#torturing squall

[strayheartless]

Here have some anxiety ridden Squall Leonhart as I have a panic attack on a train platform!

Squall has had anxiety pretty much his entire existence. When he’d first been told that it wasn’t Normal to analyse every detail of his interactions with people his exact response was “must be nice” because he genuinely doesn’t know what that feels like.

His anxiety could possibly be called crippling, but only because it renders him non-verbal sometimes. Most people think he’s just being difficult but the people who love him have come to realise that it’s a strange consequence of his fight or flight reflex that renders him mute.

Meeting Cloud for the first time had kind of been a relief. The man wasn’t Anxious like he was but his reactions guilt and exhaustion were a mirror of Squalls subconscious need to control the syllables caught on his tongue. Cloud understood that sometimes speaking felt like a monumental task and Squall could have cried when the Amman had understood him.

Dealing with Anxiety while in a relationship was interesting. Rinoa had known he was anxious but he’d never told her about the fear of her leaving, or the panic that gripped him when she was annoyed about something and hadn’t told squall it wasn’t about him. It was never her fault that Squall got in his own head, and she always tried to help, but Squall felt trapped in a spiral.

Cloud seemed to have a better handle on Squalls panic. He seemed to predict it so well that when Sora bounced in one afternoon, looked him up and down and then said “do you need anything?” Squall knew Cloud had been teaching people how to recognise his stress.

Cloud holds his hand when he starts to bite his nails. He untangles his fingers from his hair and places a hand on his knee when it bounces. The tiny murmur of “breath lion” followed by a demonstrated breath has saved him so many times

Squall still can’t communicate that he worries Cloud is mad at him but Cloud always seems to be one step ahead of him. “Squall look at me. I am not mad at you. Something happened with a delivery that irritated me, but it’s nothing you have done.” Cloud just knows and it settles a lot in Squall.

Another part of Squalls Anxiety is not knowing where people are or if they are okay. Cloud has had to make serious changes to the way he operates while dating Squall because coming home to the mess he did the first time want an option. During two weeks of worrying Squall had shut down. Now he gets a phone call every night and a text at every delivery stop. It should annoy Cloud, but for some reason for Squall it feels like the bare minimum.

He also worries where Sora is ✨always✨. There is not a single moment of the day where a little voice in the back of Squalls head doesn’t whisper “he’s dead somewhere” and Squall will end up panting over the kitchen sink as he tries to calm down.

It’s not so bad when Sora is with Donald and Goofy. Squall can just flick on the Gummy ship tracker on his computer and see where they are. It’s even better then Sora has the Gummy phone. But when Sora disappears it’s not just Riku and Kairi who are freaking out. Squall doesn’t sleep most nights because of it.

Sora’s disappearance is possibly the worst his anxiety has been since he was 17 and isolated. He doesn’t talk a lot of the time, he barely eats. Cloud spends a lot of time soothing his more harmful habits, while Aerith, yuffie and Tifa all try to make the House as stress free as possible.

He takes up knitting on Aerith’s insistence, and Tifa’s got him learning Zangan meditation techniques to take the edge off. Cid is being very Cid about it and sitting in Squalls office when no one else can. Merlin makes sleeping drafts to knock him out, and even Riku is sitting with him to try and help him process some things.

Squall feels the guilt of that one acutely and tries to avoid the teenager at all costs, but Riku is patient when he tells Squall that helping him helps Riku process some of his own worries too.

In the middle of the night when the anxiety induced night terrors bother him so bad he can’t breath, Cloud will sit up with him and help him through the worst of the trembling; laying him back down and talking him though getting his speech back.

Ahhh okay, still gunna have a wee panic but it feels a bit better now

[seat-safety-switch]

Quick: what's your favourite colour? Doesn't matter. Capitalism has conspired to eliminate it. Every car now is silver, grey, white, or black. Choice is the enemy of all free people. This improves resale value. Critically, this reduction in choice also reduces the chance that a dealership will end up with a, say, dark-blue(!) car that is totally unsellable except to the mentally ill. We gotta do our part for the dealerships, they're really hurting.

Cars used to have cool colours. For instance, I'm fairly sure that my '78 Volare was brown when it was new. You could also get it in tan, or what Plymouth audaciously called "Augusta green sunfire metallic." Daring stuff, but we had no idea that we were secretly bankrupting them. Back then, cars were ordered on demand, and you'd wait a few weeks before someone in a historically economically disadvantaged area of the USA finished spraying it with paint and put it on a train. No more of that nonsense.

That's why I joined up with a secret band of rebels. We don't want to put a name on our organization, mostly because none of us can agree on what it should be. Our job is to sneak into car dealership lots, and give the cars waiting there a high-quality paint job in extreme wacko colours like "orange" and "red." This, we believe, will eventually bankrupt the dealerships and hasten the fall of our corrupt order.

If that fails for some reason, and we are tortured to death by the politicians who obey those dealerships without question, there is a side benefit. That benefit is that we'll be able to see other cars in a snowstorm even if they forget to turn their headlights on. Is that grey blob over there a car or just another snow squall?

So when you show up to the dealership in the next couple weeks and notice that it suddenly looks a lot more colourful, you can thank us. Maybe just don't look too closely at the quality of the work. We're in a bit of a hurry, and sometimes Tapemaster Theodore doesn't do a really good job masking off the mirrors, handles, tires, and windows, so the paint gets places that it shouldn't. Hey, it's like the 1970s all over again.

[reinedeslys-central]

kotlc things that I keep thinking about that are never really addressed by canon

there is a complete replica of sophie's bedroom and perhaps countless other rooms just. somewhere in a building in mysterium that the councillors just know about.

alden and other telepaths were instructed to monitor the citizens' minds for signs of dissent around the time the prentice thing was going down

they regularly torture prisoners and dissenters into literal insanity that they can't come back from

they also have a super weird prison only accessible by quicksand (????) to house said prisoners

there is an ENTIRE DUNGEON OF WEIRD LAB EXPERIMENTS DOWN BY THE VACKER HOUSE?

okay. how - how big is havenfield?

the entire thing with - is their name twix? the person dex was working with for something. why do we not get to see that more. why is dex the criminally underrated goated character and WE DON'T GET FLESHED OUT CHARACTER ARCS FOR EVERYONE

linh flooded. atlantis. linh song FLOODED ATLANTIS hello what do people think about that?????????? do they see her on the street and whisper? what's up with "The Girl Of Many Floods"? Where else did she flood?

What is up with the song family (tong? their name changed after their grandmother or smth got famous with their music right?) that both their children not only have two very powerful elemental abilities, but are also crazy skilled with said Talents.

why are music, art, and culture not a bigger thing? like yeah, plot, obviously, but that's just worldbuilding!!! I wanna see!!!! art hanging on the walls! Defying gravity! more sculptures! more music playing in the shopping centres!! If they have imparters why don't they have long distance radio? are there mandatory dance lessons? what's the etiquette like besides what we already know?

more animal husbandry at schools. speaking of schools: we KNOW foxfire and exilium aren't the only schools. are smaller schools more specialised? are their community colleges or academies dedicated to specific career paths? universities?

okay but the polyglot ability is SO COOL???? tell me about the archaic variants of the enlightened language. there's no way that's just the elves' one language and the other species picked it up due to their 'superiority' or wtv. the goblins have cities of gold and metal and the trolls age backwards, you're not convincing me of anything.

secret societies in the other species. that has to exist right?

.....is squall dex's mom or not? I genuinely can't remember.

anyway remember when she froze gethen's fingernails off, yeah that happened (I think)

so instead of rehabilitating teenagers who have dangerous abilities and not much control over their powers, we just do....whatever the council did with gethen, ruy, and linh ig

hey, um...are we just not going to talk about dex casually HACKING INTO A GOV DATABASE WITH SOME RANDOM BITS OF ROCK AND TWINE? he can just do that. okay. okay. that's - yeah, okay.

did he match a frequency or something? how does the signal network even work in kotlc when everyone is technically all over the world in unplottable locations and they get around by LIGHT LEAPING???

