forthedancingandthethriving

[forthedancingandthethriving]

I'll admit, I'm conflicted on whether or not to have the CCTG versions of the Rising Star Circus crew escape with everyone else when the big rescue mission happens.

On one hand, I doubt Juliano would be willing to let his family be trapped under the control of someone like Jayin, even if they're not actually the same people he lost and he Knows It (once his memories are restored, at least).

On the other hand, he of all people understands the Consequences of a Character-Level Program no longer having access to their home server and its source code. I mean, even Dapple needs to go back to the Puyo Puyo world every couple weeks to prevent the kind of code degradation Juliano and Blotch deal with, and by this point that place has so many bad memories for her that she'd be perfectly happy if she never went there ever again!

Plus, again, they're not actually the same family he lost, and I'm not sure yet how he'd react to realizing that.

(and the "Unwilling Toxic Old Man Yaoi Situationship with the Primordial Essence of the Universe" storyling isn't the tiebreaker it probably should be, because "pain from losing them AGAIN (and guilt from leaving them in that situation even in the likely event that either they agreed to it or there was no other choice somehow)" and "guilt complex making him think he only saved them to have Replacement Goldfish which is very much not true he saved them because he's a good person and loves them and didn't want them to suffer under Jayin's control" are equally valid fuel for him inevitably eventually giving in)

I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT,, OUGH,, OH THAT HURTS,, ooooh Juliano the tragic character you are.

I think, in the end, it'd make sense if they'd stayed behind. Because Juliano wouldn't want them to go through what he does. As much as he longs to have them back, his love for them it too strong to force them through the torment he's gone through.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

I'll admit, I'm conflicted on whether or not to have the CCTG versions of the Rising Star Circus crew escape with everyone else when the big rescue mission happens.

On one hand, I doubt Juliano would be willing to let his family be trapped under the control of someone like Jayin, even if they're not actually the same people he lost and he Knows It (once his memories are restored, at least).

On the other hand, he of all people understands the Consequences of a Character-Level Program no longer having access to their home server and its source code. I mean, even Dapple needs to go back to the Puyo Puyo world every couple weeks to prevent the kind of code degradation Juliano and Blotch deal with, and by this point that place has so many bad memories for her that she'd be perfectly happy if she never went there ever again!

Plus, again, they're not actually the same family he lost, and I'm not sure yet how he'd react to realizing that.

(and the "Unwilling Toxic Old Man Yaoi Situationship with the Primordial Essence of the Universe" storyling isn't the tiebreaker it probably should be, because "pain from losing them AGAIN (and guilt from leaving them in that situation even in the likely event that either they agreed to it or there was no other choice somehow)" and "guilt complex making him think he only saved them to have Replacement Goldfish which is very much not true he saved them because he's a good person and loves them and didn't want them to suffer under Jayin's control" are equally valid fuel for him inevitably eventually giving in)

I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT,, OUGH,, OH THAT HURTS,, ooooh Juliano the tragic character you are.

I think, in the end, it'd make sense if they'd stayed behind. Because Juliano wouldn't want them to go through what he does. As much as he longs to have them back, his love for them it too strong to force them through the torment he's gone through.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Now you can have that crazy old man from pokemon leaf green/fire red laying on your blog because he hasn’t had his coffee

[forthedancingandthethriving]

when a character i love and care for has to face the consequences of their previous actions

[forthedancingandthethriving]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[forthedancingandthethriving]

On one hand it's kind of annoying that Thunderhand is canonically blue because it messes with any kind of trio color-coding since it would just plain weird for Luigi to be part of a group where someone else is The Green One.

On the other hand it does help with the theming of Bizzarrend being the odd one out.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

back on my bullshit <3

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Got the idea of Meggy walking through what seems to be a tunnel in a glacier. She doesn't know how she got here, or how she isn't freezing to death (or experiencing any ill effects at all for that matter), but for some reason that isn't important. Nothing is important besides going deeper.

The deeper she goes, the clearer the ice making up the walls becomes clearer, and she starts to see dark shapes inside them, at first indistinct, but soon enough being revealed as Ice Flowers and strange white Goomba-like creatures (Oho-Gees, not that she'd know it).

Eventually she reaches an altar of some sort, with a white orb on a pedestal in pride of place. The orb has a long, dark crack in it, and somehow feels even colder than the cavern around it. Meggy reaches out to it, and when her hand meets the surface an image flashes in her mind of a green-faced figure with a cloud-shaped Something around its head, neck bent at an unnatural angle with streaks of black ice coming from its eyes, and then after only a fraction of a second it's over and she finds that her hand is now coated in a big crystal-clear chunk of jagged ice crystals and she can't move and the ice starts spreading and when her head is engulfed at the very end she hears in her mind a single word-

Bizzarrend

-and then she wakes up in her bed.

