#surprise?? Susie is good in this au?????

[ninjastar107]

"moody-Blues" (as Proto-mini calls him) refused to talk to Namagem for a long time, but Break-mans continued exposure has brought him out of his shell some. It's still awkward though.

[patiann345]

I'm flabbergasted, I'm shocked, I'm disappointed, and frankly? I'm indignant.

In a series with so, so very little in terms of representation in canon, a series that had what I THOUGHT was 2-3 confirmed POC (we'll get to that 2-3 bit btw), 1 Jewish man, a handful of women who's writing is hit-or-miss, and no queer characters because according to one of the creators "their identities don't matter"... (Tell that to the straight characters like Henry, Thomas, Allison, Susie, Linda who's not even a character and didn't need to exist in the first place-)

Preview for that graphic novel dropped! Spoilers!!

Norman Polk is white.

I'm. astonished. For the record, because I know someone will likely bring it up, I am aware that there was never a point in the series where it was ever actually confirmed that Norman was a black man. But it was very much the consensus for most people that he was coded to be POC. To see this is just.. it's disheartening.

Dreams Come to Life seemingly (egg on my face for thinking Norman was black ig???) had 3 POC characters; Norman, Thomas, and Jacob. This was... maybe changed to 2 later on, as JDS went back on coding Thomas as a black man (an announcement they made in a Discord server of all things?? Never publically???) which they may have gone back on again later since the wiki (not official, for the record) recognizes him as black.

3 characters, and we're now down to possibly one; I say possibly because it depends on how Thomas is represented in this book. If he's black, we've got 2. If he's white?

One. One character who's never made an appearance in the games; only in spinoff material in a book. One.

In the simplest way I can put it, I'm upset. There's lots more I can talk about here; how I think this opening is a disservice and bastardization of the original writing for cutting so much out, how while it can look worse (I've read a good handful of fnaf books I KNOW it can look worse) I can't say it really looks any good, how Buddy looks like he's 12, how the yellows are garish and piss-looking. But what has me the most upset is Norman, because he was 1 of 2-3 POC characters, out of a cast of dozens upon dozens. And sure, there could be more. But we only had 3 confirmed. Maybe 2.

And now we may be down to one.

I actually spoke with my partner a few nights ago about how nervous I was about the graphic novel. Because of how the cover looked, I wasn't expecting anything great. But I knew there was a chance they'd double down and be like 'Nope, actually Thomas is white, always was' I was anticipating that, and I still am. And I looked at them and told them something roughly along the lines of- "I can live with them making Thomas white, cause of them trying to back-peddle once, I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't know how I'd handle them whitewashing Norman."

I still don't know how to handle it. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. People have done amazing designs of Norman for AUs and personal headcanons. Hell, all the staff really. And a majority of them, you'll find, are black. Almost everyone thought he was black. Not this pale Afton knock-off (seriously his hair looks greasy as hell, I know it's a stylization of the lighting but it looks gross)

I'm just throwing my thoughts out here for anyone who cares. Maybe most people won't mind, and fine. Again, it wasn't stated, it was seemingly coding, but clearly, we were wrong because he's paler than the fucking moon. But this is upsetting. This is genuinely upsetting to see. We have so little rep in this series, and the number is somehow dwindling.

What. the Fuck.

[magolandandfriends]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Magolor: I’m gonna be honest Marx, I was expecting you to get bored of this place and leave the theme park within a week- even now I’m still surprised you’re still sticking around

Marx: Oh I don’t know- maybe it’s because it’s a theme park and it gives me so much stuff to do and it’s actually enjoyable and not some dead end job?!? Not to mention the free snacks and getting to spend all day with you-

Magolor: I can’t imagine you having a job outside of the theme park- wait what was the last part?

Marx: Oh the free snacks? Yeah lemme tell you I don’t know how you do it but the food here is amazing lemme tell you and the best part is that they’re FREE!! You physically can’t go wrong with free food-

Magolor: Well I hire the best Waddle Dee chefs after all! Even I’m amazed by how good their cooking is

Marx: SEE YOU GET ME! And yes I like spending all day with you-

Magolor: OF COURSE I D- wait really?

Marx: Does I look like I’m lying???!

Magolor: Well no that’s expected we spent a year together before you left- but you still enjoy spending time with me?? Even after all this time??

Marx: Of course?? You get me- compared to Taranza or Susie you’re the only one who really knows and gets me- Gryll barely makes the cut and we see each other as sibling. But you?!? We’re like one and the same- you’re my best friend, no one puts up with me more than you. So yes. Even after all this time, I still want to spend time with you.

Magolor: … the fact that you’re able to say something so touching doesn’t feel real

Marx: Well congrats this is very much real! You better treasure this because it won’t be happening again for a LONG TIME

Magolor: OH TRUST ME I AM-

Marx: OK GOOD GLAD WE GOT THAT CLEARED OUT

“…”

Marx: hey Mags?

Magolor: ?

Marx: I’m glad I found you again.

Magolor: … me too Marx

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚ *ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

(Is the dialogue secretly foreshadowing?2??/?/?/ possibly but shhhhhh don’t tell anyone- ok now I’m gonna get sappy in the next few texts have fun)

By the time I post this it’s most likely still 2023- I know I haven’t been on my usual schedule recently but honestly? The past 7 months on this account have been the best thing ever for me. I get to share my silly ideas for my silly au and you guys come on by and enjoy it.

and to think that this account has come so far and the stories I have in mind aren’t even out yet. It’s just so crazy to me. Not to mention I actually managed to make some friends, something I thought I would never be able to do anymore because I’m too scared to post/reach out to people. To the people that willingly wanted to talk me, thank you. Thank you for being my friend, you don’t know how much that means to me <333

And to everyone who found this account- weither it’s from day 1 or a week ago, thank you for sticking around and putting up with me- I’ll try my damn best to get more posts out- just bare with me I still never got to the Christmas ones- but I will get to them I promise. But I hope I can continue to make you guys happy with my AU! I got this far might as well keep it up :DDDD

I wish everyone a happy new year and for an amazing 2024! Let’s aim for a better and brighter future :D

- Daisy

[charrfie]

Soooo this has been in the works for a while. Some fun and self indulgent and silly au that I actually got way too attached to!!! To the point I've actually got a whole outline of a story for it! Going to put it in under the cut :^]

-

For context: I haven't really decided if this is a completely parallel universe where kris and susie and everyone else has any input on the world. Or if its simply just a year or two early to main storyline stuff. Idk, still thinking, I'll figure it out eventually.

Story time now though! Just as they are in their actual canon story, arrfs is from space! An alien trying to integrate into the Lightner world. Despite pups best efforts over the years, she still manages to wind up without a friend. I'm still heavily workingshopping what exactly their Lightner life was like or how exactly they stumbled into the dark world, all I know is pup gets there somehow!

Once arrfs DOES reach the dark world, pup is absolute terrified. Not only is there no one to tell them what's going on or where they are, but there's also no one to face the unknown with her. Unsure what to make of the change of clothes and new surroundings, pup treks on until- just as she does in the actual deltarune canon- queen pops up out of nowhere to capture her!!! Arrfs instinctually turns into a little tiny worm as a way to hide and defend pupself and queen just accepts it, going "Oh shit lol they disappeared woah. Okay bye."

Skipping ahead a bit bc otherwise we'll be here all day (and also bc I mainly have the meat of this story planned out rather than anything prior)! Arrfs stumbles around cyber city lost and confused after a close run-in with some ambyu-lances. That is, until they find themself in an alleyway. And who else do they find there other than spamton g. spamton himself!!! Instantly picking up on the fact that pup is a Lightner, spamton attempts to lure her into buying one of his wares so that pup may learn to trust him. Which quickly goes south when he realizes that arrfs doesn't have a single cent to their name. He frowns, instead offering her a place to relax. A place to stop running from every Darkner that attempts to approach them. This lands arrfs in spamtons shop, of course! While it seems like a friendly offer, in reality it's mainly offered so that spam has more time to think up a deal. One that would really hook arrfs and ultimately benefit spamton himself.

But then it hits him. This Lighter is lost and confused with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. If he were to hire them with promise of a roof over their head and a place to stay (however low quality and surrounded by garbage it may be), they would not only be a much friendlier face to lure his customers in, but would also come to trust him. THAT'S how you hook a customer and make them into a returning one. That's his ticket into getting into the basement. And to his surprise... arrfs jumps on the idea! Pup's very desperate to get a controlled grip on this world, and most of all, really just to find a friend after all these years. Blissfully unaware of the real nature behind the deal, she seals it.

I'm still working on the exact details of how the rest of it plays out, all I know is that the two actually do wind up becoming genuine friends! Spamton initially was in it for himself, sure, but instead he finds himself so comfortable with the first genuine friendship he's had in years. He fufills his goal of enabling arrfs to be completely trusting of him, but he never figured he would be so trusting of them as well. Not to mention that with all of arrfs help, they've pulled together a bit more of a stable income. She's even encouraged him to create his own art that sells for a much higher price than his normal wares. He almost wants to delay getting his hands on want he wants down in the basement out of fear he may lose all the good he's found. Almost.

And that's what I've got so far! I think it's fun!

-

Extra design notes!!!

I know I stylized black and gray as blue on spamton btw but that was just the fit the blue theme on the rest of this. Arrfs' cloak is actually just that color blue!

Arrfs is surrounded by butterfly themes in the dark world! I figured that since their themes are mainly focused on grubs and caterpillars outside of the au just as a normal sona, butterflies would be a cool approach to show some kind of change! That's also the shape of their cloak- butterfly wings!

[thewolffswife]

Tease | TW & SW

@rosee-sensuelle​ and I have an au in which susie and toto are both your professors. becuase we’re greedy and one wolff isn’t enough. anyway. i wrote this. but if you know me irl, no i didn’t. 

cw: mommy/daddy kink/dynamic, much smut, very nsfw, afab!reader, student/teacher relationship, mff throuple  

You and Susie are sitting at the kitchen table. You’d been spending more time at their apartment than your own student flat, and you’re surprised they hadn’t got sick of you yet.

         Susie’s grading papers from the latest assignment she’d set your class. You’re finishing up some other homework, a piece for Toto’s class, when, out of the corner of your eye, you see her picking up the next paper and smirking.

         “Well, well, well,” her voice is light and teasing. “Look at whose paper is next!”

         You gulp. She’s never graded your work while you’ve been sitting right there, and you feel a wave of uneasiness come over you. The assignment was a bit of a struggle, and you can’t face her being disappointed in your work. Not as she’s going over it for the first time, while you’re sitting right there.

