#what are self preservation instincts

[spiralling-spires]

Being jurgen leitner the day that gerry almost killed him was probably really surreal. Imagine you’re minding your business, collecting fucked up books, and out of nowhere this goth guy covered in eye tattoos shows up and beats you half to death, then stops, goes, “no you’re too pathetic to be jurgen leitner” and leaves without further elaboration. And you dont correct him, you like being alive after all, and after that you just… continue with your life. And then several years later you tell this to some random guy in the tunnels you’ve been hiding in, and he not only knows who the goth was, but seems somewhat fond of the goth. And then you get brutal pipe murdered by the random guy’s boss. Oops

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

I think Duke Thomas should get to give off eldritch horror vibes to all JL-associated magic users. As a treat.

[thebrainrotsreal]

Thinking about de-aged Bruce via magical shenanigans being a bit of a menace. He will bite you if given the chance, and will draw blood. Slippery as an eel to catch. Don't even think you can corner him in his own home, he knows every single secret room and deep tunnel in the manor. Your eyes are scratch-able to him. Try telling he's the future and he's demanding you tell him who killed his parents. Can't tell him? Alright then, you're lying. He would've found out by now if this really the future.

[thursdays-adult]

You know, throwing this out there completely randomly, we really don't talk enough about Zhao from Avatar. Like his story is absolutely wild. Man was trained by Jeong Jeong, freaking found Wan Shi Tong's library, found out about the solar eclipse from the library, burned a section of the library down, escaped from that alive, captured the avatar, successfully breached the walls of the Northern Water Tribe which had never been done, and killed the freaking moon spirit. Like he is a bastard and regularly loses to teenagers, but you can't deny it's quite the resume.

[galaxywarp]

I hated being a teenager but also I loved being a teenager. Hey do you guys wanna meet at the park later and hit each other with sticks? My friend Ian once used axe body spray to light his hand on fire.

[justafriendofxanders]

i'll shut up about this episode eventually but this is one of my favorite underrated lines from the commentary. i rotate "he knows he's going to get shot down, too" in my head constantly.

[locked-tomb-shenanigans]

Forever thinking about the fact that Kiriona had months and months to feel like absolute shit about the fact that Harrow rejected her sacrifice and when Harrow’s body is dying she is still immediately offering herself up again.

Paul must be standing in the background like “please not this shit again” like they’ve literally just been over this-

[noddynods]

So you know battery acid spaghetti ?

:)

[goldeneyedgirl]

okay so since you asked here goes my main questions about Deaf Mary Alice: how was her relationship with Maria? Was she softer with her or tried to protect her in any way? Or did Jasper tried to protect Mary Alice from her? Also, was she and Charlotte and Peter friends? Did they talk to her like Jasper did?

And for what you said about Jasper not knowing how to act with her, since when I read the first snippet, I pictured him trying hard to be gentle (maybe because he had this misogynistic 19th century idea that she was a poor fragile little deaf girl) but really he doesn't know how to do that. It's like a baby monkey trying to solve a complex math problem. What I got from your last snippet (which I loved so much btw!!!) is that he didn't know if she would survive anywhere else.

But this is only my nonsese. I hope I got it right and I'd be the happiest with whatever you come up with because, again, this verse just touches my heart in a way I can't even explain, it's crazy the power that fanfiction holds

Oh I LOVE questions like these. Buckle up, I decided to ramble.

Maria

Maria's a complicated figure in Mary-Alice's life. Initially, she's tolerant of Mary-Alice - what's the point of killing her on the spot when she could be sent into battle as canon fodder? Free newborn without three days of screaming? Maria isn't going to say no.

Maria's been around a long time and she's seen vampires adapt to almost any circumstance. A deaf vampire is a new flavour, but not an insurmountable one.

So when Mary-Alice not only learns to fight with the other newborns, but makes her through her first few battles in one piece, Maria is suitably taken with her. She's completely useless for scouting, and not particularly helpful with hunting for the army, but she's a powerhouse on the battlefield, and a quick study at battle plans. Maria definitely suspects there might be some kind of gift at work.

