#ah also the grian is from last year even if i posted it the other day lol

[solarockk]

they bring that "survivor of unimaginable manmade horrors" vibe to the table

[dangerously-human]

I was tagged by @alyss-mainwarning for a song shuffle game (I always enjoy these!). Putting in a separate post instead of reblogging because I'm old-fashioned, and I think it's just easier to navigate.

rules: shuffle your “on repeat” playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then tag 10 people

I think we're probably not surprised at this point that it's pretty much all stuff off Ghostbustin' With the Buds, right?

Fairlies - Grian Chatten: Contribution from @womaninwinter's sickos playlist and it's a great THB sound from LW's self-denial POV, especially "Do you miss the days before hope knocked on your door? But you went and fell in love, and into love you fell, and it made you feel unwell, oh well" (Ah. Ow.)

House a Habit - We Are the Guests: I can't remember whose playlist I got this off of, but wow, VERY Lucy leaving vibes, especially the way the narration goes back and forth between the man and woman singing in the second verse. But seriously, this is just painfully on the nose, with lines like "I don't know if I should stay or should I go, he told me this house would always be our home… Everyone tells me to just stay the same, but it's not like that, no it's not like that, oh, tell me someone's out there listening to me 'cause I wanna know that like I wanna know you, oh, stay with me… Everyone tells me you're fine, don't be in love, let's make this house a habit… Oh please don't imagine a life without me, at least not yet, this house is a habit and it's lovely to live in it… This head is a hospital, someone please tend to it" (!!!)

Waking Up - We the Kingdom: I've talked about this one before multiple times, the victorious declaration of returning from the Other Side ("I am alive in the land of the living") as well as something that captures my own healing after the depression years.

Summerland - half•alive: Captures the temporary elation of the warmer months in a way I think vibes well with how Lucy describes that season for the Portland Row trio, the way it's the cycle of it all that even makes it meaningful, and the hope of it all in the ups and downs! "Whatever ain't golden now will only come back around." I'm particularly attached to this for the unseen summer between TCS and TEG. (Also this has been stuck in my head for at least the last week.)

Hot Tea - half•alive: Freaking cute Locklyle vibes! Especially fitting considering all the waxing eloquent about the comforts of good hot tea in these books. "Hold you in my hands like hot tea, knowing I'm safe 'cause you want me," the adopted feral cat energy, it's perfect.

Tip Toes - half•alive: Okay well, I guess this answers the question of what artist is most represented in my L&Co playlist. 😆 (They're actually in second place for that distinction, it's just that I'm also new to their music and so least likely to skip.) This song is SO Lockwood coded, especially the way his desire to make his family name immortal can blur the lines into pride, even the misplaced sacrificial nature and the way he needs to frequently reassess his priorities as a leader. "I'm on my tiptoes, trying to see past my ego, reaching for something more than this feeling of being important, leaving my hear behind is bleeding, but still my pride is screaming, my future will listen to me, will I always know this divide, living most of this war inside, take the ghost of me with the tide to die and release my heart to come alive" - like!!!

Dancing in the Minefields - Andrew Peterson: Used very recently for fanfic title purposes (That's What the Promise Is For), this one just screams Locklyle, married young and facing life's challenges together and helping each other remember the light in the world when the dark closes in. Literally could quote the entire thing for them and struggled not to when I posted the fic, so to choose something I didn't put there, can we just all shriek about that third verse/bridge, especially "So there's nothing left to fear, so I'll walk with you in the shadowlands till the shadows disappear, 'cause he promised not to leave us and his promises are true, so in the face of all this chaos, baby I can dance with you," together?

still feel - half•alive: At any given time having exclamation point variety thoughts about these lyrics, especially as applied to Lockwood, or Kipps, or tbh just broadly across this series. "To realize the hand of life is reaching out, to rid me of my pride I call allegiance to myself… Oh I am not a slave, can't be contained, so pick me from the dark and pull me from the grave, 'cause I still feel alive, when it's hopeless, I start to notice, oh, and I still feel alive" I AM FEELING THINGS!!

