#(in case the readmore doesn’t work)

[fingertipsmp3]

I’ve been watching a lot of paranormal documentaries lately and decided to write out all the experiences I’ve had that I can’t adequately explain. Will add a cut because I feel some of these stories could get long, also, if I have theories about what could’ve happened I’ll add them.

First experience: when I was 5 or 6 years old (no older than 6 because we moved out of the house this happened in when I was 6), I was in bed trying to go to sleep when I suddenly heard a lot of voices in my head, overlapping, like someone had put on many radios all tuned to different stations. I don’t remember hearing music and I couldn’t make out any words, although I specifically remember several of the voices sounded angry and were shouting, which really scared me.

I ran to get my mum and tried to explain to her what was happening to me, but the craziest thing about this was, I couldn’t hear myself or her talking. Real sounds that were happening around me were drowned out by the cacophony in my head. My mum tried to comfort me as best she could and came back to my room with me, sitting with me until I fell asleep. I remember the voices continuing for a long period of time, which felt like ages to my child’s mind but was probably no longer than half an hour ultimately. I cried myself to sleep and when I woke up, the voices were gone. They’ve never returned, thank god.

Theories: my mum thinks it was a migraine, but I don’t really get them and have never had auditory hallucinations to this extent while experiencing one. I think it could either have been an auditory hallucination the likes of which I’ve never experienced before or since, or a one-off non-epileptic seizure. (I do experience short auditory hallucinations when I’m about to fall asleep, but they’re never more than 1-2 words or a sequence of music maybe 10 seconds long.) I remember at the time honestly feeling like someone had tuned me in to a frequency where I was hearing the thoughts of every human on earth.

Second experience: My dad died in May 2007. The song All Summer Long by Kid Rock came out in October 2007 on an album, and was released as a single in March 2008. But me and my dad used to listen to this song together in his car no later than the summer of 2004. I don’t have a good explanation for how this came to be. My dad used to drive me to my swimming lessons, which stopped when I was about 8 years old, and I always asked him to play “the Sweet Home Alabama” song. He knew this wasn’t the song by Lynyrd Skynyrd but the song by Kid Rock, because I really liked the lyric “singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long”.

My dad couldn’t seem to play this song on demand, so I don’t think we had it on tape, but it seems like it was fairly consistently on the radio, because we listened to it at least 3 or 4 times. My dad wasn’t a Kid Rock fan at all, he was a classic rock n’ roll guy; he wouldn’t have owned a Kid Rock album or single. One thing I do find kind of interesting is that listening to this song again, I remember the melody being a bit different, faster, and being sung by a different voice. But it’s a Kid Rock original, not a cover, so I don’t know how that could be.

Theories: All Summer Long is a cover, and the original is lost to time. Or, I’m misremembering, but I swear to god I’m not. My mum asked if we could’ve been hearing Sweet Home Alabama instead, but I was adamant that when my dad put on that song I said “no! Not that one!” So I knew the difference. For me, this is classic Mandela Effect, or a timeslip involving the radio. Maybe even a dimensional thing, I don’t know. I wish someone with a good memory had been in the car with me and my dad, but it was just us.

Third experience: Now this is the one even my card-carrying skeptic mum can’t explain. When I was 13 I was in grief counselling for my dad’s death. My counsellor concluded that a lack of closure, the fact I hadn’t been able to say goodbye, was a pretty big point of agony for me, so he came up with the idea for me and my mum to go to the crematorium where we’d scattered my dad’s ashes and let some balloons go with a message for him. (I know now that balloon releases are a really bad idea for the environment, but I didn’t know that at the time.)

We did it that same day. We didn’t tie a message to the balloons but when I let them go, I thought “I miss you. I love you” or something along those lines. The crematorium has pretty big grounds, not just a memorial garden but a large field and many trees. We’d walked all the way across that field to get to the tree we’d scattered my dad’s ashes near. It was a nice day, the grass was bright green, freshly cut. I mention this because when we turned around to walk back (we’d only been standing at the tree for two minutes or less), the field before us was absolutely blanketed with white feathers. You couldn’t not notice, they were everywhere. It was something neither me nor my mum could explain. How could the feathers have fallen without getting on either of us? How could they have fallen in the first place? We’d have noticed, say, a seagull massacre going on right above our heads. It was like they didn’t fall, they just appeared.

Theories: yeah, I have nothing. My mum said “message received and understood”. I think my dad sent them.

Smaller incidents:

My grandma taught me to knit when I was 10, about a year later, she bought me my own pair of knitting needles, my first pair I wouldn’t be borrowing from her. I was really happy with them and wanted to cast on right away, but when I set them down, they disappeared. Not right before my eyes, but I swear I left the room for about ten seconds to get yarn and they were gone. We tore the house apart looking for them. My grandma has a very small house and she keeps it extremely clean and tidy, yet those needles have never shown up. Not even when the carpeting in the room I lost them in was replaced. I don’t know what happened here. If a house spirit has my 3.5mm navy blue plastic needles, I want them back.

Used to smell my dad’s cigar smoke and aftershave all around my childhood home and occasionally hear his footsteps on the stairs for years after he died. It stopped when I was around 16.

From the ages of 12-13 whenever I was alone in the house I’d hear scratching and banging sounds and footsteps. It terrified me. It was only when I was alone. I genuinely thought I was being targeted by a demon (having recently watched Paranormal Activity probably didn’t help.) When my mum told me the only person associated with our house who’d died was my dad, it all seemed to stop. It was like it stopped because I wasn’t scared of it anymore. It makes me wonder if I somehow created the phenomena with my mind. Teen girl telekinesis?

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

:readmore:

BE KIND TO GENTLE MANFRED OR ILL MURDER EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU 😭😭😭😡😡😡

act 2 emmrich personal quest

:readmore:

IF THIS GAME PUTS MANFRED IN PERIL IM KILLING EVRYONE ELSE AND THEN MYSELF

[stars-obsession-pit]

The first time Damian saw his twin again after Danyal’s death in the League, he was left in a state of complete disbelief.

Disbelief that quickly turned to overwhelming panic as he realized what the broadcast Danyal appeared in was. It was being sent out by one of Gotham’s rogues, showing off their hostages for their latest scheme.

Danyal was in danger.

He was sure the other Bats noticed his anxiety as they rushed to solve the case, but he didn’t say anything about it. He couldn’t afford to waste any time explaining the situation and dealing with their response.

Danyal was in danger.

Damian couldn’t lose him again.

+optional bit with ~extra angst~ under the readmore

As they closed in on the rogue, Damian let himself feel a moment of hope. He was with Batman. Everything was going right. This would work. This time, Danyal would be safe.

…And then a few minutes later, he felt the whole world crumble away underneath him as he watched his brother be killed right in front of him a second time.

(Don’t worry, Danny’s fine, but he isn’t going to just openly reveal his powers right now so Damian doesn’t know that)

[nolanfa-fanart]

Gen (non-romantic) fics recs: DC, the Batfamily has Issues

Fandom: DC, batfam Theme: The Bat family has Issues This is the place for comically bad at communication!batfam, oh gosh you have so many issues (affectionate), trauma, etc. Please assume that every "Why I love it" summary is prefaced with "This is one of my fave DC fics. First, it's very well-written. Second, ". List under the readmore.

I'm a Good Pretender, by shipNslash ( https://archiveofourown.org/works/45598369 ) 7/7 chapters, 40.416 words G, No Archive Warnings Apply Main characters: Dick mostly, and Bruce

Official Summary: “You’re doing it again,” Bruce says, tone accusatory. “You’re faking.” “It’s not faking,” Dick snaps, a little more aggressive than he means to be. But he doesn’t like that word, doesn’t like the connotations. (Especially when he knows Bruce is lying about something, too.) “Then what is it?” “It’s called being charming and it’s nice.” -_- Dick’s mother raised her son to be a star. Dick’s father raised his son to be an athlete. Bruce's new ward is charming (manipulative), dedicated (obsessive), and way, way too smart for either of their own good.

Why I love it: This is peak Performer Dick. Smart kid Dick who knows how to make people like him. Hyperactive Dick. And Wet Cat Battinson. Who wouldn't want to see them interact?

Excerpts: "Oh. From the- That is, yes. I'm, uh, I'm Richard's case worker." The boy visibly twitches and she redirects her attention. "Hello, Richard. Are you al- um, How are you feeling?" Alfred almost winces but, instead of withdrawing again or lashing out, Richard does something much, much more distressing. Right in front of Alfred, the boy transforms into someone totally different. His posture shifts, from despondent slackness to a sort of tense hunch, making him look far younger and in much more distress. His expression loses the blankness of shock as his bottom lip wobbles and his eyes well up with big, fat tears. "I wanna go home,” he cries out. “Please, I just wanna go home!" - And Dick is glad that this isn’t their first meeting, because Mister Wayne is painfully, intolerably awkward the whole time. He flinches every time someone addresses him, only makes eye contact with the toes of his scuffed converse shoes, and sneaks out the back door halfway through with Mister Pennyworth when he is very obviously losing a battle against an oncoming panic attack. How did this guy survive being famous, Dick wonders, watching him creep back in like he won’t be noticed if he’s quiet enough.

