#and in case readmore is still broken

[foervraengd]

Mirre’s “How i render gemstones” tutorial!

(note: image above is not what is shown in the walkthrough. It is an example piece)

Ingredients:

Art program that has layers and selection tools

Patience (hubris or stubbornness is fine too)

(recommended) photo references of gemstones and/or prisms

(Optional but very helpful) Knowledge on how to use Reference layers and anti-overflow in Clip studio Paint

For this tutorial i am going to use clip studio’s “anti-overflow” feature. This post is not going to explain how to use that specific setting but you should be able to find guides on how to use it on clip studio’s official website or on youtube.

Please Note: The result of this technique will not 100% represent real life gemstones. These are more simplified but should still make an impression of the brilliance and appeal of gems, crystals and diamonds.

If you don’t work in CSP: the best workaround is to use the polygonal lasso selection tool for the same purpose.

This ended up being a long post so I am putting it under the readmore:

First off; Basic idea on how the light refracts inside a solid transparent object:

Wether it is acrylic, glass, water or crystal, the way light pass through more or less should behave the same as long as it is solid and not hollow inside. Pay attention to how the darkest parts of the stone goes along the inner edges, leaving a ”mid tone” sort of in the center. However, this might vary depending on the light setting. But it is a generally good rule-of-thumb to follow if you’re drawing something not based on a photo. Another thing to pay attention to here is how the placement of the highlight will lit up the inside of the gem in a parallel line. It also shows through on the cast shadow.

Light refraction on a cube:

I have already made two posts on this, so definitely go through them:

CUBE BREAKDOWN POST HERE

But a rough summary from those two links would be: Every side/facet of a gem or a cube etc refracts the light individually and not as one entity (that would make it look hollow and not solid). Think of it like how each piece in a broken mirror individually reflect your face back to you. Like a weird patchwork!

Putting this into practice:

For this tutorial I’m going to be nice to myself and not try to draw perfectly accurate gemstones. Instead I’m gonna draw them with a more ”natural” looking set of facets. Which actually isnt as common in real world as video games makes us think. Some crystals have geometric shapes naturally, but a lot of other stones are not as fancy. Anyway, im taking artistic liberty on these example stones because the technique I’m going to use will work for these just fine.

So, in clip studio paint, I first draw the stones on a vector layer. I give them facets for the front side. Then I duplicate the layer, remove the front facets and replace them with the facets on the back of the stone. The third image here shows both layers visible on top of each other. I now put these into a layer folder and mark the folder as ”reference”.

Now, on a layer below the lineart folder, fill with your base tone. Then make a layer on top (if you can clip it to the base tone, do that), this layer is where you decide where the highlight will be placed. In some cases the highlight is only lighting up one single facet - it really depends on the design of the stone. You can also blend and soften the highlight here if it looks good for you, just make sure not every facet is highlighted. The highlight layer should be on top of all the other layers clipped to the base tone layer.

Now it is time for the juicy juicy stuff! Turn on both lineart layers so they’re both visible. I hid the hilight layer here because it was in the way, but might not be needed in your case. Make a layer clipped to the base tone and paint in the darkest tone. This is where anti-overflow helps me out, because when i run my brush over all these crossed lines it will make the stroke pop in and out for each facet. If you dont use CSP, this is where you can use the lasso tool and select every second facet. It will take a bit more time but it should work similarly.

After the darkest tones I then make a layer for the inside light that the highlight has lit up. Here i keep it inside the darkest tone but this might vary depending on the light setting. If it looks good to me, then that’s what i stick to.

The way I approach rendering the facets here is like the grid in the example images above, every shade and tone appear more or less in each facet but the amount is relative to their position. So a gradient wouldnt have a smooth transition; it would be slightly scewed in each square on this example grid. Essentially like how some bathroom window glass panes look like.

Now it’s time to hide the lineart layer folder and check if the gemstones look decent to you. If not, then you can look up some reference photos and analyze where the values group together the most; be careful not to focus too much on the photos 500 million sparkles. Squint your eyes or blur the reference and try to see how the overall values behae.

I, personally, am satisfied with these rocks so I slap on a gradient map (you can manually color in them too if that’s your thing) and call it a day. The lit up inside of a gemstone tend to have a brighter and more saturated color than the mid tone.

Other Examples with this technique:

If you look up ”gemstone types” you can often find images displaying various facet types from more than just front view. These can serve as useful base templates for practicing this rendering technique. The backside of a gemstone is called the “pavillion” and is really useful to have at hand when it comes to painting the inner refractions. You can probably also use 3D models and convert the wireframe into lineart. But that is slightly out of my pool of knowledge.

Applying this knowledge without using a base lineart layer is of course possible. In this painting I followed a simplified summary of how the facets sparkle: Keep the highlight shape to match the front facet design, and all the inner refractions should be more scattered and split up but face a direction towards the center of the gem. Now don’t you think this sort of makes the gems look like eyes? That’s right! You can, and absolutely should, apply this on eyes to create the most sparkly anime eyes ever.

Now, refracted light that lands on the surface surrounding gemstones varies depending on the material - and if the gem is inside a metal frame it usually doesnt create this much refraction around it. But I want to have fun so i decided to break this rule in the name of pretty sparkles. :)

[commentaryvorg]

The Great Ace Attorney Final Trial Commentary: Day 1, Part 1

Welcome to another commentary project of mine, though this one will be quite a bit shorter than my others. The Great Ace Attorney has become my favourite Ace Attorney game, but I wouldn’t have commentary-worthy thoughts about every single part of every case. The final trial (of Resolve), though, has a lot of fun stuff going on beneath the surface that’s deserving of some line-by-line analysis like I do on this blog.

Of course, this will be written from a perspective of already knowing the full truth of things, so there will be spoilers for facts that only get revealed later on in the trial. This is not a commentary to read along with one’s first playthrough!

(The commentary will update on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Check this blog to find any other parts currently posted, and if it’s not yet finished, follow to catch future updates!)

Now that we’re below the readmore, I can add that this isn’t quite a commentary for everything going on in the final trial. It’s focused specifically on Kazuma and what’s going on in his head, only covering things which are relevant to him in some way (for the most part). Kazuma is my favourite character, and I already had a lot to say about him in a big analysis post over on my main blog – but there’s enough interesting blow-by-blow stuff going on with him in this trial that didn’t really fit into that more general post. I still wanted to talk about that stuff somehow, so here I am, doing a more line-by-line commentary here.

By “final” trial, I of course mean all of van Zieks’s trial that spans across cases 2-4 and 2-5, so we’ll be starting with day 1 in 2-4 here.

Ryunosuke:  “…The defence is ready, My Lord.” Kazuma:  “The prosecution… is more than ready.”

This may sound like petty one-upmanship, but of course Kazuma is more than ready. This is the trial that his entire life has been building towards, in which he avenges his father and takes down the corrupt monster who killed him – he is so ready to finally do this.

Kazuma:  “I believe it takes an outsider to see the truth sometimes.”

Kazuma believes that as someone not wrapped up in the corruption going on in the British judiciary, he’s in the perfect position to unravel it all.

And yet… he’s really not an outsider to this case at all. He’s far too caught up in the personal stakes it has for him to be able to see things in an unbiased light regarding van Zieks. Ryunosuke is the true outsider here, as the only one with no personal connection to any of this – and that’s why he’s the one who’s going to be able to see the truth.

(Fittingly, Genshin believed this too, in that he was the only one with a viewpoint unbiased by Klint’s noble status that allowed him to see the truth – even despite being Klint’s colleague and friend.)

Kazuma:  “And as I stand here in this courtroom now, I’m quite certain… this is the reason why I had to come to Britain.”

Kazuma already knew from the start that the reason he “had” to come to Britain was for the purpose of avenging this father. So what he’s saying here is more about the specific circumstances of this trial, in which van Zieks finally screwed up and got caught murdering someone (that’s totally what’s happening here, right), as if Kazuma feels like fate wanted him to be here for this perfect opportunity to take van Zieks down. All along, this specific trial was the one he was fated to stand in when he came to Britain.

Kazuma explains that the gunshot was determined to be fired point-blank because scorch marks only happen within that range. It seems that this is a fact of forensic investigation that Ryunosuke didn’t know about until he heard it here. During the investigation, both he and Susato casually assume that the candle was broken by the bullet because of the scorch marks there. But that’s not possible! Ryunosuke’s later going to revise that assumption and argue that the scorch marks prove the candle couldn’t have been broken by the bullet, thanks to the new knowledge he’s acquired just now.

But Kazuma already knew all along about how scorch marks from gunshots work… and yet he never questioned the notion that the candle was broken by the bullet. Because of course he didn’t. Van Zieks is definitely guilty; any tiny details that might have a chance of suggesting otherwise are irrelevant and got thoroughly brushed over in his head.

Susato:  “Bravo, Kazuma-sama… for not trying to use the gun as evidence when its provenance can’t be proven.”

Legit props to Kazuma for this. He probably assumes it totally is van Zieks’s gun, and given the backwards logic he’s going to use later on in this trial, I honestly wouldn’t have put it past him to insist that van Zieks having incidentally lost his gun is totally proof that this one belongs to him. But right now, at least, he’s behaving more rationally than that. I suppose he feels that van Zieks’s guilt is so obvious right now that he doesn’t even need to argue that the gun belongs to him.

Kazuma:  “The bullet passed through the victim and struck the wall behind him.”

Did it now, Kazuma. I love how he just completely fails to realise the extremely obvious contradiction in this assertion of his.

(And no, I’m not talking about just the scorch marks.)

Judge:  “Thank you for the thorough report, Counsel. The setting of the crime is clear to me.”

Very thorough, yes. He missed nothing. Nothing at all.

Kazuma:  “Naturally… the accused himself.”

Calling the accused to testify is really very unorthodox, but I enjoy the smug way Kazuma acts like naturally this is who he wants to call as his first witness. Of course he wants to show everyone what a lying liar that Barok van Zieks is.

Kazuma:  “As a prosecutor, he believes in the oath of office he’s taken and will be compelled to tell the truth.”

He makes a point of stressing this, because he’s fully intending to prove van Zieks to be a huge liar and wants the whole judiciary to see just how empty that oath of his really is.

Kazuma:  “Then I’m sure the court would like to hear you explain some things away.” […] Van Zieks:  “I intend to explain away nothing. I will simply tell the truth.”

Kazuma’s using some very leading phrasing there, making it sound like it’s already a given that van Zieks is guilty and will be lying (because it really is a given to him!) – and I love how van Zieks instantly picks up on that manipulation and pointedly defends himself against that implication. He is not having any of Kazuma’s bullshit.

---Testimony 1---

Kazuma:  “So… you heard a shot being fired in a room with no living occupants… and moments later a corpse appeared before your eyes. Is that it?” [he smirks] Kazuma:  “You’re right, you haven’t explained away anything. In fact that would barely qualify as an excuse.”

Not missing a beat, Kazuma plays right off of van Zieks’s previous defence to make him sound even more pathetic and obviously guilty. He’s well-practiced at snarking matches from his friendly banter with Ryunosuke, but this one’s a lot more barbed.

Judge:  “Hmmm… It would appear to be a singular tale indeed.” Kazuma:  “Singular isn’t the word. It’s laughable.”

Kazuma really wants to make sure everyone realises just how pathetic van Zieks’s flimsy excuse totally is.

Ryunosuke:  (What’s got into Kazuma? He’s not behaving like himself at all…)

And Ryunosuke can tell that this is not the kind of thing Kazuma would normally do! He’s being a lot more vindictive and petty, and that’s not at all the composed, level-headed person Ryunosuke knows.

(Susato’s staring at him silently too, probably thinking much the same thing.)

One thing to do in this testimony before pressing is to scroll all the way to the end to see the little testimony-recap dialogue between Ryunosuke and Susato. Since this is a testimony where all you need to do to advance is to press everything once, it’s easy to miss out on that.

Susato:  “Do you have any thoughts, Mr Naruhodo?” Ryunosuke:  “Yes… mainly that it doesn’t ring true in all sorts of ways.” […] Susato:  “So… you think Lord van Zieks is lying?” Ryunosuke:  “No, I don’t think that. I mean, if he was going to lie… I would expect him to come up with a more credible story, wouldn’t you?” Susato:  “Yes, I completely agree. I think he genuinely doesn’t know what really happened himself.”

Ryunosuke and Susato make a very good and honestly pretty obvious observation here. Of course van Zieks wouldn’t make up something so seemingly nonsensical. That’s all the more proof he’s telling the truth!

But Kazuma over there is just blithely insisting that van Zieks is obviously spouting pathetic flimsy excuses that barely hold up at all, even though that makes less sense than the alternative that he’s honest but confused. He’s incapable of letting himself acknowledge a world where maybe van Zieks didn’t kill Gregson and would actually be telling the truth here.

Kazuma:  “You illegally entered the man’s office? In Japan that alone would constitute a very serious offence.” Judge:  “As it does in Great Britain, I assure you.”

Kazuma wants to make sure people know about every little illegal thing van Zieks has done. It’s actually interesting that he specifies it would be illegal in Japan – making a point about how nobody in Japan’s judiciary would ever dream of doing something so underhanded, but look at how horrible and corrupt this British judiciary is over here.

(Even though Japan’s judiciary is definitely also pretty corrupt right now; that’s the very-much-second-priority reason Kazuma wanted to come here to study.)

It’s also amusingly hypocritical of Kazuma to be getting on van Zieks’s case for a technically-illegal thing so minor, considering the technically-illegal things he’s been up to recently.

…And actually, in his later testimony on day 3 of the trial, van Zieks mentions that he “demanded permission” to secretly search Gregson’s office. He doesn’t say from whom – I certainly doubt it was Stronghart, at least – but that does imply that he wasn’t actually doing it illegally!

Kazuma:  “So, in summary, you were investigating the victim… and yet you refuse to tell the court why.” Van Zieks:  “………” Kazuma:  “I didn’t realise British prosecutors enjoyed such freedom to choose what to divulge under oath.”

Again, Kazuma wants to make a point of look how corrupt and underhanded the British judiciary is. And again, he is being a huge hypocrite, considering that he knows exactly what van Zieks’s reason might be to have been investigating Gregson, and he is also just casually choosing not to reveal that fact to the court right now.

(Of course, since Kazuma is convinced van Zieks is the Reaper, he doesn’t really believe he was investigating Gregson in any sense at all and assumes this whole thing about investigation is just an excuse for why van Zieks was there. So he thinks that’s the reason van Zieks is being so vague about his investigation, and not because van Zieks can’t yet reveal that Gregson was working for the Reaper.)

Kazuma:  “There was no artificial light in the room, you say? You’re quite sure?”

Kazuma wants to make absolutely sure of this point in van Zieks’s testimony, so that he can then prove him to be a liar when he explains that the candles must have still been burning at the time. Even though, really, if van Zieks was there but was lying about the circumstances and Kazuma asked him this clarifying question, you’d think he’d stop and realise he ought to say that actually there were candles burning, if he indeed saw that. Again, it is very clear that van Zieks would not be lying about this, despite the strange facts of his story.

