#person and she’s mentioned a bunch of times how dead it is lmao so i was like wtv i do send a text once in a blue moon but it’s not as

[cyberbullyinc]

😐

[spaceshipellie]

everything’s about you to me

ellie williams x reader

chapter two: this house is a graveyard

masterlist for other chapters *✧･ﾟ: wc: 3.7k

summary: in the midst of the apocalypse, you and ellie find each other after you’ve both lost everything. what started out as a mere safety in numbers pairing, turns into something imperishable. however, after some time you get separated, leaving you both to believe the other is dead. four years later you find a commune in wyoming.

warnings: tlou au, death, grief, burying a body, mentions of deceased loved ones, it’s sad sorry :( 18+ mdni

author’s note: i promise the next part will be less traumatic!!! it’s actually going to be very cute (i think anyway lmao) but back to this part!! thank you for all the love so far <3 lmk what you think

♪ ‘cause the world could be burning, and all i’d be thinking, is “how are you doing, baby?”

The sky was a mottled grey overhead as the three of you walked along the rural road. Nearly an hour had passed since the diner but conversations were minimal. From Ellie at least, who was reluctant to share much about herself. It was understandable, you wouldn’t be in a rush to share your life with people you had only just met. The time had allowed you to observe her though. She was wearing a blue button up with the sleeves ripped off and a grey t-shirt underneath, jeans, and converses which matched your own. Her hair was short and roughly tied up in a half up, half down.

You couldn’t help but ponder the reasons as to why she might be alone. She must have been about your age and the thought of being alone terrified you so you couldn’t imagine what she might have been through. Did she have a family? Friends? Where was she going before she met you? All of these questions swirled around your brain but you thought better of bombarding her with them. She seemed lost and forlorn and you didn’t want to do anything to upset her. Your attention was diverted when you heard coughing.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” your mom said, wiping her hand over her mouth. She then pointed up ahead to a farmhouse in the distance. “We should head towards that.”

You nodded and looked over at Ellie who looked back at you. Her lips tightened into a line as she nodded slowly. You prayed that you wouldn't find anything too terrible. Looking at the place, it almost seemed too good to be true. You mentally prepared for the possibility it was either already taken by someone or was hoarding a bunch of infected. Both of which had the opportunity to kill you.

It was another fifteen minutes before you reached the farmhouse. On approach you couldn’t hear anything, but you all cautioned yourselves as you moved towards the front door. Your mom, who insisted on going first, slowly pushed the door open with her foot, gun pointing forward. You gripped your bat and Ellie held the crowbar.

The door creaked as it opened, and eventually a jangle of cans came from above your heads. You winced at the noise, clearly set up by someone as an alarm. Nothing happened though. You relaxed your shoulders slightly as you moved further down the hall. Most of the doors were open giving you a peek at the kitchen-diner on the left side and a living room on the other.

“I’ll check upstairs,” Ellie said, shuffling past you.

You and your mom checked the downstairs rooms, each time meeting each other in the hallway and declaring nobody there. Ellie then returned downstairs.

“Anything?” You asked.

“No, all clear.”

A bang caused all of your heads to face the kitchen. You shared hesitant glances before slowly edging in that direction. It must be outside, you thought, because the kitchen was definitely empty. Your mom slowly turned the back door handle and again, pushed it open with her foot, gun looking left to right. The same noise sounded again.

“The barn,” you whispered.

The closer you got the clearer you could hear heavy breathing. It didn’t really sound like infected but why would a person be banging on a barn wall. You all slipped through the half open door, silence falling. You scanned over the room quickly.

“There doesn’t seem to be any–oh my god!” You involuntarily stepped back, accidentally bumping into Ellie. Your mom and Ellie both followed your eyes to the far corner.

“Shit.”

A man hung from a wooden beam with a rope tight around his neck. A wooden stool lay on its side on the floor beneath him. You only had a moment to take it in before the bang came again from what you now knew to be a stable door. It was followed by another rumbly deep breath. Ellie went over and slowly unbolted the door. A pinto horse with chestnut patches dashed out, neighing wildly and bucking.

“Woah, woah, easy,” Ellie soothed. Her hand came to touch its neck and the horse seemed to calm down ever so slightly. It was still very fidgety and loud but didn’t seem like it was going to run off as Ellie was now stroking its neck. You were amazed at what effect she seemed to be having on the distressed animal. You noticed something white had fallen to the ground after the door had swung open so you went over to pick it up.

“This guy left a note.”

“What does it say?”

“To whoever finds this, I’m sorry that you’re still alive in this fucked up world. If it’s any consolation, I have a pretty decent farmhouse here. Don’t get too many infected unless you go further than a few miles. There’s some food in the cupboards, ammo, first aid stuff. You should be alright here for some time if you’re smart. If you run out of stuff, there’s a town about six miles east. Though I can’t guarantee what’s left of it. And please take care of my horse, Harley. She’s a beaut and I know I’m a coward for leaving her on her own but I couldn't take it anymore. Good luck and thank you. - Jack.”

“God,” your mom breathed.

“Shit’s messed up,” Ellie said.

“Yeah,” you nodded, looking over at Jack's hanging body. “We should cut him down. Maybe bury him. The least we can do when he’s giving us his house.”

The other’s nodded. You walked over to him and picked up the stool, steadying it to stand on. You stood on the stool, your mom warning you to be careful as you reached up to cut the rope. You could see his face clearly now. His brown eyes were open and his face was sunken. His hair was matted and he was wearing muddy, navy overalls. The decomposing smell was faintly running up your nostrils. Judging by it though, he couldn’t have been dead for too long otherwise it would have been difficult to stomach.

You tried to hurry your sawing at the rope until eventually it snapped and his body hit the ground with a heavy thud. You wobbled as you dismounted the stool, searching around for a shovel. You wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. You spotted one in the corner and grabbed it before purposely walking out the barn door and round to the side of it, throwing down the shovel. Marching back in, you saw Ellie had already started to grab his arms and your mom went to grab his legs before she dropped them, doubling over in a coughing fit.

“Let me,” you said, taking his legs.

You and Ellie carried him out to where you had dropped the shovel and placed him down. You grabbed the shovel and started digging, haphazardly tossing the soil into a large pile. The atmosphere was gloomy and solemn. No one spoke as you kept digging, pausing to wipe your forehead, smearing mud on it.

“Want me to take over?” Ellie offered.

“No,” you said, a little too abruptly, “it’s okay.”

Flashes of your dad’s lifeless body cursed your mind as you ignored the ache in your arms. The way it had fallen in a bloody heap and there was nothing you could do. No way for you to reach out and touch him or tell him goodbye. Tell him everything will actually be fine and you can find him a doctor. Tell him thank you for keeping you safe. You could never go back and change your last moments with him and it killed you.

“Honey, I think that’s enough,” your mom’s voice was mellow yet concerned as she looked down at you.

She helped you out of the deep grave you had dug and you wiped your hands on your jeans, staring down at the empty pit. You and Ellie resumed holding Jack's arms and legs as you lowered him in, letting him drop the last little bit as you couldn’t reach. You looked at his face one last time, letting out a deep breath before picking up the shovel again and piling all of the dirt back in. By the time you were done, the wind had picked up and it howled around you.

“We should go inside, I’ll go and check that the horse is tied up,” Ellie excused herself as you and your mom made your way back towards the back door of the house.

“I’m gonna go upstairs” your mom said before making her way up there.

You looked around the kitchen, wringing your hands together. The last twenty-four hours had been a shit show and you could do with some peace now that you had found this place. You dumped your backpack and jacket on the dining table and started rummaging through the cupboards, remembering how the note had said there was food. Your eyes brightened upon seeing stacks of cans filled right up to the front. What a gold mine, you thought. You heard the floorboards at the top of the stairs creak.

“Hey, look at all this, isn’t it–” you turned excitedly with a can of ravioli in your hand, but your smile faltered when you saw your mom’s face. Her eyes damp and bloodshot.

“What is it?”

“Honey, I–” her voice cracked. You put the can down.

“Mom?”

“Honey, I’m sorry, I didn’t know until I…” her voice was strangled as she gestured upstairs.

Ellie then came through the door and stopped in her tracks as she noticed the tension in the room.

“Mom, tell me. Please.”

She cleared her throat.

“I was bit.”

Her words punctured a hole right through you, a lump forming in your throat.

“No, no, no, no,” your words got more rapid and desperate. This can’t be happening.

“W-where?”

Your mom pulled her top away from her shoulder and turned to show the gruesome bite mark on the back of it. You saw how the blood had run from it, some of it fresh, some of it dry.

“I wasn’t sure if it was just an injury or what until I looked in the mirror.”

She pulled her top back up and faced you again. You were crying, silently. In fact, the silence in the entire room was deafening.

“Please don’t leave me.” Your voice was hushed and weak. Your mom walked over and cupped your cheeks, brushing a tear away with her thumb.

“My baby, I’m so sorry.”

No one said anything for a moment, you just cried as she hugged you.

“I do not want to turn into one of those things and hurt you.”

You pulled back to look at her, eyes darting between hers.

“So what…w-what do you mean?”

“I mean,” she took in a shaky breath, “I’m going to take care of it myself,” her voice cracked and a sad smile stretched her lips and she nodded as if she was convincing herself.

“No,” you whispered, pulling her in for a bone crushingly tight hug.

“It’s better this way,” she said as she rubbed your back, “I’m going to take my gun, you still have plenty others here, and I’m going to walk as far as I can make it and you are not going to look for me.”

“I can’t–it’s not fair,” your voice was lost in her hair.

“I know it’s not, but hey, look at me,” she brushed your hair away from your face.

“You’re going to be okay, you hear me? You’re going to stay here, in this house, together,” she looked at Ellie as she said the last word before looking back at you. You tried to speak but she shook her head so she could finish.

“I need to know that you’ll do that for me, and that you’ll stay safe, okay?” She hugged you again, “promise me, baby.”

“I promise.”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too, mom.”

“You’ll be okay.”

She gave you a final squeeze and pulled away.

“I probably don’t have long left so…” she dizzily looked around for her gun.

Your body involuntarily moved towards her but you stopped yourself. You couldn’t stop this. Nothing could. She coughed again and you could see her hands twitching. She shook out all the bullets from her gun except for two. You could tell she was trying her hardest to keep it together, but she could never fool you. The fear was making her face seem hollow and cold. Her fingers trembled as they clutched the gun. She looked at you one last time before leaving out the back door and that was the last time you ever saw her.

Ellie could see how your body was about to crumble and she moved quickly to grab you as you fell down to your knees. She knelt beside you and held your shaking body. Her chin rested on your shoulder and your eyes left wet patches on hers. It felt like the air had been knocked out of you. Everything you’d ever known was gone.

Even with everything you were feeling right now you felt guilty that this girl you’d only just met had to deal with you like this. But you were grateful she was there.

She stayed there until you were ready to pull away, revealing your bloodshot eyes and cracked lips. You slumped back against the counter and Ellie sat with her arms wrapped around her bent knees. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and her eyes looked glossy as she stared at the ground. Your head ached from the crying and your face felt swollen.

“I don’t know what to do,” your voice squeaked. She took a minute to answer and her jaw clenched.

“You can’t do anything,” she mumbled, defeatedly.

It was getting darker by the minute. The haunting silence was only disrupted by a moth tapping against the ceiling. You felt overwhelmed with groggy tiredness but equally you couldn’t switch your brain off. Normally you would go to bed thinking about what to do the next day but now, you didn’t care. You couldn’t think of anything to care about.

“Maybe we should try and get some sleep,” Ellie suggested. You just nodded, slowly.

Ellie got up and left the room and you heard her lock the front door, she came back in to grab a chair and propped one under the front door and one under the back door handle just in case the locks were dodgy. She also went round closing all the curtains and checking that all of the windows were shut. Meanwhile, you sat on the kitchen floor, feeling like a ghost. She grabbed as much stuff from the table as she could including half of your things before you willed yourself up onto your feet to grab the rest. At the top of the stairs, Ellie turned to you.

