#be it killing them or yeeting them back to reality

[goodomensafterdark]

Writers Guild Cock Fight: Unforeseen Consequences

Written by WatsonsStressBall find them on Reddit and on AO3

CW/TW: Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Bondage, Chair Bondage, Oral Sex, Aziraphale Has a Penis, Crowley Has a Penis, No ethereal beings were harmed in the making of this fic, Except maybe Eric, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Ineffable Smut War

With many thanks to /u/MadAboutCrowley, /u/SmittenLikeAnything, and /u/throwawayaccount_rdt for all your helpful suggestions, feedback, and (im)moral support! ❤

Excerpt:

Crowley came to first and was startled into alertness when he realized that the soft warmth he was draped on was in fact Aziraphale. This might have been delightful right up until he reached a second realization — that he was unable to get up, or indeed, to move. His mind raced as he took in the situation. He and Aziraphale were sat together in a single chair, but Crowley was straddling Aziraphale’s hips, facing him, their bodies pushed up against each other. It was a very intimate position, one in which he could almost have been making out with the angel – or riding him. Crowley swallowed hard at that last thought and sent a silent thank you to whomever might be listening that at least their captors hadn’t stripped them on top of everything else. As it was, their predicament was bleak. His wrists were tied tightly behind his back, his upper body was securely bound to Aziraphale’s with multiple loops of rope, and his ankles were tied to the chair's back legs. He looked down with difficulty, and yes, the angel was similarly bound. He groaned and wondered whose sick idea this was. He wouldn't put it past Shax — this seemed like it would fit her idea of a fun joke. She wouldn't be laughing when he caught up to her, he thought angrily. He had no idea where they even were. The chair seemed sturdy enough, unfortunately, and it was the only furniture in the almost featureless room. The walls were painted a uniform shade of beige that matched the ceiling and floor. The only other items of note were the glaring fluorescent lights overhead and what looked like a small video camera in the corner. Of course this was being recorded, Crowley thought in exasperation, how else were their captors going to enjoy watching their reaction? He never should have invented reality TV. I'm going to kill Shax when we get out of here, Crowley told himself. Even if it turned out that she had nothing to do with it, he might do it anyway, just to vent his spleen. Maybe I can get us out of this, he thought. He reached out with his connection to his source of Infernal power and found it blocked. Celestial power had been blocked to him since his Fall, but just to cover all the bases, he tried it anyway. It was useless. He wasn't terribly surprised, but he had to try, didn't he? So miracles were out. That meant they had to rely on their wits to save them. Yep, they were probably screwed, then.

Continue reading on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/53581324

*yeets self into space*

[eff-plays]

I'm one of those people who nearly never use Wyll even though my last run (where I've romanced Astarion) made me realize that my Durge's story would be so perfect with Wyll. I really wish to make it a reality so I'm reaching out to you and other people reading this - please help me! Tell me, how am I supposed to properly use a warlock! Every time I try Wyll just doesn't do much damage. I play on easy, I'm not good at combat and trust me I won't get better (I over 30 lol). It's my first D&D game. Since I play on easy I can't multiclass. My Durge is a paladin.

I really want Wyll in my party, I want to hear more of his banter, I want to fight Gortash side by side with him... but I also don't want to repeat every fight six times. In my first playthrough I've finally started to use Wyll more in act 3 and it was such a delight but I was only able to do it because Lae'zel and Gale were killing everything on their own at this point and my (rogue)Tav and third companion vere basically just standing there and cheering for them. I'm not joking.

Ok that was long, thank you for reading all of it. I'll be very grateful for any suggestions. Also ppl consider signing the petition and telling Larian to finally take proper care of the Prince Charming :)

Honestly I'm not the best person to ask because my game is modded to shit so I don't really have to worry about properly building my characters anymore. You could consider modding, if you're on PC!

Also, you can bump up your difficulty to normal (or whichever lets you multiclass), multiclass, then bump it down immediately. That lets you keep your other class on easy difficulty. (Unless they patched it out? But I don't think so.) People mostly go padlock for Wyll (paladin/warlock) since that gives him a bit more survivability and good melee options as well.

Personally I tend to give Wyll the Agonizing Blast and Repelling Blast invocations when those come up, and usually give him Cloud of Daggers for early game AoE. Repelling Blast lets you yeet enemies into spells or other damaging areas (off of cliffs, into fire etc). Wyll is introduced using a blade, but he's not actually tanky enough not to get blown to smithereens when in melee (at least not when I play him). I also use Arms of Hadar to make Wyll a sort of bomb when there's a lot of smaller enemies, basically have him run into the fray, set off Arms of Hadar, and watch everything die. It's risky, but that's why you do it to weaker mobs (or when he's surrounded). I mainly use Wyll for huge AoE spells that Gale or my bard can't waste big spell slots on, because warlocks get theirs back on a short rest and always cast at maximum level, so you always get a bang for your buck, and then Eldritch Blasts for when the others run out of stuff and/or some asshole just won't die.

But yeah, mostly I just spam Eldritch Blasts, as it's a cantrip and doesn't use spell slots or require rests. It's basically like a magical shotgun, and you get more charges when you level up.

Anyone else who's more of a pro at warlocks, please chime in!

[bambinella]

Cuddles and Therapy

A/N: The LIS brainrot continues, so it was the original game's turn. I'm still in love with Chloe and Max so I simply had to write for them. Art belongs to this amazing artist! Enjoy!

Summary: It's been six months since the events of Arcadia Bay and Max still struggles with nightmares and guilt. Chloe is determined to make her feel better.

Warnings: Spoilers for Life is Strange ending, hurt/comfort and fluff/tickling!

I'm not sure if it's still a spoiler since the game came out in 2015 but oh well

Word Count: 2822

“Chloe!” Max cried out as she shot up straight, startling both herself and Chloe who had been laying next to her on the bed.

“Woah Max! Are you okay?” Chloe asked, sitting up straight as she looked at her girlfriend. Max, like all the previous times when she had either awoken from a nightmare or had been yeeted back to reality after time traveling, immediately threw her arms around the teen and hugged her tightly.

“Oh Chloe!” She nearly sobbed, burying her face into Chloe’s shoulder. It had been six months since the events of Arcadia Bay, and for the entirety of those six months Max had been plagued with guilt, anxiety and fear, which resulted in some of her worst nightmares of her life. Even without her ability to rewind time, which she swore never to use again unless it meant saving Chloe, she was forced to relive the same horrible day over and over again in her dreams. Jefferson kidnapping and drugging her, the tornado swallowing Arcadia Bay whole and everyone in it. Everyone who she had doomed to die. But worst of all? The overwhelming feeling of loss when she thought about Chloe being killed. All that she had endured was nothing compared to the thought of living without Chloe.

Chloe was used to Max’ nightmares by now, and while she herself didn’t really suffer from them, she really hated seeing Max in such pain. So she gently wrapped her arms around her smaller girlfriend and rocked her back and forth while gently running her fingers through her brown hair. It took a few minutes, and plenty of sobs, but Max eventually calmed down. She buried her nose in the crook of Chloe’s neck one more time to inhale the comforting scent before pulling away. Chloe was alive. Chloe was here with her, and they were safe. Everything was okay.

“Sorry about that,” She mumbled, slightly embarrassed by the sudden outburst now that she had calmed down. Chloe playfully rolled her eyes.

“Of course you would say sorry for having a nightmare. C’mere,” She said, suddenly wrapping an arm around Max’ shoulder as she pulled the two of them down to the bed, spooning her from behind.

“Chloe!” Max giggled, the sound making Chloe’s heart flutter with joy. When Max tried to sit up again, two strong arms wrapped around her and trapped her in the hug.

“Nope, not happening. You’re staying right here with me,” Chloe declared, her breath tickling Max’ neck which made her giggle again.

“Oh no, what ever shall I do now?” She said sarcastically, yet smiled widely. She turned her head to place a kiss on Chloe’s arm, who hummed approvingly.

“Want to talk about it? About your nightmare?” Chloe asked, and Max’ smile faltered slightly. Even though she had calmed down and was happily laying in Chloe’s arms, the dream still left a bitter taste in her mouth. It was the same thing over and over again, however, and she didn’t want to bother Chloe with it. Again. So she shook her head.

“Nah. I’m fine,” She said, causing Chloe to huff in disbelief.

“Who do you think you’re fooling?” She said, and while Max couldn’t see it she could practically feel the roll of her eyes. Chloe released her from the hug, only to settle down on Max’ hips so she could look down at her. While her girlfriend was smiling at her, her eyes were still puffy and she could see the worry and sadness. So she merely raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t want to bother you with it. I struggle, that doesn’t mean you have to,” Max mumbled, avoiding eye-contact with the blue haired teen. 