         She shoots you looks as she marks and makes comments, smirking at the nervous look on your face. She’s writing extensively, and you want to cry. You know you’ve completely fucked up, and hope that she will let you retry after she explains it to you.

         You let out a shaky breath as she finishes marking the last page. She flips over to the front, and you watch her write something on the top, before sliding it over to you.

         You reach for it, and you can see that you’re visibly shaking. You need to calm yourself down, but you’re finding it a struggle.

         At the very top, in her gorgeous, swooping handwriting, she has written ‘good girl’ next to your mark and her signature smiley face: 35/35. You let out a shaky exhale in relief.

         You start flipping through the comments, eager to read her opinion, and you inhale sharply.

                     I can’t wait to fuck you later.

 Why do you look so nervous?

 God, I love teasing you.

                      Are you squirming because you’re worried, or because you need to be fucked?

                      Should we go upstairs, or should we wait for Daddy?

          Before you can answer, you hear familiar heavy footsteps entering the kitchen.

         “Well, hello my beautiful girls.” Toto rasps seductively, rolling up the sleeves of his denim shirt. “What are you up to?”

         “Just giving our little one a little scare,” Susie winks as she nods in your direction. “Decided to have a little fun and mark her recent assignment,”

         “And how did our sweet girl take that?” Toto chuckled, picturing your reaction in his mind’s eye.

         “Oh, it was delicious watching her squirm, darling.” Susie gives you a look, sweet and reassuring and full of lust. Her voice deepens, “You know how much she loves praise.”

         ‘Oh, I do.” Toto wraps his arms around your waist, you’re just tall enough on the bar stool he doesn’t have to bend down too far. He kisses your neck, the feeling of his day-old stubble tickling at first before the scratchiness kicks in, but it feels so good. “Such a good little thing,” He groans against your skin.

         Your eyes drift closed, but you can hear Susie get up from her seat and walk towards the two of you. She takes your hand, and Toto releases you from his encompassing embrace.

         You groan in protest of his absence, but you follow Susie as she leads you up to the bedroom, Toto following right behind and tapping your ass affectionately.

         You cross the threshold into the bedroom and it’s like a switch flips in your brain, fuelled by need. You pull Susie into a kiss, instead of waiting for her to make the first move. You’re frenzied as you undress her, tearing at her clothes, wanting to get your mouth on as much skin as possible. You move from her mouth to her neck, to her collar bone, and stop for a moment to take her bra off.

         You’ll never get over seeing her breasts, feeling them in your hands.  You lean down, taking one nipple into your mouth, sucking, and running your tongue over it in familiar patterns. You nip at it with your teeth before moving onto the other one.

         You feel Toto behind you, undoing your pants as he presses his hard dick into your ass, provoking a moan to spill from your kiss-swollen lips.

         Susie grasps your chin in her hand and lifts your head so you’re looking at her. She doesn’t say anything, just leers with hunger as she leans down and kisses you. You feel Toto work he hand into your panties, the pair he chose for you earlier that morning, and chuckle at just how wet you are.

         “God, Susie.” Toto breathes out, voice husking with arousal. “She’s so fucking wet. Every time, fuck.” He pulls his hand out of your panties and you see his fingers glistening in the light. Susie pulls away from, grabbing his hand and sucking his fingers into her mouth.

         A quiet whimper slips from you, and her lips, still painted red from her day of teaching, now smudged around her face and yours, curve into a small, pleased smile as they manoeuvre you onto to the bed.

         She presses her thumb between your spit-slick lips just as Toto bottoms out, his thick cock sliding deep into your dripping cunt. You whine, still sensitive from Toto slowly fingering you open; the sounds spilling from you like slow honey.

         Toto’s fingers tighten, his rough fingertips digging divots into the flesh of your hips. He stills.

         He’s heavy in you, the weight of his cock splitting your cunt wide, the stretch just as intense as that very first night, stinging, just slightly, as your walls struggle around his girth. It slips molten across your nerves. You arch into the spark of it, your hips pressing closer, and a low grunt pitches out of Toto as he fucks even deeper into your wet heat.

         “Oh, good girl. Sweet girl,” Susie coos. “Look how well you’re taking Daddy.” She rubs her thumb against the wet of your tongue, pressing down just enough to hold it in place. You can feel the spit collecting in the corners of your lips, can feel it puddling under your tongue.

         “Suzanne,” Toto groans, and your cunt spasms around him at the deep rasp of his stern voice.

         She drags her thumb from your mouth, smears your spit and remnants of her lipstick over your lips. “Look at Daddy, little one.”

         Toto’s already watching you when you turn to him, his brown eyes darkened to the expanse of the night sky; deep and hungry. He glances over, takes in the way your chest heaves, tits jiggling with it. He meets your glazed-over gaze again, even with his pupils blown wide.

         He flexes his hips, the fat head of his cock scraping against your silken walls. He’s so deep in you.

         “Fuck.” You choke out. “Fuck – ah – you’re so big, Daddy,”

         Susie smoothes the hair on your forehead back, whispering in your ear. “Too much?” You shake your head desperately.

 “Use your words, sweet girl. Can you do that for Mommy?”

“’S not too much” you slur, cock drunk.

“Good girl,” She murmurs warmly, eyes transfixed between your legs.

Toto slips his big hand to the nape of your neck and tugs you up into a slow kiss, pulling you from Susie. It shifts him in you, and you clench down on his cock as it drags over your sweet spot. His fingers tighten on your nape. He gives you a hard, strong stroke that sends pleasure racing up your spine like lightning. The white heat of it crackles under your skin as he splits your cunt open, as he drives thick into your little hole. He lifts your leg higher, to wrap around his hips, and your voice breaks on his name, ‘Daddy…”.

He keeps a steady pace, slow and hard, and you scrabble to get your hands on him, to dig your fingers into his broad shoulders.

Susie doesn’t let you go anywhere.

She’s cupping your tit, her thumb feathering over your pebbled nipple as Toto takes you apart. He’s pressing you back down into her lap: you can feel the heat of her cunt through the silken, expensive lingerie.

You hiccup a moan into Toto’s mouth as she rolls your nipple between two long fingers, and then she tugs. The sensation splinters through you, runs molten beneath your skin to pool low in your cunt.

Toto grunts as you tighten around him. He rolls his hips, and you jolt as he hammers into your g-spot. He’s thrusting harder now, his cock hitting deep, until you feel remade around him. You curl your leg around his strong hips, your walls fluttering. He bites out a sharp curse in German. And then he’s fucking you harder, his balls hitting heavy against you.

“Fu- ah- ck! Daddy!”

“You can take it for me, Schatzi,” He grits out, his raspy words almost lost amid the sound of your wet, greedy cunt taking him in. “Such a good girl.”

Susie’s hand skates over your belly, down over the bulge he’s creating, her teasing touch leaving a blazing trail of fire against your skin. You give a sharp cry as she brushes against your swollen clit, but she traces lower, until she’s circling around your soaked hole. She spreads her fingers around where Toto’s cock splits you, and he hisses out a sharp breath.

She laughs, soft and low, and then grinds the heel of her palm against your clit. You arch with a shout as it scorches through you, the pinpricks of sparking pleasure gathering at the base of your spine, flickering, and splintering beneath your skin.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” Susie coaxes as your cunt tightens. She strokes the sopping edges of your stretched hole. Then, she moves her fingers up, making sure to drag against your sensitive flesh and Toto’s hard cock alike, until she’s sweeping light circles around the nub of your clit.

“Mommy…” You whine, struggling against her grip again, muscles winding tight, your thigh quivering where it’s looped over Toto’s hip. Your cunt is pulses around his cock, tightening around him even as he pushes further, white heat flickering through you. “Fuck, Mommy – ah – Daddy, please!”

She leans down, Toto tilts his head just enough so that she can pull you into a filthy, deep kiss. She leaves you slick with spit as she pulls back, scraping her teach against the swollen flesh of your lower lip. “Be good for us little one, cum,” she says.

Toto fucks into you with a deep, hard thrust as Susie increases the pressure on your clit, hard little circles over the sensitive nub.

You shatter in a shriek of their names, lightning strikes pulsing incandescent through you as your cunt clamps tight around Toto. He fucks you through it with short, shallow strokes, all he can manage with how tight you are around his cock. Susie circles your clit again, and your whole-body jolts, hips shaking and back arching, and then Toto’s pulling you to him. You can faintly hear him murmuring praise through the humming in your ears – so pretty, take it so well, your cunt’s perfect, Schatzi, you’re perfect, ich Liebe dich, so good, my love – as you clench hard around him. He drags you up against his broad chest, his hips flexing, and he groans your name into your mouth as he cums.

You slump against him as his cock twitches inside you, pumping you full of him. He presses his lips to your damp hairline, giving a few slow strokes as he murmurs soft words to you in German you can’t translate. The words flow fuzzy through you, nonetheless. You can feel his cum starting to trickle out of you, hot and sticky.

He lays you back on the bed, your head cushioned on Susie’s lap once more. They both his as he pulls out.

Susie smooths a cool hand over your damp hairline. The bed shifts as Toto get up; Susie leans down to kiss you.

It’s a soft, lazy kiss. Decadent. She kisses you slowly, coaxes your lips open with ease, runs her tongue over the plush flesh of your lower lip before pushing inside. You sink your hand into her hair, spool the soft, blonde strands through your fingers.

She trials her hand down your sternum, over your hip, until she’s stroking over your quivering thigh. You sigh into her mouth. She keeps kissing you, that same languid pace, until your lips are shining wetly with her spit.

Her hand slips higher, until she’s cupping your cunt. You squirm as she presses her palm against the hot, slick mess of your and Toto’s cum.

“You can give me once more, can’t you?” she asks, parting your pussy with two long fingers. You wince at the wet sound it elicits. “One more from Mommy, a reward for your paper, huh, little one?”

“I… maybe?”

Susie dips a fingertip into your fluttering hole. You feel the rolling drip of cum being pushed out around it, it trickles down slowly.

It makes your cheeks burn hot with embarrassment.

She sinks her finger into the warm depth of your cunt. You whine and push up into your hand. Her lips curve into a smirk.

“Oh, I think you can.”

She pushes a second finger in, bringing her thumb to rest on your aching clit, and you almost scream with the knife-edged burn of it, the pleasure just shy of too much. She curls her fingers against your front wall, tapping against your g-spot, and this time you jolt, your body curving with it.

“Mommy…”

“Hmmm, sweetheart?”

She presses again as you open your mouth, and you keen. She drags her fingers out and lingers for a moment, feather-soft touch, before thrusting them back in quickly. The movement brings a rush of cum with it. It trails sticky down your cunt and ass. You shiver.

