#if i missed any important bits in the LORE then let me know cause there are 3 or 4 parts that i am becoming meh about and want to switch

[iced-souls]

Alright so the poll came out with sneak peak thing so i show my very messy kinda confusing with a lot of parts that i might change up later and re-adjust/ time better storyboard thing

So enjoy??

It be off the qsmp and the song is ‘it gets worse’ by mindless self indulgence

[partywithoutsmiling]

Some musing on the Wanderer!Branch AU

(Okay, bit of a chaotic lore dump incoming, as this is probably the first time I am putting it to words)

Okay, important info first:

I headcanon it that Branch- and thus the other Brozone bros- are half-pop half-rock in their herritage; this headcanon is an old one, ever since World Tour dropped, and honestly only supported by the fact that Total Eclipse of the Heart that Branch sung as trolling is considered a Pop Rock song XD But hey, one doesnt need to have many reasons to make headcanons pff

(I have some tentative lore about his parents- and his grandparents- too, and how that would effect Branch and his Bros growing up, but I will leave that for a separated post)

But anyway, with Branch's Pop side being moderated by his Rock side, he would have always felt a bit out of place among his tribe, even he grew up perfectly happy with no tragedy in his life (I know switching Branch's and Poppy's place when it comes to being grey is all the rage right now, but I still feel most are missing all the necessary nuance to really make it work, but lets not get into that pf)

Obviously, that feeling of not fitting it only got hundred fold worse since his PTSD and him being grey, as Pop Trolls doesn't seem to be known for mental health support. Branch eventually leaving is not him going 'Screw you all, I will find someone who appreciates me' (much like Clay did) but more of a 'I am sorry, I won't get in your way anymore, I wont be a burden'

Basically massive amount of self-loathing and severe lack of self-worth. When Branch had his final breakdown and decided to leave, I don't think it would be with the precise goal of finding anyone (yes, part of him hopes he would be able to find his brothers and at least find closure one way or another, no matter how much it terrifies him).

Honestly, Branch probably didn't dare to examine his decision to leave any closely than he needed to, lest it would stand out to him for what it really was- a suicide trip.

This was Branch that doesnt know anything about the wide, outside world; he knows Bergen Town, knows of the old Troll Tree, and now knows the Forest and their Troll Village. But everything else is uncharted territory for him. He knows of the Neverglades, because of a faint memory of John Dory constantly talking about them when he was a baby, but has only a vague sense which way they are (I headcanon they make up for the border of Pop and Rock territories)

His preparation for the trip was abysmal, and so was his plan in general. He just picked a direction- opposite of Bergen Town, away from them- and started walking. When he first encountered the towering high peaks of Classical Territory, he immediatelly recognized that they can't be the Neverglades- very much not fitting the description that he remembered, so he walked past/around them, smack dab into Country territory.

Compared to others, I don't think the Country Trolls would have been very welcoming to him at the beginning; used to hard life, inhospitable land and abundant death, Branch would be an unexpected disturbance; obviously not a Classical Troll, who borders with them the closest but never comes down from the skies, obviously not a Funk Troll, who with their technological advance might as well be myths at this point- and obviously not a Pop Troll, since he doesnt shower them with obnoxious music and doesnt even look the part.

Had he been at his 100%, they would have probably been quite content to send him packing, figuring he was just a Rock Troll going solo career (little insert headcanon: Rock Troll Rite of Passage is going on a Rock Tour, and sometimes the more adventurous Rock Trolls strays into other territories to bother and cause mayhem other trolls. Barb's Rock Tour was her Rite of Passage, and being a freshly fanged Queen, she took it to another level)

But Branch quite helpfully collapsed on their doorstep, half starving and dehydrated, and they weren't so callous as to leave him there for the elements to take care of him.

Naturally, their help hardly came for free, and even if they didn't ask, Branch would have already feel indebted to them for wasting resources on his wellbeing. A Survivalist himself, he easily spotted the tight budget they were running, and felt guilty for being a burden yet again.

To his surprise, when the country trolls found out he was a hard worker, a skilled architect and wiz engineer, they completely turned their wariness around.

It was the start of his 'finding himself' journey, but for the first time, Branch started to feel... appreciated. Yes, these trolls didn't know him- but they looked at him, looked at what he can do, and called him accomplished; they were praising his skills, and called him valuable.

(But some sense of danger remained with him; as far as he believed, 'Branch' was left behind to rot away in his bunker. So when introducing himself, and habit got better of him, he started with "Bra-" but caught himself and finished "-mble"; and that new name, 'Bramble', stuck XD Still a plant name, still close enough that he can learn to repond to it- and honestly, feels like fits him better right now, as he feel all out of sorts)

It was only the first step, maybe, but it was a step toward feeling that he had some worth.

I think, out of all the Tribes, he stays with the Country trolls for the longest; yes, the life there is hard, but that is perhaps why he feels most welcomed there. There are no useless nonsense parties, no senseless dancing- the times when they can finaly wipe their brow and relax is when the community gathers together and they just... talk. Sit around, share food, look at the stars and reminiscence.

It's all very subdued, and even though Branch is the most obvious outsider ever, he feels like one with the community, and that by itself is already healing a deep wound he didnt know he had.

When the country trolls finally start singing on their good day, Branch is rather taken aback (He forgot, that Trolls are Trolls, and Trolls sing)- but the sombre and slow melody and topic of the country speaks to him, and while he doesnt join- and they dont push him to join- he listens, and he appreicates.

It is with Country Trolls that he heals most of his trauma when it comes to music. His Grandma and his Brothers leaving him are still a big guilt that weights him down- and something he wont address for a long time- but Country trolls shows him that music can be wildly different. He still doesnt sing, but when offered to be taught to play a banjo (XD), he probably doesnt refuse- mainly out of fear of insult, but also because for the first time in his life, he wants to actually try.

As time passes, his more curious side comes out- he asks questions, wants to know everything- up to this point, he didn't even know that the Country trolls were country- and to them it was obvious what they were, so why would they need to introduce themselves?

That line of questioning leads to the explanation of the other Tribes existing, and that each Tribes' music is different.

And for the first time in his life, Branch felt something alien to him- burning Wanderlust. (Bit of his Rock herritage showing, eh? Solo Rock tour, Rite of Passage~?) The thirst for knowledge was always there- after all, his bunker had many journals filled to brim with information about what he discovered in the foods, helpful tips for survival and many plans for inventions- but those were always done out of necessity, discovered and noted down so that he could live another say. Never before he had a desire to discover simply for the sake of discovering.

Never before he also actually felt like he had the option to do so; the world has always been an inhospitable wilderness to him, only filled with a small handful of trolls and a town full of monstrous giants. His childhood was filled with memory of a large iron cage, and that trapped feeling didn't change; after all, his Bunker, for all that it offered him safety, was a different type of cage too. The whole Troll Village- Pop Village, as he learned now- was another cage as well. Gilded one, made of ignorance.

And so he knew his time with the country trolls came to an end- and it was because he grew to respect them and appreciate them, that he doesnt disappear in the nigh and haltingly tells them his decision to leave and explore.

Memories of his Brothers' argument echo through his mind as he waits for the inevitable blow up, but.... he is once again surprised when the trolls just accepts this decision and wish him all the best- going as far as to help him pack- properly this time- and wheedling out of him a promise to check in once in a while, whenever he is in the neighbourhood.

Equipped with a non outdated map, he decides to make visit all the other territories one by one, starting from Country and heading right towards Classical, going around in one large circle around Pop Territory- Going to Techno after Classical, and to Rock right after that. Funk is largely a mystery to him- the Country trolls are at this point content to believe they are just a myth- much the same way a unicorn is to us- but Branch wants to keep an open mind.

After all, he himself had no idea other kind of trolls existed, so why dismiss the Funk Troll existence right away?

His travels to Symphonyville proved to be as challenging as was the start of his trip towards Country territory. Being high in the mountains- higher than anywhere Branch ever went- really showed him that walking is easy only when the road is straight and flat.

The air growing colder and thinning, he probably doesn't make the best first impression neither- especially in his dishevelled state, he is once more mistaken for a Rock Troll, and it takes a gargantuan amount of effort to convince anyone that he is simply there to learn music, and not cause any trouble.

Out of all the Tribes, he would stay with the Classical trolls the shortest. They are strict teachers, and their culture is very frigid and traditional- and Branch knows that he would have to wildly change himself to fit among them. Yet looking around, seeing the tall spires of the buildings around him, he finds he doesn't really want to. The grandiose of everything is rather intimidating- but even if he tried his best, he would never fit well among the classical trolls, always limited by something (like his ability to fly)

And realizes that was okay. That was acceptable. And that the classical trolls knew he wasn't a good fit now, and would hardly ever be a good fit ever- but they never expected him to become someone he is not. He asked them to teach him and so teach him they will- but you cant force a white sheep to grow black wool anymore that you can force a black sheep grow white.

The moment they realize Branch is there to learn and not wreck their peace like wandering Rock Trolls tend to do, they definitelly warm up to him more- but it still with the mildest of disapprovals since compared to them, Branch looks like a scrunkly kitten and all of them are just itching to groom him properly XD

Branch himself is amazed at the variety of musical instruments that exists and very quickly finds that he is not a progidy in plaing them all pff. Wind musical instruments are most likely completely beyond him, and after some attempts gives them up for a lost cause. Percussion fairs a bit better; he definitelly has some idea how to keep a beat and a rhythm, but even there he finds playing piano the most comfortable out of them all, with drums being a close second.

It is with string instruments that he trully shines, especially those that he can play with his own hands, without the need to use a pick or a bow; a tentative hint at his connection to music, the vibrations just send shivers down his spine and makes him feel more close to the sound his playing produces. (Guitar and Harp becoming his favourite instruments from the get go).

Getting to Techno was trickier. Them living underwater makes access to their territory rather impossible- unless Branch happens to meet someone willing to cross then bridge between Land and Sea XD

It makes for a rather convenient introduction for minor genres; the land bordering Classical and Rock seems to be as the perfect land for various minor tribes to cohabit in peace.

Are there Techno Opera trolls? Siren like beings, that found their homes on the deck of boats, sailing from and to an island after island? Techno Classical that built their living on the coast line, wanting to be close to both land and sea?

In any case, Branch discovers that even with music it's not so simple as shelving it into labels, and that it is ever growing, ever evolving. He never manages to actually visit Techno Reef, but he doesnt' need to; compared to other trolls, the Techno Trolls are not insular, and quite happily come to the surface or to the coast, both to vibe with the offshoots of their genre, to discover what they came up with, but also to simply make friends and have fun.

It was the first time Branch encountered a large party not unsimilar to that of a Pop Troll one- and yet for all that the party was just as loud and wild as he was used to seeing, the sight of it didnt really fill him with uncontrollable panic. It definitelly helped it was once again more about the music and the beat itself, and about the mood of the partygoers than it was about the singing; it was about experimentation and trying out new things- and yet not every troll was dancing around like maniacs. They had the stage for sure, and large crowd was gathering there- but there were also the fringe areas and corners, where Trolls just sat and chatted and bopped to the beat. Not forced to do anything they didn't want to, simply allowed to have fun in their own way.

He doesnt really interacts with the Techno Trolls that much, beyond when there is a party happening on the surface. Gravitates more towards exploring the Minor Territory, and discovering that it holds more than just Techno Classical/Opera. Not wanting to stray too close to the border with Pop, he nevertheless encounters encounters various offshoots of Pop as well- and the K-Pop gang as well

This definitelly allows him to learnt that even the Trolls Kingdom are not free of corruption and the bounty hunters are not starving for contracts- crime does happen in the troll kingdoms, and when the local police force comes short, the bounty hunters are the next best thing to employ.

Speaking with the K-Pop gang, he learns- with a bit of unease- that there was an old contract unfulfilled, that searched for all the Brozone Brothers, and thanked his lucky stars he can in no way be connected to them. It was considered a cold one, where there was no hope among the communities of it ever being cashed in- but the knowledge someone was looking for them- specifically for the younger of the brothers (Him, Floyd and Clay) made him wonder who could it be.

(Part of him entertained that it could be John Dory)

(Other part dismissed it right away. After all, JD did specifically state 'Goodbye Forever'- why would he make the effort to employ bounty hunters to find three of his brothers, if he was even alive to do so?)

That meetings seems to set of a string of bad luck- at least, that's how he feels. Continuing down to Rock territory- of which he is most wary (after all, he was constantly being confused for one, and expected to cause mayhem and destruction- so what kind of Trolls Rock Trolls were to earn that reputation?

A very specific kind- wild and chaotic.

Compared to other Territories, no-one blinks when he just walks in and continues deeper into the Kingdom; and he can finally see why he was mistaken for a Rock Troll. Muted colours, sharp smiles and even sharper claws, it was like walking into uncanny valley, where nearly every troll wears his face. At that point, unknown to him, his colours are not completely grey and black, so he is sporting some faint hues, and very quickly learns that thanks to the direction he came from, Rock Trolls think he is from an Offshoot genre; either Punk Rock or Pop Rock (though they obviously hope for the former) They reconsider him to Folk Rock when he brings out softer tunes that he plays on a borrowed guitar; and for the first time in a while, Branch is asked to sing.

He panics, obviously- playing musical instrument is one thing, but getting over his trauma from singing is another- and quite swiftly and bluntly refuses, cringing after to wait for the inevitable "You are a Troll, why don't you sing?"

Only... it never comes. There are shrugs, and one "Cool." and then he just gets invited to an Indie Rock show, and that is that.

Completely baffled at this easy acceptance, Branch agrees out of shock, before he can trully think it through- and realizes it's the first time since he left Pop Village (at this point probably nearly two years ago) that he thinks back on its inhabitants and namely Poppy.

He feels rather guilty, for taking this long to really give them a concrete thought. Like yes, he did think of them at the beginning, when he lived with the Country trolls- but that was only in general way, comparing the different livestyles. He never really chose to think about the people he left behind.

Now, no longer blinded with grief, self-loathing and rampart paranoia, he does remember that not all adults in his life went out of their way to activelly fail him. King Peppy, for all that he was unequipped to deal with Branch's issues, tried to check up on him regularly; his Grandmother's friends or those who knew her, made it their goal to be kind, even if Branch tried to avoid them out of reminder what he caused

Hype, Trickie, Boom and Ablaze were old friends- his childhood friends- the ones he made after his brothers left, and the ones he pushed away after he went grey- and yet they still managed to be around, noticing them from a distance, even as he stopped speaking to them.

And then there was, of course, Poppy.

Just starting to mature when he left, it's not quite a crush that he feels for her (not yet anyway), but there is still some sort of appreciation for her- some part of him, that subconsciously aches at the need to be close to her, and feeling just that bit of her warmth and positivity- one that made him wistfully keep all her invitations and listen to the sound of her recorded voice.

For the first time, he wonders how they reacted to his disappearence. Wonders if they miss him- or if they curse him. If they do both- like he felt conflicted towards his brothers, the older he got and the more obvious it became that they are not coming back.

It was that thought- the comparison to his brothers- that pushed him to hesitantly think about returning back to Pop Village; to his bunker, to his old life- to Poppy.

It was a tentative thought really; truthfully, the desire was a half hearted spur of the moment, and not something he would drop everything for. He didn't miss his old life; where he was the village hermit, the outcast, the weird one. Besides, he just arrived in Rock, and he still had a whole adventure ahead of him, trying to find the Funk trolls.

And so, When in Rome, do as the Romans do- and so Branch steeled himself to attend a party, one that he was specifically invited to; after all, he had been at parties before now, within the reach of Techno Reef, it's not like this one is any different

Only it kind of felt like it- yes, the music was harsher, the beat went harder- but the harmonizing of voices reminded him so close of his own tribe that it just left him feeling jittery- and at first, yes, the party made him tense and hardly participate, but as it went on, song after song, he could feel himself slowly relax.

