#...seriously tho what is the metal in their structure

[slugcatmusings]

Iterators = Colonial Organisms

I’ve been thinking a lot about the iterators lately.  Not any one in particular, nope, I’ve just – been thinking about their biology/structure.  How they might’ve been built, what they’re made of, how the frick the Ancients made them so big that they built entire skyscraper cities on, etc.  First two things are most interesting to me though, how do you build an iterator?  What’s the process there?  How do the metal and organic bits fit together?  Are their metal parts even metal at all, because Pebbles’ robot cancer seems to be mutating directly out of the metal????  

Probably not, honestly.  Because metal can’t get cancer.  It’s probably, I dunno, weird bone or something.

ANYWAY I think iterators are colonial organisms, like siphonophores. Think the Man ‘o War jellyfish – it’s actually not one creature, but a bunch of physically connected creatures, each with a specialized purpose that helps all the other creatures around it survive, and all working together.  You’ve got critters that work as a digestive system, others for respiratory or circulatory, others that act as the outer shell/layer/skin, others that act as a skeletal framework, that kind of thing.  

Iterators are like that, but on a MUCH larger scale, built by human(?) hands, and maybe with some fully mechanical parts mixed in here and there.  I mean, just look at these examples of what all we definitely know they have:

Neuron flies, which store memories and I think carry signals/messages between other neural organisms.

Those weird red squiggly things that grow out of some walls and free-drift in other places – I’ve seen neurons connect to the tendrils coming off those things and give off little electrical flashes so those are more neural organisms.

The small hair-like tendrils that glow blue growing out of the wall are probably another version of the red squiggly things.

Inspectors are DEFINITELY acting as the immune system here.  They attack you if you grab/harm neuron flies, they just throw spears and toss you around instead of eating you alive like OUR immune cells usually do.

Those weird red structures attended to by lil white spidery things in the Memory Conflux of Five Pebbles are probably some kind of long-term memory storage, considering the title of the sub-region.

On top of these, we’ve probably got some sort of circulatory system equivalent – in some places you can hear what sounds a bit like a heartbeat pulsing in the background.  (Just, you know, if you were hearing it from right outside the vessel walls and hearing all the liquid rushing past on every beat.)  There’s probably some sort of specialized system for sucking up and processing the water that the iterators canonically use as coolant, ending in some sort of respiration that lets out all the water vapor from that process. There’s GOT to be some sort of digestive system equivalent because I seriously doubt that the “bio” part of “bio-tech” can survive without SOME sort of nutrients, but Void if I know what that might be.  Maybe they’ve got some of that glowy mold being cultivated somewhere in their structure, that stuff seems to grow on their probably-not-metal framework pretty well.  

Then there’s whatever the rarefaction cell in Rivulet’s campaign is plugged into... it’s called the “Heart” in Moon’s structure, maybe it’s connected to a circulatory system, or maybe that’s a mechanical part versus an organic one, I don’t know.  More food for thought.

About the only thing I think the iterators DON’T have is any kind of reproductive system.  Iterators too close to one another can suck up all the water and leave another high and dry, so too many iterators in the same region would probably cause a drought.  On top of that, lust is one of the earthly urges the Ancients are trying to let go of in order to ascend – no way they’d leave their giant holy supercomputers with the ability to do THAT.  They’d probably have aneurysms even thinking about it.

[sunnimint]

As someone who is now writing a longfic about Metal Sonic pretty much as a direct inspiration from you, I wanted to ask- how do you do it? How do you stick with it? What's your writing and editing process? How do you like to post your fics? etc etc etc please tell me anything and everything

Oh? You are writing a long fic about Metal Sonic? DROP LINK NOW

In all seriousness, let me answer those questions in order. Buckle up and sit down for this one.

I like Metal Sonic. He is, undeniably, one of my favorite characters. The Sonic OVA really fleshed out his character and personality (honorable mention for the Sonic Mania Adventures holiday episode which i also adored to pieces). Not to mention the amazing fic that is Iron Oxide, which promptly made me a metonic shipper for life. It's this combination that practically motivates me to write. And as I mentioned in the other question I answered, writing Metal is a lot of fun simply because of the endless possibilities of how to make a machine go from lifeless to alive. Bonus points for making him fall in love with the blue rat he's always trying to kill. Obsession, after all, can go a long way.

In terms of writing process... whenever I am struck by an idea or a concept, I immediately write it down. A couple of sentences, nothing more. If the idea/concept refuses to leave me alone, then I write an outline for it. I think about how the story will begin and how it will end. I then think how I can go from point A, B, C, etc, all the way until it connects to the end. Once I'm done with the outline, I look back through it and make sure that it works and that the plot makes sense. Everything has to come together because otherwise, the story will become a mess. This whole process takes me anywhere from a day to weeks. It is only until I like how the outline is structured, that I finally begin to WRITE.

As organized as I am with the outline, I don't follow it strictly. The outline is more of a guideline. It helps me stay on track, to get to the end of the fic. Sometimes, when I'm writing, the story takes a slightly different direction. Having an outline helps, because that means I can come back to it, and change little things here and there to accommodate the new stuff I brought in.

Editing process. I don't read my chapters until i finish writing it first. But once I finish a chapter, I don't read them until the next day, that way I have a fresh look at it. Honestly, I kind of wing it when it comes to editing. The only exception to this is Halves of the Same Coin, where I had an amazing beta reader (@soft-anomaly) to help me once I realize the fic was going out of control (Og plan for HotSC was initially 30k words. It ended at 75k+ words)

My general rule of thumb for chapters is 3k words, minimum. However, if the chapter has sensitive material or essential plot stuff, then I write until I'm satisfied with the results. This can end with a 7k word chapter. That's what I did with HotSC. Beginnings of an End is different. It's not as plot heavy as HotSC, hence the shorter chapters. Shorter chapters also mean faster updates.

Posting fics. I like to post fics at night for one reason only. I'm too anxious and nervous by how it will be received 🥲 I'm not perfect, sometimes I'm self conscious about what I write because then I think what if no one likes it?? it's why I sleep it off 😅 these fears are always gone in the morning tho, when I look at the comments and kudos ^-^

[hear-something-different]

I told you I listen to almost anything:

"Ionizing radiation tears the cellular structure apart

The skin blisters, it turns red then black

This is followed by a latency period..."

Ah yes, goregrind/noisecore music. Some people do not accept these as music did you know that- you probably did. Well, it is music tho. Originating from grindcore, which is kinda fusion of heavy metal and hardcore punk, goregrind is a subgenre of songs with gorey lyrics. Be careful while listening with full volume! They're usually consist of very distorted guitars, blast beats and interesting styles with vocals- ehem I personally thing they either sound like a cryptic being murdered or an old man gargling. Although the songs' violent and gruesome nature, some bands are known to not take it very seriously. Check out Bitchfork's 'Zombie Cows From Outer Space' album and you will get what I mean.

These types of music (grindcore) first startes in late 80s. Last Days Of Humanity began in 1989 as well, but their first album came out in 1996. The song I'm recommending today is some of my favorite from this kind while being a bit less intense so I can recommend it. The lyrics are about how you can die from radiation sickness if it was not obvious.

What can I say? Sometimes I like songs loud enough to cover all my thoughts. I only can hear sick beats and guitar solos, shut up brain.

[thotslayerdio]

S/I sketches and infodump

this isn't an "official"/"canon" post or anything, i'm still brainstorming

shorter than F/O but way taller than me IRL. for non-jojo fans, average height for a JJBA character is like ~6' (183cm). i don't like it being so inaccurate to my IRL self, but jojo characters are just like that.

the 7.5 heads is a guideline and they can be anywhere from 6.5 to 8, depending on what style i'm feeling like at the moment

take the "[hair looks] like a curly bracket" seriously LOL. it's an important part of the "character's" silhouette.

i decided i wasn't going to change the outfits from what i wear IRL. it just so happens that i dress like an absolute edgelord.

as for the body itself, it's way less muscular than the canon characters. mostly because i'm not able to draw "hyper"-muscle very well, and because i'm a scrawny motherfucker IRL.

--

as of right now, i don't have any concept sketches for the stand, but know this:

its name is Liar, after the queen song

it's close-range artificial humanoid type

its main ability is to take nearby materials and manipulate them for use, including living and organic materials. (this means it can make knives grow out of the user's skin and otherwise cause them to shapeshift. theoretically this would work on opponents, but i'm not interested in that.)

it has two forms: "armor" and "standard"

"armor" is what it sounds like. it... becomes armor/weapons.

"standard" is your typical stand. it looks something like a ball-jointed doll... unless i draw it and get a different idea.

"material gathering" range of about 30 meters. that's where it goes in the dirt/whatever's nearby and gathers materials for shapeshifting purposes.

the material gathering is very important. it can store materials over time, but not a whole lot. it mostly depends on the location of the user. (it can utilize the materials found in the user's body, like risotto's stand.)

"materials" can be minerals, proteins, metals, etc.

shapeshifting range is 2 meters. AKA the user has to be within 2 meters of the stand for the effect to take place. however, once the user/whoever is shapeshifted, it will stay like that, even once out of range. that's because it changes the physical structure of the materials. (it can be reverted dw)

the "standard" form's extended range (aka the furthest length it can be in a humanoid form away from the user) is 20 meters. the ORA ORA range is only like 2m tho

extended range is different from material gathering range since it isn't concentrated into any specific form while gathering materials. it takes concentration or whatever to make the stand hold its shape.

[realwaldojeffers]

cool! i've heard of these bands of course but never actually listened to them, but i do like lou reed and david bowie! they were one of the first artists i got familiar with when i got into classic rock, actually. how did you discover them?

oh i feel you about the wrapped thing - i listened to my top artist for like 9000 mins too 😭

and i understand the thing about writing so well 😭 i feel like it's the only way for me to tell my stories but it's so hard for me. i've been stuck on a story for honestly a ridiculous amount of time now. what is most difficult about writing for you? are there any tips that help you write?

and i draw too! what are your favorite things to draw and your favorite art materials? i mostly just use pencil, i'd really like to learn coloring but i give up every time lmao

-❄️

Hayyyyy srry for taking forever to and you my secret Santa! I have been too caught up with my uni final that I forgot to send my response! Lol I’m still alive btw, exam fortunately did not kill me and now I’m a free man enjoying my winter holiday

For your first question, I think I discovered Bowie back in 2015 from my English teacher. At the time I was starting to take an interest in rock music, so he sent me a digital copy of Bowie record. I didn’t remember which one but I guessed it prob was Aladdin Sane cause I remember being a shithead I think the song is so bad from being an angsty 13 yo who didn’t listen to anything but hardcore and Metal (yes I was annoying lol) So, I pretty much lost the copy and still regret it.

But I started to get seriously into Bowie around last year and he has been my obsession since then. For Lou and VU, it’s probably a bit of Bowie influence cause I was digging deep into Bowie career and his interest so ofc I found Transformers album and things just went dow from there….. Once you got in, you can’t find the way out hahah

For the writing question, I think one of my struggles is I cannot order my words and writing structure very well which is a bummer being a media studies and linguistic major 🫠 Also English is not my first language even tho I’m pretty much living as a bilingual nowadays. Coming from an Asian background, Western grammatical structure can be a pain. But smth that helps me with my writing is planners. I just have to do an outline and a draft every time I write.

Mostly I do fan arts! I’m also a big fan of Scifi and British comedy so I have another art acc dedicated to those *nudge nudge* I often do my art digitally nowadays but I still love water color and painting on frame.

Thank you so much for your questions and interaction! I’m so excited to heard more from you!

-🌞Tawan (that’s my name btw)

[burnt-scone]

TALKING ABOUT RUSSIAN/UKRAINIAN WAR

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Please remember not to blame Russian ppl for what's happening, it's Putins fault not theirs. People are seriously injuring themselves to avoid being drafted because they don't want kill or be killed. Always remember that in war most soldiers are victims themselves.

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Putin commits some of the biggest War Crimes even bring Switzerland out of their 200years of Neutrality.

Middleaged American dudes(usually white & have never experience war) who keep saying anyone calling out the war and how bad it is is just "woke" and need to go touch grass: Oh we can't completely blame Russia. I mean stuff happens in war, and it's not like Ukraine doesn't have a whole Yahtzee group.

(It does, and they shouldn't exist. They're basically the tripleK of Ukraine. The countries should've gotten rid of them decades ago, but they didn't and even tho their un-defenable ppl would still say freedom of speech. I am ethnically Jewish & Indigenous, I am not defending the existence of these groups they hate me I hate them even more. I am saying you can't defend the murder of thousands over the fact there's a group of shitty ppl. If something happened here in the U.S. someone could say "well the Triple K are there." Not a good argument huh? Also this group in the Ukraine ia funded by unknown Americans and all of their weapons are U.S. Army issued weaponry... so... like I wonder whos funding them.)

Putin Murders Thousands (almost 6k confirmed, thought to be much higher numbers), breaking Geneva Convention war laws, causing there to be another Convention, still killing and now drafting more unwilling soldiers.

Middleaged Men in the U.S.: We are Blind, we see nothing.

Putin threatens to Atomic bomb half of Europe and Nuke America until the street all metal structure melt.

Middleaged Men in the U.S: Well... maybe there's a problem in Europe rn.

[thatwaywardwolf]

Norse Gods (and Others) as Welcome to Night Vale Tweets

Aegir: Your Man Card has been revoked. You aren't a real man. You have short tentacles and can't survive out of water. Here's your Cuttlefish Card.

Angrboða: Wow! This mom found the cutest way of telling her children about the heat death of the universe.

Aurvandil: Don't worry, the stars aren't watching us. They're looking outward at what's coming.

Baldur: The captain has turned on the "This is all a dream" light. Please return to your seat and wake up to whatever your real life has always been.

Bragi: Get into a good book this summer! We're going to force you into a good book this summer! You cannot escape the giant book we'll put you in!

Eir: You have nice skin. It really holds in all your blood and organs - no leaking or nothing. You look great.

Fenrir: Who's a good boy? Trick question. We all are. We are all good boys.

Freyja: There's more than one way to have been a cat.

Freyr: Parents, talk to your teens about deer. Ask them why the deer are gathering and staring. What do they know about these deer? Ask them.

Frigg: Today you will meet a beautiful stranger. Actually, hundreds of beautiful strangers. Everyone is beautiful and you know almost none of them.

Fulla: Whisper a dangerous secret to someone you care about. Now they have the power to destroy you, but won't. This is what love is.

Hati: This will brighten up your day! *points to the sun* Gonna explode eventually tho. It all ends in darkness. Anyway kids, I'm your substitute today.

Heimdall: Pick and choose your battles. Choose your lifetimes. Decide carefully on your universe.

Hel: When a person dies and no one will miss them, the mourning is assigned to a random human. This is why you sometimes just feel sad.

Hodr: I like my coffee like how I like my nights: dark, endless, impossible to sleep through.

Idunn: You wanna be that way? Fine. Seriously, it's just fine. I like you for you who are.

Jörd: Sponsored Tweet: Moss. Look into it for a variety of helpful uses.

Jörmungandr: Today is a great day to go to the beach, say city officials through gritting teeth. Nothing is waiting in the water. Nothing, they say. Nothing.

Kvasir: Not all books have to fit conventional narrative structure. Some books can just be a mossy log, or a bowl of overripe stone fruit.

Lodurr: The heart wants what it wants. What it wants is blood.

Loki: You miss 100% of the bank robberies you don't commit.

Mímir: Believe in yourself. You are an ancient, absent god, only discussed rarely by literary scholars. So if you don't believe in yourself, no one will.

Nanna: Today's forcast: Sunny with a chance that for a moment you'll feel really great about yourself and your life. Savor those moments as they come.

Njordr: One day your ship will come in. It will have tall masts and cannons. You will be its captain and your first mate will be a robot dolphin named 7C.

Nótt: As you look into the night sky believing you are alone in the universe, a creature somewhere in that sky is looking back believing the same.

Norns: Please make note of your emergency exits. Please contemplate all possible futures.

Odin: Don't let numbers tell you what to do. You are blood and earth, not theory and chalk.

Rán: The ocean is full of things that would kill you and other things that would ignore or not understand you. The ocean is not dissimilar to here.

Sif: Make like a tree and shelter a bunch of birds.

Sigyn: Listen to your inner child. It's the one that whispers-sings nursery rhymes when you feel alone in a dark hallway.

Sinthgunt: Stars! They're just like us! Volatile, mysterious, and alone.

Skadi: Trying to get blood out of a stone is actually pretty easy if you loosen up your definition of "stone".

