#that egg looks familiar... little fella??

[blueparadis]

❝ STRAWBERRY SKIES ❞ + RIN ITOSHI !

+. CWs —» sae itoshi x f!reader x rin itoshi, ( domestic ) fluff, angst, hurt & comfort, dating culture, hookups, implicit smut, unrequited feelings,acquaintances to lovers, slowburn; word count — 2.5k

+. PRECIS —» after an accidental encounter rin finds himself drawn to you while all sae wanted was to be apart from you.

+. NOTES —» no clue how i came up with this idea. All i wanted to do was to write on Sae ( lol ) ; hbd to me. i wanted to host an event which I'll but it's on hold for now. I don't want to burden myself and drive out of writing. happy reading fellas ! tap here to read my works.

“First time ?”Rin asked, eyes fixated on yours as his Adam apple bobbed, suggesting that you were not the only one who was barely able to keep your composure.

“Um-hm”, you hummed in response with a little nod breaking the eye contact that seemed to put a curve of delight along his lips.

“Yep. thought so.”, he supplied, “Well, mine too.”, he added, looking hopelessly at the burnt poached egg that refused to leave the frying pan no matter how much you tried. 

The younger Itoshi skillfully placed himself on the kitchen counter pushing aside the tray of such unevenly chopped vegetables near the sink. You kept the frying pan aside and headed towards the fridge to fetch a bottle of juice. “I told you to watch …

“I’ll watch the poach when you’re next to me?”, Rin blurted out, quite defensively as if he was not at any fault; part of him was astonished at how you expected him to do such a thing when you were roaming in the kitchen wearing shorts and his shirt.

Your lacy lavender bra was a great bother. God! How direly he craved to see you without his shirt!  Would you wear a matching pair? Actually, given your status and background, you seemed like you would do that.

“Yes. so that I learn how to cook and your brother stops yelling at me.”, you bluntly responded. “Ni-chan yells at her? How come? She seems so nice. Why though?”

It is true that Rin has been totally at fault for the burnt poached egg and those half-hearted chopped vegetables since he was never on board with this idea in the first place. He would rather order food and spend the time cuddling with you till the doorbell rings or touching you in ways that you mourn for him when he is not around. But his hands are tied.

After being in several relationships that ended in agony, most of them, you knew that Rin was not just trying to flirt. He wanted to impress you which is why you are here in his home after being followed by him like a lost puppy for half a month.

Not at some fancy restaurant and being the headline of the newspaper the very next day. It has been just two months since this thing between the two of you started; it is hard to describe. It is neither a relationship nor . . . ‘What do people call it again?’, a situationship. Yep, that was not the case either. 

It was a lavish party after a victory match when Rin walked up to you as you stood in the lonely balcony under the moon lit night. The breeze was cool , letting you reel in the feeling of being a little tipsy. 

“Mind a company?”,a bold familiar voice turned up and to that you turned on your heel finding a man in a finely tailored peak lapel suit holding two glasses in one hand and the other shoved inside the pockets. He was neatly dressed for a party like this, even for a man. 

With eyes like that, like emerald stones embedded as the stars across the sky to foretell your future, if you looked a little too long than usual, anyone would be smitten with him. Perhaps, this is what they call love at first sight. 

How could you deny him? Besides, he was one of the guests so you had to accept the drink even if you did not want to. 

“Okay.”, you took one of the glasses from him with a swing yet careful enough not to graze your fingers against his palm and immediately turned around resting your elbows on the railing. You had no intention of being another one in his list; of course, boys like that always had one, always. 

“You should not have drank that much…”, Rin stood beside you, swirling the wine in his glass. “... You could have avoided the party, you know…”, he took a sip, “... is it so hard for you to say no to people?” You rolled your tongue through the insides of your mouth before shifting your gaze on him. 

‘Stop it, you’re not my dad.’ With a chaste smile you muttered, “Thank you for the drink . . .”, tilting your head a little you amended, “. . . and the company.” 

Of course, Rin hated that you worked for his brother. You were not entirely sure if it was actually because of Sae or the fact that Sae took more interest in you than him. He reeked of envy but which one was it? If it were the first you could not help much and if it were the second, you were utterly screwed. Rin would find every opportunity to torment you and Sae would not pay any heed to his childish tantrums pushing his brother being more stubborn than he already is, determined to be a perpetual nuisance to you.

Rin did not know. He was not aware that Sae and you were just casual friends, more like acquaintances. Sure, Sae tried his luck with you many times but it was too friendly to bother about what ifs and buts. 

Besides, Sae knew you could be more useful as a friend than his girlfriend. You have made abundantly clear that you are not some trophy girlfriend that he can show off to people. He had tried all the tricks of old books to rile you up, to make you jealous, to get under your skin but eventually it came down to sharing secrets and beers, truth or dare.

“Can I walk you home?”

You halted on your tipsy steps and let out a sigh of disappointment. You just did not want to talk to him, like not at all, not in this mood. You turned your head and nodded in his direction. Rin swallowed, not sure what he would do next since he thought you would flatly decline. You could say NO but somewhere at the bottom of your heart you just wanted to know, ‘does Rin care like his brother? Would he give a fuck if it was the other way around?’ 

Rin was surprised that your home was not even in a proper walking distance. He thought he had to bear this awful silence while driving you home. The walk was just a floor away. “You didn’t know that you were partying under my roof, offering me a drink that’s quite a staple to me?”, you said followed by a little cackle to ease him. He was way too stiff for a man who has a list of girls in speed dial.

You walked out of the elevator and so did he. “Most of the buildings are owned by my father. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Mikage corporations? Does that ring a bell?” A raised eyebrow that was all you received from him.A raised eyebrow that did not tell you whether it rang a bell or bounced off. You unbuckled the watch from your left wrist before uttering, “Are you staying for the show or. . . ?”

With that line, Rin could tell how much of a tease you are. Maybe that is why Sae liked having you around. Maybe that is why people feel comfortable around you. He has watched you along with brother plenty of times, sometimes in his apartment, at the airport, at markets but Rin never gave a damn about it until he watched his brother with another girl dancing merrily as you cheered them on, just a few days ago. It was a friendly gathering. He was intrigued; no not about you but what exactly was your relationship with him? 

“Maybe some other day.”Rin closed the gap between the two of you with a single step, his hand around your waist making you gasp a little at his sudden closeness. A blink and then you looked at him with surprise in your eyes before he swayed off his hand and stood as if he was at gunpoint saying, “I thought you were genuinely offering…” 

He backed away, relishing the surprised look on your face. Part of him wanted to take you then and there but another part of him was gentleman enough not to have you under the influence of alcohol. “See you at the next party.” Rin walked towards the elevator hoping for something, anything as a comeback. He was even willing to take one of those feeble low growls of protest but when he turned around you were not there anymore. 

Surprisingly, you did not have to wait till the next party. He was standing outside your office the very next day. With his hands inside his slacks and an umbrella at another hand. He was surfing through his phone as you watched him in awe. You waved at him as he looked at you. Even though the splattering raindrops were hitting the window you could hear him smirk as a curve of delight spread across his cheeks.

[ a message from angry bird itoshi

“Hi. Rin here ”

“I’m waiting till you’re done.” ]

You let out a laugh keeping your phone aside. Of course, he took his brother’s phone, went through his contacts and made sure to message you from his phone. No wonder Sae likes to avoid him.

[ “pick one: hot chocolate or ice-creams” ]

You did not reply for two reasons; one: Sae would not be very happy about this and two: Rin was just the type of guy who gets under the skin very easily, the type you would like to avoid the most.

Eyes as dark as a starless sky that spoke volumes if one were to stare too much yet so agonizingly silent. The kind of face that it hurts to look at yet so pretty, so full of hopes. Rin Itoshi was the kind they would write in poetries, and hide behind the canvas of an abstract painting. Dark-haired, pretty face, luscious lips, morbid eyes. Underneath this boyish façade was something some would not want to see.

Most people call it envy, but you would rather call it an outgrowth of wrath, a mere tantrum. He was just envious of his brother in every way he admired him, so much so that he chased everything that his brother did. 

He waited. He waited for two hours and when you were walking out of the office. It had already started raining.  The umbrella was too short for two people but both of you managed to reach the nearby cafeteria, half-drenched in rain and half -drenched in love.

Rin was patient with you even if you threw lots of tantrums to test him,to get rid of him but he stayed. Within a span of another two months, things became a little intimate, a bit physical and your first time was nothing like you imagined it would be.

Not because of the person, but because of the place. Rin had come to visit you in your office and he was told to wait. He did. He is used to it by now. Every time he waited for you, he felt like he was trying to hold sand in his hands. When he saw you walking towards the exit with bodyguards around, your mind to busy to acknowledge his presence, he didn't feel annoyed. 

But you shouldn't have made him wait so long, not back then and not even now. When you were done with your meeting, when he was finally able to talk to you after days, after a month of being away from you he didn't waste any time. He mourned you too much to be in his control.

And now he has you laying on the work surface, with one of your legs over his shoulder as he slowly thrusts in you. The curtains are not drawn, air conditioner is off and its afternoon, lunch break while Rin is balls deep inside you making you gasp with each of his strong calculative slow thrusts.

It's not okay. You and Rin did everything backward. Casually flirted, went on random dates, and fucked each other senselessly as if you two would not see each other for eons or have been reunited with your love in this life.

And he did all of these just to get to know you and you let him. You let him because you didn't want to be the woman to teach him about broken love. You did it because you couldn't hurt him. You did it because he didn't seem to be what they said about him, not a bit, or was it because he actually likes you.

Unlike him, you didn't have to wait long to have your answer, didn't have to spend sleepless nights thinking, is it really love or just a phase?

Now you are in his apartment wearing one of his shirts since your dress was ruined. Sae would be here in any minute. He gets so cranky if he doesn't get home-cooked meals.

“I’m back.” Sae tosses his bags onto the sofa and rushes towards the bathroom. This wasn't always the case; generally, he'd rest a bit, make sure to avoid his brother at all costs, and then go for a shower. Now that you are here, all he did was behave like a child.

“Ni-san, don't throw your bags like that…”, Rin exclaimed with congested eyebrows. “Ah geez! Stop it.”, he yelled when Sae was about to disorient the whole wardrobe for his favorite towel.

“Check the black bag while I'm in shower”, Sae said before vanishing into the bathroom. Rin knew he brought gifts. It's not like they aren't available here but it's the thought that matters, he remembered. You told him that once.

It's okay. Sae thinks as the hot shower warms his skin. Sae and you never belonged together. You and he always belonged to ‘almost and maybe’; maybe we could be something; she looked almost in love with me; maybe we were almost lovers.

It's okay. Sae has done a lot of things for you not to draw in your attention. He has dated girls, flaunted about it to you and mourned alone. He did it because he could never make you smile like his brother. He did it because you were not made for him; he knew it from the very beginning. He knew it all along that you were made for his brother.

It's okay, Sae thinks as he drags the chair and sits beside his brother shooting a smile at you with a sunburn in his heart, ready to enjoy the meal you have made. You have improved a lot since the last time. That is why he likes you; you heal whatever is broken. That is why he let you go.

Does he regret it? Nope. Since you are loved like you deserved and he got back what he sacrificed you for, his brother, Rin Itoshi.

