#this is basically up until 3.3

[sun-and-flames]

PhaiLi Moodboard ✿

[hahaifolded]

141 x POC!GN Intelligence Operative - The Contract (Long Drabble) Author's Notes: Once again playing with something new. Not gonna lie, hated this because this was more work than I had expected. Next one will be more narrative for my sake Warnings: MDNI, Angst (ALSO PUT YOUR AGE IN YOUR BIO CAUSE I DO BLOCK)

Contract of Employment - Intelligence Operative Name: [Retracted] Address: [Retracted] The basic terms and conditions of your employment are outlined in this Contract of Employment and the Employee's policies. Duration of Contract: Your employment with the Employer under this Contract started on [Retracted] and will end after 12 months after the initial date. Contract can be renewed after the Employee ends in good standing with the Employer after the 12 months and the Employee deems it a good fit.

Job Title and Hours 3.1: You are employed as INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVE for [Retracted] reporting to "the Captain." 3.2: You are expected to perform all duties outlined below starting at 0800 (8:00am) to 1700 (5pm) Monday through Friday. 3.3: You must be available for any extenuating circumstances past these hours. All emergencies will be informed by "the Captain" and "the Captain" only.

Price: Need you to review the plan for the next mission before the meeting tomorrow.

Ghost groans after reading the message. Price just had to ruin his Sunday night. Realizing that his plan to sleep in was just ruined, he decides to text you. Seeing that you normally got in around that hour, maybe you could join him?

Did he deserve that? God no. But, he missed you. So he sends the text and waits... and waits... and waits...

Next thing he knew, his alarm was ringing, signaling the new day. He checks his phone and sees there are no new messages. It didn't matter. He'll see you around soon enough.

But soon enough comes around and you're nowhere to be seen. Were you running late? Shit, your car. Maybe you were walking again? He sends you a text, but again, no response. He's so worried that he can't even focus when looking over the plans. It's not until he sees you walk in for the meeting exactly at 0800 that his mind eases. Surprised to see you walk in late, he decided to check up on you after the meeting.

Knock, knock

You glance up from your monitor. "Lieutenant?"

Lieutenant? Sure, that was his title, but you always called him Ghost. Something didn't feel right.

"Sorry, I just wanted to check up on you."

You stop typing and completely turn towards him. "Why?" Your tone is accusatory.

He stumbles a bit. You were never short with him. "C-cause you came in late toda--"

"I did not come in late. If you look over my contract, you would see that my start time is 0800, exactly the time I clocked in today." You turn back to your monitor and continue to work.

Ghost takes a big gulp. "Oh. I- uh... I sent you message last night and this morning."

You let out a heavy sigh and stop typing. "Was it an emergency?"

"No, but--"

"Good. I can't waste any time here, have to make sure I put all of my energy in my work. So if you don't have anything else of importance, you can leave." And with that you continue to type.

Ghost walks out of your office and closes the door. Why did it feel like it wasn't just your door that was closed here?

Job Responsibilities 4.1: You are responsible for all work that requires intelligence which includes analysis, gathering of intel, and presentation of said intel. 4.2: You will not participate in work that falls outside your jurisdiction.

After today's meeting, Gaz was weary of the plan. Despite being checked by Ghost, he couldn't help but feel like it needed to be discussed further. He kept in his thoughts during the meeting as he wanted to process them further.

Now after thinking about it all morning, he realizes he needs one more brain to help finalize his thoughts. Not just any brain, however, yours. If he wasn't so caught up in his thoughts, he would have realized that he no longer had any entitlement to your help. But alas without a second thought, he rushes to your office.

He knocks on your door and walks in before you have a chance to say anything. "Hello, hello!" he chirps. And, instead of being greeted by your warm smile, he is greeted by nothing. You don't even bother to glance at him.

Without removing your eyes on the screen, you say with no emotion, "Sergeant Garrick, what do you need?"

Sergeant Garrick? Ewe, that sounded so wrong coming out of your mouth. You always called him Kyle... Gaz if you felt cheeky. Feeling nervous now, Gaz hesitates to speak.

"Sergeant, I really don't have time for your shenanigans. Do you need something?" You quickly glance up and shoot him a sharp look.

That look brings Kyle to the present. "Sorry, yes. I was hoping you would..." You finally look at him, but instead of easing his nerves, it only exacerbated them as you looked at him with annoyance. "If you can, obviously, help me go over the plans for the next mission. Something about them just seem off and I could really--"

You interrupt him. "I have to stop you there. No." And just like that, you turn back to your monitor.

"Why?" he asks without thinking. He catches the way you took in a sharp breath.

Without looking at him, you respond, "I have never been in the field so what use do I have for you? Besides my job is in intelligence and in intelligence only."

He cringes at his own words. He tries to get another word in, but you're clearly not listening. Feeling defeated, he walks out your door.

"Sergeant?" you call after him. He quickly whips around. Maybe you changed your mind?

"Close my door."

Job Responsibilities 5.1: You have jurisdiction over all work that deals with intelligence. 5.2: You have complete authority to discipline officers of lower ranking or similar rank if their actions interfere with your responsibilities.

Soap doesn't know how it happened. He has been in his office all day, working. Sure, maybe he spent more time than he should have thinking about you, but everyone else does it. Now he was scrambling, trying to finalize the schematics for the explosives needed for the next mission.

Low on time, he rushes to your office to beg for your help. He knew he was in deep water with you, but he really had no choice. He hoped your caring heart would pity him this one last time.

He barges into your office, calling your name out. You immediately shoot up from your seat, worry apparent in your face. You hurry to the front of your desk to reach the panting Scotsman.

"Sergeant MacTavish, is everything okay?" Johnny can hear the worry in your voice. Good, you still might care.

"It's an emergency. I need to finish these blueprints by today or Price will kill me! Help your favorite Scotsman out?" he begs. Soap nearly whines when you take a step back from him.

You scoff. "Are you being serious right now?" Okay, maybe you don't care.

"I know, I know. But I wouldn't ask if I wasn't desperate," he cries. His entire body shudders when you scoff at him once more. You shake your head in disbelief and return to your seat.

"Please, get out."

"Please, it's not even a lot. Just go over--"

"No, Sergeant. I have my own work to do."

"It won't take a lot of time, just--"

"NO!" you stand up again, slamming your desk. "Sergeant MacTavish, it is not in my contract to babysit fools like you." He winces. "If you cannot handle the work that comes with being in Special Forces, I recommend you to consider other careers. So leave my office before I write you up for insubordination," you hiss.

Soap quickly apologizes and leaves your office. He bumps into Price on his way back, but it doesn't phase him. Your utter disappointment in him plays back in his head over and over and over again.

Breach of Contract 8.1: If Employer deems the work of the Employee as unsatisfactory, contract will immediately be terminated. 8.2: If Employee deems the Employer is breaching any of the parts outlined above, Employee has the right to terminate the contract without any repercussions

John didn't take Soap crashing into him personal. It was clear his sergeant was lost in his thoughts. What did pique his interest was where he walked out of. It seemed like every member on his team had a chance to pop in your office today, but him. Refusing to let any of those muppets get in your good graces before he does, he decided to pop in.

Since Johnny left you door open, he just knocks on the doorway before letting himself in. "Hopefully, I'm not disturbing?" he jokes. The clacking of your keyboard stops and you slowly turn to look at him. You take in a deep breath, almost as if you're trying to contain yourself.

"Captain Price," you announce plainly, "do you need something? I'm almost done with today's report."

"No, not at all. Just wanted to check up on you. See how you're doing?" He doesn't quite catch what you mumbled under your breath. "Sorry?"

You roll your eyes. "Nothing," you pause. "I'm fine. Just trying to get my work done before 5pm."

"5pm? Have an appointment or something?"

You stare at him for a bit and remind him of your contracted hours.

Assuming that you were worried about not finishing on time, John assures you that you can always stay in late or pick up again tomorrow. "It happens to the best of us."

Your eyes go cold. "It wouldn't have happened to me if your men and yourself weren't adamant in harassing me with matters that frankly do not pertain to me." You readjust yourself in your seat. "I advise all of you to go over my contract to avoid further misunderstandings. I would hate to leave mid-mission."

John goes cold. You... leaving. He looks in your eyes to see if there was any hesitation. There’s none.

