dives deep into these themes.

And, Gillian, you’re welcome to spend time with my future wife, Chloë Sevigny. She’s dear to me in ways I can’t even describe—just thinking of her gives me heart palpitations.

This was a good chat.

Love you, Gillian! Enjoy, and sending you big hugs.

Angelo (Crown Prince)

P.S.:

Synopsis of the Letter:

Angelo encourages Gillian to watch Terminator Genisys as it reflects his view of the world, where an Anti-Christ-like regime is taking control, and those who resist are fighting back. He expresses disappointment in Gillian’s choice to doubt him over the past months, but urges her to recognize the current "holy war" against forces that aim to undermine Christian faith.

In his view, the world is dividing into two camps: those who deny the truth and may be forced to renounce their faith, and those who stand firm in their beliefs. He references the Bible's prophecies, affirming that this spiritual battle is inevitable and has already begun.

To prepare, Angelo suggests Gillian visit Australian Christian communities, who he believes are especially ready for this fight, even encouraging her to reach out to Russell Crowe for guidance. Finally, he fondly mentions his future wife, Chloë Sevigny, ending the letter warmly and urging Gillian to enjoy herself, while hinting at the urgency of his message.

Here is the Trailer: TERMINATOR: GENISYS | Official Trailer | Now on Digital HD, On Blu-ray Nov. 10 (HD)

[tweeks]

cartman fans remain the worst type of people in this fucking fandom. ALL of them are apologists, no matter how much they pretend they aren't. it's fascinating to me how they can admit he's supposed to be an irredeemable piece of shit, while simultaneously using his age or blaming other characters for HIS bigotry. i'm honestly curious what makes them this way? i need to know what has you resorting to dog whistle language to defend a character you just moments ago said was made to be irredeemable. anyone who has him as a comfort character or say they relate to him is undoubtedly outing themselves as bigots.

hmm well im uncertain if everyone who enjoys cartman is a bigot necessarily like he has his moments for everyone im sure and like i understand seeing cartman and thinking hes funny or interesting or sometimes even seeing yourself in him hes a well written character of course people are allowed to feel deeply about this character its only human but to deny that he’s racist or that hes a bad person or prioritizing the woobification of your favorite character over the feelings of real life people of color who just aren’t that stoked on him is. it is just very telling of your character and where your loyalty lies when i say cartman is terrible im not doing a discredit to his character im stating an Objective Fact? so if you like cartman so much why do you insist on redeeming him or absolving him of guilt he doesn’t have or twisting everything he says into a justification for why he is the way he is cartman is a bad person but hes also? really funny hes mean and insane and self aware why does he have to have a traumatic reasoning that justifies his every action cartman is bad because if he was good his character would serve no purpose if he changed it would have to be an entirely different show focused solely on cartmans internal life a quarter of a century of cartman spewing racist rhetoric isn’t going to go away because you wrote a kyman fix it fic where cartman realizes he has mommy issues and is miraculously no longer antisemitic or an asshole

[carolap53]

Created for His Good Pleasure TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman

11/12/2022

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:10

Eric Liddell was an Olympic runner from Britain who won a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics. He was a man who had a deep commitment to the Lord and had future plans of being a missionary. In the meantime, he knew God had given him a special gift to run, and he often said, "I feel God's pleasure when I run."

He spent years training for the Olympics. He passed each hurdle and qualified for the Olympics. Finally, the day came for him to run in the games that were held in Paris. There was only one problem. One of his running events was held on Sunday. Liddell refused to run on Sunday, believing it dishonored the Lord's Sabbath. He held to his convictions and brought great persecution on himself. He made a decision that even if it meant losing his opportunity to compete, he would not run. God's laws were greater than man's applause. Just when the circumstances seemed hopeless, another situation arose that allowed Liddell to run on a different day. So often this is the case in the spiritual realm. God tests our hearts to see if we will remain faithful to Him at the cost of something important to us. Once He knows where our loyalty lies, He opens a new door that meets the desires of our hearts. God takes pleasure in seeing His creation used for His glory. Liddell understood why he was made to run; he used his gift of running to bring pleasure to his Creator. Later, Eric Liddell went on to serve God on the mission field.

Does your life work bring pleasure to the Lord? Do you understand that God instilled certain gifts and talents in you so that He might find pleasure in His creation of you? Take pleasure in the gifts God has given to you this day. And let His glory shine through you.

[somewhere-south-of-neutral]

Like, I feel like the three big "mysteries" about Garak are "Who was he before his exile?", "Why was he exiled?", and "Where do his loyalties lie post exile?".

