#we're just getting started

[martanis]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Cast Recap Season 1

[comradekitten45]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Call of Duty (Video Games) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: John "Soap" MacTavish/Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish & Simon "Ghost" Riley Characters: John "Soap" MacTavish, Simon "Ghost" Riley, John Price (Call of Duty), Kyle "Gaz" Garrick Additional Tags: Simon "Ghost" Riley Needs a Hug, Hurt Simon "Ghost" Riley, Simon "Ghost" Riley Has PTSD, Simon "Ghost" Riley Has Feelings, Simon "Ghost" Riley Has DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder, Simon "Ghost" Riley Has Panic Attacks, Protective John "Soap" MacTavish, Soft John "Soap" MacTavish, John "Soap" MacTavish Loves Simon "Ghost" Riley, Simon "Ghost" Riley is Bad At Feelings, Simon "Ghost" Riley is a Mess, Simon "Ghost" Riley is Not Okay, Simon "Ghost" Riley is Catatonic, Explicit Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Military Inaccuracies, Geographical Inaccuracies, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Implied/Referenced Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Psychological Torture, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence

Summary:

Ghost wakes up in a semi-abandoned Soviet-era bunker that feels uncomfortably warm, especially for the middle of fucking December. His head is swimming and everything fucking aches. Shackles are bolted from the wall to his wrists, forcing his arms to hang uncomfortably above the rest of his body. He scans the room, checking for hostiles, abandoned weapons… anything that he could use to make his escape. In the far corner to his right, he spots a downright ancient furnace that is definitely not helping the strangely sweltering feeling of the room. The fumes from the smoke probably aren’t doing him any good for his head, either. Near the far left corner, a door that presumably leads to another room in the bunker. In the middle of the room, a gurney, already caked with dried blood from whatever poor lad was here before him. Of course they’re going to try to torture him. The wanker said so himself. That’s fine, Ghost thinks. He’s been through this before. Except… maybe it's not fine.

-----

Soap searches for a way to get to his lieutenant as soon as possible. ... Meanwhile, Ghost attempts to do damage control as Simon is forced to relive his worst memories.

“GHOST!” Soap screams. He’s sprinting now. He can feel a stitch forming in his side. His lungs burn from running in the cold. He rolled his ankle on a tree branch earlier. Everything hurts. He can’t stop, though. He needs to get to Ghost before they take him. 

Soap realized a while ago that he should page for back up. Price and Gaz won’t get here in time though. 

As Soap reaches the—now crumbling—ruins of the base, he realizes it’s too late. He watches the convoy SUV drive away and collapses onto his knees. Hard. Soap knows he can’t chase a speeding car on his own. 

Useless piece o shite ye are, MacTavish. Ye couldnae even get Ghost oot o the base on time. Whit maks ye think ye could be a hero and rescue him frae a bunch o terrorists?

Soap shakes his head and curses himself, trying to keep his thoughts from spiraling any worse. He reaches for his radio to page his captain, which he should have done the moment the mission went to shite. Right as he starts to change the channel, though, Ghost’s crackles alive again. The lieutenant hadn’t turned his radio off and the terrorist bastards who took him were too stupid to realize. Soap hears the two men start speaking in their native language. Obviously, he can’t understand them, but he keeps listening, hoping he hears the name of a town or location—any indication to wherever they're taking Ghost. 

Soap knows he should page Price. 

He knows he doesn’t have enough resources to take on another base full of terrorists on his own. 

He just… can’t bring himself to stop listening until he hears something.

The radio begins to go staticky. Soap’s fingers feel swollen and hard. It’s getting harder to breathe. The sun is coming down soon. At this rate, he’s going to die of hypothermia before he gets any clue to Ghost’s location. 

Maybe, Soap thinks, he deserves that. After all, it is his fault that the mission went completely FUBAR. He should have paid more attention to the cameras. Shouldn’t have mentioned Christmas. Shouldn’t have talked too much. Should have had Ghost’s six. 

Should have been good enough. 

He’s never good enough.

He’s tempted to just lie down and accept his well-deserved fate. But he can’t. Ghost needs him. 

So he continues listening to the crackling voices.