-- By Any Other Name, by ManURonaldo, part of the Like Father Like Sons series https://archiveofourown.org/works/40244490 1/1 chapters, 4.569 words (part of a 55k series) T, Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings (brief mention of Jason's mom) Main characters: Jason and Bruce (decent Dick, Steph and Tim presence in the rest of the series)

Official Summary: “Have you seen Bruce recently?” Dick asks one night. “Haven’t seen Bruce since the last time I saw you,” Jason responds. He can feel the weight of Tim’s eyes on him though, and it’s grating. “WHAT, Tim?” “You saw him last night,” Tim responds after a moment, flicking his eyes towards Dick. “Literally last night, man.” “Yeah,” Jason responds without thinking, because he hasn’t slept in 58 hours, “I saw Batman last night. I haven’t seen Bruce in a month.” For a moment, there’s complete silence. And then, in an exasperated whisper, Dick says: “what the fuck, Jay?” OR: Jason picks up a little bit more from Bruce than he means to as Robin. It doesn’t go away, not even when he’s Hood. OR: Jason watches Bruce. Tim watches Jason. Dick watches Tim. They all need therapy.

Why I love it: I love that one. I love the way it features Identity Issues. The first story in the series is about Jason and Bruce, and following ones are also about Jason's relationships with Dick, Tim, Steph, and the way those different relationships interact. The Tim and Jason part (in the following stories) in particular goes way deeper than the usual dynamic of resentment for taking Robin / for past violence, and looks at why, now, they might or might not like / understand each other. Each of the batfam members is fucked up in different ways, which I love.

Excerpts: Jason is six years old and sometimes he feels like his dad is two different people in one body. There’s a person in there that loves him and holds him even though he’s too big to be held and makes him breakfast in the morning. And there’s another person in there, too, who thinks Jason is annoying and spoiled and always in the way and a problem. There are signs, is the thing: Jason can figure out who he’s talking to, if he’s quiet enough. It’s about the way the footsteps in the hallway sound, it’s about the label on the bottle in his dad’s hand. Sometimes when Jason enters a room he makes a noise just to see: if he squeaks his shoe and his dad doesn’t notice, it’s his nice dad. If his dad grimaces or glares, it’s the dad that doesn’t like him, and Jason needs to leave. It’s all about knowing who he’s talking to, Jason learns. If he knows who he’s talking to, he can be better about making mistakes.

-- May Tomorrow Never Come, by @lurkinglurkerwholurks https://archiveofourown.org/works/43606872 1/1 chapters, 3.580 words G, No Archive Warnings Apply Main Characters: Jason and Bruce

Official Summary: Jason clawed his way out of the nightmare like a drowning man.

Why I love it: First, I think it is very good, as a fic specifically. All fics live in the soup of canon and fanon facts we absorbed along the way, and you knowing who the characters are and what happens to them in different iterations informs your understanding of them, but this one does it particularly well. Second. It broke my heart. It talks about trust and intimacy and kid/parent relationships and fear and nostalgy and love and. I love it.

Excerpts: The Manor waited outside the door, exactly like it should be. The hallway was quiet and dark, the darkness tight and full, but not scary. He hadn’t been scared here since those first few months, when this place was only a place. He couldn’t be scared at home, no matter how his head spun and his nerves jumped and jittered.

-- Red Letter Day, by @silverwhittlingknife https://archiveofourown.org/works/28988874 9/? chapters, 41,819 words (technically part of a series but can be read as standalone) - WIP, last updated july 2022 G, Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings (some oblique references to the blockbuster plotline) Main Characters: Dick

Official Summary: Dick Grayson, stressed pseudo-parent to a preteen assassin, tries to solve the case of Damian’s Mysterious Wednesday. He never expected it to help him fix his relationship with Tim, too. (… Though only after everything fell apart first.) Eventual fix-it for Dick & Tim’s Red Robin fight, but other rocky relationships - Dick & Jason, Tim & Damian, Damian & Bruce, Dick & Bruce - wow, this family is dysfunctional - might improve too. Eventually. They just have to, y’know, work through All of Their Issues first. XD

Why I love it: The characterization is delightful. Dick tries to hold the world on his shoulders, scrambling to hold everyone together; he's also very much not perfect, and biaised and petty against specific other people. Jason is an antagonistic asshole but he tries. Tim doesn't understand boundaries but means really really well. They love each other very much but they're afraid and they just talk over / through / just to the left of each other. This is a dumpster fire. Also the end notes of each chapter include interesting tidbits about what is canon (with specific runs/issues) which I personally find super interesting.

Excerpts: This is out-of-character: deliberately unprofessional. And it’s definitely deliberate. Dick doesn’t want to second-guess Tim’s first amicable overture in what feels like years. He catches himself doing it anyway. When Tim was fourteen, the faceplant comment might have been spontaneous - just a wry observation, maybe with a quick grin, sharing the joke. But Tim’s older now, and a lot more serious. So this casual remark is actually calculated. So what is this? An attempt to recapture an old camaraderie? Or is Tim covering up a bad mood with a chipper attitude? Or is this another manifestation of Tim’s concern, a test to gauge Dick’s mood? Argh. Or maybe Tim is just being friendly, Grayson.

[jude457]

so the main reason why i’ve been sitting on a bunch of fics lately—stuff i haven’t posted, even though it’s finished—because i keep getting stuck on this one question:

how much medical detail is too much in a fic?

like, is it too much to show what a body goes through after prolonged sexual trauma? concerning the fics where i explore a darker side of inho’s relationship with the vips. i don’t write this stuff to be shocking. it’s not about being graphic or edgy—it just feels unrealistic and unfinished to me to leave it out. examples of what i’ve included are underneath the readmore:

if i’m writing inho truthfully he’d have chronic, complicated UTIs—pain when he urinates, burning, pressure that never fully goes away, constant urgency without relief. because when you’re used repeatedly for years, when you’re used by multiple men with no care or protection, your body breaks down. infections become constant. systems stop working the way they should. the tearing wouldn’t have healed properly. there’d be scar tissue, nerve pain that burns down his spine and into his hips, days when his whole pelvis feels locked up with the trauma of what has been done to him. a deep, raw ache that flares when he moves wrong, when he sits too long, when he’s cold or stressed or simply remembering. (what i believe most people would find too realistic for a fic) is how going to the bathroom after the body is traumatised like this would be painful in some way. not sometimes—always. the unhealthy relationship with food that would stem from that. it would change how he eats. he’d learn quickly which foods pass more easily, which ones leave him shaking in agony so badly he bites the inside of his cheek to stay silent. how over time, eating becomes something he fears. not because he isn’t hungry, but because he knows what comes next. he builds a mental list of what’s “safe” and sticks to it obsessively.

including these symptoms adds a deeper layer of in-ho’s self-hatred and destruction too. because it’s not just that he’s in constant pain—it’s that he won’t let anyone see it. he carries the infections, the nerve damage, the tearing, the nights spent hunched in silence with his pelvis on fire. sometimes he bleeds. so he hides his laundry—washes it alone, scrubbing stains out by hand before anyone notices. it’s become a ritual. a quiet way of keeping the worst of it hidden. because even the blood feels like evidence. and he can’t let that exist in anyone else’s hands. not when it all leads back to the same thing. not just because it hurts, but because it’s tied to his greatest shame. what the vips did to him. what he endured to stay alive

he’d never let gihun or junho know. he thinks if they find out, they’ll see what he sees: someone broken. someone used. someone dirty. so he hides it. he always hides it. until one day his body gives out and there’s no more room to pretend.

to be honest i also find it important to explore the way inho struggles to even see himself as a rape victim. he spent close to two decades as a detective before being dismissed, dealing with these kinds of cases—he knows the language, the legal classifications, the evidence kits, the expected responses. and somewhere along the way, whether he meant to or not, he built a picture in his head of what a victim looks like: vulnerable, broken, not him because inho still views himself as a monster. and now he’s on the other side of it, but the image won’t shift. he can’t reconcile the man he’s become with the reality of what was done to him. it doesn’t match. it doesn’t fit. and that disconnect—the inability to grant himself the same compassion he offered others—is almost more painful than the trauma itself. because naming it would mean accepting it. and accepting it would mean facing the full weight of what was taken from him.

[bullet-prooflove]

Headcannons for being in a poly!relationship with Joe Velasco, Mike Duarte & Terry Bruno

Tagging: @rosaliedepp You did this! It got too long for reblogs so I thought I would do everyone a favour and pop it behing a readmore.

