#UnspeakableHorror

[houerd]

(via "Nightmare Unleashed S01 D13" Graphic T-Shirt for Sale by Houerd)

[techromancer1179]

live footage of me . btw

[unspeakablehorror]

Where to Find Me

Date Created: 7/20/2023 Last Update: 9/1/2023

Edit on 9/1/2023: Added a link to my personal website to the Fanworks section as well, since my fanfic can be found there.

Edit on 8/7/2023: Added a second website that's for archiving fanworks and other stuff I like to 'My Websites'.

EDIT on 7/21/2023: The @ symbol was automatically redirecting (or attempting to redirect) the second part of the pillowfort, dreamwidth, and cohost urls to tumblr accounts, so I got rid of these in all the links.

NOTE: I HAVE STOPPED REGULARLY CHECKING TUMBLR.

The interface of this site has become nearly intolerable for me, and it's become clear to me over the intervening years that Mullenweg is committed to making it progressively worse. So if you've wondered if the reason I've stopped commenting on your posts has anything to do with you, let me assure you, it's not. It's not you. It's not me, either. It's Tumblr. I logged out like maybe a week ago? And it's been amazing? I can live my life again? Miss you all, though.

So anyone who knows me (or has looked through this blog carefully enough) knows I haven't been on here since 2018. But it's been a few years, so now it's time to update my 'Where to Find Me' post! Since there have been several notable changes, and because I wanted to change how this post was structured a bit, it felt easier to me to just make a new post rather than editing the old.

My Websites

Unspeakablehorror's Site - I'll be keeping copies of my fanfic here, recipes, assorted essays, and other things of interest to me here. I will also archive select works from others on this site (with the creator's permission).

New Old Web - This is my website where I talk about how the web is crashing and burning and think about how we can make it not crash and burn. I'm still building it up, but I hope I can add lots more thoughts here.

Main Social Media

I currently feel that I use Pillowfort the most and Dreamwidth the second most. Something my main social media sites both have in common? They don't take venture capital. They're also great for longform writing and conversations.

unspeakablehorror at Pillowfort - Like if Tumblr and LiveJournal had a baby. I love the way this site handles commenting, reblogs, post edits, and privacy. And I love the communities feature. I'm the mod of 3 different Star Wars comms on here: Andor, Sith Empire, and Star Wars-The Sacred Texts.

unspeakablehorror at Dreamwidth - LiveJournal but better. Interface is a bit retro but I absolutely love the tag cloud. Every social media should have tag clouds. Dreamwidth has so many customization features. Also this site has my favorite setup for privacy options. And I love the communities feature on here. I'm the mod of the Sith of Korriban comm here.

Secondary Social Media

unspeakablehorror at Mastodon (fandom.ink instance) - I am on Mastodon, too, which is similar to Twitter with respect to the character count limitations, but has many exciting ideas, like using a protocol for social media that allows accounts on different servers to seamlessly interact with each other (as long as the server isn’t blocked for incompatible rules). It also incorporates the idea of decentralization in a very intriguing way and is entirely non-profit.

unspeakablehorror at cohost.org - Yeah, I'm here too. I don't currently use this account as much, but I do check the site from time to time and I've made a few posts here. I'd be here more often if any of my friends used this platform, but I don't prefer the interface, which is too much like Tumblr for my taste. Basically this is Tumblr if the interface wasn't total garbage, lol. I think I clash with some of the core principles of this site somewhat, and the only way to delete your page is by emailing the site owners, but at least it doesn't have ads or take venture capital. This site is what happens when some furries with coding and design skills are given a bunch of $$$ to make a social media site.

You can also PM me if you want to inquire about other ways to contact me or discuss anything else. I might be a little slow to answer Tumblr PMs, but I'll try to log in from time to time to check for them. Hopefully Tumblr doesn't end up breaking that, too, lol.

