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lazytitans-world · 9 months ago

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My research findings on the production of Wish

Never have I seen a fan community do so much with so little than I have with Wish. And to start off, I want to say that you should watch the movie first before going into this and the Starboy fandom as I believe it to be important on forming your own opinion before moving on as I find most of the fandom to have a negative view of the movie, one I do not really share. I found Wish to be fine. I did not hate it, but I did not love it like I do other Disney animated films. But the many rewrites, drawings and animatics featuring character designs that did not make it far in production have become icons in this community inspired me to do a deep dive to see if I could find where in production these concepts died and why.

To save you a read, this production was a victim of simplicity. I feel that many concepts and story ideas were tossed away due to complicating the story, which was always going to focus on Asha trying to save the wishes of her fellow kingdom citizens with the help of a wishing star. I have read many articles and watched a few deleted scenes from the home release and here are my findings.

Starboy never got far in development as the book states that the team went down "a few blind alleys" that lead them to star having a human design for a period. This is probably the period in time where all the Starboy concept art came from and where a potential romantic subplot with Asha was kicked around. It was.

What did Starboy in was the team's choice to make them a shapeshifter as the team thought the character was way overpowered and thus the story lost a lot of dramatic tension (a choice I kind of agree with). It was here where the design team decided that Star needed an overhaul and brought the Story Development artists in and this is where Starboy died and plush Star was finalized.

There are no official storyboards that feature the Starboy designs.

At the start of Wish's production, Frozen 2 was entering it's final stage of production (this would be either late 2018 or early 2019) and was obviously the main focus for Disney animation not to mention projects like Raya and the Last Dragon, Strange World and Encanto were entering their mid development stages before the shutdown.

The effects of the global shutdown were not mentioned in the book, but I would not be shocked if production was affected by it.

Ariana DeBose has said that Wish did not need a love story as she said that,

“I think we live in a time where things are cyclical, right? And so, it’s good for variance and perspective. Not every female Disney character needs to have a go and ambition of simply finding a man to love her. There are more stories to tell.

"And especially in the world we live in today I think something like Wish, that has a broader outlook that talks about community, is just as important as talking about love. And there are so many different ways to love."

"You do see familiar love, love of friendship" in the movie, including the relationship between Asha and Star. Star and Asha have this beautiful connection with each other and so I think it’s good reminding people that not only we can tell different stories, we can also talk about love in different ways.”(source: Exclusive: Wish’s Ariana DeBose defends lack of romance in recent Disney movies (yahoo.com)) whether Ariana had any say on story or character development is unknown.

7. From what I read from the Art of Wish book, the story was always meant to be about Asha defying Magnifico to fight for the people of Rosas and their wishes.

8. As it pertains to "At All Costs", a song that many are saying was meant to be a love song between Asha and Star, in an article by Variety(Julia Michaels Wrote 'Wish' Theme Before the Script Even Existed (variety.com), it states that a love song was not in the film at the time of production and songwriter Julia Michaels "wanted to write a song that as a standalone sounded like a love song that could be played at weddings."

Michaels would go on to say, "How cool would it be if we wrote a song that if you listened to on its own, it sounds like a love song, it could be something you could play at your wedding, or be a lullaby to your kids, just something really beautiful, but when you watch the film, it’s the heroine and it’s the villain.” She continues, “You realize they’re coming about this both from various points, one from a very selfless standpoint and one from a selfish standpoint.”

9. In the same Variety article, it was revealed that for some time in 2020, no script existed for the movie, but Julia Michaels was asked to be the songwriter for the movie and that is where she pitched "This Wish" which would go on to be one of the first songs revealed for the movie.

10. the Variety article also had Jennifer Lee, head of Disney Animation and one of the writers on Wish, say that she wanted a song that showed "it felt like to hold someone’s wish in your hand. How do we viscerally understand that when you’re with them, you feel like you’re holding someone’s raison d’être?” that song would end it being "At All Costs"

11. September 9, 2022, D23 Expo in Anaheim California. This is where certain members of the public got a glimpse of the production of Wish. Jennifer Lee, writer and director Chris Buck, and co-director Fawn Veerasunthorn spoke about the movie and showed the first look of the finalized design of Star which ended up being the mute plush model that ended up in the movie. This means there was a 3-year gap where Starboy and the romance side plot were discussed then shelved.

It was also during this show where the public would learn that Ariana DeBuse would voice Asha and that Alan Tudyk, a staple of past Disney animated films, would have a featured role in the movie as Asha's pet goat Valentino, who would be able to talk thanks to Star's magic. It was also at that show where DuBose came out to sing "This Wish" but at the time the song was called "More for Us".

Magnifico was not revealed at the event but was teased as "one of the most formidable foes in Disney history" which is debatable to say the least.

12. 5 deleted scenes in total appear on the Wish digital and disc copies each introduced by head of story Mark Kennedy where he would describe why the scene got cut. One scene shows Amaya assisting Magnifico in his plan, tying into an early concept where she was a villain alongside him.

Another scene had Asha, Star (who in this scene could shape shift and talk) and Valentino try to sneak into Rosas before being spotted and chased by Amaya, once again acting antagonistic to Asha.

A scene had Magnifco gather the people of Rosas to demand Star be given to him, as he had never seen Star in this version, and Asha her friends try to distract him by having Valentino, who in this version had a more Steve Carell like voice, pretend to be Star while the real Star, who was voiced in this version and was designed as ball of light with eyes and mouth, was trying to free the captured wishes. This scene was changed because they wanted Magnifco to be more threatening and instead of asking the people for Star, he would capture Star. Kennedy would go on to say that they wanted Asha and Magnifico to be smart and that Asha would not do a plan that silly, and they wanted the climax to be Magnifico and Asha alone, so they set it on a platform high above Rosas.

The next scene featured an ally of Asha's named Flazino that was cut out in order to shrink her friend group and tied the group back to the seven dwarfs from Snow White.

Finally, there was a scene where Asha and her grandfather scaled a wishing tree with her grandfather Sabino that showcased their bond but also Sabino's insistence that Asha take down Magnifico.

Each of these scenes felt completely different to the movie that ended up being released.

13. It should be noted that Wish released only a short while after the 2023 Writers and Actors strikes, which meant that for most of the summer and fall of that year, the actors could not do any press for the movie and all marketing was done through ads, trailers and merchandise.

14. As revealed in an article for Disney twenty-three, a magazine for gold members of the Disney D23 Fanclub, in the early visual development stage, there was a test scene that Asha was briefly transported to the village from Pinocchio. This was done to see how the 3D character designs would match with the hand drawn, watercolor backgrounds of classic Disney movies.

15. In that same article, Chris Buck said that in regard to Magnifico's character development that they wanted the audience "to see the evolution of a villain, so he's not a monster from frame one". From what becomes of Magnifico I get what they tried to do, they wanted to show how a character falls into villainy even if they're intentions are good. It also stands with the modern writing style of Disney animation films trying to update classics, this time by having audiences start off by kind of liking the villain through their personality alone.

18. The article also briefly mentions that Star "went through many iterations" another hint of Starboy being considered as a final design.

19. In the Art of Wish book, there is a page that shows the script where Asha meets Star and Star is described as a "cuddly, 3D, five-pointed star." This would indicate that the Starboy concept never got to the scripting stages.

20. In Art of Wish, the reason why Star does not speak is because the film makers wanted to stick to a tenet of film making, show don't tell.

21. Star's face was inspired by the mask like face of early Mickey Mouse cartoons.

22. From all readings, it is safe to say that Asha was NEVER considered to be a princess in any of the iterations of the story as some writers felt it to be too safe of a choice and liked the idea of an ordinary citizen going against the established power of the king.

23. During production, the Disney CEO position changed twice as Bob Iger left the company in early 2020 and named Bob Chapek as his replacement before returning to the company in mid 2023. It is unknown if these changes had any effects of Wish's production as it was it stated development as Iger's first tenure was ending but took place during a majority of Chapek's time.

24. When Angelique Cabal, who voiced Amaya in Wish, first auditioned for the role the character in 2022 Amaya was written as a villain while Magnifico was supposed to be the good king. It was when she returned for the callback that Amaya was changed to what she ended up being in the movie. Source https://www.cinemablend.com/interviews/how-one-character-disney-wish-completely-changed-during-production

In closing, for fans of the Starboy concept, it saddens me to say that it looks the idea only made it as far as concept art as at the time of writing this, no animated sequences, scripts or storyboards have been released that had Star in a human design or discussed a romantic relationship with Asha. I believe the writing team found a romantic relationship between Star and Asha too complicated for the story and decided to simplify the relationship and design of Star to better suit the plot of Asha going against Magnifico. I am disappointed Wish did not go with the more interesting concepts but maybe down the line we'll get that cosmic Disney romance and a villain couple, it just has to work with the story.

I want to say thank you for those that made it to the end, this movie has been on my mind for quite a while and seeing all the re-writes, drawings and animations people have done for Starboy and Asha has been amazing to see. These works have inspired me to rewatch Wish at some point to see if Starboy could have worked in the movie with the story as is, and even share how I would have changed a few things in the story to fit the character and a romantic subplot with Asha plus an idea on how to bring in Starboy while still staying true to the established cannon.

I do hope others watch and enjoy Wish as from what I have read the team did put a lot of effort to makes this movie worthy of not only the high standards Disney animation has set, but as a piece of the 100-year story telling of the Walt Disney company. Film making is already hard enough as it is, especially in animation, but having to make a movie with an original concept and characters that still pays tribute to 100 years of storytelling is a daunting task and I understand and respect the choices they made when making the film and you should as well.

#disney #disney wish #asha x star #starboy #wish reimagined #wish rewrite #wish 2023 #wish #disney star

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traumaticemphaticfantastic · 3 months ago

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[Reposting this because I realized I got the formatting all wrong last time, much apologies I have been going through some stuff lately]

Back in March of 2023 and into earlier this year I was working on my character-design skills and decided to do (And continue my journey in now) a little sketching project wherein I draw various Jewish characters and creatures from Jewish folklore and biblical stories, I wanted to design them in the context of a cartoon or comic book (As that's the sort of style I obviously specialize in) with simpler less complicated designs. I'm going to be sharing here what I have so far and what I continue to make into the future, but I will be doing it in batches as to not overwhelm anybody.

Now, the characters I have today are part of a more traditional Judaism's biggest (Non-human) baddies, Lilith and her husband, Ashmedai, as well as two sketches of just regular demons. Lilith and Ashmedai are the king and queen of all demons in Jewish tradition, though "Demons" is probably not the best way to put it because Jewish demons are incredibly, *incredibly* different than they are in Christianity (Don't know enough about Islam or Jinn to have a take on their differences tho sry). In Judaism demons are usually written about as annoying little "Mazziks" or "Shedim" (They have lots of terms for them from what I understand), these little guys are invisible and have a tendency to cause you harm in various mischievous ways, they can purportedly also shapeshift into tangible mimics of humans and animals, this they will also use to cause you harm.

Demons are described as similar to angels but different in many other ways, they are not fallen angels and are in-fact their own class of similar entities which G-d intended to create (Though may have got too tired by Shabbat and left them unfinished without bodies).

The crazy thing about them too is that apparently they're *everywhere* like in the tens of thousands just in your immediate vicinity, so many that apparently a Rav by the name of Beivai bar Abaye managed to see the demons in their true form and quantity after performing a ritual involving rubbing the ashes of a black cat's afterbirth in his eyes and as a result he "Was harmed" (Don't worry though he was saved by The Sages through prayers for mercy). But don't worry! if you want an easier and less harmful way to see the demons all you have to do is spread regular old ashes around your bed and (Apparently) when you wake up you will see the demons' footprints which happen to look like those of a chickens.

There's a lot more about general demons that I won't get into here for your sake (For instance their strange affinity for bathrooms), but if you're interested in learning more I highly recommend Sefaria.org for further reading on subject, they provide very nice translations of very old and great Jewish texts and they're quite the read and not just concerning demonology!

Now as for Ashmedai and Lilith: Lilith was once Adam's first wife, but when she wanted to top Adam during sexual intercourse he basically said

"No Lilith, I'm the man I need to top you!" to which Lilith said "Forget this!" And said the divine name which granted her the ability to fly and flew all the way to a cave near the sea. Adam was mad about this so he asked G-d to retrieve his wife to which G-d sent three angels "Sanoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof" (Which as an aside, as hard as I try I CANNOT think about these names without thinking about them being spoken in the Doodlebob voice) who go to Lilith's cave and basically say "Go back to Eden girl" and Lilith's like "Naw, and just cause you said that I'm gonna start strangling human babies as their mothers give birth to them!" And the angels are like "Oh alright, BUT on one condition: If humans make amulets with our names inscribed on them, you won't be allowed to kill their babies" and Lilith basically says

"Cool." And so she was replaced with Eve, she became the queen of demons, and to this day she's been doing sinful stuff and giving birth to thousands of demon babies and killing human babies as well (She's also responsible for wet dreams cause she can enter your dreams apparently but don’t worry, there's an amulet for that too).

