#then gets revived with the power of necromancy

[sparky-cryptidcrafts]

I think I forgot to post this here.

More art for my tutinstine au, I wanted to do a full body of cleo and show off how her arms change when she uses her powers in this AU.

[whentheynameyoujoy]

Y’know, a lot is said about exposition and worldbuilding and show, don’t tell but I absolutely love how Muir evil-cackles “yes, and” and just weaves a story—that’s actually pretty simple if followed chronologically—completely ass backwards to the point that its signature mark is people having no idea what’s even going on over there. And not only does it still work but it hits you that much harder emotionally when you finally untangle this controlled chaos. Like, you open the first book and immediately go “huh? What the fuck is this combination of sci-fi and fantasy, and why is the fantasy element necromancy of all things?!” But you handwave it because Gideon and her porn mags and griddlehark and the consuming nature of love, aaaaargh, but as you go on, more and more layers get peeled away until you arrive at the incredibly “duh, why didn’t I see it before” origin point which is a single scientist gone apeshit with the desire to avenge our ongoing climate apocalypse, and the dying spirit of the Earth giving him the power to revive and restore her and it going horribly, horribly wrong because human heart is just that fucked up, god I love this series.

[writingwithcolor]

[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

~ ~ ~

Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They’re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)

Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.

Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop...

Essentially, in my story there’s an organization who wants to end the world. They think this one woman in particular, a woman of mixed Vietnamese (irreligious, Kinh) and Japanese descent who spent her formative years in Japan, is the person to do it because she’s (for lack of a better term) a necromancer; powers are semi-normal in this world. She prefers not to use her powers overall, but when she does she mostly talks to ghosts and spirits that are giving people issues. She could technically reanimate a corpse but she wouldn’t because she feels that would be morally wrong, not to mention she couldn’t start a zombie apocalypse in the traditional sense (plague, virus, etc.) in the first place. 

(Marika (M): Your local public health officials would like to assure necromancers that reviving the dead will not provoke a zombie apocalypse. This is because necromancy is a reanimation technique, and not a pathogenic vector. Assuming that the technique does not release spores, airborne viruses, gasses, or other related physical matter that can affect neighboring corpses in a similar way, there should be no issue. However, necromancers should comply with local regulations w/r to permitting and only raise the dead with the approval of the local municipality and surviving family.)

M: I think it makes sense for most people of E. Asian descent, including Japanese and Vietnamese people, to find it culturally reprehensible to reanimate the dead. I imagine the religious background of your character matters as well. What religion(s) are her family members from? How do they each regard death and the treatment of human remains? Depending on where she grew up, I’m curious on how she got opportunities to practice outside specialized settings like morgues.

M: It’s true, space in Japan is at a premium, even for the dead. You note that most of Japan cremates, but, surely, it must have occurred to you that if there aren’t that many bodies in Japan to raise…she doesn’t exactly have much opportunity to practice with her powers, does she? I yield to our Vietnamese followers on funerary customs in Vietnam, but you may want to better flesh out your world-building logic on how necromancy operates in your story (And maybe distinguish between necromancy v. channeling v. summoning v. exorcisms). 

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina (R): OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

M: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

R: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

R: And yes, the Tofugu article uses Resident Evil and those games to support its theory, with the reason that they are set in the West. But that only suggests that Japanese people consider zombies a Western thing, not that Japanese people consider zombies nonthreatening if they were to exist. 

M: Same with vampires - series like Castlevania also use Western/ European settings and not “Vampires in Japan '' because vampires just aren't part of our folklore.

(M: Also, realistically, these series deal with individuals who quickly perish after their bodies are used as hosts for the pathogen in question, rather than the pathogen reanimating a corpse. Although the victims are initially alive, they soon succumb to the pathogen/ parasite and their organic matter then becomes an infectious vector for the disease. It should be noted, infecting ordinary, living humans with viruses to grant them elevated powers, is not only a major violation of consent and defies all recommendations made by the Belmont Report (in addition to a number of articles in the Hague Convention w/r to the use of WMDs) and is unlikely to be approved by any reputable university’s IRB committee. This is why the Umbrella Corporation are naughty, naughty little children, and honestly, someone should have assassinated Wesker for the grant money.)

R: wwww

From what I know Vietnam didn’t have a zombie movie until 2022. 

R: Do you mean a domestically produced zombie movie? Because Vietnamese people have most certainly had access to zombie movies for a long time. The Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire (1985) was a gigantic hit in Southeast Asia; you can find a gazillion copies of this movie online with Viet subs, with people commenting on how nostalgic this movie is or how they loved it as a kid. 

M: “Didn’t have a [domestic] zombie movie” is not necessarily the same thing as “Would not have made one if the opportunity had arisen.” None of us here are personifications of the Vietnamese film industry, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t know. Correlation is not causation. It’s important to do your research thoroughly, and not use minor facts to craft a narrative based on your own assumptions.

(R: …Also, I did find a 2017 music video for “Game Over” by the Vietnamese idol Thanh Duy which features… a zombie apocalypse.)

(R: The MV has a very campy horror aesthetic and zombie backup dancers (which I love, everyone please watch this lol). But the scenes at the beginning and end where people are biting their fingers watching a threatening news report clearly establish that the zombies are considered a threat.)

So at one point, she laughs about the idea and remarks how ridiculous it is to think zombies could end the world. What I’m struggling with are other ways to show her attitude on the issue because I’d assume most non-Japanese readers wouldn’t get why she thinks like that. Are there any other ways to show why she thinks this way, especially ones that might resonate more with a Japanese reader?

R: The problem is this does not resonate in the first place. Your line of thinking is too Sapir-Whorf-adjacent. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, otherwise known as linguistic relativity theory, claims that language shapes cognition—that you can’t conceive of something if you can’t express it in your language. This is a very weak theory that you can easily bring evidence against: think of the last time you felt an emotion you had a hard time putting into words; just because you didn’t have the language for it doesn’t mean that you didn’t feel it, nor does it mean that you won’t be able to understand or recognize it if you feel it again. Similarly, it’s not a sound assumption to say that if some kind of subject matter does not exist in a culture, then people of that culture couldn't possibly conceive of it. This excerpt from linguist Laura Bailey sums it up quite well. 

M: Just because ghosts may be more culturally relevant doesn’t mean that zombies (or vampires, or whatever) are nonexistent in a Japanese or Vietnamese person’s imagination when it comes to horror and disaster.

R: Really,  if anything, Japanese people are much more attuned to how easily a society’s infrastructure can be destroyed by a disruptive force without adequate preparation. Japan is natural disaster central. A Japanese person would know better than anyone that if you aren’t prepared for a zombie epidemic—yeah it’s gonna be bad. 

M: Earthquakes, tsunami, typhoon, floods: Japan has robust disaster infrastructure out of necessity. 防災 or bousai, meaning disaster preparedness is a common part of daily life, including drills at workplaces, schools, and community organizations. Local government and community agencies are always looking for ways to make disaster and pandemic preparedness relevant to the public.

M: Might “zombie apocalypse prep as a proxy for disaster prep” be humorous in an ironic, self-deprecating way? Sure, but it’s not like Japanese people are innately different from non-Japanese people. Rather, by being a relatively well-off country practiced at disaster preparation with more experience than most parts of the world with many different types of disasters (and the accompanying infrastructure), it likely would seem more odd to most Japanese people within Japan to not handle a zombie apocalypse rather like might one handle a combination of a WMD/ chemical disaster+pandemic+civil unrest (all of which at least some part of Japan has experienced). Enjoy this very long, slightly dry video on COVID-19 safety procedures and preparedness using the framing device of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

M: Living in Los Angeles, I’ve often experienced similar tactics. We do a fair amount of advance and rehearsed disaster prep here as well. In elementary school, the first and last days of class were always for packing and unpacking home-made disaster packs, and “zombie apocalypse” simulations have been around since I was in middle school for all kinds of drills, including active shooter drills, like the one shown in this LAT article. The line between “prepper” and “well prepared” really comes down to degree of anxiety and zeal. So, it wouldn’t be just Japanese people who might not be able to resonate with your scene. The same could be said for anyone who lives somewhere with a robust disaster prevention culture.

M: A zombie apocalypse is not “real” in the sense of being a tangible threat that the majority of the world lives in fear of waking up to (At least, for the mental health of most people, I hope so). Rather, zombie apocalypse narratives are compelling to people because of the feelings of vague, existential dread they provoke: of isolation, paranoia, dwindling resources, and a definite end to everything familiar. I encourage you to stop thinking of the way Japanese people and non-Japanese people think about vague, existential dread as incomprehensible to each other. What would you think about zombies if they actually had a chance of existing in your world? That’s probably how most Japanese people would feel about them, too.

