#giant fish masterpost

[cosmonova]

Project Moon Memes Masterpost

Hello giant chunk of the Project Moon fandom that recently followed me! Making a bunch of Limbus Company meme edits with my friend Koi ended up becoming an endeavor spanning, let's see *checks folder* 100+ images so it's about time I made a masterlist to link back to and keep track, let's gooooo

1. sayonara you weeaboo shits 2. go femboy go 3. but i stay silly :3 4. world's bestest most specialest war criminal 5. QUESTION FOR ALL GIRLS 6. touch eels 7. latina fiesta dot co 8. It's with great pain that I must announce you were devoured by clowns 9. Bomb in my ass hole 10. [JOKE PENDING] 11. you wanna fuck the keyboard 12. its chewy 13. look buddy, it's transient 14. damn this pepsi strong as fuck 15. get distorted! 16. wtf I'm facing the same direction 17. I have eaten my wife. 18. Why Angela soft if not to pet 19. there's bigger fish to fight 20. it takes a man to be a wife 21. my grandpa died in the yaoi wars 22. THE SUN THE SUN THE SUN 23. sword slash to the chest. and you're on fire 24. my city now 25. she cites her sources 26. WORLDS SLUTTIEST ABSENT FATHER 27. god forbid women do anything 28. Knife Monopoly 29. i just need to write a list 30. what if i accidentally have a gun 31. ethically debatable sex with my morally ambiguous wife 32. KATSUP BLAST 33. oh well unzips 34. Hola faggot! 35. jerking that thang asunder

Koi doesn't have public social media so I'm posting all of these for both of us but they're responsible for like more than two-thirds of them so thank their hyperfixation-fueled meme rampage for the existence of this series :D

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (Previous) (Next)

(Chapter 17 long ass chappy!!)

As expected, his plan worked! Dami managed to scare off the other Leviathan! The shallows were finally safe again! For the time being at least. Danny paced around his base, celebrating this victory with a thawed peeper. He pondered throwing one to Dami, but they still had yet to make any attempt of eating any fish. Plus, the leviathan might see his offering as an opportunity to chow down on him. They were temporary allies through a shared enemy, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a potential snack. 

Maybe he should be more concerned about the existence of a third species of leviathan. After all, the existence of three suggests there might be more. Scratch that there were more and that he was certain of. Dami was a graft of two species and Taser fish wasn’t the parent neither was the giant beta fish-looking guy from lurking near Lifepod three. . According to the scanners on his Lifepod, this was a planet mostly composed of water it’d make sense there’d be more nightmare death creatures swimming around in the depths of the ocean. He could easily avoid them if he tried hard enough. A quantum detonation, however, was a threat he couldn’t run from or throw hands with. At least not effectively that is. 

Danny looked down at his message log with a wince. He’d take more nightmare-death fish over the Aurora exploding any day of the week. At least he could fight the leviathans. How was he supposed to fight the genetic meltdown of a peeper blasted with the radioactive energy of a small power plant? It would be like Chernobyl all over again and he wouldn’t have the industrial equipment to clean up the fallout. 

The nuclear power generator was one of the blueprints stripped from his PDA by the crash, as were the disposal protocols that came with it. He had no way to fabricate anything but a primitive water filter. It wasn’t even one of the grayed-out blueprints like the battery charger; it just didn’t exist in his PDA. He wouldn’t be surprised if baby mode blocked the recipe out. It let him build a knife but it wouldn’t let him play with a nuclear reactor the PDA Truly was the most responsible piece of technology on this planet.

God speed Alterra…

Danny snickered, swiping through the screens of his PDA looking desperately for something he could do to help. Was there anything he could do? There wasn’t a blueprint for a radiation suit in his PDA but he was a Fenton! They got irradiated for breakfast. He could at least try, to fix things for both him and the survivors.

Taking out his sea glide Danny shot out his sea base like a speeding bullet. Time is limited and it was slipping through his fingers with every moment he wasted anxiously waiting for the perfect opportunity to help. There had to be at least one life pod that landed in near the Aurora someone who was either stuck in their pods or getting blasted by the bad vibes of the Aurora’s drive core.

Dami watched him intently from the edge of the shallows. Clicking teeth and a worried croon from the leviathan as Danny crept closer to where the crash site should be. He only swam a few feet before Dami bolted from his spot in the sand hands attempting to nudge him back to the shallows. 

With puffed-up cheeks, Danny nipped at the other darting around the leviathan's tail to further his journey. He couldn’t go back to the shallows. He wouldn’t sit there uselessly until things literally blew up in his face. Dami didn’t know how dangerous things could get. He didn’t know the catastrophic consequences this could have on his home.

The waters were murky sand yet to settle and debris scattered across the sand. Any plant life the biome had previously cultivated was crushed, uprooted, and torn apart by the impact. The wrecks in the crash site made the shallows look clean. Metal torn apart like playdough were scattered throughout clouded waters. Not a single place was clear of debris, a burning sensation in his palms the longer he swam.

A stabbing pain like a jackhammer to the skull hit him like a truck. Nausea broiled in his stomach, bile rising up his throat. Danny didn’t stop swimming not when the edges of his vision began to blur not when Dami desperately tried to push him back. Snapping teeth and swiping through the water in an attempt to intimidate him into turning back. Danny didn’t care, he… he had to do something, he had to try.

His PDA screamed, a glitching image that looked concerningly similar to what you’d find on one of the barrels in his parents' lab flashed on screen. It sounded painful, the tablet flashing like a strobe light and a shrieking noise filling his ears. Any words jumbled, thousands of audio cues playing over each other and meshing into of mess of trailed-off screams cut off when the screen went blank.

Fuck.

Shit… That wasn’t a good sign, was it? His pounding head made it hard to truly wrap his head around what just happened. If death would be permanent this time would anyone even know what happened to him? Every distress call he’d responded to every destroyed life pod he found… All of them were gone, reduced to nothing, only a splotch of red if they were lucky. If his PDA was broken how would his family know what happened to him?

Dami screeched, a noise so high-pitched it made his ears ring. The leviathan wrapped his entire body around Danny, his claw barring him from escaping. Panic swirled through his mind before a lower, spine-tingling roar broke through the sea. Peaking through the gaps in Dami’s claws, Danny’s heart jumped into his throat.

A leviathan with a sickly gray body circled them. Pitch black eyes that held something primal. There wasn’t the gleam of intelligence in its behavior, just gnashing teeth and snapping mandibles. Decorated with red, muscle so defined you’d think that was all that made up the creature’s body.

Maybe it was the headache amplifying the noise but the guttural sounds the creature constantly let out were like a nuclear bomb. His eyes stung all he could do was watch as Dami snapped his tail like a whip, slashing at their attacker. Yellow blood spilled into the water and Danny couldn’t tell if it was Dami’s. 

Saying their attacker was aggressive would be an understatement. Nothing seemed to deter the creature. Dami’s strikes only seemed to piss it off further. Every impact from Dami’s tail pulled a furious shriek from the predator. It circled them like a shark, it didn’t care that Dami was much larger it just wanted to eat.

Pointing his scanner through the gaps in Dami’s claws seconds felt like hours as the tool worked its magic. On swing from this worm on steroids and he was triple dead! The thing could swallow him whole with no room left for seconds!

At least it would be a cool death. “Danny Fenton, cause of death; Radiation poisoning and fish bites,” He’d be proud to have that written in his obituary. If anyone survived to collect and fix his PDA it’d be one hell of a conversation starter.

His skin burned like he’d pressed himself against the surface of the sun. His dive suit felt like molten lava and his air tank felt like it was filled with smoke. Dami thrashed slapping the steroid fish into the sand.

They couldn’t keep going. If both he and his PDA were being affected by the radiation then so was Dami. Their attacker wouldn’t hesitate to finish them off if the radiation didn’t melt their internal organs into a shapeless goop. They needed a route to the Aurora that wasn’t surrounded by a toxic death field. But when the death field originated from the Aurora there wasn’t much he could do. There was no safe path to the Aurora so long as he was without a radiation suit.

Danny slapped his palms against Dami’s almost transparent skin. His oxygen running thin, he tugged the leviathan’s fins until the other turned to him. Hopefully, as another sentient creature, he could understand the plea of “Let’s get the fuck out of here before we both die a slow excruciating death,” 

Thankfully, he understood. As Dami snapped his tail at the creature one last time grabbing Danny by his oxygen tank and boosting away from the crash zone. The two of them cut through the water easily gliding faster than his seaglide could at its base. 

Dami wasn’t as muscular as their attacker but he made up for it in size, speed, and intelligence. If they’d stayed to finish the fight Dami was the obvious choice to bet on. He would’ve won if he hadn’t been focused on guarding Danny from being eaten.

When they finally reached the shallows Danny could’ve kissed the sand. He’d never been so relieved to be in the kiddy pool of this planet's ocean. He felt like crying, he’d never abandon his beloved biome of coral tubes again!

Thwack!

A Peeper charged into him, hitting him in the cheek full force. Was this revenge for the fridge? Dami let out what he could only assume was the fish equivalent of a laugh, gently batting the little blue fish away. Danny didn’t have the energy to smack the leviathan for this offense nor did he have the strength to chase the Peeper who attacked him. Sleep never seemed so sweet before but he knew if he slept now he might not wake up to see the light of day again.

Danny watched the faint yellow sparkles trailing behind the fish as it rubbed itself against plants and rocks. More social than the normal peepers swimming around. If you could count tackling everything in sight as a social behavior. Danny scrunched his nose at the offensive fish rubbing the glitter-like substance off his face. If this was how Peepers tried to make friends he’d have to say it’s ineffective. 

Danny turned back to the leviathan, yellow blood oozing from long thin scratches running along his tail. He frowned, that was his fault, wasn’t it? Dami had tried to stop him, likely knowing what lurked near the crash and Danny blatantly ignored him. He’d been naive, thinking he knew better than the literal native who’d likely lived on this planet his entire life. A stupid thing to do even with the risk of an explosion. Especially with the risk of an explosion, a deeper part of his psyche nagged, pulling the bile halfway up his throat. 

What if someone had been with him? Someone had been with him! Dami wasn’t indestructible. What if that thing managed to kill them both? What if he’d gotten Dami killed just by leading them in there? Radiation poisoning was an all but painless death. Vomiting your internal organs in their liquidized form wasn’t a fate he wished on anyone let alone an ally.

The visible injuries on the leviathan seemed to be minor. If the nonchalant way the leviathan lifted Danny to the surface with a clawed hand told him anything. It was good to know they had a mutual understanding that air was a necessity for him. Accidentally being drowned by an ally wasn’t on his list of ideal deaths. Maybe if this were a horror movie he’d be more welcoming to the idea so he could haunt people more than he usually did. 

Danny tapped Dami’s forehead alerting the leviathan to his next movements into the kelp forests. Dami stayed where he was in the shallows, keeping a keen eye on Danny from afar. He swallowed the bile rising up his throat keeping up his routine of bribing the stalkers. They were like gator-shaped trolls. Demanding a toll of fish snacks before they’d ensure a safe passage through the shallows. Some of the bolder ones approached him with open mouths. He didn’t even have to chuck it at them! 

“Warning, leviathan class creature in the area,” He yanked out his PDA brushing his fingers against the screen. The tablet's light was dim but it was working. He could swipe through the tabs and see what the fuck the AI was talking about. It’s a little late for a warning about the leviathan at the crash site.

Danny swiped through the tabs of his PDA landing on the new data entry he’d risked his ass for. Apparently, the empty-eyed fuck they’d been assaulted by was a reaper leviathan. All muscle, tiny brain, and no sense of morality. Danny didn’t know what kind of morals his PDA expected from a fish like that. Lancer always told him not to judge a book by its cover but holy fuck, if Vlad stood next to one of those guys he might actually look decent.

The warning popped up again and Danny’s anxiety spiked. Did a reaper follow them? Was it the Leviathan he’d seen back at life pod three? If it was the stalkers might get to him before he could get close enough to strike him.  He pulled out his blade glancing around the kelp forest. His eyes landed on a glimpse of blue poking out from behind an arch of stone. 

…

It was talking about Dami, wasn’t it? 

Dami was following him, hiding it quite poorly. It was honestly, embarrassing he hadn’t noticed it sooner. The leviathan was out of his depth, any camouflage the other could have possibly had was squandered by his size. It was probably his size that intimidated everything into not acknowledging him.

Danny ignored the leviathan, mostly to spare the other’s ego. Danny was like a needle in a haystack while Dami was like an elephant in the chicken coop and if this were a game of hide and seek Danny would’ve demolished him by now. 

Using his blade to cut off pieces of creep vine Danny pressed the kelp together, stashing as much as possible into his bag. The fiber mesh he’d make from this would make decent bandages if he couldn’t make the blankets he wanted.

Would bandages even work on Dami? Tying gauze around the leviathan's tail just seemed restrictive. The language barrier would ensure Dami wouldn’t understand he was trying to help. Dami would just see it as Danny mistakeingly assuming he could finish the Leviathan off after a risky encounter with a reaper. He winced, getting slapped to death by an ally would be such a lame way to die. 

There had to be some other way to ensure Dami didn’t die of sepsis or whatever other infections a giant fish teenager could contract. Who was equipped to deal with this kind of thing? A vet or a marine biologist because Danny lacked the qualifications for both professions. He was two for two when it came to dying, any medical advice he could give was just a health hazard. 

Danny swam back to the shallows, Dami clumsily following him. He wasn’t bleeding anymore and Danny could vaguely make out yellow scabs clotting over his injuries. Only time would tell if that was a good sign or not. If there was anything wrong with Dami he’d find a way to fix it. It was his moral obligation to do so. 

Dami protected them from a reaper and the oversized eel! While he’s pretty sure Dami knew electric fish, he still slapped him into pissing off! Making sure the leviathan didn’t die was the least he could do even if he was friends with the electric fish secretly.

The “fight” was far too similar to the ones he’d have Dani or Jazz. Less a fight to the death and more like one of the lectures he’d get from Jazz for doing something stupid. Not antagonistic like the fights he’d have with Vlad. It was more like when Dani would hide his model rockets in the walls when he pissed her off. Dami and the electric fish acted painfully similar to how he acted with his siblings.

Would he ever see them again?

Shaking his head, a croon rippled through shallow water. Dami stared at him with glowing eyes, an expression as concerned as a gigantic fish could get. He crooned again, louder this time. A call probably evolved to be heard in deeper open waters. It wasn’t as effective in the shallows, he could hear Dami anywhere in the shallows no matter how quiet the other tried to be. All this call served to do now was to add fuel to the fire of his splitting headache.

Danny held his head in his hands, Dami taking this as a cue to be a bit quieter. The next croon he let out was softer barely audible but he got his point across. This guy was weird. He fussed over Danny more than he fussed over himself to the point he cramped himself in the shallows to stay here with him. He belonged deeper down, ancients he’d be happier deeper down but he just…stayed here? Sure he tended to follow Danny whenever he had the opportunity but Danny had mostly stuck to the shallows so far. Was this the fish equivalent to tourism? Had the crash screwed over his home so badly he couldn’t live there anymore. 

Danny glanced back to Dami, the leviathan looked perfectly fine but he didn’t exactly have another member of his species to compare to. It was like he was perfectly comfortable acting as Danny’s personal guard dog.

…

….

He was like a dog to this guy, wasn’t he?

Looking down at his tiny hand Danny squeezed them into fists. Pathetic, hardly a threat at all. Dami’s a teenager and Danny is a itty bitty squishy thing smaller than any of the other survivors. He was like a stray puppy to this guy! Like a little Yorkie happy and cute. 

He scoffed choking on the mouthful of seawater that flooded into his mouth at the action. He wasn’t anyone’s pet! He was the farthest thing from a pet! Sure, he might’ve watched Dami fight like it was a Pokémon battle but he still thought of the guy as a sentient being. It all made sense now, this dude thought he was an animal! There was no way to correct him either! They didn’t speak the same language nor was there a way for them to learn at the moment. 

How would he even go about speaking to him anyway? What was he supposed to say? “Hey, dude sorry for catfishing you but I’m not your pet,” He’d probably be dismissed and then be treated like a parrot. 

Ancients, he’s too nauseous to deal with this shit. Dealing with anything else but this would be better than this. He was stuck with a teenager who was convinced he got a new puppy… No wonder he tapped on the window like a small child seeing the fish tank at the dentist for the first time. 

At least he wasn’t the type of teenager to “Play” rough with his pets. Back home Sam went ape shit on a group of senior boys who kept shooting BBs at one of the oldest boy’s cats. Danny had yet to be manhandled, thrown, or shot at, nor was there any attempt to put him down after he bit him multiple times.