The answer to all of these, really, is the same. Garak, more, perhaps, than any other Cardassian we meet, loves Cardassia. Who was he before the occupation? He was the Obsidian Order's specialist little boy. He was Enabran Tain's son, but he was more than that. He was like the son Enabran Tain never had while also being the son he did have. He was the perfect agent, the perfect protege. In "The Wire", Tain says "I never had to order Garak to do anything. That's what made him special." He was the perfect patriot, he loved Cardassia, and he served Cardassia, loyally and faithfully, even after it stopped serving him. And he has never hidden that. He always lies about having been a member of the Obsidian Order, but he doesn't try very hard to keep the lie consistent.

So, what did he do to get exiled? While we don't know the exact details, we can be pretty certain that it also was due to his love of Cardassia. Garak was at the center of the Obsidian Order, he knew things about the empire not even the Central Command knew, and he could see the way the wind was blowing. If things kept on the way they were, with the expansionism and the xenophobia and the abject refusal to move with the times, Cardassia would fall. As we see eventually, it DID fall. But to say this would be treason. Garak, however, never cared about that, all he ever cared about was Cardassia. Every time Garak has the choice between serving himself and serving Cardassia, Cardassia comes first. He made the choice every day he decided to stay alive in exile, which for him, as Tain put it, is no life at all. He loved Cardassia so much that he gave it up forever rather than do less than the most he could for it. This motivation is basically spelled out explicitly in his last exchange with Quark in "Profit and Loss":

Q: You have to tell me… why'd you do it? Shoot Toran? G: Why did you let Professor Lang go? Q: I had no choice. I love her. G: And I love Cardassia. Which is why I had to do what I did. Q: I don't understand. G: That's the thing about love. No one really understands it, do they?

He saved the dissenters because he knew they were Cardassia's best hope.

And of course, as those examples show, in his exile he continued serving Cardassia, even when it wouldn't let him serve it directly. HE gave them the warning about the Klingon invasion. HE saved the leaders of the dissenter movement. And, when Cardassia had betrayed itself, HE was the one who used his knowledge to help the Federation destroy the Dominion that was parasitizing the world he loved, even though the cognitive dissonance of doing it almost killed him.

And the thing is, all of these motivations, though not all of the actual actions, are plain to see before the end of season 2. By the end of "The Wire" Garak doesn't really have anymore secrets from the audience, or even, for that matter, the other characters. He has told only lies, but he has still betrayed his truth because, of course, everything he says is always true ESPECIALLY the lies.

Everyone's all like "oooh, Garak is so mysterious" "Garak is an undecipherable enigma". No he's not, Garak is an open book, which is impressive considering that he is also a pathological liar. Like, he goes out of his way to avoid saying anything true, but at the same time he is incredibly open about his motives and allegiances.

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

[angelasscribbles]

Royal Retribution Chapter 3: Retreat

Series: Royal Retribution

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings: Liam x Riley x Drake (as a throuple)

Rating: R for general reasons

Warnings: mature themes

Word Count: 1,688

A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this one. I have started, and finished, two whole series in the last few months. I have chapters for five other series in process, but for some reason, I sat down at my laptop and this is what came out. For those of you who even remember this series, here you go!

My other stuff: Master List.

“Where the hell is she?” I raged as Drake tried to calm me down.

“Hold on, I’ll talk to the clerk.”

I watched him as I paced around the waiting area that had been cleared by my guards. Alec and three other guards had followed behind us to the airport. It had taken them longer to get there, but once they did, the room had been cleared quickly. I could tell by the stormy expression on Alec’s face that he wanted to scold me about leaving without him, but he could tell by the expression on mine that it would be a bad idea.

Drake came back glowering, “They have no idea what-“ He cut off as his phone rang. Pulling it out, he answered it with a curt, “What?”

He listened for a moment then looked up at me, gloating and my heart leapt, “What is it? Where is she?”

“On her way to Ramsford.” He answered.

“How?” I asked in astonishment, the Beaumont’s had also been detained.

He held a finger up, finished his conversation then pocketed his phone with a grin, “Marco.”

“What?”

“Marco saw the commotion, saw you and I both trying to get to her. So he pulled four of his guys and they beat Bastien’s guys to the airport. He countermanded Bas’s orders telling them that he had instructions directly from the new king to take her into custody and detain her elsewhere.”

“And they bought that?”

Drake gave me an expansive shrug, “Even though he’s in a different unit, he was the highest ranking guard on the scene, so they really had no choice. He wasn’t sure the palace was safe, so he took her to Ramsford. He sent the other four guys home, so he’s the only one that knows where she is.”

I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet, brimming with glee, “Bas is going to be so pissed!”

“Yep!” Drake affirmed, “now let’s go get our girl!”

“Marco is getting a raise, a promotion, or maybe both!” I told him as we made our way back to the car.

“Yeah but….Li, we have to be very careful right now. You are technically king now, but we still don’t know whose loyalty we can trust. Not after tonight.”