Sköll: The fault is not in our stars, but in the moon. That idiot rock ruins everything.

Sleipnir: Whoever it is that keeps dreaming about horses, please stop. Your imagination is seeping into our reality and it's affecting traffic.

Sól: Be careful in the summer sun. Wear sunscreen and regularly check your skin for strange marks, ancient glyphs & burrowing insects.

Sons of Ivaldi [Brokkr, Eitri, and Sindri]: Parents:Talk to your kids about the magical properties of different metals.

Surtr: Mandatory fire drill this afternoon. When you hear the siren, burn as many things as you can.

Thor: "I believe in you. You got this buddy," said the voice coming suddenly from inside your closet late one night. "Achieve your dreams, champ."

Tyr: Ask your doctor about dogs. Have a long conversation about how good dogs are. Show each other pictures of dogs.

Üllr: Fishing, hiking, and staring with blank terror at an empty sky. And what are your hobbies?

Útgarða-Loki: The tournament begins today. Those who do not win will be eliminated.

Vidarr: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, because humans haven't existed for 1000s of years, did humanity ever make a sound?

Yggdrasil: You can tell how old a tree is by telepathy.

Ymir: Be all that you can be. Manifest every possibility inherent in your atoms. Radiate cosmic energy.

[in-a-cave-with]

So starved for Tony content I read that black widow books everyone keeps talking about, the five lines with Tony there are pretty good and very well characterized tho. Please, fo you have any fic recs with good Tony char

HAHAHAAHSJDFNVKJLSDJFD thats a mood....

i have a big comics tony fic rec list here, also some more comics fics ive found since making that post that i rlly like (also be sure to check out some of the other works by the authors here, i added the links to their profiles):

Hope of Morning by magicasen

Incursions. The Illuminati. Rogue planets and mindwipes, Dyson Spheres and Worldkillers. Ask Tony Stark to list all the wrongs he's ever committed, and he wouldn't even know where to begin.

But when the Watcher dies and the secrets of the entire universe come to light, Tony discovers his greatest sin is one he chose to forget.  

(AU from Original Sin #2)

You Can Stay by FestiveFerret

Tony dumped the box on his coffee table, the lid now safely closed. "Thanks for the save," he muttered at it. The world had the softened edges that alcohol gave it, but it wasn't gentle this time, like it usually was, it was numb.

He couldn't even summon the pain to feel hurt about Justine. It wasn't like it was a surprise. No one ever wanted to be with him for himself. No one just stayed. That, apparently, was asking too much of the universe.

not gruesome, just human by isozyme

“I need to crash on someone’s couch for a while.  Your couch.  I need to crash on your couch,” Tony says.

Steve’s mouth opens.  If he asks why Tony’s going to bolt, he can feel the certainty of it under his sternum.  He doesn’t have a sternum anymore, just a tangle of metal under his skin.  Too many things have punched through it to get to his heart.  There hasn’t been enough bone left to reconstruct anything made of flesh in a long time.

“There’s borscht on the stove,” Steve says.

blood, love, and rhetoric by isozyme

Something’s wrong with causality. Beyond the academic.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Steve/Tony style.

in another life (you and i) by isozyme

It’s a man, half-clad in silver armor. His face is covered by an angular mask, eyes glowing blue slits. The suit is a sick frankenstein of Captain America and Iron Man. Tony raises his palms, readying a repulsor blast.

The man opposite him raises a red-gloved hand which, like a terrible mirror, bears an identical repulsor.

The Civil Warrior makes it to Earth-616 six months too late.

on the health benefits of dying young and beautiful by Welcoming_Disaster

PI Steve Rogers is hired to investigate the mysterious disappearance of fashion designer Antonio Stark.

Every Me Loves Every You by foldingcranes

Steve tries to picture it: himself, laying on the Capitol’s steps, bleeding over cold concrete, previously bound and on his way to his own trial. Himself, over this gaunt and somber Stark, who’s been sober for six years, ramming his shield on him until his armor breaks.

(Two lonely strangers from different dimensions meet.)

Without the rusty music of my machine by Missy_dee811

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." — Albert Camus

[Written for Lights On Park Ave - Round 11.]

Our Love Is a Ghost That the Others Can't See by Kiyaar

Post-Civil War, canon-divergent from Director of SHIELD.

In Tony’s dreams, he is back in the street, in a crater, the city on fire around him. Steve kneels over him and beats him to within an inch of his life.

It’s his favorite place to be, these days.

Satin in a Coffin by Crait

Careful. It's so heavy only I can lift it.

Time, it needs time, to win back your love again by lomku

“So what are we going to do about it?” “Now? Now I’m going to beat you bloody.”

Steve remembers, and he goes to Tony to confront him, but in the ensuing fight, a time loop is created, trapping Steve and Tony together. Will they be able to set their differences aside long enough to work on breaking the time loop?

When You're a Stranger by Sineala

Tony has made a mistake.

So Far Away From Me by Sineala

Captain America has a new hotline, and Tony is a frequent caller -- but for a very unusual reason.

Double Time by Sineala

Cassino, Italy, December 1943. Special Agent Tony Stark, former Marvels adventurer, is sent to investigate a Cosmic Cube found by the Invaders -- and it's the perfect opportunity for him to rekindle his secret romance with Steve Rogers. But when Hydra attempts to steal the Cube, an inadvertent wish for help leads to the appearance of a Tony from the future of another world: Director Stark of SHIELD. This Tony is a man with a lot on his mind. He refuses to tell them anything about the future, but he seems to know much more than he should about Captain America. And something's happened that's clearly killing him inside, but he's not talking. When Director Stark's failed attempt to return home leads to the unexpected appearance of another visitor from his universe, all the lies come undone. Now there are two wars to fight, and the second one could ruin all of them.

let none be content with me by Mizzy

After Detective Michael O'Brien learns Iron Man's real identity, Tony invites him to stay in the Avengers' mansion while he fixes the flaw in the Guardsman armor that led to Michael's brother's death, an incident that Tony still hasn't properly dealt with.

The Avengers take to Michael, and they might like him more than Iron Man, which Tony... isn't too surprised about. People should like Michael more than they like him. And when new threats and villains just start piling up, Tony has to seriously consider Iron Man's future. Or lack thereof.

through a passive landscape by Mizzy

The New York Times once described parking structures as "the grim afterthought of American design" and Steve couldn’t say he disagreed. The building they were searching was pretty damn ugly. But something uglier was about to happen inside.

[sirsparklepants]

I've been staring at my WIPs a lot recently, as you do, and I think it's time to release everything I've got of my favorite story I will never write. I kind of fell out of Overwatch before I had the spoons for longfic, and now there's so much lore to catch up on (this dates from before Doomfist was released) that I'm just not going to be able to incorporate, but it's still a really great idea that I really love, so I'm going to put my story notes and snippets out into the wild.

The Darkness In Our Hands

Jesse McCree wasn't expecting to get a message when the Recall went out. He'd been Blackwatch, after all - he'd written half their playbook. But he'd lived five years with the death and slander of Gabriel Reyes burning in his chest, not knowing who to blame, and this new Overwatch was the best way to find out who had killed him so he could kill them right back. But the deeper he looks, the more mysteries he finds - and he'll need some help if he's ever going to get his justice.

[[MORE]]

Crime and conspiracy fic

Opening: McCree, in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico - give insight into the state of the world and how territorial governments are, him thinking on Reyes and what he owes to him, the recall message, decides to respond but have his own agenda.

He travels thinking about how different from the rest of Overwatch Blackwatch was, and how he hopes at least one Blackwatch agent has made it back, thinking about past with Genji - flashbacks to unsavory missions maybe? Arrival - he sees new faces and is not particularly prepared because he didn't feel it was secure enough to ask on a comm line who was there. Not as familiar with this base, paranoia rising, but then a familiar face! Sort of. (when he arrives Reinhardt and Brigitte are fighting about Brigitte calling Torb on him, Reinhardt doesn't want to pull Torb away from his wife) ← might combine these two into one chapter?

Genji puts him off when he initially tries to talk though, and when McCree pulls him aside to speak about his own personal mission Genji talks first about Hanzo and Genji's changes, and McCree realizes that Genji is so utterly different as to be unrelatable, so he never does tell Genji the whole story of why he's there. Genji asks him to give Hanzo a chance instead of acting on his loyalties to Genji and providing retribution. End of section, Hanzo arrives

McCree and Hanzo spend some time scoping each other out but they can both tell they're very different from the people around them. A particular do-gooder incident happens and they bond over looking at each other like “r u srs rn”. Meanwhile, Winston is creating profiles for everyone and trying to find a fit for like… intelligence gathering, brute force, explosives, etc - team roles I guess? In the interests of that are exhaustive interviews and training. First kinky sex somewhere in here

McCree is getting antsy at this point and I need to move along from character development to actual plot, so time to send out trial field intel squad for a rootin tootin hopefully not shootin time! They go - somewhere with a large Asian population where someone McCree’s size won't stand out. Uh. This is a note to do more research into where Omniums are. Hong Kong maybe? Hong Kong is a good city for crime. Maybe Singapore if I want to make things difficult for them what with all the weapons laws. Anyway. Somewhere with an omnic population that's not great with outsiders but Genji knows enough about their culture to be respectful and he's metal enough he won't stand out. They're not actually researching Talon but McCree is! Hanzo catches him and then they're wary partners. The omnic culture thing is a breadcrumb, be sure to emphasize it.

They leave and Genji finds out Jesse and Hanzo are screwing and starts laughing and taunting them both and being a fucker, he gets slightly let in on the Reyes plot, Intel Squad tentatively a success, they've all bonded and everyone is confused about it

Meanwhile while they were gone a stomach bug swept the base and Mercy throws a fit about not being a GP. McCree shares a cigar with her to calm her down and starts making a plan to try and get information sneakily out of everyone by reminiscing - I think??? No one knows who Reaper actually is at this point??? Anyway everyone talks shit about the UN and there's more worldbuilding dumps because this feels like the right place to put it. McCree and Hanzo and Genji are kept basically quarantined until the base isn't contagious and in that time they devise A Plan. Also enter Zenyatta because Mercy really needs a backup doctor

Lúcio isn't vetted yet so McCree gets sent out alone to send him an offer, there's a Talon base in Brazil he investigates on the way maybe? I feel like this is enough outline to be getting on with atm tho. Yeah, talon base in Brazil where there's a mention of Talon trying to infiltrate Vishkar

Meanwhile, Ana and 76 have shown up at Gibraltar because they figured out someone was tracking their movements and wanted to go to ground in the general area but spotted the activity there and they're both not best pleased that Overwatch has started back up. When McCree comes back with Lúcio there's another fight he walks into - a running joke? Every time he returns to base there's someone yelling. Second kinky sex, very dominance and pain flavored because McCree needs to shut his brain up. Or maybe not, that’s a long time to go without porn??? Maybe they have coitus interruptus with Genji and that’s how he finds out

Ana and 76 hang around for a while but can't stomach the idea of being there too long because they have their own mission but they drop the bomb that Reaper is Reyes and he's Teh Evulz now because they know too much and i need to get rid of them so we don’t have experienced field operatives for mccree to work around. Also some Widowmaker info dump here. McCree pretends to be shocked but he has a different definition of evil than most people so he doubles down on his investigation and wants Hanzo to give up some contacts. Metal arm fisting here maybe???

what. the fuck. has reaper been doing all this time. has he just been swanning around in the background ruining investigations? maybe he’s laying low because the winston raid thing made him so visible? talon needs to work underground so yeah this sounds right. in the meantime VISKHAR because lucio is here now so we can talk more about the evils of corporations and have corporate espionage going on. Lucio says they should look more into vishkar and they make contact with symmetra who is a whistleblower, ideological clash because that’s what i’m about. lucio and symmetra are both trans with prosthetics btw, that’s happening now because i said so and because hormones are a horrible way to control someone and so it makes sense that vishkar controls sym’s access to them along with her arm. because they’re fuckers. A N Y W A Y vishkar knows things about the old omnica corporation.

sombra makes contact with them here because she’s been keeping an eye on the new overwatch and talon thinks that maybe mccree could be an ally, not that he knows that at the time but they test him out with a dead drop with omnic-related code shit on a TEAM MISSION which happens to, idk, build goodwill or something. winston got info from someone for something and i have to have at least one team mission happen in the foreground, it can’t be all background shit and Intel Group. the mission goes. okay-ish. someone gets fairly seriously injured? tracer, maybe, or reinhardt, either way i can write their significant others fussing over them. it’s a member of old overwatch so winston can be conflicted and take people off field missions for a bit so mccree can tinker around and end up having to ask zenyatta for help. a much longer sex scene than normal here somewhere? OHYES this is where i’m gonna stick the scene where Hanzo makes McCree take off his prosthetic legs and makes McCree leave on his prosthetic arm (because pain kink and metal arm kink and he has to have both arms to handle him) and basically makes McCree fuck him in exactly the way he likes, up to and including making McCree bounce him up and down on his lap. AND THEN ACTUAL AFTERCARE HAPPENS FOR ONCE, A TURNING POINT. perhaps there’s a scene where one of them lays their head on the other’s sweaty heaving chest and doesn’t even mind the sweat in fine romance novel tradition

something has to happen here for pacing reasons but i’m fucked if i know exactly what. uhhhh for Reasons they have to go to an omnic city? more omnic culture and worldbuilding dump here.

aaaaand then the Reveal Chapter: reyes knows something about this mystery mccree stumbled into when he was investigating the death, and he’s willing to talk. hanzo and mccree make plans to meet with him. and then we find out that the reason reyes blew switzerland was because he was working for talon ALL ALONG. the chapter ends with a ridiculous dramatic sequence where mccree puts together all the evidence and goes “so talon was created to fight the god programs”

okay this is the chapter when i get down to the nitty-gritty and break down the structure of talon and have like. a nice artsy chapter explaining how the omnics came to be and how the government created wars to be fucks and all that. i will get to the details of this LATER but the important part is that at the end of it hanzo and mccree are secret talon moles and they have actually pretty kink-free sex while staring into each other’s eyes and kind of freak each other out with how they like and trust each other and that doesn’t happen in their world but it’s overshadowed by the freakout of them agreeing to work for a shadow organization that wants to destabilize all the world’s governments, the fuck were we thinking??? the fuck was i thinking this isn’t even the proper climax, i die

okay for pacing reasons i have to have at least two chapters of them doing double agent things and getting more deeply involved in overwatch, fuck. some public missions should be mentioned where they like. intervene in humanitarian crisises and shit. crises. whatever. maybe hanzo and mccree have to split up and feel sad that they miss each other? one chapter for hanzo to make contact with his shady criminal underworld people to get verifiable info - maybe like. idk. plastic surgery clinic records - and mccree to re-emerge and rehabilitate his image?

and after that one chapter where like. winston gets suspicious about shit. and maybe??? they have to bring EVERYONE in on this huge conspiracy? they have enough evidence to convince other people? yeah i like this, i want to emphasize how ragtag and vigilante-like and underground the new overwatch is. probably an actual defining the relationship talk and possessive sex here.

story ends with like. a giant news story break i think. as i get closer to the end i’ll know more about what threads need resolving. BUT that is the end of my outline. I DID IT HOORAY

Notes

So McCree responds to the recall not because he believes in the cause like Winston does - he probably still sees most of Overwatch as outsiders, although he's at least surface friendly with most of them by the time he leaves based on in-game interactions - but because something in Overwatch killed Reyes, who he doesn't yet know is Reaper, and joining back up with Overwatch is his best chance to find out what it was and hit them back for killing someone who had his loyalty. He's friendly still because that's the best way to get what he wants, i.e. information and access to records, but this isn't like Blackwatch. He's not surrounded by people who came from the same type of lawless loyalty structure he did, who think the way he thinks - they all believe in restorative justice, and his whole life, justice has been nothing but punitive. The only person he was counting on to understand him, Genji, has changed, and it's probably better for him, but he's become different. He doesn't lash out the way he used to. He believes in second chances, where in the places they both came from, you paid for a second chance in blood. He's done with revenge. He's well and truly gotten out of the life, and McCree has never changed his mindset and never will, because it's kept him alive this long. But Genji has brought along someone he does understand - his brother. McCree gets Hanzo, he gets why he did what he did, even though he regrets it. McCree isn't happy about it, but when he was fifteen he came along to meet the cartels with Deadlock, and when he was sixteen he saw what they did to turncoats. You pay for treachery with blood in their world, and Genji betrayed the Shimadas by passing along information. Hanzo paid when he lost his place, and he made his clan pay for what they made him do. Him, McCree understands, and McCree starts testing him out, because he could use an ally in finding out what was under the surface of squeaky clean Overwatch.

