#harnesses various versions

[asktehkoopz]

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY TO ME! 🥳

What a crazy decade it’s been, too! I’ve met a lot of good friends, people I still talk with daily and hang out with in person to this day! Despite things not being perfect in the Nintendask community (as I learned much later, haha, I kept in my lane), I still personally cherish the years I spent making art for this blog. It was my passion project for a while, but unfortunately it slowly drifted away from my grasp.

I can’t say if I’ll ever update with the tenacity that I once did. In fact, I can almost guarantee I won’t, but I like being able to come back here every once in a while to drop some new art sometimes. :]

I had a lot of big swings that I wanted to do in regards to the koopz’s arcs, some MUCH more fleshed out than others (namely Lemmy, Wendy, and Morton’s were lacking), and I’m almost positive I won’t be able to get to them in full.

So how about a big spoiler dump, huh? Every plot point, every plan, every character concept that was going to occur will be beneath the cut! If you wanna wait on me to maybe get to them over the course of another decade, please, by all means don’t read beyond!

If you’re hungry for what was cooking upstairs, then scroll on! And thank you guys for the outpouring of support I’ve constantly gotten with this blog! 💖 (Also for real, this read-more is mega long, so seriously prep yourself. Here’s the google docs version that might make it easier to read! If you have any questions about the plot stuff, uh. Maybe I'll answer them OOC?)

Also bonus comparison images! EW!!

TL;DR: The prophecy was a sort-of fake created by Kamek! It started out real, but after it officially stopped existing, it was perpetuated on accident/for emotionally selfish reasons! It didn’t start out that way when I planned the blog, but it eventually became that over the course of development discussion with BoomPom mun! Eventually the koopz were gonna give up their star child prophecy magic nonsent and live their lives how they wanted to. The end!

THE LONG VERSION

Version 1.0 of AskTehKoopz (then AskIggyAndTehKoopz):

The star children prophecy was loosely based on the Yoshi’s Island DS concept of “star children”. Each koopaling (and Bowser Junior) were imbued with an inherent, powerful magic when they were born to help them take over other kingdoms (as mentioned in their various bios). This changed both their ability to inherently harness magic as well as changing their species, explaining their strange features, specifically their pointed ears and wildly colored hair (the pointed ears admittedly did come later during the wedding arc).

The koopalings had always been planned to be unnatural magikoopas, but at the beginning of the blog’s inception, it was not concrete what exactly they each were. This will be covered below.

Version 2.0 of AskTehKoopz:

If you look in their bios, you will see that they are each noted as “Magikoopa(?) + (Where they were born)”. This, along with their last names, were a hint as to their original species. This was added circa 2017 when their bios/references were finally updated.

Originally they were the following:

Roy - Bullet Bill

Iggy - Toad

Morton -  Hammer Bro

Larry - Yoshi

Ludwig - Koopa Troopa

Wendy - Bombshell Koopa

Lemmy - I don’t knoooowwww

An additional twist had been introduced during this stage as well:

This set of koopalings (and Junior) were not the first set of prophesied star children.

Affectionately named “The Alpha Koopz”, these are what you might know as the DiC cartoon koopalings: Bully, Cheatsy, Kooky, Kootie Pie, Big Mouth, Hip, and Hop. These seven, along with a young!Bowz were the first set of star children. Back then, Bowz did not see them so much as kids he needed to take care of. Moreso they were “guys who he’s forced to do magic alongside”, despite Kamek’s pressure to be more attentive to them as the eldest. He was considerably more reckless back then with his power as well.

As aggressive and mean and selfish as the blog koopz are, they don’t surpass the sheer annoyance and danger the alpha koopz put themselves in, mainly due to Bowz’s negligence.

And because of this unfettered, reckless behavior, they managed to doom themselves to a “Game Over”, shattering the prophecy and allowing their set of star child powers (along with Bowz’s) to shoot off and embed itself into the next set of vessels. This is also why the blog koopz are “in the wrong order” with regards to their age.

In addition to gaining these star child powers, echoes of their memories and actions and dynamics exist in some of the koopz tendencies:

This is why Lemmy gravitates towards Iggy (Hip and Hop’s closeness). Cheatsy is why Larry is a kleptomaniac. Kooky is where Ludwig’s “crazy laugh” comes from. Kootie Pie is where Wendy pulled “Daddykins” from.

How did they game over? As of right now, it was a mundane and tragically, incredibly avoidable fate, one that echoes Bowser’s many in-game endings: Bully simply fell off the roof of the castle, plunging into the lava moat below. The alpha koopz had little restraint and they encouraged one another to constantly do dangerous things. Walking along the giant chains of the castle without his wand was one of these dangerous things.

If Kamek had had the power to*, if Bowz had desired to see them as more than nuisances and instead helped them learn restraint, if they had realized that despite their immense power, they weren’t invincible, they most likely would have been the koopz that were blogging.

Whomp whomp!

(*I don’t have a good place to stick this, but to put it shortly, the reason Kamek had to be hands off with the alpha koopz is because he used to have a place in what was basically a high magikoopa council. He was assigned to train Bowz to fulfill the prophecy when he was first born with his star child powers. Bowz was NOT a very good student and put himself and many others in danger as they searched for the other 7 star children. When the council hit their last straw, they nearly elected to execute Bowz, who was a child at the time, and start the process over. Kamek traded his spot in the council to spare him, as he had grown attached to Bowz. Bowz overheard this discussion and shaped up quickly. Kamek has never found out Bowz knew of this deal.)

Version 3.0 of AskTehKoopz:

All of the above in 2.0 still happened, however there is now an additional twist.

The prophecy’s a lie! Sort of!

This one was on BoomPom mun. I joked about an article referring to Kamek as a koopaling and unfortunately we came up with something tragic:

Kamek was ALSO part of a set of koopz BEFORE the alpha koopz! Whoa!

Back nearly 100 years ago, there was supposed to be a prophecy. It wasn’t Koopa Kingdom specific, just a general “Well whoever can harness these powers will be able to take over”, it just happened to be the Koopa Kingdom that found out about it first (they were a group of some mix of archeologists and scientists, I don’t remember fully*). It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. These powers would awaken and they HAD to find someone to use them. Kamek, along with these 7 other kids/teens, were given the opportunity of a lifetime to essentially be vessels for this crazy power to help bring this prophecy to life (literally signing their souls away. The powers NEEDED a soul to latch onto and a body to stabilize itself with).

(*I think that BoomPom mun and I vaguely discussed they might have been the same people who ALSO were the ones who created the cores for the splorches that eventually became Sol, Simon, and Scotty. Yet another experiment that went terribly wrong. These guys are on FIRE. 0-2!)

So Kamek and these 7 formed a really tight sibling bond pre- and post-power. But uhhhh you really shouldn’t be giving crazy raw magical prophecy power to children. Absolute bonkers idea.

Despite their extensive training, it didn’t end well. They genuinely worked so hard to try to be the ones to help bring empires to their knees, but they were only children. I didn’t have a specific incident, all I recall was that the power was WAY beyond their control, and all 8 of them died.

Except.

Through some fail-safe Kamek set up prior to their last hurrah to revive all 8 of them (he felt something might go wrong when they did what they did), Kamek was revived. Alone.

Left in the ruins of what their own powers did to them, Kamek had to live with the guilt that he lost the prophecy, but more importantly, he lost his family, too. Unless he did something about it.

So, despite what a terrible idea it was and how dangerous it might have been, knowing these powers were linked to his sibling’s souls, he decided “I know the prophecy was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But I’m gonna make it happen again somehow. I do not care.” And with the star child powers he still had, he tried to revive them again. Despite the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the ritual, it didn’t work.

Years passed, he’s on the magikoopa council and eventually, after finding kid!Bowz, he’s like “...Hey wait a minute, I weirdly recognize you.” (Magic vibes, general demeanor, etc.) He discovers wow! The prophecy is back on! I did it?! I DID IT?! Soon he recognizes slowly that each of the powers/souls got transferred to a random kid they need to find.

So they find the alpha koopz (i.e. cartoon koopalings) and uh. Yeah they’re all bratty asshole versions of his found family, but well. It does bring him a strange comfort knowing they’re slightly living on regardless. However Hip and Hop are weird. Like. Finishing each other’s sentences, acting in tandem, etc. It’s extremely bizarre. And he’s not really sure WHICH of his siblings Hop is?

Unsure how, but he finds out oops, after restarting the prophecy for a second time, his star child powers got sort of weird because KAMEK WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD. The other 7 star child powers traveled with the souls that stabilized them, however Kamek’s star power DIDN’T HAVE A SOUL TO TRAVEL WITH CAUSE… KAMEK IS ALIVE? So that raw star power was like “Ummm… Uhhhh…… Where do I go? I need a soul to latch onto, I am an insane amount of power…” Luckily Hip and Hop are twins, so naturally, it latched onto Hip’s soul and shares a soul between the two of them while also trying to make its own soul, but it can’t do it right. Super fine and no issues happen because of that at all. They aren’t offputting and weird, I promise.

So Hop was essentially SUPPOSED to have Kamek’s soul pre-packaged with the power, but Kamek is still very much alive, so it’s sort of. Trying to make due. It’s both halfway between Kamek and Hop while ALSO soulless but ALSO trying to use Hip’s soul to ground itself while ALSO trying to artificially make a soul for itself. It’s a mess. Just understand Hop’s star child powers are a mess because Kamek is still alive.

Of course, like in 2.0, the alpha koopz’s Game Over happens, and the prophecy is broken again. Kamek assumes “Well. That’s the end of that. I don’t have enough magic power to try and restart it again, because half of it was in that freak child, so I definitely can’t do a second round of that.”

Everyone in the Koopa Kingdom, including Bowz, are like “Don’t worry, there’ll be another way we can fulfill this prophecy! They came back the first time! People were wrong that it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance!”

Kamek plays along with it, being like “Yep, that definitely happens naturally. Obviously we’re going to have another set of star children. There were no outside forces that made it happen a second time.” You know. Like a liar.

However, SURPRISE! ROY AND IGGY SHOW UP! AND ROY’S ACTING LIKE ONE OF HIS SIBS! OH GOD, I DON’T THINK THIS HOW ANY OF THIS IS SUPPOSED TO WORK. I LITERALLY DO NOT THINK THIS IS A PROPHECY THING ANYMORE. DID I ACCIDENTALLY TRAP MY SIBLING’S SOULS IN A NEVERENDING EXISTENCE LOOP CURSED TO LIVE VICARIOUSLY THROUGH OTHERS FOR ETERNITY? ALSO WHO THE HELL IS IN THAT ONE? (LOOKS AT IGGY)

(This is actually what this sketch on turtle-pen was about, with Kamek’s concern over them not being messed up, like how Hip and Hop were, haha)

So uh. Yeah, Kamek isn’t sure WHY the cycle is continuing, and he’s almost positive the prophecy’s not even really a thing anymore, but the star children stuff sure is! And the powers/souls are already super unstable by the time they get to blog koopz, and it only gets worse as time passes! (One of the earliest examples of that magical decay was Roy suddenly getting an impulse to shave his head to match Bully/pre-koopz “Roy”. Eventually this kind of thing would start happening later on down the line in higher frequency with the other koopz as well. This is actually what the third sketch on this post was alluding to. In fact, Iggy’s is actually the most unstable magic of them all, because ever since the fake-out death with Kamek, whoever got HIS star child powers was always going to be the weakest/most unstable magically. More about this will be covered in Roy’s section below)

The Koopz

What order did they all end up at Bowz’s?

I talked about how each of them got to the castle in their bios, however if you can’t piece it together, the  order is Roy/Iggy -> Ludwig -> Morton -> Wendy -> Larry -> Lemmy. Junior, I think, showed up between Wendy and Larry. Bowser just walked in with him one day. None of them know where he came from.

Why is Iggy a vegetarian? Also why are his eyes like that?

I’m gonna keep it buck: Iggy is a vegetarian purely because I wanted an excuse to make him monster-y sometimes. In 2.0 Koopz, I justified it by the star child power (being inherently a magikoopa power) not meshing well to him being a Toad, playing off the idea of Toads and Koopas being diametrically opposed.

