#sedra

[sosolenoo]

Thank you @sunshineandviolets and @cashweasel for the tag! 💕

I made four of my Ocs with this cute picrew! (Kit if you're passing by, I love it 🥺💕)

Top: Nelly Greywood (TWC, YLAF), Skye Shapiro (Golden)

Bottom: Laalia Vamirel (The Exile), Sedra (Faith of gods)

I don't know who to tag, so feel free to do it and tag me! ❤️

[alreeshah-blog]

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[zchug]

My brother's drosha (sermon) on this week's sedra (Torah reading)

This week saw the UK's Chief Rabbi speaking at The Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace - something very hard to imagine happening before The Abraham Accords. Appropriately, the sedra this week is VaYeira and my brother penned the following commentary on it.

This week saw the UK’s Chief Rabbi speaking at The Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace – something very hard to imagine happening before The Abraham Accords. Appropriately, the sedra this week is VaYeira (Genesis 18:1 to 22:24) and my brother penned the following for a weekly email newsletter sent to volunteers at a local Jewish care home. In last week’s sedra, and continuing this week, we read about…

[redstuffs-ig]

i've just found out something super funny so apparently in the "Scum and Villainy: Case Files on the Galaxy's Most Notorious" canon book, written in part by Inspector Divo from the Clone Wars TV show (remember him? me neither) they had a section on Krayt's Claw with this to say: Sourced from Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki: Divo finally learned what had happened to Fett in the last year of the war when Sedra Hoxin, a constable from the prefect of Mos Eisley, a spaceport on Tatooine, contacted him. The constable sent Divo a holographic image touting the services of the "Krayt's Claw," a posse of bounty hunters stationed on Tatooine, among them Fett.

They had fucking ads.

This band of mercenaries, a bunch of them wanted, had fucking ads. Could you imagine browsing the HoloNet, watching space YouTube when your video of Twi'Lek dancers gets interrupted by an advertisement that goes "Hey, want a fucker dead? Need to guard a train carrying important cargo? We're your people! Dial Krayt's Claw at 066-22-1313, Mos Eisley Spaceport, Tatooine, and hire a team of professional bounty hunters for all your gunslinging needs"

i'd kill and murder to see this shit brought to life. was it like a stylized animation made by Latts, did they strap a camera to Highsinger or something, I NEED TO KNOW

[thepaperquillco]

If I were to write a fix it fic for ACOSF, this is how it would go:

* First, in ACOFAS, Cassian doesn’t through the book he bought Nesta into the Sedra. (He’s 500 yrs old, let’s allow him some maturity). He keeps it, tucks it away somewhere, until she’s ready to accept it (and then he can give it to her sometime during Silver Flame)

* Nesta can barely bring herself to see her sisters, but she manages to drag herself to important gathering: holidays and birthdays. She’s only half there, but she’s there

* She lives in her shitty apartment, and she gambles and drinks and fucks

* When the bills come to Feyre, she doesn’t cry about it, but she does consider cutting her off. (Feyre is every bit as spiteful as Nesta, let’s stop pretending she isn’t)

* Cassian reminds everyone he slaughtered an entire village following his trauma, so Nesta doesn’t get cut off

* He’s frustrated and angry that Nesta shut him out, but Cassian realizes that she’s going through hell, and her scant appearances are the best she can do right now

* Amren probably still stops trying to teach Nesta magic

* Cassian’s pissed off about Nesta’s behavior, but he keeps trying (KEEP REACHING OUT YOUR HAND). He stops by her apartment probably once or twice a month to entice Nesta out. He offers to take her to the library, I don’t know a park? He just offers, and Nesta curtly refuses each time

* Maybe sometimes he drops off a book by her door, something he knows she enjoyed from her old life. And he retrieves them a week later, untouched

* Everyone at the bars Nesta frequents are terrified of her (they’ve heard stories of the High Lady’s sister who beheaded the King of Hybern), but one night someone gets a little too drunk, a little two handsy, and then violent

* Someone saves Nesta. Maybe it’s another patron of the bar, maybe it’s Cassian himself, idk

* Either way, Cassian is aware of the incident, and he checks on Nesta the following morning

* “I can take care of myself” “Clearly not”

* “If you insist on taking care of yourself, let me teach you the skills to do so”. They make a bargain, Nesta will train with Cassian at the house of wind a couple of times a week, and Cassian owes Nesta a favor

* Azriel is there too, he and Nesta get to become friends like they do in the book

* Cassian takes Nesta to wind haven for some reason, where she meets Emerie and invites her to train with her

* Nesta starts spending time in the library, she meets Gwyn, and invites her to start training as well (and all the priestesses)

* Nesta gets stronger, and she likes the sense of control it gives her, so she asks to train more frequently. Plus she gets to see her friends more

* At home, I’m hee favorite bar, Nesta realizes this isn’t the life she wants. So the next time she sees Gwyn and Emerie, she tells them she needs help

* Gwyn suggests she work in the library with the priestesses, and live wherever they live (idk I assume they have dormitories in the library)

* She writes to Feyre and Elain, and Feyre insists she take her old room in the House. It stings her pride, but she does tell them she’s going sober

* Elain and Feyre visit Nesta ALL THE TIME.

* Her romance with Cassian is a slow burn as she heals and learns to love herself, through the love of her friends and her sisters

* Feyre can still be pregnant, but either Madja performs a c section, or the wings are a non issue (seriously this plot felt like it was there just to give Nesta a redemption arc by saving her sister, an arc she didn’t need)

* Oh, and Feyre definitely has paintings of both her sisters in the river house, that was a stupid detail

* I think the Briallyn plot was weak, so I would take it out. As usually, SJM has too much going on for a cohesive or coherent plot

* Nesta finds healing through her found family and her born family. She forges her badass weapons, she finds the dread trove (dead trove? I don’t remember).

* And Devlon does deposit the Valkyrie’s in the blood rite. It’s good revenge on Cassian, he gets to prove females are in fact inferior to males, and he gets to murder the “witch” without actually mustering her

* And of course our girls make it to the top, and Nesta stays behind to defend them. She reaches the stone after them, after she fights by hand and figures out some of her power (I think there’s something about magic not being able to be used during the blood rite? But I figure Nesta’s power breaks through that restriction after some dramatic fighting)

* Basically what I want is for Nesta to be given time and resources to heal, and then she finds her way back to Cassian.

