#sol and hive are there but not really

[right-agent]

thinking about anna

[saccharides360]

Nine Sols - Eclipse AU

A lonely moon on New Kunlun, not quite alive, not quite dead.

She should not be here, yet despite it all, she found herself on the island stranded in space, away from home.

Through her connection to Great Fusang, Heng was fully aware why she was in this state, why she was in this place. However, now no more than just a phantom, she could do little for her predicament, nor for the unfortunate residents on New Kunlun.

Centuries passed away in the blink of an eye, and an opportunity finally arived.

Yay, my first tumblr post and first contribution to this community!

This AU is heavily inspired by many other community works e.g. Sister of the Innovator AU by @mystic-menagerie and discussions in The Tianzhu Hive discord server for the Corruption of the Innovator AU by @gensational. I'm really sorry I can't remember or mention all of them in this post 😭.

This timeline follows roughly the same story as canon with the main protag as Yi, but it has Heng slightly more actively involved in the main plot.

The story diverged from canon after the explosion incident. As Eigong helped to save Yi from the injury, she took notice of Heng's connection with the roots. Intrigued by the girl's power, she offered to also take Heng under her wings as another disciple. Out of a desire to learn more about this ancient friend of hers, Heng gladly accepted the offer (very much to Yi's joy and their parents' dismay).

In the counsil, Heng was well-liked just like in canon, and as a young scholar she showed unexpected levels of talents and aptitude studying about Fusang and the symbiotic fungus in Solarian bodies over the years. Her result allowed Eigong and Yi to improve their root stabilizer models (which also means Eigong Prime is canon in this au). As a result, she was even allowed to study Tianhuo as Eigong's assistant by the time of her adulthood. While she was qualified enough to be a potential Sol candidate, the position did not interest her. She was still very proud of her brother becoming a sol though.

Knowing it would be about time for Heng to find out Tianhuo's truth, Eigong decided to spill the beans herself. Although the young lady was saddened by the information, she understood why her teacher did not make it public. Therefore, she helped to keep it a secret, even from Yi in case he went rogue.

While the counsil meeting was supposed to be exclusively for the Sols, Heng begged Yi to let her attend, to which he happily approved. After all, she was so excited to know about this secret project her brother's so proud of, and she had to be there for Yi's special moment. This was a decision she regretted.

After knowing the specifics of the Eternal Caldron project, Heng was horrified that her brother could propose such a thing. In the meeting she was very vocal about her objection, and also suggested that maybe Tianhuo was just their destiny, maybe it was just the time for the Solarians to return to the Greater Tao, and maybe they could just accept the end of their race. In spite of the bonds she built with them ove the years, this idea was fiercely mocked by almost all counsil members (except for Fudie who was too afraid to speak up, Fuxi who let Nuwa do all the talking, and Ji who just went 👁👁). She tried to put up an arguement but was quickly silenced by her brother, who was deeply disappointed and furious that she would be against his brainchild, that she would bring shame to him at such an occasion, and that she still hold such backward ideas as a scholar.

After the meeting, Heng and Yi went to sweep their parents grave. At the graveyard, Yi apologized for his words at the meeting (but apologizing in a way that's like "We're both at fault"). Heng begrudgingly accepted the apology, but also informed him the decision that she would stay in Penglai. This reignited Yi's anger who thought his sister had "realized her mistake". Seeing no way to dissuade her, Yi took an opportunity and knocked her out. Afterwards, he placed her in her freshly constructed sleeping capsule in the Four Season Pavilion. As no apeman brains had been harvested at this stage, Yi let Ruyi power Heng's Soulscape System. Later, Eigong found this out. While she did not approve of Yi's actions, she did not overly condemn him since she found this to be for the best. A potential threat of leaking internal information was neutralized, and her student would not die due to the mistake she made (or as she thought).

Then the stuff was kinda the same as in canon. Yi found out the truth, and Eigong executed him etc etc. Before grandma went back to dull down abacus systems, she first paid a visit to the Four Season Pavilion (to mourn for her student though she did not know she went to mourn). She was horrified however to see the central root at the pavilion wrapping around Heng's capsule, from which sprouted out a large fungal flower. Guess she had two disciples to mourn now

However, unknownst to Eigong Heng was still there. While her body died due to complications and stuff, the roots kept her spirit alive. She was now a Rain World echo and only those more in tune with the Great Tao could see her. While she also gained a few new powers (that were connected to the roots, fungal flowers and Tianhuo) in this state, she was in a severely weakened state since the root nodes in New Kunlun were contained within those flower-bud-like structures. All she could do were to wonder around and observe tragedies and monstrosities (and occassionally have tea parties with Lear) for the next 500 years like nightcat rainworld

Out of all the Sols only Ji could see Heng. However, unlike Heng who was desparately wanting to help, Ji was too depressed and unmotivated because they believe all those efforts were to be futile and meaningless. A sentimentality that eventually rubbed onto Heng, making her more cynic and depressed over the centuries.

Things went for a turn when Yi was revived by the roots. Despite everything that happened beforehand, Heng couldn't help but feel happy that he was still alive. And during his journey throughout New Kunlun, he activated many root nodes on the way, allowing Heng's power to grow. This also allowed her to more directly intervene with the real world. Yi, while initially brushing off those incidents as random occurrences, increasingly believed that his sister might still be there.

Shuanshuan was in synch with the Great Tao enough for Heng to interact with him. After the Goumang bossfight, Heng was disgusted to see the state Yi left her in. Therefore, she created an illusion of herself and lured Shuanshuan to interact with the central root node. Using her power, she teleported the boy to a node near Goumang's location (a reckless decision that could leave permanent physical or emotional scars but Heng at this state was too apathetic to realize how messed up this was). Taking notice of the apeman's disappearance, Ruyi immediately informed Yi about the situation. Yi reacted quickly and brought his foster younger brother back to safety, but was also forced to bring Goumang (and maybe her two jiangshi children as well) to the pavilion. Kuafu later built the bird lady a pair of new prosthetic legs, yay!

During the prison section, after Jiequan went away, Heng decided to rescue her brother. She did this by turning the latent Tianhuo inside Yi virulent, forcing him to die on the spot. Right afterwards, she used her remaining energy to activate the node in the jail so that he could respawn there.

The last major point where Heng intervened was after the Fengs fight. As Nuwa crawled towards Fuxi's heavily mutated corpse, Heng caused Fusang roots to sprout out from the ground, preventing Nuwa from moving to her spikey demise. This saved her and allowed her to be recruited back to the pavilion, since there was no longer anything holding her to stay there anymore now that she was forced to accept Fuxi's death.

After collecting all seals other than Eigong's, Heng grew powerful enough to cause energy abnormalies in the central root node. Yi, who half expected to meet his sister, entered the limitless realm for one last time. And there she was, just far more ethereal and ghostly than he ever remembered. Finally the siblings reunited.

Before they part their ways, Yi asked if there was any way he could bring Heng back, to which Heng replied no. She said she could never forgive Yi, but she was still glad to see him grow into a better person.

