#sol centric stuff

[alienglowgarden]

Watching endless movies on the projector, the two of you develop an inside joke- Tarkovsky must have secretly been a gardener too. The first time Sol shows him their namesake, Solaris, he is struck by the immaculate beauty, pinnacle of aesthetic composition the world of Tarkovsky's film is. It sets an impossible standard that in a real three dimensional space Sym cannot reach. For a good decade all he can think of is Stalker. By year 6 Vertigo Valley skews more green than fuchsia. For months his work barely moves a single square meter, as he works every angle into mise en place.

I was so funny for this [drabbles and quick idea scrawlings I never posted]

nother sym sol bit. Never wrote out how they come to the conclusion but rest assured there was a path I followed here. It makes sense ok. Philosophy is cool. similar line of thought as that one tumblr post that extrapolates "The default way for something to taste is good. When something tastes good we say "tasty" reinforcing that connection," and what that means for our understanding of morals. From that which is in abundance on vertumna, in the values the gardeners hold, one can make a comparative moral good and evil, which would differ from one borne of human culture. And Sym unfortunately falls squarely on the bad side. Lucky for the brand new invasive species tho.

“You're Evil.” You conclude chuckling as you speak out loud the logic of Gardener morality. “By their standards, you're immoral.” Sym doesn't seem to take it as lightly. “Let’s not talk about this, sugarbug.” That takes you aback. Its the first time something has truly been off the table like this. He’d always said it in a playful tone, directed the conversation to another topic. Here, his eyes were pleading with you to drop it.  You delight in this, knowing his cursed existence mirrors yours so neatly. But it seems you are the only one to see it as such. You find the idea funny in that self-deprecating, ironic kind of way. That "All you can do is laugh, right?" way. But maybe you're alone in this. Maybe you're the wicked dolphin in a sea of beautiful, morally upright sharks with no higher brain function to be capable of intentional cruelty. You think you are this on some cosmic scale, because your brains dipped halfway into another dimension of reality, while all the others still exist in just the three. 

Oh I found the bit abt the green!

When Sym announces that Sol has stopped wearing green, Sol's mothers face tightens, her eyes narrowed, Marz hms indignantly and puts a finger to her chin, Tangent cocks her head to the side and Anemone has no idea what this statement is supposed to evoke in her. Amidst the group of Sols closest friends, she feels stupid for not knowing the answer. Weren't they close once? Weren't they like brothers? It wasn't even so long ago that Anemone still felt close to Sol. She knew them where it mattered, she had thought. Sol, just like Anemone, meant to keep their colony safe at any cost. It wasn't so long ago that they stood side by side with their rifles drawn, watching each others backs. More than anything, the hurt inside Anemone was from the simple fact that she could not protect Sol from this now. Whatever this was. Was green a good sign or a bad one?

the idea being Sol -in line w stuff like insisting people call the xenos "animals" and reminding people that this planet is their home and not some hostile alien prison- very publicly expunges green from their wardrobe to further drive that same point: Vertumna is their home, not the Earth they never experienced. Against their mothers aggressive hostility toward the native plants, they shed what she has stubbornly held onto, they let it go and embrace what is around them. The things that wish to grow. Bit of a political performance piece to make the people around them think abt it. Which also unfortunately Flulu takes as a grave personal insult <3

This works in concert with the drabble of Sols self-exile to the sea, something predating that slightly, perhaps.

---

heres a gushy one. solsym ofc.

Sol admits love is a terrifying concept. There is a fear that among their own kind, it will never be enough. Will they be able to finish their work, be capable of carrying out the work that must be done? How will it change them, them for whom the worst part is the change. The unknowable them, a variable they don't have an answer for. It makes their anxiety spike. They often think it is the wrong choice to love someone. To love Sym. Sym hums, quiet and contemplative for a moment, then murmurs 'I know how you feel." He has embraced all the same follies for Sol. Had to grapple with the same thoughts of how it changed who he was fundamentally, beginning with this body. "Sol, you are such a magnificent human being. I have never met anyone quite like you. When I am with you, it feels… Like I'm witnessing history. Just the movement of your hand captivates and stills my heart, for it might usher in something never before seen. You alone possess such a unique understanding of the vision. For all my fear of how you cloud my judgement, I am dazzled several magnitudes more by what you bring to my life. Be glad, my love, for I trust you implicitly. Do not fear change inside yourself. Think of yourself as an experience, not a hard defined point of identity. It is the truest name for it I have come to know in all of my time as Gardener. Come, experience it with me," he extends his hand to them, a gentle smile opening up his whole face as he looks to Sol with such utter devotion, it stops their brain in its tracks. As if in a daze, they reach forward and intertwine their fingers with his, only conscious of the sound of friction as their palms graze against each other. Only the physical sensations at the forefront of their brain, overwhelming the whole of their thoughts.

Also had this ol thing w Sol post saving Tammy n always trying to raise her confidence route.

Sometimes you think maybe Tammy knows something. Wrapped up in her sad unsure speeches there is an inkling of understanding. Does she know? Does she feel it too? On some smaller scale, but... Does she know she shouldn't be alive? You wonder if being saved by you changes them somehow. You spend your childhood talking more to the adults than to your own peers in an effort to deduce some sort of tell, a connection, wondering if you've made them "stuck" too. You think this is the most callous version of yourself. This burning question has hardened you to trivial experiences. To the simplicity of joy. Its just like Tagent said- You're in the swamp, calculating in your head once again if Vace is more useful to the colony alive or dead. You think you see him, here and there: Sym. It had hurt, but you'd stayed away for as long as you could. Tammy, you should have been fearless, you should have realized you had cheated death and nothing could ever touch you again. Not as long as Sol lived.

[bonefall]

again looking over the reworked history what the hell happened with Ripwater, I wanna know. What *was* that? How did Riverclan kill it?

Oooooh, quite a request! Ripwater, Queen of the Lake, one of the episodes of BB!Po3!

Ripwater is a Wels Catfish, the largest freshwater fish in Europe. The biggest specimen EVER caught was just landed last year, in 2023, 9.4 feet long. It wasn't weighed, but smaller fish than this one have broken 300 pounds.

And it's not a good thing that we're catching so many big ones.

Wels catfish are extremely invasive across most of Europe, introduced for anglers who want to land record-setting catches. They're massive, intelligent carnivores, sometimes called the "freshwater orca" because they will lunge out of the water to catch land prey. They DESTROY the population of anything big enough to fit in its terrible mouth, including fish, amphibians, and even turtles.

They get that big from a mix of constant food and hot temperature. It's a sign that they're devastating their surroundings, and that nothing has been able to kill them for the decades it takes to get so large.

So of course, some dunderhead put them in British rivers, where they've been spreading upwards ever since. Thankfully they thrive better where it's warmer, so they're not too massive of a threat to BB's modeled regions in Northwestern England, but they're fucking coming.

Ripwater's name isn't an exaggeration. That's how they hunt. They gape their jaw and beat their fins like dragons, creating eddies and currents that suck their hapless prey in. When RiverClan names her, it's because they see her ripping the water in half. I was thinking about her recently, and came up with some new stuff. I'll take a brief break from my drafts to serve up some fragments for you.

[A gray cat with blue eyes, Lakepaw, later BB!Lakeheart, swims in bluegreen water surrounded by lilypads. Below her is the massive shadow of Ripwater, a gigantic Wels Catfish. Its eyes flash in the depths.]

SMALL RECAP OF BB!PO3: (to set the stage)

It is now a breather arc, just dedicated to some worldbuilding!

I feel pretty strongly that Po3's strength is how AWESOME of a slice-of-life arc it could have been. To this end, I removed the Kin of your Kin prophecy from it, until it's revealed only at the very end just before Cruel Season.

That's so I can focus on The Three and their adventures around the lake, without this big prophecy looming over them and making the lower-stakes conflicts look small.

Instead, the various episodes of Po3 are related to problems that their new home presents, with just a teeny bit of Sol's magical influence to spice things up.

While Lionpaw learns about the "meaning of strength" and ultimately learns a terrible lesson he will extend to his kits, and Jaypaw finds his limits and learns to prevent others from defining them for him, Hollypaw is grappling with Fire Alone and how to reconcile her grandfather's legacy with her strict dedication to the Warrior Code.

And SO we find ourselves in one of the earliest episodes of BB!Po3; Ripwater the River Demon. This is like... episode 3 or 4, it's a REALLY early one.

I'm just shuffling it around with ANOTHER RiverClan-centric episode; the Shinewater Plague. The oilspill from TNP is now going to be bumped up to Po3 so it's more about establishing Mothwing and her apprentice Willowpaw, to contrast Leafpool and her apprentice Hollypaw, before Holly swaps to being a warrior. Jaypaw completes warrior training before becoming a Cleric apprentice.

So I don't want them to be TOO close together. Maybe put Ripwater in Book 2 and have RiverClan comment that they don't really want to ask for help because of the last big event, Mistystar hates feeling indebted to ThunderClan.

After all, it could basically replace the "flood" episode from Canon Po3, which is often forgotten about anyway. I'm already having ShadowClan construct dams instead of RiverClan anyway...

ANYWAY RIPWATER

I want to start this episode off with Sol/Harry, who is unnamed, messing around near water. He has a bit of a fish motif going on that I want to establish, and I need to get him to start messing with the Clans good and early.

(Specifically his motif is going back and forth between the koi, also an invasive and notably domesticated species, and the atlantic salmon which is famous for its changing life cycle.)

The Wels Catfish is an invasive species to England, slowly making its way up the island from the South. The fish who will become Ripwater, at this point, is already HUGE but not cat-swallowing huge. She's an 80-pounder.

Sol hits her with some godly magic, which allows her to grow at a rapid rate.

The sort of thing where it wouldn't be COMPLETELY implausible. He just... helped it along.

When we get to her first true on-screen appearance interacting with RiverClan, she is nearly 300 pounds of monstrosity with a length of about 8 feet

I'm unsure how, exactly, ThunderClan comes to know of this. But I DO know that I want Hollypaw to be snooping, and heavily encouraged by her mentor Brackenfur to do so. So, somehow, SOMETHING starts going wrong across the lake and ThunderClan catches wind of it.

Thinking about it, this should probably be her first big action after swapping out of Cleric apprenticeship.

One of the few things she's missing about Clerichood is the way she could be close to Willowpaw without needing to sneak around so much. It's easier to just pass it off as "friendship" and "Clerics need to be close." Leafpool and Mothwing are a similar way.

