#unreal artifact

[fortunaestalta]

[therobotmonster]

"Doctor Martin, why are you an atheist?"

Director Maria Kleinheart wasn't the sort of person who asked indirect or idle questions. She was in every way a Kleinheart, the spitting image of her grandmother. Only she wasn't staring out from a yellowed ad in a back issue of Popular Science or Woman's Day, she was staring from across desk made of polished slate.

Emil Martin didn't respond immediately. That sort of question usually came with an invitation to services or a badgering about Pascal's wager. That didn't fit what he knew about the director, though that wasn't much. An intense religious conversion would explain the rumors around her distance from the rest of her family.

"Director, is this a personal or work related question?" Emil finally asked.

"Work." She replied.

"Is that appropriate?"

"Yes. This is about security clearances."

That made even less sense. Emil decided to risk a lecture on his eternal soul and answered truthfully. "Pretty standard, insufficient evidence."

"Would you rather it be true?" She asked. "Would it be comforting to know you existed for a purpose, that someone was in charge of your existence, caring for you?"

"Not really." Emil replied. "I'm rather Hitchenisan in that regard."

"Good enough. Follow me."

-

"BE NOT AFRAID."

The words seemed to come out of the air itself. The thing was at the center of the large, expansive lab that had once been a missile silo. It was a sphere, surrounded by two rings of brass-like metal. The rings were lined with hemispherical semi-translucent white glass or crystal protrusions. The inner ring spun slowly, as did the central core, though only the faintest irregularities in its glowing blue-white corona revealed that motion.

The outer ring was held in place with steel chains, each link six inches in diameter. Two chains locked the ring to the floor, while a third latched the top to the ceiling. The cuffs the chains connected to seemed to have been welded shut around it.

"BE NOT AFRAID." It 'spoke' again. Its voice was clear and musical, but wrong and artificial at the same time. It sounded like familiar voices; his mother and father, his cousins, his old school pals, his boyfriends, even Director Kleinheart, each synthesized poorly via an AI speech simulator, all speaking in perfect time.

Every time it spoke, Emil smelled his grandfather's sweet cornbread fresh from the oven.

"That looks like an angel." He finally gasped.

"Looks like." Director Kleinheart smiled. He wasn't sure she could do that. "I knew we picked the right man."

"This is why you were asking about my beliefs?"

"Yes Doctor Martin. You see, freedom of religion is an extension of the principle of innocence until proven guilty. Once one faith is shown to be correct, all others are revealed as wrong."

"And you wanted to make sure I, what, wasn't guilty of being wrong?"

"No, the mistaken are innocent of everything except the actions they directly take." Kleinheart continued. "It's the ones who would take this to mean they were right that are fifth columnists to an unaccountable alien power."

"Oh." Emil replied. He didn't know quite what else to say.

"I want you on our team that's studying it. We need to know how it works, what it's made of, what those things its made of can be used for, you know the drill."

"BE NOT AFRAID." Again came the smell of cornbread.

"Are the restraints necessary?" Emil asked. "It is telling us we don't need to be afraid of it."

"Oh, we thought that too at first." The director said. "But we've already learned quite a bit about our little intruder here, even a bit of its 'source code' for lack of a better analogue. That message isn't meant for us."

"What is it then?"

"Can't you guess, Doctor?"

Dr. Emil Martin shrugged. "I have no idea."

"It isn't giving us a warning."

Director Kleinheart smiled for the second time in Emil's memory and spoke again.

"It's repeating its orders."

[outersyourwilds]

Posted the comic on twitter and I am Feeling It (positive)

I feel lightheaded

[secretlyavastavatar]

@thechieflibrarian I think we found one of your Leitners, cuz one of my underlings read a book cuz he was bored...and now we have random-ass doors to nowhere showing up and trying to eat people all over the warehouse. Nothing's eaten anyone YET, but with these idiots it's only a matter of time before they start throwing artifacts through to see what happens.

I have NOT had enough caffeine to deal with this today....

[jam2go]

DOF but instead of getting blurry it gets more jpeg

(lower crust factor)

I had to find ways to fake jpeg compression artifacts to get this running in real time in Unreal Engine. Instead of doing the whole "Discrete cosine transform" step, i just blurred the image in 8x8 chunks. + some downsampling of the color channels.

[basra-of-the-crows]

[It takes a moment, before Basra comes barreling in with what could questionably be called a fish tank. How they got it down into the archives in the first place was a mystery, but it seemed quite small, it would probably fit Gerry in it, just barely by its dimensions. But it was filled with water, and seemed better than having to be on the archive floor]

“HI HELLO IM SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG-“ [Basra wheezes, clearly out of breath] “I- I got the fish tank. Don’t worry, you’ll fit… should open up once you’re in it…“

[once they’ve had a chance to catch their breath, Basra reaches into their bag, pulling out a large bag of kelp]

“Food. I think. It might be treated with salt so I don’t know if you’re supposed to wash it before you eat it but it should work on short notice-“

“A mer??? Okay, chill finally something I have some experience with. I’m coming over with a (fish) tank, are you okay with waiting for a bit? Obtaining it might take a second- also I don’t know if you’re okay with fish, so I’ve got some dried kelp to make sure you don’t starve if your dietary needs have been changed.“ - @basra-of-the-crows

[blubs that sound like “please do”]

[eldragon-x]

Game recommendations for In Stars And Time fans

There's only four of them but honestly I think each one of these is good enough of an excuse to recommend it to ISAT fans. All of these are more or less in order of how much I recommend them from most to least.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity (Nintendo 3DS)

I am a huge PMD fan, being as it's a largely story-based spinoff where you yourself play as a Pokemon. And I believe fellow ISAT fans would get the most out of this entry of the series.

Gates has the strongest cast of characters in the series and largely deals with themes of nihilism, hope, the importance of community, and how negativity can consume you. The core cast of characters develops a very lovely dynamic and go through compelling character arcs.

Heads up, as much as I adore this game, it has the most frustrating gameplay out of the spinoff between limited Starter Pokemon choices, being only able to take one mission per in-game day, and unskippable slow dialogue. Watching a playthrough instead of playing the game yourself is a valid way of getting into it.

Additionally, the game deals with suicidality. This also applies to parts of the other PMD game on this list, but it's especially present in GTI's main story.

The Dark Queen of Mortholme (free on itch.io)

The creator of TDQoM describes it as an "anti game". You play as the final boss, a Queen who considers herself eternal and is challenged by the Hero over and over again.

This game is very short (maybe ~20 minutes for one run) and has a few bittersweet endings depending on how you engage with and fare against the Hero. I believe this one might appeal to ISAT fans for its themes about change and in how the Hero always comes back in a gameplay loop, stubbornly trying to defeat the Queen over and over again.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (Nintendo DS)

First of all physical copies of this game are expensive so consider emulation. Or getting Explorers of Time/Darkness instead, just know that Sky has additional story elements.

That aside, Explorers is the most popular entry in the PMD series for good reason. I don't think the cast is as strong as Gates', but I agree with the sentiment that the game has one of the best stories that has come out of Pokemon.

The premise you're presented with is that time all over the world is starting to freeze because artifacts that keep time flowing in different places are being stolen, which would lead to a frozen paralyzed world. But the plot gets a lot deeper at a certain point, and the situation becomes a lot more tragic than previously anticipated.

Detective Beebo: Night at the Mansion (free on itch.io)

Honestly I'm mostly putting this at the bottom of the list because I played this just recently, have yet to see all endings, and don't have very strong feelings about it at this point. That being said, it is a free game, just six hours long, offers several endings, and I've seen several ISAT fans fall in love with it. I def think you'll find something of value here if you like ISAT.