The player would now be given 2 options - to keep insisting on bringing Heng back no matter what, or accept the fate like Heng has long accepted hers. If the former was chosen, a boss fight against Eclipse Heng would be triggered.

This 3-stage fight would be a mix of Lady Ethereal's and Ji's. She would summon all types of projectiles such as homing daggers, dream orbs, thunder blasts, crimson rings and primordial roots that functions identically to Nuwa's snakes. She could also create a dulled down version of Eigong's crimson balls and geisers. All her attacks would spawn fungal flowers on the arena, and standing on them would cause internal damage to accumulate. Heng's finishing signiture blow would be a taichi-kickable Tianhuo grab that's similar to Eigong's talismans. While this attack deals no damage on its own, it would turn all internal damage into actual damage as well as depleting all of Yi's chi gauge and one azure sand gauge.

I have no experience making music, but I imagine her boss theme to contain the sols leitmotif as well as a fused leitmotif between the regular Heng's theme and the "Life" leitmotif that sounds like this -

After the fight, Heng admitted to Yi that there really was no way to bring her back since her body was long gone, and her spirit was chained to Fusang. She also admitted that the reason why she did not tell him this before the fight was that she wanted to prepare Yi for Eigong's encounter which was going to be much more difficult than hers. Forced to accept this, Yi bid a final farewell to his sister and headed back to his mission.

Aaaaand the rest went the same as canon! And we also recruited Goumang and Nuwa onto the evacuation ship, soooooo yay! A better ending!

[charleecat-bat]

The Dimensional Duo! Except this time they're aliens! I liked the idea of having beings from other planets in the Superhero AU. :p felt it was more interesting idea to play around with then the usual alternate dimension and timeline blah blah blah. (ignore the coloured lineart on silvers but not blazes, her flames would've made stuff really hard-) Backstories are below, they get wordy so I'm putting a cut:

Silver comes from a planet where while no word is verbally spoken between anyone, they all have telepathic abilities and their psychic abilities are extraordinarily powerful, as well as having telekinesis and some of the species being able to stretch the limits of what they're capable of Such as limited shapeshifting or even receiving visions of the future. While Silver was simply a youthful teen, trying to find his way within his society. Elders in his community got a frightful vision of the future. That their planet faced certain doom. They would do everything they could to prevent it, including fight off the very threat of their planet, Mephiles, the dark corrupted brains behind the invasion who is the vessel of the powerful destructive entity, the Iblis Trigger. They tried to stop them before they were powerful enough but alas, their planet was ravaged, literally falling apart as the destruction continued. (I am not giving any planet names because I can't come up with anything right now). The whole planet suffered, buildings, homes, all the constructed vessels of their kind were destroyed, the wildlife, fauna and flora now extinct, those who had not died yet were rapidly dying. Silver did everything he could to help but was barely surviving himself... it all felt hopeless. It was in this moment of darkness, where he felt his most alone. He got a vision, much like the elders of his kind would. Another planet, befalling this very same fate as his own. Not now, but soon... in the future. To a distant planet, Mephiles and the Iblis Trigger would attack this one too. But perhaps, this vision was a chance. A glimpse into a future he could prevent, but it meant he had to leave his planet behind. Becoming the sole survivor of his entire planet at this point. It took him sometime, but he reached the planet Mobius. Unfortunately he was captured, but thankfully freed by the group of heroes he'd call his allies. He learned to be able to shift into a more 'Mobian'-esque form to blend in more, trying to appear as a fellow superhero using his powers. Being dubbed 'Psy-Fly' by the media... he didn't quite get it but he accepted it. While his past is full of darkness, he tries to have a hope that things will be better, and when the time comes. He can fight for this planets future and save it, for now, he's happy to help bring justice.

Blaze is the alien princess of one of her planets kingdom, the people of her planet and the surrounding ones are beings of pure elemental energy. The ones of Blaze's planet being based off fire-esque elemental. While her planet and people are thriving and have reached peace with the fellow beings from other planets, Blaze is still under a tremendous amount of pressure to keep her people safe. Her biggest duty is to protect their most powerful artifacts, the Sol Emeralds and while she has fought hard to keep that safe, that is not her only duty. She is also tasked to be on the look out and cautious of any possible threats to their planet and their allies. Many times going off-planet to vanquish any foe that poses a threat to them. Thieves who had either attempted or managed to succeed stealing the Sol Emeralds, enemies who had plotted or attempted attacks, etc. During a meeting with the Alliance of their Planets, they had learned concerning news. The Black Arms, a dangerous alien hive-mind, lead by the villainous Black Doom, had contributed in the creation of an artificial being with Black Arms DNA, a being that would likely be extremely powerful... this was concerning to them. Blaze was entrusted to travel to the planet that had been the home to these scientists and try to find and properly assess if this Black Arms Hybrid was a threat, and if so, to vanquish it. By the time she arrived to the planet, it had been 50 years. Where said lifeform, Shadow, was already unleashed at this time and his power is truly formidable... and a concern. After a lengthy fight, Blaze soon discovered that not only was Shadow recently 'redeemed' and not looking to be a destructive being any longer, but he had not been aware of his Black Arms DNA... so Blaze became an ally after informing them of her mission and motivations. Seeing that she did not want to bring harm, but prevent it. Now, she goes back and forth between her home planet and Mobius. Keeping up with her duties but agreeing to keep her eye on the planet Mobius, thinking that if the Black Arms haven't made their move yet... that they might do it soon. Until then she has done her best to do right by Mobius and help the heroes she's allied herself with, being dubbed Princess Pheonix by the media... it took a while to grow on her.

Both these alien beings have become friends, finding companionship in being non-Mobian beings on Mobius and getting used to the new planet and enjoying new experiences.

Bonus: Silver's true Alien Form.

[telestoapologist]

utterly adore that photo of the three giant marine isopods having their fun with a bag of doritos, and i decided to redraw it with hive worms because i just. feel like this is something they'd do. i swear these guys are like, my fav muse atm asldfghgfd. they're so fun to put in situations hehe!!

i actually started on this last year, promptly gave up but kept it for when i felt more motivated to return, and eventually i did! and these last few days or so i've been really hamming at the shit outta this thing. i've kind of come to realize that this is the kind of art i love making- busy, highly colorful, time-consuming and detailed. imperfect but close to my heart and sparking great joy regardless.

i hope everyone enjoys the result as much as i do 💖💖💖

details

✦ painted worm markings and curtains to create both blending and fading ✦ original jumbo chip bag design, "SOL CHIPS, 5g!!!" (i might make an individual vers of this later bc i had so much fun with this) ✦ asymmetrical linework here and there ✦ borders upon borders for layering and fun ✦ glowing worm eyes ✦ background checker pattern ✦ signature aligned to flow with the curve of the curtain border ✦ stars. so many stars. ✦ no worm stripe pattern is exactly the same!! snowflake worms. they're also emoting differently but each are excited for this wonderful, free bounty. ✦ outer dark border only open at the blue gaps. not sure why i did this, just felt right ykwim

🗨️🦜 twitter link!

