#its why i liked coloring slumber in a lot more

[sunny-inajar]

Slumber and Party have alternate outfits :D this really was just an excuse so i could draw them in pretty jester clothes,, but i like to think they switch between these and their normal jeans and t-shirts (maybe they do performances for the kids sometimes)

alt refs down below! (so you can see the designs better)

[holylulusworld]

Every Breath You Take (4)

Summary: There is a shadow following you. He doesn’t know what he got himself into.

Pairing: Stalker!Bucky Barnes x fem!Reader

Warnings: stalking, being stalked, loneliness, a man out of time, secret admirer trope, voyeurism, longing

A/N: You all made me do it! Here’s the series to this random idea: Stalker Bucky & Crazy Reader

Catch up here: Every Breath You take (3)

Every Breath You Take Masterlist

You wake, once again, from a deep slumber you yawn and look around your bedroom. Last night you had the best dream.

Your dream man stepped out of your dreams and came to you to cuddle you in your bed. His scent still lingers on your clothes, and you sigh, wishing he’d stayed for a little longer.

“Well, he lives only in my dreams,” you press the plushie your secret admirer gifted to you to your heart. No matter what your colleague says, you cherish the cute cat. Whoever sent the flowers and the plushie to you must mean well.

You put the plushie away, putting it on top of your pillow. “Sorry, I got to go to work,” you sigh and pat its head. “I’ll be back soon, and we can cuddle some more.”

While you reluctantly slip out of bed, already regretting it the moment your feet touch the cold floor, Bucky watches you get ready for work.

He hums as you stretch in front of the wind. “We could work out together,” he says. “I think we will start with an easy workout.”

Alpine meows and turns their attention back toward the food in the bowl.

“What do you say, Alpine? Do you want to go shopping for her?” Bucky rubs his scruffy chin. “Maybe we could accidentally bump into her next time she goes grocery shopping.”

Bucky shakes his head. “No, it’s too soon. We need to get to know her even better.” He lies to himself. Bucky is scared to mess things up and tries to buy himself some time. “We’ll send her another gift today. I hope she’ll like it.”

“You got another gift from your stalker,” your colleague wrinkles her nose. She huffs because you ignore her jab. “You should call the cops or something. I just know that guy is a creep.”

“Why?” you look at the new gift. Your secret admirer sent an orchid to you this time. A beautiful yellow phalaenopsis. “They sent me an orchid. I love them.” You smile and carefully run your fingertips over one blossom. “I got them in many colors. How could they possibly know I didn’t have a yellow one yet.”

“Stalkers gonna stalk,” she quips while glancing at the orchid. “I’m telling you; they are going to become creepier in no time. Soon they will send you underwear or shit.”

“Underwear,” you gasp. “Oh, my.” You touch your heated cheeks. “You think they’re going to send me underwear? Maybe lace or satin.”

“You’re…crazy,” she huffs and storms off. “If you disappear, I won’t call the cops.”

You shrug. “I don’t know what’s her problem. The orchid is beautiful, and they didn’t do anything wrong. It’s a nice gift, nothing else.”

“Alpine!” Bucky calls for his cat. “She’s back and she got the orchid.” He grins when you step toward the window to place the new beauty on your windowsill. “She likes the orchid.”

Alpine ignores its owner once again. The white furball prefers getting comfortable in Bucky’s lap. “What else could we get for our girl, Alpine? We gave her flowers, a plushie, and an orchid.”

He wrinkles his forehead. “I got it!” Bucky jumps up, much to Alpine’s chagrin. The cat lands on the floor, hissing at their owner. “I’ll gift her my first edition of The Hobbit. She’s got a lot of books, but no first edition.”

Bucky walks toward the shelf he bought some weeks ago. A single book and his sunglasses the only things the only things he placed on the shelf. He grabs the book and smiles.

“I hope she’ll like it as much as I did when I read it for the first time.” He flinches at his own words. A memory wants to flash up in his mind, but he pushes it away.

Most of the time Bucky doesn’t allow himself to think about his life before Hydra.

Even if those memories are pleasant. It pains him to remember his life before the winter soldier, and all the losses he had to endure.

“I need to buy more wrapping paper, Alpine. Make a mental note.”

Bucky carefully puts the book on the small table next to his armchair. He’ll wrap it tomorrow and send it to you. Bucky wants to see you smile again.

“Ladies, we got a new roommate,” you talk to your orchids. “She’s a little shy, so be nice.” You giggle at your silliness. “Yellow queen, welcome to my home.”

You step away to admire your windowsill. “So beautiful. I wonder if he knew that I didn’t have a yellow one yet. He must be very observant. I can’t believe my colleague called him a creep. My secret admirer was nothing but kind to me.”

Smiling you just look at your collection of orchids for a moment. It makes you feel calm and happy just looking at them.

Sometimes, if the world gets too much you get lost in daydreams of flowers and fairytales. You are enchanted by the pretty flowers until you remember you had plans for tonight.

“Shoot! I still need to get changed. My show starts in not half an hour!”

Today, you leave the curtains open. Not only in your living room but in your bedroom too.

You slowly strip your clothes off and put on a show for your secret admirer. He won’t see much because you didn’t switch the light on, but you want him to see you for longer than a few moments.

If he’s not brave enough to talk to you yet, you’ll wait for him to reveal himself.

All you know is that he’s out there, watching over you like a guardian angel.

Part 5

Tags in reblog.

[thekaramazovstrength]

a boy with the sky in his eyes

Taigen dreams of blue.

He is unsure of what exactly he dreams of. The sea, the sky, lagoons and rivers under snow, the brightest of moonlights, sharp ice, a reflection on a blade — he dreams and wakes up, panting and gasping. He wakes up from what feels like a nightmare, as if he had seen beauty so grand he couldn't possibly grasp it, his eyes burn and his body curls up on its side. Taigen is in pain, he realizes, but it sounds like a distant, foreign thing; the overwhelming weight of what he witnessed in his slumber distracts him.

"Ah," he sighs, and brings a hand to his chest.

His heart pounds against his rib cage, a restless bird attempting to flee; all the air leaves his lungs and for a moment, he is scared he won't have the strength to breathe in again. But he does and, in a large gulp of air, he lets his eyes snap open.

Unlike his dream, reality is the color of amber. The fire, flickering in Master Eiji's forge, illuminates the room and with it, the world shines bright orange and red and yellow. Taigen takes another deep breath. Visions of his dream still flash and dance in front of his eyes like ghosts. Like demons. He thinks of a boy with the sky in his eyes and it ties a knot around his throat.

He stares at Mizu's back, clothed in dark blue, and stays very, very still.

Taigen believes no man should ever dream so incautiously. However, for the past weeks, his mind has been plagued and poisoned. He shuts his eyes and sees, the waves, the clouds, the moon; he opens his eyes and sees, the softest blink of Mizu's eyes. Taigen dreams of blue and it holds him like a hostage, it pins him down by the wrists and curls its lips in a sneer. Taigen dreams of blue and wakes up yearning for it.

The night is quiet, almost silent, blanketing Taigen in the safety of loneliness, and so, he stares at Mizu's back. Up and down, up and down it moves, each breath as light and smooth as the last, and Taigen reckons Mizu is unmovable. He stares at Mizu's back. His gut clenches, his heart hammers — there is not a moment of peace when Taigen sees blue. And it seems that lately, all he sees is blue; it chases him in wakefulness and sleep, and he can't escape from its torrential presence.

"You're awake," Taigen whispers.

Mizu does not move. A very restless stillness.

"You make a lot of noise when you wake up," Mizu whispers back.

Taigen wants to reach out because Mizu is deliriously near; every inch of him calls for it, from the tip of his toes to his last strand of hair, and so his body aches from more than mere wounds. He has never felt this way and he is painfully aware of it. There is a thorn in his side, a bleeding gash that has been taking too long to heal — it has blue eyes. Mizu is so, so close, an arm's length away, and Taigen leaves it that way because that is the distance men should keep from each other.

"Bad dream?" he asks.

Mizu does not turn to look at him.

"I do not dream."

And Taigen believes it.

"I dream a lot," he confesses.

"Then go back to it," Mizu whispers.

I don't want to, he wants to say. Why should he dream of blue when there is blue right by his side? Turn around, he wants to beg. But men shouldn't dream so incautiously, thus Taigen never speaks a thing.

Instead, he stares at Mizu's back, clothed in dark blue, and stays very, very still.

[merp-blerp]

Things about Cinderella's Castle I'm excited about already as a big Cinderella fan

Part One (This), Part Two, Part Three

THE PUPPETS!!! I love puppets and I love seeing puppetry get used more and more—it's such an underrated art form! And the puppet models look stellar!

I love the idea of the step-family being trolls. I was wonder if they were always trolls or if they got sort of cursed. But Step-Mom flays women and wears their skin to fool everyone??? Very Grimms Bros style, I love it. I don't mind dark takes on Cinderella, so I'm intrigued. I wonder if that's why they're jealous of Ella, cause she's a normal human (supposedly), and so they try to demean her like a troll, to get her on their level or something.

With characters like Sir Hop-a-lot and Crumb, I'm curious what their role is. Are they Ella's animal friends that she gave goofy names? Sir Hop looks like he's a part of the royal court in some way, so does he somehow work for the prince? Will it be kind of like Wicked where the anthro-animals are a race amongst humans? Are they looked down on like the trolls? Is it fair that either group is looked down on?

CRUMB! Crumb is a perfect name for the mouse! I'm shocked I've never heard of a mouse named Crumb before.

I've talked before about how I see the early Disney princes as symbols of their princesses' freedom rather than characters and that's why they're "flat". I like that the prince in this show sounds like a parody of that. Like, "What if that flat 'character' was treated like a real character, but still with a similar flatness to him?" I like it. I trust Starkid to do that well.

I'm currently theorizing that Kim's Fairy Queen character will be a combo of sleeping beauty and the fairy godmother, based on her description in the 4/6 live stream and description of the video announcement saying "Kim will awaken the Fairy Queen from her slumbering prison in the realm of death". I don't even know if they'll implement other fairytales into this particular show, but I'm excited.

I love the possibility of a fairytale multiverse from Starkid. Hope that happens one way or another.

WOC CINDY! WOC CINDY! WOC CINDY!

I'm hoping for sapphic Cindy too, Mariah's comment got my hopes up. I'm trying not to get too attached to that idea, but as a lesbian woc that would kill me to see. Correct me if I'm wrong, but SK hasn't had a main queer couple since Firebringer, so it'd be cool to get for me, especially since Cinderella's my favorite fairytale and theater is one of my favorite mediums to consume stories with.

I've seen people theorize that the song in all the trailers is from a bard's perspective. I get that vibe too.

I know I sound like a 5-year-old, BUT I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE WHAT THE BALL GOWN WILL LOOK LIKE! The cover of the 4/6 livestream seemed to give us a slight taste of it. This gold and purple ensemble maybe. Purple is typically the color of royalty, so I love the idea of incorporating it in Ella's dress. And I like the use of rhinestones in her makeup. I wonder how they'll do the dress transformation if they do it. I actually hope we don't see it in its entirety till the show is on stage; I don't want the reveal spoiled.

One thing about Cinderella that's very important to me is the abuse aspect of the tale. Depending on how similar this show is to the traditional version of the tale, I hope it's not ignored. I'm pretty sure it won't be.

EDIT: I made another list of things after the 4/13 livestream

[dfroggofarson]

i wrote a oneshot about a hot NPC dilf. its 1600+ words. i'm really proud of myself.

when i was doing this quest, i had to come to the realization that i, in fact, do have some daddy issues. and that i have no idea of their origins, but so be it.

the more daddies for my perverted imagination, the better my day is.

if you haven't done the Golden Slumber world quest so far, i highly recommend it! it's long and sometimes annoying, but man, anything for hot dilfs (and their also hot daughters).

ok, that's all, i'm done simping. requests for other stories are open, as always.

fluff, comfort embedded. no smut for y'all horny ppl. sorry, not this time ;)

enjoy! ^^

A difference between sky and sky.

A night in the desert wasn't a joke to anyone. It was rough, cold and merciless, killing anyone that missed to take care of themselves. Most mobile creatures had already found a shelter as soon as the Sun started to dive into the treshold of the horizont, hiding itself behind the gold of endless dunes. No matter if it were just animals, people, or monsters - survival made everyone behave similarly.

That night wasn't anything different than the previous ones. You and your two companions have been traveling for two days - for the fifth time. You commisioned them yet again to escort you while you collected some redcrest and other materials from the desert for special herbs. And why not just commisson them to bring some, without you having to travel such a long and tiring journey, or just buy what you need from the mercenants? You asked yourself at least a thousand times. For example, when you almost stepped on a giant scorpion-like thing, got hit by an especially massive tumbleweed, tripped on a scarab, and even when you got into a fight and almost lost all of your dignity?

Yes, you asked yourself a lot of times.

But you only trusted yourself when it came to collencting materials. After all, only you knew what exactly you needed.

And... Maybe you just enjoyed traveling with them on a regular basis.

Because every one or two months you came to Aaru village and commissioned them for the very same reason, and there wasn't even a single time they turned you down. It started nearly a year ago, when you had no idea of who to trust and how this region works, but out of sheer luck you bumped into - literally, right to his chest - the perfect people. And ever since you only commissioned them and no one else.

So there were the three of you: a still unexperienced, clumsy alhemist's apprentice, depending too much on their deputees; an always smiling, funny and kind, but at the same time life-threatening girl; and her father, a whole natural force, like a billion-years-old mountain looking like he could even challenge Morax himself with his bare two hands.

Well, a colorful team, might as well to say, you tought to yourself as you were laying in your tent. It was a strange friendship between the three of you. You were almost best friends with Jeht, you could talk and laugh about almost everything. And even tough you never talked much with Jebrael, he had proven that he really did care about you, so you considered him as a dear friend as well.

Despite these dangerous journeys, they were the most awaited people in your whole month.

Minutes passed, then half an hour, and then a whole, and you still could not sleep. Getting bored of trying, you sat up and started to think again. But after another thirty minutes you got bored again, so you decided to do a little stargazing. It might help you fall asleep.

You put on some clothes, and opened the tent. You almost tripped in your own legs as soon as you saw the tall, threatening figure's back infront of you-

Oh, wait. It's just Jebrael. Yeah. He's in your team.

Cool.

After your heartbeat kind of went back to normal, you just stood there, studying the man's silhouette. If the muscles and scars armoring his massive body could tell you their stories, you'd probably listen to them for years long. When he fights, he does not have any spare movements, and the way he swings his weapon with such pure brutallity and unique elegance... This controversiality always left you tremble and speechless at the same time.

You snapped out of your toughts as you approached the man, not having any better idea as soon as you saw him. You were sure he's heard you, but just in case, you stepped on a drained brach to alert him of your presence. He did not turn his head towards you, and didn't say a word when you sat down next to him. You both remained silent for long minutes.

