#maybe a few existed but were lost to the purges

[infestedguest]

On a whim I went on a quest to find out how many crossover crackfics of Fallout New Vegas and Friends (1994) exist, and was devastated to come up completely empty handed. Are you seriously telling me that in the 13 years both pieces of media have been in the public consciousness nobody wrote a crossover crackfic?

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

OKAY i am confused why no one thought of this..mark and the famous BPS duo headcanons of them reacting to a REAL Angel Y/n coming down and basically getting rid of the alternates?? :00

Oooo y'know that's a good idea. It makes me wonder if ALL angels in TMC were just replaced or never existed at all after Alt!Gabriel came along--maybe they lost the war with the Alternates/demons and were eradicated all at once.

Except for Y/N, ofc, because main character plot armor™

.........

Mark

You've been watching over Mark for some time, eventually coming down to Earth disguised as his next door neighbor, wondering if he could help you move some stuff.

This strangely happens the same day he prayed for a "guardian angel" in his life, especially when he noticed you were wearing all white clothing, didn't specify where you were from, and.....looked quite ethereal in appearance.

But he thinks it's just a coincidence and becomes fast friends with you.

You shared his same values and beliefs, subtly protecting him whenever he visited the church and went to school.

Though you weren't sure if you should tell him what you truly are...

Until the night he gets that phone call from "Cesar" and goes to his house against your wishes.

When he inevitably leads the Alternate back to his own home, you're there waiting for it.

The second it enters, you stand between them and reveal your wings, halo, and several eyes, shocking the Alternate as it thought angels were already eradicated...

You basically say "nah I'm still here, go back to hell" and eviscerate it in a flash of holy light.

To your amazement, it actually worked! You finally had the power to avenge your fellow angels.

You immediately put your human disguise back on when you realized Mark's was watching the entire time-

But he's already kneeling at your feet, trying not to cry bc you're the guardian angel he's been asking for!!!

He 100% worships you now after you confirm that, but you ask him to just treat you like a friend and not as some divine idol.

Ofc you're telling that to a paranoid 17 yr old Christian human boy who saw you literally vaporize an Alternate so.....it's hard for him to talk to you so casually after that.

Adam

Posing as a new student, you approached him at school and asked if you could join BPS, feigning interest in the paranormal investigations.

He's like "sure but your clothes are prob gonna get messed up" as he gestures to your pristine white shirt and jeans.

You just wear a black BPS jacket over them and go along with the "ghost hunts", finding out that he's looking for Alternates specifically.

That's fine with you though, considering you came down to eliminate as many as you could w/o drawing Gabriel's attention.

One of the hidden cameras caught you making one disappear and Adam's mind=blown after replaying the footage and seeing your wings show up in a few frames, learning you were an angel all along!

You beg him to keep it a secret, but he's so excited he brags to Jonah and Evelin (who thinks he edited that stuff in).

He asks you to continue vaporizing any Alternates you come across as long as he can get footage of it...though you don't like the idea of him exploiting your powers this way for fame.

However he suddenly becomes afraid of you out of nowhere, especially in the days following the investigation at the Torres house.

He just kicks you out of BPS without explanation and goes into hiding.

But soon enough you find out he's a Sleeper Alternate and become faced with a very tough decision...

When he shows up on your doorstep, half-naked and pleading for you to purge him from this world.

Never in a million years did you think any Alternate would be so attached to his "humanity" that he'd rather die than live without it.

Unfortunately, you can't grant Adam's wish knowing he was closely tied to Six and Gabriel's plans, but you do reverse the damage the bleach did to his organs.

He's not in constant physical pain anymore, though you vow to protect this scared boy, knowing he didn't choose to be this way.

Jonah

You met him through Adam sometime after joining BPS.

And right away, he feels a lot safer whenever you accompany them on assignments.

There's just something about your presence that's reassuring.

He makes jokes about how you act like a "perfect little angel" when you tell him you don't do drugs, never curse, mediate any arguments he and Adam might have, and always have the cleanest clothing.

Then he's confused as to why you tensed up.

Before you realize "angel" is just a metaphor humans use sometimes and calm down afterwards.

So he doesn't know what you are.....yet.

He used to say "hell" (like "oh hell yeah!") on a regular basis but now feels awkward when he says it around you.

You're only forced to reveal your true identity when Preacher tries to give him and Adam M.A.D, and you just....eliminate her on the spot with holy light.

She was particularly resistant to it, so your energy was spent and you nearly passed out.

Jonah's understandably freaked out by your powers and runs away, but after you find him and help him calm down, he becomes quite clingy.

His friendship with Adam grows more divided as he sees you as more caring and protective than him.

He didn't believe in angels before but he sure as shit does now.

[nalyra-dreaming]

hello, can you rec any vc fic on any other side other than ao3? ff.net, ff.de, wattpad? do they even exist on these sites?

They probably do… again.

But no, I‘m sorry I cannot rec any there (maybe others can?).

But nonny…. Anne Rice‘s wrath came down on fanfiction. She had it all taken down. Literally.

That event (and similar purges) actually led to the creation of Ao3.

And because of that there were very few fics on Ao3 while she was still alive. A lot of them are lost, or were hidden, very deeply behind password locked sites.

Anne might have relaxed her stance in the last years but there was a time when she literally came after fans with lawyers. My first reaction when I heard of her death, for all my admiration for her bravery and her work was: relief. And then sadness. She pulled out the fandom from under me (and so many others) back then. And it hurt. I still miss the forum I was in, “The Dark Ecrivains“.

We are so, so, SO lucky to have Ao3, for all its faults and problems. Not kidding.

But that just as a note.

So no, I don’t have recs for other sites, sorry. :/

[jonathanwrotethis]

Like an exhale

Tuesday became Wednesday ten minutes ago - while brushing my teeth alongside my daughter in the downstairs bathroom. We have a weird synchronicity - we often meet at midnight with a toothbrush. We know how to live, obviously.

I’m certain tomorrow was at least an hour away when I looked five minutes ago.

Wilson Phillips are filling my headphones with memories of the early 1990s. Memories of the last glories of MTV Europe - when they still played music videos, and I had time to sit and watch them. Oh how I laughed at Ray Cokes antics, and adored Marijne van der Vlugt. I mentioned her in a similarly rose-tinted blog post a few years ago and received an unexpectedly wonderful comment the next day.

It’s nice to be reminded that the world isn’t as bad as many would have you believe.

The playlist goes on and I’m transported to the art class at college, and hours spent drawing pot plants, bundles of brick-a-brack, and half-dressed people. We always had the radio on - the only class where that ever happened. I can’t remember the last time I drew anybody. I learned early-on that if you’re good at anything during your school years it puts a pretty huge target on your back.

I tried to return to drawing a few years after leaving college. I’ve probably written about it somewhere in the annals of the blog.

I turned up with little or no materials and encountered “night class royalty” - the brigade of elderly “artists” sporting open shirt cuffs, neckerchiefs, and materials and equipment that had only existed in shop windows for me.

I can still remember the moment one of the most affable, charming, and popular men in the class took a look over my shoulder - no doubt to offer some sage advice - and murmured “I’m going to go home and shoot myself”. I remember the lady next to me craning over to look too, and whispering “Jesus”.

The target never really goes away for some.

When the children were little I walked a fine line while helping them draw. If I forgot myself and doodled a dinosaur in the corner of a page they would immediately compare and become downhearted.

And so I just stopped.

After a journey to “Hobbycraft” last weekend (a local crafting superstore), I returned with a plastic model kit - the likes of which I haven’t made since I was a teenager. It was a conscious decision to do something - anything - away from computers or work. Something to lose myself in for an hour here and there.

Building the model kit has been interesting - not because of what it is (it’s an aeroplane) - more because of how I value the time I spend time doing it. One of the reasons I stopped drawing, and I’m tempted to blame parenting for this, is that the end-product had no practical value. When you’re in the middle of bringing up children, your life tends to become compressed almost entirely towards that which needs to happen next.

For the longest time the first question when considering doing anything has been what practical value it might have.

Except writing.

For some reason the blog has always escaped the productivity purges. Throughout the chaos I’ve carried on writing. I’m not really sure why. I’ve held on to this last thing - this last thing “just for me”. The reasons have changed over time - from the noble “so the children might know who I was”, to “keeping me sane”, to “just because”.

I read a wonderful quote by Norah Ephron several years ago that I’ve shared before - about a blog being kind of like an exhale. I have it printed, and pinned on the cork-board above the desk. When lost for words it reminds me that while the world can be cold and abrasive, it can also be comforting - restorative.

Anyway. I’m rambling.

I haven’t written an “anyway” for a while. I wonder if that means anything? Probably not. Maybe it’s time I called it a night (he says, glancing nervously at 01:02 on the clock).

[yorprincess]

Finding Loid || Twiloid

The floor around her was both slick and sticky with blood, a contradiction that claws at her nose like an old lover as she marches resolutely through the building. Her red-soled shoes click down the tiled floor of the WISE safehouse. The only sound...the screams had long since died away, silenced by slit throats or by those who succumbed to blood loss.

But Thorn Princess wasn't satisfied. Not with the bodies. Not with the blood that drips from her dress, her cheek, and her stilettos gripped tightly in her fists. She cared not for her own blood that mingled with the others, a few bullets graze from shots that had been lucky. She would patch them later, but for now...

Frustration roiled within her. No one had answered her very simple demand. They all refused to answer, crying for death rather than giving away that information.

Where is Loid Forger?

She had lost track of how many safehouses she had raided, how many spies she had slaughtered since she had learned that her husband was alive and that his agency was keeping him from returning to her and Anya.

Anya, who waited with Bond and Franky - who she was still wary of, but trusted enough because he loved her daughter as if she were his own blood relative - at home, was innocent of all of her mother's dealings. To whom she had to return to in the morning. For Thorn Princess could only exist in the darkness, in the shadows. In the underbelly of society. Far, far away from her daughter's innocent smile and bright eyes.

Eyes that had become dim after her father was taken. A smile that wasn't nearly as bright as it had once been.

Shaking her head, Thorn Princess' red eyes scanned the room full of desks, reflexively wiping the blood from her golden weapons before sheathing them for the moment. She would need to wash them and her hands as soon as possible. There would be no clean-up crews for this location (just like the others). This was a reminder to WISE that she was serious.

And she couldn't help but wonder why the spy agency was allowing her to slaughter their agents like lambs. Wouldn't it be easier to simply hand Loid Forger back over to her?

Unless Loid really was...

Unless they wanted a purge of their agents...

Her fingers slid across documents on the desk before her, flipping through cipher after cipher. She didn't understand them, but there were patterns she had picked up on, and one of them, in particular, could lead to the location of the next safe house and maybe information regarding her husband.

Something caught her eye.

A note. A simple scrawl on a small piece of paper. No cipher and clear as day. Her breath stalled in her chest as she seized the note and read it over and over and over again, hope and dread filling her all at once.

[theartfulmegalodon]

Well dang it, I've had a nibble of engagement, and I'm finally letting it tempt me. Wanna read my comic scripts? I'm really hoping you do!

It is planned as a 30-issue comic series. I have chosen to write the entire thing and make it as good as I can before I attempt to draw any of the actual pages. Partly this is perfectionism, and partly it is because I know how long it would take me to attempt to draw it, and how unlikely I'd be to ever complete it. I wanted to focus on completing something, and I've chosen the writing.

I have written 15 (half!) of the 30 issues, and they have already seen many, many revisions. (Much thanks to the three people who have read them and given me feedback!) I am quite confident that these first 15 issues are very close to their final forms, and they are definitely good enough for me to share with you all.

I have also done a few sketches and bits of standalone art for the characters*, so while I have no comic pages drawn yet, I will occasionally include some of these sketches in with the script, just to give your optic nerves more of a workout. It's the least I can do! I'm thinking I can post one issue script per week? That's 15 weeks of new content for ya, with more to eventually follow!