Following on from this HC

I can literally imagine Mike sighing and watering these poor plants because Terry forget to all the time because of shifts. He would complain to the plants but then prune them when they are a bit wild. Terry is the one that repots them though when they get a little big.

Sleeping Arrangements:

Night time I imagine it's you and Joe in the middle, Mike on one side of you, face to face and Joe draped over your back. Terry always snuggles in with Joe because he's good at soothing him when he has nightmares or sleep paralysis.

Workplace:

So in work I think it's kinda an open secret. Everyone acts professional, they're cops they have to but there's always small gestures. I think Mike and you work in different divisions so you're not all in one place at one time unless a case crosses over. I think with Terry and Joe it's more noticeable, Terry will always reach out to Joe during a hard case, like a shoulder squeeze, or drops by his desk for a chat, even a quick hug in the locker room. Likewise Joe will make sure Terry eats as I think he gets hyper focus sometimes. If anyone is feels they haven't seen one of the others, they will drop by their desk to check in and make sure their ok and looking after themselves.

If there is an argument at home Terry is very good at being professional and will be cool and a little aloof. Joe will probably ignore Terry if the issue is with him unless he absolutely has to respond. Terry is very good at defusing situations so if Joe does get snappy he will give him space until he is ready.

I think Joe and Terry told Liv together, like we're in this relationship with Mike and reader. It doesn't effect or work but you have to know for HR.

With people making comments in a professional environment Mike would go for the throat. He would verbally eviscerate them, he is very protective of the three of the three of you and hates his business being blasted. Joe is more likely to get into a scuffle. Terry is more likely to ignore it. The only time he can’t ignore it is when you’re branded a slut for it. Then he’s getting in someone’s face. The one time Mike was called to deal with one of you in custody, he was very surprised to find Terry in the holding cell with an ice pack on his face because someone couldn’t keep their mouth shut. Mike had a word with the fella afterwards.

PDA:

I think PDA is very dependant on person so Mike’s not massive on PDA in general as he’s a very private person. He’s all about light touches, lingering in your proximity, buying drinks and giving you that smile. I think Mike genuinely relaxes when he’s round the three of you, even if you’re out. He laughs more, touches more. Terry’s sort of flipflops with PDA, he’s very intuitive so if he feels someone needs it he’ll willingly give it. If not, he’s happy to sit in his chair and laugh with the rest of you. Joe, I feel is hands on and it progresses the more he drinks. I think he uses touch as reassurance, (do you still want me, I’m here kind of thing) He’s hand on whoever’s at the bar’s lower back, kiss on the head as he drifts past one of you to go the bathroom, even playing pool he’s like let me show you how to line it up better. Terry and you enjoy that, Mike doesn’t need his pool game stepping up, he was hustling to make ends meet back in the day.

When it comes to anyone putting themselves in danger it plays out like this:

Mike will go through every possible eventuality with whichever one of you it is. He will try to deter at first but if they’re resolute, you bet his baby is gonna be as prepared as possible. He’s one running through UC identities with you, peppering with questions trying to catch you out. He’s also the one that makes sure the person has a weapon they can use on them at all times, he’s given every single one of you a push dagger just in case. When they are away on op he’s grumpy, short tempered and abrasive, constantly checking in with the superiors for updates.

Terry is the one that checks in on the emotional well being. He learns as much as he can about the op, the people who are watching your back and expresses how important the person is and what may happen of they get harmed. He usually uses Mike as the threat. When their away on op he busies himself as much as possible and tries his best to take care of the others as Mike will drink too much and Joe will spend a little too much time at the gym beating the shit out of people.

Joe will give whoever it is tips because he’s had the most UC experience up to date. He’ll have burner stowed away at a mutual location close to the target area in case shit does hit the fan. You have a code word that the others don’t know about in case things get a little dark. He will also be super clingy on the lead up. He suffers a lot when of the others goes away. He doesn’t sleep well, constantly asking Mike for updates. The other two in the relationship will take care of him, make sure he eats and pay him special attention.

This was fun feel free to send more!

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[zarvasace]

Ugh tumblr is not cooperating with my readmores and art. Oh well we can do it this way. AU masterpost

Say hello to Shackle and Nothing, dark Wind and dark Time :D more art and long descriptions beneath the cut!

Shackle

Shackle is dark Wind. 

To me, one of Wind’s core themes is freedom. He goes wherever he wants on his boat (and has fun), he frees a couple girls from the Helmaroc King, and when I think of him, I think of wild blue skies and an endless horizon. He loves life and is one of the most determined heroes. 

Shackle, on the other hand, is a bit of a control freak. He doesn't mind not being in charge all the time (he does mind, but he doesn't like to be challenged, and knows that he'd lose any fight for the top place, so he pretends to not care) but he does mind when things don't go his way. If someone or something is annoying him or not listening to him, he will readily use one of the many chains he carries to threaten or restrain. He likes being in control of others, and he likes when people are afraid of him. He keeps fairies nearby, not so much in case of healing, but because he can shake their bottles and listen to them chime in fear. 

Shackle is a rather skilled manipulator, and one of the few Darks that look pretty much human, so he's often the one to head excursions into town (Prince is more of a charismatic diplomat, but his powers don't work on whole crowds at a time.) Because of his strength and chains, he's often the one to be on Dire duty, something he doesn’t mind much. Shackle is also very fond of money and luxury. He’ll pinch rupees on anything that doesn't have to do with him, like someone else’s supplies, but he's happy to splurge on himself. 

He doesn't have any mystical powers, but he does have enchanted chains that grow and shrink according to his needs. He eats food like any mortal. He's as young as Wind is but is more often successful at bluffing his way into bars and the like. He “jokes” often about earning a couple rupees from selling one of the others—usually Lost or Madness, or Nothing if he's being annoying (a normal occurrence.) Shackle’s ambition is to break free of the others and start a true pirate empire, and the way he wants to do that is by starting a slave trade. That way he can indulge his loves of intimidation and money at the same time. 

In terms of design: Shackle is pale to Wind’s tan, a bit beefy to Wind’s young lankiness. He wears red instead of blue, leaning into the pirate aesthetic with sashes and belts and leather and eyeliner. He got a chain tattoo because he thought it was cool. He fears losing everything he has, and some of what he doesn't have. 

The only thing that Shackle and Wind would agree on is that Aryll must be protected and lavished with gifts at every opportunity (even though Shackle hasn’t technically met her, yet.) He'd treat her like a princess—as long as she agreed with him about what a princess should be. He isn't a very good listener. 

Nothing

Nothing is dark Time. He appears as a petulant child: sharp and angular and half-dead. He takes all of Time’s gremlin tendencies and turns them into cruel pranks and mean-spirited insults. Time is a leader, and Nothing intentionally holds the group back if he can get away with it. Nothing is resentful: he remembers fighting Time, though he, like Agony, is different now—he can think more clearly and has a  purpose beyond just being something's  guardian. 

Nothing gets along best with Madness. He hates being given orders and actively goes the other way unless it was his idea. The group at large only barely puts up with him, but they keep him around for a good reason: he's kind of a genius. He knows dungeons, traps, and gimmicks like nobody’s business. He won't ever give advice on one of Depth’s plans if asked, but they've figured out that if they give Nothing an opening to dunk on someone and hurt one of the Heroes, he'll jump into it and put that genius to work. He's excellent at predicting what the heroes might do, which makes everything just that much more sinister. 

On occasion, Nothing will fall into fugues. During these periods, he appears as an older teenager instead of a child, and he's virtually unresponsive. He'll move if prodded. He’ll fight—and fight very well—if told to, but he won't speak, the embodiment of his name. Pretty much everyone finds the contrast rather creepy. These periods don't last long, and soon enough, Nothing is back to his bratty younger self. 

Most of all, Nothing wants everything Time has, but if given the option, he wouldn't take Time’s place. He innocently wishes he could be a hero, but he knows he can't be, so he's going to go as far the other direction as possible. He wants to build his own life. But the people around him wouldn't ever let that happen, so Nothing is bitter and lashes out, without any reason not to. 

Nothing is designed very much after the Dark Link in Ocarina of Time’s Water Temple, with a few significant tweaks. He is based on young Link instead of the older one, and he is also covered in signs of decay. There are faint red and purple lines like veins on his skin, like corpses that began to decompose underwater, and his tunic and hat show signs of the same. When he appears as a teenager, the decay is even worse. His sword is patterned after the Master Sword, but is just a normal, nonmagical thing. 

Nothing is the Hero of Nothing, a sad admittance of his own emptiness and a jab at Time’s forgotten timelines. He wouldn't even know how to seize the opportunity to be a hero of something if it showed up in front of him.

