#maybe one of those with a few skulls and some random stuff as background

[multishipper-baby]

Thinking more about my future AU because tbh Fox and Bonnie both look like the type to get tattoos once they become adults. Not sure what type tho.

[spaghettiddy]

♡ Eddie Munson random headcanons ♡

Random headcanons - in some of them the reader is mentioned and it can be read as gender neutral, romantic or platonic. (No use of Y/N)

Contents and warnings: nothing really :) maybe a little bity if fluff. (664 words)

A/N: i’ve been collecting these in my journal in the past few days, beacuse yes, sometimes i write by hand about a man in my journal like an infatuated 19th century woman! Some are quite long, more like short drabbles. (English is not my first language so be kind :))

Eddie loves when his friends and partner give him drawings or little notes. He acts cool when he gets them, because they're often for the d&d campaign or they’re simple christmas cards, but then reads them when he’s alone in his room, smiling to himself. He keeps them in a shoebox and hangs up on his walls the drawings he likes most. (OMG if he ever met Will! !! Aaaahhh)

THRIFT KING. He spends the money he makes by dealing on music gear, so he has a limited budget for stuff like clothes. He's been doing it for a while now so he has a precise itinerary of thrift stores around Hawkins, fidelity cards, and all. He even once did that thing of hiding a jacket he wanted between other clothes and came back the next day with enough money to buy it. When he comes back, he puts on a little fashion show for you and explains in detail how he’s going to modify the clothes to match his style. (We’ve all seen those pictures of Joseph Quinn trying the different versions of the costume. That's the vibe. Chaos basically. )

Every Christmas and birthday he gets his uncle a new hat and has been since he was in elementary school. It turned into a tradition and now uncle Wayne proudly displays his collection in the trailer living room (you can actually see them in the show in the background and in that backstage tour of the van)

When he’s having a tough day, he goes to skull rock with his walkman and/or a book. He likes the walk from and to his house the most, it’s an opportunity to clear his mind and spend some time alone. He's been doing it for a few years and more than once he had to go back home because the spot was already taken by a couple. He didn’t know him personally yet, but at least twice the rock was occupied by Steve and the girl he was going out with at that time.

He read in a magazine that some metal band members use women’s perfume as an act of rebellion and provocation. So, he bought one and wears it, hoping that if anyone smells it they think it rubbed off a girl he was with, instead of making fun of him.

Asks you to help him collect bottle caps, can tabs and safety pins to make diy pins. He always makes an extra few to give you as a thank you.

Kind of an arsonist, out of curiosity though. He just has to set fire to different small objects and materials. He knows they will just burn but what if this time something else happens, doesn’t even think about how the something else might be something dangerous, like a small explosion or toxic fumes.

He has an ever-changing, but very detailed list of tattoos and piercings to get in the future. Yes, it includes at least one nipple piercing and a tramp stamp. He says it's not a tramp stamp, but the position and design say otherwise.

His weirdly specific childhood interest was Norse mythology. He still remembers some very specific events and details and adapts them to put in the D&D campaigns. Just imagine the joy of little Eddie learning there was a god of mischief!? It took him a while to spell mischief correctly but he got there.

When you spend the night at his and have breakfast together, he insists on doing stupid stuff, and you have to go along even if you’re still waking up. You have to throw him cheerios, because it’s fundamental to know how many he can catch with his mouth at 9 in the morning on a Friday. And you have to pour him maple syrup on the pancakes, and also directly in his mouth still full of cereals, because he doesn’t want to get his fingers sticky.

Eddie hates the feeling of stepping on anything like sand, grass or rocks barefoot, so when you go to Lovers' lake, he jumps on strangers' towels on his way to and from the water.

[brandstifter-sys]

Sonnets

Word Count: 2144 (Ao3)

Pairing: Dukexiety with some Creativitwins

Rating: T+

Warnings: Sexual themes, brotherly angst, talk of death

Roman finds a journal and assumes it’s Remus’ but when Remus says it’s not his Roman leaves him with it, so he has some time to read. Little does he know what will come from perusing that book.

-----

Remus was chaos, he didn't bend to anyone else's rules unless he wanted to. Almost nothing was off the table for him—gore, violence, monsters, pain—but he had limits. Don't steal Janus' hat when he isn't holding or wearing it, because an angry Janus meant silence, or worse being silenced and alone. Never ever get too gross with Patton, because he will scream and cry and flash those hideous puppy dog eyes! Stay at least 6 feet away from Logan or suffer through a lecture on how little influence the duke held. Never let Roman hurt himself so bad he can't heal. And never ever read Virgil's diaries. 

Remus was happily throwing shurikens at a large canvas with paint balloons, having fun despite only hitting the ones filled with red. It was just a little annoying to only have one color on a solid white background, and even more annoying when it was Roman's colors staring at him. Roman hadn't been much of a good brother in the past few years, and it stung to think about how they drifted apart. How almost everyone ran from him to Roman. It hurt to be so lonely. 

"Greetings, Your Disgrace!" Roman said as he entered the castle atrium suddenly. Remus threw another star that lodged itself in the canvas with a splash and a thump, and grinned manically at the unsettled prince. 

"Well if it isn't MacBetty himself!" Remus said and cracked his neck sharply, "What hell did I probably unleash on you today?" 

"Don't flatter yourself," Roman scoffed and held up a black journal with sparkling green trim, "You left this in the common area." 

"Did I?" he asked and righted his head with a sickening pop. He was as bad as Roman about collecting cool journals and never filling them, so it could be his, even if he didn't recognize it. Roman handed it to him and crossed his arms. 

"It would appear so. If Logan yells at me for leaving my notes lying about, he will certainly yell at me for yours." 

Remus hummed softly and ran his fingers over the cover, ignoring the jab. The trim pricked his fingers as they glided over it. It was a nice journal, but definitely not something he conjured up. He supposed it might have been a gift, but that would mean someone made something for him—someone other than Janus, and maybe just one other side, but he remembered every gift Virgil ever gave him.

"He likes to yell. Are you sure this is mine?" he questioned, still learning the rise and fall of the trim.

"I assumed, considering the design. I don't like to open other people's journals," Roman answered. Remus knew he was scared of leafing through it, probably expecting some security monster popping out the second he opened it. He didn't blame him for that one, but it stung nonetheless.

"Me neither, but now I'm curious!" Remus laughed and opened to a random page. It was all hand-written poetry. Interesting!

"It's a poetry book! Wanna hear one? It could be a hint!" Remus wiggled his eyebrows. Roman let out a short sigh but went tense. 

"I have other things to do. I came to drop off the book and now I must depart. Farewell." Roman bowed and sank out with flourish. He left far too quickly for comfort.

"Love you too, nice seeing you again, don't be a stranger," Remus pouted and went back to his room, too bummed to paint anymore. 

  He rose up and flopped on his bed with the journal open. Some angsty poetry might make him feel better. He got comfy and let his eyes traverse the page

My mouth is dry Sugary sweet and kind Choking me with my own tongue Out of everything, that saccharine isn't a lie

Remus pursed his lips. That one was really short, and with the talk of lies, he had to wonder. Was this actually Roman's? Did he want to share this with him covertly? Remus bit back a squeal at the thought and kept reading with some hope. 

Lost in translation Obstinate and selfish Get over yourself Avoidance builds pressure Never any quiet when you snap

Remus giggled, knowing exactly who that one was about! Someone pissed the author off! And he knew that that person pissed Roman off a lot! He turned the page, expecting to learn more about this author, believing they could be his brother wanting to reconnect. He was a little surprised to find a skull doodled in the corner but brushed it off.

I want to pull him from the shadows and into my heart Will he see me? Will he disappear if I reach for his hand? Am I blind and staggering in desperation? Someone like him would be better without me Someone like him deserves someone better No star deserves to succumb to a black hole

That one hurt. Remus wiped away the tears forming in his eyes. He knew that feeling all too well. The one side who made him want to obey, the side that made his heart flutter like the bats in his tummy—that side was his best friend and then he left. He missed his partner in crime and he wished that Virgil would come back, just for a visit, and spend time with him again. But that wasn't happening and he had a whole book to read about an author he could really connect with, Roman or not.

He went through several poems that were angsty and angry, full of self-loathing. With each piece he read, the more he doubted it was Roman. The language wasn't formal enough and it didn't match his style at all! It was good stuff, most of it, and Remus kind of hoped the real author would be willing to collaborate with him. He liked this guy.

Like the sun overhead, you're on fire The big man has a little golden boy Pompous and cruel with haughty desire Which one of us are you gonna destroy?

Darkness and shadow that cannot be lit Overshadowing you to make it stop Use that hubris to land another hit I'll keep fighting until the curtains drop

You think you're Hercules when you're so weak Rise like a phoenix Icarus, just try  Maybe you'll learn what it means to be meek Until that day you won't see me cry

I will rain on your parade every damn time Stopping stupidity is my worst crime

Okay so that one threw him for a loop. It would take a few minutes to piece it together. Remus decided that he could assume it was about Roman this time. Princey loved the classics and he had a pet phoenix. This author had some beef with him! Remus hoped for more anger at Roman with the next poem, because he certainly had enough pent up with the snobby, best-friend stealing, always got the spotlight prince. He didn’t get that catharsis, he got more than he bargained for.

I find comfort in breathing in his scent Even if his hands are mine for tonight If he asks, I don't know where his clothes went What I'm doing is wrong but it feels right

If I close my eyes I can taste his kiss A dream in a nightmare clouding my mind Hearing my name on his lips would be bliss To pin him down, our fingers intertwined

I long to stare into piercing jade pools So he thinks of me while I stake my claim I want him to never want to let go I always thought that love was just for fools But on his green sash, love, or something, came I almost regret that he'll never know

This was definitely not a book the author wanted to share. Remus was pretty sure that his face was going to melt off. Now he really wanted to figure out who wrote these! Someone actually liked him like that at some point! It definitely wasn't Princey in that poem—Remus still had the sash mentioned! He was just the tiniest bit turned on, but most of his hype went into his famous wiggles.

"You're so dead!" 

Remus jolted up and beamed. Virgil never stopped by anymore, so when he popped up threateningly, Remus was too happy to care or put the pieces together.

"And how do you wanna kill me? I have some suggestions!" he sang and shimmied. Virgil scowled and crossed his arms. 

"Have Janus wipe your memory and give it back." 

"What, the book?" Remus questioned and held it up. Virgil snatched it and held it to his chest protectively. Remus' eyes widened in horror.

"You wrote all that?! And I read it!? Oh no no no no no! I had no idea—I'll get Hisster Myde and scrub it away with steel wool! Dammit I am so sorry, Sca–Virgil!" Remus yelped and got up to pace. His only rule about Virgil, broken! The only rule he wanted to follow—tarnished!

"Were you about to call me 'Scabby Doo' again?" Virgil scoffed, hiding the fear and hurt he felt. 

"No, 'Scare Bear,' something kinda cute but that’s not important right now!" Remus answered, "I read your stuff without asking! I might be a crazed Camus Stranger boy, but I have some standards!" 

"Remus. Breathe. You're gonna wipe this trash from your memory and it'll be okay," Virgil tried to soothe him, only for the duke to go rigid. 

"Trash!?" Remus snarled and spun on his heels and marched up to Virgil until the lumbering emo hit the wall, confused and scared. 

"It's not trash! I know trash! I eat it for breakfast! That book holds some of the best stuff my critical creative ass has read in ages!" Remus snapped and glared up at him with a fire in his eyes. 

"What?" 

"Those poems are great! I was gonna find the author and beg on my knees like a needy subby bitch to collab with him because holy shit! I felt something with each one!" 

"Even the one with the skull doodle on the page?" Virgil squeaked, his face a beautiful shade of red. Remus smiled sadly. 

"Yeah, that one hit a little too close to home. I got all teary eyed. Thinking about it now after reading that saucy sonnet, it really hurts!" 

"I uh—" Virgil stammered, "I'm, uh, 'm sorry for the sash and the whole—"

"If you apologize for anything else I am going to lip wrestle that apology away!" Remus cut him off, "Because dammit, Virgil, I love you, even if you don't feel the same way anymore. No more self-hate and no more doubting yourself." 

"Puppy," Virgil said and finally took back some control, guiding Remus back and having him sit down, "I can't promise I'll be able to stop that completely, but if you can stand a little bit of it, I wouldn't mind making that collab a date." 

"Really!?" Remus grinned making Virgil's eyeshadow turn purple, "Can we paint too? And watch scary movies? And make out? And then try and woo each other with some dark prose until one of us caves and asks the other to be his boyfriend? And then f—" 

"Yeah," Virgil cut him off and pressed a finger to Remus' lips, "Except for the part about caving. Will you–I mean, only if you want to, would you–and it’s cool if you say ‘no’ since things might be a little weird but—”

“Band-aid, Emoraptor!” Remus cut him off, like he used to do back in the day when Virgil started down one of his nervous tangents.

“Maybe be my boyfriend now?" Virgil said quickly and winced.

"Yes!" Remus cheered and dragged Virgil into a hug, tumbling on the sheets, "Loom over me like a cypress tree and stay with me until I taste death for a night." 

"Stay here and cuddle until we pass out like touch starved gremlins? Only if you visit me in the abyss until this world calls," Virge mused and wrapped his arms around the duke, curling around him protectively. 

"And then the next," Remus hummed softly and kissed his hand, “But you’re always in my dreams!” Virgil buried his face in Remus’ neck and smiled against his skin. Who would have thought that they would wind up here?

Roman sat on his bed and stared at the collage of pictures he had on the wall. In the very center was an old drawing of him and Remus in front of a castle. He sighed wistfully and stared at it, admiring Remus' work. He hoped that sneaking into Virgil's room was worth it—he wanted Remus to be happy even if he couldn't provide that joy. Maybe one day he’d be able to, but until then, he hoped he got his best friend and brother together to make some amends if not more.

[findingtheperfectcharacter]

Writers block

Unsymptober day 4!

@unsympathetic-october-2020

Tw: Unsympathetic Virgil, Sympathetic Roman, Roman Angst

"Who'd read this crud?" Virgil snickered as he read the first line of Roman's concept. Roman sighed and put down his pen, so it was gonna be one of those days huh?

"It's a heartwarming tale -"

"It's cliche." He rolled his eyes, "Oh wow, 5 high schoolars from different social backgrounds are forced to work together. Real original stuff here Breakfast Club. What's next, a prince saving a princess from mortal terror."

Roman shook his head, it's okay, he knows what he's doing he can get this to work. He can work past Virgil's brown eyes hard and cold as steel refusing to let him in. He can show him how this was going ti work, It's not just the concept! It's the characters." He quickly found the folder with some of his basic sketches... He'll admit that he'd thrown a few of these into Thomas's mind when he slept but if he could let Virgil get them through so he and Thomas could expand on them-

"No."

Roman stopped in his mental tracks, "What? You can't just... Say no?! Virgil," he could feel a lump start to form in his throat. Don't cry Roman, don't cry right now he'll make fun of you for being so sensitive and than you'll never manage to get this idea to Thomas. "Virgil I-I know you don't think this idea looks good enough, but I worked really hard creating it! I think it might finally be our big one, our final effort to being knighted as the greatest creative minds that have ever lived."

Virgil sighed and put a hand on Roman's shoulder, "Princey, Princey, Princey. Of course you think that, you're Thomas's hopes and dreams or whatever. But reality check, your ideas are stupid." Roman flinched.

"And bad." It was getting harder to keep his tears from welling up in his eyes, his head started to pound from how hard he was clenching his jaw.

"And they're not going to get us anywhere. You might as well throw these out because I can’t imagine anyone caring about this.” Roman nodded, and put the folder back in his drawer, “Right. You’re right of course.” 

Of course he was right. What was he even thinking! He took a second to glance at his main heroine, yeah who’d care about her secret stamp collecting hobby and how she’d use it to bond with the foreign exchange student- who’d even make it that far! It was too boring. He swallowed, he could do way better than this!

He gave a small smile, “I’ll start preparing something new, something better! Something worthy of showing to Thomas, and maybe.” He did sparkle hands around his face, “The world.” He hated how much his voice shook despite his attempts to keep it stable. 

Virgil looked at his nails, “Yeah, I’m kind of starting to doubt that. How long have you been trying to find this mystical wonderful worthwhile story anyway?” Romans took a shuddered breath, don’tcrydon’tcrydon’tcry-

“Our entire lives, and everything that’s come out of it has been trash. Yeah we have what a few dozen 12 year old kids who are deluded into thinking your work is worthwhile, but that’s about it.” He shrugged, “Let’s be honest, you’re just not good at this whole ‘creating’ thing.” 

Roman couldn’t help himself, he tried to blink them away but the tears just fell down his face with the force and heat of flaming arrows attacking a castle.

Virgil rolled his eyes, “Oh great, here come the waterworks, look Roman I’m just telling the truth.” 

He’s right, he’s right, he’s not doing anything wrong. He’s just trying to help and here Roman was crying like some sort of child. 

“Why do you have to be so sensitive?” 

Why couldn’t he just stop crying and listen? Everything was blurring around him, Virgil’s naturally quiet voice boomed around his head cracking his skull? Was that why his head hurt so much? Or maybe it was his stupid crying, stupid, stupid, why couldn’t he just stop.

Virgil rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Tell me when you have a better idea. Or if you decide to quit so we can finally move on with our lives from this illusion. See ya.”

Roman heard the door to his room close behind him as Virgil left. He stumbled back to his desk, and with a shaky hand picked up his folder again. He hated it. He hated that he tried, he hated that he was wasting his time and Thomas’s time and everyone’s time with this worthless piece of junk. He needed to get rid of it. He walked over to the fireplace in the corner of his room and threw it in. The fireplace lit up with a pink light. In the smoke he saw the final remains of the concept, the Indian exchange student with cute braided hair, the heroine sharing her stamp collection with her, small moments and random words that he was inspired by.

Moments that would now never see the light of day.

He took another breath, his lungs felt exhausted and heavy, “Alright Roman, new-new starts. You’ve done this before. By the snakes of Medusa you’re the Prince of Creativity! If anyone can make a good story in this place it’s you! Who even are you if you can’t.” He nodded to himself and moved his chair to sit at his desk. He cracked his knuckles. “Time to try again.”

He stared at the blank piece of paper in front of him, pen in hand ready to right.

He stared at the blank piece of paper.

He stared

He

H

He couldn’t. 

His brain felt empty. Why-

He banged his head on his desk?

Who was he if he couldn’t even create?

------------------------------------------------------

Thomas blinked as he sat in front of the blank word document. It was so weird, he could have sworn a second ago he had a hint of an idea. Something about... Stamps? No stickers? He moved his hand over his keyboard but for some reason nothing was coming to him. In fact, writing felt like a really bad idea right now. It felt wrong, he felt... Tired. Forget it, even if it wasn’t a great use of time, at least eating Cheetoes and watching Youtube videos would make him feel better.

Stupid writers block.

[valkyrieofsmut]

Captive Love   25

UF!Sans x Reader (or Frisk if you wanna)

Summary: Papyrus yells at Sans to get his shit together, but he's a mess... AKA Sans gets drunk... and remembers some things from the past... that he'd really rather not..

A/N: There is some... possibly triggering events... experiments and tiny skele abuse... little Papyrus is too cute and sweet... Also mentioned possible death. It, as usual, is separated with the ~~~ and should be (at least mostly) safe again at the next set, safe summary in the end..

Masterlist      Series Masterlist

Story

Blackout.

Sans rolled over in his bed, feeling like the scars on his chest were going to break through and destroy his soul. 

The sun blared outside, shining into his sockets. 

"fuck off," he growled, rolling back over. 

Papyrus pounded on the door, making the sounds reverberate through his skull. He couldn't tell if it was louder than normal, or it just sounded like it to his throbbing skull. 

"GET YOUR STUPID, LAZY ASS UP, SANS!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!! I KNOW YOU WENT OUT DRINKING AGAIN LAST NIGHT, LIKE THE FUCKING MORON THAT YOU ARE!! YOU'D BETTER BE DOWNSTAIRS IN FIVE MINUTES, OR I'M COMING BACK UP HERE FOR YOU!! YOUR STUPIDITY IS NO EXCUSE TO BE A LAZY DRUNK MORON!!"

 . 

The day was hell- actually, life was hell at the moment… 

His brother yelled at him about how stupid he'd been every chance he got- like he didn't already know that he'd royally fucked up. 

Every place he went reminded him of something he'd shown, or wanted to show (Y/n), her excitement at all the different things she'd never seen before had warmed his soul every time. 

Each time someone asked where his pet was made his soul thrum and ache to be close to her. ...and punch the person in the face… She was so much more than the pet they'd had to pretend she was. 

Every time he got Grillby's, he remembered her face of delight as she ate it for the first time. 

Every bite of his brother's food reminded him that she'd been there and helped him get better at cooking. 

Every time he rolled over in bed and smelled her scent caught on the pillow, or the sheets… 

And then there was the time he'd gotten back from drinking, and had been stumbling around drunk in his room, kicking random stuff on the floor, only to discover a pair of her underwear that he'd probably tossed in the corner in his haste to get to her. 

That had made him collapse in a heap of self hatred and regret. 

.

