#combination logic

[starry-bi-sky]

i have been unmedicated for the entirety of spring break and thus have had little interest in writing this down, but i have been thinking about this for the entire week (as well as a dpdc clone danny au that resulted in it becoming its entirely separate batman au that includes a teenage vigilante bruce wayne, an ocarina, and me entirely incapable of making a batman au without making bruce dirt poor but we're not talking about that) and so i've finally went 'fuck it' and forcibly grabbed my laptop. I will get this done in one sitting even if it kills me.

BUT. This is about neither clone^2 danny nor about who i am calling Ocarina Batman. This is about my Danyal Al Ghul Au and more SPECIFICALLY it's me thinking about his relationship with Sam and Tucker specifically.

Tucker and Sam? Adore this asshole (affectionate) with every fiber of their being. And it is very much a reciprocated feeling, but Danny's thoughts will not be delved into much other than he would kill for them.

Tucker? The only person currently capable of getting a deep, loud, belly laugh out of Danny. Sam can get him to smile and to laugh, but it's the kind that's a chuckle-under-the-breath. The quiet, looks-down-while-huffing laughter. Snorts once with laughter and then grins stupidly.

But Tucker? Tucker can crack a slew of stupid jokes and Danny will be incapacitated for the next five minutes because he's laughing so hard that he can't breath. He lands one well-timed pun or quip and Danny will be close to tears. His laughter is their favorite sound in the whole world.

Sam is lowkey jealous of this ability, and she's gotten a belly laugh out of Danny a few times. But alas, it is Tucker who wields this power and has gotten it the most times out of the two of them.

-

They're also both physically affectionate with Danny as much as possible. It started roughly around when they were 12-ish, a year since they befriended Danny, and they noticed that he sought after touch but never seemed to initiate (and was in some ways repulsed by it). They started slowly being more touchy with him. Hooking a finger around his to lead him somewhere, tapping his wrist, looping arms. Little touches, grabs, etc, to get him used to it, and once he started doing it back they started increasing it.

It's gotten to a point where he will now just. Lay on them. Like a lizard sunbathing on a rock. Leaning on their backs when they're sitting in class before the bell rings, his chin on their heads. He'll talk about anything with his arms looped around their shoulders.

If they're sitting on a couch at either of their houses, he'll lay his legs on theirs. Him and Tucker will press their feet against the other's and try and push against them (newsflash: Danny always wins, Tucker claims its the ghost strength but Danny's been winning since before his accident)

-

Naturally, both Sam and Tucker know where Danny keeps his weapons on his person, and are allowed to grab them off of him if they need it. His only requirement is that they don't lose his weapons if they take it and forget to return it immediately.

They both understand how big of a thing this is from Danny, and so they do their best to treat his weapons with a lot of respect and care because they know its his way of saying he trusts them.

-

Sam and Tucker are so fond of Danny it's insane. Like fr. That's their goddamn best friend, and they are so protective of him. Emotionally, physically, you name it. They will tear the head off a grown man if they need to, Danny's had scars since he arrived in Amity Park and Sam and Tucker both are going to find the person who put them there and make them pay for it.

One time, Tucker overheard a bunch of upperclass girls speaking nastily about Danny and about the rumors surrounding him, calling him names like 'freak', 'monster', etc. Danny was with him and heard it, and seemingly appeared unbothered by it, even telling Tucker that he was used to such rumors.

Tucker was so furious that hacked into the school system later that night and tanked those girls grades. They were kicked out of their clubs and had to go to mandatory tutoring for the rest of the year. He made sure to leave some way of letting them know it was him who did it.

And Sam doesn't like using her money for things, doesn't like abusing that wealth. So instead, whenever her parents talk bad about Danny, she causes a media incident that has her parents scrambling to deal with. She does something wild, outrageous by her parents' standards.

She heard some boys on the basketball team making fun of Danny once, similar to those girls had. She kicks up a fuss about something eco-unfriendly at school and forcibly holds a protest on the same day of the big home basketball game, forcing them to cancel the event and reschedule to a visiting school.

She anonymously donates money so that there's new uniforms for the team but oops! Looks like she "forgot" to donate enough money for them to get uniforms for all the team members, and strangely enough those boys in particular didn't get them! Looks like they'll have to wait until more money gets donated for the basketball team to get their new, nice uniforms. The old ones look so ratty in comparison, right?

And since the football team gets most of the sport money, that might just take awhile. And if (and when) they kick up a fuss? oops! Off the basketball team you go, :) such unsportsman-like behavior is unfit for the team.