He was right. I stopped walking and scanned the men behind me. I motioned for Alec, “Send the other guy’s home.”

“But sir-“

“Do it, Alec. You can ride in the car with me and Drake, but I only trust you. Do you understand?”

He pressed his lips together and gave me a steely look, then he blew out a breath and nodded, “Yeah, I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

Drake and I climbed into the back of the gleaming black Devore GT, one of four I’d been talked into purchasing when Logan became my primary driver. He wasn’t wrong, the thing could outrun even the Venom GT intercepts used by, and modified for, the Cordonian State Police to patrol the motorways. My Devores were customized with full roll cages and bulletproof glass. Just in case.

As we drove, Alec and Drake strategized, “We’re going to need a couple of rank and file enlisted men that we can trust to keep their ear to the ground and see who’s siding with who. We need to know who we can and can’t trust, so we can clean house.” Drake was saying.

I pulled out my phone and put in a call to Lt. Everly, the head jailor. After giving him strict instructions to release the Beaumont’s, I called Lt. Jason Toussaint, the head of cyber security, someone I trusted implicitly because Drake did. He’d hand picked him and recruited him from the Cordonian Royal Air Force, they had served together before Drake transferred to the Royal Guard. I gave him several orders, then I placed my next call to Hana.

I desperately wanted to call Riley, but Drake informed me that Marco had made her give her phone up at the airport. We couldn’t be sure it wasn’t being traced or bugged.

“Hana, I can’t say much because I have no idea who’s listening.” I told her, “But everything is ok. I’ll explain it all when I get back. Meanwhile, you should have your things moved to my room and have anything of Riley’s that was left behind moved to Drake’s. You’ll be hearing from Lt. Jason Toussaint; he’ll bring you a new phone and the personal guard I’ve picked for you. Accept both the phone and the guard only from him, understand?”

“Yes, I understand.” She answered, “Take your time, I’m good here.”

“You’re a good friend, Hana.” I told her.

“You guys make it easy.” She said, “See you when you get home, goodbye.”

The ride to Ramsford was excruciating even though Logan broke every speed limit getting there.

I didn’t bother to knock, I barged right in like I owned the place. It’s not like Bert or Max were home yet anyway. “Riley!” I called out as I entered the foyer.

“Liam!” She hit my chest and was in my arms before I could draw in my next breath. “I knew you’d come for me!”

“I will always come for you.” I told her as I held her tight against me, the stress and anxiety in my center finally starting to uncoil as I buried my head in her hair and drew in her familiar, and comforting, scent.

“Goddamn it, Brooks, you scared the shit out of us!” Drake bellowed as he pushed his way past Alec to get in the door behind me.

“Drake!” She released me and flew into his arms.

He hugged her back about as tightly as I had, closing his eyes as he murmured, “Kardia mou.” Before dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

“So, first things first.” I told her, “I had to get engaged to Hana.”

“You….what?”

“Come, sit, let me explain.” I lead her into the formal sitting room so we could get comfortable. “Alec, make sure there are no staff around to overhear us.”

“On it, boss.” He said as he disappeared down the hallway.

I turned to the other guard, “Marco, I hope you didn’t unpack her luggage. If you did, put it back in your SUV.”

“Yes, sir, Your Majesty.” Marco gave me a grin and a salute on his way out.

Riley looked at me in surprise, “But I thought I was staying here until-“

“Absolutely not! This is the first place my father will look for you!”

“Your father? Your father is behind this?” Her face lost all its color.

“Yes, love, but don’t worry, we have a plan.” I assured her.

Drake closed the door, so it was just the three of us in the sitting room. I explained everything. Some of it even Drake hadn’t heard yet, there hadn’t been time.

When I was done, they both stared at me in horror. “Your father had your mother killed?” Riley was aghast and more than a little afraid.

“Jesus!” Drake drew a hand through his hair, “I knew he was a sadistic bastard but that….fuck, Li, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s ok-“

“It’s not!” Riley said as she moved to embrace me.

“The fuck it is!” Drake said at the same time, pulling me into an embrace from the other side.

I almost drew away, there wasn’t time for this. I had to get her somewhere safe. But the feeling of relief and comfort I felt there, wedged between the two of them, the love I could feel coming off them both in waves, overwhelmed me. I didn’t deserve it, there was nothing I’d ever done to possibly deserve either one of them, yet there they were, loving me. I couldn’t help it. I broke down a little. I cried softly into Drake’s chest while Riley pressed her body against my back.

“Sorry.” I mumbled when I finally got myself together, turning toward Riley.

“Don’t be sorry.” She told me softly as she ran a hand along my face.

“Never be sorry for having a heart, Li.” Drake echoed her sentiments as he rubbed a hand across my back.

