#she queues in starlight

[the-trees-have-spirits]

krissmacd @ instagram

[the-trees-have-spirits]

The Signs & Fall Things

Aries: Cold morning grass, plucking fruit from damp branches, herbal teas in vintage cups, the first Christmas song on the radio, driving in the rain, heavy pillows, matches.

Taurus: Pilled wool blankets, broken cinnamon sticks, hot cider steam that seeps into your cheeks, decaying branches that wake in a coat of crystal frost, stargazing in the frigid air.

Gemini: Oatmeal cookies, tea light candles, thrifted sweaters, early sunsets, mismatched mugs, leaves in the pool, board games, a full moon.

Cancer: A fluffy loaf of bread, lacing your boots, a vintage thermos, gloomy lights, smoking chimneys, Pinterest recipes, flooding gutters, live music.

Leo: A burning log that falls and sends sparks into the sky as it impacts with the dirt, your first bite into a crisp apple, gingersnaps, mini pumpkins, breakfast waffles, rumbling thunder.

Virgo: Wrapping up in an oversized flannel, the first snow, stray cats in the night, hot chocolate, fallen trees, county fairs.

Libra: Collecting pinecones, warm breasted birds that procrastinate their departure, dark red leaves, classic fall movies, burning incense.

Scorpio: Picking an apple from a mound of colors, melting butter on a fresh baked muffin, wool socks, extra blankets on your bed, storm sirens.

Sagittarius: Cinnamon sprinkled in the top of your latte foam, shiny copper mugs, boot imprints in the mud, caramel sauce, rain that only dries by the fireside, hot flakey biscuits that burn the roof of your mouth.

Capricorn: Wind blowing through tall dying grasses, peanut butter cookies, the sound of migrating geese, farmers markets, harvest festivals, a breeze that blows out your candle.

Aquarius: Fog that mutes your perception, wood carved trinkets, warm donuts, hearty stews, spinning vinyl, coat buttons, dusty bookshelves, lampposts.

Pisces: Vintage ovens cooking autumnal pies, whipped cream on the tip of your nose, dogs wearing sweaters, scones, leaf piles, misty rivers.

[dapper-lil-arts]

this is how their first meeting went right

[mielmoto]

y r honey's nicknames for ppl are so cute,,, don't listen to anything riku says to the contrary

because she's THE super cutie, obviously! how could she be doling out anything less than the most adorable monikers for her little pookies? her sweet baboos?

...answering more seriously: i touched very briefly on the fact that honey, (leaning a little bit into her fey heritage/traditions/their associated beliefs), does pay some reverence to the inherent 'power' of a name. it's a double-edged blade, in some respects: she frequently avoids the perceived 'intimacy' and familiarity of calling people simply by their name to help maintain a kind of casual distance, a friendliness without 'over-investment,' as she'd think of it... but she also can't help the fact that she does so much adore her friends & loved ones—such that they all deserve some special, unique, and appropriately affectionate term of address in lieu of their given name. some are thought of on the fly, introduced from the get-go, and on some occasions those stick! or maybe they just come to her in a moment of divine inspiration... but, just as often, Honey will put a lot of thought into choosing her pet names; mentally 'auditioning' several options before settling on the winner.

Bestowing a name is a sacred thing not to be taken lightly, so it's important that the monikers feel really, truly right before she cements them in her lexicon. As much as she may be invested in them, though, she values how the subject of affection feels most of all: if someone earnestly dislikes the title she's chosen, she'll find another instead.

oh, and if you were wondering: moondrop was more of the middle option—it arrived like an epiphany mid-sentence, rolled off the tongue, and the rest is history.

[vixlenxe]

This is the most Ivy-Estinien moment, on god.

