#ark enforcer

[aceofintuition]

Been doing some sprites for Infinite Fusion during slow periods at work and I've somehow made myself a niche of spriting up all the specevo and custom creatures featured in Ark.

[teecupangel]

Submitted by @saberamane

I’m finally back with the Ark/AC Fusion!!

 They reach the deepest depths of the subterranean cave they’ve called home for the past while, and find the platform for the final ‘boss’ of the area. Entering, they encounter the deformed, tentacled monster that was once ‘Rockwell’ (which Ezio says, firmly, that that was on the list of things he definitely wouldn’t consider having sex with), and in time, put him out of his misery.

As the portal readies to ‘ascend’ them, Desmond says a last, tearful farewell to his Reaper, placing it in a cryo pod and leaving it in the saddle of his rock drake.

As they are lifted up, following the spinal like machinery back up towards they came down, all the broken down machines begin to light up until they reach the very beginning of where they started. A bright flash of light and the portal whisks them away.

Only this time, they are not transported through space to a new ‘ark’, they are sent to earth. And earth does not look good. There are spires of crystallized element erupting from the ground, and the dirt is dry as dust and lifeless, not a single spec of green anywhere to be seen. And the creatures are ‘infected’ with the element as well, large parts of them replaced with black and purple, looking like decayed flesh.

They’ve barely taken in their surroundings when these infected creatures begin to take notice, and run towards them.

Surprisingly they’re saved, by a white and red tek Giga of all things. And who does Desmond see on it’s back?

Clay.

Desmond:

Velonasaur

Gasbag

Defense Unit

Mega Mek

Forest Wyvern

Ice Titan

Altair:

Enforcer

Scout

Gacha

Rubble Golem

Thylacoleo

Yeti

Ezio:

Managarmr (Because they’re flashy as fuck, and Ezio is all about the ‘bling’, lol)

Dire Bear

Tapejara

Rex (Ol’ reliable lol)

Daeodon

Desert Titan

Ratonhnhaké:ton:

Snow Owl (I just feel he’d really like their heat vision, and they can heal which would help him when exploring.)

Rock Elemental (Because sometimes you just need a tanky boy.)

Yutyranus

Megalosaurus (Cave runs!)

Iguanodon

Forest Titan

Clay!!: He Lives!! And only has tek Creatures

Tek Giga (totally hacked, not legit tame AT ALL, because you can’t legit get them.)

Tek Rex

Tek Raptor Pack

Tek Quetzal

Tek Parasaur

Enforcer

And as a surprise, Clay, the best man to ever live, hacks an orbital drop to get Desmond’s Reaper for him. And he is definitely judging Desmond about this, even though he knows how this happens. I mean, Desmond could have just left the thing out in the wild to fend for itself…

Now then, how is Clay here? He doesn’t know exactly. He woke up on ‘Extinction’ with that weird gem thing in his wrist, and all engrams/dossier’s unlocked. For a long while he thought he was still in an animus or something…

Also, he is linked to Ezio, and Ezio only, so when Ezio dies… Clay does too. And the first time it happens is a surprise to everyone BUT Desmond. Clay is not please with being linked to someone else, especially when they die often…

=============

Additions from teecup:

The Ark Survival Evolved AU idea (this one and this one too)

Tames for The Island Ark

Tames for the Scorched Earth Ark

Tames for the Aberration Ark

Clay would add an interesting dynamic to the mix too, especially if he’s being a chaotic gremlin.

Also, the fact that Clay can hack the system is such an OP move at this point that I think we need to give Clay a disadvantage of some kind to level the playing field (because the other OP character we have is Desmond and his OP-ness is ‘random’ as far as everyone knows although it seemed to have a higher chance of working on bosses which is more of a rule of funny than anything else).

May I suggest, Clay actually has the lowest ‘stats’ of the four? Like, yeah, he has all engrams/dossiers unlocked BUT he gets tired and hungry quicker than anybody else and his inventory is lower than the others (even if he ups his inventory using other means like a mount, it is still lower than it should be).

Clay thinks someone is out to get him because he’s cheating the system or because he’s not meant to be there in the first place and his entire existence was some sort of accident. Maybe even both!

So, because of Clay’s ‘limitation’, he tends to stay near the base because (1) he’s squishy so he could easily die and (2) if Ezio dies, he dies anyway. Staying near the base means that anything that stayed on his ‘corpse’ could be retrieved if necessary.

Desmond

Reaper does not count as a tame in this ark because Reaper is technically a ‘mod’ at this point and it seems to aggro everything that sees it so, yeah, his Reaper is safer in the base as a lookout/patrol. Full on bored kid always happy to see their working parent come home and play with them vibes.

His Velonasaur usually joins him when he’s out in the ‘wilds’, acting as both a decoy and a DPS attacker with his thorn and spine attacks to keep the enemy (especially flying ones) switching between two or more targets. He also sometimes acts as a scout but Desmond prefers him to stay close by as more of an early radar if Desmond is too focused on one direction.

Gasbag was tamed sorta unintentionally? Desmond found a Gasbag wounded and he felt bad for the poor fella so he gave him food to try and heal him. That amount of food was enough to tame him (and maybe Desmond’s random glitchy taming ability might also be in play) and he followed Desmond back to the base. He works more as both pack mule and also a source for more oxygen. Desmond definitely does not like him to be part of any fighting because he just sees him as a sweet mild-mannered tame, even going as far as feeling scandalous when Altaïr suggested that he could be a good decoy.

Everyone calls bullshit on Desmond taming a Defense Unit. Like, everyone knows by now that if there is any monster/creature/whatever that could not be tamed in this Ark, it would be the sci-fi looking crab robot thingie. Desmond swears he tamed him the ‘natural way’. They all think it’s bullshit but, at this point, they just accepted that Desmond was bound to freaking tame one or two untameables this time anyway. The Defense Unit itself is kept near the base as more of patrol and it likes to attack anything near the base that doesn’t register as an ally to Desmond. This does mean that any other patrolling tames usually grabs the carcass of anything the Defense Unit has killed back to the base for easy ‘good boy’ praises (even though everyone knows it was probably killed by the Defense Unit). 

Altaïr built the Mega Mek after a few Meks have been built that have a prototype hidden blades. Desmond gave him the big puppy dog “I want one pleeeasse?” eyes after seeing Altaïr’s own Enforcer and hearing how he liked watching shows of robots fighting back in New York. Everyone gives Altaïr the knowing ‘you’re so totally whipped’ look when he presented the Mega Mek (which was created using the previous experimental Meks) to Desmond. This is Desmond’s preferred vehicle of choice and as a Vorpal TEK Cleaver as its main right hand weapon and Altaïr’s latest hidden blade attachment as its left hand weapon (the next version will have a hook blade attachment because Ezio insists)

Because of Mega Mek, the Forest Wyvern is usually used for aerial attacks or if Desmond needs to scout some place from high up. Forest Wyvern is also his usual go to AOE attacker and Gasbag is afraid of the fire. 

Unsurprisingly, the Ice Titan serves as the main attacker in Desmond’s ‘pack’. Desmond and the Ice Titan usually tag team every enemy into oblivion while it’s distracted by the Forest Wyvern or the Velonasaur. Desmond never leaves the base without his buddy Ice Titan (which he may or may not be calling Vanilla Ice, Clay stresses he should not be allowed to call him Vanilla Ice).

Altaïr

The Enforcer is his main mount mostly because of how adaptable to the environment it is. His Enforcer is usually called Altaïr’s Monster by Clay because it’s not just one ‘tamed’ Enforcer. It’s multiple Enforcers all ‘stitched up’ by Altaïr’s audacity after he learned that fully crafted Enforcers can only be level 1 and he hates the game of chance of having enemy Enforcers leave blueprints of random quality so he just went “I’ll take my base Enforcer and just keep upgrading him with other Enforcers parts”. Clay is sure cannibalizing parts from other Enforcers is also against the rule but everyone just accepts it because Altaïr is already in his mad scientist phase and every mad scientist needs to create a monster that may become their undoing as a treat. Why is the Enforcer most probably going to be his undoing? Well, it’s a modded Enforcer for all intents and purposes so it is one of their highest damage dealing ‘tames’ at the moment (maybe only rivaled by the Mega Mek)

As the name says, Scout is usually used by Altaïr to scout around so Altaïr could plan his route better. Unlike the Enforcer, Altaïr didn’t bother to mod his Scout BUT he does have a lot lying around the base because of their varying qualities so everyone believes he plans to mod his current Scout at one point or another. It is also sometimes used to lure targets into traps or, if Altaïr believes that Desmond plans to go to a dangerous area OR thinks Desmond might be planning something stupid, he would let Desmond ‘borrow’ his Scout and the Scout’s only instruction is to keep healing Desmond’s Mega Mek. Desmond can’t even use it to scout around because the Scout’s main and only order as far as its concern is to keep healing the Mega Mek. 

The Gacha stays in the base to keep producing resources, especially crystals. Altaïr tried to make a farm but noticed that the Gachas tend to become sad if Gachas of the same gender are near each other and then Altaïr had to get a female Gacha for both of them to stop being sad then they had children. At some point, Altaïr had unintentionally built a large enclosure to ensure the current Gachas are not sad OR trying to overwhelm the base’s population with more baby Gachas. (Clay had suggested they just kill the excess Gachas, at which Altaïr grumbled that Desmond wouldn’t like that if he heard about it and Clay just made a whipping sound). One of them actually gives loot instead and Altaïr is trying to study how the hell that happened. 

So apparently Rubble Golem cannot be tamed but Rock Elemental can be? But if we want Altaïr to have a Rubble Golem instead, we can make it as a thank you gift from Desmond for the Mega Mek? Either way, this one is mainly used to mine resources for Altaïr’s ‘studies’.

It might not be his original Thylacoleo but Altaïr tends to forget that at times. It doesn’t mind. It mostly stays near Altaïr acting like an oversized lazy cat.

Okay. So this one is weird. There’s a Yeti in a cave near their base and Altaïr is currently studying it from afar because… it’s sorta a fascinating creature to him? Like it seemed to understand them to some degree and he would like to study it further before killing it (if the need to kill it does come up in the first place). Clay jokes that, soon enough, that Yeti will start learning sign language. That only made Altaïr curious if that would be possible.

