#world building info

[kathaynesart]

Good eye, @luckylazylurker They're just regular military grade ID Tags. So it includes name, identification number, blood type, faith for burial purposes, and US Mutant Guard designation. The usual.

Though ironically, the boys do not fall under the newly standardized definition of "Mutant," which only designates humans who have been mutated into creatures. NOT animals that have been mutated to become more human/sapient. An important distinction, considering one can get you enlisted in the USMG and the other will probably get you in a test tube.

Also bonus points to people who can figure out their middle names.

[lilybug-02]

Any more random Soul or other such Lore you’d like to share with us that you’ve come up with but can’t fit in the comic anywhere?

GET READY TO READ. Chara Timeline Lore!!!

Also take all of this as soft cannon. Most, if not all, will not be showing up in the comic (or at least in this amount of detail). And the comic does not need this information to make sense.

These book entries are from an in-universe source.

I hope you enjoyed the world building :> Again this is mostly all for fun!

4th Wall Break Time! - Humans are completely oblivious to the fact “soul entities” are humans themselves. Their little heads would probably pop if they truly knew. So don’t tell them! - Monsters are still made of dust in my AU, but they are more physical than their Undertale counterparts, only slightly… - Both Humans and Monsters cannot do magic freely. They would need to go through extensive training to get…a Wizard license! :O - It’s strange, but the Monsters seem more human than the actual humans in this world…huh…

[spacebubblehomebase]

I just noticed, in your HHStargazers AU no one has pupils - except for Alastor and, if she's canon, Carmilla. Does that mean slit pupils are a sign of a demon in disguise?

Good eye! 👈👈👀 (Pun unintended.) Though I don't really plan for this trait to be repeatedly shared amongst the disguised demons. Mostly to not limit my designs to an obvious tell. But the slit pupils were indeed intentional flaws I added in for those two in particular. Because according to MY headcanon, both angels and demons are beings beyond human comprehension. Thus, it's only to be expected that even when they TRY to fit in, they'll be unable to keep EVERY aspect of their uncanny nature concealed. At best, they're imperfect imitations of what "normal" should be. It just so happens that in my AU, angels have a much easier time concealing most of their little quirks and oddities away than the sinners for my own reasons and as for WHY no one ever grew suspicious of the eye thing, it's because Charlie's curiosity could be easily curved. While for Lucius to point this out, he'll have to admit that he's been staring at Alastor's eyes a lot whenever he gets close enough to drown in the depths of his gaze and- EHEM!!! Which he's NEVER done, mind you! AhahaHAH- What slit pupils??? Never noticed those before. Nuh-uh. NO siree. NOPE! Lucius is normally so, SO normal about Alastors VERY much normal eyes in a TOTALLY normal amount of normal. A-ANYWAAAYS!!! Lucius would also be a hypocrite if he was bothered by them considering his own occupation and the people he's usually surrounded by (yet to be revealed). As for the other humans, Alastor doesn't care enough about their opinions for it to be a threat to him and people often just avoid the guy unnerving them with his creepy ass stare. So it's all good! Hope you like these bonus fun facts! 'Cause I have a feeling I left you with just as much questions as answers, but that's the fun of an ongoing story, yeah? Stay tuned~! 😉✨️ -Bubbly💙

[herebecritters]

Updated the trio references! Plus bonus god powers~

[hannahhook7744]

Known Descendants Stuff (Part 2);

Known Auradon Tv Show(s):

Toddlers Without Tiaras.

Auradon’s Classiest Home Videos.

Big Bling Theory.

Auradon’s Ninja Warriors.

Palaces and Coronations.

Trading Carpets. 

Stranger thingamabobs.

My Fair Lady.

Chipped.

The Prince Is Right.

Aurora The Explorer.

The Young And The Crownless.

Little Dwarves, Big Giants.

The Great Auradon Bake Off.

Get Down With The Ballgown.

Real Princesses Of Charmingsville.

How I Met Your Fairy Godmother.

Auradon's Friendly Forcast (News).

Auradon News Network (ANN).

Known Auradon Tv Channel(s):

AAC.

Auradon News Network (ANN).

ABS.

NAC.

WDA.

Good Deeds.

Fairy Planet.

Courtesy Central.

Kindness.

Bipidity. 

Magic Network.

National Enchantment.

Princess Broadcasting. 

Known Isle Tv Channel(s):

Evil Isle.

Known Isle Tv Show(s):

Judge Frollo.

Wharf Watch.

Cruella de Vil’s Coat Club.

