#things that i realized after posting this: silver is a metal and i said ‘silver metal’ dont @ me

[mishappeningss]

How about her reaction to lewis leaving Mercedes and finding out from the media

ENOUGHHH. she was distraught alright, like that was her person 🥹

more about driver!yn

It starts quietly.

Lewis asks her to come by the motorhome after simulator testing. That’s not unusual. What’s unusual is the way he won’t meet her eyes, how his fingers fidget against the water bottle in his hand, how the smile he gives her doesn’t quite reach the corners.

“Are you okay?” she asks, setting her helmet down on the table between them.

He lets out a breath. “I’m leaving Mercedes.”

Everything stops.

Her grip tightens on the table’s edge, fingers curling against the cool metal. “Wait. You’re—what?”

“Ferrari offered. And I… I said yes.”

She stares. No words. Just silence stretching between them, taut and aching.

“Why?” she finally whispers. “You’re Lewis Hamilton. This is your home.”

“I need a new challenge,” he says softly. “One last thing.”

Her chest tightens. “I thought we were building this together.”

He reaches for her hand across the table, fingers rough, familiar. “We were. We did. But you’re staying, right?”

She blinks fast. Her throat burns. “Yeah. I’m not going anywhere.”

He squeezes her hand. “Then everything’s exactly where it should be.”

The world finds out the next morning.

Breaking: Lewis Hamilton to join Scuderia Ferrari for the 2025 season. After 12 years, 7 titles, and a legacy etched in silver — a new chapter begins.

YN sits through the team briefing like she’s underwater. Her phone is buzzing nonstop, her socials tagged in everything.

The fans flood her DMs.

“Are you okay?”

“How do you feel about Lewis leaving?”

“Will you be the new Mercedes #1?”

But none of them know what it felt like to hear it alone in that motorhome. To feel something shift under your feet — and realize the person who taught you to walk is letting go of your hand.

MONZA

Red flares burn in the stands. Tifosi chant his name — “LEWIS, LEWIS, LEWIS!” — and for the first time in years, it doesn’t sting. Because next year, he’ll be one of them.

YN watches him from the pit wall. He looks good in red. She hates it.

They finish the race. Lewis P3. YN P1.

She’s barely out of the car before he’s wrapping her in a hug, helmet still on, pride pouring from every gesture.

“You belong up there,” he tells her, pointing to the podium. “You always did.”

And she tells him: “I’m not ready for you to go.”

He leans his forehead against hers, a habit from years of post-race closeness.

“You don’t have to be ready. You just have to know I’ll always be watching."

ABU DHABI - THE END

Final quali. Final team dinner. Final race.

Everything feels like the last page of a story no one wants to finish. The mechanics hug him tighter. Bono wipes his eyes behind sunglasses. Toto claps too hard, like applause will drown out grief.

And YN—she can barely breathe.

Before the race, they sit side by side in the garage. No words. Just the hum of the paddock, the click of tire guns, the quiet of a goodbye they’ve both been delaying.

He turns to her. “You’re gonna win next year.”

She swallows. “Not if I spend it missing you.”

He smiles. “You’ll win anyway.”

They start P2 and P3. They finish P2 and P3. One final podium, together. Silver confetti rains down. The cameras catch them holding hands on the steps.

The party is loud, but she slips away.

She finds him alone by the empty garage, staring at the now-unplugged monitors.

He looks up. “Hey, champ.”

“Hey.” Her voice is hoarse.

She walks over, wraps her arms around his waist, and hides her face in his chest like she did after her first DNF. He holds her without hesitation.

“Thank you,” she whispers. “For every lap. Every lesson. Every second.”

He presses a kiss to the top of her head.

“You made me proud.”

They stay like that until the lights shut off.

2025

She’s in silver, alone this time. The new face of Mercedes. The heir to the throne.

He’s in Ferrari red. Gleaming. The crowd chants his name again.

And when the media asks: “YN, who are you most looking forward to racing against this season?”

She smiles. The kind of smile that carries a hundred memories.

“Lewis.” — “He made me who I am. And now I get to race him.”

user: this isn’t a team change this is a DIVORCE

user: “You made me proud.” I AM ON THE FLOOR.

user: watching lewis put his forehead against hers in parc fermé like he’s passing his entire soul to her????? i need emergency services.

user: yn crying into his chest after abu dhabi??? i’m grieving a friendship more than my last relationship

user: every time lewis looks at yn i start believing in soulmate bonds again

user: why is no one talking about the fact that they never said goodbye… they just let it hang in the air like the ache it was

yourusername

liked by lewishamilton, zendaya, and others

yourusername i’ll miss you always, 44 ❤️

view all comments

username RED HEART FOR FERRARI I CANT TAKE THIS ACTUALLY

lando crying throwing up. ugh you two were everything

username HE GETS ITTTTT

username i’m sorry i can’t do this. i saw her watching from across the paddock and she blinked like she was trying not to cry. he’s her person.

username we all joked about Lewis to Ferrari… no one warned us how BAD IT WOULD HURT

oscarpiastri she’ll hate me for this comment but she hasn’t stopped crying since she posted this

lewishamilton Tell her I’m on my way

username STOPPP

username the way lewis looked at her during their last cooldown room??? HE NEVER LOOKED AT ANYONE ELSE LIKE THAT. i fear i may never recover

[buckysouvenir]

call it what you want

pairing: bucky barnes x y/n authors note: day tree!

the valentine’s day collection 2025: for the first 14 days of february, i’ll be posting a series of short stories inspired by songs, all centered around bucky barnes.

reblogs, likes and comments are always encouraged and highly appreciated! thank you ♡

The world was quiet for once, but Bucky’s mind was anything but. 

The Winter Soldier. Hydra’s weapon. A killer. They had a picture of him so dark, even he had a hard time believing there was anything else left.

So, he disappeared. For months, nobody heard from him. Not Steve. Not Sam. He needed the silence more than he needed air. He needed to figure out who he was without the ghosts of the past clawing at him, dragging him back into the dark.

But then, there was her.

Y/N walked into my life when I wasn’t even looking. She wasn’t afraid of me like so many others were. She didn’t flinch at the sight of my metal arm, didn’t hesitate to stand by me when I thought I didn’t deserve anyone’s kindness.

She saw me. The real me.

I don’t know how she does it, but when Y/N looks at me, it’s like the weight of the world lifts off my shoulders. She makes me forget the noise—the whispers of those who doubt me, the accusations, the labels. All the liars fade into nothing when I look at her.

And she’s beautiful. God, she’s beautiful. She’s got this way about her, like she doesn’t even realize how much light she brings into a room. She’s fit like a daydream, moving through life with a kind of quiet strength that leaves me breathless.

Sometimes, I catch myself staring. It’s not just her smile or the way her eyes light up when she’s excited. It’s the little things—how her lips twitch when she’s trying not to laugh, or how she tilts her head when she’s listening to someone talk.

And she loves me. Not in the way people love an idea of someone, but the real me. She loves me like I’m someone brand new.

I don’t deserve her. I know that. I’ve made the same mistakes over and over, burned bridges I didn’t even try to fix. And maybe I’ll never learn, but at least I did one thing right: her.

One night, we were sitting by the fire. The compound was quiet for once, the kind of peaceful stillness I rarely experienced. She was leaning against my side, her hand brushing mine, and the words just slipped out before I could stop them.

“Would you run away with me?”

I wasn’t sure why I said it. Maybe it was because, for the first time in forever, I felt like I could breathe around her. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to share her with the rest of the world.

She turned to look at me, her eyes wide, searching my face for something. And then she smiled, this soft, radiant smile that made my chest ache.

“Wherever you go,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “I’ll follow.”

When you first met Bucky Barnes, you didn’t know what to expect. He was quiet, his head always down, like the weight of the world was pressing down on him. He moved like he didn’t want anyone to notice him, but you did.

You saw him.

He had this way of making himself small, like he thought he didn’t deserve to take up space. But when he looked up, when those stormy blue eyes met mine, something shifted.

He’s the kind of person who hides his heart, but when he trusts you, it’s like being let into a secret. And somehow, you became the person he walked to.

Bucky isn’t what the world thinks he is. He’s kind, in ways people don’t notice. Like the way he remembers the little things—how you take my coffee, which books you like to read, even the songs you hum under my breath.

One night, when the compound’s heating system failed during a snowstorm, he built a fire just to keep you warm. He sat there for hours, feeding the flames, making sure you wouldn’t shiver.

It wasn’t just the fire, though. It was him. Always showing up, always caring in ways he didn’t think anyone noticed.

You started wearing his initial around your neck not long after that. A small silver chain with a simple charm. It wasn’t because he owned you or anything like that—it was because he knew you. Really knew you.

Bucky saw through all the walls you’d built around yourself. He saw the parts of you kept hidden, the pieces you thought no one would ever want. And he stayed.

One night, you sat by the fire again, the same warmth wrapping around you. He looked at you with an intensity that made your breath catch.

“Would you run away with me?” he asked, his voice low, almost hesitant.

Your heart clenched at the vulnerability in his words. He didn’t ask because he thought you needed saving or because he wanted to escape. He asked because, for the first time, he felt like we could have something that was just yours.

“Wherever you go,” you whispered, “I’ll follow.”

