#except when i say otherwise

[tryingtimi]

A Wishing God

To break my absence, I leave here a possible ending of IQRUS. It's fun to explore all the things I was just contemplating yet. This piece also started as an attempt for one of the Flash Fiction Friday prompts, Expanding Horizons, but it ended up more.

DANE AND AUVA | ANGST | IQRUS ENDING EXPLORATION | WC: 2,476

Water rumbled quietly. The waves had reached out as enormous fingers, stretching forward in the distance. They licked the solid metal, swallowing more and more of it, almost touching Dane’s feet as he sat on the ground. It wouldn’t have mattered, though. He was wet already, anyway.

The Aquor Sector’s ankle high water level’s surface let him see the solid floor under him.

He couldn’t move his muscles as he sat in the liquid. Mind filled up, overflowed with everything he wanted to keep it in the pit of his existence. He came here for a reason, yet he wasn’t able to get further than tiptoeing to the edge of the Trashland and finally let his legs to give up under him. All the turquoise, slightly translucent hell surrounded him in the moment he reached the ground. His pants soaked through immediately, his mechanic leg getting tighter around his thighs as liquid terror seeped into the fittings. He knew he should have been afraid of the mutation.

But he couldn’t care less about that.

The day of him getting the Caelus Sector offered modifications burnt into his mind. All the serums, plays with his genes, protection he got. Immunity for the top of humanity, they dared to say.

All the people playing God up there.

He tried to think about pulling his pulled-up legs closer to his chest, but he wasn’t able to do that. His body wasn’t under his control now. Fright ruled his blood flow, all of his big and little muscles, his mind. There was nothing he could do about it, only acknowledge it. He was paralyzed. By shock or trauma, he couldn’t tell anymore.

The waves pulled back, slowly making space between Dane and them. The touch of the liquid swayed around his lower body. Every tiny movement of it made something twitch inside him, building up a feeling he didn’t know how to control now or ever.

He wasn’t planning to move, however.

Even if he could have, he was sure he would have been just sitting in the water, watching the far horizon of endless waves and light. There was nothing at the other end. No land, no building, nothing.

Tender swaying and quiet splashing signaled Auva’s arrival.

She didn’t say a thing, only stood beside him for a second, then slowly sat down. He lowered his head, letting it drop between his shoulders. He couldn’t bear the sight of that infinite horizon anymore.

“What now?”, he asked eventually. He wanted to squeeze his eyes together, but he couldn’t. Dane wanted to stay aware of Auva’s presence by his peripheral vision.

After everything had been done, he wasn’t ready to just drown in his darkness, alone.

Because he was like that. Alone. Finally, and completely. No Adran, no Eran, not even Icharo. So much good for one evil to fall. And so, their most dire problem hasn’t been solved by the sacrifices. Was it really worth it then?

Auva shifted, and Dane could see her hand reaching over to touch the waves that came back to them again.

“Now, you must become a Guardian. Properly.” She tenderly caressed the surface, her fingers parting the water ever so slightly. It didn’t leave a mark, only its echo on the froth. “That would be the ideal. That would be the end of my task. But you must choose it willingly. “ She paused for a moment. “And I am not forcing anything.”

Dane exhaled. A long, stretched out breath. Then, after closing his eyes for a second, he opened them again and looked at Auva.

She didn’t force him to choose. She should have, yet she didn’t. A strange, heavy weight loomed over Dane, as he sat under the open sky and watched this figure beside him who he still couldn’t fully fit into his mind. Into his heart, yes, but not into his mind.

Dane wasn’t sure if he wanted to be something like her. He had no idea what that would mean. Icharo… Lero was her kind too. Whatever they were truly, they had powers he didn’t know he wanted to deal with.

He still felt his mind numbing ever so slightly, only just thinking about what he went through and saw.

Save them.

Adran’s last words bubbled up from his tensed muscles into his mind, showing him the memory of their last moments. His brother. His savior.

Everyone’s savior.

Dane’s left eye twitched a little. He wasn’t the one who should be a Guardian of people. Ionera should be safe after Adran’s sacrifice. They won, didn't they?

He snorted at this thought.