Sans sat at the table, stabbing his fork at his dinner aimlessly. 

“I MADE YOU A WONDERFUL, DELICIOUS, HOME COOKED MEAL! DON’T FIDGET WITH IT AND ACT LIKE IT’S THE TRASH YOU FILL YOURSELF WITH AT THAT GREASE TRAP,” Papyrus snapped at him. 

“sorry, boss…” 

Papyrus clenched his jaw, staring at his own fork pushing around a bite longer than necessary. 

“I WARNED YOU. I TOLD YOU NOT TO FUCK IT UP. BUT YOU HAD TO GO AND DO THE STUPIDEST THING POSSIBLE TO FUCK IT UP.” 

Sans didn’t say anything. 

“YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF.” 

“i fuckin’ know, boss!” Sans yelled, scooting his chair back from the table. “i know i’m a fuck up! it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that i always manage ta fuck everythin’ up!” 

Papyrus sniffed haughtily. “I’M GLAD THAT YOU KNOW. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?” 

“i can’t do anythin’ about it! i fucked up, an’ she hates me! i took ‘er back ta th' edge a th' boundary, an’ there’s no way i can ever find ‘er, now!” Sans glared at his plate of food. 'sides, she wouldn't care- not that i'm sorry for being an asshole, not that i've been tryin' ta be a better monster, an' made great progress, too! maybe only a lil before i met 'er, but her bein' here made it so much easier to be better… 

Papyrus scowled at his brother. “THERE’S ALWAYS A WAY-” 

Sans cut him off by standing up, his chair making a loud noise as it almost fell over, and started towards the door as he muttered, “i’m goin’ ta grillby’s…” 

After grabbing his coat and slamming the door after him, Sans shortcutted to the bar, intent on getting wasted. 

.

A few drinks in with a good buzz, Sans started looking around. 

He wasn’t quite drunk enough to not remember, but it was at least a bit hazy. 

“Heya, Sansy!” 

He looked over to the bar stool next to him, seeing the cream colored bunny next to him, ordering a drink. He followed her to her regular booth, and they began matching shots, seeing who could get the drunkest first. 

. 

Sans opened his eye sockets, his fuzzy eyelights looking around the bar, seeing some drunk monsters starting to be a bit more friendly with each other. 

His skull fell to the side as he shifted, realizing that he’d missed a bit of what had happened. He straightened up in the booth seat and looked down at his drink again. 

Maybe he should try to find someone… 

Even if it was a one night stand, it would be someone to try to get rid of his memory of- no… thinking her name would only start the hurt again… make his soul burn with the knowledge that he was to blame for fucking his life up beyond repair. 

But, finding someone might be a good idea; he needed to at least stop jerking off excessively to her panties, or reading those stupid, mushy, trash books he hid on his shelf while imagining that she was the leading lady- and he was lucky enough to be the bastard who’d seen the error in his ways and was given a second chance… 

… 

Sans tossed back his drink and took the half empty glass from the passed out bunny across from him, downing it as well. 

He was finally kicked out of the bar, Grillby chasing everyone out as he closed. 

Sans took a shortcut home, but ended up in the field near the echo flowers he had planted to remind him of Waterfall, where he used to look at the Underground “skys” and pretend the crystals were stars. 

He yelled loudly for a minute, then tried again, this time making it within a short distance of the house. 

He swayed dangerously, but he made it in through the door, getting to the foot of the stairs and seeing the door to the hidden room open. He went to it, hand stopping short only due to him passing out across the floor with a thud. 

His vision had gone dark. 

Darker... 

…yet darker… 

…and darker, still… 

… 

… 

… 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sans felt his soul floating above his body, unable to move as Gaster held him there with his weird powers. 

“Just hold still, you little shit…” 

Sans could handle it… as long as he left Papyrus alone, he could handle it… 

“P-PAPA…” 

“What is it? What are you doing in my lab? Why are you here?” Gaster demanded roughly in irritation. 

Sans fought as hard as he could to shift his eyelights to see his little brother. He needed to stay away! Sans wished that he could talk, yell at Paps to run, to go hide, to never come there, ever again- but he could hardly shift his eyelights. 

“WH-WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SANS?” 

run, bro, run! Sans begged mentally. 

“Well, you see, you weak little fool, monsters are stuck underground. We’re not here because we want to be. Your useless brother here, is going to help us escape,” Gaster told him. 

“THAT’S AMAZING, SANS!” Papyrus shouted in proud joy. 

Sans tried to will his brother to leave, to save himself from the sadistic monster towering over him. 

Papyrus’s jaw hit the hard floor as Gaster smacked the back of his skull so hard he fell forward. 

“Don’t be stupid, you worthless little runt,” Gaster snapped as he tore the ragged stuffed animal from his grasp. “He’s only a part of the experiment, he’s not doing anything worthwhile.” He held up the prized toy and ripped it’s limb off. “Just like this garbage is only making you weaker.” 

“NOOO!” Papyrus cried, a heart wrenching sob that made Sans’ soul hurt. 

Gaster glared at the small skeleton on the floor. “You have no need for this trash,” he sneered. “It’s as useless as you are.” He tore at the thing until it was completely in pieces and destroyed. 

Sans wanted to punch Gaster in his stupid cracked face. 

Gaster plucked Papyrus from the floor and turned to hold him where Sans could see. “Look at how weak you’ve made him,” he gloated. “If you didn’t coddle him and try to protect him from the real world, he’d be stronger.” 

Sans could feel his magic gathering in his bones, pushing and fighting against Gaster’s hold on him. 

Gaster looked Papyrus in the socket. “You should thank your brother for this- for making you as weak as you are.” 

A shot of fear showed on Papyrus’ face before the first hit came. 

Red, hot, magical tears built in Sans’ sockets as he fought to get free, to help his brother, but he was only able to sort of flop around on the table. 

Papyrus’ cries and tears were background noise for Gaster’s cries and accusations, telling Sans that he could thank himself for his brother not being able to defend himself, telling Papyrus to thank Sans for making him so weak. His gleeful cackling mixed with the noise of the attack. 

One of the machines in the room kicked into another level, sounding like it was reversing the flow it had been using. 

“sssstttppppp…” 

“Haven’t I taught you boys anything? Emotions are weakness.” 

“sssttoppp…” 

“Weakness is unacceptable- weakness will get you dusted.” 

“sstoopp…” 

“I thought I had taught you both better- but maybe you’re just slow learners!” The thought was accompanied with a manic and near demonic grin. “Maybe you just don’t learn- maybe you need to be taught over and over and over-” 

“stop,” Sans choked out. 

Gaster was too focused on what he was doing to notice at first, but when it seemed like a circuit or fuse had blown, he paused his movements. 

Sans started shaking, his body twitching every which way as he fought, fought to be able to save Papyrus. 

He felt a power just beyond his phalanges, he could almost reach it- 

The tears in his sockets grew, starting to stream down his skull, as he stretched himself to touch it- 

The power in the lab started to flicker, and Sans felt like his soul was being ripped into tiny pieces with a cheese grater, digging into it and shredding the super sensitive entirety of his being. 

“What are you doing, you stupid fucking brat,” Gaster demanded, glaring watchfully at him, ignoring his screams of pain.

Sans couldn’t hear him, though- he couldn’t even hear the screams leaving his own mouth, he was only consumed with protecting his brother, stopping Gaster from hurting him. 

A loud crack echoed in the room, followed by the power cutting off and slowly starting back up. 

Sans felt weightless, like he had no restraints. 

He threw himself from the bed, but felt that he didn’t even touch the floor. He was held by a gathering of power- the same power that he’d tapped into. 

The power that was… 

Gaster sneered as Sans stood before him, attempting to adjust his magical hold, but it didn’t affect him. 

Sans clenched his fists and gathered the power there, ready to stop the attack on his brother, a shimmer moving around his fists. 

Gaster cackled at him and tossed Papyrus to the floor. “So, you’ve finally done what you were meant to do this whole time.” The tall monster reached for Sans, but his magic didn’t affect him. He made a displeased face at Sans before flourishing his hands, the gems in the centers of his cutout palms gleaming as he grabbed something in the air and pulled, lines attaching the two shimmering to visible for a moment. 

Gaster grinned dangerously in accomplishment and jerked the lines, making Sans stumble forward. 

“And to think; all it took to motivate you was a little smacking around of your brother… Maybe I’ll make you…” Gaster manipulated his hands in strange ways, and Sans could feel himself being tugged around by his own magic. “Yes, I could make you the one that hurt him instead… but, I think that I’ve taught him enough about the dangers of being weak… now I think I’ll teach you the dangers of caring for others-” Gaster twisted his hand and made Sans pick Papyrus up, holding him even with his eyelights. “How it can only hurt both parties in the end.” 

“i don’t wanna, pap, i swear,” Sans begged him to understand as he felt his hand being drawn back. “i swear it’s not me, paps- ya know i’d never do anythin’ like this ta ya…” 

“But it is you, Sans, look at your hand, it’s the one that’s about to hurt the one you love,” Gaster sneered from behind them. 

“‘s not- ‘s not, paps- y’re my lil bro, i love ya-” 

He was going to kill him- 

Sans was going to kill Gaster for making him do this. 

“The best part, is that the more monsters I link together, the more power I’ll have… I’ll be able to break down the barrier all on my own- as soon as I link enough souls together,” Gaster crowed in victory. 

Sans looked down to his ribcage where his soul sat, seeing a string connecting it to Gaster’s soul, a strange bond forming between his soul and the holes in his palms, the gems floating in the middles, that he’d never seen before- in fact- he didn’t think he’d ever seen this glow before on Gaster. 

Sans focused hard, letting go of Papyrus and took a hold of the line and tugged, pulling Gaster instead, turning the larger monster to him and making him stumble to be the right height, even for him to pull all the energy he could into his hands, summoning a large bone and swinging hard, hitting Gaster in the skull, seeing the flash of fear and realization just before it connected. 

Gaster fell to the ground, limp, and Sans dropped the bone, letting it disappear as he stared in shock. 

Did… Did he just kill Gaster? 

He knew he thought about it a lot… 

He knew that he wanted to do it to stop him from hurting his brother- wanted to punish him for hurting his brother… 

