#Firstborn

[spockvarietyhour]

Armin Shimerman as Quark in Star Trek The Next Generation & Star Trek Voyager

[secrets-and-shadow]

“The Harbinger’s Path” | Panel preview (in-progress / artwork not final)

While I'm as much a fan of our kind and gentle Pact Marshal as the next person, I confess I'm just as fond of Trahearne's more "fierce" side alluded to several times in the canonical story.

From the core story, where he proclaims that the "wrath of a firstborn is something to fear!" when Amaranda the Lonesome's safety is threatened, all the way to Ridhais describing him as a "living legend."

I like to imagine Trahearne was fiercely defiant during his capture by Mordremoth.

This is a side of him I always wished we could have seen during the Heart of Thorns story. It is one of several themes I wish HoT might have explored, and that we will soon explore in The Harbinger's Path :)

[wisteriagroves]

the curse of the firstborn: you spend your life bending to meet expectations, lowering your head, quieting your wants, swallowing your ‘no’ - until one day you realize you’ve folded yourself into a shape that fits everyone but you.

[thecrowinggriffon]

Deathwatch Bloodbrothers, seraphim sororitas & Grey knights legendary dreadnought done!

[marlynnofmany]

"No, Faerie, you can't have my firstborn because a daemon has a lien on it. You can subordinate to theirs to get my second, you can have them subordinate for the second, or find some way to share up to two children as-yet-unborn. Or, you can not offer me such things..."

A.K.A. prelude to the worst/best second "mortgage" negotiations ever

P.S. the collateral is their soul, so having one child is already expected

That's a scenario rife with possibilities! Everybody involved seems up on their laws and loopholes -- at least according to their own people's customs. I wonder if there's wiggle room in the interpretation somewhere.

Does adoption count? Do the kids have to be 100% human? Can the human go sign a third contract with something scary who thinks it would be a hoot to be legally some human's child, then get a chance to wreak havoc in another realm?

(And if the kid has to be the human's biological child, what if that human seduces the boss of one of the other two? Or them?)

There are many ways this could get far messier than any of them signed up for.

[petpostpitstop]

It's only been two days but I am stupidly attached to Firstborn

Please be a girl please be a girl please be a girl

[sunandmoonkb]

Played around with Space Marine proportions for a bit of fun!

[the-headless-horsedude]

to my memory, i never shared this here, so, yeah

[youhideastar]

firstborn has enraptured me body, mind and soul. please let us know more about your wip!!!

Anon, you have no idea how this ask made my day!!! 🥹 Firstborn is one of those WIPs where I'm like, "It's a good thing *I* like this so much, because no one else is going to want to read it," 🤣 so your ask makes me SO happy. I'm sorry for the delay in responding, but it's honestly because your message inspired me to write a bunch more of the fic!!

Firstborn is an AU that deviates from canon at the point where Zhao Yuanzhou kills Zhao Wan'er - in the fic, she lives, and that sets a bunch of other changes in motion. The action of the story opens five years later; here is the opening scene. I hope you will enjoy it! Thank you again for the ask! ❤️

“I ask for the justice of the Wilderness.”

Zhuo Yichen falls to his knees at the feet of the Baize Goddess. It has taken him a year to make his way here, to the house on the rocky shore of an unending sea – a year of searching the Wilderness, chasing leads that were sometimes only rumors. His twenty-first birthday had come and gone, unremarked, while he traveled. He had passed through Sinan Water Town on his way to Mount Kunlun, and crossed rivers and canyons—now, finally, he can stop moving.

“What justice do you seek?” asks Zhao Wan’er. Her disciple hovers behind her.

“I seek justice against the Great Demon Zhu Yan, for the extermination of my family – the murder of my father and brother, five years ago.”

Zhao Wan’er is silent for a moment. Then she says, “The justice of the Wilderness is not like human justice. It can be brutal, and strange, especially to human eyes. Is that truly what you seek? Once invoked, the justice of the Wilderness must be done – there is no way to take it back.”

Brutal is exactly what Zhuo Yichen wants. “That is what I seek,” he says. “I accept the law of the Wilderness.” In his travels, he learned enough about Wilderness justice to know what is required of him now. He holds out his hand, and Zhao Wan’er holds out a knife. With his palm bleeding, he presses his hand to the ground – to the Wilderness’s earth. He can feel the force of the agreement settle into place.

When it is done, Zhao Wan’er nods. “Do you know the penalty you invoke?”

