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areyoufuckingcrazy · 10 days ago

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“Dark Water”

Chapter Six: Shadows on the Balcony

The Bad Batch x Reader

Artificial jungle. Simulated heat. Humidity just this side of unbearable. Wind generators hissed softly in the corners of the chamber, fluttering camouflage netting over raised duracrete structures and pushing foliage like real air would.

This was one of the advanced sim environments — designed to test full squad cohesion, field communication, stealth, and objective retrieval under combat stress.

In the command observation deck above, a half-circle of instructors and squad leaders leaned over the rail or watched through datapads, your own arms crossed as the training scenario for Clone Force 99 loaded.

“Map variant Cresh-four,” announced the Kaminoan technician flatly. “Objective: recover target payload. Hostile AI resistance. Five active zones. Timer begins upon drop.”

You watched the four boys get into position at the sim pad. They didn’t speak.

Hunter tilted his head just slightly — listening.

He always did that.

“Still no squad leader assigned?” asked Mij Gilamar beside you.

“Officially? No,” you answered. “Unofficially? Hunter’s stepped into it more than once.”

Gilamar nodded, clearly observing the boy on the screen. “He reads the terrain like it’s talking to him.”

“That’s because it is,” murmured Kal Skirata from behind. “He’s a sensor net with legs.”

The sim lights blinked green. The clone cadets dropped into the terrain.

Crosshair broke left without speaking, vanishing into the trees with sniper rifle slung low. Wrecker stomped forward like a bulldozer, low and eager, muttering gleefully under his breath.

Tech paused at the first terminal node, already halfway through slicing the enemy defense grid. He didn’t ask. He just did it.

And Hunter… stood still for three full seconds.

He turned his head, nose twitching slightly, fingers flexing, then snapped out a short series of hand signals. No one saw them.

But they worked.

You frowned.

“They’re working in parallel,” you murmured. “But not as a team.”

“Each one’s exceptional,” said Vau. “But they’re four lines heading in different directions. The other squads are braids. These boys are wires — frayed ones.”

“Not wires,” Skirata muttered. “Knives.”

Wrecker crashed through a barricade, scattering enemy droids like toy blocks. One turned to fire and got flattened by a flying crate hurled by the laughing giant.

“Boom!” he howled. “Oh, I like this sim!”

Tech’s voice crackled through the static. “Wrecker, you’ve compromised the noise profile! They’ll triangulate your—”

“Already did,” came Crosshair’s bored voice over the comm. “Took the shot. Six hostiles. All down.”

“You could say thank you,” Tech muttered.

Hunter’s voice cut in. “Payload’s two clicks north. Wrecker, fall back. Crosshair, cover the ridge. Tech — get me surveillance on heat signatures near the extraction zone.”

“Copy,” Tech said, not even hesitating.

They moved like instinct.

But not like a unit.

Wrecker hit obstacles that wouldn’t exist if Tech had warned him. Crosshair was perfect on his own but didn’t relay updates. Hunter gave orders — good ones — but the others didn’t always acknowledge them. There was no feedback loop. No cohesion.

They won.

They retrieved the payload. Cleared hostiles. Exfiltrated under the time limit.

But it wasn’t pretty.

“Well,” Vau said, hands behind his back, “they’re efficient. I’ll give them that.”

“No,” Skirata countered. “They’re effective. Not the same thing.”

Your eyes stayed on the screen as Hunter was the last to exit the sim zone, checking the others before letting the simulation drop. His hand lingered near the wall, like he was still half in the trees.

“They rely too much on instinct,” you said. “No fallback plans. No squad formation. Hunter’s trying to keep it together, but… they don’t know how to be a team. Not yet.”

“You think they will?” Gilamar asked.

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “But if they do — if they ever do — none of our squads will be able to touch them.”

Skirata snorted. “That’s a big if.”

The boys had just left the sim chamber.

“Did we pass?” Tech asked, breath slightly fast. “Because the mission objective was completed, and Crosshair’s kill ratio was optimal—”

“You were late to exfil,” Crosshair muttered.

“Because I had to reroute the—”

“Because you talk too much,” Wrecker added with a grin, pulling his helmet off.

Hunter leaned against the wall, towel draped around his neck, silent.

You entered a moment later, arms folded.

“Briefing room. Ten minutes. We’re going to talk about the difference between winning and working together.”

Crosshair rolled his eyes.

Wrecker groaned. “Are there snacks?”

You looked at him. “If you work as a team next time? Maybe.”

Wrecker lit up. “Then I call first crack at the next droid squad.”

Hunter exhaled slowly.

Maybe — just maybe — they’d get there.

⸻

Kamino — Briefing Room D-17

White walls. Metal chairs. A flickering holo-display throwing blue shadows across the dull grey table.

The boys filed in, still in their simulation blacks, tracking mud across the floor that no one even pretended to care about. Wrecker was humming. Crosshair dropped into his seat like it owed him something. Tech didn’t sit — just stood by the console, inspecting the data readout you’d uploaded five minutes ago.

Hunter was last. Always was.

He leaned against the wall at the back, arms crossed, head bowed. Listening.

You waited until they were still. Or, close enough.

You dropped the holopad onto the table.

“Objective completed,” you said. “Target secured. Hostiles neutralized.”

Wrecker fist-pumped. “Boom! Told ya we nailed it.”

“But,” you said flatly, “team cohesion was… let’s say theoretical at best.”

Crosshair huffed.

Wrecker slouched in his chair. “What’s co-hee-shun mean again?”

“It means,” Tech said sharply, “that we operated as four vectors intersecting briefly under shared mission parameters without centralized communication.”

Wrecker blinked at you. “So we… did good?”

“Tech means you all acted like stray blaster bolts,” you said, dropping into the chair opposite. “You hit the target — but you nearly shot each other in the process.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then Wrecker raised his hand.

You stared at it. “…What?”

“Permission to say something dumb.”

You sighed. “Granted.”

He grinned. “You looked really cool when you were yelling at Crosshair last time. Like—your vein was doing that thing again.”

You stared at him. Crosshair rolled his eyes. Tech pinched the bridge of his nose.

Hunter… almost smiled.

Almost.

You leaned forward. “Listen to me. You four are better than most squads your age. You’re better than a lot of commandos. But you are not a squad. Not yet.”

Hunter met your eyes. “We’re not them,” he said quietly. “We’re not like Delta. Or Omega. We don’t… slot in.”

“No one’s asking you to slot in,” you replied. “But if you want to survive what’s coming, you’d better learn how to lean on each other. Really lean.”

Wrecker frowned. “We do that. I carry Crosshair’s ammo sometimes!”

“I didn’t ask you to,” Crosshair muttered.

“You also threw a droid leg at me once,” Tech added.

“It was a strategic distraction.”

“Your idea of strategy is throwing things and seeing what explodes.”

“Guys,” you warned.

Hunter uncrossed his arms. “They’re not wrong. We… work. Just not… together.”

“And that’s what we’re going to fix,” you said, rising. “Starting tomorrow. Team drills. Shared targets. Coordinated strikes. No more lone-wolfing it. Not unless I say so.”

Crosshair looked unimpressed.

Tech nodded reluctantly.

Hunter said nothing, just watching you like he always did — like he was weighing your words and the weight of something deeper underneath them.

Wrecker raised his hand again. “Do we get more snacks if we work together?”

You blinked. “Yes. But that wasn’t the point of the—”

“Teamwork!” he yelled, springing up and throwing an arm around a very annoyed Crosshair and a startled Tech. “I love this plan!”

Tech squirmed. “Please refrain from crushing me.”

“You weigh, like, a twig. I could carry all three of you in one hand.”

Hunter finally stepped forward, arms still crossed. “We’ll try.”

You nodded. “That’s all I ask.”

Then Wrecker suddenly grabbed your wrist.

You stiffened slightly — instinct. The others tensed.

But all he did was pull you into the chaos of the group hug, wrapping one arm around you like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“She’s one of us,” he said firmly. “Even if she doesn’t throw grenades.”

“I could throw grenades,” you muttered, trying not to smile.

Crosshair scoffed. “You’d probably miss.”

Tech added, “Statistically speaking, your coordination isn’t ideal.”

“I will end you both.”

Hunter chuckled under his breath. “Good luck with that.”

And for a moment — just a moment — it felt like they weren’t four parts of a broken code.

It felt like the beginning of something real.

Something whole.

⸻

Tipoca City – Training Dome 3C

The weather outside the transparisteel dome pounded with relentless rain, as always. But inside, the sim environment was set to urban combat: tight alleys, low visibility, multiple vertical levels. Tactical nightmare. Perfect test bed.

The entire dome was filled with cadets in neat ranks. Delta. Omega. The Nulls — lounging as usual. Dozens of standard units. And off to the side, Clone Force 99. Restless. Unimpressed.

Wrecker was bouncing on his heels. Crosshair leaned against a wall, picking at the sight of his training rifle. Tech was muttering to himself about probability ratios. Hunter was doing that quiet-hover thing again — watching everything. Especially you.

You stepped into the sim ring, adjusting your vambraces.

Flanking you: Kal Skirata, grumbling already; Walon Vau, silent and tense as always; and Mij Gilamar, calm and relaxed like he wasn’t about to enter a live-fire exercise.

The point of this exercise and demonstration was to show the cadets — especially the Bad Batch — that their trainers aren’t just instructors. They’re warriors. And some of them have killed in more wars than these cadets have had meal rations.

“Simulation parameters uploaded,” came the Kaminoan announcer’s voice. “Objective: hostage retrieval and enemy suppression. Teams will engage twenty droid-class AI units, mixed terrain, time limit: seven minutes.”

A snort echoed from the cadet ranks.

You didn’t have to look to know who it was.

“Twenty droids,” Crosshair muttered, just loud enough. “Should we bring them bandages, too?”

Wrecker snickered.

“Think she can even lift one?” Tech asked, tilting his head.

“Maybe she’ll try diplomacy,” Crosshair said dryly.

“I like her,” Wrecker defended. “She’s cool!”

“Quiet,” Hunter muttered.

But you heard it all.

Good.

Let them underestimate you.

You dropped into the zone with your team.

No words.

Skirata went high. Gilamar low. Vau ghosted into the side alleys like a shadow.

You took center.

The droids came fast — faster than sim standards, someone had clearly tweaked the AI — and you welcomed it.

Your vibroblade met the first one’s carbine mid-swing. It hit the ground in two pieces.

Your boot crushed its headplate an instant later.

You didn’t slow down.

You slid under the next volley, planted a sonic charge against the wall, and vaulted off the falling rubble to land clean behind a cluster of enemies.

They turned.

Too late.

Flash.

Pop.

Smoke filled the corridor.

Your HUD blinked red, orange, then clear.

Three droids down before the cloud cleared.

Above, you heard Skirata bark a command in Mando’a.

A sniper dropped from the scaffolding — Vau’s shot.

Gilamar moved like liquid across the rubble, twin blades flashing.

You swept into the last hallway, slamming your elbow into a droid’s neck servos and using its collapsing weight to vault over a barricade.

Target in sight.

You raised a pulse blaster, fired twice, and dragged the “hostage” — a weighted dummy — into extraction.

Timer: 5 minutes, 12 seconds.

Not just under time.

Crushed it.

Clone Force 99 was quiet.

Wrecker’s jaw was open.

Crosshair stared at the screen, frowning.

“She was invisible in the smoke,” Tech whispered. “Did you see that targeting pattern? That was intentional chaos. Planned.”

“She moved like Skirata,” Hunter said, quiet and thoughtful.

Wrecker beamed. “Told you she was cool.”