“Maxine Caulfield, you have about five seconds to tell me, or else…” Chloe smirked, reaching down to softly poke the front of Max’ ribs. The brunette yelped in surprise and couldn’t hold back her choked giggles, her hands immediately grabbing Chloe’s wrists. It was futile, however, as Chloe was much stronger than her.

“Okay okay I’ll tehehehell!” Max laughed, and Chloe stopped to look at her with a smug yet soft smile, to encourage her. She sighed. “It’s the same nightmare I always have. It starts with Jefferson… shooting you in the head, then kidnapping me to the dark room, and it ends with the town being destroyed.” Chloe’s jaw clenched as she thought of her mom, before quickly shaking her head. She’d mourn later, Max needed her now.

“I’m sorry you have to go through that again and again,” She said softly, not sure what else to say. 

“No matter how you twist it, I’m still responsible for that storm. I’m the reason the entire town got wiped out. And while I took peace with my decision a while ago, I still feel so guilty for all those people that got killed by the tornado. But at the same time, if I didn’t use my powers or chose differently you would have died and I simply cannot have that, I can’t–”

“Hey shhh, it’s okay,” Chloe cooed, leaning in to press her forehead against Max’ while gently cupping her cheeks. It was so unfair that Max still suffered like this, especially after everything she’d been through. She couldn’t imagine being in Max’ position, having to make such terrible and difficult choices.

“It’s not okay, Chloe,–” Max sighed, yet before she could continue spiraling down that negative way of thinking, Chloe laid herself on top of her. This never failed to calm her down.

“You know what’s not okay? The fact that you had to make decisions like that. You’re 18, Max, you shouldn’t have been given a responsibility like that. You didn’t ask for your powers, but you got them anyway and know what? You handled it the best you could. You used them to help people and do good. You’re a good person Max, and you’re amazing. Don’t you ever forget it,” She said, cuddling into the younger teen.

“... Thank you, Chloe,” Was all she could say, wrapping her arms around her. Sometimes she really needed to hear those words out loud, especially after a nightmare like that. They cuddled in a comfortable silence for a while, until Max gently tapped Chloe’s side.

“As much as I love your cuddles, I can’t feel my legs like this,” She said lightheartedly. Chloe could immediately tell that Max was feeling slightly better, and smiled.

“Hmm I don’t know, I’m quite comfortable like this,” She grinned, earning a playful slap against her tattooed arm.

“So that means I’m going to be trapped in this hug-prison forever?” The brunette questioned with a raised brow. Thinking about it, it didn’t sound that bad after all.

“Depends. Are you going to turn back into Super Max, or remain Sulky Max?” Chloe teased as she sat herself on top of Max’ hips again, earning a gasp from the younger girl.

“I’m so going to hit you! I’ll have you know that I’m not sulking. And even if I was sulking, it’s not like I want to be in a sad or sour mood, y’know, my brain just doesn’t listen to my demands,” She huffed.

“Well, then maybe I should have a little chat with your brain,” Chloe said with a playful eye-roll and a smile. Max couldn’t help but laugh at that. At this point she was concerned Chloe’s eyes would roll out of her head if she kept it up.

“How do you think you’ll convince my brain if you don’t have one yourself to begin with?” Max smirked, making Chloe’s jaw drop.

“Oh getting sassy are we? Now I’m definitely having that chat! Say your prayers, Caulfield!” She grinned, wiggling her fingers in the air as she loomed over the brunette. Max gasped as she realized what Chloe was going to do.

“Wait! Chloe wait! No dohohon’t!” Max giggled as she held her hands up in defense. Chloe shook her head at her fondly.

“Max you’re so fucking adorable, I’m not even touching you yet! After all these years, you’re still you,” She smirked, easily slipping past Max’ defense to tickle her sides. The teen arched her back and immediately let out a steady stream of giggles.

“Chloehehehhe! Stohohop!” She cried out, grabbing hold of Chloe’s arms. Similar to before, it didn’t help her at all.

“Stop? Oh but I’m just getting started,” Chloe smiled widely, playfully clawing at her stomach. Despite wearing her pajamas, the thin cloth of her t-shirt provided zero to no protection at all. 

“Aahhahahaa!” Max squealed and kicked her legs on the bed, trying to find a good grip so she could buck her girlfriend off. Oh who was she kidding, even without being a giggling mess it was impossible to beat Chloe in strength. She had no chance.

“All I need to do is flood your brain with happy thoughts, right? So I just gotta keep tickling you! I know you loved being tickled when we were kids, so I’m pretty sure you still love it now, right?” Chloe teased. That little! 

“You’re sohohoho meehehehean!” Max whined at the teasing, hiding her blushing cheeks behind her hands. Chloe had always been too good at reading her, even without super powers. Chloe grinned at that.

“Oh you think I’m mean yet? Just you wait~” She promised, sending butterflies straight to Max’ stomach. Since Max had raised her arms to hide her face, she took the opportunity to flutter her nails under her arms. 

“Nohoho! Not thehehehere!! NO! OHOHO CHLOEHEHE!” Max wheezed and immediately slammed her arms to her sides, trapping the invading hands in place. This was, of course, all part of Chloe’s plan, as she simply kept wiggling her fingers.

“Not there? But Max, my hands are stuck! I can’t move on if you keep them like this,” Chloe teased, wiggling her nails a bit faster into her hollows. Knowing she didn’t have any other option, Max gathered all her strength and lifted her arms up so Chloe could pull her hands free. To her surprise, she did pull her hands away, only to grab Max’ wrists and pin them down over her head with one hand. 

“Oh come on! You tricked me!” She playfully cried out as quickly caught her breath, looking up at Chloe who smirked right back at her.

“Max, Max, Max. Not only are you just as ticklish as before, you also still fall for the same tricks I used when we had tickle fights as kids. Or maybe you fall for them because you know what’s coming, hm?” Chloe asked with a knowing smile and a raised brow. Max could swear she was blushing even harder than before. 

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” She mumbled while looking to the side of the bed to avoid Chloe’s stare. It really didn’t help that Chloe still remembered all those details, AND all her tickle spots. So unfair.

“Oh really? Because I think you still love being tickled by me, and I don’t think you want to win this fight,” Her girlfriend said smugly, her free hand slowly forming a claw while descending towards Max’ ribs. Said teen started to giggle in anticipation, yet her struggles were only half-hearted. They both knew Chloe was right.

“You suhuhuck! NononoOHOHOHOO!” Max quite literally jumped out of her skin as the hand gently shook her ribs, making her arch her back again. Oh god that tickled!

“Even if you don’t admit it, we both know it’s the truth. Luckily for you, I don’t need you to admit it, I just need you to laugh!” Chloe declared with an evil laugh.

“I CAAHAHAN’T! AAHAHAHA! CHLOEHEHE STOP! STOHOHOHOP!” Max howled with laughter as she finally couldn’t take it anymore. Chloe had let go of her wrists in favor of yanking her shirt up so she could tickle her stomach with both hands, her long nails raking up and down the exposed skin. While Max truly loved Chloe’s tickles, she really couldn’t handle this specific tickle attack right now. The older teen smiled and finally pulled her hands away.

“You okay there, Super Max?” She asked, brushing the hair out of Max’ face. The brunette panted yet held her thumb up, a smile present on her face.

“You still suck,” Max giggled, almost immediately shrinking under Chloe’s playful glare.

“Still sassy huh? You never learn, do you?” She said with mock disappointment as she shook her head, before leaning down to gently nibble at her girlfriend’s collarbones. 

“Nohohoho! No! I’m sohohorry! I take it bahaahhack! I give I gihihihive!” Max was dying with giggles as Chloe placed ticklish kisses and nibbles all over her collarbones. Her blue hair only added to the playful attack as it brushed side to side against her neck, making her tap out instantly.

“That’s what I thought,” Chloe replied smugly as she pulled away, laying down on her side so she could look at Max with a softer expression. “Truce? I won’t tickle you anymore, I just want to hold you for a while,” She smiled, holding her arms open as an invitation.

“You’re a mean person, Chloe Price. Lucky for you I love you, so you’ve been forgiven for all your crimes,” Max said with a giggle as she crawled into Chloe’s hug.

“Oh lucky me, what would I do without your mercy?” Chloe chuckled, idly tracing her fingers over Max’ back. “Can I ask you a question? It’s… it’s kinda serious though,” She added, which made the brunette look into her eyes.

“You can ask me anything,” She assured, placing a hand on Chloe’s arm.

“Well it’s just… I’ve seen you struggle time and time again with all that has happened, and I just keep wondering, what if you hadn’t been put under so much pressure back then? I mean, not that I’m not grateful or anything, it meant the world to me! It’s just that–” One moment Chloe had been asking the question while hugging her girlfriend, next moment said girlfriend was on top of her. 

“Chloe Price, tell me you’re not about to ask me what I think you’re about to ask me.” Max said sternly, looking into her eyes. 

