#i'm losing sleep because of this

[bucksdaffy]

lou's comparison of "kinley" to kindling makes me feel so soft because 1) both buck and tommy are firefighters so it serves as a nice reference to that but also 2) we use kindling so that we can sustain the fire which itself can have so many love connotations I'M GOING INSANE like it can be associated with passion and desire and warmth and affection and comfort and security and transformation and growth and hope and so much more?? and the fact that kindling serves as a base for all of that?? so as long as they are together and make sure to nurture their relationship they will basically have it all?? which i'm pretty sure is like the goal of every relationship??

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I've been thinking a lot about Leonarda's not-death ever since it happened back in April.

("What death?" you might ask, to which I say: "EXACTLY!")

Back in mid-April, Vegetta and Leonarda were mining together in a one-block wide tunnel. A mob (a Petriman) got between the two of them, and Vegetta told Leonarda to step back while he took care of it. At this point, they'd spent enough time together that he trusted Leo to listen to him.

Instead, she was killed by the same sweeping edge bug that killed her siblings.

-

Vegetta's reaction here is what's really interesting to me. Unlike most other parents on the Island, there are no shouts or tears – only a very brief "Hmm" and then silence. He very quietly takes stock of the situation, saying "Vegetta, no" and wondering aloud why Leo didn't defend herself. In chat, Foolish says "It was a bug, right? LAG" to which Vegetta slowly responds "Yes, lag. Bug." (Despite this, Foolish still asks "WHAT HAPPENED" in chat, though Vegetta doesn't reply).

Instead, he creates a slightly wider space in the tunnel where Leo's body is. He continues quietly taking stock of the situation, wondering why Leo didn't defend herself (which is what necessitated his intervention). She'd been lagging a lot that day, and he figures that must be the cause, and eventually when Leo re-appears out of thin air in the middle of the cave and collects her stuff, she confirms that the lag got to her and that's why she didn't fight the mob.

Now here's where things get interesting:

Vegetta checks the tab list. Online, it's just him, Leonarda, Roier, and Foolish. He quietly tells Leonarda "The body has already disappeared, and without a body, there is no crime. Nothing is happening. Did you die?" Leo shakes her head, and Vegetta shakes his head too, and in the kind voice he uses sometimes with Leo, he says: "I believe you have not died. Where is the body? It isn't anywhere, no mija. If it was a mistake, it was a mistake."

Leo says: "I saw Diosito (God) pa, and I was scared. God, what am I doing here?" and Vegetta laughs, telling her it's alright. Leo says "No pasa nada (don't worry / nothing happened)" and Vegetta says: "And the people who are watching us have not seen it either." To Foolish and Roier, he messages: "Secreto."

And the funniest thing about this is it worked.

Not a single person spoke about it. I saw this entire event go down live and I didn't see a WHISPER of what transpired among fans. I can't even remember if the QSMP official accounts talked about it (they sure didn't mention it in Vegetta's recap of the day). We could discuss this in meta terms of course– Leo was having known lag issues that day, Vegetta's beloved by the admins so of course they're willing to turn a blind eye rather than slap a "?" over Leonarda's life on the Eggstatistics, but meta talk isn't what I'm interested in here.

I'm interested in q!Vegetta, the weird "god-adjacent" aura he's got, and the way the universe bends to his will.

Before he took a break from the server, Rubius seemed to be a caretaker for the Eggs who died (for example, he was present when Maxo, Quackity, and Mariana & Slime said their final goodbyes to Trumpet, Tilin, and JuanaFlippa). Because of his role as an "angel" and some of his dialogue during the early days of the server, it's not a stretch to say he probably came to collect any Egg who lost a life. I can imagine he did the same when he saw Leonarda die – that is, until Vegetta said "And the people who are watching us have not seen it either." Realistically, we know Vegetta was saying this to Chat (and possibly the admins as well), but again, we're looking at this from an "in-universe" perspective.

I wonder if Vegetta was aware of Rubius' role, and this was his way of telling Rubius "No. I won't allow that to happen." We know Rubius has a soft-spot for Vegetta (and we also know that Rubius was cast out of heaven several months later) so it makes me wonder if these two instances are connected.

Either way, this isn't the first time the laws of the QSMP universe have bent for Vegetta, and I certainly don't think it'll be the last.

Rubius or no, Leo didn't die that day.

Vegetta made sure of it.

[gazpachoandbooks]

Okay so how many times a day do you think about Jesper loving and idolizing and trying to impress Kaz at every turn and only getting glares and reprimands and cold shoulders in return. And Jesper trying so hard to understand why Kaz does the things he does and yet he never fully confides in him and it hurts so much because Jesper needs him to because Kaz matters so much to him. BUT.

BUT.

But Kaz is boiling on the inside every time Jes makes a dumb mistake or loses his money to the wrong people or relies too little on real odds and too much on luck.