“Which one do you want?”

You looked at the two bedrooms and just pointed at one of them, not really analysing it. She went in and dropped off the stuff that was yours.

“Thanks.”

“S’okay.”

She went into the other room and put her stuff down whilst you put your gun and bat near your bed. You sighed a withered sigh as you looked around the room. It had a double bed which was made up with a duvet and pillows. It had a mirrored dresser on one wall and a wardrobe on the other. The furniture looked like it hadn’t been updated for several decades before the outbreak. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls in places and framed paintings of the countryside adorned them. It was a gift that you had found this place but it was a hard one to appreciate right now. Ellie came out of her room and leant her hand on the bannister.

“Um, goodnight then I guess.”

“Yeah,” you awkwardly bit your lip, “goodnight.”

Your head still pounded with the number of tears that had been shed over the past two weeks. It felt like you were going insane. You had mostly stayed cooped up in your room, not knowing how to handle the grief. Thankfully, due to the supplies that had already been in the house you hadn’t needed to go for a supply run yet. Ellie had left you alone, not wanting to interfere. The few times you had bumped into her there was a strained tension between you. You weren’t surprised considering this was an unusual circumstance for meeting someone new, but you felt strange about it nonetheless and hoped that in time, it would ease. After all, you were supposedly stuck together for the foreseeable future.

Up until this point you had been feeling a great sorrow where your whole body ached and you could barely tell that the days were passing. Now, however, you were entering a state of numbness, a complete disconnect from what was around you. It was as if the world had been chipping away at you piece by piece all these years and this had been the last hit before you had declined into nothing.

On the first night you had looked through the bedroom draws and had found some spare clothes to sleep in. You and Ellie had also managed to wash your own clothes with some rainwater you had collected and some soap you found in the bathroom. It hadn’t necessarily made them squeaky clean but it was better than nothing. It had also been relieving to have been able to clean your skin for the first time in a while. You were sitting on the bed with your knees bunched up against your chest and your cheek resting on them, eyes trailing over some of the pictures on the wall.

You sighed, pulling yourself up from the bed and slumping over to the mirrored dresser. Your devoid expression stared back at you. Your hair had been messed around from lying against the pillow for so long so you feebly attempted to tidy it before faltering towards the stairs. The floorboards at the top creaked under your weight and your hand gripped the bannister tightly, as if you would fall if you let go. With trembling steps, you made your way down and peeked through the open living room door. Ellie was slouching on the couch looking at a piece of crumpled paper.

“What’s that?” Your voice croaked so you coughed to clear it.

Her head shot to you as she was caught off guard by your presence. “Looks like instructions on how to get to the town.”

You shuffled over and sat beside her so you could see. She handed it to you, using her now free hands to rub her tired eyes. You observed the scribbles on the paper. It featured a roughly drawn map of squares and arrows, labelled with things like ‘road on the big hill’ and ‘supermarket.’

“Will be worth a try in a few days, we’re probably still alright for now,” she suggested. You nodded, putting the map down on the coffee table.

You picked at your hands in your lap, not knowing what to say. You and Ellie hadn’t said much to each other since you got here, events having not really allowed for it. You realised that you knew next to nothing about her. About her life, where she had come from, why she had saved you. Your eyes trailed down to the bandage on her right arm again.

“What happened to your arm?”

She immediately placed her left hand over it as if she was embarrassed or covering something up. “Oh, I uh, I got stabbed.”

You drew in a short breath. “Ouch.”

“Yeah,” she looked down at her arm, “it was pretty bad.”

Your sleeves were pushed up and she noticed you had a scar on your elbow.

“How did you get that?” She asked, gesturing to it. You lifted your arm, twisting it to look.

“Oh, that was from,” a puff of air escaped your nose, “it’s stupid and not as cool sounding as yours, I fell out of a tree trying to get a closer look at a bluebird.”

“Wow,” she snickered, “hope the look was worth it.”

“It was,” you looked down into your lap, running your hand over your arm, “you don’t come across many pretty things like that.”

You didn’t notice her looking at you when you spotted something behind the slightly open door of the cabinet the TV was resting on. You got up and crouched beside it, pulling the items out.

“CDs,” you mused to yourself, shuffling through them. Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix, Eagles, Tracy Chapman, Nirvana, Dolly Parton, Nickelback, and a few others.

“Too bad I can’t find the CD player,” Ellie remarked.

“Hm. It must be somewhere,” you said, fixing the pile of CDs, leaving them out on the coffee table as a reminder to look for the CD player. You stayed sitting on the floor, leaning on one of your hands and glanced around. You hadn’t really been in this room much. By the window was where the cabinet and TV sat then opposite was the dusty blue couch with a couple of limp throw cushions on. The walls were off white and much like upstairs, were covered in framed paintings. The windowsill was thick with dust and the moth-eaten curtains floated with the light breeze that was coming in from the open window.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where were you going before you came with us?”

Ellie stretched her hands and placed them on her knees, shuffling in her seat.

“Uh, nowhere really.”

“You didn’t have to be so nice to me that night, so thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me.”

She looked down at the ground with squinted eyes, her head shaking a little.

“Well, I want to,” you murmured softly, “you’d barely just met me and not a lot of people would have been that way.”

You looked up at her but she wasn’t looking at you, almost as if it would hurt her to do so.

taglist *✧･ﾟ: @bellasfavelesbo @ximtiredx @abbyily @heartzjules @gold-dustwomxn @sawaagyapong @aouiaa @pinkigirl @nil-eena @ucannotcompare @cherriesxinthespring @blvebanisters @lonelyfooryouonly @ellieslegalwife @carmellie @iheartgeto @faceache111 @lveunoialv @jajsnjz @simpforellie @frickfrack-paddywack-ukulel-blog @unicycl @cass00x @lizziee-williamss1 @muthafuckingstargirl @kattirin @corpsebridenightamare

[emblazons]

i’m about a month late to the ffvii rebirth fanfare but i saw your study/shot comparison for the ending while scrolling through some tags and was really curious to see if you had come up with any more conclusions since then! i just finished it a couple days ago and still reeling from it and have been enjoying hearing people’s thoughts about what the heck they think is going on. obvs cloud is not ok, but i’m still trying to decide just how much of what we’re seeing is due to his sanity going out the window and how much of it (if any) is aerith actually speaking to him and/or sephiroth messing with him. the way he tells the rest of the party to not look up at the sky though and none of them see what he sees, just clues them all in to the fact that he isn’t entirely all there anymore. a collective very concerned side-eye lol. somebody help him pls.

!!! oh friend, you're in a TON of luck: I actually started a few different commentaries on how I saw the ending on this weeks back, but didn't post them because I got distracted by other fandoms? I'm more than happy to share them though—not as developed as they could be, but some congealing of where my mind went upon finishing the game and rewatching the gameplay.

forewarning: FFVII ending spoilers + a long af post lmao

So I wrote this on my twitter (where I go to see things only on twt lol) the other day because of a bunch of concepts were clarified by the Ultimania + translators, which kinda sums up where my thoughts are:

Which...yeah. As I see it: as of the ending, Aerith is in fact dead in our current world (the one of the player narrative). How I see it, she's died in our primary timeline—though likely "alive" in the same way Zack is in some other timeline, in addition to her connection to every "universe" through the power of her connection to the planet as the last Cetra.

The white whispers (which represent Aerith/the will of the planet) as well as the “confluence of world” colors we see with Sephiroth are all around when Cloud supposedly “sees her alive" during the classic death scene—

—an indicator that the event itself was the "confluence" Sephiroth was trying to achieve, with Cloud experiencing several versions of it due to his own connection to Sephiroth/the lifestream/his fragmented mind. We see this both in what Sephiroth says around the event itself....and also the contrasting experiences of our party with what Cloud sees in the moment (+ through end of the game).

As I see it, Cloud’s consciousness by the end of FFVII:R-II is fully fractured; throughout both Remake & Rebirth he is already seeing visions affected by Sephiroth’s influence on the planet (the black whispers, the way hooded men and thin air turn into Sephiroth before his eyes)—and now, during the “confluence of emotions / worlds / reunion” mentioned (Aerith's death), Cloud’s already broken mind is slipping further into seeing “the middle space” of the worlds joined and prepared for destruction by Sephiroth in real time, rather than following the timeline of events in the world we play—a la the post that inspired your ask. :)

All that said: the reason he’s seeing Aerith (not just sensing her the way Red does in his own Lifestream connection) is because she’s a Cetra, and now (in death) the embodiment of the positive!Will of Gaia across worlds—so because of Cloud's connection to that "middle space" / ability to traverse different versions of reality because of his connection to Sephiroth, Cloud is interacting with her presence…despite it not being there for anyone else.

It’s also why he can see the sky split no one else can.

ADDITIONALLY:

The Aerith we see fight alongside Cloud in the final battle and the one we see walking around everyone as Cid fixes the plane…that’s the spirit of her person (think the Aerith of Advent Children). Aerith didn’t live this game—her spirit can communicate because of Sephiroth's successful confluence, though she’s ALSO "alive" in the same way Zack and Biggs are to us: aka she died in the world she was in but still exists in others, which Sephiroth confirms/explains both when Aerith pulls Cloud into another “doomed” world—

when he’s trying to manipulate Cloud in the Lifestream—

and when you’re fighting Sephiroth alongside Aerith in the void during the final battle (after she’s died).

Even so, Aerith “living on” as the last Cetra/the spirit of the planet + someone with access to multiple worlds through the "reunion" means she’s now as able to infiltrate Cloud's ongoing visions as Sephiroth is...and is likely trying to keep him even somewhat present despite his clearly fractured mind.

I think that’s implied repeatedly by through the hollow Holy Materia (implying both Aerith is no longer “there,” but still present + that cloud himself is now hollow)—

—and why/how the Black Materia (Sephiroth) is still manipulating him and very much driving his fractured thoughts, visions and actions.

As for the rest of the party: it's because no one but his “vessel-connected-to-Sephiroth” self (+ now dead-but-living-on-in-the-Lifestream Aerith) has any idea what he learned about worlds in the Lifestream that what’s happening to Cloud is lost on everyone (and why they look painfully concerned), and also why spirit!Aerith repeatedly gives him reminders to 1) not listen to Sephiroth and 2) focus on finding himself again.

All that said: because Cloud’s actual self is already slipping away from our present game TL by the second half of the game, it will have to be retrieved and rearranged—which we know will happen in game 3 (assuming you know the original FF7 plot where Tifa rearranges him in the Lifesteam) but that has to be changed from “Cloud finds out about Zack and finally cracks" because Cloud already knows about Zack in some capacity by the middle of Rebirth.

I personally think this sets us up for a really interesting resolution in that Tifa is going to probably have spirit!Aerith’s help putting Cloud back together in the Lifestream in game 3—and that she will likely play a bigger part in helping Cloud “find himself” in his own world again because it’s been made more apparent that she’s a full consciousness in the Lifestream/able to affect multiple worlds now because of Sephiroth completing the first step in his plan. That's more just hopeful on my part going into the next game than something rooted in analysis though.

But yes! those are my thoughts! I hope this gives you (more than a little) something. Feel free to ask if something isn’t clear though lol this was like 4 different half-done drafts combined 😂 Regardless, ty so much for the ask / giving me a reason to post them!

[vynnyal]

Y'all, how do I be normal about hollow knight.

Anyways, here's the unofficial 4th installment of that series I started a while ago where I throw together a bunch of random hk theories into one post... this time ordered to make mildly more sense!

So the context here is this:

My friend came up with a cool oc and I was immediately obsessed with the idea. I explained everything relevant... err-- mostly relevant, anyways-- but I extrapolated on a few points here.

It got kinda bloated because I tried to tie-in some of my random tangents. The rest... are just gonna be at the end, lmao.

...

