#and by that I mean horrors beyond comprehension that may or may not have been man made

[kidokear]

My current Ultrakill brainrot + my excitement over ep 7 of Murder drones = 👆

[enbyobeyme]

MC Becomes A Child But Angst

Prompt: Mc becomes a child again, but they did not have a good childhood to begin with...

AN: This is also an old work of mine that I'm reposting before I delete my old blog, may be a bit dated. I may rewrite this. Takes place in OG game

TWs: Mentions of Child Abuse, Scars, ect. GN per usual. Cringe writing

Vague Edgy Intro For Background.

You remember it since you were young. The live vivisections performed on you, the practice of fusing angels and demons to create your “God”. You were sadly the perfect catalyst for their experiments.

You have seen horrors beyond comprehension, atrocities that show the worst side of man, the lowest point that mortals could hit. Cults were draining. Worship after worship, recruitment after recruitment, experiment after experiment. You had demon and angel prisoners that you befriended in the cult before they were dragged away and eventually killed or turned into some beast...

You grew sick of it- that’s why you ran. How you managed to fight off or completely avoid the Silent Hill-esque monsters but... You did. From that day on you hid any marks, stitches, scars, or tattoos on your body were hidden. You did everything to hide your past, getting rid of any tracker on you, even trying to drain yourself of any demon or angel blood they injected you with.

You weren’t going to be turned into any ‘God” any time soon. To think, that poor angel Lilith had her grave robbed for the blood that now runs through your veins… Despicable.

I can’t imagine how your MC felt to have been summoned by demons? There was at least some level of fear or anxiety, no? Either way, let’s skip past that. You don’t know how, but some type of spell has been cast onto you, turning you into a kid. The same fragile kid from all those years ago. It wasn’t as happy as the brothers hoped for.

Lucifer

Your eyes were dull as you sat in the corner, you didn’t look at anything but the floor like you were waiting for instructions. Your body shivered and you looked so broken. “MC? Are you okay?” No response, not even a glance at him. It was unnerving, to say the least.

He was by your side in an instant once he heard the news. The way you backed away from him warily though didn’t throw him off, at first, he was a stranger to you after all. It wasn’t until he got back to his office to work while looking after you.

You seemed to have something in your hands that you hid even more as he approached. You looked over at him miserably and started to shake more. You never talked much about any parents or any childhood memories- you often skipped over conversions where Asmodeus badgered you for pictures of your young self. Is this why?

His heart hurts a bit as he puts the pieces together. He notices your grip on whatever is in your hands, loosening, he leans in trying to see what it is. Lucifer is taken aback when you hold out a small rusted knife towards him, it was blunt and old, and shaking in your grip.

“P-Please, get away from me, You’re going to hurt me too! They’re going to hurt you!” Lucifer kneeled down showing his hands to you before offering one to you. “I’m not going to hurt you, please come with me…” You shook, eventually putting the blade away. Lucifer reached out slowly to cup your cheek.

You were soon on his lap as he worked. He noticed that you looked over at the stack of papers, grabbing the sheet he was finished with you added it to the right pile. “How do you know to do paperwork?” “I had to earn food by helping out with chores.” He frowned at that.

”Your parents made you work?” “I don’t think I have parents. The leaders said they made me. It all clicked at that moment. “You were- you are in a cult?” You nodded, going back to organizing papers. It was silent for a moment. “You’re a nice demon. I hope they don’t hurt you too.” “Oh? What do you mean?” “A lot of demons or angels that get summoned get hurt. Sometimes, they’re dissected, and I have to help.” Lucifer couldn’t help but hold you a bit tighter. He felt awful for what you were implying.

He tried to ask you directly about the cult, but all he got were soft ‘sorry I can’t tell you that, I’ll get hurt’s’ in response. Dinner soon came, you refused to go out to the table without panicking, and trying to pull away from Lucifer if he tried to walk you there, so he brought food to you. Your eyes lit up as if you couldn’t believe that you were allowed food, you wolfed it down before anyone can take it from you. Afterward, he was able to walk you to your room to rest. “Wait, Mr. Lucifer, before you go” Lucifer looked back as your small child self waddles up to him to hug him. “Thank you, I don’t want you to leave me alone again.” He offered to sleep with you, you nodded profusely.

In the morning, you were grown again. Lucifer asked if you remembered anything from your kid self. You were silent before nodding. “Don’t mention any of it, to anyone. I’ve already dealt with and accepted it.” Lucifer nodded. This will be your little secret.

Mammon

When he heard Solomon shout in surprise during your magic practice, he knew something was up because that bitch never made noise. When he entered the room he saw a small child pointing a blade at the sorcerer. “Where’s MC?! Are they okay?!” “That IS MC. They messed up the spell and got turned into a kid”

You backed up, pointing the blade in front of you, “H-how do you know me.” It came out more like a statement than a question. You overheard the white-haired man, ‘Solomon’ Excuse himself along the lines of ‘Oops, I have to be somewhere’ for some reason this felt familiar. And that is how you got stuck with Mammon.

It took him a bit to convince you to put down the boxcutter, and you only did because you can sense the dumbassery off this guy and you could read him like a book, it would be able to tell when he would want to hurt you. You hid the boxcutter.

Mammon seemed to be on the phone with someone named ‘Lucifer’ you kept your distance. You heard all kinds of stories about the Seven Deadly. For someone in the cult to be named after them, or for a poor demon that was summoned and called by the sin they were strongly associated with was someone important. Important people tended to be the cruelest.

Mammon didn’t know what to do with a kid. Kids like the outdoors, right? Maybe he can get you some icecream? He noticed immediately that you dragged behind even as he offered you ice cream. You were a strange kid for sure.

At the ice cream store you just looked down. “Don’t you want anything?” you shook your head, it’s a trick, a trap, no one would be this kind to you. Mammon could tell something was up, you seemed so scared and hollow, just looking down at the ground. Mammon put a hand on your shoulder, causing you to shrink away. Sometimes he would’ve done the same when he knows he pissed off Lucifer. Were you okay?

“Hey,” his voice was gentle, “it’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you, come on, I got a coupon for a free ice cream anyway!” He didn’t but it might make you feel better. You felt like you had no choice, and zone out, when you zoned back in, there was an ice cream cone dripping onto your hand as you walked through the Devildom. A rare sweet treat that might be taken from you, you quickly lick it up, not knowing when an opportunity for food will present itself to you.

Mammon seemed nice, he talked to you and he even let you go up to an actual playground. You weren’t used to seeing a lot of kids together, especially so happy. It took a bit of Mammon coaxing you into trying to go down the slide. It was… fun. You asked Mammon to play with you.

After what seemed like an hour you both went home, for the first time in a while, you smiled. You were in Mammon’s room looking at all the shiny things in his room. “Thank you, Mammon,” you seemed to speak at a high level than other kids your age, Mammon noted, “I’m not really allowed to go outside.” Mammon frowned and asked, “Why not?” “The robed guys said people might see my marks and get me in trouble. And there was a big forest with all types of monsters.”

Robed guys, monsters? “Err, uhh. What kind of mark?” “Do you promise not to tell anyone?” “I promise.” You slowly pulled up a small part on the side of your shirt, exposing a long surgery scar going up your stomach, and a brand of sorts next to it. Mammon was taken aback. He pulled you close and examines you, on your chest were even more scars, some more brands it seemed like. You freaked out at him grabbing you and started kicking and crying. “Let me go! Let me go”

The box cutter from earlier came out of your pocket, into your hand, Mammon narrowly avoided it, catching your arm. “Woah woah woah! Chill, kid!” You dropped the box cutter and Mammon pulled you in for a hug. You were unfamiliar with it, but it felt nice.

You ended up falling asleep on Mammon. He wanted you to change back ASAP. There was a lot of things he wanted to ask you.

Leviathan

When you were transformed into a child, you just saw a white-haired man around a bunch of magic things and weird sigils. He looks like he was wearing a robe too, bad news. You looked around for something, anything that could help defend you, you usually always had a pocket knife on you and you felt in your pocket. Grabbing it, you knew it would a bad thing to fight, so you ran.

This house was big and had a lot of hiding spots, you ran up the stairs, knife in hand, sneaking around. Where was there to hide, you heard music from one place, chatting from the next, you saw an open door, peeking in, there appeared to be no one, it was definitely someone’s room though. Covered in strange aquariums and many odd… mini statues everywhere.

It was at least something to work with though, lots of things were in here. You closed and locked the door, barricading it with everything you could. There had to be something in here that’s useful, a key, a weapon, even some vents that may lead outside. Maybe the aquarium leads somewhere you can swim to. You began your search.

You opened every possible thing you can open, there had to be something, anything to help you, knocking over statue after statue, book after book. All you found were sewing needles and thread. You pocketed them, good for stitches. Soon you heard knocking at the door and some ramming into it. “What the hell?! Who locked my door. MAMMON YOU BETTER NOT BE IN THERE I’LL KILL YOU!”

Oh no. Oh no. No, nononono. You had a small pocket knife and NEEDLES. That wouldn’t be enough for a fight. Maybe you can hide in the pile of soft human-shaped pillows and sneak attack him? There was nowhere else to hide, you dived in. The door broke open, you held your breath and gazed at the intruder through the plushes. A demon. You know a demon when you see one. You hope he doesn’t recognize your smell. “Mammon! Where are you?! Ugh, you trashed my room! I KNOW you’re in here!”

You started to run out of breath, and let out the smallest exhale. A normal human could not have heard, but a demon could. “Found you.” Levi started to sift through the plushies. Now or never, the door was still open. You leaped out trying to make it towards the door. You were too slow, Levi leaped forward, shutting the door. You kicked at his ankle pointing your knife to him. “Leave me alone! Get away, demon! I’ll hurt you!” Your voice was raspy and you started to sob, swinging at Levi.