But… why wasn’t he turning to dust…? Why was there… blackness leaking from him?

~~~~~~~~~~

Sans turned to Papyrus when he felt a bit more certain that Gaster wasn't going to get up and attack again. 

He felt his soul twist in knots at the expression of pain and fear on his small brother's face, sure that it was partially due to the crack from his maxilla, between two sharp teeth, up and heading to his cheek bone. But the other part would have to come from… 

"b-bro-" Sans' voice caught, his hand freezing in mid motion, his phalanges starting to curl closed into a fist. “i… i’m sorry, bro,” he murmured. 

Papyrus threw himself into Sans’ arms, small, almost silent sobs leaving his small frame. 

Sans felt his soul twist again. 

“i- it’s a’right, paps- i- h-he… he’ll never hurt ya again. never…” He murmured against his brother’s skull. “i promise…”

Papyrus held tighter to him, trying to hide his silent sobs better. 

“i- imma help ya become th’ toughest monster out there. ain’t nobody gonna mess wit ya…” Sans stroked over his brother’s skull, not quite sure what else to do to comfort him. “ya- ya are th’ great an’ terrible papyrus, after all…”

Papyrus mustered up the strength to give a soft, “Nyeh Heh Heh…” 

Sans held his small form closer to his chest, curling around him. "it's ok, paps… everythin' is gonna be ok…" 

He just had to get rid of Gaster's body… 

After a moment, an idea came to him, and, thinking it through while he held and comforted Papyrus, it seemed to hold up… 

He'd hated all these years of going to the lab with Gaster, but… looks like they were finally going to be good for something. 

He didn't think anyone else knew about the void between realms that Gaster had accidentally tapped into while trying to find a way out of the Underground. 

"S-Sans…" For once, the small skeleton's voice matched his size. 

"yeah, paps?" Sans asked quietly. 

"Are… Are You Going To Be My Dad, Now…?" 

Sans felt like he was the one who'd been smacked in the back of the skull with a bone attack. 

"i- n-no, paps- i'm still yer brother, i- i ain't fit ta- i ain't old 'nough ta be a dad-” he corrected, trying to put it in a way that Papyrus would understand, “but… imma take care a ya like one, 'k? ya don't have ta be scared, imma take care a ya… i'll keep ya safe…" 

Papyrus tightened his hold on Sans. "I'm- I'm Going To Keep You Safe, Too," he murmured. 

"that's 'cause y're gonna be th' biggest, strongest monster out there. no one'll be able ta beat ya, 'cause y're th' best…" 

Sans held his brother tight, feeling the newly awakened power burning through his bones as the two held each other, swearing that they'd keep each other safe and alive, no matter what it took. 

A/N: Safe summary: Gaster is experimenting in connecting souls together, using his powers to hold Sans down, when little Papyrus comes down with his precious stuffed animal to see what they're doing. Gaster hits Papyrus as punishment for being "weak". Sans completes the connection of his soul to Gaster's to break his paralyzing hold on him and protect Papyrus. At first it works, but then Gaster uses two crystals type things (that Sans has never ben able to see before and isn't sure what they are) in the holes of his hands to focus his power and control Sans, making him hit Papyrus, as punishment for caring for and loving him. Sans tells him the whole time that it's not him. Sans regains control and stops himself, using gravity magic to bring him down to level, and then manifests a bone attack and hits him, very hard, in the head. Sans wonders if he's killed Gaster, and holds Papyrus close while trying o figure out how to hide Gaster's body. Sweet moments ensue in the mostly safe part.

[sparkmender]

Here’s the first chapter of Close Encounters, the Faebug/Hive AU series I’ve been working on. I’m gonna cross post most of this stuff to Tumblr too just in an effort to keep things organized. :>

It’s Monday night—

The last Monday night before the end of the world, not that anyone knows it—

And there are two blue, pupil-less eyes the size of the headlights on her beat up VW Beetle staring at her through her bedroom window.

They blink out almost as soon as Charlie twitches. Whatever it was probably got spooked off by the fact that she jolted upright in bed and stared right back at it, compelled by— something. That feeling of being watched. The remnants of a nightmare. Whatever.

If whatever the eyes belonged to made noise as it departed, she couldn’t hear it over the buzz of the heavy fan her mom helped her drag into the big bedroom when she moved in to the old Ochoco house. It might as well not’ve been there at all.

Except for the fact that she saw it, and all the hair on the back of her neck and along her arms stood like she’d rubbed a balloon over herself to see the static electricity.

Lots of things had been a little weird since yesterday, though. Especially in the upper Northwest. It’s not exactly every day that a volcano goes off in the United States. Even if Oregon is a state away from Washington, Sunday had been stressful, to say the least. Some part of her had anticipated another explosion at some point. Guillermo had teased her for being a worry-wart and then started listing off all sorts of possibly apocalyptic events from most to least likely on his fingers. He got to ‘alien robots who disguise themselves as kitchen appliances’ before Charlie threw a shoe at him.

Under the quilt next to her, Guillermo sleeps as he always does, an arm shoved under his ridiculous stack of pillows and his long legs tangled in more than his fair share of the sheets.

Maybe it’s all in her head. Dreams were supposed to be how the brain processed stuff that happened during the day, right? So.

So she’s not crazy. It’s just her brain trying to make sense of the whole active volcano thing compounded by childhood fears and the well-ingrained camping habit of keeping an ear out for bears trying to pilfer your supplies.

Probably.

Charlie doesn’t sleep the rest of the night, or she could have sworn she hadn’t, but between this blink and the next the alarm is going off on the nightstand and Memo’s already in the kitchen, fighting with the coffee maker he can’t stand to get rid of because he bought it with his first paycheck from his magazine gig. (Who knew speculative sci-fi nerd writing not only paid, but paid well, with the right kind of publisher?) If he’d heard anything in the night, he doesn’t mention it.

After pulling her socks on but before shoveling flapjacks into her mouth, the eyes are forgotten.

If they’d ever existed at all.

————

In fact, the eyes remain forgotten all the way until her third break of the day, hanging out with two of the older rangers who’d come back to the main office after clearing out a couple of downed trees off the Crater Lake hiking trail. Samson Jr.— who usually went by ‘Spike’— was a lanky, shaggy brunet a few years older than Charlie who still got carded at every bar they went to, with a permanent sunburn across the bridge of his nose and a personality so sunny it bordered on obnoxious. On the other hand, his father, Samson Sr., was a warm, stocky man who worked construction before throwing his lot in with parks and recreation and could have been anywhere from his mid 40s to his late 60s. They’d both been there when Charlie had started as an intern in college and were probably both going to still be there if she ever decided to leave or get transferred somewhere warmer, like California, or something.

She liked the both of them. Samson was more of a family figure to her than her stepdad Ron, and he’d helped her get a permanent spot on the team. Sometimes she and Memo went out with Spike and his girlfriend Carly, and Memo and Spike had more than a few interests in common. Mainly Star Wars, but also stuff like He-Man and tabletop games and computers. Most of it went over Charlie’s head— she’d grown up a music nerd thanks to Dad and a car fanatic thanks to Uncle Hank, never much one for pulp fiction— but she and Carly enjoyed teasing the two of them for being ‘Oregon’s own X-Files department.'

So it wasn’t exactly surprising when Spike brought up his perennial fixation, Bigfoot theories, again.

“I don’t know,” he’d started, mouth full of half of a Snickers bar as he waved the other end of it around for emphasis. “I don’t know. But I don’t think that those trees just fell over for no reason. I mean, there were some aftershocks from the eruption, right? But nothing out here. It kind of looked more like some kind of impact hit them, sort of like a boulder had rolled down the hill and toppled ‘em over. But that doesn’t make any sense either, since there’s no loose rocks large enough to knock over three whole fir trees on that side of the trail. Maybe it was a Sasquatch. I bet they mark their territory by brushing up against trees like the bears do, and this one just got over-enthusiastic.”

Samson snatched the other half of the candy bar before Spike could accidentally smack Charlie with it, just to toss it back into the basket of goodies on the windowsill again.

“First of all, stop raiding the candy stash. That’s for visitors, and last I checked, you haven’t been a visitor since you were 16,” the older man scolded, but he couldn’t quite keep the amusement off his face— Spike had to have gotten his enthusiasm from somewhere. “And something tells me that if there really was a ‘sat-squash’ or whatever it is, it probably wouldn’t be hanging around where there’s regular humans coming and going all day, every day. At least if it knew what was good for it. It was just a regular tree fall, it’s been cleared, and now we’ve got more firewood for the campers.”

Though mourning the loss of his candy, Spike was quick to poke a finger in the air triumphantly at Samson.

“Okay, but how do you explain the fur clumps we found scattered there, huh? Way softer than any regular sort of wild animal.”

Charlie had been absently nodding along to their pseudo-argument, only to perk up at Spike’s outburst, dropping the pen she’d been fiddling with. And then curse herself out silently as both of the older rangers turned to her at the way she’d reacted. In the back of her head, she remembered: that split-second glimpse of those unnaturally big eyes, framed by fluff and set into a broad, flat face.

“Uh.”

Spike grinned.

“See? Charlie agrees with me—”

“She said ‘uh,’ Junior, that’s not an agreement—”

“I mean, maybe,” she blurts out before she can stop herself, heat flushing her face at the outburst, awkwardly picking up the pen she’d dropped to snap the cap over it again. “I don’t know what’s out there. You know what they tell us when we start ranger training; don’t go off the trails.”

God, it’s like Charlie can’t help herself, suddenly, as superstitious and paranoid as one of the characters Memo would write into his stories. It was all just stuff the trainers would tell them to haze the kids starting out, the sort of shit teenagers joked about or camp councilors made up to freak out their campers. None of it was actually true. But in another life, maybe, to someone more interesting or smarter or less lucky (or luckier, some stupid impulse wants to say) than Charlie—

For a moment, vivid and shining, Charlie felt some spark of pure terror in her.

The thing in her bedroom window. Was it still near her house? Was she going to come home to find Guillermo missing, or worse?

“Sure, some of it is just common sense safety guidelines, but what about the weirder ones? The rules about not climbing random staircases in the woods— don’t stop to listen to any music if you’re not near a registered campsite, like that’s ever been a thing? Or never telling someone you meet without gear on a trail what your name is? I mean, there’s got to be some kind of a reason for these things, or else we wouldn’t all have them hammered into our skulls over the course of three years,” she rambles, pulse thudding in her ears. “Nobody makes up how-tos about things for no reason.”

In the quiet pause in conversation that followed, Charlie felt the embarrassed burn on her face spread to her ears and creep down the back of her neck.

“…Or it’s an opportunistic raccoon?” she squeaks out.

“Probably a raccoon. Damn.” Spike finally relents, shoulders slumping with a dejected sigh. He really looks genuinely disappointed, soon ambling over to drape himself over Charlie’s desk in the hopes of some sympathy pats as Samson chuckles in the background about how today’s cinema is rotting everybody's brains out their ears.

————

Nobody notices the candy basket on the windowsill going missing as they head back out to do rounds of the campgrounds.

[drink-n-watch]

Another week, another brand-new episode of Psycho Pass. I’m going to hold back and be all mysterious and stuff. Because that’s how I do. I definitely don’t blurt out exactly how I feel about a show in the very first line of every post and then there’s no point in reading the rest. Nuh-huh. No siree. I gots some restraint! Who do you take me for! So instead, Matt, how are you enjoying season 3 so far. It may just be 3 episodes in but as they are double length, it’s now longer than most movies!

Oh, so does that mean it’s my turn to blurt out my thoughts in a single sentence? Okay, um, err, this show is still as consistently excellent as I thought it was based on the previous two episodes! Oh no, I hope I’ll have something to write for the rest of the review now!

Is that so? Fascinating. I can see how you would think and/or feel that way! (I write my part first… I have no clue what Matt said at this point…

So let’s get right into it. First I just a few general comments on my part. I enjoy high stakes corruption stories and although that’s also what season 1 was, the fact that this allows us to look into the public face of Sybil a bit more, through the device of gubernatorial elections is a great angle in my opinion. Diving into what has to be extremely complex and unique politics of a Sybil controlled society has so much potential.

I had to look up what “gubernatorial” meant (we don’t have anything like that in Australia, so forgive my ignorance), but yes I think politics and the world of ‘Psycho Pass’ is a perfect fit. 

I mean what powers do politicians even hold in such circumstances. Are elections largely a population suppression tactics. Something to keep the masses happy? If so, why are they so incredibly high stakes. Seems ridiculous to be going through all this for what amounts to a reality show (which might explain why both candidates are entertainers). So much potential!

What do you think?

I mean, if I know anything about politics and people its that ambitious people will always be ambitious and wanting to be ‘the best’ regardless of the world they live in–so even if politics amount to nothing more than a popularity contest without any real power or ability to change anything outside of Sybil’s system–people are still going to strive for that, people are going to kill for that even. We’ve seen time and time again in the real world that people do extreme things to get what they want, even if to ‘outsiders’ their goals seem ridiculous or pointless.

 Yakusuji really surprised me as a character this week. For a second there I thought they were going with a “bad guy is bad” sort of characterization but then it all took a very sharp right turn! I still don’t know if his character is sincere or if it’s all a big act. Either way, I didn’t expect it and I like it! Maybe it’s my suspicious nature that leads me to think he’s less than sincere but Psycho Pass did teach me not to trust anyone!

He’s definitely an interesting character but the way his character ties into Enforcer Todoroki’s subplot makes for a compelling bit of character development. As for whether he’s ‘on the level’ I don’t buy it…

I did find the assault scene a bit blunt. Not as in too brutal (mind you I thought it was hilarious that someone could kick a skull in so hard as to actually make it explode!) but just a little too straight forward. At least that’s what I thought as I was watching it. In hindsight though, if this was a political machination and not just the random terrorist attack they are making it out to be on the surface, then this type of direct and flamboyant assault is exactly what would be the most effective!

Yeah I took it to be that they were being intentionally flashy, down to the attackers wearing the same clothes, I found it to be a very intimidating scene.

How does anyone in this universe manage to keep their hue clear? I was only watching those little holo assistant thingies pop up for a few minutes (like the old Clippy office assistant) and I already felt my urge to murder rise. I wouldn’t last a day if I had to deal with those things and keep my thoughts in check!

I loved the idea of someone being physically assaulted and then a little pop-up comes up warning them that they were receiving injuries in-line with someone being assaulted, it’s that kind of AI assistant mentality that makes me hate AI assistants like ‘Alexa’ and ‘Siri’ all the more (but that’s a rant for another day).

As our heroes were chasing the attackers down, we got some surprising bit of universe building and musing on the dual nature of justice and law. One of my very favourite lines from the first season was said in a similar context. As Akane was chasing down criminals she said something to the effect that there’s a misconception that laws are there to protect people but it’s really up to people to protect the laws. I love that idea. It really epitomized Akane’s character and the fact that that’s what’s going through her mind in a high-pressure situation was just perfect.

We got something similar this week with Arata capping off a chase explaining that even in a Sybil controlled society it is imperative to exercise human judgement “that’s why dominators have triggers”. It’s a great line! And one that solidifies Arata’s devotion to ideals rather than establishments.

I’m glad you brought it up, that line really stood out to me too, the importance of the human aspect in an (at times) inhumane system.

Matt, you mentioned last week that you felt the writers of Psycho Pass season 3 had gotten around to reading old US news, it seems that they’ve moved on to more recent fare as the general depiction of the mudslinging politics does seem very familiar to what has been happening not too far south from my own home in the past few years!

Immigration’s a tricky thing, ain’t it?

Although, aside from the winky topical references, it does make a lot of sense that a society as portrayed in Psycho Pass would be particularly xenophobic. To be honest, I was really surprised they even had large scale immigration. I figured the country would have been largely sealed off!

So far, the themes of racial/cultural tension are handled a little naively and way too simplified for my tastes. However, I do realize that with everything going on in this narrative, you got to take some shortcuts.

I suppose there’s still time for a more nuanced discussion on immigration from this show, I imagine someone like you Irina, an immigrant yourself, would have a lot more to say on the subject than most people?

What did you think of Haruki Enomyia? I’m asking cause I have no clue what to make of them.

Difficult to say, for a second I thought they might be setting them up as a bigger villain for this story but I think they’re probably going to end up just another pawn in the bigger game being played. I think they were more just here to give us an idea of what kind of life Kazumichi had in the slums before joining the force. Though I think him just walking around the town with Arata did that well enough.

Am I the only one who noticed all the food in this episode? Maybe I was just hungry, but everything looked delicious!

C’mon Irina, all anime food looks delicious!

Ok back to more serious stuff, we got some very decent character-building backstory for both Kei and Arata. Now normally, this would not be my thing. It was delivered in straight exposition and boy oh boy was it all tragic! Taken independently, both of their backgrounds would have had me gently rolling my eyes and moving on without a second thought. Oh my, an anime protag with a tragic backstory! But it’s in how these stories intertwine to create such a bizarre picture of their relationship that brings the whole thing to a higher level.

It’s kind of interesting that they chose to more or less have our entire supporting cast learn this complicated backstory at the same time via the expositional method you mentioned. On the one hand I guess it helps to have everyone on the same page with their history but it makes me wonder if it was done for a more specific reason. Like one of the Enforcers using this information against our dynamic duo or the opposite and it puts more faith in them and brings closer as a team–who can say for sure?

In fact, the peculiar dynamic between Kei and Arata is truly fascinating and so far, a strong point of the season for me.

Agreed.

A few little random thoughts:

I quite like both the OP and ED. I like the visuals in the OP better, in fact, I like them a lot, but I prefer the ED song!

The interiors are really beautiful this season. I’m not so taken by the architecture, but room designs consistently catch my eye.

Also, I didn’t know where to fit it in the review, but I liked the statement that acting weak releases cortisol making you feel more relaxed. The behavioural neuroscience angle is one I like a lot and I hope they develop it more as Psycho Pass is the perfect universe to explore this in.

I thought it was interesting–if briefly mentioned–but I have to wonder if it was just the writer showing off some fancy things he learned on wikipedia and wanting to put it into the show (okay that was a bit catty of me, apologies to the writer of Psycho Pass).

Oh I guess I should finally admit it. I really liked this episode. More than the last. So far, I think the writing may be a touch weaker than I had hoped. There’s a lot of slightly clumsy exposition. But I’m also starting to see the foundations of a potentially fascinating story with some very intriguing dynamics. I’m excited. When the episode ended I was both surprised by how quickly it had gone by and a little bummed I couldn’t watch the next one right away!

I have to agree (we seem to agreeing a lot this time!) our new characters feel like they’re living up to the potential of this show’s world while adding interesting things to it too. Political corruption, a shadow organisation called ‘Bifrost’ pulling the strings (cool name by the way) plus all the internal machinations at the various levels of law enforcement and interpersonal relationships too makes for a rich and compelling tapestry. If you’re a person who adheres to the 3 episode rule and you haven’t given this show a chance yet then 3 excellent episodes in a row should be proof enough that Psycho Pass is back and firing on all cylinders!

Psycho Pass s3 ep3 – Tensions Flare Another week, another brand-new episode of Psycho Pass. I’m going to hold back and be all mysterious and stuff.

[venus-says]

Round of Randoms #1 - Shorties

The one with the skeleton, the cat boys, and the card game.

Look who's back!

After a much-needed break to cool off from the Aikatsu marathon, here I again to delight the world with my unnecessary opinions. XD

You may be asking yourself, what is this? Well, I was thinking of what to do to come back to the blog, but still on my break mindset and I didn't want to get back to my regular stuff. So I thought about it and decided to get back to my roots and one of the reasons why I created this blog in the first place and went down on my anime list and see what was there that I could watch and bring to here. I've made a huge list of things, divided them into categories, and I'm planning to watch them in between the regular shows I comment here. I was lazy and pretty much only picked stuff that came out this year, but is still a somewhat diverse range of the usual things I talk about here.

Since I wanted something quick and easy to do at first I went with my "shorties" category that is composed of shows with a run time of 15 minutes or less per episode, and "one-shot" OVAs, in other words, things that I could watch on a single day with not much trouble. These are "reviews" of the entire season so they won't be as detailed, but that was never the point of these to begin with, If there's a show on my list that I have a lot to talk about I'll probably do it on a separate post.

Anyway, let's begin.

MYSTERIA Friends

Starting off is MYSTERIA Friends (or Manaria Friends in the original). This wasn't a show that was on my list actually, but once I saw that it was only 10 episodes of 15 minutes each and that both Yoko and Nana were voicing characters on this show I was "okay, I need to watch this now". I had no previous knowledge of anything related to this show and I was kinda excited to see what it was about, I don't know what I was expecting from it, but in reality, I got really disappointed.

Like, the show technically is gorgeous, I think that because of the shorter airing time they could pay more attention to the drawing and animation and you get stunned by the visuals. The soundtrack is also pretty decent, there's nothing exceptional aside of maybe the insert song Nana's character sings in one the episodes, but the general background music is pretty effective on putting yourself on that world.

With that being said, this is probably where the positives end. The show has no plot, which in itself it's not a problem, most of this short shows are episodic anyway and that's one of the charms of this type of anime, but in this case it's a problem because it just seems empty, the show seems to be trying to talk about inter-species relationships, but it actually never touches on that what gives this "empty media" vibe. This ties in with another problem that is the fact that this fantastic, magical setting has no purpose of being there other than aesthetics, I feel that the excuse of going "magic medieval" was we gonna show how this human and this half-demon can get along and bring peace and harmony to this world, but they never touch on the topic and it becomes pretty obvious that they only went with that route because the author has a thing for girl dragons.

Which ties in with my biggest problem, the useless ecchi. Honestly, the amount of ecchi they got to put in such a short amount of time is unbelievable, like, right on the second episode Grea is pain because she's molting, but the scene is shot as like she's having sex and the moans are more like pleasure moans rather than moans of someone who's in pain, and is just so uncomfortable, and to add more into this weirdness Anne steals the shed skin of Grea's tail and in the final episode she's smelling that like those pervs smelling on panties and IT'S SO AWKWARD. This threw me off so much, I think I only got through because the show was very short and I know the suffering would be very low, otherwise I would definitely have dropped it right on episode 2.

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san

Honda-san was that show that I had always seen people commenting on and was very interested in watching since the beginning, but I never did because I'm lazy, so when I decided to do this I knew I had to put the show on the list and finally watch it, and that's a decision I definitely don't regret making.

