#THESE are found nowhere near it like literally on a mountain

[thedisablednaturalist]

FUCKING

TREE SHRIMP

AAAAAAAAA

"It’s a very weird creature,” Dr. Davranoglou said, adding that it’s able to leap three or four feet in the air to escape predators. “We were quite awestruck, really.”

[thatdeadaquarius]

College be kicking my ass but we continue on like Scaramouche (alive and kicking, but still crabby about it all lmfao)

Random idea but what happens when the acolytes got hold of Creator that is able to squeeze into small places (like a cat would but less liquid) and knows how to escape? Think of sagau but instead of all the deaths, its just they got overexited and chased the Creator the moment they see them which scared them shitless seeing a mob just appear out of nowhere.

I mean who wouldn't after seeing your favourite person in your favourite game just appear right in front of you? (I apologize in advance to the poor unfortunate sucker)

Imagine a world-wide search that keeps getting them heart attacks. Venti just flying by with Dvalin ony to see you on top of the floating pillar above Dragonspine LEANING PRECARIOUSLY OH MY ARCHONS GET AWAY FROM THE EDGE---

Zhongli walking around trying to find peace and quiet only to sense your presence which led him towards Azhdaha's domain and nearly shouted in terror seeing you hanging by one of the limestones above the slumbering dragon your grace what and how the in the fucking name of teyvat did you---

Yae Miko screaming in surprise seeing you inside one of the cupboards of your grace's house (you made a small temporary one in each country in case u need more rest) that she and Ei found in one of the remote islands.

Nahida and the entire Forest Rangers having one of the most intense, frustrating and most challenging game of hide and seek in the entire freaking forest.

You hiding underneath the sand like a fricking snake everytime Cyno spots you from a disrance.

-Vine Boom 🧨

I am no longer apologizing for lateness simply bc atp its basically assumed Im terribly sorry 💀 /so gen

  

Content under -----------------✄

☆

Sun: Reader, (you/they/them)

Orbit: Headcanons-ish, Imposter SAGAU? Imposter SAGAU Reversed Ver? unclear (NOT DARK)

Stars: little here, little there

Comets & Meteors: Content Warnings: reader/you thinks everyone is hunting them down, dark sagau fake-baiting lmao, & Trigger Warnings: none known.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

No but the traumatic experience of you cautiously wandering into Mondstadt after realizing ur in Genshin like, ✨👄✨

and every single street/alleyway you try to go down to even avoid it is just people all looking at you like: 👁️👄👁️ ???

and ur over here equally just like: 😃 tf u lookin at????

u get up near the cathedral and finally see a playable character, Barbara, and she just fully GASPS and POINTS at you like she’s getting paid to be an actor for this

shouting sm nonsense like: “My Creator??? King of All???? IS THAT YOU?????”

and after which a few nuns check the commotion, Rosaria and Barbara’s Visions are glowing, and all join in heckling you

Venti coming (literally) flying around a corner on a breeze, saying he was trying to catch up to you, and ohhh now ur Convinced:

None of these bitches must be happy to see you, you did forcefully control their bodies if by the sounds of it they knew you/they must’ve been aware during the game, aw damn looks like u gotta run for your life now

You just book it out of Mond, Venti/Barbara yelling after you to come back, and meanwhile you’re leaving a shell-shocked Jean/Diluc/Kaeya (with Visions glowing) in ur wake on the way out

Not one being, mortal or otherwise, convinces you to stay in Mond, and you finally get to Dragonspine- the only place u know they wont follow

(well maybe the pyro characters but ur betting if u can make it up the mountain theyre not committed to,, running you down? arresting you?? ur not sure)

u make it all the way up and luckily everythings all solved like u did in the game, the traveler must be well into teyvat by now, and u decide to say “for the already achieved achievement” and fuck around and find out near the nail

U thought as u finally got on it u heard a scream somewhere in the sky, and u spotted Dvalin carrying Venti/Barbatos, and once again book it out of town (damn u cant believe theyre so committed they got the dragon in on it…)

so u haul ass all the way down the mountain, traveling only at night, living like a vampire, holing up during the day when u see Mond citizens/knights/gods/etc. walking around presumably looking for you

but u make it, finally! sweet, sweet Liyue, ur 2nd home (besides Mondstadt)

Only to immediately, like right outside the fucking gates to Liyue Harbor, run into Zhongli.

and he’s standing there like this mf knew u were coming, and the first thing out his mouth is some BS like, “…Darnell, that you??”/ref LMAOO

but instead of laughing abt it u just scream and run for your life haha

oh jesus h christ- he’s sending the adepti after you fuck- how hated are you??

sure u maybe hate Celestia a little, and sympathize with the traveler, but this seems a little extreme?!

you go to the one place u know he/any other adeptus doesnt like to come often, Azdaha’s cave

and after a night (well, day bc ur sleeping during the day now) of Azdaha sleeping peacefully, he wakes up fully coherent and u actaully have a rlly pleasant conversation with him about Liyue food lol

he also kept mentioning some kind of god? but like in reference to you?? are u connected to them, u kinda know a lot of gods atp so ur not sure which he means, a god to rule them all??? Celestia?? yeah u guess u know those fucks-

Cue u looking down from ur perch in the stalagmites above, u found a ledge and Azdaha helped you,

only to see a very concerned and borderline nervous Zhongli down below, Azhdaha just greets him like nothing’s wrong, but as soon as he sees you’re uncomfortable, helps you escape (more like teleport) away

(the old geo archon was probably nervous just be around Azhdaha u assume)

and now ur on the islands of Inazuma

u know exactly what islands are all but abandoned, the ghost one, the electrocuting one, and the scary bird one, all great options 👍

Raiden and Yae Miko manage to find you on every single one, with Yae getting more and more exasperated, and Ei getting more and more concerened with every position they find you in

hanging out on the banks of the electro river that would kill you if it weren’t for the little electro trees fending it off (thank fuck u maxed that shit out while in game)

bc u assumed they’d hate to be around it, plus lots of ronin- nope Ei is almost… scolding you?? oh but she’s got her Musou no Hitotachi out fuCK-

(she was slaying ronins that were getting too close to you)

she also is constantly jumpscaring you on tsurumi island/ghost island bc while the ghosts are gone, the creepy atmosphere isn't, and it makes her all the more terrifying as The Raiden Shogun comes walking out of the fog into the cave you've hidden in, stuff of ur nightmares for weeks as u just bird box style try to be silent and stealth around the island to get to an abandoned boat,

literally her scary ass purple sword glowing silhouette wandering around in the fog as you paddle away 💀

getting to thunder bird island and Yae Miko is literally both running/teleporting as quickly as she can to you, as you jump from floating rock to floating rock to escape her, god its so unnerving to watch someone so lazy running after you

she keeps getting in this weird “praising the heavens pose” sometimes when you jump, oh shit she’s aiming hER ATTACKS AT YOU THATS WHY-

oh good- she missed and deflected some stray debris coming ur way, u gotta get to the bird area and see if you can glide away (u managed to get a glider at some point thank fuck)

the bird is luckily on ur side against all these mfs trying to hunt u down (for controlling their bodies u guess) and flies u back to mainland teyvat

sumeru u thought would have the most mercy on u tbh, maybe fontaine bc Neuvillette only rlly cares if u break “fontaine” laws, maybe he wouldn't care to chase down a mortal like u over this

and nahida bc shes just nice

which is somewhat true, as you are acting like tarzan swinging around on vines and shit to escape the forest rangers

but she does show up in ur dreams, but shes just all foggy or distorted, u guess bc ur not of this world or smth??

and so it just unnerves u more, and u try to make it out to the desert, where at least there's no gods to worry about

mf ur hunkered down in a pyramid and see the shadowy shape of Cyno walking thru a sandstorm at you 💀

U dont kno how u got out of that one tbh, smth abt “king deshret made a plan for this” and left it behind for ppl to use to escape underground, sweet

And while Nahida and other eremites, scholars like Alhaitham/Kaveh/Dehya were looking around the desert sands, u slip by them

And u make it to the oasis at the edge of the desert, and steal an old rowboat to cross to fontaine (if i had a nickel everytime u needed to escape a god via old rowboat, youd have 2 nickels- )

and getting to Fontaine is not much better.

U literally get to the clockwork tower, foggy, ominous, uninhabited except for treasure-seekers occasionally, its perfect

until Neuvillette himself just strolls in abt 3 nights of u making camp there

u nearly shit urself as he just fake-knocked on a wall, meanwhile ur like hanging from the ceiling (four limbs out suspending you type of fictional shit)

luckily, mostly bc u were trying to wait him out (which wasn't possible ur limbs hurt so bad) he was, finally, the first person around u long enough to be genuinely kind and patient and answer questions

(Neuvillette acc couldn't figure out where u were at first, and was very confused how u got ur voice to boom around this chamber of the tower, after a minute of talking u trusted him enough to tell him to look up lol)

just in time too, he was able to hide u from the archons a little longer bc u were nervous

(u were already intimidated enough by Neuvillette being irl himself, talking to you, let alone all the other gods/vision users, as u realized afterwards thinking abt all the ppl trying to “hunt u down”, that if they all counted as ppl actually wanting to see you, that was a rlly overwhelming amount, esp if their first instinct is to run at you??? what are you, a fan-abused/disrespected kpop idol????)

☆

trying to be fancy and schedule posts once i get enough free time to actually wrangle my adhd to actually partake in my favorite hobbies 💀

well as long as I'm not getting slammed with lots of shifts again

hope u guys had a great weekend and have a good week! Happy late Valentine’s Day :)

Safe Travels Vine Boom,

💀♒

If you wanna join a taglist, DM me what for! "Pspspsss, please tag me for [All SAGAU posts, Only SAGAU Language AUs, diff fandom, etc.]!"

(If you ever wanna drop, just DM me! "No more taglists/[specifically this AU/fandom] please!")

♡the Beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr / @areaderofbooks / @devilangel657 / @esthelily / @justinsomniachild / @nanithefuck / @questionotmystopit

@kiyomi-uchiha777

[the-moon-files]

I was actually thinking about this a lot but like as an add on to your humans are hylian space orcs thing. I am in ✨need✨ of reader trying potions. Like;

"This potion will restore your stamina and boost your strength"

"Buddy that's just coffee"

"Qué?"