Possibly work in that Hollypaw's also already seeing Heatherpaw in the tunnels, contrast the two things...

At this point, Hollypaw has a crush on Willowpaw, which is requited, but... it's kinda fading.

She still loves her like a friend, but she's liking Heatherpaw a lot more. It doesn't mean she doesn't CARE for Willowpaw, of course, but

Willowpaw is still IN love, and it's slowly becoming unrequited, when it didn't used to be.

And from RiverClan's POV...

The first disappearance is so sudden they have no idea what's happened. I'm planning for it to be Robinpaw.

(I go back and forth on if it's Robinpaw or Dapplepaw, but I'm leaning towards Robinpaw again, because I like Dapplenose too much to have her get killed off here.)

She went out clamming in the lake with her sisters, Lakepaw and Otterpaw, there was a swirl in the water, and that was it. She was gone.

Just like that.

She never came back up. RiverClan searched for her, following the currents, checking the shoreline, everything. It was like she vanished.

Mistystar is suspicious and doing everything in her power to figure out what happened, but... let's face it. It's the word of two apprentices, who were swimming alone, who swear Robinpaw just went under.

Misty JUST got done with the Shinewater Plague and isn't trying to make RiverClan look like it can't keep track of its own young. The most likely situation is that Robinpaw was sucked down by an undertow that the three of them were too inexperienced to recognize.

So... she's pretty adamant about not sharing this information until Robinpaw's body is found. Jaws Style. "We cannot let the other Clans be alarmed by this, else they might meddle in our affairs..."

(and she's still maybe a little paranoid that some snoop in another Clan is going to find out that Leopardstar wasn't killed by a rogue, y'know.)

I don't want it to be TOO much of a bloodbath, so I'm capping Ripwater's body count at three and just aiming for two deaths total.

I'm also going for a coincidence RiverClan is going to interpret as a pattern; this happens a lot, specifically, when they're hunting Freshwater Pearl Mussels.

Ripwater doesn't like the river as much as she likes the lake, but it has nothing to do with their clamming. They're just going to interpret it as such.

Anyway.

The next one she goes after was lucky. By some stroke, she opens her jaw, and the victim is able to grab onto something before they're sucked in. (Maybe toss in something here were it was Holly who was able to help save them.)

Since the WHOLE Po3 Apprentice Generation is going to be getting more focus, there needs to be more input from the RiverClan apprentices. Lakepaw and Otterpaw obviously need time here, but I also NEED to involve Ripplepaw, to establish how he's going to be seen as one of the strongest in RiverClan by OotS.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE AS I FIGURED STUFF OUT:

It was Ripplepaw, Otterpaw, and their two mentors on a raft who were attacked next. They were fishing for mussels in a shallower part of the lake.

Otterpaw was tethered to the raft with a flax lead, so it wouldn't float off. Or just tugging it in her mouth. Either way she had a line.

When Ripwater attacks her, she is swallowed on the line like a worm on a hook

And it starts pulling the WHOLE RAFT down, just a crummy bundle of sticks

One of the mentors started shouting to cut the line, else it would drag all of them under, but Ripplepaw dives right down to beat its ass without telling them he's not gonna cut it

Hollypaw just rushed right in, didn't think about it, forgetting she was supposed to be trying to sneak around

Taking control as the natural leader she is, she ordered them to shut up and start pulling the opposite way

Underwater, Ripplepaw braced himself against the fish's lips, grabs Otter's tether, and YANKS

Abovewater, the adult warriors are pulling together, Holly grabs the raft and pulls too

Once their paws touch the bottom of the shallows it's over, one last HEAVE-HO and POP!

Otterpaw is FREE

And when it's finally known that the apprentices weren't mistaken, there's a monster in the water, THAT'S when the debate really starts up. Mistystar does NOT want ThunderClan meddling, and she'll already be pissed off that Hollypaw (and any OTHERS who tagged along with her, I wouldn't put it past Honeypaw to wriggle her little yellow butt into a later draft, or Lionpaw for his massive strength) witnessed something that's not her business.

There's a moment from canon I desperately want to keep; where Squirrelflight comes to fetch her daughter.

(more reason to just say this is replacing The Flood Episode from canon lmao)

It's such an interesting moment, and so forgotten. In a nutshell, Squilf is both furious and concerned that her kit went missing and meddled in another Clan's affairs, but... understands the impulse.

Because it's something she would have done.

So when she scolds Hollypaw, there's this aching feeling that she's scolding a younger version of herself. Calling her arrogant and disloyal, that an apprentice's opinions mean less, and that she needs to listen to "older and wiser" warriors within her own Clan.

In BB, I want to do something big with this. Firestar is the figurehead of Fire Alone, who encouraged Hollypaw's behavior through his deputy, Brackenfur, who he set as her mentor for a reason.

But Squirrelflight is being abused. By Brambleclaw.

This is one of the lowest points in Squirrelflight's life, and she is walking a line between self-worth, the warrior code, and her personal beliefs, just like her daughter is.

SO, since I'm already using Brambleclaw's enabling of Ashfur's physical abuse as one of the contributing factors to Hollyleaf's descent, I ALSO want to show how he acts on other characters.

Brambleclaw, Clan Culture, the pressures of their strength-obsessed social system. So it's gotta be Squirrelflight that reminds her, or even plants the seed in her head;

"What you did isn't consistent with the Warrior Code."

Maybe even have Mistystar herself state this earlier, to be echoed by Squirrelflight, offering an alternate perspective to Hollypaw. Make her realize that ThunderClan's political leanings are not universal or even popular.

But when Hollypaw comes back to ThunderClan, whoever set her to be a snoop wants her to spill the beans. This is also a big WIP part, as Hollypaw struggles with if she's going to obey or not, and I still need to set all the political "players" in this moment.

I know for sure, though, that Firestar's IMMEDIATE desire is to meddle like it's an episode of Scooby-Doo. Though he's savvy enough to be smart about how he phrases it and what actions he takes, his ultimate goal is to put his little cheeto-dust paws all over this. And Hollypaw is starting to question how appropriate that actually is.

This is where it starts to really be a rip in Holly's mind. Clans aren't JUST big, blanket groups with united opinions, they're collections of individuals. Mistystar doesn't want meddling, but Willowpaw is in danger. Otterpaw and Lakepaw went all that time without being believed, after they watched their sister die, because they're lowly apprentices like her. Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw are angry and disappointed, while Firestar and Brackenfur are secretly lathering her in praise.

Now imagine me standing in front of a big board where I'm writing ??? because there's a missing chunk here.

I need to connect THIS part to what comes next, which is where ThunderClan DOES come in and help out. Here's the thought process going on in RiverClan;

Willowpaw comes in to do something important. She adores Hollypaw, knows her value as a Cleric, and knows that StarClan can sway Mistystar.

I want her to have a couple of pieces of a vision... BUT. She decides to interpret it in a way that's convenient, and add a few details.

It's not a tooootal lie lmao. It's just 75% true.

This is the true power of Clerics, when they realize it. No one can actually challenge them without just ignoring them or stripping them of power. They are accountable to StarClan alone.

A mentor simply doesn't say this out loud to their apprentice. It's a quiet secret. And Willowpaw just realized it.

and thinking about it... this should be the thing that finally breaks the budding romance Holly and Willow had. Holly is sickened by this, when Willow confesses how she convinced RiverClan to work with ThunderClan.

But, without even being a full Warrior, the apprentice leverages her power as Cleric of RiverClan, and 200 skill points of Improv Acting, to tell them these things;

"StarClan is so angry with us that they've sent a hog to the water! It's why they've sent a ThunderClan apprentice, we must work with them to eliminate the beast that lurks in our waters. With spears and plans, we must hunt it honorably!"

(Mistystar is defensive, but it's not known why) "We haven't disobeyed StarClan in any way. We'd already accepted their help once before, when sickness drove us to weakness, and it's only let them think they can disrespect our borders as they please. This can't be the holy will of our ancestors."

"It's-- We've been disrespecting this bountiful new land that they've so generously given us. That's what the pile of shells in my dream was. Think about it! The last attack was on the shore where we collect mussels. The second attack was on a cat latched to a raft, and it was only the tether that saved them. And the first..."

IVE GOT AN IDEA, Robin, Lake, and Otter WEREN'T clamming when they were attacked. She gestures over to Lake, knowing that if she doesn't back her up, the theory crumbles.

(Otter is in the Cleric's den, unconscious.)

Lake hesitates, not wanting to lie. Willow jumps back in,

"It's why Otterpaw was attacked," does those little jazz-hands to be like 'come in bitch work with me,' "And it's why Lakepaw has to be involved in killing it, to end what she started, and appease StarClan."

Lakepaw more like I LIKE-what-you-just-saidpaw, "It's true, we were so ashamed to admit it, Mistystar, this is all MY fault, I wanted my siblings to dig up mussels, PLEASE let me atone by stabbing the fish to death"

AND AFTER THAT IT'S NOODLIN' TIME

Mistystar, begrudgingly, accepts Firestar's help, or perhaps reaches out to him. Ripwater is a "Hog in the Lake," a beast too big for them to kill honorably on their own.

ThunderClan is the ONLY Clan that uses spears, and only for boar hunts. To protect themselves and to give their quarry a quicker death.

No other Clan touches weapons for dishonor reasons, as they're heavily associated with the demon Shredtail.

I should have Willowpaw explain her half-truth to Hollypaw here, and it's where Hollypaw just... so very suddenly can't look at Willowpaw the same way.

Jaypaw would definitely face an ableist moment from someone, but it's going to have to be one of those times where he accepts that there IS a very real limit to his ability here. Spears are range-weapons and his whiskers don't reach that far. He can't tell where he's stabbing, and the water is going to make it too hard to smell where Ripwater's dangerous mouth is. He can't be chosen for this hunt.

Meanwhile Lionpaw learns from Willowpelt how to make a spear and it is one of the most satisfying things he's ever done in his life, he's like "this is so awesome oh my god i love weapons"

just gently setting up that he's going to eventually become ThunderClan's head of hunting, and also that he's a lil violent

I feel like him and Lakepaw should hit it off a little because they both think the idea of stabbing a fish in the face is super cool, only for someone to growl at them that they shouldn't be enjoying themselves so much

Maybe Blackclaw, fuck that guy

(absolute tangent but BB!Lionblaze is kind of evolving into a little dork and I love that for him. Local himbo only capable of making friends or enemies, all Clanwide opinions on him are polarized, more at 11)

THE PLAN

So how DO they kill that thing? First of all, it's all about strategy.