[mipexch]

thinking about a potential ultrakill lethal company au type crossover for fun. long ramble of headcanons under the readmore. feel free to add on, i’d love to start something silly

i haven’t thought too much on the possibilities of an Actual fully fleshed out au complete with designated planets being certain layers so all of this is made under the idea that it’s just these characters tasked with doing what the employees do. all the headcanons i’ve made are just how i feel these characters would act :)

gabriel is.. he’s gabriel. his ass is getting fired IMMEDIATELY. he’s smart sometimes but his impulsivity & arrogance gets the best of him. he doesn’t need a flashlight— or a walkie-talkie for that matter. what is he, a husk? he goes in empty handed and comes out empty handed. his pride wont let him return to admit his tactic was shit so at best he steals another piece of scrap someone may have set at the front to bring back. sure. it works. he agrees to bring a walkie-talkie but sticking with the group is completely out of the question.

being the one on the monitor isn’t too difficult for him but it gets VERY stressful for the ones actually inside the facility. he’s going to yell at you to go a certain way and alert you to a nearby enemy only when he feels it’s absolutely necessary. he switches cameras very often and tasks himself with keeping everyone safe. if you stand still for more than 4 seconds he’s going to declare you dead and stop checking. (unless it’s V1)

if a dog happens to come by while he’s monitoring he’ll try hard to stay quiet for a short amount of time before fear gets the better of him and makes him start the ship (even if there’s still people inside). goes inside the facility half the time and stays back the other half. he enjoys reading through the bestiary and organizing all the scrap people dump onto the floor of the ship. very prone to getting attacked by snare fleas. he checks his surroundings but Not above him. dumbass

V1 is going in with nothing but a shovel and…another shovel. you cant even wield both but that doesnt stop them from wanting another. no one’s entirely sure how they have so many on hand except for gabriel. if he isn’t around to reluctantly buy them a shovel they’re going to buy as many as they can before they get caught. (gabriel makes sure to keep an eye on the terminal when they’re using it for this reason alone)

they beat the shit out of every enemy they find and disregard scrap completely. it’d probably beat another crewmate to death. whether it was on accident is up to you. they’re able to outsmart and survive certain enemies given they can hear them. they’d probably do very well at sneaking around dogs, although their first instinct is to make a run for it when there’s a forest giant. (they’re fast dont worry they can make it) the only creature they wouldn’t be able to survive and potentially beat to death is the bracken. explanation should be self explanatory given the enemy list i’ve made but they are Bad at frequently checking their surroundings and are very easily caught off guard. they can defend themselves quickly, but the bracken is. hm. yeah. you get it.

the only help they can offer their crew is being the only one brave enough (if you could even call it that) to retrieve someone’s corpse and successfully bring it back to the ship.

LOVES to scare other people by chasing after them with shovels but minos wrestles the damn thing away from them every single time

V2 is less like their predecessor but they still take after them quite a lot. they’re smart and actually have the decency to take a walkie talkie with them, but they don’t communicate much with it. it’s less of a necessity to them and more of a tool that may or may not prove useful in certain cases. they don’t particularly like being given orders (even if they know it’ll help) so it’s turned off half the time anyways. they’re smart in that they’ll actually look for and bring back scrap, but they have a bad habit of attempting to hold as much as they can instead of bringing more important things back to the front. they enjoy bringing back a big haul— it’s affirming. if V1 is with them, they’re going to try their hardest to avoid them but still follow their trail because they know every enemy they encounter will either be dead or chasing after the other. there’s a high chance there’ll be scrap V1 has ignored along the trail anyways. it’s smart until the frantic running stops and suddenly they’re face to face with a bracken. they’ll figure out a way around this eventually i’m sure.

they’re also really bad at jumping across platforms. they jump without looking and often take chances with jumps they can’t see. LOVES closing the ship door on V1 but if gabriel’s there its gonna be opened in under a few seconds & V1 will promptly chase them down with a shovel (and kill them!)

ferryman has a horrible case of GET SCARED disease but generally they do pretty well! they tend to follow around other crewmates but on the offchance they’re going alone or somehow get lost they ALWAYS bring a flashlight. they’re bad at navigating through the dark but they have a Really good sense of direction and can find their way back very easily. always the one tasked with investigating steamy rooms because they usually find the valve pretty quickly. surprisingly good at defending themselves against enemies given they have a weapon and a warning given before it shows up but coil-heads are a nono. they’re bad enough at prolonged eye contact as it is.

can’t work the monitor because they’re way too quiet for anyone to hear and they get really nervous about the forest giants (dogs are okay with them. they’re good at being silent) but they really like reading the logs people find. also really good at making jumps between platforms

swordsmachine ACTUALLY DOES THEIR JOB!!!!! SOMEWHAT!!!!! every piece of scrap they find goes to their designated corner at the front of the building. no one is allowed to take their scrap back to the ship. Their Pile. Will die everytime they land on a stormy planet because of their refusal to put their shit down. they’re smart but i think their scrap is too important to them and they think making a mad dash for the ship might give them enough time to get back before they get struck by lightning and explode. they bring NOTHING with them. they need all the space available to hold as much scrap as possible. if V2 is on the ship they tend to to tag along with them.

mindflayer reads as pretty lazy to me. im not sure why. they’d go into the facility but once they find one or two items they’re gonna return to base and camp out there for the rest of the time. they LOVE the mansions though. will stay in there for much longer than they should. steals all the keys people have collected overtime for mansion expeditions & unlocking all of the doors. very fond of almost every enemy EXCEPT the forest giants. they’re bad at not getting spotted

minos is like the Only level headed person on this entire fucking ship. does what he needs to! does it well! he heads into the facility when there’s less people going in (or the only ones going in don’t typically do much) but most of the time hes at the monitor. very good at calming people down when there’s an enemy near them. tends to lead the group whenever he actually goes inside. when he delivers back his first haul of scrap he always checks the monitor just to make sure everyone else is doing okay. he’s gonna go after them if he feels like they’re in a tight spot. instinctually goes for the fire exits instead of using the main entrance because he believes it’s better for some reason.

he has a nasty habit of staying in the facility for Far too long but he’s pretty diligent about getting back safely and with everything he’s found. if he feels particularly worried he’ll drop everything and run for it.

sisyphus is also pretty great. makes a lot of jokes over the walkie talkies whenever he’s doing monitoring (much to the dismay of whoever is being chased by creatures). he Will lock you in a hallway for shits and giggles but he’ll let you out after a few seconds. he does really well actually within the facilities but he’s mostly doing work outside with bringing scrap people leave outside back to the ship. loves jumping out of the ship before it lands so he can get a head start. if he hears or somehow knows that someone around him has just died he’s going to do everything in his power to bring their body back to the ship. he feels strangely obligated but in a way he enjoys. LOVES the jetpacks. buys one whenever it’s possible. weirdly bad at making the jumps between platforms

mirage really loves the mansions. will bring scrap back but leaves to explore the planets rather than focus on the job at hand. turns off her walkie talkie and keeps the flashlight just to stay out a bit later but always makes it back within the nick of time. if the monitor person dies (or everyone else does) she’s usually the one to start the ship and go. knows most planets like the back of her hand. if the mindflayer on the ship hasn’t already taken the stored keys then she probably will. not one to explore the facilities in the dark but she does really enjoy it when she gets to be alone. knows when it’s about time to leave if she starts hearing other people screaming. not intimated by the bracken- if anything she enjoy its company. her favorite piece of scrap are the paintings

POTENTIAL enemy list….

thumper - filth (ignore the staggering difference in power these two have)

spore lizard - cancerous rodent :)

bracken - something wicked. loves to target v1 specifically

snare-flea - ??? help me out here

hoarding bugs - swordsmachine would make SO much sense but for the sake of them actually being a crew member on this hell of a ship i’ll say a swordsmachine copycat. a scraphead

spider - i’m running out of enemies. spiders exist on earth too so i think it’d make sense for it to be a husk of some sort. nothing specific

baboon-hawk- drone :)

forest giant - i think corpse of king minos is most fitting. let’s just pretend he isnt 20 stories tall for the sake of this. cerberus would also make sense. either of them work

eyeless dogs - imagine a giant maurice rolling around. now imagine many of them. cant exactly see you because it’s made of fucking stone but it sure can hear you & you’ll definitely hear it when it comes barreling towards you before running you over

earth leviathan (worms) - EASILY the leviathan

coil-head - mannequin. maybe. bonus points if she gets to strike a different pose everytime she moves

ghost girl - i think it’d be funny if it were that one council member. any council member, honestly. they go after gabriel specifically

jester - im actually not sure! the skull looks most similar to minos’ parasites but at the same time having it be some weird hell-made husk machine would also be cool

jeb - it’s a bit lazy but hell itself would fit very nicely

turret - sentry. pink dot instead of orange

i’m ill. thanks for reading

[faulty-heat-vents]

//Narrative communication established.

//[ASSIST: CONDENSE]> RESPONSE BELOW READMORE

--READMORE BYPASSED--

Thermie’s time with the Attica City Jäger Guard is brief yet enlightening.