(The only good thing about how corrupt the school system is is that she can use it to her advantage too.)

The both of them know that Danny suspects them for the sudden misfortune falling on these people, but he doesn't call them out on it. He's kinder than he used to be, but not kind enough to vouch for people who speak badly of him. Sometimes, he might just congratulate them on not getting caught.

Because Danny is their wonderful, hurt friend with a "slightly" Blue and Orange Moral code, and enough scars that people have been calling him a criminal (and worse) since he arrived in Amity Park when he was ten. And they'll be damned if he gets hurt anymore.

[morganmnemonic]

Some deltarune facts, and some speculation

Kris has been in a darkworld at least once before the start of the game. We know this because of the save point with their name on it

It probably wasn't the darkworld that the game starts in, because then it wouldn't be the case that Ralsei had never met anyone, ever

There is something about the bunker

the bunker is currently a darkworld

At some point in the past, kris ran away from the bunker, horrified

Kris doesn't want to go near it in the gameworld, either to keep something a secret or out of a genuine emotionally based desire to not be there

The Holiday siblings and the Dreemurr siblings used to explore the woods together

Raise your Bat seems a lot like a December song. Des gets name dropped in the leadup to it, and there are details that sound specific to her

It might just be a song she used to like. She might have written it herself. but there's some sort of connection

The chorus of raise your bat bears lyrical similarities to the ending song of chapter 1

"Don't forget" might also be Des song

Don't forget alludes very specifically to how the darkworld functions

All of this is to say I think Kris and December explored the bunker darkworld together and December didn't come back from it.

[anghraine]

I know it's well-understood at this point that Kirk/Spock is much more of a nerd4nerd ship than a nerd/jock thing, but it's just been kind of percolating around my mind that both of them aren't just space nerds but space nerds who were personally bullied.

Like, 18-year-old Kirk was targeted by an older bully who combines "total asshole" with "the most grating man in existence":

MCCOY: Well, yeah, I'm beginning to feel a little bit picked-on, if that's what you mean. KIRK: I know the feeling very well. I had it at the Academy. An upperclassman there. One practical joke after another, and always on me. My own personal devil. A guy by the name of Finnegan. MCCOY: And you being the very serious young— KIRK: Serious? I'll make a confession, Bones. I was absolutely grim, which delighted Finnegan no end.

This was five years after Kirk survived a genocide, btw, and likely well before his stint as an Academy instructor known to be strict and demanding (which is the period the "stack of books with legs" description of him comes from). By the time he's 33, fifteen years after all this, it turns out one of his deepest fantasies is just beating the shit out of his bully, but only if he can do it According To The Rules (the replica of Finnegan sneers, "Always fight fair, don't you? True officer and gentleman, you").

Spock, meanwhile, is viciously targeted by his Vulcan peers for being biracial from at least age 5; he's described as being tormented by other boys by that age, and "at home nowhere except Starfleet." I think he'd have been 18 or 19 when he left for Starfleet and it's... the least bad of his options, but he seems to have spent his entire career among humans and being persistently subjected to raw racism and profound disrespect for his culture at every turn.

Like, their histories of being metaphorically shoved into lockers are not identical or anything, but I think it's interesting that they both have them.

[ganondoodle]

got this comment on my answer to the anon asking me why i hate totk:

" @comentter

I feel all of this so much, especially the not just lack of connective tissue, but the active dismissal of any connection to BotW, let alone any past Zelda games. That Ganondorf was just a name nothing more... I've only recently been able to enjoy BotW stuff again. I have a question though. Can you elaborate about doubling down on the flaws of BotW (or point me to a post where you talked about this?) I've seen a lot of criticism of the game, but never this specifically"

(seperate post bc i didnt want to add to an already longer post and i will keep it "short" bc i HAVE talked about it before but idk how the hell to find it either lmao)

what i broadly called 'flaws' were pretty much all things that were critized about botw and/or were lacking in general that i do not believe totk fixed at all, they either doubled down on it, made it just as bad, or pretended to fix it but didnt (and often made it even worse)

im just gonna give some of the biggest examples bc i want to keep it shorter and maybe you get the idea:

the dungeons (titans) in botw were too samey and the whole terminals thing werent the best puzzles, plus the very same kind of boss each time; on the plus side the little gimick of each titan was neat, their introduction great, they looked intimidating, its generally just .. very cool bc its a giant MECH and also it made sense in the story even if there were missed opportunities with the bosses -like making them be the possesed remains of the champions for exampls- BUT they still have the benefit of you knowing they are what killed your friends, theres a personal connection here- and you cannot climb them bc all shiekah stuff is not climable (so restricting you which is GOOD), and they got the bonus of all shiekah thigns as in they saw the future and the things are meant to be doable for you and since its been a hundred years theres people around that still know your friends of the past, you get your dead friends ability at teh end, a part of their spirit really