[fallen-and-holy]

Redoing my pinned post!

Heyo!! Call me Sol, i use he/hymn/it/xe pronouns, and this is my main blog for all things! I'm alterhuman and queer in almost every way possible, and this is my place to be obnoxious about it. I’m also autistic and vocal about it. That’s the summary, more info below the cut!!

About Me

Alterhuman things

Kintype(s): Western dragon; fallen angel/demon; nökk/nixie/nokken; changeling

Theriotype(s): Maned wolf (linktype)

Theriomythic type(s): Night (or Forest??) Fury (linktype)

Fictionflicker type(s): Eztli Tokoyami (MHA/BNHA, non-canon); Rust (TMA, non-canon Corruption avatar); the Leviathan (TMA, non-canon Hunt/Vast avatar); Mike Crew (TMA); MK (Lego Monkie Kid); John Doe (Malevolent); Nightcrawler (unspecified X-Men universe); Smoked Cheese Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom); Stardust Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom); Pitaya Dragon Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom)

Hearthome(s): Star Trek

Hearttype(s): African Wild Dogs; space/stars

Archetrope(s): Guardian; Devotee; Symbiosis

Satellotype(s): Harpy eagle (orbiting the Leviathan); red winged blackbird (orbiting Eztli); felines (orbiting both of my dragon kintypes)

Miscecanis/miscanimalis: Beta, scent is ozone and old books with an undercurrent of sandalwood, revolves around all of my alterhumanity but specifically avian, canine, and eldritch behaviors

Queer Things

The short answer for my gender is multigender boy+ butch bear freakthingcreature, the long answer is ‘I have a fuckton of genders (probably due to being Multiple Guys) but i like being referred to with masculine and inhuman terms and also there are terms that are intrinsically important to my identity so i might as well call them genders’

Xenohoarder, here’s my hoard: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_P8tza81UckHbBm2LaRa_mzihvhPHPq_kNIDICQpAY8/edit?usp=sharing

The label i usually use for my orientation is omni, but the long and short of it is i like men in a fag way and women in a dyke way and men in a dyke way and women in a fag way and absolutely everyone in a queer way

Aroacespec, demirose

Name and pronoun hoarder, my pronoun page is here: https://en.pronouns.page/@fallen-and-holy

Objectum, mostly aesthetic attraction to things like computers but very much in love with the moon, the sea, space, and pretty much the concept of the Vast

Misc

quick guide to the first person pronouns I use: i/me/mine/myself refers to me and sometimes my subsystem; wei/muis/muir/muirself refers to me and my subsystem and sometimes my dæmon; we/us/ours/ourself refers to me and Cypher.

Plural, not sure how much im going to talk about that on here. Im a median subsystem with a dæmon as well as having one headmate, Cypher. Her blog is @lunar-drake

I dont really have a DNI, because those dont work and people are going to do what they want, but you will be blocked if you're mean. Additionally, i block/unfollow for a variety of reasons, including ‘i just dont want to see this on my dash for aesthetic reasons’ and i most likely wont remember why.

Fandoms i’ll likely talk about/reblog on here are the Magpod universes, MHA/BNHA, Dungeon Meshi, Fullmetal Alchemist, Lego Monkie Kid, Malevolent, Cookie Run Kingdom, and Star Trek. There will also be a lot of birds.

Sideblogs/digital shrines (most aren't very active)

@worship-sky-blue

@song-of-the-hive

@khaos-born-mother

@morning-stars-temple

@of-shattered-halo

@ra-hesi-ef

[hivefleet-hellbender]

Out in the desert, no one can find you... (Hex Tiles 1)

A sharp wind whistles through the desert dunes, bringing no reprieve to the travelers following the thin paths left out in the sand. Don't drink from the river — the plants that grow along its shores contain toxins that could leave a grown man coughing up blood, and chemical spills float through the current. A faraway road carries the rare drone-tank, long abandoned from any sort of human use.

My newest hobby, to distract myself on months when the purse is a bit too tight to be buying plastic crack from Games Workshop, is to build modular hex tiles! It's super easy — I pick up a hundred of these wooden MDF tiles from Amazon for $10 (they're advertised as 2", but they're 1.75" from tip to tip, and each side is 1"), grab any spare craft supplies I have lying around, and get to work! They're super quick (this first batch of one hundred took me around a week) and they open the door to a lot of cool experimentation. A lot of this is inspired by the work of u/Marcus_Machiavelli over on Reddit, who makes these fantastic modular hive city components that I hope to someday be able to emulate. 

I'm making these for two purposes, neither of which I've put in practice yet but I'm hoping to get to do at some point. They're for:

Any mass-battle games played at 6mm. This could also work for Adeptus Titanicus or the upcoming Epic reboot that Games Workshop is working on. 

Tactical TTRPGs like Lancer that are played with large beings, who can operate on a 6mm scale.

Once I get some games in with them, I'm sure I'll encounter future problems and reassess how I approach them. But for now, this is what I've got!

I Hate Sand

The first set of tiles I made, to serve as the backdrop for the rest of them, are these sand tiles. I chose to make this a desert (and thus make a bunch of sand tiles) because I already had some sand lying around, and because it's really cheap and easy to work with. Be careful though! Anakin was right; sand sucks. Try and pick up a finer grain than what I went with, apply the sand in a more-controlled location than I did, and secure it better than I did too. But here's how I did them:

Coat the surface of the hex with a mix of PVA glue and water.

Sprinkle on a light dusting of gravel or small rocks.

Apply a thick coat of sand on top of the gravel.

Knock off excess sand and recycle it for next time.

Spray with 1-2 layers of varnish. (I would recommend a sealant instead, but I didn't have any at the time)

For the ones with little paths on them, I painted the path on with White before applying the gravel or sand, and it shows through well enough! The paths are unnecessary — they're a fun experiment, but I don't think I'll be making more of them in the future.

The Gurgling Creek

Making the river tiles was a bit more involved, but still pretty easy. The method I came up with I think looks a lot better than just painting on water, and is a lot easier to work with than resin or water effects. 

Use some kind of texture gel to build up the riverbanks, trying to have them end around 1/4" on the sides of the tiles where you want your river to connect.

Paint a strip Black where you want the river to flow, running from one edge to another.

Apply sand as before, everywhere except where you painted the black. (If you're worried about fucking this up, you can swap the order)

Varnish (or use sealant) as before. 

Take some gloss mod podge and mix it with a light blue paint, and apply in large goopy quantities everywhere you want water to be. Leave overnight to dry. (If you want the river to be less cloudy, apply many thin coats of mod podge instead, letting each layer dry before applying the next)

As an extra, stipple green along the edges of the water and use a dark green wash to create patches of vegetation.

The river pieces are my favorites, and I'm the most proud of them. The tiny bridge was a thin strip of balsa wood, painted white and then washed black. It turned out fine.