(Besides, there was something about rock music, that send warmth straight to the core of his being; something about it resonated with him more than any other music did, besides Pop- and where before he fought hard to not allow it to do that, perhaps, just this time, he could try the opposite)

(After all, they were underground, where Branch always felt the safest, and the Bergens had no idea other tribes even existed- he could indulge a little)

Of course, fate has a funny way of entertaining itself, and in the second of his indecisiveness, he gets bumped into and trips and falls- or he would, if pair of hands didn't steady him, and familiar voice asked him if he was okay

And Branch suddenly felt altogether three years old, getting fed empty promise and watching his older brother disappear through the entry to his Grandma's pod

And he is now in present, left staring at nearly 15 years older Floyd, his brother clearly living the best life, happily away from Pop Territory (away from Branch)

His name drops from his lips before Branch can stop himself, and that has Floy pause and squint at him- obviously not recognizing him, obviously trying to place him- before something clicks and his eyes widen and he goes pale

Branch most likely punches him- and then finds he cant stop heaving in fury and goes punch him again, not allowing Floyd a word in (honestly, he is not punching very hard, not apart from that first one)

Of course, Floyd is hardly alone, probably in a band, and his band mates are not keen on having their member be attacked by a random troll

Brawl very easily breaks out- honestly nothing new among the Rock Trolls- and ends up with all of them, especially Branch, thrown in a cell for their troubles, much to the protest of Floyd's bandmates, who curses and claims innocence

For the first time in forever, Branch feels hollowed out; yes, he had been hoping for a closure- but honestly, he had expected to find all of his brothers dead; not finding any of them living happily away, their youngest brother not even a blip of concern in their mind.

He certainly never expected it from Floyd, who essentially lived a stone throw away; who clearly was able to cross the distance it took from Bergen town to arrive in Rock troll's territory, just shy away from the Pop one.

------------------------------------------------------------ This is where I will stop the musing for now XD;

Obviously there are more things to add; Barb would make appearance, not yet as a Queen but definitelly in charge of keeping any Rock Trolls in line (she is not called a Princess because the Rock Trolls don't use that title for their heirs) and while Floyd is aware she is the future Queen, that information doesnt get shared)

The discovery of Funk Trolls still awaits as well, as does Branch's return to Lonesome Flats, as he had promised to do

But that's for the next time :)

[muse-matrix]

So... It's been a while since I last logged in here. Longer still since I properly did... much of anything here, outside of a few scattered posts. Part of me had been kinda dreading coming back here but looking at when my activity really dramatically dropped off, I think I understand what happened.

So, way back in february of last year, I was bouncing between a lot of things. I was running around doing a bunch of stuff to try and secure a new job, and I did manage that- A big component of my not being here was just me adjusting to having to work again, after being unemployed for almost an entire year. It was tough to get the right structure going, but I managed it. And despite starting college just a couple weeks ago, I've mostly managed that too so far, I think.

But that isn't... the main reason why. Probably. I think.

You see, what else happened in february, was that I got booted from a community I'd been a part of for years. It encompassed my involvement in a card game I loved, as well as the FF14 free company I'd been part of at the time. Someone who was, at one time, a good friend of mine misinterpreted something, and was so incensed by it, they took some things I said out of context and absolutely slandered me to the mod team of that community. (Yes, it actually is as bad as it sounds. I checked.) As a result, I was privately labeled some pretty nasty things, and shunted from their discord server without so much as a word. None of them would speak to me, none of them would even give me a chance to tell my side of things.

Obviously, that stung. A lot.

It had me pretty dejected about a lot of stuff, for a really long time. Probably why I mostly got off of here- I retreated to a different blog where there was less pressure (self-imposed) and more freedom for me to just, kinda, do whatever I wanted without fear or worry. I needed space and freedom to move myself around how I wanted for a while. And then that led to me feeling bad about not coming back here, which made me put off coming back here even longer... You see where this goes.

But at this point, it's been a year and a half. I'm pretty much over that fiasco, I haven't spoken to any of those people since, and they've evidently been content to leave it alone too, given I haven't had any mobs of angry pitchfork-wielding card game players coming after me.

And recently, Kako came back! She's RPing again and that's fun to see. I know a lot of you I've still been in contact with regardless, her included, so most of you probably are already aware of a lot of this stuff, but writing all this out is part of my process, so bear with it. The important thing is, after a lot of time and thinking about things, and seeing friends return to RPing and watching things happen from afar... God, do I want to get back into it with you all.

I very likely still won't be super active, but I'm going to at least try to be consistent. This is supposed to be my main, after all. I'll probably take the next week or so to clean up the muse list, cut a bunch of stuff, get a bit more focused and the like. Not that I'll actually stop playing any given muse- I'm wont to flip-flop between characters I enjoy, and I'm loathe to let fun interactions pass me by just because a character 'isn't on my muse list', but I ought to give myself a bit of structure, at least.

So... I'll try to be here every day, at least. Even if it's just to check in. This'll be a fresh start for me, I'd say, not that any of my old lore or whatever is getting abandoned. It's just... It's been a long time. It'll take some easing back into things for me, so I'm not even going to worry about whatever asks have been left to rot in my inbox, stuff like that.

Given it's been such a long time, some of you may... have blogs that I'm not currently following, cause I've missed them or what have you. So uh, if that's the case, please shoot me a message so I can correct that.

[rydiathesummoner]

If there's one thing I've improved at while getting older, it's self-reflection and figuring out when I'm being overdramatic about a topic. I liked Dawntrail a lot and had fun, but I did need to reflect a bit with some of my first impressions.

First impression: The Urqopacha trading part was ridiculous, boring, and unrealistic.

After self-reflecting: I grew up poor in a wealthy city. I still have a lot of issues stemming from this. I was annoyed at Wuk Lamat making a fortune from some cotton because that's what people expected from me, even though bootstraps are REALLY heavy and motivational speakers who are all like "I started my fortune from a single cotton seed" are full of shit. That said, no she didn't pull up any magical bootstraps because that not what the feat was about at all. It was about testing her ability learn from her people and adapt to their culture as a potential Dawnservant. Much like the xibruq pibil it was just a contained test. Wuk Lamat didn't become a genius trader overnight at all. My knee-jerk reaction from my own issues colored my opinion. That said, I still think it was boring. I would have liked even some basic "kill monsters" in the middle or something.

First impression: The WoL should have taken Zoraal Ja down when he defeated Gulool Ja. We're literally a walking nuke. We can solve this in 5 minutes.

After reflection: It's easy to infer that Tural isn't looking for Eorzeans to come influence their government or their culture, and that we needed to build up Tural's own warrior of light type person. That said, it was still written poorly. Wuk Lamat could have specified she was wanting mentors only in 6.55 and she was required to do the heavy lifting. Alphinaud could have lectured on the boat that we cannot cause any international incidents while in Tural. He could have given some speech about letting countries resolve their own conflicts without us pushing our beliefs, so Eorzea is not viewed as colonizers. I've learned after decades of office work that if you don't spell things out explicitly, people will interpret even the smallest thing differently. An important concept like non-interference shouldn't have been left up to the player to infer, it should have been explicitly said in the script.

First impression: The scions are written poorly in comparison to previous expansions. Nobody questions ANYTHING. Why have the scions lost their curiosity? People don't ask perfectly reasonable questions like how did Cahciua die? Wouldn't Erenville want to know that? Why didn't anyone take note that there weren't any other mamool ja in Solution 9, so where did Gulool Ja come from, surely someone would at least theorize he's a clone or something? Why didn't Alisae say anything about the levin sickness, she has a lot of experience in people with aether imbalances. In previous expansions Y'shtola would never have politely stayed behind while others explored a new shard. That didn't even make sense.

After reflection: Yeah my opinion here didn't change. I did try considering if I was unfairly comparing to Shadowbringers and Endwalker with its much higher-stakes plot, but nah even taking into account that the scions were taking a backseat in the plot, they still were written out of character for not showing any interest in basic questions.

First impression: Krile was done dirty. Why wasn't her story highlighted more?

After reflection: I don't think this was any malicious intent or that they didn't know what to do with her. I think it was more like Creative Studio 3's current trend of focusing more on building world lore rather than focusing on characters. FFXVI was the exact same way. I didn't give a shit about Northreach rebuilding in FFXVI, Lubor's town, blah blah so I was one of the complainers about the side quests. Same thing happened here, The different regions were... fine? But I missed hearing the thoughts of my friends. You know, the scions. That said, that is strictly my feelings. I am much more of a "characters first" person than a "birds-eye view of the world" person. I accept I may be in the minority on that and I can accept that like FFXVI, I was just not the target demographic. It's possible CS3 has decided that world-building is more profitable. They did give Krile more focus than many others, and taking into account CS3's world focus it was probably enough, just not my personal taste.

First impression: The difficulty spike was too high. I just want to play the story without dying over and over in the dungeons.

After reflection: I'm old. My eyes have never been great. And irl I'm so, SO busy. "Git gud" is no longer an option for me. However, that is not CS3's problem. At some point I'm going to have to accept that I can no longer play this game. Yes that's sad, but part of life is getting older and having to modify your hobbies. Singleplayer game developers are great about adding in accessibility options, I'll just have to back out of this one MMO. I can't expect the young 'uns to put up with an easier game because I can't see the mechanics as quickly as they can, and it's not anyone else's problem that I don't have the time to bash my head against bosses over and over again. 20 years from now the kiddos will have to come to the same realization and the cycle will continue.

[andromeda-nova-writing]

You and Me, Mercy in Between

Vampire! Ayato x Fem! Witch! Reader

Summary: Sleep is a precious thing and Y/N misses it. You know those times when you are so tired that your thoughts go all over the place and get a little too much to handle? Ayato is great at leading Y/N's brain into something that's too much for her with such a lack of sleep. Luckily he's also smart enough to know when to stop pushing someone so far especially when likes their company.

A prequel fic for Willingly Within Your Grasp. You can read this in any order for now

Words: 2,304

AN: Everyone thank @milkstore for keeping my brain rot going through this au and editing/reviewing this fic. Also for naming this fic. I have so many ideas and lore I've come up with for this au. I just have so many thoughts about this au. There's so much I want to expand on to the point I started writing the third part already.

This fic is T-rated. Typical vampire behavior. Mentions of blood and animal death. Mentions of main character death with none occurring

It had been a long week for Y/N. She had never been a big festival person before. It didn't help this week was ending with Ayaka accidentally touching some silver earrings cause she thought they would be a nice gift for Y/N. She was lucky Thoma was with her for quick damage control. Even then casting a spell changing someone's memory of the incident sucked. It was her least favorite part of the job.

First came finding out exactly who and everyone who may have witnessed the incident. Then came the disguise spell so not a soul would know who she was. Finally the memory shift. It sucked to do and sucked to have happened. The things she would do for the Kamisato clan.

In came the knock at her door. Did no one read the do not disturb sign? She only put it up for important potion-making. Even though she was lying on the bed trying to get any bit of rest before she had to actually get up and work. A second knock at the door.

"Who is it?" She yelled. "I'm busy at the moment." An understandable lie with the lack of sleep she had over the week.

"It's me. Can I come in real quick?" Thoma asked gently.

She sat up. "Come in." She pulled a blanket around her body. Her sleep schedule was so ruined it was going to mess up her brain.

He came in, took one look at her, and winced.

Y/N frowned. "Thanks for the confidence boost. Needed that."

"Sorry. Lord Kamisato requested your presence. We also are low on blood. You are going to have to make the blood replacements again." The apology in his voice was just too evident as he spoke clearly feeling sorry about having to give her more tasks.

"How far off are you from learning those incantations?"

He laughed awkwardly. "The pronunciation is still confusing me. I could always go fishing if that helps."

"That would. I appreciate it." It was hard to remain upset at Thoma for interrupting her first break in a while. The fish fix wouldn't be perfect but it would help the situation out. "Tell him I'll be there soon."

"Will do." And with that, he left leaving her back into the darkness of her room.

Y/N got up and went over to move the blackout curtain to see what time of day it was. Sunset. Ayato couldn't have slept until actual nightfall for her sanity at least. She looked down at her bedclothes. It still looked like they were just put on. The wrinkles of sleep were deeply missed.

After throwing on a robe over clothes she made her way over to Ayato’s office. He would have to find a way to deal with the fact that she would be returning to her bed immediately after. She knocked on the door of his office before letting herself in.

“You wanted me?” As much as she found herself enjoying his presence, she hoped that this would be quick.

He didn't even look up from the mountain of paperwork in front of him. "How's the situation with jeweler?" 

"Dealt with along with everyone nearby who may have seen. Ayaka's hand should be fully healed by now. I should be checking on her soon." 

"Good. Have a drink sent my way. I've seem to find myself trapped in here once again."

"We are out. Thoma is out fishing to help offset our supply till we can manage to find something bigger. If you give me 10 minutes I can go make a blood substitute." It was already on her to-do list anyway. Sleep was not to be had after all. 

"How long has he been out?"

"Not long. You'll have to wait if you want something fresh."

He placed the pen in his hand down looking up at her. "Is there any way you can actually make that substitute taste good?"

"Afraid not. Any changes to its flavor profile would ruin its ability as a substitute."

"Any other options?"

"We've been over this." It was too early or was it too late for this? Either way, she did not have the appropriate amount of sleep in her system for this. "It's to be from an animal or the substitute. What happened last month was because there was nothing near us and I couldn't make a substitute."

"Details. So we are allowed to talk about it now?" 

"I never said that we could speak on it." She looked away from Ayato. She felt hyper-aware of her wrist. Just the mention of it made the memory feel like it just happened. When she blinked it was like she could see Ayato sinking his teeth in while looking directly at her eyes trying to gauge when to stop.

It was the only time she had let someone drink from her before and the first time he had human blood. Circumstances be damned at this point. For two people struggling to maintain some sort of professionalism, it was the most intimate they had been. And they loved every second of it.

It hadn't left Y/N’s mind. Any dreams she could recall had Ayato in them. What she would never tell him is how she imagined Ayato’s teeth on her neck. It was such a crude way to think about someone who was her boss. That and she couldn't believe that she was way more into such an act than she thought would ever be.

Everything anyone told her growing up was that vampires were dangerous. Blood suckers that only looked out for themselves. If she found herself in the company of one, it was kill or be killed. Maybe the information she got was biased. Her mother had been a hunter who got herself killed by a vampire when she was young. 

"Pity. Come sit with me while I wait." It was such a simple task he had asked of her. But knowing Ayato, there had to be something more.

"Where?" It wasn’t like there was a spot in the room where she could actually sit next to him as he worked.

"The desk. You could hand me my papers as I need them." He said with such a straight face.

She sighed not even having to ask if he was serious or not. "What happened to having me check on Ayaka?" 

"That can wait. She should be resting anyway. You should keep me company. Wouldn't it be best to keep an eye on a hungry vampire?" He teased.

Y/N went over to his desk and sat down holding the pile of papers on her lap as he requested. Professionalism be damned. She sighed, "If you really were a problem, it's not like I couldn't stop you. I could have you chained down within a minute. I was raised to do just that."

"That's how you would stop me. With chains?"

"My aunt, she took me under her wing. She introduced me to this world and taught me everything she and my mom knew. And that included killing vampires. I was only talking about ways to restrain you. Summoning chains is only one of the methods."

"And if that didn't work?"

"Seal off the room. Pray that I don't have to use other restraints. Could get painful." Too many of them involved fire. Too many methods risked so much. "I'd rather not talk about anything I'd have to do to you if I'd ever had to stop you."

"Why would that be?"

"If I can't restrain you and you are still a problem, all that's left is to kill you." She looked up at the ceiling. The silence of night making itself aware. "I would prefer not to have to take your life. Honestly, it would be quite heartbreaking."

"Hm." It wasn't every day that someone who had trained to kill a vampire found that exact task heartbreaking.

"I don't think I could face Ayaka and tell her. Knowing her, I would have to be ready to kill her as well. Probably Thoma as well. You all are just too close. You've been nothing but good to me. Don't make me think such things." It was hard to be strong within her words. "If it was anyone else I could do it. But you haven't killed anyone. Most vampires I have encountered have already become serial killers. You don't deserve that same fate."

All Ayato could do was listen. Maybe he had pushed too far. He only went as far as he normally would. Maybe her boundaries weren't to be tested while she was tired. She fought tears gracefully as she imagined a life he would be sure to make not happen. It made her feel sick. She traced symbols on the desk subconsciously completely unaware that she had begun casting a spell of deception upon her appearance.

"I see every spark of humanity within you every day. To think of a day where you've lost it becoming a monster must mean I've failed along the way. You, everyone around us, and myself. If I were to have that happen I think my whole view on vampires would crash on me."

"And what's that view?"

"To be taught every single vampire is a killer and then to take a chance thinking that maybe what I learned was wrong is right would just be the worst. And if were to fail to kill you then I’d be granting you a fate worse than death." If it wasn’t her who put a stop to it then someone else would come along after who knows how long with no mercy of the situation. Archons forbid it wasn’t anyone in the estate that would have to clean up the mess she would have left behind. 

