#throws this into the void out of nowhere lol

[ambalambs]

I've been thinking about my little scion trio ocs a lot lately and thought y'know what I might as well post a little snippet of fic for them. Cuz why not and then I can say I've posted at least one snippet for all my xiv ocs (except kaien but we dont talk about that lol). I did this one while trying to get a feel for how their personalities would feel on paper and in a more mundane situation. Nothing special lol

"You're gonna love Grams. She's the best!" Saya told Dailoux as they pushed the door to the manor open.

Dailoux gave her a small, nervous nod but froze on the spot as they were immediately greeted by the strong aroma of freshly baked cookies. Saya and Fawkes didn't appear phased by such a greeting but Dailoux couldn't recall a moment where he had smelled something so sweet.

"Grams! We're back!" Saya called out as she set about placing their bags on the nearby hooks. Dailoux had to quickly step to the side to avoid Fawkes' carbuncle as it skittered past them all into the house.

"Oh! Saya darling!" the voice of a kindly elderly woman called back. "Has that boy of mine proposed to you yet?"

Immediately Saya could feel the heat rising up her face as she took a quick glance at Fawkes. He was busying himself with removing his boots and was already making his way further into the room completely dubious to his grandmother's questioning. Saya took a quick glance back at Dailoux who looked at her equal parts amused and sympathetic.

Saya quickly cleared her throat, "No, Grams. We've brought a friend." It was not uncommon for Grams to tease them but of all the times why did it have to be now in front of Dai. Saya groaned inwardly as she removed her shoes. She waited patiently a moment as Dailoux jolted at the realization of the household's no shoe etiquette and stumbled as he tried to rush to follow their example.

The moment he was free Saya grasped his wrist and began dragging him along guiding him to the kitchen. He couldn't help but take notice that Fawkes had left them behind and had snagged a handful of cookies as he hopped up to take a seat on a countertop. A cookie already stuffed in his mouth as he lazily watched the pair of them enter. Grams however shuffled over to them as she removed her oven mitts.

"Oh there she is!" Grams beamed as she leaned in to give Saya a tight hug. She was a portly woman that immediately gave off a warm and loving presence. It was such a contrasting experience from the broody and quiet grandson of hers. Dailoux couldn't help smiling softly as he stood stooped in the entryway. Grams pulled back from Saya, giving her a small pat on the cheek as the young woman grinned back. "And who might this friend be? Is this the one Fawkes mentioned in his letter?" Her gaze turned towards him and he suddenly found himself growing nervous.

"The very one," Saya grinned. She tugged Dai further into the kitchen to stand beside her. "This is Dailoux. Dai, this is Grams!"

Dailoux nervously tipped his head in a bow. What was common Sharlayan courtesy? Was he supposed to shake her hand? Bow more? He suddenly felt like he was burning up. He glanced past Grams to Fawkes on the counter across the room for guidance but he just watched him calmly as he munched on another cookie.

"Oh my well let me take a look at you," Grams carried on looking up at him with a stern look and adjusting her glasses. Dailoux froze under her scrutinizing gaze. For the first time since he had awakened and Fawkes and Saya had found him he hadn't felt so insecure about his elezen height. He was towering over this woman as she analyzed him. Was this a moment of judgement? What would happen to him if she found him unworthy company? Oh how he wished he could be as small as he felt in this moment. Maybe he'd be able to hide behind Saya if he were. Unconsciously he scooted a little behind her. Saya must've noticed because he felt her give his wrist a small squeeze.

Dai jumped as Grams suddenly leaned back and clapped a hand against the oven mitts in her grasp and smiled brightly at him. "My my this one is a keeper! Dailoux was it? Well, dear, if my boy is calling you a friend then you are more than welcome to a helping of Bellveil cookies!" She turned on her heels but Fawkes' gluttony mustve caught her eye. "Tut tut!" she snapped as she smacked his shoulder with a mitt. Fawkes shied away from her beating with a smirk and stuffed another cookie into his mouth. "The least you could do is offer your guests some first! This boy i swear."

Saya giggled as she reached over to grab one for herself. "Actually, Grams, we have a bit of a favor to ask of you. I'm sure Fawkes already explained why we have to keep Dai a bit of a secret." She paused a moment as if unsure how to approach the question. "And we can't keep depending on the generosity of the Students of Baldesion letting him stay at the annex. So could he stay here with Fawkes? Just until we sort things out, of course!"

Dailoux could feel himself beginning to grow nervous again. He new Saya and Fawkes were already risking themselves even bringing him back to Sharlayan. Fawkes had warned him to keep quiet about where they'd found him and his unusual circumstances. But how much had they told his grandmother? He was beginning to worry what their next option would be should she refuse him. Would Fawkes ignore her wishes regardless? Would he be shuffled off to take their chances at Saya's home? But what if her parents refused as well? Where was he supposed to go? He suddenly imagined them turning him back to the docks to sail him away and be left to stagger his way through this unknown land. Alone. Again alone.

His throat was beginning to dry when Grams finally spoke up tearing him from his rapid thoughts. "Of course he can, dear. It's not as if this manor is lacking space. And besides," she leaned in cupping a hand to the side of her mouth hiding it from Fawkes' view. "This house could use some more lively company than this troublesome bookworm."

Fawkes gave her an annoyed look and glanced between her and Saya as the two women shared a laugh. As an act of defiance he reached out and dropped one if his hoarded cookies to the ground where his carbuncle leapt to devour it. Grams tsked at him again and shook her head.

"Well, Dailoux, dear tell me, how do you like Sharlayan since you've arrived?" Grams suddenly asked, turning her attention to him.

Dailoux straightened up and cleared his throat. "It's-it's been...comfortable. Cold," his voice drifted a bit when he realized he didn't know what to say. He sadly didn't have any memory of another place to compare it to. "It's very nice. What I've seen of it." Which hadnt been much to tell the truth. As soon as they got off the ship they rushed him straight to the annex before anyone could ask any questions.

Grams hummed with amusement. "And you'll have to see more, no doubt. We'll have to take you to the market and find you a nice scarf tomorrow. What do you say?"

Saya perked up at that but Fawkes jumped in before she could speak. "It's too dangerous," he frowned.

"Oh hush nobody will bother asking questions if we merely take him shopping," Grams waved him off. Fawkes glared at her as he went back to munching. "Now why don't you make yourself useful and show this boy to his room." She gave him another quick smack to his shoulder causing Fawkes to roll his eyes and hop off the counter. Saya gave Dai a little nudge and he made his way to follow reluctantly behind Fawkes as he tossed one of the cookies still cupped in his hand his way. Dailoux fumbled as he caught it nearly dropping the pastry in the process.

Grams chuckled lightly as she watched the boys leave the room. She turned back to Saya and smiled softly as she watched the girl kneel down and give the carbuncle a soft scratch behind the ear. It always seemed to gravitate towards her when Fawkes was absent. But as she watched the girl her mood suddenly became grave.

"There was actually something I wanted to speak with you about, Saya." The girl looked up at Grams a bit surprised and quickly stood. She watched as Grams turned and rummaged through a drawer a moment. Once she found what she was searching for, she paused and stared at the item for a beat before collecting herself and turning back to face Saya. She then held out a sealed envelope and Saya felt herself swallow thickly. It was a simple letter addressed to Fawkes but her stomach dropped as she focused on the wax seal. The seal from the scions of the seventh dawn.

"This arrived for him not three days ago," Grams explained, her voice hushed and grave. "Now I know he's kept correspondence with them for some time but...something about this one..." Saya finally tore her gaze from the letter to meet Grams' eyes when she paused. "Something in my gut tells me this one is different. This is the one that's going to take him away."

Saya found herself swallowing again and finding it suddenly difficult. It had been some time since the scions had sent him a letter, it was true. Truth be told she new very little about what it was that group did beyond helping those in Eorzea. From time to time they'd send for aid from Fawkes for his intelligence on primals and his echo. He was a perfect source to dig into Sharlayan's library for them but she knew deep down it'd only be a matter of time before they called him to follow their crusade by their side. Out in the field.

"I've never trusted the work Louisoix's little pupils seem to dig up," Gramms continued, "and I won't have them dragging my boy off to his doom. To follow in that man's footsteps. And now this talk of cloaked shadow people." Grams huffed in frustration. "I was just hoping, whatever nonsense is in this letter, you could talk some sense into him. He always seems to listen to you."

Not about this, Saya thought to herself. She remembered him mentioning these cloaked figures to her before. Ascians he said the scions called them. When he spoke of them she remembered how his eyes lit up with intrigue. If the scions were calling upon him now to help with these villains of course he'd agree without question. If they were as bad as they say then they were a threat to not just Eorzea but everything. There was no way Saya would let him rush in to face that alone. Whatever he decided to do she'd help too. It was the right thing to do. At least she hoped it was.

Her only fear was the danger. They were no strangers to combat of course. They'd faced plenty of beasts and minor voidkin during their expeditions into some ruin or another. Not to mention the others they came across when they found Dai. The others like him but unfinished and wrong. Fawkes alone was a force to be reckoned with and Saya wasn't too bad with a spell and sword. But whatever these ascians were, they were worse. Something in her kept telling her they wouldn't stand a chance against them.

Saya reached out and took the letter from Grams and clutched it to her chest. "Don't worry I'll talk to him." She gave the older woman a reassuring smile and it seemed as if a sudden weight had lifted off the woman. Grams patted her cheek, thanking her, and turned her attention back to her baking just as the boys made their way back into the kitchen. Grams' previous grave demeanor was immediately gone and she was beckoning for Dailoux to give her a hand with the oven. The boy rushed over and Grams was going on joyously about something but Saya couldn't find it in herself to listen. Instead she stood there, letter clutched to her chest feeling like a heavy weight was suddenly crushing her lungs. She looked across the way to Fawkes who had already taken notice of her current state, concern furrowing his brow. She could feel his carbuncle bumping its head against her ankles.

"What's wrong?" Fawkes asked her, taking a step in her direction. But as she quickly shook her head with a reassuring smile his eyes fell onto the letter in her grasp. She brushed her thumb over the seal, trying in vain to cover it but it was too late. He'd seen it. His eyes suddenly lit up in the way they always did that worried her. It was that one look that she recognized. The one she learned to fear in him. That hunger. That fire. That desire for more, whatever it was she didn't know. But she did know that in that moment nothing she could say would stop him from leaving.

Quickly she signed his name. The gesture pulling his focus off the letter and back onto her. She gave him a nervous smile, searching in his eyes for that hunger again but it was gone as quickly as it had come. He smiled softly back at her. Such a rare thing, his smile. And that was all Saya needed to know that whatever happened next, whatever crazy journey they were about to be swept up in, they'd be alright. She'd hold onto that hope.

[hypnoneghoul]

Things haven't been great and it's only Tuesday lol, I don't want to bother you at all so this ask is free to ignore but, can I have something comforting? Someone helping someone get through shit sort of stuff? Pairing is free ofc but no pressure

i had some thoughts earlier and so I used this to project a little bit onto rain, hope its okay

It just hits him sometimes.

He’s fine, but then he…isn’t. And he never knows how to fix it.