@tokyometronetwork

tagging y'all cuz i think you might like this one @itoshi-s @orchid3a @swanphantasm @nyaaaaanma @saetoshis @shoyoist @anantaru @lalunanymph @chronic-claire-universe @garoujo @katasstrophy

[mossy123302]

This is going more pissa (romantic, correct?) and might have some...implied nsfw....?

My thoughts is very scrambled, and I have so much to say.

I always think about Origins!Smp Philza meeting Q! Missa...

Missa who probably got lost during his way back in his travels of finding Q! Philza a gift! Missa is determined to find the right one, to show how much Philza means to him and that he deserves something better....

But, uh, Missa wasn't currently sure where he was and now he's upset, not angry, but upset... How is he supposed to find the greatest gift, a treasure when he cannot even find his way back home! How?! He was on the right trail and still got horribly lost...He should have just brought a map and compass with him, but he didn't because he was confident with himself that he would find his way back. He always found his way back one way or another, even if it took much longer...but while he tries to find his way back, he'll just keep looking for a good gift for Philza

....

Missa, who, stops in his track when he sees two large familiar wings. Oh, ohhhh, oh lady death spare him, because apparently he was never lost at all?? Philza is here??? RIGHT HERE AND HE DOESN'T HAVE A GIFT- DIOS MIO

Missa was just ready to cry right there and decided he was just gonna have to make up whatever lie and present he has in his backpack, he lost his backpack

Missa was too distracted, muttering and quietly sobbing to himself that he wasn't aware that Philza already noticed his presence.

Well... O! Philza, to be more exact, who immediately noticed a new presence in his territory..his home.... He was curious to see what this new person was, and what bravery they had to be so willing to enter and well.... He wasn't sure what to make of this strange fella who wore a skeleton mask, and dressed in purple and blue with a few chains that seemed to be connected around his neck to his armor shoulder, with another skeleton over it as decoration...

O! Philza is a little disappointed, but he doesn't think this new stranger would have anything good for him...he looks... pitiful and pathetic like some wet cat.

O! Philza was about to leave until suddenly Missa called out for him and he almost tripped over his own feet, because how does this stranger know his name—

Annndd why is he crying— Oh Lady Death help him-

Missa tried to be brave, help him, he tried but he immediately broke down crying because he honestly didn't know what to say or offer as an apology gift, so all he could do was give a sorry lame apology to Philza for not being around and letting him take care of their two beautiful eggs/children all by himself

It took a minute for O! Philza to process and awkwardly stop Missa that he genuinely has no idea who he is or why he is here and that they don't have no kids and if he's gone insane— (O! Philza has standards, thank you very much- While Missa is very cute in his opinion, he doesn't plan on having anymore children nor does he recall ever adopting. Who the heck is Chayanne and Tallulah)

After some awkward conversation, O! Philza did finally offer Missa to stay at a nearby village until he can figure out how to...get him back to Quesadilla Island, back to his Philza and his kids. Missa is forever grateful to this weird other version of his platonic husband, and decided he'd lighten up the village as a thank you!

....How does one lighten up a village anyways?

..Missa will figure it out.

Missa itches every little instinct in O! Philza, and it's such a curse and blessing. The way Missa screams, and immediately clings to O! Philza without any hesitance, crying for him to save him.

The way Missa found some bravery in him to finally ask if he could preen his wings, because gods, he knows how important wings are to them and he wasn't gonna let O! Philza walk around, with dirty wings, like that any longer. He was so gentle as he tended to every feather and even as an extra bonus, he gave a massage to O! Philza and his wings as well!

Missa, in O! Philza opinion, is a god send...

Missa is super attentive, makes delicious meals that he's never heard of before and most of all, despite being weak, he still tries and is willing to put himself out there if it means his family and friends were safe. O! Philza may have...purposely stopped searching for a way to send Missa back and instead send Missa further and deeper into the forest...deeper where no one can find him.

Further away from civilization. O! Philza wanted to be the one to save him each time, to be the only one he speaks with... But Missa already has a home, his own Philza and kids.

That burned deep in O! Philza brain. Missa wasn't mated, as far as he can tell, there's no bite mark, no scent or anything (Though it could be because Missa has been traveling so the scent must have worn off), and yet he has kids! Literal actual children they take care of and takes after those two...

Now O! Philza loves kids, don't get him wrong, but even he doesn't know where Missa came from and as far as he can tell, someone must have purposely dropped Missa here without telling anyone and now he's just stuck here, so oh well.

But Missa never stops talking about them....He doesn't stop. He talks and talks about them, and O! Philza wonders how red Missa's face will get if he kisses him to shut him up.

Will Missa quiet down if he gave Missa kids?

O! Philza isn't quite sure of what anatomy Missa has, but he knows Missa isn't human at all to some degree, so it's possible...he could....

The idea of Missa being— He's getting distracted. He could just fetch some other fledglings from another nest, but...he knows it won't quiet Missa for long. It's not his biological ones, not the real ones but...

...Hm.

Mm.

O! Philza might not be so against the idea after all of Missa entering his nest. It has been awfully quiet and empty anyways...

[quitealotofsodapop]

Imagine if MK hadn't even realized who he was talking to and just thought the ghost monkey was just, well, a regular old spirit. This is his first time doing this sort of thing on FFM, so he wouldn't know it was normal to see monkey ghosts running around with Gold Vision. Then Wukong drops the biggest bomb that, apparently, this nerdy dork of a monkey is the Monkey King's father?? That Guanyin had done him a solid and asked to temporarily allow her sould to return to her past life as Wukong's mother so he might have the chance to meet his parents? Overall MK is gonna freak out, be was probably there when they discovered Luzhen's egg snd learned to truth about Wukong's origins, he probably had to help Wukong out of there when he collapsed from the shock of that realization (something Sandh is definitely helping Wukong to work through because this is BIG)

referencing.

Yesss. MK learns quickly upon gaining Gold Vision, that it can be used to see the spirits of the departed. He learns this on accident when he accidentally assists ghosts in around Megapolis one day.

Part of the reason MK really wanted to join in on Qingming on FFM was because he knows thats a day where the dead walk amongst the living. And if he can pass on some messages from the past to the present monkeys then he'd be delighted.

Yē Lín (椰林/coconut grove) is a super-nerdy brown-furred monkey spirit that reminds MK of a shorter Mr Tang. They run into each other at the fringes of the banquet, the ghost trying his best to attack the bowls of peaches. He's super excited to meet MK and talks at length about how much the island has changed and how well Wukong has grown into his role as the island's leader.

MK is in turn; super excited to meet a monkey from before the Monkey King was hatched! Yē Lín rambles for seemingly hours about what life was like before the Great Flood (something MK has heard but not investigated much of), and of his dearest "stone flower" mate who leaded their troop up until their passings. MK meets the golden-furred woman very briefly, as she's busy strolling around the party, seemingly drinking in the warmth of the fires. She seems fixated on the elder monkeys like the Stalwarts, commenting on how much they've grown since their cubs days.

MK, nervous but curious at why the spirit and his mate appear so young, ask Yē Lín how he passed on.

Yē Lín: "Well see, after the Flood I thought I lost my mate. I got stuck in a cavern beneath the mountain and figured it was the end. So I wrote and drew everything I've ever known on the walls and started the process." MK: "Process?" Yē Lín: "To make my Egg. I hope it isn't lost knowledge by now." MK, realising: "Wait. Are you a stone monkey!?" Yē Lín, smiling in a familiar cheeky manner: "Guilty as charged!" MK: "Then... wait. Is your egg still in the mountain!?" Yē Lín, nods: "Yup. I haven't really moved on yet cus I want to make sure the little fella is found." MK: "I got to tell Monkey King about this! Come with!" Yē Lín, excited: "Sure thing! Maybe we can find my stone flower's egg baby as well!" MK: "She made a Stone Egg too?!" Yē Lín: "Yes, but he hatched centuries ago. He's the mirror image of her- oh there's my wife! I think she's found him!" *runs ahead through the crowd of dancers* MK: *briefly loses sight of the monkey ghost due to the little monkeys playfully clinging to his legs* "Wait up!" Yē Lín: "My love! Have you've seen him yet? He looks just like you! I just saw the little ones! Looks like his heir got cursed with my looks!" MK, catching up: "Monkey King! Have you met these guys yet? They're so cool and they know everything about you and the island!" MK: *realises that Sun Wukong is talking with the same tall near-indentical-looking female monkey spirit* ( 0_0) "wait"

The female monkey spirit turns and smiles with deep warmth.

Like that of a mother.

MK's heart stoppers in his chest.

MK: "The Monkey King's mother."

The Monkie Kid is statue still for the next few moments as he realises just who he's been talking to for the last few hours! He blurts out his discovery without fear of the potential consequences.

MK: "MONKEY KING YOU HAVE A DAD AND A BROTHER!" Wukong, still recovering from meeting his mom: "I have a what!?"

The last remaing hours of Qingming are spent following Yē Lín ("The Monkey King's Dad" MK can't stop thinking) to the cavern where he laid to rest. Those at the party who overheard their prince's shout (especially the King's own shadowy mate) following close behind.

When MK split the mountain open fighting Azure Lion, he accidentally uncovered the very same water-logged cavern which held the Consort's body. Inside the broken-wound-like cave in the mountain's base, finally open after so many centuries, lay the petrified vague form of a Stone Monkey, sitting in a lotus position.

Yē Lín: "I left some naming suggestions on the wall. I think Walks Reality is very appropriate given the circumstances."

The stone body immediately starts shaking with divine energy. The belly cracking open as a Stone Egg is finally found by it's Troop.

A pair of bright blue eyes peak out of the Egg's lazurite shell as it realises it's finally time to wake up.

The spirits of the Matriarch and her Consort aww at how much the newborn monkey resembles it's brother.

Sun Wukong faints.

[bellarose204]

IMAGINE THE EGG BOIS STILL WERE IN HELL AND ALASTOR AND CHARLIE HAD THEIR BABY SO THEY ALL GREW CURIOUS ON WHAT IS A 'BABY'

And yes I imagine it from a reference from lady and the tramp because that movie was so beautiful I just had to do it for this idea^^

Egg boi #1 : Gee fellas our boss man sure is busy with the princess lately I wonder what they're up to in that room!

Egg boi #2 : it sounds scary up there I kept hearing weird sounds up there kinda like someone was sad!

Egg boi #1 : do ya think the princess is sad?

Egg boi #3 : no ya got it all wrong it's coming from that thing! Ya know? A 'baby'?

Egg boi #1 : what is a 'baby'?

Egg boi #3 : i dunno our old boss never told such a thing but our new boss won't tell us!

*They all climbed up the stairs one by one it kinda took a long time to finally reach to the level where they could hear the noises coming from Charlie's bedroom*

*Charlie was seen by the egg bois peeping in through the door crack as she sung a quiet tune almost sounding familiar as she cradled a small being wrapped in a blanket under the light shining in from the window*

Charlie : 🎶inside of every demon is a rainbow, inside of every sinner is a shiny smile🎶

Egg boi #1 : what do ya see?

Egg boi #3 : uhhh i don't know i can't see!

Charlie : 🎶inside of every creepy hatchet welding manic, is a jolly happy cupcake loving child🎶

Egg boi #2 : she's singing something!