[alonygamingnerd]

“Fireteam Meeting”

Sedra Campaign intermission

19 hours before Operation Novatic-Iron. The 187th Marines, November Company attack to destroy 6 Tyrant Anti-air cannons in the northern mountains of Sedra.

“Jevin said I would find you down here. Are you sure you're ready for tomorrow? After what happened last time.” SHLD 1 says as he walks over to where SHLD 2 was sitting in a hidden corner of the hanger .

SHLD 2 looks up from the MLRS-2 Hydra that he had been inspecting, “I’m not worried about the Marines, they'll be fine. It’s this OP that I don’t like.”

“I see we have the same opinion then.” SHLD 5 joins in, walking over to SHLD 2, the rest of Fireteam Shield following behind and forming a small circle.

“Sir with all due respect, you have to agree with Chris on this one. Something about this op isn’t right”, SHLD 6 says joining the conversation

SHLD 1 looks over to SHLD 6, “I do, but O.N.I. is calling the shots on this one, only people at that briefing can know what these Covenant remnants are after.”

“I’m sorry but how does somebody forget something like that in a bunker on a colony that isn’t the biggest fans of the UNSC. The Marines have a right to know what they're getting into.” SHLD 2 burst out with both concern and frustration in his voice.

The Spartan 2 let out a sign, “I don’t disagree.” These marines had grown to treat the spartans of Shield as their own, and his spartans had done the same for the marines, this felt like a breach of that trust but with O.N.I. involved, not much could be done.

“Something about all of this feels off, how did these covies find out about this to begin with?”, SHLD 4 said joining the conversation.

SHLD 6 looks over to SHLD 3 who had been lost in thought, “What about Walker, does the former O.N.I. spook want to add anything?”

SHLD 3 looks up from his concentration and toward SHLD 6, “Watch what you say kid,” in a threatening tone,then calming his tone “and no I agree with what's been said so far, something feels off here.”

“So we are all in agreement then.” says SHLD 2 looking around the group.

“For as much as we don't like it, nothing can be done. Take this time to continue your preparations for tomorrow and then rendezvous with your Platoons. Remember, nobody who wasn’t at that briefing can know the truth, let the Marines believe what COL Leblanc will tell them once we arrive. Shield dismissed”, says SHLD 1 looking around the circle turns and walks away.

[lepusrufus]

Started my gith run a few days ago and its honestly too much fun because, for rp purposes, I'll say she's by all intents and purposes kind of mean and I'm sure Lae'zel is relieved to have a fellow competent fighter at her side in this madness of an adventure

What poor Lae'zel comes to discover soon however is that Sedra is definitely not mean because she's a badass gith, but rather because she's a cranky druid who doesn't like people and instead would gladly spend her time conversing with a squirrel and marveling at roadside flowers while being arguably an abysmal fighter. And her brother is an unhinged bard.

[drunkchasind]

The OG 4 (created for CP77)

The Witches (from an original setting)

The Grey Warden (from Dragon Age)

Some informations about them under the cut:

Name: Faye Seela Valo (tag faye valo)

Alias: V

Pronouns: She/her

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 5'9.5'' (the .5 is important)/176 cm

Partner/Love interest: Ozob Bozo (shippy tag faye x ozob)

Age: 27

Random: She's from Vancouver, Canada, but following the passing of her best friend, she left home and ended up in NC after wandering on the west coast for a while. She's an incredibly independant person and knows how to look after herself, but she can easily prove her value, which helped her secure work and contacts quickly in NC. She shares a workshop with Iris, working as a mechanic specialized in mechatronics.

Name: Harrison Joseph Sutherland (tag harris sutherland)

Alias: John Lambert (from gang years)

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 6'2''/188 cm

Partner/Love interest: various flings, nothing serious after the death of his one true love (Ludivine Hamilton)

Age: 36

Random: He's the older brother of Faye (on their father's side). An avid biker with a fondness for troubles (or is it that he's a magnet for them?). He's a piece of work, BUT he'll get any job done with the wanted results, making him a good merc during his time in NC. He used to be in a gang during his youth/early adulthood, so tricky situations are not something that stress him out; one might even say he enjoys it.

Name: Iris Isabelle Lorne (tag iris lorne)

Alias: 1ZZ1

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 5'11''/180cm

Partner/Love interest: Declan ''Brick'' Griffin (shippy tag iris x declan)

Age: 33

Random: A very resourceful and imaginative techie, who's outgoing and has a pretty chill view of life. Was raised in a deranged stepfamily and decided to leave it all behind to make her own path. Despite being in a long-lasting relationship with Brick, she never joined Maelstrom (as it was a wish, for them both). Every so often, she does hang out with some specific members, though :)

Name: Devon Adrian Maggard (tag devon maggard)

Alias: Lt. Maggard

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 6'4''/193 cm

Partner/Love interest: Jessamyn Murphy (shippy tag devon x jessa)

Age: 35

Random: Following a car accident (the same one that cost the life of his brother), underwent an extensive ''rehabilitation'' that gave him back the ability to walk, but at the expense of a ''cyborgening'' which remains heavy to deal with. He's a MaxTac lieutenant (later, commander), naviguating - and ruthlessly adapting to- the many grey zones that come upon him.

Name: Jessamyn Eva Murphy (tag jessamyn murphy)

Alias: Hræsvelgr

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 5'8''/173 cm

Partner/Love interest: Devon Maggard (shippy tag devon x jessa)

Age: 34

Random: Chosen sister of Egon. She's in charge of ''informations acquirement'' for the organization COVATECH, specialized in botanical biochemistry and evolutionary developmental biology. More importantly, she's the handler of the sentient AI YGGDRA-517, that inhabits the walls of the organization.