#taglist: @cjand10

[infizero]

actually, silver's time traveling DID make sense... until sonic forces - an analysis

hello! this is a follow-up to my previous analysis post i made about why silver's time traveling is so weird.

everything i said in that post still applies, but upon looking at things closer (and creating an entire timeline map), i came to the realization that sonic forces actually kind of singlehandedly ruined everything. but hey what's new amiright

in all seriousness though, creating this timeline map helped me better visualize just what the hell is going on with silver's time traveling and various futures, and i hope it's able to do the same for you all as well! (full analysis under the cut)

FULL BREAKDOWN:

EDIT: i sort of forgot to take into account that sonic rivals and especially sonic rivals 2 DO seem to imply that silver's future is currently bad, though it's not stated outright. 06 also IMPLIES that silver's future is good at the end but it's not actually stated/shown to be the case. so in that case, it'd be future is still bad after 06 -> thus future is bad in rivals 1+2 -> rivals 2's resolution causes the good future mentioned in sonic colors ds. even in this scenario, it'd still be forces' fault for making the future bad again, but it wasn't AS crystal clear before forces as i may have originally made it seem like in this post. live and learn lol

so, let me explain what all this means lol (using different versions of this map)

silver is born into a timeline that's basically the bad ending of sonic 06 - where sonic is killed, elise cries, and iblis is unleashed, destroying the world. this is where silver starts:

the events of sonic 06 create a new timeline where solaris is never split into iblis and mephiles. thus iblis is never created and never destroys the world, causing silver to return to a future where everything is good.

silver starts in the 06 bad ending timeline, but he returns to the future of the new 06 good ending timeline, AKA the canon timeline:

(please excuse my shitty gifs lol)

this is where he remained for a WHILE, and where he should have remained. in all games between 06 and forces, the status of silver's future is either not mentioned, or is explicitly stated to be the good future. (specifically in colors ds)

so for a while, it was pretty simple and actually made sense. silver went from the 06 bad ending timeline, to the 06 good (canon) ending timeline, and then stayed there ever since. everything was fine. we could've just left it like this.

but then, sonic GOD DAMN forces decided to mess ALL THIS UP.

because when silver shows up for the events of forces, it's because his future... is taken over and polluted by eggman. as a result of forces. which doesn't make sense ANY way you cut it.

whether silver lived in a timeline where forces ended good or bad, EITHER WAY the events of sonic forces HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED. THEY SHOULD NOT CAUSE SILVER'S FUTURE TO ACTIVELY CHANGE BEFORE HIS EYES. THAT'S NOT HOW TIME WORKS

so because of forces, we then get this incredibly weird jump where silver LEAVES the canon good future... and goes to a random non-canon, bad ending timeline. for some reason:

from there, it's a bit more straight-forward. sonic forces happens and when silver goes back to his future, it's no longer the bad ending of forces, but the bad ending of the metal virus arc:

thus, silver goes back to the present to help stop that. the metal virus is eradicated, and we are EXPLICITLY shown that this is what directly causes silver's future to be saved:

and for now that hasn't changed. (and god willing, it never will)

ever since the end of the metal virus arc, silver's future is a good one and he's just been hanging out in the present, freaking out about not having a purpose anymore.

the literal SINGLE problem with all this is that silver was IN the good future before, but got yoinked OUT of it for some reason.

if after 06, he hadn't returned to a good future, but rather the bad ending future of sonic forces, then that would have made sense! that's the next point in the timeline where things can split off.

he fixes one problem, but it doesn't save the future. now the future is just ruined by something else. so then he has to go fix the next problem, and then the next, etc. etc.

that would've, y'know, made sense.

but you wanna know what's even more aggravating? they could've STILL done what they did with forces without changing silver's future!

it would've been so easy to have silver, in his good future, realize (through history books or something) that there is a point in the past where eggman almost fully takes over, and decide to time travel back to that point to make sure that things go as they're supposed to.

that would've made so much more sense! this goes back to the quirk of silver's time traveling that i pointed out in my first post, which is that silver tends to time travel to change the future, rather than make sure that the future happens the way it should (like a lot of other time travel stories do)

at this point however, silver's future IS capable of somehow changing at will. and i think there's really only two options to fix this.

the first and easiest is to just retcon stuff. either retcon silver's good future after 06, or retcon the forces + idw stuff about his future changing. this would be the simplest option i think.

the other is to try and come up with an explanation for silver being plucked out of his good future and shoved into other bad ending futures. i think it IS possible but it would still be incredibly convoluted.

i think you could spin it so rather than the good future becoming bad, it's actually just silver specifically as a person being transported from the good future to the bad future timeline. as to why, maybe whatever force sends him to time travel wants to... show him the consequences of that "canon event" getting messed up?

like, he's supposed to make sure that things go as they should for their good future to exist. and in order to make him understand why he needs to do this, he's like - shown a vision of what could happen if he doesn't? by him being transported to that bad ending timeline?

in all honesty, i really don't see a clean, easy way of explaining everything in one neat little package without retconning anything.

either things get way more convoluted and stupid, or things get retconned. and i dont know about you, but i would much rather take the latter. even if retcons can be frustrating, i feel like it's way better than the alternative.

but idk, what do you think? did any of this make sense? i hope it did. i quite like my silly little map.

anyways that's all for now bye <3

(bonus: here's the original version of the timeline map that i doodled in my notebook lol)

[merymoonbeam]

Book of Breathings - Elain - Ankh Symbol

First of all this is tied to my "a tool of creation" theory so you can read that first if you want.

We first learned about book of breathings in acomaf. To nullify the Cauldron.

“When the Cauldron was made,” the carver interrupted, “its dark maker used the last of the molten ore to forge a book. The Book of Breathings. In it, written between the carved words, are the spells to negate the Cauldron’s power—or control it wholly. But after the War, it was split into two pieces. One went to the Fae, one to the six human queens. It was part of the Treaty, purely symbolic, as the Cauldron had been lost for millennia and considered mere myth. The Book was believed harmless, because like calls to like—and only that which was Made can speak those spells and summon its power. No creature born of the earth may wield it, so the High Lords and humans dismissed it as little more than a historical heirloom, but if the Book were in the hands of something reforged … You would have to test such a theory, of course—but … it might be possible.” (acomaf)

And as the books went on...we got the two half of the books and finally the book is somehow in cc world.

So lets start with this theory post.

The name of the book comes from Egyptian Mythology

The Books of Breathing (Arabic: كتاب التنفس Kitāb al-Tanafus) are several ancient Egyptian funerary texts, intended to enable deceased people to continue existing in the afterlife. The earliest known copy dates to circa 350 BC.[1] Other copies come from the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt, as late as the 2nd century AD.[2] It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead

This information will be important for later. And in the meantime I made a post about koshei's onyx box connecting to this if you wanna read it.

Okay moving on...

I was looking at acotar coloring book pages and book of breathings drawing is... interesting.

Side not: sarah got the deals for the acotar books and then worked on the coloring book so I think this is important to add bc she LOVES to add hints as little things and whats better to add than a coloring book?

The circles of silver, gold and bronz.

It had been formed of dark metal plates bound on three rings of gold, silver, and bronze, each word carved with painstaking precision, in an alphabet I could not recognize. Yes, it indeed turned out my reading lessons were unnecessary.

I think these might be related to the book names of the new acotar books.

Silver flames

Gold(en) XX

Bronz XX (for vassa maybe? Bc she is a bird of flame...flame and bronze???)

Okay back to the other things.

The star(sun?) in the middle. When you first look at it it is like a sun but when you take into account that the asteri made this book and there is the starborn symbol of 8pointed star...its probably an eight pointed star.

She stared and stared at the Book—as if it were a ghost, as if it were a miracle—and said, “It is the Leshon Hakodesh. The Holy Tongue.” Those quicksilver eyes shifted to Rhysand, and I realized she’d understood, too, why she’d gone. Rhysand said, “I heard a legend that it was written in a tongue of mighty beings who feared the Cauldron’s power and made the Book to combat it. Mighty beings who were here … and then vanished. You are the only one who can uncode it.” (acomaf)

Amren turned to Rhysand and said in that new, strange language—their language: “The glowing letters inked on her back … they’re the same as those in the Book of Breathings.” (hofas)

“I can teach you things you’ve never even dreamed of,” Rigelus promised. “The language inked on your back—it is our language. From our home world. I can teach you how to wield it. Any world might be open to you, Bryce Quinlan. Name the world, and it shall be yours.”(hofas)

Also in the coloring book the ships of the papa archeron have these on them.

Feyre: moon and stars

Nesta: sun?

Elain: eight pointed star 👀

So for feyre it checks out. For nesta...why sun? When she had eight pointed star tattoed on her back(tho now it is gone after the deal with cassian is done) I thought what could the sun mean? The cover of acosf.

That's a sun. Also it is interesting that the High Lord of Day had such a negative reaction to the mask...🤔

And now... eight pointed star for elain? That remains to be seen what it could mean...👀

So thats out of the way and now we will look into the symbol at the bottom and top which I found out is the symbol of Ankh...from Egyptian Mythology.

The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself.

The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a triliteral sign, representing a sequence of three consonants, Ꜥ-n-ḫ. This sequence was found in several Egyptian words, including the terms for "mirror", "floral bouquet", and "life". The symbol often appeared in Egyptian art as a physical object representing either life or related life-giving substances such as air or water. Commonly depicted in the hands of ancient Egyptian deities, sometimes being given by them to the pharaoh, it represents their power to sustain life and to revive human souls in the afterlife.

Life...soul? We always say how Nesta is death and Elain got the life. Maybe it is more correct than we had thought???

And now the bird on the cover. There is no mention of bird symbol being on the cover of the book.(Im pretty sure of this but if Im wrong...it still stand that the only quote the book of breathings has said with bird is this) So why add bird? The only time Book of Breathings is connected with a bird is this quote:

The other one, the Book hissed. Bring the other one … let us be joined, let us be free. I slid the Book from my pocket, tucking it into the crook of my arm as I tugged the second half free. Lovely girl, beautiful bird—so sweet, so generous … Together together together

Which I totally think it is about Elain and Vassa.

Lovely girl? Elain. There is SO MANY quotes with elain and lovely.

Beautiful bird? Vassa...bird of flame.

And I made a bigger post about this(the other one) if you wanna read it.

So maybe we really need to get the book of breathings back? And Elain will use it to control cauldron?

[thewistlingbadger]

So I was looking through some gifs on Tumblr bc I was writing an analysis post and I saw this one

And I realized I never noticed that blue mass at the center of his chest so I started to look at it some more because I was interested.

And then I remembered that Jayce shot Viktor in the chest before he became the machine herald.