“Riley, I have to ask…” I drew in a deep breath, not wanting to ask, but knowing I had to, “Are you sure you want to be with me? I know you love me, but this is more baggage than you signed up for. More than anyone should have to endure. If you want out, I won’t blame you, I won’t hold it against you. I can have the royal jet ready within the-“

“Liam.”

“What?”

“Shut. Up.” She grasped my face in both her hands and pulled me into a kiss. A long, lingering, passionate kiss. “I love you. I’m all in. No matter what.”

“But you will be in danger until we can-“

“I’m not going to lie and say I’m not afraid, but he only wants to stop you from marrying me, right? I mean, if he wanted me dead, he could have just killed me instead of going to the trouble to frame me, right?”

“She has a point, Li.” Drake agreed. “As long as you keep up the ruse of being engaged to Hana, Riley should be safe.”

I nodded as I wiped my face across my sleeve, “Right. But still, we need to take precautions and be proactive. He also wanted her out of the country, and we forestalled that. He doesn’t like being thwarted.”

“Agreed. That’s why we’re moving her.”

Riley looked back and forth between us, “So where-“

There was a knock on the door, Marco stuck his head in, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Beaumont’s are on their way home and Bas has sent guards with them to look for Lady Riley here.”

I jumped to my feet and pulled her up with me, “Just get in the car, I’ll explain on the way.”

As we rushed her out to the car, I muttered to Drake through gritted teeth, “Bas is so fucking fired!”

[barbarab1707-blog]

About Dany the Dragon, chains, and how Jon sealed his fate at the Dragonpit meeting

Daenerys is a dragon. I think no one can argue with that. She calls herself the Mother of Dragons, people call her the Dragon Queen. 

She also sees herself as a dragon, as per this:

And this:

Olenna even tells her: “You’re a dragon, be a dragon” which is also the “counsel” Missandei gives her before her death, “Dracarys” (=be a dragon).

And at the end the showrunners show us this:

Dany has finally completely embraced her inner dragon.

How does this tie in with the Dragonpit meeting? Well, this scene is full of foreshadowing of what is bound to happen in season 08, especially regarding Dany the Dragon and Jon’s fate.

Before the dragonpit meeting, we have this piece of dialogue: “Dragons don’t understand the difference between what’s theirs and what isn’t. Land, livestock, children. Letting them roam free around the city was a problem.”

So, dragons don’t make the distinction between what’s theirs and what isn’t. Dany being a dragon, she is the same. 

Which is shown by this (land):

Dany not making the difference between which lands belong to her or not, could be further illustrated when Dany tells Jon this in s08: “what happens when they demand you press your claim and take what’s MINE.” She considers the 7 Kingdoms to be hers, when they are, by right, Jon’s.

This (livestock):

And this (children):

The second part of the sentence about letting dragons roam free is more important though. The Dragonpit was built in order to contain the dragons and control the damage they could do. 

In Dany’s case, what prevents her doing too great a damage, what controls her inner dragon and prevents it to “roam free” are her counsellors. They are her Dragonpit if one could say. Jorah, Barristan, Tyrion, all helped at one point or another to stop her unleashing her inner dragon, which manifests as anger. They also all failed at one point or another.

From the beginning of season 04, Dany herself started slowly slowly fearing her inner dragon, her own power and anger, which coincided with the moment where she started fearing her children’s power and wildness. This culminated with her locking and chaining Rhaegal and Viseryon in s04e10 and thus, trying to repress her nature.

However, trying to repress her nature didn’t seem to work all that well for her.

Besides, while his brothers were in chains, Drogon was still “roaming free”, which could mean that, as much as Dany tried to repress her impulsive and prone to anger nature, she still couldn’t fight it completely. Something that is confirmed when she feeds Meereenese nobles to the still chained Rhaegal and Viseryon mid-season 05, after Barristan’s death which angered her. 

Moreover, at that point of time, she doesn’t have anyone to keep her in check anymore, as Jorah is in exile, and Barristan is dead. Instead, she has Daario and Missandei encouraging her to embrace her inner dragon. Dany starts reconciling with it when she escapes the fighting pits on Drogon’s back. She is free again to be who she is. She embraces again her inner dragon when she burns the khals and takes over the khalasar (something that isn’t hers to begin with but feels entitled to have).

She wants to go full on dragon when she makes that speech to Tyrion when she returns to Meereen:”I will crucify the masters, I will set their fleets afire, kill every last one of their soldiers and return their cities to the dirt. That, is my plan.” Tyrion, who has taken Jorah’s and Barristan’s vacant positions, manages however to temper her first impulse. 

But, it’s interesting to note that he was the one to set Rhaegal and Viseryon free from their chains which was 2 episodes prior to her unleashing her anger on the khals.