The premise is that you're playing as a private detective, Oliver Beebo, who was invited to a party at a mansion. Oliver seems to be trapped in a timeloop, first triggered when the party's host kills him, but Oliver has no recollection of the previous loops.

He gains a companion in Àngel, who does remember the loops, and both of them try to investigate the purpose of this party and why the loops are happening.

Heads up for child murder, as well as unreality and unsettling imagery/scopophobia at later points in the game. There's also endings that contain suicide and body horror.

[adamanteine]

thinking deeply about reworking her vampire verse and the concept of a mermaid verse is also in my head so ramblings under cut 🤠

so for vampire verse…… there was a movie made by an iranian producer that paralleled the life a vampire to the west instead of the east and suggests the unreality of life in a western world driven by a capitalist drive for profit, drifting from any moral basis and then the movie "a girl walks home alone at night" that challenges orientalist binarism and when analyzed it was said that the trick of both movies is to make the vampiric taking of blood seem preferable to capitalist creation of human misery and both feature vampires who not only drink blood but ALSO seem to drink up virtually any artifact that comes along in their quest to feed an insatiable culture lust and i thought that was so interesting. it also suggests, in a sort of reverse orientalism, a binary opposition between the “authentic” world of iran and the world of the west and these movies actually concern themselves with the cross cultural concerns btw the middle east and the west.

it also shows culture as the embodiment of capitalist decadence— even if their capitalist cities seem to be emblems of postmodern decadence and decay in general. BUT the containment and purification of femme sexuality is displayed in this specific group of films as well and when you look up the genre of horror and think about the monstrous feminine, the films challenge the pure/monstrous dichotomy set up by society and in the iranian moves, the characters have the veil in common, employed differently in both films as a way to explore the “shocking” and “abject” of the femme body in two very different societies. the notion of hybridity and the in-between explored in both films becomes an important way to reject and problematise these polarisations and those are things i’m looking into paralleling into this verse

speaking of shams specifically in this verse….. so there are no actual vampires in the middle east or iran but in iranian folktales theres a character that ppl call pat matar that is comparable to the strigoi and is more of a shapeshifter than a vampire but the thing about her is that she makes victims willingly offer their blood before she kills them and then collecting their memories 👁️ the victims are also found smiling with no wounds and just a drop of blood on their lips and ppl have compared her to the nezāneh (which is another shapeshifting ghoul) so i can connect those two and reworking her verse a little to make it fit since i want to focus on middle eastern gothic a bit more

ON TO THE MERMAID VERSE…… in "julnar the sea-born and her son king badr basim of persia" it was said that mermaids enchant sailors with their songs. but those who follow these mesmerizing melodies often find themselves unwittingly led to peril 😼 and in persian folklore, the mermaid is known as the maneli, or the peri derya’ee. the latter transliterates to the "fairy of the river". in medieval manuscripts, the mermaid was often depicted with wings. but, unlike british folklore, where sirens are evil, the peri derya’ee was believed to be a good omen, like all other peri's in persian legends. they also believe that capturing a mermaid brings good luck and that pearls are formed from the tears of the merfolk SO i’m having visions and you will be hearing about this 🫵

[cavelloshatterstar]

DWC Day 6: Negative & Relic

When an artist creates it is a labor, By no means does it compare to the act of giving birth, But it is an effort that gives life and can be painful. Labor itself implies the struggle, the effort, and the ordeal. Creation begs the question always if those labors are worth the cost. In a vacuum with no one to experience that art? Is expression in medium worth the process? Is the conversation begged by the work even a conversation without another? To answer… I would argue that what a blank canvas is to me; Is the first step of a dance. In the Negative space, I see the worlds beyond a captured image, For years and years pages filled with unfinished, unrealized labors of my creation gathered, Unshared, irrelevant, and forgotten, All relics of a time before I had anything to say. All a sketched and discarded history of what I fought with and abandoned. And yet for all my toil and disappointment in those cast off images, They tell a story. Not a narrative anyone can truly follow, There are too many winding studies and chaotic explorations, Experiments dropped in half formed figures or abstract interpretations, Lost shapes and ideas that even I cannot recall the point of… But a story emerges none the less. From coffee stained parchment, Ink and charcoal stained thoughts aborted in their infancy, The unpolished armatures and skeletons of what could have been; but never was, We are all a work in progress, Rough hairy lines and pages rubbed raw from attempts to correct, One perfect gesture but without the catharsis of completion. It is easy to accept all this as failure, That the efforts the labor, the conversation, is in vain, When they never see the journey that came before in those hidden sketchbooks, When you discount the value of that untold story, Life is a messy imperfect experience, We are brought into it screaming and wailing and often in chaos, And far too many are left behind like those artifacts of struggling creation. Left without the means to express the self. Too many of us abandon the journey before it even begins. Too many accept the surrender of ourselves before we even try. Don't allow the labors of creation to destroy the drive to attempt them, Fail a thousand times over to produce the first word, step, stroke, or note… Because even if you can't make yourself known, You left a mark. You took the step. You left something there. Even if no one else sees it, even if no one else understands what you meant, You created something real, because it came from you. The only way one can truly fail to be an artist, is to never try in the first place. Go make something. I promise it is worth the effort.

@daily-writing-challenge

[weirdmorefics]

Hi! Can I send in a request for being another timelord who travels with the 9th doctor and Rose Tyler being like a sister figure to Y/N?

A/N- Yes yes yes!!! I have actually had an idea for something like this just hadn't written it yet.

Readers Pronouns- She/Her

Word Count- 3.9k

Summary- (BASED ON S1 E6) The Doctor and Rose find themselves in a bunker in Utah full of alien artifacts. They are shocked to find some of these artifacts are alive and not here of their own free will. You just so happen to be one of these artifacts.

The Slightly Behind Timelord

I used to keep track of how many days I'd been chained and experimented on but the days quickly turned into months and the months turned to years. I've long since lost hope of ever returning to Gallifrey. It was in shambles when I was last home, the war was constant. I was a coward and stole my parent's Tardis to escape from having to fight. A stupid coward who didn't check if it was in working condition to only have crashed and ended up imprisoned by a man who I know as Mr. Van Statten. I should have stayed and fought then at least I would have died with dignity.

I have refused to talk since my arrival. I may have betrayed Gallifrey by fleeing but I refuse to make things worse than they already are there. Nevertheless, Mr. Van Statten comes and talks to me every single day asking about about my ship. They have dissected the TARDIS piece by piece. I secretly hope it burns them alive. When Mr. Van Statten inevitably gets nothing out of me he sends in a man an orange suit to torture it out of me. It never works but they do not stop.

Today was different they had a new man with them, he was restrained and they strapped him to the walls like me. I wonder if this was a new torture strategy.

"Look here we got you a friend maybe now you will do some talking," Van Statten says cheerfully.

I look at the man with pity knowing they are going to torture him as well. Van Statten's men unchain me and drag me to the other side of the room. I don't even fight them anymore I don't have the energy to spare.

Van Statten powers up his inhumane X-ray and says, "Smile!"

The man screams in pain as the red beam scans him and Van Statten smiles in glee at the results.

"Two hearts! A binary vascular system! Here I thought you were special," he shouts a glare in my direction and the man chained up widens his eyes.

The man doesn't look at Van Statten but puts his focus on me, "Where are you from?"

"No point in talking to her she hasn't spoken since we tore her from the rubble of her ship. She put up quite the fight when we started dissembling her ship screaming you are killing her. Then not a single word," he sighs in disappointment shaking his head at me. "I would get rid of her now that I have you but I need more information about the ship."

I suck in a breath they kill without care here, I wonder if everyone on this planet is like that. The man chained is certainly not from here maybe he can get me out. However, he is looking at me like I am unreal so perhaps not.

If looks could kill Van Statten would certainly be dead from this man's fiery gaze, "You're not a collector you're a scavenger."