Winning. There was no winner in matters like these, was there? And whatever he was ready to do, one question still remained unanswered: if he was ever ready to take up the burden of making things right so his brother’s death won’t be for vain?

“So be it,” he said, his voice even. “How does it work?”

Auva nodded ever so slightly, an almost reluctant acknowledgement. Then, she pulled out a little glass bottle from the tiny case attached to her belt.

Something gold swayed within.

“You need to drink this first. Everything else is up to you after then.”

“What’s this?”, Dane asked as she handed him the bottle. He hasn't taken it yet.

“A substance that flows in my body and keeps it moving.”

His eyelids fluttered closed for a moment as he gulped.

“So, it’s your blood.”

Auva glanced at the far horizon beside them, lost in thought, before she guided her gaze back at Dane and the liquid.

“That’s an accurate conclusion, yes.”

“And you want me to drink it?” He heard it the first time too, but he needed to make sure. And if Auva didn’t quite understand why he needed this confirmation, she hid it well. As well as any human would have.

“It’s not about what I want, Dane. The world depends on it. Your world.”

The water reached for them again, swaying closer and closer, almost reaching his legs. And the gold swayed with it in the bottle. Auva didn’t move her hands, yet the liquid twirled and twisted. Its metallic shine absorbed the light around itself.

Dane could feel the faintest unease in his mind.

A familiar feeling at this point. Something that made him sick.

He forced his gaze at Auva.

At her, who was the bearer of this thing. This something that changed his world at its core. This thing that those carried in their physical bodies too that killed his loved ones and doomed humanity.

Dane curled up his toes in his fully soaked shoes. His hands were white from all the force he was gripping them together.

Auva was one of them, yet she was so much different. She was here to help. She did not ask anything from him. She let him choose.

Choose something he always strived to reach. Saving everyone. Saving Ionera. Protecting the ruins of their world.

Dane wasn’t the right one for this responsibility, but he was the only one left for this world. So, with heavy hands, he slowly took the bottle, closed his eyes and snapped his head back so he could swallow everything.

Then, he let his hands fall back down and nervously waited.

Waited.

And waited.

Nothing has felt different. The water still licked his sides, he might not have been as cold as before, but other than that; nothing.

“How long does it take to begin?”

Auva smiled. He didn’t know how he could know this with his eyes closed, but he did. For certain.

“ᴏᴘᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴇʏᴇs,” she murmured, her voice sounding like a… prism. It belonged to her yet echoed on a thousand other.

He slowly lifted his eyelids, seeing nothing different over the horizon then before. A touch of early morning mist, endless water and small waves… in a room.

An intricate, vast room that contained everything he called his world. A room made of a prism. The walls reflected the sky, expanded horizons before Dane. All the layers of the images he’d seen opened up for him; the clouds’, the sky’s, the water’s and everything’s outlines splitted into hundreds of their own reflection, into shapes and colors he’d never seen before. Dane could see, feel and hear everything around himself. His vision, hearing and ability to feel erupted and expanded into something that made him be aware of all the happenings of the world. To feel every person and every living thing as if they were a part of him too.

Dane became the beating heart of Aetherius.

And with that, his core fright from before — that was so deeply a part of him he couldn’t acknowledge it fully — towards death evaporated into nothing. He knew he won’t die anymore. That he can’t die. Fear and death turned into mere concepts in his mind.

Then, he turned to Auva.

It wasn’t her true name. That wasn’t something that could have been spoken out loud. Dane stick with it, though.

The air wobbled around her figure that did not wore the features he was used to seeing on her. Golden bronze skin without a face, although Dane knew it wasn’t a skin exactly since it flowed in her physical form as well. Quills cascaded around her shoulders, blanketing her upper body, a featherless wing-like extension growing out of her back as a cape would.

He could use only mortal words to describe her, even though she was so much beyond that comprehension.

“ɪ ᴡɪsʜ ɪ ʜᴀᴅ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ʙᴇᴀᴜᴛɪꜰᴜʟ ᴛᴏ sᴀʏ,” whispered Dane. His voice similarly echoing in a thousand other as well. He wasn’t sure if he was capable of feeling anything at all, yet he knew he would feel awe if he would be his self from before.