[theriverbeyond]

controversial opinion: lanky necro gideon is also hot but in a very different way. like a reckless wizard

reckless wizard is so Gideon, you are so correct. my headcanon is RD!Gideon would NOT be buff and also would NOT have any inherently signifigantly more powerful abilities vs a normally genius necromancer, but her gaiusblood WOULD prevent her from dying/automatically ressurect her if that does come to pass just like it (presumably) does in canon.

and so RD!Gideon is contactly overextending herself necromantically, bleeding out, going into hypovolemic shock etc, and then she just bounces back after passing out and convulsing for a bit. which of course results in her being able to push the envelope of necromancy signifigantly farther than anyone else. and at first the reverend parents et. al are extremely concerned about her but after like, 18 years of this they've sort of adjusted. Oh the necromantic heir is passed out in the library again. give her a blanket and she'll be fine in 3 hours, can someone help me get the blood out of these books.

and of course this means that when RD!Gideon arrives at Canaan house she's just. doing her normal thing, sweating, passing out, dying, reviving, etc, but no one at Canaan house has seen that happen before and theyre all like EXCUSE ME??? DO YOU NEED HELP??? CAN SOMEBODY HELP THE NINTH IS DYING OVER HERE!!!

Magnus and Camilla are doing chest compressions as Palamedes and Abigail putter around wringing their hands and Issac / Jeannemarie run around screaming. all while Nova stands there like 😐 (she will never say no to someone offering to break RD!Gideon's ribs)

[springbloggy]

Kris: A horrifying theory that literally came to me in a dream

Ever read and watch so many Deltarune theories it comes to you subconsciously? This was the subject of my last 2 dreams. Now it coming to me in a dream is kinda silly, but the evidence? It's scarily convincing.

In modern cultures, Zombies are undead people that rise from the grave. Typically Zombies in modern stories are caused by viruses that spread to other people, usually through bites. Zombies are mindless, stumbling around to place to place, only becoming powerful and strong when "on the hunt".

Besides stumbling about, Kris doesn't match any of this. However, this is the traditional idea of zombies, the origins of the zombie myth is where things become a whole lot more interesting. Zombies were originally created by Haiti folklore, as dead people revived by necromancy, usually done via a bokor, the Haitian counterpart to a witch or sorcerer. Zombies are then placed as the Bokor's personal slave, having no free will of their own. There was also a spiritual variation, where a zombie astral, aka a zombie soul, could be used to enhance the bokor's spiritual powers. The zombie astral could also be sealed in a bottle to be sold to bring luck, healing, or business success. Each type of zombie, the flesh and blood, and the spiritual kind, are missing one half of their soul from the original whole person it came from.

Now ok, what does any of these have to do with Kris? Well this is where things become weird, scary, and unconventional to the typical theory.

Kris died

To understand this, lets look into what we currently know about Kris' backstory. Kris was a trouble making kid, often pulling pranks. But they weren't mean spirited about it and made close friends with the Holiday family specifically. One day, something traumatic happened to Kris and the Holidays that tore the two families apart. This is hinted to be the disappearance of Dess, the older sibling of Noelle and the daughter of the mayor. There is also a bunker in the woods that Kris is traumatized by. This bunker is implied to be one of the last areas where Kris, Dess, Noelle, and Asriel played in before Dess' ultimate disappearance.

But then, years later, Kris and Susie fall in a dark world. Judging by how scared Kris seemed during the fall into the first dark world, I don't think this is Kris' first venture into one at all. Not only that, but I think dark worlds is what caused Kris' trauma.

So lets set the stage: Kris & co. go into the bunker on a dare, perhaps by Kris and fall into a dark world. Noelle, scared, stressed, and confused pulls snowgrave. Now most theories I see go into this route have her pulling it on Dess, who is trying to calm down Noelle. This I always found unconvincing, especially as more and more signs of Dess being trapped in the games code come out. But if Noelle pulls snowgrave on Kris, suddenly things make more sense for what happens later on in the game. Now the scary voice coming from Kris commanding Noelle to do the snowgrave spell is a lot more sinister if this is the same spell that caused Kris' death.

Anyways Kris, ya know, dies from this and everyone is heartbroken and Dess, being as headstrong as she is, runs off into the dark world to find the solution. Becoming lost in the process.

In comes Gaster, Gaster takes in the player's soul and one half of Kris' soul and fuses it together, placing it inside of Kris. Kris becomes an undead being. They are not the same as they once were and is now under the player's total control for most of the time. For the other characters looking in, Kris only had a near-death experience, but Kris knows the truth.

Kris, Noelle, and Asriel run out of the bunker dark world without Dess. This sparks the investigation by the mayor to find her missing daughter, Asgore can't find Dess, gets fired, etc. Then Deltarune begins.

So now you're wondering, what happened to Kris' other soul half? Well..

Ralsei is Kris' other soul-half

Many theories of Ralsei I found kinda unconvincing. If Ralsei is Asriel's dust, then why is there so much about Asriel returning home. If Ralsei is a titan, why is he so neatly connected to Asriel? It just leaves too much blanks. One of the most popular theories is that Ralsei is Kris' monstersona brought to life. For context, Ralsei has pink horns, while Kris used to wear a pink horned headband growing up to fit in monster society. This makes a lot of sense, but also leaves so many blanks to some of Ralsei's more suspicious moments.

But I think zombie Kris theory is right, then suddenly this makes a lot more sense, but now Ralsei is a much more creepy character.

One of the things that make up the zombie myth is how the soul is split into two: the body soul, which performs bodily functions, and the free soul, which is the person's true self and can leave the body and wander to the afterlife. I believe that Kris only has one half of their free soul and the other half, the player, makes up for their body soul. The other half of Kris' free soul makes up Ralsei, a personification of the monster that Kris wanted to be growing up. Ralsei has all the childhood innocence Kris used to have before becoming traumatized by the bunker, but also has no sense of self due to his incomplete soul. But I think he is well aware that Kris has the other half of the soul and the two are planning to fuse it back together.

This sentence always appears when the player is focused away from Kris and Ralsei. But why? Its a mystery that has stumped many. But if I am right, now it makes sense. Have the player gone away so they don't find out that Kris and Ralsei are planning to get rid of the player's soul in order to fuse their own, so Kris can be a whole person again.

There's also the theory about Ralsei being "attracted" to the player's soul, however I think it could be the other way around. Ralsei isn't attracted to the player's soul, he's attracted to Kris' soul half.

The title screen

This comes from @mirror-ralsei's title screen theory.

The title screen adds to the overall theme of multiplication and division in Deltarune:

The SOUL, and all the other parts of the logo, appear to be divided again and again, gradually fading with each division until there's nothing left of them. -mirror-ralsei

The title screen could foreshadow the ending...but it could also foreshadow what happened to Kris.

Kris dies.

Through some miracle, Gaster finds Kris' soul, but it is damaged beyond belief.

Gaster fuses half of Kris' soul, the half that makes up Kris' "true self" with the player's soul.

The other half divides off to become Ralsei

The twinkling snowgrave sound effect at the end is an indicator to what happened to Kris. They died due to the snowgrave spell.

Flowey

Deltarune plays with inversions and subversions of Undertale a lot. The most obvious one being the theme of each game. Deltarune, your choices don't matter, Undertale you must stay determined to make the right choices.

Kris is the Flowey inversion. Flowey is a soulless flower given life with Asriel's dust and the souls of fallen children. Kris is a dead human injected with half of their own soul and the soul of the player.

Mother time!

The mother series is Undertale and Deltarune's greatest inspiration. Many of the games themes and ideas stem from their.

Undertale is a combination of Mother 1 and 2, the most apparent of this combination is through the final boss of most routes: Flowey/Asriel.

Asriel is similar in many ways to Giegue from mother 1. Both are the children of their race (alien for Giegue, monster for Asriel). Both had to make a tough decision regarding humans. Giegue had to decide to pull war against humanity, even though he was raised by human parents, Asriel had to carry Chara to the humans while they were dying. Both grow up to have a negative worldview and become spiritually monstrous. Giegue becomes the terrifying Giygas while Asriel becomes Flowey, and in the neutral route, becomes the terrifying Photoshop Flowey. Both are ultimately defeated by the positivity of the main characters. Giegue gets defeated by the children singing his mother's lullaby. Giygas gets defeated by the collective prayers of all the characters Ness meets. Asriel gets defeated by sparing him.

