#I live for This sort of petty chaos

[thatemotionalbitch]

PUERTO RICANS WHO DATE MEN, YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, IS:

Start dating a man. The man is also a Spanish-native but NOT from PR. You continually call him bichito. He thinks this is cute. It’s The Cute Thing That You Do—Calling Me Your Little Bug. He loves it. He loves you. Six months to a year later it’s revealed you’re from PR. And you’ve been calling him Little Dick the whole time.

Chaos ensues.

[hurricanek8art]

Okay, I don't know what's going on with Tumblr and everything has been absolute chaos with my life the past few months, so y'know what, screw it. I think I'm actually brave enough to share some of my art. At least it won't just be sitting on my tablet that way.

This is my Sith Inquisitor turned Force-sensitive Outcast from SWTOR, Roodaka Greatstorm-Kallig. I haven't really plotted everything out with her regarding her story, but she's not my Outlander. She leaves the Empire right after Ziost, after losing all of the family she'd used her Dark Council connections to find and save from slavery, and Lana recruits her to help Sana-Rae run the Enclave about two years before the Outlander (my Knight Aja Verdona) is rescued. She's prickly and petty and spiteful but I love her dearly. And because I've never posted art before, art process and a little bit of character lore ramble under the cut, I guess?

I usually work with lined art/sketches that are admittedly very messy, but when I did the first one back in May I was experimenting with actually rendering/painting, and I saw a fashion post thing that looked like something Roo would wear, so I was mostly just playing around, it's not a solid outfit design for her. It's janky and wonky and oh Lord please don't look closely at the anatomy or face it is not up to my usual standards, but I was so proud of myself for the lighting on this one, as well as how I managed to render the muscle. Like, the lighting! I have no idea what I'm doing but I think it looks so flipping good! And I was happy with how the crackly lightsaber blade turned out—it is supposed to be Aloysius Kallig's lightsaber, meaning it's at least over a thousand years old, right? It should be a little janky with age!

The second one is supposed to be post Fallen Empire, after she's left the Sith and become sort of a wandering Force-user—think Ahsoka as of, well... Ahsoka, but more on the side of Ventress if she'd survived TCW (don't get me started on that choice 🙄🙄🙄). I came into it knowing a little more of what I was doing, but I kinda got in over my head and gave up on the 100% lineless thing, you can definitely tell with the sword/clothes. 🥴 The second piece has been sitting unfinished in my WIP folder for months, so I just said screw it, finished up some details and called it because I am SO PROUD of her face and hands (I DREW A GOOD HAND WITHOUT LINEART WHO AM I?!?!) and how I rendered her skin, I don't want it to live in WIP purgatory forever. You can actually tell that's muscle! And a neck!

I'm proud of how her tattoos turned out, too. I played around with Cham Syndulla's tattoo pattern, turning it at different angles. It felt like a good way to root her in Twi'lek culture despite the Kallig bloodline having been separated from it for so long. She gets the first one to cover up a slave tattoo, and the rest after Ziost to further reclaim her identity and culture, leaving the Sith behind.

I have no idea how to close this post. Um... thanks for reading all this, if you have? I've never posted art before, I'm kinda terrified. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[newwwwusername]

Can you do a platonic Autistic!Vaggie and Angel fic?

Vaggie has an overstimulated meltdown due to having to deal with everyone's antics and surprisingly Angel comforts her

Do not repost this on other sites. It will be cross-posted to AO3 under the same username.

Content warning for self-injurious stimming and depictions of an Autistic meltdown

Normally, Vaggie was good at ignoring the chaos of the hotel and all of the constant talking and whining and bitching from what few residents lived there.

Vaggie generally didn't get too overstimulated at the Hotel. She'd fought on the front lines before, back when she was an Exorcist, so she knew how to endure the noise well enough. The lights were generally kept pretty dim for her sake, by Charlie's insistence. Alastor had suggested a few times that they made the place brighter but one look at Vaggie was all Charlie needed to shut that idea down.

However, at this particular moment, her brain wasn't handling everything as well as it should've.

Sir Pentious and Alastor had gotten into a petty, loud argument about the semantics of... Something, and the noise was only made worse by the occasional two cents from the Egg Bois, who couldn't seem to decide which side they were on.

Over by the bar, Charlie was enthusiastically going through a list of ideas of how to make that part of the Hotel more friendly, much to Husk's annoyance. Angel sat by, occasionally throwing in a vulgar comment.

And Niffty was... Well, being Niffty and loudly tormenting a few roaches who had found their way into the main area of the hotel.

Vaggie stood by the staircase, trying her best to keep herself calm and collected even as all the noise grew louder. It was a losing battle, though, especially as her brain began to focus in on the sound of the lights and the AC as well. It was Angel who saw her race upstairs, so he casually walked away from the bar- Charlie and Husk were too deep into discussion to even notice him leaving.

Upon going upstairs, Angel quickly made his way to Vaggie's quarters. He opened the door (which she hadn't locked in her overwhelm) and immediately spotted her sitting up in the bed, curled in a ball, and hitting herself in the head repeatedly.

He quickly but calmly got up onto the bed. He didn't want to touch her when she was clearly overwhelmed so he instead picked up one of the pillows on the bed and gently put it in between her hand and the hand she was hitting herself with, just to minimize injury.

He got up again and walked over to where the light slider was on the wall and dimmed the lights in the room. Her hitting died down a bit with that and he could now more clearly hear the low whine repeatedly emanating from her vocal chords.

"Vaggie?" he said in an uncharacteristically soft voice as he once again sat down on the bed in front of her. She didn't give any sort of response- Verbal or otherwise- So he figured that this probably wasn't a talk-through-it type of meltdown. Realistically, all he could really do now was keep her company until she calmed down.

Eventually, she tired herself out enough for the meltdown to end and she just sat there, avoiding Angel's gaze. She was embarrassed- This was embarrassing. She felt embarrassed when it was Charlie seeing her like that- But Angel Dust?

She was about ready to curl up and die.

"Ya okay?" Angel asked. She shrugged. "Can't talk?" She nodded timidly. "'Kay, hold on a sec" he told her, pulling out his phone and opening the notes app. He handed her the device with a weak smile. "There ya go"

'Sorry about that' she typed out. He frowned.

"Ya don't gotta apologize fo' that" he told her earnestly. "I know we ain't all tha' close, but I ain't gonna judge ya fo' somethin' like this. Ya can't help it"

'Thank you for the pillow and the lights and for not leaving me alone'

"I figured no one else was gonna cause they were all distracted" he told her honestly. She supposed that was fair- I think they both would've preferred if it was Charlie there with her instead of him, but it also could've been worse. "D'ya wanna be left alone?"

'No, it's okay. You can stay if you want'

"Alrigh' then" Angel leaned back on the bed and stared at the ceiling while Vaggie recovered from her meltdown. He wondered if he could call her a friend rather than an acquaintance.

Vaggie figured that they were probably friends.

[iconsumethesoulsofthedamned]

Ima preface this with parts of this are my personal head cannons this is basically about how I perceive the characters.

Ok behold a little essay of sorts:

So recently this has been living in my chest like a lizard: Dream Is the most similar to delirium and oh the parallels.

Dream and Delirium are the only 2 endless about unrealities. The others represent feelings or parts of life but Dream and Delirium are both about the subconscious and the chaos of the mind. They’re inside your head if you will. This is why they get along so well. If dream were to go insane he would probably end up extremely similar to Delirium.

They are Both the most childlike. Dream encompasses wonder and stories and in a way innocence ; he trusts wholeheartedly you can see this with every single person he falls in love with. He trusts them unequivocally. He believes that they’ll love him just as much as he loves them because why wouldn’t they? That’s how a kid thinks. He is selfish and petty and doesn’t understand the consequences because he thinks like a child. Delirium is also in a tragic way extremely childish. She jumps in to things with everything with complete disregard for rules and she measures that shit with her heart. She wants to help but she usually doesn’t know how and sometimes she just doesn’t do what she’s supposed to or what people tell her too. You can’t control her because she doesn’t care. She knows that bad things happen and that sometimes she is the bad things but there’s not much she can do about it so her brain just doesn’t process it.