"This technology has been falling to earth for centuries I am simply just making use of it. Oh the advances I've made from alien junk you have no idea, Doctor," he grins but I quickly interrupt.

I gasp, "The Doctor! Has Gallifrey won the war! How are you here?"

Van Satten's grin turns to a full-blown smile, "First you make the Dalek talk now my longest surviving exhibit! You truly are something!"

"there- there is uh... a Dalek here," I whisper afraid to speak their name.

The Doctor looks at me eyes full of guilt and astonishment, he still looks at me as if I am not here.

"Thank you again Doctor so much for getting her to talk keep her talking for me why don't you? Since you all seem so scared of said Dalek, I think I will go back and try to have a word with it. I find fear is the best motivator to get people spending, " Van Statten is practically glowing with joy and I wish I could smack the joy right off.

The Doctor wrestles with his chains trying to break free, "You can't go in there with it! Now that it knows that I am here it will come looking for me! No one on this planet will be safe!"

His screams fill me with fear if I could throw up right now I would but they hardly ever feed me so there is nothing to throw up so I end up hyperventilating. Mr. Van Statten ends up shocking the Doctor and his angry words are replaced with painful screams.

I struggle against my chains screaming at the top of my lungs, "He tells the truth! You don't stand a chance against the Daleks! The war lasted centuries on Gallifrey here you will be lucky to last day!"

Van Statten looks at me in awe, "Wow full sentences maybe you will prove useful after all these years."

Nothing I say to this psychotic man will ever get into that thick skull of his, I would facepalm if my hands weren't shackled to the wall.

Alarms sound and angry red lights flash, my heart sinks, it's to late.

The Doctor's tone shifts from begging to demanding, "Release me if you want to live."

Van Statten quickly makes work of the chains holding the Doctor down and runs for the door.

The Doctor points to me, "Forgetting someone?"

Van Statten waves him off, "We haven't the time!"

"You need all the information you can get on Daleks, let her out now!" he shouts leaving no room for questions and Van Statten quickly does the command.

My legs feel like jelly as we run into the elevator I can't remember the last time I've walked unchained let alone run. I felt so out of place, especially in a ratty hospital gown.

"You have to keep it caged," he shouts to Van Statten's lackeys.

"Doctor it's all my fault," a blonde says apologetically on the screen.

A guard informs us that he has sealed off the exits and the lock as a million combos no way the thing's getting out. I shake my head at his idiocy I just hope this blonde girl is also a timelord, the more the better.

"Daleks are genius they can figure out a billion combinations in ten seconds flat." The Doctor informs.

The Dalek quickly figures out how to exit the moment I see it on the screen I cover my mouth in horror.

"Don't shoot I want it unharmed!" Van Statten shouts.

"Are you that dense! You would rather a whole planet die than lose a collection piece!" I shout at the man who held me captive for years and swing a punch at his face which earns me the pleasant crunch noise from his nose.

two guards pull me away from him as I smile for the first time in ages. The Doctor doesn't seem to notice the commotion shouting for the blonde whose name is apparently Rose to run.

I look back to the screen to see the Dalek destroying the screen connection. I feared the sucker would go right through the screen and appear before me like a Weeping Angel. I stumbled backward but the guards just tugged harder to keep me in place. I groaned in response to the uncomfortable position.

The Doctor's head whipped in the direction of the noise in high alert, "let her go! You are focused on the wrong alien here!"

The guards look to Van Statten for his approval, "She's got one hell of a right hook, I'll give her that... drop her.

The guards took this a little too literally and dropped me directly on my ass, as the others make their way to the computer.

"Oh my god, it's draining the whole power supply," the woman with us gasped.

"It's not just the energy it's the whole internet, it knows everything," The Doctor states.

"Cameras in the vault our down," the woman relays.

"It's going to absorb everything," I sigh

"We have to kill it now!" The Doctor shouts.

We watch soldiers die again and again through the surveillance cameras. It's Gallifrey all over again I can't escape it, but maybe I can help this time instead of running away.

"Tell them to stop shooting!" Van Statten says but I am seriously praying this is a very cruel joke.

"But it's killing them!" The woman shouted back.

"They're dispensable that Dalek is unique. I don't want a single scratch on it!" he shouts to the lifeless soldiers.

I clench my fists, "You are asking me to hurt you! You are putting lives over a killer," I shout getting in his face his guards instantly stand up preparing for me to strike him again which probably wasn't far off thinking.

"He's an idiot we need to focus," The Doctor interrupts and I return my gaze to the map as they discuss alien weapons.

"There has to be a way to keep it alive, maybe we trap it down there-"

The Doctor cuts him off, "Leaving everyone trapped with it? Rose is down there. I won't let that happen, have you got that?"

That seems to shut Van Statten up for once thank god.

"Who is Rose? Is she from Gallifrey? Did you two come here to stop the last Dalek? Does that mean Gallifrey is safe again?" I ramble many questions at once.

"Doesn't talk for years now you don't shut up," he glares at me like this whole situation is somehow my fault.

The Doctor frowns, "Leave her be Statten." He ignores my questions and tells them to arm all the soldiers with alien weapons it's the only way to beat it. Then he directs the soldiers on how to kill a Dalek always aim for the eye the soldiers shut him down.

"I can't help but think everyone on this planet is insanely dense," I sigh.

The doctor smirks, " There are some good humans out there, you wouldn't know being stuck here with these imbeciles."

Van Statten's glare burns into The Doctor I feel the heat of the glare just from the proximity.

"We have visuals again," the woman informs and all of our eyes dart to the computer.

"It wants us to see," The Doctor growled.

We all stare in shock as the Dalek uses the sprinklers to electrocute and kill all the soldiers at once.

"Perhaps we should consider a different strategy like abandoning the place," Van Statten nervously stumbles over his words. I had never seen him like this he always seemed confident when torturing me. If this were any other situation I would be overjoyed to see him like this. I wish I was the one to make him feel like this, not the Dalek.

The woman glares at him, "Except there's no power to the helipad, sir."

"You said we could seal the vault," The Doctor interrupts their glaring showdown.

"There's not enough power!" she shouts.

"There's emergency power we could redirect it to the bulkhead door," The Doctor defends.

"It would take a computer genius to get through the security codes!" The woman says frustrated.

"Good thing you got me," Mr. Van Statten smiles.

"You wanna help?" The Doctor asks shocked.

"No there is no way he wants to help! It is physically impossible he has no empathy. This has to be a trick!" I shout.

"It's not out of empathy, I don't want to die as simple as that. This could have been avoided if you talked in the first place. I would have known what it was capable of years ago." He shouts back at me.

The camera turns back on and the Dalek's voice fills the room, "I shall only speak to the doctor."

"You are gonna get rusty," he responds to the Dalek who still getting soaked by the sprinkler system.

"I don't think now is a great time for jokes Doctor," I whisper.

"I fed off the DNA of Rose Tyler. Extrapolating the biomass of a time-traveler regenerated me," the Dalek speaks.

"What's your next trick," the Doctor rolls his eyes.

"I have been searching for the Daleks," it responds.

"Yeah, I saw downloading the entire internet. What did you see?" He saunters around the table.

"I searched your radio signals and telescopes," it responds.

I anxiously pick at the scabs already forming from when I punched Satten. What will happen if this Dalek happens to find more Daleks? What if he isn't the last one.

The Doctor seems completely unphased, "and find anything?"

"Nothing, Where shall I get my order from now!" It screams loudly.

"Nothing but a solider without any commands," the Doctor teases.

I look at him in shock he can't possibly think it's a good thing to rile up at a Dalek more.

"Then I shall follow my primary order, the Dalek instinct to conquer and destroy," it responds.

"What for! What's the point!" The Doctor shouts his facade slipping. "Don't you see everything is gone, everything you stood for."