"Aren't you tired?" You asked, breaking the silence. "It's been a long day. You should take a rest, too."

"It's my turn on watch," he replied. "And Jeht is also tired. I'm fine. You should be the one taking a rest."

"But I can't sleep. I just keep thinking about everything."

"Hm," he 'said', still not moving an inch. Sometimes you wondered how a man of such a figure could act so unnoticeable and noiseless.

"For examle, the sky," you pointed at the stars. "All the orbs can be seen from there so much better than from Lyue harbor or Mondstadt. It's probably because of the light pollution, or I don't know."

"I tought you were a scientist?"

"Well... sort of, but this is not my field. I'm more into alchemistry. Or, at least, I'm trying," you laughed nervously, scratching the back of your head in embarassment. "But I'm not that good, no matter how hard I try."

"That's not true," he opposed, slightly turning his head toward you. "The ointment you gave us was really effective."

"Ah, yes. That is the only one I'm proud of," you chuckled. "And the anti-sweat bandages! I see you still use them," you smiled at him, looking at his arm.

"See, these things are useful. Just keep it up."

There was silence again. You stared at the endless black of the sky, toughts racing trough your head like a tumbleweed in the wind.

Somehotw, sitting in silence with him wasn't uncomfortable, like it was with other people. You could collect your toughts and think silently, while feeling perfectly safe.

You wanted to experience it more. Not just every one or two months.

"How much more materials do you need for the following months?" He asked suddenly.

"Well... Hmm... I need a few more redcrest, five scarabs and three more ajilenakh nuts... but I think that's all for now. But I'll think it trough the morning."

"Good. Jeht and I have to head back to the village soon, so we can collect them tomorrow and then start to take our way home," he said casually.

Like it didn't mean that your journey, your only chance to finally have some time for yourself, but be safe and with friends at the same time wasn't about to end in a few hours.

"Oh," you replied. "Okay, no problem."

"And you know, you can commission others to these trips, too. I have some reliable acquintances, so I can recommend you some of them. You don't have to aks us every single time."

Ouch.

You gulped. Did that mean that he wasn't enjoying your company? Definitely, you declared. But he seemed to be okay with it... Is there something wrong with you? Or with anything? Did you do something wrong?

Oh, silly question. Even when establishing the camp, you couldn't help properly, because the tent you tried to make always collapsed as soon as it had the chance, and it was always Jebrael who helped you fix it. You could only make some food, but that wasn't so delicious either, rather flavoured with herbs to make your companions feel better. But that didn't mean they enjoyed it as much as you did...

Were you overreacting again? Yes. But was it logical? Absolutely, for this time.

They were... he was important to you. It did matter what he said. Maybe a little bit too much.

"Right. That's true. I should probably ask someone else, too, you two must be busy as well," you laughed again, but this time much more nervously. "I'm sorry I bother you with this every month. Seriously." You nodded, holding back your tears, trying to find some excuse to leave the scenery as fast as possible. "Oh, can you feel it? It's getting so cold! I'd probably go back and, you know, try to get some rest... Good night, then!"

You quickly jumped up from the log you were sitting in, waving a quick "goodbye", then turned your back on him and walked to your tent.

How could you be so blind... Why would you think that he enjoyed spending time with you? No one enjoyed your company, that's why you didn't have any friends. You were nothing more than an ignorant little pharmacist who had no idea about the dangers and pressures of the world Jebrael lived in. He's porbably had some more important business to take care of, and you had no right to tell him to stay one more day just because-

"The... The stars. What's the difference between Lyue and here?"

You froze, slowly turning your head back to him. His head was facing the sky, hands resting on his knees relaxed.

He looked so peaceful all of a sudden.

You gulped again.

"We- well," you started, playing with your hand in embarassment, "there are so much more lamps in Lyue. It's a harbor, after all, and it's always bathing in light, so you cannot see the night sky so well..."

"Hmm. I haven't seen it in a long time," he whispered.

You turned your head to look at him. You had no idea why he was wearing, or why he had to wear that blindfold. You never asked about it. Once you tried to talk to Jeht, but she just brushed it off with an "I dunno, he never talks about it," and that was all.

Jebrael never talked about himself, not even to his daughter.

But something changed this evening.

He seemed to be more... open. To have a conversation. Even if it was just about the sky.

And he started to open himself for you.

You snapped back to reality, forgetting that you should probably carry on the talk. You made your way back to the log, sitting down next to him where you were just moments ago. It was still warm.

"Do you... want me to tell about it?" You asked silently.

For a moment, he didn't reply. Then he slighly nod.

You smiled.

Well... at least that's something to begin with.

} > -- • -- < {

The next morning, when Jebrael woke up, he found himself under a blanket - and with you leaning onto him, head on his right shoulder. He focused on the sounds surrounding him, but he couldn't hear Jeht's breathing, only yours. But when he moved his left hand, he found a short message.

'Wouldn't want to wake you two up, went to grab some branches. Not gonna be back soon. ;P'

Jebrael let out a small sigh, cautious not to wake you up, and just listened to your peaceful breathing for a few minutes.

And then he cracked a small smile.

That business in the village could wait a few days.

} > -- • -- < {

[owosa]

From The Brazilian Family!: Forever, Richarlyson and Celbit

QSMP: Taking care of Eggs is Magic (?)

Basically, I saw a tiktok and my mlp fan inside woke up from its slumber, which ended with me drawing ponies (lol). This’s the fifth set of a few that I already have sketched of the families of the server (mostly the ones I like, so it’s not going to be everyone). I'll be posting them soon.

If you are curious about more details, check below.

Forever: "The Lover" I must blame the fandom for my decisions about this family because in the case of Forever, I saw several fanarts where they made him as an elf / free spirit and it made me automatically associate him with the Kirins. Then the man had that violent madness crisis because of the "betrayal" of Celbit and he basically became a Nirik, which is the beast in flames that the species transform into when they has strong negative emotions.

Celbit: "The conspiracy theorist" I don't think I've a lot to explain here. Like, "Gatinho"? this man was meant to be a cat from the start, I just made it visible. He is an Abyssian or for short, the cat species from the movie. For some reason, the moment I began to consider what kind of cat he would be, a dark brown-black cat immediately came to my mind, with little white boots and the typical spot on the muzzle - chest. The same with the bandage on the tail, it's impossible for this man not to have a broken tail tip.

Fun fact: when I sketched his design, he was recently kidnapped by the federation and was wearing the white skin in which he was rescued, so I made him a white variant of his clothes. The same with his fur, considering he ended up with a streak of white hair, I feel like his entire fur would have discolored a bit.

Richarlyson: The little artist, learned to adore this baby over time. Considering that I didn't design the entire family (because honestly I don't know the rest one bit), I took the colors from the caretakers that I did. Still, my main inspiration was the Mooshroom hat/head he wears, so it ended up pretty neutral. The mane hides his eyes, so it's a complete mystery from who he got the colors of those. And of course I included his prosthesis.

I must admit that although I feel a bit sad for not doing all of them, I am someone very detailed and very driven by my likes when making fanarts (which is why I mostly don't do fanarts) , so not knowing the other ccs well or enough prevents me from even thinking what they could be. Perhaps in the future I will complete the collection, but for now, these are the ones I know and am interested in.

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

Read from the beginning on Tumblr || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 112: May 2018

As flashbacks went, it hadn’t been the worst one Gerry had ever had, Tim thought, gently running his fingers through the white streak that had grown so that his hand just about fit in its span. But it hadn’t exactly been the best, either. And while Gerry’s narration had been as flat and unemotional as ever, the fact that his face was still wet with tears told Tim that the part of him not possessed by the End had been deeply moved.

He could understand that, he supposed. Empirically anyway. He’d grown up surrounded by three generations of DiAngelos and five generations of Stokers who all loved one another dearly, so he certainly didn’t know what it was like to suddenly be given a single, solitary precious memory of someone he didn’t, couldn’t possibly remember. But he at least felt like he had an inkling of understanding about what it must be like.

Unlike Gerry, though, Tim had listened to the entire recitation with bated breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was the first time—or at least the first time since Tim had begun to be present for them—that Gerry had had a flashback of his own from before the age of eleven, let alone before he’d met Martin and Melanie. And considering all the other flashbacks he’d had of their friends when they were that young had involved them being Marked, and that deeply, by one of the Fourteen, Tim had been terrified. Especially when he’d realized just how small Gerry actually was.

Gerry, as usual, had passed out immediately following the cessation of his narration—or, more accurately, drifted off into slumber as his two-year-old self did—but Tim hadn’t been able to sleep himself. Despite the relief of knowing it hadn’t been a situation where Gerry had actually been Marked, his mind was still whirring with information and worry. They’d figured out that, while Gerry’s flashbacks for others usually showed moments where they could have died but were spared somehow, often by one of the other Fears, the ones of his own life tended to be more…watershed moments. Points in time that had led him to the place he was now, moments where possibilities clicked into certainties or even inevitabilities. There had been a lot of firsts in the memory: his first meeting with Martin’s grandfather, his first introduction to art, his first attempt at colored pencils. Maybe there had been some lasts, too—his last outing with his father, his last time trusting that Eric Delano had had a good plan, his last truly carefree moments. Tim didn’t know, and likely wouldn’t until Gerry woke up.

Probably not even then. He’d been two. He wasn’t going to remember much from that point in time.

Tim glanced at the clock on his bedside table. It was almost six in the morning. Martin would probably be awake, but…no, he chastised himself, no need for that. Martin hadn’t even been born then, he wouldn’t know anything, and he wasn’t going to ask him to Know. Things were bad enough without pushing him further over the edge.

As if on cue, his phone rang with a few bars of the Toreador’s song from Carmen, which he’d changed it to after Gerry described exactly what was going on in the aria from I Pagliacci he’d used before. While Gerry didn’t seem to notice, Tim decided it would be prudent to answer quickly anyway. “Morning, Marto.”

“Tim. Hey.” Martin exhaled. “Sorry, I…don’t know why I called you.”

Tim glanced down at Gerry’s face, relaxed and . “Since you didn’t apologize for waking me, I’m assuming that by ‘I don’t know why I called you’ you mean ‘something compelled me to call you immediately’ and not ‘I forgot why it was so important I call you and risk getting you out of a sound sleep on what’s theoretically a holiday’. Is everything okay?”

“Maybe?” Martin didn’t sound sure. “I’ve…I dunno. Been up for about half an hour. Just feeling…restless.” He paused. “How’s Gerry?”

“Sleeping. I’m guessing you know he had a flashback last night.”

“I mean, he’s sleeping. Or was a few hours ago. I know that’s the last thing he does before he goes to sleep at night.” Martin paused. “That…sounds harsh. I’m sorry.”

Tim shook his head, even though Martin couldn’t see it. “No, I get what you mean, and you’re right. It’s how I can tell he’s getting tired, he comes over all glazed and starts talking about something horrible or life-changing or both. Last night’s wasn’t…terrible, but…”

“One of his?”

“Yeah. He was two. Apparently his dad took him to visit your grandfather.”

Tim regretted saying it as soon as the words were out of his mouth, and he could almost hear Martin’s desire to push. Finally, he simply asked, “Are either of you coming in today?”

“Probably. I think he’ll want to talk to you all about it,” Tim said, silently relieved. “But if not, I’ll ask him if he’s okay with me explaining further.” He paused as the numbers on the clock rolled over to six. “Are Jon and Daisy up yet?”

“They weren’t a few minutes ago, but Daisy probably will be soon. She—hold on.” There was a rustling sound, and Martin’s voice got quieter, as if he was holding the phone away from his face. “Hey. You okay?”

There was a muffled response Tim couldn’t quite hear, but it sounded like a female voice, so either Melanie and Sasha had come in early—unlikely—or Daisy was up after all. Martin’s reply to whatever it was sounded apologetic. “No, just me. On the phone with Tim.” He paused, as if listening to a response. “Be careful. I haven’t seen anything lately, but that doesn’t mean anything.” Another rustle, and then he came through more clearly. “Sorry about that. Apparently it’s ‘soon.’”

“Daisy, huh?” Tim managed a smile. “Well, at least you’re not alone there. I know you hate that.”

“Yeah. Might be why I called you.” Martin sighed. “I don’t like to wake Jon, he doesn’t sleep well as it is, but yeah, the more time I spend on my own the harder it is to fight. I think that’s part of the reason Daisy gets up when she does. It’s a lot harder to resist feeding the Eye when I don’t have someone holding me accountable, and I imagine she’s the same way with the Hunt. I’m just glad I’ve got all of you for support. I can’t imagine what it would be like to try to do this if nobody cared whether I did or not.”

Tim didn’t reply. He had nightmares sometimes, full of screaming and fire and all kinds of pain, nightmares where Gerry hadn’t saved Sasha and Martin hadn’t saved Jon and Tim hadn’t walked out of the Unknowing and everybody hated everyone else, and while it was most likely just his brain throwing up worst-case scenarios in an “aren’t you glad things never got this bad” way, they never fully left him. And as bad as the gulf separating Daisy and Basira was, the idea of it being between Jon and Martin somehow hurt worse than anything else.

After several heartbeats, Martin took a deep breath. “Sorry. Don’t mean to be dumping everything on you this early in the morning. Anyway, I’d better, um…have breakfast, I guess, before anyone decides to come in.”

“Have—oh.” Tim glanced down at Gerry and wondered how Martin’s sense of taste was these days. “Yeah, go ahead. I’ll probably be in a bit early today.”

“Any particular reason?”

“I’m awake. Gerry’ll probably be up in a bit, so once he’s up and ready to go—or to let me go, whichever comes first—I’ll start that way.”

“Be careful.”

“Always. See you soon, Freckles.” Tim ended the call and sat back against the headboard with a sigh. Martin was definitely going to need all hands on deck today; it was the early May bank holiday, so the Institute was—nominally anyway—closed. On the other hand, there would be a lot of people out and about, and both Martin and Daisy would, if they set foot outside the Institute, be tempted to go after someone who didn’t deserve it. Or someone who did, but…no, there was nobody who deserved trauma, not really. Jon was better than he’d been, especially since Melanie had discovered how deeply he’d started to fall into the Web’s clutches, but there was always a risk he’d somehow maneuver them into going after someone he didn’t like. Not likely, but possible. Anyway, since the rest of the Institute would be empty, having all of them around would also help keep the Lonely at bay.

The bed jostled slightly as Umberto leaped onto it and strode his way up to Tim’s side. He sniffed at Gerry’s hair, sneezed into it, and then somehow squeezed his enormous, leonine body into the extremely small space between Gerry’s head and Tim’s abdomen.

“I’m convinced you’re even more liquid than most cats,” Tim told him, scratching his cheek. He was rewarded with purrs so loud they made the bed rumble. “Don’t suffocate him. I don’t even know if he really has to breathe anymore, but let’s not test that.”

