#trying to assimilate anyone and anything into itself

[rainbowangel110]

Oh yea the recent Infection Au that's taken everyone by storm, that.

waoh

just got so grossed out that it ripped me out of the dread

godayum that was nasty

[ghostfacesvalentine]

Comfort - Bruce Wayne x Fem!reader

Pairing: Battinson x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Slight angst, not really, sad reader.

Type: Blurb

Request: N/A

Word Count: N/A

Prompt: Bruce kind of comforting reader after having a mood drop lol

Notes: I can’t really sleep, I’ve been having the same mood drops I thought I was over, so I just wrote this to cheer me up. If you struggle with the same thing, I hear you, here’s a little battison to hug you.

For years it seemed like it wasn’t going to get better. To say you didn’t know how to navigate through your feelings was an understatement. You weren’t really sure what was happening, or what made you feel the way you did. 

Even on the best days, sometimes these mood drops were unpredictable. Suddenly the world starts to slow down and you felt like you’re just there. 

It felt like it wasn’t a big deal, it was something you always experienced and you tended to deal with it by isolating yourself until you felt good enough to go back out. The last thing you wanted was to plague anyone with some kind of silly feelings that would go just as they came.

Though you felt crazy to assimilate your relationship this way, it seemed like that’s why you and Bruce got along so well. It wasn’t far fetched to wonder if he felt the same way. As your relationship developed with him, spending the night became religious. You were almost a stranger to your own apartment, finding warmth and safety in his bruised arms. 

Tonight, you had the same feeling crawling into you. A bitter sting tainted your veins, spreading quickly throughout your body. It seemed like over the years your body would just succumb to the sentiment. The unease caused you to shoot up from the familiar black sheets. 

Bruce was hardly a heavy sleeper, but you didn’t blame him for being a stone after the day of living a double life today. Some days it really did catch up to him, board meetings by day, beating bad guys by night. 

You had the luxury of choosing the room you wanted to hide in tonight, usually it was the study. It was warm and comforting, the hug you needed tonight. 

The room was dimly lit, scattered papers and book decorated the shelves and the fair sized desk. You crawled into the massive chair that hid behind the computer, bringing your legs up to your chest, layering a blanket over your body. 

For one reason or another, this always seemed to be a habit of yours. If you couldn’t run away from your feelings or confront them, your mind tricked you into just going to another room. Almost as if that would solve the issue, but deep down you knew it didn’t, however it seemed like your mind didn’t know any better, did it?

Bitter thoughts galloped through you, the same feeling of defeat in hand with your despair. You loved Bruce, more than anything, but because of this you told yourself you could handle this on your own.

You hated hiding from him, hiding anything from him. All it took was his eyes meeting yours, he could get anything out of you. Looking away from him was always a dead giveaway. Your hands rubbed your arms, crossing themselves in hopes of tricking yourself that you were being hugged by anyone other than yourself. Sometimes, the feeling would just push your chest downward, almost like you were completely giving up.

A thick hand appeared on your knee, your eyes followed it back to Bruce, then looking down in shame. “I can’t sleep.” You half admitted as if he was determined to get a response as to why you disappeared from him.

Again, it was useless to try to hide anything from him, it was his literal job to put clues together. However, there was a silence that felt easy, maybe it was the way he looked at you. Without any fine lines across his brows, instead almost a pout of worry. His hand never gripping you, instead offering itself to you as a sincere gesture. After spending so much time with him, it was only a matter of time to learn a few skills from him, to study him.

You lightly rubbed your bottom lip between your teeth, pursing you lip in hopes of alleviating any lingering discomfort. Your eyes couldn’t find where to look anymore, until you felt Bruces’ arms reach down to cradle your figure.

Still unwilling to look him in the eye, you looked down to your thighs as the blanket draped itself down to the carpet floor. Feeling the softest kiss on the side of your head, you closed your eyes.

“It’s not your fault this happens sweetheart.”

He murmured into your face. His voice still sleepy yet so full of patience and warmth. Did he know? Of course he knew.

Your eyes turned to anywhere but him as he walked you back over to his inviting bed, with a messy comforter as evidence of a safe and warm place to rest. He didn’t say anything else, he didn’t need to.

His fingertips rubbed against your skin in an assuring manner. You didn’t know if you wanted to cry or just go back to bed, your eyebrows knit together in frustration with yourself.

“You mean the world to me Y/N. And it pains me to see you run and hide from me.”

There was a long pause, still being held in front of the bed, you looked down to your hands, feeling the droplets coat your cheeks. Trying not to make a sound, you tucked your lips into yourself, your eyes squeezing shut in the process as the whimpering slowly approached.

“If you need time to yourself, that’s fine, but please don’t run away.” Bruce almost begged as he slowly placed you down on the edge of the bed. Your head dropped down in defeat.

“Baby.”

You flickered your lids before looking up to him, you’ve never seen him with such concern and compassion in his eyes, all across his face. He looked like he would do anything for you right then and there. Nodding, you rubbed the back of your hand across your cheeks quickly.

“I love you, okay? Let that be clear. No matter what you’re feeling or what you’re dealing with.” Bruce’s’ hand cradled the back of your head, he slowly pulled it towards him, pressing his lips against your forehead. He stood there for a moment, closing his eyes in a silly attempt to take the sadness away.

“I love you too.” You whispered just enough for him to hear. His fingertips rubbing against your locks felt like the best way to be comforted. You couldn’t imagine a safer, most loving manner to be told you were loved and cared for.

[dokidokitsuna]

I came up with the idea to add these two to the AU a long time ago, but I initially thought they’d just distract from the dark tone. It wasn’t until recently that I (a) came up with these too-cute-to-not-use designs and (b) figured out a way for them to add to the Master Crown’s story despite it all.

In general, within this AU, Dark Matter are considered ‘inferior life forms’, basically giant space bugs that get in your way sometimes. ^^; Like dark matter IRL, they seem to simply exist out of sight, filling in the spaces between the realms that no one cares about. They can’t really compete with the big dimension-conquering supervillains, and they don’t try to.

Despite that, they’re probably due a little more respect. I mean, you might think of yourself as superior to a bug, but meanwhile the bug doesn’t even care that you exist, and its kind will probably still be around long after yours is gone. That’s the worldview the Dark Matter are working from, pretty much. ^^

GONE.Dark Matter Swordsman

I have a bad habit of drawing Swordsman designs without the swords…whatever; you’ll see it later. ;]

Anyway, this Swordsman is the MC’s primary henchman, being the most combat-ready specimen it managed to capture during its conquest. Over time, it’s been molded into a powerful mage in its own right, and with a Dark Matter’s regenerative ability, essentially unlimited lifespan, and (seemingly…) low intelligence, it makes a perfect subordinate.

In reality, though, it’s just a good actor. ^^ It’s not a secret genius or anything, but it knows enough not to show all its cards while it’s learning spells and gathering information for its true master. Besides that, it tries to keep a smile on its face to serve as a source of hope for its little partner. It doesn’t mind taking all the Master Crown’s abuse and pretending to be a happy slave if it’ll give Gooey one less thing to be sad about.

GONE.Gooey

A mere “appendage”, as far as the Master Crown knows. It doesn’t seem to do anything but stay near Swordsman and follow it around.

In reality, Gooey is actually Swordsman’s boss, in a way. It relays messages from their true master, including its initial order to pretend to be captured and stay with the Master Crown for observation.

Its canon-based origin as a Dark Matter-esque thing that used to goof around in Dream Land is still in play here-- unfortunately, that was eons ago, and now it is one of the only beings still in existence that can even remember Pop Star…as well as the planet’s slow death at the hands of the Master Crown. So it decided to re-assimilate itself into the Dark Matter collective in order for a shot at revenge, no matter how long it might have to wait.

++

In terms of the narrative, this duo’s just here to serve as one additional thing to help send the MC over the edge. :9 The revelation that it doesn’t actually control them and never did would definitely shake its faith in its own abilities much further, and I imagine Gooey would have some choice words for it before they finally leave it behind~.

Additionally, and most humiliatingly…they are actually a match for the MC in power. ^^;;; Partly due to all the time Swordsman spent learning from it, and partly because Dark Matter have much more latent potential than anyone realizes (i.e. everyone else is LUCKY they aren’t interested in conquering dimensions).

So yeah, imagine you’re already going through a rough time mentally, start suspecting that even your pet bugs might be acting against you…and they reply “oops, looks like you caught us” and then rise up and beat you within an inch of your life. So then your rivals can laugh at you for getting wrecked by a couple of insects. Not fun. XD

[the-era-of-shadow]

Letting You Go

Written by Ash Rose

Summary:

It’s official, Sally Acorn and the rest of the Acorn family have officially severed all ties with the Starlight City Militia, letting them go from the Mobotropolis Militia Organization. They don’t mind it, however, as they already saw themselves as separate from the Freedom Fighters and the other militias, and as a matter of fact, the day they got this information perfectly lined up with the day that they would make that more clear than ever before.

THIS STORY CONTAINS: Swearing, mention of death

Author's Note: Whoops - another impulse write! This should be the last impulse fic for this arc though - everything else I wanna convey that's not in already planned fics should end up in video form lol (Check out our YT - HomeSweetHive) Also this references multiple things, even non-fic stuff. ,,, Even stuff that isn't out yet ~ :cheeky:

The past two weeks had been relatively, surprisingly, calm for most of the Freedom Fighters - excluding the news of Vanilla’s condition. But for Sally and Nicole, things have been rather… hectic, to say the least. 

After the day that the search for the fate of Project Midnight had occurred, Sally had made it a point to herself to not only not allow themself to ever be fooled by the Black Arms again, but to try to do everything in her power to save others from their web of lies as well. With this mission ingrained into her, she set their sights on the town of Starlight City as her target for saving, given the fact that the Black Arms had been stationed there for several years without anyone having known. Or more accurately, anyone who did know was then subsequently assimilated into their hive or killed.