Out of the Dark - Tritonal, EMME: I've had this one on repeat while driving a lot lately, it's a great sound, and also a very fun Locklyle song post-THB. Obviously "I know you're scared of diving deep, afraid of what's just out of reach… Sometimes the weight's too much to carry, when it gets heavy, feels like everything's falling apart, so unsteady, you'll be the light to get out of the dark" is delightful imagery for our beloved burdened ghostbusting duo, but also the dual meaning of "There's an end in sight, just hold on tight, you'll make it to the other side" is chef's kiss, they're going to make it to their hash-it-out conversation on the Other Side in TCS and also make it to the other side of the dark in terms of emotional context and setting. Obsessed.

Twenty Something - Nightly: I've already said a few times this is my best inspiration for writing introspective angst lately, used for a Fringe WIP in addition to being on repeat for the writing of Living With the Ghost of You, especially the Lockwood POV chapter. The lyrics are only right at a slant but the vibe is perfect.

I just did one of these so I'm not going to tag anyone this round, but if you happen across this and want to join in, please do say I tagged you!

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Separation AU Part 2!

@grant-likes-minecraft and @shadeswift99, this is for you! Part 2 of the Impulse/Skizz Separation AU, inspired by your posts earlier.

...

  When Doc had first shown Team ZIT his infinity portal, claiming it could take you to the place you most wanted to go, their initial reaction had been to laugh knowingly, because how could there be a place other than Hermitcraft where they would want to go? 

  But Impulse found he couldn’t stop thinking about this mysterious portal, so he returned to it the next morning and sat down in front of it, staring into the swirling pink vortex and wondering what would happen if he went through.

  His mind jumped guiltily back to someone whom he hadn’t thought about in several months. Would this portal take Impulse back to… to HIM? 

  It had been four and a half years since Impulse and Skizzleman had been separated. For a long time, Impulse’s heart had been split between Hermitcraft and his old friend, but lately, he had been pouring a hundred percent of his energy into his projects, and that wasn’t even including how busy he had been with Grian and Ren, protesting against Area 77. There was no time for nostalgia. 

  But now that all that was over, he had time. He could just sit here for a few hours, thinking and remembering. All the good times he had had with Skizzleman over the years. He had new best friends in Tango and Zedaph, of course. But did he love his life with them more than he missed his life with Skizzleman?

  After a long time, he came to the conclusion that if he stepped through this portal, it would likely take him back to Skizzleman. 

  So NOW the question was… did he want to do that? Did he want to leave Hermitcraft behind for this one-way trip back to the world he and Skizzleman had grown up in? Would his best friend even still be there, still waiting for him? 

  “Hey, Impulse!” 

  Impulse jerked so hard he nearly fell over. Glancing to his left, he spotted Zedaph coming towards him, hands in his pockets. “Oh, hey, Zed. How’s it going?”

  “Oh, not too bad.” Zedaph sat down beside his friend, giving him a sideways look. “You, on the other hand, look like you’ve been thinking a little too intensely for a little too long.”

  “I think I have,” Impulse sighed. “It’s this portal, man. Doc said it’ll take us to where we most want to go.”

  Zedaph’s gaze flickered from Impulse to the portal, then back again a few seconds later. He had been told long ago the story and circumstances of how Impulse had come to be on Hermitcraft, and it certainly didn’t take a genius to figure out what Impulse had been thinking about. “Are you gonna go through it?”

  Impulse’s lack of an immediate response worried Zedaph. “I don’t know, honestly. It could take me back to my best friend, which I never thought possible after I got summoned here, but… I’m still thinking about whether I want that or not.”

  “Ah.” Zedaph cleared his throat. “Well… for what it’s worth, I think you’ve got a good life here. Whatever might be waiting for you on the other side of that portal, is it worth giving up Hermitcraft for?”

