#Alloyed Soul AU

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

An Alloyed Soul

Beacon had fallen. A great stone statue of a Wyvern stood on the remnants of the once magnificent tower. The wind blew cold, carrying the sound of People and alarms Wailing. Pyrrha Nikos had died No more than eight hours ago, though the only two people aware of that fact were currently unconscious, exhausted from the battles they fought and the unlocking of the Power of Silver Eyes.

The Ashes of the former champion swirled, and drifted, floating gently across the sky, towards the floating structure upon which the fuse of this disaster was lit.

The peacefulness of it's dancing was almost comical against the background of chaos and death on the ground.

Amity Arena had been wholly evacuated - save for those who could not make it out. Their bodies would be recovered in time, most notably, the body of one Penny Polendina.

The golden dust settled on the open ends of her limbs, as though it was iron shavings locking on to magnets, standing on end even.

Then the limbs began to move.

Not Ambulating, like the Iron Giant, but more so like the limbs of a doll, getting sewn on to it's body.

A set of mechanical eyes came back into focus.

Pyrrha: Hello! can anyone hear me?!?

To say Pyrrha was panicked was an understatement. She tried to move her limbs, despite the incredibly alien feeling she felt in them - though she supposed it made sense, she should have been dead - and every twitched, but ultimately didn't move in any helpful way.

Pyrrha: Please! Someone! Help ...

She was stuck in her own head. Or someones head at least. She tried to focus on what she could see. It looked like a stadium.

Then her mouth opened.

Penny: Frie -e -e -end Pyrrha? telemetry and ranged communications are offline. How have you contacted me?

Pyrrha: Penny! I - You - We both should be Dead!

Penny: My core was undamaged in your assault! I appear to have been reconstructed - though not by Father Evidently - but i would have been rebuilt and reactivated at a later date! Repeating Inquiry: How have you access my personal Frequency despite my lack of Ranged communication Functionality?

Pyrrha: Penny, Can you move your arms?

Pyrrha felt her arms shake - not unlike when she had tried to move them earlier.

Penny: I cannot. Will you tell how you can communicate now?

Pyrrha: If you try raising you arms one more time I will.

This time when Pyrrha felt Penny moving their arms, she lifted them toward her head - bringing her hands into view.

Penny: I detected additional input. Have you hacked into my systems Friend Pyrrha?

Pyrrha: No. As I ... Thought? said? er. Whatever, I informed you WE should be dead. Or with what you told me You'd be offline. But I died. I fought Cinder Fall on the Beacon's tower for the Maiden's powers, and failed. I don't know how or why, but I think, for some reason, my soul has bound itself to your body. And I'm scared and confused over it, but we need to work together to move. We should try getting up. Probably find a bathroom and see if we can make field repairs or something.

Penny: Hmm. that is an odd hypothesis, but I suppose it explains how I can hear you. I agree. We should work together and find a mirror!