Ezio:

Ezio would insist that he got a Managarmr because he’s all about the bling as Clay and Desmond like to tease. But also, the Managarmr is one of the more ‘dangerous’ mounts to use as they can attract aggro easily thanks to their ambush attacks and flashiness sooooo… there may be a reason why Clay dies a lot in this game thanks to Ezio XD (because of this though, Ezio’s other tames rarely, if ever, get hurt)

If Ratonhnhaké:ton’s previous Dire Bear was more on the attacking and mule side, Ezio’s Dire Bear is more of a jack of all trades but master of not. Loves to gather everything and anything it sees to get pets from Ezio. Fast enough that it could be used as a scout. Definitely packs a punch. And can take more weight than most. 

Tapejara is his aerial support and usually used to ferry him and his other tames into usually inaccessible areas. Tapejara is highly skilled because it does a lot of things, including stealing eggs while the mother is distracted.

Th T-rex is called Cars 2 (in honor of Desmond's T Rex named Car) which Clay claims to be an underrated Pixar movie that deserves more love. Desmond insists Clay is being sarcastic. Nobody else gets the reference.

Daeodon is a tame that everyone insists (especially Clay!) that Ezio brings with him because of its healing abilities. Seriously, Ezio needs it the most this time around for some reason (there are theories that the monsters that easily aggros on Ezio might have ‘smelled’ or ‘felt’ his connection to Clay and that’s the reason why Ezio has the second highest respawns in this around, 1st is Clay and that’s because of Ezio’s deaths mostly. It really says something that Desmond who would have to respawn if anyone BUT Clay dies is the 3rd highest this time around and he likes to ‘take a walk’)

The Desert Titan is usually used as a mobile base and Ezio taught it how to grab his corpse and run away. Actually, his tames had been taught of “Dead Ezio Protocol” which can be summarized as ‘grab Ezio’s corpse and find a safe place while keeping each other safe’. The Desert Titan usually served as the leader in that scenario with the Managarmr becoming bait and decoy while Tapejara flies back to the base to get Ezio.

Ratonhnhaké:ton

Absolutely agree. Ratonhnhaké:ton would like Snow Owl’s utility and also use him as a messenger if any of the others are nearby.

Rock Elemental: Yeeeess, the tank of Ratonhnhaké:ton’s pack and also the real MVP considering the amount of fighting they do.

Ratonhnhaké:ton let Desmond name Yutyrannus “Yuty Junior” in honor of the first Yuty. Ratonhnhaké:ton’s Yuty though is more on the buff-debuff side than pure damage, giving roars that ups attacks of damaged tames (which tend to happen) and weakens enemies.

Ratonhnhaké:ton asked Altaïr if he’d like to name his Megalosaurus in honor of Altaïr’s old Megalosaurus but Altaïr just reminded Ratonhnhaké:ton that he didn’t exactly name all of his tames. That’s more of Desmond and Ezio’s thing (Clay sighs and tells Desmond that naming them only makes it harder to let them go and Desmond groans that he knows that but he can’t help it, they look so sad without names and Clay will stress that, no, they do not, that Gacha is sad because he’s not getting any Gachussy). In honor of the nameless Megalosaurus, Ratonhnhaké:ton names his Megalosaurus Junior. (No one knows if he’s being serious or if it was a joke)

Iguanodon was one of Ratonhnhaké:ton’s first tames in this Ark but she’s been heavily outclassed by the other tames and the places Ratonhnhaké:ton now goes too can be quite dangerous for her. Mainly, she serves to gather food and act as a pack mule for the pack so they can continue on even longer without returning to base.

Forest Titan has a building on its back that stores most of Ratonhnhaké:ton’s other attack items including weapons, ammos and they serve as a mini-sorta base but not really a base? There is a bed there so Ratonhnhaké:ton can respawn on the back of the Forest Titan (he told Ezio he should do that as well but Ezio’s like ‘naahh, it’ll be fine’). The Forest Titan also serves as an offhand tank if Rock Elemental needs to tap out for a bit.

Clay

Tek Giga might have been the trigger that makes everything aggro at Clay. The Tek Giga was Clay’s first hack and hacking in this Ark takes a long time so he could not do it anymore because of all the aggros. However, with the help of others, Clay is planning to try hacking another one. Maybe even the big boss just for shits and giggles XD

Tek Rex and the Tek Raptor Pack are Clay’s main damagers. He calls them his “Jurassic Park Gang”. Only Desmond gets that reference of course. 

Tek Quetzal is usually his go to mount whenever some big fight is happening and staying on Tek Giga or even Tek Rex would be dangerous.

Tek Parasaur is there to cause chaos, master of hit and run attacks and also… berry gathering. This one looovvveeesss stimberry and the common joke is that it’s tweaking when it’s out gathering stimberries XD

His Enforcer is something he fully crafted on his own and, no, he will not do that abdomination that Altaïr was still doing. At some point, Clay thinks Altaïr should just stop but he knows he won’t. He had a taste of what it feels like to be Frankenstein and he’s going to keep going until the Monster finally says no. (Desmond tells him to stop being so overly dramatic)

[tf-cyberaligned]

Designs for the sequel I am already planning

The Rescue Recruits!!

And some of my lore that will be explored with for all of them!

Wedge

Wedge was formed during the war. He was created through spark bonding between two Decepticons, though he never really met his Parensnatales (parents) due to their assignment within the ranks. Due to his young age, he was put into the energon mines on one of the Deception owned planets on the outskirts of the Milky Way. While he had to fight Autobots sometimes, this planet was relatively uninhabited by Autobots, meaning that many Decepticon children made their home here.

When the war ended, and they returned to Cybertron, Wedge found out that he was orphaned just like many of his miner buddies. While Cybertron was being rebuilt, several mechs had stepped up to take care of and watch over the young Cybertronians left behind. One of these groups was the newly reemerged Protectobots, who were missing one key bot in their lineup. Wedge was one of the young Cybertronians taken in by the team, where he soon learned about rescue work and started to ask for training in it. While Rescue City was being repaired, the Protectobots and several of the old Alpha team members who had returned to the city started to teach small things to the young Cybertronians who were under their care. While some dropped off from the lessons, the others stuck around to become the new rebirth generation of Rescue Bots, which Wedge was one of those.

Whirl

Whirl was also formed during the war, formed from a spark bond due to Ultra Magnus and Whirl Sr. not being careful with their conjunx bonding ceremony. While her designation was Whirlybird, she chose to use just Whirl to mess with mechs on the Lost Light. One day a large energy spike was detected across the Milky Way. While Ultra Magnus went off to investigate the strange anomaly, the Lost Light continued to avoid the attacks of the DJD.

Once the ship was able to reach Cybertron and the whole family was reunited, Whirl Jr. was stumped on what she was wanting to do. Whirl Sr. one day had suggested joining the newly rebuilt Rescue Bots Academy. Due to Ultra Magnus's knowledge of the old laws and regulations of Cybertron, he would teach Whirl Jr. them during his free time. Due to this, she had an immense love for the subject. So when she found out that the academy had enforcers as an option, she jumped at the chance to join. Leading her to join the first wave of new official Rescue Bot Recruits.

Hot Shot and Jolt

Hot Shot was one of the mechs who reemerged from the Well. Jolt's spark connection with him is what allowed him to return. Jolt is his minicon partner, and one of his oldest friends. Hot Shot was one of the many young mechs who had to fight in the war. While he had a naturally forged frame, his spark was transferred to an adult build, offering more protection than his young, weak armor plating he had before. The pair fought side by side during the war as first Optimus's personal scouts, then as a commander of a squadron. Jolt helped to keep to Hot Shot in check, offering guidance to the young soldier. When Hot Shot had become a commander, his role also shifted to being a mentor for a young scout that Optimus had appointed. Hot Shot taught the young scout everything he needed to know, and the pair formed a close friendship. When the young scout had been kidnapped by Megatron while Hot Shot had been shot down, Primus had changed Hot Shot's frame. This new frame while lacking speed, made up for it in strength, allowing the young commander to rescue the young scout at Tyger Pax. After the events at Tyger Pax, the Ark was ready to launch. Hot Shot was meant to be one of the mechs that went on the ship. However as it was launching, the Nemesis had attacked. Hot Shot was one of the fatalities during this attack.

Upon his reemergence from the Well, he was met by the mechs who were looking over the many new sparks and reemerging sparks. After many questions, he was finally reunited with Jolt. After that Hot Shot and Jolt had aimlessly wandered around Cybertron. Hot Shot was one of the mechs who had no Parensnatales, and so he really had no place to go. After some years, the pair heard about a new Cube league forming. Cube was originally a game created during the war by Ratchet for the many young mechs who were forced into the war to have something fun to do. (Also was created to distract them from the Wrecker's game of Lob) Hot Shot remembering the many games he played, joined the league and was soon given a home among the teams. Over time, he had risen to fame, being one of the best players within the league. After a big final game of the season, Optimus had approached him. Shocked to see the meant to be dead leader, Hot Shot didn't believe at first that the mech was really in front of him. However after some time talking, Hot Shot learned that he had been alive for awhile at that point, and had just returned from a mission back to Earth. It was at this point that Optimus had offered him and Jolt a chance to go to the newly reopened Rescue Bots Academy.

Medix

Medix also reemerged from the Well, being one of the mechs that was killed during the Rescue Bots Massacre. Medix is the child of First Aid and Vortex, having been formed by a spark bond during the start of the war. He too was put into an adult frame like Hot Shot was, and when the Protectobots joined the war, he was also brought into it with his cousins. He worked as a tirage medic on the field, being a true pacifist just like his aunt Groove. His team within the Rescue Bots rank was Alpha 2, which consisted of his cousins Skyfeather, Rook, and Heatrock. Skyfeather was their team leader, due to her being the oldest and most experienced out of them. The Alpha 2 team was able to combine with the Alpha 1 team (Protectobots), making the two teams very powerful in terms of the war. Skyfeather and Heatrock were able to combine within the actual Protectobot team, forming Gaia Guardian, while Rook and Medix were able to replace an original team member when they were unable to transform. When Defensor fell at Tagan Heights, Rescue City was left with Alpha 2 leading and protecting it. This is when Megatron decided to strike. Medix watched as his older cousins were slaughtered, before his death and the destruction of Rescue City.