Kazuma:  “And without thought of danger, [the witnesses] ran inside to see what had happened.”

Kazuma’s spinning things to make these witnesses seem so brave and noble, running inside to confront the terrifying murderous Reaper despite the danger to themselves. …When really, the reality is more like: one of them thoroughly freaked out, and the other two were more focused on looting the place for things they could sell. Not the noble heroes Kazuma is painting them to be at all.

Kazuma:  “Objection!”

I’m sure everyone’s already aware of this, but I still just need to express my glee about how Kazuma’s Objection voice clip here is different from the one he had in the first half of the game. It sounds so much more vicious, perfect for his state of mind in this trial… and also perfect for an emotional gut-punch to the player if they happen to remember and notice that it’s different, which I indeed did.

(Revival of the Prosecutor, heard here in all its glory for the first time, is also a massive gut-punch, hearing Kazuma’s familiar leitmotif sound so twisted and almost sinister like this. Guh.)

I really love the fact that Kazuma objects to this testimony here. Not only is this him still thinking partly like a defence lawyer and using those tactics, and being viciously determined to tear van Zieks’s words apart… it also just makes the most sense this way? The prosecution should be the one to point out contradictions in testimonies that support the defence’s case, such as those from the defendant themselves! It’s always felt kind of awkward in other Ace Attorney games the few times defendants have testified, where we’ve then had to cheerfully shoot a hole in our own case by pointing out the contradictions in it.

Kazuma:  “My Lord, the cross-examination has clearly revealed… that the accused, Barok van Zieks… is lying on multiple fronts!”

Well. A whole two (2) fronts that Kazuma is planning to point out here. But sure, I guess that technically counts as “multiple”, Kazuma, if you like.

Kazuma:  “…he claims that he failed to notice the victim’s body because the room was dark.” Van Zieks:  “That’s correct.” Kazuma:  “No… that’s impossible.”

Again with that viciousness with which he shuts down van Zieks’s claims, I love it.

Kazuma doing this defence lawyer routine also really got to me on my first playthrough, because I was planning to point out the candelabrum! I’d noticed the different lengths of the candles and realised it meant they were burning at the time, and I’d assumed I’d get to point that out at some point, and Kazuma stole that from me! He’s doing the player’s job! How dare. Really great unexpected moment.

(Of course, he’s also failing to notice the really important clue on the candelabrum, which is the scorch marks that prove it can’t have been hit by the bullet from that distance.)

Kazuma:  “And now to the next lie.”

Kazuma wants to make extra sure you know that the things he’s pointing out are not just contradictions but lies, Barok van Zieks is a horrible lying liar, okay.

Kazuma:  “It goes without saying that the contents of the police documents cannot be divulged.”

Hmm, Kazuma, it’s almost like there are certain things that aren’t allowed to be divulged even in court, and maybe van Zieks’s reason for not divulging why he was investigating Gregson is along similar lines and not just him being sneaky and terrible?

Kazuma:  “They all relate to cases prosecuted in court by Barok van Zieks.” […] Kazuma:  “And furthermore… all those cases are ones in which the defendant was acquitted.” […] Kazuma:  “Interestingly, none of those defendants are alive today.”

Look at how he calls them “defendants”, which means he’s thinking about them like a defence lawyer. He believes they were genuinely innocent and van Zieks MURDERED THEM ANYWAY.

Kazuma:  “And yet the Reaper would claim never to have been to his own secret hideout? No one would believe that.”

Or maybe, just maybe, Kazuma, van Zieks isn’t actually the Reaper. His “proof” of this second “lie” is based entirely on the assumed premise that van Zieks is definitely the Reaper, which we have not established to be a fact at all!

Kazuma:  “Inspector Gregson was investigating the identity of the Reaper. When he discovered the location of the man’s secret hideout… he was killed. As I’m sure everyone can imagine… by the Reaper’s hand!”

Except that Kazuma doesn’t actually believe this is the motive for murder. He already knows full well that Gregson was working for the Reaper, not investigating him, and so he believes the motive was that Gregson failed his Reaper mission to kill Jigoku, and/or that van Zieks is the assassin exchange mastermind who wanted him silenced about the autopsy ten years ago. But Kazuma can’t yet reveal any of this without incriminating himself in the assassination mission, so… eh, coming up with a fake motive that sounds plausible, that’ll do for now, right? So long as it gets van Zieks convicted, anything is acceptable.

Ryunosuke:  (Kazuma’s done a brilliant job as ever. He’s drawing on his experience as a defence attorney to build his prosecution case… and it’s formidable.)

Kazuma’s got a legitimate point about the candlelight, but his argument about this being van Zieks’s hideout is completely flimsy… yet Ryunosuke is so in awe of his friend and of how impressive this all sounds on the surface that he’s not able to notice that.

(Also, this is a brief slip-up on the part of the localisers, in having Ryunosuke use the term “defence attorney”. In every other instance, this game uses the British English term, “defence lawyer”, and we only ever hear the word “attorney” when they’re doing a title drop.)

Kazuma:  “And now, the prosecution would like to call new witnesses to the stand. Witnesses who saw events unfold on the day in question.”

In other words, these are the witnesses we actually should have started things off with, and Kazuma only called van Zieks to the stand to begin with in order to prove to the whole court what a lying liar he totally is.

--- Testimony 2 ---

Kazuma:  “Try the man.” […] Kazuma:  “Try the woman.” […] Sandwich:  “I d-don’t actually sell anything, no… come to think of it.” Kazuma:  “Pity.” Ryunosuke:  (No more purchases today… please.)

Apparently Kazuma was enjoying teasing Ryunosuke by pushing him into parting with his money for silly, frivolous things. A little hint at their bantery friendship dynamic in the midst of all this drama!

(Being pushed by their friends into being the one to pay for all sorts of things is clearly a Naruhodo family trait.)

Kazuma:  “Not only that, but they very bravely ran inside to see what was going on and witnessed the crime.”

Yep, he’s still painting these witnesses as so brave and noble to confront the terrible killer van Zieks.

Judge:  “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see how anyone other than the defendant could have committed the crime.” […] Kazuma:  [he bows] “Thank you for your candour, My Lord.”

Kazuma appreciates the judge agreeing how Very Obvious it is that van Zieks is Definitely Guilty. Prosecutors are not usually supposed to thank the judge for agreeing that their case is strong, and yet.

It’s mentioned that the first person to arrive at the scene, supposedly Gregson with a red wig, was carrying a trunk. The truth is that this was Jigoku in a red wig, carrying the large trunk with Gregson’s body in it – but once we learn about Gregson’s metal trunk having been stolen from the crime scene, it could also theoretically have been him carrying that. Conveniently the witnesses are vague enough about the size of the trunk that it can’t be confirmed either way from their testimony.

Kazuma:  “…I was informed that no trunk was found at the scene.”

I wonder if Kazuma has worried about the possibility of them finding Gregson’s trunk, given that he is probably aware that Karuma’s tip ended up stuck in it. Bet he’s relieved that it mysteriously vanished.

(It’s actually right here in this courtroom at this very moment, hidden behind Sandwich’s boards.)

Gossip:  “When the Reaper’s around, people are goin’ in the ground! I mean, that’s what he doz, in’t it?”

“Killing people is just what the Reaper does” sure is a hilariously Kazuma’s-tunnel-visioning line of thinking. It really can’t have been hard for him to latch onto that, when so many Londoners casually think that, too.

Kazuma:  “Considering the catalogue of killings the Reaper had carried out… it was a particularly inauspicious end.”

Yes, clearly, even though van Zieks has totally gotten away with so many murders for ten years, he’d suddenly be so careless as to just shoot a guy right on a populated street where people would come running immediately. Obviously this terrifying criminal mastermind is also simultaneously a bumbling fool.

Kazuma is shown being pointedly silent as Gossip reveals that he got blood on his hand. No doubt he’s already thinking there seems to be a contradiction here, but he’s holding himself back from pointing it out, because that wouldn’t help his case.

If you then press Gossip’s updated statement about wiping his bloody hand on the floor, we see Kazuma peering silently at a document.

Judge:  “Is something wrong, Counsel?” Kazuma:  “No, My Lord. I didn’t remember anything in the report about a bloody handprint on the floor, that’s all.”

Kazuma’s very careful with his wording here – saying he didn’t remember reading about it doesn’t categorically state that it wasn’t there. He still doesn’t want to explicitly bring up this contradiction that would just complicate his case. (And you’d think he could confirm it after reading the report again to check, but no, just casually gonna not mention that.)

Ryunosuke:  “Objection! So you wiped off the blood from your hand on the floor of the room… Are you quite sure about that?” Gossip:  “Well, well what else d’you expect me to have done, eh? Doz it really matter?” Kazuma:  “Objection! The police found no such handprint on the floor during their investigations. What exactly is the defence asserting?!”

And yet, despite that he carefully kept the explicit lack of a floor handprint hidden until now, as soon as Ryunosuke’s objecting in such a way that suggests that the handprint’s existence might be beneficial to his case, Kazuma is immediately pointing out that it didn’t exist and so Ryunosuke’s argument (whatever argument he’s even about to make) must be flawed, right? He’s remarkably sure that his friend is about to put forth a convincing argument that will blow a hole in his case and is trying to pre-emptively counter it before it’s even happened.

Ryunosuke:  “Objection! If you listen, you’ll find out… Prosecutor Asogi.”

I love that Ryunosuke picks up on Kazuma jumping the gun and points it out, too. That “Prosecutor Asogi” stings – it’s the first time Ryunosuke’s said it, and it has to hurt to address his best friend like he’s just an opponent, yet that’s exactly what he is right now.

Kazuma:  “Objection! The witness very clearly testified that he wiped his hand on the floor. Any handprints on the back of the board are irrelevant!”

Kazuma is still pre-emptively objecting and just trying to write off Ryunosuke’s argument as completely irrelevant before actually fully understanding what he’s getting at. Van Zieks definitely did it, right? So there’s no need to bother about trivial details like this, no need to think through to the fact that the board must have been on the floor next to the body at the time.

Kazuma:  “In other words, the defence’s assertion is contradictory!” Ryunosuke:  “Yes… it is.”

Look at Kazuma still just trying to write off Ryunosuke’s argument as contradictory and therefore irrelevant, whereas Ryunosuke is able to realise that the existence of a contradiction means something and can give them new information. Kazuma ought to understand this too – he used to be a defence lawyer! But he certainly doesn’t want to think that way right now.

If you pick one of the wrong options (‘False testimony’) during the multiple-choice question you’re presented with here, there’s some fun dialogue.

Kazuma:  “I don’t remember fostering that kind of simplistic thinking in you.” Ryunosuke:  “…Since when were you my father?”

Aww, Kazuma feeling like he played a part in teaching Ryunosuke to be a good lawyer, and having faith that he ought to be better than this. And Ryunosuke comparing him to a father! Painful for obvious reasons, but also, Kazuma really kind of is a Dad Friend.

Conveniently, van Zieks’s testimony about the room being dark and the body suddenly appearing once the door flew open is really helpful for Ryunosuke’s argument about the noticeboard here! He wouldn’t have known the significance of the noticeboard’s position at all if van Zieks hadn’t testified. Kazuma’s attempt to prove van Zieks to be a horrible lying liar just ended up helping out Ryunosuke’s case, actually.

Kazuma:  “That, that can’t…” Ryunosuke:  “The door struck the noticeboard, knocking it over and making the victim’s body visible.” […] “My client has told nothing but the truth! He has simply described what he saw.” Kazuma:  “Argh!”

Kazuma’s reaction is agitated, with his first “damage” animation, as Ryunosuke puts together this argument and he realises how much sense it makes of van Zieks’s testimony. What do you mean, van Zieks might have been telling the truth? Inconceivable.

--- Testimony 3 ---

Kazuma:  “In short, the only person who could possibly have committed this crime… is Barok van Zieks! None of this wrangling over the board changes that simple fact.”

Despite Kazuma having been shaken to realise that maybe van Zieks wasn’t lying about the thing he tried to prove him a liar about, I’m sure he’s very happy to still be able to insist that these details are irrelevant to the fact that van Zieks  did the murder.

Sandwich:  “But the Reaper’s f-fate is sealed either way, because of the gunshot w-we all heard. So your fate’s sealed, too.” Ryunosuke:  “My fate?!” Kazuma:  “That’s right. The defence is fated to lose. And the prosecution to win.”

Here’s Kazuma’s pointedly strong opinions about fate showing themselves! Okay, granted, on some level he is just translating Sandwich’s ramblings into something a little easier to understand, but still, it doesn’t feel like that’s all he’s saying this for. It feels like he truly believes this himself and is taking the opportunity to make a point of it. It has to be Kazuma’s fate to win this trial.

Kazuma:  “The truth, please.”

Kazuma deadpans this four times over at Venus as she’s testifying. I am amused by his subtle irritation at dealing with this compulsive liar of a witness.

Kazuma:  “You’re, you’re telling us… that you DID move that board?!”

Again, Kazuma gets noticeably agitated – leaning forwards over his bench for the first time in the trial – as Venus reveals that she moved the board. Even though he’s already tried to write off all this board stuff as irrelevant to the fact that van Zieks still did the deed, and even though confirming that it was indeed moved doesn’t change that, it seems he knows on some level that this proves there was more to the case than meets the eye and maybe Ryunosuke’s onto something big.

Kazuma:  “The TRUTH now!”

And then he’s a lot more forceful with Venus as she makes to lie again about whether she found anything underneath the board. He doesn’t even know for sure if anything she found would be important to the case, but he has to know every last hidden detail.

Gina:  “That was a present to Inspector Gregson from the Yard for a big case ‘e solved ten years ago!” Susato:  “The Professor case, no doubt.”

I’m sure Kazuma feels great to hear that Gregson received such accolades for illegally framing his father and getting him killed.

It really is an incredible coincidence that the watch just happened to wind down at exactly five o’ clock, thus conveniently supporting Kazuma’s argument until we look into it further.

Judge:  “Well, it would appear that the mystery of the moving noticeboard has been solved at least.” Kazuma:  “And as predicted, it had very little bearing on the case.”

Kazuma seems smug about this, in sharp contrast to how agitated he was just a few moments ago. But no, it’s fine, even if van Zieks wasn’t lying about that one thing, this still doesn’t prove anything important about him not being the killer, Kazuma’s case is fine and completely intact!

Naturally, Kazuma starts to get worked up again as Ryunosuke proposes that Gregson actually died the night before, which would mean van Zieks couldn’t possibly have done it (because Kazuma knows exactly where Gregson was that night).

Kazuma:  “You claim he was already dead the night before? Do you really think that Scotland Yard’s coroner would have overlooked something like that?”

As he’s going to admit later, Kazuma is perfectly aware of the omission of the time of death in the autopsy report. However, despite that he must be beginning to realise that maybe Ryunosuke has a point about the time of death being different, he conveniently avoids bringing the autopsy omission up here, presumably in the hope that Ryunosuke won’t have noticed it and this will stop him in his tracks.