With that, the body of Penny Polendina, Now with one extra passenger, attempted to stand upright and walk, but wound up using one of Floating Arrays swords as a makeshift cane to hobble towards an exit, bits of torn cloth getting kicked away, the brilliant Golden Seams sealed the wounds adorning the battered android body, visual proof that neither of the two would be here right now if not for the other.

~~~~

Hey, so I thought of this, then read Gilded Rose by (I cannot find who made it) on AO3, and let it sit because of the similarities, but that was a good while ago. like volume 5 ish.

I only just remembered it, so I figured "After All why not? Why not make a post about my Idea?" and now this is here. I guess.

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

Wereharpy Vaggie au idea rant thingy: Lute accidentally 'created' or 'awakened' wereharpy Vaggie when she cut out Vaggie's eye with angelic steel. le whoops?

secondary ideas: Exorcists and their weapons as re-purposed "sin-eaters", the remnants of the hell-touched winner souls who were torn apart when their job of saving sinners from sins was seen as a failure and being able to permanently destroy them instead was discovered. The original wereharpies were the Sin-Eaters, who gouged out one of their eyes with their bare hands as a final test of their commitment of giving themselves up to save sinners, and took on their more monstrous forms after absorbing and battling with the sins they devoured. Their refusal to switch from eating sins to murdering sinners ended up with them being torn apart by the Sera. Adam then was handed the re-shaped pieces of the Sin-Eaters in the form of Exorcists, while the talons were used to create the alloy that came to be known as heavenly steel, the only substance capable of permanently damaging or killing a soul. (only like can cut like)

Lute cutting out Vaggie's eye with a heavenly weapon, specifically after Vaggie had refused to kill a sinner, reawakening the scrap of the Sin-Eater Vaggie had once been part of, including her 'new' wereharpy form.

The more time Vaggie spent in Hell trying to save sinners the more her harpy form, and the Sin-Eater instincts ingrained into it, started to come out.

Vaggie thought this was some part of being an Exorcist stuck with her prey and worried her harpy self would start mindlessly killing sinners if set loose. She worked with Charlie to keep herself as much under lock and key during harpy time as possible. Meanwhile Charlie just assumed this was part of Vaggie's sinner form and was happy to help her manage it in a way that kept her from hurting others or worrying about hurting others.

Neither of them knew the full history of the Exorcists or Sin-Eaters.

which, given in more detail, maybe goes something like this:

Heaven is new and workshopping how to handle having "winner" souls enjoying their eternal reward up there. YAY!! First problem: Winners are sad when their friends and family die but don't end up in Heaven with them. :( First solution: Create sin-eaters to take on the sins of souls down in hell, specifically the ones vouched for by someone up in Heaven! In eating them the Sin-Eater strips the soul blank, memories ripped out and sorted with the bad ones remaining with the Sin-Eater and good ones stored safely in Heaven while the soul is returned to Earth for another life and another chance at someday being with their former loved ones again- the memories of which will be returned once the soul arrives up in Heaven.

Perfect! How could this go wrong???

Snag number 1: Heaven born cannot sin or take on sins, so some Winners have to volunteer for the terrible job of going down to Hell and eating the souls, which isn't fun and will probably change the composition of their own soul. The Seraphim argue for a while if this can still count as being given eternal rest, but finally agree that they shouldn't deny the chance to any Winner that wants it. Some do, and the first Sin-Eaters are made.

Frist snag dealt with!

Snag number 2: Eating sins imbues the Winner soul WITH sins, obviously, staining their wings and tarnishing their halo and eventually twisting their entire physical form as well as leaving them with terrible memories and sinful thoughts haunting their minds. Sin-Eaters learn to focus wholly on their conviction of saving sinner souls, using the virtues to drown out the rising tide of sin in them, and their bodies warp into bird-of-prey and then harpy-like shapes in reflection of this. The Seraphim decide to make a dedicated area for the Sin-Eaters up in Heaven, both to shield other Winners from having to see them in their self-chosen suffering and to help maintain the concentration needed for the Sin-Eaters to contain their willingly taken-on sins.

Second snag.... mostly mitigated. The plan is still working. Continue.

Snag number 3: Lilith, with Lucifer's help, is working to make Hell a place that can be fun to live in actually, a place where no vice is taboo and no punishment can be worse than what's already happened. It becomes a place of power, passion, and personal freedom, sins as things that don't JUST have to cause suffering, and if the people around sinners aren't the nicest well no one really is and getting your head cut off means a lot less when you'll just pull yourself back together again. Some sinners start getting chopped into pieces for fun, even! In fact some sinners like their life in Hell so much they run from the Sin-Eaters that come for them, even when told this is happening on the request of someone who loved them in life and that a second chance at Heaven is waiting for them if they just HOLD STILL AND LET THEMSELVES GET EATEN FOR A MOMENT. Not many sinners do. First, sounds too good to be true. Second-Give up what they already have for something that only MIGHT happen? A lot of sinners don't like the odds on that, or the idea of losing their memories of the people they've met and befriended in Hell. Running from Sin-Eaters turns into fighting them. The Sin-Eaters are powerful though so that doesn't work so well.

Snag number three is. Kinda still there. And about to get Worse.

Snag 4: It turns out a soul can die. As sinners put more thought and effort into fighting off Sin-Eaters they start actually hurting them. Boons with the Queen of Hell give them very limited abilities to try fending off the Sin-Eaters who want to take them from Lilith's realm. It's not enough to really damage the Sin-Eaters, but it stops them in their tracks and makes some Sin-Eaters defend themselves on reflex. Which is when snag number four comes in like a wrecking ball- Because the souls torn apart by a Sin-Eater's talons do NOT pieces themselves together afterwards. They stay dead. And not only do they stay dead, their sins unravel into demonic energy and are released into the surrounding area, imbuing the fellow sinners with power and denying the Sin-Eaters anything to devour or save. Instead of reweaving the threads of a sinner's soul the threads are SEVERED. The Sin-Eaters are horrified. This isn't want they wanted, but apparently taking on parts of other souls (absorbing them, not chaining them) can distil a soul to the point that it tears apart other souls with it's own existence. (like a black hole that used to be a star collapsing under it's own weight and slowly devouring other stars in turn) The sinners are upset about all this for a hot second before realizing that having free floating demonic power in hell means ppl can take it for themselves. The ones that manage to claim this power now find themselves with the power to give their own very specific boons- and to do even more than that, for the right price. Power in Hell shifts slightly away from it's King and Queen and lesser nobility of the hellborn demons as the first Overlords rise up and start bartering souls from and among their fellow sinners, with all limitations on self defense removed from the abilities they can grant. Meaning sinners are powerful and can attack unprovoked if they want to. And oh, do a lot of them WANT to.

Not good! The Seraphim do NOT like seeing this!!!

Snag 5: Hell is suddenly getting MORE powerful, able to resist Heaven's will with force and self-cannibalize to condense power down among it's WORST and most ambitious sinners- But at least the solution is also part of the problem here. Adam, always grumpy about the idea of giving any kind of second chance to the "losers" his ex is SO proud of, floats the very obvious but also drastic idea of just, y'know, killing MORE sinner souls. Sure it'll free up more power for the Overlords, but that'll just make them fight each other over it even more, and hey, none of souls returned to Earth a second time have made it into Heaven anyway! Why not split the difference? "Free" souls from eternal torment by killing them, reduce the numbers Hell has at it's command, make more Overlords to fight the Overlords that are already running around. And maybe have some FUN with all it!

Sera thinks this plan might work....

Snag 6: The other Seraphim disagree, and so do the Sin-Eaters.

Snag 7: Sin-Eaters are losing control over the accidental soul killing, their sense of conviction shattered by this sin that they did not take on but CREATED with their own actions, they scream. The virtues they've been propping themselves up with like scaffolding crumble under the weight of sin and the need to confess it to the loved ones of those they killed. This need drives them into mindlessly trying to break free from their section of Heaven. Sera concedes to the other Seraphim that the Sin-Eaters cannot be asked to kill more souls.... ...but she also convinces guardians of Heaven that the other heavenly souls should not be burdened with knowledge of or guilt over sins they did not commit. The Sin-Eaters must be stopped. In the end the power of the sins proves too much to cage or chain and Sera herself rips the Sin-Eaters apart.

Well. That didn't end great. At least it's over through, right?

Snag 8: Sera still agrees with Adam's plan and has an idea of her own for how to make it happen. To create an army close-knit and bloodthirsty enough both to stand ready at Heaven's defense and have earned the pain that entails, Sera reforms the pieces of the original Sin-Eaters into the Exorcists- taking Adam's preferences into account, seeing as he will be taking responsibility of them from here on out. The resulting angelic women are armed with the weapons forged from the Sin-Eater's talons, and each year Adam leads them down to hell to Exterminate as many sinners as they can. He gives them cool horned masks to wear to match his own, since they're his girls after all, but adds the "stitched shut mouth" (they're not Sin-EATERS anymore and won't be spilling ANY secrets) and "missing eye" (which he has to admit DID look badass) details as an inside joke for himself to snicker at. As far as the rest of Heaven is concerned, the Exorcists are a host of Heaven born soldiers incapable of killing souls but willing to lay down their own lives defending them, and any resemblance to the Sin-Eaters is a only a memorial honoring those poor souls Heaven could not save.

Only Sera and Adam know the truth.

Now Adam is dead, and many Exorcists with him, and even IF Sera wanted to try undoing what has been done by piecing back together the souls she cut apart, hoping they might heal now the truth they died trying to confess to has come out... she can't.

That feeling, the drive all Exorcists take strength from, the need to be part of something bigger than themselves- it can't be fixed.

They can never be part of the whole that they once were.

But... maybe Vaggie is proof they can still help the sinner souls they so devotedly wanted to save. Maybe this new way is even better than the one that made them what they were.

Maybe the rest of the truth will come out someday, but until then, wereharpy Vaggie slowly feeling more protective of than bloodthirsty for the sinners living in her and Charlie's hotel is a something she can be relieved about. It's nice having friends. She's glad she doesn't want to kill them so much anymore.

(she doesn't know what that urge to feast on them really is meant for)

(so instead of taken their sins from them, she and Charlie go on trying to help the Hazbins live with and grow beyond their pasts instead)

(and. it. works.)

[sunoorintarou]

Catharsis: Something only we know.

Phos!Reader x (Platonic) Getou Suguru

Warnings: Mentions of mental health, brief implications of child abuse, reader blames herself for everything, self loathing, mentions of health and eating disorders, Getou is still Getou, very angsty to somewhat comfort, Getou sees himself in reader

Notes: Hoo boy, this was alot. I love Getou tho so in this au, he will still be himself, but anyways pls prepare yourself for angst!!

"Getou - San?" You asked, finally finding the courage to voice your concerns. It was a hot day at the beach, as usual. Mahito was terrorising Jogo and Hanami while Getou rested with you in the shade.

"Yes, Y/n - chan?" Getou looked up from the book he was reading. It was unusual for you to suddenly speak to him, so he decided to give you his full attention when he did.

"Can- can I tell you, about my cursed technique? Is it OK, just, for insurance sake?" You stutter. You had been wanting to speak to Getou about your Cursed Technique since you met him but hadn't gotten the guts to till now.

"Of course, Y/n - chan, what is it?" Getou had been anticipating this conversation. He had been equally curious about your cursed technique, wanting to see the limits and advantages it held. But he didn't want to scare you off. You were the most closed off member of his 'family', and he knew you'd need time to tell him these things.