Name: Egon Hyena Stelnar Munroe (tag egon hyena munroe)

Alias: Hyena

Pronouns: She/They

Sexuality: Lesbian

Height: 6'/183 cm

Partner/Love interest: only flings

Age: 32

Random: Chosen sister of Jessamyn. Now, this one is a bit explosive. Thriving in chaos, with a taste for fire. And how do you control chaos? By giving it Purpose. She serves as an enforcer during certain tasks, as well as associate for tracking informations holders, to aid her sister.

Name: Srovren Antonius Ismir Halligar (tag srovren halligar)

Alias: Greyson

Pronouns: He/Him

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 6'6''/198 cm

Partner/Love interest: Isaura Forsythia

Age: 43

Random: Ex-military, stranded from his homeland. He runs a garage, which also serves as a front for a shelter to those in need. The shelter is runned with the help of Elsimi Laurela, a ripperdoc, and Doran Sedras, ''freight coordinator''. He has an illegitimate daughter with his long lost lover.

Credits for the divider x

[halobirthdays]

Happy birthday to Mason Hundley!

Today is his -508th birthday!

Hundley was born on Luna. His mother taught at the Luna OCS Academy, while his father worked as an excavator pilot. He lost his father at a young age to a workplace accident, and enlisted in the UNSC right after he finished secondary school. He was eventually recruited as an ONI operative, mainly to investigate outer colonies with suspected Covenant sympathies.

He was present for the Covenant bioterrorism attack on Sedra, and was hospitalized due to the effects of the attack.

In canon (~2560), he is turning 28!

[paintwhenever]

First test marine for my Dark Angels Successor Chapter, the Eschaton Lords!

I mostly just slapped some paint on to see how I liked the color scheme in person, and I think it'll make for a nice-looking army!

Lore for nerds below:

The Eschaton Lords are a Dark Angels Successor Chapter created during the Second Founding. They are led by Marduk Sedras, a veteran of the Dreadwing and one of the oldest living space marines at the time. In the current era indomitus, he is still one of the oldest living marines, though he now resides within the hull of a leviathan-pattern dreadnought. He still carries his sword, 'the Death of Worlds', having added the fragments of so many broken planets to its blade that it is now large and heavy enough that only a dreadnought could wield it effectively.

The chapter's most well-known marking is the "Hand of Death", which is represented by an astartes' left arm being colored entirely white, representing the annihilation of all life on a planet. A marine earns this honored mark the first time they participate in an exterminatus action.

The Eschaton Lords are known for their devotion to the complete annihilation of their foe in each battle. They swear to let none escape or surrender, and have even chased survivors through the immaterium itself to secure their kill. In service of this goal, they primarily rely on some of the most sinister weapons of the 1st legions vaults, preserved for millennia in the halls of their fortress monastery on Triplex Galatia. Dedicated to finality as they are, they have a penchant for carrying out exterminatus actions, even sometimes unauthorized, or on worlds that may still be saved. This betrayal of the Imperium's people and destruction of its resources is one of the chapter's most closely guarded secrets, kept even from the rest of the Inner Circle.

The chapter's obsession with the destruction of planets and complete annihilation of their foe come primarily from the mind of Grand Master Sedras. Some astartes within the chapter's leadership believe him to have gone mad after so many years alive, and even moreso since entering his mobile tomb. None have yet seen into that ancient mind to confirm these suspicions, and so he leads them ever onward towards the destruction of the foe.

[thegaynessarchives]

Made a thing (my interpretation of lyrics below cut pls read them they took so fucking long to do)

Lyrics (this took me literally three hours pls appreciate this):

Pink long nade I'm an autumn but coats bomber

Peter plum my ballers man daughter's ring us growing

She alana these god love me like me

But bein honest I don't wanna yo eeee

I can yell about cuts, buzz cooling off your dingers

Now's telling up a golden meme, a meven and stingers

There's a thing, range endings, there theft, gift of luck

And now I'm aberrant and burrows fat

Pretty wood habits, fire every bet, nose, body, no bed, hose, body, every bone

Didn't buddies, every bliss, piss buddies

Din misses, hi friss friss, smurfs, crying, no, whistle, tone, wind, wind, dee us

They become laid itchablong with me, whiff

Then maybe horroreen at night, you beef

You when what's around, we fight, dong with me, whiff

Then could you time around, tell me I fuck you? preef

Baby, come lay itchiblong with me, whiff

Baby will wreathe at night with you beef

Then when what's around, we fight, dong with me, biff

Witchy titchy town, tell me, hell me, jilk if I'm salad pretty

S

Think of wrath, words, red blinds, why if dimples?

I think it's that when future be the futon when they pimple things were

Schizo or yeet your chank fof

Lou didja bam a ee? Or tweet, you stay tough

Outwitted, if if it fell, then dick, we went sofa deenafed catch it

You can carry, not good, different bodies, Eddie b oh a patch

Buddy, look at feather pockets, so they'll bam me

Way down, that's what wondering, til the end, if we'll fester all day

Is we play we back, nose, not even a bad nose

Thought he met me with my dollar buddies, act dismiss damn

Yeah, and this is my fist pissed first

Catterton, lost to be loved, and busy now

Baby, come lay, itchiblong with me, whiff

Baby doll reeeeing wool that bite you, weef

When we bust hoot out, we'll find dome with me, whiff

Could you time around? Tell me, I fuck you creep

Babygirl lay, itchiblong with me, whiff

Baby doll, reeee hurt at night, you, weef

And we whats hoot out, you'll find dung with me, whiff

Itchy twitchy town

Tell me, tell me, still, if I'm salad pluty

Walking with a scone legs, breaks and set sun

Ease small brown, lost your punch to cool

With the new tears, warmer, move, groove

Or stew, don't use sins, what's that?

sneeze

Those two need seats, bleed, and know eats a

Sequins, dream at pigeons, flower, fair your

Guess I fear and look tiara

J

Deadly sack to paint sedra, BOOB, every

Ready body, know that, knows nut in every bad

Oh, slutty suckerfish, like, nah, like, fuck you BBPT

This is my friend, this is her stem

Think, any, my bin, missus first, every

Think, anybody, know that, knows buddy every many

Ghost daddies every wrong teen lies

Maz biz, wife and misses first, I break their no ring

I'll now actly vicious

Baby chin finish, itchiblong yo lay it

Baby, with, me, with, that, right, goal reeee ith

Ow and, Q, if I'm wrong, what's it out with?