“So messy, my little one,” Susie muses, sinking a third finger into you before you can even think of replying. She catches you in another lazy, luxurious kiss, swallowing down your moan.

She fucks into your slowly, her fingers spearing deep. She curls them deftly, and your hips buck against the pleasure scraping raw over your nerves.

And then there are thick-fingered hands, huge and strong, pinning you back down. Toto holds you steady with ease.

Susie pulls back, checking in. “Okay?”

You nod breathlessly. Toto squeezes at your hips. You glance down at him.

“Yes.” You say, using your words like they need. “’m okay.”

“Good girl,” Susie purrs, and then your voice cracks on her name as she twists her fingers and sweeps a tight circle around your clit. It scorches through you, makes the smouldering embers of your orgasm flare almost painfully.

Susie is less merciful that Toto: she sets a hard pace from the start, fucking up into you with pin-point precision. You fist at her hair, back arching hard.

“Mommy! Fuck…”

She swipes over your clit, and your legs twitch and try to close. Toto settles between them to keep them apart, but he drops a soft, open-mouthed kiss against your hipbone.

Susie kisses you again, swallowing the desperate little whines you’re making. She fucks you fast, fingers clever and practiced against the fluttering of your cunt. She taps your clit until you mewl, each touch sending white head clawing through you.

She’s murmuring sweet filth against your lips as she winds you up – could have you on my fingers all day, you’d look so pretty like that, you’d sound so sweet, so wrecked, you’d be so good for me. She sweeps a thumb over the apple of your cheek lovingly as you sob her name.

It isn’t until your hips are consistently flexing against Toto’s unyielding grip that she finally presses firmly against your clit. It seers through you, bonfire hot, and you cum with a noise you didn’t know you could make.

Susie’s forced to stop thrusting by the clench of your cunt, her fingers caught in the tight grip of it. The orgasm shudders through you even as it fades. Your thighs ache as your muscles loosens going to jelly beneath Toto’s careful touch.

Susie hums as you spasms softly around her fingers, boneless against her as Toto’s cum still oozes around the length of them.

She pulls her fingers out and spreads them, watching the mixture of your and his cum string between them. She scrunches her nose in that adorable way, and you open your mouth without thinking.

“Oh, look at you.” She purrs, pressing her fingers between your lips. “Isn’t our little girl just something.” She whispers, almost awe-struck.

“She is,” Toto responds. He sounds unbearably soft.

         “Still,” she tells you, petting your hair and pulling you into her as Toto strokes over your thighs, wet cloth in hand as he waits for you to stop trembling. “Next time you get full marks, I’m fucking you with the strap first.”

[wonderlandleighleigh]

The cooking show in ‘78 is a big hit, which doesn’t really surprise Midge, much. She’s always been a whiz in the kitchen, and she’s funny as hell on top of that, and so the combination of her quick humor and delicious food winds up being an irresistible one-two punch.

Susie is happy, too. It’s keeping Midge in the public eye without having to send her on tour. Abe isn’t doing all that great now that Rose is gone, and the kids are a fucking mess, apparently, with Esther’s genius starting to make her life much harder, and Ethan is still trying to decide whether he wants to do his rabbinical studies here in the states or in Israel.

Shit’s nuts, in short.

But the show is fun. It’s low stakes, and every once in a while they have a celebrity guest come on to make one of their own dishes. Gordon Ford came on once for a steak au poivre recipe where he just hit on Midge the entire time. It made for good TV, but Midge left set annoyed as fuck and the two women drank their way through a couple of bottles of wine that night.

Shy Baldwin came on for an episode to make paella and Midge makes lots of jokes about Jewish people and shellfish, while Shy complains about the fact that when he does cooking shows everyone wants him to make fried chicken.

“My fried chicken is terrible,” he laughs. “I gave Reggie salmonella once.”

Midge laughs at that. “You did not!”

“I did! He’s never let me live it down!”

It’s a great episode, two old friends who have mended a long-broken fence giggling their way through a half hour of television, talking about the tour in 1960, and having a frank discussion about Shy’s coming out the year before. Shit gets rave reviews TV Guide, and even Variety picks up a blurb about the two’s warmth and effervescence on screen.

Susie is happy.

“I booked Lenny Bruce for next week.”

Susie is less happy.

“Mike!” she snaps. “What the fuck?! Seriously!? She hasn’t spoken to him since his overdose in ‘66!”

Mike blinks. “I thought they were friends.”

“Before he fucked his life, yeah,” Susie tells him. “They haven’t spoken in years.”

“Do they hate each other?” Mike asks. “Should I cancel?”

Susie blows out a breath and thinks for a moment. Midge doesn’t hate Lenny. Quite the opposite. They just...never got it together. “Let me talk to her. See what she wants.”

“The guy’s been clean since he almost kicked it,” Mike shrugs. “And he’s mostly working behind the scenes producing documentaries these days. I thought it’d be a nice ‘hello, old friend’ kind of episode.”

Susie squeezes her eyes shut. “Just...lemme take her temperature on it.”

*****

“Oh.”

Susie observes her oldest friend quietly as the comedian absorbs the information. Her eyes look sad and wistful for just a moment before she takes a breath and sits up straight.

“It’ll be fine,” Midge says. “It’ll be...nice. To see him.”

Susie eyes her suspiciously. “Will it?”

“I uh...yeah,” Midge nods. “I think the last time we spoke, we ran into each other at a Grammy party he stopped in at right after he got clean. He was...it was nice.”

Susie sighs softly. She likes Lenny. She, too, has run into him here and there, and since getting his shit together and winning his appeal, he’s been good. He was downright sweet the last time, buying Susie a drink. Thanking her for trying to drag his dumb ass out of that hole he was in.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Lenny wound up being husband number five.

“Okay, then. Lenny is on next week,” Susie confirms.

*****

He gets to set a little early to prep, and say hello. He’s quiet now, which Midge finds strange, but he’s clearly happy to be there. They share a friendly peck in greeting and then the work starts.

Susie hovers, whether to keep an eye on him or to keep an eye on her, Midge doesn’t know, but they run through what they’re doing (chicken soup - she can’t believe she hasn’t made it on the show yet), and the director does his usual shpeil, explaining how things work, where to look, where to stand.

Once the cameras are rolling, that old chemistry comes roaring back like a tidal wave. Their banter is fast and funny, and they laugh together. They shamelessly flirt, and Lenny drives her nuts by adding too much chili powder to the soup.

“You like spicy food,” he accuses.

“But chicken soup isn’t a spicy dish, Lenny.”

“Why not? We’re adults. We’re not committing murder. We can make spicy chicken soup.”

It goes off the rails from there, and suddenly they’re adding an entire jalapeno to the soup, and Lenny goads her into doing a party trick she’d mentioned to him long ago; eating an entire hot pepper without incident, which she does. 

They eat the soup, and declare it delicious, surprisingly, with all the spice.

They end the episode with their arms wrapped around each other, and Lenny laughing and trying to avoid her spicy breath as she giggles her way through the outro of the show. Once she gets out her “thank you and goodnight!” she turns to him and huffs in his face, making him jerk back, still laughing.

Susie can’t remember the last time Midge lit up so much with anyone other than Susie herself. It looks good on her, and since her mother died, she’s been down.

“You still out in LA?” Susie asks him as he’s getting ready to leave.

“I just moved back,” Lenny admits. “There are three docs shooting here in the next year I’m working on, and I’ve been asked to be more active, so I got a little place.”

Midge hears and perks up, but doesn’t say anything.

“Well...don’t be a stranger, then,” Susie tells him, patting his arm as she walks off, leaving the two comics to talk, though listening as she goes.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were moving back?” Midge asks.

“We don’t talk very much anymore, I didn’t think you’d care to know,” Lenny offers helplessly.

“You’re so dumb,” she accuses. “Of course I care to know. We should throw you a housewarming party.”

“No.”

“Lenny.”

He sighs heavily, as unable to say no to her as Susie is. “Fine.”

Susie smirks and heads for the offices to get a bead on last week’s ratings.

*****

After that, Lenny guests on the show once a month, and even when he’s not there, Midge brings him leftovers. 

END

[detroit-grand-prix]

letzte rose - bittere erinnrungen

Toto Wolff x Susie Wolff Royal/Historical AU

Chapter Summary: During breakfast, Toto's mother brings up the possibility of remarriage, and a list of potential brides. Toto refuses to look at it, but spends an afternoon reflecting on the state of his personal life.

Weekends meant that Toto’s rigorous schedule was relaxed, albeit only a bit.

He let himself sleep in a bit later, getting up at 5am instead of 3:30, and he had breakfast with his children and his mother instead of taking it alone in his study.

As he arrived for breakfast on Saturday — at 7:00am sharp — though, the only other person at the table was his mother.

— Where are the children? — he said, sitting down at the chair at the head of the table, as the attendant pulled it out for him. 

— Benedict said that he would be on the piste for an early fencing lesson, so he is with his trainer. Rosi, I think, said she would be dining with your sister this morning — Johanna said, her voice a little vacant. Her eyes were glued to a copy of some newspaper, likely the Wiener Zeitung, but Toto couldn’t see the masthead. A prickle of annoyance traveled down the back of his neck. How many times had he been told off for trying to read at the dining table, even in recent years?

— Something interesting in the papers this morning? — he said, as an attendant placed a tea tray in front of him.

— What? — Johanna said, startled — No, I mean… just the…

— Maybe something in the society pages caught your eye?

Toto smirked as Johanna became visibly flustered, tossing aside the hastily-folded volume and turning attention to her plate.

 — Never mind that, I wanted to talk to you about something important, and it’s just as well that Bene and Rosi aren’t here — Johanna said, making Toto look up from his cup of tea, furrowing his eyebrows.

— It has been a while since we talked about it, but I think you need to give remarriage some more consideration again — she ignored Toto as he opened his mouth to immediately protest, pressing on — it’s been years since Stephanie’s passing, and you need someone other than me to perform the Empress’ duties.

— Why not Rosi? — Toto asked cooly, recalling his conversation with Niki.

— Because Rosi needs to put serious consideration into her own marriage and future. Both of your children do! Don’t think I won’t be speaking to them later on about this, either — She speared a piece of tomato with her fork and Toto felt that she was somehow eating it at him. 

— Mama, I’ve told you before, I am not interested in marrying again.

— You’ve no good reason to refuse, my son.

— I just can’t, mama. It feels wrong — Toto pushed his eggs around his plate with his fork. 