Honestly, this show is so good. It's not that comedy that will let you laughing your pants off, but it doesn't mean that it ain't funny. It's mentioned in the show that the manga that originated from this anime was written by Honda-san himself about his experiences working on a bookstore, I don't know how truthful the stories are, but is this sense of "damn this really happens irl" that makes everything way much funnier and it is a true joy to watch. The anime isn't ambitious, I don't think it's trying to convey a message or make a commentary or anything, but this doesn't come as a detriment for the show, this anime didn't need any of that and they don't try to make it be about something big. It's just a wholesome show about life that is really comforting, especially if you're an adult that already had some experience with retailing.

What else do I have to say? I love the style, I love the soundtrack, I love the weird situation that happens, and the characters are just amazing, aside of Honda-san I love manager Armor she's lots of fun, and Chief Pestmask (who's VA is, look at that, Hikasa Yoko once again) who doesn't appear a lot, but when she comes she sure leaves an impression on you. This show did crush my fantasies of working on a bookstore someday, but I loved every second of it anyway. XD

Hey, Your Cat Ears Are Showing! Season 2

So when I heard Hora Mimi was getting a second season, I was both excited and apprehensive. This one of the rare short shows that have an episodic narrative but that has an overall plot to the whole thing, and I was quite satisfied with the ending of season 1, it was sweet and heartwarming as the rest of the series was and I really didn't think a second season was needed, thus I really didn't watch it while it was airing. But this was the perfect opportunity for me to finally watch it.

And this season was a very good surprise, it expanded on what the first season had built and it became three times gayer by giving Dong Dong and Jin Zhu partners, Jin Zhu partner being an Ear People but from another species, which made this season even more fun and cute. The final arc of this season where they established that Da Shu and Miao had met each other before the events of season 1 is probably the only thing I don't like about this sequel because on my eyes it looks silly, but I wouldn't call it a negative that renders the show. Hora Mimi remains a very adorable, heartwarming show that everyone definitely should check it out.

The Girl From the Other Side

Totsukuni no Shoujo was never on my radar for mangas so I wasn't aware of its existence. A few months back I saw someone reblogging gifs from this OVA on my dash and I got really intrigued by it, the aesthetic was kinda similar to Ancient Magus Bridge but it was darker and it had this antique style to it that made me fall in love instantly.

Since I don't know the manga, I'm not familiar with the characters and their stories, but even though I was in the dark I could grasp the concept without major difficulties because the characters are very expressive, and the music is very well used on passing to was what is going on with those characters. I thought an anime with no dialogue would be boring, but this OVA was very captivating, not just by its visuals but also by the narrative and the music that got me hooked from beginning to end. I feel like this is a very shallow review of the thing, but I don't think I'm smart enough to elaborate more on what to say about this show.

I'm not familiar with the manga and I don't know how things work there, neither I know if such style could hold up for an entire season, but I definitely wanna see more, and I'll definitely look up the manga if I can make my tablet work again someday.

Zenonzard THE ANIMATION - Episode 0

And to wrap up we have Zenonzard, which was another show that I wasn't aware of until I decided to do this thing and it's only here because the poster looked cool, and it was officially available on youtube with subs and no region locks so I thought, "why not?"

This is probably the weirdest of the bunch since it's a show based on a card game, and I haven't watched one of these in ages, and it's weird, but I was kinda into it? Like, I don't like that most of the girls in this show have ginormous breasts and this thing of a female coming to an apparently normal boy saying "I choose you" seems that it's going to backfire and will create a huge mess in the future, but as the episode was progressing I was getting more and more into it?

The plot doesn't seem as good, if they even have a plot. It does a crap job at explaining what this game is and how it works, and also the CG used for the monsters is horrendous. But it got me interested, it had some great music playing and I think this is what caught me the most, even though there's one song, that I believe is sung by Nanase who did voices for Aikatsu, that I feel like it was very misplaced. I also like the futuristic aesthetic, I'm a sucker for these things and I was pleased for the most part of it.

I don't know if this will become a thing, but if they actually release an anime and if they publish it on youtube like what they've done with this ONA/Special/Prequel? I may keep watching it. Which comes to as a surprise to me.

And this was the first Round of Randoms (provisory name) of this blog. I quite enjoyed doing this thing, I think I'm gonna keep doing it to always have something different and new around here. What did you think of it? Have you watched any of these shows? What are your opinions about it? Is there any show you have to recommend? And what's a good name for this new thing I'm trying to do? Thank you so much for sticking with me until the end, and I'll see you guys at another time.

[standfortheangels]

Instructions: Always repost with the rules, answer the 11 random questions left for you, and leave 11 more for the people you tag!

Tagged by: @illicreatxm

This got long so I’m going to stick it under a read more ^^

1. If you could write any canon character, which would it be and why?

Hm. I’m not sure. I have roleplayed a couple of canons before, but I find it harder to keep the muse for them. I could probably do Elsa okay, I could jump between her locked in the castle personality and her open, welcoming character post-film, which might help, but the inconsistencies in her Over-powered Powers annoy me, so I think I’d add a few limitations in there.

2. Favourite Disney movie?

Maybe Aladdin because Robin Williams is of course amazing and so perfect in that role~ Ohh but there’s also Atlantis.. And Dumbo! Aw no... Let’s just call this my top three before I get carried away >w>

3. Least favourite MCU character?

I haven't seen the more recent ones, so, I can't take into account characters like Thanos or Dr. Strange or, whoever else they've been bringing in. So out of what I've seen, I'd have to go with Bruce Banner/The Hulk.

It seemed in the earlier films that they didn't give much attention to Banner. They were all over using the Hulk to make bits interesting, but Bruce was boiled down to "quiet smart guy who CaN TuRN inTo THE HULK" so, yeah.

And the hulk himself later did like a 180° change for me. In his stand-alone film I think Hulk says like 3 words, maximum. Then rarely talks in his appearances in the other avengers brand films. Cool. We had "Puny God" and that was a-okay. One short, memorable, funny quote seems perfect.

But then what was all that when Whedon got his hands on it? (I mean don't get me started on that, I am really reigning myself back here but) They start off needing ways to calm Hulk down enough to get him back inside and give control back to Bruce, fair enough. But then like... He winds up not letting go of Bruce's body even though he isn't enraged anyway? And suddenly he's emotional enough and smart enough to take- what was it a plane? And seperate himself off from everyone and look all solemnly at Natasha before he does it or something?

Obviously my memory of it isn't great, honestly I stopped paying attention after Natasha's "I'm a monster- not because I was raised in a heartless environment full of violence and raised to literally kill people, that bit's whatever- but because they took away my fertility and now I can't have babies." speech. And that's the last MCU film I watched. I didn't want anything to do with them after seeing what Joss Whedon did with the characters and the overarching plotline and... Everything. x') So I might have gotten some of the hulk stuff wrong.

(I did watch Deadpool though, that I enjoyed~)

4. If you had to create any new character, what occupation would they have?

Ooo good question.

I think something proactive, where they could seek other characters out, but.. I'd kinda like a bad guy~ Someone who lies so much for their job, they have a dual personality to work with. They can be your smiling friendly neighbour, wishing you well on your holiday, then turn around and grit his teeth because this poses a major problem for his mission, and he can't lose his target, so now he has to follow, but he can't do that as your happy neighbour, no, you know he isn't going on holiday, certainly not today, not on your flight, not to the same ski lodge you're going to. No, he has to make a new cover- maybe say his neice phoned him with a family emergency and he'll be leaving to go be with her a while. Then shed this identity, find out where his target is going, quickly pose as some other tourist who blends into the background and get to the lodge first, all the while planning out some plausible skiing accident he can set up.

Wow that got more detailed than I expected x'D I think I just reinvented hitman, whoops.

5. Favourite sport?

[Image ID: Kiki from Kiki’s Delivery Service, laughing hysterically.]

My biggest concern when I'm on my feet is not falling over so, obviously sports aren't really my deal. x')

I used to swim a lot when I was a kid, I loved that, but, don't do it now.

And I'm not really into watching sports either tbh. Most of it seems over-hyped. Most football teams (real football, it is not soccer. The hint is in actual football, the ball, is hit, with your feet. Picking it up and running with it and then sometimes kicking it does not qualify as football, come on USA. Your thing is closer to Rugby than Football.)

Anyway most teams aren't much better or worse than any other if you actually watch objectively, which makes it look like they both suck because they're too well matched to score goals more than once in a blue moon.

Rugby I don't really understand the appeal of either. Scrums are weird and it wouldn't be entirely bizarre to see a guy walking away from the game with blood down his face and an ear in his hand. You'd almost expect him to stick the ear on ice and be back in a few minutes with his bandages on.

Really the only sports than interest me are the gymnastic types. Ice skating is good for a while but it can start getting dull if you don't have people willing to break the mould a bit. (Which is why I absolutely love the free skate bit. Where they aren't being scored and they just do whatever the hell they want, omg I live for that)

Floor routines are awesome, the pommel horse and rings are usually a little samey for me but the one with those two bars at different heights, that's fun to watch~ there's a little more variety there.

(And I don't wanna hear anyone in the replies saying these aren't sports, every example there including figure skating is a separate event in the Olympics, so. There.)

6. What’s your dream car?

I don’t really have one. At this point in my life I don’t actually have the option to learn to drive so I haven’t really thought about it. My only criteria is, it has to have a nice face. x)

Since I was tiny I have always seen cars as faces. The headlights would be eyes, and usually the number plate would be the mouth, but some cars have other stuff like a grill that might be the mouth instead. So like...

This would be a grumpy car with a pig-like nose and frown.. Actually those look like jowels either side of the mouth part. It looks kind of like a bulldog. X’)

And this would be a happy car. That black part around the number plate it wide and smile-shaped, and the headlights- rounded on top and straighter on the bottom, like the little creases we get when we scrunch up our eyes laughing~

This car looks like someone just said something really stupid to it, and it is not impressed, and lets the silence hang not knowing what to say.

Happy car

Terminator car

Happy car but in a mean way.. Like it’s on its way to cause mayhem or poking fun at someone. You get the general idea -w-

7. A movie that you think should have a sequel?

Hmm... this is a toughie.

8. A movie sequel that you think should be deleted from existence?

I don’t remember which number it was or even the title, but the Shrek sequel where Shrek like, hates having kids so much he makes a deal to change time? And Fiona winds up as like a vicious warrior leader because no-one ever saved her from the tower, and rumplestiltskin is in it? What even was that...

9. Design your dream outfit using this game ?

I wouldn’t say this really is my dream outfit, but from the options on offer~

(also discounting the enormous hair bun >w>;)

10. Favourite fairytale?

I’m not sure if this actually counts as a fairytale, but I love the story of the jolly roger. That classic skull and crossbones flag has a story behind it that a lot of people don’t know.

In a nutshell, a man (i guess a pirate) develops an intense crush on a young woman, who is about to get married. But just before her wedding, she dies. She is buried, but the man doesn’t take death for an answer. He digs her up and has sex with her body. When he’s done, a disembodied voice speaks to him, telling him that he has basically impregnated this corpse, and to come back in nine months.

For some reason, he does. He digs up the woman again. And sat below her pelvis is a small skull and two bones. The disembodied voice tells him to take these bones with him on his ventures, and they will bring him luck.

It’s bizarre, and kinda gross, and.. I dunno if being rewarded for sexually desicrating a corpse is the best moral? x’) But I was amazed when I heard this story, because I’d had no idea there was this whole tale behind the flag~ and I still love that it exists~

11. Create an avatar of your favourite muse using this creator? ?

First, it’s so cruel to ask me to pick my favourite child how dare you >w> haha

I went with Chester though because he’s the one I’m usually most connected to.

I can’t think of anyone I want to tag right now (at least not anyone who hasn’t probably done this already), but I’ll put the new 11 questions for anyone who does feel like doing this~ :) __

1. What’s one thread/plot you really want to do that you haven’t had chance to yet?

2. What is the reason for, or meaning behind, your blog icon?

3. Do you have any pets? Tell us a bit about them!

4. What is one thing you would never want to change about your appearance?

5. There is an ultra secret spy group, and you’ve just uncovered their existence. Now they say that you must either work for them, or they’ll find a permanent way to keep you quiet. What kind of work would you offer to do for them?

6. If you met your muse in real life, how do you think the two of you would get along? (multi-muse blogs, pick one of your muses at random.)

7. You have been given a huge budget to remake one film in your own vision. You can change anything, add anything, choose the cast, you have no limits. What would you do?

8. What is one skill you wish you could automatically master?

9. A genie offers you a deal. An unlimited lifelong supply of one food of your choice... But, you have to sacrifice your ability to chew. Does any food still tempt you?

10. What do you think is the funniest animal?

11. Share one memory you have that makes you happy to think about~

[lazulifoster]

Get Up (Loki x reader)  Part 2

Prompt: N/A  Get Up part 2 (Loki x Reader) Pairing: Loki x Reader (x Thor) Warnings: Swearing; graphic violence; angst (Thor x Loki) Word Count: 3k+ Y/H/T: Your hometown A/N: So I decided to continue the story. Honestly, that dream I had really shook me and I really haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I have so many ideas for this story that even if no ones read I’ll probably still post XD Anyway, this whole thing I decided this takes place after the Avengers movie. I’m sorry if the fighting between Loki and Thor is a little harsh, but that's kinda how I pictured them after the whole NYC debacle. This part has a lot going on, so I am going to try to make scene changes very apparent. 

Thank you in advance for reading. I am so humbled getting any notes at all. Thank you :) 

P.s. Sorry for the slow burn, I like to build up and have some background, I promise it won’t be this way the whole way :) Also, there are characters who haven’t been explained yet, that is on purpose, but I PROMISE I will explain in part 3.

The two giants stumbled into the living room. They began to piece together what had happened during their brief absence. The human form Surtur had possessed, lay on the floor, skull bashed in; and the front door was flung open with no signs of their intended prey.

"She got AWAY!" The raspier voiced panicked. His companion scoffed at the observation.

"She will be easy to catch, meanwhile what are we going to do about Surtur? How is he going to find her now? He doesn't have a body to take over—"

His concerns were interrupted, a giant flame immediately began to rise from the charred body on the floor. The heat and brightness from the flame caused both giants to take a step back and shield their eyes, leaving them both amazed and terrified. Once Surtur's full-self exited his former host, he spoke, "No need to worry, men, about a body for me to control, when I have two viable options right in front of me" Before both the giants could fully process his words, a pillar of fire entered through the mouth of the raspy-voiced giant. The softer spoken giant bolted a few feet away and watched in horror as his former companion's gurgled screams echo through the whole house. After Surtur's transformation into the giant's body was finished, he turned to the remaining giant, "Now, looks like we have a job to finish…"

* * * * *

I ran. I ran, and I ran until my lungs felt like they were on fire. With every breath I took, the burning feeling increased. Thankfully I was so full of adrenaline that the pain in my lungs did not bother me.  What did bother me though was immediately after escaping from my house, I remembered I had forgotten everything important: my car keys and my cell phone. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK how am I suppose to go anywhere or call anybody? I tried to keep my teeming thoughts at bay and just kept running. I went into autopilot and ran towards Maddy's house, my closet friend who happened to live the closest to me who wasn't on vacation or working some random graveyard shift. Twenty blocks isn't exactly a marathon, but running that far with only flimsy pajama and socks, in the freezing night wore me out quicker than usual. I had to make a few stops to vomit in any bushes I could find. A lethal mix of exertion and fear did the trick. I didn't know if the two giants were still after me or if running to Maddy's house would bring her danger, but either way, I knew I needed to tell someone about what happened. After an arduous run, I finally made it to Maddy's apartment. I praised whatever deity would listen that she lived on the bottom floor and I wouldn't have to climb any stairs. I placed my hand on her door for a moment, trying to catch my breath and wipe off anything unsavory on my face with my free hand.

I loudly knocked at her door. Not trying to repeat what my delightful guests did to me earlier, but loud enough to wake her up.

"Maddyyyyy" I whined, dragging out her name. "Please open the door, it's me!"

A few moments later, I heard some shuffling coming from inside her apartment.

"Y/N?" She questioned before opening her door.

"Please let me in!"

Gently opening the door, I could see Maddy's eyes gradually widen the longer she looked at me. "What the fuck happened to you?!"

She ushered me inside before I could answer.

"Why—why are you in your pajamas? Where are your shoes? Why didn't you just text me?—Wait A minute, did you WALK here? Did someone attack you?!"

"I ran here" I exhaled, still trying to regain my breath and composure.

"You better start telling me what's going on before I call the police, Y/N!"

"OK!" I snapped, before finally blurting out the thoughts that were bouncing back and forth inside my head "I don't know what happened tonight, I was just sleeping, an-and some guy told me to ‘Get up,' and I did, then these big ass dudes were in my house, MY HOUSE! Then I-I-I stomped on one of them in the head because the guy who said ‘Get up' told me to and—" I stopped. I began to uncontrollably sob. I knew what I was saying probably sounded absolutely crazy to Maddy, but I didn't care. At that moment, I just wanted someone to comfort me and tell me it was going to be ok.

Maddy, knowing precisely what to do, grabbed me and just held me. She let me sob until I was ready to talk again.

Maddy and I had met in middle school. We had been through so many things together. Her parent's divorce, my dad's accident and my subsequent anxiety, even her having to live with me for a while after she came out as a lesbian to her parents who were less than supportive. I knew if anyone personified "a loyal friend," it was Maddy.  

When I finally stopped crying, Maddy went to grab me a bottled water. When she came back, she rubbed my back with her hand and looked at me.

 "Ok, so start over, what the hell happened?"

* * * * *

I told Maddy again, from the beginning what happened, much more coherently this time around. Maddy just nodded her head and listened. She's not buying any of this, she thinks I'm crazy. After I was finished, I waited, hesitant to ask her her thoughts.

"Maddy?"

"Well, I guess anything is possible, especially since all that stuff that went down in New York a while back. Maybe this is related somehow."

The thought hadn't even occurred to me that this was something related to that attack in New York City. I had barely convinced myself this whole ordeal wasn't a nightmare, let alone something tied to the superhero/crime-fighting "Avenger" group.

"Do you think we should give them a call?"

I scoffed "Pfffft yeah like those billionaires are just gonna come down here to Y/H/T."

"I think only Tony Stark is a billionaire, I think the others just live with him."

"Well, either way, I seriously doubt what happened was something that warrants giving ‘them a call.'"

Maddy rolled her eyes at me, "Well I do! I don't think this was just some bad dream or an anxiety attack! I don't think this is something you can just put off, what if those things are still around? You need to tell someone, someone who can actually, I don't know, find out what's going on!"

I started to filter through my head anyone I can talk to about something like this. There was Dad, he was always understanding and willing to talk to me, but he was on vacation to Mexico with mom. They hadn't been on vacation long before Dad's accident and a restful holiday was long overdue for them both. And I was in no way, going to bother them about this. I guess I could talk to my Aunt Pam, but knowing her she would probably tell me I had a "nightmare," and I needed to be in church. But…

 "What about your Uncle Thor?" Maddy cut off my train of thought.

Uncle Thor wasn't really my biological Uncle. He was a long time friend of my dad's, but to my family, he might as well be related by blood. Uncle Thor and my dad met soon after I was born, at least that's how I was told the story. My dad and my mom were almost mugged at gunpoint as they were leaving the hospital after I was born. Uncle Thor intervened and saved my parents. After the incident, my parents tried to find ways to repay him for saving us, which Uncle Thor respectfully declined, but my dad insisted that he come to the house for dinner, just to say ‘thank you.' And the rest is history, ever since then, Uncle Thor has been over for as many holidays and birthdays that he could attend. He goes away quite a bit, he lives out of the country and his work schedule is erratic, but that just means whenever he is around, it makes the time we get with him even more special.

 "Uncle Thor lives in Norway, Maddy, and there is NO WAY I'm going to call him about this, he'll call dad and ruin their vacation—"

"I know he lives in Norway, dumbass," Maddy interrupted "But I literally just saw him at Starbucks, yesterday."

Her words took me back. Uncle Thor usually calls when he's in town. "Are you sure it was him?"

 "Positive, we talked for a couple minutes before I met up with my cousin."

 "Well, why didn't you tell me?" I grumbled

 "Girl I thought you knew! I'm not arguing with you, here's my phone, give him a call, I'm sure he didn't just fly all the way down here for Starbucks" Maddy winked

 "I guess you're right."

I scrolled through Maddy's contacts till I found "Thor Odinson." I tapped on his number, and pressed "Call." What the heck is Uncle Thor gonna think about this…

* * * * *

"BROTHER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? You are the most irresponsible, the most reckless, the MOST untrustworthy…" Thor was furious. Usually, he tried to keep a low profile when he visited Midgard (his height, build, and hair alone were enough to draw attention) and Thor didn't like to bring any more attention than necessary. But tonight though, caution was tossed to the wind. Here he was, Loki, the god of mischief, his younger brother; who temporarily brought New York City to its knees, standing in the middle of Thor's hotel room in Y/H/T. Loki smirked, sometimes seeing his brother irrationally angry, humored him.

"Oh spare me your speech, brother" Loki spat "You know exactly why I'm here."

"Oh, yes, remind me, Loki, who was it that released these savage beasts into Midgard again? Gave them access to all the realms behind Heimdall's back?"

Loki flinched. He had repented incessantly since the attack on New York. Even though he knew it would take time to be forgiven entirely, he thought maybe Thor would be the first to forgive him. Even though Thor's words stung, Loki hid his feelings behind a facade or hubris.

"If you want to play that game, Thor, remind me, who has a secret Midgarian family that they've grown close to and vowed to protect, well—except for tonight" Loki took pride in watching his brother's face distort with every word he spoke.

"How do you know about that?!"  

"Oh brother, you underestimate me far too much."

Thor was slack-jawed. He was sworn to absolute secrecy, about the family he cared for, particularly Y/N. After Sigrún's death, Thor did everything he could to keep that small, Midgardian family safe. Except for today, which Loki pointed out; and that tormented Thor to his core.

Thor sat at the foot of his bed and placed his head between his hands, grabbing the pieces of his hair b y his temples. Even though Thor would act scornful toward Loki, sometimes, without a second thought, Loki almost felt remorseful for making his brother feel the same. The fights between the brothers became more frequent after Odin inadvertently pitted the brothers against each other with his secrecy and favoritism, and even more so since New York. Neither of them knew if things would ever be the same again, but for now, they both had sweet moments between arguments. Loki came by his brother on the bed, timidly, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," Loki said, almost inaudibly.

After a long silence between them both, Thor finally spoke: "How did you find out?"

Loki chuckled, "I was there, brother. You did pick the library to discuss everything with Sigrún, after all."