*A tall dark shadow appeared behind them revealing it was coming from Alastor's presence*

Egg boi #1 : oh! HIYA BO-

*Alastor hushed them softly pointing directly at Charlie finally putting the baby to rest in it's crib*

Alastor: if you wished to see the baby then keep your voice down *he said with a large smile*

*He followed the egg bois up infront of the crib as they try to bounce up to look inside but with a little helping hand from Alastor and Charlie picking them up to see little Alice Morningstar sleeping in her crib soundly*

Charlie : is that better?

Egg boi #1 : wow! It's so small!

Charlie : hehehe they're suppose to look that way until they get older^^

Alastor : Old enough to crush you eggs to death!

Charlie : Alastor-

Alastor : what? I'm improvising!

[beginningobserver]

[RE:CONNECT - blog v.] Link 1 - The eggcounter aftermath.

[AO3 version]

The mysterious DigiEgg who appeared on February 21 2012 was witnessed by everyone in Tokyo. Not only Daisuke and his friends.

Among them, two peculiar people saw it and received this strange message on their digital devices. Those two… were connected to a certain person involved in those events. …

…

“A giant DigiEgg…”

A 20 year old young woman with brown hair tied in low pigtails checked the news on the morning of February 28th. She was at the reception from the local hospital she worked at. A pink digimon looking like a rabbit -- Cutemon -- was next to her, also looking at the screen, with a concerned look.

“I hope it’s a bad digimon like the one from the last time…” Cutemon frowned, “Those… Eosmon, like that person named Koushiro alerted once on the Chosen Children Network.”

“Yeah,” she nodded in agreement with her digimon.

Suddenly, they witnessed someone climbing the Tokyo Tower. Cutemon and the human girl felt their hearts skipping a beat. The digimon screamed:

“W-why is that person risking his life like that?! If he falls from that height he will…!!”

The woman looked at the mysterious trespasser climbing, and while she was nervous watching it…

“W-why does this boy look… familiar to me?”

They watched the boy falling from the tower, and the woman winced while the digimon covered her eyes.

“Look, Nakajima!” a male coworker who was also watching it called her attention, “A bugman-like digimon caught him! It’s okay!” He noticed the other was pale and in shock. As always, Nakajima Ayame has a soft heart and cares for everyone, even if she doesn't know them.

“Huh??” She glanced at the screen once again, Cutemon gasped:

“Ah!! Ayame! It’s a Stingmon! One of the Chosen Children saved that person’s life!!”

“Thank goodness…” Ayame sighed in relief, her body felt more relaxed and she calmed down. Still… Something in that stranger on the TV seemed familiar.

…

“Man, there are a ton of crazy people these days, huh” A 20 year old young adult man with his bangs dyed blonde, short haired and with an earring on his left ear sighed. He commented with the person to whom he was delivering a meal.

“I wonder if that kid will be okay…” The elder frowned. The man was watching the TV news when the delivery boy arrived.

“Well, the digimon just saved the trespasser so I guess it will be fine!” The delivery boy chuckled lightly, “It’s common to see those little fellas around right…?”

“Yeah. Do you think the big boy at the top of the tower will be a good one or a bad one?”

“No clue… All I know is they’re taking care of that already,” the boy shrugged, “If it is a menace, I’m sure those people with digimon will take care of it. They are always doing it.”

“True…”

“Well, I’m going. I have more deliveries to do! Thank you for choosing our services!”

…

The moment the ominous egg hatched, Ayame was leaving from her shift while the delivery boy’s deliveries had been finished and he was just nearby the Tokyo Tower.

Both, from different places, looked at the digimon which hatched from the egg -- A pink giant digimon that resembled…

“Ukkomon…?”

Ayame received a photo from the delivery boy right now:

[Hiroomi]: Hey, isn’t this creature familiar to you??

“Who’s Ukkomon, Ayame?” Cutemon asked, she tilted her and frowned.

Ayame turned to Cutemon, and she explained, “A digimon from a friend who disappeared a long time ago… But it can’t be that same digimon, can it?”

A few seconds later, the big pink digimon started singing Happy Birthday …

“Huh…??”

Hiroomi, on the other end, blinked: “Happy Birthday…?? Is it serious??”

Happy birthday dear Rui--

“Rui…?”

They didn’t expect to hear that name again. Hiroomi immediately dialed Ayame’s number this time:

“Did you hear that too?! Or was it just me??”

She answered, staring at the big digimon in the horizon, “Yes, I heard it too. That digimon said ‘Rui’...”

“It can’t be a coincidence anymore, Ayame-san!”

“... Yes, it can’t be.”

“Huh? What’s wrong?” Cutemon asked, noticing the girl’s stare at the pink Ukkomon.

“That digimon is indeed the one connected to him . What is he doing now…?”

"Beats me! But do we know any other Rui person whose birthday is February 29th?"

“...”

Ayame’s frown could mean many things: But one of those meant she was mildly worried about this. Why did Rui-kun suddenly appear like that? Why is Ukkomon big and at the top of the Tokyo Tower…?

Many questions popped in the girl’s head. 

In the morning of February 29th…

The news was everywhere about the giant unknown digimon and the other three ones fighting it. To Rui, this made him a little uneasy: He was the cause of all of that confusion, the source of it.

But, on the other hand… He had just solved a big problem in his life.

“... We’re really bad at communicating,”

He repeated the same thing he had said when the small egg appeared in his hand once Daisuke and the others beat Ukkomon, but this time unamused by the footage on his TV screen.

He had no digimon eye in his face anymore, so it meant he didn’t need the eyepatch or to avoid contact with other people. But… knowing that he was running away from the police and accidentally made six people and their digimon get involved in it…

“You shouldn’t have pulled that trick on everyone,” he sighed, but his tone was a little more sassier than upsetting. It was like he meant that to himself too.

He didn’t expect to become… Some sort of criminal or something. Maybe he wouldn’t get arrested if he explained what happened?

His phone rang, it was one of those people from last night. Oh right, he had given them his number… Or they had given their phone numbers in case he needed a little help.

The name on the screen said ‘Daisuke-kun’. He answered the call and then…

“Doooooooooooooooon’t worry about the news or whatever is happening, Rui! We got it covered! We have a ton of people who can prevent all of us from the cops sending us to jail!”

“H-Huh…?” Rui blinked.

“Hikari-chan’s big bro who’s my former soccer club senior works for the government so yeah! He…”

V-mon’s voice was heard from the distance, “Taichi was yelling at you this morning because we got in real trouble--”

[off-phone] “I don’t need to tell Rui that, V-mon!! It will ruin his big day! Let the big boy have a peaceful birthday, ok??”

“You… got yelled at by someone?” He frowned, though since it wasn’t a video call there’s no way Daisuke could see it.

“Nah! Taichi-senpai is a chill guy! It’s just… It’s just that we didn’t tell him about that. And Ukkomon’s teeth-tentacles might have broken something by accident.”

“...” Rui sighed again.

“Aa-ah, it’s not YOUR fault t-tho!! Imperialdramon and the others might have made Ukkomon scared and he attacked us!! But everythin’ is fine, right?!”

Rui turned to the egg, “You broke a few things, once you hatch please apologize ok?”

“Nah, digimon battles break stuff a lot, it’s not Ukkomon’s fault if he broke something. Nobody’s dead or hurt.”

“Is this your plan to make me calm?” this time he was… playful?

“... N-no, I mean…!! Do you wanna hang out and do something?!”

“I… I don’t think I should…” he took it back, maybe it’s not the right time to be teasing someone you just met.

“Nah dude! Pretty sure everyone wants to compensate for the messy eggcounter we all had!”

“ ‘ Eggcounter’… ?”

V-mon’s voice was heard again, “You did a pun? In English?”

[off-phone] “H-hey, I’m trying to cheer him up ok?!”“By making a terrible pun like that?”“Excuse me, it was an eggcellent pun ok?”“Look! You did another weird English pun again!!”“Leave me and my egg-puns alone, V-mon!!”

That somehow made Rui laugh, those two were indeed funny.

[off-phone] “See?? He laughed! This means my job is done here!”“English puns with eggs make you crack a smile ?!”“Yeah I-- Wait a minute, did you just…”“...”

“I’m sorry I don’t think it’s a good idea--”

“Oh no no, everything is 100% fine! But if you don’t want to do anything we will understand.”

“...” he looked at the egg again, thoughtful.

Daisuke and the others definitely were trying to befriend him… He didn’t know if he should just accept it. They all started on bad terms somehow, him being a little difficult to talk to them and then being interrogated like that… Also he had this little impression he had made those six upset with what he had said.

Was he ready for that, though?

“Sorry, last night it was just--”

“Oh, ok then…”

“But… Thanks for the snowball fight. I… It was the first time in a while that I had one.”

“Oho! See, Iori was angry for starting it but I knew it was what all of us needed! A little fun doesn’t hurt y’know??”

He smiled, “Yeah, I agree.”

“Anyway, if you wanna hang out another time don’t hesitate to call us!”“Daisuke… Look at the clock we’re getting late for work--”“OH CRAP!! SEE YOU ANOTHER DAY, RUI!” and he hung up before Rui could even say anything else.

“... Daisuke-kun is… really an interesting guy, don’t you think?” He turned to the egg and talked with it again.

Even if the Ukkomon DigiEgg couldn’t answer him yet , he thought he should start talking more with Ukkomon. Well, Ukkomon might be just listening to him for a while… Until the egg hatches.

[luxrayblues]

Hi so I saw your tweet (the art is absolutely adorable, by the way) and it inspired me, so I hope you don't mind me asking:

Could you do a oneshot (not a reader insert) where Raihan calms down a crying Goomy? I resonate with this headcanon and I love it! I enjoy your work!

I know this probably goes against your rules so fell free to delete this, but I just wanted to ask

It's not against the rules! The main thing I dont do is canon x canon pairings but I can do stuff like this! :D also thank you so much for the compliment eehee

I hope you like it, I had some fun with this lol

Raihan fic - Baby blues

Raihan was pretty tired lately what with having had his egg hatch. He had a brand new pokemon to care for and as happy as he was about it, the little mans was a lot of work. He had made sure to feed him and clean him up before finally setting him down to rest while he went to train with his older pokemon.

He had a little bed set up in the shade with a bowl of water for Goomy while he got to work. The baby was watching his dad and older siblings training away, content for a while before he realized the attention was not on him.

It took a minute with how noisy Raihan's pokemon were in the heat of battling each other before he finally caught the sound that had become quite familiar to him now. Making a surprised noise, he turns to look and see his goopy little man in a puddle, sobbing noisily.

"Time out, guys! Let's take a break!" He calls to flygon and duraladon who were more than happy to rest for a bit while he ran over to goomy. "Hey, you! What's going on?" He drops down with a thud and reaches out to the baby pokemon. The little purple goop was already shloopin into his arms, still wailing away. By now goomy had forgotten why he was crying in the first place.

"What is it, huh?" Raihan touches him gently, trying to make sure his temperature was good and he wasnt overheated. His voice and touch were gentle despite his usually rough outward demeanor. He was a sucker for his baby. He couldn't help his smile as goomy cries and inches his way up into Raihan's arms, wanting to be held.