“’M f’n.” Gerry turned his head, clearly meaning to snuggle closer to Tim, then suddenly jerked back and sat up, spitting cat hair out of his mouth. “Jesus. Pfft. How did he—pfft—fit there?”

“He is the Cat Who Walks By Himself, and all places are alike to him.” Tim kissed Gerry’s cheek. “Morning. Go take a shower and brush your teeth. I’ll feed the dust mop and get breakfast for us going, unless you’d rather pick something up on the way to the Institute.”

“Let’s pick something up. I’m betting nobody went shopping this weekend, and Martin’s probably forgotten Jon needs actual food.” Gerry gave Tim a quick kiss and headed towards the bathroom, leaving him alone with that oh so pleasant reminder.

Martin had not, as it turned out, forgotten Jon needed food, nor had Daisy, but there was still a three-way argument going on when Tim and Gerry arrived because Jon was reluctant to eat without them. Well. Reluctant was a mild term. Jon was outright fucking furious and—in Tim’s expert opinion—more than a little heartbroken that not only did Martin and Daisy no longer seem to need human food, they were willing, even insistent that he not share with them, that he needed all his strength and should eat what there was without worrying about them.

The pastries and sausage rolls helped.

Melanie and Sasha arrived with trays of coffee, fortunately before all the food was eaten—although, Tim admitted privately to himself, he and Jon were the only two who were properly hungry, so there wasn’t much risk of that. His worries about Martin sprang back to life, fully formed, when he accepted one of the coffees from Sasha without so much as a murmur. He wasn’t surprised when Melanie looked into her own cup and smacked her forehead. “Fuck—I meant to get you a hot cocoa, not another coffee. Sorry, Martin, I can go make tea or—”

“I’m fine, Neens, but thanks.” Martin took a sip of the coffee.

Melanie stared up at him. “You never drink coffee. The last time you tried it you ended up with a migraine.”

“I had a migraine because the caffeine made me very aware of everything and I was fighting to keep the Ceaseless Watcher from showing me the traces of every single Fear that had even so much as passed over an area, so I had to lie down in a dark room until it shut up. I’m already in that state pretty much all the time now.”

“You realize that is doing the opposite of making me want to let you keep drinking that, right? This is just going to make that worse.”

Martin shrugged. He looked, in contrast to how he sounded, extremely tired. “Good, maybe it’ll overload whatever blocks I have keeping me from Looking or, o-or Knowing things and I can get past whatever the fuck is going on with that tape.”

Tim blinked. “Wait, what tape?”

Martin pointed to the desk furthest from where he stood. Right on the very edge was a cassette tape, unlabeled, just sitting and waiting. No case, no player, nothing. Just…a tape.

Sasha picked it up and turned it over, frowning. “Where did it come from?”

The hopeful look on Daisy’s face was a bit pathetic and a bit heartbreaking; Tim had to look away. Martin rubbed his nose, looking uncomfortable. “El—Peter’s office. I, I don’t know what’s on it.”

“Peter’s office. You mean Bas—someone left it for you?” Sasha looked a bit guilty.

Martin shook his head. “Uh-uh. I went up and…lock’s still broken, you know? I’ve gone up a couple of times, pulled a couple tapes to listen to. I figured there was a chance they were statements Gertrude took live and they’d be a bit more…substantial than the written ones, but less likely to give me dreams than ones I take in person. Let’s face it, people don’t survive giving their statements very long. Comparatively.”

“So you were drawn to pick it up?” Tim took the tape from Sasha and studied it. There was nothing particularly appealing about it, at least not to his eyes, but then again it wasn’t like he could pick out a good fish if it wasn’t frozen and clearly labeled. Martin was the one who lived on these things, he knew what a ripe or juicy statement looked like, and God he hated thinking like that.

“No,” Martin said, surprising him—and, from the way everyone else stared at him, the rest of the crew as well. “The opposite, actually. I had a very strong feeling that I should leave it alone. That there was nothing on there I needed to know, that whatever’s on there would…that I should just leave it alone. There were a few others I just wanted to throw away, but this one…I dropped it twice just trying to pick it up. Probably should have left it, but…I don’t know. Curious, I guess.” He stared at the tape in Tim’s hand. “I’m the avatar of awful knowledge and revealed secrets. What does it not want me to know?”

When he put it like that, Tim could understand both why he had brought it down and why he had left it where he had. He couldn’t risk leaving it where it might fall into the wrong hands, after all. It was almost certainly something that would put the rest of them in danger, he mused; that would be why the Ceaseless Watcher wouldn’t want Martin to look at it. Or why it would tell him not to look at it. He still cared, in a way few other avatars did, about what happened to his people, and the Eye had to know that if anything happened to them, it would likely lose Martin. One way or another. And Tim could see just how painful it was for him to even look at the thing with his regular sight. Trying to actually play it would definitely hurt.

Gerry suddenly inhaled sharply and yanked the tape out of Tim’s hand. Before Tim could even wrap his lips around a hey, he had snatched up a recorder, popped the tape in, and pressed PLAY. Then he stepped back, found Tim’s hand, and clutched it tightly before reaching for Melanie with the other.

There was a sharp sigh from the tape, and then Gertrude Robinson’s dry, reedy voice began speaking. “Right. No use putting it off further.”

It only took the rustle of paper and the first few words before realization struck Tim with the force of a hammer’s blow, and he wrapped himself around Gerry from behind, holding him tightly. Gerry had, as usual, made the connection between his flashback of the night before and the tape Martin didn’t want to hear far faster than Tim had, but now Tim realized what the reasoning probably was. I think I found a way.

“And so Eric Delano ended.”

Melanie made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a whimper, and Tim noticed her hand tighten around Gerry’s; he tightened it in return. Martin was staring at the tape recorder, his eyes glowing as usual, his face paper white, and Tim saw, rather distantly, Jon wrap himself around Martin the same way he was clinging to Gerry. Then he forgot about everyone else as the conversation began.

Eric Delano sounded a lot like his son, but far more jaded and bitter. Tim found himself wondering what Gerry would have sounded like if he hadn’t grown up with Martin and Melanie, if he’d died alone and thinking he was unloved. If he’d never come back. He tucked his chin over Gerry’s shoulder and listened as he talked to Gertrude. The description of what being bound to the Book felt like hit Tim in a place he’d never expected, and he hugged Gerry a little tighter. Gerry had suffered like that, had known he was nothing more than a memory and pain…but he wasn’t, he was still Gerry, he was solid and real and alive and there and Tim loved him in a way he’d never expected to love anyone, and he had to know that.

But it didn’t erase what he’d suffered, no matter how much Tim wished it had. And now he had to listen to the father he could barely remember describe the same agony.

A lot of the initial conversation was painful, and part of Tim would really rather not have heard it. But he supposed it was stuff he needed to know. Hard to get old in this business. You either die, or you, uh, stay young. Well…that was accurate. Despite the white hair, Gerry still seemed young enough, and Tim found himself wondering if he would continue to age or if, someday down the line, he’d be an old man of seventy getting funny looks for walking out with this young-looking thirtysomething thing. Or maybe they’d both die young, or relatively young anyway. No way to know for sure, except to wait.

Gertrude had gotten old, despite being…more or less what Martin was. That had to be comforting.

Right?

Someone—Tim wasn’t sure who—inhaled sharply when Eric informed Gertrude that he’d figured out a way to quit, but he wasn’t surprised. Gerry’s flashback had ended right before he found out what his dad was planning…Alastair Koskiewicz had known, but nobody else had. And the Eye didn’t want Martin to know about this any more than it had—probably—wanted Gertrude to know. Of course that would be what was on the tape. Eric’s concern for Gerry made him smile, at least a little, but Gertrude’s remarks about him made him want to dig up what the Stranger had left of her and kill her a third time.

And then Eric began his statement.

“Subject is Eric Delano, recorded twenty-first of July, 2008, regarding...”

“What else? Me, Mary, and the Archives.”

2008…Tim tried to slot this into his mental timeline. It was ten years after Martin’s grandfather died, twenty years after Martin and Jon and Melanie were born, the same year that Mary had bound herself into the Book and Gerry had been accused of her murder, the same year Gerry and his siblings had started burning Leitners. It was closing in on ten years ago now. And, Tim realized belatedly, it was exactly twenty years after Eric had—presumably—given the same explanation of his plan to quit to Martin’s grandfather.

He sounded so bitter, but also…resigned. It was like he knew, even at the beginning, that he wasn’t going to get anything out of this other than an opportunity to talk, that it wouldn’t do any good to him or Gertrude. But he kept talking. Tim got that. It was hard to stop talking to the Archivist once you started, and while he knew Martin hated it, he didn’t think Gertrude minded. Not in this instance, anyway. Certainly she didn’t seem particularly sympathetic when Eric got to the end, only insisting that he keep up his end of the bargain and tell her how he’d quit.

And when he did, the answer took Tim’s breath away.

Of course. Eric was right—it was so simple, and so extreme at the same time. But it made sense. After all, they called it the Eye. What else could it possibly use? Martin’s connection got stronger when he took off his glasses, there was so much about Seeing…

Click. The tape recorder sounded almost preternaturally loud as it shut itself off. For long moments, none of them spoke.

Sasha was the one to finally break the silence, with a single word that fell into the center of the room with all the weight and subtlety of a cinder brick dropped from a third story window. “Fuck.”

“God.” Gerry reached up and wiped at his face with a shaky hand; Tim wasn’t surprised to realize he was crying again. “I—I remember him just sitting there, but…fucking hell, I didn’t realize he did that.”

“Bit drastic, but necessary,” Martin said, his voice flat and unemotional but unusually quiet.

Daisy strode around the desk, nudged a chair over with a scrape that made Martin flinch ever so slightly, and then grabbed his arm and half guided, half dragged him to a chair. “Sit down before you fall down.”

Jon, looking extremely shaken, kissed Martin’s forehead lightly. “I’ll—I’ll go get you some tea and—”

“No, I’m all right. I’m all right,” Martin repeated. Tim didn’t need any kind of supernatural ability to know he was lying. He was paper white under the freckles and scars, and there was a dull, blank look in his eyes that said he was more than half blind with actual, physical pain. He closed his eyes and rubbed at his temple. “Christ. Gerry, are—are you…?”

“Better than you are,” Gerry said, a bit pointedly. “I had—that was my flashback last night. Dad took me to see Alastair—it must’ve been a month, maybe, before you were born—and that, he’d figured out how to quit. I must’ve fallen asleep before he told him, but…well, I guess I knew that was coming.” He swallowed. “I just…didn’t expect to hear his voice.”

There was another long silence as they all sat down, in chairs or on the edges of desks or, in Jon’s case, on the floor next to Martin’s chair, resting his cheek against Martin’s thigh. Martin absently began stroking his hair, ever so gently, but his eyes were still fixed on the tape recorder, or at least in its direction.

This time, Tim decided to break the silence, because he had to ask. “So. Is anyone going to try that?”

Sasha looked up at him in obvious surprise. Martin blinked, hard, and looked around the room. “It’s a fair question,” he agreed slowly. “I—I wouldn’t blame any of you for trying.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Jon said, looking up at him. “If you quit, I’ll go with you. If you stay, I stay.”

“Yeah, same,” Melanie said. “Promised you that fifteen years ago, I’m not changing that now.”

“I can’t,” Daisy said in a low voice. “Think the Eye’s the only thing keeping me from either giving into the Hunt or starving to death right now. I won’t survive severing that connection.”

Tim glanced at Sasha, who bit her lip in obvious indecision. “I—I don’t know. I have to think about it. I don’t want to abandon you all, but…” She looked over at Tim. “What about you?”

Part of Tim was tempted. He’d got revenge for Danny, after all; the world was safe from the Unknowing, and they didn’t really need him for the other rituals. Gerry wouldn’t abandon him if he was blind and helpless, and really he wouldn’t be helpless. There was nothing keeping him here anymore.

Nothing except his family.

“Not until we figure out exactly what Peter Lukas is up to, anyway,” he said finally. “Not while you’re all here. What about you, Martin? I notice you said you wouldn’t blame any of us, but I didn’t hear anything out of you about quitting.”

“I—” Martin hesitated. Anguish flashed across his face. “I…don’t think I can. I-I mean, I could. Physically. Wouldn’t even take much effort to do it. The problem is…I’m, I’m really wound up in it. It’s had a hold on me since I was seven, and it’s only got worse in the last few years. And with the state I’m in…I’m pretty sure trying to sever that connection would actually kill me at this point. I don’t think I can survive without the Eye. And as tempted as I am to try…” He closed his eyes, but not before Tim had seen the glint of tears in them. “I don’t want to risk leaving you all.”

“Getting free of this isn’t worth losing you,” Jon said softly. “Not to me.”

“Or me,” Melanie added.

Gerry raised his head and looked at Martin. The temperature dropped several degrees, and his eyes turned pure white, as did his hair, and there was the whoosh of wind Tim was familiar with now. It only lasted a second, and then it was gone and Gerry was back to normal, though incredibly sad.

“You’re right,” he said quietly. “It would kill you. And it wouldn’t let you go easily. You’d…suffer.”

“I’d do it if I thought it would do any good,” Martin said. “I just…don’t know that it would.”

“It wouldn’t,” Jon said fiercely. He got up, took Martin’s face in his hands, and kissed him, deeply and thoroughly. Martin’s hands came up to hold onto Jon’s elbows, and Tim could see the tears rolling down his cheeks.

He wrapped his arms around Gerry again and pulled him close, feeling the tears in his own eyes. He understood. He understood all too well.

[sakkiichi]

MATCHUP FOR @lilikags

hello, lia ! thank you for the info you provided and for trusting me to write your matchup, i hope you like it <3

i pondered quite a lot on my choice for who to match you with, i hope the result is satisfactory to you !

your genshin impact match is someone who, similarly to you, pursues creativity. while he is more prone to working alone, your ability to fit in well in a group is something beneficial to him, helping him open up more. like you, he can be a perfectionist as well, pouring his all into the work he does, which also happens to be his passion. though detached and seemingly aloof at times, don’t let yourself be fooled, he is extremely perceptive, knowing just what someone needs at any given moment.

well, is an image already forming in your mind? venture further into the mysteries of teyvat to find…

✧ ALBEDO

So, you and Albedo. Why do I think you’re a good match? Well, in my opinion, you share similarities, while being inherently different, like two sides of the same coin, the little contrasts making you fit, akin to complementary colors over canvas.

Your leadership qualities and bringing people together are characteristics that would go in very nice divergence with the Kreideprinz’s highly independent personality. While he tends to be alone while doing his research, Albedo is warm to his friends and is happy to meet new people. Your social affinity, even though according to your mbti type you’re introverted too, would play in his favor, serving as a bridge between the seemingly distant golden prince and the friends that look forward to meeting him. Besides, he’d feel at ease too, reassured he won’t be too overwhelmed if you are around.

