#and having to google it constantly is well. boring

[consolecadet]

Rapidly developing a personal vendetta against The Donut Whole

[worldlxvlys]

heyy an, i miss u sm so i got a request!! what if u start a sturniolo little sister thing (c.ai doesn't feed me enough) basically the plot i wrote on c.ai is reader (she has a name on c.ai but just go with y/n ig) is about to leave to go to a party in a sort of "revealing" outfit (it's not actually that revealing the triplets are just overprotective as shit in my plot) and they notice a few she's been wearing more revealing outfits these days and they lowkey wonder why. (that's not actually what happens in my plot but i'm gatekeeping it bc it's my comfort c.ai bot) and then you can go from here i guess!! in my plot, reader is a very whiny, easily annoying and whimpery girl, ykwim? like she's so easily hurt / upset. that's one of her main traits so hope it helps the development of the fic! ilysm🫶🏻

stand out

sturniolo triplets x sister! reader

warnings: cursing, mention of shitty ex

a/n: kind of got carried away, hopefully you like it tho

ily <33

“you’re not leaving in that” chris stated for about the fifth time that night. i was starting to get annoyed.

i’ll admit that my shorts were on the shorter side, but everything was covered.

“why chris? why do you care about what i put on my body?”

his jaw clenched as he let out a heavy sigh.

catching onto the annoyance that was written all over chris’s face, matt stepped in.

“look, what you decide to wear is completely up to you, we aren’t going to tell you what you can and can’t wear.” he placed his hand on my shoulder gently.

“we’ve just noticed that your outfits have been a little more on the revealing side lately-“ i cut him off, already knowing where this conversation was heading.

“ we? so you guys talk about how i dress when i’m not here?” his mouth opened and closed like a fish as my question caught him off guard.

nick then pitched in, “look, we’re genuinely just worried about you. we want to make sure you’re safe”

“i’m fine guys, seriously. i mean, everybody wants to stand out, right?” i watched as all of their faces dropped as they began to catch on.

matt tilted his head at me, “is this about your ex?” i let out a sigh at this.

he knows me too well.

when i broke up with my ex, matt was the person i leaned on. chris and nick were there for me, of course, but matt was the person who took me for late night drives to cheer me up. so, naturally, i spoke to him the most about my feelings.

when i was dumped, my ex told me i was just like every other girl and i tried too hard to fit in. while i tried to act like his words held no affect on me, they hurt me deeply.

they rang through my head constantly, no mater what i did. but, i didn’t want to completely change just because a man decided to use my biggest insecurity against me. so, instead, i decided to switch up my style.

what i failed to realize, however, was that my brothers were able to read me like a book.

and while the change in clothing choice was cute, it wasn’t me. it was uncomfortable.

“i hate that he still has so much power over me. it’s like no matter what i do, i can always hear his comments about me in my head.” i finally spoke.

“what did he say to you?” chris asked, growing concerned.

i looked down at this, feeling tears start to prick at the corner of my eyes.

“pretty much that there was nothing special about me and that i’m boring” i shrugged my shoulders, swallowing the lump that began to form in my throat.

“well he’s just flat-out wrong” chris stated, as though it was the most obvious thing he’s ever said.

i furrowed my eyebrows as i stared at him in confusion.

“um, hello? you’re literally the most insane person i’ve ever met”

i looked at him crazily, “is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“you’re the only person i’ve ever met that goes running for fun. that is borderline psychotic” i narrowed my eyes at him. “trust me, you’re not like any other girl” he finished.

i playfully rolled my eyes at him.

“plus” matt began, “isn’t this the same dude that thought that googled why he had a headache and was fully convinced he was dying?” i couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

nick then joined in, “besides, that motherfucker talks like he’s reading from a script written by the ginny and georgia writers, i promise you’re not missing out”

this sent the three of us into laughing messes. chris reached out for something to hold onto as he started to fall and, seeing as i was standing right next to him, that happened to be me.

chris clutched onto my shoulders as he began to bring me down with him, and the four of us doubled over in laughter.

——————

masterlist

tag list: @lovingsturniolo @lustfulslxt @gwenlore @flowerxbunnie @sturnssx @mattslolita @its-jennarose @sturnsdior @sophssturn @bernardsleftbootycheek @queen161718 @chrisdevora @cupidsword @nickmillersn1gf @stramboli4life @mattsneezing @chrisstankyleg @sturniolobltch @vib3swithanuk @ciarasturn1 @bethsturn @bernardenjoyer @mbbsgf @rac00ns-are-c00l4 @ssturniolo @blueeyedbesson @mxqdii @sturniolowhore @rheaakayourname @defnotayonna @urmom2bitch @abbie13sworld @starsturniolo @hearts4chriss @theyluv-meee @sturns-posts @carolinalikesthings @itzdarling @chrisstopherfilmed @judespoision @sstvrnioloo @littlebookworm803 @nicksdrpepper @chrisloyalgf

[starrgirlella]

Lurking for love? More like lurking for LORE

Hi everyone! Just two days ago, I made some interesting discoveries about LFL by just digging around the website

I'm not sure if anyone else found this out so that's why I'm going to be sharing what I found because it's very interesting

This post is going to be pretty long lol and full of my rambling. If you're interested, please take a read! Do note that English isn't my first language so I may express myself a bit weird 😭

Also IK the screenshots are pretty shitty but I'm lazy oops

To start, I have a habit of checking the sinistershrike website along with the LFL itch.io game page. Why? Well I just like looking if there are any new updates (and its my hyperfixtation so I'm constantly looking for new content)-

And I noticed that on the sinistershrike website there was a new update which some of you may or may not saw.

In summary, the game is getting custom music, prounouns are getting removed so MC is going to be gender neutral and getting called only by their name and most interesting of all: a new main character is getting added, and they're going to be dateable!

Pretty interesting, right? I immediately got curious on who that character might be since they're going to cause drama and more mysteries.

But wait! I'm still not done, hehe

Afterwards, I was just randomly looking at Jacob Alden pics thru google. Again, why? Well, I don't know either lol. It's just a habit that I do when I'm bored and sometimes when I'm lucky, I come across new things.

And this time I was lucky!

So I scrolled down to the end of the results and I saw this post which caught my eye:

What's so interesting about it? Well the fact that the creators website is linked to it. Curious, I clicked on the link and was suprised at what I saw.

(Mind you I still dont know if I'm an idiot just finding this out or not...)

Basically, it's a site containing all info about Jacob! I got really excited when I saw it bc I LOVE learning all the facts about my favourite characters and finding new official content!

When I finished looking through it I noticed two things:

1. The website adress (is that what it's called? Im sorry english isn't my first language)

So when you look at the website adress you can notice how it's linked (basically an extension) to the creators webiste which is: sinistershrike.neocities.org

The thing is; you can't open Jacobs page on the creators site. Like yes, there is a tab which says CHARACTERS but if you click on it you'll get nothing but a scary looking Jacob. Which means to get to this page you have to type the adress in yourself.

So I'm assuming the creator is purposefully hiding this Jacob page (maybe because he wants to finish pages for all characters and more)

And here's the link if you want to take a look for yourself:

https://sinistershrike.neocities.org/character/jacob

2. At the end of the page, you have links to other characters made by the creator.

Not just lurking for love, but other ocs made by him!