"Ooh you're just fussy, huh? You want attention? ... it's okay, I get it buddy." He chuckles and hugs him close, cradling him in his arms. He coos to the little fella for a moment before starting to sing softly. He didn't have the greatest singing voice, but it didn't matter to goomy. The baby's crying starts to subside and he looks up at Raihan who was singing something from his childhood, gently pinching at Goomy's cheeks and squishing him playfully.

It didn't take long at all before goomy was trilling and trying to sing along, flailing a bit. His antennae woggling as he bobbed to the beat.

"Yeah, that's it! " he chuckles, loving that the baby was getting into it. It made his heart feel full seeing him enjoying himself like that. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah go goomy go go go baby~" he cheers on that little dude, his other pokemon even coming over and joining in. They wanted to cheer up the little man and sing along too! His training session turned into a fun little rap session with his team which was just as important as battling.

[one-half-guy]

Everytime I find a fanfic about the Cassia and Clove leaving Eggman's forces, it's always they together...

And I like it, the authors are doing it pretty good, but don't you see the multiple potentials that Cassia leaving desolate and disillusioned alone first have?

It's a whole new level of angst buuuuuut also a unique chance of comedy!

For example: Imagine if the fate cof cof plot cof cof forces her to face every Egg Boss before finally reunite to Clove...

Encounter #1

Cassia: Conquering Storm...

Connie: That's me, but who are you?

Cassia: Finally we meet ag- WAIT! WHAT?! *Cryful face* Don't you remember me?

Connie: Have we ever met?

Cassia: I was Egg Boss from Northamer along my sister! Gosh, we even gone on a mission together once!!

Connie: CLOVE HAD A SISTER ALL ALONG?!

Cassia: She DOES have! Gosh! I'm right here!!

Connie: I WOULD NEVER IMAGINE IT!!

Encounter #2

Cassia: It seems I have to defeat you, Mordred... No hard feelings, former Egg Boss fella...

Mordred Hood squinting: Excuse me... Have we ever met? You seem a little familiar...

Cassia: GOSH YES!! I WAS EGG BOSS ALONG CLOVE!!

Mordred Hood: OH!! YOU ARE CLOVE'S ANNOYING SISTER, AREN'T YOU!?

Cassia: YEAH!! Wait- no- I mean!

Mordred: You were Egg Boss? *Laughs* I always thought you were the regional mascot...

Cassia: The. Whaaaaat?!

Mordred: I'm sorry to inform that almost all the Egg Bosses think in this way.

Encounter #3

Thunderbolt: Look what we have here... Cassia the Pronghorn, the ungrateful brat!

Cassia: Wait! What did'ya say?

Thunderbolt: That you are an ungrateful brat! Because you turned your back to our wistful Lord Egg-

Cassia smiling: No, before that! You called me by my name!

Thunderbolt: Er... Yes...

Cassia: So you know who I am!! Gosh, it must be a dream!! *pinch herself* IT'S NOT A DREAM!!!

Thunderbolt: Er kid... I think you forgot th-

Cassia activating the communicator: GUYS!! You won't believe it!! ONE EGG BOSS REMEMBERED MY NAME!!!

Sonic: Wow, great kid!

Sally: That's the way... I guess

Antoine: Wow... Congrats?

Bunnie: *bumps the elbow at Antoine* Sounds great, kiddo! Keep going!

Cassia climbing Thunderbolt's mech: You need to hear from her! Tell 'em TB!

Thunderbolt: It's not like I had any choice, since her departure, Clove floods my message box crying about it! EVERY DAY!!!

Cassia: *starts to cry*

Thunderbolt: *sighs* What's up now?

Cassia: I made my sister cry! *Sob* I FEEL AN AWFUL PERSON!! *Sob*

Thunderbolt: Didn't you come here to fight?! Pull yourself together!

Bunnie: DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH A STRAND OF HER FUR!!

Maybe one day I do a Part 2

[bellatheinkdemon]

Time to piss of the Cookie Run Community (You'll know what I mean by that in just a second)

(I took inspo from @quibbs126)

Yep, I made a "Dino" Cookie Run Oc. (I can already hear the hate) So this is Rotten Egg Dino "Cookie." (As of now, name might change in the future.) So Rotten Egg Dino "Cookie" is just a friendly little guy. Not much to them as of now. Now for any Yo-Kai Watch fans that think Rotten Egg Dino "Cookie's" design looks familiar, it's because they're based on a character from it called Letsbifrenz.

And now you might be wondering,

"Hey Yamada, why'd you specifically chose this fella as inspo?"

Well simple, Letsbifrenz's deal is that he's actually a bird demon, but looks like a pterodactyl. (Aka, a dinosaur) And the reason he has wings is supposed to be a joke that birds are related to dinosaurs in a way. Hence why I chose him.

I have nothing more to talk about Rotten Egg Dino "Cookie" so have these little bonus pictures.

[portal-panda]

music producer??? whomst? what video???

OH MY GOD I AM ABOUT TO BLAST OFF INTO SPACE HI HELLO right so RIGHT SO

so i am VERY into Fred again... (you can check out his music here)

Before he started releasing his own tunes, he was a producer for other artists!! It's really interesting to go back to those songs now that I'm familiar with his work, you can hear him SO much like his "voice" is SO loud its fascinating to me. But I'm trying to keep this brief LOL so

A few years ago in my Music Video class, we watched a video and the song for it REALLY stood out to me in terms of quality and I loved it, skip forward to now AND I FOUND OUT FRED PRODUCED IT!!!! like yeah ok makes sense i like it then. The song is Own It by Stormzy with Burna Boy and Ed Sheeran you can watch the music video here!!!

So I'm watching and reliving the class again, listening with a whole new understanding of the song AND THEN SUDDENLY! MY GUY! MY LITTLE FELLA!!!! HE'S IN THE MUSIC VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT like. Nobody mentions Fred in the comments and I've not seen anybody post about it within his fanbase either and I think it's SUCH a cute little easter egg. Like if you know you know :) our boy is there. And he's having such a good time. It made me smile so much i'm so happy they included him

I wish I could make gifs 😭but look here he is. in like. 5 quick shots.

yeah i feel insane posting blurry pictures of a guy like he's a cryptid but i think it was just a neat inclusion :]

why did they leave him out 😭😭😭 guys please

he should have been in the throne room too 😔😔😔

ANYWAY UM yeah this really. isnt all that. interesting. i just think the guys neat (to put it in the simplest least time consuming words) and his word is [concise adjective]

[homeofjonicles]

The Jonicles - Entry 14

Note: This is the fourteenth entry of The Jonicles, hence why the date does not match when this is being posted. This was written back in June of this year before I started this blog, and there will be errors or developments in how this series was being written. Please enjoy (or don't enjoy) the fourteenth entry of The Jonicles!

It is currently the 19th of June, 2022 on a Sunday at 5:26 pm, a very special day for Garfield fans and the fat cat himself! It's also day #32 of my Jon Arbuckle hyperfixation, and behind me is a stack of multiple of my dad's Garfield comic books (and one Peanuts book for shits and giggles), and I'm currently reading "Garfield: A Weekend Away" which was published in 1986.

Oh boy, it's here! It's Garfield's birthday today! Now, it may be strange for me to celebrate the birthday of a fictional character and be so excited about it, but before you call someone up for a welfare check on me, just listen for a tick.

Garfield, as silly as a it sounds, is quite important to me. He never dominated my childhood but he was definitely an important part of it. I distinctly remember often watching two specials from Garfield And Friends as a kid, which were the Halloween special and Garfield In The Rough, and I really enjoyed those. I remember watching Garfield Gets Real, and as terrifying as it is to watch now, I also enjoyed watching that movie as well. Heck, I even remember having this Garfield plush and he was in a little pirate outfit (it wasn't the same outfit he wore in the special, he had this little black eyepatch and a red and white striped shirt instead), and thinking about him makes me feel so nostalgic. And that stack of Garfield comics? I read all of those too, baby. And although it's more faint now as they've collected so much dust on the shelf downstairs, I still recall that oh-so familiar smell of 80s paper, and I feel a little calmer every time i get a whiff of it... It's not a high, I swear, you don't need to get a welfare check for me..!

Anyway, the point is, Garfield is special to me because he's not only a charming and adorable cat (although that's definitely a big factor in it, haha), but he reminds me of childhood. He makes me feel good because he reminds me of simpler, happier and more surreal times. In fact, reading some of these comics now feels so surreal because I was so young, a part of me thought I'd never see them again and I've forgotten some of them. But even reading the ones I don't remember so well or the ones I only partly remember means a lot to me because of that same feeling of nostalgia and comfort. The comic may be pretty mundane and admittedly not as funny or charming nowadays as it was back in the 80s or even early 90s, but I still feel happy checking in to read the most recent Garfield comic and feeling a bit of that same excitement I had as a kid when I sat down and read the comics and watched the TV specials we had. It's such a small thing, but just seeing my favourite cartoon cat, my favourite cartoon dog and my favourite cartoon cat owner/cartoonist onscreen or on a page fills me with so much joy. I may laugh and make fun of the more recent Garfield media (especially Garfield Gets Real, ESPECIALLY that), but I really do enjoy their prescence, and it means a lot to have been able to experience something so wholesome and fun as Garfield And Friends as a kid, and it feels great to have the little cat be a part of my childhood, no matter how big or small. Happy birthday, Garfield. I hope that whatever cheesy gag they use for your special day this year, it's a good one. You deserve it, buddy. Thank you for enhancing my childhood, along with Jon (love ya Jon <3), Odie, Lyman, Liz, Nermal, Arlene and all the others. It truly does mean the world.

Last edited at 6:28 pm, and i need to mention the fact that while i was looking through my dad's Garfield comics, i cam across a couple of pages where i apparently had drawn a little egg person holding onto a bird that was carrying Garfield away, but i also had apparently scribbled out bits of Jon's face??? and on one panel he is completely censored???? like it's just the silhouette of him??????? i have no memory of doing this help!?!?!?!? (something tells me ihatejonarbuckle would like the censored Jon panel...)

Don't have much to say here without repeating what i wrote in this entry... Garfield as a whole is just so special to me, as many things from my childhood are. The Garfield Halloween special and Garfield In The Rough still hold up as my favourites today, and my dad probably enjoyed those a lot too when they were first made, and he probably wanted to spread that joy onto me. And well, it worked! I'm a crazy Garfield fan now, haha!

Happy late birthday Garf. Hope you had a good one.

P.S. Here're the panels I scribbled on as a kid!

As you can see, poor Jon is not completely censored, but four year old me definitely made an effort. And is it just me, or is that egg person a little... creepy? I drew a lot of little egg people getting brutally killed and maimed and generally in a lot of distress as a kid, but I think it's the eyes that unease me. Also, the fact that this is probably the oldest drawing I still have that I did is hilarious, it's just me unknowingly vandalising a Garfield book. There's also one where I've taken a panel of Pooky without his eyes and drew them back on, I might post that one by itself as a bonus post or something, it's great. These strips are from the "I Hate Mondays" book, by the way. It's the second one in the series my dad collected.

Cheers,

Your Local Jonnoisseur

Posted on the 22nd of July, 2022 at 8:30 pm.