-totks dungeons .... well, they LOOK different from each other, but its just the surface really, each of them is 5 switches (that feel very artificially inserted since its supposedly race specific dungeons but those things are clearly sonau (zonai)) and none of them (or only the thunder ones? barely?) are connected to each other at all, so its terminals again, BUT they are also static (in contrast to botws moving titans), the already easy puzzles can be skipped easily (via totks horrible building shit that invalidates so much of the world it was inserted into bc it simply wasnt made for this), you can also climb walls so even more ways to cheat (in a boring way, having to do glitches to cheat is cooler), they also lack a personal connection, all these dungeons, especially the ones in the sky, appeared out of thin air really, and while thy try to make your friends and their villages in distress the tension it falls very flat- and it detracts further that they are in almost the exact same LOCATION AS IN BOTW (more repetition), you have NO connection to the nameless ancient sages or reason to care about them and the whole thing about your friends awakening as sages feels very ... well, bad, their stone ability makes little sense and it also seems to override what made the champions, your old friends, significant (who cares about champions? sages are way older and more important)- i will give them credit for the bosses beign different but ... its got less weight too, these monsters are just mosnters summoned there, they didnt kill the sages they are just there to supposedly stop you from gettign the stone which, i dont think is ever stated as the actual goal by anyone so it doesnt even make sense!! the only reason you go there is BECAUSE there are monsters threating the villages now! (also the sonau didnt have the future thing and also .. when were those things built? who cares, why are the fish in the sky WHY DO THE WATERWORKS IF- etc)

so overall, looks fixed on the surface, but its actually worse

weapons breaking! while i didnt mind alot of people did but it was essential to botws exploration drive, there were lots of cool weapons whose appearances changed fit to how far you were in the game (meanign they went from weak to stronger ones) and it makes sense they are all over the place with monsters using them etc

-totk then .. well the weapons still break, their base version are now all ugly rusted and very shitty for no sensical reason (its jsut to force you to fuse), you can fuse stuff to them, you HAVE to, bc id bet they are even more brittle than botw ones in their basic version, fusing uses up materials (which you also need for armor upgrades), often looks stupid and is a hassle to do espeically in mid fight, monsters and people also just do it even without having fuse and ........ strap fruit to their shields or sth instead of fixing their weapons bc i guess no smiths exist ever?

so appears fixed, but isnt actually, and i would argue, made worse (this is were i would for once say a more classic crafting system was THE fix but thats for the rewrite now lmao)

shrines! in botw there were mayn of them, often rather short or underwhelming, all look the same and tehre many that were jsut a fight which is a little boring but it made sense with the shiekah having them made for you in the future (also theres a bit of personality bc each has its own monk that made that puzzle for you and giving you their bit of spirit) and they were well integrated into the world (also the monks talk to you! they are still sittign there after all!)

-in totk, well, theres EVEN MORE OF THEM, EVEN SHORTER, and with totks building shit that they barely restrict at all (weirdly though you cant climb walls here either ....hmmm inconsistencyyyy) extremely easy to cheat in a boring way that feels less like you are cleverly exploiting the game and jsut that they didnt care, all look the same AGAIN, just with a different paint job from botw, they just ... came out of nowhere, their placements are like .. the same just a little to the left, at the end its a static statue of the main guy and his fridge wife every single time, they give you .. a .. light orb? the shrines purpose is very non sensical (banish monsters? literally how and were lol, also you need a rauru arm to get in? also where were they before? and uuh .. is the puzzle the security????i dont see mosnters running around with rauru arms?? nothign changes after you do them so banish evil how what??) and they are very much just .. put there, you know they werent there before, like the world easiest mod jsut moved them a little (they .. talk? to you? prerecorded? somehow?)

so the same but worse than in botw

krogs! (koroks) in botw .. were too many, i get it, it was a joke and something you werent meant to find all of (nintendo shoudl have known better tbh) and they were sth to fill the gaps, i dont like that they are what exapnds your inventory but its more forgivable since its the firrst time here

