#pod oriented

[guildfox2]

i have some alphabet soup for you now :)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Some Perfumery Vocabulary

Absolute - An extraction from a concrete using alcohol. The essential oil of scented flowers and other aromatic plant parts in its purest and most concentrated form. It is extremely expensive. A few important oils used in an absolute form are: geranium, lavender, lily, and rose.

Accord - A combination of a number of different scents which blend together to produce a new fragrance.

Agrestic - "Of the countryside"; odours of heather, forest depths, and the meadow.

Aldehydes - Aromatic chemicals isolated for the first time in the 19th century, but that also occur naturally. Certain aldehydes provide an increased diffusiveness, sparkle, and lift to perfumes, most famously in Chanel No. 5.

Almondy - Bittersweet, soft, and nutty scent.

Amber - An accord in perfumery that is supposed to recall the qualities of ambergris. It is often constructed with labdanum, Tolu balsam, or Peru balsam. Often an accord in Oriental perfumes.

Ambergris - A highly prized perfume ingredient consisting of the oxidized excretion from a sperm whale. It is rarely used in its natural form in perfumery because of its rarity, exorbitant cost, and concerns about sourcing ambergris from live whales rather than from shore-found ambergris. It’s said to have an earthy, sweet, tobacco, and pleasantly animalic scent. It primarily works to bring out other notes in perfumery rather than to impart a particular scent on its own.

Ambrein - The primary scented molecule in ambergris, isolated and used in perfumery. It’s warm, sweet, vanillic, and ambery, with facets of spice and tobacco.

Animalic - Describes fragrances with animal ingredients in natural or synthetic form, including civet, castoreum, musk, or ambergris. The voluptuous, erotic, and sometimes disturbing quality of animalic perfumes can register in an olfactory way, as something “dirty” or animal-smelling, or as a feeling, a mood, or a quality. Sometimes, it can be both.

Aromatic - Having a strong or distinctive smell.

B—E

Balance - A combination of different fragrance notes so adjusted in proportion to one another that none of the individual notes is more prominent than any of the others.

Balsamic - The resin from the bark of trees and shrubs (Peru, Tolu, styrax) that have a rich vanilla scent. Balsamic is a term used to describe perfumes with the soft, ambery aspects these resins impart.

Benzoin - A sweet, balsamic resin used in incense and as a base note in perfume for its vanillic scent and fixative properties. Also known as styrax because it comes from the bark of the styrax tree.

Bergamot - The essential oil from the peel of the nonedible Citrus aurantium fruit that looks like a small orange. Its sweetish, mellow lemony scent is a crucial top note in perfumery.

Calone - A synthetic “marine” note that is supposed to evoke the freshness of the ocean. It has a slight watermelon facet.

Camphoraceous - Describes a fresh, clean, medical fragrance.

Caramel - Sweet, rich, creamy, buttery scent.

Cardamom - An intensely aromatic, sweet spice from the ginger family, in the form of a pod filled with seeds.

Carnation - A smoky, sweet, and clove-like scent, the latter facet due to Eugenol, the primary component of clove.

Cassis - (or black currant bud) A sharp, fruity, almost cat-urine-like scented perfume note.

Cistus - (or Labdanum) A resin from the rockrose bush, traditionally gathered from goats’ beards as they fed on the plant. Labdanum is said to be the note closest to the scent of ambergris. Creamy, soft, vanillic.

Citrus - Fresh, light fragrance characteristic of citrus fruits, but also imitated synthetically.

Civet - In classical perfumery, the cream harvested from the anal gland of the mongoose-like civet animal, often described as cat like. Fecal-smelling when undiluted, civet “rounds” out other notes when used judiciously. Famous as an overdosed note in Guerlain’s Jicky (1889), it is considered one of the first abstract modern scents. Civet is primarily in synthetic form now.

Clove - An aromatic spice similar to cinnamon, but less sweet. Its primary component is Eugenol.

Coniferous - The fragrance note of pine, spruce, juniper and similar such trees, often used in men's fragrances.

Diffusive - A perfume whose fragrance quickly becomes apparent in the air surrounding the wearer.

Dry - The aromatic effect of perfume ingredients such as woods and mosses in contrast to sweet and warm fragrances.

Earthy - The subtle fragrance impression of earth or earth-mould which is found in certain essential oils such as vetiver and patchouli.

Equine - Notes of hay and leather.

F—M

Floral - The general fragrance of flowers.

Fruity - Citrus, berries, tropical, and other non-citrus fruit scents.

Fungal - Molds, yeast, and mushroom scents.

Green - General fragrance of grasses and green plant parts.

Harmony - A pleasing combination of fragrance notes.

Hayfield notes - Usually based on coumarin, which have an odour of new-mown hay.

Heavy - Denotes a fragrance in which the least volatile ingredients, such as mossy or animalic ones, are dominant, giving a very strong effect. Such fragrances are mostly used in chypre and oriental-type perfumes.

Herbaceous - The characteristic general fragrance of herbs and herbal medicines. Sage, rosemary and lavender are examples.

Honey - Used as an ingredient in early Arab perfumes and appears in later European ones (e.g., Honey Water). In modern perfumery a substance providing the sweet aromatic effect of honey and known as Honey (or Miel) is manufactured synthetically.

Indolic - The disquieting, ripe, animalic, and almost excremental facet of scents.

Leather - A perfume accord and category of perfume constructed from various notes, including birch tar, styrax, castoreum, and a variety of synthetic notes.

Light - Delicate, clean, and fresh-laundry scent.

Marine - Iodized scent.

Mellow - Soothing and calming scent.

Metallic - A fragrance reminiscent of metal, providing a clean, cool effect. Metallic notes are used in perfumes to assist in promoting an effect, not as main fragrances.

Minty - A fragrance reminiscent of mint, e.g., peppermint or spearmint. Such fragances are usually used to provide a special, fresh effect in a top note.

Mossy - The general odour of oils obtained from mosses and lichens.

Musk - Produced by the musk deer and excreted by the male during mating season. Musk deer were killed almost to extinction for their valuable musk glands, which were dried, and whose musk “seeds” were removed and steeped in alcohol to create tinctures for perfume. The scent of real musk is warm, with depth and a dark animalic aroma. Many synthetics now can mimic musk scent, but one of the most superior musk synthetics, nitro-musks, which were in Chanel No. 5 and countless other vintages, has been banned due to toxicity concerns. Musk can also be substituted with plant ingredients including ambrette seed and angelica.

Musty - Damp, earthy, or stale odor.

N—W

Narcotic - Exceptionally strong and heavy fragrances obtained from some flowers (e.g. jasmine and tuberose) and animalic ingredients, which need to be used with careful discretion in a perfume.

Ozonic - A perfume accord that attempts to create the smell of fresh air after a thunderstorm.

Peppery - Odour of pepper.

Powdery - Soft and clean scent.

Rich - Fragrances that have numerous layers, notes, and accords in all stages (top, mid, base), creating a multifaceted feel.

Rounded - The overall smoothness and fullness of a fragrance.

Sharp - A strong scent.

Smoky - The slight smell of smoke created in a perfume by certain oils such as Birch Tar Oil. It is used in men's fragrances to provide a leathery effect.

Spicy - Describes in general the distinctive fragrance of essential oils which have been obtained from spices.

Sweet - A sweet and rather sugar-like fragrance such as vanilla.

Tobacco - Fragrances resembling cured tobaccos, which are particularly popular in masculine toiletries.

Wintergreen - Has a very powerful and fresh, medicinal odour.

Woody - Fragrances reminiscent of wood. These fragrances are provided by wood oils, such as cedar, by essential oils from other plants having a wood-like aroma, such as patchouli, and by synthetics.

Sources: Perfume: The Art and Craft of Fragrance by Karen Gilbert ⚜ The Perfume Handbook by Nigel Groom ⚜ Scent & Subversion by Barbara Herman ⚜ Scent: A Natural History of Fragrance by Elise Vernon Pearlstine ⚜ Introduction to Perfumery by Tony Curtis & David G. Williams ⚜ The Big Book of Perfume

More: Word Lists ⚜ References ⚜ Describing Scent ⚜ Fragrance Notes & Levels

[evan-collins90]

'Space-Age McDonald's' - McDonald's at Miami International Airport (1981)

"Patrons of the McDonald's at Miami International Airport get their "break today" in an environment of tomorrow. The fast food restaurant offers more than hamburgers to elite international travelers. In a space that floats atop the four-story international arrival/departure complex, visitors are greeted by futuristic motifs that reach beyond the chain's traditional golden arches into the universe itself. Part of a satellite building connected to the airport's central facility by means of a monorail, this McDonald's has qualities of a space ship that defy earthly orientation. Six glass-enclosed floating "pods" and plaster "ice cubes" were designed to organize space, yet contribute to fluid transition between lounge, meeting room, dining area, and, yes, a bar concession operated by Marriott Corp. Transparent materials—Lucite and glass—are used in seating, tables, walls, and ceiling to achieve the effect of limitless, undefined space."

Designed by Larry Seitz Associates, Inc. & Robert Bradford Browne, AIA

Found in the April 1982 issue of Contract Interiors magazine

[chirrups]

I feel like I have nothing to ask, I simply would love to hear more about them fucked up mermaid and murderer

And I would absolutely love to tell you about them, Tin.

This AU takes place somewhere vaguely in the Pacific Northwest (circa. 1970s-80s) in an isolated fishing town along a storm-wracked coast.