Thor exhaled in slight annoyance. "It was rather foolish of me to speak there if I wished to keep anything from you." Thor gave his brother a playful nudge.

"So, you know everything then, I assume?" Loki nodded.

"Well, either way, brother, you have been forbidden to come back to Midgard until I permitted it. This is my responsibility, not yours, not after every mess I've had to clean up of yours."

The kind moment between the brothers had now vanished. Loki, enraged, stood up and turned to face Thor, fists clenched and nostrils flared.

"You cannot let me just have this one victory brother, one victory! No, you have to parade yourself the hero in every situation, you save the world one time with the Avengers, and now you expected the floor you walk on the be worshipped, I will not yield to such vanity."

Thor scowled at his brother and rose to meet him at eye level. "You arrogant fool. I should have made sure the key to your cell was destroyed, never allowing you to be set free."

Loki snickered. "I'm arrogant? Tell me, where is Y/N? You didn't save her from her evening visitors, and now you don't even know if she still breaths. Come now, who is really the arrogant ass in this scenario."

Thor had been trying all night to get ahold of Y/N, but with no luck. His calls and texts were left unanswered which worried him immensely, he even went to Y/N's house after everything happened and only found the body of Surtur's unfortunate victim and the home slightly ransacked. Thor searched the house for Y/N before eventually cleared out the corpse and closing the door behind him. He continued his attempts of contacting Y/N until he reached his hotel room where he found Loki waiting for him.

"Well if you know where she is Loki I would love to know, maybe make yourself useful for once."

"I am just like you brother, I do not know. Although, I am not entirely like you, because I was able to warn her of the attack—"

"LISTEN LOKI—" Thor shouted, but was immediately interrupted by Thor's loud ringtone. He turned his phone to full volume to not miss Y/N if she was to call.

Both the brothers hushed as Thor looked at his phone screen and saw the name Your Other Favorite, the name Maddy playfully gave her contact name in Thor's phone. Maddy, being extremely close to Y/N made her, by proximity, close to Thor as well.

"Who is that?" Loki questioned

"It's Y/N friend, Maddy."

"Well I'd answer that call brother, perhaps she knows where Y/N is."

Thor speedily answered his phone. "Maddy? Do you know where Y/N is? I've been looking for her—"

"Uncle Thor it's me! I'm ok!" Thor heard Y/N through the phone "I'm calling you from Maddy's phone because I left my phone at my house."

Thor sighed in relief and looked at his brother Loki who had moved to the coffee table in the hotel room and was glancing at the mundane bobbles and hotel decor.

"Why were you looking for me Uncle Thor?"

"I-uh-well, I wanted to tell you I was in town and say hello." Thor clumsily lied. Loki laughed from the other side of the room which caused Thor to place his hand over the speaker of his phone, "Well I'm sorry if lying does not come naturally to me as it does to you, Loki."

"Oh, ok, well I'm glad you're in town, I really need to talk to you as soon as possible. Can you come to Maddy's house so we can talk?"

"Yes, I will be there soon."

"Great see you there, love you, Uncle Thor!"

"Love you, my favorite and my other favorite." Thor's smile could be felt through the phone. Even though Thor could be abrasive to Loki, Thor was nothing but a fantastic Uncle to Y/N. Loki knew that and envied their closeness even more. Y/N and Thor said their goodbyes and Thor began to get ready to leave the hotel.

"Looks like you have a lot of explaining to do," Loki stated.

"All I can hope for at this point is that she knows very little."

Loki aggressively grabbed his brother's shoulder. "Well, either way, I hope you become a better liar before you talk to her again." Thor pushed Loki off and made his way to Maddy's house.

[houseofvans]

ART SCHOOL | MICHAEL C. HSIUNG | VANS US OPEN 2018

Michael C. Hsiung has a special imagination, one filled with mermen, dragons, creative landscapes and intriguing narratives. His humorous illustrations will evoke your inner child and leave you wanting more. If only everyone could see the world through his eyes, maybe we’d live life a bit more light-heartedly. Now let’s dive into who this creative genius is and what he created on this year’s Vans US Open skate and BMX course.

Photographs courtesy of Ginger Caranto

What is your background? I was born in Chinatown, Los Angeles and raised in the San Fernando Valley. My folks emigrated from Taiwan to the US in the mid-late 70’s, and I grew up in Northridge where I discovered art, comic books, fantasy, skateboarding, Dungeons & Dragons and heavy metal. Now, I’m a self taught artist who has been lucky enough to draw and show my art to folks who hopefully like a good chuckle or two.

How did you get into art? My childhood was always filled with drawing, scribbling, and coloring books. I was always really stoked on comic book art, Dungeons & Dragons artwork, Pushead, Frazetta, Gorey and anything with skulls or dragons.

How did you start making art / what drives you to continue to do so? I grew up doodling, coloring, and using my imagination to play and have fun. So naturally I always kept a sketchbook or journal to record my thoughts through drawings or doodles. Tried endlessly to draw my own comic to no avail. Eventually I stopped drawing for a long time because I just didn’t think my drawings were good enough. I didn’t think I had the talent for it, so I stopped. Years passed . . .  I didn’t find myself drawing anymore, not until, I moved back to Los Angeles in 2007. I was hanging out with my old skate friends, and one of them was making art (Mike Stilkey - amazing artist), as was my sister, Pearl. They both encouraged me to draw with them while we chilled out from nights out on the town or when we were killing time. It was the perfect window for me to create and revisit drawing.

Eventually with enough encouragement through my friends and various random folks on the internet, I started to draw more and more. This eventually led to me showing work, taking on projects, and ultimately finding a purpose for myself. That was about 10 years ago, and it has been quite the ride. What drives me to continue has changed over the years, as I think it does for most folks who try and make a living doing art or freelance. It isn’t a easy career, though it may seem super fun and exciting, which it is of course. But also there’s what the reality is too– it is a lot of work, sacrifice and constant ups and downs. That being said, drawing is so much a part of who I am that while it has its challenges I know if I stopped, I’d be unsatisfied with life. I draw and make art to keep my sanity, and hopefully bring joy to folks who come across it.  

Who are your biggest influences? Hands down my older sister Pearl who is an amazing artist and painter. She was always drawing me things or painting my door with cool comic characters. Later on in life, she encouraged me to draw again, just for the therapy side of having an outlet.

What does your creative process entail? My process has changed over the years.  I used to just sit down, draw immediately, form ideas, and BOOM – that would continue for many years. Nowadays, I really have to find time and a spark or inspiration, then spend the hours sitting, pondering, sketching, and erasing before I even get to the point of wanting to pen in the lines. Sometimes I chuck things before they have even been half way finished. It is hard not to overthink what you do when you’ve been doing it for a bit, but I try and stay fresh by focusing on ideas and interests that inspire me. I also try and create a fun and relaxed environment in my studio with little to few distractions–almost as if to take me back to when I was a kid drawing just for drawing’s sake.

What is your most important artist tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio? My most important artist tool is my imagination. Growing up I was lucky to really have to use my own imagination to play and create worlds, which has helped me as an artist. Imagination and creativity is what gives life to my art.

Many of your drawings feature a hybrid animal. Who is this character and what does he represent to you? I think the first hybrid animals I started drawing were merman. I am fascinated by mythology and old tales, so I wanted to re-imagine what these creatures were like, who they were, and why the mermaids left them. I started to create these stories in my head, so I wanted to draw out my own narrative. I love reading and exploring the origins of mythological creatures such as centaurs, harpies, satyrs and then re-creating my own tales about them in the modern world or with modern vices. They allow me to explore the world in a different way as well as express my passion for cryptozoology, mythology, and fantasy.

Where do you find inspiration for your work? Inspiration is a strange thing, but I get inspired by things I read, strange facts, old books, sometimes movies, adventurers, old tales, friend antics, mythology, fantasy, crystals, nature, skateboarding and the list goes on. I try and let my mind find other interests that can inspire my work in a new direction.

How has your style changed over your career? When I started drawing again in 2007 my art was looser, naive, and more freeform but thematically I was drawing what I touch upon now. I was and am still drawing mermen, weird animals, and strange people. I’ve worked on honing my ideas, drawing with intention, and making my art cleaner, straighter and well executed. That’s what happens when you start to show art with other amazing artists - it makes you up your stuff!

Can you tell us about the mural you created for the Vans Park Series course? This year for the Vans Park Series course I created four different painted illustrated pieces–a bear skating on all his paws, a Slip-On shoe wizard, a mustached dude on a log board, and a bear with a sun hat on one as well.

The bear on the board is a character I’ve been drawing for a few years. She’s kind of a combo of a California State bear, a friend and a reference to my last name, which in Chinese translates to BEAR. Bet you didn’t see that one coming ha.

Well I’m super into wizards and super into Slip-Ons, so it was just a natural thing that came to being hah. I did that piece for my wife Rachel too! I even added some crystals for her since she’s a total rock hound.

The last character is just a rad cruiser dude who I imagine seeing all over town just laying back on his deck with his road soda. Just enjoying life.

What is your favorite part about painting a mural? My favorite part about painting the mural is when you see it getting shredded by all the amazing skateboarders!

What was the painting experience like working with multiple artists on the course? It’s such a great bonding experience when you’re painting a huge skate course in 3 days with other artists. I love seeing everyone’s approach, style and learning about their art and who they are.

It was my first time meeting Benjamn Marasco and Ellen Rutt, and I have to say those are some inspiring folks. They tackled their massive murals within tough conditions and never flinched.  I love that.

It is always fun to work alongside Jack Graydon! He’s the best. You wanna learn about spray paint? Jack’s your man. You need help with a color choice, Jack is the man!

Then it was a special treat to work with artist and bud Phil Morgan. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was real special. We helped keep each other on track and just like always bounce ideas off each other. Lots of time I feel like you’re working out your problems in the bowl with other artists. It’s fun!

Do you have a favorite memory from your time spent at the US Open? So many fun and memorable moments, but my favorite memory from the time in the park was definitely the last day when we were all finished with our murals and sitting together on the spine looking around and checking out each other’s pieces.  I mean you spend most of the time there focusing on your mural and painting that you don’t actually get to see each other’s work before it gets skated - so that end moment is special :)

What was the most challenging part of the mural you created? The most challenging part of the mural really is the weather (super hot in the bowl!) and painting on the transition. You don’t realize how many muscles start working until you wake up the next morning. Standing and balancing while trying to paint a straight line is probably the hardest part, but you learn to get loose and go with the flow. Let it flow!

Do you have any advice for people who have dreams of becoming an artist? My advice to people who have the dream of becoming an artist–if you have a great imagination, feed it with books, music, art, and play a board game once in a while.

Follow Michael on Instagram and check out his online shop here.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 3

Bravely Second Chapter 3: Up, Up, and Away is now on, and being posted in a decent amount of time. I think we’re gonna go steady straight to the end of the game at this rate!

Agnès seems to be okay in the wake of the Skyhold getting hit and going down. She didn’t even notice. Her knitting got messed up and she’s mad. God, if Agnès ain’t me

Oh, and Tiz spotted her lost yarn through video call. Cuuuute

SP reading from Luxendarc? VP Appleberry, explain!

There was nothing to explain. The laser energy was the same as the stuff we use in the Bravely Second hourglass. I sense a meta chapter coming on

Something is sealed in Skyhold. The Kaiser and Anne are worried it may break free. And they’re refusing to let Nikolai look into the laser. They’re sending Geist, who I remember from the demo. His asterisk job was kinda useless, at least for my playstyle. So they’re sending a torturer because... why not

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but they pronounce “Anne” as “Ann-eh” and that kinda messes me up?

Game is crazy if it thinks I’m not going to immediately turn around and grind out all of the ocean’s bestiary entries

Monoceros are terrifying oh gosh I think that was my first game over so far? I got unlucky with a group of four lurking out of sight

Also, Striped Rabbies are fish? Weird

Hey Liz what did you do today? Oh, you know, spent three hours completing bestiary entries

Man, I’ve gotta be about halfway through the game at this point. The team’s level 45, bestiary entries are about 50% complete in all categories that aren’t Dragons and Bosses... There’s supposed to be six chapters, right? Maybe some of the later ones are shorter

It’s the prettiest city in all of Luxendarc: Florem!

Staging, huh? Tell me it’s not another beauty pageant

Oh are those Ancheim NPCs there because I took deRosa’s side in the sidequest? Sorry guys... if it’s any consolation I intend to undo evicting you from your homes?

Ah. Flower Festival time. Of course. At least the festival workers seem to have realized their errors from last game and they’ve replaced the beauty pageant with another contest, and they pick both a male and female winner now. Exciting... I guess

Nobody in Florem knows anything about the Skyhold or the attack on it, but the Matriarch is gonna send their baby vestaling, Sylvie, with us to put up a shield. I... do not have high hopes for this child’s continued existence

Just put the barrier up and Sylvie is not dead yet, but I’m still worried for this mute child

Oh??? My God??? Is the “Revealing Outfit” that Magnolia found just a cloth diaper? Isn’t that the DLC outfit for Tiz?

Great, the Empire’s here for an inquisition. Because Florem totally has a giant laser cannon, guys! This random passerby definitely knows where that came from!

The Florem battle background is gorgeous, though

What is Geist’s accent? It’s as unplaceable as Tommy Wiseau’s

Also he just killed two guys on stage. I guess the Kaiser doesn’t care about subtlety if this is the guy he’s sending

And he’s using his gameplay gimmick of undoing turns to revive them. While I appreciate the nod to his job class, does this really count as a “turn,” Geist?

Also it’s kind of messed up that he can kill someone, revive them, and they retain their memories of dying. Though is it really any worse than normal JRPG resurrection?

How did this man, completely covered in blood, manage to make his way to the stage completely unseen in the first place?

Alternis, baby, back for the save yet again!

...aaaaand he’s down yet again. But now he’s taking advantage of his Dark Knight abilities to hit Geist back

“What a power couple!” They all ship Edea/Alternis

The crowd is naming Edea and Alternis the winners of the pageant because Edea would sacrifice herself for the city, and Alternis would sacrifice himself for Edea

“It seems that even with my helmet donned, I cannot hide my manly charms.” This isn’t Alternis, is it? Thought his line delivery was a little different. That’s gotta be Ringabel, at least in this scene

The mood whiplash in this scene is incredible! We’re going from Geist threatening to brutally maim everyone, revive them, and do it over and over until someone confesses, to “OH AREN’T ALTERNIS AND EDEA A CUTE COUPLE haha what a situation” gags

So no one seemed to understand Magnolia’s burst of French, which is understandable since contact with the people of the moon has been limited, but this guy in the crowd speaks French, too???

“Our” tongue? Do we have a moon immigrant on our hands or something?

“The language of the Sagitta”. So the Sagitta are an ancient tribe that defeats Ba’al. Speaking of Ba’al, I feel like we’re probably about due for another fight with one

So I guess we’re gonna go chat up the Sagitta elder. Give them info on the moon for their info on the giant laser of death

Lotus of the Sagitta. I see the symbolism. He’s gonna die, isn’t he?

Helllooooooo sidequest. Guide says Barras vs. Einheria

Well, Edea’s the new superintendent of Florem schools because the old one got tired of it and Edea was standing close by. Seems legit

So survey teachers on Co-ed schools vs. Non-Co-ed. So is that the big fight this go around?

“Ms. Rhea Veeling”? Ohhh boy

Swetti Tracsute... in Eternian sky night garb? Was he from the first game or has it taken me so long to play this one that it feels like he was from a whole other game

Eugh. It’s a battle of gender stereotypes. Can we noooooooot

For the record, my stance is that the owner of the school or whatever should be free to choose whether it’s co-ed or not. That’s it. If there’s sufficient demand for both, then neither of you are in the right. HOWEVER, since this doesn’t seem like it’s going to be about the school itself, per se, but about the equality of the sexes. In which case, uhhhh there shouldn’t be any discrimination by sex on a legal level?

Aaaaand Swetti’s lost me with his “school is about falling in love, not learning!” spiel

You’re both wrong. Sidequest closed. Give me both jobs already. I’ll fight both of you if I have to

So while Bravely Second’s sidquests are an interesting idea, I do wish they’d mixed it up a bit. Every single one of them feels like I’m resolving some petty childish squabbling on the side. None of them are relevant to the story and they’re just getting predictable at this point. Remember in Bravely Default when we had a sidequest where the party’s alternate-universe selves all died in one of the other universes they went to and got to see what the people they loved were like without them? Tiz’s brother Til, Olivia Oblige, Alternis and Braev... yeah, I remember when they were deep and poignant. Now look at us. We’re deciding what the Florem school district should do with its time, and it will inevitably end with two people from the last game fighting and us having to defeat one of them. They’re just so... irrelevant and not even well-written to compensate?

In general I’m on Swetti’s side. Cooperation between the sexes is the only way to get rid of discrimination between them, and Florem doesn’t have ANY co-ed schools yet, so opening one up is probably a good idea. So naturally I gotta kick his ass, for Worst Timeline purposes

Or kick Barras’s ass, since he’s here now. Hey, dick. How’s your bitch girlfriend doing now that she’s doomed the continent of Eisen to a slow economic death?

So Rhea was one of Einheria’s soldiers in the Bloodrose Legion in the last game, just like Swetti was one of Barras’s. There’s the tie-in, I guess

And Rhea is just being obstinate... for the aesthetic? To keep Florem beautiful? She isn’t even making a point! She just doesn’t like the idea of guys being around! “I’m all for equal rights for men and women but they’re just so grosssss...” that’s not an argument. Stop.

And now I’ve gotta battle through the Twilight Ruins to make my report. This is so aaaaaaarbitrary

The bestiary entry for the Twilight Ruins enemy, Dark Stomper, has Voice call the moon civilization “our civilization”. So Voice is a Moon man?

“Your decision is probably going to drag us into a battle against the losing faction” even Tiz is pointing out how same-y these all are

Guess the sidequest is over already. Just time to kick Barras’s ass for being right

I may have charmed Swetti and let him do most of the damage to Barras. Whoops?

Seems like the anti-co-ed argument is BUT TRADITION. CHANGE TAKES TIME. Yes but opening up a school with optional enrollment is exactly the small change that would... oh forget it

Innovation>tradition for me. Sorry, it just is

And Rhea has a crush on Swetti. Because that’ll be a healthy relationship where all they do is scream at each other

Whatever, let’s get back to it with the Sagitta

THAT GIANT OROCHI SKULL IS METAL AS HELL

And the Sagitta forest is gorgeous. I’m so glad this is what we get after that abysmal sidequest

I worry that a boss is coming up every time the Adventurer gives me the option to rest in the cottage

I never thought I’d hear “open sesame” spoken in French but there it is. The password for Sagitta Village

OH MAN IT’S ONE OF THOSE FLOATING VILLAGE DEALIES that’s rad

“You fear this is the end? True despair lies in the lack of a future. The unchanging world... We call it the end layer” The first NPC I talk to in a village shouldn’t be allowed to be so ominous OR title drop!

So the Sagitta were told that they descended from the moon people, but few believed it was true

And Elder Sirius is determined to blow the Skyhold to pieces, Agnès’s safety be damned. Okay, dude, chill for five minutes while we grab her, then you can do it. No? Christ, what a dick

Nooo Agnès is being self-sacrificing again through pendant call. I love how Edea turned Agnès’s “Unacceptable” catphrase back on her for that suggestion

“We’re Agnès’s Avengers, remember?” Hey, I thought we agreed that we were Yew Googlymoogly and his Three Yutzes now

At least Lotus wants to help us get transport to the Skyhold

Aww, Lotus has a son named Procyon. And his deceased wife was the Elder’s daughter, so Procyon is the big heir to the position

Procyon thinks Tiz’s hair is funny... but I have Tiz as a Catmancer so the zoom in on the ears was comedy gold

Confirmation that the Sagitta fired the laser, and they have no clue where their SP cannon comes from

Edea’s plan was to fire us out of the cannon... Edea, it’s not a normal cannon. It’s a laser. It’ll disintegrate you

They don’t know what SP is, just that it’s produced from “the flow of time” just like how wind turbines collect energy from “the flow of wind” which... they just convert kinetic energy into electric energy so that’s not quite how it works but okay

It’s also harnessed from people sleeping. I can see where this is going to get meta. The Bravely Second hourglass charges when the 3DS is in sleep mode, in other words, when the “player” is asleep. So to them it looks like it’s charging automatically, but it’s actually harnessing the player’s sleeping energy. Given that last game implied that the player was a Celestial watching the party, it has to be intentional

Now to have Lotus and Procyon guide us to Old Sagitta so we can see if we can use SP energy to fly!

Oh no another sidequest’s opened up

What on earth did Edea just throw at that man

And he sings every other line. Wow. That won’t get old

Rocca Pellar, grandson of bard Arca Pellar, owner of the baton that we used against Praline last game. She’s gonna be in this quest, isn’t she?

At least the party’s as done with his singing as I am

...why are we in deRosa’s molestation basement?

Buddy no. Do not use this as a studio. Some dark stuff went on in here

So Praline and Barbarossa are both harassing Rocca for an old song his grandfather wrote. And Rocca describes both of them as having voices so bad he couldn’t understand them. Rude

And Edea’s gonna help because they’re both Kamiizumi’s people and she feels responsible

This Jpop song is so loud I can’t hear what they’re saying. I see they haven’t fixed the mixing from the last game

Praline wants to remix the song and pass it off as her own. I’m gonna imagine Barbarossa wants it released in its original form. On the one hand: potential art theft on Praline’s part. On the other, since the original artist is dead, the song may be public domain. Though if she’s asking for rights the answer is probably “not yet”. In which case, she can wait and I want to side with Barbarossa

I forgot Yew was scared of ghosts. This ship must suck for him

Yeah. Barbarossa doesn’t want her to be able to mess up the song. I know I said tradition<innovation in the last quest, and I stand by that... but the song was never released, so it can’t be tradition. So release it in its original form, then, years later, we allow Praline to remix it. Problem solved, people just have to be patient

I like Barbarossa more. So I’m gonna kick his ass in this, the worst timeline. Which is great, because I prefer the Pirate class to the Performer class

Cutscene, cutscene, OLD DUNGEON FROM THE LAST GAME, pick a side, boss fight... I don’t even hate this quest but it’s formulaic as anything

Tent event reveals that Yew is Pellar’s #1 fan and he’s geeking out that Tiz and Edea not only spoke to his disciples, but also have his baton. And now he’s distressed that Edea used it as a backscratcher

Edea ATE the baton by accident?! Good lord, girl, how???

Another thing that bothers me about these quests is that there doesn’t seem to be much correlation between the jobs offered? Like, it’s never a choice of “defensive swormaster vs. defensive knight” where both are attacking classes that just fill different roles or something, it’s always, like, “defensive vs. summon” or “buff vs. attack.” I just think it would be cool if the jobs offered were similar in some way, just filled different roles so your choice was more necessary. Ninja vs. thief for speed-based knife users, Buffing Performer vs. Buffing Time Mage... etc.

So Pellar’s song even came with a dedication to all sailors, so Barbarossa was right that it would be disrespectful to Arca to change the song’s meaning. Though, Rocca has no problem with the remix. I stand by my previous judgement. If Arca wanted the song as-is, then give it some time as-is. Praline can wait to remix it. Especially since I’m sure she won’t be respectful to the intent of the song