Upon his reemergence, he was reunited with his cousins who also reemerged with him. Together the group made their way to the remains of Rescue City, where they were reunited with Hotspot, First Aid, Streetwise, and Groove. Blade's absence confused them all, but they all were quick to start rebuilding the city. Blades soon reappeared on Cybertron, having survived the war and was the reason that they were all able to reemerge due to his Gestalt bond with his siblings. When the school was rebuilt and reopened, Medix joined the new wave of students coming into the academy, excited to finish his training properly.

Hoist

Hoist, while not apart of the war, was a civilian casualty. His Almatonias (moms) had him before the war broke out. His family had decided to stay out of the war as long as they possibly could, but his death due to an Autobot Wrecker's explosions is what pushed his Almatonias to join the Decepticons.

His Almatonias survived the war, allowing for his reemergence. He was reunited with them, and after Cybertron had been mostly rebuilt, they were encouraging him to choose what he wanted to do in life. Now that the caste system was overthrown, he was allowed to do just that. Hearing about the reopening of the Rescue Bots Academy, and that engineering, one of his passions, was offered at the academy, he applied to be a student there. He was accepted and joined the first wave of new students.

And that is the lore of these guys for the Cyberhumans and Cybertronians sequel! While this story isn't going to be mentioned much until that point in time, I wanted to get these out there as some of the characters will be mentioned within the main story of Cyberaligned. Due to how interwoven I want everything to be, we will be seeing glimpses of Hot Shot and Medix within Blade's memories, as well as meeting Whirl Jr. and Whirl Sr. in one of the future chapters when the Lost Light crashes on Earth.

I hope y'all are excited for this future plot!

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Hobie Brown's Living Room on the S.S Anne Ark

Hobie's living room on the houseboat complete with graffiti, boatcats, and a juke box he's customed himself.

(In depth explainer below - click for higher rez)

Diane took this photo early in the morning while Hobie was still sleeping upstairs. It seems like Moto the cat is already up. [Light mentions of my Spidersona Disco-Spider Diane below] The S.S Anne Ark (get it- AnArch?) is Hobie's home, and arguably his favorite place in the world.

Gifted to him by an old geezer Hobie used to work for, he's been living on Anne for 4 years now - since he was 16.

And this is his living room.

Hobie is by no means a homebody, but when he is home, he spends most of his time here - reading, writing songs, and listening to music.

The Living Area -

Feel free to imagine a LOT more junk here. The living room floor is always covered with his projects - songbooks, or patches, zines - whatever art he's making then. Cause Hobie is always making art. His couch might as well be older than him - and he found it on a curb in Tower Hamlets, called a few favors, and somehow got it in here. But it's the most comfortable thing you'll ever sit on.

The Music/Recording Area -

Almost every song Hobie has recorded or written in the past 4 years has been here. Hobie keeps most of his music equipment in the wooden cabinet and the good stuff that can't fit gets put on display. There's a microphone rigged to the ceiling and mixing equipment for recording. Hobie's motto is the louder the better, and it's a good thing the windows are re-enforced, because his speakers are loud enough to make the glass rattle. There's also a vintage jukebox that Hobie had bartered for a couple years back. Now, he loves tickering with it. He's swapped out the old 50's songs for something more his taste tho.

The Kitchen Area -

Hobie can cook, and he loves it, but being a street kid for so long, he's hardly ever gotten in the habit of doing it. Hobie's kitchen is sparce, partly because the boat is off the grid. His cupboards are mainly full of books and shoes, and his oven is rarely used. However, he has a grill on the back deck - and that's where he does most of his cooking. Once Gwendy came around, Hobie got a lot more into cooking, the kid seemed like she needed a homecooked meal. Hobie mainly eats cheap street food - street kid habits -frequenting fish n' chip places and kebab shops, and yeah, he calls the dude behind the counter 'boss' or something. He also eats a lot of food from convivence stores, like packaged sandwiches and cold pastas. Because they're easy to carry, and when he was younger, they were (literal) life-savers. The taste gives him nostalgia. The thing he makes most in the kitchen is beans on toast. Diane finds it disgusting, which Hobie finds hilarious.

The BoatCats

Hobie is a man of many cats. He looks after the dock and alley cats, catching fish on early mornings (yes, he fishes) to give to them before he has breakfast. All of them have names, and none of them have collars. And Hobie loves them all. Those that are a bit older, weaker, or just want to - get to come live with him as BoatCats. Pictured here: Left - Moto (Personality: Feisty, Calm, Curious) Right - Pierogi, also known as Rogi (Personality: Cuddly, Talkative, Friendly) Hobie does not care much for their genders, and doesn't check.

More about The S.S Anne Ark (I'll be posting an explainer with the outside, layout, etc)

The S.S Anne Ark is a modified wide-beam canal boat. Completely off-the-grid, and DIY'd by him, it's Hobie's pride and joy. The Anne Ark is three levels tall - a 'ground' floor, and upstairs, and a locked basement below the deck. Pictured is the living room. To the left - beside the windows - there is a hallway that leads to Hobie's workshop and the basement Hobie choses to firmly keep private. Not even Gwen, Pavi or Diane have been down there. To the right behind the cat tree is the stairs up to Hobie's bedroom. (You walk up those stairs, hit the landing, turn and go up again.) The Anne Ark has two 'bedrooms' and one 'bathroom'. Hobie's bedroom is what was once the control room, gutted and converted. The second bedroom was once a small equipment space. The small bathroom is up there as well - but it's more of a wet room, with a shower and toilet. There's a sink to wash your hands on the second floor outdoor deck, but it's either that or the kitchen sink.

But that's Anne Ark! And after years of squatting and homelessness as a streetkid, Hobie considers Anne his forever home. And he takes pride in that.

He tries pride in opening Anne's doors for others too - kids in the same spot he was, who just need a little help.

Other little facts about Anne Ark:

Hobie's leather jacket is on the couch. He has multiple, he can't be walking around in the same jacket as Spiderpunk 24/7, right? He has a couple, and the ones he stops wearing, he donates. He usually starts a new one when the last is too cover in patches to continue.

The Anne Ark changes colors.

Diane throws rager after-parties on Anne Ark after the band's shows. She has her own apartment she loves to death, and doesn't sleep over often - maybe staying a weekend or two a month, or crashing after a party. In turn, Hobie hardly ever sleeps at hers. Mainly because her place is merticulously pink, and she says he messes up her throw pillows. He disagrees with the idea of unusable pillows. And with her own crib and bed a portal jump away, they don't feel the need to bunk together. Non-conventional relationship and all that. [Insert scene of Barbie being like 'why would you wanna stay over?? :) This is MY dreamhouse lol <3 ]

________________________________________

So uhhhhh, that's his living room.

I tried to get it as genuinely close how it looks in me paracosm (i JUST learned that word), based on how Diane sees it. All of this is based off of headcanon and I see it when I'm in the space.

Some things may be left out for sake of space and simplicity - but this is mainly it - as accurately as I could reasonably get it.

If you read this far, THANK YOU - I really appreciate it and it genuinely means a lot! As usual, you will take this photo of Hobie, and pretend this is normal behavior.

Bye.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e89

Rashina gives the Bells Hells a task so they can prove themselves valuable to the Volition. They are in the midst of plotting to topple the Weave-mind and free the people of Ruidus from the Emperium; they are willing to give anything and everything for the future of Ruidus.

Rashina is slow to trust -- her father was a very trusting man, "and all it took was to trust the wrong person once." But the Volition is running out of time. She brings them to a war room-like area with a central table, and one of the people in here -- Gaztomo -- has some small, fungus-like creatures (mycits) as pets.

There are hundreds of thousands of mycits that work throughout the city -- they have no political leanings, but they're useful, like giant fungal isopods.

The reiloran variants were once a singular people, but over time, the Weave-mind genetically engineered or selectively bred the telepathic abilities out of many reilorans -- they have fundamentally altered the evolution of the entire species to their ends. Their forms are withered, taxed beyond even their stretched lifespans, and the same five have been in power for over five centuries. They can psychically project their minds all over the moon, and can inhabit the minds of reilorans who have been marked with a device at the back of their necks. Every civilian of Kreviris is marked, and a potential extension of the Weave-mind. They have extremely powerful wills, but although they can look at anyone and everyone, there are still only five of them -- and the Volition, which was apparently established by Rashina's father, ensures that their members have their marks carved out.

Reiloran children are brought to the Arks Crionum (the citadel) shortly after birth to be marked. The marks are biologically-engineered, organic implants.

Ruidian society has been "reset" by the Weave-mind at least four times, Kreviris has been rebuilt at least twice and the central pillar has been the only constant thing.

Exandrian gods have no reach on Ruidus. There are no miracles here. All that they have is each other, the promises of the Weave-mind, and the occasional whisper, the promise of belonging, from below. The Weave-mind is the interpreter of Predathos' whisperings; but Predathos does not speak directly to Ruidians because Exandrians are ultimately more useful to its plan of escape.

Before the Weave-mind, there was a collective of societies across Ruidus; the Emperium rose among them, and there was an event called the Crush nearly three centuries ago that destroyed them and allowed the Emperium to rise to ultimate power. This corresponds directly to the fall of Molaesmyr.

Within the citadel, the Weave-mind has a massive collection of bio-engineered tools and weapons, and those are what allowed them to come to power.

In addition to the flares, Ruidus also experiences quakes; they're rare, happening once every few years, but like the flares they have also been increasing in frequency. The Crush was a series of quakes so strong that it destroyed the majority of Ruidian society, reducing nearly everything to ruins.

The Dominion of Kruth -- Kreviris' military branch -- is headed by Oko Kruth, whose bloodline has a particular psychic connection to the beasts of the land. "If you see them, run -- or end things real quick."

