#which isn't a lot but it's weird that I've done it twice

[solarmorrigan]

54 + 12 for steddie!

Okay, I know the prompt list says I'm supposed to describe how I'd use the tropes in the same story, but I got.... carried away. I just really love outsider POV

Fanfiction Trope Mashup prompts: 54. Secret relationship + 12. Roommate AU

cw: allusions to period-typical homophobia

-

Gladys hadn’t been sure what to make of her new neighbors at first.

She didn’t like the idea of them, to be certain: two young men living in the apartment across the way, who would probably come and go at all hours, noisy and inconsiderate as anything – especially the long-haired one she’d spotted carrying a guitar case.

A month in, however, her initial assessment doesn’t seem to have proven true; she does see them come and go at all hours, but they aren’t noisy about it, and she hasn’t heard any kind of raucous guitar playing. They seem to keep to themselves, and that suits Gladys just fine.

And then grocery day comes, and Gladys is trying to jog from the front door to the elevator before it closes, both arms loaded with bags. She spots her long-haired neighbor already in the elevator, and he spots her, and he holds the door for her before she can even call and ask him to.

He then offers to help with the bags, and Gladys unloads both of the heavy paper sacks on him with a relieved sigh; she tries to keep in shape, but she doesn’t have the strength she did when she was younger, and her joints sometimes ache like mad.

“I’m Eddie, by the way,” the man says into the silence of the elevator as they ride up to the fourth floor. “I don’t think we really introduced ourselves when we moved in, but I live across the hall from you.”

“I recognize you,” Gladys says. Then adds, “Gladys Gaines.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you officially, Miss Gladys,” Eddie says with a grin. “I’d offer to shake, but my hands are otherwise occupied.”

He shifts the grocery bags demonstratively, pretends for a moment that they’re weighing him down, though he’d been having no trouble with them until then, and Gladys finds herself smiling. “Never mind that,” she says. “And it’s nice to meet you, too.”

Eddie helps her put the groceries away, and she finds him to be charming, in an animated sort of way, bursting with energy and humor.

The sink gives him pause, though, after he ducks beneath it to put away a bottle of dish detergent as directed. He watches it drip for several consecutive seconds before asking, “Is the faucet giving you trouble?”

“It’s been driving me up the wall for weeks,” Gladys huffs as she stashes a loaf of bread in the breadbox. “But of course maintenance is taking their sweet time to get to it.”

“Huh. Y’know, Steve—my, uh, roommate—he’s pretty good at home repair stuff like this. I could get him to come take a look at it, if you want,” Eddie offers.

“If he can get that awful drip to stop, I’ll be in your debt,” Gladys says.

Eddie wiggles his eyebrows at her. “Madam, that’s a dangerous thing to declare.”

“Oh, hush.” Gladys slaps at him with a dish towel, and the boy pretends to be mortally wounded.

Laughing, Gladys finds that she quite likes Eddie.

She likes Steve, too, when he shows up at her door the next afternoon with a bag of tools and a little wave ‘hello.’

“Eddie said your faucet was leaking?” he offers. “Oh– I’m Steve. From across the way.”

“I recognize you,” Gladys says, and she shows him to the kitchen.

Steve is a solid, steady presence that Gladys can imagine compliments Eddie’s high energy well; he’s boyish and sweet, but there’s something sharper underneath that reminds Gladys of her own Avery’s cutting wit.

Gladys finds out from Steve that he and Eddie are from a tiny, rural town; they’re new to city life, but they’re enjoying it even in their adjustment period. Eddie works full time while Steve works part-time and attends classes – he’s hoping to become a guidance counselor.

“That’s an unusual arrangement for roommates,” Gladys comments. “Eddie doesn’t mind taking on most of the bills?”

It’s a bit of a prying question—rude, some might say, but Gladys doesn’t see the point in getting old if you’re not allowed to be blunt—but Steve only ducks his head and smiles.

“No, Eddie’s– he’s a great guy. Helping me out like this,” he says before turning back to the sink. “Here, try it now.”

Gladys turns the faucet on, then turns it back off, watching as the flow of water comes to a complete stop, not a drip to be seen.

“Dear, you’re a miracle worker,” Gladys declares.

“It was nothing,” Steve says.

He turns away to pack up his tools, but not quite quickly enough to hide the smile on his face – pleased but a little bashful, like he isn’t used to being complimented like this. It’s a nice smile, Gladys thinks, and both Steve and Eddie are nice boys. She decides that yes, she really does like them.

Offering to pay Steve for his services seems a little tawdry, so Gladys invites the boys over for dinner, instead. They end up staying well into the evening, talking and laughing with her. Steve eats up all the gossip about the other building tenants that Gladys can dish out, and Eddie eggs them on.

When they say that they’ll have to have her over for dinner next, Gladys braces herself for the worst: the apartment of two busy young bachelors, Lord have mercy.

She’s pleasantly surprised to find, then, that it isn’t so bad at all. It’s a bit cluttered—particularly the desk shoved into the corner covered in graph paper and what appear to be tiny plastic figurines—but it’s quite clean.

After she’s offered to help with dinner and been politely denied, Gladys spends time looking at the photos they have pinned up on the wall. There are over a dozen, a collage of smiles and laugher featuring the same cast of teenagers in varying stages of growth, often posing with Steve or Eddie. There are quite a few of just Steve and Eddie together mixed in, and Gladys is warmed to see two such good friends.

Steve does most of the cooking that evening, but Eddie is a capable sous chef, anticipating Steve’s every request before he can even voice what he needs.

“Hey, can you hand me the, uh–” Steve snaps his fingers, searching for the word, and Eddie opens a drawer and presses a slotted spoon into Steve’s hand. “Yeah, that.”

Eddie grins and goes back to cutting vegetables.

Dinner is nice.

It goes on like this – trading favors here and there, dinners at one apartment or the other, evenings spent talking and laughing. Gladys finds that Eddie is an excellent opponent when playing cards, and Steve shares her fondness for Murder She Wrote.

Gladys and Avery never did get around to having children. At first, they hadn’t had the money, then they hadn’t had the time, and eventually – well, it had been too late. She’s never really regretted it—her maternal instinct isn’t a strong one—but she does find herself starting to think of these boys as hers. She even starts in on knitting some sweaters; the weather it’s getting cold, after all, and it’s the sort of thing you do when you want the people you care about to be protected from it.

It does strike Gladys as a little odd that she only ever sees them with each other; they’re both attractive young men, after all, and she can’t imagine why they don’t seem to go on dates. She’s never seen two friends as content in each other’s company as they are, but she supposes that’s really all that matters – that they’re content.

Things become clearer, however, one sleepless night months after the boys move in.

Insomnia isn’t new to Gladys; she’s dealt with it since she was young, and it seems like age has only increased the frequency of those nights she lies awake, staring at her bedroom ceiling.

She’s found her own ways of coping, over the years; she’ll fill the time with a good book or do some word puzzles or get some knitting in. If she’s feeling particularly restless, she might clean the apartment or even bake something.

She’s just considering whether or not the boys would appreciate some cinnamon rolls come morning (and whether or not it would top that loaf of cinnamon raisin bread Steve had made last week, not that Gladys is keeping track) when she hears the very subject of her thoughts come giggling down the hall.

The boys aren’t being loud, precisely, but they aren’t quiet, either, and there are fewer sounds in the night to swallow up their noise.

They sound happy – they must have had a late night out, coming home a little goofy and tipsy, talking and laughing and then shushing each other as they come to a halt, sounding close enough that they must be outside their own door, just across and to the left of Gladys’.

There’s a moment of indecision, and then Gladys is rising from her chair and crossing to the door. She feels a little silly, but the sight of a friendly face on a sleepless night can sometimes do wonders to soothe her nerves.

She’ll just pop out and say hello, a fellow after-midnighter, and then let them go.

She’s barely opened her door, however, just catching a glimpse of the boys, when something– unexpected happens.

Eddie is fumbling with his keys as Steve leans further and further into his space, and Gladys wonders if he’s drunker than he sounds, but then–

“Hey,” Steve murmurs, waiting for Eddie to look up, and it’s all the warning Eddie gets before Steve is kissing him full on the mouth.

Eddie drops his keys entirely, but it isn’t in shock so much as it is his apparent eagerness to get his hands on Steve, cupping his cheek in one and grabbing his hip with the other, pulling him closer.

This isn’t drunken fumbling – it isn’t even something new, Gladys realizes. The kiss is slow and gentle and lingering, the love in it so evident that for a moment an ache of longing, of missing Avery, rises up in Gladys’ chest.

Then, though he’d been the one to encourage the kiss, Eddie is the one to break it, and when he speaks, he’s properly quiet this time. Gladys can just barely hear him.

“Someone’s gonna see, baby.”

“Let ‘em,” Steve says, just as soft.

“Steve…”

Steve sighs, pressing his forehead to Eddie’s. “I wish I could show you off. Tell everyone how much I love you.”

Eddie in spite of his own warning, holds Steve close for a moment longer, swaying him gently. “No one else matters. I know you love me,” he says. “Come inside and show me how much?”

Glady’s can’t see Steve’s grin from this angle, but she can hear it when he says, “Yeah. I can do that.”

Then Eddie gathers his keys from the floor and actually manages to get the door open, pulling Steve in and shutting it after them and–

Well.

Gladys stands alone now, her door still cracked open, showing her the empty hallway, and–

Well.

Actually– well, actually, certain things make quite a bit more sense now.

“My, uh, roommate,” indeed.

Gladys closes her door, wandering back towards her easy chair as she thinks.

The only thing that doesn’t make sense is the two of them having the idea that they have to keep this from her. Utter nonsense.

Gladys will show them, though; her boys—and their secret—will always be safe with her.

[jinxedruby]

Febuwhump Day Twelve: Semi-conscious

Featuring Four and everyone.

I realize that I just used Four yesterday but uhh whoops, sorry my guy, you don't get a break. (I also skipped another day lol)

This is a continuation of day one: helpless (the one where Warriors gets pinned under a tree).

Heads up for graphic injury in this one.

AO3

First part | <- Previous part | Next part ->

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

When Four finally made it back with the others, Warriors had fallen still.

His heart dropped into the ground and he sprinted forward, falling to his knees next to the captain. Time appeared by him barely a moment later, one hand going to Warriors’ neck, the other to his chest. Four’s hands shook as Time checked the captain, eyes darting back and forth between Warriors’ pale face and bloody tunic. The blood that Four had hardly been able to see earlier due to the tree obscuring his sight had climbed up Warriors’ tunic by several inches.

“He’s alive,” Time said, relief tinging his edged tone. “But he’s having trouble breathing. We need to get this tree off of him.”