[the-trees-have-spirits]

black.forest_love @ instagram

[karamell-sweetz]

welcome to my blog!

pls drop a like once you’ve read this post! | last updated 09 apr 2025

IMPORTANT: REGARDING PALESTINE/GAZA CAMPAIGNS

i am currently not in a position to be able to donate to any campaigns. i sincerely apologise if it seems i am ignoring the situation by not donating, and i ask you to please be courteous to myself and others in a similar position. i also ask you not to monitor my lack of response or donations.

however, i am able to boost any campaigns if i am contacted. these will be tagged with ‘🍉’. if i am contacted through direct messages i will reblog the main campaign post from your blog.

BASICS

my name is karamell! its a pleasure to meet ya :D

i go by she/her and am cis female :3 not too fussed abt pronouns tho!

at present i am 17, my birthday is the 16th of june. i’m australian + filipino, so sorry if i post something at an ungodly hour for your timezone lmao

this blog will be for my fandom reblogs, art and countless ramblings! i am also studying animation for university so you may see some of my work here (most likely tests or studies).

i have a separate account dedicated to undertale multiverse content -> @karamellz-multiverse-l0g (i don’t post there a lot because undertale is on the backburner for now!)

i am also self-appointed chairwoman of the rui kamishiro fanclub! not that that’s too important… but i like saying it lol

BYF

i don’t tag my reblogs/queue usually so uhh good luck poring through that >< all of my original posts are tagged for convenience though, you can find my tags in the search bar :3

in relation to that i’m VERY multifandom so srry if you get bombarded with stuff that doesn’t relate to you haha! but hopefully you’ll like the stuff i rb too, i’m a firm believer in the power of brainrot spreading and most of my fandoms are from the same niche anyway!

i dont have a dni because realistically i cant rlly control who sees my stuff, but if you or the stuff you post make me uncomfortable i’ll just block you. no hard feelings <3

FANDOMS + FAV LIST

project sekai - rui kamishiro, tsukasa tenma, wxs, n25, okay actually its everyone i love proseka soo much

vocaloid - miku, una + deco*27, n-buna, kikuo, pinocchio-p, inabakumori, picco, harumakigohan, maiki-p

d4dj - unichørd, hapiara, lyrilily

bandori - pasupa, morfonica, hhw, ras

enstars - trickstar, alkakurei

love live - rina tennoji, shioriko mifune, hanamaru kunikida, ruby kurosawa, you watanabe, ayumu uehara

PROMOTED! cookie run kingdom - pure vanilla dragged my ass back into the game!! also a fan of white lily, milky way and all of the pink cookies

fragaria memories - romarriche

milgram - amane, yuno, mahiru

undertale (utmv) - xtale, ink, murder time trio

danganronpa - shuichi saihara, kaede akamatsu, k1-b0

twisted wonderland - heartslabyul (deleted the game because UGH the grind)

denonbu - harajuku district

revue starlight - lalafin, karen, aruru (i love all of them tho)

genshin impact - also minor fling, have not played past liyue. solely here for the banger character designs

mcyt (idk if i’ll reblog anything from here but i know a little bit of the dsmp lore and am attempting to understand life series??)

other things you may see: lalaloopsy + other doll lines from that era, mlp, warrior cats, cute art i think is nice, lunime gacha games (i was very much a ‘gacha kid’ back in its prime), puyo puyo, writing stuff, THE COLOUR PINK, webcore, memes, cool crafts, yorushika, other teenage girl things idk

TAGS

🍉 - palestine and gaza campaigns

karamell yells - ramblings and random stuff, may include headcanons and analysis

karamell doodles - my art! mostly fanart at the moment

karamell’s wips - works in progress (stuff i’ll never finish probably)

karamell’s pocket - posts i want to come back to

karamell gaming - random game screenshots

karamell rolls the gacha - my gacha pulls of varying luck

karamell’s mailbox - asks, submissions, tag games, all that fun stuff

karamell’s rq pile - drawing requests (which are always open btw, feel free to send some in if you’d like!)