And so, again, Rain wakes up with an overwhelming feeling of dread suffocating him for no reason at all. Nothing happened, nothing that would be able to explain it.

He sighs and burrows himself in the bedding, nowhere near ready to face the day. At least it's Sunday and he doesn’t really have anything to do, he can rot the day away and that’s what he’ll do.

It’s hours before someone knocks on his door.

“Princess?” Swiss. Of course it’s Swiss.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Rain mumbles, just loud enough for the multi ghoul to hear. “You can come in.”

The if you want to remains unspoken. He doesn’t feel like a person nice to deal with at all, especially now.

Swiss does come in, though, because no matter what Rain’s brain is telling him, the multi ghoul would never give up on him. Not until his last breath.

“Hey, Bambi,” he smiles down at Rain and it feels like a wave of heat hitting him. The water ghoul doesn’t feel quite so…dead anymore. “Whatcha up to in here?”

Swiss sits by him and even though Rain has no energy left in him, he lifts the covers for the other to join him and warm him up. Literally and metaphorically. He grins at the invitation and the indication it carries; that Rain isn’t lost, that he hasn't wandered off too far in his head.

The multi ghoul crawls in and rests against the headboard, letting Rain choose what to do with himself, not pressuring him in the slightest. He’ll wait for him. He’ll do whatever he needs him to do.

Rain chooses to lay against Swiss’ chest—ear pressed right over his heart—and he takes it as the biggest compliment and show of trust and love. He throws an arm over his middle and it also has it’s meaning. It means I’ve got you, always and Swiss says as much out loud.

The water ghoul melts into the warmth of his body and the feeling of that thick void that’s been crushing him for the last few hours melts away.

He doesn’t have to say anything, he knows he doesn’t—Swiss understands him, anyway—but the words bead on the very tip of his tongue and he doesn’t have to want to choke on them if he can let them out in the open instead.

“Thank you, beam,” he whispers. “I love you so, so much. Thank you.”

“Nothin��� to thank me for, princess,” the multi ghoul sighs, squeezing his waist. “I’m always here with you, okay? I’m not going anywhere, ever. I love you, too."

“I know,” Rain says as he snuggles further into Swiss’ body and holds onto him a bit tighter. When he closes his eyes the darkness isn’t as scary as it has been earlier.

[tassodelmiele]

Noisy little mess

Hi sweetie ⁓

Next parte will be the last one, and let me say I'm pretty proud of this little english writing attempt (that should have been, like, a five pages funny things, and i dunno why now i've got 48 pages saved).

I'll leave you with my stupid disclaimers, and let's have a nice week ⁓

DISCLAIMERS: little bit of blood (not that much, though); totally inaccurate military action; Price is questioning his role in the Task Force, again; Ghost finally managed to get injured; a slightly amount of praising (my god I LOVE PRAISING AND YOU CAN'T STOP ME); planning future chocolate oatmeal's breakfast;

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Seventh part here:

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«Maybe you're doing it 'cause you need some…particular attention»

«No. No, i don't»

«You're gonna get her an aneurysm. Me too, I'm getting one right now». The clicking, metallic sound of a recharge fills the void of words. Price spits out the fag end; he does not remember having signed something about "being the task force's psychologist".

He decides to be brutally honest: «It's so obvious, Ghost. Stop denying it. Make peace with your brain»

«'S not obvious, nothing's obvious in this bloody life»

«I've told you: either you end up with her, or you open up. Your choice»

The answer's a mumbled breath under the mask, an attempt to empty his lungs from responsibilities and fill them with gunpowder and old blood scent. Maybe the blood is even his, it doesn't matter.

Current mission is a piece of cake: a couple hostyles to get rid of, one place to secure, assure Laswell there's no trace of weapons that shouldn't be in a supposed abandoned shack in the middle of nowhere. 

Price is so relaxed he's smoked just one cigar in the entire day. On the other hand, Ghost's a nerves knot, a walking killer machine who's, almost certainly, unloading some tough stuff throughout the mission.

Tough for his mind, at least.

«She's killing me»

Price chuckles. Dear god, how damn hard his Lt. was to break…

«She's awakening you. 'S different»

«Is the same as being killed. I'd rather be asleep»

«Seems like your brain cells are sleeping too much, though. Time to make a damn decision»

«I did!» Ghost tilts his head at Price, his eyes so widened he's about to throw his last crumble of patience out of his orbit. «I choose to have nothing to deal with her, but she's goddamn everywhere! Why in the bloody hell did they send a second team with us for this stupid mission, and why, my god, WHY is she in that fucking team??»

«That's your fault» Price sighs softly. «You've chosen her for the special recruitment»

«'Cause I needed the opportunity to speak with her!»

A: «Liar» is murmured under John's beard, making Ghost mutter like a scolded child. 

«Is it so hard to admit you just like her company?»

«I swear to god Cap., I'm gonna rip every hair of your beard with rusty tweezers»

«I'm even being good with ya, giving you a choice. Do you prefer being kicked to a good psychologist to make him read your bloody dreams?»

«I-»

A rumble cuts Ghost's voice, making the earth tremble under them. A grave explosion drills their ears, putting them at attention immediately, weapons charged and eyes on the thick, dense smoke cloud that's rising outside the shack.

A bomb. A small one maybe, hidden somewhere next to their target. They rush outside, radio connecting as soon as fuck with the other team.

«Echo one, this is Bravo six, send position, over»

Answer is a disturbed, glitching sound, piercing hoarsely through the radio: «Bravo six, this is ---- ------ thirty meters ---------- the shack, there was a bomb hidden, we ---- immediate help, over»  

«Echo one, this is Bravo six, say again»

«Bra-»

Then a sudden hand grabs Price by the gear, slamming him on the shack's wall before a flying shot could pierce his hat. Cap. takes a slow, steady breath as Ghost adjusts his aim and, one second later, hits the target precisely as a sewing machine on a leather jacket. 

«Good job»

«Place wasn't cleared» Ghost sticks his head out from behind the wall before allowing the two of them to proceed toward the explosion. «Where the hell are they-»

«Someone's sending reinforcements»

«Where's team b?»

Simon is just finishing the question when he feels some kinda force grabbing him from behind, and pulling him back so strongly he's forced to stumble backwards a few steps before recollecting enough lucidity to turn, gun pointed behind him aiming…

You. 

You, totally scattered, covered in dirt and smoke, breathing like crazy as you're grasping onto the two men's uniform, managing to block fourth time your weight with your bare strength.

«North!» You yell so suddenly Price almost jumps at the sight of your bloody injected eyes. «Thirty…goddamn…meters north from…the fucking radio's not…» You mumble, one step away from letting you go on the ground and allowing your muffled ears to close completely.

Ghost's grasp on your shoulder squeezes you strongly enough to make you wimp.

«What happened?»

«The rocks scattered outside the shack» you spit, coughing words as sensible as possible. «Are not rocks. Enemy disguised a bunch of bombs. Team b is safe, there's another shack near-»

Then a burned growl, a sudden lamp, needles through your kettledrums. 

And your sight goes dark.

Waking up is like being kicked in the head with a rock.

As far as you can feel, your limbs may have been missing somewhere, since you're not sensing any of them. You're breathing dirt, your throat is so dry you could start a fire in your lungs, and what gives you the good news your ears are functioning is a muffled, mumbled breath a few meters away. You scroll powder and dust from your face, trying to clean your eyes a little without injecting ash under the eyelids, then you take a look around.

First impression: everything felt down on itself. What should have been the shack is now a bunch of crumbled walls put together by the explosion's mastery, sprinkled with ashes and smoke-flavored.

Second impression: illumination's enough for you to spot a darker something backed against a cracked wall. Ops; a darker someone.

«…Lieutenant?»

You surprise yourself with how harsh your voice is. You clear a bit of its roughness before tossing again: «Lt, are you-»

«Alive. Affirmative» he spits, in a voice shittier than yours. He's not moving, he's back's against the wall and one hand is pressed on the left side of his body. You shiver, for whatever reason, just by looking at him, daring to ask:

«…are you ok?»

«Just a bit broken» he murmurs. It is not enough for you.

«What-»

«Another explosion. Bloody shack fell on us. Price managed to get out, calling for help» 

«You're injured»

It's not a question. It's obvious: the more you get near to him, the more he curls his hand against his hip; the more you limp toward him (your stupid leg is hurting) the more he tries to clear his throat, sounding as confident as possible as he declares:

«I'm good»

«Oh, yes. Yes, I can see how "good" you are»

«It's-» he suddenly hissed, his fingers clenched and trembling. «There's nothing to…worry 'bout»

«Let me see»

«You can't do-»

«Let me decide what I can do»

«No»

You could definitely ignore him, and maybe you could even take a look at whatever bloody wound he's hiding from your sight, since he's evidently not strong enough to hold your stubbornness. 

You do not move, though. You stop in front of him, clenching your fists, waiting for…something. And he notices.

«Ya'r not complaining» he murmurs, letting his head cling to the wall behind to look at you better.

«It's a battlefield. There's no need to play»

«So yelling at someone's your favorite game»

«Why should it be?» «'Cause you do it everyday»

If you were in a different situation, maybe you would have ended up seriously yelling again. But his voice is not harsh; it's not rough, not scolding or mad, he's neither joking nor making fun of you. There's something…soft, just like when he protected you from that stupid rookie who tried to threaten you with that collar joke.

Maybe he's just too weak, maybe he's lost some of his good old cold brain cells all together with the blood, 'cause you can't believe what you hear as he muffles with the lowest, warmest voice you've ever heard from him:

«It would be a shame not to hear your cute whine again»

Damn.

You could melt, right here, in this spot in the middle of this fucking fallen walls, and your eyes would keep on looking at him as if they're glued to his shadow.

You swallow dirt and dryness.

«Could you please don't…don't. Just don't. I-I'm sure Cap. will come back as soon as-»

«Shut» he breathes, half tired and half amused «Your little mouth, gnome. Just enjoy the silence. 'K?»

You open your mouth, ready to say something which could be mean, but also nice, but also worried, but also…nothing. It could be nothing, and this time your brain closes your phonatory apparatus in time, and you just decide to follow his tip.

And you go sit next to Ghost, curling against the wall.

He chuckles under the mask, collecting enough breath to whisper: «Good girl», directly in your ear.

And your shiver.

Not 'cause of the coldness.

He notices. You know he does as he tilts his head a little toward you, whispering:

«Did he used to call you like that?»

You frown, and he specifies, with voice a little scattered: «Your dominant counterpart»

Your body tenses up, curled with knees pressed on your chest. Your eyes are burning and digging under the broken floor as you nod, blushing like an idiot.

He chuckles, audibly, laughing softly under the mask.

«I'm sorry» he suddenly murmurs, taking you completely by surprise. Your eyes jerk toward him in the heast to see if he's really here, next to you, saying those things. You spot his dark figure thrown against the wall, abandoned in a pose that's more and more stiff, tense, while the hand pressed against the wound is loosening strength.

You push your own palm on his, without thinking, curling on his side to reach the blood-wet spot.

He's cold. Too cold. And your hand instantly becomes slimy, warm and wet as the metallic scent reaches your nose.