“He- he said something’s in his stomach,” Four rushed to say, glancing toward the blood again.

“Then we have to be ready to stop the bleeding as soon as we can.” Time looked up toward the group hovering around Warriors’, all with concerned or frightened expressions. “Sky knight, you have a potion?” When Sky nodded, Time continued. “The moment he’s free, pour it on his wound. Rancher and Champion, you two need to pull him out as soon as we get the tree lifted.”

“Roger,” Wild said while Twilight nodded, the two of them situating behind Warriors.

“How do we get the tree off him?” Four asked, not moving from the captain’s side.

Time stood, tugging his golden gauntlets tighter around his forearms. “I understand several of you have strength-enhancing items?” He glanced around and everyone except Sky, Twilight, and Wild nodded. “Anyone who has one, equip it. We’re all going to lift the tree up then Rancher and Champion will pull him out.”

Four bit his lip, pulling out his power bracelets. He’d thought of that before, considering splitting into four to get the tree off of Warriors. Maybe he could have, but even if he did, Warriors probably wouldn’t have been able to pull himself out from under the tree. Not to mention it might have made his injury even worse. Four knew all of that, but it still didn’t stop the sick feeling from settling in his gut as he pulled on his bracelets with trembling hands. It didn’t stop him from thinking that maybe, just maybe, he could have saved the captain sooner. Didn’t stop him from thinking that if Warriors died it could be his fault for making the wrong choice.

“Smithy, come on!”

He jolted back to reality at Wind’s words, the sailor slipping two golden bracelets onto his wrists and standing ready by the tree. Four nodded jerkily, hurrying to stand beside Wind, Hyrule coming to his other side. He forced himself to take a steadying breath, attempting to still his hands as he and the others crouched down in preparation.

“On three,” Time said, bracing his hands beneath the thick trunk. “We have to lift it as evenly as we can so we don’t worsen whatever injury he has. Ready? One.”

Four slipped his hands under the tree, fingers pressing against the bark.

“Two.”

Twilight and Wild each grabbed one of Warriors’ arms, preparing to drag him back. The captain didn’t react.

“Three!”

Four grunted, digging his heels into the ground and shoving against them to stand, hands digging into the tree trunk. Wind heaved from beside him and Four didn’t have to look to know the sailor’s face was screwed up in some intense expression. Even with power bracelets and gauntlets between the five of them, lifting the tree proved to be a challenge. Four gritted his teeth and doubled his effort, pain sparking in his locked elbows. Then the massive tree began to shift upwards.

And Warriors woke with a scream.

Four jerked at the sound, nearly losing his grip on the tree. He barely managed to recover, sinking his teeth into his lip and maintaining his stance.

“Higher!” Twilight called as the captain’s scream tapered off into ragged wheezing. “Branch stabbed him through. It’s not all the way out yet.”

Four tasted blood as his teeth broke skin. Wind shouted from beside him and Four heard himself join in, shifting his weight and bending his arms, raising the tree up. Warriors yelled again, a broken and weak sound, and Wild said something that sounded encouraging. Four could hardly hear it, hearing growing muffled as he and the others hauled the tree higher.

“Clear, he’s clear!” Twilight yelled.

“Everyone, let go!” Time shouted in a strained voice.

Four yanked his hands back with a shout, skipping backwards. The bark scraped his palms as it slipped out of his grasp before the tree slammed into the ground with a shuddering SLAM, branches crunching and snapping. Four staggered to his knees, Wind collapsing beside him while Hyrule doubled over on his other side, all heaving for air. Four forced himself to his feet despite the tingling in his arms and legs, stumbling over to where Warriors lay. Sky knelt beside the captain, red potion uncorked and tipped above his torso. Four arrived just in time to see the potion pour into the gaping wound. The branch had punched straight through the chainmail, metal loops broken and bent. Jagged chunks of flesh splayed upwards from the hole in Warriors’ stomach, blood bubbling up and out, spilling down his sides. Warriors jerked as the potion splashed into the wound, curling slightly and spluttering. Four’s hand shot out and grabbed Warriors’ hand, dragging himself into the captain’s view.

“Hey, Captain, it’s okay, you’re going to be fine,” Four said, struggling to keep the stammer out of his words. Warriors gurgled, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. Four’s heart leapt into his throat and he whipped his head around to face Sky.

“I know, I know, it- it’s healing,” Sky said, dropping the now empty bottle on the ground and grabbing gauze from where it lay beside him. He stuffed it into the wound, the material soaking up blood. Wild skidded around to Warriors’ side, pulling out his own bandages and pressing them into the wound alongside Sky’s. Four looked back to Warriors’ face in time to see the captain’s eyes flutter shut. Twilight pressed two fingers to the pulse point in Warriors’ neck before Four could even blink.

“Still alive,” Twilight said, voice tight.

Warmth pressed against Four’s side as Wind squeezed in to watch Warriors’ face. Hyrule appeared on his other side, wedging himself between Four and Wild.

“Should I heal him?” Hyrule asked frantically, already lifting his hands.

“Y-yeah,” Sky said, barely glancing up from the wound. “I can- can’t tell how much the- the- the potion’s doing.”

Wild moved aside to make room for Hyrule, the traveler situating himself over Warriors’ stomach. He pressed his hands against the wound, a soft glow emanating from his palms.

“Don’t crowd him!” Time called from a short ways behind Sky. Everyone except Hyrule, Twilight, and Four jerked back. Four couldn’t bring himself to leave the captain’s side, keeping his hand in a death grip as he watched Hyrule work. Warriors groaned at one point, stirring slightly before abruptly falling still again. Four’s blood froze but Twilight was quick to assure everyone the captain was still alive, even by however small a margin it may have been. Four’s eyes darted back to the wound, watching as the flow of blood gradually stemmed. Sky pulled the gauze away as the wound began to close. Hyrule knotted his lips in concentration, sweat beading on his brow. The flesh of Warriors’ stomach slowly knitted back together, neater than what the potion had accomplished. Then, finally, Hyrule let out a soft sigh, hands dropping. He tipped sideways but Legend was prepared, catching the traveler and letting him sag against his side. Four looked anxiously to Warriors’ face, Twilight’s fingers still pressed to the captain’s neck. For one long, horrible moment, the captain lay still, face stark white against his blue scarf. Then his brow twitched, eyelids dragging open. Four let out a croaking laugh, hearing various sighs of relief from the others as he moved closer to Warriors’ head. The captain’s gaze roved around dazedly before settling on Four.

“Smithy,” he croaked, blinking languidly. “You’re… alive?”

Four let out a huff, smile spreading across his face. “Don’t sound so surprised, Captain.”

Warriors gave a lopsided smile. “That’s… good.” He sighed and his eyes slid shut again. This time, Four could see the steady rise and fall of his chest, not needing Twilight to confirm a pulse. His shoulders dropped, exhaustion and relief dragging at him. A heavy hand settled on his shoulder and he looked up to see Time beside him, wearing an expression that mirrored how Four felt.

“He’ll be alright,” Time said, giving Four a half-smile.

Four nodded, gaze returning to Warriors’ face, color growing in the captain’s cheeks. He’d be alright.

[larsbarsart]

Day 10 Mask

More Sammy!!!! Except this isn't really Sam!

Much like her adoptive father, Sam has an alter named Giggles. Unlike Masky, though, Giggles is less violent and more protective and cautious. Despite this, it keeps a very cheerful and childish personality, and generally acts much like any honorable clown would!

Its mask is really just what it looks like, or at least how it would like to be perceived.

An extra doodle depicting it showing its Dad what it looks like through crayons!

[whisker-biscuit]

undefined

Sonic Prime: Episode 1? More like Sonic Prime: This Hedgehog Has a Concussion

(Spoilers for the entire first episode, obviously)

[willowjay07]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[saja-star]

I've had a hard time articulating to people just how fundamental spinning used to be in people's lives, and how eerie it is that it's vanished so entirely. It occurred to me today that it's a bit like if in the future all food was made by machine, and people forgot what farming and cooking were. Not just that they forgot how to do it; they had never heard of it.

When they use phrases like "spinning yarns" for telling stories or "heckling a performer" without understanding where they come from, I imagine a scene in the future where someone uses the phrase "stir the pot" to mean "cause a disagreement" and I say, did you know a pot used to be a container for heating food, and stirring was a way of combining different components of food together? "Wow, you're full of weird facts! How do you even know that?"

When I say I spin and people say "What, like you do exercise bikes? Is that a kind of dancing? What's drafting? What's a hackle?" it's like if I started talking about my cooking hobby and my friend asked "What's salt? Also, what's cooking?" Well, you see, there are a lot of stages to food preparation, starting with planting crops, and cooking is one of the later stages. Salt is a chemical used in cooking which mostly alters the flavor of the food but can also be used for other things, like drawing out moisture...

"Wow, that sounds so complicated. You must have done a lot of research. You're so good at cooking!" I'm really not. In the past, children started learning about cooking as early as age five ("Isn't that child labor?"), and many people cooked every day their whole lives ("Man, people worked so hard back then."). And that's just an average person, not to mention people called "chefs" who did it professionally. I go to the historic preservation center to use their stove once or twice a week, and I started learning a couple years ago. So what I know is less sophisticated than what some children could do back in the day.

"Can you make me a snickers bar?" No, that would be pretty hard. I just make sandwiches mostly. Sometimes I do scrambled eggs. "Oh, I would've thought a snickers bar would be way more basic than eggs. They seem so simple!"

Haven't you ever wondered where food comes from? I ask them. When you were a kid, did you ever pick apart the different colored bits in your food and wonder what it was made of? "No, I never really thought about it." Did you know rice balls are called that because they're made from part of a plant called rice? "Oh haha, that's so weird. I thought 'rice' was just an adjective for anything that was soft and white."

People always ask me why I took up spinning. Isn't it weird that there are things we take so much for granted that we don't even notice when they're gone? Isn't it strange that something which has been part of humanity all across the planet since the Neanderthals is being forgotten in our generation? Isn't it funny that when knowledge dies, it leaves behind a ghost, just like a person? Don't you want to commune with it?

[felikatze]

THE ISLANDER EUPHRASIE THEORY: THE CRACK HEADCANON THAT RUINED ME FOREVER

HI. you might know me as the kingphie divorce guy. or as the guy who wrote the 6k ludonarrative essay. Today i am going to introduce to YOU @the-bitter-ocean's fantabulous ISLANDER EUPHRASIE THEORY!!!

DISCLAIMER

This post contains SPOILERS for ALL of In Stars and Time. INCLUDING THE ACT 6 SECRET!!

You have been warned.

ALSO!!!!