…

Soap rushes back up the hill, frozen fingers fumbling as he frantically tries to page his captain. Soap was about to give up when all of the sudden, the chattering men mentioned a familiar word before going completely dark: the small medieval town that Task Force 141 had passed through to get to the safehouse. It reminded Soap a little of Las Almas—colourful streets laced with death and corrupted by the mafia. 

He finally finds the correct channel just as he reaches the top of the hill. 

“Bravo 0-6, this is 7-1, do you read?” Soap’s voice strains. He’s surely injured his vocal chords.

“7-1, this is Bravo 0-6. We’ve been trying to reach you for thirty minutes. What’s your status sergeant?” Price replies frantically. Soap realizes it’s been nearly an hour past when he and Ghost were supposed to return to the safehouse. Fuck, he should’ve paged Price when the mission went to shit.

“Price, the mission was a fuckin’ goose-chase. Intel was shite and the fuckers knew we were coming. We’ve got a mole.” Soap hears an exhausted sigh through the radio.

“Copy, sergeant. Bravo 0-7, what’s your status?” 

“Captain, Ghost was in the building when it blew. He’s alive, but some bawbags found him and took him. Sounded like they want to torture him.”

“Fuck,’ Price sighs again, “Copy, Soap. Do you have any clue where they went?”

“Affirmative, sir. The eejits forgot to turn off Ghost's radio. Sounded like they’re headed towards the town we passed a few days ago. Ah lost contact after that,” Soap replies, “Ah’m headed to the exfil vehicle now—going to use it to track those wankers.”

“Negative, sergeant. You do not have enough supplies to take on a town crawling with mafia members by yourself.”

“Ach, Captain Ah’ve done it before—in Las Almas. Ah took on a whole PMC on my own, remember?”

“I do remember. I also remember that you were shot and almost died from a GSW infection. You would have if Ghost had not been in that church tower. Do not chase after them.”

“But sir—”

“Come back to the safehouse. That’s an order.”

Soap grunts. Never good enough. Cannae save yer LT because ye needs him tae babysit ye so ye dinnae fucking die, ye perpetual FNG. As much as he wants to ignore Price’s orders though, the sun is setting, and his shivering is only getting worse. If he stays out here any longer, his fingers’ll fall off. He sighs and answers, “Copy, 0-6. Ah’m headed yer way. Out here.”

-----

Ghost wakes up in a semi-abandoned Soviet-era bunker that feels uncomfortably warm, especially for the middle of fucking December. 

His head is swimming and everything fucking aches. Shackles are bolted from the wall to his wrists, forcing his arms to hang uncomfortably above the rest of his body. 

He scans the room, checking for hostiles, abandoned weapons… anything that he could use to make his escape. In the far corner to his right, he spots a downright ancient furnace that is definitely not helping the strangely sweltering feeling of the room. The fumes from the smoke probably aren’t doing him any good for his head, either. 

Near the far left corner, a door that presumably leads to another room in the bunker. In the middle of the room, a gurney, already caked with dried blood from whatever poor lad was here before him. 

Of course they’re going to try to torture him. The wanker said so himself.

That’s fine, Ghost thinks. He’s been through this before. 

Except… maybe it's not fine. 

The room is too warm. His face is completely bare. This whole thing feels too familiar. It’s too close to Christmas. 

Simon’s breathing starts to pick up. 

Nobody knows where he is. Soap won’t be able to find him. If he does, they’ll kill him. Simon’s been completely stripped down to his boxers. He can see his bare skin. The scars. His vision starts melding with the memory of Manuel Roba’s basement in Mexico. He feels like he might puke.

Stop it. Spiraling won’t get you out of here. Square away. 

Ghost squeezes his eyes shut and holds them there for a few moments. When he opens, he’s back in the bunker and his mind is… well… not clear, but no longer in danger of spiraling into a complete fucking meltdown. 

…

After sitting in the hot, headache-inducing room for another hour, not that Ghost was counting the minutes and seconds… because he wasn’t he was, the tall man from before waltzes into the room with a metal cart. From this angle, Ghost can’t see what’s on top, but he knows that the man will try to break him. Ghost pushes Simon down before he can slip through the cracks. Locks him away. Somewhere safe. Simon can’t go through this again. Ghost can. 

