#and a hint of fear

[tagerrkix]

rage.

[tofixtheshadows]

So I've been thinking lately about how Mithrun is Kabru's dark mirror (more on that another time- it needs its own post), and I thought it interesting that one of their parallels is that they were both cared for by Milsiril, but in opposite directions. She took Kabru in as her foster after he was orphaned and tried to convince him not to become an adventurer. On the flip side, she helped rehabilitate Mithrun specifically so that he could rejoin the Canaries.

And I kept wondering: why?

For Kabru, obviously she loves him a whole lot- despite any other shortcomings in their relationship, I do believe that.

So I get why she tries to convince him not to go dungeoning, and, failing that, at least prepares him as thoroughly as she can.

But why help Mithrun? She used to hate Mithrun, but after realizing what a secretly twisted person he was, she actually thought of him more positively (oh, Milsiril). So it wasn't as if she held the kind of grudge that might motivate her to make his already-depleted life even more miserable by sending him back to the dungeons. And it wasn't that she felt bad for him either, since she didn't visit Mithrun for the first ~20 years of his recovery.

The Adventurer's Bible says that Utaya was the impetus for Mithrun returning to the Canaries, but Milsiril is the one who made the trip to see him and tell him about it.

Why would Milsiril work so hard to get her old coworker back into fighting fit? Why encourage him to return to such a dangerous lifestyle, when she was the one who chose not to mercy-kill him?

That last panel is such a crazy thing to hint at and then never elaborate on. Without it we could have just thought that Milsiril wanted the Canaries' work to continue without her, even if it seemed out of character. I think some people even assume she's just a natural caretaker as a foster mom and handwave it to include nursing Mithrun too. What could Milsiril's suspicious motives be? What does she gain from Mithrun joining the Canaries that isn't an altruistic desire to see dungeons safely sealed? Feeling a sense of responsibility for the work she left behind isn't an ulterior motive.

My theory is: Milsiril, knowing that Mithrun was empty save for the burning desire to face the demon again, wound him up like a clockwork doll and pointed him back at the dungeons.

Hoping that he'd eliminate the biggest threat to Kabru's life, before it was too late for him.

Milsiril the puppetmaster.

[radiance1]

Pariah Dark. Ghost King. Master of War. Tyrant. The Breaker of Worlds.

Currently found himself... perplexed and at a loss.

He had assumed he would never be free once more, the one-time his punishment was cut short he wrote it off as the mistake it was. A pitiful fool who believed he could claim his crown from his prison without consequences.

The second time.

Well.

He would not have thought himself to be so lucky, assuming that no other would be foolish enough to free him once more.

He most likely should have learned not to assume a lot of things, when one is more than acquainted with the Master of Time. There was a lot he would do and did for the other before his eternal rest, and a lot of things he could've wrapped his mind around, found out the reason for, even so long as he had the clues no doubt left by Time.

But this.

This.

He was not exactly sure what his expression was, he could not even decide what exactly he was feeling, even. "Dearly belo-" Pariah Dark hid his mistake by clearing his throat. "Master of Time, what exactly do you intend for me to do with... these."

'These' referred to the small beasts currently amusing themselves on his body. A pitch-black chick with red eyes currently nesting in his hair, a snake trying to loop itself-and failing at looping- itself around his neck, a puppy currently resting on his arm and a cub currenting trying to get said puppy's attention only to be zapped away by the pup's foot.

Yes.

Zapped.

Despite this utterly befuddling situation, he was amused by it nonetheless.

"Your parole," The Master of Time said, all-knowing smile on his face. "Surely you would know what to do with children, would you not?"

Pariah Dark blinked. "What in the infinite is a parole?" Pariah tasted the word on his tongue, as if it was foreign to him. And, well. It was. "And what, exactly, would that have to do with children?"

The Master of Time's smile eased into faint amusement, as if aware of some joke the king himself was not.

Which happened more often than not, actually.

"Take good care of these children, and you shall be released from eternal sleep." He said, as if that explained everything. But Pariah Dark was staring at him in clear and undisguised puzzlement.

He then raised an eyebrow. "You would leave me alone with children? Truly? With no qualms?"

