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wosowrites · 1 year

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Moose (Jessie Fleming x Reader)

warnings: none

prompt: in which the reader and jessie play for chelsea and before they leave for the world cup reader makes jessie a crochet moose which becomes the team mascot for canada.

a/n: based off this request here also a super short fic because i’m still broken.

You were not at all a crafty person. Jessie had grown up with a craft room in her house and she liked to paint, draw, and do artsy things to calm herself down like her mother had taught her. When you started dating a year into her contract at Chelsea, her calmness had rubbed off on you. You had always been a stressed out person and moving in with Jessie had made you into a much more relaxed and happy human. You would go on bike rides, hikes, make crafts, paint the house every time you got bored of it and do everything together.

However the only thing you started doing on your own was crocheting. Jessie had tried it but was never big on it, so all the spare yarn in the house went to you. You loved it. You were horrific at it however. Everything turned into little colourful blobs and your creations were constantly either too loose or too messy. That’s why, when you walked into the house one day and pulled out a beautifully crocheted moose with a Canada jersey on, Jessie was baffled.

For the past three weeks, you would escape to a café every day and crochet for about an hour before going back to your girlfriend. Jessie was not a worried person and as madly in love as you both were with each other, spending a small amount of time away from each other every day just made you closer. Some days you would tell her you were grocery shopping, other days it was a meeting with your agent, a hang out with one of your German teammates.

But today, Moose was finally done.

You finished him a week and a half before the departure of the World Cup and you were in Canada with Jessie and her family. It would make it harder to travel all the way back to Germany and then to Australia but you didn’t care. All you wanted was to be girlfriends instead of rivals for as long as possible.

At the dinner table that night, you picked up your glass and straightened up.

"Um, I’m not big on words as you guys have seen by now but I wanna say a couple words," you said.

Jessie’s entire family put down their cutlery and looked up at you. "I’m terrified for this World Cup. Like… horrified. It’s been four years since I’ve played a major tournament so far from you, Jess. The olympics are in one city so we can visit but in Australia… we’re constantly going to be flying around. So… I made Moose," you said.

From under the table, you grabbed a bag and pulled out the knit animal. He had a red and white swear and big old antlers. Jessie’s mouth fell open and a large smile cracked her freckled face. "I’ve been making him for weeks, and he has like… five half knit siblings that went wrong if you want them," Jessie laughed loudly and extended her hand to take the crocheted animal. "Baby… it’s perfect oh my god," she said, smiling down at the animal. "Klara taught me how to make him. That’s why I was always out for an hour or so these past weeks," You said.

Jessie hugged the plushy to her chest and then put it beside her plate. The brunette stood up and walked to behind your chair, wrapping her arms around your neck and squeezing you.

Elysse took a quick picture as Jessie’s parents raved over your new talent.

Over the next couple weeks, Jessie was seen carrying Moose during press, in the bus, around the city, at training, everywhere. She always had Moose. And if she didn’t, she had entrusted Christine Sabrina, or anyone else on the clamer side to take care of the little mascot.

After Canadas 2-1 win over Ireland, Jessie was interviewed and eventually, the subject of Moose came up.

"Is that a moose?" the woman asked, looking down at the plushie tucked under Jessie’s arm. The camera followed the reporters eyes and then went back up to the Canadian. "Yeah it is," she laughed shyly, holding up the mascot. "Is there a story benne that? I mean it’s been showing up everywhere. "There is, yeah. My… uh my girlfriend made it for me. She’s at the world cup and her friend taught her how to make it for me. We won’t be seeing each other for a while depending on how the games go so she said she wanted me to have a piece of her. It’s cute, and I didn’t think she was this artsy so it caught me by surprise for sure," Jessie said, shyly and gently.

The reporter awed over Jessie’s story but the midfielders brain was just full of images of you. She missed you so much.

That night, she called you and the whole Canadian team joined the call behind the vice- captain, thanking you for the mascot.

#woso fic #woso imagine #woso x reader #woso #jessie fleming #canwnt #gerwnt

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insightfulllama · 2 years

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Dp X dc prompt!

In this prompt, liminals/ghosts need to consume fresh ectoplasm to stay healthy and not starve. In addition, the headcanons “only those exposed to ectoplasm can see ghosts as they really are”, and “how people see ghosts is based a lot on their personal perceptions of reality.” have been mushed together. Like, someone un-exposed to ectoplasm knows that SOMETHING is there and it’s scary, but they haven’t been exposed to enough ectoplasm to actually comprehend what it is, so their mind just fills in the empty space with whatever their scared of + what makes sense to them for the context.

So Gotham has a lot of ambient ectoplasm and that's enough to keep Jason from starving completely, but nowhere near enough to be healthy. The inherent ectoplasm he has is basically rotten cause Lazarus pit be like that, so although he is alive and well in human terms, from a ghostly perspective he is extremely emaciated and sickly. Jason has felt varying degrees of empty and BAD since he came back, but there’s not exactly a handbook for this sort of thing, so Jason just accepts feeling terrible and being quick to anger as his new reality.

Cue the bat family calling him up and asking him to check out some weird reports they've been getting. Apparently people have been seeing stuff- a shadowy floating baby, a rotting animal corpse walking around, a ball of energy floating through a wall, etc. Which would be strange enough, but since the sightings started popping up at the same time, Bat's is theorizing that all the sightings are being caused by one entity. And a lot of the reports are in Jason's stomping grounds, so they want him to take a look.

He obliges (not because he wants to help his family, it's JUST because it sounds interesting, ok?) and quickly finds the whatever it is. And he kind of wants to laugh because THIS is what everyone was freaking out about? The thing looks like a gumbrop. Granted it was the size of a cat and glowing a suspiciously Lazarus green, but STILL, what on earth was everyone so scared of?

Regardless, it was in his territory and needed to go. It moved surprisingly fast once it spotted him, and it was taking a lot for Jason not to lose sight of it. Oracle offers to send someone to help and even Jason is surprised at how angrily he says no. But maybe he shouldn't be- he'd seen it first, it was HIS to catch. He discarded his helmet after her next question- she was distracting and the little thing was now periodically turning around to chirp mischievously at him and he was going to GET it, darn it.

He tells himself that the frantic urge to catch the creature was just mission excitement. The wild, clawing NEED to have it was just enthusiasm. The aching pull in his stomach wasn't anything out of the ordinary, his mouth was watering because it had been dry, NO other reason.

He was fine. This was fine, nothing was wrong, he just REALLY needed this thing.

He loses sight of it for a second, but it's fine because he knows the direction it's going.

He turns the corner and pulls up sharply. The gumdrop thing has been caught, but not by him. There's a figure holding its limp form, staring at him with wide eyes, obviously in the middle of eating it.

Jason distantly thinks he should be confused or horrified, but all he can feel is devastation. It was supposed to be HIS- this was HIS territory, HIS place, he should be the one to get it. But he hadn't been fast enough and now he wasn't going to get ANYTHING-

Danny, meanwhile, feels like the biggest jerk in the world. He'd caught the fat blob ghost more out of habit than hunger, since it had practically run into him zipping around the corner. But this other liminal had been in the middle of hunting it and was now looking at him with abject betrayal.

Danny's feelings of guilt got worse as he crept a bit closer and realized that the other liminal was sick. They're ectoplasm felt tainted, contaminated in a way that spoke of long term illness. Danny's brain was going a mile a minute, connecting the pieces. This liminal felt fairly strong so he probably had his own territory, and since he was sick he probably couldn't go far to hunt. Which meant that in essence, Danny had waltzed into the house of a starving, bedridden liminal and eaten directly off his plate.

Yeah, Danny was officially the worst.

But he hasn't actually eaten it yet, so there's still time to fix it! Danny quickly offers to share, rambling to the not-quite-starving liminal that it's like the fattest blob ghost he's ever seen and he really doesn't mind sharing and he can have most of it if he wants, Danny's not that hungry and pretty please don't be upset?

Jason can hardly understand anything he's so ravenous at this point, but he does understand that he's being offered the food he thought he'd lost, so he chows down without any fuss, much to Danny's relief. He tries not to judge how messily the guy is eating cause who knows how long its been since he'd caught any fresh ectoplasm and its honestly no worse than Danny was the first time he ate a blobbie.

Except- the guys tainted ectoplasm seemed to be fading? Huh, maybe the illness wasn't as terminal as it seemed on the surface, if all that was needed to fix it was a decent meal.

Danny decides to leave, the liminal is obviously going to be fine and once they're head clears they're probably going to be embarrassed that Danny saw them in such a state and he doesn't want to deal with that kind of awkwardness. He carefully leaves, relieved that something that could have ended very badly had worked itself out.

Meanwhile, Barbara is trying to get Jason to respond to her without success. The last contact was almost half an hour ago when he'd snarled at her for asking if he needed someone to come help. She was pretty sure he'd ditched his comm after that, but his trackers were still active and she could see he'd come to a stop. He'd been very clear that he didn't want help, but they knew nothing about this entity and Barbara is hardly going to chance that he might be slowly bleeding out somewhere. She sends someone (or multiple someones) to go check on him.

They find Jason splattered head to toe in faintly iridescent gore, hunched over with glowing eyes and softly growling as he eats something unidentifiable.

#in case it was unclear the bat family thinks he ate someone lol #and he's not lucid enough to correct them at the moment #dp x dc crossover #dc x dp crossover #dp x dc #dc x dp #fanfic prompt #fanfiction prompt #danny fenton #jason todd #cw implied cannibalism #jason isn't ACTUALLY a cannibal but his fam doesn't know that lol #please tell me what you think #this could go funny or it could go angsty either works

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chaotikanvas · 1 year

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Ok, ok, so incoming ramble about the Glamrocks that I keep thinking about under the readmore!

Disclaimer: I can’t promise too much structure to this since I’m just putting some thoughts down, but hopefully it’s still an enjoyable read or something to think about ghfdkñkjgh

—

SO!

A while ago, when I was first planning my first ever fic for SB (which has been thoroughly planned but not written and I haven’t talked about it here at all but that’s! Beside the point!), I started really wondering how the glitch/virus worked (I will keep referring to it as virus as I think it fits a bit more).

And I was so happy that the DLC seemed to be in line with what I was thinking or at the very least it supports my headcanon in a way!

(And oh gosh this is gonna take setting the scene a bit at first so bear with me)

So, I’d like to make a note first of all, that I’m not entirely convinced Glitchtrap is gone, because the end to the princess quest 3 minigame means Vanessa gets freed from possession (via opening the door). There is not a fight with him as a boss that seems to deactivate or get rid of him once and for all, at least. But what happened to him is entirely guesswork on my part. Also, while the DLC implies very strongly that all the other endings are not canon and more stories Gregory drew himself, there are still elements from those endings that I feel cannot be discarded, and they help understand the story. (The blob does exist after all and that is only discovered in the Burntrap ending, and it is my belief that the friend that has the schematics for the underground mentioned by Gregory must be Vanessa, because Freddy seems to have only vague recollections of the place when Vanessa had him clear the way for her before, and also he is not capable of accessing all areas of even the main pizzaplex)

(Also, I squint a little wondering if they changed their minds on which ending was the true ending because the Burntrap ending is the one that has animated cutscenes and a cgi ending image. I actually like that Princess Quest is the canon ending now, since Vanessa gets to be free, but it does come with some inconsistencies. But anyways!!!)

So taking all of that into account! To me, the way the virus works, and considering that there must be a supernatural element to it due to the existence of Glitchtrap, has to do a lot with it locking away the “consciousness” of the animatronics. Much like in the way Vanessa’s true self was locked away actually! In past games, the animatronics only seemed to act outside of their programming due to possession of some kind, but these specific ones seem to actually have self-awareness. I have no doubt that the way they were programmed influences their personality, but the DLC has really emphasized that they are not actually just limited to their functions.

They have true intelligence! Not a surprise, since Freddy was clearly self-aware since SB, but I like that it seems to be a confirmation of it being the case in general and not just an exception. And I believe this because there are animatronics that are able to snap out of it after Cassie interacts with them. They do seem to think things are normal like any day in the pizzaplex, at first (Eclipse and Roxy) and it would seem like this means they are not truly sentient, but considering that Sun was aware all this time that things were very wrong, and that Moon would attack Cassie if not rebooted, and that Roxy later awakens, realizes the danger and goes to rescue Cassie from the Mimic, makes it clear to me that their self-awareness is the real deal.

