#It's actually a whole tiny rig

[placesyoucallhome]

Hi I remembered how to use live2d

[goldenchocobo]

oh no. I rediscovered Blender and my love for animating.

[everwalldigan]

Desperately need a fanfic where instead of Jason making the dramatic ass duffel-bag-of-heads comeback, he instead starts doing things to mildly inconvenience Bruce and it increasingly gets worse.

It starts off small, like breaking into all of his cars and just slightly adjusting all the car mirrors, hiding tiny baby figures over the manor where only Bruce is guaranteed to find them (they’re all painted with little batfam suits), just enough plausible deniability that Bruce thinks it’s one of his other kids pulling a prank and doesn’t mention it to anyone.

Then it slowly spirals, Jason rigging the Batmobile to play “Barbie girl” on the loudest setting at random intervals and no matter what Bruce or Tim do, they just can’t figure out where it’s coming from. He drains all of Tim’s energy drinks and replaces them with regular soda, steals all of Bruce’s ties and hides them all around the house (mysteriously not able to be found by Alfred, who is actually in on the whole thing cause come on, its Alfred). He makes increasingly obscure animals appear in front of Damian (Bruce puts his foot down when a sloth shows up and brings him back to the zoo despite Damian’s many protests) and instead of a grand reveal, he hides in random places around the manor and lets Bruce see fleeting glimpses of him, disappearing right after until eventually he lets Tim and Bruce see him at the same time and and gets outed when both of them look in his direction and realise wait you can see him too?

[theaceace]

When Burgess summoned Dream, instead of Dream being completely cut off from the Dreaming, instead the magic pulled all of Fawney Rig into the soft places at the edge of the Dreaming, so like Dream still can't get out of the circle and his subjects can't get in but the Dreaming suffers much less and crucially, he still has access to some tiny fraction of his power

So now the whole house and everyone in it is sort of tied to the Dreaming and there's just oodles of magic coming off it, and the house in the Waking and the house in the Dreaming exist sort of superimposed over each other. Like you can be in one and sort of be aware of the other but you can't really flip between the two

And I want the whole thing to operate on a sort of combo between Aladdin in the cave of wonders/Orpheus leaving with Eurydice rules where it's said that if you enter the house in the Dreaming side and manage to find the Dream king, he'll grant you the thing you've been dreaming of, but the catch is you have to believe you have it. You have to leave the house without checking. So Burgess asks for Randall, but he turns to look almost before they're out of the basement because if he were Dream then he would pull a trick (TBF it wasn't actually Randall, just a dream of him, but Burgess couldn't tell the difference anyway because he was a terrible father and you can't change my mind). After that, he never managed to find the basement again. Never even manages to find the dream house again, only the waking one, although he goes mad looking for it

But like. Someone else asks for riches and the Dream king says they can be found the guy's pocket or whatever, but he can't feel anything? There's no weight there, no shape, his pocket seems empty (it isn't when he checks, but as soon as he gets out of the house, yelling about his triumph, it's gone and the house is mundane again)

Alex, who doesn't ask for anything until after the death of his father (and after he murdered Jessamy) asks for peace. For safety. The Dream king says nothing, and Alex lives the rest of his life in the Dreaming version of the house, too scared to step outside in case whatever peace he's found in his personal prison vanishes

Ethel never makes it to the house in the Dreaming . She takes what she wants from the waking, and when she leaves she doesn't look back once

Time passes, and more and more people find their way to Fawney Rig, but as Dream himself said, the great stories always return to their original forms, so no one succeeds because that's how it goes

And then. And then Hob. Hob who finds his way to the house just looking for an answer. Looking for something he can do to make sure his Stranger is there in 2089, because otherwise he might lose his mind with the what-ifs. So he finds the house, and he meets Alex, who hasn't set foot outside the front door in over 80 years except it's a little hard to feel sorry for him when Hob realises why. He meets Paul, who lives solidly in the waking, and hasn't been able to convince Alex that it would be worth it to leave with him. He finds his way down to the basement, finally, and there he finds his Stranger

And at first he thinks? It's a trick? Because isn't that sort of what this place does, it tricks you? But he speaks to Dream, and he gets the rest of the story from him, and the only thing Hob wants to take from this place is Dream. And he's like I want to get you out of here, but I can't because you're trapped in that circle (which for reasons unknown to the author right now but probably has something to do with the nature of dreams and stories can't just be broken like a regular spell circle) and I can't do anything about it and Dream is all you know the story, Hob Gadling. It is a more powerful magic than the binding. Leave, and don't look back, and trust that I am following

(Dream knows the story. He's sure he knows how it ends. But he also knows that it has to be played out, that he has to give Hob this chance - he finds himself, as he follows, weeping silently for his son and Eurydice)

So then there would be the agonising climb and return through the maze of the house where Hob almost looks back a bunch of times, and eventually he makes it to the door and steps out into the bright sun of the waking, and -

End title

[aspparticune]

I realized something about Generation Loss that made me love it even more. Someone else has undoubtedly already thought of something like this but I’ve seen no other posts about it so I’m just gonna imagine that I’m clever okay here we go✨

During the finale when Ranboo was tied up to his crucifix, Hetch told him that when the mask had been off during the events leading up to that point, Ranboo had been fully in control of himself. Ranboo protested, saying it had been Showfall making the fatal decisions, that he was being controlled by them and had no choice. It was true that Ranboo, even while in control when the mask was off, didn’t realize exactly what was happening. It’s not like those moments of lucidity were ever long enough for them to figure out how to change anything. But they were still moments of lucidity. Tiny scraps of free will that Ranboo was given. And the choices made in those moments didn’t save anyone, but who knows? Maybe they could have, if Ranboo had played his cards differently. Ranboo argued that he didn’t have a choice, that there was nothing else that could have been done; he was horrified by the blood on his hands but denied that he could have changed the outcomes.

The day after the finale, CC!Ranboo told us on stream that there had indeed been an ending planned for if the majority had voted live, and they told us what it was, debunking the theories that the ending was always going to be death no matter what. They confirmed that the votes hadn’t been rigged, that the outcome was 100% true to viewer votes. After all, their goal, the very experiment that gave this Generation its name, was to see if we as a collective would actually vote to kill somebody. And just as they’d been hoping, we did. If you really want to see whether the majority would vote for death, you wouldn’t rig the vote because you’d never get your answer. That final vote was a test of our human psychology; we were the subjects of the social experiment. And yet there were still posts being made weeks later about how the ending was predetermined, about how our votes never really mattered, about how no matter what we did that box would have closed on his head.

At the core of this whole experiment, CC!Ranboo did to us exactly what Showfall did to GL!Ranboo. They gave us just enough free will that we were able to argue that we never had any at all.

[narrans]

Stellar Allies | Part Two

GT July | Stellar Allies | Part Two

Words: Grit, Warmth, Foggy, Experiment, Honey, Lost, Doubt

It was mind boggling. Was this actually happening? There was something that looked like a weird spaceship in the form of a cylindrical tube the color of liquid mercury with a tiny figure inside – an alien.

Jax and Cliff both simultaneously reached up and pinched their forearms, mirroring the motion as if it were planned.

Swallowing the nerves that was making him tremble, Jax carefully secured the tongs onto the edge of the silver cylinder and began pulling it away from its original crash site. Cliff said nothing and instinctually maneuvered out of the way so that Jax could pull the ship in between the two of them safely away from the flames.