The Tectis are Kreviris' upper echelons, politicians, police chiefs, enforcers. nobles -- they're an eclectic bunch, paranoid, and while most are in the pocket of the Weave-mind, some of them are aligned with the Volition. (I'm really trying to ignore Matt's Bioshock reference with the "ace in the hole" thing here.)

Ludinus has been running a deep excavation underneath the "prime pillar" of Kreviris, and shuttling strange artifacts there from the bridge. (I'm also trying very hard to ignore the way that Rashina's inflections mirror Essek's.)

To many Ruidians, Predathos is the closest thing they have to religious faith. What Rashina knows is that since the Vanguard has arrived, the Emperium has been ushering in an air of excitement among the populace with the promise of relocation to Exandria. There have been celebrations across the city, demonstrations in the streets. She doesn't know what it means for Ruidus; but she believes the intent is for those who are loyal to the Weave-mind to go to Exandria. "The only reason we know our life is so hard here is because we compare it to what we see in your dreams... we see feasts, holidays, miracles and... here, there is dust and survival. There is joy to be found here; but it's one thing to not know otherwise, but most nights, the basis of comparison is put in our faces." The Weave-mind is responsible for those dreams.

The Weave-mind also, when they came to power, destroyed every historical text and record they could get their hands on, and the Volition has nothing left of it.

They begin talking about their plans for the morning.

First, a detonation at Ludinus' excavation beneath the pillar that would let the Volition recover some prisoners. Sorrowlord Zathuda is overseeing the excavation at the moment. One among their number is already helming this move: as she gestures to him, Ira Wendigoth emerges from the shadows.

Secondly, an infiltration mission: one of their spies, Everoa -- a bormodo scientist tangential to Ludinus' experiments with Aeorian technology -- has gone missing, and needs to be recovered. She was working in the Coloquium of Candescence at the base of the citadel. Last the Volition heard, she was working on a device or weapon for Ludinus.

Thirdly, there is a rescue option: numerous Volition members and Exandrians who opposed the Emperium were taken hostage about a week ago. Rashina gestures to a green dragonborn in the shadows, who's leading the expedition: Bizoden Amari, who is a champion of Bane, the Strife Emperor (another one of the lawful-evil Betrayer Gods) and came here on behalf of him. She looks at FCG: "you smell of a broken road... Freedom brings all to ruin in time."

And lastly, the secret fourth option, led by Gaz himself: a mission to assassinate Liliana Temult.

They are given the night to sleep on the decision.

Imogen expresses similar feelings toward the prospect of killing her mother as before: it would take a lot to redeem her, with nearly 30 years of working for the Emperium under her belt. She's worried that she'll try to stop it. At the same time, she recognizes that she never really knew her mother, and her situation is very similar to Fearne's, whose estranged father is running the excavation.

Laudna also points out that they're going on one of these missions to gain the trust of the Volition, so to go on one of them for their own personal gain instead could jeopardize that if it fails; while Orym points out that if they succeed in killing Liliana, this mission is her last chance to talk to her.

I'm already partial to going to find the scientist because they might encounter more Aeorian technology, but it's also interesting that no one has mentioned that doing that one could also yield more info about FCG.

FCG uses the coin to ask the Changebringer whether or not Imogen's mother is redeemable. When the coin flips, it usually has this ring to it, but here it's silent, and it lands squarely on its side -- "unsure."

Gaz comes back, and Imogen convinces him to tell them about the assassination. They recently discovered that she's been held up in the Woven Music Grand Hall, gathering a lot of Exandrian ruidusborn there. Imogen learns that there are certain devices that can interrupt thought-eaters and some psychic abilities. I need someone to insight check her, please

"You're working on a lot of assumptions that your mother is redeemable... an estranged parent is just a stranger who can make you believe any bullshit." Ashton is completely right -- every time they've encountered Liliana it's been "this one last chance," over and over again. If Imogen tries to reach out to her, there is the incredible risk that she will expose them and the Volition -- and on only Imogen's word, they sacrifice the trust the Volition has given them, they take the risk that Imogen will be pulled in to Predathos, they take the risk that Liliana will pinpoint her location, and they ensure that Ashton has disadvantage on basically everything during whatever excursion they go on. (Imogen constantly gets her way with this party, and someone really needs to call her on the bullshit she's pulling before it gets them all killed.)

Imogen decides to reach out to Liliana. In the dream, it's just color and warmth; then, a light, and Liliana appears curled up in a ball, hovering in the air.

Liliana explains that she thinks she's opposing Ludinus, she's pulled him back from the edge -- and she is saving people, there are Ruidisborn children here who she's protecting. But she's still convinced in his mission, that setting Predathos free will free them all, that killing the gods is an overall good thing. She wants Imogen to believe that she loves her, but she's never shown it; doesn't deny that she would kill Imogen if she had to. She thinks that she can guide Ludinus' plan down the right path, but still believes in the end goal -- she thinks she can do it safely.

"If we do this right, maybe we can all go home. [No, mama. You're lying to yourself. They're lying to you. Ludinus is an evil, evil man, and he's gotten into your head.] History is full of evil men. Few have the courage to stand up and try to stop them. I don't think we're on the opposing side like you think we are, we just have opposing methods, that's all. Please see it in yourself to understand why I've given up all of this. [Maybe it's your turn to run.]"

They decide that it's not a good idea for any of them to go on the assassination mission -- Imogen because she couldn't handle it (which is perfectly understandable, my god), and everyone else because she wouldn't forgive them if they had a hand in it.

There are a lot of good things coming out of this -- FCG acknowledging that the gods are gray, Imogen recognizing that her mother isn't going to flip sides, Laudna not instinctively taking Liliana's side against the gods.

Chetney gets at something they really don't have an answer to: sure, you might think the gods are tyrants, but why? What's the underlying motive there? There needs to be one. I personally think that Ludinus wants to make a massive power vacuum so he himself can fill it, but it could be something else.

"Sure, I can see the tyrant in the gods, but I can see the tyrant in the man too." "We're not all that different, gods and mortals."

Luckily, the Bells Hells do know some basics about the Divine Gate and its purpose to keep divinity separate from Exandria, and Orym knows that it wasn't that long ago that Vecna got banished behind it. They are of the general consensus that releasing Predathos would be bad if its true intent is to destroy the gods; but where they're unsure is what will happen to Predathos, and more importantly Ruidus itself, if Predathos is not released.

Also, I was wrong, Ashton only gets disadvantage on ability checks, not attacks. Which is better, sure, but that means disadvantage on stealth, and all of the available missions are at least partially stealth-based.

As they wake up, the Volition base is buzzing with energy.

Fearne goes to find Ira as he's making some bombs. His plan is to cloak his team in illusions, sneak into one of the more recently-constructed tunnels, plant the bombs on the drilling devices there, and explode them. Also, Ira did previously know that Zathuda was Fearne's father, which really complicates Ira's relationship with the Calloways -- but his ire with Zathuda is because he's had bad dealings with the Unseelie. Ludinus stole his designs and is trying to change the course of history without giving him credit.

Ira also has a theory regarding Fearne's birth: "In my mind, it seems that Ludinus and the Vanguard's interest involved creating as many Ruidisborn as possible, in the hopes that the few odd children might be born special (read: exaltant). You were halfway there."

Fearne does want to see Zathuda, but it's not the same as the situation with Liliana because Zathuda isn't very likely to actually die during that mission -- he might not even be there.

Imogen and Laudna talk about Liliana. "As someone who loves you, I can't imagine abandoning you." "But you have another power pulling at you, don't you? I thought we got rid of Delilah, we beat her, but as soon as we split up, you fanned that ember back into a flame and now it's bigger than ever... but I can hate Delilah, and love you." Imogen doesn't know if she'll ever be free of Ruidus, and Laudna doesn't know if she'll ever be free of Delilah, but "if getting rid of Delilah means getting rid of you, I don't think that's worth it... I just wish I knew why you gave her power again." "I didn't mean to -- it wasn't a choice. She never fully left." "Are you telling me the truth? You wouldn't lie to me again, right Laudna?" OUGH--

They kiss. "I will never let you go. And if you need her, then that's my answer." "But what if by holding on to you, I'm holding you down? You are destined for greatness. We can all pretend that we're special, unique maybe -- but not the kind of special that you are. Everything is being set up, is being staged, for you to be the savior of Exandria." (oh I hate this narrative but I love how illustrative it is of the dysfunction they need to address--) "Laudna, if you weren't holding me down, I wouldn't be saving anyone but Predathos. I would be gone."

It's so interesting how Laudna is interpreting the narrative surrounding Imogen as opposed to Imogen herself, and how she's superimposing that narrative over Imogen's own agency. It's an extension of her codependence, sure, but it's also a projection of the issues Laudna has with her own agency in relation to Delilah, and it's just so complicated and I want to SCREAM (/pos)

(The sasquatch-like creatures are Quinakkas.)

Ira has built a series of screech plumes, which disrupt and scramble both magic and psychic abilities. The Volition will use them in the assassination attempt. It is implied that the design of these were based on the Aeorian disruption devices the Bells Hells found earlier.

They enter the war room. Today is a day of action. They decide to split up: FCG, Ashton, and Fearne will go with Ira to the detonation site, while Chetney, Imogen, Orym, and Laudna will go to the citadel to retrieve the bormodo scientist. All told, these are pretty good group makeups -- and the addition of a reiloran caster to the infiltration group and Ira to the demolition group rounds out the party makeup. The only thing Team Infiltration is missing is a healer, but with Laudna's wither and bloom plus the fact that most of their stuff refreshes on a short rest, I think they'll be alright.

Just before they head out, FCG pops a greater restoration on Ashton to clear their last point of exhaustion. Also, the reiloran mystic casts both invisibility and see invisibility on the entire team. Meanwhile, Ira casts seeming on the demolition team, and they take on the guise of quanikkas, bormodos, and -- for FCG and Mister -- mycits. (Ira himself is a thought-eater reiloran.)

Thankfully, at the last minute, Team Infiltration -- which has no full healers -- takes a bunch of the health potions.

I'm very curious as to whether Matt is going to split the teams up and introduce guests, or if he's gonna switch off every half hour or so. I'm leaning toward splitting them up, but we'll see.