The commotion was heard by the other brothers, already informed about what happened by Solomon, the door opened, which squished you between the wall. Levi picked you up like an aggressive cat as you continued to kick and scream. “I-if you hurt me, the cult would never forgive you! They’ll hurt you too! Just put me down and I’ll leave you alone. Please!!!” You were handed to Satan, who actually understood how to console a child from his reading habits.

They were discussing something, you didn’t care. They were all outside Levi’s room. You couldn’t run anywhere but there. You bit Satan’s hand, making him drop you, as you book it back into the pile of plushies. Hidden once more, you can only hope they would leave alone. They did, kind of. Maybe they were waiting for you to come back out? It was hard to tell. You were hungry. Maybe there were some crunchy bugs in here- or maybe that tank had something in it. A goldfish. It was something.

Right as you came out of the plushie pile, Levi came back in. You ran back in and shook. “I don’t taste good! Leave me alone!!” Levi would have laughed if you didn’t sound so terrified and he couldn’t hear your stomach rumble. Levi crept in. This was his room after all. He searched around his shelves for something. “Hey, are you hungry, I have some Ruri-Chan crackers. Come on out.”

Nothing. They were sealed, sealed food was usually safe, you stuck out your hand, expecting him to toss it. You let out a noise of displeasure as he approached. He froze. Levi isn’t good with kids. He placed the pack down near the pile. He was too tired for this, he just wanted to play his Waifu games…

You grabbed the crackers pulling them into the pile and started to feast as Levi gamed. Levi hated the silence with you eating. Usually, you both would talk as you game, this felt wrong that he was ignoring you. Occasionally, as he played, he would talk to you. “This character kinda sucks, their DPS output is trash but they look so cute.”

After a while, you snuck out of the pile, slowly approaching him, and sitting next to him to watch the pretty colors on screen. Levi noticed and handed over a controller. “Want to play?” You hesitantly took it, as he told you what to do. You spent most night playing games until you passed out. In the morning, you didn’t mention anything from the day before. Shushing the demon if he mentioned anything.

Satan

He felt a spell fail. He knows that was never a good thing. He should check on you, you are always dragged into these things. He wasn’t expecting to see a mini-you having a standoff, boxcutter in hand with Solomon who’s clothing seemed to be ripped up from where you tried to protect yourself. You looked so serious.

“What the fuck is going on?” Solomon explained. Great, a de-aging spell. He would have to figure this out. Satan sighed and told Solomon to leave. You never talked about being a kid, sometimes excusing it when anything about it was brought up. As you saw the sorcerer leave and the demon try and calm you down, you pieced it together that he won’t hurt you. For now.

That’s how you ended up in his room surrounded by books. You backed up in the corner keeping your eyes on Satan as he tore up his bookshelves looking for something to reverse this. You watched from afar.

You decided to look around his stuff yourself. Lots of weird demon shit to start with. Most you recognized. You picked up an old tome with a seal that you’ve seen a million times, instinctually, you broke the seal and opened it. Usually, these tomes have something of importance in it. “Don’t touch that!” You dropped it immediately and cowered, expecting to be hit.

Satan froze seeing you cover your head, guilt rising. He noticed that the tome no longer had that damned seal he couldn’t break. How did you…? Satan rested a hand on your shoulder. “I’m not mad at you, MC, I was scared.” You didn’t seem convinced and just looked away.

Satan decided to change the subject. “How did you break the seal on this, hmm?” “I… I know that book.” “You know the book?” “Yeah, the leaders always put those seals on their tomes to protect what’s inside. Only other cultists can open it…” Satan took a glance inside, it mainly detailed a lot of illustrations and descriptions of demons, angels, captives… surgeries… ungodly experiments…

So you grew up in a cult? It must have been awful. Satan tries to change the subject for your sake, you must not want to talk about it. He lit a small, harmless flame in the shape of a small kitty and watched your eyes lit up. “Hey, want to help me out with some magic?” You nodded, shyly.

You were now in his lap, both drawing kittens and look at small photobooks of cats while he also read book after book, looking for some type of spell to reverse it. He glanced over to your drawings as they started to lean into darker territory. Drawings of cats turned into sacrifices of animals. The number 777 was drawn everywhere.

t was the same number as the mark on the back of your neck-wait. Mark on the back of your neck… He glanced at your neck, gently brushing your hair back to show the mark. 777. Huh… He looked back at the spellbook. Finally, a spell to reverse this shit.

A few minutes later, you were back. You and Satan stared at each other, no words were spoken as you went to go grab that damned book from the shelf. You sat next to Satan and skimmed through it, photo after photo, article after article. You see a good chunk of the book titled “The Experiment of Subject 777”

You tore out that chunk, ripping it up and throwing it in the fireplace, handing the rest of the book back to Satan. ”Burn it. Read it. I don’t care…”

Asmodeus

Asmodeus was thrown aback when Solomon called him, telling him what just happened. He zoned out at “Mc is now a baby!” and he was excited to see how cute you looked. He heard something along the lines of you’ll change back in a few hours.

Asmo didn’t care, he snagged you, cradled you, and carried you off into his room. He didn’t even realize the state you were in, afraid and once again covered in the old scars on your body from your childhood returned. He went off to his room putting you down and immediately going to the closet all while saying how much fun the two of you would have.

The smile dropped when he turned around and saw a poor broken child covered in scars of all kinds, surgery scars across the chest, what seemed like self-harm ones on your legs, and that doesn’t even mention the bruises. He remembered asking if you had any pictures from when you were a kid and how uncomfortable you seemed. He can recognize abuse easily.

“Oh, sweetie…” The demon invited you into his arms hugging you and rubbing your back. For some reason the kindness in his voice made you cry. You held onto him as he pats you back. “Come on sweetie, let it all out…”

After what seemed like forever, you had no more tears to cry. Asmodeus knew what could make you feel better. He started to get out some self-care stuff. Showed you facemasks, lip masks, lotions, creams.

He even got out some cucumbers to put over your eyes. You were completely spoiled. It was nice to actually be cared about. After a bit of coaxing, Asmodeus asked to see some of the scars on your body, there is a possibility that you could be injured.

Asmo felt sick. Surgery scars across your chest and stomach, brands across your back and collarbones. It was sickening how someone could do this to a child. Asmo has connections. He recognized the brands all across your body from the cult you were in.

He has seen their members raid the parties he was in, how they walked off with a bunch of intoxicated demons, or snag them using hooks into their wings and forcing them away. He’s heard of the torture demons had endured. Blood experiments. Fusion. The creation of a ‘god’. You were forced to be in there huh?

Asmodeus know that it is not a topic you would want to talk about. He decided that instead, you both should keep your mind off of it. Maybe a few hours of body-positive selfies and watching drama shows and doing makeup will keep your mind off of it.

Beelzebub + Belphegor

Belphegor was asleep as you and Solomon performed spells. He was woken up by a scream followed by crying. Anyway long story short, he ended telling Solomon to fuck off while pulling you away from him. He was too tired to try and ask how to undo the speel so he just went over to his twin’s shared room.

Beel saw a tiny child you and his eyes lit up at the sight of a child. It disappeared quickly when you fucking sucker-punched Belphie and gave him a swift kick into his gut. “Damn demon, get away from me. What are you doing?! Are you trying to die?!”

Belphie dropped you and you already prepared to fight, your body was telling you to scream- run away, get out. You stood your ground. You glared at them. The demons were both shocked. Beel approached you, grabbing you in one swift motion. You squirmed and thrashed. Nothing.

Beel saw the hatred in your eyes along with the hurt. Beel also noticed the brands across your body, he dropped you out of shock, before he caught you again. “Belphegor… Look” Belphegor had never seen his twin look so sad. He went over and looked at what Beelzebub was pointing at. A large cult brand covered your body.

That cult was linked to various disappearances around the Devildom. It has been around for ages as well. He had seen firsthand what they could do- hell Belphegor remembers how they tried to kidnap him when he was an angel. An angel.

Beel remembered the meeting with Diavolo discussing the disappearances and even massacres of their fellow demons. Seeing how they branded a child at such a young age. His stomach churned at the idea of your childhood.

They were snapped out of their thoughts when you smacked your head back into Beels, making him drop you on the floor. You pushed yourself under one of the beds, away from the twins. They couldn’t squeeze their whole body under here and their arms would never reach.

Belphegor lied down and kept trying to reach for you with an ‘ugh, come here brat’. You kept away. At some point, you fell asleep from all the adrenaline leaving your body. You woke up a bit later in someone’s arms. You overhead a conversation with another person.

“This spell should wear off soon, I’ll watch over-” “No, I got them.” Your eyes fluttered open and were met with the below view of Beel’s chin. He held you protectively and walked back to his room alongside Belphegor. Belphegor made eye contact with you.

“Hi…” “...Hey. Gonna kick me again, little-” “Belphie. Leave them alone.” Belphie scowled as Beel set you down on his twin’s bed. You sat up and shyed away. “...Thank you… for not hurting me.” Beel frowned and the overwhelming urge to crush you in a hug overwhelmed him, but he knew it would scare you.

Beel sat beside you, offering a snack, on your other side, Belphegor lied down and turned on the TV. You got to watch some DemonTV. As time went off your belly was full and Belphegor was a comfortable pillow for you. You all fell asleep in a sandwich.

When you woke up, you were back to normal, no more brands, no more scars. The twins looked over at you, you can tell that they pitied you to an extent. You know that they’re worried about you too. “No, I don’t want to talk about it.”

[2smolbeans]

You made a deal with the devil.

Yandere Diavolo x Celebrity Mc!