Ayato was careful in moving the papers off of her lap back onto the desk to not interrupt what she was telling him.

“It would just be awful to have to kill the man I’ve been falling in love with for the better part of the year. Just saying that must I’ve compromised my ability to work here.”

He had stood up able to meet her eyes directly now. He grabbed onto the hand that had silently casting a spell stopping it from being performed. Her face had been stained with tears showing how deeply she had meant it when she said she had been falling in love with him. How intensely these thoughts and backup plans had killed her inside. Ayato brought a hand up to her face wiping away the tears he was unable to see before.

“It must be horrible to fall in love with me if I’ve already made you cry with these thoughts.”

“I made myself cry.”

“With things I shouldn’t ask you to think of.” 

“I would have to think of them by myself anyway.” She had been since she accepted this job offer that Thoma had brought along to her.

“Don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“If it makes you so upset, don’t think of it anymore.”

“It would be irresponsible. This is irresponsible.”

“Why don’t we just be a little irresponsible together for once?” It was a question that pushed away all formalities. To ignore all professionalism. It was better to ignore what was wrong and focus on what felt so right. Boundaries that had been set up right to fall with a single crash.

Soft kisses on a cheek turned into kissing away tears turned into kisses on the lips. Slow and sweet as if to make up for what had happened. Apologies without words were made before becoming promises to one another. Which managed to change yet again to something more passionate with hands running up and down each other begging to be closer to each other. Before finally stopping for air leaning foreheads against one another satisfied with the outcome.

“Are you any better?” Ayato’s voice was soft, and gentle almost if a pin would drop on the floor it would be too harsh against the ears.

“A bit,” She sighed. “I think I’m just exhausted.”

“Exhausted? We haven’t been working you that hard have we?”

Y/N leaned as far back as she could while being held. “I was running on 3 hours of sleep and as many 10-minute naps as I could throughout this week. I think my bags have bags.”

“I guess we should get you back to bed then.”

“What happened to wanting me to keep an eye on you?”

“You could have requested a day off. I would have given it to you.”

“I know but there were things that had to get done. There are things that have to get done now. I’m already up so I might as well do them.”

His face was filled with judgment. As overworked as he was even he knew better. “Maybe it would have been better for you to have checked on Ayaka first. She’d at least lecture you about this without sounding hypocritical.”

“You aren’t wrong about that. And if it isn't her who calls us out it's only a matter of time before Thoma plans something where you are forced to sit and relax.”

She laughed for the first time in a while. Letting the joys of life take over. “It is quite nice finding people who remind you of the value of taking a break.”

“Were you not one for breaks?”

She sighed. “They weren’t encouraged. My aunt, she was nice but she was always worried about our safety. I just pray you never meet her. She may think I'm not here of my own accord.”

“Don’t think of it for now. You did enough worrying over me today.” He took some steps back pulling Y/N off of the desk. “Let’s just get you back to bed for now.”

[strawberijasper]

Paladin redesigns

So... my friend @adaphyl and I have been working on a Voltron rewrite because canon Voltron? Eughdghf god awful, we all know. But it's ok, it's not real it can't hurt us.

We've been working through the cast and redesigning characters. I'm posting the paladin redesigns first just because my Altean redesigns need a bit more explanation... there's a lot of lore and I just don't got it in me rn.

I say these are the paladin redesigns but I did also include Keith's dad for reasons, we called him Jim. Anyways here are my redesigns as well as some notes on our rewrites of the characters (I will go more into this at a later date, but for now just some important notes).

Keith:

He's trans ftm, wears a binder. He needs to be wrestled out of said binder because he will wear it for too long. He is on hrt but has been off of it for a while cause space.

Keith is itty bitty, we made him 5'5.

He has more non-human features, the stripes on his arms are Galran markings, as well as the "freckles" on his face. He does get more Galran features in the future (will be in a future post).

Shiro's son.

He's autistic because I say so (I'm projecting but also honestly none of them are neurotypical lets be real).

Lance:

Lance is amab and nonbinary, goes by he/they.

Fuckboy with a heart of gold but like... genuinely. He comes off as a fuckboy to many people but he truly is just a silly little guy. Canon Lance but far better.

He's average height, 5'10.

He wears friendship bracelets made by his nieces and nephews, and always has hair ties on him for anyone who needs one. The anklet is from his mother.

Shark tooth necklace is because it's his favorite animal (and because sharks are MY favorite and I'm projecting).

Pidge:

Transmasc genderfluid, uses they/them pronouns primarily but is fine with any.

Pidge is still the shortest, around 4'11 iirc.

Pidge is aroace because I say so, romance and sex repulsed they do not give a shit about any of it.

Their hoodie was originally Matt's, they stole it in order to sneak into the Garrison and decided to just keep it. Pidge misses their brother.

Pidge wears a binder and is very good about not wearing it for too long. They set a timer for how long they should wear it and will take it off as soon as they can, as well as set reminders for break days. They are on top of this shit.

Hunk:

Hunk has tattoos (not pictured, we're working on designing them). We wanted to really represent Hunk's culture and because he's Samoan we wanted to give him some traditional Samoan tattoos as a treat.

He's everyone's bestie/big brother actually and I love him can you tell I love him?

iirc he's around 6'0 tall.

Paints his nails the voltron colors, one finger for each member. His thumbs are painted yellow so he can point to himself.

Shiro:

Shiro is a trans man, he has had top surgery and is also on hrt.

Shiro is Keith's stepdad... kind of. Kind of stepdad kind of adopted dad. Simply dad.

Shiro is also around 6'0, shorter by Hunk by an inch.

Oh he also has a tongue piercing hehe haha.

Jim (Keith's bio dad):

Jim is Jim.

No but really, he was in fact a firefighter, we are keeping that. He dies in a fire and Keith now wears his dog tag.

He may have held hands with Shiro at some point :3c

There isn't much to say about him (I simply don't remember everything) but just know I love him.

[i-will-steal-your-knees]

All my fellow Mechanisms fans out there, this one’s for you

After spending a bit of time here on tumblr dot com, I haven’t seen anyone talk about this but. I believe that good old first name Gunpowder last name Tim caused the events of HNOC. Let me explain

The first and most important piece of evidence is the music. During DTTM, when they’re describing Tim’s death, the music playing is the intro to HNOC. It only seems important because of what music they use for everyone else (like Lost in the Cosmos for Brian, and I think either Hades or Lucky Sevens for Ashes, etc. (I don’t remember for the rest of them)). But like. Tim isn’t really tied in any way to HNOC thematically or narratively, as far as we know (and if we’re talking about music that’s thematically relevant for the character, referencing GTVTMK would make more sense I think?)

The other evidence I will present has more to do with the lore of the albums. Tim specifically steals the largest gunship to ever be created. And as evidenced by the scale of Fort Galfridian and the fact that the person in charge of it was a general, it makes sense that this civilization would have the technological and military capability to create said gunship. And we know Tim went on a murder spree, so maybe that’s why no one was responding to their distress calls? And then, of course, Tim finally dies by crashing into a space station (not wearing his seatbelt). At the start of HNOC, Fort Galfridian is already in disrepair and in a decaying orbit, and what better to leave it that way than being crashed into by the largest gunship ever? (And, tying in with the first piece of evidence, the music referenced was of course that of the one album that *took place on* a space station.)

Anyways, yeah, that’s my one hot spicy Mechanisms theory, feel free to reblog with anything to add/anything I might’ve missed

[flower-sunflower-blog]

Why is s!Ryan and s!Void's relationship so weird ? (yet so freaking interesting)

If you want to know more about what I’m talking about, I invite you to check this document : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pFSLu0cGEQP8ToTjyuUtl2Cd5NtIF6RiEdQPcOWQJGU/edit#heading=h.z8qa7ptiwi2a I’ll mainly be referencing the events during the “love and hate” part of the lore. Take in note that I’m still not fully updated on everything and might have missed some clues in the meantime.

First I have to talk about s!Void : they’re really present through everything and during important moments of the lore, and seems to be aware about a lot of things. The way their character was portrayed was really interesting to me.

They seem to be genuinely kind and well meaning, while remaining in a passive position. Most of the time they wish for the best for their friends, for instance they express their support to s!Cherry when she’s arguing with the gods, but at the same time they just seems to know s!Cherry can’t win.

They seem to resign themself to the fact that things are as they are. They don’t really seem to take sides either, mostly just hoping that everyone will just get in a mutual agreement at the end. And they help to achieve that when they can, but otherwise they just stay behind.

That's how I interpreted their involvement through the first impactful events.

On the other hand, s!Ryan is not really on the “good” side. She plans revenge on those who did her wrong according to her. She expressed only caring about herself, and I think she manipulates people around her to get them to serve her best interests.

(I hope I can one day go more into how I interpret her character, ‘cause there is much more to it and I think she’s really interesting. It's not that I don't have a lot of theories about her, it's actually the opposite : I have way too much, so much to say it's a mess to talk about)

Then at one point, s!Ryan proposed to s!Void. It was during the whole “Claude's custody” issue. At this moment, it seemed rather interested from s!Ryan, as way to get a stronger grip on Claude. Since s!Void was one of the co-parent and the one s!Ana trusted with Claude's supervision until she settled custody rights.

As a response, s!Void were clear about how they needed time to think about it. At first, Void wasn’t enthusiastic about it. Altho they were not firmly against it, they were really confused and even a bit scared of how pressuring s!Ryan would be to get what she wants.

In the meantime, s!Void let s!Ryan take care of Claude since she didn’t had him for a while, their decision appeased the tensions for the time being.

That day, after heading back to Gingerville, she said she was thinking of a way to "kidnap/make Claude disappear”, hiding him to keep her for herself. But she had to think of a way to do that without making it too obvious, as an option she suggested “frame it on someone else”.

From there, Claude just remained at Gingerville under s!Ryan's care. Nothing much happened for a while, we didn’t get any news. Until, out of the blue, while she was arguing with Moo, she revealed that Claude had died ??

And I do not believe it.

And trust me, I’m not just saying it as in “being in denial”. For me, it doesn’t make any logical sense.

I mean, how could he have died ? He was staying over s!Ryan’s the whole time. And surely s!Ryan would have taken good care of him, she expressed how she didn't have anybody besides him, how much she care for him and such. And IF he really had died, she still seems to take it way too calmly considering how important he was for her.

In addition to everything, one of the last interactions we had between this moment, and the last time we saw Claude, was s!Ryan saying she wanted to make him disappear and find a way to make it convincing. It would make sense she would make up a lie like this. It would be convincing, since people know how Claude is important to her, she wouldn't be suspected as the cause of his death. And meanwhile, she could have him hidden in a secret place. (after all, we already know she have access to secret places on her own)

If you’re wondering why I talk about Claude’s death being a lie, when this is supposed to be about s!Void and s!Ryan, well…..keep it in mind, for me this is really important.

Then, s!Void and s!Ryan got officialy engaged. According to s!Ryan, s!Void changed their mind after having a discussion with her, and would have realized since then that they actually wanted to get married.

And that’s where things are off, and that this situation gets really suspicious.

Do you remember how I said that s!Void seems to be kind hearted, and overall taking a passive position and hoping for everyone to get in a mutual agreement at the end ? While s!Ryan is only thinking about her own interests, and activily manipulating people around to serve the said interests ?

If something is really off, it’s not really from the fact that two opposed characters could be in a relationship with one another. After all, why not ?

It's more about how s!Void attitude doesn’t align with their previous actions, and how they were portrayed until then. And there are two main reasons for that :

First, that shift was way to sudden. Of course they could have been convinced in the end. But going from being hesitant, confused and honestly scared about this situation, to being completely willing to get married, and happy about it, after one conversation ? That's still reaaaaaally drastic.

Second Claude’s death. You know how I think Claude's death is a lie and why I think that way now ? But thing is, s!Void ALSO said that Claude was dead. The only conclusion would be that if s!Ryan is lying about Claude, then s!Void is taking part of it and lying aswell.

For this last point, we could argue that they just believed s!Ryan when she told them, as other characters did when they mentioned Claude’s death. But s!Void was one of Claude’s main caretaker, and was probably more involved and present with Claude than the others. So surely they would know better.

And them confirming it is not sufficient to convince me that it's indeed the truth. All the inconsistancies with this version still remain. Moreover, if we can doubt s!Ryan, s!Void likely would have been a responsible caretaker when they were in s!Ryan's and Claude's company, as it is kinda implied that s!Void spend time at Gingerville with s!Ryan, where Claude was aswell.

And that doesn’t sound like s!Void. Again, from what we saw until now, they're not the type of person that would purposefully spread a lie, nor actively acting according to Ryan's wants.  

But s!Void is not being manipulated either, nor brainwashed.

When they talked about this with s!Moo (well, for me it was Moo not aware this was lore xD), she asked them both if this was really what they wanted deep inside. s!Ryan and s!Void just stared at each other without saying anything.  

s!Void answered “listen, I trust Ryan unlike…some people”. And when s!Void stayed with Moo after s!Ryan left, they said they’ll be find and revealed their main goal was to support s!Ryan and being here for her. 

They still seems to be kind and well meaning. They were really nice to Moo, preventing s!Ryan to go too hard on her, and wished her the best. They seems to have good attention, since apparently they want to help s!Ryan in the end.

It seems like while apparently associating to her, they didn't adopt Ryan's mindset and doesn't condone all of her actions. But still, taking actively part of Ryan's schemes in the process doesn't align with their character for me.

And while I'm not totally closed to the possibility that I've been mistaken about s!Void this all time, or that their character reveal through a twist they were never what they pretended to be, for now I'm leaning to this theory :

It seems like s!Void doesn’t “really” want to get married in reality BUT still makes this decision willingly, as well as willingly siding with s!Ryan. It's certainly for a reason, a reason that came out during this "conversation", a reason that is still unknown to us.

And then, the pinterest boards

I didn’t get much into it yet. Not that I forgot, it’s because I’m STILL processing them xD Both are complex, enigmatic and with a lot of elements, and a lot of possible connection with other hints

But what make them really special is that they look really alike, strangely alike. Some “hints” seemed to be shared.

s!Void's board :

s!Ryan's board

s!Ryan's board seems lighter, while s!Void's darker. But there is certain elements you can kinda link to one another : the sun, the moon, the astrals in general for instance.

But the biggest clue is this picture, which is actually in BOTH boards :

A black hand, that I'm suspecting to be the a representation of the "god" s!Ryan's is in contact with for a while.

It's to wonder if s!Void and s!Ryan actually had a contact with the same entity. Was it pure coincidence ? Or could it be s!Ryan who caused it ?

Something is up, still. Something way above us it seems. That is still to uncover.

But while s!Ryan's board is more linked to the sun, her color pattern as well, s!Void's is rather giving a "moon" vibe, and their color pattern as well. And they both have opposed personnality.

There is a lot of symbolic here in my opinion. Their relationship is not to be underestimated in their complexity. I think there is something deeper, more mystical that made their path cross.

Last element I wanted to get into :

I said that might be lore, I had a good reason thinking that.

Void and Ryan both look at the sky on this picture. And then, notice how Ryan didn’t say “me and Void” but “me and the void”. "Me and THE void". That made me wonder if she's actually referring to the concept of the void. And if she's actually referring to Void, well maybe somehow Void and THE void are one ?

For me, that’s Ryan’s storytelling core : she posts things, or say things lightly, as if they didn't have any significance, thus convincing people they don't have any significance. But often, Ryan as well as s!Ryan is not to be underestimated, and details like this could matter.

I think there is something up with the "void", s!Ryan may be connected to it, aswell as s!Void of course. It could even possibly be part of what have connected them.

And since I mentioned the void, here is s!Void rather interesting main image from their board :

Again, I think there is something to dig about everything, s!Void's real nature and much more.

And last minute thought : there is members that go by multiple names. Among them, Shade and Dapper, Pomme and Lumi, and Void and Shaded. For Shade and Lumi, it doesn't mean anything lorewise for sure.

But Void and Shaded, well it's not so sure there is nothing behind it. It could be, sure, but at the same time it's no confirmed it doesn't, you know ? Maybe there is a deeper meaning of why Shaded also go by "Void" ? Just putting it here.

So, as a conclusion :

I think s!Void is purposefully siding with s!Ryan, the conversation they had gave them a reason too, a reason we still don’t know about. It’s not manipulation or possession, s!Void seems to be aware of what they’re doing. But this motivation seems to be enough for them to start acting really differently from how they acted before, going from a passive position, to an active one.

