#while Ellie still exist here later she's more ghost than human

[nelavili]

I'm still processing Season 6 and as an unpopular opinion I'm not too happy about it as a whole. I feel horrible for not enjoying it as much as the Cast/Crew would like me to, but I just can’t change this feeling I have.

Just to clear my head I'll write the things down that irked me. I don't want to start any discussion, they're only my thoughts on stuff ‘n thangs. Huge spoilers ahead, please don’t read if you haven’t watched.

Michael

I admit it, I have probably more sympathy for the bad twin than I should. And after the whole S5 I thought we get a bit more closure with him. I didn’t expect a redemption arc, after Michael killed Remiel, Dan and Chloe it would have felt wrong. But after the “Everyone deserves a second chance” the dude is down in hell, scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush. Really, Lucifer? That’s cruel after such a righteous line.

When Luci realized he could help everyone, even if he hated them, I hoped for a dive into the twins’ relationship but it was like Michael didn’t even existed anymore. And if someone needed therapy it would be the twin with the huge inferior complex. That could have been so interesting. (I had hoped that he'd sat on the couch at the end, but noooo we get the Frenchman.. such a disappointment.)

Maybe Tom Ellis didn’t want to play 2 roles again, or there was no time, but I feel that was a huge opportunity wasted.

What even was the plan of Michael? To get God to retire and wreck havoc on earth to get Dad back, so Mickey can take over as the new God? And then what? Wipe out humanity? I see no endgame here.

Ella

I liked Ella’s Story so far. But she stole the personal file of Carol and even broke into his house.. and everybody is cool with this? Carol might be crushing on Ella pretty hard but if somebody tells you they broke into your house, because they feared you were hiding something bad, You run for the hills. But the dude isn’t even phased.

I’m glad Carol is a good guy, though. Even if he’s kind of bland.

Ella finding out the truth on her own came out of nowhere. I would have found it better if they would have her act a little suspicious over the whole S5. But since they wrote S6 while S5 was shot, a little to late for this.

The scene at the wedding was amazing. I had so much fun with her outburst there.

Dan

Ghost!Dan was my favorite by far in this season. And I really liked how he wanted to help and tried to find out what he still felt guilty about.

I am so glad he got to spend his afterlife with Charlotte and I laughed so hard with the pudding. Didn’t expect that, in a positive matter. :D

The scene with Trixie killed me. Bawled so hard as soon as Kevin got teary eyes. That really gripped at my heartstrings.

But how could he go to heaven while in a body of a killer when his daughter stands right next to that killer?

Comedy-wise Dan is top notch

Trixie

I missed her so much.

It felt like she was an afterthought with everything. She recently lost her Dad and Chloe spends most of the time with Lucifer. I really missed the scenes with her and Luci, they always were so adorable.

They explain it later that she’s at a science camp, but I honestly thought Chloe chooses Lucifer (and later Rory too) over her.

She wasn’t at Chloe’s deathbed but here I’m not sure if the scene with Rory isn’t placed somewhere at the threshold to heaven where only celestials are able to enter. But if she wasn’t there because Chloe sidelined her in favor of Rory, then I can understand her absence.

Linda

I love Linda, she always gives good advice but nobody’s ever took it.

Her book probably would fly under the fantasy tag if she ever published it. Still, it felt cringey.

It was so sad that she thought she was a bad therapist.

Apparently she wants to keep helping celestials because it’s better than helping humans. In the end, celestials have the same problems as humans just on a bigger scale. But okay.

Amenadiel

Amenacop was good, and a nice nod to Dan who put in the application.

It made him realize that he only can change things when he has more power. I’m white and no american so I don’t know if the BLM theme there was well enough executed. Got me wondering.

The apocalypse just being Angels who are incompetent was a letdown. Like this whole season.

I really like him as god. And I am glad he took the position in the end. Even if he could have decided this a bit earlier.

Rory

I like her sarcasm and her character.

Didn’t like the whole time travel, time loop and daughter spiel. I’m not a big fan of time travels or couples getting a kid just for the sake of a happy end or to add extra drama. I could have lived without a Deckerstar baby. Instead they could have focused on Trixie for a change.

The time she spent with Lucifer on the 4th August was precious though.

How in hell did the Frenchman capture her? How did he even know how she looked? IIRC Dan hasn’t seen Rory while in that body. Dan just went over to Trixie that’s why I thought he’d capture her and not Rory.

Lucifer

He found his calling to help the souls in hell only because Rory traveled back in time? No man, he already took the step with Jimmy Barnes in preparation to take over as god. I don’t think it’s far fetched to believe that he would have the same epiphany without Rory there.

But without Rory, he wouldn’t have been helping Ghost!Dan to go to heaven. Though, before Rory traveled back in time, Lucifer was already trying to help Dan. They probably would have needed more time to figure out about what Dan felt guilty about, but figure it out anyways.

How did he even got Chloe pregnant? Was it his subconscious deciding he was ready to be a father? Amenadiel had to believe that he was human to get Linda pregnant. Or maybe it’s because they always thought they couldn’t impregnate a human and self-actualized it that way. Anyways, it’s a tiny hang-up I have with it.

Somebody else besides me thought that the scene in the panic room was awkwardly long? I know they thought Lucifer would vanish somehow, but it seemed too much to me.

His singsong while the magician talked about the trick. :D

I don’t want to even get into the whole time loop thing because I think it’s ridiculous(ly bad).

It took a lot of time for him to realize that he didn’t want to be god, after he put it on hold for a second time. Even Chloe could have asked him if that is really what he wanted. Could have spared us an episode or so. Why is the communication on this show so bad? Q.Q

I loved that he helped Maze with Eve to get the wedding back on after their fight.

He didn’t say goodbye to Trixie  - again. What a nice step-devil..

It’s been Chloe, Rory and his family since he found out she’s his daughter. Not even mentioning the one kid who probably loved him before even Chloe fell for him.

For someone who is all about free will and led a rebellion against God for it, he was quick to accept that he has a “fate”. I thought he’d find another way, or at least try to. Nope, he just did what his child wanted. And they disguised it at his “choice”. Doesn’t look like a choice to me if your daughter begs you for it and you have to promise it. Just getting along with what your child wants.

Why does everyone need to shoot him? Just cut him until he bleeds. The Americans and their fixation on guns. Nice parallel to Chloe though.

Lucifer trying to fix the relationship to Rory with gifts was so cringey. I don’t know why but I couldn’t watch him sing/dance in that scene.

Both him and Amenadiel didn’t want to become like their Dad because of the reasons stated in S5, yet Lucifer exactly did. Another letdown.

 

Chloe

As soon as she knew Rory was her and Lucifer’s daughter it was all only about Lucifer and Rory. No thought of Trixie? I understand she was worried about being a bad mother to Rory, but come on, you’re being a bad mother to your first child right now.