Maybe he was more like a cat?

He wouldn’t degrade himself into being anyone’s catboy. The thought alone made him want to cry. Tucker would never let him hear the end of it if he found out. The hacker would have all the ammo he needed to take revenge for being called a furry so often. He couldn’t let this happen! There’s no way he’d allow himself to be treated like a pet. If Dami ever tried to pet him he’d get stabbed! Puffing up his chest, Danny turned foot and swam back to his base. 

His to-do list was completely and utterly fucked over. Fixing the Aurora had been his top priority but he couldn’t fix it without a radiation suit and a distraction for the buff death fish! It was just like back home, the moment he sat down to knock something off his ever-expanding to-do list the entire universe ganged up on him!  

{Proposed Desagi seabase (200m)}

The signal caught his attention. It was on one of the main tabs of his PDA along with the signals for the Lifepod he’s aware of. On the front page of his to-do list, as a sub-task of finding survivors was searching for the Desagi sea base. Scrunching his face Danny pondered. If the seabase even existed there could be something down there to help him. Even if he didn’t find a survivor, the information he could gain from this could be crucial to figuring out what the hell is going on with this planet.

With the date of Paul Torgal’s environmental log, he could tell the Desagi had been on this planet within the first month of communications with the ship had been lost. Had they ever left? Did they crash or land here willingly for some unknown reason? Was what happened to the Aurora connected to the Desagi? Hopefully, he’d get his answers when he went down to explore.

Staring blankly at the signal, he studied the coordinates and the environmental log thoroughly. The cave he’d entered previously had multiple entrances. It was only logical if members of the Desagi were to build a seabase they’d build it close to an entrance. It was further into the cave system than the entrance he’d swam through had led him. 

He could search around for another cave entrance closer to the signal but it was still 200m down. His lower oxygen needs gave him a leg up but it could only carry him so far. His ability kept him from drowning in shallow water but anything deeper than 100m and it was game over, no restarts or save points!

With his current oxygen tank, he wouldn’t have the time to find the seabase let alone explore it. When the entire point of finding the seabase was exploring, it made his air tank seem about as useful as a warning label on a stick of dynamite. Any idiot with common sense could tell going down there without some kind of plan for oxygen was a sheer way to drown. While his common sense was sparse he still had it.

The blueprints for a seamoth were still missing so he’d have to go on a scavenger hunt for not only the blueprint but the resources to build it. Danny could only wonder how the Seamoth would be altered for him. The seaglide was made slightly smaller but what was it supposed to do about what was essentially just an underwater car? Pedal extensions, A controller, maybe just an autopilot? That was all he was willing to work with, a booster seat was too humiliating for his bruised ego to take. 

Along with a seamoth he’d need to upgrade his tank and replace the batteries for his seaglid. The seaglide drained power like spectra drained the happiness from children.

Digging through his storage lockers he scavenged the glass he needed for his new air tank. He fed the fabricator the ingredients waiting eagerly as the light show began. A loud jarring noise sounded from his PDA the moment the new air tank touched his hands. 

“New blueprint acquired.” The robotic voice drawled.

Danny glanced down at the tablet, staring slack-jawed at the appearance of the rebreather on his list of blueprints. Convenient, he didn’t dare question the PDA’s choice of only giving him the blueprint now instead of after all the other times he almost died. It was painfully easy to gather the materials he needed. With the creepvine he’d collected earlier he was set to make the rebreather.

Now all he had to do was get past Dami…

Why did he have a feeling that was going to be easier said than done?

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim @dragongoblet @noxcheshire

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Suskityrannus vs Maip

Factfiles:

Suskityrannus hazelae 

Artwork by Andrey Atuchin, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Hazel Wolfe’s Coyote Tyrant 

Time: 92 million years ago (Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous) 

Location: Moreno Hill Formation, Zuni Basin, New Mexico 

When you follow the progress of paleontology long enough, you start to see things that were previously left undescribed actually get names and the respect they deserve - whether its the “putative screamer” Anachronornis or the “Zuni Coelurosaur” Suskityrannus, you’re sure to get a nice moment and a sense of satisfaction from it. Suskityrannus has been well known for a while due to it being featured in both When Dinosaurs Roamed America as well as Planet Dinosaur. Thought at various times to be a basal Coelurosaur or Tyrannosauroid, its official description placed it somewhat derived within Tyrannosaurs, showcasing the evolution of the Tyrannosaur group as it transitioned from the smaller more speedy forms (like Suskityrannus) to the giant murder birds we know and love later in the Cretaceous. In fact, Suskityrannus lived in an ecosystem that highlighted its changing world, with many early representatives of the later iconic North American Cretaceous ecosystems showing up in early forms in Moreno Hill. Suskityrannus was about one meter tall and three meters long, and already had many adaptations known from later tyrannosaurs. In the forested coastal ecosystem at Moreno Hill, Suskityrannus would have been neighbors with Zuniceratops, Nothronychus, Jeyawati, ankylosaurs, fish, and turtles. 

Maip macrothorax

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Long-chested Shadow of Death 

Time: 72 to 66 million years ago (Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous) 

Location: Chorrillo Formation, Patagonia, Argentina 

Megaraptors, a group not even really understood a few decades ago, just keep having more and more interesting members added to this group - Maip, a recent addition known from many bones of the trunk and tail, help fill out more of this picture with remains not known from other Megaraptors, and als having the most complete Megaraptor skeleton known. Maip was also interesting in having a very long, thick torso, leading to its specific name. It probably reached 9 to 10 meters in length in life, making it the largest Megaraptor known (literally reaching carcharodontosaurid size), and it may indicate that megaraptors rose to high-level predator status as other top predators went extinct in the region. It had a respiratory system similar to modern birds, with unidirectional air flow, much like other Saurischian dinosaurs. Living in southernmost South America, Maip would have had to deal with a variety of harsh climates, and may have been covered in feathers in order to keep warm. In addition to mosasaurs, snakes, turtles, mammals, fish, and frogs, Maip lived with other dinosaurs such as Nullotitan, Kookne, Yatenavis, and Isasicursor. 

DMM Round One Masterpost

[justmossyall]

depression hacks masterpost

these are things that will help with mental illness that aren't 'go outside, drink water, and everything will be fine!!!1!!!11!1!11!' those are good fs but they don't work on their own. these will actually help in one way or another :)

hell yeah let's go

open your windows. the fresh air and sunlight will do you good and it takes like 5 seconds.

go buy some plants, there are like a gazillion that are next to impossible to kill. and don't come at me with 'ohhh I'll probably find a way hahaha" NO. the plants will be so helpful! they produce oxygen, bring nature indoors which psychologically improves your mental state, and they're just nice to look at! you can name them! sculpt and/or paint little pots for them!

STOP LISTENING TO SAD MUSIC. I cannot stress this enough. it just makes things worse. please stop. make a playlist of all your favorite stupid, happy, pump-up songs and listen to them all the time until they get annoying. then repeat!

acquire a gazillion stuffed animals. so much serotonin for such a small price

get a water bottle and put fun stickers on it, and designate that water bottle to be only for water. nothing else goes in it. that way you can drink out of it for kind of a long time before needing to wash it. keep it filled with water and actually drink out of it. drink as much water as you can, all the time.

chew gum! idk why but it works bro. especially watermelon.

hug people and ask people to hug you. hugs are so amazing it's like pure happiness but with the added perk of Deep Pressure. it can be from your friends, family, s/o, whoever.

make sure there's a lot of light in your room. not good to wallow in darkness. put up fairy lights, get fun lamps, light candles, keep your blinds open, etc.

dress like how you want to feel. be colorful, fun, and comfortable. don't wear hoodies, sweatpants and ratty old shoes, I know it's appealing but it's just going to keep you in that depressed state. I like to wear dresses, colorful jeans, graphic tees from 5-Below, combat boots, and lots of funky earrings. (seriously 5-Below is a lifesaver for literally anything!!!) you can get a lot of these things for super cheap - I got a 20 pack of fun earrings like duckies, mushrooms, mini water bottles, etc. for like $11, and a lot of my colorful jeans are like 6 bucks at the thrift store. whatever your style is or whatever you want it to be, work to make that happen. because getting dressed is one of the simplest things you'll do in a day, so why not make the most of it?

doodle. it's fun and simple, and it'll give your hands something to do other than pick at your skin if you do that kind of stuff (see below).

on a similar note, make art!!!!! it doesn't have to be good!!!!!! just make art all the time, as often as you can. write crappy fanfiction. make friendship bracelets. sculpt a funky lil cat. draw your comfort characters. art is so healing and it will do wonders for you. even just like run your hands through a giant bag of beads like I do :P

get fidgets and bring them everywhere with you. this is more of an anxiety/stimming thing for me but I pick at my fingers, lips, pimples, eyebrows, etc., and it hurts a lot and will probably leave scars. fidgets are just amazing. I'm partial to tangles and infinity cubes :) gum and chewelry are good for this as well (for when I bite my fingers/clothes or chew the skin off my lips)

if you find yourself with a whole day with nothing to do and you don't have the energy to get up and do anything, go to the park. bring a blanket, some snacks, and headphones, and just lay there and listen to music. sleep. watch youtube. literally anything you would normally do when you don't have energy, except it's outside in the sun and grass and nature around other people who are doing the same thing! 10/10

get a pet if you can. even just fish, but really a fluffy, snuggly animal is probably best such as a dog or cat. OH MY GOD THEY HELP SO MUCH. ANIMALS ARE MAGIC. I don't think I've ever been sad while holding or petting my grandma's dog. (our family doesn't have one right now lol)

spray perfume/body spray on you. faster and easier than deodorant and it usually smells better

if you're gonna scroll, scroll pinterest. honestly, it's probably best to get rid of things like tiktok and snapchat, but that's kinda unrealistic for most people so I get it <3 pinterest is probably gonna be better than other social media cause it's more creative?? if you know what I mean?? and usually it's reading things and not mindlessly watching videos

if you don't have the energy to do stuff with your hair, put it up in a bun! fast simple and easy. takes like 5 seconds, even for someone with super thick curly hair like me. (or cut it short! but most of us aren't brave enough to do that lol)

eat fruit. sweet and comforting, but healthy!! so much better for you than junk food, and honestly it tastes better most of the time too. I recommend strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe. easy to take with you on the go and sooooo good <333

play calming video games such as animal crossing, minecraft, stardew valley, cats with soup (if you're into mobile games), etc. puzzle games are good too! if you want something more combat-y, I would recommend the zelda games or forager. still chill and mellow but has more combat and story/lore

garden if you can. I know this kind of ties in with having plants in your room, but if you're able and you have the energy, keep a flower and/or vegetable garden. there's something so beautiful in putting your hands in the warm dirt, smelling your freshly-planted flowers, eating sun-infused vegetables that taste infinitely better than store-bought. it's so nice, but I know it's not for everyone so don't worry about it if you don't get around to it <3

sleep in the bus/car on the way to school if you're tired. not a perfect solution but better than falling asleep in class

inhale through your nose, not your mouth. it's better for your lungs and you'll get better air quality that way. it also helps calm you better than mouth breathing, and you can't exactly smell the fresh air through your mouth :P

read. sit down and read a book. carry one with you wherever you go. spend a weekend day in the library with a huge stack of books just reading. it's so calming and helps stimulate your brain. doesn't matter what you read as long as it's making you happy :)

surround yourself with color, not dark drab colors. hang up art and posters on your walls, get bright blankets and pillows, lay out a tiny lil carpet, make bead curtains and string them up on your curtain rod, set out little figurines/sculptures around your room. put color and life everywhere around you, and that will start to seep into your soul.

tea is always good. or if you don't like tea, hot water with lemon juice and honey. basically the same :)

if you ever just don't want to do something, like you just absolutely don't want to get up and do _ thing, think about future you. would they be like "bro thanks so much you really helped me out there" if you did the thing? if yes, then do it, no matter how impossible it seems. you'll thank yourself later.

a statement that is near and dear to my heart: if you feel like everyone hates you, sleep. if you feel like you hate everyone, eat. if you feel like you hate yourself, shower.

NO MORE SU!C!DE JOKES. ever. the end! replace "i'm literally gonna kms" jokes or anything along those lines with "i'm literally gonna flop to the floor" or "i'm literally gonna go ham bananas on this place" or whatever wild bullshit pops into your brain.

watch studio ghibli movies. the most amazing things to ever exist. I have never felt sad while watching a ghibli movie. they are basically the definition of peace.

take a bubble bath!!!!! :D

making your bed helps for some reason??? why, I have no idea. but it does bro

get excited about things. smile when you hear your favorite song. hug your amazon package when it comes in. count down the days until a holiday. laugh with joy when you have an amazing day. it makes things so much better.

an important addition: bring snacks everywhere

that's all for now, lmk if you have anything else to add!!! love you guys, I promise it gets better <3

[harrowharks-iliac-crest]

The Nine Houses

Worldbuilding/Lore

<< Previous: Masterpost

-

The Nine Houses refer to planets, named, presumably, in order of colonisation. I'm befuddled as to which one is which planet, if we're going on the assumption that this is the solar system. This is what I've extrapolated from reading:

First is Earth.

Second is most likely Mars - gathered from the fighting energy of its house, proximity to Earth and viability for terraforming, and also this:

"[...]Each Beast is different. I have fought numerous now, and each Beast is quite unlike any other … Number Two spewed quicksilver and remade itself into hundred-foot spikes. Number Six kept sucking us into enormous sphincters and spraying us with worms. I cannot even remember what it looked like. I remember Number Four … it was a humanoid creature with a beautiful face who held me under the water, and it spoke in a lovely voice but it only repeated, die, die—and I recall Number One as a great and incoherent machine … when I saw it I thought it had a great tail, and a thousand broken pillars on its back, but Cassiopeia saw it as a mechanical monster with swords for wings, and great horns of myelin, tessellated over with graves.” It was the Saint of Duty who said, restlessly: “Number Eight was a giant head.” “Finned like a fish,” said Augustine, lost in reverie. “Its ribs were bloody bandages, and its teeth protruded through its own skull, tangled about its face like a nest. It was red, and it had a single eye of green that moved all about the body …"

Metal-related appearance, from the planet notoriously rusty.

Actually, this passage describing the Resurrection Beasts - revenants of the planets - was the thing that got me into trying to assign planets to Houses based on, mostly, vibes.

Forth could be Venus, based on this passage alone. I could easily be wrong.

Sixth is Mercury I reckon. In the epilogue of HtN the setting is described as very hot - close to Dominicus. I reread it now and I don't think it's ever mentioned to be set on the Sixth, in fact parts of it actively contradict that assumption, but somehow I seem to have gotten that into my head anyway? But even so, Sixth is described as the one closest to Dominicus - notably this passage:

The Emperor dropped to his haunches and eased the white robe off Mercy’s dead shoulders. He shrugged his naked body into it—coyly pulling it closed—and he stretched his jaw in his mouth, and wriggled the tip of his newly grown nose. “Right,” he said, and closed his eyes briefly. Then he said, “The sun has stabilized. Hope the Sixth House didn’t get cooked in the flare.”

This to me pretty much confirmed the Sixth as Mercury.

Eighth, in the above passage about the Resurrection Beasts, is described in ways that immediately make me picture Jupiter. Red, a single eye of green moving all over the body? Ribs were bloody bandages? A "giant head" - Jupiter, in Roman mythology was the king of the gods? Am I way off the mark here?

And Ninth is Pluto, furthest from the sun, cold and desolate. And solid. (How are they pulling off living on gas giants?)

This leaves the Third, Fifth, Seventh houses to be matched with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. At a loss, still, for how gas giants are supposed to be colonised. The general infrastructure of the pre- and post-resurrection world/Empire has me asking questions like, where do they get the materials to build starships and feed their officers? Metal and plastic seem abundant. In terms of food we've mostly seen snow leeks, Canaan House and the Mithraeum, all of which are probably exceptional to what a regular House person eats. There is some talk of John's expansion and colonising efforts, so do they just go to random planets - are there aliens in this universe? (Is Alecto one?) So the Empire is expanding, mining colonised planets for ore and oil to turn into plastic - though that would indicate a lot of life on a lot of these planets, so I'm gonna guess that whatever happens to those planets isn't kind to the native flora, fauna and people.

Of course, there's always the option that this isn't meant to be the planets at all, and even if it was, it might be a lot more metaphorical. Or just actually a completely different world to ours, not the solar system at all. (Though there's many explicit and implicit pop culture references which would indicate the First to truly be Earth, so we're sticking with this theory.)