Sally had no way of knowing for certain who in Starlight City could be salvaged and who were too far wrapped in the Black Arms’ control, but she did manage to gather some information on important figures in the city that made it clear just how dire the situation was. The town’s mayor, Archie Tortis, was seemingly not assimilated in any sort of way, thankfully, but that didn’t make things any easier in terms of getting him to see the rampant corruption in his town. When Sally first talked to him, they immediately came to realize that all Archie cared about was himself and his own profit, and that if the situation didn’t affect him, then he has no reason in his mind to do anything about it. Besides, when Sally was talking to him, she began to suspect that a certain darkling had already turned him against her with just the leverage they had over him from having run such a successful clinic that had been quite the sell for anyone hoping to visit Starlight City.

As much as a part of her wanted to, Sally tried their best to not blame herself for the meeting with Archie going wrong. She had everything planned from the very beginning. In order to hopefully separate the salvageable from the too-far-gone in the most timely fashion as possible, Sally had planned to arrange a mandatory evacuation from the town. Her reasoning within the meeting itself going in was a vague ‘health risk’, but if the plan had gone to fruition, she had every intention of being very clear with the public of the Black Arms’ return and their immediate risk to the public - a complete 180 from how G.U.N had handled things during the Shattered World Crisis. But things hadn’t gone according to plan in the slightest. Archie had turned down every suggestion Sally gave, arguing that she had no jurisdiction over Starlight City despite being a Freedom Fighter because at the end of the day, she was still the princess of Mobotropolis, and Starlight City was in the United Federation. 

“The United Federation has made no such statements, thus there is no need for such drastic actions.”

While Sally had to admit that Archie had been correct in that, it was still deeply infuriating to see him completely disregard the safety of the people he was supposed to serve. 

So Sally didn’t give up just yet.

Just a few days after the meeting she had had with Archie, they, with the help of Nicole and her brother Elias, put out an evacuation notice of their own.

In some ways it had been effective, but in other ways, it had been a complete failure. Thanks to Nicole’s strength and advanced artificial intelligence, she was able to keep it up for twelve whole hours - a significant amount of time, technically, and yet it wasn’t even a whole day. Sally had been just as direct as she had always planned on being with the details of the notice, and that had come as both a blessing and a curse. Many people did believe the notice, but the vast majority of those many were people who lived outside of Starlight City. Sure, this prevented many potential visits to the town that would have made for a major risk if they had occurred, but it didn’t do much for those that were still in the town. Some of them did leave, but most didn’t. Sally saw some people they had verified to be in Starlight City saying online that the explanation given for the evacuation notice sounded very ‘unbelievable’ to them, but she had no idea if that opinion was influenced by the Black Arms in any way, or if she truly had just been too heavy handed. Then, of course, the notice was taken off of the air, bringing an end to the whole thing. In the end, Sally tried to take the small victories in stride, and decided that instead of continuing to try to drag people out of Starlight City, she would continue down the path of doing all she could to keep people from going into the town.

But before she could do that, they had to sort things out with the few former Starlight City citizens that did listen to the evacuation notice. Prior to the notice going out, Sally and Elias had arranged some new homes in Mobotropolis for the evacuated people to move into, so that was of no concern. Rather, the problem that Sally had to solve was that of making sure that they prevent the exposure that those evacuated people did have to the Black Arms in Starlight City from sprouting into full blown assimilation. After having done research on the topic, Sally discovered that G.U.N were very likely in possession of an anti-assimilation serum that had been made by Professor Gerald Robotnik back in the Space Colony ARK days. So of course, they tried to reach out to them to possibly get some of that to give to not just the evacuated, but possibly to Vanilla as well. 

She was denied.

Sally ended up beating herself up over the denial for a good few days, as the reason G.U.N gave for it was, technically, their own fault. G.U.N did indeed know about Sally and Nicole hacking into their private databases during the Project Midnight investigation, and it seemed that they intended on holding a grudge against not just Sally, but against the Freedom Fighters as a whole over it. She was at a complete loss as to what to do. 

But after those few days had passed, Sally had gotten a call from Elias that ended up giving her some relief. He had told her that he had apparently been contacted by a G.U.N agent that was less than thrilled with how they were handling things. While at that point it was all just talk, Elias and the G.U.N agent did have plans to sneak some vials of the serum, which Sally was absolutely overjoyed to hear. Unfortunately, it seemed that Vanilla was too far gone for the serum to do anything for her by this point, but at least they’d be helpful for the evacuated citizens of Starlight City.

With that taken care of, all Sally had to worry about now was kickstarting the route of keeping people out of Starlight City - and she knew exactly what the first step had to be.

At the beginning of the month, just a few days after the Freedom Trainees, Amy, Sonic and Knuckles had fought the Black Arms in Starlight City, Whisper had ran into the leader of Starlight City’s Militia, Gear. The encounter was less than pleasant by what Whisper had told Sally. In fact, Whisper had told Sally and the other Freedom Fighters that she suspected Gear, and the rest of the Starlight City Militia, had been assimilated by the Black Arms - or at least had decided to side with the person they knew as ‘Doctor Ezrieal Clysdale’ over the Freedom Fighters. Surely enough, Whisper’s suspicions had been confirmed just a few days later, as during a public relations AMA that the Clysdale Clinic had held, Gear and a fellow militia member named Nitro came to their defense and apparently outright confirmed their loyalty to the Black Arms. With that confirmation, Sally had all the evidence she needed to show her brother and parents to convince them to discharge the Starlight City Militia from being a part of the greater Mobotropolis Militia Organization, and last night the four of them had come to a unanimous vote to let them go. Sally would be giving them the news today.

—

Somewhere in Starlight City, there’s a small little studio apartment that on this morning is making a good bit more of a ruckus than usual. The two tenants that call this apartment home are Gear Summer and her boyfriend Gizmo Springs, both only eighteen years old - though Gizmo will become nineteen in December. The reason why they’re able to afford to live in an apartment on their own while being still quite young is due to the success and prestige that both of their jobs give them. Gizmo works as an independent robotics engineer, his brand of electronics being seen by the Starlight City community and even a bit beyond as a more local and at times more affordable alternative to the world-renowned ‘Twin-Tail Electronics’ brand started by the Freedom Fighters’ very own Tails Prower. Gear, on the other hand, is the leader of the Starlight City Militia, and while that in of itself doesn’t pay a whole lot - it does make her quite beloved by the community, to the point where people often give her discounts on things or give her tips for her service. 

It is because of Gear’s job that the apartment is particularly noisy today - with it being occupied by not just Gear and Gizmo, but also by the other six members of the militia. Today is a very special day for the militia, though Gear did not tell Gizmo why exactly it is, and to celebrate, Gear has the entire militia over for breakfast before they depart for the special activity that they have awaiting them. By now, most of the militia members were seated at their chairs at the table, but Gear, along with the militia’s co-leader, the somewhat older and wiser twenty-one year old Nitro Blast, are still at the kitchen counter preparing the food. Gizmo is helping a bit as well, but there’s only so much he can do with their limited cooking ability. Gear’s just happy she’s here.

After a few more minutes of cooking, the food for all eight of them in total, including Gizmo, was ready. Luckily for her in terms of workload for the morning, all of the militia’s wisps were already with Doctor Clysdale, having spent the night with them, so Gear didn’t have to worry about making food for all nine of them as well. Nitro went to sit down at his chair and Gizmo went to the fridge to get out the two-liter of ginger ale bought specifically for this occasion while Gear grabbed each plate of food and set them on the table one by one.

The first plate Gear set down belonged to twenty year old Alice Wolfe, the militia’s one and only melee fighter. They much preferred to fight up close with punches and kicks rather than shoot from afar, that much reflected in the design of their gray quake wispons - being a set of gloves and boots that amplified these abilities while also being very sharp, leaning into her surname and also giving them the ability to climb walls.

“Aw hell yeah! This looks incredible!!” They excitedly said to Gear.

The second plate that Gear set down belonged to twenty, very soon to be twenty-one, year old Giselle Graves, the militia’s gothic bomber. While most of the militia’s members already do attack from a distance, Giselle is always at the very rear of the troupe, firing her black bomb wispon across the entire battlefield in order to have its explosives at the very least leave a scar on each and every one of their enemies - and doing it all while they’re dressed up in the finest gothic lolita dresses. Her more violent approach was not very appreciated within the original militia that Giselle had been in during the Phantom Ruby War, but in the Starlight City Militia, it was very much welcomed.

“I have to agree with Alice! I can’t wait to take my first bite!!” She stated.

The third plate that Gear set down belonged to nineteen year old Macy Carroll, part of the airborne attack force of the militia alongside Nitro, and also the current newest member of the Starlight City Militia. Despite having not fought in the Phantom Ruby War, Macy is quite good at her job - both as a fighter with locking onto targets with his indigo asteroid wispon and as a chopper pilot, having learned a lot from her older sister who had fought in the war as a part of a nearby town’s militia and then had retired. The Starlight City Militia members, including Macy, liked to joke about how that other town’s militia had deeply underestimated Macy when they turned him away.

“Thanks so much for the food, Gear!” She beamed.

The fourth plate that Gear set down was Nitro’s. As stated previously, Nitro is the militia’s co-leader and the second half of its airborne attack force with his orange rocket wispon. Having been childhood friends with Gear, he was right by her side when she started the militia, having the experience to back up Gear’s ambitions. Being the oldest of the militia members, Nitro carries with him a sort of ‘big brother’ energy that can instantly motivate and/or comfort any of the other members when he’s by their side.

“Remember everyone, this meal is only the beginning of this very important day ahead of us.” Nitro said to everyone.

The fifth and sixth plates that Gear set down belonged to eighteen year old twins Oliver and Olivia Pines, the militia’s support. Just a few months older than Gear, the two are both just as bold and ambitious as she is, and even more energetic! They put that energy to good use on the battlefield, either running circles around the bad guys to confuse them with the speed of their white boost wispons taking the form of roller skates, or hopping around the battlefield taking on the roles of their fellow militia members with their wispons shifted into whatever is needed by the other members’ wisps when those members are knocked down.

“Hell yeah!! Today’s gonna be great!!” Oliver cheered.

“You’re damn right it is, bro!” Olivia added.

Lastly, Gear set down Gizmo’s plate and then her own on the table. But she did not sit down - not yet.