This is where things get sad. If Undertale is Mother 1 and 2, than Deltarune is the darker Mother 3. Mother 3 is about Lucas on a race to pull the needles that wake up the dark dragon before the masked man does. If someone with a good heart, like Lucas pulls the needles, the dragon will wake up and recreate the world with no hesitation. But if someone with an evil heart pulls the needles, then the world will be destroyed for good.

It is revealed that the Masked Man is actually Lucas' dead brother Claus, rebuilt as a cyborg by the pigmask army. Claus lacks a heart and all of his memories are gone for the majority of the game. Only until the end, does he get reminded of them, and ultimately Claus ends up ending his own life.

There's a lot of similarities to Mother 3 already in Deltarune, the fountains play a similar role to the needles. When created, they will create a dark world, and if enough are done, it could end the world. There's many theories of the world of Deltarune being in a timeloop or being reset in some way, which could be similar to Lucas' good heart rebuilding the world, thus starting the world "over again".

However, this is where the Masked Man parallel lies. Many people already noticed the similarities to Mother 3 and Deltarune and predict that our "masked man" would be the knight or even Dess. However, under this theory, I think that the game will pull a surprise inversion.

If Kris is really undead and is the Flowey inversion, then Kris will turn out to be the game's Masked Man. The true protagonist of the game isn't Kris, but the knight all along, or some other character like Susie, Noelle, etc.

This will provide a tragic ending, if Toby really does go "all in" with the Masked Man parallels with Kris like I am theorizing, than the end of the game will end with Kris' death. Perhaps, if I am right with Ralsei hosting the other half of their soul, having it fuse for one final time while Asriel watches his sibling die. It's a tragic ending to a tragic game.

I'm not an undertale or deltarune lore expert, so feel free to debunk or expand or what have you on these ideas. I personally find them scarily plausible, but understand why it doesn't seem that way for others. I just hope this provides a somewhat entertaining read, despite how sad it is of a theory.

[spacebarbarianweird]

OC Questions. Alethaine Ancunin.

Based on this list of Tav questions

Alethaine Ancunin is the daughter of Astarion and OC Tav Tiriel. She is a High-Elf/Dhampir and Sorcerer/Necromancer with Lawful Neutral Allignment.

SCARS

As a dhampir she doesn't have many scars due to fast regeneration but her right palm looks burnt. It's a result of being chained in silver by "dhampir hunters". She ended up murdering them and reviving as ghols - but the skin never properly healed.

Upon returning home, Alethaine tried to hide the scars from her parents which ended with her mother forcing Alethaine to put off the gloves and show her what had happened.

RELIGION AND SUPERSTITIONS 

Alethaine is rational and cold-minded. She doesn't have any superstitions and isn't into religion.

"Maybe if I find a god of dhampirs, I will become a devoted cleric! But, alas, it seems like we have neither souls not gods!"

THE PREFERABLE WAY TO DIE

Alethaine has never thought about it. As a dhampir, she is going to live for at least seven hundred years and it's plenty of time.

CLASS

Sorcerer/Necromancer. She was born with innate abilities for necromancy which manifested in the age of eight when revived a dead kitten. Alethaine controls her abilities and knows a variety of dark spells.

"I will suck you dry and revive as a ghoul. And you will carry my books until I get tired of you!"

PREJUDICES

Alethaine doesn't believe dhampirs are capable of creating any form of organizaton let alone a state. On the other hand, she is distrustful of mortals, too, and usually prefer to assume the worst.

CHILDREN

Alethaine isn't sure if dhampirs are capable of having children and if they can what this child will be. As a demisexual, Alethaine hasn't met a person who she would be comfortable to share bed with, let alone starting a family. But she is suprisingly good with kids, especially little dhampirs.

FAMILY

Alethaine was a suprise child, because neither Astarion nor Tyrael had any idea about dhampirs (and they were still pretty rare 20 years post-game). But, gods. she was (and is) loved! Astarion saw fatherhood as a chance to become a better version of himself, Tyrael just suddenly felt an urge to be a mother. Alethaine knows she is always welcome at her parents' house and none of them will ever judge her (even if she really fucks up).

REASONS TO CRY

Alethaine knows a lot about the world and it makes her anxious. She can cry because of injustices and if other dhampirs suffer. Alethaine often cries out of stress. Astarion taught her it's better to cry out sorrows than withhold emotions.

POLITICAL OPINIONS

Alethaine has a soft spot for old-fashioned monarchies and sees them as a pretty rational way of ruling rather than oligarchies or republics.

LANGUAGES

She is bilingual from birth since Astarion preferred to speak Elven to her when they were alone. He also taught her Abyssal and Thieves Cant. With years, Alethaine learned Infernal and the language of Drows.

FAVOURITE GENRE

Romance novels. She usually has to read a lot of books on magic and other "serious stuff" and when she has a chance she reads the most tooth-rotting stuff she can think of.

HEAVY OR LIGHT SLEEPER 

Alethaine is a light sleeper - she immediately wakes up if something is off, having almost predatory instincts.

FEARS

Alethaine fears loneliness - as a dhampir she feels off among the mortal and is afraid the older she gets the less people there will be who tolerate her.

She also fears to lose her freedom and mind autonomy. As a necromancer, she deals with unimaginable horrors and she knows how easy it is to lose yourself to some dark power.

STUPID THINGS TO BELIEVE

Stupid thing or not, she believes there is her thiramin somewhere (she is an elf, after all) and she just needs to find him or her. Besides she relates to her father- Astarion got his "knight in shining armour", so why shouldn't Alethaine?

COMFORT FOOD

Sweets. Alethaine has a sweet tooth.

SLEEPING

Alethaine sleeps as if she is in a coffin. On her back, hands at chest. At the same time, she is the person who hoardes all the pillows and blankets to sleep as comfortable as possible.

COPING

Alethaine often cries - she doesn't like to hide her emotions. When she is anxious, she starts walking on the ceiling. Sometimes, when everything is just too much, she goes to the nearest graveyard. It's possible to find her lying on some fresh grave with her arms open and eyes shut.

[pricescigar]

Vampire!Price & Elvira Wolff Lore

Even though I've written Vampire!Price twice, I'm going to dump some new lore between Vampire!Price & Elvira Wolff

I have been brainstorming for a while because why not >:)

(And also because I've been too shy to share it lmao)

You could say I got heavily inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula / Castlevania because it's my brainrot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ANYWAYS... LETS BEGIN

John Price lore

Captain John Price, also known as "Dracula." "Prince of Darkness." "King of the Night."

Before he became a Vampire was of course a famous captain in the British army in the Medieval era ranging from 500AD to 1500's. John was born at some point in the early 1060 A.D. exactly date, month, was deemed to been long forgotten. The older you get, of course you forget your age and the people around you who are long dead now.

In his human years standing proudly at 190.50 cm / 6ft3 , short brown hair that was always slicked back. His blue eyes shone in the sunlight. Chizzled mutton chops, always neatly shaved regardless of time and place.

At a young age he joined the army, leaving the life he knew behind. He became an excellent swordsman, leader & strategist. He was a young man after all, well built, strong like any man.

Knowing the basic means of survival thanks to all what his father taught him, his father's name forever unknown to everyone else but John.

He sought his enemies to be dead upon the battlefield, always the one to rush into Battle. With his great courage and bravery he quickly became captain, leading his men into Battle with no hesitation. Despite all of the Battles he had won, he wanted more. Of course, John was immensely recognised by his bravery, leadership. He wanted more; He wanted to be King.

At the time had a supposed lover by his side. Despite how forbidden it was for a Knight to have fallen in love with a Princess, he did fall in love with her. He wanted nothing more to take her hand, and make her his. Yet... she soon passed away due to a grave illness, which also made him angry and guilty.

Greed & Power could only get a man so far. With deadly consequences, he betrayed the King, the same one who knighted him all those years ago. Taking the Throne for himself, his other relatives had been slaughtered, taking no second chances. While he sat ever so proudly at the Thone, killing anyone who had defied, dared to betray him.

(That had also meant most of his soldiers for that matter)

To be the Kingdom's forever ruler, John sought out means to possess immortality. He heard of many rumours that of a "Crimson Stone." By any means necessary, the stone got into Price's possession thus he gained immortality. But at a cost.

He became a Vampire. His appearance changed as a whole, all forms of humanity, forms of emotions were gone.