I think that they work so well together and manage to understand eachother because both of them are insane and inwardly 8 year olds who are trying really hard to do the right thing even though they don’t know what that is. They both mean well but don’t realize the damage they can cause because they don’t have the ability to think past the ‘im mad now, I hurt now, I want now,I love now’. Delirium however embraced the chaos of not being an adult mentally while dream is desperately trying to fill shoes he can’t. He’s to proud to ask for help and he’s to proud to admit he makes mistakes so he suffers alone. He’s a kid who was given a task that he couldn’t complete without help but he wants to prove that he’s responsible and grown up enough to do it and because of this he fails miserably and tragically. Delirium on the other hand was like I can’t win why try why not do what I feel is right. And It works for her in a way. She goes along with everything else and follows her heart and doesn’t try to live up to anything or anyone.

In short they are both traumatized kids with a lot of issues and I love them.

[dirtytransmasc]

do you have any ao'nung and tsireya bonding w their new brother, spider, hcs?? <3

I had almost finished writing this post out, and then my computer died, and I wanna scream. anyway

both siblings are good kids, so when their parents take spider in and tell them to treat him as one of their own, they do it. spider is their baby brother (we don't know ao'nung or tsireya's ages, so they might be younger, but I don't care, spider's the baby of the family as far as I'm concerned) from the second he's brought into their home

tsireya is the sweet supportive sister from the very beginning, she loves having another baby brother to coddle and annoy (cause that's what big sisters are good for). ao'nung is the pain in the ass big brother who would die before someone harms a hair on his head.

tsireya is the empathetic, emotional protector sibling; she helps keep him grounded, gives him a rock to hold onto when he can't go to their parents, since his sort of parental trauma doesn't just go away easy, no amount of proper parenting with undo it, so sometimes he needs someone in his corner when his mind gets the best of him. ao'nung is more of physical protector, he makes sure no one messes with his baby brother, that he takes care of himself, and that he doesn't push himself too far.

tsireya is normally the one who follows him when he sulks off, and it always works out the same way; she goes to find him, sits next to him without saying a word, and then waits for him to fall against her before she wraps her tail around him. sometimes she starts humming or singing, sometimes they talk, other times they just sit and listen to the water or the forest. he feels safe to just feel and react and cry when he's with her.

ao'nung is his partner in crime, they're attached at the hip, constantly butting heads, and always ready for chaos. ao'nung taught spider everything he knows about their culture, diplomacy, leadership, and mischief; so not only are they good at pissing each other off, but they're good at breaking havoc against any poor unfortunate soul, and getting away with it (they're best friends and it shows)

when spider first joins the village, but was not yet adopted, tsireya tries to be kind and welcoming, as she did with the sully's joining the village. ao'nung does the same, in the way that he treats spider like he did the sully's; he antagonizes cause he's a stupid teenager. he hits a sore spot fast and see's spiders true nature very quickly. he thought that spider was a relatively well-rounded kid like him, thought he could take a couple jabs here and there, he didn't know how badly he had been alienated his whole life, so the few stabs at spider's human nature revealed how sad and anxious he was, how hard he tried to fit in. he's pretty protective after that, so you can only imagine how he reacted when he found out how spider was treating himself, and how he was being treated by the sully's after neteyam's death.

when spider goes through his mental and physical burnout, its ao'nung that won't leave his side; he practically force feeds him when he won't eat, is constantly offering him water, watching him sleep, forcing him to clean himself up. he makes sure he won't lose another brother (spider's body gave out during the clean up of the battle, ao'nung subsequently witnessed it, and after losing neteyam, it made him feel a certain type of way).

ao'nung and tsireya were the first people to get spider to smile again.

spider brings out tsireya's competitive streak, they always have some sort of petty bet going on between them; who can finish chores first, who can piss off ao'nung first, etc.

ao'nung and spider, no matter how they present themselves, are fair, intelligent, competent leader's. they are s perfect duo when it comes to helping tonowari maintain the village during the war times and they're are constantly surprising everything everyone with how serious they can be at times.

spider likes to show his siblings his live by making them things or doing their hair. he likes quiet time with his loved ones.

ao'nung and spider are a mirror image of neteyam and lo'ak respectively, and it makes them both a little sad, and it chills the Sully's to their cores.

when they sleep together as a family, the kids sleep between their parents, with spider in the very middle, cause they all know that boy needs all the cuddles.

[dilatorywriting]

ADGSH I'm glad my brainworms spark joy, truly /gen.

There's a part of me that always feels a little bad about spreading the brainworms, because I know full well how much chaos they can cause. And I even stopped myself passing on the infection this time! And then the universe had other plans.

But alas I hath returned for a part 2. A significantly shorter part 2. I'm not sure if this will help or hinder the og plot you already had planned but! I bestoweth it onto thee all the same.

So.

Azul is now squatting in your house. Your already-too-small-for-just-you little apartment living space above your shop. He still refuses to tell you what he is, but it's quite obvious that he's not human. You would guess that he's A Thing from the ocean, based on some of his.... Habits. You suppose that it's better he stays with you though, so that you can keep an eye on him until he sorts out whatever it is that he's done to bind you both together.

Except, in that regard, you're both at a bit of an impasse. Because just as you are absolutely certain that the cause of this situation is on Azul's side, Azul is just as convinced that this whole thing is your doing somehow.

He regards you, and your shop, and your daily life in general, as if it's all some big farce. Like if he just waits long enough he'll eventually find a crack to pry his fingers into and rip down the veil, leaving you no choice but to reveal yourself as the big powerful wizard that tricked him into a binding contract. Except that's never going to happen, because you're not a big powerful wizard and never will be. And you can't make any progress on undoing the bind yourself, so you're stuck waiting until Azul manages to look past his ego and see you for what you really are.

In the mean time, the both of you settle for being as passive-agressive as possible.

There seems to be a pact of non-agression, or protection from harm, built into the bond between you. Azul cannot simply kill you to solve the issue, and you, regrettfully, cannot literally slap some sense into him. So instead, you've devolved to petty inconveniences. No there is no spare mattress, Azul, and very very unfortunately you can't afford to buy one so yes, Azul, you will have to sleep on the floor, all night, every night :). And oh? what's this? Azul woke up early because the floor was uncomfortable? And reagarranged your entire kitchen and store inventory? So now nothing is where you remember it being and finding the cultery drawer takes you 20 minutes? Why thank you, Azul :) How Generous Of You :) For Cleaning Up :)

And all of this really shouldn't be making you as upset as it does.

Seriously. You have a thick skin from growing up as the token Untalented, Almost-Magicless Mage. You do Customer Service for a living and deal with all sorts of rude and strange customers. Yet somehow Azul, Mr Pretty Boy who winded himself climbing the stairs, gets under all of this experience. Maybe it's because he's with you nearly 24/7. Maybe it's because whenever you turn to him, 7 times out of 10 what you're met with is his cold, calculating gaze. Waiting for that big reveal that's never going to happen. Or maybe it's because having someone convinced that you're more than you really are hurts so much more than any insult. Whatever the case, you continue to spark off each other.

Eventually this ends in disaster, as only it can. And it involves the little Sunday Market Pest.

You'd discovered that your Sunday Market Rival sometimes picked through your trash, and often swiped your smaller deliveries if you left them out for too long. So you'd set a trap - a box of enchanted flower seeds that you'd wrapped up to look like a delivery, set on your doorstep as if you'd forgotten it. But Azul, in his infinite wisdom, takes it upon himself to twist the enchantment put on them, so that when your rival came to demonstrate the product at the market the following day, it would turn out... not quite as anticipated, to say the least.

Problem was, you'd already sabotaged the seeds yourself. Soaked them in a mild potion, that should've changed the intented effect of the seed to a disappointing huff of smoke.

But when that poor, clueless rival of yours activates one during the bustling Sunday Market, your mild potion mixes with whatever strange enchanment Azul had cast, and the result is...quite quite bad.

You were there of course, to witness how your little trick would turn out, only to see the townspeople fleeing from the scene en masse. At the center of the almost empty market is a bizzarre disaster that swats at the stragglers and the unconscious rival of yours.

You turn to Azul and find his signature, cold stare looking back at you. He asks what you intend to do. And you break.

You scream. You scream that you can't do anything, that you never could, because you barely had any magic at all. Somewhere in your rant you also call Azul stupid. Stupid for letting his pride obscure what was in front of his face - you're just a human with barely enough magic to make some flowers grow. Not this formidable magical mastermind he mistook you for.

Azul just stares at you. Something... raw creeps over his face as he watches you. And then he's gone. And it goes suddenly and eeriely quiet at the disaster zone behind you. You turn, and the disaster is gone, smoking, as if blighted off the face of the earth. Azul is walking back to you with his eyes cast down and his mouth twisting.

