#all-devouring black hole randomness

[flowersandcandy06]

Randomness // 43: Hole

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-[Info Stuff]-

Originally Posted: January 13th

Mouseover Text on OG Page: "NOOOOO that welcome mat was 50 dollars!!!! Shaking my smh how could black hole do this"

Author's Note: "Ok we're back to shenanigans,, Woop-Woop who cheered

I hope you guys love black holes because here's one!! :D no refunds sorry"

[Link 2 Page]

[usagi-chwan]

🌸 Characters in this headcanon : Ranpo, Kunikida, Yosano, Akutagawa & Oda.

🌸 Spoils : none.

At the haunted house with BSD's characters (BSDxReader, part 1)!

Ranpo

• He's probably the type of person who stalks you until you walk into the haunted house with him. And while you're freaking out, he would just be there, all smiles.

• Of course, he's holding one of those fair's cotton candy from the beginning to the end, and walks quietly through the houses' corridors, occasionally eating a piece of pink sugar, while you're clinging to his jacket just to be sure not to lose him or even just to reassure you.

• A zombie with half-decomposed skin pops in front of you, Rampo not even reacting, just like for the previous ones and probably even for the next ones. You start wondering: does he even get scared ? He seems to be so carefree and laid back all the time, except when it comes to solving cases.

• In the end, seeing him remaining this calm has a good influence on you: you stop shaking as much as the beginning of the house tour, and the poorly disguised people seem less and less frightening to you.

• You even started to notice all the mistakes and lack of good taste, which appear obvious to anyone who is a bit detail-oriented, like this witch wearing a hat labeled from a random store or the loudspeakers visible behind badly pulled black curtains.

• When you finally get out of this house, you warmly welcome the sunlight. Sighing in relief, focusing back on Ranpo who still says nothing.

• His face is neutral, and the cotton candy he was holding is now completely devoured, leaving only a now useless stick. You were about to ask him what he thought, kinda worrying that he found it highly boring.

• But, before you said anything, your hand barely brushing his shoulder, he faints, his face as white as the ghosts 'discount sheets back in there.

• Conclusion, Ranpo is not fond of haunted houses. Next time, he'll keep his spoiled-child whims to himself, instead of harassing you to get into that bloody low-budget house of horror.

• In order to get him to recover from his emotions, youstill bought him another cotton candy as soon as he woke up. Maybe theoperation wasn't a total failure for himself, after intense consideration. Ifit allowed him to get free sweets

~

Kunikida

• To be honest, it was your idea to go to this haunted house and just see what happens in there. On the way to get there, you saw many people complaining about how scary this was and how they screamed while exploring the horror of this house.

• Kunikida was anything but willing to get there, just coming to this amusement park in the first place wasn't even a good idea to him. This is totally not going to help him to finish his work. But he couldn't resist your puppy look.

• This office rat finally followed you into the haunted house, and you were immediately assaulted by these hoarse violin notes they call music, which were not very reassuring. Of course, it didn't take you too long to let out your very first scream.

• You expected Kunikida to do the same throughout your journey. And he did at first, slightly, but he did. And then, the situation changed. Radically.

•At the corner at the end of the corridor, was an entirely black path, only a red light was guiding you through the dark, and you crossed paths with the first "monster" , other than the cardboard pieces and the puppets. A person who wore a sheet, with only two small holes for his eyes, who waved his arms while screaming "ouuuuh" tiredly.

• No doubt he had been there for hours, and the job was anything but stimulating.

• Then, you saw Kunikida walking towards the said "monster", with a wilful look, while he was searching something in one of his pockets. He then pulled out slips of paper, and handed one to the extra.

•"Here, if you come to the agency we'll find you a better job than this one, promise", he said, leaving you speechless, talking a little louder than usual to cover the background music that came sizzling out of the poorly concealed loudspeakers.

• Obviously, he did not stop there. Each new disguised individual Kunikda crossed paths with, a new flyer was distributed. Any fearsome dimension had been vanished by this young man wearing glasses, and you were just dragging yourself behind Kunikida, wearily.

• For your information, the hand-crafted agency leaflet by Kunikida was as always beautifully executed. If you weren't already working there, you would have easily tried your luck too.

• Here's a quick summary of your trip in that house: the owners of the haunted house asked you to please leave the premises as soon as possible, furious that their employees had realized that their work was not the best there was.

• But, surprisingly, during the next few days, several people came to check out at the agency, hoping to find a better paid job, and obviously more decent than their previous one. As the distributed flyers boasted so well.

• Kunikida will gladly hang out with you if it ends up like this every time. "Efficiency" was a word he loved above all others.

~

Yosano

• She was the one who first suggested the idea of the haunted house, and you obediently followed the dark-haired woman.

• You just tried some roller coasters, and you needed a nice little break to recover from your emotions. But of course, your little trip here was limited in time because the park is closed at night, sitting on a bench waiting for it to close was out of the question.

• After a little shopping stop, during which you bought Halloween accessories, in order to get in the mood as much as possible, you walked towards the haunted house, which was the total opposite of all the other colorful attractions around.

• Even before going inside, you were already bothered by a group of boys, who suggested that you could cling to them if you were afraid. Yosano didn't say anything but she smiled: a big, forced smile, and you went in ahead of them.

• Yosano was as calm as usual, and you were the only one to jump and scream at every jumpscare or weird sound. At the same time, how could the dark-haired young lady be scared when the fake blood used was so poorly done?

• She's used to see the real thing almost every day, she knows what she's talking about. A cute group of amateurs, according to her.

• Of course, those huge jerks from earlier were waiting for you around the corner. And when they saw that you were in immeasurable distress, they had once again offered to help you to get through this house.

• Totally confused, you were ready to cling to the closest one, you hadn't really paid attention. Fortunately, Yosano was keeping an eye on the situation.

• At the very moment a hand touched your shoulder, obviously one of the jerks' hands, definitely as annoying as the music playing in your ears, Yosano has come to your rescue.

• "What do you think you're doing, you bastard? Touching her with your nasty hands and you'll join the corpses strewn on the ground. Don't worry, I'm a doctor so you won't suffer much. You will suffer A LOT."

• The end of the visit was quiet and peaceful, especially for those damn boys, who decided to stay far away from Yosano and you. A very good and wise decision, if one asked the doctor's opinion.

~

Akutagawa

• In fact, the lameness of the attraction totally got along with what he felt at the moment.

• You were, of course, the one who suggested going there , secretly hoping to see a side of this guy you would never have suspected. You glanced at Akutagawa each time a screamer was popping in front of you, full of hope, but without any result.

• He was never scared, not even in front of the painted pieces of cardboard that popped up from time to time right in front of you. And you...You didn't have any time to worry about external events, way too focused on this bicolor-haired dude for that.

• You had never seen him like this. Sickened that much. It was one of your precious few days off, and you thought it'd be good to bring him to have a little fun at the local fair. But, of course, Akutagawa didn't have the same notion of fun as you do.

• He was so bored that he yawned every thirty seconds. Those disguised guys didn't put any effort in scaring Akutagawa in the end because well... It didn't work at all. They were trying, that was already it.

• Too annoyed by your comrade, you began to analyze the numerous decorations around you, with a careless look, as impassive as Akutagawa's, focusing on the way to cheer up the boy.

• When you got back to business, looking for your partner, you noticed something: you were completely alone. Akutagawa must have kept walking without noticing that you weren't following anymore, and you started panicking.

• Because, let's be honest, the mere presence of Akutagawa reassured you soooo much. The calmness you witnessed in him had a huge influence on you, but not anymore, because he was very far now.

• When the next jumpscare popped, you screamed like never before, making your throat hurt in a second. Soon followed by many others, the disguised-duded seemed to get back to serious business, since it's finally working. An efficient work indeed.

• Not like their pitiful show for this damn black and white-haired dude.

• In the end, you found yourself running fast as hell through the endless haunted house's hallways, cursing yourself out loud for having the idea to get in here in the first place.

• Then, after a few corriors, your furious race came to an end. You indeed bumped into something. Terrified at first maybe that was a ghost or some other crap, you struggled like a lion to escape its grip.

• Just before something lifts you by the collar, causing you to open your eyes in astonishment. You were high in the sky, far from the scary things, thanks to Rashomon that, you noticed, was carrying you. Akutagawa walked resolutely towards the exit, and you were following "obediently". You had never been happier to see him in your entire life.

• Everyone looked at you on the way, of course, hanging like you were: like a jacket on a coat rack. What were these sorts of red and black threads, first of all? One of the house's special effects?

• You obviously got yelled at once you got out of this hell, either for losing sight of Akutagawa or simply for suggesting this idea at the beginning. Be scared of a stupid "haunted" house? What a shame for the mafia.

• In the end, Akutagawa was much more scared and emotional about losing you in the house than all that useless crap they called scary.

• But that was a secret of course.

~

Oda

• You came to this park because the children Oda was looking after said they wanted to. They wanted to have a little fun and go out, so an amusement park was the best solution, especially during this festive period.

• Looking after so many kids at once was a harsh task, and two adults to do this weren't too many. Luckily, some were much wiser and docile than others, which made your job much slightly easier.

• The haunted house was Kôsuke's idea: the most energetic among all the children. No doubt, that was in order to scare his brothers and sisters, especially Sakura in reality, the only girl. And also to prove he was the bravest of them all, by the way.

• Spoil: nothing went as planned. All the children, including Kôsuke, spent their time screaming and crying, begging both of the adults to get them out of there as soon as possible.

• Curious, you glanced at Oda, and you saw him as calm as usual. Those things that were supposed to scare him didn't make him flinch or even open his eyes in surprise. He was staring at the five children in front of him, who were making themselves as small as possible.

• When you finally got out of that damn house, you spent several long minutes reassuring and calming the children. Even Kôsuke was not showing off, not at all actually. The only one who seemed to be a bit peaceful was Sakura, who also came to pat her brothers' backs hoping to calm them down.

• Then, you decided to try some of the other attractions, which are a lot more "peaceful" in order to distract the children and try to make them forget this unfortunate haunted house. Candies, of course, as well as stuffed animals representing the fair's mascot (Halloween version) to comfort them, and you were finally able to bring them home.

• Everyone was exhausted from such a day, and you expected the children to fall asleep immediately. So you left them with the restaurant owner, as usual, before getting back home.

• In the middle of the night, however, a phone call woke you up. You heard a multitude of weak, tearful, imploring voices on the line... Begging you to come back because they were afraid that evil ghosts would come to harm them.

• Conclusion: the haunted house was not really a good idea when you're looking after children. Unless one was willing to spend the next two weeks sleeping with them every night.

• Spoil: that was indeed what happened to you.

• Oda and you still got back to the fair, just to be able to enjoy the different attractions a little better. The haunted house was way scarier than the first time around, now that your mind wasn't set on child safety.

• This time, you were the one who didn't want to sleep alone for the next two weeks.

• Oda was obviously delighted.

•Spoil: it was ironic.

[honourablejester]

More Starfinder Cool Creatures

I recently acquired Alien Archives 3 & 4, so I had a browse through to see what other weird and wonderful space fantasy creatures the Starfinder universe might have to offer.

I’m going to divide these into three broad categories, because there’s a couple of themes to my preferences. Heh. First, we have space undead. Because I just deeply enjoy space undead. Then we’ve got a loose cluster of what I’m going to call space hazards/space ecologies, creatures that inhabit the void of space and make life interesting for spacers. And finally we just have a grab-bag of more random planetary and weird beasties.

Space Undead

I deeply, deeply enjoy Starfinder’s sheer range of space undead. Because the elemental terrors of the void leading to uniquely fucked up deaths and resulting unquiet souls is deeply satisfying to my space horror loving soul.

