#Lost In a Story AU

[pastelpaperplanes]

Arguing 3 hrs

Sparring 2 hrs

Traveling 1 hr

Passionately Snogging Sloppy Style 14 hrs

Sleeping 4 hrs

someone who is good at time management please help them properly schedule their days. this Quest is dying

template here!

[ladyddanger]

thinking about the events of the dsmp hundreds of years later being just a bunch of stories.

In a village nestled between tall pines children play Manberg Vs Pogtopia, the names of nations and reasons for war long forgotten as they hit each other with sticks and tackle their friends to warm summer grass.

When their mothers tuck them in that night they tell them stories of a snowy wasteland, so ancient it still holds the scars of long wars forgotten. They tell them of the wasteland’s inhabitant, the greatest warrior this world has ever seen. His name is lost to history but warriors still pray to him on the eve of battle and tie ravens feathers in their hair in his honor.

If the children misbehaved that day their mothers tell them a different story, one of a masked man who steals bad children and drowns them in the sea.

There’s a crater a few miles east of the village in the middle of the marshlands up by a glittering ocean. The crater is so deep that you can throw rocks off the edge and never hear them hit the bottom. Legend says that once upon a time the goddess of death had a son who walked this earth and when he died in her rage and grief she tore into the city that once stood there with her bare hands and ripped it from the earth leaving nothing but a crater behind.

On long sunny evenings in the inns that dot the coastline bards tell stories of a cursed city of gold and glass buried in the heart of a desert where it snows. They whisper the city is full of riches but nobody who looks for it ever comes back.

On stormy nights the Bards tell a different story, a story of a town that sits over a slumbering god. Strange things happen there. Red vines sport up over night. If you listen closely, the people say you can hear them talk. Everyone there has red eyes and cold cold hands.

If you start at dawn and ride in the opposite direction of the carter you can reach the vault before nightfall. The locals claim it used to hold a faceless god guarded by a king but time has weathered the vault’s defenses and the towns children dare each other inside its walls, running though the tight passages.

An old fairytale says if you follow a small barely visible path from the doors of a vault beyond you’ll reach a forest full of trees so overgrown they block the sun. The fairytale says if you walk to the heart of the forrest there’s a prince sleeping there, nestled in the flowers and weeds. The fairytale says his true love and his knights are long dead. The fairytale says he dreams the whole world in existence. The fairytale says a lot of things but nobody really believes it.

[feralmoonlight]

cowboys are ok I guess @castercassette

[amanitacurses]

First Meeting

[dead-girl-tells-stories]

A little while ago while hanging out at the manor for game night, Stephanie introduced the family to another one of her current favorite artist.

This was nothing unusual, Steph had a new favorite artist almost every other week. But this one was different. It wasn't just a single person but a group that called themselves ‘Team Phantom’.

Every song was different as every song was sang by a different person. So there was a song for everyone, including Jason.

He feel in love with the soft smooth voice of ‘The Sister’. Her songs were so dreamy and melancholic, and told stories that he often couldn't understand but made him feel like if he were there doing whatever she was doing. Feeling whatever she was feeling.

It was amazing. Her voice was just so beautiful. So calming. So additive, the way it calmed the pits. He didn't know why but every time her songs played it was like the pits disappeared. And so did ever constant green haze that haunted him.

The sense of clarity he was left with when one of her songs ended was like a fuckin high and he couldn't get enough.

Long after the game night he sought after her music. Her songs. Her voice. It was his medicine and his drug. His addiction. Which sucked because just like every other addiction, withdrawal was a BITCH.

It's been six months since ‘The Sister’ has released a new song. Since ANY of Team Phantom had released any new songs. And it was really suspicious considering how consistent their schedules were. But that was okay, kinda. Life was life and maybe something happened. He'll just listen to her old songs on repeat like he's been doing for the last six months.

Is what he said until they posted a new video to their channel.

It wasn't the 3 to 4 minute animated or stagnant image music video he was uses to. Instead, it was a dark shaking video, as if someone was running. Then bright teal eyes appeared on the screen. Everything stopped for a moment. Then came the still soft and smooth but now trembling voice of ‘The Sister’.

She uttered a single word.

“Help.”

Before it ended and turned black.

It could honestly just be a prank. But something told him other wise.

Before he even decided what course of action he was going to take. A message came in through the family group chat. And from the Demon child no less.

‘We need to help Team Phantom. NOW!!!!!’

Everyone agreed.

And Jason felt very validated that he wasn't the only one secretly addicted to their music.

Now it's time to save Team Phantom.

[kingkrakie]

it's an au of some sort 🤩🤩 (I'll figure it out) pt. 1

[slylock-syl]

Oh dear-

Lost Soul: Sweetie >Pages 27 - 28<

>Previous >Next (Saturday!)