And this connect about something way more deeper, that is for me the general mystery about s!Ryan. Who is she ? WHAT is she ? Who is the god she's in contact with ? How did she get in contact with them ? Why does she act this way ? And how is s!Void linked to everything ?

[sissytobitch10seconds]

Clowning Around

Fandom: Helluva Boss Summary: Blitz lost quite a bit in a fire that he accidentally caused. Thankfully, nothing truly lasts forever and he has a chance to grow. Warnings: Trans male pregnancy, mentions of homelessness, graphic depictions of violence, and canon-typical child abuse Word Count: 8,953 Ship(s): FizzaRolli/Blitzo/Stolas Goetia/Asmodeus

Archive link!

A/N: So this hasn't had any editing because it's for a mutual of mine (@lovely-number-7)and I wanted to get it out as quickly as possible! It's based off an idea that we both had and built on together. I've only ever seen Helluva Boss so if I've gotten some lore wrong, please be patient with me. I hope you all enjoy! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

Blitzo blinked hard several times as his vision once again swam in front of him. While he had adjusted to that happening while he was performing, stuffed into a tent under massively hot lights and surrounded by flaming Hellbeasts, it was odd to have it happen when he was inside of his caravan. He rolled it off his shoulders as just another thing that his body was doing while it adjusted to his new condition. He had more important things that he had to focus on for the time being.

If his father was asked, then the thing that he should have been focusing on was his act. He hadn’t been able to perform as well as he had been a few months before and even then his performance was mediocre at best. He had never been the most talented when it came to the tight rope and he sucked at the swings, so he had been relegated to a clown. His ability to manipulate the crowd into laughing at his incompetence and warming them up for his best friend, FizzaRolli, had been regressing. He knew that it was because his focus was always on the other clown, just barely backstage and out of his reach, instead of on the task at hand.

Hopefully he would be able to sort out some of those issues soon. For now, though, he was focusing on a task that was something other than what his father wanted him to do. Cash was preoccupied with the new act that Barbie was working out with some of the other aerialists involving the lyra hoop anyway. That meant that Blitzo finally had some time where he could stop being the bad kid simply because he was being ignored.

The demon let a little giggle pass through his lips as he signed his name on the bottom of the paper that was laying on the ground of his family’s caravan. They rarely slept in the bunks any longer, not since they had traveled away from the snowy mountaintops and down to the sweltering deserts of Wrath. They were going to be heading towards the edges of the cities in Greed soon, which meant that they would be stay in city motels or camped out in parking lots.

While he sometimes missed being able to lay next to his mother in his parent’s bunk when she was feeling well enough to have her children next to her, he was glad that they only really used the caravan for storage any more. He shared a tent with Fizz and Barbie, which meant that there was a lot more time to get up to the teenage shenanigans that had been plaguing them for a while. He hoped that neither of them would mind having to make room for another addition, at least until they could get Barbie into her own tent.

He tucked the letter into the envelope that he had stolen out of one of the patron’s purses and then sealed it. After a moment, he wrote down a note trying to scare everyone else away from opening it and reading the contents. The only person that knew what was written after the love confession was an old crone three towns and nine shows back, so Blitzo was determined to make sure that Fizz was the first to know outside of that.

He slipped from the stuffy caravan down onto the packed ground of the campsite behind the circus. He could see the massive big top wavering in the desert breeze as it rolled over the sand traps, heading toward the tiny town. Blitzo kept one of his hands on the doorway that led back into the structure as he took in what the camp looked like.

He was hoping that this was the last time he would have to look on it as a single boy, that the next time that he set eyes on all of the tents he would be completely changed. It made a giddy fluttering erupt in the base of his stomach and rush through his throat. 

Unable to keep the energy centered in one place for much longer, he jumped down from the caravan step onto the packed earth. He paused for only a moment, gazing at the small amount of green grass and wildflowers that had managed to sprout up amidst the harsh conditions. It was only because the seeds had been dropped, likely from their own hellbeasts, right next to the water pump.

A giddy idea sprang into the young imp’s head as he rushed over to the pump and then plucked one of the flowers up. Since it could only grow in a very small spot and the conditions surrounding it were still so hostile it was nothing like the flowers that he had been thinking of getting for Fizz in his dreams. It was small and weepy, already drooping as Blitzo held it up into the air so that he could see it properly.

Tilting his head up towards the sun made his headache come back just as fiercely as it had that morning when he had stood up too fast. He quickly placed his hand down on the top of the water pump and bit back the bile that was threatening to spew out through his mouth. He had gotten very good at that, ever since he had started feeling nauseous when he would lay down to go to sleep.

He had always heard his mother refer to her pregnancy sickness as morning sickness, usually when she was talking to one of the other circus workers or some of the doctors that would come to see her. The pregnancy had been what had taken her health into such a nosedive, causing her to be weak enough that she couldn’t perform any longer. Blitzo had no idea why the nausea and vomiting that came with pregnancy was called morning sickness, he had never actually been sick in the morning unless someone had decided to eat salted fish during that time.

Instead, he always felt himself becoming devastatingly ill towards the night time. The sun would go down and he would finally stop bouncing around for the first time since he had woken. He would go back to the tent with Fizz and Barb, lay down and wait just long rough for them to either sneak out to their other friends or to fall asleep before he left. There was a patch of sand behind one of the straggly trees on the edge of their camp that had been watered by his stomach bile and dinner for the better part of the last few weeks.

Sometimes he also ended up feeling ill during the middle of the day when he reacted to something too emphatically. He had lucked out when it had come to the shows, despite the bouncing and jumping that he did when he was performing. He had never gotten sick when he was out in front of the crowd and was able to lie to his father when he got caught heaving something up backstage. A lot of the other imps that were performing with them drank profusely, so as long as he carried a flask of water on hand and sipped from it then he could just pretend that he had fucked up and had too much to drink before the show.

The nausea passed after a couple of seconds of breathing through his nose, and he was better off for it. He was standing in the fresh air of the camp instead of being in one of the stuffy tents or wagons, which always helped him. He wished that they still traveled with a doctor and there was a way for him to ask if this was normal.

The only person that he knew that had a child and would be willing to talk to him was his mother. He turned his head away from where he had been staring at the main tent, the place where he needed to be going, and to where she would be during the middle of the day. Carefully, he tucked the letter and the flower away in his waistband and then walked over to the side of the wagon.

“Mom?” he asked.

“Hello, little one,” she smiled as she saw him. She tilted her head back so that her predominantly black horns were resting on the back of her chair. Barb was sitting in front of her, turned to the side so that she could lay her head on her mother’s lap. 

When his twin heard the sound of his voice, she tilted her head so that she was looking at him and her chin was resting on their mother’s thighs. “Back off, this is my time with mom,” she hissed, including flicking her tongue at Blitzo.

“She can come and join us if she wants,” their mother corrected. She had always been the level-headed and purposeful of his parents. It was a shame that her pregnancy had damaged her badly enough that she couldn’t be there to assist their father in the running of the circus. If she had been, then they probably would have been in their hay day instead of struggling the way that they were now.

Blitzo kicked at the ground as he bit the insides of his cheeks. He wanted to correct her about the pronouns that she had used, but he also knew that his mother struggled to remember anything nowadays. So instead, he just leaned down and kissed next to the brand on her forehead, “I was just gonna head over to Fizz’s party. I’ll tell him happy birthday from the both of you.”

Barbie turned her head away from him and let their mother resume carding her hair back to where it belonged. It hurt to know that his sister was so easy to dismiss him, but he knew that he would do the same if he had the chance to be with their mother like that.

He turned on his heal and walked towards the tent, feeling his mother wave him off as he went. He really did want to ask her advice for the pregnancy, because he was scared. He had only found out a couple of months ago and it already felt like it was tearing him apart. He had heard his father scream about what they had done to their mother when she was pregnant with them and while he would never want to abort his child, as sentimental and attached as he was already, he didn’t want that to happen to him.

By the time that he had reached his destination, the thoughts had already flown from his mind. He could hear the sounds of the party inside, wafting through the opening of the tent and into the deserted grounds around them. It was their last day in this part of Wrath, so they had already performed their last show and would pack up the following morning. They had been able to use the entirety of the big top tent to their own devices, which meant that they were blasting Fizz’s favorite music by Mammon and laughing amongst each other.

He stepped through the first flap of the tent and then headed towards the ring where the main part of the party was being held. The air was just as stuffy as it had been in the back of the caravan, which made him waver slightly. He reached the second flap, which would let him join the rest of the party and the celebration.

When he got there, however, he was overwhelmed by how bad he felt. He grasped at the cloth that made up the tent to try and steady himself, placing the hand that was holding the letter and flower out to the side. The last thing that he was able to register was his palm meetings something soft and grainy, like frosting, before he tumbled down to the ground.

---

The first thing that Blitzo was aware of when he woke was how painfully hot he was. That wasn’t exactly a rarity since he had gotten pregnant, his entire body temperature had risen significantly. He wasn’t able to sleep inside of a tent on most days and blankets were never over the majority of his body, lest he spend the entire night vomiting instead of just part of it.

This heat felt different than the heat that plagued him when he was trying to sleep or go about his everyday life.

Instead of radiating from the base of his gut and through his limbs, it was licking at his skin as it tried to get closer to him. He could feel the way that it was heating up his body the way that the sun did after a long day in the shade, but a thousand times faster. It made him uncomfortable enough that he had to rouse despite the inviting way that sleep was still pulling at him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and then gasped at what he saw. Bright green flames were jumping from the edge of one canvas panel to another, eating through the support beams that were meant to keep the tent upright. He must have knocked something over when he passed out that resulted in the entire place going up in flames.

He could hear the hellbeasts, locked up in their pens on the other side of the big top, crying out. There was a massive crash before the sound of beating hooves and paws echoed through the space above the sound of crackling of the fire. There was screaming coming from the other workers, shrieking as they tried to beat out the fire on their clothing and find their loved ones.

That reminded Blitzo of what he had been doing when he originally entered into the tent. He rolled over slowly enough that he wouldn’t make himself sick and then hoisted himself to his feet. The smoke from the fire immediately infiltrated his lungs and filled his sinuses with the acrid smell of death. He brought his shirt over his nose as he waved futility in front of his face, trying to make his way through the mess without hurting himself or his unborn child.

He stumbled forward awkwardly, tripping down so that he could see underneath one of the curtains. The box of fireworks that they hadn’t been able to use the night before because of the high winds was somehow still in tact, but it wasn’t going to be for long with the rate that the fire was spreading.

He picked himself back up and then heaved to the side, spewing bile and smoke from his throat onto the ground. He couldn’t even bring himself to care about who saw him or what they thought about the mess that he had made. There was something far more important in the forefront fo his brain and it was the safety of the people that he loved.

“Fizz?” he called as he ventured further into the tent. 

He had just passed into the massive ring in the center of the tent where the party had been held before he had messed everything up. Fizz was screaming as the fire licked at him, trying to beat it out as the other imps had been doing. It was entirely purposeless because his other hand was already engulfed in the green fire, which only helped in spreading it.

“I’m going to get help!” Blitzo tried to scream over the sound of the tent collapsing in around him. He had turned around just in time for Fizz to notice him, he could hear his friend calling out for him. He knew that he couldn’t be in the fire for an extended amount of time, not without hurting the baby that was steadily growing in his womb. Fizz was in a lot of trouble though, and was going to need someone that actually knew first aid to be able to help him.

He rushed through the burning canvas and support structures as he tried to find anyone that was willing to help him. They were all already busy, trying to coral the hellbeasts back where they went or drag their partners and friends out of harm’s way. Blitzo couldn’t do that, not with the way that his eye was aching from the damage it had sustained before he had woken and the aching across his shoulders.

“Help!” he shouted as he stumbled across a group of people that was only standing there and watching the flames crawl higher and higher. It was the last thing that he could do before blackness began to dance at the edges of his vision again and he passed out.

---

---

Blitz’s life had already turned into an absolute shitshow before he had wound up running into the person that he used to be in love with. 

He could have said that about a lot of people and it would have been true to some extent for all of them. Verosika hadn’t been good to him but she was lovely in so many other ways that it had left him feeling validated. Striker was just some quick fuck so that he could feel steady in himself during a tumultuous time. The weird shark demon was someone that he wanted to forget, which meant it would have been an outward lie. Stolas and he had a very complicated relationship, one that reminded him so much of his time before the accident that he wasn’t sure he wanted to define it as love, yet.

The one person that had broken his heart more than anyone else was the one that he also tried to force from his mind the most. Fizz had been the first love that he ever had, the one that came to him in his dreams when he was having a hard time, and the one that still got him to cry to that day.

Just as it had every time he had run into one of Fizzarolli’s mechanical jesters when he was working his various odd jobs, their interaction went poorly. He was mostly trying to get out of the situation that he had once again found himself in, but Fizz seemed intent on reading him the riot act. He had to rebuttal some of the things that the other imp said lest he let his reputation get tarnished by someone else. That was his job and his job alone, after all.

That was when things went even further south. They ended up getting kidnapped and locked into the same cell, which meant that there was very little space for either of them to get away. Fizz didn’t seem to be handling the kidnapping very well. Despite the snappish remarks and quips that he was still making, he was fidgeting in his bindings and wiggling almost incessantly.

Blitz tried to ignore him for the most part as he figured out how to get out. He had another obligation that he had to attend to and if he didn’t make it then it could mean something very bad for him. His life had been enough of a shit show recently that he didn’t want to push his luck when it came to his relationship with his daughter, either of them.

He managed to get their bindings undone after wiggling his knife out of his sleeve for the better part of five minutes, of which his mouth spent the entire time arguing with Fizz. Once they were both free of the rope and tape, they managed to get out of the cage in a spectacular failure of a plan that still worked. It felt almost like the exact definition of Blitz’s entire life, he planned something and it went wrong but got half of the desired effect in the end.

Once they were out of the cage, they devised another plan so that they could get out of the warehouse. It involved Fizz making a fool of himself as he always had while Blitz managed to get around the back. They managed to take out the majority of the goons that Crimson had hired to try and ransom them, resulting on them standing up on the top of a massive shelving unit.

“You always cared what I thought,” Blitz scoffed. It was only half true, like most things in his life. Fizz had only cared what Blitz had to think when they were young teenagers, long before he had won the very first Mammon competition. Once he had won that competition and skyrocketed to fame, he didn’t care about what anyone thought of him. He knew that he was better than Blitz, that he deserved so much more than a low life that wanted to talk about blood and legless horses and pirates nonstop to try and rekindle what they had when they were kids.

Fizz laughed as he turned around and examined his hand, the one that had been whirring and stretching far above what was normal. Blitz knew that he had been given prosthetics to help him with what the fire had left him with, so that he could still perform and function as a person. “After what you did to me?” he asked as he turned just so that their eyes could meet over his shoulder.

“I didn’t do anything! It was an accident,” he snapped. He hadn’t told anyone what had happened that night, he had never had the chance to. His father had known that he knocked the cake out of the other circus workers hands, setting the canvas ablaze and then eventually lighting off the fireworks that he hadn’t stored properly because he was so tired. In Cash’s eyes, it had been his fault and it had been treated as such since that night.

“An accident? Are you kidding me?” Fizz nearly screamed. The bells on the bottom of his hat jangled as he moved, which was so comforting that it made Blitz feel like he was shaking apart. “You’ve always had it out for me because people liked me better. You wanted me gone because you were jealous. Just wanting the spotlight! I looked up to you, I thought you were my best friend. You ruined my life!”

He was approaching Blitz with both of his hands balled up into fists at his side. For a moment, he looked just as Cash had so many times throughout Blitz’s childhood. “And then you just left me. I lost so much because of you. And you selfish piece of shit, you didn’t even care!”

Blitz had turned around so that the tears streaking down his face weren’t visible to the other imp. He couldn’t face this, not when all of the memories of what had happened that night and the days following were rushing back to him all at once. That last sentence wormed its way into his mind until the words he had wanted to say for years finally burst out of him. “I did care! It was an accident, it was!”

Before he could say anything else, Fizz grabbed his shoulders and ducked them down into the boxes on the second of the warehouse shelves, so that they were surrounded by boxes. Several gunshots went off above them, but it was easy for Blitz to ignore them in his new line of work. 

He couldn’t stop the words now that they were coming, “Okay, you’re right! It was all my fault, it was. Okay, I should have done more to help! I was trying. There was so much going on. I was trying to get help, Fizz. I’m sorry, it was all my fault.”