So not only would the virus have to infiltrate the robot’s systems, but it also would have to fight against the “consciousness” of the animatronics to gain control. While we know the Burntrap ending didn’t happen, I think when we see Burntrap trying to take over Freddy is a good visual representation of what might have happened over a long span to the other animatronics.

Ok, ok so! With all that said (again gfkjh)! I’m getting to the main point of this post, which is that I cannot stop thinking about the little backstory we got for Monty and what might have happened with Bonnie!

The damaged model of Bonnie we find in Ruin makes it clear to me that yes, it must have been Monty the one who destroyed him. The scratch grooves that join with the hole in his chest do match with the marks we have seen on other spots, (I thiiink Monty’s room has them), and we know the claws are the characteristic associated with Monty.

(And here I make a sidenote acknowledging some buts, because I went back to read the SB messages, and according to those, Monty only received the upgraded claws to play the bass, which means Bonnie was already gone by then. One of the messages states clearly that Monty received modifications only after being moved to the position of bassist, when Bonnie was out of commission, so either Monty already had really strong claws or it's a bit of an oversight there, but I digress!)

But! Even with that clear evidence, and here it’s where I admit it’s more speculation on my part, I find it a bit hard to believe Monty, the real Monty, at least, would destroy Bonnie just like that. Which makes me think Monty must have been one of the first, if not THE first of the band being infected with the virus. I think it’s a generally accepted headcanon that the virus alters the glamrocks personalities in a way that some of their main character traits are twisted in a destructive way.

Now, Monty already clearly existed back when Bonnie was in the band. He had his own (large!) area even though he wasn’t part of the main band. The DJ is large and has his own section too, but he seems confined to it and was bought from outside the plex. And Monty seems to have been able to roam around anyways, so I think that probably means the higher ups were counting on Monty being a main animatronic in the future. (I have to wonder if the whole one man band thing from the backstory was something he did do for a brief time at the start, but admittedly that could have been added just in the cardboards).

With all this in mind, Monty was probably the newest addition, a newcomer in a place that already had the four main animatronics. Almost known by no one in the public and without an established personality in a franchise he’s never been part of before. One of the messages says Monty could be more popular than Bonnie, after Bonnie’s disappearance, which makes me think he was mostly a side attraction, and nowhere near as known as the main glamrocks. Why mention that he could be more popular if the audience was as aware of him as the band right?

So, I think the main trait programmed for Monty’s personality is ambition. The backstory in his ride seems to hint at that. A young Monty with his own little music business, looking in amazement at the Glamrocks and dreaming of one day reaching their level. It would make sense to have one of the robots have this as their main trait, since kids would relate to the big dreams. And it seems to fit with other main traits from the other Glamrocks: Roxy seems to have been made with self-confidence in mind (winning races and having a beauty salon) which might be for encouraging kids, Chica is obviously all for being chipper and energetic and enjoying food (useful in an entertainment establishment that wants kids to indulge and get their parents to spend their money when they’re having a good time), and Freddy is meant to be nice and fatherly and the approachable gentle main face of the franchise.

(Though I am a bit sad Chica gets pushed aside a bit in regards to explicitly showing what she’s really like)

(As a small parenthesis from all this, I want to say that the Pizzaplexes troubles with the virus (or at least the more worrying behavior of the animatronics) are likely relatively recent before Gregory’s arrival. Could be months or a couple of years, don’t know how much exactly, but the fact that there are old messages all around, how some of those help give Gregory hints to where he can find stuff that is still there, how Bonnie’s Bowling Alley has not been rethemed to get rid of the evidence of his existence, Freddy’s hurt over Bonnie being gone sounding (at least to me) still fresh rather than from that long ago, and the message about the disappearances makes me think it can’t have started a decade ago or something like that)

Anyways!

The Monty “rise to fame” story from the ride establishes that Bonnie “gave” his bass to Monty in order to have him join the band, though that Bonnie cutout is obscured. If they really wanted to make it seem like Monty had retired, why not make a cutout with the most important part of the story clear? They made one with Roxanne styling Monty’s hair! So maybe the plan had been to establish that (in the “in universe” narrative for the animatronics) Bonnie would be the Glamrock that took Monty under his wing and teach him the ropes of being a star? Though probably not with the plans of having him be a Glamrock at all, but maybe appearances with a Glamrock would increase the chances of the new gator attraction succeeding (again, speculation on my part, I know).

Coming back around Monty likely being the newest addition, him still not being established as a popular character would maybe mean that he was an easy target to spread the virus. Way more attention would be paid to the main stars, I think, so I think the probability of him being infected from almost the start is high. And with his main trait being ambition, and Bonnie maybe having been planned to be a sort of pathway to him being more known, it wouldn’t surprise me that by the time the incident happens, the virus has already twisted Monty’s ambition into jealousy and aggression and so he ended up destroying Bonnie that one day. Was Bonnie summoned by Monty? Did Bonnie go to Monty out of his own will because he noticed something was wrong? (which ouch if that was the case. It could very well be even that Vanny noticed that Bonnie noticed something was off and had Monty dispose of Bonnie in order to not have any secrets exposed) Who knows! But this is mostly what I think happened.

And why am I so convinced Monty would not have done this without the virus’ influence? Well… Mostly because of Roxy.

In the main game, Roxy is such a bully. Many of the phrases she says are outright cruel, and at a point where Gregory has done nothing to her yet. But in the DLC we see Roxy as she was meant to be. Encouraging. Lifting a child’s spirits up. Assuring them that they are fantastic how they are.

We know that Cassie is a lonely child. A bit of an outcast who probably spent a lot of time in the plex while her dad worked. We know that her friends did not show up to her birthday and she treasures Gregory as a friend for being there when she was down. Cassie, seems to me, is the kind of child that would be an easy target for bullying. Insecurities and loneliness seem to be main struggles for her, which is why, if Roxanne was already a bully without the virus, why would she be Cassie’s favorite? Why would she be so nice to this kid that obviously needs the confidence boost Roxanne was made to provide? One of Roxanne’s literal lines in SB towards Gregory is “I bet you don’t even have friends!” Knowing that Roxanne knows this is an issue for Cassie, it seems even more brutal that if she’s in her right mind she would use that as an insult when chasing after Gregory. The Roxanne we see in Ruin is so kind. She is a source of comfort for Cassie, soft spoken, and making sure she feels like number one, instead of being self-obsessed (even if it’s born out of extreme anxiety over her own image).

So if there is such an extreme change from a virus riddled Roxy, why would Monty’s extremes not be the same? We know not even Freddy is exempt from this sort of change though this one is more evidence from the books (slight not too consequential book spoiler and can’t quote from which book exactly it was, but I remember there was an off handed mention of Glamrock Freddy fighting over a plushie with a kid and then feeling dejected when people got angry at him, so it seems if Freddy was ever truly infected, his change of personality would entail being a spoiled main star?).

And it makes sense! Because Freddy considers all the Glamrocks his friends! We know Chica cares for him, because in the intro to SB she takes a step towards him when he malfunctions. And in the base SB game it looks like Freddy is just in denial about his friends (with the arcade minigolf game even having the famous Freddy in a trashbin course to hint at Monty’s jealousy, which you know could very well a real danger with what happened to Bonnie) (and now that I’m writing that it makes me squint a little at that arcade, since it’s very heavily implied the arcade in Sun and Moon’s room infected them so hmmmmmmm, but I digress), but honestly, seeing Roxy acting how it seems she’s supposed to act right before Cassie turns her off as the final node, really makes me think that the true selves of the animatronics are pushed back by the virus to replace them with a caricature of themselves that will obey Vanny’s commands. I mean, the Glamrock Freddy body is completely headless, and doesn’t even appear in the AR world! I don’t know whether it “attacks” because it’s what it would do if infected, or if it is simply leftover code from the way Freddy hid Gregory in his chest, but there sure as heck isn’t anything resembling a consciousness in there. Besides, we know Vanny was invisible to Freddy.

And if consciousness really is pushed aside by the virus, then it would explain why Monty is like that right now. (At least if my speculation of him being the longest with the virus is true) He would know nothing but anger and at this point he is acting like all he knows how to do is attack. Monty’s mind seems to truly be absolutely gone by now. :(

But aaaah this is getting way too long now fkjdghkjf

I guess I just want to talk about Bonnie a bit more, because we don’t have that much more about him that I can form any conclusions about. I do love the poster in his room! The fact that he really was this close to Freddy! They saw each other everyday and Freddy still decided to write a heartfelt message for Bonnie, that Bonnie decided to hang where he would see it clearly everyday! It really seems that Bonnie cared for Freddy just as much and that makes me so happy! It makes it all the sadder to know how heartbroken Freddy is over Bonnie’s disappearance…

Also I am incredibly confused by the whole wetfloor bot stuff! I don’t know if it’s implied that Bonnie’s “consciousness” somehow managed to transfer to the small bots (or why children screams can be heard from them), and if he managed to stay present through them after all. The little bots never really try to harm or sound alarms on Gregory unless shot at I think, so there’s that to think about! Or maybe Glamrock Bonnie was able to connect himself to them but not transfer? Kind of as long as there are any functional he too would be able to hang on? (Or did someone did that for him and it wasn’t himself who did?) Because deactivating the ones where we find Bonnie makes Bonnie’s eyes go dark. But why?? This I really have no idea about!

There’s also that one floorbot that remains beside a pile of Monty’s merch! And if Bonnie is looking or controlling the wetfloor bots that could mean a lot of things!! If Bonnie is in control, is the bot gathering the merch? Is it a negative thing? A sort of attempt to just collect the merch so it can’t be found ever again like Bonnie himself was? Or maybe, if Bonnie did have the most contact with Monty, did he get to know the real not-virus-infected Monty, and saw the merch as a way to remember someone that was briefly a good friend before things went terribly wrong? Hmmmmmm…

Well, I think that’s all I have! Just wanted to get my thoughts out there! It’s not very organized but if you made it all the way to here, thank you for reading!

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defira85 · 2 days

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OC Deep Dive Questions

Thank you @adorablebanite for the tag! I think you've tagged nearly everyone in the Gortash fandom so I won't double inflict it on people 🤣

We'll shock absolutely everyone and do Kassara

What common/uncommon fear do they have?

I think I've said before that her greatest fear is being alone - Daddy's plan for her to be the last one left at the end of the world is a fucking nightmare for her. That's his fault by making her a twin though, she's never been alone ever in her life even before Gorty Boy came on the scene

Uncommon fear, hmm... I don't know what constitutes uncommon for Toril and for a Bhaalspawn... there's a vain little piece of her that's terrified that Gortash won't find her attractive one day, that he'll wise up to her being a weirdly unnatural sentient blob of goo made from gore and not, you know, a person and he'll tell her she's disgusting... she got the Bhaalspawn breeding urges wrong and she's terrified of being a bad mother, do either of those count?

Do they have any pet peeves?

She hates cryptic bullshit. Withers is SO lucky Carmela and the rest of the extended party were around to moderate her temper. That's what you get after a decade or more of Sarevok and Sceleritas just mysteriously telling her she'll know what to do in order to resurrect Bhaal without giving her any fucking help in the matter at all. Be frank with her, or shut up

What are 3 items you can find in their bedroom?

Soap - old habits die hard but she's always got some sort of rubbing alcohol or hand soap or something to get the worst off her hands. Lube - listen. She's in her late 30s at the time of the game. It's good to have a little help. Moisturiser - again, she's in her late 30s, her skin isn't as bouncy as it was 15 years ago, and that was before she underwent multiple autopsies and flensings at the hands of Kressa.

What do they notice first in a person?

Their pulse

On a scale from 1-10, how high is their pain tolerance?

Oh it's so high. Baby girl was born to relish in pain, her own and other peoples, but now she's older and spent six months on an autopsy table and now she has what the kids call chronic pain and so she's a little slower on the uptake than she used to be. Still a titan though, no matter what Ao says.