The personification of Time nodded, and Pariah could blink slowly, as if he had trouble wrapping his head around this. "Dearly beloved, surely you would not think that this-" If Clockwork noticed his slip of the tongue, then he didn't point it out as Pariah Dark continued. "Would be the best of ideas, no? Surely, you should be worrying for their safety."

Clockwork's eyes filled with mirth as he inclined his head slightly. "Well, do you currently hold any thoughts of harming these children?"

Pariah Dark's face gave away his faint confusion. "Not particularly, no."

"Then that is that." The ancient ghost nodded, as if everything was already decided and done as Pariah could only stare at him in unsurprised exasperation before shaking his head.

Perhaps, he should have expected this.

"The one currently making a nest of your hair goes by Vlad, the Pheonix King." Clockwork pointed his staff to the chick in question, who squinted open an eye before nestling further into the king's hair. He then pointed to the snake. "The one currently trying to strangle you, is Danny. Our prince as well as what humans would call an eastern dragon."

The way Clockwork pronounced our had Pariah feeling like it held another meaning and not just him being known as the prince.

Was there something he was not aware of...?

The staff then pointed to the pup dozing off in his arms. "That one," Clockwork said with faint amusement. "Goes by Dan, a fusion between the phoenix and dragon resulted in his creation and he soon became his own entity after becoming secluded from his timeline after its erasure." He said this casually, as if it weren't something that would cause questions. "He is also a Raiju."

How a bird and snake gave way to dog, Pariah does not know.

The staff then pointed to the last child in his arms, trying to bother Dan and being kicked away and zapped for its efforts. "That is Dani, formally Danielle. She is a Mishipeshu who is the only successful clone of the phoenix and dragon, making her our technical princess."

Again, the emphasis of our left Pariah feeling like there was something he should know. A missing piece to a puzzle he didn't even know he had started.

"You said this one was a king, correct?" Pariah asked, shifting around his arms to better support the pup and cub. "Would the phoenix's not take offense to me of all people being the one to raise their ruler?" As soon as the words left his tongue did he remember who exactly he was talking to.

He was met with a vicious smile, one that he did not see until the days of yore. His non-existent heart skipped a beat.

"Well, if they would like to voice their... displeasure." The Master of Time practically purred that sentence out, and Pariah felt something odd shift inside him. "Then they are surely allowed to do so."

Pariah grunted, silent for a few moments. Clockwork moved towards him in that time, and Pariah stood still, only tracking the ghost with his eyes. "I am quite certain you would make a wonderful father, dear-"

Excuse him, dear..?

"-So why not prove me right as you always have, hm?" Pariah Dark blinked, opening his mouth to speak before his mind screeched to a halt as he felt a pair of lips upon his own before they moved away in the next moment.

A ghost of a kiss.

"Now, run along now why don't you." Clockwork had a mischievous glint in his eyes, before Pariah found himself surrounded by a wide pasture, spanning as far as his eyes could see (and he could see very far) and at the end a forest with a house behind him.

But he could not react, even as he felt pecks upon his head, a bite at his ear and most surely the scratching of claws against his form.

His hair burst into green flames as he stood stalk still.

[penguinsblues]

The choice is yours.

[agentark]

do you ever think about how in the literal very first scene with Rebecca, we learn that Unit Bravo had no idea she even had a kid

she chose UB and The Agency over the detective so consistently, so frequently, that her team didn't even consider that she had some kind of life outside of them, with someone waiting for her at home

[spotsupstuff]

watchin rw vids where they assign the iterators voices hurts my soul quite a bit cuz they basically always sound so so off.. like what do you mean Moon's an american woman who most likely uses Instagram, is full of herself and is working on her influencer career... (that should be Innocence, fight me on this) why the HELL is Pebbles' voice so deep and macho, that is Not the pink baby fail boy whom I love to go moderately mad over, please I'm going to die cuz of macho Pebbles nuuuuurgh

they basically already have canon voices please listen to em, Moon sounds like a glitchy Hatsune Miku. when she speaks there's always a ghost of a smile shaping her words. she sounds curious, wide-eyed- ready to wonder and dive into theories. she's so unbelievably soft and comforting and like she would teach through playing games with her students. she sounds like someone who would clap her hands alongside the beat even if she doesn't care much for music. she'd run into a field and twirl her dress and laugh all the while. she sounds Happy, she's glad to be alive Pebbles sounds like a suppressed nerd duck which speaks through its nose instead of the chest. he sounds like a tired smartass!!! there's this tiny rasp to his voice, but the kind I'd more blame on sadness than anything else. he sounds vulnerable!!! like he could be so easily hurt, like he's just a frail sprout but there's also a curt bite to it. he's like grass- thin, but that just means it can cut. he's frowning while he's speaking, he's exasperated, I can hear it in his voice!!!! get big macho Pebbles away from me he scares me