I did a solid mix of straight river pieces and curving river pieces. If I was going to do it again I'd make more curving pieces than straight river pieces, because the curving ones make more sense for how rivers work.

The Road To Nowhere

These road tiles turned out really well, perfect for a run-down highway in the middle of nowhere. Here's how I made them:

Take a piece of corkboard and cut it down to be 1.75" long and 1" wide.

Glue it on a hex with the two edges of the corkboard touching two sides of the hex.

Go at the edges with a knife, making it all worn down and busted up.

In some of these spots, I fucked up and glued the corkboard on wrong. To fix that, break off a chunk and reposition it so it'll connect correctly. This will look like a big fat crack in the middle of the road, which is perfect.

Coat in a layer of mod podge or PVA glue. Leave to dry.

Once dry, paint the cork entirely Gray.

Drybrush White onto the corkboard, focusing on the edges and exposed spots.

Paint two thin yellow lines along the middle of the road. (These are optional, but they do a lot to make the 6mm scale convincing)

Apply sand, as before, onto the ground and up the sides of the road, so it looks like the road is emerging from the sand. Maybe apply some sand in a couple spots in the cracks to make it look like the sand has gotten in there.

Varnish and/or sealant, as before.

Apply a Black wash to the road. (There's a lot of tricks here! If you want the yellow stripes to be more vibrant, you can only paint them on after the first black wash. You can also target spots of sand on the road to make it look like it's asphalt runoff, soaking black into the cracks.)

Apply a second Black wash to the road. 

The bridge was a bit more complicated, and took some finicky positioning and a trip to Kung-Fu Tea.

Take a boba tea straw and cut it into 1" segments, then cut them in half, gluing them to the middle of the hex as culverts.

Take corkboard and glue it over the culverts, bending it so it meets the two edges you want the bridge to run along. If it breaks, that's okay — this is a crumbling, middle-of-nowhere bridge.

Use texture gel and spare corkboard to fill in the gaps.

Use texture gel to define the steep edges of the river. Apply a little bit in between the culverts.

Do all the road steps to the road part of the bridge, and all the river steps to the river part of the bridge.

I'm exceedingly proud of the bridge hex. It turned out perfectly, and feels very emblematic of what I want this project to be like.

Why You, Too, Should Make 6mm Terrain

6mm terrain is amazing to make. Mistakes look like part of the landscape or the brain smudges them over due to the small size, and small changes look like fascinating little details. It really opens the imaginative space and I absolutely adore working at this scale. Plus I'm developing a ton of experience with various materials I've never worked with before, so I get to enjoy the triumph of carving foam or corkboard. It rules! I might even try to make a 28mm bridge after the success I had making a 6mm one.

My future plans for this project include cliffs, craters, 3D-printed shantytowns, and overpasses. But all that is for a later date — for now I'm gonna rest on my laurels, and spend the rest of the evening reconfiguring various tile combinations and cackling like a mad scientist.

[boreal-sea]

Scifi book recs

If you like stories where the aliens are truly "alien" and inhuman, I have some recs for you:

Embassytown by China Miéville - The aliens in this book can't lie, because their language is instinct, not learned. They can acquire metaphors, but only if someone or something acts out the metaphor first. They also speak with a two mouth two voice system that cannot be replicated by computers; the only way humans can speak to them is if two humans speak simultaneously. The story's main character is a woman who was used to make a metaphor.

The Commonwealth Saga by Peter Hamilton- There's a lot going on in this trilogy: humans have discovered how to become effectively immortal, as well as how to teleport through space with portals. Astronomers discover a Dyson Sphere being suddenly erected many lightyears away and wonder in fear what alien society could construct something like that. Turns out, the aliens are a form of semi-sentient, hive-minded fungus.

The Algebraist by Ian Banks - Gas giants have aliens in them. Not the ones in the Sol system - Jupiter is apparently not very good for living - but other solar systems have them! These gas giant aliens are... really hard to describe physically (wheels? with spokes?) and on top of that they live so much more slowly than humans that humans have to equip special gear to slow themselves down to communicate 1:1 with the aliens. There's another alien species in this book that I won't mention because it's a major plot spoiler, but it is also weird and wild.

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin - The aliens in this trilogy... I can't actually even describe one of the wildest things about them without ruining a major part of the plot, but it has to do with the fact that they communicate telepathically. I can say that they've needed to adapt the ability to be completely dehydrated during times of trouble (kinda like tardigrades) because their planet orbits in a binary star system. This series involves a lot of philosophy and is fascinating for that alone, and the weird as hell aliens add to it.

Honorable mention:

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (a pen name for the two authors) - This is an honorable mention because you don't really really learn what the aliens are until like, the very last book. Their influence and what they did is seen throughout the series, but the humans are dealing with the broken remnants of an ancient civilization... it's like the equivalent of ants finding a time capsule that only contains a hammer and a car key and trying to understand humanity's architecture and how they achieved space travel via those two items.

[wastedpotentialsblog]

While I disagree with byf on how Eido is acting in this act, I will agree that Destiny can skimp out on the sense of scale sometimes. It's my main criticism of Beyond Light. The fact that there are still pockets of House Salvation after Beyond Light, after Seraph, after Plunder is a testament to how big and how massive of an army Eramis was raising on Europa. According to the Rimed Shell lore tab, Riis-Reborn was under construction for about a year, and it got to where it was when we saw it. But that's not felt at all. Eramis' big speech cutscene is to a Nova Bombs worth of Dregs lmfao. Yeah. I know. Pandemic. Technical limitations. Deadlines. I get it.

But when Destiny DOES do scale, it's incredibly memorable:

The Traveler suddenly appearing in Savathuns Throne World, literally putting the stakes front and center. Additionally, Savathuns Lucent Hive wreaking havoc on the Moon and Earth in the season that accompanied it.

Oryx and his Taken plaguing the Sol system like a virus. There were Taken in just about every location in Destiny. The Eliksni, Cabal, and Vex were all impacted by them.

Ghaul's arrival in Sol and razing of the Last City. That moment after the first mission, when you climb the mountain and see the Last City pouring smoke into the sky (combined with Journey), it was heartbreaking

The Pyramids parking over the planets in Arrivals and changing the very music of them

Even Caiatl and Skolas had a sense of scale due to them galvanizing forces across multiple planets. Not as much as the previous examples, but it's there.

Beyond Light doesn't really have that. Our enemies being gifted Darkness is a huge moment. But you fight very few Stasis users. Not even just her Council, but there isnt a lot of Enforcers, Assistants, or Disciples in missions. Eramis built a Dark Empire but there is ONE Ketch seen throughout that campaign. We only saw more in Seraph. They could be just been in the sky of Europa and it would've helped. Eramis goes to the Cosmdrome to gather forces but it's all in a Lost Sector???

Anyway, TL;DR: Beyond Light lacked any sort of scale or high stakes that would've made House of Salvation threatening in any meaningful way.

Rant over.