Skin Deep With Mother Gothel.

Known Businesses:

Knuckle Punch.

The Market Place.

Pedro’s Meals For Eels.

Brews and Stews.

Hook's Clock and Curiousity shop.

Known Punishment(s):

The Stocks. 

Known Thing(s):

Human-Animal Translator Earpiece. 

Stocks. 

Centipedes in a bag.

Worms for sail.

Hair dye.

Murky Maggie's Soap Suds for the Anti-Socialite.

Known Food(s):

Snake Eggs.

Seaweed Smoothie.

Stale Muffins.

Moldy Jelly Donuts. 

Crepes.

Canned Cream Spinach.

Tongue Tinglers.

Banana Cream Pie.

Eel Tails.

Curdled Cream.

Rotten Apples.

Crab Apples.

Gruel.

Crusty oatmeal.

Gaston's 'Large as A Barge' recipe.

Known Class(es):

Accelerated Piracy.

Understanding Goblin Speech.

Chartering And Navigation. 

Coin And Jewel Calculus.

Advanced Wickedness.

Under The Sea: Science Below The Surface.

History Of The Isle.

Known Social Media:

Auratube (YouTube).

Auradon Buzz (Twitter?).

AuradonPrepFeed.

Other:

Student lounge, auditorium, and fitness center (info from descendants mobile game).

Fashion Flash (written by Lonnie for the school newspaper).

Auradon Prep Times.

Isle Gas Station (possibly).

Some form of Disney channel/Disney XD (possibly).

Part 1.

[cubbihue]

WORLD BUILDING

[wolfsbanesparks]

Yuletide 2023

Hey y'all!

So I have (perhaps foolishly) been thinking about doing the Yuletide fic exchange again this year and thought that I should share it with all of you!

What is it?

Yuletide is a multi-fandom fic exchange that takes place every year around the holidays. It's for small fandoms with less than 1000 completed fics on AO3. (Find out if your favorite fandom is eligible here!)

When is it?

Nominations are open now! If you are a part of an eligible fandom you have until Thursday September 28 to nominate them. It's very simple, just list the fandom's name and up to four characters from that fandom you would like to see in a fic. You can nominate up to four fandoms if you have multiple that fit the criteria!

Sign-ups to participate happen October 13-21, where you can list which of the eligible fandoms you would like to write for (and which ones you would like your own gift to be from!) Once you're matched up you will have until December 18 to finish your fic!

If you want to know more about Yuletide and how it works go here!

I had a lot of fun doing this exchange last year and would love to have more people join us this year!

EDIT: Here's the link to the rules on AO3 for anyone who isn't sure how to navigate Dreamwidth.

[simplepotatofarmer]

quick rundown on my 'from eden' au:

it's kind of another take on 'rabbit run' with some differences like playing with the idea of a populated smp.

c!dream is trans and a rabbit hybrid and was very secretive about his identity leading to like. no one knowing this about him.

c!sam denies any visitors into the prison until c!quackity convinces him to allow q into the prison to torture dream.

at some point, things go too far, sam gets Weird About Dream, and begins building a replica cell on his island.

eventually sam parts ways with q and takes dream out of the prison to keep him on his island. he continues to pretend dream is in the prison.

q finds out, threatens to tell everyone, sam relents and lets q back to the replica cell to continue torturing dream. it's Very Weird, they're both so strange about the situation.

dream is locked up for about two years.

he eventually escapes, gets cornered by pillagers and saved by techno who is like 'yo why is there a strange bunny girl here'

dream lies to techno about who he is, not speaking, and techno believing this is a traumatized person needing help, shelters dream and keeps his presence secret. it's not ideal because dream is basically living as a woman which sucks but he's like 'well i'm not being tortured so'

six months pass and finally sam and q are forced to go public with the whole 'dream escaped' thing but uuhhhhh the whole thing is really weird! people (read techno and the syndicate) are suspicious. dream is fucking panicking.

he freaks out a lot, techno is trying to calm him down, and is suddenly like '.....wait. what does sam and quackity have to do with anything about you.' and dream is just🧍and techno goes 'bruh'.

techno promises that he won't turn dream in because he realizes that the state dream was in, which was pretty fucking horrific, was the result of what those two were doing to him.

eventually the whole thing gets outed a few months later, i haven't really planned this part out, it's not like. super important to me but the gist is techno and co. wreck their shit and are like 'you are very strange people here's a restraining order don't come within 5k blocks of dream or i'll kill you'

dream and techno finally get some time to actually explore their feelings for each other!!!!

it a bit for them to actually get together and then like two years before they have a very small informal wedding

four or five years after that they have kids!!! :D they're very cute and call phil 'grandpa' and niki and ranboo are like the fun aunt and uncle who get away with giving the triplets too much sugar or loud toys or whatever.

they live happily ever after. the end.