Another aspect of your personality that made me lean towards the Knights of Favonius’ chief alchemist is your love for creative pastimes. Albedo highly values that, as seen in his own hobbies, painting and alchemy.

One of the chalk prince’s love languages being quality time, it is not rare for him to drop his experiments instantly as soon as your smiling face comes into view…

—

Warm light floods through bare trees, reflecting in shades of candlelight off of the abundant snow. Late winter’s approaching, the gates of spring within reach, contained in the chant of fluttering birds atop the cold mountains, in the slumbering cecilias that are starting to awake, in skies dyeing pink and orange and gold, as the sun still lingers for an evening stroll.

In your smile and the bounciness of your step.

The frost-kissed northern stars of the alchemist’s gaze set upon you, its stella illuminating your footprints over the grass-splattered layer of white.

A couple of notebooks under one of your arms, and what looks like brushes and a bag that can only contain inks and paints on the other, you brave the chilly breeze, the distance between you and your lover shortening.

A soft smile draws upon the prince of chalk’s iced lips, the gesture another mirror image of the blooms to soon sprout.

“Albedo!” You sing-song, somehow managing to wave at him, despite all the items you’re carrying.

He puts down his notepad, the pencil he was using haphazardly forgotten over his table, all the threads of thought in his mind leading solely to you.

Your lips form a crescent not unlike the moon that is to rise soon amidst the firmament of a dawning spring, when your partner meets you halfway.

The warmth of his proximity is enough to tempt you to lean your head against his chest, inviting you to dream sweetly.

And you’d do just that were it not for the several objects currently balanced on your grasp, and because you had planned this outing.

“My love,” he begins, the constellations not yet out already bright in his stare. “I would have carried all of this, dear.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” You perkily retort, a smile of your own linking the starlight in his gaze. “Are you ready now, Bedo? We’ve got so much to do!”

The prince takes a moment to memorize the lines of your visage, the curve of your contagious smile, the light and color that constitutes his beloved.

He could paint you a million times, yet none would come close to portraying the true magic he witnesses every time he looks at you.

Taking the bag from you despite your protests, Albedo falls in step by your side, your hands brushing every now and then.

Even though slightly out of breath, the trip you had planned is worth it. A frozen over lake extends before you, a myriad of dancing lights over its glazed surface. Shadows of a rainbow seem to form over it, as the sky deepens in hue, the color of late afternoons drinking warm tea from matching mugs with someone you cherish.

And yet, despite the natural light dimming, neither of you seem deterred on your respective creations.

Albedo’s svelte hands delicately hover over his sketchbook, light and dark colliding in the pastel watercolors that seem to come to life when he imprints them on paper.

Your side leans against the artist’s, dark ink filling the page you currently peruse, pondering if this or that is the perfect word to make a reality of the world taking form inside your mind.

When the wind picks up, announcing nightfall, you nuzzle further into Albedo’s body.

And because your focus is on the wonders you create through linked quotes, you don’t notice a new color being added into the picture-perfect scene.

As he feels your warmth pressed against his side, the alchemist’s cheeks take on a hue worthy of the most precious crystals.

If only all sunrises could be this color, you would think, the moment your eyes met his lovely face again.

—

You mention you always try to help others, and I genuinely believe that is a trait Albedo would find very endearing. From helping Sucrose with whatever she needs regarding her research, to finding a way for Klee to get out of solitary confinement, your boyfriend can’t help but stare at you with a fond look in his eyes, akin to the glittering surface of a clear spring on a sunny day. (Just make sure Klee doesn’t cause too much trouble while she escapes her scolding).

Delving deeper into your hobbies, if we consider a modern au and Albedo’s aforementioned love language, it is not rare for him to be busy doodling on his sketchbook while you play games on your phone. Comfy clothes on, I can easily imagine him curled up on the couch, while you lay your head in his lap, thumbs tapping at your screen to achieve the highest score (though nothing beats the feeling of your lover’s fingers delicately combing through your hair).

Taking your mbti personality type into account, you and Albedo are a very good match. As an INFJ, you tend to look for deep relationships, wanting to understand every puzzle piece that connects into your s/o’s mind. As an INTP, the chief alchemist seeks intellectual understanding of his lover. In addition, both your personality types are perfectionist and self-demanding, which can help you two understand each other’s motivations when really involved into an activity that piques your interest.

✧ RUNNER UP: FISCHL

While definitely more on the independent and “loner” side (not by choice), the Prinzessin der Verurteilung has plenty in common with you, especially when it comes to mutual interests.

She is one of the most creative and imaginative people you can encounter, her inner world brimming with life, heartache, and enigmas to be unveiled. Which I think pairs quite well with your love for art and writing. In turn, she’d feel understood, having met someone who also finds comfort in fiction and the arts.

If we talk about a modern au again, Fischl is definitely the type to play games. I think she’d enjoy rpg ones, but she’s secretly a fan of otome too, especially if the setting and aesthetics lean on a more gothic vibe.

Similarly to what I’ve mentioned in Albedo’s case, you could help Fischl be included in groups, and even though she tries not to break character, she is genuinely honored to make new friends. She may not verbalize it right away, but the blush she tries to hide with her hair and the smile she plays off are indication enough.

[hoshi-y]

Hiiii!!! Hoshi!! Can I be your friend? Also can I get headcanons of Tsukasa and Mitsuba (yanderish?) with a s/o who is like Mikan from danganropa? Especially when people look at them and seek them taking to the ghost boys and don’t see anybody but seeing their happy face ❤️Please and thank you!!!(if you need her personality she’s shy has trust issues and apologizes a lot and offers to take her clothes off due to abuse and you don’t have to add that)

Happy to be with you

Genre : Fluff

Characters : Yugi Tsukasa, Mitsuba Sousuke

TW : Bullying, Murder, Kidnapping, Abuse, Foul language

A/N : AWWWW OFC!! Love making new friends LMAO and thank you for including her personality! I've already watched gameplays or some parts of the anime so I kind of forgotten how she acted HAHA

But one thing I remember, is that she always gets picked on and says sorry alot but your information helps 💗

I hope you enjoy 💗

Don't worry Love! We just had a discussion~

You were never the brightest color in the crayon box

Yet you'd often get picked on

Why though?

Is it because you're an easy target? Or is it because of your shy nature, You don't speak much maybe it's cause they took your shyness as an advantage?

Maybe it is that..

It was one of those days again

Where this 3 girls would pick on you everyday

This time, they did it INFRONT of your lover

You think Tsukasa will let that slide? Nope!

The three girls infront of you started laughing hisy "What we're you smiling about earlier freak? Awww did your imaginary friend say something funny?" One girl cackled as she left and the other followed

He saw it all unfold, Right infront of his eyes, what went from a very lovely conversation with his S/O turned into a wreck after you left, You already had enough bruises as it is yet those girls had no mercy and made sure to pepper your whole entirebody with bruises

When he followed you to hive you a bunch more kisses the scene unfolded, he wanted to do something, but for the first time he froze in his spot as he watched you get beaten up, You stood up and wiped your tears "I-i'm sorry.." Everytime you wipe your tears, new ones just kept coming

This broke Tsukasa's heart as he immediately ran to you and held you in his arms "Hey.. hey.. shhh.. It's okay, I'm here now.." Tsukasa ordered his Tseushiros to bring them to the broadcasting room, As black smoke surrounded the two of you, both of you were now in the safe zone of the broadcasting room

He held your arm to look at your bruises as you whimpered in pain, He didn't like seeing you like this. So he was gonna take matters into his own hands.

He bandaged you up and comforted you with hugs and kisses until you've finally calmed down and fell into a slumber, He laid you down in a comfortable position as he wiped the rest of your tears away, He hates seeing you like this, It breaks his heart to see you like this, He doesn't want not one scratch on your perfect skin

Tsukasa kissed your forehead as moved away strays of hair off your face "Don't worry love, I'll do something to make them stop." He ordered one of his Tseushiros to watch over you and he dissappeared somewhere.

The next day, You heard rumors that the three girls that always picked on you got injured, One went missing, the other was found dead, and the other was hospitalized.

"Its crazy... they were just doing fine yesterday"

"Who cares, they won't bother us anymore.."

You heard the rumor and the murmuring of the students, You went straight to the broadcasting room and opened the door to have Tsukasa jump on you "[F/N]!!! My lovely and dearest of S/O~" He wrapped his legs and arms around you like a koala and snuggled on you "Hi Tsu" You ruffled his hair

You two sat down, seems like Sakura and Natsuhiko weren't here yet "Where's Natsuhiko and Sakura-senpai?" You asked Tsukasa "MMMMM probably on a date~ HEY we should go on one too!!" He excitedly suggested, you didn't wanna decline him so you accepted

He was opening up the boundary when you heard muffling you turned around and saw nothing "Are you okay?" Tsukasa asked

"Mhm, I just heard something"

"Probably A rat! Come on let's go~ We have the whole day to ourselves" You held onto his hand as the two of you dissappeared to the location

The source of the sound earlier?

It was one of the girls who kept giving you the worst bruises of all. Tied up to a pole as her mouth was duct taped and blindfolded

But of course, Tsukasa didn't want you his lovely S/O to know about that right?

He doesn't.

Oh, well why do you care they went missing?

Mitsuba was your boyfriend when he was alive

He helped you escape out of your abusive household, Scare away the people that were bullying you even though he was scared himself

Or is he?

It shattered you whole when you heard he got into and accident and passed away on the arrival

You couldn't move on

Without his protection or his guidance to escape from your house

Everything just got worse

But, after 2 years

You found him again, as a ghost..

You were overjoyed and the two of you continued where you left off

You still loved him, and he still loved you even after death

But the thing that you didn't know was, you were the only one who could see hik and not other students

In their perspective, you were laughing and talking to air

"Look.. aren't they weird.. they have been talking to herself everyday.." A guy said passing by

"better clear way, we might get infected" The two of them laughed as you lowered your head

You heard what they said, but you were used to it

But not Mitsuba

"What the fuck are their problem? Can't keep your nose out of something?" He hissed

You were already having a hard time at home and yet the students here also give you a hard time, Can't they give you a break? does seeing you this vulnerable make them happy?

Mitsubas blood boiled in anger, he has witnessed EVERYTHING everytime the two of you talk in a more quiet and isolated area. Yet students just can't stop snooping around can't they?

"Mitsuba.. It's alright.."

"No. it's not." He looked at you as he held your hand "come.. I'll bring you to my boundary hm?" He said in a calm voice, he didn't wanna trigger any bad memories you had

He took you to his boundary and that's where the two of you continued your conversation

As you were doing your own thing, He excused himself and said he'll be back shortly.

When he finally came back, he had a blood stain on his cheek "A-ah! Mitsuba what happened?! did you.. Did you get hurt?.."

"No no.. I was.. Making you a uhmm.. Strawberry.. Cake!! See?" He held out a box as your eyes sparkled

This is the type of reaction he wants to see from you, The happy go lucky and free attitude you have always shown.. Yet those people took it for granted.

He wants to see you stay positive all the time while he watches over you

So he took out the negativity out of your life

One.

by

One.

I feel like I didn't portray Mikans personality right so pls educate me HAHA

[yournextflame]

The Mystery of Amber Egg [Updated]

There are strands of hair inside of Rennala’s amber egg. What else we can find within one of the most mysterious things in the Elden Ring? [Update: hair aren't red, their textures are black, they are black only from certain angle]

This is going to be a long lore-journey in an attempt to uncover those secrets, welcome under the cut.

Well, for a start, let’s estabilish what we know about the amber egg: it was Radagon’s partying gift to Rennala, it’s allows us to respec and it is a container of the Great Rune of Unborn.

The shape and color of the amber egg help us to figure out that it’s the Erdtree’s sap from the period of Erdtree’s abudance, which is referenced multiple times in the descriptions. Blessings of the Erdtree are very valuable, and became even more precious when the age of flourishment came to an end.

The Erdtree’s old sap becomes amber, treasured as the most precious of jewels in the age of Godfrey, the first Elden Lord

It was once thought that the blessed sap of the Erdtree would drip from its boughs forever—but that age of plenty swiftly came to a close, and with time, the Erdtree became more an object of faith

Not so long ago I wrote a theory that Empyreans or even all demigods are spawns of the Erdtree, it was a hightly speculative essay, but I think when it comes to the amber egg, it’s hard to deny that it is somehow connected with the births of demigods.

Some people believe that Rennala tried to rebirth Ranni, but looking at the description of the Great Rune of Unborn in Japanese, I don’t think it’s true.

満月の女王、レナラの抱く琥珀のタマゴ 産まれなかったデミゴッドの大ルーン

産まれなかった “unborn” has negative connotation, which means “person, who was never born”, while not yet born is まだ産まれない and “reborn” is a whole different thing (explaining how grammar works in two language that are not native to me is urrrgghhh). In other words, it is sounds like a child that was failed to born. This theory had been discussed in Western fandom for a while, but the evidence is different: amount of the cradles (4) in the library doesn’t match with the amount of Rennala’s children (3).

[warning: I’m struggling with Japanese grammar and can do mistakes]

I thought that subtle hint to support this theory is hidden in the description of the Slumbering Egg, but turns out Japanese wording is completely different from the Great Rune of Unborn, in Japanese it is directly stated that slumbering egg is a failure, while Unborn is simply… unborn.

Owl eggs that will never hatch. Material used for crafting items. Prized as a symbol of the most sublime slumber (it’s probably a reference to Miquella)

When I tried to search for 産まれなき者 “Unborn” all I find were Japanese discussions with a lot of confused fans, which makes me think that it’s not a common term, but something made-up for the game, but take it with the grains of salt because my Japanese is far from perfect. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intentional on developers part to make this name sound as dubious as possible; not giving us clear answer if the thing inside of the amber egg is dead, alive or exist in some unique state between life and death.

Besides the red hair, we can also find white orbs of unknown origin and black veins. And so, something organic was developing inside the amber, but I can only speculate about nature of this thing. Apparently, it is developed enough to be classified as demigod and obtain (?) Great Rune.

If it wasn’t for the name of Great Rune, I’d like to suggest that Rennala herself gestated it in an attempt to revive the Unborn, but according to Gideon the source of the Great Rune is the amber egg. Overall, all lore regarding runes and demigods is borderline incomprehensible and I will touch this issue again in my post, but it’s possible that originally Rennala recieved only amber egg and the Great Rune manifested inside of it after the Shattering.

Still, this doesn’t explain why whatever is developing under the amber shells didn’t hatch. I’m not sure that calling it “dead” would be the right thing to do, death has a very apparent style of manifestation in the Elden Ring, we all know what happened to Godwyn. But there is no water in Rennala’s room (spirit realm is a whole different thing, water here exists by default), no signs of deathblight corruption, even though Liurnia has surprisingly high population of royal revenants, the library shows no signs of un/death.

[speculation] In all this, we see the opposite picture, the amber egg functions like mini-Erdtree. It’s blesses people with “the grace” rebirthes them and takes memories away.