Immediately they started making a couple of specialized spears. Most spears they make are exclusively for boar-hunting, so they have a distinctive "lug" that prevents a boar from impaling itself down the shaft to get you.

Someone in RiverClan explains that you don't want a fish having the chance to get off a claw. If Ripwater escapes, they might not find her again until she kills someone else

The solution is that these need to be custom-made, with special claw-shaped prongs, so they're chevron ^ shapes instead of tear-drop points. They stab in, and don't pull out.

So they need to make spears from scratch, which is an intensive process, and they don't have time to waste. RiverClan doesn't want to hunt by water that has a chance of having a freshwater orca spawn and drag you in; they'll starve

And there's only so many artisans in TC that can MAKE spears. Glue, twine, shafts, blades... these are all things that take hours of labor to create.

And MORE IMPORTANTLY, they realized from the Raft Rescue that a tether, attached to a floating object, can be very useful. Each weapon has rope tied through it and is tethered to a raft-- which is even MORE intensive, RiverClan had to repurpose several nets to create so many lines, and they only own three rafts, so the rest have driftwood.

So they only have time to create 3 special water-spears, and bring in 2 modified boar-spears.

Lionpaw is like visibly disappointed he can't have one lmao

The only apprentice given a spear is... Lakepaw. And it's a boar-spear

Because she's gonna be bait. They believe the litter is cursed for their "sin" and she'll be the next target.

But still, they chum up the water near the last sighting with blood and crowfood, like hog slop, and wait.

(Heavy WIP stuff here as we get to a play-by-play I haven't fully figured out yet)

Their plan is to get it on the shore as quickly as possible.

Four cats could pull Otterpaw from its mouth, so 5 spearcats and a dozen strong warriors could pull it onto the shore. Surely.

shorely.

It comes as expected, lunging at Lakepaw. She leaps back and tries to use her spear on it, but she is NOT properly trained with it, she stabs its face, but can't break the skull

RiverClan manages to toss a net at the beast, but it's NOT heavy enough

And they managed to get LAKEPAW with it, pressing her to the beast, her spear is dropped into the water

Someone shouts that it swims like an eel, able to just reverse course unlike a REAL fish which must turn

In the panic, warriors start mobbing it.

she thrashes, and splashes and the net is barely holding her back at all

She smashes a warrior with her tail, buffs another with her powerful head

She's stabbed in her side by a ThunderClan warrior (probably Sandstorm), and she turns on the raft they're standing on, breeching and SMASHING it to bits. Lionpaw and the rest of the cats on this raft get dunked

In the water, ThunderClan cats are useless, and RiverClan cats can't properly handle spears.

Someone from RiverClan, probably Blackclaw, tries to free Lakepaw but is scooped up in Ripwater's mouth.

He's screeching and yowling and trying to hold onto its upper jaw, regularly cut off as she dives under

When Willowpelt gets her spear in, she holds onto that damn stick with her LIFE, getting swung around and dunked in the water and then going back up into the air

Thornclaw, holding the other boar-spear, aims for its tail

But it's not enough; Even with several warriors of RiverClan, five spears, a net, and the weight of the two remaining rafts, Ripwater's managing to pull them towards the depths

She's too big to bite, too large to claw, and too strong to hold down

LIONPAW TIME

He grabs the spear that Lakepaw dropped

Ripplepaw seems to zoom right passed him, running away from the fish. He thinks he must be some kind of coward, the fight's NOT OVER YET!! WE NEED TO HELP LAKEPAW

(In a later draft I might have Lionpaw be on the smashed raft, and Ripplepaw brings the spear to him before turning and bolting back to shore. Either way he doesn't explain himself)

He paddles near one of the rafts, and is pulled up onto it

Firestar calls him a WONDERFUL BOY for bringing the spear

Lionpaw mumbles something enthusiastic around the stick in his mouth, wriggles his butt, and jumps back into the water

Grabbing the net sticking to Ripwater and using it like tree bark, he pulls himself on

Bites the spear by the lug like a handle

And stabs it in like a knife

But it's already starting to pull out, too shallow

Filled with anger and resolve, he bites the shaft, and PUSHES

Harder and harder and harder until there's a crackle, the twine breaks loose, and the lug snaps

The rest of the spear slips in as if Ripwater's made of butter

Figuring that's probably deep enough, he lets go of the net, breaching the surface, sputtering and hacking

He's about to dive again to go get Lakepaw, but to his surprise, she breaks the water next to him

and then he feels the fish bump his paws

His name is called from the shore, and there's Hollypaw and Ripplepaw waving. Ripplepaw TOOK HIS SPEAR'S ROPE. Like a GUY WHO THINKS.

Now there was a team of cats on the shore, all the spent warriors who got thrown off, pulling Ripwater to the shore.

And from the feeling of slimy fish under his paws, it seemed like her fight had been all but spent.

And more cats were swimming to shore now, with the ropes attached to the other spears.

Once on the shore, they're able to discover that, tragically, Blackclaw has died. Mistystar in particular looks deeply torn by this, as their relationship was notoriously toxic. But still, he had been the father of her children, and drowned trying to save a Clanmate. She jumps up onto the massive fish, giving a speech about sacrifice, how Blackclaw and Robinpaw would be honored, and that RiverClan has learned its valuable lesson.

Ripwater was symbolic; it's the greed they had unleashed upon the lake by over-exploiting one resource. From now on, they would be respectful of StarClan's bounty. She thanks ThunderClan for helping to fulfill a prophecy, and offers that their debt be repaid by splitting the meat of the hunt.

Hollypaw, internally: "Oh she's doing that on purpose. She knows ThunderClan hates fish and it would be rude to refuse."

Firestar: "well. how could we refuse."

Sandstorm, quietly, in the distance: "easily actually ew"

CLOSING STUFF

I kinda want some kind of "epilogue festival" where the two Clans legitimately celebrate with a somewhat somber meal sharing. Some of these episodes in Po3 will result in lasting traditions and holidays that are celebrated annually.

At that little "fish festival," it works for Holly to officially break it off with poor Willow, to leave this episode off on a bit of a sad note.

This was one of the first times Lionpaw's power becomes obvious, and it's the sort of thing that wasn't really noticed. I figure it would be good for Lakepaw to ask how that lug snapped, she could barely even get the spearhead in. Lionpaw just brags and says it must be because he's SUPER STRONG.

For some reason he's just making a ton of friends whenever I write these out, I think I'm going to lean into it. Lionpaw's got friends when he's a kid lmao, starts losing them over time as he gets more violent.

It's probably because I really need a comic relief in The Three's dynamic. Hollypaw is very dramatic, Jaypaw is dealing with legitimately stressful social issues, and Lionpaw is violent. Someone has to lighten the mood up a little and it's probably because he's The California Girl himself lmao

At this fish festival he also discovers fish isn't actually that bad. Everyone's being weird about this. It's not really that slimy. It's got a strong taste but that's kinda nice, actually?

Could use some berries but like... "damn why don't we do this more often. this would go great with blackberries."

Ripplepaw: "You think so? I can taste sweetness, can I try to make it at home and tell you how it works out at the next Gathering?"

Lionpaw: "It's not hard, you just mash the berries and stew them in a little water before pouring it over your meat. I learned it from Willowpelt, she's got a mad sweet tooth."

Lakepaw: "No offense Lionpaw, but I always thought you were a total lunkhead. I never thought you'd like, cook?"

Lionpaw: "I mean not really, I'm an awful cook, I can just make simple stuff. Willowpelt's just nice enough to be patient with me, my mentor Ashfur says if I can learn something anyone can, haha."

Just a nice little moment for him.

Blackclaw is being mourned in the mortal plane, but secretly, getting a SCATHING trial up in StarClan. His death was heroic, but his ENTIRE LIFE was treacherous.

From teaching Hawkfrost to follow in his father's pawsteps, to joining him in WindClan's Civil War, and his constant arguing and undermining of Mistyfoot back when she was just a deputy trying to do the right thing.

He goes on trial for a bunch of things he did in TigerClan, too, facing his victims who took his misdeeds to their graves. He's not the only cat in RiverClan who is getting a review like this.

Leopardstar is already in the Dark Forest, and soon, Blackclaw's sent there too.

I decided to kill off Blackclaw here so he could have a VERY cool Land Mar;

(context: all Dark Forest demons now get a cool little evil playset area just for them, where they spawn into after they're thrown out of StarClan. These are called Land Mars)

It's still unnamed, but it's basically an even BIGGER Ripwater. It goes above and below the river and lakes of the Dark Forest, popping up in any body of water big enough to hold her.

[s0ulsice]

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒔 𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

  (‘Fun facts abt me’ has been edited due to stuff changing irl!)

  ᴠᴏʟᴜᴍᴇ : ▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯

  ↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

  ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Angel

𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚, 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙝𝙖𝙞𝙧 

𝙏𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙖 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 

𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡 🏹🤍

About The Writer

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ✯ Solana/18/capricorn

(sola, sol, ana, sunny, etc.)

┊ ┊ ┊ ✯ I surf 🏄‍♀️

┊ ┊ ✯ art and film student

┊ ✯ Zuni, Apache, Black, and Trinidadian/Caribbean

✯ Benedict Bridgerton is everything to me .

𝓕𝓤𝓝 𝓕𝓐𝓒𝓣𝓢

☆I’m currently living in the US but I’ve kinda lived all over.

☆The last place I lived was New Zealand, and I travel a lot with my partner who studies cultural architecture. 

☆ I use my real name lol. feel free to call me Sol, or Lana, or whatever!

☆ I live with my roommate, and my two dogs (one of which is a psychiatric service dog)

☆ I speak French, Spanish, English, and Shiwi (Zuni Language.)

☆ I study art and film, specifically story structure and cinematography. 

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

✮I write for any gender x any gender reader inserts.

☽ y/n will most likely be poc coded (non-euro centric features described, etc.)

R U L E S     A N D    D E T A I  L S

Nsfw is aloud but nothing crazy. (By that I’m not calling any of anyone’s kinks “crazy” what I mean like super, super intense bdsm, knife play, gun play, blood kinks, incest, stepcest, (let’s just say anything ending in ‘cest’ is a no.) and everything MUST be consensual.)