Endling. Endlings are basically the ghosts of extinct species trying to wreak vengeance on whatever they believe brought about their end, ghostly vengeance on a species level. There’s a planet in the Veskarium that was aggressively mined out, obliterating the native ecology, and the capital city is now menaced by what are essentially spectral ghost pigs. Which is amazing.

Itmi Vruh. Okay. So we know I deeply enjoy space undead. And we know I deeply enjoy the scary end of FTL and hyperspace travel. The Itmi Vruh are the perfect fusion of those two space horrors. When a ship tries to perform a jump into the Drift and something goes wrong, rather than throwing the whole ship out or crashing, sometimes the ship makes it through, but the souls of several people onboard don’t, and are sucked out to blunder around the Drift, leaving their bodies inexplicably dead behind them. Itmi Vruh want those bodies back, and if they happen upon other ships in the Drift, they will attempt to possess people on them. So there’s two fantastic spacer horror tales to be afraid of: that the Drift will suck out your soul if you jump wrong, and that the fucking resultant space ghosts from hyperspace will possess you even if you make it safely in. Absolutely fantastic. Love it.

Vorthuul. Vorthuul are undead left behind by people who got sucked into a black hole, and they’re formed of two elements: a super dense obsidian skeleton overlaid by a screaming spectral form. Kasathan mystics think that these are in fact two separate quantum spirits formed when the forces of the event horizon fucking bent time and space so that two versions of the same person got overlaid together, one being horrifically stretched and screaming in agony, the other being crushed by gravity into infinite density. So you get two torturous deaths for the price of one! Any ship, station or observation post that passes too close to a black hole, even if it avoids being sucked in, might get invaded by one or more of these tormented things, like hideous avatars of the inimical force waiting to devour us all. They are so cool. Horrifying, obviously. But so cool.

Space Ecology/Hazards

There is something about imagining creatures that live in the void that is just … extremely happy-making to me. These are all creatures that kind of create an ecology in the emptiness of space. And/or creatures that create hazards in space, things that make the already-terrifying void and vacuum even more dangerous in interesting ways. These aren’t planetary sorts of dangers, they’re things you encounter in starships. Or inside stars. Or on space stations. And I love them.

Dawn Beetle. They’re giant iridescent solar dung beetles who dig around for debris inside the middle layers of stars to make giant heat-resistant junk balls that eventually are drawn back down to the core of the star to be used as a hatchery for future dawn beetles. If there is no debris (eg asteroids, shipwrecks, etc) inside the star, they sometimes try to ride solar flares out into the universe beyond, usually winding up stranded. They’re just delightfully weird, beautiful, funky little guys. They also hang around the Burning Archipelago of bubble cities in the surface of the Pact Worlds’ sun, which is one of my favourite locations in the setting.

Giant Space Tardigrade. It is a tardigrade. The size of a starship. It’s a titanic lumbering space bear-bug that is trying very hard to eat your starship, because there’s not a lot of food in the void of space and it’s very hungry. They’re extraordinarily tough, and they have personalities, varying from vengeful to playful, if usually still rather destructive even when trying to be friendly. They’re a fantastic combination of adorable and deeply aggravating, and just a fantastic thing to exist.

Kaion. I love the Diaspora as a location so much. The asteroid belt is home to so many of my favourite things in this setting. Here, they’re starship eating metallic space molluscs with bioelectricity and biomagnetism and weapons that function as basically railgun harpoons where they use their magnetic fields to launch hardened bodyparts at prey and draw them back via the same biomagnetism. I love when space ecology gets weird.

Lurker in Light. Evil space fey that are invisible in light and hunt in places like high tech cities and space stations and starships that are basically perpetually lit up. They’re sadistic little fuckers who like to hunt and hurt people, and to find them to make them stop often involves having to power down whole damned sections of the city/station/ship to force them into the open. Which. On a ship or a station. You have to turn off power in the void of space because an evil space fairy is hiding in the glare of the lights to hurt you. That is an excellent horror story right there. As they get older they become radioactive, which is just excessive, honestly. These are evil little things, and they’re excellent.

Shipkiller Bulb. They’re giant space plants that inhabit the ice rings of gas giants harvesting asteroids and ice for minerals and water while absorbing sunlight from the nearest star. Which is all fine, and another fantastic example of weird space ecology, but they’re called also shipkiller bulbs for a reason. And that reason is that they violently hate Drift travel, and if already starving when annoyed, they will violently attempt to tear an offending starship near them to pieces with tendrils and gravity attacks. If they successfully kill the ship, they’ll feed off the hull the same way they’d feed off an asteroid. They’re easy enough to take down with shipboard weaponry if you know they’re there in time, but if you didn’t see them before they absolutely lost their shit on top of you, you might be in for a bad time. I just. I deeply enjoy all these space hazards?

Voraija. Space whales! Different space whales to the previously-mentioned telepathic Omas. Voraija communicate via microwave radiation ‘songs’ that reverberate through starship hulls, can live up to a millennium, and follow long, meandering migratory paths looking for gas giants to birth their young inside. They can wreak absolute havoc on planetary communications systems and have been driven off as a result, and have also been hunted for use in biotech, resulting in some of the older individuals and pods holding powerful grudges. They’re just. I mean. They’re space whales. What more could a girl want?

Random Beasties

And then a final collection of just everything else that caught my eye.

Irokiroi. They’re just beautiful. Predatory sky-serpents with multiple gorgeous wing-fins from the toxic gas-moon of Osoro near Liavara, they’re absolutely deadly and absolutely gorgeous. They’ve recently been attacking a lot of settlements on the moon, possibly related to increasing ‘safari’ trips into the gas clouds stirring them up. Which is an excellent lesson on ecological non-interference, but they’re also so beautiful, so I can kinda understand. I would probably do something ill-advised and likely fatal to be able to see one too.

Kothama. These are less creatures and more people, so arguably shouldn’t be on this list, but they’re seriously enchanting, so I made an exception. They’re 18ft tall multi-legged shaggy ice bear-trolls that are completely peaceful and obsessed with star-gazing, and I love them dearly. They live on two icy outer worlds in the Vesk system that share a moon. Twice a year the orbits of the two planets pass close enough to hand off the moon, and the Kothama go on sacred pilgrimages via magical gates to the moon and the other planet when this occurs. They’re just … so mystical and cool?

Polyphonic Gel. It’s an ooze. It’s a sparkly, smoked-glass looking tiny ooze made up of millions of semi-fluid fibres that eat sound and sing. They can also use said sonic emissions to do horrific damage to people and things, but that’s incidental. They’re so pretty. They can get really big if fed a consistent diet of sound, like the thrum of industrial fans for example, but then get cravings for specific sounds and can thoroughly rampage through a place in search of them. Devotees of the goddess of music Shelyn believe that they’re sacred and can be a little overzealous in trying to help them out at times. Which I fully understand!

Rendalairn. They (or possibly it, singular) are massive (30ft diameter) metallic superweapons that rove around killing planets. They just hurtle around, land on a world, and tear it the hell up until they’ve wiped out everything intelligent down there. There are two known worlds where this has happened. On one of them, the rendalairn sent a polite telepathic message to everything in orbit to stay away from the ‘demolition site’ and then started telepathically playing music from the culture it was destroying as it razed the planet. On the other, there was no music, but it did still broadcast the warning. No one knows who built them, or sent them, or how they choose worlds to target, so it’s all a little terrifying, but it’s another fantastic bit of spacer lore to throw into your setting.

Sapient Purple Orb. Exactly what it sounds like. They’re sentient, friendly little psychic purple orbs that bob around trying to make first contact with new friends. They’re telepathic but also show visions on their surfaces to people. If they like their new friends, they get very protective of them. They also tend to appear in waves, and in noticeably smaller numbers each time, so there’s something mysterious going on there. They’re just a fascinating little phenomenon, and also adorable.

Vasporan. I blame the art for this one, because they’re just adorable. They’re 11ft fucking tall, granted, but they’re adorable blue giant squid-shrews that can rapidly molt or partially molt their shells into either disposable shields or gas pocket balloons for flight. They’re ambush predators, and dangerous, and, again, 11ft tall, but they’re really, really, really cute.

Warpstitcher. These things remind me so strongly of both the Weavers and the Slake Moths from Perdido Street Station. In different ways, obviously, but still. Serious Bas-Lag vibes with this one. They’re interdimensional spider-like aberrations that target powerful magic-or-tech users and stitch their victims onto their bodies to feed on their minds (which normally is irreparably damaging even for the few who survive, but can, very rarely, open the surviving mind up to revelation and euphoria). They hunt the people they do because they believe that magic and tech (especially the Drift) is doing irreparable damage to the fabric of the multiverse. They believe that before the Gap they were responsible for stitching the multiverse into a single whole, but something that happened in the Gap ripped them away from their true abilities and calling, and now they need to punish those they believe might have been responsible. They’re … The Bas-Lag vibes are very strong, yes?

I love the Starfinder setting so much. Science fantasy and space horror are such fantastic genres for me. I enjoy them deeply.

[multi-lefaiye]

MAZZAKARR - THE LORD OF SLAUGHTER

HERE WE GOOOOO MAZZY BOY LORE DUMP!!! this isn't all the lore i've come up with for this character and the fictional religion surrounding him, but i figured this is the best general overview i can offer at this time.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR THE LORE DUMP: child abuse, cannibalism, torture, and murder. all just mentions, but still, tread lightly if any of that bothers you.

art/writing/random lore taglist: @anexor @skitzo-kero @invaderskoodge @vacantgodling @chaieyestea

@albatris @void-botanist @kk7-rbs @moonflowerrss @corvus-rose

@angsty-prompt-hole @astral-runic @paradoxspir1t

--

(also, a lot of specific terminology and locations mentioned here are related to locations in d&d, but you don't need to know those to understand this i think)

Names / Titles. Mazzakarr, The Apex Predator, The Lord of Slaughter, The Master of the Hunt, The Father (many variations of these titles are acceptable)

Pronouns. He/Him

Domains. Death, Strength, Bestial, Blood

Home Plane. Mazzakarr is a prisoner in Carceri, specifically in the realm of Cathrys. Once, however, he was a spirit of the Beastlands.

Alignment. Neutral Evil.

Visage. Mazzakarr is a tall, broad being with a strongman’s physique, built of powerful muscle cushioned by body fat. He has burning hot, green-tinted skin and thick patches of dark brown fur on his body, including a mane down his back. Most strikingly, he has the head of a spotted hyena, with four glowing red slits for eyes and a grin full of jagged teeth. He wears no armor and minimal clothing, often just a pair of black trousers and heavy, adamantine-toed boots. As a prisoner in Carceri, Mazzakarr wears an enchanted metal collar around his neck, and a pair of gauntlets disguising the cuffs around his wrists. Though the chains holding him in place are invisible to mortals, he feels their presence weighing him down all the same.

Voice. Mazzakarr’s voice is a deep, booming growl, with a strangely melodic quality despite his animalistic demeanor and appearance. Many of those who hear his voice whispering to them say that it sounds almost like a lullaby, the Apex Predator’s song lulling them to embrace the ways of slaughter. Like the hyenas that share his face, however, Mazzakarr has a very distinct laugh, which echoes around the jungles of Cathrys as he stalks his prey.

Commandments / Tenets.

Fight for survival, and never allow yourself to grow complacent with what you have.

Cull and consume the weak-willed who do not fight for themselves. Only the strong must survive.

Kill or be killed. Adapt or die. Move forward or fall behind.

The First Hunter. Though his name has been lost to history, an important piece of mythos for Mazzakarrans is that of the First Hunter, the first mortal to hear the whispers of Mazzakarr and embrace the spirit of slaughter. He was a mere civilian lost in a hopeless, endless war, who had lost everything he had to an invading army. Before they could kill him, however, he fled from them, and for three days and three nights, they chased him through the wilds.