To connect this to the last one in terms of innovation vs. tradition, that one involved whether to open up a co-ed school or yet another all-girl’s school. Florem had none of the former, and people willing to run it. The issue was more large-scale and governmental in nature. The old law didn’t have feelings, it’s not a person, so innovation was the go-to. This quest has the direct notion that Arca would not want his song changed. Arca may be dead, but his wishes for his work should still be respected. It was a personal project, not a governmental one, and one that never got released so he wasn’t able to control what happened to it. The school benefits all of the guys in Florem who are now allowed rights there, and would change the way the country works forever. The remix would just make people happy for a bit and then be dropped once it’s no longer popular. It’s fleeting and shallow. So I guess artist’s rights>governmental innovation>disrespectful innovation>gender segregation?

Also, Arca can’t be that long gone. At least give him 100 years in the grave before screwing with his work

WOW Edea, that logic SUCKS. “The world doesn’t care about your grandpa’s wishes, they just want Praline, so screw your grandpa. You don’t owe him”

“Let Praline make a mockery of your grandfather’s legacy because pleasing the masses is the only thing that matters!” What... the fuck, Edea?

God, I love Barbarossa. “If you want to be taken seriously, face their legacies head on! Put some blood, sweat and tears into accomplishin’ somethin’ of your own!” He’s having none of this. And I do agree. If Praline has to piggyback off of someone else’s work to be popular, is she really that good?

deRosa, DeRosso, Barbarossa... the last game really loved using similar sounding words that mean “red” for its villains, huh

Benediction Wall is so good holy shit

Praline’s song is kind of annoying. Also sounds like it would fit in Splatoon more than a fantasy game like this

Old Sagitta is AWESOME. Blue/green glowing mushrooms and ancient runes in a dark temple? That’s my aestheeeeeetiiiiiiic

The music is chill, too

I really like Lotus. He doesn’t like that his son’s the heir of the elder because he wants his son to be able to go out into the world and form his own opinions. Heck, he wants his son’s beliefs to be challenged so that he grows. Procyon shouldn’t be performing the duties of the Sagitta halfheartedly, but because he’s seen everything there is to and come to the conclusion that he agrees with their ways regardless. And if he decides he doesn’t like the way the Sagitta do things? Then Lotus will accept that. I’ve got a lot of respect for that. It’s open-minded, but the fair kind. The kind that implies thought, not believing everything you hear

It’s just a shame that that kind of stuff is a death flag. Especially with Geist running around

Neat gimmick. There’s invisible floors and illusionary walls, so the path forward isn’t always clear, though you can see them if you look hard enough due to their sheen

This Ancient Sagitta document is playing the same music box tune that shows up for the ending narration. It’s a gorgeous piece, but now I’m sure this document is really important to the story. Moreso than I suspected before

A Professor Altair of the Dimensional Bureau made a device that allows you to jump to any point in spacetime. The “spaciotemporal compass,” which I believe the Kaiser’s army stole in the chapter with Minette. So his aim is to travel across time, huh?

Seems Yew’s an amazing chef, while Magnolia is... not. I see who’s gonna be doing the cooking in that relationship

The spaciotemporal compass was stolen. The Sagitta people came about because Director Sagitta felt responsible, and dedicated his life to fixing his mistake. They boosted security, but it didn’t fix the problem

Altair was around when Eternia was founded. He died of colonic disease, and his dying words were a wish to see “Vega” again. Vega is probably a woman, and given the music box theme, I wouldn’t be surprised if she turns out to be that lady doing the monologues at the end of each chapter

Shit, Altair was 34? Damn, poor guy

Yew is not pulled in by this lore. We gotta hit up the Skyhold, guys!

It mentioned a Buster Ship, which Magnolia seems to think is significant. Was that the ship she came to Luxendarc on? I can’t remember

It’s pronounced “all-tire”???? “ALL-TIRE”??? Guys that’s... that’s a real name! And it’s pronounced “Ahlt-air”! You can’t just keep pronouncing things in the most asinine way possible!!! (It’s like KH’s “ay-vuh” vs “ah-vah” thing all over again)!!!

So Tire man’s got a tablet listing all of his inventions. He’s invented everything. Including the airborne battleship Sagittarius. Sagittarius. Sagitta. Duh

Lotus knew about the battleship. Because it’s gone. The SP cannon is all that’s left of it

“The Ba’al and the empire are quiet” OH GOD LOTUS WHY DID YOU JINX IT LIKE THAT. I CAN JUST FEEL THE DRAMATIC IRONY

Yew... where are you sneaking off to at night?

Ah, he’s going to sneak into the Sagitta underground and figure out how the village floats to see if they can use that. And Magnolia’s coming, because.

I’ve got such a bad feeling about this whole endeavor. No music... just wind sounds... ominous

Aw, Yew wanted to be a scholar. But after his big bro disappeared, he abandoned his own dreams to fulfill his brother’s. That’s some familial dedication

Giving someone a flower on the moon means “I will protect you for as long as we both live.” Yew’s flower meant everything to Magnolia because she was terrified and alone, and then Yew showed up with nothing but the promise of unconditional support. I’m actually tearing up right now, that’s really sweet and it’s paired with the most amazing music

And the thing is, Yew was alone, too. He’d just been betrayed by Janne and all he really had was Edea. He needed Magnolia. Someone to commiserate with. Who understood how afraid he was and who wanted to help, too

Ugh, Voice, you’re ruining the scene

“So, too, will your passion bear sweet, sweet fruit” VOICE YOU’RE MAKING IT WEIRD

Oh shit Yew fell off Sagitta and Magnolia jumped after him. They survived because it turns out the rock Yew broke off floats. Magnolia’s “I knew I’d be fine because I trust you” was... cute, but amazingly stupid

And Voice is a shadow against the sky? Or was that supposed to be someone else?

“I woke up and everyone was gone!” ...so where did Tiz go, then.

The shadow is both Tiz and Voice. I’m just gonna guess that the soulstone we shoved in Tiz to wake him up at the beginning was Voice’s soul

AND VOICE IS ALTAIR. Tire man you’d better have a good explanation for your bizarre vegetable rants last chapter

I guess this also explains how voice was writing in our journal. Tiz had plenty of access to it

An intruder? Probably Geist.

...definitely Geist

And he followed us here. Of course he did

Lotus stop telling him exactly what everything is and what it does! It’s just gonna make him want to break it more! This is not a man with empathy, he’ll use that information to cause more damage!

So Tiz is possessed by Altair for this battle, which seems to effect nothing but is certainly happening

Oh come ON. The fight ends when you get one volley of attacks off on Geist? I could’ve torn him a new one I’m so overlevelled!

Altair says that Geist’s pulling a Life is Strange and rewinding small bits of time every time he “undoes” something, but that makes him susceptible to being attacked by large bursts of SP. Lucky for us he decided to fight us next to a giant SP fuel tank, I guess?

Also lucky that Altair invented the tank and knows the secret override code (seriously, no one ever changed that in the hundreds, maybe thousands of years since it was made?)

...the fight seems to be taking place in the Ba’al dimension with the music box theme playing, and Altair says it’s his memories they’re seeing, because emotions and time are inseparable.

Just gonna guess now that the Ba’al are the physical manifestations of Altair’s memories, given form by corruptions in time or just time energy. Paradoxes. It’s Final Fantasy XIII-2 now. Everything is paradoxes

Also, Geist can still undo, just not as much. Can’t completely nerf him for the fight, I guess

Undo as much as you want, that Benediction wall I put on you heals us every time we hit you, doofus

Ah yes. Now we, too, can be blood-drenched time-warpers that look like we shambled out of Silent Hill

Lotus is gonna die protecting this tank isn’t he

OH SHIT PROCYON JUMPED IN FRONT OF HIM MAYBE I WAS WRONG ABOUT WHO RAISED THE DEATH FLAG

Oh thank God Edea jumped in and killed Geist with a katana I know she absolutely does not have equipped

His dying words were hoping that his son “Rev” is now finally free. Dude you literally almost just murdered a father and his son without mercy, now you want sympathy because you’re also a dad? Is this how you people think equivalent exchange works?

“The kaiser intends to unleash the power of the spacetime compass!” Nooooooo really, Altair? I thought he stole it because it looked nice on his wall!

So unlike the last game, where the “time loop” was actually traveling to an alternate reality, in this game it is an actual time loop. I actually knew that before starting the game, which is why I’m so flippant about getting the worst endings on sidequests. Unlike the last game, where bad consequences never got undone because we weren’t going back in time, just to a different world, in this game whatever we do here gets undone in the next loop

So Altair can only possess Tiz at night? That’s some serious gameplay and story segregation because I know you’ve been writing in our journal during the day, you hack!

God we’re gonna have to tell Tiz about this. “Hey buddy we found out your body gets possessed by an ancient scientist at night” “Oh. Is that why it feels like I haven’t slept in months? ...is that why I’m currently covered in wounds?”

Wait, Tiz has been active at night before, so it can’t be “Altair takes over Tiz every night.” So it’s just only an option to possess him at night, but he can still choose not to take control if he doesn’t feel like it?

“But before I go, I would leave you with some cherished words of advice” DO NOT RAMBLE ABOUT VEGETABLES AGAIN

He’s rambling about GRAPES well, I mean, I said vegetables specifically, so you win this time Tire-man

“Which means what, exactly?” I love Yew. He’s my son. I’m adopting him

Tiz says he kinda knew about Altair. Not specifically Altair himself, but that he could feel another presence within him. Poor guy must’ve thought he was going crazy all this time

Altair, when did you have time to write Tiz a letter explaining everything last night?

So, confirmation that Altair was the soulstone we used to bring Tiz back, and that he stayed quiet because he was worried Tiz would try to get him out of his body. But he got attached to these kids and started getting more and more involved, by writing in the journal and giving us advice while out of sight, because he basically emotionally adopted us and wanted to help protect his old world

He also gave Tiz permission to exorcise him. Altair, I may hate the way you pronounce your name and ramble about produce, but I kinda like you now. Welcome to the team, Team Dad Who is Also a Ghost

That’s such a Tiz thing. “I mean he may be possessing my body but I’m not gonna exorcise him! That’s mean!”

Time to corner the Empire at the Water Temple and put a stop to their plans!

Agnès is overloading the Crystal. And her voice is all echo-y. Don’t tell me she’s possessed, too, because I totally called that in the last liveblog

I knew the barrier wouldn’t work. After all, what’s a vestaling’s power to a full-blown Vestal?

Tiz, stop asking her to stop and grab her!!!

Now we know for sure why she was kidnapped. And why the empire’s plans didn’t seem to start until the beginning of the game

Aw, damn. Anne’s here. We’ve gotta be heading back in time pretty soon to undo this

Vucub Caquix? What... THAT’S a name

I thought this was going to be the end of the chapter, but there’s a whole sidequest and two summons on my list I never did. Did I miss them???

Actually, screw it. I saved just before this scene, I’m gonna go check

I did not. Guess this isn’t the end of the chapter, then?

Ugh. Sapp and Piddler are back on a mechanical bird that they don’t know how to fly. How dramatic

At least Anne’s amused?

It absorbs lightning damage, which would’ve been nice to know when I scanned it

And it transforms into a wrestler. I... hrm.

Nevermind, it absorbs all magic. Magnolia’s Summon in a Pinch is gonna sabotage us, I know it

Just glanced at a guide. It actually absorbs ELEMENTAL damage, so the Wizard’s Spirit spell works

So tedious. Rad death animation though

Bestiary entry stated the operation manual inside says the designer gave it “the name of one of the gods from my homeland.” I wasn’t aware that the Mayans existed in the Default universe

Oh, fuck off Nikolai. Are you actually gonna do anything or are you just gonna monologue at us?

Blah blah he was part of the original Crystalguard, they were corrupt and lost to the Eternian Anticrystalists and the disbanded Crystalguard did some shady stuff that he did nothing to stop, so now he feels guilty and joined the kaiser to go back in time and undo it. Okay. Sure. I get it. You’ve never read a time-travel story in your life so you’re unaware that “fixing the past” goes wrong 90% of the time. We get it

Yew, my precious child! Sticking up for his beliefs and telling Nikolai off by professing his love for his new family!

“He’s like a big brother to me!” I LOVE ME A TIZ/YEW BROTHERHOOD

And everything he’s said about Edea sounds like a younger sibling talking about their annoying older sibling I LOVE THIS FAMILY

MY BABYYYYYY! “The people who matter most to me are right here, in this world! And you are not gonna take them away from me!” THAT’S RIGHT KIDDO. This world may be broken, but there’s good in it and the bad can still be fixed! The sacrifice of your family is UNACCEPTABLE

“I’m gonna make it right. Here, in this world.” I. LOVE. YEW

FUCK OFF, NIKOLAI. THE ULTIMATE SIBLING TEAM IS HERE

You know, Nikolai, I can’t have Yew resurrect himself as a Bishop, so why can you?

Just stay down, Nikolai. “Show the world your coup de gravy” is some... awful dying words

Janne’s alive. Falling off a cliff has never killed anyone in fiction

Okay Kaiser’s voice sounded familiar to me so I looked it up. It’s Cam Clarke, who voiced what appears to be, no joke, a large portion of the cast of Back at the Barnyard, Toph’s Dad from Avatar: The Last Airbender, Simba in all of his non-first movie appearances, including Kingdom Hearts II, and, most pressingly the original Leonardo from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In my liveblog of the Prologue, I noted that Yew was voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas, the voice of 2003 Leonardo. Is this the most bizarre casting gag ever???

Nikolai’s bestiary entry is complete, so this really is the last we’ll ever fight him

Oops, Empire’s already about to shatter the worlds

The Rubadub can fly? Lotus taught Sakura the controls? Yew asked him to do it with the levistone? What???

Lotus join this family forever please

We use the hot springs to heat the levistone to fly. I can’t believe we have a flying hot springs boat

There’s the sidequest. It’s Grandship, moored in the Ba’al crater in Eternia

Oh the ship lets you fast travel anywhere. Sick

Heyyyy, Zatz, Datz, and the Proprietress! ...and they’re complaining about taxes

So Grandship ran out of power, and now they’re a refugee micronation

Oh hey, Alternis. Somebody ask him about the Florem competition. I want to see his face when he realizes his alternate self is ruining everything again

No, game, it’s not suspicious at all that you’re giving Alternis an introduction card right now when he’s supposedly been part of the main plot since last chapter. Not suspicious at all

“By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?” NOT SUSPICIOUS AT ALL

This scene where we hang out with our airship buddies from the last game is really cute, I’ll admit

Alternis sounds so happy the second these orphan kids come up to him. Also really adorable. There’s a lot of reasons I love Alternis

HE GAVE THEM FOOD AND GIFTS. My heart! And it makes perfect sense that he cares for the orphans given the fact that he was an abandoned kid

He’s hanging out at Grandship because it takes care of the lost. I think he’s found the perfect home

Holy shit that meal was 1,825,890pg WITH discount?! Edea what the hell did you eat?!

Or it’s just absurd taxes. But I’ve got my eye on your share of the meal, Edea!

Oh god crazy Chompcraft guy is here abort abort let’s book it

“Everyone is responsible” jackass, that ain’t how taxation works, even with a council. Stop trying to cover your ass

...Alternis’s views on taxation are not something to love him for. Sure, some taxation is always going to be necessary, especially for general welfare programs. But a nation only has so much money to spend! Eventually there’s not gonna be any left, and now everyone needs the welfare, instead of just some people, but we already spent the money funding the welfare, so there isn’t enough to go around

“We must look after the orphans and the aged” Alternis, bud, your heart’s in the right place, but that doesn’t make the system any less broken

He’s acting like by abolishing taxes we suddenly stop all welfare programs. That’s... not how it works. It just needs another source of income. One that doesn’t completely use up the rest of the nation’s cash, so that nobody can pay for the kids. We need people to be able to make money, because that keeps it flowing, both within the nation and around it. And when you open up money to outsiders, they will return with more. That’s where the money for the kids should come from. Collaboration with the rest of the world, not a drain on an already impoverished people

Please don’t let this be a repeat of the Profiteur/Holly quest where the entire conflict was “sentimental dumbass flunked out of high school economics”

I just noticed that Agnès is missing from the pendant in the menu. Sometimes the gameplay and story integration in this series is fantastically on-point

Oh neato! Since the Charybdis summon is a debuff we don’t have to survive an attack, but instead fight the Anchorite while debuffed. Cool!

And don’t think I missed the fact that they put a summon named after the Greek monster, Charybdis, on a boat

I’m glad that Yew clarified that “end layer” is just another term for the apocalypse. So the title of the game is basically “Go Back in Time: The Destruction of All”

Oh good, ex-King Khamer is here. I’m sure he knows how to run a nation (it’s so unfortunate that he’s the most experienced here in that regard)

Makes sense, though. He and Profiteur are the only people in the world who worked with finances before, thanks to the Merchantry

There were THIRTY taxes? Grandship, what are you doing?

7000pg for a SLICE of bread? Are you guys trying to destroy any potential tourist income you have AND drive away your current residents?

And hey, Khamer isn’t saying it’s wrong to help the orphans. But unless there’s reform, the poor laws aren’t going to collect any money regardless!

“Your ideals have blinded you, and you refuse to see the truth.” He’s got a point. Alternis is too caught up in helping the orphans to see that no matter which option they pick, those orphans are gonna run out of state funding real fast

This is just Profiteur vs Holly, except it’s shorter and I like Alternis and the Grandship crew, so it’s instantly better if still really dumb

I’m so on Khamer’s side here. There is no “good” option for the orphans. Either they lose going to school, or they lose THEIR ENTIRE HOME NATION. So Khamer’s solution actually hurts the kids less. Alternis is just so emotional right now he can’t see it

Worst Timeline Prerogative states side with Alternis and doom Grandship, so that’s what we’re gonna do

“It might seems crazy to risk financial ruin just to take care of the poor” Seem? Edea, dear, the poor won’t be taken care of at all without cutting the taxes

“But, if you think of the country as a family, then it’s not crazy at all” Edea, it’s a NATION. They’re not equivalent! Governments have to do cruel things sometimes because it’s their job to benefit as many people as they can, not just the ones they want!

The worst part of all of these sidequests isn’t that someone’s usually wrong. It’s that Edea attempts to morally justify whatever she does to make it sound like the “superior” option, and never for convincing reasons. It just makes her come across as shallow, and I know that’s not who Edea is. She doesn’t moralize to everyone she meets, at least, she shouldn’t in this game. The Edea from last game might, but having her be team mouthpiece here forces her to ignore her character growth from last game in realizing that situations can be morally ambiguous and need COMPROMISE, not just picking one side and calling it a day. It doesn’t always have to be either-or, and this game’s Edea knows that! She just sounds really immature in these sidequests. Like she can’t conceive of ever doing something morally ambiguous because it seemed the better morally ambiguous option at the time, she has to be 100% morally correct all the time

You’re all just gonna make people move out of Grandship, and now who’s going to pay the poor laws? The poor?! If people can’t choose whether to support the poor or not with their the way their money is spent, they’ll chose with their bodies by just leaving

Alternis, darling, noooooo. You don’t have the money to buy them nice things. The poor laws should only provide necessities and the groundwork for them to work themselves out of poverty. Give them assistance, not freebies that they’ll never repay

I agree with everything Edea’s saying, but we literally picked the option that DOES NOT ALLOW FOR THAT PLAN

We just created a socialist hellstate. Great.

No one’s concerned that I switched Tiz to Exorcist and he’s just sitting there, covered in blood

They’re trying to claim that everyone’s making enough to support the taxes and that the kids are gonna grow up and help the nation, but... that’s blatantly false? We saw they couldn’t literally last night? And the nation’s gonna run out of cash in two weeks, so... this ending’s bullshit?

And Khamer wasn’t a citizen so he shouldn’t have been in the council in the first place and went broke, but he can take advantage of the poor laws despite that? Has anyone considered that he went broke BECAUSE THE TAXES WERE SO HIGH?!

Also, this whole thing comes off as just... desperately trying to justify bad decisions based on emotion, which it REALLY should not. The government needs to be held to different standards than a person. Just own up to the fact that you fucked up, guys. Stop trying to sugarcoat the fact that Grandship is gonna go broke in two weeks. It all sounds like a lie to make sentimental fools feel better

By invalidating Khamer like this, the sidequest loses ALL impact. Everything would be so much more poignant if he was a citizen, was really going to be effected by everything, and the choice had actual consequences. Heck, outside of this scene, people are still complaining about the taxes! You talk to anyone but the orphans on this ship and they talk about how they’re lucky to get by! Writers, it is OKAY to admit that your protags made a bad choice. No one learned anything here, and Grandship is still going to go bankrupt!

I really wished that quest had spawned before the battle at the Water Temple, because it killed the pacing

They’re gonna sell merch featuring the Warriors of Light. Yeah, sure, that’ll fix it. You solved the economy. Congrats. Just... someone buy Tiz that mug with his face on it and we’ll call it a quest, yeah?

I’m gonna go grind out Everlast Tower and snag the Girtablulu summon, then see if I can call it a chapter

Half of it’s locked down, but I snagged the summon and did as much as I could. Onwards!

Everyone’s saying it’s the point of no return. By name. Think it might be the Point of No Return™?

Wait, it’s the female voice. The chapter’s already over? Wow.

“I waited - how long I waited - for the day when the two of you would meet again.” I want to know who she means. She says “you,” not “us”

Well, I guess that was the end of the chapter! My guide says there’s only one Asterisk next chapter, so I feel it’s gonna be a short one! Definitely a Disk One Final Dungeon at the Skyhold

“Great Distance” is, as always, a pleasure to hear

I cannot believe how many characters raised death flags this chapter, and yet no one died. I also can’t believe there wasn’t a Ba’al fight! This game is screwing with my expectations and I’m happy Lotus and Procyon are alive but also???

I really enjoyed this chapter. Not the sidequests, which is to be expected at this point. It feels like they’re written by a completely different team than the main storyline, and I wonder if that’s the case, because they’re so tonally off and the main story is doing GREAT at moral ambiguity, which makes the complete lack of it in the sidequests despite the fact they act like there is, completely baffling.

But! We got some wonderful interactions between the main cast, especially the part where Yew tells Nikolai that he’s got a family now and he won’t just let them be erased, and then goes one step further and vows to fix the Crystalguard’s past mistakes without taking the easy way out and just undoing them! Some amazing lore reveals and worldbuilding with the Sagitta, my new Favorite Dad, Lotus, the airship (finally!), and the SP plot involving Altair finally makes its appearance. So I genuinely like this chapter, and I can’t wait to finish up the first “arc” of Bravely Second before things start getting real. Since Chapter 4 looks to be short, I’ll be checking back in real soon! ‘Till next time!

[erlenmeyertrash]

storms and stardust

i’m totally not a day and a half late to the platonic analogical day or anything, it’s fine

dedicated to @virmillion , the sunshine to my stardust

words: 2684 | pairings: platonic analogical | warnings: mentions of storms(?), slight anxiety- if you need anything tagged please let me know

tag list: @zerogettie , @five-hour-anxiety , @lovelylogans , @shattered-raine, @lakesandquarries , @randomslasher , @pantasticpanini (if you want to be added just hmu and i’ll add you!)

The stucco ceiling looms overhead, each ripple and wave jumping into a vivid third dimension and constructing an intricate inverted topography. It is synesthesia of sound, each wiggle of the sprayed-on texture signifying a hiss and each smattering of longer ridges bringing forth a crackle and each solidified bubble of air fabricating a pop.

A storm rages outside, the window a weak defense against the onslaught of pure loud that is heavy precipitation. The rain is less a pitterpatterpitterpatter of the evening’s preceding showers and more an ambiguous yet steady roar of a billion soldiers diving into battle all at once. Thunder rumbles distantly in the background- the drummer boy keeping his infantry’s time.

It is during this storm that his eyes dance across the artificial skyscape, allowing the hissing, crackling, popping terrain to map out the steps as his gaze wanders and his mind wonders. The shadows of sleep have eluded him, crowding themselves into the corners as his eyes adjust to the lack of light and his brain whirls as though battered by the very winds assailing the exterior of the house.

His thoughts scamper over some new untrodden path, ever trailblazing, never pausing, rushing and stumbling over themselves, an onslaught, torrential, why can’t he s l e e p? His eyes hiss crackle pop pop p o p hiss crackle- wait no, backtrack- hiss crackle crackle crackle p o p their way around his ceiling, each tango, each waltz, each envisioned piece of choreography organic and new.