She was ready to go to heaven with Lucifer. And Trixie does what exactly without her parents? Living with her Grandma because one of her parent died and the other one is abandoning her? It’s like the writers forgot about Trixie while forcing Rory on us.

The addiction to the necklace got old pretty fast.

And that whole fight against Lucifer felt unnecessary just to add more drama.

She gets mad at Lucifer for not telling her everything while not telling him that she went back to the LAPD. It’s Lucifer, he always has things on his plate. Double moral, pretty much.

She looked so gorgeous at the wedding, oh my god.

Most of the Deckerstar scenes were good. I got tired of the obvious naked cuddle times, surprisingly. Somehow it felt not like the ones in S5 and it bothered me.

I thought Chloe would finally get to know about everything Lucifer did for her, but I didn’t expect her to read it in Linda’s book. And that she only took away that he left her every time they had an emotional breakthrough.

They spend Lucifer’s last day at the beach and once again, no thought of Trixie. I’m sorry I repeat myself here so often. But this whole season wronged Trixie so much.

They face the baddie without any backup.  At least get Amenadiel with you.

Other things

The use of music between scenes was too much for me. Got annoying at some point.

I appreciate that they wanted to show us snippets of past Deckerstar scenes but here too, I felt like it was too much.

Couldn’t really follow the timeline. Maybe it were the cuts.

What’s been the point of bringing Adam into the mix? Just to wrap up Maze and Eve’s story? For Linda having another celestial to therapy?

The animation in the Jimmy Barnes Hell loop was AMAZING. I laughed so hard.

I’m not saying that Deckerstar shouldn’t have sacrificed everything for the time loop to stay intact, I say that the whole daughter-time travel plot shouldn’t have had happened. They never even talked about having kids, and then ignore the whole existence of the one kid that’s already there.

I really need all the Michaella fanfics, please. My first ship that’s actually a raft, because they never officially have met. RIP lmao

The acting was great as usual, all my problems come from the writing and the plot.

In the end, I really feel frustrated, underwhelmed and disappointed by the whole season. I didn’t have high expectations other than the same writing quality like S5. My excitement for that Season died as soon as Rory told Lucifer that she’s his daughter, to be honest. I waited for a plot twist that never came. Then the whole time loop shit.  I’d rather have waited one more year for S6 if the plot would have made more sense, since this felt like a first draft of a whole other show. And now I wished that S5 would have been the last season. If I could travel back in time, I’d rather not watch S6.

I can honestly live with the fact that Luci and Chloe are in hell, trying to help souls to get to heaven. (But hello, not the murderers perhaps? Or I want Michael sitting on that couch right now.) But the fact that both “chose” to sacrifice their time together with their family and friends just because it’s fate now and parents have to make sacrifices for their children; and anyways there’s an afterlife because (human) life is just a blip in our existence… nah thank you. I do not want it.

I’m probably not gonna rewatch S6 anytime soon.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 3

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Here be Lujanne, Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, and Soren goodness!

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

Lujanne having excellent fitness for all her walking around the Moon Nexus, and she's so energetic that Callum has trouble keeping up with her! She seems like those active grandmas who almost never stop moving, who have a lifelong supply of endless stamina. It makes me wonder if Lujanne will need that level of fitness for some upcoming conflict.

Callum feeling really hungry over not eating grubs and then still deciding he'd rather be hungry. It makes me wonder all over again how Lujanne got to the point where she eats grubs, considering that other Moonshadow elves we know of back in the Silvergrove don't. I still love my hc that the giant leech ate all of Lujanne's moonberry bushes and she's taking her revenge. Whatever's going on there, Callum is definitely not at that point yet.

When Lujanne asks Callum how he knows she's real, he thinks to himself that he'd put up with just about anything from someone who was going to teach him magic. That's a great parallel and foreshadowing for Viren's student/master relationship with Aaravos! And it's telling that neither student gets exactly what they hoped to get. Lujanne doesn't actively teach Callum any spells, because she believes he can't learn Moon magic at all. Aaravos does offer Viren power, but it takes him to some very dark places - literally and figuratively - and the cost is terribly high.

Callum sees a moon shape among the ruins, and Lujanne explains that the Moonhenge layout is an intricate rune that uses the structures themselves as part of its symbols and power. That's apparently a thing even with ordinary Moonshadow villages like Hollow Wood in the east, which is the coolest idea I've seen in a while: city planning as magic runes!

Yes, that's the same shape as the pendants Ethari made for himself and Runaan. Protection? Home? Feelsiness? A sense of safety and belongnig for all cycles and seasons?

Wonder what this Moonhenge rune stands for, then, and how much of this landscape is included in that rune. I bet it's more than we think!

But it makes sense now, how toppling the stone pillars would disable the spell the druids would cast to connect with the Moon Nexus lake. Breaking the infrastructure of the Moonhenge breaks the rune.

There's a physical sensation involved with the visuals that Historia Viventem brings up! When that one ghostly druid walked through Callum, he felt icy cold. Like in ghost stories. I really wonder about what exactly Historia Viventem is doing when it activates. It shows truth, "what really happened here?", so it must have some kind of time-related element, maybe tied to how the moon always repeats the same cycles or something. But it also seems to draw on the spirits of any living people involved in the flashback, because Callum could physically feel that wispy shape passing through him. So very interesting!

Orrr... is that all wrong, and there's something else at work with this spell than time? Maybe the world beyond life and death can act as an imprint of the things that have happened in the living world, and the spell that Lujanne (and later Callum) casts taps into that place, with perfect recall. I'm looking really hard at the sentence that says "dozens of translucent elf ghosts" and "phantom Moonhenge" and "lost in their own world" here.

Lujanne says more here than in the show about the world beyond life and death, being her mysterious Moonshadow-mage self. She says that "beyond" and "between" might both apply to where this other plane of existence is, and she doesn't much care which. With all the relativity swirling around this place, and not much in the way of empiricism, it's sounding like perhaps multiple conflicting ideas might actually coexist in such a place, allowing more ideas to fit there than we might normally believe is possible. Which is a fascinating bit of worldbuilding. Basically, every headcanon anyone has ever had about the Moon Nexus could all be true at the same time, for all we know.

Oh oh oh, Callum coming in soft with a secret wish! He takes one look at the Moonhenge and immediately thinks of finding a way to see his mom again! Poor boy, my heart! I'd say that could be another interesting parallel with Viren, but then, who wouldn't hold that sentiment?