Do they go into fight or flight mode when under pressure?

It depends on the situation? If it's an active danger situation, she's fight all the way. If it's an emotional confrontation, you know she's going to burst into angry tears and run away

Do they come from a big family/are they a family person?

TWINSIES. Sarevok wasn't entirely sure that the ritual that created her in the Throne of Blood was foolproof, so he made a backup, and she got herself a twin brother. She and Heron were inseparable up until they got to the Bhaalist temple in their teens, at which point Sarevok instructed Orin and Sceleritas to immediately separate them and try to drive a wedge between them.

(Spoilers for KTMTB but she does want a big family, desperately. And she gets one, in the end)

What animal represents them best?

I vaguely recall answering this on another meme at some point and saying she was a white tiger, but I also think polar bear. Both big, chunky animals, plenty of fat on them, but you wouldn't question for a moment that they're wildly muscular and incredibly dangerous. Also, not uncommon to see a wild pale white woman covered in blood in the Lower City like a polar bear covered in seal blood running across the tundra

What is a smell they dislike?

Mint. She hates mint

Have they broken any bones?

Defira the Author has a Thing about broken bones (not quite a trigger, but bluh) so I tend to avoid writing them in my fics because they make me. Dizzy and such. But I am fairly certain that Bane broke one of her wing bones in Banehold when she turned up to fight him for Gortash's soul (she's got Ansur's soul, she's a draconic valkyrie at that point)

How would a stranger likely describe them?

Incredibly attractive but wildly unsettling. A smile that's bordering on unhinged at times. A stillness that makes you want to break into a sprint. You can tell you're in the presence of a predator.

Are they a night owl, or morning bird?

That's a good question, I never thought about it before, but I'm going to say Night Owl by necessity

What’s a flavour they hate and a flavour they love?

She hates mint. She loves vanilla and cherry blossom

Do they have any hobbies?

She really enjoys learning, and she'd probably be a career student if she could. She particularly loves the sciences and even some of her more dense volumes on astrophysics made the mathematician in Gortash bewildered

Boom, surprise birthday party! How do they react to surprise?

She'd be delighted! To some extent. Bhaalspawn are naturally inclined to avoid too much attention but she was always a diva. She loves having people fawn over her

Do they like to wear jewellery?

Her wedding ring almost never comes off post canon, and lbr she was wearing it constantly in the last few years before the game too (before it was technically a wedding ring). She's a glam bitch and she always did love to dress up so you know she's got entire cabinets full of stolen jewellery from her victims, she mixes and matches for her next gala appearance

Do they have neat or messy handwriting?

Immaculate handwriting, perfect calligraphy. She can replicate and imitate almost any handwriting she comes across though, she's a natural forger and mimic (well, we SAY natural, but it was drilled into her by repetition)

What are the two emotions they feel the most?

Pre-game canon: The urge versus a frustrated sense of yearning for a kind of normalcy that she could never have because that's not what she was made for

Game canon: A bubbling, seething, angry frustration because her body and her impulses scare her! They frustrate her!! What the fuck is her body doing!! As well as a yawning sense of horror and dread as the void in her head where her memories should be begins to look less like a void and more like a gaping chasm with something horrific at the bottom

Post-game canon: That lingering sense of dread and doubt that she has herself under control, far and away outweighed by her blissful delight at the happy ending she found

Do they have a favourite fabric?

I don't think she does actually... I think she likes Gortash's jacket, the texture of it and the smell of it... the way worn-in leather feels when it's been worn for years, and the layers and layers of body odour and sweat (my girl likes his musk, what can I say)

What kind of accent do they have?

I don't actually know what her real voice sounds like - there's so many layers to how she presents herself, the lives she's had to live from her first family to the orphanage to the second family to living on the streets to the Bhaalist temple... she's just a natural mimic, switching herself up to match the environment she's in.

She has a naturally very soft, higher pitched voice. Very girlish. It's another one of those things that makes people underestimate her. After waking up on the nautiloid she has a few months where she's quite husky because she's spent six months having her vocal chords either a) not used or b) being carefully flayed by Kressa to see how fast they regenerate with her titan blood so she sounds a bit more vampish after that. Still very soft spoken though

#Kassara Bhaal #OC: Kassara

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themattress · 1 month

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Sailor Moon (Takeuchi): The Top 20 Villains

Ranked using my core tenets for villains, and done countdown style for dramatic effect.

Honorable Mention: Danburite - He's technically not from Sailor Moon, instead being the main antagonist of the prequel Codename Sailor V. Danburite is the leader of the Dark Agency, a worldwide criminal organization that is secretly a subsidiary of the Dark Kingdom. He's a fairly complex character: hating Sailor Venus for never returning his love yet also still loving her, being upset that she favored Kunzite over him yet still working directly under Kunzite, and manipulating her in a Tuxedo Mask-esque guise just to lower her guard so he can kill her...yet ultimately choosing to die himself and use his last words to encourage her to move past him, something he could never do in regards to her. All in all, a damn solid villain.

20. Pharaoh 90 - The ruler of the Death Busters, Pharaoh 90 is a demonic extraterrestrial being bent on destruction. He's definitely the least engaging of Chaos' incarnations, but I have to give him points for a pretty great final battle and even some pathos in his last moments where he gracefully accepts his death and returns back to the Tau Nebula, saying that he wants to die in his home. That sticks with me even when little else about him does.

19. Queen Metalia - While a step above Pharaoh 90, Metalia still isn't all that interesting. She's a big blob of evil that wants to plunge the world into darkness and corrupt all its inhabitants because she's evil. Also, her design in the Crystal anime is underwhelming. Nevertheless, she gets by on how much destruction she wreaks, being the one to destroy the Moon Kingdom of the Silver Millennium and nearly causing Usagi and Mamoru's deaths.

18. Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne - The Sailor Moon manga has straight-up villains, tragic villains, and villains who aren't really villains and are just brainwashed. That's why Lethe and Mnemosyne stand out as true blue Anti-Villains: having joined Shadow Galactica of their own volition and even doing bad things, but having a backstory that justifies it, a deep love for one another, and conflicting feelings about their mission the more destructive it becomes. They would rank way higher if they had more screentime, but alas, they do not.

17. Safir - At the same placement as his Toei counterpart, Safir is the brooding young man in the background who develops the Black Moon Clan's droids and watches helplessly as his older brother Prince Demande descends into madness thanks to Wiseman and the Malefic Black Crystal. There is no redemption to be found here, however, as Safir blames Sailor Moon and her future self Neo-Queen Serenity for everything wrong in his life rather than take any responsibility for himself and his clan, which ultimately leads to him becoming forcibly mind controlled by Wiseman and then killed by his own brother. The lesson: misogyny kills!

16. Evil Endymion - Metalia and Beryl long resented that they were unable to corrupt Prince Endymion in the Silver Millennium despite doing so with everyone else on Earth. In the present day, they finally get what they wanted, and the result is a sinister, cold-hearted and unsettling presence. Seeing the heroic, chivalrous young man we've come to know and love become a manipulative, violent sociopath is arguably where the Dark Kingdom arc peaked.

15. Chaos - In terms of personality, there's nothing here. Chaos is the Ultimate Evil and that's all there is to it. But oh, how it coasts by on sheer concept! Turned evil because it is a lifeform that has perpetually failed to get out of the Galaxy Cauldron and become a star, Chaos seethes and longs for universal conquest. This desire is so great that even trapped in the Galaxy Cauldron as a being of pure dark energy, some of that energy is able to leak out, creating all the other major villains that Sailor Moon faces. It's an ingenious way to connect the story arcs, antagonists and series together, tying it all in a satisfying, truly epic bow.

14. Witches 5 - We had evil minions correlating to the Inner Senshi that challenged them and helped their character development before with the Shitennou and the Spectre Sisters, but I think Witches 5 is the peak version of this concept as a purely villainous force. They're all perfect dark foils to their respective heroic counterpart in terms of design, personality and powers, and face off against them not once but twice, the second time after having died!

13. Esmeraude - While the lone female leader of the Black Moon Clan is sadly the least consequential, she makes a stronger impression than Safir by actually fighting the Sailor Senshi on two separate occasions, and both times being a truly formidable adversary who almost kills them all. She also has a strong personality, being a haughty beauty who seeks to win Prince Demande's love and willing to do absolutely anything to achieve that desire.

12. Kaolinite - The Grand Magus of the Death Busters who commands Witches 5, Kaolinite brings a fun DnD aesthetic to the story while also being a fairly fleshed out character, especially in Crystal. Formerly Professor Tomoe's lab partner, Kaolinite now owes her life to the Daimon energy inside her and is obsessed with pleasing Pharaoh 90. Unfortunately, this puts her at odds with his actual number 2, Mistress 9, and seeing Kaolinite struggle even when the odds are against her makes her sympathetic despite being so unabashedly wicked.

11. Black Lady - When Wiseman corrupts Chibiusa, she becomes Black Lady, the self-styled Queen of Nemesis. Black Lady is a lot like Evil Endymion, but more nuanced as she doesn't do a complete personality flip due to the brainwashing. She still has the memories and feelings she held as Chibiusa, it's just that they've been twisted and perverted: her deep insecurities about living up to her mother and frustrations with Usagi manifesting as vindictive hatred of both, and her desire to keep hold of her father's affections turned into incestuous advances toward him. She may have breached the Top 10 had her resolution been stronger.

10. Queen Nehelenia - When part of Chaos leaked from the Galaxy Cauldron and into the dark side of the moon, it created a twisted mirror image of Queen Serenity: Queen Nehelenia. She's a fairy tale baddie based off the Queen from Snow White and the Wicked Fairy from Sleeping Beauty: a vain ruler who loves her beautiful image in the mirror and whose inner self is a hideous old hag, and a practitioner of dark magic who crashes a princess' birthday celebration and invokes a curse. Derivative? Absolutely. Effective at it? Also absolutely!

9. Crimson Rubeus - One of the most loathsome members of the Black Moon Clan, Rubeus operates by sending the Spectre Sisters out to fight and die for him so that he can swoop in and capture the Sailor Senshi they've rendered vulnerable and get all the credit from Prince Demande. He's a selfish creep and also a dirty coward, always feeling at the first sign of things going south for him. Despite that, he is perceptive enough to recognize that Wiseman may not have the clan's best interests at heart, and at least has the nobility to stand up to him over it even if that ends up getting him killed. If nothing else, Rubeus was loyal to the cause.

8. Queen Beryl - The main villain for much of the original Dark Kingdom arc, Beryl is interesting because in the Silver Millennium, she was more of a victim than anything. A jealous young woman who was misled and corrupted by Metalia. However, it’s a different story in the present day. The Silver Crystal granted her reincarnation and with it, a chance for redemption. A chance not to make the same mistake. But not only does she willfully re-release Metalia and then have the Shitennou re-brainwashed, but she takes things further by plotting to betray Metalia by keeping the Silver Crystal for herself and using its power to rule the universe with Endymion at her side. A case study in how corrosive envy and hate are.

7. Kunzite - While Jadeite, Nephrite and Zoisite of the Shitennou were thinly drawn beyond one basic characteristic (loyalty, passion and underhandedness respectively), Kunzite is a richer character. Despite being the leader of the Middle East branch of the Dark Kingdom, Kunzite is powerful enough to control a worldwide subsidiary in the Dark Agency, and reliable enough to be dispatched anywhere if necessary. He is arrogant and cold-hearted, allowing no personal connections in his life and focused solely on his mission. Yet then he becomes unbrainwashed and remembers being quite the opposite: devoted and dutiful, a protector not an offender, someone warm enough for even Sailor Venus to fall in love with. Tragically, when he tries to betray Queen Beryl he gets super-brainwashed and then killed in an epic struggle with the Sailor Senshi, but his cleansed spirit stays with Mamoru and plays a key role in helping to defeat Metalia for good. And through it all, he does it with such impeccable style.