(Based on Ryunosuke’s reaction, it actually seems like he may not have noticed, but thankfully Susato has it covered.)

Kazuma:  “Whether it was a gun or a firecracker, the only person present to cause that bang was Barok van Zieks!”

Yes, but why would he frame himself by setting off the firecracker, Kazuma, come on.

Ryunosuke points out that the scorch marks on the candle couldn’t possibly have been from the gunshot and therefore must have been from the candle being used to set off the firecrackers on a delay… and the moment he makes this argument, Kazuma no longer has a case, really. Kazuma never manages to come up with an adequate explanation for why there would be scorch marks on the candle if it wasn’t the firecracker. From here on out, Ryunosuke’s argument holds far, far more water than it turns out Kazuma’s ever did.

But Kazuma is so furiously tunnel-visioned on van Zieks’s guilt that he refuses to acknowledge this, and he’s going to continue to lead the court on a long series of what are basically complete diversion tactics so that he doesn’t have to think about the fact that the very core of his case fundamentally does not hold together.

Also, serious props to Ryunosuke. Within the space of two (proper) testimonies and just a little help from Susato, he’s managed to come up with a completely accurate theory as to how this situation at the scene was a setup to frame van Zieks, and technically, in theory, if Kazuma wasn’t so stubborn, prove his client’s innocence. He really is a great lawyer.

Kazuma:  “Pfft… Ha ha ha ha ha ha hah! Oh, very impressive, Ryunosuke Naruhodo.” Ryunosuke:  “K-Kazuma?!” Kazuma:  “I’m really quite amazed you’ve come this far. But after all, wasn’t I the one who told you… that you had all the makings of a great defence lawyer?”

Kazuma realises this too, and he’s so proud of his friend! …Even though this destroys his own case (to far more of an extent than he’s willing to accept). It still stings a little, though, that even as he’s praising him, Kazuma’s using Ryunosuke’s full name, keeping that distance between them.

Kazuma:  “I also noted the lack of a time of death in this report. A stark omission. But as far as I’m concerned… this whole country’s justice system leaves a lot to be desired!”

Indeed, Kazuma noticed it – but conveniently he did not bring that up when it hurt his case. He’s only doing so now that it’s already been established anyway, and he can use it as an opportunity to vent about how horrible and corrupt the British judicial system is, a system that killed his father and acted like that was right.

(And he especially has Opinions about dodgy autopsy reports.)

Judge:  “Prosecutor Asogi! What on earth do you mean by that statement?” Kazuma:  “I hear that many of the leading members of Britain’s judiciary are present to observe this trial today. So we cannot allow even the slightest doubt to be overlooked.”

It’s not immediately obvious, but Kazuma’s completely sidestepping the judge’s question here. He insulted this country’s justice system, and no, he’s not going to explain what he means by that, it’s just an obvious fact, and now he’s going to move right onto the next topic.

Kazuma:  “The defence’s assertion about the time of death based on the victim’s stopped watch is just conjecture. But… while the possibility exists that my learned friend may be correct… we have a duty to explore it.”

Said next topic being: making a big point of how thorough he’s being, to ensure there’s no doubt by entertaining Ryunosuke’s argument even though it’s nothing but conjecture. Kazuma’s definitely not being the slightest bit corrupt about this trial, you guys. Nothing at all like that monster van Zieks was ten years ago with his father.

And yet… Ryunosuke’s argument really is a lot more than conjecture! Granted, maybe the point about the watch in particular is a bit flimsy, but by focusing on that, Kazuma’s conveniently drawing attention away from the scorched candle. Ryunosuke has pretty much categorically proven that the bang the witnesses heard must have been from a firecracker and not a gunshot, thanks to those scorch marks on the candle, and with that fact established, Gregson cannot have died at 5 p.m. that day.

But no, it’s fine, never mind that detail, Ryunosuke’s argument is definitely still nothing but conjecture. Look at how honourable Kazuma’s being to choose to entertain it anyway.

Kazuma:  “And what immediately comes to mind is of course… what was Inspector Gregson doing and where did he go on the day before the incident?” Ryunosuke:  “Do you know?”

A very good question for Ryunosuke to ask. Because yes, Kazuma does know exactly where Gregson was and what he was doing on that day, since he was there with him.

Kazuma:  [he shakes his head] “The inspector always carried out his investigative work alone. His movements were treated as confidential within Scotland Yard.”

Despite his shake of the head, Kazuma is thoroughly dodging actually answering the question of whether he knows – very sneaky of him, so that he doesn’t have to lie. Instead he just makes a general statement about how Gregson was usually difficult to track, implying that this case is the same. Thus, Kazuma gives the impression that he doesn’t know anything about this himself, without telling any lies.

Kazuma:  “However, considering the evidence we’ve been presented with so far… I’d say it’s fairly apparent what case the man was pursuing. Wouldn’t you, my learned friend?”

Still being very careful with his wording here – saying that the evidence makes it apparent what case Gregson was on. This way, Kazuma doesn’t have to directly say that he believes it was this case (the redhead case), because he knows it wasn’t. Kazuma is so incredibly skilled at hiding the truth without lying.

Honestly, this bit where you, as Ryunosuke, have to be the one to say that it was the redhead case that Gregson was pursuing… it’s pretty silly. Ryunosuke literally just argued that the red wig was only there at the scene because it was used by the real killer as a decoy, to make the witnesses mistake them for Gregson! So from Ryunosuke’s perspective, he has no reason to believe that it should have anything to do with the actual case Gregson was working on at the time! Buuut he's awkwardly got to be the one to suggest it anyway.

That said, I do understand why this is a thing – not just to give the players something to do, but also because Kazuma is very pointedly trying to lead Ryunosuke into being the one to propose this line of questioning about the redheads, so that when it all amounts to nothing, it makes Ryunosuke’s case look weaker. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t quite add up that Ryunosuke actually would fall for Kazuma’s bait here.

(I mean, I guess in the end it turns out that Gregson did just have the red wig on him while going to Dunkirk, perhaps to give the false impression to anyone who saw him leaving that he was off to investigate the redheads, so there is some connection there. The redhead case was his cover story alibi that day, after all. But it’s kinda flimsy that Ryunosuke is so sure of it, when he already has another reason for why the red wig was there.)

Kazuma:  “So… you’d already worked it out.”

Kazuma seems pleased that Ryunosuke “figured this out”. In other words, he’s pleased that Ryunosuke took his bait and suggested exactly what he was being led into suggesting, while Kazuma completely hides the fact that he knows that Gregson’s real movements that day were something else entirely.

Ryunosuke:  “So it’s very likely that he had direct contact with these criminals. And it’s quite possible that such contact led to… more serious events.” Kazuma:  “………”

Kazuma’s silence is pointedly shown here. He’s clearly thinking about how he knows full well that Gregson was not killed by the redheads, and so pursuing this line of questioning is actually perfectly safe and is not going to damage his case at all.

Ryunosuke:  “…And Kazuma.” […] “I feel as though he knew we’d arrive at this point somehow.”

Here’s a thought that Ryunosuke expresses during the recess. On the one hand, he’s very wrong that Kazuma expected Ryunosuke to prove the alternate time of death and the setup at the scene, because he’s so very convinced that van Zieks did it. (Though still, maybe on some level he expected his friend to come up with an impressive theory, especially considering the very buried part of him that isn’t so sure van Zieks is guilty.)

But, given Ryunosuke’s alternative theory, it’s true that Kazuma did fully expect them to then arrive at the point of investigating the redheads, since he was the one who deliberately led his friend into suggesting this. Ryunosuke’s not wrong there.

[dogmatik]

Under a readmore, word count 897. Rick got too drunk and freaked poor Morty out.

There's something cold and wet pressed to Ricks forehead. He's only been conscious about a minute, hasn't quite figured out where he is yet, so his eyes remain closed. He takes in his surroundings with his other senses, not sure if he wants anyone who might be in the room with him to know he's awake yet. After some time he determines he's in his own room, can tell by the canvas texture of the cot below him, the smell of booze and alien B.O. He's bundled up in the shitty military surplus blanket he got ages ago, and its dark.

There's breathing to his right, someone sat next to the cot on the floor. he cracks an eye open, the augmentations he keeps tweaking adjusting his sight to the dark immediately (it hurts, human pupils aren't meant to dilate that quickly, he's got a mean case of chronic dry-eye that he hasn't quite figured out how to handle yet.). Morty sits with his arms folded over his knees, head bowed like he's sleeping sitting up. He's breathing to hard to be sleeping though, and there's a string of little sniffles on every other inhale.

"Morty, you seen that morphine? Grandpa's got a killer headache." Rick says. Morty startles, head whipping up immediately at the sound of the old mans voice. Rick regrets talking when he sees the poor kids face, it's red, a little string of snot connects his nose to where it was pressed into his sleeve. "Rick!" he yells, sending a flash of pain bouncing behind Ricks eyes. He throws himself over the old man, the cot creaks like its about to snap. "Jesus M-Morty chill out, I just said I had a fucking, headache." Morty squeezes him, he can feel hot tears soaking into his shirt.

"Ri-ck, I was so scared, and you s-s-said not to tell M-mom but you stopped, you stopped breathing and I couldn't get the-the oxygen to work and I swear I didn't tell but y-yuh-you can't do this to m-me again man I can't-" His voice keeps cracking, chest heaving and words broken up by half-aborted little whines and hiccups. "Morty, Morty calm down, hold on just fucking, t-take a breath alright. Morty just breathe" Rick rubs his back, the kids practically crawled into the cot with him, his little hands clenched so tight in Ricks shirt he's sure the seems are gonna snap. "A-asshole..."

Morty sobs. Rick realizes he doesn't remember a fucking thing from the last 36 hours, which is not ideal when you're a manic super-genius. From the sounds of it he gave himself alcohol poisoning again, considering the barely contained nausea and the way his head pulses with pain along to his heartbeat. It's been a while since he drank enough to make himself sick, it takes a lot. Last time must have been since before he came back. That explains why Morty's so fuckin broken up about it, it's not a pretty sight and the little guys never seen him that bad before.

"Mort, buddy it's okay, just a little alcohol poisoning. Little bit of zerock powder and I'll be good as new." "W-why'd you drink so much?" Morty asks, finally pulling his face away from Rick's chest. He's still breathing hard, but his eyes have dried. He looks genuinely confused, a little crease forming between his eyebrows. Rick gets the inexplicable urge to rub it away, kids too young for wrinkles. God, he's gonna go grey by 30, just like Rick. The thought brings a new wave of nausea crashing over Rick's head, he has to lean off the side of the cot so he doesn't fuckin drown in it. There's a big plastic bowl there, he almost gets all of it in. All that comes out is clear liquid and bright yellow bile, his stomach cramps sharp and he almost knocks Morty clean over with how violently he flinches.

"Rick, why did you drink so much. Did, did something bad h-happen?" Morty asks again, incessant. "'Something bad' what are you talking about?" Morty looks at his hands, he's sitting on his folded up legs right on the edge of the shitty cot, Rick just realized the boys still in the same clothes he last remembers him in. There's blood down the front, it doesn't look like it came from Morty. "Dr. Wong says, uhm. She said that people, they do a lot of like drugs and stuff when they feel bad. Or like, to escape or whatever. Is that what you were doing? R-running away from something?" What the fuck is that lady talking to this thirteen year old about? He should find out where she lives. Encourage some fucking boundaries.

"Jesus wept Morty, Can't a man get blow-out black-out drunk w-without his grandson fucking, psychoanalyzing him. No, I do it cause it's fun Morty. And I don't need to, ugh, to run from anything, I deal with my pr-problems just fine." Morty looks skeptical, little bastard. "Get, get offa my bed, fucking. Change your shirt, look like a vampire victim." Rick shoves at the boy, knocking him off the cot onto the floor. "Ow! Asshole! I-I'm trying to, trying to help you dick!" Morty yells. "Morty I swear to god if you keep being a loud piece of shit I'm gonna down your sisters hamster and blame you for it."

[hiemaldesirae]

Question: how would your characterization of demon Alastor react to finding out for the last 60+ years that what he thought was Vox breaking up with him was actually Demon!Valentino drugging/r**ping him with his venom/aphrodisiac and Vox has No memory of what he and Alastor actually had? No memory of anything except maybe the last month? And to find out Valentino only did this so Vox (who was becoming a TV mogul) would put his pornos on the tv. How would he help Vox remember? What would he do to Valentino? Would Velvette also suffer?

okay so. nonny, i wont blame you for not knowing, especially since ive never explicitly talked about it on main, but for future reference, im not that big on the whole abusive staticmoth dynamic. i can see why others enjoy it, and i do read stories with it from time to time simply because the premise captivates me that much, but in general id say i much more prefer a version where val and vox are at the very least best friends if not crossing into the sort of blurry best friends who smooch sometimes territory.

now having said that, i'll still answer your question because again, not very fair of me to just brush you off for no reason when i never made my preferences clear beforehand. (this gets long, so i'll leave a readmore.) warning: my demon radiostatics are always freak4freak no matter what. so this does get a little iffy in terms of ethics

my favourite interpretation of radiostatic is two sickos who are just as closely obsessed with each other, so in the unlikely case that al would let vox go for that long, when he realizes again the first thing he's going to do is go and. well. for lack of a better term, atticwife him (i hope to god this isn't just a term used in east asian fandoms because if i have to explain this ill eat lead). maybe after a little bit of time, he'll allow vox some liberties, but even then it'd be very little. ill put it this way- imagine the most toxic irl relationship you can: someone who tracks and micromanages their partners every move, barely lets them outside the house without going with them, monitors every friendship that they allow their partner to have, and there you have it. thats radiostatic! ah, young love. so sweet, dont you think? after all, alastor can't risk his muse's eyes slipping off him again. he's been deprived of that attention for far too long, and it wasn't even by his own doing! that's an offense in and of itself.

now im assuming that its only val who's doing the exploitation here so presumably vel would have no hand in any of the mess, and perhaps not even be fully aware of the nuances behind the scenes. i mean, it wouldn't really matter either way because once alastor finds out the reason why his other half hasnt been reciprocating their insane little song and dance he's getting rid of any and all obstacles, permanently. vox doesnt need anyone else so long as he has him- and hey, he was friends with him, rosie and husk first, so its not even as if its much of a loss. the only people he'd presumably leave alive would be voxs own contracted souls, and even then thats a bit of a gamble depending on just how bad i want the both of them to be: without his contracted souls, vox would be weaker and more susceptible to whatever alastor wants, so i guess its a matter of whether or not i want the freak4freak relationship where theyre both equally strong but vox willingly submits because he gets more thrill out of it that way or whether i want freak4freak where vox has to struggle way harder and still ends up giving in anyway because al is simply stronger

as for what he'd actually *do* to val. i mean. he does still have that radio broadcast of his, doesn't he? i think you can probably put the pieces together. the thing with animal sinners is that theres simply so many parts of them to break... show-wise, i never understood how overlords like alastor or val could even rise to their position, with the amount of weak spots they must have. that broken antenna vox and val share is certainly something that speaks to their higher vulnerability. and moth wings are especially fragile: i owned little silkworm moths at one point (they were my babies, i loved them for the month or so i got to care for them) but their wings were so thin they were wearing holes in them by the second or third day. val's coat-wings look much thicker in comparison, but of course, my perception is limited by the show only. so i mean, who knows? im sure whatever happens, itll make the best entertainment in al's eyes :)

[queen-mihai]

OK I've been working on something in my mind for a long time and I wonder if the rest of you would like to help

The short version is this: There has to be a moment where one comes to the realization that "I've done my part. We can coast now"

:readmore:

I'll give a few examples

When you're born, you're not the same size you are now. If you can read this at all, you're at least 3x the size you were when you were a newborn baby. Probably even bigger.