A little tidbit: the reason my version of Lilith is depicted as nude is because if she was the first woman before Eve and dipped before the eating of the fruit incident, logically she would know no shame and would have no need to clothe herself, it's why I draw all my demons as naked actually!

Ashmedal is Lilith's husband and the king of demons, he is said to have been enslaved by the great King Solomon and made to help build the First Temple of Israel after having his location doxxed via Solomon capturing and tormenting a pair of male and female demons into confession, all this to find a kind of stone-cutting masonry worm called a "Shamir" because Solomon was told the Temple should not be built with any tool. Within the same story it's also revealed that even the king of demons studies Torah both in heaven and on earth (As I said Jewish demon lore isn't at all like Christianity's) and in a lot of ways Ashmedai is actually a really good guy, he helps people onto the literal right path as to assure their place in the world to come, he cries at a wedding because he knows the bridegroom won't be alive much longer, surprisingly chill king of demons. Also King Solomon loves to get drunk and one of his men throw a clod of dirt at a rooster to get to the Shamir which is in its nest, this causes the rooster to strangle itself to death because it was just borrowing the Shamir from the angelic minister of the sea and felt immense shame in not being able to return it. But, this post is getting longgg and frankly the story of King Solomon of Ashmedai is absolutely BONKERS in the best kind of way, I cannot do it justice here PLEASE read the full thing on Sefaria I am begging you it is a masterpiece in Jewish writing.

Whew! That was quite fun to type out, and that's not even the half of it! Jewish demonology may not be as present within the modern world as it was in the ancient one, but it's certainly very amazing mythology and I absolutely love learning and reading about it because of how truly unique it is! Anyways, that will be all for today, may all of you who see this be well and may you avoid the demons’ mischief!

#art #jewish #judaism #jumblr #spooky art #spooky vibes #demons #demonology #folklore #Yes I do have uncensored images of the two demons #but I’m scared tumblr will smite me for posting them #tw nudity

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rainspicestudios · 4 months ago

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[DEVLOG] Phantasia Jam 2024 - Week 1

Hey everyone! A lot has happened since Phantasia Jam 2024 started a week (and four days) ago. I will try to update you guys every week!

I'm sure that the first question on your mind is:

What is Project Maselosia?

Project: Maselosia is a fantasy puzzle game where two shapeshifters try to escape a cult and go back to their normal lives.

The "Maselosia" part of this placeholder title is the name of the world/continent in which the story takes place. I'm not sure what the official title will be, just expect some variant of the word "gemstone" or "crystal" to be in it.

When can I play it?

According to the Jam rules, chapter one will be posted before October 31st. Like a lot of indie puzzle games, this story will be told in chapters that will be released one after the other as I finish them.

How much of it is done?

Let's break it down into categories:

Character Sprites- I'm done with the two main characters! I still need to draw their primary antagonist for chapter one, and an important NPC. These two will be drawn when I get to their scenes.

UI & Menus- I found fonts that fit well, but I haven't changed the textbox, quick menu, game menu, or main menu. I'm still trying to figure out a design for those, as I have a few concepts, but nothing matches my vision for the game.

Audio- I'm thrilled to report that I've found great music that can absolutely fit my vision! As well as good SFX. (I feel like I should also make a public playlist of all the music I'm listening to while writing the game. Would anyone be interested if I shared it?)

Puzzles and their assets- I've finished up to puzzle two, which is what at I am currently working on. (Chapter one will have three or four puzzles depending on the needs of the story.) I've found a shading style that isn't too complicated to draw, and looks okay for the game, so I will stick to it for this project.

Cutscenes- I'm still wondering if I should have animated cutscenes or not. That will be decided after I'm done with puzzle two.

Do you have any screenshots to show us?

Yes I do! How about one per devlog?

Final Thoughts

I will end with a few bullet points:

My asks are always open, whether you want to ask me a question, or ask a question to any game character from any of my projects.

Next week will be slow as I'll be traveling to see friends and family on the other side of the country. (I'll be moving around a lot in August/early September.)

I'm done with my internship, which means that while I have more time to work on games, I also have an internship report to write. This will not impact any game's release date, but something to keep in mind if I do not add much in next weeks' devlogs.

I feel like I have said everything. I hope you will enjoy reading these devlogs and will enjoy Project: Maselosia when it comes out!

Thank you so, so much for reading up to here and have a lovely day or night ✨

#visual novel #visual novel dev #game development #indie games #rainspice studios #indie dev #indie game #phantasia jam 2024 #game jam #game dev #dev log #devlog #indie developer

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call-me-double-trouble · 2 years ago

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I keep seeing bad takes and negativity about DT, and I have no desire to start beef with people or draw attention to individuals*, but seeing criticisms that are just so awful and lacking in nuance irritates me, so instead, I’m going to start combating it with DT positivity! Keep in mind, I’m not talking about criticisms that are valid, I’m talking about the silly stuff that’s clearly just someone trying to take the moral high ground just because they happen to dislike a character and you’re not allowed to just dislike things anymore, apparently. *(No, I will not be naming names, please don’t seek out or bully anyone. Let’s just celebrate why we love this character and ignore those who can’t enjoy them for one reason or another).

This will be a long post (an essay, it’s a freaking essay) because I want to go in-depth and explain my viewpoints. I’m not going to chastise someone for lack of nuance without practicing it myself.

Today, I will discuss why I think DT is good non-binary representation (not PERFECT, no rep is without flaw—things are allowed to be complicated). Keep in mind also that I am not non-binary myself, but I’m no stranger to the identity, and although I can’t speak on behalf of the community, I’ve seen some of the arguments for and against DT by enbies, and I think I can still add to this conversation.

I see two main arguments pop up most often. One is that since DT is a morally gray criminal that worked for the antagonists, they’re making enbies look like villains. In my opinion, this argument is pretty weak because it hinges on the idea that because one enby character wasn’t a perfect angel, this means all enbies are evil and bad. It stereotypes heavily and is a bad way of thinking—you should never judge a community based on how one person or character acts. I know that some works of fiction, especially in the past, have done this to uphold the discriminatory values of the time, but SPOP was made by queer people, for queer people. Clearly they weren’t trying to stereotype enbies as bad. DT is just an enby who happens to do bad things. Characters should have flaws, and that goes for queer and trans characters, too. It’s okay if you’d prefer an enby character to be firmly on the side of good—everyone has preferences! But DT not fitting yours doesn’t make them inherently bad rep.

The other argument is that since DT is inhuman, it portrays enbies as “other” or insinuates that DT is an enby BECAUSE they’re inhuman and/or a shapeshifter. This argument is stronger than the first, and I totally understand the need for human enby characters (we just need more enbies in fiction, period—more variation means more people sees themselves and less get mad over a character not fitting their exact experience). However, DT is far from the ONLY inhuman character in SPOP (they’re not even the only reptile), and the other inhuman characters of prominence aren’t non-binary, so there’s no link between gender and being inhuman in this world. There’s also no way of telling why DT identifies as non-binary. We have no idea if their shapeshifting played any part in that, either to them or those in charge of designing the character. I don’t think it’s ever implied that it did, especially because their choice to play characters who are men or women doesn’t impact their gender identity, but this point is more up to speculation.

I’d also like to add that plenty of enbies DO identify with inhuman characters. Some people (self included) would rather be an inhuman creature than a boring old human, and DT’s design is SO fun—especially the sideways blink and those adorable ears! (Side tangent, DT was made reptilian to resemble a chameleon because, y’know, shapeshifter. You can also see the influence from their original design. The original DT wore all green and had a long ponytail that, in some depictions, went down to their feet much like current DT’s actual tail).

With those arguments aside, let’s get into what makes DT so great (in my opinion)!

For starters, I’ve seen so many people say that seeing DT made them realize that they themselves were non-binary or validated their gender identity, and I think that’s a beautiful thing! DT may piss off some enbies, but they’re very important to others, and that shouldn’t be taken away just because they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. Obviously not everyone is going to relate to them, but once again, that’s why we just need more rep in general.

Secondly, DT helped people practice using they/them pronouns. I can attest to this myself! At the time, I didn’t have any friends who were non-binary, so I didn’t have a habit of using they/them pronouns except when someone’s gender was unknown. Of course, I supported enbies and their preferred pronouns, but slip-ups happen before you get used to thinking of someone as they/them, even if you’re supportive and accepting. DT, being fictional, is a great way to practice using them to get better at adjusting when you eventually do meet an enby. Not only does it sound completely natural to say, but you also get used to correcting mistakes when you make them. It gave me an immediate, “Wait, no, that’s the wrong pronoun, it’s they,” which came in handy when one of my friends wanted to explore their gender and experiment with they/them pronouns. I know some enbies may be rolling their eyes at this, but for allies, it’s important to build these habits to avoid misgendering someone, especially when you knew them by different pronouns previously. DT also gave me and others practice on correcting someone who made a mistake without making it sound like we were accusing them of doing it on purpose. DT, and other fictional enbies for that matter, are just great in general for getting people and kids used to enbies and the use of they/them pronouns.

Third, DT’s AGAB is a mystery! You can make arguments one way or another (voice points one way, original character and pronouns on storyboard point another), but we can never say for sure because they’re a shapeshifter! Is that their real voice? Who knows! Is that their exact appearance? Who’s to say! What’s in their pants? Anything they want, they’re a shapeshifter! They’re so wonderfully androgynous, too—A+ design. And on that note, I’ve also seen people happy that DT is an enby with LONG hair, since most enby characters have short hair, and it added some much needed variety. Honestly, DT is the epitome of “Everyone finds me hot and that makes everyone gay.” Gay men like them, lesbians like them—hell, even ACES like them! (Side note, my praise of their androgyny is not to put other enbies down, as enbies can look however they want, and that’s very cool and sexy of them. Real enbies don’t have to be androgynous, and not all fictitious enbies need to be, either. But I’ve read that when portraying trans and genderqueer people, especially as an ally, that it’s best not to describe or identify features that may point to an AGAB—even if it is known—as that can be considered disrespectful to their identity and may make real trans and non-binary people feel self-conscious about those traits. It’s a complicated issue, and there are right and wrong ways to go about it when portraying trans characters.)

Fourth, DT is never misgendered by any of the characters—not even by Shadow Weaver! Everyone is shown to treat being non-binary like it’s normal (because it is) and worthy of respect, just like any other gender. I also saw someone say that it shows kids that even if someone is your enemy or you don’t like them, you should still use their preferred pronouns, because you don’t have the right to misgender someone to hurt them.

Fifth, DT is a complex character. They’re not one-note, they’re a person who has their own motivations and drive, their own passions, interesting interactions with other characters that bring out more from the others, good humor, and a complicated relationship with good and bad and the ability to do both (sometimes even simultaneously). DT isn’t a good person, but they’re not entirely a bad one, either. They’re complicated. Their motivation isn’t to do bad things, it’s just to survive, get paid, and cause chaos while doing that. I can go more in-depth in another post, but the point is, they’re interesting, they have depth, and they’re well-written.

Sixth, they’re extremely plot-relevant. They’re very important and impactful to the story. Hardly anything in the fourth season would have been accomplished without them! They kept tension high and raised the stakes, making the story that much more compelling to the audience. Before I got my friends to watch SPOP, I wanted to tell them all about my favorite character, Double Trouble, but couldn’t find a single spoiler-free clip to show them! Seriously, try to find one. I’ll wait. Maybe their introduction, but even then, you’d be taking away the grand reveal that the suave-Scorpia wasn’t Scorpia at all, and it’s more fun to let that be a surprise. They had such a prominent role and have garnered so many fans, and that’s especially wonderful for a non-binary character. They weren’t a background character offhandedly mentioned to be non-binary, they were an important character that stole the show every time they were on screen.

Basically, Double Trouble is just a wonderful, complex character who had a positive impact on lots of enbies and allies. Not everyone likes them, and not everyone has to, but there’s nothing wrong with liking or identifying with them, and they shouldn’t be labeled as inherently bad rep when their existence did so much good for so many viewers. They don’t have to represent everyone to be good rep, and they certainly don’t, but those they DO represent shouldn’t be made to feel as if they’re betraying the non-binary community.

#double trouble #spop double trouble #she ra double trouble #long post #spop #my thoughts #mine

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mew-less · 1 year ago

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HELLO HELLO GARDEN AU QUESTION!!!

im curious about the origin of the name since its definitely not literal (unless im being stupid and dont remember something about our convo JANDSKFN)

if i AM mistaken i have another question - whats a weirdly specific detail that you put effort in even if no one notices? im sure most writers have that one small detail that never gets attention but is super important to them (this question could be about foreshadowing, design details, headcanons... whatever!)

as always love your au stuff <3 i may forget to reply or dont know how to respond but thats just because im too busy gobbling up all the lore and art to say anything BAHAHAHA

ARE U SERIOUS. TUMBLR CRASHED AND DELETED MY WHOLE ANSWER SO WERE SPEEDRUNNING THIS NOW.