[tyrantisterror]

IMPORTANT GRINCH TAXONOMY UPDATE

Today at the daycare we rotated in some new books from our collection to give the kids some new stuff to read, and one of the books we got was Horton and the Kwuggerbug and Other Lost Stories, a collection of Seuss stories that had been lost for DECADES until they were republished in 2011.  And guess what was in it?

A GRINCH STORY!  Specifically, a story of a creature called a grinch that fleeces a creature called a hoobub (whose species name could possibly be shortened to just ‘hoo�� or ‘who’) out of its money.  Notably, this story was made BEFORE the famous Christmas Stealing Grinch had his big debut, making this little brown grinch his predecessor.

Now, let’s set aside some of the obvious anatomical differences for a moment (we’ll get to them, I promise) and consider some other facts about this grinch.  As the preface to this story collection notes, this particular short tale was published when Dr. Seuss was working for an advertisement agency, in which he used a very familar design in his ads:

Why, isn’t that a very familiar looking grinchy face?  The collection notes that there may have been some intentional self deprecating humor here.  Both our brown grinch and his more famous green furred Christmas hating relative share some DNA with this ad mascot - the brown grinch being a conman who sells shit products through shady tactics, and the Christmas Grinch sharing more explicit physical similarities (and, for that matter, also believing that people are all gullible rubes who will do anything to consume product).

This low view of people as capitalist drones supports the popular theory that another famous Seuss character is, in fact, a grinch:

That’s right, the launcher of a thousand self-targeting ships himself, the Onceler, could well be a member of the Grinch species!

Now, before I FINALLY get to where I think all these grinches and pseudo-grinches fit in the grand grinch taxonomy, I have to address the big hiccup in all of this.  There is, in fact, ANOTHER grinch who predates these fellas.

The beagle-beaked-bald-headed grinch appears in the obscure Seuss story Scrambled Eggs Super, and, unlike our other grinches here, clearly does NOT belong to the same taxa as the Christmas hating crank.  While the other grinches are these strange, bipedal, vaguely feline humanoids, this thing is very definitely a bird.  How do we reconcile this?

Well, the obvious answer would be that “grinch” is a nonsense word that Dr. Seuss liked the sound of and used a few times for completely different one-off characters that he never intended to connect in any meaningful way, and that the Christmas hating grinch’s popularity only made these other girnches notable retroactively.

...but let’s get stupid about it instead.

Clearly there are at least two grinch species, which for simplicity’s sake we shall call the Great Green Grinch and the Adequate Brown Grinch.  The Green Grinch is the larger of the two by a significant margin, but the Brown Grinch is sneakier and more cunning.  Both species have an adversarial relationship with the sweet-tempered Hoobubs (also called simply “hoos” in some circles), despite the fact that hoobubs are in fact a closely relative to the grinches (though not members of the same genus).  While Green Grinches generally live solitary lives in caves and mountains, their brown-furred cousins are significantly more social, often fleecing other species (particularly hoobubs) out of money and resources with sleazy schemes.  This doesn’t mean Green Grinches can’t take part in coning hoobubs, though, as more than a few have made names for themselves as titans of industry (as the extinction of the Truffula Tree can attest to).

While Green Grinches are subject to changes in their coat thanks to seasonal molting as described here, brown-furred grinches live in climates with far less extreme changes between seasons, and thus don’t have as much of a pronounced transformation.

The beagle-beaked-bald-headed grinch is an entirely unrelated species, and was given the name grinch for the same reason as creatures like sea lions and mudpuppies - because it resembles the more famous grinches in temperament, rather than physiology.  A large bird with a surly disposition and mercenary attitude towards others, this grumpy avian may not be part of the grinch family via genetics, but more than earns the moniker through its antisocial behavior.

[eggnogs-stupid-ideas]

I should start posting my cookie run stuff so lets start with oneof my main ocs! And why not start with one of my oldest? I give you;

Nutmeg Cookie!

heressome bio stuff and a really long backstory haha

Name: Nutmeg Cookie

Age: 176... illl get to that in a second

Pronouns: He/Him/They/Them

Cuddleality (My version of sexuality for my au, because my ace self don't want cookie woohoos they get cuddles instead, I can explain more in the future if needed): Pancuddler/Pansexual

Job: Magic teacher at Parfadeia institute

Personality; Hes like the silent yet threatening type fella at first, not being all to friemdly to anyone besides children and people he really cares about, such as latte! Once you gain his trust, hes a very kind hearted and gentle fellow.

Backstory: Nutmeg was born in the same village Cotton was, years before her however. In this village he met a young lass who he fell in love with, and they ended up as a couple, having a young son together even 5hough the were quite young; Eggnog Cookie. However, nutmegs dear wife ended up getting sick with a mysterious illness, cursed by the frost witch. He lost her to the witch, his dear wife becoming one with the snow (his wife wasnt a child, but Id like to think the frost queen takes all ages despite the title 'frost children' or whateverthe title was). And so nutmeg began to raise little egg on his own, slowly realizing that his son had a issue; he didn't seem to be able to process any type of joy or happyness, usually stuck in a blank state no matter what happened. Nutmeg didn't mind his sons emotional disability however, wanting to make his sons life perfect even without his mother in the picture.

And then years later, about 20, Eggnog was struck with an illness familiar to nutmeg, the cal of the frost witch came to eggnog as well. Nutmeg tried his best to get his son to ignore them, but one night eggnog came into the room, telling nutmeg that he would be gone for the night and that he would return. Nutmeg rushed after the runaway son of his but blacked out during it, waking up back home to find that his son was safe... now with a smile on his face. Eggnog explained that he had began to work with the witch now, and in return he finally got to experience joy.

Nutmeg was terrified of what that could of ment, what she could have done to his son, for all nutmeg had known before eggnog could have been turned to snow, and yet he wasn't. Nutmeg swore to himself after that, he swore he would figuir3 out wha the frost witch had planned and what she wanted with his son.

But as years passed, he wasn't strong enough to get to the witch, and with age he just crumbled more and more. It had been 40 years after the event, yet Eggnog hadnt aged a day. Nutmeg realized he needed some way to loose his aging as well.. he needed Immortality. And so he looked for a way to get it, landinb himself in a tale of golden apples.. and a forest where their seeds land.. as a final wish, he asked t go to the forest, and when eggnog took him there, nutmeg found the seeds. The seeds alone however were not enough, he needed some way to boost their magic.. and in the corner of his eye he noticed a little flower.. one that a voice in his mind told him would help him...

Aaaaand tha leads me into his second form

Krampus Cookie! A nightly beast with a heart of gold!

In this mode hes sort of like a giant cat monster.

he used the flower in a concaution, and it boosted the seeds magic just enough to have them work! Yet something was wrong.. he felt as if a black magic loomed over him, he felt more beastly.

He continued to use the potions over the years, looking younger again each time.. and more beastly.. he noticed that he began to turn to a beast, and learned to control it.. for the most part. To this they he still uses the potions, and he continues to slowly corrupt himself with black magic without even knowing it.

Yeah thats him. Also, the black magic flower plays a very significant role in my au.. I dont call the au "Datura" for nothin :3

[feralphoenix]

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

whats UP hk fandom i am back with—“more picante takes?” WOW YES HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!

CONTENT WARNING FOR TONIGHTS PROGRAM: today we are discussing the hollow knight boss fight, and all that entails for all the characters involved. relatedly this post does not have anything nice to say about the pale king, so if you’re very protective of his character, you may want to skip it.

FURTHERMORE, i would like to iterate that this essay is working from a place of compassion for ghost, hollow, radiance, AND hornet, because every single one of them is miserable at this point in the game and doesn’t want the events of this boss fight to be happening at all. this post is not an appropriate place to dunk on ANY of them. if you want to do that, please do it elsewhere.

thanks for your understanding.

ALSO, AS USUAL: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of radiance and the moth tribe’s backstory is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

A while back @grimmradiance​ made a lovely essay about comparing and contrasting Hollow’s moveset in their Hollow Knight and Pure Vessel boss fights and using what can be gleaned from the differences to speculate about their psychology. (This essay is currently their pinned, but I’ll attach a link in a reblog.) It is extremely good, and it made me want to look at the Hollow Knight boss fight my own self through one of my own areas of expertise, meaning music!

As we are all well aware, Christopher Larkin's soundtrack to Hollow Knight rules ass. There are two specific ways in which it rules ass that are relevant to this essay: Leitmotif, and sound palette.

Quick rundown for folks who aren’t familiar with these terms: A leitmotif is a melody associated with a character or event or mood that's incorporated into songs in different ways based on what's happening in the story. Undertale is an example of a game with an incredibly strong use of leitmotif that’s really only possible because Toby Fox is both the composer and the game creator, so he can synchronize the subtleties of the writing with music and scene scripting too.

The phrase “sound palette” can have a lot of meanings, but in this case I’m using it to refer to specific instruments or groups of instruments that are associated with certain characters. If you’ve watched Steven Universe and seen interviews/production commentary by its composer team Aivi & Surasshu, you’ll hear them talking about part of their approach to scoring episodes being how each main character is represented by certain instruments: Steven with the triangle wave, Pearl with jazz piano, and so on.

Hollow Knight is a small team project rather than a one-person show, so Christopher Larkin can’t go quite AS over-the-top with leitmotif integration as Toby Fox can on simple virtue of Team Cherry having to communicate what they want to him. But Larkin is Hollow Knight's sound designer as well as its composer, so he folds leitmotif and character sound palette together with striking use of stems to create a very immersive and cinematic musical experience that enhances HK’s story and gameplay.

This brings us back to the track Sealed Vessel, which has EXTREMELY tight and cinematic sound design and uses leitmotif and sound palette to not just sock players in the feelings during a charged and dramatic boss fight, but also tell us a lot about what Hollow and Radiance are experiencing emotionally, especially with the gameplay in mind.

So, let’s play the soundtrack version of Sealed Vessel (and some other stuff) and talk about what’s going on in the game during it!

You may want to get out your copy of the OST or visit Christopher Larkin’s Bandcamp page so that you can listen along.

LEITMOTIF & SOUND PALETTE

Before we actually get into analyzing Sealed Vessel, let’s talk about the involved characters’ leitmotifs/sound palettes so we know what we’re listening for.

Both of these things are easiest to identify when characters have a distinct theme song. Ghost does not. However, the main theme of Hollow Knight (see: the title track, Hollow Knight) is used as a leitmotif for the vessels as a whole. Most pieces involved with a vessel character include this leitmotif somewhere. For instance, you can find this leitmotif and variations on it in Broken Vessel’s boss theme. The Vessel leitmotif is led by a cello solo here, so we can identify that the cello is the central part of Broken Vessel’s personal sound palette.

When the Vessel theme is associated with Ghost in specific, it tends to be performed by viola and/or piano, as it is on the title track and in other places like the opening cinematic.

Moving on to Hollow, their specific sound palette is established not in Sealed Vessel but in Pure Vessel, their pantheon boss theme. (Sealed Vessel was composed first, since the Godmaster DLC didn’t drop until over a year after HK’s initial release, meaning Pure Vessel was reverse-engineered/extrapolated from relevant parts of Sealed Vessel. But we’ll get into that later!)