The original headcanon/theory is VERY MUCH Ocean's fantastic work! I am merely rehashing all the arguments for it that have been laid out across various chats into one cohesive thing people can look at. Also citations! Who doesn't love those.

WHAT IS IT?

Well, it's quite simple. It's the theory that Euphrasie, love of my life and Head Housemaiden of Dormont, is from the forgotten island, same as Siffrin and the King.

(Yes, this is why divorce AU exists.)

WHY DO YOU EVEN BELIEVE THIS?

Quite a lot of reasons, actually.

It's really funny

Let us begin with: the basics.

SUPERFLOUS AESTHETIC DETAIL

HAIR COLOR

This is Euphrasie. She's very pretty. I love her.

You might notice several things about her, like her fantabulous white hair.

Well. What other characters have white hair?

You have guessed correctly. The ONLY OTHER white haired characters with actual artwork are Siffrin and the King, both from The Island The World Forgot. Thus we can assume that it's a typical hair color for islanders. Makes it stand out very much that Euphie also has it.

(What about the beautiful one- sh sh sh he's blonde. He's blonde.) (Well, actually, considering that they are the only one who acknowledges that Vaugardians are also weird, what if he's from the island as well? Checkmate atheists.)

EYELASHES

(EDIT!!!!! FINALLY PUTTING THIS ON THE MAIN POST!!!

Turns out I was incorrect in this. Some characters (Mira, Isa) also have eyelashes on SOME portraits. The mentioned chars r still notable for Always Having Em, + the Loop lashes are like, literally intended as plot twist foreshadowing, but, hey.

That's what you get for writing essays at 1am.

IN RETURN!!! Someone pointed out to me [i forgot who sorry] that Euphrasie's capelet.... has stars on it!! It's speckled like the starry sky!! Now isn't that a neat coinkydink.)

(Original text left up because I respect my past self's artistic vision. And his lunacy.)

Correct. Eyelashes.

Going back to our portrait of Euphie, she is drawn with precisely three eyelashes. Why is this notable? Because Siffrin and Loop are.

So much so, that being drawn with three eyelashes, is specifically an element of foreshadowing to Loop's true identity.

(squints at character portraits) literally no characters besides Siffrin, Loop, and Euphrasie have eyelashes? Oh my god. What? Nobody has eyelashes? What the fuck? (okay, some moments later: Mirabelle has eyelashes in some battle artwork, but these three are the only ones specifically with eyelashes in dialogue portraits, which is still incredibly odd.)

SPEAKING HABITS

(EDIT!!! Another Point that is Kind Of Off, in that other characters [e.g. Odile] also do this occasionally. Again, keeping the text for my creative vision.

In return I get to inform you that the King makes the "not so bright, Bright One" pun TWICE in different loops, thus implying the King likes puns. Take this as you will. That's been my psychic damage, buhbyeeee~)

Hey, so, you know when you talk to people in Dormont, a lot of the NPCS will have a nametag that just says "[something] One" right? Daydreaming One, Castle-Loving One, Beautiful One?

And I've seen people wonder, are these titles? Nicknames?

And I bring you this: Siffrin addresses these people with these epithets in his head, because they have no fucking clue what anyone's name is.

So Siffrin just naturally lapses into this style of nicknaming strangers.

Which two other people also do.

Bright one... ...... Do you remember? Traveling one! Are you done talking with your companions? Yes, wonderful, wonderful!

Funny little tidbit that these three characters all speak alike isn't it :)

Okay. With aesthetics out of the way, let's move onto the next tier of this iceberg:

THE MECHANICS OF FORGETTING AND BEING FORGOTTEN

I realize in the process of writing that we must outline the nature of the curse. What gets forgotten and what gets to stay?

The particularity that's important to us right now is: what people get forgotten?

All evidence points toward this: an entire person is only forgotten if they were physically present on the island when it vanished.

I'm pulling up two example cases to prove it: Siffrin and the Daydreaming One.

The thing with Siffrin is: we know he witnessed the exact moment the island vanished. And, very notably, Siffrin was in a boat.

You can get the dialogue that proves this only in ACT 2 in a secret room most people don't find on their first playthroughs, which is both very funny and very evil. Here's the dialogue.

Siffrin: "I ran away from home once!" [...] Siffrin: "And so I took our boat! Got to the beach, rowed away from the shore a bit. I was going to come back right away, I just wanted to scare my parents a bit!" [...]

Siffrin: "I started to row back towards the shore... And then, I... I... ..." Isabeau: ... Sif? Siffrin: (Woah! What?) "Um, yes?" Isabeau: Um... You were telling us how you ran away from home? Siffrin: "I... was?" Odile: You... Were. Bonnie: DID YOU FORGET WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT WHILE TALKING ABOUT IT?!?

Siffrin is from the island, but was not physically present when it disappeared. This resulted in Siffrin forgetting their entire identity, including given name and spoken/written language.

Additionally, this is confirmed via Word of God to be the exact moment the island disappeared, so here's proof I'm not reading into it:

Shoutout to bibliomaniac's insane google spreadsheet for the easily searchable screenshot. god bless. Brinny, ily.

On the other hand, with the Daydreaming One, we have proof of a person who is not originally from the island, but was physically on it at the time of disappearance.

Siffrin: "Don't you have a sister?" Daydreaming One: I... I don't? I just said I'm an only child, silly!

(For her to forget someone like her sister, so easily... Her sister must've traveled to...)

Secondly, we know that remnants of the island were not completely forgotten immediately.

Memory faded gradually, starting with the ability to still speak and think about it with accompanying headaches, until it ramped up in intensity and everything is simply gone.

The Sparkling Diary in the library is more or less proof. Memory of the island was gone, but... people still remembered that they forgot something. People still knew what they were talking about, (an island north of Vaugarde), just without the specifics.

"Urgh. Also, Dad noticed no one can say the name of the island north of here anymore?" "I tried to say it yesterday and I got like the WEIRDEST headache for HOURS."

And Odile also remarks the following

Odile: We also know that people could remember that country clearly, before.

This will be relevant later. Moving on.

CONTRIVANCES

THE HOUSE'S OBSERVATORY

SO. The House of Change of Dormont has this funny little room on the third floor. It's an observatory. To look at stars with. When entering this room for the first time, Mirabelle says this:

Mirabelle: What...? Was there a room like this in the House? Y-yeah, I remember! Someone was working here... Studying... They looked like... ... Um... Sorry, I can't remember.

This reveals to us several things:

This room is innate to the House, and not brought here by the King's weird redecorating

Someone from the House was using it for study

All memory of who or what was studying and being studied was erased alongside the island's existence

Of course we can say, "yo, what if Euphrasie was using this room and just forgot?" but that is. a headcanon. I ADMIT! It is a stipulation

However, I find the general presence of the Island written all over the House incredibly interesting.

Inside the Observatory, there's a pile of papers with messy handwriting. You can't read these in until ACT 4. Even in ACT 4, you can't read them. But you do learn what's written on them.

(A pile of papers.) (It looks like someone was trying to write your country's name.)

Inside the observatory is also a globe. Upon repeated interaction in... act 4, i think, you get this:

(You see a spot on the globe where the paint has started wearing out, like someone kept dragging their finger on it.) (You drag your finger there too.) (Erased. You almost want to look for lightless paint.)

BOOKS

During the various quests to discover the truth of the loops, you run into a lot of books, written in the forgotten language. Now, Dormont is not close to the island. Dormont is not close to the coast.

Bambouche is. That's why Bonnie has heard about the island before and knows it was a big deal - they lived really close to it.

Bonnie (and then1): I think, I think my village was really close to it!!! My sister said it was all everyone could talk about for weeks!!! Mirabelle (anxious1): That's so frightening... I'm glad that whatever happened, she didn't get caught up in it!

As we can see in this map, Dormont is in the southern half of the country, and very centrally at that, meaning it has basically maximum distance from all waters and ports. So why does this landlocked small town have so many books in this language?

These aren't just dry books, either. In Dormont's library, there's actually a translated version of volume 2 of The Cursing of Chateau Castle.

(You take the book out again.) (You can read its title, now...) (Your heart is beating, badump, badump, badump.) (It's...) (... A translated copy of "The Cursing of Château Castle", issue #2.) (You start laughing.)

CONCLUSION OF THIS SECTION

Islanders lived in Dormont. Maybe even multiple! We've established that whoever is in Dormont when it vanished would not simply disapper, instead

they forgot where they're from.

One day, the islanders in Dormont could no longer remember being anywhere but Dormont. Being anything but Vaugardian. The observatory fell into disuse, as the person studying there gradually forgot what they used it for, even as they desparately tried to hold onto it, boring holes into the globe, and scribbling its name over and over until its unintelligible.

And, in all likelihood, eventually that knowledge was just gone forever. They simply became part of Dormont, none the wiser to their own history.

Books slipped into cracks. Rooms fell into disuse. Nobody remembered to clean out the remnants.

Now. The real cinch of this.

Why, in particular, do I think Euphrasie is one of them?

Answer me this, then.

How does Euphie know what Wish Craft is?

1. How could she read it?

Euphrasie knew specifically that Wish Craft exists, when all books on it are written in a language nobody can read.

The book in the storage room? The diary in the room behind the star door? The book in the secret library? None of them are legible.

There are no legible records of Wish Craft.

2. What about the Favor Tree?

Euphrasie knew specifically that Wish Craft is related to the Favor Tree. It's also a Vaugardian practice to make requests of the Favor Tree, but they're just that - requests. Nobody thinks they actually have power.

Only Euphrasie does. She thinks it's the key to defeating the King.

(This is... A list of people who wished to save Vaugarde!!!) (You look around her desk, trying to find out more.) (Why would she record the people who wished to save Vaugarde?) (... There!!!) (It's a little notebook, jammed between random boring paperwork...) (In it, the Head Housemaiden talks about Wish Craft... How in the days before the King attacked, she noticed everyone was wishing to the Favor Tree for the same thing:) (To save Vaugarde.) (And she started wondering if this wish could be the key to the King's defeat, somehow...) (So the Head Housemaiden knew about Wish Craft!!!)

Except, when Isabeau talks about it...

Isabeau: Well, it's just a random big tree. But when you're a believer of the House of Change, the biggest tree in a certain place is called a Favor Tree! It's like, it’s the tree with the most power, so you can ask it things? As a favor?

He struggles a little to explain it. Almost, as though the tradition came from some other culture, imported into Vaugarde, and no one can definetely remember where it came from.

To note, here, is that the Favor Tree is hugely associated with Loop, and wishes in general. Wishing on a Favor Tree is such a hugely powerful ritual when executed correctly, that it caused the entire timeloops.

And I'm not even gonna break out citations to prove that Wish Craft is associated with the island. Come on. You know that. You played the game. It's required to beat the game.