Fanworks

I am actually in the process of decentralizing my fic storage! Currently using a combination of social media posts for my oneshots and external storage links to store pdfs and epubs of my longfic. These can be found by examining my 'About me' in my bio on Pillowfort and my profile on Dreamwidth. My eventual goal is to also have my own website to store my fic on.

Unspeakablehorror's Site - I'll be keeping copies of my fanfic here, among other things.

Fanfic on Pillowfort - Access all my fic from Pillowfort!

Fanfic on Dreamwidth - Access all my fic from Dreamwidth!

unspeakablehorror at AO3 - Ah, I hope AO3 can work out their, uh, severe organizational issues, but in the meantime, I'm uncertain how much presence I'm going to have on this site.

unspeakablehorror at ffnet - This site is awful. The ads alone cause me psychological damage. Probably going to have to phase out posting here.

Well, that's all. Time for me to take my leave of this ball pit!

[ghirahimbo]

mayhaps this is a silly question. i'm writing a fic very loosely inspired by blind, but now. at a surface (ha) level, there's no correlation, but i'd feel remiss to not credit you, so... if i ever finish writing it and/or publishing it, would you want me to use the 'inspired by' feature on ao3? (for context, it's set entirely in lorule, but features ghirahim and the sacred flames. as i was rereading blind, but now the other day, i realised i had subconsciously taken inspiration from it, and so here i am. asking.)

Not a silly question! I'm fine either way 😊 Honestly though, I can't remember whether I had the idea with the sacred flames first, or maybe UnspeakableHorror in Ascent, or maybe somebody I've forgotten because it's been so long 😅 I definitely don't see the idea as belonging to me, but if you felt like it was inspired by BBN then feel free to use that feature!

[christopherburdett]

On the blog, today is another 2D acrylic miniature based on one of my D&D monsters (which was already turned into a 3D mini). #unspeakablehorror #ravenloft #miniature #monsterart #monsterartist #horrorart #horrorartist

[sl-walker]

@unspeakablehorror

If you want to know more about the Mirror Scott -- whose main story arc is one of the tightest plotted tales I’ve ever told, and who I cannot define for the reader and make no effort to -- here is his story.  The first one is the main arc, the other stories (not all yet posted on AO3) is the side arc.  You only really need to read the main arc, though, to get the plot; the side arc stories are the more-- emotional side of things, albeit rarely only his emotions.

If you want to know the regular universe Scotty, his is here (and likewise is not all over on Ao3 yet).

Then, on top of that, the Multiverse I is on Ad Astra’s forums, but you have to be a member.  This post comes from almost at the very end.  And this version of the Mirror Scott is actually an AU branched off the one in the link above, but-- close enough.  LOL!

Anyway, here’s the post anyway, even sans context:

--

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” - Edith Wharton

--

"We have about ten hours," Hank said, over the intercom.  Up on the bridge, with T'Vel, they were hurriedly networking panels in order to make up for the lack of people to man them.  Once the sub was away, everyone turned to work, and into their own thoughts.

Scotty didn't bother acknowledging the statement, just let it sink into his thoughts, which were appropriately somewhere between grim and determined.  Behind the main phaser array, he and his Mirror were busy trying to add every last little tiny watt of power they could to the Shikra's primary weapons.  Next would come the torpedoes, as well as Shand and Torres's nuclear insanity, and then finally they would do what they could to bolster the shields.

Work had always been something that Scotty turned to when life was falling apart.  He wasn't sure, though, if this was one of those times.

Berat's kind words had both unsettled him -- he had long since put that one conversation out of his mind and thought Berat had done the same, so having that family brought up had shaken him up -- and had resonated deeply.  Not for the words of wishing Scotty of wishing him age and peace, both things he was never sure he'd find in full but appreciated Berat wishing him, but those reminding him exactly how much he was--

Rocky as their relationship had sometimes been, he would miss the Cardassian engineer.  And did now, really.  He'd miss Stan, too, for as little as they had interacted.  Hell, he missed all of them -- the ones gone now below, the ones gone before to death or back to their own universes.