Fisheries in and around the bay have collapsed due to extreme winter weather patterns + overfishing + an oil spill from a tanker run aground down the coast, leaving most of the bay's inhabitants to live pretty much hand-to-mouth off contaminated fish in recent years.

get ready for LORE (and more drawings but mostly the LORE)

general warning: this is pretty long

The "story" as it were, kicks off when Gem finally gets fed up with another fisherman in the area, Grian, over continued conflict about ownership of fishing grounds in the mouth of the bay.

She orchestrates his death (with the eager assistance of Scott and Impulse) out at sea and passes it off as a tragic accident in the winter swells with her being the unfortunate finder of his remains.

And it works.

See the thing is: Gem has a history of causing disappearances. It started with some accidents with out-of-town poachers. She would chase these people off and one or two would just slip overboard and happen to drown. It wasn’t her fault and besides they deserve it. But things start to escalate from there. Poachers become outsiders become fellow townspeople. Grian is someone Gem’s known for years, whose friends are tangentially her friends or acquaintances. His death is a cold-blooded murder driven by hatred and frustration. This time something is different about what she's done and Gem knows it.

But Gem is a reputable and well-known person. Her prices are fair, she drives poachers out of the bay and maintains order around the pragmatic fishing ground policy that undoubtedly helps everyone to survive.

She is the type of person to look to for guidance when things get difficult because she can make those hard choices. So how on earth could it be her fault?

No one is wiser until Grian's funeral brings an old friend into town who is more than a little suspicious about the circumstances of his death.

Scar was one of Grian's crewmates when they did trawling much further south. They split when Scar took up (illegal) whaling and Grian moved into the bay.

As an outsider, Scar isn't so swayed by the goodwill the town has around Gem's name. He's no detective but for the sake of an old friend, he might as well try.

In this AU, mermaids are social mammals part of the Hominidae family that went back into the ocean similar to Cetaceans. They live in matrilineal family groups or in any other female-led organization of pods and have a very "survival-oriented" global culture (with regional variation).

Pearl is a lone mermaid whose pod lived in the bay until they were starved out by the collapsing fisheries. PNW mermaids are more territorial than other ecotypes and value strength over anything else. Pearl's inability (read: unwillingness) to oust other pods for better fishing grounds and the loss of one of her pod members summarily lead the other two to abandon her.

Without a pod to help her, hunting enough in her dwindling territory has been difficult and lonely, leading her to slowly starve just as the humans in the bay have begun to.

She took to trailing fishing boats to steal from their catch, which is how she met Gem who was mid-throwing some unfortunate soul overboard.

They have an interesting relationship.

Gem is enamored with Pearl at the halfway point between a person and a large apex predator. She loves the way Pearl needs her to live and the way Pearl, as a social creature with no pod, craves her attention. It's thrilling to have a predator at her beck and call like this and, in turn, to be so desperately needed. She also loves the way Pearl doesn't look at her like she's dangerous (the way Scott and Impulse have begun to when they think she doesn't see them). Her interest in Pearl seems to be leaching into something more than just wildlife admiration. She's begun to learn the mermaid language just to talk to her. For what? Who really knows. Meanwhile, Pearl is hungry enough to eat just about anything Gem throws her (including human bodies) and desperate enough that she lets Gem get much closer than many humans in this area have ever been to a mermaid. (They even touch, scandalous for mermaids.)

It's skewed for sure. From Gem's perspective, they've got something special going on. From Pearl's... not so much.

This being Secret-Life based, you can imagine how this story ends...

Bonus piece: Pearl and her old pod.

IN GENERAL, Biological females are generally larger with a set of rotated tusks protruding from their lower jaw for dominance displays. Biological males are commonly smaller and more agile, with more dexterous hands due to decreased adipose tissue distribution over their bodies. (They actually have 3 biological sexes and tons of social gender variation but that's a talk for another time). Pre-cultural awakening, these pods would form around a biological female and their harem for reproductive purposes. That female would then protect the harem from other females looking to "steal them" or their territories (like horses but reverse-style). In modern times, these pods are often composed of groups of friends/related family members as sort of "platonic life partners" and stealing other pod members is seen as a very archaic sort of thing. Territory stealing, however, is still up for grabs.

[eveletii]

Become the Bard!

Follow in the footsteps of the most prolific bard of all time in this mini version of the classic Legacy Challenge, that will stir up drama in your game! Give the classic Shakesperian tales your own spin and live out epic stories of love, comedy and tragedy in The Sims 4. It's going to be worthy of a standing ovation!

In total there are 5 Generations in this challenge, each representing a different Shakesperian play.

The official hashtag for the challenge is #ShakespeareLegacyTS4. Break a leg!

Overall Rules

Lifespan: Normal

Cheats: Allowed only when setting up scenarios

Recommended Mods: UI Cheats Extension e MC Command Center.

Necessary Packs

Lovestruck

Growing Together

Cottage Living

Horse Ranch

High School Years

StrangerVille

Get Famous

Recommended Packs*

Seasons

Nifty Knitting

My Wedding Stories

*These packs are not required to complete the challenge, but can add to the storylines.

❝You grew up wealthy, with a big happy family. There weren’t too many rules, except for one: the sims across the street are not to be befriended. But you were never one to follow rules anyway... Especially when one of the neighbors is so cute...❞

❤✧✦✧❤

Aspiration: Soulmate

Traits: Lovebug, Family-Oriented and Gloomy

Career: Romance Consultant

✧ Complete the Soulmate aspiration (or die trying!) ✧ After that dramatic beginning to your love story, you sure have a lot of advice to give. Monetize it by maxing the Romance Consultant career! ✧ Be the ultimate lover and max the Romance skill by interacting with your partner ✧ Create two households, with 5-8 Sims each. Pick a family to control ✧ Make sure there is at least 1 teenager in each household, they’ll be the main couple ✧ It is important that ALL adults from one household HATE the Sims from the other one, and vice versa! (Cheats may be used to achieve that) ✧ Elope with your partner as soon as you both become Young Adults and then move to a different Neighborhood or World ✧ Have only 2 children, twins or close in age ✧ Have a date night with your partner once a week. (You may do it on random days or create custom holidays using the Calendar)

❝You’re not easy. You know that. Your sibling knows that. Your parents know that. A smarty-pants with a temper, with too many ideas and too little patience. But does that mean you can’t find the one? If your parents did it, so can you, right? I mean, not that you’re looking for someone. Or... are you?❞

❤✧✦✧❤

Aspiration: Best-Selling Author

Traits: Hot-Headed, Bookworm and Romantically Reserved

Career: Politician

✧ Complete your aspiration and become the best-selling author on the San Myshuno Times! ✧ You have a lot to teach the world, but the world has one thing to teach YOU: kindness. Join the Politician career and max it, through the Charity Organizer branch ✧ Soften your edges by maxing the Charisma skill ✧ Develop a DIFFICULT dynamic with your family during your teenage years ✧ You can only date once you become a Young Adult ✧ Go on 3 failed dates before finding The One ✧ Have only 2 kids, both girls. (Cheats may be used to achieve that) ✧ You must get married when on Level 4 of your career, and then pick the Charity branch ✧ Work slowly on your charisma skill throughout your career.

❝A free-spirit with a heart of gold, you knew what you wanted from an early age, and left your home to run a wool farm, filled with sheep and llamas. You and your younger sister are two peas in a pod, even though you two are polar opposites. You, a tomboy, her, a princess. Once she graduates high school she comes to live with you at the farm. You thought it’d be just you two forever... That’s when a cute local comes along...❞

❤✧✦✧❤

Aspiration: Country Caretaker

Traits: Animal Enthusiast, Socially Awkward, Rancher

Career: None

✧ Be the pride of Finchwick Fair by completing the Country Caretaker aspiration ✧ You must NOT join any careers throughout your life, and all the money you make must come from the farm ✧ Get first place at a Finchwick Fair competition at least three times in your life ✧ Show off your country skills by maxing the Gardening and Cooking skills ✧ Get at least Level 5 on the Cross-Stitching or Knitting skills (if you have Nifty Knitting) ✧ Become BFFs with your little sister as children ✧ Move out of your parents’ home as a teenager, half-way through high school to start your farm in Henford-on-Bagley (Start small, taking little money from the original household with you. Dropping out of high school or not is up to you) ✧ Have only 2 kids, both girls. (Cheats may be used to achieve that) ✧ You must date and marry only Sims from the world you live in ✧ You must marry at the end of your late Young Adult days/early Adult days ✧ You can only have ONE child ✧ You must use the Simple Living lot challenge in your home lot

❝Marriage? Never! You’ve had a serious partner once, and let’s just say it didn’t go well, and it gets worse! After all, exes are forever. You two bump into each other all the time and the fighting is endless. Could all this hatred just unhealed wounds from your love story gone wrong, or could all this fighting hide something more?❞

❤✧✦✧❤

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief

Traits: Noncommittal, Self-Assured and Mean

Career: Military

✧ Be the bane of your ex’s existence by completing the Chief of Mischief aspiration ✧ Get to Level 5 in the Military career and then switch to a new one of your choice. Achieve Level 5 in the new career ✧ Max out the Mischief skill and get to at least Level 5 on the Logic skill ✧ Your traits must be acquired in the following order: 1- Self Assured, 2- Mean, 3- Noncommittal ✧ Date only ONE Sim as a Teenager. After much fighting, break up before turning Young Adult ✧ Rekindle the flame and marry your ex as an Adult. Have as many kids as you please ✧ Join the Military career and stay in it until you get married. After that, switch careers to a career of your choice ✧ Start developing your Mischief skill during your teenage years