Employer Signature: [Retracted] Employee Signature: [Retracted] Date: [Retracted]

After that day, the 141 realized what they had done. They had completely crushed your spirit and pushed you to be the epitome of professionalism. You were still a phenomenal Intelligence Officer, but you were just that. You were no longer their team mate... their friend.

But you're still here so that's fine... right?

Word Count: 1732

More Thoughts - Next Thought

[bisexualcaesar]

I was filtering through the Amphoreus TB mission to see if any of Amphoreus inhabitants actually call it "The Eternal Land" or if it's something the Garden came up with and I stumbled upon this:

You kinda forget little details like these cuz they are squeezed between scenes that are more dramatic, and I may be reading into this a bit too much, but I think they could be foreshadowing Amphoreus's true purpose.

It being called "The Eternal Land" is already known to us since 2.3 and in hindsight it pretty much foreshadows the cycle Amphoreus is in and the way it's eternal in that way, so I want to present my theory connected with the other two titles Memokeepers seemingly use for it.

"The Private Collection of the Garden of Recollection" makes sense considering only Memokeepers have access to it, but it's imo a bit weird to call it a private collection only based on that cuz having one implies that you collected the things you have in it.

So the first part of my theory is that Amphoreus may contain fragments of memories the Garden of Recollection collected. I think this is kind of reinforced by the Amphoreus story up until now having had a theme of myths/legends/fiction and general, for example Selioses story in 3.3 being revealed to not be true. And there's also the chinese version of Nameless Faces whose lyrics are partly about truth being fabricated by "fiction".

Then there is the second title "The Rejected Land". I think this is a stark contrast to "The Eternal Land", a positive title vs a negative title. I think this title may refer to Amphoreus being basically rejected by the rest of the galaxy. Of course it's not actually rejected but looking at it in a different way, the fact it's never gotten any help to break the cycle and is isolated from the universe might lead someone to call it "The Rejected Land" as a cruel joke or something.

However I also have another idea for what this title could mean as the second part of my theory. Amphoreus is supposed to replicate the Eden of Blessed Insight, it was created by the extremist Memokeepers (with the help of the scepter) and is meant to either impress Fuli for something like gaining more power by becoming an Emanator or a way to replace them which, if we go by option one, ended up either getting rejected by Fuli or failing in some sort of way which lended it the title.

I'm way less confident in this part of the theory cuz it's not reliable to come up with motivations for a group of people who we know very little of. I think a less specific version would also work in this context like: Amphoreus is a simulated experiment.

"The Eternal Land" title honestly also reminds me of the theory that the emperor who sent the Xianzhou ancestors is related to Fuli. But that's worthy of an entire post dedicated to it.

[n0tamused]

Jien lore rambles - Amphoreus

Written prior to 3.3, probably lots of grammar errors

Lots of things are subject to change

This is just a big word vomit since I am waiting until more lore until I can wholly shape Jien's role in the Amphoreus arc, but I still wanna yap about my girl <3

So in this post I left off at her being "accepted" under Talanton's wing. Now, that may not be the most proper word to use since it's not as if Talanton just took her in out of mercy - they're not that kind of titan per se, but how they are like is that they do not tolerate injustice and do not do favoritism. In the case of my girly Jien, I'd say she was done a great injustice.

Long story short- if she was a canon character, the last update we would have had was during the Xianzhou Wardance, when the whole deal with Proxy would be revealed. tdlr - Proxy has done heinous crimes, almost all 10 unpardonable sins on Xianzhou and all with the end goal to make Jien suffer as much as possible since she blames Jien for her own pain. Jien was thrown into jail and was about to face the court and probably would have been served the death sentence since Proxy was so diligent at making sure Jien could not prove it wasn't her who did all this yk. Proxy looks almost identical to Jien soo-

Anyway back on tract - Jien absorbs Proxy and now the question is - how would Proxy answer for her crimes if she is now absorbed by Jien? Who should be held accountable? How?

Talanton does not have the answer now, so the best they can do is basically put Jien under some state that would perserve her until something could be done - but that would be just being put in a prison. So they also give her the right to do legal business within the temple Tithemi during a set amount of time before having to go back to a statue-like state. So not wholly freed, not wholly imprisoned - it is manageable.

Fast forward to more recent times- the whole countryside around temple Tithemi is swallowed by the black tide. Somehow, the temple still remains, perhaps it is Jien doing what work she can in some short periods of being "awake" or it could be the river Exculpate/Gates of Return doing some magic, no one outside knows for certain.

Aglaea, in dire need of more allies, and having met the Executor of Justice(Jien), sends Mydeimos to Temple Tithemi to see if she is still alive. She has sent letters before, even Tribbie but for some reason none of those prior attempts worked.

Mydei arrives and sees that place swarming with the black tide, the temple stands on a cliff higher up like a little beacon of light.

Mydei advances and does eventually get inside the temple and finds Jien as a statue - recites some words Aglaea told him about which would wake the Executor from stone. Jien isn't too happy now, but hears him out - it takes a bit but she agrees to come with him and is surprised nothing happened when she left Tithemi. She thought she'd turn to stone again but she doesn't.

She talks with Aglaea, hears some fading whispers of Talanton in the Vortex of Genesis, and settles in Okhema as some extension of Talanton - basically continuing her duty as the Executor of Justice. Slowly, Proxy awakes too. She is lingering, a thorn in Jien's side and is trying to corrupt her from within now. She may lack in a physical form, but she does not lack in schemes. Jien avoids reflective surfaces and doesn't hang out much outside of court with people. Proxy sometimes puts a bitter lens over Jien's eyes to disrupt her work and view of others - but for now Jien has it under control- she can tell apart Proxy and herself and her own thoughts.

She spends her time in her little apartment(?) going through books and scrolls and doodling away. Or she's at the library and learning about the history she missed, or she's at the gardens, enjoying the light. Side note: before absorbing Proxy, Jien was able to draw objects and manifest them to reality. But after absorbing Proxy she was either rid of that power or she refuses to use it since she doesn't want to risk Proxy learning how to do that. So she's just chilling

She talks with Mydei, gets close to him and they're often seen tending to Mydei's droma.Jien has taken quite a lot of fascination in the dromas and is often seen there too, tending to them or simply observing from afar. She loves dromas a lot. She hates the propaganda against Kremnoans, she gets so pissy when she sees any propaganda tbh and lowkey has beef with Verax Leo but at the same time she does take some satisfaction in grilling the lion head. Phainon approaches her cautiously first - he has heard of how ruthless the Executor can be, but hey she's chill and he's respectfully curious. Jien has taken quite a lot of fascination in the dromas and is often seen there too, tending to them or simply observing from afar. She loves dromas a lot.

TB and Dan Heng come in and it's simply been way too long, she doesn't believe it. She pretends she doesn't recognize them. Later she'd run into them when they were chasing Damnios or whatever that guy's name is. She doesn't tell them much then, but she expresses her joy to see a familiar face.

She is keeping everyone at arm's length and so many years of containment have weakened her resolve and her own neegativity is surely feeding Proxy - not good.

A small shift does happen when she learns of the fact about Aglaea interrogating TB and DH, but it is a small shift, a moment, no one seems to notice. Jien does and she is eating herself from inside.

Now this is the part where it gets muddy for me, I haven't gotten too in detail here yet, but she does play her part in protecting the city and guiding DH and TB around or whatever while keeping a good distance from them too. She's there when Nikador is finally defeated and lingers with Castorice for a while.

Phainon does seek her out for a few words of advice or any insight before he goes into the trial himself. And this is the first time the two of them have a lengthy conversation and a rather deep one. She wishes him all the luck in the end and said she'd see him off at the Vortex. But when lady Aglaea asks her how she thinks it will end, Jin doesn't give a overly positive response.

She does linger by the Vortex the entire time, gazing at the lit up constellations and thinking about the past. DH thinks of questioning her, but he chooses not to. She is lost in thought. She seems somewhat at peace. Perhaps the voice inside her head is quelled by the night-like display of the Vortex. (IX is that you- COugh)

After they all get Phainon out, Jien goes away to get back to the city. She runs into Krateros. And here I was thinking of whether he should know her - perhaps he wandered into the temple when he was younger and knows how she looks. I'll see about this. She sees him when he was grilling Verax Leo. And one thing I like or would like to keep within Jien's story overall is this theme of being a witness to things, from small mundane stuff to larger scale events. She doesn't have to interact - just be there. And this witnessing thing would later enforce her will in this one big moment - but I'm getting ahead of myself. That's for later hehe. Think of how Neuvillette has grown closer to humanity by doing his work for so long and how this was what Focalor had in plan for saving the people of Fontaine in the end.

