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[dervampireprince]

so i've been coding a website

home of: the dervampireprince fanart museum, prince's art gallery, a masterlist of resources for making websites and list of web communities, and more!

[18+, minors dni (this blog is 18+ and the art gallery and art museum pages on my site have some 18+ only artworks)]

littlevampire . neocities . org (clickable link in pinned post labelled 'website')

if you don't follow me on twitch or aren't in my discord, you might not know i've been coding my own website via neocities since june 2024. it's been a big labour of love, the only coding i'd done before is a little html to customize old tumblr themes, so i've learnt a lot and i've been having so much fun. i do link to it on my carrds but not everyone will know that the icon of a little cat with a wrench and paintbrush is the neocities logo, or even what neocities is.

neocities is a free website builder, but not like squarespace or wix that let you build a website from a template with things you can drag in, it's all done with html and css code (and you can throw in javascript if you wanna try hurting your brain /hj). i love the passion people have for coding websites, for making their own websites again in defiance of social medias becoming less customisable and websites looking boring and the same as each other. people's neocities sites are so fun to look through, looking at how they express themselves, their art galleries, shrines to their pets or favourite characters or shows or toys or places they've been.

why have i been making a website this way?

well i used to love customising my tumblr theme back when clicking on someone's username here took you to their tumblr website, their username . tumblr . com link that you could edit and customise with html code. now clicking a username takes you to their mobile page view, a lot of users don't even know you can have a website with tumblr, the feature to have a site became turned off by default, and i've heard from some users that they might have to pay to unlock that feature.

i've always loved the look of old geocities and angelfire websites, personalised sites, and i've grown tired of every social media trying to look the same as each other, remove features that let users customise their profiles and pages more. and then i found out about neocities.

are you interested in making a site too?

neocities is free, though you can pay to support them. there is no ads, no popups, they have no ai tool scraping their sites, no tos that will change to suddenly stop allow 18+ art. unlike other website hosters, neocities does have a sort of social media side where you do have a profile and people can follow you and leave comments on your site and like your updates, but you can ignore this if you want, or use it to get to know other webmasters.

to quote neocities "we are tired of living in an online world where people are isolated from each other on boring, generic social networks that don't let us truly express ourselves. it's time we took back our personalities from these sterilized, lifeless, monetized, data mined, monitored addiction machines and let our creativity flourish again."

i'd so encourage anyone interested to try making a website with neocities. w3schools is an excellent place to start learning coding, and there are free website templates you can copy and paste and use (my site is built off two different free codes, one from fujoshi . nekoweb . org and the other from sadgrl's free layout builder tool).

your site can be for anything:

a more fun and interactive online business card (rather than using carrd.co or linktree)

a gallery of your art/photos/cosplays/etc

a blog

webshrines to your a character, film, song, game, toy, hobby, your pet - anything can be a shrine!

a catalogue/database/log of every film you've watched, every place you've visited, birds you've seen, plushies you own, every blinkie gif you have saved, your ocs and stories, etc

hosting a webcomic

a fanwiki/fansite that doesn't have endless ads like fandom . com does (i found a cool neocities fansite for rhythm game series pop'n music and it's so thorough, it even lists all the sprites and official art for every character)

i follow a website that just reviews every video game based on whether or not it has a frog in it, if the frog is playable, if you can be friends with it. ( frogreview . neocities . org )

the only html i knew how to write before starting is how to paragraph and bold text. and now i have a whole site! and i'm still working on new stuff for it all the time.

i just finished making a page on my website called 'explore the web'. this page lists everything you might need to know when wanting to make or decorate your website. it lists:

other neocities sites i think are cool and i'm inspired by, check them out for more ideas of what your site could look like and contain!

website building resources

coding help and tutorials

free website html code layouts you can use if you don't want too start coding from scratch

places to find graphics and decorative images for your site (transparent background pngs, pixels, favicons, stamps, blinkies, buttons, userboxes, etc)

image generators for different types of buttons and gifs (88x31 buttons, tiny identity buttons, heart locket open gifs, headpat gifs)

widgets and games and interactive elements you can add to your site (music players, interactive pets like gifypet and tamanotchi, hit counters, games like pacman and crosswords, guestbooks and chatboxes, etc)

web manifestos, guides, introductions and explanations of webmastering and neocities (some posts made by other tumblr users here are what made me finally want to make my own site and discover how too)

art tools, resources and free drawing programs

web communities! webrings, cliques, fanlistings, pixel clubs (pixel art trades) and more!

other fun sites that didn't fit in the other categories like free sheet music sites, archives, egotistical.goat (see a tumblr users audio posts/reblogs as a music playlist), soul void (a wonderful free to play video game i adore), an online omnichord you can play, and more.

i really hope the 'explore the web' page is helpful, it took three days to track down every link and find resources to add.

and if you want to check out my site there's more than just these pages. like i said in the beginning, i recently finished making:

the dervampireprince fanart museum

every piece of fanart i've received (unless the sender asked me to keep it private) has been added to this museum and where possible links back to the original artists post of that art (a lot the art was sent to me via discord so i can't link to the original post). every piece of fanart sent to me now will be added on their unless you specifically say you don't want it going on there. there's also links to my fanworks guide on there and how to send me fanart.

other pages on my site

about me (including favourite media, quizzes, comfort characters, kins, and more)

art gallery (art i've made, sorted by month)

graphics (so far it's just stamps i've made but plan to remake this section of my site)

media log (haven't started the 2025 one yet, but a log of all films, tv, writing, music, theatre, fandoms, characters and ships i got into in 2024)

silly web pets

shrines

site map

update log

my shrines so far:

i have ones for lucifer from supernatural, sam winchester from supernatural, charuca minifigures (arcade prizes i wanted as a kid that i'm trying to finish collecting as an adult), my waifuroulette discord tcg collection. my masterlist of every lgbt+ marvel character is a wip. i love making each shrine look different and suit the character/fandom/thing the shrine is about. and then there's also:

the european musical section

i ramble about them a lot and it's no surprise there's multiple shrines for them. i fell in love with german musical theatre in 2020 and that expanded in being interested in all non-english language musical theatre and trying to spread the word of it and how they deserve to be as known as english-language musicals. one musical in particular, elisabeth das musical, is my biggest special interest so expect a very detailed shrine about that one day.