Could you to me tell me life ow row free

Baby ghh you, could you blonga lay with

Baby, with me with, that, light, go reeee whiff

After you brought a gun to death stin

Could you to me, tell me help me, who'd you tell, oh

Go what so tell me would you tall the bowl that's round with

sneeze

We got to die, let's reee pew I,

sneeze

We'll dawn above, let's round with, but just oh, me

And his height, let's do light

You

Wou gee conga, lay with baby

Hey with that right, no reeeee, lift

After hear all of thought with deaths with goochy

Ee, tell me, tell me,

Could you cow how

Could you, could you tell me? e

[oops-prow-did-it-again]

Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths - Sundered Bond Summary

I have immense brainworms and I feel like nobody has read this book and everyone keeps saying untrue things about Lukka and I am going to go feral. So instead of doing that I'm going to just post a summary of the book bc I have nothing better to be doing and I read it like 2 days ago so it's very fresh in my mind

Overview

Lukka is a Captain of a squad of Coppercoat Specials, the most elite of Drannith’s military forces, and has been for the last 2 years of his life. After 20 years in service for Drannith, the soldier of one of only a few sanctuaries to have remained permanently standing in Ikoria becomes involuntarily bonded with one of the monsters that calls Ikoria home, and he’s forced to abandon everything he’s ever known, lest General Kudro—chief-of-command in Drannith and father of his fiancée—execute him out of fear of his “bonding sickness” destroying Drannith from the inside out.

[More under the cut...]

Characters & Names

Lukka—a human man somewhere between 40-50 years old who has been in the Coppercoats for over half of his life, and in the Specials for at least 2 years of it. He lead a team consisting of 4 others (Epha (sergeant and trapper), Nik (sniper), Gedra and Gox (twins that serve as trappers/hunters)). He was engaged to Jirina, daughter of General Kudro, and thought very highly of her.

Jirina—Lukka’s fiancée. A brown-skinned, dark-haired human woman that has a unique position in Drannith’s military due to her modest status in the Coppercoats, yet also is the daughter of General Kudro. She respects her father deeply but fears his authority too.

General Kudro—Lukka’s would-be father-in-law and Jirina’s father, the seasoned chief-of-command in Drannith. His position in power is very much based on authority and how well people believe in his authority, and he knows it. He listens closely to the reputations his people and the Coppercoats hold amongst commoners, for he knows a quiet drone can become an insurmountable roar fast enough. He is not afraid of resorting to underhanded tactics to “maintaining the peace,” either, and believes bonding magic to be a sickness, having kept it hidden from much of Drannith, despite researchers being aware of it for some time prior to Lukka’s bond.

Vivien Reid—A planeswalker that was staying on the plane, visiting to explore its strange magic and unusual crystalline formations. She admits to Lukka that she helps him out of curiosity, and in hopes he can teach her more about Ikoria, as she passes through in search of a place yet still to call home. She finds the way of life Lukka is used to in Drannith very odd and uncomfortable (the kill-or-be-killed mentality).

Winged Cat—Lukka’s involuntarily bonded cat-clade monster, a great, winged tiger, which goes unnamed throughout the story.

Brin & Rol—A bonder and her bonded monster that Vivien and Lukka befriend through the course of the story. Brin is a pale-skinned teenage girl with pink, wild and spiky hair, leather and homespun clothing, and a tuft of pink fur strewn over her shoulders. Rol (short for Roland) is a raccoon-like monster with pink fur and a round body, about the size of a horse.

Mzed, Dogsbreath, Nightshade, Toothcracker, & Sedra —Hunters that General Kudro hired to track down Lukka so he could be returned to Drannith as a prisoner. They are generally unruly, banter often, and rude to one another and to Jirina (whomst is forced to join them in their mission). Dogsbreath wears a mask resembling a dog, Nightshade specializes in poisons, Toothcracker is very physical and confrontational, and Sedra is known for being a bit… well, crazy.

Captain Falk—A man from the sanctuary of Skysail that the Hunters hire to take them to the Ozolith to catch up better with Lukka via a skyship called the Vermillion. 

Abda (AKA “Spiky”) & Rigi—A bonder and her bonded monster that Vivien and Lukka befriend through the course of the story. Abda is dressed in leather and homespun, a brown jacket with a white shirt beneath, and carries a long spear with a double-point. She has dark brown hair done up into spikes. Her monster, Rigi, is a squat, badger-like monster with brown fur that fades to white on its belly, tusks that protrude from its lower jaw, and black thorns that cover its back and shoulders, which extend down to its brow and cheeks. 

Barrow & Zeph—A bonder and his bonded monster that Vivien and Lukka befriend through the course of the story. Barrow is dressed in gray armor with white furs layered over the top, his hair white and swept back aside from two prominent spikes of hair at the forefront of his head (Lukka describes them as “horns”). Zeph is a cat-clade monster twice the size of Lukka’s winged cat, with a wild mane of white hair, and a body resembling a white tiger. It has two ram-like horns and glowing yellow eyes, and holds some control over electricity.Colonel Bryd—A colonel whom Jirina has quarrels with throughout the story, usually to humorous effect. He briefly takes over as Chief-in-Command after Kudro’s death, but Jirina overrides his authority by simply ignoring him.

Events

Lukka is on a hunt for a monster that has been killing livestock with his Specials team, Epha, Nik, Gedra, and Gox. He finds a sheep whose brain has been carefully extracted in an almost surgical manner. 

They come up with a plan for Lukka to stand as bait (implied that he always does this) after traps are set up in the area, and some hours later, the nightmare returns and attacks. The traps work at first, but the monster breaks free and rushes Lukka. The rest of his squad save him, and they end off the day happy to have succeeded, believing that they all will now have 4 days off-duty to do whatever they wish. Lukka intends to spend it on quality time with his fiancée, Jirina.

A scene from Jirina’s POV shows that she has much more stress going on in her life as General Kudro’s daughter than she lets on. Lukka doesn’t pick up on it, and tries to get her in the mood for some fun. She tells him “not in the office,” and they leave after Lukka convinces her to let him go with her to her room to relax. 