ON THAT NOTE. light leaping. yeah haha funny let's just teach our kids to casually break down their very particles and hold onto their consciousness to travel at the speed of light using quantum mechanics and crystals that are specifically cut to project light in such a way that'll take you only to a specific location nvm im not thinking more about it.

flickering? is apparently a skill you can learn even if you're not a vanisher? remember in book two when fitz got prissy at sophie for knowing how to do it apparently b4 we figured out that she's a teleporter

keefe is a fun loveable goofball and I've always been on the sokeefe train but now the more I think about it he's really um.... yeah, uh, sophie? darling, please just don't date any of these people. obv you can make your own decisions but at least not now, okay. take care of yourself hon

the fitz hate is kinda weird ngl. wdym you don't want your problematic traitor brother to move back in to living literally with your family after supposedly losing his memories and that's a bad thing? wdym your close friend/crush is hiding things from you when yall are supposed to be cognates and she's kinda gaslighting you since, forever? wdym your father's been shadily telling you to stalk this girl in the human world since you were a kid? yeah definitely he does pull some weird stints throughout the series. but the bigger things i see ppl hating on him for are. hmmmmm

the council themselves choose to lock away the government secrets and wipe them from their memories. hey, um - recordkeeping is great, obvious, but - wiping those secrets from your minds isn't gonna help you lead while accounting for those parts of history, is it? nevermind how dangerous it is when there are huge species-wide secrets that NO ONE remembers. society-threatening incident waiting to happen.

the concept of vociferators. that's just kinda funny lol even if it is weird

are their schoold for diff abilities?

what's the genetics of talent inheritance? why are 'stronger' abilities rarer? In my opinion, p much every talent is goated, I don't see why more characters aren't more creative about it.

banning talents is just a bad move. like. are you serious? how is that going to make it better? that's how you get brant. brant was a pyrokinetic, without getting into the primary issue of the whole talentless/talented discrimination discourse, the secondary issue is he wouldve been able to marry jolie as two talented elves. would he have cracked if his ability was just a bit better handled by society?

grady is a mesmer. how - that's a really powerful ability???? how do you even train to use that? what do you even use it for?

same with whatever that lady councillor is that tried to seduce alden during his own wedding. fun times, yall.

rainbow fire??? cool????

so we have the sanctuary, do we also have a gigantic library of alexandria-esque thing? a botanical garden?

according to jolie's wiki she died at twenty as a level 8 at foxfire. so... hang on a minute. okay, sure, numerically that could make sense since sophie, at 12, became a level one - but are you telling me she went through the whole matchmaking process and was planning to get married that young????

hey, here's an idea - in a relatively stable society where economy is great, trust funds exist, people work to have something to do with their lives, birth rate is generally low (now through prejudice as well as societal comfort and ease/cost of living), why are they marrying so young? WHY ARE THE KIDS STARTING THE MATCHMAKING PROCESS IN THEIR TEENS???? the elven society has p much every mark of a stage 5 developed country? help? middle-high school human geography??

if they apparently live so long, show me the funny messy family trees with couples having children generations apart.

so, trust funds of lusters??? lustres?? (which we barely ever see. why is there little-to-no use of money?) which equate to roughly one trillion USD (in value? are you. are you - um. are you....serious?) exist. but I guess inflation and relative currency value from mass money printing doesn't count in this world, as well as the fact that there's only one currency for all the elves.

I wanna see a divorced elven couple now. how does divorce law work??????

if there's such a low BR and low population and people are yet still encouraged to have less kids to 'not dilute the genes' (that's my next point btw), I'm guessing matchmaking is encouraged younger to make sure population stays stable/growing? obv you need it to ensure genetic diversity and no incest, but if it's heavily encouraged for elves to have children like this, are queer elves mandated to have children with a surrogate/other couple even if they have a same-sex marriage?

i'll probably edit this or reblog it to include more stuff (character limit lol) as i remember the books bc it's been a hot minute since i read them.

[star-trek-fandom-confessions]

Re: many of the various about the Gorn or listing SNW's handling of the Gorn as one of its major problems.

Perception not matching reality, what is/is not a monster is a huge theme throughout SNW.

Ghost of Illyria – Those light monsters didn’t murder the Illyrians, they are the Illyrians and were trying to save Pike and Spock all along. Everyone (except Una ofc) learns a lesson that Illyrians can’t be lumped in with the Augments and need greater understanding Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach – Turns out that nice lovely civilization is literally torturing children. The terrorists are actually trying to save those children. The Serene Squall – Surprise the counselor is a pirate Ad Astra Per Aspera – Continues with the Illyrians deserve understanding theme. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – That helpful reporter is actually a Romulan. Even notorious tyrant and mass murderer Khan Noonien Singh was once a scared child. Lost in Translation – Starfleet is the monster, accidentally torturing and killing a life form they didn't know existed. Under the Clock of War – Turns out the lovely ship’s doctor is actually the Butcher of J’Gal and capable of murdering someone in cold blood. War can make a monster of anyone.

Yet so many people seem to think they’re not going to pull something similar with the Gorn? Even though the show has taken time to establish that the Gorn are intelligent and have a religion?

The thing about the Gorn is that people have died - La’an’s family, Hemmer, some other members of the Enterprise crew, nearly the entire crew of the Cayuga, multiple colonies - and possibly Marie will be added to that list before the two-parter is done. That creates an environment where it’s understandable that the SNW characters would not want to have their perception that the Gorn are monsters challenged, because the harm they have caused is so personal.

It creates a really interesting conflict for the crew, because how do you find understanding, how to you fight the will for revenge, when there’s been so much pain?

I could be wrong about this being the route the SNW writers are going down, but I’m really excited to see if they do.

Posting this as a response to several earlier confessions.

[atrueneutral]

So, I think many might be wondering about this. Will Tav keep the baby? If so, what would family life look like? And would the lil one call Haarlep "uncle"?

Per [this prompt]!

I’ll leave it open ended and up for the readers to decide, but I’m more than happy to write out a follow-up of what I envision for each decision!

If Tav keeps the baby: I think this Tav would want to leave Baldur’s Gate to raise their child in a much smaller, nearby town. Raphael would set her up in a quaint home and ensure that she has all that she needs, and he would visit whenever able up until the birth. He’d be a bit distant when she does give birth and the months after (as the squalling and seeing Tav overwhelmed overwhelms him), but he comes around to be that pillar of support she needs (because he loves her). Tav understands that he’s… adjusting. Over time he grows fond (‘in his own way’) and would become very protective of their child, however I don’t envision him being Father of the Year.

I personally don’t see Tav ever wanting their child to visit the House of Hope with the souls, and the skeletons, and the tortured screaming, etc. She’d need to save and have that difficult conversation about Raphael’s nature when their child is older. She doesn’t hide what he is from the kid, but she doesn’t go out of her way to bring it up.

Haarlep likes to call themself ‘Uncle Haarlep’ all the time when Raphael is Home!

If Tav doesn’t keep the baby: they continue their arrangement, keep the potions out of reach of incubi, and naturally and inevitably fall in love with each other.

[silverselfshippingchaos]

Pairing: Ash (self-insert)/Seifer Almasy (Happy Late Birthday, Seifer!)

Word Count: ~1.8k words

Warnings: A bit of swearing, brief descriptions of past self-harm, vague FF8 spoilers. More of a character study than anything. Ash and Seifer were both child soldiers and are learning how to live again. Just some good ol' hurt/comfort

Synopsis: It had been a few years since it had all ended and peace was returned to the world. Ash, an elite mercenary once known as the Garden's Perfect Ten was now living alongside her rival-turned-lover, Seifer. But despite their new, peaceful life, scars from the past remain. For the first time in his life, Seifer doesn't have to face his trauma alone. He is loved.

Seifer never fully recovered from Edea's mind control. He is in control of himself and his actions, but what of his mind? Sometimes his head aches, thoughts that aren't his feel so real again. He's 18 again, grabbing at his head and wanting nothing more for it to just stop. Chills run down his body, and he can't do anything but sit there and take it. The whispers aren't as bad as they were when he was a teenager, but they're not gone. Maybe they never will be.

Seifer is more than aware that he has done awful things in the past. He was once a teenager in charge of an army, he awakened an evil god from her slumber, and he tortured a man he now calls a friend. Seifer is different now, that much is a fact, but he considers it his responsibility now to live with the weight.

Would things have been different had he done something else? What if he made SeeD? He'd sooner die than admit it to Squall, but Seifer knows that going through would Squall did would break him.