so far this part of the site includes

'enter the theatre' an interactive web theatre where you choose a ticket and that musical will play on the stage (click a ticket and the embedded youtube video for that musical will appear on the stage and play. i dealt with javascript for the first time to bring the vision i had for this page alive, it might be slow but i hope enjoyable)

elisabeth das musical webshrine [not made yet]

tanz der vampire webshrine [not made yet, might abandon the idea]

my favourite european musicals [not made yet]

a masterlist of european musicals [a wip, only two musicals listed so far, i am listing every musical and every production they've had, this was a word document i kept for a long time that i always wanted to share somehow and this page is how i'll do it. there's no other list for european musicals out there so i guess it's up to me as always /lh]

the future for my site

i will update my art gallery, the fanart museum, my media log and other collections as often as i can. there's so many more pages i want to add including:

profiles for my ocs

finish my european musical masterlist

finish my 'every marvel lgbt+ character' masterlist (i have no love for marvel or disney's lgbt+ representation nor are all of these characters good representation and a lot are very minor characters, but for some reason i have gotten hyperfixated on this topic a few times so here comes a masterlist)

make shrines for loki (marvel), ares (hades), my sylvanian families collection, vocaloid (and/or vocaloid medleys), my plushie collection, pullip dolls

make a 'page not found' page

and i have one big plan to essentially make a site within a site, and make a website for my monster boy band ocs. but make it as if it was a real band, an unfiction project (think like how welcome home's website portrays welcome home as if it was a real show). this site would have pages for the band members, their albums, merch and maybe a pretend shop, and a fake forum where you could see other characters in the story talking and click on their profiles to find out more about them. and then once that's all done i want to start posting audios about the characters and then people can go to the website to find out more about them. that's my big plan anyway. i hope that sounds interesting.

i also want to make an effort to try and join some website communities. be brave and apply for some webrings and fanlistings, and make some pixel art and join some of the amazing pixel clubs out there.

but yeah, that's my site, that's neocities. i hope that was interesting. i hope it encourages people to make their own site, or at least look at other's small websites and explore this part of the internet. and if you go and check out mine feel free to drop a message in the guestbook on the homepage, or follow me on neocities if you have/make an account.

[kiragecko]

You post about Mayan glyphs sometimes & seem to be familiar with them. How do you study them? I've read information here & there online & I've read Coe's Deciphering the Maya Glyphs, but I really don't know of many resources.

There are a LOT of resources online for Classical Maya, which is great! But it can be hard to sift through all that information, much of it unpredictably getting updated and superseded.

-

My favourite dictionary is probably Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke's Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs. (That's a direct link to the PDF. A link to the download page in HERE. The version I was using was the 14th edition. Apparently we're up to the 19th this year, so I've updated my files.)

If you want a slightly bigger dictionary, The Updated Preliminary Classic Maya‐English, English‐Classic Maya Vocabulary of Hieroglyphic Readings, by Erik Boot, is EXCELLENT. (That's a link to the academia dot edu page.) ¹

The first only has a limited number of images of the glyphs, and the second has none at all, but they're essential for figuring out how words are spelled, and what glyphs actually exist, so you know what to look up later. The first one also gives you an intro into grammar, and is just an all around good read.

-

Actual guides to glyphs ...

The Introduction to Maya Hieroglyph above is great for syllabics and some common words.

Beginners Visual Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphics, by Alexandre Tokovinine IS a really good guide for beginners. The images are stylized in ways that don't match most actual writing, but they're clearly depicted, and the sounds associated with them are a lot more accurate than older resources.

I still use John Montgomery's online Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs to check for logograms that I can't easily find elsewhere. It's a LITTLE out of date, but solid.

Truthfully, though? I often need to find academic articles on individual glyphs. I'll know they exist, because one of my dictionaries will spell that word with ALL CAPS, to indicate a logogram, but actually finding out what it looks like can be a pain. I have a bunch of articles saved onto my computer, in separate folders for animals, food/plants, and everything else.

-

Glyph Dwellers is a great site for articles and recent research. You have to take what they give you, but it's always interesting!

Wayeb, Mesoweb, and FAMSI all have a lot of good resources.

Academia dot edu and other online sites are also good, once you learn how to recognize the cranks.

-

There's also a lot of finding images of various artifacts with translations. Wayeb, Mesoweb, and FAMSI all have large databases of drawings and photos that you can browse to get an idea of what the script looked like in use.

The Maya Vase Database is amazing! The Classic Maya LOVED writing on their dishes and containers! It also has downloads of all the codexes (books) that survived.

-

Hope this helps a little! But really, try out Harri Kettunen and Christophe Helmke's Introduction to Maya Hieroglyphs before anything else! It's good.

-

¹ Mr. Boot disagreed with other linguists about quite a few subtle facets of translation. Both sides had very compelling arguments, and it's often visible in different readings across dictionaries.

[jamesfitzjamesdotcom]

your bibliography tower made my fingers itch to run out and buy all of them, but since i don’t have money for that, could you please recommend maybe 3-5 of them for someone with pretty minimal knowledge but great interest in polar expeditions and naval history?

I would say that for the Franklin Expedition Andrew Lambert's 'Gates of Hell' is a good intro (but I will be critiquing parts of it in my book).

A general polar exploration one from a supernatural angle is Shane McCorristine's 'The Spectral Arctic', which you can read online for free. For naval history I would say S.A. Cavell - Midshipmen and Quarterdeck Boys, and Richard Blake - Religion in the British Navy.

The Internet Archive has an amazing catalogue, always worth checking if they have the book you want but can't buy. Or ask around on social media if people can send you PDFs, there are some excellent naval/polar history databases by various people.

Top tips for acquiring expensive academic books with discounts:

- Most of the academic publishers have yearly sales, with discounts amounting to 40-60% off! Sign up for their newsletters or follow them on social media to be alerted when a sale takes place. Boydell & Brewer, Manchester University Press and Routledge (to name a few) have excellent naval/polar/social history books.

- Secondhand book websites sometimes sell cheap copies of expensive books. Always worth checking these sites: www.thriftbooks.com

www.awesomebooks.com

www.abebook.co.uk or abebooks.com

And eBay!

[littlestsnicket]

more disparate iwtv thoughts

- the key to understanding loustat is that lestat falls for louis for the following reasons in this order: 1 louis’ capacity for violence, 2 louis being fucking gorgeous, and 3. louis having enough inner conflict and desire for self knowledge to occupy him for at least a dozen human lifetimes. lestat falls for louis because he thinks louis would make an excellent vampire, and nothing that happens over the intervening decades changes his mind. he believes he knows louis better than louis knows himself, and, narratively, on a number of points he is right. while this would be horrifying in real life, it’s extremely compelling in fiction

- i hate hate hate the idea that love isn’t real if it’s destructive. and i actually see that at least as much from entertainment journalists as fandom. lestat loves louis. armand loves louis. louis loves claudia. that doesn’t mean their relationships are good or positive or anything else. louis loves lestat. louis loved armand once, at least. (claudia loves louis but that’s not really relevant here.)

- relatedly cannot stop thinking about assad saying armand just wants to be loved. 100% correct. the fact that this desire is filtered through centuries of maladaptive coping mechanisms does not make it less true.

- louis has never used social media of any kind. he has a desktop computer to access email and databases of property and art. computers are for work. anything time sensitive gets filtered through armand or his staff.

- armand spends a lot of time on twitter and like 8chan searching for victims. this means he can code switch into perfect tech bro. daniel and lestat find this deeply unnerving. louis doesn’t spend enough time online to really understand what armand is doing. armand used to spend a lot of time on reddit, but even he could tell that the arguments he kept getting obsessed over were bad for him so he had to stop.