“I–, uhm, maybe?” Chloe said, her cheeks heating up slightly. She wasn’t used to seeing Max like this. “I just can’t help but think that all those people in Arcadia Bay deserved a chance to live, more than I did. Hell, I almost died like four times in one week. So… if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, would you make a different choice?” She asked. This question had been burning inside of her for a long time now, and she simply had to ask.

“Chloe, I want you to know that even though I suffer from the consequences, I do not regret a single choice I made. You’re my first priority, Chloe, you’re all that matters to me. Yes of course I feel horrible for everyone that got caught in that storm, but… but you’re simply more important to me. I’d sacrifice the world to save you, I don’t care what I’d have to do. We’re meant to be together, you and I. And if I had the opportunity to make a different choice, I wouldn’t. I want to be with you, and only you,” Max said, gently holding the sides of Chloe’s face as she looked into her blue eyes. Chloe remained silent for a while before pressing her forehead against Max’, closing her eyes as a single tear ran down her cheek.

“I’m yours for however long you want me, Max. I’ll be by your side forever. I promise,” She said. The brunette leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek, her thumb gently rubbing the tear away.

“I’ll keep you to that promise, girlfriend,” Max said with a smile.

Another comfortable silence as they cuddled, with the occasional sniffle from either of them. This was their way of healing over all the traumatic events they’d been through. Therapy was way too expensive. Max broke the silence again, this time with a chuckle.

“I didn’t know you were this mushy,” She teased, earning yet another eye-roll from the blue haired teen and a flick to her forehead.

“I’m not mushy, shut up. If anyone’s mushy, it’s you,” She mumbled, yet smiled.

“Well in that case we’re both mushy then. Speaking of mushy,” Max sat up next to Chloe, looking at her with the most mischievous expression Chloe had ever seen. “It’s about time I had a chat with your brain.”

“Wh– wait, Max no!” Chloe cried out, yet didn’t even have time to defend herself as her girlfriend pounced on her. Max was determined to remove all the self-doubt out of Chloe, and get some revenge while she was at it.

Life was still very much strange, but at least it was also good for now. 

[thesherrinfordfacility]

25 lazarii

so ive been thinking on neils ask and answer about the joint miracle crowley and aziraphale performed. now the way it could read is that the two didn't used to have the power of resurrection/power that is capable of resurrection, but now they do. but could also read that they didn't (as is, retrospectively from now) have the power, because it doesn't belong to them. it's this latter possibility that im going to look at because honestly? the whole thing feels to me a bit OP.

so i realise that it's not necessarily about resurrection as an act, but instead the potential to resurrect. regardless, im going to start from key moments of resurrection as a marker for their abilities:

first notion we have in s1, exactly as neil remarks, is aziraphale is able to revive a dove after warlock's birthday party. originally, this was crowley in the book (and was reportedly swapped for blocking reasons), so im going by the show only in this post to keep consistency:

and this is supported by crowley intimating in the resurrectionist minisode that aziraphale was too late to save morag - that he could only have helped when she was still alive but instead she died whilst aziraphale was dithering:

in fact, to me, the only time i can recall in GO (ie shout at me if wrong) we see anyone successfully resurrected is by adam, and this is marked by the reappearance of my beloved lesley, the international express delivery man:

"Adam had rebooted reality... people who were dead were now alive, and things that were broken were miraculously restored."

the only issue appears to be that crowley now seems to be able to exercise a power of resurrection in s2, where he appears to 'bring back' mr brown, and do so rather confidently as if he always had this kind of power...

this confidence would mirror what he says to shax, here:

although, whilst it may be implied that mr brown was killed by the demon, we only truly see him being hurtled through the air. and, whilst crowley appears to bluff that demons can't hurt humans directly, shax appears to believe him.

now, she could have just come to the resolution that they ought to kill mr brown anyway, rules (fake or not) be damned, but the fact that we don't actually see his death intimates that shax might have just toed the line (the demons yeeted him across the street, but was he technically hurt/killed? was shax responding with her own bluff when saying, "civilian casualty"?)

edit 21/08 - IM SMUG

ergo: was mr brown truly killed in the first place, and therefore did crowley truly resurrect him? i think the majority of people are going to say yes, and i would initially agree, but then we come to the below where crowley appears to have riddled it out:

now it could be a case of s2 giving us the 'what' (they are insanely powerful when working together), but the 'why' (eg. power of being essentially soulmates, love, two halves of the same whole etc.) is what is going to be determined in s3.

but the conclusion that crowley came to (and im thinking entirely with critical-noggin-topped-by-tinfoil-hat head on here) feels a bit odd in the sense that it would be that simple, and doubly-odd that at this point narratively - the series that is meant to set up s3 - that the answer would be given here.

it is a parallel to the fact that crowley and aziraphale seem to work best in cohesion - their body swap proved that somewhat - and the miracle is another example of where working together does work, but neither of them are at the character-development point yet of actually recognising it for what it is and means.

it's definitely the romantic, poetic option - that they are powerful because they do it together - and for that reason i definitely think there's some truth to it, but one of the vibes i got from s2 from multiple set pieces is that things are not initially as they seem. a couple of those things appear to have been resolved (gabriel/beelzebub, for example) but there are a load of chekhov's guns left lying around the metaphorical armoury, and i have to wonder if this is one that we all thought was decommissioned.

i want to also add that the gabriel miracle, in terms of set up, directly mirrors the facing down of satan. a key difference is that in s1, they are holding hands with the literal son of satan, whereas in s2, they are holding hands with a former archangel that doesn't appear to have any power whatsoever:

now, a miracle wasn't performed in the airfield scene (as far as we saw anyway, but potentially not counting adam's ability to retcon papa-dear), but this is directly after aziraphale names adam as 'human incarnate.' furthermore, this incredibly astute observation on the power of names by @rudeaziraphale highlights that adam, by definition of his given name, is meant to be human incarnate, and always was. and then we take into account crowley's line at the end of s1:

"For my money, the really big one is all of us, against all of them."

"What? Heaven and hell, against... humanity?"

so actually, is this what the miracle comes down to? that the power they exhibited is not just crowley and aziraphale together, but them, and humanity binding them together? crowley and aziraphale were always meant to be the same character - we know this from when neil has talked about the initial drafts he sent to terry - but actually are they truly whole without the entity that made them, influenced them, into who and what they are now?

the last thing i'll note is neil's earlier march ask here, which indicates that to bring someone back from the dead is a 'heavier weight than they could lift'. that may well just simply reference that together they could do it, absolutely, but i have to wonder if there is a secret third ingredient in the mix as well.

[kamigui]

A fanfic idea I'd like to dedicate to you

I wanted to share this idea I have with you because I saw that beautiful animation you made of your OC Rubee and Wally with that scene of the Hunt vs Hunted AU that nonomives made and the other AUs incorporated in it. I'm actually currently writing a fanfic inspired by that AU with plans to dedicate it to nonomives (with their permission), and I just absolutely live for the angst and redemption arcs. Your incredible art really gave me the inspiration I needed to start working on it.

I'm actually in my lovers-turned-enemies trope right now, and my mind began racing with just this concept of (what if) Rubee actually surviving the Hunt vs Hunted scenario and was accidentally turned, but somehow the effect was so diluted it didn't necessarily destroy her mind and make her feral, but instead caused her to slowly start losing her mind, where any memories of Wally were tampered with or discarded and whatever horrors she might have witnessed were misplaced onto Wally?

(Because in reality, he'd never actually hurt her, she just convinced herself he did because there's so many pieces missing in her brain she had to just fill them in herself. And then there's the assumption Wally accidentally committed genocide as a response to his grief of losing Rubee, therefore, she's more convinced that he just has to be evil. She obviously doesn't know the true reason, only knowing that he had harmed a lot of people) (I'm thinking this affliction could potentially turn her immortal, or at least, very difficult to kill and inhumanely strong; but she could probably still get hurt).

Because of this, any positive feelings for him were replaced with disgust and hatred, where she felt her only response is to pretty much destroy him so he didn't hurt anyone else. But, it's conflicting because deep inside her soul she's hesitant, scared, and longing for the security/safety he provided her in the past, before she lost her memories /and before he thought she was dead/. 

Anyway, there was a scene playing in my mind where she managed to get to him, like, actions set in motion just ready to pierce his heart. And Wally's just looking up at her, not really fighting back, but holding her off, eyes just pitiful and sad and desperate; because "How is she alive-?".

He's in disbelief, emotions torn between sadness, anger, and overwhelming love. And she's trying to kill him, not realizing that she's crying and struggling to actually finish him off. Because, yes, she has to kill him so no one suffers like she did--but also, no, because that part of her that 'died' that night still clings to hope and love. 