The both of you sit on nearby grassy knoll and watch the wreckage smoulder. Eventually Azul speaks, and it really does feel like the earth itself stops moving when he not only admits his mistake, but also apologizes. It's short, and clipped, and huffed through his nose but it's still uttered. Azul continues speaking, and picks over his words slowly.

"If magic power is something you desire, though. I can help with that. While this bond lasts, I can be your... patron. Of sorts. I can advise with my own power and knowledge. For a price."

And when you ask what that price is, he simply says "There'll be several subclauses, but the priority is this: when I find a way to sever the bond between us, you must agree to willingly release me at that time. Otherwise, I'm afraid we'll be stuck like this. So it's also in your best interest."

And so, you make a deal with a Azul Ashengrotto, and employ an ancient eldritch something as your patron.

(aaaaand scene. That's kind of all there is for this one. Seelie post inspo + some softcore enemies to friends to lovers. Will the brainworms leave me in peace? who can say. For all I know, I could be back tomorrow with an "actually i lied the brainworm coughed up a fluff scene at 5am in the morning pls take". If nothing else I hope it sparks joy /gen)

-Reaper

*claps and claps and claps and claps and—*

I am so in love with this it’s a problem. Here I am working on Leona’s next part, trying to finish up two different projects that have nothing to do with Azul at all, and now my brain is just happily swimming through the sea of Octo Boy Chaos. Just *muah* *chef’s kiss* just builds on itself to get better and better. I am such a sucker for Azul AUs with the whole Enemy-To-??? Dynamic that mirrors the situation in the actual game. And this is just lovely

But thank you muchly for blessing my brain with this Masterpiece of a Brain Worm. Hopefully this lil’ wormy can learn to coexist with all the others currently duking it out. Best of luck, little dude

[coeluvr]

Playing a petty/bitchy mc is so fun 🙏🙏🙏🙏 you can tell luceris to kill himself, destroy that maid's life AND also ruin E's attempt of flirting with Helios by flustering them instead!!!! Also it was so funny when E knocked into a bunch of ppl just bcs MC is smooth sjeheusbsjwbed thank you for writing the story and the characters this way ❤️❤️❤️

I live for that kind of MC hehe just a harbinger of chaos 🙏

I imagine MC meeting E again and E just remembering the fact they knocked into a bunch of things because of MC still being mad about it 😭 E refuses to admit it was because MC made them feel some sort of way, I know them.

[thelampisaflashlight]

Between Dreams

[Set after Tell Me About It and Between You and Yourself, Rain has a habit of people watching, but the cold weather makes it hard to do, so he’ll have to settle for watching his friends.]

Rain wouldn’t say he’s the sort of person who spies on people for fun, no, it just so happens that his feet go in the same direction as people having interesting conversations, and how could he possibly not follow if it was so out of his hands?

Okay, so, maybe he did like eavesdropping a little bit, but you try living in a place like the abbey and not develop such a habit.

He mostly does it when he’s bored, which he’ll admit has been happening more and more since the change in the seasons. The winter months always remind him of his days back in Limbo, how everything was always so muted and bland, and the only way to pass the time was trying to get to know the downtrodden specters drifting here and there...

People were his entertainment, and with most of the abbey’s employees retreating to their dorms earlier and earlier due to the cold, Rain has had to turn to his packmates in hope of avoiding a very, very boring winter.

Thankfully, his friends are nothing if not dramatic, so there’s plenty of chaos to watch... the only problem is, he’s a bit more invested in this drama than whatever petty human issues the siblings fight about, and it’s starting to feel more painful than pleasurable to watch as Aether and Swiss circle around each other like anxious dogs meeting for the first time.

Their fighting, or rather lack thereof, even has Dew tense in a way that he hasn’t seen in a long time.

And he hates it.

He hates it, because Dew of all people shouldn’t need to worry about these kinds of things, and Aether shouldn’t hide things from his family, and Swiss...

Actually, Rain isn’t sure what Swiss’ deal is.

Sometimes he sees him wandering around late at night, looking wide eyed and startled, as he makes his way into Mountain and Dew’s room.

He gets curious one night and follows after, waits for anything... uhh... “peculiar” on the sound front, but what he does hear is nothing scandalous, it’s...

“Can’t sleep?” Dew’s voice is so soft, gentler than he’s heard it before, though it might just be because he’s tired, but the little whine that Swiss makes towards him is so fragile, Rain can understand why he’s not more annoyed at being woken up.

There’s a creak across the room, muted footsteps moving across the hardwood floor.

Mountain’s awake.

“...Move over.” 

Rain presses his ear closer to the door, curious, but when he does, the door pops open and...

“If you’re going to do these kinds of things, Rainy, at least cover up your scent.” Mountain sighs, “Come on, get inside, it’s late and we should all head to bed.”

Rain doesn’t have to be told twice, offering a small apology before stepping inside.

Looking around, he spots Swiss getting comfortable in Dew’s nest, while the other ghoul adjusts the various pillows and blankets around him, briefly glancing in his direction before making another space for...

“You’re going on the end, because your feet are always cold and I don’t want you waking me up in the middle of the night.” Dew huffs, fluffing a beat up looking throw pillow, “Seriously, I’m going to have to make this nest bigger if this becomes a whole pack affair...”

Rain blinks.

This was not what he expected, but...

He’s not one to pass up a sleepover.

[ceresfromnationstates]

Henry's condensed backstory (Fan canon)

Related post: Henry's ref sheet.

Born in the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico, Henry was born in late 1991 to a middle income family who had just moved from Provo 1 year after he was born. An only child, Henry was fortunate enough to have a loving family that rarely gets into fights even to this day.

From a young age, Henry was known to be a quiet kid and also a troublemaker, but despite the numerous bruises and disciplinary actions he got for his behavior, he continued doing what he did best, mainly out of the sheer fun and thrill he gets from it. Though Henry did have a bit of an unsavory reputation, he also formed a close circle of friends with his other schoolmates and neighborhood kids, something that he would strive to uphold for as long as he could.

By middle school, Henry started moving away from causing trouble and focus more on making friends, as well as learning to stand up to the tougher kids. He also developed a knack for picking up abandoned money that he found and would later use to buy things whenever he's short on pocket money, over time, he would go on to even picking pennies on sight. By now, his greed is now growing.

Henry now knows how to live on his own by the time he graduated to high school, meaning that he could do more things in private without his parents' prying eyes. He had moved on from taking just pennies on the ground to small-time theft, mostly small items from stores or somebody's unattended trinkets in one place or another, suffice it to say, he was never ashamed of it.

It was also at this time where he vividly remembers experiencing his first temporal phenomenon, what he describes as "the same day repeating over, and over, and over, and over again, but increasingly fast forwarded every time I wake up again". Though he'd considered the possibility of it being a very realistic dream, Henry adamantly believes that the event was a temporal phenomenon of sorts, though he could not explain how he acquired the number of supernatural abilities he would soon have.

By the time he went to college in Austin, Henry's habitual stealing had died down, as he was more occupied with his studies than he does with the former. At this time, he also met his two close friends Calvin and Chris, where they would continue being close friends even today.

A year after he finished college, Henry is now 19 and back in Arizona, now living on his own in Phoenix. Unfortunately his part-time job didn't pay him very well and he is short on cash, so he had to resort to stealing. This attempt failed, and he soon found himself in West Mesa Penitentiary, where he would somehow escape after 9 months spent in there.

Some time after his close brush with the law, Henry swears to never commit thievery again. This wouldn't last very long as just 1½ years later, he would steal the Tunisian Diamond and reap his ill-gotten rewards. Henry even has the audacity to call the heist "The single most greatest achievement in my life as a petty criminal.".

Eventually, he would be recruited by the Federal Government to assist Cpt. Hubert Galeforce in taking down the Toppat Clan's airship division from the inside. Afterwards, he was granted amnesty by the government for his service.

Life would go on normally for another 4 years before he was taken from his home to rural British Columbia to be brought in front of the warden of The Wall and imprisoned, where he also met with Ellie, where the both of then would go on to spark an all out riot in the complex and successfully flee from it in the process.

2 days after the inmate outbreak, The Wall is put under the control of the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, consisting of a detachment of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy as well as several elements of the RCMP. After this, chaos energy levels in southwestern British Columbia have dropped significantly.

Henry and Ellie, who by now had crossed into South America and have been closely followed by surviving Wall Group elements had intended to join the remnants of the Toppat Clan and give the Romanian Ruby back to them, but at the last second, defected to U.S. forces and took down the Toppats once and for all. Both Henry and Ellie are then officially pardoned by the Government and offered monetary compensation.