"Basically, my cursed technique... I can turn curses into various precious gems and alloys by touching them and absorbing them..." You started, knowing full well this wasn't what you wanted to say most.

Getou hummed, this was the basic information about it you had told him, but you were hesitating, clearly having something weighing on your mind. So he stayed patient, nodding along gently.

"The thing is... when I absorb curses... I feel sick, in here." You pointed to your chest, hands trembling ever so slightly.

"It's like, they become a part of me. Not in the soul way, but in the way where I can feel all the misery and pain, all those disgusting emotions that they held in me, I really feel it, in my bones and it makes me feel so so sick. I just-" You brought your knees to your chest, gently leaning your forehead against them.

For the longest time, you felt as if you were drowning. You had been physically sick for the longest time after the incident with your legs. You had nose bleeds so often the scent of blood seemed to linger around you. You could barely hold down your food, skipping meals or rushing to the bathroom, to expel the contents of your stomach.

It only got worse after what happened to your arms and Yukio. Although it seemed like your body had accepted the alloy immediately. It hadn't. You started vomiting blood, feeling such excruciating pain when the alloy started to spread into your bones, through your veins, forming it's own nervous and muscular system. There were days you couldn't even leave your bed, head spinning to the point you couldn't tell reality from dreams.

Those were the days you had simply locked your door, knowing the others would be worried and accept your mourning. Yet, it was so much deeper than that because a part of you felt as if you deserved this for what had happened to Yukio.

You were scared. What if he wrote you off or laughed at you? For being so weak? You couldn't even take absorbing a couple curses? What if they were right, everyone else, your past friends, your parents, what if you really were just pathetic and weak-

You froze when you felt Getou's hand on your head, looking up at him with eyes glazed over in gold.

If there was one person you understood your feelings better than anyone else, it was Getou. The feeling of swallowing curses was so disgusting to him. He despised it more than anything. Even worse when absorbing them into your being. He knew how you felt first hand. The only difference was that he could get rid of that feeling by releasing them and you... could not. They were truly a part of you.

"Ah, right, right, I need to, to say something else. My body- has a built-in network of gems and gold. I don't know how to explain it but it's like a, a nervous system. It covers my bones and everything, then it crystallises to stop bleeding- that's why-" you decided showing him was better than trying to explain.

You grabbed your finger in one hand, taking in a deep breath when you snapped it off. Getou's eyes widened, watching how the previously exposed muscle and bone was covered with gold in a split second to stop the bleeding.

You then chipped away the thing layer of gold before placing your hand back against your hand. Immediately, liquid gold repaired the crack. You moved your finger, tilting your head to look at Getou.

"Doesn't it hurt? Doesn't it have any negative effects?" Getou asked, looking at it in surprise.

"I- if, if it's a lot of my body and I can't get it back- like, my consciousness, I think, I don't know, but it lives in the crystal. So whenever I lose parts of my body, I lose parts of myself, I- I start to forget things, names, people, places, I- it does hurt. Alot." Your voice went soft, a tear running down your cheek before you could stop it.

"Then don't use it. You're powerful enough without using that part of your Cursed Technique, and if it's hurting you, then stop. Even if you're fighting and feel like that's the only way to win, ask for help. One of us will always be with you. Because if you do use it, even if you win, it won't make up for what you lose."

As you looked at Getou, although his voice was gentle, you could tell he wasn't actually there with you. He seemed to be reliving something in that mind of his. Eyes out of focus as he gently patted your hair.

Getou was saying to you, things he wished someone could have said to him all those years ago. Not those exact words, heck, maybe not even anything close to that. But all he wished for at that time was for someone to hear him and tell him it would be OK. It wouldn't fix anything. The path Getou was to walk on was fixed, predestined from the second he was born into this cruel world. But perhaps, it could have delayed the inevitable or helped him enough to not blame himself.

"Getou - san..." Tears built up in your eyes, gold trailing down your cheeks, and that seemed to bring Getou back.

"There, there, it's OK. We'll just be careful, Phosphophyllite only has a hardness of 3.5 after all." He teased, gently patting your hair. He couldn't change the past, but he could choose his future, and that's all that mattered.

[startrekfangirl2233-fic-recs]

Spirk Recommended Fic Masterlist

James Tiberius Kirk x S'chn T'gai Spock (A.K.A The Space Husbands)

Key:

❤️‍🔥 - Smut

☁️ - Fluff

💢 - Angst

🍬 - Sweet

📚 - Multi-Chapter

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Despite what they've both told themselves for years, Jayme and Spock can't actually live without each other. Or, the one where Spock left more than just Vulcan behind after that meeting.

Papers in the Roadside by @kianspo  (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬

Non-Starfleet AU. Jim owns a small bar in Chicago, keeps on picking up strays and taking care of everyone no matter how hard it makes his own life. Spock is a journalist writing feature articles for the Chicago Tribune; he depicts the world with uncanny skill, but hides more than one personal drama and is possibly under surveillance from the Vulcan royal family. They meet by accident just before their lives start to spin out of control.

Veritas by theproblematique (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Captain James T. Kirk and Lieutenant Commander Spock are hereby charged with negligence and wanton misconduct due to their emotional compromise with each other.

Leave No Soul Behind by whochick (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

If you're Starfleet, you spend your whole life wishing you never see an EPAS uniform right up until the moment they become your only hope. Whether you're dying a slow, cold death in space, or a long painful one on some godforsaken planet, they're going to come for you. So count your last breaths, son, and hold on tight. They leave no soul behind.

Bluebird by @waldorph (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬

“Jim Kirk.” Jim whipped around so fast most of his drink ended up on Spock, who was reaching for the phaser that wasn’t there. The Enterprise crew was parting like the biblical seas before Moses, and Jim could feel the temperature dropping. “Mom,” Jim croaked.

Measure of Happiness by @writeonclara (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

When Spock chose Starfleet over the Vulcan Science Academy, he had not anticipated cohabiting with the most illogical, irrational, emotional human he ever met.

On the flip side, Jim never asked for a Vulcan chaperone, especially one as snotty as Spock, son of Sarek.

A Starfleet Academy AU in which Spock adapts to human life, Jim learns very, very quickly never to play a prank on a Vulcan, and there are far too many people after Jim Kirk's life.

AT THE SAME STARS by spicyshimmy (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

First Officer Spock of the USS Enterprise is part of the away team that discovers the survivors of Tarsus IV. Captain Pike assigns him to the curious case of James Tiberius Kirk, who steals one of Spock's sweaters. There were no sufficient Vulcan poetics to describe the emptiness of the colony as it was found on the morning of stardate 2249.43. The fully-completed residential sector was neither ugly nor beautiful but simply remote; a hollow landscape of metal alloys and sensible architecture, with determined vegetation growing alongside the support beams. They did not flower.

cast out fear by @s0mmerspr0ssen (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Kirk saves Vulcan from Nero at high cost to himself. It falls to Spock to pick up the pieces.

Something Smart to Do by @kianspo (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬

In which Jim finds himself fake-married to his first officer every other month. It's not his fault. Mostly. Dowries and Klingons are involved. Starfleet is decidedly not amused.

Atlas by @distractedkat (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning.

A novel-length continuation of the 2009 movie told in four parts. Cross-posted from FFN.

West of the Moon by @distractedkat (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

They meet Jim in phases, and through him find each other. Once the layers begin to peel back, though, the future bridge crew of the Enterprise finds more than they ever could have dreamed. When the fight to keep him starts in earnest, the cadets and officers of Starfleet begin to learn that not all wars can be won.

Because long before he had friends, Jim had Family, and the Scaretta crime syndicate didn't survive to the 23rd century by letting go of its own.

Jim Kirk will always be a frustration to Spock--even when that's not his name.

a sequence that you never learned by annataylor (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

"'Spock,' Jim breathes out, completely overwhelmed by the gesture—not quite believing that Spock knows him so well, that's he's already started researching, that he trusts Jim with a member of his own endangered species."

When Jim gets it in his head to adopt an eight year old Vulcan, Spock presents a logical solution to the issue of Jim's humanity: marriage to a Vulcan citizen.

The Genetic Soap Opera (or, One of the Less Dignified Royal Weddings) by waketosleep (AO3) ☁️ 🍬

Turns out Jim Kirk's more than meets the eye, genetically speaking. There are a lot of consequences, mostly for Spock and his sanity.

Treasures by @yeaka (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 🍬 📚

Sometimes the other Vulcans wonder how Spock managed to obtain such an exotic bondmate, and sometimes Spock wonders himself.

Helloooo, Nurse! by @lalazeewrites (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬

Jim Kirk is the only male nurse on the Enterprise. He’s also the only one with any experience with Vulcan biology. You can guess who he’s been assigned to.

Antigravity by sinestrated (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬

Five times Spock was surprised by the brilliance of Kirk's mind, and one time he totally saw it coming.

Please don't touch the Vulcans by @museaway (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬

The "yes" is out of Jim's mouth before he can think about it.

master of a nothing place by strzyga (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬

Jim wakes as the birds fall silent. Beside him, Spock is still asleep, eyes twitching beneath the lids. His eyelashes are thick and dark against his cheekbones, and there is the faintest green flush to his skin, delicate like the flesh of a melon. Jim's breath hitches. Heat washes over his skin. He'd always noticed, academically, that Spock was attractive. This is different. He knows what Spock's dick feels like, knows how the blanket of dark fur on his chest feels when it scrapes against Jim's back.

Things will never be the same. He has already been irrevocably transformed.

Miscommunication by sinestrated (AO3) ☁️ 🍬

Jim's brain gets scrambled during an away mission gone wrong, with interesting results.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) by @kianspo (AO3) ☁️ 🍬

In which Spock contemplates the laws of attraction and realizes what a slippery slope that is only after he has already fallen. There's no help for him now.

Though My Soul May Set In Darkness by @pastmydancingdays (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Six months into the Five Year Mission, the Enterprise has reached the outskirts of the known galaxy, and its Captain has fallen ill. With a growing sense of unease, and increasing desperation, Spock takes it upon himself to manage both the ship, and Jim’s failing health, determined to save them both.

Because Khan’s blood was never going to be a permanent solution.

Entering Orbit by @museaway (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Jim escapes to Iowa to avoid the media frenzy following the Narada incident, but a late-night miscommunication results in Spock turning up on his front porch.

K'diwa: A Steamy Novel of Interspecies Romance, by Jim Kirk by @branwyn-says (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Jim wrote a romance novel just to prove he could. Then someone leaked it on the public Starfleet server, and suddenly his embarrassingly smutty and sentimental Human/Vulcan love story is all over campus. Luckily for Jim, no one knows that he’s the author. Unluckily for Jim, someone forwarded the novel to the staff of the Vulcan embassy. Now, every Vulcan in San Francisco is reassessing the logical merits of taking Human bondmates.

Spock reads a Human/Vulcan romance novel because he can hardly avoid it. Suddenly, he is consumed by the need to locate the author, ascertain their wellbeing, and instruct them in the way of Vulcan mating bonds. Luckily for Spock, it doesn't take long to identify the author as Jim Kirk. Unluckily for Spock, Jim is unconscious and surrounded by interested Vulcans who also read the book.