But if we compare the hole in Viktor's chest to the blue mass on the machine herald we can see it's not an exact match. But you know what is?

That golden part of Viktor's chest is in the exact same location as the blue mass AND it's the same shape. Additionally we can see that the blue mass has blue lines that connect to it and travel horizontally across the torso. This is identical to Viktor's golden chest. When Viktor was transfused with the hex core, he had his leg and back brace on. After the transfusion, those two braces became one with his skin. Those metal parts are now embedded in Viktor, he can't take them off like how he used to. And when we keep looking at the machine herald's design we can see that the presence of these braces are still there, even in the astral plane.

The two most noticeable things on the machine herald's body in this scene are the big lines on his leg and the blue mass in the center of his chest. Notice how the lines are more prominent and noticeable on his right leg (Viktor's right) than his left leg? Well, Viktor's right leg was the leg that couldn't function properly. It was his right leg that had the brace. We never get to see the machine herald's back in this scene but I guarantee you that line work element of his design most likely continues onto his back because it represents his back brace. It's interesting how even though Viktor is in a state where he no longer requires his braces to function they're still attached to him.

Oh wait what was it that Jayce said?

"You always wanted to cure what you thought were weaknesses. Your leg. Your disease. But you were never broken, Viktor. There's beauty to imperfections, they made you who you are. An inseparable piece of everything I admired about you."

Even when Viktor has constructed an all powerful able bodied form, it STILL has the braces he used to wear. Even when Viktor presents himself in his idealized form, his disability is still a part of him that cannot be taken away from him. Viktor's braces are LITERALLY "an inseparable piece" to the machine herald's design.

Sidenotes: the astral plane is often used to show us how things "truly are." When Viktor touched Warwick in the astral plane he sees Vander. When Viktor is the astral plane he looks similar to how he looked in season one, not to how he looks in real life. The fact that Viktor actually looks like the machine herald in the astral plane at this point is very telling.

Before the hexcore Viktor's braces weren't gold, they were brown and silver. But after the hexcore binds the braces to Viktor's skin they become gold. In the first gif that started this whole post, the lines on Viktor's whole body and his center are blue. Blue and yellow are complimentary colors, they are direct opposites on the color wheel.

[mothpendragon]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SONIC MOVIE 3 (if you haven’t seen it yet look away now)

Here are my thoughts on the movie:

Okay so that opening was PERFECTION!! I absolutely love how they immediately hit us with the Maria flashbacks, this film didn’t pull any punches with Shadow and Maria’s relationship (and especially the tragedy)

Tom and Sonic visiting the old cave melted my heart. I’m very glad they mentioned Sonic loosing Longclaw again, I was slightly worried they weren’t going to fully address it. I especially love how they re-address it later in the film to help Sonic connect with Shadow, because both of them have experienced loss.

I completely lost my mind when Sonic said “Talk about a low budget flight, no food or movies! We’re outta here!!” I wasn’t expecting that line to be included but HOLY SHIT HE SAID THE THING!!! I swear I almost did the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen meme in the cinema 🫵

I wasn’t expecting to see Shadow watch telenovelas, but here we are

FUCKING CALLED IT!!! Tom got hurt by Shadow!! That entire scene of Sonic shaking Tom’s unconscious body, and Shadow having flashbacks to Maria’s death, I loved it!! It was an especially great way to show Shadow beginning to realize that what he’s doing is wrong, that the path of vengeance only leads to more pain.

SPEAKING OF PAIN—

I almost cried when they showed Shadow and Maria together. It made my heart hurt so much, they really did a good job hitting all of us in the feels and laying it on thick with the tragedy. They were so happy together! Seeing Shadow smiling, dancing, just having fun with Maria, only to have it all taken away…

I’m not sure how I feel yet about the changes they made to the backstory. I definitely think they fit for the movie universe, but some of it caught me off guard. Shadow being an alien instead of man-made, and erasing Maria’s illness. Idk, I think it makes sense for this universe but I’m unsure if I completely like the changes or not :/ (they’re definitely not bad, just different)

Okay but that scene of Shadow and Sonic on the moon just talking it out, connecting, sharing their pain, it was all perfect. Sonic bringing up the fact that he lost Longclaw, him admitting that the pain never goes away, but holding onto pain isn’t the answer, you need to hold onto the happiness you did have. When Shadow said that line “Even when the star is gone, the light still shines” or something along those lines genuinely made me shed a tear…

LIVE AND LEARN!!! (I almost screamed when they started playing that)

Also, as a major Sonadow shipper….can I just say that the sequence of Super Shadow and Super Sonic working together was super fucking gay. I’m sorry, but it’s true (they’re boyfriends your honor) ❤️💙

(I kinda think Shadow is still alive, but I’m not sure. He survived Maria getting blown up, so idk if that means he’s explosion proof but maybe 🤔)

Oh yeah also….WTF HAPPENED TO THE MASTER EMERALD?! After Sonic and Shadow finish using it we never see the chaos emeralds again! Did they fall to earth?! Did the ones Shadow use get blown up?! I imagine not. We never see Knuckles say anything, nor any of the characters for that matter. Maybe that’s a problem for the next film *shrugs*

Yes, they’re making Sonic 4. I wasn’t entirely expecting them to give us two characters instead of one like they did for the last two movies. I had honestly placed my bets on Amy being revealed and lo and behold, I was right!!(ngl I knew Silver was a long shot but I can dream). Metal Sonic as well is pretty exciting! No clue who would’ve built him since it seems Robotnik/Eggman is DEAD dead fr this time. Maybe Stone? I’m not sure tho. The fact that there were multiple Metal Sonic’s has me thinking the big bad of Sonic 4 is gonna use an army of them, which is very cool!

I just…..this movie is everything I wanted and more. It was genuinely worth the wait. I think that’s all I wanted to say in this post so uh…bye! 👋

Edit: I just found out there was a second post credits scene and I missed seeing it 💀

Uhhhhhhhhh yeah so that’s what I get for not watching all the credits. Make sure to stick around until it’s well and truly over. Should I just like look it up or…..?

Edit 2: I just googled the after credits scene and watched it. Yippee!! Shadow is alive! (Figured that was the case but wasn’t expecting them to confirm it)

[lesbianxreader]

This is my first time using tumblr but I started writing fanfics and I heard this was a good place to post :)

Here’s the first one I wrote please let me know what you think! 18+only because there will be smut later on as the story progresses

Chapter one: Whispers in the sand

The desert stretched endlessly for Lin, this wasn’t her usually territory but all her sources said the sandbender she’s looking for was here. There has been trouble in republic city, smuggling, theft, and even abductions have been the highest she’s seen. She knew she needed to get to the bottom of what was going on and quickly.

Lins sharp green eyes scanned the horizon taking in the endless sea of sand looking for any sign that the sandbender has traveled through. And finally she saw tracks left by a sand sailer. With her team of metal benders she followed the tracks, until she found a small encampment between the dunes.

She put her hand up signaling her team to halt it was quiet and something felt off…that when she saw her. Sand began to move around them like a hurricane and a woman with soft features and brown doe eyes stood about 10 feet in front of her. She was wearing a piece of cloth over her mouth to protect her from the sand, her short brown hair blew in the sandstorm. She wore a black crop top, black and red stripped bell bottoms, and a pair of sandal. Her body moved like magic twisting the sand to her whim. Lin watched enchanted by her. Their eyes locked.

Savannahs heart skipped a beat. She’s heard rumors about The Beifongs bending abilities and Lin the Police chief of Republic city but she didn’t expect her to be so beautiful. She looked just as stern and serious as the legends said. With striking green eyes that made her whole body feel like it was burning with desire.

Lins pulse quickened, she knew she had to act she launched her cables to try and wrap them around the girl but all the saw was a gush of yellow sand and like magic she was gone.

Savannah used her sand bending to create a channel and appeared directly behind Lin, she sends off gusts of sand knocking Lin off her feet and their eyes met again.

Why can’t I look away? Lin thought to herself as she launched another attack only for Savannah to dodge it quickly. The other metal benders started trying to capture her as well. Realizing how out numbers she was Savannah blinded them with more sand and took her sand sailer trying to put as much distance as possible between her and the police. Through the sand Lin sees her attempt to escape and rushes after her chasing her through the desert.

Thinking she was in the clear Savannah stops. Right before Lins cables fly out wrapping around her wrists.

“No let go of me!” Savannah yells her face mask falling down exposing her plump lips a silver face chain hung from her nose piercing to her ear. Lin couldn’t help but be enchanted by the young woman.

Lin stands right in front of her with her arms crossed She couldn’t help but admire Savannahs soft features her eyes trailed down looking at her body before looking her sternly in the eyes. “So you’re the one who’s been causing trouble with those pirates, you’re under arrest.” She spat out.

“Get this dumb thing off me right now.” Savanna growled trying to pull her arms out of the cables grasp.

“Don’t try to resist pirate. You’re not getting away this time. We've been tracking your crew's illegal activities for months. Now it's time to face justice.” Lin leans forward. “I would start talking if I was you, where’s the rest of your crew.”

Savanna couldn’t help but stare at Lins soft lips. “I’m not telling you anything.” She smirked at the older woman.

Lins eyes flash with anger. “Listen here you stubborn little brat, either you tell me what I want to know or I’ll toss you in a cell and throw away the key.” Her face is inches away from Savannahs. So close she can feel her hot breath on her lips, and a devilish idea comes to her mind. Savannah leans in and gives Lin a kiss on the lips moaning she licks the older woman’s bottom lip. Out of instinct Lin parts her lips softly giving in the kiss and losing focus her grip on the cables loosen long enough for Savannah to slip her hands out. Sending a storm of sand around them before attempting to escape.

Lin reaches out quickly grabbing her wrist roughly. “Nice try, but not today.” Her other hand grabs Savannahs chin forcing her to look her in the eyes. “You really thought you could trick me with some cheap stunt like that? I'm not falling for your pathetic attempts to weasel out of this. It's over for you, girl.” She wraps the cables around Savannahs wrists once more. “Now let’s try this again, where is the rest of your crew.”