Even worse if when the reader tries it it's just like the most not strong coffee they've ever drank. Makes the guys wonder wtf makes humans need so much energy through out the day.

this is such a cute idea, i love how diet diffs/energy diffs in humans are space orcs aus, so genius to apply to hylians

the stamnia boost potion tastes just like instant coffee with powdered creamer (the kind at like car dealerships/shitty offices where its not even a little liquid creamer)

and u spit that shit out like wtf is this bs

and Four, poor guy who gave you some after talking a break from walking, is like "oh my goddess r u allergic?? can still breath???"

meanwhile ur like. "yeah this just tastes like shit-"

four: "oh well yeah, all potions do really-"

you: "-ty coffee. this is nowhere near strong enough to get me back on my feet ffs"

four: " 👁️👄👁️"

you: "u got anything stronger? :/ "

four: " w h a t ? "

cue u researching how to make stamnia potions, across the hyrules, and making them 10x stronger so theyre like an actual coffee shop kind of coffee, and the Links are literally lowkey scared

Time forbids you (and the rest of the guys) from letting anyone else try ur "improved" elixir (s)

bc yes, u didnt stop at stamnia

u moved on to healing potions, (u can now regrow limbs and heal broken bones, the hylians can only take like a 1/16th of a sip like once a week, whereas u chug the whole thing, and can do so multiple times a day if needed)

u also moved onto cooking, bc rlly how different is cooking from alchemy?

and goron spice tasted like goddamn dorito chips, so u used essence of literal lava to help make it more spicy,

ur not allowed to introduce this new spice to the gorons, Wild forbid, bc he was adventurous enough (and snuck behind Time and ur backs) to try some spice

(he literally touched the tip of his pinky finger to it, wiped it off, except for 1 like flake of spice too)

and it lowkey nearly killed him 💀

like had to use that 1/16th of ur extra strong healing potion and everything

u felt so bad, but he did do this to himself,

and Wild knew the gorons dont back down from a challenge, esp since it was originally their recipe, so he (and you) didnt wanna kill them on accident

the sleeping potion u found is just like taking a single melatonin gummy, so u ofc make that thing knock even you out after 2 sips,

needless to say, no one is trying that one, not only bc it knocked Rulie unconcious for 12 hours straight (u got him to try it after he exhausted all his magic healing, and so no nightmares)

but bc it knocked u out cold for 9. that was the scarier part to them lmao, was how affected is their human by this?

i like to think thats how they judge unknown foods and liquids too,

like "do you think this tastes unseasoned? ok should be perfect for me then" - every Link

"oh this didnt make u feel sleepy at all/barely tired? great, id love to knock out cold w/no nightmares tonight" - Sky, probably

"this tastes like that thing you call, instant cough? ko-fee? Cool, give me some i need to run up this mountain" - Wild, for the 3rd time this month probably

"this barely healed ur papercut? sweet, give me some my wrists are killing me" - poor Legend, he uses ur extra strength healing potion as a way to treat his arthritis regularly once a month, but the more chill potions for any leftover aches and pains, esp after long fights being hard on his arms

Chain is simultaneously still lowkey terrified u need that much extra oomf, esp when u run out of stronger stuff and have to down like 5 health potions to heal a cut that needed stitches,

and also worried u need that much and also Wild/Wars/Rulie tend to work overtime to make sure they have extra potions for you

and theyre also kind of impressed, bc hey, youre unlikely to get magically poisoned/potion poisoned like them

☆

sorry i couldnt think of as much as i hoped, i think its bc i rlly just need to play/watch more loz games besides botw/totk

i like know the vague plot of ss/oot/mm/tp/ww/hw and og loz games, but havent gotten into details/lets play or anything yet

i hope this was at least a half decent idea to think about/expand on urs, have a great rest of ur week, and thanks so much for the ask!! <33

Peace out,

🌙

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

My drawing stylus died yesterday but I got it to work again! Divine Falls Mabel and Dipper will be out tomorrow in all of their glory with creator notes! I'm actually enjoying Mabel's design way more than I thought I would.

Anyways, I feel like I should post Divine Falls lore/plot because... I want to.

In chronological order, not in order of how the show goes.

Ford and Stan, the twin gods of Life and Death respectively, are born to Caryn and Filbrick, married gods of Propecy and whatever I decide Filbrick gets because I literally can't think of something good for him. Ford, as Life, is put on a pedestal. For the first few years of their lives, Stan and Ford (and Shermie, god of conception or some shit, I'm still working on it) have their own wings of the main temples that their parents have. Caryn and Filbrick have one shared temple with a bunch of wings for various things.

College in this AU is replaced by temples, or rather, the status of temples. West Coast Tech is replaced by Ford being offered a large temple so large that a large city will be built around it. Think Athens. And yes, this era is very ancient Greece era because god au. Don't worry, we'll hit modern era.

So Stan wants to travel to spread his blessings. As the God of Death, he doesn't have many, but what he does have are the blessings that go unappreciated. Like granting a peaceful death to people or letting people say final goodbyes. Extending someone's life just long enough that that they can say goodbye to those that matter to them. And he wants to adventure. He wants to spread his blessings silently and see as many things as possible. He wants to do all this with Ford, whose blessings are way more obvious - long and prosperous life, fertility, that sort of thing.

When they're about to set off into the world, a human architect approaches the temple that's run by Caryn and Filbrick offering a huge temple to Ford. Filbrick wants those sweet offerings that mortals make to gods, but Stan doesn't want Ford to take it. Ford is conflicted but promises that if something goes wrong, he'll go with Stan travel the mortal world.

As an accident, Stan accidentally kills the forest where they want to build the temple and the town surrounding it. Stan becomes a pariah because he messed up his brother's chance to have his own temple. Stan goes on the run, pretending to be a mortal and spreading blessings more subtly. He still ends up in jail because people think he's suspicious, but he manages to break out every time.

Meanwhile, Ford is struggling to make his own mark. Because his first temple was ruined so dramatically - rotted trees and cracked stone all the way down - architects see him as a bad omen. He manages to share a temple with Fiddleford for a while, then finally gets his own little temple in a small, newly founded lumber town, where he becomes the main religious figure. People have to make pilgrimages to him, but for the most part, he's free to just exist as a god in a remote mountain town in butt-fuck nowhere, oregon.

One day, he's wandering around disguised as a mortal when there's not many people praying to him as he often does. He finds a cave and senses divine energy and decides, fuck it, he's gonna go in. He finds an inscription on a wall in a language long lost, even to him, and recites it in stuttering words. He's almost disappointed until Bill shows up.

To Ford, Bill feels divine, but weakened. So, naturally, instead of assuming Bill is a fallen Old God (which is the correct answer), he assumes Bill is an archangel for a fallen god - "Maybe even Stanley's archangel? Did he ever have one?" - because archangels are much closer to mortal life than gods are and can be seen in their most powerful form without driving a mortal insane. Basically near-mortal vessels of pure divinity. Bill being a triangle, well, it's odd for an archangel, but Ford's willing to handwave it because divinity does strange things to the mundane and a part of him is latched to the idea that Bill is somehow the mortal hand of Stan (where mortal hand is shorthand for archangel or other mortal vessel of divinity) despite the fact that that makes no sense. Bill uses this to convince Ford that his power, his remaining divinity, can be restored by a certain magical artifact that needs to be remade.

Now, Ford is good with creation and life, but not so much with recreating ancient artifacts with inscriptions from gods and divine entities long dead. So he calls up his old pal Fiddleford, god of Science, to help. Instantly Fiddleford is suspicious of Bill because something feels off. Additionally, Ford was always the one who preferred learning new things about mortal life and ancient artifacts, yet he didn't even bother trying to translate the text? But alas, Fiddleford doesn't know a lot about translating the odd and the strange, so he leaves it at just an odd feeling.

As I'm sure you know if you are a Gravity Falls fan, Fiddleford is right to be suspicious of Bill. In this, Bill's trying to restore his powers and status as an Old God. Part of the way through the reconstruction of the artifact, it goes haywire and Fiddleford receives a fraction of Bill's sealed power, which includes a lot of very not good things, like straight up mass mind control with no cooldown or wind up. It makes him realize that, oh, Bill is an Old God in disguise. He leaves the project and Ford gives up a fraction of his divine influence so Bill can use it to finish the project. He's nearly at the end when Ford takes over again to go grant a blessing. And then he realizes Fiddleford was right.

He calls up Stan, first verifying that he's been tricked and that Stan never had an archangel or other mortal hand due to being an outcast despite the fact that, as Life and Death, Stan and Ford could have mortal hands. When Stan affirms this, Ford calls him over.

Despite being a god, Stan has to manually travel to Gravity Falls, Oregon - his divine influence is weak and many people don't even know that there's a god of Death anymore, let alone worship him. He's stealing offerings from other god's altars just to survive at times - and often gets thrown in jail because he's seen as thieving from the gods when he, himself, is one of them. When he gets to Ford, Ford has descended into paranoia and the town is nervous and anxious due to their town's patron deity not interacting with them anymore. Ford is in his human form, which seals most of his divine influence, when Stan gets to the temple. He's paranoid and isn't even letting people in his temple. Luckily, he has enough offerings to sustain himself, but he's basically starving himself so he and Stan have about the same amount of influence - basically none.

The journals are literally the same except they cover different topics. Basically, Ford gives Stan a book (Journal 1) that covers how best to perform the duties of Life. Journal 2, as held by Gideon, describes how best to use offerings and influence granted by worshippers. Journal 3, once discovered by Dipper, is a record of divine phenomena such as how festivals affect divinity and how the flow of time can sometimes warp strangely (see: The Time Traveler's Pig in canon for why I need to write time travel into the journals). All three have mentions of Bill, and the diagrams and notes for how to recreate the divine artifact.

Ford, instead of getting thrown into the multiverse, has his influence sealed and his power is scattered across the universe as a rogue natural force. He's sentient but he can't interact with anyone, not even as a wisp of influence. His power has been sealed in the same place most of Bill's is, which makes it so he can interact with Bill's well of influence. He spends his time attempting to annihilate Bill's power while sealed, resigned to never being brought back because the artifact is partially crushed, mostly used, and two of his journals have been relocated around the town.

Stan takes over the temple. It starts small, where he just uses some of the stockpiled offerings, one after the other, but eventually, he runs out of influence and needs to reopen the temple. Luckily, if he steals some of Ford's accessories that are the things most vividly depicted in murals of him, he can pass as Ford, the God of Life, pretty easily. He uses the journal to bullshit as many of Ford's powers as possible, but that's rather difficult so he ends up just using any of his powers that he can. Because he has a lot of blessings he can give, it works, and he's able to pass as a somewhat-subpar Life for a few centuries.

Fast forward to probably about the same time Gravity Falls takes place (if not a little earlier). Mabel and Dipper, twin Gods of Earth and Space, live with their parents, the Sun and the Moon, until they're sent away to live with "Stanford, god of Life" in his temple. The idea is that they're learning how to harness their powers best with an experience god on their power level while also using the small town that's very used to the divine and supernatural due to the sheer amount of gods walking among them to learn how to interact with mortals. Dipper finds Journal 3 and uses it to learn a lot of things about divinity and the anomalies.

Something that might be seen as a plot hole: the Earth and Space have existed probably longer than Life of Death. As have a lot of the concepts embodied by children - Pacifica is the god of Change which is one of the oldest concepts ever and Gideon, as the god of Magic, has existed as long as magic has existed. To cover for this, every once in a while a God's essence needs to be returned to the fabric of the universe to merge with other concepts and create new world and religious orders. For example, when Pacifica and Fiddleford (Change and Science, respectively) die, their essences will meld together into Progress. Therefore, Mabel and Dipper were likely part of an entity known as Reality before they died and split into twin gods.

Dipper, as Space, is naturally inclined to keep learning everything about everything - things symbolized by space include mystery, magic, and knowledge, after all, so he's likely to seek out the strange, paranormal and divine.

Mabel, as Earth, is a free spirit who adores creation and finding new, fun mortal pursuits. In general, she's a lot more focused on the mortal side of things than Dipper is - where he wants to learn everything about godhood and their divinity, she wants to enjoy walking among mortals for as long as possible.

When Ford gets brought back, he yells at Stan, revealing he was about to destroy the seat of Bill's power and now they have to go about it the hard way.

Most of the series plays out mostly the same except Weirdmageddon is replaced by Bill regaining his godhood and is defeated by erasing his divine presence with something similar to the memory gun, which has been invented by Fiddleford to prevent his influence from fracturing. There's new logistics behind it which I will. get to. eventually.

So that's basically a broad overview of the plot and I might end up making this into a fic because I have gone feral over this AU. In case you. Couldn't tell.

I might make a separate blog for Divine Falls stuff one of these days because this is a lot, but I'm not sure I will.

[aureentuluva70]

I'm not sure if this has been talked about before, but I'm gonna talk about it regardless because it has completely blown my mind. I first discovered it on a reddit post, which you can read here.