In an organizational sense, you could take that to mean "in any organization, growth is necessary for survival"

I don't think there's a business owner or investor alive who would disagree with that statement.

However; if you are an adult now, reading this, chances are that you're done growing.

You only grow the first two decades-ish of your life. You can thrive for another eight decades or even longer in some cases, and the "growth" portion of your life is over

All those business people's eyes are glazing over now.

But pay attention. It's you I'm talking to. Constant and unrestricted growth, as the backbone of each and every society and business is absolutely toxic, and the reason we keep destroying everything beautiful we build

Another example

You're in your car. You see a highway. Everyone on that highway is driving faster than you and you know in order to join that highway, you need to accelerate to around the same speed everyone else is going.

How much do you really need to accelerate?

Anyone who has ever been on a highway will tell you that no one is just CONSTANTLY accelerating. Even the ridiculous street racers zipping in and out through traffic slow down once in a while to line up and start racing. And once that race is over, whether you want to admit it or not, they *rejoin the regular flow of traffic*

Yes. That same Toyota Supra that you saw screaming by a minute ago, is about a mile ahead of you, just another car in traffic now. Having won the big race with their buddy, they're now chatting with their girlfriend in the passenger seat and picking some tunes.

*There is always a point when it's enough*

For society, for business, why is there somehow this belief that you can get out on the road and just keep accelerating faster and faster and faster? That supra driver knows that if they keep driving the same way, keep accelerating and never slow down, they're going to crash and die, and in all likelihood, take some innocent person with them.

A business works the same way

A business Works THE SAME WAY

You HAVE to recognize that there's a point where you can stop.

The supra is the perfect example of "move fast and break things" (the law being the thing that's broken in this example) that some businesses take as their mantra.

So why then, are they not as smart as that supra driver and, knowing the big race has been won, slowing down and rejoining the regular flow of traffic?

You're still gonna be the cool one

You're still gonna get lots of looks

You're still going to get compliments left and right. And there will be lots of chances to show off what you can do.

But a baby, having grown into an adult, stops growing.

A street racer, having proven their car faster than the other car, slows down

That adult doesn't stop moving. They don't just die once they've reached adulthood. You could say that's barely where the adventure begins.

That racer getting where they're going is not suddenly about to tear apart their car and sell it for scraps. They're going to race again. And again. And again. And they're going to have fun the entire time

It's up to you to figure out what adulthood looks like for your country, your business, your organization.

It's up to you to realize, "we won the race, we proved our point. We can cruise now. If we find another opportunity to kick butt, we'll jump at it. But for now, let's crank up the music and cruise"

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Okay so. Working off of my previous Ruin theory post (that you can see here if you haven’t already. It’s a bit of a long one though) and the post on Eclipse I reblogged last (which you can also read here. It’s by @/celestial-robots who I’m choosing not to ping for the sake of annoying notifs) here’s what I think is up with Eclipse, Sunny and Moon. I’ll summarise what I need to here but the posts I’m referencing are linked in case you want them too. Half under a readmore cause it’s sorta long

In their theory, they say they think that Sunny and Moon were always meant to be separate and could become Eclipse whenever called for. Such as, if Sunny needed help with something Moon specific, becoming Eclipse would give him the ability to do so and vice versa, or so I believe is the way to read that. It negates the need for the lights to be on or off as an eclipse is both light and dark, meaning Eclipse can be there in any situation the other two can’t handle alone. Eclipse also having their own specific abilities would also help somewhat with the distinction between the three, but I don’t think it’s entirely necessary or relevant to this so that’s a ‘if you want’ kind of thing to add here.

Now, it’s important to note that there’s two Mimics. One below the Pizzaplex and one that was once the Storyteller that is now strictly in digital form and integrated with the main network. This is a separate network to the MXES, which isn’t relevant here either it just felt important to note that. With this context, the digital Mimic (the former Storyteller) caused all the animatronics to start acting based on the behaviours it’s learned before, and Sunny and Moon are no exception. This is where you get those customer complaints in the Security Breach logs from. We don’t know the specifics of what changes, but clearly both of them have gotten a lot scarier as kids are now seemingly afraid of both of them. This must be a new development because Cassie has nothing but good things to say about the daycare since she apparently used to go there fairly often, so my best guess is that this was the Mimic.

Now, if Eclipse acts as both of them combined, as two AIs combined into one, then this could mean that it has a stabilising effect on Sunny and Moon. If they were both effected differently by the Mimic, then that could mean they still balance each other out and can minimise the problems caused by becoming Eclipse. I don’t think they could stop it entirely, but it could be an effective way to limit the damage in a way. For example, if Moon has been made to be more violent when the lights are out, while Sunny has been made more aggressive when rules are broken or something, that would mean combining into Eclipse would prevent Moon from hurting someone and prevent Sunny from screaming a child into the ground. Instead, it could be a grab that’s a little too hard, or a minor push, and a strong, louder than normal telling off. They were always designed to balance each other out like this, so they’ve just sort of been doing it way more frequently to counter the change the best they can. Since they’re only two AIs and not technically three, the Mimic is only influencing Sunny and Moon and not Eclipse so this is honestly their best strategy.

When Glitchtrap enters the picture, it’s important to note now that the Mimic in the main network is still active. Glitchtrap is basically adding a second layer of bullshit on top of the Mimic’s and the Mimic is learning from it. Gitchtrap is more focused on the capture and murder of children. The animatronics catch and Vanny or himself in the Pizza Place kill them. Taking control of the animatronics is a key part of this, and thus, Sunny and Moon need to be under control as well.

Well, kidnappy from the daycare is certainly riskier than anywhere else, but not entirely impossible. With Glitchtrap and Vanny in the system, security feeds can be cut and much more can be done. Still incredibly difficult though, and that is made extra true via Eclipse. If one of them is supposed to be doing the capturing, the other can activate and stop it as Eclipse. They’ve been ‘finding’ a good few missing children this way before and that’s not convenient for Glitchtrap and Vanny.

So they do a Vanessa with them. Instead of putting an entire consciousness inside of an arcade game, Glitchtrap moves the entire set of code allowing the two attendants to become Eclipse into the Balloon Boy World arcade game. This is why he’s present in that game, but isn’t really a part of it. There’s not enough of him to be a part of it. He’s just sorta stuck, not even half of himself still intact. Glitchtrap didn’t even need to completely be there. He could monitor it from the Pizza Place since here’s another Balloon Boy World arcade game down there that Vanny could have wirelessly connected to the one in the daycare. Now, they can’t combine and are both subject to Glitchtrap’s control.

Glitchtrap focuses on Moon. He has the nightly duties that allows him to go anywhere at any time, whereas Sunny has to have the daycare up to a certain standard before he can leave. Moon is much more convenient for doing what he and Vanny need him to do. Moon can go under the radar much easier than Sunny can. It works, and they rarely need Sunny to get too involved anyway, but he’s still available should they need him.

When Security Breach is over though and Glitchtrap is contained, that arcade game is still active, preventing them from combining, but without Glitchtrap blocking the signal. Now instead, you have the digital Mimic in control, who has taken Glitchtrap’s data and is now outputting it via the animatronics. Glitchtrap favoured and mostly used Moon, so now Moon is the Mimic’s focus. The lights are out constantly once they’re broken, preventing Sunny from taking over, and with the arcade game still holding Eclipse, they can’t combine either. Moon is acting similar, if not worse than before due to the Mimic taking the new data and combining it with the old. There’s fuck all he can do about this and Sunny is in no better shape. He’s growing more frantic and the Mimic is learning from that and amplifying it with Sunny and Moon’s previous anxieties over this. Sort of another feedback loop going on here.

The VANNI mask allows Cassie to see Sunny and not Moon as Sunny is not in control. He’s the one under the surface but not any less present. By rebooting Moon, Cassie is able to restore the Eclipse code in both of them bring them back to how they were before Glitchtrap. Well, not entirely, since the Mimic still has control here, but they can at least fight back against it now. They have a means to neutralise eachother again and that’s not something they’ve had for a long time.

The arcade machine is broken. Eclipse is free and they now have some form of defence against what the main network is doing to them. And Glitchtrap can’t do it again cause he’s being contained by that same network and no longer has Vanessa to puppet around. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start!

If anyone has anything to add or anything to point out, feel free to do so Eclipse is an interesing guy!

[dykethang]

putting this under a readmore because it's a lot :) but i need it out of my brain

it strikes me again how unbelievably fucked up it is that the mental health system considers me Beyond Their Help and thinks it's a me issue. when the fact that i'm like this in the first place is in no small part Their Fault.

yeah sure we can blame the abusers first and foremost. that's undebatable. but when mental health services knew, and documented, what was going on, put it in writing that i'd never get better if i continued being actively abused, and didn't do anything about it... they're at fault too. it's strewn throughout my records and yet i still took the blame for being mentally ill.

OT/CPS are worse to blame because there's 10+ years of mandated reporters REPORTING IT. at one point they said they talked to me and i was fine with being hit so they closed the case. i was 10 and the person who was hitting me in that case choked me against a wall when i was 15 and threatened to put a bullet through my brain. beat the crap out of me so many times i couldn't pick out anything special because they all blurred together. by that age though the narrative that i was just Bad had really taken hold and anything i said was taken as something i had instigated.

my mother made a post recently crying that the "past is in the past" but how can it ever be in the past for me? i think she messed me up more and she beat my ass far less than the others, because she just looked away, walked away, closed her eyes. sure she did also get physical with me. literally the last time i saw her she threatened to bash my head in with a hammer. but that was somewhat unusual because she deals more in Fucked Up Emotional Bullshit.

the past will never be in the past so strongly that i am just a fucked up and irreparably broken adult who can't get any help from the systems that played a part in making me this way.

literally failed at every step of the way possible. "why don't you just tell someone?" this is why! this is why!!! how are you meant to tell anyone when they look away and blame it on You being Mentally Ill because to them, being severely mentally ill makes beating a child/teenager reasonable, because i was simply such a nightmare for those around me to deal with so of course they'd resort to that.

fuck man. everything sucks. i do think my seasonal depression is partly a trauma thing. because it gets so bad at this time of year and it chokes me

[sunriseverse]

how do you overcome writer's block?

hi anon!! thank you so much for your ask! i actually have a lot of thoughts on this topic!!! disclaimer that ymmv and this is just what has worked for me—though i hope it helps other people! this also got rather long, so i'm sticking it beneath a readmore.

i should start by saying that i used to get horrendous writer's block—the type that, if i were the crying type, would have left me in tears of frustration. however, after over a decade of writing, and four-plus years of that being writing with intent and dedication, i've figured out some things that have basically eliminated writer's block for me (with the exception of mental health-related hiccoughs that i can't really control).

first of all, i like to identify what kind of writer's block i'm experiencing, because that will help me determine my plan of action. broadly speaking, at least for me, writer's block can be broken down into two distinct—though at times overlapping—categories: idea block and motivation block.

idea block is what happens when, for whatever reason, no matter how hard i try, i can't come up with concepts or plots, and trying to write is a frustrating slog where none of the words i put to paper seem to feel quite right—this is the type of block where there's nothing stopping me from writing, but actually doing so feels like a slog. i also call this "dry" writer's block, because it's more tolerable to me personally—there's a lot of things i can do to help break the block that work fairly reliably for me (i'll get to that in a minute).

motivation block is what happens when i just cannot find it in myself to write, no matter how much i want to. i may have dozens of fascinating concepts, but for some reason, i just can't sit down and write. if i try and force myself, i'll feel resentful and bitter and unhappy—and this can make the entire process of writing incredibly unpleasant, as i will keep getting distracted and feel frustrated with myself. i call this "wet" writer's block—it's much harder for me to deal with, and can be pretty damaging if i try and power through it.

the third type of writer's block isn't really it's own category—it's the overlap between motivation block and idea block. i won't belabour the point, but this one is generally not something i deal with, and when it has happened, it's the most tolerable—if i have neither motivation nor ideas, then i'm generally not too upset about not writing. still, this can be frustrating! it doesn't feel good to find yourself unable to do something that brings you joy or meaning.

now that i've defined the types of writer's block, let's get to how i actually deal with them.

idea block

usually speaking, this is the easiest for me to deal with! generally speaking, i take a step back and try and assess the situation. oftentimes, the reason i can't come up with any ideas is because i'm overwhelmed by the other things in my life. my first line of action in this case is to make a plan to reduce the stress i'm experiencing, and then, after that, go through the various things i've collected and see if any of that sparks anything—for example, i'll go through my poetry tag on my blog, check out some books from the library, and watch an episode or two of a show. all of these are things that i can take inspiration from concepts or emotional beats from, and, even better, they don't really require me to do much! i also have a folder in my notes app specifically dedicated to fanfic ideas—this is where i jot down one- or two-line summaries of a fanfic concept i've thought of when i am, say, in a lecture or at the grocery store, and am not able to write at the moment, but i want to remember and work on the concept later on, and looking through this will often help with idea block. obviously, a folder of fanfic ideas is something that takes a while to build up—it's not a solution if you don't have anything already in there, but the other things i've mentioned, like reading a new book or watching a show, are things that don't require prior planning.

motivation block

this one is, like i said, much harder. however, the cause for it is often pretty immediately clear if i take a step back—usually, it's because i don't have enough happening in my life. this often occurs during breaks or on days that i don't have a ton scheduled, and the free time i have winds up seeming daunting and unappealing rather than enticing. in the past, i've definitely been guilty of trying to brute force my way through this—but, for me, at least, this is a really bad idea! it can lead to burning out, which causes damage in the long run, and is really unpleasant in the short run. instead, what i've learnt to do is to try and put myself in a writing mindset. some tools that help with this, for me, are going back to my initial concept(s) for whatever i've been working on recently, and try and identify if i've accidentally intimidated myself out of working on them, or if the concept itself is something i just don't feel particularly enthused by at the moment. once i've done that, i like to make playlists and moodboards—these can be for characters, or concepts, or anything you want, really! they're a creative exercise that doesn't require quite as much effort as writing, and they can help you with your writing later on. another thing that i do is read through my old works—anything that i've published on ao3 is fair game, and doing this often helps me to become motivated again because i'll find something that i really enjoy and want to replicate, or turns of phrase i want to use again. i also try and see if there's something physical that's the issue—i can't count the number of times where i was feeling unmotivated, and realised that, oh, i hadn't eaten in ten hours, or i was dehydrated, or i hadn't taken my medications for the day. another thing that helps with motivation block, for me, is to do a modified rubber duck method—i'll explain my wip or concept to a friend, and oftentimes they'll have comments or enthusiasm that will help me become motivated again, because i always have an easier time doing something when i feel like there's a third party that i am "accountable" towards.

total block

this one i honestly don't have a lot of advice for. generally speaking, though, in my experience, it's a good signal that i need to take a step back and recuperate—maybe i overdid it with my last project emotionally, or maybe i'm just really busy in real life and don't have the energy necessary to dedicate towards writing. either way, pushing yourself isn't a good idea! like with motivation block, it can wind up burning you out, or, barring that, make you associate writing with feelings of discomfort—which isn't something you want, because you can accidentally condition yourself into an aversion. my best advice for this is to just...............slow down! make yourself a smoothie, or eat some fruit. go for a walk, pet a cat, or work on a physical hobby. consider giving a friend a call, or texting them. in general, do something that reminds you that life doesn't have to be hectic and stressful—eventually, you'll have rested enough that your mind will probably naturally begin making up concepts and generating enthusiasm.

that's about everything i can think of! i hope anon, or anyone else reading this, find it helpful—and if anyone has any more questions, please feel free to ask!