It was strange, sometimes, how people could become a part of your mental landscape.  Strange how they could become familiar and even sometimes comfortable.

Now, Scotty's world was a good bit smaller and had a number of empty spots in it.  He could not call them friends, nor would he presume to, but he was keenly aware of their absence.

And all too aware of a silent knowledge that he'd never see them again.

Dying in the line of duty wasn't something that scared him so much.  God knew, he had faced it enough times.  If anything, he took a grim refuge in the fact that if he did go out, he would hopefully go out fighting, and he would make damn sure that the universe he had been defying would not level its final blow without him having exhausted every possible resource he had to survive.  Scotty was never suicidal like that, no matter how easy it was to think he was when he flung himself head-long into deadly situations -- he never went into them thinking of glory, or heroics.  He went into them because he had to, because it was his duty.  Because it was the right thing to do.  And when he did, he went in knowing that when he accomplished his goal, he would then fight for his own survival just as fiercely.

He was all too well aware that there was no glory to be found in death.  That once you snuffed out something unique in the universe, nothing could replace it; that no matter how well a person died, it was no replacement for that empty place they left behind.

He looked down at his penlight, rubbing his thumb over the only word etched on it.  A moment of admitted self-reflection, and sorrow.  He wasn't sure who the sorrow was for, or where it came from, except that it came from someplace deep.  He wasn't sure if it was for himself, or for the empty places surrounding him now, or for the empty places that would be left behind here, and there.

A movement caught his peripheral vision, and he picked his head up to look over at the Mirror, who was apparently done with the coupling down the way he'd been working on.

Scotty still wasn't sure what to even think of this other him, this black-clad assassin who could kill without so much as a flicker of horror at his own actions.  But despite that, even though it wasn't entirely willing, he empathized.  When the Mirror moved, he could feel it himself; when the Mirror worked, he could feel what it would be, down to the very nerves themselves, as his hands danced through wires and over circuits or gripped a tool.  He knew the Mirror heard like he can hear; could tap whatever sense it was that allowed them both to work in almost identical motions despite such vastly different lives.

It wasn't in a literal way, but it was certainly real enough.

And despite not knowing what to make of this twin, whose face never betrayed him, Scotty found the strangest sense of comfort in being around someone who could not really frighten him, not even when performing an action he himself could never perform.

The Mirror regarded him with that same cool, inscrutable look now, as he sat with his light and a moment out of these ten hours made for self-reflection and sorrow.  Scotty knew that whatever good-byes the Mirror had made, he made long ago, long before this.

Then that expression softened slightly, and the Mirror sat down next to him and put their shoulders together.  A primal, primitive gesture of solidarity and comfort; something universal in a language that both of them could understand, even if neither could ever say it aloud.

Scotty didn't take it for anything less or more than what it was.  Just nodded slightly to himself.

And in unison, they both reached forward to get back to work together.

[willdebrand3]

#Unspeakablehorrors #ennui

[ruinedissonance]

@unspeakable-horror​​​ | NOCTURNE whispered:

"You seek new *sounds*? I can provide this."

◈◇◈ ― Like a drop of dark ink in clear water, the whispered promise flowed like tendrils within his unconsciousness, seeping through the cracks...

...When he opened his eyes, his vision is met by a stark blood-red sky. 

The world was engulfed in this eerie light as far as the eye can see. Sickly and murky. He was crossing the desolation in barefoot. But each time he takes a step forward, strong gusts would valiantly try to blow him back. 

The howling wind carried with it an other worldly sound. It was, impossibly, a kind of song—but one attuned to some terrible, keening dissonance...

                                      ...To calm down the endless fire,                                                                 To bring forth the ages...