“Glad you can admit it. Do you want a medal?” Fizz snarled.

Blitz could almost feel the pain on his eye and in his belly as he spoke to the other imp, as the words continued pouring from him like a leaky faucet. “Look, I’m sorry Fizz. I am so sorry that you got so hurt. And I am sorry for what you lost, and I-I know I can never make that right. But you have no idea what I lost in that fire.”

The memories felt like a searing, burning force in the back of his mind. The gun in his hand barely even registered as one of his hands moved to his stomach. He had never forgiven himself for what had happened, what he might have had if he had just taken his mother’s advice and listened to his body for once. He had been too greedy, wanted too much and then had lost everything but one tiny speck from it. “I mean, it’s all my fault. I would hate me too.” 

And he did, he hated himself enough for everyone that had gotten hurt or died in that accident and then some.

They didn’t get to continue their conversation because the thugs had found them again. He took care of them with the efficiency and blase attitude that he had done his job with for months now. It was technically personal, but he felt so hollow and out of sorts that he couldn’t bring himself to care much anymore.

They skipped over some of the boxes now that they were reminded that they were trying to escape. “So why didn’t you try to tell me any of this? Or come see me?” Fizz asked. “Even once would have been fine!”

“I tried. You were all I had left, Fizz, at least for the first while. But they told me that you didn’t want to see me,” he got a little snarky at the end. He didn’t really blame Fizz for not wanting to see him anymore, but at the time it had felt like a massive breach of their friendship. Fizz was responsible for the pregnancy as much as Blitz was, and he was the only person that could even potentially support him not that Barbie refused to talk to him and Tilla had passed.

“I never told them that!”

“Bullshit,” Blitz snarled. All of the talking about what had happened back then were bringing back the memories and feelings of that time. It was hard to keep his attitude in check when he felt like he had all those years ago, seventeen and recovering from his own burns while pregnant. “You didn’t?”

“No! And no one told me you came,” Fizz said.

They both suddenly realized what had happened, nodding in understanding. That was when more goons found them and they began to talk while they were fighting. It was odd to be with someone from the circus in that sense, instead of a farmer like Millie or a mafia member like Moxxie.

“Misunderstanding or no, it’s kind of hard to forgive you. It’s been fifteen years and that’s so much time. But I guess you didn’t really ruin my life.”

Blitz felt like he wanted to choke on air when he heard that. The explosion had completely ruined his life, even if his baby was the shining light in all of it that had stopped him from putting the business end of a gun against the roof of his mouth. “You’re telling me getting blown up didn’t ruin your life?”

“It was painful, and challenging,” Fizz conceded. “And you know, fuck you still. But it’s not like I’m broken. And I have someone who understands me. My life has actually been pretty great.”

“Yeah, that’s lovely,” Blitz said sourly. He knew that it was his fault that Fizz had been disfigured and disabled, but there was still some resentment brewing in him. He had to fight tooth, nail, and tail to get out of the hellhole being raised in the circus had left him in. Fizz had always gotten everything just handed to him, even when he messed up.

They finished worming their way out of the container that they had been held captive in. They were able to hotwire one of the old cars in the junkyard, but that was when Striker managed to snag Fizz. Blitz acted as quickly as he could to cause an explosion that would get the bounty hunter off of his friend without damaging Fizz. After performing some tricks that he thought he had long since forgotten, they found themselves safe on the top of a long beam. Fizz yelled at him for blowing him up again, which Blitz knew that he deserved.

---

The trek to get out of Greed felt like it took forever. They had to find where the junkyard was in proximity to where they had been before and then get back to there first. Once they had, Blitz offered Fizz a ride since the other imp had been brought there by a car that he would have to call for. Neither of them had their phones any more so that wasn’t really an option.

Much to his surprise, Fizz actually accepted the offer and then crawled into his van. They sped down the freeway to the elevators as fast as the other cars would allow. Somehow, the drive was so much more relaxed and pleasant than the one with Stolas a few weeks ago had been. Blitz assumed that part of that was because they had made up instead of having a fight, but he was also half hoping that it was because they actually had some kind of relationship waiting for them in the future.

“You can turn here,” Fizz said, pointing to the long driveway they had just passed. 

Blitz made a sharp turn and then came to an abrupt stop when they reached two pillars that held a gate. Fizz rolled down the window and then leaned so far out of it that Blitz was worried he was going to end up on the ground. He watched in fascination as his childhood best friend typed in a very long code and then the doors of the gate swung open.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said that you lived here,” Blitz wondered at the massive palace. He had been all over Stolas’ place, in every single nook and cranny both when he was an adult and when he was a child. It felt like nothing more than a tent in the back  of a caravan compared to what Asmodeous had been able to make for himself.

“Did you really think that I was lying? You saw Ozzie and I the other night at the club,” Fizz laughed.

It was a good sound, but it did terrible things to Blitz. Not only did he have to remember the night where he basically broke it off with his sort-of boyfriend and then scarred his eldest daughter by making her see him worse off than he had been since he had adopted her, he also felt the feelings from before the accident returning to him. His stomach erupted in a knot of butterflies that flooded throughout his system and left him feeling more elated and calm than any sedative had ever managed.

He drove down the long driveway to where it stopped at the front of the house. “Hey, Fizz?” he asked.

The other imp paused, his good arm resting on the door and his head tilted back so that he was looking at Blitz over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“I know I’m not really in a position to be asking you for favors, but would you mind pointing me towards a phone that I can use? I have to call someone before I get back to Pride and I want to do it as soon as possible,” Blitz explained. He didn’t feel like he could venture up the truth behind the words, the real reason that he was so anxious to be calling the mystery person he had just referenced.

Fizz stared at him for a long minute before he nodded his head. “You can come inside, but just long enough to call someone. I’ve mostly forgiven you but I don’t want to hang out with you just yet,” he explained.

That was better than anything that Blitz had thought he was going to get. After everything that had happened between the two of them, both everything that Fizz did and didn’t know about, he had never expected any kind of reconciliation between the two of them. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, even though that was a stupid metaphor because horses did need their mouths examined fairly often, so he turned off the van.

He followed Fizz inside the huge mansion, standing a couple paces behind him. It didn’t feel right to walk beside him after all he had done, especially when the secret he was still keeping sat so heavily in his chest. The halls were vaulted and painted blue, with elaborate portraits of people that Blitz couldn’t put the name to when his mind was already so full of other things.

The thoughts in his mind had grown so loud, in fact, that he wasn’t even able to make out the sound of other voices down the hall until they were yelling. Fizz rushed past him and launched himself at Ozzie, who was standing next to someone that looked a little too familiar.

“Blitzy?” Stolas asked, bringing one of his taloned hands up to his beak as it opened in shock.

On any other day, during any other occasion, Blitz would have been able to keep the grudge that he had formed when he realized that Stolas would never actually love him and was embarrassed to be around him when they were in public. He had been dragged through the mud and lit on fire today, though, so he let it immediately drop.

He rushed over to the owl as fast as his damaged body would take him. He had grabbed the wire too hard earlier and his ankle was still kicking him for it, made worse by the fact that he was no longer seventeen and was extremely out of practice. As soon as he reached Stolas, he threw his arms around the owl and buried his face into the exposed feathers near his neck. “I’m sorry for being such an ass. I can’t be alone anymore, I can’t.”

“Oh, darling,” Stolas whispered as he immediately moved to holding his smaller lover. He set his chin down between the imp’s horns as he continued. “You know as well as I do that those girls of yours would never let you be alone. You don’t need me for that.”

“I do, I do,” he sniffled. He then shook his head and took a small step back, landing on the ground with a soft thump. “Speaking of the girls, do you know where they are?”

“Well, it’s still Saturday so I assume that Loona has taken them out shopping,” Stolas explained as he looked through his pockets for his phone.

“No, Kaly had practice today. She’s got that big performance coming up next week and her coach is pushing her,” Blitz narrowed his eyes as the reminder of what his daughter had been like when he had picked her up from acrobatics the week before making him angry.

“We’ve discussed this as well. Kalypso is her own person, she’s almost an adult, and if she isn’t okay with something then she will tell you. Only then can you handle the situation like you want to,” Stolas said. He handed the phone over to Blitz without another word, though.

The imp didn’t even think twice before he scrolled down to Kalypso’s number in the text options and clicked call. He had the phone up to his ear in seconds as he begged for her to pick up. There was no logical reason that she wouldn’t, even if Loona had picked her up from practice early so they could spend some time together. He had a stressful day and he was just worried, however.

“Put it on speaker, I want to say hello to her too,” Stolas said, gently poking Blitz’s shoulder to get his attention.

While Stolas and Blitz had their on-again-off-again relationship, the kids had also developed an attachment to the opposite parent. Via liked Blitz because he knew how to talk to her like an adult instead of babying her, which was something they needed in the midst of her parents divorce. Kalypso liked Stolas because he was so passionate about everything in his and her life, which Blitz unfortunately never had the time to be. They had ended up co parenting even though they weren’t technically romantically together for a good portion of the time prior.

He tilted the phone away from his face and then put it on speaker just as soon as the voice on the other end answered. “Stolas? Why are you calling me today?”

Blitz felt almost like he was going to start crying again when he heard the voice of his lovely, sweet daughter ring through the other side of the phone. “Kaly, baby, where are you?” he asked, ignoring the fact that Stolas had just opened his mouth to say something.

“Papa, I’m at practice. I told you that I was going to be here all day, unless Aunt Barbie came to pick me up,” she explained.

He felt his mouth tip down in a frown almost instinctively when he heard his sister’s name. There was a time where they were as close as two people could get, but that had long since passed. The death of their mother had driven Barb to a lot of very bad places, to the point where she had spent several years in rehab trying to turn her life around. Even once she had and Blitz found her again, she still hated his guts for an accident that was entirely his fault. She was doing better now, and was actively trying to be a good aunt to his kids.

“I had a rough day, I guess I forgot that practice was going that late. Do you think you could ask Loonie to pick you up? I might be a little late getting home,” Blitz explained. He hated having to say that, getting to see his daughter perform the tail end of her routine or whatever trick she was currently working to perfect had always been his favorite part of the weekends. There would be other times for that, though, he knew that in his heart after all the years they had been together.

The worry dripped off Kalypso’s voice as she asked, “A hard day? Are you okay? Did you get hurt again?”

Stolas’ hand dropped down to the spot on his hip, the one that gave him fits whenever he pushed himself too hard. It was as endearing as it was annoying, so Blitz did his best to simply brush it off. “I got kidnapped, met up with an old friend, and then blew up a junkyard.”

“An old friend?” Kalypso asked. “Most of your old friends don’t like you very much, Papa. Maybe I should ask Loona to come pick me up now so that we can check on you together.”

“It’s quite alright, little one. I’m with him and I don’t plan on letting him out of my sight until I get him back into your responsible care,” Stolas said. He was so good at soothing the worries of their children, even Loona.

“Hi Stolas! If he ends up falling asleep on you, make sure he takes out his contact. I hafta get back to practice now. Love you both,” she chirped.

“Love you too, impling,” Stolas smiled warmly. Despite the fact that they hadn’t been together for very long, it was true that they loved their children with their entire hearts, even if they had only met them a short time ago.

“Love you, Kaly. Be good and don’t let anybody push you around,” Blitz said before the phonecall ended.

He tilted his head to the side and saw that both Fizz and Ozzie were staring at him. He looked towards Stolas, who was already in the middle of texting Via about what had happened and if she would be okay with him staying out late for Blitz, then back to them. “What?” he asked.

“You have kids?” Fizz demanded. He clambered down from where he had been held in the Sin’s arms and then made his way over to Blitz. “That’s kind of an important thing to tell me! Is it with him?”

He wanted to laugh at that. He wanted to lean into Fizz’s face and cackle like some kind of deranged human serial killer. Instead, he opted for giggling and trying to stifle it with both of his hands. When he only got further weird looks he finally explained himself, “If you only knew the amount of times I tried to tell you that I had kids before I finally gave up!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Fizz asked, folding one arm over himself because the other still wasn’t working.

Blitz sighed and rubbed his forehead with one of his hands. The secret was eating him alive, especially since he had finally explained half of what had happened in the tent to his previously best friend. If he was going to be airing his dirty laundry and forgiving past grudges, then he might as well just do them all in the same day. “We should go sit down, this is going to take a long while to explain.”

---

About an hour had passed since they had shown up to Ozzie’s place. Stolas had the resident doctor come and check Blitz out to make sure that everything that was broken would eventually heal. Ozzie replaced the damaged parts of Fizz’s prosthetics and clothing. Eventually, the four of them were seated on two couches in what looked to be a formal sitting room meant for guests of far higher standing than any of them.

Of course, now that they had moved rooms and the conversation felt more like something that was actually going to happen as opposed to the abstract concept of yelling at each other in the hallway, Blitz felt almost like he was going to die. He knew what it was like to be close to death, everyone that worked in the field that he did was well aware of what that feeling was, and the panic coursing through his system currently was reminding him very heavily of that.

The world resettled and comfort rushed through him when he felt Stolas’ soft, feathered arm brush up behind him. It was a strange, grounding presence and very welcome given everything else that was going on.

“So what did you mean, earlier?” Fizz asked. He picked up the steaming mug of tea that had been placed in front of him on the table and then took a long drink from it.

“I guess I should start form the beginning? There have been enough misunderstandings about the fire already, we don’t need more,” Blitz reasoned. He felt Stolas give him a gentle squeeze on the shoulder to let him know that he was doing the right thing. He was glad that his sort of-boyfriend was there to support him through this, he was absolutely certain he couldn’t do it on his own.

The others waited for him, which he took as his cue to start talking. He always took silence as an opportunity to fill, anyway. “On Fizz’s seventeenth birthday, I was planning on giving him a letter that would disclose two things. One, I was in love with him. Two, I was pregnant.”

Given that it was a massive bombshell to drop on its own, he let the sentences settle in the room. Ozzie’s fire had sparked a deeper blue color and the faces within it were just as shocked as his own. Fizzarolli was the one that was handling it the least well, his eyes massive as he sat straight up and then fell back into the couch. “Fucking shitballs,” Fizz breathed. “You were in love with me? I thought that you were jealous!”

Blitz shrugged awkwardly, “Two things can be true at the same time. I was jealous, especially because everyone loved you and you treated them all the same. I wanted one thing to be mine, truly mine. It just happened that you were that one thing.”

“What else happened?” Fizz asked once he had recovered.

“Pregnancy and I didn’t get along super well. I’m guessing I was dehydrated or anemic or something, I never did get it sorted out. I was super woozy when I came into the tent at your party to give you the letter and I ended up passing out. I guess I hit the cake on the way down because when I woke up, the whole thing was up in green flames. I tried to find you but I also knew that if I stayed in there, something could go really wrong with the babies,” he explained.

Fizz continued to listen. His eyes were tilted down towards the swirling liquid in his mug, like it was going to tell him something in loose tea leaves. Blitz remembered when his mother was well enough to perform those readings for people, taking far too much money for far too little.

He sighed and brushed a hand over the side of his face. “You and a couple of the other people got to go to the hospital, Dad allowed that, but the rest of us had to go to Urgent Care. They patched up my eye, but I still can’t see out of it for the most part. They also did an ultrasound and found out I was having twins,” he pulled the little picture out of his wallet. He had carried it with him since it had first printed from the machine, it was his most cherished item.

Carefully, the other imp took the picture and stared at it. Unless someone said where the things were, it was nearly impossible to tell what was baby and what was Blitz. Fizz was still handling the entire thing like it was precious, though, which Blitz chose to take as a good sign.

Eventually the paper got handed back to him and he continued his story. “Dad kicked me out of the circus for blowing you up, which is totally fair. I fucked everything up and got Mom killed. I really hurt Barbie too, she resorted to some pretty shit stuff that got her sent to rehab. She’s doing better now, though, even if she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“Where did you go?” Fizz asked. His brows were knitted in concern, similar to how he used to look whenever his fans were being too much back when they were teens.

“I went to Imp City. I stayed at a homeless shelter for pregnant people. I was there for a while, until the bleeding started. They assumed that I had a total miscarriage and then kicked me out, but it was just a partial one. I had to stay on the streets for a while after that, but then I got a job and I was able to find the shittiest apartment you have ever fucking seen,” he laughed until he noticed that no one else seemed as amused by that fact as he did. He then cleared his throat and said, “I delivered at home, couldn’t afford a hospital delivery with the Urgent Care back in Greed still trying to track me down. I named her Kalypso because I wanted her to have some tie back to the circus that wasn’t this fucking brand.”