[nathanielthetallone]

So the debate about Vex war forms have been raging for a while at least since season of opulence with Calus saying that we haven't seen them and they are magnificent, I'm roughly quoting him so I might be a bit off with the exact wording.

This has caused a lot of theorizing about these Warforms, however Calus is a lying bastard(affectionate) while Calus is right that all recorded vex forms are non combatants, Goblins are meant to be the builders for example.

I am just going to list my theory on when I think we might see them.

Now a quick note I am not an expert on Vex lore (which I plan to change soon) so there is a change I'm forgetting something and or just plain incorrect about something.

There is a High chance that Vex doesn't have Warforms, while some people think Wyvern are Warforms, and while I don't think there is anything saying There are wrong, I am of the belief that Wyverns are demolition units

So I might be totally off, and we will never see them.

However there is another reference of War forms or Warrior vex as they are called in the books of sorrow Verse 4:9 — open your eye : go into it "Crota’s gate began to emit warrior Vex, huge and brassy." Most likely Hezen corrective or protective as they are the vex faction that are Brass in colours, not including Sol Collective as they were formed sometime before the Red war.

Now this incredibly small piece of text is not the most descriptive, it could really be either a lot of different vex forms so sadly the books of sorrow can't help us

But I think the hive might be one of the ways we see Warforms, a situation like that of the incursion of the high war.(Oryx's throne world) Basically just a endless war between hive and war over centuries.

The other way is of course heading to a Fully Vex converted Planet or Station, the problem with that however is the fact saint 14 and Osiris spent countless years if not centuries in the Infinite forest and not a single War form.

But Galaxy is a wide place, perhaps a bit empty due to the witness and the hive.

Maybe somewhere far from Sol, The Vex has finally turned its attention from Building to War.

[stillsolo]

@desiccation moved & cont. from [ x ]

– Teshin does not need to watch Han to notice how restless he is. Hunger gnaws at his stomach too but risking a journey down to the jungle floor was something he would rather avoid. While Teshin was more than capable of defending himself, it was not that which worried him. If the Infested came across him the entire hive-mind controlling them would drag a horde to their location, and not even the tallest branches of the trees would stop them then. – “When the sun rises we must move quickly. If we clear the trees before the Grineer awaken, walking across the plains will be unnecessary.” – How tiring this was for him, and completely unusual. If Han had been any other person from within the system then the chance of Teshin stopping to help him survive were slim. But, Han Solo was something else, for sure. He only hoped that this endeavor would not be for nothing. If there were other worlds out beyond the Sol system then maybe there was hope for the colonies that could not survive under the constant war between factions. – “I recommend trying to sleep, if you can. There is not much time left and you will need your energy.” – Though he does not take his own advice, restlessness is contagious and not even a Dax could be immune. Sitting back on his heels where he kneels, Teshin draws out a single Nikana. His gaze wanders over the blade and looks for the smallest of imperfections across it. Nicks are brought on from cutting through metal and bone alike. Even so, the edge still managed to continue on just fine and serve its purpose. Teshin was almost the same. Sharp and willing to kill, but not without his flaws. – Frowning to himself at the aching reminders of his wrong doings, the weapon is sheathed once more. Stray judgement of himself lead to the conclusion that he is no blade, because unlike the tempered metal, he cannot be mended. – Hearing the distant sound of a departing Eidolon draws Teshin’s attention away from himself and to the land laid out before them. Now there was no time to sleep. Rocking back on his toes Teshin stands up and looks down to Han. Seeing him in a daze and simply staring to the water below makes the Dax wonder if he is going to have to carry him out to the plains. – “It is time to leave.”

             ❝𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃 𝚃𝙸𝙼𝙴,❞ 𝚂𝙾𝙻𝙾 𝚁𝙴𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝚆𝙸𝚃𝙷 𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙷𝚄𝚂𝙸𝙰𝚂𝙼 𝙾𝙵 𝙰 𝙼𝙰𝙽 who could use several days of uninterrupted sleep.  ❝feels like i’ve been losin’ my mind up here.❞

their descent to the forest floor was as han had predicted: leaden and tedious, more strain than it was worth, really.  by the time his boots hit the parched sod of earth, fresh blood saturated the sleeves of his tunic, blotting up the last of the already faded crème color.  anchored to solid ground, he could feel it now; thick and warm, crimson rivulets streaked down exposed forearms and wet his hands chilled by dawn’s early bite.

SITHFIRE—!  slapdash brushes over the singed fabric of his trousers produced him no favors, as what open wounds that had scabbed over amid the night split anew, dotting red beads over dirtied gashes—a perfect adhesive for dirt and filth.   great.   han wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but if the inhabitants of this backwater planet didn’t land him a snug resting place six feet under, an infection would.        should’ve known better.

although deemed inane in hindsight, han was quick to accuse both hunger and a lack of rest for his disquietude, yet soon found he couldn’t overlook the crash and the injuries sustained upon impact, the blood loss that had driven him to the very brink as he stared down at the dark precipice.  han pushed aside the thought, unwilling to recall balancing atop that razor-thin edge of life and death—a hairsbreadth away from no return—or TRINITY PRIME, and her incomprehensible feat—

   THE ERUPTION OF LIGHT WHICH SWEPT HIS MIND              REBORN, LIKE A PHOENIX, HE’D COME ALIVE AGAIN.

in the wake of stinging pain, crawling self-derision curdled into something borderline venomous.  for the first time since this ordeal began, han longed for the weight of his blaster in his hands, to wrap his fingers around its durasteel grip and welcome the comforting press of security at the back of his mind.

❝don’t suppose your pal could come back ’n patch me up?❞ solo groused as he reared both palms for a quick inspection, flexing flesh torn by the sharp edges of petrified bark.  ❝’been gone an awful long while.❞    they didn’t have much time.    by the look of it, earth’s imminent daybreak was scant minutes away, commencing a forenoon that allowed no sanctuary from the vigilant eyes of THE GRINEER.     first light would bode well for neither of them.

[phthalology]

Destiny: Invasion

When the Guardians breach Oryx’s throne world, Ir Halak wonders whether she should warn Oryx her father. Surely, he knows. Surely, he will not eat her for offering him the challenge. Either way, they could test their might against Sol’s best. 

Ir Halak feels the Guardians drop against the Dreadnaught like blood against the bone floor. They pass through the layers of the Dreadnaught — through space and the seams she sees in its fabric, through the bone and cavities of the Dreadnaught, through the oversoul which holds her father Oryx’s death. The Guardians approach closer and closer to the soul tucked away in the throne world’s mausoleic splendor.

“What happens if we turn a Guardian inside out inside the throne world?” Ir Halak asks her sister curiously.

“The small machine which accompanies it will be inside its heart,” says Ir Anûk.

“I will record your hypothesis on my tablet,” says Ir Halak.

“What is your hypothesis?” says Ir Anûk.  “That the Guardian will ontologically implode, as our brother’s courtier Ir Yût discovered,” says Ir Halak.