And Hanzo understands him. Hanzo is here because he owes a debt to his brother, still, and because he wants to understand Genji. But everyone in Overwatch is alien to him. They take him working for them as a given, as if of course he would want to make up for what he's done. But there's a difference between owing a debt and regretting his whole life. Hanzo was an assassin after he left the Shimadas, and he feels no need to atone for that. It was what he was skilled in, and he also became skilled in finding things out his clients did not wish him to, because being manipulated by his clan taught him to be canny, to find out people's real motivations. So he knows McCree wants his skills for something, but he's willing to make an alliance for the sake of mutual understanding.

So they ally together, with the understanding that any betrayal will be paid in blood, that they both know different tricks of the trade. McCree wants information on Overwatch, and Hanzo wants protection and information on Genji. McCree works on the old guard to find things out, and Hanzo gets in touch with his criminal contacts in every place he's deployed on a mission. And they start to find things out about Talon...

I don't actually know what the resolution to that story would be. The talon-is-hydra-overwatch-is-shield thing has been done. Maybe I'd go a route of "talon was actually founded by Reaper to fight corruption in the UN and that's how he has all those Blackwatch members" and there would be a worldwide conspiracy where the God programs and therefore the omnic crisis were created by top tiers of government and weapons corporations to create a threat that would keep governments separate, give them more power, and give the companies more profit.

...y'know what I actually really like that idea. The world was getting closer and closer to more human rights and one large global government, and corporations and world powers really didn't like that. So what's the best way for humans to give power to government? When they want to be protected from a threat, of course. And they won't be thinking rationally. They'll want to stay apart, because of course the whole thing is *insert other country*'s fault. So Hanzo and McCree run into Reaper and discover this conspiracy and are from then on Reaper's agents inside Overwatch, both to get information and to get enough media exposure they're familiar faces and trusted by the public. So when they blow this thing wide open, it can't be swept under the rug.

Bonus things in this story:

-they have to bring Genji in because he has the most connections to the omnic community through Zenyatta and Omnics have some key evidence to the conspiracy

-bastion provides an essential clue.

-omnic culture and worldbuilding

-underground cities

-Sombra is key, both as a contact that knows what's going on in Mexico (where Important Things should happen just because I mentioned the cartels so they should play at leat a minor part) and in helping them to get into Blackwatch data undetected

-symmetra helps them spy on Vishkar, which was one of the corporations to profit the most from the crisis because they got the most contracts for rebuilding

-Hanzo, McCree, and Genji sit around and exchange stories about things they had to do for deadlock/the Shimadas; it's all horrifically violent and gory but they all three get drunk and laugh about it because it's their life and they won't let it break them and it kept them alive

-it ends with Genji being happy that he's not forced to do lots of violence any more and McCree and Hanzo being perfectly happy with their very violent lives

So Talon has a ruling council which both Reaper and Doomfist are a part of and factions are #confirmed (ty for info people who are up on overwatch lore I Cannot watch a video rn), and Talon is all involved in a global conspiracy. That's canon. So what if Talon is several disparate movements that allied themselves? They need to fight this war on all the fronts they can, given the potential power of their opponents.

Irl, the UN is not a super powerful body - people put much more faith in individual governments of countries. So what makes the UN able to create a peacekeeping force? Well, what if before the crisis, some large thing happened that made the world move towards one earth government and the UN being powerful is remnants of that?

Kind of tempted to channel my frustration with the world falling apart and all the political conflicts into saying that in like... 2022 or sth, something bad enough happened that humanity decided that the only solution was to come together - perhaps we came close to nuclear annihilation? Just writing about it as a small bit of backstory and making the Scary Potential a side note in history seems like it could be really reassuring. Thoughts? (2020 note: I wrote this in 2017 and all I have to say today is OOF)

With this cooperation between nations, corporations couldn't take advantage of cheap labor in developing countries any more, and there was more of a focus on education. That could account for the leaps and bounds in science in sixty years. But that lack of cheap labor meant that robotics was developed more and more, until automation became artificial intelligences. Omnics.

The game takes place in 2076 and the Crisis took place anywhere from 20 to 30 years before that. I'll say it didn't officially start until 2050, but for several years there were developing tensions and small-scale attacks. Historians disagree about the exact cause of the crisis.

It was in the best interest of the Omnica Corporation to not let on how intelligent and sentient Omnics were - with the new focus on human rights, it was only a matter of time before an omnic rights movement erupted.

But the information started to leak. Sometime in the late 2040s, people who worked closely with Omnics started to talk to other people, tell them about how they really were intelligent and person like. And if it came out that the corporation had been deliberately hiding that, things would be bad.

So they had to do damage control.

Meanwhile, the governments of nations that used to be world powers, that used to do as they pleased, aren't that pleased with the fact that they have a lot of eyes on them and they can't meddle the way they used to in the world.

So they get together, and they throw money at the problem, and they come up the the God Programs.

Scientists worked in cells, and when they were done, they often disappeared. There could be no evidence.

And then it didn't matter how intelligent Omnics were. They were the enemy, and everyone hated them. The top executives of the Omnica corporation knew they would be hated, so they had a backup plan. They disappeared. They had surgeries. Their money went somewhere else under a different name. And they resurfaced in areas very far from any of the fighting.

Here is the secret that the Omnics and Sombra help uncover: Omnics were not meant to evolve, to change, beyond basic learning. Originally, they couldn't modify themselves. They had to come to a licensed technician, who was human. Quality control. Planned obsolescence. What the God programs did was take that cap off, distribute a patch that meant that Omnics could fix themselves - but there was a worm in the code that allowed them to be taken over. And the information that would allow that to happen? Before the crisis, it was proprietary corporate information. That shit had the highest security levels in the modern world. Corporations are very protective of their secrets. So either they were infiltrated or the crisis was an inside job. Either way, it was orchestrated by humans.

There's an implication that no humans worked in the Omniums at all, that they were completely automated, and I'm just... Gonna ignore that because it boggles the mind. The people who worked there did have to wear constant radiation shielding because apparently if Omniums are destroyed they leak radiation (or is it that the Australian one was destroyed with a nuclear device? Can anyone help me find a straight answer on this because it makes no sense) but they did work there because automation and seeing things indirectly through cameras and things means the Omniums were networked, and if they were networked they were less secure. So people worked there.

The plan to make the god programs was started off by the fraud accusations and was what caused the executives to bail the fuck out. Several plastic surgery clinics got entirely new wings just before the omnic crisis and I think this should be a weird clue that someone - probably Sombra through her hacking or Symmetra through her knowledge of corporate ins and outs - digs up.

The God programs and the militarized omnics that were pumped out allowed omnics to modify themselves and to develop things like their own independent communication methods and languages. Omnic language is a combination of binary and different computer code languages. There are different regional "dialects" depending what code language was easiest for the omnics in the area to learn and adapt to when modifying their own programming. It's also most often encrypted with... Probably some method I'll have to do research on.

Oops well I think I just ran myself into a big fuckin' wall here, and that wall is Widowmaker. She is canonically brainwashed by Talon into an assassin, and I don't want to make her husband Awful Abusive Forever and erase what was done to her.

Maybe Widowmaker is the face of Talon's moral ambiguity - she was created by a now-defunct Mad Science branch because while her husband wasn't awful for her, he was in a key position, and killing him would destabilize the power structure, and because Talon as a group's motto is probably "the end justifies the means", they still use her. This is probably a major sticking point for any omnics that want to join Talon's cause, and I could use that to highlight how desperate people can get when they're facing someone who has massive power over them.

Actually, have a couple of crime and conspiracy fic tidbits related to that: when he first went on the run, Hanzo got a nasty infection because he was so used to biotics that he didn't glove up or properly sterilize his tools before treating his own wounds. After a ten day course of penicillin derivative and a bad stomach reaction to them, he learned. Conversely, Deadlock probably had one or two fairly low-power biotic emitters, probably military surplus, and use of them was a privilege if you were high-ranking or a reward if you'd done particularly well but got kind of fucked up in the meantime. McCree has one or two big scars on his torso, and they're pretty visible because he got them young, but they don't inhibit his movements because he got treatment for them during his Blackwatch days. Hanzo, on the other hand, has a nasty hypertrophic scar on his upper thigh from the infection he got, and it occasionally restricts his movements.

Snippets

The stomach virus one

They hadn't been directed to medbay after the debriefing. This new Overwatch hadn't exactly established much standard operating procedure - hard to when you were a bunch of vigilantes and more or less all wanted under international law - but it still struck Jesse wrong, whatever Winston said. He'd known Angela longer than he'd known anyone here but Genji. They didn't run in the same circles, but they'd both been recruited before they were really supposed to be, and that gave them a bit of camaraderie Jesse wasn't afraid to lean on. He left the Shimadas to their not quite good-natured bickering and headed for the office just off the infirmary.

Angela's face, when he opened the door, made him glad he'd stopped by. Even her legendary (and probably nanite-enhanced, given the direction of her research) youthful looks were flagging under some kind of strain. Her undereyes were dark and her mouth was drawn, which in a trauma surgeon used to work in the field meant she'd been working for days on four hours or less. Jesse didn't have to do much beyond waving the nice cigars he'd picked up in (location) at her before she was out of her chair and headed towards the nearest balcony with him, monitor clipped to the lapel of her white coat. They hadn't smoked together since the recall, but the old tradition they shared seemed to be as clear in her mind as it was in his.

He was quiet for a few moments, just passing her the lighter, until they'd both blown out slow mouthfuls of fragrant smoke. Then Angela sighed, and some of the tension slipped away from her shoulders as she stared off at the waves. "You probably shouldn't be even this close to me, Jesse."

Jesse laughed at her, a low quiet chuckle. Anything truly serious and Athena wouldn't have let him anywhere near medical. "And why's that?" he asked her, slowly pulling in the rich smoke and rolling it around his mouth.

"The whole base has come down with a nasty stomach virus," she told him. "I have most of them in cots, hooked up to IVs. It's horrible! A certain amount of bodily fluids is to be expected in this job, of course, but the cleaning drones simply can't keep up. It's as much as I can do to keep everyone hydrated and mostly clean. Comfortable is out of the question. It's very contagious, and I haven't done work like this since my residency! I'm not a generalist. I don't prescribe birth control or deal with routine ailments!" Her accent grew sharper as she spoke, and when she'd finished, she took a deep breath before taking her own smooth pull of cigar smoke.

Jesse winced. He was glad any lingering sour smell was covered up by their cigars. He'd take blood and guts over vomit any day. "The whole base?" he asked. No wonder the corridors had been so quiet.

Angela nodded emphatically. "Everyone present, except for Winston, of course. I'm simply thankful it isn't zoonotic."

Jesse whistled. The infirmary had to be filled to capacity. "And nothing you've given 'em makes the nausea any better? That does sound nasty."

Angela froze with her cigar halfway to her mouth, and then began to curse emphatically. (German curses here.) She pulled her bangs with her free hand. "I can't believe I've been so stupid! I never give patients an antiemetic, it's dangerous when they could have been drinking poisoned water, but that doesn't apply here! (More German curses.)" Eventually, she subsided and took a particularly vicious pull off of her cigar.

"Easy with that," Jesse told her. "That's the good stuff - don't waste it."

"Oh, I'm not wasting it, believe me," she told him. "It's keeping me from storming Winston's office and demanding he add a generalist to the staff. Doctors have specializations, and this one isn't mine!"

"I could talk to him, if you like," Jesse told her. His voice was even, though inside he was triumphant. He'd wanted a reason to bring Zenyatta on, and the universe had just dumped it in his lap. "Might even have someone in mind."

"Would you?" Angela asked him, staring wistfully at the half a cigar she had left. "It's only - I have to dose everyone now, and wait half an hour to see how they respond, and I haven't slept since - too long."

"Wouldn't mind a bit," Jesse told her. "You worry about clearing out the infirmary. I'll work on our fearless leader."

Angela looked, briefly, as if she was about to cry. Instead, she breathed in deeply and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, her expression had settled. "Thank you, Jesse," she told him, and smiled. The expression was no less lovely for being surrounded by signs of her exhaustion. "These really are quite nice," she added, puffing again on her cigar.

Jesse laughed. "You come find me whenever you need another one," he told her. They smoked the rest of their cigars in silence.

The twelve o'clock high one

76 - Morrison - sighed. There came the sounds of him pacing around the room, his ridiculous boots heavy against the grating. "Winston," he said finally, "you like movies. You ever watch any old war movies - from the 20th century, I mean?"

"Well, no," Winston said, sounding honestly puzzled. "Most of them are well over a century old. I didn't think they'd have much cultural relevance."

Morrison snorted. "Not much cultural relevance," he repeated. "Maybe not out in the world, but here in Overwatch - in any place you've got to take command and order people into the line of fire - they still matter. Put one on your list. Twelve O'Clock High. The original, from 1949, not the remake they made right after the crisis." His gruff voice didn't make it a suggestion. Still used to ordering people around, McCree guessed.

"I will, but why would you pull me aside just to say that?" Winston sounded baffled and slightly irritated.

Morrison sighed again, a heavy put-upon sound. "This would be easier if you'd seen the damn thing. Used to have all the command track recruits watch it." The pacing sounds started up again for several moments.

"It's a movie about leadership," Morrison said finally. "And about what happens when you get too close to the people under your command. It's bad for you and it's bad for the mission, and it gets people killed. You can't be their commander and their friend at the same time."

"I fail to see how any of this is your business," Winston said, voice firm and starting to get frosty. You tell 'em, bud, McCree thought.

"I watched this organization fall once because of its commanders," Morrison said. "I can't watch you make the same mistakes. I bowed too far to the UN, but Reyes was too close to his men. Some of them came in young, but they'd done things that made sure they would never be kids again. Reyes couldn't see that. They were all loyal to him in their own way, as much as they could be, but he thought it meant he owed them some loyalty too, and he couldn't do that and send them into danger like we had back then for special ops. They got into his head, made him too much like them, and he snapped."

Winston was saying something else, and McCree forced himself to pay attention to that instead of the rush of blood in his ears, his clenched hands, his pounding heart.

"I believe that will be all, 76," Winston said. The frost in his tone had thickened up into a full ice sheet. McCree took that as his cue to slink out before the super soldier sniffed out his hiding spot - literally, maybe.

Morrison thought his loyalty put Reyes in a bad spot? It sure had - but it was his lingering loyalty to Jack Morrison that had gotten him killed, McCree was sure. Morrison really was blind if he thought Reyes had been doing anything in Zurich besides trying to pull Morrison's blond ass out of there before it blew.

what I have of chapter one

Jesse McCree had disappeared. Oh, he surfaced every now and then in some attention-grabbing way, but it wasn't healthy for a man with a bounty as high as his to go around under his own name. He'd taken a handful of false identities with him when he'd left Blackwatch, and he did enough flashy stunts with his familiar getup from the bounty posters to keep anyone from digging deeper and finding them. Most people figured he spent the rest of his time lurking around all the lonely, uncivilized places of the Southwest, like he had before he joined up - it was closer to the twenty-second century than the twenty-first, but urban sprawl hadn't conquered all the emptiness of his home state yet. So he was very surprised to receive any communication addressed to Jesse McCree at all, much less on the secure comm he carried more for sentiment than practicalities these days. And yet there was still a quiet, persistent chirp indicating a message for him.

Jesse wasn't stupid, of course. He didn't open the message that day. He'd spent too much time in a covert ops unit to trust anything that could send an active signal. He let it stay in the hard-sided guitar case that held his weapons and anything else he didn't want connected to the soft-spoken insurance adjuster who rented his Albuquerque apartment. Instead, he used his legitimate phone to reserve Chris Stevenson a campsite at a national park and rent a car for the weekend. No one had yet managed to bring enough signal towers out there that phones worked, and the campers liked it that way. Chris liked it too - it gave him a good excuse for not being available if his boss called with a last minute assignment, he told the park ranger.

Jesse, on the other hand, wasn't much for camping - he'd spent more than enough time out under the stars, first in Deadlock and then in Blackwatch, and his back wasn't as young as it used to be. But needs must - the signal could be a trap, or it could be someone from the old days needing his help. You could say a lot of bad things about Jesse McCree - most did, these days. But he knew what he owed Reyes and Blackwatch both, and he paid back his debts.