“Simon Riley,” the man starts. Ghost stares behind the man. He doesn’t deserve eye contact. “Do you know where you are, Simon Riley?” Ghost stays silent, continuing to stare past the man. The man takes Ghost’s silence as an answer. “This is your new home, Simon Riley. You live here until you break—do you listen, Simon Riley? Look at me!” The man punches Ghost in the jaw. Hard. Ghost continues to stare at the wall. 

That earns him another punch. And another. 

At some point, the man breaks Ghost’s nose. 

Ghost spits out the blood in his mouth and glares up at the man. His head swims with pain and pressure. Ghost can feel the blood dripping from his nose. “Mulțumesc, much better. Was that so hard, Simon Riley?” The man puts his face closer to Ghost’s. “Careful lad, any closer and I’ll cave your fuckin’ face in with my skull,” Ghost growls, though nasal sound from his broken nose makes him sound less threatening. The man barks up a laugh. “I am not so sure about that, Simon Riley.” 

The man grabs a large syringe full of who knows what from the cart. He flicks it a couple of times to release the air bubbles.

“You know, Simon Riley,” the man starts, “I used to be surgeon. Quite good. Saved hundred lives. You do not worry about accidental overdose with me.” 

Overdose…? The fuck is that stuff? Ghost feels a prick in his thigh as the man inserts the syringe. “Do not worry, Simon Riley, this will be quick,” the man pushes the serum of god-knows-what into Ghost’s thigh muscle. A burning sensation starts there and prickles its way through his bloodstream. Ghost’s heart starts racing, blood pumping in his ears and drowning out much of the noise. His vision blurs. He tries to move, but he can’t. 

“Th-the fuck…?” Ghost manages. His eyes won’t focus. He feels like he’s underwater. 

“Do not worry, Simon Riley. This feeling is only temporary. Just side effect of the serum.” The man smiles in Ghost’s face… he thinks. Or… are there… two men? No. He’s seeing double now. Ghost gulps for air that does not come in. 

“You see, Simon Riley, you are good soldier. We need man like you, but we must break you first,” the man’s voice seems to echo in Ghost’s ears. 

“Mm… Y-you can try, but,” Ghost stops to gasp for air, glaring at where he thinks the man is, “I… I’ve been through worse… before…” Another pause to breathe. Why does everything feel so heavy? “... and if… if those fuckers couldn’t break me… I-I can’t imagine you lot can even come close with this… serum shite.”

The man makes a wounded sound. “You have doubt in me, Simon Riley. But you do not understand. You are super soldier. You are needed fast, so you must be physically healthy. We break your mind through science. Now, hold still.”

As if Ghost could move away anyways…

The man unlocks Ghost’s wrists from the shackles. His arms fall, refusing to pick up any signals begging them to move, to fight. Suddenly, four men awkwardly haul Ghost upwards and shove him into a wheelchair that must have been brought in when the tall man was talking to him. He blinks and suddenly he is in another room. Must’ve passed out somehow. More men grab Ghost and strap him into what looks like an old dental chair. A harsh surgical light shines directly in his face. He still can’t move. His heart is still racing. He still feels like everything is underwater. And for the first time, Ghost is the one panicking.

[foldbaron]

Daggerheart Class Packs (coming to Kickstarter this September): Daggerheart has been selling out as fast as we can restock it, so to keep up with demand and offer another way to play, we’re exploring a play accessory we hope you’ll really love: Class Packs for Daggerheart. These packs of 76 cards will hold everything an individual player needs to play their class—from level 1 all the way to level 10—ancestry cards, community cards, subclass cards, and all the cards from the two domains each unique class uses. The Class Packs will come with a PDF excerpt with just what you need to build and learn to run your character, but Kickstarter backers will also get the full digital PDF of the Core Rulebook as a perk! All 9 classes from the Daggerheart Core Set will be available as Class Packs come September—sign up to be notified when it goes live!

Homebrew Kit (available for free now!): We’re thrilled to answer your requests for homebrew/design guidance with the Homebrew Kit, which unlocks a wealth of design insights and resources to make it easier to create classes, ancestries, communities, adventures, campaign frames, and more for Daggerheart. This kit will help gaming groups looking to customize their campaigns as well as third party publishers diving into making Daggerheart-compatible content using the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. 