If you haven't beaten the game, what the fuck are you doing here. Go back and play it, baka.

3. Something's breaking, failing, rotting

At the end of ACT 4, when Siffrin confronts Euphrasie about her knowledge of Wish Craft, Euphrasie is distinctly aware of this: the people of Vaugarde are wishing wrong.

It's true. All of Vaugarde wished to the Favor Tree, wished for us to be saved. We wished for a savior. A way for us to win against the King. And Wish Craft gave us the means to do it, didn't it? Made sure it'd work? [...] But... But something went wrong, didn't it? Something goes wrong, every time!!! [...] The only answer I can find... Is it's because we did it wrong. I don't know what happened But we must've done it wrong!!! None of us in Vaugarde knew the exact ritual, but-- But we must have done it so wrong, it broke, and it doesn't answer to us at all anymore!!! [...] I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!!!

There's only one person who knew how to make a Wish correctly. And he made it by sheer instinct. Something they could not place even if they tried. Just... a forgotten ritual, dredged back up by muscle memory. Something he's probably been doing since he's a little kid, something that's so backed into their habits they use Wish Craft to carve figurines out of wood.

To end, I leave you with this. Dialogue you get when you try to talk to Euphrasie again, before you talked to everybody else.

If you talk to me... REALLY talk to me... It's all over. What "it" is, I have no idea... I know... I can feel that... I couldn't change whatever comes next, even if I wanted to. But I know it is the will of the Change God. Or, no, perhaps... The will of something even bigger... ... Something will end, once you talk to me.

There is a way for Euphrasie to know all of this. To know Wish Craft exists, to be aware she's doing it wrong, but not knowing, remembering quite enough to get it right.

If she knew it all beforehand already.

[crows-of-buckets]

EDIT:: I finished the piece!!! Here

Anders wip yippee!!! Anyways. If I had a nickel for everytime I drew a grey warden mage in basically this exact pose I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird I've done it twice.

I'm gonna thumbnail some backgrounds in my sketchbook later because I realized that like. Idk what to do with it <//3 the idea behind this was like. Vague kinda "anders romanced tarot art with a hawk symbolizing. Well Hawke" thing but I am NOT gonna replicated the tarot card style so. I may look at some for ref tho yayyy. Also why are birds so hard to draw.

[aquatark]

My previous post made me realize that not a lot of people here are aware of Endless Ocean's bowmouth guitarfish glitch fiasco, which I think is a shame because 1) it's an interesting look into this game's history, and 2) I find it really funny... long-winded explanation incoming!

So! you see this guy?

You can place him in the game's aquarium, right? I bet if you've played the game, you've done it without even thinking twice!

...Well, in the initial Japanese release of Endless Ocean (known over there as Forever Blue), you couldn't. In fact, attempting to place this little scrimbly in the aquarium crashes your game.

Now this isn't too bad, since you can just press the reset button and continue your game normally, right? well... if you happen to leave the aquarium and save the game after having opened the creature placing menu, selecting a bowmouth guitarfish, and then closing the menu without placing anything... then congrats! you can never use the aquarium again, because it autoplaces whatever you left in that menu on your next visit! :D

In case you're wondering what this looks like in action, this video taken around the game's launch showcases it well, while also using the game's MP3 playback feature to put some anime music in the background, which I think adds to the experience:

So... how does this happen? How could something like this make it into the final game?

Turns out, this is due to how Endless Ocean categorizes creatures internally. Each creature in the game falls into a category, depending on the movements and behaviors the developers wanted to give them. For example, "migrate" type creatures follow a set of coordinate points creating a route around a stage, whereas "swim" type creatures simply swim around the area in which they are placed within a certain radius. Think of a whale shark's movements versus that of a butterflyfish - they have very different AI telling them how to behave.

Now, trying to load a creature of one type as a creature of another... does not make the game happy, to put it lightly. It doesn't know how to handle the request, and so crashes to prevent further weirdness from ensuing. There is only one byte (literally the second smallest unit of digital information storage you could use) per creature responsible for telling the game what type to load the creature as, and this includes when placing creatures in the aquarium. A slip of the keyboard caused a dev to type the wrong number in this byte, making it attempt to spawn bowmouth guitarfish placed in the aquarium as "swim" type rather than their correct "migrate" type. Literally one wrong number caused the game to crash, and for ears to bleed across Japan.

Since the aquarium is unlocked so early in the game, people discovered this on day one, in their first play session... and since Endless Ocean was a launch game for the Wii in Japan, that's even worse. It's not exactly a great look for your brand new console to have a game break so bad you can't use a mechanic anymore. And Wii game crashes are not pretty. So, Nintendo put out a statement on the day of release, notifying people of the problem, how to avoid it, and saying that a recall would be put in place. A week later, they released another statement, which stated people could apply to have their games replaced with an updated version, which would be mailed to them free of charge, by either phoning in or filling out an application online. This service continued up until 2020, over ten years after release! They really didn't want any copies of the broken version around... good thing we have archives of it!

The updated version even has different box art, with an added blue bar at the bottom, showcased in this incredibly crunchy image:

I love picturing Nintendo executives freaking out after a humble diving game causes such a mess they have to print the game again, losing them a lot of money and causing the game to get a lot of negative press...

I've seen old forum threads talking about the game as if it's garbage before it even came out internationally, because this situation was pretty much the only major news coming out about it. Can't have helped sales, at least...

Anyway, the game was patched to fix this glitch, along with a few other minor tweaks, and it was this version of the game that got translated worldwide. Japanese fans love joking about the whole ordeal, and I can see why! For example, on the bowmouth guitarfish's Niconico Pedia page (for which the closest equivalent in English would be something like Know Your Meme), this is recounted comedically as "...probably the most notable moment for the bowmouth guitarfish in the history of the internet", which is probably true! There's even image macros about it!

So yeah. The bowmouth guitarfish's reputation was forever tainted, and some Nintendo execs to this day probably wince when they see one.

tl;dr - A developer for Endless Ocean typed one number wrong in the code, making the game explode if you place a bowmouth guitarfish in the aquarium. Nintendo had to recall the game, and that specific fish has lived on in infamy among Japanese fans ever since.

Next time you use the aquarium, try putting a bowmouth guitarfish in there, and be grateful you can at all!

[lesbolieeh]

Jelly (m)

Bratty!Sub!Tzuyu ✦ Dom!F!Reader

WC—5.4 ✦ k

WARNING—69 ✦ oral sex ✦ face-sitting ✦ begging ✦ teasing ✦ stripping ✦ praise ✦ tzuyu being the cutest fkn girl out there ✦ light degradation ✦ light hair pulling ✦ mommy kink ✦ baby girl kink ✦ ft. Sana x Miyeon, Lisa x Jennie

THEMES—smut ✦ new relationship au ✦ jealousy

NOW PLAYING—Only Girl (In The World) ✦ god

[A/N.] I hope u guys like the new look<3

M.LISTS—twice ✦ latest updates ✦ read on wp

All rights reserved © lesbolieeh

✦ ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ✦ ੈ ✦ ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ✦ ੈ ✦

"I have a mommy kink."

Tzuyu liked it when you called her Babygirl so it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to call you Mommy, right? She turned her head and looked at you, grinning as if you were joking. After a few seconds of not getting a similar reaction back, her mouth gaped out of shock. "Or to be more specific, I like being called Mommy," you attempted to get her out of her trance.

When she'd done enough thinking, which was five long seconds, she replied in the brattiest voice ever, "You're not my mother." Of course, it sucked a bit that you weren't into the same kink but you two shared a lot of other kinks so it was OK. It's impossible to had the exact same kinks as someone else anyway. At least she didn't act weird around you because of it.

But your sex dynamic was affected by this incident. Usually Tzuyu could get a bit shy to initiate sex and would rather hint at it by keeping eye contact for a long time when holding your hand or by resting her head on your boobs when you were cuddling or giving a quick kiss to your neck and blush. All of a sudden she got bratty, mostly by using your kink against you, like whenever you were clumsy and accidentally walked into a table or dropped a chopstick, she'd clap her hands and sarcastically sad "Good job, Mommy".

But this meant you two found a new kink together; punishments. You progressively introduced kinkier punishments from overstimulating her to edging her to blindfolding her. It was almost as if telling her about your Mommy kink (that she didn't reciprocate) opened up new doors for you to explore kinks especially Tzuyu would've been too shy to tell you about. Truthfully, finding new kinks together was such a fun activity and even if you two explored something that you didn't necessarily end up liking, the intimacy of the activity made up for it and you could just give each other head and orgasm anyway. However, Mommy still wasn't one of the kinks you two explored at all in bed and that would always be in the back of your mind. But as long as you two had fun it didn't matter if she called you Mommy or not.

Later.

"How does it feel?" you jumped with a smile, your girlfriend's hands in yours.

"I'm excited since you've told you so many stories about them and it's a bigger step in our relationship but I'm also a bit nervous," Tzuyu said a small, smiling in pain.

"Awww, Baby, I like you so they will like you too, don't worry. As long as you don't mention that you hate mint chocolate ice cream I think it'll be fine," you kissed her hands and pulled her into a hug.

The hug calmed down her nerves but she was still nervous. It was impossible not to since she was always a bit awkward when meeting new people and this time the new people were your extroverted friends so she felt pressure to come across as likable to them. Knock, knock! They'd arrived. You opened the door.

"Miyeon! The blonde hair fits you so well," you said when you saw her blonde hair.

She flipped her hair, "I know right~" 

She threw herself at you in a needy hug and whined out, "____, I've missed you sooo much." Miyeon can be a very touchy person with her close friends and that's one of her best traits but it can be a less good one in a situation where you're in a relationship and your partner isn't aware that the girl acts like that around all her best friends.

Therefore Tzuyu stands there awkwardly, breathing quickening, looking at an attractive girl latch onto her girlfriend like a leech. You could hear Miyeon making exaggerated smelling sounds, which was weird until she uttered "I missed your smell! You smell like something I can't describe. Hmm fruity."

You laughed at her weird behavior while Tzuyu just stood there, watching silently. Your arms squeeze extra hard for a moment just to be a little more dramatic when you said you had missed her too.

You let go of the hug and turned to the second friend.

"Omg hi Sana!" you eye-smile back to the woman who already held her arms out to hug you.

"_____! Missed you," she said with a muffled voice from her burying her face in your neck.

Your girlfriend turned her gaze to the ground, finding her feet more interesting than the scene in front of her. Fuck, she's pretty too. Tzuyu was rarely this intimidated when she met new people,  but the two women had known you for much longer than she had, and they felt so comfortable with showing affection towards you — and the fact they were so pretty did not help.