“Hello everyone! Thank you so much for coming here on this fine October morning!” Gear greeted everyone else in the apartment. They all greeted her back and cheered. “As Nitro said, this meal is just the start to this wonderful day - but I would like to call attention to it, if you’ll allow me to indulge myself a bit here. The recipe is my own, made by me while I was fucking around in the kitchen one morning back in May. It’s an everything bagel breakfast sandwich with oven roasted bacon, a white cheddar cheese omelet seasoned with salt and pepper, and a sauce on the top and bottom of the sandwich made from whipped cream cheese and maple syrup!” Gear continued, feeling very proud of herself.

“Ohhhh that sounds bitchin!!” Alice exclaimed.

“Thank you!” Gear replied. “And I’ll let you guys eat in just a moment, but first, I’d like to take the time to honor the man who sacrificed his life in exchange for ours,” She said as she picked up her glass of ginger ale and looked towards a ninth chair set at the table, it and the glass placed in front of it being completely empty, and the plate next to the empty glass only having a slip of paper on it that read ‘Norman Elbourne’. “Norm, you were just as much of a valiant fighter as the rest of us, being willing to tackle any challenge that life threw at you both in and out of the battlefield, and you were plenty curious as well, always wanting to know more about the world and people around you. While these traits of yours were very helpful to us all, they also were what would eventually bring you to your doom. But even in your death, you paved the way to a massive and wonderful opportunity for all of us. So on this day that such an opportunity will be at last fulfilled, we will all raise a toast to you, and hope that we may one day meet you again in another life.”

Everyone raised their glasses, some more enthusiastically than others. Gizmo raised his glass with hesitance, some of what Gear was saying going over their head. Nitro raised his glass with more force than anyone else, allowing his quiet and calculated persona to slip for a moment as he took a moment to shed some tears in honor of his late cousin. 

Once they did, and prepared to begin eating, a ringing sound echoed through the apartment.

“Hey, ain’t that your electronic communicator? Maybe you should go pick that up.” Gizmo pointed out to Gear.

“Huh. You’re right, it is!” Gear responded, fetching her communicator from on her bed. Opening the communicator up, Gear saw that the ringing sound was coming from a call from Sally Acorn. Gear answered the call despite her annoyance at the princess’ timing.

“Hello? Is there an emergency? Because if not, we’re rather busy at the moment.” Gear began, letting her annoyance seep into her tone.

“No, there isn’t. I’m calling you to let you know that my family and I have decided to let you guys go.” Sally told her very bluntly.

“Eh? Whaddya mean by that?” Gear asked.

“I mean that you guys aren’t considered part of the Mobotropolis Militia Organization anymore.” Sally explained.

“What? Why? What did they do wrong to deserve that?” Gizmo suddenly came to the defense, Gear being able to hear the rage in Gizmo’s voice.

“Treason.” Sally replied. “Good day, farewell.” The call ended.

“Wh-WHAT?? There’s no way that’s true!!” Gizmo yelled, which took Gear aback a bit. “Hey, do you need a moment?? Gear, any of you?? I know that had to be a shock-”

“Not really.” Gear replied, surprising Gizmo.

“Wait, really?” Gizmo inquired.

“Yeah!” Gear insisted.

“... I know I have a pretty good job, but that still leaves you, all of you, without work!” Gizmo pointed out.

“Not exactly.” Nitro retorted. “You see, the special thing happening today is that we’re going to become official employees of the Clysdale Clinic.” Nitro was technically leaving out some details in that explanation, but Gear knew that those details were best left unknown by Gizmo for now.

“Huh,” Gizmo uttered, instantly calming down. “Wait, what does that have to do with Norm?”

“You’ll understand that in due time, Giz. ~” Gear responded, giving Gizmo a kiss on the cheek.

—

Once things were dealt with in terms of the militia’s sudden termination from the MMO, they finally got to eat the food that had been served to them - and they certainly enjoyed being able to do so. Gear got many compliments on the food by the other militia members, which made her feel quite nice. While Nitro had advised Gear to focus on eating, she couldn’t help but want to share the news of the militia’s termination with Doctor Clysdale, and so she did, texting about it with them. They were both rather surprised, but also not at all. The two of them pretty much agreed on just saying ‘who cares about them’ about it and to laugh.

“Well, since you’re texting them, why don’t you ask the doc if they need us there at any specific time?” Nitro suggested to Gear with a bit of a teasing tone.

“Good idea!” Gear exclaimed, sending Doctor Clysdale a text asking about that.

After a few minutes, they responded.

“Oh no, not at all! Take all the time you all need! I made sure my entire day today was cleared out for you guys! ~ EC” 

Suddenly, a new ringing sound played out, this one coming from Macy’s phone. When she flipped it open, he looked at it with a confused expression - which Gear noticed.

“You can step out onto the balcony to take the call if you need!” Gear said to her.

“Oh, okay!” Macy replied, doing as he was told.

Once Macy was on the balcony, Gear got up and approached the balcony as well, curious as to who exactly was calling Macy that would cause him to be suspicious of them.

“Hello? Why are you calling me? Wasn’t I fired like the rest of the militia?” Sally? That’s what Macy’s words seemed to imply. Gear got closer. “You… want to keep me in the Mobotropolis Militia Organization and send me to another team?” Gear jumped with fright. What if Macy took her up on that offer? She already knows too much about the goings-on of the Starlight City Militia to just be able to leave like that! But if anything were to happen to him, it would look super suspicious! Gear tried to calm herself down and wait to see how Macy would respond. “I appreciate the offer, but I’ve decided long ago that I’m loyal to the Starlight City Militia until the very end!” Gear sighed in immense relief, going so far as to slide down the wall behind her and sit on the floor. As Macy left the balcony, she noticed Gear sitting there and helped her up.

“I appreciate your loyalty, ya know?” Gear said to him.

“Of course!” Macy replied.

—

Soon after that had occurred, everyone had finished their meals and were getting ready to go, everyone except for Gizmo, who was staying at the apartment.

“Do you mind washing the dishes, or do you want me to do that before we go?” Gear asked him.

“Oh no, I don’t mind at all. You did most of the cooking, after all.” Gizmo responded.

“Oh, goodie!” Gear exclaimed, leaving the kitchen area to get her bag packed.

“By the way, when will you be coming back?” Gizmo asked, stopping Gear in her tracks.

“Sometime tomorrow, probably.” Gear answered.

“You’re staying the night with them?? Aren’t they in a hotel room right now?” Gizmo questioned. Gear had practically forgotten all about that lie of theirs, to be honest.

“Oh! Trust me, it’s a lot more spacious than you’d think.” Gear said, hoping it’d be a sufficient excuse. Gizmo bought it and started to clean the dishes that were used for breakfast.

“Alright everyone, time to head out! Macy, you go first and get the chopper!” Gear commanded.

“Ooo, fast travel! ~” Gizmo remarked, making Gear giggle.

“Fast travel.” Nitro repeated with a nod.

In just a minute or so, Macy was back at the apartment building with the helicopter, and called Gear to send everyone else to the roof of the apartment where she had parked it. Gear complied and she along with the rest of the militia filed out of the apartment and headed to the chopper.

As the helicopter began to take off, Gear decided to see what view of the sky she could get from where she was seated rather than look down at the ground, excited for the new route life would take her and her friends. Soon enough, she was able to see past the clouds and catch a glimpse at the massive flying temple that the helicopter was heading towards.

"Ya know, staring at this blue sky… it almost seems like I've seen it before. Especially from afar like this." Gear commented at one point.

"Gear. It's the fucking sky. Of course you've seen it before. You live on this damn planet with the rest of us!" Giselle responded playfully.

"... Oh yeah! I guess you're right!" Gear remarked. Everyone, including Gear and Giselle, laughed at the short conversation.

And then, just like that, the temple was below them rather than above, and that’s when Macy began to land.

Just right outside where they hand landed the helicopter were two people. One of them stood still as they noticed the chopper, while the other darted off to one of the enclosed areas of the temple.

“Hey Doctor Clysdale!” Gear called out as she hopped out of the chopper.

“Gear, you should know by now that in spaces like these, you can just call me Eclipse.” 

“Oh, right, sorry!”

“Hey, was that Shadow I saw just now?” Alice asked Eclipse.

“... Not quite.” Eclipse sheepishly answered. “I’ll explain in a moment.”

“Suppose we have to get to the lab first?” Nitro surmised.

“Correct!” Eclipse exclaimed. “Right this way!” They commanded, the Starlight City Militia members diligently following from behind.

At long last, their loyalty to the Black Arms will be truly cemented, for after some considerable delay, their physical assimilations at last awaited them.

[holding-monsters-hands]

Could I request Scout and S/O who listens to industrial? Mainly Skinny Puppy, bro I love the songs Assimilate, Chainsaw or First Aid 😭

YES LMAO

Scout with an s/o that listens to industrial music

He thinks you’re the coolest person on the team, hands down.

the music itself may catch him off guard at first, especially because his own taste in music is quite different.

But he’s in no way judging your taste! he thinks it makes you all the more cool!

However this does mean he’s gonna try SO hard to appeal to you as this cool, bad-ass tough guy, he’s a glutton for your approval.

He’ll also really want to get into industrial as well! You may want to gently introduce him into it, but he’ll convince you that he can handle anything you throw at him!

He is such a cheeseball and will 100% save some of his money to buy you albums, vinyls, any merchandise he can get his hands on.. all to surprise you! he just loves seeing how excited you get over this stuff, it just makes him all warm and fuzzy inside- y’know?

If anyone else even TRIES to shit on your playlist he pulls his bat out so quick, anyone would assume that this person just insulted his mom just from how visibly angry and defensive he gets.

If you two share a room it’s half covered in tom jones and baseball posters/merchandise, and then your half is literally a ton of posters of skinny puppy and other industrial bands you enjoy, it’s quite cute and comical just how drastically different the two sides are.