Basically, there are Gods in Hallownest. They mostly fall under the category of "Higher Beings", though not all Higher Beings are gods.

All of these gods are Gods specifically because they use dreams as their life force, which is directly tied to how powerful their influence can be.

The mother of Greenpath, Unn, is the epitome of a good-ol' classic Hollowknight god.

She IS Greenpath. The plantlife came from her and is likely a direct conduit of her power (greenpath lore tablet). The Mosskin Tribe themselves are her dream-children-- they either literally spawned from her or were merely formed in her image.

And now remember, the entirety of greenpath and queen's gardens were her domain. That's like 1/6th of Hallownest.

She was The Shit. And then, for reasons untold, she went to sleep. Though it's hard to pin down when it started, it's implied her slumber predated the Dreamers; Quirrel's dreamnail dialogue mentions her, likely as a memory from the times he was Monomon's apprentice, and even then she was just "something revered" sleeping in the waters.

Which is to say, when Mr Columbus waltzed in to pave roads through their lands (and when his wife laid claim to a decent chunk to be her personal playground), they likely didn't meet much resistance. From Unn herself, anyways. Which makes it all the more shocking that they didn't smite her image completely when her domain was so throughly invaded and remolded to PK's satisfaction.

He had, in his grasp, an entire tribe of people that followed *a different God than himself,* aka the worst thing you can be in the eyes of another God. People are dreams, and dreams are power. More worshippers= more power. If you're a God, you HAVE to actively be thought about by many people to survive. A forgotten God is a dead God. (This exact conflict was, in no small part, the beginning of the series of dominoes that led to Hallownest's downfall, albiet with a different God.)

That Unn herself was left relatively alone, despite this, is likely because Unn/the Mosskin Tribe gave juuust enough to avoid conflict while also keeping their "dream" distinct from PK's (meaning: continue to worship Unn and not PK). I can only imagine he allowed this because if he didn't, both Unn and her people would simply cease to be; the Mosskin needed Unn, and Unn needed them. That, and he was probably pretty busy dealing with the aforementioned other God that was... decidedly less submissive.

Either way, WL took Unn's land and pushed out her followers, inadvertently (or possibly purposefully) greatly diminishing Unn's power and influence. (It's possible this was the event that knocked her out, and she was merely too weak to oppose two entire Higher Beings to begin with.)

The other important character of note is Fierce Dryya. She was one of the Five Great Knights, and WL's personal guard.

After WL birthed and subsequently killed her children, she isolated herself in the depths of her Gardens, presumably "well-protected" from the fate the rest of the world faced.

There, Dryya held her last stand before a swarm of infected mantis Traitors who sought to remove WL from their territory. Sadly, WL doesn't even know she's dead, even though you have to step over her corpse to enter WL's cocoon.

It's hard to think about, but theres an equal chance that she fought off the Traitors for good... and that her death was entirely in vain. She is found next to the mound of Traitor corpses she undoubtly killed, but in the end, she died as well.

Implying that, before breathing her last, she managed to terrify them enough to never come back..

Or that she was just eventually worn down and killed, and the Traitors simply gave up when they couldn't get through WL's own protection.

....Which is to say the time between Dryya's death and events of the game is almost completely unknown!

...

Things I just couldn't fit in:

1, The name greenpath is just because PK put a bunch of roads in it, really. It likely had a different name before Mr Columbus came along.

2, Btw I wondered if there were any actual children in hk. Turns out, yeah, most bugs can propogate (lol), but the only ones referenced in the game that are not directly from a God are openly NOT worshiping ANY God. I'm talking the Mantis tribe, the Spider tribe, the Flukes, the mushroom clan, and weirdly enough, a specific spirit called Joni whose whole thing was being a heretic-- aka not only Not a worshiper of PK, but actively outcast and perhaps outlawed by PK's people.

*I'm disregarding Millybug. They're implied to be childish, but that's all we know.

Other notable characters that were at least a child at one point are Hornet, who was the child of Herrah and PK, and the Vessels, the product of the WL and PK. Grimmchild doesn't count as its not an actual bug, but a vessel created by the Nightmare Heart. The PK's Vessels are unique because they were originally independent, living creatures.

3, This talk about gods and such made me think about what happens after the game. Unn isn't dead, just actively dying because Miss Rad keeps stealing all her followers. She barely has enough energy to be like "hey kid, take this thing and remember me plz."

With both Miss Rad and PK gone, there's nothing stopping Unn's revival. Like, imagine Hallownest getting repopulated by the remaining tribes, returned to their natural glory. The only place left untouched being the city and the abyss-- forever monument to the horrors that nearly killed them all.

4, It just occurred to me that most of the real Godly gods in the game get cop-outs in the pantheons so you can't fight them. White lady just kinda peaced out, Unn's on the respirator, PK is fully snapped out of existence, the Lifeblood entity is chilling out in the basement, and... well I guess you are the void king by then so it's a bit of a moot point. NKG, THK, and Miss Rad are the only ones that're ready to throw down. Good for them!

5, The story of Isma is perplexing. It's implied the grove she died in is the source of the weird acid ravaging Hallownest, though it's unknown how or why. The wiki presumes this only affects the lower regions of the world, but I personally haven't found whatever supports this*. There's pipework lining the broken elevator pass between Ogrim and the Grove, of which is literally glowing with acid, so...

*there is one spirit in the Spirit Glade that mentions acid as a biological defense mechanism, so acid does exist in some capacity outside of this weird angry stuff.

Besides that, her dreamnail dialogue is "there's no time." Seriously? That's the most cliffhanger-y quote of the bunch, I can so clearly imagine team cherry being like "have fun! No we will not elaborate lol" before they spike the ball into our court.

In any case, while down this rabbit hole I have come to terms with the fact that Ogrim is still the best character in the game. He's literally the "I lie to myself :)" guy. All his friends are dead or missing. His lover drowned in 10 feet of acid. His idol the King was sent to superhell. Everyone else is a shambling husk. But he's still out here like "hey again, I realized you're not dead! Sorry about that, everyone else is so I got confused. Oh you saw my gf after pulling the lever that lowers the 10 feet of acid in her grove? Yeah she's super cool. Yeah no I can't go see her even though she's literally right over there, I got my, uh... oath. Haha. Good luck!"

6, While reading about Essence, it occurred to me that when you dreamnail a spirit, you don't actually kill them. You merely collect them. When the seer speaks to you about how much essence you have, she mentions she sees memories peering back at her. (1200 essence dialogue)

Most clearly don't want to be collected. They are at their final resting place, and desire to stay there, whether they're aware of their current state or not.

...buuut technically, TECHNICALLY, you aren't actually harming the spirits you dreamnail and can totally collect em' all to chill with you instead of lingering, listlessly, forever. You're just kinda rude for it. Also, none of the other spirits can tell what happened to them, so just dreamnail Revek too! He'll be fiiiine. :D right?

7, What really messes with my understanding of the timeline is WL's whole physical situation with what the blindness and such. She's the Higher Being, but within such a relatively short span of time, she has aged to the point of her body breaking down? More importantly, she's not immortal?? There are no mentions of the queen ever having any physical ailments, publically or privately, until you see it for yourself. Meaning that the worst of it happened after the Vessels were born and THK began their training. Perhaps the matter with the Vessels took more of a physical toll than originally assumed?

If we're assuming the pair hooked up after PK turned tiny, then you have to wonder just how old she was at the time. Judging by the rate at which she's aging now, she was likely pretty young. Frankly, I doubt it'd change much either way. She'd have that matter-of-fact, gung-ho demeanor at any age.

This is also why I specified that not all Higher Beings are bona-fide Gods. WL doesn't need the dreams of others, and judging by the weaver's seal she uses to protect her mind, doesn't want others to dream of her. And yet the Godseeker recognizes her as... something. (Third encounter)

So at least she's not just a really old tree. But she's also not a God like PK. She's a weird, third thing.

8, but I'm not letting go of her weird orb cocoon thing. What's that about?? What is it made of? Was it constructed by others and she was sealed within? Or did she somehow create it herself? The architecture seems to imply it's inorganic, but how did she get in there, then?

To top off the weirdness, there's the conveniently ghost-sized hole in the center of her carved face. So I'm leaning more towards "exaggerated metaphor for entering WL's mind" or "easy-to-read entry point for players to go to visit WL that isn't literally there in canon" and not "there's a big glowing hole in this literal rock that inexplicably leads to a tunnel* that then leads to a room very obviously bigger than what's seen from the outside."

There's no way, dude.

I'm leaning more towards there being a large structure she could walk into, that was then barricaded to fully seal her within. The knight, being so small, managed to get their way in through some sort of tunnel.

But then something happened to the plan and the outside of the structure turned into whatever Ari thought that orb was supposed to be.

*Although, I do like the interpretation that the tunnel is actually Ghost slowly making their way through her roots to meet her.

[neo-zone]

Alright, I finally got my hands on this full ... presscon? cast reaction? Whatever.

I already shared some screenshots from this before (by some people on Twitter) and after finally watching the full version, I fell like I need to share the rest of the season 2 world building and character lores mentioned and discussed to you guys in here (and also major spoilers for season 3)

P.S. I could be wrong on some of the points here (either misinterpreting or not paying enough attention), so please correct me if I do in the reply section

Season 2

I'm still confused af on this line : "he killed his original body as well as his personality, eventually turning into the twisted monster that he is now". Like so, does it refer to Sang-won killing his original body in season 2 or is it about monster Sang-won killing the real Sang-won?

I still don't get this line too, so interpret it however you want : "The child covered in black?" "This is where what's remaining of Sang-won disappears, uncovering the child."

Chan-young was a baseball player. Ye-seul was one of the cheerleaders

Oh, apparently monsterization does still happened inside the stadium. That's why there's a regular daily checking. Anyone showing symptoms will be out in the isolation place (yeah that place where they put the sick mom in). Some lived, some died inside the isolation => might be why Chief Ji keeping her monster son secluded somewhere deep inside the stadium

Hyun-su cut Yi-kyung's daughter hair the same style as him, hence how they're being similar appearance wise

The live action crew is adapting Shotgun Boy into Netflix Sweet Home

Yi-kyung blames herself for how her child turned out to be with her monster-turning power

Yi-kyung's inability to give affection or even touched her child stems from the fact that monsters are created from human desires, so she didn't want her child to have desire (awfully familiar with a particular old man *side glance*)

Yep, you guessed it. These three (Hyun-su, Eun-yu, and Chan-young) are dense as fuck about their own feelings to each other (minus Hyun-su to Chan-young and vice versa ofc)

Yi-kyung's daughter views Hyun-su as her own family even more than her biological mother. Because they're similar and he's the only person she could hold hands with without her power reacting

Hyun-su uses red ribbons to mark the safe area for Eun-yu because color red stands out among the greenery of Seoul post time skip

The monster cocoons are shaped like a heart because monsterization manifests from human desires

The "real Jung Wui-myeong" is one of the scientists. Sang-won (or monster Sang-won depending how you interpret the earlier points) took his identity and used it as his own, probably to separate himself from his old human self

Lmao, not them calling Sang-won's family as family of evil and there's no good apple in it. That's so fucking foul

Sang-wook is still there somewhere (I already shared this one before)

Sang-won's original abilities include the Medusa touch he did to Hyun-su in episode 3

Oh wait, Yi-kyung survived?! I thought she died after her fight with Hyun-su (uh oh *nervous glance to every instance of me mentioning "her death" in replies*)

Monster Hyun-su act according to what Hyun-su thinks and desires (I had shared this one before)

Monster Hyun-su is more proactive and extrovert (is the extrovert part really necessary?")