Name origin

The Garden AU was initially named that because of Moominmamma’s garden, but more specifically this remastered version of the 90s song. When first listening to it, that’s when I came up with (one of) the main idea(s) of the au (which has kinda gotten lost as time has gone on, but will hopefully still remain relevant to the lore lol): “What if Moominmamma’s garden and the Moominhouse were kind of like safe havens for magical creatures? What if they were naturally drawn to it?”. This lead to me making Moominmamma and Moomintroll witches, the Snorks fairies, Sniff half dragon, and Snufkin the mysterious jackalope that he is, all eventually drawn to Moominvalley in their own way! (small fun fact about very VERY early versions of the AU: Snufkin was initially meant to be a shapeshifter, but it was quickly scrapped. i don’t think it fit his character the way i wanted it to lol)

Specific detail no one notices

i do know some ppl have noticed this detail (shoutout to those who have lol) but still… Snufkin’s legs are REALLYYYY fucked up actually, like from a realism standpoint i think lol? I’m not sure actually… i’ve just never seen any animal that has deer legs with paws instead of hooves… he ended up that way because he’s only half jackalope and I wanted to show the mumrik side with more details than just the more “human” face, so… paws! I know there’s some rlly old art i’ve posted on here that clearly shows them lol. He also has boots made for his weird little legs that he wears during those cold, snowy winters, but I don’t blame anyone for not knowing that bc I barely draw him with them!! waah!!!

(I really wanted to go into foreshadowing here but… i cant.. i CANT 😭 ITS JUST TOO COMPLICATED AND NOT EVERYONE EVEN KNOWS ABOUT THE PILLARS YET … someday tho… someday…)

thank u for the ask waaah!!!

#mew mews #feelo-fick ask #moomins garden au

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kitkat-of-doom · 8 months ago

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Omg thank you so much !!!!

So basically her girlfriend (not yet her girlfriend, it's a slow burn and Cass is pretty obvious about it while Kita has been Flirting™ for ages) was first her best friend, they met after Kita rescued her from an assassination attempt when they were 8. Kita basically grew up in the very poor side of the Capital and when they were 14 she got the opportunity to attend the academy school with Cass, she became a knight and since Cass is an illegitimate princess nobody really cared about letting her have a commoner knight as her personal guard, but the problem is that a war broke out not long after because of territory dispute and kita had to go fight in that war. It's also during that time that Cass run away, so basically when she came back Cass was gone and she had to deal with a whole lot of PTSD so she quit her position in the royal guard and decided to create a network of people who could help her search for Cass, and that's kinda how she created the intelligence guild ! She also had help from Huxian who is a fox shapeshifter and kind of her familiar but their contract is a bit complicated.

The adoptive father is Ash he's like the love of my life the prettiest boy I love him so much, so of course he's kinda the most traumatized one. Basically he served a king 2000 years ago and fell in love with a fae (most specifically a snake fae, this is important for later) and one time when he was traveling with her he got a fatal hit. Now I don't know if you have read the epic of Gilgamesh, but in the story they say that a snake ends up stealing the secret of eternal youth from Gilgamesh, so in my world, snake Faes detain the secret of immortality and eternal youth as well, but they are forbidden from sharing it. The thing is that this fae was really in love so she decided to save him by making him immortal, but since it's forbidden she was then taken away by her own kin and executed. also in this world only the person who gives you immortality has the power to make you mortal again, so ash is basically stuck being immortal for forever.

Now to get back on the king part, he served his king and admired her very much, she was like the chosen of the gods and the only one who ever managed to unite the continent, but a civil war broke out and basically her and all her court ended up dead, the only ones who were left were Ash and the child of the knight who initiated the rebellion. The only thing ash could do in this moment was take the throne to at least try to protect the people and the country that his king loved, and he also ended up raising the king to be the next ruler, cos there was basically no one else. Now the stories are that the gods will once again send a chosen king to unite the continent, but until then only the descendants from the firsts "regents" can be trusted to rule the country and give it back once the real king comes back.

(that's the last drawing I made of him, I'm working on a reference sheet as well so I can commissions artists, got no pics of Kita yet cos I can't figure out her exac design 😔)

Fast forward to now, Ash is still immortal and unable to die (even tho he's starting to get pretty tired of living and watching everyone else die) and he's a bard and storyteller who Travels around the world singing about the stories of his lost friends, he's terrified of forgetting their faces and pretty much doesn't sleep cos the nightmares really are that bad, he refuse to use violence because he's seen and done some pretty bad stuff during the years and is completely riddled with guilt about it, and he also have another adoptive daughter named June who is probably the most chaotic 10 year old you will ever meet.

To come back to cass I really really love the girl, this is an old reference sheet, she's a bit more curvy now but ye. She still have some jewels from back when she was a princess cos she basically stole them in order to fund her running away plans, I love the weather magic, especially since there's 2 main magic systems in my world, one that is I ate and one that is learnt. Weather magic and all element/nature magic is Inate but people who use it are usually seen as bad omens thanks to old propaganda by the nobles and the ruling class (with learnt magic you can control who has access to it, and they didn't want the peasants starting revolts by burning their castles - the mentalities have changes a bit now since commoners have access to the academy but old beliefs die hard) and the fact that they're seen as bad omens further alienated her from the rest of her family. It's also really nice to have thunderstorms and lightning in the background when she's angry or doing badass stuff.

Sorry for the long post I rambled a bit too much but Im just so insane about them

For the WIP tag game, I was curious about Cass! You listed a Cass storyboard and a Cass expressions sheet and now I'm curious 👀

Thank you so much for your ask !

Hope you're ready for a bit of an infodump cos I love her a lot

She's my main OC, that's her ref sheet :

She's from a fantasy story I'm writing kinda in the style of a visual novel, so there's good ends and bad ends, and I'm mostly obsessed with her bad end these days

As you can see on the ref sheet she's a runaway princess, her dad is the king of the country and her step mother wants to kill her to make sure that her own children get on the throne instead of Cass, so she ends up running away from her country and opening an small herbalist shop in the neighboring kingdom. She's got extensive knowledge on poisons and their remedies to prevent getting poisoned by her step mother and she can pretty much change the weather depending on her emotions but she's not the best at controlling it !

She also has a girlfriend who was her former personal guard and is now the head of the intelligence guild, and her adoptive father is an immortal guy who's life goal is to tell the stories of the people he loved long ago so that no one can forget them even after they died

I've been working on this story for about a year and half now, and i have a lot of world building including a whole magic system and little bits of story here and there so if you wanna know anything more don't hesitate to ask !!!

#yes i did spend a whole 40 minutes writing a long ass post about my sillies #i love them so much you guys have no idea....#kit draws

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queen0fm0nsterz · 3 years ago

Note

You mean the Ln 1 comic kids being parallels to cup, tengu, fox and scarecrow or?

MASTERPOST

HELL YEAH BESTIE YOU GOT IT!

The hypothesis came into my mind while making the LN iceberg. Basically I was synthesizing the plot of the cancelled comics and I thought,

"Wow, I never realized that Humpback Girl and the Lady both have a strong disliking of mirrors due to bad experiences with Mirror Man. Cool coincidence."

Then I realized the Humpback Girl keeps her face covered at all times - like the Lady, who costantly wears a mask, and that they both are wearing different shades of orange.

(Not sure about this one, but Humpback Girl's friends might be seen as paralleles to the Maw employees. I mean, the guy with the super long limbs? The conjoined "twins"?)

And this got me thinking.

If, hypothetically, Humpback Girl is paralleling the current Lady... then what about the other kids? Could they be seen as paralleles to the previous four?

Before we go on, keep in mind: I'm not saying they're exact paralleles. While the Lady can't keep away from mirrors, Humpback Girl is terrified of them.

But what I am saying is that their similarities might help us understand the Ladies a bit more.

And you'll tell me, "But there's only five children! The Bandaged Kid got snatched away, so the numbers of kids and Ladies don't match!" Not to worry: we're ""confirming"" two theories in one hit.

Because we only have one other child tell us their full story (curse the day the comics were cancelled /lh), I'll begin with announcing that the Refugee Boy is paralleling none other than Scarecrow.

I mean... look at the boy's hood and tell me it doesn't resemble the scarecrow mask.

(Yes, this is important for my reasoning - it's gonna help us determine who the other children match.)

Let's recap what we know about Scarecrow. She has a tendecy to run and hide from the horrors of the world instead of facing them (like the boy who is trying to evade the clutches of the North Wind), she wears blue and she could have possibly had a sister which might have been one of the others.

And, wouldn't you know!, the Refugee Boy also happens to have a younger sister! One who wears a red cape.

You already know where I'm going with this.

Yep.

Recreating Tengu's mask using a hood must be complicated, but the choice of color for the cape was spot on. It's literally the same shade as the little statue from the DLC.

We know that Tengu, unlike Scarecrow, was someone who wanted to fit in with the monsters to avoid being hurt - and that this was just a facade she put out in order to make herself seem stronger than she actually was.

The Refugee Boy's sister is straight up replaced by a monster, a.k.a. the Ferryman, who is a shapeshifter (thus creating this "false persona"), while the real girl had already been claimed by the North Wind.

It's what Tengu did, just... not literally.

But there's more: when I first introduced the idea of Scarecrow and Tengu being sisters, I ended up wondering if such an event would go down in regards to the Thin Man and Lady coexistence theory. Would the Thin Man only kidnap one of the girls or both? And today, I think I finally have my answer.

In this story, we could see the North Wind as a stand-in for either the Thin Man or the Hunger itself, or even a mix of both. The one who snatched the girl away from her sibling...

Look at what the girl's skeleton is wearing.

Yellow cape. Much like the signature yellow raincoat both Six and the girl in the Lady's paintings (who could be a possible younger Lady) wear.

Only one of the girls was taken; only one of them is destined to become the true Lady of the Maw. And that girl was Tengu. Scarecrow became a Lady, yes, but only by association. She was just a normal person thrown in a world where she had no chance of keeping herself safe other than hiding away from everything else - including her own sister.

(Btw, this also explains the drawings seen on Tengu's wall in VLN. The three children rappresent Tengu, Scarecrow and their Mono... until the Eye changed everything.)

(Again, these drawings are not literal parallels. They're telling two stories simultaniously: the one of the three children who became nomes, and the one of an unlikely trio who was doomed from the start.)

So, if the girls seen in these paintings truly are the two headless statues, then we can give the girls a face.

Tengu. Scarecrow.

Okay, so we established Scarecrow and Tengu as the Refugee Boy and his sister respectively. Cool. But what about the others who don't have a story?

And this is when the hood designs come in! It was istantly clear to me that the Long Hair Girl would parallel Teapot. The shape of her hood is literally the same as the reversed teapot mask.

Lastly, going by exclusion and the ripped hood, the Boy in Green would parallel Fox.

From how little we see of him in the comics, we get that he's a rather calm child - he's also the one who offers to help Six remember her forgotten past. We know that Fox had a gentle and caring nature, so I feel like it would make sense for him to be her "stand in" of sorts.

And this is all for now. I love making theories about the Ladies and it was nice to include the comic children into this!

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inkdemonapologist · 4 years ago

Photo

Some of my doodles for Session Six of our Call of Cthulhu game!! We finally got back up with that potion-maker from Last Loop and tried to explain EVERYTHING to her, since she’s the one who seemed the most ready to believe us last time (Also, we saw her voluntarily possessed by a spirit at one point, so it seemed like it would be a good starting point to explain some of our problems).

This went.... chaotically, as there are 0 tells for who’s talking and everyone was very insistent on contributing to the conversation. The alive versions of Sammy and Joey mostly stayed out of this mess.

ALSO!! WE’VE PICKED UP SOME NEW INSANITIES! Henry has a mania that compels him to draw/document everything he learns (in case we lose memories or loop again), Sammy still has the mask thing, Joey’s picked up an obsession with symmetry after witnessing his body horrifically transformed by a corruption across half of it, and Sammy, after seeing the Star Pool lurker’s indescribably horrible non-ink-demon form, is filled with a terrified respect for it and has become strangely deferential. I DID NOT EXPECT SAMMY’S SANITY DROPS TO LINE UP SO PERFECTLY FOR CANON PROBLEMS,

Anyway, have some more out-of-context quotes!! Some of these are just conversation because imagining people trying to hold a conversation with three different voices coming out of “Henry” is my favourite thing now.

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] *summarising* (So we're gonna run by Josephine and see if she has anything that maybe we should know, uh, based on our current predicament, which has gotten even more complicated than the previous time we talked to her, which hasn't happened yet!)

[Alive!Sammy] Is something wrong? [Henry] No! No, everything's fine. Let's go. [Alive!Joey] ...I don't think anything's been RIGHT for a while...

[Sammy] (Are we, as a, uh, unit -- do we have the mask on?)

[Ghost!Joey] There's... three of us in here? [Ghost!Sammy] Sure, that's a normal thing to say!