Oh my, is this another breath of life into Ye Olde Ley Lines headcanon? Lujanne mentioning the Nexuses again, so soon after talking about the runic design of the entire Moonhenge, makes me wonder if the six nexuses are in fact giant runes. On Earth, the places where ley lines cross are called nexuses, and there are those who believe those points got marked with ancient structures, like Stonehenge and many many others. If Xadia were crossed with magical lines which naturally formed nexus points where they met, and if powerful magical runes were built across those entire areas, well. That would be cool beans, fams. Can I smack a map of Xadia and release a spell like Luz Noceda does? Because ngl that is my first instinct here.

Lujanne has got to be missing some grandkids to spoil, right? The way she's always whipping out cake and ice cream for Callum, and she's so grandma-ish about it. Headcanon about her being Runaan's mom aside, she is canonically lonely and she's very sweet to Allen and Ellis and I think she's missing whatever family she once had in the past. She may never get to have that family back, so she's finding a new one among the humans who live nearby, and I think that's sweet. Found family isn't just for the young.

But Ellis is straight up gonna be her fave, I bet, because she didn't turn up her nose at Lujanne's illusion food!

Ezran and Bait have a lot more to their relationship than was visible in the show, and I'm so excited by it! Ez can tell by looking at Bait's colors that he's not truly jealous of Zym, even if he's really grumpy about the dragonling taking up his favorite human's time.

And Ez thinking a lot about his dad and the things he's taught him. They're soft leadership material, and I love that so much! "Pick your battles" and the importance of encouragement. Ahh, my heart. Ezran, you're going to be such a good king.

But wait a second: both times that Bait gets extra grumpy in Zym's first training session, Ezran has just mentioned something about flying. Guys, I think Bait wishes he could fly, really badly. And that's his biggest problem with Zym, and with Ezran teaching Zym to fly, instead of Bait who doesn't have wings so. Bait is so old that his secrets have secrets, and I'm really curious how flying fits into them now!

Rayla, Dramatic Assassin: "I need to patrol for dark forces." That's what Lujanne called the source of the purple wisps that found them. I wonder if that's an official term all Moonshadows know, or if Rayla is just taking her cue from a veteran Moon mage. And I wonder how far Rayla is falling into the apparent pattern of "one mage, one assassin", since she does spend a lot of her time patrolling without being asked.

When Callum tells Lujanne that he was bad at prince stuff, and she asks if he didn't give up and got good at those things anyway, it's an opportunity for Callum to embrace subverting his parents' expectations in favor of seeking his own path, which is a primary theme of the show. But Lujanne is a couple generations older than Callum, at the very least, and I have to wonder what her upbringing was like. Is her version of success the one she took? Was she bad at magic once too, but she persisted? She is very soft and doesn't want to kill anyone.

Maybe Lujanne had dreams of doing something else with her life, but she felt she had to pursue the destiny that others handed to her, so she studied magic as hard as she could, and she did get good at it, but using it to defend Xadia from humans is not what she wanted to do with her life. Whether there's a parallel between her and Ethari on that point, there's one between Callum and Ethari, I think. How much of your life are you willing to let others direct for you?

LISTEN I WAS DYING AT THE EAR BREAD SCENE OKAY

This is my new favorite Soren and Claudia moment ever. Soren loves him his bread, okay. Even as earplugs for Claudia's sleep ocarina tune. The fact that it's "super effective" makes me think of a Pokemon defense. The fact that he learned it at camp, where he also learned about Moonshadow Madness, is hilarious. Later on, Corvus doesn't know Soren by name, but I still love the idea of Corvus being a kind of Strider-esque camp instructor, filling the ears of his young charges with all kinds of useful tactics like ear bread for magic spell songs (which actually seemed to work as intended), and warnings about the enemy elves' blood-themed tactics (which may or may not come back around in BH)

I thought they were gonna go in a kind of deep direction when Soren still wanted his ear bread back, but then he just. Eats them. Just noms them. I love this kid. Give Soren all the bread!

[five-rivers]

What Was Bound, What Was Loosed, part 2

Written for day 18: horror.  I’m really sneaking this in just before midnight.  So hard to write.  

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Vlad was occupied with shepherding along a sensitive reaction in his lab when his portal winked out of existence. Engrossed in his experiment, he didn't notice at first, not for several minutes. But, soon enough, the steadiness of the light, the lack of green in it, began to unnerve him.

Leaving the chemicals alone for a moment wouldn't make them explode. Probably. If they did, well. He had more than enough money to renovate his mansion. Again.

Almost immediately, his eyes caught on the gaping, empty hole in his wall where the portal had once been.

"That- Impossible!" He took several quick steps forward, but did not enter the portal or stand directly in front of it. The portal was gone, but he could see that the containment mechanisms were still working, electricity periodically jumping from exposed wires. He reached for the power cut off switch.

Reality rippled. Briefly, Vlad experienced a sensation akin to being moved through a thick membrane.

He found himself among the treetops of a lavender forest, the green sky of the Ghost Zone swirling brightly above him. Disoriented, he put a hand to his head. Natural portals had a tendency to be turbulent, but he had never been through one that felt like that before. Had his portal somehow escaped its moorings? He would have thought he would notice something like that, something like a portal sneaking up behind him. The did glow, after all.

Then again, he had been distracted by his portal's unexplained absence, so maybe not.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, "Butter biscuits," under his breath. By the time he got back, his experiment would have exploded, and his lab would be in shambles.

No matter. He could always rebuild. The real issue was where he was. He went ghost and-

Nothing happened.

Wait a moment. He examined his hands more closely. They were mottled, blue on tan. He pulled a strand of his hair in front of his eyes. It, too, had suffered a color change. His individual hairs were alternately dark grey and silver.

He felt his heart speed up. This was a problem. A large problem. He would have to retreat to his lair in the Rockies until he could fix this and return to normal. Until then, he wouldn't be fit for the public eye; his secret would be on display for all to see.

After he confirmed that, at least, he still had access to all his powers, he flew up over the tops of the trees.

The island he had found himself above was large and unfamiliar. Trees stretched out below him in all directions, leaves whispering against each other in the faint ectoplasmic wind. Ugh. Well, he'd find something, or someone, familiar sooner or later. He had traveled through the Ghost Zone extensively while searching for the Skeleton Key.

He scanned the sky, looking for signs of civilization. There, so far away he could cover it with his thumb at arm's length, was a gathering of buildings. True, in the Ghost Zone that didn't mean much, what with all the ruins and the buildings that formed randomly from the ectoplasm, but Vlad didn't have all that much to go on. He'd take the risk.

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Ellie had been high in the sky over Louisiana, looking forward to eating some of the famous cuisine of New Orleans, when she was briefly plucked out of reality, tumbled around, and redeposited in the Ghost Zone. Somewhat stunned, she merely floated for several long minutes.

But Ellie was nothing if not adaptable, and she quickly recovered enough to look around and try to figure out what had happened. Maybe she'd been sucked through a natural portal? That didn't quite feel right, but it wasn't as if she were an expert on natural portals.