There was a sliding scale of “how lizard” someone was based on how well their species reacted with magikoopa magic (I only remember Iggy being the most “lizard-y” and Larry being the 2nd most “lizard-y”, This is also why his eyes are like that and why he and Larry have split tongues) Eating meat weirdly triggered some primal urge in him due to the magikoopa thing, I guess?

In 3.0 Koopz, I genuinely have no reason why he can’t eat meat or has weird eyes since I got rid of the lizard-y scale, I was gonna figure it out later, haha. The 2nd pic is actually him after accidentally eating Pom’s burger when his veggie burger got swapped at a restaurant.

Who was that kid in the flashforward meme?

That’s Ozzy, Iggy and Pom’s kid! He melts! :) (cw for body horror and blood in that link) But it’s okay, he gets better!

To put it plainly, in 2.0, Pom accidentally gets some of her DNA in Iggy’s clone nonsense, and oops they have a kid now. He is NOT genetically stable. Drama ensues, and they have to figure out how to get him to not completely unravel.

At first, we thought that maybe Iggy should have him melt and clone him again without the memories of melting and present it as something he worked tirelessly on (and BoomPom mun drew an excellent comic about Pom’s reaction to it), but we couldn’t justify any way for her to forgive Iggy for basically replacing Ozzy, and Poggy was just too important to us to break up. We were stumped.

And long story short, the book Ludwig was reading when he was in se7en-sib’s world was one about DNA cloning. (But that’s spoiler stuff for se7en sib’s blog that I won’t get into, heh heh) And Ludwig, despite it being the perfect opportunity to have Iggy traumatize and disappoint Pom, tells them about it and that they should visit se7en-sib’s Kamek somehow to fix it. (He does fix it! By melting Ozzy and recreating him again. HOWEVER Ludwig and Iggy have to swear to secrecy about it. They take that shit to their graves.)

So he’s better now!

ROY:

Roy had started on the path of his biggest plot points being covered (him finally ending up with Boom and slowly showcasing his natural inclination to being a leader, despite NOT wanting to be), but I didn’t get his biggest two out of the way (one of which I’m glad I didn’t get to yet): Roy cheating and Roy almost dying.

Koopz 1.0 - Roy was going to be transphobic (specifically enbyphobic. This is actually one of the reasons he doesn’t like Larry all that much), but over time he’d learn that that’s a personal problem. He specifically had a lot to unlearn of his biases of what inherently makes someone a man/woman. Ludwig’s transition was fine with him, but Larry “switching” didn’t make sense to him. (His definition of a “man” was severely warped by his abusive father) This is actually still canon, but he learns better, of course.

Roy was also going to cheat on Boom via a night of drunken infidelity. The big twist was going to be that it was with a woman, and along with him, we find out that he’s bisexual. After some thinking it over, I ultimately decided, despite the drama that would ensue, I didn’t feel particularly comfortable perpetuating what I didn’t realize was a “cheating bisexual” stereotype. Morton’s bi as well, so maybe it would have been fine? But I was like “Uhhhh noooo I shouldn’t do that.” (I wish I could find the pic BoomPom mun drew in reference to when they got locked in a room together by Pom and Iggy to “talk it out”. Boom was punching the wall next to Roy and it was real dramatic. Oh well!) There was also a discussion about a compromise of him sleeping with other people, but letting Boom know about it beforehand? It was gonna be MESSY, haha!

Koopz 2.0/3.0 - Him coming out as bisexual changed to what was going to be a comic with Roy confronting the fact his hypermasculinity was exacerbated because he felt that not being solely attracted to men was a win for his shitty dad. (It makes sense in HIS head: being gay but also being hyper-masculine and liking pink was to piss off his dad. But if he’s actually also attracted to women, then his dad gets what he wants, right? For him to like women?) It was going to end in a sweet moment where Boom reassured him being bi didn’t mean his dad was right about him.

Now to Roy almost dying. Hoo boy. So as mentioned, the star child powers they all got were already quite unstable. As time went on, things started unraveling at a quicker pace. Roy started having weird flashbacks/visions in his dreams (only telling Iggy), which are of course visions of the alpha koopz. Soon enough all the present-day koopz would start to have moments where they physically re-enact something the previous star children did. This was especially prevalent when certain koopz interacted with one another (like if Lemmy and Iggy brushed by each other, suddenly they’re acting exactly like Hip and Hop again for a short while). These moments not only got more frequent, but longer as well.

And we’d build up to Roy, like Bully, on the roof, the rest of the koopz in their hazy, lucid states, encouraging him, like the alpha koopz did so long ago. None of them would be really in their right minds, it was all going to be very dramatic. There was gonna be rain and everything, building up to the inevitable of the cycle being broken again.

What’s the difference this time around? Roy’s dating Boom. And Boom solves this the only way he knows how: by clocking Roy in the face before he almost slips and falls. So Roy gets knocked out, which manages to knock ALL the other koopz out of their weird stupor.

This plotline gets resolved by the koopz having a heart-to-heart with each other, with Bowz, and with Kamek, who comes clean about the whole prophecy thing, which isn’t quite real anymore (due to the 3.0 change). Professing how he just missed his family and didn’t want any of this to happen nor did he know any of this was going to happen.

Ultimately they’d come to the conclusion that they need to let these weird soul/magic things go, to stop anchoring their souls and not allowing them to move in, and to let the koopz live how they were supposed to. Kamek can’t guarantee they’ll be able to even harness magic anymore, or honestly if this would even work, but they end up performing a VERY extensive, painful, and tiring ritual that allows Kamek closure, allows the blog koopz to meet the alpha koopz for a moment, and allows them to live their normal lives. (As koopa royalty, but you know.)

There was also a planned Nintendask event where Roy was going to raise his father from the dead to confront him about his shitty behavior. Chaos was going to ensue and there was going to be a small “Zombie apocalypse” event similar to the revolution arc that occurred.

IGGY:

The main things with Iggy had already pretty much occurred: Hooking up with Pom -> Love poisoning himself -> Confrontation with Ludwig about it -> ??? -> Profit. Honestly there truly only one plot point that didn’t get to be touched on, and that’s Marilyn! (Those who follow turtle-pen probably know Marilyn)

Koopz 1.0: Like I said, at first the star child powers were going to be specifically magikoopa and make Iggy super weirdly unstable magically. He at first would dye his hair blue/yellow/pink (Hop’s colors. This is pre-alpha koopz) to not stick out in Toad society. His parents were a LITTLE worried about his nonconformity. He was going to run away from home, because oops he ate meat and hurt his parents pretty bad. I THINK at one point this switched to him accidentally killing them, but we don’t talk about the Edgy Koopz Era. This was switched back to harming them pretty soon after.

Koopz 2.0: After the introduction of the Hop thing, it now became less “He dyed his hair to fit in” and “He dyed his hair because he Mysteriously Doesn’t Know Why.”

Truly the biggest change/introduction was the inception of Marilyn. HE IS… Once again a thinly-veiled excuse to shove some favorite tropes onto Iggy. BoomPom mun and I got super into the Jekyll and Hyde musical (specifically with Anthony Warlow), and we went “Iggy should get a Hyde thing going on”. So in combination with the weird “can’t eat meat lest you go sicko mode” thing, we decided to justify it by making it be Iggy try to get rid of his “lizardness”. (This was when the lizard scale still existed) It manifested as Marilyn, who REALLY hated Iggy and REALLY liked Pom. Shenanigans ensued.

Koopz 3.0: Once the lizard scale was taken out, we were like “Uhhhh Marilyn shouldn’t exist anymore”, however unfortunately I love him. So YOU REMEMBER THAT LOVE POTION ANTIDOTE THAT POM GAVE IGGY THAT MADE HIM SICK? Yeah Marilyn came from that now. That weird star child magic latched onto this manifestation of emotions that became his own being. Sue me, man.

You can read more about him on turtle-pen, but the end-game was that Marilyn was sent to Sol’s lab to work for him so he could be humbled and he fell for Bob. A huge nerd. He also became besties with Scotty. The end.

Outside of this, I really had no other big sweeping plot points for Iggy to cover, other than him and Boom learning to get along, potentially meeting Boom and Pom’s actually alive parents (This was only briefly discussed with BoomPom mun, and we didn’t plan much further than that other than AU discussions), and the introduction of Ozzy.

Oh and Iggy was also going to come to terms with IDing as agender during 1.0, but I ultimately never got around to confirming it.

MORTON:

I believe really the only big plot situation that was going to happen for Morton was developing further about his crush on Birdetta only for him to get turned down. I was juggling seven kids, man.

Other than this, I don’t think I ever fully explained how he lost his leg? It was implied in his flashback, but his father (a hardass) was the type to be like “Speak when spoken to” to a degree that was unhealthy. At the military base he was raised on, he managed to get a pretty bad cut on his leg, but, in fear of his father, he never spoke up about it. It developed sepsis and well you know how that goes.

LARRY:

Koopz 1.0: The biggest change was Larry getting hit with the Edgy Koopz Beam as well, similarly to Iggy. He was normal, then shifted to being more violent, back to being normal again.

Koopz 2.0: Even in 1.0, Larry was always planned to have been dealing with depression and anxiety via… self-medicating. However 2.0 is really what changed the cause from intrinsic to extrinsic. The main thing that exacerbated his smoking habit, depression, and anxiety was that he found out they weren’t the only set of kids Bowz had dealt with. I don’t know how, but he somehow managed to find out about the alpha koopz. He kept that secret to himself, but it not only made him feel replaceable/used, but it soured his opinion on Bowz as a whole.

Ultimately Larry was going to get therapy, discuss with the other koopz what he knew about the previous star children, and eventually ween away from his drug habit. I can’t find the post, but I did mention it when doing some ask meme about rating ships and someone sent in a Larry/Weed one and I went “0/5”, haha.

LUDWIG:

There’s honestly not much to say here. Truly most of Ludwig’s arcs have been concluded: his crush on Pom has been wrapped up, him coming out to the koopz as trans (officially) has happened, and he’s on track with his HRT.

The only current plan that had been in motion was to more properly have him and Iggy talk it out and Pom be a wingman for him in his further romantic endeavors.

I suppose that there were also potential plans for him and Scotty to end up together because. Um. They’re cute. (There was also a mild discussion of him and Trudy as well, but there was a lot more discussion between BoomPom mun and I about him and Scotty!)

WENDY:

Similarly to Morton, Wendy didn’t have much going on on her end in regards to big arching plot points either, other than ending up with Chuck eventually and also confronting her insecurities with feeling like she’s not very special!

LEMMY:

And like Morton and Wendy before him, uh. Lemmy didn’t have much! The only planned thing was the drama of his type 1 diabetes diagnosis and that’s IT. Maybe bring back his mom since that was touched on?

Endgame for the Koopz:

They were going to give up their star child powers and return to normalcy, as mentioned in Roy’s section. However they’re still royals so of course it’s still a weird and exciting life for them. I believe they all still end up with the ability to use magic, but it’s much more elbow grease then they’re used to working with.

Roy was going to have a kid with Boom! Unsure if biologically/magically or adopted. Somehow they get their little girl, Stevie, though! I think Roy would also get in touch with his estranged sister that I only just realized I haven’t brought up (4th pic here!).

Roy and Larry were going to end up as co-DJs together working at a nightclub.

Iggy and Pom were gonna have Ozzy, and honestly? Kinda just continue to get into crazy shenanigans. Iggy wanted to rule the Koopa Kingdom but somehow he manages to get convinced not to. (He would NOT be good at it) Iggy would also get in touch with his parents again. They really did miss him after all of these years.

Ludwig and Wendy are going to be the ACTUAL co-rulers of the Koopa Kingdom. They were both so hard-headed and stubborn about it, fighting tooth and nail to make it to the top, Bowz just crowned them both. I think Ludwig also would get in touch with his bio-family as well.

I don’t remember in full what was going to happen with Morton and Lemmy as their end game? Lemmy might have become a circus performer and Morton the military general of the Koopa Army? I really don’t recall to be honest!

And that’s it! That’s all the plot I remember! If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

[thearcanecat]

Hatchetfield headcanons?