Though, if you click on them, you'll get nothing. Maybe they're still being made? I'm not sure.

Now, when you look at the characters for LFL, it's very interesting because we now have info on Sarah's last name AND... an unknown character? Noah Vega.

At first, I was stunned. Who could this character be? Then I went back to the creators website and remembered the mention of a new character, can you see where I'm going?

Noah Vega must be the new character! He was never mentioned before; neither in the game nor in the creators deleted blogs.

And pretty quickly I found proof which helped my theory (I SOUND SO DUMB OMG)

Now going back to the website adress thing.

So I concluded that the Jacob website is hidden from the main website for an reason, hence you can only acess it by finding it yourself. I decided to mess around with the website adress a bit, to see if I could find any more extensions/links.

I started by putting different names in the adress. I tried out: Austin, Sarah, Cedric and Alfred but they didn't lead or anything.

BUT

The only name which lead to an extension was Noah. And holy shit-

I'm finding it hard to express how shocked I was at this discovery

This is a pretty big lore drop imo! So his website shows a pinboard with various notes.

And with these notes we can conclude two things:

1. He has an gambling addiction

2. He is investigating Jacob

He definitely an detective trying to solve an old murder case involved with Jacob. Hence why the mention that the new character will add more drama and mystery to the game.

The three murdered highschoolers must be his old friends mentioned in the game: Steve, Monty and Kenny. Which he claims that they haven't talked since highschool. In reality, they were murdered by him for reasons that are unknown for now.

The website link:

https://sinistershrike.neocities.org/character/noah

And that's about it! I had fun digging around finding this new info and writing this post. I hope to see more of interesting secrets like this in the future because it's fun finding them!

I hope this post was of interest to you :)

[gabessquishytum]

CW: past child abuse, past parricide

Special inspector Hob Gadling hates his job. Well, it's actually not true - he loves his job, but today specifically, he hates it. First, he was hoping for a bonus, and now he got assigned to a years-old cold case 'just to ensure that no new details emerged, and the investigation needs not to be reopened.' Second, he'll have to deal with some filthy rich weirdos.

Destiny Endless is a top-tier consulting risk manager, his services costing more than Hob's yearly paycheck. Death is the founder of a successful chain of funeral homes - after all, people always die, and rumor has it that Death is the best in her line of work. Dream is a famous writer who's able to write it all: whatever genre he sets his eyes - and pen - on, the book becomes a bestseller. Desire Endless is a porn star; the only mention of their name makes armies of fans go hard, wet, and horny. Despair founded a pharmaceutical corporation and revolutionized the world by introducing new, highly effective antidepressants. Destruction seems like the only normal person in that fucked-up family of masterminds: he had made a career in the military and then fucked off to travel the world. Last but not least, there is Delirium, an artist. Personally, Hob thinks that one needs to be constantly high to come up with such colors and forms, but hey, it's not him who's paid six figures to install some mind fuckery in amusement parks, so he doesn't get to judge.

Hob wouldn't come close to any of these freaks, but he has to verify that nothing was missed during the investigation, and so, here he goes. Mama and Papa of the Endless disappeared almost twenty years ago with no trace. Their bodies were never found, and there was no evidence of foul play. They just vanished into thin air, voilà. It was presumed that they had got bored, bought themselves new personalities, and left to live someplace else. To Hob, this seems strange yet plausible: looking at their kids, it's obvious that insanity runs in the family.

Still, Hob shows up to do his job, examine old records, and talk once again with all the Endless heirs. All goes very smoothly - there's nothing suspicious, all the kids' testimonies match. Hob would gladly close the check, but there is one tiny problem: he fell head over heels in love with Dream. Now in his thirties, he's unconventionally beautiful, insanely talented, and he's got Hob wrapped around his slender finger. Dream keeps his distance at first, but eventually, they begin dating. Hob finally closes the check for good - it's as clear as day that Endless parents must be chilling on some private island - and plunges into the relationship with Dream, learning him from the other side, as someone vulnerable, insecure, and kind-hearted. There's only one strange thing: Dream is inexperienced in bed for his age, and he's always somewhat tense during sex. Hob tries to talk to him, but Dream shuts the conversation down. Hob guiltily googles his bf and finds out that despite his high profile, there are no mentions of his exes in the media. At all.

Hob is puzzled, but it all falls into place when, one night, his lover has a nightmare. Hob wakes up from his screams and, with horror, realizes that this is more than a nightmare - it's a memory. He wakes Dream up and holds him while he cries. On the periphery of his mind, Dream's screams and pleas create a terrifying story of the siblings being abused by their parents for years.

'You killed them together, didn't you? Each of you thought you were the only one who suffered and thus kept the others safe. But once you all learned the truth…' Hob whispers into Dream's hair and holds him tighter. 'It's alright, my sweetling. I'd have killed them myself for you if they had been still alive.'

They stay like that through the night. In the morning, Hob makes Dream breakfast like nothing happened and goes to work. He's got no reason to worry about the case ever being reopened: there's no evidence, and he's determined to be the only one who sleeps by Dream's side till the end and holds him through his dreams and nightmares.

I love this so much. Poor, poor Dream. And the rest of the siblings too!

Hob doesn't want to draw further attention to the case of course, but he does all he can at work to make sure that files are carelessly "lost" or at least buried so deep in the archive no one will find it for a century. It even occurs him to frame someone else for the crime to make sure that the siblings are thoroughly safe, but... its better left forgotten. God knows Hob will spend the rest of his career making sure that no one ever goes sniffing around the Endless siblings ever again.

What's more he'll spend the rest of his life helping Dream in his recovery. He makes sure that he has private, confidential access to resources that a survivor should have - none of the siblings ever told anyone about the abuse or went to therapy because they're terrified to look like they had a "motive" to get rid of their parents. Hob changes that. He persuades as many of the siblings as he can to visit trusted therapists. Not all of them go for it, but at least someone is finally advocating for them and offering a little bit of support.

Hob loves Dream most of all of course, but he considers all the siblings as his family. He hates what happened to them. He can't fix it. But he can protect and love them as they deserve. Maybe all of them can finally breathe a little easier, with a friend on their side.

[tac-the-unseen]

COD museum date night

Fluff

Ghost:

•doesn't really care for museums but he'll go if you go

•He makes sure to hold your hand the whole time.

•makes God awful jokes about the paintings and statues

•laughs at the fat catholic baby paintings

•ends up having more fun then he would ever admit.

•hints at going back for future dates.

Soap:

•He's the one that came up with the idea.

•he images it as super romantic like the movies

•ends up bored out of his mind

•he'll tug on your sleeve and ask to leave like a 5 year old

•can't help but laugh at the nude statuses

•"I would not be posing like that if my willy was that small."

Price:

•He's quite and respectful of the artwork

•he walks slowly and throughly looks over every piece he comes across.

•Dad stance

•hands behind his back, legs spread, chest puffed out, his head nodding slowly as he looks over the art

•if you have a favorite piece, he wants to know everything about it.

•takes you to all kinds of museums if he knows you like them

Alejandro:

•secretly looks up facts about the paintings to impress you

•gets embarrassed when you point out his phone still open on the Google page he used.