Echolocation by Darksknight (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬

Kirk and Spock don’t realize that they’ve bonded right away. The rest of the crew is a different story.

So Wise We Grow by @youhideastar (AO3) ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

"Commander Spock, we have located your son," the Vulcan lady on the screen says, which would be great, except Jim can tell by the look on Spock's face that he's never heard of this kid before in his life. "If it is expedient, the child will be sent to join you on the Enterprise within the week."

The Trouble With Vulcan-Human Hybrids by quantumgirl (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

A story in which Spock and Kirk meet their future children when accidental time travel happens. Future Spock and Kirk have twin children, a son and daughter, who each take after their parents in unique ways. After a bit of an accident, the two children are thrown into an Enterprise where Dad and Father are still only coworkers, learning how to get along with each other. ......

“He’s got hobgoblin blood, too.” McCoy shook a vial of green blood for them to see.

Kirk had finally set the PADD down, at the foot of Spock’s hospital bed. “So he’s half me and half Vulcan?” Kirk’s eyes flicked over Spock’s face. “Is this a joke?”

“I was going to ask you that,” McCoy shrugged at Jim. “You have yourself here a Vulcan-Human hybrid...a Vulcan-Kirk hybrid.”

THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS by spicyshimmy (AO3) ❤️‍🔥 ☁️ 💢 🍬 📚

Prince S'chn T'gai Spock of Vulcan, engaged to Prince James Tiberius Kirk of Earth through an arrangement made by their parents many years ago, writes to his intended on the day of his birth in the interest of diplomacy. Jim is not interested in diplomacy. Though there is no precedent set for the commencement of a written correspondence begun due to these specific parameters, I will strive to maintain, to the best of my abilities and with ample preparatory research previously conducted, the appropriate level of formality between us, based on a number of factors, primarily examples of a similar nature.

[factorialsotherfandoms]

Surprise alt PoV on Saturday's fic...? Magic exhaustion is totally exhaustion and I wrote basic type back on the fainting day so like. Enjoy some weird shit instead.

XCOM AU, again, with people having extremely bad times. Referenced torture, everything's a bit on the magic end of things for me to be sure how to warn it. Oh right! Implied Major Character Death (they learn this isn't actually the case before the end of the story, but do believe it for long enough to have genuine grief hours about it). Actual major character injury. Psychic torture. Poorly explained magic and soulmate system.

Mostly Forever, Cellbit, and Pac, with background Fit/Pac and not-on-screen-but-vital-to-story Pac & Mike

The meeting has been over for a good twenty minutes now. Most of the Order have dispersed back to their days, but a few still hang around the command centre. Forever is nominally in charge of navigation, but auto-pilot is engaged and they don't have anywhere specific to go. It's the sort of day where one person can manage both navigation and comms, though Cellbit has pulled up a chair and an old book of puzzles to keep himself occupied as he pretends to handle the later.

Not that puzzles are being done, at the moment; currently they're both over by the holographic map system, lazily watching the flightpath while chatting with Pac. Ever since Mike was kidnapped two - maybe three - months ago, he's been out of sorts. Of course he has - Forever doesn't understand what a soul-bond means, not innately, but to have someone trusted with your head pulled away? In danger with nothing you can do, with every lead going nowhere? Pac's honestly dealing weirdly well.

Forever knows he and Cellbit dealt /much/ worse when Felps was stolen from them.

"Any plans tonight?" he asks, when the conversation Cellbit and Pac were having slows to a halt.

"Roier wanted to show me something," Cellbit's face goes soft for a moment at the mention. "Who knows how it'll go?"

"Not really," Pac blinks a little harder than normal. "Maybe the bar? Is there anything else to do?"

"Steal the lab back for an evening?" Cellbit suggests.

"Dating!" is Forever's reply.

Pac laughs at the first, and goes red at the second.

"Ohhhh," Forever laughs, suddenly realising. "Is Fit going to be at the bar, by any chance?"

"I- Ah- Maybe!" Pac's hands swish about the air with just quite how flustered he is by the mere suggestion. "What about you? Aren't you up to anything?"

"Me?" Forever replies, teasing. "Well now you ask... No, not much. Pierre had some new reports I should probably start working through."

"The elerium reports?" Cellbit's eyes light up. "He's finished? Did he have much to say about it?"

"His report's short, Tubbo's though..." Forever laughs.

"Tubbo's right, though," Pac looks over to a point between Forever and Cellbit, thinking hard. "If we can fully harness it... Ship power isn't going to be a problem again. We might even be able to use it to channel... No, I don't think it'll work for grenades. We don't have enough anyway. But if we can find a way to safely embed it... You might... Maybe... You should make Tubbo talk to Pierre. I'm not up to date on all our schematics, and I'm not Mike, but... With the right wiring it should make energy weapons viable? And! The alloys he was looking at for the new armour? If I'm right about it-"

At some point during the ramble, Forever had looked away; one of the engineers was flagging him down for permission to start maintenance on the steering system. He is in the middle of giving them the thumbs up when Pac's ramble cuts off.

Forever abandons the engineer, head snapping back around to check on him.

Pac often trails off.

But Pac does /not/ cut off at the peak of excitement in a ramble. Not unless it's followed by an apology. Never to nothing, never to dead silence.

Forever's correct; Pac has frozen up, his eyes overtaken by a haze of glowing blue.

Fuck, psionics; Forever looks to Cellbit, who shakes his head - not anything he can detect, and so not anything from an attack.

Just in case he still sees Cellbit extend a nullification field over Pac - and Forever as well. No change.

Pac's fingers, previously loose on the guard rail as he leant against it, are white with the tension in his grip.

"Pac...?" Forever glances back and forth between Cellbit and Pac as he speaks. "Everything okay?"

Pac blinks.

Usually it would erase the glow.

This time... The colour shifts.

Right eye remains blue.

Left eye shifts to green.

"... Mike?"

If it /is/ Mike, some sort of long distance contact from his cell that Cellbit and Pac had both called too dangerous to attempt over the distance...

Forever tries to remind himself it means something is terribly wrong - Mike would have tried this earlier if he thought that he could - but all that happens is that his heart soars.

A lead, a lead, for the first time in months they have a better lead than 'somewhere in Australia, South-East Asia, the Pacific, or South America'. He's no idea how good a lead, but it is one.

"Mike!" Cellbit's call for their missing friend is sharper. "Pac? What's happening? Where are you?"

Pac - Mike - neither of them respond. Pac doesn't even blink, his body rigid against the guard rail.

Cellbit reaches an arm behind him, making sure he doesn't fall back over it if at any point he goes limp. The action... The action forces Forever's brain into accepting just how serious this probably is.

And no matter what, once this is over Pac is going to be a wreck. He's coping... badly, but so much better than any of them thought he would, the bad limited to reckless disregard for his own safety, not anything else. After this, though, after having Mike in his brain only to have to leave...

If he and Cellbit aren't enough to help - and they won't be - there's two other people Forever can think that Pac might want. He grabs his communicator, sending messages summoning Fit and Felps.

Fit is on the training range, and Felps is probably asleep, but at least they'll come as soon as they're free.

Forever and Cellbit... They can work with that.

He leaves Cellbit to do whatever psionic things he's trying - soul-bonds aren't like Cellbit's academic psionics, but it comes from the same root source, they think - and does what he can.

The engineer has taken his distraction for permission, and is doing her job. Forever... This isn't his, but all the crew are his responsibility - and especially the Brazilians.

He takes one of Pac's hands, peeling it from the guard rail and interlacing the fingers with his own.

Nails dig deep into his hand as Pac, still blank eyed and otherwise unresponsive, clings back.

It stays like that for a few minutes - even on their ship they refuse to leave Pac alone and vulnerable. Just... Forever holding his hand, Cellbit protecting his back, and Pac's face completely blank in a way Pac's never is.

Forever can read the tension in his body, though, the way the shaking grows with every breath.

He does his best to reassure them, whatever combination of Tazercraft can or cannot hear him, all the while shooing anyone looking into walking past. Fit and Felps still haven't replied, but it's okay, it's okay, he and Cellbit can at least keep Pac curled up sobbing somewhere safe until other help arrives. Forever wants to fix it, wants to take the tension from Pac's spine and bring him Mike - the only real way to soothe the gash in his soul - wants to just keep those he cares about safe.

But, no, all Forever can do is hold Pac's hand as the minutes tick away.

Tick, tick, tick away...

One minute

Two minutes

Three.

Four minutes pass, five...

The green disappears from Pac's eyes.

He screams.

The blue is still there, lashing out from his eyes. Forever drops his hand to try to pull Pac against him; Cellbit shifts like he's about to try and do the same.

Before they can touch him, it stops. It all stops. Pac crumples to the floor, deathly silent, terrifyingly still - a limp, dead weight. Forever catches him against his shoulder, easing him to the floor, unable to think, unable to breathe. Cellbit takes over, calling Pac's name, checking his breathing, lowering him onto his side.

Forever drops to his knees, and lets the jolt of pain break the trance. He grabs his comm back up, not even looking as he flicks the button to summon someone from medical.

"Is that...?" he looks to Cellbit, and Cellbit looks back.

And, fuck, Cellbit is just as helpless as him.

"No idea," their best expert on psionics says, and they're fucked; Forever knew that, but can't blame a man for hoping. "Bonds aren't... I don't do bonds. Pac would be the one to ask."

And Pac is the one lying on the floor.

It's another couple of seconds before Pac's eyes blink open. As soon as he sees, Forever leans down, brushing a hand along his cheek.

"Pac?" he asks. "Pac, are you okay?"

Pac's eyes do find him, and do focus properly. It's a relief, even as the tears start flowing.

Forever... Forever doesn't know what could possibly cause such a violent reaction, but his heart shatters at the possibilities. He doesn't want to think, doesn't want to think-

"Mike," Pac whispers between the sobs. "Mike..."

Too late, too late, they're too fucking late.

Forever can see his own hands shake as he brushes them across Pac's skin. He needs to pace, to scream, to think, to plan, to- to- there is /no/ making this right, but he /has/ to, he has to, he has to, Mike can't- He can't be-

Forever cannot even think the word.

Cellbit is also quiet.

Cellbit's hands are also trembling.

Cellbit must have concluded the same.

Forever wonders why the fuck Cellbit has not taken back his position, when Forever sits here trembling and Cellbit manages to at least flag the medics down.

They nudge him to one side, two helping Pac while the third orders him and Cellbit to sit, orders someone else to get warm drinks, and generally takes control of the support staff. Someone - Forever thinks it might be Jaiden, but he can't quite see more than a purple blur, so it could be Vegetta - has taken over navigation and comms. One of those warm drinks is placed in his hands, and another in Cellbit's. Pac is able to - with a bit of help - sit by the time he's helped onto a stretcher. It's a relief, it's a relief, if the only one Forever has - and, fuck, how does he face Pac again, when he didn't have the information.

Fit appears at some point. One of Tubbo's people - Tubbo's people, who used to be Pac and Mike's people, fuck - directs him.

Fit's face is pale, when he sprints off.

Felps joins them even later. He doesn't say anything as he worms his way between Forever and Cellbit, pulling them both into a hug.

Bagi's away from the Avenger, doing work with Tina and one of the rebel cells. They're necessarily out of contact; they have time to work out how to tell her. Everyone else... Fit will work it out, once he sees Pac - if he hasn't already. Otherwise... Maybe he can fob the announcement off on Wilbur, but it doesn't seem right, doesn't seem... He's the commander of this operation, it's /supposed/ to be his job.

But he can't, he can't - right now all he can think of is pink hair and sharp laughter and a sharper mind, bright eyes behind taped together glasses.

They... They still don't know where he is. They'll never even be able to retrieve a body; the thrice-damned Federation will have melted it down for parts before they get there.

Just like they did to all those civilians...

That's what breaks him, in the end. Forever curls over Felps shoulder, and sobs into his neck.

Mike, Mike, Mike...

He's lost everyone before - lost Mike before, not once, but twice.