-now totk ... just did the krogs again, with the SAME purpose (instead of bringing back pouches! easy better rewards!!!) and EVEN MORE OF THEM, the backpacking ones have literally no reason to do what they are doing (i thought they were fleeing the forest but .. they arent) and are just there for you to fuck with them, thats the whole reason

so .... made worse, just doubled down and worse

the story/memories! in botw the main story takes place more in the past than the present, many didnt like that even if i too say it worked very well for botw, they were short but well made and skillfully gave you a glimpse of the past, enough to care about the chaarcters even if only a little and as its been long but not too long there are people still talking about it all or knowing you and what happened and getting them out of order didnt have any consequences sicne they were all more about the chaarcters rather than a story with lots of different beats, they all made sense as in you had to explore and find the places where they are with very little hints given if any, you had to explore and rememebr places! engage with the world!

-so totk ..... did the memories AGAIN, doubling down on that system, but also worse bc, now the memories are THE story, a LINEAR story that doesnt work out of order since its not about the characters but what is happening ... or HAS happened, they are EVEN MORE in the past than in botw, far far more even, no one knows or cares about these characters, there is no connection and even zelda doesnt feel like botw zelda at all, you can still find them all out of order though massively spoiling and confusing anyone (even if the story itself its pretty bad), also they are marked with ENOURMOUS GIGATOMANIAC glowing glyphs on the ground, you dont even need to think or find anything you just .. look. fly up and look, you dont have to engage with anything AND these memories are very ...... idk, flat, they somehow manage to tell you too much about the past (removign the mystery and sense of time/distance) and also not enough to make you care (its all just plot, clumsy plot) and with there being pretty much no connection to the current time (like with people knowing the champions in botw still etc) its just ... might as well be a random AU

so, memories and story in the past again, even moreso too, call that a double down

theres more obviosuly (like the tutorial being the same but worse, the abilities too being done so similarly isntead of bringing back main items, the clunky ASS UI that was bad in botw but still okay bc first tiem and also meant for the wii u- totk though?? worse, they made the shitty UI WORSE, quest rewards being a fucking joke, all the GRINDING totk is so much stupid GRINDING) maybe people dont realize this, mabye calling it doubling down isnt right but to me this is all the same, but even worse, instead of correcting and taking a few steps back to how it was before and see theres value in all those older games systems they did botw again, but worse, so .. doubling down on all the things that were bad and making them worse too, even if on the surface it may look "fixed", instead of correcting their parking by carefully going backwards they were still in first gear and slamming GO to hit the wall when you where literally telling them they werent in the backwards gear

so so many thigns in totk are just, botw again but worse, more shitty shrines instead of less, more krogs isntead of less, worse rewards, more grind, the shiekah tech again but worse, malice is miasma, the same but also worse (its not even a 3d model ... ), luminous stones are sonanium (zonaite), its everythign again but worse ........ (and also invalidates so much of botw, its jsut ... infuriating bc it FEELS so mean spirited, its just all beign overridden, nothing of botw matters bc look! look all that stuff came BEFORE THEM actually, and that was way more important ..... even down to the sonau designs its overriding so much of shiekah stuff, and im not even that big of a simp for shiekah stuff but this was supposed to be a botw sequel, the game with the shiekah tech?????? anyway ..)

(yes this is as short as i could make it on the spot, already spent two hours on this so sorry but i wont go over it to edit for another one dfnjknhdfjkbdfjk)

[dismas-n-dismay]

Having OSDD and playing STP and seeing how other people interpret the voices is crazy. Mostly because I attribute all the Voices as just being smaller parts of the Whole (You, the player) so it’s harder to take their flaws seriously when it’s like. Yeah but I’m not like that and I don’t wanna do that, ur just a thought bro.

Like L + Ratio imagine not being the guy in control of the body today, ANYWAYS-

(Mini ramble undercut!!)

It what makes certain routes like the Spectre so fun when she joins the mess and is like “??? Is it always this loud” because like yeah. Being apart of a system in real life is really just fine tuning the noise and making your own choices, especially since the voices are usually shown at face value and when you dig deeper they all usually want the same thing: To survive.

And when you realize that it’s easier to take agency of the control you Do have as the player and therefore the vessel. They each have their own different ways and thoughts of surviving but ultimately they either just want to survive or they want to survive and end the pain of the cycle they’re forced through.

They’re just thoughts, just voices, brought forth from trauma and trying to escape, give them grace.