•also laughs at the nude statues

•you had to awkwardly shuffle past the glaring art critics and students while Alejandro his bright red and sweating from holding back laughter.

•it becomes an inside joke between you two

•has a great time and wants to go back

Roach:

•at frist he's bored, but as soon as he get to the war section he's pressing his full body on the glass case

•like his eyes have stars in them and everything

•signs fun (and not so fun) facts about the artifacts

•it's the one section he REALLY took his time to look at.

•you bet your ass he's rummaging in the giftshop until he finds something he actually wants.

•you come home with bags of stuff because he couldn't decide

Gaz:

•He too, is respectful and takes his time walking around

•he looks like he's studying all the art

•in reality he's making up scenarios in his head

•he has one earbud in imaging himself saving everybody in the museum from bombers

•he has tuned to world out and is only brought back when you talk about what to get for lunch

König:

•Really like museums!

•he silent while you guys make your way through the galleries

•holding your hand the entire time

•loves the dinosaur section and loves to learn about them

•gets a little upset when he's reminded he's and adult and can't play with childerns interactive games

•he really wanted to play with the magnetic sand :(

•you end up buy him a small tin of magnetic sand in the gift shop :)

Rudy:

•is pretty normal about the date

•drinks a coffee while wondering around with you

•constantly talks about how you guys show start being more artistic together

•you shoot down the having sex with paint idea real quick

•that's a whole lot of mess neither of you want to clean up

•pouts the rest of the date

•gets over it when you take him to the gift shop

Mace:

•he has a deep appreciation for art

•He's fascinated by old tribal artifacts and wants to know how they evolved or translated into today

•is well versed in African culture and folklore

•when you get to the African section you get some frist hand facts!

•tells you stories and tales about certain art pieces and relics

•He finds a south African restaurant 20 minutes away and takes you there to end the night.

•100% bought a glitter pen from the gift store

Thanks for reading <3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

diasomnia, 1 — 19

***Spoilers ahead!!!***

Note: this is just a general summary of what has happened so far and my initial reactions to those major events. I focused my comments on whatever interests me the most (ie lore and funny character interactions), so there are definitely details that were overlooked and lines that were simplified to make a joke; please do not rely on this as a translation.

Big thanks to @shuuenmei and @curekibouka-writing for clarifying the more confusing tracks of the story (some parts were difficult to follow the sequence of events for) and the details of the✨ deep lore ✨ It was fun screaming with the both of you—

Ah yes, Yuu’s Sleeping Beauty dream right on cue. Finally starting to put together the puzzle pieces, huh (Yuu goes to check on the Great Seven statues to confirm they saw the Fairy of Thorns in their dreams)? About time—

As expected, Sebek loses his mind and tells Yuu to not abuse Malleus’s kindness. He’s also super pissed that Malleus and Yuu act familiar with each other (and over the nickname). Yup, that interaction went about as well as we all predicted…

Not Lilia being the “I’m an anime boy late for anime school (the internship meeting)!” trope 😂 All he needs is some toast in his mouth!

Crowley talks about boring things how the internships will work and we hear more about the areas of interest for the third years.

Lore ✨ Each internship “semester” is 3 months and you can only take certain internships if you qualify for them via your grades, credits, and electives. You can choose to do 3 separate internships (again, 3 months each) or do 1 internship (for all 9 months). A B or higher is needed on two of the “semesters” to graduate. Students must also submit reports each semester. Some places additionally require interviews and/or special tests to be passed before a student is accepted as an intern. Placements are not first-come, first-serve; you need to earn that spot.

Trey says he wants to do something related to pastries or agriculture; basically, things close to food production 🌾 He wants to take advantage of his opportunities as an NRC student while he still can!! Trey said he wants to work right after school rather than go to university.

Cater is interested in the entertainment industry; he mentions magazines and videos?? It seems he isn’t interested in higher education.

HELP they randomly mention that Ace’s older brother interned in the entertainment industry too (it gets brought up when Cater was considering a theme park for his own internship)??? TRAPPOLA NII ALSO CURRENTLY WORKS IN ENTERTAINMENT????? When do we get to meet him, Ace—

Vil is continuing to advance his own career in film. He already picked out a studio to apply for, and expresses an interest in magical pharmaceuticals (though he doesn’t intend on going to college). Very fitting specialties for everyone, I must say!

Rook is interested in archeology so he can learn more about the world! After learning about S.T.Y.X., he realizes there’s so much more he doesn’t yet know. According to Trey, Rook does appear to intend to pursue college/higher level studies.

LMAO at Trey constantly having to translate Rook-isms for everyone 😂 Classic Science Club…

Unca Weona is cwanky cuz the talking is disturbing his nappy—

Leona’s going to a mining and energy facility in his home country. It’s an option offered only to those with high grades. Leona wants to be a lazy ass 🦁 “They won’t fail their prince, lmao”

Idia is doing an software engineering internship at Olympus Corp (ie TWST Google) 👀 This is huge because back at the end of episode 5 (ie the episode 6 preview), Idia was actively rejecting offers from Olympus Corp, claiming that he wasn’t welcome anywhere. Character growth… Idia isn’t welcome back at S.T.Y.X. because of the Overblotting and how it nearly exposed the organization to the public eye LOL 😂 Absentee Shroud parents upset with him cksbskwbkcnfke

Malleus doesn’t seem to be interested in picking an internship; he says that, to him, 3 months is too short a time to really learn anything (temporal dissonance strikes again). In the end, he is going to research historical ruins?? He can hang out with the Gargoyles 😎 and Rollo/j

BRO WHAT ???? Lilia is dropping out of NRC??? THE FUQ,,,,!.’sveksbskebkzvczbvvv?$$$&85inmw I had to hard stop at this scene because it caught me by surprise.

The first years are talking about Mickey (like if there are certain conditions to get him to appear??). Oh god, they're planning a Mickey Mouse stakeout????? AND ORTHO IS INCLUDED IN THE GROUP AWWWW 🥺 He searches his databases and uses his cool robot tech to look for more information about Mickey but finds nothing.

GRIM MAKES A SUS COMMENT ABOUT HOW ORTHO IS MORE HELPFUL WITH THIS (Mickey and Yuu's worlds perhaps being tied or related to one another) THAN CROWLEY IS.

They overhear Sebek shouting in the cafeteria; he’s in disbelief that Lilia is dropping out of school.

So anyway, Lilia’s magic has, in fact, weakened significantly (he was almost late for the internship meeting because he woke up and found that he couldn't teleport). He plans on retiring in the Land of the Crimson Dragon (Mushu???? IS THAT YOU).

Interesting??? It seems that Lilia has been progressively losing his powers since even before Sebek and Silver were born… It’s not a super recent occurrence.

Sebek and Silver are understandably upset and mention that while it would be easy for either of them to visit Lilia, it would be almost impossible for Malleus because he will be so inundated with his royal duties after graduation. Malleus is distraught as well, but he insists that they respect Lilia's decision. AND HE’S LEAVING IN LIKE A WEEK? That’s barely enough time to mourn or to emotionally prepare for the fallout…

Malleus pitches an idea to talk to his grandma to not overwork Lilia (vice dorm leaders being overworked? What? In this game? Nooooooo/s).