She chalks it up to just a weird nightmare, and pretty soon forgets about it.

...So she's pretty confused about everybody's comments about how cold her hands always are these days.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Got an idea: While Bob is legitimately very attracted to Diana because, well, look at her, he's actually fully capable of just not doing anything about it (he is friends with Saiko and Melony without any issue after all, and at least physically they're both definitely his type). It's just, well, with Lily going into their relationship knowing full well how utterly shameless he is there's hasn't been much he's been able to do to harmlessly embarrass her like a good Fun Uncle should, but then he found out this in particular gets under her skin every single time so he... may or may not play it up whenever she's around to see them interact.

Diana is well aware of this and she thinks seeing Lily harmlessly riled up like that is just as funny as he does (she is for all intents and purposes the Fun Aunt after all). Lily has no idea and thinks it's the novelty of how rarely Diana's on land with all of them that's making it so he can't keep it in his pants around her in particular.

Oh, I absolutely love this lmao. Poor Lily though, at the teasing of her Fun Uncle and Fun Aunt. She's gonna go insane

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Made a new oc, figured it'd be neat to have others like Diana who are forces of nature. Meet Aurai, the deity of wind! Carefree and mischievous, but she does takes her job seriously.

And she's sorta got a thing for Diana. But atp who doesn't?

[forthedancingandthethriving]

A note: at some point during her Keyblade training with Alice, Tulip is going to find out that she actually does have that potion from the dream in her inventory.

Also, that she now has a Kingdom Heart's-style inventory and action menu.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Deep Drive: Final Station

You are nearly complete. There is one final lesson before the journey can truly begin..

Light engulfs Tulip once more, and she finds herself on another platform. This one looks... broken, or perhaps incomplete, with large, jagged sections missing and replaced with a dark purple something sectioned into a grid by glowing pink lines.

What she can see is a man with brown hair dressed in a red and white ringmaster's costume, asleep like the others, though far less peacefully. The background seems to be a circus tent, though it's hard to tell, and many of the headshot circles are obscured, the only ones visible being three near-identical stout men with bushy mustaches and similar clothes to the camper and what looks like a fairytale princess. The boarder ring is pitch black with random multicolored streaks and splotches, looking completely out of place from what she can see of the rest of the picture. Above her, a faint beam of light cuts down through the gloom.

The closer you are to light, the greater your shadow becomes.

The voice has a different quality this time. It seems tangible. Close. It even sounds like it's coming from somewhere in particular now, and Tulip turns from the beam to look.

What she finds is what appears at first glance to be a red and white mannequin with a face standing opposite to her. It has what appears to be large black bracelets (or perhaps chainless shackles) wrapped far too tightly around its wrists, one of which is cracked and bleeding what appears to be green pixels. She's shocked to find that she recognizes its eyes...

She sees them every time she looks in a mirror, after all.

"What... what are you?"

Rather than answer, the Other holds out her hand. Tulip's shadow, stretched out all the way to the Other's feet by the light above, somehow peels itself from the floor and reshapes itself, compressing into a key-shaped weapon in the Other's grip, at first pitch black before magenta squares fade in, forming a checkerboard pattern like a placeholder texture in a video game. She assumes a fighting stance, the same Tulip had used on the second platform, and rushes forward.

Tulip just barely manages to raise her wand to block in time, then shoves the Other back, and the battle truly begins.

It's a long, grueling fight, a mirror match where Tulip finds herself more skilled at swordplay than she really should be given her background. Eventually, both are simply too exhausted to continue, and they fall to their knees, weapons fading away.

You are nearly complete. There is one final lesson before the journey can truly begin.

Tulip is confused, wondering why the Other would repeat herself like that, but before she can question it there's a spike of pain through her skull, a sign of one of an oncoming blackout.

The Mind may be made to forget, but the Heart always remembers.

She hears this even as she feels herself drifting away. And just before her consciousness fades completely, she hears the Other's final message.

Listen to your heart, Tulip. Let it guide you back to the Light...

---

When Tulip wakes up, she's in her bed in the van, as usual. What's not normal is the slimy little green snail face looming in front of her left eye.

"GAH!"

She shoots up, swiping at her face to get the damn thing off, and knocks her head into the low ceiling of the bed's nook in the process.