6. Professor Tomoe - This villain is like unpeeling an onion, layer by layer. He seems like a good, caring father who is caught up in the Death Busters' shady business, with signs pointing him to being misled by Kaolinite. Then we learn he's actually Kaolinite's superior and not misled at all, but still trust he has his daughter's interests at heart since he's gone through such lengths for her. And in the end, we see that he is actually a complete psychopath who cares nothing for his daughter and only went so far for her so that he can make her into the thing he wants her to be: the first of a race of superbeings that he can rule over as a god. After he turns himself into a monster, Sailor Moon has to eliminate him, accepting that he is far beyond redemption. All in all, Professor Tomoe is effectively frightening and loathsome.

5. The Amazoness Quartet - I admit that I'm not that big a fan of Takeuchi's Dead Moon Circus, but even I can't deny that the Amazoness Quartet are spectacular villains. Remember how Chibiusa turned into Black Lady and then into Sailor Chibi Moon? The Amazoness Quartet is that without the Chibiusa part. What's more, they are preteens / early teens rather than adults, which means they rely far less on any sort of sex appeal and more on their raw cunning and deviousness. VesuVesu, CeleCele, PallaPalla, and JunJun...I love 'em all!

4. Sailor Galaxia - Usagi's final opponent is her perfect evil foil. Having grown up in a harsh, uncaring environment, Galaxia is as cynical as Usagi is hopeful, and instead of drawing strength from others, she sacrifices others to build up her strength. Chaos is easily able to manipulate her nihilistic psychopathy, but despite all of her attempts to break Usagi, she proves Galaxia wrong by never giving in and even saving her in the end. Before her (temporary) death, Galaxia realizes that someone like Sailor Moon was really what she wanted and needed in her life, and that even now an ideal like her seems so far out of reach.

3. Mistress 9 - If you want an example of pure evil done right, look no further than Mistress 9, the child and herald of Pharaoh 90. Like Pharaoh 90, Mistress 9 desires the destruction of Earth and its people, but she takes particular joy in causing it, relishing all the pain she inflicts on people...including people on her own side like Kaolinite. The way she uses Hotaru once Professor Tomoe sells her out to her control is especially despicable. When she finally turns into a hideous monster, it truly feels like the inside of her is finally showing on the outside.

2. Wiseman / Death Phantom - And if you want another example of pure evil done right, we have the best incarnation of Chaos in the series. Nemesis was an entire planet made up of leaked Chaos energy from the Galaxy Cauldron, awaiting only the proper catalyst to give it consciousness. That catalyst was Death Phantom, a psychopathic criminal sorcerer banished there by Neo-Queen Serenity. Melding his soul with the planet and magically puppeting his corpse under the identity of "Wiseman", Death Phantom will psychologically manipulate anyone to pursue his goal of taking over the universe and reshaping it into a void of nothing.

1. Prince Demande - Death Phantom's primary pawn? This guy. Prince Demande, leader of the Black Moon Clan. He starts out as a young man with a sensible conviction - an unnatural moon being ruling over humanity and forcing them into elongated lives in a utopian society is blasphemous, as she's basically playing God. Unfortunately, his methods go too far into extremism and terrorism, which attracts the attention of Death Phantom who, as Wiseman, lures him and his gang to Nemesis. There, exposure to the Malefic Black Crystal warps Demande....his motive shifts to envy of Neo-Queen Serenity, as now he decides that he deserves to play God and rule over Earth. And once he attacks Earth, the madman's motives shift again...now he wishes to rule with Neo-Queen Serenity at his side, as he has been overtaken with lustful feelings toward her and wants to force her into loving him. Despite being the worst of scum, Demande still has nuance: he cares for his comrades, especially his brother Safir. When forced to kill Safir, learning the truth about Wiseman and how he's been manipulated, and seeing the true power of the Silver Crystal he thought he could defeat, Demande's despair is palpable and pitiable. But then it brings him to trying to destroy the universe, taking everyone down with him just to prove he can be the master of his own fate, unbeholden to anyone or anything. So in the end, Demande epitomizes the tragic villain.

#Sailor Moon #Evil #Villains #Opinion #Comparison #This has been a PSA

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angelic-ish-phantom · 2 years

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Order

Day 3

If Danny had to describe his ghost half in a word, it would be hungry.

Not in any familiar way; there was nothing painful about it, no clawing feeling in his stomach.

There was only craving.

Ever since he’d seen those first ectopi come through the portal, he had felt that deep seated need, that urgency.

To consume.

It felt strange and a little too inaccurate to call it an instinct. It was so much less complicated, foreign…

Trying to describe it in human terms made feel confused. Thinking about it with his human mind made him feel nauseous. He’d much rather just stew in his core as it whirred intricately, whispering impulses into his very ectoplasm.

Danny understood that his core worked like a second mind, intimately so. But is wasn’t a brain… wasn’t human. It was such a foreign way to think, if you could even call it that.

But Danny had the compulsions that came with it under control. Really he did! Sure, he still reflexively bit the odd monster in a fight, and couldn’t help drinking in emotions when he was particularly drained, but it was fine! He could ignore it. It wasn’t a problem.

At least it hadn’t been until Lunch Lady. Not until the first ghost that was a person came through the portal and Danny was just as hungry as he’d ever been.

oOo

“It’s really not as bad as I’m making it sound!” Danny groaned into his hands. This was exactly why he hadn’t wanted to tell his friends; it was hard to put into words that didn’t make it sound sick.

Sam’s eyes narrowed, “Isn’t it? Danny, wanting to… eat the ghosts your fighting doesn’t sound bad to you?”

“Sounds like it’s just another mostly harmless ghost thing. I mean, you’re all made out of ectoplasm, right? So you need more ectoplasm to ‘live’? As established, other ghosts just happen to be a source of that.” Tucker suggested, trying to rationalize his hunger. “All ghosts have cannibalistic tendencies confirmed.” He joked, but Danny could (taste) see he was unnerved.

“But Danny doesn’t need to eat ectoplasm to live.” Sam said, before whirling on Danny, concern under her alarm, “You don’t do you?”

“…I don’t need to, no.” Danny surrendered. “It’s nice though. Not that I would eat a person for it. That’s not why I would want to at least. It’s not- it wouldn’t be for ectoplasm energy. It’s just- guys I swear, this isn’t a bad thing!”

“…You know those monster and animal ghosts have to eat you before. I just thought they were doing what they do, but this could be the reason. But I don’t think any of the ghosts that talk have ever tried that.” Tucker said, shaking off his unease at Danny’s prior words.

He was wrong. Technus had definitely tried to. And Lunch Lady. Box ghost made a pitiful attempt to every time he was alone. Even Spectra had made to, but she’d seemed almost repulsed.

“Probably because they wouldn’t eat another person!” Sam explained, as though it were obvious.

Danny thought they would. If they were feeling what he’d felt, they only wouldn’t eat him if he was too big.

And Danny wondered, what if there was a ghost big enough to try and eat him, and win?

(That should have been a more worrying thought than it was…)

What about the reverse; what about a ghost small enough that eating it wouldn’t be a challenge for him.

Not that he ever would.

oOo

Danny really hadn’t meant to do it.

He’d thought he’d had a pretty good handle on the whole urge to consume any ghost in front of him.

But just he’d been so tired. He hadn’t known the time exactly, just that it was dark, and he’d been operating on so little sleep even before he’d had to take care of the beastly looking ghost that had crawled out of a natural portal in the dead of the night.

And after shooting a quick text to his friends, telling them he’d come out of the fight in one piece, he’d come back to his room.

And glowing softly in center of his bed, was a blob ghost.

Danny had seen blob ghosts before—massive, shapeless, wailing things. But this one was different. It was like the round, ones he glimpsed crawling through the shadows of Skulker’s island, and slipping in and out of the walls of Pointdexter’s lair.

He’d never seen one on the side of the portal before.

Danny looked down at it, a bit suspicious. It appeared to be harmless, but it was also a ghost. One that had been in his room while he wasn’t there.

The thing tilted it’s head curiously as though inspecting him back. Well, not it’s head considering it didn’t really have one; the entire front part of his body shifted, it’s eye spots wide and empty.

Danny couldn’t help but find it cute. Still he raised the thermos and-

The blob ghost flopped over as though in submission, core thrumming a low pitch that made that ever present hunger Danny felt rise to the forefront.

Danny bit his tongue, stepping back a bit. What was it doing, did it want him to- to-

He couldn’t stop himself from lowering the thermos, from locking his eyes on the blob and practically prowling across the space between them.

What was he doing? The thought almost stopped him, but it was too fleeting. Too irrelevant in the face of the ghost’s dull glow.

Danny needed it. Need the strength it could give him, however small. He needed the knowledge. The completeness that would surely come with consuming it, making it an extension of himself.

It trilled as he got closer still, soft approval.

It was so tiny. So weak. It needed him. It needed to be bigger, to be part of him. That way he could protect it.

That thought ran through his obsession in all the right spots. Danny shivered as his human mind expressed the utmost repulsion. Danny licked his ectoplasm-green tongue over ghostly fangs.

Danny opened his mouth.

oOo

For the record, Danny had been going to tell his friends what had happened that night, what he’d done. Really he had been!

But then he’d thought of how exactly he would say that. How would he even broach the topic? Just drop in at lunch and go, ‘Oh hey guys! remember how I was obsessively considering cannibalizing my enemies. Well I tried it out and now I think I’m not gonna stop-‘?

Yeah, no.

He couldn’t stand the thought of how Sam might look at him. At how even Tucker had been unnerved at the idea of his unconventional appetite before he had given in to it. They’d put up with his his weird half-ghost things before, had stuck with him this long, but… this felt like a lot.

Danny didn’t want them to see him, the way his parents saw Phantom.

He knew he was being paranoid. Probably. Especially considering ‘eating’ definitely wasn’t the right word for what he’d done.

Danny distractedly watched the blob ghost loop through his legs amiably.

It had kind of just fazed back out of him in the morning. Or rather Danny had fazed it out of him.

He had taken hold of its body and suddenly extremely susceptible, suggestible mind and had just made it move.

He could let go, and the blob didn’t seem to mind when he did it… it seemed to enjoy it actually.

It was safe and taken care of. Danny could take care of it. It could help Danny, and Danny could help it. It was mutually beneficial and perfectly fine. Danny would tell his friends exactly how fine it was.

Eventually.

oOo

The thing is, the blob ghost could ask Danny for help in a roundabout way. It could need help and Danny would understand.

So when another ghost had been chasing it around dusk, and Danny had already been transformed from an earlier fight, he had swept in to save it.

And as Danny fought the ghost, an odd wolf like animal with snakes instead of a tail, the blob had gotten some very tempting urges. It had actively pushed its thoughts onto Danny. It had told him to eat, to expand his self. To be stronger so he could protect it, to make it so this other ghost wasn’t so mindless and wouldn’t do any more damage.

And Danny would have been able to ignore the hunger as he always did if it weren’t for the argument proposed, if there wasn’t another smaller mind assuring him, wanting him to take and never stop.

And Danny gave in.

oOo

Ghosts that look like monsters out of some mythology are hard to hide. Even with their forms shrunken slightly, even when Danny willed them invisible most of the time, someone was bound to realize there was a ghost lurking around Amity Park that he hadn’t gotten rid of.

Or well, ghosts.

Which brought Danny to his second issue. When a ghost had already ‘eaten’ other ghosts, and that ghost then too gets eaten, it turns out it makes a chain of command.

First was Danny. Then his blob and the wolf ghost. Then the wolf ghost’s ghosts. And then their blob ghosts.

The control Danny had over them wasn’t overwhelming. They were like limbs with their own minds; Danny could move them as he pleased, but they had their own independence and took comfort in this relationship.

They were much less noticeable that an entire extra arm though. More like a big toe. Toes with toes. Something he could move, and could always feel was there. He would notice if they were missing, but he didn’t always notice they were there.

That made sense. It made enough sense for him to be comfortable thinking about it like a human.

Danny was constantly aware of this order, but was also content to just let them roam with little interference. The odd nudge away from people here, turning one invisible there, using one to handle a smaller ghost fight while he’s in school.

It was useful. It was nice.

Sure it was strange to get used to have so many senses, and the range of emotions they were all feeling at any time was complicated to say the least.