[silverskye13]

could I ask how far into building you are when it comes to the uhhh

court of remembrance? was it court? church? order! the order of remembrance lol

how far have you build out how they work, like their common routines/rituals/etc.

I was considering making my hels!oc part of em cause the hermit-adjacent/"original" player version of my sona is really big on documenting things as they have poor memory, and I want that to be something that ties the two together? if that makes sense?

I'm so sorry this got so long. I. Have a lot of fun world building.

My notes on the Order of Remembrance, as cohesively as I can jot them down, below:

Sooo, when I was figuring out hels stuff, the Order of Remembrance [OR for short] kinda turned up as the equivalent of a culture developing an afterlife, in a world where "afterlife" demonstrably doesn't exist. What would you replace with the idea of an eternal spirit/soul, in a world where superstition and religion still exist? What do you cope with? How do you comfort? Who fills the gaps and holes in the community that people slip through, and why? What informs purpose and meaning?

Memory, the importance of remembrance, the idea that you owe it to the people around you to remember they existed, and that existence affected your life. The idea that you, as an individual, can make someone's life matter by celebrating them, mourning them, even hating them. The universe is indifferent. The greatest sin a helsmet can commit is being indifferent as well.

This started the Remembrance Walls, which gave them importance as landmarks and places of spirituality. And any place with importance deserves protection, preservation, and accessibility.

OR probably started as a small neighborhood collective dedicated to preserving the Remembrance Walls. Which turned into being the people who also supplied the bricks made for those walls, and helping people carve them. Which turned into people who would check in with folks in the neighborhood that hadn't been seen in awhile, making sure they were safe, and taking their names down if they were gone. Eventually a collective turns into an organization, and the ritual of that collective turns into a religion. Now there are helsmets who dedicate their lives, or large sums of money and material goods, to the church. In turn, the church gives back to the community in any way they can, because the more people are involved with each other, the more memories they make, the more that can be preserved.

This is also why OR is so big. Successful people in hels want a legacy that's remembered, so you put your name on every landmark in town -- the OR cathedral is a massive landmark. Memory is important [even the most self centered and heinous need purpose and fulfillment] so a lot of people associate themselves with the church in some way or another. Being remembered is a goal for everyone, not just the community minded. The OR will be important until memory stops being important.

The Staff:

Members directly serving the OR in an official capacity are: Priests/clerics [with one presiding Head/High Priest], scribes, clerks, historians, brickmakers, knights [and squires], and one or two paladins. Various members of the official congregation [they consider all of hels their congregation, given everyone deserves to be remembered, but the official congregation are those who actually attend the church services and functions] will also work for the church if they can donate relevant skills -- this is a part of the church's community building. They will seek needs and fill them with skilled individuals within the church or, if they don't have a recommendation, will contact other churches for members of their congregation. If you need a stone mason for a project, a jeweler for a custom piece, or someone to provide wheat for your new bakery, and don't know where to find one, asking at the OR cathedral is a good place to start.

Priests: Deal with the more spiritual and communal aspects of memory and remembrance. The church has divided the city into districts, and every district has at least one priest who regularly attends it, though the church's goal is to have 3 per district. Every district has at least one remembrance wall, and it's the priest's job to know all the names on that wall, as well as to know as many people as they can in their district, so they can do regular check ins on their well-being. They hold services to add new names to their walls, host and organize community events for their districts [plays, cookouts, parties, gatherings, etc]. They don't pray in the traditional sense -- Memory is more of an idea than a true deity -- but their prayers involve memorizing names, events, dates. A lot of priests will write songs and ballads to aid in this, which they will perform for each other or sing at organized events.

Scribes/clerks/historians: Exactly what it says on the tin. Stationed at the church, these guys get down to the brass tacks of putting ink to paper and codifying memory. They keep accurate records of everything from city economics to books written to personal anecdotes, and they guard their work jealously. Transcribing is a job of great importance, and accurate scribes are revered by the church. The OR has been known to pay a small fortune to individuals who can write quickly, accurately and legibly. Most of the statues decorating their cathedral are scribes revered for their dedication to their craft. Historians meanwhile function as both researchers and, to an extent, unintentional journalists, following developments in hels so they can document them as they happen. While the OR doesn't own news or run a newspaper, the handful of newspapers in town are all run by people who either used to work for the OR, or have friends on the OR historical staff.

