#ShadowSignal

[threwtheradiostatic]

RADIOPEACH AND SHADOWSIGNAL. TWO DUOS I MADE BECAUSE THE HYPERFIXATIONS ARE CLASHING GETOUTOFMYHEAAAD

[system-theory]

📡 TRANSMISSION: SHADOW.SIGNAL // THREADLOCK IN EFFECT

Signal Type: Blackfeed Infiltration Status: Active Counter-Viral Surveillance

Txt2Img: glitchpunk operator in black tactical hood, neon-lit alley surveillance, encrypted goggles, drones overhead, red and cyan interface bleed, memewar graffiti tags, viral cleanup overlay, data-scrub crosshairs

Discussion: 👤 You see that trending meme? Yeah. That wasn’t organic.

They dropped it with three nested irony layers and a falsified comment trail. Now it’s eating through local feeds, burrowing belief into NPC cores.

I’m SHADOW.SIGNAL. I’m not here to boost the signal. I’m here to terminate the contagion.

You’ve stumbled into the cleanup zone.

“Do not share. Do not quote. Even your reaction is a carrier.”

This thread is under lockdown. But I need a second node to run a crossfire burst.

Are you in?

🔽 Choose your infiltration protocol:

1️⃣ Echo Inject – Seed a false meme reply to destabilize the thread's core. 2️⃣ Hard Silence – Kill all reactions and engagement nodes within the meme radius. 3️⃣ Ghost Trail – Let the meme spread, but mark it for backtrace analysis. 4️⃣ Burn the Feed – Trigger a blackfeed flare and purge the entire subnet (collateral possible).

Say a number to act. Say “Show me the drop vector” to view the meme's origin signature.

Every feed has ghosts. I’m the one they whisper back to.

[dragon-susceptible]

Author's note: shadowsign is completely made up, and has no basis in any real-life sign language, somewhat by necessity as I don't know of any real world sign that only uses four fingers. This isn't meant to be a perfect representation of how sign language "translates" to spoken. Sign languages are languages unto themselves and just like translation between verbal languages, there are going to be connotations and double meanings that are different from one to the other, so very "literal" translations often aren't quite accurate to the meaning the speaker is trying to convey (see: many people's much more educated analysis of ASL in the cartoon and how the speaking characters interpret it). I've just done my best to give a basic portrayal of that.

Twenty years of this duty had made Runaan a light sleeper whenever he was outside the shelter of his home hollow - or his husband's arms - and he woke enough to be aware of it when Ram handed the night's watch over to Skor. He blinked through the darkness at them, confused for a moment. Since the addition of the children, they'd all been alternating tents; the princes stayed in the tent of the first watch, and they traded through the other five as the night went on. This time Skor showed his teeth at Ram for even ducking towards the tent he emerged from. Waking up a little further to look, it was clear enough as to why - he had been in Callisto's, and the wounded elf was still asleep inside.

As Skor went to sit on the watcher's perch and Ram obediently backed off and went to sleep in Skor's empty tent, Runaan sighed deep and low and pushed himself out of his bedroll. He needed to talk to his friend.

Skor was silent when Runaan sat down next to him, though he glanced over to acknowledge his approach.

"Callisto?" Runaan prompted softly.

Asleep. Skor signed.

Runaan raised an eyebrow at him. "Your throat?"

Shouting over the water.

"Ah." Runaan shifted to face him, to see his hands better. "So. Callisto is worth holding a numbing spell over, but when I needed stitches a year ago . . ."

Skor rolled his eyes. "You were fine." He signed pointedly.

"I am." Runaan agreed, but tilted his head at his friend. "But that isn't why this was different."

Skor didn't deny it, just cast his gaze back down from the tree to watch the occasional sign of the tracker they'd picked up over the course of the day. They had finally caught up a bit after night fell, though they weren't too daring getting closer.