But also on that side of the coin is that Maria accepted Mary-Alice into the army, and kept her after the newborn year. That's effectively claiming Mary-Alice as one of her own creations, which is about as affectionate as Maria gets towards her soldiers.

And Maria has a hard time dealing with Mary-Alice's positivity. She's so clearly pleased to be amongst them, and is loyal to them, that being nasty or violent towards her is kind of futile. It makes more sense when Mary-Alice can communicate enough to explain that she has no memories of her life or change. Maria might have an ounce more patience with Mary-Alice than hearing vampires, and she ends up carrying a flashlight to get Mary-Alice's attention urgently in battle situations, but that's about the most grace she gives her until Jasper leaves.

That's when Maria kind of promotes her, gives her more privileges, because she knows exactly how much of Mary-Alice's life relied on Jasper translating for her. It gets harder, the more time goes on, because Maria does not have the inclination to teach anything more than basic commands in sign language to newborns once a year, and the newborns often aren't interested.

Ultimately, Maria lets Mary-Alice leave for various reasons: officially, she's become a liability because no one can communicate with her effectively, and deserves a reward for her staunch loyalty to Maria's cause. Kind of a PR stunt with the rest of Maria's soldiers.

Unofficially, Maria realises that she's made mistakes in the past with her people, and she's learned from that. It would be nice if one of her people left the army considering Maria a friend and ally. It's also a gesture of peace and goodwill to Jasper - Maria took care of Mary-Alice, the person that Jasper prized most in the army. Now that he's healed and in a place Maria deems acceptable, Mary-Alice is following him.

Does that make sense? I hope so.

Peter & Charlotte.

Both Peter and Charlotte can speak to Mary-Alice, not as fluently as Maria, but Jasper really is the only person who can converse with Mary-Alice without her having to resort to lip-reading at some point. Peter is far more fluent than Charlotte.

Peter has a far better relationship with this version of Mary-Alice. She follows Jasper around like a puppy, and Jasper's somehow both embarrassed and kind of flattered by it. Most of the newborns were too frightened of the Major to hit on him, and here's Mary-Alice just trotting along at his side.

Peter and Mary-Alice joke with each other a lot, tease each other a lot, and competed a lot in training. The most you could say is that Mary-Alice was pissed that Peter picked a fight with Jasper the night he and Charlotte left because if Peter had used his damn words, Jasper probably would have let them go.

Peter's the first one to realise that Jasper's caught feelings when they're figuring out sign language, and he kind of just leaves it alone - but he definitely works double-time in battles to make sure Mary-Alice stays alive, and protects her from other newborns that see her as an easy target.

Charlotte doesn't get as much time with Mary-Alice, but sees her as some kind of magic - she caught Jasper and Mary-Alice together in her newborn year, and the way he went all soft and kind when she spoke to him. And then it's Mary-Alice who tells Peter that he needs to take Charlotte and go North as soon as possible. It's Mary-Alice who intercepts the fight between Jasper and Peter when they do try to leave.

Peter is the one that asks Maria if they can take Mary-Alice to Jasper. He's willing to negotiate, and he's kind of surprised that Maria agrees as easily as she does. Kind of a full-circle 'she got them out safe, so they returned the favour'.

If something were to happen to Jasper, Peter would insist that Mary-Alice leave the Cullens and join him and Charlotte. (That's not a spoiler; just kind of the dynamic Peter has with Mary-Alice.)

Jasper.

Jasper was exactly like a monkey trying to do algebra. Not once since he was changed did he have to be gentle. Everyone was terrified of him aside from Peter and Maria. By 1919, the only time he touches anyone is to destroy them. And he's so, so tired.

And Mary-Alice just looks at him and smiles. There is immediate trust there, and he has no idea what to do with that. He's doubtful Maria will even let her live if she can't hear. But Maria does, and he's put in charge of communicating with her. Suddenly, he's spending hours with this girl who has no fear of him. Who will grab him to point at something, whose face lights up when he returns from boundary runs. And the only thing he feels like he can offer her is to build her a language and train her to fight like the devil. The first scar she ever gets from a bite, she literally laughs and tells him they match now.