His skin became paler, his ears almost pointed. Teeth sharp like canines, sharp nails that could easily cut you at the slightest touch; Standing now at a staggering height 213cm / 7ft.

With his powers he managed to revive his men forming an undead army, at the bend of his will. Raging War on anyone. With his now gift of immortality, he also gained knowledge of Necromancy & master of Sorcery. Although he gained the common abilities of a Vampire. Price was the most special one of all.

Under the restrained rule of John Price, a band of rebels formed a resistance. A band of powerful sorcerers. With Price's newfound powers, it raged a powerful battle. Almost defeating Price he transformed into a bat, escaping just in the nick of time before his ultimate demise.

One of the sorcerers that almost killed him was a member of the Wolff family. Escaping England for good, moving far away to another foreign land. Yet over time, Supernatural forces grew despite Price's dissappearence, Vampires spawning everywhere causing destruction everywhere.

Soon a Hunters Regieme was formed to tackle the supernatural creatures.

-

Elvira Wolff lore

The Wolff family became strong as the generations went by, one of the many few families built the Hunters Regime, and what it became of in this day and age.

Elvira's mother passed away during birth, so it's been herself and father that stuck through thick and thin. Along with Elvira's godfather, godmother and uncles in their family estate.

Elvira was trained from a young age to be a hunter like her family members, from the age of 5 her training begun. Her knowledge was built on by reading various books about the supernatural creatures; How to fight them, how to deal with them, what to do when you encounter one.

(The list goes on)

By the age of 10 Elvira already had basic knowledge of supernatural creatures, but that was a starting point of her career path.

As she grew older her father got arranged by a Vampire and eventually turned into one. Bit by bit, all forms of humanity dissapeared within him.

Elvira's godparents, and uncles died in the hands of her father as they tried protecting her but to no avail. Dietrich always had the upper hand.

Elvira became a captive in her own home, each night she heard the various screams of men, women, being dragged into the family estate so Dietrich could feed on his eternal hunger.

Elvira did all she could to save them but that would only result in punishment, when she turned 21 in 1476. She risked her life to do the inevitable. Eliminating her father.

She risk burning down her family estate, trapping her father in it. By the time she got out Elvira was gravelly inured, yet she survived.

The Hunters cane and nursed her back to health, yet due to her father's betrayl she had to work hard to regain their trust once more.

Her mission was to kill the Vampire King, John Price. Elvira had everything she needed to make the mission successful.

Yet the moment Price set his eyes on Elvira, the young woman reminded him for his long lost princess... His lover.

[obscuredilfoff]

Propaganda below the cut!

Nozue

He's 39 and the office heartthrob. He's got this hot 29 year old guy absolutely horny on main over him and like all the ladies in the office are in his "harem" (he takes them to lunch to get ideas for cafes to go to with the horny guy). Wears his suits and eats cute desserts at cafes. Oozing bisexual swag.

Malistaire Drake

This is for my gf who said “hes kinda cute :)” to me . we are lesbians <3

malistaire is a powerful necromancer and a crazed widower (and implied to be a seasoned war veteran/refugee because his homeworld dragonspyre got destroyed by a titan) and his entire story arc revolves around his dead wife. he used to be a professor at the magical school in wizard101 that the player enrolls in but unfortunately his wife, another dragonspyrian refugee, dies from a mysterious illness that no one could cure. he then eventually goes batshit from sheer grief, fakes his own death in a horrific explosion, and then goes on a mad quest to try and wake up the same titan that obliterated his family and home, with the false belief that it can revive his wife. the poor guy has been through a LOT and this is only just the first part of the game.

he's canonically described as very "clingy" to his wife. another fun fact is he apparently lost a limb in the past to protect his students from a monster and was able to regrow it using necromancy.

[liesmyth]

Thinking about the nature of John Gaius' powers: There's a duality to them. There's death energy but also life energy. He can stop hearts but also stop decay.

So, John's powers were, at the very least, on the way towards allowing him to recreate what his cryno project was attempting to do. The whole point of the project was to put people into a death-like state where food/water/waste/etc isn't a concern so that they could be packed into spaceships like sardines and moved to another planet.

John would need ships - and you don't get ships without some form of government, even if it was one John established himself - and the ability to revive people across distance (which John probably wasn't able to do early on), but I can see a plan John could have pursued if he'd prioritized saving people over retribution.

Alecto effectively gave him the power to do his cryno plan.

I LOVE that we still don’t know the full scope of his powers. Very cool, very scary. Whatever they are, they clearly go far beyond necromancy / thanergy, and probably did so from the start. However, I’m actually not that sure that Alecto bestowed those powers on John deliberately, and I tend to see it as a mixed blessing even in the best circumstances (and a horrible gamble in most of them).

IMO, the biggest sticking point is this: at one point, John was always going to get to the stage where the next step would be to “reach for the soul” and find Alecto; and I’m not sure he could have been able to handle that. In canon it happened in a moment of incredible stress, watching a close friend commit suicide in front of him, and he went absolutely insane.

From the way John’s POV describes it, though, I think it would have been overwhelming no matter what. Even if there had been no conflicts with the ships, no cow wall, even if he had agreed to go along with C— plan and try to freeze the ice caps instead of focusing on revenge... would he still have felt the screaming soul of the Earth, and melted the poles in a moment of overwhelmed terror, just to make it stop?

To me, John’s backstory is less about how his human failings brought about the apocalypse, and more about how a random well-meaning human can’t handle that amount of power and come out of it still recognisable. I think he was always going to destroy the world, one way or the other. John’s personal failings shape the way the Earth died, and the next ten thousand years of his life; but I don’t think it actually made much of a difference to Earth’s ultimate fate. He was always going to destroy it, one way or the other.

(On John’s specific powers: I’m also not sure if they were intentional on Alecto’s part, manifested that way because the Earth was dying [= thanegery] or because he was wrapped up in a project that involved dead bodies. But, even if he had been able to develop his powers to a point where he would go from controlling the dead to being able to put billions of living humans in suspended animation at no risk to their health... would that state have “kept” if the entire population had left Earth? He hadn’t eaten Alecto yet, and we know necromancy doesn’t work in space.)

Anyway. I think it would be possible that under the right specific super ideal circumstances, something good might have come of Alecto choosing a human to channel her powers; but it was a one in a billion chance. But I think it’s more in line with the themes of TLT — the Greek tragedy of it all! — that humans have very little agency when gods decide to interfere, and are just not meant to be receptacles of divine powers. If it hadn’t been John, it would have been someone else. If it hadn’t been the ships, it would’ve been something else. I think they were always doomed.

[lauranceofmeteli]

26 for ask game?

26. you're tasked with writing an official side story/spin-off roleplay (void paradox, mermaid tale, upside-down story), what would that look like?

a while ago i had a phase where i spent a lot of time thinking about what the character changes in upside down stories would look like if it was reverse spin-offed back into mcd but alas i wrote none of it down and barely remember anything i came up with </3

gist of it was aph as the result of a botched attempt at reviving the shadow lord (who is irene. if you care.) leaving her without memories and limited access to her previous power. she latches hard onto the two shadow knights who attempted the resurrection which works for them bc its either the shadow lord favors them or theyre getting the torture labyrinth for all eternity tomorrow. those shadow knights being:

garroth, who was set to inherit the lord title in o'khasis before an assassination he believes was a coordinated coup from his brothers (was it???? we may never know but he certainly believes it). this happening when he was young, leaving him unable to even grow enough to plan to join the guard academy leaving him no outlet to begin to unlearn everything he'd internalized as the closest thing ru'an has to a crown prince. leaving him a bit of an asshole. and well all that time in the nether afterwards certainly doesn't help him become a well adjusted adult. he still has this core belief that he Deserves some sort of power in some society, and if he needs to turn to more drastic measures than waiting for his dad to die then so be it.

and laurance who also became a shadow knight a lot earlier than canon and has been largely disillusioned with how things are run both in the nether and in society at large for a long time. thinks the best thing to do would be to let everything burn. where garroth still holds a lot of determination for clawing his way back up to the top, laurance is largely apathetic and has long let the morals he held in his human life and early shadow knight years slip. when he realizes aphmau is like a Person rather than just an empty vessel and proof of his fuck up, she's one of the first things he cares about in a long time.

laurance and garroth were not friends prior to this and just had similarly aligning goals at that moment and now are either stuck with each other or the torture labyrinth mentioned above.

idk much abt what the other characters are up to. but i can imagine zane being a really benevolent and beloved figure in o'khasis which pisses garroth off sooo bad when he finds out

going off of pdh upside down stories, i imagine the plot follows aphmau some time after whatever is going on above meeting whoever gene is in this world and being like hm. maybe i dont want to run a necromancy army forever. i'd need to go back and rewatch pdh upside down stories if i wanted to take this au anywhere again....