— What do you mean? There’s no sin in it. Father Strossmayer and I have spoken about this, and he agrees with me, and the Bible even encourages…

Toto took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down before giving in to his urge to stand up and start yelling. The calm, quiet, even way his voice came out surprised him. 

— I know what the church says, but I loved Stephanie. When I was younger, I thought marriage was simply my duty, but I ended up being blessed enough to fall in love with the woman I married, a privilege I thought I’d never be afforded. I’ve discharged that particular duty to the crown and laid my heart to rest with her. It doesn’t feel right for me to dig it up again and give someone the rotted remains. Besides, I will remind you that you never remarried after papa died.

Toto and Lili’s father, Sven, was the Duke of Norrbotten and a Prince of Sweden. He and Johanna got along quite well, and Toto remembered his father as a kind, gentle man, but not long after the birth of Toto’s sister, something changed. 

He started experiencing frequent nosebleeds and headaches that would make it difficult for him to leave his bed. He would frequently become too dizzy to walk, almost as if he was drunk, but he was never much of a drinker. He started showing fits of delirium, agitation, and hallucinations. 

The court doctor was called, and theorized that it might be some sort of neurological issue. The court chaplain came to say some prayers at his bedside — Johanna refused to call it an “exorcism” — but it was all for naught. He eventually refused all food and drink, and slept at all hours, until his body and spirit just seemed to give up.

An autopsy was performed after Sven’s death, and it was found that his brain was riddled with tumors, which explained all of the horrid symptoms he had been experiencing.

It was not a time that Toto really cared to remember. 

Johanna’s expression turned sour, and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair once more.

— No, I did not, because I had two children to take care of. Not to mention, it is far easier for a widowed man to find a spouse than a widowed woman, especially one that already has the future secured. Your grandfather agreed that it was best for me to remain single, as there was no material benefit to any potential suitors.

— And what benefit would there be to me remarrying now?

— Well, for one thing, it would afford you the opportunity to have another son, to insure that you have a successor — Johanna saw Toto open his mouth to argue, but ignored it and continued on — While you’ve done well to secure your line of succession, it would present an opportunity to ensure there’s a spare, in case something happens to Benedict. It is not as if I wish for it, but, we do not know God’s will for any of us. For another thing, there needs to be someone to manage the royal household and the social duties that you have been neglecting for the past few years, to your own detriment. Now, I’ve got a list of names of ladies that would be perfectly suitable…

Johanna slipped her hand into the small reticule she always carried, extracting a slip of paper from within. 

— There’s Princess Francisca of Brazil… I believe she just turned twenty-four, I’ve heard she’s rather striking. And then there’s Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon Two-Sicilies, you’ve met her, I believe. She was born here in Vienna, and she’s the daughter of my cousin Clementina… and then Luisa Fernanda of Spain… she’s young, but that would be a handsome match; she’s the heir presumptive until Isabella has a child, you know. And that’s just the Catholic houses! It’s not ideal, but an especially good match from a Protestant family may be willing to convert…

Johanna had stopped looking at Toto, her eyes locked on the list of names in her hand. No doubt she was already planning the next great state wedding, and Toto could feel the anger rising within him as his mother continued to talk. It felt like a hot bile creeping up his throat, twisting his insides, making him clench his fists until he could feel his fingernails digging into the meat of his palms.

— That’s enough! — he said, pounding his fist on the tabletop. The flatware and cutlery clattered. One of the attendants in the room yelped slightly in surprise, immediately covering her mouth and blushing. Johanna stopped, mid-sentence, gaping at her son in shock. — I tell you this every time you bring it up, mother, but I do not wish to be remarried. If you must spend all of your spare time worrying about the security of my line of succession, I implore you to focus these efforts on your grandchildren instead. I am telling you, as a grown man and the emperor of this nation, that we shall not speak about remarriage again, and that is final.

Johanna’s eyes had narrowed, and her expression hardened. 

— And I am your mother — she hissed, venom dripping from her every syllable — I am simply doing what is best for you, for this nation, and for your happiness.

— My happiness?! — Toto said, raising his voice almost to a shout — Mama, we both know you have never given a damn about my happiness!

He was now on his feet, his chair pushed back and his breakfast long-abandoned and likely ice-cold. The dishes continued to rattle on the tabletop as he jabbed his finger into the cloth-covered wood. 

— You didn’t give a single thought to my happiness when you arranged my marriage to Stephanie, and it was only by the grace of God that we came to love each other. Of course, our marriage was happy before she passed, but as you’ve told me yourself, my happiness was secondary to ensuring the future of our family’s dynasty.

Toto stepped away from the table, breezing past the pair of servants that were frozen in shock. He pulled on the handle to the door into the dining room a bit harder than necessary, stopping halfway over the threshold to turn around and face his mother once more. 

— If you truly have any concern for my happiness, you will not bring this up again!

Toto retreated into his study, pacing around the small room as he tried to calm himself down.

He hadn’t lost his temper that badly in years, that he could remember, possibly decades. When he was younger, in the earlier days of his reign, he had been quicker to anger. He was desperate to prove himself and his authority in the days right after his grandfather died, not trusting that anybody saw him as anything more than a child pretending to be a ruler and a statesman. Him being short, sometimes even brutal, with his advisors was the norm, but a combination of time and the perspective that came with wisdom and experience mellowed him greatly, as did his desire to be a good husband and father. 

Normally after Saturday’s breakfast, he would review any paperwork or important matters that had come across overnight until the early afternoon. He did not work on Sundays, wishing to keep the Sabbath as a holy day of rest. Most of the royal household had the day off as well.

— I will never be able to focus like this — he mumbled to himself as he sat down at his desk. He buried his face in his hands, pressing his palms into his eyes until he could see stars, as if it would push the memory of the last hour out of his head by force.

He blinked as he lifted his head, trying to clear the blurriness from his vision, and the portrait of Stephanie resolved into focus from its place on the wall.

He knew exactly what would help.

Toto smirked, and opened the topmost drawer in his desk — the one right under the top, and fished out a ring of small brass keys. Then, he opened one of the lower drawers, extracting a small wooden box from within. 

He set the box on his desk, running a finger over the inlaid brass lettering on the top, the word “MIZPAH” in large capital letters. It had been a while since he had seen it, and there was a thin coating of dust on its glossy lacquered surface. The box was unassuming by the standards of everything else in the palace, belying the value of its contents to Toto. True, what was inside the box did not have much — if any — monetary value, but was priceless in Toto’s eyes.

He put the key in the lock and sprang the latches, revealing a thick stack of papers — letters, envelopes, postcards. It was all of the letters he and Stephanie had exchanged through the years, the earliest ones having been written before they had even met, after their marriage arrangement had been finalized and before she arrived in Vienna. There were letters and postcards from the separate travels they had taken through the years. Toto often had to travel for functions of state, and Stephanie had always enjoyed seeing new places, even as a child. They had taken many trips together, but Toto was not always able to join her because of the demands of his schedule, so they resolved to write to each other often when they had to be apart. 

Engraved on the underside of the lid was a Bible verse, the one referenced by the word on the lid’s inlay. A verse of Genesis, telling of the covenant made between Jacob and Laban, he remembered. It was written in the Latin vulgate — intueatur Dominus et iudicet inter nos quando recesserimus a nobis. 

“The Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent, one from another.” 

The priest that performed Stephanie’s funeral rites had referenced the verse in his sermon, inspiring Toto to have one of the court’s artisans, a particularly talented furniture maker, make the box to contain the letters for safekeeping. He had meticulously paired each and every one together, the letters he sent and the ones she sent in response, and vice versa. 

He felt his anger with his mother dissipating as he thumbed through the letters, admiring Stephanie’s elegant looping handwriting. Some of the pages had little mementos stuck to the pages — flowers she had pressed, little doodles she had made in the margins and footers. He skimmed through the contents, remembering trips she had taken with the children; home to Bavaria to visit her family once, trips to the seaside in France, to Paris via the Rhine, even to London. 

Letting all of the memories flood back in left Toto feeling almost relaxed, until he came upon the last letter in the pile. 

“How had I forgotten about this?”, he wondered, turning the pages over in his fingers.

For the last two years of her life, Stephanie had not been well. It started with her experiencing night sweats and fatigue. Before long, she was unable to keep weight on, no matter how much she ate. The doctors at court diagnosed her with consumption, but were optimistic about her recovery. It was recommended she leave Vienna and spend some time at the seaside, that the sea air would help. 

The children went with her as she departed to a castle the family owned — Castelo di Miramare — just outside of Trieste, on the shore of the Adriatic Sea. The three of them spent many months there, and it seemed for a while that Stephanie was on the road to recovery. She planned to be in Trieste until the summer, when the family would reunite in Bad Ischl, at the summer villa. 

Toto wrote letters every few days to her, and was reading one he had sent her while she was in Trieste. In it, he was telling her about a dilemma he was facing with the State Council. He had constantly been butting heads with Chancellor Metternich, even then, but the question had come up about one of Metternich’s staunchest allies, Count Karl Clam-Martinic. He was pushing for reforms that would make the government more conservative, practically relegating Toto’s role to merely a symbolic one, and would promote Chancellor Metternich to something akin to an autocrat, like the Shogunate of Japan allowing the emperor to remain in a ceremonial role with almost no power.

Niki, and another councilor, Count Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky, were pushing Toto to replace him with someone more moderate, but Toto thought removing him would destabilize the government, resolving to find other ways to keep him in check. His letter described the dilemma to his wife, hoping for some of her insight. Stephanie was very intelligent, and had an uncanny ability to see things objectively. Niki joked that she was the unofficial fifth member of the State Council.

She had written back within days, encouraging him to go forward with Count Karl’s dismissal. 

“I know this is a difficult decision, my darling,” she wrote. Toto’s eyes hovered over the last line of the letter. “But, fortunately, spring is coming soon no matter how difficult the winter has been, and, like the flowers, you will need to bloom”.

Toto felt a tear streaming down his cheek as he reached the end of the letter. He did not know it when he had received it, but it would be the last one she had written. Her condition rapidly deteriorated for a week after months of steady improvement, until she passed away from pleurisy that February.

He sniffed, wiping the tears away that were forming in the corner of his eyes. He glanced up at the portrait once more.

“I suppose I still have a way to go before I bloom, meine geliebte”.

He sat in silence for a few moments before he neatly tucked away the letters, placing the box back in its compartment. 

As he was doing so, a knock came from the door to his bedroom, and Phillip, his Kammerdiener, stuck his head through.

— I have your riding clothes ready for you, Your Imperial Majesty, if you were planning to go to the Stallburg today after lunch.