Mydei runs into her as she's leaving, they quickly greet eachother and her ask for a chat later. She agrees and after he is done talking with Krateros he finds her at their usual spot near the dromas. Mydei opens up to her about his conversation with Karateors, and Jien does not really hide her distaste for the old man's odd animal analogies, but she does use them herself to explain her view on the situation better. The sound of the droma is calming, the dull purr and crunch as it fed. The situation is not all black and white and Jien has always been the one to hold the spot in that gray area in the middle, both in work and outside of her work. Perhaps that is why Mydei approached her for advice too, as many others too.

She has seen both sides in one way or another. Any hey maybe he does like her more than he should shhh. There is mutual respect on both ends and a silent understanding that just feels like a break from the world, all while tending to the droma together.

I am still working out how Jien could play into the whole Flame Reaver thing, so I'll skip that over in this post. I think it be an interesting thing when the gang TM realizes Jien is also an foreigner from beyond the sky.

Jien would later grow a big interest in Anaxa after she finds out about his soul research thing he has going on since it could hold answers for her too. But in 3.1 I don't think they'd have too many interactions besides Phainon introducing them.

Side note I think her and Ciphera would have a pretty silly dynamic with Ciphera being all mischief and Jien doing all the "law&order" thing lmao I love thinking about it. Tall dragon lady and short cat woman

Anyway, I'll leave this ramble off here until I figure more out :p

[confusions-shed-of-ideas]

Thoughts on hsr 3.3

Continuation of this post

Massive spoilers for 3.3 ahead

Dear God where do I start

Aglaea: not the Julius Caesar style assassination I was expecting but still very epic + it was carried out by Caenis n friends who are technically in the Council??? idk. I don't think any Chrysos Heirs witnessed it but that moment with Cipher was really sad. also Phainon's speech at the bathhouse reminds me of Mark Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. all in all I miss Aglaea I love her character a lot and how she was willing to protect her friends even in her last moments

Tribios: putting Tribbie and Trinnon together since their deaths were kind of similar(?) it happened when they were helping the other Heirs so I think my prediction was pretty accurate

Mydei: I'm going to be completely honest I was not expecting him to die this early, and to the Flame Reaver no less (who he already kind of defeated once). I lowkey wish they showed us what happened on screen for more of an impact but the damage was done. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was expecting him to get back up (that didn't look like the 10th thoracic vertebrae to me lol I thought it was lower body but I could be wrong? Flame Reaver's sword is really big)

Castorice: still confined to nether realm. it was nice seeing her help out with Flame Reaver. I was a bit sad that she'd be in the nether realm all alone after 3.2 but now with everyone dying I think she'll have more company lol (rip everyone else)

Anaxa: dead as a doorknob

Hyacine: after rereading my other post I changed my mind on my initial prediction. I didn't come into the quest thinking she was going to die right away, in fact, in my head at that moment Hyacine was the least likely to die in 3.3. she's kind of got a Castorice situation going here with being confined to the sky. will she die in the future? probably. when? no clue. to what? not sure (black tide maybe?)

Cipher: "petty change" being literally her coin was not on my bingo card, bht still my prediction was correct. Cipher's death was really impactful to me even though the way in which she was taken out could have been easily preventable, since she was basically committing herself to the flame chase journey behind the scenes. since we didn't know a lot about Zagreus and their coreflame before this was a great way to showcase what trickery demigods can actually do (though I wish it was elaborated on earlier). this quest really made me like Cipher a lot more + I love me some underdog heroes they're so cool. long live Zagreus (oh wait they're also dead. aw man)

Phainon: still alive (for now. just kidding I think he'll stay alive)

Won't talk about Hysilens and Cerydra until we get more info about them (Hysilens is confirmed dead though I think)

Overall: I was not expecting almost everyone to die in one patch since the story is an 8 patch story. having all the deaths in this version made the stakes a lot higher really quick and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us in the future. maybe they killed everyone off early on so they could demonstrate the cyclic nature of the amphoreus cycle later on in the story? who knows? that Herta and Screwlum lore drop was pretty bonkers though I need to know more about that

[aeverse]

XOXO is a fictional South Korean girl group which currently consists of the four members: Aera, Jiyeon, Eunmi, and Yu. The group debuted on June 24, 2011 under Delphi Entertainment. They are mostly known for their diverse concept, giving all sides to ‘XOXO’.

ִֶָ 𓂃⊹. BASICS

GROUP ✧ XOXO

MEMBERS ✧ Aera, Jiyeon, Eunmi, Yu

FANDOM ✧ Valentines

COLORS ✧ #E24767 & #B51A3A

COMPANY ✧ Delphi Entertainment

DEBUT ALBUM ✧ Electric Love

DEBUT SONG ✧ Darling

DEBUT DATE ✧ June 24th, 2011

GREETING ✧ “Hugs and kisses, we’re XOXO!”

ִֶָ 𓂃⊹. MEMBERS

jung AERA leader, main rapper, visual 1991

lee JIYEON main dancer, lead rapper, center 1992

oh EUNMI lead dancer, face of the group, lead vocalist 1994

park YU yoojung maknae, main vocalist 1994

ִֶָ 𓂃⊹. DISCOGRAPHY

You can find XOXO’s discography here.

ִֶָ 𓂃⊹. HISTORY

XOXO debuted with the single “Darling” in June 2011. The group began promotions with their debut stage on May 27th at M! Countdown and continued promotions on various Korean music shows to June 20th.

The group returned a year later with the mini album “I Am Me” in June 2011. The album consists of four songs, including “I Don’t Need a Man” and “U-Go-Girl”, which XOXO promoted at the same time. “I Don’t Need a Man” gained XOXO quite a bit anti-fans, mainly men. They posted on Reddit about burning or cutting up pictures of XOXO’s faces and demanded apologies but there was no statement from Delphi Entertainment.

Though XOXO had gained some attention with their first comeback, it was not until their third comeback that the group rose to stardom. In March 2012, they came-back with their full album “Electric Love”. The album consists of nine songs, including “Mr. Chu”. The album peaked atop South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and has sold over 234,500 copies in South Korea. The album's title track peaked atop South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and was the second best-selling digital single of 2011 in the country, selling over 3.3 million copies. XOXO received a total of five wins on music shows this era.

For their third mini album, Jiyeon did not participate in the stages as she had injured her knee but was in the music video. She constantly supported XOXO’s stages, posting constantly on Twitter and Instagram.

XOXO made their Japanese debut in 2014 with the Japanese versions of their already existing songs. At this time, Eunmi took a hiatus for the majority of the year for unknown reasons and was not seen until the end of the year music awards. The members did not mention her at all throughout activities, confusing fans who then made demands for XOXO and Delphi Entertainment to update them. Neither XOXO or Delphi Entertainment acknowledged these demands.

With the comeback of Eunmi and their second full length album, XOXO announced their first tour, XOXO 1st Asia Tour 2015. They had eight shows, 2 in South Korea, 2 in Japan, 2 in Thailand, 1 in Indonesia and 1 in Taiwan.

XOXO released the first episode of their reality show “Hugs and Kisses!” on November 2015 which comprised 10 episodes being released throughout the year following the four members as they traveled around Asia for their first tour, XOXO 1st Asia Tour 2015.

In January 2017, XOXO announced their North American tour and held four shows: New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. Tickets were sold out in three minutes.

In 2019, Delphi Entertainment announced the indefinite hiatus of group activities. All four members still remain under Delphi Entertainment. Aera is busy with her modeling contract, Jiyeon and Eunmi both actively promote as solo artists, and Yu goes by Yoojung now and is focused on her acting career.

[ouroboros-hideout]

WIP WEDNESDAY WHENEVER

Doing this thingy more like a bucket list this time because I don't have much to show but my head is bursting of things I want to to. So I make a list and (hopefully) won't add new things until I've done everything (or tried to do it lol).