Malleus's grandma is name-dropped (Maleficia)??? Is everyone in the Draconia family just Mal-something????

LOTS OF OMINOUS DIALOGUE ("Time is running out", "Fate cannot be defied", etc.)

After that whole conversation it’s clear that something isn’t right (despite Malleus maintaining his calm in front of Diasomnia). As soon as he’s away from them, the weather instantly turns stormy AND we see Malleus's blot accumulating as early as 7-13 in what I assume will be a very meaty episode.

Sebek and Silver help Lilia pack; Silver finds this tin in Lilia’s room. There is an old bracelet of acorns and thread inside.

Lilia shows up and says that it’s the most precious item he’s ever been gifted??? But it’s not clear who it’s from.

There's another item in the tin (the ring on a chain)! It has a weird effect on Silver?? I think it makes him sleepy???

The gem in the ring is the same color as Silver’s eyes; Lilia thinks its because his parents wanted his eyes to be forever unclouded and pure 🤨 That’s cute and all, but it makes me really suspicious that something super bad will happen later and I’m living for that—

This ring was tied to baby Silver when Lilia found him. He planned on gifting it to Silver when he's finally an adult... and now is that time 😭 Ain’t no way they’re giving us these heartfelt moments only to not tear it down later with something devastating… And?? With the ring being so fancy, there’s no way Silver isn’t descended from some rich family (or even royalty/nobility) himself??? Prince Silver real????/j cuz that ring sure does look like Princess Aurora’s crown…

Sebek pulls up with THIS fucking monstrosity?? It’s a weapon (axe???) Lilia used from back in the day (like, in war). However, nowadays he uses it to chop regular shit like wood. The weapon looks very similar to one that Maleficent’s minions use.

It's made out of a special magical ore! It’s called Mystium, and it changes shape according to the wielder’s magic.

Back to Yuu and co. staking out Mickey! Grim is finally realizing that if Yuu goes home, he’ll be alone 😔 Noooo, fur baby… Don’t be sad..

They wait for a while but get sleepy because Mickey is taking forever to appear. When Yuu wakes up, they see Malleus’s green lights and they go outside to find it’s snowing (again, because of his weird mood). He apologizes and makes the snow vanish, then confides in Yuu about his insecurities.

Malleus tells a story about how he froze the castle and some people when he was a little kid (omg Elsa core???) because because his grandma had promised to eat with him and was late or didn’t show up due to her royal duties keeping her busy. It sounds like even the palace servants were afraid of his power because of incidents like this. Like. It’s kind of implied Malleus almost killed them (Lilia says Malleus almost “lost” those people) with his magic.

Lilia was the only one who came for Malleus to check on him when he was upset, dried his tears, and tried to understand him. He comes over and frees the people that Malleus froze, then everyone starts preparing and eating shaved ice made from the ice encasing the castle (not randomly, I think it was Lilia’s suggestion).

Malleus gets jealous because he saw everyone enjoying food without him and/or he thought Lilia was angry at him. (This is the point when Lilia tells him he has great power so he has to be careful how he uses it, ie the “you almost lost the people that you’re now happily eating with at the hands of your own magic” talk.)

Lilia uses his weapon to make some shaved ice for Malleus and invited him to join in (I think this may be the same weapon Sebek finds in his room in the present???); this helped Malleus “connect” with other people, or at least invited him to join and do the same thing the others were) It’s because of Lilia that Malleus is okay with eating cold things. UM???? HELLO???? Is that why Malleus’s favorite food is ice-cream??? Or at least a part of it?

BTW LONG HAir PONYtAIL LILiA CANON yes I’m way more excited about this than I was about that entire ice story

Yuu calls Malleus lonely 💀 and Malleus is shocked because he’s so used to being alone that the thought never occurred to him…

Oh no, Malleus learned that Yuu has “found a way home” (ie Rickey Rat hunting) 🙃 he’s like. “You are leaving me as well?” AND RIGHT AFTER HE JUST LEARNED ABOUT LILIA GOING… Lilia, who has been with Malleus ever since he hatched from his egg…

Friends, family… everything and everyone he cherishes is leaving Malleus. “Even if I have great power, I have nothing. I gain nothing, I always lose. No one will invite me, not anymore.” No Lilia, No Yuu 😞 Malleus, your abandonment issues are showing—

NAUUUR not more ominous shit 😭 Not the “man, I sure do wish everyone wouldn’t go :(((( if only there was a way for me to have everything I want…” coming from the mouth of a super insanely powerful magician…

NOOOOO not Yuu unintentionally enabling Malleus… He asks if there was a way to be with your loved ones forever, would Yuu take it?????? YUU DOnT SAy YES YOU FUQQinG IDIOT… ENABLER Yuu didn’t learn from Trey/j

MaLLEUS MY duDE 😔 DOn’T PULL ANY STUPID ShIT PLEASE (ie we all know he probably will)

Aaaand that’s all for now, folks!! Lots of sketchy lines and lore centering around grandpappy Lilia 🤡

Overall, I like the direction episode 7 is going so far! I was really worried that it would focus too much on Yuu and Malleus’s relationship rather than elaborating on Malleus’s relationships with the rest of Diasomnia, but I’m glad that the main story actually touches upon how integral Lilia is to his found family—and to Malleus, of course. A lot of interesting plot points have been set up (especially surrounding Mickey and Lilia), and I’m really looking forward to seeing how those conclude 👀 I feel like we also got spoiled with character lore; I love that time is a Real Thing in TWST and the the boys are aging and thinking hard about their futures. Can’t wait for the angst to hit me full force like a truck 💕

[wintersoldiersoul]

Filming

Summary: You convince Sebastian to make a TikTok with you

A/N: This is kinda shitty but I just thought about how cute it would be if you made a TikTok with Seb and had to write about it. The relationship in this is platonic and I was picturing that Y/N is somewhere in her early 20s.

People always assumed that working on a Marvel movie meant constant action. But truly, most of your days were filled with waiting around in your trailer for hours on end. There were so many moving parts that there were some days you would be called at 4am and have to stay until 5pm only to shoot one scene. Needless to say, you had a lot of downtime. 

It was your castmates that made it all bearable. Instead of sitting alone in your trailers, you were usually all hanging out together. Today was one of those days where you had been waiting around for hours on end to film one scene with Sebastian. You were playing Bucky’s long lost grand-niece, naturally meaning that most of your scenes were with him. 

The two of you were sitting in his trailer, anxiously awaiting for a PA to knock on the door and bring you to set. “Ugh,” you groaned, throwing your head back. 

“You okay over there?” Sebastian chuckled, looking up from his cell phone. Despite being nearly 20 years apart in age, the two of you had grown very close. You were like his little sister.

“I’m losing my mind, Seb. I’ve never been this bored in my fucking life.” 

He laughed and continued to scroll through his phone. 

“What are you even doing on there, anyways? You don’t even use social media,” you sassed. You loved to tease him about his lack of social media presence, calling him old and out of touch, even though you secretly wished you could be as brave as him and stop posting on all of yours, too.

“You know there are other things to do on here,” he held up his phone. “I’m reading an article about space. It’s really interesting.”