“How is it noon already?” Toto thought. After working for a few hours on Saturdays after breakfast, he would have a light lunch and go to the imperial stables for a few hours to ride. 

While the indoor sand arena — the Stallburg — that Toto’s great-great-great-grandfather had built was more than adequate in size to get a decent ride in, he wished, more than anything, that he could go for a hack around the countryside, or even through the city, like he could when he was younger, before he himself was saddled with the burden of his duties. He liked to race the horses against his friends, and had started taking riding lessons at an early age. When he was young, he had aspired to attend the Spanish Riding School, but his accession at age 15 left no time for regular training. 

Despite being confined to the arena most of the year — with the exception of the summer holidays — Toto looked forward to his time at the stables all week, because he felt like it was the only time where the mantle of his office didn’t sit so heavily on his shoulders, and around the arena always did a great deal to lift his spirits. The students of the riding school finished before lunch on Saturdays, and he made sure that nobody else could come in to ride in the afternoons. Even if he didn’t have time to ride very long before having to dash off to another appointment, he fit in time in the saddle where he could.

While the grooms at the stable took excellent care of the animals in their charge, and other people in his family had their horses prepared and waiting when they came riding, Toto always insisted on doing the preparation work himself; brushing down the horse, picking its hooves, and putting on tack. He even preferred to groom the horse after his ride, talking sweetly to it all the while, and feeding it peppermints from the pockets of his riding coat — probably more than the stablemaster would prefer.

His favorite was a stallion named Conversano Comtessa, but went by Campione. Campione was nearing twenty years old; very nearly an old man, and had always been especially sweet and gentle, especially with Toto’s children when they were young. 

He was of exceptional beauty, too. All of the horses in the Stallburg were white-haired Lippizans, but Campione’s hair looked like spun silver, especially in his mane and tail. He was extraordinarily well-muscled, and Toto had heard that he had been a favorite of each student of the Spanish Riding School that had been assigned to him since he started under saddle. He was not used regularly for lessons now, as he was getting on in years, but the trainers still exercised him. 

— Good afternoon, Campione — he said, as he reached the stall of his prized stallion. The horse perked its ears up, bringing his head over the door of the stall. Toto reached out and patted his velvety nose. The horse pushed his nose past Toto’s hand, sniffing at his pockets.

— Yes, I know, we have an agreement — Toto said, chuckling. He pulled out one of the candies from his pocket, which Campione snatched near immediately before backing up a bit, allowing Toto to open the door to the stall to enter. It was a routine by now. As he brushed and tacked up the horse, his mind was elsewhere, thinking about the conversation with his mother and reading his wife’s letters. 

It had been eleven years since he was widowed, and that morning was not the first time that his mother had brought up remarriage, but he had never considered it on his own, and bristled whenever someone else brought it up. 

“But why…?” he wondered, guiding Campione smoothly around the arena in a walk. He was letting the animal warm up, keeping the reins long and loose. 

It certainly wouldn’t be out of the norm to remarry as a widower, and as his mother said, it was encouraged by the church. But whenever the thought crossed his mind, he swiftly dismissed it, telling himself that he needed more time.

Before he had even realized it, more time had turned into eleven years. 

He and Stephanie had always talked about the things they would do together when they had grown old. He never aspired to stay on the throne until his death; it was not something he discussed with anyone but Stephanie, but he had planned on abdicating when Benedict had been sufficiently prepared for the job of running the empire. He and his wife had plans to renovate Ambras Castle in Innsbruck to use as a winter home, and they would spend their summers in Trieste. They would travel around Europe, of course, and they both wanted to see the United States. 

But then, once she passed, Toto stopped making plans. He felt like a tree that dropped its leaves for the winter. Still standing, somehow, but dormant, maybe even dead from afar. He sank himself into his work, living by his routine and barely registering his own existence outside of it. He tried putting on a brave face for his children, but even they seemed to notice, asking occasionally if he was okay.

Toto pulled the reins a bit, directing Campione into a trot, making sure that his topline was long enough and low enough for the more strenuous exercises. 

He let his thoughts skirt the idea he had long forbidden himself from thinking about — would it be the worst thing in the world to have some companionship again? It was not as if anyone would replace Stephanie in his memories or his heart, but he did miss having someone around who knew him as more than The Emperor, someone to share little jokes and knowing looks, someone to share his deepest worries, to share meals, someone to join him for ballets and concerts, on walks around the garden, on summers in Bad Ischl…

“Sure, take a new wife, fall in love again. But what if she leaves you in the same way? What if you die before her? Everybody dies sometime, after all”, asked a cruel voice in the back of his mind. 

Suddenly, Campione stopped sharply, jerking Toto forward. He managed to keep himself in the saddle, but only just. He briefly wondered what could have spooked a normally superbly disciplined horse, but he was simply standing at rest in the arena, flicking his ears about as if he was waiting for the next command. Toto realized that the error was his — he had tightened the reins too much without even realizing it, giving the horse the signal to stop. He hadn’t meant to. It was a product of being startled by his own revelation.

— Sorry, boy — he said, sheepishly patting the beast’s neck. Campione snorted and pawed at the dirt a bit with his forelegs, before responding to Toto’s command to continue in a canter.

His fears were now plain as day; he never cared to live through the weeks following Stephanie’s death again, but… 

The way he was now could hardly be called “living”. He was dormant, like the trees in winter. He was standing, sure, but from far away, he may as well be rotting upright. 

The situation was different, but Stephanie’s advice in her letter was right — he needed to bloom. 

He felt a strange calm as he finished up his ride, and felt a sense of clarity that he hadn’t had for a while. It carried him the rest of the way through the evening.

The next morning, as he kneeled and prayed before Sunday Mass with his family in — the Hofkapelle — the court chapel, the prayer he said was not the usual ones he did by rote each week. It was an earnest plea, less so to God or Christ or the Blessed Virgin, but to Stephanie. 

“You will always be my first love, but it has been a very hard winter without you, meine geliebte, and I cannot join you yet. I’ve denied myself the comfort of another while I still live in this world, but I cannot continue in this loneliness. You told me I need to bloom, so please, send me a sign that it is time and continue to keep me in your prayers as you are always in mine”.

The next morning, while Toto was doing his morning work, there was a knock on the door of his study once again.

— Come in — he said, not looking up from the military dispatches he was in the middle of reading.

The door opened to reveal Phillip, holding a singular white rose. 

— Sorry to interrupt, Your Imperial Majesty, but the head gardener thought you might like to have this — Phillip crossed the room and extended the flower to Toto. 

Toto took the rose, glancing at it in his hand. It certainly wasn’t an ideal specimen. Its stem and leaves looked a bit ragged — damaged by frost, no doubt — but the petals looked like they were in decent shape, somehow, showing only the slightest discoloration around the edges. 

— The garden staff was working on getting the rose bushes covered, but it seems that one of the blooms wasn’t pruned with the rest of them a few weeks ago, or just decided to come late. The last one, in any case — Phillip said — The gardener gave it to me to give to you, he said that the white ones were the Empress’ favorites.

Toto had stopped paying attention to what Phillip was saying, and was staring aghast at the flower. Stephanie did love white roses, often saying that they were the most beautiful ones of all, even if the petals lacked in color.

“They also signify purity and new love, you know,” he remembered her telling him once, after she had snipped a particularly large bloom from the palace garden. “I know you weren’t there for it, but my wedding dress had little white roses embroidered into it”.

He stared at the bloom for a moment aghast, before regaining his focus.

— Thank you, Phillip. Tell the gardener I appreciate it very much.

— I will, your Imperial Majesty — he bowed deeply and retreated, closing the door behind him, and Toto fixed his gaze on his wife’s portrait.

— I suppose this is your answer, meine geliebte. Thank you.

[doveriathegoddess]

I made a Walten Files AU where in the aftermath of the car accident and telling Jack and Rosemary the truth about what happened to Ed and Molly, Felix also returns Rocket by leaving him at the front door of the Walten House with a note saying how much he's sorry about what he's done and that he'll be leaving Michigan for good. The same day he leaves Felix also resigns from his position as Co Founder and packs his stuff and travels south all the way to the state of Texas. (Fun Fact I'm a Texan LMAOOO)

He ends up in Granbury, Texas and settles in, getting a job at an office and goes to therapy to deal with his problems, leading him to quit alcohol completely as the years go by and he's still clean when the main story of the AU takes place. One fateful weekend he meets Audrey (my oc) who's an unmarried woman living on her farm outside of town and they bond pretty quickly before they become a couple. While they're dating Felix tells Audrey about his past and to his surprise Audrey accepts him despite his past since she strongly believes that everyone deserves a second chance no matter the circumstances of what they've done.

Eventually Felix and Audrey get married and they settle into Audrey's farm, with Felix leaving his office job and becoming a farmer like his wife. He also takes Audrey's maiden name Helbredelse as his last name when they get married so he can cast off Kranken as his last name due to the bad memories he has with it. Now here is a picture of what Farmer Felix looks like:

Over the years before the AU's story takes place, Felix and Audrey have 4 children with the oldest being 18 years old while the youngest is 6 months old. I also have pictures of them as well so here you guys go:

Zachary Jack Helbredelse is the oldest child of the family at 18 years old and he's a senior in high school. Not only does he take over his father in physical looks, but his main interests are in robotics and business as he plans on going to an out of state college to pursue these interests.

Charlie Edward Helbredelse is the second child and youngest son at 16 years old, and a sophomore in the same high school he's attending with his brother Zachary. He plays baseball and has his own car which he got a present from a friend of his who moved out of Texas. One thing to note is that Charlie is not the brightest bulb in the box at times-

Susie Molly Helbredelse is the third and oldest daughter who is 12 years old, and attends middle school in the 7th grade. She likes taking care of the chickens and other animals on the farm, and wants to be a rancher someday when she's older. Susie loves her little sister Pippa and is often in the nursery playing with her.

Pippa Rose Helbredelse is the baby of the family at 6 months old and like all babies she stays at the house in her nursery most of the time. She usually has her stuffed bear with her and is one of those babies who doesn't cry often since she likes to sleep most of the time. Her mother Audrey and her father Felix take turns every day looking after her while the other tends to the farm, and her big sister Susie will even come into the nursery just to play with her.

And now for the story of the AU: After many years of being in Texas after leaving Michigan because of what happened, Felix got his act together and got himself a wife and kids along the way. Felix feels he is at peace with himself since he went to therapy and got clean from his alcohol addiction, but all that is about to change when Felix's oldest son Zachary comes home from school one day and notices a package at the front door addressed to his father, but the package has no return address.