karamell stop missing the blonde clown - thirsty? brainrot posts about tsukasa tenma because boy do i love him

karamell’s confections - various big projects (videos, edits, etc). all the cool stuff i make that isn’t normal art basically

karamell’s burning pile of ocs - see image below:

(utmv submissions for this will be posted on my sideblog)

UPDATE: the number is now 350 instead of 244!

when in doubt. rui scribble - various random scribbles of rui kamishiro because i like drawing him

karamell asks a question - mostly polls and stuff i need help with

say hi to my sideblog guys - self rbs from my utmv sideblog @/karamellz-multiverse-l0g. just for a little bump! :)

ALLIURA - general oc posting, inc. OCtobers, oc challenges, animatics, doodles etc. i might make a sideblog for this later when i have more time to work on it

NEW! bringingbackmythteam - collaborative oc universe with my friends!!

TAGS FOR MINI-SERIES

karamell’s project precure au - project sekai x precure (updates never)

wxs revue au - project sekai x revue starlight (updates randomly)

karamell’s birthday treat cafe - food-themed fandom birthday drawings (on break for a bit)

kamikou seniors trio - tsukasa ena rui posts because i want them to hang out

the mizuruiena agenda continues - mizuki rui ena hanging out + general posts about them together

rui dress agenda - rui in dresses what did you expect

rui fanclub sekai - read my blog description. just silly things about a hypothetical rui fanclub

NEW! pomegranate-induced haze - rui’s 2* card from old times read-aloud (honami mix 3 event) sent me down the pomegranate symbolism rabbit hole

NEW! [event] tiering adventures - karamell hates tiering. separate tags for kasa4, rui4 and wxs world link

FIND ME! (links are underlined!)

instagram - _karamella.cake

youtube - karamell-sweetz!

tiktok - karamell.sweetz

pinterest - karamellxsweetz

art fight - karamellxsweetz

ao3 - mirai_spxrk

FRIEND ID (GLOBAL SERVERS ONLY)

bandori - 4636316 (karamellxshowtime!) (i might be out of friend space tho)

d4dj - ffzoJpPf (mirai.chørd)

project sekai - 168505012555628545 (karamell?!)

enstars - 7709727947 (karamelloid)

that should be all. enjoy your stay on my silly little corner of the internet!! 🫶

[the-trees-have-spirits]

Blackbeard: I hear you're in the market for a new husband.

Spanish Jackie: Are you hitting on me?

Blackbeard: No I'm trying to pawn Izzy off on someone. Please take him.

[villainsimpqueen]

THE BARREN LANDS| AVATAR FANFIC

Miles x reader

18plus only.

CHAPTER 18- The ending

"'After the war in The Barren lands, the na'vi were able to once again chase the humans off of Pandora, the clans leaders all knew that one day the humans would come back. 

They were a disease, an infestation coming and taking as they saw fit, trying to weaken our great mother. 

The other na'vi clans mourn the losses of their spirit trees as their connections to eywa had been severed by the sky people. The only living tree alive and well was the spirit tree of the barren lands. Many hoped that eywa was strong enough to let atokirina bloom, but the tree never produced the seedlings when it was supposed to bloom. 

 The day the tree did was when your father was fully accepted by eywa, connecting to the spirit tree when you were born, Altan, Dagian,  Your father held you to the tree where you had your first Tsaheylu to mother eywa.  He too moved his own queue to connect Tsaheylu to Ewya, It was then after the bond was made many  atokirina bloomed, floating from the tree down, They surrounded you and your father before leaving us all, on their way to start new life and many new trees."'

The children around you giggled and you smiled at them. Miles moved to sit down beside you, a plate of food in hand. 

"'You need to eat starlight."' He whispered to you handing you the plate, A hand going to your swollen stomach, baring new life.

You turned smiling at your Miles, your mate, moving you softly kissed him before taking the plate you moved to look back at your children, and grandchildren. 