❝A creature of romance and drama, you were born to love and to shine on and off stage. Your life is the most daunting story in your family to date. But that’s probably because this Challenge doesn’t include The Scottish Play.❞

❤✧✦✧❤

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Traits: Romantic, Creative and Erratic

Career: Acting

✧ Master the Serial Romantic aspiration and win (and break!) a lot of hearts ✧ Reach the top of the Acting career ✧ Get to Level 10 on the Mischief, Romance and Acting and at least Level 5 in the Charisma skill ✧ Have a close relationship with your parent who was the past generation’s heir and develop a Jokester family dynamic with them ✧ Date A LOT and from and early age, but only get engaged once. During the wedding ceremony, leave your partner at the altar ✧ Children are allowed, but not mandatory ✧ Begin developing the Mischief skill with your parents

[cattobones]

Ea the spinner dolphin from the book POD by Laline Paull. To my knowledge, there isn't any fan art of this book yet, at least none i can easily find. Ive decided to draw Ea first and want to draw a few of the other characters eventually

Pod is a newer xenofiction oriented at adults and its kind of like watership down with dolphins and if there was like 70% more abuse going on

Ive tried to make her look as close to her description as possible (which, being a dolphin, would be easier to see if i drew a more "average" spinner dolphin as comparison) and drew the scars i remember her getting and the ones i assume she would probably have by the end, based on all that happened to her (scars ver under cut)

"All the Longi people were beautiful, but she was exceptional. […] from the long black lines around her eyes, to the flashing pearly belly marked with long glittery dashes increasing the impression of her considerable speed." "Her long rostrum […] was slightly more elongated than usual, and the rounding of the bone above the eyes, a little wider. Her eyes were precisely slanted in the outer corners, and the black line around them, a little thicker." (POD)

below is post story scarring

[shadesofmauve]

Alliance Normandy SR2 redesign: Deck 2

All of the decks are longer and skinnier than what we see in game. (This isn't a complaint; running through a long skinny map is tedious!). The command deck is a particular puzzle, because it doesn't need to be as long as it is, and we're supposed to believe it's much longer — extending all the way to the nose, which it can't do unless the deck curves down:

Aesthetically, I'd like the command deck to extend farther forward than I've drawn it. Practically, I can't think of a reason why it would.

CIC & cockpit

Spaceships fly by instrumentation; you can steer from anywhere, so there's no reason to hike an extra forty-four meters to the cockpit. There are also far more work stations shown in game than seem reasonable: 14 in the CIC and corridor to the cockpit. What are they all doing? When you take into account capable Virtual Intelligence systems (the Alliance didn't know about EDI, but would have designed for a VI) it's even sillier, so I drastically reduced the number of stations in the CIC, and removed them from the corridor entirely.

The corridor needs to stay to keep the feel of the space, so I used it for escape pod access. In the CIC itself, I kept the shape but oriented the workstations forward in case of inertial-buffer overloads*. There are two doors to the CIC, so the Officer of the Watch doesn't have a door directly at their back.

I also added a ready room, the office for the Officer of the Watch (accessible from the CIC), which also serves as a briefing room. In Sunset and Evening Star, this is where Shepard and First Office Nguyen have their morning meetings.

*Any system can overload. The trick with inertial overloads in fiction is convincing the reader that there's enough overload to feel without mashing everyone inside into paste, which is an astonishingly narrow window. It's an even narrower window if the human is sideways to the inertial force; we are very bad at surviving that.

The awkward middle

I stretched out the area forward of the elevator as much as I could. As well as the two new offices, there's a head for the CIC crew, another escape pod, and access to the secure areas aft. Moving that access here reduces traffic through the CIC.

(It's still a big waste of space).

Moving aft: from tactics to strategy

While the Captain commands the ship in the Combat Information Center, the Admiral leads the fleet from the War Room.

Turning starboard from the elevator, there's a security station (so Private Campbell can remain the most put-upon person in the Alliance Navy). Past that is the Admiral's office, which wasn't finished when the reapers attacked Earth.

The Alliance is actively trying to take a larger role in galactic affairs, so there are some concessions to other species. In addition to the conference room, there's a head with a stall big enough for a krogan, and a beverage station set up for both dextro and levo species. Please click to embiggen and admire my stupid little coffee mugs.

The war room is centered, in the most protected part of the ship. It keeps it's general layout, but with fewer stations (focused inward so staff can see the strat map holo display). Only one is usually manned. The Strategic Map is the grand-scale equivalent to the Tactical Modeler in the CIC. (The names are wishful thinking; in a real military both would be impenetrable acronyms).

The QEC is the same Mystery Communications Circle it is in the game, but only a quarter of the way around the War Room from the entry instead of on the opposite side.

Normandy SR2 redesign posts

Intro

Loft

Command

Crew

Engineering

Hangar

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - November 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Los Angeles becomes a sanctuary city for LGBTQ+ youth and immigrants as officials reject Project 2025

“The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to pass the “sanctuary city” ordinance, shielding queer youth who travel to the city to receive gender-affirming care from prosecution, as well as preventing city resources from being used in immigration enforcement[….]”

2. Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds

“Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature. [… T]he permanence of regrown forests is critically important to the benefits it can provide to biodiversity and the climate.”

3. Minnesota tribe could soon get a solar-powered resilience hub

“A pair of developers are working to build a microgrid at an elementary school and community center on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota [… which would] provide about 12 hours worth of backup power for residents to be able to charge cell phones, power medical equipment, or stay warm in the event of a power outage.”

4. An exchange between Indonesia and Tanzania supports food security and ocean health

“Around the world, WWF helps manage […] both traditional sustainability-oriented management and science-based practices. This combination supports long-term food security and biodiversity goals. […] Local ownership and management are […] key to achieving stable fisheries and social and economic benefits.”

5. Spiky blue devils and chocolate lilies: Victorian grassland bursts with wildflowers after ecological ‘reset’

“About 70 native plant species could be found within the site, including […] four endangered species of orchid. […] Careful management, including an ecological burn in May and weed control measures to reduce pasture grasses, laid the groundwork for wildflowers to thrive.”

6. Vast forests, wetlands and lakes conserved [in Ontario]

“A vast 970-hectare area featuring thriving forests, wetlands and crystal-clear lakes northeast of Sault Ste. Marie is now protected[….] The intact forests, lakes, wetlands and shorelines support high biodiversity and are home to many threatened species[….]”

7. A New Era of Compassion: How Suncoast Humane Society is Changing Animal Welfare for Good

“Our campus includes outdoor play areas, trails, and even a small swimming pool to encourage animals to stay active, explore, and simply be themselves.”

8. Building climate resilient cocoa farming in West Africa

“[… A] promising new approach to improve climate resilience in cocoa agroforestry across West Africa […] focuses on the critical role of leaf "phenology"—the seasonal changes in leaf cycles—in trees providing shade in managing climate impacts. [… S]hade trees that lose their leaves entirely during the dry season proved especially beneficial in maintaining soil moisture[….]”

9. New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales by lifting them on sheets

“[The Department of Conservation] praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod. “It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals[….]””

10. 'A really sobering moment:' English zoo fights extinction of freshwater Boxer pupfish

“Whipsnade Zoo aquarists were recently told by conservation partners that that the world's last remaining Boxer pupfish was in their care, prompting the zoo to carry out the immediate transport of all the "precious" Boxer pupfish eggs to another local conservation and education charity in the name of species preservation.”

November 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[alex-fictus]

The Fish-o-Pods!

Thanks to these guys you get to vote and pay taxes. What a world! It may not a direct lineage of fish -> fish-o-pod -> not a fish like we see in some diagrams; some of these guys may have lived too close in time to one another to be direct relatives. They do show the progression of lobe finned fishes (like Eusthenopteron) to more land oriented creatures (like Ichthyostega) Stickers here!

Free Phone Wallpaper Links: Eusthenopteron - Acanthostega Tiktaalik Hynerpeton - Ichthyostega

[swadloom]

Water flight headcanons yippee!! Under the cut because there's a lot

Fathoms act as living taxis for some of the water flight's tinier members who struggle to travel long distances without being lost or swept away. If a water dragon gets lost or injured, their first piece of advice given is always to listen for a fathom call and swim in its direction.

Many water dragons communicate using scent, similar to real-life fish. Often this involves creating balls of herbs and chemicals, then crushing them when needed. This can send messages further than sound for many smaller, non-Fathom dragons, and can vary from distress calls to meetings to a sign that a bubble of the Tidelord's voice has been spotted.

There is a fairly high population of water mirror dragons, since it's a very opportune hunting place. Packs of these mirrors are instead called schools or pods, and they've drawn from the techniques of dolphins for hunting. While being skilled hunters and passionate allies to those they align with, few take much interest in prophecies or the wellbeing of the Tidelord.

Whales are revered by the water flight, their calls believed to be them communicating prophecies. The Drowned Sanctum also serves as a center of research on marine life, and attempts to decode whale "language" is very prevalent.

Octopus have a similar reputation due to their intelligence, though they are much more silent. Some consider having an octopus in the lair good luck, while others see their silence combined with the black ink they spew as signs that unlike whales, they bear bad visions which should not be revealed, and are bad luck instead.

Like clownfish, some battle-oriented dragons purposefully sting themselves with anemones and jellyfish to give themselves resistance to enemies' venom.