*All designs subject to small changes down the line.

I post these issues mainly to share them. My experience has been that people almost never want to read a comic script, but sadly, the writing is as much as I can do right now, and I am in fact proud of what I've done so far, and very much looking forward to tackling the second half. However, I am always looking for feedback, and I will be WIDE OPEN for questions, critique and suggestions. Not saying I'll necessarily change things based on your feedback, but I do welcome it! Also, of course, I'd love it if you shared these around, talked them up to your friends, if you like them!

Read on for more about the story itself!

River & Ash is a slow-burn supernatural gay romance, set in an alternate version of our real world. The material is treated maturely (I like to think) but with only about a PG-13 rating. (No smut, no super-strong language.) There is angst in parts of it, but there is also a lot of wholesome shmoop. And while the focus is mostly on the evolution of the relationship between the two main characters, there is also plot, and mini-arcs, with minor superheroics, alternate history pop culture, and an original mythology and history that is teased and then slowly revealed over the course of the story. It also happens to have a very proactive, driven individual for a main character (River). I say this just in case, like me, you don't love when magic/the supernatural just sort of happens to the protagonist to kick off a story.

Ripped from the introductory page that begins every issue…

"Once, the world was full of magic… because humanity once shared the world with demons. History tells that for thousands of years they coexisted, sometimes happily, sometimes not, but one truth never changed: any human who made a deal with a demon would be granted incredible power of their own… for a price.

But in the Middle Ages, during the rise of the Catholic church, a small pocket of humanity attempted to purge these magical beings from existence. The details were lost to time, but what is known is that the demons who survived collectively renounced mankind and disappeared, removing themselves and their influence. 1101 became known as the year magic vanished from the world.

Centuries later, on the same day he suffers a horrifying loss, River McAllister is given what appears to be a real demon book. These rare, indestructible relics have been mostly hoarded away, and there hasn't been a confirmed demon sighting in over a thousand years. It seems impossible. He knows it probably won't work. But if he can find a way to translate it, he might just be able to summon the demon that belongs to it… and maybe make a deal of his own."

The first will be posted forthwith. Thank you in advance so very much!

[cookie-run-kingdom-story]

The Truth of the City

Maple Panda Cookie: Vixey! Cubby! Let’s go play near Galaxy Lake! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But… but Wind Archer Cookie told us not to go there… Maple Panda Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie hasn’t come to see us for a long time now. He won’t know we played there! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But he told us not to go for a reason… right…? What if we fall in and get soggy? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Let’s come back if things get scary. Besides! We’re Dessert Critters. We’re the fastest runners ever! Maple Panda Cookie: Cubby is right, hehe! You worry too much, Vixey. And look! Windcatcher is already leaving! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Looks like Windcatcher wants to hurry and play too! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Erm… I don’t think so…? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Huh? This isn’t the way to Galaxy Lake! Maybe Vixey is right? Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, Windcatcher! Wait up!

Maple Panda Cookie: Uh oh! Windcatcher, stop! We’ll be leaving Dessert Paradise if we keep going this way…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Were we too boring for Windcatcher…? Buttershell Fox Cookie: It’s flying away so fast… Maybe it needs to be somewhere? Maple Panda Cookie: Whoa, it’s really flying now! WAIT, hehe! Let’s race!

Maple Panda Cookie: *Huff puff* Windcatcher is really fast…! I thought we were the fastest… Buttershell Fox Cookie: There’s so many weird looking trees and stones in this forest… Maple Panda Cookie: And it’s really quiet here too! Say… where exactly are we? Buttershell Fox Cookie: There’s a big building thing there… It looks really old too… And… a giant tree? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Let’s check it out! C’mon! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But Cubby… We were following Windcatcher. Maple Panda Cookie: Where is Windcatcher anyway? Buttershell Fox Cookie: It was here just a few seconds ago…? Maple Panda Cookie: Over there! Wow, it’s really fast! Let’s go, let’s go!

Buttershell Fox Cookie: It’s almost like… Windcatcher is looking for something. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Maybe it’s looking for a place more fun than the Dessert Paradise! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Er… It’s getting dark. I’m scared! Maple Panda Cookie: Looky, looky! Windcatcher is by that tree and it’s smiling at something!

Maple Panda Cookie: Wait, something’s flyin- !!! An arrow! LOOK OUT! Cookiemals: Wind Archer Cookie?! Wind Archer Cookie: …… Maple Panda Cookie: So that’s why Windcatcher was flying so fast! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie! Long time no see! Wind Archer Cookie: …… Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, Wind Archer Cookie! Why are you so far away from Dessert Paradise? Wind Archer Cookie: The Darkness beckons… Paradise shall exist no longer… Buttershell Fox Cookie: *Sniff sniff* Something’s wrong… Wind Archer Cookie seems… different. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: PSH! He’s just trying a new look… Wind Archer Cookie! Let’s head back together! Wind Archer Cookie: No living thing can escape from my arrows… Life will be… purged. Maple Panda Cookie: Erm… What does “purge” mean? Maple Panda Cookie: GYAH! Stop shooting arrows at us…! It’s us! The Cookiemals! You know us! Buttershell Fox Cookie: W-w-w-we should run away! Wind Archer Cookie: Darkness shall devour everything…! The winds of the void shall consume all…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie! Snap out of it! *rawr!* Choco Ring Lion Cookie: He didn’t even flinch! Buttershell Fox Cookie: We need to run… NOW! HURRY!

Maple Panda Cookie: *Huff puff* I… I think we lost him...! PHEW! Buttershell Fox Cookie: We should… keep running! Maybe we can hide deeper in this forest…? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Who is this a statue of? They were back over there too. Maybe someone important? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: And look at those antlers! Are they a Dessert Critter too! Like… a buck or deer? Buttershell Fox Cookie: I’ve never seen a deer like them back in Dessert Paradise… Maple Panda Cookie: These are called torches, right? Is this like some sort of altar? Buttershell Fox Cookie: Maybe these aren’t ruins. This might be a… a… temple! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Maybe this Cookie protects the temple then? OH! Think they know Wind Archer Cookie? Maple Panda Cookie: Maybe Wind Archer Cookie came all this way to play with this Cookie right here! Buttershell Fox Cookie: I… don’t think so…

Maple Panda Cookie: I know these! These are called murals. And there’s so many of them…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: This one looks important! Small Cookies are praying to that one giant Cookie? Maple Panda Cookie: HEY! That giant Cookie looks like the buck Cookie outside! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Are we… allowed to be here…? What if we get kicked out? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: PSH! If someone is here, they’ll probably be happy to see us! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Or maybe… they’ll trap us here forever after we’re done playing! HAHA! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Stop… That sounds scary… Maple Panda Cookie: There’s so much gold and shiny colors. This Cookie must be like super important. Maple Panda Cookie: Oooh, look…! Someone is praying over there? Maple Panda Cookie: A Cookie! And they’re moving! Let’s say hi and ask about this place! Buttershell Fox Cookie: *Gulp!* What if they get angry about us being here…? Cookiemals: Um… Hello! We’re the Cookiemals, the coolest animals in the world! Erm… do you know where we are? ???: You are…? ???: Have you come to defile these ruins?! Maple Panda Cookie: W-w-wait! WAIT! No no, we’re here after running away from Wind Archer Cookie! Buttershell Fox Cookie: That Cookie’s carrying something shiny and scary looking…! I told you this was a scary Cookie! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Well, at least this Cookie here isn’t shooting arrows at us! ???: Wind Archer Cookie. Who is this you speak of. Maple Panda Cookie: You DON’T know Wind Archer Cookie? He’s the Cookie who protects the Dessert Paradise! Maple Panda Cookie: But he erm… shoots arrows at everything now… ???: Hmph. You lot are too feeble to ruin these sacred grounds. Cookiemals: (Psst…! What’s that mean…? HEY! We’re not weak! We’re super strong!) ???: Someone… Ruined these grounds. Could it be? ???: I attempted to fend them off. But they made an escape. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie isn’t like this! Something must’ve happened…! Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, wait… Who are you exactly?! Why are you here alone?

(Screenshot from Royal Mike!)

Churro Cookie: You may call me Churro Cookie. It is my duty to guard the CIty of the Millennial Tree. Maple Panda Cookie: So this place isn’t some… Old, abandoned ruins? Churro Cookie: Stay your tongue and show reverence! This place is dedicated to the one and only Sacred Tree. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: So… you’re just like, guarding the city by standing here? Buttershell Fox Cookie: You’re staring at that mural too much to be guarding this place… Churro Cookie: Somehow, I fell into a deep slumber… Once I awoke, it was time to pray to the Tree. Churro Cookie: And now… I must return to my village. Maple Panda Cookie: Let’s go together! We need to find a way to help Wind Archer Cookie! Maple Panda Cookie: Maybe your village can help us find an answer! Churro Cookie: Do not pry into the secrets of the Sacred One. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: But we’ve never been here before…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: You guard the city, right? That means you have to help small fuzzy cuties like us! Churro Cookie: …Well, yes. However, I- Buttershell Fox Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie might be able to help fix some broken things too? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: YEAH! Wind Archer Cookie is really strong and cool! He can fix anything! Churro Cookie: Hmm… Cookiemals: PLEASE?! Ple-e-e-ase? C’mon, Churro Cookie! Churro Cookie: …Fine. But be quiet.

Churro Cookie: This way. A shortcut to the village. Maple Panda Cookie: Wait up, Churro Cookie! Vixey, Cubby! Keep up! Buttershell Fox Cookie: How far are we going…? Buttershell Fox Cookie: Psst! What if Churro Cookie is… taking us someplace scary? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Better than being lost. Besides… if we’re in danger, I can roar and scare him away! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Ok… I’ll… I’ll stay ready! I can curl up and do a body slam.

Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, Churro Cookie? Who is that Cookie with the antlers? We see them everywhere! Churro Cookie: You dare to sully the good name!? Maple Panda Cookie: We don’t know, is all! C’mon, tell us? Please? Churro Cookie: The Divine Tree. Our protector, our family. The Tree is all. Churro Cookie: Our tribe has existed alongside the Tree for generations. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: So… where is the Tree? Only in the pictures? Churro Cookie: The Tree has gone to where the Tree is needed. But the legends live on. Churro Cookie: The Sacred One’s spirit remains. Our village is one with the Tree. Maple Panda Cookie: And that shiny thing on your wrist? Is that glowing from the spirit of the Tree? Churro Cookie: Yes. A warrior’s gauntlet, bestowed by the sacred Tree. Churro Cookie: The gauntlet calls forth the spirits of nature and casts out the Darkness. Buttershell Fox Cookie: Maybe the Tree knows what happened to Wind Archer Cookie…? Maple Panda Cookie: Wait! Over there, is that…? It’s Wind Archer Cookie! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: It’s him! It’s Wind Archer Cookie…! With his bow and everything. Maple Panda Cookie: Churro Cookie! Look, look! That’s Wind Archer Cookie. Churro Cookie: So he is the wind mentioned in the legends of old? Maple Panda Cookie: Legends? Churro Cookie: Legends speak of the wind, ever faithful to the will of the Tree. Churro Cookie: The wind was commanded by the Tree to travel far from paradise and protect a mysterious being. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Paradise? We’re from a place called the Dessert Paradise! Maple Panda Cookie: We lived in a place that’s found in legends?! Churro Cookie: But the wind of the legend would not dare to ruin these grounds… Buttershell Fox Cookie: What happened to Wind Archer Cookie…? Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, Cubby, Vixey! Look!

Maple Panda Cookie: There’s a picture of Dessert Critters above Wind Archer Cookie’s mural! And it looks like US! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But there’s four in the picture… And there’s only three of us? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Vixey, you silly, silly! Have you forgotten about Windcatcher? Maple Panda Cookie: With Windcatcher, we make four! Churro Cookie!? What does this mural mean? Churro Cookie: …I do not know. All I know is that these are mystical animals of lore. Maple Panda Cookie: You said some mysterious being who lives in Dessert Paradise, right?