Then, one night, as the Hunter struggled to stay awake, terrified of being found and killed by those searching for him, he heard the voice of the Apex Predator.

If you want to survive, you must kill them before they kill you, Mazzakarr whispered to him. Devour those who would stand against you. Take what is yours. Fight, and you will escape.

And the First Hunter listened. When daybreak came, his pursuers found him, and he slaughtered them one by one. And then, he devoured them entirely--mind, body, and soul.

After the war finally came to an end, the First Hunter continued to spread the word of Mazzakarr, encouraging others to accept the spirit of slaughter into their hearts. Many modern Mazzakarrans see him as a prophet-like figure, the first follower of their god.

The Blood-Kin. Of Mazzakarr’s most devoted followers, none compare to the blood-kin, those chosen to share his blood and become his prophets.

At a very young age, the prospective blood-kin are selected to be taken and raised by acolytes of Mazzakarr to embrace his ideals. Each child is assigned one dedicated caretaker, who raises them in isolation from each other. It is this caretaker’s responsibility to feed and nurture the blood-kin, all the while training them to fight, to struggle, and to remain loyal to their Father, the lord of slaughter himself.

At some point in the prospective blood-kin’s youth, whenever they are ready to ascend, their caretaker will try to kill them. If they succeed in killing their caretaker to save themself, they earn the right to ascend and become one of Mazzakarr’s chosen. If they fail, they die, and their corpse is discarded to rot.

After proving themself, the prospective blood-kin is taken to the High Temple, where the ritual to bind them to their god is performed. The exact steps are kept a tight-lipped secret, but the blood-kin is to remain conscious and aware as their body is broken and reshaped by the high priests, and as Mazzakarr’s essence enters their blood.

If they survive, from that day on, they are Mazzakarr’s blood-kin. All that’s left is to choose their weapon.

As soon as the blood-kin is able to stand following the ritual, they are led to a secluded chamber, where they are presented with a wide selection of weapons from which to choose. They have only a moment to consider their choices, however, before another Mazzakarran attacks them.

Whatever weapon they instinctively grab for to defend themself is theirs from that day forward.

The Blood-Kin Trials. Once the blood-kin have ascended and claimed their place as one of Mazzakarr’s most faithful, the real trial begins. For the god of strength through hardship would never simply grant someone the title of prophet, regardless of what they suffered to achieve the rank. No, they must fight for his favor.

After their ascension, the blood-kin begin a lifelong manhunt of each other. They are compelled to hunt and kill each other, to cull the unworthy who do not have the strength to carry their Father’s blood. This is their life’s purpose, what every other trial they’ve passed has been building toward.

For the most part, anything goes when it comes to the blood-kin hunting each other. They are permitted to do nearly whatever it takes to hunt and kill their “siblings.”

There are only a few rules they must follow when hunting each other, so as not to draw Mazzakarr’s ire:

A blood-kin can only be killed by another blood-kin--they cannot seek outsiders’ aid in slaughtering each other.

They cannot fight each other in the high temple; only slaughters approved by Mazzakarr himself may take place in this holiest place.

When a blood-kin is killed, their unworthy blood must be spilled, and whatever their killer chooses not to eat must be left to rot.

When there are only two blood-kin left alive, they are compelled by Mazzakarr to return to the High Temple, where they will duel to the death under the watchful gaze of their Father. Whichever one wins will then become his sole prophet, having earned the title through the slaughter of their kin.

Origins and Ascension. All Mazzakarrans are taught the story of Mazzakarr’s rise to godhood. For he did not start his existence as a god.

Many lifetimes ago, he was one of two sons of a nature deity known as Kozmas, the goddess of the hunt and the endless cycle of life and death, of predator and prey. She created her sons to represent two sides of the same coin, two different perspectives on survival in a harsh wild.

One was to represent the lone hunter, the solitary creature relying on only its own strength to survive; the other, meanwhile, was to represent the pack hunter, relying on a community of its kind and working together.

The younger son, the spirit of the lone hunter, would one day become Mazzakarr. And so, for many lifetimes, the brothers shared the wilds, dutifully following their mother’s words and watching over the many beasts of the world.

Even in his early years, the younger son was very clever, and he recognized his own strength compared to that of his brother, who was much more passive and agreeable. The lone hunter thought it redundant to have two sons, when one would have done the job just fine. It was short-sighted of their mother to create them both.

He explained all of this to the pack hunter, and the eldest son understood. Only one of them was needed to watch over the world’s creatures. And so, he gave himself to his brother, and the would-be Mazzakarr devoured him--mind, body, and soul--until there was nothing left.

With this fratricide, two souls became one, and Mazzakarr was born. He ascended to godhood, almost surpassing even his mother. And with this ascension came an all-consuming hunger, a desperate need for bloodshed and death.

Kozmas saw what had become of her sons, and she was left furious and grieving, at least as much as a god is able to feel such emotions. She was unwilling to accept Mazzakarr’s ascension, and she cast him out of the Beastlands. He was no longer her son, but a savage wearing his skin.

For the sin of murdering his brother, Kozmas confined Mazzakarr to Carceri, sentencing him to an eternity of prowling the Scarlet Jungles of Cathrys. If he was so hungry for death, he could sharpen his claws on the mortal sinners condemned to his new realm. But he would never again see the hunting grounds he once called home.

Many, many years passed, and slowly, Mazzakarr grew in power and notoriety. Soon, he came to reign over Cathrys, becoming a king rather than a mere prisoner. And as his power grew, so did his hunger for more and more of it.

And so, Mazzakarr turned his hungry gaze to the material plane.

The Devoured God. Mazzakarr’s brother’s name is lost to history, and in Mazzakarran holy texts he is only referred to as The Devoured God. In much older times, the Devoured God had followers of his own in the material plane, those who revered him and the sense of community he fostered among his disciples.

Following Mazzakarr’s ascension, his followers nearly wiped out those of the Devoured God’s, erasing all records of him and killing those who believed him. To this day, the followers of the Devoured God have yet to return, as far as anyone is aware.

Freedom From Carceri. Mazzakarr’s ultimate goal is to free himself from Carceri and to enter the material plane. Everything he does with the cult of Mazzakarranism brings him one step closer to freedom.

And when he is free, he will drown the material plane in its own blood, and remake it as he sees fit.

[writing-frenzy]

Here come SI off the rails :D

Brain worms have arrived and shored up some of my remaining will to dream once more :D

And of course it dreams up a way to maybe, maybe give our favorite traumatized imaginary shield character a reason to actually smile and mean it. (Maybe?)

And of course, I forever fell in love with the SI OC trope, soooo weeeeee, buckle up everyone and thing, this one is gonna be a doozy.

First off, our SI boy was playing HSR, trying out a full imaginary team comp of Luocha, Walt, Aventurine, and Yukong when sudden, traumatizing death. It is not pretty, it is horrible, it is scaring, and it literally almost breaks our poor mc's mind; how can they not ask, beg for someone, anyone to save them?

It's a good thing (or is it) that something does.

Whether it is Aha on some sort of new kick, a manipulation of destiny, or even a certain Mother Goddess at work, our poor soul gets taken into a new world; but not as they were. Their mind and body were too broken when they were transferred, so the being had to get creative.

So, they took some inspiration from the team they were playing in their most recent memories, taking from doomed versions of themselves who were willing to trade for their own wishes in turn (and oh, how many were doomed in all the paths; there would always be one with a simple wish to fulfil easily.)

So, the MC becomes a meshed form of the Imaginary team of Luocha, Welt, Yukong and Aventurine: he is a good height, about 5-9, not six foot because Aventurine and Yukong are shorter taking it down a bit. He has Welt's brown hair, but it seems to be a bit messy and longer, what with all the hair styles, which he has to braid to keep in order and less annoying. And for all he seems human, he actually does have Foxian ears and tail, along with most of the bloodline perks, but hides it with illusions and tricks for reasons. His skins is tanner and kissed beautifuly by the sun, and his eyes are really cool, being a mixture of Aventurine's shape and style, but with the other three's colors. he also looks late 20's/early 30's just imagine him with welt's eye lines because the character maker doesn't have that. (The glasses are there for reasons and this is him illusioned because the ears were just not meshing for me.)

As for the eyes, I tried my best TT^TT (headcannon that most Avgin's eyes are usually in shades of brown to gold, with rarer shades of darker purples and even green at times, going with how Avgin means Honey and all, so with Kakavasha being born with not only bright beautiful eyes, it also has blue in them like water? and it rains? yeah, no wonder they thought he was blessed.)

But yeah, with his appearance over, now we get an interesting little bit about him; his path is Remembrance :D how? he has no clue, only that his memories are pretty shitty now, he knows random ass stuff (gifts from the other four; my guy know so many loopholes now for the IPC) he instinctively knows how to use his powers, just has to practice with control, but what was his favorite food? his dream in life? his actual name? nadda, zilch. He does know his power is literally a mixture of all four of his Imaginary team, allowing his skill to produce shields that also buff and/or heal his allies, with them disappearing can either randomly heal, buff, or do nothing before they go. His Ult is a mixture of Luocha's, Yukongs, and Welt's, doing incredible damage while also debuffing his enemies to hell and back, and even letting his team heal like with Luocha's. This doesn't even count in the terrifying follow up attack, that randomly does whatever the fuck it wants to :D tiny black holes to devour enemies? shower of golden rain that heals allies by draining the enemy's own life? this is only scratching the surface~

Yup, our boi is a OP beast :3

Did I forget to mention he came to this world with half the damage he got from his death? So it's very lucky where he ended up; a few years before the Avgin's genocide, luckily found by the tribe where they took him in, who while hesitant about the stranger, couldn't turn him away, then felt well they didn't when they finally opened their eyes to see they were one of them. Even if he's of mixed blood, he is still one of their own and came back to them, even as harmed and damaged as he is.

Not to mention just how talented and powerful he is.-

The wise woman watches, with her guard, as the stranger to their ways learns with an appetite like starving dog, so keen and willing to continue struggling on even with the barest of scraps. It is a kin to someone struggling with quicksand, finally finding some leverage that can save them from demise just in time, light entering those eyes once more. But like a beaten dog, they shy from most touch, hesitant and still, eyes watchful as they take in all threats to their self before they settle into a long wait, ready to attack.

It makes it both tragic and amazing, seeing someone so strong, someone she has seen break rock and stone with but a thought, so obviously broken, but willing still to heal. She knows her guard would like for this stranger to become part of the guard, to let others know of his strength so that they can better themselves and their people.

But the wise woman did not live so long to be wise as she was with simple thoughts and hopes like those; she saw signs everywhere, she has read omens in the sands and wind, reads the bones with ease; besides a select few, no one knows of their stanger's talents.

She names him Sarth, for his always thoughtful ways (and to hide within sight, just that for all his power, it is his mind most terrifying of all.)

(He was found under the stars for protection and warning, waking only when the stars for secrets was high in the sky. She sees how gentle, ever so kind their stranger is for the children, and she makes her decision.

She finds she will never regret it, traitors in their mist, the men in the black uniforms abandoning them, telling their stranger to please, please, if nothing else, save their children and ill away from this mess. If nothing else, she knows that at least the 452 with him will live.)

-so yeah, I have feels about those still being missing being 3,452 people; i just yoinked a chunk for myself, my guy Sarth covering everyone with his ridiculous powers, stealing a ship he found (interestingly, it was an illegal drug merchant who was currently being killed, so it would be a long, looooong time before someone notices one missing ship that was destined to be scraped because of damages and age over the years.) My guy is desperate, knowing of the discrimination they will face from practically everyone in the universe, not knowing who to ask or even if there is anyone willing to aid them; the IPC is shady as heck, he doesn't think Himeko has fixed the express yet, and their ship is running on luck, prayers, and Yukong's memories and knowledge of flying through even worse with even more tragic of conditions.