Season 3 rough summary

Family drama : Nam Sang-won starts a bunch of trouble (this bitch) in order to create a world he dreams of. There are family reunions and conflicts between spouses. He also meets his child (uh oh). They fight for her custody. This custody case didn't need a court (fuck, oh come on 😂). Yi-kyung wouldn't just talk it out. She'd fight until one is dead

Sibling drama : Eun-yu will meet Eun-hyeok again, but I'm not sure it'll make her happy

Second male lead struggle : Chan-yeong faces even more hardships as the story progresses. But even then, he gives up a lot just to protect Eun-yu. He starts to understand the monsters more. There's a lot on his mind as the story goes on.

More monster Hyun-su : Hyun-su lets go of himself and lets out the monster. But the monster doesn't just do its thing. He reads Hyun-su's mind and acts as he wants.

Another Hyun-su and Yi-kyung interaction : And later on, he interacts with Yi-kyung as well. The emotion it brings also felt huge. In the narration, he tells Eun-yu how much pain Yi-kyung is in and that he has to stop it all himself. So I'm sure Hyun-su sparked a change in Yi-kyung's heart. That'll continue in Season 3.

[wilchur]

Daydreaming bg3 scenarios is my full time job at this point and I've had this phenomenal idea on my walk the other day. It's not really a headcanon since it has little basis in canon and directly contradicts some game events and plays with the lore like it's play-doh so more of a AU/fanfic idea, but...

It always struck me as inaccurate for Durge to be referred to as a "Bhaalspawn" since they're literally a PART of Bhaal made into a separate person in an act of (very confusing) divine creation and it really downplays just how powerful and dangerous they are. Especially since I fully subscribe to the idea that Durge is NOT a mortal, but that's simply not in the game due to just how OP it would be to play an unkillable Dame Aylin-esque character and the definition of a Bhaalspawn is "mortal offspring of the dead god Bhaal". So what the hell are they?

The Slayer. Or at least they're a direct vessel for it, more like.

No, really. Hear me out. Have you noticed how Gortash refers to Orin as "The Slayer" in that bit of dialogue when she puts a dagger to Ketheric throat? Except she's not? Not yet at least because the dialogue does not change depending on if you're still the one who has Bhaal's favour or not and she doesn't get it until you piss of Dad enough for him to go "fine have it your way, ungrateful brat". Plus I don't think The Slayer has been used as a shorthand for "Chosen of Bhaal" anywhere else sooo... Does he assume it's a feature of the position since he knew Durge had command over the form before their disappearance?

That's what birthed the first worm in my brain leading to this unhinged infestation, but it's not all -- there's THE URGE itself.

The game fucks it up SO bad on the whole front because it's reluctant to take choice away from the player, which is maybe understandable, but absolutely WRECKS the narrative that it's something to be afraid of. There's what? Alfira and the squirrel? Those are the only unavoidable consequences of having these supposedly violent and divine compulsions baked into every cell of your damn body. Saving your partner from a gruesome death by your hand needs a dice roll of 15, for fuck's sake! It was harder to convince a bunch of goblins to not turn me into an arrow pin cushion. Durge themself has been scared shitless of it their entire life and you're telling me the thing mostly boils down to dialogue choices? That just won't do for me, sorry. In the game The Urge's source is also never really explained beyond "of course you have unstoppable violent compulsions, you're 100% Bhaal's flesh and blood" which is fucking BORING and doesn't make sense to me because as far as I know Bhaal loves murder because that's his domain as a god, he was not a compulsive killer as a mortal so why would it be something that's passed down? No, The Urge is a fucking Slayer thing!

"It also had the ability to incite attraction in others, and remove any negative feelings they felt, or compel an urge to slay in any intentionally malevolent being, whenever it chose."

To be fair this is from a 2e sourcebook, but COME ON. Didn't it strike anyone else as weird that young Durge is mentioned to have slain an entire PALADIN ORDER before making their way to the temple if you're playing as an oathbreaker? Like, HOW? Slayer form bay-be, that's how.

(Can you tell by now I'm not normal about the idea? Yeah.)

All living creatures learn the best from their own mistakes and I think that letting The Slayer take over would be Bhaal's version of letting your incessant kid touch the clothes iron because they just refuse to leave it alone. Bad parenting, but it's Bhaal we're talking about lmao. "Oh you don't want to kill? No biggie, fuck around and see what happens then. I'll wait." is way fucking scarier to me than him just forcing Durge's hand with the butler basically being like "Heads up, master. Your father is pretty mad and your Urge is hungry so you might commit a murder tonight!" right beforehand.

Just the mental image of Durge thinking "I've done it! I've saved Isobel!" and then having the starved Slayer rip itself out of them like it does out of Orin when Bhaal forces her to transform... You see my vision right? RIGHT? And then the beast gets slain because what else is there to do and since Durge is immortal they just come back to themself instead of becoming goo (which is a game mechanic already since their sis is not so lucky, rip). The drama and angst potential is INFINITE. The sheer raw power of THAT being the "Bhaalspawn" reveal because if Isobel is alive that means Jaheira must be there like "what the FUCK are you exactly??" and no one can pretend that Durge is just Bhaalspawn+ like they do in the game. Do they kill anyone? People are bound to be at least heavily injured, especially since they've JUST fought Ketheric's bossfight and are not rested and at full potential.

GOD, I am rotating this thing in my head so fast the friction is bound to make my brain melt.

[galaxy-brain-rasslin]

Thoughts on AEW: Revolution (2024)

There will be spoilers. There will also be a cut, as a courtesy.

Zero Hour:

The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Jay White) vs Jeff Jarrett, Stanam Singh, Jay Lethal, Willie Mack, and Private Part

This consistent thing of Max flubbing on the rap is interesting. My current assumption is that they're potentially having Max break away from the group. Which is an interesting choice, because Bowens is significantly more popular.

The match itself was totally fine. It was a Jarrett match. I didn't go into it expecting it to be some sort of masterpiece of technical wrestling. I expected a fun, goofy little thing with a bunch of silly shit happening that also happened to have some decent-to-good wrestling. And that's exactly what this was. No complaints.

I have no idea if White's post-match promo was intended to be interpreted as a smarmy, insincere thing filled with deliberately cheap pops for the audience, but that's how I heard it. It somehow made it so much better.

Willow Nightingale & Kris Statlander vs Julia Hart & Skye Blue

Julia Hart's character going from a cheerleader to "What if The Undertaker was a spooky girl instead?" is such an amazing transformation. I can't get over how well she's committed to the presentation of the gimmick, and how good this is. Skye going from blue-themed girl from Chicago to a Dark Kingdom cosplayer has also been an interesting development. I like how these two also seem to be enjoying the changeup.

Stokely Hathaway is hilarious. I love him on commentary. His inclusion of the dynamic with Willow and Kris is just fantastic.

If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times-- I love Willow. She's one of my favorite women on the roster. The combination of the happy/bubbly personality that also contains someone who, if pressed, will rip you in half? Wonderful stuff. And Statlander is also consistently great. Watching these two throw Skye around was fantastic.

I was a little surprised to see Willow and Kris win without any major fuckery. Julia's moonsault looked significantly better compared the one with her match against Abadon.

It was a fun little match.

Revolution

Christian Cage vs Daniel Garcia, AEW TNT Championship

Christian Cage continues to be one of the best heels in professional wrestling today. A gimmick composed entirely of "lmao L + Ratio + Dead Dad" and "I will be your father"-- all while he wrestles in a goddamn sleeveless turtleneck? Everything about that is just somebody whose face you want to see punched.

Really happy to see Garcia get the match. I mentioned before that I had wanted DG to win. That didn't happen, but I thought everything about the match was great. Menard combing out there to beat the hell out of Luchasaurus/Killswitch in defense of Danny was great.

I thought Garcia looked good in this, and I don't think him losing to Christian (especially with all the interference) will cause any significant issues.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the match. I thought it was a good opener and kept me pretty invested the whole time. Although I'm wondering who is going to be the one to actually take the title off Christian.

Eddie Kingston vs Bryan Danielson, Continental Crown Championship (AEW Continental, ROH World, NJPW Strong Openweight Championships)

Bryan Danielson is without question one of the greatest technical pro wrestlers of all time. Also, he and Eddie both are fantastic in-ring storytellers.

Bryan Danielson, in his current iteration, is also a condescending piece of shit, and he's great at doing that, too.

Like Willow, I love Eddie. Eddie is up there with Hiroshi Tanahashi in that I will literally always cheer for him. I don't care who he's up against, I'm cheering for Eddie the whole time.

This match was amazing. Eddie and Bryan are so great at getting you emotionally invested in their matches. They both know what things they need to do for the audience to get hooked in, and they play those perfectly. The narrative of this match was perfect.

I went into this genuinely uncertain just who would win. The majority of the match didn't help matters. Eddie hitting the ring post with a chop, instead of Danielson, was a nice piece of drama to incorporate into things. I also liked how Danielson really made it a point to emphasize just how strong Eddie's chops are-- with commentary even pointing out Bryan things Eddie is better with chopping/upper body attacks.

A big narrative line through these Eddie Kingston Addresses the Blackpool Combat Club matches has been that BCC generally seems to think Eddie has the potential to be a lot better than he is, and they're trying to get that out of him. Except for Mox, they don't respect Eddie until he shows up and chops the fuck out of them. Eddie has always been on their level, but he doesn't believe in himself enough to really get there.

Great match. Just a great fucking match.

I know Eddie eventually is going to have to lose the belts. It's an inevitability unless just retire all of them simultaneously, but that seems unlikely. That said, I don't have to like it.

Wardlow vs Chris Jericho vs Powerhouse Hobbs vs Lance Archer vs Hook vs Brian Cage vs Magnus vs Dante Martin

Originally the Meat match, got changed up due to Reasons. I'll be honest, I didn't really care much about this match. I assumed Wardlow was going to win, because it didn't really make sense to do this repackaged presentation of him with Undisputed Kingdom, set up a match essentially to be like "Look at Wardlow slap all this meat" and then have him lose. The inclusion of the smaller guys was, like, fine. Dante Martin is great. Hook is fun. Magnus was also great. Chris Jericho was there.

I thought it was contrived and silly, but I also enjoyed when the smaller dudes all got knocked out of the ring so the bigger dudes could do a little pose off and have slap meat. But that's because the "MEAT" chants are hilarious to me.

My preferred ending to this match would have been if Wardlow had powerbombed Jericho for the win. But you can't get everything you want. Also, Wardlow using the Last Ride as his finisher is great. I wasn't the biggest fan of Bikertaker (and I believe he had only recently transitioned into Bikertaker whenever I fell off of watching WWF/E the first time) but Last Ride is such a great powerbomb.

A silly and fun match. It was a nice cooldown from Eddie/Bryan.

Roderick Strong vs Orange Cassidy, AEW International Championship

AEW's doctor said that OC wouldn't be cleared to wrestle unless they taped up his ribs and back. So the match starts with OC wearing a comical amount of kinesio tape. In a match against a man who is literally called "The Messiah of the Backbreaker".

Strong came to the ring wearing a white hooded cape and a skull-themed, like, paintball mask. I didn't recognize it at first, but I think it was intended to be something like Taskmaster from Marvel Comics. Which is kinda cool. I'm not as familiar with Taskmaster as much as other villains-- mostly because I just haven't read a lot of Marvel stuff.

Anyway, this was a good match. Roddy, as one would expect, beat the hell out of OC's back. I think OC did great at showing that he's just a beat down dude who has barely let himself take time to recover from any injuries. And having him go up against someone who basically specializes in hurting the area that OC was already injured was just perfect.

Roddy is great. The number of ways that man can spin something into a backbreaker is always impressive. I'm glad he won. I maintain that getting this win will absolutely help the legitimacy of Undisputed Kingdom.

Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli) vs FTR

I think that FTR is one of the greatest tag teams around today. I've said this before. I was a fan of theirs when they were in NXT as The Revival, and I loved their little Belt Collector run with AEW. In terms of non-WWE tag teams, they're usually right up there with The Young Bucks, and whether you're a fan of the Bucks or FTR really seems to boil down to the style you like to watch. The no-flips-just-fists of FTR is a great callback to the older era of wrestling, and the two of them do it well.