“Before the question of penalty, there must be someone to bear the penalty,” says Zhuo Yichen. “Goddess, if you tell me where to find Zhu Yan, I will bring him before you for judgment.” He speaks from bravado, not certainty – he knows his chances of capturing a 30,000-year-old Great Demon alone, without the Baize Goddess’s aid, are slim.

But to his surprise, Zhao Wan’er shakes her head. “No need,” she says softly.

“No need?”

“Zhu Yan turned himself in. Five years ago. He is here.”

“What?!”

The ground suddenly feels unsteady under Zhuo Yichen's knees.

“For what?" he asks. "For what crime did he—”

“For this exactly. The murder of your father and brother.”

Zhuo Yichen absorbs that. “Five years ago,” he repeats.

She understands the question. “He asked me to wait. For you,” she says quietly. Zhuo Yichen’s breath catches – taken by surprise again. “He said you would come to seek your vengeance, and that he would wait until you could take it.”

That news is simply too strange to fathom. Zhuo Yichen sets it aside - its truth or falsity is beyond him, although he can think of no reason that the Baize Goddess would lie.

“Zhu Yan is imprisoned in a cave nearby. Tomorrow, I will bring him here for judgment,” says Zhao Wan’er. He notices that, oddly, her hands are shaking. “So I ask again: do you know the penalty you invoke?”

“The penalty for extermination of a clan is death,” Zhuo Yichen replies, steady. He had asked the mountain gods at Mount Kunlun. It was the answer he hoped for.

“That is true,” says Zhao Wan’er. She pauses; the silence stretches. He cannot even make out the sound of the waves. “But your situation, Zhuo-daren, is different. The Zhuo clan was not exterminated. You survived.”

Zhuo Yichen’s stomach lurches. He thought that he knew what he needed to know; that the hard part would be finding the Baize Goddess, and from there, his path to vengeance would be straight and level. He’s starting to have a sinking feeling that he was wrong.

“There are two punishments for the yao who leaves a lone survivor,” recites Zhao Wan’er. “The first is death, at the survivor’s hand. The second is to make restitution in flesh: to bear the survivor a child for each family member who was killed. For the replenishment of the clan.”

He doesn’t know why she’s telling him this. Zhu Yan is a male demon. “Who decides which punishment applies?” He is sure, he is sure that she will say, "you, Zhuo-daren," or, equally acceptable, "I decide."

Zhao Wan’er watches him. Then she says, “The accused.”

Motionless as stone, Zhuo Yichen absorbs the blow. He lets nothing show on his face – none of his rage, his disappointment, his crushing grief. For four years, he built his strength; for another entire year, he traveled the Wilderness seeking its justice. And now that he has found it, it is brutal, indeed.

This must be why Zhu Yan turned himself in and waited, for five years, for Zhuo Yichen to arrive. He waited so he could see the look on Zhuo Yichen’s face when the trap was sprung – when Zhu Yan chooses, tomorrow, a punishment that is an impossibility, a nullity… and walks free while Zhuo Yichen is forced to stand and watch.

Or—

“If Zhu Yan chooses restitution,” asks Zhuo Yichen, hand clenched around the hilt of the Yunguang Sword, “am I barred from taking his life anyway?”

“No,” says Zhao Wan’er. “Once the sentence is passed, you may do as you wish.”

Zhuo Yichen nods. His heart is calm again. The justice of the Wilderness has failed him, and so the road may be longer than he planned. But he will have his vengeance. Even if it takes the rest of his life.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Firstborn of Creation

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. — Colossians 1:15 | English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Cross References: Psalm 89:27; John 1:1; John 1:18; John 14:9; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 1:17

Read full chapter

What does it mean that Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15)?

[krispyboom]

BRUCE WAYNE X GN! READER

You're his firstborn, you helped him through the flood, and now you need an alter ego, but you're insecure thanks to the press.

Two days had passed since Edward Nashton's massive semi-failed plan. After you helped your adoptive father save some people from the water, you became a more public figure of the enigma that was being a vigilante in Gotham City.

Bruce didn't instantly rejoice at seeing you there, arriving with the police where he was beating one of the cult followers, seeing you in the prototype suit he made as a teenager when he was your age. You remember that you didn't expect the shot, how one of the men hanging in the air shot you in the chest, and from the impact, you fell into the water unable to get out because of the black cape caught in the metal, but fortunately, he jumped in after you, searching for you while you cried in his arms out of fear.

"It's over now, you'll be fine." Let's go home. You remember him saying every night that you remember that first inconvenience as Batman's sidekick. You don't take pride in being ridiculed in front of everyone, like someone vulnerable who just wanted to help, you weren't even a shadow of what the bat was, you knew it.

