#you've returned at last

[kerothi]

sent from prompts / @praesidi

Strong winds howl around their shelter, whistling through the cracks in the walls and rattling at the old doors and window frames, spilling the icy chill in through every gap. The downpour is like a white noise against the glass, so heavy that it's loud—raindrops hitting as hard as rocks, that certainly felt like rocks when they were caught in it.

Eren says: ❝ I want to complain, but I don’t even have the energy.❞

From where he's sitting in front of the dusty old fireplace that he's still trying to light.

Jean, on the other hand, pivots around in his spot beside the window that he's been scowling out of, with his hair and clothes still soaked through and stuck to his frozen bones, and doesn't mind saying, "That's fine, I've got us covered. I don't know what's worse, us freezing to death in that freak-storm or getting crushed beneath this old heap—" The boards above his head let out a long and dismal groan, as if on cue, and Jean pauses to watch it and wait for it to stop—or possibly collapse on him...

He decidedly moves, side-eyeing the beams as he wanders back over to Eren and carries on his complaints. "Half the furniture's rotted to dust. Whole place is damp—the fire-wood's damp. There's no spare clothes. Moths have eaten through all the blankets. Can tell no one's been this way in a while. Looks like it's been forgotten about..."

Fortunately though, and despite all of Jean's griping about it, Eren hadn't forgotten about this old outpost. They'd still be caught out in the storm if he hadn't found it, which Jean is sure was more for his own benefit rather than Eren's, the titan shifter's, anyway. See, he and a good few others from his particular unit spend months out here, but it's to Jean's understanding that very little of that time is spent actually outside of the big, creepy beasties that they all control. This dump is evident that's true.

"And this is the best we've got 'til who-knows-when," he heaves out in a defeated sigh, slapping out one of his horribly soggy sleeves. "What d'ya think, did I miss anything?"

[somegrumpynerd]

It was one of the rare nights that Nightmare decided to actually retire to his room for the night. He didn't need sleep, with enough flow of negativity he could easily survive without it, but sometimes it was nice to just lay down and rest.

He had a dream. They were rare too, if only because he slept so infrequently, but this particular one was common for him when he did. It was about killing Dream. The ongoing war between them was constant on his mind, so it made sense it would invade his unwaking hours as well. In it, he finally managed to crush the life from his twin, in the process gaining unwavering control over the entire multiverse as he watched the other's eyelights dim.

He sat up in his bed.

He was panting. His tendrils, slowly reforming from behind him, were trembling as they hung uncertainly in the air. He realised slowly as he returned to reality that he was gripping the sheets tightly with both hands.

Panic was an emotion Nightmare had rarely been on the other side of for centuries. It took him a few long moments to even identify it from within his own soul, rotten and imprisoned under the corruption. It took him even longer to identify the part of him that he had long assumed dead, which was crying out for nothing more than to cling to his brother for comfort.

For the first time in hundreds of years, Nightmare wasn't sure what he wanted anymore.

[rcmclachlan]

what if i put my life in your hands? what if i took your life in mine?

[scattered-winter]

there's something sooooooo heartbreaking about quests as a narrative piece. you set out on this journey to rescue someone or defeat a great evil and along the way you face hardship and horror and you grieve and fight and love and lose and then when it's all over you come home. everything is the same as when you left, but you're so irrevocably different that you no longer fit in the one place you used to be truly at peace. you're tired from your journey but you find no rest or recovery, only ghosts. and you almost wish for another quest, another dangerous mission, because at least then you know your purpose.

[demitsorou]

i'm back sluts

[i-didnt-quite-get-that-now]

i thought it was a given guys why are you shocked?