His first blob was a lot more smug lately, about being so high in the order, about being so close to Danny, above ghosts many times stronger than it. Many of the others were content to laze around and explore the living world, bathing in the feeling of being protected. Others kept spooking humans for fun, and causing quiet mischief which was harmless enough that Danny didn’t often stop it.

Being so connected to them all made him feel complete. He couldn’t imagine anything more satisfying, satiating that this.

oOo

When Danny’s core had awoken he didn’t fly into the ghost zone blindly. It had been the impression of knowledge from one of the lowest ghosts in his order, a lizard like creature with a form the consistency of sand.

And then Danny had been taken to the Far Frozen. And he had met Frostbite.

Danny had never been exactly scared of what might happen if a ghost ‘ate’ him. He knew what it was to be at the top of an order, but despite feeling the comfort of his charges, he couldn’t imagine liking being in that position.

He’d have nothing to gain the way his ghosts did, minds going from stilted to simple but fast, aware. He’d just have his aim a massive amount of his autonomy stripped from him.

It made him feel bad about having taken his ghosts when he thought about it like that. Like a human would.

Then in Frostbite’s presence, he’d understood.

He’d known intimately in that moment, why his blob ghost had lured him closer in the hopes he would add it to himself. He felt every bit as small as it must have been in his presence.

Frostbite was bigger than he appeared, Danny could see that. He was letting shrunken yet he was still the largest yeti in the Far Frozen, and every member of that place was part of him.

Danny could only imagine the security they all felt under something so all-encompassing. He could feel Frostbite’s hunger, drawing him in, restrained if only because Danny was a hero to them.

It was a strange thing to want to be eaten.

Danny might have even asked. If it weren’t for his obsession and obligations, he might have forgotten humanity entirely and joined this wonderfully hidden, protected place.

But he had his haunt, his humans, his home to go back to. Then he did.

And despite how amazingly he’d been treated in the Far Frozen, despite how kind and affectionate the yeti’s were Danny stayed away. Because he didn’t know when he might not be able to pull himself away.

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doodleferp · 1 year

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stormy night (cryptid!Vash x oc)

When Ari takes an ill-advised trip to the woods, she wakes up somewhere she definitely didn't fall asleep with a person she definitely doesn't recognize. Except...it's not a person. In a way.

Based off my cryptid Vash sketches! This AU isn't made for any specific Vash, so feel free to imagine whichever Vash you want! Neversink Cave is the closest idea I had of the one that Vash lives in, so look that up if you want a better idea of the environment we’re in.

triggers: uncanny valley, technical kidnapping

When Ari had fallen asleep that night, she had intended to spend a night in the forest as a part of her Environmental Science project. What she didn’t intend was to wake up in total darkness, soaking wet and covered in grime, with her travel bag, sleeping bag and the clothes on her back.

She groaned to herself and tried to climb out of her sleeping back, grimacing when her hands touched the wet stone floor. Her eyes were still adjusting, so she could only make out large amorphous blobs. But she definitely knew she was in a cave. If she had to guess, she was somewhere near Juneora Rock, which not only had some lovely waterfalls, but a large, deep cave that had been nicknamed “The Pit”. It was a long, long ways down, and people had definitely gotten themselves killed when they used improper techniques or climbed during wet conditions-

Ari was startled by a loud clap of thunder, and she groaned aloud. Of course. The fucking storm. She knew there was going to be a really bad storm this week, but she was so sure she’d been able to beat it. Of course. Fucking weather. No wonder she’d run and fallen asleep in a cave.

…wait.

Had she?

She didn’t remember getting up, nor did she remember sprinting through a storm to the nearest shelter she could find. So how the hell did she get here? In The Pit of all places?

Every hair stood on end as a strange sound echoed through the cave. It was vaguely human, but it sounded more like an animal.

Ari jolted upright and her eyes darted around the cave. And a horrible realization hit her. If she didn’t know she got down here, then that meant something had dragged her out of her tent and carried her here. More importantly, it meant she couldn’t get back out.

Another sound rang through the dark. A loud, clicking trill. Ari looked in the direction of the sound and froze, her heart dropping into her stomach.

A pair of bright-blue eyes shone in the darkness, leering at her from afar.

There was something else here.

The blob surrounding them was definitely human shaped, but something was wrong about it. It was too tall and too thin to be another person. But the way the eyes watched her felt too intelligent to just be an animal.

Slow, methodical footfalls bounced off the walls of the cave as the eyes drew closer. Ari tried to scramble away, but there was only so much wall she could see in the dark. Suddenly, the footfalls stopped. Ari looked back, only to find the bright-blue eyes directly in front of her.

Oh, fuck.

A large hand took hers and held them up to the eyes. A soft hum echoed through the cave, causing her to jolt once again. Then, the eyes inspected her other hand, the head tilting in the darkness as a light trill echoed through the cave.

As the creature was preoccupied with her left hand, Ari’s right hand dove out of sight. She dug through her pocket, silently screaming for her keychain to be intact. The moment she felt the familiar fabric of the lanyard, she grasped for anything that felt round and metallic. Bingo.

Ari whipped out the keychain, pointing the flashlight directly at the eyes. The creature’s eyes slammed shut and it let out a squawk of terror as she blinded it, scrambling to get back into the darkness of the cave.

Ari scrambled back against the cave wall, pointing the flashlight in the direction of the sound. And as her eyes adjusted, they were in awe of what they’d found.

It was a man. Or rather, it was trying to look like a man. Gangly limbs that were far too long to be normal. A head of the brightest hair she’d ever seen. A long, lanky silver body riddled with scars, missing patches of skin, and dull markings. A large pair of wings wrapped around its upper body, that didn’t look like they were made of feathers.

The man-thing stayed at the other end of the cave, hunched over and trembling as it rubbed its eyes. After a few tense moments, it looked back at her. It looked like something out of Avatar. Breathtaking inhuman eyes, symmetrical markings on its face, and a pair of sharp fangs peeking out of its mouth.

When it seemed absolutely certain that she wasn’t going to attack, the man-thing slowly moved its body to face hers. Ari couldn't stop her eyes from wandering, and they quickly found the stub where its left arm should’ve been. The man-thing noticed her staring and immediately shied away, cradling its stub to its body and turning away from her.

The word “Don’t,” had left Ari’s mouth before she could stop herself. The man-thing tilted its head, letting out a confused chirp. “I-I mean…it’s okay. You don’t gotta hide.” Ari looked at the cave ceiling, trying in vain to find any sort of exit. “I mean, we’re gonna be down here for a while,” she chuckled.

There was a resounding thunderclap from outside, causing the two of them to jolt. Ari looked back over at the man-thing, who was now visibly shaking. “You, uh…ya don’t like storms, huh?”

The man-thing locked eyes with her from over its wings. Slowly, it shook its head.

“Yeah,” Ari agreed. “I don’t really like ‘em either. Rain’s fun and all, but also, like, no.”

Ari tried to stand, grasping around the cave wall for some support. She shone the flashlight around the cave, and, admittedly, was surprised at what she saw. Near the back of the cave, there was a large pile of what appeared to be old blankets and sleeping bags. There was an almost-shelf sitting near the pile, upon which rested a large pair of sunglasses, an ancient-looking burlap sack, and what appeared to be a hand-crafted prosthetic arm.

Unlike the other items, the arm was soaking wet. And, Ari realized, so was the man-thing.

“Did you bring me back here by yourself?” she asked.

Slowly, the man-thing nodded.

Ari felt something weird in her stomach. Guilt? Anxiety? “Thank you,” she said. “I probably would’ve bit it if it wasn’t for you.”

The man-thing appeared to relax a bit, but he still kept away.

She frowned. “I guess I’ll have to sleep here. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to find a way out.”

The man-thing trilled excitedly. He ran over to her and scooped her up with his single arm, nuzzling her face and clicking excitedly. “Ack!” Ari exclaimed, taken aback by his sudden shift in demeanor. “Uh, hey, take it easy, buddy! I’m not a toy!”

The man-thing carried her across the cave, plopping them both down in the pile of fabrics. Though the dirt and grime on the fabrics made Ari’s stomach turn, they were still much more welcome than the cold, gross cave floor. The man-thing sat cross-legged behind her, but his legs were so long that she was effectively trapped between them.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness in the grody nest, Ari finally realized how much bigger the man-thing was than her. It looked like he had at least a couple feet on her. The way his wings suddenly began to unfurl made him look even larger. But his face wasn’t…as creepy as she’d first seen it. He had the face of a young man not much older than her, with smooth skin and gentle cheekbones. Most curiously, she spotted a small beauty mark under his left eye. If he’d been human and able to communicate, he’d be very attractive.

The man-thing was very aware of her staring, because he puffed up his chest and shook his wings, letting out a jubilant chirp. Ari wouldn’t keep herself from chuckling, and the man-thing’s smile blossomed into a childish grin.

Ari couldn’t stop the smile from appearing on her face. “So, uh,” she asked. “D-do you have a name?” The man-thing tilted his head, seemingly confused by her question. “I mean, we’re gonna be here a little bit. We should get to know each other.”

The man-thing straightened up a bit. He crawled over to a small hole near the nest and started fiddling with something inside. His wings were large enough to block her view, so she couldn’t do much but sit and wait for him to turn back around. When he finally did, he was holding a small set of dog tags on a simple beaded chain.

She strained to take a closer look at the tags. They looked absolutely ancient, and somehow had been kept in very good care since they were last worn. On what she assumed to be the uppermost tag, she could make out a single word etched into the material.

Vash.

“Huh,” she muttered. “I guess your name is Vash.”

Vash cooed softly, a smile coming to his face. He turned back around and put the tags back where he had left them. Then he crawled back over to her, circling around her twice before falling onto the nest. He didn’t close his eyes, no. That would be too normal. Instead, he laid his head directly on her body and stared directly at her face, big blue eyes glowing in the darkness as his chest rumbled with purrs.

Ari sighed wearily and laid down in the nest. The purrs were helpful for helping her relax, but it wasn’t really much in the long haul. It was cold and creepy down in this cave, and she couldn’t fall asleep knowing the man-thing was watching her like a hawk.

She closed her eyes and tried to forget she was there. In her mind, she was in her comfortably-shitty dorm room, typing away on her laptop while she snuggled with her dog-shaped pillow and played Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta in the background. She tried to pay attention to the rain outside and not the incessant purrs of the man-thing laying on her chest. Not that the weight and vibrations weren’t a comforting sensation. She just wasn’t used to it.

Don’t worry, she assured herself. Morning will come. You can go home soon.

Ari sighed in her sleep, and tried to picture herself anywhere but here.

-*-

Vash watched the human’s body start to relax as she finally drifted off to sleep. It was a good thing he’d taken her before the storm hit. She would’ve been killed if he hadn’t come along. He knew Mama would’ve been very upset with him for stealing a human directly out of their nest. She’d have scolded him something terrible and refused him doughnuts for weeks after.

But this is different, he insisted. She wasn’t safe out there. He hoped deep down that Mama would understand. Wherever she had gone.

He still didn’t know.

He tilted his head, trying to shake out the sad thoughts with the presence of his new friend. She didn’t seem terribly afraid of him, but his rational side urged him to keep his guard up. He knew from experience that humans weren’t the most welcoming creatures. No matter what he tried, they would always run away.

But this one felt different to him. He felt drawn to her in some way. He didn’t know why, but something deep inside him, something deep inside him told him that this human would be an exceptional mate.

He lifted himself off of her, shifting in the nest so he could lay his head next to hers. His unblinking eyes stared at her face. So gentle. So peaceful.

She was even more beautiful up close.

Vash snuggled closer and reached for her hand, his fingers gently tracing her knuckles. Her hands were so small, so soft compared to his. He couldn’t see any blemishes or calluses on them, but he could tell that her figure was much more full than the humans he’d seen before. Clearly, her frolick had done an amazing job taking care of her -- she’d been able to eat plenty without having to lift a finger to forage for herself. He had no doubt that someone would’ve claimed her, and he couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw that both her hands were bare.

His mate must’ve been accustomed to not foraging, so he would have to work even harder to find enough food for them both. The nest was big enough for him on his own, but he’d have to make it larger to give them both room to spread. Since she had no wings, he wouldn’t have to worry about her wandering out of the den and getting hurt. The rocks and weather would be problems, though. But he could handle that. And if something else came, he would fight it off. He was big and strong. He could protect her.