Mox and Claudio also do that very well.

This was a great match. These four dudes beat the shit out of each other, and I genuinely wasn't sure how the match would go.

BCC doing a Doomsday Device with a goddamn European uppercut was wild.

I think having Mox and Jon win was perfectly fine. FTR isn't going to be hurt by losing to these two dudes. They're fucking FTR. I could easily watch these four have several more matches together. There's a kind of respectful brutality with them.

That all being said, I do wish the meme of Mox bleeding every match-- or people being surprised when he isn't bleeding-- would finally die. He hasn't done it in a while.

Of course, half of Mox's character is basically some sort of blood freak with a violence fetish, so I still expect blood somewhere in his bigger matches.

"Timeless" Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo, AEW Women's Championship

Mariah May coming out to Toni's old theme, with her old gear was a great touch.

Deonna is great. I'm happy to see her here. I'm glad that there's solid technical wrestling the women's division with her and Deeb being there. This was a solid match. I didn't really have a lot in terms of expectations-- I haven't seen a lot of Deonna's other stuff, but I knew she was good.

While I think it would have been fine if Deonna had one, I also think it may have been a bit too soon for that. Also, if Mercedes is debuting soon, that sets up a bit of a lose/lose if Deonna is the champion and they try to hook those two into a feud.

I definitely want to see more from Deonna. I think she would be a good person to take the TBS belt from Julia. I don't want her down in ROH-- but that's because ROH is a subscription service, and I don't currently have it (although I do want it, because Athena is one of my favorites).

I thought this was a solid match for both of them. Toni is always fun to watch in the ring. I'm curious to see where things go with both of them after this.

Will Ospreay vs Konosuke Takeshita

1 Like = 1 Bruv.

My expectation for this match was, quite literally, just that it was going to be a fucking fantastic match. Ospreay is one of the greats. Takeshita is steadily (and rapidly) approaching into the ranks of the greats.

I fucking loved this match. The crowd at the arena fucking loved this match. Every time Ospreay and Takeshita started in on each other, you could eat the people just get so into it.

Was this a dirty spotfest? Yeah. Of course. It's a Will Ospreay match. That's what he does. But you know what? I don't fucking care. I can enjoy watching ZSJ and Bryan Danielson spend an hour in the middle of the ring, trying to break each other's fingers and I can enjoy watching Ospreay and Takeshita jump around and flip and smash each other with elbows before jumping and flipping some more.

Spanish Fly is also one of my favorite moves to watch.

The match fucked. It humped. It was great. I loved it. It was A Spectacle if there ever was one. The kind of match you can eat popcorn to, although you're going to throw it everywhere because you jerking the bag around out of excitement. So much fun.

Samoa Joe vs Swerve Strickland vs HangMAD Hangman Adam Page

Did I want Swerve to win? Yes.

Did I want Hangman to win? Yes.

Did I want Samoa Joe to win? Yes.

Did I want Hangman to completely lose his mind and deliberately fuck over Swerve? Oh god, yes.

Swerve Strickland the most over wrestler who is not named "Sting" in AEW. There is nobody who comes close to this man. He literally broke into Hangman's home, and threated Hangman's infant child, and the crowd still loves him, because he's that fucking cool. And he's that good. Swerve's popularity is so strong that anyone who goes against him is going to be booed on some level.

Hangman has, as the upper-third of his name plate said, completely lost it. Wide-eyed, driven, and completely unhinged. Does he want the championship? Or does he just want Swerve to not have it?

Samoa Joe is Samoa Joe. We all love him. He's great on the mic. He's great in the ring. He feels credible and legitimate as a champion and a challenger. Having him be the champion for this feud is great.

A fantastic match. A ton of fun to watch. There was a perfect amount of drama for this thing. I loved it.

This match also cemented the double-turn for Swerve and Hangman.

Hangman, in an attempt to prevent Swerve from winning, beat up two different referees. The only way that's a babyface move is if your name is Bobby Heenan. Hangman's obsession with screwing over Swerve has caused him to start doing this stuff. I can't wait to see where they go with him now. Are they gonna change the music? Will they keep the goofy comments in the nameplate?

Swerve, by extension, refused to use Prince Nana's crown when it was offered, saying that he didn't need it. A thing that had been used before in matches against Hangman. There is an attempt here to have Swerve redeem himself for the deplorable things he's done.

In the end, Hangman tapped to Samoa Joe. Excalibur, help to sow the seeds that many people were wondering, posed the question if Hangman was tapping because he actually gave up, or if he was tapping to spite Swerve. I think it was the latter, because he's that much of a (justified) hater.

I am still 100% in favor of Hangman and Swerve fighting forever.

Sting and Darby Allin vs The Young Bucks, AEW Tag Team Championship

Sting's last match. Going out on his terms. This was a big deal for a lot of people. Even people who weren't in AEW. I knew this was going to be special.

Before the match starts, Ric Flair made his way down to the ring to take up space. Then, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat came down as the guest timekeeper. They also showed various other wrestlers in the audience.

The Young Bucks come out in robes and have cannons shoot out business cards. It felt like a corporate Okada entrance. I liked it.

Darby came out as he does.

Then we got a little video package of Sting in an empty theater as they show various career highlights. In the end, he says, "It's showtime. It's showtime for the last time. Let's do this."

Sting's entrance starts with one of his sons dressed as a red, white, and blue-themed Surfer Sting, complete with the blonde hair. Another son is dressed as Wolfpac Sting. Then we have Sting show up.

While Tony Schiavone's voice isn't as strong as it was in WCW, you can tell during his initial commentary during the match that's definitely trying not to get emotional.

Watching Sting, and his two sons, do Stinger Splashes to the Bucks was great.

Tables, chairs, a ladder, and panes of glass were brought out. Panes. Multiple. A series of chairs were set up, and one or two sheets of the glass were placed on top, like a table.

Sting and Darby went through tables.

Darby jumped from the ladder (which was quite tall) and landed back first into Chekov's Glass-and-Chair Table. He laid on the ground for quite some time, his back just absolutely shredded.

Sting, also, went through glass. However, he had clothes on, and looked unscathed.

The match was chaos in the best way. I had no idea who would win-- I expected The Bucks to do something fucky to screw over Sting. They threw everything at him. He withstood multiple superkicks and BTE/EVP Triggers.

Eventually, Darby came back to life, and managed to keep Nicholas Jackson at bay long enough for Sting to throw on the Scorpion Deathlock. Matthew taps. Sting and Darby retain.

Sting's last wrestling match, and he goes out on top. I didn't expect that. I don't know why I didn't expect that. Tony Khan is a billionaire wrestling nerd, and Sting was/is probably a favorite of his. If there was ever a wrestler who deserved to go out as the winner, it's Sting.

If AEW is around long enough to have a "Hall of Fame", Sting needs to be one of the first people inducted (the first person has to be Brodie Lee, or I will personally fight Tony Khan). I hope they are around long enough for that.

Miscellaneous non-match things

PAC IS COMING BACK. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I've missed that bastard.

KOR IS BACK. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. I missed that goofy son of a bitch. I was so worried he wouldn't be coming back. I can't watch to see how he's going to be interacting with Undisputed Kingdom, since he seemingly rejected Roddy's offer to join.

Apparently Toni Storm called out Wendy Richter again in the post-show media scrum. Which I just find consistently hilarious.

In Summary

This shit was fucking fun as hell, dude. AEW is very consistent in having good quality PPVs. World's End was probably the weakest one I've seen, and even then, it wasn't bad. I can't wait to see the fallout of things on Wednesday.

[lunar-years]

i think i remember you mentioned how jamie’s love confession to keeley had nothing to do with how he felt about her romantically and i’d love to hear more of your thoughts on it. jamie’s so strange throughout the ep, and considering it’s right after the man city confrontation with his father, it’s probably not too far of a stretch to say he’s thinking about his own father’s death and having a bit of an existential crisis himself. i think jamiekeeley is cute btw and i’m all for ot3 roykeeleyjamie! just wanted to pick your brain about this. and apologies if you’ve never posted about this and i’m remembering the wrong user

Hi! I’m pretty sure this wasn’t me who said it (but never say never because I sure say a lot on here, lol). However you might have still seen it on my blog, because I think I responded to an ask recently with the same opinion!

Regardless, my personal view on it is that Jamie was definitely speaking romantically, BUT I’ve seen a bunch of people think otherwise and it’s fun to explore different viewpoints so I'm gonna talk about my opinions on the funeral episode anyway lmao :)

I think the funeral is soooo interesting because Jamie AND Roy AND Keeley are all acting kind of strangely. Even when we figure how why Roy is being so odd (Grandad Emotions), but there's still whatever is going on between Jamie and Keeley. Because like, yeah, Jamie definitely should’ve 1) realized his boss' father's funeral wasn’t the time nor place for love confessions and 2) probably not done it regardless because, yes, it is kind of out of pocket to tell your ex-girlfriend you’re still in love with her when she’s currently dating someone else (who just so happens to be your current football coach who just helped you during a very traumatic experience)…like ohhh Jamie. Messy!! But I love mess. So therefore I did love this. 🤷‍♀️ However…the topic is not necessarily as ~coming up out of nowhere~ as it first seems, I think. Importantly, Keeley is also acting weirdly!!

I was staring at this gifset recently and thinking many a Keeley thought, and to be honest I think feelings and big emotions were being stirred up again on BOTH sides at that event. It’s interesting (and I think rings true to other insights we've gotten into her character) that as soon as things get a little dicey with Roy, Keeley starts looking outside her relationship, either for people to confide in (as she does when she tells everyone but Roy about the problems she’s having with Roy in Headspace) or to reflect on what she no longer has but is suddenly wondering if she might miss and possibly still want (her contemplative looks at Jamie at the funeral, “you look nice Jamie” etc…. Maybe this is an unpopular take, but I think Keeley is also feeling some type of way that day, about Jamie in particular. And yeah I definitely think that has an impact on why Jamie chooses then to confess to her. He's sensing a different vibe between them suddenly and is reminded, I need to do this.

The other reasons in Jamie’s head imo are 1) Jamie is just generally very open about most of his feelings and I think he’s coming at it from, a 'you should tell the people you love that you love them!' place, right or wrong 2) as he later tells Roy, the funeral made him uncomfy!! and AS YOU SAY yeah i do think there's definitely an connection between that and his dad abusing him in front of the whole team, which has just happened very recently. PERHAPS he is already Not Doing Great, and watching his boss who he doesn't really know act Weird during the eulogy for her Dead Father has him extra off-kilter. 3) as we learn in s3... his dad disappeared after Wembley. No calls, no texts. Nothing. Now, we don't have categoric evidence that this is unusual, but to ME James Sr. doesn't seem like someone who typically leaves well enough alone. I can definitely see Jamie still being freaked out over this very big thing that happened that his dad has got to be incredibly angry about. Perhaps there is still a part of him very much waiting for the other shoe to drop! Which is to say, I do think you're right that there's an element of existential crisis going on here.

Also, while I do personally think Jamie's confession is romantic in nature, I do not think it is conditional in intent. Jamie isn't telling her with the expectation that she's going to dump Roy immediately and tell him that oh yeah, she loves him too. Like, Jamie isn't an idiot. I think he does at the heart of it just want to thank her and he's been meaning to thank her for a while because she means SO MUCH TO HIM that it all has to come spilling out as some point. And a part of that love is romantic, yes, but he also loves her in so many ways. I think Jamie is perfectly content to put it out there and let her set the terms of their future friendship/relationship. Most important to him is that she knows.

So anyway, sorry this got so long and that it isn't really what your original question was about (for anyone who thinks the confession wasn't about Jamie loving her romantically, please feel free to chime in/reblog and add your thoughts!) but in summation, I think: Roy being upset about other things (Grandad) causes him to stir a fight with Keeley -> The fight with Roy causes Keeley to re-evaluate some things and part of her focus undeniably lands on Jamie -> Jamie senses something has changed between him and Keeley and because of that, in addition to the lingering aftershocks of a recent very traumatic experience, confesses he's still in love with her at a funeral.

