#avas crash log

[katavarie]

girl spent the whole chapter aura farming

[sevasey51]

An endo flare takes Connors wife down. No bleeding just her body trying to rip itself apart. Connor tries everything to take the pain off. Toradol makes it just bearable but not by much. Half way through the day her migraines kick up. She’s been stable but switching between normal rhythm and high heart rate and her BP has been soft since they woke up. Her body hasn’t quite decided to pull the trifecta of her chronic illnesses. The nausea and dizziness from the migraine and endo flare is enough. Connor decides the only way to cool down the flares is to do sumitrpain and morphine. Ava and Hannah are in the loop as always

The Fire That Won’t Go Out

Summary: During a brutal endometriosis flare with no bleeding—just deep, tearing pain—Connor’s wife spirals into a day of intense suffering. Toradol barely dulls it, and by midday, a migraine adds crushing nausea and dizziness. Her vitals remain unstable, with erratic heart rate and low blood pressure, teetering on the edge of a full POTS episode. Connor, in constant contact with Ava and Hannah, decides to intervene more aggressively. He administers Zofran, then sumatriptan and a low dose of morphine through her port. The combination brings her some relief, enough to settle into his arms as he monitors her closely. It’s not over, but she’s still fighting—and Connor’s right there, fighting with her.

The first signs came before the sun even rose.

Connor had woken instinctively to the subtle shifts in her breathing, the quiet whimper she didn’t know escaped her throat. His hand found her under the blankets, trembling and curled in on herself, drenched in sweat despite the chill of early morning air.

“Hey,” he whispered, voice still rough with sleep. “Sweetheart, talk to me.”

She didn’t answer. Couldn’t.

Her arms were locked around her abdomen, knees drawn up high, every muscle clenched in pain. It wasn’t bleeding—he could tell from the absence of heat and pressure on the pad beneath her. This wasn’t that. This was the other kind of flare. The kind that made her sob into the pillow and whisper that her own body was trying to tear itself apart.

He moved quickly, pulling her into his arms despite the tension in her muscles. Her skin was clammy and cool to the touch. Her pulse fluttered against his chest—fast, inconsistent. Her breath hitched every few seconds as waves of pain rolled through her.

“Alright,” he murmured, already sliding into triage mode. “I’ve got you. We’ll start small.”

He tried heat first, knowing it probably wouldn’t touch it. A warm pack placed low across her abdomen. Soft clothes. Dimmed lights. A sip of electrolyte water. Her face twisted at the taste, but she managed two sips.

Then the Toradol. He pushed it slowly into her port, letting her body absorb it while he gently massaged her lower back. Her head lolled sideways, eyes fluttering. She whispered his name once, and it broke something in him.

Still not enough.

By late morning, her pain was holding steady but nowhere near manageable. The Toradol was only knocking the edge off. Her nausea had worsened, and she couldn’t sit upright without falling sideways into his arms. Her heart rate was toggling between high 120s and 150s. Not a full crash yet—but the threat hung there like a storm cloud.

He kept a rolling chart open on the tablet, logging her vitals every 30 minutes. Her blood pressure hadn’t hit full hypotension yet, but it was soft, spongy, unpredictable. The POTS was lurking in the wings, waiting.

And then, as if on cue, her migraines lit up.

It started with her pupils pinning. Then the photosensitivity. She pulled the blanket over her face and whimpered, fists curled in the fabric. The dizziness escalated. So did the nausea.

Her pain scale had tipped into the red zone.

Connor sat on the edge of the bed, hand cradling the back of her neck as she shook.

“Sweetheart, I need to push another round.”

She didn’t answer, but her head twitched against his chest—just enough of a nod.

He tapped out two updates:

To Ava: She’s flaring. Toradol’s not holding. HR up and down, soft BP, migraine’s in play now.

To Hannah: Stable-ish, but in hell. Thinking morphine + sumatriptan. Thoughts?

Both responses came within minutes.

Ava: Agreed. Morphine won’t tank her pressure if you go low and slow. Get ahead of it before her brainstem starts panicking.

Hannah: Do it. Try Zofran first if she hasn’t thrown up yet. You’ve got this, Connor.

He prepped the meds carefully. First, Zofran through the port. Then sumatriptan, slow and steady. Morphine followed—a small dose, diluted and given with practiced care. She moaned softly as it entered her bloodstream, but she didn’t pull away.

She started to settle twenty minutes later. Not peaceful. Not pain-free. But quieter.

Connor climbed into bed behind her, carefully guiding her body to rest back against his. He tucked her into his chest like a cocoon, her breathing rough but slowing.

“You’re not alone in this,” he murmured into her hair. “Even when it feels like your body’s trying to kill you. I’m right here. Every second.”

Her fingers twitched in his shirt. That was all she could do.

By midafternoon, her vitals had stabilized enough that he allowed himself to breathe. She hadn’t vomited. The migraine pressure was still there but dulled. Her stomach was still a war zone, but the morphine had taken the sharpest edges off the blade.

He texted both Ava and Hannah again with updates, then closed the tablet and let it rest beside the bed.

Connor didn’t leave her side all day. He stayed, arms wrapped around her, carefully monitoring her port, her breath, the soft sounds she made when the pain crept back.

She didn’t speak much. But when dusk fell, and he whispered, “Still with me?” she managed the faintest rasp of a reply.

“Yeah. Hurts. But I’m here.”

So was he. Always.

Hey loves I hope you enjoy this I’ll try to get some more content out tomorrow doing a full hair wash has taken it out of me, so I’m glad I started writing it earlier because I’m falling asleep writing this hahah, but again I hope you guys love this 🫶🏻

[crystal-wingeddragon-spikes]

I do not have anything very good to share lately, so this is a bit of a behind the scenes for AvA/Alan Becker verse.

Some of the stick figure works I have done are made with "Vector puppets" on Krita Vector layer. They can be quickly reposed, but the shading is redrawn manually.

Because, the only media these very simplistic design would make sense is animation, so my comic has to straddle the line between storyboard and conventional comic. Even official Animation Versus Splash art opt to give them outline and shading.

In a perfect world, I would love to have each group layer for each puppet/character, containing; Shading layers and individual limbs, but my Krita usually crash when I have too many vector shapes. I might even make the shading automatically change with each pose, if I can afford to make a mask layer over each limb.

Do you know that in my very first experiment with elaborate vector art, "Not a Full picture", Krita crashed for having too many texts? Krita Text editor is truly a curse in this near perfect program.

That was this AIM chat log, specifically. Fortunately, I only lost a few seconds of progress.

See the comic in tumblr [here] The art style is all over the place because it is experimental.

(Theoretically, I can animate them like this, if I have time and effort.)

[emmaannaelisabeth]

Pt.1 of Beavery Breakfast Backfire ... And Pretty Darn Good Hallucinations... And One Damned Hopeless Dress.

you know in the first spiderman triology, where tobey goes like IM BACK IM BACK as he thinks he can swing again and then he falls on his back and goes my b a c k ahhhh my b A c K ??

i am back. at least for tonight lol ;) love you all with all my heart

Eskil doesn’t know if he’s swimming towards the surface or the bottom. The waves of the river toss him back and forth, he can’t see anything but darkness and clouds of white bubbles storming around him. The water is cold, there are pieces of wood around him, racing down the river. One by one they hit him, pushing the air out of his lungs when they crash into his chest and body. Something hits his arm; a flare of hot white pain flashes up towards his shoulder.

He turns in the water, reaches for the surface, tries desperately to get his head over the water. His lungs burn, scream for air. Panic courses through his veins. A loud gasp passes his lips as he finally manages to get a hold of one of the wooden logs and heaves himself up. His gaze frantically flickers around as he searches for her.