It still hurts, it still hurts, maybe it even hurts worse than before.

Really, he should have known miracles don't come in threes.

---

At some point, Felps steers them all into the privacy of Forever's... office-slash-bedroom. There's definitely a desk and computer there, but also some old beaten up couches, a thousand filing cabinets, and an old army bed shoved in a corner.

There's also a coffee machine on a table between two of the cabinets, and Forever doesn't have the strength to stop Cellbit from abusing it today.

He's trying to plan, trying to think - but what can he do? They know where the /Hunter/ is, they could get revenge, but there's still the Warlock, and even taking out those three doesn't promise safety. His instincts say pull everyone back, cocoon up, drag everyone else to safety and let nothing touch them ever again - especially now there's /children/ on the ship too.

But they don't have that choice. They have too many friends, too many allies, too many people to save and too few of them would ever leave the world to burn.

Fit's not come to find them, so at least Pac isn't alone. He should go, he should maybe try comfort Pac, but what can he say? Sorry my contacts weren't good enough to find your soulmate before he was murdered? Fuck, he can't do that.

But then again...

Felps is telling a story, trying to keep their minds off things they cannot change. Cellbit doesn't seem to be listening, and Forever certainly isn't, but there's some things he just cannot change.

They did get Felps back.

... They did, right?

Forever reaches out, grabbing his wrist. His fingers find his pulse, and he forces himself to breathe. Felps was dead - everyone was convinced Felps was dead - but he wasn't actually. He wasn't harvested and liquidised, his brain was used as a CPU for a supercomputer instead. Horrific, horrifying,with mental and physical scars to this day, but they got Felps back.

Maybe...

Pac would know if Mike was still alive, even like that; if the soulbond is still there, it's there. If it's not...

Though...

Oh.

Forever pulls Felps with him as he marches to one of the cabinets. Which mission, which mission, which mission...

There. Operation Wailing Feast. No losses of their own, minimal civilian causalities too, but it was more by sheer, dumb luck than anything else. Philza had been in command, but Roier had written the initial report, the paperwork slightly smeared in blood, because Mike had been a sobbing mess, and the rest of the squad were recovering from major surgery.

It was before there was a proper medical facility on the ship, too; Aypierre's lab was thoroughly cleaned first, sure, but between needing to do surgery in an autopsy lab, and the only place for them to go after being the beds at the side of the common room, it's a wonder all of them made it.

They had - all of them had recovered - but it had never been a sure thing.

Another failure on Forever's part - he should have realised they'd need a medical ward sooner, should have made it the highest priority. But the cash just wasn't coming, and the parts, and...

And, there is one, now. He fixed that error.

Guilt is not what he came here for, it's just too easy to feel.

He refocuses and ignores Roier's report. Instead he looks for the other page, written by Philza several weeks later, once the man's hands were capable of writing again.

Skims it over, skims it over and breathes.

The report is short, as Philza's tend to be, and Roier had already covered most of the details. It, however, concerns the circumstances of Pac's injuries that day - caught in multiple explosions in quick succession, burns, shrapnel wounds, knocked out by the concussive force...

There's a note there, too, of how Mike had panicked. Panicked and started blind firing at anything that came close. He'd believed Pac dead, at first, needing coaxing to reach back along the bond and find him. Only then did he calm down long enough to allow Philza's Crow to approach, and stabalise Pac's wounds.

He clutches the paper, and names it hope - it says nothing good, it says so many terrible thing, but- but the soul bond /is/ fallible. In heightened emotional states, if someone is injured enough, it's possible to miss.

Even if they read Pac correctly - and now he thinks Pac never said Mike was gone, just the green vanished from the connection and Pac had called for him while sobbing - even if Pac can't feel Mike... It doesn't mean Mike's dead.

It's Forever's turn to drop to his knees in relief. He hates that it's relief - for Pac to have that reaction, for the soul bond to be missed, Mike must be horrifically wounded and is still held captive by an enemy that liquidises humans in a very literal way, for nobody knows what purpose - but it is. Because... Because he might not be too late. Mike might be /alive/.

He sobs, but they're not sad tears this time.

He hands the paper to Felps.

Felps, whose eyes also light up, and hands it to Cellbit.

Cellbit, who still downs the coffee but slams the mug into the table and says "do you think Pac has any idea where to look now?" already working on a new plan.

It's a good question. Pac was too out of it earlier, but maybe...

Forever's comm pings, and the timing is immaculate; it's Fit, saying Pac's properly awake and wants to speak to them.

It's followed by another message saying at least Fit thinks that's right, but Pac's struggling with English more than usual and his Portuguese isn't great.

"I'll go talk to him," Forever breathes out. "Do you-?"

"You two go," Felps takes the paper back from Cellbit, and puts everything back away. "I'll start asking around. Maybe Fred's people have something?"

They checked in yesterday and had nothing then, but the name of the game is hope, and contacting Fred's faction is always more complicated than the others. Maybe they'll have information from Pac once they manage to get a meeting.

---

Medical is the same as ever, if surprisingly quiet. It's been a while since their last full operation - Forever is certain that everything will go to hell soon, it always does - and nobody's managed to get shot on more covert activities of late. Pac's the only patient, curled up on a bed towards the back with Fit at his side and a nearby doctor keeping half an eye on him while she cleans.

"Pac!" Forever sweeps to his other side, taking one of his free hands. "Are you alright? You didn't hit your head or anything?"

Pac squeezes his hand, and offers a shaky, scared smile, "I'm good, I- Um... Fit?"

He glances at Fit, who tilts his head. After a second, the bomber works it out.

"Doc says he's just exhausted himself," Fit squeezes the hand of Pac's he's holding. "They're more trained on physical shit, but something about overtaxing himself psionically...?"

Cellbit's expression goes dark for a second. He storms over to Pac's side, pressing to fingers to the side of his head. Their eyes meet and Cellbit's eyes take on a slight red glow as he presses harder onto Pac's skin.

While Cellbit works Fit squeezes Pac's hand, and stands.

"I'll give you guys some privacy, let Tubbo know what's going on," he says.

Pac reaches for a hug; Fit gives it with only a little hesitation, whispering something in his ear before heading out. He gives Forever a wave, and it's returned, and then it's just a case of waiting for Cellbit to be satisfied.

Eventually, Cellbit pulls the fingers away, frowning as he does. "What happened, Pac? You're lucky - that's low enough to- fuck, Pac, you'll hurt yourself like this."

Pac doesn't even laugh nervously, his eyes just flicker to his hands.

"Mike reached for me," Pac says, clearly still badly drained. "I knew... I knew it would be bad, if he was reaching that far. We know it's too far to do safely..."

He trails off, and Forever tries to be gentle in his questioning.

"Is Mike okay?" he asks, because until he has that answer he doesn't know if he can breathe.

"Alive," Pac says, and both of the other Brazilians in the room relax; Cellbit starts texting Felps and maybe Roier as soon as that word is said. "He... He's hurt, though. Badly. I'm not sure what happened - physically - it was... We were entwined, we were trying to stay together, then suddenly he pulled back. Seconds later he grew very faint. He's not... Not gotten worse since, but..."

But it doesn't mean anything good, if the building tears mean anything.

"What happened?" Cellbit is the one to ask. "Mike isn't stupid, he wouldn't have risked it unless..."

"Cucurucho," Pac says, and the room goes dead silent.

Even the doctor freezes for a moment, before beginning to scrub even harder than before.

"Interrogation?" Cellbit asks, the only person they know to have been interrogated by one of the Federation's spokesmen.

Well, interrogated and have survived.

And he only lived, they think, because the cursed bear thought it was funnier that way.

Pac nods, shaking, "he... I don't know exactly? He threw /himself/ at me, I caught him and threw up a shield. I think... I think I covered everything important, but- but... not everything. There wasn't time. And the claws..." a particularly violent shudder. "I felt a little of the rest, as he pulled away. It's... Cucurucho must have read it, but it's all... fragmented? I... I don't-"

"You saved him," Cellbit cuts Pac off without a moment's hesitation. "Pac, listen to me? No matter what Cucurucho did or didn't take, Mike is alive because of /you/. Whatever happened? We can fix it. So long as he's alive when we get to him, we can fix it."

"I don't-" tears bubble out of Pac's eyes, and onto his cheeks. "He's so weak. He's there, he's still there, but..."

Forever shifts over to the bed, offering Pac a hug. It's quickly taken up, Pac folding against him.

"We'll find him," Forever promises, because if he's alive then they /can/. "Any information might help, but no matter what, we'll find him."

He's been saying that for months, now; he continues convincing himself it's true.

Pac shakes his head at first. Forever knows his friend - he gives it a second even as Cellbit's feet tap-tap on the floor.

The second pays off; Pac raises a hand, and points out in a direction, "he's that way. Not sure how far, but... Not this continent."

Forever sees Cellbit grab a compass - why he's carrying one he has no idea - setting it up and scribbling the direction on his hand.

It's something, it's so much more than they had.

"Thank you," Forever whispers to him. Holds him tight, doesn't know if Pac will ever understand how much he means to them - with Mike, yes, but even without him - and how wonderful he is. "Thank you, Pac. Rest, you did well; thank you, thank you so much."

There's no more promises that it'll be okay - they can't promise that, not here, not now, not like this. But it might be, it might be, it's possible.

The thread is fraying but it's not yet been cut; there's still a chance to pull it back in and weave in new strands.

All they can do is try.

[madcatdaderpydrawer-blog]

Of all the aus I have, the ones where the five year olds actually act like most five year olds is surprisingly the swap au. I noticed this when making overswap, but the youngest kid in the swap versions of my universes- underswap Justin, fellswap isaac, overswap alloy (and by association overfellswap rust)- are the ones who act most like normal carefree five year olds. Which is weird because you’d think the characters who act like most normal five year olds would be the actual main five year olds of my main undertale universe, Paige and Keith. But they don’t, and it’s all because of their environment

Paige and Keith take on a role of caring for the younger orphans, helping them get ready for school, making sure they do their homework and all that. In a way they’ve had to mature quicker because they are raising the other kids in the orphanage, which is an issue that doesn’t apply to the previously mentioned aus because none of those five year olds are put in a position to be parentified in the same way. They were abandoned, but then they were found by an older kid who took care of them and thus actually got to be a little kid. The aus where this changes up are the soul swap aus, since that doesn’t change the age it just changes who has what trait

[justmaghookit]

8, 15, 19 (lol), and 23 for Donniiiiiie~

Tav Backstory Ask Game

8. Does your Tav have any pets?

Donnie sadly does not have any pets, he always thought it was rather irresponsible to bring a companion pet along on adventuring journys and he didn't really want to train a guard animal. He's always dreamed of befriending a pseudo dragon, that would be his ultimate companion animal. He also really likes dogs, if he see's a dog on the street he WILL point it out.

After having Scratch along during the events of bg3 he really really wants a dog. He sent Scratch off with Shadowheart when she decided to visit the Selunite Temples so she wouldn't be traveling alone. Every time he and Astarion stop in a city while traveling he will stare forlornly at any markets with puppies available for purchase.

Astarion is considering stealing him one, if only to stop his pouting.

15. Do they have any sentimental items?

Donnie still has the blanket his maternal grandmother knitted for him when he was a baby, he doesn't take it with him because he doesn't want it to get damaged. It currently resides with his sister in her home in Respite and whenever he visits he WILL wrap himself up in it and dream of simpler times. Rosie has her own as well, she uses hers as a shawl!

His false horn is also sentimental for him, it was a gift from Fierna after he signed his contract with her a sort of "welcome to the family" gift. It's made of some strange self-repairing alloy and always snaps back into shape after a day if it ever gets damaged. Despite having broken his contract with her she allowed him to keep it, along with a few other things when he left the service of the Hells. He thinks she let him keep them because she excepts him to come back eventually [in some time-lines, she would be correct]