Tyrion freeing them from their chains is interesting on a symbolic level and as foreshadowing as well, as in season 07, Tyrion’s bad decision making is what provokes Dany’s anger more and more, progressively awakening her inner dragon.

That’s when another comes in to help keep it in check once again: Jon.

From mid-season 07 until the end of s08e04, Jon is the one to act as Dany’s chains/Dragonpit.

However, s05 Dany, Jorah, Barristan, Tyrion, Varys and Jon all forgot something important:

You are damn right, Jorah. No one can tame Dany’s inner dragon, not even herself. (Sorry about the typo in the picture, I got it elsewhere, I’m too lazy to make my own).

And they forgot this:

Interesting we got reminded of that at the Dragonpit meeting. I think we heard that one before, didn’t we?

Hey, look! Drogon is in chains…Kraznys is at the other end of the chains, thinking he is in charge. But Dany is actually the one holding the whip in that scene. She is the master, the one with power. And hey, Kraznys even calls Drogon “a beast”. Doesn’t that remind us of something?

I’m not saying Jon is Kraznys, I’m just pointing the fact they both see dragons as beasts and both think dragons can be controlled, bound to their will, or in other words, chained to them. In Kraznys’ case, it was an actual dragon, in Jon’s case, it was Dany. Kraznys fell into Dany’s trap, failed in controlling Drogon and Dany unleashed her anger on Astapor. 

In s07e06, we also have this:

Another dragon in chains! I’m starting to think now that this ridiculous scene had a symbolic purpose. The only one who could actually bind a dragon to his will is the Night King. And it makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, Dany bound her dragons to herself with blood magic and the NK bound Viseryon to himself with his magic. Only Dany’s Ice counterpart to her Fire could do it. No one else.

Let’s have a look at another moment at the Dragonpit. This is what Jon told Cersei when he refused her conditions:

“I am true to my word, or I try to be. That is why I cannot give you what you ask. I cannot serve two queens. And I have already pledged myself to Daenerys of House Targaryen.”

And this was his speech when Tyrion told him he should have lied: “I’m not gonna swear an oath I can’t uphold. Talk about my father if you want, tell me that’s the attitude that got him killed, but when enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies, and lies won’t help us in this fight.”

What does that have to do with anything? will you ask in a Sansa fashion. Well, the interesting thing about Jon’s speech on promises and lies is the chain on the floor while he does it.

The chain looks like this after Jon kills the wight:

Then, just before he starts his speech about oaths, promises and lies, it looks like this:

The chain has been rearranged on the floor by the staff, as we can see that on the second picture it is further away from the wight’s remains than on the first picture. Also, its spiral shape looks better. It is supposed to mean something.

Jon steps inside the spiral shaped chain right before his speech about promises and lies. The photo below is taken after he’s finished though:

What does it mean then?

The first meaning I spoke about was the obvious one, Jon is still chained/tied to his mission, as the wight’s remains at the end of the chain show us. Which leads him to:

Fall into a trap he creates for himself. 

When he “bent the knee, but” on the boat, he lied to Daenerys, or, as Tyrion put it so well in s07e03 (when he convinces Dany to let Jon mine the dragonglass), he gave her “something by giving her nothing”. However, at the Dragonpit, Cersei puts him on the spot, and he has to cover up for his previous lie and assure Dany of his loyalty to her. By pledging himself and the North to her in front of everyone, he is swearing an oath he cannot back out of. Even less after talking about upholding oaths and words meaning nothing when false promises are made. Those very words chain him to his public pledge to Dany. That’s what the chains are showing us, Jon, in season 08, feels he has no choice but to be true to his word, it is a matter of honour. This, in turn, leads him to:

engage himself in a spiral of lies and events (spiral shape) he won’t be able to get out of (chains). The only thing that finally frees him of this spiralling is her death.

He thought he could bind her to his will, control her. Instead, he got himself in chains, like the shot below shows:

Jon is inside the spiral while Dany stands at the other end of the chain. Dany, like in the scene with Kraznys, is actually the master, the one in charge. Jon, through his decision to pledge himself to her, has made himself her prisoner. We can say that from the moment he stepped foot on Dragonstone until the moment he killed her, he never ceased being her prisoner. Sansa was right, by going to Dragonstone, Jon walked into a trap. Not only the one he created for himself at the Dragonpit, but also the one Tyrion had set up for him when he invited him to Dragonstone without mentioning he had to bend the knee. 

Anyway, he walked into a trap, then failed in controlling Dany’s inner dragon, and she unleashed her anger on King’s Landing. Just like in the scene with Kraznys really.  It’s worth pointing that Dany is standing in KL (a city she will destroy) when she repeats the same words she told Kraznys in Astapor (a city she destroyed). She freed the people of Astapor, and later on, she “freed” the people of KL (albeit in a tiny bit extreme way). It looks like a kind of echo to me.