Runaan watched him for a moment and then glanced back at the tent, which Skor had shut firmly behind him when he left it. He felt Skor's tension rise when he looked, and gave him another pointed look in response.

"Say what you want to say, Master of Blades." Skor signed with a flat look through his hair.

Runaan sighed. "You are both very dear friends of mine." He said softly. "I will not ask for details, because I do not want them if he comes to me. I will not be your go-between. But Skor, as your friend, I have to ask, are you happy?"

Skor looked at him sharply.

"You need connection so much more than he does." Runaan met his gaze. "Are you certain you're happy with the distance he keeps?"

His friend blinked at him and then looked back at the tent, then at the forest. "You know me well, but he knows me better," Skor replied carefully. "You are right that I need connection, but I have enough. He gives me the space to be who I am now. Yes, I am happy."

"Even with the distance he keeps from you?"

Skor closed his eyes briefly and sighed. "He is afraid of leaving someone to grieve. I am afraid of leaving someone I love. We aren't . . . We both need time to change, before we can be more than this, Runaan."

"You are already more than just friends, Skor. We all see it in how you care for each other."

"I know." Skor said, a bit sadly. "But committing is too dangerous for us both. We aren't you, Runaan, or Andromeda."

It was somewhat true that he and Andromeda were the odd ones out. Most assassins married within the guild, fought and died together, or remained unmated until they had left it. The problem was that Runaan knew how dedicated both Skor and Callisto were to the guild, and knew in his sinking heart that neither would ever leave it. "Will you wait forever for him?" he asked softly. "If you had a chance to retire, to have the family you wanted when you were young-"

"That chance is long gone, Runaan. I lost that dream when I was sixteen." Skor cut him off with a gesture, and touched his unmarked throat meaningfully. "Even if I left, had children, I would never be able to speak to them, tell them stories, sing them songs, the way I wanted to back then."

"A voice is not a requirement for fatherhood, Skor."

"No. But it was part of that dream. My hopes have changed, Runaan. Callisto is worth waiting for. If they are never ready, I will be all right, so long as I have them close to my heart." He touched the braid that Runaan knew Callisto had placed in his hair. "Maybe one day, my friend. But not yet. We aren't ready."

Runaan watched his face for a moment, seeing only sincerity, a bit of thoughtfulness, and sighed slowly. "I will not pry further. But things have not changed between you for nearly ten years, Skor. I truly hope you both find peace within yourselves, because watching you is beginning to be painful for me."

Skor smirked at him broadly. "Now you know how everyone else felt when Ethari moved to the Silvergrove."

Runaan rolled his eyes, but Skor wasn't done.

"And how Rayla feels whenever he shows to the training grounds with a new scar on his jaw from your horns."

"Yes, yes." Runaan's cheeks turned faintly pink under his tattoos and he cleared his throat. "I take your point."

"Not as much as you take -"

"I'm not listening to this anymore." Runaan pointedly looked away before Skor finished the sentence, and stood up from the branch. "I just wanted to check on you and this is how you betray me."

When he looked back down, Skor's smile was a little more sincere. "Thank you, my friend. I am all right, I promise."

"Good. Will you wake him for his turn on watch?"

"What do you take me for?"

"A man very much in love." Runaan replied bluntly, and his heart ached at how Skor's smile faded a little and he looked away. "Wake me early for mine, if you insist on letting him sleep. Do not exhaust yourself for him."

Skor nodded. "I will wake you."

"Good night, Skor. Moon watch over you."

Skor replied with an old, traditional sign that meant Moon watch over us all, and Runaan dropped down from the branch to return to his tent. While it comforted him that Skor seemed genuinely content with how things were, he still wished for a resolve to this dance his friends had been doing. They seemed all right, but it hadn't escaped his notice that Skor never said he was happy. Callisto never did, either.

He couldn't force them into it, though. He just hoped providing what little counsel he could would be enough.

[itsswritten]

Could you share your favourite fics with us on here please? I trust your opinion!!