Ko-fi | Etsy | U/S Official Discord (15+)

[xskyll]

Curious how many people guessed this. I know the answer is at least one! Prev / Next

First

[boxofoxberry]

important origins!petra update!!! wanted to try and make her more blaze-like without altering her design too bad (due to lore reasons) so i was like. just make her go more blaze-like in certain conditions. so BAM

[wheeble2252]

Smthing I worked on in early May, right around when my carpal tunnel decided to make itself known again

Unrealistic blood and injury

[ottoslab]

AUGH. Get old

[smalltimidbean]

I am apparently having one of those weeks when I am drawing something, but it turns into something else dfgdf

Any way, Werewolf Peppino, bc I was thinking about him and the other beastpinos earlier - might draw them later hehe

[amanitacurses]

Names

1 2 3

[inumbrapugnabimus-maybe]

Making decisions after 2 am is a great idea *posts all of my oc art with no context*

[angeart]

……Mumbo and Grian Boatem Circus AU Please please please I needddd…..

yesss! time to talk about boatem circus mumbo and grian!

(1,8k words long ramble ahead)

mumbo’s grown used to the circus by the time grian comes along, but he’s still never set foot on stage during performances. he might’ve teleported a couple of times by himself, a nervous wreck each time, recognising how off it feels to him—something that should be natural and normal, like breathing, now feeling vile and threatening. and yet the urge is still there whenever his anxiety rises, and below it, a quiet, much gentler instinct that tells him that teleporting ought to belong to him.

when grian comes to the circus, he’s a traumatised, scared little heap of feathers. 

mumbo doesn’t know where he came from, or what his past was like, or what he’s afraid of. all he knows is that as a boatem circus member, he’s meant to do his best to help, and grian deserves to be protected until he re-learns the feeling of safety, just like mumbo had before.

once grian isn’t so afraid of any new person approaching him, mumbo comes to nervously ask him if… he’d like some new clothes maybe? he’s been making stage clothes for the others, and fixing up their daily clothes. he got  better at estimating the right sizes, and he has experience making avian stuff too, thanks to jimmy!

so even though he’s not entirely confident he could do this right, without coming all up in grian’s space and taking proper measurements, he offers anyway, willing to try to wing it. to give him something new, something solely his, removed from whatever he's been through. 

unlike all the others who asked for fancy things, grian… just wants something soft and baggy. something to cushion him and protect his skin and hide him a little bit.

it’s a challenge, but mumbo tries hard and… he ends up making him a soft woolen sweater, only slightly oversized.

it’s red, like grian’s wings. he isn’t sure if that’s okay, but grian didn’t ask for any specific colour, and— mumbo noticed that when grian first came in, underneath the borrowed jacket from scar that swallowed up his small, hunched frame, he had tight fitting black clothes. he thought maybe something brighter would be better, then.

grian wears the sweater constantly.

and once grian starts getting out more and interacting with the crew, mumbo notices that he seems to gravitate towards him. that he seeks out his (and scar’s) presence above all else, a bit like a lost puppy, still scared, but choosing the two of them to attach himself to.

mumbo doesn’t know why he was chosen. he doesn’t feel entirely competent. but he does like the little avian, and wants to see who he could be, once he learns that this place can truly be safe for him.

he does ask, at some point, nervously curious. why grian seeks him out in particular?

grian tells him it’s because he seems harmless. (because mumbo’s endearingly nervous behaviour feels much safer than the cheer and overbearing friendliness of others. and because he’s pretty sure mumbo couldn’t hurt a fly.) and then, quieter, he says that mumbo doesn’t seem like someone who’d put people in cages.

because that’s a quality that’s decisive for grian, at a time when he’s quiet and timid and still shaken.

mumbo looks back at him with concern and softness and also kind of horrified, and he agrees quietly that no, he wouldn’t. (he was caged, once. and he was trapped before that, for a long time. he’d never wish that on someone else.) 

he doesn’t know what other triggers grian has, or what upsets him. they don’t talk about what they’ve been through. he sees his panic rise up several times, scar always swooping in to take grian away when he blindly flinches from everyone else, but mumbo doesn’t understand what causes it. all he knows to do is to protect grian from feeling trapped.

they hang out together a lot, mumbo also liking the feeling of freedom instead of staying cooped up in his room. they roam the camp, but also explore further area, whether around their home base or on their travels when the circus is on the move. 

once, they find a nice serene lake. which is a big pool of water, and that makes mumbo nervous. he makes sure grian knows water hurts him (grian knows this already, because of rainy days), and grian makes sure when he playfully splashes the water, it’s far, far from the reach of mumbo. 

it still makes him squeal, and it still makes grian laugh, but mumbo is finding that he is being kept safe here. that someone is looking out for him. that grian is being playful, not malicious. and that maybe, just maybe, he’s helping mumbo face his fear in a controlled, small way.