“Ava!” He barely manages to shout her name before another branch crashes into him and he loses his grip of the one he was clinging to. The water swallows him again.

He reaches for another branch in the water and holds onto it even though the waves toss him around. Air floods into his lungs as he manages to get his head over the surface. Blue terrified eyes look around, search for Ava’s deep brown ones. He shouts her name, his throat feels sore. Where is she? Dammit, where is she?

This was all a mistake, thinking they could visit Fjerda unnoticed in summer. They should never have come here, and they should definitely not have visited the beaver dam outside of town. This is all Eskil’s fault.

“Beavers are amazing.” Eskil can hear his own voice echoing in his head from this morning. Ava simply raised one of her eyebrows and laughed at him when he told her that.

“Do you honestly suggest that we go outside of town and look at a beaver dam when we could literally do anything else?”

Eskil smiled at her. “I do, my little beaver”, he said and took her hand in his, pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “Have you ever seen one?” Ava shook her head as he rocked her slightly. He buried his face in her dark hair.

“But, it’s a dam, Eskil. We could do anything, go to the square, maybe visit the blacksmith and admire his knives?” Eskil could hear the smile on Ava’s lips.

“But you know what the perks of looking at the dam would be?” Eskil whispered into her ear, letting his lips graze her skin.

“What?” Ava said and turned in his arms, looking into his eyes.

“We could bring a blanket, and a basket of food. Just the two of us. Alone.” Eskil grinned and raised his eyebrow at her. “And you could sit in my lap, and I could braid your hair and then we could-”

Ava laughed and buried her face in Eskil’s chest. “Sit in your lap? Oh, I’ve never heard that one before. You know, if my Mama knew-”

“She’d know I would never do anything to you unless you said yes”, Eskil interrupted her and tilted her head back as his gaze found hers. “Can I kiss you?”

A huff escaped Ava and her lips had curved into a bright smile, her cheeks took a warm shade of red. “Yes, you podge.”

His lips met hers and after that it hadn’t been too hard to convince Ava that the beaver dam was worth seeing. They packed a basket and walked to the forest. And although the nature was beautiful, Eskil wasn’t able to take his gaze off Ava for even a second. She was wearing a light linen dress; the fabric fell beautifully around her when she walked through the green grass. She looked like a Saint.

Everything went well until they actually reached the dam; Ava’s skirt got stuck in a bush and she stumbled over a gnawed tree stump. “Damned skirt”, she said and held up her hands. Blood covered her palms and she hissed as Eskil took her hands in his. Of course he helped her; he thought they were alone.

They weren’t. A smaller Drüskelle squad had been resting in the woods and soon Eskil and Ava were running from their bullets. They ran over the beaver dam they were supposed to look at and Ava flipped up one of the bombs Melinda sent with them and blew up it up behind them. They would’ve been safe if Ava’s dress hadn’t gotten stuck again.

Eskil screamed her name and grabbed her hand, he tried to pull her up as he ducked for the bullets. But the current had already taken her, and her small hand slipped out of his. And then the logs he’d been standing on gave way and the river took him as well.

“Ava!” he now screams, searching for her as best as he can in the water. Eskil’s whole being seizes with horror. He knows she’s one of the best swimmers he knows, but the water is cold, despite it being summer, and filled with wood and branches with sharp ends, and her damned dress could get stuck in anything.

The deafening roar of a waterfall makes his blood freeze in his veins. He can see how the river disappears and how a cloud of steam and mist rises above the fall. Djel help us, he prays as he grips the stem he’s holding onto tighter and draws in a deep breath before the waterfall pulls him down.

He gasps for air as he succeeds in reaching the surface. Clumsily, he tries to swim towards the riverside. Down here, the water is calmer, and before he knows it, he feels the ground beneath his feet. Panting heavily, he lifts his tired head to look around. His body feels heavy, he barely has strength to move, and yet his heart beats quicker than ever. Blue eyes search desperately for Ava’s black hair and white dress, her beautiful bronze skin.

And then it stops beating. There she’s laying on her side, maybe twenty meters away, on the riverside. Her legs are still in the water, but her head rests on the grass and her upper body is covered in sand. “Ava”, Eskil gasps and tries to run towards her. He hurries through the water, falls when it doesn’t cooperate with him. Getting up, he makes his way towards her, his heart staggering in worry. Please, be alright, please be alright.

He falls to his knees by her side and puts his hand on her shoulder, shaking her lightly. “Ava?” Eskil’s heart staggers with anxiety. “Ava?” he repeats, louder this time.

[katavarie]

I think kinitopet might be my favorite instance of this trope solely because the song is very similarly sounding to "Daisy bell" with is one of the first or the first songs ever sung by a computer with a very early tts. I'm pretty sure this was also why HAL 9000 sings it.

this trope becomes more common with the passing year and I love it

[choicesenthusiast]

My Two First Loves, Ch. 71-73 AKA Trauma Level 100

What happened this week:

With some time to burn before dinner, partake in a little “indecent exposure”, as Noah puts it, by stripping down and jumping into the frozen lake with everyone. Complete the hike with a mountaintop picnic. I’m assuming everyone’s still cold and wet here.

When the lights go out and Mrs. Jennings asks you to find some candles in the basement, Noah trips and conveniently yanks out a loose brick, in which the very same gun that put a bullet in his body is hidden. Now that’s gotta be traumatizing for him..

Dinner goes about as well as you’d expect when there’s a gun on the table, with things escalating to the point where Jennings calls Noah a big fat piece of “nothing”, practically disowns his son, and surprisingly makes some valid points regarding your flip-floppiness, and your father leaving us in jail for the night. Ava also declares that she is “gay as hell”, and though this should seem like a momentous step for her, everything is already at level 100 that this surprised no one.

Blow of steam and exercise your imagination by chopping some wood with everyone. Imagining your worst enemies as a log you’re currently demolishing is very therapeutic, I know. A good alternative is a baseball bat.

Before Noah can reveal the ever-so-secret deal with Jennings, the bastard has the gall. The audacity. The nerve to have a heart attack. Now that’s gotta be traumatizing for Mason.

In a panic, your doctor dad endangers four teens’ lives by sending them driving for help in a snowstorm. Doesn’t MC carpool? She doesn’t drive, right? So in true Choices fashion, we get into another car crash. Now that’s gotta be traumatizing for everyone. There’s no other way to spice it up. If you even suggest at PB that they create drama in another way, they crash a car into you on the spot.

Thoughts:

What I don’t understand is how long has the gun been there in the basement? Because everyone makes it seem like it’s been there forever, but the cabin was a recent purchase/upgrade, right? I’d ask someone to clear this up for me but frankly, I don’t want to think about it anymore.

After the intensity of the dinner, I found the crash a lot more comical than it should’ve been. Like everything else is so ridiculous that of course it happens. But I guess that’s what happens when you go driving in a snowstorm. Don’t drive in snowstorms, folks. Take it from me, a Canadian.

[wolf-mask]

Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing

Borderlands 3 is a fun game mechanically. I’ve spent almost 6 plus DAYS worth of hours playing the game. I finished every side quest and every collectible. The only thing I haven’t done is collect all the echo logs, but I’ve listened to all of them. The only complaint I have with the game is the story. I’ve ranted to my friend about this and, like they said, 

“it feels like great writers set up a world and cast with a ton of potential and plans laid out, and then halfway through a different team of writers took over and there was 0 communication between the two groups.” 

There was so much potential for Borderlands 3 to be good, but instead it came out “Meh.” and that seems to be what everyone thinks. After watching multiple reviews, there are 4 points of BL3’s story that people pick out as detrimental to the story.

If I’ve forgotten anything, or something sticks out to you that can be explained away by canon, please let me know.