Which is to say, as I DO always say here at lunar-years, these three's stories have always been irrevocably intertwined since the beginning (regardless of the ot3 as a ship) and the funeral is another example of that. Also it is totally crazy that we never get an explicit follow-up to Man City until episode 11 of the NEXT SEASON and that is one of my biggest grievances on season 2.

[tw1l1te]

I really LOVE the forgotten hero and how they don't like the Chain. But I have multiple questions. First, Is the Shadow now dead? If yes, why are they still traveling through time? Shouldn't they all be back home? Second, Wtf Wild, Why? Third, Is Reader now a Link with the Hero's Spirit or not? I think not. Fourth, What about Sage's, TotK Link's, journey. After the Nintendo Sage and Wild are the same person so what happened to the Sky Islands? Did they fall down? Or what happened to Dinraal, Naydra and Farosh? They are immortal dragons did they die or did they just leave like a father to get some milk? Fifth, Are they now Wild's descendant like Twilight is from Time or his successor? And how old is Y/N exactly

But I can really imagine Y/N beating the hell out of everyone during sparring matches, Sky included. But I also can see Y/N just wielding the weapons of the Champions and it doesn't break even if they mine with it. Or that Reader has so many magic spells that three whole book shelves are filled.

Love your series to bits I read it like 4 times just to understand Wild and did the others introduce them to Reader? Because you mentioned something like "named Sky" or did Y/N dream that too?

Take your time with the writing, slow and steady wins the race.

Have a good day/ evening/ night.

The gremlin is out!

The shadow is dead physically, not in terms of soul (dark soul?) similar to Hylia.

I needed Wild to have some gremlin energy lmao (also we all now we made him do stupid/funny things)

The reader is not a Link, they're called that for identity protection and just because people that the reader met during their quest mistakingly assumed she/they were Link, so it just kinda stuck.

All of those will come in due time, one way or another! Can't reveal everything in just two chapters >:3c

But yes, Totk will come, a new Link will be introduced again. I'm still figuring out a bunch of plot and character arcs/personalities/names.

5. They call themselves Wild's descendant (again) for identity purposes. The plot is getting more complex by the chapter, so I want to reveal that the reader is not, in fact, related in any sense to the heroes. But that's a story for a later time

The "named Sky" part was because they had briefly gone around and said their nicknames offscreen/offwriting. In addition, Y/n/Link has a few memories from the Chain's combined journey together to defeat the Shadow and picked up the nicknames from that, it was just blurry to see their faces. Y/n can hear conversations during their flashbacks, hence why they kinda know everyone.

I know the reading can be confusing, especially with so much plot jumping around, but it'll be more straightforward once the plot starts! It's mostly world-building and uncomfortable introductions right now.

[bbygirl-aemond]

You may already be aware, but I actually found ppl going back and forth on Reddit about a post you'd made on here (re Viserys being a shite parent). It's under r/HouseOfTheDragon in case you ever wanted to check it out. I just recognized your name, as I follow you and it was shared as a screenshot from here.

lmao i will never get over how wild reposting on the internet actually is. that fucker has over a thousand comments and i had no idea until you told me just now! literally made a reddit account to try to add my voice to the din just to encourage people to discuss on the original platform so i can see but tbh people on reddit are a lot meaner than tumblr so i won't be mad if it doesn't get too many upvotes.

reddit's responses to this post is such an interesting case study in the polarization that's happening everywhere online. i get SO MANY accusations of being wildly biased from supporters of both "teams" all the time and it's funny because like am i too team green or too team black bc i can't be both right? mostly i think it's because people get really defensive when you criticize a character and assume it means you hate them. like bruh we are adults with big girl emotions can't it be a little more complex than that?

when i say i think viserys is a bad parent, i'm not saying it as team green propaganda. i've said before that rhaenyra is the rightful ruler and that i absolutely adore her as a character (let's just say aemond isn't my only babygirl). there's a reason i've written 100k+ words of fanfic designing a political scenario where she'll be able to happily rule without any of her children dying. spoiler alert: it's not because i hate her and think she's a bad ruler. and she's far from the only character on team black i love: daemon, jacaerys, lucerys, and baela all come to mind.

it's also really interesting to me that people see my opinion about viserys and, even though i literally did not mention rhaenyra, assume that i'm somehow shitting on her. it just goes to show how much they stand blindly by one team or another. that to criticize one member of their "team" feels to them like you're criticizing every member. like baby, i'm not the one making it about teams: you are! honestly, i understand why the team mentality was a good marketing move, but it really has been the death of critical thinking in this fandom. there are aspects of both that we're meant to root for, just as there are aspects of both we're meant to hate. none of these people are objectively morally good, and that's what makes it interesting, so why are we trying to pretend otherwise?

so while yes, i don't like viserys, why would i extend that dislike to rhaenyra? it's not like she forced him at gunpoint to do the things i'm criticizing him for lol. in fact, i think viserys did her just as dirty most of the time. i have another post in the works about this, but he neglected her for her entire childhood, groomed her best friend and dealt with telling her in the worst possible way, and made her heir in a bid for her affection yet did none of the actual work to honor her as a ruler. he could have made her his hand but instead he made her pour his wine?

now, again, just because we dislike part of something does not mean it's all bad. do i think viserys is generally quite a bad parent and person? absolutely. did i also cry ugly tears in the scene where he forces himself up from his literal deathbed to defend his daughter? yes. these two things can coexist.

also, because reddit is reddit, there are a bunch of comments that just miss my point about alicent and aemma entirely. i've already responded to those in a post here so i won't beat a dead horse too much. but to paraphrase: viserys married alicent because he liked her specifically not for duty or he would've married someone who wouldn't horrify the entire small council; and aemma didn't need to be alive and conscious for the pain she was put through at the end of her life. the things he did to his wives weren't necessary and i don't think we should be pretending they were.

lastly, it's really funny to me how many people incorrectly assumed i was a man in the comments. i'm genuinely the girliest girl to ever girl in real life (makeup jewelry and tits to the gods, sorority girly, the whole nine yards, i love it) and it gave me such whiplash. there's a joke to be made here about trying to weaponize male privilege somewhere.

[tentatechnologies]

9, 23 for the end of year mem (and 1 because. Yes. must be acknowledged)

meme link / cc'ing shadowsplice because the lot of these concern him lmao

Best month for you this year?

june is a pretty reliable answer most of the time because it's my birth month, but this time around it was framed with catching spiderverse on said birthday + fall out boy live at the end of the month with t and i couldn't really top that. i almost want to say november but honestly the operative word in its case would be memorable lmfao—for the rest of my life i'm gonna have to explain that i began dating my boyfriend two days before i had my fuckin wisdom tooth surgery.

If you could send a message to yourself back on the first day of the year, what would it be?

in all legitimacy i think if i had the chance to hold a conversation with that me at that point i'd open my mouth and just start laughing. in a temporal prime directive type situation i couldn't hope to divulge as much as i'd like—as much as i'd think would be funny as hell—rather i'd clap myself on the back and inform with absolute unrepentant gusto that i was not coming back from this one. if i wasn't beholden to that... i'm not specifying it here!

Song of the year?

honestly! it's hard to pick! like yeah it's choosing from a bunch of fob tracks lmao but they've each meant something individual to me over the year. honorable mention goes to headfirst slide, which has little to do with the song's content but remains emblematic as a kickstart of several of the year's sentimental throughlines (and fucking owned to hear live, we were convinced we weren't gonna). apart from that it's, either: heaven, iowa—a song whose full significance i'm honestly not sure how to explain without. being extraordinarily roundabout, but which we also heard live, and; it might sound a little ridiculous or even just typical of concertgoing, but. it's hard to describe what it was like getting lost in the sea of the audience to that song, at that time, in particular. it's a junction, a crossed threshold of a song, and it will always be linked to a time and a relationship and a point—firmly centered in this year and the dead of summer desert heat, long after the sun had gone down, the air thrumming, the sky and sanity hazed over with spotlights, those specific circumstances. here we are, untouched, forever.

but on a slightly more personal note, i got a lot of mileage out of coffee's for closers this year, also. it's a song with a lot of significance for spencer, in particular immediately off the back of the Incident & during that lull in time while shiloh's healing and she's just trying to parse it. and i might write an entire essay on how and why, but suffice to say; change lies at the heart of spencer's story, especially her complicated relationship to it. change is not something she makes the habit of dealing in... granted the one notable exception of her transness. so the song itself has fucking nothing to do with that, but i drew the connection regardless.

it was also writing spencer this year that pushed me to start identifying with trans. as an individual and as a character, spencer cannot be excised from a hope for a better future—a participation in the choice for such. so as a song, it's a little uninteresting, ultimately underwhelming on its face, but that one refrain stuck in my craw. change will come. it's couched in a framework of disbelief, an explicit lack of hope—if you aren't in the position to get what you want now, you never will be—but always that inevitability. that inherent contradiction stuck with me, hit much harder than it would have otherwise. i think that strange tone of resignation and naïve cynicism woven with inevitability, the disillusionment & isolation but dense presence of catharsis, functions as a very specific marker of where i was at for most of this year. gonna be one of those tracks that always put me right back where i was at the time i memorized it.

[inlocusmads]

10, 11, 21, E for trystan and nora👀👀

Okay I'm hooked onto the whole "interview/chat" format so here's just them answering instead:

10. What lie do they most frequently remember telling? Does it haunt them?

Nora: I guess when I was young I had this habit of skipping classes. My school was close to a park so I'd just wander around there.

Nora: In terms of frequency that is.

Trystan: I lied to my siblings that I was an actual - magician for five whole years.

Nora: Did they figure it out?

Trystan: They might, but I haven't given the game away.

Trystan: It's coin tricks. I did coin tricks! Sleight of hand stuff! Good thing they were impressionable back then. Now-

Nora: We don't have to talk about that. Uncle Tommy caught me once kicking rusty cans in the park.

Trystan: Did you get a uh-- "time out" as they say?

Nora: No, I saw him look up GPS trackers on the home computer that evening. We don't talk about that anymore.

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

Nora: How do you cope with confusion?

Trystan: I don't.

Nora: No, I can attest to that. He remembers every detail. Except when it matters.

Trystan: I thought we weren't bringing up the coffee thing.

Nora: He held up the line for five minutes. It - wasn't pretty.

Trystan: As if somehow you cope up with confusion better than I do.

Nora: I don't. I just go "HUH?" in the loudest voice possible.

Trystan: I once had to ask her five times what she wanted from the cafe. It was over text, by the way.

21. Why do they get up in the morning? 

Nora: Why do *you* get up in the morning, Trystan?

Trystan: To be able to see you during the day.

Nora: Psh.

Trystan: No, I would like to withdraw my answer. I live in this residential area where there are a bunch of cars lined up on the street and somehow or the other, one of them would start blaring at 5-fucking-o-clock in the morning.

Nora: The sun hits the corner of my eye. *in the most monotone voice possible* I suffer from incredible pain everyday.

Trystan: Also people keep their windows open in my place. Cue the symphony of alarms.

Nora: And also to feed Silver.

Trystan: If you do not feed her at precisely 6:45, she weeps like a dying Victorian child.

Nora: And to see each other too, I suppose.

Trystan: *Now* you thought to mention it?

Nora: I'd rather see you in person than receive a million texts about whether I'm dead.

Trystan: My concern comes from a very valid place.

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Oh absolutely not lmao. Nora's just "meh" about making friends in entirety - she will have a conversation, but it isn't a "we're besties!" thing and Trystan will probably just look at my state of affairs (*cue that one Jaiden Animations screencap where she zips open her brain to produce this blob-like creature out on the table*) and go, "Who hurt you, my friend?"