«You won't be sorry anymore when the mission is over. When you awaken fully recovered» you try a teasing tone, kicking away fears and worry. «You'll regain your sharpness, I'm sure as hell. Sharp as the splinter in your hip»

«Don't know if I can…sharpen myself again»

«No way» you smile. «Lieutenant Riley, the most feared soldier of us all, doesn't know something? Impossible. Outrageous»

«I do know» He whispers back «How much of a dick I can be, sometimes»

And you sigh, not daring to agree.

There is a moment of silence. Then he adds, almost tearing words out of his own mouth:

«It wasn't to…fool you. I…don't know how to need someone anymore»

«And you end up needing me? The worst choice, seriously»

«You're rude to yourself»

«I've told you: I can see clear. Dunno why you spotted me»

«Maybe I thought you were…easy to handle» he breathes out, eyes almost closed as you grip stronger on his hand, pressing it against the dense blood stain. 

«I'm not. You should have learned»

«It was a fight I was willing to win. I am willing to win»

«Against whom? Me?»

«Maybe myself»

«And you're gonna win against yourself by touching my panties and scolding my behavior?»

Silence, again. 

He breathes slowly, tilting his eyes at you again.

«You're so easy to read. A bloody open book to me»

«Fun. You're kinda the opposite: a goddamn locked spell-book written in hieroglyphics»

«'S that so?»

«Can assure you»

«Then why have you bear me?»

«'Cause you're my superior, ya know-»

«Look at me»

And you do. You swallow your savoir-faire, your jokes and the blood scent in your nose, erasing the wet, dense mud in your hand, and focusing all your energies on raising your sight at him, who's panting scattered cold air but can pierce you through his sight anyway, making you tremble in a sudden insecurity, letting you feel so small even with a hand pressed on his life.

And he repeats, stern but soft, gently yet firmly: «Why have you bear me?»

And you, little bird kicked out of the nest too early to know how to lie, who's been raised with good words and promises of hugs and chocolate if you deserve them, you find yourself answering soft as a love song:

«…'Cause I liked how dealing with you makes me feel»

He lets out a soft breath.

«Good girl»

And your whole body trembles, curling up more against his side, clinging to his body with your hand still pressed on his to secure the wound, and your head pushed on his chest.  

But he doesn't dare to touch you more than that; he just lets you adjust over him, peeking at you from above.

The broken room closes on you, knot together in a dark spot on the wall, a breathing clot of blood-scent and ashes. You press your cheek on his arm, smelling gunpowder and grass on his gear. 

«Can we…eat chocolate oatmeal together again?»  

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[princess-schez]

Fic: Sweet Dreams, Beautiful Nightmare - Chapter 11

Warnings: Surprise, surprise, no warnings! lol Genre: Bill Cipher/Reader fanfic Summary: The Reader has been plagued by violent nightmares for as long as she can remember. Deciding to move to Oregon for a simpler pace of life, it is there she meets the dream demon himself and begins to unravel a mystery connecting them both. Notes: A secret is finally revealed...

Chapter 11. Everything around you was an endless dark void, an invisible, oppressive weight against you as you reached out to try to break free. Fingers stretched out, you grasped at the cold air, but felt nothing in return. Carefully, you sat up and tried to focus on your lack of surroundings, trying to gather yourself. Your head hurt a bit as you thought back to the last thing you remembered, and that was making a deal with Bill and him entering your body.

Bill.

For being possessed, you didn’t feel any different, but it did make you wonder where the triangle went. After all, he was in your body somewhere. You looked around, trying to find him, but he was nowhere to be found. Naturally. But something off in the distance, something illuminated, caught your attention, breaking the monotony of bleakness around you. You carefully stood, your legs feeling like jello as you took off toward the anomaly. The closer you got, the more you were confused. You saw a thing that was shaped like your mother's house, down to the smallest detail. But what was off about it was the sky surrounding it twirled with twinkling stars and rainbows, a psychedelic show that seemed to come out of nowhere.

You stopped, taking it all in as a calmness settled over you, easing some of the tension you felt. You didn’t feel afraid, but… happy. As you reached the front door, you weren’t sure what to expect on the other side. Maybe your mom was here? Wherever here was, exactly. Throwing open the front door, your eyes were greeted not by the home you remembered, but by a series of doors, stairs, and pathways entwined together in a maze that only vaguely resembled your home… in a very abstract kind of way.

Despite the odd familiarity, there was a deep wrongness here that nagged at you. In front of you were doors of many different shapes, colors, and styles… Curiosity getting the better of you, you threw open one and looked inside.

You were greeted by... yourself. Only much younger, a child. A scene straight out of your memory played out in front of you, one from your fifth birthday. Your child-self laughed as you blew out candles on a large pink cake. You smiled as you watched the scene, everyone singing Happy Birthday to you…

Shutting the door, you made your way to the next one. Opening it revealed your awkward teenage years, which you quickly shut, not wanting to relieve that embarrassing time of your life. Continuing on, you looked around as more doors appeared. Each one showed a different point of your life; some happy memories, some not. But no matter what, everything was the same: You were the star of this bizarre reality show.

“Bill?” you called out again, hoping to spot the triangle, needing some kind of explanation as to what was going on here. But nobody replied to your call. Your voice just echoed off in the distance until it faded away. Deciding to follow the steps upward, you carefully climbed further and further until the walls of the house vanished around you, and you were only surrounded by the blank vastness of space. And still, you climbed the stairs, which never seemed to end. Daring a chance, you peeked down, suddenly wishing you hadn’t as there was nothing below you but a dark starry sky, replaced by the wobbly feeling of vertigo. Gripping the handrail tight, you realized with a sinking feeling that you were stuck; you couldn’t bring yourself to climb back down, yet your only other option was to continue climbing upward. But when that would end, you didn’t know. You swallowed down a lump in your throat, reluctantly continuing, not daring to look down again.

For all you knew, hours or days could have passed, but finally, you reached the top of the seemingly never-ending steps and found yourself standing in a room you had never seen before in your life. There was something about this place that didn’t sit right with you at all; a palpable, oppressive feeling that made your skin tingle and crawl. A fire roared in the hearth of the fireplace, providing the only bit of light in the room, casting deep, almost living, shadows everywhere. The hair on the back of your neck stood on end, but the thing that creeped you out the most about this place was the rather demonic-looking grandfather clock next to the fireplace, with its glowing clock face and horns atop the mantle.

Slowly you backed away, turning around to leave this... whatever it was behind when you walked smack dab into the grand piano, almost knocking yourself over, along with an ornate picture frame.

“Oh crap,” you muttered, catching the frame before it fell, the distinct feeling you did not want to anger whoever this room belonged to washed over you…

And curiosity getting the better of you, you carefully turned over the frame, a soft gasp escaped your mouth as your eyes took in the image of Bill Cipher with his arm wrapped around another being who bore a similar appearance to him, shape and all.

You stared transfixed at the picture, not sure what to make of it as weird feelings bubbled up inside you, feelings you couldn’t explain the origin of. As you gazed at the photo, you felt a lump form in your throat, and the longer you looked, the more you realized it was a wedding portrait. But that would mean…

Bill, the triangular demon everyone seemed afraid of, was a married triangular demon that everyone was afraid of?

Your mind was blown.

As if on cue, the door burst open and the demon himself came into the room, carrying a box full of stuff. He looked up, surprised, widening his eye as he saw you standing there.

“Hey, how did you—” he asked, but stopped himself. “Wait, of course,” he murmured, more to himself than anything. He looked down at the picture you still held in your hand. “Do be careful with that.”

It took a moment for the initial shock to wear off, after which you took one more look at the picture before setting it back down on the piano. “So, um, are you married?” you blurted out before you could stop yourself.

If you could have mentally slapped yourself, you would have done it. You didn’t know what to expect, or how he was going to react to your question. Bill looked up again from the box he was holding; a look of sadness lined his eye. “Yes, and no. I mean, I was, but she was murdered.”

You had no response to that; your mouth had gone as dry as the desert as your eyebrows disappeared into your hairline. “I—I’m sorry to hear,” you said honestly, the words coming out in a whisper.

“Yes, well, it was a long time ago. Another dimension.”

It was weird how much he was acting differently. Not like what you had witnessed... experienced from him in the short time you had. It was almost like he was another being entirely. Almost… nicer?

“But I’m hoping to get her back, finally.” He looked up at you expectantly, still holding the box of stuff. It was then that you noticed the writing on the side: Our Memories.

He floated over to you, handing you the box which you reluctantly took, before leading you over to the couch to sit. Bill indicated that you do so too. You placed the box by your feet, reaching into it to grab the first thing you saw. It was another photograph, again showing Bill and the blue triangle. The blue one had a large smile on their face as Bill kissed their side. It was sweet and romantic, and the weird feelings came back in full force as they stirred something deep inside you, and you felt your heart in your throat.

“What is all this?” you asked, trying to ignore the growing feeling of déjà vu threatening to consume you.

“Things that were better shown than told to you,” Bill replied, no trace of his usual mirth in his voice. “You wouldn’t have believed me if I told you outright, but these are your memories, your past lives. Those rare times I was fortunate to have been summoned into your dimension. Each and every time, I was drawn to you… and those times were always amazing, at least before I would be thrown back into my own decaying dimension.” ___ Chapter 10 / Chapter 12 AO3 / Wattpad

[aphantimes]

ok i finished watching sonic prime

im. underwhelmed lol

the fight in the grim just goes on and on and on and it got repetitive. and the way things are resolved is confusing? im guessing the other shatterspaces keep existing independently but the fact that they created a gateway to green hill in the void implies that green hill is .. part of the shatterverse now?? uhh. idk it's poorly explained

also. man. that dread redemption was really abrupt lol. it came out of nowhere and had no build up. bro was willing to throw anyone under the bus for the entire series and suddenly did a 180.. why??

like literally in the first two episodes of the season he spends the whole time moping and refusing to participate bc there's no treasure involved. then he joined the fight in the grim but. not bc he wanted the prism. it seems like the thought didn't cross his mind. so why did he suddenly choose to participate?? how'd he go from "i don't care about anything but treasure" to to "ok im a good guy that's loyal and isn't obsessed over that rock anymore" in three episodes with no development inbetween LOL

animation was super fun as usual. loved the unhinged nine expressions those were fun. renegade was SO FUCKING COOL I NEED TO GIF THE SHIT OUT OF SO MANY RENEGADE SCENES. but overall im kinda just meh 🤷

[pablogavisgirl]

Broken Love

read part nine ➸ here

I finally updated...lol I've been working and binging Sam and Colby vids🤭 also this is going to be short because its like Pedri's pov from like the time reader was in Càdiz yk?

Barcelona, España Pedri's Pov

"¡Joder!" Pedri shouted slamming his hand on his locker at Camp Nou.

He had waited for everyone else to clear out and go home, he sat there on the bench staring at Gavi's picture on his locker.

Ever since he found out Gavi had flown to Càdiz, after finding out where you were he had been frustrated.

Frustrated he was going to loose you to him. But he wouldn't blame you if you did, he hadn't done anything to get you back or tried to find you.