Let’s see…

Holloway has lots of scars from living for centuries and hides them with the jacket. These include:

Lightning scars

Wiggly: sucker/tentacle marks

Pokey: cracks

Blinky: eye like circular pattern. Red vein squiggles at end.

Tinky: hoof print

Nibbly: bite marks

Her accent gets stronger when she’s mad. Same for Duke, but you rarely hear it.

Original name was Holly-May Logan.

The strange carving it’s mentioned she has in Killer Track, is a part of Pokey’s mask.

Ryan Reynolds is the person running against Solomon for mayor. He’s pushing the problematic pooch story because it shows how horrible the town has gotten under Solomon’s rule. You’d think the disappearance of his wife right before he got elected would be a bigger deal, but no, time for our daily Peanuts the Hatchetfield Pocket Squirrel segment!

The Obnoxious Teen is actually different versions of Pete after an encounter with the Bastard Box. He now lives in a never ending hell of minimum wage jobs.

Grace’s birthday is September 9th, buy a priest a beer day.

The Honey Queen sacrifice takes place on the summer solstice at midnight.

Description of the tree that grew from Willabella: Gnarled roots extend from a bulbous center. No leaves hang from its crown of branches. It is not natural. Nothing grows near it, except the apples that grow for its branches, never ripe and always rotten. A hollow in the center is swarming with spiders whose web spans across it. Several scars are evident from where the Hatchetmen, once they realized their mistake, tried to cut it down. From its branches hand charms of protection and containment that replace old ones of worship. It grows behind the old Waylon Hall, over the sight of Willabella’s execution. Like the Hall, many rumors swirl around it and foolish children often dare each other to touch the bark.

The Blade of Truth that MacNamara uses on the Sniggles is one of multiple PEIP has constructed. With help from Holloway, they were able to harness the White’s energy into physical form. Each Blade requires a secret to be whispered into it as it forms, one no one has ever heard before. If someone tells a lie while holding the Blade, it shatters.

The Foster family are descended from Willabella and a Hatchetman with the last name Forester. Willabella had no love for him and only got pregnant to delay her execution.

The Stockworth family vacations in Hatchetfield because they have connections with the Church of the Starry children. Lucy is not aware if this.

Charles Coven was part of PEIP and went by Carlo at the time.

PEIP has ID numbers based on the Stith Thompson’s Motif Index of Folk-Literature. Basically a collection of a bunch of different motifs in folklore.

Wilbur: D1310.10.1. Magic apple gives supernatural knowledge.

Holloway (Holliway this identity): G220.0.1. "Black" and "white" witches. Malevolent and benevolent.

John: B147.2.1.2. Eagle as omen of victory.

Xander: J1291.2. Theological questions answered by propounding simple questions in science.

Douglas Keane Sr. was an informant for PEIP. Basically, PEIP goes around to various people in professions where the supernatural may be encountered (law enforcement, medical, park rangers etc.) and gives them a little presentation with very vague language about if they seen anything unnatural, or out if the ordinary, to give their office a call. Since Hatchetfield is such a hotspot, Douglas knows a lot more about the supernatural than most informants do and is on first name basis with several PEIP agents. (This is heavily based off a book called The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.)

[bigskydreaming]

Like yes merpeople but ALSO what about merpeople who are specifically half-shark, or the underwater equivalent of giants, half-human/half-whale? We've got the occasional half-human/half-octopus but also yes to half human jellyfish and half human manta rays and not naiads specifically so much as the underwater equivalent of dryads, having the same connection to coral gardens and reefs that dryads do to trees and forests.

Gimme underwater lamias who are actually more accurately half human/half electric eel, with all the associated zapping ability, that lends them insight into electricity and related phenomena they use to build high-tech wonderlands deep beneath the waves.....and far from any shore, underwater travelers fear crossing paths with 'ghosts' which are actually like a supernatural form of jellyfish who wrap their translucent selves around their victims to "possess them."

I want selkies who don't just come ashore to have angsty love affairs with beguiling humans, but who also live in communities deep in arctic regions far away from any human civilization where they carve entire villages and cities into the undersides of icebergs.

Underwater vampiric creatures, maybe lamprey or shark themed, who specifically drink blood for the oxygen in it, as that's what enables them to go 'top side' for awhile before having to retreat back to the depths they're more naturally adapted to live in. Krakens but also a Fae-like version of angler fish who use their lights as an undersea version of will'o'wisps, leading denizens of the deep astray.

Multiple types of undersea shapeshifters, going to and from the surface and the deep, with entirely different branches of the same shapeshifter family trees.....the dolphin shapeshifters of the Mediterranean being descendants of the sailors cursed by Dionysus and having very little in common with the encantado who live in the waters of South America, but often lumped in with each other and sharing similar issues and interactions with other civilizations due to the fact that so many others just assume all dolphin shapeshifters are connected or alike even though they have completely different natures, parameters for their shapeshifting, and an entire spectrum of supernatural abilities with very little actual overlap between the different 'types.'

Not just one god of the sea, but multiple gods of the deep, all associated with their own regions, from Poseidon to Sedna to Tangaroa to Manannán mac Lir and Kimbazi. The deep sea equivalent of druids, cultivating kelp forests and coral groves and gardens warmed and nourished by the undersea volcanoes they're planted in the shadows of. Sorcerers as fixated on trying to control and harness and direct the power and positioning of underwater currents as above-the-sea counterparts are with trying to control the weather.

Narwhales often mistaken for the unicorns of the deep, but only because there actually ARE an undersea version of unicorns for them to get mixed up WITH. Protective amulets and talismans and charms made of sea shells, alchemical potions mixed from octopus ink and kraken blood and marine sinkholes like the Great Blue Hole off the coast of Belize being the undersea equivalent of fairy rings, serving as entrances to a subaquatic Otherworld or Underworld.

The rivers of various pantheons' Underworlds having exit points at multiple places around the world, so there are entire regions considered haunted or places of wild magic because they're where the waters of the Styx or Acheron slip out and get mixed into the ocean, altering the properties of the water in those regions in strange and unpredictable ways.

Deep sea mages using and manipulating pressure in ways there's no above-water equivalent for because on land its not really a natural phenomenon of note or a force of nature all its own, not in the same ways it would be for those who live their entire lives and build cities at depths where the water around them has a weight and power that the air just does not possess for those who do the same at sea level.

A spectrum of sirens, different types and different cultures all with their own unique distinctions....as much as some are associated with seduction, there are other clans with reputations as scavengers, known for sending hunting parties to the surface where they sing down storms to scuttle ships and drag them and their contents down to the depths.

An entire world where there's always a lower depth, a darker chasm, a further mystery just below.....the deepest abysses an uncharted badlands populated by eldritch creatures older than anything else in the world, a pitch dark landscape dotted with the ruins of empires so old nobody remembers they ever existed, let alone what they were called.

Idk, idk, I just think there's so much more to be mined from the sheer wealth of sea creatures and concepts and phenomena and traditional mermaids and selkies and sirens, cool as they are, are really just the tip of the iceberg. And we have gotten a couple cool glimpses of undersea civilizations and how wild and colorful they can be in the last decade or so in cinema, but again....tip of the iceberg. There's soooooo much more that can be done, I'm just like. *vibrates in place wanting it all*

[gabessquishytum]

If for no other reason then to get them to stop bothering him, Dream has agreed to model Desire's lingerie designs at their new shop.

All the siblings helped Desire set up the shop (and want them to be successful) but Dream was away on a business trip and couldn't help along with everyone else, hence the modeling.

Dream knows Desire is chomping at the bit to use him as his personal dress up doll. So Dream spends a week walking the store in various body suits, scraps of lace, and high cut underwear.

Hob is only stopping in the store to get something, maybe, for his current partner. He sees Dream walking around the store in the little bits of nothing and knows he's just drooling. When the nice sales associate slyly asks Hob if he sees anything he'd like, Hob is brain fogged enough to say some version of "that model."

Asdgjkjg loving the himbo Hob representation here. Although honestly, who can blame him? Dream is truly a vision.

Cori happens to be working as a sales assistant and notices the cute brunette who can't seem to pick his jaw up off the floor. Cori knows exactly what Dream’s type is - dark hair, big brown eyes. It would be criminal not to get these two together. So he slides up and starts gently teasing Hob about his obvious interest.

He's like "I know how you can get his number for sure." And Hob doesnt really believe it. Why would such a gorgeous man give him a chance? But Cori insists. He instructs Hob to pick out a few pieces of lingerie, he'll get them gift wrapped, Hob can put his number on the receipt and give the gift to Dream! A flawless plan.

(And it is a pretty good plan actually. Desire's shop is expensive and they don't give away freebies to their relatives, so Dream doesn't even own any of this gorgeous stuff that he's modelling. A gift will be much appreciated.)

Hob goes on the hunt for pieces that would suit the gorgeous model. He immediately goes for silly soft black tones - a fishnet bodysuit with spiders web patterns, black stockings with cute white bows. He adds in a black and silver harness set that damn near breaks his bank account, and he feels absolutely mad as he takes his purchases to be wrapped up by Cori.

Hob writes a simple note, alongside his number: I picked these out for you, I hope they make you happy. Maybe next time I can buy you dinner?

Everyone ends the day happy. Dream finally got free lingerie. Desire made profits. Cori got a bonus. And Hob got a text from the gorgeous model - a full length mirror selfie of Dream in the stuff that Hob picked out for him, plus the name of the restaurant where Hob will be taking him for dinner. Dreams do come true.

[fruitkingfrog]

[ID: A full page drawing of Orion holding Lightray, Orion’s hands are under his legs and Lightray is playing with Orion’s hair, they are looking into eachothers eyes and smiling. Behind them is a rainbow Mother box inspired circuit pattern, with seventeen alternate universe versions of them in the various borders and fifteen much smaller alternate universe versions of them over the borders. The word "Multiverse" is framed in dots on the frame on the left. End ID]

late 2021 Lightrion week day 6 - Alternate Universe! &

New Gods November 2023 - Week 4, Day 4: Alternate Realities!

once upon a time it was said that only one version of the New Gods exist across all Earths, but its rarely reflected after that. Most of these AUs are canon, some after 1/2 canon (featuring only one of the duo), and some are my own ideas :D This december is going on three years since I got into New Gods!

 commission info & ko-fi links available on my pinned post♥! 

♥ reblogs appreciated! do not repost/edit/etc

Closeups, detailed IDs under cut:

[ID: Box one: Orion and Lightray from DC, depicted as anthro cartoon dogs from the neck up. There is a purple background with black kirby krackle behind them.

Box two: Thorion and Bald’r with their foreheads pressed together, smiling and looking into eachothers eyes. Their hands are clasped in front of Bald’rs shoulder. Thorion has shoulderlength blond hair and wing-like ears on his helmet, which exposes his face. Bald’r has black hair, and wears a blue cape over his armour.

Box three: Lightray as a Blue Lantern holding off an attack from Orion as a Red Lantern. Orion is snarling, striking at Lightray with claws and spitting red acid. Lightray is smiling at him, reaching out one arm and holding Orion’s wrist in the other. Blue and Red kirby krackle surround each of them.

Box four: Two anthropomorphic dinosaurs, one is red, blue, and yellow with a spiky back and saber-teeth, he is wearing a helmet. The second is a white and yellow pterodactyl with a red and black symbol painted on his chest.

Box five: Two mech suits, Orion’s slightly in front of Lightray’s. Orion’s has his helmet, a pink face, blue collar, and red shoulders. Lightray’s behind him has his gold headpiece and flames coming from the top. Orion and Lightray sit side by side on the shoulder of Orion’s mech, faced away from viewer. Lightray is reaching over to Orion’s thigh and they are watching a sunset together.

Box six: Hunter and Neon Black, two men closely resembling Orion and Lightray, but with thicker armour and darker clothes. Hunter is turned away but looking over his shoulder, while Neon Black is pressed into his chest and smiling.

Box seven: Orion and Lightray based on the style of Mike Mignola, Lightray is thin and wearing a white top with a gold V mark, and long gold gloves that reach up his arms. Orion has a low cut red shirt and blue shoulderpads. He and Lightray are smiling at eachother.