Many times, outsiders are not allowed to look under the surface of the Sea of a Thousand Currents without permission and will not be given passage and the water magic needed to breathe by a water dragon without either clan connections or a water / wind buddy. "Treading a Guardian's water" is an expression equivalent to "sticking your nose where it doesn't belong" and "poking the bear" combined. Some dragons with poorer flying abilities would rather cross the plague and fire domains to get to their destination than be interrogated by a water dragon ("You will learn nothing of our prophecies! Where were you when the storm that ravaged our sea occurred!? Why do you not have a boat!? Did you take my crystal ball!?")

The water flight dislikes the neighboring wind flight for their frequent violation of this due to their own ability to breathe underwater and their love of adventure, which can sometimes include sea treasure hunts and passionate one-man missions to solve the sea's mysteries. It's hard to get your claws on one long enough to kick them out. Additionally, due to this and tales of the Tidelord and Windsinger warring, many water clans blame the wind flight for the storm that preceeded the Tidelord's dissapearance. Both them and the lightning flight (which similarly lack many boundaries around the ocean and its bounties) have been under immense scrutiny by the water flight, leading to tumultuous weather as a result of angry clashes between the flights. The arcane flight's curiosity into water's visions also bothers them, but this varies much more between flights due to shared reverence of magic and the Starfall Isles' distance giving little reason for suspicion.

The earth flight and water flight get along fairly well, especially after Tetra's presence in the Dustcarve Dig. Many Obelisks believe that the Earthshaker is attempting to help the Tidelord given the words and memories they were given upon creation and carrying his memories of the Tidelord’s seeming sorrow and concern at broken friendships. However, it is rather difficult for both flights to put up with the conditions of each other's domain, and it's more likely for diplomats or scholars to move into a clan than for the average earth dragon to try living on the coast, or vice versa. No one likes scale erosion or dried wings.

Prophecies and oracles are still present after the Tidelord’s disappearance, but they lack his help in awakening and guiding their powers. Prophetic dreams and scrying visions have taken on a more obscured and distressing nature since, which worsen the deeper someone dives into the ocean

As a consequence, "Seer Soother" has become a more common profession. Prophecies and Leviathan Trench dives aren't always great for the dragon psyche, and these dragons try to remedy that. Skydancers are fairly numerous in this trade, not only because of their emotion sensing powers, but because a similar practice exists in the neighboring wind domain among clans allied with the raptorik beastclans trying to reunite with their tengu brethren. Water dragons often don't trust these folks if they're from outside their own flight, but sometimes it's a must if the bearer of a horrible vision wants to return to normal life. Skydancers make great tea too, so that makes up for some of the shame.

The Tidelord is often paranoid. He worries himself over whether revealing a future he foresaw would be good or bad for his kind, and what will happen if a future comes to pass without warning. He still feels affection for the other deities yet heavily distrusts them and what they might do to his kind once they're out of his reach. Many dragons who left the Sea of a Thousand Currents recall feeling like the ocean was trying to tug them back in and stop them from leaving. My theory on his vanishing is that he saw visions of the Shade in the deep and dove to confront them himself and spare his flight of their horrors. The storm was a result of their battle, and it ended when he was overcome and trapped in battle with them.

Since his disappearance the Spiral Keep has had the same energy as the Spongebob scene where it's the office space in his brain with 500 mini Spongebobs panicking with everything on fire. Many of the scrying tools there have lost their magic and the archives of prophecies and their translations have stopped growing. The Spiral Keep now mainly serves as a center of operations for finding the Tidelord, with some of those exalted to his side attempting to gather enough magical energy to restore the Keep's magic.

[allthedoorsareopennow]

Incomplete collection of Marius lore

suggestions for additions are welcome, but it MUST HAVE A SOURCE

overview 

He is the ship’s medic[1]/ship’s doctor[3], plays fiddle and has a mechanised right arm[1].

The ace of hearts card in his hat indicates he is asexual [18].

'He likes love, and love songs, and people in love' [18].

His own romantic inclination is unknown [18].

He knows some German words, but is not fluent [19].

Marius is not white [20].

backstory 

He is neither a baron nor a doctor[3][5]; ‘Baron’ is a corruption of his original name, Byron von Raum[2][5].

Marius has a sister called Dorothea, and they were raised by a single nonbinary parent. Marius doesn’t remember their name or face, and knows them only as Zeze[6].

It is strongly implied that Marius was not mechanised by Dr Carmilla [7].

Marius is 5’5 and very skinny. This is apparently because he came from a world that is ‘somewhat medieval in its nutrition levels’ and Marius was not a healthy child. [14]

He piloted a mecha called KISMET. She was 5-6 storeys tall and slightly insectoid, like a dragonfly or butterfly. [17]

‘The control pod’s entirely in the head, which allows the internal control rig to right itself like a ball bearing, keeping the pilot upright whether she’s standing on the ground, hovering, flying horizontally, banking sharply or even rolling.’ [17]

The mecha is not meelee-oriented. [17]

time with the mechanisms 

Drumbot Brian said that ‘given that we're immortal and don't need a doctor, it's the job we're most comfortable giving Marius, and it keeps him busy’ and also that he ‘frequently tries to psychoanalyze inanimate objects’ [5]

His mechanism was ‘probably botched’ and he has a ‘tenuous grasp on reality’[2] 

According to Jonny, he grew a beard presumably around 08/02/2014 ‘almost instantaneously, and without warning’ and was apparently ‘very upset’ and ‘said he’d been holding it in for decades and just that momentary lapse of concentration as I kneecapped him had ruined all his hard work’[8]

He once dressed up as the Toy Soldier for a halloween concert [9]

Drumbot Brian once responded to someone asking how the mechanisms were by describing marius as ‘mad’[10]

The Aurora describes Marius as ‘the broken doctor’ [16]

songs/albums

He had a planned lecture on the psyche of the olympians, but this was cancelled[11]

He helped Ashes install at a minimum the camera in Ulysses’ vault in UDAD, though he does not remember this[4]

Apparently, ‘Marius spent his time on Fort Galfridian sitting at the porthole for days staring into the sun because he didn't realise it was supposed to be unbearable, and now the Ghouls think he's some sort of prophet’ [12]

In The Bifrost Incident, Marius does not know where he got the violin - in fact, he doesn’t even realise he’s holding it until Lyf points it out [15]

death

Marius was always skeptical of the crew’s immortality and was less surprised to meet his end. ‘One day, at something of a loose end, he will decide to check on the octokittens. Unfortunately, the purring horde has not been fed in many decades, and devours him, head to toe, in 11.7 seconds.’ [13]

Jonny is implied to have already witnessed Marius’ death before the final concert; he says ‘11.7 seconds. At least, by my watch.’ [13]

In Marius’ death, tunes from ‘Blood and Whiskey’ and ‘Favoured Son’ can be heard [13].

meta information

In the Ulysses Dies at Dawn indiegogo fundraiser campaign, one of the donation perks is listed as 'Marius's Journals'. [21]

[1] Mechanisms Marius von Raum Available at: https://themechanisms.com/the-crew/marius-von-raum/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[2] Young (2020) Future Projects: The Death of Byron von Raum (spoiler free) Available at: https://kofiyoung.com/2020/07/25/future-projects-the-death-of-byron-von-raum-spoiler-free/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[3] Revenge of Spaceport Mahon

[4] Mechanisms Eskhatos Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/eskhatos/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[5] Below (2013) Why do immortals need a ship doctor? Available at:  https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58736308596/why-do-immortals-need-a-ship-doctor-i-need-an Last accessed: 11/01/24

[6] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/727612334921678848/holding-checklist-titled-qualities-to-kill Last accessed: 11/01/24

[7] Rasputina (2013) Where'd you folks pick up Marius and Raphiella? Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58960694562/whered-you-folks-pick-up-marius-and-raphiella Last accessed: 11/01/24

[8] Sims (2014) Ingratitude Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/75995731661/ingratitude Last accessed: 11/01/24

[9] wickedacephotos (2013) The Mechanisms at The Cellar, 29 Oct 2013, for Halloween with Polar Patterns Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/wickedacephotos/65528149745/wickedacephotos-the-mechanisms-at-the-cellar Last accessed: 11/01/24

[10] Below (2013) Hooray for questions! Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58734952128/i-apologize-that-i-didnt-ask-a-question-to-make Last accessed: 12/01/24

[11] The Mechanisms Ulysses Dies at Dawn Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/ulysses-dies-at-dawn Last accessed: 12/01/24

[12] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/624522490768736256/i-feel-like-i-should-clarify-because-it-does-at Last accessed: 12/01/24

[13] The Mechanisms (2020) Death to the Mechanisms Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/death-to-the-mechanisms Last accessed: 12/01/24

[14] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/630817295229468672/so-i-am-absolutely-going-to-go-draw-tim-with Last accessed: 12/01/24

[15] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/631436135234699264/you-dont-need-to-awnser-this-because-i-am-lore Last accessed: 12/01/24

[16] themechanisms A Bedtime Story Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/ghost-in-the-machine/ Last accessed: 06/03/24

[17] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/708247931183153152 Last accessed: 11/04/24

[18] Young (2024) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/754005393719640064 Last accessed: 22/06/24

[19] Young (2024) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/759338848830554112 Last accessed: 20/08/24

[20] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/624109112212455424/ Last accessed: 17/11/24

[21] The Mechanisms (2013) The Mechanisms - 'Ulysses Dies At Dawn' Available at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-mechanisms-ulysses-dies-at-dawn#/ Last accessed: 17/11/24

To add:

not yet added Marius’ dttm dialogue

may add more detail to what is contained in expert testimony

could probably add detail on things seen doing in photos, e.g. Marius playing rock paper scissors with TS. (are photoshoots canon? I assume so)

[3] missing a link

wow did I really miss pilchard. I will Get To It at some point maybe

fungus arm https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/712149115253948416/

perhaps more backstory info from byron

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231124594544783361?s=20

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231604579529302018?s=20

https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/744416410692993024

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKHR0astiU - video on how to do the marius dttm makeup

numbers are ordered mostly in when I added the source rather than order of appearance as I have moved things around a lot. as above this is very incomplete and I don’t have the willpower to update this now maybe I will later. I’m just uploading it now since someone wanted marius lore

[athena-gundampla]

HG 1/144 World Economic Union Mass Production Transformable Mobile Suit SVMS-01 "Union Flag"

Picked up this funky little HG 00 kit from model building club last weekend. It's a pretty simple late 00s kit, just like others from its time, with just three sprues and not much in the way of optional parts. Regardless, it's still a very creative kit with a surprising amount of colour separation, even if it really only has two colours.