There is another model of the amber egg, during the bossfight it is inhabited by the sweetings, waiting for their rebirths. This is what they sing about.

Sleep tight, bound tight by Mother’s amber. Sleep tight, find life, in Mother’s umbra.

The power of amber egg influences sweetings even further, while their eye color is different from the golden eyes of demigods and people blessed by the grace, it’s indeed affected by the rebirth or even by the presence of the amber egg alone.

Rennala’s eyes are shining gold in the first cutscene, but since I don’t have access to the game files, i can’t say if it’s actually different color or simply a reflection.

As the cutscene before the second phase shows, Rennala and her amber egg are “protected” by Ranni’s (who, as we know, once a stole a fragment of Destined Death) magic. The nature of this magic raises a lot of questions: is Rennala in the second phase is an illusion or a puppet (the color of her spirit is closer to the puppets than ashes, but it’s not exactly the same), how come the amber egg can manifest the spirit realm and why does Ranni’s line sounds so omnius once you start to think about it.

Mother’s rich slumber shall not be disturbed by thee

Rennala and her sweetings is protected by the golden spell, which

[I mean, Ranni cares about Rennala, but she doesn’t bother to free her from the library or to take away Radagon’s belongings, but it is possible that she gave up on recovering her mental state and thinks that her “slumber” is a lesser evil]

Normally, we obtain remembrances from dead enemies, but there are two exceptions from this rule - Radagon, who doesn’t have one, and Rennala, who doesn’t die, but gives us Remembrance of the Full Moon Queen. My pet theory is that her memories were hewn in the amber egg, which is the Erdtree’s sap and mimics some functions of the Erdtree, but that’s only a theory.

Present day Rennala doesn’t wear her wedding ring, but illusion recreated by Ranni has one. The version from Rennala’s remembrance also gives player ring, which suports the theory that I wrote ebove - the spirit realm and Rennala herself in the second phase were recreated from her memories.

One more time it makes me question the state of Unborn, despite her sorry state Rennala doesn’t look exactly amnesiac (but maybe I’m wrong), she still remembers Ranni and knows how to reincarnate people. Could it be that her remembrance was duplicated in the same way as Tarnished duplicates their collection using bodies of the soulless demigods?

This can be, in large part, not exactly dead, which casts away everything I wrote above.

Rennala and her sweetings is protected by the golden spell and the source of this spell is the amber egg itself. Unless the amber egg was enchanted by Radagon (questionable, he learned incantations in his second marriage, when he was Rennala’s husband he only studied sorcery), it seems like it’s capable of casting incantations.

Now let’s observe the other side of Radagon’s family.

All information regarding the nature of Great Rune is vague and quite often is self-contradicting, notably, in version 1.0 what we currently know as Remembrances used to be called Runes, while Great Runes were referred as Shards, which gives an impression that Miyazaki himself didn’t exactly knew where he is going with this concept. Kind of ironic, considering that Elden Ring development name was Great Rune.

I can only wonder what’s going on with runes lore, especially when the runes themselves were renamed (Malenia and Miquella used to be owners of runes of Decay and Abudance) and current story can’t decide if demigods were fighting during the Shattering for the Great Runes or… they were born with them.

Mohg and Morgott are twin brothers, and their Great Runes are naturally similar

Well, it is never said that Rykard and Radahn are twins, but their runes are similar in shape too. But here is a little problem with Great Rune of Unborn: it is similar to Malenia’s rune. How is this possible, if M-twins were born after Radagon left Rennala? I don’t know.

Personally, I don’t like theories that it’s Miquella’s Great Rune, but I can’t deny that Liurnia is the most Miquella-influenced map after the Haligtree. Here we can meet Finger Reader, who says that we are destined to meet Miquella, Raya Lucaria is populated by crabs with ability to cast sleep (maybe it’s a byproduct of Rennala’s rich slumber), albinaurics are giving us clues about Haligtree Secret Medallion. In version 1.0 Carians Knights were gifted to Miquella by Radagon, but in patched description of Loretta’s helmet it was changed and it seems that now Carians reached Miquella by themselves:

Originally given for service as a personal guard to Carian royalty, the weapon’s blue glintstone has been replaced with unalloyed gold (Loretta’s War Sickle)

It is interesting that Miquella was so respected by people of faction that fell off hard after Rennala’s divorce; instead of freeing their Queen, Carians decided to serve a son from Radagon’s second marriage.

Aside from hard lore, I want to talk about animal symbolism in the portrayal of divorced duo - Godfrey and Rennala.

Godfrey’s signarure animal is a lion, he wears Beast Regent Serosh on his back, his title is Battlefield’s lion, in the universe of the Elden Ring lions are beasts are drawn to champions, and to lords (Beast Champion Armor). This is pretty straightforward reading.

However, when it comes to the actual animals, one of the most well-known fact about them is their habit to kick off old males from the pride and replace them with younger and more potent mates. Well, this one fits Godfrey too.

Will this little trick work with Rennala?

Rennala isn’t directly associated with any animal, but her obsession over the amber egg from her ex-husband reminds me of certain bird:

Brood-parasitic cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, abandoning parental care to their hosts.

Cuckoos also have the place in the Elden Ring story, their are symbol of Raya Lucaria soldiers.

The soldiers of Raya Lucaria were also known as the Cuckoos. They were given free rein by the academy to wage war as they pleased, and they were infamous for their rapacious ways.

Boasting high magic damage negation, this shield is used to hunt down mages. “Our enemy is none other than Caria itself.”

I don’t want to delver deeper in the complexity of political relationships between the Academy and Carian Royalty, but I shall remind that Carians and Raya Lucaria sorcerers aren’t the same faction, they descdended from the mountainthops astrologers (and maybe Nox), but for a long time were at odds with each other, and Rennala’s divorce was a mere excuse for a long-planned rebellion.

The surcoat depicts twinned cuckoos peering into a flourishing mass of glintstone. To a glintstone sorcerer, the body is a transient thing. The Cuckoo alone knows its insignificance, yet watches over it all the same.

However, Carians adapted Cuckoos method of the death avoidance, I wouldn’t be surprsied if albinaurics are simply byproducts of their attempts to create better spare bodies, but considering how imperfect they are, sorcerers decided to stack with the puppets.

Glintstone from within the sorceress Sellen’s body. Seemingly half-alive, blood vessels are visible within.

In essence, a primal glintstone is a sorcerer’s soul. If transplanted into a compatible new body, Sellen will rise again.

The old sorcerers would slice open their hearts with these blades to imbue a primal glintstone with their soul, and thus did they die.

As you can see on the picture above, sorcerer used the blue glintsone as a container for their souls, even thought the source of the glintsone and amber is the same - they are coming from the stars (in case of the Erdtree, it’s most likely grew up from the golden star, which was sent by the Greater Will).

If the stars command our fates, then amber-hued stars must command the fates of the gods (Amber Starlight)

Glintstone is the amber of the cosmos. Golden amber contains the remnants of ancient life, and houses its vitality, while glintstone contains residual life, and thus the vitality of the stars(Sellen)

I’m a bit of confused by the difference between glintstone and golden amber, while both Sellen and descripton of the Amber Starlight are suggesting that they are fundamentally the same thing, according to the Sellen, golden amber contains vilatily, while blue glintsone is capably of carrying souls. However, description of the Amber Starlight points connection between divinity and amber, leaving impression that one is accustomed to mortals and other is for gods.

Notably, Rennala’s method of rebirth carries both issues, her sweetings are frails, weak and can’t walk, they are also amnesiac:

Rebirth is as sleep to them, and with each awakening, memory fades into oblivion (Juvenile Scholar set)

I suspect that Tarnished is losing their memories too, this “feature” is what allows to “forget” attributes during respec. It is unclear why Tarnished rebirth is perfect, unlike the the rebirths of sweetings, or Boc (but in his case it might be explained by the lack of Great Rune inside the egg), but my theory is that the grace helps us.

It is also interesting that tarnished and Boc need Larval Tear made from the drop of a silver, a metal with the strong connection with spirits. But I don’t know if it is works like a substitute fetus or to preserve the spirit.

The amber egg rebirth mechanics definitely had things worth a lot of specualtions, but I want to get back to the topic of animal symbolism. What can we learn from suggestion that Rennala-amber egg-Radagon situation is a subtle nod to cuckoos birds?

Rennala’s amber egg isn’t her child, but something what belongs exclusively to Radagon.

In-game reference leads us to an unique method of escaping death used by sorcerers.

Do what do you want with it.

Rennala’s imprisonment is another mystery. Mother of two mighty demigods and Empyrean is completeley abandoned in the library for who knows how many years, perhaps, she was isolated here even before the Shattering. No one of her children tried to free her, Ranni cares about her rich slumber, but nothing more.

But let’s look at this situation from a different point of view, the Academy rebelled against royalty, attacked Caria manor, all remained Carians joined Radahn’s Redmane army or the Haligtree, but Rennala is still alive and relatively (by the Shattering not so hight standards of living) well. Maybe is held as a hostage, in the medieval times it was common practice to spare the lives of nobles and use them as pawns in future political games. Indeed, Rennala is a valuable asset… on the first sight.

We can meet Radagon’s Red Wolf in the debate hall of the Academy, but what is he doing here? Did he came to save Rennala or it’s another jailer? Radahn and Rykard were to busy losing siege of the Leyndell. There was an attempt.

This doesn’t explain why they didn’t tried to free their mother before the Shattering.

But knowing how Miyazaki likes to play with our expectations, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rennala’s imprisonment and demigods reluctance to save her has a hidden meaning. After all, there is already a case, when imprisonment wasn’t a punishment, but a part of the plan.

Zullie had a video about sweetings cut dialogues and I noticed the detail that I forgot to add - the tombstone. Honestly, I don’t know what does it mean, but the headless figure reminds me of the soulless demigods from the Walking Mausoleums, the pose is similar too.

I’m really amazed by the amount of effort developers put into this bossfight: from minor things that you usually wouldn’t notice like the eye color of sweetings and Rennala’s ring to completely hidden details like sweetings curling inside of the egg and the mysterious strands of hair. While trying to uncover the truth behind the amber egg, we are running into even greater mysteries. It’s fascinating.

[evolutionsvoid]

It is always important when out in the wilds to be wary of your surroundings. This may sound like a stupidly obvious statement, but you would be surprised at how many people have numerous blind spots whenever they trudge around outside. If you are like me and are out looking for cool creatures to see and study, keeping an open eye is crucial for spotting your target. This is combined with the fact that you should always be observant because being out here also means watching out for predators or possible threats. Certainly not every forest and field is filled with bloodthirsty beasts hungering for your flesh, but blind wandering around can stick you in bad scenarios if you are unlucky. Most creatures prefer to live their lives in peace, and would most likely just walk the other way if they spotted you. But if you so happened to ignorantly walk between them and their cubs, now we have trouble. Or if you stumble across a slumbering manticore and rudely awaken it with your presence. Not a good place to be. So be mindful of where you are walking and what is around you, and this includes looking UP! That is one of the major blind spots most people have, not bothering to look upwards as they walk. Sure, you want to keep your eyes on your roots so you don't trip, but one should give the occasional glance to the sky to make sure all is clear. We busy ourselves with the worries of coming across wolves or bears, all ground level threats, that we don't think that danger could be lurking overhead. This is one of the reasons why the species in this entry is rarely spotted, despite its large size. You tell someone that a giant black and blue haired cat is out there in the woods, and they would think it would be impossible to miss it. But folks do remain blind to it, which causes a real problem for them...

The feline I speak of is the otoroshi, a rather grotesque looking creature compared to its sleeker brethren. There is little lithe grace to be found in this species, with frog-like maws, hunched backs, bloated stomachs and a whole lot of black hair. Many would be surprised to learn that this is a cat, but folks that live around cypress swamps should not be too startled by this news. Indeed, the otoroshi is actually a close relative to the wompogo, which you should easily see from their features. Both possess this huge toothy maw and extendable stomach, signs that these felines like swallowing their prey whole. They both have large hooked claws that aid in both climbing and taking down prey. And when it comes to the hunt, these two love nothing more than hiding up in the trees and dropping down on those who wander below. The difference here is that the otoroshi does not live in cypress swamps, but in deciduous or coniferous forests. Any place that has big trees with hefty branches for them to lay on and wait for clueless prey, but honestly any high place will do. Some have been spotted on tall rocky outcroppings, while many will tell you that a roof or gate also serves the otoroshi's needs (but we will get more into that later). Like their swampy cousins, otoroshi are ambush predators, preferring to take down their prey in one fell swoop. Like I mentioned, they climb up trees and tall structures then lay in wait amongst the branches. Otoroshi have short blue fur, which you would imagine would make it hard for them to hide, but such color is easily hidden by their ridiculous ebony mane. From the tops of their heads, running down their back and all they way to their stubby tails grows a waterfall of long black hair. It starts off as a short crest when they are kittens, but then it begins to grow and never stops. In a few years, this dark mane practically shrouds their entire body, hiding their blue under fur and allowing them to blend into the shadows. Up high and nestled in branches, one would have a hard time spotting them, that is if the victim even bothers to look up. Otoroshi remain perfectly still when they hunt, using their large eyes and flared nostrils to keep track of possible prey. When food finally walks beneath them, they drop down with all their weight and claws, easily knocking prey to the ground. The attacks are quick and decisive, with the fate of the victim being decided within the first few seconds. If they were able to dodge most of the assault and remain on their feet, then they can run away with ease. Due to the shape of the bodies and the nature of their limbs, otoroshi are not designed for the chase. They are slow and sluggish, never able to run after a fleeing meal. So instead they rely on knocking victims off their feet, or flattening them beneath their large bodies. When their food is downed, they can lash out with hooked claws and grab hold. Once this happens, prey is doomed. What comes next is its huge jaws, lined with bony spikes and curved teeth. Prey is shoved into this great maw, which can unhinge to accommodate even larger meals, and then slowly swallowed into its expanding stomach. There its smothering gut and potent stomach acid will deal with the hefty morsel, who will pass from asphyxiation in this foul melting pot. When its prey is consumed, the otoroshi will sluggishly make its way to a tree and crawl back up into the branches. There it will lounge and digest, living a lazy life until its great meal is reduced to nothing and its gut rumbles with hunger once again. Though otoroshi live for those big belly-filling meals, it seems they will settle for small snacks if need be. Their diet involves large animals like deer, boar, bear and even human, but studies have found that they do eat a whole lot of birds. Not even big ones, mind you, little things like sparrows and doves. For a cat this size, it seems almost comical for them to be eating such tiny morsels! These birds are not taken down like their usual prey, instead the birds seem to land on them! While lounging or hunting, otoroshi remain a silent unmoving lump of hair. They look like a tangle of vegetation or just another shadow amongst the forest. In such a still state, birds are seen coming down to perch on them or the nearby branches, seemingly oblivious to the cat's presence. Some birds have even been seen pulling and tugging at the long dark hairs, perhaps thinking it could be good nesting material. When they land near an otoroshi, it will wait until their guard is dropped, then a clawed paw will lash out. Birds are crushed in its grip and then tossed into its maw. Why the otoroshi even bothers eating them is a question that has not been satisfactorily answered yet. Some think it is to stave off hunger while waiting for larger prey, but well-fed otoroshi have been seen picking off birds. Others think it is them trying to keep these birds from blowing the cover on their hiding spots, as a singing or foraging bird may cause possible prey to look up towards the noise. One less serious thought is that the otoroshi is a cat and what do cats do? Part of me thinks that perhaps these felines don't enjoy having their hair yanked by inquisitive sparrows, or getting a coating of droppings on their long locks.