She shrugged to herself and looked around. Cajun cooking would have to wait for another day. In the meantime, she could amuse herself in the Ghost Zone.

If she could find anything amusing, that is. This particular stretch of the Ghost Zone was depressingly empty. Or was it simply misty? It could be hard to tell.

She picked a direction at random and started flying.

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It took Vlad longer than he would have liked to reach the little city. About halfway there, the wind had strengthened to a gale, blowing him back, away from the possibly-inhabited island. It had died again, just as Vlad crossed the island's shoreline.

At first, Vlad believed that the island was entirely uninhabited. No ghosts came out to greet him or drive him off. There was no movement behind the windows or doors. The streets were empty.

But, then, he discovered that all the island's residents had gathered on the far shore, floating together in a loose cloud. They were looking down, at something far below the island, occasionally pointing.

Not keen on drawing attention right away, Vlad gently pushed himself into invisibility. He approached the edge of the island cautiously, and with no little trepidation. Given the timing, this could very well be related to the disappearance of his portal and his sudden presence in the Ghost Zone.

Beneath the island, a long, slender finger of blue wove through the more typical ectoplasmic green.

Vlad frowned at the sight. A river, perhaps? But if that was the case, why were the locals so excited?

He couldn't get any information like this. Reluctantly, he turned visible.

"Excuse me," he asked a relatively quiet ghost in full Roman legionnaire armor. "I've only just returned to the Ghost Zone, and everyone seems rather excited. Do you know what's going on?"

"Coronation," said the ghost, breathless even for one of the dead.

Vlad frowned. "Pardon?"

"Coronation!" exclaimed the ghost. The other chattering ghosts fell silent, and turned towards the legionnaire.

"Are you sure?" asked a green-skinned young woman in a toga, her pale yellow eyes huge. "Coronation?"

"It could be nothing else!" proclaimed the legionnaire.

"What do you mean, a coronation?" asked a ghost in more modern clothes. "As in, a king? This isn't going to be another one of those things where we all run away, is it?"

"No!" said the legionnaire, wrapping an arm around the man's shoulders. "This calls for celebration! A new king has been chosen and crowned!" He tossed his helmet into the air, and it reformed on his head a moment later. "The Realms shall heal from their wounds, and a new age will dawn!"

Vlad fought down a stab of jealousy. Once, he had hoped to gain that position. Well, he could determine how to turn the Zone's new political circumstances to his advantage later, when he was at his leisure. For now, he had more immediate concerns.

"Heal from their wounds?"

"Yes!" said the legionnaire, excited, his head bobbing. "After a coronation, the King's Grace sweeps through the land. Ghosts are called home! The tears are healed!"

"The tears- Surely, you don't mean the portals."

"I do, at that," said the legionnaire, grave in a way only a ghost could pull off. "That is what happened last time. Oh, that I am so lucky as to see a new king rise. May he be a kind one!"

"The portals have closed?" pressed Vlad. "All of them?"

"Yes, all of them."

"For how long?"

"When Pariah Dark took the throne," said the ghost, "it was a good century, at least."

"No," said Vlad. "I can't be away from the mortal world for that long!"

The legionnaire patted Vlad's shoulder consolingly. "Family in the other world? Friends? It is hard to leave such things behind, but, well, memento mori. They will return to you in time! Be glad instead! This is a happy occasion!"

With that, the legionnaire was borne off by his fellows. Vlad could hear some of the ghosts already making plans for a party.

"Wait," he said, snagging one of them by the elbow. He braced himself slightly, expecting to have to field an ectoblast. Instead, the ghost, a middle-aged woman with an elaborate coif, merely looked at him quizically. "Do you know the way to the Fenton Portal?" he asked, desperately. "The permanent ghost portal, guarded by Phantom."

"Oh, thinking that one might not be sealed?" asked the woman. "Best of luck to ye. It's off that way," she pointed. "When ye reach the Seven Obelisks, bend right, so you're aiming between Red Mountain and Mammoth Island.

"Ah," said Vlad, "I know the place. Thank you." And then he did a double take, because when was the last time he had genuinely thanked anyone?

He shook his head and flew, as fast as he could.

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Luckily for Ellie, a great wind kicked up shortly after she began flying and blew off most of the mist, letting her see clearly. She did have to take shelter for a moment behind a large floating boulder, to avoid being tumbled head-over-heels by the wind, but that was a minor inconvenience at best.

It did however, mean that she had a chance to look at herself and realize that she was wearing her human clothing. Weird. She had definitely been in ghost form when she got sucked in here, and she could have sworn she had still been in it. She tried to change. Couldn't.

Oh, this could be bad. What if she was destabilizing again? She needed to find Danny. He'd know what to do.

When the wind died back, Ellie peered out, and spotted what looked like a village in the distance. She flew to it, as quickly as she could, though it still took a distressingly long time to reach, nearly an hour.

The people of the town appeared to be in the midst of setting up for some kind of party. Normally, Ellie would love to stay, find out what was going on, and participate in any way she could, but the whole 'I might melt' thing really wasn't conducive to that.

"Excuse me," she said, flagging down a matronly woman. "Do you know how I can get to Phantom's Portal?"

"Why," said the woman, "you're the second person to ask me that today. Ye just go that way until ye reach the Seven Obelisks, then bend right, so you're aiming between Red Mountain and Mammoth Island. Keep on going straight 'til you hit it. If it's still there, you won't be able to miss it."

"Second person?" asked Ellie. "Who was the first? Did he look like me, but a bit older?"

"He had similar hair, aye," said the woman, nodding.

Ellie smiled. Maybe Danny was here and she'd be able to catch up to him.

"Thanks!" she said, brightly, before bounding off.

It was not until she reached the obelisks that she thought to wonder what the woman meant by 'if it's still there.'

Well. It probably wasn't important, anyway.

After a few hours, Ellie had reached more familiar territory, though she still hadn't caught sight of Danny. Her anxiety was building. She didn't want to melt. Not again.

She was so focused on that thought that she didn't notice the myriad tiny and not-so-tiny changes creeping through the Zone. The blue swirls, the more vibrant plant life, the slight alterations in the orbits of the islands, the way the whole atmosphere of the Zone seemed less foreboding, friendlier.

Finally, she reached the stretch of the Ghost Zone where the portal should have been located, but the whole space was...

Empty.

The portal wasn't there.

She reached up to seized her hair in her hands. How could it not be there?

A few strands in her hair fell in front of her eyes. It was striped, white and black. Oh, Ancients, it was spreading.

And then, to her horror, the voice of the person she least wanted to see split the near-silence.

"Danielle?"

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Vlad sat on an boulder, staring at the space the Fenton Portal should have occupied.