Sarth could really, really use a break right now; everyone with him at that.

Then in walk some Fools; Sarth somehow not only impresses them, he even tricks them, getting one fool, who goes by as Tricky Trickster, delighted (because what's more delightful then tricking others? Himself getting tricked in new and innovating ways. After all, how else could one learn to better themselves?)

So, my guy is able to enter in a game of high stakes with the Fools; he has 6 chances to win his people the chance to live well, with food in their bellies, chances for education, no worries of threats, the complete secrecy of their survival, all that good chance... here is the thing; he has to win at least four games, because the hightest amount of people that can be saved per game is 113 people, so yeah, four games would equal the 113 peeps. (he doesn't count himself; he can at least get along in this universe, he has power and tricks on his side, he can do what must be done; all these sick, injured, or too young? they can't.)

So he plays the games, winning two at first, getting 226 from there... only to lose the third game; what he loses is decided by random on a wheel, with him in the end nearly ending up practically blind, his eyes basically just for decoration now... he almost loses the fourth, but by chance actually wins, getting another 113 people. but this luck doesn't hold by the fifth game, this time he loses 20 years of freedom, to begin after the games are done and to serve in the Tavern. the last game is done with bated breath, the last 113 people's lives hanging by a thread, when MC pulls off yet another miracle; he uses the memories of harmony and abundance, sealing with preservation to gain back what little sight he can to win the game, saving all 452 people that came with him. there is much tears, crying, sobbing and mourning because once more something is taken from the Avgins but they persevere, many promising that they will do what they can for him in turn.

(In the end, they find an interesting item, one that can channel things with multiple paths and contain it, shaping to whatever the owner needs. Those are now shaped into glasses for Sarth to wear so he can see, only able to be removed by himself. it doesn't feel like much to the Avgins, it feels paltry for all he has done for them, but Sarth loves and adores anything he gets from them, to the honestly little mudpies from the kids to even the gems others offer; his favorite is the company they offer.)

So yeah, in my head, when the Trailblazer enters the planet of Festivities, my guy is near the very end of his service term, with maybe a year or two left.

This is so far what I have for him, but I must say; he gives off Dilf energy like hard core and the thirst for him is real :D

[killersfool]

Irish Goodbye | RYAN MCMAHON

Naomi swirled around the contents of her cup, in an out-of-it corner of her mind. She couldn't concentrate on the croaky vocals thrumming from the two humongous speakers—karaoke—some Journey song, the name had slipped away, under some pile of dust lodged within her creaking skull. Pulp was climbing up the glass, a green gooey sediment had collected at the bottom on the cup where, on the glass, miniscule flowers had been painted. Maybe if she was more of an optimist, she'd be imagaining the cup was, in a way, similar to a field. The green liquid being the glass and the coloured shapes being the flowers blooming.

She was bored, as you can tell. Very, very bored.

Imagining herself upstairs, watching a few episodes of Father Ted, she smiled contently. She ate a few crips from the glass bowl left on the bar. One was cheese and onion, the next prawn cocktail and the final was a quaver. Her favourite. It melted upon her tongue and she rolled it around her mouth to devour any straw flavour.

"This party's far from grand, isn't it?" A distant voice alerted her senses. She turned like a barn owl, her head almost making a compleye 180 until she met black, monochromatic eyes. He was one of the first boys she'd encountered in that grimy pub who's clothes were not black-and-white, devoid of colour, like the life had been sucked out of them. They were all virtually just walking mummies or corpses or a mixture of both. The second thing she noticed was his accent, Irish, which rose and fell as if he was a poet trying to prove a point.

"You can say that again." She spun her bar seat around to get a proper look at him.

"I was just about to head out and get an icecream. I'd been craving it—might be because everything in this place tastes the same." She watched how his hands moved along as he spoke. She didn't know whether to focus on his eyes, or his hands, or his hair which was a mess. He awkwardly swiped a stray hair from his pale forehead. His fingers lingered there as he breathed in rapidly. "I thought you might want to come along. Going to get icecream on your own feels pretty pointless. I don't think Sarah will care anyhow. You're Naomi? The journalist?"

Naomi had never met such an odd man in her twenty-five years of living. He wasn't odd in the sense that you'd want to run away from him or hold your keys like a knife in case he tried anything. It was more of a—why would some random bloke want to leave a pub, party, carnage for... icecream? He seemed like the type to hang out with party animals. Sarah had told the group that he was a drummer for some band. They'd been friends since they were very young. He was always bringing excitement to the most boring festivities. Gradually, it was becoming a necessity to invite him.

Naomi blinked twice, gulped about half of the glass of her green drink then slid the glass across the counter. It halted just before reaching the edge. She decided that she was going to take his offer. Anything to get away from the overpowering aroma of sweat that was burning the insides of her nose. Anything to get away from Sarah's shrieks filling the air everytime a karaoke song came on that she recognised. Naomi should've invested in some earbuds to block out the sound.

"Are you coming then?" The guy tried again, this time with a questioning tilt of the head. He beared his teeth, loosened his tie, ruffled his hair. "I'm Ryan by the way. I don't think we've ever been properly introduced."

Naomi shook the dark-haired boy's hand with a nervous, barely noticeable smile. "Nice to meet you and yeah, sure. Icecream sounds great."

She removed her jacket from the bar stool, placed her arms through the holes, ate another handful of crips before tucking in the stool and following Ryan out of the pub. She felt like she was breaking the law by not telling Sarah that she was leaving. This was unusual. They were both clinging to the shadows, glued to the dim half of the pub where the lights weren't really working.

"Are we Irish goodbying this?" Naomi whispered as they passed the gambling machines and pool tables. Her stomach was in knots, adrenaline pumping through her veins, heart beating at a double tempo.

Ryan stopped in his tracks before he pushed open the backdoor. Two words 'fire exit' in green were painted upon it. "Irish goodbye? Is that a saying? Or are you making fun of my accent?"

"No, no. It's a saying. I like your accent. It's like leaving an event without telling anyone." Naomi clarified. She had heard her friend using the phrase before. She'd never encountered a way to describe such a specific thing.

"Let's Irish goodbye this shit."

The pair crashed through the back door. A tidal wave of wind prickled across Naomi's skin. Goosebumps appeared upon her bare arms, moonlight poured onto the rain-covered pavement, scent of cigarette smoke hung in the air. The sky was a darkened pink as the sun glided on the horizon.

Naomi's heels splashed water everywhere as she stepped down the stairs leading to the alleyway. Her hair was all in her face due to the constant flow of wind dancing across her frame. Somehow Ryan's hair was pretty much intact (although it had been very messy beforehand so Naomi couldn't really tell how much it had changed). The clothes he was wearing—a leather jacket, Bowie shirt, jeans—meant that there was not a single inch of skin for the wind to knife and torture. Naomi missed the warmth of the pub.

"I like your accent too." Ryan had let her words sink in. He'd brainstormed them out in his mind to find the deeper or hidden meaning. He was like that. Always searching for the truth between sentences, through the way they spoke—it was weird. Maybe it was because he liked her. He'd seen her at countless of these parties and festivities. She was funny. Loud. Today he found a chance to actually speak to her, after many failed attempts prior after becoming too fearful or self-conscious. A blend of the two was not good on his brain.

"Thank you," Naomi murmured in response.

"It's just across the road." Ryan pointed to a flashing blue sign with the words 'Sally's Sundaes'. He led the way for Naomi, jumping in puddles every few steps like he was Peppa Pig.

"Do you do this often then?" Naomi was finding it hard to catch up with Ryan's energy. He must've been drinking a lot, or eating a lot of sweets because his pace was inhuman.

"What? Escape Sarah's party to get icecream?"

"Yeah."

"Sometimes." He paused as they stopped at the road. He looked both ways before crossing with Naomi beside him. The street was narrow, packed with many cars. The icecream shop cast a blue, flourescent hue onto the pavement. There was no one inside the shop except for an elderly woman in an azure uniform; her hat with little ocean waves painted on it. She was just about to flip around the 'open' sign when she spotted Ryan through the windows. They stepped inside, hearing a faint bell clash above the entrance. The worker approached the pair, her badge with the name 'Sally' glistened. She grinned from ear to ear at the sight of them. At this hour, business was at an all time low. Ryan was a regular though.

This time, however, Sally noticed the girl that was with him. A pretty girl for that matter. Sally was already questioning what was going on between them just by the way Ryan was looking up at her—all nervous, fingers twiddling like he was drumming a beat against his thigh. Seeing Ryan nervous was a rarity-this girl must have some superpower.

"Hey Ryan! Who's this with you?" Sally's cheerful demeanour eased any tension in the air.

"I'm Naomi," she introduced herself.

There was an array of icecream flavours in the fridge. From bubblegum to lemon sorbet to tiramisu. Naomi's mouth watered all the more with every movement of her eyes. They offered an Icecream Sundae deal with two scoops, a topping and sauce of your choice.

"It's like your song," Naomi laughed as she glanced through the options. She hummed the melody under her breath.

"Very true," Ryan said with a smile.

Ryan and Naomi sat down at one of the window tables after choosing their Sundaes. Naomi had never tasted such a flavoursome icecream in her life. Ryan allowed her to try some of his—vanilla and pistachio—which she had told him was rather boring. He had pouted and scoffed when she chose mango sorbet and chocolate chip. He believed that they just didn't go together at all. He was proved wrong when he tried some.

"Thanks for bringing me here," Naomi said after another mouthful of her sorbet. Outside, the sky was dark and the moon was high. She felt knackered even after doing pretty much absolutely nothing. Most of the day, she'd just been sitting down but just seeing the stars floating beautifully made her eyelids droop.

"It's no problem. You didn't seem to be enjoying the party." Ryan licked off the final residue of icecream from his tiny transparent spoon. He thought back to Naomi sitting alone, watching everything unfold just metres away from her. He'd been watching her from one of the sofas, wondering what was going on through her mind as she stared at Sarah. Any of her thoughts had surely been negative. She had watched the group of friends with distaste.

"I just wasn't feeling it today," Naomi admitted.

"Sarah's parties really drain the life out of you."

"Honestly. I have no clue why I even go to these things anymore. I guess I've just known her for so long, I'd feel bad if I skipped it." Naomi remembered the one time she'd forgotten about a party. Sarah had bombarded her with countless messages asking for her whereabouts. Naomi knew that Sarah just wanted to be her friend. She was a nice person. Not the greatest karaoke singer though.

"I get that. I've been mates with her for donkey's years. I only come along when I'm in England—which isn't too often. But, she really is intense. Like very, very, very intense. I'm a bit overwhelmed each time that I see her."

Naomi nodded with each word he said. "How's touring going by the way? I've heard a lot about your band." She was reminded of the time that Sarah invited 'Inhaler' to play at her birthday. Naomi thought they were good. Really, really good. Each of her Spotify playlists had at least one of their songs in them. She'd been especially impressed by Ryan's drumming. Seeing someone play their instrument always fascinated her. It just looked so natural for him to be holding drumsticks and banging cymbals.

"Tiring. Nerveracking. I just love that feeling when you get off stage, the adrenaline rush. I can't explain it. It just feels amazing." Ryan's wrist rested against his cheek as he watched the cars passing like blurs through the window. Naomi traced her gaze over Ryan's features; curved nose, wavy hair that was tousled across his forehead due to the wind, sharp jaw, pretty smile. She understood why Sarah invited him to every party. There was just some way about him, a certain confidence always emanated from him and he could bring life to even the most quiet rooms. Even in this calm state, there was comfort in the simple commodity of his presence.