His wings unfurled and wrapped around them both as he closed his hand protectively over hers.

Yes.

He would protect her.

c. doodleferp, 2023. please do not steal or repost.

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callinskiiscalling88 · 7 months

Text

OMG OZZY OSBOURNE IS A TWISTED WONDERLAND FAN?!

(I also did a little lyric analyzing, scroll for that)

(intro is red and you can skip it if you know the context of Ozzy and Twst. Book 7 spoilers are marked as green. Lyrics are purple. (When i didn't paste an image of them)

Okay so very quick intro. For twst fans who don't know Ozzy Osbourne what rock are you living under? He's a very popular rock artist and the lead vocalist for a heavy metal band "Black Sabbath" (a very well known 1970s band.) He has the nickname "Prince of Darkness".

And for Ozzy fans who are still reading and don't know twst. Twst stands for Twisted Wonderland, a Disney anime game. It focuses on Yuu (mcs name) who gets whisked away to a highschool organized by dorms for magic. Each of the 7 dorms are based off a Disney villain, who are praised as "The Great 7". It's a fun game check it out!! Dire Crowley is the principal of the academy. Not much is known about him but he praises himself on his "benevolence" and "kindness". Though no offense Crowley fans he's a lazy jerk.

To understand this analysis you'll need to know what an overblot is. With a mixture of strong negative emotion and a large use of magic a mage gets infected with the overload, causing them to overblot. (Blot is like magics equivalent to a car's gas emission per say). The person gets a new stronger form though it's highly damaging and if stuck in that form for too long they turn into a phantom. Imagine a sentient vicious blob of black ooze .

((((((Also Levan is Malleus Draconias dad who went missing long ago before Mal hatched from his egg. Maleanor is Malleus's mother who died after an attack on her castle ))))))

Now with all that out of the way!! Lyric analysis!! All the correlations. This includes the Crowley is Levan theory! Plus the overblot theory that he caused them. (Though you can still enjoy a lot of the analysis if you aren't a believer of either of these theories)

This could correlate to when Levan left. I haven't read part 5 in awhile but if I remember correctly it doesn't exactly say what happened but he disappeared during a battle when he was a general. What was he thinking when he was in that fight?

For the Crowley Levan theory to work he would have been kidnapped by the Silver Owls. He would need to be in a weak state for that to be possible. The line did you talk to the dead could be a metaphorical for him "seeing the other side".

Or people say the magical mirror that assigns the boys their dorm is Maleanor. That could be considered talking to the dead.

His disappearance was tragic. It affected a lot of people

And you could definitely say being a General is "thrilling". Though defining thrilling as an adrenaline rush not exciting.

You fooled all the people with magic could refer to him covering up all the overblots. You don't even need to be a believer of the "Crowley caused the overblot theory" to know he had to have covered all this up somehow. Though I find it gives it more depth to take that into consideration.

He praises himself a lot. He of course would think of himself as Mr.Charming. The line after could refer to someone questioning his judgement. He's definitely not as nice as he claims to be.

In nocturnal rapport doesn't actually have to do with the night. I believe this line just means he's hard to talk to emotionally. (I could be wrong) As the principal his students should trust him and be able to talk to him. Yeah he's not trustworthy.

Uncovering things that were sacred Could refer to people finding out about the overblots, or even that he caused them. Or that he's Levan.

Actually he's a mysterious guy there is so much this could refer to.

Conceived in the eye of secret also ties into his mysteriousness. He does have a lot of things he ain't spilling!

It could also refer to his identity being fake. Cough cough Levan.

White horses are commonly used for heroes of a story or even angelic entities.

This is quite ironic since he hasn't helped with the overblots at all. Even more ironic if he's causing them.

This whole paragraph could refer to the overblots. They've become common in the school. Even classic

A maidens call could refer to the students crying out. They need help they're being attacked.

The overblots are definitely drastic, each one getting stronger and stronger.

(And for the last line this isn't official but in book 8 if Grim overblots (assuming he will by then) and Yuu has to fight him there could be a scene where they're cornered.)

I had to Google what polemically meant. So for people who don't know it means something that defends/attacks a noun. (Person, place, beliefs, idea or thing)

What are his motivations for causing the overblots (if he did)?

Or dare I even say he's the reason Yuu's here? What purpose do they serve to him?

We all wanna know.

So that concludes my lyric analysis and correlation to Dire Crowley!!

Song:Mr.Crowley by Ozzy Osbourne

Character by Yana Toboso

Art owned by Disney's Twisted Wonderland team

Now extra stuff:

I love this stupid bird man. There's just so much we don't know!!

if you're still here I'm surprised, but comments appreciated

Help this took over an hour to type out...

Go listen to the song!! This song has a special place in my heart even though I don't actually listen to it. Now it's even more special with my twst hyperfixation.

Plus I find it crazy that it's over 40 years old yet it's still so popular. (43 years old if I did the math right)

The end.

Have a good day<3

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thoughtportal · 5 months

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Theodore Nash sees only a few dozen patients a year in his clinic at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. That’s pretty small as medical practices go, but what his patients lack in number they make up for in the intensity of their symptoms. Some fall into comas. Some are paralyzed down one side of their body. Others can’t walk a straight line. Still others come to Nash partially blind, or with so much fluid in their brain that they need shunts implanted to relieve the pressure. Some lose the ability to speak; many fall into violent seizures.

Underneath this panoply of symptoms is the same cause, captured in the MRI scans that Nash takes of his patients’ brains. Each brain contains one or more whitish blobs. You might guess that these are tumors. But Nash knows the blobs are not made of the patient’s own cells. They are tapeworms. Aliens.

A blob in the brain is not the image most people have when someone mentions tapeworms. These parasitic worms are best known in their adult stage, when they live in people’s intestines and their ribbon-shaped bodies can grow as long as 21 feet. But that’s just one stage in the animal’s life cycle. Before they become adults, tapeworms spend time as larvae in large cysts. And those cysts can end up in people’s brains, causing a disease known as neurocysticercosis.

“Nobody knows exactly how many people there are with it in the United States,” says Nash, who is the chief of the Gastrointestinal Parasites Section at NIH. His best estimate is 1,500 to 2,000. Worldwide, the numbers are vastly higher, though estimates on a global scale are even harder to make because neurocysticercosis is most common in poor places that lack good public-health systems. “Minimally there are 5 million cases of epilepsy from neurocysticercosis,” Nash says.

He puts a heavy emphasis on minimally. Even in developed nations, figuring out just how many people have the illness is difficult because it is easy to mistake the effects of a tapeworm for a variety of brain disorders. The clearest proof is the ghostly image of a cyst in a brain scan, along with the presence of antibodies against tapeworms.

The closer scientists look at the epidemiology of the disease, the worse it becomes. Nash and other neurocysticercosis experts have been traveling through Latin America with CT scanners and blood tests to survey populations. In one study in Peru, researchers found 37 percent of people showed signs of having been infected at some point. Earlier this spring, Nash and colleagues published a review of the scientific literature and concluded that somewhere between 11 million and 29 million people have neurocysticercosis in Latin America alone. Tapeworms are also common in other regions of the world, such as Africa and Asia. “Neurocysticercosis is a very important disease worldwide,” Nash says.

Cyst Attack

The alarming illness occurs when tapeworm larvae lose their way. Normally, Taenia solium has a life cycle that takes it from pigs to humans and back to pigs again. Adult tapeworms, living in the intestines of humans, produce up to 50,000 eggs apiece. The eggs are shed in the infected person’s feces. Pigs swallow these eggs accidentally as they rummage for food on the ground. When the parasite eggs reach a pig’s stomach, larvae hatch and burrow their way into the animal’s bloodstream. Eventually they end up lodged in small blood vessels, typically in the animal’s muscles. There they form cysts and wait until their host is eaten by a human. (Pork has to be undercooked for the tapeworms to complete their journey.)

But sometimes tapeworms take a wrong turn. Instead of going into a pig, the eggs end up in a human. This can occur if someone shedding tapeworm eggs contaminates food that other people then eat. When the egg hatches, the confused larva does not develop into an adult in the human’s intestines. Instead, it acts as it would inside a pig. It burrows into the person’s bloodstream and gets swept through the body. Often those parasites end up in the brain, where they form cysts.

The tapeworm larvae often get stuck in ventricles, or fluid-filled cavities, in the brain, sprouting grapelike extensions. In this way the worm actively cloaks itself from immune cells. Protected and well fed, its cysts can thrive there for years.

As a tapeworm cyst grows, it may push against a region of the brain and disrupt its function. It may get stuck in a passageway, damming the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. This impasse can cause hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, along with dangerously high pressure. A resulting brain hernia can result in stupor, coma, or death.

If a tapeworm cyst doesn’t cause big troubles, it may go unnoticed for its entire life. Eventually a tapeworm cyst that can’t move on to its adult stage will die; this signals the host’s immune system, eliciting a powerful attack and bringing its covert deception to an end. In many cases, the immune cells swiftly annihilate the revealed cyst, but often damage occurs. The immune system’s attack on the cyst can cause the surrounding brain tissue to swell with inflammation. For reasons unknown, a calcified cyst can keep triggering these immune reactions for years after the parasite’s death.

Although any cyst in a susceptible area of the brain can cause seizures, those lodged near regions that issue commands to muscles can trigger violent convulsions. One of Nash’s patients suffered from tapeworm cysts that twisted around his brain stem. After the tapeworms died, the inflammation that followed was so severe it put the man in a coma.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, these patients just died. Surgeons would go in and see this mess and couldn’t do much,” Nash says. Fortunately, the situation is improving. Even his comatose patient woke up and, after a few years of off-and-on treatment, completely recovered. “Now the guy is doing quite well.”

Breaking the Cycle 

A great step forward came in the mid-1980s when praziquantel, the first drug able to kill tapeworm larvae in the brain, became widely available. But praziquantel proved too effective. It not only kills tapeworms but also triggers an immune reaction that causes brain swelling. “Paradoxically, we produce the disease we want to treat,” Nash says.

Over the years Nash and others refined the treatment by combining praziquantel with other drugs that tamp down the immune system. It is far from a perfect solution, though. Sometimes the immune system still overreacts, requiring years of care for seizures and other symptoms. And immune-suppressant drugs like steroids have side effects of their own.

The hunt for better drugs to fight neurocysticercosis is not an easy process. The best way to test potential medicines on tapeworms is to get living cysts out of infected pigs. Nash and his colleagues recently set up a lab in Peru, where infected pigs are abundant, to do just that.

Although finding a better cure is important, Nash is more interested in preventing tapeworms from getting into human brains in the first place by breaking their life cycle. A favored strategy is identifying people who have adult tapeworms in their bodies and giving them drugs to kill the parasites. It is also possible to vaccinate pigs so that they destroy tapeworm eggs as soon as they ingest them.

None of this is rocket science — which makes Nash all the more frustrated that so little is being done. “I see this as a disease that can be treated and prevented,” he says. But there are precious few resources available for treatment and little recognition of the problem. “All of this seems to be very feasible, but nobody wants to do anything about it.” {read}

#article #brains #discover magazine #science

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zekeodile · 2 years

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- Surface Pressure -

@cowgremlin Word count: 897 Character Count: 4917 ---------------------------------------------------- It's too much. Everything is too much.

This had been building up for a few days now. He could just feel it, crawling under his skin and clawing at his throat like an animal, begging to be freed. It seemed that every tiny, minuscule thing that happened over the course of the week just added to the pile of other inconveniences that made Copia tick.

At this point, he was like a bomb, just itching to explode. His whole being was off-kilter, he seemed wrong. Of course, the Ghouls took notice of his change in attitude. The usually calmer and goofier man seemed snippy and much more irritable as of late. The girls took more concern to this, though all of them were worried for Copia.

With the added pressure to perform well as Papa, along with making sure absolutely everything ran like a well-oiled machine, Copia was cracking, slowly but surely. All it took was one little question from one of the Ghouls.

"Are you okay, Papa?"