The major instrumental fixtures in Pure Vessel are choir and tubular bells (i.e., those dramatic vertical fellas that sound like church bells or a carillon), with some soft background instrumentation: bass drum, woodwinds (appropriately led by flute in the main melody’s “falling motion” - flute is the centerpiece of TPK’s sound palette), strings, and high/mid brass. Hollow’s overall sound palette has a very Christian choir-esque sound (in the Pure Vessel theme this is very idealized and saintly: soft and slow and tragic) and the beginning of their leitmotif has a very distinctive climbing melody that mirrors their ascent from the Abyss. The Unbearable Vesselness Of Being leitmotif is absent from the Pure Vessel track.

Meanwhile, Radiance’s boss theme is a very fun expression of her character upon which Larkin evidently went ham. Her sound palette is expressed through full orchestra (plus choir and pipe organ) that has a special emphasis on the bass part of the brass section, which does not see much use in the HK soundtrack. Her leitmotif has also got cute and distinctive touches: It’s full of triplets to match her tiara-looking antennae, and also has a repeated “fluttery” pattern of background sixteenth notes as countermelody, often spiraling downwards.

The majority of the piece is loud and bombastic and in a minor key to play up the “resplendent and terrible” wrathful aspect of herself Radi is pushing during this section of gameplay, a very quintessentially moth intimidation tactic: Try to look as scary as possible to keep your enemies from messing with you, since you’re not built for fighting. These blasts of intensity from the brass section match Radiance’s strategy of Overwhelm You With Bullet Hell Spam To Make Up For Lack Of Battle Experience/Poor Aim. But in between said intensity spikes you can hear traces of softer instrumentation and major key, little glimpses of a gentle warmth we can otherwise only infer from her backstory and the implications of Moth Tribe lore.

0:00 - 0:41 - OPENING AMBIANCE

The Sealed Vessel track begins with the ambiance of the Black Egg Temple’s interior: The faint tones of the glowing seals we hear when we pass by them, the only light in a pitch-black world besides the floor lighting up under Ghost’s feet.

Then a slow string tremolo fades in, slowly growing louder. In the track new notes join the tremolo progressively, while in-game a violin joins the anticipatory chord every time you snap one of Hollow’s chains. Which, may I say: A+++++++ sound design!!!!!! Rules ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tremolo reaches a peak in dynamics - all three characters present are extremely tense - and then cuts off to allow for Hollow’s boss battle opening, i.e. Radiance screaming. Team Cherry kindly demarcates each phase of the battle with a Radi yell.

0:43 - 1:39 - PHASE 1: HOLLOW ON AUTOPILOT

Phase 1 opens immediately with Hollow’s leitmotif in bells, but with brass, piano, and percussion backing them up; grand and tragic. In the background the bass section of the orchestra's strings flutter in a repetitive pattern of 16th notes, i.e. Panicky Radi Noises. The violins harmonize with Hollow's leitmotif as it climbs, but then join the rest of the string section in fluttering 16th notes, transmuting what in Pure Vessel is the flute leading Hollow back down (8th notes) to a slightly louder “a” from the backseat.

In actual gameplay, the only attacks Hollow uses are their basic nail skills. Building on grimmradiance’s analysis of the window their attacks provide to their psychology, and pairing that with the Pure Vessel leitmotif booming over the metaphorical loudspeakers, we can tell that this is Hollow reacting automatically to a threat the way that their father trained them to. Their conscious mind might still be making dialup noises at Ghost’s sudden reappearance jumpscaring them with murky childhood guilt and trauma, but that’s only let muscle memory take over. Slash, parry, charge and thrust. Their time spent at bee bootcamp (which we can assume because Hornet was trained at the Hive and Hollow’s form while nail fighting is identical to hers on their shared moves) has served them well.

Radiance, meanwhile, has frozen completely for this combat phase, and contributes nothing here except the anxiety of the string section.

As the strings continue to go “a” the piano (Ghost) and woodwinds harmonize on something between Hollow’s personal leitmotif and the Vessel leitmotif in the backdrop.

However at around 1:29ish, the key changes, building into an overall color change for the Sealed Vessel piece.

1:39 - 2:15 - PHASE 2: SHE’S AS SCARED OF YOU AS YOU ARE OF HER

In actual gameplay, the part of Sealed Vessel used for phases 1 and 2 of the Hollow Knight fight is the Entirety of 0:43 - 2:15, possibly because there’s no easy transition spot like there is between phase 2 and phase 3. But the changes to Hollow’s moveset are clearly tied to this specific part of the piece.

Phase 2 is where Radiance pushes herself past her freeze response and starts trying to hit Ghost. Hollow gains two attacks here, which we can tell are Radi because they’re often accompanied by her crying (a softer and more abbreviated sound than her full scream): These two attacks are the Infection blob blast and the Light/Void pillar attack that hits for a full 2 masks damage (which appear to be Radi’s take on Hollow’s Pure Vessel-exclusive moves, their grabby tentacles & silver knife pillars respectively).

In the Sealed Vessel track, this part of the piece is almost entirely Radiance’s fluttering. The strings start by following the descending motion of Hollow’s leitmotif but in 16th notes, then ratchet up to start spiraling down again while straying further from Hollow’s leitmotif. This section ends in a back and forth between hard blasts in a one-two-(rest)-one-two-three pattern and gasps of fluttering between, with piano and low brass building behind it. Eventually the nervous fluttering of the strings becomes less frequent between the blasts: Radiance is inexperienced with fighting and very very afraid, but she’s also FUCKING PISSED and prepared to defend herself.

The OST version of the piece punctuates the break between the first half of the piece and the second with Radiance’s scream.

2:16 - 4:04 - PHASE 3: “I’M HELPING! :)” SAID HOLLOW; “HOLY SHIT PLEASE DON’T,” SAID LITERALLY EVERYONE

Phase 3 opens with Hollow stabbing themself repeatedly, a movement pattern they repeat throughout the phase. It is shocking the first time you see it, and never stops being horrible and sad no matter how many times you do this part of the fight.

Here, Hollow’s mind has finally come back online after their own freeze response, and they choose to destroy themself and bequeath the duty of sealing Radiance to Ghost. Even if they can’t be the one to make their father proud, they can still make sure their directive gets carried out.

Radiance knows exactly what they’re up to and why, and she reacts to this by completely losing her head and mashing buttons in a panic. This is something we see out of her at the ends of her boss fights too, where she’s feeling too threatened and afraid to do anything but spam optic blasts. In the Hollow Knight boss fight this manifests in two horrifying-looking but easy-to-avoid new attacks: The Infection blob sprinkler and the ragdoll.

Ghost does not react visibly because we're in gameplay, but their horror and grief at their sibling’s choice is echoed in the BGM. The Sealed Vessel piece goes soft and sad, with Ghost’s associated viola leading the bass strings in the Unbearable Vesselness of Being leitmotif. At 2:51 the violin comes in with Hollow’s leitmotif, and gradually the choir appears in the backdrop. The ensemble’s overall dynamics build in a slow crescendo, and at the very end of this segment the other instruments begin to join in.

This segment of the piece is also used in phase 4, which occurs if you don't have Hornet’s help or miss your cue to Dream Nail Hollow. Phase 3 ends when Hollow reaches 0 HP; in phase 4 they are for all purposes already dead. But Radiance manifests an extra 250 HP out of terrified, unadulterated FUCK YOU FUCK THIS!!! even though all she can do is get Hollow to fall on their face trying to slash and ragdoll them around. The BGM continues to play as Ghost absorbs Radiance from Hollow and Hollow’s body loses its shape and dissolves into liquid Void.

And there’s one other place in gameplay Sealed Vessel (Unbearable Vesselness of Being) is used: The Path of Pain, the completely evil kaizo-level obstacle course which presumably featured in Hollow’s childhood training, and behind which the Pale King has hidden his last and most terrible secret—that he had realized on some level that Hollow was a kid with feelings who loved him and wanted to make him proud, and condemned them to death despite it all by using them to imprison and torture Radiance as he’d always planned.

The OST version of Sealed Vessel includes the music for both normal ending cinematics, so we’ll be looking at them too.

4:05 - 4:35: ENDINGS 1/2: NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS

In the BGM for The Hollow Knight and Sealed Siblings endings, the Vessel leitmotif is played by violin, viola, and choir while the cellos and contrabasses—and then the brass bass section too—play a slower version of Radiance’s downward spiral. But once Ghost is pierced by the Black Egg’s chains and Radiance’s struggle to free herself ends in failure, the soprano and bass sections harmonize. The animation zooms out of the temple and the seal reforms. They are stuck together now until the end of Ghost’s life. Hooray.

The OST version of the track immediately segues into the BGM for Dream No More.

4:36 - 5:45: ENDING 3: THANKS, I HATE IT

Here, Hornet’s associated instrument, the violin, plays one long sustained note with a few notes of Ghost’s piano alongside as she wakes up.

TPK’s goddamn flute comes in at 5:00 with his leitmotif overpowering the backdrop Vessel leitmotif on piano while Hornet surveys the carnage: The temple has been destroyed, Radiance is dead, and what’s left of Ghost’s corpse is smeared across the floor. The Void may have taken umbrage with his horseshit and unceremoniously vored him, but the motherfucker still got what he wanted in the end; the Pale King has ended the Infection by completing his genocide of the moths, using the children he abused and abandoned as his proxies, and wasting two of their lives. Can I get a hearty THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the chat.

Given that Hornet herself is canonically unsure if bringing the fight to Radiance is really a just course of action, one can only imagine how she must feel when she sees the cost of that decision.

Our only real moment of catharsis is in this shit situation comes in at 5:13, where the flute gives way to a solo from Ghost’s associated viola, playing the Vessel leitmotif as the Siblings curl up and sink back into the mountain of their corpses. Goodnight, kiddos. You deserved better, and so did literally everyone involved in this whole stupid boss fight.

This is where the OST version of Sealed Vessel ends. Even without the gameplay and story context it slaps, but now that we’ve taken a look at how this 5:45 piece is wall to wall misery and fear on the part of literally every involved character, hopefully it will have even more impact!

[thefallendivine]

Ma’an-riss Q’iras: Bittersweet

NOTE: This is the short for the second Guardian. If you don’t want to be spoiled about the character, then you are free to skip this post.

---

An ear-splitting screech pierces the air as Tien stabs the wyvern right at the inflicted wound in its chest, bypassing its shell to tear right through its muscle straight into its heart. The wyvern’s last breath blasts her right in the face, smelling like a Dwarven coal mine: sulfuric, earthy, and comes with a burning sting that clings to the back of the throat. Even with the winged lizard’s lashing tongue and bared fangs, Tien is not at all fazed, having grown used to the sights and smells of these Draconic descendants.

Pressing one foot on the wyvern’s chest, Tien establishes footing as she twists her blade around its heart until the wyvern’s thrashing stops and it slumps lifelessly, just like all the others.

“That should be the last of them,” calls a familiar voice from behind Tien. Pulling out her curved sword before turning to face the approaching Human man. With a big grin on his face, Kimber looks around, “We hit the jackpot, didn’t we, boss?”

Tien casts her gaze all over the ruins, so does her companion, a Dragon Hunter just like her who has worked for the hunting party she leads for many years now. Someone she considers her brother. 