[kawaiimunism]

@timberlakefan96 Making a new post because I want to continue this convo, but we're getting a bit off topic and I don't want to clog up OP's notes haha

“voting Democrat is not a meaningful path to liberation.” It is, tho. Not as a general rule, granted, but in this specific case, where your choices are to vote liberal or vote for people who want to kill you, yeah, the path is pretty clear. And I’m not saying Kamala IS the liberator, but it’s going to be awful hard to fight when we’re being exterminated. There’s actually a really clear analogue to this: Obama was extremely mealy-mouthed about gay marriage both before and during his presidency, but we still got it, in a way that we definitely wouldn’t have during a Romney administration. Obama never even had to be a staunch advocate for it either, he just had to be anything other than directly opposed, which is almost exactly where Kamala sits on trans rights today.

Gonna break this down into a numbered list again:

(1) I feel like you're still arguing as though my position is "don't vote" or "vote Republican" (lmao). I'm not sure how many different ways I can say "I'm not trying to convince you not to vote, I'm trying to convince you to engage in direct action and resistance regardless of whether you vote or not, and regardless of who wins the presidency."

(2) I think you and I have very different ideas about what it means for something to be a "path to liberation." If you want to vote Dem because you think resistance will be easier under them than the GOP, go for it. It seems like you basically agree with my take that "the Dems won't set us free, only we can do that," so that's cool. If you wanna vote for a more tolerable oppressor in the meantime, great, go for it, but don't pretend that's in and of itself liberatory.

(3) That said, I wouldn't count on resistance being easier under Dem governance than GOP governance. Look at Dems and the GOP in lockstep to crush the Stop Cop City movement. Look at how state+local Dem & GOP governments alike cracked down on the George Floyd uprising (Walz himself was among those who mobilized the national guard). Anyone trying to achieve their goals via state authority will necessarily have to violently maintain that authority, it's how states work. To reiterate: The path forward is direct action and resistance, no matter who wins.

(4) I wouldn't even count on more support for trans issues under Dem governance. Like, rewatch that interview segment. Harris, when asked directly, pointedly avoided saying whether the law should protect your or my healthcare. She straight-up called it a distraction. She and the rest of them only care about trans issues insomuch as it serves their campaign interests. Most of them don't give a shit whether we live or die, and those who do give a shit will eventually be forced to subordinate that shit-giving to the obligations of statecraft: Politicians who prioritize personal values over politicking don't stay politicians for long. To re-reiterate: The path forward is direct action and resistance, no matter who wins.

(5) Eh, maybe Obergefell would've turned out differently if Obama hadn't been elected to appoint Sotomayor, but I don't think that's a given. There's good reason to believe Souter wouldn't have retired under a Republican presidency. Minor point, though, compared to:

(6) legal marriage equality is not liberation this is literally one of the classic liberation-vs-assimilation disagreements c'mon dog you should know better than this https://convergencemag.com/articles/marriage-will-never-set-us-free/

Sorry these replies are getting so long, I genuinely hope you read them and respond. I'm genuinely interested in hearing your perspective, I just have a lot of disagreement with not only your points, but also the assumptions that underlie them 😅

[st-just]

Opinions on the novel and novella categories excluding Elder Race?

Okay so, uh, 3 months late finally answering this (sorry - but I DID read Elder Race in the meantime!)

So, novels-

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine The central metaphor of how an empire can only understand something by consuming/assimilating it into itself was imo well-done, one of the better uses of a hive mind alien I've seen in a while. Mahit and (especially) Three Seagrass continue to be delightful. The whole palace drama plot in the City leaned a biiiiiit too close to 'the Empress is just and good! Sadly scheming ministers and self-interested officials have attempted to mislead her for their own ends' for my tastes, which absolutely made me start rooting for scheming vizer guy out of spite. Still kind of confused what happened to the Judiciary Minister who vanished 2/3 of the way into the first book without comment. Excellent read, would recommend

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers Absolutely my favorite thing Chambers has written, but that is a very low bar. There were a few pages of actual interpersonal conflict that wasn't just a silly misunderstanding! (Even if they had apologized and agreed to disagree by the end of the next chapter). In principle I approve of any sci fi with no human characters in major roles. Aeleon demography continues to give me a headache (how do you spend so much time on worldbuilding and just mess up the basic math?) - though honestly Pei's whole conflict over the societal expectation to have a kid would have had a bit more tension/drama to it in a setting where her species was legitimately endangered and at risk of extinction (the sheer angst potential!) Anyway, yeah, well-executed but Not For Me.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki I did, uh, not much like this book. In a 'spent a couple hours cathartically ranting about it on discord after finishing it' sort of way. The central romance didn't work, every character arc was perfectly predictable, the whole incessantly hammered home bit about the magic and wonder of home-cooked food just makes me want to gag, I can kind of see what Aoki was going for with the sci fi half of the worldbuilding but it just didn't work at all, and so on. Still not entirely sure what to make of the fact that if you did the 0.5 degree shift necessary to turn the finale into a Christian morality play the quirky alien family plays an identical structural role to where the angels would be. The cursed/demonic-violin repair lady was fun, though.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark This was fun! Nothing hugely ground-breaking and extremely trope-ey, but in a good way? Like the process was clearly 'buddy cop story in into steampunk urban fantasy Cairo' more than anything that evolved naturally out of the characters or setting. But like, eh? The finale involved a giant robot controlled by enslaved ifrit and a mad sorceress trying to restore the British empire attacking the city, nuance and subtlety clearly weren't the goals here. The central mystery was barely a mystery, though. You could pick out the villain by the end of the first act like three or four different ways. Still, yeah, great time. Very pulpy.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir If you don't know that this is by the The Martian guy going in, it will be extremely clear by the time you're 50 pages in. It's a writing style with a real personality bleeding through - if you don't like it, the book will I'm sure be torture. But anyway, I'm a sucker for first contact stories and properly weird but still sympathetic and agentic aliens, and that's the beating heart of the story so I mean, of course I enjoyed it. The science also all seemed plausible/not-obvious-bullshit to me, and Weir did a really good job of getting tension and drama without ever making anyone a villain, with all the threats being faced being natural/environmental. Fun read, assuming very high tolerance for technobabble and also magic amnesia that you don't apply anywhere near the standards of the rest of the books' science to.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan I mean the whole premise of 'mythic/low-fantasy retelling of the founding of the Ming dynasty but with lesbians' feels like what you'd get if you simmered down my reading consumption of the last year or two and poured out the reduction. So like, yeah, of course I liked it! Probably would have been my vote for winner, though not at all sad that Desolation got it instead. As a character type, I really, really love the whole 'arranges everything to work out perfectly through desperate, furious scheming, then absolutely never breaks character and insists it must be providence and they're but a simple monk/scholar/whatever" so Zhu's whole bit there was just catnip to me. The whole melodrama in the mongol court was great, too. And how can you not love a book that ends with the heroine murdering the messiah in cold blood?

novellas-

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire The only other thing I'd read by McGuire before this was Middlegame, which may have given me unrealistic expectations but, like, this was fine? Or, like, I get the sense that this is very much a YA/Middle-grade book, insofar as it really feels like the literary equivalent of a tv special you'd watch with your kid niece and nephew because hey, it's not painful for you or anything? Really funny that this exists entirely independently of the apparently-a-real-thing cartoon Centaurworld, though.

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky This was fun classic sci fi. Like, really classic - I kind of thought 'fantasy setting that's secretly a post-apocalyptic sci fi setting where all the 'magic' and 'monsters' are just poorly understood hypertech' went of fashion with the millennium. Anyway I adore things that play with POV and have different people see the same events and process/interpret them radically differently, so the whole book was catnip that way, and it managed to authentically feel like just a small slice of a vaster, weirder universe, and both deuteragonists really work for me. Don't have a solid pick for my preferred winner but this is one of the two I'm torn between.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard First and so far only thing by de Bodard I've read, which I should probably fix given how big a name she is. Anyway, this was fun! Nothing too groundbreaking, but that is 100% down to my reading habits rather than, like, 'lesbian court drama in a fantasy analogue of an asian country under threat of colonization' is an over-filled niche, or anything (really the only surprising thing was that I hadn't read this already).

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente The other one I might have voted for. On the level of stories she's a bit hit and miss but on the sentence-to-sentence and paragraph-to-paragraph levels Valente is seriously one of my favorite writers working, and this was no exception. Just an absolute delight to read. Also, 'post-apocalyptic magical realism on the city-sized garbage heap floating in the ocean populated by a culture of survivors after the world drowned' is just a great premise. And my shriveled husk of a soul appreciates just committing to the character study and the ruin and the elegy without giving into the urge to make a grand redemptive quest of it all.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers I, uh, liked this significantly less than Galaxy and the Ground Within. Utopias are basically necessarily didactic but, like, you really don't have to lean all the way into literally having the heart of the story be conversations between the protagonist and a sacred and innocent alien whose always correct about everything. Also the whole 'we 100% could be immortal but we chose not to because, like, nature or something. Aren't we so amazing?' thing with the robots is bullshit. Which, combined with the entire aesthetic of the world just left be feeling peevish and asking questions which really weren't the point (Where are the mines? The foundries? You can't make solar panels or modern antibiotics in a basement workshop! And you sure as hell can't cobble together and repair fully mobile and sapient robots in a cave with a box of scraps.)

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow So it's not that this was bad, exactly. But, like, I feel like it should have come out sometime in the '90s? (Okay without the explicitly gay bits but that's a matter of a few sentences tbh). Like, the deadline for metafictional feminist retellings of classic fairtails being genuinely novel or subversive was sometime before Disney got in on the game, sorry. Also, like, I'm sure it's just down to me being a weird morbid kid, but the whole shocking revelation about how fucked up the original Sleeping Beauty myth is was, like, something I knew before I hit puberty? Only other thing of Harrow's I've read was the Ten Thousand Door's of January and I'm really, really disappointed comparing them, honestly. (Also, as a general rule I dislike anything where it's very clear whether you're supposed to like or trust a character from the scene they're introduced and this is never wrong)

In other categories L’Esprit de L’Escalier should obviously have one novelette, "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" short story, Terra Ignota series, and Monstress comic, based off the foolproof criteria of 'those are the ones I've read'

[deesfanfictionkin]

FACTIONS

FACTION ONE: THE HADIA

The Hadia is not so much the name of the entirety of this faction, comprised of the cast of Katekyo Hitman Reborn and various background characters. The Hadia is the ruling group of the region, who, during many bloody civil disputes, ended up subjugating and assimilating all who dared stand against them. Though there are still groups of people in the region who aim to destroy or oppose the Hadia, they rule the region of Wedergebore, with all the groups who have aimed to end that rule becoming allied to them. The Hadia itself has been through its own unrest internally... during a failed coup d'etat, the Head of the Hadia suffered La Petit Morte. A new Head was chosen, a young boy who had no desire to take the position. The Hadia seeks to end the magic on The Ever After through war with the other factions, and they're pushing the new Head to do exactly just that, leaving him little choice. Little do they know, the current Head and the group of new blood he brings to the Hadia have other plans for the Hadia and for The Ever After as a whole...