Interesting to note that despite Lukka’s high status in the Coppercoats, he admits to only having a cramped, shitty cot to sleep in, whereas Jirina, as daughter of General Kudro, has a bed big enough to accommodate the two of them with room to spare and a room on a higher floor of the Citadel.

After only a day off, Lukka’s team is called in despite their promised 4 days off, because a winged cat-clade monster has taken residence in a farm within Drannith’s third circle - the second-most wall Drannith has (it has 4, the first two being fairly weak and the first one hardly a wall at all, whereas the last two are thicker, and the final wall is enormous and big enough for entire troops to walk together, with ballistae and the like mounted there). 

Even so, farms and such are often kept in the third circle, because Drannith is forced to make use of all its space within its territory.

The winged cat has been said to have slaughtered 10-20 Drannith soldiers already and nobody can oust it, which is why Lukka’s team has been called in.

At the farm, Lukka is afraid of going into any buildings or crops, for fear of the cat ambushing them. Instead, he tries to draw it out, and sends his team to start setting traps and to get into position. He sets out some bait that is supposed to be brand-new from Drannith’s researchers (implied to be a division of the Coppercoat military).

They wait for hours, and while they begin to think the cat may have slipped past them (and Lukka starts privately panicking and worrying about what would happen if the cat has snuck further into Drannith without their notice), the winged cat suddenly bursts from the barnhouse. All while Lukka is still trying to reach for a weapon to figure out how to push his own attack, the following happens:

It shatters the wooden wall nearest Gox and slashes his stomach open with its claws, disemboweling him. He bleeds out.

The winged cat then fought briefly with Gedra, outmaneuvering her and slamming her to the ground, then ripped her throat open. She bled out as well.

Lukka started barking orders to retreat, and while Nik tried to listen, the cat caught up to her and picked her up, taking flight with her in its mouth, and shook her so hard that her neck was broken.

Epha fled. The winged cat turned its attention to Lukka. He stayed behind, intending to sacrifice himself so Epha could survive, in hopes that Epha could live to tell others in Drannith about the severity of the creature they were dealing with as well as simply wanting her to live.

The winged cat advanced on Lukka, and he found himself thinking of Jirina and hoping Epha made it back before the cat was finished with him, but before anything could happen between them, a bolt of green energy fired between them and he was knocked unconscious.

Lukka awakens in Drannith in a private hospital bed, where Jirina comes to see him. She is discomforted by the presence of military personnel that are already interrogating him.

Lukka, none the wiser about what has happened, tells his questioners what has happened, and the personnel seem unusually satisfied and cagey about his answers. They leave to inform Kudro directly, telling Jirina that the general requested they give the report immediately, and that Jirina not be allowed to speak to him beforehand.

Jirina briefly speaks with Lukka and he recounts what happened. He asks why the cat didn’t kill him. Jirina, out of anxiety, posits that Nik’s bolt that she shot off before she was killed perhaps hurt it more than he thought. Lukka, not picking up on her anxiety, isn’t convinced.

Jirina leaves to speak with her father. Colonel Bryd keeps her out his office until the military personnel from earlier is done giving their report.

General Kudro, upon speaking with Jirina, tells her that he is saddened by the news of what has happened to Lukka and informs her of bonding magic, calling it a sickness, telling her that he fears Lukka has fallen victim to it, and that he can’t allow it to spread into Drannith. Though he doesn’t say it directly, Jirina picks up on the cues that he means to execute Lukka—and may very well already be on the way to do so.

Though she finishes the conversation with her father on amicable terms, Jirina decides that she can’t let her father do this, and that she must find a way to convince him otherwise. She leaves to help Lukka escape Drannith ASAP. 

Upon returning to Lukka’s room, she dismisses the doctors so she can speak to Lukka freely, calling upon her authority as the general’s daughter to do so. Lukka, starting to get worried, begs her to tell him what’s going on. She tells him and he’s dismayed, but agrees to leave and follow along with her plan.

She and Lukka devise a plan for him to leave despite the location being the heavily armed Citadel in the center of Drannith. She asks Lukka to pretend to have taken her hostage, to walk out while holding a knife against her throat, threatening them to kill her if they attempt to apprehend him; doing so will assure nobody will even attempt to touch him, as nobody will want to be responsible for the death of the General’s daughter.

Lukka is horrified by the plan, and hates every moment of it, as he finds Jirina’s acting very convincing (as he does his own), but the idea of waiting around to die scares him more.

Once on the fringes of Drannith, Lukka lets her go (where she assures him she will smooth everything over with her father, she’s sure of it, and they share a pleasant goodbye), and flees on his own from there. He uses his knowledge of paths designed for Coppercoat usage and backways to avoid confrontations until he is met with checkpoints and gates leading out of the city. 

Expecting the news of a rogue Coppercoats Specials captain to not have reached so far already, Lukka tries to bluff his way through the security of a gate that is rarely used, but they catch on anyway. He refuses to fight back, even when they threaten him, because he can’t stomach the thought of killing “teenagers and soon-to-be retired old men for following their orders.”

Vivien surprises him by saving him, shooting her bow and throwing an animal spirit to distract the guards, giving herself and Lukka the opportunity to flee.

While all of this is going down, Jirina has returned to her father in Drannith, revealing that she is alive and unharmed (but not telling her father that it was a facade, of course). He tells her that Lukka cannot be allowed to simply run free, for letting such intimate knowledge of Drannith run away with someone who bonds with monsters is unacceptable. He tells Jirina he has hired Hunters—mercenaries of sorts, but for monsters—to hunt Lukka down and bring him back to Drannith, because if he sends Coppercoats after Lukka, the news will be all over Drannith, and he wants to keep the situation on the down-low. He instructs Jirina to go with these Hunters, as she knows Jirina best. Jirina goes to object, but Kudro tells her that she will do it if she is still loyal to Drannith, forcing her to do so or imply that she is no longer loyal to Drannith. She believes that once she and the Hunters retrieve Lukka, she can still convince her father to change his mind, but she does secretly begin to wonder if something may be seriously wrong with Lukka due to her father’s paranoia.