1. Did like a ton of sketches for a fanart of Kurt but liked non of it. My drawing batteries are just dead atm. Probably give it a last try but will put it at the end of the list. What's a shame because I like drawing really much but my perfectionism is killing it hard rn

2. @elvenbeard helped me to get the game file of Kurts Dogtags. Want to make a 3D model out of it and get them printed. (there is probably a 3D file of it somewhere, or not. I don't know, but DIY project Yeah!)

3. My Project Garmr

3.1 Started sketching out some sort of logo. It's of course inspired by the Barghest dog graffity but it's going to be a little more wolf-ish and with some extras

3.2 Wrote down some ideas for OCs for the story. They are all pretty vague atm except one person I am very confident with already. Will make a moodboard the next days. Since I am not a modder like all those crazy magicians with their awesome OCs in this fandom, I'll probably do some Photoshop for the visuals or something like that.

3.3 Wrote down some notes for a short intro. It's really short, but I thought of a nice dialog to get things started. Will finish it in the next days

3.4 Need to catch up on a lot of lore before I start plotting all the details for a decent story. I played cp on release but never put much effort in reading deep into all of it. Since this is kind of an AU, I'm not going to put an insane amount of effort into getting every little canon detail right, but I'm missing a lot of basic knowledge about the world. Especially when it comes to politics and topics like that.

It's going to be a wild puzzle anyway.

That's it for now!

Going to tag some ppl here because I was told that's how things are done here lol. But don't feel stressed to actually do it!

@theviridianbunny @dustymagpie @elvenbeard @pinkyjulien @olath124 @afterdark-vp @kharonion @dreamskug @cyberholic77 @therealnightcity

[studywithsare]

Update: BLS class & Microbiology

Hi tumblr!

I just wanted to hop on here and give an update. So, I haven't touched the BLS course material since Monday, and I didn't even get to do as much as I had wanted :( It's okay though! That class isn't until January 8th, today is December 6th, so I still have plenty of time to get that done and be ready for the in-person portion of getting my certification :) I'll do at least an hour today, like I planned. Also, since I want to be a sonographer, that means either going to sonography school right away, or doing rad tech and then furthering my education for sonography. Either way, these programs are COMPETITIVE! I was looking up if my GPA (2.6) would even have be eligible to apply, and it can be depending on the program. However, I was reading an advice post from those who do admissions into these programs, and she was basically saying that while that is the MINIMUM to apply, most years the LOWEST that gets accepted is a 3.5

I can get to a 3.6, but I'm gonna have to retake several classes and get A's in them T_T It's okay though! I'm happy my GPA isn't a total lost cause, and also I feel much more ready for college now than I did when I was a freshman. This also means I NEED to get this BLS, so I can get some work experience in this field because the post also said that some students had even lower GPA's (like maybe a 3.3) but they had other strong things about their application (other degrees, work experience, and A's in the important classes like math and science).

She said it's dependent on the program obviously, but work/volunteer experience, your interview (if they do interviews), and entrance exam scores can help strengthen your chances.

So I need to be:

Getting my BLS so I can get some work/volunteer experience

Retake classes to raise my GPA (As preferably to raise my GPA as much as I can) Since I'm paying out of pocket, and only get 3 tries at a class, if I feel burnt out, then I will take a break. I am not ruining my chances at getting into this field because I want to rush it. Good things take time.

Look into strengthening my interviewing skills

Look into what is tested on in the entrance exams, and work on studying for those too

1 and 2 are my main priority right now though, and I'm not anywhere near being able to get into a program T_T There aren't even any good ones near me. There's two at two community colleges, which I thought were better than for profit, but these community colleges aren't CAAHEP accredited either T_T They are both JRCERT. I've heard if your school isn't CAAHEP accredited, then you shouldn't even bother because you can't take your exams T_T I'm gonna look more into this

I've been trying to register to retake microbiology, because I failed it :( However, the system my school uses keeps saying it's full when it ALSO SAYS there are 2 spots available...I didn't know you can register with an add/drop form (lol) so I submitted one of those. It says it'll take 2-3 business days so...hopefully I get in T_T Wish me luck! Also, I can't believe how many departments and people I have emailed about this issue and NO ONE has gotten back to me! My school is honestly really lousy when it comes to getting back to you. I sent out like 3 emails asking for a counseling appointment. Nothing. I went in and she made me an appointment right then and there. There was no one else waiting to make an appointment...yet no one could get back to my email. My sister said she's had them HANG UP ON HER! She was in high school at the time and doing dual enrollment. Her high school counselor said he'd call them, and they ended up hanging up on him too...smh.

Anyway, enough rambling, I am gonna go and I will be back later with hopefully good news that I got my class! :D

[itzsephig5]

2.3 (B Me)

My Masterlist

This story on Wattpad

Intro - Age of Ultron 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 1.12 Intro - Civil War 2.1 2.2 2.3.5 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Intro - B Me 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Updated Character Info 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 Final Character Info

Important info for this chapter:

Words in Slovak:

miláčik - darling

sestra - sister

Words in Russian:

любовь - love

Y/n's POV:

Wanda and I sat together on a couch as Sam and Rhodey were arguing about the Accords. Steve finishes reading it before handing it to me. I started glancing at the pages, when one specifically caught my attention. They want to track me and Wanda. Since our powers were deemed the most powerful out of the rest, they wanted to keep a close eye on us. As I kept reading on, I saw that they wanted to do testing on us as well to make sure we were 'safe to be around the general public'. I scoffed before throwing the Accords onto the table in front of me as I leaned onto Wanda. She started to play with my hair. I looked over at Pietro and saw how he was acting. He looked up at me and I saw a look in his eyes. He looked guilty. I knew right then that he was planning on signing the Accords. "Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor, which is one more than you have." Rhodey says, still arguing with Sam. "So let's say we agree to this thing. How long is it going to be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?" Sam argues back. "117 countries want to sign this. 117, Sam, and you're just like 'No that's cool. We got it.'" Rhodey says. "How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam asks. "They also want to put Wanda and I on a watch basically. Constant surveillance, testing. Just to name a few. Are you guys really okay with them doing that to us?" I asked. "We'd try to get it amended." Rhodey says. I scoffed. "And if they won't budge on that? When they say that we are 'too dangerous' to be around people? What then? You just let them?" I snapped. It was quiet for a moment. "That's what I thought." I say before leaning back.

"I have an equation." Vision speaks up after the silence. "Oh, this will clear it up." Sam scoffs. "In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And during that same period, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate." Vision explained. "What the fuck does that even mean? Commensurate." I say sarcastically. Steve just shakes his head at me, and I shut up. "Are you saying it's our fault?" Steve asked Vision. "I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge incites conflict. And conflict..." Vision says before pausing for a moment. "Breeds catastrophe. Oversight. Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand." He adds. "Boom." Rhodey says. I roll my eyes. "Tony. You're being uncharacteristically non-hyper-verbal." Natasha speaks up. "It's because he's already made up his mind." Steve says. "Boy you know me so well." Tony says before standing up. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache." He says as he walks into the kitchen and grabbing a coffee mug. "That's what's going on Cap. It's just pain. It's discomfort." Tony mentions. I just shook my head. "Bullshit." I mumbled. "Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?" He asked. I wasn't really paying attention until I feel Wanda nudge me slightly. When I looked up, I say a picture of this young man. "Oh! That's Charles Spencer, by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA. Had a floor level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. See the world. Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where? Sokovia." Tony explains. Everyone's expression had changed, and the mood shifted. "He wanted to make a difference I suppose. I mean, we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass." Tony says before taking a pill with his coffee. "There's no decision-making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys." He added. "Tony, when someone dies on your watch, you don't give up." Steve says. "Who said we're giving up?" Tony asked.