The looked down, gawking at what was inside. There, inside of the silver cylinder, was a six inch tall figure. Their limbs were limp, and they were wearing what looked like some kind of black mesh and leather flight suit. Cliff counted two arms, two legs, one head, and most interestingly another limb that made him think it might be some kind of tail. There was a dark helmet secured to their head, but it was obvious there was a crack along the surface.

Is that what was causing some of the hissing sound? Or was it just the ship? Cliff wondered as he crouched a little lower to examine the ship.

Tiny lights flashed and blinked all around the padded interior. Symbols on a screen flashed intermittently, but neither boy had any indication of what that could mean.

“Is it… dead?” asked Jax as he began reaching the tongs forward. Cliff was about to scold him for using the tongs on the figure, but was relieved when his friend merely grabbed the edge of the cylinder and gave it a little shake.

Both boys nearly leapt out of their skin when they saw the most minute movement from the figure’s chest and the head twitch subtly. They knew it wasn’t because of the movement of the cylinder that caused the movement, meaning this alien was alive. Cliff’s fascination was making him tingly all over, and the shaking in his friend’s shoulders told him Jax was feeling the same way.

“Dude!” hissed Jax. “There’s an alien. A freakin’ alien! Do you know how dope this is!? We might be the first to make contact with an alien species.”

“Allegedly,” grinned Cliff. Both boys exchanged an amused look, having read up on dozens of conspiracies and “abduction accounts” during their research, before turning their attention back to the figure.

“Do you think it’s hurt? Can it even breathe oxygen? All of these things are leaking and stuff, and we do not have the equipment to make an environmental chamber suited for it if it doesn’t breathe oxygen at our atmospheric levels,” fretted Cliff. Jax noticed the crack in the alien’s helmet and his brow furrowed. He was obviously trying to think of a good solution, as was Cliff.

“Okay, let’s assume for a second that it can breathe oxygen. I’m basing this off of the fact that it took us thirty minutes or so to get here and this ship-pod thing has probably been open this whole time. Unless this thing doesn’t abide by the rule of threes, it can probably breathe in our atmosphere,” stated Jax.

His friend was right. Cliff remembered the rule of threes being three weeks without food, three days without water or sleep, three hours in a harsh environment, and, the most important for this argument, three minutes unconscious without breathable air while unconscious.

“Okay, assuming these things are true,” added Cliff. “Then we can assume that this ship-pod thing wouldn’t open if the environment wasn’t ideal. I’m basing this off the fact that a species capable of interstellar travel would have the tech and wherewithal to make sure a survival pod wouldn’t open in harmful conditions.”

“So, at the moment, we’re assuming the alien is stable,” concluded Jax. Cliff nodded affirmatively. “Okay, then the next big question is what do we do next? Assuming the online conspiracy theories are right and everything, the government might want to experiment on the little guy. On the other hand, this might be part of a scouting mission or invasion force. This is just starting to get complicated, and I don’t want this thing face hugging me in the middle of the night and implanting little chest bursting aliens in my throat.”

This was ultimately the biggest question they had to contend with. Was there a “right” choice? They were far out of their depth when it came to preparedness and knowledge. It was a judgment call which had countless unforeseen repercussions.

What was the right thing to do?

Cliff chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought, a nervous habit that often left him tasting iron by the time he came up with a solution. Both points Jax made were valid, but it was clear to him which one felt like the right thing to do; and he had the argument to back it up.

“I think… we take our chances and bring him with us back home.” Jax’s eyes widened as he listened to his friend’s words. It was obvious, even beneath the mask, that he was about to interject, so Cliff continued. “Hear me out. Just look at this tube for a second. Do you see any weapons? Do you see anything on here that might indicate anything other than life support? And what about our little alien companion? Any weapons? Side arms?

“I think this whole thing is supposed to be an escape pod and that our little alien was either in danger from his crew mates and had to evacuate using this escape pod or something happened to the original ship, which is probably the bigger chunk of burning mass that was falling from the sky that we thought was a meteor, like a technical malfunction. Either way, I think at least this little guy here is safe. This is just a theory though. I could be horribly wrong, but that’s what my gut is telling me.”

Jax listened patiently to his friend’s logic and, after a few minutes, nodded.

“Your argument is sound enough, but on the off chance this guy has acid blood or some kind of weapon, is there something we can… I don’t know… put him in for the time being?” asked Jax. Then, his eyes brightened. “Wait, our experiments from last year. We’ve got those plastic containers.”

“My thoughts exactly,” concurred Cliff. “We’ve got those ULINE poly tubs and, worst case scenario, mom has some catering equipment in the shed that is probably acid resistant. Until then, we’ll just have to take our chances.”

Their nerves set back in as they suddenly realized what it was they needed to do next – transport the alien. Both of them with their backpacks were prepared to move rocks, not miniscule alien beings. Still, they had few options available at the moment.

“Okay,” said Jax finally. “I’ll do the transportation and we’ll keep him at your place. Mom is inspecting my room tomorrow to see if I’ve cleaned so now is a bad time for me. If something bad happens, we tell parents and everyone who’ll listen. Yeah?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” breathed Cliff. Jax, obviously shaking, removed his backpack and shifted some of his things to Cliff’s bag to give the most space possible for the space pod. The boys worked together to tape part of the pod open so it wouldn’t close on the figure or accidentally seal shut during transportation.

They also tried to secure the figure by gently laying some of their emergency duct tape along the opening across the figure’s legs and chest and securing it to either side of the opened pod. The moment of truth came and Jax’s brave face was threatening to crack. It was Cliff’s reassuring bump on his shoulder that really pushed Jax over the edge and away from his uncertainty.

Using his heat resistant gloves, Jax lifted the pod off of the ground and slid it into his backpack, using what little padding he had as well as his jacket to make sure the pod didn’t jostle around too much.

The entire time, the figure only stirred twice, but made no additional movements even as Jax zippered his pack shut. Before leaving, Cliff made sure to tamp out all of the smoldering brush to prevent potential environmental hazards.

And with that, they were off. Neither of them knew what was going to happen or how they were going to navigate the countless decisions before them. One thing they did know was that this decision felt right, and they had their logic to back it up.