He didn't spend months worried about you, he spent those five months sleeping with half of Barcelona's women population scandal after scandal.

As the months went by and you still weren't home the more he went through women.

He wasn't happy with himself on the way he was doing it, but sex was the only way that would fill the void you left within him.

Five months ago

[Muñeca🩷]: Me voy de Barcelona por un tiempo, para resolver las cosas, te lo hago saber para que no te preguntes por qué no has sabido nada de mí. (I'm leaving Barcelona for some time, to figure things out, i'm letting you know so you don't wonder why you haven't heard from me.)

seen by you

He groaned pulling out of the girl, as he read your message, not brining himself to continue. "Que pasa?" (Whats wrong?) she asked, leaning on his back her arms wrapping around his bicep.

He shrugged her off the imense guilt hitting him all at once, fuck.

He mentally cursed at himself, dropping his head between his hands, sighing in frustration. He was pissed you had kicked him out after he confessed his feelings for you.

After he expressed he would do anything and risk everything just for you to love him the way he does for you. He would risk his already broken friendship with Gavi just to have you by his side.

Only for you to throw him out like nothing, with little to no explanation. "Lo siento, tienes que irte". Not even bothering to face the girl as he got up from his bed pulling his boxers and joggers back on. (I'm sorry, you have to go.)

The girl shrieked hearing his words, "¿Pero por qué? ¡Prometiste que nos íbamos a divertir!" she pouted at him. (But why? You promised we were going to have fun!)

Scoffing as she watched him walk out, laying back on the bed irritated at the fútbol star.

He sat on his couch rubbing his temples in attempt to grasp the situation. Where were you going? How long would you be gone for? Why all of sudden did you need an out of nowhere vacation?

His thoughts were interrupted at the sound of knocking, a part of him was hopeful it was you.

But the odds weren't on his side it was Gavi. Pedri stepped aside letting Gavi through.

They both sat on the couch silence overtaking them, "Puedes tenerla. Está claro que le gustas más". Gavi sighed choking out his words, a pang in his chest as he said it. (You can have her. It's clear she likes you better.)

Pedri's head shooting up, looking at Gavi, "Hermano." he whispered in shock. (Brother.)

"No quiero luchar por alguien que no me quiere, se acabó, tú ganaste". Gavi hung his head low, avoiding Pedri's stare. (I don't want to fight for someone who doesn't want me its over you won.)

He stared at his best friend and saw how defeated he looked. He only looked this way after a bad match or bad practice, but seeing the way he looked knowing it was because of him.

Knowing because it was him who couldn't help and stay away from the girl, he knew his bestfriend liked but wouldn't admit.

The door from his bedroom creaked open, he mentally cursed at himself forgetting the girl was still here.

Gavi brought his head up, his eyes in disbelief watching a girl step out, her hair wild, makeup smudge, her face worn out.

Gavi's devistation turned to anger, "¿Estás bromeando, joder?" He laughed dragging a hand through his face. (Are you fucking kidding me?)

"¿Estás follando a otras chicas?" He shouted, trying to keep his calm. (Your fucking other girls?)

"Gavi, Escucha, no es lo que parece". Pedri tried explaining, but it was what it looked like, there was no explanation to his actions he himself couldn't even understand why he slept with some random girl he picked up at the bar. (listen it's not what it looks like.)

"Me la quitaste, joder, la besaste dos veces, te peleaste conmigo por ella, joder, tío, eres increíble". Gavi laughed, wiping a hand on his face. (You fucking took her away from me, you fucking kissed her twice, you fucking fought me over her, fuck man you're unbelievable.)

Gavi's phone suddenly pinged an incoming message, he knew it was from you since he had a specific ring tone for your messages.

His heart skipped a beat when he geard if, he hadn't heard that sound in months, he immediately pulled out his phone,

[Y/n❤️]: Sé que soy la última persona de que quieres saber algo de, pero solo te hago saber que me voy de Barcelona por un tiempo. Cuídate Pablito :) (I know i'm the last person you want to hear from, but I'm just letting you know I'm leaving Barcelona for a while. Take care Pablito :))

"se va". Gavi looked up from his phone to meet Pedri's eyes. (She's leaving.)

Present Time

He was now in the parking lot in his car staring at the wall infront of him. His mind did often wander to you, where were you? Were you ok? Who were you with?

He rubbed his temples, everytime you came up on his mind a migraine would consume him. He groaned throwing his head back on the seat.

He knew that the headaches were a symptom from the guilt he felt, from all the false promises he made you.

All the times he spent comforting you, whispering sweet nothings into your ear, all the times he promised he would heal you from Gavi, all meant nothing now.

You were gone, months passed and you never came back. He moved on, he forgot your smile, the feeling of your lips on his, your laugh no longer replayed in his mind.

You were just someone that he used to know.

Or so he thought, he had manage to push anything related to you to the back of his mind, but when it came out that Gavi had gone to Càdiz to find you it all came back to him.

He was now pulling out of the parking lot, waiting this long had its perks, the fans had cleared out from the street and he didn't have to stop and let anyone interrupt his thoughts.

He drove around more, stopping in front of what once used to be your apartment. Nobody knows this not even you or Gavi, although he had been fucking around with other girls.

He did still have hope that you would come back to Barcelona one day, the first couple months he continued to pay off your rent, so if you did come back you would still have your home.

The home the both of you shared yall's first kiss.

But eventually when reality hit him, that you weren't coming back he stopped. He watched as a young couple moved into your apartment. He watched as Isabella came and cleared your old stuff you had left behind.

He watched as the memories you both made in that apartment disappear, he began driving again this time his steering wheel taking him to the beach.

He got out his car and walked towards the water sitting down on the sand, the same spot the last kiss you both had shared.

Sunsets were you and Gavi's thing but the moon watching the moonlight and the stars glisten from the water reflecting on them were you and his thing.

You two would spend hours talking under the stars, admiring the moon, you pointed out once how his eyes shined when the moon reflected on them.

He smiled at the memory, on instinct he patted the spot next to him hoping to feel you next to him.

But of course nothing, because in reality you weren't next to him complementing his eyes or listing all the things you loved about him. Or cuddled up next to him, while watching a movie together after a long practice or rough match.

Because in reality, you were in Càdiz in Gavi's arms kissing him, happy at the thought you finally got the boy you had been longing for.

Because in reality he knew no matter how hard he tried to make you fall for him, you were Gavi's girl and your heart would always belong to him.

Because in reality he knew he had lost you, he lost you the second Gavi arrived to Càdiz to find you. While all he did was sit and watch the waves crash on the rocks.

He had lost, and fuck did it hurt, but he gave up on you. He broke his promises, he erased you from his life by surrounding himself with other women.

He didn't care anymore he had moved on, or he kept telling himself that, hoping that one day he would believe it.

Because he knew no matter how many girls he went out with, or slept with none of them were you.

None of them had your smile or eyes. None of them had your laugh that could cause his heart to flutter everytime he heard it.

Because in this moment he knew what he had been pushing away for months, he knew no matter how much he trued to deny it that it would always come back.

"Joder, te amo Y/n". He whispered, staring at your contact in his phone, hesitating, he pressed call. (Fuck, I love you Y/n.)

He waited anxiously as his phone rang waiting for you to pick up. His heart beating fast, praying you would answer.

No more than ever he needed to hear your voice.

"Pedri?"

Your voice rang through his ears, his heart fluttering after months of not hearing your voice.

"Hola." He whispered, a smile spreading across his face. "¿Cómo has estado?" (Hey, how have you been?)

"Quien es?" He heard Gavi's voice, his heart dropping hearing the phone immediately hang up. (Who is it?)

That was it, Gavi won. He had lost you.

Pretty short but I promise the next two chapters since they are the final ones will be LONG, but anyways this was just Pedri's pov something different since he kind of disappeared the last two chapters, I hoped you guys liked it, ciao las amo 🩷

[voidcat]

🍬, ☁️, and 🧩 for the ask game

Hiiii Nyx:3 love how our icons do a( ´∀｀) at each other!!

🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character

I think I have normal opinions until I see a rlly popular post and go “whoops” so I can’t rmr these on top of my head buuuuut ig to go w the classics

I find Eren jaegar overrated and his demeanors and way to go w things esp after a certain end just over the top and stupid? Don’t get the hype about him in general or find even an inch of him hot im ngl to u… but I just know anyone who lives in the same geography as me or anyone who had to deal w a young turkish man (bonus points if diaspora turk, half Turkish, nationalist or all of the above) would probably agree w me. Deal with them long enough and Eren will just be a carbon copy

Raiden Ei not as strong as her Stan’s make her sound to be and def not the most tragic of archons. They throw away all she had done and the sufferings she put her people and many more into nothing just because “uwu she lost her twin sister and was left alone bc til then it was her sister who handled more diplomatic things” she is the executioner of celestia bc she wasn’t known that was one advantage !! Also we still don’t know for certain or to what extent is zhongli the god of war! There are so many anomalies and exceptions to him in comparison to other archons- ei is nowhere on his level and definitely not the most tragic archon.

I get having some characters to show different ways to cope or to be unable to do so- ei and diluc being two examples but I think they’re written a tad too badly. So idk in my eyes the way they go with things and how it should always boil down to him losing his dad and her losing his sister. Like… you guys are not the only ones who had great loses and you’re certainly not the ones w the most fucked emotional states- stop sounding like brats who need special treatment idk (but pls do note that iirc there are separate writers for the actual game quests/lores and for the in game texting/dialogues so it might be the latter than has caused me to feel this way. Bc they sure butchered so many things regarding tartaglia back in the day even in eng/chinese texts)

☁️ ⇢ what made you choose your username?