You pulled off your helmet, still breathing steady.

The cadets watched in near silence as you rejoined the others. Skirata just grunted at you approvingly. Gilamar patted your shoulder. Vau didn’t say anything, but his nod was enough.

The Kaminoan tech droid buzzed overhead. “Simulation complete. Performance exceeds baseline instructor metrics. Efficiency rating: 91%.”

You stepped to the edge of the platform.

“All of you think because we train you, we’re past our prime. That we’re just barking voices behind blasters.”

You scanned the cadets — all of them — before letting your eyes settle on your squad.

“We were killing before you were breathing,” you said. “We didn’t inherit our skills. We bled for them. If you want to survive what’s coming, start learning from the ones who already did.”

Hunter held your gaze.

You nodded once.

He nodded back.

Not approval. Not yet.

But respect?

Maybe.

⸻

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krems-chair · 6 months ago

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I wanted Solas to be able to steal your companions (or at least some of them) away from you

On my first playthrough I genuinely thought that the test of your leadership abilities was going to be if you could keep your team together despite the machinations of the Dread Wolf himself. Obviously that was not the case, but I like the idea enough still that I want to share it now!

(Idk if I should tag this as a critique or not because while it IS me saying I wish the game had done this, that sentiment is also like. The extent of the displeasure you will hear from me in this particular post. So instead, I'll just put the divider in and give everyone a heads up now that while I am about to descend into a spiral about something I think would have been cool, me describing the cool thing I would have liked is not peppered with hate and might therefore still be fun for you to read. )

My brain went off the rails the first time I heard Harding tell Rook and Neve that Solas can go into people's dreams and kill them. (Which, was this something we learned in Inquisition/Trespasser and I missed it? I totally probably did if that's the case because I did not do a replay before jumping into Veilguard, but that line freaked me out when I first heard it lol I was like "since when?!").

While Rook assures both that they're a-okay, all good, it's just a little bid of blood magic, I thought we had just been blessed with some hella foreshadowing. Based on:

-My belief that Solas was going to have followers at his disposal

-The knowledge that he likes to mirror people and give them what they're dishing out

-Him telling Rook that once he found out they were pursuing him, he did his research

-My belief that reminiscent of other games, low approval could result in companions turning on you/leaving the party/speaking against you

I thought that Rook was going to learn that at some point in the game, Solas approached the Veilguard companions in their dreams and tried to sway them either to join him or abandon their leader. And I think there was a lot of opportunity for this to work really well.

Lucanis is perhaps the easiest example to work with here, but there's potential with all the companions because all of them can relate to Solas' experiences.

Solas, through communications in the dreams of his followers or through snooping through Lucanis' himself, would have been interested in the parallel the two share of "extreme loyalty to an important woman in their life that they look up to and take orders from" when it comes to Mythal and Caterina. Solas also knows what it's like to be gone from the world as you understand it to be for a long time and struggle with the adjustment to come back. It would have been wild to find out that he inserted himself as an interested party who sympathizes with Lucanis' struggle and had slowly been showing him all the reasons he shouldn't put all his faith in Rook while playing as a supportive mentor to Rook at the exact same time.

I think depending on how Rook handled Spite, it would have been interesting at either high approval to have Lucanis be like "hey I just want you to know that Spite caught Solas snooping around in my head last night and we shut him tf out" or a low approval Lucanis being convinced that there's no place for him at the Lighthouse/he isn't understood/is too feared and that he needs to try and help through other means. That, consequently, would create some additional difficulty when it comes to trying to kill Ghilan'nain or gain loyalty with the Crows.

And obviously him going for every single companion would have been hard to do or made the game repetitive, so maybe if at a certain point in the game it just took your companions with the lowest approval and triggered Solas attempting to sway them, that would be fun and add an element of replayability. And if you manage to raise their approval enough after getting kind of a warning-sign cutscene where they're more frustrated with Rook than usual, they then tell you "hey yeah I heard from him but I shut him out."

For brevity so that this doesn't go on forever:

-He could have very easily nerded out with Emmrich and convinced him that the world he wants is what's best for the spirits (especially since he does genuinely believe this)

-He could have come to Neve and been like "you don't have to like me because I did kill Varric, but you do love your city, don't you? As I loved mine? And wouldn't you do anything for it?" (especially if Rook saves Treviso over Minrathous)

-He could have promised Taash a place amongst his followers where they don't have to hide their fire/potentially shared some compelling truth he learned in his nerd travels about fire-breathers that they, craving more about their identity, would be tempted by

-He could have tried to play on Davrin's sympathies for the griffons and shared that all he wants is to create a world in which those he harmed have a chance to be at their fullest capacity once more, especially after its revealed that the wardens abused the griffons and then hid from their history. (Now, Davrin is a king and I see him being very hard to persuade even at low approval, but I didn't want to exlude him)

-With Bellara, I mean come on. He is the least sinister of the old elves running around, and she has always craved questions. Knowledge about Arlathan is one of the strongest connections she has with Cyrian. I also think he might try and argue that Rook could have spent more time/energy towards rescuing Cyrian, OR offered her information on the Forgotten Ones that would save him in exchange for her assistance

-Finally, I think it would have been cool if Harding is the only companion Solas actually refuses to try and sway regardless of their approval with Rook. Much in the same way Varric didn't nickname her because he feared her, I'd like to think Solas would know that having fucked with the dwarves enough, she's off-limits to manipulate because he regrets his actions so much. It would have been a cool way to actually explore that part of the narrative a little more, especially because I personally think (especially if you don't have Cadash in the game or a dwarven Rook) someone deserved to have a tough discussion with him, and given Harding's quest line, it would make sense to be her. Assuming she survives past Ghilan'nain's death, I think a cutscene while Rook is in the fade of him coming to her when we know she wants to believe that he can be saved or else it's all for nothing (I can't remember the exact quote right now, so apologies if I'm way off) and them having a really meaningful conversation about the Titans and the rage she holds would have been cool, especially since they did know each other and fight for the Inquisition together.

So yeah, just some thoughts I've had brewing, that's all.

#datv spoilers #veilguard spoilers #dragon age the veilguard #dragon age veilguard #dragon age #solas

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heaven4lostgirls · 3 months ago

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prompt: parking ✧ @moonkillermicrofic ✧ wc: 348

cw: suicidal ideation + mild sexual content

“three flights are enough aren’t they?” barty questions with a glare, standing on the balcony of the apartment he shares with remus.

remus sighs tiredly, tugging the back of barty’s sweatshirt as he tries to throw his leg over the railing.

“down boy, today’s not the day” remus drawls boredly, manhandling barty until he’s scooped up in remus’ lap as the scarred boy leans further into his chair.

barty huffs petulantly, “you don’t get it.” he whines as his feet kick out.

remus places a hand on his knee and stares the younger boy down, his legs stop shuffling as he sits quietly with a pout on his face and arms crossed over his pecs.

“just because you failed your driving test does not mean the world is over” remus consoles and barty throws his entire body back, groaning in annoyance.

remus yelps as the chair tilts which has barty flicking his head up for a quick assessment, deeming everything okay before going back to his tantrum.

“fucking parallel parking, who even needs that shit,” barty grumbles, tossing his body around remus’ lap like an unsettled toddler.

“we live in the countryside remus, the countryside! the only places that even need parallel parking is near the city” barty cries out.

remus pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs in exhaustion, “you’ll get it next time lovie” he tries to smile but it wavers as barty cries out again.

“next time?! next time?! i’m just supposed to keep trying until i get it?! this society is a prison” barty yells and remus can feel the headache brewing under his skull.

remus results to shushing barty soothingly as if he was a teething newborn, gathering him in his arms princess style before standing up and bringing them both to their bedroom.

“you’re taking a nap” remus orders, dropping barty gracefully onto his side of the bed before laying on his back and tugging the younger boy into him.

limbs intertwined, barty tries to argue again but remus only shoves the black haired boy into his chest, muffling his protests.

#juliwrites #harry potter #remus lupin #barty crouch jr #remus lupin x barty crouch jr #barty crouch jr x remus lupin #moonkiller #moonkiller microfic #moonkiller fluff #moonkiller crack #marauders crack #marauders era fanfic #remus lupin fluff #remus lupin comfort #barty crouch jr fluff #barty crouch jr fanfic #remus x barty #barty x remus

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trashcanlore · 10 months ago

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Kabbalah in the Worldbuilding of Genshin Impact; Part 3: Very Impure, Very Sinful

Written by Sabre (@paimoff on twitter) and Schwan (@abyssalschwan on twitter)

The Origin of Evil

In earlier parts of this theory, we've discussed how the elements of Teyvat and their ideals are similar to the sefirot of Kabbalah, as well as the implications of the similarities between Descenders and the Kabbalistic Primordial Man. In this section, we'll be discussing how the metaphors used to describe evil in Kabbalah are made literal in Genshin, specifically in the form of the Gnoses and the Heavenly Principles. We’ll also be connecting the Traveler’s role as RPG ProtagonistTM to the Kabbalistic concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and how that relates to their role in the good-evil duality.

When it comes to the concept of evil in kabbalah, there are generally two perspectives considered: 1) evil is the result of an imbalance in the dichotomy of divine mercy vs divine judgment, and/or 2) the existence of evil is an inherent part of creation that can be affected by the actions of humans.

The Zohar, a foundational text of Jewish Kabbalah and massively influential on Western esotericism, details several explanations for the origin of evil. This theory does not contain a comprehensive analysis of the philosophy of evil in Kabbalah, but we’ve tried to at least mention or summarize the core concepts that can be tied directly into discussion of Genshin’s worldbuilding.

The primary explanation in the Zohar is that evil originates in the sefira of divine judgment if it is not counterbalanced by divine mercy. This creates a parallel but mirrored/inverted system of the sefirot, called the Sitra Achra, which we will refer to with the literal translation “Other Side”. This dimension is associated with death and anger, and a few other unique traits we’ll explore later on. It’s important to note that according to this perspective, the existence of evil is actually a necessary part of the divine plan for the world - some of the commandments in the Torah (Jewish law), or even regular human activities like sleeping, are described as actions that ‘appease’ the “Other Side” and keep the balance between good and evil forces in the world. The Zohar even goes as far as to suggest that the “Other Side” can function as a ‘test’ for the righteous: In order for someone to be fully righteous, they must descend completely into the realm of the “Other Side” and resist all their temptations and then emerge pure. Those who fail are doomed to become breeding grounds for demons. Interesting.

The Husks in a Nutshell

The Zohar also introduces the concept of the klippot, literally husks, shells, or peels . The name Qlipoth, which players of Honkai Star Rail might be more familiar with, is just another spelling of the same term.

The Zohar’s conception of the sefirot is like a nesting doll: the sefirot are one inside the other, like concentric circles, and the klippot are the shells each sefira makes around the one inside it, as illustrated in the drawings below, where each ring or square represents one of the sefirot.

This ties in to another one of the Zohar’s explanations for the origin of evil: evil has always been mixed in with the sefira of Keter, the first to be emanated, and in order for reality to be formed, the evil had to be purified out. This was done by repeatedly creating worlds and destroying them, until the creative divine energy was purified. Think of it like when you’re washing something you’ve dyed, and it takes multiple washes for the dye to stop bleeding.

This process leaves behind “shards” of evil, which become the foundations of the dimension of evil, the “Other Side”. The Zohar names some of the klippot as direct counterparts to the sefirot, giving them equivalent roles in their respective dimensions, but there is no consistent or complete description of all the names or comparisons.