Spider sat with his mates Apera and Haimona, Now a young adult in his twenties, a tiny bundle of life in his arms, as Apera Ate her food, desperately getting back the nutrition she needed after being with the baby for almost a year before she gave birth to a strong healthy daughter. Haimona slowly ate shredded pieces of meat before moving some to Spider's lips to make sure the young man had eaten as well as he watched their little one.

Kalanchoe walked over to the fire with his younger sister Neoma trailing after him. The now twelve year old sat down with his nine year old sister and shared his food, sitting to the side of you and miles. 

The young boy's eyes moved over to his younger brothers, the twins, Altan and Dagian.

Altan had fully turned gray like their mother but his markings resemble their fathers stripes and were a bright cyan blue and his eyes were as emerald as their fathers, 

While Dagian was gray like their mother, his patterns were mixed with both of his parents and like Neoma and their father He had vitiligo of blue speckles across his body, His eyes were a dull yellow like the sands of their home. 

You leaned against miles, a soft purring came from you and he smiled as he wrapped an arm around you, His eyes moving and catching his best friend Lyle with zdog. He grinned as the two had their playfully banter, he knew soon they were going to be a thing, but he never pressed it. If it was meant to be, it will be. 

His eyes moved to his children and granddaughter, a great pride and gratefulness moved through him.

He got the family he had always thought he didn't deserve. 

"'Your father is now known as Miles wairua whanau of Nga whenua pakoko."' You told your children proudly. 

Moving your hand to your stomach you felt a strong kick of the child. 

Miles turned to notice and moved his hand over causing you to smile more brightly. Your silver eyes gleaming in the moonlight as your hair cascaded down in waves like the sand dunes. He felt his unborn child kick his hands. 

"'and your mother is known as Te tamahine a te marama toto, The guardian of the night. "  Miles breathed as he kissed you softly. 

The sounds of disdainful children echoed around the campfire causing the adults of the tribe to laugh.

Miles moved holding you to him as you both ate your food,  his eyes adored you, as you ate.

The woman that saved him.

The woman who taught him.

The woman who changed him.

The woman who loved him.

The woman he would die a hundred deaths for, 

     And the woman who was the mother of his beautiful children. 

"'Oel ngati kameie,"' He whispered in your ear, causing you to turn to him with those bright glowing silver eyes. Your ears twitched as you smiled brightly as the son

"'Oel ngati kameie, my miles."'

And Miles knew as long as he had you, and your family, He would have a reason to fight for Pandora, to fight for eywa. and to fight for you. 

[marvelstoriesepic]

hello to you, my beautiful star!! i have three potential prompts for your drabble challenge, i hope atleast one of these inspires you/catches your interest, but if they don’t, that is completely fine bub!!

number one!!> soulmate au where people are born with specific matching tattoos/marks. although i know you aren’t the biggest fan of soulmate tropes so i completely get if this isn’t your cup of tea <3

bucky’s one is no longer visible because it was on his arm, he still lost his arm and has a prosthetic one. he’s a tattoo artist coincidentally, and one day a client comes in, he recognises the tattoo/mark on them as the same one he had.

thought of this prompt as it has a healthy amount of angst, how would bucky react? would he say anything? maybe the reader is a mutual friend between steve, nat, sam, etc, and bucky has seen her around here and there but has never seen her mark 👀

number two!!> actress reader and security guard bucky!

lots of room for experimentation with this one, maybe a drabble about a stressful situation in which bucky is needed to step in, maybe he’s doting all over her afterwards. do they initially clash upon meeting? do they have an unspoken trust or bond? maybe the reader spoils bucky for keeping her safe, maybe he gets her flowers or champagne after a movie premiere, maybe he helps her rehearse lines.

he may be quite dutiful, she may be sometimes flirtatious, trying to get him to crack some of his serious exposure, or maybe he’s quite easy going, apart from when it comes to her safety. maybe he gets mistaken as her date for a red carpet, maybe she plays along? 👀 potentially playing up to the cameras and interviewers about her ‘date’ for the night. i think this pairing could be interesting for sure, quite sweet and potentially lots of tension!