You rolled your eyes and groaned again. “God help me.” You opened your own phone and clicked on TikTok, hoping that the For You Page would have something entertaining enough to grab your currently short attention span. After a few minutes, you threw your phone down and sighed again. You watched Sebastian from across the room, silently getting an idea. You smiled slyly, and he looked up at you.

“Oh no,” his eyes narrowed. “You have an idea.”

“Let’s make a TikTok.” You were constantly making TikToks with the other actors and your followers loved it. But you had yet to give everyone what they really wanted. Sebastian.

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

You pouted your lip and widened your eyes. “Pleeeaseeee,” you begged. He laughed at your desperation. “It will be fun I promise. Just one.”

“Stop acting like a child,” he said playfully.

“The fans want it. They’re constantly asking where you are in my videos. People are gonna start thinking that we hate each other, you know.”

He smirked. “Oh they’re constantly asking? They wanna see me in a TikTok that badly?” His tone was playful but you knew him well enough to know that he did seriously doubt it. Despite being so successful, he would always be humble and unsure of himself and just how much his fans truly did love him. 

You snapped a selfie of the two of you and posted it in your Instagram story asking if people wanted to see you and Sebastian make a TikTok. Within seconds, thousands of people were answering “yes” to the poll and your DMs were flooded with pleading messages, begging you to get him to make one. 

“See? Now they won’t leave me alone until I do it.”

He sighed. “Fine. Only for you.” Sebastian had a soft spot for you. Even though you were so much younger than him, he really did think of you as one of his best friends. You were wise beyond your years, having grown up in the spotlight. The two of you loved each other, even just platonically. He was always looking after you, obsessively googling people that you went on dates with, always making sure that you got home safe from nights out. You reminded him a lot of himself when he was your age in a lot of ways. “But no dances. I am definitely not doing a fucking Tik Tok dance.”

“Fair enough.” You scrolled through the app trying to find a good video that the two of you could make. “Oh, I know. This will be fun.” You selected the audio from Gilmore Girls. The classic Jess “Why did you drop out of Yale speech.” You filmed Sebastian as Rory, and yourself as Jess. It took him a bit to get the hang of lip-syncing the words but eventually you had a completed result.

You posted the video with the caption, “As highly requested.” Within seconds, your phone was blowing up with likes and comments of people freaking out over you actually getting Sebastian to make a Tik Tok. 

“See? I told you they wanted it.” You smirked, hitting him lightly on the arm.

He rolled his eyes. “The things I do for you, Y/N.”

[theshmaylor]

ADHD and To-Do Lists

It's a common problem we have. You create a new to-do list or start a planning journal and promise "this is the perfect way to keep a to-do list. I'm Getting Myself Together. this time I'll stick with it. this time I'll Do The Thing Correctly."

And then 4 months later you look around and it's been at least a month since you last looked at the list and you have no idea what important things you have to do and everything is an anxious spiraling mess with no structure for awhile. Then in another few months you find another guaranteed "perfect", ADHD-friendly method to keep a list and the cycle repeats again.

Well, what I've found is there is no perfect to-do list. There's only the to-do list you're willing to use in the moment, and the way to solve this problem is to make a new list before you get to the phase where everything is falling apart.

Let me explain. ADHD brains crave novelty. Without new things, we get under-stimulated and bored (this can be true for everyone, but is worse in ADHD people). That's where the symptoms of impulsivity and difficulty with long-term habits come from.

So, instead of trying to force yourself to keep and maintain the same long-term list or planner, my approach is to IMMEDIATELY create a new list when you feel yourself beginning to ignore the old list. Make it in a different place with a different method. And, most crucially, transfer the incomplete to-do items from your old list to your new list. Reword or reorder them to spice it up.

It sometimes feels silly to make a new list when the old one seems like it's still working, but doing it early lets you skip past the few months where you're left untethered with no list and constantly forgetting about important things.

When I say "different method," it doesn't have to be complicated or overly structured. Just different from what you were doing before. Some of my to-do lists have been:

An email draft

Loose sheets of lined paper

Loose sheets of unlined paper

A .txt file

In a small spiral notebook

A dedicated email account where each to-do item is an individual email sent to myself

An app on my phone with little checkboxes (specifically google Keep, but I'm sure non-google options exist)

A WordPad file

A series of post-it notes stuck on top of each other

Obviously some of these are more convenient than others for portability and accessibility, but for myself I've found that the novelty is more important than how user-friendly it is. (Your mileage may vary of course)

It can be easier said than done to recognize that you're becoming bored with the old list and to get the motivation to create a new list, so I understand if you're skeptical. This idea may not work for you, but it's been the most successful to-do list approach for me, and I'd suggest giving it a try if you've been struggling to make other things work.

[verdemoun]

Reading your timewarp AU helped me get through my college transfer student orientation so now I have a timewarp question:

How much of an education do the gang try to get? Like of course Lenny went to school and had the time of his life, but what about the others,, who’s studying for a GED and who’s surviving off of YouTube tutorials?

honored hope you enjoyed the brainworms also congrats on college!!

not american but will attempt to answer with vague understanding of american education system

jack went for his GED with the bare minimum of studying but aced it he's still a nerdy little bookworm under all that angst. goes onto university just like his parents always wanted. it is definitely not an excuse to spend more time with isaac and his little gang of anarchists. well maybe it was a little but he can't help doing well at university he loves literature and being surrounded by people who want to talk about books at the same level as him actually being challenged he's ascending

abigail my queen studying hard she's getting the chance to be an educated woman and she's taking it. it does not come naturally to her at all and is very overwhelming and frustrating but she wants to be able to help her daughter with homework and also trying to learn how to learn

arthur's interests change too often to actually study anything long-term but he got his GED, enrolled in a college course, got bored, dropped out and now just bounces around those 1-3 day micro qualifications and short courses. has a binder of random certificates there are too many to frame them all as much as hosea would like to. will watch youtube tutorials as he's doing a thing

john got into an adult apprenticeship in carpentry based on a very faked resume as recognition of prior learning. googles all the answers has not learned a single thing

charles also had to get some qualification to work in construction but much more bare minimum like OSHA or safety card to be allowed on construction sites (not entirely sure if that's a thing in america but go with it). this did lead to the hell week of arthur and charles both trying to study for different exams and drinking way too much while studying and going to their tests hungover.

jenny got her GED easy she is easily as smart as lenny just less passionate about education. she would much rather work and get paid opposed to nerd husband chronically in student loan debt

sean will always find a youtube tutorial meanwhile karen has a 'how hard can it be' approach and has broken many, many things. jenny and lenny are the only reason they are still alive my fav poly quartet

dutch loves studying online but is far too argumentative to actually enrol in any formal course he does not tolerate being challenged and will escalate to violence over any criticism of Evelyn Miller

hosea is constantly going to work with bessie (womens history professor at generic university) because he hates being away from his wife and is passively learning from sitting in on random lectures when he is bored

bill attempts to study for the GED but is yet to actually sit it because he gets too frustrated and angry studying but he'll get there eventually

[pastelwhile-art]

Why you should succumb to Makokuu

If youve seen this post before no you havent (I reuploaded it because I realise no one saw the essay under the cut since the ship chart blocked it BYE)

A silly essay about a Makoto X Kusuke dynamic (with some actual analysis.) Feel free to (plz) talk to me about this in the replies and correct anything I got wrong/missing.