The sisters propose more questions and hypotheses to amuse themselves while they unravel and weave.

Eventually, her worm pitches Ir Halak’s weight to the left, eager to fight.

“Should we ask our father his opinion?” Ir Halak asks. She is really asking: Does our father know his Dreadnaught has been boarded and breached? Should we tell him? Or should we trust that he knows, as north knows north? 

Ir Anûk suspects a trick. “Does this question weigh on you, sister? I see you swaying.” 

Ir Halak says, “He sometimes occupies himself so deeply with his strategies that he does not see what walks on the skin of the ship.”

“Surely this invasion he knows, and has doubled his attention since the tech queen’s attack.”

“Surely,” says Ir Halak. “But the tech witches were more powerful than Guardians, and so a Guardian’s attack matters less.”

“We will fight when we fight,” says Ir Anûk. “Practice your songs.”

Ir Halak considers the long history of the Hive’s victories, and chooses not to disturb or forewarn her father.

The Guardians kill the honorable intercessor known as the Warpriest. The Guardians kill the stolen experiment Golgoroth. Ir Halak suspects the Warpriest’s death has made at least seven scribes tear out other people’s throats to fortify the scribes for the tithe re-charting which will be required in the coming rotations. Ir Halak is not afraid.

She looks at her sister’s confident pacing. She remembers holy day feasts and thousands of years of conquest. Ir Halak thinks of her own oversoul, exposed here as Oryx’s is, only as separate from her as the Guardians are separate from their hateful Sky machines. She begins to write a dolorous equation, but does not wish to see it solved. So, she looks again at her sister Ir Anûk, who looks like victory and strong chitin and rich ichor and an ambitious, hungry worm. 

The Guardians are insignificant next to all of that, even though none of the Hive’s enemies have ever traveled this far into the Dreadnaught before except for the curious and problematic Vex. 

Surely, Ir Anûk and Ir Halak will be able to fight the Guardians for no more than one hundred years of local time, easily. 

She and her sister weave and unravel, as they have always done. Ir Halak can almost feel the Guardian’s skins under her claws. Afterward, she will give herself a gift of bitter acid, the comforting taste marking her victory. 

She turns toward the prow and begins to weave. The Dreadnaught will need a new course, when the Sol System has been scoured, and Ir Halak would do well to prepare it.

[flowers-of-io]

after a tide receding

Read on Ao3

Ór and Runi sat together on the remains of a drilling platform, the methane ocean beneath restless as storm clouds gathered on the horizon. It hadn’t started to rain yet, and the air was heavy, humid even through the rebreather. Ór’s boots dangled over the edge hundreds of meters above the roiling waters. Somewhere to her left, in the towering building, Sloane was bustling about in her old quarters, mopping out Taken goo, seaweed, and whatever else had gotten into them throughout Titan’s two and a half years of absence from Sol. Somewhere beneath, Ahsa was sleeping – safely and out of Xivu Arath’s reach, and that fact alone made Ór’s restless spirit settle at peace.

“So the Wicked Witch is coming back,” Runi said, half of his eye peeking out from his nesting spot in the folds of her hood. “Honestly, I didn’t think Zavala would cave in that easily.”

Ór shrugged. “He knows we’re running out of options. She’s the best shot we have.”

“But still, it’s Savathûn. Can you imagine the conversation he’s got to be having now with Ikora and Eris?”

“Glad I’m not part of it. The Titan Summit in the HELM was awkward enough.”

The wind picked up. On the horizon, to the right of Sloane’s building, a zigzag of lightning slashed against the darkening sky. Ór stared at where it had flashed for a long while, the after image burnt into her eyes, until she finally sighed and spoke.

“I must confess something to you.”

“Oh?” Runi twitched, then emerged from his hideout and came to hover in front of Ór’s face. He couldn’t quite catch her gaze behind the helmet’s visor.

“Last year, when the Lucent Brood hit the Cosmodrome and then Luna... I considered going to look for Immaru and perhaps... offer him a bargain. To get the Hive out of Earth.”

“In exchange for...?”

“Savathûn.” Now he was sure she was looking straight at him. “I thought quite a bit about what she’d said, and... She had tried to keep the Traveler safe, even if it backfired in the end. And we were already aware she knew a lot about the Darkness, far more than what her worm felt like sharing.” She bit her lip, chose her next words carefully. “And now... I wonder sometimes whether if we’d let her keep the Traveler in the throne world, all of this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Hey.” Runi gently bumped against her shoulder. “Don’t say that. Everything looks simpler in hindsight.”

Ór smiled faintly and reached for him, cupping his round shell in her hands.

“Besides, Savathûn’s the only one who knows how to deal with Xivu Arath.” She looked down at the waves of methane assaulting the pillars the Arcology was standing on, far beneath her feet. “We’ve been playing into her hands this entire time. I don’t know what she put into the heads of Sloane and others, but... she didn’t mince words, down there.”

For a while the only sound between them was the roiling of waves—violently loud, but in a steady, comforting rhythm.

“What did she tell you?” Runi prodded, softly, when Ór didn’t continue.

“Same things that the Nightmares on the Leviathan had, really,” she huffed a bitter laugh, followed by a sigh. “That I’m wrong. That there’ll never be a different path, and if I keep trying to find it, all it’ll do is cause even more damage. It sounds trite, but... you know. ‘War is all there is’.”

The screams were still there when she closed her eyes, sometimes. It’d been three days since the Hive’s full retreat from Titan, but Ór supposed the will of a Hive god could hardly be constrained by time and space.

“She says these things because making us fight her gives her power,” Runi said.

“I know.” And she’d succeed masterfully, hadn’t she? Ór still cringed when she though back to that battle in the temple, the tormentor’s shadow chasing her through the labyrinth. Drifter had barely saved her life. She’d been so mad at herself afterwards, the screams mocking her stupidity, calling her out on being so, so naive. She had nearly agreed with them. “And she is wrong.”

She was wrong, because right now there was a Techeun talking to an Eliksni somewhere in the HELM, and a Legionary staring at the bright-scaled fish swim to and fro behind glass. There was Eido in her room in Botza, going through a pile of books she’d borrowed from Ikora. There were Iron War Beasts banqueting on Saladin’s ship, celebrating a victory they’d attained beside the Vanguard, shoulder to shoulder. Because the Traveler in the sky over Earth was cracked and silent but they were far from dead, far from defeated; and Ór had her tiny apartment in the Tower and for the first time in months she was glad, she was glad about the prospect of going home.

If this was to be a duel of axioms, so be it. She knew what truth she would be asserting.

She pulled Runi closer and rested her helmet against his shell. He chirped softly, happily—and suddenly it felt like a great weight had just fallen from her shoulders, a wave of relief washing over her and leaving her light and empty and vast, lighting her up from the inside. She looked at him, really looked, and wasn’t instantly hit with a flashback of him in the scope of her rifle. He was here, in her hands, suspended with her under a raging sky and above the raging water, and she knew that once she got up, he would settle back in the folds of her hood and drift off into a half-slumber, lulled by the rhythm of her steps. On the ship she would start the engines and he would chart the course, and then settle on his little pillow on the dashboard and complain about the AC smelling like methane and mould. And when Earth came into view in the windshield, she would see the Traveler and the wound in its centre, and not look away.

