#your aus really gave me a rush of inspiration from the depths of the void

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

I mean, yeah, that's a sea monster capable of wiping out a ship and all, but that's also the same person Eclipse knows would cry over accidentally breaking his cookie jar and then tripping over their own tail on the way out. What are you on abt

Also

don't ever shit talk his little treasure. You fool. You moron.

Anyway, i got into sea monster brainrot, so that's probably what i'll be drawing for a while lmao

Please deal with me

Sea monster/pirate au by @bones-of-a-rabbit

[hiddendreamer67]

Witching Under Pressure

Lowkey only got inspired once all of November and it was to write this meta piece about @delimeful and my authorsonas. It feels good though. <3

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The pot before her bubbled with arcane energy, pulsing a light blue every so often as Mandy idly stirred the mixture with a stick she found in the garden, her eyes focused on a book hovering to her right.

“...okay, I think I’ve got it this time.” Mandy took a deep breath. She reached over with her free hand, grabbing a few herbs that sat at the ready. “Tragic backstory, relatable quirks, a dash of lore. Am I missing anything?”

Being alone in her potion room, no one answered her about missing ingredients. That was for the best. It would have been worse to gain an answer.

“Is that what it’s supposed to do?” Mandy wrinkled her nose, noticing a faint unpleasant aura leaking out of the cauldron. She leaned forwards, wincing as the mixture began to gurgle ominously, darkening into a sickly green. “Well, that can’t be good.”

It was, indeed, not good. The liquid began to get more volatile, sending up waves of energy that seemed to be searching for something. Irritated, the potion ducked down to the bottom of the container, before launching itself up and out, directly at the practicing witch.

“AAAAAH!” Mandy screamed, thrown back by the impossible force of her own work being spat back in her face. The distance she was thrown seemed to increase, the witch shrinking midair as a side effect of the failed experiment. Like a perfect toss Mandy landed inside a spare teacup on the counter. Her speed sent the teacup spinning into a tizzy, the miniature witch clutching desperately to try and gain her balance as the cup dangerously spun straight towards the edge of the counter. There it rested precariously, dipping back and forth as if deciding whether to send her tumbling down a probably fatal distance.

A rumbling in the ground approached, the footsteps of the intruder upsetting the teacup enough to launch itself off the counter. Mandy let out a startled scream, and the footsteps hurried forwards before with an oof Mandy was not shattered against the floor.

“...oh hey, Lime.” Mandy said nonchalantly, looking up at her savior. It was strange seeing her friend from this angle, used to the dragon shifter only beating her in height by a few inches. At least, when she didn’t cheat and bend the universe to her whims so she could feel tall.

Lime blinked, looking down at the shrunken witch for a very long time. “I have so many questions.”

“Just a potion gone awry.” Mandy gave a wave of her hand to the cauldron that was now sulking. Mandy sighed internally; it was frustrating whenever her vat of creativity decided to shut down. Guess the new project would have to wait another day, again. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You nearly died.” Lime reminded her, standing up to his full height and cautiously cradling the teacup like it was an injured bird. 

“Died?” Mandy laughed in the face of death. “You’re forgetting the witch bit.” As proof, Mandy teleported herself onto Lime’s shoulder. Immediately he yelped, jumping so high in fright Mandy was very nearly thrown to the floor for real. “Hey, watch it! Precious cargo here!”

“Precious cargo should be smart enough to give me a warning if you’re gonna do that.” Lime growled. “Don’t teleport onto me, it’s dangerous.”

“It’s only dangerous if you are not careful.” Mandy argued, grabbing a hold on his collar as she looked around her studio. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen it small, but it was the first time someone was with her during it. 

“What were you doing, anyway?” Lime asked, and it was a good thing Mandy had grabbed on as his swaying footsteps sent her leaning again when he went to investigate the cauldron. “What is this thing?”

“I was … doing an experiment.” Mandy scuffed her foot. “I dunno, I’m just trying to do some new content.”

“Oh, a new au? You need story ideas?” Lime perked up, trying to turn to her and for a third time nearly throwing her off when he tried to look at the tiny witch. “Maybe I can help!”

“Nah, I doubt it.” Mandy shrugged, teleporting to the safety of her cabinets. She put her hands in her pockets, frowning as she inspected the various pieces collected from all her worlds. “I think I’ve done everything already.”

“That’s not possible.” Lime insisted, watching the witch who was now at eye level. “I mean, you’ve got a lot of wonderful worlds, but there’s got to be something for you to do.”

“Not without going out of character.” Mandy glanced back at her cauldron. 

Lime snapped, the loud sound making Mandy jump. “That’s it! What if you switched characters around? Made the mean bigs become tiny, and the tinies got to deal with them?”

Mandy raised an eyebrow. “That’s literally just Switched Perspective.”