The Union Flag is one of the grunt suits from 00 Gundam, being the main fighting unit of the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations or World Economic Union (world here being Europe, Australasia, and Japan, like some sort of bizzaro NATO, probably leading to the UN baby blue of the kit). It's a very Macross looking design, "transforming" into a fighter jet inspired flight form in a very seamless manner, without any parts-forming whatsoever (more than one could say of the HG Zeta or HG Macross kits). There's a bit of clever engineering in the waist and pelvis that lets everything rotate into orientation.

There's stil a fair amount of painting, despite the simple bicolour scheme. I added grey to the backs of the hands, the barrel and top of the linear rod rifle, and the insides of the air intakes and jet exhaust ports, as well as adding my standard metallic drybrush and pigment powder to all the grey sections. I also made sure to add a lot of sooty oil staining over the intakes and exhausts to give the impression of use. I also painted over the safety nubs on the wings, turning them into blue and green navigation lights (as I don't have a metallic red). I still don't trust myself to cut them off cleanly. I also added a bit of metallic weathering pigment over other high-points on the blue parts of the kit, helping accentuate the worn and used nature of the machine, and mask how plasticky the blue looks right out of the box.

This is a pretty simple and plain looking kit, with no included marking stickers so I made sure to deck it out with a ton of custom markings and decals. I don't have any 00 decals, so I had to just freehand the Union logo, but I think I did an alright job at it.

I also included some hit markers, a flying group decal on the leg, and a unit number, as well as some cool stripes and caution markers. There's a metallic silver sticker that goes behind the (UV reactive trans orange) visor, which was appreciated as it added a lot of nice shine even without a UV light. The M motif works well as a pilot identifier. I stole it from the Gyan decals meant for M'Quve, but I think it looks great here, contrasting nicely against the blue. I just wish I had some proper NATO or UN decals, as I feel these would've been thematically appropriate and gone well with the blue colouration of the kit.

I do think I should've placed the wing markings the other way around, as they look upside down when the kit is viewed from the rear.

This kit included the linear rod rifle, which slots into the waist in flight mode to form the "nose" of the plane. It's a little loose in the hand, and being designed to look good in plane mode makes it look a little awkward as a weapon, but I think I managed to make it look cool in a few poses. The gangly proportions of the kit certaintly don't help.

The kit also includes the bizzare "defense rod", a shield modeled after an aeroplane propeller that is meant to rotate in order to deflect incoming damage. It seems super impractical, but they manage to make it look cool and effective in the anime. I painted on the white tips as I don't like dealing with foil colour correction stickers when folded over sharp edges - they tend to lift.

Oddly enough, there are these little tabs under the wings that look like spots to add missile pods or other weapons, although none are included. If I find any spares from other people in my model club I'll probably come back and add them.

Further included is the sonic blade/plasma sword. In the anime, it's a small flip-out combat switchblade that vibrates at ultrasonic frequencies to cut through armour. It can also generate a plasma blade turning it into a large sword. Unfortunately, the age of the kit relegates this weapon into a single "chopstick" piece, only allowing display of the plasma sword form. There's also not really anywhere on the kit it can be stowed, so I'm not sure where it comes from. I painted it with metallic blue, but I really would have preferred a traditional transparent beam effect piece.

Overall it was a fun little build, that let me prectise using my new liquid panel liners, as well as pracitse decals and weathering. Might take a bit of a break from gunpla for a bit, until I have more display room.

[daisyvisions]

Unspoken Words (Pt. 1)

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. Pairing: best friend!Sangyeon x afab!reader x enemy!Hyunjae

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. Summary: If someone were to tell you that you'd be in a fake relationship with the person you despise the most just to make your best friend jealous, you would've laughed in their face. But here you are... caught up in this exact situation.

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. Word Count: 4.2K

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. Warnings: (18+, minors DNI), fake dating, mutual pining, angst, jealousy, lots of suggestive themes such as: mention of a handjob and orgasm, groping, and fondling with breasts. Mentions of alcohol. Some cursing, lots of kissing and making out, eventual smut in part two. One use of the pet name “baby”. Implied sex and loss of virginity. Lots of time skipping. Let me know if I missed anything! Proofread twice.

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. A/N: And just in the nick of time I’ve managed to write out my Secret Santa exchange gift. This one’s for you baby girl @winterchimez / @midnightfantasiez. You nearly sniffed out that it was me writing for you so I had to deviate and lie to you for a moment so sorry about that huhu anyway! A true blessing that you happen to be my recipient because we both love sangmil. A two-part mini series because I just love to keep you on your toes 😈 Hope you enjoy this gift! Thank you so much for your friendship and all the fun moments shared! Special shoutout to @momhwa-agenda / @aimeecarreros for being my accomplice hehe. Finally a sangmil fic has made its debut on the blog!

‧⋆ ✧˚₊‧⋆. Network: @deoboyznet

You never should’ve gone to this stupid spring dance.

The thought in your mind repeating like a broken record as you try to hug yourself from the cold air outside the gymnasium. Tears running down your face as you stare off into the ground trying not to remember the reason why you suddenly ran out of the venue to begin with.

It wasn’t always like this. You were once very content with how things were going on in your life.

With the semester almost ending and all your mid-term grades just enough to pass, you couldn’t wait to celebrate surviving your last year of college with this one magical night. Especially with your best friend Sangyeon by your side.

Right… best friend.

The same best friend that had been ignoring you for the last two months or so (not that you were counting of course). Your mind races as you try to figure out for the nth time what even started this whole issue between you two.

All you could think back to was the beginning of his odd behavior, which started the week after your birthday. At first you thought Sangyeon was just busy with extracurriculars, which was often the case since he was part of numerous clubs and volunteer work.

But then things started to feel off as soon as he would ignore your calls, take too long to reply to texts, hearing from other friends he was just at home when he told you he was “fully booked” to hang out. It was like he was trying to come up with every excuse in the book just to not see your face.

Was he trying to hide something from you perhaps? That idea immediately disappeared as soon as you accidentally overheard his conversation with Haknyeon that one time you were all hanging out at Eric’s apartment.

“What?! You’re not gonna ask her to the spring dance?” You hear Haknyeon’s surprised tone.

“Of course not.” Sangyeon scoffs. “Why would I want to bring her? We’re just friends after all.”

You felt a sudden pang in your heart. Tears threatening to fall down as Sangyeon’s words bore deep holes within your soul. After everything you’ve been through together, this is how he thinks of you?

It shouldn’t have been that deep honestly, but with him ignoring you for the past couple of weeks and remembering the promise you made with each other to go together to the spring dance? It really fucking hurt you. Especially when you and Sangyeon had been by each other’s side since you first met three years ago at your freshman orientation. Instantly hitting it off like two peas in a pod and the rest was history.

Somewhere down the line, you knew you had some sort of feelings for him. Who wouldn’t?

With a smile that can cure any bad feeling you had, how he always took care of you first, the lingering hugs before you had to part ways at the end of the day, the way he would remember even the most insignificant details of a story you were rambling about, and made sure to always message you good night and good morning… He was the dream guy for you.

And even if you had moments wherein you thought he might’ve felt the same way, you didn’t want to sacrifice the strong bond you had with him over a stupid little crush. You just settled with the idea of just staying in the friend zone and not dare to cross any lines with him. Burying any what could’ves and everything else in-between.

Maybe that’s why Sangyeon distancing himself from you hurt more than it should’ve honestly.

So when you were seated at your table during the dance and saw Sangyeon entering the room with his date wrapping her arm around his, you felt massive sting in your chest.

That should’ve been you. It should've been you spending this night with him instead of whoever was currently by his side.

You thought you could go through the night just by avoiding your gaze their table, but the way Sangyeon smiled at his date and at everyone else like nothing was wrong, but his face slightly faltering as he quickly glanced your way, you just had to get out of there before things went downhill.

Your teeth were chattering from the cold air breezing against your exposed skin, nose sniffling and hands wiping whatever tears were leaving marks on your face. Suddenly, a pair of shoes enter your line of vision while your eyes were still glued to the ground.

“You shouldn’t be out here, it’s freezing.” The familiar voice tells you.

As soon as you look up, you find Hyunjae staring down at you. One of his eyebrows slightly raised as he wonders what has gotten you into this depressed state on a special night like this.

“Laugh it up Hyunjae, isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? To see me cry?” You look up at him for a moment with your tear-stained face before looking back down at your feet.

Before you could even continue feeling sorry for yourself, Hyunjae sighs and squats down, his face now at the same level as yours. You feel his fingers lift your chin and gently tap the tears away from your cheeks with his handkerchief. Your eyes widen as he leans in closer, making sure not to ruin your makeup in the process.