He wasn't despairing. He was planning. If a portal could be made from that side of the veil, surely he could make one from this side. If he couldn't do so with technological means, there were mystical ones. Before resorting to that, however, he should try and find ghosts with the ability to make portals. He knew that some existed, though he had never encountered any directly, himself, with the exception of Pariah Dark.

Speaking of the old king... Perhaps dethroning the new one would make the portals reopen. A fight with the new king, whoever he may be, wasn't something that he would enter into lightly, but if all else failed...

His eyes returned to the former location of the portal, and he clenched his fists. He couldn't be trapped here for a hundred years. He just couldn't. It was unthinkable. Too horrible to contemplate.

A small figure flew into view. A familiar figure.

It couldn't be. But why not? If he had been sucked in here by the coronation of the new king, then why not the other two half ghosts?

He flew forward. "Danielle?" he called.

The girl turned. Clearly, she had been crying.

"Vlad!" she exclaimed, with venom. Her eyes narrowed in something approximating concern. "What happened to you? Are you destabilizing, too?"

Ah, and there was a theory to haunt his nightmares. "Not to the best of my knowledge," he said, adjusting the cuffs of his suit. "I presume you were also brought here by the coronation?"

"The what?" asked Danielle, drifting backwards, hands up, ready to block or deliver a blow.

Vlad rolled his eyes. "The ghosts have crowned a new king. Why now, rather than all the years Pariah Dark slept, I have no idea. Regardless, it has had certain effects on the Ghost Zone, and," he looked at his blotchy hand with distaste, "apparently, us. You aren't destabilizing."

"That's what you'd like me to think," said Danielle.

Vlad scoffed. "Please. I don't care what you think. I don't suppose you've seen Daniel? I suspect he's been brought here as well."

"No," said Danielle.

"And you wouldn't tell me even if you had, hmm?" said Vlad. "I'm not interested in picking a fight with him. For the moment, we have the same goals: return to the mortal world."

"How do you know what his goals are?"

"Have you seen how he dotes on that town of his?" asked Vlad. "Not to mention his dolt of a father. Of course he wants to go back."

"Assuming he's even here," grumbled Danielle. Even so, she relaxed her guard.

"Well," said Vlad. "Where is he?"

"I already told you, I don't know."

Vlad frowned. "Then, if you were he, where would you be? It should be easy for you to deduce. It is, after all, what you were designed for."

Danielle tilted her chin up, defiantly, nostrils flaring, but she reigned in her temper. Doing so was the one thing in which she had surpassed her original. "Knowing Danny and his luck, he's probably right at the center of all this."

Vlad angled himself towards the place where all the blue swirls were radiating from. "Of course he is."

.

The two half ghosts arrived at what had once been Pariah's Keep.

"Wow," said Ellie. "This is different." She craned her head back, trying to take the whole thing in. "Reminds me more of a palace than a keep, now."

"What would you know?"

"Excuse me? I've been to Europe? I know the difference."

Ancients, she wished she wasn't as worried about Danny as she was, but if he was trapped or something she'd need Vlad's firepower to break him out.

Cautiously, the pair moved closer to the palace. It wasn't empty.

"Shades," said Vlad, his voice low. "Not true ghosts. They follow the will of the one who casts them. In this case, most likely the king. I would have expected more of a crowd than this, though, considering how recently he was crowned."

"Yeah, like, a party or something," agreed Ellie. "But this place looks really big, maybe they're all just inside?"

"Perhaps," said Vlad.

"So, do we sneak in, or what?"

"No," said Vlad. He smiled, thinly. "I believe I will request an audience. Perhaps I'll offer my services."

.

The audience was denied, and all other attempts to gain access were rebuffed, firmly, but with a gentleness not often found in the Ghost Zone. The shades only had one thing to say: Return when the king wakes.

Not having many other options, Vlad and Ellie adopted an uneasy truce as they searched for Danny- or at least his allies. They had similar needs, after all, as they both had a human half.

Uneasy was definitely the key word.

Danny's allies had made themselves frustratingly scarce. Vlad was contemplating an attempt to establish himself in a community, or at least make a base of operations.

A week and a half later, one of the shades came to them.

The king wakes, it said.

It was practically an invitation. Ellie wasn't convinced accepting it was a good idea, at this point, but she had to admit that she didn't know where else to look for Danny. He had to have come through. Every other ghost and half ghost had, right down to the smallest blob.

They went back to the palace. A shade led them through perfumed gardens and past tinkling water fountains. Ghostly insects played among luminous flowers. Detailed statues marked turns in the path, and the rest of the stonework was carved just as intricately. A distant wind chime sounded once every minute or so, presaging the arrival of light gusts of air.

They were brought to a small circular paved area that was lined with benches. Two ghosts, real ghosts, stood on either side of one of those benches. That bench was occupied by a small, slender figure. A crown of glassy flowers and silver vines adorned his striped hair.

He turned slightly, slowly, to face them.

Ellie couldn't restrain a gasp. Danny was missing an eye.

[xmxisxforxmaybe]

Can you do an Elliot smut where the reader finds a scar on elliot's stomach while sleeping with him

We are just going to pretend S4 Elliot does not exist at the moment so I can bask in the glory of my imaginary soft, sweet, lonely, needy Elli.

Warning: Sexual content

The first time you hooked up with Elliot Alderson, it was an accident. Not an “oops, tripped, and fell on his dick” accident, but a you “swore to GOD, no more guys until you had thoroughly vetted them and made sure they weren’t assholes, but fuck if he wasn’t just THE cutest” accident.

Your friend, Angela, swore he was a nice guy and swore he was only perceived to be an asshole because he was so bad at socializing. Even though she was drunk as hell, you believed her. She’d been friends with Elliot forever, and if someone as sweet as Angela had been friends with someone since childhood surely, they were at least a decent human being.

Most of your awkward small talk consisted of discussing the irony of Angela’s terrible choices in boyfriends and the idea she liked to play matchmaker despite being unable to properly match herself.

“There’s a reason for that,” Elliot said, his hands turning his beer bottle nervously.

“Yeah?”

“How long have you known her?”

“Mmm, five years now,” you reply before taking a sip of your drink and peering at Elliot over the rim.

“She picks people who don’t really love her—usually, they just love the idea of her. That’s how she protects herself.”

You raise your eyebrow, considering the accuracy of Elliot’s statement.

“I think we all have a little bit of that in us,” you said with a sigh.

Elliot seemed to internalize your statement, thinking deeply before finally asking you, “Do you wanna maybe get out of here?”

You fucked against the door of your apartment, laughing a little at the audacity of the situation. You wanted to write off as a one-night stand, but Elliot’s eyes stayed with you. You knew you couldn’t quickly forget the way he looked at you when he asked you to leave, and the way he looked at you when he asked you if you were sure before he hoisted you up and slammed into your body.