They could only hope they were right.

~~~^*^*^~~~

Warmth.

Foggy.

Groggy.

Pain.

Cold.

Confusion.

Ol’oih wasn’t sure which thing he felt more. The confusion of everything leading up to him blacking out felt like a bad dream, and the pain in his body made the experience real. It was a souvenir of recent events, and it wasn’t a pleasant one.

He could’ve sworn he heard voices at some point, but he couldn’t be sure. They were loud and booming, but also muffled. Was that because his hearing was damaged? Was it his life support helmet? Or was this actually how the voices were supposed to sound?

There was a fair amount of jostling all around him and, at some point, he was once again stationary. Every element of training told him he needed to be awake and aware, but his body was absolutely no help in this endeavor. He just needed to rest to heal and, ultimately, that was the logical choice too.

Ol’oih knew that he would be no use to himself or any one of his crew mates if he was incapacitated and hurting. So, he relented and let himself sleep.

When he returned to consciousness, however, he wasn’t sure if he had made the correct decision to rest. For a moment, he thought he was still beneath the night sky until he realized that the “stars” above him weren’t stars but merely beams of light. He was surrounded by darkness all around except for the little dots of light above him.

Another thing he noticed was that his helmet had a massive crack along the screen, breaking the airtight seal and exposing him to the atmosphere. He thanked Ove silently that this atmosphere was a friendly one and not something that was toxic. He’d be out of luck if that were the case. The rest of his limbs felt intact, albeit stiff, and he was laying on something that was soft that wasn’t the safety of his escape pod.

A thousand questions came to mind.

What happened when he blacked out? Where was his crew? Were they alright? Were they the ones who found him? Or did something – someone – else find him and bring him here? Had he been captured? Was he now someone’s experiment? Or had he been rescued from the crash? Where even was he? Had they even managed to crash near the rendezvous point?

His body thrummed nervously as he allowed his feelings of doubt to overwhelm him before taking two deep breaths, as he had learned in his training, before collecting his thoughts and worrying about one problem at a time. It was all he could do. Getting through this was going to take grit and determination, and laying there being afraid was not a luxury he could afford at the moment.

First problem was his ability to see. His vision was still a bit foggy, but that probably had something to do with his helmet and the lack of light around him. He had something for that, but he’d need to remove part of his suit. It was a risk he needed to take.

Ol’oih extended his arm forward, feeling it twinge slightly, to make sure he wasn’t going to sit up into a wall or ceiling. Confirming his surroundings, Ol’oih cautiously sat up and detached the clasps keeping his helmet affixed to his suit and pulled his helmet off of his head.

Now free, he realized he was feeing a bit woozy. He hadn’t had anything to eat in who knew how long and would need to consume something soon if he was going to survive. Everything cost precious energy, even what he was about to do to see his surroundings, and he needed to ration correctly if he was going to get out of this ordeal alive.

His body thrummed again, but he shut down his feelings of nervousness as he focused on the task at hand. Ol’oih reached up and removed one of his protective gloves and concentrated on the ciferi in his hand. Like he’d done so many times in his youth, the ridges leading from his core to the tips of his four fingers began to glow a soft green, illuminating the space around him.

What he saw made a pit form in his core.

All around him were portless, doorless walls with odd ridges along the top which undoubtedly latched the roof to the rest of the structure. Nothing else was in the containment unit other than what Ol’oih was sitting on, which resembled a type of white growth similar to this planet’s moss. The item didn’t seem alike like the white growths from his home, so he elected to stay sitting.

Being close enough to touch the walls, Ol’oih hesitantly gave the wall a push. Though it didn’t give easily, there was an element to it that was extremely synthetic as well as flexible. With the right nudge, Ol’oih thought he might be able to use it to his advantage.

I need to measure the space and estimate how tall this thing is. If whatever put me in here is hostile, I need to be able to jump out if I can. It’ll take energy, so I need to use my opportunities wisely.

So, with that in mind, Ol’oih stood and walked to the far wall. He pressed his back against it before walking at a steady pace from one side to the next, using his gate as a measurement. He repeated this for the width and then reached as high as he could to guestimate the height of the container he was in.

Okay, twelve ambas wide, thirty-seven long, and probably twenty or so wide? 8880 sambas. Great. I won’t run out of air, plus the holes in the top should allow air inside. No suffocation. My standing jump is twelve. Running might be fifteen? Using my addon, I could probably hook it along the top and swing to get out if I really needed to.

Last resort though. Lots of energy to do something like that. Plus, that’s if I need to escape. If I can, I will communicate my intentions. About time I’m able to practice my practical language skills. Years of study and simulations finally paying off.

Looks like being a communication ensign actually is coming in handy.

This thought made Ol’oih tremor nervously. Though everyone had basic language in the program, he was the only one of their crew who was fluent. If the others were in trouble, they’d have no true way to communicate.

In the middle of his swirling thoughts and feelings of being completely and utterly lost, Ol’oih was suddenly interrupted as the entire container around him shifted. The sudden jostle threw him to the side and then to all fours as there was a cacophonous cracking sound.

Juthez! Out of time to make a plan. Can’t pretend to go back to sleep. No sense in that. I need answers and assistance. Looks like communication is my only option. Juthez! Please be friendly.

The thrumming wracking Ol’oih’s body was making him feel completely sick and cold, but he knew this was necessary. The doubt in his mind would have to be pushed to the side for the time being. Skill alone was what he had to rely on, and he could only hope it would be enough.

~~~^*^*^~~~

Both boys had managed to make it to Cliff’s home without disturbing his parents. Jax was the one brave enough to lift the six inch tall figure of the alien out of the pod and into the plastic storage container while Cliff arranged a towel for a bed, arguing that it would be cruel for the alien to just be on the hard ground when he could be injured.

Jax went home and immediately cleaned his room while Cliff kept the storage container under his desk with the lid fastened securely. He tried going back to sleep, but knowing there was an alien mere feet from his bed was enough to keep the teen away from sleep for the next week.

It would be hours before Jax reached out saying his room had passed inspection and another twenty minutes before Cliff’s parents were awake and preparing to go to work. He’d asked if it was okay if Jax came over, to which his parents agreed as long as they didn’t perform any science experiments.

Cliff felt like he was lying by omission by saying he and Jax wouldn’t be doing any science experiments since they would be investigating the alien, but he deemed that as a scientific investigation and not an experiment and agreed. With his assurance, his parents left for work and Jax was over within minutes.

He had barely crossed the threshold before the questions started coming out.

“Has the alien woken up? Have you checked on him? Do we know if it’s a him? What if he doesn’t wake up? Are you as stoked as I am because I’m literally vibrating all over!” Jax’s inability to contain his excitement was hilarious and he quickly pulled his friend inside his house.

“Dude, just take a breath. Yeah, I’m stoked too, but we need to chill. If the alien reads emotions and stuff like that, he might get spooked. This is a friendly check-up and possible exchange of information, possibly with the first alien in history. Oh, who am I kidding, I’m shaking all over. I couldn’t even go back to sleep,” grinned Cliff.

“Me too!” Jax’s grin was stretching from ear to ear. Cliff knew his expression had to be the same to the point his cheeks were starting to hurt. “So, do we check on him now? Or what?”

“Only logical,” agreed Cliff. “If he’s still passed out, then we can investigate the ship, which is still safely under the bed. If he’s awake, we can commence Operation: First Contact.”

“Nerd,” teased Jax, getting the reference immediately, as both teens made their way to Cliff’s room. What started as a confident stride immediately shifted to cautiously optimistic steps as they shuffled into Cliff’s room and crouched by the hard plastic crate. As carefully as they could, they pulled the crate out from under the desk.

