#ah well it's all happy now!

[shadedheart138]

Too Much Thinking Is Bad For My Health (Part 3)

"Time, c'mon. Let's try 'nd make it t' th' spring." Twilight said gently, cradling Warriors so very gently to his chest. A hand behind his head, as if trying to shield him from the world. Time looked over at Warriors. His poor, poor brother. The man who raised him. More than The Great Deku Tree did anyway. Forget his father being a tree, his father was Warriors, more than anything.

"Twilight, we'll... we'll never make it." Time's voice cracked, and his eyes teared again. How could he have let this happen? Again, his thoughts were spiraling, repeating themselves. How could he have fixed this? When did he let it get so bad? After all this, was this how his brother died? Cradled in someone's hands, like a delicate scrap of flower? Did-

Warriors' chest gave an odd heave, the sign that his heart was trying to quit on him again. Twilight jumped. "Time, the fairy-"

Time's hands were already grabbing for the fairy bag, carefully taking out the last one.

Time's hand brushed something, as he lifted her from the bag and released her from her bottle.

The-

Oh.

His ocarina.

Time pulled it out of the bag, staring at it with wide eyes. The last time he'd used it was... was Termina. Time travel, those three days. Over and over and over. Those people that didn't remember him, oh how little he was. Tiny. Playing with time like a toy, until he realized just how important it was to stop the moon from falling. Frantically running through temples, trying to get to the final chamber before the final day. Over and over, those days. Repeating and doing the same thing. Mikau. Anju and Kafei. Darmani. Kamaro. Gone, lost to time and Termina. He'd never see them again.

What if he playing the song now? Would this cycle repeat too? Of him seeing his brother die over and over and over and see him collapse and convulse and seize and cry in his sleep and then never move again? Would he have to witness Wind's sobs and cries and pleas over and over and over until his voice died? Wild's guilt, Sky's fear, Twilight's remorse? Legend's buried horror and sorrow, Hyrule's hopelessness, Four's despair? See all of them go through it all over and over and over and over until he collapsed till the moon fell till everyone died and no one could be saved and he couldn't bring the ocarina to his lips anymore and had no more air to breathe-

"Time! Breathe!"

Twilight had set Warriors down gently in a patch of grass, and was currently gripping Time by a shoulder. "Set the ocarina down, unless you fancy smashin' it by grippin' it so hard. Take a couple breaths, Old man." Time's hands shook, and his chest heaved as he took panicked breaths. "The ocarina." He said, voice barely heard through the wavering tone and lack of air.

"The what?" Twilight asked gently, trying to figure out why Time had suddenly panicked as soon as his fingers had wrapped around his instrument.

"The ocarina. I can save him. I can. The Song of Time. Three days. I can-"

"You can take a breath, and talk to me, Time. You're spoutin' a whole lotta gibberish. I don't speak gibberish." Twilight had crossed his arms, but his face was worried.

"You said you can save him. How? What will it cost?" What would it cost? No one would remember the panic, the fear, the hurt. Only Time. Only Link, who was too young in body and too old in soul, would remember. Three more days to add to the never ending tally. But Link would remember. He'd remember the screams of horror, the sound of Wind's knees hitting the ground. The sound of his sobs and wails as he watched Warriors die. He'd remember Legend's quiet crying, into the hat that Warriors had stitched up for him so many times. He'd remember Hyrule wearing himself to magic exhaustion in the effort to try and ease his brother's pain. To heal it. He'd remember Wild's frantic guilt, as he wondered if he'd suddenly been the cause of all this. He'd remember Sky's shaking voice, as he tried to soothe. He'd remember Twilight's hiccups and shudders as he held onto Warriors' hand through a watch. He'd remember Four's erratic shouting, as they seemed to fall apart from the inside out.

Link would remember when others wouldn't. Oh, how he'd remember.

"Just a little air. Then we'll go back three days and this would've never happened." Time lied easily, getting up. Twilight visibly brightened. This seemed like a cure-all, though mildly sketchy. Anything to try and save Warriors.

Time lifted the ocarina to his lips, hands shaking, and began to play.

XXX

The moon was falling was the moon falling where were the masks he needed did he lose one no where's the deity mask I need that to fight which was next what to I do where's Saria WHY WON'T IT COME OFF NAVI HELP HELP HELP TATL COME BACK-

"LINK!"