But there was one more person who was hiding behind the door that you didn't know of. Out she jumped from behind the door, "Hiii!" 

"LISA!" your smile grew, not having seen her in almost a month.

You pulled her into a hug, "I didn't expect to see you! I thought you were going on a trip to Laos!"

"As if I would miss meeting my favourite person! Actually I'm going tomorrow instead," Lisa smiled.

"You know I missed you like crazy, right?"

Tzuyu frowned.

"I missed you too," you said with a pout of guilt as you looked down at Lisa.

"ANYWAY, this my girlfriend!" you turned to her with a smile, not having detected any jealousy yet. "Tzuyu, this is Sana, Miyeon and Lisa."

"H-Hi..." Tzuyu said with insecurity as visible as a watermelon in a pumpkin patch.

"Hello," the oldest girl said loudly as she reached out to shake her hand. The tense girl next to you took the other's hand and shook it, probably wetting it with sweat.

"_____ has told us a lot about you," Miyeon said with a friendly smile which had the opposite effect than intended.

"Why did you steal ____ from us?" the remaining girl asked as she crossed her arms, with an aegyo angry pout.

"I—" your girlfriend tried to form a sentence and looked at you for help when she failed.

"I was just joking," Lisa smiled and winked at Tzuyu playfully.

That worked, Tzuyu smiled back.

2h later.

"Now I understand why she got with you! Like, you're cool, Bro," Lisa laughed and high-fived Tzuyu while she blushing slightly with pride because of the compliment, but also at the mention of her lover.

During the past few hours, Tzuyu and your best friends had bonded. Sana, Miyeon and Lisa were great talkers and they had made Tzuyu feel comfortable in their company enough to have courage to hang out with the three of them without you when you made food for everyone (which meant a lot because she expected to be next to you the whole day to not be awkward and embarrass herself by stuttering and shit).

"How does the TV work?" Miyeon asked Tzuyu since this was technically her apartment.

"I don't know," Tzuyu felt a little flustered for not knowing how to use her own TV. But in her defense you two usually watched Netflix on her phone laying in bed together and not on a TV sitting on the sofa together.

"Forget what I said about you being cool before," Lisa joked.

"_____!" Sana called out.

Nothing.

"PLEASEEE, Mommy, WE NEED YOUR HELP," she yelled with a nice tone.

That action sent Tzuyu in a state of shock for a few seconds. Why did Sana call ____ Mommy? Soon "Mommy" showed up and asked tiredly "What do you want help with, Sana?"

Slowly a bad feeling crept inside of Tzuyu. What the fuck. Why is she acting so indifferent? Sana literally called her Mommy! Another girl shouldn't be calling her that. How the fuck does Sana even know of _____'s kink?

By the time Tzuyu stopped drowning in her thoughts, you had already helped with the TV and Miyeon was looking through Netflix. "Can you please get you a blanket, Mommy?" the devil on Earth, also known as Sana, asked Tzuyu's girlfriend with a cute voice on purpose and made grabby hands.

Bitch.

Tzuyu looked at you, not sure what she was expecting or hoping you to do. And then you were gone. Yes! She just left her hanging! Fuck yes— Suddenly Tuzyu's thoughts were interrupted again when she saw you...with a fluffy, red blanket in your hand.

"Thanks, Mommy," Sana exaggerated the title once again, making your girlfriend's face turn red.

"Don't interrupt me again, folks, or else food will be burnt and you'll have air for dinner," you warned before you went back to cooking the food that might or might not be ruined already.

Tzuyu tried to act like nothing happened when Miyeon turned on RuPaul's Drag Race on the TV. But it was very hard. Tzuyu's thoughts kept racing so she decided to confront that shitbag.

"Why did you call her Mommy?" Tzuyu asked bluntly, not caring about sounding rude.

"_____? Oh, well, I always do that when I want her to do me—"

Tzuyu clenched her fists. This fucker—

"—a favour and it always works!"

"Yeah, ____ probably loves being called that," Miyeon commented looking at Tzuyu.

"But you probably know that already," Lisa's eyebrows danced up and down.

"Can you get us sodas, please? Mommy~" Miyeon called out.

For the rest of the night it seemed like Tzuyu's social battery had run out.

Days later.

Tzuyu had been acting a bit cold towards you for the past couple of days and you didn't know why but you suspected it had to do with meeting your friends since that's around the time she distanced herself. You had texted her to meet up (because you wanted to talk to her about this) and, thankfully, she quickly replied to one of your texts (you had expected her to ignore it for a few hours at least).

Come to my place.

You didn't know what to expect but you put on a nice outfit, which consisted of a skirt with a zipper that went all the way down to the end paired with an oversized T-shirt. Before you knew it you were standing outside her door. Knock, knock!I If you two weren't having problems right now you'd just use your key (that she'd given you weeks ago) to just open the door without knocking but due to not communicating that well lately you were not sure if you were allowed to do that anymore and you didn't want to overstep her boundaries.

The walls were thin, so much that you could hear whenever a neighbor flushed the toilet, so you expected to hear her footsteps to let you know she was going to open the door but... nothing. Is she gonna ignore my existence this way too...?

When you realized that she might not have heard you you took a leap and went for the door handle and walked in.

"Tzuyu?" You said out loud, waiting for her to show up.

With no response you started getting worried.

"Tzuyu? Baby?" you called out her nicknames, hoping it'd show her you were coming with peace and love to solve your problems, not to argue.

"Here," you heard her beautiful voice coming from the direction of the living room.

After you hung up your jacket and took off your shoes, you slowly followed her voice. Walking into the living room you didn't expect to see the sight you were met by. There she was. Your girlfriend, Tzuyu, laying on her stomach on the sofa, facing the TV...

Naked.

Plump butt, godly thighs, muscular back, honey smooth and colored skin...all on display for you.

Confused about why she was naked when we were supposed to talk, you asked her with a light tone, "What happened? Why are you...naked?"

She turned her face to you and put her cheeks on the armrest of the sofa with a pout, "I hurt myself!"

Your protective nature kicked in, immediately getting worried, and asked her where she hurt herself. She sat up and spread her legs, exposing yet another surprise. That surprise being her throbbing, red pussy with wetness dripping down her thighs. She whines, "I walked into a table."

The view of your girlfriend laying naked, so wet and with a cute pout for the most innocent' reason was one of the sexiest things you'd seen in your whole life...and it was also making you unconsciously clench. You were not sure what to say since you were not expecting to see her in this state, so stayed quiet. If you were shocked before, you were speechless when you heard the next sentence coming from her delicate lips...

"Can you kiss it better? Please, Mommy, it really hurts so, so much," she asked, still with the innocent pout as if she was not a kinky masochist. For some people that might sound like just a very dirty sentence, but for you it sounded like the gates to the heaven of sins had opened. This flipped the switch from worried-about-your-relationship mode to let-me-take-care-of-my-lover mode. You didn't need to give her an answer, you simply walked over to the sofa and looked down at her.

"My safeword is moonlight. What's your safeword?"

"Sunrise," she answered.

From seat on the sofa, she felt small and submissive compared to your tall self standing in front of her looking down at her with a powerful aura. Crouching down to the same level as her pussy, you looked at her and saw her staring at you while breathing loudly. Smirking, you brought your face closer to her and stopped a few centimeters away.

"Where exactly did you hurt yourself, Baby?" you asked her teasingly, making her groan.

"Everywhere, Mommy. Everywhere. Kiss me everywhere, please," she begged, although she was sexually frustrated she tried to sound composed.

"Please, Ma—" you interrupted her from her begging by putting your middle finger on her slit lightly.

Looking up at her, you could see her eyes glistening with curiosity, mouth slightly agape from where her sentence stopped. Her pussy was pulsing from resisting to masturbate for the last three or so hours. You placed a tiny kiss on her clit and heard a small, flustered whine escape her mouth. She must've denied herself for a long time before you'd arrived if she was this sensitive.

"Waited for me instead of touching yourself? What a good girl you are, Baby," you said proudly before you started placing light kisses all over her pussy, making it, if possible, even redder than before.

"I'm Mommy's good girl," she barely let out, having a hard time speaking. She wanted to be claimed by you. She wanted you to know that she was dedicating herself to you, even going as far as not touching her aching pussy for hours, getting uncomfortably wet, letting it run down her thighs. She wanted you to know that she wanted to be a good girl for you.

The kisses were light and so small yet they made her high on ecstasy. With satisfaction visible in your eyes you started licking gently on her outer lips, making her groan louder and instinctively close her eyes. After a few seconds she opened them again and asked for another request "Mommy, can you sit on your face? Please?"

She wanted to please you too. Your baby wasn't completely selfish. "I don't want you to sit on the carpet."

"Why not?" You asked her to get on her nerves a little bit more than you already had.

"Your knees will get red, the carpet's so uncomfortable. And you told me my cheeks are soft so you should sit here, Mommy," she pointed at her face, showing you where you should sit.

"My pretty girl," you said and kissed her button nose, making her flash her beautiful smile.

You wanted to sit there, until I remembered the fact that she'd ignored you for these past two days. So you decided that teasing her was what she deserved. You stood up. She immediately laid down on the sofa, excited. You smiled at her enthusiasm. And then you sat down...

...on her chest, not her face. Close yet far. Hearing her complaining behind your back, motivated you to start licking her, maybe that would shut her up. But no. It didn't. Instead she let out more moans, letting you know that you were pleasing her but it was also her way of trying to make you wetter since she knew your weakness was her pleasure. You twirl your tongue around her clit lightly and got a high-pitched moan in return. You loved it. Her clit was her most sensitive part and she didn't know if she should be happy that you were making her feel good or if she should be complaining that she will come too early if you keep your attention on her clit for too long. With a smile you gave a small suck to her clit and the moans leaving her mouth went straight to your core. You started adding a little more pressure to her clit, not too much though, she brought her hands to your thighs and rubbed them gently up and down. That was OK until her fingers found their way to the edge of your skirt, slowly and sneakily trying to pull it up your legs.

"What are you doing?" you asked fast, sending vibrations that made her twitch. You quickly went back to worshiping her pussy, not wanting to leave her unattended for more than a few seconds. Grunts of pleasure are heard from the woman under you, yet she miraculously finds a way to talk.

"Mommy, you smell so good. Can I taste? Please," she said in between low moans.

How can she care so much about your pleasure in a moment when she's so pleased?

"A good girl who asks so nicely deserves to be rewarded."

Her face lit up at the thought of getting to eat you out; it's been her wish to do this for a while now. These past few weeks you've mostly focused on making her cum over and over again and although she made you cum too it had mostly been from her fingering you or you riding her thigh, not much cunnilingus. With smooth hands she touched you from the ankles beside her head up to the thighs that are hidden under the material of your skirt. She loves feeling you up. Especially, getting to feel your thighs under your skirt. It felt like she was doing something naughty; being in contact with skin hidden under fabrics, something nobody else could touch... She felt like a bad girl.

