#this was mostly phobos' thoughts

[kastalani123]

Trials of Ares: TTC

(Mortal Ares in SoM/BotL)

Ares spends the time between SoM and TTC throwing himself into way too much training, trying to compensate for his weak body and newfound limits. Everyone, including those not too fond of him, keeps trying to get him to stop because it just lands him in the infirmary over and over again and they honestly think it's pathetic to see him constantly sporting bandages and bruises (he can't even get ambrosia/nectar-powered super-healing) in an attempt to regain his godly prowess, unattainable by a mortal. He does not comply with doctor's orders, because he has to be able to protect himself and his allies, you know? Or at least be capable of putting up a fight. It doesn't matter how beaten he gets so long as he stands back up until he is physically incapable of moving again.

Annabeth has gotten over her initial inklings of pity and now just feels pissed every time Lee comes to get her because Ares will not stop even though he's about to cause serious permanent damage to himself and she's the only one who can force him to stop without further harming him.

His kids are conflicted. On one hand, they get the need to constantly train and fight, the need to push as far beyond the limits of their bodies as they can manage. On the other... there's a crazed, glazed look in his eyes when blood and sweat pour down his face, as if he's not really seeing what's in front of him, and his battle screams seem tinged with hysteria. It's a little like he's unravelling at the seams, each forgotten memory and unfamiliar softness of his body sending him further and further into a frenzy.

He always seems normal enough when he cheers them on, though. Not any worse with his threats than any of his children. It's odd. They're not sure how to deal with their father, always shaking with rage, seemingly never aiming the brunt of that rage on them.

Anyways.

He goes to Westover Hall because, again, tied to Annabeth. Also, Chiron thinks it's a good idea to get him away from the arena. He doesn't think Ares's young, mortal fingers can handle being split any longer, they need a moment to build up calluses. So, off he goes. Sally worries over him, as moms do. He doesn't know what to do with it, because he wouldn't dare blow up at a mother, but he hardly knows how else to react to concern. He just. Freezes for most of the ride. Annabeth probably told him not to say anything stupid, anyways.

He tries to attack Thorn the moment he realizes he's a monster. He gets in a decent hit, but is quickly tossed aside and breaks a rib or two (and doesn't tell anyone; no revealing weaknesses here!).

His feelings about Annabeth's kidnapping are... odd. Externally he is, obviously, enraged, though seemingly because he lost the fight with Thorn more than anything else. He even laughs a bit, about how no one can boss him around anymore! But he's a bit more jumbled up inside; he's gotten annoyingly attached to the brat, and not being able to piss her off a bit because she's not there grates on him more than he expected.

Artemis's presence is met with mutual insults. Artemis digs at his weakness, probably roughs him up a bit in a small fight, but ultimately pays him little mind; Ares pulls out insults he doesn't particularly mean, just trying to piss her off despite not having his rage-bait-aura because he wants a fight, damn it, he needs to release all his rage despite his body aching, and who better to do it on than a direct connection to their Father? Suffice it to say, the Hunters really don't like him within like. Two minutes.

When Nico realizes that he's the Ares, he bombards him with questions; Ares blows up a bit, essentially telling the kid to back off, then goes to sulk and try and figure out his ribs. Bianca tries to follow him, because his fall really didn't look good, but he blows her off too. Both the Hunters and Percy tell the siblings to try and avoid him because he's not worth the effort. Bianca... decides to take this as a little challenge, later.

Apollo makes fun of Ares, commenting on his appearance and powerlessness and how mortality isn't all that bad, Apollo's gone through this punishment twice before, can Ares really not handle it? He probably also talks about sending Ares on some errands, now that he's mortal and has to listen to him. Thalia's too stressed to care, the Hunters laugh along, Percy feels complicated because it's essentially bullying but also he still doesn't like Ares all that much, and Grover and the di Angelo's feel bad for him because do you really need to beat down a kid who's already bruised and bloodied and fuming enough?

Ares is essentially considered an extension of Annabeth, and therefore brought along on the quest as a sixth at Chiron's request, despite Zoë's hatred of the idea. Maybe there's a mention of him in the prophecy, I'm not sure, but regardless, he's on the quest legitimately because he needs to help his master. On one hand, he despises this, because he hates being told what to do. On the other, it's once again a fight and a chance to regain his divinity. Though, honestly, a major reason for how determined he is about the quest is that his sister got taken and he does not take that well. It only get worse when he gets the same dream Percy did about Artemis holding up the sky because damn it, no one's allowed to touch his family. He has learned that trying to rush the quest doesn't end well for him, but he's definitely on edge, though he won't let anyone know why.

Bianca is very determined to find out, though. She's got that sibling need to dig into others' business, and though she's trying to distance herself from "babysitting" others, it's a bit hard when there's a brooding kid her age around. She decides it's still a form of rebellion, since everyone keeps telling her not to talk to him. She gets snappy at him, because he is uniquely talented at pissing people off, and they're both surprised when she fires back at him. They both like it, though, and start exchanging barbs; Ares likes having someone to fight who doesn't back down or get too annoyed/bored to continue, and Bianca is giddy with glee that she's being mean. Zoë is. Not supportive of this newfound friendship, but Bianca says she's keeping Ares in check and Ares will be damned if he lets go of his newest little sister-kid.

Bianca is kind of the start of Ares's character development. Most others will either refuse to engage with him or make him shut up/walk away before he gets to anything concrete. Bianca, filled with the pent-up rage of a parentified older sister, refuses, because this is something she's choosing to do for herself, in spite of what those around her say; even her joining the Hunt was prompted by others, but this is entirely her own. She drags genuine emotions from Ares's mouth like she's pulling teeth, gets him to admit that he's worried for Artemis, and repays it with her own concerns about Nico. They bond over being the self-designated "protectors" of the family and being determined to be eternally strong. Ares has already signed the gods damned adoption papers.

And then she dies.

Ares. Does not take this well. He decimates Talos with a godly power-up, desperate to find her; the others cannot pull him away until he does, crushed in metal and burned with electricity. He begs her to wake up but, of course, she doesn't, so he curses out Zeus and Thanatos: Zeus because he's the reason Ares is mortal and got attached; Thanatos because she should have gotten to be picked up by him and not his sisters, the Keres, and can Thanatos not repay his debt to Ares for the Sisyphus thing by being the one to take Bianca, at least?

This is the first time Percy sees through Ares's rage. He has no idea what to do with this, because he is a child and grieving Bianca himself; he decides to process Ares being an actual, multi-faceted person later, when they're not on a quest to save Annabeth and Artemis.