As they descend, they see a society -- children, little flying creatures, a weird faccimile of Exandrian architecture. Music -- there are musicians here. Towers that are filed-down or half-remembered elvish, nearly-dwarven buildings -- this is a society based in a mixture of disparate interpretation, and in being so, is wholly unique and uniquely beautiful. Only then do they notice the Dominion of Kruth, thick in the streets -- the sound of drills being run, the sight of war machines and armored juggernauts, training in what feels like preparation for a move to Exandria at some undesignated future time.

[illnessfaker]

According to the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law: “stochas­tic terrorism involves ‘the use of mass media to provoke random acts of ideolog­i­cally motivated violence that are statistically predictable but individually unpre­dict­able.’” Self-described stochastic terrorist Chaya Raichik, owner of the social media account Libs of TikTok, has become infamous for her viral harassment and moral panic campaigns targeting minorities— with an emphasis on vilifying LGBTQ+ existence. Since 2021, Raichik’s posts targeting advocates for and members of the LGBTQ+ community have been followed with a deluge of violent death threats (including lynching threats against the Los Angeles Unified School District).

Children’s hospitals and school districts in the crosshairs of Raichik and her devoted fans have collectively suffered over 20 bomb threats so far, according to various law enforcement agencies. Detective Hanna Dvorak of the Coralville Police Department, who investigated one of these bomb threats against a junior high school in her city, told her superiors that “it appears this all stems from a post made earlier this week by Chaya Raichik and her ‘Libs of TikTok’ account.”

This month, a non-binary 16-year-old student at Owasso High School was brutally murdered in the girl’s restroom. According to local news outlets and family, Nex Benedict was beaten by three older female students. The mother of Benedict’s best friend told KJRH News that "one of the girls was pretty much repeatedly beating [Benedict’s] head across the floor.” Reports say Benedict was unable to take themselves to the nurse’s office after a teacher finally intervened in the brutal assault. For reasons that remain unclear, Owasso High School refused to call an ambulance for 16-year-old Nex Benedict, who died from their injuries in the hospital the next day. A motive for this killing has not been shared by law enforcement, but we know that schools in Oklahoma have been specifically pushing violent eliminationist rhetoric against transgender and non-binary youth— a fact exemplified by the state’s hiring of Chaya Raichik following her incitements of terror against the state’s schools over LGBTQ+ rights.

[...]

According to their obituary, Nex Benedict loved “nature and caring for cats” (especially their own cat Zeus) and “enjoyed a variety of pastimes such as watching the Walking Dead, reading, and playing Ark and Minecraft.” They will be sorely missed by friends, family, and the LGBTQ+ community.

feb. 18th, 2024

none of us are safe anymore are we

[crp-low-quality-content]

The slendermanor headcannons

(based on my experience shifting there)

- the manor is almost an entity with its own consciousness, it can communicate with the residents through noises and clicks, sometimes even in dreams, but hardly anyone notices because they think the manor is just a place with supernatural properties.

- and of course when talking about the manor you can't help but mention its supernatural properties.

- some of which are:

- corridors and rooms can change at random moments.

- doors can appear and disappear.

- new rooms can appear.

- on the outside it's the normal size of an ordinary manor, but inside it's absurdly huge, up to 3x the size of an ordinary shopping mall.

- only the residents can see the manor, which is why no law enforcement agency or researcher has found this place.

- most people call it "Slendermansion" but it does have a name, at least on the day I went it did shifted there, and it was "Manor of the Cursed Woods" but apparently no resident cares much about the name. They even call it Slenderman's zoo or Slender's ark as a kind of joke because there are so many "animals" inside.

- To live there, you must not only have the Slenderman's trust or interest, but also be able to perform services for him in return, which can range from missions to domestic chores.

- "people" and creatures choose to live there because it's a great place to hide since no one who doesn't live there can see and find the manor, it's the safest place for creepypastas.

- and yes, it really is safe, there's not much chance of you, being considered a "creepypasta", ending up being attacked or killed by another one, because there are rules there, and if you don't comply with one of them, depending on what it is, you'll be punished with anything from temporary detention in the dungeon, to torture, loss of privileges, and expulsion.

- the rules are as follows:

- always maintain a positive relationship with the other residents, no matter how difficult it may be.

- keep the mansion clean. (There are some who seem to have extreme difficulty complying with this rule 💀)

- avoid fights and arguments.

- help a resident who is in serious condition if you spot them.

- never, under any circumstances, talk about the manor or mention it to non-residents.

- respect the proxies and obey them in any circumstance. (this rule has already gotten very bad)

- always be prepared and available for any call or mission.

- avoid making any kind of noise during sleep hours.

- no one is responsible for the loss of your belongings or clothes, so take care of them.

- you are responsible for any being or animal brought into the manor.

- it has a garden at the back, which is quite nice for a place like this, with some flowers that vary in color, birds and a broken fountain in the center. There is also a bench under an oak tree, where you can find residents sitting from time to time.

- it has up to four floors and a basement of two.

- the first floor is where you'll find the entrance hall, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, training room and storeroom, as well as other random rooms that appear from one moment to the next.

- the second floor is where the library is, the room where the residents store quest items and objects lost around the mansion, the bathroom, and a room where people put pet items such as food, feed pots and litter boxes.

- the second floor is where the first bedrooms are.

- The third floor is also just bedrooms.

- on the fourth floor is another library, but this one has restricted access and contains files containing information that only Slenderman and his proxies have access to. There's an attic full of boxes storing God-only-knows-what and a lot of rats, and there's another warehouse containing dangerous objects.

- on the second floor of the basement, there's a nurse office, an operating room, a pharmacy and a mini hospital, a laboratory, a torture room, and a room with the belongings of kidnapped people.

- on the bottom floor of the basement is the dungeon, which has restricted access. There is a torture room for the residents, cells, and a room where the "guards" and inmates' belongings are usually kept.

- As far as technology goes, it's pretty up-to-date and has sockets and switches, but they vary a lot, sometimes there are sockets that are very old and you can't plug anything into them.

- there is a kind of "wi-fi" there, which was installed by the residents, this wi-fi probably only exists in the mansion and has its own IP address that can't be traced.

- Speaking of which, there's also the mansion's own network, which only the residents have access to and no one from outside can get in. (I don't know much about technology, I'm just trying to explain what I saw in the dr)

[clem-l-orange]

my long essay about why Babel is such an interesting ark and deserves to be explored more

(Prefacing this by saying I read the books in French, so if I make any mistakes I apologize, French is also my first language so I may make some mistakes)

SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 3 & 4 AHEAD!!!!

We are introduced to the Ark of Babel in book 3 of La Passe Miroir when Ophelia escapes Anima to find Thorn, and chooses to go to Babel after following some clues to his location.

Babel is a “cosmopolitan ark”, where many different cultures mix due to the high rate of immigration. However, there is a divide in between the “Sons of Pollux” (Babelians descended from Pollux, who have Babelian powers) and the “Godchildren of Helen” (I apologize for the poor translation please correct me), who are either powerless and native to Babel, or not native to Babel at all. From the first chapters in Babel, we can see that these two social groups are segregated with dress codes, and there is even a time when Ambrose, the son of Lazarus, a wealthy and influential Powerless man, gets insults hurled at him for his background. In book 4, “A Storm of Echoes”, recent immigrants as well as political opposers are rounded up and sent to their deaths/deported from the Ark, . There is also a clear segregation within the city of Babel between Powerless people and others, with a majoritarily Powerless neighborhood being referred to as “The Powerless Quarters” (I may have translated wrong). This neighborhood is considered the “slum” of Babel, and is clearly described as a poorly maintained, badly policed and dangerous place to live.

Another dystopian aspect of Babel that we learn in the first few chapters is the extreme censorship of words relating to violence, war, crime… etc. The “Index” suppresses the use of these words, going as far as punishing those who say the words, even in non-violent contexts. This goes as far as branding murders and clearly voluntary deaths as “accidents”. The suppression of the words in the Index leads to misinformation in journals, and even book burning in what is supposed to be the oldest library on the arch, the Memorial. There are many parallels to be drawn from instances in history where books were burnt to stop the spread of information, but I love how this book spins it to make this censorship “in advocacy for peace”. Books about war are cleansed from libraries, collections of ancient artifacts as well. The “Master Censurer” at the memorial even goes as far as burning any book that Professor Wolf, the Memorial’s resident expert on “Prehistoric Wars” goes near. Babel is a dystopia under a blanket of pacifism.

We later learn about the “Observatory of Deviations”, which concept resembles a mental asylum/psych ward/home for the troubled??? All we learn about this place from the third book is that it is very secretive and treats it’s patients like property, which is even more enforced in the fourth book, when we see firsthand what happens in the Observatory, and when we learn that certain patients get branded with tattoos against their will. Blaise, a friend Ophelia made on Babel, describes the place to her, and makes a point that if you go there, you are the property of the workers, you cannot leave, and no information about your progress is ever disclosed to you. They are more interested in your “deviation” than your “personal preferences”. After reading about Ophelia’s own experiences at the Observatory, it became clear that the place was meant to be an allegory for some abusive psychiatric asylum, that the “deviants” were meant to represent neurodivergent and physically disabled people. Later in book 4, it is revealed that Lazarus is the master of this operation. When I heard this, my brain did a double take and I circled back to the part where Lazarus was described as a “father figure” to Blaise. The fact that Lazarus used his patients and their trust for his own personal gain (in this case for “scientific discovery”) I feel really reflects into real life in other situations.

Unemployment and the replacement of people by AI is also addressed in books 3 and 4, as automatons take up most of the manual labor on Babel, leaving Powerless people no jobs to support them. When visiting the Powerless Quarters with Octavio in book 3, Ophelia runs in to the Fearless and Almost Blameless, who proceeds to shame Octavio and tell him that, by walking around in his Forerunners uniform, he is humiliating those around him who have no future. Since almost all of the jobs that do not require powers are taken by automatons or people with power and influence, it seems like the poorer Powerless people have no future. In book 4, when Lady Septima announces that those with no familial or contractual tie to Babel are to be deported to their old Arks, there is an uprising that leads to violence, where the Unemployed people of Babel demand Octavio hire them in the place of his automaton. This truly mirrors our world today, as many jobs are in danger of being taken by AI or automation.