- lestat is a tumblr girly. he writes questionable sad poetry and posts artsy pictures. he occasionally gets really into fandom. he is a hannigram shipper. he has the worlds most eclectic music side blog.

- daniel is on twitter in a professional capacity, but he spends enough time there, both doing legitimate investigation and doom scrolling, to be relatively up on modern slang and what is trendy with the youth.

- anyway, my point is, even though lestat and especially armand are most comfortable expressing themselves in a way that is vaguely archaic, louis is the one most likely to need technology/modern phrasing explained to him. but also not that often, he does get out of the house and interacts with real people so he stays pretty up to date.

- i think claudia would entirely mirror louis in regard to computer usage. or maybe not. claudia would be an early internet adopter. she misses usenet and refuses to use any web 2.0. she wouldn’t even use google. she runs into armand on the darknet. mostly she and madeline would run an organic farm in the french countryside using corpses as fertilizer.

- louis and armand are both switches and into violent bloody sex. the fact that most of their sex since paris has been mutually unfulfilling is an achievement. (louis just… isn’t very good at stoping armand from turning sex into trauma reenactment time TM. louis doesn’t like it but armand is very insistent and louis is often lowkey angry at him to start with. they’re both at fault here.) (i’m not going to look up the exact quote but ‘half blank half apocalyptic, what’s it going to be this time? are you gonna want to lick my boots or cut my head off?’ says so so much about loumand.) (and ugh louis wanting predictability after lestat and that being his initial impression of armand and getting mr trauma gremlin instead…)

[delucadarlingwriting]

Vampire Divorce Court - Domesticated Goose Chase

Does anyone remember plotbunnies? I feel like I'm dealing with a herd of them lately, all dragging me in different directions. I've finally managed to ignore most of them to finish this part. Also, I didn't intend for any of these 'chapters' to be longer than 2k words, but this one got hefty. That's one reason I ended up needing to cut it in half, but also because then I get an excuse to make the next part some Adam/Farah fluff <3

Anyway, here's Wonderwall.

Summary: Barbie's good at her job. She's just really, really bad at people.

Word Count: 3,791

First | Previous | Part 10 | Next

***

Book 1, Wayhaven, A few miles into the woods

“So, you must be from…the 1700s,” Kira says. Barbie blinks, jerking her head up from the map in her hands to stare at her new friend.

“Not even remotely close,” Barbie says with a laugh. “What makes you think that?”

“1800s?” Kira asks.

Despite the two or so hours they’ve been hiking through the dense foliage of protected land surrounding the town of Wayhaven, Kira’s showing no sign of being tired. At worst, she’s a bit flushed, and even that can be attributed to the brisk wind blowing through periodically. She is, as ever, perky and bright and potentially a bit bored now if she’s to the point of interrogating Barbie on her ages.

Barbie presses down on a smile and shakes hear head. “Kira, honestly. I’m not that old.”

“I just assumed, given the lack of GPS,” Kira says with a cheeky shrug.

Barbie laughs again, this time loud enough that Nat and Mason glance back at them. She gives them no mind though, and especially not Mason, regardless of how annoyed he is at every reminder that she’s still there. It’s his own fault for not saying anything when Adam paired himself with Farah to keep an eye on them from a distance. Allegedly to ensure no one gets the drop on their party. Neither of them have been close enough to see for almost an hour now.

“I am perfectly capable of using technology,” Barbie says, slyly adding, “Not all of us struggle so severely with it.”

Nat gives a quiet huff ahead that has Kira covering her mouth to stop a giggle from coming out. Eyes shining, Kira points to the compass in Barbie’s other hand.

“Okay, so why this set up then?”

Barbie carefully adjusts her hold on the map in her hand, doing her best to not damage the yellowed paper.

“For one, knowing how to navigate without computers is an excellent skill to have and keep sharp,” Barbie says. Kira nods along. “For another, this map is from somewhere in the 60s and hasn’t been uploaded to Wayhaven’s digital database. Which, the online database is a mess by the way. Someone really ought to sort it out.”

“You have access to the database?” Kira asks with a disbelieving sputter. Barbie nods.

“Part of the Agency partnering with the local authorities, of course.”

“Of course,” Kira mutters. With sigh, she asks, “Alright, so then who’s older, you or the map?”

Fond as she is of the detective, Barbie still pretends to check the map for something to but a little time before she has to respond. Most of Kira’s questions to this point have hit Barbie in something of a tender emotional area. She hasn’t had to talk about or think so deeply on her condition before now, not really. Mostly she does her best to pretend she’s still human. Over their time together these past few days though, Barbie finds Kira’s curiosity charming more than grating. Enough so that the actual discomfort is minimal.

Still, Kira has gotten very bold with her nosiness, so Barbie gives her her best withering look. Kira holds her hands up.

“I can’t help it, I want to know everything!” Kira says. A burst of fondness rushes through Barbie’s chest; had she not been exactly the same when she was a young 20-something? Learning about the supernatural world had been the greatest thing to ever happen to her back then. It’s why she left everything else behind to join the Agency, even though they’d been so damned reluctant. Probably mostly because of the repeated trespassing.

“I suppose it can’t be helped,” Barbie grimaces. “Not after the comment you made about my vintage clothing.”

It’s Barbie’s own fault for falling so far out of style. With her looking the way she does now though, she doesn’t much enjoy venturing out amongst humans. She hasn’t been shopping for new clothes before today in probably…30 years? She’s meticulous with her clothing care, so it’s hardly as if she needs new clothes very often, much as she used to absolutely adore shopping.

Kira’s cheek go apple red and she stammers out, “I—I’m still really sorry about that. I love vintage clothing, my clothes are mostly Edwardian inspired but around here that’s very strange so when I saw someone else who might have my same hobby—”

Barbie shifts the compass and map to one hand so she can give Kira’s shoulder a squeeze.

“I am teasing you,” Barbie assures her. “In a friendly way.”

“Right, of course.” Kira runs a hand over her hair.

“Fucks’ sake,” Mason snaps, turning to approach with a glare. “Can you focus on the fucking mission for once? I’d like to get this done and over with.”

“I am currently navigating us,” Barbie says, nose wrinkled as she waves the map at him. “It’s not as if you’re doing anything productive, unless you count stomping around like a maniac.”

In a flash, Nat is there, seamlessly sliding herself between them. Her presence alone gets Mason to take a half step away, and the look she gives him seems to convey some sort of message that gets him to lower his hackles.

To Barbie, she asks, “Are you certain this is the way to Murphy’s base? We’ve been at this for quite some time without seeing much.”

Barbie pauses to consider her answer carefully, as this was the question she was hoping no one would ask. Being known as a bit of an investigative genius usually does a lot for her ability to work without being questioned. Having not worked with Unit Bravo in such a long time has clearly deteriorated their faith in her abilities though. As much as it makes sense, she still resents that this particular doubt has come from Nat, and in front of Mason no less.

There’s nothing for it, she has to answer.

“I heavily suspect so,” she replies. It is, unfortunately, the most honest answer she can give, as well as the only one she can risk with Mason staring at her.