Ryan placed his spoon back into the cardboard cup before shifting to look at Naomi. It was true, he did feel nervous around her. He could barely attempt to formulate a word as he watched the gentle cadence of her chest raising then falling with every breath. It was something so normal, so straightforward but it was all he could focus on. Her very presence was intimidating. He tried to plan out what to say next, let some words come together within his mind but he was sure that whatever he'd say, he'd make a total fool of himself.

"Do you want to watch a film or something?" Naomi piped up. She nudged the icecream cup along the table gently. She couldn't look him in the eye. He was staring at her with raised eyebrows and a sly smirk.

"Where?" He watched as her fingers tucked a few strands of hair behind her ear. Her hooped earrings shuffled around as she moved.

She nervously looked forward to evade his eyes. "Mine."

The implications of that word rattled his mind. His boots clicked against hers under the table as a short, uncomfortable silence rippled between them. "Yeah, okay," he said, faintly, his accent hiding behind his words. "Sounds good." Wanting to act cool and actually coming across as cool was a very difficult thing. Naomi thought he was pretty cool.

They scuttled out of the shop after thanking Sally for their sundaes. Ryan offered to pay for Naomi as it was his idea to bring her there.

The streets were empty aside from the ocassional car that passed every few minutes. Streetlamps shone, making Ryan's skin glow with warmth and aliveness. Step after step, street after street. Her apartment appeared and Naomi opened the door, after struggling to find her key and letting out an irritable sigh. Ryan watched her with delight, snorting at how difficult she was finding this. Naomi resisted the urge to lock him outside and watch him shiver in the cold. Who knows how far his hotel was from here or whether the other boys in the band would even bother to pick him up. They were probably all asleep for all she knew.

Climbing up the stairs felt like climbing Mount Everest. She didn't know why she'd chosen them over the lift. Although the lift did scare the living daylights out of here. It was a square box that had malfunctioned too many times to count on her fingers. She'd been called by her neighbours after they got stuck inside or it started making some weird noises. If she ever had the chance to make a horror film, she'd film the entire thing in that creepy lift. She wouldn't even need a monster or a villian to take its place.

"Which one's yours?" Ryan was already on the third floor. He paced up and down the hallway, waiting for her response.

"Thirty-two. Third one on the right." Naomi reached the top of the stairs. She was panting. Her fingers clung onto the banister before she hoisted herself up to the door of her room. Ryan was leaning beside the dark oak, his shoulder squeezed against the white paint. He was making it hard for her to open the door again. Her hands were shaking as she turned the key. He was having this weird effect over her.

Ryan shrugged his Doc Martens off of his feet and dunked them to the side. Naomi offered to hang up his jacket and he passed it to her, revealing bracelets around wrists and strong drummer's arms with tattoos scattered along them. She glanced over them discreetly whilst putting his jacket on her coathanger. "You like Bowie?" She was first drawn to the tattoo of David Bowie's face that had caught her eye.

"Who doesn't?" He laughed to himself. He turned his arm forward to present the tattoo to her. She traced her fingers over the inked lines, his face warmed up at the subtle touch.

"I've got some of his records," she said as she pulled her hand away. His lips fell down at the sudden lack of touch.

He followed her along through the apartment, which perfectly encapsulated her. Plants were dotted around with shiny, perfect leaves. They were well looked-after. Posters of all kinds of films and musicians were pinned onto the walls. Bags of Quavers were on top of her kitchen table. She turned the kettle on as Ryan explored her apartment like he was discovering another country. He regarded all the intricacies, the typewriter in the living room, the disordered folders of her articles on the coffee table, colourful cushions on the sofa. The whole place smelt like flowers and freshly cut grass, when the trimmings float through the air and you can't help but breathe it all in. It was so homely compared to the hotel room he'd been trapped in with the band. It was nice to be somewhere different. Especially with good company.

He found her records stacked up in the living room and was also met with a pleasant surprise of the DVD box set of Father Ted. He had the exact same one in the tour bus. It was one of his favourite shows. He grinned as he flicked through her records; from Blur to Bowie to Taylor Swift—she had quite the collection. He picked out 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust', carefully pulled out the vinyl and placed it on the record player. The stylus glided downwards and the gentle drums of 'Five Years' emerged from the speakers

"Good choice." Naomi mused as she brought two cups of tea into the room. She'd taken off her blazer and was wearing fluffy socks. "I don't know how you like your tea so I've got some sugar and milk here." She placed his cup beside her sugar container and jar of milk.

"Thank you," he murmured as she settled down on the sofa, dipping her chocolate hobnob in the boiling drink. She hadn't had a guy in her apartment for ages and the sudden invasion of privacy was strange. The living room was a mess. Discarded headphones and magazines were amongst the clutter just left on the floor. Her bedroom was at least ten times worse. Journalism was a generally messy job. She had highlighters, folders, post-it notes, all kinds of random stuff thrown everywhere.

Ryan hadn't acknowledged any of clutter. He was too focused on trying to learn more about her through her music taste. He then picked up the Father Ted box set and held it up, looking at her with a small smile, "Didn't think you'd like this."

"Oh, I love it. I'm not usually a sitcom person but it changed me."

"Should we watch some?" He was already turning on her CD player and placing the first season disc in. She kicked up her feet onto the coffee table, resting her head on her armrest.

She didn't even need to respond because he'd already put on the first episode. He sat beside her, pouring some milk into his tea. "I've watched this show so many times. It's an addiction," Naomi muttered. "I sort of find Father Ted fit." She took in his expression then laughed, "I have no shame."

Ryan gulped a long drink of his tea, eyebrows furrowing with scepticism. "You're kidding."

"He's leng."

"I'm a bit scared of you."

"Why does no one agree me with me?" She pressed her face into the armrest. Ryan was laughing along with every joke whilst trying to figure out what Naomi saw in Father Ted. "I dunno if it's his face, the accent or the amount of times I've watched this show. It's probably altered my brain chemistry."

"I see it." Ryan tried to hold a straight face as he said those three words but he couldn't help the chuckle that left him.

"Bugger off. I shouldn't have told you that. Fuck's sake. You're going to tell Sarah and that lot, aren't you?" Naomi could already imagine him hosting a weird meeting, or making a groupchat with everyone. She'd be ruined. The thought of them making a joke everytime she entered a room sounded far from ideal. Having to spend hours with them was bad enough but this, this was dangerous. Ryan could possibly be the worst blabber on Earth.

"I'm not like that. My lips are sealed." He motioned his fingers across his mouth like he was tying a zip, circled them around at the corner then threw the made up key down into her plantpot. Naomi had been lost in a trance—gaze focused on his lips—they were thin, smooth and gently pressed together. He followed her shifting eyes until she snapped them away, back to the TV screen.

Dougal was now onscreen—Naomi wasn't particularly focused on any words leaving the priest's lips, or the laughing track almost breaking the sound barrier. She was now sat on the sofa properly: her legs crossed and her head on a cusion. Ryan was sat similarly, on the opposite end of the sofa, but instead with his legs hanging off the edge of the seat. He looked so calm with his cup of tea which had been specially selected by Naomi. It was a present her Dad bought her when she got her first job. The design was simple—sunglasses with a sparkle in the corner. She thought it was insanely cheesy when she first saw it but maybe it was given to her for a reason. All the months of dust collecting upon it, the times she'd left it in the back corner of cupboard to sit alone. Maybe Ryan was supposed to be the one to drink out of it. The holder perfectly complimented his slender, ringed fingers.

Overthinking. She was overthinking everything.

It was late, she was tired. This was the hour when her mind would reel like a projector in an empty cinema. Just her in the back row, watching all her thoughts roll across the screen.

"You alright there, Nao?" Ryan clicked his fingers a couple of times, waved a hand palm before her face.

Naomi pushed herself off of the sofa and turned the key on the window. Fresh air poured in. She sighed. "Sorry. It's just a bit stuffy in here."

"I can go if you'd like. It's getting late. I don't want to keep you up." Ryan stood up, fixing the cushion back into its original place.

"No, Ryan. You're the best company I've had in a long while. You're really cool and nice and a great drummer. I'm still buzzing after watching you play."

Naomi plopped down on the stool beside her keyboard, her head falling into her hands. She scraped her hands through her hair, raking through each strand. She jolted forwards when a light pressure was applied to her back. Ryan was standing beside her and said, "You're a lot fucking cooler than me. Your articles are mindblowing—they're funny, sad at times, just a general rollercoaster of emotion." He gently traipsed the length of her shoulders with his fingers.

"You read my articles?"Naomi now looked up at him, her eyes a little teary and lipstick smudged. "I'd write one about you." There was something so overwhelming about all of this. She then looked at the wall—a little flustered. "-I mean the band, of 'Inhaler', of all of you." Father Ted was still playing the background. Too many Irish accents for Naomi to cope. Although Ryan's was most definitely her favourite, no doubt about it. If he read her a bedtime story or even just the bloody shopping list, she'd be asleep in a matter of seconds.

His gentle touches were driving the oxygen out of her lungs. "That would be an honour." Ryan tucked her hair behind her ears, carefully wiped away the red smear of lipstick with his thumb. He was just about to pull his hand away when she grabbed it, held it. His fingers were a little clammy but so were hers—the heat of the room was immeasurable—the light draft of wind was barely making a difference. But now, Naomi felt more at peace. Especially as she traced along his knuckles, his fingernails, his cuticles. It was weirdly intimate. Ryan thought he might be glowing pink. It was like he was in a vacuum, completely detached from his body, unable to move or speak. She made him mental.

"Did you know that the guy who played father Ted—who sadly passed away—was actually from Dublin like you."

"Interesting."

"Right? Well, anyway, uh. He sounds a lot like you, almost the same. Now that I've been talking to you for a while—I can hear the similarities." She stammered on, still transfixed by his hands, now outlining the veins along his forearms and each tattoo that she passed. His other hand was still on her shoulder, drumming his digits to the beat he'd been playing when they went to get icecream.

"Is that a good thing...?" He paused, ran his tongue over his front teeth as he stopped in thought. "Didn't you say that one the reason you might find him fit is because of his accent?"He sucked his lip under his teeth as he hesitantly spoke. The room felt a lot smaller as if the walls were crushing in. He was challenging her, proving that he payed attention to every word that she said.

"I didn't — wait fuck yeah I did, didn't I? Well, I've dug my own grave." She shook her head, trying not to lose herself in Ryan's eyes. They were pools of comfort. "Yeah, I find your accent pretty hot. Is that bad?"

His entire vocabulary had vanished by the boldness of her statement, the smirking playing at her lips. "I don't know what to say," he babbled, accent somehow thicker with every word. His pushed his knuckles into his cheek, feeling how warm it was.

"Then don't say anything," she said, barely a whisper.

A newfound confidence surged within Naomi. Just his smile sent her into some haze, she could get drunk on it. He was kneeling before her. His jean-covered knees were resting on the carpet and he was anxiously scuttling. The air was getting thick was silence — silence on their part — Father Ted was still speaking. Ryan reached for the remote and turned the TV off, leaving David Bowie's 'starman' gently playing in the background, serenading them. If Naomi told Ryan to not talk, he would listen.

Her hands rested on either of his cheeks. They were rather pale in contrast to her skin, and cool compared to the room. He neared her. His breath swam across her lips, smelt of tea and a hint of vanilla — from the icecream. He whispered, "God, Naomi," no longer falling victim to the simplicity of silence, of wordlessness. The way their foreheads were together, like two jigsaw halves blending into one, it was too perfect. The way Ryan spoke her name — like it was his lifeline. He said it twice more and her heart strained, her eyes closed and his eyelashes scrubbed across her brows. His fluffy hair cascaded over her temple and she let her right hand feel though the curls.