“I wonder if Immaru knows you’re the one who ruined that bring-Oryx-back ritual,” Runi spoke, his voice only a little smug. “Not really a good look on your diplomatic resume.”

Ór laughed—fully, brightly. He’d known her for far too long.

“So it’s back to paperwork and negotiations?”

“You know, I think it’s time you dug out your ‘Eliksni Are Friends, Actually’ campaign T-shirt. And maybe also that gilded knife Caiatl gave you for not blowing up her tank.”

She grinned.

“I’m not sure if they fall under the Official Diplomat dress code.”

“Hold your horses,” Runi chided, “you still gotta do some crawling through the bushes with a butterfly net to catch that idiot first.”

[77angelnumbers77]

LIZ IM GRABBING YOU BY YOUR SHOULDERS AND SHAKING YOU I NEED YOU TO WRITE A CONTINUATION OF THE VRISKA N FEM!ERIDAN FIC EXCEPT ITS THE AFTERMATH AND FEM!SOLLUX PETTY AND JEALOUS ABOUT ERIDAN SPARRING WITH HER EX-KISMESIS. I NEED IT NOW!!!!!!! they must suffer. or maybe kiss and make up. i am entrusting you to do the concept justice.

Sorry this took so long! You get jealous Sol, but only a little bit since that's mostly Eridan's domain 😭

Sollux closes the thermal hull with a force that shakes the rest of the mealblock. 

"Could you keep it down?" You ask politely, burying your face deeper into your first edition volume of Interplanetary Alternain Battle Tactics. It’s a typical near-dawn date, which means that you get this coveted domesticality that you’ve been craving since before you learned how to crave. Not from Sollux, mind you, but it’s fine. You take what you can get, even if it is a bit unconventional.

You return your attention to your book. If she wants to make a mess of her hive, that’s her prerogative. You’ve long since learned to accept what quirks you can’t change and antagonize her about the ones you can change. Sleep hygiene, for example, is a work in progress. 

You’re wrapped up in a particularly interesting segment about a zigzagging trench used to win the battle of 673MI when she speaks again.

"Were you going to tell me that you visited your ex kismesis?" She slams a nutrition plateau down on the counter with unnecessary force.

Ooh. This could be good.

"Why? Are you jealous?" You needle, making a point to hide your smirk behind your book. 

"Why would I be jealous? I get more than enough of you," she bites back, beginning to shovel yesterday’s leftovers into her squawk gash. If you were looking, you’d probably see her talking with her seed flap open again. Thankfully, you’re not looking. Pointedly not looking. You have no idea why she’s had so many suitors. It’s frankly disgusting, proof that natural selection isn’t working correctly. More than anything, it makes your blood boil the way a good kismesissitude should. 

Bad manners aside, this is an occasion to savor. it’s not often you start out with the upper hand, granted to you without any measure of foul play. "Well then why are you mad?" you ask coyly, turning the page to give the impression that you’re still focused on the book.

You’re somehow still surprised when she tears it away from you with her psionics, even though she’s been tearing shit out of your hands since before you were even together. Her fork is down on the counter and, as far as you can tell, she’s looking straight at you with those freaky eyes of hers. You look back. You firmly, vehemently ignore the curling warmth in your gut. 

It is jealousy that she’s feeling. She cares enough to be jealous of your last kismesis. Your thump tortoise is fluttering – what a wonderful sweep to be a bleeding-pump romantic. 

"You sparred with your ex kismesis," Sol says, gritting her teeth. She’s so cute you could explode. 

"Sad that we haven’t been sparrin’?" You ask, doing nothing to disguise your smugness anymore. "Worried that you’re just not stimulatin’ me anymore? Thinkin’ I’d seek other outlets?"

"No. I know VK never hated you," Sol says, smiling when she realizes she’s struck a nerve. Still, you know she’s lying. 

"So why are you still jealous?"

"I’m not jealous," she insists. "It’s just pretty damn crude if you ask me. I mean, really? You couldn’t even win? You had a gun. She had a handful of dice. You’re an embarrassment to me."

Well played. You’re actually a little bit humiliated now, despite knowing, logically, that she’s still jealous. You’re so frustrated by the accusation that you let her change the subject, just like that. "You know she’s lucky."

"You still did a piss-poor job. I mean, really? Where’s your aim?" Sollux begins to eat again, which shows that she’s comfortable enough to go back to her routine, which means that the smug asshole is winning. Fuck that.

"Bet you’d know about piss poor," you snip before you can stop yourself. Annoyance is loosening your tongue and she knows it. You hate her.

"Why? Because I’m a mustardblood? Very original of you." Sollux is completely unphased. 

Time to try a different tactic. "Fine. You caught me. I thought you’d be happy that I didn’t want to cause grievous bodily harm to someone who wasn’t my kismesis, but I guess not. Contrarian asshat."

"You don’t enter a spar without intending to cause grievous bodily harm."

She’s not even looking at you anymore, choosing instead to devote her attention to her palmhusk. She’s typing, which means she’s texting, which means she’s texting someone who isn’t you – since you don’t have fancy psionics, you have to do this the old fashioned way. You stand, crossing the block in just a few strides – these communal hive stem cells are really lacking in space – to snatch her palmhusk away. The fact that you’re able to only goes to show that she let you snatch her husk away, which only serves to incense you more. 

It’s clear what she wanted you to see. Teal text. Her informant, rubbing in how good her kismesis is compared to Sol’s pathetic seadwelling pet. 

The universe conspires once again to push you back onto your ass. Sollux lets you read, smiling like a little shit.

"You’re not defendin’ my honor?" You snap, feeling like you should at least do . . . something in this situation to claim back your dignity. "You’re just lettin’ Terezi, second in line to the hyperbole throne, embellish the lies of the hyperbole queen?"

Sollux shrugs. "If you had any honor to defend, maybe I would."

You glare at her.

"So. Again. Just to be clear on the situation. You’re trustin’ Vriska, filtered through Terezi, to tell you that I lost at a spar?"

Sollux snorts, monosyllabic and derisive. "Hate to break it to you, but you confirmed it. The details honestly don’t matter to me."

It’s too late to bring up her jealousy again. She’s already gained control of the exchange by having enough dirt on you to dispute whatever allegations you throw her way. She’s proven that, by her measure, you are beneath her. Again. Well fuckin’ played.

"Where did you put my book?" You snap, feeling thoroughly done with this conversation. Sollux only smiles.

"Fetch," she quotes her forebearer, gesturing through the stupidly small block that anyone in their right pan could find anything in. It couldn’t have gone far, she’s saying. You’ve never hated her more in your entire miserable life. 

[smithrpbog]

Carrel: he just eats with everyone. Just another normal day at the hive really.