All this to say, being apart of a system and playing a game that involves multiple voices is really just like playing a real life simulator and is probably why I have such an easy time playing and understanding the characters in the game

[skrunksthatwunk]

EVERYBODY SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FUJI MATSURI🎉🎉🎉

[greenfiend]

El is a Gatekeeper

We cannot deny how in the most literal sense, El is a gatekeeper.

A gatekeeper: A person whose job it is to open and close a gate and controls access to it.

The gate being the access point to the Upside Down. Many people (myself included) believe that the Upside Down is Will's mindscape. An unpleasant realm of a traumatized child's mind whose life literally and symbolically turned "upside down" due to what had happened to him.

If El is the gatekeeper of Will's mind, she is the protector of it. She chooses who to let in. This also would likely mean that she is highly connected with Will's mind. Perhaps even an aspect of it.

As I'm sure many of you already know, our minds cope in various ways in response to trauma. In extreme cases, our minds dissociate and "split" into other personalities/identities in order to cope. An alter personality appears and takes over to protect the host/other alters from traumatic experiences. Alters are like superheroes. This condition is called Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Each alter has different roles to protect the system. One common role is referred to as "The Gatekeeper Alter".

The gatekeeper alter controls access to the internal world of the shared mind. They also control who "fronts" (something I believe El has been doing for most of the show so Will can "hide"), and they have access to memories that the host/other alters may not remember.

El also so happens to be one of the only characters who has frequent flashbacks. She also had an entire story line last season about traumatic memories and dissociation.

This, along with many other reasons, makes me strongly believe that El has Will's memories. Her memories are altered versions of what Will had experienced.

She guards Will's truth and the secrets of his past.

[moonlit-orchid]

The interesting thing about Spock is that while he can lie through his teeth and outsmart anyone, he's also terrible at acting normal. If he's up to something, you will know.

It's just very interesting and even a little ironic, really. Spock, who prides himself on rationality and logic, tends to behave in a completely irrational, illogical manner. Although his plans themselves are based in logic, the way he carries them out is essentially bulldozing. He just does whatever. He literally bulldozes his way through his plans, outright crashing into people, and behaving in a very clear "Something is very wrong" manner. He doesn't explain to people what he's doing. He doesn't even try to behave normally. It's like all rational thought has left his mind, it seems he's acting on pure instincts.

Yet his plans are completely and totally 100% logical. In fact, perhaps that's why he's so careless with his behaviour when executing them- he knows they will work, so it doesn't matter if people realise if he's up to anything.

But at the same time, he seems erratic. Panicked. Confused. He lays brilliant plans, but he's so incredibly clumsy in their execution. Clumsy and chaotic, instead of silent and smooth like you'd expect him to be. Obviously, things still mostly go to plan, not exactly out of luck, but even still there is still that reliance on people acting in a predicted way that won't hinder him. His plans are brilliant, of course, and he knows exactly how to play the game, yet there's always this sort of impulsiveness in how he carries them out.

It's just so interesting to me. Jim Kirk is supposedly the irrational, emotional one, yet when he acts he behaves in a mostly rational manner, smooth, not clumsy (unless angry). Yet it's logical Spock who's clumsy and chaotic right when he needs to be the smoothest and calmest. He brings suspicion on himself when he's doing something he isn't supposed to do because he's so bad at acting like everything is normal, when he's actually in the best position to do anything he pleases without any suspicion on himself because of his position and the sheer faith everyone has in him. If he actually behaved normally when doing something he shouldn't, absolutely no one would question him. But he doesn't. He's clumsy. He's nervous. He resorts very quickly to physical reactions because he can easily overpower anyone instead of talking his way out of a situation.

It's just a very interesting thing I noticed.

[superxstarzz]

can u do sylph of breath and knight of mind?

here ya go!!! :3

[dailypurpled]

DAILY PURPLED DAY 362 - i kind of want to see him suffer through shitty Roblox games

[lanternlightss]

(thank you to @arson-n-quwubilder for the request <3 ! )

There is not a sight more fascinating to Venti than the image of his dear friend with his eyes sparkling, awed etched into every detail of his features, his mouth opened in a small “o,” as he takes in what lies before him—the food of the one, the only, Good Hunter!

Cecil’s fingers dig into the cuffs of his top. Points, to where Sara sets a Mint Jelly plate and an Apple Roly Poly onto the counter, turning to face Venti. He had done the same to the last few foods that have been taken away to those who had ordered them (a Satisfying Salad, Venison Steak, Moon Pie, and Crab, Ham & Veggie Bake, thus far.) He seems to be particularly intrigued about the Apple Roly Poly, now, though, asking Venti, “What is that?”