19. Any memories that stick out to you/your Tav about their life pre-tadpole?

The day he took the Archduchess Fierna to the infernal courts, presided over by Archduke Belial, in order to break his contract, and won. Well really it was his sister who found the technicality that got them both out of Hell, but if he had never had the courage to bring his case to court they'd both still be stuck there. This is another one of those splitting points for all my little au's for him. In the canon of bg3 though this is perhaps his most important memory.

23 Share any hcs/anything you want to say about your Tav’s backstory

Fierna gave him free infernal HRT with his contract, she just sort of made it happen by fucking with his biology.

Donnie would consider his greatest secret the fact that he really really likes cute things. Lace doilies, tiny felt animals, silk flower arrangements, anything even remotely frilly and pastel he adores. This does double for lingerie.

His actual deepest secret was that he enjoyed the work he did for Fierna and a part of him misses it. The thrill that comes with condemning a soul is one ahem hell of a drug. He DOESN'T miss the politics though.

When not in his signature Robe of Stars he dresses like a guy from the romantic era

He shaves, because he thinks his facial hair makes him look like a comic villain from a cheap newspaper

Donnie's horn is similar in construct to a giraffe's, called ossicones, its bone inside with a layer of skin and such over it, they're velvety soft to touch.

The broken horn left a nasty scar that goes down close to his eyebrow, he usually covers it with makeup because it makes him self conscious

His tail and his legs from mid-thigh down also have a soft velvet texture to them, from mid-calf down and at the end of his tail his fur gets long and fluffy.

He doesn't have a gag reflex

[x-i-l-verify]

Part 3 of my character references for my Inscryption D&D AU (drawn by the talented @macaronipup), featuring Poe, the warforged tinkerer/fighter. More info under the cut.

- Was created by a disappeared, advanced civilization, but he'd been lying deactivated and gathering rust in the ruins of one of their cities for the past couple thousand years. By the time he booted up again, his memory banks had corrupted completely and he was left a blank slate, forced to relearn nearly everything from the ground up.

- Was found, repaired, and taken in by the Dredger, Melter, and Inspector (humans with cybernetic implants or prostheses in this AU), who also gave him his name, derived from the only semi-legible series of foreign symbols stamped on his rusted armor, which sort of looked like “P-0-3.”

- The Dredger, Melter, and Inspector were killed in a raid on their village about 10 years before the main story starts. Poe himself was captured and sold for an obscene amount of money the next continent over, treated like an object and forced to work for his new master in the smithy day in and day out.

- Enchanted shackles around his wrists and ankles are engraved with powerful spells, which cause him excruciating pain every time they get activated (Poe has a profound distrust of magic in part because of this). They are unable to be removed by normal means because of how heavily enchanted they are; Magnificus would need access to his library to break them.

- Body is made of a strange type of living, self-repairing metal alloy. Healing spells actually work on him, which freaks him and everyone else out. He also - somehow - has a soul, unlike most repurposed forged, who are mindless, empty husks that can be programmed to carry out basic tasks.

- Can mimic any voice he hears perfectly. Can also project other images on his screen when he wants to.

- Does have clothing and a cloak Grimora made for him for when they need to pass through settlements without being noticed, but he doesn't like wearing them. But he likes pretending to be the rest of the party's mindless servant even less, so he reluctantly puts up with it.

- Carries all his tinkering tools and blacksmithing materials with him, and often drops into smithies in the towns they pass through to get some inventing done.  He makes little bots of his own for extra support in battle, and also explosives, bombs, acid, and other chemical compounds.

- Fights predominantly with his blacksmithing hammers, and is not averse to throwing them directly at someone's cranium. Like this. :V

- Has the best aim of anyone in the group, and is lethal with a crossbow, gun, or anything else he can point and shoot.

- A resourceful and creative fighter, but not in any way elegant or graceful. Values function over form, and focuses on just causing as much damage as he can ASAP. It doesn't have to be pretty or poetic, it just needs to work.

- Just as dramatic as everyone else, though, even if he may show it in different ways, mostly through cutting sarcasm and dry insults.

[pilot-boi]

is Beskar, also known as Mandalorian iron a thing in the Mando AU? I could see that being how you real mandalorian from a fake one, did your dust round just bounce of that person armour then that's a real mandalorian and you have made a horrible mistake

See the inclusion of “Beskar” isn’t necessary because of the existence of Aura. Rounds already bounce off of people because they’ve got magic soul forcefields

If it did exist, I imagine that it would be because at some point a mando found a way to combine metal with Dust while forging. So it’s an alloy of some kind which makes it very difficult to make due to the volatile nature of Dust

Maybe there’s different kinds of varying strengths based on the kind of Dust used in the casting. I dunno, but it could be cool to think about

[reyloficarchives]

MASTER LIST: STRANDED

This masterlist features Reylo stranded together in Canon or in AU.

Please make sure to read the tags and summary before reading the fic. Some stories may feature subject matter which is not to everyone’s tastes or they could be a trigger.

Some of these fics may be incomplete and not updated in a while.

As with all masterlists, if you find a story that fits but is not on this list, let us know by sending us a DM.

Rating: General Audiences (G), Teen And Up Audiences (T), Mature (M), Explicit (E), Not Rated (NR)

One Shot (OS) or Multi Chapter (MC)

**Updated 13/12/2021

Alternate Universe - Modern Setting

169 Days (E) (OS), JenfysNest

Dipstick (E) (OS), BenSoloHands

Flight #923 (E) (MC), WigletsMom

Hey, Soul Sister (T) (MC), situation_normal

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow (E) (MC), GreyForceUser

Mr. I Don't Date (E) (MC), Aunt_MaraJade

Prank Wars 2 (M) (OS), Hellyjellybean

The Christmas Compromise (M) (MC), Bitchinkitten

Snow Sparkles Like Stars (E) (MC) , raptorginger **

You Talk Too Much (T) (OS), TazWren

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

A Chance Encounter on Mustafar (E) (MC), Angie737

A Collision of Stars (M) (MC), dustoftheancients

A State of Survival: Alone with the Supreme Leader on a Frozen World (E) (MC), Angie737

Alloy (NR) (MC), smallenoughtofit

Aphelion (T) (OS), ambiguously

Artemisia in Snow (T) (OS), witchoil

Baby It's Cold Outside (M) (OS), Tandy

Bound (E) (OS), ambiguously

Hypothermia (E) (MC), LucidLucy

If I Had My Way (E) (MC), ClockworkCrow (icemink)

In Between Memories (E) (MC), Slinden

In the Footsteps of Giants (T) (OS), aionimica

Luminous Beings (E) (MC), AgentScullyFBI

No Rest For The Wicked (E) (MC), Avdal

Perihelion (E) (MC), SpaceWaffleHouse

Pretty Boy (T) (OS), CaptainCaptainMarvel42

Rebel Warmth (E) (OS), Trish47

Stranded (E) (MC), arawen898

Stranded and In Love (E) (MC), Angie737

Stranded With The Enemy (E) (MC), Angie737

Sweet Surrender (M) (MC), BinarySunsetLover15

Swimming Lessons (T) (MC), mrex

Teddy Bear Picnic (M) (OS), Blueyedgurl

Temporary Allies (G) (MC), crunchy (orphan_account)

Thaw My Frozen Heart (E) (OS), DarkSideOfMe

The Absence of Light (M) (MC), Werewolfswearwolf

The End Of Everything (E) (MC), nixcomix

The Island (M) (MC), Aviendha69

The Moon, the Sun, and the Star Inbetween. (M) (MC), Silvershine

The Path I Fear to Tread (E) (MC), roane

The Price of Power (M) (MC), The Price of Power

The Unbreakable Bond (M) (OS), AlwaysEverlark

The Writings of Ben Solo (E) (MC), BurnedStars777

Under Different Stars (E) (MC), Aaveena

Use Me For Good (E) MC), starspangledbisexual

Waiting for Salvation (T) (MC), Rellie

Alternate Universe - Historical

Growing Together (NR) (MC), 0Locke

Tentacles & Temptations (E) (MC), persimonne

Alternate Universe - Other

A Treasure Worth Keeping (E) (MC), Mantabel

StarMan (E) (MC), drnucleus

Supercut (E) (MC), SecretReyloTrash (BadOldWest)

[erwinsmithshairgel]

The Mockingbird and The Meadowlark: An Eruri Reincarnation Fic

Hello!! After months of work, I've finally published chapter one of my eruri reincarnation fic today! I'm so excited to share it with everyone so if Eruri is your jazz & you want some modern flavor on it, please consider following The Mockingbird and The Meadowlark!

Rating: Gen (For now)

Characters: Levi Ackerman, Erwin Smith, Furlan Church, Isabel Magnolia, Kuchel Ackerman, Levi Ackerman's Father, Mike Zacharias, Original Female Character(s), Original Male Character(s)

Tags: eventual eruri, One-Sided Levi Ackerman/Furlan Church, Past Levi Ackerman/Furlan Church, One-Sided Erwin Smith/Mike Zacharias, Flashbacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Levi Ackerman Has PTSD, Autistic Erwin Smith, Panic Attacks, Levi Ackerman has Pure-O OCD, Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, ModernEruriWeek's Modern Eruri Week 2022, Modern Eruri Week 2022, Fic Comes With A Playlist, Worldbuilding, canonverse, Not really an AU since it's AOT's canon universe but I'm putting it in the tag anyway!, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Slow Romance

Summary: 100 years after the Paths' destruction, two souls whose story remained unfinished rose from the astral ashes. Will they be able to move through their self imposed expectations, grief, and remorse in order to find each other once more, or will their hearts remain adrift? Join Erwin, Levi, and others along this modern retelling and reflective journey, as they parse through their inherited trauma to reach the truth.

-----

A smile grew across his lips as he searched the forever frozen expression of his familiar stranger. The statue was but a statue, however; a metallic mixture of copper and tin, not the warm or breathing flesh that lived so vividly in his mind. Hollowness had filled him with the thought, years ago when he was younger -- when his eyes were wider, his face more round. But so often had he stood here, neck craned with the toes of his shoes flush against the square pedestal, that projecting any emotion onto that alloy had become as easy as breathing.

Word Count: 5353

Content Warnings: Panic attacks, PTSD flashbacks, food mentions, and medication mentions.

[donttouchmeimsleeping]

Error the Protector of the Multiverse

Okay, so, since I have a good idea for a story to write for this concept, I am just going to write everything out. Here it is, the basics:

(I’m basing this Error’s personality, much like the Error in xX-AVJ-Xx’s ask-comic with the ship-child extinction.) 

What if in this multiverse, Error was in Ink’s place in helping the creators create AUs because of interference in the codes. Because of this interference in the codes, Error takes Ink’s place and Ink has to be annihilated. With balance now in order, the multiverse resets to the beginning, and Error is left with only the Original Undertale, the only AU, in the doodlesphere to look after. Error doesn’t take this alteration in the codes very well and tries to destroy an AU, but as soon as he does intense and immense pain cripples him to the floor. And there was enough pain to make him crash. After rebooting, Error very reluctantly accepts this new role. 

Being stuck in the doodlesphere, Error gradually bonds with the creators. Insert lots of insults, snarky remarks, talk back, and sarcasm from Error to the Creator voices. After a while of monitoring the Creator’s and their creations, Error goes on many adventures will all sorts of sanses. He resolves Nightmare’s and Dream’s quarrels as brothers, helps out X-tale in the weirdest way possible, makes sure that the council forms as a unit to help the AUs that now exist (considering he can’t opt them out), becomes a severe critic for the “creator voices” in the doodlesphere that he has to constantly put up with, helps with the better construction of the Omega timeline, and overall just visits the various of people he either has caused trouble for, caused trouble for him, or knows through his past experiences. 

Of course, most of these adventures he goes on, in the beginning, were forced, once Error concluded these were going to be a regular occurrence, he kind of started looking for the next “mission” the multiverse would send his way to complete. Though that was wasn’t the whole reason, Error had noticed whenever he finished these “missions” he felt a soothing and angelic sensation wash over his soul or a piercing and unbearable pain. Concluding that they acted as a value system of how positive or negative his decisions impact the multiverse’s existence. Therefore leading him to make more soothing and angelic sensation than anything. This action, on his part, led to the formation of his Cadre of Custodians, allies, admirers, and neutrals. But the rest of the multiverse calls them “The Custodians.”