“W-what are you doing?” you stutter.

“Pretty girls like you shouldn’t be crying.” He nonchalantly replies.

You’re too stunned to speak at his comment. As far as you know, Hyunjae has been nothing but a pain in your ass ever since he accidentally bumped into you in the hallway causing your diorama to break into tiny pieces as it fell to the ground.

Since then, you wrote him off as your sworn enemy. Always finding ways to annoy the hell out of you and get you to react to his antics, making side comments to one another, and his constant teasing that made you want to rip your hair off.

So no, never in your wildest dreams would you hear such a comment coming out of Hyunjae’s mouth.

“Hello?” Hyunjae waves his hand in front of you.

“What?” You shook your head as you were too distracted from hearing the question he had asked you.

“I said, do you wanna get out of here or what?” He sighs as he lends his hand out for you to grab. You hesitate at first. In any normal situation, you would never even let Hyunjae get as close as he did just now, let alone go somewhere with him.

But what the hell… Anywhere is better than here.

“So… who’s the lucky guy that has you bawling your eyes out? It’s obviously not me.” Hyunjae smirks. You had found yourself seated by the bar, eating french fries as you waited for your drinks to arrive.

“It’s uh- It’s a little complicated.” You try to avoid his eyes.

“Trouble in paradise?” Hyunjae pops a fry into his mouth waiting for your answer. Your eyes widen at his suggestion, knowing who he was referring to.

“What? No! I mean- We were never together if that’s what you’re thinking.” You sigh before carefully explaining to him the whole situation you were currently in with Sangyeon. Hyunjae intently looks into your eyes as you tell your side of the story.

“Huh…” Hyunjae takes a sip of his beer.

“That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” You look at him as he drinks, trying to not to dwell too much at the way his neck looks flexed under the dim light.

“You’re really impatient you know that?” He chuckles before taking another sip. “I was about to tell you an idea I just thought of.”

“Yeah? Let’s hear it then.” You take a sip of your cocktail this time.

“What if you make him jealous? Like really jealous.” Hyunjae suggests.

“Pass. First of all, I don’t think he likes me that way. And second, who the hell would he even be jealous of? Sangyeon hardly gets jealous by anything.” You squint at him. What a silly idea.

“No c’mon. Trust me, he’ll be jealous alright. Especially when it comes to you.” He eyes you up and down subtly.

“What does that even me-” Before you could even finish your sentence you spot behind Hyunjae a group of students dressed in formal attire entering the bar. And like a moth to a flame, you immediately spot Sangyeon and his date amongst the group.

Hyunjae turns around to see what had been the cause of your panic, his eyes immediately spotting Sangyeon from a distance as well. And as soon as Sangyeon had a puzzled look on his face he knew that Sangyeon had spotted the two of you by the bar, wondering what the hell were you doing with Hyunjae of all people.

You hop off the bar stool, attempting to run away like you did during the dance, but you suddenly feel a hand gently grab you by the arm and pull you back before you could even make a run for it.

“C’mere.” Hyunjae asks.

“Wha-”

“Just follow my lead.” He whispers in your ear.

And before you know it, you feel Hyunjae lips pressed against yours. His hands cupping your face before sliding down to your waist, pulling you closer to him. It takes a moment for your brain to process what’s going on, but your body responds faster by wrapping your arms around Hyunjae’s neck and deepening the kiss.

The way his lips perfectly mold against yours, how soft they feel as his hands squeeze your waist. The little groan he lets out as you slip your tongue inside his mouth, tasting the beer he had drank as your fingers run through his hair.

You nearly moan with how he slowly but expertly moves his mouth against yours. As if he’s taking to memory what your lips feel like in case this moment would never happen again. Both you and Hyunjae nearly forget you’re practically sucking each other’s faces off in public, which was surprising considering the nature of your relationship with one another.

No one could even tell the two of you despised the other as you held each other like lovers.

None of you see it, but the way Sangyeon looks at both of you right now is as if he wants to throw daggers at Hyunjae from across the room. Witnessing the both of you passionately kissing each other makes his stomach churn, a feeling he has never felt before. So many questions run in his head as he continues to watch from afar.

Before he even tries to take a step towards your direction, he sees you both pull away from one another. Hyunjae whispering something in your ear as you look too stunned to speak before taking out his wallet, pulling out cash and settling it on the table before whisking you away out of the bar.

Sangyeon really should’ve brought you to the spring dance like he promised… because not only does he feel like an asshole, but a jealous one at that.

The car ride on the way to your house was incredibly silent, as if what had happened between you and Hyunjae was just your imagination. Except it wasn’t. You could still feel his lips lingering on yours as you try to lean your head against the window and looking at anything passing by.

You’re broken from your trance as you hear Hyunjae’s door closing and his figure making its way to your side of the car. He lends out his hand for you to grab once again, helping you get out of the car and walk you to the front of your apartment.

“So… I’ll see you around?” Hyunjae smiles awkwardly says as he puts both his hands in his pockets.

“Hyunjae, wait-” You grab his elbow as he’s about to turn around.

“Hm?” He raises one eyebrow.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but-” You huff in-between, “let’s go with your plan.” You watch the little mischievous smirk appear on Hyunjae’s lips.

“If you just wanted to make out some more you could’ve just asked.” He teases. You’re about to slap him on the arm but he catches your hand and holds it tight.

“I’m kidding! Just… Let me know when and what time we can talk about it more alright?” He squeezes your hand gently. You don’t know why but a tiny little butterfly flutters in your stomach as you feel Hyunjae’s thumb subconsciously stroke the back of your hand.

“Okay… Thank you by the way for tonight-” you tiptoe a bit to hold Hyunjae’s cheek and leave a light peck on his lips. He’s caught off guard by your action, almost leaning forward some more to continue kissing you but you pull away quick enough before he does.

“Y-yeah, sure. Anytime.” Thank god it’s night time he thinks, otherwise you would've easily spotted the redness flaring in his ears and made fun of him for it.

“Call me okay?” He squeezes your hand once more before letting go and walking back to his car. You watch him drive off before heading up to your apartment, leaning against the front door and letting out one big sigh of relief.

“What the hell did I get myself into?”

“If you really want this to work, we have to set a few ground rules.” Hyunjae he pulls out a pen and paper from his bag, immediately writing down a numbered list for you both to fill out.

“Rule one- if one of us wants to stop this thing at any given moment, the contract will end.” Hyunjae says as he writes it down.

“Hmm.. what about rule two- if any of us catch some sort of feelings for one another, the contract is immediately terminated” You add. Hyunjae scoffs at the idea.

“Catch feelings? Seriously?” He looks up at you with a smirk. “Is there something you’ve been meaning to tell me this whole time?” He continues to tease.

“I’m serious! It’s only gonna get complicated for us to execute this plan if feelings are involved. Haven’t you seen the movies?” You ask him.

“Fine, you have a point.” He writes down your suggestion earlier.

“Okay, rule three- kisses are a must if you want this thing to work.” He looks at you in the eyes. “And other things couples do.”

You roll your eyes at him, “Fine, but nothing beyond second base please?” You scrunch your face at the thought.

“Oh?” Hyunjae looks at you with a few twinkles in his eyes. “So does that mean I get to play with your-”

“NO! Not that. Like y’know, just waist touching and maybe the occasional touch of the ass. But definitely and absolutely no touching my chest whatsoever.” You point your finger at him. “I'm serious.”

“Alright alright!” Hyunjae raises his hands up in defense. “Anything else you wanna add?”

“Let me see the list again.” You grab the paper from his hands, carefully examining the words written before nodding.

“This looks good. Yeah, I’m fine with this.” You hand the paper back to Hyunjae.

“It’s a deal.” He says as you both shake on it before getting up to part ways.

Before you have a chance to take a step towards where your class is, Hyunjae pulls you into his chest and leaves a kiss on your lips, making you squeal in surprise.

“Sit with me during lunch. We start this today, okay?” Hyunjae reminds you. You nod your head before shyly giving him a kiss on his cheek and walking away to head to your first class of the day.

Sangyeon could not keep his eyes off you during study period. It had been this way every time you happen to be in the same room as him. You looked beautiful as ever of course but he could feel his blood pressure shooting up every time he would be near you.

Ever since that night he saw you kissing Hyunjae almost two weeks ago, it was like the two of you were everywhere.

He hated the way Hyunjae would always whisper something in your ear and you would laugh at whatever he said. Or the way his hand would find purchase on your lower back. And not to mention the way he would brush any loose hair behind your ear before kissing you goodbye.

It should’ve been him. He should've been the one doing all these things to you. He should've been the guy leaving you all those loving kisses, holding you by your waist, reminding you of how beautiful you look every single chance he got.

If only he was honest with you that night.

Sangyeon’s internal monologuing was cut short when he sees you getting up from your seat and patting Hyunjae on the shoulder before making your way between the bookshelves in the library.

As you slowly search for the book you need for your English paper, your shoulder bumps into a semi hard surface. “Oh! I’m so so-” you whisper but stop mid sentence as the familiar scent of cologne hits your nose.

“Hey….” Sangyeon whispers.

“Uh- Hi.” You back away from him a bit as an awkward silence falls between you two.

“How are things going? We haven’t talked in a while.” He fiddles with his own fingers, trying to think of the next words to say to you.

“Good I guess? Just trying to make it through the semester and stay motivated.” You respond.

“Sure looks like it-” Sangyeon mumbles. But you clearly hear him and scoff at his rudeness.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” You cross your arms against your chest.