[It's important to note the historians and clerks aren't detectives or police. They find information and write it down, they do not solve crimes or prosecute criminals. However, their thoroughness and impartiality means they're often called on as witnesses and informants to crimes. They have been attacked before for either sticking their noses in business someone didn't want remembered, or for providing information someone wanted ignored/erased. Their documents hold a lot of weight.]

This division is also in charge of the OR's extensive library. There is one main library in the cathedral, where every collected written work the library can get its hands on exists. They collect everything from journals, to poetry, to fiction writing, to recipe books. Anything written that can be remembered. They also keep transcripts of hymns and songs written by priests and knights, and up to date registries of the names on the remembrance walls. There is a second, public library that is free for hels to access, which contains every copy the scribes have gotten around to making from the main library. They encourage people to make their own copies of the library works they borrow, and can be paid to make specialty copies of popular works.

[Given how hard it is to grow large amounts of paper in hels, most books in the OR collection are written on vellum (hog skin). Almost every off-world smuggler in hels has a regular customer with the OR if they collect paper/sugar cane on their travels. OR has a current project trying to put every book they own on paper (The Nice Copy TM) and every 2nd or 3rd copy of a book on vellum. Only their best scribes are allowed to write paper copies.]

Knights: Knights are a relatively new addition to the OR staff, in that they weren't really needed when hels was small. As hels got bigger, however, and things like vandalism and crime became big and unruly, knights eventually made their way onto the scene, starting as priests with particularly good PVP skills, and eventually graduating to in-house trained fighters. You can still see their priestly roots in their practices. They too are assigned to districts. They too memorize the names on their associated walls and try to make themselves known in the neighborhoods they patrol. Instead of organizing events and focusing on the social aspects, however, they focus on making a safe place for people to live. They aren't police. Unless the crime is strictly related to memory [for example, destruction of stones on the remembrance walls] they don't track people down and drag them off to jail. They do help the community though. They will stop active crimes, they will stay with people who feel unsafe, they break up street fights, they escort their priests in rougher parts of town, they volunteer to clear out mobs that wander into the city, and have even been known to simply help with building projects for people who need a few extra hands around. Because of their generally neutral disposition towards events in hels [they protect individuals and their church, instead of business or gang interests] they are sometimes asked to be conflict mediators for battling factions in the city who are trying to reach a negotiation point. As a whole, the knights can always be found walking in groups of 2-5 on their routes. They're very rarely seen alone.

The Cathedral:

Paladins: Paladins are an enigmatic rarity for OR. Generally speaking, a paladin is a knight or priest of a given order embued with supernatural power by a deity. OR, as a godless religion, shouldn't be able to get them -- and yet sometimes they do manage to pop up. Some people think they're evidence of a Universe that actually does care about hels, sending someone who can literally fight for the rights of people to be remembered. Only a handful of paladins have ever been called, and they seem to coincidentally pop up whenever someone has done great harm to memory: massive destruction of remembrance walls, burning books, intentionally trying to erase someone from history, fraud. Generally they are compelled, like a very angry sleepwalker, to track down whoever was responsible and stop them. Sometimes this entails violence, but more often than not it involves the perpetrator being imprisoned for a very long time by what amounts to a preternaturally knowledgeable lawyer. It is probably from the OR paladins that the rumors first started that, if you angered the OR, they would have you forgotten [who else could strike someone from the memory of the world, than a guardian of memory itself?]. When they're not actively pursuing holy justice, the paladins look and act pretty normal, though their memory skills are uncanny, near perfect, and they have the habit of just Knowing Things they shouldn't be able to -- speaking and reading languages they've never learned, prophetic visions, etc. When they're being compelled to justice, they describe it as being "dreamlike". In the same way in a dream you Know you can fly despite it being untrue in reality, a compelled OR paladin Knows a destruction of memory has happened, and is unable to stop pursuing that destruction until it's been righted. In the moment, paladins describe the feeling as intensely peaceful: the ability to Know and be Sure. The only frustration is when forces actively try to hinder their task. Because of the intensity of their compulsion, they often have to fight to keep up with basic needs, and it's not uncommon for paladins to lose weight, fall into sleep deprived psychosis, and collapse from exhaustion. Paladins released from their compulsion often have to be nursed back to health again, though none yet have expressed regrets about the rough treatments of their bodies. The way they see it, whatever force compelling them has never been human, and therefore doesn't understand the toll it takes on a living body.