"Then what should I do?" The Dalek actually seemed to have an emotion other than hatred. Many emotions. I would have felt bad for it if not for all they have done against Gallifrey.

"Alright, then. If you want orders follow this one. Kill yourself," the doctor responds coldly.

I look up at him with wide eyes this is not the Doctor they spoke of on Gallifrey the mischievous one who was too smart for his own good. This Doctor was cold and harsh with his words.

"The Daleks must live on," the Dalek shouts in a familiar rage that all Daleks have.

"The Daleks have failed! Why don't you finish the job and make the Daleks extinct! Rid the universe of your filth! Why don't you just die, " The Doctor shouts back such cruel words that I am worried that the Dalek will retaliate immediately.

"You would make a good Dalek," it responds and I think I have officially heard the worst insult anyone could make toward a Gallifreyian.

I put my hand on the Doctor's arm, " I am so sorry."

The Doctor does not look at me he looks broken but yells to Statten, "Seal the vaults!"

"She's still down there," the woman whispers to the doctor.

He calls Rose on his phone to get updates on her location he cares so much about this Rose she has to be a Time Lady like me. I can't imagine the Doctor having much time to visit other planets after the war.

He relays to her that he can't stop the gate from closing she has to run. He waits as long as he can and apologizes before shutting the vault. He frantically asks if she made it but his face quickly sets into a deep frown.

He quickly pulls off his earpiece, "I killed her."

Van Statten says, "I'm sorry." I have never heard him say sorry before I haven't heard the word sorry in so long it sounds foreign.

"I was supposed to protect! She was only here because of me! And you're sorry? I could have killed that Dalek in its cell but you stopped me."

"It was the prize of my collection!" He defended.

I shook my head hard, "You valued your collection over life you are disgusting."

"Man goes to space to be part of something greater," the Doctor spits.

"Exactly! I wanted to touch the stars! That's why I kept her here!" he points to me. "If you think about it, it is all her fault none of this would have happened if she told me how her ship worked."

The Doctor shook his head, "You just wanted to drag the stars underground! Of course, she wouldn't talk you enslaved her and experimented on her! You are about as far from the stars as you can get!" His angry screams turned to sorrowful sighs, "And you took Rose down with you she was nineteen years old."

"She's so young can she not regenerate?" I ask sadly.

"She's human," he sighs.

I can't understand what a timelord is doing traveling with humans I understand now is not the time for questions.

The elevator doors open and the Doctor is quick to yell at the man for leaving his companion behind.

The monitor turns back on the Dalek holding its weapon to the back of the girl, "Open the vault or Rose Tyler dies."

The doctor gasps, "You're alive!"

"Can't get rid of me that easily," she teases.

"I thought you were dead," he shouts.

The Dalek interrupts, "Open the vault!"

"Don't" she begs.

"What use are emotions, if you will not save the woman you love," the Dalek states. Curious what does a Dalek know about love?

"I killed her once, I can't do it again," he states as he presses the button.

This is most certainly not the Doctor who was infamous in Gallifrey how long have I been missing. I hear Van Satten shouting but none of it really matters anymore. The Dalek will kill us and I have been missing so long that no one back home will know the difference. I am not going down without a fight. If my life didn't mean something hopefully my death can.

I adjust my posture to appear taller, "You collect all these dangerous aliens so where are your dangerous alien weapons?"

The woman shouts at me "All the weapons are in the vault!"

"Only the cataloged ones," Van Statten's employee smiles at me. I can't help the blush that appears on my face I can't remember the last time someone smiled at something I said.

The Doctor nods his head at me, "Good idea." He still looks at me like I'm a figment of his imagination and will disappear soon.

We left Van Statten and his assistant upstairs and went to the basement for weapons. The doctor tosses the weapons that are useless but finds a gun which relieves some of my anxiety.

"Stay here! I'll come back for you as soon as I handle the Dalek!" He demands

"You are out of your mind! I've been locked here for years and you're the first timelord I've seen here! If you think I am letting you fight a Dalek alone you're mental!" I shout back it feels strange screaming at anyone after refusing to speak for so long even weirder to scream at a war hero from my own planet.

He takes a deep breath trying to control his rage, "I don't have time for this! I can't have you dying while I am saving Rose!"

I shove him, hold my head high, and walk right by him, "I have more regenerations left than you old man."

He jogs to catch up to me, "No convincing you?"

"God you sound like my parents when I stole their Tardis," I groan as we jog up the stairs.

He smirks, "I stole a Tardis myself once."

"Now that's a story I have to hear," I grin wide.

"Another day," he sighs as we quietly enter the room with the Dalek and Rose.

The Doctor steps in front of me "Rose get out of the way now!"

"No, I won't let you do this," she frowns.

I stare wide-eyed at her she can't be saying this does she know of the war on Galifrey why wouldn't the Doctor have told her.

"That thing killed thousands of people!" He shouts.

"It's not the one pointing a gun at me," she snaps and I kind of want to throttle this girl.

"I've got to do this the Daleks destroyed my home! My people! I've got nothing left!" He shouts.

My head whips to face the Doctor, "What do you mean nothing." My voice shakes no matter how hard I try to remain calm. "We didn't win the war? How are you here then?"

I turn back to the Dalek, "Did they win?"

I stomp towards the Dalek and the doctor pleads with me to wait. Rose looks at me nervously I guess I can still look scary in a hospital gown and no weapon of my own. When she steps out of the way I freeze in my spot I've never seen a Dalek out of its exoskeleton.

"What is it doing?" This has to be a ploy, one they use to seem weaker then snap. Though a Dalek would never do that they need to feel superior or they are nothing.

"It's the sunlight that's all it wants," Rose defends the Dalek as it reaches its hand to the sun I back up. This is not normal behavior.

The Doctors' gaze follows, "But it can't..."

"It couldn't kill me or Van Statten it's changing!" Rose defends yet again. "And what about you Doctor what the hell are you changing into?"

I whip to Rose, "You have no right! You have no idea what these Daleks did to our home!"

"Our?" She questions.

"Why do we survive?" The Dalek asks. "I am the last of the Daleks."

"You're not even that, you absorbed Rose's DNA. You are mutating," the Doctor explains.

"Into what?" it responds.

"Something new," he replies.

I frown I am happy that there are no more Daleks but this is truly a Dalek's worst nightmare.

"I am sorry," The Doctor sighs.

"isn't that better?" Rose asks.

"Not for a Dalek," why am I feeling sorry for the Dalek they destroy everything it's their goal. I can't help but relate to it when we have been stuck in the same prison for years... I thought about burning this whole place down myself.

"So many ideas, so much darkness. Give me orders! Order me to die Rose," the Dalek says pained.

She shakes her head, "No I can't."

"This is not life! This is sickness. I shall not be like you. Order me to die. Obey! Obey! Obey!" The dalek screams and I can't help but step a few feet back the words reminding me of hearing the constant battlefield noises out my childhood window on Gallifrey.

"Do it," she says.

"Are you frightned Rose Tyler?"

"Yes"

"So am I, Exterminate." The Dalek floats up and prepares to self destruct as Rose and I run away from it.

I fall to the ground as I watch the Dalek explode all the adrenaline I once had fades out of me. I look up to the Doctor, "What do you mean you have no one?"

His pitiful gaze that he sent me when he first found out I was Timelord made sense now as he responds, There's no more Gallifrey... no more Daleks. The whole planet gone."

I can sob " I should have stayed home. I should have never ran away. If I stayed at least I would have gone with my family." I turn to the doctor but can barely see him through my tears. "Is there really no other Timelords?"

Rose quickly gets onto the floor and rubs my back, "hey you never know! The Doctor thought he was the only Timelord left but here you are! Plus you get to constantly prove the Doctor was wrong not many people get the oppurtunity."