Auva smiled. Dane could tell she was, no matter her faceless form.

“ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴅ.” Her voice still ethereal, the language they spoke celestial, if it was a language at all.

“Is ᴛʜɪs ʜᴏᴡ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʟᴡᴀʏs sᴇɴsᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ?” Dane needed to ask. There were things that did not ease with his ascension.

“ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴀᴛ Gᴜᴀʀᴅɪᴀɴ. ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰɪʀsᴛ ᴡʜᴏ’ᴅ ʙᴇᴇɴ Mᴀᴅᴇ, ᴡʜɪᴄʜ ᴍᴀᴋᴇs ᴍᴇ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ ᴛʜɪɴɢs ᴅɪꜰꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴍᴏsᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴜs. sᴏ, ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴍᴇ, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ, ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪs ɪᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʏᴏᴜ sᴇɴsᴇ?”

What was he sensing? How could he describe it? He should have been overwhelmed, but he could not experience life as before. Eternal things laid before him, more than his world only. He won a glimpse of the other worlds that had burnt into his mind; people with pointy ears, monster-like creatures, black suns, violet moons and so, so much more. He’d seen a fraction of all the different sides of that infinite prism that his world reflected it too. He couldn’t be sure what he sensed actually.

He knew what he should have reacted to, though.

“ᴇᴍᴘᴛɪɴᴇss.” That wasn’t it exactly. “ꜰᴜʟʟɴᴇss ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴍᴘᴛɪɴᴇss ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀᴍᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ sᴇᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅs ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜɪs ᴏɴᴇ. sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ ᴏɴᴇs. ᴜɴᴋɴᴏᴡɴ ᴏɴᴇs. ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ sᴇɴsᴇ ᴍʏ ɢʀɪᴇꜰ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅs Aᴅʀᴀɴ ᴀɴᴅ Eʀᴀɴ’s ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ᴍᴏᴜʀɴ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ᴀɴʏᴍᴏʀᴇ, Aᴜᴠᴀ. ɪ ᴅᴏ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ. ɪ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ʙᴇʏᴏɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇᴍ. ʙᴜᴛ ɪ ᴄᴀɴɴᴏᴛ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ᴍᴇ.”

Some kind of wrongness nested in his core also. A plague, a reversed black hole. Aetherius’ doom, the dimensional tear that let the terrors pour into his world.

It had been hidden from him, but now he could sense it. The calling of the ocean, deep under all the monsters and darkness; the portal slumbered there, out of the reach of any mortal. But not his, not anymore. And so he could have a chance to extinguish it. Or begin to do that.

Auva nodded, excitement reflecting in the vibration of her magnetic field around her.

“ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʀᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ᴀs ᴀ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ, ᴇᴠᴇɴ ɪꜰ ɪᴛ’s ᴛʀᴀɢɪᴄ, ᴛʜᴀɴ sᴛᴀʏɪɴɢ ᴅɪᴠɪɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟᴍɪɢʜᴛʏ.”

“ɪ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ.”

“ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇɴ,” She extended her hand. “ɪᴛ’s ꜰᴏʀᴛᴜɴᴀᴛᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ sᴛᴀᴛᴇ ɪs ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴏʀᴀʀʏ” And with that, Dane’s senses began to shrink. Whatever he experienced, it did not leave him, only made him more and more anxious. He couldn’t put his finger on what he’d seen in the next second, when he stopped feeling everything.

Minute by minute, he gained back that core terror of death and the dreadful woe that nested in his bones. He got back his grief and his mourning. His ability to remember and love. His focus wasn’t on all living things anymore, he wasn’t everywhere all at once. And he saw Auva only as a woman sitting waist deep in the water.

“How could this happen? I thought being a Guardian is a permanent task.”

Auva smiled and glanced at the bottle in Dane’s hand. He mirrored her movement, realizing he wasn’t paralyzed anymore, even though all his grave emotions only multiplied in his chest.

He furrowed his brows when he saw the golden blood still sway in the bottle. He could have sworn that he swallowed all.