She forces him to remember how to be a man and not just an executioner, and it's hard. He does everything he can not to care but he does so, so much.

Jasper leaves her behind for two reasons; one is the depression. He's holding on by the skin of his teeth. He's barely making it through battles himself, he cannot protect her any longer. And then there's the fact that the North is a total unknown. Maria has always doubled-down on the idea that it's worse than the South, that it's a full death wish to leave Texas. He always thought Peter and Charlotte were destroyed when they left. But when Peter comes back, he's willing to take the chance on Peter's promises that it's safer and better - but only for himself.

The idea he could take Mary-Alice with him and get her killed, or have her harmed in any way, made him sick. He had no idea what he was running to, so he was going to leave the one person he loved best with Maria, the one person who knew how to survive no matter what. And he made this decision in about a minute, because Peter was begging him to just run.

The only thing Jasper ever really wanted was to keep the girl that looked at him like he was everything she ever hoped for safe, even if that meant he had to leave her behind.

Anon, I run with every little thing. You can just hit me with a question and I will get out my diagrams and pinboards and all my notes. I love getting into the details so much.

And I am genuinely touched that this little riff has had such an impact on you. I love trying out new stuff, especially things that make Twilight a little bit more diverse and nuanced than canon. Trust me when I say a lot of my weird little snippets and verses wouldn't continue without people who were invested in them <3

[sysig]

You’re gonna die if you keep that up (Patreon)

[tildeathiwillwrite]

The Dangers of Jumping

WoW Birthday Whump Event Day 8: Stranded / Team whump / "Is anyone there?!"

Whumpril Day 6 (Dizziness)

WoW Birthday Whump Prompts List

Whumpril Prompts List

The Legend of Orian Goldeneye Masterpost

part 2

TW: head injury, concussion, unconsciousness, falling, dizziness, vertigo, environmental whump, blood, bruises

Context: Post-canon one-shot where Jas and Killian explore the universe together. Unfortunately this Jump has already gone south. (have I mentioned that these two are very whumpable?)

-----

Jas’s head was pounding, like someone was taking a hammer and chisel to her inner skull. She groaned softly, eyes closed as she slowly put her hand up to the source of the pain. It came away warm and sticky. She froze, and her eyes flicked open. She lay on her back on a rough, cold, uneven surface, one of her legs pinned uncomfortably beneath her body. Far above, stars glittered in unfamiliar constellations, with dark clouds obscuring parts of the night sky.

Jas slowly sat up and straightened out, cautiously probing at the wound on the side of her head. It bled heavily, but it wasn’t too big or too deep. The motion made her head spin, and it took her a second to focus on the rest of her surroundings.

She was on a ledge of some kind, bare stone jutting out of a cliff face with scattered tufts of wildflowers. Less than a foot to her right was a sudden drop of at least thirty feet, maybe more. She gasped and scrambled back, the movement not helping with her headache or sense of vertigo. Her rushed action drew her attention to the object in her other hand: a necklace with a glassy green pendant, the chain tangled around her fingers. 

This jump-started her panic. “Killian?!” she shouted, glancing around the ledge frantically, although she already knew he wasn’t there. Did he fall? Is he at the bottom of the cliff? Did he not come out of the portal?

Jas touched the side of her head again and winced. The blow to her head, whenever that happened, must’ve been worse than she’d thought. The portal. That was the last thing she remembered, forming a portal and stepping through, Killian at her side. And after… she didn’t know.

Was this how Killian felt all the time? Jas suddenly developed more sympathy for his problems as she pushed herself to her feet, relying heavily on the cliff wall. It sloped up more gently than the drop across from her. She could scale it if necessary. But first, she had to check over the side.

Jas was too dizzy to trust herself to stand so close to the edge, so she went onto her hands and knees and crawled until she could peer over the side without fear of falling. The drop had to be about a hundred feet, but it was hard to tell from this angle because a thick forest of pine trees carpeted the base of the cliff and blocked the view of the ground.