“I don’t know anything and even if I did they’d kill me, please let me go.” Savannah pleads realizing there’s no way out of this situation.

Lin looked at Savannahs face she definitely looked terrified. “I can protect you, just tell me who’s behind this operation? And where can I find them.” She spoke softer this time.

“I can’t, please they’ll notice I’m missing soon.” Savannah said her voice shaking with fear.

Lins brow furrowed with concern. She looks at Savannah who’s trembling in front of her. “Then we need to act fast. Let me take you somewhere where we can talk privately. I can offer you protection. Tell me everything you know about the operation and the key players. Every detail could be crucial. And whatever happens, I won't let anyone lay a finger on you, understood?” Lin softly puts her hand on savanna’s shoulder.

“He will kill us both, please just let me go.” Savanna starts to cry softly.

“Whatever resources this guy has, I guarantee mine are bigger.” Lin said trying to comfort her. “And I’m not letting you go back somewhere where you’d be in danger. You’re coming with me.”

Lin takes Savannah back to Republican city to make arrangements with Tenzin so she can stay at the air temple. Savanah still bound in the cable watches as Lin whispers into an older monks ear. As Lin finishes explaining the situation to Tenzin, she watches his reaction carefully. When he nods in understanding, she feels a small wave of relief wash over her.

“Thank you Tenzin.” She smiles warmly at him before looking back to Savannah. “This is Tenzin him and the rest of the airbenders will protect you, as well as guard you. Do not try to leave the island.” She says to the sandbender sternly. “You made the right choice coming with me.”

“I don’t recall being given a choice.” Savannah spats.

Lin's eyes widen in shock at her bitter words. A flicker of guilt crosses her face before being quickly masked by her usual stoic expression. She takes a deep, steadying breath. “Well you have one now, let’s go inside so we can talk.” Lin says softly leading the sandbender to secluded room.

[sickficideas]

(https://www.tumblr.com/sickficideas/777479564144377856/i-cant-ever-remember-you-talking-about-bram-but?source=share)

Remember when I said I'd show up with an Atsushi version? Here I am haha-

Anyway, the most common (non-immediately-murderous, i.e. decapitation) weaknesses for were(insert, typically wolves) that you see are silver & wolfsbane(which is a real plant! Highly poisonous, typically a dark, pretty purple). The primary focus here would be silver. Despite being considered as a 'precious metal', silver is fairly common to be found in day-to-day life. For some examples, it is used in various electronics due to its conductivity, basic tableware(silverware, name speaks for itself), as well as various currency forms and jewelry. Interestingly enough, though, silver's sometimes used in water filters, as its antimicrobial properties(Kills/stops the growth of microorganisms) help limit bacteria and the like.

Basically, I'm thinking of Atsushi getting ill (technically being 'allergic') from drinking different companies/types of filtered water or becoming itchy upon contact with certain items. Of course, I think the intensity would vary depending on how much of/how pure the silver is, but it's still all very intriguing to think of.

~ Higuchi Anon Was originally gonna put this with the miscellaneous headcanons 'ask' send that should be relatively near this one, but I figured that this is long enough to warrant its own post.

HIGUCHI ANON I MISSED YOU MORE THAN WORDS CAN DESCRIBE...I absolutely LOVE this idea, I love anything that plays on Atsushi's relation to the tiger at all, his senses and whatnot, and giving it sickfic potential is the best thing ever...

I love the idea of him feeling kinda weird after drinking certain kinds of bottled/filtered water and not really connecting the dots. If it's really hot out or he's dizzy and just generally not feeling right and someone offers him water and he goes "no that'll make it worse" and they're like h?????

I also love the silverware because I imagine they're not using that often (wooden chopsticks and soup spoons being the primary, although I've seen many, many western style restaurants near the agency's inspired location in Yokohama lol) and Atsushi once again making the wrong connection. He feels sick and his stomachs hurts after using silverware at western restaurants and cafes but chalks it down to it being western food...

But can you also imagine him being STABBED with silver...and the injury NOT HEALING.... MWUAHAHAHAHA...that would absolutely be the turning point realization lol

I will ABSOLUTELY have to use the wolfsbane idea in a fic one day soon mark my words

[livewireprojects]

Pride Month 2024 Sonic Sketches

Second pic made in Procreate, kinda excited about it

Made a few sketches for pride month, kind of started out with a comic were Silver comes out to his mom as bisexual along with a pic of Blaze after telling her dad then decided to draw everyone at a pride parade & showing their pride

Everyone here is kind of based on my own ideas for the characters especially Mephiles since anything involving him has to do with the version I made for him for post-06 reboot. Also some stuff is in color(Blaze's forehead gem, Cosmo's necklace, Amy's headband, Sonic's hair clip, ghost aura stuff) cause it seemed fitting due to the meanings behind the colors on the pride flag.(Like purple for soul)

Middle row

Like the text says Blaze told her dad & he made her a frog hat to support her. He's a nice/friendly guy that cares a lot, it's unfortunate that Blaze's late mom was so terrible & left with Blaze for her own intentions.

Rouge & Knuckles at pride, I was a little worried about how well I got Rouge's bisexual flag makeup. I eventually fixed up the lipstick & added matching earrings. Knuckles unintentionally looks like a pirate cause I can't draw his hat at angles. So yeah my version of Knuckles & Rouge are bi, Knuckles use to date Sonic(in my ver) & Rouge has some interest in women in the past.(Especially Topaz at one point)

Here's Blaze & Silver, Silver has a bi flag cardigan. Pretty much at some point the two realized together they're bi. They eventually told their parents(well Blaze's mom is gone so she only told her dad) & they luckily have supportive families.

Surge isn't in my Lost Prince stuff but I thought she & Amy were cute together in the fanart people made. I also think Metal was interesting with Amy, at some point gets with her in the future in my Lost Prince AU. Metal at some point stops working for Eggman & tries to make their own identity after a talk with Sonic especially since they were becoming more sentient. Metal wasn't sure what he wanted but eventually figured things out.

Right row

The context of the sign is that this is meant to be Tails, Cosmo(revived as a plant/mobian chipmunk hybrid) & Cream when they're older & in their teens or later. The time skip is mostly cause at the moment Cream is pretty young in present day, Tails is too but he's slightly older. I guess you could say Tails & Cosmo had a puppy love or something then things got serious when they were older when Cosmo returned then later Cream joined them.

Cream is pretty accepting of who she's into, I dunno what Cosmo is into(I guess technically bi since she's dating Tails & later Cream when Cream joined the couple), Tails I think maybe straight but I dunno. At the very least Tails is supportive of his friends & brother.

Context for this is just I wanted to add Vanilla & her late spouse so them from the future. Added Vector cause him & Vanilla are kinda cute so he's her relationship from the future. So Vanilla's late partner is my OC Cake who despite willing to be called a dad by their kids(Cream & at some point Sonic cause I like the idea of the rabbits adopting him) & only them, Cake was nonbinary. The rabbit family is pretty accepting of people.

Decided to bring in Gadget & Zero/Infinite, the guy in the corner is Zero's late dad who I'll explain at a late point

And then there's these three. I'm not entirely sure what my thoughts on Shadow & Mephiles are, at some point I think I realized demisexual felt right for Shadow. Like I said before any of my thoughts on Mephiles are specifically for the version I made of him for post-reboot in Sonic 06. I was originally thinking of giving him the male gay pride flag but given what I've done with him in Lost Prince AU I kinda realized he fits in with demisexual too. While my version of Sonic identifies as male he likes dressing in whatever he wants & isn't exactly gender-conforming.

Sonic mostly dressed up for pride & tied a pride flag to his neck like a cape. For some reason Mephiles is the only one I tried making designs for on his outfit.

Here's a cropped version of the comic. Pretty much Silver & Blaze realized they were bisexual, at some point Silver got the courage to tell his mom & later his dads.*

For some context Silver's mom is male & in a relationship with men*, he's pretty accepting so Silver doesn't need to worry much. However his worries are understandable because of being around Blaze a lot & seeing how her mom treated her. Blaze's mom was strict & caused a lot of issues that Blaze is still recovering from. Blaze left with Silver & Venice at some point leading to meeting her dad & becoming estranged from her mom. Her mom is gone now but as said Blaze is still recovering. Silver's family(along with Blaze's dad) understand & reassure Silver, Venice & Blaze that the three are accepted/safe.

*I dunno if the marriage is legal at best I know Silver's dad & his mom's marriage is legal. Venice's(Venice is Silver's half brother) dad went missing for a few years(Eggman was behind it) & ended up joining the relationship after being rescued/talking things out. Venice's dad was able to be part of the wedding as another groom but I dunno if this counts as official/legal by human standards.(I guess technically official by Mobian standards)

Thought I'd make a version without the color for everyone to see. The text about the frog hat is missing because it was connected to the frame I made for the comic involving Silver & his mom.

[snarky-art]

Sorry if it is somewhere else, but why is gold a no-no on Andros, in your rewrite?

Aaaah you’re fine! Add this to the list of lore things I thought I had already posted about and then when searching realized no,, it’s just been sitting in my brain for years🥲

The short answer: all ores native to Andros are shades of gray/silver

There are large cracks in the land that stretch far and wide and even dip down into the shallow waters (and deeper still into the ocean too) where the Androsians live.

They have a robust metalworking industry focused on jewelry and combining that with their other preferred decorative pieces too (shells, jewels, stones, etc).

The more fun answer: It being held in such high regard has its origins with a folk story from long long ago that talks about how the Moon (integral to the way the ocean works obviously, just like on Earth) wept upon the separation of the sky from the sea, feeling it lost so much of its sister, the sea, so suddenly.

The Moon’s response was a grand storm shortly after said separation, influenced by the Moons emotions. These tears fell in big streams down into the ocean, and the waves and rough currents swept over everything for a time, spreading its tears throughout the whole planet, pounding it into the newly formed land too.