His eyes pull up, delighted to share—the food his children think of and create are extraordinary! “An Apple Roly Poly! It is made with apples, of course, and eggs, butter, flour, all coiled into one. A delicacy, for sure.”

“And—the green?”

“Mint Jelly,” and how, briefly, he wishes that those in Old Mondstadt could have eaten jelly, he thinks that Amos would have liked it. “it is made with those mints you keep seeing, and sugar. A very squishy, sweet food!”

“Squishy ….”

Cecil falls into a contemplative silence. Frets with Venti’s ruffles, and the buttons on his sleeve, his expression becoming something akin to a stilted wariness, determination the longer he thinks on his words. Venti, deliberately, pretends not to notice, casually humming a short tune to himself in the wait, and lightly tapping his foot against the legs of the wooden chair he sits on.

“Are there any other foods made of apples?”

Venti grins. “My friend, there are many. Northern Apple Stew, Apple Fritters, ehe, it is not a food, but Apple Ciders, and Candy Apples, Apple Cake, Apple Pie—”

“Apple Pie!?”

“Apple Pie!!!!!!”

“How is it made?”

“Oh, apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, mmm.. butter too, and—” and they … they have everything they need to make it … right here, oh goodness, Venti from three days past thank you for not spending a drop of your mora! He stands from his chair (Cecil jumping, hand darting from his sleeve), it scraping across the stones, tittering just that slightest bit at the end. “One moment, beloved!”

“What—” He, too, stands, one knee placed onto the seat, his head swiveling to follow after Venti bursting into a run to the general goods shop, “What are you—??”

“One moment, cherished, one moment!!”

He is certain there are teal feathers and puffs of Anemo trailing after him in his sprint, hoping those are overlooked by the Vision hung at his belt, too caught in his excitement to get the ingredients needed to tweak that little quirk. It is normal to have feathers. Glowing feathers. Very normal, everyday thing that people have and do. Pay no mind to the fact that his Vision is not also glowing as brightly as the feathers are, it happens, you see.

Sliding up to the counter, bracing his hands on it, he pants: “Miss Blanche! Miss Blanche, good lady, do you happen to have flour, milk, eggs and cinnamon?”

Blanche, the lovely shopkeeper she is, is holding a hand to her mouth, attempting to hide a laugh. Venti considers this a success.

“Of—snrk—Of course.” She pivots on her heel, rummaging through the shelves positioned around her, meticulously and gingerly adding each item grabbed to the crook of her elbow. She sets them down just as gently. “That’ll be two hundred and forty mora!”

Venti has already brought out and dug through his pouch of the currency. Pokes at the pile, as he counts it in his head, and puts the needed amount into her outstretched palm, scooping the ingredients into his arms with his other hand (and, for fun, tips his hat very gentlemanly at her in a swish of Anemo—fun party trick, he should add, being able to concentrate it to a single point as so.)

“Thank you, Miss Blanche! Good day!”

“Good day to you, too!”

He waves to her, walking backwards, as he hurries to where an awfully confused Cecil continues to half-stand, half-sit. That confusion is merely amplified by Venti arranging the flour, milk, eggs and cinnamon on the table, tapping at the cork of the cinnamon when it is to his liking. Skips over to Good Hunter immediately after, his dearest spluttering, looking between the objects and him, scrutinizing both in a manner similar to that of when he is solving a problem.

“Miss Sara—”

“Let me guess: butter and sugar?”

“Heehee, caught! Yes, ma’am, if I could have those, pretty please!!”

She smiles at him, eyes softening. Ducks down to the cabinets, opening them, the hinges creaking softly. He thumps his fingers on the counter (in a pattern he remembers from the “drumming contest” that Bennett and Amber had him supervise), listening to the clink of the bottles.

“Here you are,” she sets them beside his hand. “Six-hundred-forty five mora!”

“Ooohhhh..” He tries his best not to visibly show his surprise, the pouch being rifled through again. “Six-hundred-forty five… ?”

“Six-hundred-forty five!”

That certainly is an amount for this all…

He hands over what is needed, snatching the butter and sugar, and shoving the marginally lighter feeling pouch into the hole of his shorts, for the meanwhile. He waves bye to Sara, as well, skipping over to Cecil—who is looming above the previous ingredients, hands to the sides of them, his face drawn into a slanted frown—and proudly presenting what he has. Cecil blinks at him, his expression transforming to a wide-eyed one, then scrunches his brows into a furrow, his lips thinning.