I sniffle, "That's true, and I do love proving people wrong."

"There you go," she soothes. "We will get you a good cup of tea my Mum always says tea cure anything," She helps me to feet.

"You are really good at this comforting thing. Is she always this sweet?" I ask the Doctor.

The Doctor seems to have glossy eyes as well but hides his emotions well, "Yeah, that's why I keep her around."

"Hey!" she shoves him.

"The grief is very heavy right now but I am thankful to be surrounded by such light that could even turn a Dalek's cold heart warm.

[screamqueenmacher]

Yearning - Dean Winchester x Reader

Also posted on ao3 :)

Unbelievable. Unreal. Maybe even ethereal. Indescribable.

That was Dean Winchester. Indescribable. 

Well, actually, you had a million and one ways to describe him, from his piercing, perfect green eyes, to his charming freckles, and his unwavering bravery. But there were just so many adjectives in the human language that you could apply to him, including annoying and brutish, that it was easier just to call him indescribable. 

You hadn't known the hunter for very long, maybe a couple of years at this point. Maybe that was long for hunters, and maybe even for regular people, but for you it didn't feel like much. You didn't text, or have each other on social media. You'd only met him because he and his brother, Sam, had saved you from some freak called a Leviathan. You weren't cut out for the life of a hunter, but how could you go back to living like you had been? You were smart, but you didn't have the body needed for such intense and strenuous activity. So, you could read and learn, and if Sam or Dean ever needed help, they could call you and you would research anything they needed. 

You'd heard they found a permanent residence, just in passing when Sam had called you one night. You hadn't expected an invitation to visit a few weeks later. Not move, just visit. You didn't need to move. You had a boring job and empty house to come home to, after all. Maybe you should get a pet. 

Sam wanted help with the library and the mass amount of artifacts laying around. Dean wasn't a lot of help, unless it involved playing with said artifacts. He and Sam had already gotten into multiple arguments, including one that ended with two bedroom doors slamming shut when Dean broke a lamp. That one left you alone, confused for a moment, in the library surrounded by a half-assed catalog system that you'd been working on. You'd wondered if they were finally living like teenagers because this was the first permanent home they'd really had. Maybe you'd ask that exact question later when one of them would eventually emerge. 

“We aren't acting like teenagers. He is.” Sam had rolled his eyes at your question when he was, unsurprisingly, the first to return. 

“Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” You teased, smirking as he huffed at you in response. 

It went on like that for a while, until it was time to eat, and Dean had come back out to join you both. He'd offered to go out and grab something from a local diner, and you were no fool. Of course you'd accept a free meal.

It was while the gorgeous nuisance was gone that it happened. You'd picked up a deck of cards from a shelf, one card falling out and fluttering to the floor. You'd assumed it was just a deck that the old inhabitants used to play games, until a shock like a bolt of lightning hit you as you picked up the stray card. Crying out, you dropped everything, the card and pack hitting the floor. Sam rushed to your side, looking you over with confusion. 

“Don't touch that!” You hurriedly warned him, pointing to the items on the ground. You moved to pick them up again, readying yourself for another nasty shock. Luckily, it didn't come. 

“What happened? Are you sure you should be holding that?”

“No. I don't know. I picked up this card that fell and it felt like I got shocked.” Frowning, you finally looked at the single card. Ace of Hearts. That felt…bad. “I'll put it back in the deck, but I feel like we need to research this thing. There's no way those are normal cards.”

“Right. Let me grab my laptop and I'll get on it.” Barely leaving, his long legs carried him back quickly. Taking a seat at the table, you described the artwork on the box and what had been on the card. 

“It's just like…I dunno it looks like old style tattoo art. There's flowers and hearts, and a woman wearing a very revealing dress.” You frowned, trying to remember the card as well. “Oh. The card had a little symbol in the heart. It looked like the symbol for Venus.”

“You just know what the symbol for Venus looks like by memory?”

“I was really into astrology as a teenager, sue me.” You huffed, shrugging. 

“Okay, well, I'll look into it. Do you feel alright?” He was staring at you, as if he could spot any physical changes.

“I feel fine. It shocked me, literally, but nothing else weird has happened.” That, apparently, wasn't what the giant wanted to hear because he was frowning now as he typed away.

You didn't have to wait for very long before he was suddenly sitting up straighter. You noticed he did that when he found something. But, he was still frowning, eyebrows drawn. It was actually starting to make you worried. 

“Okay, well, I can't find anything on the deck itself, but get this…that's not the only card of its kind. There have been multiple cases where people have used that symbol on an ace of hearts card before. Sometimes it's to help someone and sometimes it's to hurt.”

“Help or hurt, how?” You fiddled with the catalog, eyes not leaving him.

“Well, it says here that whoever touches the card, that would be you-” Finally, his eyes left the screen to look at you for a moment. He looked…confused more than concerned. “Has to admit to their deepest desire. Whatever their heart holds as the object of that desire will be, quote, unquote, affected until that time.”

“My deepest desire? I don't have that.” Now he looked at you, expression unamused. “Sam, I don't-”

“What about Dean?”

“What about Dean? I had a crush on him when you guys first saved me. If you recall, I thought you were pretty cute, too. Glad I got that out of my system.” You scoffed, ignoring the way he rolled his eyes at you. 

“Very funny. The card knows something you desire, so you better think hard about it.”

Think hard about it. You didn't have to think that hard. Maybe you did have a crush on Dean, and maybe it didn't fizzle out like you claimed it had. How could it? He was God's gift to mankind, or womankind. He was gorgeous, and charming, and perfect in ways he could comprehend. This was going to be an absolute disaster. How would Dean be affected? 

Speak of the devil, well, not the devil, but the devil to your heart, Dean himself was back with the food. Joining you and Sam, he seemed perfectly fine. 

“Why are you both looking at me like that?” Shit. You hoped your flushed cheeks weren't obvious to either of them, instead deciding to tidy up the papers around you.

“We should eat in the kitchen. In case.” Sam's suggestion was smart, and it got Dean out of the room. “I knew it.”

“You didn't know shit, Winchester.” You hissed, cheeks aflame. Both of you hurried to join his brother in the kitchen, not wanting to draw more attention to what could become a problem. 

You ate in silence, eyes occasionally flicking to Dean. He seemed fine. Looked fine. He wasn't in pain or melting or…something else weird.

“I tell ya what…this burger is damn good.” Him speaking almost made you physically startle, it had been so quiet amongst the three of you. “I felt half starved on the way here.”

“Yeah, I was really getting hungry, too. Been busy.” Nodding his head, he didn't seem like he knew anything was up with you or his brother. Good. That was a good sign.  -----------------

You'd gone back to the library, Sam and Dean joining you. You clearly needed to figure out how to break this curse or whatever it was, but Dean didn't need to know there was an issue. Sam had been trying to bring it up, but you'd found a way to interrupt him with something else multiple times. 

“He needs to know something is going on.” He whispered harshly, his head ducked by yours. 

“He doesn't need to know anything. He's fine.”

“Him being fine doesn't mean you aren't cursed.” Fair point. 

“Yeah, which means we need to get me uncursed.”

“He could help-”

“He can't help-”

“What the hell are you two whispering about?” Dean's voice startled you both, causing your heads to knock together. Both of you straightened, hands rubbing collision spots, and you saw the way Dean couldn't contain the laugh he let out. “C'mon. You two are hiding something from me.”

“She's cursed.” Eyes wide and mouth agape, you stared at Sam as he blurted your secret. He cringed immediately after, looking at you apologetically. 

“What?! And you're just now mentioning it?!” Dean stood up, coming closer. You held up your hands in defense. 

“It's not that bad. We don't even really know what it is yet. I'm fine.” You hoped, anyway. You still hadn't learned what would happen if you didn't admit that pesky desire. “Sam's been doing research.”