For those who would like to say that Jon becomes the dragon in chains, I will say no no no. Jon’s personality has nothing to do with Targaryen mentality, he is a Stark through and through!

Well… except maybe for… falling for his sister? Alright, alright, maybe he is the chained dragon here, but just a little bit, okay? Let’s say he is a winged wolf in chains, yes?

Seriously though, I wonder if, by showing us the two scenes displaying chains in season 07, they weren’t trying to draw a parallel between Viseryon the dragon being bound to the Night King’s will (Ice), and Jon the dragon being bound to Dany’s will (Fire). Without Viseryon nor Jon having a real choice in it either. 

One other thing that I feel foreshadows Jon’s fate in season 08. Before the Dragonpit meeting, Tyrion says: “but in the beginning, when it was home to Balerion the Dread, it must have been the most dangerous place in the world”. Jon in season 08, acts as Dany’s illusory dragonpit/chains, he prevents her from doing damage as best as he can. But she sees him as a threat and he is afraid of her which is understandable, as being too close to a locked and/or chained dragon is still a dangerous position to be in:

It’s interesting to see that the Dragonpit, which is the place where Jon sealed his fate, is a ruin. Jon, who is Dany’s last metaphorical Dragonpit, ends up broken. A dangerous position to be in indeed. 

Am I going too far here?

To conclude this thing, I’d like to mention another scene in that same episode that foreshadows as well Jon’s fate as a prisoner of Dany’s. It is the one with Theon. 

Theon mentions his time as a prisoner of Ramsay’s and how Yara, his sister, was the only one to try and save him. In season 08, Sansa is the only one who tries, in a desperate move, to save Jon, by telling Tyrion his secret. Most importantly, she goes to KL with an army to try and free him at the very end, while he is still a prisoner (but of Grey Worm’s now. Geeez, poor Jon…). The parallel can even go on, as Yara failed in freeing Theon and bringing him back home, and Sansa, although she manages to free Jon, fails in bringing him back home too. Jon is a broken man, Theon was a broken man. In season 08, Theon chooses love for the Starks and Sansa over duty to Yara, his Queen. Jon at the end chooses love for Sansa over duty to Daenerys, his Queen. 

Anyway, those were my latest messy ramblings and that’s all for now.

Thanks for reading!

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

So obviously the entire Feanorian Host as a whole is a bit intense about the cause, but I feel like there’s different levels of devotion between their individual followers.

So my question to you is, from least to most intense, which Feanorions followers are the most cult-like and why?

the cultishness absolutely varies by region! i'm being a little facetious when i call them an out-and-out cult, but fëanorian minion culture certainly has... tendencies. the isolationism, the way loyalty to the group supersedes absolutely everything, what they do to those who 'betray the cause,' not to mention how absolutely psyched they get at the opportunity to do murder. still, the precise way that manifests, as well as how intense they are about, does change a lot depending on where you are in east beleriand. surprisingly it doesn't track that much with how tolerant of outsiders each subdivision is, which is most evidenced by:

the gap: maglor and his cronies are easily the most xenophobic part of the host, which is both a cause and a consequence of them having probably the least regular contact with non-fëanorians out of all the armies of east beleriand. paradoxically, this gives them very little incentive to go full cultist; much of the deliberately off-putting stuff the rest of the host does is partially to distinguish them from the outgroup, which isn't something you need to do when everyone you deal with is either part of the gang or an obvious enemy. they still do the elaborate facial deformations, they still have a bit of a Thing about fire, but the thing that's holding them together is much less utter devotion to the cause and much more the organic friendships and kinship bonds between riders

there's a few other reasons why the folk of the gap are relatively less culty. the gap is sparsely populated to begin with, and most of its population is at least semi-nomadic; it's a lot harder to cultivate that kind of obsession when everyone's off doing their own thing most of the time. while the gap doesn't have the highest headcount of mithrim sindar - as stated above, its population is tiny even by east beleriand's low standards - it has more mithrim sindar as a proportion of the population than anywhere else in east beleriand, and the culture of the gap has this big mithrim sindarin focus on community and clan to counteract the noldorin tendency to sacrifice everything for grand ideals. the general lack of new recruits from outside the host only serves to intensify all of this; the riders of the gap fight together because of the spiderweb of social and personal obligations that link them all together, not necessarily because of the cause (though that is still a factor, i want to be clear.) this fairly isolated society held together by individual and familial bonds stands in stark contrast to:

himlad: the thing about celegorm and curufin's people is that they're up against the fuzzy border between east and west beleriand, between maedhros' definitely-not-a-kingdom and the finarfinians' section of fingolfin's defensive line. as such, they're more or less constantly in contact with the outside world, coordinating troop movements, sharing information and resources, recruiting from the same sindarin populations. there's still a clear delineation between the fëanorians and the fingolfinians, partially because there's a lot of mountains between their major centres and partially because this lot actually do have an other to define themselves against and thus a reason to emphasise their own identity, but there's a lot of chatter and petty squabbling and philosophical discussion and a steady regular connection to the outside world counteracting the worst of the cultishness. unlike pretty much any other part of the host, the himlad minions never really lose the sense that they belong to a greater community of elves

which explains what they do in nargothrond. i don't believe that literally every single one of their followers abandoned celegorm and curufin, but i'd buy it was a lot of them, maybe even most of them. it helps that it's specifically the finarfinians their lords are betraying, the people they've - perhaps not fought side by side with, but who definitely always had their backs. even without that, though, the very existence of that relationship means they're used to working with people from outside the host, getting to know them, empathising with them, which is a pretty hefty counterbalance to the specific the-whole-world's-out-to-get-us undercurrent of internal propaganda. by no means was it an instant switch, or an easy one; after finrod got ousted there was a ton of interhost politicking and debate and the occasional brawl as everyone tried to figure out what to do. but the fact that the question was even open says a lot, i think. that probably wouldn't have been the case even in:

thargelion: caranthir’s domain is the most heavily populated part of east beleriand, and the settlement at lake helevorn is the closest thing it has to a city. a significant portion of that population aren’t fëanorians by even the loosest definition; they’re dwarven traders or miscellaneous humans or sindar far enough from the front line of the siege they can just keep on with their lives the way they always have. the fëanorians (and here, more than anywhere else, that’s a fuzzy category; this is the easiest part of the host to join, and the easiest to leave) are mixed in with all these groups, negotiating supplies, managing tribal levies, patrolling the roads, state stuff. out of all the subdivisions of the host, the thargelion minions are the hardest to distinguish from outsiders.

to keep their ingroup coherent, then, they actively mark themselves out. the minions in thargelion are probably the loudest about their collective identity and the cause and the joy of bathing in your enemies’ blood and all that. they have weird midnight rituals and purpose-built meeting halls and elaborate coded language, and while being overly tyrannical about it would be bad for business there’s definitely a sense that they form a tightly knit core which looks after its own above all else. that image is somewhat complicated by the aforementioned blurry edges of the thargelion host - is the sindarin bureaucrat who’s never touched a weapon in her life but plays a vital role in the military administration a fëanorian? is the noldorin freeholder who pays very little attention to the day-to-day minutia of the war but keeps his sword sharp for the hour it is needed? - but the alliance of old soldiers at its heart is a clear and palpable thing, especially when you can feel its eyes. when their hackles aren’t up the minions are perfectly happy to mingle socially with the other peoples of thargelion, though, which sets them apart from:

himring: on the frontlines of the siege of angband, with all the nightmares of the north pressing directly on their spirits, maedhros’ followers stoke the flames of their devotion high. the warriors of the cold fortress are less showy about their fervor than their counterparts in thargelion or even himlad, but the ardour underlying it is markedly more intense; they don’t have much in the way of over-the-top rituals, but they have vast amounts of ironclad unspoken rules they follow unwaveringly. they’re polite to outsiders, sometimes even welcoming, but you never forget that you are, in fact, an outsider, and that himring and its satellite forts form an internal world others can never quite see. even to other fëanorians, they come across as aloof

their fervour also tends to manifest as a deep personal loyalty that borders on reverence towards maedhros himself. all the brothers command respect, of course, they’re all magnetic personalities who draw people in and bind them together, but maedhros’ minions are on a whole other level. they mythologise him, tell stories of his deeds like he personally holds the line against morgoth, treasure the slightest contact with him, hold being called to his direct service as the highest honour of all. most of the new recruits to the himring host are brought in by the vast pull of maedhros’ reputation, from all across beleriand and even from the north. but no matter where they came from, they all understand that they will fight and live and die together beneath the banner of their lord. which is a bit weird, even by fëanorian standards, but they’re nowhere near as bad as:

ossiriand: amrod and amras’ henchelves are considered by the rest of the host to be notably psychotic, which is saying a lot. the minions of ossiriand are utterly terrifying, absolutely fanatical about the cause, the most bloodthirsty murder cult in east beleriand. you’d think the green-elves they share their territory with would act as a calming influence, but in practice the two groups mostly avoid each other, because the green-elves naturally prefer to stay away from these nutbags. you’d think being away from the front lines would lessen the need to solidify their identity through cult nonsense, but in practice it gives them the free time to go full gonzo. most of the horrible rumours you hear about the fëanorians in the rest of beleriand are either specific quirks of the ossiriand minions, or most egregrious in the ossiriand minions. they have an orc pit

or so they’d have you believe. the fëanorians in ossiriand effectively serve as the host’s intelligence division, scouts and spies and saboteurs. a lot of their work is clandestine by its very nature, and they tend to be pretty secretive about what they actually do. half the things you hear about them are probably disinformation, lies they’re deliberately spreading to make themselves sound scarier. hopefully, at least. as anyone who’s chatted with an ossiriand minion knows, they are both eagerly awaiting the fulfilment of the oath, and already preparing for what will come after