Similar to the process of creation and destruction described above, Rabbi Isaac Luria (very influential Kabbalist in the 16th century) described a process where there are multiple iterations of the creation of the world, resulting from the dilution of divine energy as it is emanated into the void where reality is created. (For a more detailed explanation of this, check out Part 2.) Luria compares the sefirot to vessels filled with divine light, and the farther these vessels get from the source of the light, the weaker they get. Eventually the vessels shatter and form the klippot, which here are technically fragments of the divine and not inherently evil. However, unlike the sefirot that can balance each other, these fragments are isolated and intense attributes of the divine that eventually become evil and demonic.

In the context of Genshin, the klippot take the form of the Gnoses, reflecting their role as both remains of evil and fragments of the divine isolated from the source.

Demons and Dead Descenders

Back in Part 1 of this theory, we briefly discussed the implications of both the inverted Irminsul and the Demon Gods, or Archons, in the context of Kabbalah. We hypothesized that Teyvat is in the dimension of evil, aka the “Other Side,” and the Archons have demon names to indicate their alignment with each of the evil equivalents of the sefirot: the klippot. There is no standardized list of demons associated with the “Other Side,” so we think that they are using the Goetic demon names instead, like some historical sources have done in their incomplete lists.

We also suggested that the Gnoses themselves could represent the klippot of each element, the “shell” around the sefirot. This was based on the information we knew about the Gnoses at the time which was basically that:

a. It is an “internal magical focus that resonates directly with Celestia itself,” and represents the archon’s status as one of The Seven (Archon Quest, Prologue, Act III, Ending Note). This may be related to Zhongli’s concern that giving up his Gnosis will mean that he cannot defend Liyue anymore (Zhongli Character Stories: Gnosis)

b. It can gather elemental energy for the Archon, presumably acting as some kind of amplifier, given that the Archons have elemental abilities without a Gnosis (Nahida Character Story: Gnosis). This is presumably how the Akasha (and the Oratrice) was able to be powered by the Gnosis, and how Nahida was able to use the power of two Gnoses to access Irminsul and delete Rukkhadevata, something she could not do with her own power (dendro+electro amplifying reaction indeed).

The Fontaine Archon Quest and subsequent Neuvillette character stories introduced two new crucial pieces of information that cemented the role of the Gnoses in this theory:

a. The Gnoses are the remains of the Third Descender, and since they are remains, they are cursed. Skirk even says that the Gnosis “smells” “very similar to a god's ‘curse’.”

Skirk: Regardless, you should probably get rid of objects of "misfortune," to prevent any disasters from befalling you.

Skirk: To live is in itself a blessing. But once a person dies, the bonds he once had with this world shall all turn to curses.

b. The Primordial One was wounded in the “great war of vengeance” (probably when the Second Who Came arrived) and couldn’t “suppress the original order” of the world anymore. They and the “one who came after” created the Gnoses from the Third Descender and used them to “subdue and control the resentment and loathing of the world.” This seems to have created a new order to the world, where the remaining primordial “fragments” were destroyed, and humans gained the “seven remembrances.” (Neuvillette Character Story: Vision). This is implied to be related to the Archon War and to humans receiving Visions, which is described as a “shattered shard” of an Archon’s authority.

With this updated information, we have more evidence for our claims that Teyvat is in the realm of the “Other Side,” and that the Gnoses are the klippot. Here we compare key traits of the Gnoses and the Kabbalistic metaphors used for evil:

While the Gnoses and the “inverted” world of Teyvat are certainly the most overt references to the klippot and the “Other Side” in Genshin lore, derivations of these concepts are sprinkled throughout the worldbuilding in the form of repeated references to ‘shards’ and ‘husks’ of power and will. In the next section, we’ll go through two primary categories where the klippot of Genshin can be found: Death and the anger it leaves behind, and judgment, which includes the concept of sin in Teyvat, and speculation about how the Heavenly Principles turned Teyvat into the “Other Side.”

Rest in Pieces: Death and Anger

As you may have noticed, dying in Teyvat is not exactly straightforward. Death is meant to be a sort of recycling/reincarnation process via the leylines, but it seems like there are infinite exceptions to this rule. Hilichurls are cursed to never be able to enter the leylines, and thus are never able to truly die. When gods die, they can stick around indefinitely as corrosive and resentful energy (like Yaksha’s Karma and Inazuman Tataragami), or their remains can be used to permanently change the environment, like Rukkhadevata creating the Harvisptokhm out of Egeria’s remains to seal Tunigi Hollow. God-like individuals have also ‘died’ after being split in pieces, and those pieces contain some aspect of their will or consciousness, like Liloupar or Hermanubis and his Ba fragments. The Ba fragments are even associated with specific traits like the sefirot are: Sethos specifically mentions might and glory, which could correspond to the sefirot of Gevurah and Hod respectively. Both these and the resentful energy of things like the Tataragami can influence the actions of humans who come in contact with these fragments and remains.

The will of more ordinary people can also remain after death: the Shadowy Husk enemy descriptions call them “nothing but a husk,” and that “the long years and a curse seems to have robbed them of their reason and memory. Now, all that remains within that armor is the will to "fight for something, someone, and some matter."”

All shall decay in the end, and this is all that is left of the Black Serpent Knights amidst the merciless march of their sins, curses, and time itself.

We also have instances where a powerful being’s sacrifice provides the power for an ‘impossible’ event to occur: the Goddess of Flowers using her body as a conduit to give Deshret access to forbidden knowledge, or Sybilla sacrificing her life to create Phobos. Sybilla, who was likely also a Seelie, is described as being from the land of the dead - more on Seelies later. And most relevantly, we have the death of the Third Descender being used to create the Gnoses.

Logically, this death-associated release of power makes sense In a world that is also the “Other Side.” But it also seems to be a double-edged sword: just like how the order of the world itself is held together with the Gnoses sourced from death, the death of other powerful beings can destabilize it.

And speaking of the Gnoses - how is it that ‘death’ energy can be used to channel elemental energy, which should belong to the sefirot? As we mentioned earlier, that’s because the klippot and the sefirot are derived from the same divine source material - at their core, the realm of the divine and the realm of the demonic are the same. The distinction between these powers in Genshin is their source: are these the true elemental powers original to this world, or is this the power stolen by the Heavenly Principles?

Teyvat has its own “laws”: Judgment, Sin, and Curses

Earlier we mentioned that the Zohar’s primary explanation for the origin of evil is an excess of divine judgment. In Kabbalistic thought, divine judgment refers to the setting of limits during creation - without it there would be no distinction between anything and the world would just be an everything soup. For more on this idea and its usage in the Fontaine AQ, check here. When it comes to the human expression of this idea, “limits” would be equivalent to the concept of laws, both natural (like physics) and legal (like the concept of social contract).

The Heavenly Principles are thought to be the highest power of “law” in Teyvat, described in the Scroll of Streaming Song as “the universal law created in heaven, the divine laws established in the beginning.”

Nahida also tells use that the Gnoses represent the laws of the Heavenly Principles:

Nahida: I'm sure you remember the entity that changed your fate — the Heavenly Principles. Nahida: In fact, the Heavenly Principles has been quiet since the Khaenri'ah disaster five hundred years ago. I used this point as leverage against The Doctor. Nahida: I told him that the Heavenly Principles may be awakened if I destroyed a Gnosis. Although it was just a bluff, he still fell for it. Nahida: I assumed that the Heavenly Principles wouldn't just stand by and let such extensive damage to its "laws" take place.

What do these laws entail, exactly? Rukkhadevata in Scroll of Streaming Song explains:

"One may only bow down and worship Vaana of the heavenly spirits — no arrogation, deception, or trickery is permitted." "If one dares to imitate the forbidden arts, only calamity awaits at the edge of divine knowledge.”

As expected, these “divine laws" include definitions of sins, and conveniently for us, these sins tend to be punished with curses, yet another misfortune associated with the klippot.

There are three* curses specifically associated with the Heavenly Principles:

The “curse of the wilderness” which turned non-pure-blood Khaenriahns into hillichurls (but may be older than the Cataclysm considering hillichurls have been around since before that time and there are other references to humans turning into various monsters that aren’t associated with the Cataclysm)

The curse of immortality put on pure-blood Khaenriahns during the Cataclysm

The Seelie curse, which has multiple variations: a. Arama says the Seelies were cursed to become “empty husks” if they fell in love with a human. The curse would make them lose their intelligence and their bodies would shrink, becoming the little treasure Seelies found in exploration b. Wolfy in the Imaginarium Theater talks about the Boar Tribe who were forced to place parts of themselves on a scale, and then lose those parts of themselves, as a punishment. The description of what happened to these boars sounds a lot like the Seelie curse. Wolfy: Those boars who placed their heads on the scales became wolves, lizards, and snakes, leaving only their strength. Those who offered their muscles became rabbits, leaping three paces to a bound, instinctively guiding people to treasure.

*Paimon voice* “Maybe it should be called the rule of four!”: While we don’t know yet if this is associated with the Heavenly Principles, Skirk references a god’s curse, which in context seems to be related to the Gnoses and the fact that Gnoses are the remains of a dead Descender.

In summary, the Heavenly Principles, their “divine laws” and corresponding curses and punishments are the Teyvat equivalent of the excessive divine judgment that leads to the formation of the “Other Side”. According to the Zohar, the “Other Side" and the klippot sustain themselves through stealing divine energy and feeding off human sin. We’ve already discussed how the Gnoses are the means for stealing divine energy, so how does human sin play a role in this equation?

The Sinners Are All That's Left

After the war with the Second Who Came, and the Seelies were cursed, the Heavenly Principles established the order of Teyvat using the power from the death of the Third Descender: the Gnoses. They then had the gods of each nation fight to the death for the chance to win this power and become representative of their “law”, creating resentment in many places across Teyvat. Given what we know about the klippot, we must consider the Archon War as the Heavenly Principles creating strife and death to power themselves enough to maintain the order of Teyvat.

A similar system is presented in one of the in-game novels, Princess Mina of the Fallen Nation, which tells the story of a princess prophesied to bring destruction. Her nation is plagued with wars due to “Nakura’s Hex,” which drains the life force from people and the environment to strengthen the soldiers, who then in turn, continue fighting to be the most powerful, which leads to them draining more life. In the fifth volume, Mina and her slayful samurai bestie arrive at the Sky Tower, where they meet some priests and learn the truth of their world: Nakura’s Hex was originally created to preserve the “slowly declining” world. Mina learns that she must sacrifice herself, destroy the current world, and use the stored up power from Nakura’s Hex to create a new one. It’s left ambiguous if she succeeds.

If the Heavenly Principles are able to gain power from wars and death, then they should also be able to gain power from sin as well. And lucky for this theory, we just finished the Fontaine region, where this very concept was explored in the Archon Quest. In order to collect enough power to destroy her Archon throne and return the Hydro authority to Neuvillette, Focalors created the Oratrice. The Oratrice pronounced verdicts during court cases and converted the people’s belief in justice into Indemnitium, which was then used to power Fontaine. In reality though, most of this power was stored up to eventually kill Focalors. In other words, the crimes and well, sins, people committed against each other generated tangible power that could be used by a god.

In this context, the fact that the title “Sinner” is associated with the cataclysm and Khaenri’ah, and the recent reveal that the Five Sinners split a “world-shattering” Abyssal power between each other become more significant.

Considering all that we’ve discussed regarding the use of death as a power source in Teyvat and its connection to the Heavenly Principles in their capacity as the Other Side, we are left wondering if the Sinners attempted their own Third Descender moment. In the context of what we’ve theorized about the Primordial Human Project previously, Rhinedottir’s role as a Sinner feels particularly relevant here. Whatever it was exactly that the Sinners were trying to do, their power definitely was “world-shattering,” since 500 years later Teyvat is still recovering from their and the Heavenly Principles’ actions during the Cataclysm.