Confidence and curiosity made her tug the damned skirt and jerk it upwards until she could see the ivy blue panties you had on with a big dark patch covering the entrance to paradise, revealing how turned on you had gotten already. Her Mommy was wet for her. You moved your pussy further back until you could feel her hot breath on it through your panties. As soon as her mouth was close enough, she happily put the fabric to the side, so she could get to your wetness, and started kissing it. She kissed it smoothly and slowly, showing how much she appreciated you, since she rarely got to show you in this particular way.

Unlike her, you started going rougher. Sucking her clit harder, but not too harsh, and humming against her, sending wonderful vibrations. She kept whining and turning you on more so you started moving your tongue from her clit and licking between her lips too. Everything for your girl. She began to chant your name sinfully and dove her silky tongue inside you too, trying to return the favour as best as she could when she was moaning. Her moans were so addicting. She had this specific type of moan that sounded like a mixture between a sad whine and a woman getting fucked by another woman for the first time. She moaned so angelically it was as if she were singing.

She licked deeper between your folds, though her moans were getting louder and making it harder for her to focus, she really wanted you to cum first. For hours she'd been trying to restrain herself from touching herself at the thought of what you two were going to do tonight. She couldn't keep herself from thinking about it; it wasn't her fault that her girlfriend was the sexiest woman she'd ever met and that the thought alone of pleasing her was enough to make her pussy clench and get wet.

But what you were doing together right now was nowhere near her fantasy. This was way better than she ever could've predicted and she's really creative and has a huge imagination, which said a lot. To actually experience this was so much harder than fantasizing about it. She'd been restricting herself from cumming since before your tongue even met her sensitive skin.

Suddenly your skirt that was curled up on your thighs sank down and barricaded Tzuyu's head, not letting the cold oxygen from the room get in, which made her even hotter. Her hair was sticking to her forehead and her hands were cupping your ass, grabbing and playing with the thick flesh.

You could sense that she was on the verge of cumming, making you smile. You wanted her to cum, she deserved it and you had missed making her cum these past two days. "Baby, cum for me," you said against her skin, blowing on it to make it cooler and make her shiver.

"Wanna wait for you, Mommy," she moved her lips against you softly.

"But, Babygirl, you've been waiting for me for so long. You've been treating you like the queen I am. You deserve to cum," you encouraged her.

"Do it, Babygirl. Your cum is my pleasure," you whispered against her and sucked on her clit lightly.

All this praise was too much for her, she couldn't hold it in anymore so she finally let go, her legs shaking, you held them down. You kept on licking all over her pussy, not to overstimulate her or make her cum again, but just to savour the taste of her cum. Looking back you saw that your skirt has surrounded her and you couldn't see her face when she licked you so you lifted yourself off of her up and sat up on your knees.

With her tongue out in the air she looked disappointed and confused, "But you haven't cum yet."

You smirked at her cuteness and brought your hand to hold her cheek softly, "Be patient, Babygirl."

She was a little impatient now.

"You're gonna get it soon," you chuckled lightly at her eagerness for you to cum.

When your hand left her cheek and your steps took you a few meters away from her, she got confused again but kept quiet, waiting for what you'd do. You turned to her and watched her longing face as she laid there beautifully, looking like an angel yet like a sinner. Without breaking eye contact you dropped your panties and her mouth opened more than before. You were putting a spell on her. You were like an enchantress with power over her mind, body and soul. She was like a puppet with the strings you had the control of. She was aware of it. And she absolutely loved it.

Walking over to her with your mighty aura made her gulp, she had no idea of what you had in store for her. But she really wanted to see you drop some more garments. Then you sat on her chest again but this time with your front facing Tzuyu, making the girl gulp again with anticipation as she looked down at your wet pussy. "I just wanted to see your pretty face when I ride it," you said innocently, looking at her blush. Fuck, she was always so pretty when she blushed.

She watched as you made a knot on your shirt (you didn't want the shirt to cover her face like the skirt had done before). "Show me, please," she begged with her needy voice, having expected you to take off your shirt or at least uncover your boobs for her.

"Let's see if your tongue is worth it, Babygirl." There was no chance she was not witnessing a strip tease and your golden body. As if on cue, she went back to kissing your folds, keeping your eyes locked, wanting to see your reaction to every single trick she was going to pull out. She explored your body with her hands on your legs and stomach since she hadn't had the opportunity last time you fucked when her hands were tied above her head. You loved how she was so affectionate and could make sex romantic by an action as simple as holding your hand and looking into your eyes. To many people, eye contact during oral sex was all about power but to you two it was also about intimacy. You smiled down at her.

Soon she started licking on your folds, not yet moving between them or on your clit, she wanted to care for you and behold up your excitement — and it worked. Although she hadn't given you cunnilingus in so long, she was so damn skilled with her tongue and reading your body language.

You started touching her hair, putting it away from her face while still looking at her to motivate her. She licked between your folds and a stray groan escaped your mouth. She took it as a clue to keep it going, making more groans leave your mouth. You grinded on her face, which formed a confident smile on it, making Tzuyu's tongue go deeper in you. "Fuck, that feels so good, Baby."

When her tongue accidentally came in contact with your clit you moaned louder. Kisses were peppered on your sensitive bundle of nerves, sending shivers down your spine that made you arch your back. She was the type of pussy eater to not just lick but also kiss. Smiling at your reaction, she started going back and forth between kissing and licking your pussy. One kiss, one lick. Two kisses, two licks.

"Good girl," you praised her, zipped down your skirt and tossed it away in a random corner of the room, making your girlfriend whine against you.

She put her hands on your knees, that were on each side of her shead, in an innocent matter...until she moved her hands up your thighs and stopped at your ass, kneading each stretch marked cheek in each hand. "Hey! No touchy-touchy—" you were interrupted by your lover's magic hands pushing you into her face deeper, making you moan louder than before.

With loud moans escaping your mouth uncontrollably you grabbed a fistful of her wet hair. She liked it; it was rough and showed that you fucking loved what she was doing. "So desperate to see me naked?" you ask her as teasingly as possible when you were grunting.

She responded by vibrating "mhm" against your clit, making you pull her hair harder. As you grabbed the edges of your shirt, you saw her big eyes full of lust. When you pulled the shirt up and threw it away with an evil smile she whined in annoyance. You were wearing a lace bralette. A wine red one because fuck matching underwear. She wanted to see more. With the desire to make you cum and show your all for her, she put her cute lips on your clit and suckled a bit harder than before. Her desperation down there made you scream out loud.

"You're doing so well for me, Babygirl. Make Mommy proud."

As she kept pleasuring you, you decided she should be rewarded. She had earned a reward by now. The sound of you unclipping your bralette made her doe eyes twinkle with penchant. She took one of her hands away from your butt and put two fingers inside you to push you even faster to the edge. The other hand she brought up to cup your right boob with. You were on the verge of cumming. She noticed and started pinching your nipple. Fuck. She knew you so well. You couldn't hold it anymore and released your juice. Looking down, you were by her face of accomplishment and pride. She continued licking, but not to bring you to another orgasm but just to taste you some more.

"Thank you for your cum, Mommy," she said, breathing loudly.

You moved away from her face and laid back against the cushions of the sofa.

"Don't leave me, Mommy," she whined lightly at the lack of contact. She moved towards you and rested her head between your boobs. As she laid on top of you and relaxed with her eyes closed, you played with her hair. Maybe I went a little too rough on her cute hair...

You put Netflix on the TV and looked through shows to find something to watch before you went back for round two. You two had seen almost everything on there already. But there was one show you never grew tired of: RuPaul's Drag Race. You'd seen all seasons but rewatching them was still entertaining.

Tzuyu put her chin up on your left tit to look at you, accidentally hurting you in the proces.

"Ouch, that hurts, stop," you told her.

She immediately moved her chin to the middle of your chest instead and apologized "Sorry, Mommy."

No praise made her pout. So she started licking your left nipple lightly while pinching the other. You took her chin between your fingers and lifted her away from your skin and up to face you. "You're so naughty, Baby." If she couldn't get praise she didn't mind getting attention in another way. She smiled.

"I'll go and get us some water," you kissed her before you got up.

"And a blanket for cuddles, please?"

"Everything you need, Baby."

"Also tell Sana, Miyeon and Lisa to stop calling you Mommy, please?"

"Baby, they do it as a joke. You know Sana and Miyeon are dating right? And Lisa has an on-and-off relationship with a girl named Jennie."

"Really? I just thought they were straight besties who kiss and act gay with their friends for no reason!"

You laughed and came back with two glasses of water and the red blanket that Sana had asked for days ago tucked under your arm. "But if it makes you feel uncomfortable then I'll just tell them to stop of course."

Tzuyu laid her head back on your chest the moment your body touched the sofa, "That would be lovely!"

You kissed the top of her head, hugging her body. "Next time you feel jealous or uncomfortable, please tell me rather than acting cold," you pouted at her.

"Sorry, I'll definitely not do that again," she pouted back and kissed your pout.

Your pouts turned into smiles as you snuggled up against each other for another twenty minutes before going back to fucking.

✦ ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ੈ ✦ ‧₊˚ * ੈ ✦‧₊˚＊* ✦ ੈ ✦

❝ Make me feel right (uh)

Baby, I'll tell you all my secrets that I'm keeping

You can come inside (yeah)

And when you enter, you ain't leaving

Be my prisoner for the night, oh ❞

—god; 2010

[gryffintheparrotcat]

If I had a nickle for every dragon age romance that led to me getting lectured by a woman dressed in red I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice...in two games... in the two romances I've done so far.

[notsocheezy]

V-Day - The First Twenty-Four Hours

Guess who's got two thumbs and no penis? That's right, this girlish-shaped thing!

👍👍

My "the surgery" went off without a hitch! And it couldn't have happened at a weirder time. The news has been absolutely wild this week, hasn't it? Mass Windows system outages, Biden dropping out of the presidential race... probably some other stuff... I'll be honest, I'm a little woozy from the Oxycodone, so a lot of the past week escapes me at the moment. But let me tell you all about the first day. I still remember most of that.

I arrived at the hospital at about 5AM yesterday, and they had me wipe down with CHG wipes even though I'd just taken a CHG shower. I guess they like to be safe. But it leaves a residue that isn't the most pleasant thing in the world. It's kind of like when you step out of the ocean and the salt dries onto your skin in a fine, well-seasoned flaky layer.