(the first time grian splashes water, on the other end of the lake, mumbo jolts and teleports. on nothing but startled instinct. and he promptly becomes nauseous.) (but it gets better over time, and he does want to challenge himself here. he does want grian to challenge him, to help him overcome a part of him he’s been running away from.) (and oh, grian looks so calm gliding over water, much more than anywhere else.) 

there’s a time when grian goes to look for mumbo in a storm. it came unexpectedly, and mumbo was out on a walk or gathering herbs or something—grian isn’t sure—and now it’s raining horribly. 

and rain hurts mumbo.

grian doesn’t let the wretched weather deter him. he goes through muddy terrain, clothes drenched, trying to follow a path that mumbo likes to take, until he finds him huddling in a cave. trapped by the storm, unable to leave or go back to camp. purple particles wild around him but with nowhere safe for him to teleport to.

grian sits down, forcing down the urge to shake his feathers, because he doesn’t want the stray drops to land on mumbo. he sits at a distance, not reaching out, his skin and clothes wet. but he is there.

he is there, and it counts.

he waits the storm out with mumbo, then guides him back home across mud and puddles and wet-slicked bark of trees. 

(and if mumbo mentions lighting a fire back in the cave to help grian dry off? and if grian goes dead silent at that, and then mumbo instantly rambles on about how they don’t even have the things needed to start the fire, and surely all the wood outside is wet anyway, and oh gosh, how silly of him… he never caught on to that plunge into silence and then tentative relief that grian felt in that moment.)

time passes, and mumbo recognises that grian feels purposeless. that he still feels a little lost. that he looks at the circus shows with a sort of confused longing, scared to take that step to bring himself closer to them and to everyone else.

he has no idea that grian was in a circus before. he has no idea how horrible it was.

but grian sees what scar has made here, and everyone is always so eager to perform and so happy afterwards, and… and maybe he could—

he wants to be a part of it, but he’s terrified.

(he also feels like it’s maybe something he should do—is supposed to do—no matter how many times scar tells him otherwise, reassuring him that it’s all up to him. there’s a nagging feeling in the back of grian’s mind that he’s expected, sooner or later, to do his part and participate in the shows.) 

mumbo wants to help him. he wants to help him give this thing a try, even though he himself has been avoiding it this whole time, and… and maybe they could do it together?

it’s mumbo who coaxes grian on stage. [art here]

he does so by starting to participate in the shows himself. just a little bit, the tiniest bit. he goes out there, and he does tricks that involve him teleporting. he starts small. (he’s healing through this.) and, eventually, he tells grian it’s okay. he tells him he’ll be there with him. he’s doing all this just so he can be there with grian, to put him at ease.

every time mumbo’s bit is over, he keeps watching from the back, eyes on grian. (protective mumbo!! <3) because grian isn’t okay and. he really needs it. he needs mumbo there, watching, ready to step in the moment grian might need him. because sometimes it all still feels too overwhelming. because sometimes the anxiety and fears and memories hit like a freight train out of nowhere and he needs a fast way out.

there are times when mumbo sweeps in and takes grian and teleports with him back to the safety of the backstage. they make it seem intentional. others work and improvise around it. it’s a little bit clumsy, but it works.

and it means everything.

on stage, they can’t show their full emotions, so mumbo is really looking out for the smallest hints. and the moment they are backstage and grian slumps into him, sobbing? he knows he did the right thing.

of course there are times when mumbo isn’t sure. and times when he does this when grian doesn’t need him to. but more often than not he’s right, and it makes all the difference.

the others never mind. they’re glad he’s there for grian, doing this! they always balance between giving grian space afterwards and checking up on him. but mumbo’s always that first line. that link to immediate safety.

gradually, mumbo becomes less nauseous and disoriented when teleporting, and grian becomes more assured on stage, doing flight acrobatics without hoops and without fire and with a support of a wonderful crew, playing off of each other in a way that even starts to be fun. it’s wonderful to see! he’s growing to be pesky and clingy, and… and he still has panic attacks that seemingly come from nowhere. and he’s still antsy around some people for some reason. and he's still nervous before each show. and he’s still not okay.

but he’s getting there.

him and mumbo both are getting there.

… and then the fire happens <3

please think about how readily mumbo teleports to help and save the people he grew to desperately care about. because it’s one thing for mumbo to teleport in the safety of the circus tent, when he knows all the variables and isn’t in any danger. but now he’s doing it when there’s active danger, panic set deep into his veins in a way that feels horribly close to his worst memories.

he’s teleporting to places that are painful and scary, and the lines are becoming blurred and he’s losing track a little bit. and yet he keeps going.

he has to keep going.

he teleports until exhaustion. which, isn’t that familiar? (and sure, his exhaustion point has been pushed somewhere else; he would’ve been able to keep going a lot longer in the past, before everything, but his stamina seems to be permanently damaged, always running on half-depleted.) 

and maybe it isn’t so obvious, when he’s in the overdrive to keep going, but it’s all going to catch up with him eventually. he’s not going to have a fun aftermath.

[thebubbleplush1]

Guys... Do you see the vision...

All we have to do I hope that the thinkingblocks mascot is blue so we can have Heathers but learningblocks >:]