"FUCKING GODDAMN-"

Well, that was a brilliant start to yet another day in hell. That thing's gonna be grime on the bottom of her boot if she sees it again, she swears.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Deep Drive: Station... Γ?

As the light dies down and her eyes adjust, Tulip finds herself in a forest of all places, the light and crackle of a fire noticeable nearby. She walks towards it.

Hold on, the door won't open just yet.

She pushes past the trees and underbrush, finding a campsite in a circular clearing, a purple tent on the opposite edge and a tall, lanky figure sitting on a log and tending to a fire. It all feels very familiar, when it really shouldn't. Her family would never be caught dead in the woods, and during her time on the road she hadn't seen much point to sleeping under the stars when she lived in an RV, especially after the Twilight came and made it downright unsafe, especially alone.

Maybe if she'd ever had any real friends she'd have thought differently, but...well. Maybe was the key word.

First, tell me more about yourself.

Not seeing any other choice, Tulip slowly approaches the camper and sits beside him, the log having more than enough room for two. She takes the chance to get a better look at them, finding a tired-looking man with long, angular features. He wears a purple shirt and matching cap (with a yellow sticker of what seems to be the Latin letter Gamma pasted on the front), black overalls, white gloves with the same emblem as his hat, and light brown boots with pointed toes. His hair (or what she sees of it) is slightly curly, and the same brown as his boots, and under his pointy pink nose is a long, thin mustache sticking out to the sides and bent nearly straight up halfway through in a way that seems to defy gravity.

He never once looks away from the fire, even as he finally speaks, "What do you want out of life?"

She thinks hard about this, somehow certain that what she says now will hold someday grave importance for her in the real world, "...I ...want to be known for my own accomplishments. Not just my family's name and drama."

The man nods, "Getting out from under another's shadow, and carving your own path. A noble ambition... so long as you don't let it consume you.

...What are you afraid of?"

"...Being alone." Strange as it sounded, given her life choices.

"And yet you struck out on your own, and at such a young age, too. You're a brave one."

"Yeah, well, I was practically alone already when I was with them. At least this way I'm in charge of my own destiny."

The man hums, and for a time they both simply sit and watch the fire.

Eventually, she hears him speak again, though she's too caught up in her own thoughts to catch it, "Sorry, I didn't quite-" her breath catches when she looks back up at him.

While she's been looking away, he's moved his intense gaze away from the fire and squarely onto her. His eyes, once normal apart from beady black pupils and lavender eyebags, are now coated in an ominous blue glow that seems to bore into her very soul. The world seems to darken and close in around them, the branches of the surrounding trees almost clawing at the ink-black sky like gnarled leafy hands

"I asked; what is most important to you?"

She can't look away. She almost thinks she won't be able to answer, but the words come bubbling up as if dragged out by the camper's power, "Freedom. Freedom to go where I want to go, do what I want to do, be who I really am, no matter what anyone else says."

And the spell is lifted, the moment ending as quickly as it began, the man's eyes returning to normal, though not moving away from her, and he nods.

"You wish to carve out your own place in the world. You fear solitude. You value your freedom.

Your journey begins in the dead of night. The path will be long, and rough, with many twists and turns, but I imagine you're used to that by now. Just keep your eyes on the road and follow your Heart, and a shining new dawn awaits."

As she's processing this, the voice speaks up once more.

You are nearly complete. There is one final lesson before the journey can truly begin..

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Deep Drive: Station 3

Tulip can't help but struggle, however futilely, against the darkness that engulfs her...

And when she next opens her eyes, she finds she's wriggling on the floor of yet another platform. She lets out an awkward cough and stands up, nonchalantly brushing off nonexistent dust and taking a look around.

The ring once again holds only strange symbols, and the sleeping figure is a preteen girl with long blond hair (but with blue and purple bangs, for whatever reason). She wears a big comfy red sweater with sleeves that fade into sunset orange, and face, otherwise peaceful in slumber, is riddled with faint scars.

In the background is a starry night sky with two constellations traced out into the shapes of a massive lion and wolf, both seeming to surround the girl like dutiful sentries. The headshots depict two girls who look almost identical to the first, a boy with a comically large overbite, matching pairs of 5-pointed stars and stylized comets with cute cartoony faces... and Tulip herself.

"What the..."

She shakes her head, figuring she won't be likely to find any answers here, and focuses on the elephant in the room; a set of elegant -and transparent- double doors, their frame standing in the dead center of the platform.

Not seeing anything else to do, she walks up and tries the handle, her hand somewhat predictably going right through. 'Figures.'