Three weeks later, you hooked up again, once more at your apartment. Elliot made the lamest excuse to see you and you teased him for it until he gave you the sweetest, softest smile, and you attacked him, like an animal, once more not making it any further than pushing aside offending bits of clothing before grinding together to reach your climaxes.

Before he left, the two of you set a proper date at a Chinese place not far from his apartment. You had decided you would meet at Elliot’s, then walk to the restaurant together.

When you got off at the East Broadway station, you raised your brow at the graffitied platform and strong stench that emitted from the stop. It was just far enough from Chinatown that you had never used the stop before.

You walked the few blocks to Elliot’s quickly, purposefully, and were unsurprised when you were able to jog up the stairs and open the door without being buzzed in.

Elliot said he lived in 4C, so you made your way up, thinking about how quiet the building was, wondering if all of its occupants were asleep during the day.

“Hey,” Elliot said, opening the door almost right after you knocked.

You smiled, and Elliot stepped aside to let you in. After a quick scan, you decided that Elliot’s neatness suited his personality, and aside from his unmade bed, nothing was out of place.

“Cozy,” you said, proffering another smile for Elliot.

“Thanks.”

You put your hands inside your coat pockets, but Elliot made no move to indicate he was ready to leave. Instead, he crossed the room and sat on the couch, his eyes flicking to the seat next to him.

After shrugging out of your coat and hanging it across the back of his kitchen chair, you joined Elliot on the couch.

“How was your day?”

“Alright,” Elliot said, his eyes dancing over your face. “Yours?”

“Kinda shitty. Long. But—” you said trailing off, biting your lip and readjusting your position on the couch so you were facing Elliot.

“But?”

“But better now because I’m with you.”

Elliot shook his head, clearly mystified.

“I was surprised you wanted to see me again.”

“Why?” you asked, honestly perplexed.

“I’m a nobody.”

“Well, hi nobody. Nice to meet you because I’m a nobody, too.”

“Is that Dr. Suess?” Elliot said with a quirk of his dark brow.

You laughed and answered, “Not that I know of.”

“Are you hungry?”

“Not especially. Late lunch. You?”

Elliot shrugged.

“Since you’re feeling so nobody-ish today, we could just order in?”

“That would be great,” Elliot said. “If you don’t mind, I mean. This must seem so fucked up. I asked you out, and—and…”

“I’m just glad you wanted to see me again,” you said softly, looking at him with genuine interest. “We can go out some other time—if you want to see me again.”

“I do,” Elliot said, turning his body to face me. “I’m just—I fucking suck at this.”

“I’m no expert. Believe me. And you know what?”

Elliot looked at me with wide eyes, so I continued.

“I’m totally okay with this. You. Me. Getting to know each other. Really getting to know each other,” you said, clearly referencing your previous two encounters.

Elliot grinned, and you thought it was the sexiest thing you had ever seen.

“Should we order now?”

“Later,” you said, closing the distance between the two of you and kissing Elliot.

You could feel him smile into the kiss before he pulled you closer, working to pull you onto his lap.

You kissed, slowly and lazily, with no clear end in mind other than memorizing the taste of one another. His tongue moved languidly against yours and you thought you could do this forever, just kiss him until the edges of your mind softened, blurred into nothing but the scent, taste, and feel of Elliot Alderson.

That was until Elliot’s cool fingers slipped under your shirt and ghosted across your lower back, causing you to shiver and break the kiss, both of you chuckling softly as Elliot apologized and withdrew his hands.

You grasped his hands and pressed them together between your own, warming them.

“I want,” Elliot began, his face twisted in an expression of worry.

“Tell me.”

“I want to go slow. Learn what you like.”

“Okay,” you breathed, releasing his hands and pushing your body into his, grasping the back of his head to pull him in for another kiss.

Elliot’s now much warmer fingers found their way to your back again, and he pulled back from the kiss to ask if he could take off your shirt. You raised your arms in response, and he pulled your sweater over your head, tossing it on the floor.

Elliot’s eyes raked over your skin, making you feel beautiful under his appreciative gaze. He raised his hands and lightly touched your collar bone with his fingertips. He slowly lowered his hands, his fingers digging into your flesh as he dragged them down your body—over the tops of your breasts, pausing to squeeze them before sliding down over your stomach, your hips, and then stopping to dig into your thighs, grasping them and causing you to exhale a shaky breath.

“Bed?”

Elliot nodded.

You slid from his lap and kicked your shoes off on the way to the bed. You heard Elliot do the same, and you turned around to face him, kissing him again.

Elliot’s hands grasped your ass through your jeans and you moaned at his firm contact, leaning back to expose your neck, inviting Elliot to kiss you there.

He read the signal and pulled you close, wrapping his arms around your back so the two of you were flush against each other as he nipped and sucked at tiny spots on your neck until you were a mewling mess, clutching at his back before pushing away so you could pop the button on your jeans and shimmy out of them.

Elliot smiled at your haste, and you smiled back, falling onto the mattress to get comfortable.

“Shirt?”

Elliot swiftly pulled off his long sleeve shirt, your eyes raking over his torso appreciating his lean physique—

“Elliot? What happened?” you asked as you clambered to your knees and move to inspect the obvious scar on his abdomen.

Elliot ran a hand through his hair, twisting the spiked strands while he avoided your burning gaze.

“This was a bad idea,” he said, bending to pick up his shirt.

“No—no this is not a bad idea,” you said, standing up and pulling his shirt from his fingers. “You don’t have to answer—it was rude of me to ask. I’m sorry.”

You bent your head, twisting to get him to look up at you, and Elliot did, his eyes full of sadness, hesitancy.

“I’m not going anywhere,” you continued, reaching up to cup his face. “Unless you want me to go?”

Elliot quickly shook his head no.

You looked at each other for a few moments before you pulled Elliot’s body to yours, enjoying the feeling of skin on skin.

At first you just held on to each other, Elliot’s chin resting on your shoulder. You reached up and scratched at the short hair on his head before running your hands over his back again.

You felt his lips on your shoulder, a soft kiss, and then you felt his tongue, sliding along your shoulder and to your collar bone.

“Elliot,” you breathed. “Want you so much.”

You two fell into bed and resumed your slow explorations. And as you kissed down Elliot’s chest, you squeezed his pecs, tweaking his nipples and pulling a low moan from his throat. Your tongue danced through the dark line of hair that led down his abdomen, and you felt Elliot’s hips buck. You bit down on the fabric near the button of his jeans and pulled it open with your teeth.

You dug your thumbs into Elliot’s hips to hold him still and tongued at his zipper until you could clasp it between your teeth. You looked up to see Elliot on his elbows, watching you with clouded, half-lidded eyes. You grinned and lowered the zipper.