In the book The History of the Hobbit, John Rateliff suggests that the Wilderlands of The Hobbit is actually the Beleriand of Tolkien's early mythology as it was written during the 1930's, only taking place ages after the War of the Jewels, since the later ages and maps of middleearth hadn't been created by Tolkien yet. Keep in mind that at this point in Tolkien's writings, the breaking of Thangorodrim was nowhere near as bad as it would later turn out to be. Beleriand never sank into the sea, but it was still drastically changed.

Here are two maps drawn by Tolkien during the 1930's, one of Beleriand and the other of the Wilderlands found in the Hobbit:

In terms of similarities, one of the first things I noticed(and one of the most obvious) was the river Sirion and the Great River of the Wilderlands. The name Sirion literally translates to 'Great River'.

In the middle of the path of said river is the Carrock, which is where the Eagles set Bilbo and Company down after saving them, and the way it is described in the Hobbit reminds me a lot of this illustration Tolkien made of Tol-Sirion:

"But cropping out of the ground, right in the path of the stream which looped itself about it, was a great rock, almost a hill of stone, like a last outpost of the distant mountains, or a huge piece cast miles into the plain by some giant among giants."

-The Hobbit, Queer Lodgings.

AND it is also uses very similar wording to how the Lay of Leithian describes Tol-Sirion(Tolkien was working on the Leithian around the same time he was writing The Hobbit):

'An isled hill there stood alone/ amid the valley, like a stone/rolled from the distant mountains vast/when giants in tumult hurtled past'

-Lay of Leithian.

There's also the mention of "a little cave, (a wholesome one with a pebbly floor) at the foot of the steps" which the person in the reddit post suggests could be the remains of the very same dungeon where Finrod, Beren, and their companions were imprisoned by Sauron after their disguises were stripped away. The same place where all but one of them were slowly devoured one by one. The same place where Finrod died.

Above it at the top of the Carrock would be where Finrod was buried, and the "Ford of huge flat stones [that] led to the grass-land beyond the stream" could be the remains of the broken bridge that was destroyed by Luthien: "the hill trembled; the citadel/crumbled and all its towers fell/the rocks yawned and the bridge broke/and Sirion spurned in sudden smoke."

The "two Mirkwoods" is also a big one. I always found it odd that there were two completely different forests sharing the same name, but at the time Tolkien wrote it, they weren't seperate at all, but the exact same forest, just changed and grown over thousands of years in between the events of the Silmarillion and The Hobbit. The same forest that Sauron fled to after the fall of Tol-in-Guarhoth. The same one Beleg found Gwindor in after his escape from Angband.

If they really were intended to be the same forest at the time Tolkien wrote it, it also answers the question I had earlier regarding this part in the Leithian when Sauron flees Tol-in-Guarhoth:

A new stronghold? We never hear anything about this in the Silmarillion, of Sauron building a new stronghold in Taur-nu-fuin, and it puzzled me when I first read it. But that's when I realized that this "new throne and darker stronghold" was talking about none other than the fortress of Dol Guldur itself, Sauron's stronghold within Mirkwood.

(Not lying, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring that one out)

Oh, and the Lonely Mountain? While it doesnt appear on the 1930's Beleriand map, it would likely be Maedhros's fortress of Himring itself, or at least the mountain it was built on top of, as Himring is located east of Taur-nu-fuin just about in the same place where Erebor is located. Just the thought of the Dwarves' home being within the very mountain that once had Maedhros's citadel atop it has my brain going wild. (Oh, and the fact that the arkenstone was found within the ancient hills of what was once Himring, fortress of the elf lord who threw himself into a fiery chasm with a silmaril? Coincidence? I think NOT)

There are plenty of other similar locations between the two maps, and judging by them both Eriador would be Hithlum/Aryador, with the Misty Mountains being the Mountains of Shadow. The Withered Heath would be the Anfauglith, the Eagle Eyrie would be the Crissaegrim, and the Iron Hills are what's left of Nogrod and Belegost. I've even heard that Mavwin/Morwen's house could be the roots of Rivendell.

Overall, it's so, so cool and it has my mind running wild. It really makes me see The Hobbit in a whole new light. We all talk about the amazing stories that came out of the Hobbit aka Lord of the Rings, but seeing where the stories of the Hobbit came from just adds a whole other level of depth to it all. This is why I love Tolkien's works so much. It's all so incredibly deep and rich and it just gets better and richer the deeper you go, and there's so much of it. It's one of those things that you just rarely get tired of, and even if you do, you're bound to come back to it later and I love it.

[dangermousie]

Farscape rewatch: Look at the Princess Part 2, 2x12

I just love this shot of Crichton:

Farscape summed up:

This ep has one of my favorite scenes: Crichton in space, out-crazing Scorpius, and rescuing himself through sheer insanity. He goes full-on unhinged, using the fact that yes, he is willing to die rather than submit, than be tortured and experimented on.

He takes this and runs with it...and it’s probably the most unhinged we’ve seen him so far tho not as unhinged as he’s going to get and just...

The whole scene is miles more unhinged than my few caps can do it justice but also, only Farscape can get away with rotating between dark despair and pure unhinged hilarity at the speed of light - I mean here is John forcing Braca’s gun towards his right hand yelling “kill my sex life!” UMMM god this show!

PS They are literally gonna have this as ep title later.

Also, yet another instance where dark humor is his lifeline and coping/defense  mechanism. He never loses it, this is how he keeps semi-sane.

This is the first time he hears the chip, isn’t it? That scene is amazing, and heroic, and all sorts of heart-breaking. Because it saves him now but also this is a small appetizer of what it will be like for John to have the voice of his torturer control him, to remove volition. Crichton’s will is extreme, can-move-mountains kind of quality and the chip will strip it from him, just as it will force him to go against all his instincts and feelings and it’s going to be a horror.

Of course, what Scorpius, who has notably recognized John as another individual by now, even if that recognition is in shape of wanting to triumph over him, it’s still a step up from ‘lab rat’ view of the rest of the world, what Scorpius isn’t reckoning with, yet, that Crichton would rather die, literally, than surrender himself, so he better find some other lever, because threatening his life would never work. He eventually does, in s4, Aeryn, and I always found it telling that Grayza, overall nowhere near as brilliant as Scorpius, figures that lever out faster because Scorpius is hampered by his considering any genuine emotion as not worthy of consideration.

But yeah, this really does put Crichton through a ringer and I really love that his falling apart does not make him weak, it makes him human and makes any triumph all the more worthy.

I find myself both understanding Aeryn in this ep, and being very frustrated by her. She wants all these things from Crichton, but she won’t give an inch, or a hint, or a hope in return. The only reason this marriage bugs her is because she loves him because from every other vantage point, it’s a good good thing, and it’s not as if she is from species which believes you can’t marry without romantic love. And Crichton can fight even when broken, as he proves over and over, but he needs something to fight for and now he doesn’t have anything and she is not willing to provide it. The scene where he wants something - some hint that she will return his feelings and she can’t give it to him due to her own demons gets me. He is at a low point and he has nothing to cling to and she can’t give him that something because she herself is not sure she can survive giving any piece of her heart away.

I do love her ‘diplomacy’ with Katralla and Jenovia:

And the awesome putdown line to Casanova guy of ‘it’s not you, it’s me. I don’t like you.’ Heh.

But she didn’t even show up at the wedding. Oh Aeryn. So brave in battle, so good at running away emotionally. And D’Argo is being an awesome friend in this one - willing to back up John in whatever,no agendas (unlike Rygel and Aeryn, tho those two have them for different reasons) and his ‘good news/bad news’ cracks is one of my fave things ever but also really does leave John on a happy note going into a crazy situation:

and John bitchslapping Prince Clavor and the story with Zhaan and Moya and Pilot that makes me cry in the sheer defenseless peace and resignation of the ship and pilot and righteous rage of Zhaan.

In conclusion. Yeah, it’s Farscape all right.

[kei-ann8]

The Chase - Yandere! Stanley Snyder

Summary :

Waking up in the middle of the woods wasn’t the vacation you thought it would be. Your friend invited you to stay with her at another country for a month only to realize that the plane had bought you in a different destination. In fact, you were chosen and had to play a game of chase for you to make it out alive.

 ‘’Damn that hurts…’’ You groaned in pain as you woke up in a cold hard ground. You’re literally wearing nothing but your clothes and even your phone and watch is all gone. The forest is filled with gigantic trees and the terrain was quite rocky and mountainous. Not exactly part of your plan.

You couldn’t really ask anyone about where exactly you are in the world right now. As far as your eyes can see, the place you’re in is an island, which make escaping more daring as there’s a chance of you dying out in the open seas. There are no birds or any wild animals in the area, and the plants does seem a lot different.

Taking a vine from the ground, you saw that there are no roots and you could barely break it with your hands. Just as you expected, your friend in nowhere to be found and if you did find them, you will certainly give them the piece of your mind. ‘This definitely feel like a survival game.’ You thought to yourself, concluding that there is no other reason why they would bring you all the way here, spend the time and money, gave the effort for you to be here.

Unless, you are chosen to be here.

A screeching sound caught your attention and looking up, you saw that there’s a small speaker tied to the tree. There was no buildings nearby that could be the source of it, probably a good distance from the place but the faint rustling of the leaves and frantic footsteps all over the place made you realize that you’re not alone.

‘’Welcome players. We do apologize for the discomfort we had caused in the process of bringing you here in the venue.’’ The man side as he began to introduce himself as the game master, ‘’I’m Ishigami Senku, a scientist. There are a few rules that I expect all of you to follow, breaching any of them would immediately lead to elimination.’’

‘Elimination?’ You looked around and noticed the box near the place that you woke up. It wasn’t there before nor did you hear anyone came by near the area. But the timing seems off to you. Finding this while someone is listing the rules of the game is a little suspicious. So you didn’t opened or get close to it.

‘’Rule #1, the game will last for 72 hours. Surrendering or leaving the place is prohibited. Rule #2, find your pair in the forest. All the players had been paired with a hunter and failure of finding them could result to your death. Rule #3, only the hunters are allowed to hunt the prey and the prey can hunt the hunters who are not their own partner. There are seven hunters and prey in total, scattered all over the forest. Time begins now.’’

And it was back to silence again. Well, he didn’t said anything about finding anything near the vicinity you’re in and by the looks of it, the box is a little smaller. You opened it up to find a piece of silk ribbon inside. There was no note left on it, or any indication that it has to be specifically worn. Putting in on the pocket of your jacket, you hear a scream from the other side of the forest and then it was quickly replaced by silence.

That escalated quickly. Once there was seven, and now there are six.

‘’In addition to the pre-existing rules, there is one more. Rule #4, once a prey kills another fellow prey, their partner hunters are prohibited to continue their activities.’’

[checkoutmybookshelf]

It's Not A Fairy Tale Anymore

Ok, I will admit to two things: First, this book was leaps and bounds better than ACOTAR in terms of pacing. I was not bored and I wasn't begging the book to HAVE SOMETHING HAPPEN. Second, I think I hated the last six chapters. Like a lot. For some objective and some deeply subjective reasons. And bonus third admission: My reading buddy for this series and I officially have Stockholm syndrome from these books, so we're going on to ACOWAR. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's talk A Court of Mist and Fury.

Yeah, hi again. This is your SPOILER WARNING. I am going to SPOIL THE END of this book, as well as the beginning and the middle. Consider yourselves warned.

CONTENT WARNING: Some mention and brief discussion of sexual assault and consent.