Seifer has spent a lot of nights on his own after it all happened, staying awake and staring at the ceiling, sometimes even crying. Always thinking too fucking hard. Life had never been easy for him, and the one time he felt like he had a purpose... He fucked it up. He tells himself he was true to his ideals until the very end, but in reality? He was nothing but a scared little kid.

Seifer sits up in bed, his body covered in a cold sweat. He buries his face in trembling hands, trying to get himself to calm down, trying to get the throbbing in his skull to just stop already. He had gotten accustomed to waiting these moments out, drinking some water, and rolling over and going to bed once more.

But the days where he spent his nights alone were long since past. Warm arms wrap around him, and it feels like a safe haven. Ash holds him and pulls him into her chest.

"Seifer..? Heard your breath shake."

Her voice is soft. Gentle, but comforting.

"I'm sorry."

It's a quiet whisper, something so unlike him. Seifer always took it upon himself to be bold and brash, always leaving an impression (whether it was positive or negative was something he simply did not care for). Ever since he was a child brought to the Garden for the first time, he had one lesson drilled into his head. Personal feelings didn't fucking matter so long as you yielded results. He took that to heart.

But with Ash, for the first time in his life, he doesn't mind talking about how he feels. He knows that she'll listen and he doesn't feel afraid. Being vulnerable wasn't scary, the one thing in his life he could never do. Seifer never felt weak whenever he talked to her about his feelings.

Still, the last thing he wanted was to disturb her sleep. They bickered and they bought, even tried to kill each other as teenagers, but he loved this woman more than anything the world had to offer. If she wanted her to kill, he'd do it. If she wanted to see it all burn, he'd bring the matches.

This woman was his life. When they were children, she'd giggle and read him picture books, little fingers following the words as she tried her best to sound them out. Now that they're adults, she still smiles at him the same way.

"No, no, baby... Don't apologize. Tell me what's wrong."

Ash's soft voice is like a beacon of light in the night that was the aching headache. Nights like these were especially awful, and his head felt almost exactly like it did the day it all went fucking wrong.

Seifer wraps his arms around Ash's waist and holds onto her tight, maybe even too tight. Ash doesn't complain. Seifer lets out a soft whimper, and he knows that he must seem fucking pathetic, some sorry excuse for a guard dog. Seifer knew he could be himself around her and that she would never judge, but he was still her knight. Her protector...

Not that she needed protecting, of course. He learned that lesson all too well when they were still enemies and she didn't hesitate a moment before pulling the trigger, shooting him in the shoulder. Still, he'd rather be the one taking blows than her. It's a lot fucking harder to kill him, after all.

"Is it another headache?"

"Yeah."

And Seifer's voice breaks, like some pathetic, scared little kid. Maybe that's what he was, what he never really stopped being. A mask of fake pride and false bravado could only last for so long. He could only build the walls around his heart so high before they all came crashing down.

"Oh, Seifer..."

One of Ash's hands finds its way to Seifer's hair, freshly washed and soft as ever without its usual gel, and starts to play with it. Light scratches across his scalp, running her fingers through his blond hair in an attempt to soothe him.

Taking care of each others' hair had always been important to the two of them. Seifer had put so much time in effort in learning how to properly take care of Ash's curls, and the feeling of his hands as he braided her hair always brought her comfort. She thinks to herself that perhaps she can make him feel the same.

"It's okay, Seifer. I'm right here... It's all over now."

Ash kisses the top of his head, and stays there for a moment. His hair smelled like her favorite shampoo. Ash knows that she's changed him, impacted him, and she can tell by the way he smiles when they're on dates that maybe this is what he had always needed. Even when they were students and they "hated" each other, Ash never thought he was a bad man. Misunderstood and misguided, sure, but never bad. Never evil.

It was far from Ash's first time comforting him through one of these moments. Sometimes it was so easy to get caught up in the past... So Ash always reminds him that the past is gone. Now it's just them together their bedroom and Seifer is absolutely safe. Matron had long since apologized to Seifer for everything. After all, she was being controlled too, but the impacts of everything couldn't be reversed. Seifer would heal, yes, but never would he be the same. That didn't mean he had to face the past alone though.

The longer Ash plays with his hair, kisses the top of head, whispers sweet little nothings about how it'll be alright, how nothing can hurt him anymore... The headache begins to fade. His body still feels generally uneasy, trying to fight something that isn't even there anymore, but he's getting better. His breath evens, and he just holds Ash closer, snuggling his face into her neck. He smells the remnants of her cologne, barely clinging to her skin after a long day's work. What a lovely smell.

"Ash..?"

"Yeah? You feel better?"

"Mhm. Thanks."

"Good."

He can hear Ash's smile, and he likes it. He wants to protect that smile, make sure she never gets hurt again. Seifer had felt powerless against so much, and the only real constant in her life has been this urge to protect and serve. Being a knight was his duty and his calling. But protect what? Serve what? And now, he has found it. This is why he lives.

"I love you, Ash."

"I love you too, honey. More than anything."

Seifer's head is still buried in Ash's chest, so his words are a little muffled.

"Love you so much it hurts. Y-you're really too good for a guy like me sometimes, y'know that?"

"Hmm," Ash giggles, "I don't think so. You're the only person in the world I'd ever want, Seifer."

"With you I feel... safe."

It's hard for Seifer to be vulnerable, Ash knows that. But she's proud nonetheless. Ash kisses the top of his head once more,

"Heh, guess in a way... I'm your knight then."

"My knight... Think I can get used to that."

Ash chuckles, and before she knows it, her Seifer is fast asleep, bare arms still wrapped around her. Even in the dim light of their nightlight and the moonlight fluttering in through the window, Seifer was so beautiful to Ash, sharp and strong features so relaxed, blond hair like gold falling into his face.

The scar across his face had begun to fade, but it was still there. Ash was glad it was healing, but she couldn't deny a certain affection for that scar, finding it both equal parts attractive and adorable.

Seifer told her that if she feels that way, she can go fucking ask Squall to give him another since he had no intentions of getting his face cut open again. The memory almost makes Ash burst out laughing. Her life had become so happy these past few years. It wasn't without its hardships, sure, but nothing worthwhile ever was.

"I love you, Seifer. With all I am."

For too long, Ash had been a weapon, a tool, a SeeD. No one really wanted to say it, but the words were all synonymous. Whenever Ash is with Seifer, she can experience the same joy she had back at the orphanage... The honor to just be herself.

She wasn't the Garden's Ten, she wasn't the wielder of Eight and Two. Sometimes she remembers her earliest days of gun training. There she was, a scared child sobbing in a pool of her own blood because she shot herself and it hurt. She was scolded and reprimanded when she woke up in the infirmary, but she didn't understand why. If she was to inflict this pain onto others, she wanted to feel it for herself. From that day onward, she devoted herself to her guns.

For too long, Ash was the gunslinger that was forced to grow up too quick, barely an adult rushing onto a battlefield (quite literally) guns blazing. Pulling a trigger was as natural as breathing to her... No. Not anymore.

With a smile on her face, Ash drifts off into dreamland too. Ash is excited to see what tomorrow holds. Not just for her, but for the man she has grown to love with every fiber of her being, Ash rests easy, knowing that she will get to wake up to the sight of his smile. What a lovely life she led.

[incorrectnevermoor]

Kiss, Marry, Kill, but instead it's Imprison, Torture, Execute, and the characters you have to work with are Noelle, Baz, and Squall?

Imprison Noelle because I firmly believe she can grow as a person

Execute Baz because I hate his vibe

Torture Squall because I can’t kill him he’s too 🥴

[serious-tabaxi]

Ok, so, This is all set within the fictionally metropolis of Midnight Park, a city of 10 million on the shores of the Maryland coast. Midnight Park is a very divided place, with the tech moguls of the Silicon Heights looking over the squalor of Hooverville, the lush gardens, parks, and graveyards of Greenbelt being leeched of life from the smog of the Production Quarter, and the ever-watchful eye of their heroes of the Luminary Society just can't pierce through the shadowed allies and tunnels their rival villains lurk in.