Synposis:

Diavolo hadn't been summoned by any human for any contracts for centuries. Diavolo, finally unbothered by the occult and humans on earth, continued to rule Devildom with an iron fist. That was until one day, a peculiar human decided to use a forbidden spell to sumon the prince of hell..

.

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A/N: This will be edited later, so if some sentences or words don't make sense- that's why!

_____________________________

Diavolo wasn't surprised when you had summoned him. If anything, it was the typical drill to him. Typical human, desperate for power to the point of insanity- setting up those nostalgic marks of hell and a virgin sacrifice for him, chanting and screaming those ancient forbidden words like a hypnotizing song, calling onto him to fulfill whatever wish they may have.

When he appeared in front of you, he could feel a smirk spread across his face- his fangs beeming back at you with excitement. It had been so long since someone had summoned him onto earth that he couldn't hide his enthusiasm.

You were just like the others, disheveled, and already demanding for your wish without even pouring him a drink or greeting him! It was quite disrespectful on your end, I mean back then when humans summoned him, they always gave him the upmost respect- even kissed at his feet!

I guess modern-day humans were naive or had forgotten how interacting with the supernatural worked..

But regardless, he listened to your words, watching you closely as he could tell that your aggressive and strict appearance was only a mask to hide your utter horror. Letting out a chuckle, he couldn't help but lose composure as you exposed the reason for his summoning.

You wanted to be famous. Oh this was rich! You- a puny human who had kidnapped another innocent person, put them through abuse beyond human comprehension with ritualistic intent, sacrificed your body and soul- just to be some silly pop star?!

Sure, this wasn't the first time he had been summoned by a human to make a contract for fame in exchange for their soul. But Diavolo was still shocked, and even a bit insulted, that you - a simple boring human had managed to find this specific calling to summon him on earth, not even wishing for power, money, strength, control- but instead to be some popular singer!

Diavolo thought the books of the old ways had been burned and banished the spell itself! For crying out loud, he was the devil himself! Why and how would you dare try to contact him just for that small reason!? He thought that after a few centuries, humans would've learned something about consequences and self benefit? But looking at you, ready to give it all, he shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes as he apparently had his answer.

Letting out a small chuckle, Diavolo spoke to you like a child as he saw your quivering form.

"So, this is what you want? I hope you're aware that once you make this official, there's no changing or turning back your wish."

You shake your head, not speaking a word as he extends his hand out for you to shake.

The faint whispers and warnings of the previous lost souls that swirled and danced around Diavolo's figure, screaming at you not to shake his hand. But regardless, you shook the devil's hand.

You let out a scream as you felt the sharp stabbing burning sensation wave over your body. Crying and nearly passing out as you felt a foreign sensation and lightness leave your body. You were certain it had to be a part of your soul, since by the end of the binding, in the palm of his hand seemed to be a soft pure glow trying to escape from his grasp- only to be trapped and merged into his palm.

"Now, darling..I wish you the best in your life, and I hope your satisfied with your dreams."

You, who had fallen to the floor after giving a part of your soul to your now new contractor, tried to steady yourself to stand up. It took all of your strength just to get on your two legs while your body felt alienated from itself.

Wobbling away to return where you had came from, Diavolo began to speak once again.

"Oh, and before you go my little hummingbird, remember this - when the time comes, I will come and get you. Understood?"

Too weak to speak, you only looked into his eyes, which satisfied him enough. Snapping his fingers, Diavolo disappeared like nothing had ever happened. The body, the symbols, everything was gone from the scene, and soon, so were you.

Months had passed ever since that incident and Diavolo's blessings began to come into fruition. It felt like a flash- and there before you knew it- you had a manager, power, and luxuries that few could ever have.

The contract that you had with Diavolo was like a forgotten dream. Your singing career high up in the sky as everyone knew who you were. You relished in it, you bathed in their love, the admiration- it was all you ever wanted- it's why you even started your idol career in the first place.

As years passed by, you were finally retired as your contract with your manager had ended. Still, you had fans who adored and loved you, making online edits, fanart, and the whatnot, admiring your music and 'God-given' talent. All was seeming well for you on the outside, but inside, every time you tried to get some shut eye, your head would be invaded with terrors and lucid hallucinations that always ended with a painful withdrawal.

Unbeknownst to you, Diavolo had a close eye on you throughout the years. You, the first human who had dared to contact him after hundreds of years, making the same old 'celebrity' contract, had him curious.

Diavolo found it adorable really, your intentions of fame were so innocent and pure, but the actions you did to gain your success were far from it.

He was amused how you'd forgotten him. Most of the celebrities and humans he had helped had always remembered him - even paid him a symbolic tribute to their success! But you had forgotten him. Completely.

It made him raise an eyebrow as he watched you with conflicted emotions. He didn't know if he should've been insulted that you forgot him or if he was deeply invested in your every move because of it.

Either way, he had his full attention on you. You could say he's your number one fan!

Though the more time flew, Diavolo grew more obsessive towards you - watching you with hidden eyes with how you flourished in the life he gave you.

He gave you this, you came to him desperate, and yet..You don't even dare mention him once or give him an ounce of gratitude.

At this point, he could've cared less about the contract or promise he made to you. Sure, he wasn't supposed to see you until the day came to collect your body and the other half of your soul, but seeing you so happy...So full of yourself, it had driven him mad.

Espically when you wrapped your arms around some stranger who could care less about you, giving them paterage to your success and happiness. So, for now, he began to visit your dreams - scolding you and belittling your very existence.

Though something about visiting and tormenting you in your sleep began to brew another emotion inside him. Those moments when he talked with you, it became special to him, even if in those dreams you were trying to wake up and escape his grasp.

You were so annoyingly adorable. You, a small little human, somehow got him all worked up. He was the ruler of hell, the most feared by all - he could've chosen any better being to fixate on - but you somehow managed to put him on a leash and drag him along.

Your song, enthusiasm, your desire for love and attention. It was fucking with his head. You were like a small hamster to him, so tiny, so easy to crush- yet so..Lovable.

He'd wondered how you'd react if he took you under his lovely castle if he had showered you daily with the attention you craved so badly. Would you worship him and kiss every part of his body? Would you smile at him and hold him tight? Would Diavolo finally have a loving partner alongside him?

I mean, it could be possible.. If the lower demons of hell could have happy familes and spouses of their own, how could the king of hell not have one as well? Just the thought of it - of you and him - made his head spin even more.

"Do you remember me? Darling, my little singing bird.. Please tell me you at least know what I look like!"

Diavolo isn't the type to usually want any romantic relationship with anyone, and he's unsure if he wants that with you.

It's conflicting, really.

All he knows is that he wants you by his side. To hold you, crush you, make you weak onto his knees, look at him with those eyes of yours, to break you down and to make you worship him.

Diavolo laughed, stroking your hair as you sat in his lap in the world your mind had drawn. You pursed your lips, not knowing what to say as Diavolo continued talking.

"You know, before I absolutely wanted to tear you limb to limb for hurting my feelings..But I've realised, you humans are so..How do I put it.."

Diavolo stopped for a moment, your hair intertwined with his fingers.

"Very forgetful? No..That's not it..But either or, I realised I couldn't be mad at a small creature such as yourself for much longer!"

Diavolo cheeringly spoke, his voice booming loudly.

"Anyways, I'm sure things have been good for you. I know they have been, I made sure of it, I created your little singing career afterall!"

Still, in his lap, you were quiet - trying to examine his features. Your mind refused to show his features as he only appeared to you as a blur of colors.

"You know.. I've been wanting to talk again face to face like before... I think it's about time I see you again! How does that sound?"

"Maybe if you saw me again, you'd remember everything, right?"

It wasn't like you had a choice either way since moments after you had awoken from your sleep, Diavolo was standing there in all his glory. Smiling ear to ear as the large mass of his dark wings had encapsulated you in the room with little no escape.

"Hello there love, remember me? Oh... Haha! This reminds me of when we first met! When you were so plain, so pathetic. So..Needy of my help."

"But now look at you! Because of me, you're all prettied up - better than before!"

"I've helped you, given you everything you've ever needed. Yet.."

Diavolo paused, the room growing darker as his voice only shined brighter than before. Your eyes widened as the memories began to greet you like an old forgotten friend.

"I never once got a thank you from you. Now isn't that unfair to your number one fan?"

Diavolo pouted playfully, his head drooping down - imitating a dog while his demonic presence began to suffocate you slowly.

"After everything, the horrendous crimes you've committed in my name.. For someone so dedicated to me, only to ditch me.."

You could feel those clawed talons reach out to you, barely moments away from grazing your skin.

"I hate it, you know? I'm not usually like this.."

"All I want is for you to worship me, just like how they worship you..."

Diavolo only sighed as his eyes bore into yours, lulling you into a dark abyss.

"That's not so hard to ask for, right? I know it wasn't part of the contract..But I think I’ve undervalued the price for my help"

Now his clawed hands were gripping onto your jawline, your face now forced look at him and him alone. His hot breath fanning against your lips as little by little, you were now pressed against his chest. Your eyes widened as Diavolo kissed the side of your neck, the absolute delight in his voice loud and clear.

"I think it's time I collected my end of the contract"

.

.

.

___________________________

[obsessed-with-timeloops]

The Magnus Archives spoilers but I keep thinking about Jon and Martin landing in the ISAT universe when the fears arrive but like. Right after post loops. So it ends up like:

1) They save these two weirdly accented guys (where one of them clearly has been stabbed holy shit) only to possibly be immediately told that they just got a bunch of evil gods in their world (oops)

2) Jon's eyes absolutely have color when Knowing things or using Eye powers in general.