More under the read more

1. The Calypso Twins

I have 2 complaints about the Calypso twins: their unexplained motivations and the writers’ choice of focus.

This is my own personal complaint, but why do the Calypso’s have these motivations? Sure, I get it. Tyreen wants to open the Great Vault because she thinks its her birthright as the daughter of the first vault hunter. But why become a God? I understand the whole wanting to be the most famous person thing but she could’ve just opened the vault to do that, look at Lilith and the other Vault Hunters. So why become a God? How did she come to that conclusion? Why build up an army? Why cause galaxy wide pandemonium when you could just become a Vault Hunter like the current and past playable characters? She even says herself they came to Pandora to be Vault Hunters! So why start a CULT? None of that is really answered by the game. Instead we’re given surface level villains with a surface level backstory. We never find out how their mother died.

The main complaint I’ve seen in these reviews is the story’s focus on the villains. Tyreen is never given screen time. We never learn more about her nor does she undergo any kind of character growth to become a good villain, yet she becomes the Final Boss. Instead, Troy gets most of the character development. Troy is the main focus out of the two villains, he gets the character growth after taking Maya’s powers. Troy is the more compelling villain out of the twins. He starts from the bottom, forced to rely on his sister to live but she sees him as nothing more than a parasite. He’s constantly forced into the background, be a follower, kept under his sister’s heel as she gets what she wants.

After taking Maya’s powers, however, he figures out he doesn’t have to depend on Tyreen. He starts crawling away from Tyreen’s shadow to stand by himself. The cultists start to worship him just as much as Tyreen, he starts hijacking the echo calls, he starts disagreeing with Tyreen’s leadership. The scene in Jakobs mansion makes it seem like Troy is scheming on his own. All of this focus, compounded with Tyreen’s comments during Troy’s boss fight, hints that TROY will become the Final Boss. But instead of having a compelling villain who’s crawled out from under his sister’s shadow, we kill Troy and we’re left with the less interesting villain. If they HAD to go with Tyreen as the main villain, they should’ve given her character growth to make her more compelling. You’d think she’d show some sort of growth after having her brother killed and killing her father, but nothing ever from that. She just stays a one dimensional character throughout the main plot.

2. Maya’s Death

Maya’s death was severely mishandled in Borderlands 3. In the context of the story, Maya had to die eventually, but that doesn’t mean her death couldn’t have been pushed back though. 

Compare Maya’s death in Borderlands 3 to Roland’s death in Borderlands 2. In BL2, Roland’s death had more impact because we spent more time with him (Over half the game to be exact, 11 out of 20 story missions), he spent most of the game guiding the player, and we got to see him interact with other characters as well as see how his death affected other characters.

With Maya we spend less than a fourth of the game with her (4 out of 23 missions. She should’ve been introduced earlier and killed off later), we barely interact with her and we don’t see her interact with any other characters aside from Ava and Lilith. One of the things I loved about BL2 was being able to see the old Vault Hunters interact with each other in Sanctuary. When Maya dies, her funeral is played off as a joke, Lilith is blamed by Ava, and that’s as far as acknowledgement goes. No one besides Ava ever acknowledges Maya’s death. It’s as if her death is totally ignored.

Did Maya have to die though? Yes, but not immediately. When Tyreen drained Lilith, Lilith didn’t die. But when Troy drained Maya, why did she die? She didn’t have to at that moment. Throughout the story, Maya’s powers are an important plot point. Her powers are what allow Troy to experience some independence for the first time in his life. When Troy drained Maya he could’ve just stolen her powers and left her alive. This would have left her the potential for character growth. 

So why did Maya have to die? Because Ava had to become a Siren eventually. I don’t mind Ava, I think she’s fine as a character, but if her purpose was to show how Siren powers are transferred, we already have Tannis for that. They practically shove in Ava to replace Maya as soon as she dies. It’s like taking a child’s favorite toy and shoving a new one in their arms, expecting them to like the new toy immediately. They should’ve let Ava become a Siren later down the line instead. 

3. Ava’s Characterization

As I previously said, I don’t mind Ava. I think she’s an alright character as she is right now. Most people don’t think that though, and I can see why. Ava is directly responsible for Maya’s death. She disobeyed Maya’s directions and came to the Promethea Vault on her own. Due to her disobeying orders, Maya is forced to put Ava’s well being above hers. Ava further escalated the situation, leading to Maya needing to save her. This ends in Maya’s death. 

Instead of taking responsibility for her actions, Ava blames Lilith for Maya’s death and claims that they need to rush in without thinking. And later on she’s praised as being right for the same thought process! When Lilith goes to sacrifice herself, she basically tells Ava she’s right. Not only that, she gives leadership of the Crimson Raiders over to a 13 year old child with no experience who got her mentor killed. At no point is she forced to face the consequences of her actions, she never goes through a character arc. Ava has the potential to be a likable character but her characterization was so botched that most people hate her now. They player should’ve been allowed to slowly learn more about Ava and watch her grow before taking over Maya’s role. Hopefully the DLC that focuses on her will do her better.

4. Ignoring the Player

The BIGGEST sin of BL3 is how it treats the player character. The achievements of the player are constantly undercut and we are consistently ignored by the narrative. 

The whole game made me feel like I was the side character to the Sirens. All the other Borderlands games have focused on the Player as the main character. In BL1 the Vault Hunters killed the Destroyer, in BL2 the six vault hunters defeated the Warrior and defeated Handsome Jack, in TPS those six beat the Sentinel and helped Jack rise to power. In BL3, it feels like none of our achievements matter. As soon as we accomplish one thing, something bigger happens and that needs to be focused on. You got to Tannis after that pain in the ass fight with the Agonizer? Welp looks like Tannis is a Siren and you practically did that shit for nothing! We defeated Tyreen the Destroyer? Welp looks like Elpis is going to crash into Pandora and now Lilith has to go stop that. The only times I really felt like I was making an impact was when I wasn’t doing missions for the Sirens. 

At the end of the game Ava is more acknowledged than the player and given command of an entire army. This should’ve gone to the player! The character who’s busted their ass off to bring the Raiders back from the brink of disbandment, who’s done all the heavy lifting! Hell, before going down to Promethea Lilith asks YOU to take over field operations while she’s powerless. 

But what ticks me off the most is how the narrative ignores the player. Unlike the cut scenes in other Borderlands games, you are ignored. Nearly all of the cut scenes are in third person and you are NOWHERE to be seen. Maya being killed by Troy, Tyreen absorbing Troy and trying to crush the other Sirens, Tyreen killing Typhon, and Lilith’s sacrifice. We’re NEVER seen in those cut scenes. Compare this to the cut scenes in previous games, which are almost always in 1st person and if they aren’t, the 3rd person view is used when the cut scene isn’t important. In BL3, almost all the cut scenes are in 3rd person. The only time the player is acknowledged is when Troy phaselocks the player in the Jakobs Mansion, which makes this issue all the more frustrating.

Conclusion

Borderlands 3 is a graveyard of missed potential. The story could have been so much better than it came out as. I love the game from a gameplay standpoint, it’s so fun to play, but the main story is a drag to get through at this point. I don’t think it’s worth re-playing at this point and I’m going to wait for DLC to come out before playing more of it. Again, if I missed anything or you think something could be can be explained by Canon, please let me know! I have other little nitpicks I might talk about later but for now these are the main things that I think are wrong with the main story of Borderlands 3.