“It was. Before you’ve changed the rules of turning into one. What I’ve said previously was something I only came to know the moment you made up your mind. And so now the rules are letting Guardians choose after they experience what it's like to be one. You’ve created a new concept. A new era. Change is never immediate from now on. It needs time and so you could have only one drop to begin with.”

Dane tightened his hand around the bottle.

“It sounds like I’ve modified space and time in a blink of an eye. That is something only…” God should be able to do, Auva. He stopped himself before he could finish his sentence like that. He couldn’t deny it anymore. He was one of them for a short period of time. If it was a short period of time at all, since time itself lost its meaning for him in that state. Or that’s how he could describe it if he attempted to put it into words.

A soft touch on his hand made Dane shiver slightly. He glanced at Auva’s tender gaze that was full of comfort, yet reflected something deep that he couldn’t really grasp. As if the cosmos itself had been captured in those eyes.

“It must be a lot.”

It was. Dane couldn’t deny that either. But there was also one thing that stayed with him the most after the experience. Something that made him confident enough to hold Auva’s eyes.

“I’ll take the role temporarily. I’ve seen the tear, so I need the power to unravel it, to find it again and close it. But as soon as we’ve reached that, I’ll find someone who’s worth enough to take this role properly,” he said and with that, he flipped his hand to took Auva’s in his too.

[tennessoui]

giving the best dialogue to anakin and padmé divorcing once more lol <3

“If it were your best friend who choked on flowers he couldn’t give you, what would you do?”

Anakin blinks, more than a decade’s worth of Jedi training the only thing keeping him from reeling back. “What?” Padmé’s eyes gleam back at him, hard as flint. “If Master Kenobi developed hanahaki for you, if you saw him in pain because of you, would you have done what I did for Sabé?”

Anakin shakes his head, suddenly lost and feeling rather like the trap has been sprung. “You didn’t do anything wrong to her,” he says helplessly. “You said you paid for her surgery–”

“There were two things I could have done,” Padmé replies. “But I was a good wife. I didn’t even think about the other option. I didn’t even try. Because of you.”

The other option. The only other cure for the flowering disease: for the love to be returned.

Anakin cuts his eyes away from the face of his wife. They jump from the fireplace to the open doors leading to a balcony, to a chair in the corner to the old-fashioned books tucked neatly away in their alcove. “Don’t ask me this,” he says, begs, because Padmé is his wife and once, he loved her ardently.

But she is also a politician, and she knows to never give in when she is so close to her victory. “Tell me what you would do,” she demands softly. “Tell me you would do the same. If it were Obi-Wan dying, tell me you would hold his hand as he underwent the surgery. Tell me that you would remember me.”

“He would never develop flowers for me,” Anakin snaps as if the words have been ripped from his throat, and his hands loosen behind his back, grab at the ends of his hair and then scrub roughly over his face.

Padmé’s lips curl and her eyes flash, a spark of embers beneath a blanket of ash. “Put aside your belief that your master is too much of a Jedi to fall in love, that is not what I want—”

Anakin shakes his head, once, sharply. He feels cornered. Like a wild animal, biting at anything that encroaches into his space. “You asked me to speak and now you will not listen,” he snarls, and he is being cruel. This is cruel.

But this is also the truth, and it is what she wanted. 

“He would never develop flowers for me,” he says again. “Because you only develop flowers when the love is unrequited. And there has never been a moment in my life that I have not been in love with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is that what you wanted to hear, Padmé?” 

[coquelicoq]

i've been dying for a poll option ever since i saw my followers' answers to that text post from february 2022 asking people whether they pronounce beloved as "be-lov-ed" or "be-loved". many people were emphatic about only using one option, and many others use both but were not always able to articulate when they use 2 syllables vs. 3. so out of the goodness of my heart and my insatiable lust for knowledge i have gone through the notes on that post and written down some likely contenders! you're welcome!!!!

BEFORE YOU ANSWER! think about how you would pronounce beloved in the following syntactic contexts:

noun, talking directly to the beloved: hey there beloved

noun, talking about rather than to the beloved: my beloved lives in a pineapple under the sea

adjective in a noun phrase: my beloved x lives in a pineapple under the sea

verb participle: x is beloved by y

okay poll time! there are no wrong answers!! and apologies in advance if i didn't capture your truth, i only had 10 options and life is a rich tapestry!!