Cookiemals: Maybe WE are the mystical animals! Buttershell Fox Cookie: …Probably not… How did someone draw us if it’s our first time here? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Maybe we were here a looong time ago and we just forgot! Maple Panda Cookie: And maybe WE made it back here because we’re super special! Maple Panda Cookie: Hey, Churro Cookie! That looks like us, right? C’mon, right? Right? Churro Cookie: ……I do not know. Maple Panda Cookie: Look closer! It really does look like us! Churro Cookie: …You are a very noisy lot. Let us continue to the village. Once there, I will devise a plan.

Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Are we out of the ruins now? Wow, there’s lots of big trees here… Churro Cookie: The Tree’s blessing reaches far. Churro Cookie: And it is thanks to this blessing our village has been kept safe from evil. Buttershell Fox Cookie: Does that thing protect this place too…? Churro Cookie: A lemon lizard? I have never laid eyes upon one here…! Churro Cookie: Is Wind Archer Cookie behind this…? Maple Panda Cookie: No, it can’t be! Wind Archer Cookie wouldn’t do that! We’ll take care of this. Maple Panda Cookie: I’ll fly and lure it away! Vixey, curl up and slam those rocks! Cubby, get ready to roar! Buttershell Fox Cookie: OK…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: I got this! Maple Panda Cookie: HELLO! Over heeere! Yoohoo! I can fly, can you? …VIXEY, NOW! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Buttershell… Body… SLAM! Maple Panda Cookie: Good job, Vixey! It’s running away from the rocks! Cubby, roar now! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: *RAWR!* Cookiemals: Hooray! It’s running away! Buttershell Fox Cookie: We… we did it…! Are we… really strong and powerful?

Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Give me strength, Great Tree…! Maple Panda Cookie: Did he just…? Churro Cookie made a tree grow from nothing! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: And the lizard’s gone! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Churro Cookie is super strong… Cookiemals: But we made the first move! So we’re strong too, hehe! Churro Cookie: …Good work. We are almost at the village.

Choco Ring Lion Cookie: So why does your tribe worship this Sacred Tree? And when was this city first built? Churro Cookie: The Sacred One has granted life to the world. It is only natural we thank the Tree for its blessings. Buttershell Fox Cookie: Have you… seen the Tree…? Churro Cookie: The Sacred Tree has not appeared before us for a long time. Yet I continue my vigil, watching from afar. Maple Panda Cookie: If the city’s ruins are that big, does that mean your village is big too? Churro Cookie: Our village is built around a giant oak. The waters are clear and the leaves are always green… Churro Cookie: The buildings and bridges of the Churro Tribe are sweet and aromatic. Churro Cookie: All live to serve the Tree, with good faith and hard work. Maple Panda Cookie: Wow! That sounds like a cool village! I can’t wait to see it.

Churro Cookie: We have almost arrived. That light in the distance is my village. Churro Cookie: With me by your side, you will be welcomed as one of us. Maple Panda Cookie: I want to be first! You can’t catch me! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Wait… wait! We need to say hello properly…!

Cookiemals: So this is Churro Village! It’s erm… really quiet! Cookiemals: Is this what your village is always like…? Churro Cookie: What has transpired here…? How has…

Churro Cookie: The villagers… All of them are trapped within the tree… Buttershell Fox Cookie: They’re sleeping… Churro Cookie: Awaken, my friends! We must follow the will of the Tree! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Nothing’s happening… Churro Cookie: Am I the only one who has awakened from the slumber? Cookiemals: Churro Cookie… Maple Panda Cookie: I can take a look at things from the sky* Maybe you aren’t the only one who is awake…!

*actual text

Maple Panda Cookie: Phew! I’m back…! Churro Cookie, your village is huge! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Find anything, “Racoony”? Maple Panda Cookie: Don’t call me “Racoony,” I’m a red panda, OK?! And no… I didn’t find anything… Choco Ring Lion Cookie: *rawr!* *RAWR!* No one’s waking up… Buttershell Fox Cookie: Churro Cookie…? Do you remember what happened before you fell asleep…? Churro Cookie: …A veil of crimson darkness approached the village. Churro Cookie: I remember trying to find an answer in the city… But fell into a deep slumber. Churro Cookie: I awoke and as I was preparing to return home, you appeared before me. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Nothing weird or funny happened? Churro Cookie: Not that I… Ah. A pomegranate seed was stuck on a root. It was glowing crimson. Churro Cookie: The same crimson that emanates from the Darkness. Buttershell Fox Cookie: Maybe that seed had something to do with all this…? Maple Panda Cookie: Hey! Look what I found! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Racoony… It’s dangerous to climb up a tree that high… Maple Panda Cookie: I’m not a raccoon! I’m a red panda! Maple Panda Cookie: Anyway, look! This seed looks like the same thing stuck in Wind Archer Cookie’s forehead! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: They do look the same…! But who could put that on Wind Archer Cookie’s forehead? Maple Panda Cookie: Yeah! Wind Archer Cookie is strong! Only the Tree from that legend could be… strong enough… to… Oh. Cookiemals: Oh! Churro Cookie: No way! Did the Tree do this?!

Churro Cookie: Has the Tree… abandoned us? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: There must be a reason! You said the Tree has always protected your tribe, right? Churro Cookie: Yes, however… If this is the Tree’s doing, it explains everything. Churro Cookie: These red pomegranates… Has nature abandoned us? Are we undeserving of life’s powers? Churro Cookie: What have we done to deserve this burden… Choco Ring Lion Cookie: I have an idea! Let’s find and ask the Tree! Maple Panda Cookie: And we can ask the Tree to save Wind Archer Cookie! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But… where do we start looking? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Well, we found Wind Archer Cookie! Maybe we can just find the Tree somehow as well? Maple Panda Cookie: And Churro Cookie, you said you got your gauntlet from the Tree, right? So you’d know which Tree is the real one! Maple Panda Cookie: Let’s head back to where you first got your gauntlet! Churro Cookie: Where I received this blessing… Yes, there may be answers there. Cookiemals: C’mon! Let’s go save your village and Wind Archer Cookie!

Churro Cookie: Pomegranates littered everywhere. What has the Sacred One wrought… Maple Panda Cookie: Why didn’t you get the gauntlet at the village? Churro Cookie: One can only become a true warrior if chocolate syrup is painted across their head. Churro Cookie: That is where the ritual is held. To become a warrior of the Churro is to dedicate all to the Sacred Tree. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: What’d you do? Kneel in front of this throne? Churro Cookie: Yes. When I received this gauntlet, the Sacred One’s spirit was certainly with me. Churro Cookie: The Sacred One’s power… I could feel it. Perhaps, there is some trace of- Maple Panda Cookie: Is that an arrow?! Churro Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie!

Wind Archer Cookie: Darkness shall rule all… Maple Panda Cookie: There’re shadowy things coming from that arrow…! Buttershell Fox Cookie: And more pomegranates are growing! What do we do?! Churro Cookie: My gauntlet will ward off this evil! Churro Cookie: But if the Tree plotted everything, what’s the point of using thi- Maple Panda Cookie: UH-OH! Hang on, Churro Cookie! We’ll save you! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: *RAWR!* Buttershell Fox Cookie: Buttershell.. Body… SLAM! Maple Panda Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie missed! Cookiemals: We’re awesome! Maybe we are really legendary!

Cookiemals: Look out! More arrows are coming this way! Churro Cookie: I may fall apart into crumbs… But I will face this foe without relying on the power of one who has abandoned us! Cookiemals: Look out, Churro Cookie! Churro Cookie: Urk…!

Churro Cookie: Huh?! Maple Panda Cookie: The gauntlet is glowing! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: The arrow is disappearing! Churro Cookie: This is… The Sacred Tree’s blessing… Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Is the Sacred Tree helping? Buttershell Fox Cookie: So… the Tree didn’t do anything wrong? Wind Archer Cookie: Not a breeze, but a deadly hurricane…! Cookiemals: Wind Archer Cookie is firing again! RUN! Churro Cookie: Give me strength, Great Tree…! Maple Panda Cookie: Wow! He blocked all the arrows! Churro Cookie: Quick, behind me! May life spring forth!

Cookiemals: Whoa… Churro Cookie just made all those arrows disappear! Cookiemals: Not just the arrows…! The pomegranates are disappearing too. Churro Cookie: The Tree has not abandoned us… Cookiemals: That’s so cool, Churro Cookie! Churro Cookie: The Sacred One protects us! Oh, one of the Wind… I will bring you back!

Churro Cookie: Great Tree… Hear my call! Help us defeat the Darkness! Wind Archer Cookie: No living thing… can escape… URK…! Maple Panda Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie?! Is he alright? Wind Archer Cookie: My arrows shall… I must…! The Darkness must…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Are his memories coming back? Buttershell Fox Cookie: No! He’s pulling his bow again! Maple Panda Cookie: Watch out! Wind Archer Cookie: The Darkness can be strong and cruel… Churro Cookie: Take cover behind me!

Churro Cookie: This is much too dangerous. Run and hide behind the throne. I shall deal with this! Cookiemals: Churro Cookie… It’s more dangerous alone, isn’t it…? Churro Cookie: I am one with the Tree and the Tree is with me. Wind Archer Cookie: The scarlet poison gives me strength! Cookiemals: Watch out! His arrows are too fast! Churro Cookie: The throne emanates with the Sacred One’s spirit! If I can just stay close and… Cookiemals: Everything is turning red…?! And Churro Cookie is struggling… Wind Archer Cookie: The Arrows of Darkness shall strike all… Churro Cookie: Great Wind… What has transpired to you? Churro Cookie: If the Sacred One is not responsible for spreading the pomegranates, that means you too are innocent. Churro Cookie: I will cleanse the Darkness from within you! Wind Archer Cookie: The Darkness consumes all… Churro Cookie: That was close! Churro Cookie: The throne…! Darkness… be purged from these sacred grounds! Cookiemals: Wind Archer Cookie is right in front of Churro Cookie!? Maple Panda Cookie: We need to help! Wind Archer Cookie: Don’t deny the Darkness… Churro Cookie: Great Tree, hear my prayer… May your Millennial light shine within me… Maple Panda Cookie: The throne is glowing! So is Churro Cookie’s gauntlet! Buttershell Fox Cookie: All the pomegranates are melting away too! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: The shadows around Wind Archer Cookie are going away!

Wind Archer Cookie: Ugh… Cookiemals: Wind Archer Cookie? Are you alright? Wind Archer Cookie: You… The Cookiemals? Cookiemals: Your memory is back! We missed you… Churro Cookie: Our village may have awakened too! Cookiemals: Let’s go see! Wind Archer Cookie, come with us! Wind Archer Cookie: I cannot… Move, just yet. Cookiemals: Oh, Wind Archer Cookie can’t move very well yet. Churro Cookie: I will lend him a hand. You lot. Lead the way. Cookiemals: We remember the way! You can trust us!

Maple Panda Cookie: Everyone is awake…! Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Wow! Did you know that Churro Cookie can smile? Hehe! Buttershell Fox Cookie: But where did those pomegranates come from? Who did all this? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Who cares! They’re all gone now. Buttershell Fox Cookie: Well, yeah… but… Wind Archer Cookie: Village of the Great Tree… I thank you for freeing me from the Darkness. Churro Cookie: A true legendary Cookie stands before me… I am glad to have you here. Wind Archer Cookie: Cookiemals… I have much gratitude for the three of you. Choco Ring Lion Cookie: Wind Archer Cookie! Did you know we are on a picture in the temple? Wind Archer Cookie: …? Pardon? Maple Panda Cookie: Above your mural. There’s a picture of four animals and Windcatcher! Cookiemals: We must be from the legends too! That’s why we’re in the mural so strong! Wind Archer Cookie: But that mural depicts the legendary… Little ones… You are not critters. You are Cookies of the forest. Cookiemals: HUH?! We’re Cookies? Wait, what? We’re really Cookies?! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Is that why we’re crispier than most critters…? Cookiemals: (I’m so confused…) AHEM! Well duh! We kept calling ourselves Cookiemals for a reason, right? Choco Ring Lion Cookie: So… we’re not some mystical animals from a legend? Maple Panda Cookie: No! We’re just strong because we’re, well, us! Cookiemals: We’re really awesome!