I’m a bit hesitant about writing human x na’vi nsfw and I probably won’t write human reader x na’vi fluff. It’s just I have a hard time visually imagining a human and a na’vi having sex without an avatar body. I am not against the idea in any way, but the general concept does throw me off a bit (I always imagine some type of detrimental injury occurring bc we are so smol compared to na’vi)

In all, I’m not the biggest fan of writing for a human reader, and will probably turn down requests for a human x Na’vi fic.

I will however, absolutely write for avatar reader x na’vi character of any sort! Or even a half-human half na’vi reader or some kind of biracial na’vi? (I’ve seen that concept a few times in the fandom an it’s honestly so much fun)

I do allow things like comfort for self harm, abuse, traumatic experiences, racism, etc. but these things will never be romanticized.

Y/n won’t have a name. Sorry, I just don’t see the point in x reader if the reader has a name. I will always refer to them as Y/n.

I write for a female reader for the most part but please, if you want any other pronouns please let me know in your request.

Y/n will always be of any size! That includes plus size or on the skinnier size. If you would like me to specify that in your request let me know.

I do age up my characters. If you don’t like it you can head out.

‧₊˚🖇️✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡ ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆‧₊˚🖇️✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡ ⋆˖⁺‧

T H E      H  E A V E N S

Details: Each character has their own sky object or natural phenomenon. Works and fics are found underneath the collages.

(important! This masterlist is not yet finished! More characters will be added later!!)

 Ａｖａｔａｒ Ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒ Ｗｏｒｋｓ⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙⋆｡°✩ ⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙⋆｡°✩ ⋆

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream."

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ๋࣭݁ ⭑🪩๋࣭ ⭑. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ๋࣭݁ ⭑🪩๋࣭ ⭑. ݁₊ ⊹

Kiri Sully-

𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼

Sky object: crepuscular rays, Neptune 🌀

Works:

None, currently.

Lo’ak Sully

“Lo’ak was an anarchist of his own recklessness. His gaze grazed with fire unapologetically unable to sit still. 

Sometimes the smoke and ash become a haze of intangible adrenaline. preservations for one’s safety wither away under the charred sky.”

𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼

Sky object:

Mars

Rainstorms

Works:

None currently.

Neteyam sully

𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼𓋼𖤣𖥧𓋼𓍊𖡼𖤣𖥧𖡼

Sky object:

Golden hour

Sun rays 

Works:

Diphanous part 1

Diphanous part 2

Virago Series 🏹:

Spotify playlist

Chapter 1: Day the sky turned red

Chapter 2: The son sun made out of stone.

Chapter 3 part 1: Cupid wears a blindfold

Chapter 3 part 2: Aim your arrow at his heart as he holds it out for you to ruin.

Chapter 3 part 3.: Surrender to his saubade, he has set his soul and sin ablaze (to be yours)

Chapter 4: Nice going, Romeo.

Chapter 5: Honey, you’re familiar

Chapter 6: She was a bird, I was an arrow

More characters coming soon!

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see here for some stylish pro-Palestine jewelry!

[luciacaminoz]

20, 22 and 47 🦇

another insane 1.5k ramble... im so sorry... BUT THANK YOU <333

linking a prev ask because there are some callbacks

20. Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

so i have 6 playlists set aside for these two which is ridiculous i know… but they really do go through a lot of different stages; a cringe baby vamp honeymoon phase, a whole ass long term relationship, a betrayal/divorce then estrangement, tense partnership and psychosexually eyefucking your ex you haven’t seen in a decade across the room when you’re both back in the same city, to making good on exactly that while the Camarilla and SI are on your asses… as you go to make even more trouble with Sabbat in Mexico… maybe topple tradition within the next century… like. please can somebody in this narrative chill for a second to at least attempt to establish what’s going on here. there’s just so much

for post-night road active relationship, i think the one that 10/10 hits thematically, symbolically, lyrically, and in terms of the mood/vibe between them at this time, is Deftones’ This Place Is Death. i also love The Spell of Mathematics for a semi sol-centric POV and Digital Bath for a semi julian-centric POV (sorry for all the Deftones), but This Place is Death nails it mutually. how light and floaty the opening melody is, you can almost picture clouds parting, then chino comes in like monsoon season. the lyrics are loyally resigned and desolate and kind of oscillating between vulnerability and evasion, intimacy and detachment, and i love the noise-harsh soundscape combined with the controlled and rhythmic build-release that never really feels satisfyingly resolved by the end of the track. it gets you close and then drops off… and strings you along again — it’s just so good. to me. romance as an instrument of torture... yes god

22. What reminds each of their partner?

Julian:

seeing scorpions or snakes in the wild, in art, in strangers’ tattoos, for probably obvious reasons. he would play with her thumb and forefinger to make the scorpion ink move its pinchers.

muscle cars — especially the classics. or any car that’s been atrociously pimped out, just so he can point to it and offend her

sade, lauryn hill, tupac — they wouldn’t be artists he’d specifically listen to himself, but he would know some of their discographies from sol lol. if they were to play somewhere, or between 2010-2020 if he found an ancient mixtape/playlist from when they were together, he’d clock it and reminisce or tighten his jaw a little.

that specific sensation you get when you spend hours cooped up inside, working or immersed in something, and finally step out into fresh air; that immediate grounding rush, for better or worse — either “awesome im free mood instantly lifted and i can relax now” or “oh god without distraction im alone with thoughts/feelings i dont want to acknowledge”. both sides of that bring sol to mind, the former in their earlier years, the latter from Denver onwards

occasions when he’d pass family-run mechanic workshops on town/city outskirts, still open, light spilling out into the street and a crunchy, crackling radio somewhere inside, which is similar to their very first meeting. he also kept an eye on her whereabouts in the Southwest and her brother’s place back in Sierra Vista while off the radar in Denver, so those updates during that time would’ve been consistent reminders

i feel like anytime he’d be messing around just for fun on a personal laptop he’d probably think of her because that was something they would do together a lot, just really stupid shit

Sol:

i think in the background during the period he was gone, any big tech advancements/announcements or new releases in things he was interested in over those years would’ve brought up niggling little thoughts of him — would he be excited; would he be ranting and raving in her ear about a whole bunch of stuff she only half understood right now?

so julian designated her a personal drive on his laptop in the 2000s, which she rarely used with any sort of serious purpose — either just to mess with him or save their pics — but everything about it was always completely bespoke when she did open it up. he probably had dumb little scripts programmed to run specifically when she logged in. she remembers times they’d sometimes go to yard sales or junkyards when every other avenue was a bust and outright buying wasn’t an option, and she’d hold the flashlight while julian skimmed for whatever he needed for some component. when sol finally got her own laptop in 2011, while setting it up and choosing passwords, how impersonal it all looked…she might’ve started actually using her dried up dead ass lungs to breathe a few times. the cam cracking down on tech probably suited her with how inextricably linked it was to him and them goofing off in better days.

dumb t shirts or absurd phrases and slogans that he would most likely want on a t shirt. star wars, certain manga and 90s anime she would know because of him. things she isn’t herself into but kind of endeared to. she regularly dayslept in his uzumaki hot topic hoodie (lmao) around 2010ish, the time of aila’s diablerie and a few months before julian actually left (he didn’t take it) so that was a bit of a rough reminder for a while because she didn’t trash it :/

i hc purple and teal are his favorite colors so those for sure would make her think of julian. if she spotted any outrageous paint jobs on vehicles or came across slightly uncommon car models, she’d have flashbacks to the crazy lime green geo, or his fleet of hybrid sports cars and SUVs by night road. at this point post-night road i hc he drives an iridescent nebula-purple fisker ronin. basically, sol sees some rich asshole’s flashy clown car on the road now and thinks of one julian sim

cringe memes (she groans but kind of likes them)

sol is into custom embroidery and crafts and she’d be acquainted with onyx — those pitch-dark little stones catch light like his eyes

47. Does either of them have a secret that could potentially ruin their relationship?

i want to say no but it’s not in an everlasting-love positive way; i think there’s a lot of fucked up feelings and codependency going on between them that they’d endure until one of them is mentally destroyed or killed by the other (or diablerized) (or just taken out by camarilla/si/other forces i guess). sol is more likely to be destroyed and end up a husk for whatever julian cooks, and julian more likely to get killed/diablerized if sol were to finally snap.

i mean julian has made sol central to everything’s he built; they will be fixtures in each other’s unlives for at least the next century according to his plans… this shit is long haul let’s not even begin to unpack that or ill be here for another three days

and sol is just a mess on the inside — little sense of self beyond her mistakes and a defining relationship she clinged to because she had nothing else (as both a mortal navigating young adulthood and as a brand new fledgling), so the end of that, plus a polite-kindred-society cardinal sin on top, like it’s not looking good. which even ignoring the guilt complex, she can’t simply detach from the crime either because she feels that presence ripple and stir inside her. i think diablerie gets trivialised as a meme a lot which can make it lose its punch thematically within the context of the setting and its lore, but idk, it’s an unnerving concept to think about imo, at least for my more neurotic characters. and living on your nerves in fear at the fringes of both human and kindred societies for a decade has gotta fuck with your head even more. and wondering what made the only person you really had, who was also your sire and probably the love of your life, abandon you? ahh sol makes me sad to write sometimes but i can’t stop beating her. she is begging me to get obsessed with another oc for a little while to get a break

anyway, all that to say they’re just teetering on the brink of a nuke constantly, and i think what compels me is that i don’t know for sure. what if julian is hiding another hidden agenda with 2100X and sol fucking loses it at more secrecy and lies? what if sol, similar to when she unknowingly lowered her generation and strengthened her blood potency with the serum, discovers a power or something substantial with her mutated vitae that julian possibly hasn’t accounted for, and she keeps it from him out of vindictiveness or trust issues? julian is easygoing most of the time but he’s also wildly hypocritical and there are moments in night road where if you push him something switches and he gets nasty; i feel like despite all he’s kept from sol, and however far-gone he potentially gets with his vision, he would not react well to her keeping even one secret, especially something huge like that, from him. would that be enough, i don’t know but it’s interesting and unfortunately why i can’t put them down and go crazy about anything else

[crystalsandbubbletea]

Do not ask us for donations

Intro post (Hopefully this is the last time I have to redo this 😭)

We're the Crystallized Cosmos System

We're a traumagenic system

Info about us under the cut:

-Most of our system stuff (and info about us) is at @crystallized-cosmos-system

-We're a fictive heavy system

-While we do support endogenic systems, we prefer to stay out of syscourse due to personal reasons

-Frequent fronters: Rian (🧋💎), Leshy (🐛🍃), Shadow Milk (🌌🃏), Heket (🍄🍂), Shamura (🕷️🕸️), Kallamar (🐙🌊), Berat (❄️🌊🌔), and Nocturne (🐑🌹🌌)

-We're writing a Cult of the Lamb AU?!