  Impulse hesitated, his gaze fixed on the portal again. “I guess… I better think about this some more.” Realising how late it was getting, he rose to his feet and stretched his limbs. “I’m gonna go home and get some sleep. See you tomorrow, man.”

  Zedaph nodded back. “See you tomorrow.”

…

  “Zed, I’m… I’m a little scared,” Tango admitted to his best friend. “I saw the way Impulse was looking at that portal when Doc showed us the other day. I-I’m scared he’s gonna leave.”

  “Really?” Zedaph frowned. “Why?”

  “Because… Because it was my idea to summon him from his own world and bring him here. It was my fault he got ripped away from Skizzleman forever. What if he’s gonna take this opportunity to go back to him? What if… What if he wants to be with Skizz more than he wants to be here, on Hermitcraft, with us?”

  Zedaph hesitated, wondering whether or not to tell Tango what he had seen yesterday. 

  “I mean, I don’t regret bringing him here,” Tango added. “Not at all. These last few years have been some of the best of my life, and it only got better when you joined. I just… can’t help feeling guilty. And scared.”

  This helped Zedaph make up his mind. “Then… there’s something you should know.”

  He quickly told Tango about his encounter with Impulse at the portal.

  “...and then he went home,” he finished. “I’m really worried about him; it sounds like he was only a few seconds away from going through that portal yesterday.”

  Tango stared at him, another pang of guilt shooting through his heart. “He’s been on Hermitcraft nearly five years; isn’t he happy here? Would he really just leave us…?”

  “I don’t know,” Zedaph replied quietly. “I just think maybe you should talk to him, see if you can get a more accurate impression of his thoughts.”

  “Yeah, I think I will.” 

  Sure enough, later that night, Tango went round to Impulse’s base and knocked on the door. Receiving no reply, he entered and made his way quietly up to Impulse’s bedroom to check if his best friend was sleeping.

  But Impulse’s bedroom was empty. 

  Sighing, Tango went to the window and looked out, but saw no sign of his friend. As he turned away, he accidentally knocked the flower pot off the window ledge, causing it to roll almost under Impulse’s bed. He knelt down to pick it up but that was when he spotted something unusual underneath his friend’s bed. After putting the flowerpot back in place, he reached under and pulled it out.

  It was an unzipped duffle bag, with items Tango recognised as some of Impulse’s most precious possessions inside. 

  His heart stopped. 

  He… He really is going to leave…!

  Tears filled his eyes, but he quickly shoved the bag back under the bed and fled. 

…

  Unable to sleep, Impulse was back at the portal, his mind and heart aching with painful thoughts and feelings. Why didn’t he want to leave? Here was a way to finally be reunited with the person he loved most in the universe, and here he was, hesitating. Had things really changed that much in over four years?

  Yes, yes they had, he realised. He had grown as a person more here than he ever had in his world with Skizzleman. And that wasn’t his fault, right? In an environment where he was surrounded by close friends and his skills were challenged every day, it was only natural he would grow and change. He wasn’t the same Impulse who had been plucked from his world all those years ago, and he would be willing to bet Skizzleman wasn’t the same person who had watched his best friend disappear in front of his eyes. 

  It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t ask to be brought here. Maybe at first he had only stayed because he had known there was no way back, but he had settled here. Made a new life. 

  Hermitcraft was his home, and nothing would ever change that. 

  But Skizzleman was also his home. He had been Impulse’s home for far longer than Hermitcraft had been. 

  So where would this portal even take him…?

...and did he even want to find out?

…

  A few more months went by. The first few weeks after the introduction of the portal were the tensest ever in Team ZIT’s friendship, but as time went on, the portal became just another memory in the back of their minds. 

  All too soon, season 6 had ended and season 7 was upon them. At the first meeting on their new world, Tango couldn’t help sneaking glances at Impulse every now and then. He seemed happy, if a little preoccupied. A new world, a new life. 

  One without the infinity portal.