Every ounce of energy is different from the Academy. Sure, there are mechs and Pilots being ferried about the hangars, but walking-paces time differently. Officials treat their pilots with something akin to respect (with stretched-definition). The air feels both lighter and heavier in various ways- social-tension, gravity-presence, the absent hum of atmosphere recycle-systems.

After the defeat of MTK-VOKOLOSS (“MECHANIZED-TYPE KAIJU,” an unofficial designation xey find appealing), xey spend the rest of xeir stay almost exclusively docked within the Guard’s hangars. None of the subalterns xey try on for size feel right- either with the wrong number of limbs, or improperly-structured legs, or a balance issue, or (in a particular case) a dent on the upper torso that sends xeir weight-adjust calculations all screwy.

Thermie doesn’t mention to the Guardsmen’s team that xey have a mech-bay waiting back “home” at the Academy. Oracle would thank xem for the free repairs and congratulate xem for not looking a gift in the mouth… according to baseless predictions. Somewhere in that simulation, a single clip of honor tries to bloom before being decapitated.

Passive curiosity fares better in its soil-emergence. It starts as a seed: [Hurricane-Hunter]’s bright red Kidd in the furthest hangar bay, swarming with drones like an agitated hornet’s nest. Then, a sprout breaks the dirt: a drone wanders far from the frame, and is recalled back with a buzz of static that only xey and the drone seem to hear.

Thermie mimics a tongue-click to get the attention of a mechanic on xeir shoulder. The small, spindly human looks up from its snooping, quickly wiping its hand on its pant-leg when it comes away blood-slick from the side of xeir Smartgun.

//[QUERY: OPERATION]> How do commander-type frames similar to [Hurricane-Hunter] communicate with their drone swarms? I have noticed anomalous signals between its components, but they are unfamiliar to me.

The human cocks its head and makes a puzzled noise, as if it doesn’t understand Thermie’s question at first. It takes a second to think- process interruption blowback?- before finding the words.

“Not sure how that Kidd does it, but I know a lot of ‘em use Legionspace. Why?”

//[ELABORATE: DEFINITION]> “Legionspace”

“Uh-“ it lags again- “dedicated e-warfare system. Second reality that only tuned machines can play with. Also works for esoteric hacking shit.”

//Your explanation is appreciated. You may resume your own inquiries.

After a moment, the mechanic shrugs and goes back to poking at the flesh at the base of the Smartgun. Thermie rolls xeir optic case.

//Inconsequential.

[Hurricane-Hunter] fires another command to a wayward drone. The sound of it- is it even a sound?- seals the deal in Thermie’s mind; Soul-searching time. Xey disconnect xeir visual feed and turn xeir words inwards, diving through programs xey’ve never had the courage to boot.

//[DIRECTORY: NAVIGATE]> “ELECTRONIC WARFARE SYSTEMS” //[CALIBRATION: WARNING]> This module has not been serviced in [ERROR: NULL VALUE] cycles. Initialize? Y/N //[QUERY: INITIALIZE]> Y //[INITIALIZATION: MODULE]> Electronic warfare systems online. Redirecting system cognition to relevant processes. //[BRIDGE: CONJURE]> Synthetic nootropic module activated. Overclock procedure activated. Core temperatures rising.

Shit, xey didn’t think about that last part. A swelling heat registers in xeir upper left shoulder and drives xem to panic slightly. Xey set xeir voice to project externally again and shout to the mechanic a warning-

//[TEMPERATURE: WARNING]> Thermoregulation hardware compromised by unknown paracausal agent. Please dismount this frame. I cannot verify your safety if you remain in your current location.

The mechanic yelps in surprise as the plasteel armor plate under its ass sharply warms. It gets the message painfully clear, and loops a length of cable around the Smartgun’s barrel to rappel down to the hangar floor.

//Sincere apologies given. I will alert your team when my frame is sufficiently cooled and safe to work on.

The mechanic fires a two-fingered salute and awkwardly hobbles away, leaving Thermie alone in the maintenance bay. Xey stifle a quiet chuckle- since when do xey laugh?- before returning to the code terminal in xeir mind.

//[BRIDGE: TRAVERSE]> Initializing Legionspace simulation. Please wait…

——

TO BE CONTINUED.

[kholnt]

Can you tell us more about lost and there relationship with the chain?

oh lordy theres an entire doc for this that kay n i worked on earlier so i'm just gonna copy and paste that :thumbsup: and if some things dont make sense uhhhh problem for later me under readmore bc its long asf

Twilight

PRE-TOTK: Not that close with Twilight but very close with Wolfie. Wolfie is basically his therapy-dog so Twilight knows some of the secrets/details of his life that Lost has been keeping from the rest of the Chain. Twilight struggles with respecting Lost’s privacy but also wanting to help him work through what he’s going through.

He tries to incorporate Lost into the group in little ways. It’s small but it’s the most he can do at the moment and he doesn’t want Lost to be completely isolated from their group.

If Wolfie's reveal happens Pre-Totk their relationship is soured. Lost kept all those secrets secret for a reason and Twilight knowing them messes with him a lot. Lost probably thinks that Twilight was only keeping tabs on him to make sure he wouldn’t be a problem to group despite what Twilight says in response.

POST-TOTK

If Wolfie Reveal happens Post-Totk + character development, Lost is a Lot More understanding as to why Twilight kept the whole Wolfie thing a secret. Twilight basically becomes his older brother (he was before but now Twilight gets to actually show it outside of being a wolf) and they’re really close. Twilight is the #1 Lost Defender.

Time

PRE-TOTK: Time struggles a lot with trying to help Lost because he can Tell Lost has a lot more going on under the surface. Twilight confirms this is the case but will not go into details for the sake of Lost’s privacy unless he Has To. But he can’t do much since Lost is still very much afraid of him and puts the soldier front on with him. Also struggles with the fact he doesn’t really Know Lost.

Lost has a lot of respect for Time but Also Time reminds him of his dad and that’s scary for him and also bringing up past trauma. (DADDY ISSUES!!!!!)

POST-TOTK: The first/one of the first to give Lost a hug after the Horn Incident. Lost is still working out his daddy issues but he’s a lot more open with Time. Lost’s relationship with Malon improving also helps a lot in this aspect too.

Warriors

PRE-TOTK: Lost feels the need to prove himself to Warriors because he’s The Captain and his own past issues with authorities figures. Warriors in turn struggles with the fact that Lost appears so Afraid of him all the time and tries to alleviate that fear, but it doesn’t do much. 

Warriors also is Not a fan of self-sacrificing Lost is. Tries to gently scold him and discourages him but this only makes Lost get better at hiding injuries and discreetly healing himself after fights. Warriors (+ Time) doesn’t like ordering him around but it’s the only way to get him to listen to them when it comes to proper self care and allowing others to help.

POST-TOTK: After Lost learns that he outranks Warriors he sees their dynamic more equally and removes a lot of tenseness from their relationship. Lost becomes a lot more involved with planning and strategy and helps Warriors with planning attacks/defense/etc. which helps improve their relationship a lot too. 

Legend

PRE-TOTK: Tense. Legend sees Lost as a “suck-up” and tries to be understanding of his mentality and such, but it’s still frustrating for them both because Lost is trying to “impress” Legend and prove his worth and Legend doesn’t see Lost as genuine. This eventually leads to an argument between the two of them.

POST-TOTK: After the Horn Incident™, Legend apologizes to Lost about the things he said and did pre-totk, their relationship vastly improves after that. 

Sky

PRE-TOTK: Lost has Feelings about Hylia but he respects Sky’s relationship with her + another case of complete respect since Sky is the one who made the Master Sword. There’s a healthy dose of fear from Lost almost dying from the blade as well, so he tends to keep his distance as well.

POST-TOTK: Sky has Feelings about the fact that Lost turned himself into a dragon to repair the Master Sword. Lost talks about repairing the Master Sword and how he didn’t consider any other option because “it's what you would have done”. 

Four

PRE-TOTK: Lost is the least “afraid” of him. He’s willing to talk more about himself with Four because they’re the most similar. They both have their own secrets, and they understand that. Four is also very observant of Lost, and is the first one to learn how Lost displays his emotions, and will generally come to his aid when someone in the chain is (usually worriedly) hounding him.

POST-TOTK: Not much changes between them, for better or for worse. Lost is a lot more open to asking more personal questions, and they get to know each other much better. Plus Four got to show Lost what blacksmithing is like, so that’s a very big bonus

Hyrule

PRE-TOTK: Wary respect.Lost has respect for Hyrule’s medic abilities but is Unsure on how to feel about the magic healing. The only person he knows who is able to heal with magic isn’t a Hylian. Possibly wary of if Hyrule is actually a Hylian? + Hyrule probably reminds him of Mipha and that's Probably Not A Good Thing

POST-TOTK: Hyrule allows Lost to finally have some sense of individuality by allowing him to escape and go out adventuring by themselves. This starts a snowball effect of Lost learning things he’s interested in, nature and a drive for learning being the first few.