And speaking of the present day problems of Teyvat, we are now ready to talk about the role the Traveler plays in the interplay between the Heavenly Principles and the original order of Teyvat.

The Repairing of a World More Broken Than Elon’s Twitter

Ever since the Traveler woke up in Teyvat they have been helping everyone around, whether it’s finding lost pets, defeating evil dragons, finding cures for the sick, cleaning buildings or leyline disorders, maybe defeating another dragon… whether big or small there’s no feat that’s beneath our protagonist. That’s what the heroes do right? Well yes. But it also has a deeper, Kabbalistic significance.

Lurianic Kabbalah builds on the Zohar’s idea that human actions can either strengthen or appease the klippot by proposing there are also specific actions humans can do to have a positive influence on the world. There are two states the world can exist in: Tohu (chaos), where the sefirot are unbalanced, and Tikkun (repair), where the sefirot are harmonized together. Luria taught that humans could contribute to the “Repairing of the World” (Tikkun Olam) by strictly adhering to the religious laws of the Torah. With time, the idea that humans can contribute to the improvement of God’s world by performing acts of kindness and altruism has become mainstream in Judaism, and in the modern day, Tikkun Olam has come to refer to the value of social justice. By performing these “repairing” actions, the Divine Energy that’s “trapped” inside the klippot is released and returns to its rightful place, contributing to the balance and harmony of the world.

Similar concepts are referenced directly in Genshin: In Chinese, the Heavenly Principles are Tiānlǐ: “Heavenly Order.” Li refers to a concept in Confucianism that literally translates to ‘rite,’ and refers to specific ritual actions that connect human action to the harmony of the greater order of the universe. Li is not necessarily religious rites as it also includes “basic” human interactions with each other and nature.

Another similar idea is the alchemical As Above, So Below, which is generally interpreted to refer to either the movement of the celestial bodies affecting events on Earth, or the correspondences between the macrocosm and the microcosm (the human being). You may recognize this second idea from Part 2 of this theory.

In other words, this means that the actions that humans take in the material world can have a direct impact on the spiritual world (in Judaism) or on the larger movements or changes of the rest of the universe (Li and alchemy). These concepts are all relevant in our discussion of the role of the Traveler, but here we will also be using it to illustrate how the Heavenly Principles have control over Teyvat.

The concept of As Above, So Below has been mentioned in the context of the Heavenly Principles in Scroll of Streaming Song:

"O wise Princess, if your wisdom is truly as the legends of the people say," "Please answer my second riddle as you did the first." "What rises from the earth, then descends from the sky," "No one has seen it, yet it sees all," "As above, so below, and as at the bottom, so too, the top," "Yet only top to bottom may be, and never bottom to top?" That princess of (...) answered thusly: "You speak of the universal law created in heaven, the divine laws established in the beginning." "No one has seen the eternal law, yet it governs all.”

The Goddess of Flowers is implying here that technically this principle should apply to the Heavenly Principles and their laws, but in the order of Teyvat, only the law can govern the “below,” the world, and the world can not reciprocate their influence on the “above.” This would mean that human action on Teyvat actually does not have an effect on the “sky,” which is the spiritual realm. In the Flower of Paradise Lost artifact lore, she says that the "master of the heavens, consumed by fear for the rising tide of delusion and breakthroughs, sent down the divine nails to mend the land, laying waste to the mortal realm..." This suggests that the sealing off of the connection between Teyvat and the heavens is the result of the Heavenly Principles’ fear of the power of the “invaders” and the effect they and other humans could have on them from the human ‘realm’ of Teyvat.

More simply, this means that the Heavenly Principles are actively preventing the humans of Teyvat from performing the “Repairing of the World”.

The (semi)literal translation of Zhongli’s burst voiceline also references this, but in connection with Li and Confucianism, rather than alchemy: “Heaven moves; all follows.” In this scenario, he, as the Archon, has the authority to act as the executor for the Heavenly Principles’ law (Tian Li), and invokes “heaven” to set a limit/boundary. You can even see this illustrated with how his burst stops the enemies from moving, as he restores ‘order’. (Credit to Cristal Marie for this insight)

The one exception to the restriction set by the Heavenly Principles seems to be the Traveler, whose helpful acts are excellent displays of “Repairing the World”: Indeed, while Traveler was initially just showing their good nature, many of their actions have contributed to restoring a balance to a Teyvat that seems to be in a state of “Tohu” (chaos).

Examples are varied and extensive, but we can categorize Traveler’s actions as follows:

Returning things to their rightful place: repairing the Statues of the Seven by returning the Oculi, helping the Seelie return to their courts.

Repairing and balancing Leylines: cleansing Leyline disorders at places like Chenyu Vale, the different islands of Inazuma, cleansing leftover Forbidden Knowledge at Sumeru.

Aiding people and living beings: from the Aranara and Melusines to Scaramouche and Dvalin, ill or struggling NPCs, lingering ghosts, etc

Defeating and suppressing evil forces: Osial, Beisht, an eroded Azhdaha, the Thunder Manifestation, the Tatarigami at Yashiori, different agents of the Abyss Order, the All-Devouring Narwhal.

Performing appropriate rituals: the Funerary Rites for the “passing” of Morax, the Rainjade Rite at Chenyu Vale, the Festival Utsava, the Watatsumi Goryou Matsuri, the Sakura Cleansing Ritual, etc.

All this repairing, cleansing, returning things to correct places and balancing elemental energy fits with the Lurianic description of how “Repairing the World” is achieved.

In the first part of this theory we compared the Kabbalistic sefirot with the seven elements of Teyvat, as different “colors” derived from elemental energy. We also mentioned how the famous array of the Sefirot in the “Tree of Life” is an idealized state: the truth is that they won’t be arranged in such a balanced way until the coming of the Messianic Age, and that will only be achieved once the repairing of the world is complete. In this context then, the Traveler’s actions should be accelerating the arrival of this ideal state.

But… isn’t Teyvat the world of the “Other Side”? Who exactly is the Traveler aiding with their actions? Aren’t they strengthening the klippot by maintaining the order set by the Heavenly Principles, who have been accused of being “usurpers” chaining the world to an unnatural order? Or is the Traveler actually reversing this and returning the world to its natural state?

There are a few instances when we are led to doubt that the Traveler is doing the ‘correct’ thing as they purify/restore places in Teyvat. During the Chenyu Vale world questline, Lingyuan says that the adeptal energy the Traveler gets from Fujin has the power to “suppress nature” and that their efforts to perform the Rainjade Rite go against nature as it is intended to be. She also makes a cryptic comment about how humans used to be part of nature, but are no longer. This may simply refer to how humans affect the world around them, or perhaps it’s meant also as commentary on the Traveler’s actions and the way they are generally considered to be positive and restorative.

In this case, if the Traveler is doing wrong, could it be that the “true Messiah” is out there, being labeled as a “sinner” for trying to release Divine Energy from the evil grasp of the klippot?

After all, we know someone who fits that description: the Traveler’s own sibling.

Purification through Sin: how the Abyss Order are the good guys akshually

There was actually a movement in Jewish mysticism that believed that doing exactly the opposite of what Luria advised (following the laws of the Torah) is what would achieve the complete repairing of the world. This movement started in the 17th century, in the Ottoman Empire, when a man named Sabbatai Zvi claimed to be the long awaited Messiah. It wasn’t the first time this happened, indeed Christianity arose from one of those very claims.

The Sabbatean movement, like many before them, drew criticism from more conservative Rabbis particularly due to the seemingly unstable behavior of their leader: sometimes boldly going against Jewish law, other times falling into periods of melancholy that were “unbecoming” of the Messiah. The breaking point for the detractors of Sabbatai Zvi was his public conversion to Islam after being threatened with torture and execution by the Ottoman authorities, effectively becoming an apostate to the Jewish faith. Despite this, Sabbatai Zvi had a big following, and his conversion didn’t deter them.

What’s relevant about this Messianic claimant movement is that much of the fuel for its credibility was based on Kabbalistic thought. Nathan of Gaza, an accomplished student of Jewish theology, was the first believer that Sabbatai was the real Messiah, and from then on used his deep knowledge of Lurianic Kabbalah to argue why Zvi’s questionable actions were what had to be expected from the Messiah, including the most serious sins. Much of the reasoning for this is explained in a text that is still polemical today: the Treatise on Dragons.

Nathan argued that even though the entirety of the created universe was emanated from Divine Light, that doesn’t mean all of this divine essence was used up: there was a good amount of Divine Light that wasn’t involved in creation, and in a way “didn’t desire” to become created matter. When the endless Divine Light “retracted” to make space for the future world, the leftover “Void realm” had remnants of Divine Light that didn’t want to be part of creation, and were even hostile to it. Afterwards, Divine Light entered the Void in a “vertical line”, penetrating it and kicking off creation, including the subsequent shattering of the vessels mentioned earlier. Eventually, the shattered fragments of the vessels and the hostile remnants of Divine Light formed the realm of the “Other Side.” So now, the upper levels of the Void is where the created world is located, and it’s also the realm where humans can aid the “Repairing of the World”. However the lower levels, where the klippot are located, are so evil that only the Messiah themselves can “repair” them. That’s why the soul of the Messiah was cast into the “Other Side” even before creation, when Divine Light penetrated into the Void Realm. This soul would be particularly connected with the klippot, incarnating many times across history as different people that would endure terrible temptations and suffering, all with the objective of purifying the klippot at the bottom of the “hole of the great Abyss”, from the inside.

While this interpretation of Lurianic Kabbalah was devised to explain the behavior and life of one particular individual (Sabbatai Zvi), for our Genshin Impact theory it serves as an explanation for the actions of the Traveler’s Sibling. After all, we have never seen them hold contempt or hatred against Teyvat like the exiled dragon sovereigns seem to have. Rather, the Sibling and the Abyss Order focus on toppling the Heavenly Principles. The Sibling even seems to have tried to reverse the initial effects of the Cataclysm, attempting to save Khaenri’ah and parts of Teyvat along with Dainsleif, until whatever they saw at the “sea of flowers at the end” made them change their mind. Abyss Sibling is also constantly somber and serious, even when chatting amicably with the Traveler during Bedtime Story, which fits Nathan’s explanation on how different people containing the soul of the Messiah have tended to have a melancholy disposition, constantly battling the temptation to sin and struggling with the uglier side of life.

All this, plus the constant description of the Abyss Order and other Khaenri’ans as “sinners” leads us to think that the actions of its current leader, the Princess/Prince of the Abyss, are in line with the Sabbatean notion of “purifying the klippot through sin”.

Why Am I A Broken Messiah and other old Death Note anime lyrics

One final comparison to draw in this “redemption through sin” is actually from different Abrahamic religions other than Judaism. Gerschom Scholem in his book about Sabbateanism also points out the similarities of this movement to at least one, or perhaps more, early Gnostic Christian sects.

It’s difficult to discern what was genuine belief and what were accusations of heresy by mainstream Christian theologians, but there are at least two Gnostic groups that seemed to identify themselves with Biblical characters typically associated with sin.

The Cainites allegedly claimed that since the God of the Old Testament was nothing but an evil imposter, salvation would come by opposing his laws and engaging in sin. In their narrative, Cain was but a victim that triumphed over the evil Demiurge and his minion: Abel, while Judas was either the most illuminated disciple of Jesus, who aided him in opening a path for humanity’s salvation, or a hero who opposed the evil Jesus’s attempt to further hide the truth of the world. The second group were the Ophites, who identified themselves with the snake that invited Adam and Eve to go against God’s prohibitions in the Garden of Eden, because doing so would actually reveal the truth about the Imposter God and the True God to them and their descendants.