While their mouths are filled with tiny hooked spikes, one should easily notice the pronounced canines that jut from their lips. Such large teeth would seem to be weapons against their food, a way to stab and gut victims who struggle. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that these teeth are used for hunting. Rather, it appears to be more for other otoroshi than prey. Both male and female otoroshi possess these tusks, so it isn't just the guys using them to fight over mates. Instead, it is believed that these large teeth help show age and health of each individual, allowing these cats to be able to eyeball possible competition. Prime hunting spots are fought after, but not everyone wants to deal with sharp claws and energy-wasting brawls. So we think they get around this by having tusks determine who is the victor in these squabbles, where younger cats can see an experienced veteran and know not to even bother trying to fight them for their turf. Some claim that these tusks are used to fight off predators, as it has been seen where attackers get gouged by these sharp teeth. However, close examination of these fights doesn't really show the otoroshi specifically using them to attack. Their movements and efforts do not suggest them wielding these teeth like weapons. Rather, we think these wounds are purely accidental, as the cat is really using its claws and huge maw to fight off attackers. When you are tangling with the huge jaws of an angry otoroshi, there is a high chance your struggle will cause you to stab yourself on these larger teeth.       As a big cat and an ambush predator, one could easily see them being a menace to the locals. Going about your day in the forest, when suddenly this gluttonous feline drops on your head and then swallows you whole. Not a fun time, but unfortunately one that has occurred numerous times. Otoroshi out in the wild are not too picky, any big animal will do for their belly. Humans (and even dryads) who don't pay attention to what hides above may trigger a cat to attack, and if they succeed in pinning you then you are going in the gut! So this is why it is important to watch your surroundings and be wary about going under overhanging branches or rocks. Folks around these regions have also used the mask trick to fool some otoroshi, where they think this second face means the human can see them. With such a dangerous reputation, you would think this species is reviled by all! However, it seems like they are not all despised. I brought up before that otoroshi like any high places, and that could include roofs and gates. This is because otoroshi have been acclimating themselves to the encroaching civilization and have found new places to hunt. Forest shrines have nice gates for them to perch on, and the sprawling temples roofs have plenty of room. Even if prey isn't plentiful, it proves a wonderful place to stretch out in the sun and digest. One reason it is thought that otoroshi moved into these areas is because they found humans to be the perfect deterrent. Human towns do a good job at keeping out other creatures and large predators, and they also don't climb onto their roofs all that often. So a female otoroshi may find these places great for having her kittens, as all other threats are kept at bay by the human presence. Younger cats may have taken to the gates as new places to hunt, spots that haven't been claimed by elders. At first, it sounds like these invading felines were hated and driven away, but the problem is that they kept coming back. Shooing them off or even hunting them proved difficult, as they had the high ground and also caused a whole lot of structural damage if a fight broke out. Legend says that one shrine gave up on scaring off the haunting cat and instead offered a sacrificial deer to it. They knew that these cats gorged on a single meal and then lasted on it for days, even weeks. If they could give it a fully belly, then it would have no reason to harm them until it was hungry again. This trick worked, as the otoroshi ate the bait and then climbed back onto the gate for a snooze. Days went by without incident, as the cat merely watched those who passed by with lazy amusement. When it started to look like it was hungry again, another meal was presented and accepted. After a while, the keepers of this shrine found that the otoroshi was much calmer around humans and seemed to patiently wait for its next meal. Even when they were late with feedings, it didn't attack any visitors, rather it just grumble and yowled as a signal that it wanted food. Once a meal was given, it was happy once again. As a bonus, it even ate the birds that landed on the gate, keeping it free from their droppings. This story is said to be the start of otoroshi "domestication," where several shrines and temples actually have them lounging about on their grounds. Folks of these areas see them as guardians and watchers, keeping their shrines safe from any evil spirits. Some claim that they can sniff out evil hearts or wicked intentions, and they will devour those foul souls who enter these sacred grounds. My counter to that is that vandals tend to make themselves quite loud and obvious, perhaps to the point of agitating one of these cats. Though they are accustomed to humans, that doesn't mean they won't fight back if given a reason to. These shrine otoroshi are given regular meals and offerings, which in turn keeps them peaceful and protective of their shrine. They stop associating humans as food but instead start seeing them as bringers of food. This is a neat little system that they have figured out, and I found it incredible when I visited my first shrine and saw a full grown otoroshi sprawled atop the gate. It is wonderful that they came to a peaceful coexistence, but I can't fully shake a part of me that sees trouble in it. I guess it is because some folks use the word "domestication" like these are just big house cats. I do not agree with this. An agreement has been made, that is for sure and a system has been set, but never would I say they have been domesticated. There are still parts of them that are instinctive and tied to their bestial nature, and I feel that having this romantic idea that they are adorable friendly pets can cause some problems. How many folk have tested their luck by trying to treat these creatures like house cats? When does the noise and constant presence of people start to grind their nerves? What happens if the agreement is not kept up by the humans? I personally wonder about these stories of otoroshi eating "wicked" people. Of the tales of a great cat dropping onto a nameless visitor and gobbling them, protecting their shrine from an "evil heart." Do these "guardians" actually pick out the bad souls or do the keepers of these shrines just claim them to be, so that the people cheer on what was actually a horrible accident? It isn't my place to say, but I will continue to wonder...       Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian -------------------------------------------------------

“Otoroshi”

Now lets follow up the last one with a Japanese Fearsome Critter! Gosh, they have some many of them they should really make a name for them!

[smallerplaces]

Creata "Hilary" joins the fam

Here she is, after three boil washes with conditioner but before the next two boil washes with fabric softener. She has borrowed someone's dress.

A "can someone ID this doll" post on r/dolls got my attention when someone (not me) pointed out the existence of the 1980s clone brand Creata. Crystalline Toybox's guide to Creata dolls is extensive and fascinating. The appeal of the rocker line, we can all figure out, but why were flower princesses (with princes!) hot in the 1980s?

After wallowing in this for a bit, I went browsing eBay, just to see, and discovered that as well as the adult dolls, there were little girls, sort of Stacie-ish in size and function. BananaMom's haul video from 2019 confirms that there were a lot of these gals between 1987 and 1989, marketed as Today's Girls (with an S, because we're back before everything had to end in Z). There were Pony Gals, some sort of slumber party, and, according to the back of a box I found in an eBay listing, mini-flower princesses.

So I bookmarked a Today's Girl whose face I particularly liked, the seller made me an offer I couldn't refuse, and she arrived from Florida about a week later. Based on her shirt, it's plausible that she's Pony Gals "Hilary" (who came in multiple hair colors).

She arrived looking just as described. The seller's "just needs her hair combed" was technically true!

Her hair was a ratted mess. I pulled out a real comb from the dollar store, put on some YT videos, and started combing out small sections.

Over the course of 45 minutes, I learned about common mid-century housing types in LA, how to make donuts, how Chef Frank makes the perfect French toast, and that Epicurious' food experts tasting jarred tomato sauce are unaware of necessities of mass production such as machine-harvesting rather than strolling gently through the field, plucking each tomato at its individual peak of ripeness.

Here she is before her first of three boil washes that got her to the point seen in the first pic. I also trimmed her hair because the furthest ends were so damaged that all they did was catch on one another like Velcro.

Today I went to a different dollar store, got a small size of fabric softener, and gave her another two washes. I think the fabric softener helped, but her bangs still aren't quite-quite.

Hilary is about 6-1/4 inches tall, making her smaller than Whitney (who's from the early 1990s articulated Stacie line, thus 7.5") but much taller than Brooklyn, a 4" Sparkle Girlz Mini from the early 2010s.

Comparison of body types is after the cut.

Whitney obviously has a much more posable body.

Hilary can raise her arms to touch her face and can do front-to-back split, but that's about it.

She cannot sit in any position other than legs splayed.

When I went to try Whitney's dress on her, I discovered that her hands are too big to fit through the sleeves. They are slightly larger than Whitney's, and her feet are almost as big!

This somehow didn't add up to my having any shoes that fit her. I'd be regretting donating my mother's huge collection of shoes except that I know she didn't have any dolls this size, so probably nothing would have fit.

While we're naked, here are Hilary's marks.

Hilary's head was copyright in 1983 and her body in 1985. Confusingly, the USPTO database shows Creata registering "Today's Girls" in 1991, even though BananasMom clearly shows boxes with late 1980s dates.

I found another outfit for Hilary, most likely Kelly clothes.

If you're wondering, why is a small child wearing bright lime eye shadow... just chalk it up to 1980s weirdness. More important is that her eyebrows have gone gray!

I may fix that with an eyebrow pencil eventually, but not until I'm sure I'm done trying to smooth her hair.

Meanwhile, Stacie, Whitney, Brooklyn, and Zuri are eager to get to know their new friend!

[toonjazzy]

Emociones son Difíciles

Random Devon Writing in its Point of view again

I stare up at my ceiling disco ball with all the lights off, I’m laying on the side of my room painted like night time. My room is split into two sides, kind of like my hair being two colors. Depending on how I feel, I pick one side of the room to sleep in. And yes, I have two beds. I notice the sun unfortunately waking up from its slumber. I don’t even now how long I was staring at my disco ball for, but this was usually the time where I felt safe because it was so quiet. There was nothing but the music in my head. That soon ended, everyone was waking up. The music was once again interrupted, the entire Legion was awake by now. The burst of emotions hit me all at once before slowly fading away. I hated how loud they were in the mornings, it always made my heart beat faster and my breathing become harder and made me tremble as if I was having a Panic Attack again. I knew Lia was about to make a start on breakfast, at this point she owns the kitchen. I grabbed my shades off my nightstand, I stopped trembling and I no longer felt Anxious. I went to the dining area of the castle, to my despair everyone was there at the table when I arrived. I felt that small nervous feeling again as I took my seat across from Reese. “Good Morning, Mariposita! Did you have a good sleep? No nightmare? I was worried all night that you would start screaming again…” She said. She cares so much about everyone, it’s sweet really. It always gives me a warm feeling, as well as an almost sad feeling too for some reason. “I knew you were worried…That’s why I had a hard time going to sleep this time. I was worried about scaring you, and I didn’t want any nightmares either…” I muttered not looking at anyone. Tyler spoke up next, “What did you dream of this time? I know you said you always remember them.” He asked. I know my best friend was just trying to help and I know that he also worries about me a lot which makes me feel guilty for causing him this stress. “Nothing pleasant, but nothing too scary either. Just me floating through an endless ocean with the sun shining bright on me, the shades going into the ocean lost forever, and this huge burst of different emotions crashing on me and many voices that weren’t even mine…” I muttered quite annoyed. Tyler felt a little bad, and this made me feel like a horrible friend. “I’m sorry, parce. I just…I really don’t feel like talking about mis sueños.” I said looking down. Luckily Lia was done making breakfast and she was very happy this morning. Seeing her smile and giggling made me happy as well, I knew why she was happy, she was going to see Ivy after Breakfast. I can’t explain it, but seeing her so in love with Ivy and not afraid to express her feelings anymore made me happier, like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I no longer had to worry about her always feeling mad all the time.

After breakfast I ran straight to my room. This morning took a lot more out of me than usual, it was much louder and way more emotional. There were so many voices at once it was overwhelming. But I didn’t want to be overwhelmed, I didn’t want to feel so much. I put on my headphones, turned on some music, and just laid down on my bed again with my eyes closed. Pretending I was going to sleep so nobody would bother me, letting my imagination run wild, getting inspiration for new music I was working on. The overwhelming emotions faded, I focused on just my thoughts and about how I was feeling. It’s hard to express my own emotions, I myself have no idea what I’m feeling or why I feel the way I do, or why my feelings change so fast. I opened my eyes, there was a new feeling now. I now felt completely mad just for no reason, I turned off my music and tried to figure it out. Why was I so mad? Before I could even question it, it faded. Now I was back to being happy about music, I waited a few minutes before pressing play on my music again. After about two songs, I felt sad. I don’t know why I did since I was listening to a happy song. I turned off the music again. The sad feeling was still there, I felt like crying so bad. I actually did start to cry because I was so frustrated, I wanted to feel happy, not all these other things. It faded again, I got so annoyed I left my room and went to go pace around the castle again. I paced around for a good thirty minutes, time really flies by quickly. It got a bit loud sometimes since the Legion is so chaotic and emotional, we fight with each other sometimes but it’s all in good fun. I didn’t worry about it much, it luckily faded before it made me feel overwhelmed again.

It was like this for the rest of the day, on and off I’d feel these emotions and had no idea why I was feeling that way. It happens maybe twice a week but never this much where I legit cannot understand why I’m this way and it actually affected my life today. It was probably just a bad day, but I still worry about it happening again…

[pansear-doodles]

Dream

I fought slumber with the amount of bitterness engulfed from my late night coffee- the warmth and buzz of caffeine- yet fatigue was stronger than that. Swiveled into weariness, I shut my eyes after staring at the ceiling, confining to my thoughts and hearing faint tree ambience outside the glass window- whose reflected moonlight shone over my torso.

Then, my dream began, vividly as always. Soft colors surround me and the plains I found myself in, as the gentle wind brushes my fur. The sky was blank as flocks of birds who blanket the streams of clouds flew to the south. I see myself wearing the same clothes I wore before dreaming- how I wouldn't imagine if I was wearing something less... remarkable.

I brushed off this connection to reality and began to accept my dream, walking with every footstep sounding like a puddle but remaining dry when I look down. The world is starting to look small as I'm starting to see the end of my own tail. Fearing the worst, I started to turn back but then something else bothered me.

Before I knew it- a figure with long wavy locks of colorful hair met my gaze. The birds flew out of them and her dress blew to the opposite direction. She soon noticed me- or at least that's what I believed when her head turned to where I stood. Her eyes are clouded and do not meet mine, but she walked towards me.

From here, her age appears juvenile and her body appears more clearly lanky. We do not question each others' existence nor purpose in this dream and simply greeted as if we were long time friends. I do not know who this little girl is, but this impression of familiarity is the reason why it bugged me.

As she allowed more birds to fly out of her locks, she begins to speak. But these words do not echo directly from her- rather throughout this world.

"Roguefort. I need to tell you something. Please listen to me."