...He could not make out the rest of the song as suddenly, when he takes a step forward, his foot sinks into the ground. The barren cracked earth suddenly began to glisten, becoming slick and wet as it morphed into a red pool of blood. He yells, but no sound came from his mouth as his body starts to rapidly sink into a red sea. Soon he is engulfed in the crimson waters as his body is pulled deeper and deeper, sinking further and further...

... He could not swim. He could not move. He could not breathe.

He could not scream...

--

Viego sat bolt upright, gasping, drawing in great lungfuls of air from the stale night. His bare chest rises and falls, glistening in sheened cold sweat. His eyes flitted around his room, seeing nothing in the dim moonlight. Nothing except for the oil lamp that got knocked to the floor, its flame now extinguished.

Gulping, he runs a hand through his sweat slicked hair and the pounding of his heart starts to calm to a steady beat. With a sigh he sinks back down onto his bed... Unaware of the dark and heavy presence that still lingered in his room.

Why are his dreams becoming so vivid and terrible as of late? 

[purplespottedservals]

unspeakablehorror said: This is such an ostentatious-looking beetle. I love the details on this: the patterns on the beetle and the leaf are great!

Thank you so much! Yeah, most of this family of beetles looks incredible, I am probably going to do a few more because they have such a wide range of incredible looks LOL.

Lots are metallic, some are partially translucent, there’s one I definitely want to do that’s, like, cobalt blue with a sort of honeycomb pattern done in iridescent gold on its shell.

The leaf took forever, partly because I was doing it while avoiding the problem of how to make those spots on its shell stand out.

[hegodamask]

I think you've already talked about this before but I couldn't find the post on your Tumblr, so I was just wondering what your process was for making animated gifs. Like what methods you use to make them, what software you use, etc? Also, what parts do you find most fun or difficult or challenging? I've started making some animated gis, and while I don't know if I'll ever be nearly as prolific as you are, I was interested in learning more about them.

Oh hey! Thank you!! I don’t think I’ve ever gone through the process of how I make gifs in detail before, mainly because I don’t use Photoshop so I just assume my advice won’t be helpful to anybody. I don’t know how helpful this will be to you, but I’ve done a little step by step walkthrough of how I make a gif with a few general pointers thrown in. I was gonna try and keep it brief but it turned out much longer…..sorry.

I’ve put what I find most difficult and fun at the end, so you can just skip to that if you want.

As for the rest, here goes….

So, background: I taught myself how to make gifs using Serif Photoplus X2 because we used their products in highschool. Then a few years later, I updated to Photoplus X7 (made hardly any difference though). Serif doesn’t even make the Photoplus range anymore (they still sell X8 but it’s rubbish and crashes a lot, and their new product Affinity doesn’t even let you make gifs!). I’ve tried to use Photoshop in the past and everyone says it’s better, but I’m stuck in my ways like the stubborn old woman I am.

Anyways, when I want to make a gif I start off by capturing screenshots for the frames. I’ve always used GOM Player and their “Burst Capture” option to do this. GOM Player lets you choose the format your images are saved as and where you want the frames saved to. I have a special “captures” folder for temporarily storing the files in. So for example, these are my frames:

A good general tip for making gifs with any software is to use the best quality video you can find. Most of the stuff I make is with 1080p or 720p quality. I find it helps when it comes to colouring and making the gif look clearer.

Once I have my captures, I copy them into my animation “canvas” (or SPP file) which has a base colouring I’ve already made on it. It’s kind of like a PSD on Photoshop. I select my captures and drag them onto the canvas which looks like this:

The canvas is 1080p, the same as the captures but everything will be resized later. I originally captured 100 screenshots here, but I’ve decided to use only 40 in the end because I want to make a 540px width gif. If I used all 100 frames for a 540px gif it would end up being way over the 3mb limit and it wouldn’t work on Tumblr.