[stemacademics]

small update

ok so um I got my number theory paper today, and the TA had cut marks for me because i left the answer at 66^2 and not 4356 (fermat's little theorem) 😔 I even wrote the full proof

my friend told me I should mail the TA about this, I got 14/20 and should be getting 17or18/20 😔

scores aside, number theory is so much fun, so much fun. the only good thing here is that I know the concepts well, and I fully knew the paper (still fucked it up, because I'm so frickin slow while writing and time). and it hurts worse because there's not enough proof that validates my knowledge. which in turn makes me question if i actually do have any.

I am, in general, a person who does well in concepts but screws up the exams (70% of the time) and I'm trying, I'm trying to get myself out of this "exam paniK" that I often spiral into, just minutes before the exam. I hope I change and grow; I hope, I hope.

[goldkirk]

question: have any of you personally seen a dietician (not looking for experiences with nutritionists, only dieticians), and did you find it helpful or useful, and if you did see a dietician and you ALSO have seen a GI doctor, how did the experience compare for you in terms of helpfulness + how much you felt listened to and helped?

[doctorbrown]

MCFLY JULY ‘24 ⸺ 「 20 / 31 * LOCAL LEGEND 」

December 5, 2000, 22:54

1646 Riverside Drive, Hill Valley, California

Divergence: Twin Pines(α) — %.5382217

“Doc!!” Marty shouts, leaning so far back in the chair that, for a moment, he experiences that panic-inducing sensation of falling that has him scrabbling for the edge of the desk as his life flashes before his eyes. “Doc, he’s on! Joseph Cabret! He responded to our email! Get over here!”

Emmett grunts his acknowledgement, casting one last long look at the mess of wires hooked into the housing of the Flux Capacitor before he drags a second chair over to the computer. The cursor is already in place over the single unread email in the box and Emmett can see Marty’s finger twitching in anticipation, his eyes glued to the screen.

“Go ahead, Marty,” he prompts, only barely finishing the word go before the email pops open to an intimidating wall of black text. Marty whistles, scrolling down to the bottom of what looks like a very long-winded, very complicated scientific dissertation regarding alleged time-travel that reminds him of most of the papers scattered around the garage right now.

Dear 1.21_Jigowatts,

Emmett groans upon seeing their ridiculous username come back to haunt them in the reply and Marty throws him a lopsided grin and a shrug that says it’s way too late to change it now, Doc.

“It’s the Internet, Doc—who cares? Nobody knows who we are.”

That is the last time he lets Marty pick the name for something without reviewing it first.

Before I address everything you wrote in your email to me, I wanted to comment on your username. Were you aware of its significance in relation to time travel when you joined the forum or did you simply happen upon it by chance? Could it be that you’re a time-traveller too?

If so, I’d love to share stories while we can.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the future, often all limited by the scope of your present time asking for answers to inconsequential things. The next election results, lottery numbers, things of that nature, as if that’ll verify my time-traveller status. And while I can’t say I’m surprised—I’ve studied your current time carefully and unfortunately, your time is remembered for being one of the most chaotic and selfish, so it’s not like I can fault those who ask—there are some, like yourself, who have been asking complex and meaningful questions that show a genuine interest in the possible future and in time-travel that I’m all too happy to answer, as best as I can.

To answer your simplest question first, the reason I stopped in this time is an entirely selfish one. Where I’m from, most of the people I care about have been killed. There was someone very important to my Dad and my family who was killed when I was very young that I wanted to finally meet. I know he's alive now, so I'm here. Even if you think it’s a waste of time, remember that time is of no consequence with the time machine.

Now, to the bulk of this message. I see you’re intimately familiar with the Everett-Wheeler model of quantum physics, which saves me a lot of explaining. You must be a man of science. That model is correct. When I say worldline, I refer to what you’d call an ‘alternate reality’ or an ‘alternate timeline.’ So, each individual worldline represents a set of paths and limits—possibilities, if you would—taken through space-time. These are all subject to the laws of special relativity. No two are exactly the same.