(Also! In his encounter with Aphrodite, he's caught off-guard by her expressing what seems to be genuine concern and feeling for Ares, especially when she tells him to pass on her love and that she misses him, along with a dog tag and a Polaroid picture of her with four young men. He does not, initially, caught up in the quest and digesting their conversation. He will backtrack and correct this later)

Grover also finally manages to get through the stench of rage constantly surrounding Ares and finds the softer grief and worry. He tries to take Bianca's spot of trying to get Ares to talk things through, but after his teeth are almost knocked out, he decides Ares needs a bit of space first. It can wait at least until they get back to the safety of Camp. He's not letting up after the quest is done, though, he vows.

Hoover Dam calms him a little, when they start exchanging little facts about it. He complains about Annabeth ranting about it so much that even he absorbed the knowledge, but is actually grateful for the distraction. He's pissed in a jealous way that Zeus answers Thalia's prayer, though. He doubts he'd ever get that much attention from their Father, and it's fine, really. He doesn't care. Why would he care about familial validation? He hasn't had it in millennia, there's nothing to it. He's fine.

He absolutely freaks out about Bessie. He's also baffled Percy isn't smitten on the spot. He almost kills Bessie himself, in fear of anyone else getting to him first, but lets him be taken to Camp instead.

He totally has a panic attack about the lightning that strikes their car. Thalia realizes something is off, but they don't have the time to deal with it at the moment, so she brushes it off.

Percy and Thalia have to physically hold Ares back from attacking Atlas when he sees Artemis holding the sky and Annabeth gagged. Atlas orders Annabeth to command Ares to not attack him; he's not too concerned about Ares attacking him, especially as a mortal, but it's always one less pest to deal with. She complies.

So he goes for the sky.

I know Percabeth's shared grey streaks are iconic, but Ares is the one who takes the sky from Artemis here. She tries to refuse, because he's mortal, he will die, and regardless of his hated status, she does not want to watch him die, in the end. Ares yells at her, that just because he's mortal doesn't mean he can't handle this, he's still the god of war and her older brother whether she likes it or not. Begrudgingly, he adds that they both know he can't currently rival Atlas in power, but she can, with her trickery. She defeated the Aloadae when he couldn't, so she better give him the sky right now and go fight.

She does.

It is like the pain of all the soldiers he has ever led to war has decided to explode across his body.

(And yes, he is still dealing with previous injuries he has not gotten treated. It's very fun for him. He totally develops chronic pain and adjacent ailments throughout the books, if he wasn't sent down to Earth already with them)

He collapses almost the moment Atlas takes the sky back. The demigods have to help him get up and over to Artemis and Zoë, and Artemis has a bit of panic over who to be more worried about, but Ares makes her shift her focus to Zoë because he's fine, really.

He's not dying, at least.

She does turn her attention on him after Zoë's turned into stars, and finally someone realizes he's been injured for a bit. She yells at him about knowing his limits and not hiding his weak spots from allies because they need to know about them so they can cover for them, then does what she can to heal him up a bit before heading to Olympus. This is the first time in the story that she calls him "brother" in a genuine way, though. It takes away from the worried rage that's been keeping him from passing out and he just. Deflates and drops from exhaustion and pain.

(Fight with Atlas)

He sleeps through the winter solstice meeting. Maybe Zeus keeps him as such, to keep the other Olympians from thinking of him too much; he doesn't want him returned yet, and if Ares shows up in front of everyone right then, the others might argue. So, he sleeps; Apollo probably squirrelled him away to his infirmary or something along those lines.

Once they're back at Camp, Ares finally taking a bit of a break to heal up, Percy passes on the message from Aphrodite, and the dog tag and photo. Ares immediately puts the dog tag chain on and tucks it beneath his shirt; it's the most precious one of his collection, with a curly Harmonia engraved on it, atypical as the format is. The photo, he almost crushes in his grip as he stares at it, before pocketing it with a gruff thank you. After this quest, the TLT trio grows a bit more patience with him, and he ever-so-slowly softens his aggression; there's still a long journey ahead of them, but the trio can now admit some fondness for him, and he stops arguing about everything they say and do.

Ares goes with Percy to talk to Nico but it doesn't change much; honestly, it might make it worse, because, mortal as he is, Ares is a god, he is meant to be powerful enough to protect those around him if he wishes to, so clearly he didn't want to save Bianca. Ares is kind of devastated by Nico running away, because he was hoping he could look after him for Bianca, similar to Percy, but Nico wants absolutely nothing to do with him. He swears he will find him, though, and make up for Bianca's death.

[wolfsplosion]

to the surprise of nobody

[amor-godess-of-love]

Headcanons for Jonathan Crane adopting a black cat

@jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear you didn't thought that little story was all you will get, you get full request package🧡.

Headcanons for Jonathan Crane adopting a black cat:

• We all know that Jonathan is mostly a bird person, but he also has soft spot for all kinds of animals. This love reaches back to his childhood in Georgia, where farm animals were his only friends.

• It's not a strange sight to leave food for strays of Gotham when he is out to feed of his beloved corvids.

• Until one night, he is slowly going back to his safehouse, when his attention is caught by his beloved corvids that seems to alarm him to something. When he approches the box his friends surrounds, he finds a decay box with a little black kitten inside.

• Poor thing was alone and definitely sick. He knows crows are opportunistic, so he isn't suprise to find some bleeding talon marks on the small kitten. He knows to well how painful this can be.

• The Kitten reminds him of how scared, hurt and alone like he was as a child. Beside by the state of box, it's clear this kitten was out here for a while. He could guess why no one took him in. "Black cats bring bad luck" his ass. He knows even more how does it feel to be an outcast. So next thing this kitten knows is fact he is carried and wrap in Jonathan's warm scarf.

•Inside his safehouse first order of business is cleaning that little ball of fur and tending to it's wounds. He also gives his crows a stern talking about treating they new guest well.

• That night Jonathan falls asleep around the little fluff ball, making sure it will make it through a night. Since he does kinda feel responsible for it, since his crows did attack it.

• Next morning it becomes clear that little kitten is malnourished and requires special attention. So Jonathan begrudgingly decides to call Catwoman. Luckily for him the moment he mentions a "A sick abondom kitten he took", Selina is already half-way to his safehouse.

• With Selina help he manages to bring the little buddy back to health. With a fallow up visits to Selina house to make sure that everything is ok, as well for more advice how to take care of the little fur ball.

• During that time it's clear Jonathan bonded with a adorable thing. So did his flock. He catch more often then not his crows cuddling with the kitten as well as playing with it. The little thing became stable during his reading out loud sessions, snuggling in his lap as he reads.