When he mentioned that, Stolas squeezed his hip a bit tighter, as if to reassure him that he wasn’t there anymore. It was definitely something that was needed. Bringing up all he had gone through was like reliving it all at once.

“I think Kalypso is a good name,” Fizz said, like it was the only thing that he could muster while he was swimming in the depths of what the other man had just spilled in front of him. “Can I- can I meet her?”

“Course you can, she’s half you,” Blitzo took another sip of his drink. “In fact, if I hadn’t had to squeeze her out in the shittiest bathroom on earth then I would have been convinced that you had figured out cloning for another one of your stupid pranks.”

“My pranks aren’t stupid!” Fizz gasped, faking offense.

“They’re a little stupid, Froggy,” Ozzie laughed.

“I’m being attacked in my own home,” the jester wailed as he pretended to melt back onto the couch.

They were all laughing then, the heaviness of what had just been revealed lifting slightly. Blitz was able to tell the others more of what Kalypso had been like when she was growing up, which included some of the shitty spots he had gotten them wrapped up on. He was half certain that he had seen Ozzie on his phone, furiously emailing someone, when he got to the part about Verosika and her unhealthy habits around children. Blitz’s favorite part to talk about was Loona, and how being an older sister to someone she wouldn’t get separated from really helped her come out of her shell. She also took on that role with Via, after Blitz and Stolas had gotten into their weird half-relationship. He shared the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. He was glad he had paid for extra cloud storage when it came to showing pictures of his babies off to the group as well.

---

---

Blitz turned to the left and then back to the right before he tugged his shirt a little bit lower. It was impossible to miss the way that the cotton was pulling taut over his belly, even though he had only just reached twelve weeks. It was going to be impossible to hide this pregnancy the way that he had hidden his one with Kalypso. He hoped that Stolas and Ozzie were ready to keep him and Fizz safe from all of the batshit paparazzi that was going to be after them when the news finally broke.

He turned and grabbed the bag that he was going to be bringing to work. Now that it was confirmed that his chances of miscarriage had dropped significantly, they had decided that it was finally time to tell Millie and Moxxie why the polycule had been acting so strange. Fizz and Blitz were able to keep the secret relatively well since they had done that quite a lot back when they were kids, but the royals were overbearingly protective of their pregnant imp and it was beginning to raise eyebrows in their friends and family.

Not only were they going to finally tell Blitz’s coworkers and closest friends, but they were going to ask the duo to be the Hellparents, they already were for the rest of their other kids. It would be nice to formally ask them like the tradition begged for, though.

With the bag over his shoulder and his clothing as fussed with as it would get, he left the bedroom and entered into the chaos of the living room. Loona had been tasked with taking her sisters to school, which meant that she was leaning against the kitchen island while watching it all unfold. Ozzie was trying to help Kalypso get her tie straight so that she wouldn’t be dress coded again in that tight-ass private school that she went to with Via. Octavia herself was scrambling to get her bag packed, which was extra important now that she was a senior and making the direct transition into university.

“Hey Blitzy,” Fizz giggled from behind him. Two robotic arms wound their way around the other imp’s belly, hands resting directly on the tall crest. Their children knew that they were getting siblings, it would have been impossible to hide it from them with how bad Blitz’s morning sickness and exhaustion was every time he conceived. “You ready for work today?”

“If Stolas will let me out of the house,” he grumbled.

“What was that?” the offending bird demon asked from the depths of their bedroom.

“Nothing, birdy babe!” Ozzie shouted before either imp had the chance to start another play-fight. Even after just a year of being together with each other they had already learned what made the others tick, and when it was time to avoid that. He stood and kissed them both when he saw the twin pouts that they were sporting, much to the chagrin of their children.

That was when Loona spilled coffee down the front of her chest due to a text that Beelzebub, or maybe Tex if the flush near her ears was any indication, had sent her. It spurred on a panic from the younger too as she walked to her room so that she could get changed. If she ended up spending longer than five minutes picking out another top then there was a very high likelihood of them being late.

Blitz smiled as he watched his partners rush to try and soothe worries and solve problems. Years ago, he had been a single dad of two while working with chronic pain and an ache in his heart that had never left. Now he was expecting twins and more loved than he thought he ever deserved to be. It was clear based on the three men that had picked him and their children that he was loved that much and more.

[ruvviks]

bones please spare some isaac facts...tell me about the vibes and lore and everything you want. also what's his fave blood type to drink if he has one perhaps..(i'm taking notes)

HEHEHE THANK YOU SM i have so much to say about this man. but also he hasn't existed for very long in my brain yet so there's still many things missing from his lore currently. but here is a start for you :^)

isaac is a couple centuries old by now and from a (currently unnamed) bloodline that's a bit different from other bloodlines. all vampires have double fangs, their puncture fangs which are the regular ones they use to draw blood with, and their venomous fangs, which only come out when they want to change someone. for isaac's bloodline, the venomous fangs are a lot smaller which makes them less painful to extend and the process is quicker; but at the same time, even the smallest mistake in dosage could kill a victim rather than change them. this is why his bloodline is very small in comparison to others and changing a human into a vampire is always done in a big ritual rather than on impulse, to make sure they get the right dosage. this is how isaac was turned into a vampire :(

his bloodline is also more likely to have their feral sense (uncontrollable mode in which they hunt for blood until they're no longer feral) activated which is why they have to feed regularly and CANNOT miss any meals unlike other bloodlines who can usually miss a meal or two. their feral sense can sneak up on them without a warning and it will cause them to go feral until either their hunger or their "urge" (something vamps get sometimes when they want to change other humans. it's like a vampire ovulation) is sated. this is why many vampires of isaac's bloodline are pretty rich or important people who have other vampires working for them to provide them with enough blood so they'll never go feral by accident

isaac is VERY different from his bloodline though. he grew up in a modest family somewhere in the east of the united states and after he was turned he hid himself away in an old abandoned chapel for many many years, feeding on wildlife and the occasional unfortunate soul who wandered too far into the woods. he ended up hunted down by heavenly, my other oc for this story, who is a vampire hunter but at that point was still very young and on his first ever vampire hunt without his father; heavenly was unable to kill isaac and let him go, after which isaac moved to jericho :]

jericho is a big city on the west coast of the united states and it's essentially a vampire hub, in the sense that the government knows about the existence of vampires but isn't telling the general public but the general public tends to also know about the existence of vampires but it's also not uncommon to come across people who've never heard of them. but at the same time it's also not a huge shock to find out that vampires exist. and in jericho there's many of them and it's like a safe haven for them. am i making sense here

anyway isaac runs a church in jericho now! it's less used as an actual church and more just a homeless shelter and general shelter and community center and food bank AND blood bank all in one, for humans and vampires alike, and he's a very important member of the community he lives in :^) he really wants to help people and improve lives despite the reputation of his bloodline

it's at the same time pretty dangerous for him to be in such a lively place because if he misses a meal even once he could go on a murderous rampage. but it's a risk he's willing to take, knowing he's making a difference and not wanting people to lose their stability in life because he decides to leave or something like that

i don't have much for the story yet but the idea is that heavenly shows up in jericho give or take 2-3 decades after first meeting isaac and they reunite :^) heavenly ends up helping isaac with the blood shortage crisis and also ends up as his personal blood bag because he's a freak and a weirdo who likes getting his blood sucked by vampires. and also he's gay for isaac. and i get him. me too

[purble-gaymer]

i need to talk about falspar before i explode

okay so here’s the guy we’re talking about plus information that will be important going forward:

number 1. he is genderfluid and uses any pronouns but primarily he/him

number 2. he is aro/pan (but he doesn't know the aro part for a while)

number 3. autism adhd and a healthy dose of rejection sensitive dysphoria

without further ado, here is my lore dump

(also: warnings for child neglect and drug use)

for the sake of structuring my thoughts i'm gonna pull from a couple songs that have been fueling all this. i know it's cliche to have mother mother in character playlists but you have to trust me okay. because it's ball cap and touch up and the album they're from is dear to my heart

let's talk about astrals. in case you thought otherwise, this is going to be very headcanon-heavy so i'm opening with my hardest hitter and that's astral reproduction.

option 1: mitosis. can only be performed once due to the unstable nature of void creatures

option 2: random birth as a result of the random collision of light matter particles in space

in the case of option 2, the newborn usually just drifts around until they get caught in a planet's orbit and pulled to the ground. in the case of either option, they imprint on the first creature they see. only really a problem for option 2.

falspar here is option 2. he landed on mekkai before the whole planet became industrialized, which happened gradually during his time there. (additional note before i forget to put it anywhere: mekkai's vernacular is derivative of german because german is like 'the science language.' he grows up speaking both common and this yet-to-be-named vernacular.) when he's eventually found, he ends up in foster care because astrals live for a really long time and most species on mekkai aren't able to take care of someone for that long. he has no memory of whoever he may have imprinted on, but it never mattered to him that much.

(even if it's always felt like something was missing.)

so here's my first pull from ball cap:

I like the treetops 'Cause they're reaching just like me And I'm tied up in knots Like the brambles and the weeds

this stanza feels to me like it's from the perspective of a child. it feels like they're trying to fit in, or trying to understand why they struggle to fit in.

here's where some of that stuff i mentioned earlier comes in. all of it, actually, even if he didn't quite know all of it yet. 1, trans kid. astrals are born genderless and some ID otherwise later on. i imagine mekkai to be somewhat similar to human society, being so technologically advanced. something about colonialism and forcing the gender binary and now in the current day our young astral is very confused why everyone is trying to assign him an arbitrary label for something he doesn't have. of course it's too early for him to really question anything, but the confusion is always there.

2, welcome to my obligatory "you are aromantic" segment. wanna know how annoying it is to be aro in a romance-focused society? extremely! and that shit sticks with you forever unfortunately so you really have to try and unlearn it! this comes in more later and i'll talk about it then, but similar to point 1 there's the inkling that something is wrong, even if he doesn't know what just yet.

and 3, neurodivergent. here's where i insert my 'astrals are like cats' headcanon and tell you all astrals are autistic and there's nothing you can do to stop me. anyway, this is the bit that ties to this lyric the most at this point. yknow when you feel different and don't know why? or you do know why, and you're even more conscious about how you're just not like everyone around you? that's what this line is to me. reaching to understand your peers, but ultimately extending your arms and finding nothing in your grasp, just empty sky.

so, he starts not really fitting in anywhere. nowhere feels right. no one seems interested in him. he's loud, excitable, enthusiastic, but it seems to scare people off more than it invites them in. he moves between families a lot for the first few decades because, again, no one on mekkai is really equipped to deal with a kid who ages and matures ten times slower than the average person on the planet. this makes schooling especially bad--how do you even compensate for something like that? moving him up each year is far too fast, keeping him in the same grade for ten years is pointlessly excessive. it's complicated and he gets through it, but not without a lot of struggle. completing work always feels like a fight.

moving on: remember how awful it is being in your early to mid-teens? we're there now and all three things i mentioned before have only begun weighing on him more now that he's starting to understand them. societal pressure rolls around again! sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll being ostracized by your peers for not following the norm!

we can scratch that first one off the list because aro + terrified of emotional intimacy. the aro thing isn’t a problem but it is certainly confusing and he's like the equivalent of 16 at this point and has no fucking clue what any of that means. it sure as hell doesn't make him feel better about himself. second one's easy but we'll get to that in a moment. i only put the third one there for the joke but he probably does like rock. and the fourth is basically at the forefront of his thoughts the entire time.

this is about the time where he starts noticing things. a lot to do with his current family, mostly that...they don't really seem interested in him. no one ever has. he could never really make friends because they would all grow up and move on without him. his past family members cared about him, sure, but he always knew he would have to leave eventually, so he tried not to get attached. the longer he sits on this, the more sick of it he becomes. after a while he decides he's going to get someone's attention, whether it's good attention or not.

here's where the drugs come back. it's crazy what a little brain-altering substance can do. suddenly, you have no inhibitions, no fears, and falspar ends up with some friends for the first time. or at least, with people who don't find him unbearable to be around. he's not exactly close with any of them, but at least he's not alone, right?

here's another line that's relevant for this portion:

Oh, don't you know that beauty is only skin deep? Well, baby, baby, come on and skin me

his current state is a culmination of peer pressure, the weight of societal standards, and his refusal to really be vulnerable with anyone, only able to do so with great pain. this is a very confusing, very stressful period of one's life and everything that's happened up to this point is only making things worse.

but the drugs help. at least somewhat. he's able to talk to people. he can be normal for once. he goes along with his friends, and he's happy. at least, he's pretty sure he is. what starts as regular fun after-school activities starts to turn into some not-so-legal ones. but they're still pretty fun, he'll admit. the thrill practically gives him the same high as a smoke.

when his family hears, they aren't happy. falspar is, though. they start keeping a closer eye on him, making sure he gets home on time, and while he's still sneaking out with his friends from time to time, it's nice to know someone is wondering what he's doing.

it was nice for a while, at least. what he isn't ready for is after he became a legal adult, they asked him to leave. well, 'asked' is a gentle way to put it.

he manages to get ahold of a few closer friends who graduated recently and were living together in the next town over, and they invite him to stay with them. he's stressed at first, afraid of being a burden, finding a job as soon as possible to help out. after a few months, he gets more comfortable, and then...

freedom. for the first time, he doesn't feel...obligated to be one way or another. he works and helps around the house, and in the evening he and his friends hang out and smoke and play games and for once, he's happy. he really, really is, and the morning he wakes up and realizes it he decides it's time for a change. he cuts his hair and picks out a new name and he's finally started to understand himself.

i haven't said anything about touch up yet, so here's a bit from the bridge that i'm about to rip into:

I forget that I can remember when I was young, climbing up fences Scraping my knees, dirt on my cheeks Not one makeover queen bone in me

there's a stark contrast between falspar's younger self and who he becomes as he grows up. to address this stanza directly, there's the obliviousness that comes with being a child. there's no bigger picture, there's no pressure to be someone you're not, to pretend to be like the people around you for their approval. maybe something was off, but what did it matter? those problems seem so small now.

as he gets older, in comes the confusion, the isolation, the self-loathing. something was wrong, something, even if he didn't know exactly what, and it was excruciating. there had to be an answer, right? yet no matter how much he searched and fought, he could never find one.

and then, escaping all that, and being allowed to breathe freely. you have other problems now, sure, but all that weight is gone. somehow just the idea of being an 'adult' now opens up so many doors, and for the first time in, hell, maybe his entire life, falspar looks in the mirror and smiles back at the person he sees in it.

the repetition of the line "All my makeup, it has washed off" has two meanings in this context. the first, and more positive, being that he's able to do...anything, really. he can relax. unmask. he doesn't have to perform for anyone. he can remove the paint and be himself and for once he's not going to be forced to conform. it doesn't matter what other people think, you are alive, why shouldn't he be able to live authentically?

the second relates to his younger self again. this whole song feels like the buildup to a breakdown, eventually coming to a close with the constant repeat of "I need a touch up/give me the touch up," and one finally slam on the guitar, the exhausting aftermath playing out as it slowly fades to nothing. losing that mask is devastating, he can't be seen without it, he'll be cast out again, discarded, abandoned, and he can't let that happen, not now, not after everything. and once it's over, he's left alone, in the dark, too afraid to turn to anyone no matter how badly he wants to.

okay. this is getting really long and i'd love to add how he gets to the gsa here, but i think i've said enough. i'm done with the song analysis at this point, too, so i'll have to talk about it some other time.

YEESH feels good to get all that out of my system. if you've made it to the end of this, thank you so much for reading. it means a lot. can you tell i really really like this guy?

[asiadoesstuff]

Ok then.

Calling all my Fandroid Theory Enthusiasts!!: @splat1987 @1dklikesthings @bluartist @pawsometoons @bugsinspace @killer-arcade @roseverdict @therealdragongirl12 @crossover-fraternity !!

So, the Recent Livestreams…

I’m gonna theorise the heck outta these.

25/3/23

So, the 1st Live…

Before the Live started, there was a poll. It was titled “Lore?” With two options: Yes and No. The Poll’s results ended with Yes having 96% of votes, whilst No had 3% of the votes.

The Live starts. Fandroid and Melody appear to be playing an Obby Game. Everything seems normal; everybody in the chat is asking if there’s any Lore, and debating if they’ve been tricked.