-Ongoing notes game

AO3: eclipsesandmilktea

YouTube: 🧋MintBubbleTea🧋

TikTok: crystalsandbubbletea

(Note: Our TikTok has no videos, meanwhile our YouTube is community post-centric)

Other blogs:

@the-official-legacies-blog (Webcomic blog, hiatus)

@crystalsandbubbletea-art (Art blog)

@gilded-veil-official (Blog for Gilded Veil)

@crystaline-userboxes-dividers (Blog for making userboxes and dividers)

@crystals-warriors-rewrite (Warrior Cats rewrite blog)

@crystals-lo-rewrite (Lore Olympus rewrite blog)

@the-moons-talking-corner (Blog for the moons in this trenchcoat)

@crystallized-cosmos-system (System blog)

@crystalline-cosmics (Blog for Rian, Berat, Anya, Rose, Daisuke, both Saturn's, and Blaze)

@cornflower-clangen (ClanGen blog, hiatus)

@crystalline-simping (Rian's blog for simping)

@the-crystallized-cosmos (Side blog for post limit)

@thelonecolumbineflower (CRK RP blog)

Gimmick blogs (LONG BE WARNED-)

@aroace-spec-empire

@definitely-totally-croatia

@totally-czechoslovakia

@actually-czechoslovakia

@the-republic-of-california-fr-fr

@croatias-ghost-vesna

@crystals-la-bubble-tea (Gimmickverse Blogsona/AroAce Spec Empire blogsona)

@venus-for-real

@actually-titan

@totally-callisto

@official-macula

@the-ottoman-empire-for-real

@sclera-officially

@the-sol-sun-fr

@totally-the-moon-oculus

@totally-the-real-pisces

@nonbinary-communist-republic

@mother-of-evil-chaos

@real-hellstar-remina

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@polydeuces-of-saturn

@the-dwarf-planet-eris

@diomenia-daughter-of-callisto

+ Two (2) secret blogs

~Info~

Main interests: Astronomy, plants, animals, art, RWBY, video games

Hobbies: Writing, drawing

Fandoms: Baldur's Gate, RWBY, Red vs Blue, Halo, Percy Jackson, Andromeda Six, Murder Drones, Doctor Who, Demon Slayer, Hollow Knight, Warrior Cats, Undertale + Deltarune, Astroneer (Slowly getting into it-), Fundamental Paper Education, Solarballs, Gemini Home Entertainment

BYF: Here

For our mutuals

Tags for saga posts:

#berat's rivalry with art block: Berat getting mad at art block

#myst's/🦢⚜️'s advice: For any advice Myst gives

#rian writes: Any writing Rian/🧋💎 does

#rinky dinky pc saga: When we have to use our PC because the phone acts up (NOW RETIRED TAG)

#rian being trixic hours: Whenever Rian is being gay (Recommended to filter out this tag if you are Apothiromantic or romance repulsed)

#crystalline suffering in [school subject] hours: Pretty self-explanatory, we hope-

#rian's saved tiktoks: (ARCHIVED TAG!) TikToks Rian has saved that they decided to share

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#gilded veil: All posts related to our webcomic series

#squeak the shorkie: Posts about our Shorkie, Squeak :³

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#bubble and squeak: Posts about Bubble AND Squeak :D

RWDE, Pro-life, anti-endos, Vivziepop stans/defenders, people we blocked, ableists, Zionists, Nazis, pedophiles/MAPS, anti-queer, radfems, TERFS, radqueers, anti-therian, anti-furry, JKR defenders, victim blamers, bodyshamers, pro-ED, pro-SH, anti-recovery, people who misuse tonetags, "LGB drop the T", proshippers/comshippers/darkshippers, anti-xenogender, anti-neopronouns, people who participate in r/systemscringe or anything similar to it DNI

That's all for now! ^^

(Credit to all the blogs who made the userboxes btw! ^^)

The divider is made by us btw!

[anaveragedisaster]

Some lore for the reimagined non-XCOM Resistance factions in my Nine Sols/Xcom 2 crossover thing I'm calling the Solcom AU

(By the way, I'm not sure how much the fandoms for these games overlap. I'll try my best to keep things understandable to non-xcom players.)

The Reapers: Similarly to their XCOM version, they're a loose group of guerrilla fighters that live in the wilderness, away from Sol-controlled cities. I don't think it's confirmed anywhere in the OG game's lore, but in this version, they definitely formed out of old-world prepper groups. Instead of using guns, they've elected to go especially primal and use combat bows.

Their leader, so to speak, is Shennong. He's still one of the humans who was abducted and brought to New Kunlun's Apeman Facility to be experimented on. Over the years, the others were successfully brainwashed and genetically modified to be loyal to the Sols, people who could be presented to the public as ideal citizens of the Solarian-ruled Earth (instead of being a disguised alien, the Propaganda Speaker from XCOM 2 would be one of these humans). Shennong, despite being subjected to the same treatments, remains the paranoid, anti-social guy we know. Luckily, either Eigong or Goumang chose to keep him around as a (probably) harmless anomaly they could observe. However, one day he got fed up enough to break out of the livestock pen and, through sheer luck, made it off New Kunlun and into Earth's wilderness, where he was discovered by the Reapers. They were obviously sceptical of him at first, but his conspiracy theorist personality and his ability to create booze out of random stuff he eats wins them over.

Some of the more devoted fighters have even begun to follow his example and eat poisonous animals and plants they find or grow (in small amounts, obviously), which in gameplay would give them immunity against poison and/or other negative status effects.

Once XCOM has made proper contact with the Reapers, Yi and Shennong hit it off over their shared drinking habit. From then on, XCOM can find and pick up both exotic poisons to trade to him, as well as different types of booze from all over the world that he and Yi can enjoy together.

The Skirmishers (will probably change the name, but haven't thought of one yet): In XCOM 2, they were part of ADVENT's genetically altered army that broke free of their mind control. Similarly, here they're soldiers from the biomechanical army, primarily the Red Tiger Legion, that somehow gained sentience and went rogue. I'm not quite set on how they would be in combat compared to game Skirmishers, though they definitely have their grappling hooks.

Their leader is obviously Chiyou. He made it off New Kunlun soon after it landed and began wandering the Earth, marvelling at its beauty and cultures. Once he encountered other self-aware robots, he happily joined up with them, helping them comprehend their newfound state of freedom with his philosophies. Their primary goal now is to keep their freedom, while helping any other Solarian weapons find theirs. Their storyline would involve XCOM having to destroy Xingtian (probably multiple times, like in the actual game) to put him out of his mindless misery.

There's also a group of geno-soldier scholars that has grown to share Chiyou's appreciation for art and belief in nonviolence. Yi's XCOM can find and give their little circle various artistic works to safeguard and contemplate over (though they've promised to return them once peace and freedom have been restored)

The Neo-Fangshi (aka solcom!Templars): Once the Fusang's roots had spread throughout the world, it didn't take long for humans to start developing or even getting born with a connection to it, much like Heng. Some have even accessed the Limitless Realm and witnessed the great Tao. This has led to a revival of Taoist beliefs in places across the Earth, something the Sols haven't been too happy about due to their science-centric worldview.

Geist (I might change his name as well), in this AU, developed a particularly strong connection to the Limitless Realm, catching glimpses of Lear and his younger warrior form. From records the Sols had made public to humans, he learned about Lear's accomplishments as a scientist and fighter and was inspired to follow in his footsteps. Geist and like-minded 'gifted' humans decided that the power the original Fangshi gained from the Limitless Realm isn't to be ignored like the Sols are seemingly doing. Their New Fangshi guild is dedicated to both using advanced technology and cultivating their qi abilities to become more powerful, so that they may one day bring down the Sols' regime and bring humanity into a new era themselves.

Geist's ambitions are challenged somewhat towards the end of the story (which I've been able to develop somewhat), when XCOM raids Kunlun's Grotto of Scriptures and retrieves the holorecording of his dear Lear's Declaration of Inaction, which Yi gives to him. Soon after, both of them are summoned to the Limitless Realm, where Geist gets to properly meet Lear for the first time. The old master lectures them on what being a Taoist actually means, including telling his story about the Demon Dog. This is even more sobering to Geist, who begins to realize that, with how power hungry most of them are, he, like Lear long ago, may have to put down his fellow Fangshi if there is to be lasting peace after the Sols are defeated.

In terms of fighting style, the Fangshi are like XCOM 2 Templars, whose style in turn is incidentally a lot like Yi's style in his game (which is what inspired me to make them Fangshi like him here). Both use basically magic (psionic energy and qi/rhizomatic energy, respectively) to conjure blades for attacking and to avoid damage through parrying. So yeah.

[avatarskywalker78]

It's Six Sentence Sunday and I have stuff written!!! Firstly, an extract from my Dhawan!Master redemption fic. It is September 2009 and Earth is safe once more - but O's reeling in the aftermath, guilty because even he was unable to come up with any other solution...

And deeply, deeply angry.

He blames himself - not just for that but for the situation, because would this have happened if he hadn't destabilised the government? Would someone other than Green have had the common fucking sense not to blow up and neutralise one of the few groups who could've worked out a viable plan, and alright, so he doesn't know that for certain-

The other person to blame, though?

Is the Doctor. His old friend, the self-proclaimed guardian of Sol 3 except he's not here. He's not here and he should be, and these last five days he's been unable to figure out why. Why wouldn't he come when this wasn't even a Fixed Point (hadn't been, but it is now, he felt the slim window of opportunity slam shut the moment Steven died-)

I did not like the Children of Earth storyline at all, but sometimes the story has to be sad - O's anger at the Doctor over his not being here is an important part of the fic and he's going to confront them over this at some point. I haven't actually written out the actual storyline itself, but I just had this scene in my head so I wrote it out.

My next extract is from my 'Tory is a Barnes' AU which is slow-going but we're getting there, especially now I've planned out several key scenes for it - for this one, it's a version of the council scene, only this time Leah and many of the parents of kids caught up and/or traumatised by the school brawl are present.