(this paradigm does break down after the siege is broken and the union of maedhros fails and the dregs of the armies of east beleriand wind up stuck in the same ever-shrinking territory. still, i think the origins of the survivors are... interesting. the people of the gap were almost completely wiped out in the bragollach, the people of himlad mostly jumped ship with celebrimbor, even the people of thargelion took heavy losses in the nirnaeth. but the people of himring stood firm around their lord, and the people of ossiriand were never really frontline fighters in the first place. minions from the more cultish parts of the host tend to survive longer, and in greater numbers. i feel this could have... consequences)

[novafire-is-thinking]

Behind the Playlist - Transformers: Prime Edition (Part 8 of 22: Dreadwing)

Link to the other posts in my Behind the Playlist series

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I present to you the second playlist I organized in “story order.” I believe an honorable warrior like Dreadwing deserves to have his story told in this way.

Intended overarching themes and/or qualities: Honor, Betrayal, Vengeance Denied

My personal favorite(s) from this playlist: Endless Bonds and Broken Promises, Crystal, Whose Side Are You On, and Lament From The Grave

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Full song list and explanations under the cut:

Dreadwing by Brian Tyler

Self-explanatory name.

Soldier by Fleurie, Tommee Profitt

First and foremost, Dreadwing saw himself as a solider whose sole purpose was to serve Megatron faithfully.

Endless Bonds and Broken Promises by Krale

This instrumental piece encapsulates the grief Dreadwing may have dealt with after he felt Skyquake’s spark disconnect from his and the resulting determination to confirm what he’d sensed.

This Is a Call by Les Friction

Even though Starscream certainly wasn’t Dreadwing’s favorite for the part he played in his brother’s demise, Dreadwing primarily blamed the Autobots and thought of Skyquake’s death as a call to action.

Crystal by J.T. Peterson

To me, this one is representative of the doubts that began to set in about Megatron and what the Decepticon cause had become under his leadership. Dreadwing began to see how far the faction had drifted from its original vision, especially when Megatron welcomed a “desecrator” like Starscream back into his ranks. Things became crystal clear; Dreadwing came to his senses quickly and was no longer blinded by loyalty or duty.

Lay Your Weapons Down by UNSECRET, Sam Tinnesz

“We're losing all the reasons for our hate / Have we gone too far to find escape? / Lay your weapons down

Lay your weapons down / Lay your weapons down / Don't need to do this / Can't make it through this / Lay your weapons down / We can't fight anymore”

Again, Dreadwing realized how far the Decepticons had strayed from their original course. In his mind, they’d lost any real reason for their hate and were “chasing vapors.” When he willingly betrayed the Decepticons by returning the Forge of Solus Prime, Optimus attempted to appeal to him. Dreadwing chose instead to go his own way and wash his hands of either side before seeking revenge for his brother’s disgrace.

Avenge by Michael Vignola

This song matches the tension in the medbay when Dreadwing was determined to end Starscream’s life.

Whose Side Are You On by Tommee Profitt, Ruelle

“Betrayal burns and there's no hiding / It cuts deeper than a razor blade

There's a war in my head and I don't understand / How we ended up here / There's a tear in my heart where your lies left a mark / And now nothing is clear

Whose side are you on?”

When Dreadwing realized he’d been shot through the spark by Megatron, the shock on his face said it all. I like to imagine that he looked down sadly at the gaping hole in his chest and whispered to Megatron, “Whose side are you on?” as he was leaving to rejoin the Allspark.

Casualty by Hidden Citizens, Tash

“Call me a casualty / The cost of catastrophe / The damage, damage, damage is done / Call me, call me another one”

Lament From The Grave by Tommee Profitt, Stanaj

The Albanian language paired with the background instrumentation is hauntingly beautiful. Also, the name of the song is perfect.

Bury Me Here by Shaheen Fahmy, Epic Music World

I wouldn’t be surprised if Megatron ordered that Dreadwing’s body be dumped in some remote place on earth. There was bound to be at least one ‘Con left who remembered the exact location after the war, and I headcanon that Optimus made sure Dreadwing received a proper Cybertronian burial. Optimus is the sort of bot who would do that as a way of honoring a former enemy he respected.

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Notes:

This post series is in alphabetical order. Next up are Jack Darby and Knockout.

As I add more songs to the playlist, I’ll update this post.