>number three!> cinderella vibes for this one, prince bucky x maid reader !

so reader is a palace maid, has been for quite a while, but rarely sees any of the royals until a maid at a higher rank either loses the job or passes away and suddenly there’s a space needing to be filled. queue reader filling that position and finding herself in close quarters with the royals, and the prince. i can imagine her definitely not expecting the prince to be so handsome, maybe at one point in time she speaks out of turn slightly, saying something that isn’t just a pleasantry. maybe she is called upon during the night, the prince accidentally scares her, or bucky purposely attempts to fluster her.

whatever it is, i can imagine that bucky takes a keener interest in this maid. you could even lean further into the cinderella vibe and feature a whole fairy godmother situation, where the reader magically appears to be a princess for one night, and when she dances with the prince, he knows it’s her, maybe a dialogue line like “do you think i could ever forget your eyes hm?” or if that isn’t something you’d be interested in, maybe after a ball the prince goes to her quarters and requests a dance, it may be late at night and she is in a nightgown but he doesn’t care, could be super fluffy but have great undertones of feelings of inadequacy or confusion on why a prince is enamoured with a maid etc.

anyway those are three ideas i have for you, if they do not inspire you, then i hope some other pairings come your way soon!! much love from me always, take care, know you will be on my mind!! <3

and i may end up saying it a million times, but i am so proud of you and what you have achieved.

-yours, ceru

My absolute legend of a human sent me three amazing prompts in one go, so I'll be posting the first fic along with this note and the other two over the next two days 🩷

This might make things a little interesting, to give you a little peek into what comes next.

Number one/Soulmate Au: Wear My Heart

Number two/Actor Au: Poison of the Spotlight

Number three/Cinderella Au: Eyes made of Starlight

I’ve always kept a bit of a distance from soulmate au's. I do find the idea enjoyable, but I felt like it’s not quite for me. But I never say no to a challenge!! I truly put my heart into it, and I was surprised at the end by how much I came to like the idea of the whole concept of soulmate au’s. I guess I just needed the right nudge - and you, my beloved, always know how to do that. You always manage to give me what I need at the moment 🥹🩷

I can’t wait to hear what you think of this one, and of course the other two that will be out soon as well. It was also so interesting to connect my own acting career with this little fic idea you gave me. I would do anything to have a security guard like Bucky 🤭🫶🏻 And a Cinderella au???? Gosh I was so excited!! I just had to pick up on those magical vibes!!

Each of your ideas made me want to create something special and I always had you right in the back of my mind during the writing process 🫶🏻🩷

[muninnhuginn]

Draft diving thoughts:

I was so hopeful I'd finish certain media that I have reblogs of cool art saved up from years ago. This includes but is not limited to Dai Gyakuten Saiban (I am... several cases in?), Revue Starlight (about two eps from the end then need to watch the film), ISAT (bought this months back and still haven't started despite it being right down my street), Outer Wilds (same as ISAT), Fionna and Cake (I'm through most of Adventure Time but I didn't want it to end so I tailed off big time months back), Trigun (the new anime specifically). There's even stray Umineko in here. That's how hopeful I was.

Wow i was going thru it in Nov 23

I have half-written meta for mob psycho, stranger/secret forest, and a few other series. My memory is so bad there's no way to pick these back up without having to highkey make stuff up to try and infer what I was meaning to say (which I don't want to do, but part of me is like "wow my past self knows what she was on about" because my present self Does Not)

Stray posts about Japanese language and Chinese folklore that I didn't want to reblog without verifying but got too distracted to do so

Other people's Dunmeshi meta I saved to read when I'd finished the manga (I have been mid the final volume for literal months so am probably spoiler immune by this point but)

Drafts of reblogs of art from series I got so into that if I added any more to my queue it'd become purely that series. This includes Severance, Link Click, and Princess Tutu (the latter of which I could definitely just add into the queue now if Tumblr would let me on phone)

Tldr One day I will finish media. One day.