[sadxlee]

wanted a more risque photo, a shoot yuu would definitely not do due to exposing his tattoo of sevens name. buutttt i indulge myself as a treat

yuu in @infamous-if !

[hezuart]

If Seven have water bending powers, Six soul eating powers and Mono space-time powers what would Raincoat Girl powers would be

oOOOO see, I thought about this quite a bit for the past week. I don't think Raincoat girl's powers will come up in Channel Change, so I'll share my headcanon here.

Raincoat girl I've always called "Five" though I've considered calling her "Quinn" (or even "Cinc") sometimes to not be so obviously a number, kind of like Mono's naming scheme. But I don't think the name Quinn would stick with the fandom as well as "Five" would...

To me, Five would have the ability to change her size at will. (Typically shrink, but only when she gets more powerful later she will learn how to enlarge herself.) She may also have the ability the manipulate the sizes of objects, people, or animals around her.

My evidence: 1. "VERY LITTLE Nightmares" game title 2. The Nest is more like a giant doll house, and she's surrounded by children turned into dolls 3. Each collectible has something to do with the children's powers. She collects Jack-in-the-boxes; children's toys that had been made in France as little "Demon-in-the-boxes". A tiny puppet pops out to surprise/scare the person playing its music because typically, no one would expect a creature to be compressed in something so small.

Six is a soul eater. She can suck the souls out of adults for sustenance. She can suck the youth out of children, turning them into nomes so that she may remain immortal. She may have the ability to teleport through shadows. She may or may not also have the ability to create shadow proxy children?

Mono is a space-time manipulator. He can travel through time and teleport elsewhere through TVs. He can leave behind imprints of children and also reabsorb them? He has minor to major telekinesis and draws in the attention of those around him.

Seven has hydrokinesis. He can physically manipulate water. He can create air pockets to breathe underwater. If he concentrates, he can also control the water inside someone's body including his own. This proves difficult when trying to lift others, but his body is the easiest to control, giving the illusion that he's floating on air.

Five/Quinn is a size shifter. She can shrink at will to crawl through small spaces like a mouse; to get into hidden rooms or to avoid being caught. She can also enlarge herself at will and has the ability the manipulate thse sizes of objects, people, or animals around her. But this requires heavy concentration to do so.

[pocketgalaxies]

C3E37: marisha + nonverbals

[chirpsythismorning]

When byler is trekking the UD together in s5 and one of them brings up how they’re like Sam and Frodo 😳

[assiraphales]

[stainedglassthreads]

Theory About Who Has the Gnosis

My theory about who presently has the Hydro Gnosis, and who the true Hydro Archon is, is that it's...still Furina, actually. Just not the Furina we've been interacting with so far.

"Okay what the hell are you on about now, Glass--" So glad you asked, dearest darling readers!

So one thing I've been utterly obsessed with in Genshin is how every Archon(except Zhongli) has a dead doppelganger that makes them depressed. Venti has the Nameless Bard(modeled his form based off them), Ei has Makoto(identical twins), Nahida has Rukkhadevata(used the same model when they finally got to speak with each other, adult Rukkhadevata looked like an older Nahida)

So this sets up for Furina, Murata, and the Tsaritsa possibly having their own doppelgangers. As such my theory is that Furina's doppelganger is actually currently still alive, and is the holder of the Gnosis. Furthermore, it is actually Furina's memories of the Gnosis and certain knowledge required for being and acting like an Archon 'given consciousness'. This other-Furina (we'll just call THIS one Focalors to prevent confusion) is probably also the one who's been gathering Indemnitum and figuring out plans to deal with the Prophecy while our Furina keeps the populace calm and entertained, hence why Furina is so confident that she can deal with the prophecy, to the point the Traveler doesn't think she's putting on an act anymore, but can't actually answer any of Arlecchino's questions during the Archon Quest. That was her 'original, complete self' briefly shining through.