“Venti,” flops onto the seat, “my little song, my darling, my angel. Why did you gather this? Are we, by chance...?”

He shakes the sugar, the tiny specks bobbing in the bottle, swaying back and forth while he does. “Mhm! We can make Apple Pie!!”

That has Cecil shift to bewilderment, rising from the chair, swinging his gaze back to the table. “And everything is this… leisurely, to gather? All of it, in the market—“ he falters, going over each item once more, finding one, strangely, missing, “—all… well, almost everything.”

An eyebrow is cocked at Venti, Cecil placing his hands on his (also cocked to the side) hips, trying for a “disappointed” stance. A stance that is betrayed by the mirth in his eyes, simply bemused wondering behind it. “Are we to make Apple Pie without the Apples?”

Venti giggles.

“Do not fret, they are taken care of!!” His cape makes a satisfying swoosh sound, as he bounds toward his precious, clutching his butter and sugar close (it will not be spilling on his watch!) “And I know a spot where we will be able to put everything together, just the two of us”—he winks, braids and eyes flickering in their glowing—“if you could, the other..?”

Cecil moves a hand closer to the ingredients. “On it.”

First, the milk is placed under his right arm. Then, the eggs are gathered next to it, followed by balancing the flour and cinnamon on them. He continues to maneuver them, walking up to Venti, his arms crossed tightly, a part of his cloak draping over his left bicep.

Hooking a hand on that bicep, Venti urges Cecil to one of the alleyways. And, once it seems that no one is giving them attention, allows the swirling of Anemo to swathe them; looping strings of teal round and round, pressing into the skin and leaving them with fleeting prickles of buzzing. His braids lift into the air, the wind zipping past, accelerating, and he clings to Cecil as it all brings itself into, well, itself. Raising them and streaming them through the many, many winds of Mondstadt.

They whip by buildings and fields, fields and buildings. Ending pushed inside a door to a nice, little area in between, the enticing smell of the latest batch of pastries wafting throughout the room.

Cecil stumbles, slightly, knocking one foot into the other, when the Anemo dissipates. Venti keeps his grip on his bicep, stepping back the moment his friend is steady, and spins to walk by, carrying his items at an arm’s length while he proceeds towards the kitchen island, located dab in the middle of the room.

Footsteps edge closer to the archway of the kitchen, where it splits into two hallways—ones that Venti merely glances towards, noting Cecil with his hand braced on that archway, as he leans out to look down the corridors. He directs his attention to the items, then the drawers of the countertops, and the cabinets. The pie plate and bowls should be in the bottom ones, the measuring spoons should be in the far left drawer, and the measuring cups should be above them… hm…..

With a snap of his fingers, the cabinets and drawers are pulled open in a tug of Anemo. Meticulously, he grabs each one needed (medium sized bowl, colored blue, same with the measuring spoons, and the glass plate and cups—and, for extra, a rolling pin.) He sets these next to the butter and sugar, hands on his hips as he inspects everything.

A soft, frilly fabric is pressed to his cheek. He turns to see Cecil offering him a green, pinstripe cooking apron (a white bow wrapped at the middle), oh!! In a swift whoosh, both his corset and cape vanish, as he takes the apron into his hands and sets to tying it around his waist, exclaiming: “You found them!”—Cecil snorting at his eagerness, placing the ingredients he had held in his arm next to Venti’s, and undoing his belt, then vest, and snapping open the clasp of his cloak, to put on his matching blue, pinstripe apron as well.

“Alright!” Venti says, clapping his hands, “Let us get to work, yes?”

Cecil, eyeing the bowl, hums. “The Apples?”

“Of course, of course,” Giggling, he reaches to his beret, and, with a flutter of his hand, taps at the very top of it (the Cecilia and leaves bouncing.) His fingers dig under it, and flings it to the side; falling into a bow to catch it, thus revealing the six red apples that laid underneath it.

There is a pause. The Apples are plucked from his hair, being replaced by a hand, of which ruffles there til it is a disheveled jumble of strands—Venti leaning into each pat that passes with a grin.

“I should have known,” Cecil huffs, amusement laced in his voice. Venti is sure that when his beloved steps around him to get to the sink, his expression can best be summarized as “cat that caught the canary,” just about as pleased as punch at this outcome. Another “party trick” of his, one that never gets old in seeing everyone’s reaction to it!