Whether what we know of these groups is reliable or false, we also know that there was a more generalized Gnostic belief that humans were “sinful bodies” made of “lesser matter” that nonetheless contained “sparks of divine essence” within them: it was through the discarding of the “lesser body” and the “ascending of the divine sparks” towards the Pleroma that humanity could gain salvation. This is very reminiscent of the Kabbalistic notion of “releasing the sparks of Divine Light” from the “husks” of the klippot.

Gnosticism is one of the chief inspirations for the world building of Genshin Impact. If the notion of the Other Side accurately describes the condition of Teyvat, and the characteristics of the klippot are comparable to the order imposed by the Heavenly Principles, then it’s very likely that “repairing” the world will be done in a Gnostic way, whether it’s escaping Teyvat or entirely destroying it.

Also, the Twins having opposite stances when it comes to the “salvation of the world” could be compared to the Christian and Islamic belief that the arrival of the end times will be heralded by a fake “Anti Messiah”, right before the appearance of the actual Messiah of salvation. It could be then, considering the role of the “Sinful Messiah” described before, that the Princess/Prince of the Abyss is behaving like the Antichrist precisely because this is a necessary role to be performed so the Traveler can bring salvation to the world.

At this time, we still don't know which of the twins are the one whose actions are actually leading to the “salvation” of Teyvat. Is the Traveler unwittingly helping the klippot exert tyrannical control over an exiled, scattered Divine Light? Or are they returning the world to a state older than the Heavenly Principles? Is the Abyss Order actually trying to liberate Teyvat from the oppression of the “Other Side,” or are they just looking for power and vengeance? And what role does the exiled Dragon race play in this dichotomy of divine and demonic?

Perhaps Natlan can bring us those long-awaited answers…

References:

The Origins of the Klippot / Qliphoth & Sitra Achra in the Zohar - Kabbalah on the Problem of Evil

Introduction to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism - Part 10/14 - Christian and Lurianic Kabbalah

Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Scholem). Sixth Lecture: The Zohar II: The Theosophic Doctrine of the Zohar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_(Confucianism)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_above,_so_below

Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Scholem). Seventh Lecture: Isaac Luria and his School

Introduction to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism - Part 10/14 - Christian and Lurianic Kabbalah https://youtu.be/gqvcifVWjvM?si=BYS_7FbX8lz9iQJy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbateans

Introduction to Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism - Part 12/14 - Sabbateanism and Mystical Heresy II https://youtu.be/F5QU5ylhOqA?si=dSR4SEbnkMfCUJj_

Sabbatai Ṣevi : the mystical Messiah, 1626-1676 (Scholem). Chapter 3: The Beginnings of the Movement in Palestine (1665)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cainites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophites

Anticosmicism: Gnostic Dualism https://gnosticismexplained.org/anticosmicism-gnostic-dualism/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist

#genshin impact #genshin lore #mythology #*shocked pikachu face* can you believe the Gnoses are bad #who woulda thunk #skirk we owe you our lives #I promise we wrote this before the 5.0 livestream

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nyaagolor · 1 year ago

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What are your thoughts on Apollo Justice (the character)?

OH BOY. OHHHHHH BOY. I have a fever and some free time lfg.

So honestly, I think part of the reason I love Apollo so much is because he runs parallel to Phoenix but also counter to him at the same time. I always saw Simon and Athena as the successors-- in terms of ideology and job and all that other stuff-- to the Phoenix-Edgeworth dynamic and status rather than Apollo and Klavier. Athena and Simon, to me, feel like extensions of the arcs of Phoenix and Edgeworth + the vibes of the original trilogy. Apollo and Klavier ( who I will not talk about bc we will be here all day)? They're the antithesis.

Apollo Justice The Game directly foils the original trilogy in so many ways, but I think even on a more base thematic level it runs counter to a lot of the ideas that we take for granted about the original trilogy, and because Apollo sits at the center of this, the things I love about the game are encapsulated in why I like him. There are a ton of themes in the ace attorney trilogy-- support networks, faith, trust, the truth-- and Apollo is defined by their limits, their failures, and their absence. He is let down, kicked around, defined by abandonment and betrayal and distrust. Apollo is defined by everything that Phoenix is not, and bc of how the timeline goes we don't really get any retribution for that, just a steady march forward, and I think that gives me a lot to think about with his character

Phoenix's arc right from Turnabout Sisters is about the building of a support network, and the ways that developing this support is integral for when things go wrong. We contrast Phoenix with Godot, Maya with Dahlia, and see how people left to stew in their resentment can chase vengeance to dark places (wow I wonder who also does this after the death of a dear friend leading to a crusade of misplaced revenge that almost leads someone they care about being killed.). With Apollo we get to stand on the precipice of resolution, but the important part is we don't get it. Apollo's life falls off the rails, and he's the one left to pick up the pieces.

We see through him how our trust can be betrayed by people of good and bad intentions, and the lingering consequences that has on one's ability to not only trust the people around them but themselves. And yeah!! That's why I adore him so much-- he's tested not by the possibility of failure like Phoenix often is, but climbing up from the reality of it. It's less "how do we make our way out of this mess before it goes nuclear" and more "things are already destroyed-- where do we go from here?". It has more of an element of recovery than prevention to me, and I think that's a fascinating avenue to explore in stories like these. Apollo pushes the envelope of the themes of the narrative and the characters-- he is the epitome of what it looks like when things fall apart, and it gives him and the trilogy characters something to reconcile

A lot of people have complained that Apollo barely feels like the protagonist in his own game, but that's honestly a huge part of the reason why I love him so much. He's defined by the spaces between, the limits and failures of things we had up to this point taken to be true, and left with a pretty limited degree of autonomy through it all. He's pushed around and puppeteered by people who mean well and those who don't, and I feel like a major theme of AA4 that I love but don't often see talked about is "what does it mean to have autonomy-- and by extension, control? What does it mean to take it back? What does it mean to lose it, and what does it mean when you'd do anything to keep it." Most of what I said is only partially resolved bc AA4 is... a game. A technically finished game. but!! Because it eviscerates our expectations of the franchise so thoroughly AND leaves open so many avenues, it makes Apollo and the rest of his crew some of my favorite characters because there's so much you can think about and do with them!!

also he's like. An insect to me. <3

#apollo justice #ace attorney #meta #mod vex #ask #im sick rn and I'm Tired so I didn't edit this

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ambunyun · 7 months ago

Text

Doctor Who x Honkai Star Rail Prompt (1)

The Doctor discovers another universe, and new people to bother.

The Thirteenth Doctor dashed back and forth before the TARDIS' control console, skidding across the floor every now and then as she maniacally pulled and flipped switches and levers.

"Okay, old girl, this is not what I meant when I said 'surprise me'!" The Doctor yelled at the console, which spewed back mechanical noises in indignation.

The Doctor groaned and rolled her eyes. A particularly strong rumble caused her to stumble backward onto the handrail. "Ugh!"

She powered her way against the increasing quakes of the temporal storm surrounding the TARDIS' path. Usually, the TARDIS' shielding was more than enough to ignore such issues, but this time the old girl was acting up - and for no apparent reason!

The Doctor grabbed tightly onto the monitor screen - the coordinates were all wrong! She hadn't even known a section like this existed within the Time Vortex! Oh god, Yaz was gonna be so mad at her.

"This looks like..." The Doctor wished she had her glasses with her right now as she stared at the display screen. "A cluster of parallel universes branching off, yet connected to the same source. Classic multi-world theory, but I've never seen Vortex Energy having this kind of pattern before. Almost like leaves on a tree," she mused and then spouted out floods of scientific jargon, before realizing she was talking to herself again.

The unmistakable cyclic wheezing sound of the TARDIS' dematerialization field could be heard, accompanied by the ringing of the Cloister Bell. Well, that was another Tuesday.

"We're gonna crash!" The Doctor yelled, to no one but her in particular.

"Ahem! Attention all passengers." Pom-Pom announced with a clear tone, reverberating throughout the familiar halls of the Astral Express.

The Trailblazer remained seated on the Express' comfy lounge, head pressed against the window reflecting the sea of stars.

They had just made a detour back to Xianzhou Luofu to participate in the Wardance. After defeating Hoolay and settling the borisin invasion, and at the Traliblazer's begging request, the crews will again return to Herta's Space Station for the testing of the Simulated Universe, as well as preparations for the upcoming school festival from Penacony.

"The Express is about to make the jump — The Express is about to make the jump — Please be seated and hold on!"

March knew better not to stand around this time.

"The train is about to make the jump!"

The Trailblazer closed their eyes.

"5! 4! 3! 2! 1!"

The Trailblazer expected the familiar vomit-inducing sense of dizziness to wash over them.

But nothing happened. Not even the blue light of the warp engine could be seen.

"H-Huh?" March 7th seemed befuddled. Even Dan Heng came out of his room to check. "What's the hold-up?" March tried to ask but quickly stopped when she realized that Welt and Himeko were nowhere to be seen.

"Conductor?" Dan Heng directed his voice to the empty air, but received no reply.

Suddenly, the entire Express shook over. Objects and people were knocked down to the ground from a particularly strong impact.

"Something just crashed into the Express!" Dan Heng yelled.

"Ughh, is this the Knight guy again?" March whined while covering her head.

"Everyone," a voice rang out from the PA system. It was Himeko. "Please stay calm, the Express has just encountered an unknown burst of Imaginary energy - which had crashed the Star Rail."

Welt chimed in. "We theorized that this is caused by a sudden imaginary leakage phenomenon. However, we do not know what caused the phenomenon in the first place."

"We do see a blue box, however." Himeko continued, although her tone had a degree of incredulity behind it. "A blue, rectangular, wooden box to be exact. And I advised all of you to be extremely careful right now, because it had just crashed into the Engine room.

#honkai star rail #hsr #writing prompt #doctor who #dw #astral express #trailblazer #march 7th #dan heng #welt yang #himeko #thirteenth doctor #dr who #the doctor #the imaginary tree is the time vortex #imaginary energy is vortex energy #gender neutral pronouns for trailblazer because fucks gender conformity

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mangodemonss · 5 months ago

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“Alcohol Free” (Hyunho Oneshot) 21+

(Minho x Hyunjin)

•Authors POV•

Minho stood lazily against the rail of the cruise ship a drink in hand with his best friend Jeongin. "Yeah, no." Minho said staring up at the moon taking a sip of his drink. In the distance loud music, chattering and laughter can be heard.

"Why not? It's our last night here on the cruise. Do something fun!" The younger's eyes lit up with enthusiasm staring at the side of the elders head; Minho continued to stare up at the moon. The breeze tangling his black hair.

"You're idea of fun is having sex with someone you will never see again?" Minho questioned raising a brow. "You're to young to think about sex."

"Excuse me I am twenty-two I am old enough to think about sex, Mr. Twenty-four year old." He scoffed shoving Minho's arm.

"Uh huh. I'm sure Chan also agreed with your statement...speaking of Chan where is he?"

"Huh..." he turned around to look at the dance floor where everyone was, spotting his boyfriend sitting at the bar alone, "waiting at the bar. Just like I told him to." A proud grin was displayed on his face.

"Wow thanks for making me feel so single." He mumbled.

"You caused that upon yourself. You don't want to get a man's." Jeongin sassed.

"It's not that I don't want to...I just haven't found the right person." He chugged his drink down.