Always liked cats as long as I can remember- and probs would be a cat if I was any other animal and I usually feel like just screaming into the void (both here and irl) hence: voidcat

Also cool little creature of the unknown yada yada I suppose

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

There are certain uhhh writing styles? that feel eh to read for me- too rushed, too simple or repetitive and not in an artistic way. Idk it’s hard to describe but the moment I read few sentences I can tell if it’s a style I’ll be able to read or not. Sadly, that. It just makes me unable to read no matter how hard I try or force myself to— regardless of fanfiction, this applies to general literature too. Also like too much ooc ness esp in certain characters that stick out like a sore thumb. So I just close it and move on lol

Writer askgame

[galaxy-lilies]

The dream/farfadox ship came out of nowhere, and I want to understand where it came from, but I don't understand Spanish all that well. Is the knowledge of Spanish necessary to watch.

it came from their interactions in squidcraft! despite the language barrier on both sides, there was a funny moment before hand on like day 1 or day 2 where everyone was throwing insults at each other but affectionately (i.e. "FUCK YOU" "WELL FUCK YOU TOO" "wanna be besties" "yeah" "cool. anyway FUCK YOU") but farfadox and dream were doing it early on

there was also the fact that farfadox approached dream and proceeded to greenscreen a bunch of things onto dream's skin DSJKHFJKDH (from spaghetti to another spanish cc vegetta's minecraft gameplays and just sat back to watch it)

on the third day, el rich and farfadox were the ones who teamed up together to kill dream and when both died on day 5 from the pictionary hangman game, dream had snuck into george's room and yelled into george's mic "FUCK YOU FARFADOX FUCK YOOOOOOOU"

proximity chat was still on and people heard, including farfadox who im pretty sure laughed even though he got eliminated. Dream proceeded to run around george's streaming room like "EL DIABLO IS DEAD LET'S GOOOOO"

In spreen's spinoff game afterwards where a lot of the squidcraft participants who got eliminated early on decided to participate in, dream and farfadox run into each other again, talking a little, throwing /aff /lh insults at each other before heading off to the parkour

i only watched about an hour of the event before i had to homework but the first part was a parkour course and dream was excited so he was up front and jumping against the barrier blocks. But without any context or even a countdown the barrier blocks disappeared and he and farfadox fell to the void early on.

now the event was supposed to have the theme of "if you survive, then you can return to earth but first you must go through the trials and tribulations of heaven and hell" so if you died in "heaven" you were sent to a parkour map in "hell." If they failed the first hell map then they were sent to easier hell maps. Q was also in this event and he was sent to the bottom of the barrel of easy hell maps because it was literally a pathway with no parkour

(and if you were curious this event is where the quackity yelling at dream "THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG! IN HELL" clip comes from)

Either way dream failed the last jump on the hell map thinking he could just jump to the cliff and ignore the last expected block in the parkour map and ended up running into the barrier blocks blocking the cliff. he was promptly sent back to the beginning again. it's there farfadox ended up too and they talk a little. They start the parkour map together again but farfadox messes up and falls (there was the classic proximity chat "the screaming fades as you fall" situation LOL)

without missing a beat dream was like "well farfadox is an idiot"

later on farfadox would run back up to dream saying he also didnt realize there were barrier blocks on the cliff and fell, having to redo the map again

those are the moments i can think of off the top of my head LOL there are also a few twitter moments recently where farfadox introduced the shipname "dreamdox" and dream was like "um. i dont think that's a shipname we should use-"

farfadox took a second and just replied with "a"

[que3rduckling]

well, hello, there!

getting into this, don't throw stones at me, if I'm wrong.

- you are a very funny but shy person

- for that very reason, i assume, you'd have to acclimatise with people before showing your more free/dorky sides

- you are passionate about your interests

- you ship reddie (duh) /runs

- you like art

- i need a 6th assumption, cause i hate odd numbers, so... uhm idk, lemme just say the dumbest thing: i assume you like red. 😭 this is a very well thing I just took out of nowhere. not even an assumption, just a guess in the void. 😭

Hello hello!

I Like to think of myself as quite a funny person but if I am being my jokes are usually a hit or miss. Also I am definitely shy, not as shy as I was before but still a little bit shy.

Sometimes I wish I waited a bit before showing the absolute geek I am. But I sadly do not. I wear shirts and pins of my hyperfixtions and some of my opening questions for people are usually like “what movies/tv shows/ YouTubers do you like?” Just so I can have an excuse to talk about my hyperfixtions (also to know if they like it too so I can even more about it with someone who also enjoys it). I am loud and proud about my nerdyness (is that a word?).

I am very Passionate about my interest. And it may be to a bit of an extreme lol.

Obviously

I love art. Not just painting/drawing my own art but I actually do quite enjoy going and seeing other peoples art. It is quite interesting to me to see how other people interoperate (I think that is the right word) the world.

Ah sadly the void has failed you. My favourite colour is blue. I own a shot ton of things in blue just cause I really like the colour.

[aewrie]

distractions aren't working so

(yelling into the void to get this out of my system but seriously tread carefully if you're sensitive to topics of abuse/ c/sa /mental health crap)

i'd be looking for a therapist but am not exactly in the headspace to do so. my old one was overall great and i'd be contacting her but she was basically useless when it came to this topic. think she was more confused and conflicted at the idea of a child being the abuser than me. which. that's not gonna help. and by the time i'd trust myself to see through that ordeal idk. i could probably use it anyway but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

could use it right now. i've been crying on and off for like 3-4 hours, while teetering on the edge of another breakdown

took me what, 10?? years before i felt ok using the word trauma in reference to being bullied for years. even after i kinda knew how fucked it all was. only after a health professional was like 'yeah, that's trauma you've got going on' after hearing the tl;dr of my life i felt i was allowed to. (she then proceeded to recommend therapy lmao). bc it wasn't so bad. boy i'm good at rationalizing all that away. other people always have it worse! and it's not like there was obvious violence, so obviously it doesn't count.

same fucking thing when i got diagnosed with depression and anxiety. i was passively suicidal & heading into worse direction and i was only willing to admit that i was sad & anxious. probably. surely not anything that would warrant treatment.

and now this thing i've filed away under 'miscellaneous shit that was not ideal probably, but surely it wasn't' That Bad, other people have it Worse':

yesterday i checked out this vr interview stream dealing with abuse right before i had to go sleep (the best idea ever. clearly) and at the point i started watching the discussion made basically no sense so i figure i go to the start and watch from there. and the interviewee describes the abuse, and i'm fine until a particular detail comes up and then it kinda unraveled from there. i had to pause just to get a breather. i watched maybe a few minutes more idk.

i've looked into child psychology and sexual development before bc ever since i bumped into the term child-on-child sa i've been stuck with the whole 'but does it count if x y z' (mostly: can someone so young even be an abuser, bc obviously if he didnt' intentionally & maliciously do it, i am not allowed to feel upset), even earlier that same damn day! but nothing unequivocally said yes or no. so of course i'm going with the safe answer of no, i'm not allowed to call it abuse.

but after that Moment i looked at some more stuff and found a couple of videos, one from a therapist knowledgeable on the topic, and one first-hand account, read some comments to boot, and then i'm having the sort of crying episode that leaves me feeling physically sick for a full day at least

at work today I was distracted the second i was not properly busy, then i managed to keep it together for a bit when i got home and now here we are. fuck i'm glad i'll have multiple days off now. on the long run this is good to process. but def not feeling it right now lol. at least i'm not stuck in a corner of fandom where loaded buzzwords get thrown around like they mean nothing, i knew that fucked with my head even back during the vl/d heyday and i was just getting around to the 'ok that Happened and maybe it was messed up, but Not abuse' stage of denial

good news i might be done crying rn so i guess that helped

i guess this was gonna be happening sooner or later bc i've been somewhat actively thinking about all that for months but rip it came out of nowhere

(and gonna throw it in here just in case; i'd rather not have 'i'm sorry' messages or similar, 9 times out of 10 i just feel awkward as shit. more neutral (not sure what's the best word?) is fine)

[ward-leon]

ok!!! so i made a thaumatorium* and a brand new shiny thaumium caster's gauntlet!!! dunno what to dye it yet :p

(maybe let it stay purple lol)

aaand i also increased the amount of essentia jars in the storage area. the more the merrier, am i right? (now 34 in total - the two on the far right are for auram and praecantatio, although the praecantatio one is empty rn)

an explanation for the asterisk:

*thaumatorium is the thing that lets you use jars with essentia and pick a formula instead of putting in water and throwing stuff with the necessary essentia in the crucible while hoping that you didn't forget about something else.

the thing with the latter method is that most of the time the stuff with necessary essentia also contains some unneeded essentia (or too much of the needed one), which, if you don't wanna meticulously plan out each crucible crafting session to account for each drop of... victus, for example, will turn into flux** (read: go to shit in the local chunk's atmosphere - which is bad for the aura for reasons i'll get into later).

there's also a possibility of recipes overlapping (using an example from thaumic additions here): let's say that you want to create 3 metallum vis seeds. do not throw in the materials containing 60 metallum and 30 herba and 3 wheat seeds - from my exp it will usually result in 1 herba seed, 60 metallum, 10 herba and 2 victus in the crucible, which, if you didn't bring extra wheat seeds (5 herba 1 victus each) to account for that, and depending on your chunk's vis amount (the one my crucible is in has 100), could have disastrous results (see the "flux" paragraph)

**flux is another can of worms but basically if there's too much of it in comparison to a chunk's amount of aura it will create a rift. if there's way too much flux the rift will be bigger and more unstable. i'm pretty sure they close with a lot of time given to them (or at least the small one that used to exist near my house did) but despite the somewhat useful resources that they drop (every rift drops void seeds and larger ones could even drop primordial pearls) they are Not Good. in general.

they can give you warp***, they can try to murder you, they leave behind some taint**** stuff if they close on their own, they're just kind of prickly if you try to hug them out of nowhere (understandable) and they destroy blocks in their way

***warp... my beloathed... there's 3 types of warp - temporary, permanent, and that one that you gain from research in the thaumonomicon (the book that allows you to gain access to like 99.9% of what thaumcraft has to offer). temporary goes away with time, permanent (i'm pretty sure) could be lost by using sanity soap (although the chance of that happening is pretty small iirc). having some warp can result in fun temporary gameplay changes, such as:

- being very hungry! (goes away if you eat a few brains but those give you temporary warp iirc so it's better to keep a stack of cooked chicken nearby until it passes just in case imo)

- getting surprise visits from the crimson cult (mages with fireballs and knights in armor) through the crimson portal!

- getting surprise visits from the eldritch guardian out of nowhere! (i actually don't hate that guy as much bc they're easier to kill (alone and with no portal to spawn backup))

- being burned by going outside! (you can even gain this effect while it's nighttime. what joy!)

- mining fatigue!

- somewhat creepy messages!

- vis flu! haven't figured out how it affects the vis, but just don't do any magic rituals while it's there ok?

- there's probably more i havent encountered yet tbh

****taint: have not explored this part of the mod at all and it's better to keep it that way probably. can be solid (trees, ground, rocks iirc) and liquid. think like terraria corruption if it relied on a mob to survive in an area and didn't spawn naturally.

anyway thanks for reading this far! have a sunset i took a screenshot of not too long ago (i was on a snowy mountain) :)

good morning netzach nation how are we

[karls-writing-space]

Hi! A new writer, I see,, some headcanons for Selever with a short artist reader?? 🌸

Hello there!!

Indeed, I'm a new writer lol

Absolutely! Coming right up, mate!

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Selever With A Short Artist Reader

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He LOVES teasing you about your height.

Expect him to call you nicknames regarding your height. Such as "Shorty", "Munchkin", "Runt", "Short Stack", etc.

Sel would give you piggyback rides if you wanted them, or out of the blue just to get a reaction from you.

Cue him running around

I also think to spook you, Selever would sneak up behind you, pick you up, and fly upward off of the ground.

If he wants to mess around with you some more, he would toss you in the air and catch you.

He thinks your reactions are hilarious.

He hasn't dropped you yet, nor doesn't intend to.

Also would use you as an armrest as a little joke.

When you tell him you're an artist, or if he finds out that you're an artist, he thinks that's pretty cool. He would then ask if he could see some of your drawings.

If you refuse to show him your art, Sel will pout, but he will understand. He won't pressure you into showing him your art.

If you allow him to, he will visibly light up a tad and eagerly looks at your art.

He's in LOVE with your art style, but would this tsundere admit it? No, of course not.

"Wow - you're good."

What he really wants to say is "Holy shit this is amazing."