It had been a while since Leah had stepped foot into a council meeting.

She tried to keep involved with the community, of course, but between her roles as a history teacher, then co-owner of a furniture store, then a mother it wasn’t like she had a great deal of free time on her hands, and honestly, most of the time it wasn’t that interesting – the last few times she’d attended it had been the equivalent of watching paint dry.

This time would not be like that, given the room was near full of dozens of furious parents.

Like herself, for example.

Today the consequences of the school brawl and what to do about it would be discussed, there was a motion to cancel the All-Valley entirely (some people agreed, others vocally against this course of action, especially the other dojos considering this mess had nothing to do with them), and in general there was a tense, hostile atmosphere.

Not helped by the fact the three so-called Senseis had dared to show their faces.

This isn't going to go quite how they think - those of you who read my Leah Barnes centric story will have an idea of what's coming >:D

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @starstruckpurpledragon @dream-beyond-the-fantasy

[coloredscribbli]

I chucketh upon you two things:

Personal lore and fanfic lore

First, my profile picture is from this screencap

Yes, it’s the “if you feel simpatico get in a jar” screencap

The brain just fucking looks like overstimulation and I glommed onto it

Which reminds me, how often do you think MM has to clean out all the salty residue from those jars? Headcanon that he just becomes blob, hops into them and goes ✨✨✨VVVVVMMMM✨✨✨ like a sentient heat lamp and just bakes it out w/o having to do anything

Speaking of blob

T H E C O U S I N S.

Quip Schmitty and all the lil’ Quips following behind him is a QL3 ref on its own and the spiral on the top right is QL and QL2 cause of the colors

Bottom right is the Pack 7 menu cause clouds and balloons

Then top left is s’posed to look like the Pack 10 menu w/the white boards and pinkish glow (I think the Pack 10 menu is actually meant to be the same menu as the one for Pack 1, but with more shit in the actual room)

And bottom left, you can fucking guess (yes, the gray string things are the spinal cords hehe)

“A lua é prima do sol” = Portuguese for “The moon is the cousin of the sun”, cause you mentioned “sun and moon dynamic” and that song about like “the sun proposed to the moon”

I imagine the lore to go like, Schmitty’s just calling her family or something (my Schmitty interp is she/him) and talking about how life’s ok, she guesses, but like, the Quips are hard to understand sometimes with their chittering and she kinda just wishes she could have a change of scenery besides spinning voids and all the clay (QL3) is sticky if she’s over there too long and

Y’know, middle-aged needs-a-vacation stuff

And someone’s like, “Oh, hey, where do you live right now”

And the answer is “spiral voids, I told you”

And Schmitty’s told, like, go to California, you can’t be too far, and you can’t miss it either, he’s got another big show coming up soon

So Schmitty goes and Googles who the heck this “Coper” guy is and goes “wait, wasn’t Dypoland my mom’s maiden name” (this is coming from a universe where the creator doesn’t know the dense YDKJ-centric Schmitty lore, so do forgive me if his mom’s actually dead or somethin)

And learns The Mentalist’s from Alabama (bc sure MM put that on the website)

And Schmitty thinks about it and goes “FUCK I HAVE AN AUNT WHO MOVED TO ALABAMA AND HAD A KID AND I NEVER MET THAT KID”

Schmitty packs all her bags and cut to the Cueball Palladium

MM’s just trying to get a nap and some random ginger busts in and says, “WHERE’S MY COUSIN—do you need the hospital, that can’t be safe.” Cause MM has melted partway into blob and looks like a Picasso painting

And MM is like “Take one step closer and I will define ��fatigue’ for you, one syllable at a time”

Schmitty goes “That’s two, then. I can handle that.”

MM can’t even be bothered, just

Eepy purple lump

Schmitty tries poking at MM

“You’re my cousin”

MM’s already passed out

After a bit, Mentos comes in and they settle the stuff out once MM wakes up and it basically ends up being

Schmitty: You’re so old fashioned, but I guess not everyone starts out with their own pocket dimensions!

MM: *checking family tree to be totally sure this dude’s actually his cousin* …Well, blast. We do share blood.

Schmitty: I TOLD YOU!

How do you think they’d react to meeting each other (assuming they haven’t already in canon)? Their relationship would definitely be “cries in the bathroom vs chucks a roll of toilet paper over the stall to use as tissues and clocks the crier in the head”

a whole bunch of neat stuff, so let's see what we've got here

I've always wondered what overstimulation feels like actually. i know the idea is "probably really fucking bad" but I'm just awful with feeling... feelings anyway. sounds like a fun twist

I like to imagine he's more careful with jar-cleaning on my end. those brains are pesky critters and tend to be too focused on the show to make an intentional mess, but MM's careful anyway. better he takes care of stuff, less money to spend on specifically buying new stuff

ANYWAY, COUSIN TIME

I feel like these two are just Saturday-morning cartoon levels of stupid when with each other in my lore. Like, I feel like that makes sense? Edutainment-type-stuff with this one magician who's always just energetic and upbeat but gets frustrated easily, and another who's just quiet and calm while being a coward. Plus the Quips. Somebody has to be the one doing the in-universe learning if it's not Schmitt and MM's dumbasses. 80% of the time.

But to me, they'd get on. It's basically a bit of a "good to see you're okay, don't die out there" dynamic. They could care MORE for each other, but they're still close when they hang out.

I mean sure, my lore for them is that MM thought Schmitto was dead for the past few years (after hearing rumours of the TMP2 incident), until the guy just waltzed in one day like "ohh shit, you actually made a show!"

And mostly because MM saw him as a huge inspiration for his confidence and love for theatrics back in the day, MM just thought he had gone crazy before being talked down from that spiral

So the two just caught up and agreed to stay in touch from there, thus creating their "energetic + frustrated showman" and "enigmatic + somewhat cowardly" showman. they probably hang out on weekends or something

[what-the-fluxxation]

THE pinned post with info

Hello there, it is I, the Fluxxation. It’s like 1 AM and I really need to make this before I fall asleep so here goes nothing.

Me (Basics)

- He/Him

- Technically an adult (18) but no NSFW stuff please

- Exclusively an English speaker

My Interests

Above everything and always I will be a robot enjoyer. I love violent robots, funny robots, detailed robots, cute robots, anything but sexualized robots, please don’t do that.

As for current games, I’m very very big into my Nine Sols brainrot era, somewhat moderately playing Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero whenever they get content updates, and will always be a Souls and Armored Core fan. I know of Rain World, I wish I could get into it more, but I know of it. Oneshot holds an eternal grip on my heart as well. OH AND ULTRAKILL I FORGOT TO MENTION ULTRAKILL EARTHMOVER AND GUTTERTANK MY BELOVED I NEED MORE GUTTERTANK PLEASE. Also the entire risk of rain franchise im just adding games when i think of them now tbh.

As my previous games show, my interest is generally in difficult souls/souls-likes and narratively strong games, though I’ll play just about anything if it has a lot of robots in it or just outright looks appealing.

My music taste is horrible, I listen to VGM, Djent Metal, lofi, anything electronic, and everything in-between. I will always take song suggestions if you want to offer them. I would say I have a music addiction if 160k minutes on Spotify Wrapped says anything.

Creatively, I’ve always been best at writing. I’ve tried my hand at music, am beginning to finally learn art, but words have always been my forte. I’ve used this passion for writing to do quite a lot of online Roleplaying, generally in style of typical DnD, but also in more narrative-driven formats. I’ve made OCs for a good chunk of years of my life, having made short stories for my favorites and such, some of which I may share here someday. I wouldn’t even begin to say my writing is anything special, but I like to do it, and the people I’ve shared it with seem to think it’s alright.

Outside of my online degeneracy, I enjoy tennis and pickleball. I’m pretty active, loving to hike and climb/clamber. I greatly enjoy primitive camping and the outdoors regardless of weather, almost finding it more fun if I’m with the right people when the conditions are less than optimal.

Why I’m on Tumblr

I’m almost ashamed to say the reason I found Tumblr was the glorious Nine Sols Shitpost tag. I finished the game and my hyperfixation was so bad that I just started scouring the internet for any ounce of content I could get my hands on. Given my background with roleplaying stuff and shitposting, coupled with my new obsession of a game interest and a desire to start digital art, it was a perfect storm to get me to both join Tumblr and start drawing.

Now I’m here to keep up with those goals. I wanna keep providing comedic content on shitpost blogs, working on general art skills so that at the very least I can make decent-enough references for my often complicated roleplay-centric projects, and most of all, looking at content for games I enjoy, hopefully making some new pals in the process.

Oh, and reblogging cool robots / horrible shitposts

Current Projects / Goals

- Work on my Nine Sols AU (Ancient War Machine)

- Continue to practice drawing

- Befriend a few people on here (yippeee)

Asks / Contacting me

Feel free to ask for art requests or whatever else, I can’t guarantee anything close to speedy or good, as my art quality and time management skills are both as far from the word “good” as you can get, but I need the practice so..

I don’t have any other socials really aside from Discord. If you’re a mutual, or think you might as well be, then by all means hit me up and I’ll give you my user (even if it’s close enough to this account that you can probably guess it in a reasonable number of tries). FAIR WARNING, I am very socially awkward and will talk to you like we’ve just bumped into each other at random without any knowledge of who the other person is.

Thanks for reading allat, here’s a star for your efforts!

🌟

[animazi]

the pinned post

general stuff:

ani, she/her

feel free to ask me whatever (as long as it is not personal or weird), I'm more active on here than I should be

writing and whatnot:

general ao3 link, my username is animazi if that isn't working recent stuff/stuff I'm proud of: Providence, In Summer (Padme centric oneshot, character study focusing on her relationship with Palpatine) Girl and Ghost (my go at a Kleya handmaiden au oneshot with some past velkleya)please don't read my older stuff, read the peedy if you like but know I did it For The Bit and so it is entirely unedited and written in one or two sittings

tags:

everything is tagged with the main media it is from e.g. #star wars or #disco elysium (yes this is supposed to be JUST a star wars side blog, no that isn't really working out)

it will also get tagged if it is extended material like tv shows, books etc, e.g. #andor

it is also tagged by character and ship e.g. #padme amidala, #anidala when possible I like to tag with full name, if full name is not known to me I'll use rank e.g. #master sol

anything original from me, be that ramblings about my day or meta will be tagged as #original ani thought

[icharchivist]

hii!! I was wondering, do you have any headcanons for FFVII? I'd love to hear them 🩷

hi!!