There are also other issues on Babel that mirror real world issues, with topics such as homophobia being brought up as side plots. I could literally write a whole other essay about the parallels and differences between Ophelia and Thorn vs. Blaise and Wolf, but that’s for another day.

Feel free to correct me if I got a translation wrong or if you agree/disagree with one of my points.

also a side note: Native Babelians are clearly supposed to look South Asian, right? Because sometimes I see fanart where some of the Babelian characters are considerably pale and it kind of weirds me out but this may be a misconception.

[signor-signor]

Trending 27th - April 2024

What do you think the inside of the Star Nomad would look like, and what kind of rooms would there be?

Where do I even begin? Since the Star Nomad would be carrying folks back to their planets, I think there’d be hallways upon hallways on every deck, and there’d be either staircases, an elevator system, or both. Perhaps the Lords of Illumination could provide their own light for the entire ship, if they’re among the refugees, that is.

Maybe one of the decks would be reserved as some kind of temporary zoo. Of course, the larger animals, including the pit monster from The Birthday Boy, would have to be shrunk down by Neckbeard’s minimizing spell.

With the Watchdogs on board, their sleeping space would be just as condensed as their sleeping quarters on the Skullship. We already know Hater would have to share a room with Wander, but in the case of Sylvia and Peepers, I would imagine they’d take turns steering the ship and napping (imagine Peepers standing on a crate when he’s at the helm). The main four would have live right under the helm where the star-shaped window is.

As more folks are being dropped off on their home planets, more rooms would become vacant, thus making the perfect opportunity for Wander to reserve those rooms for villains and keep them safe from Star Force Enforcement Force until he finds places where they can keep them safe (e.g. Sourdough/Evil Sandwich wrapped in a refrigerator at Blarpee’s).

I have been imagining the Star Nomad acting as some kind of cruise line with so many people on board. Clancy and Nancy of the Fancy Shmancys are in the hotel business, so maybe they’d know how to keep things in orderly fashion from buffets to recreational activities. Oh, and maybe there’d be a big room similar to the United Nations where the rulers of their planets can discuss their plans for the restored galaxy and such.

Maybe, juuuhhhhhst maybe, there’d be a spot somewhere under the stern where the fan that blows into the orbble wand masts is powered. You know how in Yogi’s Gang, the flying ark is powered by Magilla Gorilla running on a treadmill getting bananas in front of him? That particular spot would be for Huckleberry Knucklehead, and in front of him would be a lollipop. Worry not, though, for his teeny tiny parents would be there to watch over him. For every planet stop, he gets a lollipop.

There’s no telling where the ships owned by Starbella, Ripov, and Major Threat are, but considering the latter was said to be a recurring character in S3, I’m sure he’ll hang around on the Star Nomad to be Hater’s mentor whenever necessary.

See how much creativity you can put into WOY if you put your mind to it? I look forward to seeing fan content related to the Star Nomad.

[xenodile]

While I would always prefer to play as a girl in any game, I will say that Nikke's narrative decision to have all Commanders be men and all Nikkes be women has slowly won me over. One of the major themes throughout the story is the unfeeling, dehumanizing exploitation of people by capitalist power structures and the very strict and pointless gender divide reinforces that.

The world is run by three corporations that basically took advantage of the apocalypse to redefine gender norms to revolve around the military industrial complex. Men are sent to the military academy and fed propaganda of being the saviors of humanity then given a squad of cyborg soldier women that they've been trained to see as objects and sent off to die. Women are told to literally sacrifice their minds and bodies so they can be reborn as goddesses, while in actuality they're stripped of their bodily autonomy and converted into whatever product the corporations want to market.

The Ark is the last bastion of humanity, the only place that mankind has left to hide from the Rapture that has scoured the surface of earth clean, but the Ark is diseased. It is a miserable, hopeless dystopia with an artificial sky. The Central Government and Big Three endlessly preach about how one day humanity will destroy the Raptures and retake the surface, but it's all platitudes. The Big Three squabble with each other for research and influence, and the Central Government treats civil rights as a privilege that must be purchased, and no real progress has been made in retaking the surface of Earth. And the residents of the Ark all know it. The percentage of the population that remember the real sky, real food, what life was like before the Ark gets smaller every year, while the new generations will only ever know the stagnant, fetid status quo of the Ark where you have to earn enough money to buy your childrens' right to be recognized as human beings, and the gender binary is enforced to ensure there's always Commanders and Nikkes to send into the field to fight an eternal war against a never ending enemy.

[soul-wanderer]

okay, but here's a thought/headcanon I've been considering in regard to life on the Ark:

Since their main goal was survival in space over an extended period of time (namely 100+ years, considering they were probably planning on staying longer than the amount of time they ended up staying in the end), this also means they had strict rules/regulations regarding "reproduction" on the Ark - as implicated by the one child policy.

Now, I am terrible at the logical parts of math, but we know there's roughly 2,400 people on the Ark during season one. I won't do the exact math now, but if each generation on the Ark is only allowed to have one child, that means their population is bound to shrink with time. Which is why it is essential that people DO have said one child, to make sure there's people left by the time they can go back to earth. On top of that, it is essential that two people have one child, not that two people have multiple children, because that would inevitably narrow down the genetic pool even further and would eventually lead to incest.

So, it is safe to assume that heterosexuality would low-key be enforced, if not through laws, then through social pressure. Because with limited resources, chances are they wouldn't just settle on "wasting" medical resources on IVF, when there's a, for a lack of a better term, "more natural" method available.

Which means that there's little wiggle room in regard to being anything but heterosexual on the Ark, and while the environment might not be openly homophobic, it's not hard to imagine that a) people just aren't openly queer and b) even if they were or tried to be, it would be at the very least frowned upon.

And when they finally come back to earth and things start to settle down and relax, it's also the first time they are able to be openly queer, after a bit of an adjustment period and realizing it's the norm among other communities on earth.

Either way, this concept would make for some interesting plots for some characters, and it would explain why a lot of them are canonically acting very queer without openly being queer, because after all this time on the Ark it would take time to unlearn and get used to the freedom they now have on earth in regard to exploring their own sexuality

[cyberneticlagomorph]

((How was the "the camarilla but catholic and worse" founded? Were they different from how they are today? If so, was there any particular event that changed them?))

god ok this has been sitting in my inbox for days but i didn't forget about it i prommy.

Ok so, "the camarilla but catholic and worse" is the fun ooc definition of the Knights of the Ivory Tower (formally the Knights of Malta in older iterations of the universe), but i'm still work-shopping that name for them idk.

The Knights started out as like this aberrant faction of the Round Table who later split off from the main group after some sort of Schism and took Excalibur with them. Mind you this was way back when before the magical and mundane halves of the world were split apart forever and shit like The Veil (web of secrets and lies that keep magic hidden from the general population) was invented, so this was a time of dragons and fairies actively stealing babies and whatnot.

That original First Knight (some say it was a knight of Arthurian legend, some say it was straight up Saint George, or even the biblical Adam come back to save mankind from Something. Nobody is exactly sure who that guy was, I know I'm not and I'm the one making this shit up) saw the sinful and hedonistic ways of magic and pledged to cleanse the world of it or at least keep humanity safe from it in some way shape or form, so he gathered a bunch of like minded individuals and went to work.

What happened shortly after the first group of Knights was formed was basically a war against magical creatures that culminated in the near extinction of many magical species, including dragons.

How this war ended is largely up for debate, some claim that the Knights won outright and forced all the magical creatures to sign a contract (i'm talking like Ursula "sign away a part of you" faustian type bullshit Contract) that forced them all to Behave the way the humans wanted (ie no stealing babies, poisoning wells, kidnapping princesses etc), others say that the fae were actually winning and the Knights tricked them into signing it, but that Contract was still signed no matter what and it became known as the Dictates of Preservation.

These Dictates were a set of laws that prohibited certain kinds of magic outright, like love potions or the ritual required to make a changeling child. Those Dictates are still in place today and are largely why Fae in Jack's timeline are relatively toothless compared to their ancestors.

ANYWAY.

The Knights then appointed themselves protectors of humanity, they invented the Veil and enforce it very fiercely.

Their organization has grown from a plucky band of medieval Knights, to like the shadowy hand of the fucking Vatican in some places. Their base of operations is a secluded pocket dimension only accessible by the Knights, their guests, and creatures with a flagrant disregard for those rules (ie Jack who can go p much anywhere he wants within his own universe). Yes it's a literal tower, it's caked in dragon ivory from those bloody centuries worth of hunts, each piece carved with the name of the Knight who murdered the dragon it came from and the date the deed was done.

They've grown with the times in terms of technology and medicine and arms, but they're still extremely catholic so they have monks and nuns and clerics as part of their group now with the nuns raising the children they get from Places.

One of the tenants of real chivalry is charity, and children's homes count as charities right? Where else to get fresh new recruits if your existing followers aren't breeding fast enough.

There's like, untold of levels to how seedy and dangerous this shit gets, the Knights have gotten their hands on numerous SCP level anomalies that they keep locked away or use as tools or propaganda to further their agendas.

Like Excalibur, who is always bonded to and wielded by the current head of their organization. Or Noah's ark, which they use for artifact storage. The christian themed anomalies are classed as "holy relics" while stuff like the Promethean Flame is an "arcane artifact"

It's just A Whole Lot

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Published; Aug 4, 2007

The earliest account I know of a scientific experiment is, ironically, the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal.

The people of Israel are wavering between Jehovah and Baal, so Elijah announces that he will conduct an experiment to settle it—quite a novel concept in those days! The priests of Baal will place their bull on an altar, and Elijah will place Jehovah’s bull on an altar, but neither will be allowed to start the fire; whichever God is real will call down fire on His sacrifice. The priests of Baal serve as control group for Elijah—the same wooden fuel, the same bull, and the same priests making invocations, but to a false god. Then Elijah pours water on his altar—ruining the experimental symmetry, but this was back in the early days—to signify deliberate acceptance of the burden of proof, like needing a 0.05 significance level. The fire comes down on Elijah’s altar, which is the experimental observation. The watching people of Israel shout “The Lord is God!”—peer review.