Now this is where the time consuming work comes in for me. Once my captures have been copied into the SPP file, they actually become layers which I have to turn into gif frames (if that makes sense). So at the moment they look like this

But I don’t have any actual frames yet at the bottom of the screen. So what I do next is go to the layers tab at the top of the screen and click “hide layers”, making them all invisible

Then basically what I do next is create a frame at the bottom and assign an individual capture to it by clicking the little grey square (making it visible again). So as you can see, my first frame is for my first capture/layer. The next frame will be the capture/layer on top of that.

So yeah, that means I create each frame individually. It’s veeery time consuming but you get quicker at it the more you do it (it’s also faster to do on a laptop touch pad rather than a mouse.). 

Once I’ve created all my frames, I reselect the colouring layers at the top so they’re visible on every frame. It should look like this

Next, you need to crop your gif and resize it. I want my gif to be 540px by 270px so I put 54.00 and 27.00 into the crop feature to get it accurate. This allows me to crop the canvas into the right dimensions.

Once I’ve cropped the canvas, I then go to the Image tab at the top and click “Image Size…” and set the image size to 540px by 270px. I usually ignore the Print Size bit.

540px is the best size for a full width Tumblr gif, anything bigger or smaller will make your gif look blurry. This gifset is a good guide for making sure Tumblr doesn’t blur or crop your gifs.

My gif is almost ready to be exported. But I want it to look clearer, so I sharpen all the layer/captures (yes, individually again). I have no settings for sharpening, but I find using the standard “Sharpen” effect under the “Effects” tab is enough. 

Once I’ve sharpened everything, I get to the colouring and exporting which is the biggest challenge for me. Photoplus’ options for exporting gifs are limited, so the only decent export options are these

“Web-safe” and “Ordered” makes the gif look like this

“Optimized” and “None” makes it look like this. Okay, but the background looks low quality and patchy

“Optimized” and “Error Diffusion” is the only one that to me, looks the best quality. That’s probably why it produces the bigger file size too (the gif below is 2.78mb)

But there’s other downsides to Error Diffusion which I’m still trying to figure out to this day.  Like how it makes parts of the gif “glitch” (that’s the only way I can describe it) or look extra fuzzy. The only way you can fix it is by playing around with the colouring. And by “playing” I mean adjusting and previewing until you want gouge ur eyes out :)

I think that’s why I like giffing The Terror so much, because the film they used has a grainy texture to it, making it easier to hide all my Error Diffusion sins. Though there’s been many times I’ve posted something and hoped no one’s noticed all the mistakes. 

Some general tips for colouring

Unless you’re going for a certain effect, emphasise on the colours that are already in the shot. In my gif  above for example, I turned up the blues and cyans.

Use Levels or Curves instead of Brightness and Contrast.

Zoom in on your gif to spot any Error Diffusion glitches.

Be mindful about whitewashing POC, especially if you’re following the pastel gif trend.

Look at how other people colour their gifs and use PSDs for reference but don’t rely on them too much.

Colouring can increase or decrease the gif file size. If you need to get below 3mb, try toning down super vibrant colours. If the shot you’re giffing is dark, make it a bit darker. If it’s light, make it a bit lighter. 

If all else fails, just make the gif black and white.

Reading all this back makes how I make gifs look like a nightmare lmao. But I’ve been doing it this way since like, 2012 and i love it. I started out making very bad Star Wars and Lady Gaga gifs but as time has gone on and I’ve gotten better, I’ve found I enjoy making things for smaller fandoms much more. I like that if I want a certain set or edit on my blog, I can just go and make it (with varying degrees of success) instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

You appreciate the work that goes into making a movie or show when you make gifs too. Like, you notice subtle little things in the actors performances or something the cinematography is trying to convey. You get to revisit a scene in detail and then share it with everybody else and if you’re lucky, watch them scream in the tags get some nice comments.

There’s lots of other stuff I like about making gifs but I’ve rambled on far too much so I’m just gonna shut up for now. But I think I’ve covered all the important stuff. I don’t know how much of a help I’ve been (there’s still stuff I don’t understand myself) but if there’s anything else you want to know just drop me a message. Good luck with your own gifs!! I’m sure you can do  a much better job than me!