FACTION TWO: THE STRAINS

The Strains, comprised of the cast of K Project and various background characters, occupy the region of Raymyuut. A region deeply divided, the civil war between The Blues, who rule over the region and keep law and order, and who believe they are just and right in their efforts to take over the other regions in an effort to stop the curse on The Ever Young, and The Reds, who disagree with rule of The Blues and the all out war that's looming (albeit in an almost anarchist way), threatens to tear apart Raymyuut. Add to that various smaller factions, each with their own plans, and more and more magical accidents occurring with no reason anyone can figure, and you have a very unstable faction and region.

FACTION THREE: THE ISIDENGE

The Isidenge, comprised of the characters from Nanbaka and various background characters, occupies the Nanba region. Ruled over with an iron fist by The Wardens and those who serve them, the Isidenge have become prisoners. Though the thick walls keep them safe and protected, it also keeps them prisoner. Nobody is allowed in or out of Nanba without the Wardens permission, permission that has been granted less and less often as The Wardens prepare for war, sure they are right as they prepare to conquer the other regions.

Among the Isidenge, there is unrest, and LA Revolucion is gaining strongholds as those who oppose the Wardens fight, not to prevent the war so much as to gain their freedom.

FACTION FOUR: THE VAMPIR

The Vampir, occupying the region of Knekht and comprised of characters from Servamp alongside various background characters, were once ruled over by The Teacher, who kept the faction happy, healthy, and peaceful. However, through the years, The Teacher's own ego grew until he came to consider himself a God and he planned to take over the other factions, using his people as pawns, uncaring of the bloodshed that would The Vampir, let alone the other regions. Anything to satisfy his own ego.

Among The Vampir, the strongest gathered and took a vote on how to handle the situation. Following the meeting, The Teacher was found dead, and though nobody claims the kill, everyone knows it had something to do with that meeting. The Vampir have fallen apart in the aftermath, with those who had firmly supported The Teacher trying desperately to instigate war among the regions, to see his last plans through, and those that had opposed him joining forces with La Revolucion to prevent that from happening.

FACTION FIVE: THE PAIDUI

The Paidui, compromised of the characters from Saiyuki among background characters, occupy Togenkyo. The faction is small and spread out. Though one part of the faction is trying to rise to power, trying to spread their influence by war against the other regions, it's a feeble attempt. The real problem among the Paidui...human experimentation of the magical variety is affecting more and more among the Paidui, with drugs becoming an issue and an active slave trade being allowed to flourish. There are four men, grouped together, trying to clean up the region, trying to bring peace to the Paidui...if they can ever learn to get along, not only with those from other factions, but even just with each other.

FACTION SIX: THE OCHJU

The Ochju, comprised of the characters from Mystic Messenger among various background characters, occupies Menta. Seemingly the most well organized and civilly peaceful faction, with no obvious internal structures, the truth is that isn't the case. The Han company rules the Ochju, and the head of the company, Mr. Han, has decided the the Ochju, and Menta, are the ones who can break the curse on the land and who are able to unite all the factions under them. He's grooming his son for the position of ruler, and everyone among the Ochju seem to have no complaint.

Except for his son, who works behind the scenes with a group who call themselves RIFA, collaborating with La Revolucion, to avoid war all together and find an alternate way to break the magic on The Ever Young. Except for a shadowy group, making the drugs spreading all throughout The Ever Young and 'recruiting' people to some shady cause.

FACTION SEVEN: THE LULILO

The Lulilo, comprised of characters from Ikemen Revolution alongside various background characters, are a faction strictly divided. One half of Cradle belongs to the Thorn Court, serving the Thorn King, who believes that it is his birth right and duty to lead Cradle into ruling The Ever After and breaking the magic on the land, even if it comes at the cost of all out war. Opposing them is the Raven Court, who believe that the world should not be split into factions and that the world should learn to move on with things as they are and that all should have the freedom to choose their own paths. The two have brought Cradle to the brink of a civil war, and in the background of all that is happening with the Lulilo, there moves another, more sinister, group, operating in the shadows.

FACTION EIGHT: THE GREMIO

The Gremio, comprised of characters from Bungou Stray Dogs alongside various background characters, occupy the region of Porto. Porto, and the Gremio, are ruled with an iron fist by the Mafia, a gang of ruthless, bloodthirsty individuals who rule by fear and who let Porto become a place rife with crime. However, there are many other groups among the Gremio, smaller but motivated, who oppose the rule of the Mafia and work to bring them down, each for different reasons and different end goals.

FACTION NINE: THE ANATAWI

The Anatawi, comprised of the characters of Eyeshield 21 and various background characters, occupy the region of Pilut. The Anatawi are a faction split, again and again and again, into various smaller factions. While each faction has their own views on the larger scale War and the aim of ruling over all the regions, the Anatawi have their own civil war to settle first. Each group believes they are the ones worthy of leading the Anatawi as a whole and civil war threatened to destroy and wipe out the faction as a whole.

To avoid that, The Games were established, with each group within the Anatawi sending their strongest warriors to compete against the other groups in a series of no-holds barred, gladiator-style games. The games attract warriors and spectators from far and wide, as the Anatawi spill blood both in their civil war and in the larger war, depending on which group is currently at the top of the games.

FACTION TEN: THE GRIJARA

The Grijara, comprised of characters from The Ousiders alongside various background characters, occupy the region of The Gold. A faction split into The Haves and The Have-Nots, with The Have-Nots facing huge crime rates and homelessness and starvation running rampant among them, this is a faction at war among itself. Though The Haves have set their sights on war on a larger scale, believing themselves to be the only worthy rulers of The Ever Young and the only ones able to set everything right in the world, it's hard for any of their plans to get off the ground when The Have-Nots, joining here and there with La Revolucion, are constantly fighting against them in an attempt to have the regions wealth and resources shared evenly and for all of the Grijara to be safe.

FACTION ELEVEN: THE GUDARI

The Gudari, comprised of the characters from Ronin Warriors and various background characters, and occupying the region of Tewagi, used to be a just and fair people, with strong moral values and borders that accepted all those serious about learning swordsmanship or martial arts...that is, until one of two leaders of the Gudari turned on the other, slaughtering his co-ruler and establishing a bloody dictatorship alongside a group of fearsome warriors he had recruited to his side, intent on ruling all other regions as well, not for the purpose of breaking the curse but to satisfy his oen ego. Most of the Gudari are too afraid to go against him or his warriors...but there are a group of five brave warriors, five young men who work with La Revolucion in an attempt to return peace to Tewagi and stop the war that the Gudari are being unwillingly dragged into.

FACTION TWELVE: THE RIKTHIMI

The Rikthimi, composed of the cast of GetBackers and various background characters, are an odd mixture. People from other regions tend to drift there if they can’t find anywhere else to belong and the Rikthimi aren’t as closely knit a community as many other places, despite living in such cramped conditions. A region always on the brink of collapse, those high up in the tower where most Rikthimi live, believe that their region will be strengthened and victorious through winning the war. They have no real interest in stopping the curse of The Ever Young, just in the continuation of life for Honky Tonk and so they use their people to wage war.

Always just on the brink of civil war, this isn’t helped by two young men, who live outside the confines of the Tower in the junkyard of a region, proudly fighting on the side of La Revolucion and recruiting those from within the Tower, who don’t agree with the Tower’s actions but see no escape, to their cause.

FACTION THIRTEEN: THE GAIANS

The Gaians, composed of characters from Class of the Titans, along with background characters, occupy Olympus, the world’s only university. As such, a lot of their lives do revolve around school and academics…or it used to, until the head of Olympus’ university decided to buy into the theory that the magic on The Ever After could be broken by one region ruling it again and making it back into one world…or maybe it just served as a handy excuse for his own god complex. He’s made the university into his own war council, killing off those who openly oppose him.

But among the students, there’s a group of seven…seven students who steadfastly oppose his rule, believing there must be another way to break the magic on The Ever Young. While they pretend to be loyal to Olympus, they work with La Revolucion to stop the war from coming, while planning how best to bring control of Olympus back to the Gaians as a whole.

FACTION FOURTEEN: THE RUMIANY

The Gorritu, containing the characters from Blush Blush, among other background characters, occupy Rumiany. A rough region, the Gorritu all just try their best to get through the days. Civil unrest isn’t really a thing in this region and honestly, most of the Gorritu aren’t even interested in war, with some openly helped La Revolucion. It’s a godless place they live in, with many people among the Gorritu only caring about what war will bring them. That being said, despite not really going out and attacking other factions, the Gorritu aren’t without their own issues, with rumours of a serial killer on the loose and magical accidents seem to occur the most among this faction and in this region.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 5/2/2023

some stuff i fucking HATED in this one

listening

new K. Flay AND new LUNA AURA singles out last friday but the thing that kept me company through several walks was this (billboard called it "industrial rager" which seems fine close enough) used for the yellowjackets tv show (something i have not watched and never will).

my brain has really craved repetitive lyrics recently. not sure what that's about. not a repeated lyric, but love one that goes "lipstick on the rifle". spotify

ty discover weekly.

reading

pour one out for the real ones, Vice's leftist gaming vertical Waypoint. if you've ever liked anything about the way i go about these posts you have them to thank. i would say they are the primary influence in the way i try to approach things like "is this a clever subversion that still holds a lot of love for the genre or does this not even know the rules it's trying to break". also a big factor in me going "okay this is what it says it is, this is the marketing copy and press releases" and a work says it's trying to do before assessing whether or not they do it well. may all the staff land softly, elsewhere, paid far more.