[stagbells]

"Monarch Wings & Other Broken Things"

From: @inkhorn-art​

To: @chrysopeony​

Note:  I wrote this half out of my mind from covid, so I hope it's semi-enjoyable :,) I'm also writing a second part to fulfill the rest of your request!! I'll put it on my ao3 (ink_horn) soon in case you were interested :) Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Written work under readmore

(Drive version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d7HnOV-lM-4zZ6j9NJY9gsK9TuB-RfOtaj99hwzFSIY/edit )

"Monarch Wings & Other Broken Things"

On the threshold of the Abyss, they are alone, and the only voice is the howling wind from somewhere above.

A long, thin arm wakes the vessel from sleep, dry black fingers dragging softly against the length of their shell and tickling their face, making them shiver. With a sudden dawning fear, they bolt upright, startling at the appendage of a very large creature looming above.

(Surely it means to eat them, reaching down with its arm in such a way..!)

However, as the vessel peers closely, the arm is no more than a black root, moved by the wind's will.

Still sitting, they sleepily reach up and the root. It doesn’t respond. Perhaps dead.

Their breath slows in their chest as they fold their arms back into their cloak. Dust, which covers the ground, has managed to get stuck in the sockets of their face. It is barely felt.

There are many more of such hanging roots, gently swaying, none quite reaching the barren ground where tufts of black grass struggled to grow. Despite the rock all around, still life grew wherever a crack could be found. In the ceiling above, the cracks were everywhere.

(In the faintest of light, the vessel can see outlines of things within the rock walls that are not quite rock, yet not quite something else, things that may have once been alive.)

Within the cavern all around, the faintest of faint, weakly fending off the heavy darkness in every corner. Light and wind, both hailing from places above this one.

Above.

So the world isn’t just that place after all. There was more, somewhere, unseen. But what?

The vessel can feel it, stronger than before, the wind. It hides inside of their shell with raking, scraping claws. 

In the pit below, the voices are endless. Still, they are fading. Soon, the only voice will be the howling wind from somewhere else.

This the vessel observes, lying unmoving on the hardened basin ground, as if dead.

They attempt to sleep once more, curling into their cloak. There are scratches on their hands, bruises on their arms and legs from climbing and falling and getting up and climbing again. Time is passing, and the pain is beginning to pass also, slowly but surely.

The vessel was born in that place below. They almost died leaving it. They are tired still. So, so tired. 

They sleep, and dream of a thousand white faces of others far, far below in the darkness, looking up. 

◎

Something different wakes them the second time. Something alive.

The vessel hears it on the path behind, a scraping, a breathing. They hurry to stand, kicking small rocks and pulling up grass.

They have no weapon, but as they search the ground, something silver glints in the dust. A long, silver pole with a pronged end, four sharp points carved to resemble a lethal crown. A broken piece lies next to it, a dirty sign filled with marks they cannot read.

A kingstaff, once standing, now fallen. The vessel picks it up and almost loses their balance; the pole is heavy, and almost twice their height.

A dark cloth is tied to the top, and dances in the wind. The metal stings with chill as the staff sways in their hands, back and forth. It is poorly balanced, but it should suffice.

A dark figure approaches.

From the path comes a small, twitching mass, closer and closer, crawling on all fours instead of just two.

(There is no voice, but there is almost a weeping that is not entirely the wind's.)

The vessel hefts their pale staff. Despite its unbalance, holding it feels not unnatural.

From the shadows, a pale face emerges.

The figure regards them with no sound, no emotion, no fear. Four horns on its head, as opposed to the vessel’s own three. Besides this, the two are identical. The vessel lowers their silver staff, pointing the crown at the ground.

Like the rock around them, the other’s face is marred by deep fissures and cracks, and dust leaks from the holes as well as a darker liquid. Pieces of its mask are gone entirely, revealing an inky blackness beneath.

It is that emptiness that the vessel can hear, that marks the other as Kin.

The damaged other tremblingly regards the vessel, and something besides words pass between them, two who survived the ascent out of Darkness itself.

Another vessel.

Then it, too, lays down to rest with a violent collapsing thud, raising a cloud of dust from the ground as its body moves up and down with silent breath.

Gripped with wariness, the vessel does not approach. Their sibling. Their kin. These are words they knew before all others, before they knew of such a thing as words. But out of the Abyss, nothing could be the same as it was.

Moments pass. The body of their siblings falls still, the soft tendrils of its cloak curling and uncurling, teased by the wind. Eventually, their sibling stops breathing. The wind howls, and the walls weep with the most ancient of dust.

Its broken mask, almost entirely stained with black, rests sideways on the ground, and seems to watch the vessel. The caverns around them groan; the rock beneath is already beginning to feed, another husk to strengthen the ancient basin.

Layers of heavy shadows twist, alive. Above the body rises a crown of four black horns, and pale, pale eyes stare at the vessel from the dark, or perhaps it is the dark, and the dark howls—

They run. 

Towards the wind, who pushes back at them with whistling shrieks, cold teeth and claws. Towards the dim light, which grows stronger with every step, as if beckoning.

They run.

Soon, the vessel slows to a walk, but keeps a swift pace. To stop now could mean death.

They watched carefully the walls as if they had teeth and gaping mouths. Every shadow seemed to leap at them, every pocket of wind a howl from a dead, empty throat.

Mouthless, they choke on dust. They turn their head to look at the behind path, and nothing is following. Nothing with eyes, at least.

There is no turning back now.

The paths wind endless, roots and cracks and jagged walls. For a time, the vessel walks, and though they are tired, they fear the fate of their left-behind sibling, and do not stop.

The basin shifts, slowly, slowly, becoming something entirely else.

Silvery archways begin to appear on the ceilings, carved out of the basin in deliberate patterns with pillars to hold them, and rows of gray spikes resembling lustrous teeth emerge from the ground. The path grows less uneven, the roots reaching down bigger than before, and fences of black, pointed spears are everywhere.

They pass more silver kingstaffs, planted firmly in the rock instead of abandoned in the dust. Some have signs with marks they don’t understand, and some have signs with arrows pointing in various directions. They, at least, understand the purpose of these, and follow the directed paths.

The wind blows. It doesn’t stop.

A pale and blinding light, unlike any other the vessel has yet seen, is waiting in the distance.

Another lighthouse? Could it be?

Looking into the light brings unexpected pain, but not a moment is wasted before they’re taking a step, walking, running, towards the light. As they grow closer, shadows begin to die one by one, and there is no untouched corner.

A cacophony of scratching and clicking fills the caves as the vessel approaches. Strange creatures begin to emerge from all sides, one, then two, then ten, on the ceiling, on the walls, small dust-colored bugs with layers of pointed shells that shifted and scraped as unseeable legs carried them.

The eyes of these creatures, dark and empty, seemed not to notice the vessel’s passing presence. Perhaps they were blind. All take similar heed of the light in the distance, as if it wasn’t there at all.

The vessel enters a cavern that is lavished in silvery arches and armored walls, the black root arms of the basin curling around massive shells of creatures in the walls, turned to stone. Below the blinding light, the vessel can see dark smoke rising from the dusty ground, as well as black specks of nothingness, rising and rising.

The pale and blinding light reveals itself to be only a very tall ornate lamp of some kind. 

(The vessel strikes the ground at this, rolls their head at this, kicks up dust at this.)

The lamp is another of the silver staffs with crowns of deadly sharp claws, and atop this one, a glass sphere filled with flies, the source of the light. The flies' wings are white, blinking and flashing like ten eyes. Never once do they cease, imprisoned in eternal flight.

(Similar flies had dwelled in the lighthouse, a thousand of them within a much bigger glass sphere. Similar was the fate of the tens of thousands of wingless, lightless creatures who dwelled outside.

So it was; a smaller lighthouse with no water in sight.)

Beneath the lamp is a bench. The vessel sits. Rests. The wind is quiet, here, barely a whisper. Perhaps they now sat in the maw of an enormous creature that had been blowing air out of its great mouth for this entire time. 

Forebodingly, the vessel notices the nearby ground, how it descends into a pit that is filled with rows and rows of the gray, teeth-like spikes.

Next to the vessel, one of the small dust-colored creatures has climbed onto the bench, and it sits, making quiet clicking sounds. The two rest in unison.

The vessel readjusts their grip on their pale staff, for it had slipped out of unsteady hands. In the places untouched by light, impenetrable shadows live where gentle dusk might once have. The vessel can no longer see outside of the range of the lamplight.

The wind is silent, now. In its place, a roaring is growing louder.

The vessel stands, quicker than a shadow.

In the next moment, a raw shriek sounds from outside the cavern, echoing inside anything it could reach. 

HUNGER, HUNGER, the echoes seem to wail.

Claws violently rake and scrape the basin floor as a creature flings itself out of a tunnel, roaring its ravenousness. The vessel sees only a glimpse of a dark, round body covered in eyes and teeth and black flailing limbs before the creature leaps, slamming into them with immense force and sending them flying. The staff is knocked out of their hands by the impact.

On the ringing ground, they lie there with their face in the dust and black grass, unable to move from the shock of the blow. 

The roars of the beast are reduced to a dull noise as the vessel catches only a single glimpse of an expanding black abyss of teeth and a glistening throat as the beast—

—scurries right past. Past the prone, shaking vessel.

With another shriek, the flailing beast descends upon… something on the ground. One of the small dust-colored creatures that had been sitting on the bench. The beast had flipped it onto its back, rendering it decidedly helpless as it wiggled rows of short legs to reveal a white underbelly.

The top of the beast's head is lined with a circle of large claw-like teeth, and a clear, glistening liquid leaks from its mouth as it burbles with excitement. Its body moves, hiding the smaller creature from view as it raises a thin claw to pierce its belly.

The vessel looks away. Now, a black oily liquid is leaking over their eye socket. They put their hand on their face, feeling the thin outline of a crack. Pieces and pieces. Emptiness within reach. 

Though there is no pain, the vessel begins to tremble. They think only of their four-horned sibling, who had been covered in many cracks, who had been eaten by darkness that had escaped from the inside.

The vessel crawls back towards the bench as the beast murmurs with wild glee, sitting on the border where the light abruptly ended. Beneath its teeth is a row of dark, pupiless eyes. The ones on the back of its head seem to watch the vessel.

They rise, staggering to their feet, to pick up their silver staff. The beast is bigger than they, though not by much. Its teeth were busy feeding, its claws distracted. To pierce its flesh with the prongs of their staff, to kill, it would be easy. 

The eyes on the back of the beast’s head watch the vessel, and blink.

"HUNGER?" it suddenly says.

The vessel does not move.

The beast undulates its sharp spider-like legs, fluttering its teeth as it rises from its sitting place. On the ground, the small creeper is now little more than dark pieces of shell. Living creepers move slowly along the walls nearby, ignorant—or perhaps uncaring—of the death of their kin.

The beast appears to regard the vessel’s pale staff, its deadly spiked crown, how it glows luminous in the light of the lamp. The vessel, in turn, watches the beast’s sharp legs carefully.

“PAIN…” the beast rumbles deeply. “YOU HUNGER… FOR NO PAIN?”

Again, the vessel stares.

The beast huffs hoarsely, teeth flexing at the ceiling.

“PAIN… AWAY,” the beast insists. “HUNGER, AWAY. MAWLEK GIVES FLESH? TO PALE ONE?”

Oh. The beast was offering an exchange. For food, of some kind, if their weapon is cast aside. The vessel wavers at this.

They have never known hunger, have never needed it. And perhaps this creature is not the only one of its kind lurking in this shadowy place.

The Mawlek moves restlessly, agitated as it turns in slow circles, every eye watching the vessel's pale staff. Perhaps it has felt the sting of one before, or one similar. The Mawlek’s dark body is marked with silver lines, the color of metal.

(Thus, the vessel learns the meaning of the word fear.)

Their hand reaches for the crack in their mask, the split reaching their eye. The Mawlek doesn’t seem to notice, too fixated on the weapon they held in their hand. Perhaps it doesn’t even know what it has done. After all, it seems as though it had a different target all along.

To kill, it would not be easy. Not when the Mawlek is on its guard like this. But it could be done.

The vessel looks away from the lamp above the bench. Brightly it blazed even when they turned away. It was beginning to burn their mind away in the looking.

The beast grunts loudly when the vessel drops the staff on the bench. The vessel tenses, preparing to flee when suddenly, the Mawlek’s entire body begins to… pulse, and stretch.

Gurgling deep in its throat, the Mawlek chokes, a wretched noise that fills the cavern. Then, bowing its head towards the feet of the vessel, it noisily spits out a sizable chunk of… something, covered in thick, opaque saliva.

The vessel regards the steaming glob at their feet, before looking back at the Mawlek.

The beast shivers its dripping crown of teeth with enthusiasm, as though pleased.

A dark mass is within the spit. A piece of the small creeper it had consumed moments prior. It is clear that the beast is waiting for them to reach down and take it. To eat.

The vessel hesitantly reaches into the glob, closing their hand around the chunk, then immediately rears back. Their hand suddenly erupts with a dull, stinging pain, as if little invisible teeth were closing around their hand. The Mawlek bellows, rubbing its front legs together.

“NO HURT, PAIN,” it insists. Then it whispers, “...AWAY. AWAY…”

The vessel holds up their hand, and flecks of saliva fall to the ground.

The Mawlek’s saliva… burned.

However, even now, the pain was already beginning to fade.

The Mawlek makes clicking noises with its mouth, its impatience obvious.