•Jonathan decides to keep Phobos, as he named it, it's now part of the flock. He builds a special cat house for it and buys all kinds of toys.

• Phobia proofs to be quite intelligent kitty. Picking up on fact his crows bring him little trinkets from they daily flights. So it starts to being back to Jonathan small things it hunted for him: a mouse, rat, big spider, pigeon , frog....etc . Jonathan does enjoy this gifts in equal way he enjoys his crows trinkets. He often uses the dead animals to test his victim reactions to having such corpses drop in they lap.

• The kitten is spoiled rotten, just like his crows. Best brand of cat food, groom every two days, scratches whenever it wants, daily playtime.

• He also makes sure that just as his crows are feed when he is away or back in Arkham, Phobos is also feed well and still taken care off. The photos of Phobos snuggling with the flock or of it trying to gloom the birds always brightens Jonathan day while in Arkham.

• Ofcourse him getting a pet is a big deal for his friends. For first weeks, after Photos get's better he has many visitors who want to meet the new addition to his flock:

-When Edward first visited, Phobos wasn't big fan of the smell of motor oil that cling to him. The fur ball just hiss and paw at him, causing Edward to whine and throw a fit. But it's clear Phobos does like him, as it always fallows him around when he visits.

-Jervis fallen in love at first side, giving the little kitten nickname of "Cheshire" for obvious reasons. He just couldn't stop petting the cutte little fur ball and with each visit would bring new homemade treats for it.

-Ofcourse Harley couldn't be left out. The moment she heard that Jonathan adopted a kitten she just had to see it with her own eyes. She brought a lot of all kinds of toys for the little thing and spent hours just cuddling it. Seems Phobos found her ponytails to be excellent toy. At first Jonathan try to apologise to Harley and scold the cat. But Harley found it absolutely cute and let's Phonos just play with her hair as she cuddles him.

-Selina stayed in contact. Apparently she found the man that abondom Phobos and "took care of him". Jonathan often brought Phobia to Selina to let it socialise with her clowder of cats. She even proposed to adopt the little thing, but it was clear Phobos already bonded with the flock. She still send Jonathan tips from time to time.

• Phobos turn out to be very loyal cat, always coming back whenever he leaves for adventure, usually with some kind of prey for Jonathan. He also always jumps into Jonathan's laps when he feels his owner is upset. Jonathan couldn't ask for better cat, specially after that one time Phobos sratch Batman in the face. He got a lot of yummy treats that day. To him Phobos brought only luck since he show up in his life.

Hoped you like it ^^

With dedication to my own fur ball

[fagonstar]

First Mouthwashing fanart! :3 I thought it'd be fun to do a lil crossover AU thing with my OC Phobos. Phobos is a shapeshifter, so here it is pretending to be Anya. lol

For fun, here's some actual differences!

Anya has normal eyes, Phobos' eyes are uncanny(which is why I drew them in a different style).

Anya has normal facial features, Phobos only has eyes and sometimes a mouth.

Anya has normal skin, Phobos' "skin" is more akin to porcelain.

Anya has dark hair, Phobos' hair is always pitch black.

In terms of personality, Anya is genuinely kind, empathetic, compassionate, funny, and competitive. She seems to lean towards the freeze and fawn responses.

Phobos could technically be described as empathetic, because it does have a good understanding of human emotions and is adept at reading them. However, it has no compassion or kindness whatsoever. It's mostly emotionless, and doesn't care how much emotional distress it inflicts onto it's victims.

[neurotic-naga]

WIP log 01.30.25

Hello! It's been a while. I am back to starting projects and then forgetting about them a couple weeks later.

A while back, I bought this organizer to use for work, purely because it reminded me of Phobos LOL. I had been meaning to make a small painting to use as a dashboard/cover inside of it, but never found any time. Recent personnel changes at my job and a bout of sickness have left me with a sudden excess of time, so I thought I'd try to make something at last.

Here is what the organizer currently looks like. It is just holding a flyleaf, random keepsakes, and work notes. Boring. Not fruity or evil enough.

Beyond this, I don't really know. I'm mostly just playing it by ear at this point. It feels silly to make plans just to be fucked over by work obligations a week later. You might not see me until next January, for all we know. ㄟ( ▔, ▔ )ㄏ But I hope to stick around for a bit longer.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[duckapus]

SMG4: *standing in the middle of a scene of fire and chaos, presumably created by Mario* You know, one day I'm gonna stop being surprised by shit like this.

SMG4: And on that day the Circle of Stupidity will be complete.

---

Emulator: Are you crazy?

Trixie: Legally, no. There's not a word for my condition.

---

Luigi: This is horrible! This is the most humiliating thing to ever happen to me!

Mario: Oh? More humiliating than-

Luigi: We are not doing this!

---

(after Eldritch Old Man Yaoi actually happens. also one of these characters won't make sense until my latest ask to Effi goes through)

Phobos: Would you like to talk about your feelings, Juliano?

Juliano, mostly resigned with a hint of contempt: Not anymore, no.

Black Doom: I would.

Phobos: I know, Doom.

Black Doom: I am sad.

Phobos: I know, Doom.

---

Ash: I once let Litten drink the bathtub water while I was in it.

Arceus: ONCE AGAIN, KIND OF WEIRD, BUT NOT A SIN.

---

Dapple: I am working on this Good Guy thing, but anyone who cuts me in like at Starbucks deserves to have their kneecaps shot out, okay?

---

Bob: Act tough, Tari.

Tari: But I'm not tough.

Bob: That's why I said act.

---

Manifest: Sir, I thought you might want me in the office, given the circumstances.

CPU: How do you know about the circumstances? I just got the report.

Manifest: It's my job to know everything, sir.

---

Nimbus: We'll meet here tomorrow, as the sun casts its last shadow upon the earth and the crescent moon has risen above the eastern ridge.

Tune: So... 'round Nine o'clock?

Nimbus: *deflating slightly* Yes, Tune, we'll meet up at nine.

---

SMG4: Coding, can you pass the salt?

Lil Coding: Sure.

Lil Coding: *throws Toad at him*

---

Timmy: Irene, are you there?

Irene: Physically, yes. Mentally is debatable.

[krchar]

Some thoughts on Himerish and Trial of the Oracle

Ok so it's weird that I hardly post anything and now I go with this, but these thoughts are for some reason so pressing to me these days! And this feels like the right space.

tldr: i love 4th arc, I like Himerish's development, but after rereading last week I have some surprising ambivalence about how his warrior identity goes with his previously implied nature - or at least to my view of the character - happy to know anyone's thoughts on that!