“There are a ton of destinations within gaming media that do a great job covering whether a game is worth your money. Instead, we want to focus on telling stories about why people play, and investigating how the games we love and spend so much time with come to be. Whether a game was a commercial success or has a small, dedicated community, we want to raise the conversation and take an in-depth look at the passion, people, and politics that underpin these worlds.” -Austin Walker, editor in chief until last year

the very last thing i read was this review of the new starred wars game, whose early review code sent to journalists was EXTREMELY different than what ended up shipping. this is uncommon but not unheard of, but almost nobody publishes a "null result" review like this one and it's a fascinating breakdown

This piece has, admittedly, gone off the rails, but if this had been a straightforward review, and at the end, I put an italicized section that said “based on 10 hours,” what would you say? If I’d finished the game but confessed at the end that the patched version was importantly different from the one I’d spent my time with, what then? Which review is worth more?

i also read Behind the Sun, Above the Moon, a non-binary scifi/fantasy anthology. i was not impressed with this collection in whole or in parts. it could have benefited from a stronger theme and editorial vision (i'm not actually sure this thing had an editor, now i'm looking closer?)

this has billed itself "a Queer anthology inspired by magic and the cosmos". what i was hoping/expecting this would be: a collection exploring what it means to be nonbinary through the lens of scifi and fantasy. it actually is: an almost completely human-centric collection about people who happen to be non-binary and happen to live in scifi or fantasy settings.

the critical problem is that most of them are very slice-of-life in a fantastic setting as opposed to a short story with uhhhhhh a theme and a point it makes. the worldbuilding, while often interesting, is not integral. 3/9 of these are set in a contemporary setting, and all of them could be set in a contemporary setting without losing much. 3/9 (one overlap) feature a protagonist or deuteragonist who is a cop, and all three of those read very gay assimilation-y/feel very concerned with perfect gay rep.

i don't really expect anyone to be the next o henry here, but none of them are self-contained. not the sort of ambiguous ending in the Ha Ha Im Going To Think About This For The Rest Of My Life way, they all feel like “first chapter of a planned new adult trilogy”.

i love anthologies. i am always rooting for anthologies. i am no stranger to imperfectly written speculative fiction. this one is just kind of nothing? none of these are good or particularly enjoyable examples of the form, either as short stories or as speculative fiction.

i don't actually know what tipped me off to this book, it's been on my overdrive for...two years.

watching

two out of three Magnificent Seven sequels are not worth my time, your time, or anyone else's. i have not bothered to watch Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969, dir. Wendkos) bc i have a finite amount of time on this bitch of an earth.

i reluctantly have to hand the original some heterosexual rights. that move had a genuinely cute romance that fit in well with a particular character's growth, even if it was lifted whole cloth from Seven Samurai. this will be relevant when we discuss this franchise's hatred for women later.

Return of the Seven/Return of the Magnificent Seven (1966, dir. Kennedy), starring exactly one member of the original seven, is so poorly paced that i paused the film during an "exciting" bullfight, got up to get more snacks, got distracted, and ended up cleaning my kitchen.

there is a great deal of untranslated, un-captioned spanish throughout this movie, including the entire opening sequence. i don't know how i feel about this. on one hand, yeah, fuck them americans, and i would not call the english-language dialogue particularly crucial to your understanding of the plot. on the other hand, what.

as opposed to the original seven all being men who are fairly polite and follow some sort of code, the replacement five are all kind of sleazy? one of them only signs on bc there's an entire village full of women on their own. in other relationships, there is the KERNEL of a really fascinating fucked up family dynamic between the villain and his sons, but we don't even get hints of that until well after the halfway point. this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier. the camerawork and effects simply are not there.

The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972, dir. McCowan) is a really, really awful film to watch, and not just if you're a woman. this whole fucking film uses three separate instances of rape or gang rape as plot momentum. if you are not trying to fill out lee van cleef's filmography (only a thing me and @birdcfparadise are insane enough to do) this is actively skippable.

like okay. let’s just walk through the first fifteen minutes. lvc's young, new, nubile wife convinces him to let a kid who robbed a store get off with a warning instead of what lvc really wants to do, send him to jail. in return, the kid shoots lvc, kidnaps lvc's wife, and rapes and kills her on the trail. the movie, which wasn't good to start out with, does not improve from there. like the other sequel i watched, this is the original movie but less interesting and sloppier.

the one interesting choice this film makes: one of the seven is a failed journalist tailing lvc, hoping to get enough life details out of him to write a book. this is a fun period-appropriate twist and this could have been a fun proto-revisionist western/gracefully put the franchise to bed, but here we FUCKING are.

why'd i do this to myself: liked the original, like lvc.

playing

the steam collections i'm sorting things into areworking, bc i forgot i owned Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (2013, developed/published Techland). i do not remember buying this, i assume it was $1.99 in a sale at some point. this is a silly arcade-y first person shooter.

i suspect it will be the kind of thing i play through once and then completely forget about, but i will have a fun ten hours-ish.

this is a personal problem, but the moment you give me a long-distance rifle, i want to play as stealthily and perfectly as possible. (except in fallout, where it is way more fun to charge up to enemies like a very small freight train with a shotgun). this game is simply not built for stealth. this game wants you to move constantly. i do like how enemies are encountered in little groups or knots, and don't come after you if you've cleared out one group and haven't hustled along to the next. enemy AI was simply not very sophisticated in 2013. this gives me time to meander around looking at everything and going "oh i coulda got up on that water tower" or "totally missed that barrel of dynamite".

i like how over the top but un-self-serious it is so far. competent shooter, fewer of the bells and whistles we expect from a FPS these days, but we don't really need to be fucking around with health packs and more than one kind of ammo for a gun. nothing's really annoying me yet and i haven't fallen deeply in love with it, so i don't have a ton of thoughts other than "huh this is a decade old video game with decade-old design sensibilities, which isn't bad just different". stay tuned!

separate thought: i do think that the game's artstyle is about as detailed as i ever want a game to get. nothing ever really needs to be more realistic than this. i do think we peaked in 2013 and what 2013 CPUs could handle. we have better raytracing and particles and whatnot now, but that's at the cost of eerily hyperrealistic games where there is little to no non-signage visual signposting. nothing is guiding your eye through a level, things (consumables, collectibles, etc) are very easy to miss. if video games are an art form you need to pick a thing your game looks like. make a stylistic choice for christ's sake. not this game though. it's doing okay.

making

made some fake meatballs (shut up) bc the giant bag of bargain store brand meatballs i used to practically live on have risen to $20 a bag. angel hair and meatballs are easy to acquire and easy to eat, even if they do generate many dishes to wash.

making my own is not much cheaper, and raw ground meat texture is one of the worst things in the world. plus i had some carrots and oats and lentils to use up anyway. this required more chopping than my hands cared for, even though i bought pre-juilenned carrots and just sort of roughly diced them. the texture is UNSETTLINGLY like real meatballs. that sort of spongy? bouncy? mouthfeel. the taste is, of course, nothing like real meat. they are a little crumbly in actual pasta, but oversaucing whatever noodles are at the back of the pantry will help.

no pics bc they look awful. eating a lot of various lentil sludges lately partly bc i am trying to clean out my pantry before i move, and when i could still afford grocery delivery they frequently gave me green instead of the far superior red lentils.

[thechanelmuse]

My Book Review

The Big Sea is an intimate, sweeping (travel) memoir that engulfs you into the world, thoughts, revelations, and life of Langston Hughes as he comes of age in his 20s in the 1920s to the onset of The Great Depression. The book’s title symbolizes the emotional states of deep sadness (depression) and loneliness, the vastness life has to offer, the curiosity of flowing into uncharted territories, the beauty of what lies beneath soon to reach the surface, the voyage by water itself and, most of all, freedom.

“Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling.”

Life is literature; it's a reflection of fork in the road journeys amongst a sea of possibilities along the way. There are motifs from childhood trauma and child-parent relationships to dreams and happiness that arise in The Big Sea, alongside one of the book's main themes: the intricacy of race. 

Black — the bottom classification of the US caste system built on a social construct transitioning into the cultural identity for a specific ethnic group (Black Americans) — is underscored against the higher deemed status and permanence and flatness of "white." Hughes and I share the same great-grandmother on his maternal side, Lucy Jane Langston—his first and my sixth. In The Big Sea, he describes Lucy as "colored" as he would himself although she was Pamunkey. In turn, upon touching down on the soil of Dakar in Senegal, Langston notes: 

“The great Africa of my dreams! But there was one thing that hurt me a lot when I talked with the people. The Africans looked at me and would not believe I was a Negro.”

What you’re (“racially”) called in your house won’t be understood in someone else’s house. Race that’s defined in colors (black, white, red) was a foreign ass concept then and now for anyone from differing homelands with tribes, or similar words but different meanings absent of skin color. It’s heritage that’s attached. That same (Black/US Negro) heritage was a revulsion for Hughes’ self-loathing father, James Nathaniel Hughes. He hated Negroes and was willing to assimilate to anything else, leading him to try to permanently meld into the cultural identity of Mexicans in Mexico. 

Throughout this memoir, Hughes interchangeably uses the US (re)classifications of Negro, Colored and Black to make sense of the world for himself. He deep dives into how he views himself and cultural identity; the way his family, himself, and others in his community choose to navigate through caste barriers; and compares and contrasts his racial status during his wide travel within and outside the United States, all while maintaining his steady net in the big sea.

SN: The photos aren’t included in book, but are pivotal to the details in the book. 

Caroline “Carrie” (Langston) Hughes holding her son, Langston (1901)

Langston Hughes at age 3 (1904)

Carrie and Langston (1907)

James Nathaniel Hughes, the father of Langston Hughes

Mary (Patterson) Langston, Langston Hughes’ maternal grandmother who raised him

Langston Hughes with Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney on the roof of 580 St. Nicholas Avenue, Harlem, on the occasion of a party in Hughes' honor (1924)

Langston Hughes working as a busboy in hotel restaurant before his writing career took hold. He left three poems beside poet Vachel Lindsay's plate and Lindsay read them the next evening at the start of his recital. (Washington D.C., 1925)

Langston Hughes’ poetry book, The Weary Blues, which he wrote in the midst of traveling (1925)

Fire!! magazine created by Langston Hughes, Richard Nugent, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Bennett, John Davis, Aaron Douglas, and Wallace Henry Thurman (November 1926) 

Jessie Fauset, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston at Tuskegee Institute (1927)

[teslacoils-and-hubris]

thinking about Loam and the influence of magic breaking down reality again.