“EAT, EAT,” it croons. “THEN, WE HIDE. LOST ONE. FOUND ONE.”

The vessel looks at the wet chunk of dead flesh in their hand. It resembles nothing, in this state. They are uncertain what exactly to do with it.

They look again at the Mawlek, its jaws pointing upwards with teeth spread like a deadly flower.

Perhaps the vessel, too, has teeth above the eyes, and a mouth on top of their head.

Without hesitation, the vessel shoves the chunk of flesh directly into their eye socket, a drop of hot saliva running down their face, and drops the chunk when it passes through. They have no difficulty in doing this. The meat had been thoroughly soused beforehand, after all.

The chunk disappears, presumably eaten (?).

At this, the Mawlek shrieks in delight, eyes rolling. The beast turns in the direction it had come, and starts limping away into the dark.

However, before it goes, it lurches to a stop. Its rear eyes regard the vessel, who is standing in the blazing light of the lamp.

“DANGER… FOLLOW, FOLLOW,” the Mawlurk beckons with a groan. “THIS WAY… AWAY FROM LIGHT.”

The vessel feels a pull in their chest. It weighs like flesh, turned to stone.

From light. Away.

The radiant ornate lamp with its crown of light. The vessel has somewhat grown to fear the dark, in their moments spent shielded under its glow. They could sleep here on the bench. They could be safe from the dark with eyes, and the eyeless dark.

Faintly, the wind picks up again, howling from somewhere else; to somebody, or nobody. The vessel had almost forgotten its voice.

The light burns their gaze, almost more than the acid of the Mawlek. The crack in their mask is set, and bleeds no longer. It was time to return to the forward path.

The vessel trembles the tendrils of their cloak, and dust falls in a slow descent towards the ground, black smoke rising to meet it. They step forward to follow the Mawlek, who burbles and clicks its teeth, a delighted look in its many eyes (truly, it was difficult to fear this monstrous bug).

The vessel looks back at the lamp, mouthless, swallowing uncertainty. Certainly, they will be back here. When they make their return to the Abyss, to where their siblings wait.

The vessel forgets to pick up their silver staff from the bench, and thinks of it no more.

◎

It is here, within the great nest of the Mawleks, does the vessel truly realize how young their friend actually was, how small in size compared to the adults of the brood, and how friendly.

Which is to say, the moment the vessel enters the nest, a Mawlek five times their size immediately eats them.

They are between the jaws of a full-grown adult Mawlek—limbs flailing as boiling breath engulfs their head and wet teeth closes around their body—when they hear their friend hissing and spitting with great ferocity. Soon after, the elder spits them out with a growl.

Body burning and cloak dripping with acid saliva, the vessel lays wetly on the ground, warily observing their friend attempt to jump on top of the much bigger Mawlek and pierce its body with pointed legs.

Gurgling in annoyance, the adult Mawlek bites at the younger as it retreats, heavy legs scraping against stone. However, the elder beast did not seem particularly afraid, as if it was just appeasing the child.

“PALE THING, YOU TASTE OF DUST,” the disgruntled Mawlek hisses at the vessel from the retreating dark, rasping and drooling; the ground seethes wherever saliva touches it. “YOU TASTE OF DEATH. LIGHT, DANGER…”  

The vessel hears the echo of its groaning long after the brooding Mawlek is gone.

With a satisfied grunt, the lesser Mawlek burbles its satisfaction.

In dim light made dimmer by the tight, confined caverns and tunnels, they can faintly see other Mawleks, rings of them huddled together in groups. Most appeared only to slumber, the noises they made as they slept creating a great, low drone that shook the very ground itself.

Empty shells of shadow creepers were everywhere. If there are discarded masks, they are strange, unfamiliar.

“THIS WAY,” the juvenile Mawlek hisses to them. “...FRIEND. SHOW YOU… SOMETHING.”

The vessel follows, the tunnel winding deeper. There is almost no light, save for the glint of the Mawlek’s eyes, the well do they know how to walk within dark places.

It isn’t certain, the reason why they are following a Mawlek deep into a nest filled with other, larger, hungrier Mawleks. They don’t know where they are going. They don’t know when they will leave.

If they'll leave.

But…

The beast had called them earlier. Friend.

What this means, the vessel does not know. But they will walk into darkness away from light, if this beast called them to.

The tunnel gets tighter and tighter, as if swallowing them. The vessel is forced to crawl on their knees, cloak dragging in the walls of dirt, dirtying it further.

The Mawlek seemed to be faring much better, having folded its body into a somewhat flat disc as its legs carried it forward, obviously much more suited to being underground. Never once does the Mawlek stop humming and murmuring, words that the vessel can’t quite make out.

And then…

“BROOD, BROOD.”

The tunnel opens.

They find themself in a small, dense cave surrounded by jagged rock, and the ground is covered in layers and layers of dust and black grass piled all over the ground. The shells of small dead creatures sit in piles in odd corners, deliberately gathered. The heat of the cave was close to boiling.

Within the darkness, one hundred eyes open and shift to look at the pair as several dozen Mawleks notice the two's presence. These Mawleks share the same small size as the one beside the vessel.

In the center of the low-ceilinged cave sat a beast much, much larger from the rest, enormous and round with rows of quivering teeth, each bigger than the vessel’s own body. It did not appear to have legs. The smaller Mawleks were swarmed around it, gathered close. 

A mother.

Sensing the foreign presence of something other, the Mawlurk shifted her pale eyes to meet their gaze, though not directly. She seemed to nearly be blind. 

“BROOD… SIBLINGS,” their Mawlek friend proudly gurgles. “MOTHER, MOTHER…”

The vessel watches as the Mawlek scurries towards its kin, and the hushed, quiet voices all at once became a dry roar of noise, hissing and buzzing and clicking.

The vessel takes a step back. Unsure.

They watch as the beasts socialize, jumping on top of one another and wrestling with noisy ferocity, slashing legs and growling jaws. Their friend disappears quickly in the dust-filled turmoil, as every Mawlek sibling looked the same.

Meanwhile, a single Mawlek goes before its mother, bowing its head as it spasms and spits out the slimy remains of some dead creature. The Mawlurk croons low and deep in her throat, and the vessel can feel the rumbling of it within their shell.

They were born here. They belonged here, sitting in the dark. It was very nearly the same thing as dying.

Suddenly, it was though the very ceilings of the cave were on the verge of collapse, as if they were about to crumble and fall and crush every living thing beneath.

So many eyes in the dark, all the same.

Into the tunnel, the vessel returns to a brighter darkness once again.

◎

On the forward path, the wind howls. It always does. 

The vessel walks, and walks. They always do.

Where they are wandering, they do not know. There is no light to follow, and no Mawleks to guide them. They are alone once more.

The basin is truly barren and desolate. Only the most primitive, light-fearing creatures live in this most ancient of places, shadow creepers and those that eat them.

There is nothing here for the vessel. And only darkness waits behind.

The vessel walks, and walks. Nothing more follows, hungry or not.

The cavern that the vessel enters next is the largest they have seen yet. The ceiling itself is so high that it is almost hidden in the gloom, and light is everywhere.

Then, the path ends, and the road begins.

Something new under their feet. The vessel looks down, cloak billowing in the wind. The ground looks as though it had been removed, and in place of shells and rock, polished stones laid out in shining patterns. Silvery gilded fences topped with pointed spikes firmly line the path. As they walk, they see kingstaffs in many places, proud pale rods with crowns of spikes.

There is no want of light here. Little lanterns, with glass spheres and flies, are every few paces. 

At their feet, a bridge.

In the distance, a pale light that the vessel has not beheld even in a dream, nor even, a nightmare.

The vessel takes a step forward onto the bridge, then stops, voices sounding from the behind path.

They are frozen in plain view at the foot of the bridge as two creatures approach. White bodies and white clothes, with white horns, short and very wide. Both are adorned in blue stones unlike any found in these caverns. So pale are these creatures that the two appear almost to glow.

"In this dark place, there are no echoes of life anywhere," one says. "Still, a breathing in my ears, a not-quite heartbeat. Could it be that the very walls are alive?"

"T-the echo of something gone weighs heavier than the touch of something found," the other replies. "When one is b-born in darkness, even pale light would seem… an enemy."

The pair's words fall short with an abrupt pause as they stare at the small vessel in front of them, each with dawning expressions of great shock. The vessel watches the two strangely clothed creatures as they become flustered and agitated respectively.

"O-oh. How… how pale you are, wanderer," one stammers, clutching their silken robes; their head lowers, hiding their eyes as if afraid to look at the vessel. "Y-you are not a retainer. What is your purpose here, at the threshold of our King's radiant dwelling? Few know t-the location of this place, after all. Are you kin, perh—"

"Shh! Pale!?" the other seethes, fumbling with the smooth blue stone attached to their throat. "Gilded! False! Pale of shell it may seem, but none more than a mere reflection of the true light before us!"

"Furthermore, it is filthy," the same creature adds with a spiteful tone, glaring down at the vessel with contempt. "Kin. Pfah! Blasphemy!"

"O-oh. I suppose, you are correct," the other replies, and the two continue forward once more, walking past the vessel and down the bridge. "The King does not tarnish. The King does not break. And it is broken. D-did you see? That ghastly mark on its head?"

"Precisely. And please, dirty wanderer," one calls from ahead. "Do not stay for long, and do not cross this bridge! Your very presence is tarnishing the threshold of our radiant King. Return to the mindless wilds from whence you came!"

With that, the creatures walk away, their words never ceasing all the while, until both fade from sight.

The vessel stands at the threshold. And then, the vessel follows, crossing the bridge towards the light, which calls them by name, though the vessel had not one.

In the distance, a palace of white, the very monument to light itself. It is the dream upon which dreams are built. It is from here that the howling wind was blowing from. Laughing, crying, weeping, dying. How similar it all sounded.

More white-robed creatures are moving along the road. Most congregate in groups before walking inside the palace itself.

(The vessel is careful to walk low, and behind the silver spiked fences.)

At the gate of the palace, a figure taller than the rest is standing perfectly still. Watching. Waiting.

Armored in white, a tall spiked crown hides its face from view. Within its four hands, a large, hooked blade with serrated teeth is ominously held, poised for combat.

As if sensing a foreign gaze, the armored figure slowly turns its head to look at the vessel in the far distance. Their eyes meet.

Suddenly, the creature is still no longer. Its long legs deftly carry it away from the palace, past the gates and the white robed creatures, only stopping at the foot of the bridge where the vessel stood.

From within a cold shadow, the vessel looks up at the white crowned creature standing in front of them.

It is much, much bigger up close. 

Slowly, its neck bends until its head is looking down at them. Underneath its helmet, a sliver of white eyes were watching, and they were empty.

The creature slightly bends at one knee, as if to bow. Then, it raises its large, curved blade high above the vessel's head.

The road goes on, and on, and on.

[pokedocbedlam]

Decided to make a series of body headcanons for Selkie AU now that I've had more time to think about and draw everyone! So let's get started with the twins!

Putting under readmore to be safe, even though they’re only shirtless.

Notes on Ingo!

-Doesn’t retain many scars, but he does have one on his chest that hit quite hard...is it from an Alpha Pokemon as is often HC’d, or somewhere else?

-Yes, those are all the tattoos from the “Poetry in Ink” fic. Full sleeves of his Hisui and Modern teams, the triangle (that I forgot to shade oops) with his initials, and the railroad tracks on the spine (broken where the worst of his spinal injuries were). Also a wedding ring tattoo in case the physical ring ever gets lost.

-Ingo’s Z-Crystal aligns with his special move as a Guardian Selkie, “Seventh Wave”. Thus, it is a blue Water Z-Crystal!

-Ingo’s hair tends to be long and scruffy, though folks usually don’t see that under his hat.

-Of the two, Ingo has better upper body strength, especially after Hisui. He also tends to be stockier overall, which is perfect for his defensive shield-based fighting style; once this train gets moving, it is nigh impossible to knock him off course.

Notes on Emmet!

-Even less permanent scars than Ingo. However, he’s got a bad case of dermatrillomania, so his shoulders and upper arms are riddled in scabs when he gets stressed. He tries to keep his nails short and gloves on in order to circumvent this.

-His Z-Crystal aligns to his unique move as a Warrior Selkie, “Tempered Edge”! Thus, it’s a silver Steel Z-Crystal!

-Emmet’s actually had most of his tattoos longer than Ingo. The leg tattoo is a growing collection of initials from his many loved ones over the years, while his back tattoo is from a painting one of his previous partners painted. He got his white triangle tattoo to go with Ingo’s black one.

-Emmet keeps his hair shorter in general, and gets antsy if it’s too long. It also tends to be staticky due to the constant Joltiks.

-Emmet is slightly leaner than his twin, though he still has a decent layer of insulation. Where Ingo is more top-heavy with his muscles, Emmet has stronger lower-body strength, which helps with his hit-and-run swordplay tactics.

-As seen here, he defaults to standing on the balls of his feet, and his movements tend to be bouncier.