The canyon he'd chosen had several isolated hiking trails, and he set off for one just after dawn the day after he'd arrived. The other tents, few as they were, were quiet. He still waited until he'd reached the peak of his chosen trail, where he could see anyone coming, before he played the message.

Of all the faces he'd expected to project in front of him, Winston's wasn't among them. He was too recognizable, and Jesse stifled the urge to curse. The audio was routed through the wireless headset he'd brought, of course, but five years on, Winston's face still screamed Overwatch to anyone who cared to see. A talking gorilla was hard to forget. Still, Jesse let the message finish - it was very early - and dropped the comm into a pocket of the backpack he'd brought with him. Then he sat down right where he was.

Anyone passing by might have thought he'd be watching the sunrise, but he'd seen too many from the wrong end when he was with Deadlock to be stunned by nature's beauty any more. Chris was watching the sunrise, of course - a natural early riser, he saw sunrises from as many places as he could get away with. But Jesse McCree just happened to be staring at the horizon while he contemplated his options.

He didn't doubt the comm had sent some sort of locational ping out, so he'd need to burn Chris no matter what he decided. A pity - he'd liked being somewhere familiar, a place where he knew the lay of the land, how to find the best restaurant in a little highway town, which outcroppings kept you out of view of the satellites passing by, which streets nice people avoided at night. Couldn't be helped, though. Most of the Southwest was dangerous for him now. He couldn’t be sure someone hadn’t piggybacked whatever ping Winston’s call had sent out. He was inclined to curse his luck, hop a train, and move out - somewhere east, maybe - except. There was something he owed, and a debt to a ghost didn't make it any less real. He didn't have anything in common with the old Overwatch staff he guessed that idealistic message had been aimed at, but they had resources and records. Maybe he could use them to track down what really happened to Reyes.

Jesse’d been halfway to disappearing on a deep-cover mission - all they did in Blackwatch those days - when the news about Zurich broke. He could smell bullshit on a cover story from a mile away, and this one reeked. Reyes wasn’t jealous of Morrison - that asshole had to deal with the paperwork and politics while Reyes got to intervene in the real hot spots. If he’d been in Zurich, it was out of a sense of loyalty to his old army buddy. That loyalty had gotten him killed, and no one in Overwatch seemed interested in doing anything but slandering him after the fact.

Just because they didn't do much of an investigation didn't mean that they didn't still have records up in Gibraltar, though. The Watchpoints had all been networked at one point. Athena had had limits put on her when the Petras Act passed, but Winston had made her devious, under all the fussing. She had to be if she was going to fight Overwatch’s enemies. McCree's access had been stripped when the UN had recalled Blackwatch’s authorization, but that meant jack shit if Athena decided he needed to know something. And he knew how to ingratiate himself with her.

It’d mean the end of his relatively peaceful existence, but hell, he'd already known he'd have to get rid of Chris and go on the run. Might as well run a little farther than usual. He could check out the lay of the land, see who all was there and what they were up to. It wouldn't be fun - he was Reyes’ man to the bone, still, and none of the proper Overwatch agents would understand that - but this was the closest he'd come to being able to pay back the man who'd changed his life in years. He couldn't let it slip through his fingertips.

International travel was, according to those who could remember, a bit more difficult to manage now than it was before the Crisis. The United States especially had buckled down on the jingoism, blaming most of Europe for letting the Omnica Corporation run wild. It wasn't as bad as it has been in the 20s, of course, but if Overwatch hadn't provided the encryption on his passport themselves, McCree would have found himself paying a pretty penny for a good fake. As it was, he wasn't exactly flush with cash right now, so he was glad Chris’s papers were still good.

Chris Stevenson, despite his whitebread name, had family in Spain: a sister who'd recently taken ill. So he - and Jesse McCree, under his skin - was flying to Madrid. Teleporters were still new and expensive, and Chris couldn't afford one. The days of the ancient, cramped airliners were long over, though. Chris had a ticket on an overnight flight, with his own little cot and plastic privacy wall and two credits to use in the onboard cafeteria.

The flight attendant directed them all through the ship’s amenities, pointing out the cafeteria and the bathrooms as well as the small rec area, on the way to direct them all to their berths. They had to go through the first class lounge first thing, of course - probably to make them all regret they hadn’t coughed up enough to spend half the trip on leather furniture drinking premium cocktails. Jesse couldn’t care less about it. He planned to eat, sleep, and then eat on this trip; airline food wasn’t that great, but he’d eaten plenty of bad shit in his life, and he’d need the rest and the calories to find the best ways to ditch Chris’s identity and make his way across the border into Gibraltar.

The berths were more private than the ones on most of the Overwatch transports he’d been on in his time, but that wasn’t saying much; military didn’t think anything of communal bunkrooms for everyone but officers, and Overwatch had always been true to its military roots. The ship wasn’t ritzy enough to have sound cancelling tech in any cabin but first class, so he could hear the contained but emphatic ruckus happening two berths over. Politeness would have dictated Chris did his best to ignore it, but Jesse had always been an incurable snoop, and years of covert ops hadn’t exactly curbed that. He tucked his bags under the plastic frame of his ship’s cot and leaned against the thin barrier under the guise of working his boots off.

“I don’t see why we’re kept out of the lounge,” a voice Jesse pegged as belonging to someone around Reinhardt’s age said crossly. “We paid our fare just like everyone else!”

“I’m afraid the lounge is for first class passengers only,” said their flight attendant, in the calming tones universal to customer service employees who weren’t allowed to tell customers to fuck off but who really wished they could. “However, if you would like to upgrade -”

“Don’t you upgrade me!” the older voice said again. “I went on these transports when they were first made, twenty years ago, and they didn’t have any sort of restrictions! This is just - it’s a cash grab, is what it is, by unscrupulous -”

“Pop! He can’t do anything about that. I’m sure it’s corporate policy,” interrupted a younger voice, audibly embarrassed. “I’m so sorry about this.”

“It’s quite all right - I understand change is difficult. Can I offer you -”

“We’re not interested in little placating gifts, like drink tickets, you corporate shill!” the older voice yelled again.

Jesse felt a twinge of sympathy for the flight attendant having to deal with all that, but he felt it was safe to tune out at that point. His boots - sturdy hiking boots, not the attention-getting cowboy boots of his wanted poster getup, good for grip on all sorts of surfaces - were unlaced and under the bunk and they weren’t quite underway, so he decided he’d be hitting the cafeteria early. And maybe he’d shell out for a drink for the old man’s traveling companion, he thought, shuffling quietly past the squabble. He was sure the flight attendant couldn’t drink on duty, or else he’d send him one first.

It was a ten-hour flight, and mission discipline should have sent him right to sleep for seven of them after his mediocre cafeteria meal. But he hadn’t had anyone hanging over his shoulder to enforce that discipline in five years, and sleep didn’t come easy. After an hour of trying to force himself into something deeper than a doze, he gave up and summoned the flight attendant for a drink. Jesse would have preferred to work out his troubles in a gym or at the range, but the transport had neither, and this was a good enough substitute to quiet the buzzing of his brain enough for a few hours’ rest.

He just couldn’t work it out, was the thing. Why had Winston called him, of all people, back? It didn’t fit with the do-gooder message he’d sent out. Jesse didn’t recall running with him much on the very few occasions he’d been sent to liaise with the main Overwatch forces, so it wasn’t out of some misplaced nostalgia. Winston’d been close with Tracer, though, and she’d seen him in action enough to know that he didn’t hold with tugging on heartstrings as a way to run things. None of Blackwatch had. Why did Winston bother sending the message out to them at all?

Jesse doubted many of the Blackwatch members - those still out of jail after the Petras Act stripped them of their pardons, anyway - would be at Gibraltar when he showed, with a message like that. Maybe Genji would. He’d been pretty tight with Reyes. Not as tight as Jesse, but the man needed some guidance on letting anger fuel you instead of rule you when he first joined up, and Reyes had that in spades. Jesse hoped he’d be there, or else he’d be running a covert mission in enemy territory solo, with no extraction plan and no end point. He could do it, but it’d be tricky. He hadn’t used anything more than basic infiltration skills in years, since his neighbors rarely required the effort. Overwatch was all trained operatives, though, and he’d be kept on his toes even with reliable backup.

Wasn’t worth borrowing trouble about, though. Jesse had more immediate concerns, like the best way to ditch Chris without raising too many suspicions, and how long he’d have to wait in Madrid before Peacekeeper made her own way across the Atlantic. And before all that, he needed to sleep. He knocked back the last swallow of his liquor and laid down, determined to get a little rest while he was secure.

It turned out that Peacekeeper wouldn’t be in Madrid after all. His smuggler contact had left him a coded message that told him to meet her for dinner in Malaga. Jesse’d had to hustle to get to the train, but he’d made it - and he was riding on the inside this time. Europe had more satellite cameras fixed on it than the deserts of the US did, and there was no reason to draw the attention of their flagging algorithms. Besides, the wireless connection inside the train was better.

One of Overwatch’s support staff had cooked up a program that disengaged an identity from public records gradually, in case anyone needed to use them again or the activity was being monitored. Jesse wasn’t supposed to have it still, but it’d been useful enough he transferred it from phone to phone. Over the next couple of weeks, Chris’s landlord and acquaintances would receive messages that his sister was sicker than he thought and he’d need to stay in Spain to manage her affairs. His bank account would make purchases to back that up. And with no close friends in the area, he’d quietly disappear unless Jesse needed him again. The program needed a stable connection to work, though, so it could learn from the communications he’d sent as Chris. The connection on the train was nicely anonymous, so it couldn’t be traced back to him.

Twenty minutes out from Malaga, Jesse took his bag into the bathroom. Instead of Chris’s baggy sweatshirt and wind pants, he put on tight jeans and a flannel button-up and pulled out a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. When he came out, he begged a hair tie off of a woman on the train, waggling his prosthetic fingers in explanation (they did get tangled in his hair if he wasn’t careful). When he was done, he looked like a tourist of a different type - a hipster American with a backpack and a guitar. The two days of stubble on his face made most natives peg him for an aging graduate student and give him a wide berth.

Carla, his contact, had left him a note at the Malaga information desk, and he followed her instructions to a worn-down bar that had probably been popular before the Crisis. It was looking a little worse for wear, though, and even before sundown had plenty of quiet, dark corners. Jesse spotted her iron-gray braid at a corner table and sat down, though not before getting a glass of wine at the bar.

“Auntie,” he said in Spanish as he settled in. He was sure Carla had heard his boots and spotted him well before he’d reached her table, but no use not being polite to someone who had your prize possession. “I hope you’ve been taking good care of my girl.”

Carla looked up at him and rolled her eyes. “Don’t I always?” she said in her crisp Iberian accent.

“You do, but the way you left Madrid, I’d almost think you wanted to keep her,” Jesse said, smiling in a way that didn’t hide the watchful glint in his eye.

Carla shook her head, but Jesse noticed she didn’t outright deny it. “Madrid gets so crowded this time of year,” she said. “It’s a little quieter here.”

“La Linea is even more peaceful, I hear,” Jesse said, leaning back as he sipped his wine. “That’s where I want to take her next.”

“Ah, going to take her to see the Rock?” Carla asked. “It’s quite the sight.”

“I am,” Jesse told her. “In fact, you could call it the reason we even came to Spain. There’s a little problem, though.”

“Oh?” Carla asked. “Nothing to spoil your holiday, I hope.”

Jesse put the fingers of his flesh hand to his mouth and then put it back on the table, like a man fighting the urge to bite his nails. “I hope not either. See, I want to cross the border, but I don’t have all her papers - her mother, you know how she is. But I really want her to be able to see the sights. Are the guards there understanding?” Meaning, of course, could they be bribed.

Carla shifted in her chair and leaned in on one elbow. “Most of them are family men and women, not career military the way it was a few years ago,” she said, meaning mob. “They should be able to work something out with you - they understand how it is for men in your position. After all, it’s not like there’s anything really dangerous she could get into these days.”

“That’s true,” Jesse agreed. “And I’ll keep a close eye on her, of course.” Meaning that he’d make sure Peacekeeper didn’t cause any trouble that brought too much attention to their operations.

Carla nodded. “I might just know a young man down there who could help you,” she said. “I’ll send him a message once I see you both get on the bus, and he’ll look out for you both.”

“I appreciate it,” Jesse told her, with an expression of relief. Carla’s reputation would make it a lot easier to get past the border guards while he was carrying. “How much did she cost you? I know how my girl can eat.”

“No, no,” Carla said, waving her hands in a way that was all show. “She was a pleasure. It wasn’t any trouble.”

“I insist,” Jesse said firmly. “Let me pay for the train tickets, at least. You couldn’t have been expecting Madrid to be so busy.”

“Well, that’s true,” Carla said. “But I’d watch your girl for you any time, you know that.”

“I do,” Jesse agreed. “Now, c’mon, tell me how much the tickets were, and I’ll pay you back.”

Carla named a sum with a show of reluctance, and Jesse added it to the already agreed-upon price before transferring it to her account. If she’d had to leave Madrid in such a hurry, it was probably because the law was getting too close for comfort, and Jesse was sure she’d had to bribe her way out. It was just good business to pay her back for that, and he’d been trusting Carla with Peacekeeper for a long time. His burner phone beeped, and after a moment, so did hers. She nodded, satisfied, and pushed away from the table.

“Come, let’s go get your girl,” she said. “I’m sure you missed her. She’s waiting at the bus station.”

Carla had been as good as her word. Even with Peacekeeper sewn into the lining of a laptop bag, Jesse hadn’t had any trouble getting past the border into Gibraltar, and even if she wasn’t at his hip, he felt better holding her steadying weight. He’d transferred all his belongings into a hiking backpack when he’d gotten there, and only as he started up the Rock did he send the signal from the communicator that would tell Athena and Winston he was on his way - and exactly how close he was. There were plenty of hidden protections that he was sure were still active on the base, and he’d need the signal to get in.

It only took a few moments to connect, and Winston’s voice was cautious as he answered. “McCree?”

“In the flesh,” Jesse answered. “Know I didn’t call ahead, but I was hopin’ my invitation still stood.”

[sc-theclockworker]

Space AU: Day 1 of CherikWeek2020!

this is a short idea/scribble! I might expand this into a full fic tho! it was really fun to write!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an ordinary Tuesday night, Charles was sitting on his balcony, sipping on his cup of earl grey.

And Erik landed his spaceship right on top of the building that was right across Charles’ apartment.

“What the……” The teacup shattered after Charles had smashed it too hard on his glass side table. He rubbed his eyes and checked just to be sure.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” Charles started panicking, he knew exactly who sent spaceship and why.

Sharon Xavier, his mother, the overlord of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, or NGC 6543. This was a hopeless attention grab from her to let her son come back home.

Charles was not surprise that she found him so quickly, after all, this planet was only a little more than three thousand light years away from the nebula. It would’ve only taken 2 earth days to get here if Charles didn’t get rid off all the previous guards that were sent to take him home.

He didn’t want to come home, not when that snake that his mother married to and their useless son were at home. The only thing those two want was the energy harvesting business that Sharon inherited from her father and the territory of the Cat’s Eye Nebula that his dead dad, Brian Xavier, had left for Charles.

But if his mother chose to use brutal force to kidnap him, then he would have no defence against that. Charles was desperate at that time, after one solar cycle of cat-and-mouse with his mother, his supplies were running out. So, he packed all his belongings, including an outdated laser gun with only 100 voltage left, roughly two shots if he timed them right, and went closer to the spaceship.

People were shouting on the street for this horrendous tragedy, it was time for this low-grade planet to get enlightened to achieve a stage jump, from planetary to stellar.

Being the kind mess that he was, Charles erased memories of the people who saw the explosion, and revived the atomic structures of the people who were blasted to quark stage by the interstellar jump that the spaceship did to get here. He then used his telepathic ability to chase those people off of the scene of arrival.

His ability was the reason why he was running away from his mother. Sharon never took him seriously started from the day that he discovered this ability. He was a disgrace amongst the sixth-dimension beings for being able to communicate with the thirdies in the universe. But what they didn’t know was that he could also manipulate beings at his dimension, or even higher, that’s how he got all the guards chasing him to return to mother star. And if Sharon only value her son when he was good for inheritance, then he rather stick with the third dimension beings.

Charles held his laser gun cautiously, ready to paralysis anyone who appeared before him. Then he heard metal crashing, and an impulsive memory had invaded his head space.

‘5-18-9-11, you have caused an interspatial riot between the third dimension and the fourth dimension and you are charged with the genocides of the third dimension planet AHG-54 and NJH-45, and you are find guilty for all of charges, and will be send to the galactic prison for 190 solar cycles.’