As for how such a thing is possible...Furina actually strikes me as pretty competent, if anxious and insecure, when she sets her mind to something, and seems to have some sort of specialty in information gathering. She's good enough at it that she's the first Archon to figure out where the Traveler is going, and set agents to inform her of our arrival so she can make a grand entrance literally minutes after we entered her nation--without Archon powers. It's also very interesting how, despite how Makoto and Rukkhadevata have left things behind, the things they leave behind tend to be restricted to their nations. They even both died within their nations But the place where Egeria died...is in Sumeru. Just within the border, yeah. And it does do a lot of work in setting up Fontaine lore to hype us up. But...it feels a little weird to me that Egeria didn't die within Sumeru.

I wonder if it's a hint that shortly after becoming an Archon, but before Rukkhadevata's death, Furina asked Rukkhadevata to use the Irminsul Tree to help her with something--namely, to help her pull off the ultimate performance. I think that Furina might be the ultimate method actor--what better way of hiding one's Gnosis and disguising one's true plans, after all, than wiping your own memories so that, even if someone interrogates you you can't give up your Gnosis' location or what's necessary for your plans, and even if you're killed by an assassin capitalizing on the opportunity, 'another you' can keep working away at all the issues, and everyone now knows there's someone after the Archon/Gnosis.

Of course, this does mean that Furina's plan may have backfired a little. If this is true, then she's a great decoy...but she's also got a self-inflicted inferiority complex, and is so afraid of admitting that she's weak, confused, and helpless that she can't even admit to Neuvilette someone made an attempt on her life.

I already talked once about Furina, Ei, and Nahida all being foils for each other, where they end up isolated due to being in the shadow of their predecessors, and feeling they're not equipped to do a good job. But if this is true, and Furina created a Focalors-doppelganger, then Furina is also standing in the shadow of her own self. It'd also be incredibly interesting if, while Nahida had to erase memories to move out from Rukkhadevata's shadow, Furina has to regain them--and it'd also have some interesting implications about why Rukkhadevata chose to erase herself, too. Because maybe she got the idea from someone else...

"This is all well and good, but wait, where's Focalors then?"

Ah, this one I actually think most people have already guessed correctly. What's a machine that creates and gathers indemnitum, that's powered by a belief in justice, which Furina supposedly built but doesn't seem to understand(anymore), which apparently spoke to Lyney when he tried infiltrating the Opera Epiclese to examine it, and which Neuvilette ultimately chose to respect the judgment of when it gave a verdict different to his?

Suffice to say. Much like how Elynas chose to appear as a Melusine and Rukkhadevata appeared as Nahida...I think we'll get to chat with the Oratrice in a dreamspace and it will appear as Focalors.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Thinking about the complexities of a "losing your magic" story in a DnD (and similar) scenerio because what it means completly depends of your class. Because while not everyone is born with magic, everyone can have it.

How for a sorcerer losing their magic is genuinally about losing a part of themselfs, to suddently not being able to do something they always did. Losing your magic is like sudently losing a limb or one of your senses. And how besides being always theirs, their magic is ancestral how it can mean losing a connection with a part of their family history.

How for paladins is about morals. About breaking their vows whatever they are, dealing with the fact that they changed or maybe that morals were always way more complicated than they thought they were. (The Oathbreaker subclass changes things but I think it can work if Oathbreaker is one of the ways to embrace the emotional conflict that took your magic). Is almost phylosofical. Is the what makes Thor worthy?

How for druids, clerics and warlocks are different levels of losing a connection. For druids is with nature, with a force beyond their comprehension but that became a part of you for so long and who are you without this feeling? For warlocks is so many things, is losing a boss, a friend, is the price of freedom, is the loss of whatever you had with the sentient being that gave you powers. And for clerics is a mix, is about if their gods are feelings like nature or beings that talk to them, but whatever it is, for clerics, for clerics is a lack of faith. Is about what happens when you doubt your god, when you can't belive it or in it. Is also about what happens when your god doesn't belive in you.