There is a device installed in my time machine that measures the change in each worldline I visit. Its inventor is dead, so I can’t tell you too much about how it works other than a general overview and how to read it, but from what I understand, it collects information from the ‘current’ worldline and uses that to establish a baseline. Then, upon the next jump, a second reading is taken of the new worldline and measured against the first one. The difference—or Divergence, as the device’s creator named it—is expressed in percentages. That's how I know.

The email continues on for several more paragraphs, each delving deeper and deeper into the realm of quantum mechanics with lengthy, detailed answers provided to each question they'd asked in their initial email. A dull ache throbs at the base of Marty’s skull as the words start to blur together and he leans back in his seat, needing a little more space between him and the screen.

Unlike him, Emmett has leaned forward, elbows propped up on the table and his fingers laced tightly together as he takes in every word, unable and unwilling to stop now.

For once, Marty can’t quite get a read on what his friend is thinking based off his strangely serious expression and the occasional noncommittal noise he makes while his eyes dart across the screen. The Doc’s thinking about something—he always furrows his brows like that when he’s deep in thought, puzzling out some scientific conundrum—that he knows he’ll share with him once he’s had the chance to process the information.

He himself isn’t quite sure what to think. After all, he’s heard some of these terms thrown around by Doc in the course of their testing and refinement of the Flux Capacitor. It has to mean something that Joseph Cabret knows it too.

Emmett finally breaks his attention away from the screen to train his still-thoughtful gaze on Marty.

“What do you think, Doc? You think there’s any truth to what he’s been saying the last couple weeks or you think it’s all bullshit?”

The words I look forward to your reply, JC stare back at them from the bottom of the screen and Marty doesn’t know why he suddenly feels self-conscious.

“I think—we can’t entirely rule out the possibility.”

“You mean—seriously?”

“I’m not saying definitively yes or definitively no. A lot of the science he talks about is sound. I’ve come to many of the same conclusions in my own work, as you’ve seen in the tests with the Flux Capacitor. We know time travel is possible. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean everything he says is true. Without any proof positive or photos of his time machine, we’ll have to take everything else he says with a grain of salt.” A flicker of uncertainty passes across Emmett’s face, there and gone in the span of a blink.

He pushes the chair back as Marty asks, “And?”

Emmett blinks. “I’m sorry?”

“I didn’t read all of that,” Marty admits somewhat sheepishly. “I tuned out somewhere around black holes or wormholes and I figured you’d fill me in if there was anything important on the science end I needed to know. But I watched you read it and I saw that look on your face. There's something else bothering you about this.”

He doesn’t answer right away and Marty doesn’t rush to break the silence. Finally, he sighs, turning back to the screen. “No, you’re right. There is something that jumped out at me, but let’s wait and see what else he has to share with us before I start getting ahead of myself.”

 “You’re going to answer him back?”

“Why not?” Marty beams, clearly pleased. “Let’s take a couple minutes to sit with this and then I’ll start working on our reply. If it all turns out to be for nothing in the end, at least we pursued the possibility rather than let it pass us by.”

[swamp-tastic]

Just finished my latest Unicorn Overlord run. It's the bad end one! The grinding was pretty tedious, but all in all it took about 12 hours, so whatever. It's all worth it for [SPOILER]

Wish that character would at the very least be mentioned in the normal ending too, considering who they are.

[thedeadthree]

— WIP FRIDAY !

TAGGED BY the dearest @unholymilf to share a few things ive been working on ! ty ty so much ash dear!

TAGGING: @feystepped, @risingsh0t, @kingsroad, @griffin-wood, @jendoe, @phillipsgraves, @marivenah, @leviiackrman, @chuckhansen, @denerims, @queennymeria, @aartyom, @blissfulalchemist, @shellibisshe, @adelaidedrubman, @florbelles, @corvosattano, @jackiesarch, @wayhavenots, @pegxcarter, @malefiicarum, @nightbloodraelle, @roofgeese, @morvaris, @jacobseed, @nuclearstorms, @carminasolis, @girlbosselrond, @anoras, @fragilestorm, @shadowglens, @arklay and you!

teehee i AT LAST got around to introducing the t*lou dears clowns with the one and only template from ash! so far i have tlou!olga and gianna <3 with this cutest coloring as well !

the VERY early stages of a piece for the dearest marta in honor of fh's release ! with orions cutest template!

another early stages but in honor of oc kiss week a piece for kenny and @griffin-wood's dear raylene with this template !

and now a bit of writing! moments before disaster if you will a piece for alva and rhaegy with a bit of rhaemion and enya lore connecting them to vanna and daemy and their babies !