Wind

PRE-TOTK: Guard. Wind wants him to be a big brother, but he forgot how to fill that role due to Reasons™ Instead, he fills a guard role so he’s still able to protect Wind in some way. (Wind has mixed feelings about this)

POST-TOTK: After Lost learns more about himself and finally allows himself to have some fun, they get along like a house on fire. Please never give them access to a hill it’ll be terrible for everyone’s hearts.

[destielomegaversebigbang]

Love Potion Number 17

Posting 21st October 2023!

Fic by MalicMalic

Art by Hexentaenzerin

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Omega Dean has spent his life hoping to find his truemate, but all he managed to do was to introduce other people to theirs. It just never seems to be his turn. Looking to help, Charlie takes him to this witch that sells love potions, but all Rowena has to offer is some good time. Dean leaves the shop with a little bottle with some glowing blue liquid swirling inside. The tag on it says: Potion No.17.

Castiel works his days as an accountant in the “Smith, Banks and Associates” and spends every free minute gazing out of the window at the Delaware River. His parents are retired and live in Florida and he has a roommate Balthazar who is his only friend and loves to party. He longs for a meaningful connection. One time he lets himself be persuaded to join Balthazar on a night out, he ends up bored enough to talk to a perfect stranger. He even goes so far as to trust Crowley when the man claims he’s got something that will allow him some fun. That night he goes home with Potion No.17 in his hand.

Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics. Alpha Castiel. Omega Dean. African dream root. Dreaming. Idiots in love. Some angst. Some fluff. Bookstore owner Dean. Accountant Castiel. Falling in love. Dean and Cas first kiss. Oral sex. Voyersm. Exhibitionism. Anal sex (alpha Cas enjoys anal sex, but it isn't described in the story). Happily ever after

Excerpt: Below the readmore

“Like I said, I call it The Love Potion. It’s a mixture of herbs and spices that allows you to have a better control of your dreams, in a manner of speaking. See, with each of these you can form a scenario that brings your… deepest desires to life. Gives you some fun time during your nights. Of course, most use it to conjure a partner and have wild sex, but it can be so much more than that. You can imagine someone nice to talk to and spend time with, or work out what kind of a person fits you best, the possibilities are endless.”

Castiel bites his bottom lip, staring at that one little bottle, unable to look away. “Is it… Is it some sort of a hallucinogen?”

The other alpha huffs a laugh. “I am not a drug dealer, darling. It is all perfectly safe and legal. The main compound of the potion is the African dream root, you can look it up.” Crowley must have noticed how entranced Castiel is because he still hasn’t closed the case. Castiel doesn’t even make it past his first breath before he reaches for the vial with that transcendent green. His entire body tingles as he wraps his fingers around it, a small tag with the number 17 swinging off the neck, grazing his fingers. Castiel knows that he won’t be able to put it down until he tries it. The idea is simply too tempting and he has been so lonely for far too long.

[enbyleighlines]

Ikesoren 18 and 20

Oooooh, a couple of spicy questions! I’m going to put them under a readmore, for anyone uncomfortable with risqué subject matter

18. Do they ever engage in PDA, and if so, to what extent?

Very rarely! Ike and Soren are both very private individuals, nor do they like drawing attention onto themselves. The most they might do is brief, platonic touches, such as Ike patting Soren on the shoulder, or Soren nudging Ike to get his attention. In fact, that probably doesn’t even qualify as PDA to most people. But for Ike and Soren, it absolutely does.

On even rarer occasions, if they think they’re completely alone, Ike might sneak a quick kiss. The thrill of maybe getting caught excites Ike. But Soren would be mortified if that were actually the case.

The only time I can see them engaging in proper PDA would be if Soren was tipsy. I can see him as a very clingy drunk, clutching onto Ike’s arm like a koala, and or even just tucking himself underneath Ike’s arm so he can leech off of his big boyfriend’s body heat. He’s terribly touch-starved, and I think that since he normally suppresses that part of him, it would come out full force if his inhibitions were ever lowered.

20. What is their dynamic like in the bedroom?

Oooh, where to begin…

I could probably go into way too much detail about their dynamics in the bedroom, but I’ll try to keep things as succinct as possible.

First off, I hc Ike as being on the ace spectrum, and while most of the time he is sex-neutral, at times he will vacillate to one of the other ends of the spectrum. In other words, he can be super into sex, or he can be vaguely repulsed by it.

Soren, on the other hand, is not on the asexual spectrum, and he has a fairly average libido for a young man of his age. So when it comes to initiating bedroom activities, Soren tends to take the lead.

(This does take a while, though. Soren is not initially comfortable expressing his needs and desires.)

During the actual deed, Soren relies on Ike to take the lead. While Ike would be happy as either the dominant or submissive partner, Soren is more set in his preferences. And his preference is that he wants to submit to Ike.

In terms of modern terminology, Soren tends to vacillate between a service sub and a power bottom, depending on where his confidence level is at. Whereas Ike is mostly a service top.

And yes, they do occasionally disagree over who gets to service the other first.

So it’s somewhat of an odd dynamic, in which Soren expects Ike to lead, but Ike also relies on Soren to tell him what he wants. However, it works for them. Both of them are getting what they want: Ike wants to make Soren feel good, and Soren wants to feel like he belongs to Ike.

Thanks for the ask!! I really appreciate it.

[mozukumi]

it's a wummer wum-derland

Phineas is going through a bout of seasonal depression. His friends are there to help him out.

1K words. Read on AO3 or under the readmore. Comments much appreciated!

Phineas doesn’t know when this winter got so bad for him.

It wasn’t a problem when he was younger. He had always preferred the summer, but he didn’t hate winter or anything. He would still make the most of every single possible day.

Last year, though, things started to change. He doesn’t remember when it started then, either, but he began to feel a lot more lethargic and depressed during that winter. He didn’t think much of it, though. He was in his first year of high school - it was only natural for him to have been a bit moody, wasn’t it?

He didn’t think it was going to happen again this winter. It started out great, after all! He began December by celebrating Hanukkah with the Garcia-Shapiro family, which he greatly enjoyed. Next were his final exams for the semester, which… yeah, those weren’t fun, but it was a necessary evil. That finally led to the roughly 14 days of winter vacation which fell between Christmas and New Year’s – each of which were the best day ever.

The change had to have happened sometime in January, then. That’s the logical explanation. But he can’t remember when it started; maybe this wasn’t the sort of thing which started, instead being a gradual decline.

He supposes it doesn’t really matter how he got here, exactly. What does matter is this: it’s a Saturday morning in February and he doesn’t want to do anything.

He can barely believe himself. The whole day is ahead of him, just waiting to be seized! Yet he’s still wasting away in his bed. And that sort of thing is fine every once-in-a-while (the do-nothing day is a yearly tradition he quite enjoys). But it’s not like he’s choosing to relax and take it slow. He desperately wants to carpe his diem.

But he just can’t do it.

He’s snapped out of his wallowing by a knock at the door. It’s Ferb, peeking his head in. An is eyebrow raised and a question is implied: what are we gonna do today?

“Sorry, Ferb, I’m - I’m not really feeling up to anything today,” he admits. And he hates himself for it, because he really should just push through this. All of his friends were available to hang out today - and with their busy high school schedules, that was getting so much rarer. He wishes he could take advantage of it.

Ferb nods, then walks over to his bedside. He tilts his head ever-so-slightly, and if Phineas is reading his body language correctly…

“You’re right, it has been a rough couple of weeks for me,” he says. “Not like anything happened, it’s just, ah…”

“You’ve got a case of the winter blues?” Ferb suggests.

“Yeah, I guess that’s right,” Phineas says. “I don’t want to keep you - say hi to the gang for me, okay?”

Ferb gives him a thumbs up, although Phineas didn’t need any confirmation from his brother. A reminder that he could count on Ferb was like a reminder that water was wet: completely unnecessary.

-

A couple of hours later, his phone began to ring. It was one of his customized ringtones – a 8-bit version of Gitchee Gitchee Goo – which meant the caller was…

“Isabella,” he says, hoping he didn’t sound too groggy. He had just woken up from his nap minutes earlier. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m good! But I was really calling to ask about you. Are you feeling well enough to come down to the backyard for a few minutes?”

He thought about it. He was feeling a little bit better. Not enough to participate in a Big Idea, but well enough that he could come say hi and see what his friends were working on. “Yes, yes I am. I’ll get changed into my snowgear-”

“No need,” she interrupts, her tone a bit forced. “It’s… it’ll be fine! You don’t need to get out of your pajamas. Just come on down.”

“If you insist,” he says. He’s sure it’ll make sense soon. “I’ll be there soon.”

With that, he hangs up his phone and makes his way downstairs. It isn’t a long trek, but it’s just enough time to make him consider what the gang is up to. It can’t be anything open to the general public, since they told him not to bother changing. So it had to be a more personal project.