‘They deserve to die! And you too!’

That was a deep, almost growling voice, like it was delivered from the back of one’s throat. The face of the person who said those sentences were blurred intentionally by somebody who was better at memory manipulation than him.

Then the setting turned to pure white, and the memory stopped.

When Charles finally recovered from that mental invasion, a tall silhouette casted in front of him.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here.”

Exactly like the voice from the memory.

[damienthepious]

... i bullied the lizzer on his Kiss Day..... i am terribly sorry D:

Serpent On A Bed Of Leaves

[ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla, The Keep

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Established Relationship, Nightmares, Blood, non-graphic injury, Hurt/Comfort, (tho... the one physically hurt... is the one comforting)

Summary: Arum has a nightmare. Somehow, waking from it proves to be even more distressing.

Notes: *shrugs loudly and pushes this fic out of my head and onto y'all instead* i don't even know. i'm sorry i keep bullying my baby lizzer. please enjoy regardless? Title from the song Wild Roses by Of Monsters and Men.

~

There is blood on Arum’s knives. Blood on his claws, too, hot and wet and dark, dripping between his fingers and down his wrists, sticky and slick and running in rivulets between his scales all the way down his arms to drip from his elbows.

The blood is not his own; he knows that without needing to think. He is whole. Unharmed. The blood belongs to-

He knows who the blood belongs to.

There is a pressure on his chest. Breathing feels sluggish and strange, as does any attempt to move.

He can taste blood between his teeth, too. Metallic and wrong. He should spit, or retch, but he doesn’t.

Arum does not want to look down. He knows. He knows, if he looks down. He knows what he will see. Knows deep in his bones the terrible thing he has done, knows and does not want to see-

He does not want to look. His head angles down, as if his eyes are magnetized, as if gravity is weighing on the tip of his snout and pushing it inevitably towards the ground. He does not want to look, but his eyes fall regardless.

Their eyes look somewhere past him, glassy and dull. Their chests remain obstinately still. He cannot hear their hearts. And the blood- enough blood to pool around his feet, so much, too much, the smell like a butchery in high summer and the matching red-black on his arms is going tacky and stiff and he wants to run or howl or fight but his legs are stiff and immobile, his fingers will not release the knives in his hands.

He killed them.

(-hunting Damien through the night, through vines and branches, stalking and taunting and then dropping, knives drawn-)

He killed them.

(-snarls and she recoils, gasping, panting, wide-eyed and blind in the dark, and with teeth bared he laughs darkly at her fear-)

Arum killed them, tore them apart with claws and knives and teeth, because he is a monster, and this is what monsters do to humans, even when those humans love him. Even when he loves them in return. It is not enough, it was never going to be enough-

Arum’s love was never going to be enough to protect them.

Hands on his shoulder. On his face.

He snarls, whirling, bloody claws raised in defense now, in anguish and fury, and he realizes halfway through the motion that he is-

He is waking up, and he recognizes too late where he is and he can’t stop his momentum. His claws connect, scraping two fresh red lines across Damien’s palm, and the sight of his blood hits Arum like ice.

He can’t breathe at all, for a moment, and Damien makes a small surprised noise as he cups his hand against his chest, his eyes wide as they rise to meet Arum’s own.

“I-” Arum’s voice is too rough, more snarl than word, and he needs to try a second time. “I- h-honeysuckle-”

Damien’s brow furrows in confusion as he squeezes his palm in his other hand, and Amaryllis is rolling over, waking more slowly, and Arum remembers the cold blankness of their eyes in his dream, and with the scent of fresh blood on the air Arum feels dizzy, feels like there is a hand squeezing his windpipe completely closed, and as Amaryllis blinks and mutters confusion, Arum scrambles backwards out of the bed entirely, and bolts from the room.

Damien calls after him. That makes him feel even more sick.

The Keep gives him half a greeting before it notices his distress, and when he gives a choked off request the Keep opens a door to a dark, quiet room among its roots, somewhere he can hide in close, cool darkness, where he can plunge his hand into one of the underground streams the Keep feeds from, where he can wash the blood from his claws and shake, and shake, and shake.

The Keep grows him a patch of large pale leaves of something like lamb’s ear, but Arum can’t stand them, can’t stand the softness, and he crouches in the corner instead. By the stream, where he can wash his hands again. No redness remains, but the memory- he washes his claws again, again, just to be sure, watching the water pass by, clear and somehow unmarred by his touch.

A portal opens at his back, and the humans step out.

A snarl rumbles up in Arum’s throat because how dare the Keep bring them here- but that isn’t fair, is it? He’s told it to honor Damien and Amaryllis’ requests, and if they are here now, they must have asked. They must have wanted to be brought to where Arum hid.

He’s surprised, mostly, that they would bother to come bid him farewell before they leave him. That’s what they must be here for, he thinks dizzily. Damien must want last words. It’s always about words, with him.

Arum stuffs down the revulsion he feels with himself, stuffs down his guilt, and stands, though his shoulders are hunched and he cannot stop his tail from lashing anxiously behind him. They deserve to rebuke him when he isn’t cowering in some hole like the miserable creature he is, they deserve for him to look them in the eye when they tell him-

Damien’s injury is already bandaged. The new white stripe around his hand looks unspeakably clean down here, among roots and dirt and mud. His expression, though, isn’t what Arum expects. Neither of them are. Amaryllis looks concerned, tired, wary, but not furious as he expected, and Damien does not look disgusted or betrayed or filled with that cool fury Arum saw in him beneath the Terminus. He looks worried, looks- scared, perhaps.

And why wouldn’t he be? Arum thinks, his throat going tight and unbreathable again. He is with a monster, a monster who he knows now will hurt him. Fear is a rather natural response to danger, and you have proven yourself dangerous to them.

Arum steps back, slowly, until his back hits a dirt wall and there is no further room to put between himself and the humans, and he waits. He does not trust himself to speak first.

There is a long, unwieldy sort of pause, and then Damien’s scared expression cracks open and he speaks.

“Are you alright?”

Arum blinks, clenches his jaw together, narrows his eyes in confusion.

“Arum.” Damien’s body sways towards him, but he doesn’t take a step. He raises his hands between them, reaching, like he’s trying to coax a skittish horse. “Please, are you alright? My lily, you’re frightening me-”

“Am-” Arum’s voice rattles almost too much to be understood, his distress too wild to coalesce to reason. “Am I alright? Ho- Sir Damien, I- why- what could that possibly matter?”

“Wh- what does that matter?” Damien looks astonished. “Of course it matters, love, you were caught in the throes of some terrible dream and then when you awoke-”

“When I awoke I tore your hand open,” Arum says roughly. “I hurt you and I- whatever state I am in is of no concern whatsoever.”

“Of course it is,” Damien says, brow furrowing.

“He doesn’t look hurt,” Amaryllis chimes from behind Damien, her hand gentle at his elbow.

“Of course I’m n- how would I even have-? And- and it doesn’t matter regardless, because-”

“Because you cut Damien by accident and now you think you deserve some hurt of your own?” Amaryllis snorts a laugh. “C’mon, Arum, I understand that you feel bad about this but of course Damien and I are worried about you. We love you.”

Like a blow to the gut. “I hurt him,” Arum whispers. “I could have hurt him much more direly. Could have hurt either of you.”

“Arum, you’re so afraid of hurting us that you look like you’re trying to join the local root structure to avoid it,” Amaryllis says wryly, crossing her arms over her chest. “I love you. I’m not afraid of you. I stopped being afraid of you the first hour I knew you.”

Another time, Arum would probably scowl about that. Right now, he’s too focused on his breathing, focused on digging his claws safely in the dirt behind him to have room to feel insulted.

“You won’t hurt us,” Damien says. “It was an accident. I shouldn’t have tried to wake you like that, I-” he laughs - laughs - and gives an embarrassed sort of smile. “I forgot about your claws, somehow. I was too worried about pulling you from whatever dream was distressing you so, and I forgot to mind your sharper edges.”

Arum winces, feeling as if all of his edges are too sharp, in fact. “No excuse for harming you, Sir Damien. You have every right to- to leave, and-”

“Leave? Whoever said a word about leaving?”

Arum pauses, then chokes out, “I hurt you. I clawed you open, Sir Damien, you have every right- every right to remove yourself from a monster who would harm you.”

“A monster who would…” Damien’s voice goes warbling and high, and then he laughs again in a confused, slightly breathless way. “Oh, love, you would never hurt me on purpose. Never. You are always so terribly careful with us-”

“And yet,” Arum snarls, “here we are, and regardless of intent I have injured you, and- and I could have done much worse if I had struck somewhere other than your hand. I could have sliced your wrist, I could have slit your throat, I could have-”

“Arum, you didn’t.” Damien takes a half-step towards him and Arum tenses.

“I’m getting the feeling that this is about more than just Damien’s hand,” Amaryllis says. “Seriously, that was barely a scratch. Something else is going on.”

Arum’s eyes flick away, look anywhere else in the room besides at the herbalist.

Damien steps closer, though, and Arum can’t help the way he flinches. “D-don’t, Sir Damien. I- just leave and-”

“I am not going to leave you,” Damien says, quiet and firm, and Arum feels a strange mingled swelling of relief and disbelief as the knight steps slowly closer. “Please, Arum. This is hardly the worst of trials we have endured. A sleepless night, the mildest of injury, a bit of worry… darling, we have endured worse by far.”

“S-stop,” Arum says, shaking his head and digging his claws more firmly into the roots behind him, burying them in gnarled wood. “I don’t- I don’t want to-”

Damien pauses, only a foot or so away now. “You won’t hurt me,” he says, voice so soft that it might as well be spiderweb. He takes the last step forward, and Arum stiffens with his back to the wall, clenches his teeth together and closes his eyes, and then he feels Damien’s familiar hands cup his face, his thumbs stroking Arum’s cheeks with unwavering gentleness, and Arum’s breath hitches, a helpless noise escaping him before he can stop it. “You won’t hurt me,” Damien says again, even softer. “Oh, my precious lily, I know you would never.”

“Sir Damien-”

“I’m not angry,” Damien says. “I’m not frightened. I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.” He leans up, Arum can feel him shift even with his eyes still closed, and he brushes his lips over Arum’s mouth, just gentle.

“Damien-”

“You need not stop yourself from calling me honeysuckle, my lily,” Damien says, and Arum blinks his eyes back open with an embarrassed wince, only to find Damien looking up at him with soft, indulgent, adoring eyes. “You know I love to hear such sweetness from you.”

“I- I-” Arum crumples, tucking his face into the crook of Damien’s neck, wrapping his arms around him while still keeping his claws carefully, carefully away. “I am s-so sorry, honeysuckle, I cannot begin to say-”

“It was an accident,” Damien says again. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. And the best physician in the land has declared the injury inconsequential, and I can assure you I trust her judgment implicitly.”

Arum chokes a laugh, clinging stiffly to the poet. “Still. Still. You should be safe with me, and yet-”

“We are,” Amaryllis says, coming closer. “Never safer. Just like you’re safe with us. We protect each other and take care of each other, Arum.” She steps behind Damien, and she places her hand over Arum’s, warm and gentle. “Which is why you should tell us what else is wrong, because we’ve known you long enough to know that panicking like that really isn’t like you.”

“I… I know,” Arum says, and Damien’s fingers are sketching soothing circles and patterns down the scales of his back. “I know. I- I was- I was- hurting you, honeysuckle, it- it terrified me.”

“An accident, Arum,” Rilla says softly. “I mean, with my habit of waking up elbows swinging, I’m way more guilty of inflicting nighttime injury than either of you-”

“I dreamed I killed you,” Arum rasps, only barely keeping himself from pulling away from Damien as the horror rushes back through him. “Killed you both. Dreamed you dead, dead by my hand, and then woke to live it in faded echo and I-”

“Oh Arum,” Damien breathes, squeezing him tighter in his arms. “I’m so sorry, love. Is this- is that a nightmare you have often?”

“N… no,” Arum sighs. “Dreams are a rare occurrence altogether for me, and nightmares are rarer still.”

“That’s quite a relief,” Damien says with a smile, leaning back so he can catch Arum’s eye, so he can cup his face in his hands again. “It is a cruelty to be tormented by your own mind, and I cannot stand the thought of you suffering so, my lily. You would never hurt us. Clearly so, as the very idea caused you to flee from us rather than leave us in what you perceived as danger. Your sleeping mind presented you with something it knew you feared, which is all the more proof that you want us to be safe, want us hale and whole.”

Damien leans up, kisses him again, and Arum sighs in soft delight, and then Damien’s hands and Amaryllis’s hands are both easing him away from the wall, pressing him snugly between their small, warm bodies.

“Honestly, Arum, thinking we’d just leave-”

Arum growls, nuzzling his snout into Amaryllis’ ear. “Wasn’t thinking clearly, obviously. Should have kept in mind your ridiculous stubbornness.”

“We love you, dear lily,” Damien trills, and Arum’s swallows against the way that makes his heart leap. “It is not stubbornness. It is devotion, and our devotion shall not wane with a mishap so easily mended as this.”

Arum shudders out another sigh. “It still- concerns me,” he admits. “I could still hurt either of you. And- and every moment you are with me is a danger, as well. Another way that my presence in your lives could put you to harm. Aligning yourself with a monster, if anyone were to discover-”

“We all knew the risks when we decided to try this,” Amaryllis says evenly, “and you’re in just as much danger on your side if anything got out. But being together is worth a little risk, Arum.” She smiles, and then she taps the tip of his nose to make him wrinkle his snout. “Being with you is worth a lot. Isn’t it?”

Arum’s breath escapes him in a rush, and he stares down at his two radiant humans, at Amaryllis’ sly, comforting smirk, at Damien’s shy and hopeful smile, and his body thrums with a love so sharp it feels like it could kill him. He clutches them tighter, and his voice goes rough and rattling when he answers, “Worth anything. How- how dear you are to me… the privilege of loving you is worth anything in the world.”

And Arum will do his best to deserve that privilege. Because they are worth anything, worth care and caution, worth protecting. Arum may still be scared- scared of hurting them, scared of being responsible for their harm, but Arum also knows how to turn his claws towards protection, knows how to transmute his fears into defenses. Arum is dangerous; this is true, but he will use his sharpness to keep them safe.

He loves them too much to do anything else.