It’s some hours after Vivien aids Lukka that Lukka and Vivien have finally made it fully out of Drannith, and Vivien has set up a modest camp for them. Lukka finally gets a chance to reflect on what all has happened that day. He asks Vivien why she aided him, and she claims that she felt the burst of magic that came from him and the winged cat. She came to search for it, and was surprised to find it coming to her, and decided to intervene so she could learn more about him, admitting that her goal is mainly sating her own curiosity.

Lukka is a bit less than enthused that his only friend is now a woman that wants him as something of a specimen, but he’s willing to take all the help he can get, so he thanks her.

Lukka says that he needs to slay the winged cat so he can return home, to Drannith, wanting nothing to do with it, given how its ruined his life. Vivien reluctantly agrees to lead him to the cat, telling him she can magically sense its location, to an extent. 

He tells her that before they get too far beyond Drannith’s walls, he will need to stop by an outpost to restock on his own gear. He hopes that, given how far out the farthest outposts are, the news of his rogue nature won’t have reached them and he’ll be able to merely flash his stature at them.

Vivien agrees and, to Lukka’s relief, it works.

When they find the cat again, Vivien and Lukka are being attacked by a nightmare-clade monster. The cat saves Lukka, and Lukka, confused and upset, demands to know why—’There it was. The thing that had ruined his life. He wanted to laugh and cry all at once. [...] “Why not kill me too?”’

Vivien informs him that he is bonded, which is when Lukka finally learns about bonding magic. He laments how he never wanted this and reasserts his hatred for what has happened, and how he just wants to go home, but he also tells Vivien that he sensed something through the cat. He sensed that the Ozolith, a crystalline formation far north of Drannith, was somehow speaking to the cat and was what had driven it to attack so violently; someone was driving monsters to destroy Drannith via the Ozolith. He also felt how the cat was scared and how despite its violence, it had hardly eaten during its stint near Drannith, and how it actually didn’t want to be that close to it or the ‘twolegs,’ as it called them.

Vivien and Lukka come to the agreement that they should go to the Ozolith to learn more of what’s happening there.

As this is going down, Jirina and the Hunters find them. Jirina tries to talk Lukka down, but the Hunters attack him ruthlessly, and the winged cat becomes enraged. Lukka becomes overwhelmed as the situation escalates; Jirina tells him that if he comes home, everything will work out, but he is afraid and not so sure, and Vivien fires off her bow, and then—the winged cat picks him up by his clothing and lifts him into the sky.

The cat picking him up shocks Lukka to his core. He is no longer thinking of killing the cat. He even willingly explores the bonding magic, briefly, to see if he can convince the cat to let him onto her back so he can be more comfortable (which it does). He uncomfortably finds himself considering whether he should name it or whether he should call it “‘it’ or ‘she,’” but shoves away the feelings by reminding himself that she slaughtered 3 of his squad. Despite this, he starts calling her she, and later, he strokes her fur and rests on her back, even falling asleep at one point.

Before reaching the Ozolith, during their travels, the winged cat suddenly dives, and they meet Brin & Rol. Shortly after, they meet Abda & Rigi and Barrow & Zeph as well, who all agree to travel to the Ozolith as well after Lukka explains the sensations he felt through the winged cat about the voice that spoke through the Ozolith (though, hardly for the same reasons; Abda and Barrow are barely motivated at first until Brin points out that the Coppercoats will harm monsters en masse if they’re being driven to attack Drannith, much to Lukka’s annoyance).

They fly on Lukka’s winged cat to the Ozolith together. During this, while stopping to rest at one point, Vivien tells Lukka the story of how she lost her homeplane and how she is a Planeswalker, and about Nicol Bolas. Lukka is disturbed and refuses to let that happen to him.

At the Ozolith, they find nightmare-clade monsters guarding it. The bonders and Vivien agree to hold them off while Lukka swoops in and tries to interface with the Ozolith, to figure out what’s going on.

However, while this is going down, all hell breaks loose. The same Hunters from before, as well as Jirina, arrive via a skyship they rented from Skysail. It becomes a three-way brawl at the Ozolith, with Lukka and his allies, the Hunters, and the nightmare creatures all opposing each other.

Lukka touches the Ozolith and is overwhelmed with power by it. He speaks to an unnamed, unknown planeswalker through it. While in some sort of mental space where he can hear this planeswalker but not see them, he watches the raging battle as if from above. The planeswalker presses Lukka to accept the Ozolith’s power as his own, while Lukka rejects their proposals at first out of distrust (but admits that he just wants to go home and wants this to be over). The planeswalker has him watch Abda get shot with a ballista bolt from the skyship overhead, and after that, Lukka relents, allowing the planeswalker to grant him the powers of the Ozolith.

Lukka is returned to the battle and he lashes out with power via the Ozolith, gaining control of all of the nightmare-clade monsters as well as Rigi. His controlled monsters brutally kill most of the Hunters, and he even succeeds in downing their skyship. He only notices at the last minute that Jirina is still among them, in the vessel, as it plummets.

In the aftermath of the battle, Lukka is confronted by the bonders and Vivien, who are unhappy with how he forced the nightmare monsters to attack in such ways that they often killed themselves or gave themselves lifelong injuries (Rigi also died in the course of the battle). Lukka is shocked at their response, given how he believed he had just saved their lives, and is already thinking of how he can use his newfound abilities to protect Drannith and prove his loyalties to General Kudro in a whole new way. He and the others argue briefly, before Lukka loses his patience with them, and attempts to seize control of their bonded monsters anyway.

He’s unable to, and a fight breaks out again. Vivien berates him, telling him that she thought he was a good man, but she sees now that she was wrong; Lukka lashes out at her anyway, and she fires off a shot that produces a ghostly elk. It charges him and while he scuffles with it, Vivien and the other bonders escape.

Lukka lets them leave, no longer interested. He gathers control of the remaining nightmare monsters once more, calling them his “army,” and starts to plan his next moves to return home to Drannith. He also decides to scour the surrounding area first, however, in search of Jirina, because he isn’t sure what happened to her after the battle.