Kaz can't look Jesper in the eye and tell him why he called him Jordie. Kaz can't tell him that he had a brother. Kaz can't talk about the way he lost him. Because Jes is so close to the precipice all the time and holy shit he can't lose Jes the way he lost Jordie.

Not again.

He had two brothers and he watched one of them fall over to the abyss and he'll be damned if he lets the other follow.

And so he is mean and rude and hurtful and aggressive and elusive because they speak different languages. Kaz yells at Jesper to step away from the edge, to listen to him, to STAY BY HIS SIDE. Jesper hears Kaz yelling at him to GO AWAY.

And in the end the only conclusion Jes can reach is he doesn't matter enough to Kaz. And in the end Kaz treats Jes the way he does BECAUSE HE MATTERS TOO MUCH.

[perfectharmonyloveschaos]

Okay but if this is Ezra

Then I can't help but laugh and cry. Cause we can see the man throw his weapon away? I can't tell if it's some sort of rifle or a stick or just something long, but he tosses it the moment Sabine starts to choke him. Like he chucks that shit a foot away. Almost like he's trying to not seem threatening, while also not moving or trying to attack her?

So who wants to bet that this is Ezra, he notices and recognises her helmet, and puts his defenses down and without thinking just goes up to her like "Sabine :D"

Forgetting or not thinking about how it's been like a decade, and he's wearing a disguise, and that he is now nearly thirty now and the last time they saw one another he was only eighteen/nineteen, so Sabine just attacks him.

He tries to talk to her, not wanting to fight or hurt her, but she ends up dragging and choking him across the floor or trying to pull him down.

What if he has to either kick her legs out from under her or he uses the force to grab his lightsaber to free himself because she can't understand him as he's choking?

What if Sabine pulls him with her and sends him flying back into the side of the ship she's in front of, or trying to pin him to the floor?

What if we get Sabine being so angry that she doesn't care about what her trying to say, why he isn't fighting back, and just trying to talk to her?

What if she is just so sick and tired of people stopping her, taunting her, using Ezra against her that she doesn't want to talk anymore?

Until she hears him cough out a familiar "Sabine!"

And she just stops because she knows that voice.

Cue the man flipping them over, or cutting the cable, or just breaking through the rage rolling off her in waves with a single sentence: "It's me!"

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some (late) holiday photos of the boye~!

[berrydoodleoo]

should you begin to lose heart, look to me

(rendered in Blender Cycles, click for higher resolution)

[deoidesign]

.

[tcfactory]

the obvious shenanigans that follow are well! if sj isnt going to socialise the poor beast then sy will! lqg staring like. "What is that." begging peak lord Liu's pardon, but this is a spiritual wolf that is meant to be under the care of peak lord shen. it requires socialising and i was informed you also possessed a spiritual wolf! the wolves, ofc, get on. sj wants to die when he finds out. he wont STOP them because that would make it worse but sToP WaGGinG YouR TaiL when liu-shidi comes over!!

Liu Qingge takes Shen Yuan at face value about the wolf - like, he knows Shen Qingqiu's daemon is a wolf, had seen its silhouette move in the shadows during night hunts, but this wolf is out in the open and is getting pets from Shen Yuan so he can't be Shen Qingqiu's Calamity (the wolf is actually called Harbor, like 'Safe harbor in a storm', but he would never admit to it so when people started making up names he just ran with the most menacing/powerful sounding one) - and during the next Peak Lord meeting he goes to confront Shen Qingqiu about neglecting a spirit beast in his care. How jealous does one have to be to hurt such a majestic wolf like that?! He can tell exactly what caused those scars and he will not stand for a fellow peak lord whipping innocent beasts!!

Shen Qingqiu can glare Yue Qingyuan into silence, but not quick enough to shut Shang Qinghua up before he can blurt out what's up. Liu Qingge demands that Shen Qingqiu prove himself by calling his daemon there. He's reluctant, but complies. Everyone is upset at the state of the wolf (did someone try to dock its tail to make it look a bit more like a dog?!?!!? yes, it was one of Qiu Jianluo's bright ideas to make them more obedient), most of them on Shen Qingqiu's behalf. Shen Qingqiu very much wants to strangle both Liu Qingge and Shang Qinghua, so Airplane reaches for the most convenient bombshell he has as distraction and blurts out what happened to Yue Qingyuan before he flees.

So now Shen Qingqiu has a regretful shidi (planning various nutritious and difficult to hunt monsters as apology gifts) a very regretful and kinda relieved shixiong (sporting one hell of a black eye) and a bunch of other mildly regretful and worried martial siblings and things are going to be fine. All thanks to one oblivious but very pretty hallmaster of his who he absolutely will not thank or fill in about what's up, no sir. (It's fine, it will take YQY and LQG maybe a day or two to get over their shock, realize what happened and start matchmaking, like the idiot sibling-types they are. Shen Qingqiu will have a supportive family whether he wants one or not, and we all know that he kinda really wants one actually.)