Are they actually on the planets - we haven't seen any planets other than First, and Ninth, arguably big exceptions; the Epilogue seems to be set on a moon of some kind, after a more thorough reread. The Actual Planets are dead, or rather resurrected, with their revenants on the hunt. Could be that the Houses do stand for the planets, and some people might be living on (or near) the actual planets, but a lot of people are actually living away from the solar system entirely - born into "Houses" far from the sun, into the Emperor's war machine. It's hard to tell.

Either way, I'm not gonna assign any more planets now until I know more.

>> Next: The Resurrection

[hisui555]

Hazbin Hotel thoughts : Pets 2

"How are they with pets ?" Vees and other Overlords edition

(Pets 1 (Hazbin Hotel crew) here)

(Pets 3 (Heaven's side) here)

Masterpost here.

Aaaand my titles are still as creative as a rusting cheese grater on sale. Anyway, let's jump to it.

The Vees !

Vox did have an (now archived) Instagram that's also now loosely canon, where he put pics of his cute pet hammerhead landshark Vark (that's probably not in the show the same as it was in the Instagram, but made it in with another form : might be the hammerhead bio-shark we see in the tank in ep 2 and why do I get the feeling we got robbed from something ?) and given his interactions with it, he clearly loves it with all his heart, calling it "baby" and posting what he brought for him (in a handbag), so it's safe to say that Vark is spoiled. One pic even shows it jumping on Velvette with Vox doing a fist-pump, another has an out-of-focus one with Vox being the one jumped on, so the critter can be safely described as rather enthusiastic (and giant. Hell fuck is it big). Which, based on this, gives a rather good idea of how he would interact with a pet : it's kind of a special, non common animal of specific interest (shark), that he will coddle and spoil to high heavens, basically a pseudo-kid. Expect tons of affection, letting it run around to its heart's content with a whole room (or more) dedicated to the beast, and a Never Could Do Any Wrong attitude that might be even worse that Lucifer's in the previous post. He will also train and teach it tricks, complete with lots of praise and treats, and given his management skills vet appointments are no problems (well, for him. Given the animal, very much not so for the vet), even cooing to the tyker that I know, you don't like it, but we'll have to go. I know, I know, I promise it's not for long. Touch it and you're dead, your reputation is dead, your whole family is dead up to the 10th ancestor, even your ashes are dead.

Alternatively, given how Vox is in the show now (still secretely hoping we see that side of him I admit, but I wouldn't place any bets on it), he has multiple shark-like creatures in a GIANT fish tank (at least two of them recognizable as sharks, I've counted four beasties that are seen on the opening of Stayed Gone), which look impressive and silently drift by. So while there's still the affinity for sharks, they look less goofy and more dangerous than Vark by some metric magnitudes and go quite well with his cunning CEO image, even emphazing it ("I think I have... just the one." Ep 2). So it paints a picture of power and silent intimidation, grinning like a shark and tempting to trade into the waters, smelling weakness like blood in the waves and drowning people under false hope : which is pretty much how he'd probably like his pets - hunting, powerful, highly unusual ones, that make him think of, well, himself and his empire. He'll keep them well-fed, cares for them, and likes to watch them swim around, maybe to calm his nerves after a Valentino tantrum or whenever Alastor so much as breathes wrong, more like status pets than coddling pets like his Instagram incarnation with Vark (again, shame*).

*While I do go awww, too bad, the producers, animators and whatnot had to work with an 8 episodes season. Characters also evolve (5 years between the pilot and the first episode), and things get dropped or picked up considering the needs of the show, and the intends behind the characters. The retired character Instagrams (and the pilot) paint the big lines, but smaller details are either contradictory or true-but-in-a-sideways-way compared to the final product, hence why "loosely canon". Vox with Vark would've been adorable, but he's probably not supposed to be that likable in that precise way, and it would've probably not brought the show itself much. I can only speculate why they dropped Vark's previous version (if he's indeed in the show at all), but don't take it as me faulting the show's creators and workers for it : my word is far from being gospel. Or else I'd make a really shitty deity.

Velvette would probably like a small, handholding pet that she can customize and that accords to her tastes, but also cute, photogenic and personable, so expect something like Hell's version of a chameleon, a pug or a Yorkshire (wait scratch that, I said "cute and photogenic"), or something that other people would find hideous but she'll make it work (nevermind, this fits) to show off how good her fashion skills are. She'll parade around with it, and if it has the same bitchy disdainous attitude as her, gladly welcomed bonus. She'll train it to obey only her (to Vox and Valentino's consternation and frustration), but also perfectly : every command is fulfilled within the snap of her fingers, but if the pet does outstandingly well, she won't hold back the treats. In private, she might be softer and more affable to it, praising and baby-talking it, but at the very least it'll have a luxurious corner to live in, and when she's away, her assistants are given the tasks of taking care of it (however not to a keep-an-activity-journal point unlike Pentious in the previous post). Unlike Angel, she might go for multiple pets at once (again, they're taken care of by a whole flock of staffs - good for testing interns and all that), and bank fashion lines and trends on them, associating with Vox to push out new product lines about animal care and fashion.

She'll also have pretend "dialogues" in public with one of them (switching favorites often following her moods - Velvette likes to have a wide choice fan of options) about how ugly or stupid she finds something and what's that you say Pookie ? Yes, absolutely, this dress looks like colored by sewer waters, ugh, good thing someone agrees with me. Think we should fire her ? to someone she particularly despises or deems unimportant enough and won't address directly because she'll estimate it beneath her, or sometimes to have an outlet of her own to vent. Rarely if ever goes to the vet unless one of the critters ate something it really shouldn't, since she's counting on her assistants to be skilled in healthcare, and they better be. Naming will be themed after what she likes, supported by tons of nicknames, and only her will know which one is named what because no one can keep up. Will be more annoyed than sad if one of them is hurt or died, but there will be a pang of sorrow for her favorite ones.

Valentino, well, also had a loosely canon pet queef (those half chihuahua half horsefly thingies, which are two abominations put together to make a third one - kidding, Fizzarolli's are kinda endearing), named... Queef (worse than my title names, good job bud), and emphasis on had, since he shot the tyker dead because it annoyed him, according to his archived Instagram. A safe bet is that it didn't even lasted very long. Which... paints dead-on (...sorry) the picture of how Val would treat pets : it's like a fancy that strikes from time to time and goes away just as quick, the second he's bothered by the critter. He's atrocious with naming them (though Adam beats him for sure in terms of naming things), sometimes can't differenciate one from another because oh right, I killed Queefie last week, you're actually Queefrey (...look at what you've made me do, stupid moth), and doesn't really care in general. Vet ? What's that ? Seriously the only time he'll go to a vet it's to enrol them in his studio if he finds them sexy enough and uses the critter for it. To him, they're not animals, they're trending accessories : something that goes nicely with the fishnet stockings and mink coat for an evening or two, not longer - or a tool to pick up chicks and chucks. If it dies, either he's the reason for it, or he'll just be annoyed.

He might just give them away if feeling generous or in a good mood, mostly to Velvette or his employees (he was the one who gave Fat Nuggets to Angel canonically - which was when Hell probably got a sudden cold wave or something. My sarcasm is having a stroke today, damn, sorry. Often happens when I'm writing Valentino's section, wonder why...ah, shit.), but hates if it disobeys or doesn't do what he wants it to do. Given that he doesn't train them either and expects it to behave like he wants right off the bat, this happens often. The longest any pet has lasted by him ? I'd say a week, two tops.

The other Overlords !

I don't peg Zestial for a pet owner, but again, let's pretend. It'll probably be something silent and creepy, ancient and powerful just like him - I mean, can you see him pick up any sparkly eyed kitten ? Me neither. It would make for a hilarious image, though. But nope, he'll be more like Hagrid than Umbridge in that sense : the most horrifying the better. Given his motif of spiders, he'll have his own Aragog, or some giant chiropteric monster from the dawn of times, with its own gregorious Fancy Name The Nth, something that even Lucifer thought died out ages ago. It's more a mutually respectful companionship than anything else : there's no "owner", no "pet", it just happens to live in Zestial's basement (or wherever he hangs his spindly, spidery legs from) and hunt down nuisances for him, in exchange of the occasional chin scritches. Might also know how to play chess, because why the hell not. Zestial won't like it being hurt, but will let it lick its wounds on its own and wait for it to ask for help, and it'll show up to show support in a fight and some extra manpower if needed. It doesn't obey squat, just agrees with you from time to time. No vet is crazy enough to go near that beast.

Carmilla will probably not have a pet either (too bothersome), but her daughters just might, and she'll allow it (somehow). Strict rules, the animal can't go wherever it pleases, better be damn well potty trained, and girls, if you want a pet, I'm not the one taking care of it - and she will stand by this, unlike some Didn't Want The Damn Cat Parents who melt at the first purr (welcome to the club of cat lovers, I'm the self-proclaimed president, what can I do for you ?). However, she's not against the affection, enjoying some relaxing moments with the pet at her side. Also, just having it around sleeping while she does work is nice and stress-relieving enough. She appreciates whatever "help" it can provide (fetching stuff), and simply talks to it like she would to an everyday person, only repeating words to make it understand what it should or should not be doing. She doesn't like cruelty to animals, and will make very clear what she thinks of someone who does that, but otherwise won't blow a gasket (like Vox or Angel might do). Might favor guard pets to protect her loved ones.

Rosie would be more about some old fashioned and elegant pets like poodles or whatever frizz-furred (or hairless, or scaly, as long as its classy) critter this side of Hell has to offer. However, since Alastor doesn't like dogs, she'll either keep it at home, or simply have another pet altogether, but case in point, it's a home pet, not something to parade around the Emporium with. Having it on a leash in the streets, fan in hand (her, not the tyke), and taking a strut around while waving for her fellow citizens or stopping to chat with other pet-owners is really picturesque, and exactly what she'll do. She'll make sure it's well-behaved, and will just have to softly utter a single command for it to obey. The most questionable thing would be the... diet. One sure thing, that beastie is well-fed.

Part 3 will be Heaven's side. Hope you enjoyed !

Again, Masterpost here.

[dungeon-meshi-tournament]

To continue the theme of horny tournaments, it's the

Most Fuckable Monster in the Dungeon Tournament

This is the masterpost for the tournament. I'll pin it and update it with every new round, so you'll be able to find all polls easily.

The rules are very simple: You just vote for whichever monster you think is more fuckable. The monster with the most votes advances to the next round.

Propaganda is encouraged! Please put it in the body of the post so I can reblog it.

Finale:

Chimera vs Demon (Chimera won)

Battle for the bronze:

Mermaid vs Succubus (Mermaid won)

Previous rounds under the cut:

Semi-finals:

Chimera vs Mermaid (Chimera won)

Succubus vs Demon (Demon won)

Quarter finals:

Chimera vs Dullahan (Chimera won)

Mermaid vs Harpy (Mermaid won)

White dragon vs Succubus (Succubus won)

Living armour vs Demon (Demon won)

Round 3:

Chimera vs Tentacles (Chimera won)

Ghost vs Dullahan (Dullahan won)

Mermaid vs Big bat (Mermaid won)

Harpy vs Fish-man (Harpy won)

White dragon vs Green dragon (White dragon won)

Coatl vs Succubus (Succubus won)

Living armour vs Golem (Living armour won)

Cockatrice vs Demon (Demon won)

Round 2, part 2:

Eyes of the magician vs White dragon (White dragon won)

Green dragon vs Nightmare (Green dragon won)

Leviathan vs Coatl (Coatl won)

Succubus vs Mimic (Succubus won)

Living armour vs Undine (Living armour won)

Golem vs Hag (Golem won)

Familiar vs Cockatrice (Cockatrice won)

Kraken vs Demon (Demon won)

Round 2, part 1:

Chimera vs Dryad (Chimera won)

Man-eating plant vs Tentacles (Tentacles won)

Big walking mushroom vs Ghost (Ghost won)

Dullahan vs Magic mirror (Dullahan won)

Mermaid vs Shapeshifter (Mermaid won)

Big bat vs Jackalope (Big bat won)

Bicorn vs Harpy (Harpy won)

Hippogriff vs Fish-man (Fish-man won)

Round 1, part 4:

Green slime vs Living armour (Living armour won)

Dungeon cleaners vs Undine (Undine won)

Golem vs Ice golem (Golem won)

Gargoyle vs Hag (Hag won)

Familiar vs Jack Frost (Familiar won)

Cockatrice vs Basilisk (Cockatrice won)

Kraken vs Giant parasite (Kraken won)

Doppelganger vs Demon (Demon won)

Round 1, part 3:

Eyes of the magician vs Wyvern (Eyes of the magician won)

White dragon vs Red dragon (White dragon won)

Eastern dragon vs Green dragon (Green dragon won)

Wurm vs Nightmare (Nightmare won)

Giant frog vs Leviathan (Leviathan won)

Coatl vs Sea serpent (Coatl won)

Treasure insects vs Succubus (Succubus won)

Huge scorpion vs Huge spider vs Mimic (Mimic won)

Round 1, part 2:

Mermaid vs Minotaur (Mermaid won)

Warg vs Shapeshifter vs Dire wolf (Shapeshifter won)

Big bat vs Flying pig (Big bat won)

Dungeon rabbit vs Jackalope (Jackalope won)

Kelpie vs Unicorn vs Bicorn (Bicorn won)

Phoenix vs Harpy (Harpy won)

Griffin vs Hippogriff (Hippogriff won)

Bladefish vs Fish-man (Fish-man won)

Round 1, part 1:

Chimera vs Changeling (Chimera won)

Barometz vs Dryad (Dryad won)

Man-eating plant vs Mandrake (Man-eating plant won)

Ivy tentacles vs Tentacles (Tentacles won)

Big walking mushroom vs Walking mushroom (Big walking mushroom won)

Ghost vs Ghoul (Ghost won)

Skeleton vs Dullahan (Dullahan won)

Living picture vs Magic mirror (Magic mirror won)

[preciouslandmermaid]

quiet fury in your head [v]

Dream of the Endless x F!Reader / Sandman Fanfiction

Note: I wrote this in a day and it’s pretty short and it’s mostly just PINING. YEARNING. PINING. No use of Y/N. See part 1 for all the tags tbh. 

Warnings: None 

(Read on AO3)  ||   (masterpost for other chapters)  

1789

Dream sits across from Hob and twists the small, black onyx ring that he’s chosen to wear on his smallest finger. Your magic—your dream-weaving abilities given to you by Desire—they thrum with pulsing, hot energy that coaxes down his spine and across his collarbone. It is as delicate as a kiss. It is as burning as molten, hissing magma. Hob glances down the ring.

“I’ve never know you to…” Dream stares at him, impassive, “well, I suppose I don’t know you at all.”

“You do not.” Dream replies stiffly. But the rest of their conversation draws short as a woman enters wearing a golden cloak, her brown hair fashioned in an up-do, flanked by two men holding knives.

He returns to the Dreaming. The leaves rustle with his disconnected mood. It takes him no time at all to find your presence within the Dreaming. You are a magnificent bright light that shifts in color depending on your mood. Today, the color is periwinkle and pensive.

***

You wag your small, white tail. The child—you don’t know her name—pours you another cup of tea. Her stuffed animals blink at her. You often use your shape-shifting abilities to traverse the Dreaming. You think this child would see you as a nightmare if she saw you in your true form. Your pointed ears suddenly perk. A sensation—a familiar smell—sharp, acidic tickles your wet nose. Fear. The child is afraid of something...That isn’t unusual. Children are often afraid of many things—darkness, thunderstorms, being left alone. But this fear is different. A shadow creeps across the floral parlor. You strain to sense anything else. The shadow fades. The child’s dream continues. Something haunts this one. You leap from your chair and sniff around the carpet, though it only smells of tea leaves and the child’s creativity. The child scoops you up in her tiny, thin arms and deposits you back onto your chair.

“No, no Stinky! Our tea party isn’t over yet.” She chastises. Before you can resume your tea party, however, Morpheus arrives and the dream vanishes to some other corner of the Dreaming, leaving you and Morpheus standing across from each other alongside a canal in a city of Moroccan architecture. The murky canal waters ripple as three giant, red koi fish swim past. The air smells of freshly baked bread and cigar smoke.  A few Dreamers walk along a stone bridge several feet away. Yet, no one pays you any mind.

You say, “You could call rather than pull me from a dream.”

“This is more efficient.” Jessamy lands on his shoulder.

“Very well.” You sigh, “how can I be of service, King of Dreams?”

“Follow me.”

You fall into step behind him. You admire the stern, tense line of his back and the sharp cut of his cloak. He has not touched you since Desire came to visit all those years ago. You suspect that your shared kiss was merely a lapse in his judgment. An error—one that he would not repeat. You try not to dwell on his absence or his coldness. His aloof nature does not harm your pride. It is safer if Morpheus is untouchable. Badb’s prophecy will not come true if keep distance between you. He will be your undoing. Those were your sister’s words. Her final prophecy. Yet Morpheus treated you as he treated all his subjects. He requested your help from time to time, but that was all. Any fire that once burned between you had turned to ash.