I think Wally would immediately know that she's affected by his blood, since according to nonomives, people who are closer to Wally's blood go insane and feral, depending on the level of potency the person was dosed with. I really like this concept, because that could potentially lead to the rarest opportunity where someone hasn't been completely overcome by his affliction. Maybe Rubee was just extremely strong willed in mind and spirit, so her body (could have) managed to refrain from completely turning into a vampire zombie? That tiny, sliver of hope motivates Wally to figure out some sort of 'cure' for Rubee, but we have no idea what the implications of that would do.

(Could she die due to having lived so long and just turn into dust? Would she end up suffering from the pain and physical damage she's received all these years, finally catching up to her? Is there the chance she'll just return back to him? We don't really know. Too many endings, no solid answers.)

//Anyway, feel free to just yeet this in the trash if you want. Ha ha ha, I'm just dumb and rambling... I don't want to interject or impede on your work, or self-insert your OC into anything. I'd hate to misinterpret the characters. But I just really wanted to share this idea and hope you'd at least enjoy it. If you do approve and gave me permission to pursue this, I would be more than happy to dedicate a fanfiction on the topic because I just think it's *chefs kiss*

//I supposed, this is also my way of asking if it's alright with you for me to pursue this idea with your OC?

[sodiumpentothol]

Some really bad ideas for a shitpost Hollow Knight x Resident Evil AU I randomly conjured

Here's the very poorly written outline I have for this thing:

Precursor to downfall of hallownest, umbrella (needs a different name) formed by soul master after pale king yeets the infection at them and goes "find cure." This is before the infection gets all wacky silly and publicly known, so soul master and the soul twisters sorta poke around with the infection and go "huh y'know this would make for a great weapon against the deepnest beasts" so they begin fucking around with that. Chris and Leon are both city guards that are vibing around when a sector of the City of Tears is overrun by the T-virus after an outbreak, they both end up having to stop it and both manage to resist the infection which piques the Pale King's interest. Jill and Carlos also make it out alive. Sherry and Claire are there too I guess. Pale King goes "yo dudes you survived the infection I think ima assign you guys to deal with this infection bullshittery" so they're all forced to do infection bullshittery stuff as it gets worse. RE4 is just a corpse creeper outbreak in fungal wastes or something, hornet is kidnapped and PK goes "holy shit if we don't get this child back then i'm gonna be in deep(nest) shit" so they all go and grab hornet. RE5 I don't even know, that was a fever dream and same goes for RE6. Ethan supposedly lost Mia in the initial infection outbreak all those years ago, but in reality Mia managed to escape with a void construct created by a rival gang of angry deepnest weavers. Void construct of course is Eveline and Mia and Eveline manage to flee to deepnest where they meet a nice little family of survivors. Eveline does her bullshittery and takes over everyone, weaver gang breaks lucas out and makes him their spy.

Meanwhile Eveline makes Mia send Ethan a letter to come and find her, thus starting RE7. Ethan goes to deepnest and gets his shit fucked up big time, immediately dying and being resurrected by the void. Blah blah blah, kill baker family, blah blah, get mia back, blah blah blah blah blah kill eveline, something something oh hey PK's Infection Cleanup Crew (TM) is now on the scene and here to deal with the outbreak. Ethan and Mia are pulled out and placed into witness protection in the Ancient Basin by the White Palace. RE8 happens when Mirander comes along and steals Rose. Mirander's still trying to revive her kid, but she's also the leader of the angry weaver gang and she has plans to kill PK. She's been gathering forces n shit for the revolt, also they're all infected with void and have wacky void powers too. Mirander steals Rose a little more blatantly, pretty much just breaking into the winters' house, fucking shit up, stealing the baby, and leaving. Ethan is reasonably pissed and goes all Seek And Destroy on Mirander, killing literally everything in his way. First he rampages through deepnest, killing four of her infected subordinates one by one before he makes it to the Abyss. At this point in the timeline PK has been dabbling a little in void bullshit so there's definitely evidence of him being around here, maybe a couple thousand dead children or something. Mirander is hiding out in the abyss, blah blah blah she and Ethan duke it out blah blah they both fucking die blah blah blah rose grows up to be very OP, PK briefly considered using herasa backup HK but Rose has a mind to think, a will to break, and a voice to cry suffering so she's automatically pitched from the plan and ends up being trained to like kill the fucking radiance or something, maybe she gets put into stasis or whatever because she was too powerful and PK felt threatened by her.

Something something hallownest falls something something main HK game takes place and the knight is now in the picture. Leon, Chris, Jill, and Carlos have taken it upon themselves to keep everybody in Dirtmouth safe and regularly dive into Hallownest to look for survivors. They meet Hornet sometimes but she's too badass to vibe with them and she fights them. They all survive of course and they learn to respect each other but Hornet never really joins them. She's like Ada that way. Anyway the knight comes along, yadda yadda yadda HK game happens

[demcnsinmymind]

You know, I think it's such a funny constellation. Azzy in itself can throw such childish temper tantrums whenever its favorite pet is in danger or gets hurt, and its reactions are entirely disproportional when it comes down to that. However, I actually HC it as fairly chill and laid back 95% of the time. It has such immense world ending/reality altering power, but it usually cannot be bothered to use them to their full extent, it's fairly happy playing fucked up mind games and easy snacking on your standard mental trauma. But then you got Lance, the human who's actually fairly fragile/in bad shape physically and mentally and who up until meeting Collingwood/Az didn't even believe in the paranormal or anything else. But he's sooooo stubborn, so spiteful and filled with sooooooo much anger that it's actually him you gotta watch out for. Because it's him who might just wreck the uttermost shit with Azzy's powers, and might just do some of it by complete accident. I do believe that eventually, especially in my symbiont verse, Lance might actually have a higher kill count than Aza/thoth. Just because he loathes the ever loving crap out of monsters and terrible people, and wants them straight up yeeted out of existence. I do have the HC that generally, Azzy doesn't quite want people/creatures to be straight up dead. It likes to keep toying with things and shaping their traumas and powers to its liking, until it has a perfect snack that it can cherish. The way it didn't straight up kill anyone in canon, but drove people mad first. Lance though just straight up wants some people/creatures dead. And that fast and without mercy. So he uses its physical and destructive powers far more often than it does, and not always consciously, but subconsciously/naturally. It's a fun combination.

[welcometomybraincomics]

because she only cares about battles, Winter's perspectives on humans don't quite line up with reality

For example, she thinks everyone is a Pokemon. Humans are just especially weird Pokemon with many branching evolution lines (jobs) and every time a person changes their name or title, she thinks they've evolved

Obviously, Human Baby is what a level one Pokemon from the Human line is called.

When they gain skills and get more levels, become a Kid! From there, they start on one of the many branching Human evolution paths

The ultimate evolution from the Trainer evolution line is, obviously, the Champion! Winter thinks it's a little extreme that you have to kill a Champion to evolve into one, but she's only pretending to be a Trainer, so it doesn't really effect her. (How else can there only be one Champion in a region at a time? Obviously, the evolution conditions for becoming Champion require getting rid of a Champion)

Winter thinks individuals who are deposed as Champion, come back, and win the title again are not the same person, but instead another human from the same line as the previous champion (like Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys, who are the only humans she considers "normal pokemon" because everyone on their line actually looks the same). Same goes for former Champions she sees walking around, lol

Human social hierarchy certainly doesn't help this, lmaooo

That is to say, she will people by their entire title unless she's given a "nickname" (which is usually just people's first names, lmao) to call them by or she's close enough to give them a nickname

AAAAAaanyway, that was just a preamble for me to say...

Winter after getting yeeted into Hisui via Space-Time Distortion: Ah! It's the battle train man! Subway Boss Ingo!*

[Something something, it gets revealed that Ingo is a Warden now and everyone is confused about what a Subway Boss is bc Winter is very unhelpful]

Winter: *To Ingo* Oh, you evolved? Congratulations!

*Winter's mental Pokedex: Subway Boss Ingo, the battle train pokemon. This enthusiastic pokemon likes to battle on trains

ahahhha I even looked at Ingo's quotes and he only separates his name and his title (when on the trains) on the Multi lines HAHAHAHAHAHHA Winter is totally full naming him

AHHAHAHA it takes forever** for her to start thinking of "Subway Boss" as Emmet and Ingo's evolution name and "Ingo" and "Emmet" as their nicknames. They look different enough from each other that the fact that they include their nicknames when introducing themselves makes her think there's a secret society of Subway Bosses that they need to distinguish themselves even more from XD

**largely bc she doesn't double battle often bc she likes fighting on the subway as herself and it's hard for her to direct a double battle from the inside since Ms. Fross isn't interested in pretending to be a trainer who actually directs anything

[original-character-championship]

@serethespider's aubrey propaganda post #3: worldbuilding and species info

(heyy so i know i said i'd put worldbuilding and backstory here but i forgot how much information this is so i'm splitting it up XD anyway-)

do you like cool aliens? do you like dimension travel? do you like telepaths? do you like unconventional ecologies? if you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be interested in learning about worldwalkers!

worldwalkers (no in-universe name) are what happens when you give me too much creative power slightly eldritch dimension-hopping telepaths who basically exist as massive (as in, warehouse-sized) ever-shifting manifestations of pure thought, tethered to a body that lets them interact with the physical world. they're also overpowered. for example, in my original scifi universe, telepaths are ranked on a scale from D to A, with A being the highest-power class.

worldwalkers are class S. or they would be, if anyone really knew they existed.