[ophiocordyceps]

time for a bunch of screenshots of my ultrakill ramblings because i officially have big time brainrot. will put under a readmore so there isnt a million screenshots with their exact content pasted in just in your face

[text: hey girl i’m putting so much thought into robot circulatory systems you wouldn’t even be able to imagine (reacted to with broken heart emoji)

i stand by the idea that machines in ultrakill often have artificial hearts

refueling (except for v1) is basically the same as getting a blood transfusion

they’ve got special ports for doing it but their major 'veins' (tubes in roughly the same regions as the human veins most often used for IV lines, at least in the humanoid ones) are all made of a self sealing material in case they have to be punctured in an emergency

usually the dedicated port would be on the chest or occasionally the crook of the arm but as long as you can assume it's an analog to a vein its fine. 'arteries' are no-go zones however because they’re just as pressurized as an actual human artery and will pump out blood readily

they’re more durably built than the 'veins' in order to keep them intact but they cant seal back up if damaged badly enough. the veins only re-seal for small punctures like needle sticks anyways

the IV ports can function as their own infusion pumps as well in case rapid transfusion is necessary and external equipment isn’t available

v1 is extremely weird i don’t know how it works except that it's circulatory system is partially modeled after some kind of open system. like how invertebrate circulatory systems work. i have no fucking clue whats up with it but i’m thinking about it now

it’s not totally open though because that would mean there’s a LOT of free fluid just. in there

this motherfucker runs on osmosis

its probably more correct to say diffusion than osmosis but um fuck you

anyways as you can tell i’m (frothing at the mouth emoji) /end text]

[text: tangent time i think there’s probably several 'almost-v1's that were like prototypes that just. kinda didn’t work

v1 itself is a prototype but its the one that actually accomplished what it was designed to do

its predecessors may or may not even still be around

they could have been scrapped. who knows /end text]

[text: every day i am very normal and oh so regular about v2 being a peacekeeper btw. i think about this a normal amount and will continue to think about this a normal, average amount

^i may have completely made up this in my brain but i’m sticking with it

anyways i don’t know how i never found this (’this’ being the second V2 terminal entry, text pasted below) on the wiki i’m rotating it so fast:

“After its defeat and escape, V2 dove deeper into Hell, killing other machines for their blood to help its recovery with the intent of taking revenge on V1 and recovering its original arm.After finding a temporary replacement from one of its victims, V2 used parts from other machines to transform the new placeholder arm into a mobility tool that would allow it to catch up to V1's fast descent into the deeper layers.In order to prepare for their second and final encounter, it researched the combat data from their previous battle to copy strategies and techniques from the older and more experienced V1 to give itself an upper hand.However, despite all its preparation, V2 lost again, and unable to escape this time, was brought to a swift and decisive end by its predecessor.”

yeah i think i totally made up that detail but there’s something about a war machine who's intended purpose became so completely irrelevant that it is instead reworked to function in times of peace in whatever possible role would be available that's so .

as opposed to kill kill bite maim explode v1 /end text]

[text: v2 IS a war machine and totally capable of fulfilling that role whenever but since there was no need for war machines by the time it was prototyped it’s not bound by any singular hard-coded mission. it’s like when the military makes something it absolutely intends on using for killing and then it’s just. no longer necessary, like at all. never gets used as intended. maybe gets recycled for something else entirely but i don’t know if the military does that because i don’t care about the military. but you understand what i’m saying here

i have so many thoughts about. funny robot

put v2 back in there. please. girl please survive

hakita i love your product but i’m gonna have to go and ignore this one (followed up by a screenshot of part of the ultrakill wiki stating “Due to the constant rumors that V2 actually survived the second fight in [ 4-4: CLAIR DE SOLEIL ], Hakita (fortunately or unfortunately) confirmed that V2 is 100% Dead.”) /end text]

[text: so yeah thinking about it again v2 wasn’t built with the actual intent of it being a peacekeeper but it chose to be one and stuck with that for (indeterminate amount of time because the timeline of events in ultrakill is barely anything)

and then things got fucky. and it was kinda like well. shit. and started getting more aimless. and then v1 showed up and put sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much spite into it

go girl give us nothing (apathy and spitefulness)

watch how hard i can make shit up /end text]

anyways im 100% sure these arent proper image ids but hopefully they work well enough if the images cant be read for one reason or another. also the icon im using in the server i sent these in was drawn by @/antibio go look at their art it fucks

[lorata]

hey i just wanted to let you know your theme is a bit broken for me on mobile? it shows nothing there for the readmores (which i only realized were there because you kept saying "fic below!" and there was... no visible fic, frowny face) and some of the pictures get smushed vertically. just thought i would let you know because sometimes these things aren't noticeable from the blog owner's end, and also idk maybe the comments will all be like "what? this is not a thing" and i'll learn something is wrong on my end. hope you have a great day :)

............. but .... why .................................

sigh. so the theme is a bit ~~clever~~ in that it lets you preview posts by using the eyeball icon without leaving your spot on the dash

APPARENTLY right now that means is it removes the readmore entirely? ...... that ... makes no sense ...............

anyway you CAN read the post by clicking the eyeball (and then X out of it at the end to close and return to the dash) but without the readmore ........ how ... are people supposed ... to know ...

OK I will fiddle with it and see if that's intended or if I borked something. thank you for letting me know! right now thanks to this ask I just realized that embedded youtube videos ignore page width and make the mobile site unusable. lol!!! fml

OKAY IT'S FIXED there will now be a readmore link to click on that will take you to the permalink page

you can still click the eyeball to stay on the dash but at least you'll know there's something TO click on. l o l !!!

(I'm gonna reblog the last few things that had writing in case people missed it. oops!)

[sunderedazem]

SWTOR Commander ask game!

Tagged (via DM) by @sithwarblade and tagging @voiceofthetraveler (in case you haven't done it yet!)

Mostly under a readmore because oh my GOD i have so many blorbo thoughts. and all of them are completely self-indulgent

1) Who’s your Alliance Commander? What class are they? Alignment? Random other facts you wanna share?

My Jedi Knight, Corrain Gealai! Functionally, he leans Light Side, but by the time of Zakuul's attack he's far less unwilling to dabble with the Dark Side, and is remarkably skilled at throwing Force Lightning when he's angry.

2) What’s a reason or two you like that this character is your Commander?

Honestly? Corrain becoming the Alliance Commander actually - finally - allows him to grow past what Vitiate did to him aboard the Emperor's Fortress, and even though he leaves the Jedi Order in the process of choosing the Alliance, he becomes more of a true Jedi than ever before.

Corrain's biggest, most detrimental attachments weren't actually his relationships with others, as he feared - they were his attachments to concepts. Concepts of an idealized image of himself, the Republic, and the Jedi Order. He spends so much effort trying to be Perfect, to live up to this idealized version of himself that he believes is expected of him, even while his faith in the Republic (especially Saresh's government) is crumbling, that ironically he fails as a Jedi. He's attached to his failures - he refuses to process the pain he's felt, refuses to acknowledge the open wound that was his agency and free will being stripped away - and therefore, because he cannot let go, because he represses these emotions, he lashes out- at Saresh, at a Republic he believes is failing, and at Satele.

Becoming Alliance Commander - and leaving the Jedi Order, with Satele's blessing - essentially strips him of these self-imposed expectations. Satele is the one who eventually smacks him with that reality in the fic, but it's the distance he needs to come to terms with what he's suffered and who he's become outside of the hyper-strict framework he's created for himself.

But beyond Corrain's arc, the main reason I like him being the Alliance Commander is that, well - he's a Jedi at heart, and pretty much always will be. But unlike my consular Kalvonût, who's quieter and more bookish, devoted to healing others and being the conscience of the Senate and Jedi Order, Corrain is passionate and loud about it. He's an idealist who's had to re-center his ideals on something sustainable - who's had to rebuild his identity, ethics, and beliefs around something healthy after being broken down - and he will NOT sit around and wait for someone else to Fix Things. He challenges authority he thinks is illegitimate or self-serving, and is, generally speaking - a spark, waiting to burst into flame. He's all fire on the inside, he just has to figure out how to channel that fire constructively and not into some kind of cult of personality. looking at you, Sekulyn

3) What’s a reason or two you don’t like about them being Commander?

He's young, hurting, and trying to lead a rebellion against his tyrannical half-siblings in the midst of a self-identity crisis while the ghost of his own father is stuck inside his skull. He's well-past needing therapy. And on top of that entire mess of a sentence you just read - Corrain has still not told a soul about the fact that he's under Vitiate's Castellan mind control.

Therefore, the leader of the Alliance can be controlled - or forced into a life-threatening series of tonic-clonic seizures, depending on how hard Corrain fights it - with the revelation of a single phrase. (Valkorion - who's shown to be at least somewhat separate from Vitiate and Tenebrae - does eventually discover this keyword. It's bad.) This is a Massively Glaring Weakness and Corrain refuses to bring it up out of fear that acknowledging this weak point will lead to someone finding and using his keywords again.

Furthermore, his hatred and fear of Valkorion (while rational) makes him act irrationally. He lashes out more than once at Senya and Koth when they bring up Valkorion's generosity or benevolence, and it makes him sneer at Zakuul rather than try to understand Valkorion as anything more than the monster he'd been, rather than an individual with a complex agenda, preying off a complex society.

4) Why did this character of all your OCs become Commander?

Honest answer - Corrain is the only character I've completed the KOTXX expansions on, because he's the center of my hyperfixations on this game asjdhfkjsdfaksd. I've made five toons of him. help.

In-Legacy answer - 1) It's a Scion prophecy that Corrain ends up fitting into 2) Corrain hates Vitiate with a blazing passion and will do ANYTHING to destroy him once and for-all and 3) Corrain is the only one of my OCs who's disillusioned enough with their government AND selfless enough AND fiery enough to ignite a cross-faction joint rebellion and then work himself to the bone to keep that rebellion going in the form of an independent nation committed to galactic peace allied with Zakuul and the Sith Empire even though he's a former Jedi.

6) Are there any NPC’s from the class stories you’d like to see/HC join the Alliance? Ex: Master Timmns, Ardun Kothe, Watcher One, etc.

I'm assuming this doesn't involve companions, so - of the class-story NPCs, Lord Praven is the one I'd most like to see in the Alliance. Honestly, not many of the other NPCs stood out all that much to me in terms of making an impact, save Kothe - but my Imp Agent was too loyal to the Empire and too bitter about the mindfuckery to leave him alive.

7) How’s your OC feeling about the current Malgus situation?

Well, in the Moonrise legacy, the Onslaught expansion....doesn't really happen. I've repurposed Zildrog for something else entirely, and so there's a fairly strong canon divergence following the Nathema Conspiracy arc. But Malgus still does his Malgus Things - it's just smaller scale - and so Corrain is more irritated by his antics than anything, and lends Acina some Eternal Fleet support in her efforts to quash the Nuisance.

8) Are any of your other OC’s part of the Alliance? If yes what do they do for the Alliance? Do they get along with your Commander?

Eiri and Iomlan Greine (Corrain's mother and uncle) both end up joining the Alliance properly! Eiri is my Sith Warrior, and for the most part he actually ends up teaching in the Force Enclave as the Overseer of the Combat Division. He also acts as an Emissary of the Alliance to the Knights of Zakuul after Zakuul's reconstitution as a constitutional monarchy. Iomlan, who was once a Scion, acts as an aide to Sana-rae and assists in the Alliance's medical center as a healer.

As for the semi-affliated folks:

Kessin and their fleet of pirates and smugglers also do plenty of discount work for the Alliance - it's nice having reliable employers - and Kessin in turn keeps the worst of the Nasty Gangs out of Zakuulan and Alliance space where they can. The Exchange and Hutts get everywhere though.

Astayr and xir husband Torian are officially designated as Mandalorion Emissaries to the Alliance and Zakuulan Empire. Xey are one of Shae's top lieutenants, and after Mandalore the Vindicator's death, xey are a powerful voice in Clan Lok and end up allying with Clan Viszla.

Elennye, as a rogue agent only loosely affiliated with the Empire and still puppeting the strings of the remaining Star Cabal, often acts in concord with Alliance interests and is a known ally, but her loyalty falls more with Vaylin than anyone else. She's a permanent contact on Alliance intelligence reports.

(Jury's still out on Deitente - her class quest is the only one I haven't completely played through, but she's not likely to join permanently)

9) How does your OC feel about Odessen? (Bonus: how do you feel about it)

Corrain loves Odessen. It became home for him in a way that no other planet has, and he personally oversees the construction of non-military settlements on the planet (long after the galaxy settles into an uneasy peace)

Personally I like Odessen's design too, it's pretty, especially at night. It...feels kinda lonely, but peaceful, in a melancholy sort of way. I appreciate it.

10) How does your Commander feel about being the Commander?

He hates and loves it. He hates it because he doesn't like the fact that all this responsibility is on his shoulders, and he hates the whole Public Persona thing, but in the same breath he loves it. He loves leading his people, loves taking care of them and Odessen, loves negotiating and problem-solving and collaborating to come to solutions- he loves the fact that he's built a community that's spanned planets and star systems, and he'd give everything he has to keep that community safe and free.

The Eternal Alliance - and later, Zakuul too - are his people. He's found home there, and he will serve his people as long as he's able.

11) Favorite place in the Alliance base?

Hm...Corrain's favorite is the clearing where his personal ship sits. It's very quiet.

Mine? Definitely that little pool where Valkorion drags you off into the Ether to Learn a Lesson or whatever. (fucking valks) it's pretty

12) Favorite mission in KotFE?

Probably "Chapter 8: Taking Flight" - in my Moonrise Legacy, this is where Corrain and Arcann first confront the fact that they're half-brothers - and Corrain almost dies in the confrontation when Valkorion tries to wrest control away from him.

Ironically, it's the odd Force Bond with Vaylin - which developed while he was frozen in carbonite - that saves Corrain's life. Through this bond, Vaylin can sense that Corrain can hold Valkorion at bay, even dying from a lightsaber through the chest, and this concept of Valkorion being caged is DELIGHTFUL to her, so she. helps.

Gameplay-wise, I appreciate how the companions change - and how the companion that comes to save you from the final battle with Arcann changes depending on your relationships in the story.

13) Favorite mission in KotET?

This is tough. Either "Chapter 2: Run for the Shadows" or "Chapter 6: The Dragon's Maw." I love the mission with Acina - especially playing as Corrain - because it's so CRUNCHY to get into the politics. The Republic's former Chancellor - who Corrain's yelled at publicly at least twice - tries to assassinate him and Acina by hiring the amoral GenoHaradan? While he's having peace talks with the Sith Empress? Like this is precisely the shit he hates about the Republic AND Empire both, that some asshat somewhere wants revenge over resolution. Plus, I like Acina. She seems more sensible than some other Sith and I'm very gay for hot Sith ladies.

but then you contrast that against Sneaky Gameplay in the Dragon's Maw and- god. that mission was so fun to try and figure out. AND THE DOGS IN THE MINI MISSION! Perfect. Plus, in my Moonrise Legacy, Vaylin is a lot more stable by this point. Corrain's presence - which is lightside - and their bond has given her space to refamiliarize herself with some emotions, and it culminates here. She comes to the understanding about herself - on her own - that she's not actually holding on to the throne because she wants it, but because that power gives her freedom. Therefore, if Corrain can prove to her that he's strong enough to keep their asshole father from influencing her, she's more than happy to get rid of the responsibility that is the Eternal Throne. So, she challenges Corrain to a duel, as long as he's willing to wait for her to figure out how to unlock her full powers - if he wins, she abdicates and he can take the stupid chair.

14) Least favorite mission in either? Why?

The Iokath mission. Like, I get it? But I'm really not a fan. It annoyed me more than anything, and the whole Iokath arc felt underdeveloped. (hence why I'm repurposing Iokath, Zildrog, and etc for my last, canon-divergent arc of the Moonrise legacy)

15) Is your Commander successful because they’re skilled? Or are they perhaps just really lucky?

In battle, Corrain is successful because he's stupid powerful in the Force - which is a(n un)lucky accident of parentage and family issues - and because he is genuinely a master of lightsaber combat. It's a mix of innate talent and extreme hard work, and lots of practical application.

However, as a leader Corrain is successful because of whom he trusts and surrounds himself with. He's the spark for the flame of rebellion, but it's Lana and Theron and Senya, Koth, T7, Beywan, Oggurobb, Sana-rae, Hylo, etc that make him successful. It's his ability to trust the right people - and sometimes even to forgive the right people - that makes him a successful Commander. Sure - he does a lot of hard work himself, and does his utmost to inspire everyone who looks up to him. But ultimately he succeeds because he knows he can't do everything alone, and he chooses good people to help him. So...neither luck nor skill. Or maybe, his luck and others' skill?

16) From your OC’s point of view, SoR -> KotET wasn’t a fun experience, did they develop any fears as a result?

Corrain didn't develop any new fears - only worsened existing ones, really. Namely - his crippling fear of Vitiate and his own powerlessness in the face of his keyword. It comes back to bite him in the ass HARD later.