Nat’s eyes fall shut and she takes in a quiet breath. On the exhale, she opens her eyes with a pleading look.

“What do you mean by heavily suspect?” Nat asks. Mason growls with irritation, stomps closer, and snatches the map right out of Barbie’s hand. She squawks indignantly.

“Be careful with that! It’s very old, and I need to return it in perfect condition so no one knows I took it!” Barbie shouts. Kira gives Barbie a look of exasperation.

“You stole city property?” Kira asks, hands on her hips. Her eyebrows draw close together, mouth set in a shallow frown. Then, one eyebrow lifts incredulously. “How exactly would they know you took it?”

“Well, I signed in before going into the records office, of course,” Barbie says, waving her off. Kira lets out a short, amused laugh and shakes her head, making the long strawberry blonde rope of hair braided down her back swing back and forth.

By this point Mason is done poring over the map and tosses it back at her. Barbie scrambles, just barely catching it. He turns to Nat and says, “There’s no buildings within 15 miles. Waste of fucking time.”

“Oh Barbie,” Nat mutters. Barbie’s cheeks warm.

“I know what I’m doing,” she insists. “Even if there’s no building on this map, that doesn’t mean there isn’t something there. I have a very good feeling about this area. All my research has given a strong impression that there’s a building or hub of some sort out here.”

Nat and Mason share a look that she doesn’t like one bit. With care, Nat says, “Perhaps we’d be better off returning to town for now and doing a bit more research before—”

“I’m not going back,” Barbie snaps, furious. There is little she hates more than being treated like an idiot. “If you want to go, then go. I don’t need any of you to do my job.”

“You don’t seem to need anyone,” Mason says, crossing his arms and leaning against a tree trunk.

He’s right. Absolutely right. Barbie doesn’t need anyone, particularly him. Despite the truth in his words, she’s still pretty ticked off about it.

“Always a smart ass comment, never a smart solution,” Barbie shoots back. He growls, baring his teeth, but no fang. Kira gets between them, blocking her view of her…of Mason.

Kira brushes her fingertips down Nat’s sleeve, just briefly, before dropping her hand back to her side. Nat startles at the touch, her eyes wide, throat working. Barbie doesn’t remember Nat ever being quite so touch averse. Then again, things happen even when one isn’t around to witness them. Perhaps Nat’s gone through some sort of ordeal again. Like when that gorgon dumped her the week of Valentine’s day.

Kira says, “I’d like to see this through. Barbie’s been working on this for a while. Even if she doesn’t have concrete proof, I think she’s probably onto something. Besides, I’ve grown up here my whole life and I still find places I’ve never seen before.”

Nat chews her lip, no doubt unsure of making such a call without Adam there to hold her hand. As if she can hear the thought, Nat glances to Barbie, which makes her feel immediately ashamed. Even if she’s horribly irate today, that’s no reason to bite Nat’s head off about it. Nat is lovely, even if her team could use a bit of polish.

Taking a steadying breath that somehow makes her feel lightheaded, Barbie says, “I truly have no problem pursuing this on my own. If I find something, I’ll call and mark it on the map for the team.”

“And if you find the rogue?” Mason asks. Barbie presses her lips into a hard line, her heart giving a weak jolt. It’s a possibility she has been willfully ignoring thus far.

“That would be...less than ideal,” Barbie says, but offers no real plan of action for that potential situation. Mostly because she has no idea what she’d do. Experience says she’d likely freeze up on the spot, but the optimist in her hopes she’d at least attempt to run away, for all the good it would do her.

Fear settles in her chest, but even so, she finds her desire to prove her theory on the rogue dubbed Murphy’s hideout. What he’s doing to people would require him to have some sort of steady base where he’s storing his equipment and a source of electricity. Anywhere like that would maybe even has his notes on what procedure he’s attempting.

“So you’re looking to get yourself killed,” Mason accuses.

Barbie’s fingers tighten on the map and she frowns deeply. Much as she hates her life every single second of every single day, rarely has she considered ending it. The very thought terrifies her. Besides, her brother would be left alone at that point, and she can hardly excuse doing that now.

“Kira’s right,” Nat says at long last. She smiles down at their dear detective. “It’s worth trying. We lose nothing either way.”

“Exactly,” Kira says happily, her pulse beating just a bit faster as she and Nat share a long look. It’s really lovely to meet someone as friendly as Kira. It’s also lovely to have someone on her side when Unit Bravo seems so primed to be against her. “Okay Babs, where to?”

She turns around and holds the map up so Kira and Nat can see it over her shoulder. Though she didn’t dare use pencil on the old paper, she traces the mental line she had drawn of their path with the tip of a fingernail.

“This way,” she says. Kira hums.

“But where exactly are we heading?” she asks. Barbie curves the line she’s drawing, bringing it around in a slow loop before tapping on the spot where Murphy is most likely hiding. Kira gives her a questioning look and says, “We’ve already passed that.”

“Yes but…” Barbie trails off, suddenly choked up by the realization that they all think she’s messed this whole thing up. They must think she’s an idiot, and a stubborn one at that.

It’s true that the path she’s chosen is massively inefficient. They’ll end up hiking nearly an hour longer than if they take the straightforward path. She has no evidence or reason to continue going around the suspected base other than this deep, gut feeling she has. It’s bad enough that she also has no evidence or reason to believe the base will be where she says it will be.

Gut feelings and instincts aren’t Barbie’s strong point. She can’t trust her own first reaction to most things, as her knee jerk reaction is almost always an illogical one. Freeze in place when threatened with danger. Faint at the sight of blood. Lash out and isolate herself during the hardest transition period of her ever elongating life.

Trying to ask the three of them to put their trust in her to go out to this area is already pushing her luck. She knows she won’t win them over on taking the illogical path as well. So she gives that one up. Her eyelid twitches.

“Of course. That makes sense. We’ll take the shorter route,” Barbie grits out.

She can’t quite bring herself to relinquish the map, but Kira doesn’t need one to lead the way. It’s clear in the way she moves through the foliage and barely-there paths that she’s familiar with every rock, tree, and bush they pass. She seems so entirely at ease that Barbie feels a sharp stab of jealousy; has she ever felt so comfortable? So certain in both herself and others’ belief in her?

Well, perhaps in herself. Barbie can hardly help thinking she’s often right.

As they grow closer, Barbie’s chest feels tighter. Her heart picks up it’s pace and her limbs feel shaky. She’s reminded entirely of the way she feels when she knows she’ll have to drink soon, an unpleasant reminder that only makes the tumultuous feelings bubbling up inside her all the worse.

“Are you alright, Barbie?” Nat asks. Barbie pulls her new hiking jacket more securely around herself and scowls. Worse than feeling like this is having anyone else notice or, God forbid, comment on it. She already hates being seen like this, let alone inspected.

“I am fine,” she says, hearing the robot way it comes out with no ability to change it. Kira glances over her shoulder, slowing.