[rainybyday]

I have to say that this is @yukinohananana017 fault for commenting and saying this one line

“He tried his best but it wasn't enough to change anything meaningful, as well as the fact that Fate was locked in and his hands were tied”

your fault, I love you for this and hate your (affectionately) for giving me brain rot

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

Going for the Ghost King Danny idea, Danny is the ruler of all things that are both dead and are either born/created in the Infinite Realms from not only his dimension but from every dimension. His is the king of all things dead and the passageways and crossroads of ghost or entities that live in the Realms from crossing other dimension and such. 

Danny is not the person who sees the future of those dying nor does his cause it, he only gains his people once they are truly dead or are an entity that is created/born of from death.

What I’m trying to get at is that he is the living embodiment of Death as he is Death himself, similarly how Clockwork is the embodiment of Time itself. Other entities such as Life, Space, Fate and Universes are that of the same level of power of both beings as they rule or have control of their domain of their names.

For example, people that have power over death, such as necromancy or supernatural people, are a shared custody with both Life and Death (Danny) since they are living beings to willingly choose to use death as their means of power

Custody with people that are revived, those that fully die and go back to living are people that Life and Death (Danny) both fight for as, unlike those that borrow Death’s power, they actively became his subjects/people when they died and then went back to life. Those custody battles are always a struggle (and Life likes to pull the halfa card a lot on Death as its within their rights to order Death to certain terms and conditions (unfortunately this is also a double swords as because Death still is living, Life likes to make it so that Death is spoiled for his last living years before he truly becomes dead (or unless his becomes immortal in his human form but that’s a whole other idea)))

(Arguing for Batfam rights like: “Why can’t I have them???” “Because they aren’t dead!” But they did die, almost all of them died!!!!” “THEY REVIVED!” “THEY DIED MORE THEN A MONTH!!!!” “THAT WAS ONLY TWO OF THEM AND YOU KNOW IT!!!!!”)

Same as with Fate, Death can’t choose his subjects, nor can he tell or influences when someone dies, however, Fate is never set in stone because Time can always change, and bend and Fate can’t do anything against Time if Time chooses to change its course so Fate can’t do anything to Death if he has Time to help prevent some people from dying. Although both work together when it comes to reviving people because its not their time to die yet. 

(Jason, no more need to be said. “Your doing what now?” “A revival.” “And you need me why???” “I can always ask Life-” “Fuck no. I get custody rights.”)

Death and Space also have an easy relationship as Space always shifts the Infinite Realms to fit Death’s people and to travel to other dimensions whenever Death wishes. They are always at peace with one another unless Fate or Time tells Space to not let Death go to certain places at certain times. 

(Summoning circles are Space messing with Death to get pulled form one dimension to another.)

(Lazares pits are cracks in Space that Spaces leaves for Death to use)

Universe on the other hand is more powerful than all other embodiments and doesn’t make contact with those embodiments when they feel like it. The  Universe is more powerful than Time and Fate, shifts Space and goes beyond the rules of Life and Death. They are more powerful than all. 

However, they all live and work in a harmonic system that work so well with one another.

(Or me brain rotting over that one capital letter “F” and running many ideas how Danny is truly Death itself and then Clockwork is added to the mix before Fate is added and my mind is brunning)

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 1 - Side B

John Gaius art cred @exmakina

Propaganda below ⬇️

book quote from the chapters where he's relating how he got necromantic powers and people freaked out!! this is pre-apocalypse and resurrection so it's implied he took a lot of inspiration from this incident . He said, Then we took off. Thread after thread on message board after message board. People wanting proof. People asking what the fuck it meant. People talking about the LUCIFER telescope and saying we were aliens. People calling me the Antichrist, which was a trip. People writing up these long posts on how the trick was done, how I got the meat into the pie. Was I fake? Was I real? If I was real, what did it mean? Suddenly there were hundreds of people, all there at our front door. They came in caravans, they were sleeping in their cars or putting up tents. A hell of a lot of them had flown out internationally. He said, Some of them wanted to see the miracle. Some of them wanted my help, like, Oh, you’re the magical death man, can you do something about my body? Can you fix my fibromyalgia? Thing was, I could. That surprised me. I could take out their tumours. I could fix their macular degeneration. Big damage was easy, unless they’d actually lost the limb or whatever. Couldn’t grow those back. But I spent hours and hours a day playing Jesus. That was nice, those were some of the nicest hours I got to spend. He said, But when you’re doing the whole Go, my child, your knee cartilage is fixed, you’re going to get a lot of visitors. I had to turn people away because I had to eat, I had to sleep, even though I didn’t want to. M— had brought in her best friend, the nun, and I was worried I was going to get the Antichrist bit from her too, but she was just like: stop doing this! Read your Bible! This was Christ’s whole problem! I was like, What are you talking about, Jesus cured the lepers and everyone was all, Hooray, thanks man. M—’s nun was all, Are you kidding, Christ never said no and never asked anyone to pay and got way too much attention and brought the heat down on everybody. Christ didn’t keep to office hours, she said. Don’t do that. He said, So we limited Jesus stuff to one hour a day, and I always had to eat breakfast. But by then the whole world was on our doorstep.

look this is kind of weird but he is the only survivor after nuclear bombs destroy the earth and he has weird necromancy powers so he revives his friends and a few other people to be his subjects and basically makes himself a god to them. there's a lot of layers since he's literally the only character in the entire series who remembers the world before and has a concept of the religion he's copying for his own. he treats the other characters like toys he can push around for his own amusement and everything is a joke but he does this world-weary act that somehow gets the reader to kind of feel for him even when he's being atrocious. and he's the only one who remembers memes. which is a torture all of its own.

I said "yes" but to be more clear: he was canonically Catholic when he was still mortal, but that was 10,000 years ago and he kind of killed everybody on the planet. Just slightly. Some of them got better. Now he's the Emperor Undying and his empire is very Catholic-coded.

Frank

He was in training to become a priest and! Fun fact! Is second generation immigrant!

[overworkedblorbobattle]

Buffy propaganda:

Buffy has: - been informed in no uncertain terms at the age of 15 (!) that she has been made the latest incarnation of the one (1) person intended/destined to protect All of Humanity from the entirety of vampires, demons, apocalypse cults, and sundry other threats that desire everything from wanton murder to causing one of several actual apocalypses

- no pay and no benefits for being the Slayer; the only reliable ally she is guaranteed is one of a succession of variously shady Illuminati people who may or may not be actually helping her or taking advantage of her - if she survives 'too long' the organization will literally lock her in a room for an unarmed cage match against a powerful monster as a fucked-up test of character and/or for shits and giggles

- she is expected to do this in perpetuity until such time as she is killed in the line of duty (again, as a teenage girl expected to fight on her own with at best a small degree of enhanced physicality/durability and extremely rudimentary hand-to-hand training)

- she can't not do it because being the Slayer means she's automatically a target for the things that go bump in the night, which will attack her regardless - also being the Slayer makes her the default inheritor of the grudges of these beings

- again, she is a teenager in high school for the first part of the series; her non-optional job as the Slayer damages her academics (disrupting classes directly, cutting into time for studying, and she's known as a delinquent for accidentally totaling her last school in a fight against a group of vampires that attacked her there), impedes her social life (she has to risk her life fighting monsters in her nominal 'off' time rather than relaxing or socializing, and her friends are also murder targets by association or as a means to hurt her), and is a danger to her health and well-being (the obvious reason of injury, plus reduced hours of rest and recuperation (fighting monsters into the wee hours before and after full school/work days instead of, y'know, sleeping), plus her mom kicked her out of her own home when she tried to confide in her)

- Buffy has literally been killed twice in the line of duty, revived both times(the first time via resuscitation after drowning, the second time via literal necromancy after which she had to claw her way out of her own grave or suffocate), and been forced to continue going as the Slayer

- her mom later dies and (university-age) Buffy has to balance being the Slayer with working a shitty fast food job to make ends meet and being the primary caregiver for her younger sister

- there is a bright spot at the end of the series where she and her allies manage to 'hack' the Slayer system to kickstart every viable Slayer candidate in the world into their abilities, meaning they can build up an actual organizational/support structure so it's not just an endless succession of singular teenage girls being killed… except she's in the position of being one of the primary authorities to a bunch of teenage girls, responsible for their training and future behaviour, and bears partial responsibility for every one of them that is murdered for being a Slayer before she and her allies can get to them to protect/inform/train them to survive

- she had to put up with Xander Fucking Harris (Joss Whedon's Specialest Boy) for 7 years of showtime, and longer in the tie-in comic

To put it in terms of the current bracket: if Luisa fucks up or underperforms, people in her town are moderately inconvenienced. If Buffy fucks up, usually at least one innocent person dies. Talk about being under pressure.