Warriors' voice.

Time had suddenly scrambled away from the fire, eyes wide. He'd tossed his ocarina across the camp, to where it skittered to be near Sky. Sky picked it up gently and started to clean the dirt off of it, frowning. Time had then proceeded to curl up in a ball, grip his hair, and scream.

"Sprite, Link, come on. Talk to me, please. What happened? Are you hurt?"

Warriors' voice was frantic but he was there and he was okay and he wasn't pale yeah he was still painfully thin but he was there and he was okay and he wasn't dead or dying or-

"Link, please. Breathe." Time's chest heaved, whines and gasps leaving him. Warriors held him tight. This sudden breakdown... what could've happened to make Time break so thoroughly?

"No no no no no no no the moon is falling where's the moon what day is it one two or three where's Tatl? Please, I don't want to go back to Termina-" He was speaking aloud. Warriors increased the pressure of his hold.

"Link, look. See?" He pointed between the trees. "The moon is right there, nice and far away. A crescent, tonight." Time looked up.

There it was, the moon. No evil grin. No Majora. No numbered days.

Time took a steadier breath.

"There you go. Can I ask what set this off?" Warriors' voice was gentle, a hand cradling Time to his neck, like he'd do when Time was little. Fresh out of Termina. Time shuddered with a sob, crying instead of screaming. His hands came to latch onto Warriors' clothes- Warriors, alive and not well, but alive. Heart beating steady.

"You died." Time sobbed quietly.

"I-... Link, I'm not dead. I'm not dying any time soon. What brought this on-"

"You died so many times. Over and over and over and there weren't enough fairies to get us to Ordona's spring. Poison, Wars. You poisoned yourself and you died." Time shuddered again, tears pouring down his face.

Warriors froze. Poison. How did Time know?

"How did-"

"The Song of Time. Three days. I moved back three days. We were having chili that night. Then you didn't eat and so Wild made you snacks but you didn't eat and on your watch I surprised you so it was my fault you poisoned yourself and died-"

"Slow down, Sprite. Slow-"

"And everyone was screaming and crying and we couldn't save you and so I-" "Mask."

Time froze, hiccupping and crying. The camp was quiet.

"You used the Song of Time?"

Time nodded, gripping the back of Warriors' shirt hard enough it was ripping holes.

"I... I died?"

Another nod, another sob.

Warriors just held Time for a moment, thinking to himself. He'd died, huh. Funny how it was something he was so paranoid of dying to.

"Warriors." Wind's voice was quiet, as he came by. Wars looked up. Wind was holding out a blanket with worry evident on his face.

"Thanks, Sailor. We'll be fine."

Wind frowned, but he turned away to leave them be. Warriors looked back down at Time, still crying and clinging to him.

"Dad." Time's voice was small. Full of fear.

Time had only called Warriors dad exactly three times, when he was Mask. Once when he was so sick that he couldn't even open his eyes; he'd called for Warriors to read him a story book. Once when he'd gotten an an arrow through his side and was convinced he was going to die.

And once again, as he held Warriors' hand so tight and was transported home.

"Shhhhhhh. It's alright." Oh Hylia, Warriors couldn't do this.

"I don't want you to die again, please don't let this be another cycle-"

"It won't be. In the morning, we can have a nice long chat about this, okay? About the poison problem, I mean. It's probably high time I talk to someone about this." Artemis had told him that for years.

Time rubbed his eyes, and tried sitting up, realizing just how ridiculous he probably looked. Crying into Warriors' shoulder. Wasn't he supposed to be the leader? Strong and mighty and unshakable? He had an apology ready on his tongue when Warriors pulled him back in.

"Sit your ass back down, Link." Time sat back down, tears still pouring no matter how fast he rubbed his eyes. Ridiculous. He was (somewhere) in his thirties, why was he crying? The crisis had been averted. Warriors wasn't dead.

But he had been.

Warriors cradled Time as close as he could, given the height difference.

"I'm sorry, Link. We'll have a talk in the morning, okay? For now, get some sleep."