He means it - he really does!

At some point, when the two of you are hanging out, he asks

"Can you, like, draw me?"

It was a question that came out of nowhere, and now, Selever was awaiting your answer.

If you agreed to draw him, Selever would excitedly grab a chair, sit in it, and get into a pose.

He would lean back, his right leg crossed over his left, and his arms resting at the back of his head.

"Draw me like one of your French girls, baby~!"

He followed that comment up with his laugh. That was a joke, of course.

Here the two of you were. Selever posing for you and you drawing your demon boyfriend.

He would try his best not to move so that you wouldn't mess up, but after a few minutes in, he would start to complain.

"Babe..! My arms are getting tireddd."

"Hold on, Sel. My model is almost done."

You then look up at him.

"I mean if you don't want me to draw you anymore-"

"Ughhh, fine. I'll stay like this only so I can see that picture."

You then went back to drawing as Sel kept that pose. There was still some complaining from Selever, but you managed to finish drawing the demon boy.

When you finish your drawing, Sel nearly rushes over to see the art. A grin adorns his features when he sees the drawing.

"Woah... I look hot!"

Demon boy then kisses your cheek.

"You did great, babe. It looks really fucking good."

He means every word.

If you didn't want to draw him for some reason, he wouldn't pressure you. He would ask "Why not?", but still wouldn't pressure you if you gave him a reason or not. He respects your decision.

He would then ask if you could teach him how to draw like you.

Teaching Selever how to draw started off easily. You taught him how to draw simple things such as a flower, and shapes that when put together, could make the basic body of an animal or a person.

As you taught him how to draw landscapes, Sel struggled slightly. His mountains looked a little crooked.

He was trying - he really was - but they didn't look the way that he wanted them to look.

After a while, Sel just gives up.

"How are you so good, ___?!"

"Practice."

You tried to convince Selever to try again, and after a while, he agrees to try drawing again, but he said that he wouldn't draw "Those stupid-ass mountains again"

He ends up drawing you and him. It could look better with some practice, but still, it was cute.

On another page, he drew a doodle figure of himself throwing a doodle version of Ruv into a void.

"It's what he gets for keeping Rasazy and me in that void for who-knows-how-fucking-long."

He and his sister. was freed from that place a long time ago.

But yeah, he still hasn't let that go. He still holds that grudge.

When you're not around, Sel tries to get better at drawing.

He wants to impress the person he loves.

[funkervogt]

fletcher finally figures out the paracausal bullshit so he can stop being a little wimp and use void strength cheats. explanation under the cut

the way it'll eventually work (he's still figuring it out rn he doesnt quite have the hang of it yet) is basically using a clientside void gravitational pull that goes in front of the fist (or wherever) to give it more momentum and/or force so he can like, throw stronger punches lift heavier shit etc. for this to work and not shatter fletchers shitty little bones he has to create a mini void shield around his hand that absorbs the shock of the blow/protects from the weight of whatever heavy object he lifts

and having this gives him the option of like, being able to hold his own without weapons or explosives or whatever. he doesn't have a lot of muscle but he's definitely fit and he has enough stamina to where he can be fighting or exercising for the entire day, but his stamina and strength with the light is pretty fuckin low though just by default and also him not giving a shit about practicing cuz like. hes a fighter pilot. he flies around and bombs people. who cares. but like enough time spent doing strength training every fucking day for like 7 years and getting absolutely nowhere (because he lost like a fifth of his atoms to time in the vex timestreams before he died but he doesnt know that sooo), he's eventually gonna crack and try his hand at the light cuz hes tired of being fuckin wimpy no matter what he does lol

[ultrabananapudding]

Might as well throw this into the void as these scenarios refuse to leave my mind.

But Jalim AU where either of them becomes a ghost as they are unsuccessful in making it out alive from the house of ashes. Only the other one can see and hear the ghost, while nobody else can. The only way for the ghost to pass on to the afterlife is if their mortal body were to be recovered and buried properly.

With Jason as a ghost, Salim makes the decision to jump back into Hell in other to retrieve his body and give it a proper burial. He is well aware of the danger but he is ready to risk it for his shield. Cue ghost!Jason trying to keep Salim alive down in the depths of the underground caves.

With salim as a ghost, Jason takes the more sinister route and decides not to go back in there and retrieve his body. Not out of fear necessary, but out of selfishness. With Salim having nowhere else to go (as nobody else besides Jason can interact with him), he is essentially glued to Jason until death succumbs him. That's one way of keeping your lover on a leash, possessive much lol

I have now cured myself of this Brainrot, thank you very much

[reactionimagesdaily]

I dont understand bionicles at all, so maybe a crash course into like. 1) what a bionicle is 2) general plot of the bionicle story? happy 5k btw <3 love ur page!

OH BOY OH BOY, this is a question I've been waiting for. Thank you so much for asking, and I’m glad you like my page!! <333

A couple of disclaimers, before I start: I'm going to focus mostly on the mainline plot, but let it be known that there WERE a bunch of serial stories and comics and games that added to the story overall. Bionicle was, I think, one of the first big instances of a plot that was consumed through a bunch of different mediums.

I'm also going to try and do a lot of streamlining - it's not that I DON'T want to talk about bionicle, but there's 10+ years of story to cover, so... yeah. :P

Also! Sorry in advance to anyone whose 'read more' function doesn't work, because this is gonna be a doozy

So, what is a bionicle? From a meta perspective, Bionicle is a Lego theme that ran from 2001-2010, and was briefly rebooted from 2015-2016. It's name is a mashup of biological chronicle, and it was hugely successful in its time, essentially helping to save the Lego company from bankruptcy. The idea is that you use finnicky technical pieces to build humanoid figures (and sometimes their vehicles!) and then. play with them

From a textual/lore perspective, I'm not sure Bionicle is an in-universe term lol. But the characters that we recognise as 'bionicles' are grouped into a bunch of different classifications - 'Toa', 'Matoran', 'Makuta', 'Glatorian', and so on. The characters are kinda like inverse cyborgs, where there's metal on the outside and flesh and muscle on the inside. They often function like robots (e.g. have removable and replaceable masks that they constantly wear over their faces) but are still essentially living creatures.

So, what's the general plot of the story?

...[inhales deeply] Okay

In the time before time, there's an island called Mata Nui that sits in the middle of the ocean. It's populated by these dinky lil' guys called 'Matoran' that live in six villages organised by elements - fire, water, ice, air, earth, and stone. They eke out a life as best they can, facing dangerous wild animals (collectively called 'Rahi') and worshipping the Great Spirit, who is confusingly also called Mata Nui. (They named the island after him.) The great spirit, they say, once watched over them all, but was long ago forced into an enchanted sleep by his evil brother.

(These are the matoran. Look at these cute little guys :3)

One day, six canisters wash ashore, on the island's golden beaches. And out of these canisters step six strange figures called Toa. Tall, strong, and heavily armed, there is one of these 'Toa' for each of the villages, and each of these guys have control over an element. They are the main 'heroes' of this story.

(These are the six Toa. Here's a fun game - spot the girl!)

Each of the six Toa are named characters - from left to right we have Onua (wise and grounded), Lewa (fun-loving and mischievous), Pohatu (friendly and confident), Tahu (hot-headed and impulsive), Kopaka (cold and quiet), and Gali (intelligent and compromising). Some of the Matoran are also named characters - there's Jaller, the captain of the guard at the fire village, Hahli, a sports player from the water village, Matoro, a translator from the ice village, and Takua, who's technically from the fire village but is also an 'outsider' who tends to wander the island. Takua is especially important because he becomes the Toa's 'chronicler', following them around on their adventures and writing everything down for posterity.

Without getting into too much detail, the Toa spend two real-life years getting into wacky highjinks. They hunt for masks (as aforementioned, the masks they wear can be removed and replaced) that grant them special powers, fight the Rahi, and also face up against a terrifying race of creatures with mind-control powers called the Bohrok that are determined to strip the island of all life. They also fight against a being called Makuta, a mysterious shadowy figure who claims to be the brother that forced Mata Nui into his slumber. When they first meet him, Makuta takes the form of a Matoran to throw them off, before turning into a nebulous black void and doing his best to murder them all to death.

(Makuta as he appears in 2001's 'Mata Nui Online Game'. As far as villain introductions go, marching out to meet all the heroes and then telling them "I bore you, for I am nothing. It is from nothing that you came, and it is into nothing you will go. The people of this world are builders, but look into their hearts, and you will find they also have the power to destroy. I am that power. I am destruction. And I will destroy you." is pretty fucking solid though I say so myself.)

There’s a lot of cool worldbuilding and mysterious details about the island. At one point, the earth Matoran note that they can only dig so far into the dirt before they come across some hard material - some type of metal - that they just can’t break through. Also, amidst the stars in the sky, there’s an ominous blood-red star that’s appropriately known as the Red Star. What’s it doing there? Nobody knows

Also at one point, the Toa also get mutated into new forms after falling into a liquid that's called 'energized protodermis' but should really be called 'McGuffin Sauce'. There's a lot of changing forms and characters being mutated in this series in general, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the fact that Lego always needed new figures to make into toys.

(This is how the Toa look after being mutated. In these forms, they're referred to as the Toa Nuva -and let me assure you that that distinction will soon become necessary. :P)

So, in 2003 in our world (I’m not sure about the timeline within the lore), Takua the chronicler finds a mysterious mask and brings it back to the Turaga, who are the wise old rulers of the Matoran (The most promiment of the Turaga is the Turaga of fire, who’s called Vakama. He’s an even-tempered and wise old man who’s not above hitting villains with his walking stick if they threaten his village.). It turns out that the mask is special - it’s the mask of Light, and it’s part of a prophecy that involves the arrival of a seventh Toa who’s destined to defeat Makuta. So Takua and Jaller go on an adventure to try and find the seventh Toa.

Meanwhile, Makuta isn’t just going to sit around and wait for the Toa who’s destined to defeat him to rock up: he unleashes his secret weapons, the Rahkshi, who are, in lore, suits of armour driven by slugs. Sounds corny - in practice, they’re hella intimidating.

(Look at these bad boys)

Some more adventures happen and, to make a long story short, the Rahkshi kill Jaller and Takua the chronicler puts the mask of light onto his own face, transforming into Takanuva, the Toa of Light. The audience surrogate and ‘weird’ character was the secret hero all along!! I love that honestly.

(Takua and Takanuva - before and after)

As someone with light powers, Takanuva is essentially the perfect counter to the big bad Makuta, who has shadow powers, so he finds Makuta’s lair intent on beating him. Makuta challenges him to a game that’s called ‘Kohlii’ but is basically this universe’s version of lacrosse - Takanuva accepts and proceeds to wipe the floor with him. During their fight, they fall into another conveniently-placed pool of energized protodermis and become merged, forming a new being called ‘Takutanuva’. Takutanuva doesn’t stick around very long, because he’s this weird contradictory being of both light and shadow, but before he fractures he opens a gate underneath Mata Nui and lets the Toa, the Turaga, and some named Matoran get through. Inside, they find a hidden city - a whole other world.