I shook my head knowing that the two of them were going to be going back and forth arguing for a while. "We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame. And like Y/n said earlier, it makes her and Wanda submit themselves to being tracked twenty-four seven and they have to be tested on. They're children Tony." Steve says. "I'm sorry. Steve. That's dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we are talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not HYDRA." Rhodey joins in. I looked up at Wanda and see her sitting there, still messing with my hair. When she noticed me staring, she smiled slightly, trying to hide how she really felt. I returned the smile. "No, but it's run by people with agendas. And agendas change." Steve says. "That's good." Tony says. "That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing." He says. "Tony, you chose to do that. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there is somewhere we need to go, and they don't let us? We might not be perfect, but the safest hands our still our own." Steve tries explaining to Tony. "If we don't do this now, it's going to be done to us later. That's the face. That won't be pretty." Tony responds. "You're saying that's they'll come for us." Wanda say about her and I. "We would protect you." Pietro speaks up. "Maybe Tony's right." Natasha says. I looked at her in shock. "If we have one hand on the wheel. we can still steer. If we take it off-" She says before being cut off by Sam. "Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" He asked. "I'm just reading the terrain. We have made some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back." Natasha explains. "Focus up. I'm sorry. Did I just mishear you or did you agree with me?" Tony asked shocked. "Oh, I want to take it back now." Natahsa said. "No, no, no. You can't retract it. Thank you. Unprecedented. Okay, case closed, I win." Tony says. We all sat there before a phone buzzed. I looked over at Steve and saw he looked upset. "I have to go." He says before standing up and leaving the room. I looked up at Wanda. "Let's go back to your room. I want to take a nap. I'm so exhausted and I don't know why." I say. Wanda nodded her head before the two of us left. We made it to her room, and I laid down on her bed. "You okay miláčik?" She asked me before sitting next to me. "I'm just tired." I say. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. My head snapped over to see who it was. I saw Pietro standing there. "I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm signing the Accords." He says. I see Wanda start to get upset. "You're signing?" She asked angrily. "Do you realize what that's going to do to me? To Y/n?" She added. "Pietro. They want us tracked. They want us tested." I say. "I know, but we can get it fixed so that it doesn't have to happen. There are ways to make sure that it doesn't end up like that." He tried explaining to us. I shook my head. "That's what you think." I say. "Get out of my room." Wanda tells him. I see Pietro look sad for a moment. "If that's what you want sestra." 

[georgedunmorefmpyr2]

Texturing Setup Process

So to pretty much start off this texturing process the tutorial required these different wood peeling stage materials off of poliigon and I thought this was fine until I realised you had to pay a subscription for it. So Instead I spent some time looking for some free PBR materials that had the same sort've 'set' that they come with. Ultimately, I couldn't find anything that compared to what Poliigon was offering so I paid eleven pounds including the student discount in order to get access these materials. I thought this was the safest route as I'm not super confident in my ability to make materials from scratch using Substance Designer so I thought it would be best to avoid lots of wasted time.

So onto the next part which was a huge pain with this project which was getting this plugin setup that the tutorial needed. Pretty much it is a plugin from Poliigon for blender which auto converts the materials into Node groups so they're super organised and well labelled to work off of (rather than setting up a bunch of nodes individually for each texture). So I added the plugin and to my surprise when trying to import the files it just didnt work. I then tried a quick uninstall and reinstall to find that also did not work. So my next thought for creating a Fix to this issue was to go into the original websites information section for the plugin and I found that it had lost support and was no longer being updated for my blender version:

So I went onto steam and into the blender files properties. I then went to the Beta section and rolled back to my blender version to first 3.6 (which had issues with this plugin) to then roll it back even further to blender 3.3 which worked thank god. It really sucks as I am going to have to roll it back forwards later if I do end up wanting to render my scene in Blender.

NOW, you can see below how the node groups should look:

After watching the tutorial a bit further and connecting up all the basics for the shader my house now had a white base:

^ What I think is really cool and something new I learnt from this was that you used the colour channels to paint specific textures onto the model, seen below:

pretty much the model is a base texture which has its RED, BLUE AND GREEN channels split and then each of those channels are assigned a texture. When you paint one of those colours onto the model the texture assigned to that colour appears instead of the colour.

[transflynnscifo]

ok dnk part 3 ch 3.3 thoughts wahoooo. some vesperia spoilers are in there too

basically i found this update extremely interesting in the details. theres a lotnof small moments and lines that at first glance appear innocuous but have some sort of weight in context with the game itself. let's poke a little!

before that though i just wanted to say that this earned a good laugh out of me. these guys are so goofy

anyway!

flynn pov!

i like that flynn is obviously trying to do things the legal route by reporting the problem in hopes of getting it resolved. and while he has the patience to meticulously visit any place he thinks of, the narration notes that he doesn't have much patience nor hope. the former is particularly notable when flynn nearly lashes out against the knights

its a remnant of his observed mannerisms @ knights in parts 1 and 2, but we're already observing the beginnings of something we see in game, and it's specifically how he swallows his anger down around 95% of people he speaks to. ive mentioned it before in different places but its confirming my suspicions that have been growing since first reading translations: flynn becoming a knight wasnt the only factor in why his self-discipline strenghtened to a point he is actively suppressing himself. you kind of see him putting on a smile back when his mom was alive, and while part 3 opens with his behavior being fairly...closer(?) to how he can be seen in game when amicable, it just goes to show that flynns both been able to move on in some ways from his grief, but is also still learning to navigate his negative feelings in a way that makes others less worried. (opening a bracket here; the hope part just makes me think its smth we dont get to directly observe in game due to the game sticking to yuris pov, but can be inferred throughout the events of the story and particularly yuris actions against ragou and cumore. flynn is stubborn, but theres definitely some form of exhaustion that comes with moments that show some of flynns efforts end up futile, like arresting ragou)

but still, the earlier screenshot with flynn being surprised yuris worried only serves my point in addition to yuri being yuri; it doesnt seem like people usually fuss over flynn in front of him, does it?

a lot of that just now has been super speculative lol but another interesting bit ill briefly mention happens before the flynn pov that yuri thinks about jareth:

i hadnt considered the possibility of comparing flynn and jareth until this, and when i thought about it more, i realized theres quite a few parallels to draw between them going as early as part 1. but for the sake of brevity, ill focus on this bit. and how, in a way, jareth is also abiding by the law by following godonan's orders. are they good actions? no, but theyre legal. flynn is also trying to abide the law for the sake of the lower quarter. so you have two sides of abiding by the law, and how both ideas are done with some intent for the lower quarter.

jareth is interesting though, because he clearly is concerned about his home, but is also insistent on his home abiding by the whims of nobles, "because it would be easier." on the other hand, flynn is going down the harder path, by stubbornly seeing if there is anyone who is willing to take his case seriously

further down this chapter, jiri then says this to yuri:

so its fascinating that yuri too can be put into the mix, with him sneaking to the royal quarter. though jiri treats flynns part in this as the more positive one, it still comes across as her not entirely being optimostic about this in terms of influence..? but i guess in this case, it's less about whether any of these boys' actions are good, but more of a "its not great that a teenager is doing xyz all alone." i otherwise havent figured it out

HOWEVER

im sure jiri didnt think twice when she said that, but its easy to note that this is the same line of thinking yuri is known to repeat at the last third of the game about flynn. "he doesnt need a criminal by his side" can invoke a lot of ideas, but its not hard to imagine that yuri thinks his crimes would affect flynns efforts in one way or another. so to see it here made me think, oh yuris been internalizing some feelings about flynn for so so long. before knighthood even. this is a lot to think about

i havent got much else to add to this now, but its food for thought

i did enjoy that yuri attempts to go to find godinan, but rip. he really had no idea on what he was going to do, but he knew it just Wasnt Good. yuri. yuri BUDDY

anyway thanks for reading

[als145]

Today on September 27th of 2024 I hit my 4th month with ALS. This is not a post to scare the untrained reader but it is a post to raise awareness and open the eyes of others.

I'm about to drop some cold, hard facts that you need to be prepared for. Keep your eyes open and your attention focused!

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 10%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing!

After all that information I would like to tell my progress and what I was in the beginning of my diagnosis

I got diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease at 73 years old on May 27th of 2024 and since then I've lost a lot of my strength and my total body precentage!

In the beginning, I was

-3.5% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

-0% core and legs since I am a C3 incomplete and a C4-C5-T1-T10 complete Quadriplegic ♿

I was already weak and as shriveled as you could get but only to think it could absolutely get worse

On the first month of my diagnosis I was

-3.4% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So I lost a bit of my arm but nothing major

On my second month of my diagnosis I was

-3.3% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So again I didn't lose much

On my third month I was

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

So this time I had lost much more strength! Taking 1% off my body strength is a lot!

On my fourth month which I present to you now!

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

Many months are not so crucial until you hit another 3 or 5 months! This disease is a (excuse my French) shitty one at best but I won't let that stop me from living my best life! You will not defeat me ALS.