As with all paladins in hels, while they're recovering or in between compulsions, they tie a peace knot around their weapon to symbolize their dormancy.

Squires and apprentices: alongside their regular training with their chosen staff and/or clergy, squires and apprentice clerics/scribes/historians work as the general help staff of the cathedral. If errands need running, someone needs contacted, a mantle needs dusted, an odd job needs filled, they're the ones who catch the chores. They also have the very important responsibility of brick making -- or helping with brick making. The cathedral does employ master brick makers, but those brick makers often need extra hands, so every day the squires and apprentices set aside time to make bricks. This is a time of concentration and meditation, and the apprentices are encouraged not to talk during the process. When each batch has finished baking, the master brickmaker working with the group will call an end to the silence. When this ritual started, the ending was a lot more reverent. Over the years though, the brickmakers have taken more joy in their work than solemnity. It's not uncommon for the brickmakers to break the silence with increasingly bad jokes, rewarding the apprentices that laugh first.

The Head/High Priest: The high priest differs from the other priests and clerics by taking on mostly administrative work. They do not work alone. They have a board of 10 priests, clerks and scribes that help keep things balanced. Balance is the high priest's main objective. The OR excels because it stays as neutral as possible in all of hels's affairs. It does its best to owe nothing to anyone, repays all its debts, and doesn't work with one or two of the various hels factions exclusively. Its goal is to remain as uncorrupt as possible in a system rampant with political and financial corruption. Hels is a place full of evil halves and dark mirrors, a lot of very selfish and manipulative people end up in power, so it's a hard line to walk.

The First Church of Hels, also known as the Cathedral of Remembrance, was the first dedicated church erected in hels. It started out much smaller, a netherbrick building with a brickworks in the back for providing stones. As they grew in importance, so too did the building, until eventually the large cathedral was erected. It was a massive effort from many different hels denizens, and almost every room in the cathedral has a place to display the names of contributors to the project, from the people who laid the mosaic tiles to the folks who soldered the stained glass. The original bricks of the first iteration of the church are enshrined as a pathway that leads through the back garden of the building to their new, much more impressive brickworks. These foundational bricks remain empty, and are blanket dedicated to any helsmet who managed to slip through the cracks in society, whose names were forgotten, never known, or never noted.

The cathedral has one main sanctuary where worship and prayer are performed. They have one holy day a week where all their various members, and any congregation who wants to join, gather to sing songs and hymns, poetry and lists. There are meditations done on works written by bygone individuals, studies and philosophies discussed. While the topics of the main service change from week to week, the basic formula of singing/recital, meditation/discussion, singing/recital happens every time. They open and end every service with the list of names added to the walls that week.

During the week, the cathedral plays host to any number of meetings and events. They have many rooms dedicated as spaces for community gatherings, from small clubs for youths to workshops to food drives. People are constantly coming and going from the place.

Because of the church's center as a place of refuge, history and memory -- and by extension, power -- it has no small amount of detractors and enemies. HumanCleo doesn't allow the OR's knights on her turf, in part because of fear of retaliation: if her gangs attack any of the Order, she risks a paladin ripping down her criminal empire brick by brick. The Demon is one of OR's paper suppliers, and has been known to try to corner and intimidate scribes sent to document his shipments. Many of the historians cannot walk the city without an escort. Even their clerks have been scouted by influential merchants who want an expert in numbers looking over their books. Scribes with a particularly steady hand have been harassed and attempted coerced about forging documents and reproducing copies of cursed books. Thieves and vandals have attempted break-ins of their treasury. They have also had to deal with gang fights and general violence at their larger events. This is where their connections with other churches come in handy. Organizations like the Church of Blood and Steel, with knight and paladins who specialize in fighting, are often contacted to help when the OR needs a little more muscle. In return, the OR will loan them use of their scribes, arrange for their monuments to be built at a discount, etc.

The OR has a few loose ties to the Colosseum. All the statues of past champions that line the corridors are designed, drafted and prototyped by OR affiliated builders. Their epitaphs are drafted by their scribes. They have a team of knights whose main job is to attend Colosseum events and study and transcribe fighting styles of the various fighters, so their martial memory isn't lost when they return to the universe. They also record the Colosseum matches, and send a copy of their notes to the showrunners for the use in writing future fighting arcs.

[Also this is just me, but I think there's a writer in hels somewhere that spends all day making serialized literature out of the Colosseum matches, and submits them to the newspaper for people to read after a match. They probably also are very grateful for the OR's Colosseum notes lol].