The Androsians were having trouble surviving this great endless typhoon, and the goddess who separated the ocean and the sky for the benefit of the Androsian people, came to plea to the moon, to ask what could possibly be done to appease it. The moon requested they merge the sea and the sky again, but for the beings of Andros to thrive, that wasn’t an option, said the goddess. The Moon deep down understood this, but was still hurt. The Moon thought for a bit, the storms subsiding some as it did, and eventually it said it was lonely, the sea so far away from it now. They wouldn’t be able to have as much fun as they used to when they were closer.

Thinking on this, the goddess eventually asked if it would like another sibling, one next to it all the time so it would never be lonely. It said yes, and from the land the goddess took some of the earth and formed a smaller moon to exist alongside it, this one containing a lot of the silver from the tears that the waves brought to the land. This will be your new sibling, said the goddess, and with it, some of your tears returned to you from the sea itself, to remind you that you are still connected, even though you are further apart now. The moon was appeased, and finally satisfied, stopped its weeping, and addressed the beings of Andros.

Go forth, it said, and prosper upon what was given to you by the sacrifice of my sister the sea to make the sky. But do not forget, despite there now being sky, you aren’t to forget my strength or my sister’s sacrifice. The tears I have shed are yours to create with to honor what I have lost and what I still harbor my influence over.

Old shrines and ceremonial pieces with silver are commonplace on Andros, to honor the moon and its sibling, whom themself is covered with silver and helps to calm the moon.

At this point silver is synonymous with the moon and its power, the royal family having it present in much of their official garb and accessories. They are in a way seen as ceremonial vessels of the moon and its power, present over land and sea through the tears it once cried and spread through the planet.

Other metals are allowed now due to things like trade and commerce, but they’re nowhere near as popular and some people with more traditional views see it as kinda sacrilegious or unappreciative for Androsians or people representing Andros to wear it.

Musa is dating Aisha and is by proxy supposed to be acting as an extension of her. Like I said in the other post, her being not Androsian at all is a huge fucking problem for their governmental structure, which is already dealing with pushback with the way their current population is pushing more and more for things to be, now she, as someone who is an extension of the royal family, the moon’s vessels, is wearing fucking Gold. They associate it culturally with the sun like on other certain planets, which while a significant thing is far less important than the 2 moons present by a landslide. Anything in the royal court must be silver and must be from the planet itself. Musa wearing gold while being alongside Aisha is considered a big middle finger to those in government and they’re fucking pissed.

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

DF Posting: KingChannels - Year 2

Here we are again.

The Bedroom Floor, which as of the end of year 2 was housing every single one of our dwarves. There's three more wings like this, along with some larger bedrooms up top for our more distinguished (read: cranky) fortress members. I'd say we're using... maybe a third of them?

Looking forward I think I took too many pictures of dwarf stats and likes and such, but here we are again regardless. We left KingChannels last year with planning out our barracks/trade depot combo, and the future trap tunnel I will be using to bolster our defenses. We began year two with adding two new members to our Militia, Sigun Libadkivish and Kogan Rithas. Both mostly unskilled, but you need bodies sooner rather then later so they can get trained up when that barracks gets built.

the two new happy members of our militia

Shortly after this addition I had a realization that creatures can Climb, now. As a result I reexamined the wall around our fort and had the realization that enemies can probably just climb over it, so we're going to have to add a plan to build an overhang on the top of it, to prevent goblins from just scrambling up the walls and rushing into our main fortress. The trade depot/barracks/kill tunnel doesn't really Work if they... you know, don't go through it. Other then that realization not much happened early in the year as we were honestly just waiting for more dwarves. We finished putting some statues up in the temple, along with starting smoothing it out, but we need more haulers, more masons, more everything. The first year being as dry as it was on migrants was quite bad for our momentum, especially given the number of large scale constructions I'll be doing in this fort, but thankfully with Aban on ring making duty we should be sending out quite the impressive signal to the mountainhome soon enough.

Despite our cool new temple some dwarves are still unhappy; namely Sigun himself. He did get caught out in a snowstorm to be fair; dwarves Hate being outside in bad weather, to the point that it can lead to traumatic memories. He later learned something from it (the importance of self sacrifice, foreshadowing as a military dwarf?), but it's still dragging his mood down I believe despite it being "good" for him.

Unfortunately migrants are determined by how much stuff you ship out on the dwarven trade caravan and the first two migrant waves this year were completely dry. Expected, but unfortunate. While waiting for the trade caravan to arrive we carved out the living room floor (pictured at the top of this post), and doubly used this as an excuse to explore a new layer, as it was made partially of chert. A new layer of stone means new potential for ores, which means maybe we can get the militia armed sooner rather then later.

Regardless the liason Eventually arrived while we plunked away at the trade depot. It didn't get to experience the luxary of trading in an Actual Room, with an Actual Roof, but there's always next year. The outpost liason told us next year they want Sheets (whcih is to say, paper or parchment sheets), and Anvils. Not a great thing for us given we're building a library. We'll probably just go double time on the stonecrafts this coming year, but maybe I will sell some paper; the library is a ways off yet after all.

Meanwhile we requested, Steel, Iron, Bronze and Silver bars. Steel, Bronze, and Iron are obvious, we need to get our militia armored sooner rather then later, and I have no guarantee of there being a significant amount of military grade metal on site, but the silver is something special. As I've said we're building a library, but it Is the focus of our fort, so I wanted it to be a little bit more then stacking rocks. We are making the library mostly out of sterling silver, an alloy of copper and silver, with other ornamental metals to accentuate things a bit. Gem windows also.

Anyway we bought some random gear they brought, a few iron and bronze bars, as well as a single silver bar, and a bunch of cheese wheels for the dwarves. I always like buying random food when the caravan comes, dwarves like the variety and it's often quite cheap. Higher value food makes dwarves happier too, and cheese is rather high value for an uncooked food. We also bought our first book.

A scroll concerning the moon and how it moves around in the sky. It'll go in the library eventually, obviously. Note the value too, very expensive. We're going to need a more robust economy if we're gonna get more non fortress written books.

Literally two days after the caravan left we got a migrant wave and it was a Big one. News travels fast. The migrant wave was, even better, mostly military dwarves, two melee and two ranged. I went ahead and augmented our belowground trade depot pillboxes with a link up to another barracks for the ranged dwarves. They need a bit more space to do their training, so underground suits them fine as well as being easier to expand outwards.

Our four new militiadwarves. The melee squad is now up to 6 strong, and these two are skilled! Good tidings indeed. For those curious, Udin and Eral are marksdwarves, Doren and Ber are meleedwarves, Sword and Axe specialists respectively. They'll be a big help.

On top of these four, we got another 7 dwarves, totaling up to 11 dwarves. Basically everything I could've asked for. The construction effort on the trade depot speeds up near instantly and we get it structurally complete before the end of the season. Just need the floors and roofs now.

In the process of waiting for the depot to finish, I realized we had no water within the walls of the fort. I set about planning a cistern for the nearest murky pool so we can get some renewable water going, hopefully, if we get enough rain to refill the pool. If not we'll still have Some water, we hopefully wont' need much before we hit the caverns and hopefully find a much larger source of water.

At any rate after the sorting out of the migrant wave was over I set to making a weapon out of the iron we bought. The next long term goal for the miners, now that all of our basic needs are being met, is to find the metal on site so we can get our militia into metal armor. Exploratory mining will begin soon, but I also dug out some extra room on our workshop floor for our fledgling metal industry.

Small beginnings. We might eventually upgrade to a magma furnace, but honestly I find setting up a little forge hovel near the core of the earth a pain in the butt, as much as I like it aesthetically. Maybe we'll pump magma up, though that presents its own risks. Maybe if the cavern water pumping goes well.

The new forge was put to work immediately making an axe for one of the recruits. The other recruits claimed the purchased gear, and we are that much better armed for any aggression.

Shortly after our military got armed, we had our first strange mood! A posession, unfortunately, but we'll take what we can get. Ingish grabbed some Chert and Rough Bloodstones, and made a scepter.

I'll probably give it to a noble as a ceremonial piece or somethin. Or maybe just put it in a display case in the library somewhere. It does refer to a historical event from our civilization, The Rag of Palms so that's pretty nice.

Around this time winter hit and the murky pools froze so I set out to make that cistern. It's a small one, mostly to get the water out of the pool and under a roof, so the pool can refill. Honestly also did it just because I like messing with fluids in dwarf fortress. Honestly no idea how I haven't made a pumpstack yet.

The intermediate form of the cistern. I want to add some stone block walls and floors eventually. The blue on the right is obviously the frozen murky pool, the lever controls the floodgate, and the stairs go down into the cistern for when we need to hook it up to another cistern to bring it to the fort proper. This is mostly just to allow this particular murky pool to refill, giving us more water in total, over time. This Does present a potential hole in our security, but as long as we don't leave the floodgate open it should be fine. Should

This occured pretty much simultaneously with the smoothing of the temple being finished, creating a nice meeting place for the dwarves, which should hopefully help lighten the mood. We've gotten a number of mildly unhappy dwarves, and sure enough, after this all got smoothed out that number slowly dropped. And then immediately rose because everyone ran out in the snow and got pissed off about it, as dwarves do.

Luxary. We'll probably add some tables and chairs and such in here at some point too. Floor's a little barren. Also yes that is a llama statue. The cube statue is of a bogeyman, I dunno why it's shaped like a cube. Tileset restrictions on largely procedural creatures I'd imagine.

Once that got done I set the smoothers on the dining room, for similar reasons as to the temple. Areas dwarves frequent are important to make look nice, for happiness reasons. They never got around to even a single tile before the end of the year because they were too busy making stone blocks. A mostly good thing. The temple is probably enough for now.

As the year plodded on towards its conclusion the barracks part of the trade depot was finished, and our dwarves began to train. Shortly after the recruits graduated to novices of their given weapon types, and earned a Sword and Speardwarf title. The beginning of a hopefully long road.