This was suppose to be a google presentation I did for the funsies inspired from the presentations made for #Saiki ppt party but I got uh. carried away with explaining the characters and realised I didn't know how to make it funny so instead I'm putting this as a whole essay yipee

The Ship Basis

Makoto and Kusuke are paired together notably because they parallel each other, being the older brother to a main character with an unhealthy dynamic to their younger sibling. They also happen to despise the other's sibling, yet both competing with Kusuo to some degree. Although with no canon interactions, you're pretty much able to put whatever dynamic you want into this ship.

Makoto and Kusuke are also at similar ages and life stages. By the end of the manga, Makoto is 18 and has a rising acting career, and Kusuke is 19 and graduated from Cambridge (and works on... who knows what.)

The rest under the cut!1!

Personality Summary

But, what will really make or break this relationship is their personality and the dynamic that comes from it. I tried to keep this short lmao but feel free to skip it if you feel like you know their character well enough.

Makoto Makoto is a creepy guy, and that's all because his entire personality is centered around the sis-con incest trope. While I won't get into how the manga handles it, it makes Makoto a really unlikeable character.

From what we can see, to most people Makoto is very polite and friendly, much of what his fans expect from him. It's really just a lack of care though, as his inner voice constantly tells us he'd rather get back to Kokomi. When faced with someone he sees as competition to his dream life with his sister, he shows off his real side - he's arrogant, short-tempered and vulgar. Makoto becomes agreeable to Kusuo though when it means helping Kokomi (he takes credit, of course.)

Kusuke In the way Makoto's life obsesses around Kokomi as romantic figure, Kusuke instead centers his life around Kusuo as the ultimate person to defeat.

Kusuke was born a genius, but despite them, has constantly felt defeated by his psychic brother. He lands himself into the 'average' category, an inferiority complex he blames his brother for.

Yet Kusuke is fully aware of his intellect over other people. He will conceitedly toy with people's feelings, or be extremely bored by them. He sees Kusuo as the only person who can defeat him, so he sometimes underestimates people as seen in Kokomi's chapter.

So, how could a dynamic with Makoto and Kusuke work out?

Given the Kusuke-Kokomi chapter, and every single interaction with Makoto and Kusuo, both of them look down on the other's siblings. Makoto would absolutely immediately hate Kusuke, and Kusuke would find it enjoyable to mess with Makoto back. It would could create a very comedic rivalry dynamic, an enemies to lovers if you will. (Fun fact, they both compare their sibling as heaven compared to the other.)

Although both of them compete with Kusuo, so a way for them to bond would be their shared investement in destroying Kusuo. (Possibly, working together?)

Kusuke is canonically immune to Kokomi, so he wouldn't immediately fall for Makoto's charms. Would he later if he developed a relationship with Makoto?

Makoto is very easily provoked and Kusuke loves messing with people. Makoto would be VERY easy to get a reaction out of, without much of a consequence.

Kusuke wouldn't care for Makoto, given that he acts more imprudent and predictable than most. But it gives possibility create depth within Makoto, if he defies those expectations.

Within official sources, neither of them have genuine interactions outside of their family. Given we don't know how they would act either, you could make them as toxic or wholesome when they finally develop a relationship outside of their obsessive interest.

Both of them are very obsessed in their relationships, so it's possibly just redirects their obsession to each other (which solves the big problem with Makoto and Kusuke, fantastic), or just somehow cancels it out completely. Can also make exceedingly toxic or wholesome.

Kusuke is a famous scientist and Makoto is a famous actor, which creates fun scenarios depending on how public their relationship is. Also makes them very powerful people, which is fun to mess with.

Further development (personal headcanons...)

These are all wholesome lmao

Makoto finally meeting someone else who doesn't treat him like an untouchable idol who is immune to consequences. Kusuke meeting someone else who doesn't treat him like an unfeeling genius devoid of needing care.

Makoto falling fast because he's prone to falling for anyone who'll give him the time of day. Kusuke falling almost just as fast but being in denial.

Also Makoto caring over Kusuke just as much as he is to his sister, but he doesn't want to admit it. Kusuke loving Makoto back just as fervently as his parents love each other, but he'll die before he shows it.

Makoto's arrogance taking a step back the longer he is with Kusuke, and finally forced be more self-aware or Kusuke will catch him out for it.

Being an actor, Makoto canonically can catch people spying on him, but what if it extended to being good at reading people too. Makoto can tell when Kusuke is being fake vs genuine.

Kusuke seeing himself as beyond human emotion, suddenly given the possibly of feeling something more for someone. Also, he would be very afraid of being second place in his lover's eyes to another person, just like he was second place in his family (especially given Makoto's obsession...)

Makoto who has been straight his entire life, suddenly feeling... for a man. One that isn't perfect beautiful amazing stunning greatest person alive? Maybe, Makoto would have to decide between a perfect fantasy or a love in reality.

They're wholesome and they learn to love eachother and themselves but also if Kusuke told Makoto he's going to set a blow up a house Makoto doesn't reallllyy have the heart to stop him anymore.

What about in Kusuo and Kokomi's case

One thing I really like about this ship is how much it would fit into canon if you slipped it in. Saiki K is filled with love tropes, but one dynamic I'm surprised wasn't gone for (probably because it would take up too much time) was a proper developing relationship. All the wacky things that can be seen through the honey moon phase and so on. Now imagine the chaos it would be if it was Makokuu...

No matter how, Kusuo would be horrified if Kusuke and Makoto got together. It's two of some of the worst people in his life, now paired together, it would be disastrous.

Would Kusuo hear Makoto's mind? If so, it's probably worse for him.

Kokomi would be equally horrified, although it solves the problem of his brother being weirdly obsessed with her, so maybe she's not that upset.

Kusuo and Kokomi can bond over how terrifying this relationship is to witness in general.

Makoto and Kusuke forced to speak to the siblings with some respect, and actually realise they're not as unworthy as they imagined. Kusuo and Kokomi are forced to be their safety net whenever they end up fighting with each other or setting the neighborhood on fire.

Official Sources

Sorry gang, there's only two official sources situations where Makoto and Kusuke 'interact.' Neither of these can really be considered 'canon', but they're pretty much nothing burgers of content anyways. But hey, they're there.

(A bonus image at the end of ch268)

An off-screen interaction in the 3ds game where Makoto vaguely mentions working with a scientist (that Kusuo recognizes as his brother.)

Yay you read it

I am surprised if you read this far but if you have and enjoy Makokuu you might notice that some of my headcanons are mildly familiar. I can't really end off a makokuu post without mentioning everyone's favorite fic - I'll Be Yours and You'll Be Mine. As a warning it is pretty explicit, but it's interesting how the fic explores their dynamic.