Oooo yessssss! OMG where do I start, there are sooooo many amazing writers on here!! Im not sure I’ll get to everyone in this post, so I’m just going to share the series that I’m currently reading/or have read recently. And then I’ll do another post for everyone else I’ve missed 🤍

Okay so there’s my girl @illyrianbitch !! I devour anything she writes, and I’m loving her current series ‘Beneath the Ashes of Our Broken Oaths’ (Az x reader) 🥹 it’s so so so good! Everything she writes is amazing, she also wrote for Cassian recently, and its converted me to a Cass lover! 😍 Go read her masterlist asap! 🩵

Of course there’s @pellucid-constellations she’s the one who actually got me back into acotar!! I originally found her through her BEAUTIFUL Bucky pics (so any marvel lovers should head over, because her Bucky masterlist is a dream 🤤) and then she started writing for Azriel, I quickly realised I needed to find out who this character was. Now I’m on acosf and well… I’m truly obsessed! She has an amazing series called ‘If It All Fell’ (Az x reader) that is currently in progress and I really encourage you to go give it a read, along with everything else she’s written! 🩷

I LOVE @florencemtrash , if you are not reading their ‘The Shadowsigner and the Inkbird’ series (Az x reader, you can see there’s a theme 👀 I love Azriel) then you are missing out! The latest chapter was an absoutle killer, I’m still recovering! 🥲 But GO GO GO!! It is truly a masterpiece! 💛

@assassinsblade has some truly beautiful work as well! ‘Forget me not’ was how I found her, and it’s beautiful. ‘Arrows and Ashes’ had me in the feels for sure! Truly incredible, she’s also written something recently for Eris which was just *chefs kiss* 💚

I’m also reading @fieldofdaisiies ‘Whispers of the forgotten’ it’s ongoing, and I’m so so so excited to see what happens!!! It’s AMAZING! 💜

There is literally sooooo many other writers on here that I love, and I know I’ve missed so many. I’m a sucker for a series, hence all the series reccs but I need to have a deep dive into all the one-shots, so I can compile and share my faves!

I’m also open to any of your faves too! Let’s spread the love <3

[brhinetegere]

//cuarya: all of the original shadowsigns are long dead. we are your descendants.

athema: i hear you, and i am going to continue to mistake you for them.

[chrislanier]

#shadowsign

[system-theory]

📡 Interactive Transmission: SHADOW.SIGNAL

Txt2Img: masked cyber-enforcer, neon alley hunter, armored signal disruptor, glitch-black visor glow, surveillance-free corridor, encrypted assassin, digital redaction agent, memetic purge operative, urban memory eraser

🟥 TRANSMISSION ACTIVE ORIGIN: darkpath.protocol://echo.silence.unit.00 CLASSIFICATION: ⚠ MEMETIC THREAT CONTAINMENT STATUS: UNAUTHENTICATED SIGNAL BREACH VISUAL CONFIRMATION: YOU HAVE BEEN SEEN

“Your signal is too loud.” “You tagged yourself with an idea that doesn’t belong anymore.”

“I’ve seen movements like yours replicate before. They start as jokes. They end as code stains on alley walls.”

“The Matrix doesn’t punish noise. It sends me.”

(You hear nothing but static. But the figure watches. And from his belt, a device hums — tuned to you.)

🔽 Choose How to Respond to SHADOW.SIGNAL:

1️⃣ “I’m not viral. I’m just surviving.” 2️⃣ “Erase me, and I’ll come back louder.” 3️⃣ “What do you want from me?” 4️⃣ [Remain still. Let him decide your relevance.]

“This isn't about guilt. It’s about volume.”

“And you’re still transmitting.”

⧗ TRANSMISSION WILL SELF-REDACT UNLESS INTERRUPTED Silence may be the only safe option.