As they did, both boys felt the crate jostle subtly, as if something fell over, and let their excitement override caution as they cracked open the top of the crate. Light flooded into the crate, and, for the first time, they saw someone looking back at them.

~~~~~^*^*^*^*^~~~~~

Continue

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@gianttol #gtjuly #gtjuly2024

[talonabraxas]

The Cosmic Gods — Surya by Talon Abraxas

Surya is one of the Vedic Gods. Surya is the sun, the solar deity. At the same time, he is the god of illumination and liberation. Surya wears a golden robe and his chariot is drawn either by one steed or by seven mares.

Surya, the Sun-God, is extremely important and significant in our spiritual life, although there are very few hymns to him. Only ten hymns are offered to the Sun-God, in comparison to more than two hundred and fifty hymns offered to Indra.

The sun is far, very far from our planet, the earth. When we observe the sun from here, we see a tiny disc, but we know how vast it really is. Similarly, the inner sun, the sun that we have deep within us, is far, very far from us. But when we approach our inner sun we are illumined, we are transformed, and we enter into the effulgence of transcendental Light.

The physical sun, the sun that we actually see, is the eye of the Gods Agni, Varuna, and Mitra. I shall not speak today on Varuna and Mitra except to say that the physical sun, the great star whom we call the sun is the physical embodiment of the spiritual light of Agni and the two other cosmic gods. Surya is the eye of the gods.

Dawn is the harbinger of Surya, the Sun-God. In Sanskrit the dawn is called Usha or Ahana. Usha is the goddess of dawn. She invokes the presence of the Sun-God and when Surya appears, he seems to be following her. The Sun-God has boundless divine love for the Goddess Usha and he wants to offer all his inner divinity to her. She receives it joyfully from him.

The sun is the creator and from the sun our creation came into existence. Unlike the outer sun, the inner sun moves; that is why the inner light moves and illumines. Again, the inner sun can remain silent. When the inner sun is silent, we are also silent. That is why in the Isha Upanishad, one of the most famous Upanishads, we have a description of something that moves and at the same time moves not:

Tad ejati tan naijati…

That moves and that moves not. That is far and that is near. That is within and that is without.

Each of us, each human being, has an inner sun. The physical sun we observe every day, but the inner sun, the sun of divinity that we have inside us, unfortunately we do not see, in most cases, even once during our lifetime. Again, if I say that each individual is blessed with only one inner sun, then I am mistaken. The spiritual seekers who are advanced in the field of spirituality have more than one spiritual sun. And the spiritual Master, in his highest transcendental Consciousness, is the possessor of the entire universe. He possesses the outer sun and countless inner suns.

I assure you, if you are on the path to spirituality, you are bound to see your inner sun. Some of you have already had a glimpse of it. Some of you have seen it for a fleeting second, but have not been able to realise it as the inner sun. A day will dawn when you will see your inner sun face to face, and as you grow in the spiritual life you are bound to develop more than one inner sun. Every day you will see your inner sun fully in all its transcendental glory. You will be inundated with celestial Light.

The Sun-God also is the God of Flight and he performs his task like a beautiful bird. Time and space are covered by the wings of the Sun-God. In the Rig Veda there is a significant hymn which runs thus: “The stars are acting like thieves. When they see the sun, they act like thieves; they run away, for they are afraid of the infinite effulgence of the sun.” There is another hymn, the invitation of the evening. Evening invites the sun to set, saying, “Brother, you have worked very hard during the whole day. Now you take rest.” In that way night commences, when evening makes a fervent request to the Sun-God to take rest.

The sun is the creator who has created something without beginning or end. A great Master once said, “If the beginning comes from anything, then it cannot be a beginning. Beginning cannot come from anything.” It is true. But in the spiritual life we know two significant words: Purusha and Prakriti. Prakriti and Purusha are always birthless and endless. In the thirteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna makes it very clear that Prakriti and Purusha are both without beginning. Purusha the transcendental Being, the primordial Being and Prakriti the absolute Energy, created both the eternal and the temporal.

In the Rig Veda we learn that existence came from nonexistence. Now what does nonexistence mean? If we think that non-existence means nothing then we are mistaken. Nonexistence is something which we cannot see with our naked eye, something which is beyond our earthly ken. Non-existence is something which is right now beyond the capacity of our earthly eye. It is not something that never existed. When our third eye is at our constant command, we will see the nonexistence as something which has not yet taken proper form and substance in the outer world. When it takes proper shape and form it becomes possible and practicable for us to see it and use it in our day-to-day life.

We all want to bathe in the sea of sunlight. The outer sunlight will give us purification; the inner sunlight will give us illumination. When we want to bathe in the sea or the river, we need soap, towel and so forth. But when we have a sun bath, we don’t need either soap or water or towel. And when we have an inner sun bath, we need only one thing. The only thing we need to satisfy all our inner needs is our soul’s tearful gratitude. When we offer our soul’s tearful gratitude to the Supreme, or when we enter into our soul’s tearful gratitude, we can in no time bathe in the sea of inner light.

The sun that we see in the sky is always beautiful. The day dawns; we see beauty all around. We look at the sun and we get inspiration. God the Beauty, the Sun-God, comes to us in the form of inspiration. The poet is inspired to write soulful poems, the musician is inspired to compose most beautiful pieces. The men going to work in their different walks of life are getting abundant inspiration to fulfil their daily duties from the sun. Here the Sun-God comes to us as inspiration. We have to perform the tasks of the day. We have to fulfil our outer demands as well as our inner demands. The inner Sun comes to us with his fiery flames, giving us powerful, soulful, dynamic inner will which will hasten our inner evolution and outer manifestation.

The Sun-God comes to us as realisation in the evening. Evening comes, the sun sets, purity reigns supreme all around. Nature is strengthening, mother earth aspiring, all peace and love within and without. When realisation dawns, the roles of inspiration and aspiration end. With evening comes realisation, as the Sun-God offers us the consummation of his wealth.

In the Vedas there are thousands of mantras. Mantra means incantation. It is a Sanskrit word. A mantra can be a syllable, a word, a name or a sentence or two, and when we utter it soulfully we are transported into the seventh heaven of celestial delight. There are thousands of mantras, but there is one mantra that is known as the mother of all mantras and that mantra is the Gayatri mantra. This mantra we find in the three Vedas; the Rig Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda. Also this mantra is in one of our ragas — a most sublime raga called Gayatri. I am offering you this particular mantra right now. Why? There is a special reason. First I would like to chant it, then I will tell you its significance.

Aum bhur bhuvah svah

tat savitur varenyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi

dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

This is the Gayatri mantra. Many composers have set tune to it. Its meaning is: “We contemplate on the most brilliant light of the Creator-Deity, the Sun-God, for inner understanding, to illumine our intelligence, to stimulate our understanding, to transform our earthbound consciousness into the boundless light of the inner Sun, the Sun-God."

In India, in the small hours of the morning, the Brahmins and the seekers of the highest Truth, with folded hands, look up into the sky as the sun comes up over the horizon and offer this prayer to the Sun-God. They chant it most soulfully. They repeat this mantra hundreds of times for inner illumination. You can imagine how it looks when you walk along the Ganges and see the Indian Brahmins who are conversant with the Vedic lore and the seekers of the Infinite with folded hands, praying to the sun for inner illumination. By repeating this mantra, hundreds and hundreds of seekers have attained to spiritual perfection. This mantra is the mother of all mantras. If you can repeat it soulfully thousands of times at a stretch, you are bound to get at least an iota of inner illumination. But it has to be done most soulfully and not like a child learning something by rote.