[tolkiens]

mannn i hope people take a chill pill before they push chappell roan too far like they did with mitski…i feel like every few WEEKS i read about her reinforcing boundaries or feeling understandably overwhelmed with how rapidly she’s gained popularity etc

idk who needs to hear this but just because someone is in the public eye does not mean you need to go searching every facet of their life? ie stalking their instagrams heavily to the point you know their close friends or family members names and workplaces! this isn’t normal!

you can in fact just be a fan of someone and know nothing about their life! in fact i recommend it to a lot of you because you are clearly so far out of line. get off the apps and unplug and just touch base with reality for a little bit

[sonknuxadow]

it's kinda funny that some people seem to think eggman has a soft spot for kids or something because of his relationship with sage like have you guys not seen the way he interacts with 90 percent of the other characters in this franchise . hes constantly fighting with teenagers and little kids and putting them in danger he does NOTTTT care lmao

[fischiee]

i was watching the end of s9 for reasons and honestly it really gets me how tex is literally BEGGING church not to say goodbye!!

i mean!!!

like this is not her sounding composed or put together or flippant like we get a lot from her, she is genuinely distressed at the idea that church might be trying to sever their ties in that way

she’s panicked at the idea that they’re about to die and her last moments with him will be him disrespecting everything that he made her to be that she is

she may have loved him but she knew deep down that she couldn’t trust him, not after he was the one to bring her back and force her to live her cursed half life

[timeisacephalopod]

The pushback to the term "cultural Christianity" from atheists is real odd to me because, as someone who has been an atheist since 13, only ever went to church a handful of times never with my own family (made a note never to sleep over at that friends house on a Saturday again bc I HATED church it smelled like shit, was boring, pews are uncomfortable as fuck, and the religious people I knew were all wildly misogynistic and I've never been here for being told I was less of a person for being Born Like This), and generally had no actual connection to Christianity in a meaningful way but still only knows Christian mythology, has been steeped in Christian values I had to untangle, and my religious understandings are still deeply Christian.

Like Ive never paid attention to the bible, church, Jesus, Christian teachings, or whatever but if you asked me about any religion the one I'll reliably know the most about is Christianity. I don't know why atheists are offended by being called culturally Christian because they have bad blood with the religion because like sorry bruh that doesn't mean you're less indoctrinated by Christian values if the culture you grew up in is predominantly Christian. In fact I'd say that religion being this ubiquitous in the culture regardless of anyone's consent to exactly ONE religion being shoved down our throats is reason to team up with other religious folks who ALSO don't like being constantly evangelized to by the culture at large, not a reason to throw a fit because you don't like being tied to a religion that is so ingrained into the culture that shit like "oh my god" and "Jesus Christ" are common expressions of surprise regardless of how atheist you are. Like surely I'm not the only atheist to notice the shocking amount of cultural religious shit that works it's way into my life and speech despite having not set foot in a church since I was like 10, and I can't remember the last time I was in one before that.

Idk man cultural Christianity seems like a pretty damn useful term to describe my relationship with a religion I never fully bought into and then actively rejected as a child yet still hold weird connections to and knowledge of just because Christianity is so baked into the culture I grew up in like it or not. If you want to be mad, be mad at the Christians who stole your freedom from religion from you, not usually religious minorities who discuss cultural Christianity and how it damages them too.

[ciderjacks]

Can we kill the whole “no attention on artwork is sad and means it was a waste of time” thing? Like Seriously can we kill it. I put a fuckton of effort into my art and it usually gets like, 10 likes, and that doesn’t really matter to me bc I love making it. I’m grateful for nice comments, but I’m gonna keep making the stuff I make regardless.

Like ok I’m not trying to sound all holier than thou here, but the amount of artists online who say stuff like “this artwork was a flop, so I’m feeling really discouraged” is making me go crazy. Is that all it is for you guys? Content? When you’re making artwork are you just making content for an audience? No offence but I feel like that’s a huge fucking waste of time, way more than making art you like and getting minimal attention on it.

[heliosphere-underthesky]

What are the ethnicities/races or the celestial bodies in your story ?