First up on the hit list is Squall, Dr Simon Gale, the oldest of the villains who looks a bit like an cantaloupe balancing on top of a bowling ball, or some hybrid of that guy from those Boom Beach ads that was a meme a few years back with classic Eggman or Doc Ock. They were bullied for their looks during their childhood (especially by one Benedict Bright who you'll see later) and would grow into a meteorologist and climatologist, top of their class. Unfortunately, they were cursed to became one of the first to realize the potential dangers of climate change back in like the 90's and nobody took their observations seriously, reminding them of their childhood torments. In a fit of rage, the used experimental equipment for inducing artificial rainfall to turn a light drizzle into a pounding storm, flooding Midnight Park and dawning the modern age of heroes and villains. Unfortunately, they're ego would only grow and they'd slowly begin to see themself as the arbiter of natures wraith and be blinded to the cruelty of their actions.

Next up is Tox, Dr Garrett Adams. Dr Adams wasn't anyone special, just some humble chemist working for Venture Chemicals Co in the Production Quarter. That all changed during Squall's storm though. The floodwaters caused the chemical vats to burst and spill, dissolving several workers alive whilst Garrett was stranded in the rafters above where they're body slowly absorbed the fumes. Their skin and fat began to melt off their muscle and bones as it turned to wax from chemical exposure, soaking in chemical fumes and radiation as Adams used what first aid supplies he had to stave off death. By the time the floodwaters receded, Him and the chemicals had become one, a congealed mass of atomic tallow and luminous green organs within in endless agony that warped his mind into nothing but an abyss of hate. hate. hate. hate.

Then is Everyman, Tomas Jackson. Jackson was some unremarkable middle-aged conservative man who believed in standing for what you think is right and a growing resentment for the government. That was, until, some random no-name crook broke into his house and stole a family heirloom, his grandmother's old necklace, at which point he attempted to follow shotgun in hand to get it back. When he couldn't and the police also failed to find it, he was filled with rage and vowed to take makers into his own hands. Doning a home-forged steel helmet, gloves, trenchcoat, and voice changer, they set off into the night with a shotgun, a dream, and a very black-and-white sense of morality. These days, many of his fellow hands-on right wingers have donned similar costumes and joined him in his secret lair, the Halls of Justice, to find, torture, and execute whoever they deem guilty.

Mister Bones, Benedict Bright, was a bully growing up, especially to a young Simon Gale. His parents own a large carnival boardwalk by the name of the Bright Time Mile in Founder's Bay. His father died when Benedict was in his twenties and gave him control over the park. This was not a good idea as Mr Bright thought that the fear on the faces of others was just the funniest thing ever and slowly but surely made the park more thrilling, more threatening, more terrifying so he could laugh at the helpless scared children. He got a degree in sociology so that he could be even better at scaring people until they lost their minds and had his engineers work on developing advanced animatronics capable of free motion and though. Eventually, the Bright Time Mile's fear factor was toned down significantly to attract new guests and Mr Benedict started to dress in a more fitting costume, red and black with skeletal bodypaint. However, soon after this refurbishment, reports started to come out. Of of man in a black and white pinstripe suit, skull-faced gasmask, wide brimmed hat, oversized blood-stained mallet, and a simple wand loaded with a radioactive isotope that would melt the flesh right off your bones, and this man would chase you down without relent or remorse laughing at your screams until you could scream no more or grew too brave, at which point they'd get bored and leave.

Amp, Ruby Neumann, was the daughter of a German immigrant and was a lover of all things adrenaline-pumping, especially hardbass music. When they reached adulthood, they attempted to start a band, Bloodboil, but it never got off the ground. After that, she became a audio engineer and pioneered some interesting techniques. During a job under Benedict Bright to try to create audio disks that hum at just the right frequency to cause hallucinations, the hero Technopath broke in and gave chase, causing the equipment to short out and drive several other workers deaf. She escaped but lost the research for the disks but came to realize something; being chased... is actually pretty fun. She crafted a custom sound-suit covered with speakers that sounded at a frequency that could shatter stone and a sonic blaster that would rupture flesh and became a mercenary for the various gangs of Midnight Park, serving under them for the ultimate thrill.

And last for the villains is Krake, Richard Steinman. you already know about them. A cosmetics surgeon and geneticist who helped transgender and non-binary people transition until they had an otherkin awakening themself and was hit by a gnawing, insatiable longing to be an octopus (or, rather, the BODY of an octopus, they already were one in mind) even though they knew that they could reach reach it until Squall's storm created Tox and Midas, neither of which can really be considered human anymore and gave poor Steinman hope that they can achive their heart's desire with enough equipment, chemicals, and test subjects and so set up a secret lab in the Midnight Park underground where they performed inhumane experiments attempting to crack the code of transformation, eventually managing to figure it out and partly turn themself into an octopus, the happiest day of their life, but now aware of the toil they've reaped on the innocent citizens of Midnight park, all the friends they've lost and traded for power-hungry gangsters who wanted power for cheap, and these days they cry themselves to sleep every night,

However, now, it's hero time.

First is co-founder of the Luminary Society, Silver Sentinel. Henry Steele was a car mechanic in Founder's Bay until getting a new job as an engineer for Benedict Bright at the Bright Time Mile designing animatronics. He did this for some time before slowly realizing that what Bright wants aren't just animatronic mascot characters, but androids, semi-aware fake people, and that just didn't sit right with them and so they left, turning back to their old work for a while before bumping into an Everyman recruiter who conviced them to serve under the forces of "Justice", taking a box of mechanical limbs from their old job and created a primitive suit of power armor to boost his strength. After about a month though, he realized that Everyman was just a butcher, killing any who he arbitrarily deemed "Guilty" and moving one actually without doing anything to make Midnight Park a better place and so, left them. He wondered guilty and aimless for some time before meeting Coldheart and founding the Luminary Society to atone for their past sins, establishing a strict code of honor to make up for it.

Of course, Next up is Coldheart. Emeline Eaton was a skier, the best in all Midnight Park in fact. She would ski down the slopes of Appalachia every winter preparing for the day she could enter into the Winter Olympics, her personal dream and everyone believed in her. One winter when she was setting off, a strange man in a hazmat suit approached her, not a single snowflake on their body preaching how fit she was. She listened, confused, until the figure proclaimed how much he DESPISED health as they took off their hood, revealing the vile molten features of Tox right before Emeline punch him right in the face in response, only for Tox to merely laugh as the chemical cocktail begain to make her flesh melt too arm-first. She fell on the ground and rolled down the slope, slamming right into a frozen lake. She awoke later that month after the thaw with bluish frostbite skin and discovered that no level of cold effect her anymore but if she were to ever rise above the freezing point, she'd begin to melt like Tox. She lived for a week sleeping in mall freezers and walking around with a sack of dry ice tied to her back before meeting Silver Sentinel, who rigged up a crude insulation suit to keep her cool and together they formed the Luminary Society.

Midas, Dr Gianni Agneas, was a quantum physicist specializing in using particle smashers and accelerators to transmutate old or synthesize new elements. He was working on an experimental device he named the Philosopher's Engine that could transmute any one substance into any other when Squall's storm hit, lightning striking the side of the lab and causing the machine to go haywire spouting particles and radiation until it exploded, knocking Gianni out in the process. When they awoke, Everything left in the ruins had been transmuted, including themself, they had been turned to a scintillating rainbow of elements such as lead, bismuth, and sulfur and whatever they touched would itself be transmuted into something different. After a few years as a medical oddity, they had learned to control their powers, being able to choose what they turned what into, joining the Luminary Society and turning enough trash into gold to allow them to buy an abandoned observation tower to turn into their headquarters, the Luminary Spire.

Technopath, Nathan Sutton, isn't from Midnight Park, he's not even from the east coast. Born in the state of California as the son of the tech billionaire Dell Sutton of Telekinetics Inc, Nathan never faced much hardship growing up and so spent most of their time reading comic books and watching movies. They were big fans of stories about cowboy and pirate vigilantes and secret spies infiltrating the lairs of megalomaniacal masterminds. After hearing of the Luminary Society following the purchase of the Luminary Spire and their growing awareness of their father's love of money over them, he underwent an experimental surgery to have Telekinetics Inc technology installed into his body, becoming a cyborg with built-in radios and electromagnets granting them powers like remote usage of electronics, telekinesis, and more before moving to Midnight Park and applying for the Society several times before getting approved as their youngest member. Silver Sentinel is something of an idol of theirs and they seem potential in the young cyborg and have taken them in as a pupil.