3) The loops 100% count as a statement and Jon is purposely trying not to be alone with Siffrin so he doesn't munch on their trauma

4) Triple ace solidarity ruined by the knowledge their world is doomed to be plagued by fear gods U.U

5) Martin: "Jon did the fears turn this world black and white" Bonnie:"what's black and white?" Martin: "what" Bonnie: "what" Isabeau: "No but seriously what's black and white." Odile: "I think they're implying that colors exist in their world." Jon: "I see. Colors are apparently unnatural to this world." Martin: "Like that one Lovecraft story?" Jon: "what". Martin: "You know colors beyond our comprehension and what not?" Jon: "I- I suppose??" Bonnie: "Hey! Could this Lovecraft guy be from our world?" Mirabelle: "Wait no. These two just arrived here??? Unless time messed up too???" Jon: "Trust me you do not want to claim him."

6.a) Jon looks at least 10 years if not older than he actually is. He also probably can get along better with Odile anyway. Plus with different universes as backgrounds, the lack of general knowledge around his age wouldn't be obvious. Cue the moment where Jon is asked how old he is and the absolute AWKWARD silence when it's clear that both Jon and Martin are basically Siffrin's age, give or take a few years.

6.b) Bonnie: "Is 30 years old different in your universe? Are you about to die?" Jon: "From embarrassment, perhaps."

7) General discussion/argument/existential dread regarding the Fears and how they interact with this world. Honestly the gang may never forgive Martin and Jon for doing this to them. Even if they do everything they can to help them. They get more sympathy once they find out about the Eyepocalypse and the absolute hell Jon in particular went through. Doesn't mean they have to like it.

8) Siffrin finding out about Jon's knowing powers and asking him if he can Know the name of the island in the North. Jon tries. Then he starts screaming. His eyes are red. Siffrin doesn't ask again.

9.a) The horror and dread knowing that not only is their mission not done. It can't be ever again. And this time, especially if Jon and Martin's story is true... well, the King wasn't easy, but at least he was a person. You can't exactly fight a distorted universe. Their happily ever destroyed forever.

9.b) I could see a physical confrontation happening... if Jon didn't look so absolutely devastated. If he didn't say "do what you will with me, but please leave Martin alone" and Martin yelling at him for being a self-sacrifical idiot. It just sucks so much all around. But it would have been easier if Jon and Martin were bad people. But they're not. Just... broken people doing their best in a broken world. And to do their best to save their own world, the family has to work with them.

9.c) Jon and Siffrin are also idiots with martyr complexes that refuse to talk about their feelings solidarity. Shame that Jon can't help but want to eat Siffrin's trauma cause they probably have a lot to talk about.

10) Funnier note, the slow realization that Jon and Martin in an rpg world. Martin figures it out first and Jon is just. Flabbergasted. Especially when they find out the magic system is rock paper scissors.

11) "rock paper scissors transcends the multi-verse. Neat!" (Later Martin asks Jon if gun is secretly a fourth hand symbol. He does not know and will not Know. He refuses).

12) I think at one point they're gonna have to deal with the fact that statements don't exist in this world. Either Jon gets too close to taking Siffrin's statement or he's going to tell Martin the facts: there is very little way Jon can survive without being a predator. He is an avatar that needs something to fuel his existence. He doesn't want to hurt anyone else ever again. Unless Siffrin wants to write their statement down or someone else does... even then there's no guarantee it's going to be enough.

13) Perhaps wish-craft can save Jon. Maybe. Maybe not. But. The party tells them about wish-craft anyway. It's the one hope they have to fight against this new horror. Maybe it can help Jon too to get out. (Everyone deserves that chance).

I have no fic with this, my fixations are simply crossing over briefly. Hope you enjoyed the ramblings.

[autisticlancemcclain]

Hunk is awoken, quite rudely in his opinion, by the slam of a door, an all-too-loud “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUNK!” and the unmistakably painful feeling of his dumbass best friend’s bony ass running and jumping straight on his poor, unsuspecting body.

“I hate you,” Hunk says, once he’s recovered his breath and his body no longer feels like one giant bruise. (How someone who is essentially a bean stalk can cause so much damage is beyond him.) “Like, not joking.”

Lance squiggles around until he’s lying comfortably (still on Hunk’s person, the little shit), grinning sunnily with his hands tucked under his chin. “False. You love me. You think I am charming.”

“I think you’re a menace,” Hunk responds, but doesn’t argue the first part. As much as Lance is a giant pain in the ass, Hunk really does love him.

Ugh.

“I will, however, judo flip you onto the cold hard floor if you don’t get off me in three seconds.”

Hearing the genuine threat in Hunk’s voice (it is not the first or last time Hunk has picked Lance up like a sack of flour and thrown him on the nearest soft surface), Lance scrambles to comply, sitting at the edge of the bed and pouting.

“You’re being mean. You’re a meanie.”

Hunk smirks. “Can’t call me names on my birthday.”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Whatever, butthead. Hurry up and get dressed so you can meet everybody in the kitchen for Birthday Boy Breakfast. I kept Shiro and Keith out of the kitchen at gunpoint, so the food is actually edible.”

Hunk thinks back to the thick black smoke that had filled the castle halls the one and only time Shiro was allowed near the stove, and the still-there hole in the ceiling from Keith’s only attempt.

“Good call.”

“Yep. Only the best for you, Hunky.”

———

Hunk gets ready as slowly as he possibly can, just to be contrary. Also as revenge for Lance body-slamming him, but mostly just because he thinks it’s funny. He is pretty excited, though, so he doesn’t take too long.

He likes celebrating with his family. They may be a group of weirdos who do strange things like break into his workshop at the dead of night to reorganise everything like nocturnal cleaning fairies (thanks, Pidge), but still. It’s always fun.

He’s greeted by a chorus of birthday wishes the second he steps foot in the kitchen, tackled by Allura and Pidge in a hug that nearly knocks him clean off his feet.

“Thanks, guys,” he says, grinning.

Shiro smiles warmly at him, patting him on the back as he sits down and sliding a slice of cake in front of him.

“Lance made sure I had nothing to do with it,” he promises. He glares playfully at the man in question, who has no qualms about sticking his tongue out like an eight year old.

“Everybody say ‘thank you, Lance, for ensuring we don’t get poisoned’,” Lance teases.

“Rude!” Shiro exclaims, at the same time everyone thanks Lance as loudly as possible.

Hunk is shaking his head fondly as he takes a bite, so he’s distracted, and so the flavour of the cake is something of a surprise. He has to close his eyes in bliss as the sharp sweetness reminds him so achingly of home.

“How did you manage to make this taste like pineapple?”

“That was me,” Pidge says, pushing her glasses up her nose and smirking. “With the endless and terrifying power granted to me by the universe, I created for you of my own magical hands a small taste of home —”

“She has been trying through trial and error to genetically engineer a pineapple for six months,” Keith interjects drily. “I was the taste tester. I have tasted some horrors that are truly beyond your comprehension. Happy birthday.”

“Hey!” Pidge complains. She looks to Coran. “Coran, he stole my thunder!”

Coran smiles. “Yes, dear. I heard.”

She glares as Keith smirks at her. “Do something!”

“What would you like me to do?”

“Well, you either ground him or I fight him, so there’s two options. And my fists are already up.”

When Coran fails to do anything other than snort in amusement, Pidge stays true to her word, lunging for Keith, whose expression shifts rapidly from smug to terrified. He shrieks (Pidge is small and Pidge is vicious), sprinting to hide behind Allura, who immediately says “I do not love you enough to take that particular bullet for you,” and shoves him back in Pidge’s direction.

God, space birthdays are the fuckin’ best. Nowhere else in the universe does Hunk get to watch this much stupid drama take place unironically as he eats cake.

He in Lance watch in amusement as Pidge does her level best to murder Keith without actually killing him as Allura shouts encouragement. Coran cuts himself a large slice of cake, totally nonplussed by Keith’s yells of betrayal.

It takes Shiro longer than usual to separate them. Keith must have pissed him off, recently.

“Best birthday ever,” Hunk says pleasantly, once everyone has finally made their way to the table.

He means it.

[anns-works]

League Of Jay Tings (bc that right there? wasted potential)

The customizable character was a cool-ass feature and one of the best ideas Unagami had for the game. Even before Jay got sucked in, there were players running around with the ninjas as their skin.

(Scott got bored at one point and spent his time antagonizing the Red Visors in a Gold Ninja skin that was ridiculously expensive. Hw also lost a life. Totally worth it.)

On that note, I would like to point out that Jay and Scott's skins appear to be similar, so I'm guessing its one of the defaults that they ended up customizing (I imagine its like putting on a mustache or hat on minecraft Steve and calling it a day.

So, Jay's early days mainly included trailing around Scott cuz he was the only interaction he had with another person that wasn't just an NPC.

They finally encounter another another player but this one has a (surprise!) Blue Ninja skin. wat resulted was a ten minute long standoff between Jay and the other player which involved a lot of pointing and unintelligible noises.

The player bolted. Jay followed them screaming the entire time. Scott also followed cuz this was the most entertainment he's had in a long time. It's a miracle they haven't been discovered by any of the Visors yet.

The played leads them to a hideaway that had a LOT of people, all equipped with Blue Ninja skin.

Scott's previous amusement quickly turns into horror as he quietly goes what the fuck over and over again. Jay gets an idea like you know what, lets use this.

and basically thats how the League of Jay born in Scott's garage through Jay's ''diabolical" plan (he's making a safe hangout space for these kids and also letting them cause chaos)

(For convenience sake, lets just refer to og Jay as SRJ (after his gamer tag) ft. some of the other Jays from the league! w/ their nicknames. DeeJay777 is Dee. Jay22Walkin is Walker. BlueJay6669 is Blue. JayBird9000 is Birdy.)