It is because of Henry's actions that the last remnants of the Toppat Clan are now scattered across Europe and North America, and Wall Group are now under investigation by Interpol.

It has been one year since. Life for Henry and Ellie have been relatively normal ever since their escapade in South America.

Or is it?

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #49 — Guys, This One Was Kinda Fucked Up

Sunder’s got his magic eyes in and is currently eating Skids’s brain. Not to worry though, because Dr. Rung of the Pious Pools, PhD, psy-op specialist and master of stick-fu, who goads people into shooting infants and also himself, is handling the situation.

Well, thank god we’re minding our Ps and Qs with the literal serial killer.

Sunder, of course, doesn’t see why Rung’s so upset, as he believes himself to be doing Skids a favor by unearthing his repressed memories. Honestly, I think if he’d asked first, Skids would’ve been all for it. Maybe not the cannibalism aspect of this activity, but the unearthing for sure.

Hopping back into those memories, we skip forward a bit, as Tarn comes in to check on Skids’s progress for fixing the teleport machine. He transforms, because we need to reiterate that he really fucking loves transforming. Snare is also here. You remember Snare? The man who’s never seen his feet? He’s here too. Weird that he keeps finding himself dealing with the worst of the Decepticon upper command.

Anyway, Skids and Tarn have worked out a little deal, where Skids fixes Grindcore’s teleporters, in exchange for the release of fifty Autobot prisoners. If Skids doesn’t manage to do it, Tarn will kill 500 prisoners as punishment. Which is sort of like decimation, with deci- times the slaughter. Luckily, Skids is god’s favorite little man, and Tarn seems aware of it, as he congratulates him on a job well done. Then he throws him back in his cell, where Quark is waiting to make fun of him for smiling like a doofus over having gotten in Tarn’s good graces.

Quark doesn’t trust Tarn to keep his word, and thinks that Skids is a fucking moron for having faith in the guy with all this power over their lives. Skids admits that while Tarn probably isn’t going to keep his word, it’s still better that their mass teleportation machine is working again, so that prisoners can at least be transported to do slave labor on other planets, where they’ll need to be fed and kept alive, unlike Grindcore.

That’s when the radio cuts on, playing a song that would one day become infamous for its implications— The Empyrean Suite.

...But I’m sure it’s fiiiiiiine!

Back in the present, Froid’s unlocking Sunder’s cell and taking off his handcuffs, just in time for the flamebots to show back up and tell him to cut that shit out. Sunder, of course, does his thing, and Rung and Skids watch in horror as something super gross happens off-panel, complete with wet, squishy SFX. Rung also transmits something via his recorder thumb, likely a warning to the others on the ship. But we won’t know for sure for a bit, because now we’re jumping forward in time.

Over in the maximum security section of the Lost Light’s brig, we finally see Mr. Pugface Charisma himself, strung up and restrained in a way reminiscent of how Alternate Rung was in the epilogue of the “Elegant Chaos” storyline, but decidedly hornier. Tailgate zips by on his hoverboard, apparently having woken up at some point. Seems like he’s doing fine, though, so I’m not too worried about how long he slept.

Tailgate isn’t thrilled to have run into Getaway, and is even more displeased when Getaway refuses to speak to him about what exactly is happening; everything is dark, everyone else has disappeared, someone’s graffitied the walls, and there’s a bunch of greebled orbs laying around.

Tailgate shows Getaway Cyclonus’s vial of innermost energon that he left by his bedside (aw, he does love him!), then tells Getaway to go fuck himself, punching the steel plate door to his cell and shattering the windows as he does. Of course, Getaway genuinely does have a reason for not speaking to Tailgate, so it’s not like he’s being intentionally petty.

Now who was the sadistic little bastard who decided that he needed his limbs off and voice taken away? This is some freak shit right here, this is borderline fetish material.

Tailgate goes to investigate one of the weird greeble orbs, and Rung, Skids, and Froid show up just in time to warn him not to touch it, as it’s actually one of the crew members, having been turned inside out, thanks to Sunder making them think that’s what shape they need to be. It’s fucked up. This is a fucked up storyline. Tailgate’s most worried about Cyclonus though, as should be clear by his vial lanyard. He grabs Rung by the arm and demands to know where his not-boyfriend is.

It turns out that after Megatron heard that a guy with eyeballs that make you turn into a bowl of haggis was loose onboard the ship, he turned the lights out and had everyone lock themselves in their rooms. So Cyclonus is probably in habsuite 14, staring out the window, which he was probably going to do anyway. Very little about today is switching up his standard routine.

Rung and company aren’t locked up because they’re looking for Chromedome, so he can put Skids’s memories into the proper lockbox in his head, seeing as he’s gonna die if he recalls them too fast. Rung’s also out here to yell at Froid, because he can’t fucking believe he’d go and get close to a guy who’s got Megatron turning out the lights and hiding. Froid, however, swears his motives are purely professional.

Skids starts groaning again, which means that Sunder is nearby, and sure enough, the brain goblin comes ‘round the corner not a moment later.

In the flashback, Tarn is congratulating Skids on a job well done, then shows him proof of the fifty prisoners having been let out of Grindcore, now roaming around in the Manganese Mountains. Because the last time Roberts had robots holed up in the mountains, it worked out so very well for everyone.

Skids tries to sweeten the deal for next time, but Tarn says that he’s no longer useful to have around, since he’s an Autobot, and Snare watched him do all the stuff that fixed the teleporters. However, Tarn would be loathe to let Skids’s good deed go unpunished.

Don’t worry about the corpses in the background; they’re part of the decor.

Skids, however, is a selfless little man, and he has the bright idea to ask if he can give his free ride to someone else.

Back in the present, Froid is trying to run away from the monster he helped create, and it gets him about as far as you’d expect, as he explodes into a beautiful spaghetti flower and then orbs up. It looks like Rung, Skids, and Tailgate are next, but luckily there’s still a hero left to save the day.

Careful now, Tailgate, you’re a (possibly(accidentally)) married man!

Thunderclash and Megatron chase after Sunder, taking a moment to note that one of the balls in this corridor is Rodimus, while Chromedome sticks his fingers in the holes in Skids’s compartmentalization. Rung and Tailgate also run off to face Sunder, Rung claiming to have an ace up his sleeve.

Megatron and Thunderclash catch up to Sunder in the shuttle bay as he’s entering his ship, which makes Megatron remember something very important: Septre was a fucking ship.

Honestly, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.

Thunderclash isn’t concerned with Sunder now being the size of a McMansion, claiming that he must be scared, considering he’s stopped using his black speech bubbles. Apparently those were meant to convey a “Mortilus impersonation”. Why they know what their gods are supposed to sound like isn’t addressed.

Sunder makes a speech about being too hardcore to be afraid of death, because he’s a mnemosurgeon and eats memories and flies around in his brother’s corpse. Then he orbs Thunderclash, husband of millions, thus officially barring himself from the kingdom of heaven. This is the point where Rung attacks him with his fleet of model ships, which are apparently also RC planes. This plan only works for a moment, because, again, Sunder is currently the size of a house.

Megatron, having been knocked down in the direction of the fusion cannon Thunderclash had been wearing, is in the perfect position to strap it on and blow this giant hungry bitch away. However, he probably knows that if he resorts to violence, Rodimus will take away his Rodimus Star for abandoning his evil ways. Tailgate, no doubt frustrated by Megatron trying to talk down the guy who keeps haggising the crew, takes matters into his own hands.

No, he couldn’t do that before. Tailgate himself isn’t sure why exactly he can suddenly pick up midlife crisis purchases and hurl them with enough force to incapacitate serial killers. We’ll have to get Velocity on this, since she’s the only doctor left on the ship.

Because Rung is resigning.

When Rung sent that recording of Froid and his conversation, as a way to warn Megatron of the danger on the ship, it also included their little argument over being “too close” to patients, and Rung’s delicensing. Knowing that more than one other person is privy to his crimes, Rung’s decided to beat things to the punch and retire, as if the Lost Light could afford to lose their mental health specialist, even if he does suck absolute dick. Megatron seems to see it that way, anyhow, suggesting that Rung still tell his patients about not being licensed, but let them decide if they still want to see him anyway.

Rung calls him a stupid fuck in the most polite way possible, then leaves, just as Rodimus is arriving. Megatron makes a pun, then we get the skinny on what’s going on with Tailgate. As best as Velocity can figure, the background radiation caused by quantum travel, combined with being stressed the fuck out by Cyclonus being shot and seemingly killed in front of him, caused his spark to evolve. Which is a much better deal than what I’d assume that sort of thing would do for a human being. I figure that’d be a heart attack situation.