[the-goddess-of-change]

Strange occurrences (requested)

its the first day back to school and Ben, Claire and Tim is walking home after a boring first day of school as the summer sun is still brightly shining down at them scorching the sidewalk and them Ben look over at Claire and sighs ''that can't be real...you're probably just sleep deprived because its hot as hell...'' Claire pouts and looks over at him ''No! i promise, i saw some strange lights in the sky! it was real!'' She nods seriously as their other friend Tim laughs with them as they walk home from school on this hot august day ''So you saw some bright lights in the sky and just assumed it was an UFO? it could have been a plane or something'' Claire pouts ''yeah but it didnt look like one and it looked like it was standing still...but i dont know...i'm not saying it was an ufo i'm just saying it was crazy'' Ben nods ''maybe it was an ufo, that would be kinda cool tho'' Tim nods ''Yeah, wonder what they would have looked like...'' They all nod and agree as they start imagining what they would have looked like ''But it was probably just something else'' Claire nods seriously Ben wipes some sweat from his forehead and looks up at the sky Ben then sighs and takes a sip from his bottle of soda ''Damn it's hot...i cant like...focus and i'm all tired from waking up early and going to school again...'' Tim and Claire agrees with him as they keep on chatting about their day and telling stories of the summer vacation they had ''so like...you were home the whole summer Ben?'' Ben nods at her ''Yeah...my mom was sick then my sister got sick and when they got better they just stayed at home since mom bought a pool so...i guess that was good enough'' Claire looks over at him ''but i thought...Tina was kinda rich isnt she ?'' Ben just shrugs ''she has money but like...i dont know what she spends it on, other than food and stuff, she does buy expensive outfits a lot but...she dont really travel much'' 'oh yeah...speaking of outfits...'' Tim chimes in ''Who you gonna invite for the winter ball Claire?'' Ben blushes gently as he hear Tim asking about it so nonchalantly Claire just shrugs '' i am not sure yet...and its in like 5 months...im not stressing about it right now'' ''Fair enough ''Tim says and looks over at Ben ''You going to ask her out Ben ? dont you got a crush on Claire?'' Ben looks over at him blushing but looking angry ''i dont have a crush on Claire...'' Tim just laughs ''no of course not, im sorry'' he grins as Claire is giggling ''Maybe ill ask ben or he will ask me, who knows, its still summer and why are we talking about this now?'' ''just messing with Ben'' Tim laughs as Ben reaches his home ''Ah that went fast, take care guys'' Ben says goodbye to them and find his sister Catherine dripping water in the kitchen getting some soda ''oh, hey little bro, how was school?'' Ben shrugs ''went fine...you swimming in the pool again?'' Catherine nods and smiles ''Yeah me and mom are chilling in the pool since its so hot and all'' Ben nods slowly and head out to the pool where he finds tina chilling on a lounge chair with a glass of cold white wine ''Hey dear how are you ?'' ''I'm good thanks mom'' Ben looks over at her ''inst that a bit early?'' Tina just laughs gently and sips her wine ''Not really, its a nice summer day and i still got my vacation so i'm all good, buuuuuuutttt, did you ask Claire out for the winter ball ?'' ''What the hell....no..why ? its august...'' ''oh ? well you should, time pass and suddenly she might get asked out by someone else'' Tina giggles as Catherine walks out ''Maybe its the outfit that's the issue, remember the time you bought him a prom dress ?'' Tina giggles and nods ''Yeah, that was fun, to bad you didnt wear it'' they both giggle as Ben sighs ''....you...why would i ever wear it ? and you even bought it in XS that's to small even for you!'' Tina pouts ''i could probably fit in it'' Ben just sighs and heads back inside and goes and get some food from the kitchen, luckily they had made some food that was still warm so Ben eats some food as Tina and Catherine walks inside ''Hey dear, our pool isnt cold enough so we are going to the beach together can you stay home and make sure nothing happens ?'' Ben sighs ''Nothing is gonna happen, cant you just say you want me to stay home ?'' ''You want to stay home ? Great! See you soon then'' they both smile and head out as Ben is left alone in the house as usual ''they always go out together and make fun of me...but screw them! ill ask out Claire tomorrow and prove it to them im not some coward!'' Ben keeps on eating his food as he imagines himself and Claire at the winter prom together The fake snow on the ground...the slow romantic music being played...them holding hands, Claire in her beautiful prom dress and Ben in his awesome suit looking amazing ''Yeah...'' Ben smiles gently to himself as he imagine them dancing to a song that ends with them embracing a kiss together as the song ends, they look into each other eyes and finally their lips touch making the whole dance magical...a winter miracle Ben smiles to himself still closing his eyes as some of the food on the fork falls down on his lap waking him up from his daydream ''oh..damn...'' Ben sighs Ben finishes up his food and puts the tray away in the washer and heads upstairs But high above him, further than he can see a strange looking portal opens up ''Universal jump complete!, successfully arrived at destination!'' a strange robotic voice is heard inside the strange capsule that slowly exits from the portal, inside the capsule the robotic AI keeps on talking ''planet confirmed to be earth, now scanning for Host'' a screen inside the ship lights up as it scans the people of earth til it lands on Ben ''Host found, Begin mission'' The capsule flies towards earth and its destination as the ones inside looks on at the screen and drives the capsule looking aircraft towards its destination After a refreshing shower i grab a towel and start drying myself with it and walk over to my room to find some clothes, i look in my underwear and pick up some boxers as i turn to the mirror and notice something behind me, i quickly turn around and looks at it, it looks like some kinda drone...but not like any i've seen before, i freak out and throw the towel at it ''Dammit! stop doing shit like that!'' i yell at it thinking its the neighbors fooling around again since i know he has a drone but...it looks much more...detailed and different than last time i saw it, i keep looking at it still feeling freaked out as its just flying there in mid-air i slowly walk over and look at it and gently poke it as i feel the metal again my skin i walk over to the window to look if someone is messing with me but i cant see anyone which...makes sense considering if it was some prank why would they just stand on the outside, i walk back and look at the drone and notice that it doesn't seem to have a camera at all for some strange reason it then lights up slowly and look at me as i close the curtains ''Target found: scanned target is identified as Ben, race, human, skin: Caucasian'' ''What the...'' i stand there looking at it in a gentle state of shock ''how does it know my name ? and target ?'' ''Releasing life form for current how'' it says in the same robotic tone as it opens up and inside the drone some weird looking slime is pulsating inside it, its wriggling and jiggling inside the drone looking almost lifelike or...like the symbiote parasite from the spiderman universe i take a gentle closer look at it as i'm taken back as it jumps out of the drone and lands on my hand in an instant i freak out and wiggle my arms trying to get it of but it sticks to my arm like well...slime, i then try to use my other arm to push it but as i do the slime grabs onto my other arm as well leaving both my arms and hands stuck inside the slimey substance and i can feel it crawling up my skin ''What the hell is this!'' i scream shocked and afraid as i keep waving my arms trying to get it off me ''Get off me! get off me!!!'' i yell to no avail as it keeps on creeping up ''this is insane, what is this thing!'' i wiggle my arms even more as some of the slime does fall of but slowly just creeps onto my legs instead ''What the hell is this thing!'' i scream loudly as i keep trying to get it of me the slime on my legs starts to slowly creep up my legs and covering my stomach as the one on my arms does the same thing, slowly covering my entire body from the neck down to my feet i try to move but for some reason i can barely move my feet, its like the slime is restricting my movements as well making it hard to walk my arms feels the same as i can barely hold them out as i just lose the feeling in my arms and they just hang down as i feel the slime pulsating around me ''i cant move...someone! help!'' i yell out but no one hears my call for help the drone then starts ''speaking'' again in the same robotic voice ''Target is requesting explanation of situation, contacting headquarters for permission....waiting....waiting...waiting'' ''Headquarters ? what is going on...'' i say feeling pretty weak it goes on like that for a bit til it stops repeating the same words and says something else ''Affirmative, can respond, Target named Ben is covered in the living substance slowly entering the pores in his human body rewriting the DNA and body structure of host'' ''What ? altering my body ?`what ? who sent you! '' i manage to say as i look at it ''The artificial slime is created in a lab by us to rewrite human DNA and body structure once in contact with host, it wont release its grip til alteration is complete'' ''Yeah...i heard that but...'' ''Human host is asking questions which makes no sense based on the situation, repeating what was just told'' it repeats what it just said again ''Who sent you!'' i yell out at it ''Information about that is classified'' ''Well fine! but if i change i demand to know i cant just move on without knowing that!'' ''Error, Error, when host takes over it will control the current body, you will have nothing to say former host based on previous experience will be a passenger in the new body yet still capable of feeling the same human emotions the new form will experience'' ''What ?'' i say feeling taken back by that answer feeling a sense of dread coursing trough my body as my eyes widen ''you...you cant do this...i have a life...i am...you can't!'' ''irrelevant! irrelevant, proceeding to next phase in 10 seconds...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2....1...transformation starting now'' i stare in horror at the drone as my right arm lifts up by itself and the slime is slowly creeping into my body, slowly changing my arm as it does, my skin turns a gentle brown color it also grows longer, a gold bracelet forms around my wrist and my fingernails turns longer and a coat of red nail polish is slowly applied to my fingers but to my horror i can now feel my arm again, it feels lighter and smoother for some reason as i try to move my right hand it feels like its moving on its own but its not over yet as the same happens to my left arm, slowly changing as well and growing longer to fit the size of the right arm, they look pretty much the same except the bracelet on this arm is pink instead i look at my arms as they are moving around outside of my control and fixing on the bracelet as i notice they are...much darker in skin tone than my own white skin ''W-Wait ? are you turning me into...a woman ? a black woman ?'' ''Affirmative, that is the current command of the slime's procedure yes, Current end goal is a female human'' Before i could react the slime that was covering my legs seeped into my skin changing my skin tone, growing longer and smoother going up to my thighs as i can feel them getting more wider in the leg area, as my feet starts moving on their own, one leg rises up as a coat of red nail polish is slowly applied to an a pair of gold high heels slowly forms around them, it then puts the foot back down and lifts up the other as the same happens to that with the nail polish and the shoes it then put the other foot down as i stand there in high heels, i can feel it around my feet but...it feels strange, although i can feel my arms and legs i cant move them... yet i struggle to keep my balance for a second but the slime keeps my balance fine it's a strange sensation i can't really describe as i look down at my legs  with horror, the slime is still covering my stomach up to my neck as well... the slime slowly seeps into my skin around my waist and lower regions as i can feel my waist slimming in on itself and my stomach getting flatter as i struggle a bit to breathe as it happens ''Current status is 45% complete, will keep on reporting'' the drone says as i look over at it and can feel something strange inside me i struggle to breathe as i feel something between my legs, first i can feel an intense pain in my lower stomach like someone just hit me in the nether regions for a bit til i feel my manhood slowly shrinking and going into my body, i feel a slight tingle and i feel a gentle sense of dizziness then nothing....it fades away almost as soon as it hit me then i feel it, my whole body is tingling and i feel a gentle warmth inside me as i can feel something between my legs, a wet..feeling and some panties forming down there i start to freak out as i know whats going on, my manhood is gone replaced with...the womanhood of this body....the feeling of the panties against my skin but as i try to react i can just feel more happening across my body...my butt grows bigger and rounder making it plump and nice i try to force myself to move my arms but nothing works as the slime on my shoulders seeps into my skin reshaping my shoulders to match my current bodily form and arms lastly the last slime on my body seeps into the skin around my chest, it feels like i was punched in the chest as i can feel some sort of pain i want to move my arms and push down on the afflicted area but i cant move my arms...i look down as i see my chest starting to balloon out growing bigger and rounder...a pair of breasts slowly being formed on my chest ''Current target has changed 100% from the neck down'' the robot says as i'm to busy looking down at them i keep on looking down as something strange happens, some fabric slowly spreads across my breasts forming a colorful floral looking bra and the rest of my body a similarly colored shaped dress spreads across my body the dress seems to fit my body pretty good and the bra seems to help with holding my breasts in place....who'd have guessed but the soft fabric feels nice against my skin i try to force myself to move to no avail since my body moves on its own and turns to look at the mirror looking back at me i see that from the neck down i am a total woman...nothing of my former male body is left... it then start to pose in front of the mirror as if to mock me for some reason... ''Target fully female from the neck down for now, moving onto facial reconfiguration soon, Sending commands to the slime life form, Free will, personality changes, its own memories and emotions and skills, so we are sending signals so it will be given free will based on what is transmitted'' ''.......Transmission received, giving commands and personalia to host'' ''Name: Laura'' ''Age: 26'' ''Date of birth: 15/6/1992'' ''Race: Native Hawaiian'' ''Occupation: Manicurist'' ''Hobbies: Fashion, Beauty, fitness, exercise, Traveling, Swimming'' ''Likes: Friends, social gatherings, drinks, warm weather, more will be added as life form goes on'' ''Dislikes: mean people, sodas, humidity, rain, more will be added as life form goes on'' ''But wait no no no...i...i have a life...dreams...ambitions...i was going to ask my crush out even! you can't do this to me!!!'' ''Irrelevant'' the drone says Them drone floats above my head as i struggle to move my body as usual and drops something some of the slime on my head as it slowly seeps down my face and neck i struggle to breath as i can feel it covering my mouth and nose and my neck starts to feel tight ''I...what...stop it! Someone help!!'' i manage to yell out as some of the slime drips down my throat ''Noooooooooo!!!!'' i yell All i can see trough my eyes are the weird colored slime blocking my sight as something weird happens, it feels like my face is becoming smoother and smoother, i start to lose my vision as if my eyes are disappearing and so is my mouth, nose and ears even my hair... i see nothing...i hear nothing...i want to scream...but i have no mouth...nothing... Ben falls into a state of unconsciousness as his face now just resembles a blob with no features as the slime slowly seeps into the pores trough his skin In this state of unconsciousness the effect of the slime is slowly doing its work on Ben's face Starting with the neck is slowly removes Ben's Adam's apple as it shrinks more and more and fades away Ben's face slowly starts to morph into something resembling a human face as the eyes return back so does the ears, mouth, nose, mouth and such, his eyes the slowly start to grow into resembling something befitting of a human face, a human female face if we shall be specific here Ben's hair turns long and black with some gentle curves to them as they roll down below his bra Ben blinks a few times as he something snaps inside him as the head starts to move unwillingly and turns to look at the Reflection in the mirror yet again the face is fully feminine with even make-up having been applied to it by the slime those dark brown eyes perfectly fitting the rest of his newly formed appearance ''This looks much better than i would have expected'' The voice says admiring her looks in the mirror ''i would go so far as to say it looks...Divine'' it giggles to itself   I try so speak or say something but nothing comes out, i feel a sense of dread and shock as my whole body is now moving without me controlling it rather someone else...but i can feel what she is feeling and she is feeling...happiness... this...person is controlling me... The person or...Laura as i guess her name is poses in front of the mirror making kissing faces and doing twirls as she looks around the room ''Transformation 100% complete, current host has fully taken over previous owners body'' I wanted to scream something to the drone but nothing came out... ''Thank you, i assume you will take care of the rest from here yeah ?'' Laura says looking at the drone ''This cant be happening! why wont my voice come out! what is even going on! i still dont understand!'' i scream as loud as i can but no one hears me... ''As for the final act, i will organize your memories and send you to a place more suited for you but you will not remember being created'' the drone says ''i will probably forget all about you, inside me but...dont worry, you will experience everything i feel, see, and do'' she winks at her reflection the mirror at...herself but more likely...me ''We are going to have so much fun together!'' Laura squeals as the drone flies towards her and starts blinking some lights faster and faster our vision goes black and once again i feel nothing, it is as if i am drifting trough an endless void of nothing... i dont know what's going on...i will be sent away...trapped in this...strange room, i feel afraid...shocked and unsure about my future even or if i even have one now i will be trapped here forever...or...til she...dies and what happens then...and i feel what...she feels...will i feel her happiness ? it felt like i did before...will i feel her other emotions ? her sadness ?...and...her love ? urges...taste what she eats...what...i didnt want to think about it I finally see something...light...my eyes open up and my body stretches as it wakes up in a large bed I yawn and gently sit up in my bed and look around, it looks like a pretty standard bedroom, a bed, windows...a laptop on a desk and a drawer full of clothes my legs move on their own as i gently get out of the bed and stretches, it walks over to the window and as i look outside i see clear blue skies, palm tress and large open sand beaches the window is open so a gentle breeze flows inside as my hair gently sways ''Looks like another beautiful day!'' the voice says as she goes to the bathroom and fixes up her hair, weirdly i am still wearing the outfit and the make-up on my face looks...intact Laura smiles to herself in the mirror and keeps on brushing her hair after she is done she start to  wash her hands as she walks out of the bathroom and into her kitchen and grabs some milk and some breakfast and starts to eat i hate milk...but as she lifts up and it goes down my throat...it feels weird...i hate it but...it tastes okay for some reason.. even her food tastes good... Laura finishes her food and puts them in the dishwasher and takes another sip of the milk and heads over to the door She grabs a white purse and looks inside, inside the purse there is some lipstick...a wallet, some condoms and some other miscellaneous items ''Condoms ? what...'' i say to myself as she grabs the door handle and steps outside into the warm summer weather ''im..trapped here forever...aren't i ? how am i ever going to survive all this i have no choice but to find out i guess''

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

“i had a dream about the Borderlands are Yours trailer last night for like the 7th time so i guess i ought to do the analysis before i have a breakdown”

find the trailer here

~discussion of the cloth map spoilers occurs in here, but nothing else. if you’re worried about those spoilers do not read~

non-spoiler tl;dr: we discuss why rhys’s head implant is yellow instead of blue in this one particular scene and also go thru a bunch of theories as to what tf is up with Zer0. and some other stuff about giant space lasers

so the intro is pretty much the same as the we are mayhem trailer so we’re gonna ignore that since we figured out where sanc-iii was

pretty sure this scene has been shown already too, in the official announce trailer, i remember taking note of the pink shots

another cov camp on pandora (see elpis in the back). ive said it before and ill say it again i adore amara’s as animations

seen this a bajillion times as well

from we are mayhem near the end. also im still lowkey convinced that robot directly to the right of moze is jakobs. i know i’m probably wrong but... i want to believe. it reminds me of a cowboy

The Are. this is directly below Sanc-III (u can see the wall in the background)

eden-6!!! im interested in the signs in the back there

Prison, Reliance, Jakobs Estate, and... amoe kyuri??? wtf does this say?? idek.

