It must be so weird for the Crows with Lucanis as First Talon.
Like you get summoned to his office and that's terrifying enough but he's the Demon of Vyrantium, renowned mage-killer. God-killer. Rumored to be possessed. And he is not known for his sense of humor or anything fun like that, no one is sure if he even knows how to smile despite what the Seventh Talon might say.
So you get there and he's there, writing something or other and not even looking at you and there's this...distinctly not-Crow person sitting on his desk. Feet up on it, legs crossed. Barefoot. Not wearing pants. They smile at you a little before resuming munching on a pastry. Crumbs are kinda getting everywhere.
The silence is awkward and long and just as you're contemplating maybe you're going to die, probably horribly, the not-Crow rolls their eyes and reaches over to *poke the First Talon's nose*. They even throw in a quiet, "Boop!" and you think you're about to see *them* die horribly when the First Talon looks up, face completely void of expression.
Not-Crow says, "Ha ha, made you look. Please put this poor kid out of their misery, they are clearly fretting themselves into a fit."
*He gooses their side*. Playfully. They squawk, swat at his hand, and he snickers, grinning impishly as he tells you to sit and offers you coffee and a snack.
I just finished veil guard. I enjoyed it, it made me laugh and cry and I loved assan and playing rock paper scissors with Manfred
If that's the end of dragon age I think I'm ok with it. There's plots that weren't settled and stories that didn't go anywhere. But I think I'd rather they end it with that than try and give us another day game for the sake of another da game.
It's not a perfect ending, I can see why some people weren't happy with it. But I feel a sense of closure?
Hawke has a massive rager of a party and no Kirkwall nobles are invited. They can only hear the songs of the quartet and see people going in and out, having a great time.
So some of the stuffy nobles band together to storm over there and demand to know why they were not invited to Champion Hawke’s magnificent soirée. And it turns out it’s Hawke’s mabari’s 10th birthday party.
The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.
Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.
So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.
Bears. They’re everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.
As the OP of this post, I’m going to threaten that if this gets to one million notes by the 10 year anniversary on 1 June 2026, one year from today, I will get a lower back tattoo of the loch ness bear monster.
I love the use of lighting in wake up deadman, in the church when Judy first meets blanc and he's saying "yeah it's story telling" and it's dark, but then he's talking about the purpose of the story and how they speak to people and the light comes through the window and shines on him 🥹
My contribution to Miniature Giant Space Hamster Appreciation Week, more or less filling the prompt “Meet The Crew.”
Short fic, ~700 words.
The first thing Grunt noticed in the Battle Master’s cabin was the little tank over her desk with a small, furry creature in it. The creature immediately drew him in, even though it looked like nothing but a bit of fuzz. It was tiny, like a space beetle covered in hair.
“Can I eat it?” Grunt peered into the small tank, tapping one clawed finger against its surface. The creature, which had eyed him cautiously before then, scurried into a box on the far side of the tank with a high-pitched squeak. Prey recognized predator. Good.
I wish they had given Steve more opportunities to show he's not an idiot. Like we're talking about the guy who was the first to realize the Russians were at the mall, this is the bean stalk plan guy.
But the show just keeps treating him like a moron cause people don't tell him shit
So funny that Emmrich, Emmrich of all people, got scammed while buying magic items in Minrathous, so he decides to take the law into his own hands, and...
... he proceeds to haunt the shit out of the scammer while pretending to know nothing about it.
people are pointing out WUDM takes place around and on Good Friday and Easter of 2025 but because it was written in 2024 it obviously couldn't reference shit that happened that week and I'm just picturing
Rev. Jud, having just been cleared of multiple homicides, stolen a nearly-priceless diamond, been threatened by an influencer, and taking a deathbed confession from a murderer....checking his phone for the first time in a week and finding out Pope Francis met JD Vance and immediately died.
Danny's made an incredibly distressing discovery. The GIW, bumbling group of ghost hunters. They're ghosts, every single one of them.
Their incompetence and fenton level lab safety protocols had led each and every one of the GIW into ecto-radiation poisoning and none of them realized that they're dead already.
Danny was... Danny wasn't having a good week. It started off normal. Or at least as normal as his life ever was since the accident, school, ghost fighting, dealing with Dash, avoiding his parents and the Guys in White. And then something went wrong VERY FAST.
It happened in an instant, Danny was brawling with Skulker when the GIW brought in a new ecto weapon. Mounted on the top of a van was a sparking green turret. The agent manning the rolling safety hazard screamed something about surrendering for capture and experimentation, and then he attempted to fire without waiting for a reply.
The turret didn't fire so much as it detonated. The mechanical legs of Skulker's suit were blown off by the partially directed blast and the GIW van had been torn open like a blooming onion. The agent in control of the weapon had miraculously survived the catastrophic misfire, having been catapulted up and out of the weapons cradle by the blast. The detonation of green ectoplasmic light and deafening sound had stunned everyone in the street, but Danny and Skulker were the first ones to recover. Skulker had fled once he realized the damage his suit sustained. But Danny didn't notice nor care. He was staring at where he thought the agent had been atomized by his own weapon. It was blind luck that Danny spotted the man when he started to fly away from the scene.