Rodimus wants to know what happened with Sunder in the shuttle bay, and why Megatron tried to talk him down instead of firing. Megatron’s figured that he’s tried the way of violence for the last several million years, and he’s really trying to be better than that now, even if it gets people hurt. He’s a pacifist now. Which sucks, because it’s probably going to bite both him and those around him in the ass later, and also he’ll never be Vash the Stampede, so he really shouldn’t even bother trying.

Getting back to the flashback (sort of, anyway; Skids isn’t remembering this next part, it’s more for us as the readers to get closure) Quark’s queued up for the teleporter, having been given Skids’s spot. He’s gonna be doing hard labor on “New Tarn”. Skids is also here, having apparently touched Tarn’s cold, dead heart with his kindness. Everyone loads up into the teleporter, and it looks like everything’s gonna be just fine!

I said EVERYTHING’S GONNA BE JUST FINE.

The music comes on, significantly louder in this chamber, and Skids is suddenly teleported out and away, Quark screaming for him as he disappears. He arrives in Tarn’s office, where he’s leaning on his desk and drinking out of his fancy little decanter, waiting for the show to start. Skids knows by this point that the machine he was sent to fix was in actuality a smelter, and Tarn explains that they need that fancy shmancy sentio metallico to build bodies for their upcoming MTO forces. Then he drags Skids over to the window and melts the belief in a loving god out of his head.

And that’s a series wrap on Quark! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

...Nobody tell Brainstorm about this.

[thequeercircle]

Virgil’s Curse of “Your Actions Have Consequences”

To catch your enemy in a web of their own making; expose them for their lies, deceit, abuse, or other bullshit for which the consequences are misfortune, misery, and perhaps even ostracization for their actions. 

This is a very strong, multifaceted spell. Use it wisely, protect yourself, and most importantly: Find some comfort and maybe even some joy in the fact that your target has what’s coming to them, and they will soon be seen for who exactly they are.

Items:

Black box with mirrors lining the inside. (this can be as fancy or thrifty as you want. You can use a wooden box with mirrors lining the inside. You can line a shoebox with aluminum foil and paint the outside black. You can make a box out of black paper and glue some pieces of mirror or other reflective coating to the inside. Jars can work too: As long as your vessel can be painted black, is sealable, and has some sort of reflective interior, you’re good to go.)

Hematite: attract negativity

Garnet: so others may see them for what they are, and side with you

Sulfur powder: for chaos, cursing, attracting negativity to target

Black Pepper: to cause trouble

Cayenne Pepper: to bring about pain, anxiety, and strength to the spell

Red pepper flakes: To injure their pride, attract misfortune, cause pain

Thistle thorns: to stick the curse to the target, fill their lives with sharp, hurtful experiences, and to promote helplessness (anything pointy and sharp will work fine. I used thistle from my yard specifically because it’s a blight on my garden, a nuisance, and hurts like hell every time I try to pull them up even while wearing gloves, which is exactly the vibe I’m going for here)

Foxtails: To stick the spell to the target, to be a nuisance, to cause discomfort (once again, anything that fits this description works fine. Thistles, thorns, burrs, anything that likes to stick to you and your pets and is a pain to get off will work.)

Lavender: depression, restlessness

Rosemary: taint their dreams, cause paranoia, cloud their vision

Ginger: bitterness, strengthen spell

Coffee beans: awaken the target, strengthen the spell, promote anxiety and insomnia

Dragon’s blood incense and ash: bring unwanted attention, expose them for who they are, destroy all that’s good in their life, adds additional power to your spell

Black fabric

Red thread

Red or black candle

Paper with name of target

Optional: Paper with sigil of of your choice (can be for misfortune, misery, revenge, exposure, anything really.)

Steps:

1: Gather up all your materials before beginning.

2: Set your wards or protections, cast a circle, do whatever it is that helps you set the intention of the spell while protecting yourself. Now is a good time to light your Dragon’s Blood incense to not only set the tone and start the spell, but also give you time to collect the ashes.

3: Write your target’s full name and alias(es) on a piece of paper.

       3b: (optional) if you also choose to use a sigil, write this on a piece of paper         as well

4: Get the fabric, and fill with the herbs, spices, ash, and papers.

5: Tie the bundle together, tie off with red thread. Make sure it is mostly ball-shaped. Seal with candle wax if needed.

6: Draw a face on the fabric, preferably a face you imagine your target making when met with the consequences of their actions. Envision your target while doing so. Envision your target being filled with discord, misery, negativity, pain, etc, and drawing unwanted attention for all that they have done.

7: Draw an ear on the side of the head. Whisper into the ear the things you want them to feel guilt, pain, misery, and chaos for. Tell them the things you want them to constantly hear within their own head. Tell them everything you wish you could say to their face. Be mean. Be vicious. Be furious. Be petty. Target their insecurities, fears, and weaknesses. 

8: Place the bundle and stones inside the black mirrored box.

9: Before closing the box, recite the incantation below.

Let -name- be tangled by the web they made

Let them struggle like never before

Let them be exposed for who they are

Let them feel all that lies in store

The web is one of their own making

Woven from their own lies

Discord will follow close behind

‘Til their every hope and dream dies

All that’s good within their life

Will sour, fester, and rot

Misery befalls them with no reprieve

From their own actions, brought

Let -name- be tangled by the web they made

Let them struggle like never before

Let them be exposed for who they are

Let them feel all that lies in store.

10: Close the box, seal with red or black wax.

11: The spell is done. Now is the time for some cleansing and self-care.

When you feel the curse is done or the target has suffered enough, reopen the box, burn the bundle, and cleanse the box for later use. 

Tips and Tricks:

This is a personal recommendation, but I find it helpful to handle the box while wearing sunglasses as it offers protection from the reflection of the curse coming back to you while opening, casting, and cleansing.

[imagine--if]

12 & 17 eddie

A/N: Absolutely 😍 the fluff prompt list/info is here!! Enjoy!

Pairing: Dano!Riddler x reader (The Batman 2022)

Prompts: “I live to protect you, and I won’t have it any other way.” “If that guy keeps staring at you, can I murder them?”

Words: 525

See, this is the exact reason why he doesn’t like taking you out to so late in the evening. The unwanted attention.

Edward knows the sort who lurk around corner shops and darkening streets, just waiting to pounce on the owners for more money and to cause more petty crime and chaos on Gotham’s streets. But how could he say no to you - how could he ever, anyway? - when you asked so sweetly if you two could go out to get snacks for your movie night.

You’d smiled so happily when he reluctantly gave in, and as you wander up and down the aisles, his grip on your hand is firm but gentle, Edward’s thumb absentmindedly rubbing against the back of it. He lets you put whatever you want in the basket and smiles fondly at your typical choices; and just as you’re paying, you feel Edward’s hold on your hand tighten significantly.

You look up with a small frown and follow Ed’s cold stare at a random thug-looking man hanging about near the doorway, though his attention isn’t really focused on the drinks stacked in the fridge to his left. He’s looking straight at you with a smirk that instantly makes you uneasy. You’re quick to look away, but Edward doesn’t, and a few moments later, he leans in closer to you to whisper.

“If that guy keeps staring at you, can I murder them?”

You try not to laugh as you finish up paying and stuff the snacks in a bag, glancing at the thug. “No, Eddie, it’s fine. We’re gonna leave, okay? Let’s leave.”

“Hey, man,” the shop owner calls from behind the counter, glaring at the thug, but not nearly with as much has as Edward’s, “you gonna buy something or what?”

That catches the man’s attention, and he narrows his eyes and stalks up to the owner in annoyance, fighting back at him. You take the chance to get out, pulling Edward along with you, and he doesn’t properly relax until you’re down the street and nearing your apartment.

“There’s so much wrong in this hellish place,” Edward says with a dark look, his arm around your waist now as he holds you close to his side. “There’s so much to do…”

“It’s okay, really, Ed,” you reassure him, hugging his side as best as you can while you both walk, “I’m alright, aren’t I?”

Edward lets out a large breath, looking at you with a soft smile and loving eyes as he squeezes your side. “Of course you are, angel. Because I won’t let anything get to you. I won’t. I live to protect you, and I won’t have it any other way.”

You smile back at him, unlocking the main door to the building and going in with him. “Thanks, Eddie. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

He takes the bags from your hands and kisses your cheek adoringly before leading you up the stairs, and the unwanted attention of before is long forgotten as you seal yourselves off from the rest of Gotham in your apartment happily together, for the rest of the night.