“I need a drink.” The older Winchester came to a stop in front of you, looked you over, and turned to grab the whiskey he'd brought in earlier in the day. You released a sigh as he downed the shot.

“I don't think you'll die from-”

“You don't think?” 

“Well, I can't really tell yet! There's not a lot of lore here, but I'm almost positive you won't die.” Sam continued typing as you stared at him. 

“What even happened?” Dean's voice was gruff as he pulled your attention to him.

“It was one of the artifacts. I touched something I shouldn't have and got zapped.” You still felt ridiculous about it.

“What's the curse?”

“Something about gambling.” The lie flew from you before you could stop it. You ignored Sam's grunt of disapproval. “My luck is affected, or something. It was a deck of cards.”

“That doesn't seem too bad, but remember that rabbit's foot?” He looked at his younger brother, eyebrows raised. You'd heard stories from that incident. Sounded like a nightmare. 

“Ugh, don't remind me.” The giant shook his head. He looked at you for a moment before standing. “I'm going to do more research from my room. Y/N, maybe you should tell Dean more about the curse.”

“Oh, I sure would if I could, Sam. I only know as much as you tell me.” You squinted at him, glaring dangerously. You stood as well, stretching dramatically. “Besides, it's pretty late. I doubt we can uncurse me tonight, anyway.”

“You're extremely calm about this.” Dean scoffed, watching you a little too closely for your comfort. His intense gaze made you fidget. “I need to do some stuff, anyway. Since you probably won't die.”

“What stuff do you need to do?” Sam scoffed, earning a glare from the older Winchester. 

“Just…stuff. I need to do stuff. Shut up.” He grumbled, and the three of you went your separate ways. ---------------------------

The next morning was uneventful. You still felt fine, completely normal. You showered and got dressed, heading to the kitchen, where you could smell something delicious. Walking in, Dean was currently flipping a pancake, a plate of bacon already sat at the table with Sam. 

“Wow. Smells good.” You grinned, excitedly taking a seat where an empty plate was waiting for you. “What's the special occasion?”

“Just needed some pancakes. Bacon's just a plus.” Dean shrugged, putting the last pancake on top of the mountain of pancakes he had on a big plate. Bringing them over, he sat them in the middle of the table before taking a seat next to you.

“Thanks for making enough to share.” You teased, not hesitating to load your plate. You also used the butter and syrup that had been placed on the table as well, as did both brothers. 

The pancakes were amazing, because of course they were. Of course Dean Winchester could make a simple pancake taste astounding. Dick. You were distracted from your pancake eating when he got up from next to you, rummaging through the pantry. 

“What are you doing?” Sam was watching him as well.

“Need something else…” He grumbled, still searching. He hummed in approval, pulling out a bag of chocolate chips. He sprinkled them on top of his stack, digging in without saying anything else.  ----------------------

After breakfast, Dean had left you and Sam, claiming that he needed to do something with Baby. He didn't seem too concerned about your curse now, but that was okay. You didn't need him learning anything about what was actually happening, anyway. 

“Do you think he's acting weird?” Sam questioned, pulling you out of the article you'd been reading. 

“Weird how?”

“I don't know. He keeps saying he needs things and needs to do ‘stuff’.” He used air quotes as he said it. 

“I think you're looking too far into it.” You shook your head. There's no way that meant anything. 

“I just think-” He cut himself off as Dean was heard approaching. When his brother came in, he sat down near you, not saying anything. “You good, man?”

“Yeah. Needed to help you guys out, right? Figure out this curse.” He acted like it was so obvious. You exchanged glances with Sam. 

“I'm not sure there's much you can help with.” You interjected, before Sam could actually accept his offer to help. It earned you an eye roll from the younger of the two. 

“Hey, I can research too, you know.” Dean frowned at you, puffing up slightly. 

“No, I'm not saying you don't yearn to learn like Sam and I.” You tried to joke, but the way he shifted in his seat made you pause. He had a look of…you couldn't place it. It almost looked like something suddenly dawned on him, but he didn't say anything. “I just think Sam has it covered. I'm about to go back to cataloging, anyway.”

“Right.” He huffed, standing up again. First, he moved slightly closer to you. Then, he took a deep breath and left the room.

“See? He's acting weird. The curse is-”

“Sam, I can't-”

“You need to. You may be fine, but it's affecting Dean.” He gave you a pointed look. “I get it's embarrassing, but-”

“Embarrassing? Yeah, it's fucking embarrassing.” You sneered, ignoring his exasperated huff.

“You have to get over it. What if he ends up getting hurt?” You didn't know how that would happen, but you would feel horrible if he got hurt because of you.

“Fine. I'm going to pack my bags so I can make a quick escape after I embarrass myself.”

“You're being dramatic. He may like you, you know.”

“Nice try, Sam. I already agreed to admit it.” You sighed, getting up from the library table to go to your borrowed room. ----------------------

You'd packed your bag, bringing it with you so you could make another quick exit after your confession. You knew well enough that Dean didn't have an interest in you like that, and that was okay. You just hated that you had to make a fool of yourself like this. Things would be awkward now.

You stopped outside of Dean's door, fist raised to knock as the door began opening anyway. You simply looked at each other for a moment, getting lost in the beauty of his green gaze, until he noticed your bag. He frowned. 

“Where're you going?” You looked down at your bag, then back to him, then down again. 

“I need to tell you something about the curse, but I have to go after.”

“Like hell you're going anywhere before we fix you.” You saw the determination in his eye, both of you reaching for your bag. Your hands touched, and it was like another zap of electricity shot through you. 

You pulled your hand back, as if you'd been burned, but Dean advanced on you. Soon, your back hit the wall opposite of his door, and his hands were cradling your face. There wasn't another zap, but there wasn't much time to focus on anything else because now he was kissing you. 

Dean Winchester was kissing you.

It didn't last long, but you'd remember it forever. When he broke away, he didn't go far, his forehead resting against yours. His eyes were closed, but yours were busy memorizing every detail of his perfect face. You'd probably never see it again after he found out the curse made him do that.

“Sorry, I just…I needed to do that.” He finally opened his eyes, barely Moving his face back from yours. 

“I know, I'm sorry. That's what I needed to tell you. That's the curse's fault…my fault.” You took a deep breath, deciding to finish your thought before he could interrupt you. “The card I touched put a curse on me, saying I had to admit my deepest desire or else it would be affected. I…I really like you, and that's why you've been so…weird.”

It was silent. He was still close, but one of his hands left your skin to instead run down his face. He wasn't saying anything, and that was making you nervous. 

“Um, anyway, now I've admitted it. So, I'm gonna go, and you should be back to normal.” You slid out from between him and the wall, but his hand caught your wrist as you reached for your bag. All you could do was stare at him in surprise. 

“Earlier, when you made that joke about yearning to learn or whatever, it made me realize that's what I was doing. I was fucking yearning for something, and I couldn't figure out what it was. I just felt this need ever since I was grabbing dinner last night. That's when you touched the card, right?” You swallowed hard, nodding dumbly. “It wasn't until we touched that I felt like I finally found what I needed. Once you admitted your desire, or whatever, that intense feeling went away.”

“Dean, I'm so sorry-”

“That's not what I mean. The compelling feeling is gone, but I still need you. Still want you. I felt that way before the curse.” Now you were gawking, you knew it. 

“What?”

“I like you, too. I didn't think you were all that interested in me. You have so much more in common with Sam-”

“You're insane.” He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Well, it made sense! You're always texting with him, or calling him, never me. Then, you were talking about your curse with him and leaving me out-”

“Yeah, because the curse was about you.”

“I mean, I know that now.” He shook his head, but then smirked a little. “You really like me, huh?”