Box eight: Future State Orion with a matching Lightray, their heads are pressed together and they're holding eachother's faces and smiling. Orion has pink skin and flaming hair, Lightray is similar, both have gold headpieces resembling their usual counterparts.

Box nine: The top of two mock-Simpsons style figures, one with a red/black bowlcut and one with orange hair and a silver headpiece with a "v" on it, meant to be Obrian and Flightrisk from Radioactive Man.

Box ten: Lightray faced away from the viewer, glaring at Orion, who is lacking a helmet and has long, wild hair. Orion has a darker outfit based on his Gods and Monsters uniform, with a silver harness. Barda is next to him in an outfit similar to her regular one, she looks concerned and is reaching to pull Orion back. Behind them are buildings from New Genesis.

Box eleven: Orion's death scene from Gods and Monsters, Lightray is holding Orion back while Highfather's staff kills him.

Box twelve: Orion standing with his hand by his hip, Lightray is flying by his side and smiling with his hands raised, drawn in a Jack Kirby inspired style.

Box thirteen: Young Justice Orion looking back at Lightray, who is smiling at him.

Box fourteen: A sketchy drawing of Lightray and Orion, using unused New 52 designs. Lightay has goggles and red gloves, Orion's helmet has more pieces to it and his top is sleeveless.

Box fifteen: Highfather Orion from The Dark Side leaning into a kiss from Lightray, who is playing with his hair.

Box sixteen: Batman Beyond Lightray looking worried at Orion, who is faced away from the camera. Lightray has his eye injury and bandage, Orion is maskless.

Box seventeen: New 52 Orion and Lightray relaxing on the grass. Lightray is pressed into Orion's side with a knee over his stomach. They're smiling at eachother.

Final image: Several small figures, showing Lightray and Orion together as they appear in Scribblenauts, New 52, Source of Freedom, The Dark Side, Mike Mignola, Lantern corps, DC Mech, and Dark Multiverse. Lightray from Superman/Batman: Generations and Earth-51, and Orion as his 80's costume, Kenner Super Powers, two Lego forms, and his clone from The Great Darkness saga.

END ID]

1: Orihound and Lightstray from the New Dogs (Earth C-Minus). Inspired by the art in their first/only appearance Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #3, by Scott Shaw, Scott Koblish, Tom Luth, and Drew Moore.

2: Thorion and Bald’r the Lightbringer of the New Asgods (Amalgam Earth). Inspired by the art . 

3: Lightray and Orion as members of the Lantern corps, designed by me. In this universe, an Apokolips-raised Orion loses all sense of control when given the red ring and decimates the population of Apokolips, then turns on Atrocitus for manipulating his mind. Seeing a threat to all Lantern Corps, Lightray of New Genesis volunteers to defeat Orion and retrieve his ring. Lightray’s design is based on his formal wear from volume 3, Orion’s is based on his rebirth uniform. OK i dont know if they can work out in this one honestly i just thought it’d be cool, theoretically 

4. Lightraydactyl and Orionodon, designed by me. The JL fighting Darkseid instead of Orion is a pet peeve of mine, but Jurassic League didnt even leave room for the New Gods to exist. i love the dinosaurs comic though Lightray was pretty straightforward, Orion’s design took inspiration from Darklyoseid’s canon design by Juan Gedeon, a sabertooth tiger (for Tigra), and Orion’s main universe costume for the colours.

5. Orion and Lightray Mechs. DC Mech killed Orion off in issue one boooooo! but it did mean i didnt have to design my own for his (Lightray's is mine though). This was inspired by one of the covers for Pacific Rim, because I will be thinking about a pacrim AU for them forever now.

6. Hunter and Neon Black. These guys aren’t actually LR and Orion, just two random inmates disguised as evil versions of them iirc, but I liked Neon Black’s design.

7. Orion and Lightray, Mike Mignola’s scrapped 1990′s New Gods animated film designs.

8: Orion and Lightray from Future State: Green Lantern, Lightray was designed by me.

9: O’Brian and Flightrisk of the New Guards from Radioactive Man.

10. Orion and Lightray (and Barda) from a personal AU of mine, using designs inspired by the Gods and Monsters film.

11. Just the Gods and Monsters death scene, to break things up.

12. Orion and Lightray inspired by Jack Kirby’s art.

13. Young Justice.

14. Scrapped New 52 Lightray and Jim Lee’s unused Orion design.

15. DCAU/Batman Beyond

16. Superman: The Dark Side. I was going to make Lightray transparent at first, like ambiguously a hallucination or a ghost or something but i didnt like how it looked all that much.

17. New 52 - I sometimes like to imagine these guys are from like a Pocket dimension modeled after the Fourth World, where everyone is shallow and awful like n52 canon/fandom perception.

18. Minis - Scribblenauts, Lightray's older appearance in Superman/Batman: Generations (he has an earlier appearance similar to his main universe suit, but with a yellow tone), New 52, Source of Freedom Orion plus the miscoloured Lightray that appears twice, The Dark Side, Earth-51 Lightray, 1977 Orion, Mignola again, Kenner Super Powers Orion, Lantern Corps AU, Orion effigy from The Great Darkness Saga, both Lego Orions, original illustration colours, DC mech, and Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint.

a few months ago i got to finish with this very long term project :D thank you to everyone who encouraged me with kind words while working on this :D The final Lightrion week pic is finished and ready to post whenever i get around to it.

[alexanderlightweight]

Hi! I would love to see your version of Malec with the ridiculous amount of hidden weapons stored in various places on a person. The idea of Magnus undressing Alec & coming across a ludicrous amount of weapons, pleases me immensely. Then the idea of Magnus starting to wear weapons for Alec? Chef's kiss. Pretty please? Thank you!

it mostly follows along that vein and i hope you enjoy it

this is set in feral sweetness, like honeycomb

<3 lumine

-

There is the slightest hint of a smirk on Alexander’s face as he approaches and Magnus wonders at what his mischief his love is dabbling in tonight.

This is meant to be an auspicious eve and while Magnus knows Alexander won’t do anything to jeopardize the ritual, he still finds himself suspicious in the way where he expects Alexander is going to surprise him.

In good ways of course.

Alexander stops just before the alter and meets Magnus’ unglamoured eyes with amorous devotion.

“I surrender myself to Magnus Bane. That the protection and defense of my own life be offered to his own hand. That my weapons will now be used to defend him, to protect him from all enemies and dangers.”

Alexander had told Magnus that he won’t be summoning any of his weapons during the ceremony.

No, he will wear them and offer them with his own hand and deed.

Now, standing before the witnesses gathered it’s clear that Alexander isn’t wearing clothes made of fine silk and cottons and linens.

Alexander is wearing the very finest of his hunting gear.

The leather is sleek and it ripples as the glow of floating golden lanterns dapples it with light. Magnus has only seen Alexander dressed like this once before and it was when his darling had been called through portals to a rift across the world. The buckles are dark, made of dark metals to better blend into the shadows.

Knee high boots made of soft but durable demon hide that are as dark as ichor and button even as they curve to his calves perfectly.

Alexander stands before them all and slowly takes off his jacket and Magnus loses his breath in delight even as he waves away those arounds concern at seeing Alexander’s weapons.

The quiver and bow are already laid out on the alter and two rows of throwing daggers follow along with a sword from each thigh.

For a moment Magnus thinks that’s it, and then Alexander is uncoiling a bullwhip from his waist and bending to pull out two small daggers from his left boot and a row of long thin needles from his right. The thin bands of metal around his wrist turn out to be an adamas garrote and there is a hint of a smirk on Alexander’s cheeks as he pulls out a set of adamas-plated knuckles with little spikes on them from an extra strap on his thigh holsters.

Likewise are a pair of fingerless gloves with small plates of adamas sewn across the knuckles.

Then Alexander begins unbuckling a harness from his back.

It holds eight more throwing knives and another hilt that tucks itself into the hollow of Alec’s back. As if that weren’t enough — because it is and Magnus is wondering how Alexander runs with this much weight even with the trans-formative properties of adamas — and then Alexander is laying out what is clearly an adamas lockpick set.

After that he’s not nearly as surprised as he should be when it turns out there is an expandable staff of adamas attached to Alexander’s quiver. Or that the bow and drawstring itself are also created from runed adamas.

There is a moment there when Magnus is sure that they’re done, and then Alexander also sets down his stele and then goes to take off his shoes.

“Darling, surely you don’t have more knives in there?” Magnus murmurs, quiet and trying for humor but truly he’s too baffled. It was strange enough to see Alexander have as many weapons as needed just by a thought, it’s almost worse watching him shed weapons as if they are a second skin and he a molting snake.

“No, I got all of those.” Alexander assures him with a soft smile that the closest of the witnessing warlocks seems shocked by. Magnus can understand as Alexander’s ardor turns his face gentle and besotted. “But my boots are adamas tipped and the soles are lined with spikes. Considering I’ve kicked through a demons chest before, I think they probably count as weapons.”

“By all means—” Magnus murmurs even though he’s now aching to taste the calluses of Alexander’s training against his tongue and feel the evidence of Alexander’s competency beneath his hands.

It’s even sweeter, realizing that Alexander purposefully strapped on so many weapons with the understanding that he was offering them all up in defense of Magnus.

Next is a small blowdart and pouch and finally, Alexander sets down his stele.

There is a telling gleam to his gaze and Magnus knows that despite the show of weaponry, this still isn’t the whole of what Alexander is capable of. However it’s enough to honor Magnus and Magnus understands the desire to keep behind a few secrets. Especially as he does the same.

“Someday I’m going to disarm you myself.” Magnus promises quietly and the only sign that Alexander’s heard and likes the vow is the tight bob of his throat as he swallows.

It’s a small victory in of itself and Magnus brushes a kiss against Alexander’s cheek even as he steps forward to make a show of accepting the small armory offered.

[bloodsadx]

i really appreciate your work. the first thing that struck me when i first read was the depiction of acne of course. Stark red on mainly black pieces. Disappearing as it fades from your perception but always there by implication and the way it informs. It feels real in a way most depictions don't.

As an artist i respect and relate to, I was wondering if you have words for something. I've released critical writing to decent success, but have found that what actually draws people is the person that leaks into the critique. But I can't harness that intentionally. I'm fairly dissociative and barely know myself, nor how to relate that self to others.

Your works feel personal and critical, in a sorta coherent flux. I wish to learn that, but I'm someone that eats their nails ig. Nothing leaves my body without a filter. Beyond attempting to grow out of that critical isolation, do you have any reading, art, concepts to explore? If not, i appreciate the consideration. keep it real

the first thing i wanna say is thank you. the second thing i wanna say is that absolutely being a critic who has a following or success is more about having a cult of personality than having strong critical faculties. but i think the best critics have their personalities in part molded around their critical faculties, and having rigorously lived in some kind of way which matches and performs the kind of standards they purport to hold media to they gain a large degree of authenticity. but being a critic is also heavily about persuasion and through relating and story telling you can really draw someone into your arguments. so to that end having a strong voice and living a bespoke life defined by a unique and Personal personhood is definitely like, a goal that i think is like, inseparable from being able to not only like talk about art but to experience and communicate about experiences gained from art.

and so i really think just doing stuff and taking risks and living hard and painfully and reflectively and full of vulnerability is important to being better at doing that. and i think thats true of any kind of art. i think a good example to me is someone like tim rogers, who, by design has obfuscated much of his forward facing personality and brand, but also has created or purports to have created like a doppelganger of himself anyway which represents the arguments hes making. and his lived experience often serves, whether ironically or sincerely, as a basis for the core of his various experiences. and maybe more importantly to what you asked, the navel gazing memoir esque rants he goes on allow people to construct a personal version of that character which seems real and allows them to relate and Care about his arguments. and he has a very big and dedicated following. selling authenticity and boisterousness. you got dunkey and orson welles doing the same shit. and maybe another very important thing with these particular figures to me is that they didn’t necessarily want to be critics, didn’t show up to the conversation choosing to be perceived as Sideliners, but actively are or were people who created and then talked about stuff.