The sun is the soul of the universe. The soul has neither birth nor death. This is what we know of the soul.

Na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin…

"The soul is never born and it never dies. It has no beginning, it has no end, no past, no present, no future."

This is the soul. Again, you know that I very often sing here:

Vāsāṁsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya…

"Fire cannot burn it, water cannot drench it, wind cannot dry it, weapons cannot cleave it…"

This is the soul.

The Sun-God gives us knowledge, wisdom. The Sun-God frees us from ignorance, teeming ignorance, impenetrable darkness. Therefore we have to invoke the Sun-God. Avidya means ignorance. Vidya means knowledge. Vidya and avidya go together.

What is ignorance? Let us take ignorance as a thorn. One thorn has entered into our foot. Now let us take another thorn, Knowledge, to remove the previous thorn. Once we have taken out the thorn, when both thorns are out, we do not need the thorn that has entered into our foot and we do not need the thorn that helped us to remove it. When we took out the first thorn with the help of the second thorn we can say that we entered into the realm of death and conquered it. We go beyond both Knowledge and ignorance and enter into the domain of wisdom’s ecstasy.

There are two types of knowledge; outer knowledge and inner knowledge. Outer knowledge can tell us about spiritual life, inner life. But this outer knowledge is not the same as inner knowledge. Outer knowledge tells us that there is God, that if we follow the spiritual life we will realise God and that if we meditate on God we will have peace, bliss, power, delight and so forth. This is outer knowledge. It cannot go further. But from the information that we have gathered together as outer knowledge, if we try to go deep within, when we enter into the inmost recesses of our heart, the inner knowledge dawns. When inner knowledge dawns, automatically, spontaneously we taste the divine nectar, Amrita and this divine nectar is immortality.

The sunlight and the Sun-God cannot be separated. As God the Creator and God the Creation cannot be separated, so the Sun-God and the sunlight cannot be separated. Thus in The Vedas it is said:

Surya jyotir jyotir surya…

"The Sun-God is light, light is the Sun-God…"

Surya here is not the Vedic God Surya; here Surya means the Supreme God. So the Sun-God and sunlight can never be separated. Similarly, our aspiration and our realisation cannot be separated. Today we are aspiring, tomorrow we shall be realised. When we are all realised we shall see that our aspiration and our realisation are absolutely inseparable. -AUM — Vol. 8, No. 3, October 1972

[splish--splash--minecraft]

Since y'all wanna tie it so bad have another poll. Please don't tie it again guys please. If it ties I'm picking what I want.

Tiny Apartment AU

The one you all know and love. No? Just me? Oh well. I still have a LOT planned for this AU. So many WIPs I've started and still other fics for the series I have planned but haven't actually started. If this wins, I might do another poll with some of the WIPs and let y'all decide which one to work on from there. Maybe.

Lifeguard AU

This one's a fun one! Scar works as a lifeguard. Pearl does, too, and one day she drags her brother (Grian) out of the house and convinces (bribes) him to go with her. He complains the whole way there...until he gets a look at Scar. And when Scar's shift ends and he goes to talk to Grian, he decides that maybe going out of the house to the pool isn't the worst idea. I don't have much for this AU yet. I've started it, but it's not a lot, and I only have some ideas for some scenes. This one also has t4t scarian. just 'cause. Both are transmasc

Fallen Watcher AU

You guys remember that guardian angel AU? This is that but I've reworked it a bit. Rather than being a guardian angel, Grian is a Watcher. He's put in charge of Watching Scar. The Watchers have some sort of plan I haven't quite figured out yet, but it involves Scar dying. But Grian...has grown attached to him. He doesn't want Scar to die. But as a Watcher, he's not allowed to do more than just Watch. But he interferes anyway, saving Scar's life, and the Watchers are furious so they cast him out. So now he has to deal with being mortal all while the guy he saved the life of keeps flirting with him.

Feel free to try and rig it and whatnot idc have fun. don't tie it again.

[canisbeanz]

Wake up babe, I fixed your son.

It's not perfect but I tried, kept the heart bc I thought it was cute, but got rid of the rest of the random lines bc I don't get why they were there in the first place. They don't even line up with any actual articulation points or anything.

In the original, he's smiling but doesn't have any skin crease under his eye, so the smile doesn't read as "I'm a friendly fellow who's glad to see you!" it comes across more as "I am about to bite you😀 "

All of his iris and pupil are visible which almost always looks creepy bc you only ever have a completely unobscured eye if you're pulling a surprised/scared or really angry expression. His eye closest to the camera is also slightly too small and looking in the wrong direction so he looks really vacant and like he's not actually "seeing" anything, just staring blankly. He also didn't seem to have an eyelid of any kind. like a crease just above the visible eye where the eyeball is lying under the skin and makes a slight lump, without it his face looks really flat and weird.

I gave him a tad more nose bridge just because his nose is so tiny that on a 3d model under any bright light it just completely vanishes. Also, i get that his eyes are meant to look like camera lenses, which is a very cool idea in theory but in practice looks REALLY creepy to have his whole eye like that, I could see it working if it was just his pupil (03 kinda does this in close-ups when he scans stuff) but having that texture on the iris too just looks grim. not to mention that it'd be a massive robot giveaway that would mess with the whole secret identity thing they're planning.

Got rid of his individual teeth and turned them into just one white slab bc they p much always look horrifying on cartoon characters and this is no exception. And lastly, I smoothed out the weird dent in his hair because I don't get why it's there in the first place, it looks like he was dropped on the head.

Also, this is very much a random thing I noticed, but the lines on his chest are really warped on one side which looks to me like his model isn't mapped/rigged (< not a 3d artist so idk if that's the right term) very well and it's causing weird texture stretching because of the extreme posing.

[fifthnailinstevesbat]

oh hmmmmmm the other woman kinda au but it’s nancy being so disgustingly jealous of chrissy when she and robin start dating, but nancy had never told her feelings to robin, so she had no right, right? but she had only just come to the realisation that how she felt about robin was what it was, that it wasn’t resentment or hatred or really strong friendship… that she liked her, the same way she liked jonathan, and steve, all that time ago. she could maybe even love her, and wasn’t that just absolutely terrifying. it took nancy so long to realise that she could even be like this, that she could even feel that way towards robin, who was a girl, but when she finally did figure it out, it took her even longer internally to actually be ok with it. or at least, not as completely terrified by the concept. she accepted that the way she felt about robin was stronger than any feeling of disgust or fear she had about having the feelings at all. but she didn’t get the chance to tell her, because while nancy had been internally going through this journey of self discovery, robin and chrissy cunningham had gotten quite a lot closer than ever before. chrissy started getting invited to their hangouts, sleepovers, shopping trips and walks through town. and it was fun, chrissy was sweet and really a very kind person, she brought a great energy to their larger group over all, but then her and robin started doing more alone. and with steve, and eddie, and nancy could do nothing but sit by and watch as robin fell harder and harder for the strawberry blond cheerleader. nancy wasn’t even entirely sure whether robin was the same way as her before all this, but there was no doubt now since the two have made it official. robin is with chrissy. robin likes chrissy, she could maybe even love her, and nancy was devastated. she has to watch now as robin gives so so much love to another girl, wishing it could be her on the receiving end of robins affection, but no matter how hard she tries she can’t just hate chrissy about it. chrissy is so so… beautiful. inside and out. and robin is happy, chrissy makes her happy, chrissy is so perfect for her. nancy wishes she could’ve known sooner, that she didn’t wait so long, that she didn’t spend so much time in her head hating herself for feeling something she never thought was in the cards for her life. she wasn’t prepared for this, prepared to deal with this, to have her whole established