“Shut up, Winchester.” You blushed deeply, pouting at him. That earned a grin from him, and you couldn't help but smile a little at that as well. He was so gorgeous when he smiled. And when he frowned. Ugh, he was just gorgeous. 

“Are you thinking about me right now?”

“I'll hit you.” The cocky fuck.

“Nah, you think I'm too pretty.”

“You willing to risk that?” He laughed, shaking his head. 

“Alright, alright.” He grabbed your bag, then grabbed your hand. “Come on, you're not leaving yet. We have to make up for some lost time.”

[jam2go]

Recreating "Melting GPU" Glitch Artifacts in Unreal

[witchofthesouls]

Ooo can we get more of the Other liason? It's interesting that they are a hybrid of a creature that engulfs sleeping humans. The Bots wouldn't want to recharge with them around. Or maybe the liason can sneak up to their births to study them while they sleep. After all, they are too big to eat. Or ARE they?

(Also I wonder why June and the Other are being all diplomatic...)

Oh, the Autobots are really incredibly lucky about this individual since the institution that usually keeps this breed of hybrid under strict ironclad magical contracts due to how long it takes to reach a stable form of this mix. (At least, several generations but no guarantee about a good balance between human and creature.)

The Other liason is still under said contract, but it's been updated to include a clause to work with the United States government under a branch that's managed between the Foundation and a federal department. This one is capable of restraint and is willing to put in the effort to seem less... like an unnatural predator.

The Autobots know something is really off-putting about them, but they can't put their digit on it. Besides, they feel much cooler compared to their humans, and their smile doesn’t reach their eyes. (Agent Fowler has to remind them to fucking breathe and to make some sort of noise around baseline humans, like himself. He's going to have to take this one to a place to people watch, so they can blend easier and not spook the top brass. He feels it in his bones.)

In general, they feel neutral towards the extraterrestrials, but as they're partially a creature that hunts at night cloaked in shadow to eat flesh and dreams... They deliberately stay away from Optimus Prime due to Matrix. That particular Primal Artifact belonged to Prima, the Prime of Light, and he shines too brightly with an intensity to sear away without realization...

They recognize June Darby as another hybrid entity with powerful ties. Their creature heritage allows them to sense the presence of Others and potential. Their ancestor was a Lethifold kind of creature, so magically-inclined humans are their natural prey. Sleeping ones as dreams act as 'space between spaces,' where everything and anything, no matter how insane or contradicting, is possible. Their creature lineage is like a void; something that can only consume to mitigate the emptiness and lack of presence that echoes within it. A shadow of unrealized ghosts and infinite choices of 'what ifs.'

Going back to June Darby and the Other liason, not only is the second liason to determine if Agent Fowler had been coerced by more 'eclectic' means, but they're functioning as an envoy of the United States since there are treaties across the world to ensure 'civility' between humanity and Elsewhere. Because of Agent Fowler's reports, especially combined with M.E.C.H.'s increasing stunts, the United States is covering their bases, just in case someone pisses off a powerful party on the Other side.

Now, should M.E.C.H. attempt anything in their presence... they have full authorization to discreetly 'handle them.'

[daphnesian]

Meditation. Astral Travel.

Dionysus · ?? May 2025

I am haunted by my childhood home. She often appears in dreams so vivid that I could actually be there, but my family sold that home years ago. I can never go back.

Did Dionysus take me there, or did my subconscious supply the scene? I don't know. I touched the ugly, white door that her new owners installed and begged the house to let me go. It's time to move on. I want to be free. I want to find a home within myself.

We didn't go inside.

Instead Dionysus and I walked to a bakery down the street that no longer exists, a cramped building that barely fit display cases of fresh bread and biscuits. You could smell bread baking if you walked by early enough, and I loved that smell. I asked Dionysus if we could buy tea biscuits. I don't know how currency exchange works between spirits, if the coins (always coins) he handed over were literal currency or simply the theatre of mundane life, but we left with warm biscuits all the same.

We walked to the bus stop, boarded a crowded 66, and ate our biscuits. I don't remember what we talked about. Growing up? Letting go? How much I miss a life that no longer belongs to me? I don't know. Echoes of a neighbourhood I love blurred by as we rode that bus to the terminal.

"Can we get Dunkin?" I asked, hopeful, on the escalator to the train platform.

"Do you want Dunkin?" Dionysus raised his eyebrows. He often answers questions like this; he's my clearest mirror.

We got Dunkin.

The El waited for us, doors open and engine humming. Does it mean something that there were no passengers? Probably not. The buses were always more crowded unless I was caught up in rush hour, then it was a free-for-all of squishing into every last conceivable inch of space.

"This is my favourite seat!" I proclaimed, plopping down on the last seat of the last car, where you could watch the world slowly drift away in front of you.

He could have said, "I know," but he said nothing. What doesn't he know?

Center City haunts me less, but I can still map its streets with ease in my mind's eye. Who knows why we walked to the art museum? I only knew where I was headed, and Dionysus paid for the tickets. It's important to point out that even in this strange unreality, he still paid for tickets.

Tucked away somewhere less frequented, somewhere less cluttered by paintings or artifact cases, sits a dimly lit temple with a fountain that I frequented religiously in college. I enjoyed the soft trickle of water surrounded by silence, a sense of stillness, that you can't find easily in a crowded city. I snuck in my favourite pen and wrote.

There are a lot of I don't know's in this story. I don't know why we wound up at the temple in the art museum. Aside from begging to be released from my childhood home, I don't know the purpose of this meditation. Perhaps there isn't always a purpose. Perhaps there isn't always a lesson hidden between the lines of where our souls wander. Perhaps, sometimes, there is only memory and the gentle torture of letting go.

I always welcome respectful questions about my experiences or practice! If you enjoy my writing, support me on ko-fi

Dividers

[theinfiknight]

What if the characters of Discworld were Avatars of the 15 fears from the Magnus Archives?

Now, just a disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion of which character would best fit the bill. Regardless if you agree or disagree, feel absolutely free to do so either way. Also, obvious spoilers for the books excepting Shepherd's Crown and Raising Steam.

The Web:

This one is obvious and can be no one other than Lord Vetinari himself. An absolute master of subtle manipulation and long term planning, Vetinari is the perfect Avatar of the Web. He creates a reputation of pervasive fear and makes people believe that he could do away with them at a whim, despite him never once killing a single person who wasn't an irredeemable criminal of some sort, and even then usually giving them chances to redeem themselves first. This being the case, I'd say Lady Margolotta is also an Avatar, and the one who exposed Havelock to the Web in the first place.

The Hunt:

The most stereotypical aspect of the Hunt is manifested most by Wolfgang von Uberwald, the textbook Hunter who chases and kills for the thrill of it. Both Sam Vimes and Angua hear the call of the Blood, but both refuse to heed it, and so aren't Avatars. I'd argue that there's another Avatar of the Hunt fulfilling the other role, created by the Hunt to be the perpetually hunted, the never caught but ever pursued white stag/ golden doe, the one, though not only, Rincewind.

The Eye:

One Avatar is Jeannie and every Kelda before and after her. The Kelda sees everything and knows what has happened and what will. The alternate answer is Blind Io, given his literal eyeballs that float around and also that he's cognizant of everything that goes on in the Disc, and that everyone knows he's watching.

The Spiral:

The Elf Queen. The undisputed master of illusion and deception, creating false worlds that operate on her rules, trapping people in unreal dreams they cannot escape, making them see and believe what she wants them to see and believe. Bel Shamharoth is also a possible answer given how he distorts the senses and feeds on those he traps.

The Buried:

Albrecht Albrechtsson. Knockermen are undoubtedly Avatars of the Buried, with the complex stew of fear and reverence they feel for the underground, and Albrecht is the lowest among them. Agi Hammerthief is probably the only fully realised Avatar of the Buried, who dwells beneath the Disc where no one will ever reach him.