David Bowie's voice, the echoes of cars passing in the distance, the rustle of clothes. Each sound added to the intimacy — the quietude. They stayed there for a while, just relishing in the moment. They both acknowledged the importance of this. They both needed it. Time away from any carnage, from anxious whispers, from parties, from life —they had found safety in one another. They were both hoping — a lingering thought bloomed between them, in the slight gap left between their touch, just like those flowers on Naomi's glass cup — maybe this could blossom into something good.

[sanders1665]

The Puzzle Collector.

In a small cabin perched on the edge of a forest, far from the noise of cities and the bustle of other lives, a man sat alone in the amber light of a fading day. The fireplace crackled faintly, offering its modest warmth, but his mind wandered far beyond the reach of the room’s comfort. His name was unimportant, as was his age; he was simply the seeker, and for as long as he could remember, his existence had been tethered to a single question: Why?

Why was there something instead of nothing? How had the first particle emerged, breaking the vast symmetry of the void? His bookshelves overflowed with volumes on cosmology, philosophy, and esoterica—every theory he could find, from the Big Bang to the Holographic Principle, from multiverse conjectures to creation myths whispered across millennia. Yet none of them satisfied him. Each was but a piece of a puzzle that seemed infinitely complex, infinitely incomplete.

Tonight, he thought about the first particle again. Was it an accident, a random blip in the fabric of nothingness? Or had it always been there, eternally oscillating, birthing and devouring universes in a cosmic dance? He imagined it collapsing into a black hole at the end of time, condensing all existence into a single speck of infinite density, only to explode again. An eternal heartbeat of reality. But why?

He stood and walked to the window. The forest outside was quiet, a tangle of shadows and moonlight. The universe itself was silent, too, or so it seemed. Yet deep in his heart, he felt a faint hum, as though the cosmos were whispering a secret just out of reach. Was it God? he wondered. Or something else—a vast intelligence orchestrating the grand design? For what purpose, though? Entertainment? Understanding? Love?

He poured himself a cup of tea and sat back down, staring into the fire. His thoughts turned to dimensions. How many more were there? Could there be forms of light, sound, or touch his senses could never perceive? Entire realms of matter and energy interwoven with his own, invisible and unknowable? If so, what did that say about his quest for understanding? How could he fit together a puzzle when so many of its pieces were hidden?

The veiled woman came to him again, as she often did in these moments. She was a shadowy figure in his dreams, her face obscured by a shimmering veil that seemed to glimmer with every color and none. He didn’t know who she was—an aspect of his own subconscious? A muse? A being from beyond? But he sensed she held answers. When he reached for her veil, she would step back, just beyond his grasp. Yet he had come to understand that this was not rejection; it was guidance. She was teaching him patience.

“You can see through it,” her voice echoed in his memory. “But you must not rush.”

In his mind, she held a puzzle piece, like so many others he had collected over the years. Each fragment of knowledge—scientific theories, spiritual insights, poetic musings—was a piece of the greater whole. He imagined them all laid out before him, scattered like stars across a night sky. Was there a pattern? A hidden panorama of perspective and understanding? He was close, he felt it, but something was missing. Something essential.

Is our intent to understand reality the drive of the universe itself? he wondered. Perhaps the universe was a mirror, reflecting his own questions back at him. Perhaps reality was incomplete without observers to make sense of it. Maybe the universe isn’t just a puzzle; maybe it’s the act of puzzling that gives it meaning.

He sipped his tea, letting the thought settle. The fire was dying now, its embers glowing faintly. Outside, the stars seemed brighter than before, as though leaning closer to hear his musings. Somewhere in the infinite depths of space, he felt sure, the answers lay waiting. But he also knew they would not come all at once. The puzzle pieces would arrive slowly, one by one, through dreams, discoveries, and moments of quiet revelation.

And always, the veiled woman would guide him. Someday, he thought, her veil would fall away, revealing the ultimate picture. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the unveiling was not the point. Perhaps it was enough to keep seeking, to keep collecting, to keep fitting the pieces together, even if the puzzle would never truly be complete.

As the fire went out and the cabin was plunged into darkness, he closed his eyes. His thoughts softened into the hum of the universe, and for a moment, he felt at peace. The puzzle awaited, as it always did. And he would be ready.

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Ask game! If you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send this ask to the last five blogs in your notifications. Or don't!

Hello, by the way :)

Ooh, this looks fun! What the hey, I've got a little time to spare :)

I really really like cooking, and especially cooking for others, to the point where sometimes my desire to host a dinner party for friends actually eclipses the low-level buzz of social anxiety in my brain! Sadly I have not had an opportunity to do so just yet, but I'm sure there'll be an opportunity in the future :P

I've often been told that I have a really good singing voice, but despite this I really don't like to sing at all.

When I was very young my deepest fear was that a black hole would spontaneously appear in the sky and devour the entire solar system. I'd just learned what spaghettification was and I think it might have scarred me a teensy tiny bit...

Thanks for the ask, and hello to you as well!

[imnotactuallyalrightthanks]

A poem I hastily wrote thinking about my partner

--

The cosmos, a mystery, so vast and grand, A glimpse of eternity, where dreams expand.

Black holes, mysterious, devouring all, Invisible giants where gravity's thrall.

As destructive and quiet this expanse may be, It's true there's beauty to behold and see.

By random chance and pure dumb luck, the universe smiled at me, awestruck.

It feels unreal to hold and ponder, but life seems to change, move, and wander.

I'm lucky and fascinated to have had this chance, to hold your hand, to kiss, and glance.

Stars are born to burn with light, just as much as we're made to die,

A birthplace of love, for living, and life, tucked away in eternal night

Beneath the starlit canopy we sway, in silent orbits, our souls find their way.

Our hearts aligned, like planets' graceful arc, in this cosmic dance, we leave our mark.

Your eyes, a galaxy, endless and bright, Reflect the constellations of our shared night.

We're drawn together, like moons to their sphere, A gravitational pull, whispering near.

Through cosmic storms and meteor rain, In your orbit, I'll forever remain.

In this astral dance, we're intertwined, A celestial bond, endlessly defined.

[pasiphae-xxx]

PJO/HOO/TOA CHARACTERS AND WHAT THEIR ROMAN EMPIRES WOULD HAVE BEEN::::::

Annabeth- Most certainly knew the entire lore of WWE Raw and Smackdown when she was about 8-11. Wanted siblings to tackle so bad.

Percy- The Bermuda Triangle. HOURS spent genuinely sweating about the thought of sea monsters and black holes in the ocean which could maybe get him.

Grover- Mythology. Lore. Everything he could find with amazing world-building and plot points. Certainly kept comparing Greek myths to Norse/Aztec myths and yelling "OH MY GOSH THEY'RE SYNCRONIZED".

Nico- THE OLYMPIC GAMES. Watching gymnastics and wincing everytime it looks like they're gonna fall. Picking random swimmers and betting on who would get a higher position with his sister.

Jason- Honestly, Jason would have DEVOURED the Percy Jackson series. Explains to everyone how Rick Riordan is actually a hidden gem and how he's a crossbreed of Percy and Grovwr.

Piper- OMFG FANFICTION. A devoted fanfiction.net reader until she discovers wattpad and that resets her brain chemistry. Avid reader but also extremely talented AO3 writer. On the Hall of fame of Johnlock writers.

Frank- Penguins. Knew everything about penguins from their feeding habits to their neurological functions. Tried to be a penguin- failed; tried to swim to the south pole to be with penguins- ongoing attempt.

Hazel- Anime. If she and Nico grew up together they would scream the One Piece theme songs at the top of their lungs everyday and randomly whisper the words "Banana Fish" to each other to rekindle the pain.

Lester- The biggest astrology nerd you could ever find. Would immediately explain how the angle of Saturn from the earth is causing your munchies and write a thesis on why scorpios are actually the cause of all the world's problems.

Leo- Cars. I lied. Power fucking rangers. Every single series, every single version; ate it up, bought a power rangers bottle and set the Power Rangers Samurai theme song as his alarm tune.

[wickedsrest-rp-archive]

NAME: Aufhocker

ALSO KNOWN AS: Kludde

RARITY: ★★★★☆

THREAT LEVEL: ★★★☆☆ | Sometimes become a deadly threat, but weaknesses can be exploited by anyone who knows what they are (unlikely), or is lucky.

HABITAT: Aufhockers need both woodlands to roam in as well as a steady supply of travelers to eat. Most of them can be found around hiking trails, cabins, along roads, and other locations out in the woods that see a decent number of people.

DESCRIPTION: The aufhocker isn’t all that intimidating… to start out with. In its normal form, the aufhocker is a small, dog-sized wolf who enjoys following travelers around. Its fur is black and it has a friendly disposition. People say they even see it wagging his tail and begging for scraps of food. The trouble sets in when the traveler steps on and breaks a twig, sighs, or swears. Some individual aufhockers are set off by other, seemingly random things. 

Once this occurs, the aufhocker will jump on the person’s back, growing heavier and heavier every time they repeat their mistake– something that gets increasingly frequent when you’re lugging around a wolf on your back. The aufhocker slowly transforms into a towering, spitting, snarling, slobbering beast the size of a tiger, with glowing red eyes. There will reach a point where the person can no longer support the aufhocker, and falls over. They will then have their throat ripped out and be devoured. Once the aufhocker finishes their meal, they revert back to their smaller, friendlier form and go off in search of another traveler. It’s likely some of the more convincing “wolf” sightings in Wicked’s Rest were actually aufhockers.

ABILITIES: Aufhockers weigh more than you’d think just based on their size – which is impressive to begin with. Progressively, they’ll reach a weight that will simply just crush their victim. In addition to their own weight shifting, aufhockers have the ability to shift the weight of things around it, making a tree light as a feather or a feather heavy as a tree. They may do this to manipulate their victim into doing the thing that sets off the whole gruesome feeding affair, or simply for the mischievous fun of it. This ability gives their blood value to spellcasters as it can be used in potions that can have similar effects, and it’s typical for them to send rangers after the aufhockers for collection purposes.

WEAKNESS: Strong, negative smells and loud, high-pitched noises can scare the aufhocker off. If someone is able to carry the aufhocker until sunrise, the beast will jump off their back and run off. They’re afraid of church bells and sunlight and will retreat in fear if they encounter either. For whatever reason, they also can’t stand the sound of a harmonica and will flee in terror if exposed to the sound – even if it’s not real.

OTHER VARIANTS:

Pesanta: First encountered by Catalonian rangers, pesanta are large aufhockers that can have a canine or feline appearance, steel claws and fangs, and holes through their paws. They are breath-drinkers who change size to slip into homes and crush sleepers. Anyone being crushed by a pesanta is trapped in nightmares and must mentally escape the nightmare or asphyxiate. Pesanta are very friendly towards mares and bugbears, but will also “mooch” off their prey.

(Art credit: Aleksi Briclot)

[autisticsupervillain]

It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

The Grey Goo vs The Disembodied Thought!

Conditions:

Both start at their absolute smallest and must work their way up to peak power.

Scenario:

In its attempts to understand both itself and everything, the Disembodied Thought comes across the Grey Goo and decides to stop it from devouring the universe before it itself can understand all of it.

Analysis: The Grey Goo

What is the end of the world going to look like? A nuclear war driven the ideological differences of dictators and empires? A heat death brought about by unstoppable climate disaster? Or maybe it'll be something a bit more classic. The unstoppable encroaching of the Grey Goo scenario.

...Either way, we likely weren't expecting extinction to look this adorable.