Most of the things these gremlins do is mainly going around to vandalize stuff. Scott is apparently the "Master of Color" or whatever that may entail. It just basically means he can go around graffitiing "UNAGAM I UR MOMAS A HOE" or other stuff like that.

And back to the whole customizable skin bit, it was an instant hit cuz of the opportunities it presented. You could be a guy. You could be a girl. You could be as sexy as a kpop idol (is that in thing in ninjago?). You could be an eldritch creature beyond mortal comprehension if you're willing to spend up a few units.

Dee enjoys not having tits for a while. Birdy also loves the whole transmasc feeling. SRJ just updated his skin to be Like That™ to give everyone gender envy.

Unagami once released a feature in the game that would let you access different levels and mini-games based on your selected binary gender (back when that was still a thing). The League hated it and let him know dearly. So Unagami changed it into something else and threw in a couple units in the mix (a goddamn dance competition). This was an instant hit. They planed their next updates based on the League's reactions.

Unagami: I didn't realize it was you at first. But some of your actions proved to be quite educational.

SRJ, flashback to that one time he wrote "UNAGAMI I FUCKD U MAMA HERE" on a wall cuz he was feeling pissy: Sure man, don't mention it.

Also on that note, SRJ DEFINITELY founded the ninjago LGBTQA+ community. I meant ninjago in itself is a pretty non-heteronormative society and you can kiss whoever you want with no issue. But everyjay was trapped in the lair w/o Scott out nothing to do and he's bored out of his goddamn mind and just suddenly suggests coming up w/ names for different sexual orientations cuz why not? taxonomy is fucked but they're bored.

Walker has an anthropology degree and Birdy is studying gender so might as well begin.

After getting out they get awarded by the NU for their fantastic discovery.

SRJ gave up the mansion he inherited from Cliff Gordon to Scott and it sort of turned into a hangout spot for the League.

One League member said on Chirp (jokingly) that the League of Jay should have their own social media platform cuz they're too weird and are apparently freaking out people on Chirp. They get a reply from Blue who tells them she'll look into it, and two months later there's a new social media in town.

Lentils and beans of all sizes, I give to you TRip, ninjago tumblr. The buckwild experience ever. A huge hit among the serpentine immedietly.

Those iconic posts but ninjago style. Red floor at Darkley's. the three weed smoking ninjas. Don't you love the color of the gi. I like your shoelaces, thanks I stole them from samurai x. Garage ballpit.

[roleplaystop]

Hello! I am Castor (She/her, 21+) and I am looking for people for my new discord server, for a fantasy roleplay that I would love to do! The server is 18+, so minors, please do not interact as I don't feel comfortable roleplaying with anyone under 18. This is a fandomless roleplay, so only OCs are allowed.

🌿 What I am looking for:

People that are enthusiastic about character creation.

People's that are engaging and are able to help carry the plot (Please don't let you character be a bystander)

Easy going roleplayers. I do not want drama in OOC chat, leave that for the actual roleplay.

Semi-Lit to Literate writers

NOTE: I am EST, so I would also prefer people in the same time zone or usut a few hours ahead of me or behind me so that we can all be active at the same time. Keep in mind that I work (as I assume we all do) so communication is key. Let me know if you can take part in a session. I don't need a reason, just let me know if you don't be on. This rp will most likely take place on the weekends, but we can discuss this further in OOC.

🌿 Setting:

I have based this rp between a dimension I have created for my novels (Isla) and a town that I have created named Lonest, located in the state of Washington. The main setting is in the Undergrove, a program for young supernatural beings that need more help to control their abilities. The Undergrove is located under the prestigious school known as Arcane University in Lonest.

🌿 Plot:

Your character has been invited to walk the halls of the prestigious Undergrove Program, located under Arcane University in the gloomy and rainy town of Lonest, Washington.

Here, they will learn how to control their abilities and by the end, they shall be sent out into the world the knowledge of how to better control and use the abilities that have been given to them.

Undergrove was founded by a mysterious family, keeping themselves under wraps and away from the eyes of those that they see as Outsiders—a few of them having walked the halls of Undergrove themselves.

The school was created to protect the mortals world from the thinning veils that separate the mortal realm and the realm of the dead—the realm of chaos. And while the school has an amazing reputation, one can not help but take notice of the disappearance of three of them top students—the De La Cruz sisters and a boy that came from the founder's family.

The staff, while helpful and well meaning may be hiding something darker than any of the students could imagine. Why do they act weird when questioned about the disappearances? Why are they afraid of the founders? And what happened to the missing students?

It is the job of our characters to uncover the deep dark secrets of this place, and maybe even someone in their own ranks.

Will you join?

🌿Acceptance letter:

To whom it may concern,

It is with great pleasure that we inform you of your acceptance into the esteemed program of Undergrove. You have been selected amongst an elite few who possess the necessary skills, knowledge, and strength to protect the mortal world from the dark and deadly forces beyond understanding.

The very name of Undergrove speaks to the nature of our work. Our organization is shrouded in mystery and darkness, and our purpose is to maintain the balance between the light and the shadows. You have shown a keen interest in the realm of death, night, and the unknown, and we believe that you will thrive in our environment.

Undergrove is a place of ancient knowledge and secrets, where the art of combat and the mastery of the arcane are practiced with equal fervor. You will be among peers who share your passions and interests, and you will be challenged to push yourself beyond your limits.

Our work is not for the faint of heart. You will be tasked with defending the mortal world from the very things that go bump in the night. Demonic forces, undead armies, and eldritch horrors beyond comprehension all threaten to tear apart the fabric of reality. But fear not, for you will be trained by the very best, and armed with the most powerful weapons and spells at your disposal.

You will be living in a world of darkness, but it will be a world of excitement, adventure, and thrill. You will be part of a long-standing tradition of guardians of the night, and you will be responsible for upholding our sacred oath to protect humanity from the terrors that lurk beyond the veil.

Your journey into the unknown begins now. Pack your bags, say your goodbyes, and prepare for a life of darkness, death, and night. Welcome to Undergrove, and welcome to the fight.

Yours in the shadows,

The Council of Undergrove

🌿Rules:

Please be 18+

One character limit (though your character can have a pet)

No controlling the characters of another

NSFW topics and darker topics are allowed but please respect the triggers of others.

This is a safe place for LGBTQ+ roleplayers and characters. I will not tolerate homophobia. You'll be booted faster than you can blink.

No Op characters. I don't care about the abilities that your characters have but they can not have all the knowledge of everyone and everything.

No god Ocs. I usually don't place a restriction on what race your character is, but I already have my own, original gifs that rule over Isla, and that watch over Lonest.

No drama. Keep it in the rp.

Please do not treat this server as a dating server or site...we are here to rp, not be badgered to date the person behind the character.

Have fun!

I only rp on Discord. My contact is Castor#0039. Message me and I will send the link to the server.

Discord - Castor#0039

[abbcube]

seeing the words Not In The Groove in your comment made me gasp irl i love that game its such a damn banger

have this gif its funny i think

Always happy to see another NotITG fan! It's truly criminal how few people know about this game. And I've been meaning to learn the chart in that gif for a while. Maybe soon 🤔

Also, this means I now have an excuse to yell about this game to the sorry fools who made the mistake of following me. So...

(Moderate photosensitivity warning btw, this stuff can get spicy for the eyes)

HYPERFIXATION BE UPON YE

I now get the chance to talk about a game I feel exceedingly n̸͓̒̍o̶̹̿͠r̷͚͇͗m̴͈͒̐a̸̝͉̒ĺ̶̹̹̆about.

What's NotITG??

Not In The Groove, or NotITG/nITG for short, is a rhythm game with some of the craziest & most creative visuals you'll ever see. It's an extravaganza of colors, music, and lots and lots of arrows. Words don't do it justice though, so here's an example:

(HiTECH NINJA - Technician's High)

(Chart by Exschwasion + Tetaes)

Whoa, what the fuck was that? Is that even readable?

Yes it is, I promise! It just takes some practice. These are made to be not only doable, but completely feasible to read & learn. They wouldn't be fun otherwise. It's also not nearly as bad as it looks at first glance, especially if you know what sort of stuff you should be looking out for.

In fact, here are some things that can make it a little easier to parse:

The colors of the arrows are indicative of the timing (reds are on quarter notes, blues are eighth notes, greens are sixteenth notes, etc). This means it's possible to identify the rhythm of a song even if you've never heard it before.

If visual effects are getting particularly crazy, it can be helpful to read ahead and quickly memorize a "chunk" of notes to play while your vision is impaired, picking back up when the screen is clearer.

Charts (the arrows for a given song) are made to be played on a dance pad, with your feet. Furthermore, any half-decent chart commits to having good flow (or posture) meaning that the patterns you see are made to be "stepped" through with alternating* feet. This vastly limits the number of possible patterns that can be thrown at you. So if you happen to lose your place while reading the chart, it's very feasible to infer what the next few steps will be, giving you a chance to recover.

(*depending on the song, a chart may have you hit the same step multiple times with the same foot. There are other exceptions too but that could warrant its own section entirely)

If you want a way better explanation of this stuff, some prominent devs in the community did a great job covering all of it during the game's exhibition during AGDQ2022!

This looks completely and utterly insane, there's no way I'd ever be able to play this!

That's where you're wrong, bucko! They aren't all made to be difficult! There are plenty of easier charts out there to learn the basics on & get your bearings. Some of my favorites include:

(Chroma - Phantom Train Journey)

(Chart by Kaypooma)

(Sakuzyo - Altale)

(Chart by PlasticRainbow + mrcool909090)

How do these even get made?

Good old programming! Also math. Lots and lots of math. You wanna make the arrow follow a funny path? Time to learn what a spline is. Want to make a circle? Hope you were paying attention in trig class, because it's time to break out the radians.