If you’re interested, these videos helped me in pinpointing what felt so wrong about BL3. They’re good videos to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ws6VRYEDw&t=431s (Tina vs Ava)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2qmhaRmcc (Main problem with BL3)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lL0fAxjZnc (Wasting Maya)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibOPCU2adkE (Why Borderlands 3 is Disappointing)

[katavarie]

"I AM THE WIZARD AND I BANISH YOU TO PERMANENT DEATH!" Is going to stay in my brain till the day I die

[doom-dreaming]

WAIT WHAT HAPPENED???? i cant find spoilers anywhere im dying

Fuck you Tumblr why do you post things before I finish them.

OKAY. MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!!!THIS IS PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE MAJOR PLOT. I WARNED YOU.

(I got all this from Char’s Twitch stream, btw. Watched it last night. Cried. Screamed. Ate my hands off. You know.)

This is going to be twins-centric because that’s just who I am as a person, but here’s how it goes:

After the cutscene where the twins steal Lilith’s power, you head to Promethea.

Maliwan!Zer0 is actually Katagawa.

(At some point, Maya joins the crew, I haven’t watched any Athenas gameplay actually. But she’s here during the next event, which is important.)

The Promethean Vault Monster is the Rampager. It has multiple elemental attack stages. Once you go in and come back out of the Vault, Maya is arguing with her apprentice Ava, who snuck along to fight even though she was told not to. The twins show up, take the remaining life force from the monster.

Maya and Ava try to leave. Ty grabs Ava, Maya phaselocks Troy so Tyreen lets go of Ava. TURNS OUT TROY CAN LEECH TOO! SO HE LEECHES MAYA. COMPLETELY DUSTS HER.

Tyreen seems surprised, saying “I thought you could only leech from me?” and it’s at this point that the power balance starts to shift.

So he can phaselock now.

Then you go to Eden-6. I missed a chunk from the arrival to the opening of the Eden-6 Vault.

The Eden-6 Vault is guarded by the Gravewarden, who has multiple attack phases and elements and can shift the area on a slant, so be careful. Once you kill it, Tannis shows up because she’s figured out a way to neutralize the power so that the twins can’t use it.

Tyreen whines about being hungry and Troy says you suck. You go into the Vault, and when you come back out, Tannis is suddenly phaselocked and teleported away by the twins.

This prompts a rescue mission back on Pandora - the Pain and Terror quest. Well. So Tannis is a siren. She manifested Angel’s abilities. So she makes it out of this okay.

Over the ECHOcomms, the twins start getting more interesting. Troy pushes his way into the spotlight, stepping on Tyreen’s toes, ignoring her, stealing her catchphrases, etc. He says he has a big surprise for you.

The next time you get to Sanctuary, you get to see this surprise.

TROY AMPS HIMSELF UP ON ERIDIUM AND PHASELOCKS THE MOON and starts pulling it toward Pandora because it turns out that the Great Vault? Is Pandora. It’s the whole planet. And Elpis is the key.

So naturally, the Raiders send you down to stop him. You fight your way through to the twins, Troy is getting increasingly angry and starts legitimately screaming over the ECHOcomm (which I only found hot, sorry not sorry); well, you manage to cut off his eridium supply, but uh oh, the moon is still being charged?

YEAH. HE’S LEECHING FROM TYREEN TO CHARGE THE FUCKING MOON. I CAN’T MAKE THIS SHIT UP. (If I had, it would be better.)

This cues his boss fight. He has beautiful red wings. He’s so fucking gorgeous.Tyreen is screaming the entire time, saying that Troy’s going to kill her. He mostly ignores her.

Once you land the killing blow, it triggers a short cutscene where Troy staggers toward Ty (already on the ground) and says “Ty…we…almost…made it” and then he dies.

Lilith, Tannis, and Ava come in. Ava touches Troy’s arm. Her siren powers manifest. Lilith says they never belonged to him anyway. :(

AND THEN TYREEN GETS UP. She looks down at Troy and says “Troy….you did it.” And then puts her hands on his head AND FOR A SECOND I WAS EXPECTING A RESURRECTION BUT SHE FUCKING DUSTS HIM. VAPORIZED. BYE TROY I NEVER GOT TO HOLD YOU OR PET YOUR HAIR OR [REDACTED].

She takes the cam-bot out of his arm, which is the only part of him left, and makes a very peppy, very determined broadcast…..and then smashes the camera and disappears.

Time to go to the Eridian homeworld, as it’s the only way to shut down the Great Vault opening.

Once on the final planet that I forgot the name of, you meet up with Typhon DeLeon, who’s been stranded there for decades. As you fight through Eridians and Maliwan to do what you’ve gotta do, you learn the backstory.

Typhon and his wife Leda crashed on this planet. She was pregnant. She had twins. “The boy was always sick and the girl talked circles around me.”

Yeah. Those twins.

Typhon thought they would like staying on this planet, but they saw it as a prison and left - some time after their mother had died. Typhon regrets keeping them there, says he shouldn’t have told them the stories about the Great Vault, says he feels remorse for what they’ve become.

I was crying a lot.

You apologize for killing Troy and he says something like “I’m sorry about my boy but I’m glad he can’t hurt people anymore.” Fam. Fam my eyes are just water.

Through the fighting, Tyreen gives you little tidbits on their childhood, and the one that killed me was how she mentioned stargazing with Troy, who said that they would shine brighter than the stars. Flat-out sobbing by this point.

There’s at least one ECHO log I saw that’s from the twins as they fixed up the ship to leave the planet, I’m sure there’s more scattered around. If we find some of them as really little kids, I’m going to cliff dive without a bungee.

Just as you start to close The Great Vault, Tyreen shows up. There’s a confrontation, Typhon restrains her….she fights him…and kills him. And fucks off to complete her mission to become a god.

Tannis opens a portal back to Pandora, you’re transported to The Great Vault. Tyreen BECOMES the Destroyer and it’s honestly grotesque. There’s a vaguely Shadow of the Colossus style fight with her and then…it’s over.

There’s some talking. The moon is still too close to the planet. Lilith makes the executive decision to take that into her own hands and flies into the moon and…….becomes a firehawk moon shield? I’m still not sure.

UM. YEAH BUT IT WAS A LOT AND I’M NEGLECTING SELF-CARE BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW HOW TO HEALTHILY COPE WITH PIXEL BASTARDS THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK.

[oursidae]

long ass rant abt bl3

just, so many spoilers under the readmore, things i thought the game did poorly and things i wish were changed

I should have expected it to be not great being that, borderlands was NEVER fantastic with its writing and character development. Ive been spoiled by tales from the borderlands tbh. I think borderlands three tho was like… fantastically underwhelming.

I had a blast with the beginning of the game up through the end of the first vault, where the excitement peetered off. 

Firstly, i wholly believe Maya was done horribly. Compare her death to say, Roland. Even if you hadn’t played BL1, you had almost the entirety of 2 to get to know him and his character and his place in the world of borderlands. Maya’s death was INCREDIBLY early in comparison. And not only that, the characters dont get to mourn aside from a few offhand voicelines. Mordecai mourned for bloodwing in a more substantial way - you get two full side quests about it. Zer0 says one offhand voiceline for maya. They were her friend goddamn it, i wanted MORE. 

ava is a good character but the fridging of maya just makes her into… what, a brat who accidentally got her killed and now has her powers? it would have been more interesting for them to develop alongside each other through the game and if maya died near the end, youd have cared a lot more about ava too. she’s just really one note right now.