You sat up to pull off his pants, leaving his boxerbriefs on. You tickled Elliot’s feet and pulled a grin from him before you crawled back up his body, your tongue revisiting his abdomen.

Cocking your head to the side, you looked over his scar, knowing without a doubt it was from a gunshot. Maybe Elliot wasn’t ready to talk to you, maybe he wouldn’t ever be ready, but you could at least make sure he knew that you cared about him now—

You traced the outline of the scar with your finger and Elliot shivered. He was still watching you and you looked at him with compassion before bending your head to kiss softly at his scar, tracing your tongue over the rough ridges of his skin before planting another soft, sweet kiss.

“Thanks,” Elliot whispered, his eyes shining with adoration.

You slid up his body to kiss him again, settling your weight. He clutched you and rolled you over onto your back, his hands sliding around to finally unhook your bra.

Elliot took his time with you, as he said he would. And with every shiver of pleasure he gave to you, you knew that he was thanking you—for understanding him, for not pushing him, for just wanting to be with him and letting that be enough for now.

[connorsaturday]

“Prove it.”

[September 28th-29th, 2017]

      The drive home from my hometown movie theater that night was really nothing out of the ordinary for me, but for my friend it was a different story. A whimsical child at heart, Andrew was shook after seeing Annabelle at the 10:15 showing – I mean, really shook. He wasn’t hyperventilating quite yet, but he was getting there. In the spirit of light conversation, we started talking about the movie, which (for those of you who don’t know) is essentially about a band of catholic orphans fending off the devil himself who is manifested into the soul of deceased young girl. So naturally, the topic of ghosts, demons, and everything paranormal comes up. Personally, I don’t see the validity in the claim that paranormal forces are real, to any extent and in any manner. Andrew, on the other hand, didn’t only just believe in demons, he was adamant that he had personally experienced paranormal forces in his lifetime, and how the memory still haunts him at night and keeps him from sleeping at times. I’m somewhat of an asshole, so I had a good chuckle and dismissed his unfounded claims and gave him my usual kneejerk response when it comes to these matters: if you can’t measure it, it isn’t real.

      You see, the only problem with an otherwise airtight methodology of determining reality from a psychological attribution error is that I currently consider myself a somewhat religious Presbyterian. The clear contradiction of have an undying belief in the scientific mindset approach to the world, while also believing in something that cannot be measured or observed in any manner whatsoever, should give most everyone a good bit of cognitive dissonance (myself included). At this point most might say “ignorance is bliss”, but I believe that ignorance is the fool’s heroin: this mindset gets you by in the short term, but ultimately will destroy you in the end. Running away from your problems will never solve them, and ignorance will never give you true happiness, only momentary bliss.

       This isn’t the first time I’ve been confronted with this internal dilemma, either. I recently shared some healthy conversation with a fellow North Parker here who told me about the time that God spoke to him. Now go back and re-read that. He told me that God spoke to him. I was immediately filled with so many doubts. How do you know it was God? How do you know that it wasn’t just another one of the many errors in the human psyche? Why is it that if God is speaking to you, that he doesn’t just speak to us all and convert everyone? What kind of logic is that, God?  I asked him these questions (politely), and he answered all of them… technically. The thing about someone experiencing divine intervention is that only that person experiences it. You can’t recreate it, observe any lasting effects, or prove in any way that this person did indeed hear the voice of God, and wasn’t just fooled by their own subconscious (even though this is entirely more plausible).

      No matter how many stories I hear, or how many “miracles of god” I witness, I can’t seem to ever just hop on the bandwagon and believe like others do. And how could I? I don’t believe in superstitions. I walk on the North Park seal usually once a day (sometimes more from doing it on purpose). I don’t believe in fate. The popular tweet in my feed right now is some guy who says, “Always pay attention. You don't meet people by accident and things don’t happen just by coincidence.” Don’t they? Does nothing happen by coincidence? Does purely random Brownian Motion not lead to diffusion in your cells, which allows you to live? I mean, seriously people. You meet people by accident ALL THE TIME. That person you bumped into on the elevator and became friends with? Formed via the most basic rules of the universe: random probability and human behavior (both purposeful and accidental). How, with an approach to life as literal and scientific as mine, can I believe in something that is against most everything I believe in?

      Often times when I watch TV shows or movies that I really like, I find myself assimilating or at least relating to the personalities of the characters at times. When I watched The Office exclusively for three months, I began incorporating small, unique quips and quirks from John Krasinski’s character, “Jim”, into my everyday behavior for a day or two after I had finished the show. I have found this happen to me with a 1997 film called Contact, in which a young scientist named Dr. Ellie Arroway discovers the first tangible evidence of extraterrestrial life, but nobody believes except the president’s personal religious advisor, Palmer Joss. There is a scene in the film I’m quite fond of, when Ellie and Palmer talk about whether God is real or just a figment of the human imagination. Ellie, a lifelong religious skeptic, quotes a line to Palmer from his own book, saying, “Ironically, the thing that people are most hungry for (meaning), is the one thing that science hasn’t been able to give them.” She then claims that he is essentially saying “science killed God”. Palmer then takes Ellie out onto the balcony, where she backs up her atheist argument by explaining Occam’s Razor to him. She explains that it is the scientific principle that states that the simplest explanation is often the most likely explanation, and that between an infinite and all-powerful God who created the universe and left no evidence, or the idea that there simply is no God, that the latter is simpler (and therefore more likely). She ends her argument by saying that, like me, she needs proof. There is a brief silence as Palmer seems to collect his thoughts. He then asks her, knowing that her father had passed away when she was six, “Did you love your father?” Taken back, she responds, “What?”

“Your dad, did you love him?”

“Yes… very much.”

After a pregnant pause, Palmer turns to Ellie, and says,

“Prove it.”

       After all is said and done, after all the evidence is presented and all the cases have been made, I am still stuck with the same problem of trying to reconcile my religion with my prominent scientific worldview. I have to believe that if God truly created everything, then he created science too. As we evolve as a species and as a society, we continue to make technological and scientific advances that we wouldn’t have dreamed of twenty years prior. A few years back, a rumor about Bill Gates spread that he once claimed that “640 kilobytes is enough”, in the sense that people would never need more than that much data space. For those of you who are not technological professionals like myself, 640 kb is around six one-millionths of a gigabyte - 0.00064 gigabytes. While this rumor was later proven to be false, the lesson we can learn from it is very much true. We are always the most scientifically advanced we have ever been, but we have not yet reached the pinnacle of science as a whole, and there is still a possibility that we simply do not have the tools, concepts, and understanding of science to prove God – but I believe that one day we will. It took over a hundred years for us to confirm Einstein’s theory of relativity, but we did confirm it. Even if I’m not alive to see it happen, I stand firm in the belief that science and God can and do co-exist; we just don’t understand how yet.