Ok, so first and foremost: this book understood pacing and it understood plot and I thoroughly enjoyed like 98% of it. I also appreciated that we managed to expand the world a bit, because ACOTAR felt very, very small geographically and politically. Getting to see Velaris, the Summer Court, and getting a wider sense of the politics and intrigue went a long way toward making me feel like there were stakes and point to this book.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the Shadow Fam. I said that Rhys doesn't have found family, he has trauma pack bonds, and I stand by that assessment. That said, I really genuinely LIKED Az, Cass, Mor, and Amren. Yeah, they all have varying flavors of tragic backstory and trauma to facilitate the trauma pack bond, but after an entire book of just Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhys, I was desperate for more characters, and I will say that at the very least, I wasn't mixing up the Shadow Fam in my head. They had distinct personalities, and frankly I'd read the hell out of a novella that really digs into Mor's backstory in particular, mostly because SJM is developing a worrying habit of denoting bad characters by making them rapists (See: Amarantha, Ianthe, Mor's entire goddamn family, a worrying number of non-Shadow Fam Illyrians, etc.) and I want to see how complex this world's conception of consent is. Because Mor's entire situation was coerced, which means that the only non-fucky consent thing is her deciding NOT to sleep with Az. Because no matter what she told Cass, she was having sex with him in a situation where she very well might not have if she wasn't under the duress of a forced marriage. Literally she either didn't tell him anything and just went "Let's do the sex at each other" and he said "sure," or she went "hey, help me get out of this forced marriage by taking my virginity so other dude won't want me" (excuse me while I vomit at the pedestaling of virginity) and he said "sure." While knowing (I'm pretty sure) that Az has the world's biggest crush on Mor.

Literally nothing about this isn't messy AF, and I would a) like to see how we handle the consent stuff and b) eat this up with a SPOON.

But even in the here and now of the book, the whole Shadow Fam have individual relationships with Rhys and Feyre, and I thought that was decently well done. To be clear: its not Tolkien. It's nowhere near the same level. But for popular fun books, I have absolutely seen worse, and there was enough here for me to hang onto and enjoy. If they leaned a little into archetypes and stereotypes, well, it wasn't too egregious.

I think this is where I get to talk about Rhys a little bit too. So I have only read ACOTAR AND ACOMAF as of writing this, but I'm in a lot of book and fandom spaces, so I've heard everything from "Rhys is the embodiment of toxic masculinity and an anti-choice piece of shit" to "Rhys is the pinnacle of a male partner, can do no wrong, and I would let him rail me in a cabin on a mountain top." I'm not going to stand here and say that masculinity in these books is wholly unproblematic, but again: I have seen worse. My biggest problem with Rhys at this point, frankly, is that SJM keeps trying to have it both ways with him. But the "he's half mysterious, slightly evil Shadow daddy and half trauma puppy with a dreamers heart" was super not working for me, not even in a context where it maybe should have. Like, yeah, evil Shadow daddy as a role to protect Velaris makes sense, but then literally everything else we get is a cross between a traumatized dudebro with his buddies and trauma puppy making eyes at Feyre. The gap between the two sides of Rhysand just hit a point where my credulity stretched and broke. That's not to say I didn't enjoy both halves of Rhysand, but they didn't sit comfortably in one fae high lord lord me.

I just also want to briefly address the man pain, because after the Dresden Files, my patience for angsty man pain is THIN. I literally rolled my eyes and went "what the actual fuck" when Cassian provoked Rhys into beating on him for an hour after Feyre accepts the mate bond. Dumbass "if you can't fuck, fight" nonsense has never been my thing, and on principle I don't like it, but given that Feyre is alive and well and grabbing a snack with Mor, I can't argue too much. Battle Ground really set a new low bar for me, so I wasn't even grouchy about Rhys's POV man pain chapter right at the end of the book, because again, Feyre is alive and well and made a choice. I will allow it, but its getting some light side eye. Finally, the other major man pain scene is when Rhys is...I'm gonna call it groveling because I'm not feeling generous, but he's basically giving us a chapter-length recap of the previous book from his perspective. It's tearful, it's earnest, it's all kinds of angsty...And like...I was kinda not here for it. It was not the worst, your mileage may vary. I'm mostly just grateful it was one chapter and not an entire POV-swapped book.

I also want to just real quick tall about tokenism and some...potentially problematic things with the Illyrians. They have some savage warrior stereotypes attached to them that them being Fantasy Scots in the Fantasy UK makes sketchy, given the highland clearances and the generalized othering the England did to basically everyone. Then we get their cultural treatment of women, and the whole thing feels...deeply uncomfortable. I can't even make an oomaks joke about Illyrian wings (despite the fact that Illyrian wings have all the issue that Ferengi ears do multiplied by a factor of ten because THEY'RE WINGS) because I cannot banish the fact that they clip women's wings, which has some deeply uncomfortable resonance with female genital mutilation in the real world. Literally not even the Ferengi did that. And then we get Rhys, who is only half Illyrian, and the token "good" or "progressive" Illyrians, Az and Cass. They're trying to facilitate gender equality and banned wing clipping, but like...its made deeply clear that it's not working super well. So the general message is that of primitive, sexist Illyrians...except for the three good ones. And y'all...I kinda hate that. I'm not complaining that we have Rhys, Az, and Cass, but the Illyrians are deeply uncomfortable in a lot of ways that the version of me that did a PhD is screaming about.

And now we come to Rhys and Feyre. Rhys and Feyre, who spend 89% of this book flirting like dumbass teenagers before Feyre falls right back into the pattern she established with Tamlin where she decides she is going to give her literal all for a people, and I guess we just have to hope she has a partner who won't let her and then smother her to death. Because she is in the EXACT SAME POSITION, the only difference is Rhys. At this point, Feyre going all in is a feature, not a bug, which just makes her assertion that she belongs to herself first feel a wee bit hollow...

But I will say that Rhys and Feyre understanding that they can leverage their bond and Tamlin being just...the biggest dipshit in creation...to actually get an upper hand in this war, and I actually think that now that we've got the teen flirting out of the way, Feyre and Rhys might be a good team. I hope. Please God let them be a good team. I know we won't get Evey and Rick in The Mummy Returns, but I would take even a pale, bat-winged reflection of that relationship.

I guess we have finally arrived at Tamlin. I'm with Feyre that he's not good for her, but uh...the MASSIVE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION at the beginning of this book felt wildly gratuitous. Like, Feyre is wasting away. She's not emotionally ok. She isn't dealing with her trauma, and Tamlin isn't helping. WE GOT THAT. But that was only like, the first ten-odd chapters. So it was a speedrun character assassination, but I thought we were done at that point.

Holy shit, I was wrong.

So, there is a writing school of thought in which every villain needs to feel like they're the hero of their own story. I don't even think this is a bad tack to take. It can help motivate villains or make them sympathetic. And when Tamlin swaggers into the castle room in Hyburn after the king has captured Feyre and the Shadow Fam, you can bet your ass that he feels like he's the rescuing hero swooping in to save his true love from the shadowy douchecanoe who put a mind whammy on her to take her from him. (Which I actually think we might have Lucien to blame for that angle? Since he had to have reported back that Feyre fought him? But the timeline on that isn't clear, so IDK for sure.)

Unfortunately for Timtam, his ENTIRE PLAN makes him look too stupid to live. He KNEW what Amarantha was like. He KNEW that the King of Hyburn was a factor of ten worse than Amarantha. And he STILL made the deal to let Hyburn invade through his kingdom and somehow thought he would HAVE CONTROL OVER THE SITUATION???? And yes, I stand by this, because he keeps trying to tell the king to stop doing shit or do shit differently, and is ABSOLUTELY FLOORED when the king quite rightly laughs in his face. Talk about not thinking a plan through. Literally, I'm pretty sure Timtam was thinking, "I will win her back and be super heroic" and that thought eclipsed all other thoughts, his common sense, and his critical thinking. Which just take the character assassination of Tamlin and skyrockets it. I get that he's not the one, SJM. I got it six different dick moves ago.

Since we're talking about the last six chapters, I also want to just touch on the faeification of Elain and Nesta. Literally all I could think when they dunked our girls was one fantastic chapter title from the fantastic How to Read Literature Like a Professor: "If She Comes Up, It's Baptism." That metaphor doesn't really map perfectly over this situation, but it also isn't really a stretch. It also harkens back to the really old cauldron mythologies, which tracks for fae mythology. Mostly though, if Nesta doesn't murder the King of Hyburn after that foreshadowing (which had all the subtlety of a two-by-four to the skull), I will riot.

Hoo boy, this was a long one, but I think it's time to wrap it up. The TLDR is that this book was really fun as long as I wasn't thinking too hard about any of it. When I do think about it, I can shred it to little tiny peices, but honestly that stops being fun really fast, so I choose fun.

Also my reading buddy and I have Stockholm Syndrome with this series, so stay tuned for my eventual ACOWAR review!F

[drstonetrivia]

Chapter 202 Trivia (Part 1)

I missed the food-focused chapters… 🤤

The brand parody here is Coosur, which is made in the Jaén province of southern Spain (=nowhere near Barcelona). The brand is quite popular, and is also international.

Additionally, Spain produces around half of the world's olive oil, the most of any country!

If you've forgotten the Age of Exploration arc, "desire is noble" is both the name of Francois' debut chapter and their motto!

The tagline for this chapter is "olive in floriography means wisdom (知恵) and victory (勝利)", however all the sources I found said that olive meant peace rather than victory.

Ryusui's holding a dirty martini, a drink known for the unique garnish of an olive. To make it, you need gin, vermouth, and a splash of olive brine.

The brooch he's wearing seems to be a dragon's wing and a flower that I can't identify (it's not related to Spain or olives).

Barcelona is one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea and 5th most populated city in the EU. It has two rivers running through it that have survived the 3700+ years, and a mountain range to the west.

The stone world seems to have given it new islands though!

Most Spanish olives are harvested from the south, but Catalonia still accounts for ~5% of all olives produced in Spain. It is a bit of a trek to get to the olive growing regions from Barcelona though!

The olive harvest is normally from November to March, across the winter.

The modern way to harvest olives is by shaking the tree so that all of the olives fall into a net. Ryusui is shown using the traditional way where you knock the fruit off with a pole (Hyoga would have been great for this).

The olives are then cleaned, crushed into a paste, and spun in a horizontal centrifuge like the one Kaseki made to separate the oil from the solids. Do this a few times to make sure everything is properly separated and you get olive oil!

There's couple joke sound effects this chapter, first is Kohaku's "grrlla" (it literally says "gōrira", so "gorilla" with a slightly longer 'o' sound), then Suika's "mlllk" (literally "gyunyu", the word "milk" in Japanese is pronounced "gyūnyū").

Ajillo is an olive-oil-based sauce that is flavoured by frying garlic ("ajo") and guajillos chillis in it. Other things can be added as well, such as salt, pepper, lime juice or wine.

Ajillo dishes are simply things that have been cooked in this sauce.

Since Francois stayed on Isla Martin Garcia rather than at Araxá, they had the opportunity to learn Spanish.

As usual, Francois' foresight of what will be needed is incredible.

Chelsea has also expanded her language repertoire by learning Japanese. Hers is more slang-filled, as she takes Chrome's "baaad", Gen's pig latin and Ryusui's usage of "desire".

Ukyo must have taught Chrome to use a bow and arrow at some point, possibly during the Age of Exploration?

That, or Chrome is just pretending to know how to use it.

(Next part)

[invested-in-your-future]

So you won't have Atlas fly? Wouldn't that break the story?

It would be pretty hard for it to fly since in my idea it's a literal mountain.

And yeah it would make the course of events that happened in the show impossible, but that's fine since I ain't doing any of that.

The idea of having an entire flying city, with the level of technology shown in the show and with the overall state of the world, is just a complete waste of resources. The only other big flying thing is implied to have taken cooperation of all Kingdoms at once and is nowhere near the size of an entire city. It's pretty telling that the sole justification the show could come up for THAT idea was "uhhhh, magic did it?". And, well, obviously that ain't going to work if there are no relics or gods, right?