Time closed his eyes, and relaxed into Warriors' hold. He slept through the night. There would need to be a big, long talk in the morning, but for now, they were okay. And they'd be okay.

fin.

@rrainydaydreams and @rebornofstars IT'S DONE RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[youling-the-ghost]

GUYS WE FINALLY HAVE SFTH LONGFORM CHARACTER TAGS ON AO3!! :D

(we still don't have any canon relationship tags as far as I know but this is still pretty cool!)

[skitskatdacat63]

"The Boy With The Thorn in His Side"(x) - The Smiths × 2023 Strollonso moments + pundits' reactions

[alicelufenia]

Testing new ways to recruit Minthara in Patch 6 - Part 2 (KO without being temporarily hostile)

The first part of this series taught me a lot about the changes to Minthara's recruitment conditions. I was fully expecting it to simply be easier to keep her temporarily hostile, but now that we know that any knock out condition will suffice

This means it's now possibly easier to recruit her than ever before.

For this next test I tried fighting her the old fashioned way, how lots of people may have done it and how I had hoped it would work from the start; talk to her at the goblin camp, reject her command to raid the grove, and knock her out as a result, regardless of whatever hostility level the game mechanics say.

What sentence will always start a fight? - "Hey, wanna fight?"

I even made sure they were able to hit the wardrum too, the bane of many an honor mode attempt at a Minthara recruitment.

And look at that, it still worked!

Also she didn't bug out this time, so inviting her to kill the guards together worked just fine.

One thing to note, if you do it her way of slaughtering your way out of the prison, you'll aggro the rest of the tower. You wanna sneak out the doors to the dock, and there's a path that will lead away from the tower. After returning to camp with Minthara and maybe even a long rest, the tower's aggro should reset.

LMAOOO

I'm glad I finally get to witness this special pairing. Ultimatum? Never heard of her.

THIS IS THE SECOND TIME HER CAMP CLOTHES GLITCHED OUT IN THE LEVEL UP SCREEN

Also it wouldn't be a Baldur's Gate 3 patch that introduced new and innovative bugs to our favorite spicy elf. Apparently this is what she says in lieu of whatever appropriate narrative reaction should have triggered. Spoilering this out cause I don't wanna drop big spoiler bombs on unsuspecting people.

Anyway, that's it. I get the feeling I may not have to do any more testing than this. The previous methods of knocking her out should still work, the game has just extended that courtesy to any time she is knocked out.

I still think it would be cool if she disappeared after being reduced to 0 hp during the grove battle, like in the Daughter of Lolth mod which people used prior to all this. I dunno I feel no companion should be completely missable in this game. Although, this means the two people most likely to recruit Minthara without looking anything up are now both people playing an evil route, and those playing a pacifist good guy tav who always tries to knock enemies out instead of killing them. I look forward to the first time someone finds her at Moonrise Towers and it comes as a complete surprise. But I should wrap this up now.

Final Verdict: Recruiting Minthara by KOing her by initiating a fight via dialogue at the Goblin Camp - WORKS!

[wisecrackingeric-2]

Here’s my first completely original piece for @serennedyweek , except I combined both day three and four: RE6 Reunion and Angst!!!!!!

Y’know that awkward moment when your boyfriend who you thought had been dead since 2004 shows up without explanation or an apology

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[nai418]

can. can i request philip. just philip enjoying flowering (which im pretty sure is his favorite) kinda like the vander doodle you made. i love your little doodles of the guards with all my heart

I remembered Way too late that Flowering was basically spring but what I drew isn’t really far off so anyway rrr

Phillip helping out with the garden for the season :^) Meeting a lil guy too

[averlym]

@remylong :

[lilowoof]

ngl gamers, I think I'm gonna inevitably lose to the hormones and depression in the near future XD

Can't bring myself to be active cause I'm using a lot of energy to not vent post all the time. But fuck it, into the tags I go!

[codecicle]

Congratulations on figuring out there are multiple people in your brain btw. I saw a while ago you posting about it being unsure so, YAY YOU FIGURED IT OUT!! LETSGOOOO!!! HELLO CHARLIE AND OTHER CODECICLE ALTERS!!!! YAAAYYYY!!!!!