as far as my own work, i make things which are honest and lies and i make fun of myself freely and i say stupid things and make art that is so vulnerable and honest at times to the point of damaging myself and my personal relationships. i openly embarrass myself but intentionally and unintentionally. i have a like genuine personal belief in the fact that being vulnerable and naive and sincere makes art better and so i have actively for a long time sought to be better at doing that. and art to me is in part a release and the way in which i express the things im thinking has been honed through long periods of obsessive angst and self seriousness as well as detachment and self hatred. i spend most of my life doing stuff that isn’t making art, like walking 10-15 miles a day or drinking at bars with my friends or working for weeks straight in an empty studio, often until i become devastated or empassioned by something, and then i vomit everything i’m feeling through some kind of metaphor sometimes and other times just nakedly. i listen to a lot of emo music and am obsessed with publicly vulnerable figures in art like kanye or phil elvrum or lil peep or whatever. i don’t know. it’s taken me a long time to find the footing i have and it’s been a constant process to keep it, and i often lose it, and i am honestly and probably visibly even extremely concerned with my own work to the point i am regularly reanalyzing it and making insular self references. a big thing for me when i made my first zine (AND IM TIRED OF FEELING FEELING, which is mostly bad) and then after that my first book (MANIFESTO) was the concept to me of beginning to make my own emotional vocabulary. and i mean literally i thought of and planned out a series of things and events and symbols which i could attempt to define and talk about so that they would be like, recorded, and then i would be able to, in all of my own further work, respond to my own failures and successes in doing that. and i think most people don’t do that so deliberately, but for me i think being very intentional and analytical and like structurally aware of how art is designed comes most naturally to me when i’m Reflecting and then doing that reflection work constantly allows me to, when i am in Making mode, vomit stuff that is even slightly meaningful to anybody. my art is a conversation with myself and little fake cartoons of parts of myself or my reactions to the world around me. sometimes to the point of being nauseating LOL!

well i hope any of that helps you. i just sincerely recommend going crazy and like doing stuff thats crazy and seems like stuff u maybe wouldnt ever experience. i think sometimes i think of myself as doing gonzo journalism on like extremely mundane stuff where im like yeah im gonna go to this boring party that sucks but im doing it as a student of the world of boring parties that suck. sometimes u just gotta put urself in a position.

[makeitastrength]

If this is really all that I get

Chapter 3

Somewhere deep down, Lucy knows she’s making a mistake.

But after crying herself to sleep the previous night and waking with tears somehow still leaking from her eyes as she mourns the loss of the man she loves, she just… she can’t keep living like this. It’s what she told Tim last night; it’s time to move on.

So she texts Chris her thoughts on the various apartments, and when he replies asking if she’s interested in touring some of them today, she agrees.

An hour later finds Lucy climbing into the passenger seat of his car, makeup covering her tear-stained cheeks and sunglasses over her red puffy eyes, harnessing everything she learned at UC school to bury her heartbreak as deep as she can manage and plaster on what she hopes is a convincing smile.

They say fake it ‘til you make it; maybe if she pretends hard enough, she can learn to be okay with this version of her future.

After all, it’s not like Chris is a bad guy. He’s cute and he’s fun and they have quite a few things in common. The sex is decent. He loves her; he’s never really shied away from saying it, even though she has yet to return the sentiment.

And they never fight. Their relationship is calm and easy, and really, isn’t that what she should want?

She can leave behind the guilt and the heartbreak and embrace this as her new normal.

They spend the morning and part of the afternoon touring six different apartments. A couple are easily eliminated and another two are firmly in the maybe category, with the final two stops of the day making the top of Chris’s list. The last one in particular is a secure building with a top floor unit available, and she can tell instantly that Chris feels comfortable there. He enthusiastically points out the highlights, and at one point Lucy even finds herself considering how they could furnish and decorate the place. It’s not her favorite, not by a long shot, but she’d get used to it eventually.

And besides, she reminds herself, this isn’t for her. It’s for him. For them.

Chris drops her off back at her place that evening, and by the time she’s sitting down with the reheated leftovers she never managed to eat last night, she’s almost convinced herself that she can do this.

That is, until she answers a phone call from the property management company to verify the details of her application and finds herself suddenly struggling to breathe.

“I… I can’t, I’m sorry,” Lucy chokes out in response to a question she didn’t even comprehend, just barely managing to hang up the phone before a sob is ripped from her throat and the tears begin to spill from her eyes. She tosses her phone aside and sinks to the ground, hugging her legs into her chest and dropping her forehead to her knees as she desperately gasps for air.

Oh god.

She can’t do this.

Read the rest on AO3

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

what's the Eye of Harmony and how did the Master get out of the one in the Doctor's TARDIS?

What's the Eye of Harmony?

The Eye of Harmony is basically a star—a very special one. It was created (or discovered, depending on which story you believe) by the Time Lords, specifically by the legendary figures Rassilon and Omega. They say that Rassilon and Omega manipulated a star while it was collapsing into a black hole, suspending its collapse and freezing it in a state of perpetual decay.

🔌 How Does It Work?

This state of suspended destruction creates an almost limitless source of energy, which the Time Lords harnessed to power all of Gallifrey's technology.

Suspended Star: The Eye is essentially a star in a constant state of near-collapse, teetering on the edge of becoming a black hole but never quite falling into it. This creates massive potential energy that the Time Lords tap into.

Artron Energy: The energy that the Eye produces is known as artron energy, a form of temporal radiation that's required to power TARDISes.

Artron Energy, biology style: Artron energy is also crucial to Time Lord biology, particularly prominent in their healing. Exposure to the Eye's energies is believed to be one of the factors that gave the Time Lords their regenerative abilities (again, depending on what story you believe).

Temporal Anchor: The Eye also plays a critical role in anchoring the Web of Time. It's not just a power source but a 'hitching post' for the Web, ensuring that time flows consistently and is controlled across the universe. TARDISes can use it as a reliable 'reference' when they transcend time and space.

🏛️ The Eye in a TARDIS

There's also a version of the Eye of Harmony in every TARDIS. This has led to some confusion over the years, with different accounts offering various explanations:

Miniaturised Duplicate: One explanation is that the Eye inside a TARDIS is a miniature, mathematically modelled duplicate of the original Eye on Gallifrey. This version retains all the properties of the original but on a smaller scale, providing the TARDIS with the energy it needs to operate independently.

Fraction of the Eye: Another account suggests that every TARDIS contains a 'fraction' of the Eye of Harmony. This would mean that the Eye in the TARDIS is directly linked to the one on Gallifrey, drawing energy from the original to power the ship.

Merely Named After: Then there's the straightforward explanation—it’s called the Eye of Harmony because it serves a similar function, but it's not actually the Eye from Gallifrey.

How did the Master escape from the Eye of Harmony?

When the Master was sucked into the Eye of Harmony, it was supposed to be a one-way ticket to oblivion. The Eye is designed to break down matter into pure energy, which is meant to be an inescapable fate for anyone. But this is the Master we're talking about, and they're notoriously hard to kill.

🛠️ Manipulating the Energy

As the Eye of Harmony attempted to disassemble the Bruce Master into energy, he managed to synchronise with the raw artron energy that the Eye was pouring out. Instead of being consumed by it, he rode the energy like a wave, pushing his consciousness and what remained of his physical body into a spare room within the Doctor's TARDIS.

The TARDIS immediately ejected that room into the Time Vortex to protect itself and the Doctor. This ejection was supposed to trap the Master in the void, but it also inadvertently saved him from being completely destroyed by the Eye's power.

⏳ Stranded in the Time Vortex

Now stranded in the Time Vortex, the Master was stuck in a floating TARDIS room, cut off from the rest of the ship and from any stable reality. So what's a Master to do? He scavenged through the Doctor’s discarded belongings tin the room, searching for anything to help him.

While he was looking, the energy from the Eye that remained in the room revitalised his decaying body. This bought him time, allowing him to survive longer in the Vortex and continue plotting his escape.

🔧 Building a Makeshift Ship

Over the years—hundreds of them, in fact—the Master scavenged parts from the debris that occasionally drifted through the Vortex. This included bits of time ships, wreckage from other unlucky travellers, and even a tractor beam he managed to find.

During this time, the Master even captured a creature called a Vormatoda. Inspired by a VHS tape in the Doctor's spare room, he disguised and brainwashed the child believing it was his daughter, Alison. The Vormatoda's parent began attacking passing timeships in search of its child, leaving behind more components for the Master to salvage. Piece by piece, he cobbled together a functional vessel.

👩‍🚀 Rescuing River Song

At one point, River Song, mid-transit in the Time Vortex, experienced a malfunction with her vortex manipulator. The Master, ever opportunistic, used his newly acquired tractor beam to rescue her. Posing as a man named Daniel, he convinced River to help him collect more wreckage from the Vortex, which included valuable pieces from a prison ship.

Eventually River Song saw through the Master's disguise and managed to break the Alison's brainwashing. This led to a confrontation where the Vormatoda's parent attacked the Master’s makeshift ship, forcing him to make an escape.

🚀 Final Escape from the Vortex

With the Vormatoda attacking and the ship barely holding together, the Master used a stasis pod from the prison ship to survive the final journey out of the Vortex.

And what does he do as soon as he's out? He meets up with several of his other incarnations, forms a band, gets into a massive brawl with his selves, and the band splits up. True story.

Related:

💬|📱🕸️What does the Web of Time look like?: Overview on the Web of Time and its relevance.

💬|🧬⚡How to track and manage artron levels?: How artron levels can be tracked and managed, plus symptoms of hypo/hyperartronosis and first-line treatment.

💬|🛸🧬Do we have any info on TARDIS biology?: Overview of TARDIS biological aspects.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any purple text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[ace-in-intarsia]

Aabria is so good at what she does! Episode 6 has a lot, but what has struck me is the parallels between our stoat family and Last Bast.

Viola and Thorn were literal cult leaders who believed that Thorn could harness the power of the blue as a means of protection and also social power. When they first arrived at Last Bast they both said "someone did it! Someone did what we wanted to do, but bigger!"

So far, Last Bast's approach to "trouble makers" is subtle threat, almost passive aggressiveness. The Population Support do not outright attack, they inform you that you are being tracked and watched, and there is only the implication for some kind of threat. Ava and Tula operate in similar ways when trying to enact control both in their former burrow and also within the family. They rarely outright attack, but instead use passive aggressive language and behaviors to get others to comply with what they want.

It is important to note that Lila and Jaysohn both buck under the structure of their previous burrow, the familial systems, and the control of Last Bast. They are expected to fall in line, but for various reasons either cannot or choose not to. However the expectation of the family and Last Bast is the same: eventually they will "mature" into compliance.

There is a reading of these parallels that Last Bast is just a larger, more formalized version of the unhealthy power dynamics already at play within this family: hubris, fear, greed, and passive aggressive manipulation. And what's worse, is that Last Bast is also an "Animal Farm"-esque recreation of human power structures and dynamics.

But Aabria said early on that she is going save this stoat family, and I think that she's right. Our stoat family is not motivated by the selfishness of the First Ones (they are using the thousands of stoats as a meat shield, no question) and already we see the needed changes to their family dynamic necessary for their survival. Because, without a confrontation with Last Bast, our stoat family would have been doomed to simply recreate it on a smaller scale in some other burrow, and I think Aabria's story suggests that would not lead to generational thriving but rather generational oppression and control.

[altschmerzes]

🌹🌹🌹 would absolutely LOVE if you had anything with Jamie and Sarah interacting... your version of sarah kent is everything to me <3

THANK YOUUUUU i really really love writing her, she's honestly one of my favourite elements of Most tl fics i write. characters like her, blank slates with a lot of possibility and just enough implication to be absolutely fascinating, are my kryptonite. i've got a whole fic about like. the evolving dynamic of her and jamie on the docket, and - of course - some stuff i'm SUPER hyped for coming up in wriggle up on dry land, which is where this is from. (far.... FAR ahead lmaooo)

it's. a bit long. (it's very long....) but hey y'all have waited a very long time for chapter nine so maybe we're all due some indulgence.