perception of herself and who she was as a person be completely cracked open and shattered to the ground in tiny rigged pieces she didn’t even know we’re inside of her. nancy is overwhelmed with hurt, and longing, and jealousy, and confusion, as well as contentment for having actually come to terms with what she feels, slight acceptance, but mostly overall she is utterly heartbroken every second she must spend time with robin and seeing her arm slung around chrissy’s shoulders, or just hearing her talk so fondly of the girl. but how could nancy blame her? chrissy was picture perfect. nancy was always titled the “good girl”, even she got labeled as “miss perfect” in the early days of high school, because she was always trying so, so hard not to fall. not to crack. but she is not the same girl. she has seen too much now, she has had to change out of survival, adapting to the conditions she found herself subjected to. nancy isn’t that girl anymore, and she never can be again, and maybe deep down she never really was at all. but chrissy, chrissy is sweet, untarnished, content with herself in a way nancy fears she could never be, and chrissy isn’t always striving for something more, and always fighting and working herself to death to be more. to do more, to prove herself. chrissy doesn’t have the internal demons that nancy has, festering and growing and spreading and multiplying and consuming her for the last 4 years.

so nancy will watch. it’s ok, it’s fine. she has no choice. she wishes it could be her, but she will never be like chrissy and chrissy couldn’t be like nancy even if she tried. chrissy is perfect, she is beautiful, she makes so much sense. of course robin likes her, who doesn’t? how could anyone not? nancy gets it, which is the hard thing. because she can’t even get the satisfaction of hating chrissy, or seeing all the ways that she herself could be better if it were her instead. see all the ways nancy would do things differently for robin, to make it all that much better. because chrissy does it all right, she is perfect, nancy couldn’t compete. they aren’t on the same level. but nancy likes robin, a lot. she may even love her. and robin likes chrissy, a lot, and robin told nancy that she thinks she might love her, and it’s fine. nancy cant do anything about it but watch.

[dapper-nahrwhale]

(Set during The Experimental Job, just a little moment between the ot3 when Parker brings the jackets)

Around 700 words under the cut:

“It's cold.” Parker hisses under her breath, fogging up in a cloud.

“Of course it's cold,” Eliot grumbles through chattering teeth into his earpiece, “I told you it's like 20 degrees down here.”

“Yeah, I know I just wasn't expecting it.”

“Parker.” He growls in a warning.

“Hurrying.” The eye roll he just knows she's giving him transcends the earpieces.

At least Hardison's stopped complaining about his half of hell week long enough to rig up a handful of button cams to old jackets.

[read it here on ao3]

“Hey, Eliot you good man?” And here comes the geek. Great. At least Sophie and Nate had the decency to go to sleep if they weren't going to help.

“Peachy.” Talking was starting to hurt his very clenched cold jaw.

Then Hardison starts rambling.

“You know I don't mean anything by the whole, uh hell week torture thing right? I just, I know they're around you too, and it's definitely worse what with the actual torturing of people with PTSD, and it's so creepy being around these dudes who are exploiting it for the CIA or something-”

“Hardison. Shut it.” He wasn't mad, not really, just a little peeved he hadn't slept in half a week.

But it's not even close to breaking his record for days without sleep.

Doesn't mean he has to enjoy the torture. Well, some of it he kind of does. Psyching out the guy who's supposed to be torturing him, that was kind of fun.

But the rest of it, hearing the guys around him screaming and howling and breaking. That wasn't so fun.

“Parker, you almost done the delivery yet?” He doesn't want her to stay here any longer than she has to. She doesn't have to.

“Almost. Got one left.” Her voice echoes in his ear and just outside his cell.

“Ok, just be quick.” The door opens silent as Parker always does.

“Dammit, Parker, not me the other guys. I don't need no button cam.”

Eliot is wrapped up right in the thin burlap sheet he has.

Parker gives him an incredulous look at that.

“Uh, yeah Eliot that ain't gonna do here. If you freeze to death, that's on all our asses, babe.” Hardison says in his ear.

“I ain't gonna freeze to death. It's cold, not that cold.” He's still shivering as Parker swiftly crosses the tiny room and wraps the last jacket around him.

“The human body can survive up to 6 hours of -20 degrees fahrenheit.” Parker jumps in not very helpfully.

“Thanks Parker.” Eliot and Hardison say in sync.

“Look-” Eliot attempts to say.

“Hypothermia has been known to happen even in the high 40s,” Parker delightedly says, “it can cause extensive nerve damage and brain damage.”

“Don't sound so excited about that. It's weird.” He shrugs her arm off of him.

“Symptoms include uncontrollable shivering.” She lists off.

“Pale cold skin.” Hardison chimes in.

“Check.” Parker pokes at his nose. Cold.

“Drowsiness and confusion.” Poking at his forehead.

“Parker.” He slurs through his teeth.

“Weakness and loss of coordination.” Parker jabs at his chest, and he can hardly even bat her hand away like a kitten.

“Quit it.”

“Shallow breathing and heart rate.” Hardison says.

“Yep. Check and check.”

“Will you two quit it.” Eliot growls, and even that burst of energy wipes him out.

“Now, I don't normally do this but. It should help.” And Parker gives him the stiffest, most awkward robotic hug he's ever had.

Thing is, it actually does help.

“You really ok with this Hardison.” He brings himself to mumble. He keeps his arms tight at his sides.

“If I weren't here, I'd be doing the exact same thing dude. You know we don't like to see you hurt.” Hardison says like it's easy.

“I can take it.” His jaw clenches again. He can take it, it's literally his entire job.

“We know you can, we still don't have to like it.” Hardison acts like that's going to end this argument.

“Tough. Because that ain't stopping anytime soon.”

“At 32 degrees most people with hypothermia will go unconscious in 15 minutes.” Parker tightens her hold on him and he finally gives in and gently squeezes her back.

“Well, I ain't most people, sweetheart.” Eliot says with the first smile in half a week.

“No you most certainly are not.”

(Just a little thing I always felt was missing from The Experimental Job!)

[swaps55]

Prompt from the Big Place discord server: Write a short fic with the words 'terror,' 'ghost,' and 'haunt.'

Kaidan finds Shepard in the barn in front of Echo’s stall, surrounded by black fabric, wire, scraps of wood, and most worrisome, a can of black paint. A pumpkin sits on a haybale right outside the stall door. Echo sticks her head out the open window, supervising the whole thing. “Do I even want to know?” Shepard holds out an arm’s length of fabric, deep in thought. “I had an idea.” “I can see that. Hence my concern.” “They’re doing that ghost thing in town next week.” He waves the fabric like a bat. Echo throws her head up and snorts. “The Halloween parade, yes.” “I had an idea.” That much is apparent. Kaidan rubs Echo’s forehead. She promptly uses him as a scratching post. “I am very afraid to ask what that has to do with the horse.” “Gonna ride her without a head.” Kaidan parses this for a moment before arriving at the intended interpretation of that sentence. “You want to be the headless horseman.” “Yup.” Kaidan looks at the impromptu craft pile, then looks at Echo, who tries to lip at the pumpkin perched just out of reach. “Doesn’t the headless horseman have a black horse?” Shepard pauses what he’s doing and examines the very much not black Echo with a critical eye. “Yeah, you might be right about that. Do you think fence paint is safe for horses?” “No.” Kaidan picks the can up and puts it away, just to be safe. “Then I guess in this case, the headless horseman rides a red horse.” Shepard wraps the black fabric around himself with a flourish and waggles an eyebrow. “I need a cape. And a way to hide my head.” Kaidan rubs his forehead with his fingers. “Unbelievably, my mother has done this before, and might still have the rig somewhere in the hay loft.” Shepard grins the kind of grin that used to be reserved for the Mako. “Gonna haunt the shit out of that parade.” Well. The tiny town of Summerland is about to get a face full of Sam Shepard. Or...something like that. ~ The air is brisk on the 31st, but the skies are clear, and a larger crowd than usual turns out for the occasion, perhaps in no small part because the moment Shepard expressed interest in participating, they made him the grandmaster of the whole thing. 