Specifically im thinking about a sort of false utopia hivemind that first came about as a result of an Anomaly acting as a conduit through which seperate people can become a hivemind. It starts out as a fringe cult that people give a wide birth to, but over time becomes an accepted part of Loam. Yeah there's a town where everyone is basically one person who's collective mind is filtered through a weird crystal, thats like. the least of anyone's problems. There's dragons and wizards and shit who cares. They welcome travelers and take care of them, and yeah sure they can get kind of preachy about the benefits of joining the collective rather than being alone in your own body forever but The Town doesn't force people to link up or anything

until thousands of years down the line The Town starts to loose itself. Other groups that traded with The Town aren't getting responses when they want to trade. Travelers start going missing. The townsite is now a ghost town and there's rumours of people who get close being drawn in by promises of eternal togetherness and OOPS! turns out as the crystal at the center of The Town got more powerful it turned from just mental linking to becoming a giant pile of sentiant Meat congealed around the crystal, which is constantly outputting a psychic siren song trying to get more mass to join it's flesh pile and the whole site has to be high key quarentined because unknowning travelers and dumb kids keep getting too close and ending up assimilating to the featureless flesh blob that was one The Town. This isn't even the weirdest thing people have going on nowadays though so everyone's just kind of ignoring it until it becomes normal again. Yeah don't go past these walls or you'll be overtaken with the need to meld your flesh with thousands of other unlucky souls before you, you know how it is.

[hrodvitnon]

Abraxasverse Headcanons - "Contrasting Sequel Antagonists"

Just spitballing a couple thoughts and ideas of mine about what other Titan antagonists could be like in the Abraxasverse, for anyone who’s interested in using them.

1. Conqueror Ape-Titans

If the Scar King of GxK has an equivalent in the Abraxasverse, then…

(a) I like to think there’d be not one, but three or several such ape Titans, living together deep in the Hollow Earth for millennia; so as to fit with primates being social creatures and with primate Titans like Kong and Thor feeling “closer to human.”

(b) And I’m imagining that, back in the day before their species were reduced to these last few survivors, these Scar Ape(?) Titans were basically Alpha Titan imperialists: they were out to conquer and dominate all other life on Earth including the other Titans and the ancient humans with this “right of a superior species” ideology, they were actually quite competent at their conquestmongering on account of adult Kong’s power level being the Scar Ape species’ standard, and they weren’t at all shy about crushing or trying to crush anything that resisted or opposed them.

And the present day survivors of the species still hold true to that ideology when they learn about the outside world’s current natural order after the Mass Awakening, and they decide to get involved in the outside world again…

© Narratively, maybe it’s Kong who finds the Scar Apes in the Hollow Earth, not realising until after the fact what these fellow ape Titans he’s found alive are REALLY like and what they’ll do…

-

2. Spacegodzilla’s Xenilla/the Space Crystal Cordyceps

(a) So maybe, if the Space Crystal Cordyceps inside Ozymandias/Spacegodzilla does have its own sentient consciousness separate from Ozzy’s, then maybe, to contrast with Ghidorah’s motives for destroying everything across the stars and Gigan’s motives for killing or fate-worse-than-death-ing everyone across the stars; maybe the Cordyceps’ motives beyond neutralising all serious threats to itself (i.e., Godzilla) are that it wants to spread itself and assimilate as much as possible because it suffers from an insatiable hunger for new information from the nervous systems it infects, and it feels it needs to know everything. So Gigan’s fleet designed their sentient bioweapon to be in just as much lifelong pain as the victims that it infects.

(b) OR, if the Space Crystal Cordyceps DOESN’T have a mind of its own and is just as mindless as any fungus, then I can imagine that it’s all just a corrupted Ozymandias in Spacegodzilla: what the Cordyceps did was rewrite Ozzy’s personality while he was helpless to stop it during the infection, like Alzheimer’s. Turning him from a noble creature into a twisted monster obsessed with controlling everything via spreading the Cordyceps which he’s psychically linked into via his infection, while he had no agency of his own.

---

All interesting ideas! It really is sad that Kong would finally find the Scar Apes (or maybe Scarred People or Scarred Ones? Maybe in AbraxasVerse they practice ritual scarification?), after being led by the false hope that their might be more of his kind in the Hollow Earth so naturally he’s elated to meet them, but over time his hopes are utterly dashed by the realization of what the Scarred Ones plan...

Hm, I personally like the first option for Space Crystal Cordyceps, but the second option is also good for how comparatively mundane it is. Actually, the first instance’s SCC’s endless thirst for knowledge can mesh nicely with something I’ve been mulling over regarding Gigan’s fleet (since it’d been established in the tags that they’re involved with the SCC and Ozymandias’ abduction), so now might be as good a time as any for a potential lore drop:

The fleet’s whole thing is cybernetics and body modification, in a sort of “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” regarding Gigan himself, who they revere as a living god (natch). The first alterations begin in utero and continue on throughout their lifetimes, genetically altered and given so many cybernetic implants that by the time they’re adults it’s almost impossible to think they’re the same species they were at birth. They might as well be, compared to anyone from the main planet they hail from. And then once their lives approach the end, they will be temporarily put on life support with a combination of chemicals and their own extensive cybernetics, so they can experience the skin flayed from their bodies and sewn onto a leather tapestry representing a family tree; once dead, the cybernetics will be systematically removed from them, cleaned and decontaminated so they may be transferred to the next generation.

The point of cybernetics is not to remove themselves from their organic origins, but to extend it and heighten sensation. Experience is the name of the game, and pain is a vital part in realizing one’s own existence. Never go “full borg,” as they’d say in Cyberpunk, because then what would be the point? If you remove your pain receptors then you lose an important part of Self; pain is gone, but pleasure loses its meaning, and you slowly feel yourself slip away. To adopt the Metal in the image of Gigan is a form of worship, yes, but the Flesh is an anchor to keep you centered, to remind you of your own mortality. You adopt the Metal so your Flesh can experience the universe’s wonders with more clarity; knowledge and sensation are the keys to a good life. And so, just as the fleet chases sensation, the SCC chases knowledge.

[moderator-monnie]

How will the slammer respond to something travelling inbetween worlds to hunt down it, if the slammer virus abandons a world because it’s to dangerous (like with the napalm thingy) will said world continue to function and evolve? Can the slammer infect anything outside of the computer and are there any dedicated coders outside of the computer or anti viruses trying to deal with/ dispose of it

How will the slammer respond to something travelling in-between worlds to hunt down it.

1: Well, it's technically across worlds but thinking about this from a computer standpoint it's from game to game.

But as for how Slammer would react? It's likely he'd hide themself in a more important program that way whatever's hunting him won't risk just deleting the program otherwise it would kill itself as well.

Though it really depends on how strong Slammer is compared to whatever's going after them, if they are weaker then him He'll just assimilate their code.

if the slammer virus abandons a world because it’s to dangerous (like with the napalm thingy) will said world continue to function and evolve?

2: Yes, the game would still continue to function well, it depends really uh say if Slammer abandon their copy of Sonic CD, since by the end of the story they would have assimilated all chararters by then, so the game would boot but you'd be unable todo anything.

If we're talking about if they abandon a game half way thru? Then One of the remaining side chararters would take on the purpose of the main character.

Can the slammer infect anything outside of the computer

3: No they can't they are no where near strong enough on their own to somehow make it into the real world, Slammer would need to become more powerful then the original SQL Slammer virus was, not to mention have a higher spread.

And make it into government servers before anything like that might be possible, but if left to it's own devices for long enough? Eventually yes, or if they adsorbed enough different viruses.

are there any dedicated coders outside of the computer or anti viruses trying to deal with/ dispose of it

4: No one is aware of Slammer still being around quite yet, so no one is trying to get rid of them, but the moment their presence becomes known I haven't thought that ahead into the story lol.

At the Moment I'm focused on the sonic/game aspect of things, maybe eventually I'll write more stories besides that non canon one with Hungry Hero.

Bonus answer!

You didn't ask this question, but I'll answer it anyway because I'm sure some people might be curious.

If I could collab with anyone and do a real story crossover? I have three big ones.

Misscloudiedays, Rabbitstatic, Anarackwarriors

In no actual order, just people I respect in the community, I've talked with at least two of them before lol.

[bigskydreaming]

stone-monkey

So what Im getting from this is that Nathaniel is now every new mildly mysterious supervillian?

LOL, no, just three of them. ;)

Basically - once upon a time, there was just one Nathaniel Essex aka Mr. Sinister, doing his eugenics fuckshit back in Victorian England when Apocalypse happened across him and was like yes, you get it. So he gave Essex a Celestial tech makeover and imbued him with longevity and all kinds of powers and set him on the road to becoming the Mr. Sinister we all know and loathe....except wait, maybe we never knew him at all.

Because in the last Immortal X-Men issue, we flashed back to when Irene Adler aka Destiny and Raven Darkholme aka Mystique aka Sherlock Holmes, were solving a mystery back in the late 1800s in London, which traced back to Essex and SEEMED to end in his death. But then cut to the 1940s, and Essex is somehow alive and well, and working on a shady US government funded genetics project with Irene and his other longtime co-conspirator Amanda Mueller (a mutant from the 1800s with the power of longevity but NOT eternal youth, and who happens to be the great-great-great-grandmother of Scott, Alex and Gabriel Summers). 

This project was really just a front for the original Sinister/Essex to use as a cover while in secret utilizing its resources to create four clones/genetic offshoots of himself. With each of them then implanted with a degree of his memories and made to believe that they were the original Sinister before he engineered their ‘escape’ and let them loose in four specific directions....because he was seeking the answer/solution to what he saw as the biggest threat to his own ambitions and well, Earth as a whole: the coming Phalanx invasion.