“Oh. Well that’s what I’d do with your worlds.” Lime shrugged. He leaned forwards, investigating the same characters Mandy had collected. He reached a hand towards the miniature aquarium world, where the mers were all suffering at the bottom of a tank. “And I’d lend a helping hand to a few of these guys-”

“OI!” Mandy leapt into the air and smacked his hand with a surprising amount of force for someone a few inches tall. “Don’t! Are you mad? You’re going to hurt them, only I know how to take care of them!”

Lime raised an eyebrow, clutching his injured hand to his chest. He pointed to the mangled mer Logan pitifully bleeding out. “Do you? Do you really?? Because Logan’s mangled body says otherwise.”

Mandy glanced back at the near-corpse floating in the water. “He’ll be fine...probably. Just give it time, sometimes I gotta break ‘em to make them better.”

“Or to break them again.” Lime huffed.

“If you’re just gonna sass me, the door’s right there.” Mandy pointed to the inter-dimensional void that was still laying open in the corner of her room.

“I’m just trying to help!” Lime insisted, putting his hands up in surrender. “What about… a punk au?”

“Got it.” Mandy jammed her thumb towards one of the realms, leaning against the wall.

“A fairy au?”

“Three of ‘em.” Mandy counted her fingers. “Wait no, four. Same with vampires, werewolves, a few mers, and several dozen borrowers-”

“What about a story with borrower Deceit, who tricks the others?” Lime suggested. “Give the power to the tinies for once!”

Mandy paused, her eyes resembling that of a kicked puppy. “You don’t remember my A Little Lie Couldn’t Hurt AU?”

“Ooooh, yeah.” Lime winced, biting his lip. “My bad.”

“Nah whatever, I forget about it too.” Mandy admitted. “It’s hard to keep track of so many AUs.”

“Especially when you don’t finish any.” Lime muttered under his breath. 

“What?”

“What?” Lime pretended to look inconspicuous like he hadn’t said anything.

Mandy gave him a glare. “The point is, I feel like I’ve maxed out my creativity. I’ve tried going non-Gt. I’ve tried going romantic. I’ve tried going fluff. I’ve tried doing just about everything and i’m BORED!”

“Well that’s dangerous.” Lime observed. “Isn’t you getting bored what broke all of these universes in the first place?”

“Mostly, yeah.” Mandy admitted. “Aaaaaand now I’m too bored to fix them.”

“Or write any of your lingering prompts, apparently.” Lime whistled lowly, peeking into the depths of the cupboard. “How many prompts are waiting for you again? You could always use those.”

“Hey, that’s private!” Mandy rushed over, snapping her fingers so the door slammed shut in his face. “Those are for me to look at and think about writing, forever.”

“At least you’re honest.” Lime laughed. “So, if you’re not doing your prompts, and you don’t want to continue your AUs, and you’re struggling to create a new AU, what are you doing?”

Mandy glanced at her failed experiment again, getting a bit uncharacteristically self-consious. “I was… you’re gonna laugh.”

“I’m not gonna laugh.” Lime assured her.

“Well you should, it’s dumb.” Mandy insisted.

“Oh there’s a very good possibility it’s either something dumb or dangerous.” Lime agreed. “But I’m not going to laugh.”

“Okay, I just-” Mandy grit her teeth, ripping it off like a bandaid. “I was trying to write some OC content.” 

It was quiet for a moment, Mandy not daring to look at Lime for his reaction.

“...that’s it?” Lime prompted.

“What do you mean ‘that’s it’?!” Mandy gasped in offense, whirling around to face him. 

“I kind of thought you were going to admit to something like writing smut or something.” Lime explained. “There’s nothing wrong with you having OC content.”

“But I don’t have OC content.” An exasperated Mandy explained. “That’s part of the problem. I don’t have a single original character to my name.”

“Well… you have yourself.” Lime reminded her.

“Don’t you go ripping your horns through my fourth wall like that.” Mandy warned.

“Mandy, I’m sure you’ll get there eventually, it takes time to develop a whole person from scratch.” Lime reached over, carefully nudging her shoulder with a single claw. He gave her a smile. “You’re doing your best, right? And everybody will love whatever you come up with because you’re a fantastic writer who makes lovable characters and believable worlds. You’ve got this.”

“Heh, yeah, I guess.” Mandy agreed with a small smile of her own.

“And I’m sure you’ll torture your new characters just as much as the old ones.” Lime teased, though a small part of his eyes clearly begged Mandy to be more gentle.

“Probably.” Mandy agreed, her smile growing into an unapologetic grin. “Thanks, Lime.” 

“Anytime.” Lime assured her. “And, while I’m here…. You think you could save even one Virgil from suffering?”

“Nope.” Mandy popped the ‘p’. 

“Worth a shot.” Lime grinned, giving her a little salute. “Well, see you around. Good luck with the characters, and the… height thing.”

“Yeah, not really sure what this is about.” Mandy looked down at herself. Hopefully that wasn’t permanent. “See ya later, Lime!”