Dream glances to the side and your heart squeezes at the clear line of his profile, his lush mouth, his nose. His arm extends and sand swirls around his feet. His power ripples through the Dreaming—through you. Your teeth clack together as you suppress a shiver. Perhaps the fire still burns within me.

“Do you not like the dresses in your room?” Jessamy asks. Morpheus gave you a room inside his castle complete with a bed and wardrobe. You touched none of it. You laid in open fields when you felt like resting—although you did not sleep or dream. You walked barefoot through the Dreaming, your dark dress carried the rips and tears from Lugh’s spear like scars.

“I wear this to remember and honor them.” You lift the tattered sleeve of your dress back onto your shoulder. And to punish myself. Macha’s generous laughter rang inside your ears. Badb’s crows nibble at your fingertips. Lugh’s spear glistens with the blood of your sisters. I do not deserve the comfort of new clothes. My sisters are dead and forgotten and only my tie to the Endless has saved me from the same fate. Once Dream releases me, I will bury their tokens as Desire instructed me, and only then will I allow myself the pleasure of grief.

“Do you see it?” Dream asks, pulling you from your reverie. You gaze toward the white sands. They roll and shift as if breathing. The Dreaming is alive as he is. A reflection of his power, his creativity. The fine specks of sand tickle your face as they slide across your jaw and cheeks.

It takes a moment, but in the cloudless blue sky, you see the shimmering shapes of floating translucent jellyfish. Their bodies plume outward and then relax like a parachute as they meander through the air. You can feel Dream’s eyes on you, but you don’t turn toward him. You keep your focus on the creations. This is why he brought you here. It’s not to show off. In the past, whenever Dream brought you to a location in the Dreaming, there was always something to be altered, or fixed, or improved upon. This is your service to the Dream King. Your penance for a transgression that occurred over a thousand years ago. Morpheus uses your insight to shape the Dreaming. You see the Dreaming differently than his creations do—because you weren’t made by him—and you see the Dreaming differently than a mortal would.

“Something is missing.” Your fingers twitch at your sides. If you had your dream weaving abilities, you would fix the problem yourself. But, you gave those powers to him as a show of good faith. You no longer ran and hid from Morpheus within the Dreaming. You are compelled to serve him. It was your final command given to you by Desire. Once you were free of Morpheus, you would be free of all the Gods and all the Endless. You would create your own destiny.

You sink onto your knees in the soft, warm sand. You use your finger to draw shapes and Dream’s shadow looms over you. Once finished, you look up at him. His lips purse softly, his fathomless eyes regarding you and your drawings. His eyes meet yours. Electricity runs through your veins like lightening running through a storm cloud. You wish—foolishly—that he might arch his spine and brush his cool, dry lips against yours. You push the thought from your mind.

You say, “Every creature deserves to rest.”

Dream straightens and the Dreaming shifts at his beck and call. A formation of tall, canyon rocks burst through the sand. The jellyfish float around them and land inverted on the orange scraggly rock faces. Their tentacles pulsate upward and gradually slow as the jellyfish stop their cycle of endless swimming. You rise to your feet and brush the hard grains of sand from your knees.

“Do you include yourself in that sentiment?” His rough and pleasant voice envelopes you. You focus on the sleeping jellyfish. You envy their peace and their simplicity. They will live forever in the Dreaming with Morpheus watching over them. You wonder if Dreaming creatures mourn and if they grieve as Gods do. You haven’t interacted with many of the Dreamings’ inhabitants. You keep yourself contained to visiting the dreams of mortals—it helps to keep yourself connected to the outside world and learn how humanity fares without your influence. I know the humans still have their wars, and battles, and strife….they just don’t do it under my name anymore. You doubt the Men of the world remember your name at all. Desire called you ‘forgotten’ and you are inclined to believe them. I wonder if Lugh ever became a saint as he wished. I hope they burned him regardless.

You close your eyes and finally answer Morpheus, “No.”

The warm wind stirs.

“Are we done?” You say before Dream can respond. You don’t want to think of the past anymore. The past has serrated edges. And your heart only has so much room before it starts tearing at the seams. You must keep moving, like the giant koi fish in the canal, otherwise you’re afraid you’re going to break. I don’t deserve to grieve my sisters. Not until their tokens are laid to rest at the Heart Tree and my spirit is free to travel the mortal world and astral planes.

His voice is soft, “Yes, we’re finished here.”

You nod stiffly and turn on your heel to leave him.

“Until next we meet.” He says to your retreating back.

****

Dream watches you leave him with his heart lead-weight at the center of his chest. The Dreaming shudders around him like a sigh. Your tattered dress: I wear this to remember and honor them. Your closed eyes and forlorn expression. You are a creature of grief, and rage, and patience. He has no doubt that you are just biding your time until he releases you.

Yet, as the years pass, Dream is finding it harder and harder to let you go. You will likely never return to the Dreaming once you are gone. And he is selfish. He enjoys your presence here even as he keeps you at arms-length.  No matter what Desire said and promised—he cannot trust his sibling. You ensured Desire would not meddle, but who knew what influence his sibling still had on you.

He couldn’t risk it. The bright blue sky overhead rumbles with storm clouds. Dream lifts the collar of his coat and begins his solitary walk back to his castle.

[web-novel-polls]

Cooking a Large Meal Masterpost

Type: Round-Robin Tournament

Submissions - close Jan. 10th, 2024

Tag: #danmei cooking bracket

Main Tournament Masterpost

Start: Sunday, March 17th, 2024

End: Friday, March 29th, 2024

Posting Time: 1 pm CST (UTC-6)

Winner: Bingqiu

Final Standings

Bingqiu 3-0

Moshang 2-1

Wenzhou 1-2

Liu Qi & Bai Chuan 0-3

[Photo ID - a completed Round Robin tournament with three rounds and two matches per round. The first round has two matches - Bingqiu (83.6) vs. Wenzhou (13.8) and Moshang (58.9) vs. Liu Qi & Bai Chuan (31.7). The second round has two matches - Bingqiu (80.3) vs. Moshang (17.1) and Wenzhou (59.7) vs. Liu Qi & Bai Chuan (33.3). The final round matches are Bingqiu (89.1) vs. Liu Qi & Bai Chuan (7.9) and Wenzhou (42.8) vs. Moshang (50.5). /End ID]

[Last Updated: March 30th, 2024]

Completed

Round 1

Bingqiu vs. Wenzhou - Winner: Bingqiu

Moshang vs. Liu Qi x Bai Chuan - Winner: Moshang

Round 2

Bingqiu vs. Moshang - Winner: Bingqiu

Wenzhou vs. Liu Qi x Bai Chuan - Winner: Wenzhou

Round 3

Bingqiu vs. Liu Qi x Bai Chuan - Winner: Bingqiu

Wenzhou vs. Moshang - Winner: Moshang

Character List

[Last Updated: Jan. 8th, 2023]

*Dealer’s Choice

Bingqiu from SVSSS

Characters: Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan) 

One of Luo Binghe’s main hooks as a stallion novel protagonist (that gets him a giant harem) is his cooking. It’s so delicious Shen Qingqiu, who wants to avoid “wife plots,” can’t help but have him cook for him. 

Submission:

Luo Binghe's love language is literally cooking! He starts making Shen Qingqiu's meals as a teenager, then makes him three meals a day for the 5 years Shen Qingqiu is dead, and ofc cooks for him regularly after they get together. Binghe's congee might as well be a symbol of their love at this point!

Wenzhou from Faraway Wanderers

Characters: Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu

Submission:

New Year's Celebration chapter my beloved! Anyw yeah Wen Kexing malewifes it up so hard in this one. He cooks a whole feast, he flirts over it ("When one eats, one should eat something handmade by a human being. It has soul and flavor to it, and it might even have love… When you taste it later tonight, you’ll be able to tell”), he puts food into Zhou Zishu's bowl, it's all soooo sweet and domestic!

Moshang from SVSSS 

Characters: Mobei-jun and Shang Qinghua

Submission:

noodles! hand-pulled! he'll make them!!!

Liu Qi and Bai Chuan from The Right Way to Offer a Sacrifice to The River God

Submission: 

Liu Qi x Bai Chuan is a "masterful cook x ultimate foodie" couple. Not only is Liu Qi an amazing cook, his cooking is actually what first draws Bai Chuan to him.  To quote: "Not long later, Liu Qi served up two dishes of home-cooked food. Tomatoes and scrambled egg, vegetables stir-fried with smoked meat, and a large bowl of fish soup."  And then, a few paragraphs later: "Liu Wi once again entered the kitchen and made two bowls of noodles, added in two eggs, and topped it with a few slices of cooked beef."  And then: "Liu Qi rolled his eyes at Bai Chuan's antics and asked, 'What do you still want to eat? Want me to add in another dish of fried prawns?'"   And so on. Bai Chuan, being the river god, brings in all the seafood they want for Li Qi to cook: "With a shake of his sleeves, a heap of seafood that could be found in the river came out from his sleeves, making pitter-patter sounds when they landed on the floor as they were still alive and jumping around energetically. Frantically, Liu Qi called out for him to stop so he could use a small basin to pick up the prawns. The remaining fish and crabs were stored in a bamboo basket for their next meal."   Even better, they split the chores! Bai Chuan uses his river god-powers to act as a magical dishwasher after Liu Qi's done cooking. Peak domestic. What harmony.

Translation Link

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who Story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

The Underwater Menace

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on an extinct volcanic island. Before long, the travellers are captured and taken into the depths of the Earth, where they find a hidden civilisation — the lost city of Atlantis.

The Atlanteans worship a goddess named Amdo and use fish people — men and women operated upon so that they can breathe under the sea — to farm the plankton-based food on which they survive. A deranged scientist, Professor Zaroff, has convinced them that he can raise their city from the sea, but actually, he plans to drain the ocean into the Earth's molten core so that the resultant superheated steam will cause the planet to explode.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Ice Warriors

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on Earth in a new ice age. The travellers make their way into a base where scientists, commanded by Leader Clent, are using an ioniser device to combat the advance of a glacier.

A giant humanoid creature, called an Ice Warrior by one of the scientists, has been found buried in the nearby glacier. When thawed, it revives and is revealed to be Varga, captain of a Martian spacecraft that landed on Earth centuries ago and is still in the glacier. Varga sets about freeing his comrades and formulating a plan to conquer the Earth — Mars itself is now dead.

 Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Dominators

Synopsis

When two belligerent Dominators and their robotic servant Quarks land on the peaceful planet Dulkis planning to drop a radioactive seed into the planet's core to refuel their spaceship, the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe must attempt to inspire the pacifist Dulcians to resist..

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Krotons

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on the planet of the Gonds, who are ruled and taught in a form of self-perpetuating slavery by the alien Krotons — crystalline beings whose ship, the Dynatrope, crash-landed there thousands of years earlier after being damaged in a space battle.

The Krotons are in suspended animation, in a crystalline slurry form, awaiting a time when they can be reconstituted by absorption of mental energy. Periodically, the two most brilliant Gond students are received into the Dynatrope, nominally to become "companions of the Krotons", but in truth to have their mental energy drained, after which they are killed.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Seeds of Death

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands in a space museum on Earth in the late 21st century, where the Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe learn that contact has been lost between Earth and the Moon. In this era, instant travel — T-Mat — has revolutionised the Earth. Its people have lost interest in space travel. The Doctor and his companions travel to the Moon in an old-style rocket and reach the Moonbase, control centre for T-Mat, only to find a squad of Ice Warriors have commandeered the base and plan to use the T-Mat network to their advantage.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[loominggaia]

BORMISH CUISINE

OVERVIEW

The Bormek Commonwealth was a Great Kingdom that collapsed long ago. Today, descendants of the Bormish people live in its ruins, now fractured into many small tribes. But in its glory days, this was one of the biggest and grandest civilizations in the world, and its delicious traditional cuisine is a testament to that, for these dishes still live on even in the post-collapse wasteland.

CORN ON THE COB Corn has always been a staple crop for the Bormish people, as it thrives in the soil that makes up the vast Buffalo Hills region. The Bormish refined this grain into all kinds of dishes, but they enjoyed it in its original form as well. Traditional Bormish corn on the cob is roasted in the husk, then drenched in butter, cheese, and chili powder.

DRAKBULOK A ball of fried cornmeal with some type of meat or vegetable in the middle. This dish originated with the ogre tribes in the redsnake canyons, who made them with hoopsnake meat. In their native tongue, the name of this dish translates to "dragon's bollocks". As the recipe spread around to new regions, different types of meat and even vegetarian-friendly versions began springing up.

CORN BREAD A sweet, dense bread made from cornmeal, animal fat, and sugar. In its traditional Bormish form, it's also made with hot chilies. In the kingdom's heydey, corn bread could be found in the hands of every traveler. This still proves true today after the kingdom's collapse, as its former citizens scour the wasteland with this convenient, portable snack.

PRICK ON A STICK Some type of sausage--usually beef--wrapped in a cornmeal dough coating, fried, and pierced on a stick. This food is hearty yet convenient to carry around, so it was very common to see on the street, especially at carnivals and other events. Its simplicity and deliciousness has carried it through to modern times, and it has even found popularity in foreign lands, particularly in Zareen Empire.

BORMISH FISH CAKE This dish is made from fish, potatoes, leeks, and hot chilies, mixed together and then baked or fried into a cake. Unlike most cakes, it is not a dessert, but instead eaten for dinner. This dish was obviously most popular around the kingdom's coastal regions, though as refrigeration technology improved, it quickly spread to inland regions as well. It's often eaten with pickles, potatoes, and mayonaise.

BERRY MASH Just as the name suggests, this dessert is made by mashing berries into a paste. Typically some kind of fruit and cream is mixed in too. The mash can be used as a sweet sauce or just eaten on its own. Its high sugar content makes it most popular with the region's fae peoples.

SHRUMETO A vegetarian dish that originates in the Brokenwood region. A shrumeto is a large roasted mushroom cap filled with mashed potatoes, diced tomatoes, and sometimes covered in cheese. Other vegetables and spices may be added too. The region's native peoples were notorious for growing giant mushrooms, and would cook shrumetos big enough for the whole village to share.

BEEDKI A potent whisky made from fermented corn. This drink is beleved to have originated with the centaur tribes of the Buffalo Plains region, but it quickly spread throughout the continent. It is most popular with heavyweight species like centaurs, ogres, and minotaurs. Beedki's popularity did not wane after the kingdom's collapse--rather, demand for it only surged higher, and large-scale distilleries are still operating in the wasteland today.

POP CANDY This traditional Bormish candy is made by popping corn kernels and then dunking them in honey, caramel, or maple syrup. Wherever there are smiles and laughter, there is usually pop candy, for this food was a staple at circuses, concerts, and social gatherings. Pop candy even survived the kingdom's collapse and carried many refugees through hard times.

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[starwrighter]

I am not a baby!! (yes you are)

(Ao3) (Masterpost) (previous) (next)

(Chapter ten baby!!!!)

Danny isn't stupid. He knew Giga Fish was still here somewhere. Watching him... Hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, oxygen ticking lower and lower as he darted back into the semi-safety of his base.

A backpack full of peepers and bladderfish smelled awful. Getting the fishy smell out of his suit was going to take ages! Bladder fish are natural water filters. The fabricator draws out drinkable water from the fish's well...Bladder. Ancients, he hoped the fabricator sterilized this with its little lasers.

Non vegan water...

Sam would have a conniption fit, Tucker would love everything about it. He'd find a way to contact them soon if they didn't find him first. The earful he would get from Jazz might just be worse than his giant stalker. Getting lectured by Jazz would be preferred over sitting here with a gigantic fish a few dozen meters away. At least with Jazz, he knew she cared about him. He didn't know what the big guy wanted from him. Danny wasn't exactly a snack you'd travel through the sea for.

Whatever the guy wanted, Danny didn't care. As long as they both stuck to themselves, things would go just fine...

Peeking through the curtain, Danny saw the massive eel-like fish curled up, staring directly at his base.

Danny really wanted to study the guy. What were his eating habits? He didn't seem to be interested in eating any of the fish around him. Both the sharp teeth at the front of his maw and the shiny bioluminescent stripes that drew fish closer to him suggested a carnivore, but his complete disinterest conflicted with this.

Could a fish be vegetarian? A fish capable of sentience like this one probably could, but Danny didn't want to shove his head in the lion's mouth to test that.