Firstly I want to state that I love the stories, and mostly the first 4 arcs! This is just a thought on one character development...

So I belong among the fans of 4th arc, definitely, and I think that most people who have some soft spot for Himerish/Oracle, started to feel so throughout this arc (although I know some did before it was cool!). I always loved that story, that he was confronted with such a downfall, the dramatic almost mythical story of regaining his identity is so awesome, i liked that he cooperated with the guardians as a person, that he realized he was too removed from the world after all the time...

Last week I got this sudden fanfic inspiration (it's cringe, but I struggle to be creative for years, so my 7 pages are a huge cheery win!) and so I reread the story... and it's so great, but I have some odd feelings about some parts..

I think it is mostly about him being a warrior.

So. The first notion that felt off was in the issues from his coming to earth to the fight of Phobos + Cedric, when I suddenly felt like what is his almost never leaving resting bitchface? There are some really nice mentor moments, but most of the time he seems strangely annoyed without specific reason. Now in the previous arcs, he was not very popular, for he was indeed a terrible pr*ck, intentionally in arc 3, possibly intentionally in the previous ones ( but i don't know that, his behaviour always seemed to be somehow explained or something, even if the reader didnt have to buy it..) but what i did like was his serenity and at times his appearance of a lightness of heart that calmed everyone.. (that is, in moments when he wasn't a pr*ck) suddenly here Himerish is a dynamic warrior, always angry fighting etc etc - like he was serene and wise only because he was an oracle and it was his function, and not that he was chosen to be an oracle, because he was such in his nature in the first place, which i would like much better.

But! In the flashback with Endarno, that is, to my mind, exactly what Endarno implies! H. is a fighter in a war here and E. saves his life saying he senses a great power in H. and that he should act on it - then in the following flashbacks it's like H. went and became a cool martial arts master... and it just feels sort of... why...

(note: i presume that the flashbacks went in this order, bc E. calls Himerish "young asha (tribe name)")

my problem may be that I am not as much into warrior trope, as Im into powerful spiritual being trope... and also im probably too much of a hippie

But the first flashback actually looks like there would be more beyond! Endarno literally goes against his own commander, as H. is from the enemy tribe and is a captive to be executed. And it is said that E. already had doubts, even though he was a great warrior, bc his boss was very cruel, but it is meeting Himerish that gives him the final motivation to stand against the meaningless bloodshed! Implying that H. has definitely a hippie vibe... and H. also gives this impression, bc he's so serene and passive when they aim to kill him (although that may be some basiliadian feature dunno..) but.. then he goes to be just a better fighter.. like don't they have any other kind of spiritual power in Basiliade than becoming a cool warrior??

I mean, I liked Orube-Luba flashbacks very much, where Luba was the wise warrior mentor and it was cool. But we don't get anything like that with Himerish, right? He's just shown to have been really cool at fighting. Yarr is just really crazy about him as his former master, as if he was truly a different kind of being, but there is no word then about him being also a spiritual mentor.. maybe it is just not shown, but then - why not?

when i saw the first flashback, i sort of thought it would have been better, if H. was actually a hippie in his heart - maybe even against the custom of Basiliade. He said E. helped him a lot - so couldn't it be that this young guy who fights like everyone else does, then realizes he could just stop doing that and work out his inner spirit and power that has the nature of peace and connection, instead of fighting? I really really doubt that the Kandrakar council would have gone like - this guy is cool with sword, let's make him oracle. He must have had some other power before and I'm kind of sorry that they didn't work with it somehow... I'm also not so much into his warrior attire hehe

Now to go a full circle, I associate this type of wisdom actually with his nice and light-hearted mode and not so much with angry fighter mode.. he was angry before when something bad happened to Kandrakar, but that was different, then when he couldnt admit his mistakes, that was foreshadowing of his downfall, but his fighting mode was just so strange to me.. what's with the sword, do some magic and restore the peace of Kandrakar after your return, bc the peace and stability and light powers are your nature and not just your politcal function..

then again i admit that while i didn't like much what they did to his character in the following arcs, i could understand his departure.. so the described reason seemed like all his change was to nothing, for he again just didnt listen to anyone despite his former promises, but i could see another reason in line with arc 4, and that is actually his change, he became too human (or whatever species he is) and maybe it was even difficult for him to return to the position - bc this is literally shown at the end of arc 4 when he's contemplating before being reinstated.. and i like that.. cause im kinda very much into spiritual beings becoming human tropes.. or like generally emotionally repressed people rediscovering life..

Well, I get that some people really like warrior trope, so no hate, fandom is a free space yeah! Anyway, these were my thoughts, Im impressed you scrolled this deep, thank you! Tell me your thoughts on this pls Im happy to find more people to discuss witch to an unhealthy level! As a bonus, my two favourite memes/fanarts about H.'s earthly clothes:

(source: https://tuherrus.tumblr.com/post/189587505767/oookay-heres-a-witch-art-dump-im-gonna)

(source: https://www.deviantart.com/rukietta89/art/Shopping-with-Orube-97101177)

EDIT: ok i posted this like half an hour ago, but i got a sudden feeling that i was not entirely fair, so i want to say that i also feel that his conective and calming spirit shows up in those really nice mentor moments towards the guardians, although that doesn't go really against my original interpretation/headcanon - he was a confused young boy with a talent, now he's a mature, more steady guy with a talent, regaining understanding of life in 4th arc, which, ideally, would make him even more sensitive and calming, and that would be cool

[fantomette22]

And here’s a bloodborne crows headcanons drawing no one ask for!

Yeah I headcanons that some characters used to have some pet crows but it’s mostly a references for my fic verse too.

So I don’t have names for all the crows but I have a couple of ideas already. If you have ideas too pls share I’m listening.

Let’s begin with Cainhurst! 🛡️

📚🦉Ok Beltran from the cut content! Not sure he’s still alive during old hunters time but basically I imagined he was the (first?) crow master of Cainhurst.

🐦‍⬛⚔️Vledemyr my oc, my fav cainhurst knight! The current crow master. (Maria & Annalise’s cousin too) He was the one in charged of them before he become captain of the royal guard, he actually have lots of them (and they all love him a lot) but his very first crow is Corvus, the crow on his shoulder.

👑🕊️Ok so Annalise was offered an Albino crow, because she’s the princess and future Queen you see. *Check notes* hm Yuki is a possible name but idk either smt Japanese or slavic who mean snow or fit with cainhurst aesthetic idk.