Unknown to Lukka, his winged cat—in the chaos—caught Jirina as the skyship fell from the sky. It then carried her back to Drannith, where it dropped her off at its innermost wall. Jirina managed to beg people to capture it and not kill it, but her arrival on the back of a monster, and then subsequent request, caused rumors throughout the city that Jirina has become a traitor to humanity. Kudro, out of fear of otherwise needing to oust or execute his own daughter, plans a public display where Jirina is slated to execute the winged cat, so the townspeople of Drannith may see where her loyalties truly lie.

Jirina realizes the tenuous position she’s in, but hopes that her father will be reasonable when he sees how truly unwilling she is to do it. She refuses. Kudro is not reasonable; angry and sad, he has Colonel Bryd take her away, and he slays the winged cat, much to Jirina’s dismay.

Jirina essentially becomes a prisoner in her own home after that point, unable to leave or do anything freely as she pleases.

Back with Lukka, he watches, through his bond with the winged cat, the public execution of the winged cat by Kudro. He realizes that the winged cat saved Jirina, all because it realized she was important to him, without him having had to ask, and he’s overcome with emotion. For a long moment, he sits silently, crying, before he gets up and furiously starts to reach further and further with the power of the Ozolith, gathering yet even more monsters for his “army.”

Lukka is desperate to go home and to return to Jirina, and has realized that if Kudro won’t let him by taking things out, then Kudro will kill him, and he refuses to let death be his only option forward. He starts to march his army towards Drannith.

Kudro amasses Coppercoat forces, and takes Jirina under the close eyes of guards, to meet Lukka and his army in the field after they spot him some distance away from Drannith, approaching. Kudro believes that they will not survive if they allow Lukka to meet their walls, but Jirina recognizes that fighting him in the field will cost an untold number of Coppercoat lives. Kudro later surprises her by revealing that Lukka has asked for a parley, and that he intends for Jirina to play an important role in it: she will assassinate Lukka. He gives her a dagger to keep in her pocket. Do this, and her name will be cleared, and she will no longer be a prisoner.

Even so, Jirina doesn’t want to kill Lukka and doesn’t intend to during the parley.

Lukka attempts to talk to General Kudro and Jirina during their parley. It’s hardly under peaceful terms; the parley occurs on an island in the middle of a raging river, and Kudro has ballistae mounted facing it. Lukka has a single monster facing the island from the opposing side of the river, or so it seems at first.

Lukka explains his idea of using monsters to guard Drannith instead of Coppercoats, explaining how humans need not die anymore in place of monsters. Let them die instead. Kudro, of course, is unbudging in his position on the matter and still thinks of Lukka as “sickened.” Jirina tries to pull Lukka aside and speak to him alone, telling him that this idea will never be accepted in Drannith; she begs him to give it up and simply come back.

Lukka is frustrated, because the way he sees it, if he “gives up,” he will be killed. He doesn’t believe Jirina can convince Kudro of anything.

Lukka comes to the conclusion that Kudro will have to leave the picture, seeing him as all that is keeping him away from his fiancee and home.

The parley starts to go awry. Lukka viciously denies Jirina and Kudro’s terms. Kudro tells Lukka off.

Lukka reveals that he was prepared for this eventuality on his own when monsters start bursting from the earth and the trees, disabling the ballistae and killing Coppercoats. In his fit of rage, he kills Kudro, and then turns to Jirina, babbling about how they can now have a life together—

…And Jirina swipes that dagger for him. She misses, only cutting his face in the process.

Furious and heartbroken, Lukka throws her into the raging river, snarling at her that she can die with the rest of the “traitors,” then—completing his arc of turning into the very monster Kudro was trying to prevent him from becoming.

Jirina escapes the river later, barely alive, and is confronted by monsters. Vivien and the other bonders that previously argued with Lukka save her and take her back to Drannith, where she asserts herself as chief of command despite the authority supposing to have gone to Colonel Bryd.

Lukka marches his monsters on Drannith, intending to force them to let him stay, or to drive everyone who fights him out so he can stay in their place. Jirina, however, has prepared Drannith by the time he arrives, and though there are hundreds and hundreds of casualties and plenty of damage, the city’s great walls hold. Jirina manages to get close to Lukka again and demands to know why he’s doing this, asking him if he really thinks he can just “come back” after this. He tells her that he intends to force them, that he’s not asking anymore. Jirina comments that he really has gone insane, and when Lukka goes to have monsters attack her again, the other bonders once again jump to her defense.

Lukka, once again, tries to seize control of the bonded monsters, as his army is spread thin at this point in the battle and no others are close enough to save him from the coming onslaught from Vivien and the bonders. The unknown planeswalker residing in the Ozolith warns him that if he does this, he won’t like what happens—but Lukka does it anyway, pulling more and more power from the Ozolith, until the great crystal shatters and explodes.

Pain floods his body and his army of monsters scream in agony as a reflection of his own. Fiery sensations course through him, as his spark ignites, and he internally laments how he just wanted to go home, just wanted to be with Jirina again. Then, he finally planeswalks away.

He awakes elsewhere, in a swamp, where three canid creatures take interest in him. He notes that he feels mentally fragile, like if he “shook his head too hard, it might break,” (or something along those lines), but despite that, he instinctively attempts to reach out to control the animals ahead of him. He controls one, which fights the others off. 

Grateful he has some power left, Lukka vows to go home, even though he knows that’s completely impossible, both literally and figuratively, showing that he has lost it completely at this point. And that’s where the story ends.

[queer-jew-writes]

When I moved out of my parents house and into my grandparents house at 17, one of the first things that I did was buy these two massive boxes of puzzles from this elderly couple on facebook marketplace. I saw the listing and couldn't believe the price, 5$ for hundreds of puzzles. When my grandpa, Pepper, drove me to go pick them up, in the middle of a thunderstorm, the boxes were so big and so heavy that they barely fit in our car. We were soaked head to toe from the rain by the time that we actually got them to fit.  He had to help me carry them in the house, and I spent hours just going through the boxes. 

A lot of the puzzles were in bad shape. They'd clearly been loved for decades and then stored somewhere where they accidentally got water damage, and that's why the couple was selling them. They looked like they were carefully collected through a lifetime of garage sales and flea markets, and there were puzzles from as far back as the 60's in these boxes. 