While Jamie has been in the house before several times, he hasn't put much effort into studying it before. There had always been something to do, some kind of point to hold his attention. Now, there's nothing. Even the sound is quiet and distant - just Sarah moving around in the other room. Left to his own devices, Jamie wanders and observes. There are medical textbooks crammed in next to kiddie stories on the shelves, all mashed together without any rhyme or reason. There are some art prints along one wall, mostly watercolours, along with a framed piece dotted with a border of flowers and calligraphied in a language he doesn't know - probably, he's gleaned through context clues, Hebrew. None of the furniture matches and somehow it all looks nice anyway. And then there's the part that brings Jamie to a stop entirely, his meandering footsteps halted in front of the far wall. The pictures.

It's not a large wall, but it's studded with enough framed photos to make it seem endless to Jamie as he takes in each one individually. In the least surprising turn of events imaginable, a great majority feature Phoebe. She is depicted as an infant, impossibly tiny and so fragile-looking Jamie is almost afraid even to look at the photo of her, and grows throughout into the age she is now. It would be no mystery to anyone who glanced at this wall what held the place of Sarah Kent's pride and joy. There's even a spectacularly hilarious picture of Roy wearing his baby niece on his chest in one of those little harness things, looking sternly at the camera. Jamie snickers at the sight of it, choosing to focus on that rather than in the small, hot ache he feels inside when he thinks too hard about the way Sarah looks at her daughter in the pictures of the two of them together.

Roy is in plenty of other photos too. There are a few snapshots of a boy and a girl with the same dark, curly hair, and one that Jamie immediately recognizes as the day that Chelsea won the Champions League, Sarah's arms around her brother's waist and twin elated grins on their faces. A woman with various brightly-framed pairs of glasses that Jamie vaguely recognizes is in almost as many photos as Roy. He squints at a picture of her and Sarah asleep on a couch together with identical posture and matching doctor's scrubs until he places her as Sarah's best friend, Maggie Something-or-Other. There are a few other friends, some coworkers, a group shot of Phoebe's class and one of Roy's team, and then...

Jamie's mouth is dry and his ears feel hot as he stands in Sarah Kent's house and stares at his own face. Because Jamie is up on that wall, too, in two very recent pictures. One of them is posed, from the day Richmond was promoted. He's standing with Roy, tucked tight into the man's side under his arm. They're both smiling, bits of red and blue confetti in their hair, eerily reminiscent of the Champions League picture of the Kent siblings together. The other framed photo is candid - Jamie crouched in the grass and looking seriously down at something, Phoebe craning her neck as she scrutinizes the same spot on the ground, her hands braced on Jamie's shoulder as she stands beside him.

There had been a beetle in the grass. Jamie remembers it clearly now that he sees the picture. She had come running over demanding his attention and telling him that he needed to come at once because there was a strange bug and she needed him to see it. He can still close his eyes and feel the fidgety press of her hands on his shoulder, the way she'd leaned the entirety of her small weight against him without a thought to whether he was sturdy enough to keep her standing. It was a really nice day. Oh, it was a little too cold and the wind kept picking up and slowing down at random and he'd slept poorly the night before and been tired, but it was a really nice day.

The beetle in the grass with its iridescent, shiny shell. Phoebe's warm little fingers, digging into his shoulder. She'd insisted on holding Jamie's hand on the walk back to Roy's house.

Sarah's footsteps are loud enough on the creaky wooden floor that, as lost in thought as he is, Jamie isn't startled by her presence when she arrives behind him. They're both quiet for a moment, studying the wall of photos.

"I'm up there," Jamie eventually says. It's a silly, stupid thing to say, but his throat feels thick and his hands are tingling a little bit and there's nothing else in his head.

"Yeah," Sarah agrees. "I can swap 'em out if you want. If you don't like those ones, I mean, you can have Roy send me some you do like."

That was... not the problem. Not the question.

"But I..." The rest of the sentence falls away, gone before Jamie can even figure out what it was going to be. She knows who he is. She knows his name and his history and how long it's been since she met him. It's not as if the pictures just appeared there one day. Sarah had done this on purpose. She had printed photos of Jamie and framed them and hung them up along with all the others of her daughter and her brother and her best mate.

With a sudden burst of impulsive drive, Jamie turns sharply to the side and wraps his arms around Sarah. He presses his face into her shoulder and breathes deeply, wrestling with the burning at the backs of his eyes and the catch in his breath. Sarah is shorter than him by just enough to notice, but when she hugs him back, he feels young and small. There are a dozen different things he wants to say - about how they're nice pictures, she can keep them up there forever as far as Jamie is concerned, about how hard it is to believe that any of this is happening at all - but he can't piece together any of them. From the way she just stands there with him, though, one of her hands running lightly up and down his back, he gets the idea that he doesn't need to say any of it. That Sarah already knows.

[ladykailitha]

Ser Stephan of Harring’s Town Part 5

Tag limit is 20 (which we haven’t hit yet)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

This was fun because it is based a on actual one-shot I DM’ed. Yeah, the barbarian knew what was up in that one, too.

*

Eddie was having fun. He had devised the most heinous, hideous, horrifyingly good murder house. Essentially the party had been drugged at the local tavern and locked up inside this house where everything was trap that could (and if he was honest, probably would) kill them.

Everyone started off separately and finally got together to try to escape this house once and for all.

“The room you are in has three winged-back chairs, a side table filled with all sorts of liquor in various bottles and containers. There is a beautiful dwarfish rug on the hardwood floor. There is a small round table with two glasses one filled, the other empty. There are many paintings decorating the room, all of them of the same man in different stages of life. Some young, some of his handsome youth and distinguished middle age, but only one of him in his advancing years.”

“I step into the room,” Mike said.

“Do the rest of you follow?” Eddie asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Everybody make reflex saves!”

The party groaned but did as they were told. Thankfully they all passed. Erica and Steve by the skin of their teeth, but they passed.

“The door slammed shut behind you with a large gate dropping down in front of the door, sealing you in. A beautiful crystal hour glass with green sand slowly lowers from the ceiling. The sand barely beginning its decent to the bottom. A voice rings out: ‘You have one hour to escape this room and my mansion for good,’” Eddie said the last part with a rich, posh accent aged up and worn. “Roll spot checks!”

They all roll but only Will and Lucas succeeded. He pulled them aside (Steve hasn’t quite learned how to not meta game yet) and whispered to them. They walk back to the table.

“I tell the party–” Lucas began.

Eddie tutted. “Ah-ah-ah,” he said wagging his finger. “Role play it.”

Lucas sighed. “You don’t make Steve role play it.”

“That’s because we’re still teaching him the game mechanics,” Dustin defended. “We’ll make him role play next time.”

“Yeah,” Will agreed. “You’ve been playing long enough to be able to.”

Steve flashed Lucas a reassuring smile. “Plus, I’m supposed to be a fantasy version of me, doesn’t take much role playing that. Come on, you can do it.”

Lucas took a deep breath. “It’s not just the hour glass that’s filling with sand, if you look at the walls, you’ll see that they have sand pouring down them.”

Eddie grinned. “Everyone now can see that the ranger is indeed correct yellow sand is sliding down the walls and will fill the room in the hour allotted.”

“Can I blast our way out?” Will asked.

Eddie shrugged. “You could try, but a fireball in a small room like this, is more likely to kill the party.”

Will nodded.

“Well,” Dustin said. “Most of the traps have been puzzles, so there is probably a puzzle here we need to solve.”

Steve frowned. He didn’t want to ask his question out loud in case they made fun of him. So he pulled out a piece of paper from his bag and jotted down a note and handed it to Eddie.

Everyone else was talking over each other trying to find the puzzle.

Eddie looked up from the note and smiled softly. “Make a spot check, Steve.”

Mike whipped his head to face them. “What?”

Steve rolled the dice. “I got a seventeen.”

Eddie nodded and wrote something on the paper that Steve had handed him.

Steve read it and then folded it up. “I just had a question.”

“About what?” Erica asked.

“I don’t wanna say,” Steve said, ducking his head. “You’ll think it’s dumb.”

“You don’t have to tell them, Steve,” Eddie said. “You can keep what you learned to yourself.”

Steve shrugged. “The room just felt off.”

Mike rolled his eyes. “How can an imaginary room feel off?”

Steve blushed. “You don’t have three chairs in a sitting room,” he whispered.

“Are you serious right now?” Dustin said. “That has got to be the most bullshit thing I’ve ever heard.”

“That’s why I didn’t want to say,” Steve said.

Eddie eyed him for a moment. “Let’s take a break. Don’t worry, I’ll pause your time so that you don’t die.”

They grumbled and filed out to use the bathroom and stretch their legs.

“You okay, man?” he asked Steve once most of them had gone. “You usually snap back them when they get like this.”

Steve sighed. “I just don’t have the confidence with this game. I want to bitch back, but they have years of knowledge and experience of this shit and I know that Dustin or Mike is going to pull up some rule from Rangers Fifth Guide or whatever proving me wrong.”

Eddie nodded. “You’re right about Mike, but it will probably be Erica instead of Dustin. They’re what are colloquially referred to as rules lawyers. Players that have studied the every rule and every book front and back and can quote it back to you ad nauseum.”

“Great,” Steve muttered.

“Except that they know that with me,” Eddie said with a grin, “that I don’t follow the rules.”

Steve looked up. “You can do that?”

“It’s what’s called a homebrew game,” Eddie explained. “I set the rules and they are expected to follow them. Because here’s the thing, Steve. Will could blast his way out of the room and as long as the squishy ones are in the back, you’d probably all survive. But I told him no, because I wanted everyone to solve a puzzle and not use violence to get their way.”

Steve blinked. “Oh. So I don’t need to know all the rules to play?”

“Yup!” Eddie smiled. “So don’t let the little shits get to you, okay?”

Steve nodded and he straightened up.

They came back and started arguing about the puzzle again. And every time they suggested something Steve would shoot it down, only to be backed up by Eddie.

Finally Mike snapped when they only had nine minutes left. “If you’re so god damn clever, you figure it out.”

Steve smiled, smug. “The largest painting in the room is of the old man that locked us up in here. So I asked Eddie to describe the painting.”

Dustin frowned. “What’s so important about a damn painting?”

“It’s the only one of him as old and Eddie told me that it shows the whole room,” Steve explained.

“The whole room?” Lucas asked incredulous.

“Yup,” Steve said, popping the P.

“Everybody make spot checks,” Eddie said with a grin.

This time because they had information from Steve all but Mike’s paladin succeeded.

“The painting shows the old man sitting in a green winged-back chair with a glass of wine at his side on the round table,” he filled them in.

“Okay...” Will said, an idea brewing in his head. “You know what that means, don’t you, Sir Stephan?”

Steve grinned. “Match the room to the painting.”

Suddenly the room erupted in dissent.

“There’s no way it’s that simple!” Dustin protested.

“Five minutes, my intrepid heroes,” Eddie said, pointing at his watch.

Mike rolled his eyes. “What choice have we got?”

They remove the full glass from the table and fill the empty one with wine from the side table. The pull the yellow and red winged-back chairs off the side so they can put the green one in the middle.

One minute remaining.

“It didn’t work!” Erica screamed as the room was nearly at the top of the walls, within seconds it would fill the room killing them all.

Steve grinned. “I go over and sit on the chair.”

Eddie grinned back. “As soon as Sir Stephan sat down the hourglass stopped spilling into the bottom and the sand in the room vanished. The iron grate rose and the door opened.

“A voice rang out: It appears you have beaten me this time, but always keep a wary eye over your shoulder’,” Eddie said in the same voice from before. And then he stood up and bowed.

Everyone started cheering and jumping on Steve congratulating him. Steve looked over at Eddie who winked.

Part 6 Part 7

Tag List: @gregre369 @idea-less-author @xtkxkrzrizir @azure-and-gold @flanbott @garden-of-gay @tauntedperfume @marvelousforlife @itsfreakingbats

[mwolf0epsilon]

Superhero AU - Keeping Sane while in Hell

Keeping the Superhero AU pain train rolling!

This time, we discuss some occurrences during training & the families of the abductees trying to find their loved ones through various means.