At some point, a message from Chat is read out, about Target. Then Fandroid goes onto talking about a trip he took to Target; he hit himself on something, saying he “hurt his leg-bone.”

Robots don’t have bones. In fact, Fandroid pointed that out himself in the chat.

The Chat starts discussing. A popular theory that was made in these 5 minutes was the Fandroid on the Live is an “impostor.” (I swear if anyone says anything remotely related to Among Us…)

The Stream carries on. After a bit, Fandroid posts another message in Chat.

Business Bot has been missing for a week, apparently. Chat eats this up like a fine meal.

The Stream goes on, Fandroid saying some things which aren’t specifically Note-Worthy, but you know…

After a while, Fandroid & Melody leave the Obby game they were playing and join ‘Shovelware’s Brain Game’. Around halfway-through the round, Fandroid sends this into the Chat. And it sounds good! (At first…)

…Oh.

That doesn’t seem too good.

So Business Bot is gone, and Fandroid found one of his wheels. Either Business Bot accidentally smashed his wheels off, or something must’ve done this. Most probably the second one, since from what I know, Business Bot doesn’t leave his station, and there’s not really anything that could cause this type of damage near it.

…And it seems Business Bot’s disappearance isn’t the only one.

So something’s kidnapping the robots; It couldn’t be humans, because Fandroid already established all the humans are dead. Who could it be?

Cue a couple more silly (/pos) comments from Fandroid, which I will not attach here because there is a limit to how many images you can attach.

Stream goes a while without any Comments from Fandroid.

Then Fandroid sends something to the chat. It isn’t anything important, it’s just… surprising.

?????

Huh???

Anyways…

After 3 minutes of silence from the Fandroid Account, it sends something again.

That’s good! And hey; we know Frogbot’s still here!

Anyways…

Whatever’s taken Business Bot either: Dismantled him, or didn’t need his wheels. For what reason? I don’t know…

Info about the Holodeck!

There’s one thing that’s putting me off, though…

Why is Fandroid talking in 3rd Person?

Anyways: Stream carries on, and there’s nothing Note-worthy from Fandroid for the next 32 minutes.

But I just wanted to say…

…Language Fandroid. 😡 (/lh)

Anyways…

After a while, the Stream comes to an end. It was fun! And Loreful! Everyone is saying goodbye!…

…But it doesn’t end.

Fandroid & Melody start speaking about something, that they assumed was Private. But, we heard everything…

Here’s the Clip of Fandroid and Melody’s ‘Private’ Conversation…

So, the reason why this is a Double-Stream Post was because Tumblr refused letting me post videos, and by the time I tried all the ways for it to work, it was already Friday… so I’m just gonna have to send a link from someone else’s video—

This is alot to take in.

So, there’s a New Robot named 404.

Named after an Error Message.

Frogbot apparently saw 404 and drew a picture of it.

Theories for this Live…

Listen, I know this might sound insane, but…

What if 404 is like an Ennard-Type Situation?

All these Robots have disappeared out-of-the-blue, so it could make sense.

Maybe that’s why Business Bot’s wheels were found, but not Business Bot. 404 maybe didn’t need wheels so it just dropped them somewhere random.

But if 404 made itself a body, then what is it internally? You know what I mean?

There’s not enough evidence to completely prove my theory, but hey; what’s theorising without a risk you’re completely wrong?

That’s all from me. We’ll have to see what happens Next Stream…

1/4/23

What just happened?…

What.

I don’t know how I feel about this.

I think my ‘404 being an Ennard-Type Situation’ Theory is True.

Let’s just see the Clip…

Let's list some facts...

So.

Something tried to hack into ADHOC's System; presumably 404.

Fandroid starts panicking, and Melody is trying to calm him down.

BEEP-0 is the one making announcements.

Fandroid and Melody start to try and make this situation less serious.

Fandroid and Melody eventually end the Stream early.

Now onto some Theories...

So I think 404 might actually be an Ennard-type situation. From what we heard from BEEP-0's announcement roll-call, Business Bot and Frogbot's statuses are unknown. We already know Business Bot is missing, (possibly dismantled), so I'd assume Frogbot has suffered the same fate... I mean, they did draw down a picture on what 404 looked like, so maybe 404 took Frogbot out because of that? Or maybe because 404 needs extra parts for it's new body.

Fandroid at one point questions why BEEP-0 "always is saying that negative things are happening when positive things are going on, but the second the scary things happens he says everything is ok"... I think that might just be BEEP-0, but I'll note this down just in-case something happens with BEEP-0 in the future.

And that's about as much as I can remember...

There's defintetly more Theories in my brain, it's just I'm too tired to remember them... (It's Midnight when I'm posting this...)

But that's as much as I can remember at the moment!

Also, another thing... You know how BEEP-0 said that the thing that was trying to hack the ADHOC Systems was an "amateur" and that how they were "The G.O.A.T"? Well...

I think it managed to hack into something.

[thegravebelowtheflowers]

Cotcweek23 Day 1:Au

The Grave Below The Flowers:The End Was Here (Prolonge)/A corpse was there

Warning:Swearing, descriptions of a corpse, death, vomiting, child neglect, verbal abuse. If I'm missing any warnings tell me so I can add them.

This is just the first and second chapter to my au, The Grave Below The Flowers on Wattpad. I wanted to make a really darker story cause recently I've gotten into writing darker themes, hed the warnings tho I don't hold back.

Craig inhaled and exhaled, he could do this. It was settled, him, Jp and Kelsey would just say they kicked a ball over the fence and needed to get it back. It will go as planned, not Kelsey breaking the door down and getting screamed at by adults who will probably call the cops.

Craig rang the door bell and let the door be opened.

Oh, never mind it wouldn't go as planned. "Craig?" "Jason, you live here?". Jason sucked in his lip and looked annoyed "Let me guess, you got bit by a mosquito and now you've come  for my help, I told you my patrol was important!".

Craig groaned in annoyance and was close to stomping "Ugh! We didn't get bit!". Damnit, this was supposed to go smoother, "He's gonna get in the way, I just know it...We need to get lore!".

Hearing those words, Jason's expression was less tense. His green eyes soft and a thin smile formed as he prepared to hang on every word. "Oh..Well, then did you just come to hang out...? That's perfect because I just got a new whistle we could try out, guess what song I'm playing!"Jason let his joy burst out his heart as he lifted his whistle that was being hidden under his scarf and collar of his scout uniform.

Jason pressed his lips to his whistle and began blowing in his whistle letting it make its loud sounds, but that only set something off in Craig, anger. He could not focus on the whistle or Jason's attempt at making a friend, but his backyard clouded his mind and manifested his anger towards the blond. "Ah, Jason! We came here cause there's ancient kid stuff in your backyard, and we need to dig it up. No one cares about your whistles!".

Jason let his whistle hang from his lips, sucking in all the excitement he once had now that it was spit on and stomped on by Craig. Sadness crossed his face. Oh, he had annoyed them, didn't he? "I always do this..."Jason thought to himself, thinking back to Eleanor.

He had slept over at Boris's house but had forgotten his phone charger there, Eleanor was heading out but saw Jason about to walk out the door. "Where the hell are you going?"Eleanor asked with her chihuahua in her arm and two others following behind her, her thin almond eyes glaring into him as her hooked nose looked more stabby than usual. He was surprised that Eleanor saw him leaving. She usually focused on her demon dogs.

"I forgot my charger at Boris's house and I need to go get it"He explained "Jason, we told you to see if you left anything yet you said you didn't, now you're trying to run from your responsibilities by running to Boris's house! I told you that I needed you to stay here and feed the dogs. I can't leave now with you out of the house. Your father is working late again, you know this! *Sighs* You are so annoying, you know that?! Now I have to wait for you to come back. This is throwing me off!".

Then, the anger comes back to him. His whistle that meant so much to him being insulted so fast and the thought of them digging up his backyard knowing what's under there -

"Ugh! Then go dig up your own backyard!"Jason shouted, then slammed the door shut in their faces.

Craig stands there pausing for a second before it crashes down on him, "What, the heck?!". Kelsey sighs, moving Craig from where he was standing and getting in his place, "Alright, my turn..."She speaks, raising her sword in front of her and crashing it into Jp's ankle. Jp yelled out in pain, falling to the ground to hold his leg throbbing with pain. "Quick, hide!"Kelsey ordered Craig, pointing to her left for Craig to hide somewhere, anywhere, anywhere where Jason could not see him.

Craig hid by the house waiting for Jason to come out of the house. Soon, Jason opened the door as a response to the doorbell ringing, "I thought I told you-!" "Jason, we need your help! Jp tripped on your stupid, expensive looking brick driveway and he hurt his leg!"Kelsey fished out the lie as Craig watched from the side. Craig stayed hidden as he watched Kelsey extend the lie, Jp sitting on the ground looking hurt and Jason standing there listening concerned.

After Kelsey's lying, Jason was ready to help with no hesitation. "Fear not! A forest scout always helps out, don't worry, I always keep a medical kit tucked in my underwear!".

This was his chance, Craig crept from his hiding spot and made his way into the big house owned by Jason's parents. Craig tip toed in the house, and he saw various paintings, a small framed photo of a tall Asian woman with a hooked nose and long black hair almost touching the floor. Wait, where was Jason? There was only one photo of Jason when he was little sitting unbothered on a table by the doorway. Craig did some more looking and saw up above where the stairs were, on the wall facing the person walking up them was a photo of Jason, only he was a baby and holding him was a blonde pale lady, pale as if she hadn't seen the sun in years. The woman holding him stood tall with pink lipstick popping out like poppin' pebbles with the help of her skin with a man resting his hand on her shoulder, a fiery looking man, his hair red and dark and his hazel eyes framed by black glasses and a birthmark on his right cheek.

"Ah! Can't get distracted, ancient Creek kid stuff!"Craig mentally shouted to himself and picked up the pace on his running to the backyard, he could hear the notebooks calling to him under the rock, surrounded by purple and pink flowers he didn't care to learn the name of.

Craig opened the sliding door, there he saw the rock...The rock covering the notebooks, there it was staring at him. Craig stepped onto the grass and ran to the rock. He was expecting the rock to be heavy due to it's size so he inhaled and exhaled, then moved the rock to the side. Craig paid no mind to the flowers he ruined.

He was greeted with a square hole in the ground. This was it... The moment of truth, he would learn the truth about the capture the flag war. A creek moment of so much running, screaming, sadness, anger, and a broken heart. This was...It-

...

...

It wasn't the notebooks or the vault.

"Oh, oh, oh... Oh my god!"

Craig stood there, legs weak and body ready to give out. Forget this mission, forget history. Craig just wanted to run, run Damnit! Craig gagged but held his stomach and mouth, staring down at the dead woman below him.

There were supposed to be notebooks, a vault holding those notebooks so that the dirt wouldn't get to them! Not... Not...

Not a dead woman under a rock!

"Okay...Okay, breathe"Craig tried telling himself, but the panic was too much for him. His legs shook so much he almost fell into the hole himself, "What is this...? D-Did Jason kill someone...?".

Craig looked down at the dead woman one more time, he analyzed her features from her unwashed and thinning blonde hair and rotting flesh. Suddenly, it came back to him...That woman, the woman lying dead in there was...

The sound of a whistle screamed behind him followed by angry panting.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"Jason screamed, his voice cracking everywhere until it chipped and shattered before him. Craig quickly spun around and saw Jason at the sliding door, his legs shook, face pale, eyes full of shock until the sight crashed down on him and he was filled with rage. "J-Jason, please I can explain but I think you should really-"Craig tried speaking as his voice shook with fear, but Jason wasn't having it.

Jason's teeth clenched and his hands were rounded into fists, he grabbed his frog water gun that was sitting against the purple kiddie pool next to the sliding door drowning the mini toy soldiers. "That's it! You're gonna get soaked!".

All Craig could think to do was run, and that's what he did. He started running and running from Jason, it wasn't as if he had an actual gun but Craig ran like he did anyways.

Soon Craig ran so much he found himself at the creek, he panted and looking up. A treehouse...This wasn't any tree house, but the unstable tree fort. "I'm gonna soak your butt!".

Shit, Craig ran up the treehouse. His fingers digging into the ladder that was helping him climb up. He caught his breath at the top and looked around at the treehouse, he panted and his mind forced itself to flash to the sight of the blonde woman there. Her rotting flesh, her messed up blonde hair and the large gash from the forehead, to temple and finishing on her cheek. Wait, was that a maggot he saw eating her skin?

The memory was too much and he threw up.

Jason searched some more looking around frantically, his eyes searched for Craig as his anger bubbled and exploded like a volcano ready to erupt. "Where is he?!"Jason groaned picking up the pace while looking everywhere he could, soon, his feet took him to the front of a treehouse. If he knew who owned this treehouse he'd write them up for it, but then, from up above in the top of the treehouse he heard gagging and vomit falling from the top. "Got you now..."Jason cletched his water gun avoiding looking at what lend him to finding Craig.

He felt sick, his stomach was empty now but it was useless to Craig to bury the mental image. Maybe he could stay here for a bit, away from...That. "Aha!"Craig heard Jason climb himself up the ladder and on the top of the tree house, shit. Craig let out a shrill scream and started running the opposite direction from Jason, around around, on the wooden top of the treehouse.

"Come back here, stand still! I can't squirt you when you're moving!"Jason shouted chasing after Craig, fuelling himself with his own anger. "Jason, stop! I'm sorry I didn't know...She was buried there! I just wanted to know how the ancient kids of the creek were fighting each other!"Craig pleaded in a vain attempt at mercy "Well maybe some jerk kid showed up at some lonely kid's house like he wanted to play, but really he just wanted to go grave robbing!"Jason said, his breath tense and tears almost in his eyes. His anger blocked his senses and his foot stepped on a loose wood board and he fell through.

His anger was replaced by panic the moment he kept himself fall, he held onto the stable boards he walked on. Soon, Craig met the same fate.

Craig held tightly on the wooden boards looking around frantically for a way of landing, as he looked around his ears let the sound of Jason's whistle pass. "Help! Help! Oh who am I kidding?! Whistles can't save me now!"Jason's, Craig could guess, sobs made Craig surprised he understood him. He looked back at the ladder and got an idea "Jason, when I give the signal I'm gonna need you to jump!".

Jason sniffed but then he was snapped out of it once Craig proposed his idea "What?!". There was no time to think, Craig jumped on the ladder and his weight broke the other wooden boards. The boarder broke one by one and the ladder swung around to Jason "Now!"Craig screamed reaching his hand out for Jason's hand and braced himself for the landing, Craig tightly closed his eyes as the ladder spun and broke, but those tightly shut eyes made him remember what made him vomit eariler.

The mental image made Craig shoot his eyes back out just when he and Jason landed on soft ground. Craig slowly got his white shoes on the green grass but Jason didn't wait a second to jump down from the ladder almost kicking Craig in the head on the ladder, but his anger blocked his intentions and he was already kicking the ground and screaming. "Ugh! I told you, I told you and your friends you couldn't come in my backyard! But nooo! You just had to go behind my back and ruin my own mom's grave?! You hate me! You hate me, you hate me, you hate me, you hate me! I get it, I understand, was ruining the rhododendron I put my blood, sweat and tears to take care of even those my dad would nag and me to 'Stop being a little sissy' But I didn't see him put a single flower on the grave he claimed to have worked so hard on!"Jason screamed and ranted, his lispy voice cracking and breaking with sobs and heavy breaths.

Craig stood there shocked, oh, oh now he had done it. He had crossed the line, he had always thought his past rudeness towards Jason was no big deal or atleast that was what Kelsey said...He needed to make this right, tell him it will be okay and that he had no idea his mother was down there dead. Craig took a few steps towards Jason, whose teeth were gritted, fists securely clenched, messed up blond hair running down his face bearing a crestfallen expression.

When he saw Craig walking towards him his anger spewed out him and he picked up the water gun he had dropped when his foot fell through that wooden board "No! Stay away!".

Jason screams set Craig back a foot, before he knew it Jason was squirting his water gun everywhere. You wouldn't even tell if he had a goal of where he wanted to wet, Craig wasn't upset with he was soaked and dripping with water from his curly black hair to his socks wet and soggy. He let the discomfort sink in, he had deserved this, right? Craig held in his nonexistant protesting to look up at Craig who was fell to his knees to hang his head low using his hands to cover the back of his head and the water gun sitting next to him.