.・ Taglist: ・.

@bimboanime @phoenixgurl030 @dangerouslittlefairy @katjourno @yoyoanaria @yaeyuuki @vinxlsketches @beenz-beenz @ghoulsgraveyard @birds-have-teeth @repostingmyfavs @r3ptiliaaa @for3v3rda1sy @glitterycheesecakegladiator @moonwritesblog @lilyevans1 @httpsunflowers @hxney-lemcn @confusedchildsstuff @callsigncrash @sugahbabieexo @bokksieu @skateb0red @wilburrrsworld @philiasoul @darthcringe @felicityofbakerstreet @bloodypantomime @deadlights-darling @tianotfound @mortem-muse @ireadandream @tinyryder @kpopgirlbtssvt @truecobblepot @jessicainhell

[1rsoldiersince2012]

Bound by Law (Matt Murdock x reader)

Words: 1734 (chapter 11)

Summary:

You and Matt met in the courtroom. Now, you may think that Matt was a knight in shining armour and defended you in the name of all United States laws, but that was not the case. Matt was totally destroying your client, and you wanted to tear him into pieces right then and right there, because with Murdock as your rival, your head is on the firm's plate with each case. Did Matt care? No, he only cared about bringing justice, he was a human-machine, driven by the need to bring righteousness no matter the cost. Or was he just that? What happens when you get involved in Fisk's business and Daredevil's lies against your will?

UPDATES EVERY FRIDAY

Find my other accounts on ao3 and wattpad under the same name <3

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1rSoldierSince2012

wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/1rsoldierSince2012

11. Mixing Business

"You know, I had a great time yesterday." Foggy says, acknowledging all the people gathered in Nelson and Murdock, all three in total - him, Matt and newly employed Karen.

"When did you have time for it?" Karen asks, smiling at Foggy, but he doesn't see it with his back turned.

"After your court. We went out for drinks. You know, all-lawyer gang."

"You two call yourselves gang?" Karen asks in disbelief.

"Foggy, you were wasted before five o'clock, we had to lead you to the taxi." Matt shouts from the other room.

"We?" Karen asks again.

"Yeah, me, Matty and y/n." Foggy lifts his head from the printer's back to see Karen's raised eyebrow. "She's our new friend. Sort of. More like my new friend, because Matt always has this weird aura around himself when she's near."

"Foggy." Matt leans on the threshold, one hand resting on his hips.

"Y/n? She's a lawyer too?" Karen sits, very interested in whom this new person was.

"Yeah, kicks ass, and is considered to be too pretty to be a lawyer, but that's her hidden talent."

 "Her hidden talent is that she's pretty?" Karen asks again, getting confused with each sentence that leaves Foggy's mouth.

"It's too early for him to make sense." Matt interferes in the dialogue, controlling his thoughts that were about to wander back to you.

"See, she uses her beauty to fool men into thinking that it's all she has, but then she literally destroys them with her legal knowledge. I might as well add art knowledge to the list after last week." Foggy smiles, crouching back to the printer.

"Huh, interesting."

"I think you'd like her. Although, as much as she likes to be petty in court with men, she wouldn't hesitate to do the same with women."

"But we're not in court, Foggy." Matt says, thinking again about your last night's behaviour, and how relaxed you seemed after winning the case. Yet one thing bothered him still, why you refused to sit next to him, and put Foggy in the middle? Had this something to do with your meeting in the café? Have you been-

Matt loses his train of thoughts when a loud knock shakes the glass of the doors. Foggy quickly returns to the standing position, looking confused at Karen, who returns the same look.

"Was that a knock? On our door?"

"Yes, somebody open." Matt urges Karen to do her job, and she runs to the door, opening them wide, when the man of the hour turns around, fake smile plastered on his face-

"Hi. Do you do walk-ins?" The man asks, and Matt feels like he knows his voice from somewhere, wasn't it the same man who called you on Monday?

As the web of lies was currently being made all around the small office of Nelson and Murdock, you were greeted by the surprise meeting with the founders of Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz. All of them sat at the round table in Linda's office, you - in front of them, feeling rather uncomfortable and intimidated by so many eyes.

"We were discussing some other things that can help make our company better, and then we-" Chao begins, falling silent, and being taken over by Hogarth.

"Recalled how you performed yesterday on live television. It was good-"

"But of course, could be much better with more practice, right?" Benowitz finishes the sentence, and you get a feeling that they rehearsed this in the morning.

"Now that the majority of Hell's Kitchen saw your potential, we expect those in need to choose our firm, and want you to represent them in court." Chao takes over again.

"But we know, how can one person do all of this? One might go insane. So-" Benowitz raises his eyebrows.

"We thought of a new policy."

"Just for you."

"Of course, we don't talk about the others, because as we all know it, they'll be stuck with those divorce cases for the rest of their lives."

"We talk about you, because you shined brightly last night, and proved that Landman and Zach are too easy to crack."

"We talk about you, and want to offer you a great deal." Benowitz stops, Hogarth continues.

"You work directly for us, any of us three, we get cases and think, oh we need an insight, let's call y/n, and then you'll get a full experience of working with real professionals. What do you say?"

You blink twice, not comprehending what they just said. "Sorry what? I'll have to be on a call just for you?"

"Right." Benowitz nods.

"And what about my own cases? I don't get to do those any more?"

"Oh, you will. If we decide that it's not worth our attention." Linda smiles, showing her teeth.

Oh. So you were about to get their trash. Amazing.

"Don't worry, the pay cheque is going to be bigger too, after all, it's a very, very important job."

"So, uh, when does this," you motion around the room with your finger, "business mixing begin?"

"Any moment from now. You're in?" Hogarth fold her hands in front of her, showing that she's done with the conversation.

"I guess..." You doubt, what was even happening right now? Were they trying to live off your sudden 'fame' by making you their associate?

"Great, then you, lady, have some days off, until, of course, we call you. Pleasure to have such understanding and good employees." Benowitz says, and you catch upon the voice change on the 'lady'. Each of them shake hands with you, and then you leave, confused more than ever about this whole morning. What the hell were you supposed to do on your off days, when the weekends have been a torture to live through?

*** 

"Why are you approaching us? Why not a larger firm, Mr.?" Matt waits for Wesley to respond with his last name, but the latter turns down the question.

"Confederated Global Investments is my employer."

"That's not what I was asking."

"It's the only name relevant to this discussion, Mr. Murdock." Wesley smiles, eyes not leaving Matt.

"Oh. So, why us?" Matt asks again, but Foggy is quick to interrupt.

 "Obviously, the larger firms aren't able to provide the same hands-on attention that we pride ourselves on at Nelson and Murdock. I'm sure you've heard of a couple of our recent cases." 

"It's a fair question. I'm here because my employer does extensive business in Hell's Kitchen, and who knows it better than two local boys who graduated from Columbia Law, cum laude and summa cum laude?"

 "Uh, the "summa" part is politics." Foggy corrects quickly, and Wesley fakes a smile again.

"You set up shop right here in your backyard despite the fact that both of you were made a very lucrative offer from Landman and Zack in Manhattan where you interned. And with that lawyer from HCB, who won a televised case, I'd say it's a bit difficult for you to put the roots in here." Wesley looks around the office, hoping that he doesn't have to step in here ever again.

"You've done your homework." Matt deadpans. 

"My employer expects no less."

 "Then forgive me for being blunt."

 "Blunt is a strong word." Foggy acknowledges himself again, sensing that if those two would be left alone, they would kill each other.

"In my line of work, I find it refreshing."

 "What is that line of work exactly?" Matt asks again, desperately wanting Wesley to answer who exactly he is. 

"What my partner is trying to say is we're still building a practice, so we're very particular about our clientele." Foggy tries to make the situation better.

"After all those cases, you still consider yourselves fresh?" Wesley simply couldn't believe where the talk was going. Foggy is at a loss for words, Matt says nothing as well. "I assure you, all my employer wants is for you to continue to be ethical, decent men, and good lawyers. And for that, for nothing more than your exceptional skills and your discretion, you'll be fairly compensated." He pushes a cheque towards Foggy.

"Wow, that is... Fair." Foggy stutters.

Wesley smirks, but soon notices that Matt showed no signs of happiness about the case. "Your partner doesn't seem convinced."

"Like Foggy said, we're particular about our clientele." Matt deadpans again, listening to Wesley's heartbeat, which remained steady the whole time. Perfect liar rarely gets caught.  