It's all going to be fine.

[ancientbygone]

unraveling for each other [to the benefit of no one]

[respectthepetty]

Me thinking about how much sleep I'm going to lose over my little gay shows airing on the weekends for the next few months.

EDIT: @neuroticbookworm, I truly have no idea. I don't know if he lost a bet. I don't know if he is drunk. I have no idea.

This is the video it came from.

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

Also I quit my job of what would in about a month or two have been 10 years, and perhaps now I will get to actually be a human being again.

[secondbeatsongs]

okay I'm too tired to keep staring at the UI like this, I'm going to go to bed and hope that the chat bubbles won't look like that when I wake up

[mishkakagehishka]

"We're old moms, we can't wait to stop breastfeeding so we can get [very excited, shrill even] botooooox!!!"

We are never making it out of the patriarchy.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Daughter of the House of Dreams: A Fragment

Author's Note: This is the opening to a long-abandoned "Sleeping Beauty" retelling that I no longer plan to write, but I still like it as a piece of prose, and it sparked my enduring interest in second-person narration, so it feels relevant, and why should long-dead authors be the only ones who get to have their unfinished fragments published?

If you ever travel to Monetta City, be sure to visit Faraway Lane. Walk past the glittering new shops, and the shoppers in their bright silk dresses and top hats, and you'll find a cozy stone shop at the end of the street. This shop isn't grand and mighty like the other shops. It won't sniff and turn you away if your clothes aren't the latest fashion. It's a grandmotherly old shop that shakes its head at the prancing and preening of the younger shops, and invites you in instead. It holds no wares in its windows; it hardly has windows at all. But it has a warm and wide wooden door, with a shingle hanging above—Alessia Day, maker of dreams.

Don't ponder the sign's message too long—it means exactly what it says. Just slip inside, shut the door behind you, and look. Don't breathe too deeply, unless you want a week of crazy dreams, but allow yourself one gasp of astonishment. You won't be able to stop yourself. No living person has failed to feel awe toward the rows and rows of shelves, longer than streets and taller than palaces, filled to bursting with glass bottles in such bright colors that the dresses in the other shops' windows would weep in envy. Some bottles are the size of thumbnails. Most fit comfortably in the palm. Some are as large as breadboxes or steamer trunks or carriage horses, but the shelves manage to fit them all. And each bottle is filled to the brim with dreams.

If you don't understand, ask Alessia Day. You'll find her at a counter half a mile from the door, polishing bottles and humming a song you've heard but can't remember. She's an old woman now, and proud of it, but squint your eyes and start to daydream, and you'll see her as I remember her—a willow-wand girl with shining brown hair and eyes that sparkle with half-formed jokes.

Tell this girl how pretty she is (she'll laugh and call you crazy) and ask about her dreams. She'll tell you of her stock and sell you any dream you ask for—daydreams and pipe dreams, dreams of love, dreams of adventure, dreams of loved ones lost and loved ones found and people you've never met but wish you had. She'll show you dreams of lush and perfect islands, dreams where fishes fly through the air, and dreams where people swim the seas with fishes' tails. She'll pull down dreams that last a second but linger a lifetime, dreams that fill a month of stormy nights, dreams that fade on waking and dreams that drown out memories. If you let her, she'll talk of dreams until you drift off, and she'll bottle up your dream while you doze.

But if you're smart (I know you are) you'll step to the counter with a clear glass bottle, empty of everything but air, and ask for her story instead. She'd distill it in a dream for you, and be glad to do it—I once saw her whip it up in half a minute, and I'll bet she's even faster now. Buy the dream, but don't drink it right away. You won't be ready for it. Linger in the shop a while. Hear the story first from Alessia Day's lips, in that voice of hers that's sweeter than singing.

You won't believe half of it, but when you stagger from the shop and wander the empty, starlit streets, you'll ponder over passages until you stumble into bed at sunrise. And when you wake, the world will be different—you'll see tiny footprints on the windowsills, know things about the shadows on the walls, tip your hat to creatures in the corner of your eye, and realize there is another color no one else can see. You'll laugh and call it your imagination, but every second Tuesday, you'll start to wonder if the old woman was right, if the things she told you were true.

If you drink the dream she made, you'll know. I'll understand if you don't—some things are easier not to know. But if you do, and dream through her story, come to my house and ring the bell. My man will let you in—he'll know you by the wonder on your face. He'll bring you to my study, set you in my oldest, softest chair, and get us both settled with a steaming pot of tea. Then, once you've finished babbling, I'll close my eyes and tell you my part in the tale.

[cinnamon-phrog]

I feel too sick to sleep right now, everything's' too cold or too hot and I can't even breathe without thinking I'm gonna throw up

[dylanconrique]

not to sound too horny but i want a chenford sex scene so bad.