Img desc #1: shows Doc's hand on a table as she is moving a very light object. Doc, seen in a smaller image, is seen with a shocked face! With her hands off her joystick! There is red text saying "3.1%" and a red circle around her hand with white text wrapped around saying "Progression"

[smalife1234]

Today on September 27th of 2024 I hit my 4th month with ALS. This is not a post to scare the untrained reader but it is a post to raise awareness and open the eyes of others.

I'm about to drop some cold, hard facts that you need to be prepared for. Keep your eyes open and your attention focused!

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal type of motor neuron disease. It causes progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain. It's often called Lou Gehrig's disease after a famous baseball player who died from the disease. ALS is one of the most devastating types of disorders that affect nerve and muscle function ALS doesn't affect the senses (such as seeing or hearing). It also usually doesn't affect mental functioning. It isn't contagious. Currently, there is no cure for this disease. ALS most often affects people between the ages of 40 and 70 (I got diagnosed when I was 73), but it can occur at a younger age. It affects people of all races and ethnic groups. There are two main types of ALS: sporadic - this is the most common form of ALS in the US, making up 90% of cases. These cases occur randomly without any known genetic cause or family history of ALS. The second form of ALS is Familial this is an inherited form of ALS that affects a small number of people but many recent genetic discoveries suggest hereditary forms of ALS are more common than previously thought I have sporadic since none of my family members or past generations in my family had ALS.. now with all the info out of the way I will say the basics it takes all your function/ life generally within 5 or 4 years but some people with ALS outlive those odds! This is wonderful for people with ALS. I lose 0.1% strength in my arms every month. I live with ALS, and the more drastic numbers start declining months in. Every three months you live with ALS, you lose 1% of your head strength! It's not fun. Another thing that prolongs my life is how lengthy the process is for me to lose my breathing ability! Which I am so extremely grateful for! Every five months someone lives with ALS they lose 1% of breathing! For me, I have 10%, so it Will take a little longer for me to lose my breathing!

After all that information I would like to tell my progress and what I was in the beginning of my diagnosis

I got diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease at 73 years old on May 27th of 2024 and since then I've lost a lot of my strength and my total body precentage!

In the beginning, I was

-3.5% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

-0% core and legs since I am a C3 incomplete and a C4-C5-T1-T10 complete Quadriplegic ♿

I was already weak and as shriveled as you could get but only to think it could absolutely get worse

On the first month of my diagnosis I was

-3.4% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So I lost a bit of my arm but nothing major

On my second month of my diagnosis I was

-3.3% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-5% head

So again I didn't lose much

On my third month I was

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

So this time I had lost much more strength! Taking 1% off my body strength is a lot!

On my fourth month which I present to you now!

-3.2% arms

-10% breathing 🫁

-4% head

Many months are not so crucial until you hit another 3 or 5 months! This disease is a (excuse my French) shitty one at best but I won't let that stop me from living my best life! You will not defeat me ALS.

Img desc #1: shows Doc's hand on a table as she is moving a very light object. Doc, seen in a smaller image, is seen with a shocked face! With her hands off her joystick! There is red text saying "3.1%" and a red circle around her hand with white text wrapped around saying "Progression"

[punkrinn]

Yes you are right, Mydei was thrown into the River of Souls as a baby and never met his mother. She was killed shortly after. He only hears her in his dreams. He even points out that it’s weird that he knows it’s his mother talking to him even though he never met her. It’s also implied it’s the same dream over and over. Some part of her lingering? Or a glimpse of her soul (memory) that attached to him in the River of Souls? She definitely would’ve passed him by while he was there.

She says she only has one role now, to be his mother, and then the dream ends. I wonder if it’s like a ghost with unfinished business, her will to guide Mydei was stronger than the current of souls, so it stuck to him while the rest of her soul moved on.

I am all for Phainon delving into his “hero” role so much that he refers to himself that way even in his head now. I think it really highlights how he was a “hollow shell” (Agalea’s words) until given a purpose. Whether there is a physical reason for that (like he is an incomplete being) or shows his poor mental health (I could see through that fake smile from a mile away), I’ll leave up to everyone reading this.

Speaking on Phainon’s mental health, it felt so cathartic to see him start spiraling in 3.3. I freaking called it from day one that there is something wrong with him, and that he is going to crash out. EXPECIALLY without Mydei there, who seemed to be his emotional anchor and a good way to vent frustrations (through talking or sparring). This is further supported by Phainon’s reactions to everyone’s deaths. With everyone else, he is angry and vengeful, full of energy and ready to take down his foes. With Mydei he went completely numb.

We do know for sure Amphoreus is a prison for a Lord Ravager. Lygus says so:

How or why Amphoreus is able to hold a Lord Ravager, we don’t know for sure.

The Sceptor creating a simulation of Nanook’s birth into Aeon-hood would make a lot of sense actually! Nanook’s planet was destroyed in the Emperor’s war before They ascended. That begs the question: would this Lord Ravager basically be a mini Nanook? Kind of like how the Sceptor is a mini Nous? Ohhh the dots are connecting. (Hmm I want to make a post but I feel like this will be answered in 3.4).

Omg when you have more energy, please make a post about the Anti-Organic Equation and why it could be related to the Black Tide. (Or if you already have, send me a link <3). I'm super not caught up on SU/DU; I just read the wiki when I get the itch.

March has always had a sketchy past. What in the world could she have done to get an AEON to lock her out of her memories? It would make sense if she has something to do with Enigmata… and if Enigmata is involved, who the hell knows what is true and what isn’t. Memories and histories could be easily tampered with. Maybe everything we’re seeing is a lie. Maybe EVERYONE’S backstories are fake. Ough oh no…

The Cyrene fairy theory is so much yes. I love that shit. Especially because she has some tarot witchy vibes. It also points to her being a memokeeper or Emanator or Remembrance (and maybe March is the opposite? Pink haired twins that follow opposing Aeons??) And Phainon? Wont give us his real name? That’s some fairy shit. What even is Aedes Elysia if nobody knows where it is? I wont go further since we’re getting into leak territory, and those are always subject to change.

Also just realized… Ram… RAM… like in a computer… ugh

I LOVE all the theories coming out for Mydei right now.

3.3 Spoilers ahead

So far I've seen:

He and the Chrysos Heirs are algorithms devised by the Scepter to consistently run and reset the cycle and keep the Lord Ravager trapped.

He is a "firewall" designed to stop/slow the corruption of the Black Tide.

He and the other Calamity Titans are bugs that were never meant to be in the system, and the Scepter responds to the bugs by factory resetting itself.

He is a virus created by an outside source to set the Lord Ravager (Phainon) free.

He is a creation of Phainon's own will and what Phainon perceives to be the ideal hero.

The last one kind of goes hand in hand with the theory that Bandage Seal copies Blade's mannerisms because of Dan Heng's influence. Like the Scepter can warp/create things into existence based on a person's thoughts. (It's not a Rinn post unless I mention DH at least one time).

Amphoreus being run by an ancient super computer leaves so many possibilities open. Share your thoughts in the comments or ask box! I'm curious what other lore hogs think.

Personally I think Mydei/the Strife titan is a "firewall," but I want soo badly for the virus theory to be true. Like "Don't worry, my Lord Ravager. We'll get you out with the power of hot gay tension." Happy Pride Month I guess lmao

[vickysaurus]

Let's take a closer look at the hominin skulls in the Senckenberg Museum's human evolution room. Keep in mind this is not a linear progression through our ancestors, and more like a bunch of closer and more distant cousins.

The first one, Sahelanthropus tchadensis is seven million years old, and may very well not be a hominin at all. I've always leaned towards the hypothesis that it's a gorilla relative, not one of ours. No matter which branch of the apes it belongs to, it lived not long after the time the human-line (hominins) and the chimp-line separated, and possibly even before that point!

Ardipithecus ramidus, the first hominin from where we can start making a fairly decent family tree of our relatives. Before this point, 5 million years ago, hominin fossils are very rare, fragmentary, and difficult to assign. One of the most interesting things that does seem to emerge from these early fossils is that we have walked on two legs for a long time. Maybe even so long that our common ancestor with the chimps and bonobos did it!

Lucy represents Australopithecus afarensis, who shows up at this point (3.3 million years ago).

Australopithecus africanus, the Taung child to be precise. We're about 2.8 million years ago at this point. Australopithecines must've been such fascinating creatures.