Let's be frank, the sole reason Atlas flies in MilesWBy is because someone, at some point while making Atlas arc, stumbled upon Battle Angel Alita manga, saw Tiphares/Zalem and went "OH COOL LETS DO THIS TOO". After all they already nicked stuff from Korra, why not this other idea that is a complete mismatch for the setting? Like, I have no issues with RWBY "borrowing inspiration" because it always did, even in the Monty era. But in this case, these are the same people who would latter invent an entire lore breaking dimension of talking weird creatures and animals just because they wanted to do Alice in Wonderland and who created the Two Gods because Miles Luna literally simply just dreamt them up one day.

So yeah the idea I am going with is Atlas being built both on and inside a mountain (bearing the same name), having started as bunch of fortified research stations and Dust mines (with Mt.Atlas being having the richest deposits of Dust in all of Remnant) and then morphing into a Kingdom after the Great War. And then as all those things connected together, the people in charge suddenly found themselves in a well defended structure with all the necessary resources nearby, so the decision to relocate the entire governing structure there came off as a no brainer. PR that comes with new coat of paint helped the Kingdom essentially shed it's skin after the Great War and the growth and rebuilding that followed was mutually beneficial to all involved. So what if Mantle, which consists of all the industrial facilities and workers (that were used to build Atlas into what it is), would be left on it's own as this polluted "third rate" kind of place? There are people in Atlas who are absolutely aware of just how "off" the whole situation is (and aware of their hypocrisy) and there certainly are people in Mantle who realize just how awful the situation truly is.

It fits the idea I am going with of how all four Kingdoms are living under different versions of this kind of false pretense of "perfection' and "normalcy".

And it ties back into quite a few things starting with SDC influence over the Kingdom and going all the way back to Mt.Glenn (in the setting there are now TWO successful cities that rely on underground infrastructure, so why wouldn't Vale go "we can try this too").

[miniscrew-anon]

Merry Whumpmas - Day 6 “Nowhere Else to Go”

This is Shadow backstory time. Like, early backstory. Before meeting Four or anyone else. Earliest entry in this merry whumpmas timeline

----

It was a small town out in the farthest corner of the Southern desert, in the shadow of inhospitable plateaus and sand dunes. A ghost town; occupied by the forgotten and abandoned. 

The town had been booming once. An outpost that was built from government money to act as a stopping point between the more populated cities and the sturdy military bases built out of the mountains. Hundreds of miles from anything and surrounded by sand and heat, this town used to see every soul that went to and from one of the Dragmire Clan’s biggest headquarters. 

But things changed. 

The Dragmires completed a new station somewhere else and the income from traveling soldiers dropped off significantly. Then goods and trade completely dried up when the Dragmires moved their entire stockpile out of the mountains. Government aid kept the town afloat for a few years, until that too stopped when the economy crashed as the Hylian royal family and their allies ceased trade with the desert dwellers. 

The people who could escape town did. The ones left behind did what they could to survive. 

The farmland was poor, water was scarce, and personal stocks were dwindling. Transporting goods became difficult and trade became more and more expensive as costs rose. The roads were overtaken by sand storms and vehicles were left in disrepair by neglect as gas deliveries were stopped. 

The town became buried, forgotten. 

Only the damned lived there now. Hundreds of miles from anything, without any way to leave and without any help, the people starved and wasted away slowly. 

The boy squatted in the shadow of a worn down shop, drawing circles in the sand with his finger. He was hungry but he had nothing. Two days since his last meal, he thinks, but he’s not sure. He sleeps so much that time sometimes feels stretched out and loose. It was a can of creamed corn, he thinks. Found buried under the floorboards of a corpses home; killed for stealing from one of the gangs. 

Two days ago, probably. But it could have been four. 

He blinks sand out of his eye and keeps drawing in the sand. 

He doesn’t know where he can get more food. The farms, what few of them there are, are mostly barren. And anything that’s there is guarded by starving eyes and twitchy trigger fingers. Trying to steal from there would lead to nothing but death. 

No food here, but there are always plenty of guns. 

The boy thinks about all the storehouses that might be left, trying to remember if he’s checked them all yet. He thinks so. Every one but the one on the corner of Moldul Street, but he heard screaming and gunshots over there last week. So it’s empty by now. 

There are a few other places, maybe. Under that old bar near the broken down bank, or out near the old icehouse. All those places are well guarded, though. Owned by the small gangs that have monopolized the little bit of power there is around here. Going into their turfs would be a death sentence. 

The boy stops. Smiles to himself without any humor, lips cracking from the dry heat. 

A death sentence. Heh, what a joke.

The boy stands up as the sun sinks below the horizon. He stretches out thin, shaky limbs and pats sand out of his threadbare clothes. 

He’ll chance stealing from the icehouse today. Even if he doesn’t have a weapon or a plan, he’ll make do. He’s watched the men and their normal patrol routes - he can probably sneak in and out. 

Probably. Maybe. But even if he can’t, it doesn’t really matter. 

There’s nowhere else to go.

-----

I always imagined Shadow having nothing. Literally spawning in and just having no family or anything really. The kind of life that inspires you to not give a shit about anything or anyone. That's why he's so skrunkly!

Idk how coherent this is when I jump around in the timeline. sorry lmao

[calciseptinefic]

then out of nowhere, somebody comes and hits you with an ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh la la la, ooh

Marvel || Wade Wilson/Peter Parker || Part 8 notes: Title from 'Mad Sounds' by Arctic Monkeys. Many thanks to babygato for her beta on this chapter. this fic is also available on ao3 warnings: none

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← previous: Part 7

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After returning to Queens and collecting the necessary foodstuffs for both making dinner and movie watching, they go back to the apartment and collapse onto opposite ends of the couch. For ten minutes, they are unmoving and quiet, both of them exhausted. Most of the day had been long and tedious, but it had been interspersed by brief periods of near frantic activity and stress, and Wade's brain needs a quick reboot before he does anything else. Peter must need a reprieve as well, because he says nothing until Wade groans and sits up.

"This is a really nice couch," Peter comments. His head is fully supported by the back cushion, and he stares at the skip trowel textured ceiling, unseeing. "Like a cloud for my butt."

"Bought it for naps," Wade tells him. What he does not say is that he bought it almost four years ago, when he started needing naps in the middle of the day and his previous sectional wasn't cutting it. At first Wade had thought that the sudden lethargy was a consequence of nearing thirty; a lot of people complained about slowing down in their late twenties, so he thought nothing of it. Eventually, however, he found out that his tiredness was a side effect of cancer, the growing tumor in his testicles stealing his energy as it grew and spread.

Wade physically shakes his head to expel such unhappy thoughts from his brain. Then, getting to his feet, he asks, "Dinner first, or Batman movie?"

"I'm still not super hungry," Peter answers.

"Alrighty. 'Batman Begins' and junk food. Got it."

Wade puts on the first movie while Peter arranges the goodies they bought from the bodega on the coffee table. They have Twizzlers Pull N Peel and rainbow Sour Punch straws, a bag of classic M&Ms, some Snickers bars, and those discount fruit wedges in both cherry and orange. Peter picked out a couple of original flavored Monsters while Wade bought an entire 2-liter of Mountain Dew Code Red. Wade doesn't bother to chill it or get a cup of ice to pour it over; he simply unscrews the top and drinks.

Peter raises one very judgmental eyebrow.

Wade burps. Loudly.

Peter's expression morphs into disgust, his button nose scrunching. Wade has to grab a Snickers bar from the table in order not to reach out and boop the tip of Peter's cute nose, and says, "Don't be a hypocrite, Kyle. I'm not the one who bought an energy drink consumed only by preteen gamers who rage quit and punch through drywall."

"Says the grown ass man downing room temperature Code Red," Peter snorts.

For the first five minutes of the movie, Wade and Peter are silent. Peter has a Twizzlers rope that he meticulously pulls apart and consumes, string by string, as he watches Bruce get beat up in some nameless, dirty prison. When Ra's al Ghul—disguised as Ducard—appears and offers a new path to fighting injustice, Peter quips, "Wow, that man's beard is sus as fuck."

Wade barks out a laugh.

"Also, League of Shadows?" Peter makes a derisive noise in the back of his throat. "What kind of good guy organization calls themselves 'The League of Shadows'? I call shenanigans."

Wade is delighted to learn that Peter is also a talker during movies; that he also prefers using subtitles; and that he doesn't mind when Wade occasionally pauses the movie to explain relevant tidbits of lore. However, this does mean that it takes them almost three hours to finish the first movie and—by the time Lieutenant Gordon has handed Batman the joker playing card, setting up the premise of the second movie—the sun has begun to set outside. The shadows in Wade's apartment have deepened and the room is cast in a warm shade of orange.

"Dinner?" Peter asks. He's finished one of the Monsters and the entire bag of Twizzlers Pull N Peel.

"I can put on the next movie for you while I start dinner," Wade offers.

"Nah, I'll keep you company." Peter stands up and stretches, rolling onto the balls of his feet and reaching upwards, the lithe lines of muscle invisible beneath the extra fabric of Wade's too big clothes. Wade can hear his spine crack. "Whatcha making?"

"Chicken piccata."

Wade learned the recipe over a decade ago, during one of his longer and more tedious missions. It had been his second year in special forces, a while before he got his scar, and he had been planted in some dinky apartment complex while he did intelligence gathering. The ancient grandmother who lived next door, Leora Di Meo, took an immediate shine to him and, over the course of four months, she became one of the most important people in his life. Leora taught him most of his Italian—the third language he learned to speak fluently, after his native English and then Congolese French—how to cheat at most card games, how to slow dance, and how to put love and care into a meal.

"Most nights it was me and Leora, sipping her homemade limoncello and playing Parcheesi while I sweated my balls off in the Mediterranean summer," Wade tells Peter as he places the floured chicken into the pan, letting it brown before flipping it. "Shit, that stuff was strong. I swear she used some illegally imported Russian spirits but I could never get a straight answer outta her."

"And this was one of the recipes she taught you?"

"One of many. I can even make my own pasta."

Leora made Wade cook with her every night he wasn't on stakeout. Before her, he could barely make a grilled cheese sandwich or fry an egg; after, he was making most sauces from scratch and had opinions on cooking wines. Leora's chicken piccata recipe was one of the last she taught him. When she shared it with him, she told Wade to be careful who he made it for, in case he ended up with an unexpected spouse.

"She said it was how she managed to snare the best looking man in her village, so I guess it's a good thing you're already married," Wade jokes as he splashes some wine in the stainless steel pan to deglaze it. "Otherwise you'd drag me to the courthouse first thing tomorrow."

Wade doesn't know why he says it. Maybe it's a stupid way to 'test the waters', even though Wade knows exactly what temperature the pool is and exactly why he shouldn't be in it. Or maybe it's a reminder to himself that, despite the ease of their closeness and the chicken piccata 'marry me' meal he's cooking, Peter isn't his. Will not be his. Regardless of what universe he is from, he belongs to his wife, MJ.

Same stupid fucking mantra you've been saying all fucking day, Wade thinks, irritated at himself. When's it gonna stick in your dumb head?

Briefly, Wade glances at Peter over his shoulder. Peter's gaze is directed away, his eyes unfocused as he stares at nothing. His teeth are digging into his bottom lip and his long, thin fingers twist his ring around, and around, and around. He looks... vaguely unsure.

Worried.

Upset.

And now you've reminded him that he believes that his wife is in another universe that he currently has no way of getting back to. Nice one, asshole.