[GM] Josephine looks like she is trying to figure out what to say, but she is having... trouble. [Ghost!Joey] Have you ever had someone... hang out with you... during the festival? Like, kind of, possession? [GM] She raises an eyebrow, but nods, and says "Yes, that's part of my duty, as a leader of this religion." [Ghost!Sammy] Fantastic. That seems to be happening to us. [Ghost!Joey] We're not, exactly sure how we managed to get... in the past again... but we're -- *points with Henry's non-sketching hand over at the live ones* [Joey] Live!Joey just confusedly shrugs and sips his coffee. [GM] "...Uh, go back a minute."

[GM] "And you don't know how this happened?" [ghost!Joey] Not exactly? I -- [Henry] Sammy fell into a Star Pool, and Joey got killed, or, was a host for the cultists. [ghost!Joey] I don't know if I got killed, but, [Henry] Well, you looked goopy. [ghost!Sammy] I don't know what was going on with me, either; I still seemed to be running around. [Henry] Also very goopy.

[ghost!Joey] So, that's a confusing answer! Um. Let's pretend *points at alive!Joey* that he didn't listen to you, and he went up to the Star Pools anyway, without the potion, and then something happened up there that resulted in whatever is happening to us now, which included us losing our memories and waking up later as the same... entity, but we didn't know for a while, and.... uh... it looks like the last time we saw our bodies that weren't alive and human still, they looked... corrupted by the Star Pools. [ghost!Joey] Do you know what might've happened to cause all that? [GM] "...I think there's a lot to unpack there," she says.

[GM] And, indeed, one of them has turned up a pair of gloves! It's somewhat worn, but they don't have holes or anything. Though they might not match your ensemble. [Joey] As long as they match each other, that's fine! [GM] They do that. [Sammy] (I mean, Henry has-- not to rag on Henry's fashion sense, as a man who's worn nothing but the same shirt and suspenders for twenty years, but Henry doesn't have much of an ensemble going on, really.)

[chatting while Joey's player steps away for a moment] [Sammy] Sorry for making you guys deal with Alive!Sammy; Ghost!Sammy genuinely doesn't know how to argue for this. [Sammy] It's like, yeah I dunno! Sounds like a raw deal! [Henry] Henry also doesn't know how to argue for this, it's like, Hey! Do you want a whole bunch of awful, horrible, terrible memories? ....No? Oh. [Sammy] CANT IMAGINE WHY!! [Sammy] Like, please? I'd like my body back? ...it's your body, we'd be sharing it-- but not like this situation, uh, [Henry] Just please, take... I have... take Sammy back. [Sammy] Could you take this off of my hands, I'm really tired of dealing with it, [Henry] I love 'im. But I need a break. Please come take your lost.... self. [GM] Your wayward self. [Henry] Who's this sassy lost child. [Joey] *re-entering chat* Ah, we're talking about Sammy. [Sammy] OH MY GOSH.

[Henry] I ROLLED A ONE HUNDRED! [Sammy] Henry is VERY tired and distracted. [GM] Henry's sketching again. He was left unattended for a bit and he's sketching again. [Henry] Yup, [Sammy] *sputters* HE CAN'T BE LEFT UNATTENDED, WE'RE BOTH HERE [Joey] HE LITERALLY CAN'T!! [Sammy] THAT'S THE WHOLE PROBLEM!! SAMMY WOULD LOVE TO LEAVE HENRY UNATTENDED!!!

[Sammy] Is the voice familiar? [Joey] Is it the Lurker's? [GM] A bit...? [Henry] A bit familiar or a bit like the Lurker's? [GM] ...Yes.

[ghost!Sammy] Joey, what do you think it was? [ghost!Joey] I think it has something to do with our situation, and perhaps the fact that-- [ghost!Sammy] "OUR SITUATION" doesn't really clear anything up, that could be a LOT of things right now!

[Sammy] Sammy doesn't want to be back in the actual time we belong in! He's dead in that one!

[Sammy] I guess it's also Alive!Sammy's turn. I don't, uh, [Sammy] ...there's too many Sammys, [Joey] (Alive!Sammy just goes WHAT THE FUCK) [Sammy] Yeah, I don't think he's prepared, when he turns the corner, to find cultists with swords, and Henry immediately drawing a gun and screaming at them; I don't think he's prepared for any of this, or has a game plan for what to do in case this happens, other than just, yelling, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” [GM] at Henry, or the cultists? [Sammy] ....BOTH????

[Joey] Does Joey know of any way to interrupt magic? [GM] Injuring someone is a good, classic way to do that.

[GM] So, you can do an attack, whether it's with the gun or with your fists! [Sammy] *flipping through character sheet* I mean, I feel like I'm probably not just shooting him, I-- wHEN DID YOU ADD "DUSTPAN" TO MY WEAPONS???

[Sammy] The idea of Joey just continuously accidentally killing people is REALLY funny to me.

[Sammy] This is going MUCH better than the last time that we fought anybody! [Joey] Apparently Joey just needs to be really angry, and then my dice are like, “yeah, you can kill people.”

[GM] *flipping through the rules* Here we go, "Disrupted spellcasting, for example, if they are shot!" Well, okay then-- [GM] ......ohhh. [Sammy] Uh, [Henry] "Oh?" [GM] HM! ........ let me get a d8. [Henry] Concern...???? [Sammy] It's probably fine. It's... it's probably fine. [GM] ........ [GM] Uh..... huh. Well. That's an 8. [Sammy] On the d8. [GM] Yyyeah,..... you disrupted his, casting,,, it's not a serious spell so most of this stuff is not extreme, but I rolled an 8, and that says, [GM] "A mythos monster is accidentally summoned." [Sammy] WHAT?? [Henry] WHAT??? [Sammy] WHAT???? [Joey] *dying of laughter in the background* [Sammy] I DIDN'T KNOW THAT WAS AN OPTION??? OKAY!!! [GM] I didn't think it was, at this level of spell!! [Sammy] Remember when I said that this was going well? I NEED TO STOP SAYING THINGS.

[Joey] How is Sammy putting on the mask? [Sammy] With his.... hands...? [Joey] No, like, how is it laying on his head, [Sammy] OH.

[Joey] Ghost!Joey would like to turn it so it's like, in the middle of his head. But like, on forehead, so that they can still see. [Henry] (A fancy visor!) [Sammy] (...you can still see if it’s on the side...) [Joey] (Joey would really like it if we, put it in the middle.) [Sammy] (...I FORGOT YOU HAVE A SYMMETRY THING)

[GM] You felt, when Sammy and the cult leader were both giving the Lurker commands, that there was a kind of tug-of-war going on there, and it seems like the cult leader won that round. [Henry] Wait, we can give the Lurker commands? [Joey] We're allies. [Sammy] Yeah, we're the host. [Henry] Oh, um, [Sammy] Sammy asked it for help! It didn't, uh... this is how things always go for Sammy, so, I feel like this is correct.

[Sammy] (...Henry pulls out a gun, someone tries to grab him and he just bashes that person over the head, Joey tries to help by shooting this cult leader to stop him from casting a spell, and this horrible weird bendy monster is unleashed, Henry IMMEDIATELY kneels to this creature, and it starts listening to him, and he grabs the amulet and starts directing it to murder people after pulling the mask down over his face, so, yeah!! I can see that being pRETTY UNSETTLING actually!!)

[Joey] And I've already accidentally summoned a demon, somehow! [GM] This is just how Joey rolls, he just aCCIDENTALLY SUMMONS DEMONS, apparently! Even when OTHER PEOPLE are casting spells, Joey finds a way to accidentally summon a demon!

[Sammy] We do need those; those ARE our bodies running away,

[Lurker, when asked if he can shapeshift] It depends on the host! I didn't do this. It's pretty awesome, though! I feel like this is actually something that was designed to be this way, for the first time I can remember! Deliberate, you know what I mean? [Henry] “Yeah!” Henry says, not knowing what he means.

[Sammy] We're very focused on getting out of here. [Henry] We're channeling Wally Franks! [Sammy] NO! Don't channel Wally Franks! He didn't get outta there he just YELLED ABOUT IT, which is what WE'RE DOING RIGHT NOW!! LET'S ACTUALLY GET OUTTA HERE!

[GM] You guys go around a corner that at least obscures you from immediate sight, though it's good the Lurker is as, uh...... [GM] ........ [GM] ........ [GM] ...uh, for lack of a better word, bendy as he is, [players explode with laughter] [GM] I TRIED, I couldn't think of anything else! [Sammy] NO I SAW THE GEARS TURNING IN YOUR HEAD

[GM] You have a small Bendy. [GM] He's blinking. [Henry] Henry is.... is having, a moment,

[Sammy] We're honoured you're joining us, but we really should get moving?

[Henry] Just let him ride on his shoulders like a kid, that'd be adorable! [Henry] Henry's having SO many emotions right now. He wants to be respectful, but also, oh my god, that's so cute?? and also my OC???? Oh my god??????

[GM] I don't think the Lurker is familiar with the concept of piggyback rides. I mean if he's asked I'm sure he's down for whatever, but, [Henry] Henry's gonna ask the Lurker if he wants to climb on his shoulders and ride. [GM] The Lurker thinks this is a FANTASTIC idea, because nobody has ever carried the Lurker around before!

[Alive!Sammy] Sammy's very pale. [Alive!Joey] You have a... Bendy now, Henry...? [Henry] Uh, kinda! This is the Lurker. [Alive!Joey] “The Lurker”? [Henry] The giant monster? He's... small now, so he's not a giant monster.

[Alive!Sammy] Henry WHAT is going on? Or, whoever you are right now, [Henry] It is me; look, I've been letting the others talk because I have no idea what's going on. I don't know... I just want to get everyone out of here alive. [GM] (What a Henry thing to say) [Alive!Sammy] *snarking* Well, we're alive SO far! Maybe don't run at people with swords, in the future? Might help with that. [Henry] That was Sammy. That wasn't me. [Joey] (*laughing* "By the way, that thing you were lecturing me about? That wasn't me, THAT WAS YOU!")

[GM] The Lurker settles down when it is clear that the hug is not a threat.

[Henry] (I AM LOSING IT! I hope you know what you've done to me!) [GM] (I was not expecting this either but here we are!!) [Henry] (Maybe it was my idea. I can't believe I've done this.)

[Joey] Alive!Joey at some point shows Bendy how to hold the pencil. [GM] He says "Oh, hey, neat!" and has an easier time. [Henry] Oh my god, cute? [Sammy] (*losing it in the background*) [Joey] I was just thinking that if he's sitting next to Henry, and he watches the Lurker fumble with the pencil enough, he's going to just, reach up and-- [Sammy] (I LOST NINE SANITY TO THIS ASSHOLE!!!) [Henry] (But he's so cute!) [Joey] (Well now he's cute, maybe you get some sanity back!) [Henry] (Like petting a cat! You get sanity back from petting the Bendy.) [Sammy] (Yes, he is adorable, I will serve him faithfully.)

[GM] Make a navigate check. [Joey] *rolls terribly* Joey doesn't know where the fuck we're going. [Henry] I missed the navigate check too. [Sammy] Ohhhh boy, we better not get lost... [Joey] Sammy, do you remember where we're going? [Sammy] Oh, don't ask Sammy. Don't ask either Sammy. [Sammy] Alive!Sammy will eventually ask "You DO know where we're going, right?" [GM] You guys..... uh, get lost! Well, let me check one thing. [GM] *rolls* [GM] ... THE LURKER, APPARENTLY, CAN GET YOU BACK TO WHERE HE APPEARED,

[GM] What a useful pocket demon. [Henry] I love our pocket demon. [Joey] I love our son... [Sammy] Joey, [Joey] Firstborn... [Henry] Adopted from a cult! [Joey] We went to Haiti and adopted a son. [Sammy] Sammy's role as third wheel here is getting weirder and weirder.

[Sammy] I can't believe Binoculars is a Bendy fan.

[Joey] (Meanwhile, Ghost!Joey remembers something? There is an inscription on the floor between the laundry room, and Josephine's room, that does not allow the passage of evil spirits. I... don't think the Lurker is going to make it past that.) [Henry] (Ohhhhhhhhh) [Sammy] (Hmm. Also... BRINGING THE LURKER in to see Josephine feels, hostile???) [Henry] (OH... I didn't think about that; he's just my kid now!)

[Joey] (I have literally no idea for Joey.) [Sammy] (Gosh, what a thing to ask... I just have to appreciate, what a thing to ask a Type Three -- "Okay, what's YOU?") [Joey] (Joey looks down at the mask, feeling all of his inner masks,,,) [Sammy] ("I'M COMPOSED OF THINGS THAT MAKE OTHER PEOPLE THINK IM SUCCESSFUL,,,")

[Ghost!Sammy] After you. [Ghost!Joey] Actually, I would feel more comfortable if you went first, [Ghost!Sammy] ...Fine. Fantastic. [Joey] (This is-- I don't know if Sammy can feel it, but this is definitely out of, still thinking about the slight guilt that ran through him when Sammy was blaming EVERYTHING on him, and telling him to keep them out of this,) [Sammy] (I mean, Sammy just thinks this is risky and wanted Joey to be the guinea pig, so, that's nice that you were thinking of him!)