(The Phalanx are an infamous machine intelligence race in Marvel lore, think the Borg on steroids because they hail from extradimensional space and seek to assimilate life in every plane of existence, including the astral plane).

And so by creating these four under-Sinisters, each themed to a playing card motif, he sought to gain a foothold in the four most likely places to find viable resources or strategies to use against the Phalanx....but specifically in the four places he deemed too incompatible to ever work together for a common goal on their own.

Thus we got the Diamond Sinister we THOUGHT we’d known all along, as he looks the most like the original Sinister....but this Sinister was genetically engineered to be a mutant and obsessed with mutants and ended up on Krakoa as one of the Quiet Council.

Club Sinister is Dr. Stasis, a completely human version of Nathaniel Essex who ended up in the hierarchy of Orchis, the big anti-mutant organization obsessed with the eradication of mutantkind and willing to work with anyone to accomplish that....including Nimrod and Omega Sentinel, two machine intelligences who behind the backs of the rest of Orchis are plotting the annihilation of all humanity along with mutantkind, and are trying to pave the way for the looming Phalanx invasion.

Spade Sinister is Orbis Stellaris, the version of himself that Nathaniel heavily modified with extraterrestrial-derived Celestial tech and then yeeted into deep space, where he became a prominent figure in the Galactic Rim Collective, rising to power there by genetically engineering clone armies he mass produced and sold to the highest bidders, turning this into political cachet that eventually got him a seat in the Galactic Rim Collective’s government, similar to how Diamond Sinister weaseled his way into mutants’ government.

And Heart Sinister is Mother Righteous, the odd woman out of the group in all sorts of ways, not the least of which being she’s the one of the four obsessed not just with science and genetics but with magic and the occult as well. She’s spent the last few decades building a power base for herself on the astral plane itself, becoming known as ‘the wheeler/dealer of the astral plane, who can offer you anything you seek in exchange for a favor’ as she built up a system of quid pro quo wherein she trades in gods, spirits, wishes....by using the power and resources of beings who utilize her ‘services’ in order to fund and back the requests of the next people to seek her out. Like one giant occult Pyramid Scheme based out of her lair on the Astral Plane where she spies on everyone’s dreams. 

Currently Mother Righteous is hanging out in the Altar, which is a bubble-space in the Astral Plane that was created by Legion (David Haller, Professor Xavier’s omega level mutant son) and tethered to Arakko in real/physical space. (Arakko being Mars, renamed after twelve omega level mutants terraformed the planet and relocated Krakoa’s sister-nation Arakko to it, making it the mutant homeworld). Mother Righteous seems to think Legion is the key to defeating the Phalanx, and has as her right-hand man a fusion being called Vox Ignis (Voice of the Fire) who are basically a symbiosis of Sean Cassidy aka Banshee and a Ghost Rider-esque spirit that’s called the Spirit of Variance rather than the Spirit of Vengeance. We don’t know much about what their deal is yet.

But anyway.....this is all building up to an event in January called Sins of Sinister where Diamond/Krakoan Sinister is going to make a power play to basically take over the solar system.....and seems to be on a collision course with the other three Sinister-derivations, who each have their own agendas that don’t play well with ‘letting Diamond Dave screw up all OUR plans by playing Master of the Universe or whatever fuckshit he’s on about now.’

Odds are the event, which is almost guaranteed to pit all four against each other, will end with the four of them taking each other out, everyone else believing that Sinister is gone for good (because only Irene and Mystique know that there’s a FIFTH Sinister running around, the original who created the other four....well Apocalypse and Amanda probably know too, but the former’s in Amenth and who knows where the latter is these days). But ultimately I’m betting this is all according to OG Sinister’s plans and he’s just been biding his time til his creations all take each other out so he can co-opt everything they’ve learned and come up with for facing off against the Phalanx, and pick up where each of them left off without having to share, lol.

[glassautomaton]

Hi there Glass! Me again, yes, the pest in your askbox..

Today, I come bearing questions (and concepts) about this specific line in your sandbox!

I am very interested in the Thorn and was wondering if you could explain how your Thorn works? That and how it would effect Iris?

Also!

I've been thinking about this for some days now, and yesterday I mocked up some Thorn infected Iris drawings for fun! You were the one who gave me the idea, so I'll share the drawings with you! :]

Small explanation for these: I'm just going to explain how everything works in my design. Feel free to add on or critique me or whatever you wish.

In the early stages of Iris being assimilated with the Thorn, her veins start running black, it's not super obvious at first, it just gathers around scars, and her hands, but it isn't a lot.

As time goes on, it grows, veins become darker, then some discoloration on her scars as they begin to rapidly change to black as well.

Then, the thorns push up from her skin. They accumulate with stress, but there are specific ones that can't just be picked out of her skin. (Like the ones lining her spine, the ones on her shoulders, the ones slowly coming out of her forehead, and I am guessing there is maybe a center one, the specific piece of the thorn that assimulated with Iris in the first place, but I don't think that would push up from her skin for atleast a while.)

(Also, yes, I know horns are a little out there, but one, it's fun. Two, I think it ties in nicely with all the religious imagery that seems to follow Iris as a character. Three, it looks badass.)

Anyway! Yeah, feel free to spill your thoughts on that, as for how all of this is happening? I'm not very good with anomalous biology, so I'm not sure I have a specific explanation. Feel free to add on to the design or try and make an anomalous system for it. At the end of the day, this is for fun!

Thanks for reading one of my various rambles! Enjoy the rest of your day, my friend! :]

I’ll start off with saying that while, as I’ve said, I don’t really have an issue with anyone poking around my sandbox, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. The outline you’re taking that from was made mostly to help me get my thoughts in order, and I don’t update it with everything I consider changing. A lot of what’s on there is just stuff I’ll possibly include or things I’ve thought about but not decided on. All of which is to say everything there is subject to change and I wouldn’t take it as the end-all-be-all Devil’s Advocate Bible. If you want to snoop around to take a look at the brainstorming process or cut content (Voices Carry was originally going to be very different and probably much worse), then go ahead.

As for your actual questions, I’ll put them under a cut because they’re spoilers and also possibly subject to change as I said above.

Now, for the Bloom, I’m afraid this answer might disappoint, but I don’t want to say anything definitive in my series. Some of the remaining authors for Resurrection are still planning on bringing the mainline canon back, and I don’t want to step on their toes when it comes to what seems like the main mystery of the series.

I can tell you how I was thinking of making it function in broad strokes, though. It’s basically a conflux like we see in Voices Carry with perfect efficiency, and processes reality through itself, making sure anything it processes is close enough to how it should be that reality itself doesn’t collapse in on itself. Like a very coarse brush moving through the threads of reality, it makes sure they’re at least somewhat straight. Not perfectly, it doesn’t have to and that would be much more difficult, but good enough to where it doesn’t knot up and become a horrific mess.

It got corrupted in Incident Zero, like a compute you don’t shut off for too long. Too many small things adding up until a straw breaks the camel’s back, and the comb itself becomes knotted up, except the comb was also inextricably linked to the hair as well. After it was destroyed, its splinters retained its capability but lacked and force or programming telling them what to do, leaving them mostly inert.

I know this might stray from other stuff with the Bloom, but as I said, I might tweak this in the future as I brainstorm. I also didn’t touch on who/what created it and how, as I don’t want to tread on any toes.

As for the second half of your ask, this is probably where the “I only wrote this for myself and maybe people I would be able to immediately clear things up to” comes in, as the term “assimilation” isn’t really clear at all. I’ll say that I do like the design though, always a fan of that type of gradual corruption. However, when it comes to Iris, my thinking is that if she comes off as scary it should be for what she does rather than how she looks.

So, as for what assimilation actually means I’m this context, I was planning on having an example of that earlier on in the storyline, very shortly after Lily is introduced. Infovores process, assimilate, and spit out all kinds of information, and this extends to more than just memories of images. I was going to have Iris and Lily kill something called a Hymn Weaver, which is a follower of something close to a god who uses song and dance, or at least things that look and sound similar to it, to maintain reality from the spaces in between universes. The need arms to do this, and lots of them, so they sort of graft various arms onto themselves, but the arms aren’t physical. They Weavers assimilate the information that makes them up, like a psychic footprint, and call them up when they need to. So, assimilation is more along the lines of an Inforvore processing all the information that makes something up and being able to use it in other ways. Lily’s extremely proficient at information processing and assimilation, but can’t actually force changes on reality like Iris can.

Fun fact, the Hymn Weavers’ god, the High Weaver, is a mass of so many limbs from all manner of things that whatever it used to be beneath all of them has been long forgotten. It’s part of the “Triumvirate” mentioned in 6907. I actually have a lot more lore of what was mentioned in there, but a) that’s not the point of this ask, though I’d be more than happy to talk about it and b) I don’t think my SCPs have nearly as much of a following as my tales.

Hopefully that gets everything. And this is all sort of a peek pegging the curtain here, and things aren’t final or explained as well as they would be otherwise in an actual article. If you’ve got any questions, as always, let me know.

[pup-metaphor-enjoyer]

dont burn me at the stake for this or anything but i dont think culture is a rly healthy part of society. the major "benifits" of culture all seem to be wrong: identity under culture is just the one thats placed apon u and not one u truely belong in, it only provides community for those UNDER it meaning theres barriers between us and them, and the only real connection between you and those who share your culture is the culture itself or like your forcing this aspect onto you in order to connect and its always rly felt like a false connection or untrue to the self. im not saying to homogenize everyone, im saying that culture aims to homoginize everyone, and as long as we treat any culture as respectable i think the wool grows more over our eyes. i mean theres a reason it shares the namesake with the growth of cancer. i know anyone reading this is gonna be like "they tried to do this during colonization/genocide/etc" but id like to point out that that was not the removal of culture but instead assimilation into a new one. uh oh also im not blind to the cultures that affect/try to affect me and im not saying that one big culture or a culture that i approve of is the answer im saying that i wish more ppl would consider doing what i do and violently prying and scraping culture off yourself and try to find an individual OUTSIDE of external factors and to use other things to be able to define the border between urself and the outside world instead of using the outside world to find yourself in it or let it tell you what you are itself. or whatever.