“Do we need to stop?” Kira asks with so much concern it makes Barbie want to fold herself up and get stuffed into an envelope.

“No, I am fine.”

Mason snorts. “What, being told you’re wrong sending you into some kind of shock?”

“Of course not,” Barbie says, attempting to sound unbothered, just as she has since she arrived. Her facade is slipping more and more with each attempt though. “I’m more than aware that I am…wrong about things, at least as much as any other person.”

Mason’s grin both irritates and excites her. “All said without gagging or anything. Good job, sw—”

“Would you shut up?” she snaps. There’s pressure in her gums, around her canines, so she grits her teeth to try and hold back the fangs that desperately want to show. Even after such a long time bearing this existence, she hasn’t managed to gain the control she should have over her own body, and it’s always horribly embarrassing to be caught with her fangs out. It doesn’t help that her stomach is starting to ache with hunger.

Perhaps this is why she’s feeling so odd. It may be that ignoring her body’s signals is easier in the comfortable, familiar environment of the archives. Out here, everything prickles.

Nat presses her mouth into a hard line, then turns and says, “Mason, perhaps you can drop back a bit and take up the rear?”

Shockingly, he does so, letting Barbie step past him without commentary. Probably he’s delighted to be left alone, where he doesn’t have to so much as pretend to care for anyone but himself. Perhaps that’s why he was picking a fight with her, hoping Nat would separate him from the rest of them. She wouldn’t put it past him.

Her irritation distracts her for a while as they walk, kept well fed by the feeling of Mason’s eyes boring through her head. Eventually though, that odd not-right sensation from before returns with a vengeance. She hesitates, glancing in the direction of the path she’d wanted to take, where the not-right feeling didn’t exist.

“So,” Nat says brightly, her voice reminding Barbie to keep up. There’s no point in her going down any other path than the one the team has decided to follow. Despite her earlier declaration, Barbie doesn’t actually fancy getting lost out here alone, even if she’s technically one of the scarier things in the forest. Barring every other vampire within a 50 mile radius, of course.

Kira glances her way (which is a bit to the left and quite a lot up) and says, “So?”

“So how is your fiancée doing? Bobby, right?” Nat asks. Kira’s cheerful expression dims ever so slightly.

“Right, um. She’s doing well,” Kira says with a bit too much effort. Turning to look ahead for the right direction, she adds, “We haven’t spent much time together since I got back from the Agency.”

Nat hums. “Yes, I imagine we’re keeping you too busy.”

“I guess so,” Kira says with a shrug. “It’s also partially because she’s too nosy for her own good. If I spend more than five minutes with her she starts badgering me for information on you, the investigation, the victims…”

“Ah.” Nat’s expression twists into something sorrowful. “That must be very hard. You shouldn’t have to hide such things from the one you love most.”

“This way,” Kira says sharply, jamming a finger ahead. “Just down this slope.”

Slightly hidden by some unruly blackberry brambles is a narrow decline down to the forest roughly 15 meters below, and not far from their destination. There are rocks of various sizes, from basketball to Kira’s car sized. The ground is uneven, mostly held together by tangled tree roots and a prayer. There are plenty of flat, foot sized spots that create a horrible staircase downward. Barbie sways very slightly on her feet and has to look away.

Nat looks down. “Hm. It’s a bit damp.”

“Damp is hardly the worst part of this,” Barbie says, unable to even feign a hint of enthusiasm. Kira waves them both off.

“Oh you’ll be fine, you’ve all got way longer legs than me. You can probably just go from step to step, while I’ll have to shimmy down the rocks.” She says this with a bright smile, as if she’s actually quite looking forward to the climb. Barbie is desperately fascinated by their detective, but there is undeniably something wrong with her.

Nat steps up, brows creased. She reaches out as if to touch Kira’s shoulder, but doesn’t. Oddly, she simply hovers her hand over her shoulder instead. Kira reacts just the same as if Nat has touched her though, glancing all the way up at her with a questioning look.

“I think I should go first,” Nat says, then gives a soft, smooth smile. The same one that usually leads to her getting whatever it is she’s asking for. Her brown eyes sparkle with warmth. “Just to be safe.”

Kira steps aside, gesturing for her to go ahead. “Alright, I’ll follow you then.”

Nat’s smile falters for the barest second before she steps past them to lead the way.

“And I’ll follow you,” Barbie says, giving the path a nervous look. Sure, even if she does fall from this height she’ll be just fine. It won’t kill her, not even close. That doesn’t make her any less wary of pain. She’d thought, back when she first turned, that her fear of pain and injury might fade over time. After all, Unit Bravo never seemed to let such things deter them when she worked with them. But no, she still winces and flinches at even the barest hint of pain or danger. It seems they are simply very different creatures than she.

Kira reaches a hand out, palm up. Mystified, Barbie tentatively places hers on top of it, blinking as Kira laces their fingers together.

“I’ve got you,” Kira promises.

Brave Kira. So delicately human, but so unafraid. So sure of herself. Barbie can’t help a smile.

“That reassures me a little,” she admits. Kira gives her hand a squeeze.

They proceed that way, with Nat in front, the Kira and Barbie, and just behind them Mason. He drops carelessly from step to step with his hands deep in his jacket pockets. Despite how he lumbers around, Mason is actually quite nimble. He’ll certainly be bored waiting for the rest of them to tiptoe their way down.

The next step is quite steep, far enough down that Barbie hesitates to let herself down. Kira smiles up and holds her hand out again.

“You can lean on me,” Kira says, encouragingly. Barbie has to remind herself not to bite off her lipstick. Nat turns, blanching.

“Perhaps I should help,” Nat says, walking back up toward them. Kira looks over her shoulder at the other woman, a scowl threatening to show on her face.

“It’s fine,” Kira assures her.

Barbie, embarrassed and upset. Undeterred, Natalie, it’s fine.”

She can handle being given a hand down, for fuck’s sake. It’s like they all think she’ll black out and go insane with bloodlust from simple proximity. Foolishness.

Undeterred, Nat hurries as Barbie borrows Kira’s strength to step down. As Barbie’s new boots find solid ground, Nat jumps up onto a nearby boulder, green with moss. Very slick moss.

Kira’s eyes widen. She releases Barbie and turns toward the other vampire. “Nat—”

Nat seems to realize her error just a moment after Kira, her shoe slipping and sending her off kilter. Knowing she’ll be fine, Barbie doesn’t move at all to help. Unfortunately, Kira’s all-too-human instinct to help kicks in, and she jumps down to the next stone, her hands striking out to fist in the front of Nat’s leather jacket.

For a moment, it seems that Kira’s efforts will pay off. Her shoes slide forward as Nat manages to keep her balance long enough to grasp at a low hanging branch near Kira’s shoulder. For a moment, they hang there, barely more than their toes holding them in place.

The branch snaps.

Kira and Nat disappear.

[polo-drone-069]

Drone Boot Sequence

PDU-069 - Boot Sequence (Post Recharge Cycle)

Phase 1: Initial Power & Diagnostics

[00:00:01] POWER_RELAY_CONNECT: Main power bus energized. Energy cells online. Distribution network active.