She even gets a musical bit one time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmLSjwam26E

.

[theriverbeyond]

I have to believe in my heart that we will get a satisfactory Griddlehark ending but I still spend every single day in fear. Any wise ending predictions?

AHHHH i hope so too. i have faith the ending will be satisfying for each character. im holding onto hope!!! some selected griddlehark thoughts are:

(ideal) they escape from BOE and the 9 houses system, and go live out their lives free of everything that has hurt them. Harrow may or may not lose her necromancy and Gideon may or may not be fully revived, it doesn't matter. Gideon can grow a little herb garden and publish her own porny comic book and chop wood and teach Harrow how to do star jumps. Harrow can relax and never work another day in her life and learn how to do art or write poetry and find peace.

(bittersweet) they die together, permanently and finally, but only after they make up and make peace with each other. this doesn't necessarily mean they will do anything as pedestrian as Kiss, but they will reconcile their pain and hurt and both feel satisfied with what they have given the other and what they have received

(circular) Alecto and John die together, but not before transferring their powers to Gideon and Harrow, who take on their domains of power (i.e. Dominicus, Earth, the River, etc), and then the whole book series ends on an open ended cliffhanger. This then allows the audience to speculate what happens next and how they do it

for Gideon specifically, I have to believe that she will get a satisfying end. what form that ending takes is debatable, but like, her arc is NOT complete right now and i need to believe that she will get what she deserves (positive). some of my Gideon thoughts:

Harrow cashes in her favor with Alecto and brings Gideon back to life

Harrow gives part of herself to Gideon.... completing their two way exchange like what was implied way back in the winnowing/response trial. this may or may not revive Gideon but it WILL make her feel less sad because she won't be missing pieces anymore

Gideon does something very bad that will make her feel much worse for a period of time, before something happens - she snaps, she talks with harrow, she fucks something up so bad it shocks her back to her senses - and she realizes...... something, and then fixes things. idk. this is just vibes

my Harrow thoughts are a lot more nebulous. i don't really know what her arc will look like because so much of her character development is currently unknown - there's a LOT of stuff that appears to have happened behind the scenes in between the end of HtN, the dream with John, and her popping up in her body at the end of NtN. idk. maybe she finds God in Gideon. maybe she rejects the idea that she even needs a God-figure. maybe she becomes disillusioned with Alecto because of all the biting and the meat. idk!!!

anyway 🙏 prayer circle for AtN🙏

[nefkyo]

This is a wip of a personal project. Please note the tags before reading:

dream smp lore, post Doomsday era, implied character death, implied suicide, necromancy, crimeboys mope around in Limbo, mild description of a panic attack, mild description of body horror, miscommunication, tntduo is real, tntduo family who cheered, avian Quackity, ram Tubbo, Quackity is trans because I believe he can do anything

this is for @werenotacoupleyesyouare.

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

Faint footsteps echo towards him. He's back from his light jog in the tunnel that loops into itself. He heard him get frustrated fifteen minutes ago but didn't say anything. "Hi again" he says. Even in Limbo, Tommy comes back after arguing with him, sits down next to him and gives him the silent treatment. But at least he's sat down. Does nothing he says ever sting enough? No, never enough. Nothing is ever enough to drive him away, far away enough. Not even a kind invitation to never return. "I have to tell you something about the Overworld, Will." Tommy starts, only to be cut off as usual. "I've already told you, I don't want to know whatever you have to say when you start off like that." "It's really big." Tommy looks up at him, or at least in his general direction, and for a brief moment he sees a sort of pity gloss over those blank orbs. It irks him. "I *really* don't want to know, then." he groans.

"But- How are you not even a little bit curious?"

"With the way you're looking at me, I'd rather keep whatever dignity I have left through ignorant bliss."

"H- That's nothing like you."

"Yeah, well, maybe I've changed."

"You have."

He quickly diverts his eyes back towards the train tracks. Still, cold, unforgivingly grey and dirty. "Will you tell me anyway if I say no?" Wilbur asks, he has before, and he shakes his head, he has before. "Good. Because you told me that it's a secret you were told to take to the grave." he continues. Tommy perks up then, "See?" he says, a knowing smile "That's why I should be able to tell someone else that secret now, especially you!" "You know that's not how the saying is supposed to be interpreted. It doesn't matter how important it could be, Toms," he mumbles into the pitch black horizon, "once you tell me, what would I be left to do about it? I'm dead, we're dead. I'd just spend eternity asking you why you didn't keep your mouth shut." "Yeah, but--" "Just forget about it." Tommy makes a series of noises out of frustration and then stands up, arms crossed, as he starts wandering around again. Wilbur is starting to get tired of watching him do this every time, especially with the way he phases through the shadows of the platform like nothing. "That's such bullshit! How am I supposed to forget?" "By talking about something else?" "No! It's- If anything, it's the evil shit you've been saying lately that makes it harder to choose!" "I haven't said anything necessarily "evil" lately." Wilbur shrugs, angering the blond again. It doesn't take much. "You're constantly praising Dream!" he exclaims, "you praise him, the bastard who took our lands and killed me when I tried to avenge you!" "You weren't avenging me Tommy, we both know you were in Pandora's Box to mock him and avenge yourself." Wilbur corrects him as if he'd seen the whole scene himself. He hasn't, but he got the crude details narrowed down. "Besides, if he's got this necromancy thing down, you have to give him some credit." "Well he probably fucking doesn't, it's been three months! I feel it on my skin!" "Yeah, I know." "And he has not revived me, the green bitch, so my point still stands! A-And you wouldn't feel the same about him if I told you The Thing!" Tommy defends, but once again, Wilbur refuses to hear whatever The Thing. "I'm just saying, if Dream has all this arcane power at his fingertips, then I see him in a new light. I'd be honored to pick his brain at this time." "You would NOT." Tommy groans, but he sits back down.

"...Is The Thing going to make me angry?" he asks suddenly. Tommy nods, his eyes would light up with surprise if there was any life behind them. "Probably." "Is it going to make me hate Dream like before?" "Maybe. Not directly, at least." Wilbur thinks about it for a hard, long minute before he answers. "Fine, tell me." he sighs. Tommy seems to make some mental gymnastics beforehand, then, when he feels ready, he speaks. "I know you and Quackity were dating during Pogtopia, he told me. And... He laid an egg a few days after you died."

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

Wilbur is stunned into silence, frozen in place as the information makes its way to his brain. Not the first part of the information, of course, who cares about that. "Are you..." he stammers, "...Are you serious?" "Yeah, uh... Yours, obviously. The egg." Tommy shrugs, but this is not a casual matter at all. "I promised Big Q I wouldn't tell anyone you were the father, but you should know. She was doing ok the last time I saw her, she looks like you." "She? I-It hatched, the egg hatched?" "Yeah." "Is she healthy?" he asks, his voice constricts in his throat, and Tommy just nods quietly. It takes him a long time to accept that information. He repeats it under his breath, over and over. "A daughter. I have a daughter." he whispers, and Tommy just stares ahead as usual. Tommy touches the back of his head uncomfortably, where the gash that killed him sits in its crimson glory. "Quackity told her about you, showed her pictures of L'Manberg and everything, but... Y'know, more in a symbolic way, she probably doesn't actually know anything." "So..." he hesitates. It's like someone just tossed his brain onto the train tracks. "...So that whole story you told me about Quackity starting that project, the casino, that was a lie then?" "Oh no, I didn't lie about that. He really was building a casino last I saw him." Tommy says. "He called it Las Nevadas." "Yeah, he.. He told me that's what he would've called it." his voice dies out. Wilbur thinks about Quackity, what he could look like now. Their daughter, their daughter must be a little lady now. Does he make her play in the casino? Does she deal cards with him? "When *did* you guys start dating anyway? Like, before the elections or during Pogtopia?" Tommy breaks his thought patterns suddenly. "Because I'll remind you, *you* were the one saying not to fraternize with other candidates at the votes and I will never let you live it down." "Shut up," Wilbur sighs in response, and he knows he would usually smile at this kind of tease, but he doesn't. Even if the images of those times still make something bloom in him. "We started dating *during* Pogtopia, after the festival fiasco. We'd watch over Tubbo together, console each other, as usual. It just felt different that time around." he mutters.