Oxygen fills his lungs near capacity as some responsible part of his subconscious prods him to remember to do so, the not-quite-hiss-not-quite-huff of a deep inhale adding to the cacophony of vibrations intercepted in his eardrums. The pillow settles microscopic distances as his head is subtly jostled by the movement opening his airway. The sheets do not rustle until he straightens a crooked leg, fabric sliding over skin as his muscles tighten.

There have been far too many consecutive nights where unconsciousness evades him; in this particular instance, the raging downpour is well-received as it quells the aching silence that is his simultaneous refuge and prison. When the only sound is no sound, his brain must play the part of composer and conductor but it is rather tone-deaf and so poorly keeps time. The rain is a welcome conversation on which to eavesdrop before the infamous concert begins.

Before he can realize their appearance, thoughts on the history of the universe are subversive, slipping into his mind and disrupting all other trains of thought like shells swirling underneath the tides currently crashing into his windowpane. The silica composing those shells and the sand and the glass was formed a mere 200 million years into the existence of the universe- the fusion of sixteen protons into one singular silicon unit. Stellar nucleogenesis: the formation of molten, shifting plasma inside starlight expanding across the silence of space, making 26 elements to eventually compose the most simple carbon-based life. 26 elements inside those stars. 26 letters in the modern English alphabet. 26.2 miles in a marathon, the likes of which his brain is currently undertaking in a full sprint.

Then those tides are turning, the melodic roar of water on the roof and walls forced to yield to the vibrant dissonance of sleepless night ramblings. The conductor’s baton is waving wildly but the instruments have a mind of their own. He just wants to sleep. He doesn’t know when his eyes stopped leaping and bounding over hiss crackle pop but he realizes he has been boring a hole into the spot directly above his right eyebrow for some time now. Maybe the roof will leak and he’ll have an excuse to get up, to move, to do something to occupy his thoughts.

The creeeeeaaaak of the floor outside his bedroom door, then, occupies his thoughts.

He bolts upright and shoves the swishing sheets down his body, squinting at the sliver of space under his door, suddenly transfixed and hoping there is another indication of a something that could battle his brain. That the creak wasn’t a sigh of the foundation, wasn’t a random blip on the radar. Please.

Pale yellow light seeps in from the hall and that is all the impetus he needs to throw his feet off the side of the bed, standing and clumsily swiping his hand across the bedside table. His glasses click clack clatter as his fingertips stumble into them and he hastily yanks the spectacles over his razor-sharp gaze before running the few short steps to his door.

He throws it open, the hinges letting out a sharp whine of protest, and suddenly the storm outside receives a burst of energy anew; more thunder echoes across the skies as the droplets assault any surface they can reach and he makes eye contact with the figure that was slowly creaking its way down the hall.

“...Logan? What are you doing awake?”

From his few short steps away, Virgil speaks first. His voice is gruff and gravelly, but there is a tremor there, a pitch far too high, too alert for such a time of night. His eyes betray his chronic lack of sleep but also show no symptoms of actual tiredness- they are wide and bright and Logan exhales with a whoosh.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he confesses, his own vocal cords vibrating at a frequency of fatigued frustration. Those too-wide eyes are covered by shaggy lilac locks as Virgil tilts his head.

“Why not?”

Logan taps his forehead, a cold fingertip thumping against the skin just above his right eyebrow. “Can’t stop thinking.”

“About?”

Logan couldn’t really explain that his brain turned the ceiling into a topographical map that was also stage directions for a dance and he thought about shells and the origin of the universe and it’s raining but his window is underwater and-

No. Too complicated. A shoulder shrug seems to work as Virgil’s face twists into one of sympathy.

“I, uh. I get that.”

The following utter silence is so jarring to Logan’s hoof-hammering racehorse of a mind that he is too shocked to notice how awkward it quickly becomes. He is, however, pulled out of the reverie a short moment later, when a loud CLAP of thunder shakes the house and Virgil flinches as though the bolt of lightning nearly singed his shoulder.

“Are you alright, Virgil?”

“What? Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” Virgil squirms under Logan’s piercing gaze- even more so as the logical side doesn’t appear to have any desire to respond. His stare is somehow cold but not harsh- just a searing, soundless intensity of headlights that have Virgil frozen in the middle of the road.

“...It’s just-” Virgil runs a pale hand through his hair, rolling his shoulders forward to pull the hood of his jacket closer around his neck- “I’m a little… on edge. The storm is. Uhm. Loud? It’s stupid, I know,” he stumbles on, “but-”

“It isn’t stupid at all,” Logan interrupts, breaking his stare with a slow blink. “Storms do bring about a decrease in air pressure, which can affect a person’s normal breathing rate. The sudden loud noises and bright flashes, of course, can also heighten a person’s anxiety.”

Virgil rolls his shoulders again, ducking his head and staring at his sock-clad feet. Logan hears an audible click in his mind as the pieces fall into place.

“...However,” Logan continues, suddenly feeling a fidgety tingle skittering down his fingertips as he adjusts the corner of his glasses. “There are several measures one can take to alleviate adverse effects. Turning on dim lighting or ambient noises as well as blocking external sound and light sources through a multitude of methods may all serve to allow you to feel more at ease and potentially get some rest. The company of another may also help you relax.”

Da-dum. His heartbeat punctuates his last sentence. Virgil’s eyes widen infinitesimally (you’re never going to live that one down, are you?). Logan ducks his chin and readjusts his glasses that have not moved at all.

“...Would it be agreeable if I accompanied you back to your room? It may help ease your nervous state, and it is of no consequence to me, seeing as I am already awake.”

A low rumble of thunder rolls over the roof- not as sudden as before, but Virgil still seems to tremble ever so slightly. He swallows and nods curtly, overgrown fringe intermingling with his eyelashes.

“...I mean. If you don’t mind. That’s. Uh. That’d be... cool, I guess.”

After a pause- Logan blinks and the image of a quarter-rest is burned into the backs of his eyelids, now- Virgil leads the way down the hall towards his room, the soft swish swish swish of socked feet and cotton pajamas more distinct without windows to amplify the swirling storm outside. He pushes open the door and Logan’s ears are immediately filled with the snare-drum sound of water hitting windowpane, rattatatratatatratatat drilling its way through his skull. His eyes snap towards the uncovered glass spanning the wall across from Virgil’s bed.

“Goodness, that is loud. Why don’t you have any curtains?” Logan gestures to the empty rod above the window, finding he actually has to raise his voice to be heard over the assailing precipitation. At his inquiry, Virgil stuffs his hands in his pockets and shrugs. Logan clicks his tongue and turns to look back at the window.

Rattatatrattatatrattatatrattatat It’s so loud! Logan’s thoughts are on the defensive, struggling to tip the scales of sound in their favor as his mind whirls around possible solutions. He blinks hard at the window before- Oh.

Obviously.

“Virgil, you have extra blankets in your closet, correct?”

Virgil glances up from his feet. “...Yeah?”

“I suppose those will work. Let’s get them out and go about covering this window to muffle the noise, even if only a little.”

Virgil obediently shuffles to his squeeeak-ing closet door and begins tossing several blankets onto the floor of his room; Logan turns in a slow circle, surveying the rest of the dimly-lit surroundings. He grabs Virgil’s chair from the corner of the room and drags it in front of the window, taking one of the heavier blankets and tying two of the slightly-frayed corners around the empty curtain rod. Virgil backs out of his closet and stares at him, hands hugging his elbows and finger.

“While I am doing this-” Logan pauses as he shoves one end of the blanket down the rod, expanding its area before he starts on the other corners- “I would recommend you search for some ambient or white noise sounds on some audio application on your laptop. That or some calming music may help overpower the noise of the storm.”

Logan’s tongue peeks out from between his teeth as he busies himself with several knots, stepping down every few seconds to grab another blanket off the floor. He hears the shuffling of feet and the soft whuff of the bed mattress as Virgil sinks down, followed by the rhythmic clicking of keys.

Soon, soft piano music warbles through the laptop speakers. Logan finishes his last knot moments later, hopping down to the floor with a thump before adjusting a few of the blankets. To his pleasure, they did a more-than-adequate job of muffling some of the noise. Rather than the torrential tapping of droplets on the glass, the storm’s presence is reduced to a steady hissing. Logan adjusts his glasses and turns to Virgil, who has set his laptop on the bedside table, the soft gray glow filling the room alongside the calming piano chords.

“Is this better?” he asks, satisfaction evident his face as Virgil nods with a shy smile. Logan heads towards the other side of the bed, wasting no time in sliding under the extra soft blanket spread over the comforter and sidling up next to Virgil.

“Now.” Logan shimmies fractionally, causing the sheets to flutter as he eases his weight backward. His shoulder grazes against Virgil’s, and as he stills, they remain in contact, warmth slowly transferring back and forth, attempting to establish an equilibrium. “Would you like to talk about anything?”

Virgil is silent. Logan tilts his head to better see the anxious side, who is squinting across the room at the makeshift curtains.

“...Would it be too weird if I… um. If you talked, and I just listened?”

“Not at all. What would you like me to talk about?”

“Um. Anything? You pick. I don’t want to make you talk about something you don’t like.”

“Fair enough.” Logan shifts his gaze skyward, letting his pupils pick up the pace held what seems like forever ago in his room. Hisssss crackle crackle pop pop p o p crackle pop hiss pop crackle pop.

“...The universe, as most theorize, came into existence approximately 13.8 billion years ago. We know this, of course, by measuring the distance between different galaxies and their rates of change, as well as observing older stars. 13.8 billion years ago, every bit of mass and energy was condensed into a singular point- and then it exploded. Massive amounts of pressure and enormously high temperatures dominated as everything burst forth.

“For the first instant in time- ten to the negative thirty-second power of a second, to be exact- the radius of the universe expanded extensively as the sheer force of the explosion radiated outward. The first ‘particles’ to exist that we are aware of, such as quarks and leptons, composed- I suppose “matter” must be the correct term here- the matter of the universe at this point.

One microsecond into the existence of the universe, these basic particles formed protons; and there is a statement there, I suppose, about the universe’s first creation being something positive. One-hundredth of a second into the existence of the universe, nuclear fusion began of protons with one another due to the still-extremely-high pressures and temperatures- the conditions perfect for the strong nuclear force to become evident. From then, up until the universe was three minutes old, it is theorized that the universe created the first four elements of the periodic table: hydrogen, helium, lithium, and beryllium.

These are not, of course, sufficient for formation of the carbon-based lifeforms we know of today. Carbon is only fused into existence some 200 million years later, along with the other first 26 elements, which include phosphorus and sulfur- the bases for DNA and proteins, respectively. I suppose there is another statement there about how much time the universe put into crafting living organisms such as you and me.

Though I suppose we aren’t living, not technically, not really. We are Thomas’ personified personality aspects, and though we may often act alive, it is a-”

“Too meta, dude.”

Logan’s hand jerks- lost in the recesses of his own mind, he has completely forgotten another person is slumped next to him. He blinks, realizing the foreign object pressing on his side is actually Virgil, who has shifted so his head is leaning slightly on Logan’s shoulder. Logan makes no move to adjust him- the weight is warm and comfortable, and he leans his own head in slightly until his cheek is flush against Virgil’s mop of lavender-and-chocolate hair.

Lavender. That would help him sleep as well.

“My… apologies,” Logan mumbles, failing to stifle his yawn, before continuing. “The first 26 elements are made inside stars via this stellar nucleogenesis- a series of fusion reactions- but simply those 26 are not enough to comprise the complex life forms... of today. Our bodies, to give an example, also need heavier elements such as... iodine and copper. The heavier elements are brought into being through supernova nucleogenesis. When... much larger stars... expand and eventually explode, it is theorized that these heavier elements were formed through nuclear fusion reactions with… oxygen and silicon. Silicon has… a specific structure, deemed silica, that comprises a pseudo-skeleton of several… early life forms. And glass. And so then… all the elements for life are in… the dust emanating from star explosions… People are... made of stardust, isn’t that…”

[dreams-of-headcanons]

Hallo!! I love your stuff and, since your ask box was open, I thought I'd finally get over my own nerves and send something in! So... how would the US skelebros and the UF skelebros react to their S/O actually being kidnapped? I though it might be a good angsty-fluff combo :3 Thanks in adavance! I really do love your work :D

Hello ( ´ ∀ ` )ﾉ I’m glad you enjoy my content! I’m sorry it took me so long to get to yours. and to everyone else’s I haven’t got to yet (>_

Trigger Warning: violence, mentions of sex trade, torture

Disclaimer: s/o comes out unharmed in all scenarios

Underswap

Blueberry

Berry is worried sick. He found out in one of the worse ways possible. He had just come home from training with Scales(Us Alphys). He had even picked up a bouquet of your favorite flowers. No special occasion. He just saw a flower shop on his way home and decided to get some for you. When he went to stick his key in the door of your shared apartment the door was ajar. His soul dropped instantly but he tried to remain optimistic, hoping you had only left it like that by accident. But that’s not like you at all. Maybe you heard him coming and left it like that on purpose? His fears are confirmed when he steps inside and finds things knocked over, clearly showing a struggle. He lies the flowers down on the table and calls the police immediately. They take his statement and any evidence and leave. Once Berry is left alone he’s in shock and disbelief. Who did this? Why? Why you? You didn’t even have any enemies and neither did he. Not that he knows of at least. The police check in with him in a few days but haven’t had any luck. Berry has been tending the bouquet of flowers, hoping you’ll be found before they die and trying to keep his own hope alive. It doesn’t take long before his patience snaps. He’s trying to let the police do their job and not interfere but he doesn’t feel like they’re trying very hard. He’s mad at himself for not starting his own investigation sooner. As soon as Scales finds out she, Angelfish(Us Undyne), and Stretch all become a part of his team. Berry loves you and if he loves you that means these three see you like family, even if you and Berry aren’t married yet. Scales goes on the aggressive and starts interrogating any suspicious characters. Berry goes with her and they pretty much play good cop bad cop. Angelfish and Stretch provide tech support. Angel gives wires to Scales and Berry so they can record their interrogations. The rest of her and Stretch’s time is spent hacking into security cameras around town until they finally find something. They can’t make out faces because it was night in this particular tape but she KNOWS the person being thrown into the back of a car is you. The recording happened near your apartment complex and she can see an item/piece of clothes that she recognizes. She calls Berry immediately and gets a license plate number. She suggests telling the police about it but he refuses. He doesn’t want to rely on them anymore and reminds her that they could find out about her hacking. She could get in trouble whether her soul was in the right place or not. Stretch teleports Berry and Scales as close to the location as possible. The two can hardly contain themselves as they sneak in and they both feel sick to their stomachs when they realize that the place trades sex slaves. Berry immediately loses any control he had and pins the nearest guards to the wall with blue bones and demands to know which room you’re being kept in. He and Scales leave them hanging, not caring if they bleed out. When he finds you he’s clinging to you and practically sobbing with relief, especially when you assure him no one had touched you yet. They make an anonymous call to the police about the sex slave ring and after the whole incident is over Berry moves you and himself to a safer place and starts putting traps up around the house and calling in at random to check on you while he’s gone. Expect a trip to an adoption shelter on your next Birthday.

Stretch

He was on a date with you when it happened. You were walking hand in skeletal hand when someone leapt out and snatched you away from him. He tried to go after them but someone else knocked him out with a blunt object to the back of his skull. It wasn’t a very populated area but there were a couple of nearby witnesses that called 911 and gave what information they could while medics made sure Stretch was okay. He was admitted to the hospital for the night and Berry came to make sure he was okay. But that night, as much as Stretch likes to nap, he couldn’t sleep. Not a wink. Not while he knows you’re in danger. Who were those people? Why did they do this? Was this some sort of punishment? As soon as he was let out the next day he wasted no time. He didn’t check in with the police. Screw relying on them. He goes straight to Angelfish and asks her to check the security cameras in the vicinity of where it happened. The two of them sit down together and he refuses to eat until they’ve got something. It happens faster than he expected before they’ve got pictures and tape of you being dragged away. Angel enhances the pictures as best as she can and he recognizes one of the offenders as your jealous ex and he knows where they live. Before Angel has a chance to stop him he’s gone. He pops up right behind your ex in their house and scares the living hell out of them right before they’re pinned to the wall with bones. Stretch’s hood is up and the shade it provides along with his blazing orange eye light gives him a menacing aura. He forces what information he wants out of them and leaves them with a bone chilling threat that he won’t be so lenient if they ever mess with you again. He knocks them out and leaves them as he goes and rescues you from their basement. The Sick Psycho. He takes you home, puts on some of your favorite shows/movies, and doesn’t leave your side for the rest of the night, comforting you any way he can. From now on he keeps his guard up almost to a level that makes him seem like he’s from a Fell universe.

Underfell

Red

He knew something like this might happen eventually. He just doesn’t know how they managed to get past his defenses so easily. A lot of monsters and humans don’t like him but most of them are too dumb. He either pissed off the wrong person, they had help, or it was pure dumb luck. He found out when he got a taunting phone call asking for a ransom. He could hear you sassing one of your captors in the background and calling his name when you realized they had him on the phone. The smart ones always want some sort of revenge over money so he’s pretty sure it was dumb luck by now. He’s also kind of relieved. It’s still bad that you’ve been kidnapped but he’s glad you’re not a target for revenge. Because that means you’ll come out of the ordeal mostly unscathed. However, the ransom they demanded before hanging up on him isn’t something he can afford and he’s too impatient to waste time collecting it, so he goes to Blaze(Uf Grillby). Now Blaze normally charges a pretty hefty price for his aid but Red is a patron and close friend, so he already gets a discount to begin with and when he tells Blaze that you’ve been snatched he cuts the price in half. Blaze gives him a suitcase filled with convincing fake bills. An person/monster with average intelligence will take about 1-2 minutes to figure it out but these dumb sounding bastards will probably take 5+ minutes or never realize it at all. Either way Red hands it over and you’re shoved into his arms as the two jackasses that snatched you excitedly play with the fake money. Red just stands back, with you behind him, watching them. It’s pretty amusing and he’s trying to contain his laughter. He almost feels bad for them. Almost. He’s so amused by their moronic behavior that he teleports you home and comes back. By now they’ve discovered that the money is fake and as soon as they notice him he’s greeted with anger. He dodges them easily while taunting them with his guffaws and when he’s had his fill of fun he goes back to being serious. And with you safe at home he can finally show some of his pent up anger. How dare these pieces of shit touch you. He doesn’t feel like he’s worthy of having such great s/o as you sometimes. You’re such an awesome person and these two twits definitely aren’t even worthy enough to even breathe the same air as you. Before the two know it they’ve been impaled and suspended by their limbs with bone attacks. Red cusses them out and tortures them by stabbing non vital parts of their bodies and twisting the bones until they’re begging for forgiveness or death. When he’s finally satisfied he lets them down and leaves, not caring if they bleed out or not (bit of a yandere streak there, Red). He hopes you won’t mind the little bit of blood splatter. Because as soon as he gets inside the house he’s throwing his coat off and smothering you with love.

Edge

Oh boy. Oooooooh BOY. Somebody done fucked up. Somebody is also a top tier moron. Edge came home from training with Stingray(Uf Undyne) and found his little shared home with you looking like a hurricane had passed through. At first he’s mildly irritated, thinking maybe you had just been fooling around or that his brother had done it. He’s pisssssed when he finds a very obviously placed ransom note. They attempted to make it anonymous but he knows who the dumbasses are. The Underfell dog guard. Even though everyone is on the surface now they’ve always held a grudge against him because they wanted higher positions in the guard before it was disbanded. They were jealous of him and never got along with him. How DARE those WORTHLESS mutts touch THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE PAPYRUS’ datemate!? He doesn’t even finish reading the note before shredding it to pieces and storming out of the house. If they think they can get away with this they are VERY wrong. He’s not gonna bring what they want no matter what it was and he knows all their most frequented locations. He goes into stealth mode until he’s found you. He’s seething when he reveals himself and they’re surprised at his arrival because they hadn’t told him where they were yet. They were expecting him to call the number they’d left on the note so they could use a voice changer to talk to him. He wastes no time in subduing them, leaving all of them with 1 hp and teetering on the line between life and death. They were stupid to mess with him and he doesn’t care if they dust or not. He takes you and leaves. Once he gets you home he completely ignores the mess that’s waiting for him(he swears they left it this messy on purpose because everyone knows how he hates messiness) and carries you straight to bed, flopping down on it with you and nuzzling his skull against your neck. He won’t admit it but he was the tiniest bit scared and he really missed you in the short amount of time that you were gone. Even if he knew it was only the dog guard being dumb with him he couldn’t stand being apart from you. What? Crying? He’s not crying! How dare you suggest such a thing. Those totally aren’t tears. But he also doesn’t have a valid excuse for what they might actually be besides tears. Expect lots of cuddles and breakfast in bed the next morning. Somehow he already has the entire house clean by the time you wake up too, whether you had planned on helping him or not. He didn’t want you to have to help him anyways. He wants you to rest.

[abutterflyobsession]

Doctor Who AU: Part 24

prelude/one/two/three/four/five/six/seven/eight/nine/ten/eleven/twelve/thirteen/fourteen/fifteen/sixteen/seventeen/eighteen/nineteen/twenty/twenty-one/twenty-two/twenty-three/ao3

“Look, it is not a new face—it's the only face I've had so far! Barring unfortunate accidents I imagine I'll be sticking with this look indefinitely!”

Dawn looked with disgust at the armed and armored soldiers surrounding the TARDIS. Sunny would have gone right back into the TARDIS again if he wasn't afraid he'd be shot if he moved. He hadn't realized Dawn planned to put down right in the middle of a secure government lab and expect them to take her word that she was a friend.

“I'm not my sister or someone pretending to be her. Why anyone would even try to impersonate her is beyond me.”

A few men and woman in business-wear murmured together behind the wall of soldiers. Sunny could just catch a few words, something about “the earliest in her personal time line we've ever seen,” and slightly louder demands for someone to “get UNIT on the line!”.

Dawn pulled her glasses off and pinched the bridge of her nose, “Still not my sister! Still not the Doctor! Well, yes, I have a doctorate or two kicking around, but I'm not the Doctor. Just a.”

“The intelligence UNIT has shared with us about the Doctor has allowed us to form certain guidelines for collaboration should the need arise,” one of the business wear people spoke up, “But if you are not the Doctor then--”

“Nope. Not,” Dawn reached into the inside pocket of her suit jacket.

The guns snapped up.

“Get a grip,” she rolled her eyes and pulled out a Polaroid, “I'm not going to assassinate any of you with my snapshot of evil. Really, no wonder my sister complains about soldiers and their guns. You figure if you're holding them you've got to use them.”