I do have a lot of hc but i haven't thought about any of them in forever. I have some shipping hcs in general for clack/aerti/asg somewhere on my blog i think.

depends also on which type of hc as in like, "stuff i hc the character feels in canon" or "what if" hcs

On more general headcanons that i can think of... (and it's going to be very OG/CC/AC centric) (there will also be major spoilers)

-You can buy a villa in the Costa Del Sol. I like to imagine that the whole Avalanche crew goes there to recharge every once in a while, even after the events of the OG. Each of them have their specific room to rest up. After Aerith's death they left her room as it is and turned it more in a memorial. Once in a while they come back to put flowers in it. Cloud and Tifa have the hardest time coming back into the room for the longest time.

-It's such a trope from the Old Days but i love the idea of Cloud learning some mechanic knowledge from Cid. Like he'd need something to focus his mind on to forget the horrors and Cid would give him some tips while they work on cars or bike together. That way, Cloud customized Fenrir fully thanks to everything Cid taught him. I feel like he would have his own garage in the back of the new Seventh Heaven, but once in a while he'd drop by Cid just to work on some things together. And when they do work they don't really talk much which really help Cloud out.

-In one of the post-canon book, Vincent and Nanaki make each other a promise that, due to Vincent's immortality and Nanaki's lifespan being much longer than anyone else in the cast, they will meet every year when everyone is gone and it's only the two of them remaining, that way they can remember the old days. It's not really a HC but this is something i hold very, very dear to my heart. I like to imagine the two of them constantly coming back to the places they used to go to, Vincent being made emotionally unstable by the amount of loss he went through but Nanaki being a rock to be able to support him through it as they try to make those grieving memories good memories. It means everything to me.

-The remake more or less confirmed it but i love the idea of Barret being genuinely invested in the planet on a academical level. Like he actually read everything he could find to figure out why things went wrong in Corel and how to stop it from happening again elsewhere.

-Also liking to think about the time Tifa and Barret met each other. Nibelheim and Corel's tragedies happened around the same time and i could imagine the two of them meeting before they even reached Midgar, while they're still both major messes from what happened. They would bond easily over their shared trauma and i feel like, both of them working together to raise Marlene was the major motivation for the two of them to sort themselves back together, because even if they're miserable, they need to give Marlene the best of the best. I kinda see Barret and Tifa's friendship like Edgin and Holga from the D&D movie, if that rings any bell. I also think they're each other's rocks more than anything else. Like they may have lost everything again with the Sector 7's collapse, but they have each other so they can get through it. If either of them had died i feel like neither would have managed to move forward from it, regardless of if Cloud and/or Marlene were motivator for them to hold it together.

-I imagine the girls (Aerith, Tifa and Yuffie) would regularly take time off from the group just to have "girl time" together. Aerith would joke like once about how Cloud could join them for having been an honorary girl and Yuffie tries to get all the details and it's Tifa who had to hold the conversation back. Aerith would clarify it's then just a joke and they'd have fun together in town. Post Game, Tifa and Yuffie still see each other and have fun together, but thinking about the old times too much really sour the mood.

-When Reeve is running on 5 all nighters post-game when he's busy trying to organize WRO, he casually slips into himself having a very thick scottish accent. If he does so in front of any Avalanche members they mostly give him a look and don't comment on it, but Yuffie would totally make fun of him for going back to his kitty's habits. Cloud eventually drops a bad "he can do whatever he wants, he knows the cat is out of the bag" pun once and Reeve now just tries really hard not to slip again.

-Speaking of Reeve, based on On Your Way To A Smile - Denzel episode, i think Reeve would drop by regularly at the new Seventh Heaven just to chat up with Denzel, and by extension with Marlene. His mother died to take care of Denzel all while she was talking about how her son didn't have time for her anymore, so i feel like Reeve would therefore try to be there for Denzel to make it up to his mother on that level. I feel like he'd be awkward around Marlene at first considering what he has done, but she wouldn't leave Denzel alone so he had to get used to it.

-Not /my/ headcanons per se but i'm obsessed with a fanart i once saw of Zack as a child holding a toad in his hands, knowing that around Gongaga is where you meet the toads who can change you into one. I like to think Zack used to get into all sort of troubles training to be a hero when he was a child that he'd often come back home with toads in his hands. His parents would have to gently tell him to please stop picking up dangerous toads every few days, but he always gets so excited he forgets about it. Also i like to HC that the fact Zack never gets affected by the toad debuff isn't just because of CC's limitations but just because he's from Gongaga so he's Just Like That. too used to frog to be debuffed.

-Also definitely thinking that it's failing to save Zack that had Tseng being even harder on the rules by the time of the OG. He softened a lot around Zack and he put his own job on the line to try to save him and he couldn't, and i truly think it's what hardened him as badly as he does in the OG.

-HCish? but i think Sephiroth really wanted to be Zack's friend in the way back. Like Angeal would always be complaining about him but with clear affection in his voice that Sephiroth would really want to get to know Zack, but he would be awkward at first except when training him. Like Zack is the "normal" friend of the group. When Angeal and Genesis left i feel like Sephiroth wanted to rely on Zack more, but after he passed on to Zack the mission Angeal ended up dying in, Zack just couldn't take Sephiroth's way to show attempts at friendships. Like he knew it's not something he could hold against Sephiroth but it's something Zack was bitter enough about that he set distances with Sephiroth at the time. And that is why he didn't pick up any of the cues Sephiroth was going mad in Nibelheim because he was still reeling from what happened to Angeal.

-Also linked to that i like to imagine Sephiroth as some sort of spite added to all the other reasons about the way Cloud took over Zack's sword and stuff, and it's why he broke him the way he did as well (like, on top of just regular Cloud obsession reasons). esp since Zack's sword was also Angeal's, i feel like this would add so much spite to everything Cloud is doing.

-Also thinking indulging Yuffie when she was sending him emails to trick him is probably what got Zack to really understand the weight of his actions with Wutai, and that he let her ask him more and more outstanding things mostly because the guilt was taking him over. I read a fic about it once and it still hasn't left my mind.

-Still on the Zack train but i think about the months in the run Zack and Cloud had to be in and think about how Zack probably was really damaging his health by really trying to be hypervigilent and careful about Cloud. Like he'd make sure to have Cloud sleep between him and his sword, and he himself would be half awake most of the time to be hyperaware of his surroundings. Or when looking for food, Zack would ration his parts to make sure Cloud himself get to eat something, even though Cloud is barely responding. So not really in the healthiest state of being.

-Random? but i like to think Kunsel has a big facial scar under his helmet and it's why he's never seen without it (what? could it be because of CC's limited graphisms? perish the thought, obviously--)

-When Angeal disappeared, Zack tried to take care of his plants for a while, but failed pretty hard, not having a green hand at all. He tried to get tips from Aerith but he was totally hopeless. Eventually he brought Angeal's plants to Aerith and she took care of it herself.

that's all that's coming to my mind right now but i know i have more stuff. just nothing comes to mind right now.

Hope it was a fun read! ;) take care!

[countessofravenclaw]

Honestly, I think ¿Puede la ondulación cambiar una marea? has became my Magnum Opus in a way. It is so much fun to write and the fact that people really love it. This kind of thing is kind of outside of wheel house, since it's not thar Gastina centric (latest part had almost zero of them), but outlandis consepts got me into writing (MOT was my breakthrough for a reason).

It started out as an AU, but now it's a REWRITE and I actually realized that I don't need to abide by the S2 timeline, meaing that the fic finishes by the time we reach the time of S2 finale.

It actually can't even end then, because Luna won't find out she's Sol yet. The specific events that alowed that-Ambar being Sol, He bio-mom arriving, the Rey's blackmail, Alfredo being susbucious, ect.-have not happened.

I am also not gonna release Monica and Miguel soon, because plot and also courts take forever. It a huge legal battle.

So, the story will probably strech to the so called S3 timeline, meaning that Luna will go on her senior year. Gastón also will not be going to Oxford, for multiple reasons (some of them are spoilery so I won't speak more on the subject).

So, I think we are gonna one full part about the summer, because we never see those in the show, so untapped potential. m

Roller will go to Cancun for the Rodafest and they will lose (I am not sure yet, if Ambar joins the Sliders or not), because they were always going to lose. Then we can see some other stuff that happens during the summer, because Gastón has mentioned that they travel a lot for vacations during teh summer and stuff. Even with the Luna situation taken into an account... they're not gonna change their lifestyle, or dump her somewhere so, she's going along.

Luna's been a whirwhim, so let her enjoy some of the benefits of living unde millionares' roof.

[shadowblade8192]

Shadow's 2024 Games List

idk i thought this would be a cool thing i could do where i go through all the games that i played for the first time in <current year> (side note: i would have put this up last year but there was a latecomer so i delayed it a couple days). It wont include *every* game i played for the first time this year, just games that i started playing this year and played a somewhat decent amount of (not necessarily finished), and going through them all and what I liked and/or didn't like about them. Also a lot of these will be older games, not necessarily games that *released* this year since that would bring the total down to 3.

Also this contains spoilers for basically all the games I played, but I will mention some games specifically in case people haven't played them and wish to, since they may be better going in blind:

Superhot trilogy (Minor stuff from the ending of the third game) Inscryption (Go into this one blind, trust me) I'm sticking a keep reading cut in there. Seriously, go play Inscryption if you haven't already.

So, in a particular order (the order i got them in mostly):

Turnip Boy Robs a Bank

Having played the first game turnip boy commits tax evasion relatively close to launch, I was following the development of this one quite closely, getting to try out the demo, and then getting the game day 1 (in fact this is the only game I have ever purchased day 1), and had a blast. It's a relatively short game, I 100%ed it for the first time in around 11 hours, there is some potential replay value though I cannot deny there is less than other roguelites. The main layout is not random, however some item placement is, and the elevator rooms are random. Still, I had a lot of fun with it, and I can also confidently say I am the only player to ever legitimately reach 1B cash in the game which is something normal to want to achieve.