Speaking of side quests, there were very few. They were sparse and honestly i dont think they added much to the plot of the game or the world.

in borderlands 2, side quests, at least in my eyes, were what forced you to explore the map. in borderlands 3 they forgo a lot of side quests in favor of the crew challenges, which were far less rewarding imo. like, build claptrap a gf with parts from dead claptraps in the world. disable COV radio towers for moxxi, kill fauna for hammerlock, people for zer0, etc, but except for zer0 and hammerlock you just get very similar voice lines in return. as well as xp. they dont add to the plot or worldbuilding or characters in any way. 

the lack of side quests i think really hurt my enjoyment of the game, because in bl2 it was the sidequests that got you to know the main cast and see that they were working behind the scenes. like brick and his slabs, moxxi asking you to sabotage opportunity, ellie and scooters more jokey side quests even!! it made them feel real with motives outside the main quest. bl3 didnt really have any of that past the first vault (i say this because lorelai gave some good sidequests.) in 3, moxxi and hammerlock only give u one side quest each. marcus (who gave u a lot on bl2) didnt give you any. he was literally just there to run the ammo shop. 

some of the more hyped characters dont really do shit. the b-team, mordecai/brick/tina dont really do…anything, they bust hammerlock out of jail, and then give you one side quest per person. thats really it. i hoped that, considering their roles in bl2 and their relationship to lilith, theyd have big roles here too. they didnt. they were truly forgettable. 

aurelia showed up to fill a villain slot and died. maybe im a sucker for redemption, but i hoped theyd had more in store for her. and they just…didnt. just like, a whole mission of wainwright calling her a harpy while hammerlock really wants to convince her to not be evil only to get fucking shot by her, like,,,,

vaughn is a joke. they did him truly dirty. his character development tanked into a “haha look at him hes strange and naked” joke. tftbl ending vaughn would NEVER. i wish theyd acknowledge the events of tales from the borderlands AT ALL. or had vaughn and rhys SPEAK TO EACH OTHER.

rhys is another thing, i rly dislike the relationship theyre pushing w him and sasha even tho sasha literally didnt show up in the game. apparently theres echo logs of him obsessing over and searching for her (i didnt find these in my own game but like, i believe it) and her picture on his desk and god DAMN it just let it rest,

BALEX was bland and so immediately misogynistic that i hated him on principle.

so then theres this character Typhon Daleon. he is the first vault hunter, but to my knowledge the only mentions of him occur in bl3. in fact, i dont think he’s mentioned in a main quest until after you kill troy and meet him in person, you only hear of him in the typhon logs which are optional. Then in the final quest you learn troy and tyreen are his kids, then he dies. i had no attachment to this character! he should have at least been built up in borderlands 2, if not in all of the previous games to get me to at least go “huh neat!” when its revealed hes alive, his kids are the villains, etc. 

tannis… they handled her being a siren poorly, my gripe isnt that i called it, its that it isnt really explained how she got her powers. i was pissed for like a good while after she reveals that she has ANGELS powers because i assumed somehow she stole or manufactured them. theres an eridian recording that KIND OF explains it, but again, those are OPTIONAL. idk if i just blanked out when she went, oh, by the way, heres why,  but to my knowledge its never explained to the player in a main or side mission, at least until you see ava get mayas powers. its infuriating.

worldbuilding wise, this is a much smaller issue, but i wish there were nonhostile fauna on the other planets. pandoras whole thing, the big meme the big laff, is that everything wants to kill u there. so it wouldve been nice to like, see some fauna thats docile. runs away from the player, is chased around by the carnivorous fauna or bandits or something. maybe a hammerlocks challenge could be to use stealth to kill a docile animal or something, it just would have been nice,

i also didnt think the ending made sense, lilith,.. punched the moon and disappeared? died? also brick and mordecai DIDNT GET TO BE THERE FOR HER OR WITH HER AT ALL. after all of bl2 where its SHOWN they’re good friends who care about each other, youd think theyd get to witness her death/disappearance. on top of that it felt like the whole game was building to something with lilith and the climax was so underwhelming. 

i just want to beat randy bitchford with a rolled up newspaper until he stops being a piece of human shit and borderlands can develop the characters and world.

the good parts of the game were…the graphics and the bossfights. the boss fights were all unique and interesting and FUN. katagawa jr, troy, the second vault monster, and tyreen were my faves in that order. hammerlock and wainwrights relationship was adorable and i liked the credits art of wainwright proposing. clay was a fun character but like all the others, didnt have development.

i also had a lot of glitches. my game would crash if i navigated menus too quickly, i had an issue with effects from shields staying on my screen even tho they should have ended, as well as a lot of glitching after cutscenes, most notably falling through the floor after the troy bossfight. a lot of my quest objectives glitched and wouldnt activate until i reloaded, which was frustrating.

i DID like the game. but i dont know if ill do a replay past promethea. i was just wishing itd be a whole game on the level of the Commander Lilith DLC.

TLDR i wouldn’t have minded the game being so lilith centric if the other characters got to matter at ALL.

[katavarie]

One thing I noticed when watching videos and stuff on adventure time was that there was a fair few Late gen Xers to Early millennials online who seems to despise the show pretty largely on account for its dialog.

Being Gen Z all I had ever seen it as was just a silly vernacular the show had for no reason other than it was funny and unique. It was only till I realized later that so much of that "Totally Radical" dialog was the exact same kind of "fellow kids" used in shows and ads when they were kids.

adventure time slang is weird cuz like. when you first watch the show and hear the slang you're like "oh this is cringy slang but its not like awful" but it gets to a point where the voice actors deliver the slang so naturally you don't even notice it and its just. part of the world's vernacular. I can't think of any other show that's done in-universe slang like this

[leal-5]

Tomb of Time Destiny: Chapter 12

Erza POV

The knight beside me- I think I heard his name was Redus- used the momentary surprise of the Phantom Lord knights to lunge forward, piercing the first man in the shoulder. Juvia and I hesitated, caught off guard by the blood that literally spurted from the gash in the man's cloak and flesh. But then I tensed. They were attacking now, and they were seriously cranky.

I glanced back and was relieved to see the two women, on a ledge twelve feet above us, reaching for their next perch. They were nearly to safety. At least we would die for something. Jellal and Gray clearly needed to marry those chicks for some reason.

'Maybe they'll name their first girls after us-'

The four knights came closer to us, hands out in placating manner. "Now, this will not help you at all," said the first. "Women should never play with the weapons of men."

'When facing an opponent larger or stronger than yourself, use the element of surprise.'

"No, they should not play with them," I said, adopting a guilty look and pretending to agree with him. "They should learn to wield them," Juvia said, already circling to gain the momentum we needed, "properly," I finished, ramming our swords into theirs. He and the guy beside him barely brought their own swords up in time.

I arced it upward and used the weight of it to bring it down at him again, from the other side. Again, he narrowly blocked my blow, eyes widening in understanding that we weren't pretending. "Aww, we have two lioness's here," he sputtered in a delighted but patronizing tone, beginning his attack. He was as large as Gajeel. Surprise, my temporary ally, was gone.

"Erza! Juvia!" cried both Carmen and Ava, now on top of the cliff.

"Go!" I called back in irritation. She wasted precious seconds with the theatrics. "Go for help!"

They were rushing right at us, all four of them, yelling ferociously. Juvia and I stood back to back, calm and calculating.

'Once the element of surprise is gone, be relentless- but don't tire yourself out. Anticipate their every move. You must always be two or three steps ahead.'

We close our eyes and do as we were taught. A rush of air to my right. I lean to the left slightly and raise my sword, intercepting the hit. I can feel two of them rushing forward again. I block one hit with my sword and the other with my armored arm. Behind me Juvia matches me step per step.

Side.

Block.

Head.

Duck.

Strike.

Dodge.

The men quickly become even more frustrated- can you blame them? They're getting their asses handed back to them by girls- and they all rush at us with loud battle cries at the same time, intending to pierce us all at once from four different directions.

'Once you have them where you want them, attack!'

"Juv's."

"Ready."