Today, you hear the elevator arriving at the hideout, you're just hunched over sobbing, trying to draw in the notebook Bruce had given you yesterday with the note: "Create a logo, a name, I'll see what I can do." You couldn't think of anything at all, the sheets only had minor and weak scribbles forming scattered lines everywhere, without forming anything. You look at the computer screen where it shows how the city questions Batman and his partner, how they say you're a baby for crying after coming out of the water.

"Am I really a baby?" You raise your gaze to your father, the same one who looks at you with the black mask in his hands and eyes that could challenge a great man. Do you think I can't handle this?

He stays silent, his lips retreating inward and becoming a slight line of heaviness, understanding that you are not ready for this yet. But you want it, you want to help him and you want to know what's right all the time with your own eyes.

"You're not. I wouldn't have given you the notebook if that were the case." he leaves the helmet on the table and presses the button that leaves the computer blank.

You follow him with your eyes to a spot beside you, where he sits and wraps his arms around you to cradle you against his armored chest, where you break into tears. He caresses your hair with his bare hands, his chin resting in the nest of hair on your head, and he breathes deeply the fear that his son has imbued in the air of the hideout.

Close your eyes, listening as his embrace calms you like a child after a nightmare, your breathing becomes regular and you close your eyes with a touch more relaxed than before. You don't see him, you're not worthy of seeing the man who goes out to Gotham, not when you made him waste his time with a rookie mistake like yours, losing your balance so easily under the impulse of the bullet.

"Why didn't you just report me to the orphanage?" you ask, and he opens his eyes, he doesn't have a verbal answer to give you, something spoken that shows why he felt the need to take you to his home when he heard about your lack of responsible adults in your life.

'Because it's not a good place there. Since my father died, the elite haven't given a dime to the orphanage, at least the new orphanage, I don't know if the old one received any." he says and lifts you into his arms like a koala in need of protection, it doesn't bother him in the least, you are his son now, he must satisfy the insecurity you sometimes feel. "Besides, I don't want anyone to fall into madness in this city; one is a good start for more."

Your bare feet touched the ground after asking him to let you down, you see him and look down without feeling right again. You walk over to the notebook on the floor and pick it up, your scribbles only showing a poorly drawn bat with two holes made from tears accumulated on the paper.

You tear off the page and see your father through the holes, he smiles at your curiosity before carefully taking the page, your design, from your hands.

"A mask?" he asks. You just smile and shrug, and he laughs as he walks to the computer after placing the paper in a scanner.

In the middle of the screen, a reconstruction of your face appears, where the scanned image is arranged by the computer as if it were a mask. They look at each other smiling when they understand exactly what you want for your hero costume.

"Did you think of a name? It said it in the note." he points to your notebook, and when he sees your silence, he laughs knowing that you had no idea how you wanted the people of Gotham to know you in your alter ego. "Robin."

"Robin?! Your crazy minds will mock me!" you protest as your father write "Robin" in the file of your face, even though you hear that it annoys you like nothing else has ever annoyed you in your life.

"What? It's a small and furious bird like you." He mocks your angry behavior and you quickly approach to struggle over what he writes as a description of some trait.

[gort-grundlekin]

Been having a relaxing time painting up a bunch of my space marines. Tactical marines of the Iron Knights chapter, fifth company. Three regular brozos, couple of flamers and two sergeants.

I love old monopose marines, what dorks. Theyre simple and quick to paint, especially with the easy scheme of the Iron Knights. If I was picking a chapter nowadays, id probably go for something more gaudy and fun, but then I doubt id be painting so many (for me).

Of course I have to show off the freehanded chapter symbol 🥵

And that makes two combat squads! Perfect size for my custom razorbacks with a character friend.

Onto my devastators next!

[secrets-and-shadow]

Ahh! I really want to show more of The Harbinger's Path comic pages I've been working on, but I know I have to balance that by not showing too much, and spoiling too much of the first chapter. Which I estimate I should have finished by the end of this month, or early next month (May).

Here is another little preview with Trahearne and Malyck in the meantime - I'm also still deciding between whether to post the first chapter's pages as they're finalized, or to post the entire first chapter when it's all finished. I asked this on bsky last week, but figured I'd also ask here!

I'll ask in a poll in a separate post, but also feel free to let me know in this post, or wherever, if you have opinions. :)

[sshbpodcast]

He’s from that other Star Trek!