And then the people haul the 450 priests of Baal down to the river Kishon and slit their throats. This is stern, but necessary. You must firmly discard the falsified hypothesis, and do so swiftly, before it can generate excuses to protect itself. If the priests of Baal are allowed to survive, they will start babbling about how religion is a separate magisterium which can be neither proven nor disproven.

Back in the old days, people actually believed their religions instead of just believing in them. The biblical archaeologists who went in search of Noah’s Ark did not think they were wasting their time; they anticipated they might become famous. Only after failing to find confirming evidence—and finding disconfirming evidence in its place—did religionists execute what William Bartley called the retreat to commitment, “I believe because I believe.”

Back in the old days, there was no concept of religion’s being a separate magisterium. The Old Testament is a stream-of-consciousness culture dump: history, law, moral parables, and yes, models of how the universe works—like the universe being created in six days (which is a metaphor for the Big Bang), or rabbits chewing their cud. (Which is a metaphor for . . .)

Back in the old days, saying the local religion “could not be proven” would have gotten you burned at the stake. One of the core beliefs of Orthodox Judaism is that God appeared at Mount Sinai and said in a thundering voice, “Yeah, it’s all true.” From a Bayesian perspective that’s some darned unambiguous evidence of a superhumanly powerful entity. (Although it doesn’t prove that the entity is God per se, or that the entity is benevolent—it could be alien teenagers.) The vast majority of religions in human history—excepting only those invented extremely recently—tell stories of events that would constitute completely unmistakable evidence if they’d actually happened. The orthogonality of religion and factual questions is a recent and strictly Western concept. The people who wrote the original scriptures didn’t even know the difference.

The Roman Empire inherited philosophy from the ancient Greeks; imposed law and order within its provinces; kept bureaucratic records; and enforced religious tolerance. The New Testament, created during the time of the Roman Empire, bears some traces of modernity as a result. You couldn’t invent a story about God completely obliterating the city of Rome (a la Sodom and Gomorrah), because the Roman historians would call you on it, and you couldn’t just stone them.

In contrast, the people who invented the Old Testament stories could make up pretty much anything they liked. Early Egyptologists were genuinely shocked to find no trace whatsoever of Hebrew tribes having ever been in Egypt—they weren’t expecting to find a record of the Ten Plagues, but they expected to find something. As it turned out, they did find something. They found out that, during the supposed time of the Exodus, Egypt ruled much of Canaan. That’s one huge historical error, but if there are no libraries, nobody can call you on it.

The Roman Empire did have libraries. Thus, the New Testament doesn’t claim big, showy, large-scale geopolitical miracles as the Old Testament routinely did. Instead the New Testament claims smaller miracles which nonetheless fit into the same framework of evidence. A boy falls down and froths at the mouth; the cause is an unclean spirit; an unclean spirit could reasonably be expected to flee from a true prophet, but not to flee from a charlatan; Jesus casts out the unclean spirit; therefore Jesus is a true prophet and not a charlatan. This is perfectly ordinary Bayesian reasoning, if you grant the basic premise that epilepsy is caused by demons (and that the end of an epileptic fit proves the demon fled).

Not only did religion used to make claims about factual and scientific matters, religion used to make claims about everything. Religion laid down a code of law—before legislative bodies; religion laid down history—before historians and archaeologists; religion laid down the sexual morals—before Women’s Lib; religion described the forms of government—before constitutions; and religion answered scientific questions from biological taxonomy to the formation of stars.1 The modern concept of religion as purely ethical derives from every other area’s having been taken over by better institutions. Ethics is what’s left.

Or rather, people think ethics is what’s left. Take a culture dump from 2,500 years ago. Over time, humanity will progress immensely, and pieces of the ancient culture dump will become ever more glaringly obsolete. Ethics has not been immune to human progress—for example, we now frown upon such Bible-approved practices as keeping slaves. Why do people think that ethics is still fair game?

Intrinsically, there’s nothing small about the ethical problem with slaughtering thousands of innocent first-born male children to convince an unelected Pharaoh to release slaves who logically could have been teleported out of the country. It should be more glaring than the comparatively trivial scientific error of saying that grasshoppers have four legs. And yet, if you say the Earth is flat, people will look at you like you’re crazy. But if you say the Bible is your source of ethics, women will not slap you. Most people’s concept of rationality is determined by what they think they can get away with; they think they can get away with endorsing Bible ethics; and so it only requires a manageable effort of self-deception for them to overlook the Bible’s moral problems. Everyone has agreed not to notice the elephant in the living room, and this state of affairs can sustain itself for a time.

Maybe someday, humanity will advance further, and anyone who endorses the Bible as a source of ethics will be treated the same way as Trent Lott endorsing Strom Thurmond’s presidential campaign. And then it will be said that religion’s “true core” has always been genealogy or something.

The idea that religion is a separate magisterium that cannot be proven or disproven is a Big Lie—a lie which is repeated over and over again, so that people will say it without thinking; yet which is, on critical examination, simply false. It is a wild distortion of how religion happened historically, of how all scriptures present their beliefs, of what children are told to persuade them, and of what the majority of religious people on Earth still believe. You have to admire its sheer brazenness, on a par with Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. The prosecutor whips out the bloody axe, and the defendant, momentarily shocked, thinks quickly and says: “But you can’t disprove my innocence by mere evidence—it’s a separate magisterium!”

And if that doesn’t work, grab a piece of paper and scribble yourself a Get Out of Jail Free card.

-

1 The Old Testament doesn't talk about a sense of wonder at the complexity of the universe, perhaps because it was too busy laying down the death penalty for women who wore mens clothing, which was solid and satisfying religious content of that era.

==

I've said this myself less eloquently. Believers say, "pffth, you're not supposed to take it literally." Since when? Where does it say that?

The scripture was written as a science book, a morality book, a law book, a history book. For over a thousand years it was regarded as "true."

Now that we've figured out it's wrong, all of a sudden, it's not supposed to be taken literally? That sure is embarrassing for all of the governments, courtrooms, schools and institutions that based their laws, judgements, teachings and understandings of the world on the bible, never knowing they weren't supposed to take it literally. All the people convicted of crimes, imprisoned or executed, subjected to "healing" and "remedies," denounced as heretics and blasphemers because of the bible. Oopsie!

[ Thanks to a follower for the recommendation. ]

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime,

What happened to Superion and the other Combiners in the Aligned Continuity?

Dear Continued Combiner,

Tragically, Superion met his end during the final Decepticon attack on the Ark that immediately preceded Optimus Prime’s arrival on Earth; when Slingshot sacrificed himself so that Optimus and his innermost confidants could escape the doomed ship, Superion died with him. The remaining members of the combiner team had little time to process the loss of their teammate, as their flight-capable alternate modes made them some of the only Cybertronians aboard capable of carrying their teammates to safety.

As the remaining Ark survivors dispersed to a hundred remote worlds to dig in, regroup, and rebuild, so too did the Aerialbots attempt to find a way forward. Despite their best efforts to keep moving forward as a team, their shared loss and grief eventually drove them apart; with no way to replicate the advanced combination technology that had once allowed them to form Superion, the team slowly drifted apart into new lives, each trying to process the loss in their own way.

Skydive found some semblance of peace on the planet Lithone, where he exchanged soldiering for the quiet life of an academic; in exchange for safe harbor from the Cybertronian war, he lent his extensive knowledge of his species’ military history to the expansive Lithonian archives.

Air Raid and Fireflight became mercenaries for hire, plying their trade on the galactic rim—Fireflight maintained some sense of honor, but this code of ethics would lead to his end when he crossed paths with the notorious ex-Decepticon clan known only as the Ronin. Air Raid’s increasingly ferocious tactics led him straight into the employ of the notorious Lord Gyconi, where he brutalized his way up the ranks until he became the crime lord’s top enforcer.

Worst of all, however, would be Silverbolt, the only member of the team who returned to Cybertron, the bitter ex-Autobot willingly threw his lot in with Cyclonus and the other members of the High Council, promised that he would receive a new combiner team in exchange for his cooperation with the new regime. As a functionary in Cyclonus’s new government, Silverbolt abetted the Decepticons with many of their more ambitious social re-engineering programs until Bumblebee and his team brought down Cyclonus’s illegitimate government for good.

[simplegenius042]

Music Monday

The UnTitledverse, Far Cry The Silver Chronicles, and Life, Despair & Monsters.

Tagged by @cassietrn and @josephseedismyfather thank you very much.

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @shallow-gravy @adelaidedrubman @strangefable @direwombat @jillvalentinesday @chazz-anova @inafieldofdaisies @wrathfulrook @voidika @poisonedtruth @josephslittledeputy and @g0dspeeed + anyone else who wishes to join.

Trigger warning: Allusions to executions in the second song. Also there's swearing in the last song if that's of any concern.

For The UnTitledverse, I've got a good little song for the Twins of Terror themselves, Malcolm and Maddison Darling. One (Malcolm) became a human-cordycep hybrid with mechanical prosthetics for his lower half with a taste of lethal revenge (and projection of an unhealthy sibling-substitute fixation?) against Ellie Williams from The Last Of Us, while the other (Maddison) became a multiversal assassin who failed miserably at her job so ditched her employers and succeeded in becoming a serial killer instead... all the while searching to reunite with her twin brother. Song below:

"Insane, inside, the danger gets me high Can't help myself, got secrets I can't tell

I love the smell of gasoline I light the match to taste the heat

I've always liked to play with fire Play with fire Play with fire (Fire, fire) I've always liked to play with fire

I ride (I ride) the edge (the edge), my speed goes in the red Hot blood (hot blood), these veins (these veins), my pleasure is their pain

I love to watch the castes burns These golden ashes turn to dirt (hmm, hmm)

I've always liked to play with fire Play with fire Play with fire (Fire, fire) I've always liked to play with fire

Oh, watching as the flames get higher Oh, I've always liked to play with (Mmm)

Right of passage, classic havoc Match in the gas tank, ooh, that's wretched Unstoppable, legendary animal (mmm) Digital justice, now you're gonna know us Hail to the king and queen of the ruckus Yacht Money wired, no denying I've always liked to play with fire."