"I'm curious about your clientele. Do they all end up working for you after you get them off for murder, or just the pretty ones?" Wesley strikes, raising his eyebrows at Karen. The latter gets scared, and quickly leaves the room. Wesley fixes his glasses, pretending to care about the situation they were currently in, "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset anyone."

"How did you know about Miss Page's situation? There was nothing in the papers, and the court was a closed one."

"I have friends in the force. I'm sure I'm not the only one." Wesley looks at Foggy, who gets flustered quickly.

"I think we might be veering off the subject." Foggy defends himself.

"I understand your concerns, Mr. Murdock. Perhaps you should review one of our cases before you make a decision? Peace of mind and whatnot." Wesley says in a silk voice.

"That's a fantastic idea. Matthew?" 

Matt answers after a beat, already plotting a way to bust this man, who he now remembered to be called James. "Yeah, what harm could it do?"

"Excellent. You have 38 minutes to get to Precinct 15." Wesley stands up, Matt does too. 

"What? Now? What's the case?" Foggy panics slightly.

"Everything you need is in this file. Thank you for your time, gentlemen."  

"No. Thank you. Thank you very... " Wesley leaves, and Foggy instantly turns to look at Matt, "what is your problem?"  

"He wouldn't even give us his name, Foggy."

"You wouldn't care if you could see the zeroes on this check. Besides, I remember him talking to y/n at the exhibition."

"Maybe you would if you couldn't see them." Matt wants to ask about you meeting this scumbag, but his time is limited.

"We're running out of time."

Matt starts to walk away, "I'll meet you there."

"Meet me? The hell are you going? Matt!" The door closes loudly and Matt follows Wesley into the street, where he gets inside a car.

"It's been taken care of, Sir." Wesley says to Fisk, and they all drive off, before Wesley's phone starts ringing. Matt manages to catch a glimpse of your voice in Wesley's phone, before the sounds of the busy street take him back to reality. Matt stops and touches his wound on his waist. He's bleeding, the stitches he redid last night were worthless.

[birdy-the-tweet]

Amusing Darkness

A Nexo Knights Rewrite deleted scene

/|______________________________________|\

“Ah… The power’s out.” The old man chuckled to himself at the humor obscured in the lack of artificial light. While the dozens of townsfolk screamed and raced for the nearest exits after the king’s unpleasant declaration of darkness, he and his accomplice stood idle in the crowd and budged little when mortal bodies shoved against their sides. Both wore matching cloaks to conceal their faces, find fabric dyed a rich emerald green and embroidered in sigils and runes of golden thread. He, a seven food colossus of a disguised human, made little effort to hide his hearty weight and rounded stomach. It made him look plentiful, he reckoned. Wealthy in necessities and grateful for his fortune as a king.

His partner, standing only a foot and a half lower than him, was more scrawny compared to his eye-catching stature and barely indulged in the fineries of their lives. Bitter green eyes surveyed the chaos around them, and her mouth contorted in a dissatisfying grimace. “Foolish. It’s like they don’t want to save themselves even if it’s a petty thing to fear.”

“‘Tis a fear of many mortal kind, my dewdrop,” the king hummed back as if the idea amused him. “When man grows comfortable in safety and solitude, the sheer thought of the dark can deter many’s hearts. But still, I get your point. The locals are practically tripping over themselves trying to leave. It’s quite a sunny day, and light is light even if its path is blinding.”

“I swear on Puck’s two left feet, if I have to endure one more body colliding into mine-“ A mother shoved her way past the lady with two children in her arms. Her frantic apologies were met on deaf ears as the princess silently felt her patience thin into fragile glass.

A hand on her shoulder kept her from unleashing karma onto the woman. “Temperance, Nimue. They do not know better than primal instinct. Let them calm their simple minds.”

The sigh she vented through clenched jaws could poison a dragon with the sharp chill of her temper. Delicate hands concealed by leather gloves adjusted the latch of her cloak and pulled her hood further over her skull. “Yes Father, as you wish...”

“Good. Now, shall we follow the crowd outside? See what they’re up to now?”

“…I suppose.“

The two turned away from the balcony of the Joustdome, away from the gathering of robotic slaves and clumsy knights struggling to adjust to the building’s darkness, away from the evil that would awaken in less than an hour. That wasn’t their problem. They came to watch the people, no more than that. A long week of exploring the wild lands of Knighton was more than enough reason to take a break from the adrenaline of a monster hunt and observe the local ant hill of mankind. His Majesty had the luxury of a child’s invitation into this precarious land and thought it best to entertain his daughter with the people’s infantile routines and materialistic desires. While he wasn’t surprised she found little enjoyment in their paranoid behavior, it drew a smile to his face to know she at least paid attention.

“If I may ask,” the Lady of the Lake uttered to his side. “Is this what you’ve intended to do with that squire you cursed?”

The king’s eyes furrowed like a thread tightening into the braids of a crochet pattern. “Hm? Elaborate.”

“To instill fear. To toy with the man’s simple mind. Is that what you seek to do with the squire?”

“Oh! Yes. Sort of, among other more important things. Fear is not something I wish to purposefully inflict on others, especially the mortals who can’t keep their bladders in because of a good jumpscare. But it is something necessary. It’s a driving force, the emotion of fear is. It can either make or break a mortal.

“And that’s what I intend,” he mused. Whether the purr of his throat was for melancholy or malice, only time would tell. As far as his daughter knew, it could’ve easily been both. “To see if this squire will push through and stay true to his word or crumble under the horror of it all. Simple really.”

[rpclefairy]

𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 ‘𝐄𝐋𝐑𝐈𝐂 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐍𝐈𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐄’ 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐁𝐘 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐄𝐋 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐑𝐂𝐎𝐂𝐊.

“ man was not born to a world of justice. but he can create such a world! ”

“ they offer you so much power. so tempting to take advantage of it. ”

“ death is the promise we're all born with. ”

“ we could not bring back the golden age. indeed we were now paying the price of having enjoyed one. ”

“ through our sense of identity, we act. we determine our moral judgements. ”

“ we create fresh narratives to use in our survival. it is part of what makes us such flawed creatures. creatures of such narrative fiction creating cause and effect. ”

“ we rewrite our own memories, of course, all the time. ”

“ to compromise with tyranny is always to be destroyed by it. the sanest and most logical choice lay always in resistance. ”

“ we are friends to death, but not his servants. ”

“ the nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witness to a paradox. ”

“ law and chaos? they're not the same as good and evil, i'm told. ”

“ i am a petty god at the moment. you will find me more lordly and benign when i achieve the position of a greater god. ”

“ if we are the toys of the gods are not perhaps the gods themselves mere children? ”

“ it is fitting that we should be wanderers, for we have no place in this world. ”

“ by means of our myths and legends we maintain a sense of what we are within and who we are. without them we should undoubtedly go mad. ”

“ it's history that's caused all the troubles in the past. ”

“ a good death is better than a poor one. ”

“ everything may exist for a while — even justice. but the true state of the universe is anarchy. it is the mortal's tragedy that he can never accept this. ”

“ i have hated hypocrisy and deception all my life, yet all my life i have been victim to it. that is the terrible irony. ”

“ time is the enemy of identity”

“ we’re wary of you. even if we allowed you to lead us again you would take your own doomed path and us with you. ”

“ memory is the foundation of identity. ”

“ i can accept then, that we are more than forsaken, because there was never anything there to forsake us. ”

“ i have chosen. i chose chaos. ”

“ you spend your lives chasing that which is within you and that which you can find in any other human being. ”

“ meaning? do not seek that, for madness lies in such a course. ”

“ my mind goes out searching through black barrenness for something — anything. ”

“ i seek no excuses, for i know what i am and i know what i have done. ”

“ but people may do great good accidentally, though with evil intentions — conversely people may do great evil though having the best of intentions. ”

“ i have brought evil to many places. ”

“ if we remain adaptable, we remain strong. if we force others to accept our traditions and values, we ultimately grow weak…”

“ who told you that the world was just? ”

“ we live in a world where many kinds of regression dignify themselves with the mantle of progress. ”

“ thing is, treasures are not won by care and forethought but by swift slaying and reckless attack. ”

“ there is no future here for myself and my men. ”

“ there are many legends which say the past was perfect or that the future will be perfect. i have seen many pasts and many futures. none of them were perfect, my friend. ”

“ that the world forgets me is all i ask,”

“ the subtlest lie of all is the full truth. ”

“ why should their pain produce such marvellous beauty? ”

“ the past is a script we are constantly rewriting. ”

“ is the prisoner a prisoner because he lives in a cage or because he knows that he lives in a cage? ”

“ we free travellers need no chains of that sort. ”

“ people are not alarmed by the unusual  — so long as it is placed in an acceptable context. ”

“ despairingly, sometimes, i seek the comfort of a benign god. ”

[leareadsheresy]

False Gods

This post contains spoilers for False Gods by Graham McNeill, first published as a novel on (as nearly as I can tell) June 1st, 2006.