I'd bought them because I've always loved puzzles. They've always been a special interest of mine, and even before buying those boxes I had quite a collection, with dozens of puzzles in all different styles. Me and my grandma, Sedra, used to put them together when I was a kid and I've loved them ever since. So I bought them with the hope that at least a few were salvageable to be put together despite the water damage and mold, but going through those boxes was unlike what I had ever expected. Most of the puzzles had little hand written notes on the boxes. There were two distinctive handwritings on the boxes, and two names that kept showing up over and over again. There's one note I remember in particular that really helped me to see the beautiful story that I was witnessing. I've forgotten the names, so I'll use place holders. 

In the first handwriting it said, "Chris 2hr 24min- Beat That!" and right below, in the second handwriting it said, "Eleanor 1hr 58min- Love you anyways <3" and the boxes were covered in little notes like that. Some had just the times it had taken them to finish it, some had both of their names and a single time because they'd done the puzzle together, some had the date or year that they bought and finished it, some puzzles had the number of times that they had put it together. Going through these boxes felt like I was putting together the story of their lives, and having to get rid of some of them due to mold and severe water damage was devastating. 

When I finally got to the second massive box, towards the bottom, there were tons of kids puzzles for a bunch of different ages and interests. I started crying when I saw the first box that had the woman's name beside a kids messy scrawled handwriting of their own name, and I've cried dozens of times from these boxes, their story, and how much they've grown to mean to me too in the years since buying them. I actually called my partner crying  as I was going through these boxes to tell them about how tangible the love and joy was. I felt like I was watching the couple fall in love through these puzzles, and then watching them share that joy with their kids, or maybe their grandkids. Sedra never enjoyed puzzles very much and she's never been very good at them, but seeing the kid puzzles reminded me of how much love and joy we shared when we did used to do kid puzzles together. I quickly outgrew her skill level and went on to do more challenging ones by myself, but I'll never forget that she's the reason I have this love of puzzles in the first place. 

One of my all time favorite puzzles was in that box, and I've put it together a few times over the past 4 years since getting it. It's a thousand piece puzzle that shows a collage of old mismatched buttons sitting on a table. It took my days to finish, and when I finally did I wrote my own little note on it. "Bought from Chris and Eleanor 2019 - Cayden 6 days" I hope that one day people feel the joy and love in these puzzles from my part of their story too, and I've started writing little notes on all of my puzzles when I finish them now. 

A lot of the puzzles, of course, were missing so many pieces that it would have been impossible to put them together. There was one that I'd counted that had 95 pieces when it was supposed to be a 1500 piece puzzle, and several more just like that. I got rid of a few of those that were in worse condition, and kept a few of them to make some art out of because I couldn't stand the thought of just getting rid of them. I haven't gotten around to making the art out of them yet because I'm not feeling too inspired living with my grandparents right now, but I will get to it at some point. 

A few weeks back I tried to make a timeline of my life and all I could think about was those puzzles that were missing so many pieces I couldn't make sense of them. I saw a tiktok that was talking about the difference between childhood trauma that causes memory loss and normal childhood memory loss, and the woman had said that people without childhood trauma can make a cohesive narrative of their childhood, with a few details from each year. Stuff like what they were learning in school, what friends they had, where they lived. I know that I have memory loss from childhood trauma and I knew before I even started that I wouldn't be able to make a cohesive timeline, but when I started trying to it was even harder and worse than I thought it would be. This is what that timeline looked like, exactly. 

[Image ID: A piece of notebook paper in a spiral notebook. The piece of paper is turned horizontally with the spiral and holes at the top of the page. The timeline typed below is written in messy handwriting alone the page. End ID]

My handwriting is bad at the best of times, let alone when I'm heavily dissociating and upset, so I'll go ahead and type that timeline too. 

1-4: pre-k?

5?: Maybe Travis [my half brother] moved in?

6:

7:

8: cheersport?

9:

10:

11: Living in Thomson house; self harming; relationship with Travis; alcoholism; anxiety

12: Living in Burke County?; gay; self harming; eating disorder; thinking of running away

13: Living with Sedra? [my grandma]

14:

15: Moved to Pelion; highschool; gore; abuse

16:

I actually tried to put together what was left of the pieces in one of those puzzles that was missing hundreds one time. I was an exhausting and frustrating endeavor that I have never even thought about trying again since. I spent hours looking at the pieces and back at the box and back at the pieces, just trying to see if any of the ones I had even looked like they might go together. In the end, I think I ended up with four pieces put together total. I couldn't tell where in the picture they belonged, and if I hadn't had the box, I wouldn't have known what it was even supposed to be. 

When I tried to make this cohesive timeline of my childhood, it felt exactly the same. All I could think about while I was trying to make it was that one time when I tried to put the puzzle together. I keep looking and looking for pieces that just weren't there. I tried going through my journals, I tried going through the pictures of me and my family in my phone, but nothing came of it. I started crying because it was so upsetting to not know practically anything that's happened in my own life except for trauma. Of course, I have more memories than just the ones that I put in the timeline, but I couldn't put them in chronological order, or any kind or order, and they're far and inbetween. Just like that puzzle, I have a lot of pieces but not nearly enough to make a picture. 

[oni-official]

on a slightly less joking note what are your procedures for biological contamination via germ or other infectious agent

General procedure across the military has a standardised process for quarantine, decontamination, interaction with the infected, disposal of the deceased and any other biological waste that may prove to be an infection vector and research of the pathogen. Additionally, large scale evacuation plans and service zones for medical centers are in place. The Office itself maintains a standing bioweapons team for rapid response to the threat posed by bioweapons. They are thankfully not often called upon, with the recent notable exceptions of the human-targeted bioweapon detonated on Sedra and the Flood touchdown on Earth. On Sedra, the weapon did not seem to utilise microorganisms nor was it infectious in the traditional sense - while a quarantine zone was set up and all above measures were taken, it seemed more radiological in nature.

As for the Flood, well.

That presented a quite unique challenge, we weren't quite ready to fight infections in such a...

A literal sense.