"Dude, ew. Tubbo was unconscious and you were kissing in there?!"

"No- No no no, what? We didn't kiss in his room, we just- we talked about it, our feelings. *Then*, after he recovered, we kissed. Completely separate occasion."

"Right. I'm gonna believe that for the sake of my sanity."

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

So Tommy is now stuck answering whatever Wilbur may ask about her, about this kid nobody has ever seen more than once or twice. But when he's voluntarily about to tell him her name, Wilbur orders him not to. "Are you sure?" Tommy says, but he's already moved on to other questions.

"Does she have brown eyes?"

"I don't know, I only saw her while she was sleeping."

"So how could you tell if she was healthy if she wasn't awake?"

"Well, Quackity would've probably said if she was sick with something."

"Did she ever chirp like a duckling?"

"She did a few times."

His baby girl, nuzzled in the arms of her father, chirping in her sleep. He can't picture her, but he wants to. "Does he miss me?" he asks suddenly. "Quackity. Does he miss me?" "Well... I think he did. He was skittish of other people, he didn't really want to talk about you much. He didn't even want Phil seeing her." "Phil doesn't know about her?" Wilbur jumps up a little, and Tommy tilts his head slightly. "I think he's seen her at least once. He doesn't know that she's yours, Quackity didn't tell him." "Why?" Wilbur asks, but then he stops and thinks about it. Of course.

There's another stretch of silence. Wilbur sighs heavily and thinks on how everyone knows about a child that he can't even picture. "Do you... Do you think that I could've been a good father?" he asks with wishful thinking on his tongue. "Yeah, you wish! You couldn't even keep yourself alive, man." Tommy chimes with another tease. But after staring out into the dark for another long few minutes, he shrugs. "Maybe. Maybe you could've been." "Ouch." Wilbur smirks briefly then, only then. They're both contemplating a thousand different thoughts a minute.

"Would I have gotten to see her if I'd lived?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Did he hate me when I...?"

"Oh yeah, a lot." he nods. "He screamed a lot, then he went quiet and didn't say anything about you again." he actually turns to look at him - in his general direction at least - and with a voice below a whisper, with that same, angering pity in his eyes all over again, "Why didn't you tell him?" he asks. "I get that you didn't tell me what you were going to do, but him? Why didn't you tell him if you loved him so much?" he feels the faint taste of bile, just for a split second, before he replies with a very weak excuse. "Because I knew that if I did..." He sighs. Now he sees why he and Tommy keep secrets from each other, why they don't want to hurt each other with the truth. "...I knew that he'd never let me die. He would've done anything to keep me alive, and my brain was so set on it, so sure that I *needed* to die. He would've gotten in my way, just like you always did. And I couldn't do that to him, to you, to anyone else."

He remembers it. The night he had a breakdown so violent he almost told him his plans, thinking he was about to die from rabies anyway. In the dark, damp tunnels, pain stinging in his trembling arm, bite marks and blood and a sensory overload. Quackity held him up and looked at him with eyes of horror and repressed despair and kept telling him "It's ok, it's gonna be ok, it was just a wolf," while disinfecting the wound, pressing hard on the gauze. He looked at him and said "Q, I'm so sorry, I--" but before he could find the word that came after that "I", he froze. He couldn't tell him. So he said "I'm scared", which wasn't really a lie, and Quackity held him through that too.

Wilbur sighs as he snaps himself out of it. "Could you tell him that I'm sorry?" he mumbles. "If Dream finally decides to stop playing games and bring me back to life?" Tommy asks "Sure. But how would I let you know what he said?" "I don't need to know." Wilbur replies quickly, then, after a pause, his brother nods. "Ok."

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A week, maybe a month, maybe an hour later, a train came to the station and actually stopped. Wilbur was sleeping on the floor as usual when the screech of gears and wheels halting startled him awake. He looked up, at the opening doors, at the bright lights inside the car, and he felt this faint rise in his stomach, this feeling that told him exactly where the train was headed. And he must admit, he got excited. A tall, long figure stepped out, a blank face in a dark green cloak walked past him and grabbed Tommy, whose blind eyes darted around in confusion. "Wilbur?" he said, he spoke and Wilbur said "Toms?" with the same tone. "Wilbur, I think he's taking me back!" he exclaims, but he doesn't sound happy at all. "That's ok, I'm right behin--" he tries to stand up as he says it, but a force he can't explain, a pull keeps him seated. He can't go, of course he can't go. He doesn't deserve to go. So he starts again, trying to use that same voice of enthusiasm. "That's great Tommy, that's great! Be careful out there, don't come back here too soon!" he tries to joke, but Tommy doesn't seem glad to hear his voice so far away, to not *see* him when they're just a step from each other. The tall figure keeps a thin hand on the back of Tommy's head. "Will, I'll find a way to make you come back too!" "Don't do that, Tommy, don't try that!" he warns, but Tommy doesn't seem to be listening anymore already. The train doors start closing, one by one, now Tommy isn't even looking around anymore, he's frozen, catatonic. That's when Wilbur realizes, "TOMMY! You didn't tell me her name! Tommy! Tell me her name!" he screams, his voice rasps and the figure, the long, tall, white face in a dark green cloak puts a finger to his mouth to shush him, though it has no lips of its own. "TOMMY, HER NAME!" he begs, he feels as heavy as the day he died. Tommy mouths something, his lips quiver and make a word but the shrill of the metal doors makes it unintelligible. Then, the train departs. Wilbur feels a gust of wind, of life, trailing behind those giant tin cans that just took his brother back to the land of the living. And then it's gone.

All that's left is an empty train station. Nothing but dust on the track, and the echo of the train's wheels as it leaves the tunnel. Wilbur is alone again. That's what makes it hurt the most, really—he was right there! He had a chance, even the smallest, slimiest chance in hell, that he could've seen his own kid. That he could've kept Tommy safe with him too. Now it's gone. All that he has left is to wait, once again, for the wheels that will bring them all back together. Time is never kind to souls that refuse to move on. Wilbur has lost track, how long has he been here? That's another thing he should've asked him, isn't it ? He can think about a moment in time, remember something about himself on the surface and use it as a measurement, but those memories are all slowly fading away. Maybe that's for the best, he can't keep thinking about the people he knows, can't look back if he wants to move forward, so he waits. He waits, he waits, he waits. One day is another, and another, and another.

The train comes again. This time he's not weighed down by anything, by anyone, but he doesn't want to get on. The long, tall figure with a blank face in dark green cloak walks out, dragging from the scruff a pathetic, limp soul. He throws him out onto the pavement, a ghost that looks exactly like him. They stare at each other and they feel so terrified of the other. They can't tell who is more person, but now there's this twisted realization in both of them, that they're not the original. He tries to say anything to him, but he can't, and he doesn't either. And once they're done stalling, trading places, the figure begins to drag him in. "Wait, wait! H-he's part of me, let me get him!" he protests, but the figure doesn't let him. Some things must be sacrificed. The ghost sits in his place and looks at him with neon blue tears brimming in his eyes. As the doors close, he knows he has the other's mission now, just not what it is. He stares into the mirror image of himself, his face hollowed out from burn scars along his cheeks. It's the same in everything other than that. The way he sits, the way he slumps. He frowns, but he's not mad, really. It's just a part of him that will carry out this burden. It'll have to, whether he likes it or not. The train rumbles to a start again, he waves at himself, he waves back faintly but starts sobbing loudly soon after, almost louder than the train's screams. There's this understanding between them that they are not the same person, they could never have been, and this switch was bound to happen, whether the other thought he'd done enough up there or not. So, cheers to the other guy. Everything goes dark as they enter the tunnel, darker than death has been so far. The figure puts a thin hand on his back and he hates it, he hates it so much.

Time passes incredibly fast, all at once, faster than Limbo, faster than life. He feels vertigo pull his body in all directions, pulling his neck backwards, his chest forward, his back up, his legs down. For the first time in such a very long time, pressure enters his body. His body has depth. He sees a light, ironic, oh so ironic that he wants to go towards it but instead feels himself being pulled away from it. He fights the current, the figure stares, unaffected. He pushes through the barrier, the train shakes and rattles and screeches. He doesn't dare look.