"What is it Pianya?" I responded, without hesitating to word her name that I suddenly knew of. I was a bit shocked, but I know not to ruin my composure.

"The Aerth will end in three years."

This is an absurd revelation? And we only spoke to each other for the first time. At least, that's what I think for now. I only gasped in disbelief- the world ending? Only despairing blokes on the streets with utter a phrase.

All I can ask right now is: "Why?"

"I don't know exactly why, but I know it will happen."

I wanted answers. "How can I believe all of this?"

She splayed her palm in front of me as a rift between us open up, revealing a haunting sequence of the Aerth colliding with a large satellite. This very satellite is the planet Mirage, which was reportedly becoming larger in the sky due to it completing its cycle but was not in our line of orbit... until now. I felt chills running down my back as I witness my planet's destruction.

"How did you know this?"

"Something moved Planet Mirage and I don't know what caused it. Many of the scientists are also in disbelief but are keeping quiet to prevent a mass panic. I just so happen to grab this information from them and finding out that they have no answers for it."

I felt shaken and was ready to believe her words, but one thing's still uncertain. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"You don't remember?"

Remember? I remember nothing other than small things like her name and the fact that I faintly know her. I shook as she conveyed a slight frown in response.

"Ah yes. Of course you don't. None of them do."

"I'm sorry. I just don't feel worthy of saving the world. I'm just a... normal citizen-"

"Who has vampire powers!"

H-how does she know this? I've been keeping tabs on that a lot.

"I know you feel doubtful about yourself, but I never forgot from many dreams ago of what you told me."

"And I don't remember that."

"Destiny... Visions... But if I imply that right now, you will only receive more doubts."

"And so the answer is to just... Believe whatever you say?"

"Hahaha! Maybe that's the way. But I know I believe in you. You'll figure it out and I think you'll be the first."

These more casual conversations make me feel more at ease. I had many conflicting feelings throughout this meeting with her, but whatever she said about our so-called previous ones, I'm sure this was just another ordinary day for her.

Pianya turns her head towards the large white sun and starts feeling its warmth- opening her arms as if to give it a big hug. "I love Aerth. I wish I can touch it again."

Then she turned to look at my direction, once again, never meeting my eyes, and clutching her arms tightly. "Please promise me again to protect it for me."

"I promise. I'll make sure you can see the flowers again."

Whatever those estranged words came from, it felt it was from something close to me. She smiles, opening her arms once more but towards me instead.

"Thank you."

As the sun's white light brightens to swallow my vision, I wake up from the dream.

Then I... Well I don't remember what had just happened. I did a big stretch before putting my feet down from the bed, but then I felt something crumple beneath me. I was about to dismiss it as a piece of trash but then I notice the writing.

"Don't Forget. The World Ends in 3 Years."

In my subconscious handwriting, I suddenly remember those ominous words. But what else? Aside from the cause, I don't remember. But I can strongly feel in my guts that I have to do something to stop it, and I think the first course of action is to find out why I'll play an important role. I shudder at the thought that the responsibility rests on me, but if its to stop a mass destruction, I'll do whatever it takes.

[maestro-of-clockwork]

MEET THE MUSE 

[[ stole this cuz i'm bored lol. this is long so i'll keep it under a "read more" ]]

► Name ➔  I am Time, but you may call me Antonio.  ► Are you single ➔  Yes, but I don’t desire a partner.  ► Are you happy ➔  Generally, yes! I prefer to keep it that way.  ► Are you angry? ➔  Seldom am I truly angry. I try to keep a calm disposition about me.  ► Are your parents still married ➔ I've never had parents, so I imagine not. 

NINE FACTS 

► Birth Place ➔ I'd say that my birthplace was the utter nothingness before the cosmos populated it.  ► Hair Color ➔  My gorgeous hair is a deep navy blue with butterscotch yellow accents.  ► Eye Color ➔  My eyes? They are the colour of charcoal, of blackened ash…dark as night and just as unyielding.  ► Birthday ➔  I gained sentience before the modern concept of dates, immeasurable timespans ago…I would not be able to tell you in a feasible way.  ► Mood ➔  I’m feeling a sense of tranquillity…everything is in its place and there is not a care in the world to weigh me down.  ► Gender ➔  By default, I am without a gender, but I greatly prefer to portray myself as a man.  ► Summer or winter ➔  Winter, when the land is blanketed by snow, deciduous trees lay barren and the fauna retreat into a peaceful slumber, where they are then kissed goodnight by the bitter cold.  ► Morning or afternoon ➔ Mornings are ideal. You get to feel the gentle beam of the sun, hear the birds singing away, among other beautiful experiences...there is no better place to start a day than at the beginning of it, wouldn’t you agree? 

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE  

► Are you in love ➔  With anyone? No. With my career, however…  ► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔  The idea is almost dream-like, a classic trope in romance novels. You may think it only a fantasy, but I believe it can happen – not for me, certainly, but to anyone who desires it.  ► Who ended your last relationship ➔  I, personally, have never been in a relationship. My characters, however, are a different story. Through my characters, it was usually I who "ended them" when I revealed my true self to them.  ► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ With my characters, I have broken countless of hearts and souls...and enjoyed every second.  ► Are you afraid of commitments ➔  If I were, I would certainly not commit to long-term facades as much as I do. If I were to desire a relationship, I wouldn’t have any trouble committing to one.  ► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔  Yes, but not romantically.  ► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ Oh, yes - especially during the height of my popularity. I don’t doubt that I have a few, even now.  ► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ No, and I never will. I am my closest confidante. 

SIX CHOICES 

► Love or lust ➔ I find that love, in all of its forms, is a more picturesque concept.  ► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ Iced tea.  ► Cats or Dogs ➔  I like them both, but I am more partial to cats.    ► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔  Why choose when you can have both?  ► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔  It depends upon what you mean by a "wild night", but I like both ideas.  ► Day or night ➔ Both are equally alluring and unique, but I find that the night arrests my attention a little more than the other. After all, you don’t often see the stars during daylight. 

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS 

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ Perhaps a handful of times. I don’t usually need to sneak, though.  ► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔  Yes. There have been a few occasions where I've misjudged my steps... ► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ Trust me, once I want something, I never let it get to the point where it would become painful. I take all the avenues that I can to seize it.  ► Wanted to disappear ➔ Not once in my entire existence. 

FIVE PREFERENCES 

► Smile or eyes ➔  Smiles are expressive, but in my opinion, the eyes can tell a lot more stories...  ► Fat or skinny ➔ It does not matter.  ► Shorter or Taller ➔  It also does not matter.  ► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ I prefer intelligence in a person, being that I do not feel that sort of attraction.  ► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ Relationships intrigue me a lot more than something as short as a casual fling.

FAMILY 

► Do you and your family get along  ➔  I do not have any.  ► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔  Not at all.  ► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ No.  ► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔  When playing characters, yes, but they were never rid of me for long.  

FRIENDS 

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ Of course not. If I hated someone, they would obviously not be my friend.  ► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔  Usually, what I call “friends” are mere toys for me to play with. I do have genuine acquaintances and friends, though…  ► Who is your best friend ➔  If you’d like me to answer sincerely, I would say that a certain jester is on their way to becoming one.    ► Who knows everything about you ➔ No one. 

[lec743]

The Ocean’s Kindness (FNAF Fanfic)

Beginning + Ch. 7 + you are here + Ch. 9

Summary:  The crew is tired and Sun and Moon can’t figure out the best way to make them feel better.  

Note: This may be my last chapter to this story for a while. Maybe I’ll have a new one up in four months or maybe I won’t have anything up until 2025... I hope it doesn’t take me that long, but it depends on my Internet connection.

Word Count: 4487 words

I’m inspired to write this story by @bamsara , @paper-lilypie, and Chex_Nyx on AO3.  

Don’t like reading on Tumblr, neither do others. Here!

AO3

Fanfiction

*******************************************************************************************

CHAPTER 8: SLUMBER PARTY

          Another storm did hit the Crusty Waters on its way to East Shallow’s Isle. It was a windstorm and unfortunately, it was blowing winds in every direction but East Shallow’s Isle. Causing the crew of the Crusty Waters to deal with having to refix their broken sails for a month.

          It was annoying sure, but with the abundance of fish and other goods that your siren, DJ, gifted… well… to you more than to the entire ship, Crusty Waters could weather the ocean for another month if it needed to.

         Good thing you didn't need to.

         Sun was helping Bonnie talk with the repairman as they discussed price and favors. They had fish to trade but with the main population of East Isle being comprised of bunnies, it'd be only sellable to a select few.

         “We need more sea glass harvested,” the blue bunny stated, “If you can get us a few boulders worth. That’ll cover your repairs and supplies.”

         Sun thought that was a fair enough trade. He knew a good place to mine for sea glass.

         “Put in an extra pair of sails and we’ll do it,” Bonnie stated.

         The blue bunny made a look like she didn’t want to commit to that, but Sun made a practiced menacing look and the blue bunny immediately agreed.

         Bound by their words, the three of them parted ways.

         As they were making it to their ship, Sun asked, “What happened to our back up sails, again?”

         “Sea Rats, Sir. That’s why we’ve had to keep resewing the sails we’ve been using.”

         “Why didn’t we get them while at North Isle?”

         “I forgot.”

         “Happens to the best of us.”

         Sun looked over the sea of multi-colored bunnies as they laid out dried rainbow kelp, sea grass, and coral cobs.

         “Is East Shallow’s Isle anything like your island you grew up on?”

         “No,” Bonnie stated, “There’s too many bunnies here. My island had a lot of stragglers on it that decided to stay.”

         Sun sighed.

         The two of them stopped walking on the dock and were standing in a space between two barrels of dye.

         “Something wrong, Sir?”

         Sun sighs again, then said, “When I woke up this morning, I was hoping to have a fun outing with Starlight. It’s so colorful and shiny here, they would love to look around.”

         Bonnie sighed, exasperated.

         “I know! I know! I forgot they can’t leave the ship.” Sun’s petals around his head shivered then pressed against his head and neck.

         “It happens to the best of us.”

         Sun saw a seller walking down the dock waving around sandstone carvings. Two carvings caught his eye. One was a small smooth carving of the Tree Witch’s symbol of two trees intertwined. The other was a palm sized, round, flat tablet that had a carving of Zulon’s Heart on it. Moon and Starlight would love those.

         Sun caught the vendors attention and bought the two items.

         “Come on. Let’s go tell the crew about the new job we have for the repairs and supplies,” Sun said as he pocketed his wares.

         With a curt nod, Bonnie continued to follow his captain.

         Once Sun and Bonnie told the crew that as soon as the ship was fixed, which should only take about three days, that they’ll be heading back out to sea to go sea glass mining to pay for the repairs. A little over half of the crew groaned. Sun knew that they all wanted more time away from their own boat and to be able to explore the other boats the East Isle is comprised of, but they’re all actively hiding an otherworldly creature from a cult. This is just the price for that commitment.

         At the very least they could still leave the boat and not make a scene by their mere presence.

         That was the lingering thought in Sun’s head as he handed Moon his gift.

         “Oh, thank you Sun,” Moon said as he gently rube his fingers over the carving, “This looks amazing.”

         Sun smiled at the paise as the two of them stood in their cabin.

         “What are you going to do today,” Moon asked as he pocketed the carving.

         “I plan on playing dice with Pigpatch, Happy, and Chip today. What about you?”

         “Roxy, Bonnie, and I plan on walking around and buying our favorite dye colors.”

         “That sounds nice. I hope the three of you have fun… by the way, have you seen Starlight anywhere,” Sun asked.

         “I haven’t seen them, but I did hear Chika talking about them, I think they’re still in the crew’s quarters.”

         “Thank you, Love.”

         Sun rushed out of their cabin with a cheerful wave at his partner as the present for you burned in his pocket.

         The crew’s quarters is the messiest place to be. Clothes were strewn about. Some beds were overturned and wet as a sign of the crew pranking each other on slow mornings. There was a thick layer of feathers, furs, and a few scales littering the floor.

          Sun and Moon prefer all aspects of the ship being shipshape, but it’s been an especially hard month for everyone, so the two captains didn’t say anything about the way the crew’s quarters has deteriorated a bit over the weeks. Letting the crew have a space to just be messy. That’ll change tomorrow, but for now, it’s fine despite it making Sun cringe at the sight of it all.

          Sun looked at all the beds. They were all empty. As the captain of the ship stood in the middle of the messy room, scratching his head at where you might be, he heard a sneeze coming from under Chika’s bed.

          Sun chuckled, “No way,” then he said, “Starlight? Is that you?”

          Sun squatted as he heard shuffling under Chika’s bed, and you popped your head out from under the bed frame. You were dusty and hairy, but you were mostly protected by your cloak.

          “Something the matter, Captain?” You sneezed again.

          Sun tsked, “Will you get out of there. You’re filthy.”

          “Why? Do you have a job for me?”

          “No, but—”           “Then I will not. I’m going to hide here until we’re out at sea again.”

          “You don’t need to do that.”

          “What if the repair person sees me. I refuse to make the same mistake twice,” you state stubbornly. Emphasizing your point by hiding yourself back under the bed until only your eyes were seeable.

          Sun tsked again but it’s not like he wasn’t worried about it either. He just hated seeing you close in on yourself like this at the isles. It made him lonely just looking at you like this.

          Sun took the carving out of his pocket and presented it to you.

          “Here.”

          You scooted back out from under the bed, allowing the stickman to see your face fully. You gave him a curious look as you looked at the carving, but you made no attempt to take it.

          “It looks lovely.”

          “It’s yours,” Sun says as he took your hand and placed it there.

          You tried pushing it back into his palm, “Oh! No, it’s not. I’ve never seen it in my life.”

          By the ocean’s vengeance. Is gift giving not a thing in your world?

          “No. I’m saying I’m giving this to you. It’s a present.”

          “Oh… Wait. Why? Is it a holiday!?”

          “No, Starlight,” Sun said as he rubbed his eyes with one hand. This wasn’t going as well as he had hoped. He just wanted to make you smile, “I just saw it and thought of you.”

          You were silent for a bit and Sun stopped rubbing his eyes to look down at you. Your eyes sparkled as you examined your sandstone carving. You were lightly tracing the bumps and divots of the carving with four of your fingers. It fit perfectly in the palm of your hand.

          “Oh…” you breathed.

          When Sun got you the carving, he kind of pictured that you would jump for joy and hug him. Somehow, your quiet reaction and how you are mesmerized by the carving was even better than he imagined.

          You sneezed again and you looked up at him, smiling a mischievous smile.

          “Is this even legal?”

          “Sandstone?”

          “No. You giving me presents. With you being my Captain and all that.”

          “No? Why would it be illegal?”

          “Power imbalance and using presents as a way to get me to feel like I’m obligated to do favors for you, like having sex.”

          Sun grimaced, “Absolutely not. Think of it more as a gift for our blooming friendship… besides, Stickmen don’t have sex.”