Okay thank you for reading i hope as a community we can write more Makokuu fics yipeeei

[summery-captain]

AuDHD traits Dirk Gently Displays - S1E4: Watkin

Hello friends!! It's been a WHILE but I'm back with this series - You may follow the google docs file I'm writing everything down in, also! If you haven't yet, links to the first three episodes:

S1E1 - Horizons / S1E2 - Lost and Found / S1E3 - Rogue Wall Enthusiasts

Click read more to read the analysis of the fourth episode! Tagging: @clockworkcheetah @urlocallesbiab @generalized-incompetence @amber-angel @goatygoat @frenchfriedgiraffe

 > When Todd catches up with him and Farah, he schools his expressions from excited to have seen him to bored/uninterested, both to show that he isn’t THAT excited he’s there - he seems to think having a bigger reaction to things he likes may cause unwanted reactions from those around him, so he constantly tones himself down

> When they get to the powerhouse, he’s SOOO excited about climbing the fence - I headcanon Dirk as a mix of sensory avoidant and sensory seeking, and his impulsivity is also very relatable

> “Push my bum!! Make me go up!!!” - I might die of second hand embarrassment everytime I watch this scene, but it’s so relatable! I, too, say things without noticing it might have double meaning and it doesn’t dawn on me until hours or years later

> When he isn’t able to climb up and then sees Farah just. Break the locks. It’s SO funny how he hadn’t even considered trying the more obvious steps first before just throwing himself onto the chain link fence, I love him!! Yes impulsive with no common sense king!!!

> As soon as they’re in he just grabs the map from Todd’s hand without even glancing at him - impulsivity but also hyperfocus on the task overriding the conscious effort to show courtesy by asking for things before taking them

> After he falls inside the maze, he tells Todd “Which was unsafe to do unsupervised, now that I think about it” - hard time thinking things through before doing it because, again, the hyperfocus ends up overriding common sense

> “Where are we?” / “Underground!” - WELL YES. Literal thinking icon

> Todd calls out to him, “Hey! Don’t wander off!” - elopping, we tend to wander off without noticing or letting others know, or stay behind because we stopped to look at something, often also involves not noticing danger

> “I think the message is… you’re going to die” - no filter, absolutely first thing that comes to mind is already halfway out his mouth, ADHD ambassador

> “You can’t just walk in blindly? You’re saying that to ME?” - Same trait as before, elopping all the way

> Todd goes, “When shit hits the fan, you fall apart!” - EXTREMELY common for us to not see the consequences or effects coming up until we have to deal with it, especially in situations we’ve never been through before, which is a constant

> *smiling * “...I hope you’re not smiling” DEEP frown - my beautiful son who has cartoonish expressions and can’t hide his emotions very well, we are one and the same

> In the strip down scene we see he wears a white undershirt, which could be providing deep pressure which is great for sensory seeking autistic people!! Also goes in hand with me headcanoning him as trans, double up tight shirt as a binder AND sensory stim

>  “Hope you’re not claustrophobic” / “No, I don’t even like coffee” - two things: he has audio processing issues and misunderstood what was said, AND he responded based on what he understood even if it didn’t make sense for the context of the situation at hand

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: The Wheel of Destiny #8, Kerubim.

You can find this article on the Dofus MMO's site, by simply googling it.

A bit of context: this is an article, from the series called "Wheel of Destiny," which focuses on small character studies of various ecaflip characters from the World of Twelve. I won't be doing all of them, just the ones that interest me.

It is my decision to start with this in particular, because of the relatively small size of the article, to test out this... reading liveblogs thing. I hope it goes well, and isn't too boring.

I hate Eca so much it's unreal, just so you know.

To make it more obvious which parts are me, and which parts are the article, while you're skimming the post, I turned on my computer's night mode for making screenshots.

...My sincerest apologies to tumblr's dark mode users, though. I'm sure this is a nightmare for you.

And this is what I was talking about in the previous posts, where I said that, canonically, Kerubim's friendship with Bashi started before the Quest of Two Mornings in Episode 3, Strich Hunt.

Very sad to disappoint, but there does not actually seem to be a Croc Ness monster in the Dofus MMO.

Yet another confirmation of the temple being situated in Amakna. (Besides my own geographical estimations while watching the show, and it literally being there in the Dofus MMO.)

It's a long ass way between the temple, and the swamp, but it is realistically doable for two kids, especially if they have a carriage. (Which Kerubim, being the guy responsible for feeding Ecaflip, does have access too.)

"Five-Cat Monte" is a reference to "Three-Card Monte" which is a real thing.

Glad to know Bashi is also very normal and sane as a kid. Also, very glad that older kids, who give lessons, react to things like this by essentially going "Sure, go die I guess."

God, they are so fucking stupid. Anyway, they are talking about some real landmarks here, all of which are also around Amakna, and seem to be pretty accurate to the in-game geography.

...It feels nice to be right.

...I suppose that, despite its faults, the orphan temple actually gives a shit about its disciples not dying. Color me surprised? Eh, I'm mostly joking. It would be very weird if they didn't.

I will spoil things ahead for you: Ecaflip used magic to make Kerubim look like Atcham.

Bashi's reaction to Atcham being "AAAAH NOT THAT FUCKING CREEPY KID AGAIN 😨". The way he pretty much says, "a ghost?? NO. SOMETHING SCARIER. YOUR WEIRD FUCKING BROTHER."

It all implies., So much. It implies so much. I'm still not over it.

Pictured: my vision of how Bashi reacted to Atcham, when Kerubim (against his will, unwillingly, and deeply embarrassed) was forced to introduce them to one another.

I like to think that before they began to hate one another, Kerubim's relationship with Atcham was similar to what he had with Patafiks. Except instead of copying him, Atcham would, idk. Threaten to kill himself if he got any friend other than him? Threaten to kill his friends?

Something insane and jealousy-based like that.

I may be that guy who's very critical of Kerubim, and constantly going "Atcham's sad implied backstory this, Atcham's sad implied backstory that," but you don't get reactions like that by simply being extremely bullied.

You get reactions like that by being That Heavily Bullied Kid With 20 Mental Illnesses Who Attacks People With Sharp Objects.

Pictured: my rough theory of whatever the fuck happened between Kerubim and Atcham in the orphanage.

It is a funny image... that quickly wraps around back to being sad, once you think about little orphan Atcham, who people fucking hate for being a bingus, who has nobody except for his equally-orphaned brother (who doesn't look weird, can actually make friends, and leave him alone, if he wants to. Which he does.) and how at such a young age he got desperate enough to resort to what seems to be violence to protect himself.

Which got him absolutely no help. And also made people look down on him even further.

I think the funniest part of it all is that Atcham as an adult has:

1. The knowledge that hating Kerubim is literally not productive and a weird fucking coping mechanism.

Yet he keeps doing that.

2. A sort of moral compass that's all about protecting and respecting those in the same shit situation as him. (Even if they insult him. He hates that, but he's mature enough to uh.... just shave people against their will about it.)

While Kerubim is like. Still struggling with even saying that he doesn't even hate his brother. Somehow, he's the more emotionally constipated one.

So normal of them.

Anyway,

I think here we can see a bit of the internal growth Kerubim has had, from the time when he was a child, to adulthood.

Joris cannot picture Kerubim being ashamed, or disgusted, by Atcham, despite this article showing him doing exactly that.

It is the reason why I think one of the factors that contributed to Kerubim adopting, and keeping, Joris, was his guilt over whatever Atcham went through, despite how much he likes to say that he doesn't like Atcham.

Joris is different from other kids: small, weird, probably bald. And in any other situation, it's likely he'd develop a complex about it, except his dialogue in the movie specifically implies that Kerubim has put in conscious parenting effort into preventing exactly that.