[houerd]

(via "Nightmare Unleashed S01 D13" Graphic T-Shirt for Sale by Houerd)

[slunberparty]

unspeakablehorror replied to your audio post “idk man I’m just trying to write something cool for once”

At the same time it has a kind of weighty feel, like something important is happening.

Hey thanks! I really appreciate the feedback, I still have a lot to learn. I’m totally self taught when it comes to all this stuff so it’s really helpful to hear what others think!

[unspeakablehorror]

Where To Find Me

Added: Sept 21, 2024

Updated: Sept 21, 2024

Just making a pinned post.

My Websites

Unspeakablehorror's Site - I'll be keeping copies of my fanfic here, recipes, assorted essays, and other things of interest to me here. I will also archive select works from others on this site (with the creator's permission).

New Old Web - This is my website where I talk about how the web is crashing and burning and think about how we can make it not crash and burn. I'm still building it up, but I hope I can add lots more thoughts here.

Main Social Media

I currently feel that I use Pillowfort the most and Dreamwidth the second most. Something my main social media sites both have in common? They don't take venture capital. They're also great for longform writing and conversations.

unspeakablehorror at Pillowfort - Like if Tumblr and LiveJournal had a baby. I love the way this site handles commenting, reblogs, post edits, and privacy. And I love the communities feature. I'm the mod of 3 different Star Wars comms on here: Andor, Sith Empire, and Star Wars-The Sacred Texts.

unspeakablehorror at Dreamwidth - LiveJournal but better. Interface is a bit retro but I absolutely love the tag cloud. Every social media should have tag clouds. Dreamwidth has so many customization features. Also this site has my favorite setup for privacy options. And I love the communities feature on here. I'm the mod of the Sith of Korriban comm here.

Secondary Social Media

unspeakablehorror at Mastodon (fandom.ink instance) - I am on Mastodon, too, the most popular type of Fediverse server. Mastodon is similar to Twitter with respect to the character count limitations, but uses a protocol for social media that allows accounts on different Fediverse servers to seamlessly interact with each other (as long as the server isn’t blocked for incompatible rules). It also incorporates the idea of decentralization in a very intriguing way and is entirely non-profit.

unspeakablehorror at cohost.org - Yeah, I'm here too. I don't currently use this account as much, but I do check the site from time to time and I've made a few posts here. I'd be here more often if any of my friends used this platform, but I don't prefer the interface, which is too much like Tumblr for my taste. Basically this is Tumblr if the interface wasn't total garbage, lol. I think I clash with some of the core principles of this site somewhat, and the only way to delete your page is by emailing the site owners, but at least it doesn't have ads or take venture capital. This site is what happens when some furries with coding and design skills are given a bunch of $$$ to make a social media site. $$$ ran out! As per the most recent financial update, Cohost is planning an imminent shut down. A switch to read-only mode is planned to start in October and deletion of the entire site is expected by the end of the year.

unspeakablehorror at goblin.band - like Tumblr but for the Fediverse. Just joined recently so we'll see how this goes!

[jedifest]

Hi, I know you said there were no rules except to respect the dnw for writing the prompts, but I just wanted to clarify--does that mean that we can turn prompts in after April, such as in May? Is that acceptable for this prompt fill? And will they still be reblogged to the Jedifest page if we do? Just wanted to know because while I could turn in something by April 30th, I think I could do a much better job if I turned it in later. This month has been much more unconducive to my (part 1, cont)

(part 2) This month has been much more unconducive to my free time than expected. Also, if there is any kind of 'closing date' or dates for this, what is it?

Hi!

We won’t be doing any more AlienApril related stuff after April (and we haven’t done anything for the past few days, sorry about that!), but you’re more than welcome to turn in prompt fills after the event has officially ended. 