Churro Cookie: The truth would not have been revealed had you not aided, small Cookiemals. Cookiemals: Thanks for helping out Wind Archer Cookie, Churro Cookie! Buttershell Fox Cookie: Oh, but… What about the stuff that Wind Archer Cookie broke? Maple Panda Cookie: We promised that he could fix it but, he’s still recovering… Churro Cookie: Worry not, small one. The village has awakened and repairs will begin. We built this city in the first place! Churro Cookie: Upon your next visit, I will personally guide you to the heart of the city itself. Cookiemals: We’ll be back! Wind Archer Cookie: I must remain here for the moment. My strength has not yet fully recovered… Cookiemals: We can take care of you! Trust us three Cookiema- mo, Cookies! We can do anything! Cookiemals: Now let’s head back to the Dessert Paradise!

Pomegranate Cookie: I did not expect this to happen. Last time, the Tree sealed itself along with the Churro Tribe… Pomegranate Cookie: With the Tree absent, it seemed an opportune moment to let Darkness spread across the land. Licorice Cookie: Pffft! I told you so. I knew you’d fail! Pomegranate Cookie: Fail? My plan to lure and corrupt Wind Archer Cookie succeeded. Pomegranate Cookie: Were it not for that Windcatcher pest and the meddling Cookiemals… Licorice Cookie: You should’ve taken some of my Licorice Servants. They could’ve handled this on their own. Pomegranate Cookie: …Have you ever earned our master’s favor with your foolish rag toys? Licorice Cookie: H-h-hey! They’re not rag toys!? I’m just waiting for the perfect moment… Pomegranate Cookie: Hmph. We must inform the master at once. The next phase of the plan is imminent. Pomegranate Cookie: The age of Darkness shall come.

[thenexusofsouls]

Do you think Freya never stopped feeling love or she actually did at some point, sort of like believing her own lies?

{i am the caretaker of souls} Under the cut because long, heh.

Yes. XD It's a combination of the two. I believe she never stopped loving, but for a time she tried to and maybe even blocked it out due to trauma. I'm not apologizing for her or making excuses, but Freya was legitimately traumatized by losing her daughter at (she thought at the time) the hands of her lover, and then also by losing him, like... she hadn't really meant to kill him. It was a reaction she had to betrayal and grief that caused her magic to awaken and respond in the way it did. Despite that he had betrayed her, she still loved him, and it was shocking to her that she just killed him because she'd never done anything like that to someone before.

Her change in demeanor after that, the lack of smiling, the eerie calm, the kindof almost dazed affect she adopted, at first that was all shock and trauma. Once that wore off and she sorted out her feelings about everything, a few things happened. One, she found it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that all this had happened because she'd been idealistic and naive, because that meant it was her fault her daughter died, at least in her mind. It also meant that the love she had with her secret lover was not as true as she'd thought it was.

As a defense mechanism, her mind came up with the idea that it wasn't her that was the problem, no she was innocent. It was love. Love was responsible for everything, for twisting her lover's mind, for her daughter being killed, for Ravenna shipping her off somewhere so she wouldn't get in the way at a time when she really needed family around her. All of it had been because of love. So love was the problem. It was easier to think that than it was to admit to herself that she had any blame in what had happened, or that she'd simply been unlucky in choosing the wrong man. Or, even worse, that it had all happened for no reason, and sometimes bad things happen to good people.

At that point, she considered herself enlightened, and actually to her credit, she really wished that what happened to her would never happen to anyone else. That was a genuinely empathetic and loving thing to think, that she'd gone through so much pain and wanted no one else to ever have to feel the same. Now, where she went completely off the rails was actually trying to put this into practice. She wanted to help free people from love so that they wouldn't have the same things happen to them, and to do that, she felt she had to start early, before habits were formed, relationships occurred, etc. That's why she focused so much on children. That and she had lost her own child, so there was a bit of a need to be a mother still, and that energy had to go somewhere.

Now this is the point at which she began to believe her own lies, or at the very least, believe that it may be possible to raise children free of love, and therefore love's dangers and pitfalls. She tried as hard as she could to not only raise "her children" that way, but to then have them go on and continue the same sort of purge of family members and any loving relationships in other kingdoms as she conquered everything around her. The idea was to obliterate the family unit, to place everything under her control, and to literally outlaw love. Because then... there would be no more pain and she will have done this wonderful thing by saving all the children. Which, of course, fed into her guilt over what happened to Isabella and into her need to make that right in some way.

So I truly do believe that she wanted to do something good for the next generations, wanted to rid it of the pain she'd felt, and wanted to believe that there could actually be a world where the pain that love causes wouldn't exist. The problem was that none of that is possible, because love isn't something you can eradicate, at least not completely. And in trying to bring about this supposed utopia, she was ignoring the multitudes of other problems, traumas, sufferings, and injustices she was bringing about with her methods. I don't think she was crazy, but I definitely think she had been forever altered by her trauma and she wanted to believe so badly that love was the problem because then it made everything simpler and removed blame and responsibility from herself. Subconsciously, she needed to know that Isabella's death wasn't her fault. If she could bring about a utopia by eradicating love, then that was proof of concept that love was the problem all along.

That's the tea on her believing her own lies, but back to your first idea, that she never stopped loving... absolutely, she never did stop. And she knew she never stopped. I'm not sure whether she was in outright denial about it, or that maybe she saw herself as already a broken lost cause, having already been done dirty by love. Either way, she most certainly continued to love.

Freya never stopped loving Ravenna, even up to the end. Of course not, that was her sister. She never stopped loving Isabella either, and even made a replica of her cradle out of ice that she visited frequently to just... sit... and remember her by, because she grieved for her daughter years and years later. To quote something one of my other muses, Vision, said, "What is grief, if not love persevering?"

She also loved her "children." That was more than apparent in the fact that she never bothered to verify that Eric was dead either of the times she ordered it, that she spared Sara's life outright even though her law called for death, and she absolutely freaked out when Ravenna started killing her "children" indiscriminately towards the end of the movie. Even just her calling them "children" is a form of affection, implying that she is their "mother."

And finally, seeing how Eric and Sara were still in love with each other after everything that had been done to keep them apart, Freya remarks, "How lucky you are." She wouldn't have said that if she didn't recognize their love as a good thing and also envy them for it. I think in that moment, she realized that they were lucky... and she was not. And she absolutely envied them for that.

All of these things prove that Freya not only never stopped engaging in love, but is a person who needs and wants it as well, despite everything it's done to her. So... not black and white by any means, Freya's a complicated case. but... I think she tried to make herself believe that love was evil, but not only did she find out that wasn't true, she found out that she's not a person who can go through life without loving others, despite how hard she tried. It comes naturally to her. It simply happened without her even trying, right under her nose.

[codeofelm]

DAY 26 - QoL - How to see Custom Commands in your IDE, with Naninovel and VSCode.

Previously, I had issues getting the custom command @confirm to appear as known in my IDE.

Everytime I wrote anything, I had these sad red squiggly lines, saying command unknown. When I loaded the project in-engine, I got an even sadder error, immediately.

I thought, maybe there was something wrong with the metadata, or with the script for the custom command itself. I suspected something had to be up, because my metadata file was EMPTY, and everytime I selected purge cache in vsCode or update metadata, I could have sworn nothing was happening.

Spoiler: Nothing was happening.

But let's find out why!

Looking at the documentation, I sheepishly thought the setup directions were based on whether you were using Naninovels in-editor unity editor, or VS Code. I was very wrong. All this time I was missing Newtonsoft Json!

You'd think that means, sunny skies ahead. No.

It clearly says to install via Unity's package manager. I thought OK, cool. But this isn't available on the asset store, and nothing came up when I searched the package manager in-editor.

Because, I didn't understand how the unity repo worked.

I clicked the documentation, the guide, frankly I was lost. And I knew I was lost when I got as far as to wondering if i needed to install this via the NuGet package manager and make an account over on that platform. It couldn't be that much of a faff. It wasn't until I found the one video, that came into existence only 3 months ago did I understand anything, at all.

I needed to take this one link: com.unity.nuget.newtonsoft-json

And add it via "add package by name" in the package manager.

Apparently, that's enough, because once I copied the link into the name field, it loaded for a little moment and brought up the wonderful Newtonsoft Json from Unity Registry.

And then after that, everything went wonderfully! I closed and reopened both Unity and VSCode and--- nothing.

But, the panic was short lived. I saw the note to make sure bridging was enabled on both sides, and that the server ports matched. I had seen the server port number in the vscode settings quite a few times on my journey, so once I enabled it on the unity side of things and saw the number was the same. I knew the end was in sight.

No more sad red squiggly lines under my command! No more "command unknown".

My scripts look like all is well again.

[koushirouizumi]

(Personal)

(re last thing rb'd)

I've seen that post around before and like, yeah, I want to. I also believe fan base history + archival is super important. (There's a ton of stuff I've saved and archived from Adv-02, Frontier, etc fan bases over time too, including sections of many of my old mutuals' Adventure fics and O.C. site things, though I also don't have 'everything' there since I usually saved stuff just 'as I went'.)

I want to re-post everything I created (maybe even some stuff r.p.'d elsewhere, if I can manage to effectively 'summarize' all that somehow) before 2k10~2k15~ on This Site especially.

... But yeah it can be difficult. (Probably more than some people may realize.)

Some of my stuff is on my old laptop which is currently out of commission rn until it gets fixed, (it may not even GET fixed - it could be a hard drive crash - the power button isn't powering it) but a lot of the rest (of stuff that was on my site specifically) is still archived /somewhere/ or otherwise literally on my old 02 O.C. shrine C.D. Like I literally have a whole C.D. where the site still exists offline (You just can't view the backgrounds because it's not 'online' so to speak, so the white text is on a white background and I have to highlight to read it, until I fix everything via a lot of re-uploding and re-writing of some 25+ pages including the 'character profiles' sections that I also have to re-write for all Adventure + 02 Chosen.)

... But also, like, I made that site when I was literally Young Me.

I've found out a lot about myself since and a lot of my perspectives have completely changed for the better. But even if I re-created the whole site from scratch, it'd just be ... different. Now. I don't really know how to explain it well.

A lot of the imgs I used back then were much lower quality. I'll have to go through and re-cap everything on my own time, and even then... it'd feel different, wouldn't it? The low-quality caps I borrowed from other sites back then who allowed free use, those were kind of what made the feel of the site. That kind of thing.

So I could double the amount of pages - which would take a lot more work - a high quality, polished version; and the original version with the low quality caps. But even then...

Some sections would still have to change completely, just because I've grown and my mentality has changed from what I originally wrote.

Even then, the shrine is my own personal thing, I can 'archive' it in my own time and just use it to store my own works, caps, etc...

I completely lost some of my 1st D.G.M.N a.m.v.s as it was. The original Frontier "Warriors" one is completely gone. (The one I made since was a re-make going purely by my own memory of scenes and timings I likely initially included.) The one (two?) I made for Takuya separately, I never found again. The experimental other few D.G.M.N and super early Y.G.O D.M. A.M.V.s (possibly also a Sonic one or two) were also gone.