It’s not long until Error meets his most difficult mission, and doesn’t realize it until his allies have to shove it in his face that this mission is meant to test his loyalty to this current multiverse. That is because the mission was to deal with a few insurgents from another multiverse. A multiverse exactly like his when he was once the Destroyer and God of Destruction.

Renaming things as this is Error’s domain now:

Places:

The Multiverse ↠ Vortex!Multiverse (VortexVerse/Vortexverse-)

The Anti-Void ↠ The Nexus

The Doodlesphere ↠ The MainStream

The Omega Timeline ↠ Ground Zero

The Multi-Void ↠ The Epicenter

The Star Sanses Club-house ↠ Polestar Pivot

Nightmare’s Castle ↠ Captial Convergence

The Save Screen ↠ The Linkscape

The Dreamscape ↠ The Affinity Realm

The Sunset Island (From Underverse) ↠ The Midway

The Void ↠ The Axis

People:

Ink, The Protector ↠ The Creator (Important to the climax of the plot // Explained why later, but he isn’t actually-)

Error, The Destroyer ↠ The Overseer (Extremely important to plot // Very important reason as to this title-)

Dream, Guardian of Positivity ↠ Defender of Positivity

Nightmare, Kind of Negativity ↠ Defender of Negativity

Night, Passive Nightmare ↠ Preserver of Feelings (Important to plot // explained later as to why-)

The Council ↠ The Commission

Core, Founder of the OT ↠ The Alloy

Events: 

The Apple Incident ↠ Nothing’s Changed

The X-Event ↠ The X-Trails (Important to plot // This fits very well as to what happens-)

Reactions:

Error’s: Will refuse to take the role, and be VERY reluctant when he does. Has a very different perspective on the multiverse and the system as a whole, but can’t/doesn’t question it, just voices it. Is very strict and rigid to pretty much everyone one he meets and interacts with. Is very intimidating to the other Sanses. Big softie as he goes through character development. Has big emotional impacts on other characters that will most likely put them through a character arch of their own.

Ink’s: Will start off fine until he pieces together what happened, and then will have an existential crisis. After recovering, he turns into a peanut gallery as he proceeds to spectate Error’s progression as the protector. Will have existential crisis’ from time to time, as he rethinks the decisions he’s made and their outcomes and compare to Error’s and seeing him have better impacts on the multiverse. 

The Stars and Originals: Dream specifically with go into a character arch of his own well first meeting Error. Error completely destroys Dream’s idea to go and face his brother right after coming out of the stone. He tells him, that he is not only weak but pathetic. Dream protests, but Error explains that it’s been around 500 hundred years since Dream has even fought Nightmare last, and Error knows for a fact that Dream will die if it happens again. Error tells Dream to train until he can find Error on his own with his own magic and then he’ll consider letting Dream help with handling Nightmare. As for the originals, Error makes each of them have their own short archs when Error starts intervening in the codes. He basically helps them defeat the player, and practically feel content in their Aus. They’ve only ever interacted with Error though his strings, as Error doesn’t actually go to any of the Aus. At least not yet. 

↪ Dream, Blue, Orange, Classic, Papi, Fell, Rus, Mauve, Vermillion, Danz, Salsa, Cosmic, Pluto etc. 

The Bad Sanses: Nightmare’s interaction with Error is strange, he immediately noticed in their first fight that Error give little to no effort in evading and reading his attacks. Which is odd, considering it’s only been their first encounter. Dust, Horror, and Killer get wrapped up in the multiverse mess later when the OP Sanses get involved. Cross specially is interesting, as the X-Event is never born thanks to Error. Because Error went about things differently when interacting with X-Gaster, the X-Event ceases to arise in this multiverse. Which makes Cross’s personality very different in a way.

↪ Nightmare, Dust, Horror, Killer, Cross etc.

The OP Sanses: When these guys come into play, Error immediately gets in their faces as they pose the next biggest threat in his multiverse, considering he is now out of the picture as he is no longer the Destroyer. Because of different encounters with them, Error has to leave the MainStream to deal with them, exposing his existence to the Aus he is protecting.

↪ Error 404, Fatal Error, King Multiverse, Bill, Alastor etc.

The Neutral Sanses: Still working on this part.

↪ Lust, Shears, Ethan, Halo, Night, Mint, Clouds, Decans, Fresh, Lavender etc.

[not-freyja]

2019 T’hy’la Fics of the Year

According to Kudos on Ao3. In the Interest of fairness, winners of previous years were excluded.

1. And Then I Let It Go by kianspo

Post-Star Trek Beyond. The crew of the Enterprise gets a breather while they are waiting for their new ship. Jim uses the time to do something he had sworn he would never do.

2. Vulcans are Fangirls Too by jouissant

Kirk is a secret astrophysics genius who publishes under a pseudonym; Spock sends him fanmail. Shenanigans ensue.

Less fluffy than the title might imply, but a feel-good story nonetheless.

3. This Is How You Remind Me by kianspo

Jim invites Spock to his high school reunion for moral support.

4. Take This Sinking Boat (And Point It Home) by sinestrated

In which Spock pines, Jim isn’t stupid (except he kind of is), and Christopher Pike has had enough of this bullshit.

5. Something Smart to Do by kianspo

In which Jim finds himself fake-married to his first officer every other month. It's not his fault. Mostly. Dowries and Klingons are involved. Starfleet is decidedly not amused.

6. cast out fear by s0mmerspr0ssen

Kirk saves Vulcan from Nero at high cost to himself. It falls to Spock to pick up the pieces.

7. The Lotus Eaters by aldora89

Stranded on the planet Sigma Nox while searching for a missing away team, Spock and Kirk find themselves pitted against a disturbing native life form. With the captain out of commission on a regular basis and Spock struggling to preserve his stoicism, staying alive is difficult enough – but when a slim chance for escape surfaces, their resolve is truly put to the test. Together they must fight for survival in the heart of an alien jungle, and in the process, uncover the mystery of the planet’s past.

8. The Handmaid of Genius by ladyblahblah

When the replicators go offline, Jim reacts unexpectedly.

9. Asymptote by tahariel

Anticipation was not an emotion Spock had intended to allow himself to feel; yet, it made itself known despite him, and that it was never satisfied made it harder to suppress, each time the Captain walked past or stood near and conscientiously avoided even the brush of their sleeves.

10. AT THE SAME STARS by spicyshimmy

First Officer Spock of the USS Enterprise is part of the away team that discovers the survivors of Tarsus IV. Captain Pike assigns him to the curious case of James Tiberius Kirk, who steals one of Spock's sweaters. There were no sufficient Vulcan poetics to describe the emptiness of the colony as it was found on the morning of stardate 2249.43. The fully-completed residential sector was neither ugly nor beautiful but simply remote; a hollow landscape of metal alloys and sensible architecture, with determined vegetation growing alongside the support beams. They did not flower.

11. Measure of Happiness by writeonclara

When Spock chose Starfleet over the Vulcan Science Academy, he had not anticipated cohabiting with the most illogical, irrational, emotional human he ever met.

On the flip side, Jim never asked for a Vulcan chaperone, especially one as snotty as Spock, son of Sarek.

A Starfleet Academy AU in which Spock adapts to human life, Jim learns very, very quickly never to play a prank on a Vulcan, and there are far too many people after Jim Kirk's life.

12. Hurricane by sinestrated

Five times Winona Kirk was a badass mom, and one time she realized she’d raised an equally badass son.

13. The Third Wheel by littlebirdtold

Academy AU. In which Cadet Kirk constantly crashes Cadet Uhura's dates with Commander Spock and monopolizes his attention.

14. A Logical Match by walkandtalk

The elders of New Vulcan decide to resurrect an ancient custom, and suddenly Jim must help find his First Officer an honorable Vulcan husband.

15. You Lied by ksalterego

Spock bought into that whole stupid Vulcan practice of being secretive about shit (sexual practices) that had the potential to fucking kill him. So Kirk may have lied - well, implied, actually - to get into Spock's pants save Spock's life.

16. So Much for Gravity by Regann

The last thing Jim wants is telepathic proof that Spock hates him, even though that's exactly what he gets. It's just one more thing Jim needs to figure out on his bumpy road to a destiny he doesn't even know if he believes in.

17. not once but always by estelares

The Day Jim Kirk Died And Was Revived is also, perhaps more famously, remembered as The Day Spock Lost His Proverbial Marbles and nearly killed a superhuman who had fucking regenerative blood, for crying out loud.

18. My Golden Sun / Kin-Kur Las’hark T’nash-Veh by giddytf2

When Jim feels the first gush of slick soaking down the inner seam of his pants, he shuts his eyes and turns his face away from Spock towards the mottled-stone wall of their solitary cell. Spock is staring at him. Spock has no idea what's just happened, what's just begun. Spock has no idea that their situation is about to get so much worse.

Fuck, Jim thinks, curling up into a ball of bruises and ragged gold, his arms quivering and clutching his bent legs. Fuck my life for being a goddamn Omega.

(Or, a Star Trek: AOS story post-Into Darkness in a universe where both Alpha/Beta/Omega gender dynamics and pon'farr exist, with Jim being an Omega going into heat and Spock experiencing his first pon'farr while trapped in a cell with Jim. Oh my.

19. THE SUM OF BOTH OF US by spicyshimmy

Jim Kirk is nine when a massacre on Tarsus IV leaves him without a family and without a home. Spock is twelve when a strange boy in the desert saves his sehlat. Families aren't born; they're made. The look in mother’s eyes at his correction remained a mystery long after the colors of the night sky and the complex patterns of distant nebulae had become translatable by means of distinct and relatively straightforward equations.

20. Leave No Soul Behind by whochick

If you're Starfleet, you spend your whole life wishing you never see an EPAS uniform right up until the moment they become your only hope. Whether you're dying a slow, cold death in space, or a long painful one on some godforsaken planet, they're going to come for you. So count your last breaths, son, and hold on tight. They leave no soul behind.

[vynnyal]

Throwing random thoughts, headcanons, and a variety of pasta at the wall (but only those having to do with vessels and/or their biology this time): The Thrilling Third Installment™

...aka pretending i can be dark and dramatic jskhdfd

Thk's larger form is not the standard, but the exception. Thk was cited as being "raised and trained to prime form", which people take to mean pk assisted in the vessel's natural growth. However, that conclusion leaves a lot of unanswered questions, most important of which being “then what about Ghost?” In short, I think that train of thought is backwards. Vessels can't grow- they are ageless, and immortal. We know this due to Ghost, despite living as long if not longer than thk, being completely unchanged over the years. The only thing pk trained into "prime form" was thk’s mind and fighting prowess. Their body... well, I think it was mutated. Most likely either directly by pk, or ordered by him- and with the shenanigans happening over in the sanctum, I wouldn't be surprised if Soul was involved, too. In any case, it was in no means natural. Vessels are corpses reanimated by void; neither corpses nor void tend to make drastic changes on their own all that often. Whether pk predicted the vessel’s “issues” and intended to manually “upgrade” them from the beginning, it's hard to say. But... yeah. Unless Ghost goes out of their way to make themselves grow- if its even possible, now that pk is gone- its fairly safe to say, they never will.

...with that in mind, we are promptly gonna ignore that for the rest of this post lmaooo

Grown-up vessels wouldn't look like thk; while they are described as being raised into "prime form"... prime form, to whom? Rather than looking like an idealized pk soldier, it sounds much more fitting that they’d have an entirely different, natural adult form. Consider: their cloaks being longer and fuller, perhaps filling out into something with a more practical use to their “species”. Better yet, they could even grow up to be more beast-like. Feral vessels, YEhaW

The black egg temple is cited as being "built to sustain [vessels]", yet it can't be their lifespan that is sustained. Rather, it seems the egg is specifically designed to keep the radiance from tearing thk apart, physically and/or mentally. Ngl its p obvious, but worth noting.

Sorta-au where Ghost’s shade has 8 eyes, and/or is generally all-around more cryptid-looking.

@ the sharpshadow charm and the strange, 6-eyed creature their shade turns into: kudos to this post, they bring up something super interesting- the creature not only resembles the Shade Lord, but the lord outright becomes it during the Embrace the Void cutscene.

makes me respect the ol’ civilization a whole lot more if a single charm can turn a baby shade into a baby lord.

The concept of finding ghosts unconscious body, laying next to a corpse, while they battle in their dreams. Alt: when ghost enters the dream realm, their shade leaves their shell... And protects their body from harm.