A bit aways from him, water rushes from the faucet, spilling over the apples held under it.

Busying himself whilst Cecil does that, he arranges each ingredient from largest to smallest, and once that is done, picks up the bottle of sugar to regard how much is inside. From what he recalls of the recipe for this, it should be.. half cup sugar, two tablespoons flour, one teaspoon cinnamon, one egg, and all of the apples are accounted for already…. hm, hm, hm!

The apples are gently rolled into the flour bag, Cecil stopping them from going further with a gentle touch to their stems. Bumps his hip againsts Venti’s, passing by, to settle beside the right of him.

One hand going behind his back, the other gesturing towards what sits in front of them both, Cecil clears his throat, lowering his voice to a comical degree, “Shall we?”

Barking a laugh into his fist, Venti stands straight, rolling his shoulders back, clasping his hands at the waist. Lowering his voice, too, and nodding hard enough that it has his braids flailing into the air, “We shall.” (He will say, though, that they lasted a solid minute without breaking their characters—only breaking when Cecil had looked to Venti, whom was deepening his frown, and burst into cackles.)

And so they do. And so it becomes a mess halfway in (he is mildly surprised it had not when he had swirled the bowl of sugar, flour, and butter with Anemo, and had it spring out everywhere at the end—he had sighed when making the whipped cream, too, as Kaeya would have been a fantastic helper), when Venti, after rolling the dough, tucking it into the pie plate, and having wiped a quick streak of the apple juices on his hands across Cecil’s nose. Which had lead to Cecil mock gasping, running his hands through the leftovers of the ingredients and cupping Venti’s cheeks with them, which then to Venti dusting the bottoms of Cecil’s braids with sugar, which then lead to Cecil packing up flour into a shape of a ball and mushing it against him, and—

The kitchen will need … cleaning, most certainly. As will they, the two of them sat on the floor, snickering and chortling, nearly covered head to toe in contents and components.

Despite this, the pie tastes delicious, Venti thinks to himself, offering another piece of the pie pierced through a fork to Cecil, for him to bite and eat.

[starkiller1701-a]

The intrusive thoughts won. I made a thing.

This is how I deal with my religious trauma.

[they-hermes]

all combiner gestalts should have a union

[milfbrainrot]

ofc the only people i have met with a nearly identical set of obligations to me are antis because of the online brainrot component of having to be on the internet to socialize

[corishadowfang]

If you're still doing requests- and I may be self-indulgent- can I request either something with Ephemer and Rosemary, or something with ML-era Demyx somebody?

(For this)

Hopefully I got Rosemary's voice right, aha.

---

            “Tea?”

            Ephemer offered a wobbly sort of smile.  “Sure,” he said, even if he wasn’t really sure he wanted it, because it felt like a situation where refusing would be rude.  And besides—it would give his hands something to do, in case things got too awkward.

            Rosemary gave him a smile back, but her eyes were still watery.  He couldn’t really blame her; he was still reeling, from the fall of Daybreak Town and the loss of his friends.  If he’d been wondering about missing family, all this time…

            “I—really am sorry.  About Lauriam.  And Strelitzia.”  The words tumbled out before he could stop them, and he clamped his mouth shut around any more apologies.

            Besides, Rosemary was already waving them off.  “It’s alright, it’s alright.  I was…almost expecting it, really.”

            “You were?”

            “We haven’t heard anything from them for quite some time.”  Rosemary settled across from him, a bittersweet smile on her face as she cupped her own drink.  “They used to write to me, you know.  Well—I wrote to them, and they’d send letters back.  When they stopped—I think I knew something was wrong.  But it’s easier not to think about it.”

            Ephemer’s throat tightened, and his hands tightened just a bit around his cup in response.  “Tell me about them?” he asked, gentle.

            Rosemary laughed, scrubbing at an eye with her palm.  “You knew Lauriam.”

            “Yeah, but not for as long as you.  I’m guessing you’ve got a lot of stories about them I haven’t heard.”

            Rosemary’s expression softened, and he hoped that meant he’d hit on the right topic.  “Well—alright.  One time when we were little, Lauriam got it into his head that he was going to steal honey straight from the hive…”

            Ephemer smiled, relaxing a bit as the story continued, watching as his companion grew steadily more animated.  Maybe I should stop and say hi more often, he thought.  It looks like it’s good for her to talk about them.

            (And me, a part of him could admit.  And besides—it’d be nice, to find a friend again after everything.)

[cheriemariii]

that one tag that did not leave my head all weekend <'3