The parade itself is simple but constructed with love. Locals, several who Kaidan recognizes, put the finishing touches on homemade floats and costumes. More than a few kids who have crept “backstage” to catch a glimpse of their hero wear hand crafted N7 armor. Shepard sits tall in his saddle, an admittedly impressive black cloak draped around his black breeches. Kaidan wonders if he even noticed that his mother stole it and stitched an N7 on the back. The black shirt he’s got on underneath will be on the floor as soon as Kaidan gets his hands on it, but that’s for later, when they aren’t in the middle of downtown, surrounded by families and kids in costume. For now, he holds a rein while Shepard makes his final adjustments.  “Well, how do we look?” Echo, stomps a bored foot and swishes her tail, ears hanging lazily to the side. The ornate black bridle and hefty black breastplate would look pretty intimidating if not for the clump of grass hanging out of her mouth. Kaidan reaches in to tug it out, and is rewarded with a smudge of green slobber. “Like a terror of the night.” “To hell we ride.” Shepard settles the headless rigging over his actual head. “Can you see anything?” “It’ll be fine,” he says, voice muffled. Echo snorts and attempts to root for a carrot in Kaidan’s back pocket. With Shepard, it sure will be something. Further down the street, an emcee announces their heralded haunted guest. The agreement had been that Shepard would parade at a brisk trot. Instead, he urges Echo into a gallop with a whoop. Together they streak down the road, a red comet with a black horseman, to the delighted roar of the crowd. 

[tricoufamily]

figured out how to do this in a way that's actually helpful for people lmao - here's how you can use the sims 4 studio rig on short/tall sims WITHOUT changing their height or removing your height slider

note that i am not a pose maker! this is for making renders! i have no idea if this would work for making in game poses, this doesn't have anything to do w that lol

haha short

if we do the tried and true method of setting connor's armature modifier to the default sims 4 studio rig, it is WAY off. and not to mention the fact that if you try to make him do anything complicated it gets...well you saw his hands. and it is just as nightmarish for tall sims

the rig that comes w simripper is custom built for your sim's features, height slider or no. but the problem is in its default state it's useless at worst and extremely difficult to use at best. we're going to turn that into the sims 4 studio rig people know and love

first, go to your preferences and add-ons. find the copy attributes menu, it is already installed on blender, you just have to enable it (i am using blender 2.83 here)

let's make all of the rig visible, as straight out of sim ripper, most of the most important bones are hidden inside the sim. with the rig selected, click the little man icon in your properties menu and under viewport display, check in front.

keeping it 100, this is usually what i work with because i think doing poses sucks already, so what do i care if the dots are super tiny? but like i said, that's not that helpful for other people, so let's keep going!

you know that annoying bone shape thing that always hitches a ride whenever you try to append? that's actually the sims 4 studio bone shape, if you look close. we need it!

so we've got a pose we want our sim to do (or a blank rig if we're making our own pose). on OUR sim, select the rig and go into pose mode. in the drop down, expand the pose section, then the b_root, then b_root_bind, then b_spine0, THEN b_spine1. lol.

click ONE of the bones in the drop down menu. it doesn't matter which one. it'll highlight in green on your sim.

now click the bone icon in the menu. under viewport display, click custom shape and select the bone_bone_shape. now it looks like the sims 4 rig, but the circles are a little too big (on the face this would be pretty annoying). so under scale, 0.2 will get it to the normal size.

now hit a on your keyboard to select the whole rig. now hit control+c to open your copy attribute menu that we enabled. copy bone shape. we're done! it looks just like the sims 4 studio rig, but suited to our sim!

i recommend disabling the copy attributes add on after this, because obviously with this set up, we're copying and pasting the pose onto this rig from the actual sims 4 studio rig instead of using it. it'll save you a click lol.

when you paste your pose, don't forget to select the rig, hit i and locrot to save the pose!

[inkbedou]

Bruno - Reactor!Lix

second space!lix ego, created by me, we got reactor!lix, aka Bruno!

with his colorful personality and loudness that covers both him and Burt, the two reactor boys make for an explosive team. always wearing a bright smile and always keeping his cat Pepa by his side, he always makes sure everything explosives-wise is completely covered.

more info about him under the read more!

has the most positive, upbeat, bright personality you could ever imagine

talks so much. tho it normally balances out Burt's general silence, so all good.

his artistic thing is firework making, but knows a lot ab making explosives, this man can rig anything to explode

sadly once got into some trouble after he accidentally hurt someone with said fireworks and ended up in prison, but he feels extremely remorseful about the whole thing and thought of his stay in the Invincible II as a way to redeem himself

unfortunately for him, the work Engineer wanted him to do was, quite frankly, putting the lives of all the colonists in danger (cause seriously how many self-destruct protocols did that ship have???) so at first he refused, but later realized that if he didnt do it Engie would just try do it himself and thought it would be better for someone with knowledge of what they are actually doing to rig all the explosives instead

so while he gets on perfectly with Burt, his relationship with Engie is a bit... well... its mostly Bruno being concerned about everything the other does

also he's still on a weird technical house arrest situation, so he has to wear an ankle bracelet °-°

his cat companion is a tiny fluffy kitten named Pepa! pepas are popular cookies in my home country, although im pretty sure you english speakers call them "thumbprint cookies"

i struggled a bit in making the character fit with the whole reactor area, but after looking more closely at Burt, i realized the key was just so. many. more. BELTS.

also, i was originally just thinking of making cryo!lix, but i got the inspo to make the other two after finding the inspo picture for Bruno's earrings! so for that, i wanted to add those to the character, dont question why he has earrings and that they would probably be way too heavy to wear XD

finally, his weapon is a crossbow, but he never uses arrows, instead he uses fireworks! im not even gonna lie the idea of this is straight out of minecraft. but it does fit, right?

it was so refreshing to work on such a happy character, and now the next and last space!lix remains!

[brandwhorestarscream]

Tfe skyfire x starscream

I'm actually gonna draw from some previous source material we've made up here, and say that the bitties in question are the jettwins. They're not Skyfire's sparklings, but he's the one that steps up to raise them.

The seekers are all on the run and, if I'm being honest, have probably vacated the entire North American continent. GHOST isn't an international organization, after all, and flight makes travelling and escape so much easier than groundbound mecha like Tarantulas, for example. They've gone somewhere that's pretty much unreachable by humans: the highest point on the planet. Mt. Everest. The temperatures are nothing compared to deep space flight, and there's plenty of wind and solar energy for them to harness to get an energon synthesizer going.

They've been living on the dl for months and building up an actual base for themselves at the peak, when Starscream's newly rigged together scanners pick up a very peculiar signal under the melting ice caps of earth's poles. Looks like a cybertronian cache of sorts! They head out immediately, before anyone else can snipe the findings. Who knows what it could be? It could be incredibly useful, be it medical supplies or something that might be able to get them permanently off this Primus forsaken rock.

You know what happens here. They find Skyfire in cryosleep beneath the ice: with everything on this planet thawing, they were finally able to get an actual read on him despite being here for so long. Starscream is... god. There's so many emotions at once he doesn't even know what to call it. He's relieved, he's overjoyed, he's terrified, he's angry. They excavate him in a hurry and search for any equipment he may have lost at the time of the crash, but it's all beyond repair.

Skyfire is incredibly disoriented. He's so confused, he's so dizzy and his audials are ringing incessantly and why does Starscresm look so different? For him, it's only been a couple kliks since he got the warning that there was a critical failure in his systems and then he was falling. He blacked out, and now he's here. He's so sore though, and none of his systems are functioning properly, and Starscream is damn near hysterical that it's clear he's missed a lot. They get him back to their little camp, get him some energon, let him rest and decompress. The twins are handed off to Skywarp and Nova so the two reunited lovebirds can have a chance to talk. Starscream tells Skyfire the full story, not overwhelming him with details but all the main points. What happened after his disappearance, the whole mess with the war, earth's revolving circus of pitslag, GHOST, and finally... the bitties.