Drawing on his PDA, Danny sketched out the blueprints for a table with a trash bin that slotted into the left side. Two air-tight cabinets were built into it. One smaller one underneath the trash bin and one larger, like a fridge on the right. In the middle was a collapsible set of stairs that'd allow him to reach the top of the table. Maybe making the table shorter would be more convenient, but giving up that extra storage space along with his dignity would be too much for him right now. The table top was a bit too empty for his liking, so he added small drawers at the back edge of the table. A perfect place to store small blades and silverware when he created the blueprints for them. Overall, it was much more like a workstation with built-in storage than a table, but Danny still planned to eat his meals here just as he planned to prepare them.

The fabricator would've been sufficient to cook his meals, but the lasers vaporized the shit out of the organs and bones of the fish. Anything nonedible in a fish's body turned to dust. The dusted ligaments and organs gave the meat a medical taste, like using hydrogen peroxide as mouthwash. Sure, the lasers were cool, but what was the point of cooking if your food tasted like high-tech sadness? It was bad enough that the only seasoning he had was salt. He didn't need his food to taste like it was made in a lab. Gutting his own fish was a necessity. Anything he couldn't eat could be tossed outside for the carnivores to snack on. They deserved a little treat for dealing with his stupidity.

Danny built his little table close to his fabrication station, ensuring it was anchored to the floor and wall. An unsteady piece of furniture could flatten him into an ugly pancake. If his friends were here, they'd agree he looked much cuter when he's only fifty percent dead.

Quickly stepping up to the table with his backpack full of fish, he unsheathed his survival knife... The knife would've been so much more effective than his teeth when he fought the big guy. Danny fought the urge to facepalm. What's done is done, he bit someone like a feral raccoon, but everything worked out!

Gutting fish was more difficult than he'd expected it to be. It was hard to tell if his lack of experience or now tiny hands were what made the task feel a thousand times harder. Peeper blood was yellow, but his own was still a vibrant red that dripped onto the table with every slip of the hand. It felt like a fishing trip with Dad, only without the forty-minute lecture on the dangers of ghost fish.

Running his hands over the now gutted Peepers, Danny used all the power he could muster, freezing them solid. Spots danced in his peripherals, the floor spinning underneath him like a carousel. It took a minute or two to regain his composure. Sitting on the ground with his frozen fish head pounding, face flushed red. Forcing his powers was like trying to drink scalding hot coffee through a toothpick-thin straw. It left him out of breath, fingertips burning with no evidence of damage.

There was an ecto dampener on this planet, he was certain of that. One stronger than any of the ones his parents had built. A radius that reached far past the planet's atmosphere yet still remained potent enough to prevent any significant power usage.

Unfortunately for whoever put the field up, it didn't cancel out his powers completely. Maybe if it did, he would have died completely, saving the culprit or culprits from being mauled. If Danny was anything, he was a stubborn bastard, and there was no amount of dampening that would stop him from clawing the faces of whatever had the audacity to do this! If he had access to his powers he could've saved everyone!

Over a hundred people died because he wasn't strong enough to save them! Because he was prevented from saving them. Ships like the Aurora don't just crash and burn for no reason. Alterra might skimp out a bit on employee safety, but the engineers they hired for serious maintenance were top-of-the-line. Underpaid, but top of the line, they wouldn't make a mistake that could cause that much damage. The way the ship shook, it felt like something had hit them. Everything about this seemed more and more suspicious the more thought he put into it.

For now all he could do was survive in hopes of finding some kind of lead. Finding and stopping whatever was stifling his powers was number three on his to-do list. Just above studying the wildlife but below finding other survivors and surviving himself.

First things first was rations! Both he and any other survivor would need food and water. While he was set with his... questionably hygienic water, fabricating more was a necessity. Giga fish was still out there, Danny could feel eyes on him whenever he passed the glass. All it would take was a split decision to plop his tail in front of the hatch, and Danny was trapped in here to either starve or dry out like a sponge under a sunlamp.

Coral samples and crumbling chunks of salt were taken by the fabricator, turned into bleach within the blink of an eye. The PDA screamed at him, a pitch that could've made his ears bleed. Warnings flashed on screen, the AI desperately pleading with him not to put the substance anywhere near his face. A wild contradiction to the PDA entrance that recommended using it to disinfect his wounds.

Only when he used the bleach to fabricate more water did the tablet stop screaming. The water smelt chemical, and it tasted vaguely of metal coins. Like the overpriced bottled waters, you'd find at an airport vending machine. Laying the bottles on their sides, he stashed them away in the cabinet, placing frozen peepers between each layer. Cold water wasn't a luxury he'd be willing to give up, nor was it something he'd give himself a mind-splitting headache over. So the obvious solution was to turn the cabinet into a disturbing refrigerator with dead fish eyes that stared into the deepest depths of his soul!

Nobody ever said survival was aesthetically pleasing.

Walking back to the window, Danny stares flatly at the curtain. Apparently, the whole "You can't see me, therefore I no longer exist," rule didn't work on this guy, so the curtain was completely useless. Peeking past the cloth, he could see the fish staring at him. Didn't even bother to hide, just sat there like he didn't belong hundreds of meters down doing anything else.

If watching him gave this guy joy, he's going to do something nobody could be entertained by. No longer should he be the comedian for giga fish! He was going to do something so drastic, something he'd only done sparely over the past year! He was going to...

Sleep!

He collapsed down onto the floor, curling himself up with the low-hanging curtains. Spite made it all the easier for him to fall asleep.

@ashoutinthedarkness @avelnfear @meira-3919 @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @hugsandchaos @blep-23 @zeldomnyo @bytheoldwillowtree @justwannabecat @shepherdsheart @starlightcat04 @stargazing-bookwyrm @pupstim @dragongoblet

[sw4gf1sh]

Rwby OCs Masterpost :P

Starting with team SMKE since I have them done, I will add JAAM later in a reblog or something :]

SMKE (smoke)

☀️Sunshine Glaze

🌑Moonlight Glaze

🪸Koral Atoll

🦌Olive Everglade

~

Sunshine:

Leader of team SMKE, Sunshine is stubborn and tries too hard to get approval from everyone. Also a bit judgmental at first. She has a dagger named “Venus” which glows in low light. Her semblance is opposite of her sister’s, and is called “speed time”, with it she speeds herself up while opponents move in regular speed. Speed time is activated by staring into the opponent’s eyes. Eyes glow gold when semblance is in use. Eye contact must be kept uninterrupted while the semblance is in use. If the contact is broken, the effects break down immediately, leaving the user vulnerable. Sunshine can also get jealous, mostly over her older sister. She has spent most of her life feeling like she had to be just as good as Moon or better, and never felt like she measured up compared to her.

The Crown has been seeking her out, but she refuses to join them.

Under her cold and somewhat tough exterior, she is passionate about what she does and her beliefs. Although it would be easy to just see her as a grumpy impatient woman, she’s a strong independent person who will always stand by those she loves and cares about. Loyalty is important to her! Even though she’s been hypocritical of that in the past…

Aura color: orange

Semblance: speed time

Weapon: Dagger/pistol/boomerang

5’7

She/her

Thick Australian accent.

~

Moonlight:

Older twin sister of Sunshine. Moonlight is patient and sweet, and somewhat unlike Sunshine, accepting of others. Moonlight is critiqued by her younger twin sister, saying she’s a pushover and more loved by their parents. Has a giant pair of scissors codenamed “Lune”(meaning moon in French) that can be taken apart and used as two swords. Her semblance is called “slow time”, where she slows the opponent(s) and moves around them at regular speed. The semblance is activated by a deep stare into the opponent’s eyes, which will glow silver when the semblance is in use. This semblance has the same weaknesses as Sunshine’s. She loves and supports her sister, but is unaware of the jealousy until a later time.

Sunshine and Moonlight are from Vacuo!

Aura color: gray

Semblance: slow time

Weapon: giant pair of scissors (dualswords)

5’8 (5’9 in heels)

She/her

Slight Australian accent.

~

Koral:

One of two faunus in team SMKE. Koral is an outgoing fun loving girl who is from the Kingdom of Atlantia (made up by me lol), off the coast of Menagerie. She is the princess of the Atoll kingdom. She doesn’t really like her heritage and being associated with it, and wants to be free and protect her family from the front lines. She finds being royalty boring, and her mom doesn’t want her to become a huntress, because she is worried about something happening to her daughter. Koral left her kingdom anyway, and hopes she won’t disappoint her family.

Personality wise, she can be a little reckless, but still understands her limits. Due to her upbringing of being sheltered in a faunus royal family, she initially isn’t as used to constantly being around humans, but is never against them. Olive being a faunus as well helps bring the two closer together. Koral also loves telling stories, often about her life growing up in Atlantia. She is a tropical fish faunus. Her weapon, a trident/rifle combo named “Riptide” is her pride and joy. Her semblance is the ability to breathe underwater. Riptide can be adapted for carrying.

Aura color: magenta

Semblance: underwater breathing

Weapon: trident/rifle

4’11

She/her.

~

Olive:

The second faunus in team SMKE, a reindeer faunus. She comes from a family of huntsmen. Olive uses her surname (Everglade) to complete the team’s name. She is shy and quiet, but a fierce fighter. However, she doesn’t have too much faith in herself. She is from a small village near Vale and comes from a line of siblings who have become huntsmen and huntresses. Her weapon “Marrow” has dust-infused arrows. She has a crush on Koral, but the latter is oblivious. Her semblance silences noises she makes, like footsteps. It can also mask other’s sounds if they are close enough in her bubble (like May Marigold’s invisibility). This can be used against her, like if an opponent gets close enough to her in battle.

Aura color: olive green

Semblance: soundlessness

Weapon: bow & arrows, arrows are all dust infused. Bow can also be infused with hard light dust to be used as a shield

5’10

She/they

TBC!!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Round One: Ngwevu vs Kholumalumo

Factfiles:

Ngwevu ntoloko

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs and @zygodactylus

Name meaning: Grey skull

Time: ~190 to 180 million years ago (Pliensbachian to Toarcian stages of the Early Jurassic)

Location: Clarens Formation, South Africa

Ngwevu is a dinosaur with a case of baby-face so bad it was classified as another genus for 40 years. Initially discovered in 1978 and thought to be a specimen of Massospondylus, turns out it was just a really baby-looking prosauropod of a different kind! Many times in evolution animals will retain “baby” characteristics into adulthood - the classic and easily recognizable trait being large, round eyes, but also other features such as stunted proportions and chunkier limbs, depending. It seems that Ngwevu went through one of these processes, looking more similar to juveniles of other prosauropods (such as Massospondylus) than adults, all while actually being adults themselves. Predictably, it had a squat face with large eyes, a wide snout, robust proportions, and a thick body - babified Massospondylus! It probably had a more generalist diet than its cousin, indicating probable niche partitioning as the two lived in the same environment. The Clarens Formation, coming right after the Elliot, was an arid desert dominated by dunes, with a few types of dinosaurs including ornithischians, theropods, and other sauropodomorphs. In addition, fish, crustaceans, and invertebrates are also known from this location. 

Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum

Artwork by @alphynix, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Kholumolumo (giant reptilian dragon from Sotho folklore) named for Paul and François Ellenberger (the original excavators of the fossils)

Time: 210 million years ago (Norian stage of the Late Triassic)

Location: Lower Elliot Formation, Lesotho

Kholumolumo is an old friend with a new name. Its previous informal name, “Thotobolosaurus” meaning “trash heap reptile”, was truly magnificent and became one of the great memes of Ye Olde 2010s Palaeo Tumblr! Needless to say it was a bittersweet moment to see our old buddy finally published but lose its iconic name in the process. Rest in peace, Trash Heap Lizard.

The reason it wound up with that name is because the fossils were in fact found basically right next to the local rubbish dump of the village of Maphutseng in 1955. The trash pile turned out to be sitting on a bone bed of around five to ten animals, and over the course of several years they were excavated and moved to the University of Cape Town. Unfortunately, and perhaps appropriately to the name, the subsequent study of these fossils ended up being a complete trash fire. Specimens went missing that have never been found, professional relationships fell apart, and the animal itself wasn’t mentioned in the literature until 1970 when it was dropped into a discussion on the stratigraphy of the Elliot formation and named “Thotobolosaurus mabeatae” without any description of the fossils. This made the name “Thotobolosaurus” a nomen nudum (naked name) and thus invalid.

Finally in 2020 all the tribulation paid off and it received a proper initial description, although many fossils that weren’t lost in the chaos still remain under study and could be the subject of future papers. It’s nice to see our beloved trash heap of a dinosaur finally coming into its own!

DMM Round One Masterpost

[mangoisms]

like the part of the song where it falls ━ miyuki kazuya

━ part four: mostly, i want to be kind / read part three

━ wc: 7k

━ warnings: none

━ masterpost

“How’d your appointment go?”

“Three months. Three months and I’m cleared for rollercoasters!” 

“I thought that was a joke.”

“Whaaaat? No! January twenty-fifth —” you clap a hand on Miyuki’s shoulder, grinning; he shakes his head, pulling into the parking lot of Birch Aquarium. “That’s our day.”

“Our? No way.”

“Yes way.”

He groans melodramatically and makes a perfect right swing into a parking spot. “So, what? Disneyland? Universal Studios?”

“What? Screw those guys! I’m talkin’ about Six Flags, baby! It’s Batman time!”

“How are you even cleared for that?”

“Well, I’m not yet. I’ll schedule an appointment for the week before and if my doctor clears it, we’re good to go. Speaking of, we should settle on a date.”

“A date for our date?”

He’s doing that more often. Mostly because the press has gotten a lot of pictures of you two hanging around the city and the more sensationalist tabloids are saying you’re dating. Framing your whole meeting as one big meet-ugly that leads to a love story for the ages. You’ve both denied the rumors but mostly, you try not to think about it. 

You flush. “No jokes or I’ll drag you onto Viper.”

“And what’s that one like?”

“Terrifying enough to have you coming off appreciating life and loving your neighbor.”

He snickers. 

Realistically speaking, you probably won’t be able to ride that one. Too much G-force. You’d either grey out or just straight up blackout. 

Hector would kill you. If the coaster didn’t do the job, anyway. 

“You’re all healed, then?” he asks as you approach the entrance. 

“Brain bruises are gone and so is the fracture.”

“Good. That’s good.” He hands the tickets to the attendant. You watch him. 

You’ve been thinking about what Jerry told you for the past few days. About the incident with that little girl in Georgia. You aren’t sure if you should say something. Anything. It was already a few years ago. Truthfully now, you’re just…

Well, you’re wondering if he is doing this stuff because he feels guilty. You don’t want him to feel guilty. You want him here because he wants to be here. You want —

Nothing. 

You shove the thoughts away and follow him. You’d both come early because you wanted to see the penguin feeding at one. 

And plus, there aren’t as many people around. Kind of a bonus. A Tuesday at noon. The second week of December. Empty. Or, well, mostly empty. 

Inside, the air is cool, smelling faintly fishy. It is dark, with the light coming from the tanks, shining blue on your faces. You’ve come prepared with your camera, taking pictures of whatever catches your eye. You two walk through the Hall of Fishes, showcasing the diverse marine life of the pacific. The Giant Kelp Forest, with kelp swaying in cool blue water, Leopard Sharks, Moray Eels, and Giant Black Sea Bass gliding through them. Then the Sea-dragons and Seahorses display, with the aforementioned marine life as well as pipefish and other unique species. 

“Seahorses mate for life, you know.”

“Don’t the males also get pregnant?”

“They’ve got it all figured out,” you sigh wistfully; half of you wants to climb in that tank. “I mean, seriously, that’s some soulmate shit.”

“Isn’t it kind of… not?”

“For me, soulmates are created, not found.”

“What’s the criteria?”

The question shocks you. You look at him. 

He’s already looking at you. 

Your chest warms and you look back at the tank, where a light green seahorse speckled with black dots swims through the water. 

“Why are you asking?” you ask, a little teasing, though your heart is suddenly beating out of your chest. 

Quiet for a moment. Then… “I’m curious.”

The thing is, he doesn’t sound like he’s joking or even teasing you. No, he sounds… well. Curious. 

“I don’t know,” you say, deciding screw it and looking at him. Your hands grow clammy around your camera. You let it fall, hanging from your neck. 

You tug distractedly at your shirt. It’s a comfortable day, so you’re in an outfit similar to the day you and he had Rico’s, with your Docs, your over-the-knee black socks, denim shorts and black cherry lip lacquer. Except it’s not your Wonder Woman shirt, but the Padres jersey you’d been generously gifted by the team. A rusty brown kind of color, with golden trims and San Diego written across the front. Nothing else on the back. You wear it unbuttoned, though, with a black lace trim cami underneath; the jersey is a tad oversized at your request, so the ends fall down a little bit past your hips. Your nails are painted black again. 