My 2 Naruto A.M.V.s got deleted when a sweep of purges happened, and at one point both got re-uploaded by other fans without full credit to me, then deleted from those fans' accts when those accts got purged ? /again/ and I still, between multiple comp + external hard-drive failings, never got the back-ups saved in time. (Even those 2 Naruto A.M.V.s were super experimental and mainly just emotional timing so used a lot of 'larger', un-trimmed clips. But I still appreciated my attempts with those and wish I had them back, especially since I never went back to making Naruto stuff again after.)

Idek. I just have some conflicting feelings still.

It's all kind of why I just started back up with immediately focusing on Koushiro post-all That happening. "One Week" was the most 'recent' A.M.V. I had available at the time and I really wanted it up-loaded, along with my Taichi A.M.V. But even then, my love for Koushiro's chara was definitely there, having snuck up from the days of the O.C. site to kick me from behind. I'm still upset I didn't get to get to Koushiro's full character arc in my O.C.s story way back in the day, when Koushiro had a lot more active positivity and support by other fans (and wasn't actively being constantly re-written and sidelined out of Koushiro's own canon story by them). It was semi re-written using inspiration from the original outline in "The Past World" and even then it's only in sections still.

I don't really know where I'm going with these thoughts.

Maybe I'll archive what I can someday, but... yeah.

[guess-my-next-obsession]

Sleep

pairing: din djarin x f!reader

rating: M (mentions of violence, sleep deprivation, insomnia, allusions to sexy time at the very end but no actual smut)

word count: 1k

din masterlist

Din had a complicated relationship with sleep. For the bulk of his life, the need for sleep was simply a weakness, a moment in which his guard was down.

During his youth, training as a Mandalorian foundling, he was taught to get by on as little sleep as possible, sometimes being forced to stay awake for days at a time in order to build stamina. His mind and body fought back against this training for a long time, but eventually, he became accustomed to living off an hour or two of not-so restful slumber a night.

When he met Grogu, his priorities shifted—voluntarily or not. The kid was a kid, requiring large amounts of rest at a time and nearly demanding his new guardian join him in it. So, after a bit, Din’s hour of sleep a night became three hours, maybe four if he’d really had a long day. Still just enough to get by, leaving true slumber and dreams to people who deserved it. People who didn’t hurt people for a living.

But then…you came into his life.

A softness he never felt before. A softness he never felt he deserved.

He was lost from the moment he saw you standing in the market in Mos Eisley, haggling away with a Geonosian over the rewards for your haul of scraps. The way you spoke, the way you moved, the delicate lines of your body contrasting with the absolute vulgarities slipping from your barely-red-tinged lips. He was frozen in awe, catching everyone’s attention with his seemingly blank stare including the child.

“Can I help you?” The Geonosian asked, your head turning to look at the source of interruption. Din was suddenly incredibly grateful for his helmet that covered the barely there flush on his cheeks when you gave him a once over.

“I can wait.” He choked out after a few more seconds of silence, his voice strained even through the modulator. Your lips curled into a smile and effectively claimed his soul, your shoulders shrugging.

“No, go ahead. I’m going to be here for a while.” Your voice was so much softer than it had been just a moment ago, and if your shouting had him enthralled, the voice you used just for him had him ready to drop to his knees. With a stumble forward, he nodded at you once to thank you before turning to the Geonosian.

As he spoke with the junk seller about a part he was needing for his N1, you stood right beside him, your eyes locked onto the profile of his helmet. If he hadn’t been so sure that you were an angel, he may have considered you a threat. Your proximity, your attentiveness, your…existence was enough to turn his mind to mush and weaken all the survival instincts he had beaten into him during his training.

“You’re a Mandalorian?” Your voice was tender again, and he began to wonder if the shouting match he’d just walked in on was the first ever occurrence, your voice having no grit to it to prove otherwise. His head turned, looking at you through the blackened visor that took all beauty out of the world around him, but somehow yours remained. “A foundling?”

“Yes.” His tone didn’t convey his interest, he was aware of that, but you didn’t seem to flinch one bit. Your lips curled into another smile and you nodded, eyeing him again more purposefully this time.

“This is the way.” His lips parted at your knowledge of his creed, a chuckle escaping your lips. “My parents were servants on Mandalore before the purge.”

“You’re Mandalorian?” He turned his body completely towards you, forgetting all about his transaction as you gave him your backstory, his head nodding every so often to prove that he was listening.

“I was hoping to use these credits to buy a ticket to…well, anywhere. As long as I get off this planet. But…apparently I didn’t scavenge as well as I thought I did.” He watched you shoot daggers at the Geonosian who was walking back with Din’s part. Din mindlessly paid the creature as he thought hard about the proposal floating around his head.

“I…have a ship.” He spoke up as he took his part and tucked it into his satchel with Grogu, the child holding it like a toy. “And seeing as you’re Mandalorian…I could take you off planet. It’s just…me and the kid.”

“How much?” Your question made him frown inside of his helmet.

“Free of charge.” He insisted with a smile, though you couldn’t see it.

“Oh, I can’t accept—“

“This is the way.”

One year later and here you were, sleeping soundly beside him in the bed that you built together, in the cabin that you built together, tucked away in a forest on some tiny, peaceful planet. There were no more threats here to keep him up at night, only his desire to watch you.

He knew he should rest, that he should join you in your soft snoring, but how could he willingly close his eyes when you were right there looking like that?

His fingertips ghosted over your skin, not quite touching you but needing to feel the warmth radiating from your body—as though your limbs entangled with his wasn’t enough.

“Go to sleep,” you mumbled as you cuddled him closer, still half-asleep. Din smiled down and pressed his lips against your forehead, keeping them there.

“Can’t.” He spoke against you, his voice barely a whisper. Your eyes peeled open and head lifted off his chest to look up at him. “You look so beautiful like this, mesh’la. I can’t stop looking.”

With a chuckle, you bit your lip, touching the tip of your finger to his nose. “You’re too sweet for your own good, Din Djarin.”

“I’m in love with you,” he whispered back, his voice laced with utter sincerity. “I cant help it.”

“Can you try? For me? I’ll only go to sleep if you do.” He pouted at you, poking his bottom lip out. You leaned up and pressed your lips to his, his hand reaching to tangle in your hair as he deepened the kiss.

“You know what’s better than sleep?” He flipped you onto your back, hands wandering up and down your sides as he slotted himself between your thighs. With a giggle, you felt his beard tickle your throat as he pecked your pulse.

“Only if you promise you'll go to sleep with me afterwards.” He smiled against you and nodded, lifting his head to look in your eyes.

“This is the way.”

•••

taglist: @joelmillerscoffee @ajeff855 @wildemaven @axshadows @sherala007 @browneyes-issac @tooflef @mariasabana @tae27 @kimm4710 @stxrrylunatic @paulalikestuff @jbh-castaway @mandomover @chxpsi @marvel-sw-lover @jediknight122 @harriedandharassed @star-wars-fan-2005 @alwaysdjarin @trickstersp8 @idkifimaliveanymore @trinkets01 @chloeinpink @alwaysdjarin @tizylish @jessie-skywalker @come-hell-or-eldren-fire @dindjarinsmut @jlmaddinson @ladyrebel25 @lexloon @awholelottayeehaw @hungrhay @bxmxtx @funnymcfunbunz @graciexmarvel @a-phan-of-youtube @whoodat (sorry if your tag isn’t working! as always, let me know if you’d like to be removed/added!)

[sohin-ace]

Jolyne - No Ordinary Girl

Mermaid Y/N x Surfer Jolyne

Today was a particularly fitting day to go to the beach. Jotaro had taken Jolyne, Hermes and Foo Fighters to the shore. He mostly went for some observation and the girls decided they would take advantage of the nice weather for some surfing.

It was not long after they arrived and started installing themselves that Jolyne and Hermes' eyes fell into very familiar faces.

Annasui, upon seeing the group, walked towards the girls with a confident stance, making sure his long hair was flowing in the wind.

"Oh look who we have here. The ladies victory." Annasui exclaimed, before completely falling heart-eyed, his voice and tone softening, dreamy even, at the sight of his object of worship. "Hi Jolyne~"

"Oh! Weather Report's there! Hi Weas!" Jolyne called out to the older man arranging a parasol a few feet behind, her completely ignoring the pink haired-male that seemed to have come with him. He waved shortly at Jolyne in response.

"Anyways, what are you guys up to?" Hermes asked, sipping on some lime flavored granita.

"Well, as you can see..." He pointed at the ocean, "We just wanted to take a day to work out a bit, but the waves are real nice today."

He leaned in not so subtly towards Jolyne, despite Hermes' evident judging gaze.

"But you know what else is real nice today?" He brought his hand up to cup Jolyne's chin, but before he could even say or do anything, Jolyne leaned away and pointed behind him.

"Oh wow! My dad's coming back with drinks!" She called nonchalantly, looking behind Annasui like he was more transparent than air itself.

"...! DRINKS?! DRINKS!!" Foo Fighter gasped, pushing the feminine man off to the side with such force, he fell and slid against the sand.

"Hey, Jojo," Hermes tapped her friend's shoulder, "Let's show these pendejos how girls ride waves."

The Asian American smirked, eager to show who's boss and always ready to follow on her best friend's mischief. "I'm racing you then."

"Pfft, I won't go easy girlfriend." The Mexican cracked her knuckles and grabbed her plank.

After surfing for long enough and being outran by Jolyne's stamina, Hermes decided to go back and sunbathe next to F.F's who was playing cutely with sand.

Jolyne glided full speed over the water, the wind and droplets of salty water refreshing her skin. More than competition, Jolyne loved the acceleration, the adrenaline, the sweet fresh air through her long hair. When she was surfing, Jolyne's heart lightened up and her mind purged of any negative thoughts, anxiety, fears.

She was at peace.

Before she could enjoy the sweet taste of her peace of mind though, she caught up to a blond surfer in front of her who she recognized as she got closer. Oh god, not him of all people.

"Oh, hey! Isn't that the sexiest surfer in all Miami?" Romeo teased, admiring the girl who gained up on him, "Not bad, look at you go! Who knew my little Jojo would be so talented, hot damn!"

Jolyne frowned and clicked her tongue. She swore if she wasn't so focused on staying in balance, she would drown him on the spot. He laughed obnoxiously, satisfied with being a disgusting excuse of a human.

"Romeo, I swear to fuckin-"

Before she could even finish her sentence, something, a gigantic fish tail appeared out of the wave and flicked itself right accross the blonde, slapping him off of his plank with a painful sound.

"HUAARGHH-" He screamed before crashing into the water with the splash and disappearing behind Jolyne.

"O-OH MY GOD!" She gasped, both surprised by the sudden turn of events, and incredibly scared for her life, thinking some kind of hostile shark was in the shore currently, which was to report immediately.

The moment she decided to take a turn and leave as fast as she could, warning the others to get the hell out of here, a shadowy form within the water followed her along the wave.

Foolishly curious, Jolyne looked at it, not without her heart hammering in her chest at the potential danger she was facing.

What she saw was not a sight she'd have ever expected to ever see in all her 19 years. Her legs shook at the shock and she almost completely fell over her board.

Gliding along the water right next to her, right inside the tall wave, was the figure of... a girl.

Or was it a girl? It couldn't be. She looked human at first glance, but the more Jolyne's gaze moved sideways she noticed the long and impressive fish tail replacing what were supposed to be legs.

Jolyne's jaw felt slack. She felt like she was hallucinating. Believe it or not, she had not smoked or taken any recreative substances beforehand, but she truly wished she had because that would have at least explained what her eyes were showing her.

The girl swimming and following her only smiled, waving cutely with webbed hands, as if amused by Jolyne's disbelieving reaction and wide eyes.

"W-w-w.... What the fuck..???" Jolyne finally spoke after rebooting her entire brain, "No fucking way-...! A mermaid??!! A real one??!"