Iris: "No. We aren't saying he fell down the stairs and shit himself to death... And I don't think I need to explain why not" Lavaca had come to the castle. She and Iris were talking about how they should say Sol will pass.

[argentumcor]

It's been obvious for a bit ol' Bungo was creatively bankrupt, but their blatant theft from an artist for Marathon is still a shock.

I said somewhere a while ago that it felt like Destiny's story was being handled like a school assignment you didn't really want to do but had to. I wonder if we're going to get to the point where the comparison is even more blatant and they're clearly using AI to write...

It's just they keep choosing the most boring things to do with the setting and characters.

Lightfall was filler, yes, but they didn't lean into space opera with another surviving human civilization- one that had deliberately left Earth in the lurch, had a tendency to fits of 1984-esque tyranny, and now needed Guardian help against a paracausal enemy. Instead, Neomuna suddenly existed and everyone got along, I guess, with minimal friction. Ikora Rey, usually cool and cunning and not swift to trust, blatantly fangirled about them. It was boring.

Nezarec was underwhelming, a band aid slapped on a plot problem with a name pulled out of the Destiny grab-bag of Mysteries to be Solved Later.

Then we get an allied Leviathan who doesn't do anything cool. We boost up this allied kaiju in order to...get a vision of stuff we kind of already knew from Rhulk's backstory (but not including the thing that would allow us to win! At all!), then she falls back asleep because, whew, psychic transmission can really take it out of eldritch entity in a time of impending doom at any time. Leviathans, of course, and Sloane's fate, are more things out of Destiny grab-bag of Mysteries to be Solved Later.

Asher deletes himself in a sidequest because it's all hopeless- the least Asher way to go imaginable. Asher is a great character, ridiculous often but not only ridiculous, tragic in his doomed battle against Vex infection and often perceptive about people, though he doesn't like them. He is another name from the Destiny grab-bag of Mysteries to be Solved Later.

The solution to the Witness has no hints. There should have been whispers of dissenters within its gestalt mind in some season previous but there weren't at all. It seems so hastily thrown together because they just wanted to be done with The Witness vs. Traveler plot and move onto...I dunno, very long-standing interpersonal grudge matches with windy resolutions?

Honestly, it feels like Bungie just wanted to get as many of those grab-bag mysteries out of the way as quickly and permanently as possible (Sloane's around, sure, but used mostly as Zavala/Saladin replacement for Titan stuff). Like I said, it's like a school assignment they wanted to just get done so they could more onto something more interesting. They didn't dumb the bag out on the table with all its lovely jewels of potential and contemplate them, they just yeeted them into the mix so the bag could be emptied as soon as possible so they could so what they wanted.

Which I suppose is recent and upcoming things with people who aren't that interesting, many of them new. Osiris is boring (he shouldn't be but he is written boring). Everything with Eris is getting spun out and out and out and out to the point of tedium. There's going to be time travel with some new guy, stuff with Eramis who I think has just been rewritten into Elsa from Frozen now, there's been other effectively new characters, I don't care, the cast was already really big and interesting.

Writing team switches show for the worst. I still think signs point to all of the major races having Light and Dark factions- Cabal Empire vs. Shadow Legion; Eramis and the Scorn vs. Mithrax and House Light; Lucent Hive vs. the regular Hive; Asher's Vex vs. the Sol Collective (w/ a lot of the Vex neutral in their way). It's a nice set up, with personal histories intertwined with the paths of these factions in organic ways. All that was tossed despite being way more fascinating than what we got.

My personal issue is still Amanda Holliday's fridging. I think there was an intent to bring her back as a Guardian, which may still be there somewhere, but the writing team seems to want to focus on new people more, so who knows. Crow's taking over as Hunter Vanguard, also, has been way too simple and unceremonious and I hate what they did to his hair so much.

All of this is to say, at far too much length, the creative side of Bungie has been broken and lazy for a long, long time.

[lighterfire9000]

Yes, yes, I know it's late. It's 4 am and I should be sleeping but earlier today I was talking to my big brother about Destiny ocs. How Kismet and Ir Fay would interact with each other came up and... I can't get my mind off it.

Ir Fay was a hive, one of Oryx's daughters. But she was killed shortly after the dreadnought arrived in Sol. As a light bearer now, she tries to move past her murder filled past and has vague memories about her time in the hive and her father. So there's a lot of things that is normal to us or consider normal in the Destiny universe that she simply just doesn't know about.

And then there is Kismet, my wholesome old ass exiled warlock. Who also doesn't a lot of things in Destiny that is common or consider common knowledge. Like Kismet is so far back in the time that he doesn't even know about the hive.

So I can't help but imagine Ir Fay ends up going Venus. Mainly to take a wander on a planet she's never seen or been on before. She ends up stumbling upon the Vault of Glass entrance area, Kismet ends up showing himself as that's the area he keeps watch over and politely tells Ir Fay to leave or else he'll be forced to essentially make her leave. So Fay then takes her leave.

But Kismet has been exiled for so long and it being a long while since he last encountered somebody else on Venus let alone somebody that reacted as chill as Ir Fay did to being basically threatened... Can't help but ask her to wait. And so, she does.

Eventually they start talking, learning little things from each other. Somewhere along the way Ir Fay minds just goes "... He's so wholesome and precious. He's been through too much, he really has no one except for me to talk to, ... I can't let him know about the horrors currently going on. Big sister mode activated."

Eventually Kismet shares some of his past with Fay and asks what is Fay. As he doesn't know about the hive, he's only ever seen a light bearer be human, exo or awoken. And Ir Fay kowning what she does about his past, what she remembers of own own can't help but draw similarities to the Vex and Hive. And kowning Kismet option on the Vex, simply just tells him; ".... Don't worry about it."

Kismet and Ir Fay are both lonely characters, both are outcasts in their own right. Kismet was been alone on Venus for so long, he doesn't know many thing that Ir Fay does know. Ir Fay has been apart of the hive and doing various shit, she knows many things that Kismet doesn't. So they both get companionship, somebody to learn things from, along other things. But somewhere Ir Fay decides that there are some things that she can't let Kismet know about... As he's been through so much, she doesn't, she can't add more to plate and keeps things hidden from him.

She doesn't lie to Kismet but more so question dodge or ignore it. But Fay still can't help but feel guilty for keeping these things from Kismet without asking him does he want to known or be left in the dark? Can't help but question if she's making the right choice. Can't help but conversation herself that she making the right choice. Can't help but try samilers to the Vex, to the Hive, to herself and feel guilty for what had happen to Kismet. Can't help but fear what would happen if he found out the truth. Can't help but fear she may lose one of the only people in her life she actually feels she has a connection with... And awhile Kismet doesn't know about this, when he does... He doesn't know how to feel. He can't hate her, he can't forgive her either. She's both Fay and Ir Fay, Sorrow's Song... What is he supposed to do...?

(Also yes, I know this fucks with the time line but um politely stfu about that.)