FIGURED IT OUT!!! It really is crazy I didn't figure it out sooner, but I just assumed I was weird and didn't talk to anybody about it. Made a joke about it after multiple years of hiding it from everyone (and myself) and got told by multiple people "Hey yeah you're not normal go research stop feeling scared" and I did and now I'm friends with the people in my brain 🔥🔥 huge wins all around! LETSGOOO WOOOOOOOO CHEERING YAAAY!! Everyone rattling around up here says hi back!!!

[carcarrot]

this time last year i was probably sitting in the kitchen while my dad started making an early dinner of chicken bolognese trying not to get too nervous about the concert i'd be going to in a few hours

[sysig]

Bad time of it, all things considered (Patreon)

[skitskatdacat63]

Hey, do you remember that really homoerotic scene from Skyfall? No? That's okay, here's a Vettonso version of it :)

- explanation & w/o text:

Hi hello, finally my weird psychosexual relationship with Casino Royale has come to fruition. Yeah this is directly based off a scene from Skyfall, but I def envision the vibe as being more like Casino Royale hehe. I can't believe I made that inspo board for this AU almost 4 weeks ago, and then ended up drawing a four panel "comic" about it. Ahhhh proud of myself, a bit, a tad. I think this took 20+ hours across the span of a week? God. Anyways I digress! The AU!!

First of all, their Bond song would be "My Way of Life" by Frank Sinatra. It's so toxic, codependent and obsessive, I'm in love with it. And it really suits Fernando and his motivations and outlook in this AU. Basically, MI6(in the context of James Bond) in this AU is an analog for Ferrari. It picks theses guys up, tells them that they're Ferrari MI6's most special boy, chews them up, and then spits them out when they're finished extracting all their talent and skill and life force.

Much like with Ferrari, Seb in this AU replaces Fernando after Fernando loses favor and becomes undesirable. Now Seb is the new golden boy, and Fernando has turned to a life of crime! Fernando resents Seb for this of course, but also becomes obsessed with him and the idea of him , and how they are connected. It's weird to watch someone else basically go down your exact same path and unknowingly make all the same mistakes(buying into the mysticism of it all too much, being overly cocky, having naive beliefs and goals, etc.) He is caught between wanting to doom Seb even more but also wanting to "save" him, by corrupting him and convincing him to work together.

Basically: He's both a Bond girl and Bond villain.

Fernando is in such a weird place in this AU. I think he's just very dramatic. Seb is just casually living his best 007(005?) life, and Nando is watching him with binoculars, whispering to himself: "DOESN'T HE UNDERSTAND THAT WE ARE NARRATIVE FOILS!?" Yeah he hates Seb, but like the song lyrics say, their lives and dreams are inherently tied up together. He would feel lost without Seb, because Seb basically, unknowingly, destroyed and then took over his life. Maybe he'll feel satisifed if he manipulates Seb into going down the exact same path a bit better.

About the drawings themselves. Still can't believe this scene is a real thing that actually happened, insane to me. But in this AU, after the events of these drawings, Fernando definitely kicked all his henchman out of the room, and fucked Seb in the chair. And then against the wall. And then on the floor. Hey man, Seb is already looking mighty delicious with his unbuttoned attire and being tied up.

I think the general plot would be that Fernando keeps trying to seduce him to the dark side, and Seb keeps making him think it worked, only to escape at the end of the encounter. Leading Fernando to just come up with increasingly more violent and kinky traps. Seb goes along with it(read: enjoys it), leaving Fernando satisifed, only to somehow escape and wink and make kissy faces at Fernando in the process. (Fernando smoking cigarette in bed: "How do I make him stay. Sigh.")

I like to think though that Fernando does win in the end, by realizing, ah wait shit I do need to actually explain my motivations to Seb. And Seb is so worn down by his job, not Fernando, and how he's being treated, that he listens, really actually listens, and realizes Fernando does really have valid reasons. And then they become evil crime husbands yayyyy. Wow you thought this was a espionage AU? Well it is, but just not the outcome you'd expect.

[victorluvsalice]

-->And then it was Family Dinner Time! I had everyone head down to the kitchen (Victor and Smiler taking advantage of their teleports, while Alice super-speeded and Marm hovered), then Alice and Victor each grabbed a plate of turkey while Smiler had some plasma fruit and Marm sat at the table, just happy to be included. XD Everyone proceeded to have a lovely chat over supper, with Victor expressing his thankfulness to Smiler and Alice hers to Victor while one of the cats snoozed nearby. :) I do love it when I can coordinate some proper family time for this lot!