They're not training in here as of this screenshot, but they're headed there!

We hit another bit of a lull as winter ran on, started making a floor for the main room of the depot and got that much closer to actually moving the depot inside it for once. The roof is still needed but we have an honestly absurd amount of blocks so it'll be done soon I imagine. The extra labor really helped. At some point while closing up the year a militiadwarf got trapped outside the walls at some point. I did have the drawbridge down at one point so haulers could bring some wood from outside the walls in, but I don't know why he would have left. Will have to keep my eyes open for further excursions. If there's some gap in the defenses that the dwarves are wandering through, we can expect any enemies to wander through it too. And dwarves won't climb to my knowledge, even if they know how, so that couldn't have been what happened either.

At the end of the year, the fort had its first child birth, Lolor Rimtarilir. Child of Kogan Rithas and Sigun Libadkivish who may sound familiar. The two dwarves we put in the military at the start of the year. We've come full circle. Unfortunately last time I played mother dwarves carrying their children had a nasty tendency to use them as shields, so Lolor may not be long for this world. Then again, he only needs a year to start walking, so maybe he'll be fine.

We can only hope. Also yes, dwarves are born with a full set of values, preferences, and life goals. Minute One this baby knows Exactly what it is doing with its life. Must be nice.

And from that point the year drove to a close uneventfully. The trade depot will be finished next year, and we can begin on another project, expand the cistern network, hopefully get some equipment forged, and maybe start to look at building that library. If not, I'll look into a non library secure storage place for books somewhere, to keep them out of the hands of thieves, as they don't go into any stockpile inparticular, so that scroll's just kinda... hangin out in the trade depot undefended. Costing 1000+ dollars and all. Need to get that taken care of. Probably should've done it this year. Oh well!

Until next year. Our fortunes rise and fall together.

[companionwolf]

Did the FSG stuff I wanted to do; I...am counting this as +1 practicing of the skills too. Two birds and all that, I think.

Posting here for reference and logs...

MODULE 1 TOPIC 1 WRITTEN EXERCISE 1: practicing orientation to the present and anchoring with writing

BACK OF THE HEAD DISSOCIATIVE SCALE BEFORE (1 = TOTALLY CHECKED OUT, 5 = TOTALLY PRESENT) -- 3.45?

ORIENT--

12:11pm, June 18 (Wednesday), 2025;

The body/I am 25;

I am on the couch in the living room of the parent's house in Texas.

ANCHOR--

Sight

1 the lamp on the table by the couch; the open end (where the light bulb is inserted) is facing me, it's curved slightly in a subtle s shape and the metal of its neck is silver; there's a warning label on the inside of the lamps hood; the inside of the lamp and the bulb are white, but not super bright white; the lamp is not on; the lamp.is made of metal

2 the cup on the table beside the couch; it's maybe....half a foot from the lamp?; it's about...eh, maybe 7 inches tall?; it's plastic and light semi translucent blue; it is empty

3 the remote on the table beside the couch; urs closer to the cup than the lamp, maybe by 2 inches to the leff; it's sitting on a mottled wooden...tray thing? by the left side of said tray; the remote is white; it's made of plastic and the buttons are also white; it's smaller than the cup, maybe 5 inches?

Sound

1 I can hear a clock ticking; it's a little high pirched?; very quiet, as it's up high on a wall across the room, it's staccato

2 the air conditioning; it's lower pitched and constant; it's louder than the clock ticking

3 the hum of electricity; it's high pitched, more than the clock; very very quiet; constant

Touch

1 the dog Zoey; her fur is short medium length, sort of wiry and rough; her fur is brown; she is warm when I touch her; she did not move or look at me much (she is asleep and I touched her very gently)

2 the couches cover (to protect from the dogs); it's a smooth fabric with criss cross lines stitched into it; it's brown; the criss crossing make diamond patterns on the cover; it's actually slightly colder than Zoey (due to the AC?)

3 my work shirt; it's black and has like...raised lines in the material?, otherwise it's smooth and soft; it's warmer than the couch cover but not as much as Zoey

[NO TASTE OR SMELL PRESENT.]

BACK OF THE HEAD DISSOCIATIVE SCALE AFTER (1 = COMPLETEY CHECKED OUT, 5 = COMPLETELY PRESENT) -- 3.65, maybe?; there wasn't a huge difference from before to now re: how grounded I feel, but I think it did improve? I feel... more aware I guess maybe. Present-ish. Which makes sense given it's grounding. And I did feel something get a tiny bit better...

MODULE 1 TOPIC 1 WRITTEN EXERCISE 2: thoughts and feelings related to grounding skills

PART A

1) things that make me not want to/not feel like using grounding skills

- the effort of grounding is often a lot, and it's exhausting

- sometimes not being grounded feels better?

- sometimes maybe I feel I don't deserve to feel better (if I believe the grounding skills would help)

2) fears about being grounded or connected to the present?

- not being able to cope with emotions that I have dissociated away from (grounding will make me feel them)

- it's hard and I'm worried I'll just fail or that I won't work and I'll be uselessly trying and trying

3) things you like about not being grounded (aka dissociating)

- it's easy

- it's familiar

- I don't have to deal with emotional stuff as much

PART B

1) things that are scary or that I dislike about being ungrounded or dissociated

- I lose the ability to realize things are not then

- I lose the ability to remember options for coping

- sometimes we switch and it's not a good switch

- sometimes we get overwhelmed and choose to do things that hurt us

- sometimes we have flashbacks

- dissociating is somewhat distressing by itself

2) personal reasons I think it's important to be grounded

- being grounded helps you be safer (less confused thinking, increases awareness of options for coping, helps you make decisions that are less likely to hurt you-- or at least allow you to make informed choices about what to do)

- being grounded helps you avoid and or manage difficult situations and symptoms

- being grounded helps you notice when things are actually safer in the present

[shredsandpatches]

fic snippet (snazzy evil accessories edition)

Haven't posted any ficbits in a while and it's Monday, so here, have a little of a Gounod Faust fic I chip away at every so often. It's set right after the end of either Act 2 or Act 3, depending on which version you're using, and Mephistopheles has some time to kill while The Heterosexuals Are At It Again.

I'm totally picturing this as set in the McVicar/ROH production, by the way, which is set in Second Empire France so that's why they have cigarettes.

--

"Stay away from me," Siébel says, holding up his fingers—he'd dipped them in the holy water font earlier this evening; maybe that will help ward him off, or at least ward off any other spells he tries to cast. "I don't have dealings with sorcerers."

The man's laughter in response is utterly without mirth, and does not reach his eyes. The sound of it makes Siébel's skin crawl.

"I assure you, dear boy, I am no sorcerer," the man says. He smiles, apologetic but equally without mirth. "I'm afraid we've started off on the wrong foot."

"You put a curse on me!" It sounds silly, now that he's said it aloud, and yet he knows it's true.

The man makes a clicking noise with his tongue and shakes his head, smirking indulgently. "Only a bit of fun," he says. "Anything would wilt, in this weather. A boy your age ought not to be so superstitious."

Siébel feels the corners of his mouth turn down. He's never been what anyone would call superstitious, usually, at any age. It isn't even as if this man is exactly wrong about the weather, or about the delicacy of flowers. But there's something about his presence that gives Siébel a prickly feeling and a metallic taste in the back of his throat. He should run away, he feels, or at least say something suitably defiant, but before he can do either of these things, the man produces a silver cigarette case from inside his jacket, withdrawing two cigarettes and holding one out to Siébel, eyebrows raised in a silent offer.

"No, thank you," Siébel says, already resolved not to accept anything from this man. The curse, petty as it was, had been bad enough.

The man smiles grimly as he returns one of the cigarettes to its case. "Filthy habit, anyway," he says, raising the other cigarette to his lips. The glow from its burning end illuminates the lid of the cigarette case, where engraved figures dance around a golden calf—in the faint red flicker of the flame they seem to be moving indeed, and Siébel shudders. He realizes he hasn't seen the man light a match.

[probssomethingorother]

In the After: a last of us fic

sooo.... I have finally made it over to Tumblr so posting some of my AO3 fics. Here is my longest to kick things off, but more to come

post-episode 8 Silver Lake hurt/comfort

Ellie & Joel, canon compliant, #trauma

Rating: Mature - just for general darkness nothing super explicit

The bits we didn't see in Silver Lake and what comes after, moment by moment. For all those looking for those fics, this is a very long winter aftermath story. Lots of chapters and lots of feels, and, hopefully, lots of heart achey Joel and Ellie moments to scratch that post-episode 8 itch.

chp 1 | chp 2 | chp 3 | chp 4 | chp 5 | chp 6 | chp 7 | chp 8 | chp 9 | chp 10 | chp 11 | chp 12 | chp 13 |

(or just the whole fic )

~65k words and on going :)

Chapter 1 below for those that want to take this one for a test ride :

Chapter 1:

The meat cleaver fell from her hands to the floor with a muffled clatter. Her gaze lowered to where it lay in a growing pool of blood that was staining the carpet. It struck her as odd, perhaps even rude, that the cleaver did not make a more metallic sharp clang as it hit the floor - it had felt so heavy in her hands moments ago. She yearned for that sound, for the clatter to act as some ending punctuation to what she had just done, but instead, she got a dull thud that blended in with the cracking and deep creaking of the burning restaurant. 

Ellie struggled to detach herself from David's corpse, stumbling over his legs as she stood up. Annoyance and anger peaked inside her for a second as if he had purposefully meant to trip her. 

Asshole. 

She caught herself and stood tall - well perhaps not tall, but she was on her own two feet. A deep cough rolled through her chest as her body tried to expel the smoke she had been inhaling over the last several minutes. The cough exacerbated a deep pounding in her head, her chest and brain matching each other beat for beat. Her eyes darted around, assessing which exit was still manageable in the growing flames. Ellie spotted a set of doors near the back kitchen where she once hid from David and instinctively, she took a step forward, finally turning away from what she had done. 