👑🐦‍⬛ Ah Charles (oc based on the cainhurst portrait too, king consort when Annalise was Queen). So when he marry her and was crowned he was offered a baby leucistic crow (that’s why it’s brown, it’s a loose of melanine like albinism bur not complete the the eyes aren’t red or the skin pink for exemple), he was so confused about it like you can see XD probably except a hound or smt (in his dream he would have wish for a lion but there’s no lions at Cainhurst since like 60+ years or smt)

🐦‍⬛🌕🐦‍⬛Maria have 2-3 crows (the ones at the research hall you know 😢 minus the one with the guidance rune that belong to Ludwig like you can see) As for the names I was hesitating between Hugin & Munin (Odin’s crows) or Phobos & Deimos (Mars’moon) for the 2 crows siblings (well I hc Maria study astronomy so… heheh also her third one is the one German is holding x) yeah missing a leg I know. Ok also after Maria passed away the crows escape from the research hall and freak Gehrman out! They wanted to say to him hello or called his named and because crows can mimics sound and voices they took Maria’s voice 💀 he thought he was going crazy for a few mins before he found them… but really it annoyed more Laurence XD the crows really went to harass him (they know what’s up. Or didn’t take well he put them in cages or smt, or you know because of Maria. It got to the point Laurence almost wanted them dead 💀

Fortunately Gehrman managed to made them go with the very first official hunter of hunter, he passed to him the mercy blade as well.

🐥Ah Voron my boy! Aka future bloody crow🩸🐦‍⬛ (No I am not detailing the entire backstory here! And yes his name means raven/crow I KNOW!) also the red of the cap don’t appear much sorry… thanks the scan.

✨+Svetta another Cainhurst oc based the painting with her crow, Voron mom yes. Vledemyr is his dad.

👁️I managed to put Micolash & Edgar on the page XD

💣🔥 Ah this one well when we first got into the hunter nightmare there’s a hunter before a gate right? Behind there’s a crow and I noticed the crow attacked the beasts but the hunter and the bird never attacked each other (only the hunter or beast) that’s why I now headcanons that many old hunters had crows too like this one.

🗡️🌕Ludwig & his crow with the guidance rune. One day the old hunters found many dead crows in the forest, not a good sign… Ludwig managed to recover a baby crow an care for it (he was so panicked at first he asked Maria for help so many times XD)

🐦‍⬛Eileen and some crows & the very first official hunter of hunters! (Before her)

🐦‍⬛The friendly crow of hemwick on the top left :3 I hc it’s either the crow bloody crow had or one link with Eileen or either my own hunter.

As for the other names I had in mind : Hrafn, Karasu, Branagan (I think I’m keeping this one as the name of the first crow hunter too)

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

Now, you’re gonna ask me why didn’t I just named one « Kuro » (black color in Japanese) well, I’m keeping it for the horses’ names of Cainhurst!!!!

[doom-nerdo-666]

While TDA seems like a very fantastic game, i wonder if DE will still be "definitive" to some because of the presentation of "the expanded Doom universe".

Since you have UAC Mars/Phobos, Earth, Hell, Urdak and Argent Dnur while TDA doesn't have some of those but has at least the Cosmic Realm.

Even the Slayer's arsenal in DE is a mix of different worlds (UAC tech with the Plasma Rifle having a classic inspired design, Sentinel stuff like the Ballista and SSG, Urdak's Unmaykr and the Hellish Cultist Rocket Launcher).

Honestly, each Doom game has its own set of features and stuff, it's why there's no perfect of "ultimate" Doom game.

Because each game focuses on something totally new and risky, so "more good" can come with "more flaws".

Because focusing on a "less bad" method means less chance of innovation.

Even if you make a "Doom Eternal 2", i like to think there's a lot of new ideas to justify it (you can see them in the "idea" tag) and those means that a DE2 can still have flaws.

A pure "perfect, no flaws" Doom game could at least be some fanservice based spin-off due to the lack of "REAL NEW STUFF" and the focus on reusing ideas and throwbacks.

I did have some ideas on how to mix different Doom games to make what i thought is "definitive" for Doom.

Combat is like classic Doom where enemies are "married" to level design but the occasional Buff Totems can make them have the mobility they have in 2016/DE

Armor is mostly like classic Doom but a specific armor pickup makes it like 2016/DE where it acts like a second health bar

Berserk starts off as it works in 2016/DE but after a while, it does the classic thing where your fists are just slightly stronger and last that way until the level ends

Haste allows Quake 1 style weapon swap

Blursphere allows you to stealth through enemies, like Quake's Ring of Shadows

Chainsaw can instakill for ammo but without fuel, it behaves like the classic

Weapon mod drones have specific weapon mods instead of a menu where you choose the mod

Inventory is like 2016 where your hand interrupts main fire, then the Equip Launcher is an upgrade

Armor/health bonuses act like the classic ones but maybe Soulsphere/Mega armor increase the default 100 value to 200.

Arch-viles and Summoners coexist: One resurrects demons from corpses and has the classic fire pillar attack, the other borrows the summoning, teleporting and some other attacks from the DE Archie (since DE Archies are like upgraded Summoners anyway)

Former humans carry shotguns/chainguns/rifles etc and drop them after death, then there's the "Plasma Rifle guy" who acts similar to the 2016/DE Soldier/Blaster but with a Plasma Rifle

BFG9000 has the Q2 style tendril system used in 2016/DE, the "front hitscan tracer" from classic and a charge mechanic where you can make the projectile deal more damage before it fires at the cost of ammo (vaguely inspired by the D3 BFG)

Lots of the art direction revolves around being cherrypicking and decisive over specific elements through the series like mixing old and new designs or trying to focus on "representation" a lot

There can be "additional weapons/inventory" but they occupy specific slots like subweapons in Castlevania, since they're just there for fun.

Because i came up with this bloated game that will never exist but it's just a fanfiction of a game after all

And speaking of both my fake game and the idea of "picking the best parts of each Doom", i hype up Kinsie's MetaDoom and even tried explaining its references and how it works, to demonstrate the genius of mixing these games in such a series.

ALSO ONE MORE THING.

Maybe one way TDA and D3 can be compared is how they have this gimmick that either affects the pace or at least is centered around a specific object.

TDA has the shield (very versatile, looks fun, i like that it's like a boomerang) and D3 has the lantern (controversial though it IS part of the vision (inb4 "lol you said vision get it because the game is super dark") and later versions of the game that changed it also fuck up a lot of things).

This means if the shield is exclusive to TDA, then the lantern is exclusive to D3.

So a D3 sequel should have its own other gimmicks.

I thought of this "slow tactical" game where you can still be creative with a variety of tools.

Like you're using deployable turrets, holograms, wall shield, kinetic mines etc.