Takutanuva then manages to use his powers to hack the universe and bring Jaller back to life. Hooray! After that, he dies, and Takanuva is back. Makuta is nowhere to be found. [eyes emoji]

So now the Toa, the old Turaga, and a couple of Matoran are inside this whole new location, and they’re all wondering what the heck is going on. Well, not all of them are wondering. Vakama, the head Turaga, steps forward and admits that actually, the six (seven) Toa heros that we’ve come to know and love... aren’t actually the first Toa. Gasp!

The next two years of sets and story are essentially one giant flashback, as Vakama tells the current heroes about adventures past. It turns out that the hidden city they’ve found is called Metru Nui, and once upon a time, Vakama and the other Turaga were Toa themselves, fighting to keep the city and the matoran safe.

(New (old) Toa! The flying green one is Matau, who was a stunt-driving excitable madman, and then on the ground from left to right we have Whenua (nerdy chronicler), Nokama (schoolteacher-turned-superhero), Vakama (anxiety-ridden leader), Nuju (absent-minded stargazer), and Onewa (racist prick who needs (and gets) a character arc). To differentiate themselves from the Toa that we’ve come to know and love, these Toa are the Toa Metru)

They had a bunch of adventures of their own. They fought the Vahki (capture robots upholding an authoritarian police state) and the Morbuzakh (evil sentient vines), and they also had ‘arch enemies’ in the form of the Dark Hunters, who were mercenaries that hunted Toa.

Also, that story about Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep? Not a story so much as a history lesson! Ultimately, the reason that the city of Metru Nui was abandoned was because Mata Nui WAS awake, watching over them all, but then Makuta forced him into slumber and essentially caused a cataclysm. The Matoran were rounded up and forced to sleep as well, and the Toa Metru had to flee the city. When they came back, it had been overrun with Visorak (basically giant spiders), and they had to fight hard to defeat the horde and its leaders and escape with all of the sleeping Matoran.

Once they left Metru Nui (and arrived on the island that would become Mata Nui), the Toa Metru sacrificed their powers to wake up all the Matoran - which is how they transformed into the wise old Turaga. Also, the Matoran woke up with no memories, which is how they’d never known about Metru Nui up until this point.

Anyways, after exploring Metru Nui and making plans to move back in, everyone does some digging around and discover something about Mata Nui: his spirit is fading. Whatever Makuta did to him, it not only put him to sleep, but it’s also slowly killing him. After presumably having an existential crisis, the gang come up with a solution: there’s another legendary mask, the Mask of Life, that should be able to resuscitate Mata Nui, or at the very least, keep him from kicking the bucket while he’s sleeping.

(The Mask of Life! If you look closely, you can see that the faceplate is shaped like a humanoid figure (because, yaknow, life) and if you think that’s not the tightest shit ever you can get out of my face)

So, the modern-day Toa (the Toa Nuva, if you guys remember the name) are like ‘okay, give us the location of the mask, we’ll go and find it’. So they get sent to another island, this one called Voya Nui, and they arrive and... get their asses handed to them? What?

A quick backtrack: a gang of thugs called the Piraka had already arrived on Voya Nui in search of the Mask of Life, wanting it so they can use its power to blackmail powerful organisations and generally get ahead in the criminal world. (From a Meta perspective, they’re,,, really interesting. Up until this point, the villains in Bionicle had either been wild animals, or villains with grand overarching plans. These guys are basically overpowered street thugs, complete with their own theme song - the ‘Piraka Rap’. Look it up on YouTube; it’s fucking hilarious, because the rest of Bionicle is generally timeless, but the Piraka Rap was basically dated as soon as it came out. I love it.)

(The Piraka themselves! Fun fact; in Bionicle lore, ‘Piraka’ is a slang term for ‘thief’ and ‘murderer’, and was also considered so vulgar that if a Matoran called another Matoran ‘Piraka’, war would be declared over it. These guys are really just going around calling themselves slurs. I have to respect that.)

So, yeah. The Piraka defeat and imprison the Toa Nuva when they get to the island. Now what?

Well, now it’s time for the Matoran to get involved! A group of named and previously-established Matoran set out to see if they can rescue the Toa. There’s Jaller, Hahli, and Matoro, who I’ve already mentioned, and then there’s Kongu, Nuparu, and Hewkii. And I need to take a break to say that all these characters have been with the story since 2001 (it’s now 2006), and they’ve all contributed to the plot before!! Kongu is a prominent Matoran from the air village who led a flight of giant bird-riders to save the day one time, and Nuparu is an engineer from the earth village who basically invented mechs to help the Matoran defend themselves against the Bohrok. These guys are BADASSES and I want to bring up how a really strong initial 3 years of storytelling laid a great foundation for so many small characters. It’s just neat! :D

Anyways, these Matoran travel to the island of Voya Nui in canisters (like how the original Toa landed on Mata Nui) and while they’re sailing the ocean blue, their canisters are struck by lighting from the mysterious Red Star. And that lighting, say it with me now, TRANSFORMS them! Specifically it transforms them into Toa. They end up calling themselves the Toa Inika, because they’re searching for the mask of life, which is also called the ‘Ignika’.

(The Toa Inika. Being transformed by a bolt of lighting means that in addition to their regular elemental powers, they also have electric/lighting abilities.)

Souped-up and ready for action, the Toa Inika manage to defeat the Piraka and rescue the Toa Nuva. However, through plot shenanagins, the Mask of Life ends up being sent to the bottom of the ocean around Voya Nui, and the Toa Inika learn that under the waves is a hidden city - Mahri Nui. As they descend, the Mask of Life does something odd; it sends out a wave of energy, transforming the Toa Inika so that they can breath underwater. So now, they’re the Toa Mahri. (Because they’re headed to Mahri Nui. You get me?)

Mahri Nui is ruled by the Barraki - ancient warlords who were imprisoned under the sea many thousands of years ago after they became powerful enough to threaten Mata Nui himself. They were put in a prison called The Pit, but during the cataclysm caused by Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep, the city of Mahri Nui sunk into the water and slammed into the Pit. Many prisoners and Matoran died, but the Barraki were freed. Uh-oh, spaghetti-ohs.

Speaking of Makuta - guess who’s back! Thought dead after no-one could find him after Takutanuva died, it turns out that his spirit is possessing a robot body that had previously been a prison guard. He spends some time hanging out with one of the Toa Mahri, Matoro, basically playing mind games with him and trying to get him to turn to the dark side. Eventually, three different characters and factions smack the shit out of him, and he slips out of the robot body to go do... something else (watch this space). 

This year of story was REALLY plot-heavy and I kinda can’t do it justice here. The important developments are that the Toa Mahri eventually manage to reclaim the Mask of Life, and Matoro yoinks it. While his teammates act as a big distraction, he swims away and puts on the mask. It basically grants him ultimate power, but it also fuckin’ kills him. His final acts are to teleport his friends to safety, and then release a massive burst of energy that burns him up and saves Mata Nui’s life. The Mask of Life, with no-one left to wear it, sinks into the ocean.

(“In his last moments, Matoro feels no fear. He know he has succeeded--the Toa Mahri are safe, able to resume their lives in Metru Nui. The Turaga and Matoran will know that they became true heroes. Matoro does not see himself as a hero. As a Matoran, a Toa Inika, and a Toa Mahri, all he ever tried to do was his duty. Now that duty has led him to his destiny.”- Bionicle Ignition 11: Death of a Hero)

[dries tears] Anyways, now that Mata Nui’s life has been saved, the only thing left to do is wake him back up. To do that, the Toa Nuva (the Toa that showed up at the very beginning of this story, if you recall) need to journey to the core of the universe, and a civilisation called Karda Nui. Three of the Toa Nuva - Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka - are sent to a village in the clouds, where they protect the local matoran and battle the forces of Makuta. Because, as it turns out, the big bad Makuta that we know? Makuta is actually the name of his species. The guy just wanted to feel special, apparently. The Makuta that the Toa have been fighting for over half a decade is technically called Makuta Teridax (or just Teridax), while the other Makuta have other names that I can’t remember off the top of my head.

Anyways, while those three Toa are figuring that out, the other three - Tahu, Gali, and Onua - journey to a place called the Swamp of Secrets in order to find a set of keystones that supposedly contain instructions on how to awaken Mata Nui. And it’s there that they find an unlikely ally: the Mask of Life itself.

See, the Mask of Life has always been a weird one - if you recall, it released an energy pulse for no reason that transformed the Toa Mahri and let them breath underwater. (It’s also done some other fucky stuff that I haven’t been able to mention - there’s a short story about how one time, a guy touched it, and it gave him the ability to involuntarily bring everything around him to life, which ultimately drove him mad. So. You know. That’s fun.) Well, it turns out that when the mask sank into the ocean after Matoro’s death, it ultimately ended up in the swamps of Karda Nui, and it senses the battles raging about it. More than that, but it remembers Matoro’s bravery as he donned the mask knowing it would kill him, and remembers how his final wish was to save his friends. Wanting to know what it means to be a hero, the Mask of Life creates a body for itself, and ventures out into the swamp to discover its destiny.

(The Mask of Life has a body now!! Good for him! Good for him.)

There’s some more shenanigans that I’m skipping over - at one point, Takanuva (Toa of light, remember him?) rocks up to help. Long story short, our eight heroes - Tahu, Gali, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, Pohatu, Takanuva, and the Mask of Life - fight their way through the Makuta and into the very core of the universe - the Codrex. Inside, after yet more shenanigans, the Mask of Life figures that in order to wake Mata Nui up, it will have to sacrifice the body it’s built for itself. The moment is sad, but the mask remembers Matoro’s sacrifice, and is inspired to act. He sacrifices his dreams of becoming a hero, and in doing so, becomes a hero... ;_;

The mask flies deep into the Codrex, its body dissolving; when it reaches the bottom, it creates a massive energy storm that the other characters have to escape. (Our heroes make it out - most of the villains end up getting vaporized, big RIP.)

And just like that, the journey is over. After years of battle, the Toa Nuva have completed their purpose, and awakened the great spirit, thus bringing peace back to the land. Everyone meets back up in Metru Nui - the Toa Nuva, the Toa Mahri, the Turaga, the remaining Matoran. It’s a glorious day. And as they gather, something happens.

Deep, deep beneath the ocean, energy pulses through rock, and machines that have been dormant for millennia begin to whirr and move. The island of Mata Nui - long abandoned as the Matoran moved back down into Metru Nui - cracks open like a wallnut, each half sliding into the sea. From underneath where the island had been, a tremendous head rises out of the ocean, countless galleons of water pouring off of it. Titanic shoulders follow. Then the chest, and the limbs, and slowly, surely, Mata Nui rises.

Meta context: for years, the nature of Mata Nui has been a mystery. Is he a metaphysical being? Is he a real person? No-one was sure... but they know now. That solid material that the earth Matoran couldn’t mine through, all the way back in 2001? That was his skin. The mysterious red star that created the Toa Inika? That was a failsafe machine orbiting Mata Nui, poised to create new Toa as necessary. The island of Mata Nui was atop his head, Metru Nui was his brain, Karda Nui was deep in his guts. The Matoran were workers to keep him functioning, the Toa were basically his immune system (the canisters they arrive in are literally shaped like pills)... All this time, all these stories, all these characters, this entire world - they have all been inside a robot the size of continents.