It is the strangest feeling, having been raised to view Humans with indifference at best, Tien now considers several of them as family. Fifty years ago she would have shuddered at the mere thought of entrusting her unguarded back to an incompetent race, but she has seen past that. Most times she wonders if the Elves are the problem, rather than the Humans.

But that in itself is the beauty of being a Dragon Hunter. No matter what shape or size a person is, they are welcomed with open arms in the quest of slaying terrorizing monsters. Most of them are already disowned by their respective nations, that is why they find no more reason to begin quarrels with one another. It may be a difficult job, but not any more difficult than any other job for a warrior.

“The only problem is: how are we going to transport all these guys?”

The question has Tien looking back to Kimber. “We don’t. Not yet.” Tien turns to the others, her voice then rings deep and loud as she instructs her party, “Wrap them up with the cloth we brought. Be thorough. When you’re done, load up half of the wagons with wyverns. Bury what’s left in the sand with the drakes and the wurms. Those of you whose mind and blade are still sharp, gather around.”

As their party moves to fulfill their leader’s orders, Kimber turns to Tien. “Those weird cloth that took up half the space in our storage. Don’t tell me they’re from ‘nishil-norey’.”

Tien stifles a smile after Kimber butchered the name of the Elven city. But from the proud undercurrent of Kimber’s expression, presumably from displaying his knowledge of the overlooked origin of an uncommon product in front of an Elf, Tien lets the Human have his moment of triumph. “Yes, they are.”

Nyshlenorreian fabric are used by Dragon Hunters to preserve their kills so the value does not depreciate as they are transported through changing humidity and temperature. Elves use them for preservation of harvests, especially those reserved for offerings, and are mostly used within Elven territories. Smuggling these fabrics out of the woodlands is a difficult undertaking and always costs a fortune.

“Holy shit, boss. You’re really serious about this haul, aren’t you?”

Tien raises a brow. “When am I never serious?”

Kimber nods. “Fair point. But why would we load up only half of the wagons?”

Tien turns to the center point of the ruins: an abandoned graystone fortress, its walls still standing strong despite the thousands of years of history that shows on its surface. “Because I need to somehow make up the investment I made. By, perhaps, about ten times?”

Following Tien’s gaze, Kimber whistles. “You mean to say there’s gold inside?”

Tien shrugs. “Gold, ancient relics, unhatched eggs, they always guard something. And that something is always worth a whole lot than a weyr of freshly killed Dragonkins.”

The response Tien is expecting does not come, and she looks to Kimber who now has faraway look on his face. “So you really were serious when you said that this might be the last hunt we’ll ever have. Our kills alone are enough to drown ourselves in fine wine for the next twenty years. But if you’re right about the treasures inside, then we don’t have to do all this anymore.”

Like Kimber, Tien does not reply, having mixed emotions about it all.

Thankfully for the Elf, the Human breaks the moment. “It’s bittersweet… but mostly sweet.”

Tien nods, a soft smile gracing her lips. “Mostly.”

Kimber smiles back before facing the other hunters who have now gathered, raising his sword as he shouts, “You hear that, fellas? One more dive into some musty ruins and we can finally pay back the boss with all the thousand year cognac she wants! No more of that filthy ale she forces down her throat to make us happy!”

The other hunters shout back their own cheer, inducing a fond shake of the head from Tien.

The raucous elation is then disturbed by a shriek echoing from inside the ruins. As the cheers come to a halt, a wyvern shoots out of the fortress’ cracked surface.

The laughter comes a moment later.

“Look at the little guy cheering with us,” Kimber says along with the jeers of the others.

Tien ignores her party in favor of watching the wyvern fly up high towards the sky. Wyverns are hostile on sight even if they are outnumbered, but the one that came out is not. And the shriek it let out is not one of fear; hunters are well aware of how a scared wyvern sounds. Tien has never heard that kind of emotion from a wyvern’s call.

How strange, she thinks to herself.

Just as Tien’s gaze settles back on the fortress, the ground they are standing on begins to shake. A clap of thunder that is usually heard from above reaches the hunters ears. It reverberates below their feet, and aside from just hearing it, they feel it as well. The tremors creep up from the earth onto their feet, quivering its way up their bodies until their balance breaks, pulling them down to the ground on their hands and knees.

Now kneeling and unable to regain stability, the hunters as one welcome the great Dragonkin that bursts out of the fortress with forced reverence.

Tien watches in both horror and awe as the fortress that withstood time is now shattered like glass to make way for what appears to be a giant wyvern— using the leading edge of its wings as a forearm, it lands on the solid ground of the desert.

Assessing the monster, Tien’s gaze moves over its golden carapace up to the crown of horns on its head. Just like any other Dragonkin, penetrating the scales would be difficult, which only leaves the underside. It will be the same as any other wyvern, except the one in front of them is ten times larger than the ones they fought in the area, which only means that it would be impossible for such a wyvern to fly. While it can still move around with leaps and bounds, it still is a wyvern on the ground. And as far as Tien’s experience goes, a grounded wyvern is a dead wyvern.

Tien nods to herself.

“Stand your ground!” She shouts as she gets back to her feet, sword placed in front of her. ”We cannot outrun a wyvern this large! So we kill it, like all the others!”

Just as Tien says the words, the “wyvern’s” wings detach from its front legs, before spreading outward in a glorious display— Tien has never seen a wyvern do such a thing. But before she can think further on it, the monster roars, and along with it, the earth quakes in perfect harmony.

Tien frowns, hearing something beyond the sonorous cry. An unrecognizable pattern of sound yet with distinct and clear succession of structured noise, one with an undertone of expression.

Tien’s eyes widen. Did it speak?

The Elf almost cannot believe the conclusion she came up with, but once more, the wyvern roars.

“Orrtid irayagnan onna...”

Tien’s breath catches. “Impossible...” she breathes out.

“Hey, boss! Are we gonna do this or not?”

To Kimber’s question, Tien can only respond with a vacant look.

Unfocused, her quiet words do not quite reach her companions, “Is this what the Dragonkin are guarding? A real Dragon…”

The golden titan roars again, louder and angrier, “Orrtid irayagnan onna!”

This time, Tien does reply. Not to the Dragon, but to her party. “Run! Run for your lives!”

Confusion spread throughout the Dragon Hunters at the sudden change of instruction. But seeing the frantic look on their leader’s face, they all follow with infected horror.

Ma’an watches as the mortal Humans, ordinary and odd, scatter across the sandy terrain, weaving their way through her dead Dragonkin servants. Anger surges from inside her, hot and pulsing like the world’s core. She takes to the skies, looking down on the mortals who dared disturb her slumber on top of murdering her servants.

She lets her wrath free, spewing out the heat that comes from her own core onto the fleeing mortals.

Once they were the masters Ma’an served, but no Human can ever make her bow down again. Setting herself down on the ground, she shouts a vicious cry: a proclamation of her awakening in the present age.

[lazyliars]

Thinking about Tales from The SMP...

So, If I’m interpreting things correctly, Karl canonically doesn’t get to choose when or where he time travels to, meaning that something, or if the books are any indicator, someone, is deciding where he goes, and what “story” he experiences.

“Stories like todays can show that not everything necessarily has to end in misery.”

So, setting aside the obvious question of Who, I’d like to take a moment to consider some of the Why.

Namely, why are the stories that Karl is experiencing necessary for whatever it is he’s doing/going to do?

The Masquerade makes the most sense as of right now - It gives Karl forewarning about the Egg, how it operates, and that it’s old.

It, interestingly enough, doesn’t give us more than that. The only new piece of information the viewers get is, as previously mentioned, that the Egg has been around for awhile.

This lets the theorists narrow things down a little, but the general viewership doesn’t get much out of this nugget of information, so we have to assume that the narrative purpose this serves is to bring Karl up to speed on the Egg stuff.

The Lost City of Mizu again reaffirms the information we already have. In it’s climactic reveal of the Dream Room, we learn that Dream was worshiped through blood sacrifice, and that Ranbob might have murdered the entire city, which reminds Karl and the audience that Dream’s Not A Good Fella.

We could also extrapolate that this is a warning from the In-between that Ranboo is compromised and/or has a connection to Dream, but we’ve yet to see them interact properly so that’s just speculation for now.

The other episodes are less clear in their intended message, lesson, or warning.

The Town that Went Mad gave little to no concrete links to the modern day SMP (until Ponk began to tie it into his lore, which is baller btw go check him out, but which afaik was not planned during the writing of the episode so I’m not counting it to be safe.)

Tubbo/Robin also drops a line about the “Red-Eyed Village Wars” which some have linked to Egg plot. The time period could easily line up with the Masquerade and The Wild West, but there’s every chance that this was a throwaway line from Tubbo, and completely unplanned. We just don’t know. 

But more than lore drops, The Town That Went Mad shows Karl an eerily familiar scene - a community of people tearing themselves apart to root out the source of conflict. It’s not quite a 1-1, as the town did have more clear cut “bad guys” then the current SMP, but the similarity remains.

I’ll only count The Town That Never Was as tentatively part of the tales canon. It was the pilot episode, and it doesn’t involve time travel, at least as far as we know.

As for what it has to teach, it’s a clear recreation of the destruction of L’manberg. I don’t know what this teaches, but, uh, yeah.

Then there’s the Beach Episode... It’s got that early installment weirdness, Karl is still very obviously working out the kinks in his storytelling style and voice, and it’s clear that he hasn’t fleshed out what he wants this to be yet. As a consequence, the following theory is tenuous at best, please take it with a grain of salt.

At first glance, the Beach Episode seems to have no lore-relevance. It’s just a fun jaunt between a group of friends.

But, this was streamed on Jan 9th - a time at which Dream had just blown L’manberg up with Techno, and was hiding outside of the SMP lands. This episode also features Ranboo and Dream, the former of which has stated that he and Dream haven’t spoken once, meaning that either he was in Enderwalk when this happened, or this episode not only doesn’t fit into the timeline, but it doesn’t fit into the canon at all.

Now, there’s a good chance that this is just meant to be taken as a filler episode, and we should ignore the canon inconsistencies. However, I’m have adhd that want thing be deeper than it is.

I propose that this Episode is canonical, and takes place in an Alternate Universe - visited by Karl to teach him that, despite how horrible things are right now, they could be better, even idyllic, where a group of friends can cavort around a beach and look for treasure without a care in the world.

This explains the inconsistencies - In this Universe, Dream either didn’t blow up L’manberg, or Ranboo and the rest of the dteam + Bad didn’t mind him doing so.

This opens the door for other AU themed episodes though - silly ones, serious ones... I for one would love to see an over-the-top “darkest timeline” episode, where everyone talks in a low, gruff voice and tries to be darker and edgier than each other.

More lore-oriented, we could see canon-divergence - maybe a “Pog 2020 wins the Elections” story, or a “What if Eret never betrayed?”

I feel like this would give a lot of freedom and give some opportunities to people to explore their current characters on the SMP in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. It also serves the narrative, giving Karl reason(s) not to mess up the timeline, lest he get these strange offshoots.

Anyway, I would love to hear what people think about this, and any ideas for AUs that could be explored through the Tales format...

[pyraffin-drgo]

All Heavy interactions in Poker Night at the Inventory.

For you to interpret however you wish.