  Tango couldn’t shake his guilt. Of course he was relieved that Impulse hadn’t gone through the portal, but he couldn’t stop thinking about why. Why he hadn’t left when he had the chance. Surely that meant Impulse was happy here, right? He was happy on Hermitcraft. He was happy with Tango and Zedaph. 

  But it had been Tango’s idea to summon Impulse to Hermitcraft in the first place. The guilt had gnawed away at him for so long, only fading in the latter half of season three, when it became clear that Impulse was settling into his new life. Now it had been reignited. Would it have been better to let Impulse go? Was it selfish of him to keep Impulse here? WAS he the only thing keeping Impulse here?

  Not knowing was absolute torture.

  But as Team ZIT split off from the group to explore their new world together, Tango noticed how Impulse was chatting happily with Zedaph, even playfully shoving him into a bush. It was as if all thoughts of the infinity portal had simply vanished from his mind. 

  So Tango did his best to forget as well, and soon, he was able to relax and mess around with his best friends, the three of them laughing as they discussed their plans for the season. 

  But none of them would ever truly forget.

[pixelfun20]

Flower Fields: Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Notes: Again, all credit to @give-grian-rights (hope you don’t mind the tag!) for the concept! Thank you so much! Also almost forgot to post this on Tumblr rip.

No fighting wars, no ringing chimes

We're just feeling fine

Tubbo started out by building his starter base.

It was a concept he’d learned about while living with Xisuma, and it was quite a good one, too. After all, megabases worthy of Hermitcraft’s admittedly lofty standards often took months to build, and he’d need somewhere to live in the meantime. In Season 6, he’d neglected that fact, and had suffered his fair share of mob deaths before he put up four walls and a ceiling to protect himself, back when he’d left to live on his own. And that was with a small, quickly-thrown together base, not the project he was currently planning.

Still, even setting up the basics of his starter base took a few nearly sleepless days. Finally, the framework for the build, a treehouse spanning more than a few trees at the edge of the forest, was up, and Tubbo was finally able to place a bed down in safety and sleep for a solid fourteen hours straight.

Xisuma dropped by, quite literally, a day or so later.

Tubbo had been sitting in his quickly-expanding living room, sorting through the loot he’d gotten from yesterday’s day-long mining session when he swooped down through the half-finished roof. While he was still wearing his bee-themed armor, now there were two glider-like wings, shimmering purple, strapped to his back.

“Heya, X,” Tubbo greeted the admin with a wave, closing one of his chests. “You got elytra already?”

“Tango and I defeated the Ender Dragon yesterday,” Xisuma replied, touching down softly. Tubbo made an ‘ah’ sound, recalling the achievement he’d seen out of the corner of his eye the other day. Right; he’d forgotten about that. Trust X to be as efficient as possible and defeat one of the toughest monsters in the world just for the ease of travel.

“I’ll have to go endbusting soon, then,” he said, more to himself than X. Before the elder man could protest (ah, he was getting good at noticing when he was going to), he added: “Stress and xB have already asked me to go with them, so don’t worry , alright?”

“Good,” Xisuma sighed. “It’s never a good idea to go out on your own, especially since this’ll be your first time seriously exploring the End.”

Tubbo rolled his eyes good naturedly. To be fair, he hadn’t gone out to the End before it had been conquered before. He’d had a fair few trips last Season, mostly with X, but it was generally for the XP farm once it’d been set up. He’d never left the main island before. Now that he had considerably more freedom at the beginning of the Season, he was excited to go exploring.

“Anything bring you over?” He asked, changing the subject.

Xisuma nodded. “Yeah. A bunch of the others are getting together for some sort of wrestling tournament this weekend.”

“And I’ve been invited?!” He grinned, clapping his hands together.

“As the referee.”

“Ah,” he pouted. “Darn.”

“Don’t worry,” Xisuma chuckled, setting down a shulker box. “It can be a lot funner to watch sometimes; I’m just going to be part of the audience, too. I think Doc wanted you because he thinks he can bribe you.”