Like a bad trick from fate, the wave Jolyne was trying her hardest to not get swallowed by, seemed to grow weaker and weaker, shortening in size.

Jolyne saw the mermaid slowly retreat away in an elegant swim, her form vanishing into the deep blue.

"Wait, no!" The surfer called, almost desperate to have such a mystical meeting and ethereal moment be so short lived.

She reached her hand out to the creature, unsure of what she was even trying to do, but the force of the current got the best of her, and Jolyne lost balance, falling forward with nothing to hang onto for purchase.

Jolyne splashed onto the water and the wave died with her hope of ever living such a dream again.

"Ooohh dang it! You were almost there!" Hermes called out from the shore, her voice booming enough for Jolyne to hear as she broke into the surface.

"Fuck...." Jolyne cursed, hanging onto her board.

She felt defeated. Not because she couldn't ride that wave to the very end as she was expected to with her skill level, but rather because she couldn't immortalize that beautiful moment.

She blankly climbed onto her board again and barely even paddled her way back to land, too out of it to do so.

Was that even real? That had to be, right? She saw the mermaid. She saw her hair, her skin tone shined-on by the sun. She saw the scales over her skin, the fins along her arms and tail.

She saw her attack Romeo, he must have seen her too, Jolyne pondered.

"Aaah the champion is back!" F.F cheered as Jolyne finally walked back, drenched and with her plank under one arm. "I made a sandcastle for our ocean queen!"

"Thanks Foo..." Jolyne's small smile didn't not match her quiet tone.

"Hey, what's up, chula ? You look like you've seen a ghost, or something? You did great back there, so why the long face?" Hermes fixed the straps of Jolyne's bikini top and removed some seaweeds from her hair.

"It's just... I saw something weird it the water and I don't know..." Jolyne hesitated, "Maybe I was dreaming or something."

"Hum..." Hermes hummed in thought. "What do you think Féfé?"

"Maybe Mr. Jotaro can answer if you saw an animal? Damn, I'm thirsty." F.F stuck her tongue out, clearly expressing her thirst.

"Dude, there's water litterally everywhere here." The mexican grimaced before turning back to Jolyne. "But yeah, maybe you should ask your dad if that worries you so much."

"Uhh..."

Jolyne looked towards her father who was crouching somewhere next to some rocks, taking notes about mollusks, or so Jolyne guessed.

"Yeah, maybe not. It's fine though, no big deal." She smiled, waving her hand in dismissal.

Shrugging it all off, the girls decided to join Weather Report and Jotaro who brought food to finish the day at the beach with a relaxing touch.

And so, the day ended with an uncanny normalcy for Jolyne, who kept thinking more and more as the sun set, that it all had been in her mind. Mermaids didn't exist. It was probably a Stand user playing tricks on her.

That what she wanted to believe. When she thought of all the events that would follow, she truly wished she had spoken to her father about it. After all, if he had fought a very real vampire, then there would be no doubt that something as crazy as a mermaid could exist in her bizarre adventure.

Jolyne came back to the beach that same week. Alone, this time. She was careful to come by the time the sun started to lower in the sky and the temperature of the water and air dropped, knowing tourists and athletes would be gone by this time.

'What now?' She thought. Coming back out of sheer curiosity was a thing, but making sure she could attract the creature back to her was something else.

"Should I bring food? What do mermaids even eat? Does she like hot dogs...?" Jolyne thought out loud, looking around, secretly glad no one was here to hear her talk mad nonsense to herself like some insane crackhead.

She approached the water and drenched her feet in the small rocking waves, coming and going her way and gently splashing her. She hesitated for a moment, remembering that along with the legend of mermaids came the fact that these creatures were known to attract and enchant humans by their beauty, leading them to their inevitable death.

So maybe, Jolyne accepted, she was destined to die in the ocean.

Just as she came hip-deep into the sea, she felt a strange current shaking her legs, almost knocking her out of balance.

Before she could even process how strange it felt, she looked down into the clear water and saw no less than the same huge colorful fish tail she had seen that very day.

She gasped in realization and soon enough screamed as she felt calloused hands grab her thighs, the creature pushing herself out of the water to be met face to face with the human who had been, unbeknownst to Jolyne, her newfound fixation.

"Y-WHAAAAAHH!!!" Jolyne hollered, not expecting such a strong and surprising appearance.

The mermaid still halfway into the water, climbed and gripped up the girl's hips for leverage. She looked up at Jolyne's face, smiling wide and eyes glinting in both adoration and mischief.

"Greetings."

"HOLY CRAP-" Jolyne's voice cracked, "I mean- fuck yes! I mean-..."

Poor Jojo was completely out of it. But who could blame her, though? It was not everyday that one got to meet a real mermaid in the flesh. And certainly not such a handsy one.

She cleared her throat and mustered her most suave voice, pretending she wasn't completely flustered by the sheer beauty before her.

"Hi."

"I knew you'd come back..." The mermaid spoke, her voice almost ethereal and distant, "They always do."

Jolyne's heart wanted to stop. God, she felt burning hot and was sweating everywhere. Her voice stilled Jolyne to place in a way she couldn't explain. The legendary creature was so impossibly close to her, bodies almost touching.

She noticed she couldn't stay up overwater any other way than using Jolyne's lean body for leverage, her heavy tail anchoring her down. But the warm proximity between them and the sight of such a beautiful, rare and mystical creature right under her chest felt unreal and exciting.

Jolyne wanted to look her over for hours. Her hair texture, drenched and flowy, her skin tone glowing like gold, her holographic scales and fins shining like crazy diamonds.

"Why... Why did you...? Of all people...?" Jolyne questionned, now wondering if their first meeting in that wave was really a trick of fate, or if she was chosen in any way. "You attacked Romeo, yet you showed up to me... Why me?"

"I like beautiful humans." The mermaid smiled, her radiant features and smooth voice making Jolyne's legs weak, "You're beautiful."

The young surfer couldn't help her heart shaking and the wave of warmth spreading through her chest. If it was anyone else, she would boast her obvious beauty or maybe flip them off. But now she couldn't. Being complimented by a mythical being that was already the most gorgeous thing Jolyne had ever witnessed was truly something else

"What's your name?" Jolyne started.

"Call me Y/N."

Y/N, Jolyne's mind echoed. Cute. Even mermaids had names, she thought before realising that may be a very stupid thought to have. She didn't really know what else to expect.

"I uh, I'm Jolyne..." She looked down into the water, somewhat not daring to look at Y/N's adorable curious and sensual gaze. Oh god that was bad, she was entrancing.

"Not to be gay but...You look cute. Hot even. Can I say that? That's not weird, right? Since ya know... You're not exactly human, but you're not an animal either, like... I'm not gonna get arrested for this... I hope..."

"I'm not too familiar with human tongue, but I think Ms.Jolyne looks really pretty as well." Y/N moved to wrap an arm around Jolyne's waist, gripping her for better leverage and pointing at her chest, right in her reach. "Healthy mammals, great for feeding the young."

"Mammals...? Oh! You mean my boobs?" Jolyne glanced at her modest chest before grinning at the creature, "Aw thanks! Finally someone who likes them who's not some degenerate creep!"

Jolyne's chuckle died down and she finally took the time to look over Y/N's face. She ran a cold hand over her much warmer cheek, gliding it down to her gilled neck, mesmerized by her anatomy.

It truly was a one-in-a-lifetime meeting. Jolyne was slowly comprehending her luck to be met with a legendary sea creature like her. And a friendly one, at that.

How could this be even real? Our human knew that even though she was feeling relatively serene at the moment, the adrenaline would come down later and she would most likely cry herself to sleep.

"Hey uhm..." Jolyne was at a loss for words. There were so many things to say, but at the same time, she couldn't speak a word.

"Hm?" Y/N hummed and closed her eyes, enjoying the human's gentle touches.

Merfolks would express themselves via physical ministrations the most in the ocean, but she knew well a lot of humans did not share intimacies, or at least not before building a certain bond.

Glad that Jolyne was open to it, the sea-bound girl squeezed both her arms around the human's waist lovingly, forcing endearment on Jolyne, who felt her own heart tighten at the sweet and adorable embrace. The girls wanted to keep each other.

"Will we see each other again? I mean, I know you shouldn't be noticed by the public for your safety, but I don't know... Guess I took a liking to you or something." Jolyne mumbled, still resting her hands mindlessly around the creature's shoulders, fiddling with the ridges of her dorsal fin.

Y/N smiled, a smile that looked empty on her fish eyes, but sincere regardless. She let go of Jolyne who couldn't quite take her own hands off of her, clinging a little bit longer.

"Don't you know this, Ms. Jolyne? When human women die in the ocean, they relive as our kind."

"What? Really?" Jolyne let the mermaid get away slowly, ready to swim off to some unknown destination.

"If you want to see me again," Y/N called out cutely, waving her webbed hand like the very first time she saw Jolyne surfing, "Then perish in the ocean!"

She grinned, diving into the deep blue and splashing her tall tail strongly, giving herself a boost of speed, and disappearing away.

Jolyne could only stare into the horizon, darkening as the night arrived, stunned into place.

"...Ok, that was metal as fuck..."

H2O Just Add Water opening, but with Jolyne, Hermes and F.F

[nevertheless-moving]

Pop Star Wars AU: Waking

Drabble set in this au which I wrote way back a few weeks ago.

Back then, I had only recently decided to look up my tumblr password for a third attempt at being an appreciative fandom community member instead of just trying to think really hard at internet strangers, and maybe shout into the void a little. (But there’s like, several people here now??? How did you even find me on the internet? )

Anyway I have since learned how to spell Anakin’s name and insert links. Also that if you resize your window while typing directly into tumblr everything disappears.

Self Indulgent Crack Pop Star Wars Time Travel Fixit (star wars au no 3):

After several years of exile in the Jundland Wastes, Ben Kenobi had not quite finished mentally unpacking the decades of mistakes, grief, and failure that had led him to the desert. It was the work of a lifetime, and some days were harder than others. But after several forays in and out of alcoholism, spice addiction, and every other form of geographically-accessible self-destruction, he could at least say that some days were easier. 

The process was no doubt made more difficult by the abject solitude. Unlike the chaotic years that constituted the fall of the Republic, he had all too much time to think, and no one around to share his thoughts with. He closed his eyes in the dark of his hut, thoughts drifting between past and future. 

The past was as ugly and lovely as ever. The larger future didn’t look much better, but he could find some joy in the thought of tomorrow and fresh bantha milk when the herd roamed near. Owen was always much less begrudging of his presence when he came with an offering, and Beru would likely invite him to stay for noon meal where he would share in fresh cheese as Luke rambled about his plans to fix-up a junked speeder bike.

The thought of Luke’s happiness at the treat allowed him enough peace of mind to meditate more deeply.

He carefully broke off a piece of unfair-bitterness from his larger loving-grief. The bitterness he released into the force. The grief he turned over and soothed until its edges dissolved. He accepted it, now smoother if not smaller, laying it to rest alongside his hard-earned wisdom and unfinished poetry.

Tired, but fractionally lighter, Ben Kenobi drifted to sleep.

He opened his eyes to the first rays of daylight peeking in his temple chambers.

The room was intimately familiar. For a few years they were Ashoka’s, on the rare occasion she found herself temple-side and in want of privacy but not complete solitude. For a solid decade before her, the chambers were Anakin’s, though he was quick enough to accept the common room couch when Ashoka entered their life. And before that...they were his. That was his model rocket on the shelf, and his astronomical mobile hanging from the ceiling, and his robes scattered on the floor, though they hadn’t been arranged as such in this room since his apprenticeship with Qui-Gon. He sat up. 

Glad he had put energy into meditation last night, he used the lingering clarity of mind to try and work through possible explanations. 

Vivid Dream? No a quick pinch to his inner elbow debunked that, as well as the fact that the morning taste in his mouth was more the minty tang of denti-cleaner, rather than the saltiness of dried meat which he had grown accustomed to.