Lethal Company

Didn't try this one out until about 3 months after release, but was playing it very regularly once I did. Still pick it up every update or so for a few days, the reason I don't play it more is because its a very multiplayer-centric game and requires me to have friends online to play (yes I am aware it can be played solo but its not as fun that way). Very much enjoyed this one, and am eager to see where the developer goes with future updates

Celeste

Playing this gave me a sudden urge to put on a skirt. I'm sure its nothing

Superliminal

Messing around with perspective to solve puzzles, I really enjoyed this one. Puzzle mechanics were very intuitive, and I believe this was the mechanic that would have been used in a canned sequel to portal. It isn't in the portal/hl universe obviously, but I did still have a good time with it

Manifold Garden

Absolutely stunning visuals, it feels more like an art piece made into a videogame and- *searches something up* oh wait it was. Really enjoyed this one, definitely worth giving it a go if you haven't yet

The Pedestrian

Puzzle game involving moving a character across street signs, and the puzzles themselves are good as well. It's the first game on this list I haven't actually finished yet (not 100%ed, that would go to celeste since I have basically just climbed the mountain on that), but what I have played I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Buckshot Roulette

This one was a lot of fun i love gambling. Multiplayer was a great addition but I *wish* the developers let you use it on the itch.io version, but still I'm happy that it exists at all. It's a good game to just pick up and play a round or two for.

Dead Cells

Had a lot of fun with this one, haven't beat it yet but I have played a lot, reached the final boss (I think) once but died to them. It's a great one for my steam deck as its something I can just pick up for a run or two while I'm waiting for something.

Superhot Trilogy

So I first picked up Superhot VR for the PSVR in a cex, since I'd heard about it in passing (well, Superhot as a franchise) and the points on the back of the box sold me enough to drop £8 on this second hand copy. Insanely fun. Best of all three of them, It feels like the concept of the game was made specifically for VR. If you have any VR headset that has the option to buy it, definitely buy it. One of the best games I picked up this year.

After beating and enjoying Superhot VR, I noticed the bundle of the two non-VR games (I believe the first and third in release order) on GOG was on sale, and, well, I enjoyed the VR game so I thought I'd pick up the bundle. The original Superhot was enjoyable, basically the VR game but not in VR and you can move about (Well you could move in the VR game but only as much as you had physical space). Had my fun with that, and then moved onto the third game.

Superhot: Mind Control Delete starts off strong but near the end I was struggling to get through it. A roguelite Superhot? Marketed as more Superhot? Why wouldn't I like it, having liked the first two? Well, I did like it, to begin with. The hacks were a neat mechanic, giving you special abilities, and the health was nice, somewhat counteracting the fact that unlike the other games, you can't "learn" each level, since enemy spawns are procedural (In the first two it was partially a puzzle game in the sense that you needed to work out how to defeat the same set of enemies spawning in the same locations each retry). Cores were interesting, but I mostly avoided them. The whole gimmick of roguelite Superhot was starting to wear a bit halfway through. And then the unkillable enemies started showing up. Basically, the three cores you unlock (you start with one that gives an extra HP for a total of three) all have an unkillable enemy associated with them, and later levels will always have one of these (not related to the core equipped, so you cannot avoid them by only using the default core). You cannot kill them, you must avoid them, and the most annoying one can teleport into you. I was so glad when I found out you can give up the cores to stop them spawning, but that is basically at the end of the game. The ending itself.... you have to wait two and a half hours. With the game running. It does not save your wait time progress.

SH:MCD starts off alright but really isn't that fun later on.

Inscryption

Well, back to games i thoroughly enjoyed. Inscryption is a game that you should go into completely blind. You saw the spoiler warning at the top, right? Go play it if you haven't already. I'm serious. You can read my review later. Go play it then come back. Now, where should I start...

I love this game. A lot. All I knew about it going in was two offhanded mentions in a Pyrocynical video, where he says the ourobouros card can be buffed to like 10k if you waste enough time on it, and also the game looks at your files (if you know of Pyrocynical, you'll be able to guess why he brought that up), the latter of which I forgot about until the moment happened. Also a bundle on steam it had with Buckshot Roulette called "basically the same game". I did not buy that bundle, instead I bought it with a coupon code from the GOG newsletter that, upon looking at SteamDB and GogDB, would put the game down to an even lower price than anyone else would get (seriously do not sleep on GOG's newsletter, it gives out free games and coupons on some pretty decent games, I got Shotgun King: The Last Checkmate on a discount from there last year), and since I knew it was kinda similar to buckshot roulette, I bit the bullet and bought the game.

Started out with Leshy's Act I. I died a lot but had a lot of fun, solving most of the puzzles (on my first playthrough I didn't unlock the ring, nor the bee statue to replace squirrels), and beating the moon on the first attempt that I actually got that far on (so it wasn't until later I found out that you get a champion card on the door instead of a deathcard when you win, also I didn't encounter any death card nodes despite dying enough to. I do kind of wish I beat the moon once before getting the film roll to experience that, but still), and then got confused for 3 minutes after picking up the new game button, not realising I had to actually exit out and start a new game.

Act II was slightly disappointing at first, but it definitely grew on me, and I have replayed it standalone a handful of times with some challenges (e.g. 4 runs where I only use one class of cards, and a run where I use every card I acquire in a run since the only requirement is at least 20 cards, and there didn't appear to be an upper limit. The answer is yes, it's possible, but *very* RNG heavy).

I did enjoy Act III, I wish a few more of the mechanics were brought over to Kaycee's Mod (more on that later, also I do wish there was an option to do an act 3 kaycee's mod run but I do get why that's not there in the vanilla game for lore reasons. I'll get to mods later), but it is a decent act and I like Lonely Wizbot and the fisherman. The Archivist boss fight was fun cause i gave it Daily TV #69 which it put on as a face, and then /dev/core from my pc which was 128TiB. I wish Golly had the ability to interface with GOG Galaxy like it does with Steam to show friends there, but still a good concept.

The Finale was.... certainly interesting. Saying goodbye to all the scrybes, Grimora's interesting concept of the chessboard, Leshy's "One more game" (I did shed a tear when he insisted we kept playing and didn't need to keep score), and Magnificus' "All style no substance" battle (seriously is there anyone who has tried to win at that? I cannot find a single result online for that). All culminating with finding the OLD_DATA and then the final video... and Magnificus' act 2 theme is perfect for credits music.

Kaycee's Mod is great, Basically Act I but with a few mechanics removed (I do miss deathcards but yeah, balancing, same with ouroborous not keeping stat bonuses between runs and some unlocks like the bee statue, squirrel totem, dagger, boons before the final fight, etc., though I wish there were more escape-roomy stuff like act 1 had). Loved (most of) the challenges, Royal's boss fight is a fun alternative if you are bored of the moon (boss totems make no changes since none of Royal's cards have tribes)

Overall I would easily say this is one of the best games I played [for the first time] this year.

Webfishing

Imagine club penguin but instead of a whole island you can only go fishing and you don't get banned for saying fuck. Also gay as hell (positive). It's great, you can, if you want, never use online and exclusively play a singleplayer (or coop with friends only) fishing game where you collect a lot of fish, alternatively you could only use it as an online chatroom, or some mix of fishing and chatting, anything's possible. Good fun, better with friends imo but I like multiplayer with friends if I can. Also you can get drunk.

Balatro

The latecomer I mentioned in the first paragraph (feels like a while ago, I don't know how long it takes to read all this but I started making this post like 2 months ago), I got this one as a gift on christmas (well, a day or two after but it was a christmas present). This one has been a blast, this combined with inscryption being some of the most fun games I played this year is leading me to probably check out some more roguelike deckbuilders next year (well this year since this is going up on jan 1st). It is a very popular recent release so you may have heard about it, but the general gist of the game is you play poker hands to score points, and you get jokers which have effects to increase your score and you progress through the rounds. There's other mechanics that can add or remove or modify cards in your deck (adding 3 new poker hands being five of a kind, flush house (combo of flush and full house), and flush 5 (being 5 of a kind and a flush)). Very fun game and a perfect one for steam deck where I mostly pick games up to play a few rounds of something at a time. Also I found a tool to create an apk from a steam install to play on phone which is neat.

So that was my wrap-up of games this year, overall positive, see you again next year when I do the same thing (hopefully I get enough new games...)

[valfreyja108]

I put Mark Watney in an empty coffee can with Jason Todd and shook them around ❤️

Also! Shameless plug! I wrote a fic! Several actually!

(actually bf plug first)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22982515/chapters/54944485

^ long (121.8k), Johanssen is also stranded. The eternal dilemma of "how the fuck did Andy Wier get 900 sols". Amazing, did read before I ever spoke to the author btw. Rest of his stuff is amazing too.

Me time!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57109996

^ short (2.5k)

"Mark Watney is only unconscious for sixty two seconds after he is struck by the communication dish’s antenna on sol six (it doesn't change anything)."

And

https://archiveofourown.org/works/55494040/chapters/140827864

^ medium, still in progress (34.6k as of now)

The Magnus Archives inspired, Martinez centric, funnily enough I came up with this completely separate from my nigh inexplicable loathing of Matt Damon as Mark Watney. Happy ending eventually but I still gotta futz with the last chapter a bit and maybe write an epilogue that doesn't feel forced and ill fitting

I don't think I ever truly read Sci-Fi books so how the fuck did Andy Weir capture me???

[the-adventures-of-dave]

on the topic of ""pet friendly"" establishments, hotels are really bad about that. so many would claim to be pet friendly and then in super tiny print say they'd only accept dogs. it was nearly impossible to find lodging that would take cats when my family and i went on a roadtrip

Ugh you’re so right! I really want to do a road trip with the boys someday but the main barrier for me is finding those cat friendly hotels. I really don’t get it, it’s not as if cats are noisier or make more of a mess than dogs. If anything I’d say they’re less of an inconvenience for the hotel (but I might be biased).

[sparkles-and-trash]

My problem with finding longer fanfics is that I have very low tolerance for drama and conflict in fics, they��re mainly my little escape to soft happiness, but I would honestly love it if more people wrote 20+ chaptered fics that were just silly SoL, fluff, getting together, just, some plot ofc, but not like, a constant scary threath?

Anyways this is why I write what I write, because maybe I’m not alone in wanting series of silly, happy stuff, and some day I might actually get to a point where I’m ready to post it all lmao ~

If anyone have any bnha recs that fit to this description btw, feel very free to send them to me!

(does not have to be ship centric, but my yes ships are: tododeku, bakudeku, kiribaku, momojiro, dabihawks, todosero, erasermic, shinkami tsuchako, Tokoyami x idk most of them? Ojiro x Hagakure, minasero, kirimina, serokami, todobakudeku)