Skyfire doesn't even mind that they aren't his. Starscream suffered so much carrying them, having them forced on him, but is doing everything in his power to love and raise them properly. Sky's an overgrown lovesick puppy and adores Starscream for all that he is, and he falls in love with the twins the first moment he gets to hold them. They're so tiny compared to him, but so wiggly and curious. They're attempting to climb all over him, nomming on his fingers and poking at his face with their tiny baby hands, giggling and chirping as they clamber up on his head because Look How High!!!!! He passes the infant vibe check with ease and the sparklings are immediately smitten with them. Skyfire fondly remarks that they're beautiful, just like their carrier, and quietly mentions that... he knows it's been awhile, but if Starscream will still have him, he'd love to still be with him. Starscream just smiles and calls him an idiot: as if he'd let him get away!

Skyfire is such an incredible sire to his adopted sparklings. Literally the best they ever could have ended up with. Loves them like his own, so attentive and sweet and patient. He honestly coddles them even more than Starscream does, and has such a hard time telling them no 🤭 he hasn't built up an immunity to puppy dog eyes yet, so he's always sneaking them extra treats. He loves to hold them, they fit so perfectly in his arms, he's always volunteering to hold them for naptime rather than laying them down in their little crib. Starscream is happier than Skywarp and Nova have seen him in a long time, and the whole group of them are a perfect happy little family 💖

[awakenthemusic]

Trick or Treat

Jack had insisted on dressing ‘like his dads’ for Halloween. He wore a pair of jeans and a buttoned-up flannel that matched the one Dean wore with a solid blue tie and a smaller version of Cas’ trench coat over top of the whole thing. Sam had had a bit of a bitch fit that the only things Jack wore that represented him were a pair of moose slippers and a cheap Party City wig, but screw him; if he wanted to be a bigger part of the costume he should have been the one scouring the internet for a child’s size trench coat and matching flannels. Besides, it’s not like he was the one out here freezing his nuts off taking the kid door to door.

Tags: Short fic, ~1,100 words, Tooth-rotting Fluff, Child!Jack

For Suptober 2023 Day 31 - Trick or Treat

Under the cut or on Ao3

ETA: This is best read as a sequel to Pumpkin Patch, my fill for Day 2.

“Hold up, kiddo.” Dean snagged Jack as the kid zoomed circles around Dean, apparently still too excited to walk. He fiddled with one of Jack’s wings, which had started to droop, adjusting the brace he’d jury-rigged to support all three pairs of them. He fixed the collar of Jack’s tiny trench coat with a fond pat, then let him rush off again.

Jack had insisted on dressing ‘like his dads’ for Halloween. He wore a pair of jeans and a buttoned-up flannel that matched the one Dean wore, with a solid blue tie and a smaller version of Cas’ trench coat over top of it. Sam had had a bit of a bitch fit that the only things Jack wore that represented him were a pair of moose slippers and a cheap Party City wig, but screw him; if he wanted to be a bigger part of the costume he should have been the one scouring the internet for a child’s size trench coat and matching flannels. Besides, it’s not like he was the one out here freezing his nuts off taking the kid door to door.

The costume would have been weird enough, but Jack had also insisted on no less than three sets of feathered wings with paper ‘eyes’ that he’d colored the correct shade of blue himself, the closest they could come to representing Cas’ actual wings. He was also carrying two (hidden) plastic weapons that looked like eerily-accurate scale replicas of the demon knife and Cas’ angel blade, even though they’d started life as a couple of pirate-costume daggers.

Jack zoomed up to the next house and bounced excitedly on the top step, waiting for Dean to catch up and ring the doorbell.

Dean chuckled and took the steps two at a time.

“Trick or treat!” Jack yelled with enthusiasm as the door swung open.

The woman who answered the door dressed as a stereotypical witch, green skin and all, looked vaguely familiar. “Hi Jack, don’t you look... handsome,” She said with barely a pause as she held out a bowl of candy.

The voice was finally enough to place her and Dean shuffled awkwardly. What were the odds that Lydia lived on this random residential street that Dean had picked for candy-gathering purposes?

“What are you dressed as?” She asked, her tone surprisingly non-judgmental.

“I’m dressed like my dads!” Jack proclaimed, spinning around to make sure Lydia got the full effect. He pointed out each item he was wearing (minus the plastic weapons; thankfully they’d convinced Jack that not telling the whole truth was different than lying) telling Lydia which pieces represented which person. “And the coat and wings are for my Dad,” He finished proudly.

Dean caught Lydia’s confused look and shrugged. “I call him angel” He said, then gave Lydia his best ‘kids, what are ya gonna do?’ grin, which he’d had a chance to perfect over the half hour or so they’d been out here already.

“Oh,” Lydia said, playing along. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of angels with six wings before.”

“I’m dressed as a seraph,” Jack informed her solemnly.

“I see,” Lydia replied, just as solemnly as she squatted down to look Jack in the eye. “Seraphs have six wings, huh?”

Jack nodded, then corrected, “Seraphim have three pairs of wings covered in eyes.” He glanced over his shoulder with all the scathing disdain of an art critic and said, “It really doesn’t look anything like this, but we were forced to work in only three dimensions…”

Dean stiffened, ready to distract Lydia and move the conversation away from its current course, but she rolled with the weird turn with admirable calm. “That would limit your abilities to represent metaphysical forms, wouldn’t it?”

Jack beamed at her, eagerly telling her all about the problems he’d had getting the eyes just the right shade of blue without the presence of grace, and trying to find glue that would stick to the fake feathers, talking so fast Dean was barely able to keep up and he’d been there for all of it.

At least his motor mouth meant that all the weirdness was flying right over Lydia’s head. Just as Dean was about to have pity on her and try to nudge Jack to head to the next house, he heard the welcome sound of Baby pulling up behind them.

“Dad!” Jack shouted and shot off Lydia’s front porch like he was strapped to a rocket, arriving at the car just in time to open the driver’s door for Cas as Cas stared at him with a confused grin, their matching trench coats just as cute as Dean had thought they would be.

Dean turned back to thank Lydia, unable to wipe the sappy grin from his face. “Uh, thanks for that. You’re the first one who’s asked him questions like that, most of the parents just shove the candy at him and bolt.”

Lydia smiled. “No need to thank me, he’s a great kid. Any time you want to bring him with you to the bakery, he’s more than welcome…” She glanced over Dean’s shoulder with a wistful look. “I used to be a teacher, loved working with the kids, but…” She shook herself. “Well, baking pies pays the bills a lot better anyway, especially since you moved into town.” She held the candy dish out to Dean with a teasing smile.

“Oh, no, that’s okay, I don’t need…”

“Go on,” She said. “Jack forgot to take some. Why don’t you grab one for both of your angels?”

Despite how long he and Cas had been together, he still had to fight down a blush as he faked a pout. “What? None for your best customer?”

Lydia laughed and shoved the bowl at him again. “Oh, go ahead, you charmer.”

Dean took the offered candy and turned away with a little wave, grinning as he loped down the steps, heading over to Cas as Jack swooped up and down the sidewalk.

“Sorry I’m late, things took longer than expected.” Cas called, careful to obscure the fact that he’d been helping Sam and Eileen on a hunt.

Dean frowned in concern but, before he could even ask, Cas reassured, “Everyone’s fine, it was just more complicated than we thought.”

Cas folded Dean into the warmest hug ever, and Dean wasn’t sure if it was because they hadn’t seen each other in several days or because the weather had just gotten that cold.

Dean shivered a bit and Cas made a little noise before leaning back into the car and pulling out a thermos full of hot cocoa.

The tiny plastic mug transferred all the heat directly to Dean’s hands, biting at his frozen fingers and making him hiss, but the cocoa slid down his throat, warming him from the inside out.

“Marry me,” Dean groaned in appreciation for the warmth.

Cas smiled, one of his happiest, gummiest grins, as he brought his hand up to cradle Dean’s face, his ring a spot of cold on Dean’s cheek. He pulled Dean in for a kiss as he whispered, “Too late, I already did.”