This is a weird book.

The progression of events is fine. If you wrote this book as a list of scenes, and a description of what happens in each scene, and each character's motivation at the start of each scene and each character's motivation at the end, it'd hold together well. But the specifics are bad. Any time any two characters have an argument, they have a dumb version of that argument, with dumb points made badly. Every character in this book, almost all the time, is a louder, dumber, more caricatured pantomime of who they were in Horus Rising. The exception is when someone -- usually Kyril Sindermann -- is delivering exposition, in which case the dialogue is merely workmanlike. I suspect this was worked out as a very solid outline and then filled in quickly and that Graham McNeill -- at this point in his career, remember this was decades ago and maybe he improves over the course of the series -- just doesn't have the chops to write smart people having smart conversations at this point. (I sure hope he improves; he's written a lot of these books.)

It is so consistent that I'm able to imagine a better version of this book just by looking at the dialog we see, picturing it as placeholder dialogue, and extrapolating a better version of each conversation based on the more subtle, more intelligent, more learned versions of these characters visible in the previous book.

I need to give at least one example.

Here's a five page excerpt from the ebook in which Erebus of the Word Bearers is attempting to manipulate Horus into attacking the fortress of the dude he set to rule Davin, this planet he conquered years or decades ago, who's now rebelled. Erebus stole a magic sword in the previous book and has given it to the rebel, and his plan is to have Horus lead the vanguard of the attack so the magic sword can injure him, at which point Erebus will step in and take Horus to a magic healing spot where the Chaos gods will offer him power in exchange for healing, stoke his ambition, show him misleading visions, and get him to rebel against the Emperor.

(You are going to have to pardon my highlights; I was taking notes as I read and I'm too lazy to remove them while taking the screenshots.)

Notice how Horus and his entourage are all stupid fucking meatheads and Erebus is the most obvious manipulator who ever lived? In the previous book, Horus and his entourage weren't stupid fucking meatheads, and they wouldn't have fallen for that -- but if Erebus had been in the previous book, he wouldn't have been that obvious. You can easily imagine a better version of this entire exchange, with more subtle points being made all around and more subtle manipulation happening, coming to the same outcome. You can extrapolate a better, smarter version of Erebus just by imagining a reversal of the character degradation from the previous book to this one. Every single argument in the book is like this, and this is a book about people having arguments.

Horus complains in this book about how he doesn't like being at the behest of bureaucrats and tax collectors and it comes off as petty, like his objection is he's too great to deal with that sort of trifle. Horus complained about the tax collectors in the previous book but it wasn't petty! Horus's whole point in the previous book was "The Emperor is locked in his basement and he's letting this new civilian government he's set up do whatever they want, and they're claiming his authority to enact taxation on conquered worlds but it's too soon, those conquered worlds haven't seen enough of the benefits of Imperial rule yet and if we start heavily taxing them now they're going to rebel and then we'll be stuck putting down rebellions until the end of time and it'll tear the Imperium apart, which I don't want to do! And my evidence for this is dad's smart enough to know it's too early to impose taxes; he's capable of predicting the same shit I'm predicting now, so it's gotta be the bureaucrats acting on their own. Why is my father letting the bureaucrats take his name in vain while destroying my work?" And given that Horus is a) explicitly described as a tactical and strategic supergenius and b) explicitly described as the Primarch closest to his dad, I… kinda buy that argument? Or at least I buy that Horus believes it wholeheartedly; I don't know, the Emperor is great at making bad decisions, maybe he did back the tax initiative, but Horus there is demonstrably smart and cautious and protective of his accomplishments and the Imperium's holdings and his father's honor and the pedestal he's put his father on. Also, interestingly, he accepts rebellion as inevitable and even sympathetic under certain circumstances. Meanwhile in the above excerpt Horus is acting like rebellion is an unthinkable affront to his honor, which is the most important thing in the universe.

(There's a more favorable reading of the excerpt where he just finds it unthinkable that a commander he appointed would rebel, but I'm not inclined toward favorable readings of the excerpted exchange.)

Those things I said in my discussion about Horus Rising Part 1: The Deceived and how noticing the title of the section might have made me like False Gods more? I take it back, there's nothing here that indicates Horus was already planning rebellion. Quite the reverse. We get his interior monologue and he spends a lot of time exclaiming how unthinkable rebellion is while talking himself into it.

That said! Once we get into the Chaos Vision Quest part of the book with Erebus pretending to be a dead guy from the first book and giving Horus a tour of the past and future -- and I appreciate the ambiguity as to whether it's actually the past and future or just warp reflections of it -- I kinda buy Horus's reasons for rebellion, once I picked up something the book doesn't draw attention to. The Imperial war apparatus places a great emphasis on leading from the front and how a leader earns the respect of their (well, let's face it, his; not a lot of women in military authority roles in these books yet) troops by leading from the front, because this is based on a wargame where your leader is a guy on a tactical rock with a lot of strong attacks and a buffing aura, and that's been the case for not just the entire two hundred years of the Great Crusade but however many centuries before that the Unification Wars took. Horus is super-primed to see the Emperor retiring to Terra as an insult and as a move that warrants he, Horus, ought to start disrespecting the Emperor.

There's also a kind of interesting bit where Horus worries that his appointment to Warmaster to finish the Great Crusade is just in time for the Great Crusade itself to turn into a gloryless mopup effort, robbing him of the fame he expected the title to earn him, especially interesting in the context of having just botched his attempt at a novel peace with the interex, where he really tried to get out there and be his own man and accomplish something the Emperor never did. It does come across as a prideful man realizing he may have been spurned, and that he may need to do something drastic to get the reputation he wants. I don't really buy the idea that Horus would be shocked and appalled to learn that he was grown in a lab, because, like… I assumed he knew that? But I do buy that he'd be primed to believe that the 40k future with a God-Emperor and only the nine loyalist Primarchs recognized as such by a pathetic population of wretched worshipers might be the Emperor's plan in the context of how Horus would be inclined to view someone who quits the field of battle. He also claims explicitly that each of the Primarchs embodies part of the Emperor's personality and he, Horus, embodies the Emperor's ambition specifically, which both fits with what we've seen of him and explains why he'd react so badly to feeling like his ambitions are about to be foiled.

Also, the previous book made an effort to establish that once you invite Chaos into your heart, the trend towards malevolence and corruption is quick and aggressive, so once Horus goes "Yeah, sure, I'll accept your healing, Ruinous Powers that I don't know are called Ruinous Powers" he might immediately become a huge asshole. But, again, that's all well after the excerpted bit. So to the extent that this book sets out to answer the question "How did Horus fall?" it does so reasonably well albeit clumsily.

There are a couple more scenes where Loken is investigating what happened with Samus and Xayver Jubal and people are like "Trust me, there's no intelligences in the warp; it's just energy" and Loken is "Not sure I believe that but okay" or people go "Hmm this ancient text suggests that there might be intelligences in the warp who can possess people" and Loken reacts with doubt and shock, and again I find myself looking at the page and going "Horus told you about Warp intelligences in the first book in so many words and you accepted it!" Like, that scene from Horus Rising that I hated is now an actual plot hole. Sigh.

There's a point where someone says "My mouth's as dry as a Tallarn's sandal"; that's an anachronism, later books in this series will deal with Tallarn being turned from a verdant paradise into a scorched desert. I'm calling this one out for two reasons. The first is because I'm trying to notice anachronisms as I go because I think it's interesting how the writer pool's common understanding of the timeline of the Heresy evolves as the series progresses, and in that context it's just a curiosity. It's fine. They had no way of knowing there'd be a series of short stories compiled into a book called Tallarn a decade later. But on another level... I really hate this sort of SF/F Brand Aphorism, like when someone in a Star Wars book says "This place is as smelly as a Rancor's armpit." Stop it, it always comes across as clumsy. It's like watching a Funko! Pop emerge from the page as I read. "Hey, customer, you like [BRAND], right? Would you like to be reminded of [BRAND]?" Dude I am reading a tie-in novel, obviously I like [BRAND], you don't need to pile it on so heavily. Just say no to these, I beg you.