[the-trees-have-spirits]

krissmacd @ instagram

[skybristle]

Uhhh, regarding the video, I'm a bit curious about the end. Why did they look mad n such? I wanna know more about your blorbos 👀👀👀

(I might've missed the lore™, my apologies ^^')

I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS ASK

its a little unclear since the pmv focuses on sparks but i tried to give as many hints as i could to the unfolding situation- the catalyst for sparks snapping is whisper's emergency broadcast detailing how starlight and maw plan to rip their puppet from their can for their own purposes/experiments. they sent a plea to ash in the form of their own purposed slugcat [colorburst] before this point, and ash goes to sparks to make her once again handle his fucking problems

instead of. responding to this and focusing on the current unfolding crisis [as she probably should be doing] she instead ditches the grou to go and focus on fucking ash's shit up. chimes pleads with her but eventually exhausts his patience and makes his own slugcat to help whispers, which goes poorly and they leave the group entirely and eventually die past any of their communication ranges of their own voalition. after sparks steals ash's seniority she kind of has a crisis which kicks in [especially when her overseer gets speared by whispers who is pissed at her] and she realizes "Wait that was bad" and she SO DESPERATELY wants to be a good person so she comes begging to her group to tell her shes a good person, angry and crying and panicking, and chimes is like "no??? the fuck ??? you fucked up bigtime???" queue a very disasterous fight that results in sparks doubling down and going after maw next. good job bending horizons

[namuneulbo]

week one hundred and eighty seven

it feels like i've done sm yet so little this week. i went shopping on monday and i finally found the keyrings i've been looking for. a poppy playtime one and a gengar one. i haven't even played poppy playtime but the blue guys too cute, i had to. i like creepy things.

i tried a new curl routine on tuesday and my hair turned out better than usual so i think i'll be trying that one for a while now and see how i like it. it's just a bit annoying bc my hair already takes a while to dry but with this technique it takes even longer which is bad bc i'm a morning showerer by heart. i should maybe invest in a diffuser.

in the evening i went on dinner with one of my professors and my student councelor from my home uni as well as a few alumnis from my major. all the exchange students were invited but i was the only one who came LMAO. it was nice though. it was a barbeque place so i did tell my student councelor beforehand that i might not be able to eat that much there but she contacted one of the alumnis who happened to work there and he was then able to guarantee me some vegetarian options! he was kinda cute not gonna lie but i'm also married to h. i feel bad for thinking other people are cute but is that not just human? i don't want to date them, i want to date h.

anyways, it was still good even though most of my food was just plain grilled vegetables and garlic rice. afterwards we walked to itaewon and went for a beer. i left first along with two others because i couldn't be bothered catching a bus.

our university festival started on tuesday and went on until thursday. i only really went out on thursday. i briefly went out on wednesday and watched a band play for a bit and then tried getting into the aespa concert but the queue was so long. people had been queueing since i woke up and i ended up just straight up not getting into the area. not even close enough to see a screen. it's quite dumb of them to hold the concert in such a secluded and small area. i watched another band play on thursday. they played some bangers. starlight by muse and high noon by thornapple. approved by me! in the evening h came to walk around the festival with me. later we walked to seongsu to eat pasta. we ordered the same thing, a carbonara, but i asked for them to remove the bacon and they did BUT APPARENTLY IT HAD SHRIMP TOO??? i swear to god... no matter how well i think i've thought it through and ordered accordingly so i will be able to eat it, there WILL be meat in there somewhere. i was so hungry i just gave the shrimp to h and ate it anyways. i mean... the damage has already been done? i still dont enjoy eating meat but i'm mostly vegetarian because i hate the meat industry. you know, back home in sweden i'm basically vegan because of how accessible it is. here i basically can't be.