Danny saw the agent sprawled out on top of a nearby roof, immaculate white suit ripped to pieces and scorched, barely hanging off the man's mangled torso. Burns and lacerations coated every bit of the man's exposed skin. He looked like a victim of a horror movie.
Danny took one look at the agent and knew that he wasn't going to survive without immediate high-level medical assistance. The GIW were idiots. Inconveniences. Honestly the guys in white were more of a threat to the town than most of the ghosts Danny had fought. But Danny couldn't just leave someone there to die. He didn't have the heart to let someone else die just because it was convenient. So he did the only thing he could think of to save the man's life. Danny touched down beside the dying man and ripped a portal straight to the Far Frozen. If anyone could save the Agents life, it would be Frostbite.
Danny had expected more pushback from the Yeti, but Frostbite went straight into triage mode, conjouring a stretcher of ice to carry away the agent. After that, Danny could only wait and hope.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Frostbite, what do you mean he's a ghost? He died and manifested a ghost core?" Danny asked the yeti, his expression confused and crestfallen. Had Frostbite been unable to save him? His body had been mangled, it wouldn't have been too surprising that even with the Yeti's prodigious medical skills the agent had passed on.
"Not at all Great One. The ghost you brought us has been treated and is recovering nicely. They should be back to consciousness in only a day or two." Frostbite responded cheerfully, unaware of Danny's rising panic.
"Frostbite, I need to see all of the diagnostics you've done on him. Now."
That conversation led Danny to his current predicament. Agent J, was a ghost. Not a newly created ghost. Not from dying from the turret detonation. No, Agent J has been a ghost for approximately fourteen months according to the yeti medical examinations. Agent J died painlessly after longterm overexposer to ectoranium radiation and refined ecto energy. His body slowly converted itself from flesh and blood to solidifed ectoplasm and a well hidden core.
"I... no no no. This just... this isn't possible. They hunt ghosts. They have ghost detection equipment, they wear spector deflectors. Their bases have automated anti-ghost defenses for Ancient's sake!" Danny sputtered at Frostbite, still reeling and in denial.
"Great One. This is... an unusual case. But our readings are correct. This... Agent J, as you call him, is a ghost. After seeing your consternation, I took the liberty of performing more rigorous testing to determine what of ghost he is and what his ectoplasmic abilities are. I've even managed to discover his own Obsession." Frostbite calmly explained, holding up a clip board. Reading off of the documents, Frostbite continued.
"Agent J is a doppleganger. Ghosts that specialize in imitating living humans. I believe you've met one before, Amorpho, was his name? However, Amorpho can twist and warp himself into a variety of mortal forms. From different people to animals? Agent J cannot. The Agent here is only capable of imitating... well, himself. All of the agents produced ectoplasm has been focused into this one singular ability. Agent J, has managed to mimic breathing, blood, organs, a heartbeat, solidity, gravitational susceptibility. Honestly, Great One? If this one hadn't been so horribly injured from ectoranium damages, I wouldn't have been able to detect his ghost core at all when you brought him for healing. The patient's remarkable mimicry has already recovered enough that without our specialized equipment, I would have thought him still alive myself!" Frostbite finished with a grin, more interested with the novel medical results than in Danny's horrified expression.
"Frostbite, if... those are his abilites... what is his Obsession?" Danny asked cautiously, fearing for the worst.
"Ah, yes. It appears that his Obsession is... hunting ghosts-" (Oh no!) "-Unsuccessfully." (...What?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Further tests were done on another GIW agent. After agent J was released back to Amity Park, Danny did a little bit of kidnapping. Three more GIW agents, three more of the exact same results.
They're dead, each and every member of the GIW is dead, and they don't even know it. Danny wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. It was ridiculous, hilarious, and AWFUL.
The GIW all have the same Obsession, chasing and unsuccessfully catching ghosts. They'll never catch even Box Ghost, let alone him. They are incapable of NOT self sabotaging themselves on their hunts. It's like the opposite of a hunter that got bored with catching everything. They'll never catch their targets, so they'll hunt forever. Constantly feeding their Obsession powering their own human disguises. They've turned themselves into an agency of Sisyphus that have trapped themselves in a neverending struggle of their own design.
Danny is now stuck trying to choose between leaving the GIW be, hopelessly trapped in their own prison of delusions. Or helping them realize their deaths. Get them to accept their situation and move on.
anyway hoping that the generative AI bubble pops so disastrously that the tech industry becomes allergic to anything involving it for the next 1,000 years
Santa is on strike due to global warming. All presents this year will be delivered by Sasha the Christmas Tiger. Milk and cookies may not be sufficient.