Nightshade, real name Sophia Burke, always preferred plants to people. Plants wouldn't bully you for being weird, plants would always listen to what you have to say, plants would never be "too busy" to pay attention to their child. As she grew, she got a degree in botany and toxicology whilst studying abroad. When she came back however, She discovered that her parents had been murdered. No matter how strained there relationship, she still valued their lives and so went out to try to find the killer, Using her knowledge to blend into the plantlife and apply subtle poisons to their enemies to render them inoperable. Eventually she found the culprit; Everyman, Her parents were corrupt it turns out and had been engaging with drug smuggling for the black market and he couldn't let that stand. Shaken to her core by that discovery but still wanting to put a stop to Everyman's crimes and not believe that they're strong enough, she joined the Luminary Society to train, though her willingness to kill give her a strained relationship with the rest of them.

And that's it. That's them, my boys!

i imagine at least Menoa would, in response to Everyman's semi-fascist outlook, make himself into a hero called "Nuance" that would show up to every attempted murder, and debate the murderer in the middle of them attempting to do the murder.

meanwhile Akari would be the one who actually prevents the crimes.

sorry i'm thinking in terms of me ocs.

[firstknightvulion]

I really wish we got more into Squall’s head when Rinoa first asks him to dance. Of course, we can imagine. And make it really funny.

Squall leaning against the column, resting bitch face at the ready. He sips from his champagne glass.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): This is fucking ginger ale.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): Dude, we’re seventeen.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): Yesterday, I killed like fifteen guys. I think I can get a damn drink.

As the intense, internal argument rages inside his head, Squall glances up at the night sky through the enormous sky light. A shooting star blazes into his view. He follows its descent until his eyes land on a pretty girl in a white dress. Their eyes meet and she smiles at him, pointing towards the sky.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): Shit! Eye contact! What do we do?!

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): Relax. It’s just eye contact. It’s not like she’s gonna come over.

Rinoa begins to approach, her eyes never leaving Squall’s.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): OH FUCK!!! She’s coming closer!

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): Hey, she looked us in the eye! She needs to take responsibility! Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll tell us not to stare like a creeper!

Rinoa: *walks up and smiles* You’re the best looking guy here. Dance with me?

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): *crying hysterically*

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): I can’t do this, man! Just ignore her! Maybe she’ll go away!

Squall: *turns away and takes a sip of his drink*

Rinoa: Let me guess…you’ll only dance with someone you like.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): Good! She took the hint! Now we gotta sneak out and not talk to anything for a month. That’ll make us feel better.

Rinoa: Ok then. *her hand shoots up, her fingers inches from Squall’s face* Look into my eyes…

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): *dies*

Rinoa: *chanting and twirling her fingers* You’re-going-to-like-me, you’re-going-to-like-me…did it work?

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): *revives* Fuck, we’re in love. Talk. Use words. We know those. WOO HER!

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): Bullshit! We can still get out of this! Observe!

Squall: …I can’t dance.

Squall: (Internal Dialogue 2): You weak-ass motherfucker. How dare you stand against destiny?!

Rinoa: You’ll be fine. Come on. *grabs Squall by the arm and starts dragging* I’m looking for someone. I can’t be on the dance floor alone.

Squall (Internal Dialogue 1): NOOOOOOO!!!!

Squall (Internal Dialogue 2): YEEEEESSS!!!

I hope I have conveyed the internal struggle of one Squall Leonhart to the satisfaction of everyone. I love torturing characters. It’s fun.

VII, VIII and IX are very near and dear to my heart.

[sardonic-sprite]

Ok ok so @quotidian-oblivion has been (lovingly) pestering me to make something of my/our comment thread on "bane" where we were talking about the whole "Ra's wants tim's babies" thing, and what if that actually happened, so here it is 😂 (tw for referenced rape)

So obviously this could only happen if Cass didn't save Tim from Ra's's half-sister so. Hella angst

Poor Cass is devastated that she was too late to stop it. She blames herself, even tho everyone tells it her its no one's fault but Ra's and his sister. She becomes ridiculously protective of tim in response, even well beyond the time she forgives herself

Dick clings to Tim for an entire day when he finds out, trying not to feel rain on his skin, promising it'll be ok someday, that he's there, he'll do anything he can. He's guilty too, wishing he'd been in better contact, gone with Tim, done anything that could have spared him Dick’s nightmares

Damian’s world has shattered. Grandfather... does not want Damian. As his heir. He wants a previously nonexistent child. DRAKE's child. And he has stooped to the lowest low to get it. The carefully built family around Damian is in mourning for something he doesn't fully understand, and Drake now flinches when Damian, in what was supposed to be a peace offering, calls him "Timothy"

Steph and Tim make up as friends when she comes to support him with the shock of knowing that he has (will have, bc they are NOT leaving it with Ra's) a child now that he was not ready for. She doesn't touch him once while she's there, stays at arm's length, and that, Tim thinks, is what makes the visit feel as comforting as a hug

Jason is horrorstruck and breaks out of the rage/aggression and channels it towards hunting down League assassins bc what the fuck how DARE ra's? Tim was fucking 17 and Jason does not care how powerful this bastard is, he's going the FUCK down because NOBODY messes with Jason's baby brother but Jason himself

Barbara is ranting about how Ra's cant even know the genetics are going to fucking WORK how he wants them to, but breaks off abruptly as Tim's eyes well up, changing to enumerating all the baby things she's ordered and telling the dumb science jokes on the onesies because she NEEDS to see Tim laugh

Alfred LOOKS composed but every night he grips that shotgun real tight and has to remind himself that these kids need him, he can't risk himself for vengeance, what matters is Master Tim and the new little master or miss to be. He asks Tim privately if he'd like to choose a room to be the child's nursery. Tim doesnt know, but that's ok, dear boy, that's ok.

Bruce comes home and instead of the joy of reunion (or well, after it) has to struggle not to cry bc God his poor little boy... Damian was a shock too but at least Bruce and Talia loved each other. At least Bruce fucking consented. At least bruce was a goddamn adult. He doesnt think he will ever be rid of the guilt that Tim only found his way to Ra's by looking for Bruce

And Tim himself...

He can't go underground, at all. He redesigns his costume so that he can only unfasten it with a biometric lock, and doesn't tell anyone where it is except Alfred (medical emergencies). Some days, he can't look the girls in the eyes. Some days, he can't look at them at all, not without memories of things he isn't supposed to have seen or. Or felt. He's kidnapped as Red Robin once and chained to the wall, and he dissociates until someone (Jason this time, and who'd have believed THAT a year ago?) comes to save him. He can't get a good night's sleep anymore, not that he ever could but still

He feels paralyzed. There is no putting this off, no playing for time, nothing. They were able to confirm that Ra's's sister IS pregnant, and he knows damn well it's his, and nature waits for no one. In less than nine months now there's going to be a squalling, breathing, tiny, fragile, entire child, and unless he steps in, Ra's is going to raise it. Which means torturing it into a killer.

Every part of Tim screams NO

So they use those months to plan. How do they get in, how do they get out, WHEN is this supposed to happen because they can't well kidnap the child from the delivery room, the poor thing has to be in some kind of stable health, they need to KNOW these things, and thats when Bruce gets a call

Because Talia is fucking livid. She knows Ra's is an asshole, that's why she got Damian to Bruce, but this was a whole new low, her goddamn AUNT pregnant by her teenage non consenting STEPSON? She can't stop that any more than the others now, but she knows what she CAN stop: another tiny child being twisted and corrupted by this absolute monster. They need a spy, right? Well they got one

So there y'are, Q, the horribly angsty beginnings of this Dad!Tim AU. It doesn’t look pretty right now, but it will slowly get happier bc babies are adorable, dammit.

Edit: Part 2

[2treez]

I used to hate having my hair brushed.

I'll never forget that feeling of plastic bristles ripping through my ever-present snarls.

Every evening, after a day spent swinging in the tree branches, my mother took to my windswept locks.

Every morning, after a night of wild dreams, she combed through my stormy waves.

I remember grimacing with each pull, with every knot, with every stroke.

Until my hair was set in a neat braid.

I almost believed she liked to torture me.

I squirmed. I squealed.

I winced. I writhed.

But her hands stayed steady as did her voice. "Try to sit still for a moment,” she’d say before diving into some whimsical tale to keep me distracted.

She never complained about the mess of hair she had to comb through.

She just combed on.

Because, you see, mothers know.

Mothers know that the delicate plaits won’t last.