Intrigued, Zachary brings the package inside and because his dad is in town doing errands on this day it'll be a while before he comes home for dinner. So Zachary opens the package and is very confused to find a grey rabbit doll inside the box with a name tag attached to it that says "Rocket". As there's nothing else in the package and no return address, Zachary decides to leave the rabbit inside the box and wait until Felix gets home.

Eventually his younger siblings Charlie and Susie get home from school and see the package along with Rocket inside so they inquire their older brother about it. Zachary explains how there's no return address but that doesn't stop Charlie from taking Rocket out of the box and examining it, while Susie goes upstairs and brings Pippa (who is waking up from her nap) down from the nursery to see Rocket.

Felix comes home to see his kids crowding around something and becomes shocked as he comes face to face with the toy that reminds him of his past and what happened on the night of the car accident. Zachary explains to his father about the package and asks if he knows what Rocket is based on his reaction to seeing him. Felix quickly dismisses Zachary and states that he'll go to the post office tomorrow morning and inquire about the package. At this point Audrey comes downstairs due to the commotion and sees Felix and his uncomfortable expression around Rocket, which causes her to diffuse the situation by allowing Susie to keep Rocket in her room for the time being and bringing the empty box upstairs to hers and Felix's bedroom.

That night after dinner, Audrey does her best to console Felix about the situation with Rocket as he's obviously spooked that the toy has found it's way to his home in Texas after he moved away from Michigan many years ago. Audrey suggests contacting his ex-friend Jack Walten about Rocket but Felix is hesitant as he has not spoken to Jack in the last 20+ years because of the car accident. The couple decide to discuss this matter further when their 3 older children are at school the next day and go to sleep that night. The next day the couple decide to go to the post office and talk to someone about the package, but when they get to the post office they learn that there was no record of a package being received at the post office nor any record of it being delivered to the house.

The couple return home and decide that they'll allow Rocket to stay in the house until Felix can get in contact with Jack. For a few weeks everything is normal until some of the family members find Rocket in places around the house, like outside of Zachary's bedroom door, sitting in Charlie's chair in the dining room, being in the closet of Felix and Audrey's room, in the basket that Susie uses to feed the chickens next to the coop, and even ending up next to Pippa's crib in the nursery.

Felix is starting to get scared that something is amiss and he's not wrong, especially since unknown to him and his family, an entity is lurking in the shadows on the farm and waits to strike...

[dededaio]

Does Kirby's extended cast get underutilized?

This i something I heard a lot of Kirby fans bring up in recent years. That despite big cast of memorable characters, Kirby tends to shove them to the side in favor of introducing new ones and putting the older ones on the back burner never to be used again. But just how true this is?

Warning, rather big post ahead!

Let's take a look at almost all modern Kirby games (including spin-offs) and summarize how each of them treated the extended cast.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - re-established King Dedede and Meta Knight as the part of the "main four" of the franchise, introduced Bandana Waddle Dee into the main cast after his role in Super Star Ultra. Introduced Magolor. Referenced Wham Bam Rock, Dragoon from Air Ride and Marx via stone transformations. Galacta Knight returns from Super Star Ultra as a surprise boss in the True Arena.

Kirby's Dream Collection: New Challenge Stages (yes, i'm going to count it, since Kumazaki confirmed that Magolor moved to Dream Land when he reformed and this is so far the only game to actually show it), - but, yeah, we see Magolor again in a fairly major role, the first time he appears as a good guy with a bit of a trickster streak to him, suggested that he stayed in Dream Land after he gifted Kirby and co a theme park.

Kirby Triple Deluxe - cameos of a lot of characters from sprite-based games via keychains (of note, Magolor and Yin Yarn got special keychains with exclusive 8-bit sprite artwork), animal trio from Dream Land 2 appear as stage hazards in Kirby Fighters, Shadow Kirby appears as the final boss of Kirby Fighters, Magolor cameos as a painting in the haunted mansion level of the Wild World, the dimensional mirror and Dark Meta Knight return after the long absence. Introduced people of the sky, Taranza and Queen Sectonia.

Dedede's Drum Dash Deluxe - Taranza is featured as one of Dedede's friends and supporters on the trophies and on the title screen. It was confirmed that the game itself is set in a theme park Magolor created for Dedede, Magolor himself appears in the final, most difficult, stage.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse - Bandana Dee is reinforced as Kirby's true P2 character, Drawcia is referenced and got a special collectible in a figurine, being one of the few spin-off characters to appear more than once alongside Yin-Yarn. Animal buddies are referenced in Kirby transformation sequences. Pon and Con get a cameo in Elline's diary as comedy show hosts.

Kirby Planet Robobot - Oh boy. This one. Well, we of course have a LOT of returning bosses from the past games, such as clones of Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia (giving us a glimpse as her original body before she transformed, adding a major lore revelation past her introduction), people of the sky and floralia are mentioned on numerous occasions in the pause screen descriptions, quite a few characters got brand new artwork via stickers (such as daroach, magolor and taranza). And the last but certainly not least, we have Star Dream which is one of the clockwork stars like Galactic Nova. While not exact same as Nova, it's meant to be of the same species as Nova and the reveal banks on you knowing that, so it's one of the most direct continuity nods in the franchise.

Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - this game features, although AU versions, but still, of Susie and Taranza, and, unknowingly at the time, the same Magolor we already know and love in a different role entirely. Although it's technically different versions of the characters, I still count it, because it's still new game and new story that uses familiar faces.

Kirby Star Allies - i will die if i try to list everything this game has. but let's just say pretty much every mainline kirby game (and a lot of spin-offs) were referenced in some capacity, and 90% of major characters of all mainline kirby games are accounted for and PLAYABLE in this one.

Super Kirby Clash - Magolor is once again is the shopkeeper, AU Taranza and Susie have major roles once again, au version of NIGHTMARE of all characters is the main villain, technically making him the first antagonist since Dark Matter to appear in more than one game, King D-Mind returns by the virtue of this game being a sequel to the original Team Kirby Clash Deluxe, Galacta Knight re-appears as Aeon Hero, hinting at his origins.

Kirby Fighters 2 - Magolor and Gooey are playable characters, implied to be a part of Kirby's inner friend circle on the level of Bandana Dee, Meta Knight and King Dedede. The first spin-off to include playable characters outside of the primary main cast. Several newer characters such as Flamberge were referenced via unlockable costumes, as well as appearing (alongside her sisters) as stage hazards on the Jambastion stage.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - this is perhaps the first Kirby game on this list where I can't say they concerned themselves with referencing the past much. But that's kind of the point, Shinya Kumazaki described Star Allies and Forgotten Land as "sister games" and in this sense, you can say that SA got all the unsubtle continuity and references, while FL is definite step towards new original direction. However, it's still got a lot of subtle connections AND UNEXPECTED canonization of Morpho Knight. A character that was literally introduced a GAME AGO. It's also been heavily alluded that the civilization formerly inhabiting the New World is heavily related to the (eventually) Halcandran ancients, giving us a genuine glimpse at their culture. Even then, this game is the exception that proves the point. Lack of references and fanservice, or major character comebacks is this game's specific weird factor, not the rule.

Kirby's Dream Buffet - this is similar to Star Allies where there's a LOT of references to past games. You can pretty much dress up Kirby as almost every character in the series, including the likes of the Mage Sisters and newly introduced Elfilin from Forgotten Land.

Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe - Merry Magoland introduces masks which not only make it so all of the dream friends and helpers from Star Allies cameo in this game, as well as new characters from the Forgotten Land, they also make it so this isn't exclusive to purely playable characters. Giving us masks of Hyness, Queen Sectonia and Leongar. Magolor Epilogue is one huge mode focused on Magolor specifically, the first time such luxury been given to someone outside of the primary main cast. Said mode also references and alludes to a lot of games (including Dream Collection), as well as tying it towards Kirby Clash games in another unexpected continuity moment.

As you can see, not a lot of these roles are major, but it's not the main point I'm trying to come across. HAL remembers about these characters and definitely knows that fans love them and want more of them. It's simply the matter of building up the series from ground up after what essentially amounted to big hiatus in the 00s. Returning characters in another mainline game just right after they were introduced would be a tacky move that would be way too safe and complacent. Building up the cast was the right move and they are slowly but surely started embracing it more and more over time. Forgotten Land is distinctly only game in this list that mostly avoided direct returns and callbacks and it still got Morpho Knight.

[desultory-novice]

CW: Serious but vague talk about the complex feelings associated with the loss of a loved one and mourning - both in Kirby and in real life. Some personal stuff and once more for good measure mentions of death and mourning.

-

I know I don't owe anyone an excuse for my brief absence, but I was completely caught off guard this year when I realized the anniversary of Planet Robobot fell just days before the passing of my own father last year. No surprise I didn't make the connection last year, but it hit me this year and it hit hard.

I know that they're not the fandom's most popular characters ("most hated" may be more like it?) but I feel almost painfully close to the story of Susanna Patrya Haltmann and Max Profitt Haltmann. For I was also a child who was torn between being really mad at my father for his flaws and mistakes while also pining for this idealized parent-child relationship we didn't have, to the point of often spurning the bond we did have because it wasn't going the way I imagined it. I also had to watch close up as he wasted away, his senses going one by one, till he looked more and more like a fading shell of a person.

...You know, I didn't even finish playing PR until last year or maybe the year before? Of course I knew the story spoilers. But I couldn't make myself play it. I finally did because I felt I had to. And I'm glad, even if finishing it left me with a weird sense of sadness. A sense of sadness that finally came full circle a few months later...

I thought I would draw something for the anniversary this year. Something sad, bittersweet, poignant, meaningful. Something akin to a tribute. But my pen just wouldn't move. I don't think I have the words or the visuals to fully express what I felt about it right now. It's why, even though I really do like these two characters, I hardly ever draw them.

It's this closeness that renders them blurry in my vision.

...I suppose I might as well talk about this while I'm here, but I have this ask in my inbox about the Merry Magoland Branch AU. About Joronia and Max and what happens to them after their souls are freed.

'Do they come back to life?'

...God, I've written one thousand answers to that post in my head.

Part of my brain says the "right" answer to give - here on my Kirby blog where every story has a happy ending or at least a chance at salvation no matter how grim - is "of course they come back to life!" The Merry Magoland Branch AU is a sad but cutesy fractured fairy tale of a story where everyone ends up better than they started! Besides, they’re already souls. What else would happen to them? Just quietly go off to rest? That wouldn’t be satisfying!

...

But another part of me looks at "Kirby," a series that has characters who have "died" and come back to life and characters who have died and stayed dead and I feel like, as painful as it is to those such as the Sectaranza shippers and the other fans of of the implied dead cast members...