After two plasma fruits and some invigorating conversation, though, Smiler decided they wanted to go dance to their radio again – as everyone was pretty much done with the grand meal, I allowed this and sent Marm to play yet more chess while Alice and Victor shared a few final words over the last bites of their supper. Victor finished first and transportalated upstairs to have a shower and hit the sack, while Alice gobbled down the rest of hers werewolf-style and got put on plate-cleaning duty. I then checked in on Smiler and decided to have them check the latest video trends – which just so happened to include singing videos. An idea sparked in my mind, and I turned to their streaming drone –

And then realized “oh hey, there’s a battery upgrade on here I never finished.” So I had them start that first –

-->Only for them, and everyone else, to get interrupted by the house making spooky noises. *grumbles* I think that’s my least-liked part of living in a haunted house – the fact that every time it makes a noise, every Sim stops what they’re doing to freak out. You’d think they’d just get used to it after a while! *shakehead* Though I suppose I should check to see if any of them have the “Brave” trait – maybe that would help?

-->Anyway – once everyone was done having their “what was that??” moment, they all resumed their activities as per my directions. Alice cleaned up the plates, then let out a somber howl to reduce her Fury before heading to the barn to cut the amethyst she had on her into a spire so she could charge it and help her and Victor recover their energy sleeping even faster; Victor watched the fish in his and Alice’s bedroom for a bit before heading back to bed; and Marm went and took a nap on one of the front porch couches (I was like “sir, your charge need is BARELY DEPLETED”). And Smiler finished the battery upgrade on their drone before stowing it in their inventory –

And then flew into their party barn loft area to set up a recording of them singing some pop music on their big-ass karaoke machine! :D Because what the hell, I thought it was fun. :) I left them powering out the tunes while I peeked in on the others –

-->And found that Alice had once again decided showering in the rain was better than doing what I’d told her to do. I huffed and had her go back in and resume her spire…

And then promptly had to send her out again because her werewolf instincts were insisting she be outside, whoops. Which was fine, because as it turned out, shortly thereafter the house made MORE spooky noises, and everyone was knocked out of their current activities AGAIN. *rolls eyes* Once the freakouts were once again over, I had Alice go back to cutting her spire while sending Marm to play more chess (had to get him up to Logic level 3 for his aspiration) and Victor to start a new song on the piano (I’d had him scrap the old one because I was half-sure it was bugged). Smiler I just had end their video (I mean, when the house itself is commenting on your karaoke, it’s time to stop), then head back to their room to load it into the video editing station for, well, editing. XD They got through the initial edits and adding effects (while I tried and failed to have them do some last-minute “Being Thankful” with Victor to quickly fulfill that tradition – for some reason, they kept insisting they couldn’t teleport into the study in bat-form) –

And then Harvestfest ended, and with it, the playsession! I wrapped up with everyone having had at least a DECENT holiday (Victor, Alice, and Smiler all got “Awesome,” while poor Marm got “Over” because they could only fulfill two of the traditions – you’d think a Servo would just ignore the “Grand Meal” one because, well, SERVO, but nope! But he was happy enough to ignore the “Decorate” tradition because he’s Lazy, go fig), and Alice having successfully created her amethyst spire, getting up to level 4 of the Gemology skill in the process, nice. :) I put that on the grid to charge, sent her to bed, and left it there!

And that is that! Whew – long session to be sure, but a good one, I feel. :) Next time, we clean up the last of the mess left by those damn gnomes (who at least all ended up back in the greenhouse where I can easily move them back to where they should be), and get ready for another food sale, this time in good old Copperdale! See you then!

[thebirdandhersong]

I remember talking to a friend last week and saying that if I'm reading obsessively it either means I'm extremely happy or extremely in need of help. alas goodreads my good pal you have GOT to be kidding me

[sneakystorms]

Maybe I should've seen it coming with the weight placed on the concept of "desire" but i really wasn't expecting dungeon meshi to turn into a full on buddhist lecture