"I know that feeling. That's how I felt before I met Channie. Don't worry hyung, you'll find the right person soon." He placed his hand on the elders back for comfort. Minho nodded in agreement.

"Okay enough of this sap shit. Let's get drunk!" Minho said raising his empty glass to clink with Jeongin's. They clinked their glasses and laughed walking back to the dance floor meeting Chan. They began drinking and dancing into the night.

As the night went on Chan and Jeongin were wasted. They were dancing on the dance floor; while Minho sat at the bar watching them with a drink in hand, feeling a little tipsy. The bar was a little empty since most people were dancing. Minho hadn't even noticed when another person sat beside him.

"Take a picture it'll last longer." The unknown male said to Minho. He turned his head to meet a boy around his age with bright red hair- contrast to his jet black hair.

"Excuse me?" He said sipping his drink.

"Sorry. You were looking at those people over there dancing on each other. It's kinda creepy." The boy said sheepishly. In response Minho chuckled light heartedly.

"Yeah? Those are my friends." His body now turning to face the boy.

"I'm Hyunjin. Twenty one."

"Minho. Twenty four." There was a silence between them. It wasn't awkward. Somehow it felt comfortable. Like they've known each other for years.

"Why not? It's our last night here on the cruise. Do something fun!" Minho remebering the younger’s words…have fun huh?

"Can I interest you a drink?" Minho said straightening his posture.

“Sure.”

Just like that the two began drinking away and talking. Minho's previous tipsy state was now fully gone. He was drunk. Though he was still able to have control over his body.

"Let's get out of here." Minho said with a smirk.

"How about to my room?" Hyunjin asked tilting his head to side returning the smirk. His hand creeping up Minho's thigh. Minho scoffed and stood up grabbing the boys wrist pulling him closer to his chest. Both now just inches away from each other.

He leaned in close to the younger's ear and whispered lowly. "Don't test me here kitten." His body shivered feeling his breath touching his ear, body tensing with the tone he was being spoken to with. Slightly getting turned on by the pet name. He pulled away loving the effect he had on the boy. "Lead the way." A sly grin rested upon his features.

They both drunkenly stumble their way into Hyunjin's room on the ship. As soon as they entered Minho shut the door pinning Hyunjin up against it. A soft whimper leaving his mouth. His wrists parallel to his head. The room was only lit by the soft moonlight shining through the window. "I told you not the test me." His grip getting tighter around the younger's wrist.

"I-I'm sorry, Hyung." He breathed out. They examined each others face due to their close proximity. Inching closer until Minho pecked the younger's lip's experimentally. Pulling away to connect their foreheads. The alcohol heightening their senses. Minho's touch on the younger's wrist felt like it was burning the boy; yearning for more of his touch.

"Is this okay?" Minho asked softly. The boy nodded slowly exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding in.

Once again Minho connected their lips in a slow passionate kiss. Letting go of his wrists the younger began tangling his hands in the elders hair. Minho grabbed the latter's jaw deepening the kiss. Biting Hyunjin's lip for access. Once the younger opened his mouth he wasted no time exploring every crevice of it. Tongues clashing.

Minho could taste the remnants of the coconut mojito the younger was casually sipping on. "Jump." Minho said.

Suddenly taken aback he jumped without complaint. Minho grabbing his thighs to support the boy as he automatically wrapped his legs around his waist for support. "Good, kitten." Hyunjin moaned into the kiss slightly upon hearing the pet name again. "My baby likes pet names?" A smirk on his face. He walked over to the bed and placed Hyunjin down hovering over him. Each hand resting beside Hyunjin's head. Both of them slightly heaving.

The alcohol coursing through their systems. Eyes piercing into each other.

"Minho Hyung." The younger whispered. "Touch me." His voice every quiet. If the older wasn't so attentive- even in his drunken state—he probably wouldn't even have heard it if he wasn't drunk.

"How badly?" The boy beneath started getting hard and needy.

"B-bad." His voice growing slightly painful.

"Say please." His voice has a cunning edge to it. Adding on to his mischievous smirk. The younger stayed silent for few; staring up at Minho almost if he was challenging him.

"No." His voice flat. His face was unreadable to Minho.

"No?" He leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Why not?" Voice now dangerously low.

"D-don't want t-to." He stuttered.

"Oh really? You won't beg me to?" He continued. The younger shutting his eyes as his erection grew even more painful. "Guess I'll have to make you." The younger was confused by his words. However, before he could question the elder he began kissing his neck nipping, biting, sucking, and licking harshly on a particular spot that made Hyunjin moan out wrapping his arms around the elders neck. "Can I remove your shirt?" He mumbled against his neck. Feeling the younger nodding his head, he raised up to remove said shirt; revealing his slightly toned abs. Minho began kissing down his stomach until he reached his pelvis. Looking up to Hyunjin, he silently asked him if he can continue, he nodded. Minho began removing the younger's pants slowly teasing the younger leaving him in his boxers. Minho began kissing down his thighs hearing the satisfying whimpers leave the latter's mouth. He was becoming restless. But he didn't want to beg. He refused to beg.

Minho was kneeling between his legs as the latter was lying down on his back eyes half close; bearing the pain of his erection. He rubbed every inch of his body purposely not touching the younger's very obvious erection, for very obvious reasons. His touch burning him setting him off more. "You still don't want to beg me?" An amused expression on his face. He knew Hyunjin couldn't put up his facade anymore. He knew the younger was melting-crumbling under his touch. He continued to rub his thigh when he didn't receive a response. "We have all night kitten."

There it was the last straw for Hyunjin. He broke. His pride deceiving him as the words left his mouth. "Touch me...please." He whispered the last part.

"I'm sorry I couldn't hear that." The cunning tone returning.

"Touch me please." He gritted between his teeth. The former let out a light hearted chuckle.

"Was it that hard to ask me kitten?"

"Very." He said plainly. Before he knew it his boxers were off in a flash as his fully erected member laid attentive on his stomach. His plain emotion now filled with embarrassment when he realized that he was fully naked while Minho was fully dressed. He turned away in an attempt to hide his flushed face.

"Don't hide from me." He turned the younger's head back toward him.

"Hyung..."

"Yes?"

"Um...I've never had sex before." Hyunjin couldn't read the look on the elders face.

Fuck. He hates me now. Great I ruined the mood. The younger thought. That's when the older gave him a warm smile.

"That's okay. We can take things slow if you want to. I promise I won't hurt you. We can go at your pace. Alright?"

"Okay." He seemed unsure of himself.

He slowly grabbed the younger's erection pumping it slowly with one hand as the other rested comfortably on the latter's thigh. He began bucking his hips up to match Minho's pace. Letting out satisfied sounds.

"F-faster Hyung." Minho smiled seeing the boy beneath him already looking fucked out and they haven't even started yet.

This is gonna be a fun night. He thought

He began stroking him at a faster pace complying to the younger's request. After a few minutes Hyunjin spoke. "I-I'm g-gonna cum!" He said between uneven breaths. Just then Minho stopped causing the poor boy to whine.

"Why did you stop?" His widened eyes now looking at Minho's hooded ones.

"We're just getting started kitten." He said with an innocent smile. Hyunjin wondered how this man could say something like that and smile so cutely at him. It wasn't matching up. "I need to stretch you out love." Another pet name. Hyunjin breathed out slowly.

"I have lube in my backpack over there." He pointed at the bag on the floor beside the door. Minho arched his eyebrow, but nonetheless he got up in search of the bottle and returned with said bottle of strawberry flavored lube. "My friend gave it to me...cause he said I needed to-and I quote-get dicked down." Minho chuckled opening the bottle applying some to his fingers gently massaging it to warm it up. Hyunjin loved to elders laugh.

It was somehow calming to him.

"Make sure to thank that friend of yours cause this will make the process a lot easier."

"T'm gonna put one finger in now okay?" The younger nodded slowly. "If you at all feel some sort of discomfort or you need me to stop, tell me immediately. Okay?"

"O-okay." He said warily. Minho slowly put his index finger at the rim of the boy, pushing in and out moderately watching the younger's face contort into a painful expression. His fingers long and veiny. He began to kiss the younger to try to distract him from the pain. After a couple of minutes, Hyunjin spoke. "Y-you can add a-another one."

"Okay love." He said as he added the second one in making Hyunjin moan not only at the feeling but at the pet name as well. He began scissoring the boy slightly in attempts to stretch him out when Hyunjin pulled at the elders sleeve; immediately stopping his actions. "Is something wrong?" He said, worry in his eyes.

"N-no, I just want this off." He said shyly pulling the elders shirt. Smiling, Minho took his fingers out of the boy, taking off his shirt revealing his washboard abs making Hyunjin drool slightly.

"Take a picture it'll last longer." He teased, remembering when the younger had said that to him earlier.

"Shut up." He turned away embarrassed. Minho shook his head and returned his fingers into the boy. Hearing his whines calm down after a couple of minutes he added the third one making Hyunjin's eyes widen. "S-shit—wait." Upon hearing those words the older immediately stopped his movements. Index, middle, and ring finger plunged into the boy.

"Are you okay?" He asked rubbing the younger's thigh for comfort.

"Yeah. Just...just wait a little." A little while after his eyes closed again and his head rested on the pillow beneath him. The alcohol making his his head slightly dizzy. He motioned for the older to continue. His fingers moved slowly to not hurt the boy. Moving in and out until he curved his fingers upwards making the boy arch his back with a slight scream.

"Wow I found it on the first try?" Minho smiled amused at the younger's reaction.

"Fuck. There Minho-" he breathed out, when Minho shoved his fingers in harshly making his breath get caught in his throat.

"Hyung." Minho said eyes darting at the younger.

"Huh?" His eyes squinted looking confused.

"Hyung. Don't forget it next time." There was no emotion on his face. The amusement was quickly replaced in the flash of a second.

‘Is this guy bipolar or something?’ The younger thought.

"You understand?" Minho questioned.

"Yes...Hyung."

"Good." He flashed a boxy smile making the other even more bewildered than before. Before he could process what happened Minho had removed his fingers from the boy. He watched the older as he removed his pants and boxers, freeing his member from its restraints. Hyunjin gulped looking at the size. Nervous for his poor ass-he was huge. Minho could sense the apprehension in the boy. Eyes turning soft.

He leaned forward and connected their foreheads again palming the side of his cheek with on hand. And whispered, "It's okay I'll go slowly. Just tell me to stop if you need me to. I promise I will try my best to not hurt you." He felt Hyunjin nod and lifted himself back between his legs to lube his member. Once he generously coated it, he placed it at the entrance. "I'm going to put it in now okay?"

"Okay." The older grabbed his hand and began pushing in carefully. The boy beneath him shut his eyes tight pressing his head further into the pillow. Tears brimming his eyes. Minho continued to push until he bottomed out. He wanted to move. He wanted to absolutely ruin the boy under him-the alcohol in his system not helping the case-but he knew, he fought his instincts, he promised not to hurt him. He looked down at the boy and used his free hand to wipe his tears.

"It hurts." He said turning his head away feeling embarrassed that he's crying.

"I know. Just wait a little longer I promise the pain will go away." They spent the next couple of minutes waiting for Hyunjin to adjust to Minho's size. Minho kissed every square inch of the boy that he had access to; sucking a few hickeys into the boys skin as well. Not to long after Hyunjin spoke warily.

"I-I think you can move now." Minho placed a kiss into his forehead.

"Okay love." He rested his hands on each side of the boy again beginning to move in and out slowly, groaning at the the tight feeling. Hyunjin gasped feeling the movements, starting to ease into it.

"F-faster." Minho picked up his pace slightly making Hyunjin moan out for him.