By the time he reaches that conclusion, he’s already at the front door. He steps out into the backyard, and -

It’s warm and it’s sunny.

That’s the first thing he notices. After all these months of overcast weather, the feeling of heat on his skin was almost alien. There was still snow on the ground, but it didn’t freeze his bare feet. Instead, it was just pleasantly cold. All around him, his friends begin to sing a familiar tune:

It’s a Wummer Wum-derland Unusual and grand Yeah, it’s anything but bland Because it’s Wummer (Bum bum, bum bum) Talkin’ ‘bout Wummer (Bum bum, bum bum) It’s so Wummer (Bum bum, bum bum)

Their cheer is infectious, and pretty soon Phineas is grinning from cheek to cheek. His eyes begin to water. “You guys, this is so… you’re the best friends ever, you know that?”

“Yeah, I am pretty aweso-”

“Do not ruin this moment, Buford,” Baljeet says under his breath, but Phineas can still very clearly hear him. Did he think he was being discreet…? Well, he’s not going to point that out.

“You always do all this amazing stuff for us, Phineas,” Isabella says, her voice soft. “Like, it’s pretty ridiculous how much you do. And I love- I mean, we love all that you do for us. But we want to take care of you too sometimes.”

“Since light therapy is an effective treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder, Buford proposed that we rework a classic idea in order to cheer you up,” Baljeet says.

“Wait, Buford?

“Hey, I was at S’Winter! It was a non-speaking cameo, but I was still there!”

Phineas decides to not ask any clarifying questions - Buford said stuff like that all the time. Better to let it pass.

“Thank you,” he says, and it’s really not enough. The two words are hardly enough to express his gratitude at the gesture. But for now, it’ll have to do.

[random-ln-stuff]

My thoughts and theories on the LN Podcast: Episodes 1 and 2:

Putting all this under a readmore because spoilers for Episode 1 and 2 of The Sounds Of Nightmares:

General Stuff.

The way people talk and the way things sound make me think that the story is talking place in the past, I’d date it to somewhere around the Late 40s or Early 50s, so that’s another point to Little Nightmares taking place in 1948 specifically.

This whole thing is very interesting. The world isn’t corrupted. Children and Adults don’t hate each other. Otto acts like a human being. The corrupted stuff is in Noone’s head, but I don’t think it’s all a dream.

I think the dreams Noone is having, showing the actual world of Little Nightmares, are either visions of another world, or are visions of something that’s going to happen. Either this non-corrupted world is a separate one from Little Nightmares’ world (which I will call Nowhere for now thanks to the Little Nightmares 3 Description) or my personal theory that I will be going with until it’s disproved: The Non-Corrupted world IS Nowhere, but before everything goes to hell. Noone’s dreams are prophetic.

My reasoning for the Prophecy Theory was started because of 3 things, and there’s more evidence to come in specific episodes.

Names for people and places follow a very similar pattern to in The Nowhere. The Place the story takes place in is simply called: The Counties, similar to places like The Nest, The Maw, or the Pale City. Otto (an Adult) is supposed to be referred to as “The Counsellor”, but doesn’t mind being called by his real name, and Noone (pronounced Noon) is mentioned to have chosen her own name, which is implied to be the origin of most child names.

In Little Nightmares, many of the dreams that children have are prophetic, showing events that will eventually happen or vaguely warning of future events. Six has a dream of the Lady the same day she encounters her, Mono dreams of the door before he ever starts seeing it and begins heading towards it, RK has a nightmare related to The Granny and RCG has a nightmare about barricading a shed door with something banging on the other side, which happens later exactly as she dreamt it.

The dreams Noone has are rather symbolic. The first episode is the better example of the two, but both aren’t really real locations in Nowhere. They’re symbolic representations of The Maw and Guests specifically.

Ep 1:

In this, Noone ends up inside a massive stone giant, and encounters the Ferryman for a brief moment. Like literally just the Ferryman. Fully described in the coat, hat and melted face and later referred to as the Ferryman (and the Candleman, a reference to the cut Wax Bellman from LN 1, who was initially cut from the game and then was remade Into The Ferryman and got put back in).

After that she goes deeper inside the giant to find a giant clockwork structure that keeps the giant alive and maskless shadow children working on it, keeping all the gears moving. After that she finds a starved, rotting man chained inside a bedroom and then she encounters A Tall Lady wearing chains with a face that’s been purposefully stretched out to remove any wrinkles or signs of age.

After that is more travelling before Noone and a Child she encounters in her dream find a courtyard where thousands of screams can be heard from other people, chained up and starved in their own rooms like the one Noone saw before. Then the Lady in Chains shows up again, kills the other kid and Noone wakes up.

Like I said before, this dream is heavily symbolic, but it’s obviously about the Maw and The Lady.

First off, the Ferryman is here. No symbolism, no speculation, he’s here and that immediately draws connections to the Lady.

Then there’s the Shadow Children, or the Workers, who I don’t actually think represent Shadow Kids found in the Maw. The workers represent Nomes, who keep the Maw (or in this case the Stone Giant) running. Despite being seen as antagonists, the Workers don’t actually do anything to Noone in the dream. They head towards her when she draws attention to herself, which scares her, but they never actually attempt to harm her. They just want a closer look at Noone in all of their appearances and they immediately back off once Noone’s dress tears and a piece gets stuck in the gears.

The Lady in Chains is very, very, VERY obviously the Lady. They’re a tall woman who is desperately trying to appear younger, stretching their skin to remove wrinkles. The chains that the Lady can seemingly manipulate may also represent her powers, and I’ll get into that in a moment.

Then there’s the chained man and the thousands of others just like them. They may represent Guests or something like that, but I think they represent something else: The souls of both Guests and Children alike that the lady has consumed after countless Maw Feasts.

My logic for this is that both the chained people and the Lady’s representation in the dream specifically involve chains. The Chained People are chained to walls in specific rooms, rotting and starving, and the Lady In Chains is constantly surrounded by chains, with chains literally coming off of her clothing and flowing underneath her dress. The Lady In Chains can also control those chains, manipulating them however she wants to and using them to ensnare a child, pulling them away to kill them. Now if the Lady In Chains is The Lady, then the Lady In Chains’ ability to control chains probably represent the Lady’s own ability to control her unique soul stealing shadow magic. And if chains in this dream represent the Lady’s Soul Stealing Magic, then it makes sense that the rotting, starving, tortured souls all chained up throughout the Giant in the dream are people that the Lady consumed. That’s what the Lady stealing your soul feels like. You are chained up by magic, starved and tortured by the Lady slowly breaking down your consumed soul until you no longer exist.

And the Lady In Chains has THOUSANDS of people chained up. Think about that in relation to the REAL Lady. Horrifying.

Also with the revelation that the Chained up people are souls that the Lady consumed and is slowly digesting/using up, you can make the claim that the Giant in the dream may ALSO be a representation of the Lady. After all, those people are chained up and imprisoned INSIDE the Giant, and Nomes may keep the Maw running, but by doing so they also keep the Lady running just as much.

Ep 2:

Here we hear a tiny bit about Otto’s beloved Cici (Sici? Sissi? It’s pronounced See-See), who could honestly be a lot of things right now. A lost lover, a lost child, a lost friend, a lost family member, but the important part right now is that Cici had similar dreams, or at least encountered the Ferryman in some them. Definitely going to be important later.

This dream is a lot more straightforward. Noone finds themselves in a town with another Child she’s never seen before named Jester. They wander for a short while before Noone sees the Ferryman again, exactly as he was before, and runs, separating from Jester in the process.

Also while in this town, Noone sees “Contraptions that resemble fish carrying large, extremely fat people wearing wooden masks and brown robes towards a Market and Bathhouse” (Seems familiar, right?)

When Noone enters the Bathhouse, she finds dozens of monstrous people washing themselves, and finds one of them using Jester to scrub themselves. When that monster sees her, it immediately forgoes cleaning and goes straight for her, chasing Noone until she accidentally brings a bottle of cleaning chemicals down onto both of them, killing them both and waking Noone up.

If it wasn’t immediately obvious, those are Guests. Extremely fat, Masked people wearing brown robes. The masks are wooden instead of whatever the hell actual Guest masks are made of, but everything else matches. Even the fish shaped contraptions moving the Guests towards the Market and Bathhouse make sense once you realize that the Bathhouse represents the Maw.

In this dream, Guests are brought to the Maw to feast, but some things are slightly off. Instead of food and gluttony, the Guests we see are obsessed with cleaning and cleanliness, but they’re still very clearly guests, endlessly heading towards a place that claims to be able to fulfill their endless needs.

Even their behaviour when seeing Noone matches with real Guests. When a Guest sees Noone it immediately forgets about cleaning itself or the child it’s carrying and goes straight for Noone, just like how real Guests always go for the freshest meat they can see, forgetting about the 5 star meal right in front of them when they can see meat that’s even fresher and harder to come by (a live child).