Feeling like a tool, Wade turns back to the stove and scrapes the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spatula. He knows he shouldn't have pushed. Honestly, what was he expecting? This was supposed to be a fun, easy night for both of them before Wade started digging deeper into Peter's life and the lives of the people around him. Wade isn't supposed to dwell on the hopeless things he can't change. He's supposed to introduce Peter to Batman. Make Peter a good dinner. Make Peter smile and laugh and forget that he's technically trapped. Wade is disappointed that he hasn't been completely successful; when his head isn't up his own ass, being a distraction is his forte, considering how naturally loud and annoying he is.

Loud and annoying, Wade thinks. Now there's an idea.

Truthfully, Wade is not a great singer. He's tone deaf; he frequently sings too flat or too sharp; and his mediocre baritone doesn't have the range needed for opera. Despite this, he remains undeterred as he inhales deeply—

Tilts his head back—

And begins to bellow Figaro's aria from 'The Barber of Seville'.

As he finishes dinner, Wade dances and spins—his frilly apron emphasizing each movement—and gesticulates wildly as he la-la-las and Figaro-Figaro-Figaros. He makes up for his bad singing with flair and silliness, and by the time Wade sets a plate of food in front of Peter, the other man is in hysterics, his whole face red from laughter and cheeks tacky with tears.

"My singing made Leora cry too," Wade gripes, throwing his hands up in mock defeat. "Everyone's a critic."

But Wade's barely passable rendition of 'Largo al Factotum' has done what he intended, and the strange mood from earlier has dissipated. They sit side by side at the kitchen island, Peter scarfing down his sizable portion while Wade eats at a more sedate pace. Peter compliments Wade a half dozen times and—while Wade tries to shrug them off—it's been awhile since he's cooked for anyone but himself, and each compliment makes him warm.

After dinner, they return to the couch to watch 'The Dark Knight'. Peter makes a lot of sarcastic commentary, scoffing and rolling his eyes approximately every five minutes, and Wade has to pause once to use the bathroom, but they manage to finish the second movie by eleven. They take a small break, in which they both change into more comfortable clothes, and Wade pops a bag of popcorn in the microwave to mix up with their M&Ms. When they reconvene, Peter is mid-jaw-cracking yawn.

'The Dark Knight Rises' is Wade's personal favorite of the trilogy. The beginning always makes him laugh, as he did multiple extraction missions in his day, and none of them were as wonderfully over-contrived as the CIA operation depicted. He likes Bane's strange voice, Bruce's final adventure as Batman, and Anne Hathaway as Selena Kyle. Wade talks more during this film than he did for the first or second while Peter nods along, picking through the last of their candy. They get quieter and quieter as the end nears, engrossed by the fast pace of the ending, and are silent by the time Alfred sees Bruce and Selena together at the restaurant.

"Is that a thing?" Wade asks when the credits begin to roll. "Superhero retirement?"

For a moment, Peter says nothing. He just stares at the television screen, his face illuminated strangely by the artificial light. His expression is mostly blank: eyebrows loose, mouth slightly parted, jaw slack.

"Pete?" Wade says gently. He sits up a little and angles his body towards Peter's. One of his hands comes up to touch Peter but he stops, fingers hovering inches away from Peter's arm as he remembers that he's trying to maintain physical distance. "Baby boy?"

Peter looks at him and—with no warning—his face crumples and he begins to cry, huge tears spilling over his cheeks. Wade immediately turns to face Peter completely, his other hand coming up, though once again he stops inches from Peter's body. Wade has absolutely no idea why Peter is sad and he doesn't know what's wrong or how he can fix it, so he blurts:

"The ending wasn't that bad, was it?"

The joke is reflexive, as is the small laugh that bubbles out of Peter's mouth. It sounds awful. Strangled. It makes Peter's countenance twist into something raw and intense. More tears fall out of Peter's bright, glassy eyes and he scrubs at them with his hands, gasping, "Sorry, Wade—I just—"

Peter's words are choked by a sob. He tries to suck in a lungful of air but it just makes his shoulders shake and his ribs shudder.

"I'm sorry," Peter hiccups as his crying gets worse. He's covered his whole face with his hands to hide himself. "I'm sorry, I don't—please, it's not—it's not you or the movie or—I'm just—" He takes another one of those terrible, shaky breaths and whimpers, "Wade—"

Earlier that day, Wade told himself that he'd keep his hands off Peter. It wasn't right to keep acting like he had a chance when all evidence said otherwise. But right now, Wade doesn't know what to do, and Peter clearly has something he needs to get out.

"Sweetheart," Wade says, wrapping one hand around Peter's wrist. "Hey. Listen. I don't know what's wrong, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I think you need to let this out, whatever it is. So if you need space, I can go to my room and wait until you're ready, or... if you need someone to listen, I'm here. Whatever you need, okay?"

Wade doesn't know what he expected. Maybe for Peter to tell him to go, or maybe for Peter to say nothing as he continued to sob. He was certainly not expecting for Peter to let out a heart-breaking little wail, clamber into his lap, and wrap all his limbs around Wade's torso.

"Oh," Wade says as Peter buries his face into Wade's shoulder. "Hugs. Okay. I can do that."

Carefully, Wade places his hands on Peter's back. Earlier, Peter had changed into the same clothes he wore last night—Vanessa's old cropped hoodie and Wade's sweatpants—so Wade's palms meet the unobstructed expanse of Peter's naked back. Under any other circumstance, such a touch would make Wade's brain melt out one ear; under this circumstance, however, all Wade can worry about is if the rough calluses on his hands hurt Peter's smooth skin.

"I'm sorry," Peter whispers again.

"Don't be sorry," Wade murmurs. Tentatively, he runs a hand soothingly down the line of Peter's spine, each vertebrae a discernible bump beneath Wade's fingers.

"It's just..." Peter makes a small, distressed noise. His grip around Wade's torso gets a little tighter and he burrows into Wade even more. "I was trying so hard not to think about it."

"About what?"

Wade almost misses what Peter says next. Peter's face is still pressed against Wade's shoulder and his voice is so faint it barely reaches Wade's ear. But he hears it as Peter quietly says,

"What if I never make it back?"

The guilt that follows crushes Wade, a weight so huge it suffocates all the air out of Wade's lungs. The past twenty-four hours have been a chaotic rollercoaster for him, ranging from exciting and joyous to bitter and terrifying, and not once—not even fucking once—has he stopped to consider how it must be for Peter. Regardless of his true origins, Peter believes that he's from another universe, and their adventures today have shown that it will be difficult for him to get back home. Impossible, even. Sure, they could go to Boston tomorrow and talk to Richards, but such a trip would likely be pointless.

"Fuck," Wade hisses, resting his cheek on Peter's curls and tightening his own arms around Peter's smaller body. They're completely entwined, clinging to one another, and it's so far from the closeness Wade wanted that he wants to cry too. He squeezes his eyes shut as hard as he can so the tears don't escape. "Peter—I'm sorry, I didn't even think—"

"It's not your fault," Peter says softly.

But it is. It is very much Wade's fault. He might not be the reason Peter has special spider-adjacent super powers, and he doesn't know why Peter broke into his apartment, but he is responsible for Peter's distress. He has been so enamored of Peter—from the way Peter looked to the way Peter treated him—that Wade hasn't considered how Peter must feel being separated from everything he knows and everyone he loves or what it must be like to meet dead end after dead end. He told himself that he would be the person Peter thought he was—kind and good and deserving of such absolute faith—but he's been nothing but a self-serving piece of shit since Peter took off his mask and smiled at him.

"We'll figure this out," Wade promises Peter. "It doesn't matter how long it takes. It doesn't matter what we have to do. I swear that one way or another, I'll keep you safe and I'll get you back to where you belong. Okay?"

Such a vow is insane even for Wade, who tends towards irrational behavior and frequently throws himself head first into situations without considering the consequences. But by coincidence or unknown circumstance, Peter has dropped into his life and become ineffably important to him, and Wade means every word down to his bones. He's only known Peter for a day, but he knows he will do anything and everything he can to make sure Peter gets home, no matter what 'home' ends up being.

"Okay," Peter says, his voice still trembling. "I trust you."

Peter stays tucked beneath Wade's chin after his crying has faded, long enough for the television to switch from the movie's title screen to muted screensaver. Wade watches as it shifts through various high definition landscapes—deserts, oceans, mountains—before it goes black and the comforting darkness of the apartment folds over them. At some point, Peter has fallen asleep, and he is loose and warm in Wade's arms. It would be so easy to lie back on the couch, pull Peter atop him, and close his eyes, even if Peter's bony body digs into his in uncomfortable ways. A small part of him still desperately wants that, but the rest of him is weighed down by guilt. He can't take advantage of Peter more than he already has.

Exhausted from the long day and the emotional upheaval, Peter barely stirs as Wade stands, one arm looped beneath Peter's butt and the other around Peter's back. He's heavier than he looks—his super strength likely derived from more compact and denser muscle fibers—but Wade moves him around easily enough, laying Peter back down on the couch cushions and tucking him in. Peter burrows deeper into the comforter and noses into the pillow. Some of his dark curls fall across his forehead and cheek, unconsciously begging to be tucked back behind his ear. Wade squeezes his hands into white-knuckled fists to stop himself from doing as they ask.

"Good night, sweetheart," Wade whispers. Then, again, "I'm sorry."

But Peter—already fast asleep—does not hear him.

.

next → : Part 9

.

[weallcanrelate]

Spiders

Spiders, The Tarantula  

While living in Arizona, I leased a property close to the base of the beautiful Superstition Mountains. I owned a few horses and part of my daily chores for them was to empty and clean out their water troughs. On this day, I tipped a trough over and to my absolute near death feeling of horror, my eyes zoned in on a rather large tarantula that had been staying under the trough. After regaining my composure (ha-ha, not really), dialing down the volume of screams (really, I just ran out of breath), I did what any normal person would do. I ran. Ran fast. Literally hearing Jenny in my head yelling, Run Forrest, Run! Once I was in the safety of my home, the door shut and locked, yes locked! I summoned my daughter (16) to go deal with the beast outside (I realize this sounds borderline mean, but c’mon, it was scary). She, not being concerned with spiders, happily returned to the glass door after searching for the beast and announced that the freak (tarantula) was nowhere to be found. Great. Now we have a rogue irritated tarantula running around like he owns the property. I unlocked the door and allowed her to come inside (after a complete search, to ensure she wasn’t hiding it somewhere). I explained that there was indeed an eight-legged freak out there. And there is no way on this earth that I will be going out there until that thing is either saddled up and rode out of here (because it was that big), harnessed with several ropes and contained, or has expired (cue sad music, NOT). A few days went by, and although the visions of that thing echoed in my brain like a tireless loop of horror, I came to conclusion that IT had found someone else to haunt. 