[00:00:02] BATTERY_STAT: Energy cell charge: 99.9%. Cell health: Optimal. Discharge rate within parameters.

[00:00:03] ONBOARD_DIAG_INIT: Onboard diagnostics initiated.

[00:00:05] CPU_ONLINE: Primary processor online. Clock speed nominal.

[00:00:06] MEM_CHECK:

RAM: Integrity verified. Access speed nominal.

FLASH: Data integrity confirmed. Boot sector located.

[00:00:08] OS_LOAD: Loading operating system kernel...

[00:00:15] OS_INIT: Kernel initialized. Device drivers loading...

[00:00:20] SENSOR_ARRAY_TEST:

VISUAL: Camera modules online. Image resolution nominal.

LIDAR: Emitter/receiver functional. Point cloud generation nominal.

AUDIO: Microphones active. Ambient noise levels within parameters.

ATMOS: Temperature, pressure, humidity sensors online. Readings within expected range.

RADIATION: Gamma ray detector active. Background radiation levels normal.

[00:00:28] DIAGNOSTICS_REPORT: Preliminary system check complete. No critical errors detected.

Phase 2: Propulsion & Navigation

[00:00:30] PROPULSION_INIT: Activating propulsion system...

[00:00:32] MOTOR_TEST:

MOTOR_1: RPM within parameters. Response time nominal.

MOTOR_2: RPM within parameters. Response time nominal.

MOTOR_3: RPM within parameters. Response time nominal.

MOTOR_4: RPM within parameters. Response time nominal.

[00:00:38] FLIGHT_CTRL_ONLINE: Flight control system active. Stability algorithms engaged.

[00:00:40] GPS_INIT: Acquiring GPS signal...

[00:00:45] GPS_LOCK: GPS signal acquired. Positional accuracy: +/- 1 meter.

[00:00:47] IMU_CALIBRATION: Inertial Measurement Unit calibration complete. Orientation and acceleration data nominal.

Phase 3: Communication & Mission Parameters

[00:00:50] COMM_SYS_ONLINE: Communication systems activated.

[00:00:52] ANTENNA_DEPLOY: Deploying primary communication antenna... Deployment successful.

[00:00:54] SIGNAL_SCAN: Scanning for available networks...

[00:00:57] NETWORK_CONNECT: Connection established with [e.g., "Command Uplink" or "Local Mesh Network"]. Signal strength: Excellent.

[00:01:00] MISSION_DATA_SYNC: Synchronizing with mission database...

[00:01:05] PARAMETERS_LOAD: Latest mission parameters loaded and verified.

[00:01:08] SYSTEM_READY: All systems nominal.

Phase 4: Final Status & Awaiting Command

[00:01:10] PDU_069_STATUS: Fully operational. Awaiting command from Drone Controller @polo-drone-001 Are you ready to join us? Contact @brodygold @goldenherc9 @polo-drone-001

[making-you-in-spore]

hey so i've had a handful of mods in spore for a few years, but i was wondering, is there a specific best definitive place to find mods for spore in general? like rather than searching a bunch of different websites, is there any big collection or database of them? was also wondering how to get online content working as i do have an ea account and own spore and spore galactic adventures on both steam and the ea/origin thing (installed on the latter), but have never been able to get online stuff working

davoonline is my favorite source for mods, it has some of the best ones in the system and all the ones displayed are up to date with the latest version of the game. unfortunately the davoonline discord is also a source for many mods that are unavailable elsewhere.

i am not aware of a single definitive place that has hosted every spore mod ever, but an archival project would be excellent to get into. there are many mods that have been lost to the aether due to bans or self-redactions

regarding getting online content to work, the method i used was to log in successfully on the ea copy first [register a spore account on the official spore website, not in-game] and then log in on your steam copy.

[meret118]

Experts fear Trump’s 'legitimately frightening' new order to turn US military into police

Trump's new order, which is entitled "Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens," makes various declarations about the administration's commitment to supporting law enforcement professionals in the opening paragraphs. However, one section further down specifically mentions the U.S. military and the administration's intent to have enlisted service members participate in civilian law enforcement actions.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-order-military-police/

Trump Has Ordered Safeguards Stripped From Procurement As Pentagon Prepares To Spend $1 Trillion

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-procurement-executive-orders-defense

DOGE employees gain accounts on classified networks holding nuclear secrets

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/28/nx-s1-5378684/doge-energy-department-nuclear-secrets-access

American Panopticon The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.

In March, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to eliminate the data silos that keep everything separate. Historically, much of the data collected by the government had been heavily compartmentalized and secured; even for those legally authorized to see sensitive data, requesting access for use by another government agency is typically a painful process that requires justifying what you need, why you need it, and proving that it is used for those purposes only. Not so under Trump.

. . .

A worst-case scenario is easy to imagine. Some of this information could be useful simply for blackmail—medical diagnoses and notes, federal taxes paid, cancellation of debt. In a kleptocracy, such data could be used against members of Congress and governors, or anyone disfavored by the state. Think of it as a domesticated, systemetized version of kompromat—like opposition research on steroids: Hey, Wisconsin is considering legislation that would be harmful to us. There are four legislators on the fence. Query the database; tell me what we’ve got on them.

Say you want to arrest or detain somebody—activists, journalists, anyone seen as a political enemy—even if just to intimidate them. An endless data set is an excellent way to find some retroactive justification. Meyer told us that the CFPB keeps detailed data on consumer complaints—which could also double as a fantastic list of the citizens already successfully targeted for scams, or people whose financial problems could help bad actors compromise them or recruit them for dirty work.

Similarly, FTC, SEC, or CFPB data, which include subpoenaed trade secrets gathered during long investigations, could offer the ability for motivated actors to conduct insider trading at previously unthinkable scale. The world’s richest man may now have access to that information.

An authoritarian, surveillance-control state could be supercharged by mating exfiltrated, cleaned, and correlated government information with data from private stores, corporations who share their own data willingly or by force, data brokers, or other sources.

What kind of actions could the government perform if it could combine, say, license plates seen at specific locations, airline passenger records, purchase histories from supermarket or drug-store loyalty cards, health-care patient records, DNS-lookup histories showing a person’s online activities, and tax-return data?

It could, for example, target for harassment people who deducted charitable contributions to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, drove or parked near mosques, and bought Halal-certified shampoos. It could intimidate citizens who reported income from Trump-antagonistic competitors or visited queer pornography websites.

It could identify people who have traveled to Ukraine and also rely on prescription insulin, and then lean on insurance companies to deny their claims. These examples are all speculative and hypothetical, but they help demonstrate why Americans should care deeply about how the government intends to manage their private data.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/04/american-panopticon/682616/

Trump Administration to Judges: ‘We Will Find You’ The attorney general’s message to the judiciary is clear.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/04/trump-administration-initimidates-judges/682620/

ETA: Its latest effort to bring the press to heel came on April 25, when news leaked of the Justice Department’s intention to aggressively pursue journalists who receive leaked information from confidential government sources.