          “Oh, yah?”

          “Yah. We can reproduce asexually.”

          “Wow, really? How does that happen?”

          “Eh, we have to die first and sink to the bottom of the ocean, but that’s a whole explanation I don’t want to get in to. Can I please convince you to come out from under there?”

          You sigh, “Not unless you have a better hiding spot.”

          “I do actually.”

          “Where?”

          “If you’re so determined to hide under a bed, you can hide under our bed,” Sun offered.

          “In the Captain’s Cabin?” You squeak.

          Sun chuckled at your squeak. You are too cute sometimes, despite being a terrifying otherworldly being.

          “Yes,” Sun said as he leaned his face against his right hand’s knuckles.

          You looked in the middle distance, and your face was scrunched up as you really thought about it.

          You sighed, which made you sneeze again.

          “Alright. At least I can return Captain Moon’s coat.”

          Sun stands up and backs away as you shimmied your way out from under the bed. Sun watched you walk over to your bed on the floor and watches you lift your mattress up off the floor as you pull out a blanket. Then you unfold that blanket to reveal Moon’s jacket. It was the cleanest thing in the room. It was folded neatly and looked like you had washed and ironed it.

          It warmed Sun’s soul to see you taking such good care of his partner’s things.

          “Alright. Let’s go. I’ve got to get back to hiding.”

          “Of course. Of course.”

          As the two of you walk across the deck, Sun tries his best to hide you behind his thin stature, but the cloak you wear does most of the work.

          You don’t pull your hood back until Sun closes the cabin’s door behind him.

          Moon turns to the two of you from the table where he was examining the map.

          “Why are you filthy?”

          Sun cracks a smile at how you ignore his question and instead offer Moon back his jacket.

          “Sorry it took so long. I wanted to make it nice. Those storms did a number on it.”

          Moon took his jacket back with both hands, a soft sigh escaped him as he looked at his jacket. Then to you. Then to Sun.

          Sun gave Moon a thumbs up and gave him a smile that basically said, they like you.

          Both stickmen looked back down to you, but you were making your way to their bed, and you were on your hands and knees on the floor when Moon shouted.

          “What are you doing?”

          You jump at being yelled at, but you keep making your way under their bed.

          “Captain Sun gave me permission to hide under here for a while. Just pretend I’m not here.”

          Moon whipped his gaze to Sun. The solar being shrugged with a sheepish smile. Then he mouthed, it was the only way to get them to come out from under the dirty bed.

          Moon snapped back to you, “Hold it right there. I didn’t give any such permission.”

          You were ridged, then you were on your feet and standing at attention towards Moon.

          Sun stayed back and watched the scene. He wondered what his partner was up too… Maybe he had gone too far with their shared permission this time.

          Moon walked over to you and stuck out his hand.

          You gave him a confused look.

          “Give me your cloak.”

          You hesitate for a second, but then you take it off and hand it to him. Confusion still on your face.

          He flipped the soiled garment inside out, then he grabbed your face gently by the chin and made a motion like he was going to clean the dust off your face. You immediately throw your hands up and knock back Moon’s hands. You trip a bit as your calves hit the bed, but you don’t fall.

          “What are you doing?”

          “You’re filthy,” Moon deadpanned.

          “Okay. Well. I can clean myself up,” you state.

          “Well, the water closet is right there,” Moon said as he pointed past Sun.

          “Yah, yah!” you say as you walk away. Waving your arms up at him like an angry squid.

          Once you were in the water closet, Moon threw the cloak at Sun.

          “They don’t look good,” Moon said in a low voice.

          “What do you mean?” Sun asked matching his volume as he folded the soiled garment.

          “They’re definitely not getting the sleep they need.”

          “How can you tell?”

          “I see them at night more often than I think I should.”

          “Moon. That means you’re not getting the sleep you need either,” Sun said concerned. Curse his ability to sleep like a log.

          “I come right back. I just need to see the night sky for a bit,” he stated, then he said, “But when I see them, it’s rare for them to be the first to head back to bed, so that’s why I’m worried.”

          “Mmm.”

          You came out of the water closet, shaking your hands of water and wiping your face with your shirt.

          “I doubt the underside—Hey!”

          Moon threw his jacket over your face before you could finish your sentence.

          Sun giggled and the solar being saw his counterpart’s lips twitch as he kept the neutral frown on his face.

          When you pulled the jacket off your head, your fur—hair stood up, static-y.

          “Will you stop that!”

          “I’m not going to give you permission to crawl under our bed. You can just get into it,” Moon stated. Ignoring your commit.

          “Uhhhhhh, what?”

          Sun raised a brow ridge at Moon.

          “You can hide in our bed, not under it,” Moon repeated.

          “Uhhhhh, I don’t know how I feel about that.”

          “Listen. Sun and I will be gone for the day. You’ll have the cabin to yourself,” Moon offered.

          You looked like you were thinking about it, but you were still hesitant.

          “The bed’s nice and soft,” Sun decided to input.

          Moon goes over to their shared bed and sits down. Then he pats the area beside him at you.

          You go over as your lips thin with concentration. You hop up and stand on the bed while at the same time throwing Moon’s jacket back to him and over his head.

          You were testing the bounce of the soft bed as Moon pulled the jacket off himself. He looked a bit huffy about it.

          Sun giggled at both your antics.

          “You guys have a lot of pillows, and the blankets look thick. I guess I could hide on the actual bed,” you said, then turning to Sun you asked, “Can I have my cloak back?”

          “Nope,” Sun said.

          You were going to complain, but as Moon stood up, he threw the jacket back over your head, “You can keep that for now to hide in.”

          “Damn it, Sir! This is the fifth time I’ve tried to return this to you. Do you really not want this,” you said, not even attempting to pull the jacket off yourself as you stand on their bed.

          “Just call me Moon, or Captain. And you can keep it,” Moon said.

          “Uugh! Finnnaaaaa!” You bemoaned as you pulled the star-spangled jacket off and stated putting it on, “It’s such a nice jacket, though. Why would you give it away?”

          “It looks nicer on you.”

          Sun turned to Moon in surprise at his words. Sun was beaming at Moon and Moon looked like he was pointedly avoiding looking at anyone.

          “It looks nicer on you too. It’s a nice jacket,” you state, unflinching of any embarrassment and secondhand embarrassment the two stickmen were emitting, “It doesn’t exactly answer my question.”

          Moon raised his hands up in defeat as he turned his back to you, “Just keep the jacket.”

          “Fine…” the two of them were making their way out of the cabin when you said, “Also thank you. It’s lovely.”

          Moon tipped his hat to you before slipping out and Sun said, “I’ll throw this into the dirty laundry room for you. Have fun.”

          Once they were outside the cabin, Sun turned to Moon and said, “So… It looks nicer on them, huh?”

          Moon started speed walking away. Not even giving him a backwards glance.

          Sun’s laughter followed Moon as the solar being watched him go.

# # #

          Moon looked out at his crew. They looked haggard and unhappy. They’ve been looking like that for a while and not even a three-day break at East Isle was enough. That had to change.

         Moon went out to find his co-Captain, finding him out on the docks, not too far from the ship. He was happily talking to the locals. Probably asking for stories or wisdom or whatever he fancies to ask of strangers.

         “Sunny. I need to speak with you,” Moon stated.

         Sun held his finger up to him then he wrapped up his conversation with the yellow bunny.

         Once the yellow bunny was gone, Sun turned to his co-Captain and asked, “What is it, Moonsugar?”

         “We’re having a serious morale issue. The crew isn’t at their usual luster. I’m thinking we probably need one of your parties,” Moon stated.

         Sun rubbed the back of his neck, “I don’t know… I feel like they need more sleep than one of my parties. Maybe we can do something a bit different.”

         “A party but something easy to sleep too?” Moon asked.

         “I don’t know any parties that are sleep-able though…”

         The two captains mirrored each other’s thinking poses as they hummed thoughtfully to themselves.

         “Let’s at least ask Bonnie what we can fund for our hypothetical party,” Moon said, motioning for Sun to follow him.

         Sun nodded in agreement as he followed.

         The captains found Bonnie in the dining room.

         “There’s not much we can buy, Captains. At most we can buy a few barrels of cheap beer before we set sail, but not much else.”

         “Well, we’re not planning on doing anything big. So a few barrels of beer won’t be bad,” Sun stated.

         “What is the plan, Captains?” Bonnie asked.

         “We’re still working on that. We should have a plan before we leave tomorrow morning,” Moon informed the purple bunny.

         “I’ll grab those barrels then,” Bonnie said as he started walking out of the dining area, “Eh, Monty! Freddy! Help a bunny out!”

         Moon and Sun were walking to their cabin as they discussed the party they wanted. Moon’s ideas were too focused on the low energy of getting ready for bed, and Sun was too focused on the high energy of a party. Neither could come up with a proper solution to the other’s idea.

         Closing the door behind them, Sun went over to their shared bed and fell into it as Moon paced.

         “What tha,” Sun yelped.

         Moon turned to his partner, “What?”

         Instead of answering the lunar man, Sun sat up and pulled back the pillows and thick blankets at the head of their bed and uncovered you sleeping peacefully. You were personally wrapped up in Moon’s old starry jacket, and it made you look extra cute.

         “I thought they were in the crow’s nest,” Sun admitted.

         Moon looked over at your peaceful form. He chuckled to himself at how deep into the pillows and bedding you were but wanted to leave you alone.

         “Wait. Hey! Why don’t we ask them if they have any ideas,” Sun suggested, holding a pillow to his chest.

         “No, let them sleep,” Moon shot down.

         Sun insisted and Moon kept giving his partner reasons why they should leave you alone. The two of them bickered for so long that you woke up on your own, regardless.

         “Pardon me, Captains,” you said as you threw aside the pillows and comforter you were under as you scooted out of their bed.

         Blurry-eyed, you proceeded to remake the bed the way it looked while you were under it. Once you were done, you loosely saluted to the captains and was making your leave.

         “Uh!” Moon started.

         You paused and turned around. Rubbing the sleep from your eyes.

         “…Uh, we didn’t wake you, did we?” Moon asked.

         “No,” you say simply, and you turn to walk out the cabin again.

         Moon saw the exasperated look Sun gave him, then the solar being piped up.

         “Could you help us, actually?”

         You turn back towards them, straightening as you faced them with another, stiffer salute, “What can I do for you Captain Sun and Moon.”

         Moon couldn’t help the lopsided smile that was spreading over his face. Trying his best to hid it behind his hand as he tried to match your tired, but serious tone.

         “We’re having a bit of a problem. A clashing of ideas sort of situation,” Moon stated.

         “Okay…”

         “We want to throw a party for the crew,” Sun said.

         Your eyes looked more awake at that, you looked to the solar themed stickman with interest.

         “But the crew is also tired, and we want them to have a relaxing time too,” Moon added.

         You nodded seriously at him.

         “So we were wondering if in your world, you had something that…” Moon trailed off, extending his hand out in the air and rotating it, like he was trying to wave the missing words into his head and out of his mouth.

         “…could help us,” Sun decided to finish the sentence.

         It wasn’t what Moon was going for, but it’ll have to do.

         “I don’t know, are you guys wanting a slumber party or something,” you ask.

         “What’s a slumber party,” Moon asked.

         You begin explaining what a slumber party is and what it entails. The longer you spoke about it, the more Moon and Sun felt like it was the perfect description for what they needed.

         “That sounds amazing, honestly,” Moon said.

         You scrunched your face up at them, “Do you guys not have a special situation for slumber parties or of the like?”

         “Well, based on your explanation, we’re always having a slumber party,” Sun mussed, “So having a “special” one wouldn’t really occur to us.”

         “Yah, that’s a good point,” you said, “So. What else do you guys want to know?”

         The three of you worked together on creating a place for where the party will take place and how to “decorate” it and what games there are for it and so on and so forth. Moon had a lot of fun planning this with you and Sun. It was a nice distraction to have, and he knows that the crew will appreciate the mix-up.

         Moon stood in the kitchen entrance in the dining room. The tables and chairs were pushed to the side of the room to give the beds room in the center of the dining room. Pillows and blankets were pilled all over the place. The crew was already lounging about, playing dice games, and talking and snoozing on each other.

         “Excuse me,” you said as you bumped a tray against Moon’s back, “Got snacks to pass around.”

         Moon scrutinized the food you made. You said you attempted to make potato chips, which is a crunchy, salty, deep-fried food from your world. These potato chips were made from sea apples that you dried up and salted. Moon took a chip and ate it.

         “Hey!” You complained.

         Moon smiled mischievously at you as he chewed.

         Then his smile disappeared as the flavor of the chip hit him. Somehow you managed to make the usually bitter fruit taste sweet and salty at the same time.

         “Oh, no. Do they taste bad? I could have sworn that they tasted fine this time,” you said, reading the change on his face wrong.

         Moon, now armed with the knowledge of salty/sweet foods, grabbed a whole handful of the chips, and ran off as he stuffed his face.

         He heard your indignant gasp at his actions, and he was close to choking from how that made him laugh.

         “Captain!” you yell at him.

         Moon looks over his shoulder at you and he sees you running full sprint at him. The crew is cheering you on as the two of you run around the dining hall. Despite having the long leg advantage, you were gaining quickly on Moon.

         Moon could have kept his lead for a bit longer, but then he saw Sun. He couldn’t help himself because the thought was too funny. Moon stopped running in front of Sun, grabbed his hand, then gave his co-Captain a soft kiss on the back of his hand.

         Sun’s petals around his head fluttered from the attention as he smiled wide, but Moon didn’t get to appreciate it long as you tackled him to the ground. Making Sun and the crew laugh.

         “Whoa! Easy now. Don’t hurt yourself,” Moon said as you crawled up his mid-section and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

         “Those were for everyone, Moon!”

         The lunar themed stick-man smiled that you’ve actually used his name and he shrugged, “But they were so good. Besides this was funny.”

         You pout your lips out as you glare at him.

         You let go of his collar and put your whole weight onto his stomach making an, oof sound, come out of him.

         “I ain’t getting up for the next five minute then.”

         Moon’s smile stretches further on his face as he gives a quick look to Sun. He sees Sun covering his mouth with his hand, mirth bubbling out of him at the sight before him.

         “You won’t find me complaining,” Moon said.

         You give him an irate look, not understanding why this wasn’t being considered a punishment for him, when you and Moon look up at the sound of Roxy howling.

         “Yah, boy! Get it! Look out Sun, you’ll have competition soon!”

         Moon saw the shocked, blank look on your face, and you seemed to change color as you quickly scrambled off the lunar being. Moon was a little disappointed, but your reaction to Roxy’s teasing made his night.

         The slumber party was relaxing and fun. There was singing and games, but it was low energy. It was also fun to sleep in a big pile with everyone with pillows and some blankets. It made Moon think of what is must have been like when he was still in his fruit pod as he snuggled up to Sun in the sleep pile.