#only 3 left to go

[vault81]

Map of the Commonwealth (25.12.2287)

Featuring all (currently) known factions and their territories

[marciaillust]

your design of me

[shotmrmiller]

anyway id been thinking of "maid" reader who is honestly just the friendly neighborhood college student who cleans homes because your caffeine addiction cannot fund itself and you end up with the (mis) fortune of cleaning simon's home which is sparse of personal belongings, only the practical home furniture about. it looks like no one's stays in the place because the armrests to chairs have a thin layer of dust on it, the dinner table still has its gleaming polish as if brand new.

it's all fine and dandy, even pays you with a thick wad of crumpled cash that's always meticulously placed on the counter.

until it's not because somewhere down the line he shows up and now you're being accused of theft (in this economy? you'd only be stealing food from grocery stores thank you) but you've a reputation to keep so now he's telling you to let him eat you out, give him 7 back to back orgasms "'nd we'll be square, birdie."

[peace-hunter]

tfone au where OP is created as the last of the primes but way after them, a sparkling born at what were thought to be the last days of the war against the quintessons, the beginning of a new generation of peace after eons of war. a child meant to be loved and raised knowing nothing of war nor sacrifice.

he's kept mostly out of the spotlight by his siblings, who don't wish to expose him to everyone's optics so young, and want to wait until the war is done and over to properly introduce him to their people.

except of course the primes are betrayed and murdered by sentinel, the war is lost and everyone who knows and cared for the truth is either banished or outright killed in order to suppress it.

and the high guard, the ones the primes trusted the most, the ones that were supposed to protect them, the ones who failed in their most important duty, have to make a choice. to take the last prime, their last hope, with them to the surface, a hostile environment where there's little to no supplies and where they'll be hunted down by both sentinel and the quintessons as the biggest threat to their regimen.

or hide him in plain sight. place him where sentinel won't think to look for him. one more sparkling among many. and hope it will be enough to keep him alive. pray to primus that he'll protect his last child long enough for them to come back for him when it's safer (even if most of them have already lost their faith on him when he allowed the rest of his children to be massacred like that)

they almost lose their resolve when they realize they will have to take the little one's cog away in order to make him blend in with the rest of the newborns (and oh do they burn with murderous intent when they see what sentinel has done to their people but it's not the time yet-) but in the end they decide an impaired little prime is better than a dead one.

and so in the chaos of thirteen dead primes and a sudden energon crisis, a little sparkling who very few mechs really knew about and even fewer had seen completely vanishes. and in the depths of iacon a mech in charge of a new batch of newborns scratches their helm in confusion as they realize they must have miscounted the first time.

optimus prime is quietly erased from any official records by sentinel, written off as dead when they find a sparkling's frame mangled beyond recognition after an attack on the base of those rebels that insist on being a thorn on his side. killing the sparkling hadn't been precisely in his plans, he probably could've found some use for it after all, but he's not particularly upset about it either.

and orion pax grows up with an ache on his spark that tells him he's missing something far more important than a t-cog and dreams of gentle and loving hands, cradling him against the frames of mechs he cannot recall the faces of.

[niewanyin]

personally, i think men need to grow a backbone like white women have done after being told by leftist spaces that they are evil and complaining about Anything is utilizing white women tears because god knows leftist men clung to the ability to be a misogynist and get away with it by putting the word "white" in front of "women" and they can act like they're the real victims of the patriarchy unlike nasty bitches who might feel unsafe around them. like if you're not secure in yourself as a person to continue doing what's right after a few mean words that you say don't apply to you, that's a problem you should figure out with a therapist.

[screwpinecaprice]

I was trying to eat noodles neatly and for some reason I got sad midway. So I drew them messy eating a biscuit and a strawberry to combat sad noodle blues.

[zivazivc]

this came to me in a dream

Floyd's emo ass and a techno troll could make scene kids...! Do you see my vision??? . . . Ravin is Happy Hardcore and Eddy M is Synth-Pop, that's how troll genetics work, right?

anyway...

i don't think floyd leads a proud life

[neunhofferart]

There's a shot in Season 3 Episode 2 of Jurassic World Chaos Theory where I staged Ben, Gia, Sammy, and Yaz opening a door like this--

...And @tio-trile said it looked like they were about to start singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

So.

[sengenism]

i just know senku was internally sweating seeing that gen wasn't called onto the ship yet that he had to check for spoilers

ok jk i know this was for ginro too but as i've mentioned before, the stark contrast in his reaction for ginro saying no vs gen saying no is so funny like

"yeah it's chill bro it's ur choice anyways the development team is needed too" 🫶🫶🫶

vs

"shut up and get on the ship with me mentalist"

like.... all of a sudden the development team isn't as important anymore im crying

[justablah56]

I love you fics that are people clearly just projecting their thoughts about being arospec onto a character.