Instead SoR -> KOTET was actually more a time of personal healing for him, oddly enough. SoR is where Corrain started shedding his unhealthy expectations of himself as a Jedi, and grew close with Lana and Theron, allowing himself an emotional outlet he'd never had before. Sure - both Lana and Theron had heard of him, but they hadn't met and known him *before* he was under Vitiate's thrall, which meant he felt a lot better about just...being himself around them.

17) AU time! If your Commander wasn’t Commander, which of your other OCs would have likely taken their place?

If Corrain wasn't my Commander, it more than likely would've been Eiri and Kalvonut who took his place, working in tandem. Kalvonut would've handled the administrative back-end, and Eiri would be the face of their operation.

18) Who’s someone your Commander hopes they never have to deal with again?

Besides Vitiate/Valkorion? Saresh. Corrain's got a spiteful streak, to be honest, and he's more than willing to keep her in jail until the Republic grovels enough - not that they're particularly keen on having Saresh back.

19) Does your Commander hold on to/still use any titles they earned before KotET?

No. Corrain will still allow Kira to call him "Master" because he knows it's a tough habit to break, but he officially drops all titles related to the Jedi Order after he leaves and becomes the Alliance Commander. He knows that being a Jedi is a commitment - it's a paramount commitment - and it's not a commitment he can make anymore, not after finding a home in the Alliance and Zakuul, and leading them. He has obligations to them now, and he does choose the Alliance and Zakuul, and his family over the Jedi. He still gets invited to all the Jedi Parties though :P

20) Share something, anything at all, you want about your Commander that you’ve not really gotten the chance to share before but really want to.

Corrain's affinity with Force Lightning is in part due to his constant torture-by-electrocution on board the Emperor's Fortress. He has an extremely tactile connection to the Force for some reason, with physical sensation nearly always accompanying his perception of it, and therefore after suffering electrocution in pretty much every way, shape or form, he's extremely familiar with the physical sensation of lightning, and forcing that lightning into a constricted conduit. Therefore, he's also particularly good at recreating it.

This Force Lightning affinity is, however, a Dark Side ability. It's not one he can conjure with the Light side of the Force. What happens instead, when he finally is at peace enough with himself to find out, is that he manages to ignite a 'Force Flame.' This particular expression of the Force isn't an offensive ability in any way and it doesn't burn or harm others - it's just what happens when the Light side of the Force, like Force Lightning, presses a lot of power into a small conduit, i.e. his body.

He figures out later that this specific power is meant to destroy? heal? Force voids (such as Nathema). So this weird little made-up Force ability I invented that is certainly Not how the Force Actually Works but fuck canon my city now is meant to burn away nothingness by- existing, setting Nathema alight in the Force again.

After all, a void ceases to exist the moment something appears inside it - because then it is no longer nothingness. There's something there. And Corrain is the little light that the Force put in place to destroy the void - Valkorion.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE TAG i am VERBOSE tho

[brown-little-robin]

I'm curious about Ten!

👁️ - How do other people perceive this oc? How close do their first assumptions come to the truth?

🧠 - What is their stress response: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?

💭 - How is their mental health? Do they struggle with guilt or shame?

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

✨ - Tell something that makes this oc feel happy!

🐺 - How does this oc deal with solitude?

🔅 - How does this oc deal with physical pain?

🌱 - Share one of this oc’s early memories.

🌕 - If this oc was an animal, what kind would they be?

Hi! Thanks for the ask forever ago. Here's your answers about Ten at last! So, just... for context, I'm going to explain Ten's whole deal, which of course involves spoilers, so— readmore:

Ten is the clone who killed Bart Allen. (don't worry, Bart came back.) He's the clone from Flash: Fastest Man Alive. He was stuck in the Flash museum as a living statue (able to think and perceive at real speed but not move) for years. Two and Four rescued him.

👁️ - How do other people perceive this oc? How close do their first assumptions come to the truth?

If you'd heard of his history as Inertia, you'd expect something more vicious than what you get. Ten is just... lost.

Ten's kind of unsettling regardless of his history, though. He's physically older than the other clones (I'm still figuring out the details, but he was the same age as Bart when he was frozen in F:FMA). So he looks like he should be as mature as an older teenager. It throws people for a loop when they see his nearly-adult body and then find out he's nonverbal and emotionally unstable.

On first meeting him, people might perceive him as "low-functioning". Ten wears only blue (he refuses to be parted from his blue hoodie with the word "WALLOWS" on it) and always has these big blue headphones on him—he's near-constantly listening to music, tucked away in his own private world. He moves slow unless he's freaked out. At best, Ten looks cozy in a "don't talk to me" way. But people severely underestimate his intelligence.

🧠 - What is their stress response: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn?

Fight and/or freeze. Fight was his response before the museum, but the years in there taught his brain that the best way to survive was to stop functioning. If he's scared, he'll either lash out or shut down.

💭 - How is their mental health? Do they struggle with guilt or shame?

Ten's mental health is awful, bless him. He's nonverbal. He spaces out. He has no appetite. Perhaps worst of all, he has a very shaky grip on reality. He experiences paranoid delusions, but due to the nonverbal thing (which extends to writing) no one figures that out for a while. It's so hard for so long for Ten to stay grounded in reality that he really doesn't have the capacity to deal with guilt, even though he's one of only three surviving clones to have committed murder. When his mental health starts to improve, yeah, he starts to feel shame—for being "broken" as much as for having killed Bart.

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

See above: at first, his grip on reality simply doesn't allow him to even consider forgiveness. Everything is life-or-death to Ten when he's having a paranoid episode. But later, when he gets better, forgiveness comes very slowly. He'd rather not think about wrongs done (in case of panic and/or triggering an episode) than think about forgiveness or revenge. Thus distracting himself with music.

✨ - Tell something that makes this oc feel happy!

Quilting! Weaving and quilting! The complex patterns are really relaxing to him. Bonus points if someone is in the room with him just talking to him about random stuff in their life. It helps ground him, plus Ten enjoys it when someone talks to him without expecting him to contribute to the conversation. It's nice.

🐺 - How does this oc deal with solitude?

Ten hates being alone. He hangs around with Adeline and Joseph when he can. If he absolutely has to be alone, he listens to music and/or audiobooks to keep himself occupied.

🔅 - How does this oc deal with physical pain?

Ten's not bothered by physical pain. He can deal with it fine. He actually likes that he can bruise now that he's not a speedster, which is maybe not the most mentally healthy but hey, everyone's just grateful that Ten never goes further than messing with his bruises. He likes the reminder that he's real and can feel pain again. But he hates blood. It freaks him out. Blood dripped into his eye (from where his goggles broke and cut him over the eye) when he was stuck in the museum, and he couldn't blink it away.

🌱 - Share one of this oc’s early memories.

Listening to rock music with CRAYDL! They loved Pink Floyd. Ten is the clone who brought back CDs from the past for his AI companion.

🌕 - If this oc was an animal, what kind would they be?

A cat, like Two. :3

[corkisms]

Dude I am super excited to read about Eldritch Duke and Eldritch Bain’s backstory!!

im soo mad i had such a comprehensive answer to this post and tumblr ATE IT so now i gotta rewrite the whole thing from memory. hell on earth :[

alright i CANNOT take credit for eldritch bain thats @des-paa-cee-toeee BABYY!!! eldritch duke came about on a whim before i knew abt despaa’s take on eldritch bain but it was soooo fun learning abt this bain and throwing ideas at the wall (discord dms) to see what stuck (exploded in the microwave). i cant speak to bain's origins bc im still learning them myself but ive got some eldritch duke facts down. readmore placed below to contain the brainspill ^_^ (and it really is one hell of a brainspill like it got way longer than i intended so sorry in advance😭)

right so dukes a university student in the late 60s/early 70s(?)

hes taking part in an archaeology project with one of his classmates in a forest near his uni (studying bone fragments, arrowheads, just collecting random samples) and keeping audio logs of the whole project

his classmate strays too far and messes around in a bunch of forestbeings' turf

the beings retaliate by possessing/driving the classmate mad

classmate offs duke via rock crimes (fly high babe) and duke gets to spend some time getting acquainted with the spirits in the trees

one of the forestbeings decides that that was kinda fucked up in hindsight and takes pity on duke, searing life and consciousness back into his broken body and resurrecting him from the mud as a nothuman trapped in a mostly mortal vessel (you work with what ya got)

this process might take a while but idk if itll make up the 20 yr gap in his lifespan yet (give that hes 20ish in the 70s and shows up in pd2 in 2017 as a 50 yr old and not a 70 yr old)

i just think hes neat!

tbh idk how i actually feel abt writing this duke au given that i think im also writing some other stuff rn but i looove gnawing on it when im spaced out during class its like my screensaver. i actually started a little smthg as a sort of taste-test for this au where its a police report on the case of duke's initial disappearance in the 70s, documenting the weird facts from an in-universe after-the-fact pov (i am such a sucker for dramatic irony its not funny) and working through the story in the form of aforementioned audio logs. pasting the scraps below

~

Friends initially report 20-year-old August Lindenhurst missing on August 18th, 1968.

Over summer break, Lindenhurst had been taking part in a month-long personal project proposed by 19-year-old Gillian 'Gill' Dorsey, both students at Dennington University. Classmates became concerned when the project's allotted time period ended and Lindenhurst had still not returned to campus. He and Dorsey were last seen entering the forest behind the main building (see map in addendum 2A) with bags one month prior. Investigators organized search teams, which found their equipment still intact in a makeshift bell tent approximately 1.8 miles from campus, and CSI later noted that the project seemed largely archaeological in nature. Around the same time the tent was discovered, a welfare check conducted on Dorsey's dorm discovered her partially decomposed body still in bed (Dorsey case filed separately, though it shares many unusual circumstances with this one).

CSI recovered a collection of microtapes from the tent in the forest, dated throughout the month as audio logs leading up to Lindenhurst's disappearance. Detective Greene was able to transcribe a majority of the logs’ content despite questionable integrity following recent storms. Following analysis of the tapes, the Lindenhurst case was changed from missing persons to homicide. Transcripts deemed relevant to the case are attached below (transcripts for the rest of the tapes available in addendum 2F).

~

and then the transcript of the first tape starts! from there the rest of the story plays out over multiple tapes as duke n his classmate (using gill dorsey as a placeholder name for no reason in particular) pick through tiny buried oddities over the course of about a month. all the while we see signs that theres Something In These Woods thrown in (discussing strange dreams in passing, unidentified voices heard on tape, odd changes in behavior seen in casual conversation, etc) leading up to the discovery of The Final Tape later on in the case, recorded on the day the project was supposed to end 

~

The original recorder was recovered in a clearing approx. 600 feet from the tent. Clear signs of a fight present in surroundings (see addendum 3A-3G). Blood at the scene matched with Lindenhurst. The recorder still contained the most recent (presumably final) microtape inside. Det. Greene reassigned for transcription.

~

and then we get into the nitty gritty of the day of the attack. the report basically concludes with “well that was fucked up” given that lindenhurst’s killer classmate is also dead under mysterious circumstances (found in bed with their mouth and lungs all full of dirt, more thoughts on that but this post is more than long enough rn) so theres kinda. no one to prosecute. the story itself ends with the whole case file being completely wiped by bain, revealing that we were just reading the report along with him the entire time as part of a background check on duke. hes troubled by the implications to say the least, like sorry man you found more than you bargained for in this funky crime grandpa!! the whole ‘coming back nothuman’ thing isnt super covered in this version of the story bc it is still just a police report and obvs cant have ALL the details but that does still happen

thoughts n suggestions n corrections welcome i love having thoughts and making words i love it to bloody pieces. i love kneading ideas in my brain like dough. also ty for reading this far mwah 😭 😭 😭

[travelingparties]

11 Grasping

Prev | Next

*(Solo TTRPG Journaling based on Wanderhome by @jdragsky)*

*text under readmore in case you can't read my tiny handwriting*

Today, the girl and I set out on our journey. I woke her up before sunrise, to make our escape before the city became full of life. Too many dangers.

She’s afraid, I can tell.

I found an old map among my things to take with us, it should prove useful. If I’m correct, it’ll take us a little less than a day to make it to the next town over, where we can stop for the night. I’ve also broken into my savings jar in order to hire a local peddler to act as a caravan, at least for now. It’s easier than traveling on foot. I fear, though, that I may need to find odd jobs to do in each city we stay in, in order to keep paying for his services.

His name is Tiberius and, while I do not consider myself a cruel sort, he is particularly ugly, inside and out. Most peddlers tend to be; obsessed with their wares and their coin and their numbers. He is a unique sort, though. One of those cats with no fur, who has to overcompensate by wearing pounds of bumble wool. The girl keeps asking him where his fur went.

I am urging her to stay silent, but it is difficult with Tiberius around. He refuses to cease his endless yapping. He asks about me, and her, and where her parents are, and why we hired him, and for how long… I have half a mind to steal his beetle myself and kick him out of the caravan, but I remain silently seething.

If there is one piece of good to come out of his inability to not speak, it’s that song he keeps humming. The girl seemed fascinated by it, tapping her fingers to the beat. When he noticed, he asked her if she would like to learn it and she said yes. It’s an old aria, he explained, from his ancestors, passed down through generations. I think that sounds like a load of hogwash, peddlers have a tendency to make nice lies, but the girl loved the story and the song. It’s the first time I’ve seen her smile since I met her.

I decided to start calling her Aria. Maybe, if she can smile along and believe in Tiberius, perhaps I should start trying to believe in her as well.

I always did want to name my daughter Aria, but the chance always passed me by.

We’ve arrived in town, now. And we’ll be staying here for two days before taking off again. I have the money for two nights in the inn, but I’ll need to find work in order to pay Tiberius for passage to the next town. Though, if I can find my own wagon, I might not mind leaving him behind.

It’s been a long time since I stepped foot into this town. I attended university here, once, when I was still young and hopeful. Perhaps it’s the one thing that saved me from Her wrath all those years ago. I wonder if any of my old mentors are still here. It would be nice to see at least one familiar face.

Finding work was difficult. The markets are always full of vendors, but none willing to hire for a day's work. Aria seems overwhelmed by the noise. I nearly had a heart attack when I realized she had run off somewhere. Tiberius found her by a pen of rather impressive bumbles for sale, petting them gently. I had to apologize to the owner. I don’t know how to punish a child that could kill me.

The local shrine was a bust as well. Aria found old food offerings, ones that had already gone bad, and couldn’t help herself. I snapped at her and now I feel guilty. Does she even know who she is? Do I?

I’ll buy her a nice meal tonight to apologize, but I worry our funds are dwindling. We’ve barely even started our journey and it could be over by tomorrow night. Tiberius finally took pity and offered me a job. A small delivery job to the university. The teachers there purchase a fresh order of textbooks every semester. He said he’d give us free passage to the next town if we delivered them for him tomorrow.

I’m not sure how long we’ll be able to keep this up, but I’m going to keep up my optimism and hope that we’ll make it through.