In all seriousness, I have nothing but the highest respect for the people that make charts for NotITG. Every single one of them is a culmination of music, art, programming, math, animation, visual design, game design, psychology, kinesiology and so, so much more. It's genuinely dizzying how multitalented these people are.

I'm interested in these man-made horrors beyond my comprehension! Where can I play this game?

You can download it from the game's website: noti.tg. It's free! Completely! There is no way to spend money on it. You'll just have to live with the fact that you can't give these talented creators your money.

I'd also recommend joining the game's discord (noti.tg/discord). They're incredibly helpful & friendly, just don't be a jerk :p. It should have some good information & resources for when you're starting out.

I feel like I've barely even scratched the surface of what makes this game special. I could probably make a whole other post rambling about the lore of UKSRT and the effect that's had on me, but this post is long enough as is.

If there's even one person who read this far, thank you for listening to the ramblings of a madman obsessed with a funny little arrow game! ❤️

[cardassianrock]

idk I just think it's soooo character of Q to be like you guys aren't ready for the borg. this is a threat beyond your comprehension and you have no idea what you're dealing with. but fear not! I, Q, am ready and willing to serve, and if necessary I will even renounce my powers.

only for the very next time we see him his powers are taken away, and he has to deal with the fact of being a human, the fact of humanity – this thing he looked down upon so much until then from the high horse of his omnipotency, only to be guilted by his own newly-found sense of regret (something until then clearly beyond his comprehension) into admitting that he can't get used to following orders.

wow, it's almost like– the horrors beyond humanity's comprehension, the ones responsible for both the fear and the need for courage that Q sneered at so much– are actually only as foreign to humans as the horrors of humanity as a condition are foreign to a Q.

it's almost like synchronizing earthquakes through entire planetary systems doesn't relieve you of wanting to feel needed. almost like seeing your hands send a star into supernova doesn't soothe shame. almost like being cast aside by a council of gods doesn't hurt, no matter how powerful they are, as much as being cast aside by the ones you were fond of, no matter how small in capacity they may seem in comparison.

remember that Q chose being a human – he could have been any lifeform he wished! but he chose human. because he thought he was ready for it. he thought it would be easy. and he thought that because he was every bit as clueless about empathy and respect and identity and honor as the enterprise crew was about the borg.

and that's not even getting into the fact that "I will renounce my powers" is very different from "my powers were taken away". there is agency involved here, there is autonomy, there is choice, and what the hell does any of that mean for a guy who could just have as many chocolate sundaes as he wished if he ever needed a sweet treat?

until he couldn't. until he had a limited stomach, a very limited patience (as always), and no more powers to satisfy either of them instantly? what does it mean to take choice away from someone who can't even imagine the possibility of being choiceless? is this lack of imagination not a hole in his omnipotency? post déjà q, how is he ever going to deal with that again? with the fact that, as it turns out, he is just like them, because he reacted just like them (if not worse!) when thrown in a similar situation? after billions and billions of years of unchallenged rule? how is he ever gonna deal with that?

[buttercuparry]

The fandom about Arya Circa 2015-2017: here is a bunch of essays why I think Arya is too far gone and her ultimate fate is to die and warg in Nymeria to live on as Sansa's pet. Oh and everything from her storyline is actually about her sister. Oh and Arya is a Misogynist.

Arya Stans: Arya has a rich, complex, storyline. Grrm wouldn't have given her this much attention if she wasn't important. And she is as important as Tyrion or Jon or Dany. She is very respectful of women and no, her arc is her arc- not anyone else's. And she isn't going to die. It's a play of words on Grrm's part.

The fandom about Arya Circa 2017-2019: my uwu murder baby! Off to kill xyz character! So cool if she becomes her sister's guardog!! We Stan the sister duo where one is the epitome of grace/intelligebce while the other goes chop chop ^_^ btw she is still too violent and maybe the waif really did steal Arya's face. Also magic isn't important so who cares about Nymeria or Arya's connection with the Old God's.

Arya Stans: my brother in [insert god], d&d has completely butchered Arya. She literally has nightmares about people she had to kill in self defense or when she enacted justice. Her identity goes beyond Sansa and it is so rich that she will have leadership roles. And they have taken away so much from her. Do read the books. And magic is so important to asoiaf and Arya's connection to it makes her an important player in the war of dawn.

The fandom who now apparently has read the books circa 2019-2021: yeah Arya Stans are definitely trying to mold Arya into something she is not. She has always wanted to chop chop people. Poke poke people. Kill, kill people. Not sit in an armchair wearing gucci and eating cakes! With babies crawling all over her. To say she doesn't want to chop chop people or that she is not going to go on a suicide mission into exploring uncharted waters is actually so limiting 😔also eww what was she doing butchering status quo.Well Mycah's death is on her.

Arya stans barely holding onto their sanity: No one is saying Arya should sit in an armchair, wear gucci and eat cakes! With babies crawling all over her at that! But she definitely doesn't want to kill people. She has ambitions to be a politician, to build something, to be a scholar. She has a rich political arc where her name is being used to take back north. She also has a personal experience on the horrors of war! And no way her trying to be open minded and saying fuck it to class structure is the cause of someone's death. So her being a lady, someone from the ruling class who would try to interject her experience while making any political decisions would be a step towards making westeros a progressive society. She also has a romantic arc, where more often than not her desire for a family has been highlighted. Arya marrying and living a fruitful life, without facing the danger of death is not somehow making her conform.

*Circa 2022 Arya stans arranging a comprehensive month long discussion about why she is so important*: hey guys I hope this may address all that we have to say about Arya and help shed light on the misconceptions.

The fandom who apparently has always been cheering on for Arya circa 2022: uh-huh yeah well we are not gonna waste time reading any of that but umm...aren't the fcs too pretty? I mean we Stan our violent, stupid as an oaf, who we think has barely any importance and is there to serve her sister, and who probably doesn't deserve to live murder baby. So these fcs seem to be taking away so much from her storyline. Arya is allowed to be ugly, don't make her something she is not :(

Arya stans:

[upsidedownwithsteve]

After unhealthily consuming all of your work in a mere handful of days, I've come to the conclusion that the sweetness and softness of your stories are tied to a simpler life, from simpler times. Sure, they're fighting monsters from another dimension. facilitating righteous mindfights, and experiencing horrors beyond our comprehension. But ultimately, these characters are teenagers in a small town in the 80's, completely unmoored by the weight and burden of adult life. They can sneak out late at night to comfort each other (and then some) without worrying too much about how it'll affect their jobs. They may fret over saving the world, but they don't have to be constantly bombarded with terrible, ugly news from every corner of said planet. They are young enough not to be entirely jaded (or seasoned) by the endless conquests and failures of being in love, over and over again. And those same monsters that give them so much grief also give them a damn good reason to keep fighting. There are many soft Steves (and Robins, and Eddies, etc) out there in the world, but perhaps nowadays that softness is barricaded behind meticulously constructed walls. The world today is beautiful in its own new ways, but it also hardens us, makes it more difficult to have such connections, especially as we get older. Your stories are a lovely reminder that such fantasies and expectations don't have to be surrendered to fiction, though. Despite what they've been through, you write your characters to be kind, caring, and ultimately willing to be vulnerable, even in the face of many defeats. Your writing reminded me that in order to find the softness in others, sometimes one must be willing to share their own, hard as it may be.

So I thank you for that. You're not obligated to respond to this, publicly or otherwise. I just wanted to share my gratitude and tip my hat to you.

I am clutching my chest and trying not to cry. I am speechless. Oh my god? This is incredible?

I honestly don’t even know what to say. Thank you so much. So, so much. Not only for reading but for taking the time and effort to write such an heart achingly lovely comment. I can’t quite believe this is about my silly little fics.

Thank you again and again lovely, this truly means so much. I need to go frame this. Or cross stitch it onto a pillow or something, my god 🧡🧡🧡

[platonic-f-o-things]

So…I’ve been meaning to send something about that wonderful imaginary friend of mine, my platonic f/o, for a while, but I’ve been a bit embarrassed to do so. I think I can finally do it, and just gush about him for a little while.

So…G is not human. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell from a distance, since he looks more or less human, if a little uncanny (/pos), but he is actually a powerful alien entity from an unknown higher dimension! This is actually one of the reasons I’ve been so nervous about talking about my platonic selfship with him, because I was worried that people would find me “cringe” for imagining that an interdimensional reality bender far above anything humans can comprehend would ever care about me enough to consider me his friend, but the very idea of his existence is so oddly comforting to me.

“It is true that there are horrors beyond our comprehension in our worlds, but there are wonders beyond our comprehension out there also. I know, because my best friend is one of them.”

-my self-insert.

So, in the source material, G is extremely enigmatic, with his glowing eyes and odd manner of speaking and his unknown motives and strange power over time and space. But I’ve always noticed signs that he is not indifferent to humanity, wanting to understand us better, to guide us in the right direction, possibly even growing fond of us as a species and the games’ protagonists whom he works through to achieve his goals. Now, I gotta admit I am quite the existentialist, and as the dark corners of my mind were once filled with the fear of the unknown and the unknowable, G terrified me at first. But throughout my playthroughs of the games, the image of him watching over me from the distance slowly became something reassuring, almost like a guardian angel. My version of G became a reflection of my view of the unknown itself: perhaps a little frightening from a distance, but gentle and fascinating once you get to know him. He is the cosmos that cares, the infinite being that smiles down at us, the Comforting Otherworldliness, and I now know him personally and love him as surely as if he were family.