[intotheelliwoods]

Happy to have 2 Arms Left in the comp another year! While this isnt Sprouts first rodeo, its Poptarts first! Everyone give him a welcome :)

@tmntaucompetition

Bonus, featuring Poptarts bestie, because no one can convince me otherwise that Poptart will get overwhelmed with the amount of people- @dianagj-art

[kenzan-brainrot-mp4]

My ass has Not been drawing because I'm trying to get through Infinite Wealth as fast as possible but oughh kazumaji, oh the way things change

The fact that these two scenes are 16 Years Apart is crazy.

The fact that it took 16 years, 5 games, and countless instances of Kiryu leaving for Majima to finally just outright tell him "don't leave", whereas before he would've just stayed quiet.

The fact that Majima stayed silent in Yakuza 3 when Kiryu was leaving to live a new, free life while leaving Majima to take care of his responsibilities, meanwhile in IW he speaks up when Kiryu leaves to go throw his remaining life away for the yakuza while leaving the 3jimas to their quiet (if admittedly miserable) new lives. ohhh they make me sick

[sunflowersinheaven]

another wip, that i wont be able to finish for a while

[aurorangen]

A day in Tomarang

[tea-tuesday]

07/01/2024

a month left and i'm not panicking (i am)...! sorry to juxtapose beautiful flowers with a cursed picture of memorizing crim at like 3 am lmao. hope everyone's having a lovely summer and good luck to those who are also studying over the summer ! summer study squad🌞📚, let's go!!! may we be blessed with good grades, passing scores, and a stress-free autumn🙏

[trappedinafantasy37]

Cults & Crisis: The Exiled Drow

As I go through these cult dissections, one of the hardest things to realize is that just because someone left a cult does not mean they cannot find themselves in another cult. It also does not mean they won't walk back to the cult they left. One of the people that I am following to learn more about cults says, "You cannot reason someone out of what they did not reason themselves into." Cults do not operate on logic, they avoid it like a plague. Cults latch onto emotion and they twist it to placate their members, to make them dependent on the cult and The Idol. For some, they were born into cults and molded by it, and the cult is all they know. This applies to Minthara, Lae'zel, Orin, and I will consider Shadowheart as well since she was dragged into one as a child and her life before the cult was wiped from her memory.

Cults take advantage of those in crisis, and sometimes generate crisis to keep their members dependent on the cult. Cults provide community, a sense of belonging, a home, a family, answers, and a higher/divine purpose. Cults figure out whatever the person is missing and they fill the void, they find whatever is wrong and promise to solve it. They present themselves as a panacea, the cure to someone's every ailment. Once you're in, cults fracture your emotional regulation to keep you in. They put you through constant ups and downs. They create a problem, freak you the hell out, and then give you a solution. Whenever there is pain, the cult is there to alleviate it. They quite literally reshape your brain and manipulate how you see the world, where the only thing that is the truth is the cult, and The Idol.

Viconia was a Sharran in the previous games after having left the Underdark and Lolth. On the surface, it seems strange. Why would someone who rejected and defied Lolth go to Shar? She should know better! Well, no, she doesn't, thank Lolth for that. For some back story, Viconia was once given an order to sacrifice a child (not her child, but someone's in House DeVir). She refused the order. This caused quite the kerfuffle which resulted in Viconia needing to flee the Underdark.

All of this put Viconia into crisis. She lost her entire family, lost her house, lost her home, lost her god, lost her purpose, lost everything she has ever known (sound familiar?). It isn't as if the surface has been kind to her either. She has been harassed, prosecuted, hunted, and assaulted. The surface isn't kind to drow. She understandably would have been filled with fear, grief, despair. Those are all Shar's brand. Viconia being a former Lolthite already has a poor relationship with her own emotions. She was prime for manipulation from Shar, and Shar sure did have a field day with Viconia. That's how Shar gets people. She comes to them while they are in crisis, promising that "all this pain, all this loss, I can fix it all for you. Don't you want the pain to go away?" And for some, Shar does steal their memories and so they do not recall their crisis. But for the rest, Shar gives purpose to their pain. In Viconia's case, Shar twisted Viconia's pain so she would do Shar's bidding. Shar did the same thing to Ketheric.

I know I'm a broken record on this, but Lolth and Shar are similar gods and fond of the same things: darkness, death, treachery. So as a cleric of Shar, Viconia easily falls into old habits as Shar filled the void left behind by Lolth. Shar gave her a purpose, a place to belong, a home, family. Unfortunately, Shar also tasked her with destroying her enclave in Waterdeep, claiming they were all full of traitors. A rough, but easy task for Viconia to accomplish. In an old life, she would have been expected to slaughter her own family on a moment's notice. The drow like to play it off, like murdering your family is just a normal day. She even says that she had doubts about their treason because they had always shown loyalty to her. She put her faith in Shar, and believed that what she had to say was the truth. But there is no way it didn't fling Viconia back into another crisis and looking for answers. But it's okay, all she has to do is go to Baldur's Gate and do it again. She'll get her home back, her family back, her purpose back.