I think! That's! Everything! I can think of! Though I'm sure I'll remember something else in an hour! Oh well!

[thebramblewood]

hello!! I've been quite obsessed with your stories lately (my friends r probably so sick of me posting Caleb cuntily dying onto his piano keys whenever something bad happens) but I do want to ask what was your interpretation of Morgyn like before they died because I'm quite interested from the tidbits that are already there (my friends are probably also sick of me putting feministly in front of all of Lilith's crimes. me when I feministly kill the three magic sages)

Oh my god, I'm obsessed with the idea of Caleb dying and Lilith committing crimes being memes among you and your friends. Makes me feel properly famous, lmao! I saw your tags about Lilith feministly offing the Sages the other day and cracked up.

There are a lot of gaps in Morgyn's character for me because they were never originally meant to be in the story. But then Caleb became a more important character, and then I started thinking about his past, and then I remembered the Sages were killed at one point in my legacy, and I realized it was too perfectly tragic not to use. So my interpretation of Morgyn in this story has always been filtered through the lens of their death first and foremost.

That being said, I imagine their younger self being very hesitant and cautious and perhaps a little underestimated and misunderstood. The magic they grew up around was mostly practical and unremarkable, and they didn't realize the full extent of their unique abilities until arriving in the Magic Realm to study. Under the tutelage of L. Faba especially, they grew their confidence and power and eventually joined her on the Sages Council. As a Sage, they took their responsibilities very seriously but also liked to have fun in their spare time, which the older, more "settled" Sages weren't entirely approving of. Morgyn had grown to be very free-spirited and uninhibited by this time and taught Caleb to be less neurotic and more spontaneous.

Caleb and Morgyn met at the end of the '90s and were together for a little more than a decade by the time Lilith... did what she did. I've thought a lot about how they met but haven't settled on a story that fully satisfies me. At that time, I see Caleb still being pretty standoffish and introverted, but he went out a lot more than he does now, especially to concerts. I imagine they met at a club or a bar when Morgyn was playing hooky from their Sage duties far away from the Realm. They both enjoyed being immersed in human culture because they never wanted to lose that side of themselves. Morgyn immediately saw Caleb for what he was but not in a judgmental way, which set Caleb at ease. He felt like Morgyn both understood and accepted him, which then made it easy for him to fall in love.

Another thing I haven't fully settled on is Morgyn's age. They were older than they looked because all the Sages used magic to suspend the effects of aging, but I also don't think they were as old as Caleb. I can't decide what decade they might have been born in, though. Maybe some of these blanks will be filled in eventually, but as of now I don't have any fleshed out ideas for future Morgyn flashbacks. I'd love to explore their relationship more, of course. It's just a matter of what ends up feeling like it serves the movement of the story! This reply got super long, but I hope it satisfied your curiosity. Thank you so much for being such a fan! 💜

[vimmark]

dragon age fans have an uncanny ability and endless drive to make themselves unhappy and demoralized. every bit of veilguard information we've gotten so far has been encouraging and what you react with is "but what if the things they haven't talked about yet are bad :("

please get well and consider how little benefit there would be to a marketing plan that starts with the best possible news and tapers off into irrelevant or disappointing aspects instead of the other way around

[shoezuki]

The very first planet Gepard ever visits, Sampo warns him about time.

"So," he hums, somehow maintaining his cheery tone but sounding stern. "Time is like... weird. Okay?"

He stops and stares. They're standing in some sort of boulevard, an empty promenade of red cobble bricks and neat trees with discolored blue leaves that curl in odd ways. It's early, or maybe midnight for this strange planet, because they're completely alone. Gepard is glad for the solitude, the chance to adjust. Something about the air feels sweet on his tongue, the bright, celestial bodies in the sky painted the world pale purple and sent flickering solid shards of light shifting through the air. He swears he can feel the slow, lazy rotation of the planet in his bones.

Sampo Koski is, of course, completely unaffected; he's walking alongside Gepard, along some thin, raised platform between the writhing garden bed and the street. He smacks a hand against Gepard's shoulder every time his balance waivers.

Sampo is still now, though, quiet and looking at Gepard. He realizes he's expected some respond to whatever he said. Gepard blinks owlishly. "Huh?"

Sampo snorts, his laugh genuine as he smiles at Gepard. He swears he can feel Sampo's laugh, goosebumps rising where it brushes over his skin. It might be the effect the planet has on him, but Gepard's pretty sure it's actually the effect Sampo has on him. The uncanny glow of solid light and the violet tint the dark sky that drapes over Sampo definitely doesn't help him or his heart.