friday was NOT my day. i was meeting j to go to an escape room BUT I THOUGHT WE WERE MEETING AN HOUR LATER??? so i just noticed when she texted me like "let me know when you're here" AND I WAS JUST ABOUT TO START GOING THERE TT i ended up paying for everything that night to even out the cost for the escape room. i felt so bad dude :( but we ended up having a nice evening out anyways. we went for dinner and had chive pancakes and an omelette with makgeolli. so like the most korean meal ever LMAO! it was sooooo good though and we got so many different types of kimchis with it too. it was great. it was my first time trying makgeolli and it's not really my thing but i got quite fucking drunk from it.

we then went to a bar for somaek and oh my god. we were talking like normal and then j went to the bathroom and while she was gone, two girls at the table next to us started talking to me. the first girl just asked for my insta and did a bunch of hearts with her hands and kept telling me she wanted to be friends. so we all exchanged instagrams and when j came back they spoke to her in korean and told her they thought it was cool how we spoke in a mix of korean and english. we decided to move to a bigger table to sit together and the two girls kept flirting with me and asking what my type was. one of them was 31 and she worked as a webtoon designer which i thought was super cool and the other girl was 25 but i don't remember what she worked as but they had worked at the same office at some point so maybe she also works with webtoons? i can't even remember that well all the flirting they did but they were proper love triangle fighting over me and trying to win me over. the older one would go smoke sometimes and always ask me to join and then grab my hand to bring me down. the younger would join and she was CONFIDENT when she flirted with me and like smugged an everything and they both would like hold me and stuff like at some point i had to tell them i'm talking to someone TT it was honestly hard to tell if they were flirting or just being nice in the beginning which is why i let it go on for so long before i said anything. my friend agreed too that she couldn't really tell until later. they just seemed like very typically korean in a way, you know? so many people are touchy here and i really like it because i love being touchy with people but i think for me as a finn, it's seen more romantic than it needs to be.

they were fun people, i don't have anything against them at all. we actually all planned to go to seoul pride together so that's fun! i had earlier in the evening talked with j about going together so it was perfect.

i started feeling a little sick that evening and i am indeed back in a cold now. horrible timing with my music school audition coming up. maybe they're understanding? singers are always cooked if they happen to become sick. i've been resting a lot, avoiding talking and drinking lots and lots of hot tea.

sotw: muse - starlight

[stcries]

there's an immediate, perhaps instinctual step backwards as soon as she clambers atop him. you'd think after raising her all these years, he'd be used to all of this?-- yeah not even close. but does ken make any effort to remove her? nope. maybe he's more accustomed to it than he thought...

"i dunno, you could practice on one of US-- we can take plenty. especially mud, y'should prioritise him if you're gonna actually go through with it." yep, of course he's gotta throw his brother under the bus. but hey, it was all in good fun! it's not like ken would purposefully hurt his brother... but since they could take a beating and then some, well--

then and only then does a hand reach up to finally pluck her from his chest and plant her back on her feet. "besides i mean, what other life lessons could you need?-- you've got a roof over your head, food in the kitchen. heck, i ever let you work the tables, so you're gettin' some work experience under your belt. what else is there?" this world was dangerous yes, but ken could handle the rough and tough if it meant keeping her safe. "if you're askin me, you've got it pretty good here, kid."

Violent? bloody? god knows what else? That grin just gets bigger and bigger. She never gives up on the first no.

"But what if I did...this?" she has to hop up and balance precariously on a stool to reach, but she grabs his face and tries to forcefully smoosh his pudgy, glaring features into a smile.

"Don't ya think people are gonna start talking if I'm cooped up in here all the time?" That's the ticket, go for his paranoia, use reverse-psychology.

She practically climbs up his chest to stare, wide-eyed, into his whatever is left of his soul,

"If I never go on a job, then how am I gonna build essential life skills? What if I need to shank somebody?"

[ianb323]

A spaceship at the edge of the universe.