“Hey, look, Dawn,” Sunny said, having just about dived back into the TARDIS when the guns went up, “Maybe you're from some enlightened planet where this sort of thing isn't a problem, but I am a black dude living in America and I get a little nervous around police-looking guys with guns.”

“Ugh, seriously? I thought we left that behind in the sixties. Hey, would you all just be at ease or stand down or something? I will slowly hold up this picture of me and my sister on our eighty-sixth birthday. You will see we are twins. Now, I will oh so slowly reach into my pocket for another picture—darn it!”

More snapshots, too many to have possibly fit in Dawn's pocket, fell out onto the floor.

Sunny raised his eyebrows.

“Pockets are bigger on the inside,” Dawn shrugged a shoulder, “Put them in myself. Had to. Do you know how impossible it is to find a woman's suit jacket that has actual pockets and not just those little flaps made to trick you into thinking there are pockets?”

The women behind the line of soldiers all nodded in agreement. One man asked if it was really a thing and a hushed discussion about pockets in women's clothing started in the background.

“My mom has the same problem,” Sunny said, “Dad fixes all the pockets for her.”

“Good man,” Dawn sat down on the floor, floor, crossed her legs, and began to sort through them. She patted the floor next to her and Sunny joined her, still keeping one eye on the guns.

“Mom had her purse snatched twice in two months. Well, they tried to snatch her purse. She nailed both of them in the eyes with pepper spray. Anyway, she got fed up with purses.”

“Purse are the worst,” Dawn spread the snapshots out over the floor, “There's no place to put them in a spacesuit and it's so awkward when it gets snagged in the airlock and you're left dangling in the void of space.”

“There's a story there, I can tell.”

“It was my sister's idea to crash that space pirate ball—oh, these pictures are from Xylox 23. Marvelous vacation spot when the atmospheric filter is working and the mountains aren't melting from the sudden global warming. It was a whole thing. Anyway,” she held up the first picture, “Sisters. Our academy days, nostalgic times all around. Now, this,” she held up a recent picture of herself and the Doctor that Sunny knew, both of them wearing fezzes and standing in front of what looked to be a giant squid, “this is last week on Xylox 23. Hopefully you have her newest, most delightfully sullen face on file for confirmation. Now, can we get on with the antitoxin? You've only got five weeks, six days, twenty-one hours, and sixteen minutes. Do you want me to do seconds, too? Because I can keep running count and drive you all mad.”

“Sisters?” Someone asked dubiously after sharply shushing the discussion about the lack of proper pockets in women's clothing.

“Sorry,” Dawn patted down her coat, “haven't got our birth certificates on me. All I've got is a police box, a viral of antitoxin, and all five seasons of Wander Over Yonder.”

Dawn pointed her screwdriver at a monitor hanging on the wall and a twangy theme song started to play. The soldiers looked uncertainly from Dawn to the monitor, trying to figure out which of them to watch.

“I thought it got canceled after two seasons?” one of the suits asked, then immediately looked ashamed for knowing what Wander Over Yonder was. The other ladies and gentlemen in business wear carefully did not look at him.

“Got revived in 2019. Something for you all to look forward to. If you're nice I leave them on your hard drive.”

“What's this about an antitoxin?”

“Yes, I'm here to give you five weeks, six days, twenty-one hours, and thirteen minutes advance notice on a medium-sized alien incursion that will include some unhealthy levels of alien plant toxins. Got a friend to whip up a little something for that, then popped back here for you bunch to test and hand out. You've kind of already done that because of a closed time loop, so if you  could just . . . stop pointing those guns at me and my friend?”

For all that Dawn was a small, skinny woman sitting on the floor, she still managed to make the request sound commanding. The soldiers all looked to their leader for instructions to back down.

“Okay, okay!” A woman pushed through the gaggle of agents and soldiers, taking a cellphone from her ear, “I just talked with UNIT and Stewart confirms there's a sister. Stand down!”

“Hurrah for Stewart!” Dawn bounced to her feet in a twinkle of pink high tops, “Whoever they might be.”

“You said it,” Sunny took Dawn's offered hand and stood up, heartily relieved that the guns were headed out of the room, “Next time can we just call ahead?”

Bog was watching forests rise and fall, mesmerized by the pulsing of data about plant diseases jumping species and wiping out native crops before it was shouldered out of the way by the history of Cheem architecture. All of it was crammed into his brain, pushing against the inside of his skull, trying to crowd out the Doctor's voice.

Roots were pushing her hands away, growing over Bog's face again, but before she was pushed away completely her voice slipped through to him again:

“You write what happens next and I can help you. What happens next?”

What happened next? His head was going to explode, that was the gist of it. Bog was sure the Doctor would have fancier terms to describe the process, but, in the end, his head was too full and it was going to burst when it couldn't hold anymore of data streaming into it.

The roots had moved and twisted around him so much that he didn't not recognize the touch of the Doctor's hands on his face. Roots twined around his heart, tighter and tighter, squeezing when his heart jumped. When he realized that someone was touching him. Someone real.

He was laying against the wall of Roland's TARDIS.

He was kneeling in the void.

In both places the Doctor was there, pulling vines and cables out of the way until there was enough space cleared for her small hands to frame his face.

“C'mon, you grouchy pine tree, this is your story. Nobody gets to write their story entirely by themselves. Someone else always comes along and scrawls over your notes with a marker. But the important things, the really important things, you get to decide. Is dying really the decision you want to make? End your story with a sad little scribble? You've got better stuff than that in you, Broden Broderick King.”

Bog didn't think this was true.

But it was nice to hear.

And if he died he wouldn't get to make the Doctor eat her words about him being only a “decent” guitar player.

Pinpointing information about the plant army was like trying to find a specific raindrop during a hurricane. Even with the Doctor doing something—Bog was sure she was doing something because he felt like he was briefly surfacing in the middle of drowning—there was too much information. Details of the accelerated growing process, the selection and distribution of toxins, the modifications to the AI, a built-in GPS that aided the plant soldiers in traveling to the most heavily populated areas in the city.

“Good, good. Very good. Keep at it, Bog, you're on the right track.”

Bog continued to fumble around, doing the equivalent of pressing random buttons on a keyboard and hoping the computer would somehow unfreeze. If the keyboard was red hot and the monitor so bright your eyeballs sizzled just looking at it. The information was snatched away and shoved into some corner of his already overcrowded head. The brief semblance of control was gone and Bog was dragged back under the churning mass of information.

Too much.

Too much and no room for it.

No room.

No room inside of him.

The interfaces had been bypassed. The interfaces that kept anyone accessing the primrose pendant from being burned up from the inside.

So what was needed was a new interface.

The roots tangled in his bones and woven around his heart were what connected him to the database and poured the contents into his brain. Something needed to redirect them, filter the information, slow it back down to a manageable trickle.

“Yes, yes!” the Doctor agreed with Bog's unspoken thoughts. He had thought they were, anyway, but there was only the smallest bit of his thoughts left that weren't being slammed with the relentless overload, it was hard to say for sure he hadn't said anything, “A conduit! Not a container! A new interface! That's good, that's very good. That's thinking positive. None of those sad artistic downer endings here! This is the kind of story I want to see!”

The old interfaces were still there. They had detoured around them, not destroyed them.

“Forests grow back stronger after a fire,” the Doctor said, “let it all burn.”

Bog's heart had been desperately pounding against its cage of roots. He did something . . . he let something in. The roots spread fine white hairs into the walls of his heart, the crevices of his bones, into the folds of his brain. Delicate strands of them merged with his blood vessels, flowing with the golden amber liquid of the pendant's data, siphoning it from his head. Now it just needed somewhere to go.

Out.

Outside was nothing by the empty black, a veil that hid the ravaged remains of the forest, the clinging traces of the corrupted AI wound into its roots. The trees were choked by the metal tendrils, dry and rotting, a framework of dead wood held up by a cage of metal.

“Burn out the dry rot and let the new growth take root,” the Doctor said, her comment bringing images of the burning forest to the surface of the chaos. The Time War had tried to burn down the forest in the primrose seed, but then it didn't happen. Time was in a snarl and the forest had burned, but history continued as if it hadn't. It was time to finally set it right, let the fire eat it all away so that the new growth could take root.

The roots burst out of Bog, exploding into the black like networks of lightning, taking to the black as if it were rich, dark soil. The data that had been stuffing itself into his head streamed out of him in a burst, like a can of soda that had been shaken and then opened. The roots carved new channels and the data rushed through them, crashing through the old interfaces, burning them up and tossing off the ashes. Bog was sure he heard Roland abruptly cut off in the middle of indignant exclamations. The kill switch exploded into tiny fragments of red, sparkling for a moment before melting into the fire.

Data streamed out of Bog's head now and into the roots. The primrose that had blossomed from the broken seed rested in his hands while its roots ran riot in the dark, chasing on the heels of the cleansing fire. Trees burst out of the ground and dripped sap that hardened into amber. Amber, trees, roots, all networked and filed the data away. He was lightheaded with relief, his head echoing with newly vacated space, but he didn't allow himself to relax. He lurched forward, calling back some of the data.

It streamed through his head, golden and warm instead of white hot and burning, the information he was seeking coming easily to view. He grabbed at the streams of data pertaining the plant army and gave something a yank, like pulling a plug, bringing the footage from the soldiers' eyes up for viewing at the same time.

All across the city the plant soldiers froze in the tracks, as still as the trees they resembled. The footage bounced as the soldiers fell, then stabilized again, showing Bog more sideways angles of pavement then even he and his routine drunken encounters with the ground had viewed before. The background noise of the city chattered in Bog's ears, screaming and shouting dying away when the soldiers remained mobile.

A gentle prompt to the new system and Bog found out how to neutralize the toxins so that when he ordered the army to die they did not release anymore poison into the air. The army had fallen, their wooden bodies drying out now that the pendant was no longer running the program that helped them pull moisture out of the air and ground.

The footage blinked out when the soldier's eyes became too dry to function.

Just like that it was all over.

The planet and—more importantly—his family were safe.

The data was humming gently through his veins, circulating through him and back out into the new network. Kneeling, he was curved over the primrose. It was growing out of his chest and held in his cupped hands.

Hands he couldn't move.

His skin was bark, even here in his mind, and his fingers had grown together, his arms fused to his sides, legs rooted into the ground, eyes cast down toward the primrose. Cautious fingertips brushed his face and he couldn't look up to see who it was.

“That should have been scored with drums and electric guitars,” the Doctor said, fingers on the rigid surface of his cheek, “You did it. Thank you.”

He couldn't reply. If he could have he would have insisted on finally having a drink, plant or not. He had earned that much. Though the sincerity of the thank you from the Doctor kindled a glow just as well as any shot of whiskey.

“You're probably a little stiff,” she continued in her usual brisk manner, “You'll get the hang of it. Being the new interface.”

No, he wasn't the new interface. The glow was dimming and his tired brain trying to wrestle the facts into order. He had directed the information to create a new interface. Right?

“I think we'd better wake up now, Bog.”

The roots released Bog and he fell forward.

Right out of the pendant and back into the TARDIS, his body sliding down sideways from where he had been sitting against the wall. The breath was knocked out of him completely by the heavy weight of pain and he made no attempt to catch himself.

The Doctor caught him.

“You smell of flowers,” Bog mumbled into her shoulder.

“That's not me, champ.”

“Okay,” Bog sighed, not really hearing anything she said. Everything was so beautifully quiet and the Doctor was small and just . . . one person. Just one person instead of thousands. He would never had described her as quiet, but everything was relative. She was talking, but all he could hear was the strange double rhythm of her heartbeats. Four beats for every two of his.

“I'm not a hugger,” she said loudly, indicating she had spoken the statement several times, increasing the volume with each repetition.

“Okay,” Bog agreed, not moving.

“I understand you've been through a difficult time and that this might be reassuring for you, but . . . oh, whatever. There, there,” the Doctor patted the back of his shirt.

“My head didn't explode,” Bog managed to wrap his arms around her in spite of the cables handicapping his movements.

“Goodness, you get very Scottish when you're tired. Yup, your head is still there. Well done. And . . . and we're continuing the hugging. Right. You burned out the old interface and made a new one to replace it. You probably missed it, but the AI was making quite the fuss right before the roots snapped his neck.”

“Sorry to have missed that. We did it, then? Stopped the plants, saved the world? All done and good.”

“All done and good.”

“Now you unhook me from this and set me to rights?”

“Hm, well--”

“Boom, baby!”

Dawn and Sunny tumbled into the wreckage of the erstwhile art gallery, glowing brightly enough to live up to their names.

“Guess who delivered antitoxin to all the hospitals, clinics, and emergency rooms simultaneously?” Dawn, who was wearing sunglasses for some reason, demanded.

“It was us!” Sunny held up a hand.

“It was us!” Dawn high-fived Sunny, “And since outside they are making the galaxy's biggest compost heap out of dead plant soldiers I would venture to say that you guys have been busy too—why are you hugging Boggy?”

“He won't let go,” the Doctor said in tones to indicated she had suffered greatly but with saintly patience.

“Uh huh,” Dawn said with great skepticism, “Your usual tolerance is about fifteen seconds. I timed it once with a stopwatch.”

“He's had a rough day. And, again, he won't let go. Why do you have a tan?”

“Why are you patting his shoulder?”

“It is a subtle gesture to let him know that the hug is over and he should let go. It isn't working. I may have to poke him in the eye. You're tanned. You didn't make another side-trip, did you?”

“Don't you dare poke him in the eye! He looks all done in. The flowers are nice, though. What are they for?”

“Sunny,” the Doctor redirected her interrogation, “Where did you go?”

“Uh,” Sunny tried to hide a drink with a tiny umbrella in it behind his back.

“One or two tiny things might have come up,” Dawn admitted, “Lava monsters melting icecaps, that sort of thing. After we got the antitoxin sorted, of course.”

“Of course,” the Doctor agreed, a dangerous edge in her voice indicating that there was about to be a heated discussion.

Bog just leaned more heavily on the Doctor and closed his eyes.

[moss-brain-blog]

Interview with Jake Brown Transcript

What's your background?

With art? Or just in general?

Just in general, yeah.

Fuckin’ yeah, raised in a shitty mining town, surrounded by people with no prospects for life. From a very working class family. Always raised in the way of y'know, "you go to school, you go to work and you die."

*Both laugh* I feel it. [We're from the same place]

Nowt special really.

So... what is it that you're aiming to do?

Me, my ideal goal is to become a tattoo artist. Like, that's my ultimate end-goal. I also wanna’ like be good as well, I don't just wanna’ be like... yknow?

Yeah.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think I could ever settle for just being a tattoo artist. I see that as another level. If I were to ever have an end-goal with it, it'd be to be award-winning. Be able to travel over the world doing it. That'd be really fucking good for me. I'd love that.

What ways are you going about achieving this goal?

For me, at the minute, it's just drawing constantly. I never did art at school, I never did art at college. It was always like- I suppose it just feeds back to that family thing of "you work..." Art's never been considered a career or never was considered a career at a young age. I never really thought about it when I was young because I was never given the opportunity to think about it like that. It was like, you either play sport and become a famous rugby player or football player, or you work a 9-5 job or a shift job.

Off the back of that, I didn't write this one down but do you feel that not being in formal art education has impacted your work?

Yeah, definitely. I think if I could have been introduced to the things that I know now a lot earlier I think I’d be leaps and bounds better than what I am now. It's only in the last 6 months that I've discovered watercolor and like, digital art, sort of that I can do it. If I’d have had access to this kind of stuff at an earlier age, I’d be a lot better. I suppose it's the same with anything really. You give a guitar to say a 3-year-old that’s interested in it then y’know.

Can you tell me a bit about your creative process? How you go about seeing a piece through, start to finish.

So, I mean, at the moment it's flash that I’m doing so I’ve got to draw roses. so if say for example I’m doing an A3 flash of about 15 roses at the minute. I get my sketchbook any chance, any spare time that I have I’m doodling away. Like, straight away, just sketching roses all the time. I spend all my time looking on Instagram, looking at photos of roses, looking at a lot of other people's work, see how they do things. Take that, and mold my own stuff to it. But if it's for something else, say, that I personally want to do, I get inspiration at the most random times. Usually when I'm at work just doing the worst stuff possible, I'll think of a great idea. So, it'll be a case of whichever medium I want to do it, whether it be like watercolour, Promarker, pencil, digital.

You don't feel yourself restricted to just one thing?

No... No. Just sorta’ go with what I'm feeling at that time. So I’ll always just grab the nearest piece of paper- say I’m at work I’ll write it down then I’ll go home and I'll do a really rough sketch of it. Really, really basic rough sketch., Or if like I’m doing it digitally, for example with the print that I did, I got a really basic photograph of a skull, then a photograph of a mace, then a photograph of a chain. Then like, crudely photoshopped it all together and then just sketched over the top.

Building your own references?

Yeah, then just build my own line-work and style over the top of that. Yeah, I tend to put like, a lot of stages to what I do. I put a lot of planning into each piece, a lot more than I think people realise.

How do you go about choosing the subject matter for your work?

For me at the minute it’s looking at the most popular or most reoccurring thing with the tattoo industry. so like y’know back to roses and skulls and daggers and panthers and pinups it's all basic stuff that you see every day. but you’ve gotta’ learn the basics before you start pulling out your own stuff.

 I understand you use both traditional and digital media fairly equal-handed within your work. What advantages and disadvantages do you personally see in both for the kind of work you do?

I think for me like, with traditional media, I don’t have the patience for it. If I'm doing like, a really big piece- I can have all my line-work down perfect, the slightest thing goes wrong with the colouring and I lose it. Say, once I've ruined a large watercolour piece with the slightest thing I don't really wanna’ go back to it. I'd rather just jump back to digital. I think my only sorta’ issue with digital is that I rely on it too much at times. But then is it really a bad thing, I guess?

Was gonna’ say, do you see that as a problem?

Sometimes, because I’d like to be able to have more options. Like, I do have a fair few options open to me but I don't wanna’ rely on the same thing every time. I'd like to be able to do a bit of this, a bit of that.

Is personal expression important to your work? Or has it been in the past?

No, never. For me, I mean... interpret this how you want but for me with art you should always just do what you want to do. But I think using art to force an agenda or an opinion is just- it's mistreating it. And I think it ruins a lot of- like there's so many people out there that could be amazing artists but they're too busy trying to push this agenda or this idea that it just pulls away from what they could be producing.

Yeah, definitely. I really like that answer. Who are your biggest influences, creatively?

I'm currently just doing a massive list. [He must have seen this one coming]. I would say definitely number one is a guy called Manuel Mendoza, his Instagram is @sacred_crow. He's just a neo-trad’ artist but I forget- he's based in the US; he's just moved shops. But his style is like it's really- the dark colours but he's using like greens and blues and yellows. So he'll do like skulls- a lot of skulls a lot of birds but they're all like, really deformed in a way. They're all stretched out and exaggerated, I find it amazing the way his line work is. It's absolutely amazing. But if I pick someone that's not a tattoo artist, that's always been a big artist it's gotta’ be French[@funeralfrench], every time. Definitely. So I've just finished up- here's a list of about five.

 @sacred_crow

@funeralfrench

@mattcurzon

@grindesign_tattoo

@tdonaire

I think I should also add on like, definitely John Baizley and Richey Beckett. I really love their stuff. I think that sums it up. They're definitely my biggest inspirations.

Name something unusual that inspires you.

Satanism. Definitely.

Hell yeah.

Seeing stuff like old photos from rituals and stuff.

Yeah, Occultism.

Yeah, just all that stuff in general. Like, from the Electric Wizard vinyl I recently got, there's loads of stuff on the inside of that. I dunno’ just summat’ about it, it's just the grim darkness of it all just fascinates me.

The overwhelming sense of dread. Does that appeal to you?

Definitely... definitely.

What ways do you keep up to date with the tattoo industry?

Instagram... and I occasionally will buy magazines. I visit the local studio quite often, stay in touch with all them. I keep up with a lot of the main websites and magazines online. I even follow a lot of product companies like the companies that make [tattoo] machines or like, inks. Just to find out what's new and keep up with what people are up to in that world as well. Like, looking at the business side of things.

Yeah, so you're not just looking at the artist aspect of it you're looking forwards to y’know?

Yeah, every aspect of it. All the way.

How important is social media to your personal practice?

It's everything. Without social media I've got no outlet to share my artwork. I mean, I 've just hit a hundred followers. That's taken a long time to get to. Without the social media side of things... I don't even know where I'd begin to start sharing my work, to be honest.

Gives you a platform, right?

Yeah definitely.

Can you recall the single defining piece of work or a moment where you turned around and had the realisation that this was the kind of thing you want to pursue?

When I first- hmm. I'd say I've got two points. First being at a really young age and seeing my dad's tattoos for the first time. Just being fascinated that that was... there. Just like, what it was. Once it got explained to me, I found it fascinating. So from like maybe age 4 or 5 I used to just draw up and down my arms all the time. So that really sparked something. And then I'd probably say the first time I got tattooed was the moment of realisation where I was like, "Oh, maybe I could do this." I mean, that was a fair few years back now like but that was the first spark of "I could do this, if I really put my mind to it." I mean I suppose a lot of depression and anxiety and a lot of stuff that's happened has really held me back over the years. But yeah, I think my defining moments of realisation are those two. Definitely.

Name something you hate about art.

People who put no effort in, no time in. Get ten times more recognition than somebody that's put hours and hours and hours into their craft. Learning every piece of what they do, say learning anatomy, learning the tools they want to use. Just, really putting the time and love in for what they want to do. Then you get some snot-nosed little kid that's- well, it's not kids but snotty stuck-up teenagers. They'll whip out a sharpie, scribble summat’ down and just put summat’ with no effort whatsoever, no care for what they're doing. They just knock summat’ out in 5 minutes maximum and it gets so much recognition and so much more praise than somebody who is putting the hours in.

So you care about the craft?

Yeah.

Name something you love about art.

That like, people- anyone can do it, if you put the time in. Anyone can produce summat’ that looks great if you put the time in. And it's for everybody that's willing to give it a chance, definitely.

What was the last piece of art you bought?

Bought... I mean I suppose I recently bought a coat just because of the print of the back. I've also bought a few vinyls mostly because like- I accept music as an art-form as well, also the album artwork.

Oh, definitely.

Like, the main reason I got the Crack the Skye album was because of the artwork on it. As for prints, I tend not to buy prints. I suppose the last proper piece of art was either a pin that I got of French's Heatseeker magazine.

Last question, how many toddlers do you think you could take in a fight?

Just line em up. I'll just keep going.