She had scuffled along barely a few steps before it dawned on her. 

Keys…Keys. They’re going to be fucking locked. 

Her movements halted with the realization. Begrudgingly, she turned around, her body sagging with exhaustion, every muscle feeling heavy and unresponsive. Her shoulders slumped forward while her head craned slightly back to rest against her neck, and her arms hung limply at her sides as if they were nothing but dead weight. She swayed unsteadily as she looked at David’s mangled body laying on the floor a few feet away, both the turn and the sight of making the world spin around her momentarily. Every inch of her both wanted to run and stay completely still at the same time. Ellie didn’t want to have to deal with this, all of this, anymore. If there was something more than exhaustion, she was getting there. Would that be death?

What a mess. It was an emotionless hollow thought. 

She blinked slowly and stared, and inhaled, her breath hitching with another racking cough. David had the keys last, and now they would be somewhere in the pieces of him. 

Pieces of him. The thought echoed in her skull. If she wasn’t so concussed (and traumatized) to think more clearly, the irony of it all would have probably made Ellie chuckle. She loved that sort of dark humor shit. The man that had chopped people to bits was now in pieces on the floor of a steakhouse. 

What a piece of shit.  

Ellie took a step forward and gave David’s arm a weary kick, making sure he was truly gone and not going to reach out and take her again. It was silly, she could see his brain on the carpet, but there was a deep-seated fear that he would rise, just like an infected, and kill her in revenge. After all, he said he wasn’t dying today. When nothing came of her kick, she plopped down on her knees beside him, the action rather clumsy with the little energy her body stored. 

Her shaky hands made their way to David’s belt line. With two fingers, she pulled up his sweater and then promptly diverted her gaze to the floor, trying to find the keys without looking at the rest of him.  Ellie hoped her fingers would just magically find the ring, but of course, that was not going to happen. Slowly, she peeled her eyes off the carpet and looked at his midsection. Bile rose in her throat when she saw his state of undress. David’s pant button was undone, his zipper was down, and his plaid boxers were peaking out from underneath his jeans. She had felt the pressure of his body on top of hers, felt his hand haphazardly search and rip off her own button, and had felt the wickedness of his smile that he wielded as if it was a weapon in its own right. She had felt all of that, but seeing the physical evidence of what was to come if David had just another moment or two was deeply disconcerting.

Unfortunately, there was something more disconcerting. The key link was not clipped to his belt loop like before. Panic rose in Ellie. 

no. no. no. no. no. NO

Her hands quickly moved from David’s pants and searched the floor beside him, frantically patting at the ground. They must have dropped during his slaughter, or perhaps even before when he had pinned his body against hers. Her frenzied hands brushed against the cleaver,  pushing it away as if it was somehow obscuring the keys. The blade caught the side of her hand, the sting of a small slice causing her hand to retract immediately. The keys weren’t under it anyway.  

Ellie’s head whipped around, eyes darting to search the floor closer to the table behind her. Had it always been that close? It felt so far away when she had been crawling to it before…

A sudden creak and crash made Ellie flinch, her shoulders contracting to her ears as her body was jolted with fear by the sudden loud sound. A few feet away a piece of wood fell to the floor in a shower of sparks, the beam slowly disintegrating into ash as the hot growing flames engulfed it. Ellie became mesmerized by the dancing licks of fire that rose from it, her brain slow to return to the task at hand. She was only jerked back to her search by a tight feeling in her throat as another set of coughs pushed their way out. 

Against the backdrop of the dreary carpet, something caught the light off the flames, illuminating it with a slightly ominous twinkle. She scooted herself away from David’s body, reaching out to grab it without hesitation. Her hand was already clasping the object when her lagging thoughts caught up to her actions, realizing it was much too small to be the keys. Ellie opened her hand to see something small and round, her jean button, and immediately dropped it to the floor as if it was about to burn a hole straight through her hand. Her breath hitched. 

The keys were the only way out and she needed out now. Desperately.

Where were they?

Ellie's eyes welled up with tears as exhaustion, anger, and frustration overwhelmed her, only further compounded by the stinging smoke filling the air. She squeezed her eyes shut, not only wanting some reprieve from the fire but also hoping it would muster some of the very little strength her body still held on to. She didn’t want to cry over a set of damn keys. Ellie tried to give herself a chance to think for a moment, but her head was so groggy, and all her thoughts were undercut but a deep feeling of loneliness. She was alone and nobody was going to solve this for her. She was going to burn alone. Die alone. Next to David.

Ellie felt a rising sense of regret. Maybe she should have just maimed him, at least then he could have told her where the fucking keys were.  

She shook the thoughts away. No, he deserved it. All of it. 

Ellie…

David’s chilling voice crept into her head and echoed loudly.  

Ellie..

Ellliiieee..

Beneath the haunting echo of David’s sing-songy calls was a faint jingling. Ellie had heard the keys rattle with each step David took as he preyed upon her. Surely, they were still with him. She crawled back over to David and inspected his belt again, touching each loop with trembling hands. She even pushed them under his lifeless body to check the back ones, but only found a growing pool of warm wet blood.

And then it dawned on her - his pockets. The bile from before rose again in her throat and she retched with what she was about to do. Ellie wasn’t normally squeamish, but the thought of touching David more than she already had was utterly disgusting. 

Fucking hell. 

She pushed into his right front pocket, and with a quiet whimper, she wiggled her hand deeper inside. There was a strange intimacy of it that Ellie worked hard to block out. His body was warm, and she tried to make herself believe that it was just the heat of the fiery room, but clearly, it was because death had not set into his body, having only killed him moments ago. Intrusively, the thought that he was still alive began to take hold in her mind once again, and the idea that he would be enjoying this, her touch, sent a shiver down her spine that made her body contort in repulsion. She pushed her hand deeper, sliding in past her wrist. (Why did men’s pockets have to be so deep?) 

Luckily, the unpleasant search didn’t have to last long as her hand found what it was looking for. The keys rattled as she tugged them free- a sound that quelled some of the anxiety that they once caused.

Without much thought, she rose from David and headed to the set of doors she had laid eyes on before, her body acting on autopilot. Reaching her destination, she stopped unsteadily, her body swaying in front of the exit. Ellie’s hands fumbled with choosing the right key, her eyes bleary and hands trembling. She had no idea which one would work, there were about 10, but she knew she didn’t have time to test them all. The smoke was getting thicker and the whole place felt like it was about to eat her alive, physically and emotionally. She wanted out. 

Her gaze flicked up to the door, scanning it quickly. There was a sense of familiarity about it, and then in a moment of clarity, she recognized it as resembling the gymnasium doors of her FEDRA school. A burst of energy surged through her body, causing her hands to shake even more as she rummaged for the small hex key amidst the cluster. A stray nonsensical thought appeared in her head, was it a PT day today for the FEDRA kids? 

It lingered for a brief moment before disappearing as quickly as it came.

Despite her jerky movements, she miraculously found the key and slid it into the tiny lock on her first attempt. With a newfound urgency, she pressed down on the handle and pushed the door with all the strength she had left. As it swung open, Ellie was hit with both a blast of cold air from the front and a wave of hot air from the back, the smoke itself also trying to escape the horrors of inside.

Fucking Finally.

Ellie's breaths came in deep gasps as she distanced herself from the building. Her gaze fixated on the sky and tree-line, finding solace in their dreary colors after witnessing so much red just moments before - the blood, the fire, her rage. Her arms ached and felt heavy as if they were trying to pull her down to the ground. Exhaustion seeped into her bones, and the cold air bit at her skin, almost becoming painful. She had no destination in mind, yet her body propelled her forward instinctively. Ellie's mind was a blur, barely able to form any tangible thoughts. She welcomed the sensation of emptiness though, grateful to be free from the constant anxiety-ridden fight for survival that had consumed her over the last hours.

However, just as she began to find some comfort in her detachment, it was abruptly stomped out when she was suddenly grabbed from behind. Her guttural reaction was a desperate scream, startling not only the man who had taken hold of her, but also herself. She pushed away as best as she could, but his arms held her tightly in place. 

“NO! GET OFF OF ME. NOO!” Ellie wailed. 

The person flipped her around, but she didn’t want to look fearing she would somehow see David, or James, or any of the other men from the day. Her eyes stayed shut as she raised her arms to push him away, but he had those in his grips too. 

“GET OFF!” She bellowed, trying to pull away one last time. 

I can’t do this again. And for a moment, she gave up. Her knees buckled and her body began to sink toward the ground. The man swiftly hoisted her back up, not even granting her the satisfaction of some rest before what she thought for sure was going to be her end this time. 

It wasn’t fair, why couldn’t they just leave her alone?

…No one fights this hard to stay alive.

David’s voice crashed through her exhaustion and ignited a small spark of rage. She didn’t want to give up even if she barely had anything left in her to keep going. She was going to go down fighting. 

With her eyes still shut, Ellie pounded weekly against the man's chest, gruff breaths escaping her with each pitiful hit. He was saying something, but the rushing sound of pure adrenaline was the only thing to register in her ears. Despite her fear, Ellie forced her eyes open and was taken aback by the raggedy appearance of the man she was being held by. Her arms continued to pound into him as she studied his face. It wasn’t David, it wasn’t James, and it wasn’t one of the other men.

Joel?  

…but Joel is dead. 

She didn’t know when she had come to that conclusion, but it was in her head, and it was hard to reconcile it with the man clearly standing in front of her. 

“Look it's me.” Joel grabbed Ellie’s face and cradled it in between his rough, cold hands. “It’s me,” he said softly, not trying to spook her further. He swore he could feel her heartbeat, a fast and steady thumping, through the palm of his hand as he grasped her small face. Joel’s stomach dropped to his feet, feeling an immense amount of guilt as if he had somehow hurt her. The way she had been screaming and thrashing moments before made him terrified in a way he didn’t know was possible. He thought the soul-consuming fear he had felt when tracking her down would have dissipated once he found her, but instead, it had just transformed into something new. A potent sense of dread began to set into Joel as he watched Ellie’s eyes map his face, the girl clearly struggling to recognize him. 