Homo habilis, the 'handy man', named that way because when they were discovered they were thought to be the first humans who used tools. Since then, Australopithecus tools have been found, and tool use by many different animals has also been documented.

Homo rudolfensis, a population of humans who lived at the same time as Homo habilis and were notably bigger and a little brainier. Does it warrant being its own species? That depends who you ask. Splitting vs lumping is a point of contention in almost every group's biology, and it can run especially high in the field of human evolution since hominins are A very high profile and important fossils that directly relate to our own origins, and B an extremely tangled group that seems to have produced loads and loads of isolated populations and subspecies that regularly migrated all over the place and had frequent interbreeding events. Personally I tend to come down on the side of lumping them into a few major species.

Paranthropus boisei. These were basically a separate lineage of australopithecines, quite different from our own ancestors, who continued to do australopithecus things until quite recently. They were very good climbers and seem to have returned to the trees.

Homo ergaster, either a close relative or a synonym of the more famous Homo erectus. This is the point where we got really brainy, probably figured out how to make fire ourselves, and spread from Africa to Eurasia.

Homo heidelbergensis. Homo erectus and its many subspecies spread all over Africa and Eurasia and existed for well over a million years. As time marches on and evolution did its thing, we eventually start calling the ones in Africa Homo heidelbergensis. They were quite tall, positively enormous compared to little Lucy a few million years back, and they too joined in the human migrations out of Africa. From the H. heidelbergensis who moved into Eurasia we eventually get neanderthals and denisovans, while Homo sapiens evolved from the heidelbergensis populations in Africa.

And there's the neanderthals! Large-brained and creative (the first known cave paintings belong to them and they buried their dead), they were likely quite different from the brutish image we often get from them. Rather than truly dying out, their populations eventually merged with the larger Homo sapiens population once they migrated out of Africa, leaving our modern genes with a couple percent neanderthal DNA.

Homo sapiens. And that's us! Not so much the last remaining branch of the human family tree as much as several of the separate branches ended up coming back together and weaving into a single bigger branch.

And then there's these little guys, Homo floresiensis! Probably originating from a Homo erectus population that ended up on the island Flores, insular dwarfism ended up making them grow quite tiny. On their isolated island, they remained until about 50000 years ago.

[reqxxyt]

turn back time

pairings: sergio p. x f!reader

warning: broken spanish (google translated because I felt insecure about my own spanish-), angst, timeline is messed up

wc: 3.3 k

masterlist requests are open!

_________ ׂׂૢ་༘࿐

To say that you and Sergio were always close would be an understatement, growing up in Guadalajara together, your parents were always close, having been friends before themselves. The two pairs always predicted you two would get together more as a joke, but you would only make a grossed-out face hating the idea of ever being fond of anyone enough to marry them. But you were 5 back then, Sergio being 6 always finding an annoying way to brag about his age. But you didn’t pay any mind, just sticking your tongue out whenever he would mention it to further annoy you. 

But as much as you pretended to be annoyed, you admired him as well, having been near front row seats to all of is karting races making sure to cheer on for him. Making sure that whenever he would win you would cheer the loudest, only chasing after him trying to get a hug out of him to celebrate but he was never much of a physical affection type of boy. It was the same pattern, you going to all of his races, him winning, and you chasing after him. 

Until he left. 

He was recognized, and you were happy he was. Having a shot at becoming big, you forced him to leave not wanting any part of your selfish greed screaming at you to not allow him to leave, in fear of losing your near only friend. At the age of 13, you saw him depart, finally being able to give him a hug as he left to join the Skip Barber series in the U.S. You would be lying if you said you weren’t jealous, but either way, you waved goodbye with a bright smile on your face only being returned a small frown by him as he headed off. You two stayed in touch, only hearing complaints from both sides of your parents about how much the two of you talked on the phone. 

He would come for visits as well, and you attempted to show new things to him every time but after a while he just seemed to want to unwind. 

“Deberias de venir a visitarme” you should come visit me. He would suggest, and true to yourself you were giddy, feeling your teenage heart flutter but you knew he was just attempting to be nice. After only a short conversation, Sergio finally felt comfortable about telling you his even longer departure “Voy a Europa el proximo año” 

Again, you felt proud of him, he was one step closer to having the life he mumbled in his sleep about. But you couldn’t help a small frown tug on the corners of your lips as you tried your hardest to smile. He noticed your attempt and only frowned back, promising you he wouldn’t dare lose his friendship with you, you two just meant the world to each other and nothing could interfere with what you two held for each other. 

“Ayudame con el ingles” help me with English. You said, trying to get your mind out of him having to leave soon and instead just talk. He smiled before getting himself comfortable on your bed, the two of you sitting on the edge facing one another

“Los basicos?” the basics?  he simply asked. You shook your head, already having an idea of the basics considering they started to teach you that earlier in the school year. 

“Ya se, hello, my name is” you couldn’t help the strong accent seeping through your voice only making you two giggle. You thought about more common phrases that you learned and through a sheepish smile, barely louder than a whisper “How was your day?”

“My day was good, I got to spend it with someone I like” he said, only a small smile, ears reddening but you shrugged it off not knowing half of what he said. English was hard. He knew you didn’t understand with your expression, still trying to dissect it only making him laugh at your focused face. “Mi día fue bien, lo tuve con una amiga” My day was good, I spent it with a friend. changing a few words to his liking. She only made a face of realization picking up the phrase quickly thinking when she could use it on someone else. 

“como se dice te voy a extrañar,” you said, voice softening and he thought about it for a moment before replying back.

“I will miss you” his body leaned in but you stayed still. “Quieres que me quede?” would you like me to stay?

“No hay nada que pueda desear más” There's nothing I could want more. you said, finally noticing the close proximity. A flicker at each other's lips before suddenly, your door opened making you both turn as you subconsciously moved farther. It was your mother announcing dinner, you looked back at Sergio still a bit saddened, but faced back away as you headed down to the kitchen. 

For the next couple of years, he traveled and got to the best of his ability, only having small time to chat with you weekly if you were lucky but you were grateful nonetheless. It was only until the Mexico City Grand Prix that you got to see him in his element. Now, being 20 you were able to travel on your own, pursuing your own journaling career. He immediately invited you to the race seeing as though he would love to see you after so long. 

Your heart spun the second you spotted him, with a small smile on your face as you finally approached him. He jogged to you the second he spotted you, bringing you into the tightest embrace, feeling your heart pedal at his hold. 

“Te extrañé mucho” I missed you so much. He replied with the same as you two separated. He asked you if it was okay to show you around and you fiercely nodded, ready to be toured around excited to see his new environment. 

“Checo?” an unfamiliar voice asked entering the room that Sergio has just been finished explaining about. You two turned to a tannish curled guy in a red bull shirt. “I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?”

You stood silent as Sergio spoke for you, denying any suspensions. They talked for a while and while you did understand most of what they were saying, you still had trouble picking up other words. 

“I’m Daniel” he finally got to introduce himself turning to you after their conversation. He sent you a toothy grin, hoping to make you feel comfortable noting your tense state and you sent him a small smile back,

“I’m y/n” you said, accepting his hand to shake, feeling your own body heat up from his close proximity. Sergio took notice of this, flickering his eyes in between you two trying to dismisse the small compliment Daniel had given to you about your name. 

It was only until the end of the weekend when he found you talking to Daniel alone that he felt his own heartache. He composed himself enough to walk up to you, a signature small smile asking you what you thought about the race. 

“It was great, you did amazing out there” you further complimented him, looking up at him with those dream eyes that had Sergios knees nearly give out. He could feel his own ego inflate at your compliment, only thanking you to mask it. 

“Going to the party later?'' Daniel asked you, bringing bck your attention to him. You thought about it for a second before nodding with a ‘sure’. Daniel felt excited meanwhile the nerves on Sergio had gotten worse at the information that you wanted to go to a party with Daniel knowing where that would usually leave a girl by the end of the night. 

Later that night, you were sent the address, already familiar with the place it didn’t take long for you to get there. You wore a tight black long-sleeve dress, comfortable enough for you to breathe and move in. You spotted the others the second you entered as they shot you a wave, gesturing you to come over. 

“Is Sergio coming?” you asked, an innocent question that brought confused gazes from the others. 