After that, they gave me a morphine injection into my spinal fluid, which according to the pain management guy, reduces the overall necessary intake of opiates/opioids (what is the difference between those anyway?). So far that seems to be very true. My new bits don't hurt in the slightest even now, after the injection has worn off.

On the other hand, though, there has been excruciating pain in my chest and shoulders. You see, this was a laparoscopic surgery performed with a fancy robot - the DaVinci XI - and they had to pump me full of CO2 so they'd have room to work. That's right folks - I'm carbonated. And they didn't just give me one new hole, but an additional five incisions on my abdomen, which also don't really hurt but damn are they itchy. It turns out though, being a human balloon is a really bad experience. If I'd had an inflation kink before, this would probably have killed it in its tracks.

When I woke up in Recovery, I was at 10/10 on the pain scale. It was truly miserable. They had to inject me with Fentanyl (Ooooooh, scary!) just so I could breathe. Once they did, though, I was fine. That is, until they moved me onto the bed in my room several hours later. Now the pain comes and goes, but I'm on pills for that.

Other than the chest pain, the most uncomfortable thing is the catheter. It constantly feels like I've just gotten back from a long road trip without pit stops, or the credits just rolled on an IMAX screening of Oppenheimer (I saw that twice, by the way). I have to pee so damn bad, but I'm just kinda... always peeing. Very weird. Nice not to have to get up, but I'm not even really allowed to get up. Which is a shame, because I'm told moving around will help the CO2, ahem, escape. Via the most obvious channel, of course.

On that note, I was on a liquid diet until about an hour ago, and now I've got an omelet and some oatmeal that they forgot to put sugar or salt in. They really want to get my guts up and running again - they gave me a laxative and a stool softener. But I'm nervous about getting up from the bed. I've got more wires attached to me than my PC at home, so I'll need to unhook everything to get to the bathroom.

Anyway, other than being misgendered a concerning amount of times by people who should be able to read the word "vaginoplasty" on my chart, everyone has been very kind. I thought I'd be more scared and depressed being left in the hospital by myself, with all my loved ones hours away, but I've been able to make friends with the nurses.

If you're on the fence about getting this done because you're scared of the recovery process, don't worry. I'm only a day in and I'm doing just fine. Electrolysis was significantly more painful down there than this is. Can't speak for more traditional methods, but the robot is damn good. I, for one, welcome our new robotic sex-change overlords.

Anyway, stay tuned for more. I'm here all week.

[2tcs]

Back on my Danny/Skylark thing I've done a few times

Danny: If I had a nickel for every time I've been chained up in the presence of a redhead named Vicky and a neglected kid named Timmy, I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Vicki Vale: Do tell, this sounds like a scoop

Tim Drake: Yes, I'd also like to know why a singer is chained up before and why this is the first I've heard of it

“Well, it all started out when I went to this town called Dimmsdale. This was when we had just released ‘My Shiny Teeth and Me’.” Danny said as the kid, Tim, nodded as he listened closely. “One minute I was driving and the next thing I know a tree sprouted right in the middle of the road. Imagine driving and then a full-grown tree poofs into existence. Suffice it to say I crashed.”

“You know you shouldn't drink and drive right?” Tim said with the most deadpan expression.

“I was as sober as it gets. But anyway, I walked up to the house I crashed in front of and the person who answered the door was this teen named Vicky. Turns out she was crazy. She tied me to a bed with chains kinda crazy. Anyways, she was apparently babysitting this kid Timmy. It was the poor dude's birthday but apparently everyone forgot.”

“Where were his parents? And how did you escape?” Vicki asked. Looking like she was memorizing everything Danny was saying.

“The kid’s parents were at my concert. I don't know how but somehow the kid got ahold of my record handler. Saved my bacon. That situation was the basis of my song ‘Icky Vicky’.” Danny said. Just then one of the goons who kidnapped them came flying through the door followed my Night wing.

“Mr. Skylark, Mr. Wayne, Miss Vale. Are you all okay?” Nightwing asked as he finished tying up the goon and came over to free everyone.

“It's a Monday.” Tim said with a glare causing Danny to laugh.

“I don't know Timmy. I think it was quite captivating.” Danny laughed as Tim groaned at the pun and Nightwing chuckled.

“Well, I'm sorry for the wait. I was a little tied up.” Nightwing replied.

“Hay. You cut my rope so I'll give you some slack.” Danny grinned as he stood up.

“Well. As interesting as this was I for one am ready to get out of here. Mr. Skylark? Here's my card. If at all I would like to set up a proper interview with you.” Vicki said before walking out.

That night Chip Skylark debuted his new song. ‘Interview in Chains’. And the next morning Danny's record agency received a call from one Vicki Vale.

[34saveme34]

yall expecting anything interesting from this week's episode?

like. I've been thinking n like I wish I could stop that

because in a sense, the series has been.... very unrpredictable

in like, a bad way

I'm not even saying they're telling bad stories but that it all just goes weirdly and some choices they make are.... odd? yeah, odd

like I guess it's odd they don't use their cast better

or that Melony's whole personality is just Axol (god awful thing I'm about to say but maybe it would've been better for her if she died in revelations so we wouldn't have to see her character reduced to this so badly. like I'm not even kidding)

or making 4 seem so god damn evil then immediately backpedalling on that with the "it's an act" and I'll say it again, if they wanted to make a good story about it being an ACT, they should've shown more signs, even if tiny, they should've shown more. Like you could try and explain this shit away if you want but just think about it, before A Night at SMG4's, what did you believe? Did you believe he was becoming evil or did you believe it was an act? What made more sense to you? It's odd and unpredictable

the also weird ass ignoring of 3 drinking away his problems, it appearing TWICE

and like, that's been a storyline that was going for a while, I even pointed out that like, lately episodes that were all capital had something to do with him failing with it

but no uh, suddenly it's good after that shitty night at 4's shitty ass episode I still hate it for what it did for the story

like, what did that episode even do for it? Anything? NO

NO, and DON'T F U C K I N lie to me, you know that shit didn't happen either

and I'm done lying to myself about it

there was NO indication it actually helped

all it did was drive Puzzles away, but my man had nothing to do with the café, at least not to our knowledge which would be really negligent if they didn't tell us that he actually did

like, there's no reason for why it would get better, there's just nothing

and I knooooooooow I should enjoy the show for what it is and stop complaining because I'm gonna sound like a reddit user on r/smg4 but also like

I AM the complainer, I interpret things and discuss them, I'm all about it, I love discussing possibilities and have a lot of joy out of it

hell I also like crack ideas that sometimes. stem out of desperation

like me when I said, Idk if it was on the blog but me when I said it would be silly if 3 was drinking away his feelings for 4 perhaps in those silly little scenes

but like, nah, team's not brave enough

like what I noticed is that the ship is probably not becoming canon

but not because there wouldn't be a reason to, or they couldn't work out a narrative, in FACT it would be REALLY easy, even just today I thought of a way, in fact all of us think of ways so many times, Sever the Ties was also me thinking of a way, that would've been a narratively nice way to get them together and also show they care for each other

but yeah, I think they're not becoming canon because the writers are scared of doing more than jokes with them, I think what they wanted with them was just 2 homoerotic dudes having silly moments that can be laughed at, almost like they. can't take them seriously (trash friends-esque episodes, please comes back.......... sobbing)

which, aight, I guess

NOT QUEERBAITING THOUGH!!!! QUEER BAITING ISN'T ABOUT HINTS, IT'S ABOUT PROMISES!!!! THEY AREN'T QUEERBAITING US!!!!!!!!!!! THEY DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT GETTING THEM TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!

so yea I'm, not jaded with the show, I'm really not, I still like a lot of things about it and can't wait to see what they cook up this week

and even like, episodes I hate have good moments, not even a question, I can enjoy them (besides the endings)

I just yknow, I like to complain and I KNOW I'm not the only one

you don't need to like, agree with me, you can like botched storylines, I just like complain about said storylines even if I like some parts of it

[factorialsotherfandoms]

xcom au, nothing especially anything, set in Cellbit's first few days with the group.

Cellbit is sat on the floor of the command room, an old books of crossword puzzles in hand. He has meticulously copied across the chart, not wanting to steal one of the few leisure items from the rest of the crew, and is filling it in. This one comes in French - not a language he knows well, but he is puzzling his way through.

He is just filling in 14A when a vaguely familiar someone ducks down before him. The green jumpsuit tells him little, except that the man isn't wearing it up - no, the sleeves are tied around his waist, the back bunched up, revealing the tank top beneath. For some reason he wears a hat even in here, an emerald hanging off it.

And then, perhaps more obvious, are the great black wings which fold awkwardly behind him. They're hybrid wings, that much Cellbit is sure of, but they do not fold particularly well.

He looks a bit strange.

They're all a bit strange here.

They're all a bit scarred here, too.

"Cellbit, right?" the man perches on the balls of his feet, elbows to his knees and rests his head on his hands.

"Yes?" Cellbit replies. "I'm sorry, I think I forgot you."

"No worries," he's flashed a grin. "You've got a lot of people to keep up to, I bet? I'm Philza. I remember."

Dragged from one matter to another, it takes Cellbit a few moments to put the pieces together. There was definitely gossip about this man, shared in hushed whispers and watching him interact with the others.

Philza Minecraft, Angel of Death, scourge of the Federation. Vanished alongside his partner in crime years ago, becoming little more than a fable.

One living on their ship, trusted to lead and advise though claiming no official role higher than squad captain.

"Angel?" he asks, because how can he not? "Death's Angel."

Philza's smile grows thin, "I swapped my sword for a medkit years ago. You're better off asking one of the others if it's murder you need - Jaiden's pretty hot at it these days."

Jaiden? Cellbit will bare that in mind.

"Sorry," he says, because he knows they all have pasts he would rather not come up - if Brazilian affairs were half as televised as those in English-speaking countries... Well, with Philza's past Cellbit could perhaps be proud, but parts of his own are better left untouched. "Did you need something?"

He's only been here three days; he cannot imagine anyone trusts him with much.

"Kinda," Philza tilts his head to the side a bit, eyes narrowing and looking all the birdier for it. "I'm told you like paperwork? And decoding shit?"

Cellbit blinks - once, twice, and "yes?"

Philza perks up again, "great! Because I've got a weird shit archive dating back about twenty five years that might want someone to look at them. I've been doing my best, but I am a fucking dumbass and cannot make heads or tails of it."

"Archive?" Cellbit can /feel/ his ears perk up at that - his control of the damned things having been lost in years of having them forcibly pinned away. "What sort?"

"Bit of this, bit of that," Philza shrugs. "Copies of mission records, newspaper clippings, shit the Theory Bros were looking into before the war... Weird crap Aypierre and Tubbo are done with, intercepted audio recordings, spy reports, random crap people picked up on missions... Photos. So many photos. Missing persons reports. That sort of stuff."