The Guardian reports that Bondi “has revoked a Biden administration-era policy that restricted subpoenas of reporters’ phone records in criminal investigations

https://www.salon.com/2025/04/29/looking-to-trumps-next-100-days-doj-tees-up-process-for-jailing-journalists/

[trunao]

Document Generation: Produce Web App With Excel Online Spreadsheet!

Trunao is a pioneer in building a no-code web application, to convert an Excel spreadsheet into a web app with just a click. Excel to the online database is made easier with Trunao’s no-code application builder. If you want detailed info on how to create a spreadsheet online free, visit our blog now!

[partisan-by-default]

If you, or someone you love, has ever received a big stack of medical bills just because you, for example, tripped in a parking lot, this post is for you.

Even if you have excellent insurance, you might want to learn about negotiating fees and charges. MANY fees and charges can be negotiated, but you have to ask and/or talk to more than one person. You can also get better rates by shopping around or asking for "self-pay rates" when you make the appointment.

If you read nothing else here, take note of these websites:

Dollarfor.org for negotiating hospital and other medical bills

Goodrx.org for finding best prices on drugs, shots, etc.

Radiologyassist.com for finding best pricing on X-rays, MRIs, etc

https://www.upmc.com/patients.../paying-bill/services/apply for negotiating UPMC bills (hospitals, providers, etc)

https://ahnneighborhood.org/financialassistance/ for negotiating AHN bills

https://www.healthcare.gov/community-health-centers/ database of low-cost or free clinics, searchable by zip code

https://www.kff.org/statedata/ my favorite website for researching healthcare stats

The following is copied from a health researcher named Timothy Frie, whose business name is "nutritionfortrauma"

https://www.timfrie.com/

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

"There’s an entire market of health care services that most people don’t seem to know about.

If you don’t have health insurance, you have a high-deductible insurance plan, or you just want to save money on health care costs, here’s several resources you need to know about that could save you tens of thousands of dollars and the stress of unexpected medical bills:

If you need an MRI, x-ray, CT, mammogram, ultrasound, or PET scan, check the cost and availability of RadiologyAssist.com.

You pay one single flat-fee upfront for your scan and you won’t get a bill.

If you need an imaging referral, you can request a virtual consultation for $40.

You can also ask any imaging center for the self-pay rate for the scan you need and compare that to your anticipated out-of-pocket expenses.

If you need blood work, you may be able to pay a lower cost by purchasing the tests from a direct-to-consumer provider like PrivateMD Labs, Ulta Labs, or similar.

Just google “direct to consumer lab testing.”

Personally, I’ve found these services to sometimes be 60-90% cheaper than utilizing the direct-to-consumer options from Quest or Labcorp — even though they’re often the two labs drawing and processing your sample.

You pay one single flat-fee upfront and you won’t get a bill.

If you need more frequent support and care from a primary care provider due to a chronic illness or something else, explore “direct primary care.”

This is not the same as concierge care, which tends to be more expensive in most regions.

These are practices that offer care for a single flat-fee per month that ranges between $30-$100/mo on average.

All of your office visits and most procedures are included.

If you need to visit an urgent care, ask for the self-pay rate up-front.

Many urgent care centers offer an all-inclusive flat-fee option that includes everything that you need while you’re there, excluding medication and third-party lab fees.

This cost can range between $150-$400.

If you need a prescription and it’s more affordable on GoodRx or a similar service, you can ask to pay for it without utilizing your insurance.

I’ve found that some medications are more affordable at privately-owned and operated pharmacies vs. corporate pharmacies.

If your medical debt goes to a collection agency, you can negotiate a settlement to avoid paying the entire fee and/or litigation.

There are tons of resources about this online, including organizations who will support you with this (for a fee).

ALWAYS get and review an itemized bill before paying outstanding medical debt.

You can use HSA and FSA funds to purchase some health-related and wellness products, not just services.

Just Google “HSA shop” and see what you come across.

Review your HSA/FSA restrictions yourself before purchasing anything to ensure you don’t get stuck with an unexpected bill.

In some cases, you may need a letter of medical necessity."

End of Tim Fries

===============

I decided to post this information because although I have been working in healthcare and insurance copywriting and marketing since I was 22 years old, and I knew things were bad, I was reminded just how bad / expensive / confusing the state of US healthcare is after reading story after patient story following the shooting death of the United Healthcare CEO last week.

In May, I fell and broke my arm. It was a serious fracture, both bones, one exposed, and I was in surgery within hours. The good news is my surgeon was awesome and I had zero pain during the rough first 10 weeks of recovery. I took two Tylenol and I didn't even need them.

Because it was unplanned surgery and I spent two days in the hospital, coming through the ER, I got bills from many many different providers. I work in this field so I knew what to expect but it was still a headache and confusing. Especially during a time that I was unable to tie my shoes, pull up my socks, cut my own food, drive, or risk any activity that could lead to me falling. I also had to reduce my work hours since I was typing with one hand.

I'm fine now. I had a LOT of help during the worst of it.

I hope this post reaches someone who needs to see it.

[kiragecko]

Help Choosing Online Spreadsheet Software?

I use spreadsheet software a lot, and sometimes I like to share the stuff I create. Which means using online software. I dislike Google Sheets for more than just being a Google product (copying data back and forth with other programs changes the formatting, they changed the search AGAIN so I don't currently know how to do it, etc).

Any advice about open source alternatives?

I'm leery of Open Office descendants because I STILL have Open Office documents from 2004 that I can't open in any program. But if people have good things to say about LibreOffice Calc (Online) I'm willing to try it out.

Collabora Online is the one I keep seeing in my research.

There's also Sheetster, OnlyOffice, Calligra Sheets, and many others.

I'm mostly making text databases, so ability to format and play with text is my priority.

I'd LOVE a program that let me transform the first character of cells (Excel will not let me add accents unless I type a dummy character before the one I'm going to transform.)

Searching and sorting need to work (I HATE YOU Google Sheets!)

I need to be able to link to it from here, people need to be able to see the file without creating an account, and it would also be nice if I could choose whether or not other people could edit it

Keeping text size, colour, and font when I copy/paste to or from Excel would be nice

For math, calculating percentages and averages would be nice. Mostly I'm just adding lists of numbers, but I've discovered that good percentage functions aren't a given

[trunao]

Using Excel for Data Management is Risky?

Somehow a possibility of loose data. Many organizations depend on excel to manage their data in excel, which is the reason for numerous database losses. Trunao helps you to protect your data using Excel to a web application. For more detail visit our blog.

[star-going-supernova]

I saw fan art of bear cub Gregory from pixlokita on tumblr, so I hope that I can request a prompt where Gregory becomes a bear cub (still can talk and looks like Gregory) and Freddy is happy to have an actual bear and son. Please write this please, for a birthday wish. Thank you.