One day, Viconia is tasked with retrieving a young Selunite who is going through her own rite of passage. The father of the young child found out that Viconia and her Sharrans were in the woods, ready to snatch his daughter. So he goes full lycanthrope to protect her. But the girl doesn't know her father is a lycanthrope and thinks it to be a wolf chasing after her. She is scared and running for her life, thinking she is going to be mauled to death. The young Selunite trips to the ground, blood tricking from the new wound on her face. The wolf approaches, trying to warn his daughter, but all she sees are sharp teeth primed at her throat. And who swoops in at just the last second? Viconia and her Sharrans, saving the frightened little girl from the big bad wolf. Telling her she and Shar will keep her safe, that the dark is nothing to be afraid of, and that others (Selune) were leading her astray and into danger. Only she and Shar can protect her, and they will show her the way.

Viconia invented a crisis to trick a young Shadowheart into going with her and joining Shar. And no matter how many times her memory was wiped, this is the one memory that remained. This crisis is the foundation of Shadowheart's Sharran worship. Her first memory is one of Viconia and Shar coming to her when she needed help, solved her crisis, gave her a place to belong. They gave her a family where she forgotten she had one. The cult, Shar, Mother Superior, they became her family and all she had ever known. Viconia made it so that Shadowheart felt that she owed her life to Shar.

Unlike Viconia, Minthara did not choose to reject Lolth, but she was exiled all the same. She lost her entire family, lost her house, lost her home, lost her god, lost her purpose, lost everything she has ever known. Twice. Once with Lolth, and then again with the Absolute. The Absolute was ripping her brain apart, targeting her emotional core. She thought she was going to die. She was in a crisis. She prayed and begged for someone to come save her because she knew she couldn't save herself. And who swooped in and saved her? You did. You came in while she was in crisis and you promised her, "I will save you from all that troubles you, and I can keep you safe from the biggest threat of your life." I used to say in previous posts that Minthara sees you as a "god figure" to replace Lolth. Now, I am sure that is exactly what is happening in her head. You and the vagabonds become her family, her home, her purpose. You are The Idol. And if you're Durge, your existence as a demigod reaffirms her faith in you as a god-figure. Babygurl still thinks she's in a cult, but it's centered around you.

Yes, Minthara is actively in the process of deconstructing things, but still engages in cult like behavior with you. She has an undying loyalty and devotion to you, literally willing to die for you, and her oath keeps her to it. Her oath is literally a divine vow to you. She does not believe you would ever hurt her because she has faith in you, and you as The Idol promised that you never would. That, and she has no reason to believe that you ever would hurt her, she has no reason to believe you would ever lie to her, use her, or manipulate her. She is very selective of genuine criticism of you to where it mutates into cognitive dissonance if you do something she doesn't agree with. She has to find reason in the things you do that she doesn't understand because The Idol cannot be wrong, so she twists her own logic so that you are right. She is pretty quick to insult the others, but she would never dare to insult you because when you're in a cult, you. do not. speak ill. of the leader. The moments where she is actually afraid of you, she either internalizes her fear, or expresses sexual arousal as if that will keep her safe from you.

This cult thinking could lead her to repeating certain habits that you would think she would have learned a thing or two about. But her previous cults literally and actually prevented her from learning these things. Ugh, why is she pushing Shadowheart towards Shar, is she stupid? She's in a cult. Ugh, why is she pushing Durge towards Bhaal, is she stupid? She's in a cult. Ugh, after everything she has been through with Lolth and the Absolute, she's such a hypocrite to want you to claim the Absolute. Yeah, SHE'S IN A CULT!

You cannot reason her out of what she did not reason herself into. She will say to your face you cannot change her mind, and no amount of evidence will change her mind. Her desire for power is not driven by reason or logic, it is driven by emotion, it is driven by fear. She says it plainly, she wants to be free from the gods, she wants to be their equal, she does not want to need Idol's. She wants autonomy, she wants safety, she wants security. She is being driven by her lack of autonomy, safety, and security. It takes the emotional turmoil of killing Orin to see the first real and true cracks in her programming. Where she finally sees things for what they are and finally uses reasoning. The gods like Bhaal, Lolth, the Absolute were the reasons why she didn't have autonomy, safety, or security.

With you by her side, Minthara can safely continue to deconstruct her own cult mindset and get out of it. You are no longer The Idol, just her lover. She lives for herself because you didn't punish her like every other cult she has been in. These cults taught her to fear the world, to fear someone like you. But it was your kindness, compassion, and mercy that made her realize that all of these cults told her nothing but lies. But without you, she goes right back into crisis mode. She doesn't feel a bond or connection with the rest of the team. You do not want her around. She has no community or family, and with the destruction of the Absolute, she has no purpose. The sun burns her eyes and burns her skin and the surface doesn't want her, it can never truly be her home. So she goes back to the Underdark to fulfill the only purpose she has ever known, to look for a solution to her pain, to the one thing that can fill the void, Lolth.

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