If steel soul mode is taken as canon, just how did ghost and the shade meet? Alt: Ghost may never have “met” it at all, as it technically doesn’t exist in that mode- instead, its more of a metaphor than an actual entity.

What the vessels looked like- or were supposed to look like- before the void. Alt: a story following a child, alive and untouched, that somehow managed to be spared. They could even have a gender. Alt alt: the void intentionally spared them for some purpose, or even out of simple kindness- or at least, something that resembles kindness.

Re: the shade inexplicably having a nail: all the vessel's swords are crafted from “will-bearing rock”- of which i’ve come to lovingly call living stone- and as such, are of void themselves. That's how the shade seems to conjure up its own copy; it merely shapes it, from the ground, using void. And, while more of a stretch, Ghost’s nail being some sort of living stone/pale ore alloy could explain just how Ghost can do seemingly pretty crazy things with an otherwise ordinary nail. Better, while 100% a baseless hc, its material might actually enable Ghost to build it up and modify it to suite their size as they grow older. finally, a logical reason adult Ghost has an adult-sized nail-claymore. hdsfghjfghdsjf

On that same thought: Ghost outright invented the "art" of manipulating- or creating- living stone to make their nail. ...gimme a sec. The other escaped vessels have nails, too, right? Either meaning they also discovered this ability... or that theres some legitimate ground for the “vessel gang” hc. Or, yanno, i’m reading too much into Ari’s sprites but sHHhh

How did all the vessels know to race to the top? They seemed to be falling merely because they had just been born and had literal, actual baby strength; yet not only did they inexplicably risk everything competing to the top, they somehow knew death was waiting if they lost. Alt: pk just, bringing a fucking megaphone and telling them like a sports announcer.

What if Ghost made it, and instead of falling, they managed to joined thk at the lip? What would pk do? Push them off the edge??? Or just adopt them both?? Oh fuck au where they're raised as twin sacrifices. Or worse yet, they’re raised unequally, and one is trained only as an afterthought. As a backup.

Alternatively, pk keeps all the vessels au, only a few years later when they're grown. Pk now has a literal army of pure knights. Radiance is fucked.

Hm. If vessels were fully coherent entities from the moment of birth, why was there a crib in the white palace? Did... did they use it? I have a feeling team cherry made that asset before the abyss scene lmaooo alt: they did, uh, use the crib. Cue a very awkward scene of thk, clearly not a normal baby, staring at wl with like... idk, the poofy baby hat and pacifier. I can’t tell if the image is more funny or more sad rn shdfgfjsdgg

The og notes that inspired this post, in case my rambling makes more sense (and w/o the awful comic hjsfgjsdfhj): Oh oh OH i GET it now. The void is all about "will" and whatnot, right? And shades are "fragments of a lingering will"- will, like the one you leave after your death, but instead of inheritance its the vessels' desires...last regrets.... DAMN team cherry, that symbolism is clever as heck. That took me a while. Kinda funny how a will is, technically, a person's last regrets Like I knew they were last regrets but I didn't understand WHY. Duh, it's because they're literally Made Of Will. They are the vessel's "wills". I'm so stupid.

Ghost, walking thru the abyss, getting increasingly fed up / freaked out, ducking into a crack in the wall. They follow the crack into the Scream Chamber, pause, then exhale in relief that this was EXACTLY what they needed.

Ghost's shade rolling up its void-sleeves like “fuck it, ima defeat thk myself”

Why was thk's sword there? Was its pedestal decayed? Did it fall from their body? Was it place there as an afterthought, or hurriedly? alt: taking thk's sword before freeing them, but doing the mom thing like you're grounding them hdhfjchjch

I can’t believe it just occured to me now, but... as objectivley stupid as the vessel’s test was, Ghost... technically came in second place. What if that whole scene was a metaphor? Because really, it’s just too silly to take seriously. To do so isn’t too far fetched, either; many other elements in the game’s story are better taken as symbolic or metaphorical, anyways. Take the PoP cutscene- while it could’ve been a literal moment, where they just happened to find themselves standing around and took the moment to appreciate each other... imo it makes much more sense to read it as the concept of their faint ~forbidden love~ and parental pride itself. Or, better yet, the scene at the end of the 4th pantheon. Sorry, but I severely doubt that was an actual event. What I’m trying to get at is the significance of “second place” in the cutscene. My brain is too fried to chase down any other possible connections to this theme rn (if thats even what the theme is), but even without proof, the theory smooths out a few interesting tidbits related to just how Ghost could tough it out when all others failed. All except for #1, anyway. Either way I’m just happy to take this as an excuse to pretend that cutscene didn’t literally happen because like, l m a o

The story of a small group of vessels as they work together to escape hallownest. (aka the aforementioned vessel gang hc... im sure theres a more formal name but you get the idea). Its impossible to tell how long it took them to discover that near-invisible hole, the last exit remaining after the king ordered the abyss to be sealed up. Once they did, however, the remaining vessels were quick to make a desperate scramble to escape- only for the entrance to suddenly crumble shut, far, far too soon. The remaining 8 slowly made their way through deepnest, their numbers quickly dwindling as the jouney started to take its toll. The group was nearly wiped out by those terrible, spiney-legged creatures that used their own kinship against them. Only three finally escaped the deep, yet only two made it through the basin- the third, largest sibling, left to fight alone againt a hopeless battle, just to buy the others time. It was in greenpath, so close yet so far to their goal, that the second succumbed to the infection. It was a mercy killing, that nail through the heart. The last, after all of that, finally made their way to the very precipice of howling cliffs, hesitating for just a moment to gaze out upon the still-fresh ruins of hallownest. But only for a moment, before Ghost jumps down to begin their journey beyond this wretched place.

A vessel running from its shade as it tirelessly pursues them, the vessel refusing to put it to rest.

tw: suicide, + personal on main

Ugh ugh ugh ugh Either thk was fully conscious and in terrible pain for all those years... or they couldn’t feel anything at all. The former is horrible, but imagining thk waking up, chained, unable to do anything but wait for Ghost to heed their call? Did they turn their nail on themselves to help Ghost, end the pain, or some awful mix of both? For someone who has personally dealt with close friends and family that struggled with suicide themselves, hollowknight is one of the worst horror stories I've ever seen. And the fact that the story is so personal, so open to interpretation? The fact that each character is so genuine yet vague enough to be read completely differently to someone else’s biases? Its why hollow knight- the game, and the character- will forever be one of the most powerful stories to me.

in short, good LORD THIS GAME IS SO FUCKING SAD

[lizadale]

The pendant is a little metal alloy that was bent into shape and given to her by Dimentio! She always wore it. Because it was of sentimental value, it became the base of her Pixl form later.  

I didn’t have much lore about them until recently when I started exploring the concept of the Underwhere with deadmentio au. Still not sure what I want to do with the hag sisters besides the idea that they used to be very important leaders in the underworld. They kept offering Jaydes unwanted advice (like, very stereotypical old lady ideas mostly. A serious idea every now and then but hhhhhhh bingo night by the River Twygz was turned down tenfold) and got banished to the space in between the Underwhere and Overthere bc Jaydes got sick of listening to them (They still send D-Men down to heckle her occasionally. She HATES them.).

And Bonechill! He’s an extremely strong soul. Bonechill actually went to the Overthere originally. He’s a very rare case of someone who STARTED in the Overthere and traveled backwards, and tbh he regrets nothing. He became a generic nimbi after he died. Had a comfortable, fulfilling life. But the Overthere, where everything is perfect and there are no vices to satisfy, bored him. He caused a ton of trouble and got banished to the Underwhere, where his spirit became corrupted enough to look like he does now. For centuries Jaydes kept trying to put him under the Twygz and his followers kept digging him out, then Dimentio ran into him while he was searching for a Pure Heart (Luvbi) and set him loose to cause havoc in the Overthere.

They didn’t really want to date in the first place. They had a very close friendship that was bordering on something more than platonic, but it never quite got there, and there was a lot of pressure, a sort of collective expectation that they should be dating. Social norms, that strange need to label something that never needed to be labeled. So they tried it. It was okay for a while, in the way that things that are new often are. But then there was a the feeling of “um, what is this?” They both started getting really anxious about it, and it resulted in Luigi sort of clinging because he HATES it when things break, especially if he thinks he’s the one to blame, and Daisy felt cornered and started lashing out a little in response. 

Peach sits them both down after two months of this nonsense and asks them what the fuck they’re doing and why they keep hurting each other for no reason and they decide they don’t have a good answer for her. So they just stop. They’re both really upset for like a week. Then they come back to laugh about it in that “wow, what were we thinking” sort of way and now they’re closer than ever. Labels be damned, you don’t have to date your other half.

I love luaisy so much in any form, I just think a non-romantic relationship suits them better uvu  

Thunderhand is tricky. There’s no complete control, just a manifestation of raw power. It’s a lot more useful on contact and less so as a projectile (and also extremely hard to function as a projectile, unless Luigi is aiming for something highly conductive). It’s the opposite from Firebrand in direction (fire rises; lightning falls) and that its kinetic energy is higher than its potential energy. Meaning, if Luigi is moving he’s pretty much got limitless energy, but if he comes to a stop it takes a helluva long time to recharge. (Firebrand has higher potential energy and is more useful when “inactive.” It grants Mario a high resistance to physical elements and the energy is constantly boiling inside him, but using it burns that energy up and can be taxing if not used in short bursts.)

Thunderhand pierces defense and has a bit of a cancelling effect. It blasts through others’ magic, and can be used to deflect it as well. It’s get a huge range once it hits something and it travels fast. To some degree Luigi can affect polarity a little with it. It’s got a high negative charge. The hammer Luigi uses is made of metal (picture the 2nd hammer you always get in the first two PM games) so he can move it like a magnet, send electricity through it, etc. If he has enough focus, he can shoot it off his hammer handle like a cannon. 

But! The technique is a little chaotic and hard to control. Lightning is moody and doesn’t always go where Luigi wants it to, especially if there are a lot of conductive forces in the area. Mario’s hammer has a rubber coating (like the 3rd hammer from the PM games) that lowers the chance of him getting shocked by accident. Luigi’s magic is really weird because he’s in this strange spot on the magic spectrum. He can manifest elements like someone with body-source magic can, but since is primary source is soul he runs the risk of damaging himself with it. If he uses fire without wearing protective gloves, he burns himself. Thunderhand works in his body kind of like an adrenaline rush, which makes him faster, but it runs his heartrate up, and if he doesn’t slow down from the rush gradually he could potentially cause his body to go into shock (pun not intended). 

Tl;dr it’s very strong but requires a lot of caution. There’s a reason Luigi doesn’t use it unless he feels particularly threatened.

[madcatdaderpydrawer-blog]

I was thinking about how interactions between the undertale kids and their overtale/monster counterparts would go. 

I feel like Alloy would have a hard time understanding why Justin looks the way he does, and would probably ask him bluntly why he’s so boney. He tried to be polite even though he felt awkward trying to explain poverty to a robot that can’t eat. Like;

“Why don’t you eat more then?”

“Because I can’t afford it...”

“But all humans have to eat, right?”

“Yeah, but not all humans can afford to eat.”

“Is human food that expensive??”

“When you’re living alone at twelve, yes.”

After that conversation Alloy kept giving him snack bags just.. randomly. He just finds a bag of some chips and puts it in his hand without saying anything. XD won’t even give him room to argue because he doesn’t say anything, just plops it in his hand in a way that shows this isn’t open for discussion.