The Grey Goo in question was the creation of two bumbling scientists in a lab, who, in their incompetent hubris, accidentally let the Sub-Atomic Microorganism free from the Petrie dish containing it. Not only that, but they'd even go so far as to let it absorb a time machine as it grew, allowing it to go back in time and irreversible change history.

The results were self explanatory. The Grey Goo broke down everything it touched on a sub-atomic level, absorbing it into its mass and growing ever bigger. Once it begain snacking on dinosaurs, it eventually grew big enough to eat the meteor that wiped them out and allow them to continue existing into the present day. As it devoured its way across time, it would grow exponentially from there. In just a few minutes of binging, it grew from just small enough to eat quarks, to big enough to eat cars. And its speed would only increase in proportion to its size. Within a few more minutes it was large enough to eat buildings and dinosaurs. A few minutes more and it could eat island, continents, and, inevitably, the tasty, tasty planet on which we live.

As unstoppable as that may seem, the Goo's rapid rate of expansion certainly saved its bacon a few times. It cannot absorb objects that are significantly larger than itself. It has to grow up to a somewhat comparable level first. So even at this planet destroying level, stars and black holes could still potentially destroy. Until it got bigger... and they couldn't anymore. The Goo achieved the ability to move itself through space through sheer size alone and just kept eating. And any damage it did take while growing was just regenerated, as the Grey Goo used the material it was absorbing to regrow itself. Eventually, even the heat of stars and the power of black holes could do nothing to it as the Goo just... ate them. And kept eating. More and more until there was simply nothing left.

The original story has it end there. After eating the very fabric of time, the Goo exploded and recreated reality in a new big bang. But the sequels had to go even farther. In Tasty Planet back for Seconds, the Goo would grow even bigger and eat the Turtles of Time. Massive Turtles who held the universe itself on their back, each one exponentially bigger than the one ridding on its back. An infinite line of delicious meals all the way down. In Tasty Planet forever, it grows bigger even still. The Goo is so immense that entire universes are no bigger than mere quarks relative to its glorious grey immensity.

The multiverse itself was the only meal left. Everything else was just crumbs on its plate.

Analysis: Disembodied Thought

What am I? Who am I? What does it mean to be me?

These were the first ideas that occurred to the being known as the Disembodied Thought. An abstract, non-physical being spawned from nothing with no context for its life. It didn’t know what it was, where it was going, or what it was going to be. So, it decided it was going to try to be everything and see where it felt like going from there.

So, it became a bear. It possessed a random black bear and lived its life as one. Then it possessed several black bears, a whole flock of them, simultaneously, to experience life from multiple perspectives. As it grew to understand the world around it, the Thought would leap into different bodies to understand the world from different perspectives. It could possess anything it interacted with, traveling the world as a blade of grass or as a herd of goats, able to move no matter its current body's limitations. It could possess an infinite number of objects at once, so long as they were all the same object. It could possess every goat on Earth, with no limits, but it could only do that as a goat.

The Thought would experiment with viewing life from both high and low perspectives. It could possess atoms, quarks, and even 1-dimensional points in space to see the little things in life. Or it could possess planets, galaxies, and stars to get the whole picture. And once it had a perspective, it could share that perspective with its current host. If its grown to the point of possessing planets, then it can take a bear's body and grow it to the size of a planet. The Thought's ability to possess things grows in tandem with its increasing awareness. The more it learns about the world, the more it can possess within the world. It learned how to possess quarks and strings by learning that such things existed and it learned how to possess planets by discovering planets. So, once it discovered everything, it became Everything. The entire universe, in all of its infinity.

Naturally, a being that grows stronger with its experiences can only be defeated by something that turned all of its experiences against it. At the peak of its power and knowledge, the Thought would find itself within the Golden Gate. A pocket reality that contained everything within itself by convincing it that escape was impossible. Every thought or idea the entity within it experienced was used to drive home the fact that escape was impossible. Every train of thought lead to the idea "I can not escape", so no even tries.

So the Disembodied Thought escaped.... by purging itself of every thought or idea it had ever had up until that point in its life and becoming the Golden Gate. Now at its absolute biggest, the Disembodied Thought existed.... as nothing but a single quark. The entire universe existed as nothing but a single quark inside a much bigger universe, which itself was just a quark in another universe still. Onwards and upwards forever, quarks all the way to infinity.

The Disembodied Thought would never stop learning, never stop growing, and never stop becoming, because life was simply too big to run out of things to be. And the Thought would not stop until it could be and know Everything.

Throwdown Theme:

Throwdown Breakdown:

This is a very unique matchup with some very interesting questions.

While both can eventually possess/assimilate the other, they would not be able to do so immediately. The Thought would not be able to possess the nanotechnology that makes up the Goo until it learns what nanotechnology is or that things on that relative size exist, while the Goo only gains the ability to absorb non-physical objects, such as the very fabric of time, after its already eaten everything else in the universe. Before then, the Goo eating the Thought's body would just force the Thought to possess something else.

Both also have other options to make unlocking their win conditions more interesting. For example, the Goo could go back in time to before the Thought was a relative threat to itself and just absorb it then. But, I'd argue this would require a level of creative thinking that the Goo has never really demonstrated, as its time travel usage was often accidental and it rarely displayed any tactical thinking beyond "avoid thing bigger than me". I think the Thought's advantages are more in character and more substantial.

First off, the Thought at its biggest is much, much bigger than the Goo at its biggest. The Goo is large enough that universes are mere quarks relative to its body, but the Thought keeps going past that. Becoming universes that are bigger than universes that are bigger than universes, constantly traveling upwards forever. Sure, the Goo eats the Turtles of Time, but those Turtles aren't infinitely bigger than each other. There's just an infinite amount of them. Meanwhile, each universe in Everything is infinitely bigger than the last, with the previous universe just being a single quark in the larger one. Even if the Goo could catch up, it couldn't get past the Golden Gate, which the Thought could at that point become in order to keep the Goo contained.

Secondly, the Thought can also be much smaller than the Goo. Sure, the Grey Goo can eat down to the subatomic level, but even quarks are still 3-dimensional objects. Just much smaller ones. The Goo cannot eat 1-dimensional points in space. Just eat the 3-D area around it. It wouldn't even be able to see the Thought at that point, much less hurt it. It's like trying punch a molecule.

And finally, it's much more likely that the Thought would become aware of and able to possess the nanotechnology the Goo is made of sooner than the Goo can grow big enough to eat the fabric of time. While the Goo could simply time travel to a point where the Thought does not exist to avoid this, I'd argue that is out of character. The Grey Goo does not register anything as a threat unless it is noticeably bigger than itself, and as such, likely isn't smart enough to think of this strategy or realize the Thought can threaten it in this way. Once possessed, the Thought can just throw it into a volcano or star to destroy it depending on how big the Goo currently is.

For all the Goo's hunger and size, in the face on infinity it is only a tiny, hungry blob. It cannot measure up to the vastness of Everything.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

The Disembodied Thought!

[celestialknight9]

_universal_save_yz54846121b9n_phoenix_

(Translation: Prologue aka before literally everything else)

It's been three months since I've seen darkness. Three months of travelling through the blank white plane that is Zero Space running away from her. Three months of unease, not knowing when I'll draw my last breath.

I suppose we could run forever but my friends and I are done with running. We make our final stand today. Of course, 'day' is a planetary term. We're travelling through Zero Space where time and space are both irrelevant planes. Zero space is the definition of nothing. A white canvas that's been left unpainted between the fabric of space and time. The "place" where an eternal game of cat and mouse was playing out. We're the mouse. It's all my fault really. I shall carry the burden of my mistakes, knowing my incompetence may have spelled the end of our universe.

That is why I decided to stop running. I don't want to be remembered as the Guardian who ran for all eternity. If I'm going to die, I might as well go down with a fight and hope I make a difference. And if not, I hope the next generation's Guardian will succeed where I have failed.

I bring The Crusader to a halt, breaking back into reality. We re-materialised right at the centre of the Universe, between the two aspects; a Hyper Star and a Super-massive Black Hole. It's a spectacle to behold, even at my final hour. The two driving forces of the universe were each as large as small galaxies. Flares from the Hyper Star arced across and were immediately absorbed by the Black hole; The Symbol of Beginning and End. It's mesmerising to watch the endless cycle. Each of the two Aspects we're orbited by much smaller spheres. Universe cores. Generators of elements and forces. The Hyper Star is surrounded by three while the Black Hole has seven....

I didn't need that to remind me we're on the loosing side. Only me and three of my team are left alive, the other four didn't make it. They fought valiantly but, in the end, they were no match for her. They we're annihilated and I ran because I was too weak to do anything.

She caught up. Less than a minute after we arrived. She was closer than I thought. Reappearing out of a worm hole was a Celestial Shark. The Crusader was massive, even for star-ship standards, but it was but a fly to the celestial being capable of swallowing entire planets with ease. She however isn't the shark. That is simply her host. She is sitting inside the shark no doubt laughing at my decision, savoring every moment. She is my shadow. Tiamat. The embodiment of Entropy. The natural degree of randomness and disorder. Chaos. Her goal is to accelerate the growth of our universe. Particle interaction will decrease to the point where no new stars can be formed, and the universe falls into heat death.

Stars give off light and energy, but their main role is their affinity to the Hyper Star. Each planetary system, each star Tiamat destroys, loosens the forces holding the universe together.

I intended to stop her by creating stars and planets faster than she could destroy them, but my plan backfired. About a year ago, I had accidentally created a new type of life. Symbiotic celestial bodies. Enormous 'living' beings made up of small planets of pure elements that act as elements. They are naturally passive beings, roaming the galaxies absorbing starlight. Tiamat took advantage of this and infested a juvenile celestial shark. It was too young to fight back for control but even though it was young, it could devour planets faster than I could make them.

Everything fell apart from there. One day we tried freeing the celestial shark but that proved disastrous. We lost Chloe that day. Fighting it is impossible. We lost three others during our next few attempts. Running worked better but we can't run forever. There is one more option.

Seven shapes emerged from the shark's body. The shadows of my comrades. They all inhabited huge creatures, but they were all insignificant compared to Tiamat.

I finally look towards what’s left of my friends. Joanna, Lazarus and lastly Imma, all with long faces, the last of their hope evaporated. My final order for them was to take The Crusader and escape this nightmare. They refused.

I started with Imma. My Wife. I heated up her molecules until they were nothing but gamma radiation, preserving her life, her DNA as a wavelength. She screamed at me to let her fight with me, but I stopped her with a final kiss.

I turned to the others, but Tiamat bit the ship in half. I had no time left. Joanna and Lazarus too died because of me.

I will my universe core to let my body transform into my ethereal form. The next moment I'm a gigantic phoenix as large as the Celestial Shark and made entirely of star-fire.

We fought wildly tumbling through space and inadvertently destroy a couple of galaxies. A few minutes in and my heat was starting to take affect of the planets inside the celestial shark, but Tiamat was much more experienced with her body. She bit into my right shoulder. Her massive teeth pierced my universe core. My powers started to drain at an exponential rate. I said my final command to the universe core, Ultra Nova.

My body and everything around me turned to pure energy, even stronger than gamma, where there was no wavelength, just a wash of solid energy that engulfed everything hopefully destroying Tiamat and our shadows with me. In my final spark, brighter than Zero-Space, I see a slideshow of memories of my life.

My spark was fading. My legacy's end spells the start to a new Guardian's. I hope I made a difference.

- I was born on Milky Way024S178P3, Earth, 10000 years after the first human. My name is Yeshua. I was different from the rest of the humans. Some of people followed my philosophy but most of the men shunned me. It was fine though because I was soon proven I was right. I was a teacher at my time. I lived a nomadic life teaching about the workings of the universe.

One day, one of my students revealed himself to be a brass lion. He gave me a cloak, a sword and a shining sphere that looked like the stars.