This A Way (glad to know Claptrap will haunt us from beyond Sanc-III)

im interested in the Prison. i wonder if that’s any of those concrete structures/buildings we’ve been seeing across eden-6. i was under the assumption those were like testing facilities, but a prison would also make a whole hell of a lot of sense.

actually

given this sign here over the bridge to the left of the above shot

and the fact we see this concrete structure on the far left in this coming shot

that might actually make some lick of sense...

also can i just say i love the aesthetic of this supply line

so there’s a lot of shots here we’ve already seen and gone over multiple times, im not going to do that again. sorry but... eh.

maliwan = cultists confirmed

i mean if the cult-themed t-shirts being maliwan colored didn’t already cue us in on that, this definitely should lol

and speaking of this shot, i wonder if this has anything to do with Rhys’s building? the one his office would be in. it looks like there are multiple levels to the right of this robo

ah maliwan working with the cult why am i not surprised

rhys gets fucking annihilated (TM)

in all honesty... given this quest name

“Space-Laser Tag” and the subsequent quest “Atlas, At Last” makes me honestly think rhys is about to seriously get fucked up

which sucks. i like rhys. we’ll talk more about this in a second, but i don’t think its coincidence the VHs have come up to the asteroid belt to stop the giant space laser and thus are not on Promethea where the laser is going to hit

better look at this shot, that definitely looks like a rampager to me. i get it, i think. gearbox is hyping up this rampager fight to be super awesome, show it in all the promotional material, have a kickass fight with it, then the twins come in and steal the kill from you. they steal the satisfaction from getting to kill this super hyped-up vault monster.

im picking up what you’re putting down, GB. 

did not realize fl4k actually snaps. how the heck do they do that?? gotta be hard with metal caps as their fingers tbh

404 space station not found

we’re back on the asteroid

... why this gun shoot tentacles :|

this is art

wheres his head going

i was so distracted by the razor blade status effect (??? zeroes??) i didn’t notice the giant-ass A on this banner

OwO what’s this for

~A~

also this which... looks like it could be an amara skill. maybe the one that releases elemental projectiles after an enemy is damaged? feel like we would’ve seen that one already tho.

thinking of this one, im pretty sure we should’ve seen this in one of the many, many gameplay videos (im so jealous) already available.

so if it is, baller, if it’s not, im not too surprised.

it does also seem to be targeting the double cause its shield becomes visible after being hit

i thiiink this is eden-6? in which case it may be that facility tina, brick, and mordy are in (the windows). which may, in retrospect, be that prison we’ve been hearing about

cool angle of the HBC. im pretty sure we’ve seen this shot before, too.

before we get to the actual best part of this scene

this looks very Athenas-like. possibly eridian? although the lights are throwing me off. i suppose the order or someone from the order could’ve built these structures... but what for??

heheheh

also this fucker has those rocks growing out of his head, too

the ones from the alien guns

somewhere outside the RC

back at it again in the space station

also this maliwan thing looks so fucking cool

duuuude looks like the cult got their hands on more than just maliwan hoverwheels, check out that dropship on the left!!! looking cool asf

the cars are STUNNING

holy shit this skin is amazing

very siren-esque

we’ve gone over this clip already but given now that we know the maliwan base thing is on the asteroid, it’s fitting to re-address it i think

a look at one of the metal bois (that im still convinced are jakobs lol)

i love the way this thing looks

the portal seems to be giving off the same blue sparkles we’ve seen on pandora

these

[edit] we also see them in the newest new trailer as Sanc-III zooms off into space. which is interesting.

dunno wtf that means, but yeah. they exist

probably some weird eridian/other dimension shit.

more eden-6

goliath looking amazing. not red and is wearing a helmet, so that’s interesting

looks like a part of the space station

biggggg hallway. im honestly loving how huge these maps seem to be

geniviv! i love her boss fight sooo fucking much.

honestly looks like so much fun

more c a r s

this fucker

probably eridian

i mean it seems to be absorbing the pink-ish energy from the moving stones so i assume its got some sort of link going on

also comparing the mask and arm bit to what we’ve seen rhys hand us on promethea

this thing???

but yellow instead of pink

u kno all this

ye

then again it does sorta ruin the eridian tech so maybe... it’s not lol

honestly my other guess is this is part of that ‘experimental forest’ we’ve seen signs for during the eden-6 demo. dunno why it’s destroying the eridian ruins tho. maybe those pink b e a m s are hurting it? entirely possible. some sorta... life succ ability like Tyreen.

but i don’t think it’s coincidence this thing has shown up right on top of some Eridian ruins/buildings/whatever. the leftmost part though looks like it could be human technology, which is weird. maybe some weird sort of mish mash. human tech that trees/plants grew onto and eridian ruins accidentally powered up. iunno man. im tiored.

rhys’s implant is glowing orange/yellow-ish which is very new

this is from the dev trailer (not glowing at all in the darkness)

from the promethea twitter trailer

and honestly that’s pretty wild to me because in tftbl rhys’s implant glows blue 

shown when he’s in the vault next to fiona

in bl3 during the We Are Mayhem trailer while using his ECHO eye

oh also since i just noticed

from the promethea demo

this scene

also from the promethea demo

they’re missing their monomolecular edge!

we’ll get back to zer0 in a secco

anyway you know who else’s head implant glows?

im not saying katagawa is replacing rhys because their implants are on opposite sides of their heads, but i am saying Katagawa WANTS Rhys in Maliwan and... well, Rhys’s forehead implant isn’t glowing yellow in any other shot we see of him

idk gamers i just think its sus

also rhys is holding onto that thing we see him handing to us in the Promethea trailer

this thing?? you know?

the eridian thingie majig

tho these look like two different areas... unless there’s like a very drastic wall change between angles (which there may be- these fans look identical)

which makes sense that Maliwan would want it (for the big laser thing maybe?? since we know they’re going for activating said laser)

... but honestly i get the feeling this is in some way related to... after the laser. especially since we know that that eridian thingie matches up with this one on pandora

in which case... wtf is the laser for? it definitely looks like its destroying stuff on the surface...

rhys also seems to have knowledge about the eden-6 vault key since he projects it during the dev trailer

me thinks someone got h a c k e r o n i e d

alright galaxy brain theory time:

rhys gets hacked by maliwan not only bc they want a merger, but also because he has info on the vaults/giant space laser, forces zer0 to be maliwan branded now since atlas is joining maliwan, zer0 finds out rhys is not willingly joining maliwan and is instead under maliwan control and tries to forcibly take the key away from him, we stop zer0 and save rhys from both the assassin and maliwan control

🤷‍♂️

Alright but in all seriousness there’s only 2 ways this can go

1. that’s actually our zer0

2. that’s actually not our zer0

and there’s a lot of theories running around about that and i guess we ought to address them

so for 1 there’s a few possibilities:

1. zer0 is a robo/cyborg and got hacked by maliwan (i personally don’t like this one bc i don’t want to know what zer0 actually is. it is a ~m y s t e r y~)

2. zer0 got paid more money to eliminate rhys and is doing so

3. zer0 decided killing their boss would be the ultimate challenge and thus decided to try it out... by joining maliwan

4. they’re faking rhys’s death and/or zer0 is infiltrating maliwan

5. zer0 got the brainwashed/their bodysuit got hacked (i would be interested to see if the monomolecular edge tech caused them to get captured or smth. i mean if there’s a tracker on it, then zer0′s decepti0n wouldn’t exactly work cuz they turn invisible... but they’d still be seen)

6. rhys got the brainwashed/hacked and zer0 is attacking him to get the eridian thingie/key/relic/whatever back

personally i’m curious how they’d play off 1-3 given Zer0 and Rhys are both shown on sanc-iii and zer0 even has crew challenges

im saying idk if the crimson raiders would appreciate zer0 attacking/trying to kill an ally without very good reason.

which is why i’d imagine 4-6 are the more reasonable answers?

also given the explosion of Promethea (what we’re assuming is Promethea) is green and also the laser we see maliwan controlling is purple, i wonder if that’s some brainwashing juice instead of... other stuff. cuz like.

this is elpis’s giant space laser. very radiant and like... ribbon-y? and has all that blue stuff and orbs and mm.

THIS is Promethea’s very solid and has circles and just. looks straight up like a death laser.

and yeah again it could be modified by that human-looking (?) tech around it to be like a brainwashing b e a m or something

or just more precise. that too.

and honestly idk if this could destroy a planet like how we see the planet (that we are assuming is promethea bc of the asteroid belt) in the sanc-iii article

it’s a solid ‘yeah that’s more likely than my theory’. might take a lot of time tho. or maybe those energy rings power it up or deal more damage when they hit the planet...

oh also given Tina literally says “WE blowing up this whole mother humpa”

and the reason im questioning the human-looking tech around it is because

typhon and leda 100% noticed something here. i guess if it was altered by humans after typhon and leda found it then that would make sense?

we’ve also got this from the tree guy, so i don’t know for certain.

anyway number 2

(2. that’s actually not our zer0)

i love these ones

1. that’s 0ne (zer0′s assassin’s assassin from the son of crawmerax dlc)

2. maliwan made a/hired a copy of zer0 and it’s easy to copy their voice/way of speech bc of the modulator (that’s just a fake implanted into atlas to steal all their secrets)

and all of these have the idea that the real zer0 shows up to save rhys at the end of this scene (explaining the blue light)

this

i personally disagree on that being zer0′s sword. tbh it looks more like a maliwan weapon or a laser or smth to me. that said it could be a weird effect because they’re in decepti0n or smth.

most of these theories have the idea that the real zer0 is either off with Fiona or Lorelei or just off on their own and only show up later. i wouldn’t even be surprised, given their line at the end of Tales. you know the one where they diss rhys like “i was talking to her” lol

so i don’t really have much to add to these. personally i believe that’s our zer0 up there, but i wouldn’t be shocked if something happened with the monomolecular edge that allowed maliwan to create a copy of zer0. or brainwash/control them. whichever. 

i do like the reintegration of 0ne into the story, that’d be a hilarious call-back, but i worry it’d be too obscure (a side quest in a headhunter dlc) for the majority of players. we’ll see

it’s weird if brainwashing or mind controlling thru the maliwan tech is the case bc the monomolecular edge isn’t present on their maliwan sword. or their future sanc-iii sword (but that part DOES make sense bc why would they keep that).

(alright also so i just took a bunch of nyquil cuz im sick as a dog so if this devolves into incoherent rambling im so sorry)

ah aurelia

i love her to bits but i don’t trust her because i mean... she worked alongside Nisha and Wilhelm and Alistair dislikes her. there’s like a 50-50 shot she’ll become evil

i would not be surprised if this is a boss fight (door looks frozen over on the left there) but also i would not be surprised if she’s helping us fight off waves of enemies given it looks like we’re in the jakobs manor

like i said 50-50

her attack does make the camera wiggle a bit, usually that happens if the attack injures the player viewing it (with the hud off) cuz it will give a stagger effect

so take that with a grain of salt. also we don’t see aurelia on sanc-iii when hammerlock and wainwright are both there in the group shot in the launch trailer

this fucker i already talked about a bunch in my reddit post on the eridium subject so im going to link that here. i might have already spoken about it on here tbh... i can’t remember lol

anyway here’s the copy and paste from there to here

you can see a huge Tink with Eridium growing out of his head and what look to be Eridium horns. And he's being elementally charged from an Eridian floor tile (in one of those temples, probably the Pandoran one but it could be Athenas, I guess). Kind of like how Bloodwing (also bigger) becomes elementally charged by Jack using element-throwers to change her element. i know it's a cultist tink because on his right shoulder (our left) he has those glow-y pink/purple tubes that are on the CoV guns and other cultists (like goliaths). and while i'm not sure if this is solely Eridian stuff (since they're in a temple) or because of the twins, it's definitely something that should be talked about. 

wait no yeah i did talk about this because of the athenas post. i just remembered lol

uhhh whoops. double dipping i guess lol sorry

still not sure if this is Pandora or Athenas. kind leaning towards Pandora atm

i like how this guy is able to make a cryo wall thing

he goes to smash it but we don’t get to see what happens cuz it cuts to another rampager

dishing out corrosive/radiation (??) attacks while someone shoots it with a fire weapon

this bamf which i KNOW i discussed in that athenas post

also something i haven’t noted is that his roar seems to be activating something here, like a spiral light of dooooom. also more blue sparkles. maybe summoning an assist? or a debuff/attack aoe. 

there is also this weird light near its legs that moves with the camera and sorta reminds me of the weird real-life face talky siren thing. you know the one

very curious as to what this is cause i haven’t seen it in any other scene with a rampager in it. maybe some sort of connection to the spiral/whirlwind thing it’s making?

oh wow im tired now lol

well bl3 is fully downloaded on my computer gamers, so we can officially say it’s happening!!!

[nostalgicidiot]

I was tagged by @ifishouldvanish to share 9 albums I’ve been listening to lately 🥰. Thanks a lot! The Spell by Cellar Darling | They are a Swiss progressive/folk metal band who relased their second album this year and I was enamored immediately after falling in love with their first one last year. It’s a concept album and I simply love the narrative (a girl falling in love with death) and how it is structured/implemented. I love its complexity and apparent contradictions: soft parts followed by heavier ones, the use of classical and folk elements, and I’m just a huge fan of Anna’s voice and could listen to her all the time. My absolute favorite piece would probably be Fall, (which I had to put on my Ineffable Husbands playlist ofc), which stands out because it is much shorter than the rest of the songs and uses a very different style, sounding almost ethereal…and I’m so in love with it. The entire album is an interesting and beautiful piece of art imo. It was described as a dark fairy tale by critics and that’s exactly what it sounds like.

The Sticks by Mother Mother | Mother Mother are what the kids call a mood (they probably don’t use that term anymore but oh well). Mostly upbeat music with much darker and sometimes very funny, sarcastic lyrics? If I were a song, I’d probably be one by Mother Mother. I love this album because it’s one of my go-tos when I want some nice background music for working on things. And I mean that in the best way possible: it’s really motivational without being too distracting, if that makes sense? It’s such a nice indie rock album which perfectly captures the notion of wanting to retreat into a remote forest and stay there for a couple of months? (While you don’t do that, ofc, and instead choose to pretend-smile through it all.) Also, Dread in My Heart will probably be my personal theme song for forever. (Little Pistol is my favorite. Closely followed by Infinitesimal. It’s such a good album tho.)

Echoes by Pink Floyd | Oh boy, where do I start this with this one? Pink Floyd is one of my all-time favorite bands. Never stood a chance, because the same is true for my parents. So what’s better than to listen to one of their best of albums which contains all the gems? I half-jokingly stated that I want The Great Gig In The Sky to play when I’m on my deathbed, because it stirrs something in me I cannot describe and I legit cry every time I listen to it. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is an experience in itself, Wish You Were Here is a classic ofc (and I use it on nearly every fanmix, whoops), Time throws me right into a midlife crisis and I will forever be soft for Nobody Home (which isn’t on there but deserves an honorary mention). Electra Heart by Marina and the Diamonds | I’ve been a fan of Marina ever since I heard Hollywood for the first time. Well, it’s been more of a gradual process of hearing this song for the first time, thinking “nice” and then forgetting about her until Electra Heart hit the market and found its way into my CD collection. I always gravitate back to Marina at some point, her lyrics are on point, I love her voice, and she expresses this peculiar and particular feeling of temporarily lostness so well? I love all of her albums, but Electra Heart has a special place in my heart, because it was the one that made me fall in love with her (and I’m very glad I did). Black Holes & Revelations by Muse | It’s the sound of my youth. Seriously, I take a trip down memory lane whenever one of their songs comes on. While I don’t listen to them as often as I used to, I still love them a lot and admire their artistry, they are so versatile and never fail to deliver (psychadelic songs and sad ballads on the same album? I love). It’s hard to pick a favorite album, I mostly chose this one to listen to because I was in the mood for it. Masseduction by St. Vincent | She’s been around for some time and I’ve mainly dismissed her music until last year. It’s not that I disliked it, it just wasn’t something I actively tried to get into? Then spotify started to put a few of her songs on my mixes of the week and the rest is history (I was a fool because her music is right up my alley and I should have known). I had Los Ageless on repeat for weeks (the piano version is beautiful as well, with a completely different vibe) and Smoking Section, Happy Birthday Johnny, and New York suffered the same fate. I can’t list them all but I’ve really enjoyed this album. (On a different one, but All My Stars Aligned? Such a beautiful, beautiful song) The Silent Force by Within Temptation | So I’m seeing them live next year (still cannot believe it) and this has sparked a renewed interest in their music. It was never gone, but I need to be in a certain mood to listen to their songs. With Muse I was talking about memory lane, when it comes to Within Temptation it’s more like an express highway. So many memories connected to their music, especially to this album - man that was a wild time (more like metaphorically speaking, it was a pretty dark period in my life, actually). Still, most memories are good ones because they were the first (symphonic) metal band I ever listened to and that opened whole new doors for me. Even after almost 15 years (boy do I feel old), this album has lost nothing of its magic and I love coming back to it. No Need To Argue by The Cranberries | I recently binged Derry Girls and it definitely made an impact in more than one way. Been a fan of the Cranberries for a good chunk of my life and this album is one of my favorites. Like ever. It’s crazy how much memories are connected to music, right? The Virgin Suicides (OST) by Air | First things first, that movie…kinda traumatized me. Is it smart to listen to its soundtrack then? Probably not. I’m not known for smart decisions, so it should not come as a surprise that I do so regardless. Especially because I think it’s a great album. Playground Love is such a good song and the rest of the others do not disappoint either. It has a very weird vibe to it (which perfectly matches the movie), but sometimes that’s what I’m in the mood for. But nothing will ever beat Le Voyage de Pénélope” for me when it comes to Air. I’m gonna tag @mightynott @bogsnails @queenology @aziraphae @regalpotato @thesongandthesunset and everyone else who reads this and wants to do this!