By Ames

Over on the A Star to Steer Her By podcast, Discovery has finally met up with Ethan Peck’s Spock after weeks of teasing us with the cross-series cameo we’d been promised. And it got the SSHB hosts thinking: When are guest appearances of characters from other Trek series worth it, and when are they strictly for the audience's recognition? And when are they inexplicably simultaneously both?

Gene Roddenberry spent all of The Next Generation insisting that it be kept separate from The Original Series, but once the Great Bird was no longer with us, that door was unceremoniously kicked down! Every series after TOS has its moments of “I know this character from the other thing!” for the audience to do the Leonardo DiCaprio point at their screen and feel immediately good about themselves. We’re going to go through all the instances of main characters showing up in other series from TNG through the Kelvin films. Follow along with us on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 48:19). You’ll never believe who shows up!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

TNG: “Encounter at Farpoint” Every series premiere after The Original Series has some sort of baton-handoff scene between one of the preexisting characters and our new folks, and in The Next Generation, that came as a lovely moment between McCoy and Data. The scene obviously evokes an amicable succession while also promising to the audience that the franchise will be in good hands. But we’re just such fans of Bones here that we’re fine being catered to.

TNG: “Unification” It’s not until season five that we see another TOS alumnus, and that’s when Spock drops by to work things out between the Vulcans and the Romulans. It’s something we can emphatically see being relevant to his character, especially after the steamy events of “The Enterprise Incident,” so it’s a pretty seamless plot in that regard. Even if we know that behind the scenes, this was a marketing tie-in with Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, we’re here for it.

TNG: “Relics” We have one more classic Trek appearance in TNG, and that’s a temporally-displaced Scotty popping out of a transporter buffer—which is the most Scotty way of showing up somewhere that we can think of. The episode is also more than just a “I know that guy” bell and whistle. Seeing Montgomery Scott, a genius of his time, struggling with obsolescence is more impactful than it would have been if they’d written the episode for some rando we don’t care about.

TNG: “Birthright” I may have said that was the last TOS main who shows up in TNG, but we still have more crossover cameos! When Julian Bashir shows up to be an eccentric weirdo in “Birthright,” it’s definitely more wanky. Clearly, they’re just trying to promote Deep Space Nine, and not even all that well because the scene would have made more sense with a different character. There’s no reason a medical officer would be involved in this engineering plot!

TNG: “Firstborn” There’s just one final TNG cameo that we could think of, and it’s the wankiest one. When Quark appears on a screen to talk to Riker in “Firstborn,” it is only to advance the plot. Strike that, anyone could have done that. It was only so viewers could get that sense of righteousness when they recognize a thing they know and get to feel smart. At least they probably just filmed Armin Shimerman between scenes on the DS9 set.

Generations Let’s move on to the TNG films, which also feature cameos from the other shows, some more blatant than others. Generations is super obvious about this because the whole film is a “what if Kirk and Picard had an adventure together?” fanfic that, frankly, glosses right over a perfectly serviceable Kirk character arc. But we also get clear the fan service inclusion of Chekov and Scott at the beginning, complete with tongue-in-cheek press. Clearly Nimoy, Kelly, and Nichols all said no, and it’s all so obvious the two who showed up just inherited their lines.

Nemesis One more quick wank and then we’ll move on. Admiral Janeway pops up in Nemesis just to help Picard advance the plot. It’s a fairly throwaway scene that could have gone to anyone, but fans of Voyager would feel rewarded to see that their favorite captain has gotten promoted and is safe and secure in the quadrant where she belongs. Shockingly, there’s no dog yapping in the background of her Zoom window.

DS9: “Emissary” Onward to Deep Space Nine! We’ve got a much bigger baton handoff for the series premiere this time, with the captain of the previous show showing up to give our new hero his mission. Having Sisko immediately loathe Picard was a daring move to kick off a show, but that animosity propels the whole series forward. DS9 promises not to be the cuddle-factory crew that TNG boasted, and contrasting the two leads in front of your very eyes highlights that for you.

DS9: “Defiant” This cameo has a one-two punch! Just when you think it’s just going to be a William Riker appearance for the fans to wank about, it’s revealed that this is actually Tom Riker! Who’s technically the same person, so we’ll count it. After his introduction in “Second Chances,” it’s nice to see Tom’s character get a little arc that makes sense for him, that brings peril to the station’s characters, and that’s a genuinely solid story on its own.