[Sammy] A quick kiss won't be enough time for Sammy to like, stop bluescreening in time to react to this? So, um, uh, he- he just, uh, needs, uh, a- a minute, but he, will be, blushing furiously. I think that's the only reaction! [Joey] Perfect~ [GM] The spirit lady probably flashes him a thumbs up. [Joey] *laughing* Sammy DIES. We did all of this to get him alive again, and he just DIES. [Sammy] SLAIN INSTANTLY.

#call of cthulu: haunted hijinx #when in doubt just keep drawing #sammy lawrence #joey drew #Henry Stein #I get way too much of a kick out of non-henry Henrys #i wanna draw so many of these convos but like ITS ALL JUST ONE GUY #TALKING TO HIMSELF

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spyroid101 · 3 years ago

Note

Do you have a design or any headcannons for Selph?

Looks-wise, they're still being a huge meanie and refusing to let my muse properly draw a full interpretation... But overall I run with the "Looks are based off the 'More NiGHTS' Emblem" bandwagon.

Oh! And some eyes!

As for headcannons, that depends on which headcanon lore I'm running with...

The simple (and initial) one was that Selph was planned to be created along the same time as Jackle, but after Jackle ended up being INVINCIBLE, to even WIZEMAN, Wizeman immediately backpedaled and mentally tossed the blueprints into the deepest darkest vaults of his mind, just in case Selph also caught the Invincibility Bug, and just never got back to them... And thus never actually got created. Basically, just an in-universe version of what happened them in the game IRL. They were dummied out.

...Aaaand then roleplaying them with @themysterioust and having fun got me ATTACHED to the jerk, and thus birthed the more complicated universe, where they DID end up getting created gdhsajdgjsa

-They're Jackle's twin. (Wizeman long discovered that you want to try and make Nightmaren in pairs. Being in solitude is how you get unbridled Nightmaren like Fenrir/Orthrus/Cerberus...)

-A shapeshifter. They can shift their form into any sentient being they've seen before, and mimic any voice they've heard.

-One limit to this, however, is their instrument. A Nightmaren's instrument is tied to their very being, so even if they transformed into NiGHTS, they wouldn't be able to play their flute. (And an instrument's music doesn't count as a 'voice' to mimic, so they can't just fake it.) -(Selph's instrument, by the by, is a violin.)

-Put all their points into charisma. They'll be your best friend, and charm you into giving them anything and everything they want from you.

-On the flip side, they're a goddman VIPER. If they decide they want to hurt you, they can and WILL find your deepest, most painful insecurities, and slowly pick and prod and scrape at them until it BREAKS you.

-And assuming you manage to NOT be fooled into thinking it's all your fault, no one else will believe you if you tell them about the bullying, as Selph has already charmed everyone else onto their side already...

-(Jackle had it... really, really, really bad... when Selph was still running around...)

-An absolute showman. Will take even the most mundane things and crank up the dramatics to 11! (Anything else is just too boring~!)

-They wish to be human. BADLY.

-After all, a human was the first step to Wizeman turning into who they are today. They want that power.

-They're currently locked up in a cage, deep in the darkest corner of the Nightmare Sea, as punishment for an attempted a plot to boost themselves to First Level status by killing and absorbing the essence of a just newly created NiGHTS and Reala.

-The plot was foiled by Jackle backstabbing them to protect his new siblings, allowing them to get caught and punished by Wizeman.

-They haven't been seen since. (Just waiting to be let out for when roleplay plot requires lol)

-(Needless to say, Jackle and Selph... very much despise each other...)

#the-blathermouth #NiGHTS into dreams #Selph #NiGHTS #Basically Selph oozes Smug Bastard energy #The ONE sibling that's just flat out DEAD to Jackle #Ask

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theros · 3 years ago

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12, 23, 37, 49 for OC questions!

wasn't actually expecting to get asked anything holy crap!

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

@acheyri's FFXIV character Svee! I have never been so obsessed with an OC that wasn't my own, but I genuinely love Svee so so much, both her design and her story. She's complicated and messy and real, and Ripley's art and discussions about her are absolutely fantastic.

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Ough, that would be Sira, my very first OC. I don't have any pictures of her first design (when I was 8-10) because I never took photos of it and have long since lost the journal she was doodled in, but she was a completely human girl with brown hair and ordinary human blue eyes. She was one of three protagonists of a very very YA "series" I was writing about three human girls who became nonhuman through shenanigans and had perfect nonhuman boyfriends and saved the world lmao. Then when I first joined the furry community, I reworked her into a cat/dragon (and supposedly wolverine but I was 12 and this was literally never shown in her design) hybrid:

(old art by @felisrandomis - like, 11 years ago old lol)

over the years i reworked her again and sort of merged her with another character of mine, a werecat assassin, and bounced her through several design changes. I made her dark gray with light gray rosettes, dark gray with blue rosettes, then finally settled on and stayed with silvery gray with darker gray rosettes.

(art by Chandraken - also 11 years old; i went through changes for Sira rapidfire for a while there lol)

(crop of the last ref i did for her a few years ago. she does have a fully human form but I used to draw her as an anthro or neko 90% of the time so)

Her story is also waaaaay different than the original iteration. Rather than a 13 year old girl who magically saves the world with no pain or consequences and also gains cool powers and a hot boyfriend, she's now a bitchy, traumatized adult assassin/ex child soldier locked into a life contract with an employer she wants to kill. She also murdered her husband (he kinda deserved it). Her storyline... really does not have a happy ending any more.

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human

How human do they have to be/appear to fit the "not quite"? By my definition Sira would qualify, as would my answers to number 49, and also this dude!

Greirat, local satyr boy. One of two different satyr OCs I have and definitely the more wild one despite having such a sweet face. He's lowkey a shapeshifter and his true form is a cat-satyr creature created by @.Felisrandomis, so this is about as human as his appearance can get:

His ref sheet is like. The only art I've ever drawn of him and I really oughtta fix that sometime. Maybe tweak his design a little, now that I think about it.

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

My MTG oc Mestas, hands down. Lovac, one of my FFXIV ocs, would be a very close second, and it's probably a good thing those two exist in totally separate universes, because they'd likely drive their friends batshit constantly memeing back and forth with each other.

If social media was a thing on Ravnica, Mes would totally be a tumblr blogger. She'd constantly post memes about her friends, the guilds, and any prominent characters from canon. She'd @ Jace Beleren in every single one. He has no idea who she is or how she got his contact information. He's blocked her 16 times and she still manages to do it. She doesn't even have multiple accounts.

No pics for these two cause I'm redoing Mestas' ref and I changed Lovac's skin tone, and my only saved screenshots of him are from before that. He's not my main file so I rarely play him OTL.

#Mestas also has gray skin which I realize shows i have a Pattern #considering Sira Greirat and Kolasi (FFXIV) are also gray

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bittybattybunny · 4 years ago

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What's the difference between a Nightingale and a Horizon Wolf? Why did Craft identify little Eclipse as a Nightingale despite her wolfy appearance? Why was she all alone; did she wander off? Is part of Eclipse's tragic backstory that her parents died before she got a name?

Quite a few things actually. I'm not gonna give much away but the reason Craft identified her as a nightingale is because nightingales are silver furred bipedal elven werewolves, a horizon wolf is an over sized black wolf with a starry coat.

Eclipse as a child was a silver furred bipedal wolf (under certain circumstances her hair turns black however)

The other reason was location. Craft knew nighitngales has a pack in the horizon woods when they were trolling around for something to do. Horizon wolves stick to well. the horizon.

For example: this is her father Fenrir (with baby eclipse who’s stuck between forms. She was trying to better mimic her father but she can’t actually take a PROPER wolf form like him. not yet. Her wolf form will never be a proper wolf like her father because she’s only half horizon wolf.) For the record Fenrir really couldn’t shapeshift unless it was a rare occasion. He was almost ALWAYS in giant wolf form. it’s only on a lunar eclipse can he take a human form.

While I don’t have a pic of her mother’s wolf form on hand you can get an idea from this old draft picture of how she looks (you can kinda see why the grim eclipse I was drawing the other day looks like it does it’s cuz I have something in mind I’m just. trying to get there):

(also excuse it is old, you can see Eclipse’s original human design on this lol)

Baby Eclipse was always in a bipedal form until she learned to proper hold her elven form; in this short I posted with her learning to write She shapeshifts with a bit of encouragement from Sena and Craft (for the record she only appears human in subcon due to her earring. Remove it she takes an elven look; this gets addressed in a chapter cuz her hair caught it and she took it off to fix it and Hat and Bow were both like ‘wtf’ since they didn’t know she did that. Snatcher loves to mess with her long ears once he learns of it since they’re sensitive to the touch. She can shapeshift at will but due to her messed up memories it was decided by the force that sent her to subcon to just enchant her earring)

She did wander but not as you think. Eclipse and Celeste share a certain trait and due to this shared skill Eclipse often just. Vanished and would wind up in random parts of the woods. This worried her entire pack every time she just poofed baby gone (picture 17 werewolves freaking out over their missing pup). Eclipse hates traveling in Snatcher’s portals for a good reason.

Yes :) I'm not shy about mentioning but Eclipse lost all of her family minus Craft and Sena (tho Sena has some... Complications tied to him so he wasn't always there... This is plot related)

But she lost her mothers and her father when she was only 6. Her father was killed a week before her mothers. And on top of that Eclipse suffered at the hands of humans right before that (that's how she met Ru the first time)

Pictures before disaster (this pic is old from may last year lol but you can see she was stuck between forms then as well) but this picture took place a few days before she lost her father and a week before losing her mothers :)

The name thing has a secondary issue too, since even with her parents gone she was still meant to be given one but someone fucked up

sorry this got long lol =7=

#ask #anon #themoonguardianandthelostprince #bun rambles #lets say despite she loved her mothers she LOATHES being refered to as any form of bird for a reason #she does not like being called a nightingale as an adult

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my-darling-boy · 5 years ago

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Heyo! So I am thinking about starting to bind, and was wondering if you had heard of the brand Flavent? If so what do you think of their binders? And are there any tips about binding that would be helpful? I don’t really know how to go about any of it. Also I wanted to say that I really love your blog’s aesthetic!!

Oh I have! Flavnt is a great brand actually, I’ve ordered from them before and follow them on ig. Their binders are so good in fact every time they get them in stock, they go out of stock just as quick!

And if you’re a first time binder, I’ve actually got helpful info for you!

Firstly:

NEVER wear the binder while sleeping. Do not go for a full night’s sleep with the binder on. You should always be conscious and aware of how your body is responding to the binder AT ALL TIMES.

NEVER use first aid bandages, muscle tape, or ACE Bandage if you lack a proper binder. Bandages like those are meant to be wrapped around things you do not want to move, and your ribcage needs to expand for you to breathe!! Wrapping your chest with these tight, constricting products not only heavily restricts breathing but you also run the risk of cutting off blood circulation to the rest of your body, rapidly damaging nerves in your breasts, back, and torso, increased chance of tearing your lungs from the lungs inflating with no space for expansion, bruising your back and ribcage, ruining skin elasticity quicker in your breasts which will limit top surgery incision types, and PASSING OUT due to prolonged lack of oxygen and/or blood flow to your brain. I know you see stereotypical drawings or stories of trans people binding with ACE but DO NOT DO IT. I speak from experience as I still have nerve damage in my back and damage to my breast tissue from doing it when I first started binding at 14. (Same risks apply for wearing a binder that is way too tight!)

NEVER use a binder from a non-reputable seller. If the product is simply this strange looking cheaply priced band which goes across the chest or tries to market itself as a “lesbian, tomboy, woman binder” IT IS NOT SAFE. These “binders” can have the same consequences as listed above. If you’re unsure if a site is safe, a simple web search will usually provide some insight in a few short minutes.

With this in mind, here is some info on reputed sellers:

FLAVNT, with their famous Bareskin Binder in a variety of skin tones and sizes, is starting to be a go-to for binders. The company is run by a trans guy and a lesbian if I remember right, and usually proceeds from their products will go directly towards funding select people’s top surgeries. They also have awesome trans/gender non-conforming themed merch to buy too!

Underworks is the brand I have always used. Originally started for men with gynecomastia, they have expanded their products to trans/gender non-conforming people. Unlike the other companies in this list, they use a medical grade mesh layered material for their binders which some find to be more durable/better binding but others find to be uncomfortable/not suited for their body type. It all depends!

Gc2b has been the go-to for binders for a long time and people are usually really happy with their order! I can’t say too much about them cos I have admittedly never ordered from because cloth binders never seem to fit me correctly? But the reviews are great!

Shapeshifters is one I have encountered recently from this article from a plus-sized trans person about binding as a plus-sized trans person! They offer custom sized binders with a variety of designs and sites like these are often the best option for people who have trouble with finding the right fit among the limited industry sizes!