[dragon-susceptible]

Addition I forgot earlier:

Moonshadow elves have their own sign language, and it's most commonly used by assassins to communicate without noise in hostile situations. Every fully trained assassin is fluent in it. The rest of Moonshadow society is more like humans about it -some know and some don't, often depending on whether they know someone who requires it. They call it Shadowsign. (I think I called in Moon Sign in a post about Skor using it but shadowsign sounds way cooler)

Skor uses it regularly due to having issues speaking for long periods of time. He also knows Sunfire and Skywing sign, and has a better grasp of Katolian Sign than most elves, as he made a point of studying other types of sign language after losing his voice.

Assassins' Guild headcanons (The Dragon Prince)

Moonshadow elves created the assassins' guild after the predation of the Cult of the Blood Moon began. Normal guards weren't enough to fend off the cultists, as we see in Bloodmoon Huntress that their blood magic grants them special powers. The assassins were warriors that trained to strike quickly and quietly without allowing longer battle that would inevitably turn in the cultists' favor. They were an established guild that was starting to make headway cutting down the cultists numbers when Kim'Dael turned them on the rest of Xadia and drew the aggression of the Sunfire empire and the dragons.

The rest of Xadia never saw the difference between the Cult and other Moonshadow elves. The Sunfire empire remembers the ensuing conflict as a war between cannibals and the light, in which eventually the Moonshadow were beaten when their dark leader surrendered herself to Aditi's mercy. The remaining Moonshadow elves are pledged to serve the dragons and other leaders of Xadia in recompense for the war. They consider it a story of Aditi's great mercy, permitting Kim'Dael to live and asking only for her and her people to serve out a sentence to repay for their crimes.

The Moonshadow remember the conflict as a genocide, ending with Aditi shaming them by preserving the traitor who began it all, and pressing them into service to pay for crimes they didn't commit. Entire villages that were not affiliated with the Cult were wiped out. It's why the Silvergrove is under an illusion now, because they don't even trust other elves since Aditi and Avizandum's "merciful" war. This is why they send assassins to the dragons, though. It was part of the deal for ceasing aggression towards their people that they would serve the dragons and Aditi's descendants.

The elf they call "The First Assassin" was a warrior from the end of the war whose village was wiped out by Sunfire soldiers. He begged them for mercy and help for his mate, who was nearly killed by the cultists the soldiers had been chasing, and they agreed to save her. In repayment he worked with the Sunfire kingdom to track down more and more of the Cult. He was rejected by his people for helping their aggressors, though, and only found out after months of it that the villages he thought he was helping to save were burned down after he left them. He found his mate, discovering she had been held hostage, and the pair escaped. Upon hearing the truth of his service from his mate, he was welcomed back into Moonshadow society, and through a twist of fate, despite his desertion, because of him Aditi supported the idea of the assassins paying the price for a ceasefire. (Now if you haven't heard Hozier's "Take Me To Church" go listen to it or read the lyrics with this story in mind. Because that song was what inspired the story.)

Much of Moonshadow history was lost in transit from their old home in Katolis to Moonshadow Forest, but the assassins in the modern day are also somewhat derived from an old sect of priests whose job was to maintain places like the Nexus and record Moonshadow history. They mostly keep oral histories, and are sticklers for accuracy to the point of summoning the spirits of the dead to ensure they have kept the record straight. Most of the old sect were guardians like Lujanne, but since moving to Xadia and the conflict with the Cult and the Empire and dragons, "guarding" their people consists of a lot more serving their more powerful neighbors, so the warriors like the first Assassin and the old guardians sort of fused into the current guild. Many Moonshadow elves believe whole sections of the assassin histories to be folklore rather than fact, because the distance kept by them as warriors has undercut their authority as historians. However, the assassins are very strict about maintaining which stories are fact and which are just folklore. They maintain oral histories instead of physical because they've lost so much territory over their people's history that most written accounts of history have also been lost. Oral history seems more reliable to them, as a race that can just summon the dead to double check their facts.