Three years later I faked my death to escape my followers and ascended to space with my closest companions. The first year in space was exhilarating. No human has come close to even an idea of what space looked like.

Then Tiamat appeared. I thought she was good as she was a part of me, my shadow, but she soon proved herself to be absolute evil. We raced each other. Creation vs Destruction. Life vs. Death. Until now. I'm not even sure who won. Is there a point to winning? The Universe decides that, not me. I want to say I'm unlucky that Tiamat ended up so much stronger than me but there's no such thing as luck when it comes to the Universe. It was destined to be this way -

. . .

[tomorrowedblog]

Thursday Releases for December 5

Friday is usually the busiest day of the week for new releases. Not this week though. For some reason there a bunch of releases on a Thursday. Whatever. Thursday Releases for December 5 include Creature Commandos, Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, Fantasian Neo Dimension, and more.

Creature Commandos

Creature Commandos, the new TV series from James Gunn, is out today.

CREATURE COMMANDOS tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option.

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld, the new TV series from Echo Wu, is out today.

As her 16th birthday approaches, a not-so-average teen rediscovers the fiery powers she’s long suppressed and is forced to face her demons — literally.

Black Doves

Black Doves, the new TV series from Joe Barton, is out today.

When a spy posing as a politician’s wife learns her lover has been murdered, an old assassin friend joins her on a quest for truth — and vengeance.

Beastars S3

The third season of Beastars, the TV series from Shin'ichi Matsumi and Nanami Higuchi, is out today.

Following the battle with the culprit who devoured his classmate at school, Legoshi decides to drop out and begins living alone at Beast Apartments. Louis has entered a prestigious university and resolves to face his father, Ogma. Haru also deals with many struggles as she tries to enjoy campus life. Meanwhile, the city sees an increase of devouring incidents. The fangs of the heinous criminal who is pulling all the strings begin to close in on Legoshi and the others…

Fantasian Neo Dimension

Fantasian Neo Dimension, the new game from Mistwalker Corporation and Square Enix, is out today.

Embark on an adventure to discover your memories and save the world from a mechanical infection. Maneuver your skill trajectories during battle, and dive into a new dimension with a unique twist on a classic RPG experience.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, the new game from Beard Envy and Kasedo Games, is out today.

On an asteroid-bound service station in an unfrequented space lane, Wilbur carves out a paltry living as a mechanic, repairing as many ships as he can to afford the ever-rising R.E.N.T payments to his corporate overlord, Uncle Chop. Where most of his customers find meaning in pastimes like worshipping deranged space gods, feeding random crap to a sentient black hole, endlessly digging for The Treasure™ or mentally enslaving donut shop workers, Wilbur lives a more humble life, fixing the galaxy’s ills one broken ship module at a time.

The Hole

The Hole, the new game from BOBER BROS, is out today.

The Hole is a first-person horror game that explores the cracks in domestic life. Your neighbor’s drilling starts the nightmare, but the holes reveal dark secrets far deeper than any wall could hide. No cheap scares, only disturbing reality.

Overthrown

Overthrown, the new game from Brimstone and Maximum Entertainment, is out today.

Lift and throw anything as you build and manage your kingdom in this chaotic city builder for 1-6 players. Harness the power of your soul-stealing crown to defend your citizens from bandits and mutants, farm the land, and gather resources. Keep citizens happy or see them desert you!

Behemoth

Behemoth, the new game from Skydance Games, is out today.

Skydance’s BEHEMOTH is an original story set in the Forsaken Lands, a fallen kingdom haunted by tragedy. Play as an outland warrior, Wren the Hunter (the player), and embark on a perilous quest to save yourself and your village. Your only hope is to slay the unslayable, the monstrous Behemoths.

Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals, the new game from NetEase Games, is out today.

Marvel Rivals is a Super Hero Team-Based PVP Shooter! Assemble an all-star Marvel squad, devise countless strategies by combining powers to form unique Team-Up skills and fight in destructible, ever-changing battlefields across the continually evolving Marvel universe!

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, the new game from Polygon Treehouse and Whitethorn Games, is out today.

You’re shipwrecked on a lost mythical island. As backpacker Alex, you must befriend the forgotten gods of Greek mythology and restore their memories. Explore the dynamic island and its story sandbox to build new friendships, solve the mystery and save the gods.

The Thing: Remastered

The Thing: Remastered, the new game from Nightdive Studios and Computer Artworks, is out today.

The Thing: Remastered is a faithful restoration of the cult-classic 2002 third-person survival horror shooter game inspired by Universal Pictures’ genre-defining 1982 film, The Thing.

[beatricelalalala]

Apocalypse Bees 2020

I am one of three technicians testing a prototype of a food court automated service station. It is a beautiful sunny afternoon. We are inside of an opulent mansion belonging to the inventor of this machine. The machine shuts down. We follow the power cord round behind the wall and find a hidden room. There is a small cringing man in there sitting on a cylindrical container half his size. The walls are lined with computers, beeping away without input. The man explains that he is doing the work of his god, and he will be rewarded if he unleashes the apocalypse bees. He lifts the lid. The other two technicians tell me that since I am the most athletic, I should run while they try to stop the bees. I run. The apocalypse bees tear little holes in their faces and hands as the technicians try to close the lid of the container. The cringing man curses his god as he is devoured, saying he should have been protected. I close the door behind me.

This mansion has many twisting corridors. Some of the doors are blocked with locks or puzzles. I must keep going, opening doors ahead of me and closing them behind me. I am always slightly too slow, and the bees keep coming. I reach a door with an LED screen. It shows the icon of a crocodile with a wagging tail (the icon for a puzzle). The screen flashes the bright orange word 'focus'. I try. The screen displays a glowing world map with only the borders of landmasses lit up and the rest black. The screen rapidly pans around the map while the word 'focus' keeps flashing. The screen settles on the Indian ocean. I get the sense that this is randomized. The ocean displays 4 bars that measure concentrations of substances. The only one I focus on is the average salinity of the ocean water. The bar shows an amount, and beneath it is the year which that amount is true for. the height of the bar changes as the years move forward. We cover millennia in seconds. I notice the trend is a decrease in average salinity. Then the screen displays a question: 'based on the information previously displayed, what is the trend for amount of photons from the sun entering the earth's atmosphere? - increase/decrease' I select decrease, wondering what salinity could possibly have to do with photons. The crocodile icon turns orange. I'm not sure if that means I was correct or incorrect. Im not sure which puzzles open which doors, so I just try the door ahead of me, and it opens.

I find myself in a fancy bedroom with many windows and glass doors. There is a man there who works in the mansion as a personal attendant. He is impeccably polite. This is a dead end, but I am sore and tired and decide I need to rest. We decide to warn the people having a picnic outside about the apocalypse bees. We open the door and bring in a few families, about 17 people. Some people don’t listen and stay outside. We seal the doors. The polite man organizes the people (he is a natural leader). He sets a watch order and updates everyone about the danger. During his work, I lay on the floor, trying to recover my energy. I'm trying to think about how to warn the rest of the world. I cant concentrate because my back is so sore from running. One lady tells me that my pain does not compare in import to the pending apocalypse via bees. I cannot think enough, or even move to reply. The polite man responds to her that all pain is valid. He massages my back until I can move and think again. I find us a radio.

[epic-song-lyrics-showdown]

Random Assorted Artists with songs in the showdown Pt. 2

This is the second list of random artists that have been submitted. This is pretty much anyone that didn’t get many submissions. If you see a song and are like hey this should be somewhere else the answer is no. Unless there is a repeat of a song somewhere or the artist shows up on another list they are meant to be here. Check out the other lists here.

Somebody - Age of Madness

Finale (The Magic Shop) - The Muppets

Komm, süsser Tod - Arianne Schreiber

If I Didn’t Believe in You - Jeremy Jordan (The Last Five Years)

Iodine - Icon for Hire

Can’t be Erased - JT Music

My Ordinary Life - The Living Tombstone

An Unhealthy Obsession - The Blake Robinson Synthetic Orchestra

Welcome to the Family - Watsky

Infinitesimal - Mother Mother

You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid - The Offspring

Walking Disaster - Sum 41

Small Blue Thing - Suzanne Vega

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing - Set It Off

Finale (Can’t wait to see what you do next) - AJR

Top Picks for You - Injury Reserve

Good News - Mac Miller

Gopher Guts - Aesop Rock

Close your eyes (And count to fuck) - Run the Jewels

That Scrooge - Team Starkid

Rule #9- Child of the Stars - Fish in a Birdcage

A Million Gruesome Ways to Die - Daniel Ingram and Black Gryphon

Chicken Man - Evelyn Evelyn

Open the Sky - The Stupendium

Poison Pop - qbomb

I.D. - go! child

These Hallowed Wings - The Stupendium

Finding Mr. Midnight - Random Encounters

End of the Rope - They Might Be Giants

Lo-Fi Children - Wild Party

Brass Goggles - Steam Powered Giraffe

Hypothesis - Penny Parker

What Will You Leave Behind - Max II

Light of the Sun - Rustage ft. Johnald

DONTTRUSTME (don’t trust me) - 3OH!3

Vulture - Bear Ghost

Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground

Suicide Romantics - Des Rocs

Sleep Now in the Fire - Rage Against the Machine

Never Let Me Down Again - Depeche Mode

Selfless - The Strokes

The Loneliest - Måneskin

Back to Black - Amy Winehouse

The End of the World - Sharon Van Etten

Who said anything (about falling in love) - The Hoosiers

Live and Learn - Crush 40

Choices - The Hoosiers

Sometimes - Nick Lutsko

Hellbent - Mystery Skulls

When the Chips are Down - Hadestown

Trials - STARSET

Take Control - Old Gods of Asgard

Ricochet - STARSET

Symbiotic - STARSET

Aura - Thomas Bergersen

Asking For It - Hole

Softer, Softest - Hole

Banks - Lincoln

Bury Our Friends - Sleater-Kinney

Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

Planet of the Bass - Kyle Gordon

Bi Bi Bi - Sub-Radio

VS SAYU - James Landino ft. Nikki Simmons

Teal - Wunderhose

All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem

Bad Bad Things - AJJ

Since I saw Vienna - Wilbur Soot

Brain Power - NOMA

THE MOST FASHIONABLE FACTION - The Stupendium

Superman - Ivory Lane

New York - St. Vincent

Old Friends - Scott Helman

Even My Dog - Katheryn Gallagher

Way Less Sad - AJR

IT’S OK - Nightbirde

Vienna - Billy Joel

Breaking Out - The Protomen

Atlanta - go! child

Enigma - go! child

Atlanta - go! child

I’m Enough - Early Eyes

Melody from the Past - The Megas

The Will of One - The Protomen

build a giant robot out of trash - qbomb

Believe - Hollywood Undead

If I Believed - Starkid (Twisted Soundtrack)

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Hearing Damage - Thom Yorke

A Better Son/Daughter - Rilo Kiley

Nothing Left - John-Allison Weiss

Along the Road - Radical Face

Learning to Fly - Hills x Hills

Habibi - Tamino

HYACINTHUS - Aidoneus

Into the West - Annie Lennox ish

Two Birds - Regina Spektor

Sticks & Stones - Jónsi

Where No One Goes - Jónsi, John Powell

Together from Afar - Jónsi

Throw Me in the Water - WILD

Welcome Home Son - Radical Face

Hey Brother - Avicii

Here’s To Us - Kevin Rudolf

Hungover in the City of Dust - Autoheart

Burned Out - dodie

In Our Bedroom After The War - Stars

Glory - Radical Face

Older Than I Am - Lennon Stella

Brother - Kodaline

Devourer - Aidoneus

Forever Young - Youth Group

The Village - Wrabel