Does that mean I’m dead? Ellie briefly thought. 

As she contemplated her own existence, her fists slowly released their tension and found their way to Joel’s coat collar, grabbing hold of it to make sure he was truly there. As much as she tried to keep them in, soft cries escaped her lips as she couldn't rein in the overwhelming emotions any longer.

“It’s okay,” Joel said softly again, practically a whisper- one of his hands slowly leaving Ellie’s face and trailing down to rest atop her shoulder. Ellie’s expression would surely haunt Joel for some time to come. Her eyes were wild and hollow at the same time, mixed with pure fear and sorrow. Joel couldn’t even comprehend how her face could hold some much and so little emotion at the same time.

“He……but I” her words came out in broken mumbles, failing to form coherent thoughts as she pushed into his chest. 

He made me think you were dead. 

He said I was alone. 

He was going to kill me.  

But I stopped him.  

But I’m okay.

Ellie needed to feel his embrace- not that she ever really had before, but she knew it was what she wanted. She was scared and Joel always made her feel a little less scared. David had made her think that security had been taken away, that he was another tally of the dead, but now he was here. Right here. Holding her. She wasn’t alone. 

“It's okay. It’s okay, baby girl,” Joel said grasping her as tightly as possible. He hadn’t called anyone baby girl since Sarah, but it had escaped from his mouth without thought. He wasn’t mad, but he wasn’t certain that’s what he really wanted to be saying either. It felt right, but it also felt like a betrayal to her, and to Sarah. Like calling Ellie his girl was going to get her killed, a reality he could not face again.

“I got you.” A wave of relief flushed down Joel’s body, yet at the same time, his heart felt like it was being stabbed with each one of Ellie’s muffled whimpers. “I got you,” he said softer than the last. The conflicting emotions battled for dominance inside him, his brow furrowing as a familiar panic crept its way into the mix.   

What had they done to her? What did he let them do to her?

Joel made the choice to end the embrace, gently pushing Ellie away. He kept one hand firmly on her arm, afraid she might crumble if he didn't hold her steady. His eyes scanned her body quickly making sure that there were no obvious major injuries. Flecks of blood splattered her face and shirt, and a trail of blood marked her profile from her nose to her chin. Her hair was disheveled, barely holding shape in its ponytail, and she was shivering, her coat and jacket gone. He released his hand, dropped their backpacks and the rifle to the ground, and wiggled off his coat. 

She must be freezing. I can fix that.

The shivers that rolled through Ellie’s body certainly could have been caused by the elements, but in actuality, it was just the adrenaline coursing through her. Ellie was drowning in it, feeling both raw and completely drained, each tremble a physical manifestation of her inner self struggling to emerge and do something, anything. Her body hadn’t quite got the message that it was no longer in a fight for survival. 

Ellie couldn’t take her eyes off Joel. She had a hard time believing he wasn’t a ghost about to dissipate into the snowy air and leave her again. The thought of them both drifting off into oblivion flashed through her mind, but when Joel draped his bulky jacket over her meek form, it pulled her back to the present moment. The weighty coat felt reassuringly solid, grounding her to reality, and she knew he would not be leaving her again.

I’m alive. Joel’s alive. David is dead.

The statements gradually formed in her mind, struggling to break through a thick fog. Her brain felt sluggish, and even the simplest of mental reassurances took a great effort to produce. A woeful hum escaped from Ellie, failing to vocalize her thoughts out loud. 

“It’s okay, everything is going to be okay Ellie,” Joel said breathlessly as he leaned down to pick up their bags and rifle from the snow. A moan could be heard as he bent down, and Joel tried to stifle it, knowing he had to appear to be the strong one right now. He slung the rifle back over his shoulder, but his stitches pulled and ached with the motion. He decided to not do the same with the backpacks, and instead grasped them both by hand, even if inconvenient. He brushed off the radiating pain in his side and looked back to Ellie.

Joel caught her swaying ever so slightly when he righted himself, staring at him with a glassy dazed expression. All the fear that painted her face before was now gone and replaced with nothing- just lifelessness. He had seen Ellie sad, mad, frustrated, and even scared, but this was none of that. Joel turned her and nestled the teen into his side, readjusting his coat that slipped off her small frame. Just seconds ago, her eyes were fixed on him, but now they seemed disengaged as Joel maneuvered her around. As he moved her, one of Ellie's hands weakly and barely wriggled free from the fabric, her fingers twitching as if trying to grasp something intangible. Observing the unsteady movement, Joel swiftly handed Ellie her backpack. She accepted it listlessly, clutching it close to her chest. Although it seemed to pacify her, Joel couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she had been wanting a hand to hold, and had accidentally denied her that comfort. 

He wished she would say something, but Ellie was silent- so much so, that Joel would have questioned if she was even still breathing had it not been for the shallow breaths that escaped from her mouth and clouded the cold air. Mentally, he knew he was probably just seeing shock set into her, but in his heart, he deeply feared that something had broken inside of Ellie, and she was going to be practically catatonic like this forever. 

Joel ushered her forward, holding her close. Ellie sunk into his side, thankful she didn’t have to will her body to keep going on its own anymore. Joel too was thankful for the support, yet also felt guilty for using Ellie as a crutch more than he wanted to. In tandem, they moved forward, both silent. And while Joel’s eyes trained ahead to some unknown destination, Ellie stared absently down into the snow. 

She exhaled.

Holy fucking shit.

[robotlearnstolove]

2024-02-18

Crystal Lanterns

It was well into the quiet hours — which Silver referred to as the evening or the twilight — when they arrived at the village. The sky had gone dark fairly quickly but, luckily, there were lamps over main road of the village.

Paraé stopped and stared at the brilliant lamp that bathed the road in a light that was both surprisingly bright and strangely white. There was something very different about it. It was suspended from a tall post that reached nearly two metres above the road and surrounded by some sort of metallic enclosure that projected the light downward. After looking up at it for several moments longer, she realized why it had caught her attention. The light wasn’t flickering. There was no flame. She spun around toward Silver, who was already wearing a knowing grin.

“Crystal lanterns,” he said before she could ask the question, “from Hallium. They capture light from the sun during the day and release it over the course of the night.”

Slowly, Paraé turned back toward the lantern, her mouth still hanging open from the question she hadn’t asked. She took a step backward and frowned. Involuntarily, the light took on an eerie, almost sinister quality in her mind.

“I don’t think we linger in its light,” she said nervously. She turned her head back toward Silver. “It scares me.”

“As far as I know,” Silver shrugged, still smiling, “it’s perfectly safe. Besides,” he gestured up the road, “we’re going to have to walk past a few more of them to get to the inn.”

Paraé looked in the direction he was pointing and immediately realized with a start that the entire road ahead was dotted with more of these lanterns. They were all evenly spaced along the road and each of them gave shone in the exact same way as the first.

“Why did they do this?” she asked, unable to overcome her horror. Walking backwards, she took several more steps back down the road, away from the light. “Who would even want this, this thing, this evil thing in their village? In their home?”

Silver wasn’t smiling anymore. He sighed and asked, “Now why do you call it that?”

“Call it what? Evil?” Paraé was beginning to become frantic.

“Yes. Evil.” His tone was flat.

She looked him in the eyes. His expression was as neutral as his tone had been if only slightly confused. Paraé knew he was a sensible person but his unconcerned demeanour was only making her feel more worried. Hastily, she tried to take one more step away from the light but her heel caught a stone and she fell backward.

[tayandryley]

What they work as

Last thing, just wanted to talk job situation of the two since that was a big point to me when developing them

Tay

Tay used to work at a little cat café, not because he's a Werecat but it's a measure the pack that he's part of enforces. Shifting as a Were can be influenced by emotions, and while the story doesn't operate on "The customer is always right" because that's stupiid, working in a café still means learning to deal with people who think they are always right, and that around cute little floofs. So if you're about to lose it and turn into what is likely an 8 foot tall beast in front of a customer, you can just pet the cat walking across the counter

As said though, he "used to" work there. He's already got a lot of self-control so he searched for a job himself. He currently works in another restaurant as a waiter. But the restaurant has a bit more to it. It's a safe place for local criminal organizations to communicate. The restaurant itself doesn't do anything but they make sure the people of the town can communicate selfly and if someone pulls a gun, they will be stopped. As a Were Tay can basically recover from anything except Silver with relative ease so his main job is making sure casualties are low, and if the guests have seen what he turns into before, he also works as an intimidation strategy

Little funfact, his colleagues also got fed up with the post-TF nudity so they got him a tailored outfit that can grow with his body and also shrink back to human size. It does not shrink to actual cat size though so if he turns into that he will end up without clothes

I did also commission pawberri on The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter for a lovely drawing of Tay in his waiter outfit, I hope the embed works here

Ryley

While Ryley does play in a metal band and even does do concerts and even music videos where he has appeared in full Werewolf form (after they made fake CGI models so people wouldn't realize they were seeing an actual Werewolf) the band stuff is mostly for fun, it's perhaps more than a hobby but as it is now he can't sustain himself with it as a job.

Instead he is currently working in the previously mentioned Cat Café that Tay worked at before. The pack is rather rich since there are a lot of furries in the pack and we know how rich furries tend to be, I mean look, I already linked two commissions (I am actually kinda getting tight with my financial planning so don't expect an overload of Tay and Ryley drawings unless I suddenly start taking the pen into my own hand), so the Cat Café actually pays their employees generously.

He also does still have to gain control of his shifting. The fullness of the moon decides how easily someone might shift on accident, and there have been instances where during a half full moon, if Tay wanted to leave, Ryley went full wolf and threw a tantrum or stole socks

I currently do not have any other job for Ryley planned, maybe his band business could take off but also idk how I feel about him going on tours and leaving Tay behind. So, we'll see