"H-Hyung." His breath hitched as he gripped the bed sheets. This feeling unbearable, not in a bad way. He wanted it to stop but it felt so good. Minho began to go faster; constantly looking up at boy for any discomfort. He only saw signs of pleasure. He was to precious. Delicate. Beautiful. Minho only wanted to protect him.

None of them had realized when Minho began going faster. But neither complained. Only feeling euphoric in each other. When Minho grabbed the younger's member, Hyunjin wrapped his hands around the elders neck slightly lifting his back off the bed. Burying his head into the crook of his neck. Minho's pace not faltering once. Hyunjin breathed heavily muffling out his moans on the elders chest until the elder hit a particular spot making him scream.

"Fuck!" His head tilted back into the pillow. His back arching as Minho started kissing his neck again. "Feels good." He said between breaths. The older smirked on his neck and continued to hit that spot making the younger's body shake. The feeling to much for his body to take. Not to long later the boy spoke again. "I'm gonna cum!" His nails digging into the elders back.

Minho took the opportunity to whisper into his ear. "We're just getting started." He immediately slowed down his pace making Hyunjin whine out again. Being denied twice of his orgasm began to stress him out.

"Please I want to cum! Please!"

"Oh? Are you begging me now? What happened to, ‘I don't wanna?" He now took his head out of the younger's neck to stare directly at him. The amusement on his face.

"Please." Tears brimming his eyes again. He just wanted to have his release.

"Okay kitten." He pecked his hand and began to pick up his pace again. This time stroking the younger's member at the same pace he was thrusting at. Hyunjin was barely able to control his voice letting everything out. Knuckles turning white from hard he began to grip the bed sheet. His body trembling from the overwhelming amounts of pleasure. Minho enjoyed the sight beneath him. Watching as the boys body shook with each harsh thrust.

"C-cum." Was all the younger was able to say eyes closing in on him.

"Go ahead love." Hyunjin didn't wait much longer until he came covering both Minho's chest and his stomach in his cum.

"Hyung!" He screamed out back arching. Minho continued to stroke him until he finished cuming. The boy began to toss and turn slightly tears coming down his face. "W-wait I feel s-sensitive." He said since Minho hadn't slowed down his pace.

"I know. But I'm close. Do you think you can hold on just a little longer?" He panted looking at the boy. When he nodded slowly, he placed a sloppy kiss on his neck. The boy was feeling overstimulated, but he trusted Minho.

"Almost there." Pace becoming a little sloppy. Mind cloudy from the alcohol. Only focused on reaching his high.

"I'm cuming love." Right as he said that he leaned down to connect their lips as the younger felt the hot liquid filing him up. Moaning into the kiss at the feeling.

Both of their breaths uneven. Sweat covering their bodies. Minho slowly pulled out of the boy and laid beside him cuddling him. "How do you feel?" He asked with a lopsided smile looking at the state of the boy. He was slightly shaking yet his body was still-almost limp.

"G-good. That felt amazing." He said voice raspy and hoarse. Chest heaving slowly as he continued to lay on his back. Staring up at the ceiling. He felt strange. He didn't know what he was feeling. Was the elder going to leave him? He didn't want him to. And neither did Minho. "Hyung."

"Yes love?" His voice soft playing with the younger's bright red hair.

"Is this the last time I'm gonna see you?" His breath hitched thinking of living his life without seeing the older.

"Do you want to see me again?" His movements stopped, causing the younger to turn his head to the side to face the boy.

"Yes." He whispered. Unsure of the outcome, he looked panicked. Until Minho smiled and pecked his forehead.

"Then we'll see each other again." The younger smiled and closed his eyes preparing for slumber. Not minding the mess they were in. As long as he was between Minho's arms he was okay.

The next morning came and Minho was still beside him. They showered thoroughly and got ready to head off the boat. Minho went back to his room to grab his things and meet up with Jeongin and Chan.

"Where were you last night?! I was calling and texting! Jesus I thought you fell overboard." Jeongin lightly scolded. Then an unfamiliar yet familiar face then came up to group greeting them shyly.

"Guys this is Hyunjin." Minho said slinging his arm around the younger's shoulder.

"So that's where you were." Jeongin's tone flat. Upon examining the boy Jeongin noticed the slight limp he walked with. "Oh my god! Minho you had sex!" Hyunjin's cheeks turned red from embarrassment.

"Okay that's enough we will see you guys later bye." Chan said ushering his boyfriend off the boat with their belongings. Minho laughed quietly thanking Chan with his eyes. The oldest saw and winked back before laughing and leaving the two alone.

"L-let's go." The younger said.

"Wait." Hyunjin turned to the older confused. "Can I have your number?" The younger's cheeks turned red once again.

"Sure." They exchanged numbers and headed off the boat.

"And are you busy this Friday?"

"No?"

"Then let's go on a date." He said grabbing his hand squeezing it.

"Okay." He smiled at the older.

"Now let's go find my crazy friends, shall we?" They laughed walking hand in hand with each other on the search of Minho's friends.

•The End•

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strictlyfavorites · 2 months ago

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Christmas Train3

the Cascade Canyon Winter Train.

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Train - Hey, Soul Sister [HQ AUDIO] + Lyrics

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17 Greatest Movie Scenes On Trains

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It's FULL STEAM Ahead - 20 Best Clean TRAIN & RAILWAY Jokes !

We’re about to ride 101 Train Jokes full-speed into Comedy Central Station. Make sure your ticket’s punched, your caboose is comfy, and your sense of humor is fully onboard—this ride’s going to be a laugh-a-minute journey!”

Off the Rails: Hilarious Train Jokes That’ll Track You Up!

Why do trains always make great stand-up comedians? Because their jokes are always on track!

What’s a train’s favorite candy? Choo-choo-chews!

How do trains stay fit? They do track and field.

What’s a train’s favorite sport? Platform diving!

I tried to book a ticket on a ghost train… But it was a fright train!

Why don’t trains ever get lost? They follow their rails-tincts!

How do you stop a train that’s running late? Throw it a line!

Did you hear about the train that lost its luggage? It had too much emotional baggage!

Why are trains so good at chess? They always play on the right track!

Train Passengers All Aboard the Humor Express!

What did one passenger say to the other on the sleeper train? “I’m tired of this conversation!”

Why did the train passengers always bring a pillow? They wanted to avoid platform 9 ¾ of exhaustion.

Why don’t trains allow secret agents on board? Too much undercover work!

What did the late train say to its passengers? “Better late than lever!”

Why did the passengers bring a ladder to the train station? To reach the high-speed rail!

Train Station Humor Why Did the Train Cross the Tracks?

What’s a train station’s least favorite time of day? Rush hour—everyone’s loco!

Why did the train station get in trouble? It was caught platforming lies.

What’s a train station’s favorite movie genre? Rom-coms—they love seeing connections!

Why did the train refuse to leave the station? It had commitment issues.

What do you call a train station that serves coffee? An espresso loco-motive.

Hilarious Train Workers Comedy Gold Inside!

Why did the conductor go broke? He couldn’t keep track of his money!

What do you call a train engineer with no tools? A loco-motivation problem.

Why did the train mechanic break up with the train? Too many repairs in the relationship!

What’s a conductor’s favorite type of music? Soul train tracks!

Why did the conductor never get promoted? He couldn’t handle the pressure of new stops.

Two Fuxing high-speed trains pass by each other at a relative speed of 870 km h, China, April 21, 2022. CMG

China set a new world record of the closing speed among two trains on April 21. This speed of 870 km/h is blisteringly fast for trains. But why is this record significant?

The record is about the speed of two "Fuxing" bullet trains running toward each other. But it's not a collision test in which the trains crash and get destroyed.

Instead, the trains run on two separate tracks side by side on parallel. So, no crashing took place in the test.

Each train ran at the speed of 435 km/h during the test. And when they passed each other, the combined speed doubled to 870 km/h. That's how the record was set.

It's widely known that high-speed railway (HSR) in China is fast. But why does it matter?

The difficult part of the test lies between the two trains. When they passed by each other at such a high speed, the air pressure between the trains became so high that they could be pushed off the rails, leading to disastrous accidents.

If you live near train tracks, you should have been warned to never come close to a fast-moving train. When the train passes, it cuts through the air in front of it, creating chaotic air flows around it, which will likely first blow you away from the train and then, unfortunately, drag you toward the train, resulting in an accident - most of the time a deadly one.

The same thing happened to the two Fuxing bullet trains when they passed by each other. As they ran faster than most trains, the air blew even harder.

If you have taken a ride on the Chinese HSR network, which usually runs at a lower speed of 350 km/h, you may have noticed the short but hard air blow.

How did the engineers prevent accidents from happening then? That's what the record-setting test was all about: getting data to study the changing pattern of air pressure when trains pass each other at a high speed.

The air flow can be hard to study. There's a specific field called "fluid mechanics" in physics that studies such a phenomenon.

"A total of nine new technologies independently developed by China have been adopted on the test trains this time," said Luo Qingzhong, vice president of Chinese Academy of Railway Sciences.

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Spider-Man 2 - Stopping the Train Scene (7/10) | Movieclips

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GRAND FUNK RAILROAD - The Loco-Motion

#Youtube

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watermelonolemretaw · 2 years ago

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Was thinking about Portal 2 and realized that the corrupted cores are a parallel to Wheatley's journey as a character.

Like, first you have the Space Core, and his whole thing is that he wants to go to space. But in order to do that, he would have to escape the facility first, just like Wheatley's goal at the beginning of the game: finding a test subject and escaping alongside them.

Then you have the Adventure Core (aka Rick) and he's supposedly gone on death-defying adventures, like Wheatley going out of his comfort zone by leaving his management rail, alongside finding hidden, dangerous paths to help himself and Chell escape.

Finally you have the Fact Core, meant to tell people facts, but corrupted such that it's barely functional and most of its supposed facts are ridiculous lies being passed off as the truth. This parallels Wheatley being transferred to GLaDOS' body, obtaining all of her knowledge and features, and how he was a terrible fit for it and the experience got him corrupted.

Idk probably not intentional but just a cool thing I noticed

#portal #portal 2 #wheatley #glados #space core #adventure core #fact core

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twig-tea · 1 year ago

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Get To Know Me Tag

Tagged by @telomeke @lurkingshan @my-rose-tinted-glasses @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle and @hyeoni-comb thank you all! 💕

Do you make your bed?

I like a messy bed, it feels more welcoming to me somehow. The only time I make my bed is when I'm without heat and it's winter, then you gotta do it to keep in any residual warmth! But normally I'd rather keep everything loose.

What’s your favorite number?

I....don't think I have one? Is this a thing people have, how do you choose?

What is your job?

I manage a team of Product Owners in the Operations division of a multinational company. In other words, I go to a lot of meetings.

If you could go back to school, would you?

Absolutely not. Beyond the fact that I was formerly a substantive editor of university textbooks, which included both editing the textbook content and sometimes writing their ancillaries (tests, powerpoint slides, etc.) so it feels like I took first-year Sociology at least ten times, I just don't love formalized education. I love learning but on my own terms and at my own pace.

Can you parallel park?

I can't drive at all! Technically I learned how, took lessons and everything, but never got my license.

A job you had that would surprise people?

Hmm. I was a call center person for half a day, it was terrible and I left without getting paid for the work I did because I was so eager to get out of there I didn't want to fight them for my pay (even though I needed the money which is why I was there in the first place). I hate phone calls, I can't hear well on the phone, and it was clear the call center script was designed to be exploitative. It was one of the worst jobs for me I could have taken lol

Do you think aliens are real?

I think it's extremely likely!

Can you drive a manual car?