Prophecy Theory:

But then, why is everything slightly different and more symbolic than any other child dreams we see. Most of them are pretty straightforward? And what’s with the Ferryman? If these are all prophetic dreams, why does the Ferryman seem to be aware of it all?

Well, first I want to point something out.

In all Child Dreams in the games, the most powerful entities seem to have have some sort of awareness or control of some sort over the dream. In Six’s dream, the Lady turns towards her before she wakes up, seemingly aware that Six is looking in her direction, and when Mono dreams of the Door in LN2, the TV next to him turns on, possibly because either the Thin Man or Broadcaster (two separate, yet similar entities) was aware of what Mono was dreaming about.

Now with that in mind, The Ferryman IS as powerful as the North Wind, another extremely powerful entity, so it makes sense that in a prophetic dream, the Ferryman could be still aware of things.

As for why these dreams are so symbolic and hard to understand when most prophetic dreams are pictures and images of what’s to come, it’s because these events are VERY far away from happening. The Lady doesn’t appear as THE LADY despite possibly having awareness because The Lady doesn’t exist yet. The world hasn’t fallen under the influence of the Eye, and we KNOW that the Lady and the Maw only start everything they do AFTER things like the Signal Tower are built, which happens presumably AFTER or RIGHT AS the world goes to shit.

Noone’s dreams are all symbolic because her dreams don’t even know how to process or comprehend what’s coming. It can’t show the Lady or the Maw because Noone’s dreams can’t look that far and that accurately into the future, so they create the Lady In Chains, The Stone Giant, The Workers, and a dozen other representations of what’s coming because it can’t say for certain what things are going to look like. Only a rough guess at the eldritch horror that’s coming. Vague representations of The Lady and The Maw and the Nomes that keep it running. Somewhat accurate but still slightly off depictions of Guests heading towards the Maw in droves, etc.

But the thing is, the Ferryman is there. And the Ferryman is unchanged. And the Ferryman is aware that Noone is dreaming. That means that Noone’s prophetic child dreams are depicting the actual Ferryman.

And that means that the Ferryman actually exists somewhere out there in either Noone’s world or whatever dark corner of the universe that the Eye resides in.

We know next to nothing about the Ferryman besides the fact that he’s as powerful as the North Wind and chooses to work for the Lady (mean that the Lady is probably just as powerful). And now we know one more thing about him: He’s existed longer than any of the other monsters besides maybe the North Wind. Probably created by the Eye itself.

And keep in mind, in the actual games, There’s evidence that a world was here before us. Viewers couldn’t exactly have built the Pale City after all. And in those buildings, all over the place, you can find evidence that the Eye has been here for a VERY long time, it’s symbol found on many things from before the world presumably went to shit. The Eye has always been here, it’s just that relatively recently it went from “passive influence of various types” to “Plunge the world in chaos and darkness”. So the Eye definitely exists at the time that the podcast takes place, and so does the Ferryman and presumably the North Wind.

Also: The Ferryman has apparently been in ALL of Noone’s recent nightmares, and he wants her to “give in to this world”. Does he want Noone to give in so he can drag her further into it and probably claim her soul for the Eye, or does he want her to give in so he can escape THROUGH her, possibly bringing the Eye out along with him?

Anyways that’s my somewhat coherent rambling. Enjoy.

[faulty-heat-vents]

ooc post: reader heart-to-heart, and discussion of future content

Long post (and poll) under the readmore.

I dunno how to cleanly start this… but I’ll be honest, not much about this situation is clean.

———

Problem One: Content Warning

So far, I’ve mostly maintained a mostly (ESRB) T+ rating for FHV; Most of its maturity was in vulgar language and graphic violence, with very infrequent suggestive themes. Concern for community alienation (and my own prudish tendencies that I’m working to overcome) previously kept the story from exploring certain relationships between characters.

This roundabout censorship mainly applied to Ash and Thermie’s romantic (and possibly explicit) situation, but Ciryn’s objectum attraction- while being asexual- was also danced around instead of given grace.

———

Problem Two: Quality Assurance

A lot of the blog’s early lore was written with zero plan in mind. I’ve since matured as a writer- both in style and method of approach- and am generally unsatisfied with the bedrock that this story is built on. I’ve tossed around the concepts of a rewrite, but what with us coming up on a year anniversary this August, I’m left wondering how exactly I’d go about handling it.

In its current state, I want to rewrite basically everything prior to (Ao3) Chapter 18. A-1’s introduction, Thermie’s early characterization, and a loose-hanging plot thread from a dead account are all elements that I want to re-tool or entirely excise, but I’d need to do so very carefully to avoid massive plot-holes.

Additionally, I need to reformat fifty-odd chapters so that the blog’s original character-color feature is preserved. A lot of comprehensibility is lost in the port to Ao3, since I have to figure out how to convey who’s talking where without using per-character color. I recently found a way to apply colors via a custom work skin, but it’d take time- and an awkward rolling update, instead of a favored all-at-once patch.

———

so that leads me to the big question-

The Rewrite.

If I go through with this, the legacy version of the story- which is still on the blog- will remain as is. Obviously, new posts will still come out here on Tumblr first- but future Ao3 updates would be published on a second rewritten version, which will also be treated as the Canon Interpretation of the story. The Ao3 rewrite would handle most of the issues of Problem Two, but I’m still on the fence about Problem One and need community feedback on it.

Note that when I say “mature themes,” I’m referring to things that the current story doesn’t already cover- namely a possibility for a sexually-explicit route for Ash and Thermie’s relationship. (Ciryn’s objectum-state will be explored in the future regardless, as hers is a non-sexual attraction and I can write that without affecting the current maturity rating.)

If either Option 2 or 4 are chosen, the Ao3 version will be marked as Mature and all relevant Archive Tags will be added. On Tumblr, posts will be marked with a Community Label and relevant tags on a case-by-case basis (ie: when they address certain topics).

Do note that with Community Labels, there is a risk that Tumblr will shadowban this blog from people’s dashboards. I’m not particularly concerned about that, since this is a fairly-underground story anyways and a loss of visibility isn’t that big of a deal. If people want to read this, they’ll find it.

———

Conclusion

Regardless of the rewrite verdict-outcome, I appreciate every single of y’all who keep this story alive. Every like, reblog, ask, kudos, and comment inspires me to keep exploring the wonderfully-rich lore of the Lancer Tumblr collaborative universe- and drives me to write my own interpretations and narratives within it.

So, as a closing note to this long-winded devlog- thank you.

- TiredArts, author of Faulty Heat Vents (for many more chapters to come ;3)

[zackmartin]

pleaseeeee spill abt gazing at the stars

WIP ask game! 💕

that's the one I've been working on all night!! how'd you know!!!!!

there's stargazing in it. in case that wasn't clear lskdjf

it's just a oneshot and like, i don't wanna jinx it, but I do have 2.5k words of it written so maybe I'll get lucky and this'll be the one I can complete

there may also be weed involved. who knows? (I know. There is lskdjf) (as in, involved in the fic. I, unfortunately, am not under the influence while trying to write this)

Okay, so like. I actually started out writing this in Henry's POV and i got 90% of it done and then I thought it might be better from Zack's POV, so now I'm 70% done with that rewrite but I still have the version from Henry's POV, and I kinda wanna give you a snippet from that version because Henry comes across incredibly stupid in it sldkjflkd but if I decide to post the version I'm working on now, from Zack's POV, it'll basically spoil things (although, given it's me, it's probably not hard to guess where this fic is headed alskdjf). Still, I'll put it under a readmore for anyone that may want to avoid knowing anything <3

And, as i say often with these things, this is only the 2nd draft so it's not at it's best yet.

Henry can only watch, feeling heat twist in his gut. He knows he shouldn’t find the sight quite so…enticing. He truly never thought he’d find himself so wildly envious of a flimsy strip of paper, but here he was. He wonders for a moment which is more ridiculous: the fact that Zack’s cluelessly causing him to come apart at the seams, or the fact that it took him so damn long to figure out how he felt. A sudden gust of wind blows across the roof, and between that and Henry’s raging teenage hormones, he visibly shivers for the third time that night. Zack pops the perfectly rolled joint into his mouth, stopping momentarily as he glances sidelong at Henry. He wordlessly pulls off his jacket before tossing it onto Henry’s lap. Henry stares down at it, absentmindedly grazing his fingers along the leather for a short beat. He definitely doesn’t need it — in fact, if he keeps watching Zack, he’s most likely going to break out into a sweat at some point — but he still pulls it on anyway, reveling in the fact that it’s still warm from Zack’s body heat. Before he can stop himself, he subtly sniffs the collar. Worn leather, stale cigarette smoke, and cheap cologne — a scent that’s so uniquely Zack — fills his nose and lungs. He almost wishes he could live in his jacket, or at least in the feeling he gets while wearing it.