The question was so innocent, popped up out of pure worry and curiosity. Copia felt something inside of him snap, and then the waterworks started. It was like a dam inside of his body finally crumbled and he just released everything that he had been holding back for lord knows how long. He wasn't fine, he knew he wasn't, and he hadn't been for a long time. Copia couldn't remember the last time he didn't feel some nagging worry at the back of his mind, forcing him to act like the most perfect person.

"No- no! How could I be fine?" He choked out through body-wrecking sobs. "How could anyone be fine when all that's been happening has just been so- so awful??" Copia had perceived every minor thing to be some of the biggest problems he had ever experienced. Some of the most life-ruining things he had been put through were such small things to the Ghouls and the Ministry, it seemed almost childish for Copia to be so upset about them. "Everything is awful- it's awful- the lights, the sounds, and oh lord the noise.." He whined out, desperately covering his ears as his eyes shut tight.

Listening to Copia be so distressed was difficult, especially since every touch the Ghouls tried to comfort him with was immediately met with yelling and more crying. The Ghouls exchanged glances between each other, their worry given away simply by their posture. What was the best way to help Papa when they had no clue what he was going through? One finally decided to speak up, Cirrus, who used a gentle tone to approach Copia. "What do you think you need right now? We don't know how to help you.." She offered the question to the sobbing man, almost as an effort to get him to focus on something else.

"I don't- know- I don't know.." His voice was almost a whisper, broken from his emotionally pained cries. "I just- I don't know!"

"That's okay, Papa, it's okay to not know. Do you want to sit in your library? Would that help? You said you didn't like the light," She offered, glancing at the other ghouls. "Or the noise, it's quiet in the library, remember?" When she got a nod out of Copia, she smiled. "Come on, let's go there, okay? You can sit by the fireplace in your favorite chair." The Ghouls all knew that Copia had a favorite chair in the library. It was big, almost comically big, with a high back and intricate baroque trimming around the edges, the cushions being a dark red and soft to the touch.

Once Copia nodded again, he took Cirrus' sleeve into his hand and allowed himself to be led to the library, the other Ghouls trailing behind as their shoes clacked on the tile floor of the halls. Rain was the one to signal for the group to try and walk a bit quieter, noticing just how much the sound bothered Copia at the moment. A silent appreciation radiated from the emotional man as he wiped the streaking face paint from his cheeks. The once clean and precise skull art was now smeared and tear-streaked, causing it to just become a grey blob on his damp face.

Arriving in the library, the atmosphere was already much nicer. It was kept much cooler in the room for the preservation of the old tomes, the lack of bright lights helping maintain this ambient temperature. "How's this, Papa? Isn't this much better?" Cumulus chimed in, helping Copia settle into his chair as she removed the ruined paint. She got an approving hum from the man, not minding his lack of words at the moment. Without a word, the other Ghouls proceeded to pile onto the floor beside the chair as Swiss started a low fire in the fireplace, replacing the old and charred kindling.

The silence was so nice, even with the occasional crackle of the fire splitting through it. When Cumulus offered to redo his paint, Copia shook his head, letting her sit with the others to just enjoy the quiet. He felt calmer after what seemed like forever, just sitting there and listening to the steady breathing of his Ghouls.

This is what he really needed, and he planned to enjoy it as long as the world would let him.

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opinated-user · 1 year

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I find it funny how in the turning red video Lily says that fans can't enjoy anything without an overarching plot when she herself can't enjoy anything once it becomes serialised ,ie, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, a really good show she loved to bits, that was, until one of the show's creators admitted that they were going to go serialised, like, at the time she made that video, the show was still at episode 2 and showed no decline in quality, and yet she already decided the show was going to suck, which I guess I shouldn't be surprised by, knowing her hatred of any shows that dare have an overarching story. With her hatred of serialised shows, rejections of recommendations from fans, her contrarian stance on anything that is universally loved, she's not going to like anything made by the animation industry at this point. She is literally who she accuses fandom to be, a person who is very closed-minded, never satisfied, always wanting the story to go their way and any other way is wrong and having outdated and honestly kind of racist views when it comes to POC characters (*cough* Aliana *cough*)

And speaking of racism, can we just talk about how Lily says Soul and Puss in Boots the last wish are movies with the same story, and almost seems to imply that Soul is a better movie (cause puss in boots has an edgy villian and fight scenes = anime = bad, even though that makes no sense but whatever) despite the fact that the main black character spends most of the movie as a green blob, continuing an unfortunately common trend of poc characters being turned into non human forms for the majority of a story? But at the same time Lily has shown that she doesn't really care for poc men that much, so it's not that out of character for her

as said in another post, the only point in common between Soul and PIBTLW is that they both talk about the mortality of the main character and try to teach a lesson about enjoying life. say they're the same movie is the actual real life equivalent to calling everything "baby boss like" because that is the only movie someone has seen. we know that the media consumption of LO outside of CSEM and obscure hentai is limited, so not really surprising. still an overall bad point.

otherwise, and in part because of that above, LO is really the example of the worst kind of fan you can find in any fandom.

no wonder nobody in any fandom doesn't want anything to do with her.

#lily orchard

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sing-me-under · 1 year

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YOUR ART IS SO PRETTY! :) also as a fellow dsmp/batfam lover I was wondering who would be who if you made an au of the other? (From batfam to dsmp or dsmp to batfam, you can choose!) me personally Tommy gives a bit of Damian,,

Hello hello! Thank you very much ✨✨✨ I’m glad you like my art!

About the DSMP x Batfam AU…. I really had to think this one through. I love both of them, but they have such different character dynamics and ideologies. Even the very worlds they are set in are like complete opposites. However, I have also read like so many (so many) superhero AU fics for the DSMP (before the fandom tag got overwhelmingly oversaturated), so I have some thoughts on…

DSMP Characters as The Batfam

You’re right. c!Tommy does feel like he’d be a good match for Damian. Loves animals? Feral? Stabby? Genuinely good? Artistically-inclined? The youngest? If we’re going by characters traits, Tommy would absolutely be Damian… But if I did that, I’d spend way too much time comparing characters who can’t be compared… So my list is going to be based on vibes. Same vibes are also why I’m choosing to make L’Manberg the main members. I’m completely disregarding age, motivations, personality, etc. This is all (mostly) vibes. There is some justification for them.

I wasn’t able to think of a match for everyone, but I got a decent chunk.

Wilbur as Batman

Fundy as Nightwing

Quackity as Oracle

Tommy as Red Hood

Tubbo as Red Robin

Jack as Spoiler

Niki as Batwoman

Ranboo as Black Bat

Slime as Batgirl 2 (also Cass but specifically Batgirl-era)

Eret as Talia

Philza as Ghostmaker

Kristen as Martha and Thomas

Technoblade as Azrael

Karl and Sapnap as Harley and Ivy (who’s who? Idk)

Dream as the entire Rogue Gallery — every single rogue just compressed into one blob of a man

I felt compelled to draw Tommy as a Robin and Red Hood.

Notes under the cut. They’re explanations for what little of my thought process can be converted into comprehensible words. It’s long. I ramble A LOT. Read at your own peril.

I’m pretty sure the obvious explanations are Wilbur, Tubbo, Techno, Karl&Sapnap, and Dream.

c!Wilbur is so much like Bruce Wayne — it’s kind of not funny. There’s the obvious “led children to fight a war” thing, the “compulsively acquiring children because they won’t leave him alone” thing, the “becomes evil immediately after crossing the no kill thing” thing, and the “sad little meow meow wet rag of a man but still extremely charismatic” thing…

c!Tubbo and Tim Drake are the closest 1:1 of this entire list.

Okay, okay. c!Techno as Jean-Paul. The vibes are wrong if we’re talking about canon Azrael, but I’m specifically thinking of fanfiction/“goes to family dinners WFA-style” Azrael.

c!Karl and c!Sapnap have such “married anti-villains befriending the heroes” vibes. I love them so much in superpower AUs even when they’re not with c!Quackity. As I’m writing this, I’m remembering that Schlatt and Quackity are also very often written in a Joker x Harley Quinn situation, but we’re talking about Batfam!

Dream is like the caricature of a Gotham Rogue(TM). He’s got the sympathetic motivation sticky noted onto a decades’ worth of terrorism with only the vaguest hope of redemption that he’ll probably never actually get because he’s too popular as a villain. I could make a point for any character interpretation (both fanpn and canon) of c!Dream as Ivy, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, Black Mask, Joker, etc. (also, not a Rogue, but Ra’s too)

The thing about the DSMP is that it almost feels like a reversal of DC. It’s like a mirror, the same solution from a reversed conclusion. That also means DSMP characters appear un-traumatized and naive then get completely fucked over by the sheer horror that is the SMP, meanwhile DC characters appear fresh from traumatized and find themselves in a position to believe in goodness. The late-stage DSMP was filled with isolation while DC heroes always end up in found families.

It’s why I couldn’t think of a proper match for Damian.

What I loved about late-stage c!Tommy is that he keeps (disguises) that hope and love for people despite everything. Meanwhile, Damian’s character development is learning all that from the ground up. The vibes are similar but not the same. Honestly, for a hot second, I considered Purpled as Damian but alas, not enough Purpled content. If I were to project my own timeline of events upon the DSMP, Purpled would make a great Damian-esque match.

But that does not change the fact that Tommy as Red Hood has the best vibes.

No one else is quite as “doomed by the narrative and irreversibly changed yet somehow still painfully compassionate” in the same way Tommy and Jason are (also the “rejecting their father/brother but still loving them unconditionally). Their vibes are truly something.

I’m also very stern in my belief that c!Tommy should never kill because it would negatively impact his character development, but he very very easily could have gone the Red Hood route. By technicality, it’s more like Tommy as Robin 2, but I so dearly love the potential of villain! and anti-villain!Tommy. It’s such an underutilized concept. (Also I wrote a protege AU like way back and it makes me think of Red Hood now lol)

But originally, I flip-flopped between Fundy as Red Hood and Tommy as Nightwing, but I dunno. The logic was there but the vibes weren’t.

If we were considering a timeline of events, Tommy would make a great Robin 1 with Fundy as Robin 2 . Dick Grayson was the OG child hero, much like Tommy. He was angry and craved justice but he was also full of Light. Meanwhile, c!Fundy grew up in Tommy’s shadow.

However, Fundy also has that “if I can’t make them smile, I’ll make them cry” thing that Villain Dick Graysons also tend to have. Dick is always like four steps away from flipping a switch and becoming a supervillain. He tries so fucking hard to do good, but if he ever determines that “being good” isn’t enough to “do good,” he takes over the world. But Dick would also like step away from toxic energy by holing himself up in his apartment filled with depression, which is exactly what Fundy did.

Fundy and Dick are more “blood-soaked wet cats with strained smiles and bowling alley carpet polos” and Tommy and Jason are more “dramatic Greek tragedies.”

The Batgirls and adjacent female Bat vigilantes came to me immediately, but it’s not as long as the above.

Quackity as Barbara Gordon. He followed Wilbur filled with Hope and Justice. Quackity makes an excellent Batgirl 1. His Las Nevadas arc would then be Oracle but Lawful Evil and also completely isolated from any friends, family, or rational support. Quackity isn’t inherently bad. He still has good intentions, and he’s still good at heart, irregardless of how he portrays himself. He’s the classic femme fatale, including the whole sexist Hollywood “he needs a strong male love interest to take care of him” thing because he is absolutely spiraling on his own. Anyway, I am a fiancés shipper, so this would lead to a Birds of Prey-esque team up of LN and Kinoko.

Jack Manifold has Stephanie Brown’s “glitter bomb in the face” and “functions entirely on spite but also is just really tired of being hurt” energy. Jack isn’t quite Stephanie, but his dynamic with Tubbo made me consider him as Spoiler. Also consider: Jack and The Nuke being Steph’s Robin 4 arc.

Slime is so much like Batgirl-era Cassandra. There’s a lot of “innocent vs naive, manipulated by those with intentions, both evil and morally just” going on. Batgirl!Slime and RH!Tommy would have such a dynamic. I think about Fort Big a lot.

It is literally a crime that c!Jack Manifold and c!Slime never interacted in the DSMP.