...maybe i should back up and start from the beginning.

a baby worldwalker's life begins when their parent shapes them a body and drops them off with a surrogate family of whatever the dominant species happens to be. and for the first 100 years or so, things are mostly normal. sure, they don't age physically past young adulthood, and they're constantly emitting an aoe charm effect that makes people want to take care of them and that they're unaware of and can't conciously control, but overall they aren't too different from any other member of their assumed species.

and then the first molt happens.

see, worldwalkers have about 4 life stages, each marked by a kind of ascension or metamorphosis. their mental 'bodies' become too small for their growing powers and crack open and fall away to reveal a new, bigger, stronger form. like a shake shedding its skin, except in this case the skin is their mind.

it's not exactly a fun experience.

especially the first time, which along with more refined powers that they can actually control, also dumps the knowledge of what they are and the memories of their ancestors into their head all at once. i wonder how aubrey reacted to this happening to them?

anyway, this second stage lasts about 500-600 years, and is considered the 'adolescent' stage. their telepathy and the size of their true form grow throughout, until they've become too big for their 'skin' again. aubrey is at the very tail end of this right now.

the third stage of life is marked by another molt and marks both full maturity and the above-mentioned class-of-its-own level of telepathic power. this stage can last indefinitely if the worldwalker in question doesn't have kids.

if they do decide to have kids, they can deliberately trigger their fourth and final, incredibly short, stage of life. in this stage, their powers grow enough to cross the boundary between thought and reality and they become god-damn reality benders and use this power to open portals to other dimensions and yeet their children across the interdimensional interstate to their new adoptive homes, forming them physical bodies as they do so.

this process also fucking kills them.

the amount of sheer power a fourth-stage worldwalker has is too much for their fragile physical bodies to handle, and they burn away as their mental forms expand and expand and expand until they, too, reach their limits and explode. a worldwalker dies like a supernova.

and the cycle begins anew, in a new world, with a new body.

tl;dr aubrey miller is an elder god k thx bye

coming next: MEMES

[limetimo]

RAB fics I read (22-30 Jan)

Hero of the Story by kimmy_writes (WickedlyAwesomeMe), WickedlyAwesomeMe the canon war goes worse than in canon and bam wham, Hermione drinks a potion that yeets her in a different reality. Say hello to Hermione Pettigrew! I really like this one, I'm on a re-read actually

Beholden by orphan_account JAmes and Regulus are friends with benefits..... until James can't take it anymore. smut

Cotton by orphan_account  Jegulus smut, fun and sweet

Compelled by orphan_account James' slow realisation of "Uh oh I'm gay for my best friend's no longer estranged brother and he's flirting with me???" It has a nice atmosphere and good flow, smut at the end

Brotherhood by Necessity I like this! James kinda sorta accidentally kidnaps Regulus off the battlefield, but Regulus also hit his head so he's not really sure what and why is he fighting for. James and Lily decided to de-radicalise him with kindness and keep him hiding with them. Sirius is sus, and Peter is... well, it's not a spoiler to say that Peter is a traitor.

The Serpent's Tongue by Equinesandcanines Sirius is in Slytherin but still best friends with James and Peter, and has massive, funny beef with Ravenclaw!Remus but they are willing to be civil for Regulus (who is bullied by Avery). Also Walburga sucks

Like Real People Do by Arins_Writings Regulus survives the cave but doesn't manage to do much about the Horcruxes; so when Voldy is 'killed' by the Potters he hits up Dumbledore, who tells him there's this brand new funky prophecy that suggest he (Regulus) should time travel and work with "a martyr" (James) to find the horcruxes and end Voldemort before too many people die. Regulus isn't happy about it but he's doing it. LOVE Regulus being older than Sirius via time travel shenanigans.

A Kinder World abso-fucken-lutely BANGER of a universe; Regulus almost singlehandedly ends Voldemort, the Potters and the Longbottoms are saved, Sirius only spends about a month or two in the Azkaban and they all (lily james sirius remus and regulus) live in a polycule for a really long while. The second work deals with Regulus' eating disorder that almost killed him in his fifth year and the slide to joining Death Eaters; and the third work in the series is in golden trio era when McGonagall asks Regulus to become a DADA professor (that's still a WIP).

Blood and Water by euphorial_docx Last Of Us AU! Regulus is immune to zombie bites and James is escorting him across the country to a research facility. You don't need to know the game or the series to enjoy it, and it is indeed very enjoyable!

Tale As Old As Time by xojosten Regulus is stressed, James is nosey, and uh oh they accidentally time travelled to 1997 (the make-up eight year for Harry). I'm loving it so far, definitely love the concept, and the writing is so good!

a footnote will do. by Sleepisoverrated10 Jegulus finally comes out as dating, but... for some reason, Regulus is pulling away. James is determined to use Communication. It's super effective! Also love Barty and Evan immediately going "dump him" when James mentions the relationship trouble to them

The stranger you recognise by Necessity wolfstar modern au, regulus has a tiny little sublot and appearance but it's a texting fic between Remus and Sirius

Le Graal (my eternal love) by Icarus_Lokean after the Prank Remus is very upset with Sirius and ends up getting adopted by the younger Black's friend group. slowburn Regulus/Remus

The Missing Link by Keysie ♥♥♥♥♥ post-war recovery, domestic fluff and Jegulus slowburn-turned-quickburn they really hit it of far quicker than planned or expected.

Grimmauld's Home for Unsafe Learners by averea Regulus survives the war, becomes the most popular teacher of Hogwarts, and transforms Grimmauld Place into a house for abused children. Meanwhile he knows that Voldemort is coming back, and he is super ready to stab that bitch in the face. I'm loving it!

to the dark lord by justwhatialwayswanted not joining Voldemort or joining Dumbledore, but a third, secret option (starting one's own side of war that'll swoop in after the other two sides exhaust themselves and gets the cream (cream = blood equality and legal Dark Arts practices))

Black Blood by Serpenscript read the tags; Sirius brings Regulus a "present" aka his extremely mistreated sex-slave, Severus Snape

Snuggles With Snuffles by FeistyAster, just_a_whorecrux Regulus has nightmares, Sirius and Padfoot hears and comforts him, something something they have sex (not in dog form)

Whatever happened to the young, young lovers? by georgia_sk Regulus singlehandedly murdered Voldemort and he will do the same to Dumbledore if the old man doesn't stop sticking his twice-broken nose in Regulus' life. Jegulus... slowburn? I don't think it qualifies as slowburn tbh. Lots of blood and badassery

Wedding Crashers by Infinitewolfstar, Siriuslymoonyprongs JAmes and REgulus used to date but Regulus broke them up because he needed to sort things out with his mafia family before he could run away to the gay sunset; but then he saw JAmes with Lily and was like welp I guess I'm going to stay slave to my fam and marry a girl i hate. But SURPRISE SURPRISE James Sirius Peter and Remus crash his wedding! So now they're running away from the upset mafia, Remus is shot, Peter is missing (for now), Lily and HArry are probably kidnapped, and James and Regulus sort out some misuderstandings

Mark of the Beast by disillusionist9  I will never get over cyborg Ginny working with assassin Regulus

True Form by TheLoud this is not a Regulus fic but it fucked me UP in ways nothing had in a long time. Or, Ginny finds a stray black dog and keeps it.

[soniccrazygal]

@soniccrazygirl and @♪Lullaby_⁜_Anon♪, I have some interesting suggestions for the UCN AU:

This is random but I really love the imagery of Shadow yanking Burntrap by his feet and slamming him into the ground repeatedly like Hulk did to Loki in Avengers before yeeting him into the Blob’s territory to be dismantled.

Michael and Vanessa bond over cooking sweets while helping each other overcome their residual fears with grounding exercises, aside from Shadow helping them with their feelings of disconnect from reality.

Vanessa fears hurting Gregory again, being patient enough to wait till he makes the first interaction with the REAL her. She suffers from phantom pains on parts of her soul that have been scarred by William for refusing his commands. She wants to connect with Gregory and have the same bond as she does with Michael but isn’t sure where to start. The others are surprised that Shadow Bonnie gave her a Glam Bonnie plushie and gets along well with her, until he explained why he has no issues with her.

Gregory suffers from nights where nightmare versions of the Glams attempt to kill him and he has to survive till morning. (Reference to FNAF 4) They begin to vanish when Shadow gives him the Fazerblaster from the Plex, thus making him feel a bit safer at night. He does understand that Vanessa and Vanny aren’t Vanessa but still is afraid of Vanny popping up and killing him again. It gets better after Shadow sits them down for a heart-to-heart.