___

Thank you so much for the ask!! <3

uncommon oc asks

[justaz]

listen. i love percy jackson. i love the series, i love the characters, i love it. right? but something i would’ve loved to see more of is percy’s fatal flaw.

under the cut bc it’s kinda long. also sorry if this doesn’t make sense or if it’s all over the place. i’ll try to make it make sense lmao.

first off, you can find an example of what i mean/what i’m getting at with the relationship between percy and ares. ares betrayed the gods and wanted to start a war and percy fought him but they still argue, even in son of neptune. percy’s fatal flaw causes him to hold onto this anger and resentment years after the argument/altercation happened. that’s kinda what i want to see with these characters. percy just holding onto this anger and resentment even if they were manipulated (like ares) or had a change of heart.

okay so going in order with charcters from tlt to tlo:

chris rodriguez

it sorta seemed like percy just kinda welcomed him back? idk i feel like, even if he didn’t know him personally, percy would’ve been kinda peeved at the fact that he betrayed camp and joined luke/kronos. i feel like his distrust for chris could’ve caused a rift between him and clarisse, giving them something to butt heads over. he just can’t understand how she welcomes him back and is dating him when he’s a traitor. she is pissed that he can’t understand that chris had a change of heart, that he realized he was on the wrong side of the war. it would’ve been a solid tangible thing for them to argue over or be antagonistic towards one another rather than a duel percy won when he was 12.

quintus/daedalus

so. tbf. i haven’t read the battle of the labyrinth in a hot second so i could be wrong here but. if i remember correctly it kinda seemed like percy just welcomed him back during the battle. like he was literally working for luke and was seeing if their camp was “worth saving”. like bro that’s a bunch of kids, some of which are related to you. wtf do you mean. so i feel like percy wouldn’t have been completely chill about him strolling on in. i feel like they should’ve gotten into some kind of argument or fight or something, yknow? like. fatal flaws were said to have been the undoing of many great heros (by either athena or annabeth idk) so have his be somewhat the undoing of him. like have them argue a bit and in that time with the labyrinth still existing have a couple more monster pour out a kill another kid. make someone step in and tell percy to chill so quintus/daedalus could kill himself. have that kids siblings be peeved at percy or have beef with him. let him carry that guilt around.

nico di angelo

nico lured percy into the underworld to hand over to his father for his own gain (of information about his past but still i feel like the war and subsequent war hero should’ve been top priority) and percy even said he was pissed at nico and that he wanted to sic mrs. o’leary on him. percy did choke him out in the dungeon and was harsh to him at the river, but that trust he held in nico is gone at this point so during battle, i don’t think he should’ve sent mrs. o’leary to get him to bring his father and them to fight with kronos. and i feel there should’ve been a price to pay for that. the monsters not cowering at hades’ presence so they kill more demigods and after kronos ducks into the empire state building and lowers the magic,, maybe with the monsters not being distracted,,,, maybe they….yknow…….overpower paul. anyways-

silena beauregard

percy wouldn’t have hailed her as a hero. beckendorf was his best friend and he’s dead bc silena was feeding luke information, so many campers have died bc silena was a spy. she and annabeth were friends and was dating beckendorf so percy and her knew each other personally and maybe they were friends idk but that betrayal cut deep. maybe he saw how distraught annabeth and clarisse were over it and decided not to say anything about her being a traitor but when travis and connor mention it he wouldn’t have disagreed. i think he would’ve just talked over them or ignored it completely. giving him and clarisse another thing to butt heads over. and him and annabeth. like maybe she brought it up or he opened up about his feeling about it idk but have them get into a huge argument over it and have it be something they have to work through. same thing with luke but that’s for later.

ethan nakamura

not only did ethan betray camp, leave them in the labyrinth, and join kronos, he also stabbed annabeth with a poisoned dagger. percy does not like him one bit. during the meeting with prometheus, percy asked him why they should respect his mother and ethan made his case about balance and respect. i feel like percy should’ve used that in the throne room. and it would’ve been interesting to have a sorta dark!percy even here. have percy manipulate ethan instead of trying to reason or get through to him. have percy undo kronos’ manipulation and then manipulate him into fighting kronos himself. have percy watch as he gets impaled with his own blade and fall through a fissure in the floor and feel nothing. no remorse, no guilt, nothing. he wouldn’t hail him as a hero either.

luke castellan

he’s not a hero. percy lost everything when he was 12 and annabeth was antagonistic towards him and grover is a satyr? he lied to percy for months and is part of some magic world that he hid from percy. mr. brunner/chiron is also a part of this magic world and also lied to percy about it for months. but luke was nice to percy and welcomed him and was like a true friend to him. until he tried to kill him in the woods. then he was a manipulative killer who was killing percy’s friends and causing a war and trying to bring about the end of the gods which would also yknow end the world (or civilization to be more specific). that betrayal ran deep which is why he and annabeth butted heads growing up. luke betrayed percy and percy was angry and hurt. luke betrayed annabeth and she believed she could save him. (loyalty and hubris. their own fatal flaws respectively) i feel like in the end, in the throne room, this fight could’ve gone two different ways.

one is percy refuses to give the knife to luke bc he doesn’t trust him, he insists that luke just tell him where the spot is so he can kill him himself. maybe luke tells him where it is and percy kills luke in front of annabeth. she has to watch as percy kills luke, which may cause a rift between them. another thing for them to get over to talk about. which would mean they wouldn’t get together right after they watched a bunch of their friends die in a war and go sing campfire songs. it could be something they have to discuss which puts off them getting together until they can both move on from it. same with silena.

two is luke insists on doing it himself while percy insists on doing it himself. luke never tells percy and kronos takes over again. and maybe juuust maybe grover jumps in to protect percy and kronos just flings him aside and fatally wounds him. have luke/kronos staring at grover uncomprehendingly and then gazing over at annabeth who is just sobbing uncontrollably with blood running down her face and all over the floor and luke breaking thru again, begging percy to just do it and raises his arm and points at the spot so percy can kill him and as grover succumbs to his wounds the empathy link takes percy with him. it’s a fatal flaw for a reason.

anyway let’s assume scenario one happens so i can go over heros of olympus el oh el

leo valdez

percy was loyal to camp jupiter by the time the argo ii came around, i feel like he would’ve clashed with leo a lot more during the quest for firing on new rome. i never understood percy and jason fighting over being like the best of the best bc that just doesn’t fit percy’s character imo. i feel like he and leo should’ve argued more. like i know he was pissed at leo in moa for it and understood it was bc of the eidolon but (again haven’t read moa in a hot minute but) he and leo could’ve argued more or had it be subtext like percy is hesitant to come to leo’s aid and if it’s a choice between him or like piper he’s going to help piper or he’s kinda doubtful of everything leo says and it causes this rift in the seven. or even more since he’s loyal to frank and picks up on the triangle there, maybe he acted like uber protective over hazel whenever leo was around or would side with frank over leo about anything. and that should’ve had some kind of toll on the seven and their quest but i can’t remember enough of the books to give an example.

taking it even further (even tho i don’t like caleo it is canon so) have percy be pissed at leo when he comes back hand in hand with calypso. like he’d also be pissed at her but i’m focusing on leo rn. not only did leo die then come back but he never told his friends about his plan (i don’t think anyways) so he just left them to grieve and then came back hand in hand with this chick who hurt annabeth in such a deep and personal way (considering annabeth’s own trauma) while he watched. he and leo (while i also would’ve loved to see them bond especially over similar backgrounds and trauma and behavior) would not have been friends.

calypso

writing leo’s part reminded me of her so i’m sticking her here. even tho she and percy had that Thing in botl, it was over before it became an actual thing yknow. and percy and calypso both understood that it was her curse and there was nothing either of them could do about it especially considering the war that’s brewing so percy left. then to watch as your girlfriend who you love with every ounce of your being stumble around blind and sobbing bc she thinks you left her? to not be able to do anything to soothe her or protect her from potentially falling off the cliff and dying or being torn to shreds by the arai? percy would never forgive calypso, he would never welcome her back, he would barely even look at her when she came back.

idk i just would’ve loved to see his fatal flaw be an actual fatal flaw that makes him pay some kind of price by either deaths that could’ve been avoided or lost friendships idk just something. it would’ve been interesting if it was explored in the way it’s set up to play out.

edit: i guess you could argue that his love and care for characters he’s loyal to overcame the pain and betrayal the other characters inflicted on him so things turned out differently and yes i’m all for that but this is just an interesting little au that would be fun to read i guess

[elliewiltarwyn]

for the meme!: Top 5 Jobs (ICly and/or what you prefer to play)

this was harder than I thought, considering that if I like a job I tend to bend my own personal canon to make it work in-character -- like Ellie picked up reaper because deep down she knew she wanted to go head-to-head with Zenos on his own terms. but that doesn't mean it's actually still what I prefer to play, either, so it got weird. I decided to make this about which job I like playing most in each role...though I am pretty bad at ranged and caster. and healer. I have a very obviously in-your-face playstyle, I'm pretty sure.

at any rate!

-------------------------

Tank: Dark Knight

i have. exulted quite a bit about dark knight in these answers lmao. but part of the reason i love it so much is because I genuinely have a blast playing it. It feels big and powerful, it feels risky, it really nails the feel of making yourself bleed to protect your comrades. The burst phase when you just throw absolutely everything you have at the enemy is an incredibly satisfying, violent rampage. They made it an ability to call upon your dark twin to help you in combat, and I've mentioned how much of a sucker I am for dark twin shit. Blackest Night, imo, is the most rewarding "super shield" tank ability. And post-buff, I'd argue Living Dead is the best invuln.

plus you know, everything about the entire storyline and Esteem and the image of playing through Shadowbringers in this job. it's all just so good. Immensely satisfying to play and is probably the best at fulfilling its "job fantasy" for me.

2. Melee: Monk

I always like the hand-to-hand characters or movesets in fantasy settings; there's something very appealing to me about facing a bunch of fantastic supernatural beings and just punching them in the face. That said, I actually had several false starts with FFXIV before it finally hooked me about... four years ago. Every one of those times I picked pugilist as my starting class, got frustrated by never being able to hit positionals (it was because i was using lockon. why does the lockon in this game exist lmao.), and would give up. Once I was finally properly playing, I pushed through leveling pugilist into monk and thought it was... alright, but felt incredibly high-strung, like they were putting in more effort to do the same damage. Then Endwalker completely reworked the kit.

They lowered the level requirements for the chakra moves, making them actually fun and usable long before Stormblood. They made Greased Lightning a constant trait instead of having to struggle to keep it up so your GCD wasn't ass. They added the Masterful Blitz mechanic to dial in combos that end with kickass finishers. They... didn't give it any new buttons for the actual 80-90 level range that EW covered, but that was okay because I was suddenly having way more fun working this rotation than almost anything else in the whole game. It's either tied with or above DRK for my absolute favorite to play, because it's fun, rewards skilled play, and I get to do DBZ shit and zip all over to kick my enemies into oblivion. Plus, I'm doing almost as much damage as my co-melee in my static who uses the hanzo steel of a samurai, but I'm using my bare fists. It rules.

(not really a fan of the storyline, though. hence why canonically Ellie trains with Lyse instead of Erik and Widargelt. :V)

3. Healer: Sage

I kinda feel bad that I started as a conjurer, and yet I am by far worse at healing than any other role. At least with White Mage you can kinda get away with spamming Medica II through most of the MSQ, but y'know... that's pretty boring. Pretty effective, and I'd still probably prefer WHM if I ever attempted to heal high-end content, but I'd struggle.

Sage though, I have an absolute blast playing even if I'm not necessarily being a great healer. The aesthetic rules and can pretty easily be written as magitek-y: hence, Mia canonically can use Sage even though she's Garlean and can't usually do a caster job. I love flipping Eukrasia to activate powerful energy shields, even though it also means one more button press than all the other healers to apply the DoT. I love zapping dudes with Gundam-esque funnels and having that channel heals to whoever I want, I love throwing out Physis+Kerachole before a big raidwide, or Krasis+Haima onto the tank before a buster. I even kinda love that it really encourages you to be constantly using your Addersgall pips to help manage your MP. It makes high demands kinda like monk did pre-EW, but for some reason it's a lot more fun as sage. Maybe because of all the sick twists and dramatic pointing you do while firing lasers from Gundam funnels.