“He can not !”

Xisuma raised an eyebrow. “Area 77.”

“Oh, that’s not fair. I am completely unbiased!”

“And that was why you became their lawyer and not for all the cool experiments they had. I don’t think Cleo has forgiven you for defeating her in court.”

“No one can defeat Big Law,” Tubbo sniffed, faux-offended, and Xisuma laughed. “Well, I’ll show him!” He declared, crossing his arms. “I’ll just have to make sure he loses, then!” Xisuma blinked, and he laughed. “Kidding! Kidding!” Mostly .

“So you’re going?”

“Sure! It’s nice to see the Hermits all in one place, anyways. What’s in the shulker?”

Xisuma tilted his head teasingly. “What do you think? Someone had to get the supplies for our honey farm.”

Tubbo gaped. “You’re ready to build farms already?! Man, and I thought I was ahead of the game with just having my base halfway done.”

The armored man shrugged, looking about the partially completed build. “Well, you’ve certainly put more effort into this than me. Truly, your building skills are already improving. I love how you’re styling the roof with peaks like you are; it looks like it took a while.”

“My last house had a roof like that, too,” Tubbo reminded him, glancing up as well. It had become a tradition, of sorts, to build curved, peaked roofs onto his builds. Last season it had been one of the few things he’d built slowly to make look as good as possible. In all honesty, it was his own way of honoring the person who’d made it possible for him to come here, to have a life worth living once again. Rushing through the technique just felt disrespectful.

“Yes, but you’ve definitely gotten better.” Xisuma bent down over the shulker box, checking its contents. “Do you have any good ideas for where to make the bee farm? I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit too busy to scout out a good area.”

“Really? Then where’d you get these guys?”

“Tree farming in the desert.”

Tubbo snorted into his hand, and he could practically feel Xisuma’s embarrassment. “Well, you did say you hadn’t scouted out a good spot.”

“Indeed I did.”

“I can take a look around here and see what I can find. Meadows are supposed to be excellent places for farming bees, right?”

“Indeed it is,” Xisuma agreed. “Do you have plans for your megabase, yet?”

Tubbo nodded, grinning. “And trust me, it’s going to be awesome .”

............

Two days later, a chicken appeared in his base. Tubbo found it laying an egg in what was starting to become the base’s storage area, with one of his shirts nearly ripped to shreds in what appeared to be a makeshift nest.

There was a nametag wrapped around its leg. After some chicken wrangling and a few feathers to the face, he got a good look at it and realized there wasn’t a name written there, but a set of coordinates.

A set of coordinates rather far away, but who was he to turn down such an intriguing mystery?

With the chicken now renamed Wilbur and placed in a pen (he’d needed a chicken farm anyways), Tubbo set out that morning with a few supplies to find the spot he was looking for. After crossing a fair bit of forest and ocean, by the next day he’d found himself cutting his way through the underbrush of an overgrown jungle and wondering why in the world Stress had wanted to wait a week before going to get their elytra.

He pushed a few low-hanging vines out of the way, checking his communicator for the upteenth time. He was getting closer, now. This better be worth going out a few hundred chunks in the middle of nowhere—hey, wait a minute!

There was smoke in the distance. He could just make it out through the leaves, and now that he concentrated, he could smell it, too. Tubbo rushed forwards, pushing through the brush to see several man-made wooden pillars sticking out. As he pressed forwards, he made out a semi-stone floor, several chests, and a small fire in the middle, explaining the smoke.

“What is this?” He asked himself, looking around the place. The coordinates were right, and yet no one was here. Just this outpost in the middle of the jungle.

Tubbo walked around. There were some papers pinned to the wall, and a few dispensers lying around. Idly he pressed the buttons on them, already starting to form a plan to enact revenge on whoever made him travel over a day to get this place.

He pressed the button on the dispenser in the middle of the build and nearly got an arrow to the face.