Gregory, like Michael are slow to leave her alone when it’s revealed she has a fear of isolation, it worsens at night when she has to sleep. Gregory fears starvation from when he was alive, phantom pains of hunger hit him occasssionally, making him double over. Terrance turns to Michael’s mom for help with this since she may have a better grasp on what to do.

OCM contemplates when he became the honorary grandpa that the three go to for advice for dealing with trauma and nightmare therapy for Michael and Vanessa. He does help Vanessa with her lost memories. Headcanon William messing with her memories in an attempt to break her before creating Vanny. Vanessa gets along swimmingly with Michael’s mom and enjoys when she’s around. The same is said for Gregory, after getting over her presence.

The missing children are slowly overcoming their guilt but it’s an uphill battle as they make progress, reminders rear their ugly heads out to push them back down. OCM monitors their progress, even let’s them take a dip in the smaller pool beside his lake to confront the reminders of their guilt.

OCM, Terrance, Gregory, and Michael’s mom are against the others, excluding the mcs, from interacting with Vanessa, there is no trust lost since they don’t believe that the adults WON’T say anything that will spiral her back into depression.

Gregory has indeed terrified and ensured that the nightmares, excluding the Glam-mates, won’t visit after ambushing Nightmare and committing arson on Fredbear and Nightmarrione.

Lots of cool ideas.

[instantlightpeanut]

A vague idea for mbit.

Valdemar didn't know what the fuck to do. Well he actually knew, he's read about this over and over, but, standing in the reality of it, he truly wanted to yeet himself of the nearest tower. But that would require him to walk trough the Mage Templar battle zone towards that wierd red lyrium castle, or that other broken castle with a fade rift. Honestly it should be amazing he remembers this, but it's not really. The hinterlands have always been his favourite map, although the general consensus is that it's horrible.

2ish weeks ago he was just merilly walking home from work, deciding to take a shortcut trough the woods, at night, because let's admit it, he's at least partially mental. And well he walked, and walked what he definitely knew was too far, and tried using Google maps, which refused to work. And once he finally exited the forrest and saw that wierd circular hut and the rams, he knew immediately where he was. Which he probably shouldn't since it's been at least a year since he played the game, but hey, while he was playing it was a pretty damn strong hyper fixation.

Going back to the current situation he was currently as good as a refuge, except everyone looks at him funny because he's dressed in modern clothes. After considering his options, his final choice is ultimately stay here and wait for the inquisition to come then pretend to be a seer and hope he can get into good enough graces with Solas so that he may help him get home. Well that or go actually insane and fuck up Thedas, he's not too good at thinking that far ahead.

As it is he's managed to kill two rams by traps and after making a deal with the hunter, he has a decent amount of meat on him and got to keep the fur. In return for showing the hunter where the traps are and explaining how to build them. Finally, that offline survival guide he downloaded ages ago is useful. Oh, how does he still have his phone? Because loathe he to admit it, the solar battery, battery bank his mom got him during her ' the world is ending' phase, is useful as fuck. There he said it and he'll never say it again. So he's got a survival guide, and some games to entertain him. In his backpack, which is like his version of a woman's purse because he has far too much shit in it. He's got, two books, one change of underwear and socks. Panodil, plasters, hand disinfectant (thank you and fuck you covid) and a swizz knife (thank you grandpa). And some other knick knacks.

At least the inquisition is arriving soon, he's already been seeing the scouts out and about. Now should he join with the scouts or wait for the actual inquisitor. Damn, he hopes the inquisitor is an elf, he's only ever played as an elf, barely remembers the other races backstories.

(as far as I've thought out the intro, I want to be a more lighthearted shenanigans story, and Valdemar with his knowledge of events just throws the story on its head and Solas and Valdemar become friends with Valdemar dropping hints that he Knows. And the romance would be Valdemar and Dorian, although I have cute ideas for that I don't really have any planned out scenes.)

[offonaherosjourney]

Why do you like space so much

BECAUSE SPACE IS SO COOL??

Because I could spend HOURS looking at the Carina Nebula photo the James Webb Space Telescope took. I had to make it my screen saver instead of my desktop background because I got zero work done when it was my desktop background.

Because every time I think about the Spirit and Opportunity rovers back in Mars that were made to last 90 sols (92-93 Earth days) but instead lasted 6 and 14 years respectively and everything they found, or I think about how the Curiosity engineers programmed it to sing Happy Birthday to itself I get emotional??

Because you have either seen the 116 images we sent on the Voyager Golden Record (1977) and cried about them or you haven't seen them yet.

Because the first thing I did after watching a documentary about all the things dark matter could be was press the replay button, because holy fuck is dark matter fascinating and mysterious

Because how can you be normal after learning that the impact of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was so intense that it probably yeeted dinosaur bones into the motherfricking MOON. What am I supposed to do? Not tell every single soul I meet that info?

Because, sure, thinking about the origins and the very fabric and laws of the universe and the plethora of mysteries and unknown questions there are might make me dizzy with existential dread induced vertigo, but it also makes me want to go feral and tear reality itself with my own hands to get answers??

[makima-s-most-smile]

Trigun Maximum 4.2

Why am I so slow? Here are my thoughts to the latter half of Trimax 4. And damn, why couldn't we have more hospital yuri? It got dark. :C I mean I love it, but...

Trigun Ultimate: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Trigun Maximum: 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5

04: Den of evil

Poor Milly! I love Wolfwood’s reaction of: “Shit! She’s sad that we ditched her!” Also, is that WooWoo-meal Nr. 3 that got messed up by stuff happening due to Vash? Let Wolfwood eat!

For what happened and where she woke up, Meryl is extremely put together. I wouldn't be.

In the last chapter it looked like Meryl was yeeted by a swarm of mosquitos (worms), but Midvalley’s assumption and that Meryl literally coughs up a worm makes me think our poor girl got controlled. Also, he? Well, I don't think Zazie cares.

But why doesn’t Zazie do it with Vash or Wolfwood? Why use Meryl as bait? Is Zazie unable to possess their bodies? Why?

Holy shit, Hoppered goes wild! Just the idea of Meryl being Vash’s “follower” makes him act out like this! Shit! Follower is also pretty demeaning. It says that Meryl is not an equal to Vash. But he kinda hits the spot with that Vash didn’t even tell her “that much”. 

It is nice that it protects Meryl right now, but Vash not letting her close is starting to bite him and their relationship.

And Wolfwood goes the revenge route. They dare to take one of them and Wolfwood reacts how he knows to. Saying this may be comfort for him. It also shows that even though he has put a big distance between himself and the insurance women, he truly cares for them. Vash stays silent. And, man, Milly! I wanna hug her Q_Q

I just LOVE Zazie’s jumpscare and how our boys react. Those two surprised pikachu faces. Perfect.

Second floor and they just randomly hover in front of the window!

I love how they were able to SNEAK into the city with their big ass transportation worm. No panic, nothing! Just the big worm in the streets!

And Vash acts impulsive again. What did he think he could accomplish? I like that Zazie points out how different he is to Knives even by these little actions. And it hints that Zazie has another agenda going on. Which I like. Not everything goes to Knives’ plan and it shouldn’t! 

You honour, they are both married, divorced and idiots.

The establishing shots of the dragon’s nest district kinda remind me of the establishing shots of home. But while Home gave us a feeling of vastness, space and unsettling emptyness, dragon’s nest seems cramped, tight and lived in. Poor people live here, poor people without anywhere else to go.

“The lower and upper class all cramped together.” I know they want to stress that these are the worst fighting grounds for Vash’ and Wolfwood’s ideals (respectively: “No kill.” and “No innocents.”) But… guys, WHERE IS THE UPPER CLASS?! Am I blind?

Cool that Wolfwood has Vash' back, but damn, does he looks ominous. Mr. Death Omen himself. Why does that pose look so good? Confident in his fighting powress.

But taking in Wolfwood’s expression in the next panel… Wolfwood hates that he has to fight, the blood on his hands is itching. His face looks so bitter. He has resigned himself to killing their attackers for kidnapping Meryl, for protecting her. Vash and Wolfwood do not talk about it, but Wolfwood seems to answer something Vash is saying with his look. “That’s what I do.” There is no discussing it. There is no way away from Wolfwood killing their attackers.

Wolfwood wants to preserve Milly’s innocence, in a sense, he wants to keep her from needing to bloody her hands. He wants to protect her from the reality that he is living in. It… can be read as chauvinistic, but in all honesty, this does not read as ill intended machismo, this reads for me as Wolfwood being very aware of their different upbringing and wanting to protect her. There is no right decision here, not really. I understand wanting to protect innocent people from shitty things, but moreso Milly has the right to her agency, to make her own decisions. 