...they're not coming back. They can't come back. They shouldn't come back. Even in a completely fictional setting, even in a silly AU, it is hard for me, personally, to make myself change what has happened. What has been done. 

Don't get me wrong, I've even scribbled out a few "everyone lives!" scenarios but I've never been able to draw a single one... I tell myself that if a miracle happens and one day I'm scouted to make a Kirby comic or animated series or movie, something where I get to retell the world from the beginning, I would not have it so the "dead" characters die, if only because they are unique enough that I would want them around to use for future stories. Like Moretsu Pupupu Hour, with its funny Sectonia who is literally allergic to peace. Or that one manga I haven't read where Susie and her father run some kind of puzzle store??

But again, that would be a Kirby I had control of from the beginning.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm proud of Kirby the series for not being so grimdark “realism” that Marx, upon blowing up, turns into meat pasta and instead comes back with a smile and laugh to kick exploding jester balls at people all because you waved a magic heart-shaped wand. 

And I'm absolutely content with letting spunky wizard Magolor mercilessly fight his way back through some sort of purgatory dimension and start life over as a medieval salesperson, building up good karma one microtransaction at a time. I think that stuff is important. (Well, not so much the microstransactions.) But I'm also proud of it for letting some characters... not come back. 

Dark Matter Blade is both a badass and strangely attractive (...just me?) for an eyeball made of dark matter but despite the fact that maybe all he wanted was friends, despite the fact that it's implied he rescued Gooey from Dark Matter and hid him on Popstar to protect him from Zero, despite the fact that he should have become a good guy and was instead used heartlessly by Zero like ammunition, losing the few marks of individuality he'd been able to keep thus far (his hair and armor and cape) he's just gone. He'll never join the others on Popstar. Never enjoy the warmth of a spring day or get to be a sibling to Gooey. He'll never even get to explain things to poor Gooey that they ought to know, and he was probably the only one who could.

It's tragic. It's upsetting. It's unfair.

And it's...important, much as I hate to say it.

Dess secret... but I actually get a little mad when people want Taranza to "...hurry up and find a new girlfriend and stop being in mourning all the time" because... I think it's okay for Kirby to have "a character who is in mourning." I suppose there's no real reason he can't be "character who was in mourning who was able to find love again" but I also kind of like that he's THERE as a character for anyone who has lost a loved one and is still sad about it. For those who haven't begun rebuilding their life just yet.

Gooey is the one who lost someone without every really knowing what he had/could have had. Susie is the one who lost someone and also has to get back to work because that's a real thing too.

I didn't really mean to talk about death and mourning in Kirby (for a second time) but I think part of me had to as well. At least if I was ever going to go back to regular posting. I don't even really feel as if I even captured everything there was to say. Like I said, I don't really have the words. 

But, yeah, anyway, if you've ever seen me politely push back when someone brings up Susie or Max discourse of the negative variety on my blog, hopefully you have a slightly better understanding as to why I respond the way I do.

[angelofthepage]

Okay, so lately I've been seeing a lot of mixed feelings (namely on Twitter) about the announcement of Bendy: Dreams Come to Life getting a graphic novel iteration. There is a LOT to talk about when it comes to this thing, and maybe I'll discuss it more another time, but today I wanna talk about the thing I've been hearing the most: strong feelings about having canonical designs for the human versions of some of our favorite characters.

In Dreams Come to Life, we have physical appearances from the following BATIM characters (that I can remember off the top of my head, I may be missing some):

Joey Drew

Sammy Lawrence

Norman Polk

Thomas Connor

Allison Pendle

Bertrum Piedmont

Wally Franks (this one I'm unsure on, it's been a hot minute)

This means that for the first time, we're gonna know what all of them look like as humans in the minds of the game developers, since, let's be real, if they're doing this thoughtfully, there is likely a lot of communication with the artist they got for this book. Making sure these characters fit their vision is a very probable priority.

In this fandom, we have had the freedom to design whatever the heck we want for the human versions of these characters. And that has been so much fun. You've had all sorts of takes, from characters mirroring their voice actors to completely original things that you never would have expected. Some things would pop up consistently in fan designs, and others would be an occasional pleasant surprise. We've seen a lot of things tweaked over the years, sometimes because we latch onto designs we like from artists we've met in the fandom and incorporate them into our own. Sometimes it's because we get new information in the canon, like Sammy confirmed to be blonde in The Illusion of Living (EDIT: I was extremely wrong on this, he is not confirmed blonde in this book, but he does have long and floppy hair that Joey thought should be slicked back more, and also Jack had some wild fashion), Allison is platinum blonde in DCTL, Wally having a hat as of his YouTube audiolog, Shawn and Tom wearing belts as of Boris and the Dark Survival, Tom being a wall of a man, Bertrum being a bear of a guy, etc. But even before Wally was confirmed to have a hat, a lot of us gave him a hat anyway, because the idea of him with a hat is fun! Bertrum being large, Tom being really tough! Heck, I saw a number of blonde Susies and Allisons before we got that bit on Allison, because it's fun to contrast their looks with that of Alice. That's the spirit of all of this, we make these designs because it's fun! You have characters all across the board in terms of race, sexuality, gender identity, age, body types, etc, because it's fun to imagine the possibilities for all of them with this cast that we love (and sometimes connect with them on a personal level), regardless of what's "canon" or not.

One of the things I'm hearing a lot is that some people don't want canon designs, and it sounds like it stems from a fear that they can't make their own designs anymore. And for those people, I'd like to ask, when has that ever stopped us? I mean that as a genuine question, I'm not here to mock anyone. Like, my first big fandom experience was over with Sonic as a teenager, and I never dreamed of deviating from the canon because I just, did not have any experience with that at the time. Bendy was really good for showing me that there's a LOT of ways the fandom experience can go, especially on this front. When Bendy and the Dark Revival came out, and we got two really major reveals for character designs: Memory Joey and Henry Stein. Henry, a character fans have been designing for YEARS, a character shrouded in mystery, finally got a confirmed design, and you know what happened? We started drawing this new design, but we didn't stop drawing our fan designs just because we got this new one. BATDR Henry has kind of been adopted into the fandom the same way we do designs for AUs, he's just another AU guy that happens to be canon to the sequel game. Heck, I love seeing art where fandom takes on Henry are interacting with BATDR Henry, it's really sweet honestly.

And that's exactly the attitude I have towards this graphic novel. It does not matter how these characters are designed, we are still valid and allowed to make whatever the heck we want. And if people really try to gatekeep it and scream that you're only allowed to draw the canon, I think that says more about them than it does anything else. Go draw what makes you happy (so long as it's not hurting anyone, obviously there is some nuance here but that is a whole other can of worms)! The only thing that this actually changes (or at least, what I'm guessing will change) is what's gonna fly when it comes to stuff like the fan art contests and challenges/what the devs might choose to retweet in terms of fan art. But that's only one part of the fan art scene. Otherwise, go fandom your way! No one is stopping you, draw what makes YOU happy. I am still going to draw a pointy blonde disaster of a music director however I please, even after we see Sammy in canon. Because darn it I like my Sammy, he is my strawberry blonde (depending on the world, sometimes it's more ashy) buffoon, and one new version of a book doesn't change my love for that.

That said, I am really curious how the teams behind this series imagine these characters. I feel the same way about it that I do my fellow fan artists. To me this really is just another AU, the DCTL AU. I think I'm less curious about the game characters and more about the characters native to this book, and that's got more to do with, well, I don't see a lot of people designing them! There's some, but they're not flooding my timeline like the game characters do. Like, I've designed the DCTL art department before for a Sims game, but I haven't gone much farther than that. I wanna know what Abby looks like, give me her fashion! I wanna see Buddy, Dot, and Jacob! I'm still keeping my Jacob design regardless, I love playing with him, but gosh do I wanna know what Jacob looks like in canon. Same with Dot. I have a lot of hopes for both of them, and I'm trying to lower my expectations so as not to be disappointed if it doesn't turn out that way. Like Dot has potential to be our first plus sized Bendy character given how she's described (also the first to wear glasses), of COURSE I want to see that! She's my writer girl that's super sus and incredibly interesting to me personally, I love her! And then I have more information to consider when I go to design my dolls (because believe you me, dolls based on the books have been on my list for a LONG time). I'm curious how much input Adrienne Kress will have here as the author, like I would love to know what's going on in her mind with these characters!

Whatever happens next, the most important thing to remember is that you're free to create whatever you like. Go make things that make you happy. That's all the devs are doing in the end, and if it's good enough for them, it's more than good enough for us. Bendy is made the way it is (hopefully) because that's what they wanted to make. Like why make an indie project that makes you miserable, you know? I don't know what to think of this new graphic novel, but whatever happens, I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt and keep doing what I always do: make my own fun out of what we're given. That's what fandom is, a place to enjoy a piece of media. And everyone enjoys this sort of thing differently. Find what works for you.

[wtfgaylittlezooid]

Another Kirby themed ask (not drawing req):

How would the gang (CG + the other Hollow Head Brothers + Royal Trio [King, Purple and Gold]) react to Kirby and Second's friendship + maybe the rest of the Star Allies? And if they met the Star Allies, who would they befriend?

Just curious because the Kirby brairot hit me like a Truck™ (if you know the ref I'm gonna give ya cookies)

Brainrot hurting you harder than Kirby hit Fecto. Anyway—

I’m assuming based on the “royal trio” you mean my good start au so I’m gonna be basing off of that first. In my good start au: first thing happening is a fam v fam spar. Dream Team vs the Hollow Sibs. There is NO way Chosen and Dark are seeing how strong they are together and letting them leave without a fight. I also think Firstborn would enjoy Bandana Dee’s company a lot, since they both lack powers and have to rely on tools and weapons.

And for the Star Allies… Daroach and Dark Lord easy. Dark Lord doesn’t understand the style thing, but they would be fun partners in crime. Susie would fucking hate the Dark Lord despite his knowledge in technology, purely because of his habit of making malware and viruses for fun even if they are harmless. Chosen One would like King Dedede and Meta Knight, both are extremely strong and fun to fight with.

Second would get along with most characters I feel, but especially Adeleine. He’d take her to the desktop so fast and show her Adobe Animate. They’d spend hours drawing together with Kirby scribbling in the corner.