When Miyuki saw you after picking you up from your apartment, he said if you were going to be friends, you had to have his jersey, too, so he was getting you one immediately. You said that wouldn’t help your dating rumors at all. He said Do you really care what they think, tomcat?

“I don’t know,” you say again. Unsure if it’s to his question about criteria or your own thoughts. 

(But you know — your answer to whether you care what others think, you mean. Not the press, not the media, not the fans who think you’re trying to steal his money — and they can die mad about it, too, because nine out of ten times, he’s insisting on paying and since you only make enough to pay rent, feed yourself and your pets, and sustain a Spotify subscription, well, why the hell are you going to say no? You don’t care about them, not really. You just care about him. About this. Whatever this is. Real friendship or just his guilt. 

But god, you really hope it isn’t that.)

“I don’t think there’s a specific criteria for what classifies a soulmate. That’s the beauty of it. I think Jerry is my soulmate but I think Batman and Robin are my soulmates, too. My pets, I mean, not the actual characters.”

He smiles. Your heart does that funny thing again. 

“But you know how I am. I love love. I love humanity. I love the strangers I see on the streets being kind to one another, the baby who smiles at me on the bus. It’s just… it’s not hard. It’s easy.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?”

“What’s life without a little heartbreak? Yeah, I’ll get hurt and I’ll lose a little part of my heart but at the end of the day, I’ve got people to help me fill it back up. I don’t think you can go through life and get a fulfilling experience if you try to protect yourself constantly, never be willing to let someone else handle it.”

You pause, a question on the tip of your tongue, unsure if you can go ahead with it. 

“Ask,” he says quietly. “We’re friends. Friends ask each other questions.”

You smile at him repeating your words from last week. 

“Well… do you have people like that?” 

He looks ahead, pensive. Quiet long enough that you know you won’t get an answer. Not now, anyhow. And that’s okay. 

He’s spoken of his old friends from high school. Told you plenty of amusing stories from that time. Told you about how they lost Nationals in his first and second year, then won it in his third. Told you about Kuramochi Youichi, who ‘is sharper than he looks and surprisingly reliable, too,’ and Sawamura Eijun, who is ‘obnoxiously loud and passionate and won’t ever leave you alone, but he’s one hell of a guy.’

Miyuki bared a lot to you. But there’s still more to him. You think that’s how it will always be, you peeling the layers back one by one, discovering who he is. Then perhaps one day, you might get the privilege of holding his heart in your hands. 

You continue to explore the aquarium for a little while longer. 

Outside, they have tide pools, with sea stars, sea anemones, hermit crabs, sea cucumbers, lobsters, and other little creatures swim around. You can even dip your hand inside and feel them. 

Miyuki refuses (“My hands are my life!”) but you get him to join you, only by guiding his arm under yours, your hand pressed over the back of his. He squirms at the feeling of the creatures brushing up against his palm and you beam. 

Afterward, you check out their penguin exhibit, where they have a feeding show as well. Then you start to feel hungry. 

“They have a cafe here, don’t they?” Probably exorbitantly priced but you know the aquarium is owned by UC San Diego and they’re doing lots of conservation efforts so you don’t mind. Even if the tickets were twenty-five bucks a pop. 

“Not necessary,” Miyuki says.

You chuckle at his matter-of-fact tone. “Why not?”

“I brought food.” He opens the messenger bag he’s had over his shoulder, showing you two bentos. You’d been curious about it but didn’t ask. Now you know. 

“Are you allowed to bring that in?” you ask curiously. 

He shrugs. “They didn’t say anything to me about it.”

Well. You can never say no to his cooking. 

The two of you find a picnic bench near the cafe. Not many people are outside but you still sit with your backs to everything else, anyway. 

He made thick club sandwiches with mayo, ketchup, cooked ham, bacon, cheese, an over medium egg, lettuce, and tomato. It is paired with spam musubi, made of mixed grain rice with furikake, spam, egg, and nori, then wrapped with seaweed. It’s delicious, as usual. 

You eat in a companionable silence. You feel a little sleepy, too, since you slept intermittently while running the show last night. It runs on weekdays but not weekends, but since yesterday was Monday, you had no choice but to stay up late, then get back to your apartment at four where you slept until eleven. 

Overhead, the sun is out, shining down warmly on you, mitigating the effects of the cool breeze that rustles your hair occasionally.

This is nice. 

It’s always nice but… 

You find yourself increasingly appreciative of these stolen moments of peace. 

You finish your food. Miyuki wordlessly offers you his water bottle, which you gladly accept, washing down your food with still-cold water. You pass it back afterward unthinkingly. You don’t quite realize what you did until you see him looking at something in the corner of your eye and you turn to see, too. Only to wince when you realize he is staring at the rim of the bottle, where a dark imprint of your lips lingers behind. 

“Shit, sorry —”

“It’s fine,” he says, shaking his head a little, then swiping a thumb over it. But the attempt to clean it doesn’t work. It smears over the white of the water bottle and on the pad of his thumb instead. He blinks and stares at his thumb, the stain darker than the light brown of his skin. 

“It’s… long lasting,” you stammer, embarrassed as you turn to rifle through your tote bag, pulling out a small pack of makeup wipes. 

You pull one out, then lean over to clean the rim of the bottle, black cherry staining the wipe. He doesn’t let go, so you just move into his space to do it, embarrassed for the most part. 

Once the bottle is clean, you turn to his hand, cleaning the lacquer from his thumb. 

“Sorry,” you mutter, lifting your eyes to him. 

You freeze as you realize how close you two are. You’re in his space. Your legs pressed against each other, your hand on his. The heat of him bleeds through his jeans, warding off any chills from the cool breeze. And he’s looking at you. 

He’s looking at you. 

This close, you can see how thick his lashes are, amber brown eyes flecked with gold, burning through you, and you can see the faint tan lines on his face, from his glasses or from his catcher’s mask, who knows, but it’s a decidedly endearing tidbit of information that you tuck away behind your ribcage. 

Your heart pounds fast. Heat rises within you, ballooning in your chest. You don’t know what to do — you should pull away but…

You don’t want to. 

The realization is enough to make you feel dizzy. Or it could be that you’re so close, you can smell his shampoo, something spicy and warm. 

“You asked me earlier,” he begins quietly, surprising you, making you pull back a fraction and your hand jerk (the two of you are in public and granted he has a cap on but still; if the press caught this, they’d have a field day). But he doesn’t let you go, plucking the wipe from your hand with his left hand, while his right, the one that had the stain, closes around yours. 

“About whether I have anyone,” he goes on. “The truth is, I’m not sure I do.”

You soften. “Why not?”

“It’s only me over here. Well… there’s Chris but he’s in Toronto with the Blue Jays. He’s… got his own life to handle. My friends from school… they’re all back in Japan and truthfully, I’m not as great a friend as I should be to them. They’re good, they’ve always been, but me…”

He finally looks away from you, sighing. You’re pressed to his side since he has your right hand clasped in his right, your arms and legs pressed together. It’s a bit of an awkward angle but you ignore that, happy to be this close. Happy to have him opening up even if it makes you sad. 

“I’m the variable in the equation. And the fact that I’m here and not there… after everything… next to impossible.”

The new information you’d learned from Jerry about his second season with the Braves springs to the forefront of your mind. 

“After everything?” you ask hesitantly. You don’t want to assume. 

He looks at you. “You know.”

Guilt curls in your chest. “I only found out recently. I didn’t… Before that, I had no idea that had happened.”

He looks away again, fingers tugging the bill of his cap. 

“Her name is Mia. She was six when it happened. She just turned ten a few weeks ago.” He digs out his phone. Shows you a picture of a little girl with a gap-toothed smile, dressed in a baseball uniform, with a glove on her hand. “She still wants to play baseball. Be the first girl to join the Majors. After everything, the least I can do is make sure she has every chance to.”

“That’s… really nice of you, you know.” 

He doesn’t respond to that, putting his phone. “I assume you know how that season turned out, then.”

The worst slump of his career.

You don’t say that. You don’t say anything. You just look at him, heart aching on his behalf.

He leans back, looking up at the sky. “They tried. They did. But up until then… accidents like that didn’t happen for me.”

You stay quiet. A slow breeze flutters his hair. 

“When I was a kid… I was smaller than most of the kids on my team. Much smaller than them. I said things — the truth, it was only ever the truth, to make us better — and they didn’t like that. I saw no use in fighting back. I’d show them on the field. But what that taught me… violence has no place in baseball. Not that kind of violence. Say what you want on the field, in your plays, but… you ruin the game by doing anything else.”

Your heart aches; it feels like each beat it takes is harder than the last. “Miyuki…”

“I know,” he sighs. “I didn’t try to hit her. I didn’t. But indirectly… it was my fault, my actions. More than that… why didn’t they have netting there? Why were there no precautions in place? Why’d it take so long for someone to get to them?”

Tension bubbles in the air. Everything about him sharpens in that moment, anger taking over; a dormant anger, the kind you hold onto, brutal and unforgiving. Not something new. 

He looks at you. Sunlight turns his eyes honey brown but they’re hard, burning. 

“Do you know what they told me? The park, MLB? They just said, that’s just how things are here. Fans didn’t want netting there. This is America. But that’s too easy. They just don’t want to lose the money in the initial stages. But people would come. They always will. But how could they make that expense? Of course not.” He lets out a slow exhale, some tension unwinding from his shoulders. “I didn’t let it go. They threatened suspension.”

“What?”

“Her mom told me to let it go. The park would put up netting, but it would just be them. No one else would follow suit. Not until one of their fans almost died from a foul ball or a broken bat flying into the stands.”

“That’s…”

“I’m biding my time,” he says, speaking with a kind of ruthless finality that raises the hair on the back of your neck. “A few more years before my age catches up with me and they start putting me on the back-burner. I’ll do it then.” 

He is prepared to scorch the earth and salt it behind him, too, for this. You can’t say you disagree with him. 

“Anyway,” he sighs, thumb idly rubbing over your hand; you suppress a shiver at the feeling, catcher’s callouses ticklish against your skin. “All of that happened that year, that summer. My friends, they tried, but… nothing could be done. Things got… better when I moved out here. But the damage had been done. I couldn’t try turning up pretending everything was fine. A younger me would’ve but I can’t do things like that anymore. We made some progress but… like I said. They’re there and I’m here. The variable in the equation.”

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind a call from you. Anything, really. I don’t get the sense they’ll abandon you.”

“Maybe.” 

“Everyone has their issues, Miyuki,” you say softly. “No one is perfect. But you’re trying, aren’t you? Right now, you’re trying. You don’t have to. You could’ve just told me to go to hell and that… well. That would’ve been fine. But you’re trying.”

He looks back at you. The look in his eyes makes your stomach flip-flop and your heart pound. 

“You remind me of them, you know. Both of them.”

“Naive?”

“You and I both know you aren’t naive. No… you’re hopeful.”

Warmth spools like cotton candy in your chest. Your face warms and you smile, leaning your head on your shoulder. 

“And a little annoying. Admit it. It’s okay. Everyone should be a little annoying and off-putting every now and then.”

He chuckles, a small smile tugging at his mouth as he looks down at you. “A little annoying sometimes, yes. But it’s fine. Think I need to be annoyed every now and then. Probably payback for all the people I’ve annoyed when I was a kid.”

“You were just a kid. Let yourself off the hook. Though, I do agree that you should be annoyed every now and then. You certainly are annoying now. Well. A bit more than every now and then.”

“Don’t lie to me. I rarely annoy you. You’re just so… impossible to get worked up.”

“I let it go. I know you’re just like that. No reason in getting bothered about it.” You elbow him gently. “But there are limits, alright? You’re a grown man. Act accordingly.”

He laughs hard, for a reason you don’t understand, but you don’t care. You like the way his eyes crinkle. 

“You aren’t wrong!” he says when he finishes, grinning down at you. “Starting to think I should. Like maybe talking to my friends more. Maybe… give them a call like you say.”

You smile. “That sounds like a good start.”

“And I think… I think I should be a little more appreciative of the friend I have here with me right now.” 

“Oh, yeah?” you ask, beyond pleased. 

“So… you should start calling me Kazuya.”

“Wait — what —” you jerk and he quickly lets go of your hand to sling an arm around your shoulder and pull you low against his chest. It’s not particularly romantic because he kind of has you hunched over against his stomach. 

“Miyuki, what — hey, this isn’t comfortable…”

“I’m sorry, who are you talking to? That bird over there?”

“That’s a squirrel.”

“Question still stands. He doesn’t look like a Miyuki to me. He looks like a… Nori.”

“Miyuki.”

He doesn’t acknowledge you. 

Your face burns. You groan. You should be happy — you are happy. You know how big this kind of thing is. But you’re also embarrassed. Why are you embarrassed?

Being given the privilege of his name doesn’t mean anything other than you two are friends. And he said it himself. 

You’re friends. This is just what friends do. 

(Yeah, you know this sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself. 

You are.)

“Kazuya.”

“Now we’re talking about me. Very nice.”

He lets go. You glare a little at him as you come back up. He just smiles. It’s far too bewitching for you to really be annoyed with him. 

“Have any more room?”

“For?”

He rifles around the bag next to him, pulling out an orange. 

You melt like butter in a pan. 

“Sure, yeah.”

Kazuya (gah, that’s weird… but not in a bad way) proceeds to peel it expertly by hand, dropping orange peels into the now-empty bento box. Citrusy orange tickles your nose pleasantly. 

He splits off a few wedges for you. You take it, pulling one free. He pulls one free for himself. You sit side by side eating the orange together wedge by wedge.

Yeah. You’re thinking about it. 

You know — the poem. 

You know the one.

“What are you smiling about?”

“Do I need a reason to smile?”

He eyes you and the look on his face is both amused and fond but mostly fond. “I guess not.”

[Night Owl Transcript — 20:31 — 12/15/2022]

Tee: I just… I love poetry. I think poetry is great. Mouser’s rolling his eyes but that’s just ‘cause he likes nonfiction better, which is fine. I like both. Oh, someone on Twitter is asking what brought this on. Um. Nothing in particular at all. [Laughs]

[DNCE’s “Unsweet” starts playing in the background]

Tee: But if you guys have any favorites, send them my way. I’m always happy to get new material. 

[“Unsweet” starts playing] I want you unsweet You satisfy me That brutal honesty Won't you pour your heart out on me?

[Off-air recording starts] Mouser: What are you smiling about? Tee: I just think… the universe is great. Mouser: Right. Sure.  Tee: Soooo.  Mouser: [Laughing] What? Tee: I’ve come to a realization.  Mouser: And that is? Tee: I like Kazuya. Mouser: Jesus Christ. Tee: I mean, look at this queue. It wasn’t intentional but… Angel Baby. Attention. I’ll Be Waiting. It’s so… Mouser: [Laughing] You’re in love with this guy! Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Tee: Ohhh. That is so… It’s fine. It’s cool. It’s chill. We’re chill.  Mouser: Hehe, wait, are you, like, just realizing this? Like actually? Tee: Yeah.  Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Mouser: [Laughing] And you’re spending the holidays with him! Tee, Mouser: [Laughter] Tee: I know! I know… but it was just convenient. When the plans were made, I mean, ‘cause my sister and Hector are going out of the country and I could spend it with the family but… then he’d be alone.  Mouser: What do the kids call that? Down bad. You are down bad.  Tee: [Laughing] I know! It’s just… you don’t even realize it, the way he gets to you. It sneaks up on you. And then one day — today — you’re just like… Huh. He tries to seem so aloof, like he doesn’t care, but he does. A lot. I think that’s partially why he is the way he is.  Mouser: He’s also nice to look at it.  Tee: Really nice.

[Lolo Zouaï’s “Blur” plays next] Last night was a blur I stayed till the morning Let you call me your girl That don’t mean I’m falling (But I think I might) You’re every single thing that I deserve Maybe that’s too boring

Tee: Hey, you know I love you, right? Mouser: I know. I love you, too.  Tee: Good. I don’t want you to think… I mean, I know you don’t but, like, let me just reassure you… just ‘cause I like Kazuya like that won’t change anything between us. You’re my Mouser. My guy in the chair. The Donna Troy to my Dick Grayson.  Mouser: You geek. You’re the Chewie to my Han. Tee: I think I’m more Han than you but since we’re having a nice moment, I’ll let it go.  Mouser: Andddd the moment is over. 

You have no idea if Kazuya listens to the show. 

You don’t really know how to feel about it if he does. 