Previous Posts: [X] [X] ---

For the most part, the troops are kept in a single building that's been converted into high security barracks/prison cells. There's a few exceptions who are confined to windowless cells (Alpha-17, Dogma, Hardcase, etc...) because their powers make them harder to control/contain, but otherwise the situation is honestly quite communal. Which, at the end of the day, is what keeps everyone relatively sane.

They form a support network, with some of the abductees taking others under their wing and becoming protective of them (Fives immediately just pulls Tup into the Dominoes unit because the kid is considerably younger than everyone else and has no idea what happened to his twin, Cody and his gang of childhood pals take a shine to Rex really quickly, Fox and Wolffe form their own groups, etc...), while others gravitate towards the more assertive/calming presences in their shared space.

It makes the intense training bearable to be able to endure all of whatever their captors have in store for them, only to then have someone there to comfort and listen to you. Someone that can relate to your plight.

After all powers have been gauged and rated, and Palpatine has decided which troopers belong in the Hero group and which are better suited for the Villain group, the training becomes more combat intensive. A schedule is set up that consists of "learning modules" about controlling their newfound powers, hand to hand combat, weaponry training and then bringing all of it together.

They start off with training dummies. Then sophisticated battle robots. And then the beasts that were created during earlier experiments with the concoction.

Overtime, people who's powers were more unstable are integrated into the group. But Tup has still not been reunited with his twin. The reason why becomes obvious during a test.

One of the first conclusions Palpatine makes when presented with the more unstable abilities some troopers have, is to find ways to forcefully suppress them to better control them.

The two clone babies that were created in the first version of the super-soldier experiments (Boba and Omega) are by the time of current events already 10 years old (these experiments have been taking place for years, with Hemlock's version only recently yielding positive results), and through the use of specially designed harnesses their slowly developing powers can be suppressed.

This method is ideal for Hardcase (the harness considerably mellows him out to the point he's a little sluggish) and Alpha-17 (it prevents him from being able to build up magmatic crust to create a construct body), but not so much for Dogma who has been stuck as a kaiju for a very long time. He's too scared to change back, and far too large to be so easily controlled. On top of that he's so frightened he lashes out. In Palpatine's eyes he's only good for one thing, and it's to make his group of heroes look good. The city has seen kaiju activity before, it wouldn't be strange to have one attack out of the blue.

All he really needs is to keep the kid terrified. Which he succeeds in a rather brutal manner.

By gradually teaching the group to fight beasts, Palpatine slowly conditions them to attack anything remotely monstrous without a thought (It doesn't matter if this used to be someone's beloved pet cat, now it's a ferocious sabertoothed tiger with two heads and a spiked tail. It doesn't matter if this used to be a stray pup, it's become a slobbering ravenous beast that is starved enough to eat a whole person). The only one to hesitate at all when Dogma is thrown at the group (still unaware of what is going on, or where he is, or what's even happened to him) is Tup, and that's because he knows his twin is the kaiju. Sadly his cries for everyone to stop fall on deaf ears and Dogma gets to experience the full force of everyone else's powers.

It's only when the poor kid falls unconscious and finally changes back out of exhaustion that Palpatine's deceit comes to light (You can guess how everyone reacts to the thought of having attacked and beaten up a 12 year old, the twin of which is besides himself with anger because none of them listened to him). But the damage is done. Dogma is terrified of the group, so it doesn't take much to activate his power at all. The only thing keeping him human is medication (that he has a specific schedule to take, unless he's 'needed' in which case he's essentially a walking time-bomb) specially made to keep his transformation at bay.

Until the day they are deployed, training gets no less brutal. Palpatine intends to break their spirits, but he never quite manages. Because, even though they all go through unspeakable horrors in the facility and comply with most of his whims, the troopers still do what they can to keep the hope of their eventual freedom going.

After Dogma's first "session" it also became easy for Slick to track down where he's being kept, so both he and Tup take to sneaking through the vents to at least comfort their brother and try to lessen the damage of his isolation. In due time, others join him. Some are welcomed more easily... Others Dogma cannot stand to be near out of sheer terror (Rex is unfortunately someone he's perpetually scared of, because he's the one expected to beat the kaiju anytime Palpatine decides the city is due for a monster mash).

There's also the matter of Boba and Omega becoming curious of the captives and sneaking off to either observe or engage with them (Boba is a little more distant and prefers to not talk to anyone, while Omega takes a liking to CF99 and openly talks to them and asks them questions).

Outside of the facility, the families of the abductees are not staying idle. Some (like Slick, Tup and Dogma's mom) were injured when the powers first manifested themselves and cannot look for answers more actively due to said injuries, but still maintain in contact with others who they have discovered are on the same boat. The ones who did not sustain injuries try to make sense of what little they know or saw (no one knows the military took their loved ones, but they saw strange vans, helicopters and other vehicles with some kind of logo on them), and try to keep everyone else informed.

And then there's those who don't even know if their loved ones are alive...

The Lawquanes live on their farm in the countryside. They have no idea what's happened to Rex. All they know is that one night the news showed something calamitous happening in the city, and their "daughter's" (remember, Rex hadn't had the time to even come out to them as trans) apartment was one of many buildings destroyed. They haven't been contacted by Rex since then and they believe he's one of several casualties. They still want answers.

To top it all off, Cut's older brother and nephews have also not been in contact, so there's no real way to get those answers than to go to the big city themselves. They don't know what they're getting themselves into at all...

[randomfoggytiger]

Updated! X-Files Mulder Trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fawn?

I've seen various takes on Mulder's and Scully's trauma and stress responses; and I wanted to autopsy the issue carefully to reach a conclusion. We're focusing solely on Mulder here-- but! Scully will get her own post in future.

Kitsunegari Sums Up Mulder's Trauma Responses in One Scene

Mulder is too late to stop "Scully" from pulling the trigger against her temple, screaming in agony as she drops to the ground, "dead."

He then cycles through all of his First and Secondary Trauma Responses (will be discussed below):

Running up in horror, then plastering a smile in sickening denial--

Mulder attempts to feel a pulse. There is none. Scully is dead.

His grief overwhelms him-- an aggravated and more violent (if shorter) version of his sorrow in Redux II-- scrabbling at her scalp and shoulders, silently screaming into her face, before turning away so as not to vomit.

He mentally starts to drift;

but denial-- denial, denial, denial-- holds sway as he pops his head back up, reenergized,

vainly feeling for a pulse once again, eyes desperately and obsessively focused on his partner.

There is no hope.

Mulder is now losing all control, probably gearing up to an epic meltdown of Biblical proportions-- heavy breathing, desperate eyes, nothing to grasp at or solve or hold onto--

when he hears a noise. A reprieve. A focus. An enemy.

Furious, he snatches a gun and levels it at Linda Bowman, spitting in his fury

...but doesn't fire.

And allows "Bowman" to talk him down.

And further, when "Linda" fires, Mulder flinches, puts his gun up as he dissociates (looks down to his mid-left)-- freezes, if you will-- and doesn't fight back, expecting to die.

This is Mulder's Trauma Responses in full: Freeze-Fight.

He will also begin to repeat this cycle in Milagro (if shorter-- because Scully pops up, alive, sooner.)

Why Mulder Is Primarily a Freeze Type

I'm going to include this entire segment from Pete Walker's Complex CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving (see notes at the bottom for more info) because it's such a powerful piece of Mulder-psyche that it should stand on its own:

"A Freeze Response is triggered when a person, realizing resistance is futile, gives up, numbs out into dissociation, and/or collapses, as if accepting the inevitability of being hurt.... The Freeze Response, also known as the Camouflage Response, also triggers a survivor into hiding, isolating, and avoiding human contact.

The Freeze Type can be so frozen in the retreat mode that is seems as if their "Starter" button is stuck in the "off" position.

Off all the four Fs, Freeze Types seem to have the deepest and conscious belief that 'people' and 'danger' are synonymous.

While all 4 F Types commonly suffer from social anxiety as well, Freeze Types typically take a great deal more refuge in solitude.

Some Freeze Types completely give up on relating to others and become extremely isolated. Outside of fantasy, many also give up entirely on the possibility of love."

These Types have learned from a young age that fighting back will only get you punished and that fleeing will only get you reprimanded; so, they collapse inwardly instead. Dissociation becomes the name of the game, coasting through life without being attached to it, accepting its blows and distracting themselves from reality with either fantasy or the pursuit of a fantastical idea they want to achieve.

Frank Spotnitz said it best when he reflected on Mulder's character growth and seeking 'The Truth': ""You can't get the truth. You can't. There's a larger truth, though: that you can't harness the forces of the cosmos, but you may find somebody else. You may find another human being. That may be kind of corny and all of that, but that's really it: Love is the only truth we can hope to know, as human beings. That's what Mulder and Scully found after nine years. And that's a lot."

But what about those moments when Mulder runs at danger, demanding answers and yelling down the sky?

**Edit: This is the section i had to refurbish based on proper research.**

Secondary Trauma Responses develop when circumstances are so extreme that a person's initial trauma response is not removing them from danger fast enough; and they then develop a second polar opposite response in the hopes that this will help. More often than not, it simply becomes a ping-pong whiplash between one extreme to the other. The four Hybrids are Fight-Fawn, Fight-Freeze, and Flight-Freeze. In Mulder's case, if he stays frozen for too long he will very quickly become very dead; thus, Mulder developed a secondary response: Flight.

Freeze-Flight (or Flight-Freeze-- potato, potatoh) Types

Below is an excerpt from Pete Walker, but it's so completely Mulder that I have nothing else to add:

"The Flight-Freeze Type is the least relational, most schizoid hybrid. He prefers the safety of "do it yourself" isolationism. The Fight-Fleeze Type avoids potential relationship traumatization with an obsessive-compulsive dissociative two-step. Step One is working to complete exhaustion. Step Two is collapsing into extreme vegging out and waiting until his energy reaccumulates enough to relaunch into Step One. The price for this time of no-longer-necessary safety is a severely narrowed existence."

(**Note for the below paragraph: the author is not talking about alpha/beta in the current, dilapidated vernacular. Think of it as an academic term describing more aggressive or assertive behavior as compared to more passive or dismissive behavior.)

"The Flight-Freeze cul-de-sac is more common among men, especially those traumatized for being vulnerable in childhood. This then drives them to seek safety in isolation, or "intimacy lite" relationships. Some non-alpha type male survivors combine their flight-freeze defenses to become stereotypical technology nerds. Telecommuting is, of course, their preferred modes.

Flight-Freeze Types are the computer addicts who focus on work long periods of time and then drift off dissociatively into computer games, substance abuse, or sleep binging. FF Types are prone to becoming porn addicts: when in Flight mode, they obsessively surf the net for phantom partners and engage in compulsive masturbation. When in Freeze mode, they drift off into Right-Brain sexual fantasy world if pornography is unavailable. Moreover, if they are an intimacy-light relationship, they typically engage more in with their idealized fantasy partners than with their actual partner during real-time sexual interactions."

An interesting note: these types are often misdiagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome, which explains why some fans theorize that an Oxford graduate-FBI field agent might be on the spectrum (Mulder isn't: it's a symptom of him coping very, VERY badly.)

Mulder's Freeze-Flight response kicked in sometime after his sister's abduction, since his primary Freeze response "prevented" him from saving her (even if he couldn't do anything to help.)

Since then, Mulder has buried all trauma or deep emotion in the bowels of his work in the basement, printing them out as X-Files to brand his work as his life.

For all of Mulder's talk about disliking others for dismissing something that cannot be explained, labeled, or categorized, when he can't do it himself, he goes berserk: first freezing, horrified, before he launches with righteous fury into his work, demanding answers and running himself ragged.

A potent demonstration of Mulder's yo-yo-ing Freeze-Flight Response is the Russian Roulette showdown in Pusher: Mulder more readily accepts his own death than Scully, terrified but determinedly compliant... until she becomes the next target of Modell's mind games.

It's a pattern that has already been established since her abduction, and which repeats for her cancer (and every perilous moment after and in-between.)

An important

There are countless examples where Mulder disconnects from reality in the face of great grief, ala his father's death, CSM and Diana Fowley's oily plan in One Son, and-- especially-- his mother's suicide.