[girlbookwrm]

i can’t believe i’m doing this

@jhscdood​ listen i got No Time to write the fics for this right now, but have some Fellowship of the Pod People (but not like that) Headcanons.

@ all of the rest of you, please for Eru’s sake help yourselves: literally nothing would make me happier than to have someone else write this shit so i could read it like the lazy asshole i am.

None of this will make a DAMN LICK OF SENSE if you aren’t familiar with the Not Your Mama’s ABO Clownfish AU that @silentwalrus1​ created with @skellerbvvt​ and @galwednesday​ in the Magnificently Weird MCU Stucky Gem Scents & Sensibility 

shit this got hella long don’t look at me but please all feel free to correct/expand/modify because I just whipped these off to decompress after a long day

The Númenóreans are responsible for all that “reef” “pod” and assorted “fishy” terminology, so while “pod” “reef” etc may be the accepted academic names, they’re often replaced with local variants and colloquialisms. The Númenóreans picked this linguistic quirk up from the sea-obsessed Noldor elves, so it’s sometimes used in Rivendell and Lothlorien too.

(The Sindar elves fucking hate that)

(Sindar use bee euphemisms instead. It’s all “hives” and “skeps” etc etc etc. Try to tell me Thranduil isn’t a Queen Bee. I FUCKIN DARE U. The wine is all honey mead. Hex honeycomb aesthetic for the win. Even the dungeons.)

(FYI Dwarves ALSO have a Hexagonal Aesthetic and that just Really Gets Thranduil’s Goat.)

everyone’s got their own local names for alphas and omegas too because seriously who fucking came up with that, i bet there’s a whole appendix at the end of the red book about terminology and shit

(Now I’m having meta thoughts about linguistics and there being a clownfish!Tolkien to go with the clownfish!Middle Earth. And now I’m thinking about the Inklings being a pod and if i follow THAT rabbit hole any further I’ll fu cki ng  AS C E N DHJKfghjk.)

Anyway

Men smell gross. Everyone else is agreed upon this. Unflattering comparisons to badgers and weasels have been made.

This makes “MANFLESH” 12000% more hilarious ur welcome

it’s funny cuz Men are big into perfumes. Incense! Herb Sachets! Oils and tinctures! Have you ever seen a olde tyme perfumers’ box? That kinda shit. Everyone has their Signature Smell.

but elves especially are like you still smell like man stop trying to hide it.

The Dúnedain embrace The Musk. (some have fully weaponized it)

this is very important: Aragorn Smells Amazing. (to be clear, still very Man Smelling, but awesome. first time he goes all I AM UR KING everyone in the throne room goes a little glassy eyed.)

Minas Tirith, being old, is very Old Numenorean Oceanic Aesthetic. Give me all that white stone carved to look like coral and driftwood holy shit YES. 

WHITE! TREE!! GARDEN!!! 

ATHELAS!!!! SCENTED!!!!! EVERYTHING!!!!!! (pairs well with lemon and other citrus smells.)

veering away from Gondor now

The Rohirrim stick with horse metaphors because of course they fucking do. Also, since they’re more nomadic, the entire concept of a “reef” as in a physical structure is kind of ??????? to them. So. “Reefs” = “herds” and “pods” = “bands.” 

Fresh Hay is considered to be Peak Homely Smell in Edoras. Tapestries! Only The Softest and Nicest and Most Beautifully Tooled leather! leather smells!

OH SHIT GIVE ME ALPHA-FOR-LIFE-EOWYN MEETING FOREVER!OMEGA FARAMIR *HEAVY BREATHING*

(oh shit while we’re in the neighborhood, Dúnedain Rangers tend to be solitary As, which spooks the natives like whoa, but the Ithilien Rangers are generally O, and their waterfall hideout is totes a big ole reef.)

hang on i forgot about elves

Listen, I’m not super into elves myself but I’m imagining that they are perpetually switching back and forth between A and O depending on the day — nay, the HOUR — and the extremes between A and O are much less extreme for them than other races.

Every other race finds this super weird and disturbing.

Legolas is like “hm this forest is making me feel very O.” And Aragorn and Gimli are just like ‘what’ and then suddenly Leggy smells very O too and Aragorn and Gimli are like ‘WHAT’

Feänor is the exception. He turned the dial all the way to A and broke the goddamn knob off.

Galadriel can go from Maximum Softe O to Roid Rage A in .0004 seconds. “iiiinstead of a dark lord yyYYOU WOULD HAVE A QUEEEEEEN!!!1!” and the Hobbits are literally bowled over.

Elves in general smell woody but also very ocean-y i think? Have you ever stood in a pine forest by the ocean, where you get those light, clean wood and cedar and pine smells all shot through with sea breeze? Like That.

But elves are more into visual/audio. Soft singing. Leaves moving in the breeze. The whisper of pages in a library. 

and the light. Elves are lighting wizards, they are all about that gentle starglow.

(I’m also having thoughts about the Lothlorien Elves embracing that A-ish urge to be Up High. A holdover from Galadriel’s time with the feanoreans? I'm not as up on silm lore as I should be)

but let’s get back to my happy place: 

THE MUTHAFUCKIN SHIIIIIIIIRE

Hobbits really embrace dat sweet sweet O lifestyle. good food and warm hearths. throw blankets and pillows. hugging and cuddle puddles and playing footsie. gardens. Gardens. G A R D E N S. 

“Going A” is done as rarely as possible. the transition takes about a month and Hobbits who are “going A” tend to call in sick like it’s some unsightly thing. 

Tooks have an unusually high rate of going A. Of course they do.

Bilbo has never gone A. Not! Once!

Neither has Frodo.

Sam did, after the breaking of the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin did, in Fangorn, when they grew six inches. The three of them all stayed A after that, for the most part. YES EVEN SAMWISE. it was v scandalous.

Hobbit “reefs” are called “warrens” (unless ur rich, then they’re Smials and they’re Only For Family) and their “pods” are “nests.” “Nesting” is a whole Thing.

Hobbits! Smell! Like! Baked! Goods! Not sweet but like… warm. Humans sometimes turn their noses up and call it a “yeasty” or “beery” smell but it’s usually much more a rising-bread smell. Pipeweed smoke and sweet florals make a nice contrast to the perpetual bakery window smell.

Hobbits are very mouth/taste/chew oriented. Mouthfeel is a Big Deal. Recipe Books are Heirlooms. Courting is frequently Food/Drink Oriented.

Rosie Cotton brews the finest ale in all the land and she did that for the express purpose of seducing Samwise Gamgee

He Did Not Realize.

Courting that is not food/drink oriented is Flower/Plant oriented.

Sam Gamgee became the finest gardener in all the land in the desperate hope of wooing Mr. Frodo.

He Did Not Realize.

Everyone Else Realized. Merry and Pippin especially considered it Peak Comedy.

(they eventually worked it out.)

last but not least:

there’s just no way around it. Dwarves smell like dirt. nice dirt tho! Petrichor and stone with hints of copper and metals. Smoke smells. Rich spice smells. Eau de forge is considered a particularly desirable perfume. Dwarves don’t particularly notice smell though (for reasons that will become apparent) when it comes to Softe Things they’re much more about dem sweet sweet sparklies, and fur, and being super fucking tactile.

Dwarves are SUPER into haircare, like, every night the Company of Thorin makes a braid circle and exchanges hair beads. 

(elves are also super into hair care. this too really Gets Tharanduil’s Goat)

Dwarf social structure is like… hobbits in reverse. They tend to default to A status, hence their general rowdiness but with strict codes of conduct to help manage conflict. They’re just these huge roving groups of A’s just rough-and-tumbling around their one O. dogpiles are peak pod bonding. aaaaand the alpha reek kind of tends to make them all a little noseblind.

Poor Bilbo.

Lucky, Lucky Bilbo.

But also poor, poor Bilbo.

Most dwarf Royals go O, but Thorin hadn’t been O since he was 24 and got chased out of Erebor by that pesky dragon.

Dwarf “reefs” and “pods” have their own terms in Khuzdul that do not translate well but have to do with crystal growth. Rough translations are “lattices” and “cells” (Hence the hexagon aesthetic)

Wizards Have No Designation. They Smell Like Gunpowder and Lightning. It Is Very Disturbing For Everyone Around Them.

A

N

Y

W

A

Y

Give me EveryoneLives!au Hobbit stuff. Bilbo trying to homely up the lonely mountain! Thorin going O and chilling the fuck out as a result! 

Give me fellowship!pod!! Aragorn is the diplomat! Pippin is the wild child! Gimli is the Adventurer! Frodo is the peacekeeper! Boromir is the den mother!

How Much More Heartrending is the Breaking of the Fellowship if the fellowship was a pod????

and then you’ve got the fractured podlings: Merry and Pippin bonding hard with their new Rohan and Gondor stress-pods. Sam going A to protect Frodo from Gollum while Frodo tries to adopt this weird frog into their pod. The Three Hunters as Nick, Nora and Nelson (Gimli is Nick, Leggy is Nora, Aragorn is Nelson.)

Give me post-war Legolas and Aragorn and Gimli (and Arwen too) breaking cultural boundaries and proving that yes! Interracial Pods Can Work! these differences are cultural, and cultures can be melded! nothing wrong with this! if half-elves exist and can have kids of their own, then elves and men are not separate species, and I’d bet a significant limb that the same is true of all the other races so

GIVE IT TO ME

ok i gotta stop now.

...

yeah there’s probably a star trek one of these coming too

kill me

(And hey jhscdood I’m not saying you have to come back at me with more lotr clownfish or ocean’s 11/Star Wars/M*A*S*H/Leverage/West Wing/whatever clownfish But I would certainly consider it a Fair Exchange if you did. MORE INSTITUTIONALIZED SOFTISM. MAXIMUM SOFT FISH FRIENDS.)

[tcup-chipped]

Tagged by: @aviceis (why, of course I’ll do this! Thanks a ton :D)

Rules: List the top 10 songs you have been listening to lately and then tag 10 mutuals  (10 songs?!. Rules, have mercy on me. It could get spoilery, and lengthy, so buckle up, folks :0)

10. One, Two Step- Ciara, Missy Elliot- Goodies (”This beat is automatic, super sonic, hypnotic, funky fresh!” This was my jam back then, and it’s my jam now! I wanna sing and dance like it ain’t nothin! Now, I don’t dance much, at all even, but I can’t lie: I do’ with this song. And honestly, how can I not? This song is all about dancing and such. It does an excellent job at it, too!)

9. Empire City (Day)- Fumie Kumatani-  Planetary Pieces: Sonic World Adventure  (Can we get more songs with the harmonica as a leading instrument, please? Seriously, both this and the night version gives so much redeeming points for the jazzy harmonica. I also dig that funky beat, that wah-guitar (I’m no guitar person, I just know the amp. effect is nicknamed wah-wah :D), and them trumpets make me move all throughout this one! Such a great tune, this is!)

8. Elder Kettle (Piano Arr.)- Kristofer Maddigan- Cuphead (Out of all the fighting, dying, and struggling to beat this game, Elder Kettle’s theme is the eye of the storm. In other words, his theme holds no sneaky or dangerous undertone in it, but rather a careful one; it’s a stark contrast from the chaos that’s happening outside. It’s all slow, gentle, and safe, very safe! And really? I like how Maddigan set this up. "Now, kids, what did we learn today?” “Don’t make a deal with the devil?” “Good job, now go and get ready for dinner!”)

7. Refugee Camp- Manami Kiyota- Xenoblade Chronicles (It’s so relaxing and soft, almost mesmerizing. It very well puts me at focus on drawing, writing, or whatever kind of work I’m doing. I’m honestly really glad there’s a 30 minute loop of this, because boy, it has a long-lasting magic to it’s melody that captivates me instantly and I swear it has something to do with the rhythmic structure! Goodness, it’s very peaceful! <3)

6. Waterfall- TLC- Crazysexycool (This song was loved by many, myself included, and is still close to some to this day. This song is more than just my favorite as it has a really good theme going on- something that I have to remind myself especially during these times. I mean, if you REALLY listen to the lyrics, you could get a lecture out of it! If you haven’t heard of this song, then I’d highly recommend this song! Even if you’re not into Hip-Hop, it’s actually a fine n’ dandy piece)

5. Frontier Village (Day)- Manami Kiyota- Xenoblade Chronicles (I LOOOOVE how cheerful and overall happy this song is! It’s honestly one of my faves to listen to when I’m not in a good mood or need to relax, second being the night version. Everything about this song is so magical: the guitar, the accordion, the strings in the background. Those strings in the background,  just take a good listen to them! Seriously, this entire song soothes the soul, and adds to the already- gorgeous scenery of the village itself! Urgh, I can just listen to this forever.)

4. This Is How It Should Be Done- TLC- Oooooooh... On the TLC Tip (When I was listening to this album couple weeks ago, I was really into this song; the lyrics are simply telling Lisa “Left Eye” making an idea into a song, and the process of what went on during the development. The first section starts with the struggle, trying tho think of a song, then trying to write the idea, let alone, find the motivation! That part is quite a familiar process to me, where thinking the idea is one thing, but making it solid is another process in itself. But, by just finding the groove, you start to work on it, and you get somewhere with it! Second, I appreciate how this story is a rap rather than a song! The melody and chorus are used merely as supporters to the main ingredient that is the free styling. It gives it the charm of something being simple, yet having a wondrous taste! This song also makes me sad, because... ugh, rip. TLC, I miss you so much ;o;)

3. Beyond the Sky- Yasunori Mitsuda/Sarah Àlainn - Xenoblade Chronicles (This song made me cry first time through, and it makes me teary eyed a little bit now, just a lil’. Like, man, those lyrics: true to heart, true to love, true to... finding your beloved and never letting go of one another once you’ve finally found each other... (I need a moment, guys ;-;) ). Damn it if you don’t catch me singing this song, or clutching my heart at a specific line; this song is just-UGH! My goodness, do I love it! For such a long game, reaching the end and listening to this is truly a gift to treasure! I want to get the game so I can experience that feeling for myself >~<) )

2. Rito Village (Day)- Manaka Kataoka- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (The moment I heard this, my heart melted in nostalgia, and my eyes cried in joy; I literally stopped what I was doing, just sat there, and listened! They could’ve went with something completely new and original to this game like they did with the other towns, but nope! Nintendo decided to give us a familiar piece that is this lovely remix! The fact that there’s three versions of this (regular, birds’ chirp, and my favorite, the accordion, provided by the lovely Kass) makes this song all the more stellar. You know what you’re doing with your music, Nintendo. And, honestly, never stop doing it!)

1. Super Nova (vs. Star Dream, Heart of Nova)- Hirokazu Ando- Kirby: Planet Robobot (These songs right here are just GODLY! This game does my love for Kirby TOO good! The genius that is Ando, fusing old and new Kirby via le motifs, that call-and-response sections in the first half, is what really gets me hooked! Then, you have Heart of Nova! You can get a sense of just how intense this true final battle is with those strong, metallic clangs and the intricate, vigorous lines with the strings! I don’t want to say much about this due to major spoilers, just know if you played/seen up this part of the game, then you understand me when I say “this shit is intense”! If you haven’t yet, then man oh man, are you in for a treat, my good friend!)

Tagging: hmmm... @chibiranmaruchan @z-paladin @jojo56830 @behind-xemnas  @nuclear-brachy @golden-flurry @jojobro-jo @dreamweavers @pinch-o-mad @laizy-boy