For bards and mages is the loss of a skill. The bards might have the loss of their playing or voice but even if not, even if is just the magic that is gone, well they, just like the mages, studied hard to be abble to do magic. If for a sorcerer is like losing a limb, for them is like waking up in the morning and noticing your accent changed or that you don't speak a language you once did anymore, is trying to ride the same bicycle you used to go to work everyday and noticing you just doesn't know how.

[thatsbelievable]

[shuttershocky]

I have wrathful cerulean flame brainworms again so now I'm thinking about how Amiya's confrontation with Kaschey subverted how Amiya's destiny as the Lord of Fiends is treated by the story.

It's established very early on in Arknights that Amiya's powers are abnormal even within Terra's fantasy setting, and that the rings she wears that restrain her are for her own good. We were not quite sure yet what her powers really meant at that point, but it certainly looked like more of a curse than an ability.

Later on, we found out just what Amiya really is. The Lord of Fiends is the title of the Sarkaz king, which she inherited from her adoptive mother Theresa, the deposed leader of Kazdel and founder of Rhodes Island.

The Lord of Fiends is known by some as the mythological enemy of humanity, a harbinger of death who will bring about total annihilation. One of Silverash's lines to the Doctor has him saying to put Amiya in chains before they end up crowning her. Kal'tsit has Amiya's body sealed under ten rings at all times, demanding that Doctor must prevent Amiya from unsealing the rings at all costs lest she fulfill this destiny. Even a Sarkaz like Buldrokkas'tee sees a vision that the surface of the world will be blanketed with bones should Amiya be allowed to live and grow up.

These moments are meant to be sad and foreboding (obviously), not just acting as grim reminders of Amiya's place in the world being set even when she's still just a child, but as the alternative to the fact that Amiya and Rhodes Island might not even have a future at all, with Amiya being infected and Rhodes Island being an infected organization created and still partly run by the Sarkaz, the most oppressed group of peoples in Terra.

But this gets turned on its head during the confrontation with Kaschey.

Kaschey believes he lives an existence beyond that of humans. He is an impossibly ancient being of innumerable faces and names, wearing people as masks and their lives as clothes. They are nothing but cattle (uh, burdenbeasts,) to him, lower beings that, in his own words, were born to be ruled. He is not a person, because people die, and he is The Deathless, he is the one who loves Ursus, the very meaning of Empire itself. In his own words, "people were born to be ruled."

No one can touch Kaschey when they can only fight the face he currently wears, hate the name he hides behind. His invisibility is the source of his invincibility, and in turn it is the root of his ego and self-belief as a higher power.

Yet, just like the humans he believes to be above, Kaschey feels fear — fear of the Sarkaz kings. Unlike those who fear the Lord of Fiends through reputation or prophesy alone, Kaschey fears them from something they've actually done.

The reigning king of the Sarkaz has the ability to look into the hearts of people. The kings of old could /see/ him, hiding inside the shells of his victims. They could fight /him/, and not just the people he uses as puppets. The Sarkaz Kings destroyed the idea that the Deathless Black Snake was untouchable.

For Amiya, who is so young, whose lungs were on fire and who was so scared she could burst into tears, Kaschey's fear of the Lord of Fiends was Amiya's moment of courage—a reminder about whose legacy she was upholding by taking this fight, and who chose her to do it. A reminder that part of Theresa is still with her, and can still make the great and terrible shrink back from her name alone.

Amiya may have pulled a magic sword, but it was Kaschey's fear that truly legitimized her as Theresa's heir. If she's just a stupid kid and illegitimate heir by a lunatic king like Kaschey claimed

then why be scared at all?

If Amiya must live her life caught in a vicious cycle of oppression and discrimination as an infected and as someone adopted by a Sarkaz, then why not own it and do exactly as her adoptive ancestors did centuries ago, and what Theresa would do if she were here now?

Call for the Snake by name. Challenge his mastery over the world. Let him know you can see him.

Let him know you can beat him.

[overtake]

If i see one more person spread “news” sourced to outlets like f1-insider… please actually pay attention to sources and use critical thought about where it came from. these accounts want their engagement numbers and will share information derived from a fucking reddit comment if they think it’ll earn them a few extra dollars. there’s always an off chance these bullshit tabloids are right, but they almost never are, and a legitimate source will come along if there’s any whisper of truth to it. i just beg of people to simply wait for sources with the slightest bit of credibility to their name before they start sharing information.