As I realized how happy he made me, I slowly imagined myself getting to know G better, and I view him as my otherworldly companion, my Star Man (waiting in the sky/ly), my best friend from Somewhere Else. I’ve been writing a fanfic about exploring the void and different dimensions with him, and I was even confident enough to upload that fic to AO3. But he isn’t the only one who showed me his world, as I happily taught him everything I know about Earth and humanity, as he is still rather unfamiliar with it, and he finds it as beautiful and fascinating as I find everything he has shown me.

I’m honestly just glad to have him by my side, always ready to hold my hand from beyond the veil of our reality.

~stars-n-freckles45

🌌

That’s so incredibly beautiful! Thank you for sharing! 🥹💕

I want to say that first of all, selfshipping is never cringe! It’s an expression of truth! It’s an expression of real relationships you have with characters!

Humanity isn’t insignificant. It’s vast, wonderful, and beautifully-diverse! G learned this through observing earth, I’m sure, but he also learns it through his friendship with you!

He’s beyond honored to protect you each and every day, and to show you that while the vastness of the unknown may seem daunting, it isn’t so different from Earth!

Everyone everywhere has a heart, and he’ll protect you with all of his heart! From every earthy terror to every possible existentialist doubt that might sneak into your mind. 🥺

My personal philosophy is that existentialism is a fear of the unknown, and that the ultimate fate of our universe is much more forgiving than people predict.

I hope that gives you a little solace! And I hope that G gently reminds you that peace will always be with us, every day, in big and in small ways!

[dzthenerd490]

File: Russian Sleep Experiment

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Warning! The following is to only be seen by administrators and O5 council members. If you are not of Level 5 Clearance, you will be exterminated by order of the O5 council!

SCANNING

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CHECKING RANK DATA OF VIEWER

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RANK OF VIEWER CONFIRMED

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...

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NO SIGNS OF TAMPERING DETECTED

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VIEWING OF SCP-ACW APPROVED

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SCP#: ACW

Code Name: Proof there is a beyond

Object Class: Neutralized

Special Containment Procedures: This document has been printed with an Anti-memetic agent ensuring that once the reader is done viewing the transcript, they will forget everything they read until viewing the file again. Please remember this is for the good of the Foundation, what is good for the Foundation is good for humanity. Humanity is a child, and we are unknown protectors, keeping the monsters within the shadows. We work in the dark so they may live in the light. 

"Description: SCP-ACW was an experimental gas created by Group of Interest: GRU Division "P" in 1974 the same year it was discovered. SCP-ACW was created in hopes of making a drug that allowed soldiers to stay awake and keep fighting for about 40 days without deterioration of health. To test this drug, they had it tested on war prisoners at the time. Though initially it worked and allowed them to stay awake unfortunately the started feeling the common side effects of sleep deprivation on the fifth day immediately. 

After trying to cancel the program it resulted in the subjects immediately suffering withdraws. Such effects included ripping off skin, muscles, and organs; the desire to bite one's own body, and possible possession by unknown entities. These unknown entities seem to be able to keep the body alive even as the host is tearing its own body apart. They seem to be quite similar to Entities of Interest: The Ancients, who love to bring humanity to the brink of insanity, chaos, and death. The Foundation is most familiar with these entities is through SCP-ABA.

These particular entities claim to exist beyond the veil of the dream world and are constantly trying to enter our world but can't be due to humanities ability to sleep. Because SCP-ACW allowed the soldiers to stay awake it also allowed these entities to enter our reality and possess the soldiers making them mutilate and eat themselves while staying alive despite their bodies being damaged beyond repair. 

This is the unintentional side effect of SCP-ACW and it's because of the experiment that knowledge of The Ancients started spreading like wildfire. Unfortunately, the resulting chaos form spreading such information allowed other entities beyond our realm of reality to enter our world and invoke chaos via various means. We also believe it's one of the reasons the Scarlet King is so hellbent on entering our reality in particular.

It's also that reason that we have to hide every single bit of evidence that it ever happened to begin with. Why? Because its existence alone is fucking dangerous! The Russians at Division P were able to make the damn drug much easier than we make fucking amnestics! A drug that's this easy to make and allows entities beyond our comprehension into our world, its existence alone is a nightmare! So, we destroyed everything there is to know about it, everything else was summarized to the point that it was untraceable. Naturally that should be enough, but we can't take the risk, so I asked them to put an anti-memetic kill agent in this file as well. Sorry by the way, I don't even trust my fellow council members with this information. The idea alone that it's extremely easy to reach into the beyond with just a lack of sleep is terrifying so better to just contain the idea in general. The best way to contain an idea, is the same way to contain a virus. To prevent it from spreading in the first place." -O5-7

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SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

[thejase]

My Thoughts on 2023

Firstly are you ok?

I did consider whether or not to write my annual round up this year, given the horrendous things happening in the world right now, but it’s always been a kind of yearly catharsis for me so I’ll forge ahead as per usual, avoiding the topics of war and genocide because there’s no humour or satire to be found in the horrors currently taking place which are entirely beyond my comprehension.

2023 kicked of with a visit from Thor – not the god of thunder but a wandering Arctic walrus who decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Scarborough. However instead of going on a massive bender Thor just hung out on the beach after realising the local Wetherspoons no longer served Skol. The council cancelled its planned firework display so as not to disturb Thor which seemed entirely reasonable since his visit was the most exciting thing to happen in Scarborough since Cannon and Ball did a Summer season there in 1983. No doubt the usual suspects decried this as ‘health and safety gone mad’ and accused Thor of being a ‘woke walrus’ before sending him packing off to Iceland.

February saw the tragic death of Nicola Bulley and the discovery of her body resulted in the arrival of a small army of one of the most peculiar and disturbing phenomenons of the 21st century – the web sleuths. No crime scene is complete now without a seething mass of vlogging Columbos all trying to achieve influencer status by hampering investigations, tramping all over evidence and generally ignoring the feelings of the victim’s relatives and friends. 

In May we were treated to the biggest cosplay event since Comic Con with the coronation of old sausage fingers Charlie. Stealing the show for middle aged men was voluptuous sword mistress Penny Mordaunt. Regally attired in a Poundland themed dress, Penny demonstrated that her magician’s assistant training made her capable of simultaneously holding a sword and walking. Up and down the land blood pressures were going through the roof and you could hear the loud collective ‘phwoar’ emanating from the suburbs. 

Tragedy struck again in June with the disappearance of the Titan submersible as it was en route to the Titanic (possibly not the best omen). A group of very rich people paid $250,000 each travel in a vessel which according to the waiver they signed “has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death.” The incident did confirm for me something I’d long suspected – that being a billionaire is rubbish. I mean, I’m sure it beats living in poverty, but constantly having to fill the monotonous void of your existence with increasingly ridiculous and dangerous pastimes seems like a lifestyle choice I’d rather forgo. Also you have to spend your time hanging out with other billionaires which seems about as much fun as boiling your own head.

Speaking of billionaires, July saw memelord Elon Musk instigate the worst rebrand since Marathon became Snickers, with the renaming of Twitter as ‘X’. Gone was the genial birdy icon and in came an aggressive looking X which pretty much sums up the platform’s decline. X just doesn’t really work as a verb the way ‘tweet’ did. “That’s funny, I’m gonna X that!” Nope. Not feeling it. Maybe it’s because Elon Musk believes that we don’t really eXist and are in fact al living in a version of the MatriX. But it’s probably because he’s a knob.

The cultural highlight of 2023 was the cinematic Ying Yang known as Barbenheimer. What started as a joke became a PR start so cunning that no one who works in PR could ever have thought of it. Apparently the way to do it was to see Oppenheimer first then watch Barbie (preferably dressed in pink) as a kind of palette cleanser. Maybe this will pave the way for future contrasting film mashups – ‘Saw Patrol’, ‘Mission Impaddington’,  ‘Killers of the Flower Dune’ anyone?

The Tories gathered in Manchester for the annual round of infighting and back stabbing collectively known as the Conservative Party Conference. Bizarrely the hot ticket seemed to be Liz Truss who managed to pack the room for her speech whilst the main hall was littered with just a few old duffers looking for somewhere to kip. Whether they had turned up to hear her speech or just to see if she could find the door this time is anyone guess. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak decided that his visit to the north (or Plebland as he calls it) would be the perfect opportunity to announce the cancelling of the HS2 train line to, you guessed it, the north. So pumped was he with cancelling fever that he went on to cancel a load of stuff which didn’t even exist. Sunak seems to have decided that his political fate lies in the hands of ‘Meldrew Man’ – someone too old to worry about climate catastrophe but is incandescent with rage about pot holes. However nothing could top sexy sword queen Penny Mordaunt. She went full Henry V with a speech encouraging the nation to “Stand up and fight – because when you stand up and fight, the person besides you stands up and fights…” Fortunately most people in the auditorium were too old to stand up so it didn’t all kick off but it did leave everyone a little perplexed as to what exactly they were supposed to be fighting against.

2023 saw a run of celebrity scandals. In May we had Phillip Schofield who had apparently not been honest about something or other he’d done in the past that I thought everyone knew about anyway. It was a bit confusing but it was probably just payback for the cardinal sin of jumping a queue the year before. The most bizarre bit was Holly Willoughby taking on the role as a kind of light entertainment grief counsellor for the nation. It was never like this with Frank Bough. 

In July heat was taken off Phil with The Sun running a story about a “high-profile BBC presenter” paying a 17 year old for “sordid images”. Obviously the ‘newspaper’ wanted to create a bit of mystique around the identity of the presenter to increase sales, prompting an intense period of Shaggymania with just about every eligible BBC presenter declaring “it wasn’t me”. 