I always forget Holos exists though. I have no idea why.

4. Caster: Red Mage

look, the more red you wear, the more damage you do as red mage. it's scientific. Ellie's favorite color is red, idk how obvious it is. :V

Canonically, I don't think any of my WoLs actually use this. But of the three current casters, RDM strikes the best balance for me of a complex rotation with rewarding mechanics, balancing black and white levels and trying to keep them unsynced so you can keep properly proccing your real attacks, without being overly-demanding like Black Mage or sort of basic with not much room for variations like Summoner (I'm sorry SMN mains! I do like SMN! it's really good for me when I'm having a bad brain day, which is frequent. >.>). You also get to completely save disaster runs with instant-rezzes and double heals, and then never get any comms for it! /eyetwitch

And above all else, it's stylish as fuck to the extent that I kinda wish I had the physical ability to try fencing.

5. Ranged: Dancer

Funny, I actually thought I was going to choose MCH because gun, but then I thought about what actually satisfies me the most to play, and... it's massively buffing the whole party and then just whaling on every button on your hotbar that lights up, and suddenly I understand how people get addicted to like, pachinko and such games. But seriously, it's fun, it's stylish, the rotation's easy to pick up, you get to feel good about making a buddy do mega damage, and you get to make big damage numbers yourself (I mean obviously it's because of how long it takes to activate the dances but damn it's still satisfying to see that many numbers).

I haven't remotely figured out how, but I do want Lily to canonically pick up and use Dancer. You look like you're having fun when you dance on the battlefield, and Lily deserves good things like having fun in the middle of combat.

and now you're way too familiar with how I play this game. :3 thanks for the prompt, @viiioca!!

[poisonouswritings]

OZZY.ozzzy Oh my FUCKING GOD.

BIKer sage and barista mc. The whole gang quickly become regulars at the cafe you work at. So one weekend when you're not on shift (sage can't come to see you at work and he's too shy to ask you to go out with him so far :( ), sage has a tattoo appointment. Let's be honest, he really wants you to think he's cool and like him cause he's already got a crush. Correction, he's head over heels. He's in love and he's nervous. And he's been waiting and saving up for a while to get these tattoos. Let's say they go from his back to his arms all the way, so it's gunna be approximately a 6-7 hour process. Maybe you complimented elowens tattoos and sage being sage, well... He's a little bitch so he's gunna try and one up her. He shows up on time (cause he's nervous and excited as hell even though it's not his first time getting tattoos) and the cutest person he's ever seen is sitting at the end of a chair putting on gloves and getting new needles out or whatever shit tattoo artist do to prep. But that's HIS CUTEST PERSON. Barista mc works part time as a tattoo artist. So now he's gunna have to sit shirtless in front of mc for a couple hours with them staring at him the whole time. Every time you accidently brush your hand against any part of him he jumps an entire feet in the air. Or maybe you compliment his previous tattoos or his hair or physique he's trying his best to sound coherent but damn how's he supposed to focus on anything when your faces are so close to eachother- Bonus points if he's getting a tattoo somewhere at his hips/thighs too so he has to kinda hold his jeans and boxers out of the way while you work and he's sweating and praying you don't notice or point out his AheM FAmiLiar ProbLeM. Also pain kink 👀. What if he accidently moans lmao.

-egg anon (dumb bitch anon)

Wait no Egg that's so fucking funny

GN!Reader, pretend I know about tattoos, slight NSFW towards the end but nothing too graphic, I think technically it's recommended he do it in segments so he's not sitting there for 6-7 hours with a bunch of raw skin but we're just gonna ignore that, vague mentions of getting drunk/alcohol mention

Sage, Lucan, and Balsam all walk in together,, because generally when one of the boys is getting a tat they all go because it's a long process,,,, but then they see that you're the artist and they just smile really sweetly, pat Sage on the head, and fucking leave him there to suffer because Hey 6-7 Hours of Alone Time That's Basically A Date!!

They text Tulsi and she just responds with 'lmao don't fuck it up'. Such a supportive sister.

It's funnier if you don't have tattoos because Sage will be so confused (he's bright red and fumbling at straws here) and you're just like 'You know getting inked isn't really a requirement, right?' 'I-I know that! I've just never seen it before.' 'Yeah we're the unicorns of the industry.'

Elowen actually did know - she found out when you guys were talking about her tattoos - she just didn't say anything. She thinks it's funny.

He shows you the design he wants and you response enthusiastically. Like 'oh that'll look really good on you!' and he's dead. Bonus points if he designed it himself and you praise him for it.

You have him on his stomach so you can start on his back,, he's your friend so you can be a little unprofessional,,, you gently pick up his braid and move it over his shoulder and your hand brushes slightly across his cheek and he melts,,,,

You can tell that he's a little nervous (whether or not you know why is up to you) so you rub his shoulder for a sec like 'remember that if you need a break or something you can just let me know :) I like spending time with you so I don't mind if the appointment goes a bit longer :)' and he just dies on the spot

You talk as you work except he's too flustered to really respond much so it turns into you telling stories, talking about things you like, or even singing a bit. He's melting at all of it.

Once you finish up with his back you have him take a quick break,, Doordash stuff from the café because you already know what he always orders,,,, he says he likes the coffee better when you make it.

Once the ink has had a chance to settle and the skin is no longer quite so raw you have him roll over so you can get to work on his shoulder and arm. His face is bright red and you ask if the heat is too high or something and grab him some water. He is dead. Again.

Oooh your face is so close,,, he was having a hard enough time holding it together when you were working on his back but now he can see the way your eyes shine when you're talking about something you like and the way your tongue pokes out when you're concentrating and the sweet grin you get when you finish a particularly tricky section,,,,, ooooh he's so in love with you it kinda hurts

Obviously you're gonna ask him why he decided to get inked - especially such a big piece - and literally the only thing he can get out is 'looks cool' because how is he supposed to say he's getting it so you'll think he's cool(er than Elowen)? He cannot. He would die. So.

You keep skimming your fingers over his arm/chest, kinda pre-tracing the designs on his skin so you can get a better idea of the sizing and whatever,,, he lets out this very soft lil whimper every time and prays you don't hear it over the music/machine.

He flinches a little sometimes and you always pause to make sure he's doing okay and that makes his chest feel all warm and fuzzy. One time he's been kinda wriggling around and jumping more than usual so you tell him to take a quick break and he tries to insist he's fine and you smile really sweetly at him and give his hand a lil squeeze and say something like 'you don't always have to be so tough, you can trust me to not tease you for it' and 'I know you say you're fine but I also know this isn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world so can you please take a sec to just breathe? For me?' and ohohohohoho he's a puddle

There's a particularly agitated patch of skin so you just blow on it a little to get it to cool down,, so your lips are really close to him,,, and then you look up at him and ask if that feels betters and Oh He's Having A Nosebleed

I don't think it's necessarily the pain that excites him (although it's certainly a factor, he's a bit of a masochist) so much as it is you being so close to him,, especially when you're sweet on him,,, he's trying so hard to hold his boxers/pants in a way so you won't notice his developing problem,, biting his lower lip so you won't hear his sighs/groans/etc.,,, He tries to say your name and it comes out as this breathy moan,,,,,, Your arm accidentally brushes against 'it' while you're repositioning and he jumps and starts apologizing and you just softly squeeze his knee and go like 'oh it's fine that happens a lot more often than you think. D'you wanna go use to the bathroom real quick?" And he's just Completely Deceased. Praying Lucan and Balsam don't find out about it but knowing they inevitably will somehow

Once he's finally done and wrapped up you ask him how he's feeling and he admits that it's really sore, maybe you can kiss it better ;) and you give him a light kiss on the cheek and he just >\\\\\\\\<

The boys come to pick him up,, he has all the bandages on so they can't see it yet but you took pictures (for your portfolio) and Hey Now You Have Topless Sage Pictures On Your Phone. That's Cool.

At this point your shift was over like 45 minutes ago and it's kinda late so Lucan and Bas ask you if you wanna grab dinner with them,, Sage can't decide whether he's gonna kill them or thank them endlessly because now you guys get to sit in the back of the car together (yes one of them,, probably Balsam,,, still has a car for practical/emergency reasons).

Apparently you're not supposed to drink for 48-72 hours after getting inked and normally Sage wouldn't listen to that but,, you're here so,,,, he kinda has to,,,,,,

Sorry I'm a big sucker for 'Person Gets Drunk And Other Person Who Is Head Over Heels In Love With Them Has To Babysit Them' so you guys get food and you get a little wasted and now Sage has to keep an eye on you. Tulsi and Elowen meet up with you guys and they're just grinning the whole time

You fall asleep on Sage's (non-tattooed) shoulder and yes his entire body kinda hurts right now but he has literally never felt so good before

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hi Quil! I am happy to inform you that after many starts, stops, and literary detours, I have finally finished A Natural History of Dragons a few days ago! (I probably would’ve been about to finish it more quickly, but I have a habit of reading several books at the same time so it took me much longer.) I am planning to continue reading and discussing it, and hopefully growing the fandom by recommending it to a bunch of people.

As for thoughts on the book itself: I had a pretty good time reading it! It was really cool to see Isabella’s character development as she made mistakes and learned more about respect and good judgement. I thought the mystery was really good, although I wish we had learned more about the antagonists before they shoes up at the end. Also the dragons saving the day was just awesome. :)

Also, even though I kind of knew Jacob was going to die, I was still really surprised when it happened. I actually audibly reacted when Jacob got stabbed, and I think if a book can get me that invested it’s a pretty good book!

I hope you’re doing well and enjoying your summer, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on future books with you!

- Amethyst

~

Amethyst! Hello! I am so so pleased to hear that, there are very few people (at least that I’ve found) who’ve read the series, so it’s always delightful to share it with someone else. It is undoubtedly one of my favorites–for several reasons. So I hope you enjoy the subsequent books! I think the series just gets better and better from that first one, though the fifth one is a little odd. Not in a bad way, just in a “huh. wasn’t expecting it to be this kind of story, but alright.” You’ll understand exactly what I mean if you end up reading that far :)

It is so fun to watch her develop! The series spans decades so we get to see her learn and grow so much, which is really neat. And your notes are fair–we don’t learn much about the person himself (I can’t recall his name) until he’s there, instead more about how what he’s doing is impacting the world and specifically the dragons. Which does make sense to an extent, because that’s what Isabella is focusing on. And the dragon saving the day was an excellent choice–and it’s super fascinating to think about with the comment that Isabella makes about how the dragon grabbing the other person and not her was pure luck. Because it was! It really was just lucky, there was nothing else to it, and just how different everything could’ve been if the dragon had arbitrarily decided differently. Her life was in the hands of a wild, dangerous animal.

I did not know Jacob was going to die when I read the books, and when I read that he got stabbed I was like “Oh my god…they’re going to make him survive a stabbing in the middle of nowhere? lmao realistically he’d be dead but I’m not complaining.” and then the author was like “no no, we’re doing this realistically” and killed him. I’d been tricked by Isabella’s mentioning of a husband in the present tense for her future, but alas, I was played for a fool. I love Jacob very very much, if only we’d had him for longer </3

I am doing alright! Little nervous as always, but managing it! currently in california for a week just for fun, but then I’ll be back home and back to my shenanigans :). Ordered some books before leaving and hopefully they’ll be ready for pick-up by the time we get back–one of them is book 4 in this series! I own all the others but that one, which is ironic because it’s my favorite.

Anyway! I hope you’re also doing well, and I look forward to seeing your thoughts on however much of the series you read :)