DS9: “Through the Looking Glass” If we counted Tom Riker in this little exercise, we might as well count Mirror Universe characters too. For the most part, including Mirror Tuvok in the Terran Resistance feels like it’s mostly one of those “Look, it’s a guy to wank about!” instances. But the more you think about it, the more interesting it gets. On the podcast, we give the Mirror Universe more scrutiny than it merits, but here’s an example of things not always being 1:1 because this Tuvok isn’t in the Delta Quadrant! Fascinating!

DS9: “Trials and Tribble-ations” Here’s an episode that is expressly fankwank! And we wanked! Almost all the DS9 crew gets to meet all of the TOS crew, so this episode is much more than allowing a character from another series to appear for a story. It’s forming the whole story around that and making it so self conscious and impressive that “Trials and Tribble-ations” is really its own kind of animal. The references are the entire point, and seeing the two crews together feels earned.

VOY: “Caretaker” Before the plunge into the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager has time for one of the franchise’s typical baton handoffs at Deep Space Nine, and it’s a fairly good one! Not only do we get the prescribed cameo from a previous show’s main character when we see Quark trying to rip off Harry at the bar, but the whole scene sets up the Tom-Harry dynamic that will become emblematic of the whole series. It’s a Ferengi two-for-one special!

VOY: “Death Wish” You’re going to see Riker turn up in other series the most, and this is the second of three times we’re going to see him in this list (and we’re not even getting to streaming Trek this week!). In Voyager, his appearance just seems kinda dumb. It being Riker of all people whom Q manifests during Quinn’s trial doesn’t add anything specific to the plot. He’s just there because the audience will recognize him. At least Frakes doesn’t play his ancestor in the photo.

VOY: “Flashback” Coming out at about the same time as DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-ations,” Voyager’s recognition of the 30th anniversary also brings some familiar faces to the screen. This time, it’s Sulu and Rand (whom I’d argue is a main character, underappreciated though she was) appearing in flashbacks on the Excelsior during the time of The Undiscovered Country. It all makes sense in the context of the episode while still being distinct as an episode of Voyager.

VOY: “Timeless” I’d put the Captain La Forge cameo in “Timeless” about on par with the Janeway cameo in Nemesis on the wankiness scale. There’s no good reason for him to be the one chasing down Chakotay and Kim except that the audience knows who he is. And frankly, we don’t think his career journey would lead to captaincy anyway. Maybe this is where Riker should have turned up? Or better yet, have it be Captain Data and establish in this timeline he never died in Nemesis!

VOY: “Pathfinder,” “Lifeline,” and “Inside Man” What’s much more conducive for a guest cameo is utilizing Troi’s role as a counselor usefully for a change! We probably see her do her job more in her three appearances on Voyager than in all of The Next Generation, and it’s so nice to see! She influences the plot! She shows competence at her job! She has a very believable rapport with Barclay! And Marina Sirtis gets to actually show her humor in her scenes. This is one of few times when we’re glad we got more of a character. Until...

ENT: “These Are the Voyages…” Riker continues his pattern of popping up somewhere in each of the subsequent Trek series with our final broadcast-era show, Enterprise. The 2000s series did have a sort-of handoff scene in the premiere, “Broken Bow,” with the Zephram Cochrane footage, but he wasn’t a main character, so it doesn’t count for this exercise! The finale, on the other hand, just plain shouldn’t exist. The SSHB hosts find forcing Riker and Troi into this prequel series to be in poor taste, as we’ve discussed many times before. Fuck this episode.

Star Trek (2009), Into Darkness, and Beyond It’s appropriate that we end with more Spocks! We just met him on Discovery, and we wouldn’t have gotten here without the Kelvin films. Making Nimoy’s Spock integral to the plot was a smart inclusion and we have to commend these films for doing it tastefully, cleverly, and most important: logically. It’s much more than sating the crowd with things they’ll recognize. Nimoy’s inclusion was pivotal to making the universe make sense in the most Star Trek–y way.

—

One of these days, we’ll come back to this assignment after we’ve seen more of the streaming series and see what the differences and similarities are there. Will it be more fanwank? Will the proportions of cameo appearances be overwhelmingly represented in Lower Decks? Keep following along to find out! Until then, you can keep listening to our watchthrough of Discovery over on SoundCloud, YouTube, or wherever you podcast. You can also make a cameo appearance to us by finding us on Facebook and BlueSky, especially if you’re William Riker. That guy shows up everywhere!

[thecrowinggriffon]

Painting filthy xenos

[postcard-from-the-past]

Duchess Marie Gabrielle Mathilde Isabelle Therese Antoinette Sabine in Bavaria with her firstborn son Luitpold Maximilian Ludwig Karl, Hereditary Prince of Bavaria

German vintage postcard