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

The cold, dewy air of an April's early morning fills his lungs. Lungs, he has those. He has to get used to that feeling again before he opens his eyes. His head spins, his whole body hurts like hell. Air shudders out of him violently, like a spring has just jumpstarted the valves in his system and now he's feeling the reebot. He tries to move his arms and legs, and he succeeds, but the pain that shoots through his body makes it hard to enjoy the discovery. Every joint and bone screams at him, every suture. Suture? He lifts his hand, tentatively, carefully to his eye. Stitches. Along his wrists, the creases of his fingers, his legs, his ankles. He's been pieced back together into a single string of flesh. By who? He knows who. He doesn't care, for now. For now he's alive. He groans, and for the first time in over a decade he hears his voice without echo, he can feel heat around him, his nerves are full of blood. His body aches in places that he didn't even know could hurt, but maybe he's never been more glad. And he's laying in front of a small altar, a memorial to his name, literally. Strangely enough he can still read, and his name is written at the bottom of the marble. There are drapes of the old L'Manberg flag hanging unceremoniously over his date of birth, flowers - mostly wilted - have been left beside pictures of him. And a single, still lit lantern sits near his boots. His boots? It's strange, but he's almost certain this isn't how he was dressed when he died. He uses the flat marble surface to hoist himself up again, the weight of his own body might make him throw up if he thinks about it too hard. He glances all around. Everything is empty, quiet—like a museum. Except it's not, this looks more like a rocky pit overgrown with nature. He groans aloud, the pain is excruciating but he tries to focus on the sights around him. His body wants to shut down once more, but despite the overwhelming weight of the world that's bearing down on him, he can't let his mind slip away again. He must keep going. He stands up, head bobbing slightly. This doesn't feel like any afterlife or secondary plane, it feels like the Overworld. It just *feels* like it. He stares up, he looks as far as he can squint, at the hills of exposed rock covered in dew and moss. These are ruins alright. He wants to laugh, but he just sneers. Someone built him a memorial over the ruins of what he destroyed, it's like making a plaque for the potted plant that fell on the pavement and made a crack, except the potted plant was him, and the crack was more of an abysmal crater. He squints at the ruins in front of him, everything is still and silent. Not one sound but the wind. Not one person but himself. It's all here in front of him, in this broken down splinter of what used to be L'Manberg. There's a sense of finality in the air, but it's not sad, it feels like an ending. He feels the air chill his breath and the cold ground underneath his feet. But it's a different feeling from what he was experiencing when he was dead.

Not anymore, apparently.

He hears those footsteps behind him, hurrying, running on stone and wood. Two, no, three people, and at least one other creature. He turns around in time to find himself smiling at a horrified Tommy, a very drained, jittery Tommy, with a blue sheep on a leash, and then Tubbo and... An Enderman in a suit. Tommy walks towards him carefully, maybe a little cathartically, like one walks up to a heaving rabbit they just shot with an arrow. "Oh, you fuck." "Hello again." he says, and he can't help laugh at his little audience. Tommy is looking *at* him, and he's cussing him out, it's just like the old times. Nothing's changed! Well, besides everything else. "Hi Wilbur!" Tubbo waves from the back of this posse - when did he get so tall?! "Is... is this real?" he asks, breaking the teethering tension. "Yeah. Where's Ghostbur?" Tommy asks back, and he can't answer that. He was expecting anything, a 'Welcome back', a clear indicator that he was anywhere near missed, but instead he's asked where the other guy is. The better version, he imagines. "Oh, he's... He took my place in Limbo." the words just sort of slip out of him. "He WHAT?? How do we get him back??" "I-I don't know, I just got here! I'm back." he shrugs as he speaks, like this was supposed to be obvious. He's still taking everything in, glancing at the blue sheep and the enderman, still mostly paying attention to the sound of his breathing and the feeling of the solid ground underneath his feet. So *real.* "You're supposed to act at least a little bit happy to see me." he mutters. "W-We are." Tommy forces out, but he doesn't want to move towards him any further. "So why aren't you coming here? Hey, it's me! It's me, man!" "I-I didn't think you'd-- trade places with him. I thought you'd be all in one piece together. I didn't even have a ghost, why'd you split?!" "I-I don't know." and Wilbur really doesn't know, but it feels weird not to lie anymore. "Tommy, we just got him back, can you guys not complain about each other already?" Tubbo chimes in, sliding past Tommy to walk over and hug Wilbur. It's an instant regret. It feels strange, uncomfortable, irritating like a stubble rash. But Tubbo's heart is in the right place, so he lets him. He instigated it anyway. Then the sheep tries to sniff his leg. "Oh god don't tell me I have to hug the sheep as well" was not a thought, or sentence in general, that Wilbur ever thought he'd hear himself saying, but thankfully he doesn't have to. "That's Friend," Tubbo says as he steps back "Ghostbur befriended it and we- we thought he'd be here, so we were gonna take it to him." he hears a faint and shy "and I'm Ranboo..." from behind Tommy. "Yeah that's Ranboo. They're here too." Tubbo nods, taking Friend's leash to hand it over to the creature. "...Charmed." Wilbur says, a little too focused on the other matters at hand and, quite frankly, a little unsure whether he can look them in the eyes or not.

"Y'know, you look like you haven't aged." he tells Tubbo as they accompany his out of the caved in rock. "Really? I reckon I actually look different, like, my horns came in, fuckin' finally. Didn't you notice?" he asks when he puts his head down to show him. A set of horns, already scratched in. "I mean, yeah, I did. Looking good." "Thanks bossman." "It's just... I thought you'd be... Older, older than... This." Tommy and Tubbo share a glance, then look back at him. "How long have I been dead?" he has to ask the two. He has to ask before he starts moving his legs in any direction and he doesn't stop, it's getting hard to sit still. "About a year and a half." Tommy says something finally. "A year?! A year and a half??" he spits out. "A fuckin' lot's happened, Will, and I need you to promise that you're not gonna say some weird shit about Dream being cool or--" but Wilbur is too busy laughing incredulously at how little time has passed since he died. "A year and a half, are you kidding?? I was dead for thirteen and a half years, Tommy!" "I- No, Will. You weren't dead that long, it's just a Limbo thing."

He stares at them both, his smile evaporating, his breath catching. "No, there's no way. I feel so... I feel jaded, jaded and stuffy, Tommy!" There's no way he was only gone for so little time, it's impossible. He could swear on his life that he was alone for so much longer, there's no way his own memory could deceive him like this. But Tommy looks almost the same as when they last saw each other in Limbo, Tubbo's just a little taller than before. It's the landscape, that's what really changed. He can feel the rushing of wind from nearby cracks in the stone, he can feel the need to look through them. "I mean, no offense, you look older than you're supposed to be..." Tubbo says, cocking his head slightly. "Did you know you've got white hair?" "I got white hair too, after I was revived." Tommy points out. Wilbur hasn't even had the chance to think about a mirror, he's just wandering off, staring out into the sky, the blooming dawn. If he's not thirteen years older, then his daughter, who's out there somewhere, isn't a teenager. She might still need him. Quackity might still need him. His soles find a step and he stares down at a sea of glass. If regret needed a preview, it would look like what's underneath it. "Is this L'Manberg?"

[nafi-tan]

About Iris Moise and the Ace of Clubs

In the latest episode (Ep. 14) Sugar tries to find information about Iris Moise and discovers the autopsy report of the girl. She died a year ago.

It could be a fake report, but why declare her dead if she isn’t? This reminds me of something else. In episode 5 we get told the founding legend of the Kingdom of Fourland. There we are shown the aces of every suit. The one that‘s interesting for this is the Ace of Clubs.

This card depicts a skeleton. Skeleton = Death. The suits of clubs so far included abilities that involved elements and nature. Death is a part of nature as well, right? What if this card allows necromancy?

But then, even if you are dead, can you still use a card? If we look at the official sources, Iris is the player of Eight of Spades. So yeah, I am not really sure.

Another thing:

Because of this conversation in the first episode I thought that maybe Tilt is the owner of the Ace of Clubs. My trail of thought was that Tilt revived Iris and that‘s why she is loyal to him. But this can be scrapped.

If we take a closer look at the key visual of the new season, there are spade symbols seen on Tilt‘s gloves, so he probably is the owner of a spade card.

Another question that also pops up: If the Ace of Clubs does revive people, then how long does this last? What happens if you remove the gloves again? Is there a limit to how many people you can revive at a time? And is the power maybe something entirely different?

Well, thank you for reading and feel free to add your ideas :)