Almost as if it happened in slow motion, Juvia and I simultaniously shift so that the tips of their swords met harmlessly in the middle, hitting nothing. Before they can even react, I slam the hilt of my sword onto one of the mans face and elbow the other one in the nose. In front of me Juvia does the same, except she kicks the other man in the face with enough force to send him sprawling. None of them get up.

I turn to see Redus finish off his own opponent, and frowned. 'Weren't there si-'

"AAH!"

"Juvia?!" I turned just I saw the missing man kick Juvia's side from behind. He caught her off guard!

My vision turns red as I see Juvia go down, her face crumpled in pain. The man had a satisfied look on his face until he caught sight of me. He had no time to think, only react, as I rushed forward with my sword. The imensity of the impact as my hit his sword caused him to drop his own sword. He cursed and shook his hands, trying to get the blood flowing back into them. His eyes widened when he realized I was swinging my sword again and he raised his arm to block the hit.

I don't know what stuff my armor was made out of, but it clearly wasn't the same as his because it dented and tore the metal pretty badly. The man's face crumpled in pain and I sent him flying with a spinning kick to his face. He slammed into the large boulder before shriveling down to the floor uselessly. I glared at him for a heartbeat before rushing back to Juvia's side.

"Juvia! Juvia! Talk to me! Are you okay? Where did he kick you?" I asked in english, growing more worried when her pained face didn't ease.

"Donne moi une minute..."Juvia muttered, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Hey, Juvs, I don't speak french." I said nervously.

"One..moment..." She said breathlessly, slowly proping herself up on her elbow.

"They guy must've had quite a mighty kick to have you in pain like this."

"It wasn't the kick that hurt me," Juvia said as she pulled herself up to sit on a nearby log. "When I fell over the hilt of my sword rammed into my thigh."

I winced slightly. That had to hurt.

"Wh-what happened?" Redus asked wide eyed, staring at the mess of bodies loitering around us. He stared at us in open shock and mild fear. "Only a witch could do such a thing!"

"N-no! Please listen to us Redus! We are not witches! We are simply well trained!"

"Y-yes! Juvia's guardian made sure she and her sister's knew how to defend themselves in case there was no one there to help them!"

"And also, look! They're still breathing! If we were witches don't you think we would've finished them off?"

Redus seemed to take this all into account. "B-but still even if you aren't witches, what you've done is extrordinary! You've single-handedly taken down five Phantom Lord knights! What do you really want of Fairy Tail?"

We shook our heads, practically pleading with him to believe us. "The only thing we want is to find our sisters and to go back home. It'll be like we never crossed paths with Fairy Tail."

We never heard his response because at that moment Castor and Pollux crashed through the trees like some wild animals, Jellal not far behind.

"Redus! Where are the girls?!" Jellal exclaimed when he saw him alone.

Castor immediatly trampled past Redus and over any unconsious Phantom Lord knights and headed straight towards me. I raise from my crouched position to properly hug him tightly, thanking him for the reinforcements. Jellal came charging at us so fast I nearly raised my sword out of instinct.

"Erza." He said in relief when he was close enough to see my face clearly. 'Cause, yknow, the bright red hair didn't give away.'

"Are you alright?"

I snorted. "Better than them." I said, jutting my head to the left. Jellal's eye's widened when he saw the floor littered with bodies.

"Whew! Redus you did this all on your own?" Exclaimed Natsu after he exploded into the clearing where we were located, Gajeel and Gray hot on his heels. "Remind me to spar with you next time!"

Redus only raised his arms in defeat. "As much as I would love to accept, you'll have to take that offer up with them."

All eyes followed the direction of where his arm was pointed till their gazed landed on us and the swords in our hands.

".......WHAT?! FIRST THEY GET CASTOR AND POLLUX TO LOVE THEM AND NOW THEY CAN FIGHT TOO?!?!?!" Fire spewed from Natsu's mouth as he ran around the forest screaming and raging.

"Gihi, I'm totally challenging both of you when we get back." Gajeel said with a vicious smirk.

Gray and Jellal, on the other hand, had their mouths wide open, ready to catch flies.

Juvia POV

'Juvia thinks we broke Gray and Jellal...'

I tried to do damage control. "It was six against one! We couldn't allow Redus to fight alone! And also it gave better chances for Ava and Carmen to get away!"

At the mention of their fiances they immediatly came back to their senses. "Where are Carmen and Ava?" Jellal asked as he looked around. Erza pointed at the top of the boulder. "Over there, they climbed the rocks."

"Carmen and Ava.....climbed?" he said incredulously.

Erza nodded, trying not to smirk at the memory.

"This day is just full of surprises," Jellal muttered, running a hand down his face. "No other knights reached the top? They reached safety?"

"They never even got close," Erza said, nodding.

As Jellal continued to ask Erza questions about what happened I leaned heavily on my sword. Pollux, noticing this, began to trot in place in worry. Gray noticed his weird behavior and crouched beside me. "Juvia? Can you stand?"

"Of course," I said in irritation, not wanting to seem weak as they so usually implied for women. But as soon as I straightened, I grunted loudly, barely catching myself from crying out from the pain radiating from my thigh again. Erza turned around so fast her hair whiped in Jellals face.

"Juvia!" Gray said. "You're injured? I didn't see blood." He looked around where I was seated, his face a mask of confusion. I took a step, stumbled, nearly fell, but Gray caught me and picked me up in his arms.

"Th-this is unnessecary Gray!" I yelled, lowering my head so my hair would hide the blush rising in my cheeks.

"I will not let it go until you tell me what happened. Were you...were we too late?"

"Were you too- NO!" I yelled, figuring out what he meant. "Please, let Juvia go," I said, squirming in his arms. "Release Juvia!" It was far too intimate, and my mind and heart were a mash of jumbled emotions and thoughts. Gently, he set me down where I could partially sit up on a boulder. Erza came and touched my shoulder. I nodded, telling her I was okay.

Jellal and Gray stood before us. "What happened? Out with it."

Erza sighed. "One of the knights managed to sneak behind Juvia and kick her, when Juvia fell the hilt of her sword came ramming down into her thigh."

"It's nothing serious! Juvia thinks she just has a bruised muscle. Nothing that won't heal in a few days." I said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. It didn't work, the look on Gray's face was one of barely unleashed fury.

'Is he...mad at Juvia?!' I thought with an incredulous expression.

"How many men did you lose?" Erza finally asked after a silent moment.

"Five. And one of the ladies in waiting suffered an arrow wound."

Silence hung in the air as we soaked that information in. Finally Jellal broke the silence. "Come on. We'll help you get on your horses. We need to meet up with the others and find Ava and Carmen."

Before I could say a word, Gray lifted me again in his arms and carried me to my horse 'dajfbaubfwiebfwbaqrftgyjhuklkmnbgvfdrsxzaqazwsxxdcfrvtgyuj-' He set me down alongside Pollux and then looked down at me.

"Juvia," He said after letting out a sigh. "I...I want to thank you, if it hadn't been for you and your sister, Redus, Ava, and Carmen probably wouldn't have made it."

"Oh, erm, uh..." I said intellectually. "Uhh, yeah don't mention it."

He looked amused at my embarrased reaction before- once again without warning- lifting me onto my saddle. He glances at me wierdly when I try to play off the my slight shriek by clearing my throat.

Erza POV

After a very sappy- and hilarious- reunion, we continued on our way. Ava and Carmen were so grateful that they said they would speak to their fathers- which apparently were some big hotshots of this dimension- about helping us find Levy and Lucy.

I was informed by Natsu that the injured woman was taken to a nearby village where her wound would be tended to.

About two and a half hours of chatting with Gajeel and Nastu later, a group of men thundered down the road toward us. Soldiers that guard the town, I guessed, patrolling the road. In minutes, they reached the front of our group and paused to speak with Jellal and Gray. They were strong, men at the height of physical perfection, like our modern Navy SEALs. The leader looked beyond Jellal and caught my eye. I stared blankly back at him. Were they like this everywhere, in this dimension? Or was it just the ones we was running across?