“Seriously… Hyunjae? Why him?” He loudly whispers. “You’re better than that.”

“Yeah?” You step a little closer to Sangyeon, closing the gap between you two.

“Well where the fuck have you been huh? Where were you when I needed you?” You match the level of his tone.

“You don’t understand-”

“Then explain it to me then Sangyeon! I’m listening.”

He tries to speak but nothing comes out, panicking that this might be the last chance he could get to explain why he’s been so distant.

“I-uh” His eyes look everywhere else except you.

“Nothing? Thought so.” You push past him, making sure to harshly nudge your shoulder against his.

Sangyeon tries to follow you, but as soon as he steps out between the bookshelves he sees you head out of the library while Hyunjae scrambles to grab all your things from the table and chases after you. He sighs out of frustration combing his hair as he mentally curses at himself.

Oh he really fucked things up didn’t he?

“And he had the nerve, THE NERVE to tell me I know better. I can’t believe him!” You pace back and forth in your bedroom as you rant to Hyunjae about the events that took place in the library

“I honestly don’t know if I should feel offended or flattered at his little comment about me.” Hyunjae’s eyes follow you as you continue to move around.

“Think about it this way, at least we know the plan is working. Otherwise he wouldn’t have approached you like that.”

“Maybe? Ugh! Why are men so dumb?” You sigh.

“We think with our dicks that’s why. Well… maybe that’s just me.” He smirks, trying to crack a joke to break the tension. His little joke becomes successful when you look back at him and chuckle.

“Forget about him,” Hyunjae adds. “Tonight we drink to celebrate passing yet another exam and watch movies til we fall asleep or you decide to kick me out. Whichever comes first.”

He pours a full glass of wine for each of you as you plop down beside him and get cozy.

“Fine, but I’m picking the movie okay?” You tell him as you open your laptop and search for your favorite comfort movie.

Hours pass, almost three bottles of wine finished, and the movie long forgotten as you decide to chat with each other about anything and everything instead. It’s been nothing but laughs and mocking each other as you reminisce all the times you pissed each other off and funny stories of one another.

“Oh the look on your face was fucking priceless-” You laugh out loud, trying to catch your breath as you recall one embarrassing moment of Hyunjae.

“Well what the hell was I supposed to do then huh? Tell the professor I was getting a handjob under the table during his class?” His voice raises in defense. “Not my fault she couldn’t resist me.”

“You looked so mortified too holy shit-” You laugh.

“I was nearing a fucking orgasm okay? Then he calls me to the front of the class to write down my answer for the stupid formula. That professor practically edged me!” His cheeks starting to turn even more red as you continue to laugh at him.

“Ow it hurts, wait-” You clutch your stomach from the pain of laughing too much.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see how you like it then-” Hyunjae lunges forward, pulling your arms away to tickle you furiously.

You squeal out his name, trying to push him away while he tackles you. As you try to squirm out of his grip, you don’t even realize the position you’ve gotten yourselves into. Your body caged under his as he grabs your wrists and pins them down at each side of your head.

As the laughter starts to die down, Hyunjae looks down at you with heavy eyelids. You look incredibly pretty under him in this moment, he thinks to himself.

You didn’t even do anything in that moment but it was like he felt so drawn to you. Like you were a siren pulling him in. Your breath hitches as he leans down closer to your face, briefly stopping to search for any sign of consent before fully pressing his lips against yours.

This obviously is not the first time you two have kissed. But for some reason, this kiss felt different than all the other ones. You both kiss each other slowly, lips molding like a perfect dance as his hands let go of your wrist and hold you by your waist instead.

And just like the first time you kissed, you find yourself automatically wrapping your arms around him and running your fingers through his hair, pulling his body closer to yours as kisses travel down from your jaw to the most sensitive part of your neck.

You feel your core blooming in heat as his tongue expertly swirls inside your mouth. How it pulsates for him as you feel his hands go under your shirt, stopping right under your breasts.

You suddenly gasp as his hands start fondling your bra covered chest, gently kneading them as he continues to leave small marks on your sensitive skin with his lips.

A choked moan comes out as you feel his manhood throb against your core, reminding you of the thin layers of clothing, your thin pajama shorts and his sweatpants that stand between you two from crossing any lines.

“Hyunjae, wait-” You try to slowly push him off. His head pulls away to look at your face.

“Oh shit. I’m- fuck sorry no chest stuff-” You see the panic look in his eyes. But before he’s able to pull away, you grab him by the wrists and press his hands deeper into your chest.

A deep groan comes out of his mouth as he squeezes your breasts again, feeling your sensitive buds slowly hardening under your bra.

“No it’s not that. I-” You close your eyes for a moment before swallowing the lump in your throat. You feel your cheeks become warm at what you’re about to confess to him.

"I've never done stuff like this before..." you nervously say.

It takes a few seconds for your words to sink in before Hyunjae looks back at you with widened eyes.

“Oh uh- are you sure? We can stop. We don’t even have to do anything more-” He caresses your cheek.

“The thing is…” You pause to slowly swipe your thumb on his lower lip. “I want to-”

You look up at him with the most innocent looking eyes and Hyunjae swears to himself that he’s never seen anyone look at him the way you do. Like he had hung the moon for you. Hyunjae softly smiles at you before leaning to kiss you once again,

"Then sit tight baby… Because I'm about to rock your world."

(Part 2)

[dystopicjumpsuit]

OC Sunday: Cerra Kilian, your friendly neighborhood traitor to the Empire

Whether you need to repair a hyperdrive, infiltrate an Imperial base, or get absolutely kriffed up in the entertainment district, Cerra is your girl. GAR supply officer, turned deserter, turned full-time rebel. With a seemingly endless array of unsavory contacts and absolutely no moral qualms about sourcing supplies via questionable means, Cerra can get whatever you need, from expired ration bars to decommissioned GAR medical equipment. All that, and the odds of her deciding to adopt you are only about 60%!

Look at me. I’m the captain big sister now. Art by me 🩵

More info below the cut! Content warning for non-descriptive violence and spoilers for Stars Beyond Number.

Overview

Name: Cerra Kilian

Birth year/age: born 48 BBY; 31-32 at time of Stars Beyond Number

Species: Human

Pronouns: she/her

Orientation: bi/pan

Home planet: Corellia

Current location: Coruscant

Occupation: military supply officer (deserted); full-time traitor

Affiliation: Corellian Military Defense Force; Grand Army of the Republic; Clone Underground

Alignment: Chaotic good

Family: CT-5555 “Fives” (husband; deceased); Admiral Shoan Kilian (uncle); Lorn and Vianne Kilian (parents, estranged)

Physical characteristics

Height: 5’10”/178 cm

Eyes: brown

Hair: black (shaved)

Skin: brown

Tattoos/piercings/identifying marks: full sleeve tattoo on left arm; multiple piercings in ears; large shrapnel scar on left thigh

Personal history 

Cerra was born on Corellia, the daughter of Lorn and Vianne Kilian. Vianne, her mother, had joined the Corellian Military Defense force as a mechanic, as it was one of the only avenues to escape the Corellian underworld slums where she was born. She eventually married Lorn, whose family had a longstanding tradition of service in the CMDF. 

Cerra joined the CMDF at the age of sixteen, serving as a supply officer for ten years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars. At that time, the CMDF was absorbed into the Grand Army of the Republic, and Cerra was assigned to the 501st Legion, serving under General Anakin Skywalker. While serving as supply officer on the Resolute, Cerra became friends with Captain Rex, Jesse, and Kix, along with many other clones in the 501st and beyond. 

It is also where she first met Fives, who visited the supply office weekly to submit requests for candy. Every single request was denied, and eventually, Cerra ordered a crate of sweets to be delivered with her personal supplies, then passed it on to Fives, who distributed it to the entire battalion. She never told Fives that she’d paid for it, but he figured it out (of course). After the Battle of Kamino, Fives stopped by the supply office one last time before he shipped out for ARC training. That was the first time Cerra kissed him.

When the Resolute was destroyed at the Battle of Sullust, Cerra was on the bridge. She helped as many wounded as she could into the escape pods, including Admiral Wullf Yularen as well as several clones. She was on her way to her own escape pod when she was caught in an explosion and hit in the leg by shrapnel. A shiny she’d helped into a different escape pod that was at maximum capacity jumped out and dragged her inside, then launched the pod, staying behind on the Resolute and sacrificing his life to save her. She never knew who he was, so she had a blank Phase 2 helmet added to the tattoo sleeve on her left arm when she’d recovered from her injuries.

After Sullust, Cerra was reassigned to a different unit, serving on the Ro-ti-Mundi until the Battle of Coruscant. She stayed in touch with her friends in the 501st, taking every opportunity to spend time with them whenever leave schedules permitted. In particular, she and Fives commed each other as frequently as possible, though his ARC duties prevented them from seeing each other again until just after his mission to Lola Sayu, where Echo was presumed dead. At that point, Fives and Cerra began a relationship.

The Battle of Umbara was the turning point for the pair. The treachery of Pong Krell shook Fives’s faith in the Jedi as well as the Republic, and he told Cerra that their lives were too short and too uncertain not to seize their chance at happiness while they could. He asked her to marry him, proposing with a ring he’d carved out of plastoid armor. Despite the ban on clone marriages, Cerra didn’t hesitate, and the two married in secret. When she met Tup after Umbara, she forged a close bond with him and quickly came to see him as a younger brother. He was the only witness to Fives and Cerra’s marriage, and the only person who ever knew about it.

And then came the Battle of Ringo Vinda. 