I feel like a lot of the Star Allies would be surprised about how nonchalant Red is about possession, especially when finding out that the dude who possessed him twice is his teacher now. Green would gravitate towards Magolor, they would toss around various concepts and plans for mega builds, Yellow would talk code and technology would Susie and would have so much fun introducing her to the staff and command blocks. Red would adore Elfilin and the animal friends. And Blue would introduce nether wart to Kirby and have SO much fun cooking for him

As for Second and Kirby’s friendship, I feel like nobody would be surprised bkhfkdhdkd

I also just want to add: Susie and canon victim would be a crazy duo

[haunted-hijinxer]

WAS REMINDED I NEVER POSTED THIS TO TUMBLR

Susie is also in Minecraft AU!

Minecraft Susie ended up with some ghast traits, and is an appreciator of a little good old fashioned mad science, especially potions! She's made the most of her Player advantages, venturing into dangerous places like the nether to gather rare ingredients needed for her potion crafting, which she uses to trade for other things she needs. She's mostly a solo operation lately, though back when she was getting established, she might have called on other players, especially those with an affinity for knowledge and secrets to help plan her first excursions.

Her specialty is health regeneration potions, as they're both generally in high demand, and extra useful for a lady who likes to take a risk herself now and then. And as one of the main ingredients for those is ghast tears, perhaps it's not surprising the strange affliction grafting mob traits onto players ended this way for Susie.

Susie doesn't let it get her down, though… especially as she now often floats a bit above the ground..! And having a few extra limbs is a big help when crafting, it turns out. Yes, part of her face may have gone rather ghast-y... but who's going to critique your looks when you're brewing the potions that will keep them alive and also incidentally can spit fireballs? Besides, she finds the streak of white it put in her hair rather striking. And if her preferences have shifted to favor the stifling heat of the nether, well, that just means she can make her whole home a greenhouse to grow more warm-weather potion ingredients like melons and netherwart!

[crossovernonshipstournament]

Propaganda

Team Baddie Besties:

Basically I was like "yknow who Lancer reminds me of. Bowser Jr" and then realized that Bowser would TOTALLY emotionally adopt Lancer after learning Spade King is a sucky dad. Anyway Lance and Jr love going around causing problems together, Jr gets to try out Lance's bike and Lance gets a ride in the Koopa Clown car. They (and sometimes Susie) like to prank Mario and friends a lot and I just think they would be such good friends = It was your average day in Hometown, Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser Junior, who wanted to practice wreaking havoc, showed up to ruin just that. He crashed into Hometown riding his clown car, causing trouble through town as he went. Bored, he broke into the school while class was in session, and there he noticed something strange about the storage closet at the end of the hall. ~ "Huh… is this a warp zone? I bet it goes somewhere super cool…" Unable to resist temptation, Junior opened the door and stepped inside, only to fall right through the floor- and that was how Junior found Castle Town. = Lancer, meanwhile, was languishing in his boredom. Sure, the jack of spades had ways of entertaining himself, but he wanted to do them with Susie, who was still in school. "How long is this going to TAKE?!" he would shout, every time his splat noises compilation ended and Susie still wasn't there yet. ~ "HEY!" = Lancer sat up and looked down to see a kid who looked like a turtle. Or was that a turtle who looked like a kid? Whatever it was, it was pointing at him. ~ "What is this place?!" Junior demanded, glaring as threateningly as he could at the other kid (which wasn't very threatening at all, even though he didn't realize that). "Castle Town! Are you a Lightner?!" Lancer was thrilled. Something was happening! He didn't have to be bored anymore! ~ Junior had no idea what a Lightner was, but to him it sounded like an insult. "No, I'm a prince! The first son of the GREAT and EVIL King Bowser!!! So don't mess with me, unless you want me and my papa to gang up on you!" ! "You're an evil prince with an eviler dad? I'M an evil prince with an eviler dad!!!" ~ >:0 "No way! Do you wanna go be evil together?!" "Heck yeah!!!" = That was how it started. The pair of prankster princes exchanged names and high fives, running off into Castle Town to carry out their improvised evil plots. Ralsei would be in for a surprise.

Team Green Boys:

In the DTLS au, they are best friends: Louie, with his desire to lay around watching TV instead of going on adventures, proved a perfect match for Oscar, who has a lot of feelings about being made a budding wizard against his will. Also, Louie sympathizes with Oscar about how embarrassing Ozpin and Ozma are as parents, and Oscar gives Louie someone who expects nothing out of him. Until they end up looping their way back into their own adventure by trying to find the truth about Roman Torchwick, that is. When you're a Duck or the current twinned soul of an immortal wizard going through a lengthy divorce, you don't get to decide not to adventure. Adventure happens to you whether you like it or not.

[quillsinkwell]

Sneak peek of "Breaking the Cycle" chp 2!

Sorry this took a while, my final exams came up shortly after I posted the first chapter. The next chapter may still be a while. Thank all of you for being so supportive and enjoying the Jailbreak AU, you're all so nice, and I'm glad you like the fic.

Enjoy!

(Audrey's point of view)

"What are you doing?" Henry asked.

"...I had an idea that I could use a spoon like an awl and break the glass." Audrey admitted, embarrassed.

Then Henry started snickering.

'Well damn', she thought to herself, 'I know it's dumb but you don't have to laugh in my face about it.'

Then Sammy joined Henry in laughing at her.

'Was it that stupid?' She thought.

"Yeah yeah, yak it up you jerks. Excuse me for trying to bust us out of here." She said bitterly.

Then Norman yelled in her defense (she had found that the longer she spent in captivity with him, the easier it got to discern the meaning behind his shrieks)

"You're right, you're right Norman, we shouldn't have laughed." Henry wheezed as he started to stop.

"Audrey, we're not laughing because your idea is stupid. We're laughing because- do you wanna tell her or should I do it?"

"We laugh, little sheep, because that is exactly what we attempted ages ago!" Sammy cackled.

"Wait what?!" Audrey yelped surprised.

"Well, did it work?" She asked. Maybe there was some merit to her idea after all.

"Shockingly, it did. Susie's cell is proof of that. Or as the Keepers decided to dub her, Subject 938." Henry explained.

Audrey remembered seeing the cell on the day she was captured. It, well, captured, her attention even with the pain in her legs.

The glass wall was cracked with a huge shattered hole in it and the lights were flickering.

"You've mentioned Susie before." Audrey stated.

During one of Sammy and Norman's worse arguments, she moaned out 'when do they stop?'

And to that Henry just said, 'you think it's bad now? You should have seen it when Susie was still here'

"Where did she go?" She asked

"During our last escape attempt, she's the only one who didn't get caught. But, who wants to linger on the past-"

"I do. I wanna linger on the past." She eagerly.

"Huh?" He said, caught off guard.

Then she positioned herself into sitting cross-legged and said "Tell me about your escape attempt!"

"Why?"

"I don't know, I could use what went wrong as notes for the new escape plan." Audrey said.

Plus, she was curious. And kinda nosy. But she wasn't gonna tell Henry that-

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. Now-"

"WAIT!"

Henry conceded but was then cut off by Sammy.

"I have a ballad that I have drafted for an occasion like this!" Sammy declared.

"You have an entire song ready to pull out of your ass just in case we'd be telling this story?" Henry asked.

"Of course! Don't you?"

"No??"

"...see, this is why we all tried to kill you, Henry. You lack presentation."

Norman screeched in a questioning tone.

"Of course that's why we tried to kill him! What other reason could there be?" Sammy asked.

"wait did you say you tried to kill Henry-"

"ANYWAYS!"

Audrey was about to ask a question but Henry cut her off.

Sammy started to play his song.

"It was a long time ago...."

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Thank you @preciouslittletoonette @crowanonymous @knightinink @joeydrewstudios and @dreamwalker6500 for your support and praise of the last chapter and it's sneak peek! Hopefully I'll finish the next chapter soon, and have a good...whatever time of day it is in your collective timezones.

[haysprite]

alright so first off, the drawing you made of the au are gorgeous and I love everyone of them because they look so pretty qficjbdhvsikc 💕💖💗💞💝💕💗💓💖💘💓💝💕💗.

And secondly I have more things about this au

. Jeff definitely exists in this au, I was originally going to make him a guard that lets the Legion go but I scrapped that idea so instead he's a traveling artist with lots of dogs, the Legion actually came across him once to buy some paint from him and Jeff recognised Julie because she had the heart shaped locket that his father made for the princess (and Jeff was pretty much the only person who was smart enough to recognise she was the lost princess) he was pretty surprised to see her because he thought she died but he promised them that we wouldn't tell anyone that he saw her because he could see that she was much more happier.

. Some of the other killers exist in the au like Danny Johnson, he was actually good friends with frank before he went to the kostenko kingdom, he actually told Danny where he was going to next and Danny thought that he died because he didn't see him for a long time so when he saw frank with three other people he was shocked especially since one of them was a princess that was wanted, he actually got pretty mad at frank for taking Julie with him because if he ever gets caught with her, frank would get executed and Danny does care about frank (they pretty much have a brotherly like relationship or frank views Danny as an idol)

. Some of the survivors do exist in the au but most of them are probably dead.

(also I feel like I should mention the angest ending I planned for the Legion but I scrapped it)

AHLFDSKFDK I THOUGHT I RESPONDED TO THIS ALREADY OH MY GODDD MY BAD 💀💀💀 God the more and more you tell me about it, the more I love it istg.

First of all, JEFF !!! I LOVE HIM !!! That's such a fun idea for him omg, he's such a dog guy, he would so own a bunch of dogs that he's found lonely on the streets <3 AND HIM REALIZING THAT JULIE IS IN FACT THE PRINCESS IS SO FUCKING FUNNY TO ME FOR SOME REASON? All I can imagine him like, mid-talking to her, notices the neckless, and just goes silent. She's confused until she realizes what he was looking at, before lowkey panicking and threatening him not to tell anyone. Jeff is a chill guy, he would never out her like that ! He would defo help them a lot, I feel like, and they all consider him a good friend after a while.

AND DANNY OMGGG!!! He would smack Frank upside the head so fuckin quickly after learning he "stole" the princess lmfaooo. He'd be happy to see him, then absolutely pissed, then very impressed that Frank managed to "smooth talk" Julie into coming with him (obviously it was Julie basically threatening Frank in a sense, but Danny doesn't need to know that). I feel like Joey and Susie would be a bit like, weary around him at first as well lmao.

I'm very curious about what other Killers are a part of this AU! Namely Herman since he's my second fav <3 Also I'd love to hear about more Frank/Julie moments if you have any 🥺

ALSO YOU CAN'T JUST MENTION AN ANGST ENDING AND THEN *NOT* TELL ME, C'MON, BRO /lh (this is not forced, ofc, but I'm VERY curious lmao, I love me some good ol' angst)