Craig launched his second attempt to walk towards Jason. Jason didn't look up as the only sound from the scene were Jason's loud sobs and Craig's foot steps. When Jason looked up he saw Craig sitting next to him soaking wet, unlike before, all Jason did was sniff and he slowly got up to sit like Craig. The cry helped a lot as the sun dried his tears, Craig turned his head to Jason who still refused to look at him. His running nose and dried tears made Jason uneasy, Craig did not blame him.

Craig, staring off into the shining river in front of them spoke "I'm sorry Jason, but please believe me when I say, I had no idea she was there. I wanted to get the vault I thought was down there with the notebooks. I wanted answers to the capture the flag war, I wanted the vault, I wanted the notebooks, I didn't want to hurt you or anyone. But I did...Jason, I messed up bad, I'm sorry for being so mean to you Jason, I'm sorry for lying to you about the ice cream, I'm sorry for saying no one cared about your whistles that I was too blind to see meant so much to you and I'm sorry for ruining the grave below the flowers...".

Jason let the heartfelt apology sink in, he blinked away tears pricking his eyes and threatening to run down again "I-...I don't know if I forgive you, or at least right now...I did work really hard to plant those flowers, theres no way you could have known she was down there...I know you didn't mean to ruin the grave"Jason sighed wiping the dried tears. Craig smiled once more, "Well, if you don't mind me asking, how did she die? Did you want her to always be with you so your dad buried her in your backyard?".

Jason didn't mind, instead a peck of happiness shined that Craig was slowly starting to care "I don't mind you asking, really...Well, it happened when I was 7, I had gone on this camping trip with the fellow scouts but when the trip was over and I had to head home, I didn't want to go home. So I went straight to the creek with Tony and Boris. When I finally came home I was expecting her to be in her room or making me dinner and my dad came home late as usual. But no, my dad was home early and my mom wasn't anywhere to be seen, he didn't sit me down to put it easily for me he didn't even try to say everything will be okay. He just bluntly said while I was away she was crossing the street and a trunk hit her blah blah...Dragged her by the arms to the backyard, they dug that hole and buried her raw just like that. He didn't care that I was crying in the backyard by a rock for half n' hour, he just blabbered to his coworker over the phone with the photo of her facing down on his work desk. Soon Eleanor showed up, my step mom I mean..."Jason sighed.

Craig hung on every word of Jason, Craig almost threw up again knowing the story. But he wasn't sick of the tableau, he was sick of himself.

[syncopation53]

Overall I think lightfall felt about the same as beyond light for me, maybe a little bit less so without eramis’ lore and the lack of (narrative) conflict when it comes to strand like stasis had. I know that we’re moving beyond the “light good, darkness bad” dogma, as drifter puts it, and it’s been three years at this point since stasis has been introduced and we’ve had time to get used to it, plus the fact that strand is more of a… I want to say “neutral force” than stasis, which had been an explicit gift from the witness as we now know. I’ve seen how it almost feels disjointed from the overall narrative, and I can sort of see where people are coming from. The missions with the meditation place and vex network almost seemed like adventures rather than a part of the campaign itself, which is a shame. I can see where they were going for the “secret power that the bad guys don’t know about but is hard to master so we only use it in Important Scenes and have a training montage about it,” but that’s me filling in the blanks after the fact, not an actual thought I had while running the campaign. I found osiris and ghost’s dialogue about the whole “perspective shift” thing to be laughable because I’d been doing the exact same things with strand I’d been doing from the beginning. There was no perspective shift for me just incessant banging on bungie’s door yelling to let me unlock strand in full already. Will be interested in getting more lore on the nature of darkness-based powers vs. light-based ones in the future. As you can tell by my recent posts, the ending was the true best thing story-wise. I felt completely dead inside after that 10/10 will be crying myself to sleep thinking oc thoughts for the next week.

The story was… alright, I’ll say. Somehow bungie made it feel like nothing was happening and simultaneously everything happened all at once. Definitely felt like I missed some stuff in my race to get to softcap so that the tormentors wouldn’t eat me for breakfast but I’ll definitely be doing the campaign again in full on my hunter to see if there’s anything I didn’t catch the first time. Titan… eh, I’m not usually a fan of video game microtransactions but if it’ll let me skip right to strand titan a bitch might just buy some silver.

I will say, I’ve never been a fan of calus’ lore. I didn’t actively dislike him or the cabal/uluran as a whole, and he is an interesting character in his own right, but I just never felt that personally interested in learning more about them like I had the hive and eliksni. However comma, his cutscenes with the witness were some of the highlights of the campaign for me. They carried, as the kids say. The other part being helmet-less cutscenes for lots of pretty screenshots of xira. Osiris was also a highlight for me. His character felt more in-line with that from curse of osiris than any other season I’ve played before (I know season of dawn was a huge hit but I’d been away for college at the time and thus couldn’t play for a while so I’m not familiar with the osiris lore from that). I liked his growth from pushing the guardian to master strand and getting frustrated when we failed to helping us hone our abilities and being proud and excited when we succeeded.

I’ll also throw in my two cents into the Nimbus Discourse as a non-binary person: they were fun. I liked them. I like that they’re not a 100% perfectly androgynous anime prettyboy and I know that’s caused people to misgender them but I enjoy their design overall. I can understand being annoyed with the voice modulations, but that’s about it. I understand their character, neomuna being a separate hidden colony on the second-to-last planet in the system whose last contact with earth was during the warlord era and all, and how blasé they were about things as this would probably be the first time they’re dealing with something other than the occasional vex incursion. I honestly didn’t feel that much when rohan died, but I’d originally thought what his “battle cry” was had come from nimbus as he sacrificed himself, and honestly I prefer to think of it that way because it’s clear in the following interlude and cutscene that nimbus is trying to deal with their grief through keeping themself busy with the legion, and also I’m guessing that cloud striders (and possibly neomuni in general) have different views on dying and the grieving process than earth-bound people do. I haven’t finished the quest for the void machine gun yet but I also hear the ending is pretty good as well.

Neomuna itself is a good location, maybe a little bit jarring compared to other destinations in destiny 2, but I’m sure that was intentional. Only thing I had a problem with is the patrol space being very unfriendly to little 1650 me when I tried doing some bounties and patrols for the first time. Even my arc buddy was struggling, we were in truly desperate times running around barely above the power floor trying not to get one-shot.

Season of defiance’s one (1) battleground is already getting on my nerves. I’m this close to turning off dialogue and subtitles whenever I’m waiting to load into it. The bosses were hell and I hate them, especially the last room. Not a fan of the activity but also excited for new things such as the seasonal exotic mission. I also liked the sort of minor update to the ascendant plane look, much easier to see where I’m going. I also like how open mara is with us now, as someone who used to have issues with her character her growth has been amazing to see.

Overall I’d give the lightfall campaign a solid “I mean, it wasn’t perfect, but still enjoyable at least.”

Season of defiance gets a “you tried” sticker for compensation.

[latenightmining]

(ooc ask / non particle ) sorry to bother- is there like. a good way i can catch up with the rp blogs lore cause i’ve only found it all recently and admittedly. am sometimes a bit lost haha

at the moment i believe tubbolul's summary is the only good way of catching up. i've been trying to figure out a way to allow new viewers to catch up on tmmyrp lore and ranboo lore, but my issue im running into is theres so many posts on so many blogs that it just would become so hard to wrangle it all together.

but god does it need to happen at some point. theres so much to bedrockverse, and if someone wasnt here for like, december 2021 they would have missed probably 70% of the important lore for bench.

if anyone has any good ideas for how to start wrangling everything together, let me know. no matter what it's going to be a huge task i feel.

[devildomdisaster]

Comfort spell gone wrong (the dateables)

Anonymous asked: for the lore Olympus ask but with the dateables. (Deleted this ask by accident but here it is)

Comfort spell gone wrong

Not only had the brothers been completely horrible the past few weeks but even your friends in purgatory hall and Diavolo himself had been too busy for you.

You understood that Simeon was busy helping Luke work through some things. But still, being brushed aside after the brothers had been so cruel towards you hadn’t helped your crumbling self-worth.

Solomon had heaved a big sigh and told you “They're demons Mc. It’s what they do. You’re going to have to grow a thicker skin. Besides, I don’t have time to help you with something so trivial.” Before handing you a page from a spellbook “if you really can’t deal with it yourself use this for comfort.”

You’d undeniably ruined Barbatos’s hard work when you’d tripped and tipped over the cake he’d been working on all morning. The demon had shooed you from his domain with barely concealed rage and asked you not to come back until “you can prevent yourself from causing me more work.”

Diavolo, despite always telling you you could come to him with your troubles, had snapped that Solomon seemed to be doing just fine. “So maybe you need to try harder, Mc. Rather than blaming your problems on other people.”

The spell Solomon had given you seemed simple enough. Although it was in an unfamiliar mix of Latin and Infernal. Couldn’t hurt to try though. At least not anymore than you were already hurting. You’d cast the spell, stumbling through a few words and thinking it hadn’t worked when nothing happened. Figures you couldn’t do it, you were still new to magic and just as useless at it as everyone had so kindly reminded you the last few days. It still sapped your energy though, stupid spell. You closed your eyes thinking that maybe it was better that the spell didn’t work. You’d never live down the embarrassment if anyone found out you tried to use a comfort spell.

Lucifer calls the others asking if anyone has seen you, after several days of radio silence from you. Solomon, Luke, and Simeon rush to the house of Lamentation once they hear you haven’t been seen for days. They find Lucifer and the brothers crowded around you, worriedly discussing the spell which has covered you and your room in vines. Babratos and Diavolo are already there, both looking guilty. Solomon feels his stomach drop when he recognizes the page from the spellbook.

“Lucifer, I recognize that spell, I gave it to them when-” Solomon begins

“Yes, it figures you would have your hands in this Solomon.” Lucifer glares.

It’s Simeon who steps forward to undo the spell, giving Luke’s shoulder a comforting squeeze on his way by. “Lucifer if you would,” he says gesturing to your form “this will take both our magics to undo, I believe.”

Solomon:

Shit, shit! Solomon recognizes that spell! He gave it to you.

It wasn’t supposed to do this, it was just a simple comfort spell!

But he can’t help feeling responsible for what's happened.

He feels like he should have known, should have realized something was going on when he gave you that spell.

You’d just wanted to talk, but he was so caught up in trying to find a way to make pacts with the brothers that he totally brushed you off.

He handed you a page out of a spellbook instead. And told you to deal with things yourself.

Solomon is crushed. He has always told you that if you ever need to talk to another human, he’d be there. But he wasn’t. He told you to deal with it alone.

When Simeon and Lucifer break the spell he is by your side in an instant.

Hands fluttering over your body, brushing withering plants off you. Feeling utterly useless.

The spell had gotten so convoluted and twisted in ways he’d never seen before, he hadn’t even been able to break it.

You blink your eyes open, Solomon’s distraught face coming into focus.

“Mc, I shouldn’t have given you that spell. I’m so sorry. I-I said I’d always help you if you needed me but all I did was hurt you instead.”

He wants to distance himself from you. But he knows that won’t make you feel any better. It won’t make him feel better either.

Instead, he’ll be far more careful with the magic he gives you. He’ll start teaching you more magic, so you can practice spells safely.

But he’ll also do his best to make sure you never need a comfort spell again.

He wants to be your comfort.

Solomon will plan elaborate outings and magic filled dates. He gets all these grand ideas and half of them turn into disasters but somehow he’ll make sure the two of you still have fun.

It’s easy for Solomon to forget that he needs to communicate better. But he’s trying. Instead of snapping at you again he’ll be sure to set aside time for himself. Besides, being in the Devildom is more fun with an apprentice anyways, plus teaching you magic gives him plenty of time to make sure you are happy too.

Simeon:

Simeon is shocked when he sees you.

A shiver runs down his spine when he feels the spell sucking the energy from your body.

His eyes don’t miss the botched comfort spell on the ground and he wonders why you didn’t come to him.

And then he realizes. You did. But he brushed you off to help Luke and even when you were hurting you didn’t want to burden him.

He feels like he’s failed you by making you feel like you couldn’t come to him.

When you open your eyes Simeon is the first thing you see.

He gently brushes the plants from your face and hair.

“Oh my sweet little lamb, you are never a burden to me. I am so sorry I made you feel you couldn’t come to me.”

Simeon brings you to Purgatory hall while your room is cleaned.

He gently untangles bits of plant matter from your hair, humming what must be some Celestial lullaby to you.

“Mc,” he begins once he’s removed the remaining plants from your hair and skin, and you’ve allowed yourself to relax into him. “Forgive me, Mc. I should have seen how much you were hurting.”

He is being so gentle with you. But his voice takes a stern edge as he tells you “Next time you feel like this, promise me you will come to me. If you tell me what’s going on I will always have time for you.”

Simeon makes sure to check in on you now, to make time for you. He’ll invite you to Purgatory hall for dinners and/or sleepovers. Oftentimes Luke joins you. But sometimes he’ll sneak you in so the sleepover is your little secret.

Diavolo:

Oh, Mc! He hasn’t seen a spell like this in centuries.

He knows it’s a mistake, but the power it must have taken to cast this spell is impressive.

He’s curious to know what kind of power you’ll have after you’ve been trained properly.

That not to say he isn’t concerned, it's just he knows the spell can be undone, and he finds it easier to deal with the situation if he doesn’t think about how close he came to losing you.

He’ll request that the brothers keep a closer eye on you, not that they weren’t going to anyway.

Diavolo will scoop you from the tangled vines, brushing the remaining vines from your skin as he carries you from your room.

He sits down on his throne, with you still held in his arms. For a moment you're afraid of his thunderous expression.

And then his eyes soften. “Mc,” he whispers. Emotion making his throat tighten, choking off his voice. “Why?”

“Why don’t you find a human who can do better than me Diavolo? You said so yourself, I’m a disappointment.”

“Mc, I didn’t mean! I didn’t want you to-! I didn’t”

He knows what he said. But he never meant for you to take it to heart like this. He was just stressed and he took it out on you.

“I’m sorry, Mc. I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you. You haven’t disappointed me. I’m sorry I made you feel like you can’t rely on me. Please understand that I would do anything in my power for you.”

A frightening promise from the prince of the Devildom.

Diavolo is careful to control himself in the future. To prevent himself from letting his stress and anger get the better of him.

Careful to remind you how important you are to him, and not just because you are an exchange student, but because he cares for you.

Barbatos:

Anger. Fear. Barbatos tumbles between the two emotions.

It seems that by placing you in this timeline to protect you from Belphagor’s anger he has put you in a new kind of danger. One he didn’t see coming.

This makes him question his decision not to look into the future more than necessary.

Humans are so fragile. And this is just more proof of that fact.

Barbatos is by your side the moment you wake up.

He is lifting you to your feet and guiding you from your room.

Barbatos is a perfect gentleman as he helps you clean up. Helping you scrub the plants from your skin, wrapping you in the softest blankets.

But he remains silent the whole time.

Once you are safely tucked into bed Barbatos speaks. “Mc, I know I have made you feel useless. I should not have taken my anger out on you. I should have known better.”

For a moment you think he’s going to leave, that that’s all he is going to say.

But then he asks if he can stay with you. If the answer is yes, he’ll curl around you in your bed. Holding you to him as if you are likely to disappear.

It has been a long time since Barbatos has had something or someone he has been afraid to lose. “I’m sorry Mc. Please know you can come to me, even if I may be upset. I’d rather you make me face my shortcomings then lose you.”

Barbatos starts having you over for tea more often. He’ll take you on errands with him, if he thinks you’d find them at all interesting.

Mostly he just wants more excuses to spend time with you.

This made him realize how important you are to him and he’ll make sure you know it.

Luke:

Scared little sibling vibes.

Luke is so scared to see you like this!

You are so still and pale that he thinks you might be dead.

When you open your eyes he is so relieved.

Please don’t scare him like this again!

He’s got tears in his eyes, and he half yells half cries at you “Mc! You- you can’t just do something like this. What if- if you had died? I know these demons-” he shoots a watery glare at the demons “can make you feel sad but you’re my friend.”

He’ll ask you to stay at Purgatory hall for a while. He 100% thinks this is all the brother’s fault.

In fact he wants you to move into Purgatory hall permanently and he is so insistent that Diavolo might just let you if that's what you want.

He’ll make sure you know that he sees you as a big sibling, a friend that he could never replace “so please don’t think nobody cares Mc. I know we’re not really related but you’re like a sibling to me.”