Earendel emerges from the Baleen’s interface and physically disconnects from her old world. A cotton shift glides over her as she stretches and floats while smart-threads tighten the fabric against her. Her skin provides such rich sensory stimulus – an ocean of inputs compared to the discrete sensors of the Baleen. She scratches each limb in luxury, makes her happy morning sounds, then sets off.

She stretches. Stepping first with her toes, then flexing individual leg muscles to make tiny leaps as the Baleen rearranges itself around her. There is no space to waste on a spaceship; no corridors or separate rooms, only the capacity to reconfigure. Earendel plays with the Baleen. She swings on poles and steps on plates the size of her palm, spins, and splits herself between inch-wide platforms. Her heart begins to beat loudly in her ears as she launches and somersaults toward wall segments already soaring to new positions, then arcs backwards - powerful as a swimmer and forcing the magnetic controls to triple lock the tiles. Her antics slow the Baleen’s rearrangement but this is the game: the competition, a clash of morning routines. Seven minutes pass in this fashion before Earendel, flushed with satisfaction, bounces gently from a wall and admires the droplets of sweat in the air while breathing hard. The Baleen accelerates minutely until the water droplets are collected and Earendel turns to rest a forearm against a window overlooking the edge of the universe.

There is nothing to see.

The front of reality being nosed by the Baleen was like the edge of a dust cloud. There was no more carpet left to roll out. The threads of existence were beginning their slow unravelling. Of course, in the beginning, there was that light fortissimo, confined so tightly by the bounds of a tiny universe that matter precipitated like raindrops and thundered in applause. And here was Earendel at the end, peering at that once-mighty wall that had held the shape of the universe. As it failed, life would fail, followed by the planets, their matter crumbling to motes. The stars had burned away long ago and while the black holes remained, even they would eventually fail. Photons would stall to rest, and then who knew what would happen next. Earendel snorted at the idea of trying to make predictions beyond that point – why bother? No one could possibly be around to benefit.

There have been nicer mornings, she thinks. Now she is cross-legged in zero-g, sipping her tea. Idly connects to the Baleen to send a few commands. For a millisecond, light surges from radio  to x-rays through the gap between ship and reality edge. The universe’s edge might be crumbling, but it was still reflecting most everything thrown at it, albeit with some distortion. Previous reports indicated that each  reflection was peppered with noise that made Earendel remember stories of flickering starlight when measured through a planetary atmosphere. The Baleen picks up the reflected signals and compares them to the emitted pattern, then queues the sequence to repeat several times, then several more with different combinations of light. As Earendel finishes swallowing her tea, her ship notifies her that the first experiment results are ready for inspection.

The returning signals were consistently distorted, and whatever mechanism was behind that distortion seemed not to care about how the initial signals are sent out, though it would be a while before that could be exhaustively tested, and neither Earendel nor the Baleen had the ability or interest in probing the entire EM spectrum. At some point you just had to shrug and say you had enough data.

But the return signals remain in phase with the outgoing signals. Marvellous, Earendel thought. It was so nice when experiments could be so straightforwardly reproduced.

Earendel sinks slightly deeper into the Baleen and retrieves her memory of pet projects. She spends some more time sending and receiving various colours of light to and from the wall between her and nothingness, gathering data, fine-tuning her algorithms. Hours pass until she emerges, feeling the satisfying buzz of her mind fully in gear, then sends two commands to the Baleen: run ‘Jazz_with_universe_v0’ and ‘breakfast’. Music, of a sort, begins to play. A melody in the syncopated rhythm, strange beats of harmony. Half-sounds of instruments combine with their reflections to make new sounds that are never quite right but nonetheless suffice as backdrop for Earendel’s meal. After a few minutes, she calls up a crossword and whiles away the hours, deliberately reducing her perception of time to extend the moment in her memory. That is, until the music surrounding her flickers and collapses into half-sounds only. The wall at the edge of the universe has stopped reflecting. Earendel looks up with a sinking feeling that she has done something very, very wrong.