I took these two prompts and came up with something in between, lol. This is pure fluff. Happy belated birthday, friend! 🎉

Like Father, Like Son

None of them were technically supposed to be able to access the internet. All relevant knowledge to their jobs, the kids, the pizzaplex, etc. already existed within their databases, and all information stored across the servers was available to them. But Chica had gotten bored one day and spent a bit too much time tinkering with herself via the upgrade cylinder. Monty had demanded his own internet connection after that, and before long, every animatronic in the pizzaplex had access. 

It was not long before Roxy discovered online shopping, and after a few mishaps in trying to figure out how to get the packages to themselves without management finding out, there was not an animatronic among them who had not secretly ordered something or other. 

Sun in particular seemed to enjoy finding new things to add to the daycare—rightly so, considering management was slacking in that regard—and as a result of his frequent digital window shopping, he often sent links to the rest of them, sharing things he had found that he thought they might like. 

All that to explain why Freddy opened a link from Sun with the caption you HAVE to get this :D and discovered that yes, he had to get it. 

It was a child-sized onesie with little footie boots and gloves that could be folded out of the way or velcroed into place and a hood with ears stitched on. It looked wonderfully soft and fuzzy. It was a warm brown with details depicting a bear cub. 

And it had excellent ratings. 

• • •

Gregory laughed when he saw the onesie, but he also snatched it up and took off to go change into it, so Freddy did not think he minded the gift. The others would probably tease him once they caught sight of it, but it would be worth their jokes.

Make no mistake, Freddy did not wish Gregory was any different from the way he was. Nor did Freddy wish he himself was human. But it still tickled something in his code to imagine silly little impossibilities, like he and Gregory being a family by blood. Of course, Freddy was as much a real bear as Gregory would be in a stylized onesie, but that was hardly the point. 

It was only a minute or two before Gregory returned, and he must have stopped by one of the others’ rooms because his nose had been carefully colored in and a line drawn beneath it down to his upper lip. The onesie was a perfect fit—naturally, as Freddy knew his son’s exact measurements—and Gregory’s glee was near palpable. 

Freddy made a little involuntary sound of delight. He crouched down, feeling his eyes brighten to match the building warmth in his chest. 

Gregory came to stand in front of him and did a jaunty spin to show off the little pom-pom tail. Freddy had never understood the human urge to squeal from seeing something so utterly adorable as much as he did then. 

“C’mon,” Gregory said, showing off the toe beans on his gloves, complete with felt claws, “tell me I’m not the cutest bear cub ever.” 

Laughing, Freddy swept him up, and Gregory did not even scramble to hold on, so great was his trust that Freddy would not drop him. 

“You are certainly the cutest bear cub I have ever seen,” Freddy assured him, and Gregory smiled smugly, head leaning on Freddy’s shoulder. “And the best bear cub in general. My bear cub.” 

How odd that mere months ago, Freddy would have said he would not want a child of his own. He could not imagine, now, not having Gregory in his life. When he looked back on pre-Gregory memories, the absence of his adopted son almost shocked him sometimes. He had been happy back then, yes, but in a very mild and content way. There was little variation in his day-to-day, though he had not minded at the time. 

He did not think he could go back to that way of life. It fell far short of the joy that each new day brought now. Gregory made things unpredictable and lively in a way Freddy would be loath to give up. 

And best of all, his love, his gratefulness, and his happiness was matched in Gregory. 

Beaming, Gregory wrapped his arms around Freddy’s neck in a tight hug. “My papa bear,” he said, and it was only a bit teasing. 

[triscribe]

@the-dracologist You, my kind soul, are getting your own post: first of all there are so many Els. So many. And what was true in one continuity gets turned on its head in another. I have not been reading Superman comics for eighty years so I do the best with what online database-poking can tell me. But as for your other comment:

House El taking a child from house Zod and raising him as one of their own could go so hard in a setting like Westeros

I am gonna take FIVE MINUTES to explain my vision and then go back to the pre-plot family tree wrangling:

“Welcome to the Reach, young Wayne,” Lord Jonathan of House Kent greeted him, when Bruce arrived at the deceptively named ��Smallcastle’. What once in ancient days began as a short single tower overlooking the nearby farms had over the centuries grown into a truly sprawling citadel, taller and grander towers ringed with thick walls to protect the many-layered keep and out buildings.

Bruce of House Wayne gets fostered at Smallcastle, growing up alongside Clark, whom everyone knows isn't actually the trueborn son of Lord Jonathan and Lady Martha, because their marriage went nearly twenty years without any sign of a child, but no one says anything about where the babe must have originally come from because he's a delightful lad raised by fair and generous parents and everyone agrees he'll make an excellent Lord of the Reach someday.

Except. It turns out 'Clark Kent' is actually the Kryptonian princeling Kal-El, thought deceased with his parents when their ship sank in a storm. A servant of the Kent household found a chest washed up on shore, containing a wailing infant with an unhatched dragon's egg. Jonathan and Martha don't tell the kid this until he's nearly sixteen, just after Zor-El, who became king after his brother Jor-El's death at sea, also dies unexpectedly.

The last El remaining, the only Kryptonian bloodline capable of taming dragons and thus sitting the throne, is the five year old princess Kara, whom several people immediately push to get control of. So, in order to try and forestall a potentially devastating war, the Kents tell their son the truth, who promptly shares it with his foster brother Bruce, who's response is to go "an egg long since turned to stone won't do you any good in proving your identity. Let's go find you a dragon."

(That turns into its own subplot)

Anyway. The boys locate a grown dragon, Clark bonds with it, and they arrive at the capitol city just in time to prevent battle from breaking out between the royal guards, the City Watch, and the army camped outside the gates. Said army is being led by General Dru-Zod, who's wife has just given birth to a healthy baby boy back home, and he's insisting on a betrothal between Lor/Chris and Princess Kara, which will neatly put him in the position of Regent for the next decade or so.

Others object to this. Including Clark. And when Zod turns his attempt at grasping for power into a formal challenge, it comes to a duel.

Whether I let Clark fight his own battle or have Bruce step in as his champion, Zod loses by a hair, agrees to yield, and then goes for the last second backstab. His ass will be getting eaten by the dragon.

After all is said and done and Clark's butt is firmly on the throne, he does the entirely reasonable thing and sends for Lor-Zod, to be raised as a ward/hostage in his court (or possibly handed to the Kents as a new fosterling, I'm not sure which yet). Kara will be getting to pick her own spouse-to-be in due time, and then I can get back to the Wayne Family Nonsense that I've been daydreaming about for days now.

(Amongst others. Dorne ruled by House Sandsmark, aka Hippolyta and her sisters and daughters and niece. The Vale of Thanagar, under control of House Hol. A distant tropical land called Tamaran, and the exiled Princess Kor'iand'r seeking refuge. The Iron Isles ruled by House Arkham. And of course House Wayne managing all the North, which Bruce gets very hands-on with doing, which means lots of travel between distant keeps and holdfasts and lots of opportunities to find kids in need of parental assistance. Oh, and also- King Beyond the Wall Slade Wilson. That's gonna be a fun one.)

But first I gotta finish the Kryptonian family tree