Hallucinogenic mushroom flashback? Possible, though it still wouldn’t explain the detail of physical sensations he felt, running his hand from the temple-spun linens on his bed to the warm-carved wood of his bedside table. He stood and did a perfect forward flip in place. Shockingly his knees didn’t ache at impact, but a drug induced hallucination of this intensity would have some sort of impact on his equilibrium, and he felt perfectly balanced, at least physically.

Force vision seemed most likely. Sinking into cross-legged meditation, he gradually lowered his mental shields. There was no whisper of Vader or Palpatine anywhere near Hutt space at this time, so the risk of reaching out was both manageable and necessary. Rather than the pure energy he personally associated with intense visions, he felt gradients of light, echoing ripples of emotions, and the unique solidity of force-imbued stone walls.

Heart beginning to race as reality set in, Ben concluded that he was, indeed, in the Jedi temple on Courascant. Even if he had suffered a complete psychotic break, his force sense couldn’t lie with such crystal clear detail. Confused unreality mixed with images of the past and future, sure. But this was the temple. It just was. 

He couldn’t make sense of it. Even if he had somehow been found, drugged, and transported to the heart of the empire, the rooms as he sensed them didn’t exist anymore. The contents were lost or burnt, the stone walls destroyed and rebuilt into a wing of the Imperial Palace.

Obi-Wan sank deeper into the force and reached out further, searching for he answers. In general, the force felt light, the shroud of the darkside was a hazy irritation in the distance, not a smothering blanket. The manifold wounds in the force formed by senseless war and destruction were absent. Also gone were the tang of grief and loss that he had begun to associate with the temple’s signature even before- even before the purge.

The temple was also full to the brim with tens of thousands of lights in the living force. He reached out to them incredulously, nudging many just to feel a living, sentient response. The last time he remembered feeling so many Jedi all in the temple at the same time was...well, when he still lived in this room. The nearest living force sensitive presence was achingly familiar, though notably and unquestioningly living. He could feel the presence moving nearer and retreated, pulling himself fully back into his body.

The only explanation that fit was that he had suddenly, miraculously, inexplicably traveled back in time. 

He half ran to his closet, opening the door with a yank to reveal a full length mirror. A once-familiar, 25-year old padawan stared back with visible shock. Of course his knees didn’t hurt, this body hadn’t yet been broken and abused by knighthood, war, and Tatooine. His hands examined the smooth chin, the unwrinkled forehead, and even the terrible, terrible haircut.

Obi-wan startled at a knock at his door, freezing in place. 

“Padawan?” Came Qui-Gon Jinn’s voice softly, “I don’t intend to pull you out of meditation prematurely, but is there a particular reason you were sprawling over the temple this morning? You startled me somewhat. To be perfectly honest, I think you might have alarmed a few people around the temple, I’ve already received messages from council telling me to reign in my padawan before he hurts himself.” 

Qui-Gon sounded more amused than reprimanding, and he paused, clearly waiting for an answer. 

Obi-Wan’s jaw locked up. What could he say? How could he even to begin to explain what had happened? He sank to floor, head pressed to the ground and tears silent streaming down his face. All he could do was offer to the force were words, the feelings could come later Thank you. Thank youThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU. 

For whatever reason, the force had granted him a second chance. Regardless if it was intended as punishment, gift, or inexplicable chance, he would build a better future than the one he left behind. 

“Padawan?” Qui-Gon knocked again, sounding concerned, “Are you alright? If you don’t answer I’m going to have to come in there.”

And all at once he had flipped back to not enough time to think and too many people needing his attention.

Obi-Wan managed to open his mouth to call out some meaningless assurance, intent on gaining more time to process the fantastical situation. Much to his surprise, what came out was a strangled, keening sob. Qui-Gon burst through the door. 

Obi-Wan realized, with a little embarrassment, that he was curled up practically into a ball on the floor, tears streaming in a shocking waste of water. It was probably not the most dignified, nor the most reassuring position for Qui-Gon to walk in on. 

Qui-Gon rushed to his side, pulling him up by the shoulders to frantically look him over. “What happened?” he demanded, “Are you hurt? Did something go wrong while you were meditating and you were trying to reach out for help?”

Obi-Wan smiled at the barrage of questions. He had almost forgotten that on the rare occasions when Qui-Gon’s perfect Jedi serenity broke, he became somewhat counterproductively intense. 

“I’m alright, Master,” he tried to say, but what came out was more of a croaking, “MNNrlerR.” 

This predictably, only increased Qui-Gon’s concern.

To Obi-Wan’s deep consternation, he was dragged by Qui-Gon to the healer’s wing. He remained quiet during the examination, not wanting to risk whatever was compromising his ability to speak. It could be readjusting to his younger body, or a manifestation of the admittedly great emotional shock he was still experiancing. Or simple lack of practice- it had been several weeks since he had last heard the sound of his own voice, from a certain point of view.

After finding no physical cause for concern, Master Vyr asked Qui-Gon to wait outside.

“Padawan Kenobi?” The Tortugan healer asked gently. “Your Master seems quite insistent that something is wrong. Would you like to discuss what the problem seems to be?”

Obi-Wan cleared his throat and was relieved when his voice came out smooth and under his control, “I’m alight, Master. I apologize for disruption. I experienced a... particularly strong vision when I woke up this morning, and temporarily lost control over myself. I’m already feeling more stable. I believe I simply need to meditate on what I’ve seen. My master unfortunately came in while I was dealing with some of the emotional aftermath.

“I see,” Vyr responded. “Did you experience this vision before or after your expansive foray into the force? I understand a surprising swath of the temple felt your presence press against them this morning.”

“I reached out after,” Obi-Wan admitted. “My vision was...particularly dark. I felt the need to ground myself with the presence of other Jedi. I’ll make certain to apologize to anyone I may have startled.”

Eventually he was cleared with the strict instruction to stick with shallow meditation for the next few days as well as a strong recommendation to seek out Master Yoda, Sifo-Dryfas, or one of the other Master known to experience visions. 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan walked back to their quarters together in a peaceful quiet. It wasn’t until the door clicked behind them that Qui-Gon rounded on his padawan.

“What vision could possibly have left you in such distress?”

Obi-Wan walked to the kitchenette to make tea, stalling before answering. “You have always told me to stay focused on the present, Master”

Qui-Gon frowned. “Yes, however this...vision seems to have altered you somehow. You are grieved by it.”

“Yes. But what I grieve may never come to pass.” 

It won’t come to pass. I might not know his every tool, but I do know Sideous’s biggest secret, and I WILL stop him.

“Will you not tell me what you saw?” Qui-Gon asked, sounding somewhat hurt.

Obi-Wan poured the hot water carefully, feeling torn. If he told Qui-Gon everything... would he believe him? Perhaps, eventually but...what would become of Anakin, still just a boy? And the moment he knew of Palpatine’s evil...he knew Qui-Gon. He would favor the direct approach, underestimating the sheer breadth of the trap the sith had laid (Obi-Wan himself lived through it and only began to understand long after it had closed).

“I saw...a great shadow fall over the republic.”

He sat at the table, relishing in the simple pleasure of pouring a cup for Qui-Gon and himself from a shared pot.

Qui-Gon cradled his mug in his hands. “I see. Nothing specific?”

“Your death. At the hands of a tool of darkness. You ran ahead...” Obi-Wan took a scorching sip to stop himself. “It was foolish. Unnecessary. And I was forced to fight alone without you.

Qui-Gon set the tea down to stroke his beard in thought. “Well. I have no great desire to die. While I make no promises, I will endeavor to avoid leaving you behind ‘unnecessarily.’”

“Thank you,” Obi-Wan replied, over sincere. 

They drank in peaceful silence. It was interrupted by a shrill noise from Qui-Gon’s comm.

“I’ve just received a personal request from the Chancellor to immediately assist in negotiations with a Trade Federation blockade around Naboo. Are you feeling up to it?”

“You know, I think I am”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Letter 27: 🐙 The Little Octopus who could 🐙

A letter arrives in the mail. The golden paper shimmers slightly in the light, boasting fluid cursive beneath a lilac banner littered with sea stars, shells, and peals. The Octavinelle emblem rests squarely in the center of the header.

A few coupons come with the letter, each exclaiming of meal deals at the Mostro Lounge. Buy one, get one 50% off! Free appetizer with any purchase of an entree! 10% off your total bill! (There was, of course, also a paragraph of fine print on each coupon detailing their terms and conditions.)

***Spoilers for chapters 3, 4, 5, and the Happy Beans Day event!***

Dear Prefect-san,

I hope that you are well. Surely you and Grim-san are not still living off of canned tuna? I would certainly hope not, but... With what meager allowance that the headmaster gives you, I doubt you have much money to allocate to the nonessentials.

In my infinite generosity, I have gone out of my way to afford you the opportunity to sample the Mostro Lounge’s wares. Please do pay us a visit when you are able; we would love to have your patronage. Ah, and please rest assured that there are no strings attached. Think of it as proof of moving forward from the past.

I will not go into detail regarding my childhood, but needless to say, I was not satisfied with my lot in life. I made an investment in myself and changed who I was, hoping to erase that one weak, pathetic “me” from the world. Deep down, I knew—I knew that no matter how many contracts I made, no matter how many prizes I accumulated, I would always cling to that past “me”. My beginning.

My kindness was a shallow one. It existed to reel in fools who desire a quick and easy fix to their problems. 25 people, 225 people, 225,000 people. The number mattered not. I could collect all the contracts in Twisted Wonderland, and perhaps still not be satisfied. I always wanted more and more, wanting to bury the memory of the “me” I once was, to prove my worth. I didn’t care who or what I had to take advantage of to climb higher and higher. My ambitions ate me alive.

But when that inky cloud of despair lifted, I saw the light piercing through the water. I felt a warm embrace from both sides. Jade and Floyd welcoming me back with snarky smiles. Why? I had lost everything, and yet I was not discarded. I had shown weakness, and yet I was forgiven. I was accepted. The good and the bad, the past and the present.

... Those were dirty tricks you pulled, employing those Savanaclaw brutes to lend you their assistance. Still, I suppose I cannot be dissatisfied with this conclusion. It was thanks to your combined efforts that I saw the light once more. If anything, I must applaud your craftiness. I’ve certainly underestimated you.

Since then, you’ve made my days a bit more lively. Floyd and Jade cause their fair share of trouble, but it is you that as brought some interesting things to the table. Crashing into Octavinelle during winter break, and urging us to assist with a matter in Scarabia... I certainly did not expect that. However, the incident did allow me to understand my dear classmate Jamil-san a bit more—and now Kalim-san is indebted to us, fufu. I have you to thank for that.

You’ve continued to entertain me outside of those tense incidents as well. Who could ever forget your friends’ VDC performance, or your pitiful attempt to defeat the Beast Team during Beans Day? So close to victory, and yet so far.

I came to Night Raven College to further my ambitions in magic and entrepreneurship. And yet, I also find myself having fun these days. Perhaps... this is what was missing from my childhood, what the past “me” never had: community.

Both in business and in life... walking alone is a difficult path. I doubt the Mostro Lounge can function as smoothly as it does without the work of my staff. And... I doubt I would be as successful as I am without the support of my most trusted business partners, Jade and Floyd. No. Maybe... maybe it would be more fitting to say that I consider them to be my confidants. My... friends.

Moving forward, I still plan to expand the operations of the Mostro Lounge (though admittedly this time without claiming Ramshackle dorm in a contract) . It will not be a venture I take on alone—because I am not alone, not anymore. And the past “me” that I once shunned, the bitter, sad octopus that couldn’t swim at the same speed as his classmates... I will take his hand and wipe away his tears, carrying him with me into the future.

That vulnerable “me” is not my weakness—it is my impetus for change.