There’s no definitive “closing date” for the treats, but we won’t check the tags regularly, so make sure to tag us if you fulfill one of the prompts, then we’ll reblog it :) 

Mod I

[calcifersbutt]

I gave in and licked a salt lamp...

[sl-walker]

Preview

"It doesn't look like a graveyard," Rancor said, just loud enough to be heard over the ambient background noise.  The top on the landspeeder was down, as they cruised along a road through woodland; still, they were driving slowly enough that there wasn't much wind.  Around them, trees of various kinds and heights stood, some in clusters, some more spaced out, sunlight banding down between them and dancing across the sparse grasses and undergrowth anytime a breeze stirred.  At the base of each was what looked like a rock, but Bail had said those were actually memory stones; that some had carvings in them, while others had a holographic projector embedded, each devoted to the person that the tree stood above.

"A lot changed after the civil war," Bail answered, as he handled the driving. "Some families still keep tombs and catacombs, but mostly everyone these days would rather either be cremated or be put in a memory park.  Though, my wife's family and my own keep our dead on our estates."

It all sort of floated over Rancor's head; the idea of burial, of estates.  Of families, even.  He understood brotherhood, but the concept of parents and children, of cousins and aunts and uncles, was beyond him; he had no frame of reference for that.  Even when he was small, the only real nurturing he got was from older brothers or agemates.

"Do we even belong here?" he asked, the question slipping out without him meaning to voice it, caught on a current of exhaustion and some bewilderment.

"On Alderaan?  Why wouldn't you?" Bail asked back, glancing over with furrowed brows.

Rancor tried to think of why they wouldn't, but it wouldn't form up in his head.  Everything was a mess.  A contained one, right now, but a mess.  "I don't know.  We were made on Kamino, but we're not Kaminoan.  We came from a Mandalorian, but he wasn't legally a Mandalorian anymore.  What does that make any of us?"

"Hard question."  If there was one thing -- there were several, but if he only had to pick one -- that Rancor really appreciated about Bail Organa, it was that the man didn't flinch away or try to cover things over with pretty words. "The only real answer you've got is what you all make for yourselves.  And what you're willing to accept from us, if you want it.  But if there's somewhere else-- if you don't want your brother here, then I'll try my hardest to help you get him where you do want him."

Rabbit had never seen Alderaan while alive, but Rancor was sure, more sure than he was of anything, that his brother would have loved it here.  He would have wanted to go wander around Aldera and try restaurants and maybe go to concerts or whatever else natural born people did for fun.  He would have wanted to be with his twin and go and fill up on experiences, like he had every other time they'd managed to stop somewhere with freedom to move.  Rancor never thought of himself as stodgy or anything, but Rabbit was always the one who liked to surge ahead; he would have here, too.

In a way, he did.

Rancor was shocked to find that he was all cried out for the moment.  Instead, he shook his head and watched the land move by them, as the spaces between trees became wider.  "Here's good.  I can come and visit him, right?  And I know-- I know that he'll-- he'll be safe here."

A well-off Core world, rich in history and in value.  No one would challenge that.

"Yeah, he will be."  There was a beat, then Bail said, "We're getting closer to the edge of this park.  If you don't see a spot here, there's another one that's on the other side of the river."

As oddly peaceful as it was, just driving like they had all the time in the galaxy, there wasn't much time left for Bail to be with them for this.  And Rancor wanted Bail there.  He thought it was probably stupid, and he knew Bail was just being kind, but it was nice to pretend that they had-- if not a father, than the closest thing Rancor had ever known to one.

In the more open spaces, the birds flitted between trees.  When Rancor spotted the brown shapes browsing through the grass, he sat up straighter.  And as they passed, a few rabbits stood on their back legs, ears up and pointed forward, alert.

It was almost too cliché, but it made Rancor smile just a little bit -- a miracle, if there was one -- as he remembered his brother complaining about not wanting to be named after something cute.

He pointed. "There.  That's a good spot."