Mostly because, around him, you’re already feeling a whirlwind of emotions. More so because you’ve planted your white flag and given in. Given in to the fact that you do like him. That you like when he smiles, those rarities that make you appreciate them all the more, that you like the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs that stupid laugh of his. 

That you like his thoughtfulness, that he goes the full nine yards even when you tell him he doesn’t have to. He stopped buying shellfish for himself, even though you’d adamantly told him he didn’t have to do that, that all you asked if he hung out with you when he had it was wash his hands and if you were eating at his place, avoid cross-contamination. No. He just got rid of it completely. Not like I’m cutting out fish entirely, he told you. I still have my seafood. 

You like how he pays attention to you, he remembers things, like when you mentioned, a month ago, that you were trying to complete your collection of the Batman: No Man’s Land omnibuses by getting the second book and you also wanted to get the Batman: Road to No Man’s Land omnibus, too. They’re just ridiculously expensive — Volume 2 of NML is $150 and RTNML is $125. He surprises you with them a few days after your realization, says he was just passing a comic book store and braved the geeks to get it for you and that it looked mildly intriguing, so you have to let him read Volume 1, it’s only fair.

It’s so surprising, so unexpected and emotionally overwhelming for you that you throw your arms around with him without thinking it through. 

“And what will the press think?” he teases, but he still wraps his arms around you and there, in his embrace, everything feels right, like a puzzle piece sliding into place.

You would know. You’re, like, the leading authority on puzzles. 

“Screw the press,” you mumble into his hoodie. 

You don’t want to say something like, Well, this is just a platonic hug between friends. It aches too much. Like you can pretend you don’t want to stay here forever. Like you can pretend the urges to touch him freely aren’t growing stronger every day, minute by minute. 

But that won’t happen. You know it won’t. You’re a hypocrite for doing this, really, but the truth is, you’re selfish enough to want to keep him as a friend, if anything else. No use in ruining things by inserting feelings into the equation. You don’t want to lose him. You really, truly don’t. 

You’ll just wait for it to abate, for it to go away. It will. It’s the third week of December. The new year is creeping closer and closer. On February fifteenth, he is due to report in Peoria, Arizona for spring training; pitchers and catchers report on that day, before the rest of the team. From there, he won’t be back in San Diego until late March. Opening Day is April first. And from there… well. One-hundred-and-sixty-two games in the MLB’s regular season, from April to September. 

That’s only two months away. The thought is… sobering. Makes something inside you stiffen up but you tell yourself it’s fine. The distance might help. It will. 

You surely won’t compromise your relationship with him to get rid of these feelings, no way, they’ll just… be there. And if you get help in moving on from them with his busy season, well. That’s just how the cards fall.  

You let go before you get carried away, leaning down to deposit your gift in the car. A cool breeze flutters through your hair; you shiver a little. The breeze is cool but the day is pleasant enough with the sun is out. Still, you find yourself dressing a little more conservatively today, in a pair of mom jeans and a brand-new eggplant purple Night Owl crewneck.

Yes, you’re wearing your own merch. But this is more of a test-run, to see that it actually is comfortable before you release it. 

The ocean sprawls out ahead of you, gravel leading to soft white sand, overgrown grass and weeds sprouting from the fence that separates the parking lot from the beach. 

While you carefully put away the bag, behind you, Kazuya types on his phone. 

He called them — Kuramochi, Sawamura — a few weeks ago, finally taking that leap. Things are on the mend for them, you think. The thing is, they text a lot. 

“Texting your friends?”

He hums absently. You turn away from the passenger side and creep up next to him, deftly stealing his phone. 

“Wh — oi!” He sounds vaguely panicked for a reason you aren’t sure of but he has nothing to worry about.

“Relax, dude. I can’t read any of this.”

He snorts, looking relieved, then he switches gears, trying to look sternly at you. “Give me back my phone, brat.”

“Just for that?”

Despite everything being in Japanese, you know the symbol for the camera anywhere. You click it, opening the front camera, snapping a quick selfie of you, your wine-purple lips (you gotta match, man!) spread in a grin, peace sign thrown up, while he tries to grab you in the background. 

You send it just as he steals his phone back, laughing and pushing you gently. 

“Bothersome.”

“I get it from you.”

He rolls his eyes, still grinning, types a few things, then puts his phone away. You two go back to the car, where he uses you to balance himself as he rolls up his jeans and pulls off his socks and shoes. 

As he straightens, his eyes find your crewneck. He blinks, head tilting. He puts his shoes away. 

“So, you guys aren’t being shut down, then.”

You plant a hand on his offered arm and bend down to do the same with your shoes. Since you’d agreed to stop by the beach, you’d chosen a pair of sneakers rather than your Docs. Your camera hangs around your neck. 

Things are going well. Whether Night Owl is doing well because you’re constantly photographed hanging out with Kazuya (and constantly being accused of dating) or because the people who listened to you out of curiosity or word of mouth decided to stay because they liked the content and the music, you have no idea. 

But you don’t care. Both work just fine in your opinion. Either way, KCSD isn’t going to shut you down. No way. Not with the kind of traffic you get. 

Questions about merch increased, which pleased the company beyond end, but you had to go in there and negotiate. They didn’t get to take all the money. No. You think, after you and Jerry manning this show for several years, that you two deserve a pay raise. And updated equipment. You could probably ask for a bigger studio but you like it the way it is, honestly. Cozy. 

They’d agreed, of course. The reason they’re getting money is because of you and Jerry. You two are in positions to negotiate like that. 

So, you and Jerry have been creating all kinds of designs and ideas over the last few weeks. You’d settled on shirts, crewnecks, hoodies, and stickers. It’s eggplant purple, with a cartoonish owl and one of those old-world microphones, the silver ones. 

(You couldn’t do a Tom and Jerry thing, since, you know. Copyright issues. Thankfully everyone is aware of that and also don’t want you guys to be slapped with a cease and desist.)

“No,” you say, bare feet sinking into the sand; it’s not warm but it’s not cold, either. Somewhere in the middle. “They aren’t shutting us down. Things are going well.”

“Had me thinking otherwise since you’re wearing your own merch.”

You laugh. “Just testing it out. Making sure it’s fit to be released to the listeners. Can’t give them shoddy work.”

“Does your fan base have a name? Since you’re releasing merch…”

The two of you start walking. 

“There’s actually this organization in the comics called the Court of Owls. There’s no real name for the members themselves but they do employ these superhuman beings called Talons.”

“Naturally.”

“But we nixed that one. They’re kind of… evil. Organized crime type situation.”

“Probably for the best.”

“The best we’ve come up with is Owlers.”

He snickers. You laugh. 

“Yeah, I know. Not great. Night Owl’s name itself is pretty self-explanatory. There isn’t a lot to pull from it.”

“Well, this —” he tugs at your crewneck “— probably makes up for it. Where’s mine, by the way?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize —”

“You should’ve realized. I don’t accept your apology.”

You laugh loudly, your eyes taking in the tan sand and the blue waves stretching out into oblivion. Foamy tides lap at the shoreline. One part of you wants to dip your toes into it but you know you’ll be disappointed. The water is too cold to enjoy. 

A salty breeze kisses your face. You’ve missed the beach. You haven’t been in a while. This one is fairly empty, with only a few people around. At Scripps Pier, a quarter of a mile from Torrey Pine, that’s where you two are. It’s the same area as Black’s Beach, which is clothing optional but you know that if you continue south of the lifeguard tower, almost no one is around. So, no accidental eyefuls of naked people. 

He grins at you, looking all kinds of dashing with the breeze ruffling his hair, his dark blue crewneck pretty against his skin, the sun shining down on him. 

“So, then,” he starts casually in a way that has you raising an eyebrow, “you won’t be taking that offer.”

You cock your head, confused, before he nods at the camera in your hands. 

“Oh. Oh. God, I completely forgot about that. God. That was weird.” You raise the viewfinder to your eye, capturing the swaths of empty beach ahead of you. 

“Why?”

“It just is.” 

Click. You let your camera fall back to your neck. 

“Well, if you take it, you’ll definitely be spending more time around me and since you want to be best friends forever —”

You grin, face warming. “You can just say you want me to take it. That’s fine.”

“Hm.” He tilts his face up thoughtfully. “I do want you to take it. I mean, I think it’d be nice. But I also know you’re happy with Night Owl, which is admittedly cooler.”

“Hey, don’t disrespect your photographers like that.” 

He shoves you gently, rolling his eyes. “I’m trying to compliment you and this is what I get.”

You grin, falling back a few steps and raising the viewfinder to your eye again, moving until he’s in your frame. 

“See?” he says, lips quirked, hands tucked in his pocket. “Aren’t you having a great time taking pictures of me?”

Click. 

“Well, if I want to take pictures of you, all we have to do is this.”

He laughs and it sounds genuine. Click. “Touché, tomcat. Touché.”

Warmth unspools in your chest, ballooning there until you feel like you might float up. His eyes twinkle with something warm as he looks at you. The urge to feel his arms around you swells with vicious intensity, until you’re choking on it. 

“Hey. Let me see that.”

You let him tug the camera from your neck, resisting a shiver when his fingers brush the skin there. 

“You need merchandise shots, don’t you?” he asks, backing up, eyes on the screen. He knows his way around it. For the most part. You taught him that. 

“I think I need merchandise shots of you. You’ve been great for business.” You still toss your tote bag to the side. 

He barks out a laugh. “As soon as I get my own patented Night Owl merch. Then I’m yours.”

Your heart leaps in your chest. Like it wants to go to him. 

If only. 

He raises the viewfinder to his eye. 

You smile, holding out your hands. “What am I supposed to do?”

Click. 

“Aren’t you the one into photography? Shouldn’t you know?”

You laugh. Click. “Aren’t you the one whose face is plastered all over GQ, Sports Illustrated, and TIME right now?”

“So, you’re the person who bought all my copies at that one Whole Foods?”

“Look, you look good, but there are enough pictures of you primped and preened out there. The fact is, those guys would kill for the ones I have. You know. Candids. The natural state of being. You stuffing your face with black bean noodles from that one restaurant —”

“Those were good noodles! And I looked great!”

“The professional guy in the magazines is great, don’t get me wrong. But I like this version of you, too. You know. Just… you,” you say, smiling as a breeze ruffles through your hair. Click. That one surprises you. 

It’s maybe too honest on your part. But that’s fine. You think he needs to know that. You like the oh-so-professional Miyuki Kazuya on the field and you like him off the field, too, behind closed doors, teasing you constantly with rare, unexpected bouts of sensitivity, recipe testing in his kitchen, his competitiveness coming out when you try to complete thousand piece puzzles, and binge-watching episodes of House (because of course he likes that show). 

Despite what he likes to think, he is… good. Truly. 

Click. He adjusts something. 

“You should get your bag,” he says instead of responding to that. You don’t mind but —

“What?”

“I said, you should get your bag. A seagull is digging through it.”

“Wha — HEY! Get out of there!”

The seagull flies off. You snatch up your bag. Kazuya laughs so hard, you think he might bust a lung. You can’t help it, either. It only takes a second for you to start laughing, too. 

“Did you get that?!”

Still laughing, he nods, holding out the camera. You hurry to his side, uncontrollable giggles spilling out of you. 

Sure enough, in perfect clarity, he documented the entire thing. 

A few days later, Night Owl’s merchandise goes up, on a brand new website for the segment. The pictures before tragedy struck you on the beach go up, along with some of Jerry, and then one of Kazuya. Theirs get taken at the same beach. The Padres’ socials post them, too. 

And yours, documenting ‘Seagullgate,’ go up on Twitter as a bloopers thing. It becomes your most liked Tweet. (Especially when people find out who was behind the camera.)

[Night Owl Transcript — 20:48 — 12/21/2022]

Tee: Thank you guys for your continued support with the merch stuff. None of you are obligated to buy anything and honestly if you listen, that’s pretty much all we need but still. Thank you. 

[Pale Waves’ “My Obsession” plays] You're such a mess but you're always beautiful to me Run your fingers across my mouth I'm not prepared to stay here without you

[Off-air recording starts] Mouser: Hm.  Tee: What? Mouser: Today’s queue… Tee: Let me live, Jer. I’m pining.  Mouser: Well, don’t just admit it! Tee: Hey, we’re not live, right? Mouser: No.  Tee: Thank god. Could you imagine? Mouser: I would laugh.  Tee: What? My best friend… my Mouser… my Donna Troy… how could you betray me like that? Mouser: Admit it. It’d be hilarious.  Tee: In hindsight maybe. If it didn’t blow up in my face. Like the kind of thing you laugh about when you’re eighty.  Mouser: Oh, come on. That guy likes you. Why else would he agree to taking pictures for us? Tee: Um. We’re friends? Duh.  Mouser: Sure, but he also looks at you like you hung the moon in the sky. Tee: Hmm.  Mouser: Why do I even try?  Tee: Hey, if this is being recorded, where does it go? Mouser: I… actually have no idea.  Tee: We should find out. We’ve talked a lot of shit about the supervisors on here. Mouser: [Laughing]

[Seulgi’s “Anywhere But Home” plays next] Baby 그런적없니넌? 아무런계획없이떠나고싶은밤

Please take me anywhere but home Take me anywhere Please take me anywhere Gotta take me anywhere Take me anywhere but home

Slowly

the dogfish tore open the soft basins of water.

You don’t want to hear the story of my life, and anyway I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it’s the same old story-- a few people just trying, one way or another, to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind. And nobody, of course, is kind, or mean, for a simple reason.

And nobody gets out of it, having to swim through the fires to stay in this world.

[bilgisticallykosher]

A Giant Miscommunication chapter 2

A Small Point of Contention

First chapter | Masterpost | Next chapter

My discord | AO3

Warnings: Mentions of eating people, revenge, cursing

Words: 4155

Hey remember that one g/t one shot that ended in a cliffhanger that nobody paid attention to? You should have paid attention to it.

Virgil continued the walk back to his house with a sigh. He had certainly had an exciting day. And then night. And then day again. He shook his head with a slight upturn of his lips, amused by the turn of events everything had taken. Last night had been… stressful, to say the least. Not only had he been worried about making sure his guest- Roman- would make it, and be safe, but the things that he'd thought about Virgil's motives while feverish made him wince.

Of course, he'd woken with an almost completely different personality in the morning. Well, he amended, still dramatic, he thought with a chuckle. But he'd been personable, appreciative, really overly complimentary, and overall had just, seen Virgil for who he was as opposed to what he was. It'd been nice.

… He wondered if he was actually going to come back.

He shook his head back and forth slightly like he was trying to shake the thought out of his brain. No, he'd said that he would, and Virgil had to believe that. Even if he thought that there was a possibility that by the time all the snow melted Roman would either forget, or decide the trip wouldn't be worth it, or that he wasn't worth it, or- at any rate, Virgil definitely knew that he wanted him to come back. It wasn't like he had all that many friends. And he had enjoyed their time together.