It, still, is Wolfwood trying to decide over Milly what is best for her and I love that Milly stands up to him and straightens his head. More importantly Vash agrees with her. I do not agree with him still keeping stuff from her, but she will tag along and she will be able to decide on her own with the info she gets through this. And Vash is right that they do not know where or when the enemies will attack or where Milly would be safe.

That said, I don’t agree with Milly being nothing but trouble for Meryl. Milly is Meryl’s biggest support! And has been for some time now!

05: Wild crying bullet

*stares and keeps spoiler to themselves* But something else, how do you know their names, Wolfy? 

Good night, Wolfie! I feel kinda bad for what Wolfwood has to endure through the story. Ninelives already nearly tore him apart, now brain damage. Give this guy some rest. All for the safety of his peers. Midvalley said that his sonic waves can be focussed on different parts and such. So happy brain haemorrhage. Could his power be used medicinally? Like… get an MRT and pinpoint a tumour and just toot it away? Well, that is not fitting for the world they live in. Sad that everything will be used as a weapon first.

Midvalley kills Wolfwood so Hoppered can have his revenge. Nice… bromance moment.

Where does all the water come from? I see a barrel exploding when Hoppered attacks, but that would not leave such a big space flooded. Water is an important source, so… Hmmm…

Vash hears it! Midvalley’s toot hurts his ears but through all of it he hears Wolfwood’s scream of pain! I can only imagine that it is one of those guttural, highpitches ones.

Milly cannot move. At first I thought that Hoppered has modified himself to have something of a plantlike aura, but that is not it. She is scared for her life. Attack, freeze, run. Those are the three main reactions people have in that situation. And while Milly can deal with dangerous situations, Wolfwood was right in his assumption that she never dealt with that kind of fighting. 

Her thoughts are kinda damning Wolfwood’s nonchalant attitude before. Surely, if she never fought those kinds of battles, the people who so readily go into them seem somewhat inhuman to her. But Vash counters it by putting their reasons to fight into perspective. He reminds Milly about the reason why Vash and Wolfwood are fighting (Meryl), something Milly’s memory of Wolfwood even says!

I am kinda a bit lost with the following fight. The way Nightow intercepts Vash/Milly’s fight with Wolfwood… uh… twisting up looks cool, but does not give me a clear read. Does Milly shoot at all? Or does Vash intercept Hoppered without even giving her a chance to act? Cool that Wolfwood only died for like two minutes. Why does he shoot his rocket launcher in the air? To stop Midvalley from joining Hoppered? I cannot parse his way of thinking. But then again, he just had massive head trauma. I don’t think there is much thought in him right now.

And, damn, Hoppered has Vash fully demonised in his head. Hoppered wants revenge, yes, but he is completely unable to grasp that Vash does not want to fight. It is easier to keep up your anger and hate if the person you are fighting is a monster. So he dehumanises Vash.

That I do not get exactly. Does Zazie mean like in a crush? What do they mean by excitement? Because I would be “excited” to know that my friends are on the way to get me out of this situation.

But instead of diving into Meryl’s emotional connection to Vash, Zazie is the one who finally does shed some light to who Vash is and what is happening in the background. Something Meryl needs direly. 

Why would Zazie assume that Vash and Knives are the natural enemy of humanity? Well, Knives… Okay… But even that is not something natural. That is a misguided kid with trauma and too much power. Vash on the other hand tries his best for a form of symbiosis.

06: The Bystanders

Is Zazie truly a bystander? They are a new faction with their own interests. Sure, they decide to stay aside, but… that is an active decision. But I love the introduction. The falling ships, the explosions and completely unaffected the worms made sense of the new presence.

What… what is that Meryl face? Is it her ingrained reporter smelling a story? Is it a weird joke that just falls flat for me? Thanks for calling it out, Zazie. Zazie can read the emotions of all living things… Hm… I forgot that, but it also makes their confusion at humans a bit weird. 

And back to Vash and Hoppered. Hoppered still is unable to see Vash as a person who tries to protect humans, when he vilified him so much. But there is our first hint as to why Hoppered hates Vash. July.

Black hole! Vash’ power is a black hole?

And damn, Hoppered seeing that must… damn… We readers already get a taste of what truly happened.

And finally something clicks for Meryl! His enigmatic past! His knowledge of the cold chamber! Vash is old, inhuman and a plant. A plant that does not need humans and a plant that humans cannot control. He is his own. 

For Zazie it may look like apathy. The human race trying to survive, while the independents watch on without really interfering. At the same time, can Zazie as the bystanders really understand the struggle of an individual human? Or is it Vash and Knives that are the bystanders to the struggle of survival of humanity?

The warning is interesting. It reads to me that Vash needs to change to stop Knives. And Zazie does not see it. Sadly, I do not think the warning gets to Meryl, since she is still trying to grasp that Vash is an ageold being, something inhuman and that he caused the fifth moon. Zazie is a gun-ho-gun, but they are not on Knives’ side. Since they stress they are a bystander, they are also not on Vash’ side, but it looks like they harbour more good will towards Vash than towards Knives.

Oh, looks like Wolfwood’s rocket found its target. Nightow… That really did not get through. Also, HAHA! Your saxophone is kaputt! No a-note for Midvalley. So no distance attack?

Damn, Wolfy, stop being so condescending. We know it stems from a place of care, but damn, you sound like an arsehole right now. 

Also, I just had a little epiphany. Wolfwood’s nicknames are different towards Vash and towards the insurance women. Needle noggin/ spikey, those are personal nicknames, something about Vash’ features. But he only calls Milly “big girl” and Meryl “short woman”. Those are so much more nondescript. I wrote earlier today that Wolfwood’s nicknaming as base of distance absolutely backfires with Vash, since a closeness develops through them, but with neither Milly nor Meryl it feels like closeness. The features he choses are nondescript, there is no personality in it. (though I like the difference between Meryl the leader being a woman and Milly the more soft being the girl) Towards them he successfully distances himself. 

And Midvalley’s toot rattled Wolfwood’s brain enough that he cannot see right now. A light is shone at them, the Punisher is propped up right in front of Wolfwood, but Wolfwood has to feel his way in the water towards her. It is also shown in the way his eyes are drawn. I will come back to that in six volumes with a headcannon. 

Milly zooms into Wolfwood being so hurt that he is temporaly blind. She must be shocked, too, that he still gets up to fight. It mirrors a bit what Meryl has to process, Vash' inhumanity, while here Milly is confronted with how far gone Wolfwood is.

Only Knives knows that Wolfwood is Wolfwood. For everyone else he is still Chapel. But Zazie is right! Midvalley is too selfconfident here! When no one was around, he said that he underestimated him!

Who is encroaching?! Who does Zazie sense? My first instinct would be Knives, but dunno, Legato fits the unnerved expression, too. :D Who would be happy to see him?

07: Hopeless Sinner

And again, the person Vash is fighting, reflects him in some way. Leonof was his unhealthy clinging to the idea of the dead, specifically Rem. Hoppered is his sense for revenge above his own survival and selfcare. They mirror him in the worst way. We know that the person Hoppered has built up Vash to isn’t who Vash is, could the same be for Knives? Though what we, the readers, have already seen about Knives says that Vash is right. So is it Vash’ way to deal with his brother? His wish for revenge? Though there I have to say… While Vash wants revenge, he also takes so much time to avoid it! He jumps into every conflict he sees and thus meanders around. Wolfwood is the one who tries to keep him on track, but he fails at that. If Vash was truly so vengeful, it would be his whole mission, kinda like it is for Hoppered.

Damn, Wolfwood played dirty!

On the one hand… I understand why Wolfwood would do this. He wants to protect Milly. He knows she is not a battle monster like Vash or himself. On the other hand… It is her decision. And he took it from her. Dunno, this whole exchange makes my heart break.

“Even if this girl isn’t gettin’ involved… the other girl is still bein’ used as brait to drag us to hell.” If that doesn’t summarise Wolfwood’s perspective of human connection. Isn’t the wellbeing of his orphanage also something that is used to keep him fighting? Every connection to a, well, nonfighter is like that. He needs to protect them and in the process, his hands will be stained with more and more blood. But he still does it.

Jealous? What do you mean with jealous, Elendira?