Ranboo as Black Bat. I don’t know how to explain it, but Tim Drake and Cassandra have such a great dynamic (albeit one that I’m only familiar with in fanfics). I was originally going to say Ranboo as Orphan, but I don’t think he’s quite there. Maybe GhostBoo as Orphan.

Speaking of ghosts, GhostBur as Carrie Kelley’s Robin. He’s in the wrong places at the wrong times and (unknowingly) shoves himself in situations, and he’s got that unfair “why” going on during Doomsday. Unfortunately, GhostBur suffers from memory loss and is often willfully ignorant. I think in an AU space where’s he’s an actual character and not the echo of an idea, he’d make a great elseworld-type Robin.

c!Niki is a WLW revolutionary war veteran with a very close relationship with Wilbur. There’s more, but again, Vibes.

Now here’s where my hot takes truly lie: Philza as Ghostmaker and Eret as Talia.

We all like Dadza but c!Phil? Absolutely not a Dad. If you actually look at c!Phil without the rose-tinted lens of his content creator’s dad energy, c!Phil and Ghostmaker aere weirdly similar? I really don’t know how to explain it exactly, but I think that Phil would have brought Wilbur up as like this weird amalgamation of BTK-era Bruce, Phantom One, and Clownhunter, leading to Wilbur eventually being… not abandoned because Phil wanted Wilbur to have more independence… but struggling to make it on his own. Eventually, Wilbur would follow his parents’ (Mumza would be Martha AND Thomas) footsteps and become something that’s essentially the same but different. Like how Ghostmaker is basically Tynion’s Batman OC but somehow more edgy except Wilbur is in the opposite direction. Like how Martha and Thomas saved people through philanthropy and surgery and Bruce wanted to save people in his own way too. Phil and Kristen influenced Wilbur towards fighting crime… Also I could totally see c!Phil becoming a crime fighter as a fun and challenging art form rather than any genuine interest in being a good person. c!Phil’s got that immortal dilemma where he’s basically a sociopath running purely on an ingrained and steadily eroding moral code.

Now… Eret as Talia. Where do I begin? I love Talia. She’s such a badass but also she’s a kind person who believes in Bruce’s cause but she’s also extremely loyal to her father’s cause but she loves her family so much but she’s also a assassin princess but the world is against her and everything she is will only continue going downhill until she either becomes straight up evil or stands her ground. I love the characterization of Talia who chose to side with “the greater good” against the person she loves and more has to live with the burden of this decision for the rest of her life and continue to do what needs to be done even, for better or worse… Did I say Talia? I meant Eret. Wait, no, it’s both. That applies to both. Talia’s choice is betraying Bruce to aid her in running a global assassin cult and killing people. Eret’s choice is betraying his revolution to run a monarchy and enforcing taxes. Yes, the vibes are the same.

This has been my TED talk. Thank you for reading this far.

#personal #dsmp #batfam #too many characters to tag #dsmp au #dreamlessart

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inertflouride · 2 years

Text

Trap of Lies Part-25

This is a dark AU collaboration started by @x3kristax3 Viewer discretion is advised! It starts from here

TW: Heavy Violence.

MC's POV

"Tell your father to keep regard of his age and speak as much as his position allows him to or I can't guarantee his coming years to be filled with mirth", Alan threatens me, cracking his gloved knuckles as he does.

Jesus, does this man not infuriate my existence. If I had my way, I shan't have kept myself from snapping his neck, but I must keep my temper at bay for no good has ever come from it. I need to keep at this daunting task, however much it makes me tear my skin and itch at it. This is MY revenge, MY order of justice. I'll serve it as I wish to.

I keep my gaze from darkening at his looming yet empty threat and instead, pull a whimpering mask over myself.

"Alan, love, please stay at ease", I fawn my helplessness, "You can do whatever you wish to do with me but please, keep my parents away from it."

"Or what?", he grabs my chin, digging his nails in my cheeks, "You plan on fleeing to that bitch, Jake, now that he already took over my business?"

I put my hands on his chest, trying to calm his grip on my face and distance myself from him. Of course though, my mere act of self preservation ticks him off wrong and he pushes me hard backwards, making me trip and fall on my arse.

"Oh, so now you can't bear my touch too?", he scoffs and manically starts bellowing in laughter. I shall be lying if I said I wasn't scared, because I really was. I was terrified at the sight following before me.

Suddenly, he jerks towards me, taking advantage of my fallen state and kicks my side, hard. I feel air being knocked out of my lungs as he again makes contact of his foot with my body, this time my spine.

He picks me up and suddenly, a knife appears in his hand, which he strikes inside the left of my torso. I gasp from the sudden excruciating pain, making me grip the broken skin from bleeding the life out of me.

I can't die.

"You have to die, MC", he says cooly, "but not in my house. Your blood cannot seep into my house."

With that, he takes the knife out of me, making me fall down with a thud, sideways, my hand still gripping the stabbed part. He throws a rag over me, covering my body before throwing me over his horse and taking off god knows where.

Every gallop the horse takes makes me want to jump off it so the pain stops. It's too much. Just too much that I can't help but cry out a scream when the colt jumps over a puddle.

"One more word and I'll tie your feet to this horse's stirrup and drag you to the location", he hisses at me. I bite my tongue to keep every moan in as my insides churn.

Somebody needs to find me, and fast.

Anthony's POV

"Ow", I wince as a needle pricks into my shoeless feet, making me stagger towards the heap of concrete sand. As I make my way there, the loud stampede of an animal catches my ear. I look towards the source of the sound and see a horse with two people mounted on it, making their way towards my direction in a very hasteful manner.

I jump towards the side before getting under the stallion's feet and quickly try looking at the person riding it, but I am too late to notice their faces, their backs and saddle pad the only view I manage to catch. A bobby.

Dejected, I look down, my attention back to my aching foot when I see dark red blobs making the trail behind the horse. My eyes widen on their own accord, making me remember my own childhood trauma.

"Get on, Tony. We gotta reach the town centre for goods exchange", I hear Luke howling. I try to speak but the sound does not escape my lips. I try to turn and look back at Luke but my feet just gets stuck.

"Tony?", Luke asks, putting his hand on my shoulder and shaking me back to reality. When he sees my paled face, he grips both my shoulders comfortingly and squats, asking, "What happened? What's wrong?"

I know there's no point trying to talk so I simply point my little finger at the sight. Luke follows my direction and shocks paints his face too, though he handles it better than me. "Ok boy. We need to tell this to Leader" and takes my hand to rush to the Bar.

Phil's POV

I brush my hair into a neat ponytail and check my appearance once again in the mirror. The last time I felt this nervous was probably when I fled my stepfather's house as a 16 year old.

I, again, takeout my pocket watch for the umpteenth time and then take a look at my desk, unfolding the note again.

Phil, I need your help. Meet me at the town square at noon. Jess

It's been 5 years since my sister made any contacts with me. The last time we exchanged a word, she had sworn to sever everything between us. So, now that she has sent a word to me, it worries me green over what went down that has pushed her towards me.

"What have you gotten yourself in, Jessy?"

Jessy's POV

"Hello to you too, brother", I greet him, as politely as I can allow myself to, trying not to scoff over how, even after 5 years, my brother doesn't show any affection or longing or anything but asks me, in the plainest way possible. 'What have i gotten myself into?'

"I need your help to expose Angus Barnett", I return back the curtness.

"How do you expect me to do that?", he asks me.

"Well, I know you're with a wrong crowd, I know you have quite an influence in this area and I know you are engaged with the trading of drugs."

"How do you-", I am about to ask her when my gaze falls onto two frantic kids. "Excuse me, Jessy."

He moves towards them and the two kid's faces brighten up on seeing him, though a worried frown is still etched on the younger lad's face.

"Leader. Tony here saw blood blobs on the town's outskirts trailing behind a horse", the older kid tells him, his voice raspy.

"It was a bobby. Coming from the Chief's den", Tony chimes in.

"A bobby?", I can't help but shriek behind me. "Phil. We need to get there, right now."

"Huh? How does this bother you?"

"Because that's probably MC!"

"Ok. You need to tell me what's going on here, but first, we need to reach MC. Tony, you come with us. Luke, I need you to keep a watch on the bobby station and tell any suspicious activity to Daniel."

Phil's POV

"You are absolutely nuts, Jessica Hawkins! Oh no, my bad. Jessica Hallister", I shout at her over the loud galloping of our horses. "I know you care for MC, but you should not support her in her crazy rendezvous. What if Alan were to attack you both? How would you protect yourself?"

"Oh, hush Phil. I am no damsel in distress and neither is MC. To think we are both weak is a grave error on your chivalrous self. We are more adept than you would believe."

I am about to prove her wrong when Tony intercepts me, saying "That's the horse I saw. The same saddle pad", pointing his finger ahead.

I nod to Jessy and we both dismount the horse, as quietly as possible. Tony begins to descend too before I stop him. "Child, you go back. Take my horse and retreat back. We shall take it from here", I instruct him, handing him a few gold coins just in case. He takes them from me and nods, making his way back.

I move to tie the horse to a faraway tree, taking the gun out from the saddle pocket, before joining Jessy and making our way, sneakily, towards the horse, talking shelter behind the tall trees as we do.

I hear Jessy gasp, and jerkingly move my gaze over her line of vision, and does it not make my blood churn.

Alan drags MC by her hair towards the centre, a huge spot of blood colouring the torso area of her croset. Jessy makes a rush towards the scene, when I grab her by her arm and stop her. "We go in there and he'll kill MC if he hasn't already", I whisper shout at her.

MC struggles to free herself from his chainsaw hold, though to no avail. I squat towards a nearer tree and take cover behind it before aiming my gun on this coxcomb.

3, 2, 1

The snap of the gunshot fills the abandoned area, making crows kaw away in fear. We rush towards MC as Alan grips his shoulder, howling in pain.

Jessy goes and wraps MC in her arms, crying on seeing her friend in an almost dead state.

"This wench, Jessy! I knew she would cause some hurdles in my plans. I will kill you, you bloody-", Alan curses until I break his jaw with my punch, making blood splatter.

"You. Do. Not. Insult. My sister. In front of me, do you get it?", I get on him and say this, ending each words with a punch on his face, till his face turns plump and distorted.

"Phil", I hear a weak yet firm force call me and I immediately look back. "I need to handle this in my own way. Please."

I look at her for a while and then get off Alan, handing MC my gun. "End him."

She nods and takes her aim on his heart. "I wish that your afterlife is filled with so much pain, that you'll beg them to kill you until you realise that you're already dead."

She shoots one shot. Then two. Then three. And then, keeps firing until she empties the barrel of gun. After empty clicking the gun, she throws the gun over him and squats down, breaking down in the most gruesome way possible.

I leave them two alone, inspecting what to do with the body. I move towards Alan's horse, surprised at how it stayed motionless the whole time until I see.

"The horse is dead", I hear MC saying it behind me. "He killed it demonstrate how he plans to kill me."

I look at Alan's body and crook my brow, before saying, "We can't leave it here. We can't take it back. If it is not dealt with properly, it is bound to haunt your future."

"I have an idea", Jessy suggests, still rubbing MC's arm. "What if we bury Alan's body here-"

"No, Jessy. Have you lost it?"

"At least let me finish, brother", she spits the last word with anger, silencing me down. The way she said hurts me deep, and according to her, I deserve it. Whatever.

"So, as I was saying, we bury his body in here. But, we bury the horse's body over his."

MC and I look at her, bewildered, trying to make sense of what she said. After she notices no reaction from us, she goes to reexplain it.

"We dig a hole. A deep hole and throw Alan in there. Then, we cover his body with sand, so it is not visible and then bury the horse's body over it too. That way, if anyone were to search for his body and start digging in here, they find the horse's fossils and stop excavating this sight further."

I stay silent, mulling over it for a few seconds until I look up at her, and say,

"Sister. You're evil!"

#duskwood #duskwood jake #duskwood everbyte #duskwood game #duskwood fanfiction #duskwood fandom #duskwood jake x mc #duskwood jake x player #duskwood mc #everbyte duskwood #trap of lies #jake x mc

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