On sizing/fit:

-BINDERS FROM EACH COMPANY HAVE DIFFERENT SIZE CHARTS. Things like the brand’s fit, material used, and your body shape can all affect how a binder fits. A small from one company will not always be a small from another one. A lot of the time, only chest measurements are used to determine your binder size and some find that alone not to be enough to find the right fit. Thence, some people opt for custom sized binders like Shapeshifters as mentioned above.

-The most important thing is that you are able to breathe in it! If you have any numbness or tingling in your limbs or under the binder, or feel light headed/short of breath (that is not caused by anxiety) TAKE OFF THE BINDER. You may need to order the next size up and continuing to wear a too-tight binder is dangerous.

-During your first times wearing a binder, you may feel it to be almost too snug, and this is because you need to break it in, so some pinching, discomfort, tightness is to be expected at first. However, if it persists beyond your first few wears, your binder may be too small. But do know there are some people who end up always having a bit of pinching/cutting due to their body shape/weight, even if their binder is compressing nicely. If you’ve never used a binder before: take it in small time frames. Wear it for an hour or two at first, remove it, then up the time from there to see how your body fairs with each time you wear it. Don’t start out wearing it the full eight hours.

-If you are in between sizes, DO NOT ORDER A SIZE DOWN. Often, the size is not going to be a little smaller but dramatically smaller.

-Binders come in two lengths: cropped and full torso. It doesn’t always matter which one you buy, but some people find if they have a larger waist, they like the full torso binders whereas I can’t wear them because my waist is way too small and my chest slips down, so I only order cropped binders to focus the compression on just my chest

-If you have a problem with your chest slipping down in the binder, some people like to wear sleeveless undershirts beneath the binder itself to prevent this

-You’ll generally know the binder is too tight. But if you’re still on the fence: if you cannot fully take a deep breath in, the binder is too small!

On safety concerns, effects from binding, and other little tips:

-Avoid wearing it for longer than 8 hours. Some people are able to wear it a little longer than this time due to much less compression from their binder. Regardless, DO NOT bind for more than 8+ hours ON A FREQUENT BASIS even if the binder still feels comfortable. We all get stuck in situations or unexpectedly long work days in our binders sometimes but PLEASE try to avoid wearing the binder for any longer than you need to. Take it off when there’s no need for it. Take entire rest days from the binder if you find yourself in it for long periods of time. YOUR BODY NEEDS REST FROM YOUR BINDER NO MATTER YOUR CHEST SIZE. Trust me.

-Avoid doing any prolonged, strenuous activity such as intense exercise. While I have worn it to the gym for basic workouts and barre classes plenty of times with zero chest/back soreness or issues, I obviously didn’t do this every day and I wasn’t doing this for collectively more than 40 minutes and didn’t wear the binder for the rest of the day because I was home. But again, it is SAFER if you DO NOT wear it during gym time. Opt instead for sports compression bras and shirts that make the chest area ambiguous when you exercise.

-Avoid wearing it on airplanes. This one is often disputed, but it is generally believed that wearing a binder on an airplane will cause restricted breathing due to high altitude even in a pressurised cabin. Yet, I have worn my binder on four 11 hour flights (removing halfway through for sleeping) and had ZERO issues with breathing/comfort. It’s possible that people being unable to breathe comes instead from claustrophobia in the cabin, anxiety with flying, sitting position, or preexisting medical conditions and they attribute it to the binder. Personally, I think it’s safe to wear binders on airplanes because every time I’ve flown, I’ve had no issues, and trans guys I know personally have also had no issues, but this doesn’t mean it’s right for EVERYone. Wear it at your own risk.

-Additionally, avoid wearing it on turbulent/fast rides as the high velocity can increase compression on your chest. Again, I’m a Bad Boyᵀᴹ and I’ve worn it on plenty of upside down rides, including wearing it on that fair ride that spins you around so fast, gravity pins you to the wall. In all these situations, I again felt nothing and even forgot I had the binder on.

-I mention the “less safe” ways I have bound before for a reason. Please don’t think Binder Horror Stories happen to everyone. I used to spend so much time worrying about how Dangerous my binder could be, afraid to wear it even, but guess what? When I felt the binder needed to come off? I took it off. When I thought it might be actually unsafe to do something in my binder? I didn’t do it. I LISTENED to myself and my body, and that is overall the SAFEST thing you can do. This is how I’ve avoided binder complications for 7 YEARS. Even the general rules have a bit of relativity to them. I’ve met people who think they can bind for 8 hours safely when they were in horrible pain at just 4 hours, but continued to wear it because “It’s safe to wear for 8 hours because a trans guy told me so!” ONLY YOUR BODY sets how long and in what situations you can bind in. Bind in a way that is safe and comfortable for YOUR BODY. Additionally, most negative affects from a binder happen over prolonged periods of time after CONSTANT situational misuse, so if you wear it on the rare occasion when you think you shouldn’t have, it’s not the end of the world. Check back with your doctor if you are concerned with how your binder may be affecting you. Even binding using—or not using—the general accepted avoidance rules can prove risky if you do not listen to your body first and foremost. Everyone’s experience and limits vary considerably!

-Binding for roughly over 3-4 years, your chest may begin to droop because of the constant compression slowly wearing down the skin elasticity of the breasts. This could potentially negatively affect chances of minimal incision top surgery. For example, I have been binding for 7 years and now have a tiny chest from T which would’ve made me perfect for keyhole, but alas, binding for 7 years gets me double incision

-Keeping your binder clean is important, as you can get very hot in it regardless of the weather. Be sure to keep it washed in cold water and hang dry to keep its form or use low dryer heat to restore some of the “stiffness” if you find it getting a little loose fitting. A dirty binder will cause body acne as well

-In hot weather, avoid wearing it as much as you can to avoid overheating, or wear light and airy fabrics to reduce the chances of profusely sweating in the sun with it on

-Preexisting medical conditions that affect the lungs, nervous system, or muscles/bones in your arms, chest, neck, or back may cause you a series of unique difficulties other binding people do not have so please be aware of this

-Sometimes panic attack + binder = increased panic attack because you think you can’t breathe. If the space permits it, pull the binder down from your chest area to allow you the fullest breaths possible

Lastly, getting the binder on:

Everyone has different ways to get it on, but the most widely used is this method. Start by making it so the binder is wrong-side-out and upside down. Step into the opening (straps towards the ground) and slide it up your body. Once you get to about your waist, you’ll want to get the binder right-side-out by slipping your wrists in through the straps and “flipping” the garment up your torso as the you slide the straps up and onto your shoulders. You also want to make sure your chest is basically shoved Upwards and Outwards under the binder towards your underarms. To do this, I lay flat on the floor/bed and lift the right and left sides of the binder briefly to allow my chest to naturally fall back towards my underarms. DO NOT flatten your chest downwards by smashing all of the tissue and your nipples down towards your sternum for it will cause your chest to droop faster on top of being painful. I made a handy little doodle to show you what I mean!

Anyway, I hope this helps! x

Anyone who has some other tips that may be helpful for binding, feel free to add on!

#asks #ftm #ftnb #trans #transgender #ok to rb #long post

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dracula-in-purple-story · 5 years ago

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Romantic Idiots

How to confess to your crush(es)?

Option 1 : Do not let your brain and heart clashes together and give you mixed signals. Then confess.

Option 2 : Give him/her/them an Applin or any shiny Pokemons. Then confess.

Advice : Panic if fail.

“Panic if fail? What’s that supposed to mean, Grandpa?” Hop glanced up hesitantly as he finished noting down the old man’s advice. His ex-champion brother nervously clenched around his Charmander plushies.

The grandfather smiled coyly as he went to the kitchen to pour himself a cup of tea while the brothers tried to follow behind him. Their mother chuckled at this silly scene before the grandmother answered for her husband, also smiling coyly.

“Panic as in running away like an idiot. I swear to Arceus, when I was at your age, Leon, your grandpa over there tried to asked me out by throwing a Poke Ball at my window. Poor Appletun dearie got a fright that time and refused to acknowledge him for a decade.”

“Hush, sweetheart.” the blushing old man ruffled his wife’s hair before settling down. “Our daughter-in-law got it worse than you. Am I right, Helen?”

The said woman just sighed blissfully before snorting out loud, almost making the brothers laughed if they weren’t asking for some love advices. Standing up, she shuffled through the living room to picked up her wedding photos and was reminiscing the moment.

“Mom?” the older brother asked gently as to not interrupt the moment.

“Yes, Leon?”

“How did Dad confess? It can’t be worse than Gramps’ attempt.”

“Yeah!” the younger brother butted in while grinning at the offended-looking man, “What was it like? Could it be he try to serenade? Bet he sounds goofy and passed it down to Lee!”

“Hey! I sound amazing, Hopscotch! You are just jealous!”

“Boys,” the mother smiled at her sons’ playful banter. When they finally stopped, she smiled even wilder as she recounted the fateful evening.

“Well, he didn’t serenade, for starters. But he did tried to make an A Capella with Rotoms and Dittos. Never worked out since he first practised it at the Lake of Outrage. The Rotoms snitched on him with the Dittos were making ‘He love You’ letters while I saved his arse.”

“Oof, ouchies.” Hop scrunched up his face jokingly while Leon laughed as he imagined the scenario over and over. They pulled out their own RotomPhones when they were done though.

“You better not snitch on me, dude. I must do this myself.” The ex-champion pleaded with his little bro nodding beside him.

“You got it-Roto! Don’t stutter when you confess-Roto!”

“We make sure to taped you guys so we can see who’s got the worst end of the stick-Roto!”

“ROTOMS, NO!”

The purple-haired brothers panicked as they chased their cackling phones, leaving the amused adults behind.

“I bet two thousand PokeDollars that they would failed terribly and cutely at the same time.”

“No need to bet, Mother. It’s obvious that their ability to confess is still strong in their blood.”

“Rude, ladies. Very rude.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Now back at their shared apartment at Wyndon City, Leon was pacing around. His little bro had already went out to find his crushes. The new chairman wished he had this kind of courage. He wished, just not gonna happen. He and Raihan are just friends with a healthy rivalry of ten years! How is he going to react if he just confess out of the blue?! That’s why he got a perfect plan! Sonia had helped him devised a lot of plans. Plans related to shiny Pokemons were quickly rejected due to him being a natural shiny repellent. Flowers were also a big no, Raihan’s Pokemons tend to gobbled up flowers from his fans. Chocolate was supposed to be part of the plan, but Sonia rejected that idea because it was overrated. So this is the result. Just ask Raihan to go out with him and make sure he knows it’s a date and not a Valentine’s Day hangout. Solid A+ Plan! “Over a phone call? So outdated, Master Lee. Not gonna lie but that’s so last season,” the RotomPhone floats around in front of Leon while showcasing the contact details of his master’s dream man. “I don’t want Raihan to see my face if I ask him face to face! It’s too obvious!” “Ain’t that the plan?” “No!” “Okay, okay! Geez, you humans are so overly complicated. What happen to mating calls? It’s so much easier.” “Shut it, Rotom...” With a heavy sigh, he slouched over the single-seat coach. Maybe it’s a bad plan, but it’s the only foul-proof plan he could ever execute. “Okay,” Leon sat up and slapped both side of his cheeks to concentrate, “I’m ready! All I have to say is ‘Go out with me this evening’!” Snatching RotomPhone from the air, while apologizing, the purple-haired man pressed ‘Call’ with confidence. It rang for a few times before the Dragon Gym Leader picked up with his smooth, husky voice. The voice he should still get used to but still melt every time he heard it. “What’s up, ex-champ? Feeling lonely on Valentines?” Let’s be boyfriends. Leon’s mind went on short circuit for a bit. He didn’t respond for a minute, making the silence unbearable. “Uh, Leon? Are you there?” “LET’S DO BOYFRIENDS’ DATE!” Unfortunately, his mind ended up fusing what he initially going to said and his current thoughts. Freaking out, he ended up the call without hearing the reply. He just screwed up. He managed to screw up the only foul-proof plan. This is not what it should happen and yet, here he was. Leon stomped his way to his bedroom, slammed his door open and threw himself onto the bed in frustration. He really shouldn’t take Option 1. ~~~~~~~~~~ Arriving at the Hammerlocke Gym, Hop quickly strode towards the lift, and quickly slid his access card. He went in but not without getting bumped by Raihan, who never seems to noticed him as the top Gym Leader dashed outside with the biggest grin plastered on his face. Leon succeed, huh... The lab assistant shook his face to focus on his mission. He really put a lot of effort finding these Pokemon after all. Gramps’ advice always worked! Reaching his destination, he walked out slowly towards his so-called Rival Gang. They were grooming and playing with Zacian and Zamazenta. The Legendary Pokemon was really ease up on Victor and Gloria real quick. Hop let out his own Legendary Pokemon partner, Eternatus, scaring the occupant in the room, especially the albino-haired boy. “Hop! You idiot! Are you trying to scare me half to death?!” I wanna smooch you til I melt though. Grinning characteristically, he settled himself down between the girls, who now switched their focus on Eternatus. Victor, the new chairman’s secretary, smiled gently at him as greeting. Arceus, I would love to see your smile everyday, every time. “So, how’s the research coming up, Hop? Having such a rowdy Pokemon like this dragon must have damage the lab a few times.” Marnie smirked at Hop while throwing a Heavy Ball for it to catch. Such a graceful badass. With a super effective smirk. “Natus can shapeshift to a smaller size to roam freely so it’s not a problem,” the lab assistant answered before side-glancing his Legendary partner, “the problem would be giving Sonia a hard time to examine it.” “Typical. Seems like giving you Eternatus is the right choice. After all, I don’t think I can handle two huge responsibilities at the same time. Am I right, Zacian?” Gloria, the newly-crowned champion, winked at the Sword-wielding Warrior Pokemon. Zacian huffed out a pleased grunt, almost indicating it agreed with her. Are you trying to faint me with your adorable wink?! Finding the right time, Hop waited for the opportunity as they talked and played around. Occasionally battling or betting matches, making curry at this unusual location, talking about work. Hop had to thank Arceus when Victor popped the question. “So... today’s Valentines Day, ain’t it? You guys got some confession to make?” Silence taking over the room. Marnie and Bede tried to hide their blush but failed miserably while Gloria was looking embarrassed for once. Hop took a deep breath. “I do.” Shocking his gang again, he took out four Love Balls. Each of them had their unique designs that Hop took the time to do. “It makes me sound crazy but I think... I have a crushes on you guys. Super, duper big ones,” he slowly exclaimed as he handed them each of their own unique Love Balls, which they took it gladly. A good sign. Victor had Sobble with heart-shaped eyes drawing; Gloria had Scorbunny with its ear forming a heart-shaped drawing; Bede had a heart-shaped Solosis drawing; Marnie had Morpeko with heart-shaped cheek pouches drawing. “Hop, I hate you,” the Fairy Type Gym Leader started scowling. While Hop thought he was already damaging their friendship, the blushing albino head also threw him and the others a Love Ball. “You make me look so underprepared that it hurts.” “Me too.” The Dark Type Gym Leader joined in as she too had four Love Balls. “Me three.” The secretary chimed in, also with another four Love Balls. “I’m an idiot,” Gloria was flushed red as she took out four boxes of chocolates. The gang bursted out laughing at their rightfully-called lover. Lovers... that rings nicely to my heart. Our heart.