It sounds like a treasure trove.

It also sounds like it's going to be a nightmare to get into a usable state.

Fuck, if it's just been shoved in a storage room...

"Sure," Cellbit tries to hide both his excitement and his fear both. "I'm not busy."

"Great," Philza hops back onto his feet. "Because I am. I just found a few minutes to show you; Tubbo needs extra hands to test something, you know how it is with engineer types?"

And, yes, Cellbit does.

---

He is led through the ship to a tucked away room, down near the engines. Philza pushes open the door, and shows him inside.

With a flick of the lights... It's not as bad as Cellbit had assumed. Shelves with assorted objects line the left wall, a series of large, metal cupboards beneath them. Everything is fixed into place with metal strips and bolts - even the filing cabinets, all of which also lock. There's a chart on the wall with packs of coloured paper beneath, each colour representing a different research topic.

There are also cotton gloves - proper cotton gloves for working with documents! -

"While I was sorting," Philza says, already moving over to a cabinet. "I found a lot of this shit is related to more than one topic. Couldn't keep it separated by research field like the old archivist had been trying to, just a fucking dumbass idea. So, left to right, oldest to newest. I start filling a new cabinet from the bottom, so it stays better balanced. Anything paper goes in there - the folders are numbered to their order, please put them back right - objects in the shelves. Coloured sticky labels are where I think shit's related, but honestly you'll want to check it."

Cellbit is already peering over Philza shoulder, and into the drawer he opened. It's one of the pre-war old ones - pretty empty, but there's still a few pieces in there.

He grabs a folder and leafs through, marveling at the organisation, and just how well kept the records are - even at twenty four years old, the newspaper clippings are still perfectly legible and the paper at no risk of falling apart.

It's a missing person's report, one marked with the colour-tag as being unresolved. He's not surprised - if it had been it wouldn't be here - but it's not pleasant news.

And, tucked in with it is a series of printed out forum posts, ones discussing the article.

"It's not much," Philza shrugs. "But I try keep it organised, at least. Knew someone would want it some day."

"No, no," Cellbit puts everything back and slowly closes the door. "This is great! I was expecting worse. Can I see that one?"

He points at a random cabinet, somewhere near the middle.

Philza doesn't open it, he grabs a set of keys from one of to desks, and tosses them over.

"These are yours," he says. "So's the desk - mine's over there, though it's mostly used to dump unsorted shit on. Have fun with it all."

"You're leaving?" Cellbit asks. "Me here. With all these records. And the keys. Alone."

"Yeah?" Philza shrugs.

"I've been here three days. How do you just...?"

"Cellbit," Philza says. "Everyone higher than me in this damned organistion trusts you with their lives. Hell, I do too - I know you were feeding us that info. Not everyone does, but..." a shrug "I file the paperwork, you know? Can't solve it, but I can store the damned things. I've seen what you do, Cellbit - you've saved my ass more times than I can count. May as well give you the paperwork, fuck knows I don't know what to do with it."

"I have?" and Cellbit... Cellbit knows his info was good, but to hear it is...

"You sent the Order to Fit," Philza says. "I used my connection to him to get the Order to bail Missa out - my closest friends, I owe you. The warning of the shift in Thin Man biology? Saved our asses on the field. The base locations? The guard rotations? The info on treating laser wounds? There's not a person on this ship who doesn't owe you their life, Cellbit - what the fuck is some paperwork to that?"

"They would have managed," Cellbit says, already unlocking a drawer and flicking though one of the files inside.

This one is much fuller, and he spots photographs - ones taken by Philza, the backs read, showing off the areas where significant things happened.

"But we didn't have to," Philza replies. "Just.. Enjoy yourself, alright? I've left my notes where I could think of something, but I doubt it's worth shit."

"No, no, this is good," he puts the file back and grabs another. "Just needs an index."

"Indexing's all set up on your laptop," Philza taps on it, and only now does Cellbit spot the old piece of tech on the desk. "Tubbo refitted her."

"You indexed this," Cellbit looks at all the shelves, remembers this man leads missions, gives advice on running the Order - hell, he even runs it himself, when the others are indisposed - constantly being asked for aid and giving it... "It must have taken you ages."

"I was sorting through it all anyway, putting it all in date order and tagging the relevant queries and that," Philza shrugs. "Wasn't that much more work. Hour or two here and there over fifteen months or so?"

It's dedication. Cellbit nearly drops a file as the airship moves sharply, and in making sure everything in intact he misses Philza's escape.

Damn it. Well, if he has questions, he can ask later.

The index though...

Cellbit goes to the laptop, pulling it open and waiting for it to boot. There's a couple of things on there - Philza's desk has a full computer and printer, but Cellbit's new laptop has an external hard drive - but he ignores them for opening the index.

He expected just a list of reference numbers and which tags - maybe location, if he was lucky.

Instead.. Full database, all linked up. Reference numbers, tags, and locatgion, yes, but also summaries of the contents, a list of directly related items such as commentaries or other articles about the same event, a column for Philza's notes and one for Cellbit's, the locations of the originals if not stored in the archive...

Cellbit has killed for far, far less than this. And it's just... been handed to him? By someone saying it isn't much?

He doesn't quite get it, but...

He picks a mystery - something small for now. Opens up something to take notes on, and goes to collect the relevant files.

Soon enough he's absorbed so deep that he doesn't even notice Felps not-so-sneaking up behind him until he's already being hugged and told off for missing dinner - for vanishing all over again.

[paradoxcase]

John 1:20

THE TOWER HAS BEEN REACTIVAT

No surprises there.

I mean, isn't this basically the same conclusion they already came to like several John chapters ago, when Augustine was questioning whether the FTL even existed? (Although, apparently actual FTL really happens at the end of this chapter, I guess it actually was real? Why does it make no appearance in the rest of these books? If this other FTL technology exists, why did BOE work so hard to get a ship with a stele and a necromancer to operate it?) Anyway, this doesn't feel like a new or exciting conclusion to come to

I don't feel like this story has done a good job of explaining why this has to be done, or even why John and co. think it has to be done. Is it because they're leaving in the ships that were intended for the cryo project? I'm sure they can build more of those, it's just money and engineering, and even if all the trillionaires leave, there's still a lot of governments with a lot of money out there who would probably be willing to fund the cryo project when John turns out to be right about trillionaires after they've left and there's no one left to defend them and talk about the secret lives of cows. I mean, as long as he doesn't start doing stupid and crazy shit and causing a nuclear holocaust. Who cares if the trillionaires leave? I feel like the point of these chapters is to explain why John did what he did, but I don't think this explanation makes a lot of sense. This is not moving me as a supervillain origin story

So, according to the UN, world population will not reach ten billion until 2058. I calculated earlier that John can't be born later than 1998 and still be old enough to realistically attend the Parachute music festival, so are we meant to believe that John is 60 years old here?

If I had a nickel for every time someone had their arm cut off and then regrown in this story, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

Also, thanks for not making this one a sex scene, I think I've already heard more than I wanted to about John's sex life

Presumably this is needed for something resurrection-related, I guess it's so that when the suitcase nuke explodes he can grow a whole new G1deon again from the arm, like a starfish. So presumably John would have had no trouble growing Ianthe a new arm that worked as her arm, if she had asked him. I went back to see where Ianthe's first problematic arm had come from, but all I can find is that she denies that either John or Mercy was responsible for it. Did she make it herself? I can't remember

Ok, but six paragraphs earlier Pyrrha is being mad that G1deon won't arm the nuke if she comes with him. Did Pyrrha know, or not?

I mean, I hate to say it, but you were right there with all of the others when John was like, we have to stop the trillionaires from escaping, that's the absolute more important thing to be doing right now, and exactly zero of you said, no John, that's not actually the most important thing to be doing right now

Why did Cristabel decide that right now was the best time for John to figure out how souls work? There's this whole side narrative about John working out how souls work, but it doesn't really feel tied to the rest of the story about the trillionaires and the cryo project

I think I see. As established at the beginning of Harrow the Ninth, a living planet's soul is like the collective thalergy of everything that lives on the planet, so I guess it's kind of a gestalt oversoul, where every individual living soul on the planet is part of it? So when a planet is dead, then by definition everything else on it is also dead, since otherwise there would still be a living planet soul of some sort. The fact that John wasn't able to control individual human souls here while Alecto was still alive sort of implies that resurrection, and maybe most kinds of soul magic, are actually impossible on a living planet, if even John can't distinguish between human souls and the planet soul in that context. I guess that means that that kind of stuff would only be possible on an undead planet in the Nine Houses

No, I think that's totally fair, actually

I feel like this is important. Everyone else was killed by someone else. Like, John was 100% responsible for all of this mess, but he didn't actually pull the trigger to kill anyone else, and until this point he still has some plausible deniability, like he was just trying to stop the trillionaires, and he never intended to set off any nukes or kill anyone, he was just stressed and being a bit dumb. But he specifically kills G1deon, who is clearly his most loyal supporter. Like, I think he probably could have talked to G1deon over the phone at this point and been like, hey new plan, we're actually going to let the nuke go off and kill a million people so I can gain godlike power, don't worry I'm gonna figure out how to bring you back to life again using your arm, and I honestly think there's a solid chance that G1deon would have been like, sure thing boss, see you when it's all over. Then it would have been like, consensual, I guess? But he doesn't even do that. He just kills him. Obviously John has just killed people before at this point, and he would also be just killing another million people, but I think it's sort of different for John to just kill a bunch of cops or the population of Melbourne that he doesn't know at all, versus to just kill someone like G1deon, who he's known all his life and is somehow impossibly loyal to him

I'm not feeling this metaphor

Well, that's extremely biblical

So this means that the only reason Alecto survived this in a way that the other cavaliers didn't was because John couldn't entirely consume her soul, or thought he couldn't. And I guess he just decided it was too complicated to figure out how to do this with a human soul, and a necromancer who doesn't have all that power at hand at that moment?

So this is what Hollywood Hair Barbie looks like, apparently:

Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but she doesn't seem to have quite as freakish proportions as the barbies I grew up with, which is good. For a moment I was imagining 8-foot-tall Alecto who is 75% legs and it was terrifying

What is the "shaman" a reference to, here?

So ultimately, John's powers came from Alecto originally, when she was still alive as the soul of Earth - it's implied throughout the story that necromancy comes from exposure to thanergy, but this obviously wasn't the case for John's specific flavor of necromancy, but he is definitely making use of thanergy to do what he does. So why did Alecto have the ability to give someone necromancy powers, that make use of death energy, rather than say, something the primarily makes use of life energy/thalergy which would probably be more useful and not incentivize killing ten billion people to gain more power?