A few days later, on a quiet evening, as the sun was going down for the day, I was sitting on the back porch with my daughter, discussing what we would do the next day. It got late, so we went inside for the night. I got ready for bed, pulled the covers down and climbed in. I was single at the time, so it was just me in bed... or so I thought. At some point during the night, I heard something outside. So I got out of bed, put my shoes on, and walked through the dark house with my flashlight in hand. I went to the glass door and aimed my flashlight out towards the horses. To my relief, the horses were fine, and I saw nothing alarming or concerning. So, I shrugged it off and returned to my bedroom, kicking off my shoes and grumbling that the horses had woken me up for nothing. Side note, I have this strange habit of needing my sheets and blanket to be pulled flat before climbing into my bed (don’t judge), so I was doing that when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something very dark near the foot of my bed, let me be clear, it was ON MY BED. Now, in the hurry to get up to check on my horses, I forgot to put on my glasses, so I reached for my glasses, put them on, and tried to focus on what that dark thing was on my bed. I didn’t have any lights on in my room, so it was all a bit unclear. As my eyes adjusted, I looked down on my bed, and there it was. That friggin tarantula I had seen a couple days earlier, it was sitting there in all its glory, proud as could be in my house and on MY bed. Staring at me (with all of its eyes), front legs cocked up just a bit for what I was sure was a display of superiority. I could practically hear it shouting, Neener Neener Neener, got you! Well, I was not only frozen in complete fear, but also the disbelief that this eight-legged freak had the audacity to climb into my bed, and now stared at me like I was intruding on him! The screams that came from my mouth that night was both ear piercing, and almost unhuman sounding. I not only woke the people in my house, but I am sure the other residents within a 5-mile radius of my house were now fully aware of my existence. My feet didn’t move, it was as if cement had been poured where my feet were. My brain could not compute the shear horror that this thing was in my bed. Like I said earlier, I was single at the time. So hey, I was young, sure I wanted to be in a relationship with a man, share my life with that someone special. But at no time did I ever imagine that I would be sharing my bed with hairy legs from a tarantula! Once I was able to compose myself, a friend was called, he came over and removed the intruder and put it in a jar (lid securely tightened) and put it outside to be dealt with in the morning. I called my exterminator, I explained to him that somewhere close to my home, a portal of hell had been left opened, and some freak of nature was now stuck in our universe! He responded with; oh, hello Lisa, I’ll be out there as soon as I can. Yes, I had his number on speed dial, and yes, he had been out to slay other creatures at the house before, okay multiple times. After checking all doors and windows in the house, he determined that there was really no way that big ole tarantula got in through a crack. No, he deduced that logically the only way that thing ended up on my bed, was because he had ‘hitch hiked’ on my jeans the evening I was sitting on the back porch and when I took the jeans off that night (while sitting on my bed), he simply crawled onto my bed. He said it with such leisure and with a tone of humor in his voice while flashing this sort of smirk, I wanted to hit him! The idea of that thing latching onto my jeans and holding on, while I walked through MY house and into MY bedroom, waiting for the perfect time to step off my leg and onto my bed!!  I did what any rational person would do in this case, we moved from that house! I do not know what became of the “oh it’s just a non-venomous" 8 legged freak. But simply moving from that house in Arizona was not good or safe enough for me, we moved out of state

[til-the-darkness-claims-us]

gemstones can CHANGE COLOUR!!

whYYYY do we like DIAMONDSSS????

Diamonds are the shiny and beautiful Diamonds are super hard and in fashion and the Thing to have

well I DKNT CARE

LOOOOOOOOOK

this is alexandrite and it’s ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS AND CHANGES COLOUR

the very best colour has only Ever been found in ONE mountain range in Russia and Literally Nowhere Else can compare to the originals

And it is SO MUCH RARER than diamond and so much more precious AND it changes colour

It can be blue/green it can be pink/red it can be so many colours in between in different light!!

so you put it in sunlight and it goes green then you put it in fluorescent lighting and it changes colour and then you put it near candlelight maybe it goes ORANGE and put it in incandescent light maybe it goes BRIGHT PINK

AND it’s named after the Alexander II of Russia WHO is FAMOUSLY KNOWN for literally FREEING THE PEOPLE how coool is that!! It is estimated that he freed approximately 23 Million people from serfdom! Not only is it not named after an absolute jerk but it also looks soo awesome and amazing and incredible I could look at it all day omg

[versadies]

I have this idea my brains been stuck on:

So imagine the reader is Childe’s younger sibling and is that reckless teenage years ykyk and maybe while out on a mission gets really hurt and doesn’t come home kinda thing and yk how Childe I a with family... HAHA SORRY FOR ANGSTY IDEAS JSHRNR

penpal: girl don’t be sorry— im in a full committed relationship with angst so you can send as many angsty ideas as you’d like! sorry if this hc is so short wjsbdn

characters: adventurer!reckless!reader x brother!childe

warning/s: blood, not proof-read, near-death experience, angry childe, swearing, spoilers on archon quest chpt. 3-act 3 and childe’s story quest (?)

-> oh boy

-> you’ll be the death of childe from the amount of heart attacks you gave him from your recklessness.

-> man’s this close to to put you in a big bubble whenever you’re on an adventure.

-> every time there’s danger, you’d dive into it and ended up having injuries big and small. it really doesn’t help childe being comforted with the fact that you’re an adventurer too.

-> he gets even more worried when he brought you to liyue with him. he knows how dangerous liyue can be along with the commissions so he made sure that your commission isn’t related to killing one of the most dangerous bosses in the nation.

-> although you kept on being reckless, childe knows your capability of fighting bosses given that he’s the one who trained you in fighting. he knows you’ll go back home alive especially since you have a lot of knowledge on survival intacts.

-> however... he noticed how you’re taking a long time on this mission.

-> he recalled you saying you’d be back the next day— yet 2 in a half days has passed by and you still haven’t come back. even katheryne didn’t know where you were.

-> he couldn’t help but worry about his dear sibling while working. why are you not in the inn yet? are you stopping over somewhere to eat or relax? isn’t your mission just about finding a certain ore around guyun stone forest??

-> when childe comes home and you’re still not there, he’ll literally rushes out from the door and starts looking for you.

-> he first headed to the guyun stone forest and killed every single monsters around the area before he starts to find you. he started to become nervous when he couldn’t find you around the first two areas.

-> childe would’ve laughed at himself for being nervous for the first time in forever, but he was too focused on finding you and the fact that you’re nowhere to be found makes him even more anxious and worried.

-> he then went to the other area that was famous for having ruin guards around. the fact that there were no signs of any ruin guards made childe clenched his fists.

-> in the end, he still haven’t found you. just a couple of dead ruin guards along with—

-> blood?

-> childe’s heart dropped at the sight of the crimson liquid. could it be your blood? or a person who tragically came across to these ruin guards? if it was you who slained these ruin guards, where the hell are you then?

-> he noticed the blood on the sand leaving a track, causing him to follow and see where it would lead him to.

-> archons, please don’t be dead.

-> the blood ended up leading him to one of the “mountains” of the island along with two ruin guards walking around.

-> did you possibly climb up from the ruin guards?

-> childe will immediately start climbing without the ruin guards noticing— screw fighting them, he needs to know if you’re there and okay.

-> by the time he reached to the top, he first saw your bloodied hand and he nearly fell at the sight of you.

-> there you were, lying unconscious with injuries all around your body. he recognized the scarf he gave you wrapped around your waist, his heart clenched at the sight of the blood plastered in it.

-> “don’t worry, n/n... big brother will kill these monsters for you.”

-> as soon as childe looks away, his eyes will darken and immediately jump out from the mountain, landing on one of the ruin guards.

-> “come at me you bastards!”

-> by the time he finished killing the ruin guards brutally, he’ll climb back up and bring you down, making sure the scarf around your injury won’t be removed.

-> he then realized that he can’t go anywhere else— given that he just swam his way here.

-> that is, until he overheard familiar voices and sees aether, paimon, and a man with an eyepatch who goes by “kaeya” not too far from where he is— their eyes widened when they saw him and you.

-> by the time he arrived on shore thanks to aether and kaeya, he’ll immediately rushed to wangshu inn, the nearest place where he can get help in treating your major injuries.

-> by the time you get help in the inn, childe won’t leave you alone. he’ll stay beside you all the way, regretting in letting you go to a dangerous place such as the guyun stone forest.

-> when you wake up, he’ll immediately give you a big hug with a relieved look on his face.

-> expect childe to make sure you won’t go to any commissions until every single of your injuries have been healed and are no longer there. he’ll literally bring you to baizhu and make sure you’re being checked up on.

-> forgive him for everything he’s doing but he just wants to make sure his little sibling will be okay— the image of your bruised body never left his mind even during his harbringer works.

-> he’ll even start finding time to join you on commissions even if you protested that he should be working. though if he’s too busy for it, he’ll request katheyrne to send a skilled adventurer who can go with you on your adventures.

-> “don’t mind me joining on your commissions,” childe would say, giving you a cheeky smile.

-> “your brother just wants to keep you safe, that’s all!”

[lunarsands]

ALSMP Fanfic: Heavensent

Characters: Angel!Scott, Thunderborn!Sausage, Merling!Scott

Warnings: Religious Overtones (because angel), Violence, Mention of Blood Drinking, Electrocution, Character Death, You Guessed It It’s Dark Too

Summary: You should be careful who you kill, because you never know what they’ll come back as next.

Sequel to Fatemirrored

(Also available on Ao3! And hey it’s a series now!)

[A/N: While Gravital! and Crawler!Sausage were great, in the spirit of this fic they’re being skipped. | While we’re at it, let’s get meta with this one.]

 Heavensent

---

There wasn’t any particular god Scott was building a church for. In a way it felt like a pretentious thing to do, so he went ahead with it. Let everyone think he was now a beacon of light, that there was hope and refuge to be found in his lands. They would see a figure bedecked in shining white and gold – and then they would see his sword, and they would know they were being judged.

He didn’t need Sausage’s pathetic brand of kindness to show how he was an angel. He had his own personal sense of how the world should be and now he had more means to define it, even literally shape it to his vision. Creating floating islands was becoming his favorite hobby, showing how the very earth was under his control.

It was while planning out his latest set that the sound of thunder reached his ears. There was no sign of rain yet so it wasn’t a concern. In fact, the sun was still out. Whatever storm was rumbling around, it must have been some distance off. Maybe it was one of those types that got stuck on one side of a mountain and just made a lot of noise without going further.

When he flew off to gather some supplies, however, he heard thunder again at the new location. He was a fair distance away from home and the only mountain around was the one he stood on – and it was nowhere near cloud height.

For a while he wondered if it was a side effect of his new angelic nature, that whole thing about calling down holy fire from the heavens, which could very well translate to lightning. Obviously it had never occurred to him to ask Sausage detailed questions about what being an angel was like. All he’d cared about was that his blood tasted amazing. Later, of course, it had been in his best interest to not go out of his way to remind the wither about his past self by asking about it.

The thunder continued for the rest of the day, reverberating off the stone he placed and causing loose rocks on top of the soil to rattle around. He tried to ignore it as he planted flowers and made artificial ponds; he tried to ignore it when he flew back to his church to sleep for the night.

It boomed throughout the night and into the next day. And the one after that.

It was almost like the heavens themselves were trying to drive him mad with atmospheric tension. There were never any clouds to herald an actual thunderstorm, and then on the one day where it did rain, it was a regular storm. The lack of thunder was almost as deafening, and Scott dared hope the strange phenomenon was over. He passed out during the afternoon and finally got some restful sleep.

The sun came out the following day and the thunder resumed. At his wit’s end, he took off to scout around for a source. To his frustration, no matter where he went the sound didn’t change, giving him no chance to figure out which direction it was coming from. He went so far as to risk going near the local giant’s home, but there were no noise-inducing mining activities going on there. Resigned to being cursed with the sound for the meantime, he turned back for home, thunder punctuating every flap of his wings.

When he entered the church he was bewildered to see an old man sitting on the altar, his head bowed as if in prayer – except that was not at all the appropriate spot for a repentant peasant to be. His hair and full beard were white but his bare chest and arms looked well-muscled, perhaps belying his age. Scott pretended to clear his throat. “Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you to move? The actual seats are over here.” He motioned to the bench to his left.

The man kept his head down, not acknowledging him. Scott thought he saw a slight smirk begin to form, and then the man giggled.

“Excuse you,” the angel said impatiently, “I think it’s time for you to leave, sir.”

The man lifted his head, now grinning broadly. If the familiar blue eyes didn’t give it away, the distinctive scar on the right side of his face did.

Scott rocked back on his heels. “Sausage?”

“That’s right!” He continued to grin, perhaps unnervingly so. He seemed pleased about something, not that the angel could guess as to what.