For Far Cry The Silver Chronicles, I have Father Adam Omar and Oscar Lapis, the former the prophet of the Congregation of Adam's Guard, one of the main antagonists of Silva's Hope (the other being Joseph Seed) and a character I intentionally wrote to be despicable, and the latter the captain of Adam's Enforcers, the right-hand man of Adam and also quite despicable as well. Adam is also Silva and Elsa's biological father, and the reason why they have so many issues, and has also affected Paul and Kamski, while Oscar was an instrument of torment used by Adam against the other characters, plus Oscar also murdered Irene Neon, who was Silva's first love, Kamski's daughter and Persephone's mother. Both were involved in the generational enslavement, oppression and eventual massacre of the Tumultite community. Song below:

[Note the lyrics that have been cherry-picked out are only because I feel they mostly fit the characters of Adam and Oscar, and there is much more in the song but has been removed down below]

"The temperature's low, but our purpose is much higher What's behind us mustn't blind us to divineness that transpires

And by grace we have been with that most elegant of truth You stand here, not abandoned, but as testament and proof

For a city is its people and its people are its heart Stood together 'gainst the weather, 'gainst the coming of the dark Ne'er a lantern has been build with oh-so righteous a spark When providence claims continents, but provided us an ark."

...

"Brute force and discipline ensures all the citizens Are chipping in sufficiently, under threat of imprisonment Liberty's prohibited, retired, it's mandatory compliance now To keep the fire alight, we need to stamp any defiance out

We can ill afford the price of human rights nor pay the cost of anger So we stifle scrutinising eyes astray with propaganda The only way that we can pull through is under cruel rule If a single person falls out of line, we all do."

...

"I have heard there are those who would defy us Dissidents without repent are bent on questioning the dias Twisted iron fist pariahs and their heretic messiah

Hand in and skin the sinners if you wish to skim divinity Each shiver will deliver us in deliverance in time Burn the innocents for penitence if we preempt the crime

I'm protector of the truth, great erector of the New Faith Defectors and objectors can expect a second doomsday Unquestioning our destiny, relentless we pursue fate Alone I have been chosen to be spoken through by true grace Frozen Omens say we should evoke another crusade"

...

"Infecting desperate residents with false hope Now they've sworn oaths and pledged commitment to a cult No mercy will be shown or quarter given, fetch the coiled rope

And hang them by the necks until it's taut, the lesson learned is certain No measure of faith will keep you warm or sate your appetite So pray, heed the warning, or we may just have to tax your life."

...

"Now the book of laws is closed and its pages shine a light As the people fill the shrines in line with my divine right This battlement of sacraments, as chattel to our rite The sacrilegious and recalcitrant shall vow or face the smite

Nonbelievers shan't deceive us, we shall greet their cheek with grievance In this ceaseless season, we redeem the meek with bleak obedience Seeking each unheeding heathen, see them bleed or plead allegiance Blessed be relief from freedom; lest ye feel the need for treason

Since the precept was decreed, its certainty was predetermined Mere herds of sheep are people, thus, they need to be subservient 'Neath so turbulent a firmament, the worst of men survive Pray their mercy may preserve us once we touch the other side."

...

"Now the book of laws is closed, you've no hope to try and fight As the people fall in line and march in time with iron might Nonbelievers shan't deceive us, we shall greet their cheek with grievance In this ceaseless season, we redeem the meek with bleak obedience

Seeking each unheeding heathen, see them bleed or plead allegiance Blessed be relief from freedom; lest ye feel the need for treason Since the precept was decreed, its certainty was predetermined Mere vermin are the people, thus, they need to be subservient

Turn a leaf in the journal, weep as you read the scriptures The book of laws is closed, it's frozen shut couldn't thaw But should the storms subside it might be time to write a couple more."

For Life, Despair & Monsters, I got a song for Miraculous Miracles. This is for the part of the fic where it goes from "crime-fighting comedic trio consisting of a bi-disaster super-heroine who's got talent, her pun-loving laid back cat hero with abandonment issues and a teleporting inter-dimensional humanoid plant-fungus mentor with magic cards who has to be convinced not to eat anyone" to "Everyone is healing from what Sir Enigma Malvolio did, especially Marinette." Song below:

"I got my driver's license last week Just like we always talked about 'Cause you were so excited for me To finally drive up to your house But today I drove through the suburbs Crying 'cause you weren't around

...

Oh, and I can't imagine how you could be so okay now that I'm gone I guess you didn't mean what you wrote in that song about me 'Cause you said forever, now I drive alone past your street

Red lights, stop signs I still see your face in the white cares, front yards Can't drive past the places we used to go to 'Cause I still fuckin' love you, babe (Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh) Sidewalks we crossed I still hear your voice in the traffic, we're laughing Over all the noise God, I'm so blue, know we're through But I still fuckin' love you, babe. (Ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh)"

[kinetic-elaboration]

July 9: Murphy/Clarke, Secret

Very early S1 Murphy/Clarke, ~1,000 words, for the prompt "secret" for July Break Bingo @julybreakbingo.

This ficlet was also written in response to a request by Robrae in a comment on AO3 for Clurphy in canonverse.

Written in about 40 minutes.

*

Back in the Skybox, most of the guys put on a front: fearless, arrogant, and rude. This exaggerated bravado was partly to ward off the usual existential dread—the prison atmosphere, the looming threat of death. But also to attract girls.

Skybox courtship followed a certain pattern: first annoyance and rejection, then curiosity, sometimes amusement, then boredom. Eventually even the assholes with their unsubtle pickup lines started to look pretty good. Horniness, and more dread. Pretty soon you're hooking up to feel alive or starting relationship drama to pass the time.

Clarke was in solitary so she doesn't know any of this, and unlike the girls in gen pop, she has neither time nor patience for sly winks and swagger. All the guys showing off their new Earth muscles by chopping wood or curing meat, they're trying to gain points with Bellamy and his crew first and foremost, sometimes, depending on who’s watching trying to flirt. But they're not trying to lure Clarke. They know better.

Murphy knows better too, which is why he's just as shocked as the rest of camp would be, if they only knew, that every other night he and Clarke trade off sneaking into each other's tents. Without discussion, they agreed that their arrangement should remain a secret. Something unspoken perhaps because it's shameful, perhaps because it's too ill-defined and ill-formed. What's he supposed to say anyway? That Clarke's his girlfriend? Not likely. Attaching labels to it, squashing it down into words and sentences, confessions, rumors, announcements or news, all that would tip over the delicate balance they've created. Just like they're baking a soufflé, they have to be quiet. Too much noise would send the whole thing falling down.

Clarke would probably find the soufflé metaphor funny, because, like most people, she doesn't know that the cook books in the Ark library database were his favorites. She'd laugh if he tried to call himself a chef. He's a lackey. A thug. He's in with the in-crowd because Bellamy saw something useful in him, something dead about the eyes that screamed out enforcer—or maybe he just knows from his little brat of a sister that Murphy was a lifer, unaccustomed to normal society, ready to follow strength and show it loyalty.

Most of that is true.

So if Clarke sees those traits in him and no others, he can't blame her, and if he keeps the quiet, soft, vulnerable parts of him hidden, whatever they are, it's for the same reason he put up his tough guy persona every day for four and a half long years up in the box: to ward off the dread, to get the girl.

A part of him says that Clarke wouldn't laugh, that she'd get real quiet and thoughtful and maybe brush his hair out of his eyes. He's been watching her during the day. She bends and softens at vulnerabilities; she knows she'll never get anything out of people who are kicked when they're already down. But then maybe he just likes the fantasy of it: a beautiful woman with power who tells him his dreams aren't dumb, who speaks with authority in the dark and silence just as she does out there in the chaos of daylight in the camp.

How he got such a girl he still doesn't entirely know. He'd cut himself badly working on one of the new structures, the wooden hutch where they hope to cure their meat. She was alone in the corner of the Dropship they've curtained off as Medical, and as she wiped the blood away and he hissed low curses and winced at the pain, she started talking to distract him, and he found out she was calm and clear-headed and brave in a crisis. That she looked beautiful as she pressed antiseptic to his skin, and that she could make him laugh when he didn't think he could. What she saw in him in those moments, he has no idea. That's just another secret, too deeply buried to disturb. But she held his hands a long time, even after he was all bandaged up and ready to go. She was kneeling on the floor in front of him, strands of hair pasted to her forehead with sweat.

He thought she'd probably banish him for kissing her but it seemed a fair risk, for that one reckless moment of time before he leaned in. Instead, she grabbed fistfuls of his hair and bit his lip.

In the perfect silence of the hour before the changing of the guard, that night, she crept across the dirt and deadened, yellow grass and scraped her nails like ghost-sounds down the nylon side of his tent. He let her in.

Maybe he's just around, a body, an opportunity—something she missed in her months of isolation, an outlet to her frustrations and her fatigue and her fears. Except she could have any damn person in camp if she wanted them. Maybe she's with him because she knows he won't brag. Ms. Griffin the Council Member's daughter in his bed.

Sometimes afterward they lie together in the quiet, listening to the wind in the trees, the footsteps of the night watch on patrol. Low, skittering forest sounds that he can't name. Tree leaves swept off their branches and thrown against the tent. Clarke climbs half on top of him and presses her ear to his heart and he gets his fingers all tangled up in her hair. They talk about the Skybox and he tells her about the arrogant and frightened young men. Then other stories. The long years, the distortion of time, the rituals—visiting day, birthdays, holidays—the new people coming in and the old going out. Less often, they talk about the camp and its progress. Sometimes she tells him about her parents and her friends back on the Ark.

She holds back a lot more than he does. He hears the hesitation in her voice, the care she puts into her words.

But it's all right.

He feels her chest rising and falling as she breathes, pressed against his chest. She's warm and heavy on top of him. Some nights it feels like she might stay there forever, like the time before the last gray hour before dawn, when she'll gather up her stuff and sneak away, is really all the time left in the world.