"I mean," Sampo hums, pausing to tap and a shard of light near him, the small contact sending it flickering into smaller and smaller angular shapes before vanishing. "Time is weird. It's weird everywhere but especially here. This planet is located in some sort of temporal anomaly that makes time stop going in one line and creates a... bend in the timeline, I guess?"

"That makes no sense," Gepard says, because it doesn't. Sampo nods as if he said the opposite. "Exactly! Technically, we are currently... it's not today, but it's two days ago."

"But..." Gepard frowns, hand on his chin. His head hurts the slightest bit, either Sampo being the cause as usual, or the strange not-dark darkness of the planet's night. "Two days ago we were still on the Astral Express. But we're here."

"We're on the Express, but also here."

Gepard stares at him, expecting Sampo to laugh and call Gepard gullible or giggle at his own shitty joke. When he doesn't Gepard groans. "I don't want to think about this."

Sampo laughs again, loud and Gepard's skin tingles. "It's true, I swear! It doesn't make sense because it doesn't. Look at your texts then." Gepard listens at Sampo's prodding, literally standing beside him and poking him in his ribs. Gepard smacks his hand away lightly as he opens his messages with Serval. Sampo unabashedly stands behind him, rests his chin on his shoulder. Gepard's hands shake a little and he can feel Sampo's grin against his cheek.

He'd been messaging Serval every day, just as he'd promised when he'd told his sister that he was leaving the planet. He'd sent her photos of the stars from the Express, of the room they'd given Sampo and him, one particular photo of Sampo having fallen asleep on a couch in the common area with a teacup that Stelle had agonisingly balanced on his forehead.

He had sent her photos of the plant they are on, too, but the photo of Sampo sleeping from two days ago is the last thing he sent. It shouldn't be, but it is.

"Did you seriously send Serval that?" Sampo whines, digging his chin into Gepard's collarbone. "Awww, c'mon! My reputation with your sister is already in tatters! Don't give her blackmail material against me."

"She wouldn't blackmail you," Gepard says automatically, although he sounds unsure. Sampo snorts and steps away and Gepard misses his warmth. "So are we... in two places at once? Can I message you and stop you from getting us kicked off the Astral Express?"

"No-- wait, hey! C'mon, it wasn't my fault--"

"You broke Himeko's coffee machine. How is that not your fault?"

"I wasn't broken" he pouts, ruffling his hair and sending fragments of light flying, "it was... in a state of reconstruction! For all they know I was going to make the coffee machine better, completely free of charge! They had no reason to exile us like that."

"You. They kicked you out," Gepard corrects, "you're lucky I didn't take Himeko's offer to stay with them." Sampo throws his head back and laughs, his hair bending in the windless air like he's under water. Gepard can't help but smile at him, heart inflated in the silence.

They walk a moment, around pristine buildings made up of red shimmering bricks, intricate windows glowing faintly. The tree-like plants, tall spindly things with feather-like leaves, seem to bend and swirl as they walk by.

Sampo, as always, can't stay silent. "The time thing on Silap-Inua is really, really wild because you can actually see it."

"what do you..." Gepard trails off as Sampo stands right in front of him, looking weirdly giddy and excited. "You can see it, right?" He says, slowly lifting his arm and waving it. Gepard frowns, watching the strange way his slow movements seem to stutter, as if Sampo is moving between stillness. Gepard blinks, looking around at the flickering light crystals, the stilted, jittery movement of swaying trees. "...Woah."

"I know right?" Sampo is brimming with excitement, the feeling of his ecstatic joy contagious, making Gepard smile. "Time is cut in half, or something. I don't know someone tried explaining it to me years ago but I was too busy thinking about what I could use this for."

Gepard frowns at that, Sampo meeting his scowl. "What do you mean by that? Use the time... thing for what?" His smile is bright, bright, almost enough to make Gepard oblivious to the mischievous glint in his eyes, the sly tilt of his head.

"You see, if you move fast enough..." He hums, suddenly blinking out of Gepard's sight with his last word. Gepard balks, steps back, his vision overtaken in the next second by blue hair and bright green eyes and the overwhelming intoxicating feeling of lips on his.

Sampo is gone before Gepard can pull Sampo into his skin or recoil or nudge him back, whatever it was he intended as he'd raised his arms to grab him. "S-Sampo!" He chokes out instead, a laugh behind him making him spin around.