Prefect-san, you have my sincere gratitude for helping me along to that conclusion. That is why I am willing to hear out your troubles, should you need it. Of course, there will always be a price to pay—but for you, perhaps I can arrange a small discount.

I hope to have your business at the Mostro Lounge.

At your service,

🐙 Azul Ashengrotto 🐙

Octavinelle Dorm Leader

Mostro Lounge Owner and Manager

Board Game Club Member

Second Year NRC Student

P.S. Please purge any memories you may have of my child self or me crying immediately.

P.P.S. Please do NOT mention the contents of this letter to Jade or Floyd. I know they will tease me mercilessly once they catch wind of this.

[novelconcepts]

omg can you do a print of damie in canon just interacting with flora bc i would love that

She’s lost Flora. 

There is, Dani thinks with the forced calm of one already beginning to spiral, little cause to panic. The house is big, but it’s not that big--and Flora is a good kid. She’s not exactly prone to just wandering off. She certainly wouldn’t, say, vanish from sight and reappear somewhere unexpected, suddenly acting like she didn’t entirely remember the time in between.

That doesn’t sound like Flora at all.

She isn’t running, per se, from room to room. Running would suggest there is a problem to be handled, and if she starts thinking along those lines--if she starts obsessing about Flora’s distinctly off-putting way of gazing over her shoulder, of saying things just a little too odd to be hand-waved away, of looking at Dani as though she can see straight through her to the unease thrumming under the surface--well. That way lies nothing useful. Nothing at all.

“Have you seen Flora?” The kitchen had seemed a good bet. Here, after all, is Owen, puttering away over the ingredients for the evening’s meal, his mood somber as he uses the manor to avoid reflecting on his mother’s upcoming funeral. Here is Hannah, dutifully rearranging the china, pretending not to steal glances at Owen’s lanky frame every few seconds. That spot at the table is made for Flora, little legs hanging off the chair, brimming with questions--

But Flora isn’t there, and Owen is shaking his head. 

“Not since lunch. Lost her, have you?”

No, she almost snaps. A count of three, a long-held breath; she smiles tightly, reminding herself that this is not Owen’s fault, nor Owen’s job. The children will be your responsibility alone, after all. 

“She’s quick,” she says instead. Hannah purses her lips.

“Perhaps upstairs with Miles?”

She isn’t. Miles, bent over a book with a solemn expression, blinks up at her as though she’s dragged him by the shirt collar out of the actual wardrobe to Narnia. 

“She asked me to color--what time is it?”

“Two,” Dani says, sparing the briefest glance for her watch. He shrugs. 

“An hour ago, I think? I told her to ask Hannah.” A flash of concern crosses his face, a too-adult creasing of brow. “Was that wrong? I just wanted to finish my book--”

“It’s fine,” Dani assures him, ruffling his hair. Too-adult, his expression may be, but this is the most kid she’s seen Miles in days. The last thing she wants is to dissuade him from reading, or from the loose sprawl of his posture. 

An hour, though. In the days since coming to Bly, Dani can’t remember twenty minutes passing without Flora turning up underfoot. 

Outside, she thinks with another swell of barely-restrained panic. She’s outside. By the lake, probably, where Flora can so often be found keeping company with dolls and talismans and snatches of ethereal song. 

It isn’t exactly a reassuring thought, particularly with summer rain sluicing down the windows, scattering over the roof like pellets. A storm, it isn’t, but an eight-year-old girl has no business wandering in weather like this. 

You'd have loved it, at her age, Dani reminds herself. There’s nothing at all wrong with a little girl puddle-jumping for the sheer joy of it. Flora probably got bored, cooped up with a bunch of busy adults and her brother uninterested in playing games. She’s fine. She’s almost certainly fine.

An umbrella is waiting beside the door, still damp from Owen’s trip in before breakfast. Dani takes a breath, pops it open, steels herself for the brisk wind. 

The grounds are gray, the puddles turning the grass to a squelchy mess beneath her shoes. She keeps her head up, her eyes carefully turned away from the puddles which sit like recklessly-dropped mirrors at every turn; if she so much as glances down and spots a flash of glasses, she’s not sure she’ll be able to keep her composure. 

Flora is not by the lake, as it turns out. Nor the statue gardens. Nor the rose bushes. Flora is nowhere, she’s starting to think, and her mind is finally turning toward the worst--toward the depth of that lake, how easily a small girl might slip off the embankment and tumble headlong into its hungry waves without notice--when she remembers the greenhouse.

Jamie will help. The thought rises without warning, a solid patch of sunlight at the center of the storm. Jamie will help--because Jamie knows every corner of these grounds as well as her own hands. Jamie, who maybe doesn’t know Dani all that well, but didn’t seem to mind offering gentle reassurance, exchanging unexpectedly deep conversation on the couch...or Dani taking her hand in the dark. Jamie, who had said, Who the hell knew? Jamie, who had worn an expression a little like awe.

They haven’t had time to talk about it since, but even so. Even so, for Flora, Jamie is sure to--

She hesitates at the door, fist raised to knock. It feels foolish, rapping on the entry to a greenhouse like it’s Jamie’s own bedroom--but this is, she reasons, as close to Jamie’s home as she’s ever likely to get. 

“Jamie, are you...”

“Here,” her voice comes from somewhere just out of sight. Dani takes a cautious step in out of the rain, jostling the umbrella and pulling it hastily shut. Best not to invite bad luck--she’s certainly already had her share. 

“I’m looking for Flora,” she calls, feeling a bit silly. There’s so much going on in this room--plants and tables, pots and a variety of outdoor furniture draped with old blankets. Normally, Jamie is easy to spot amid the riot of greens and pinks, her hands busy coaxing seedlings to life. Today, Dani feels as though she’s tripped and fallen into a game of hide and seek. 

“Don’t have to look far,” Jamie’s voice comes again--from behind the sofa, Dani thinks. “C’mere.”

“Miss Clayton!” Flora pipes up, and Dani feels the tension leave her body in a violent rush. Her hand grips the nearest table for support, her eyes closing in relief. “Come color with us”

“Come--sorry?” She can’t have heard right. Jamie? Jamie the gardener, putting aside work and temper to waste an afternoon on crayons?

Yes--yes, that appears to be exactly what Jamie is doing. Sprawled on her stomach, still dressed in her coveralls, she’s got a blue crayon in hand and a green one tucked behind her ear. She glances up as Dani steps nearer, a smile lighting her face. 

“Kid came stumbling in out of the rain an hour ago. Expect she didn’t think to warn you in advance?”

“Sorry.” Flora offers a sheepish smile, sitting up quickly. “Are you very cross?”

“No, of course not.” Just going to need a minute to purge the image of finding you facedown in the goddamned lake, is all. “Next time, though, you’ll have to tell me you’re leaving the house alone. I need to know where you are at all times, Flora.”

She expects Jamie to scoff at this--to say, Ah, she was with me, she’s fine. Instead, Jamie stretches over to land a sharp flick on Flora’s upper arm. 

“Rude to make Poppins worry. Look, she’s gone all pink.” She looks up at Dani, grinning. “Not a bad look, if we’re in the market for honesty.”

Dani suspects pink is the lightest shade she can manage, with Jamie gazing at her that way. It’s too easy, all of a sudden, to remember an unexpectedly soft hand under her own fingers, Jamie turning reflexively at the wrist to hold her back. 

“I’m terribly sorry,” Flora says, a phrase Dani is starting to think is more Flora than even perfectly splendid. “Here--I was just about to do one of you!”

Jamie gestures with the blue crayon, a silent suggestion for Dani to sit beside her. “Might as well. Rain doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon.” She lowers her voice, eyes fixed on Flora’s determined rummage through the crayon box. “Sorry about that, Poppins. Know she’s been unpredictable lately, didn’t like the idea of her stumping around in the cold. If I’d known you were worried--”

“It’s all right.” In truth, she’s glad Flora made her way out here. Growing more pleased by the moment with this development, really, as Jamie slides a blank sheet of paper in front of her and presses a purple crayon into her hand. 

“Join us. We’re doing portraiture.”

“I can see that,” Dani laughs. Jamie’s handiwork speaks of a distinct lack of care for detail--each sketch on her page is, at best, a stick figure with a single defining feature. “How does Owen hold up his head, carrying a mustache the size of his torso?”

“With minimal decorum,” Jamie says, grinning. “And she’s right, it’s your turn.”

Dani suspects she’s going less pink, more a volatile shade of maroon, with both parties squinting at her face, their papers, her face again. Flora is doing her very best work, taking several minutes just to select the closest shades of blue, yellow, pink. Jamie makes an enormous production of holding up a crayon, closing one eye, gauging proportions--and then, cheerfully, scrawling a figure identical to the other four already on the page. 

“I’m taller than Hannah?” Dani asks, unable to resist a giggle. Jamie frowns.

“Ah, you’re...standin’ on a crate.” She adds a box beneath Dani’s non-existent feet with a flourish, nodding. “There. It’s symbolic.”

“Of what?”

“I’ve ranked you all on how much I like you. Takin’ into account, of course, certain accusations pointed my way regarding mud and shiny floorboards.” Jamie winks. Dani finds herself gripping her crayon almost hard enough to hurt. 

“You’re not drawing, Miss Clayton!” Flora observes. Dani glances away from Jamie’s smile--a difficult act only a few days ago, nearly impossible now--and clears her throat. 

“Well. Maybe just until the rain stops.”

There are, she thinks as a comfortable quiet settles over the greenhouse, infinitely worse ways to spend her afternoon. 

[author-morgan]

This why we have AO3, they're constantly trying to fight for fanfiction to exist on their own. Writers have presented people with lawsuits because they don't like what people are writing about and tumblr has decided okay, its fine, monetize your work. Even with Kofis, you're playing with fire. That's why I extremely dislike authors who put works behind paetron. If it's not original content that you created by you, you don't get that right to be like I'm going to make money off of it. Especially with Disney and Nintendo, if you're making money off their properties, they will find out and send a cease and desist letter, telling you, if we catch you again, we will sue you and we don't care if you at McDonald's. People who are jumping into this and not understanding fanfiction's past. Websites would be deleted overnight and thousands of fics lost, has anyone seen fanfiction.net? That's on its last leg, people are talking about it only has 3 or 4 more years left until its deleted. They had major purges of nsfw content, changed their terms of service to appease people who were coming after of them. This is why AO3 exist to protect fanworks and to protect your favorite writers from getting sued out of their asses and people don't get it

T H I S. AO3 is a godsend, especially for fanfic writers, and I hate seeing people drag it for not being 'aesthetically pleasing' like Wattpad. The volunteers at AO3 are doing a lot more to protect us from being taken to court over fanfic than people at Wattpad and Tumblr.

People really have forgotten the roots of fandom and the struggles people endured for us to be able to enjoy fanworks, safely, on various platforms now. The best way to stay safe? Don't paywall your fanworks. And if you do take commissions or advertise 'donations' or participate in Post+ for fanworks, then know the risks you're taking by doing that. And know that it could very well mean the end of Tumblr. I buy into FF.net being on its last leg, but for more reasons beyond copyright. One time I used my login info and was signed into someone else's account, big oof, and support still has not supplied an answer about how that happened. But it's true, FF.net is a prime example of what can happen. FF.net is a hot mess and has been for as long as I've known it existed, they do not even allow fics in second POV (so none of my reader fics ever get posted there) and, gods yes, the purges are notorious (the scary thing? Wattpad is literally following the same model of purging NSFW content —yet they allow NSFW content in their paid stories). People need to be aware of the past and what had to happen for fandom spaces to exist without running the risk of having lawsuits taken out, or you know, getting entire websites taken down. The best way to repay your favorite fandom content creators? R E B L O G. It's free, it's showing support for the creator, and it takes all of 10 seconds to do (maybe a few more if you need to scream or keyboard smash in the tags).