#One Shot #Valentines Prompts #Pokemon Sword and Shield #TrueRivalShipping #RivalGangShipping #Pokemon Trainer Victor #Pokemon Trainer Gloria #Rival Hop #Rival Marnie #Rival Bede #Champion Leon #Gym Leader Raihan #Zacian #Zamazenta #Eternatus #SWSH

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glottia-arts · 5 years ago

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Friendship is outer-dimensional

Old story kind of brought back from the grave since I felt bad, but here we are now! Another combined story of @konan720‘s world and mine from AHiT because I liked doing that for some reason before.

I hope this isn’t too bad even with editing out a lot of my old writing, but oh well.

This is also a multi-chapter story, but it’s TBD on whether I’ll put the other chapters up here as well.

Word Count: 4,892

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Loud sounds echoed around stone walls, unrecognizable to her ears. Aura was unsure what to make of the foreign land.

Buildings were one thing, sounds another, but the overall appearance of the world was dull and frankly made Aura’s eyes hurt. She never thought dull would hurt her eyes, but she supposes this is what she gets for consistently being surrounded by bright objects.

This applies to only the ghostly residents of her home and her hourglass, but she digresses.

Despite the headache, the dweller surveyed the odd-looking town; Its appearance strange compared to that of her village before its fall. Buildings were larger, more intricate, several decorated beyond compare. Some showcased products that she’s never seen or heard of, others purposes were left unclear to her.

Several people passed through the area, whether by foot or odd contraption. She noticed that some children would ride on two-wheeled objects, a protective headpiece in place as they wandered the streets. Adults, on the other hand, seemed to favor moving metal boxes or larger more metallic versions of the thing the kids rode.

The things they traveled with were certainly loud and smelly, having been up close and personal with several of them. Aura still didn’t understand how they work but was a little peeved that one decided to move over her.

She may be a pure shadow that clings to surfaces during the day, but that doesn’t mean she has no feelings!

Speaking of, getting around was hard. Traversing the town proved challenging, no matter the time.

During the day, there was leeway as she didn’t have her normally large body to contend with. Of course, there were complications due to the lack of shadow filled locations to cross through.

A group of children caught her one time, believing someone painted a spooky ghost on the wall. It was simple to stay still and let them presume so, but she’d hate to see their reaction when they found out someone removed said ‘painting’.

Come the hours of twilight, Aura had to worry over her glowing body. True, she could revert to her basic dweller form to decrease her size, but her body still shone brightly. In order to properly travel, she needed to be out and about and couldn’t afford the attention. She wasn’t a shapeshifter like Snatcher but wished she was for this. Even having a basic human form would be helpful! She’s sure an excuse exists for glowing people, given the several odd things in this world, right?

No, that’s possibly too silly.

The ghost just had to stick with a touch and go method in the towns she goes through, letting her freedom be while she roamed the peaceful forests.

Aura does not understand how she wound up in this world, other than it probably being her own fault, but held hope; Hope in finding someone who might hold the key to her way home.

Several days of traveling later, she sensed a magical signature. Though faint, she could sense a powerful aura in the signature. Perhaps they would know what she sought and if not, refer her somewhere else.

Given her lack of a magical signature, unless using her powers, along with the fact hardly anybody could sense magic flow, it’s doubtful they were aware of her. Hopefully, they were friendly.

Getting closer, the signature began to feel familiar, both positively and negatively.

She’ll have to play this safe.

It didn’t take long for the ghost to arrive in the town she noticed their presence radiate from, but waited for night to strike. Aura had no clue of their lives or what they did but most individuals tended to become available at nightfall. That and she would prefer to deal with them as her usual self.

In the time the large dweller waited she observed this town, getting a lay of the land if she could not receive the information she hoped for. The city seemed peaceful but had held an uncomfortable air. It was possible a lot of negative thoughts and emotions lay in this town, but it might be something else.

It was several hours past dusk when she made it to the housing district that she sensed the magic emerge from. This wasn’t a terrible housing area, several large nice looking homes in the vicinity. Several had yards, some having trees with the occasional treehouse. Seeing them all made her homesick. Hopefully, she’ll be able to return soon.

Arriving at the mystery house, Aura surveyed the home. It looked just like any other ordinary house but much like the town, gave an odd impression. Dread filled her nonexistent stomach, fearing the one she’d have to deal with would be troublesome.

Hating to do this without at least knocking on the front door, the dweller clung to the shadows, traversing the walls of the home into the closest open window.

Entering the room, she began scanning for the magical user. They were indeed located in the home, but not the current room. Unsure of what to do, yet curious, Aura emerged from the shadows to survey the room properly.

Drawings hung up along the walls, primarily done in crayon. The ghost had a hard time making out what the drawings were, unfamiliar with several things detailed, but it was nice to see the imaginative side of whoever drew it. The room lacked much decoration, reminding her of her own room back while she was alive. Not much personal detail was shown, other than the works of art and the quilt that covered the bed.

She may be an intruder, but she refused to be rude and snoop through personal belongings. Aura would make do with this information presented to her. Besides, this could be the room of someone else and not the one she sought.

Hearing soft footsteps make their way to the door, Aura slid into the shadows, hiding under the bed. A few moments later, the door opened and in stepped a small figure. The undead dweller had some trouble making things out from her hiding spot, but from what she could tell, a child entered.

Oddly enough, the child retained a faint magical signature. No other humans she observed in her travels registered with one, so this was new. Additionally, she sensed the one she had followed here, believing they entered with the young one, yet could not see them whatsoever.

A shiver ran down her spine as she fully picked up on them. The dweller now knows why the reading felt off to her, the very same thing she picked up on and was hesitant around Vanessa their entire lives for; deep seated anger has altered their presence, seeping to their magics core.

Maybe it was a mistake coming here.

She noticed the child approach the bed, hearing the shuffle of sheets. It must be the girls’ bedtime, a yawn following the fade of fabric movement.

The girl was ready to climb into bed but was halted by another voice.

“Julia, I think you should go get properly ready for bed.”

“Huh..?” A pause. “But Moon, I go to bed like this sometimes anyway.”

“I know dear child but perhaps a change of clothes and a wash of your mouth will have you feeling better. You might sleep easier as well.”

The child didn’t respond, but went over to a dresser and opened it. Once she got what she wanted, she exited her room.

A few seconds went by before Aura finally could make out a shadow, hearing them open various compartments and even a door.

“If someone’s in here, they will regret ever entering.” They continued opening more things. “Perhaps it’s just my paranoia, but something feels wrong.”

Aura’s nerves were in shambles. Did she disturb something when she came in? No… if he’s paranoid like her, situations that are off are easier to notice.

She didn’t want to reveal herself after her realization but she nevertheless needed to know if they knew anything.

“Um… sorry to intrude, but yes, I’m here.”

A lengthy pause before they responded in a baffled yet hushed tone. “Am I going senile or did I hear a response that did not come from the child?”

Did... no one else speak to them? That’s somewhat sad.

“No, you received a response.”

Their shadow moved from one side of the room to the other.

“Where are you?” They sounded mildly irritated.

“I believe we both know I’m in hiding. If I have your word that you won’t harm me, I will show myself.”

Another extended pause, one she wasn’t sure she would even get a response to.

“All right, deal. Though I want you to show your hands first. No tricks.”

That was fair. “Of course.”

The dweller wasn’t assured the bed would be much of a barrier between them both but having something to separate them might ease both of their nerves.

On the opposing side, she gradually extended her hands out of the shadows to where they’d be able to see them. Taking an unneeded deep breath of air, she slipped out of her hiding place, becoming visible to the world. She still held her hands above her head as a good sign of faith, even when done leaving her safe haven. Now in view, bright blue eyes took in the sight of the one she had been searching for, who happened to be in a defensive stance. Aura was shocked, not expecting their appearance.

Their skin was pale blue, head resembling that of a mask in her opinion, a point resembling a crescent extending from the right side of their skull. Contrasting with their primary skin tone was a secondary one, being orange marks. These marks protruded from their eyes and mouth on both sides of their face.

Their eyes were unique, shaded with blue and red on either side, yet deferred in design; The left eye reminded her of a hypno wheel while the right sported diamonds.

Clothing not appearing to fit into this time frame is what they wore; A large orange cloak with a yellow undershirt catching her attention primarily. To make things even fancier, they wore a monocle and a cravat on their being. As they shifted their arms did she notice cuffs around their wrists, chains attached.

If they were a ghost, she partially wanted a do-over at dying, feeling underwhelming in comparison.

Their arms began lowering, shocked at her presence. Maybe they weren’t used to other odd figures?

Believing they had ample time to take her in, she closed her eyes and bowed her head somewhat, addressing them as calmly as she could. “My apologies for disturbing you, I’ve been traveling hoping to find some help with a predicament. You see, I believe I’ve wound up far away from home and was wondering if you-”

“Aura?”

Eyes shooting open, she stared at the other magic user. How did they know her moniker?

Now it was her turn to grow defensive. Lowering her arms, one moved to her chest as she inclined her head. “How do you know that name?”

They blinked several times as they registered her question. After a moment, they replied. “It’s… the name you went by, not wanting to be referred to as ‘the Mayor’s Daughter’ all the time.”

“You are correct, but how are you aware of it?”

They crossed their arms and tilted their own head. “Do you not recognize me, Lady Aura?”

She remembered most of the people she’s interacted with in life but this specter wasn’t ringing any bells.

“I’m afraid unless you’re a dweller, I cannot exactly identify you.”

They stared at her for a minute more before saying something that threw her for a loop, smiling and bowing. “You really know how to wound your dear ol’ Princy, don’t you Lady Aura?”

Wait… what!?

She stared at him for the longest time, so long in fact, he finished righting himself after many moments, shooting her a worried glance.

He can’t be… there’s. Yes, he looks similar, but Snatcher… what!?

The teal ghost apprehensively made her approach to him, still attempting to process this new bit of information. Was it possible, him the Prince as well?

Standing before him, Aura looked him over once more. “Not that I don’t believe you per se but do you mind if I… check?”

He blinked a couple of times, confused. “I… suppose so?”

Reaching in between her ‘hair’ wraps, she took hold of her pendant, changing its form. Pulling it out, revealed to be a monocle of her own. It was similar to any ordinary one, but held bright flecks of light flowing through the glass.

Holding the glassware up to her eye, her grip grew tight, preparing to see this ghost in any form he could have taken in life. Much to her shock, the glass instantaneously showed her the image of her dear old friend, the Prince.

Sluggishly returning the monocle back to its original place, she changed it back to a necklace. The teal ghost didn’t know what to say at this reveal.

The blue ghost went to touch her but stopped short and positioned the hand to the back of his head, scratching it. “Did you learn what you needed to?”