[zapgraptrash]

World-building June - Day 4: History

THIS IS OBSCENELY LONG AND PROBABLY OBSCENELY BORING SO IT’S GOING UNDER A CUT! i might add more to it as i think of it

Since humans became smart enough to make civilisations – emotion magic is a thing but nobody knows how to harness it and many people are unconvinced it’s actually real so everywhere has its own myths and legends about it (once upon a time these two people were so in love that their love burned down a whole country, etc). Kind of like how we have stories about ghosts and vampires and werewolves and stuff. One popular belief is that it comes from the moons, so when they’re full the magic is particularly Strong.

476 – The Roman Empire does NOT fall/split, it does just goddamn fine. There’s no squabbling over who becomes the next emperor because they use a normal system of getting it off your relatives. It extends a lot further than in Dimension 1, integrating all the “barbarians” that otherwise would have invaded and contributed to its downfall in our world. The Dark Ages don’t happen and Christianity doesn’t become so huge. It still exists but it doesn’t have a monopoly on education and shit.

999 – This is when it ACTUALLY falls. The emperor is assassinated and the whole empire collectively loses its shit because there is no one to take over. It splits into a bunch of new countries with their own rulers. From here on, technology and science and knowledge in general proceed a lot faster than they do in Dimension 1, as there was no period of regression to prevent it from doing so.

1503 – The Sengoku Period of Japan (feudal Japan) is shorter than it is in Dimension 1 and ends here, the country becomes unified and likewise develops quicker. Samurai have so many guns and they keep those guns.

1885 – Cars exist now. Also the USA declares its independence from the British Empire (which is still obscenely fucking huge).

1910-18 – There is a surge in “incidents” supposedly involving emotion magic and since video now exists, stuff has been recorded and now there’s growing interest in it.

1919 – Morgan-Ellis Labs is founded to try and find out what exactly emotion power can do. [note to self the name comes from Russ Morgan and Seger Ellis whomst wrote the music for It’s All Over But The Crying i.e the fallout 4 theme song]

1920 – Madnug is born.

1929 – All these empires (Britain, USA, Russia, Japan, China, Germany) are getting too big for their own good and relations between all of them are strained. They’re all racing to make the biggest goddamn bomb ever.

1929-44 – Some form of Cold War. Everyone wants to go to war but don’t want to destroy the entire planet (yet). Massive amounts of xenophobically charged crimes all over the world. It’s just a thing that happens now. The research on emotion power slows down as “fear” and “anger” dominate everything. Also during this time, fossil fuels are running low which of course does not help. Meanwhile Morgan-Ellis are trying to figure out if emotion can be used as a power source like it’s electricity or something.

1940 – Madnug moves from Japan to Boston, to work at Morgan-Ellis Labs.

1945 – October 21: The president of the USA is assassinated by a Russian and shit just kicks the FUCK off.

October 23: The War starts, and then ends a day later. Very little of humanity survives the initial bombs, and even more die off in the aftermath.

Morgan-Ellis Labs is one of a few places that had a bunker built underneath it in anticipation of a war so most people working there manage to survive the firestorms that happen immediately after the bombs fall. They stay in the bunker until it’s safe to actually be outside the lab.

Madnug and the other survivors from the lab start trying to help anyone left outside. There aren’t many but they stick together.

1946 – The General appears in Dimension 0, in a much smaller and weaker state than it “currently” is.

The survivors now have a settlement near what used to be Laconia, NH, as it’s away from where the nukes hit. They’ve named it Sanctuary. However resources are running low and tensions are high, nobody really knows what to do as there are no animals and growing crops has had little to no success.

On October 23, exactly a year after the bombs fell and also Madnug’s birthday, one of these arguments happens and she just goes off by herself for a while to be miserable. The general locks in on her misery and appears before her, communicating telepathically. It claims it can make everything better through bringing “help” from alternate dimensions, but it needs Madnug’s help to do this. For the next few months, Madnug secretly builds a gate to be used for inter dimensional travel according to the general’s instructions. It’s a bit haphazard but it’ll do.

1947 – The general tells Madnug that he/it can provide the final bit of power to open the gate, but in order to do that it needs some (more) negative energy. Madnug doesn’t understand how any more of it could possibly be generated, the entire world is dead and those who are left are rapidly losing the will to live. The general talks Madnug into shooting all those who are left but in such a way that they die slowly. It’s for the greater good, he says. Once we can access alternate dimensions and get what we need, we can start over. Be the creators of our own civilisation. Madnug doesn’t want to do this and tries to kill herself instead but she seems immune to death??? The general keeps her alive no matter what and since he’s basically bonded to her now there’s nothing she can do so she has to do what he says.

The gate to Dimension 1 is opened. Madnug and the general “recruit” people (mostly soldiers and prisoners from WW2) to steal resources from Dimension 1’s Earth, recover things from the bombed places in Dimension 0 (usually dying in the process) and start building up a proper settlement in Sanctuary. The planet itself is also kind of called Sanctuary at this point too and it sticks.

1948 – The general grows a lot larger and more powerful from the misery of the people stolen who are doing his dirty work and he is able to open gates to other dimensions now. The next wave of people to be recruited are made to join an army which invades these other dimensions to either steal more resources or just cause mayhem for whoever lives there (if anyone). This is also when the general becomes known as “The General”.

1950 – Sanctuary is now a fairly large city and the army is the reason is it able to function. The army is named the Platinum Army. I currently don’t have an explanation for this because I got it from a song lmao.

Madnug starts trying to learn every kind of science possible for “something to keep her sane” in between going to recruit people and the general doing his thing.

1965 – The after-effects of the bombs have decreased enough to be “safe”. Crops do better in the small spaces where they can be grown, the ozone is healing, the smoke clouds are thinning, the sun is more visible more often, rain/snow is more frequent, the overall temperature is no longer Fucking Freezing, etc.

1976-77 – A small group starts to figure out the emotion magic of Dimension 0 and tries to utilise it to make an attack on the general. They get disposed of almost immediately.

1980 – Madnug should be 60 now but she still looks like she’s in her mid-late 20s. Immune to death and immune to aging? She has long since stopped interacting with anyone in the Platinum Army unless it’s absolutely necessary and even then her identity is well hidden. She still recruits people though, but no longer by herself, sometimes other people are sent to do it too.

1986 – The general is now powerful enough to devour entire goddamn planets when they’ve been ransacked to his satisfaction.

1995-96 – The internet becomes common use for everyone in Sanctuary, though it’s used for communication a lot more than information, as information is mostly lost and/or borrowed from Dimension 1. Cell phones are also common use.

2003 – Trashland starts!!!!!!!