A moment later, there's a flask of light accompanied by a short jingle of some sort, and she turns to find that a wooden chest has appeared near the edge, where she'd first arrived. She shrugs and walks over, not seeing any reason not to open it... and then instead of using her hands like a normal person she taps it on the lid with the head of her wand. Even more strangely, it actually works, revealing a bottle of green liquid inside.

"Why did I... oh, whatever." She just chalks it up to Dream Logic and grabs the bottle.

Another object appears, this time a large wooden crate, and she once again follows the bizarre compulsions she seems to have on this platform, first pushing the crate nearly to the edge of the platform and then hitting it hard enough to break it.

This somehow causes the door's frame to become solid, and a barrel to appear. Sensing the end of... whatever this has been is near, she runs at the barrel and smacks it hard enough that it goes flying off into the abyss.

This solidifies the door completely, and Tulip approaches it once more.

Before she can get close enough to grab the handles, it opens on its own, revealing a blinding white light within. It soon engulfs her entirely, no doubt taking her to parts unknown once more...

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Deep Drive: Station 2

After falling through darkness once more for what feels like six months, Tulip reaches another stained glass pillar, once again landing gently despite having hurtled face-first at terminal velocity.

This platform is edged with musical notes, writing out a song that Tulip finds somehow familiar despite having never seen a page of sheet music in person before in her life (she and her family have many talents. to her knowledge, music is not one of them). In a similar position to her own image is an anthropomorphic cat with fluffy white fur wearing a red and black tuxedo, paw-hands raised as if to conduct an orchestra despite her slumber. In the background is a beautiful castle, like something out of a fairytale, and in the headshot circles are more cats, all of whom are dressed like they'd fit right in in that setting. There's also one figure that looks quite out of place, a sort of cyborg...cowgirl...goblin...thing, with kindness in her one good eye and a crooked, fanged grin.

After a moment, the wand reappears in her hand.

You've gained the power to fight.

Now that she has more time to hold it and take a few practice swings, she notes that it has roughly the same length and proportions as a baseball bat, but with weight distribution more like a sword (how does she know what holding a sword feels like?). She finds that it feels best for her to wield it two-handed, though she could probably switch to just one if she needed to, or got good enough to get fancy with it.

Alright! You've got it. Use this power to protect yourself and others.

Before Tulip can comment, she feels something watching her. When she turns to look, it's revealed to be a strange shadow on the floor, which shifts into the third dimension and is revealed to be a little black imp creature with beady yellow eyes, long zig-zagging antenna, and big floppy feet.

There will be times you have to fight. Keep your light burning strong.

Tulip can't help but scoff, "Aw, c'mon, this little guy looks harmless! They're actually kinda cute even."

As if on cue, the creature stops it's idle, distracted twitching and zeroes in on her, before pointing at her so fast the motion causes a comical whipcrack sound, "Bring me dat ass!"

"Say wha?"

More creatures start appearing like the first, rushing towards her with their suddenly very sharp looking fingers reaching out to grab or scratch her. She lets out a somewhat embarrassing shriek before striking out with her wand, each creature vanishing after a few solid hits. As she fights, she finds that she's... probably more skilled at this than she should be. Still, a few creatures do get hits in, the pain being muffled by either her adrenaline of the fact this is a dream (probably. she's not quite as sure anymore). Thankfully some of them drop what look like green bouncy balls when they're beaten, which somehow fly into her and instantly heal some of her wounds when she gets close enough.

One ever so slightly cleverer one merges with the floor and sneaks around to her more vulnerable backside. Before it can land a potentially crippling blow, the mysterious voice calls out.

Behind you!

Tulip whips around, making quick work of the would-be ambusher "Thanks!"

Soon enough, all but one of the shadows is dealt with. This one melts into the floor, creating a puddle of inky black Nothingness that quickly expands. When it reaches Tulip's feet, she begins to sink, only able to think one thing as she goes under.

"Aw shit. Here we go again..."

[forthedancingandthethriving]

Thank you for the tag! :3

My gender is so shit selves because I don't want to add a bit.

,,, yeah that tracks

tags: @fandomandangstlover + anyone else (very tired, can't find of anyone lol)

Type "my gender is" on your phone and let your phone finish the sentence, then tag your moots to keep the chain going, I'll go first.

My gender is a little bit more intense than I thought I could have done

@mirukosbitchywife @get-junpeid

[forthedancingandthethriving]

I love how this was the straw that broke the camel's back

"You're looking for work? I'm down one Moderator, I could use the help."

A younger CPU meeting Encode, not knowing the horrors that'll come.