The Flesh:

The Igors and Nutt. The Igors for obvious reasons, their affinity for tinkering with bodies, and their indisputable understanding of the fact that meat is meat, and as such can be used for a lot more than its original intention. Nutt because he is a creation of said tinkering, flesh made warped, with a living engine of meat inside him.

The End:

Mort and Bill Door, and possibly every zombie. This really needs no explanation. Mort stepping into his Master's role is the textbook descent of a human into Avatarhood, developing strange powers and slowly becoming Other. I'm not counting Death because he is the personification of the thing and isn't human enough to qualify as an Avatar. Susan is possibly some kind of Agnes Montague analogue, born from the force itself.

The Slaughter:

Carcer, the Gonne, and Cohen the Barbarian. Carcer killed for the fun of it with no care for reasoning, consequence or morality. He WAS a one man slaughter by himself. Cohen's existence was also very similar to Carcer's, albeit he killed far more people and lived by a Code that ensured that though he mass murdered on the regular, he always did it with the same honesty as a man hunting for his next meal. As such perhaps Cohen was more an impersonal personification of the Slaughter like the Piper rather than an Avatar of it. The Gonne was more an a artifact that channeled the Slaughter into whoever held it, be it D'Eath, Cruces or even Vimes.

The Corruption:

Vorbis and the Cunning Man. Vorbis absolutely embodies the toxicity and insidious creeping infestation of the Corruption. He pollutes organisations and people, changing them and turning them into versions of himself, utilising extremely unhealthy relationship dynamics in order to do so, creating an atmosphere ripe with fear, desperation and despair. The Cunning Man is similar except his method of corruption is more direct than Vorbis's ie literally taking over the body of his victim while subtly influencing the minds of those around him when he's less corporeal. His presence is filth of the mind and stench of the soul, and incites disgust and fear among those aware of his true nature.

The Stranger:

I had some trouble with this but finally decided on Susan and Lu Tze. Although one would intuitively put Susan under The End, in practice the characteristics she actually exhibits line up more with the Stranger. She walks unseen among others, unknown in the places she passes through, never usually staying very long in one place unless that happens to be her dwelling at that time. Her presence unsettles people. She doesn't fit in among others and has always been set apart. She's too undead to be truly alive and too alive to be truly undead. The only people who really know her are Death and Time. To everyone else, she's a stranger they see sometimes.

And Lu Tze, of course, is just the Sweeper. No one knows the first thing about him apart from the fact that he happens to be there. He's a part of the background of whenever he is. If anyone ever truly Looked at him, and actually noticed what they saw, that he's in fact a stranger in their midst, the first words out of their mouths would be "I do not know you"

The Desolation:

Stratford, Spider the Rat King, and Ipslore the Red. Stratford was a motherfucker who would bleed every last drop before abandoning the corpse he created. This was a bastard who, wishing to cause Vimes as much pain as he could, chose to target his son rather than seek him out directly. A man after the Desolation's own heart. Spider was out for everything the humans had. It wanted their utter ruin and destruction and was well on its way to achieving it. And Ipslore attempted to destroy the whole world with his resentment, using and abusing his own son as his instrument to do so, and would have succeeded too, if it weren't for some idiot with a half brick in a sock.

The Extinction:

The Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. The Extinction is the end of the rule of Man and their replacement with the horrifying Other. And there's nothing that fits that description better than the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions, constantly seeking to bring about exactly what the Fear is.

The Lonely:

This was difficult to decide as well, but I believe the First Tooth Fairy might qualify. Living literally locked up in a bubble separate from the rest of reality, it lives apart from everyone and everything else, keeping alone for all eternity. Additionally, I believe that every living witch(with the exception of Nanny Ogg) carries a piece of the Lonely inside them. Its influence never goes away, and those who succumb to it are the ones who become cacklers.

The Vast:

Tiffany Aching and, funnily enough, a Simon once again. Tiffany's primary source of power is that she is, at her core, something far bigger than herself. She may be just Tiffany but she is also Land under Wave, the power and will of millions of years of life before her. At her most powerful she is aware of EVERYTHING, from the bones of the flint beneath the chalk to time itself to the stars being born in the distant sky. She is small but she is also Vast. And Simon sees the whole universe and truly understands what he's looking at. He sees and understands more than he can express and his knowledge of the Vast almost approaches comprehension.

The Dark:

The one, though once again not only, Samuel Vimes. There couldn't be any other answer here. The dark walks with him. He was born in it, moulded by it... By the time he saw the light it was nothing more than BLINDING. But yeah, he is most at peace in the true dark in the pissing rain on the cobbles, even before he was literally possessed by the living darkness itself. The dark aids him and talks to him. The dwarfs and the goblins may live in the dark, but Sam Vimes looked into the Abyss, and he wasn't the one who blinked.

[thedasweekend]

Prompts!

In order to avoid a mass-reblogging spree, and for future ease of access, this will be a growing masterpost of prompts. However, they will be queued and will slowly be added onto this blog over time.

Please feel free to send an ask to this blog with your own prompt list(s) if you would like to see them included!

DA-tober 2021

Kiss Challenge

Aug-Kissed Prompts

Veiltober

Swordtember 2024

Swordtember 2022

KissArtFebruary

Inktober Alternatives 2024 (masterpost) 2023 2022 2021 2020

Definitelynot-tober!

Blorbovember

Abisalli's Emotion Challenge

Halloween costume

OC Optics

OC Art Memes

Fankid Meme

Six Characters Challenge

Bondage Challenge

Kiss Template

DAI Hairstyles

Hawke Hairstyles

Hero of Ferelden Hairstyles

Inquisitor Art Meme!

Draw Your Mutuals' Rooks

Couple Meme

Draw Your OTP

Pose/Expression Meme

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Palette Challenge

Color Palette Challenge

Rare/Unusual Words

Heavy Content

DAVG Pantomime Prompts

Prompts - Emotions

Prompts - Reactions

Prompts - Associations

Meme/Prompt Masterpost - movies; romantic; dramatic; action; location; misc.; ooc

As Said By... (DAO) Alistair Therein Zevran Arainai

(DA2) Fenris Isabela Merrill Varric Tethras

(DAI) Blackwall Cassandra Pentaghast Dorian Pavus Iron Bull Josephine Montilyet Sera Solas Vivienne

(DAV) Davrin Emmrich Volkarin Lucanis Dellamorte

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Prompts pt.1

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Prompts pt.2

Inquisition Party Banter

Artifacts of Thedas

Artifacts of Thedas - Veilguard Edition

Rook Story Time Prompts

Rook Codex Writing Prompts

DAI OC Codex Prompts

Kiss & Tell

Alternate Universes

Hugs

"I have dreamed of you"

Drabble Prompts

Showing Comfort

Flowers and Prompts

Prompts for my Favorite Tropes

The Stranger (a collection of lyric prompts based on Billy Joel's 1977 album The Stranger)

Making Demands

Panic Attacks in Paradise

A Taste of Heavenly Light (Florence + The Machine lyric prompts)

Melt Into Me

Unreal Unearth (Hozier)

Cult Classics

The Dragon's Hoarde

Prompts for People Who Aren't Used to Kindness

Fluff Prompt List

50 Types of Kisses

20 Sleeping Prompts

Cuddle and Snuggle Prompts

What Are You Hiding From Me Prompts

Prompts for Patching Up Wounds

Circe - Madeline Miller Sentence Starters

Spirited Away Sentence Starters

Dragon Age Character Bingo

Chaos Gremlin Prompts

Tumblr Text Posts Pt.1

Tumblr Text Posts Pt.2

A Series of Unfortunate Events Prompts

Howl's Moving Castle Prompts

Hunger Games Inspired Prompts