[jiabeewrites]

Yeeting Bloof 1 (the butts match, who is the favorite parent, is tony a bad father, is peter trans)

Peter: So Lor and I did a poll on twitter, and you guys said we should totally make a youtube channel. Lor, scoffing: Why do you even have twitter? Peter: Because Tony said I had to make one. Lor: But twitter is for old cishet white men. Duke: Lor, you have one. Lor: Yeah, so I can troll the old cishet white men. Jason: Okay, as the responsible adult- Tim, rolling his eyes: What is this, an alternate reality? Jason, glaring: Touche. We're here to react to shit because it's good for PR apparently. Steph: $5 in the swear jar! Jason: Shut up. Lor: Okay, your responsible adult privileges have been revoked. I am handing them off to Tim, and all of you shut up. (looks around. seeing resistance, they continue talking) We're starting with a Q&A, and the first question is from oompaloompa on twitter...oh my GOD YES Peter, looking over their shoulder: THE BUTTS MATCH! How the heck did you get permission for this? Lor: We got it from the internet! Steph: Okay, the butts do not match. If anything it's Dick. Jason: Why, because Batman has a fat ass? Lor, handing Jason the swear jar: $2. Anyway, there's a freaking cape, guys, how do you even tell that? Duke: I mean...okay, look here. (shows image that someone created to prove that the butts match) Someone created this...and THAT'S LITERALLY A CAPE OH MY GOD. Steph: HIS CAPE IS COVERING HIS BUTT Tim: This doesn't even make sense either. Bruce has TRIPPED on the staircase, Alfred the cat, and the red carpet before. Pretty sure Batman wouldn't do that. Peter: Honestly I think it's Dick. Lor: Oh definitely. Jason: He's gonna kill you guys. Lor: Why? Jason: Because he's gonna say that his ass is better than Batman's. Steph, handing Jason the jar: He is though. Peter, shaking his head: Okay, next question, from jaylee on tiktok...who is the better parent? Bruce or Anya? Lor: Uh... Jason: Anya Steph: Dang, Jay Tim: Jason, B is gonna kill you. Jason: Welp. Time to die again. Peter, smacking the back of Jason's head: Be nice to your father. Duke, rolling his eyes: Yeah, next question. Is Tony Stark a bad father? from ariace on tumblr. Peter, glaring at the camera: Not cool, internet. Lor, sighing: No, he's not. He's just like any other parent: tired, sleep-deprived, doesn't know what he's doing. Tim: Next question: Is Peter trans? from transcore on twitter. Peter: MTF for the winnnnnnnnnn! Lor: Slayed Jason: okay, have a good day or something, please do not subscribe, go read a book

[silvermuffins]

Pokemon Scarlet Liveblog!!! Part 3

Listen. I had a very good reason to delay this. The best reason even (you know who you are <3)

where were we? oh right, we were lost.

i have no memory of this place

aaaaaa there's a crab following me

battles an artist who can't finish a sentence

!!! GIMMIGHOUL hello my new pal Boxly. It's up on top of this tower, which seems to just be a lookout tower.... I can see Artzon from here, and also Light Pollution. And also a really giant butte? can't wait to go up there! Oh, neat, you can fly to the watchtowers once you've been to them.

oooh i see where the titan klawf is now, hello down there

small blue...that's not a rookidee. What are you? What are you??? Get back here! Nymble? bug i think...cricket but it almost looks like a like. fidget spinner. oh goddammit poison point, killed it.

Found another, finally, while wandering. If they wanted me to accomplish anything they shouldn't have given me an open worl. Anyway I still think Nymble looks like a fidget spinner folded up so her name is Fidget. !!! Look, a Growlithe! get over here Fai Do!

i wonder what's with these ruined buildings? don't like how they seem to be where i find Drowzee.

AAAA WHAT'S THAT PINK THING Tinkatink? You're gonna be Pebbles.

I think the signs pointing to Artazon are starting to get desperate about my adamant exploration. They keep yelling at me like I'm not deliberately going the opposite direction of what they say.

New Headcanon: enough kids got hopelessly lost in these cliffs that they just put signs goddamn everywhere.

lmao the signs like "okay if you're down here you MUST be lost"

AAAAA CRAB LANDED ON ME

sorta hate that i can only jump while riding koraidon

"Caught 63 battled 81" damn, my dex is at a phenomenal start

well now. I have 45 minutes until i need to get ready for work, and I'm right about at the crabby paddy. jfc these fuckin Klawf have this like....creepyass moan of an activation noise, they're at the intersection of no thoughts head empty and nightmare fuel.

now wait i tick i SAW the big klawf on this wall earlier, where is ti? ....oooh, i found him. exploring, tho--

well, that was easy. I could go down the long way....but it's more IC for Fani to just leap off the cliff after it. Whee!

Awww Arven uses a Shellder! And I am massively overleveled.

Heyyyy, Teach is evolving! Clodsire??? Oh, it's fully evolved now, I can grab something else from my box.

Also, looking for more Herba Mistica! In a caaave. Oh, it's just more cutscene. This one's sweet. That's the flavor associated with speed...

ARVEN IS GONNA FEED ME. He makes kung fu movie noises while he cooks, what the fuck. Aaaaa this is so cute.

Arven why do you hate koraidon

oh....i don't get to eat sandwich. gotta feed it to Koraidon... just goes hungry ig

aww Arven sharing OH I GET TO DASH NOW NEAT

what is your deal my guy

Sada how do you know that

Swap Teach out for Sotero...we'll be doing a grass gym next I think? But we have Scoots for that.....i just. it's ten more levels until Scoots evolves, do I want a half-bird team that long? Not really. Ah well, sort it out later.

oh more places to explore Oh dunsparce with Tera Poison. Might as well try and catch thaaaaaat was a critical capture, okay then

how does headbutt work with a nacli just it just yeet its wholeass self. anyway the new Dunsparce is now Dunviped.

damn wild pokemon just keep running into me LEAVE ME ALONE FOR TWO SECONDS SO I CAN FIGURE OUT WHERE I AM

uhhhh how'd i even get to this part of the map.....

okay i am going to get ready for and go to work we will figure this out Later

and now it is later! I am still lost! I think i jumped off one too many cliffs,,,,,,

let's just. fly back to the watchtower.

okay where the fuck am i NOW

for those wondering: no, my sense of where i am is also this bad in reality i just almost never leave the neighborhood i've lived in my entire life

ohhh this cliff looks out on a team star base....damn they're big

back on track! keep forgetting to heal up,,,

finished an accidental battle and immediately slid down a cliff.... Fani is battered and bruised.

Finally on the Artazon outskirts! And I found...twin mice? Tandemaus. How....do you name a Pokemon that is two Pokemon??? fuck it. You're Beep & Boop now.

Okay I think I'm done dicking around, time to actually enter town. NOPE there's more Pokemon to catch here! Tish the Shuppet, Nimbus the Drifloon, and FINALLY found a Squawkabilly to name Elvis.

Okay NOW i'm in town, oh look the same food shops I found in Mesagoza.

Man I get nothing for reaching the center of the maze??? you'd think there'd be a little prize, like a person saying congrats and giving me a pokeball or something.

"what a nice breeze" this little girl says, in the middle of a thunderstorm....

wait does Koraidon already have surfing capabilities, just in case i fall in some water?

love this giantass playground, would be better with interactible elements!

man i miss unique gym designs why do they all need to look the same on the outside...anyway, time to beat up Hubert von Vestra. Can't believe they made his shiny colors green. Well. After I rip up his garden or whatever.

....no time limit or anything, this will be a cakewalk. oh, this one flees- oh, it wants to FIGHT. bitch I have a Shroodle. damn the maze one isn't even at the center and three more were right at start, what a wimpy test.

just noticed there's a Surrendering Sunflora on top of the Pokemon Center....

OH MY GOD WHAT A FUCKING EDGELORD oh jesus fuck that smile is terrifying don't do that. especially while soggy.

What is that at his hip anyway is that a garden hoseoh Nebula you right this music is incredible

WAIT I MISCALCULATED Chomper's tera type is normal not Poison! Augh! I still win, but damn.

Brassius is so fucking intense. Fani is a little....scared.

I see another excalibur thingy....up on a cliff where i can't reach...

Anyway, Falmenco is another Oricorio.

I am approaching the fire Star Base, and Cassiopeia calls in-- who in the FUCK is this?!

wai

wait a second

oh no is that who i think it is

it....it has to be.....

oh NO im gonna die this is hilarious

hELP

Clive and Cassiopeia both like "fuck i can't press you while also concealing my own bullshit"

BAHAHAHAHAHA

ah crap got rammed from behind by a Tauros- JUST STAY IN THE BALL. Finally. Your name is Noctober. OH, CYCLIZAR. Definitely need a you. Ah fuck accidentally killed it. there's another one! Fuck, killed that one too. But at least Sirea is evolving! Time to swap her out for Jupe.

cutscene took me down the cliff so now i gotta catch up on some explorin'

trying to find another Cyclizar, or a Toedcool since the map says they're here, but I'll take this Venonat. Sana. Ooh! Teddiursa! Crit captured, even, you'll be Renange. I have no Flabebe yet but this grass tera Floette will do... Banchata. ! Sotero evolving into....Naclstack. I was going to say that's pretty cool but honestly it's pretty minecraft. Komala! I'm calling you Ponchi. Pineco, you're Gonzo. Finally found a Toedcool! dammit I killed it. Found an Applin! You're Froot. CYCLIZAR. You'll be Zips.

i am Tired and Slightly Ill, so I do believe I will be calling it here for the moment!!!!