(Fucking hell. Look at this. The clouds come up to his ankles.)

Celebrations ripple through Metru Nui as everyone realises what has happened. The great spirit is awake again! The Toa have won! But as the Turaga raise their voices to try and congratulate the Toa, a chill spreads over the spectators as the air grows cold. Everyone stops and looks around. What’s happening now? And then, from everywhere and nowhere, a voice rumbles. It’s a familiar voice. An unwelcome voice. A voice that most of the gathered heroes thought they’d never hear again.

It’s the voice of Makuta - the original Makuta. Makuta Teridax.

And what does he say?

“I AM EVERYWHERE. I AM EVERYTHING YOU SEE.”

Matoro’s sacrifice had ensured that Mata Nui’s body did not die, but before the great spirit’s consciousness could return, Makuta supplanted it with his own. After that, all he had to do was wait for the Toa Nuva to achieve their objective. And as they finished the fight and won the day, they handed victory to him on a silver platter. No longer does he need to strive to rule the universe - he is the universe.

(Meta perspective again but like: FUCK, man. I can’t emphasise enough how mind-breaking this was for the kids who were invested in the series. Think Thanos snapping his fingers in Infinity War, except probably more devastating, because there wasn’t a direct sequel lined up to give the heroes another chance, and there wasn’t a way to ‘undo’ it. This was a plot development that we all had to live with T_T)

(You can tell things are bad because his eyes changed from green to red.)

And what of Mata Nui? What about the spirit that the Toa were actually trying to wake up?

Oh, Makuta stuffed Mata Nui’s consciousness into the Mask of Life - and then blasted the Mask into space.

[inhales deeply]

man...

Okay, in all honesty, part of me wanted to end it there. But you know what? We’ve come this far. And there is more to the story. So I’m going to ignore my concern I won’t be able to do it justice and blunder on.

 Bionicle’s last chapter (2009-2010) follows Mata Nui himself - no longer an abstract spiritual concept, but rather a concrete character. A god felled from his pedestal, struggling to find a way to save his people. And it’s AWESOME. Armed with only the Mask of Life and a sentient shield named Click, he wanders the shithole deserts of the planet he crash-lands on, bringing the disparate tribes together, uncovering secrets about who made him and what his ultimate purpose is, and learning what it means to be a regular person. Also, at one point, in a move very reminiscent of the god that he once was, he turns a guy into a snake. You know. As a ‘fuck you’.

(There’s something really cool to me about a main character being someone who essentially lost all the power of the cosmos. Mata Nui might just be my fave character in this whole story honestly.)

Eventually, Mata Nui discovers some crucial pieces of information. Firstly: the planet that he’s landed on, Bara Magna, is his ‘homeworld’ in that it’s where his giant god body was built. Secondly: the two moons orbiting Bara Magna (the jungle moon of Bota Magna and the ocean moon of Aqua Magna) were once part of the planet itself, and split off during a planet-destroying cataclysm, leaving behind a desert wasteland in their wake. Third: the function he was ultimately built for (his ‘destiny’) was to reunite the three celestial bodies into one planet, bringing life back to Bara Magna’s harsh desert environments. He was on his way to complete this task when Makuta crashed his systems with a computer virus - which was what forced him into the ‘slumber’ that he was in for most of the mainline story.

His fourth, and probably most important discovery, is that he’s essentially his makers’ second attempt at a world-fixing giant robot. Before creating him, his makers (the ‘Great Builders’) constructed a giant robot that malfunctioned and exploded. Long-deactivated, the pieces of it are still scattered through the deserts of Bara Magna - in fact, many of the villages on the planet are set up in or around these giant robot pieces. Mata Nui figures that if he can reconstruct this old robot, he can use it to complete his destiny, and maybe even save his people.

It isn’t easy. He has to convince the villagers he’s come to befriend (the Agori) to give up their homes and their safety, and he has to find an experimental power source that’ll actually get the giant metal body moving again. But eventually, he figures it all out. Powered by the experimental source, the Mask of Life, and probably also friendship, he inhabits this enormous form and rises once again. Without missing a beat, he reaches out and begins to pull the moons towards the main planet. As far as he’s concerned, he’s going to fix everything, or die trying.

(The power of skybeams)

However, it won’t be that simple. Makuta senses that Mata Nui’s spirit has inhabited a new form (and I don’t mean that in a metaphysical way, I mean that in a computer/technology way), and he quickly jets over to Bara Magna. Obviously, flinging the fucker into space wasn’t good enough. It’s time for him to destroy Mata Nui, mano y mano. Giant robot y giant robot.

(Makuta and Mata Nui, facing off. God I love this picture.)

It’s the final battle - for real this time. The two giant robots begin to punch each other, and Mata Nui is up against some obvious disadvantages. For one thing, he can’t risk attacking Makuta with all his might, because he doesn’t want to hurt his people, who are still inside the giant robot. (Inside, they’re fairing... poorly. It’s like facism, but if facism was being actively enforced by God.)

In the fight, a hole gets blasted in Makuta’s body, and out pour a whole LOAD of Rahkshi. (Remember those guys?) However, Tahu and Takanuva also manage to escape, and join a ground battle that’s breaking out between the Agori (and their protectors, the Glatorians), the Skrall (a tribe of warriors native to Bara Magna who are absolute dicks - I’ve had to gloss over them, unfortunately, but believe me when I say that they’ve been major antagonists for as long as the narrative has focused on Bara Magna), and a bunch of guys who are called ‘Piraka’ but aren’t the gang of thugs from Voya Nui. (I think they’re the same... species?) Long story short: large-scale shitfight is happening at the feet of the two robots that are slugging it out. Makuta, being a dick, decides to try and literally stamp on all of Mata Nui’s friends down below, and Mata Nui has to desperately hold him off.

Around this point, the Mask of Life (which is really the MVP of this whole story) uses its convenient energy bursts to imbue Tahu with a set of golden armour that allows him to release energy blasts of its own. (Why it singles out Tahu, I’m not sure, but I’m presuming it’s because Tahu was the first face of the series and it just makes thematic sense for him to be a major player in the final battle.) Tahu uses his new golden armour to disintegrate ALL of the Rahkshi - and there were a lot of them on the field of battle, let me assure you. Makuta feels the loss of so many creations at once, and falters, and Mata Nui seizes his chance. He’d done his work well before Makuta had arrived, and the jungle moon is now in low orbit above the planet. Pouring every last ounce of his strength into one more push, he surges forward and up, pushing Makuta up and making sure that his head is right in the path of the falling planet.

Crunch.

(Kudos to Makuta Teridax for being such a persistent antagonist that the only way to get rid of him for good was to drop an entire damn planet on his head.)

Mata Nui guides the falling body carefully to the ground, letting it open and freeing his people. The remaining Skrall and Piraka surrender. The Matoran and Toa meet and mingle with the Agori and Glatorian. Mata Nui raises his hands, and completes his purpose; aided one last time by the Mask of Life, as well as his body’s innate systems, he enacts a synthesis on the now-united celestial bodies. Lush forests and large bodies of water appear in the desert. Life flourishes. Birds probably start to sing. Mata Nui has completed his purpose, and vindicated all of the heroes who fought for him for so long.

He feels himself fading. He lets his spirit withdraw into the Mask of Life. A new slumber - this one, earned, and of his own volition.

Perhaps one day, he will return.

(“We will honour Mata Nui, and all those who fought for him, in our memories. But the time has come to move on. His destiny is fulfilled, and for many of us, it has yet to be written. My friends, it is time to go.”- Tahu, The Mata Nui Saga, chapter 34.)

And there we go! Very, VERY long, but that’s the general plot of bionicle. There are an absolute tone of details I’ve missed out or skipped over, and I encourage you to search them out for yourself if you’re interested. But them’s the basics! :D

[boyfriend-kisser]

The Strangest HC You’ll Hear Today

It’s 5:51am (but I’m scheduling this for 4am next week) and I haven’t slept take this:

Ok I’ve kept this bottled up for SO. LONG. Because I have nowhere to say this.

(Warning in advance: this is entirely satirical, I literally can’t drink coffee lol.) (TW: I am very aggressive toward whoever is reading, swearing, Chris slander).

I have a headcanon that Mclean-Brand products aren’t actually all that bad. Specifically, Mclean-Brand Instant Coffee™. Chris is just a wuss.

Hear me out,

The only time we see someone actually drink and react to Mclean-Brand Instant Coffee™, it’s Chris in S4:E8 The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean. He’s promoting the coffee, takes one sip and spits it out. 

“Void!” I hear you call, “Surely you and I both know Chris is a man of quality! The coffee must be bad for him to spit it out! That’s how spitting things out work!”

Hush, my sweet summer child. I am getting to it.

“Void! It makes the fish throw up when he tips it iin the water!”

It’s a fucking fish what do you expect? My stomach lining literally disintegrates every time I drink coffee, and that fish has never had it before. Coffee’s hard on the organs, guys! 

Anyway,

Instant Coffee is notoriously bad already, but if we ignore that - what is Chris’s one issue with the coffee? He spits it and claims it’s “bitter.”

Coffee is bitter. That’s the point. That’s the defining thing. That’s what coffee is.

Chris thinking the coffee is gross because it’s bitter is just like if I were to spit out water because it’s wet. That’s the whole point.

Instead, I think Chris just really can’t handle coffee. 

To support this statement, I point you towards S3:E4 Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better. In this episode, Sierra mentions that Chris’s second favourite drink (only to tomato juice) is: Cocoa.

We all know that “enjoying cocoa” is just code for “I’m too much of a pansy to handle real coffee because I never grew out of having a sweet tooth and also I am a baby waa.” This is very much in-line with CHris being a childish asshole. I feel like i don’t need to source that, just watch the show.

“Void!!” I hear you call, “In S1:E3, Chris is shown holding a coffee and Gwen references the grinds!”

WRONG. Well, no. Factually, that is entirely correct. But when, pray tell, does Chris confirm that the drink is coffee? Hm? Did you assume it was coffee because there was a bean on the cup? Did you assume it was coffee because Gwen says rinds? Gwen is fucking delusional. Gwen has been awake for 85 hours at that point. She tried to eat fictional coffee rinds. Don’t trust Gwen.

And I worked at a cafe for ages and every single hot chocolate I ordered aggressively handed to OTHER people (not to myself) had coffee beans on the front bc that was just the design of our cups, guys. They cater to the majority of alphas who drink coffee and not losers who drink hot chocolate.

“B-B-But Void!” would you stop that? “at some point in TDA, Chris orders a vanilla latte or something” yeah well maybe you should check your source better.

Kidding, that’s on me for being lazy. My argument for you there is that it’s still sweetened. He’s trying to wean himself off of baby drink hot chocolate but it still has to be a vanilla (or maybe it was caramel, even) latte. It can’t just be straight up coffee like real men drink like me (certified real man) and because will and uh Chris is a piss baby argue with a wall buy Mclean-Brand Instant Coffee™ goodnight.