“Why in the world would you bother coming here?” Scott sighed in exasperation. “I think I told you what could happen if we met again. You look like you’ve got one foot in the grave already anyway.” He massaged his forehead as if warding off a headache. “Somehow you’ve quickly lived to a ripe old age as whatever you are now. Just…get out of here.” He rolled his eyes and made a flicking motion toward the door with one hand.

“Hmmmmm… No.” Sausage hopped down from the altar and walked right up to him, back straight and head held high. He stopped an arm’s-length away and looked down at the angel through half-lidded eyes, that small smirk back on his face.

Scott immediately resented the smugness. He didn’t sense anything unholy about Sausage this time, so he couldn’t just go and smite him on the spot. He settled for uttering another impatient sigh. ���What do you want, Sausage?”

“How’s the angel business going? Are you counting up the good deeds, helping out those in need and saving the day, and all that fun stuff?” Sausage smiled and took a step closer.

Scott took one step back, preferring to keep some distance between them until he found out what the other was up to. “In my own way. I’m not following your rulebook, if that’s what you mean.”

“Hmm, just wondering.” He stepped forward, not appearing to take any offense.

“Do you want to take this outside?” Scott asked with an indifferent tone, moving back again. He wasn’t going to run; he wasn’t intimidated by what Sausage was doing, more so only disconcerted.

“If you like. I thought we were just chatting. But the weather is nice, isn’t it?” As if on cue, a boom of thunder rang out. His smile seemed to grow. “Well, maybe a little noisy lately, but still nice.”

“Oh, it’s been absolutely wonderful,” the angel replied sarcastically, then realized maybe that at least meant the thunder wasn’t all in his head if someone else was acknowledging it, even if that someone was Sausage, and even if he was being frustratingly cryptic just then.

“Come now, let’s take a walk! We can keep talking like reasonable beings of questionable power,” Sausage said cheerfully, motioning toward the door. He almost seemed about to put an arm around Scott, but the angel moved out of range, not trusting him for a second. Thunder echoed up and down their surroundings as they left the church. Sausage tried and failed to stifle a chuckle.

Realization hit Scott like a meteor and he turned an accusatory glare on the white-haired man. “You’re the one doing this, aren’t you?” There was another giggle. “What are you on about, Sausage?” The giggle turned to full-on laughter. “Sausage!”

Reigning himself in to a quieter chuckle, the former wither offered a shrug, splaying his hands out before him. “Oh, I was just having a little fun. You’re so above it all now, flying around so freely and generously using your new power, but I figure, well, the sky is still above you.” He promptly jerked one hand upward, his smile becoming triumphant.

A lightning bolt struck the ground at Scott’s feet, startling him into jumping backward. The jagged stream of light lingered far longer than normal. He stared at the patch of ground where it was hitting, then lifted his gaze to regard Sausage. The other’s eyes were bright as he gazed past the bolt at the angel. “Try to destroy me now, little man.”

Scott merely scoffed at him as if all this wasn’t worth his time. He spread his wings, preparing to launch himself upward. Noise and showy lights gave no indication Sausage was anything more than land-bound, and even if he could haunt him with thunder, at least he could leave him behind.

But then the next lightning bolt struck him dead on.

Scott stumbled, dazed for several painful seconds. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it set his heart thudding in his ears, almost as loud as the thunder that followed. Sausage’s voice cut through the sounds. “Nuh-uh-uh, no flying away for you.”

Panting, Scott clutched at his own chest, willing himself to recover as he glared across the scorched ground. “So what are you, to come lording over me again?”

“Well, I could tell you the whole story of how I woke up in an ancient temple surrounded by the followers of a storm god who called me the Avatar of the Thunderborn, but you would probably find that beneath you to believe. I guess my soul went looking for the next best thing after you released me from my withered form.” Sausage grinned. “Thank you for that.”

He twitched his fingers and another bolt of lightning hit the angel.

Scott gritted his teeth, determined to ride it out without collapsing despite how his limbs began to spasm. He couldn’t yield. He refused. When his vision cleared, he growled, “How many times are we going to go through this dance, Sausage?”

“You started it!” the thunderborn accused.

“No, you did,” Scott replied flatly.

“But you’re the one who killed me first!”

“That makes you the one hung up on revenge.”

A rumbling swept across the sky. “Why do you get to walk away unpunished?” Sausage’s eyes narrowed. “Where is the justice for what you did? Why did you get rewarded, even?”

“Did you forget about the part where you were devouring souls while I was drinking blood?” Scott laughed coldly. “You don’t have room to talk about the moral high ground.”

“Maybe not. But I could do this all day.”

The next lightning strike brought the angel to his knees, arching backwards with his wings jerking uncontrollably. When the bolt faded Scott slumped forward onto his hands, golden hair falling in his face. He wasn’t sure how to get out of this situation. Would any amount of his own holy power be effectual against someone who was, for all intents and purposes, a god? “I – I’m clearly not going to win here,” he managed through still chattering teeth. He swallowed and attempted to gather his thoughts. “Fine. I wronged you—”

“Twice,” Sausage chirped.

“Twice. Yes. I killed you twice. But you came close to getting me last time. Some twist of fate seems to have decided that we keep being at odds with each other. Is the cycle just supposed to continue no matter who kills who?”

“Are you saying that because you think I’ll be the one to break the cycle?”

“You’re the better one of us. It might as well be you.”

“Ooh, flattery. That gets you everywhere, you know.” Sausage gazed down at him, his expression saying that he was unmoved. “But that means you get to just walk away again.”

“What would you risk me coming back as? There are things that can kill a god’s avatar.”

“You could also come back as a mere ant.”

Scott relented, lowering his head as he exhaled. He wanted to at least stand up, find a way to somehow defend himself, but he suspected the thunderborn would strike him right back down again. He didn’t know how much more his body could handle, either. And if anyone knew the limits of an angel’s vessel, it was Sausage.

A hand closed on the roots of one of his wings and yanked him upward, not exactly a kindly way to help him to his feet. He put an arm out to push against the former wither’s chest in anticipation of whatever escape he could attempt. Sausage’s eyes held angry storm clouds. “Say that I did spare you. What would stop you from coming after me anyway the next time you die some other way? I might as well get the satisfaction of avenging myself while I can.”

“Nothing.”

“Come again?”

“Nothing would stop me, if that’s what I was destined to do. If I come back as an ant, you crush me. Then we see what plays out next.” Scott fell silent, thinking back to the look that had been in the vampire slayer’s eyes. “I think I knew them from a previous life, too.”

Sausage scowled, giving him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

“The one who actually killed me when I was a vampire, instead of you doing it.”

That made Sausage think back, too. His grip on the angel’s wing loosened. “Just because we were working together doesn’t technically mean I forgave you,” he said, voice dark. “And just because I tried to defend you that time doesn’t mean they weren’t doing me a favor, whoever they were.”

“So, maybe destiny made them a tool for your ends, even if they meant something to me at one time, or I meant something to them, since I… didn’t remember them.”

“Oh, are those regrets you’re feeling?” Sausage mocked. “That has to be beneath you, too. Snap out of it!”

This time the lightning formed around his arm, tiny bolts forking off into the air along his skin. Sausage put his free hand on Scott’s other wing, creating a closed circuit. The angel’s eyes widened in horror. “Saus— Wai-!”

He didn’t get time to finish the word. Electricity shot across his shoulders, and it felt like it was tearing through his wing’s roots. It was only fair, he tried to tell himself. It was only fair. Burned and blackened feathers drifted at the edges of his vision before white-hot pain filled his head.

“One angel, clipped,” Sausage proclaimed.

 The next thing Scott knew, he was laying on the ground, gasping for breath. His back felt like it was on fire, and he wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t literal. He pulled himself to the edge of the cliff beyond where the church sat and looked at the lake down below. Then he closed his eyes. It took little effort to slide off and plunge headfirst toward the water. It would put out any actual fire, right? There was only half an instant where he thought about how spread wings would slow such a fall, but even without looking he was certain Sausage had made sure he would never fly again. He hit the water and…well, didn’t exactly sink, but floated comfortably below the surface. It took several moments for him to notice that breathing was much easier now.

He was breathing water.

Scott opened his eyes and looked down at himself. His skin was blue and dark green hair framed his face. He patted at himself and felt rows of gill slits along his neck. He was…some sort of mer-creature. He nearly laughed at the contrast of air to sea, but then it sank in that Sausage hadn’t merely zapped his wings. He had followed through and killed him.

Scott lowered his hands and drifted silently with the current. He thought about everything he had said about fate and destiny. He wondered what he should choose to do if he happened to see Sausage again, although for the moment that would require the thunderborn to purposely come for him again, because this lake was only so big and Scott didn’t know yet how far he could get on land with breathing air being a problem.

He did wonder why Sausage hadn’t stuck around, since they both knew now that they would reappear in one form or another. He also couldn’t help thinking about what it would actually take to stop the cycle.

~*~

Through some trial and error, he found he could walk around on land using enchanted items along with copious amounts of bucketed water. Using these he made his way to the open sea, where there was much more space for him to move around and get used to his new body. He had yet to figure out any special abilities beyond swimming fast and buoyancy, a far cry from his last two forms. At least it seemed peaceful, just swimming amongst the kelp and sea life.

No, make that boring.

He made his way into a river, looking for signs of anyone, anything. At one point he caught sight of the bottom of a pier and he considered pestering the lone fisherman who stood casting out a reel.

He ultimately decided against it and swam onward. He didn’t know where he was going at that point, just that he wanted to keep moving. The feeling of the water flowing past him was almost like how the wind felt when he had flown.

Almost.

He didn’t understand why he missed being an angel when, quite frankly, he hadn’t been one for very long. Nor did it make sense to miss the flying part, when he’d had similar enough abilities as a vampire.  It might have been the sense of freedom. As a vampire he had been limited to the night, and now as a merling he was limited to the water. Suddenly he had a very clear understanding of Sausage’s behavior after his imprisonment. The pang of empathy felt strange. He really didn’t like it.

A flicker of light above the surface to his left caught his attention. Even though it made his stomach twist from memory he swam upwards to investigate. He slowly raised his head out of the water just far enough to have a look.

Sure enough, Sausage was there with someone and appeared to be showing off his new powers. He was talking animatedly about his time at the temple and everything the thunderborn worshippers had spoken about. He was very distracted, the merling thought. The person listening looked like they were hanging on his every word, too fascinated to be paying attention to anything else. If Sausage was going to so thoughtfully stand that close to the river, well…

Scott decided to take the chance. He slipped out of the water and kept low as he crept toward them. Although he was somewhat protected by enchantments, the open air still stung a bit. He would make this quick.

There was only time for the onlooker’s eyes to widen as the merling lunged, wrapping an arm around Sausage and hauling him backwards. There was a moment where the thunderborn almost regained his balance, but Scott kept pulling and toppled him into the water.

They briefly grappled as Sausage attempted to swim up. He flinched repeatedly, and the merling entertained the thought that water damaged him, which was ironic for someone associated with thunder and by extension rainstorms.

Sausage got one hand out of the river. Scott figured he might be reaching for help and he considered pulling the other person in, too, to add to the chaos. But they weren’t there, and then he realized what he was about to do. He threw himself at Sausage’s arm to knock his aim off.

An uncontrolled stream of lightning hit the water, electrocuting them both.

He had just enough time to look into Sausage’s eyes. Neither satisfaction nor sadness were to be found there.

They would come back, however different, and they would find each other again.

  ~End~

 [Post A/N: Will I keep pitting these two against each other? Depends on any insanely coincidental origins they get that might inspire me. We’re only halfway through at the time of this posting, after all. Things started with a mothling and an elytrian, who knew how crazy it would get? Their origins really are the plot twist gifts that keep giving.

*coughs* But in the meantime I'm going to go write some fluff, sheesh.]