That within hours the urge for freedom will pull them apart.

Yet time and again, she sits down and sets to work.

Because mothers know that their daughters are meant to be wild.

That they are meant to be swept up in their squalls of freedom.

They are meant to come back home and to wake up in the mornings with unruly knots, telling of beautiful hurricanes they’ve experienced.

And mothers also know that they are meant to settle the storm of today.

That they are meant to comb through the kinks and knots.

They are meant to put it all back into place.

Not so much to tame every strand.

But to release them.

So that tomorrow each wisp can feel it…

The Wind and the Wild.

All over again. ♥️

Raise Her Wild with Mehr Lee

🌳❤️🌳

[dustedmagazine]

Stylianos Ou and the Cortisol Cows — Fucked Forever (ever/never)

Stylianos Ou belongs to a long tradition of hangdog poets with raging country-politan bands, David Berman, Ryan Davis, Strapping Fieldhands and Palace Music. The fact that he’s Greek detracts not a bit from the charm of discouraged lyrics lifted up by banjo and a deconstructed string band. “We’re fucked forever, we truly are,” he warbles, the words knocked just off center by a European accent. The sentiment, however, scans universally, especially here, especially now.

Stylianos Ou, whose real name is Stelios Papagrigoriou, is a bit of a renaissance man, a visual artist across multiple media, a novelist and a musician. He’s done some solo work under his current name, as well as one other album backed by his band the Cortisol Cows.  This current record demonstrates a wide-ranging, verbal and sonic intelligence, however ungovernable. He namechecks France’s controversial novelist Micheal Houllebeqc in one song, something not every indie twang singer could do.

And yet while the intellectual firepower is impressive, Fucked Forever is not, by any measure, a cerebral album. It thuds with blood-in-the-ear rhythms and squalls with tortured string squeals. It reels and surges and cavorts atop unscalable mountains of tone. It reaches through your gut as much as your brain, and often at the same time.

Consider, for instance, the frolicsome “Death Will Come for You,” with its antic, agitated banjo, its enveloping masses of guitar tone, its wobbly intimations of mortality that nonetheless vibrate with joy. This one will remind you a lot of Ryan Davis and his Roadhouse band, in the way that it swings and swaggers and blares triumphantly, despite the bleakness of its narrative. Speaking of death, Ou intones, “It will come like a tax collector, she will wash you with your hair, you were born to life, but death will stick it right in if he’s able.”

Ou deploys a black kind of humor, bringing the absurdities of modern life into his blasted stories. Songs like “Fake Tits” and “Pornhub Spiritual” transmute artifacts of a cultural wasteland into profound and funny spirituals. But even as he cracks the listener up, he’s got an abyss in his pocket. “There’s no end in this bottomless pit, no global positioning system here,” he observes in “Kokkinopoulos (GPS Lament).” It’s a dismal mix that’s simultaneously giddy and very much in line with the current state of affairs. It’s an ideal soundtrack for considering exactly how fucked we are. Which is very. And forever.  

Jennifer Kelly 

[reveromantique]

various random hcs bc @ofmoonlily/@lastflowerpetal wanted me to post them. these are part of my seifer's history, regardless of verse unless it's like a modern AU/something outside of 8 canon:

general reminder that my seifer, specificially, is rooted in just like a shitload of succession headcanons (mother was a sorceress hunted under adel, then being raised by edea who taught him to control his little baby magic before he burned the orphanage down.) i always hc that quistis was the one who trained him to hone that magic into battle magic, because she's the closest thing that garden has to an actual sorceress with her blue magic.

seifer, in verses where he does fully achieve that succession/manifestation, has wings the color of ash, but will go absolutely monstrous if he lets himself lose complete control of the transformation. he also has an ability at that point to rip a hole in time and travel between far points nearly instantaneously.

for most verses, though, he doesn't ever get there, but with enough rage, he can set himself on fire and cause problems on purpose.

he and xu dated briefly for like two months. she dumped him. he retaliated by dropping the bra she'd left in his dorm on the floor in the middle of the caf, thrown down like a gauntlet. she's never forgiven him for it.

actual canon opinion of the crew, per the game: "seifer's a good guy who inspires me to be better/stronger/more skilled, but man, the dude's a fucking asshole."

he can draw up native white magic, but he's not good at it, and it tends to not work very well. because of the fact that he inherited his mother's magic, though, he's damned hard to kill (it's possible, but not without serious effort), so it's not as much of a crisis as it could be. he also won't stop breathing until he's passed his magic to someone else, per all sorceress canon.

ultimecia's tearing apart of their knighting before squall and co took her down left a lot of shards of her own magic in his brain. after the war, he's got less control of it, like it's been poisoned, tainted. fire is volatile; seifer's tendency to fly off the handle doesn't help it.

post-game, he's set at least one apartment on fire in his sleep, when he'd dreamed about something under her control and couldn't stop the fires from spreading.

additionally, he's on a first-name basis with most of balamb's cops, considering he's been arrested at least a dozen times after the events of the game.

there's a six-month period he spent in d-district during the end of the war/the scene with garden flying away, while everyone tried to figure out what to do with him. squall (and shockingly, xu), fought hard to get him back to garden, because SeeD cadets are expensive, and seifer is skilled in combat/source magic use. better that he be on their leash than anyone else's. so he's usually doing shitty jobs/really dangerous solo work that might mean he doesn't come back from it, for less pay than standard SeeD scale, as he's never eligible to take the SeeD exam ever again.

seifer doesn't junction often-- if he does, it's ifrit, he deals with a shitload of paramagical-related hangover symptoms afterward, and after the war, he doesn't do it at all, because GF aren't compatible with whatever ultimecia's done to him.

for the most part, post-war, he's a functioning alcoholic who starts fights just to feel something.

ultimecia physically took advantage of him, both sexually and via torture. afterward, he has a hell of a time trusting anyone to get near him, and unless he's inviting physical contact, he would much rather not.

he has a massive scar across his back that looks like five nails were raked across his spine, because they were, they were hers, and instead of healing to a normal, faint pink, it remains dark, fresh-looking, even if they are long since healed over. he also has a knot of scar tissue in his right elbow that occasionally affects him mobility wise, thanks to an injury sustained during the garden battle. he's had surgery to try to relieve some of the worst of it, but because it was paramagically healed, there's always going to be some sustained numbness/significant nerve damage.

afterward, it takes a long time for him to trust edea again, because while he KNOWS it wasn't her, not really, she was still the inciting incident for the worst year of his life.

he only remembers parts of what he did under ultimecia's control. bombing trabia, the battle of the gardens, throwing rinoa to adel.

he no longer has his coat, or any of the clothes he'd been wearing during the war, afterward-- he'd burned everything but his necklace and his boots in a dumpster in timber, right before garden found him and took him in.

he likes to read, particularly centran poetry and fantasy. wherever he is in a verse post-war, there's a decent collection of secondhand/stolen library books. it comes in handy to have something to do when he can't sleep (which is often.)

he suffers from a lot of insomnia. he'd rather sleep in catnaps, short bursts, anything that means he doesn't have a chance to really dream.

he runs noticeably hotter than most people, thanks to his innate magic-- if someone is standing next to him, they will notice it. he is an excellent personal space heater.

[wasteland-squog-baby]

Ok, so, This is all set within the fictionally metropolis of Midnight Park, a city of 10 million on the shores of the Maryland coast. Midnight Park is a very divided place, with the tech moguls of the Silicon Heights looking over the squalor of Hooverville, the lush gardens, parks, and graveyards of Greenbelt being leeched of life from the smog of the Production Quarter, and the ever-watchful eye of their heroes of the Luminary Society just can't pierce through the shadowed allies and tunnels their rival villains lurk in.

First up on the hit list is Squall, Dr Simon Gale, the oldest of the villains who looks a bit like an cantaloupe balancing on top of a bowling ball, or some hybrid of that guy from those Boom Beach ads that was a meme a few years back with classic Eggman or Doc Ock. They were bullied for their looks during their childhood (especially by one Benedict Bright who you'll see later) and would grow into a meteorologist and climatologist, top of their class. Unfortunately, they were cursed to became one of the first to realize the potential dangers of climate change back in like the 90's and nobody took their observations seriously, reminding them of their childhood torments. In a fit of rage, the used experimental equipment for inducing artificial rainfall to turn a light drizzle into a pounding storm, flooding Midnight Park and dawning the modern age of heroes and villains. Unfortunately, they're ego would only grow and they'd slowly begin to see themself as the arbiter of natures wraith and be blinded to the cruelty of their actions.