Jellal followed the captain's gaze, and I saw the muscle in his cheek clench. 'What was that about?'

"Hey Natsu," I said lowly. "Your brothers marriage, It's important to both families, right?"

He nodded his head "Yes, it's long been arranged. To go against our father's wishes would mean that Jellal would bring terrible consequences down on our family. You've seen for yourself that we live on the front lines of the conflict."

Of course, Juvia and I manage to fall for the unavailable guys.

I glanced forward again, and my heart skipped when I discovered Jellal gesturing toward me and Juvia, motioning for us to come forward. Natsu, Gajeel, Juvia, and I move to the front of the line together, as we neared the front the captain kindly smiled at me. Not wanting to be rude I returned his small smile.

"Erza," Jellal said, his tone a little sharp, like a scolding. I looked at him, and he cleared his throat. "I'd like you to meet Captain Orlando, Carmen's cousin."

"Captain," I said with a small nod.

"Miss," he returned. His green-brown eyes had a fun, mischievous glint to them. But then his face became more stern. "Tell me, your attackers... were any of them not in the Phantom Lord color violet?"

I frowned, thinking. "I think they were all from Phantom Lord. But it happened so quickly..." I shook my head and looked at Juvia.

"Juvia really didn't pay much attention to what they were wearing."

"I understand," he said, giving me another gentle nod. He looked to Jellal "We will find them, and bring them to justice. Attacking Carmen and Miss Ava like that was a foolish thing to do, knowing how powerful their families are. I will speak to Ava's father of this as well."

"Had they fallen into their hands," Gray said gravely, "they would've been the perfect tool for leverage."

Orlando's horse danced beneath him, anxious to be on his way. "We will go and remind them that such a tactic should never be considered again."

He had just turned when Carmen said, "Take care, Cousin."

"I will." He paused and to my surprise met my eye again, just for a moment, then back Carmen. "There is a going to be a ball in two days. I hope that all your guests will be there."

Okay, so what was the deal? In our time- and dimension- guys barely gave us the time of day. Here, we caught the eye of everyone we met. It was hardly fair. My head buzzed with all the attention. Maybe they sensed we were different somehow, and that intrigued them.

The soldiers thundered off, leaving six to serve as our rear guard, leaving no room for further attack.

"Gajeel-,"

"Natsu-"

"Do you dance?" we said together once the captain was out of sight.

"Are you asking us to accompany you?" Natsu brought his hand to his chest and fluttered his eyelashes as if I had asked him to prom. Gajeel rolled his eyes at his reaction.

"No," I said, stifling a smile at his messing around. "We're asking if you can teach us the proper steps of the dances of Fiore. I am certain they're different from those of... Bellum."

A slow smile spread across his face. "Certainly. It would be my pleasure."

"Thank you," I said, hating the embarrassed blush that crawled up my neck. "It comforts me," I rushed on. "Your friendship."

He studied me with his steady, green eyes before giving me his signature grin. To my left Juvia was staring expectantly at Gajeel with a huge smile on her face while he desperately tried to avoid her gaze. Eventually he glanced down at her and sighed at her excited expression.

"One hour." He grumbled while nudging his horse to move ahead so we couldn't see his slightly embarrassed look. Juvia squealed and hugged him before he got to far.

"Hey! Watch it woman!"

"Sorry! Sorry! Juvia got excited!" Juvia giggled and tugged on his hair lighty, much like a little sister would do.

"Tch." Gajeel glared the other way, but it wasn't difficult to see that he was secretly fond of Juvia. I couldn't help but grin at their interaction. 'In another life they would be the best of friends.'

[steeling--history]

ooc info

name/alias: Jess

age, pronouns, & timezone: Older than dirt, her/she/duck, GMT+10

activity: I don't have a life so forever around unless sleeping or working.

rp experience: None... as Nate. Although have a lovely bunch of coconuts that I have been playing.

best form of contact: DMs on discord (diputstonmi#4187) or tumblr (petty--dabbler is usually always logged in)... email is good too (pettydabbler0@gmail.com)

ic info:

character name: Dr Nathaniel ‘Nate' Heywood

codename: Steel

character age: 38 (March 3, 1981)

faceclaim: Nick Zano

species: Metahuman

status: Hero

occupation: Legend/Historian... but mostly Legend

home earth: Earth-1

biography

past:

Nate was born with hemophilia and therefore had kind of a bubble wrapped childhood where his parents wouldn't let him go outside much or play sports. Instead, Nate became a fan of books and movies - in particular, the Indiana Jones series (except the new one, we don't speak of the new one). Inspired by Indiana's adventures, Nate became a historian.

He led a pretty average life until he stumbled upon several anachronisms in history before they cemented - including that WWII had gone on for longer than it should and that the Waverider crashed back in a river in 2016. Taking the evidence to Oliver Queen, Nate and Oliver found the submerged Waverider and Mick Rory, who had been put in stasis. Eventually, through Nate’s historical research and knowledge, the rest of the Waverider crew were found and the timeline was restored. Afterwards, Nate joined the Legends, seeing it as his own real life Indiana Jones adventure.

Except it was SO MUCH COOLER than in the movies.

With the Legends, Nate traveled back in time and met his Grandfather, Commander Steel - a member of the JSA (Justice Society of America). And there was a bunch of other cool stuff but that was the major highlight. Unfortunately, there were also some down moments. Nate was injured and due to his hemophilia, it was very possible he could die. Thankfully, Ray Palmer modified a cure using a biomolecular enhancer created by Eobard Thawne, which had a rather odd side affect. Nate could now turn his whole body to steel at will. Neat.

The Legends then faced off against the Legion of Doom (a name Nate coined, thank you very much) and fought to get control over the Spear of Destiny (no, we’re not calling it Holy Lance, Sara). After some Doomworld happenings, the Legends won and restored the timeline again. Starting to see a pattern yet? Good. Cause there is a lot of timeline restoring.

Nate and the other Legends were kind of forced into retirement by Rip Hunter creating the Time Bureau. That lasted all of about ten minutes before the Legends banded back together and stole back the Waverider and kicked Ceaser’s ass. And then went on to save the world from future disaster by stopping anacronisms that would break the timeline and release the time demon Mallus. Kind of. They did release the demon briefly but the Legends have fixed that and... you guessed it, restored the timeline.

present:

Nate is still working with the Legends to this day. He took a brief sabbatical from the team when the Legends made their trips to 2040, opting to stay at the Bureau and keep Ava and crew off their tail.

While working at the Bureau, Nate made the discovery that his father, Hank Heywood was now the Government’s liaison for the Time Bureau and believes it could spell disaster for the Legends. He plans to tell the Legends the news when they get back... well, eventually, let them recover first.

positive traits: easily excitable history nerd puppy with extensive knowledge of the past; courageous and willing to try new things for a good cause; friendly, easy to get along with, and not afraid to make emotional bonds with his peers.

negative traits: willingness to throw himself in the line of danger to save a friend (not necessarily negative - just detrimental to his own health); his powers are reliant on his emotional state so if Nate isn’t in a good headspace it’s possible he becomes more of a liability to the team in battle; traveling to the future makes him uncomfortable as it's too uncertain and his historical knowledge is of little use - which is probably another reason why he elected to stay behind when the team ventured to 2040.

para sample:

The Legends had been back a few weeks from their trip to 2040 and while Nate had a briefing with the team when they first returned, he knew he couldn’t bring himself to tell them that they possibly had more trouble on the horizon. Not when the losses and heartache of the future events were so raw. Nate, himself, was even feeling the guilt - wondering if he had made a mistake by not going with them.