You could use the Blursphere to act invisible and stealth through enemies.

An inventory that stores items or even power ups.

Hexen and/or sandbox style level design.

I wrote most ideas here.

[lostsoulau-ask]

an ask for Doctor!! wanting to know if the detailed designs around the hem of your outfit mean anything in particular?

Doctor: Ah yes~ The symbols on my coat are quite... outdated, but if you oh so wish~

The eyes are the typical symbol for the Dark Matters, with the coat imbued with some of the matter they are quite...useful~

As for the horns and the cresent moon, they were mostly thought to be the representation of a figure similar to the ...'Angel of Darkness' ( or simply called 'Zero') and yet ever so different~

We have some epithet for this being, the most common ones being 'The Angelof Fear' or more simply put 'Phobos'.

As for the gloves, i decided to change them recently but as you can perhaps guess, the Butterfly is meant to represant the Blue monarch~

As for the color red...it can be seen as quite a lot of things~ the sientific aproach is that Mirror Dark Matters' tails are red instead of Orange, it perhaps means something deeper as well, who know~

@kirbyoctournament

[askmadcomcrew]

What're everyone's general thoughts on bandits?

Hank: Hardly worth killing. Boring. Unprotected and unskilled. Can sometimes be annoying on long outings in Somewhere, they like to nick your stuff when you're sleeping.

Sanford: I trust a bandit as far as I can throw 'em. If you ask me? No mercy for any bandits, even if they offer ya safe passage in exchange for food or money. They're all cannibals and they're just waiting for the chance to catch you off guard so they can swarm you and then make dinner out of you.

Deimos: Annoying little twerps, mostly. Honestly not sure how they even survive, eating literal garbage all the time. Nothin' grows out in the Outskirts, so they're living off zeds mostly, I guess. I also know they eat other people, and that's enough for me to not feel bad about shootin' 'em.

Doc: Roaming bandit tribes, as well as the more settled ones, are primarily formed by former residents of Nexus City. The ones who survived the fall, after deciding that killing each other wasn't worth the hassle, decided to form their own communities in the ruins of the city, where they were allowed to exist without being killed by what remained of the Core or MERC. Most have taken to cannibalism to suit their food needs, as food is scarce in the Outskirts, and most of what was edible was given to their MAG Bandit. For some reason they became obsessed with having the MAG Bandit grow larger and larger through excess food, even if it meant starving themselves. A strange, but interesting lot.

Dr. Christoff: Bandits are little more than ruffians and scoundrels, always looking for their next meal, or whatever's in your pockets. Some of them act nice, if they don't already know you, and will attempt to barter. I've met the handful of reputable bandits, ones who will do honest trade for supplies. I've also met plenty who would rather kill and steal from you, as well as feast on your corpse. I've personally watched a pack of Bandits descend on a would-be traveler, killing them quickly with sharpened scrap metal, and then using those same tools to gut, skin, and de-bone them for easier consumption.

Tricky: THEY TASTE AWFUL!! HARDLY ANY MEAT!!! ALL SKIN N' BONES!!! WHAT MEAT THEY GOT IS ALL STRINGY AND TOUGH 'CUZ MOST OF 'EM ARE EMACIATED!!! THEY SPEND TOO MUCH TIME GIVING ALL THEIR FOOD TO THAT STUPID MAG!!! BUNCHA IDIOTS IF YOU ASK ME!!!

Sheriff: Bandits're 'n odd sort, no one tribe of 'em operates the same as the others. The ones in the city don't bother us none, most 'a the time anyway. Had a few of their ranks join ours from time t' time. We don't discriminate here at MERC, we don't care where ya came from or who y' used to be. If yer willin' to chip in, and do honest work fer honest pay, we'll have ya. Most of 'em keep their distance tho, they know the more rowdy they get, the more likely they are fer one of our snipers t' put 'em down.

Crackpot: Oh, them? A lot of bandits are who ended up joining my religious sect after the fall of the city, some of them come down to the sewers and stumble upon our humble home down here. Some of them attack, thinking my men are easy prey, and are quickly sacrificed to the buoyant ones. Some have a little more sense and reason, and with a bit of coercion, have joined our ranks. But typically they just end up getting picked off by the zeds we have guarding our establishments. A sort of self solving problem, if you would.

Phobos: Bandits? Is that what became of the people of my glorious city? After that damned Christoff condemned it to ruination? No matter, the civilians of Nexus City were little more than a nicety. I could care less what they've evolved or devolved into.

Auditor: Bandits are a routine source of trouble for Agency outposts around Nexus City. They commonly launch raids on our bases, or attack Agency caravans with the intent of stealing and eating whatever or whomever they can. Most of the time routine patrols and guards can take care of them, but occasionally they are successful in their pursuits. They are little more than a nuisance, but one to remain vigilant for all the same.

[cheese-ducks]

Lord Phobos lore headcanons

His culture doesn't have last names, so his full title is Lord Phobos of Mars (yes, that Mars)

His father's name is Ariars(mix of Ares and Mars), his mother's name is Venera (Venus in Russian), and his twin brother's name is Deimos

He hated royal training and often skipped classes to teach himself guitar

Despite no one thinking he was qualified, he was next in line for the throne (It drove Deimos crazy)

He used sign language and a text to speech voice to communicate during the vow of silence. The text to speech voice was later implanted in his vocal cords (it's the Phobos voice we know today)

He has a close bond with Meouch mostly because he was the first person he ever met that actually liked music. He felt seen and like there was nothing wrong with him. He nearly fainted when Meouch complimented his guitar solos.

He asked Sung to give him human colored hands and to put his text to speech voice in his vocal cords, which took more cybernetics than Sung thought. 

The cybernetics messed up his memories which led him to believe he was a fully robotic replica of 'Phobos 1'

This led to the drastic change in personality we see between Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 (the sleeping, the lack of inhibition, the sarcasm, the dumbassness)

With the help of his band mates he eventually regained his memories but continued to go by Phobos 2 and Phibbis because he thought the whole ordeal was funny in retrospect

[fallofcyber]

Eighth Doctor Reviews: The Eighth Doctor Adventures; Series One

In honor of me re-listening to the first series of the 8DAs and it being rereleased as a box set I'm going to be giving a little review.

I mostly listen to this at work, and jot down notes and the like pretty quickly.

Also if you are interested in this series it is one of the few that is free on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/704B1LamEbU2wNPDmfwLQ8

Doctor: The Eighth Doctor

Companion: Lucie Miller

#1&2: Blood of the Daleks

Blood of the Daleks is an absolutely amazing start to this range. Quickly introducing a new companion, showing the state that 8 is in and giving us one of the best Dalek stories that Big Finish have ever done.