Video Version

(They have [bootleg movies] in your country?) "I like movies, yes." (Yeah, like what? [Lists movies]?) "No. My favorite are The Dirty Dozen and the first twenty minutes of Rocky four."

(We can talk Tetris?) "Hmmph. Tetris is baby game." (Tetris Attack keeps it hood!) "Why does everybody think I love this Tetris? It is just stacking!"

"[To Strongbad] Tiny Heavy." (What is it?) "Do you get the nightmares?" (I get the jibblie nightmares. [Describes silly nightmare, shivers].) "I am talking about the visions of endless suffering. Dead doctors everywhere. Spy can not be found. (No, but that sounds like the Jibblies.) "I do not like these 'jibblies.'"

"Strong and bad. How is boxing career?" (These. Are. My. HANDS!) "I was boxer, once. In school. We have to either box or learn to herd goats." Silence, looking concerned. "I am not good with goats..." (Too much information, man.) "At first, I do not like punching other boys... But then I learn to love it." Punches his palm menacingly.

(Find any rare drops lately?) "I do not understand." (When you get a kill, you get a present?) "When I get kill, I get honor of team." Smile drops. "Sometimes... I also get nightmares. A man does not go home to his wife and children." (So, no loot?) "Oh! You mean hat! Yes, I love hats! Sometimes, I get these. They are the best."

(Hey, Heavy. You know any hot Russian spies?) "I hate spies." (But you gotta have the inside line on some deadly minxes.) "You want hot spy?" (Am I not wrestle man?) "I have friend who gets you a hot spy. (Get em on the two-way, man!) "His name is Pyro." (Tycho, to Strongbad: The spy is hot because it is on fire.) (Oh...)

"[To Tycho] What do you do with life?" (Me?) "Yes. What is possible with tiny, frail body?" (I occupy myself with simulations... of various kinds.) "What is these?" (Struggles to explain.) (Strongbad: He lives in his parent's basement.)

(So, is there a Mrs. Weapons Guy?) "No. Sasha is my only love." (Sasha kills people, I presume?) "No." (Oh?) "WE kill people."

"[To Strongbad] Maybe you and I box?" (I can't risk my beautiful face, it's the franchise.) "We spar. For fun." (I don't think so.)

"Strong and bad. You wrestle? With mask?" (No, I'm a wrestle man, not those hack wrestle-LERS.) "Not like Iron Sheik?" (No, Iron Stake is a LER.) Heavy nods. "Hmm. This is too bad."

(So how long you been with those Team Fortress fellas?) "I do not understand." (The game's been on Steam for like 3 years. I imagine there was some audition process?) "Ohhh! Yes, I understand! I kill many men VERY quickly." (Excuse me?) "I kill record number of soldiers, and I am commissioned to join RED team."

(Mr. Weapons. I am in the market for a new firearm. [Specifications].) "Hmm, for you I do not recommend minigun then. You know, there is this fast baby man that annoys me greatly with shotgun." (Oh! Oh! What are the available options? I'll spring for leather!) "Da, this is good for you. I suggest Force-A-Nature." (I'll tell them [shop owner] Heavy Weapons Guy sent me.) "It is no need. I know guy."

"I will make hat from you, little bunny." No reply from anyone. A reference for the player to the Max hat in TF2.

"You look familiar, bunny." (How closely do you follow the Manhattan Crime Blotter?) Also a reference to the hat, Tycho then takes over conversation.

(If I need someone snuffed out, what's your going rate?) "Five hundred thousand U.S. dollars." (Steep.) "Cash." (You can do it discreetly?) "Sasha... not so discreet." (That's fine.)

(How did you guys hear of the inventory?) "My engineering friend brought me one night."

(This reminds me of the time Artie Flopshark rigged an entire poker tournament to pay off his loan shark.) "I know of this. This is respectable profession in motherland." Conversation is stolen by Tycho.

(This reminds me of [story]!) "I am reminded of time Engineer kill my entire team." (Damn Heavy, that's... heavy. Sorry to hear that.) "I search entire base for him. He tries to kill me with turret and mini turret, but I crush his toys like they are made of paper." (Sounds like crappy toys.) "Then I find him. Hiding by teleporter. I take his gun away from him. He tries to hit me with wrench! Hahohoh! So I take wrench away from him. I take his wrench and shove it down his throat, all the way down to the handle." (Christ!) Heavy laughs. "Then I rip off all his fingers one by one!" He talks while laughing. "Lets see you build toys now!" He breaks out in laughter. "There's blood- everywhere! And- he's crying!" More laughter. "I think he cries out for mother, but- but-" Crumples over laughing. "The wrench is stuck in his throat! And it sounds like-" Makes choking motions and noises then laughs. "Is this not the funniest thing??" (Horrified looks) (Head shakes slowly.) (That's some bleeped up bleep, man!)

(How about you, Heavy weapons? I'm guessing you're a vodka guy?) "Peach Bellini. But bubbles can give me headache."

(Mr. Weapons, how do you like your line of work?) "It is good. There are many benefits." (Oh! Like a free pass to snuff out bad guys or a waffle bar?) "Both. And full dental."

(I wonder if this dump is haunted.) (I hope so! Roughing up who can't die is fun!) "...I do not like ghosts..." (It's okay, Mr. Weapons. I have [extensive experience]. I can handle a few ghosts.) "...You will take care of ghosts for me?" (You bet cha!) Heavy nods at him. "I like you, tiny rabbit."

[Story including a union] "I am union. RED local six fifteen." (You guys unionized?) "Eh. It was necessity for group medical."

"Tycho. This sweater, is special equipment?" (No, standard issue.) "You have no class specific head gear?" (Got a motorcycle helmet that protects from 100% of UV rays.) "This sounds beneficial."

(Why do you keep calling me 'Tiny Heavy'?) "You are Heavy. Tiny. No? You are RED team. You have killing gloves of boxing. You earn these for being great killer! You should try out for RED team." (Hmm. Guess I could join your team of ruthless killers and lame hat wearers and watch you get grenaded by 8 year olds.) "You will take many bullets before dying I think."

(Hey, Heavy. I just finished [Russian fantasy book]. Ever read it?) "No." (Oh. What's your favorite book?) "I prefer war." (Ah, War and Peace. Tasteful.) "No. Just war." (Art of War?) "Nyet." Silence. "I like 'Tsar Hunger' by Leonid Andreyev. You know this?" (...No.) "Is classic."

"You have hands like young girl." (I keep them shits moist.) "...So you are more of sneaky, stabbing type?" (In an extreme circumstance, I guess.) Heavy looks at him suspiciously. "I keep my eyes on you." (No, no no- I wasn't implying that-) Heavy looking at him angierly. (Shit.)

(Ever listen to music while you work?) "Yes! I just buy new walkman." (What gets you in the killing mood? Icelandic death metal?) "I just get Huey Lewis tape. Keeps spirits up on battle field."

"[To Tycho] You have woman?" (Not with me) "She is pretty?" (Yeah, cute, glasses, red hair.) "She has the red hair??" (No, Heavy! She is not on the other team! Don't have to kill her!) "No. But I love the red hair!" (Well, you can't have her, either.) Re-used image of Heavy looking at him angrily. (Well, maybe we can work something out.)

(Hey, Heavyman. You think you can 'take care' of the King of Town for me?) "I can assassinate king, yes. It is expensive, though." (By take care of I meant sneak in and shave off half his mustache.) "I am not best at sneaking." (Confront him in a dark alley then?) "This is better. That way blood wash away in rain."

(You have any interest in moonlighting?) "WHAT? I am not moonlighter!" (Just a little work on the side with Sam and me beating up goons!) "Oh. I can not do this." (C'mon it's fun and free!) "No, I am sure it is." (Then what's the problem?) "I have non compete." (Ah, yeah. Lawyers.)

(All these aces reminds me of [weird dream]. You have any weird dreams, Mr. Weapons?) "I sometimes dream that I am killed. There is blood everywhere. (Tycho gives him a weird look) But then I wake up and I realize this is ridiculous! Nobody can kill Heavy weapons guy! (Riiiight...)

"[To his chips] This is good Solider. This one is good Doktor. You are demolition man."

"Saaaandvich, sandvich, I love you sandvich!" (Would you like someone to order you some food?)

"Blue man." (Tycho.) "Tycho. What college do you go to? You are educated, no?" (Actually, no.) "No?" (I studied at Gygax Polyhedral if you catch my drift.) "I do not. This is good school?" (Uh. The best.) "I went to Soviet College of Mines, Farms, and Science. I have PhD in Russian literature." (Do you.. use that in your work?) "More than you think."

"Tiny Heavy, who is your favorite to kill in war?" (Those discount three-pack green helmets.) "To kill spy is glorious thing! How about you, Max? You are killing type." (My favorite enemy? Like asking me to choose between my children!) Heavy laughs. "You crack me up, little bunny!"

(Hey, Hefty Bag, you ever play video games?) "Just one." (Oh yeah?) "It is called-" (Tycho: WoW?) "Nyet. That is not popular. It is called 'Where's an Egg'." (Strongbad: I love Where's an Egg!) "Where's an Egg is as big as Tetris in homeland."

(Concerning your firearm, whay caliber we talking?) "Big." (What, we talking 300 Weatherby Mag here?) "Bigger." (50 cal, whereabouts?) "Bigger than 50 caliber. They are hand made custom tool cartridges with classified diameter." (Why's that?) "So enemy canmot use ammunition. But Sasha can chew through theirs." (Diabolical!) "I think so." Nods.

(Alright, big pretend killer man. Tell me the most awesome story you have with plenty of senseless violence!) Heavy thinks. "When I was boy, I was at camp, being trained in many ways of combat." (Assassination camp for kids! This is gonna be good!) "There was sparrow sitting on fence. Snow falls quietly around me. Without notice, another boy jumps from behind tree and kills sparrow with throwing knife. The boy runs away." (And then??) "I pick up sparrow, and hear his last breath before digging him tiny grave..." (Tycho crying) (Max silent) (That's not even a little bit funny, man.) Heavy shakes his head solemnly. "No..." Sits back. "It's not."

(So, what do you do for fun?) "Clean Sasha. Use Sasha... Clean Sasha again." (Proper maintience is crucial.) "I also collect old coins." (A fellow numismatist!) "Which I melt down to make custom bullets." (Of course.)

"I am hungry for sandvich." (Then order a sandvich, man.) "Oh, I can not have sandvich! I become unstoppable killing machine!" (Yeah, maybe order a water.) "Is best."

"You wear blue sweater." (All the time.) "What are you?" (Haven't we went over this?) "You are not Scout. Maybe very tricky blue Spy? Maybe... new class?" (I can use a keyboard to sabotage your entire team, steal your intelligence, and have your sister delivered to my doorstep in one afternoon. Yes, I'm a new class.) Heavy, shocked, "This is true??"

(Hey, Heavyman, what's your living situ-aysh?) "I live in RED barraks. Is nice. There is foos table." (How about taking a room in the house of Strong?) "There is vacancy?" (First you'll have to dump the current person in your room.) "This is enemy?" (He won't put up much of a fight.)

Hope you enjoyed, spent most of the day copying all these down. The non-Heavy lines are paraphrased for shortness. Heavy's are full, how they are in game.