Next up is Tox, Dr Garrett Adams. Dr Adams wasn't anyone special, just some humble chemist working for Venture Chemicals Co in the Production Quarter. That all changed during Squall's storm though. The floodwaters caused the chemical vats to burst and spill, dissolving several workers alive whilst Garrett was stranded in the rafters above where they're body slowly absorbed the fumes. Their skin and fat began to melt off their muscle and bones as it turned to wax from chemical exposure, soaking in chemical fumes and radiation as Adams used what first aid supplies he had to stave off death. By the time the floodwaters receded, Him and the chemicals had become one, a congealed mass of atomic tallow and luminous green organs within in endless agony that warped his mind into nothing but an abyss of hate. hate. hate. hate.

Then is Everyman, Tomas Jackson. Jackson was some unremarkable middle-aged conservative man who believed in standing for what you think is right and a growing resentment for the government. That was, until, some random no-name crook broke into his house and stole a family heirloom, his grandmother's old necklace, at which point he attempted to follow shotgun in hand to get it back. When he couldn't and the police also failed to find it, he was filled with rage and vowed to take makers into his own hands. Doning a home-forged steel helmet, gloves, trenchcoat, and voice changer, they set off into the night with a shotgun, a dream, and a very black-and-white sense of morality. These days, many of his fellow hands-on right wingers have donned similar costumes and joined him in his secret lair, the Halls of Justice, to find, torture, and execute whoever they deem guilty.

Mister Bones, Benedict Bright, was a bully growing up, especially to a young Simon Gale. His parents own a large carnival boardwalk by the name of the Bright Time Mile in Founder's Bay. His father died when Benedict was in his twenties and gave him control over the park. This was not a good idea as Mr Bright thought that the fear on the faces of others was just the funniest thing ever and slowly but surely made the park more thrilling, more threatening, more terrifying so he could laugh at the helpless scared children. He got a degree in sociology so that he could be even better at scaring people until they lost their minds and had his engineers work on developing advanced animatronics capable of free motion and though. Eventually, the Bright Time Mile's fear factor was toned down significantly to attract new guests and Mr Benedict started to dress in a more fitting costume, red and black with skeletal bodypaint. However, soon after this refurbishment, reports started to come out. Of of man in a black and white pinstripe suit, skull-faced gasmask, wide brimmed hat, oversized blood-stained mallet, and a simple wand loaded with a radioactive isotope that would melt the flesh right off your bones, and this man would chase you down without relent or remorse laughing at your screams until you could scream no more or grew too brave, at which point they'd get bored and leave.

Amp, Ruby Neumann, was the daughter of a German immigrant and was a lover of all things adrenaline-pumping, especially hardbass music. When they reached adulthood, they attempted to start a band, Bloodboil, but it never got off the ground. After that, she became a audio engineer and pioneered some interesting techniques. During a job under Benedict Bright to try to create audio disks that hum at just the right frequency to cause hallucinations, the hero Technopath broke in and gave chase, causing the equipment to short out and drive several other workers deaf. She escaped but lost the research for the disks but came to realize something; being chased... is actually pretty fun. She crafted a custom sound-suit covered with speakers that sounded at a frequency that could shatter stone and a sonic blaster that would rupture flesh and became a mercenary for the various gangs of Midnight Park, serving under them for the ultimate thrill.

And last for the villains is Krake, Richard Steinman. you already know about them. A cosmetics surgeon and geneticist who helped transgender and non-binary people transition until they had an otherkin awakening themself and was hit by a gnawing, insatiable longing to be an octopus (or, rather, the BODY of an octopus, they already were one in mind) even though they knew that they could reach reach it until Squall's storm created Tox and Midas, neither of which can really be considered human anymore and gave poor Steinman hope that they can achive their heart's desire with enough equipment, chemicals, and test subjects and so set up a secret lab in the Midnight Park underground where they performed inhumane experiments attempting to crack the code of transformation, eventually managing to figure it out and partly turn themself into an octopus, the happiest day of their life, but now aware of the toil they've reaped on the innocent citizens of Midnight park, all the friends they've lost and traded for power-hungry gangsters who wanted power for cheap, and these days they cry themselves to sleep every night,

However, now, it's hero time.

First is co-founder of the Luminary Society, Silver Sentinel. Henry Steele was a car mechanic in Founder's Bay until getting a new job as an engineer for Benedict Bright at the Bright Time Mile designing animatronics. He did this for some time before slowly realizing that what Bright wants aren't just animatronic mascot characters, but androids, semi-aware fake people, and that just didn't sit right with them and so they left, turning back to their old work for a while before bumping into an Everyman recruiter who conviced them to serve under the forces of "Justice", taking a box of mechanical limbs from their old job and created a primitive suit of power armor to boost his strength. After about a month though, he realized that Everyman was just a butcher, killing any who he arbitrarily deemed "Guilty" and moving one actually without doing anything to make Midnight Park a better place and so, left them. He wondered guilty and aimless for some time before meeting Coldheart and founding the Luminary Society to atone for their past sins, establishing a strict code of honor to make up for it.

Of course, Next up is Coldheart. Emeline Eaton was a skier, the best in all Midnight Park in fact. She would ski down the slopes of Appalachia every winter preparing for the day she could enter into the Winter Olympics, her personal dream and everyone believed in her. One winter when she was setting off, a strange man in a hazmat suit approached her, not a single snowflake on their body preaching how fit she was. She listened, confused, until the figure proclaimed how much he DESPISED health as they took off their hood, revealing the vile molten features of Tox right before Emeline punch him right in the face in response, only for Tox to merely laugh as the chemical cocktail begain to make her flesh melt too arm-first. She fell on the ground and rolled down the slope, slamming right into a frozen lake. She awoke later that month after the thaw with bluish frostbite skin and discovered that no level of cold effect her anymore but if she were to ever rise above the freezing point, she'd begin to melt like Tox. She lived for a week sleeping in mall freezers and walking around with a sack of dry ice tied to her back before meeting Silver Sentinel, who rigged up a crude insulation suit to keep her cool and together they formed the Luminary Society.

Midas, Dr Gianni Agneas, was a quantum physicist specializing in using particle smashers and accelerators to transmutate old or synthesize new elements. He was working on an experimental device he named the Philosopher's Engine that could transmute any one substance into any other when Squall's storm hit, lightning striking the side of the lab and causing the machine to go haywire spouting particles and radiation until it exploded, knocking Gianni out in the process. When they awoke, Everything left in the ruins had been transmuted, including themself, they had been turned to a scintillating rainbow of elements such as lead, bismuth, and sulfur and whatever they touched would itself be transmuted into something different. After a few years as a medical oddity, they had learned to control their powers, being able to choose what they turned what into, joining the Luminary Society and turning enough trash into gold to allow them to buy an abandoned observation tower to turn into their headquarters, the Luminary Spire.

Technopath, Nathan Sutton, isn't from Midnight Park, he's not even from the east coast. Born in the state of California as the son of the tech billionaire Dell Sutton of Telekinetics Inc, Nathan never faced much hardship growing up and so spent most of their time reading comic books and watching movies. They were big fans of stories about cowboy and pirate vigilantes and secret spies infiltrating the lairs of megalomaniacal masterminds. After hearing of the Luminary Society following the purchase of the Luminary Spire and their growing awareness of their father's love of money over them, he underwent an experimental surgery to have Telekinetics Inc technology installed into his body, becoming a cyborg with built-in radios and electromagnets granting them powers like remote usage of electronics, telekinesis, and more before moving to Midnight Park and applying for the Society several times before getting approved as their youngest member. Silver Sentinel is something of an idol of theirs and they seem potential in the young cyborg and have taken them in as a pupil.