Nope, even when I learned, it was only on an automatic.

What’s your guilty pleasure?

I'm not guilty about it but I can decimate an entire family size mac and cheese when I'm feeling down.

Tattoos?

I have 3 tattoos; one on each foot and one on the back of my neck. They form a rainbow.

Favorite color?

Blue-green! The shade of preference for any given moment varies, but anything in the region from mint to aqua to teal to turquoise will do; I love them all.

Favorite type of music?

My music taste varies widely but the common denominators are 1) fast tempo or upbeat, 2) solid harmonies, and 3) if there's a tempo or key change I am doubly sold.

Do you like puzzles?

Love puzzles of all kinds. I have a collection of jigsaw puzzles I do regularly, and word puzzles, logic puzzles, sudoku type stuff is all very fun. I don't make a lot of time for them but I do them occasionally and always enjoy it.

Any phobias?

I am afraid of falling. Not heights, but falling. The difference is: I can lean over the railing at the top of a 20-storey building or walk on a glass floor over a big drop and just feel a minor thrill, but am terrified to the point of maybe crying if I have to balance on a single step of a ladder or walk across a patch of ice. I had several brushes with death related to falling when I was a kid, and a few bad falls that caused injury as an adult, so it makes sense. Luckily I am pretty tall so I rarely have to do any kind of ladder-ing!

Favorite childhood sport?

American-style tackle football. We used to play at lunch on the pavement because the soccer kids got the field; we played in all seasons including snow, and we did it for love of the sport. I loved it a lot.

Do you talk to yourself?

Occasionally I'll provide a little commentary on what's happening aloud to myself; but I don't really have fully conversations.

What movies do you adore?

I have loved a lot of movies in my time! A few random ones that come to mind right now because I've been thinking about them for whatever reason are Saving Face (2004), Monster (2023), Practical Magic (1998), Moonlight (2016), and Clue (1985).

Coffee or tea?

Despite my username being a type of tea, in this as in all things I am a perfect Kinsey 3. Love both equally and drink a ton of both (coffee more regularly, tea in greater volume).

First thing you wanted to be growing up?

Lifeguard, I think! And then when I was in elementary school I wanted to edit textbooks (I was that kid who got annoyed whenever there were mistakes), so I did actually get to do my childhood dream job.

No pressure tags just going with vibes based on who I've interacted with recently (if you've done this already tag me in the comments!): @rocketturtle4 @visualtaehyun @sollucets @troubled-mind @jimmysea @ginnymoonbeam

#tag game #thank you for tagging me #typed so that i can stop thinking it

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dr-futbol-blog · 10 months ago

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The Siege II, Pt. 4

We don't get to see Sheppard and McKay's actual reunion, we don't get to see them alone together, but we can assume that McKay learned the news about the new generator from Sheppard just based on how excited Sheppard had just been to learn about it. If they had a moment to themselves, it must have been brief but at the very least McKay has had the time to change out of his red jumpsuit between the scenes. There's a montage as the city prepares for the attack of the wraith with the new arrivals from Earth and all the new gear they brought with them.

The montage transitions from a pretty big, phallic rail gun to Sheppard teaching the marine pilots how to operate the jumpers, and from the big gun being loaded up we transition to McKay working on powering up the chair.

Out of the main cast, the montage shows only the two of them working. It is the two of them that we are following, the two of them whose actions run in parallel. Certainly everyone in the city is busy preparing for the wraith but narratively, the story of the episode is focused on the two of them. In fact, the show lets us in how how important they are to each other as we shift from montage-time to real time and join McKay with Zelenka and Beckett on the chair platform. As excited as McKay first seemed hooking up the generator, he is now growing frustrated:

McKay: He's not even trying! Beckett: We've tried this a dozen times. Zelenka: Never with this power source. Beckett: I'm serious, Major Sheppard's your man. McKay: Of course he is, but he's training pilots and deploying space mines right now, so we're stuck with you.

The line is a wink-wink-nudge-nudge, obviously not intended to be taken literally. Beckett is complaining and wishing he didn't have to be there, trying to pawn the task off to Sheppard. But two things are worth highlighting. First, the way McKay says "Of course he is" with this tone that says obviously, like there is not a shadow of a doubt in his mind that he too would rather be doing this with Sheppard, and that Sheppard is the best man for the job ten times out of ten. Beckett may be his best friend and he may have the authentic ATA gene but McKay knows better than anyone else that Sheppard's touch is borderline magic. John Sheppard is his man.

Second, he knows where Sheppard is right then. Deploying space mines is a tactical position that Colonel Everett had not intended to share with the entire expedition, least of all the civilian members of it. But McKay knows where Sheppard is because a) he keeps track of that and b) Sheppard had to have told him where he was going. It also tells us that Sheppard, where he is and what he is doing is on McKay's mind even when he is occupied by doing other important things.

We never got to see McKay try to test the chair with Sheppard, which we know that did happen during The Gift (S01E18), but presumably it was similar to what he does with Beckett here. He is standing rather close to the chair as he is taking his readings.

While Sheppard likely was not as whingy as Beckett, McKay's instructions may have been pretty much the same:

McKay: Now, listen to me very carefully, do exactly what I tell you to do and hopefully no-one will get hurt. Beckett: Rodney, there must be someone else. McKay: Concentrate on powering up the chair. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing but. Don't start thinking about-- Beckett: Don't tell me what not to start thinking about, or I'll start thinking about it! McKay: Please power it up.

And once more he says 'please,' the man who never says please. In fact, we have heard McKay say both please and thank you many more times than we hear Sheppard say either which suggests that there may have been some projection going on on his part in McKay and Mrs Miller (S03E08).

As he is taking readings McKay discovers that the chair platform is almost out of drones, causing him to immediately take off to find Weir. He finds her on the control platform and brushes by the Colonel on his way to her.

McKay: Elizabeth--excuse me--I've hooked up the generator, and the chair platform is operational. Everett: That's good news! McKay: Not so much. Weir: Why, what's wrong? McKay: We're down to just a few dozen drones. Everett: And you're just finding this out now? McKay: Look, there was no way of determining that until the chair was initialized and that was only possible once the Mark Two was tied in.

First of all, McKay uses the phrase "not so much," which Sheppard has said to McKay previously in Underground (S01E08) and The Defiant One (S01E12), which makes it "sort of like a Sheppard thing". Only, Sheppard himself may have picked it up from Gen. O'Neill who said the same to Sheppard in Rising (S01E01), and whom Sheppard certainly admires and wishes to emulate. Picking up mannerisms from someone you admire is perfectly usual.

He also does say 'excuse me' as he passes the Colonel, further evidence of the fact that he does have manners even if he is occasionally abrasive.

But more significant is the fact that McKay is irascible towards the Colonel in spite of having been very welcoming upon their initial meeting. He has no particular reason to brush right past the Colonel and make a performance out of delivering the information to Weir in particular as a sign of deferring to her authority over his unless someone had filled him in on what had been discussed in their closed doors meeting. The fact that McKay makes a show out of deferring to Weir's leadership right in front of him suggests that he did hear much more than just about them bringing the generator from the meeting.

As they are discussing the drone problem, an alarm alerts them to another problem. Sheppard conveniently joins them at the same time, apparently having just come down from the jumper bay having finished setting up the space mines.

Sheppard: What's going on? Weir: We just detected a wave of objects approaching the planet. Everett: How many? Chuck: Hundred plus. Sheppard: How come they weren't detected by the long range sensors? McKay: Because they're rocks, asteroids! The wraith must have harvested them from the system's asteroid belt and accelerated them towards us from a safe distance. The mainframe has taken this long to determine that they were a threat.

While Weir is the one who responds to Sheppard's initial question, he asked it from McKay. The moment he runs in, his attention is on McKay but because he's too busy figuring out what is happening, Weir answers. Sheppard's second question is likewise directed at McKay, and now that he has had a chance to formulate an idea of what's going on, he responds to Sheppard, even taking his eyes of the screen in front of him at the end of his answer to meet his gaze. These two communicate as much by exchanging glances as they do exchanging words, and it is the look McKay gives him that informs Sheppard of the amount of trouble they are in more than the words. Weir, however, has to use her words to get the same information:

Weir: Can they do much damage? McKay: Oh yeah. Admittedly most of them will burn off in the atmosphere but... that's not why they're doing it. Everett: They're headed toward the mines. Sheppard: Well, can't they be deactivated? Everett: No!

Sheppard directs one of his questions to Everett, and the tone of the question is very different from what he uses with McKay, bordering on disrespectful. They watch the wraith take out their space mines on the screen, and it is quickly all over, McKay sighing in defeat as he deflates:

McKay: Well... that's that. Your mines make one hell of a bang, Colonel. I'm sure the wraiths' ears are ringing.

The moment McKay leans back on his chair and folds his arms trying to get some distance to his laptop and what he just witnessed, Sheppard has leaned forward and even placed his hand on the table to get closer to McKay. He even shifts his weight to have his centre of gravity nearer McKay. There's a table between them and his body is not okay with that, it's like something inside him just wants to climb right over it to make up for the distance McKay just put between them.

Sheppard had asked one question from the Colonel but now his attention is on McKay again, his question once more directly to him. However you interpret their relationship, there is no one Sheppard trusts more when it comes to information than McKay.

Sheppard: What's the status of the hive ships? McKay: There's no way of knowing. The mine detonation must have overloaded the sensors. Everett: How long until they're back up? Chuck: There's a lot of residual radiation. McKay: It'll keep us blind for hours. Sheppard: Yeah, well, they're still out there. And we just lost our primary line of defense.

While he exchanges a glance with McKay, very obviously communicating something with the raising of his brow, the scene ends with h Sheppard looking at the Colonel. He gets no satisfaction from having been right about leaving a few of the warheads in reserve, not when McKay's facial expressions and cadence of his voice and the movement of his body had just informed him of just how screwed they were, he needed no words to confirm that. He says the part "Well, they're still out there" to McKay and follows up with "We just lost our primary line of defense" to Weir and the Colonel because unlike everybody else, he does not want to pile everything on McKay's shoulders for him to resolve. He is trying to communicate that thinking up new lines of defense is something for him, Weir and the Colonel to do, where what he communicated to McKay was simply "I wish you (and I) were safe".

Relevant for the end of the episode is also the sequence in which the reaction shots are stacked here; when Sheppard speaks, Weir looks at him, the Colonel does not turn to look at him but we see that he definitely heard what Sheppard said, and we finish with McKay looking up at him. It is McKay's reaction to what Sheppard said that is the most important, it is the sum and culmination of the reactions. Where Sheppard is the central character, the protagonist, McKay is clearly the deuteragonist, the second most important character, the secondary main character. Now, within a story, the deuteragonist can have many different roles: side-kick, foil, mentor, love-interest. And the thing is... McKay is all of them.

This episode, the final episode of the season, the finale, the culmination of the story-arc later expanded to stretch the seasons, makes it clear that the story is about the two of them, these two characters, how they respond to one another, what they are to each other. Sheppard acts and McKay reacts.

We watch Sheppard and we empathize with McKay, we feel what he feels with regards to what Sheppard does, what choices he makes. They are the heart and soul of the series. And it's pretty interesting that is McKay that in many ways seems to have been made into the emotional core of the story. And if we saw Sheppard's breaking point in the previous episode, all of this is building McKay towards his breaking point.

Continued in Pt. 5

#stargate atlantis #sga #sga meta #john sheppard #sheppard is bi #rodney mckay #rodney is gay #ep. the siege #ep. underground #ep. rising #ep. the defiant one #ep. the gift #ep. mckay and mrs miller

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