Far off in the distance was a faint orange glow, almost absorbed by the forest, one that wavered and flickered like a fire. A camp, maybe? Hopefully, it was civilization and not a forest fire. Jas continued scanning the forest, searching for any other signs of life. She might have to wait until sunrise, she couldn't see much of anything in the dark.

When she was going to give up and wait until morning, a small splash of color caught her eye. Was that Killian’s jacket?

She squinted. It certainly looked like it. The jacket was torn up, dangling from broken branches several layers deep in the closest pine tree. Killian must’ve fallen through the tree, the branches breaking his fall and tearing his jacket from him. His bag shouldn't be too far away.

Jas sighed sharply through her nose. I have to get down there, don't I?

She glanced around the ledge. Her headache was beginning to subside, the wound scabbing over and matting her hair into a red mess. Unfortunately, there wasn't any simple way down other than… jumping.

Jas sighed through her nose sharply before slipping Killian’s pendant over her head and rising to her feet. She backed up, cursing herself with each step she took. This is so stupid, you’re gonna kill yourself, or break something, or—

She sprinted and leaped off the ledge. Time seemed to slow as she sailed through the air.

Jas braced herself for the impact, but it still took her breath away when she crashed into the tree, its thin branches snapping under her weight. She flailed, trying to grab something, anything to slow her fall.

Her fingers wrapped around a thick branch, and she jerked to a stop, nearly dislocating her shoulder in the process. “Oww…” she mumbled. She would be finding bruises for the next week from this. “Okay, jacket.”

She’d aimed for the tree next to the one where Killian’s jacket had gotten caught, so it was only a matter of maneuvering and balancing precariously on branches before she snatched it from the tree’s grasp. Slinging it over her shoulder, Jas began to descend, taking care that she did not fall the rest of the way like Killian had.

Pine needles crunched underfoot as she dropped the remaining feet from the lowest branch. She paused, squinting. It was a lot darker down here than on the cliff face; the tall trees blocked out the light of the stars. So, despite having a rough idea of where to look, it still took almost two excruciating minutes before she found Killian.

He was crumpled at the base of the tree like a discarded toy, covered in dozens of cuts and bruises. He was unconscious, naturally, but his chest rose and fell slowly. Still alive, at least.

Jas nudged him with her foot. “Killian?”

He didn’t move.

She poked him again, harder. No response. “Damnit,” she muttered, “why do you have to be so delicate?”

Killian offered no answer, so Jas glanced around until her eyes fell on his bag lying a few feet away. “Well…” she said aloud as she picked it up and slung it over her head and shoulder, “I have no clue where we are, and there’re signs of life off that way—” she waved vaguely in the direction of the flickering glow— “and we’re pretty much stranded until your Pendant resets.”

Jas crouched beside him and, with much effort, lifted him over her head and across her shoulders. “And,” she grunted, straightening up, “there are probably things in this forest other than us.

“So if you think I’m leaving you behind,” she finished as she started walking, “you’d be dead wrong.”

Perhaps ‘dead’ was a poor choice of words. But it wasn’t like anyone but the trees could hear Jas anyway.

@fourwingedsnake @whumperofworlds

[corpium]

Took a DnD alignment quiz and got true neutral and my brother was like “huh. I thought you’d be chaotic good,” and I’m like “sure, to YOU, but basically everyone else can go fuck themselves,” and really, I think that demonstrates how accurate the test is.

[daily-hanamura]

to pair with the ‘your house is there’ post, these panels from the mange imply (a teeny bit) that souji going to yosuke’s house might be a regular occurrence ♥

[trainingdummyrabbit]

[facedown in a puddle covered in dirt and debris] I Have Got To Say Something Beautiful Adn True

[sentientsky]

pov: your baby brother is a Weird Little Guy™️

[cuteniarose]

Incorrect quotes generator shenanigans featuring the OCs @katkastrofa and I fucking SPEDRAN creating over the past two days, part 3, because I realised I had enough screenshotted to make another full post :)