Romantasy Campaign Frame (coming 2026): Get your roses ready as we have a new campaign frame and it is all romantasy! With Love and Magic sets your game in a world of power and prospect deeply inspired by Tusk Love. Enemies and admirers alike are your rivals as you set out to take on this year’s matchmaking season in the shining empire of Lumisara, the city of Crowns. 

Chris Perkins & Jeremy Crawford Designing for Daggerheart: These two acclaimed designers joined Darrington Press in June of this year, and their next projects will be for Daggerheart! Jeremy Crawford will take point on a full setting for Daggerheart inside a hellishly terrifying genre, while Chris Perkins will weave tales spanning campaign frames to a wider interconnected adventure supplement—stay tuned for more on the horizon!

Age of Umbra Gets Season 2: Speaking of the spooky, new, and fearful, Age of Umbra will return for a season 2! Critical Role’s dark fantasy survival miniseries will continue on. If you missed this deadly season 1, you can watch it all now as it just wrapped last week! Matt has also uploaded the statblocks for the Adversaries he used in the campaign also available now for free.

Now moving on from everything we are doing, here is a look at some of the amazing partnerships coming for Daggerheart! 

Actual Plays: We are so honored to be working with so many actual plays coming out with seasons soon. We’ve announced a mini-series by Legends of Avantris and a one-shot by Dungeons and Daddies! This follows the recent announcement that Bonus Action is partnering with Darrington Press and bringing Daggerheart as the new system of their third volume.

Products: We also announced some awesome new creations from our partners, including:

Insight Editions: An Art of Daggerheart book

Hero Forge: Daggerheart ancestries as buildable options in the Miniatures Creator

New Daggerheart Dice sets from Dispel Dice, Botch Dice and Misty Mountain Gaming

New Daggerheart World by Creators of Eberron and More: Finally, we have Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis’s new world in Daggerheart! From the minds of fan-favorite RPG worlds like Eberron and innovative tabletop games like Phoenix Dawn Command, Illimat, and the Adventure Zone Storytelling Game, Twogether Studio’s Keith Baker and Jenn Ellis are partnering with us  to make their next grand world using Daggerheart. Expect thrilling worldbuilding and brilliant new player option designs from this powerhouse team.  

[itskubra]

I am incredibly tired of all of this "weak era" discussion.

First of all, the 'era' in question is like, one season.

Plus does everyone not remember when they were calling Carlos washed and saying the ATP was wide open??? Like that was February bro😭

And i really dont understand these "fans" - why are you here when dont think anyone is even good? the whole tour is so washed cuz they cant compete with sincaraz and even sincaraz arent that good because the dont actually have any competition. Do you even like tennis then? You dont have to watch🧍🏾‍♂️

And they refuse to tune into the WTA.

To me, it feels like people are trying to prematurely protect the legacies of the big three because they dont like the trajectory that sincaraz are on - "it doesnt matter if they get more slams/titles, because theirs mean less"

[akirateku]

The way you drew Harvey has done something irreversible to me, I fear- Holy SHIT. I would die to see more of him in your style... You went crazy on that piece.

Ohoh there is plenty more where that came from dear anon 😂👌🏽✨

[stardahlia]

Unicron In Fleshy Form Pt2

“Hey.” …. Silence. “.... Hey-..” …. The tension in the air is thick. Bodies, both flesh or metal, are stiff with anticipation. Eyes and optics of innocent bystanders watching from different points of the room. Concern, curiosity, and amusement at varying degrees are expressed on faceplates and faces alike. …. Leaning closer to a white and red helm, the voice of a human is yet again heard, ringing softly through the air. “Birds can breathe through their bones-” “FOR PRIMUS SAKE!” Laughter erupts from the human as they lean away from the troubled medic. “I’m TRYING TO WORK!” Mission accomplished.

[trauma-tits]

Today was a wild ride. 🎢

In discussions with a new group of people trying to organize some sort of network to connect official nonprofit groups with boots-on-the-ground mutual aid resources to help the local disabled community, only to get out of our preliminary meeting to this news. Guess the urgency of our work just cranked up to eleven!

[nerdygremlininthewalls]

I fear I may regret this...but my pinterest is https://pin.it/4tOQb0cy9

I know my moots are stalking me the moment I post this lmao

don't go too crazy guys (saying this like I'm famous, spoiler alert: IM NOT)