Summerhal was beautiful at this hour. those fleeting moments before midday and after the morning when the sun was well off to reaching its zenith made even the hardest of hearts gaze in awe.

Alva descended from her horse, vermillion. To her left by a relatively small pond were the horses of Lord Rhaemion Targaryen of Starfall, the princess Elia’s dear longtime friend (and rumored paramour, he too a close and beloved friend of the prince as well, the nature of things was a topic for another morn). And the other of her dearest Prince Rhaegar Targaryen.

She recalls when Rhaemion spoke of reason for choosing his horse. The almost pearlescent mane of his chosen mount reminded him of the scales of his dragon, Parthunaax known by the histories as the Burned Overlord. The Targaryens of Starfall or the Amethyst or Dawn Dragons still possessed the ones belonging to the riders they were bound to during and following the dance. Baelor and Parthunaax, Calla and Nahvintaas (a ilmestian dragon of Vilemyr), and Valaerra who was Rhaemion’s ancestor and her she-dragon Numinex. Though the most notable among them was the Ethereal, the Violet Star of Starfall herself once bound to the mistress of mists Iovanna Dayne, Starspire. The two year old daughter of Rhaemion recently began to speak her first words and has declared her favorite word to be the name of the ethereal. If this is any prediction that the girl at two has already declared her mount will not be a horse, but Starspire herself, one cannot fathom anything else. She laughed when he mentioned he will have to tell the girl when she’s older that the dragons are not to be flown in westeros and she will have to have a horse as he does. Lest the Dragon of myth and prophecy see her end by scorpion bolt.

On leaving vermillion by Rhaemion and Rhaegar’s. She makes her way by the remnants of the stone walkway closer towards the ruin. The three spent a lot of time in summerhall, her and Rhaegar spending the most.

[sinnershavesoulstoo]

I look at you and it hurts My bones are tender, my heart is raw, my soul aches I waste the day hoping for more time to be with you To be in your presence, to feel the warmth of your body when we're close, to gently brush up against one another unexpectedly.

My bones are tender, my heart is raw, my soul aches I waste the day imagining a future with you To be held, and loved, and cherished, to know what safety truly is when we're alone, to be intertwined - not just with our bodies, but our souls.

My bones are tender, my heart is raw, my soul aches I waste the day replaying conversations with you To be told you'd be lost without me, to hear such soft and sincere praise when we're laughing, to wish you'd say more, mean more.

My bones are tender, my heart is raw, my soul aches I waste the day breaking my own heart, because I'm in love with you. To be alone, and hopeless, and scared, to realize this is all one sided after all, to lose the last bit of hope I held onto and to finally fall apart.

[normalbrothers]

there's something darkly funny about arthur sr slinking out of the house all self-pitying after tommy tells him to get out and then more or less teases arthur that he lets tommy walk all over him and needling his resentment towards his brother. so much about that ruthless manipulation and punishing viciousness he exhibits towards arthur is just ... looking into the mirror and not being really happy about it.

[bookishmuggleborn]

hello?🧍🏻‍♀️

[araedi]

// prepare for a spam soon >:) not freed from college for the year yet but only one more essay is technically due before January so I'm excited to get to some fun writing at last!!!

[yohankang]

btw sorry for the influx of negative posts but this is. literally a life defining moment for me and i'm scared shitless so <3 i'll calm down in a week i just need to be dramatic first