In the months following Fives and Tup’s deaths, Cerra threw herself into working with Kix to try to discover what had happened. They were close to a breakthrough when Kix disappeared. Utterly disillusioned, with her faith in the Republic and the GAR shattered, Cerra abandoned her post following the Battle of Coruscant.

Her family did not understand. Her parents felt that she had disgraced the family by deserting, and after a disastrous visit home to Corellia, Cerra returned to Coruscant and disappeared into the underworld.

Until one day, several weeks after the fall of the Republic, Rex knocked on her door.

Personality

Fiercely loyal, sarcastic, competent (with a healthy dose of imposter syndrome), protective to a fault. Once Cerra decides she likes someone, she adopts them. They’re hers now. She's keeping them. And she’ll make sure everybody else in the group is nice to them, too—or else. Despite being an only child, she has strong older sister energy, which occasionally causes her to clash with the people she cares about.

She is pathologically opposed to displaying negative emotions in a healthy way; if she’s feeling anger or grief, she’s likely to shut down or hide rather than talk about it. After Fives’s death, she became withdrawn and reticent, not even trusting her closest friends with all of her secrets. But underneath her durasteel-reinforced-with-beskar walls, the same fierce, loyal heart still beats.

---

You can read about Cerra’s adventures in my Tup x Reader short fic “Do It Again” (NSFW), and you can find out what happened after Rex knocked on her door in my complete longfic Stars Beyond Number (sequel in progress but will not be posted until it is fully written). You can read her GAR Datafile here.

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Taglist:

@secondaryrealm @sev-on-kamino @523rdrebel @wings-and-beskar @merkitty49

@anxiouspineapple99 @sinfulsalutations @arcsimper5 @starrylothcat @clio3kantarella

@cloneloverrrrr @goblininawig @ladytano420 @arctrooper69 @sunshinesdaydream

@littlemissmanga @stunkbiggu @starqueensthings @marierg @idontgetanysleep

@moonlightwarriorqueen @dudewhynotthis @sleepycreativewriter @tcwmatchmakingau @littlemissbshine

@multi-fan-dom-madness @heavenseed76 @wizardofrozz @bobaprint @sweetcream-coldfoam

@skellymom @pickleprickle @trixie2023 @mythical-illustrator @dickarchivist

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@dangraccoon @transactivecybermemory @etod @ivyyyyy @somewhere-on-kamino

@burningnerdchild @saneabandoned @heidnspeak @maniacalbooper

[majorasnightmare]

so! the general AU timeline is something like this

dirge gets betrayed and tadpoled by orin

his bhaalspawn biology kicks in and tries to recover from a wound that didnt instakill him, but isnt successful because of the tadpole and kressas experiments

the absolute uses the tadpole to get a foothold in dirges mind but a combination of his willpower, being reduced to base feral instincts and The Urge, and injuries to the brain resulting in inflammation and oedema, means that Dirge isnt enough of a person to be meaningfully influenced beyond being prevented from outright killing Kressa. he has brain swelling in wenickes AND brocas area which has resulted in dirge completely losing language capabilities

kressas husband is weirded out by his wife having some cooing obsession with a feral brainwormed tiefling who keeps trying to bite anyone who gets close and gets dirge transferred to the nautiloid mission to hopefully serve as a suicide berserker and die offscreen

finally free of kressas prodding and sealed in a pod, dirge's unique physiology kicks in and forcibly drags him into unconsciousness to actually meaningfully rest. dirges restful sleep finally settles his mind enough for the absolute to interact with it

dirge spends most of the nautiloid mission unconscious in the stasis pod, as his body repairs itself and the absolute starts repairing his mind (returning language capability, repairing short term memory storage and attempting repairs on the short term to long term memory systems)

main timeline divergence! after retadpoling dirge and discovering orpheus in the prism, when the emperor goes to choose who in the nautiloid has the best capabilities of combatting the absolute, it instead chooses to pass over the murderous semi-sapient brain damaged cult leader, judging dirge to either be too injured to meaningfully help or too unpredictable and potentially dangerous to risk letting loose, and leaves him in the pod

dirge stays in stasis through the nautiloid prologue, and doesnt awaken throughout

the nautiloid crashes with dirges pod still in it, the mind flayer pod absorbing the impact like it does for the other companions when you dont play as them (like how you can find karlach and astarions pods). his pod is around the same area youd fight the intellect devourers later, suspended by arterial mesh and powerlines. the pod pops open in the wreckage during the middle of the night, around the same time of night you see yourself rescued from the fall

while the player character is unconscious until morning, dirge hits the ground and is up and awake from the get go

unprotected by the prism, having survived the crash, but also having his first moments of genuine consciousness and awareness since being stabbed, dirges mind is still reeling from its sheer abyssal emptiness and pain, and the absolute seizes the oppurtunity to dominate him immediately. dirge struggles but cant meaningfully fight it off in his state, and the absolute converts him into a proper True Soul

after dirge is True Souled, the absolute pushes him into stumbling out of the crash site to make his way to the goblin camp immediately. being single mindedly driven, he manages to limp and clumsily stealth his way to the camp, managing to avoid any patrolling scouts, and primarily acting on thoughtless obedience, his head too badly scrambled to organize itself

dirge manages to get to the camp sometime in the afternoon of the first day, while the party is still gathering survivors and making way towards withers tomb

this means that dirges first interactions with people dont occur until hes in goblin territory! so his social standard compass gets oriented in an entirely different direction, identifying guts, dror ragzlin, and minthara as the primary people he needs to make an effort to get along with

the camp three spend a good chunk of the day interrogating the newest true soul and his amnesia, and why exactly he came from the crash site that was supposed to hold the weapon theyre hunting for. unable to recall what happened, but definitely a True Soul meant to aid the absolutes plan, they conclude that dirge infiltrated the nautiloid on a mission to claim the weapon before being compromised by the injury and the crash. the absolute doesnt explicitly CONFIRM this interpretation of events, but more or less encourages its because it helps her fallen star get along with everyone

true soul!dirge actually doesnt recall anything to use as his name here! guts and dror ragzlin use any number of nicknames for him based on him being a tiefling, and minthara more or less exclusively calls him True Soul

the absolute surpresses most of the fragments of memory circumstance makes dirge recall, and also surpresses more of The Urge so he acts less erratically, so he tends to rely more on interactions with Minthara to ground him with his memory loss

dirge proves his worth shortly after his arrival by participating in the waukeens rest raid and helping to capture ulder ravenguard, and then later that night when aradins party tries to infiltrate the camp while the goblins are canonically shitfaced drunk and slackin. dirge catches their scent and is the first to lunge into action when liam charges, taking down the dwarf cleric brian and incapacitating halsin in bear form, while liam gets captured. minthara doesnt send him on the raiding party following aradin, and having demonstrated keen killer instinct, takes up the informal role as mintharas second in command, who intends to use him as a guard dog and a skilled second opinion, having sent most of her drow retinue to safeguard ulders transport to moonrise.

minthara gives him drow drip™️ and he sticks with his habitual dual dagger build from his bhaalist days. at the camp hes positioned almost like a bouncer outside mintharas desk

despite guts getting killed immediately when dirge normally interacts with her, they get along decently well when hes a true soul. hes generally amenable to being fussed over and guts is the resident healer, and now hes one of her boys, so theyre amicable with each other. dror fucking hates him tho cuz hes a greenie and already showing him up a little, and is already getting close to minthara when dror has been trying for a WHILE now

the absolute correctly predicts that minthara compliments dirges skillset and has the kind of personality that would be useful towards directing him to working in achieve its goals, so it subtly encourages them to be around each other. despite the brainworms, dirge in this state isnt a particularly devout absolutist, more treating it as a factual reality than as a devout believer, so mintharas faith is useful here as well since it establishes a clear unquestioned chain of command. the absolute commands minthara, who then instructs dirge, who then carries it out more reliably than the absolute directly commanding dirge

[musicforastylesrestaurant]

We Could Be The Greatest Team.

(Y/N) JENNER, best known for being on the reality tv show ‘keeping up with the kardashians.’ She’s also known to be the gorgeous fiancé of pop sensation, the one and only Mr. Harry Styles.

With her growing up with five sisters, that made her a very family oriented person, and Harry likes to think that trait is what got him to initially ask her to be his in the first place.

There first proper date took place in 2013, the two of them being only nineteen at the time, they didn’t want everyone getting involved in there relationship because it was there private life, that was until they chose to go to her older sister, Kim’s wedding where the two were pictured together, very very, close.

2017 was a very big year for the two of them. The year they got engaged to each other. Harry got down on one knee in his Italian villa, there first proper house together that they brought, because in his eyes he knew they would spend forever together.

(Y/N) has been there through it all, so there was no doubt he wanted her to be his wife. On the tours, when One Direction went on there hiatus, when his solo album was released and when he won his Grammy’s she was there to hold his hand and would always be able to ground him if he was having a slightly bad day. Never wanting to go to bed without saying those three simple words.

There wedding was supposed to be in the summer of 2020, but so many obstacles got in there way, COVID, stress from cancelled tours and well a baby. A bouncing baby boy who came screaming into the world in September, 2021.

Sonny Harry Robin Styles.

There journey was a love story like no other, and nothing could ever break them apart. They were a team, two peas in a pod, the yin to her yang, the bestest of friends.

authors note: this isn’t really a series per say, in my opinion it’s more a trope then anything else. when inspiration strikes or i get a certain request, they will get published and tagged here for you all to see:)

if a tag list is something you would like me to set up, let me know <3

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