With another sigh, he approached his house, realizing that he'd never finished cleaning up after the storm. Well, he might as well do it now.

~~~~~

He finished up outside, even shoveling a bit in case he had to go outside again, and was exhausted enough that he headed inside for a nap. He was just about as shocked as he was annoyed when he was abruptly woken up an hour later.

"HEY, GIGANTOR!" The voice called out, and Virgil shot up in bed.

"Wha- huh?" He blinked, bleary-eyed as he tried to focus on finding the source.

"Ha! Finally up, Sleeping Ugly?" The voice was vaguely familiar, and he looked down, finally spotting the human.

The very familiar-looking human. Roman.

"What?" His eyes widened and then narrowed as he processed what he was saying. "What are you doing here?" And why was he back so soon?

"Oh, don't play coy with me, I don't get along with fish very well." He saw him grin, wide and toothy. "I out-smell them." He walked closer to the bed wielding a large, even compared to a human, ball on a stick, covered in spikes, and he pointed it Virgil's direction. "Now, it's time for you to pay for your crimes!" Was that a weapon?

"What are you talking about?" He asked, instead, swinging his feet over the side, heart racing at the accusation. He didn't understand what was happening, even as he saw Roman take a few steps back from him as he started shifting forward to get out of bed.

"You heard me, Attack on Frighten," he puffed himself up, waving his weapon. "I'm here to give you your comeuppance, up your pants, for what you've done!" His insides felt like they were twisting in on themselves, and he stood, taking a few steps, intending to go towards Roman to try and figure out what had changed, other than seemingly his clothing.

He ran away instead, laughing loudly, right out of the room and Virgil's face fell completely. Maybe… maybe he'd been faking this morning. But that didn't make any sense, he'd seemed relaxed, he'd bantered with him, he'd complimented him, as mortifying as that'd been, he'd teased him with no trace of fear. Not that he seemed overly afraid now-

What if he was luring him into a trap? He'd known how the towns around the forest felt about giants, none of it good, but to go through all that, just to, what get an army to try and fight him? He hesitated, straining his ears. He didn't hear anything aside from the sound of Roman making noise as he ran through the kitchen. He was on edge, but he had to figure out what was going on. He sharply took in a breath and tried to regulate his breathing as he'd been taught. Well, that was better, he supposed.

He looked out his window and didn't see anyone else, and as he checked every window that he passed (admittedly not many), he found them all absent of people. So, Roman had come back alone, at least, although that didn't do much to assure him. He finally reached the kitchen, which felt like it took forever, and yet no time at all. He found him trying to clamber up onto the table from the seat of the chair via the backrest. With his weapon still in his hand. Virgil walked over.

"That's a little above your abilities, there," he sneered, feeling a little justified in his derision, "literally."

"Oh, yes" he was breathing hard while struggling. "Very funny, ha," he panted, "freaking ha!" He gave up trying to climb up, "Well if I were really that short, would I be able to do this?!" And with that, he tried leaping from his position to try and land on the table. He was very obviously going to miss.

Despite how hurt and confused Virgil was from how he was acting, he didn't want him to be hurt in a much more physical way- heck, that was why they'd met in the first place. He immediately surged forward to cup his hands under him as he cackled out loud in a way that didn't suit the situation at all. He hit his hand with a small grunt, but seemed otherwise unaffected, judging by the grin on his face. Although…something looked different. Virgil moved his hands onto the table so that he could get off. Instead, he stood and wielded his weapon towards his face again.

"Thanks for the hand, Bigger-Than-Me Foot," despite his accusations, he stayed firmly planted in his hands, still for once, despite the waving morningstar, and Virgil was able to get a better look at him. And there was definitely something different about him. He squinted at him. When did he get a mustache?! "But now you're going to tell me what you did to my brother!" And just like that, relief washed over Virgil like a hot shower on a cold day. He exhaled so harshly that it blew Roman's- Roman's brother's hair all over, swaying him slightly.

"Brother?" He wheezed out. He was rewarded with a full-body eye roll.

"Yeah, Bohe-meathead, a guy that looks just like me, no mustache, not as handsome, and wearing something like this?" And he reached into his pocket, whipping something out, which made Virgil flinch. Roman's brother gave an unimpressed eyebrow raise, holding out what looked like a small (even relatively) scrap of a familiar bright red fabric. Virgil was trying desperately not to do something really stupid like shout in joy or cry from the relief, but instead, he just took a moment to breathe, evening out his oxygen intake, and lowering his heart rate, becoming un-tense again. Roman's brother started wriggling on his hands, impatient.

"Roman," Virgil eventually managed, and his brother raised an eyebrow.

"Remus, actually. We're twins." He blinked and then something occurred to him, and he took a step forward, speaking excitedly "So you have seen him!" His grin turned into more of a leer, and he stepped forward. "What'd you do with him? Crush him? Drop him from up high? Break him in half? Are these crumbs all over the table," he gestured at the mess from breakfast that he'd forgotten about, "little leftover bits of Roman?" He was now about at the heel of his hand.

"No!" Virgil scowled. "And if you're seeking vengeance, why are you so happy at the idea that I killed him," he challenged. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, mega Mondo, I may be a dumb, stupid idiot, but I'm not dumb," he waved a hand idly, "I figured out when I was younger that you weren't the image of the giant purple people eater everyone touted." He continued, looking more bored than anything despite literally being in Virgil's grasp. "Otherwise there'd've been way more missing people. And a lot more missing peoples' bones." He grinned suddenly again. "Unless you eat the bones, too! I'll bet our measly little femurs wouldn't pose much of a threat to those teeth, huh?" He looked like he was trying to grab at Virgil's mouth, and he brought his head back further out of range. "Plus, extra calcium. You're a growing boy," he practically cooed at him.

"Stop," Virgil spat, feeling his stomach churning at what he was suggesting. Which was of course why his stomach proceeded to growl. That stopped Remus in his rambling, becoming quiet, smile falling slightly. He blinked up at him.

"Holy shit, did you actually eat him?"

"NO!" He glared at him, trying to summon all his scare tactics; he growled, grabbing him around his middle all too easily as his weapon fell at the wayside, and loomed over him, dark, and foreboding, voice thunderous. "Now you listen," Remus wiggled lightly in his grasp, but then looked up, calmer than he'd seen- well, either of them. "Roman came here last night. He was sick, then he got better. He was on his way back this morning," he wasn't sure why he didn't tell him how involved he was with getting him back, but he didn't want to hear whatever garbage accusation that would surely come out of his mouth. "And then I assume he went home. But he's not here, so go away."

"Hard to go away if you're busy fisting me, Shyclops." He responded instantly, oddly sedate. Maybe he'd actually scared him. He didn't know how to feel about that, but he did loosen his grip, and Remus brought his hand into its own fist, and up to his chin. "So, he left this morning, huh. Must have missed him in the forest, plus there was that weird earthquake-y thing that…"

He trailed off, slowly raising his head to look up at Virgil, his grin returned, almost predatory. "Did you walk him home?" Virgil blanched. Was he going to run back to his town to get back up? To let them know he had been close? He put on a sneer again and brought him towards his face, trying to quell the rising panic he felt.

"Thought you didn't wanna be my dinner, but I guess you changed your mind, after all, huh." He boomed, not loudly; he didn't have to be. His voice resonated. Remus's eyes went wide, mouth slack, and then immediately filled with what could only be glee.

"YOU DID, DIDN'T YOU!" He shrieked, his face split into a grin, and then he leaned in closer. "Also, that thing you did with your voice was really cool, you should teach me how to do that." Virgil growled, bringing him right to his mouth. He opened it a little bit, just enough, and then-

"REMUS!" Virgil barely repressed a jump, and oh no, he knew that voice. He and Remus looked down at the ground, and sure enough, Roman, in the same clothes as this morning, was looking up at Virgil, and glaring, while visibly breathing hard. "What on Earth do you think you're doing?!" Virgil's heart sank, as he felt the blood drain from his face. The very thing he'd been worried about with Remus's arrival had surely been sealed by Roman walking in on him threatening to eat his brother.

"Ro Bro!" Remus called back to him in delight, apparently completely unconcerned by his proximity to Virgil's teeth. He turned back to Virgil, papping him on the fingers around his body with his hand. "Hey, Vore-acious appetite, lemme down on the floor." Virgil complied immediately, bringing him down to Roman's level, and opening his palm up to let him walk off. He glanced at Roman, who was still glaring, but was interrupted by Remus flying at him in a tackling hug.

"What- agh!" He inhaled, standing his ground, and hugged him back. "Yes, yes, very nice to see you, too. Now, what were you doing to Virgil?" Virgil stiffened. He…wasn't angry at him?

"Oh, sure, place the blame on your poor, innocent brother," he batted his eyelashes, "not the horrible, terrible monster that had me in his grip!" He put a hand on his forehead, going lax in Roman's grip. Roman dropped him. "Oh, so, hey," he seemed completely unconcerned with being on the floor, "was he telling the truth about being your nurse then walking you home?" Roman rolled his eyes and turned to Virgil.

"Sorry about him," Virgil flinched. Wow, he…really wasn't angry with him? "I appreciate you watching him, especially since you didn't know that I was coming to get him."

"Fuck you, I'm a delight!" That sounded familiar. He smirked and slowly raised an eyebrow at Roman, who flushed red.

"I- That's different, it's actually true for me," he huffed, crossing his arms.

"Mhmm," Virgil hummed, amused. Roman coughed.

"But anyway, uh. Thanks again." He smiled, then shifted. "Incidentally, you weren't actually going to eat him, were you?"

"No," he responded firmly and immediately, "I promise, I wouldn't-" but Roman cut off his protest.

"Good, because I'm pretty sure he's poisonous," he grinned up at him. A startled laugh slipped its way out of Virgil's mouth.

"I take that as a compliment!" Remus's smug voice cut through, and he rolled over on the floor a few times before he stood up. "How'd you know to come here, anyway?" Roman rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you know how mom and dad are," he waved his hand vaguely. "So I made it all the way home before I found out you'd gone out to look for me." He brushed off his shoulder a bit. "I wasn't sure that you'd wind up here, but at least I knew where Virgil lived, so I figured I could ask him if he'd seen you, or, uh, maybe if he wouldn't mind helping me look for you?" He turned to Virgil with a grin that he probably hoped was more charming than sheepish. "Sorry." Virgil snorted.

"Eh." He half-shrugged. "I pro'lly would've done it," he agreed easily. But Remus looked at him with sudden and extreme interest.

"Oh?" He purred at him, "is that so?" Ugh, what was that look he was giving him, this guy was so weird.

"Remus, stop that, leave him alone!" Remus just switched his head towards his brother, not changing his expression at all. "And wipe that grin off your face."

"Try chiseling it off, it'd be more effective," yet his face became haughty and smug, raising an eyebrow.

"Ugh." Roman looked at Virgil again, "once more, I'm so sorry for him, but we can leave now." He shifted on his feet. "I know it hasn't been that long, but it was nice to see you ag-"

"I'll walk you home," Virgil blurted out.

"-ain. What?" Roman blinked as he processed it.

"I can take you back," Virgil rephrased, ignoring Remus's face as his face started to burn with mild embarrassment. "Like I did before so that you don't have to walk through the snow again."

"Oh, well." Roman smiled, "I wasn't going to ask, but that would be nice, if you don't mind." Virgil shook his head.

"Nah, it's no big deal," he assured him. "Just, it'll be halfway again." Even with Remus being overall okay with him, he didn't trust being seen by anyone in the nearby towns.

"Thank-"

"Wow, you're dropping us off in the middle of the woods," Remus lamented, "what terrible service!" Roman smacked his arm, "Ow!" He said happily.

"Technically I'm the middle of the woods," Virgil shot back, "and sorry, but I'm not exactly eager to get swarmed by a bunch of lunatic giant hunters, or whatever." Remus scoffed.

"I'll have you know I've got my own special brand of lunacy. I'm one of a kind, here!" He looked at Roman and exchanged looks, "Well, alright, okay. I guess that makes sense." And he seemed to be unable to resist adding, "but I'm giving you only two out of five stars for service." He stuck his tongue out.

"Put that back inside your mouth, even you don't know where that thing's been." Remus waggled it at his brother petulantly, and then pulled it back inside with a schwip schwip schwip! Virgil wrinkled his nose.

"And again, no talking about me to anyone," Virgil reminded Roman, then considered the circumstances. "If you're talking to each other, do it when you're sure you're alone." Roman frowned, and Remus raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything. It was a little unsettling, honestly. Then he realized that Roman was making facial expressions back at him, and Remus was also responding silently. Were they communicating? Weird. But kind of cool. He'd heard that twins had 'telepathy' but watching it in front of him like this made him really believe that it was real. He wondered if he could ask for more information from-

"Virgil," Roman stated, firm. His attention was drawn back to the scene in front of him, the two now looking up at him again. "About the whole 'tell no one about you exist' thing," he began.

"No." Virgil was just as firm.

"Would you just wait for me to-"

"No." He interrupted. "If people start to know about me, it'll affect me, and just be a bother." He shook his head slowly. "They won't believe that I don't mean any harm, and then they'll push my limits, until I do something bad," although he mentally shuddered at the idea of him hurting someone accidentally, "and then they'll use it as evidence against me, and I'll have to move, or worse." His mind helpfully supplied him with potential images of him in a comically small jail, or tied up in ropes, or chains, or- "Plus, even if some people know, it's not like the laws around this area would change," he snorted.

Just because he was on the edges of the nearby town, didn't mean that he wasn't informed. He knew that giants and other entities like him were considered enemies of the humans, and that the leaders of each town had it out for anything that was a potential danger, intent or no. Heck, that was where all the stories of giant-based terror had sprung from. Giants had been spotted and the people who encountered them had feared them, spread the word of their tales, greatly extrapolated, until they'd become just that; tales. Sure, some of the giants had probably fought back against those that had come to kill them, or even had been aggressive to start with.

But Virgil certainly wasn't. And the only other giant he knew was even less likely to hurt a human than he was. But the leaders of the towns acted like he'd personally destroyed their crops and poisoned their water supply, or whatever. And he wasn't going to get involved with that sort of thing again. So involved in his own thoughts, he missed Roman and Remus having another silent exchange of facial expressions.

"Well," Roman tore his eyes away from his twin, "What if…maybe we just talk to a few people?" Virgil looked down at him, unimpressed. "You're right, we can't change the laws, but we know people who can!" Virgil crossed his arms. "It's just- let us try and help you! There's no reason for anyone to harbor animosity towards you, and we can make sure that nobody attempts to hurt or hunt you!" Virgil was uneasy. It sounded good in theory, sure, but that was a lot of risk to take. And risk taking wasn't necessarily in his wheelhouse.

"I don't know, Roman…" he shifted awkwardly. "What happens when it doesn't work? What's the fallout?" Roman huffed.

"If it doesn't work, we can both ensure that you'll be left alone," Roman assured him confidently. "But it will. I swear. Trust me?" And maybe it was just that his powerful belief that he could do it was contagious, but Virgil found himself agreeing.

"Only a few people," he sighed. "If you insist. I guess-"

"Woohoo!" Remus shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "Revolution! Fight the men! Overthrow the leaders!" He lowered his arms slightly, face becoming more serious. "Literally. Just go up and rip the house from the ground and shake." He mimicked shaking what was presumably the town leaders' houses.

"I take it back," Virgil deadpanned.

"No, it's fine, just ignore him," Roman physically waved Remus's statement away, hand flapping in front of his face. Virgil glanced outside, the weather looked okay, and it was still light enough out. He should really get started getting them both back to their home.

"So, Roman," he interjected through their bickering, "the way we traveled earlier," and that really got their attention, "will that work with two of you at the same time?" Roman opened his mouth to respond, then closed it, while giving his brother an appraising look.

"How'd you travel earlier?!" Remus asked excitedly, "giant horse? Paper airplane? Piggyback ride on Paul No-Funyan's shoulders?!" Virgil raised both eyebrows; one because ouch, two because there was no way that was happening, but Roman beat him to it.

"No, I'm afraid there'll be no dealing with Remus." He sighed dramatically. "He'll have to live amongst the trees."

"YES!" Remus double fist-pumped. "Finally! But you're wrong about the tree bit, I'ma burrow underground and become soil."

"As if you're not already," Roman shot back immediately, which just made Remus laugh that distinctive cackle that he'd heard before. Virgil sighed and decided to just awkwardly lean over and put his hands flat on the floor, palms up. Roman blinked up at him for a brief moment, then seemed to realize. "Ah! Thank you, Virgil." He turned to say something to his twin, but-

"WHEEEEEEE!" Remus shouted as he ran towards his hands, and Virgil almost flinched them completely away until he saw him spring up into a jump aimed right for them. Virgil caught him with a soft ker-pluf and he remained sprawled out in the position that he landed in. Where he started to pretend to swim. "All aboard the Humongbus!"

Roman sighed and silently climbed on Virgil's hands, nudging his brother over with his elbow none-too-gently as he sat down with his legs crossed. He only flopped his arm over Roman's face in response. He sputtered and batted it off angrily, and Remus rolled over and swung a leg on his lap while he was distracted.

"If you could maybe not do that while I'm walking you back so that I don't drop you, that'd be great," Virgil attempted to hide his nerves from how much this guy ratcheted up his anxiety.

"Aw, but think of how much fun I'd have on the way down!" Remus half-pouted, then became considering. "Y'think if I dropped from high enough my femurs would stab right up through my shoulders?" Virgil wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Just hold on; I'm moving you now." And Roman clutched onto his thumb, Remus didn't do anything, as he slowly raised them both up, trying to guard the sides of two hands by moving them next to his chest so that they were more closed in.

"WHEEEEeeeeee……." Remus started at a shout but then trailed off. He felt a smaller hand smack at his palm a few times and Virgil jolted. "Faster, faster!"

"Would you cut that out?!" Roman smacked his shoulder with his free hand. "Stop antagonizing Virgil! He's being very nice and taking us back, and you're being all yourself at him, you mental Martin!" He glared at him. Virgil cleared his throat.

"Uh. Gonna start walking now," he said awkwardly. Then he started walking slowly enough to not jostle or disturb them too much.

"Hmmmmm…" Remus squinted at Roman. "Alright, then," he acquiesced after a moment. "I'll be nice to Cliff-feared and his Big Red D-"

"Don't you dare finish that nickname!" Roman screeched, turning bright red. Remus sputtered out a laugh, but otherwise stayed still, which was a relief. Virgil supposed that this walk back would be a lot different with a second passenger.

-----

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