Lets talk about Lucie Miller, I absolutely love Lucie Miller. She instantly endears herself to the listener, and her 'antagonistic' relationship with 8 is, "Chef's Kiss". She has that Rose Tyler energy but without the melodrama of season 2. In short Lucie kicks ass.

This is a great jumping on point for anyone at all interested in the 8th doctor and has seen the new series. This was made for people who were watching Doctor Who in the RTD era.

This story has that super interesting contrast between two factions of Daleks that I loved in Remembrance of the Daleks. Also Hayley Atwell (Yes Agent Carter) plays the villain in this and is just killing it.

I really recommend this story, It's free and just one of the most amazing places to start.

fun quotes:

"More Beans please" - The Eighth Doctor

"FISH AND CHIPS FOR ALL!" - The Eighth Doctor

Rating 9/10

#3: The Horror of Glam Rock

A just fine adventure set in the 70s. The name is a cool play off the Horror of Fang Rock. I love the Glam Rock/Bowie vibes of the music. Bernard Cribbins plays an asshole music agent, and it is super weird to hear Wilf shit talk people. We get to meet Lucie's aunt Pat who seems super cool. I love that even though we can't meet Lucie's family in the modern day we get to understand her more through her connections.

The monster in this one is kind of lame, and the constant whining of Tommy Tomorrow is exhausting

Rating 7.5/10

#4: Immortal Beloved

Now this one is super interesting, an extremely Shakespearian story. It's very obviously taking a lot from Romeo and Juliet. I'm not sure why but this one really spoke to me, I love the fusion of Greek mythology and future technology. The whole twist of the piece is also super engaging from a moral standpoint. Also the guy who played Winston Churchill in NewWho plays the antagonist Zeus and is delightfully evil, like really despicable.

Rating 8.5/10

#5: Phobos

This listen through is actually my first time listening to Phobos, I skipped it on my first listen through of the 8DAs season one. I just hate this story and it's the only one I might actually call bad. It's the least fun kind of goofy and follows a far too Scooby Doo type plot for Doctor Who. I do like the idea of this world being a travel destination for thrill seekers to visit, that was a cool bit of world building.

Rating 6/10

#6: No More Lies

When I first listened to this one I thought I had skipped something because of the fact that it starts en media res, but it really works in this story. Zimmerman is a really interesting character. I'm always happy to see a time loop when they pop up. The vortisaurs from Storm Warning reappear and are always a lovely bit of world building for 8. Also the song sung in Hungarian is just wonderfully haunting,

Rating 8/10

#7&8 Human Resources

We finally get some resolution to the mystery of Lucie set up in Blood of the Daleks. The concept of what the company they work at is so fucking cool, like absolutely *chef's kiss*. I always love when the Doctor is thrown into a mundane situation and him roleplaying as a big shot office worker is so fun. Lucie and Karen also have a very funny dynamic. We also get the full introduction of the character of the Headhunter who has been trying to track Lucie down through the whole season. I always love when the Cybermen are handled well and this one does some great things with them. There are so many twists and turns in this one that I simply cannot spoil, but I am in love with this story. Also fuck Straxus, all my homies hate Straxus.

Rating 9/10

Overall this season struggles in some places, but for the low low price of free on Spotify I cannot recommend it enough. Lucie and 8 have an electric dynamic, and this season is tailor made to get NewWho fans into both the 8th Doctor and Big Finish in general, and the two two parters that feature the Cybermen and the Daleks present themselves as real standouts of the whole set.

[eccentric-nucleus]

here's a chunk of text i wrote for hell game 2 that i'm debating the canonicity of. i will probably tweak some of the implications. this is, surprisingly, not pornographic.

There's an Abomination here: a collection of organic parts, mostly bone and muscle and chitin, formed into something approximating the locomotion framework of a particularly large hyena-wolf. Fruiting bodies sprout from across its back in white-blue tendrils. Its head is the most directly analogous: a cage of rotted bone, worn away into irregular, asymmetrical pits, each of which opens into a glowing yellow eye, half ruptured and oozing ichor down its face. Below that, there's an articulated mandible -- a jaw -- that yawns open, a mess of fat tentacles spilling out like frothy tongues. That's an accommodation to human foibles; they don't need a centralized sensory locus the way humans do. But humans like having something to look at when they talk to someone.

This isn't a Hell thing; these were on the station before the disaster. {SWITCH %PC.startSpecies: human -> It's a little comforting to see someone familiar. You think you had a work-shift with this one, maybe. / ai -> ... }

ABOMINATION: Ah. {= %PC.name}. What's your sitrep?

-> Bad.

----

Abominations were originally conceived as an information extraction/torture device during the Third Martian Conflict. When Phobos was deorbited at the height of the war, hotlabs on the moon had their habitats ruptured during the impact, and the first generation of Abomination spores circulated free within the Martian atmosphere, eventually obtaining complete biosphere dominance. Abomination bioframes still present many theming elements drawn from Martian flora and fauna that were absorbed during their initial rampancy.

The initial assumption was that Abominations were mere grey goo: some kind of insensate matter reprocessing virus, specifically targeted to extract and store information from neural tissue they consumed. That may or may not have been their original design; historical records are thin on account of their origin hotlab having crashed into another planet and then subjected to several decades of Abomination-dominant biosphere.

In the aftermath of the war and the total loss of Mars, the interplanetary community was at odds for what to do with the Abomination incursion. A human -- or anything we would consider 'a living thing' -- existing in shared atmosphere with an Abomination fruiting body would be incapacitated within minutes, and kept alive but in excruciating pain as they were slowly flensed apart and had all their biomatter repurposed for the use of the local hive network for the next several weeks. It was a form of life inherently designed for use as a biological weapon. Even if they were, unexpectedly, sentient and capable of communication, it was a form of life that seemed impossible to live alongside. Abomination communicated among themselves with spore signals and mycorrhizal webs. Imagine if your eyes killed anyone you saw, and your voice had the force of a bomb.

Any official {UN; united federation of planets; w/e} response was preempted by the release of the first-phase Abomination antigen in the Martian atmosphere. The antigen bound to the spore network and disrupted fungal signals, effectively sterilizing their inter-body communication and utterly destroying the emerging hive network. At the time, though controversial, this was heralded as a huge step towards interspecies coordination. It made them 'safe', incapable of accidentally devouring everything their thoughts turned to. Once it became clear it was impractical from scientific, biological, and political to remove the antigen, several different strains were prototyped, allowing Abominations some level of hive connection without rising to a dangerous (to humans) threshold.