Tubbo yelped, his reflexes, honed from a half year of training, the only thing saving him from a sudden death. A bell rang behind him, but it took him a few more moments to calm his racing heart.

“Not funny! You nearly took my head off!” He shouted to the jungle. Still, he didn’t leave, instead turning to the bell the arrow had his, examining it. Huh.

There were some cookies in one of the chests, probably left behind by whoever had actually built the place. He nibbled on it, only half hungry, as he tried to examine the place better.

“HERMIT CHALLENGES!”

Tubbo shrieked , dropping the remains of his cookie as the voice rang through the forest air. He looked around, trying to find the source, but found that he couldn’t.

“INITIATION!”

A diamond-clad figure dropped out of the vines above, landing with a firm thud on one of the ground dispensers. He nearly lost his balance before righting himself with a huff.

“Mumbo!” Tubbo exclaimed, a little annoyed but mostly impressed.

“INITIATION!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. “HERMIT CHALLENGES! YOU ARE BEING INDUCTED.”

“How long have you been up there?! It took me over a day to get here.”

“No matter, Mr. Tubbo! Congratulations! You’re in!”

“...Thanks?”

“Of course, my friend! You have been inducted into Hermit Challenges! Of course, you could have eaten the entire cookie—” he glanced down at the crumbs at Tubbo’s feet. “But besides that you have acted perfectly.”

“Wait, what is Hermit Challenges?” Tubbo asked, blinking. What? This version of Mumbo was almost nothing like the Mumbo he’d seen at Spawn a mere week and a half ago. Who used chickens to deliver messages? Or perch in a tree for supposed hours on end?

Okay, he had to admit, that last one was pretty funny.

“Oh, it’s a game I’ve made up,” Mumbo continued. “Iskall and I have already had a go at it, and I figured I’d invite you next.”

“...Alright, then. How do I play?”

“It’s simple! Write down three challenges and put them in the dispenser. Then we’ll pick one at random from each other.”

Mumbo reached into one of the chests on the ground, taking out a sheath of paper and passing three to him with a pen. Tubbo looked at him, and Mumbo grinned.

“Go on! I’m sure you’ll have something fun in that head of yours.”

Ah, he was right. Tubbo gave in with a smile, leaning back and thinking briefly about what he wanted to challenge Mumbo. A few ideas came to mind, and he quickly scribbled them down, pushing them into one of the two dispensers on the side of the small build, Mumbo doing the same.

“Alright, then!” Mumbo announced with a smile. “You go first.”

Tubbo stepped towards Mumbo’s dispenser and clicked the button, causing a slip of paper to slide out. He unrolled it, then read it out loud.

“‘Steal everyone’s front doors for the rest of the season.’ What? The whole season?!”

Mumbo laughed. “Oh, that one! Man, you got the hardest one from me!”

“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what you’ll get from me.”

“We’ll see,” Mumbo said with a chuckle.  He moved across the platform, and pressed the button the dispenser Tubbo had put his challenges in. The dispenser whirred, and then another slip of paper popped out. Mambo picked it up and read off of it, face contorting as he did so. “...‘Act like you don’t believe in the moon for the next two weeks, and claim the sky is a hologram put up by the SCA (Secret Chickens Agency) to keep us from seeing the real overlords- the sky chickens.’ What?”

Tubbo snickered at that, covering his mouth with one hand. Oh, he was proud of that one.

“No, seriously, this is awfully specific.”

“What? It’s funny!”

“Funny for you!” But Mumbo was smiling, and Tubbo grinned back at him.

“I’m going to be having a fun few weeks,” he giggled.

“So am I,” Mumbo agreed with a raised eyebrow, tucking the slip of paper away. He clapped Tubbo’s shoulder. “I suppose I’ll have to make up a good story to go with this prompt.”

“And I have some doors to steal!” Tubbo laughed.

“Whoever gets the first complaint in chat wins?”

“You’re on!”