Nightshade, real name Sophia Burke, always preferred plants to people. Plants wouldn't bully you for being weird, plants would always listen to what you have to say, plants would never be "too busy" to pay attention to their child. As she grew, she got a degree in botany and toxicology whilst studying abroad. When she came back however, She discovered that her parents had been murdered. No matter how strained there relationship, she still valued their lives and so went out to try to find the killer, Using her knowledge to blend into the plantlife and apply subtle poisons to their enemies to render them inoperable. Eventually she found the culprit; Everyman, Her parents were corrupt it turns out and had been engaging with drug smuggling for the black market and he couldn't let that stand. Shaken to her core by that discovery but still wanting to put a stop to Everyman's crimes and not believe that they're strong enough, she joined the Luminary Society to train, though her willingness to kill give her a strained relationship with the rest of them.

And that's it. That's them, my boys!

The boys. They be back in town?

[elemit]

A Gift, A Curse

A story in which we discover just how damned an ascended vampire can be, and just how far you will go to save the spawn you loved.

Read in full on AO3

dead dove/not beta read

fic warnings: Abuse, Angst, Biting, Blood and Gore, Blood Drinking, Bondage, Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, Food Restriction, Hate Sex, Horror, Mental Coercion, Mind Control, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Sexual Coercion, Torture, Total Power Exchange, Trauma, Vampire Bites

Chapter 13: Justice

Now that your mind is clear enough from the hunger to engage in more complex conversations, your husband delights in telling you of the cases he is presiding over. Every day that he works, he will regale you with stories when you sit down for dinner; you to your glasses of wine and blood, and he to his meal. You wonder if it’s a coincidence that the food he is served is so often the meals that you once told him were your favourite. You decide it’s better not to know.

Today he is delighting over a gnome he sentenced harshly for stealing. “The beggar brought his family to the courthouse as if his squalling pups would make me go easier on him. Can you imagine? Trying to manipulate me with such crude tactics? So naturally I gave him the longest sentence possible. And then,” he adds with glee, “his wife made such a racket that I had her arrested for disturbing the proceedings! They were both dragged off to prison together!” He lets out a cruel laugh.

“What happened to the children?” you ask, keeping your voice as neutral as you can.

“What? Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure they scuttled off back to whatever hole they nest in. They're only gnomes. Anyway,” he says, raising his glass, “here’s to justice. Drink up, darling.”

There’s something about the glint in his eye when he says that last sentence that sends a terrible stab of suspicion through your chest. A question burns on your lips. You’ve asked it before with little success, but now you are determined to know the truth of it.

“Where did this blood come from, Astarion?”

He says nothing, only smiles at you. When you put your cup down and push it away from you he rolls his eyes.

“You told me it came from willing sources.”

“It does, my dear. Most willing. It’s amazing what people will do to commute their sentence of imprisonment.”

“And the Flaming Fist just allow you to waltz into Wyrms Rock prison and bleed their prisoners dry?”

“Wyrms Rock? Dear me, no, my love. The New Watch imprisons criminals right here. After all, we’re blessed with a newly emptied dungeon fit to hold thousands.”

A newly emptied dungeon. What a pleasant way of putting it. Just a clear-out. Just a clean-up. Not the damnation of seven thousand souls. You’re speaking before your brain catches up with your mouth.

“Do you ever think that killing all those people might have changed you?”

“Of course it changed me, you sweet, silly thing. Killing them allowed me to ascend.”

“You used to be kinder. More gentle.”

“I used to be weak.”

“You used to be good.”

“And now I am great. Besides, you’ve got far more blood on your pretty little hands than I do, my love.” His voice grows colder. “How convenient that you forget your own bloody past when you throw these accusations at me. I am a veritable paladin of virtue compared to you, you godless murderspawn.”

The viciousness of his voice makes you flinch. That's not fair, you want to say, but you can't bring yourself to utter the words because a part of you sees the truth in what he says. All of his cruelty is nothing when compared to the destruction your past self wreaked upon the world. He seems to see the conflict on your face - he is so good at seeing your weaknesses now - and he pounces on it.

“Your ungratefulness astounds me, my pretty little love. You have no idea how worthless you would be without me, do you? Do you think anyone else would want such a useless, broken wretch as yourself? Cast out by your own father, rejected by your chosen god. The weight of the sins you carry should force you to your knees every day in penance. To the world, you are less than worthless. And yet I chose you. I, the greatest vampire who ever lived. And through my love I allow you to share in my majesty, and still you do not thank me. You should kiss the very ground I walk on. You should pray to me every night. But you do not. You dare question me, your husband, your master, your god. My patience with you is proof enough, I think, that I am still kind. I am still gentle. Trust me, pet, you do not want to see what happens when that patience runs out." He pauses and cocks his head to the side, considering. When he continues, his voice is lower, quieter, slower. Deadly. "Or perhaps you do, hmm? You have always liked it when I exert my power over you, haven't you, darling? Back when your heart still beat it would betray your excitement, and now… you might tell me you don't like it, but your actions betray your true desires, don't they? Your actions beg me to discipline you. To punish you. To break you."

You let out the small hum of fear that is the closest you can get to saying 'no' since he took the word from you.

He rises from his seat at the head of the table and walks over to you, pulling your chair out for you.

“I’d go and get some rest, my treasure,” he says to you. “I’m going to need you at your best tomorrow.”

You follow his suggestion, but you already know that the dreadful apprehension curling in your gut will keep you awake tonight.

[jacksonleavesthe0nly138472]

All my enemies are roaches and I must eat them

POV: Stanford pines

Today Staley is out all day trying to get some babe’s, that means I’m all by myself on the boat which is great because I have something that even Stanley doesn’t know about, GOD if Stanley finds out I won’t know what do with my self. To most people it’s disgusting but to me it’s the most wonderful thing in the world, even the thought of it makes me squall with excellent.

You see I’m a bit of collector what am I collecting, I ask in my head well roaches of course every stop we go to I collect the roaches, all round the world we had been. Of course I kill roaches when I put them in my big old box, I’m not a monster you see. Stan would ask me sometimes what the box was for, I would laugh and say a lot of scientific papers, Stanley would always buy it. Which always did me feel very guilty but I know he would never understand, none would.

Funny thing I actually hate roaches but why would you collect them if you hate them soooo much, I would usually hear a voice in my head say. Well after weirdmageddon I started imaging bill and his henchman as roaches, I mean, I had to go for the head so Stanley could beat him. The roaches are a reminder of the torture I had to go throw when I was with bill, I wanted to kill him so badly, I tried to kill him so many times he would always, just keep living no matter how hard I tried. I know it’s inhumane to just kill roaches who didn’t do anything wrong, but it makes me have less painful panic attacks, Stanley would try and comfort me when I was having a panic attack, but he isn’t the best at comforting me.

As I was hugging the box a terrifying idea came to mind, what if I just ate the cockroaches I mean it’s just a waste if I don’t. Suddenly I opened the box and grabbed with my six Fingers, a hand full of roaches and than stuffed them in my mouth, a couple go on the floor. Don’t know what I was expecting but it tasted disgusting, I wanted to vomit so terribly but I didn’t, I kept eating until none was in my mouth. Putting the ones on the floor back into the box, than I realised how utterly unnecessary that was, I didn’t even wash them or cook them image how many diseases here could be on here.Suddenly I felt powerful now, felt like I could do anything now, I know this odd but I wanted to keep eating them, of course next time I would have clean and cook them.

Putting the box under the bed where I would usually put.Finally Stanley came back I acted like nothing happened, I asked him how was his day he said it was alright, than he asked me what was I doing when he was away. I simply said trying to catch new fish to write in my journal, he told me that he would be away for the day again but tomorrow we will be sailing again. This is really a bad thing to think but I got kind of excited at the thought he would be away, and I would be able to eat my roaches again. Looking at me all worried just to ease him I told him, that I was just excited to do “nerd stuff” he looked at me again liked he understood.

The day was finally here, I said my goodbyes to Stanley as he walked away out of sight I ran as fast as I can to the bedroom, got the box under my bed to the kitchen. And started to wash the roaches than got the pan put oil in it, turned the stove on lighted the match going to wait a while so the oil can spread out. Now thinking about how am I going to do this, than an idea popped in my head what if I made a roach sandwich, it was a brilliant idea, got the pot with water on. Putting two normal sized roaches in here to boil, than got out two big roaches and put them on the pan. When the roaches where done I got a plate and putting the roaches which were as big as a average woman’s hand, to the plate, than I got the two average sized roaches on the plate as well. Made the big roaches the bead and the other roaches where in the middle.

I'm not finished but hope you like this disgusting fanfic, also I wrote this when I was thinking about eating roaches, yesss I know I'm weird