But Nate couldn’t hold back his knowledge any longer and needed to tell the team - or at least Sara - what was going on at the Bureau before they found out through other means. Knocking on the Captain’s door, Nate called out to her. “Hey Sara, you got a minute? It’s about the Bureau.” The door slid open and Nate gave a brief apologetic smile before he sobered to deliver more bad news. “They have a new boss now Rip’s vanished on the wind and it’s not Ava. It’s my dad.”

[sevasey51]

The request “The Emergency Bag” has the code word “Charlie Crate” can you do a request where it’s used🥺 maybe a syncopal cascade. It gets charted in the vitals log and everyone in the emergency contacts that has access, like always gets alerts. Thnak you hun ❤️

Charlie Crate

Summary: It’s a code phrase they’ve never used lightly. “Charlie Crate” was designed to be the trigger—the quiet panic button that meant this is bad, this is real, and it’s happening now. When Y/N enters a syncopal cascade and her body begins to shut down too quickly to self-report, the emergency bag gets deployed, the phrase is used in the log, and Connor’s world narrows to one thing: getting to her fast. Because once “Charlie Crate” goes out, every contact in the network is already on their way.

The day had started fine.

Not perfect—she hadn’t slept well, and her heart rate had been annoyingly high all morning—but fine. She kept up with fluids. Ate something. Even did a quick walk around the apartment with Charlie, the shaggy golden shadow always trotting at her side.

But by afternoon, something shifted.

The heat behind her eyes grew dense. Her limbs heavy. Her body started sending all the familiar warnings—blurry vision, chest pressure, the sensation of her nervous system tightening like a coiled spring. She’d felt it before, dozens of times.

But not like this.

This felt fast.

Too fast.

She stumbled toward the emergency kit Connor kept in the bedroom. The infusion kit was ready. Her meds were labeled. The port flush was already in the backup pouch.

Her hands were shaking too hard to grab the vial.

“Charlie,” she rasped, trying to crouch, “go crate.”

Charlie whined, then bolted—not to his crate, but to the emergency alert tablet on the wall.

Just like Connor trained him.

With one paw, he hit the red square button.

The phrase went live:

CHARLIE CRATE — SYNCOPAL CASCADE SUSPECTED

Time-stamped. Auto-synced.

Sent immediately to the vitals log.

Push notifications activated.

Within 60 seconds, five phones across the city lit up.

Connor, halfway through post-op notes, felt the buzz first.

He didn’t even read the full notification.

The words CHARLIE CRATE were enough.

He was on his feet and running before the second beep hit.

Ava, in between ICU rounds, caught the alert. She spun on her heel and told the charge nurse, “I need the ED trauma bay prepped. She’s crashing.”

Hannah, reviewing consults in OB, saw it and immediately forwarded the most aggressive uterotonic protocols to the on-call pharmacist—just in case.

Will, in the ED already, grabbed a trauma nurse. “Clear Bay 3 and get a line kit. We’re about to get a cascade in.”

Jay, off duty and at the gym, was already pulling on his hoodie and texting Connor.

“On my way. ETA 8.”

Back in the apartment, Connor reached her just as she collapsed fully onto the living room floor, Charlie pacing in frantic circles.

Her breathing was shallow.

Skin clammy.

Heart rate: 169.

Blood pressure: 72/40.

And dropping.

“Hey. I’ve got you.” He was already unzipping the emergency bag with shaking but practiced hands.

Her eyes fluttered open, then rolled.

Connor accessed her port, flushed it, and started a bolus of fluids. He was already charting it into the vitals log as he called Ava directly.

“She’s not compensating. I need a unit ready. ETA ten minutes.”

“You’re not doing this alone,” Ava replied. “We’ve got you.”

By the time they arrived at Med, Ava was waiting at the doors. Will stood beside her, gloves already on.

They took over, Connor staying right at her side as she was stabilized in Trauma Bay 3, a full cascade response in motion.

Once the dust settled and she was breathing easier, wrapped in warm blankets, infusion running slow and steady, Connor finally leaned close and whispered into her hair:

“You scared the hell out of me.”

Her voice was raspy but present.

“I said the words.”

“You did,” he whispered back. “You used Charlie Crate. And because of that, everyone came.”

Because they built a system that didn’t wait until it was too late.

Because love, in their world, meant being ready for the worst.

And because sometimes, a two-word code could save your life.

[katavarie]

They should let me look like that

it is imperative that the full body prosthetic has visible ball joints

[dadukos]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟏𝟑𝐓𝐇, 𝟔.𝟓𝟐 𝐏𝐌

𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐄𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐙𝐎𝐍, or so it seemed — the ocean stretched for miles and then suddenly turned bright red, glaring, and for a second she wondered how anyone could laugh, dance, go about their modest partying ways and not be struck, half shocked, by that sight alone. a warm wind blew from the west, ruffling distant waves that came crashing over the shoreline, some steps away from her. she heard them, faintly, but each crash drowned and merged with the sounds coming from an equal distance behind her. the bonfire, she’d learned over the last four years, was the sort of unspoken tradition that was simply unacceptable to miss. it was perhaps out of respect for this fervent attachment that the ashford residents held, that she forced herself to attend —— didn’t feel much like being sociable, would’ve maybe preferred the company of a different beach starring ava gardner and gregory peck, and yet it didn’t feel too bad. a gentle breeze, a couple lukewarm beers, the ocean, the fire — good enough an escape for an otherwise lonely friday night. spotting her sitting on a log, nursing her beer, someone called out to fred — “ what, you’re not doing the pouring tonight ? ”, her neighbor alex asked, pointing to the keg with a disappointed stare. fred laughed. “ nah. i’m off the clock, let me live a little ”. 

on the opposite side from her, filtered by the orange glow of the flames, a bigger crowd began to gather. not feeling a particular urge to mingle, fred remained, sitting in her spot, peacefully observing — maria from the laundromat had yet another conquest doting on her, and fred chuckled to herself, wondering how long before she’d show up to the bar, her mouth stretched into a comical O, yelling over the music you-have-no-idea-what-happened-oh-my-god-i-have-so-much-to-tell-you. raymond, the kind old man from down the street, seemed alive with newfound energy and clapped and stomped his feet along to a bob marley song coming from the speakers. his nephew desperately trying to get him to sit down, and he just pretending he’d lost his hearing, albeit selectively. an array of younger boys she didn’t recognize, all wearing some sort of sports uniform — the high school swimming team, maybe, though none of them looked particularly inclined to stay. kal, the mechanic, was just a few steps to the right of them. he seemed to be smiling, and fred smiled too — maybe he was starting to fit in, a little bit. didn’t look quite as out of place as he had the first day she’d seen him.

briefly, she considered going over and saying hi — she imagined a kind smile over her lips, turning into something more of a playful smirk, and offering a witty line like ‘ ah, not even the man of mystery could resist the pull of the bonfire ! ’, or some remark about his baseball cap, and exhaled a half laugh, somewhat embarrassed, at herself. either way, he seemed to have company — couldn’t quite make out the face from the distance, but a woman appeared behind him, talking casually as if sharing a joke, arms leaning over his shoulder. ah. fred smiled, unconvincingly, and turned away as she took another sip of beer. finding her cup empty, she sighed. a second passed, and she got up, closer to the fire, where people crowded around the keg and made a show out of pouring drinks. she laughed, greeted people, complimented outfits and took compliments for her own: then for a second her eyes met kal’s, closer now that she was nearer to his side, and felt embarrassed. her smile then, felt just a little bit pathetic. as someone else grabbed her cup to fill it up, fred raised a hand and nodded towards him, as if just to say — hi. —— @demottcm.