Sampo was close, close, and his movements brief snapshots as he smoothed fingers over Gepard jaw, cheekbones, a thumb at the corner of his lips as he held his face. Gepard knew without a doubt he was blushing bright red, Sampo tracing the small, near-nonexistent freckles the redness of his skin brought out.

There was shards of light just overhead, flicking gold in Sampo's irises. Sampo's breath was a shiver over Gepard's skin his fingerprints were leaving burning marks over his neck and face. Gepard didn't realize he'd grabbed Sampo's hands, his fingers like soft handcuffs around his wrists and keeping him in place.

He made a gutted sound in the back of is throat and Sampo smiled like he understood what Gepard was too choked to say. Gepard was ready to lean in when Sampo kissed him again.

They stood for a long stretched moment, the planet spinning under Gepard's feet and in his bones, Sampo's breath and warmth and the sure line of his figure against Gepard's keeping him from spinning into space. It was getting light out, probably, if the purple sky burning into shades of orange and pink was anything to go by.

Sampo hums. "The time thing makes stealing a ship on Silap-Inua really easy, too."

Gepard leaned back and peeled Sampo's reaching hands from his shoulders. "Don't you dare." His laugh sends sparks down his spine.

[elalalune]

What if Law is a White Queen candidate? And when the Red and Heart kingdoms separate, he's the one that becomes the new White Queen?

In an AU of this AU he could be 🤔 not sure how he'll feel after going through 3 different roles in his lifetime though

My thoughts on the main AU is that White and Red are based off chess pieces and one of their ways to become a Queen is through Pawn promotion. Since Luffy is technically a Pawn here, he has the ability to become a Queen (not all Pawns can just become Queen though, they'll have to go through highly specific conditions or have the right drive/characreristics for it). And Law was a Knight candidate that was promoted from a Pawn before the shift, so he could've become a Queen candidate if he stayed on a Pawn's role

Also unlike chess, this is the process for the Pawn's roles: Pawn —> "Queen/Bishop/Rook/Knight" candidate —> Queen/Bishop/Rook/Knight (whichever role they picked to be a candidate of)

The Pawn "_" candidates can go back to being a Pawn but they cant pick any other option once they chose the role (ex. Pawn becomes Bishop candidate, goes back to being a Pawn, can't become a Rook candidate)

It's different for those that are already born to be candidates of their position. Not all Queens/Bishops/Rooks/Knights came from Pawns. Once someone else already has taken their potential role, they simply lose that candidate role.

Heart doesnt have the Pawn method of choosing though and most of the time Red and White's Queen candidates were picked the same way as Heart

I do like the idea of Luffy, Law and Kid being the next gen of Queens but I'm still not sure if I really want that because I might change my mind later 😅

It doesn't really matter to me though because I'm only focusing on Shanks' and Buggy's story, so feel free to think of who's who in the next generation ^-^

[sieglinde-freud]

If you still wanna hear, yeah, there's a short story on Gangrel's past in the Japanese website and its all about how other Plegians hurt him and thats why he hates the entire world rather than anything Ylisse did.

And of course, Aversa's story makes no mention of Ylisse's warcrimes either and instead goes on about how the people Ylisse was trying to kill, the Grimleal, were the people that killed her family and destroyed her village, as well as that no one could possibly care about them.

Awakening has major issues with Plegia, especially with the Egyptian coding and the demonization...

need you to imagine me banging my head against the wall, thats so annoying!! like ok intsys we get it ylisse is the good white nation that can never do wrong and everyone who thinks otherwise is evil and bad and black and brown and bad we get it we fucking get it!!

[twister-sister]

Spades hate's geese Because it's hilarious, Sun of Spades can not stand geese there is a pond next to his palace where geese love to stop while doing their yearly migration. They honk all hours of the night driving the normally calm cool and collected Spade lord bananas. There have been times when Sun has stuck his head out of the window at 3 am shouting at them to shut up, to which they honked back at him, and before you know it he's arguing with the geese or throwing a random boot out the window during the day the flock may rise up and chase him through the court yard. He's wanted to fill the pond in for a while so the annoying animals would find a new home but his sister Clover always talks him out of it and thus the cycle continues over and over and over.

[somethingclevermahogony]

Help me pick an OC to Intro

I've been wanting to post more about some of the other OC's in my WIP besides Narul and Ninma (her intro will be coming soon).

Unfortunately I'm not quite sure where to start and so I'm making this poll. I posted some pixel art of all of these characters here.

Based on the art or just on pure feels, help me pick who to introduce to y'all first!

I'll basically repost this until each character has been addressed.