In all these instances, Mulder immediately ran into work mode, trying move the world by force and come up with an explanation-- any-- to make everything right. When he is forced to sit and deal with tragic loss, his Flight peters out, leading him back to square one: an unhealthy Freeze Response.

Luckily for him, Scully is a stable, reliable support; and coaxes him into properly grieving by not sugarcoating the Truth, thereby helping him turn into healthier coping mechanisms (if he wants to use them-- he doesn't in Paper Hearts, but he does in Sein und Zeit. Baby steps.)

In short: Mulder is a Freeze-then-Flight man.

Why Mulder Isn't a Fight, Flight, or Fawn Type

To make quick work of this, I'll rely mainly on Pete Walker quotes again and add my commentary after his statements:

"A Fight [Trauma] Response is triggered when a person suddenly responds aggressively to something threatening.... Fight Types are unconsciously driven by the belief that power and control can create safety, assuage abandonment, and secure love." Extreme Fight Types often become bullies or narcissists to their loved ones as well as their enemies if left unchecked. They are demanding, demeaning, and punishing, equating strength as exerted power over someone weaker. They usually grew up in homes where they had to fight back against physical abuse or protect others from it. This translates to a bitter outlook on the world, always suspicioning the motives of others in cruel or judgmental ways.

(Note: Not much of the above is directly related to Bill Scully-- or Bill Mulder, even, see my previous post about him here-- but his natural bent is Fight above the other 3 F Types. Doesn't mean he's a bully or a narcissist; just that those would be his extremes.)

As we have seen through the entire series, Mulder as an atypical American masculine archetype: he does not resort to violence, preferring to save victims and even villains, willing to give everyone a second chance (and, by extension, giving backstabbers a clear target for their next strike.) The only time he has exerted violence over another was as a last possible extreme to stop a threat (shooting Modell, shooting the Peacock brothers, shooting Schnauz, shooting Roche, etc.)

Back to Walker:

"A Flight Response is triggered when a person responds to a perceived threat by fleeing; or, symbolically, by launching into hyperactivity. .... Extreme Flight Types are like machines with a switch stuck in the 'on' position. They are obsessively and compulsively driven by the unconscious belief that perfection will make them safe and loveable. They rush to achieve. They rush as much in thought in action, compulsion."

I will be talking about this response a little bit more in a follow-up post; but the core with this character is their ability to distract themselves from their problems into oblivion. Mulder's pains and sorrows and traumas are a constant of his life, eating away at his heart and shoving themselves in his face every day. The difference between his obsessive work ethic and a Flight Type's work ethic is the motivator: he is dabbling in his fantasy, building empires from ideas and discovering new kingdoms with every possibility; while Flight Types have ceased to function at all, robotically going from task to task until they overload or shut down.

And, lastly, back to Walker for the Fawn Trauma Response:

"Fawn Response is triggered when a person responds to threat by trying to be pleasing or helpful in order to appease and forestall an attacker.... Fawn types seek safety by merging with the wishes, needs, and demands of others. They act as if they believe that the price of admission to any relationship is the forfeiture of all their needs, rights, preferences, and boundaries. The disenfranchisement of the Fawn Type begins in childhood... learns early that a modicum of safety and attachment can be gained by becoming the helpful and compliant servant of... exploitive parents." (As an aside, this Type is also formed from having at least one narcissistic parent.)

While Mulder is often used by those around him, he never loses the core of who he is to their abuse: when Phoebe comes knocking, he may set aside the case to (try to) get some hotel action; but he's still self-aware of his and her actions, disentangled enough to self-deprecatingly (and knowingly) smirk when he catches her red-handed with another man. When his father or mother weave in and out of his life with their soft or outspoken demands, he doesn't bend from the Truth, risking his relationships continually for It. He is willing to tell Scully to her face she is lying to him; and he is willing to sacrifice what new closeness they've achieved if he believes she's being purposefully blind or obtuse. Mulder, while reliant on Scully as his human credential, is not co-dependent on her: he can stand on his own two feet, even if she were to walk out of his life. The wounds would go deep; but he would dissociate from life (like he had in Little Green Men) not erode away completely.

(As an aside, that's why probably why Mulder would have committed suicide in Gethsemane but not during the Break Up Years TM. Post IWTB Scully, while she had walked away from their life together, was still a part of his reality; whereas, S4 Scully would have been dead, deceased, gone from existence... and Mulder could never escape that, no matter how much he dissociated from it.)

How Mulder Can Use His Freeze Response Healthy

In a nutshell, a person should work through their traumas so they can pick among the 4 Trauma Responses for the healthiest outcome in each situation: Fight for healthy boundaries, Flight for healthy retreat and perseverance, Freeze for healthy awareness and distanced assessment, and Fawn for healthy assertive listening and peacemaking. Unhealthy childhoods create fixations on one of these four; and it takes a while to learn the patterns and triggers in one's life and how to manage them.

For Mulder, he grew exponentially through the years, becoming less detached and more engaged with "life on this planet" (growing from a sarcastic S1 recluse to a more emotionally honest person in S2 to a more openly supportive person in S3 to a transformed heart-on-his-sleeve man in S4-5 to someone who can find joy in S6 and peace in S7 and recreation in S8. Is there canon after that?) So, as it stands, he's doing just fine. Because if one truly searches for the Truth it might not be aliens: it might just be a whole, happy life and how to enjoy it.

And there you have it, folks!

Scully will get her own follow up, soonish (though if you don't want to wait that long, she's a pretty obvious *spoiler* Flight Type. No one's really surprised because of what happened in Fight the Future.)

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

*Note*: There are four main trauma Responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn (taken from the book Complex CPTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker-- see Disclaimers section below for info.) In short: Fight Types responds to stress by physical intimidation or verbal bullying; Flight Types run as far as they can from danger or distract themselves from it as much as possible; Freeze Types disassociate, seeing fight and flight as futile and becoming numb to life; Fawn Types try to win favor from their oppressor, leaning co-dependently on others.

**Note**: Most of the information was obtained from Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker, a private counselor and lecturer for thirty-five years. As a victim of CPTSD himself, he made a study of its victims and helped craft a system for CPTSD recoverees to understand themselves and progressively heal. (Highly recommend his book-- excellent.)

***Note***: I will ghost edit later. Brb.

[satoshi-mochida]

Touhou Genso Wanderer: FORESIGHT coming to PS4, Switch on September 18 - Gematsu

Publisher Phoenixx and developer Aqua Style will release Touhou Project fan game dungeon crawler RPG Touhou Genso Wanderer: FORESIGHT for PlayStation 4 and Switch on September 18 for $37.99, the companies announced. It supports English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese language options.

In Japan, the game will be priced at 4,950 yen. A physical edition will also launch for Switch on November 28 in Japan. It will cost 5,500 yen for the standard edition and 9,900 yen for the limited edition. The latter includes a special box, the original soundtrack and something secret, an art book, an acrylic diorama stand of the key visual, and two costume downloadable contents.

Touhou Genso Wanderer: FORESIGHT first launched for PC via Steam on May 15.

The PlayStation 4 and Switch versions will add the following features:

Hakurei Shrine Renovation Enhancements – Meet with a surprising new heroine after restoring the pond in the Hakurei Shrine. Help her by further reconstructing the shrine to access additional stories and events. This new release adds a whole new dangerous dungeon filled with unexpected twists.

New Costumes for Reimu – Dress up Reimu with the Winter Costume and Shrine Maiden Costume available for both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions upon release.

Popular Bosses’ Special Moves Appear as Spell Cards – Gather newly introduced boss spell cards and harness their powerful effects. Cast spell cards for eye-catching animations and unleash the abilities of Touhou Project characters from previous entries in the Touhou Genso Wanderer series.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

A new dungeon crawler RPG game in the Genso Wanderer series! Embark on an adventure with Reimu and friends to solve incidents! This title is a fan-made game based on the doujin game Touhou Project (by Team Shanghai Alice) as a dungeon-crawler RPG where the dungeon layout and dropped items change each time you play.

Story

In a corridor somewhere… Reimu Hakurei loses a battle and faints. She comes to and finds herself at Hakurei Shrine. She’s unable to remember anything… What had she even been doing in the first place? Having regained consciousness, Reimu sets out together with her friend Marisa Kirisame to solve incidents. Reimu must now save Gensokyo… From the various incidents, some of which she’d already solved before. —Reimu has no idea what she’s in for.

Gameplay

Leveling and Travel Mechanics

You lost a battle and ended up back at Hakurei Shrine?!

Just when you’d leveled Reimu up and upgraded her weapons, too…

Well, no need to worry about that anymore!

You get to keep your items and current level in the story’s dungeons.

You’ll also be able to fast travel to places you’ve already traversed.

Reimu Gets Stronger After Every Encounter With Friends!

Solve incidents and help those in the Human Village get through their problems…

Encountering the inhabitants of Gensokyo will help you acquire “boards” that can raise your basic stats.

Characters get stronger as you progress through the game!

Make Hakurei Shrine Better Than Ever

Restore the tattered shrine to its former glory by asking for help from Suika Ibuki, who’s settled there.

Invest in the building and facilities for more convenient travel.

Newly Revamped Illustrations

The inhabitants of Gensokyo are expressive.

Almost every character gets new illustrations.

Keep your eyes peeled for the girls’ new looks.

Almost Every Right Hand-Wielded Weapon

And left hand-wielded armor are newly drawn.

Equip them to discover the abilities each piece holds.

Watch a new trailer below.

PlayStation 4 and Switch Announce Trailer

English

Japanese

[dipperdesperado]

is solarpunk compatible with space travel?

I am currently a big fan of solarpunk, but my first love in the world of science and science fiction was related to space travel. I realize that space travel is a very tainted concept. Our understanding of space is greatly impacted by colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. While solarpunk feels like a response to the infinite growth mindset, space is literally described as another frontier. This may be a massive piece of copium on my part, but I wonder, can there be a solarpunk version of space travel? Is it possible to have a decolonial interest in leaving the earth? Can an understanding of the rest of the universe allow us to be in community with it more successfully? I don’t have super developed answers for this right now, but I think it could be interesting to make gestures in that direction.

One of the ways to solarpunk space could be to transition the industry and to locally scaled, community-based initiatives. Right now, space economics are deeply wedded to money and the nation-state model. Instead of a focus on scale, where there are massive agencies that decide how space technologies are explored, there could be more boutique outfits that are based in specific, human-scaled communities. This would probably not be high on the priority list of a community, but could be a nice to have once other needs are met. Maybe, if space travel needs a degree of centralization, there could be an exploration of using federation to collectively decide how to develop space programs on a regional level.

This program could be developed through an open source model, where communities have their own makerspaces and fabrication labs. People could develop and experiment with space tech, and the open source model would allow breakthroughs to be more quickly proliferated. One of the most important things for a solarpunk space program would be that bottom-up, equity-centered approach.

Due to space programs being couched in hegemonic modes of operation, the process tends to be very wasteful. From all of the debris in the atmosphere, to the motivations of various space movements themselves, there is a lack of critical analysis of domineering systems. For space to get solarpunk’d, the economies of creating spaceships and the like would have to be circular, with making sure that there is minimal impact on our environment, moving us towards a degrowth orientation. Even life support systems and on-mission resource management should have a regenerative focus.

The main thing to focus on is the needs and wants of communities. Governments and corps should not dictate what going to space looks like. The design of spaceships and habitats should be participatory. Everyone who has interest should be able to contribute, and anything developed should have a communal focus. In other words, these projects would not just be the machinations of a single eccentric.

This ain’t to say that it’ll be easy. A community-driven space program is hard to imagine, when space travel lives in a very imperial, statist milieu. Maybe we can look at Earth-bound advancements for inspiration. On Earth, we can see the potential for decentralized production, cooperative ownership, and ecological communities. Looking at space through this lens has a lot of potential in my mind.

We can use solarpunk principles to move towards the future in ways that are truly inspiring and ecologically sound. Collective and individual creativity can be harnessed to great ends. So. Can solarpunks go to space? I, selfishly, hope so! But it would have to be to the ends of connecting more with our universe (expanding our definition of nature), and improving the lives of all. We have to prioritize regeneration, equity, and community, to create a cool space program.