Howdy! Actually I don't really have 100% set ethnicities or races for each character, due to them being celestial bodies. This is so that there's freedom of interpretation for the viewers, but still taking inspiration from real life!

Here are some coding I've made for some of the characters although if you have a different headcanon, it's fine as long as it's respectful to me and other people who may have different perceptions.

Sun, Jupiter, Saturn - Caucasian, most likely of European descent

Mercury - Southeast Asian (I personally pin him as Filipino because I'm Filipino. Haha. But he's meant to be broadly coded as SEAsian)

Venus - Latina or black/Latina mix

Earth - probably SEAsian or Latino + Caucasian mix (not sure yet)

Luna - likely East Asian mix, or purely East Asian

Mars - East Asian

Uranus - Caucasian (may be pure, may be a mix of some sort, but I personally see him as Russian or Nordic)

Neptune and Pluto - at least part Asian (not sure yet, but probably a mix too)

Earth and Venus + Uranus and Neptune having different ethnicity/race coding is due to a piece of Heliospheric lore I wrote back then; nobody's literally "blood-related" and most of their "relationships" are simply titles of the bond that they feel towards each other.

[kingdomoftyto]

Oh yeah ANOTHER thing?

It's now canon that Vlad (and by extension probably Danny too) can survive THE VACUUM OF SPACE with no food, water, or air for at least several months if not over a year??

Like yeah we saw him out by Saturn at the end of Phantom Planet but I think a lot of us figured he'd probably die out there (including the characters in the story apparently LOL brutal). But here we have confirmation that (half-)ghosts can pretty much keep going indefinitely on stubbornness alone. Like holy shit, dude. I don't know whether that's awesome or super dark.

[imogenkol]

they despise each other (affectionate) [x]

[tommygettingwrittenoff]

okay buck would definitely be like hey eddie let's spar together and eddie would be like okay!! sparring is so much fun!! and so they would go to a gym after their shift and spar and it would be Fine for about 5 minutes. before buck realizes he's in over his head and his size is Not an advantage with eddie because eddie is able to pin him down no matter what buck does. and buck would be so horny and frustrated the entire time and eddie would be confused because I thought you could fight buck??? why are you giving up once I pin your hands down??? and buck would try to be all ha ha I guess I can't compete against a former street fighter while actively trying to hide his erection

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

been thinking about how danse is who nora is endgame with in death shroud. it compels me

[yardsards]

my one complaint about this cat is that he licks himself so Wetly. it's audible. the sound is like a toothless old man going to town on a bowl of chili, no utensils. and then he is Damp for several minutes afterwards. you wanted to pet this cat with your nice clean dry hands? too late, they're covered in cat spit now and you are petting him wethands style whether you like it or not.

basically:

>looking for a new cat

>ask the cat shelter employee if their cat is creepy or wet

>she doesnt understand |pull out illustrated diagram explaing what is creepy and what is wet

>she laughs and says "its a good cat sir"

>adopt a cat

>it's wet

[comfycozycrossfox]

it's literally crazy to me how much people think they're the exception to any given rule. like the amount of entitlement you see working with customers is insane.

me, explaining rules at my workplace: no purse, backpacks, or bags of any kind, no exceptions

this 50 y/o karen dumbass, clearly holding a pretty sizeable purse: what about this?

me: ...no exceptions

karen: ok but what about this

our "no bags no exceptions" rule raises a lot of questions that are already answered by our "no bags no exceptions" rule

[prototypelq]

DMC Questions Anon here!

Take every character you wish to and tell me what you think is the most emotionally devastating situation they could be put in and how they would react to it.

Hi, Ember! You just had to do the ask around the DMC1 anniversary and the twins' very bad absolutely no good horrible terrible birthday huh) lol we love angst in dmc everything is completely fine

To be perfectly honest with you I am surprised the twins are... somewhat functioning persons after all the shit they went through. I mean, they are barely functional, and 5 was just one massive mental breakdown for both of them but still! They remain Somewhat sane which is very hard to believe to tell the truth, and they really need years of extensive therapy (...also any therapist they go to will need therapy themselves after a session with the twins, I feel sorry for the poor soul).