Then in a turn of events even less surprising than having Dave Grohl turn up at a gig and perform a guest spot, along came the ‘shaggers shagger’ Russell Brand. In recent years Russy Wussy has rebranded himself as a kind of cosmic guru and – yawn – champion of free speech. Obviously sensing his #MeToo moment was on the horizon he’d been assembling an army of useful idiots eager to believe whatever conspiracy theory he spouted who would rush to his defence with claims of ‘witch hunts’ and plots against him by the ‘mainstream media’. Let’s hope he gets some time to contemplate his actions in ‘jailey wailey’.

November saw political and technology leaders from around the world gather Bletchley Park for the AI Safety Summit. Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak also turned up and set out to prove their tech bro credentials by demonstrating that they had both seen The Terminator. Personally I welcome our AI overlords. Recent history has shown that democracy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and maybe humans are not quite evolved enough to but put in charge of anything more dangerous than a bouncy castle. I’m all for future government policies being written by ChatGPT, or even a roomful of monkeys with typewriters.

A round up of 2023 couldn’t go by without a mention of Suella ‘Priti, hold my beer’ Braverman. This was the year she went rogue and became the nation’s twisted firestarter in the hope of becoming PM before the next election. Suella was fired for suggesting that people choose homelessness in order to get a feature spread in Hello magazine and was replaced by James ‘spike my beer’ Cleverly – surely the most ironically named man in politics. Jame’s replacement as Foreign Secretary was none other than David ‘put my beer in an offshore trust’ Cameron, the man who had ostensibly screwed everything up in the first place then whistled a jolly tune as he trotted off to his million pound ham cave. Bravo.

Finally, I discovered a new word this year:

weltschmerz

(n.) lit. “world-pain”; the depression you feel when the world as it is doesn’t reflect what you think it should be.

I guess it sums up how I’ve felt since I began writing these. However, this year I’m gonna take hot Penny’s advice and stand up and fight – well maybe after I’ve had a cuppa.

Happy New Year. X 

[asherisawkward]

This is a brief story scene that’s been stuck in my head, and I need to get out. It’s unrelated to my usual TOH content, so feel free to ignore it. If you’re okay with random writing scenes with no context, interested in the Wheel of Time books/series, and have no issue with OCs, then this might be your jam.

He sat in the grass, dried reeds prickling at his legs through his canvas pants. The breeze that grazed his face and tousled his hair was cold, but he had no desire to feel warmth right now. His face feels particularly frigid where tear tracks still line his face.

“It was necessary, you know.”

Moiraine’s voice was quiet as she approached him, and he hadn’t even noticed it happening. He manages to prevent himself from flinching only with great effort. All his senses have felt frayed since…

“I know.”

His voice is weak and hollow, like the sound of wind whispering through reeds. It isn’t him. He doesn’t recognize it.

Moiraine sits down besides him, and he cannot bring himself to look at her. She did what she had to. She followed the code of the Aes Sedai. But he may as well have been thrown out into the wilderness with his senses halved and his skin ripped off for how vulnerable he feels.

“The madness was already taking you. You would only have fallen worse.”

She explains. He’s already heard the stories. He knew. Vaguely, he wonders if she feels guilty.

A part of him hopes she does.

“‘Every man who ever touched the One Power goes so mad he kills everyone he ever loved.’”

He parrots her words, the words that have been truth since the last Dragon broke the world.

“We should have known what would happen once you realized. I’m sorry.”

She means it; he can tell. Moiraine has had her own experiences with inability to touch the One Power. She knows the distress it causes. That should have meant she wouldn’t do it. Not when she knows the gaping hole in his chest will never be filled.

His body moves without his permission, turning to look at her. Even now, she’s elegant and otherworldly; dressed in a midnight blue. His skin feels numb to the wind and the chill of winter around him. (Is it even still his body anymore?)

“I wish you’d never taught me to channel.”

He whispers it hoarsely, voice breaking.

“I wish I’d never touched the Power in the first place.”

Her expression changes to one he hasn’t seen before. Surprise, maybe? He can recognize the horror from the things that have come in the recent times. They’ve all borne witness to monstrosities that should have stayed buried. This is the first time that something has ever seemed beyond her comprehension.

“How can you say that?”

It’s no accusation, but his eyes narrow all the same. Moiraine sends a look to him that says, ‘wait, let me finish;’ so he does.

“I was at my best when in contact with the One Power. It was only then that I could be whole. Every moment, the world sang with the connection and everything…”

She trails off, but he understands what she means. Only a Channeler, and maybe their Warder could know.

“Even with the pain of being separated, I wasn’t living before I made contact. How could you—”

He decides to interrupt.

“Life before may have been hollow, a pale shadow in comparison to what it could be, but at least I didn’t know any better.”

He explains it feebly.

“I didn’t know what I was missing. I didn’t know what I would lose.”

Moiraine kindly ignores the way he turns away to swipe at the tears streaming down his face. It doesn’t help, and he just feels colder. Everything is cold now. She contimplates what he says for another moment before replying.

“It’s the worst pain one can experience, being separated from the One Power. It’s…There are no words. But don’t the moments when you connected make it all worth it?”

He ponders her words, staring at the sea crashing against the cliff-side. It used to…. He can find words. When he channeled, he could hear the sky sing and the way the world bent and mixed together. The world was deeper and more alive than anything he had ever experienced. He can remember the thrill, the way every hair stood up and he screamed ecstatically when he first called lightening down from the heavens. His blood gums in his veins when he recalls sending fire burning through his enemies and the way it’s life echoed his own.

Before was like holding his breath in between each inhale. Now, his lungs have been ripped out, and he’s left choking on what remains. There’s a reason so many of the Gentled do what they do. It could never be the same. He will forever be a ghost occupying an empty shell of a body. His world is going dark.

He wishes Moiraine was surprised when he tells her so.

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, episode 137

I was, as is nearly always true, correct last week in that we have not covered much more time and therefore this is still really just an Essek Breakdown Tracker (with honorary Yussa). I'm hoping that next week they will destroy Cree and buy themselves enough time to at least heroes feast and rest up, if not get a proper night's sleep in what is apparently the intestines of the Somnovem ward, and I can speculate again on some of the other wizards.

As a reminder, Caleb Widogast is a PC, not an NPC, and therefore ineligible for this.

Currently sidelined: Allura, Pumat, Trint, Astrid, Eadwulf, Ludinus, Oremid, Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk, and Lady Vess DeRogna who's presumably looking at this from the afterlife and just thinking "are you fucking kidding me? this could have been me, being screamed at by horrors beyond comprehension, if the person whose soul I smashed like a cheap beer bottle had the common decency to remain as such."

Essek Thelyss: Essek has been keeping a low profile because of the restrictions of actual play, namely Matt is too busy making nightmare noises with his own mouth, but I in-game, I think that he's just intentionally pretending the last couple of hours did not happen because there are more pressing issues now. As a result he is coming off as slightly bored, which I'm into.

Here's what we do know: Essek is somewhat injured, has a great dex score, has a GREAT intelligence score, might be using cantrips to flirt but is definitely using them to stop people from screaming, cast some extremely sexy lightning, and should be paired up with Veth more frequently because that was really funny. He is probably going to have to counterspell a cat really soon. You know. Normal things.

You know how if you've been having a bad mental health time, and you finally are able to drag yourself out to something, but it's like, a friend of a friend's experimental modern dance, or a movie you didn't particularly care to see, and you're like "I'm doing it! I'm out of the house, like a normal person! This is good!" but also the thing you are doing is not particularly enjoyable. But you're just like "you know what? I peeled myself off the couch for this and put on a clean shirt, and I guess it is happening to me, or at me, or around me, and I suppose that is some small victory, and I hope this will be relatable to people on the internet as an experience one day."

This is Essek. Is the Astral Sea Lovecraftian Nightmare Science Museum a great time? No. Is it a step up from several straight weeks of alternate guilt and panic attacks at the outpost? Maybe not! But it sure is a step somewhere, and that, my friends, is possibly a victory.

Conclusion: downgrading him back to 8/10 on the grounds that he seems like the kind of person who would be like "you know what? I could be in endless torment here and I am not." But also literally the purpose of cosmic horror is to jack up your breakdown levels so I doubt he (or anyone) is getting much further down than that.

Yussa Errenis: As mentioned, heads turning into eyeballs in a fantasy setting is totally chill for me. Having your personality subsumed into a fractured insane hive mind such that death is welcomed as a release, not so much. The reason I hate zombie movies isn’t gore. I can look at cracked skulls full of breached blood-brain barrier all day. The reason is that this monster wears the face of someone you love, but is just a mindless vessel of hunger who does not recognize you in turn.

MAN THIS INSTALLMENT GOT KIND OF DARK AND I DID NOT MEAN FOR THAT TO HAPPEN.

Anyway my kind of joking statements about Yussa may hold a bit of water, but there is a bright side. Per the Astral Projection spell, if Yussa dies in the city and the silver thread tethering him to the material plane is intact he wakes up in real life, which would be nice, but also, no guarantees.

Should Yussa survive and return to the material plane I think it would be great if, when the Mighty Nein go back to talk to him again after this arc, he's like "yeah I could see you playing the worst ever game of What Time is it Mr. Fox in the city, what a poor decision" and they're like "poor decisions you say?"

Conclusion: Praesidius Junction J̵͚̔ų̷̣̀ṇ̷̡̃c̶̯͝t̶̡͝î̴̟̈́ŏ̶̟̑n̵̻͆̎ ̶̢͚̔͘j̴̰͚̅u̵̺͊̈́n̵̬̫͊c̵̯̈́̅t̵̜͔͘í̵̦̻̎ȍ̵̖̔n̷̲̬͛̒j̴͔̿́u̶̘̠̓n̷̰̕c̷̡̙͝t̶̨̅̋ỉ̸̗͉͠o̷̯͑͋n̶̰̽̒ HELP HELP HELP [high pitched Matt scream]/10