“He’s always with his girlfriend after a race” Daniel explained and you had to force yourself to not allow your face drop just letting out a simple ‘oh’. You thought you two were close enough to share personal things, like mentioning if either of you had been in a relationship but you guessed incorrectly.

Daniel handed you a shot and you quickly drank it not caring if the strong intake made your throat burn but rather how it made your body feel numb, blocking out all thoughts from your mind about the boy you thought you knew. 

You danced the entire time, putting your attention on the curled boy that seemed to be infatuated with you. The farthest you ever went with him were lips grazing, not allowing you to take it a step further as you stepped back not sure why your mind blocked your body from furthering. You only apologized as you made your way outside, stumbling over with a headache as you tried your best to make yourself stable. 

“Tas bien, y/n?” you okay, y/n? you heard the familiar voice making you sulk before turning to see him with a worried expression, finally taking notice of the girl he had linked arms with. Your heart dropped at her sympathetic look, not sure who exactly you were to her lover but knowing enough that it shows he cares. 

No matter how much you wanted to tear up, feeling betrayed that not only he never told you but practically left you, you shook your head trying your hardest to blink the tears away, working enough to speak.

“I’m fine” was all you said, barely audible over the blaring music thanking whoever could hear that he wasn’t able to notice the tremble of your voice. He stepped forward making you stumble back, nearly causing you to trip over the stairs before you caught yourself on the railing. Sergio, not looking near convinced tried to offer his assistance but you shook your head, repeating the words from before “Estoy bien. Te veo la proxima” I’m fine, ill see you next time.

He only hummed allowing you to leave, feeling a tug of his shirt from his girlfriend yearning for his attention. He looked down at her, taking another glance at your figure as you tried calling a taxi before going inside with his attempt of replacing you. 

In the next years that followed, Sergio was now in red bull. You found someone that you could settle for, having now been together for the last two years and you still cheered for your best friend on track. After a long season, you and your partner traveled to Austin in hopes to surprise your best friend, not the usual of cheering him from your home country but flying out instead. 

Like always, you wore Sergio's merch while your boyfriend grew to be a fan of Ferrari. Opposites attract, they say. While you grew caring for your current boyfriend, without a doubt you still held a special place in your heart for the Mexican driver you grew up with in Guadalajara. 

Your excitement shined as you practically skipped along to the stands, and linked hands with your boyfriend. Once you sat down at your seats for practice day, you took multiple pictures still feeling amazed at how much Sergio had gotten done in the last decade. 

It was only on race day that you felt your entire body leaning in interest as you were silently praying for it to be a good day for Sergio and his car. You know how close Sergio and Max were to receiving the championship title, being almost neck and neck after every race. 

“Mi amor, lean back you’ll hurt your neck like that” Your boyfriend worried state made you lose your gaze and concentration as you leaned back only taking a joke of the matter. You finally did realize how strained your neck was, trying to relax the tense muscle. 

But in the end, Sergio won. Some cheered and others sighed heavily as your face beamed with excitement, hugging your boyfriend tightly nearly jumping around. After the entire celebration, you took a picture of the podium from the stands and sent it to Sergio with a text attached saying ‘congrats!’. It wasn’t long after the drivers left the podium standings that he texted you back with a shocked emoji saying ‘Come down to the paddock’. 

“You sure you’re okay with me leaving?” your boyfriend asked and you only nodded seeing that he needed his rest for the night. He gave you a small kiss on the cheek before leaving you near the paddock entrance where Sergio had been seeming to have been waiting for you with a large grin. 

You ran up to him, giving him the biggest hug you could muster up. You only felt your heart leap once, abnormal to the usual of seeing him. 

He knew about your relationship, only feeling happy for you seeing you finally move on up until spotting you wearing his shirt. To you, it might have been just a sense of support but to Sergio, it meant the world. Even after so long, his heart wouldn't stop racing every time he would think about you, it got so bad that he broke up with his girlfriend from before seeing no point in a relationship if all he cared about was you. But he never told you.

“Como esta tu relacion?” how is your relationship? he asked after separating. You only shrugged not sure what to say but only ask the same question. After a bit of the inside of his cheek, debating whether to tell you, he let out a deep sigh saying “Nos seperamos” We separated.

Your frown showed, wanting to ask why but out of respect did nothing of the sort. You somehow ended up feeling a sort of guilt even if you believe to yourself it had nothing to do with you. More like you hoped it had nothing to do with you. 

“y/n?” his voice softened as your eyes went to go meet his but your recognition of the sight in his eyes only frightened you. That same sad yet adoration state made you want to back up scared you knew where this was going. “Sería demasiado tarde para decirte que estoy enamorado de ti” is it too late to tell you I am in love with you?

Your stomach dropped at the words, swallowing whatever words you wanted to spill, wanting, no needing to not detroy your entire life. 

“Ser-” you started but he stopped you, knowing this was only going to end up with him hurt in the end. If he could reverse time right at this moment he would. He took a step back, enough to where you could finally feel yourself breathing but still had your chest lifting you down. 

“Perdon, no debería haber dicho eso, te veré la próxima vez.” I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. I'll see you next time. he left with only your heart hung low and your head spinning. You returned to the hotel room, observing your sleeping boyfriend and only hearing his light snores. Tears unknowingly started streaming down and with the mix of his light snores were your small sniffles, trying to contain the noises that were exiting. 

You didn’t talk to Sergio for a couple of weeks. You isolated yourself. Not just from him but everyone. All your thoughts were about him and memories showcased themselves every time you tried resting your eyes. Your boyfriend grew worried but you shrugged it off, only saying the simple hi and bye for work. 

It wasn’t until the Mexico Citiy Grand Prix where your boyfriend finally brought up the topic of your former friend. 

“You’re not going?” He was genuinely surprised with your choice, seeing as you’ve never missed one that was in Mexico. You just nodded again for the 100th time and he let the topic go. But that didn’t mean you wouldn't watch it, still wanting the best for him. 

On race day, the two of you situated yourselves on the couch ready for the race to begin. You sat silent, in contrast with your regular bubbly personality when it came to race day. It was near the end of the race, your boyfriend fell asleep due to the lack of sleep last night and you stayed awake, allowing your boyfriend to lean against you while you brushed his hair. 

Sergio got second that day. It was a disappointment to the Mexican fans but you were silently content with the position knowing how hard it is in itself to be on the podium from how much you’ve observed. You didn’t send him his usual congratulations message and wondered if he would even notice. 

Sergio, while believing you wouldn’t come still hoped you did. He asked around about you only receiving shrugs or a simple no. He finally gave up looking, debating whether or not to text you. But he understood you needed space and respected you as he shut off his phone and went to celebrate his 1-2 win with Red Bull.

Sergio still goes to visit his family in Mexico and without a doubt questions about his life flooded, not only about racing but about you. He just told everyone he hadn’t seen you in a while, not specifying the reason as to why. 

You were never one to break up with someone in fear of losing the memories that you created with the person, you always waited for the person to do the breaking up and you were sure that friendships were the same, except it came to your knowledge that you were the one who broke the friendship with Sergio and you felt terrible. 

But you finally gathered the courage to send a simple message with a hi, asking how he’s been. Sergio almost immediately replied, “Fine, you?”. “Great, want to talk?”

You fiddled with your rings, taking on an extra anxious habit with your new engagement ring. 

You already received information that Sergio had been in town from your parents, so you set up plans at a nearby restaurant. On the day, you debated whether to take off your ring and lay it on him easier but decided not to, needing to be the first to tell him. 

The sight of your ring made Sergio’s own insides curl up, seeing the ruby pendant you’ve always wanted since you were younger, a special significance only you two know about. But he didn’t mention it, allowing you to be ready to explain it. 

“He proposed only a week ago” your voice was soft, and while you would’ve much rather said it in a happier manner your heart tugged at the thought and his silent state. “I thought about saying no”

This made him well surprised, but already having known the outcome only made him all the more sadder. 

Your lips trembled, “it should’ve been you. Our worlds just weren’t meant to be together” 

He just nodded, following along to every word you said, wishing you were saying it to someone else because he hated being the receiver of the message. Your hands laid on the empty table, palms facing upward, inviting him to put his own on top of yours and he did, not being able to ignore the cold sting of the metal ring. 

“Amigos?” friends? the small curve of your lips made his own purse at the thought but he would rather have you in his life as a friend than nothing at all. 

“Amigos” friends.