All of this is to say that this is my ask and I don't want the twins to suffer too much)

this is also the reason I side with the 'twins have normal human lifespan' answer in Raven's poll, because Sparda Luck has had nothing good in store for them ever, and prolonging their years means risking their fragile mental health even more. they just really need a leave/retire at this point and my wish for them is to live their years in relative peace

I'l go over the twins briefly as I don't want them to go through shit again, the canon was cruel enough towards them. Nero is their weak spot. Nero is extremely important to the twins, because he is the physical manifestation of hope for their future. Before 5 the answer to this question would have been each other, as the pain of being the lone brother has been familiar for each of them and has been festering for decades at this point, but it all changed in 5. The ending of 5 shows rekindling of their brotherhood, it it was only possible thanks to Nero, as in 5 both of them were so exhausted they wanted just to end everything*

*I've discussed this with Raven, and we bounced around the idea that the circumstances of twins 'mutual agreement for the end' was not so mutual in details. Vergil was exhausted and had no idea what to do next, except have one last great stand with his brother, and to force Dante's hand to end him. But to bait Dante into doing that, he had to go all out during their battle, so Dante kind of rightfully assumed Vergil was out for his blood. Again. DMC3 tragic parallels my beloved.

I doubt Vergil realised how badly this was all going for Dante, or the consequences of such action on his twin. Though Dante absolutely knew he could not live with himself after ending Vergil again, and that's exactly why he left the deed (= inheritance for Nero) behind before going on this hunt. He thought it would be his last.

It would be curious to see Vergil's reaction to that information, I think if he learns of the deed he'll piece the puzzle himself, and then there is going to be an Interesting conversation between the twins. I doubt Vergil would have gone through with his plan if he knew the toll it would take on Dante, and Vergil never wanted his brother dead.

Nero is the twins future. He gave them a deserved slap as a wake up call, he reminded them of the possibilities the future could hold, while twins only ever look to the past. They found kinship in their shared respect and fondness of Nero, this is their starting point to heal.

Loosing another after 5 would be, of course, extremely painful for either of them (arguably worse for Dante, as his mental state is pretty much in shambles in 5, and Vergil was the same before that, literally in his case, but he has new page now, he just has trouble figuring out what to do with it), but with Nero's help they just might be able to pull through.

But if anything happened to Nero himself? I don't think twins, even with their bond rekindled would be truly able to come back from that. So yeah, the twins' weak spot is Nero.

Nero`s weakspot is obviously family, however much has been much kinder to him in that aspect than the twins. He grew up loved and cared for in his adopted family, but with his own isues of course. While Nero had not knew Dante&Vergil for very long, he certainly does take after his uncle&father (must be the Sparda heritage) in term of issues, because Nero combines the twins' together! Nero struggles simultaniously with self-worth and the need for recognition, which I reckon, will give him A Time while the twins are gone, and if anything they will only worsen after their return too. Nero has already unlocked two power-ups, yet he is abandonned by the twins (for reasons he will have to come to terms with) And he is not even close to their power levels (Vergil only lost to Nero because he did not want to fight in the first place and was exhausted). Nero has been trying to establish himself... for his entire life, but every major demonic outbreak had Required a Dante call, Nero had not been able to handle it on his own. And after twins return this issue will only persist, because he means so much to the twins, he now basically has a very agressive safety net, which all the spardas will have to work together to solve.

Also I could have just said family. Nero will be worrying over twins the entire time of their absence, no doubt about it. Hopefully, in the meantime of awaiting their return, he will look into whatever he can find of their history, and he will get at least a rough picture of what the hell the brothers have been through and why they had to go together.

Other weakpoint of Nero's is, of course, Kyrie. I actually have no idea how he leaves their home, knowing his blood attracts demons, which are already plenty in Fortuna, and with canon suggesting no special abilities to defend herself with. If something happens to her it will be devastating for him, but Nero has grew up with good support system around him, he has another adopted sibling in Nico, and now even his blood relatives are close. It will be hard, but I believe he could pull through with all of their help. (but I want nothing bad to happen to Kyrie)

Same applies for Kyrie - she will be tortured by the loss of nero if it came to that, but hopefully she will be able to work through that loss.