A nod but nothing more.

“That’s good.” He too was at a loss of words. After a while, the lengthy silence started to become uncomfortable for him. “Well, I know we both have a lot of questions for each other. Um…”

“If you have something to ask, just do it. I don’t even know what to say right now over this.”

“Right.” He coughed before continuing. “If you don’t mind me asking… Did you at least have an enjoyable long life?”

She peered back up to him, unusually calm. “It depends on your definition and other standpoints. For a regular person or a dweller, I suppose I did. For my other bloodline, I barely even lived.”

He tilted his head and she could tell he didn’t want to be rude and ask his next immediate question.

“I died on my 21st birthday if that clears it up.”

The ghost’s eyes widened, clearly not expecting that.

“I... I’m sorry, Aura. I-“

“It’s fine, you didn’t know.”

“Well yes, but on your birthday..?” He glanced to the side, glaring daggers at nothing in particular, angry over the new tidbit. He looked back to her, sorrow evident in his features. “Really, I am sorry. It must have been hard to die so far away from home, even if you were gone on a trip.”

Aura paused, dread filling her. Oh... she had to break the news to him as well it seemed. “I had nearly forgotten Vanessa told everyone that.”

“... That wasn’t the situation?”

She almost didn’t want to tell him, it was both an embarrassment on her part and she dreads his thoughts of the matter. After much hesitation, her head shook no.

“Then, what happened?”

“... Queen Vanessa... kind of... banished me from the kingdom.”

His long silence and unemotional stare spiked her anxiety, afraid of what was to come.

“She banished you?”

A nod and she began to shake.

He ran a hand over his face, a burst of joyless laughter escaping his lips. She involuntarily flinched, not knowing what to make of it.

“She lied about the trip. Of course she did.” His false humor faded, noticing her discomfort. “You have me curious, you know of the lie yet were out of the kingdom, how is that?”

“I learned it from...” How would she describe this? It was such a peculiar subject that her mind had a terrible time wrapping around it, her hands moved on their own as she struggled to find the appropriate words. “... your other half?”

A twitch of his body. “How do you know of Snatcher?”

With all these questions her anxiety grew. She really needed to sit down. His energy set her on edge before, but now it made the nervous ghost want to bolt home even sooner. She didn’t want to take any chances for anything, especially if he lost it as Snatcher had when he found out this information.

“W-well... since the forest is where we all died, it’s hard to miss him.”

He stared at her for a moment before twisting away, floating towards the window. Once in front of it, he peered outside, covering his expression from her. Part of her craved to go over and comfort him but another urged her to stay where she was.

The teal ghost could feel her chest ache from the strain in his next words. “She killed you... didn’t she?”

“She did, yes.”

Her friend didn’t respond, silently staring outside once more.

Aura hesitantly floated to him, her concern outweighing her fear. Once beside him, she waited a moment before speaking to him in a soft nature. “Moon... can I call you that? Or is that just what the child calls you?”

She heard him discreetly clear his throat and paid it no mind, waiting for his response. “I go by Moonjumper now, though you may refer to me as Moon or anything you have prior.”

On instinct, she would like to go back to her old habits but felt guilty anytime she accidentally referred to Snatcher as “Princy”. He didn’t mind, but she didn’t want to bring up things that could hurt him, she certainly wouldn’t with Moonjumper either.

She decided to try this new name out. “Moonjumper...” Ok, it’ll take some getting used to. “This is a foolish question for me to ask, but... are you all right?"

Given his mood, Aura half expected a snarky response, though this specter was good at proving her wrong.

“No... I’m not.”

Hesitantly, she laid a hand against his arm. At the contact he recoiled, causing her to retract her hand as fast as lightning.

“S-sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s fine. Just...” He quietly chuckled. “You were always concerned about being near me, it’s strange to have you willingly this close let alone touching me.”

The dweller gently poked him to test his claim. This time he didn’t flinch but a slight smile grew on his face.

“Satisfied?”

“Never.”

He snickered again, ceasing at her hand making full contact with his arm.

She was about to say something to him, but the door opening and closing startled both souls, affectively interrupting their conversation.

“Ok Moon, I’m all ready for-” The child paused, noticing not one, but two strange entities staring at her. “Bed…?”

Aura’s eyes darted around restlessly, unsure how to handle this.

Moonjumper stared at his little charge, unsure of how to address the situation. Julia beat him to the punch though, terribly excited.

“Moon, why didn’t you tell me you had another friend?”

“I… um…”

The small child ran over to the pair, shaking out of the excitement of meeting another unique character.

“Have you just been hiding them from me the whole time? Where’d they come from? Can they do all sorts of cool stuff like you?”

Julia threw out questions faster than the duo could process them and continued to do so. Aura wondered if the child even took a breath between rapid-firing them out.

She tilted back, eyes squinting at Moonjumper in question. He shrugged and held a hand up to the child.

“Young one.”

She stopped rambling but was still delighted.

“You must calm down, it’s time for rest.”

“Aw, but Moon.”

“No buts. You’ve been having trouble sleeping and don’t you dare try to deny it. Bed.”

The child pouted as she glanced between both ghosts, but obeyed. If it wasn’t so late, Aura was sure the child would stomp her feet as she made her way to the mattress. She angrily tucked herself in bed, staring at both of them, pout still present.

“Julia…”

She pouted further.

Aura chuckled, floating over to the girls bed and began tucking her in properly. Julia’s pout disappeared at this, taking in the strange ghost.

The large teal ghost carefully sat on the bed, blue eyes meeting green. “If you are having trouble sleeping, you should try to get enough rest while you can.” Her large hand ruffled the child’s orange locks. “I don’t know if I’ll be sticking around long enough, but I can tell you my name.” Glancing side to side, the large ghost leaned in like she was hiding a secret, whispering to the child. “My name is Aura.”

Julia blushed at the odd feeling of having her head messed with yet giggled at the ghost’s act of secrecy. She whispered back, “I’m Julia.”

“What a beautiful name.” She ruffled the girls head once more before straightening and removing her hand.

The child took notice of Aura beginning to leave her bed, darting out to grab her hand. The ghost paused, head tilting in question.

“Please stay.”

“Julia I-”

“Actually, Aura...” Her gaze shifted to Moonjumper. He was hesitating, glancing between both girls. “Would you mind staying with Julia for a while? I have something that demands my immediate attention.”

Aura felt like she knew what it was he would be leaving for but didn’t call him out on it, looking between him and the girl before nodding.

“All right.”

Julia silently cheered, kicking her feet in excitement.

“That doesn’t mean you get to stay up all night Julia.”

Her head nodded rapidly, just happy that Aura was staying with her longer.

Moonjumper’s eyes glanced between both girls, apprehension in his features. Before Aura could question the blue ghost, his form faded, leaving the two girls alone.

Unease began to settle in the ghost’s stomach but was drawn out of it because of the bouncing figure beside her. Never did she believe a child would be so excited to be near a ghost, especially as one such as herself, but here was one.

Taking a chance, she looked to the small child, fatigue and wonder shining behind those big green eyes.

“Have you known Moon for long?”

“In a sense, yes. In another, no.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well… before I died, I had known him personally for only a few short years. I’ve been dead for several hundred now and have not seen him until this moment. It depends on how you look at it.”

The child nodded before adding in her own thoughts. “I’ve only known him a while, short like you.” Her face scrunched up. “I… haven’t been keeping him from you, have I?”

Aura blinked in confusion, tilting her head to the side. “Dear, I doubt you’ve kept him away from me, especially this long, it’s nothing to fret about. Besides, with you keeping him company, I’m sure he’s been happy with the time you’ve spent together.”

“Yeah, but what about you?”

“I’ve been… fine.”

The being fine part applied to current years, but the beginning of her death? Not so much. She wasn’t about to tell a child of her violent beginnings of the afterlife though.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure. I’ve been… preoccupied with other matters and have recently come into contact with others I once knew.”

Nodding, Julia did her best to hold in a yawn but horribly failed. Aura smiled behind her mask, running a caring hand over the child’s head.

“If I’m here tomorrow, you can continue answering your questions. Rest is important.”

A soft whine escaped Julia. “But if you leave, I can’t ask anymore… need to ask... now.” Another yawn escaped the child, tears forming in her eyes from that one. “Besides… havin’ a tough time sleepin’.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“I’m afraid the boogeyman will come back…”

“Boogeyman?”

To the ghost’s surprise, the child somewhat curled in on herself. “A mean man who liked to scare me. Moon said he wouldn’t come back, but I always get this feeling that he’s there still, watching.”

Aura frowned, sensing the worry radiate off the child. Either this monster was real or a very detailed figment of her imagination. She’d have to ask Moonjumper about it if she stayed longer.

“Tell me, Julia, is there anything that makes you feel better?”

The child stayed silent for a while, eyes vacant as she stared at her legs.

“... I used to talk to the moon… it helped me a lot. Even more after Moon showed up from it one night.”

A clawed hand went to the chin of her mask, holding it in thought. Well, she’s not the moon nor is she Moonjumper. What could Aura provide that they could not? After a moment, an idea struck her.

“Julia. How do you feel about the stars?”

A slight frown graced the child’s face, her eyes filled with another question as she turned them upon the dweller.

“The stars?”

“Yes, the sun and moon may be pillars of the cycle of life, but the stars of the universe surround everything, accenting the beauty of the unknown. Not to mention, the stars certainly complement the moon at night, yes?”

The child somewhat understood where this was going, nodding lethargically. “The stars are pretty, just can’t see them that often…”

“How about this; If you promise to go to sleep, I’ll show you some stars before you do so.” The ghost hesitantly looked around then leaned in to whisper, “Just don’t tell Moonjumper about it ok? Don’t need him jealous.”

The child’s eyes widened, her excitement reignited. “Whoa really? Ok, I’ll go to sleep after then!”

Not even a second of thinking and the child already agreed, adolescents were certainly something else.

“All right, I’ll hold you to your word then, child.”

Holding a hand out, a golden ball began to form within Aura’s palm, gradually growing in size. Once the golden sphere reached the size of her hand, the ghost gracefully lifted it into the air, letting it float up to the ceiling. Julia watched, enamored with the beautiful glow, even more so as the ball burst into small spheres and diamonds with contact, the light particles spreading around the room.

The child’s eyes grew wide, sitting up in bed watching the descent of the fractals. Several froze in place at a certain height, twinkling like the stars in the night sky, others took several more moments before they stopped as well. Room filled with dazzling light, Julia could swear she was in her own little part of space.

“So cool…”

Smiling softly, Aura couldn’t help but agree.

With a flick of a finger, one light languidly drifted to her palm, twinkling in white and rainbow-ish hues. The action drew in the young one’s attention, scooting closer to the ghost to gain a better view.

“Don’t stare young one, you’ll injure your eyes.”

Registering the words, the child blinked several times before retreating and rubbing her exhausted eyes. She was still trying to fight sleep, but the light of Aura’s magic seemed to calm the child further. Julia slumped against the large ghost as her eyes struggled to stay awake.

Gently caressing the child’s head, Aura began softly humming a tune, seeing Julia relax further. Her eyes no longer struggled to stay open, now remaining shut for the night. To Aura’s surprise, the child still tried to interact with her.

“Miss… Aura…?”

“Yes, young one?

“Thank you… you’re so nice and cool… just like Moon… I hope you get to stay…” A yawn interrupted her as she snuggled closer to the ghost, laying an arm over Aura’s ‘lap’. "… and talk with him… he… smile… more…”

Aura didn’t know how to respond to the child even after she drifted to sleep, leaving the ghost to stare at her sleeping form.

Refocusing on the room after several minutes, with a wave of her hand, the magic particles broke apart, dissolving and returning the room to its natural state.

Returning her hand to her lap, her hands folded together as her gaze drifted to the window, eyes settling upon the moon.

Aura was unsure how long Moonjumper would be gone for but prayed that he would not do anything reckless. Of course, if he was anything like Snatcher, something might wound up happening, regardless. She just hopes he’d be safe.

Her anxiety ate away at her again as she recalled the uncomfortable feeling his magic had brought her before, looking down at Julia with worry. It was unknown why his magic had morphed the way it did, but her best guess would be similar as to why it did for Snatcher; Queen Vanessa. Aura hoped that this would not cause any issues for Julia in the foreseeable future.

Though faint, she could sense his magic once more; the hatred from his emotions wafting through her senses, causing her to shiver.

Thinking back to Julia’s words, should she leave? Perhaps she shouldn’t depart yet, even if she desired to return home. The dweller doubts Moonjumper would go as far as Vanessa with unwarranted murder, but something tells her that there’s more to this situation of his than meets the eye.

If she found his intentions to be unjust, Aura would have to take care of the specter with a heavy heart.

A hand unconsciously slipped beneath her wraps, grabbing hold of her birthright. “Ancestor… please give me strength if it ever comes to that…”

For the rest of the night, Aura remained unmoving, lost deep in thought.

#Aura #Julia #original character #A Hat in Time OC #AU #Moonjumper #glottia writes

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