That was the state of things for nearly two hundred years, until contact was made with an unaltered hive trapped in Martian orbit since the Phobos deorbiting. Careful study and synthesis between the Abominations in orbit and a crew of rebel scientists, most Abominations themselves, lead to the development of a Human tolerogen gene therapy. The human staff of the research group voluntarily inoculated them, allowing them to inhabit the same space as Abominations without either species being in danger of being eaten alive or having all their senses burned out of them.

This was, in a very real sense, an existential threat to humanity. Altering the Abominations by cutting off their eyes and hands was one thing, if it was needed to keep humanity pure. Altering humans to make them compatible with the Abomination hive-networks meant that on a deep, biological level, humans who went through the process were no longer humans. They expressed different biological markers in all forms, from egg to death. To call the widespread use of the tolerogen gene therapy politically contentious would be understating things enormously.

The initial gene therapy altered and amended human biological processes sufficiently to make them capable of rudimentary integration to the Abomination hive-network. Incidence of development of psychic powers from access to Abomination communication flows rate at 0.013% of human population converted, and are a source of quiet humor to Abominations, where even the most 'psychically-active' human is very much like a toddler constantly polluting their network with uncontrolled, unexamined babble.

Large amounts of study have been put towards plant & animal bioengeering; altered humans are mostly-inert receptors, but Abominations still have a tendency to strip biospheres bare to reinterpret and process all foreign materials. As collective humanity makes its first steps out of the solar system, a source of hot debate is that our combined biosphere is intensely aggressive to any life lacking very specific biomarkers. Ecological contamination from space exploration has always been a concern, but once a majority of humanity began harboring a specifically-engineered consuming biovirus the topic became more contentious.

In much the same way human habitation is defined by a certain pressure level and gas mix, it's becoming increasingly clear that in the future the expansion of the human bionetwork will involve highly specific signalling chemicals, as much a part of the spread of collective humanity as gut flora and skin mites. What is a biosphere, if not a collection of process that attempt to choke out competing ones on contact? Collective humanity's is just considerably better at it than most.

Unaltered flora and fauna have been limited to preserves that inevitably decline in size yearly, given the impossibility of sharing atmospheres without fear of cross-contamination. The latest issue, as of {year marker; current day basically}, is the fundamental extirpation of all life not tailored in some sense for coexistence with collective humanity. It represents, perhaps, a new stage in existence, one where all biological processes that exist throughout the solar system only exist by the consent of bioengineers who have specifically designed them to work. The ending of nature, or, perhaps, the unleashing of a new kind of nature. Evolution still happens within the spore network, after all.

That a lot of them decided to look like giant nightmarish wolf-things is a joke. Humanity domesticated the wolf, after all.

anyway, you can fuck it.

[princess-of-the-corner]

W.I.T.C.H. reboot

After Narissa is pulled into the Seal

Phobos on stage: “And so dawns a new era, The Age of Phobos!”

*Crowd goes wild*

Phobos*walks off stage to the guardians: “Alright now how do we get my sister and the old hags out of this thing?”

“He didn’t double cross us?” Will exe. has stopped working

YEAH NO BASICALLY

We have like. Two options for what happens here.

Either we go right to Phobos just handing the Seal over to Will, who is VERY fucking confused but hey the fight is over with three episodes to spare! (unless I drag out the plot)

Or we have him start to do that, only for Cedric to..... uh. Yeah he. He sure did do that in the cartoon. But now Cedric is the new threat for the last few episodes.

Really it mostly depends on what I want to do with Cedric in the long run. I know the comics give him some sort of redemption arc(?). So could go either way.

(Though ending the fight early does mean we don't get the Guardians going into the primal element form thing which I always thought was dope as hell).

[thoselethalarts]

ℙ𝕙𝕠𝕓𝕠𝕤 𝔹𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕣 - ℙ𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕠𝕟𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕪

(SSR) Birthday Suit Up (Part 3): “Happy Birthday!”

(Ignihyde Dorm: Birthday Venue)

“Have you heard from your family?”

Phobos: Family? Well… no. Not that I have anyone to hear from, anyway.

“What do you mean?”

Phobos: I don’t have any family. Not anyone I’m still in touch with, anyway. Phobos: I haven’t had anyone like that in my life for… maybe around four or five years now.

“Oh… my condolences.”

Phobos: It’s fine. I’m not bothered by it. It’s a natural question to ask, anyway.

“Could you tell us about what your family was like?”

Phobos: Hm… Well, the only person I think I’d ever be able to call my family was my previous “caretaker”, as it were.

Phobos: His name was Theodore Banner. A twenty-something that adopted me when my parents were no longer in the picture. Phobos: He was a typical guy. Worked and lost multiple dead-end jobs, ordered lots of takeout, played video games and watched mind-numbing amounts of TV, cycled through girlfriends faster than he changed socks. You get the drift. Phobos: I lived with him in his apartment through my youth. He was kind of annoying, all things considered. Fed me almost the same thing every day, these bland and soggy meals from a can… Would never let me eat the same thing he did. Phobos: He gave me this stupid little nickname, too… ugh. The first thing I did after I left was leave that behind. Phobos: I resented him for all that… still do to some degree. But he wasn’t a bad person, I guess. Just annoying.

“What happened to him?”

Phobos: Well… let’s just say that when my magic first started to develop, he got a little too excited about it. Phobos: He thought my powers were astounding, and all he wanted to parade me around like some kind of show pony to all his friends and fickle lovers. It was humiliating. Phobos: Not to mention even though I was then seemingly more attractive to him as a newfound magical being, he still refused to change my meals to something better. Can you believe that shit? Phobos: When I realized I was strong enough and smart enough to take care of myself and live on my own… I decided it was time to cut ties with him. Phobos: So that’s what I did. I cut my ties with him. Phobos: Since then I’ve been bouncing from place to place, finding little niches of my own. Phobos: Everyone I tell that to thinks it’s a depressing way to live, but honestly I’m quite content. Living in one place for too long makes me feel too trapped and confined. Phobos: Moving around feels good. It feels freeing. For now I’m here at NRC, and I live in the dorms, but when I graduate I’ll just keep moving unless I find something worthwhile to make a home.

“Do you have any plans for the future?”

Phobos: Work on building my brand online and finding some stable customers, mostly. Phobos: There’s a big market out there for my current career. People want people like me, that will do the dirty work for them with no questions asked and money up front. All I have to do is get my name out in the right circles and I’ll be set. Phobos: Other than that, I’m just going to keep living the way I’ve been living: taking it day by day and seeing where life takes me.

“Thank you for your time, and happy birthday again!”

/ End