While it's obvious that Kerubim loves Joris, there are many flaws in his parenting. So him putting a petabyte worth of effort and research into one single aspect of it is... very telling.

Now for a bit of a reach/headcanon: Who's to say that the reason Joris doesn't have many friends, is not Kerubim trying to isolate him from any potential source of shame or trauma? This part, as I've said, is purely speculation/headcanon — but it is an interesting thought.

And Atcham, who was there, and experienced shit like this from Kerubim, is still swayed by Joris's words.

What I think happened between them is that Kerubim, who yearns for societal approval, is afraid of being like Atcham, who is often ostracized and disliked by people for his looks. Besides this, I think Atcham, who was Going Through Horrors, was clingy.

For these reasons, he pushed Atcham away, and it is this betrayal, coupled with Kerubim's advantages in the form of not looking weird and being Ecaflip's favorite, that made Atcham fucking detest him.

What it all means is that Joris isn't necessarily wrong: Kerubim wouldn't hurt Atcham (at least, not unless it's self defense), and what he did was just... trying to save his own skin as kid.

Which isn't exactly malicious.

And I guess Atcham agrees with Joris on Kerubim's incapability of doing harm to him on purpose. Otherwise, he would never be convinced to change his mind.

There is probably a reason for why Kerubim would rather live in a forest, than go back to the temple looking like Atcham. And as I've said, I don't think it's a happy one.

Now think about Atcham doing this his whole life and get sad. Like I just did.

I think that, of all the things, it's most disgusting that whatever happened to Kerubim and Atcham was happening under the watch of Ecaflip, and perhaps even because of him.

I wouldn't put it past him to orchestrate their hatred for each other for fun. Or because he wanted Kerubim all alone, to himself.

I also find it interesting, the way Ecaflip says "once more" here. Implies that it used to be a normal thing for him. I suppose my guesses of Kerubim being disliked by other kids due to Atcham may have some merit.

And god, it makes me so, so sad.

He cares enough to intervene when Kerubim is about to die, which goes against his own rules, but not when it's about his kids' life being fucking awful.

...Maybe Oropo was right.

Do we know if Ecaflip's emotions are even genuine? He is the narrator of this story, after all, and he could be lying. He puts Kerubim in danger many times. Many. Just for fun and his own amusement.

I will take Ecaflip's narration as a straight-forward one, — that he really is feeling these things, but it still reads as manipulation, even if he is doing it for "Kerubim's sake". He's not a good father and never will be one, and these are very cruel lessons.

I will be real, their relationship disgusts me to my heart <3 Amen.

And now we know why Kerubim is... like that. And why his parenting is so overbearingly sweet, controlling, and obsessed with making sure Joris knows he adores him and adores him back.

Perhaps, despite everything, Atcham was the luckier one for not having Ecaflip's "love" the way Kerubim did, but honestly, I feel both of them had it equally shitty.

A true "would you rather sit on an anthill or sit on a cactus" choice.

[sorenphelps]

Sirius is a dog. Duh, I know, what's new.

I usually don't share actual written thoughts here but as my extended friend group has become dog owners in the past years, I have larger exposure to dogs and general discussions on various dog breeds and their behavior; I can see now how Sirius really is a dog, which also sums up his fanon and canon characterization too pretty well? Let me explain.

(Also a quick disclaimer; I am not a dog expert by any means, and the below thoughts are solely based on my own experience and a very superficial google search of few dog breeds.)

The main characteristics of typical family dogs like Golden and Labrador Retrievers are a balanced temperament, high social communication skills and cuteness (especially when they are a puppy). They are usually gentle, and approach children, adults, other pets with affection, hence they are often trained to be guides for disabled individuals. They tend to be very friendly, emphasized by their fluffy fur, warm eyes and constantly wagging tails. They can quickly establish a relationship with strangers and usually thrive in company. They are eager to please and adore the extra attention. They are playful and fun, loving, loyal and intelligent (but they need to be trained properly and early on).

Looking up the characteristics of work/guard dogs, such as a Malinois or a German Shepherd, you get the qualities of a police/military dog used for drug detection, tracking explosive materials, pursuing criminals, rescue operations, and various other specialized tasks. These dogs are strong and have a noble appearance (which can look scary even) with almond-shaped eyes that convey a vigilant expression. They are agile, athletic, curious, highly intelligent with a fast learning capacity to top it off. They tend to be inclined towards performing tasks where they are useful, rather than spending time with standard games, and thus require a substantial amount of exercise and constant mental stimulation. They usually succeed in every task given to them, however if they are not trained or occupied well enough, they get bored and can act out. They are courageous, but usually cautious towards strangers, however they are extremely loyal and protective towards the people they love, or are responsible for.

While every dog has their own personality, generally speaking, I believe, the description of family dogs above applies mostly to fanon Sirius (usually doubling down on the hyperactive puppy stereotypes too); and the description of guard dogs applies more to canon Sirius. (Relevant parts bolded.)

[lepusrufus]

I'm starved for theories and hcs and analysis of the blorbos so fine, I'll do it myself. Have some random gritty edgy hcs of Sombra because I'm bored and want to bug my followers with the brainrot

Sombra is a lot less prone to violence than most of Talon, but she also looks extremely apathetic to it on a surface level. She's been scouring and has seen the deepest, most fucked up and disgusting corners the internet has to offer. She's so desensitized to it all that sometimes even she has to take a step back and wonder what the fuck is wrong with her. Sometimes she ends up in deep rabbit holes without even meaning to, just because she can, but suddenly she's trying to find the source of a website selling the shadiest most unsafe spine implants and will need to get up and grab a coffee. (Maybe take Moira's example and steal some of her Irish coffee)

Being the one committing violent crimes is a bit of a different can of worms. Sombra is not usually a field agent and even when she is, that implies mostly staying hidden somewhere away from the fight and taking care of any security that could get in their way. Sure, the gun is there and she'll use it if needed, but she'd rather not.

In a similar vein, she has a very odd way of showing compassion (and has a particular soft spot for young kids in shitty situations). Sombra would find the most disgusting thing hidden somewhere on the web and bury herself neck deep in it to get rid of whoever is responsible. She'll get out of it without as much as a metaphorical scrap, sure, but there's only so many times she can pull this off without it getting to her.

The Implants in her head pretty much connect her brain to the whole wide internet. She's not concerned about anyone compromising her through it, with all the meticulously thought out security she put in place, but it still has its side effects. Sure, she has access to any and all data at any time, but with the amount of misleading and contradictory information you can find even through the simplest google search, she has to always be careful what she picks as true or false, to the point where she sometimes doubts even the simplest little facts. At least she got really good at recognizing lies.

Having any and all information at her fingertips is both a blessing and a curse. She can know anything on anyone in a matter of seconds but on the flip side she rarely gets to truly come in contact with the world if not through a pink tinted screen. She gets wrapped in her own head around motives and data and the inner workings of everything that she sometimes forgets that people are, at the end of the day, people and they will sometimes be unpredictable just because. It made her a bit of a paranoid mess throughout the years and despide how well she can hide it, constantly being on the lookout for something is beyond exhausting.

The implants on her spine are old. They're still very much functioning as they should be, but the one person that did them had died years ago and, without being able to do any tinkering on her own back by herself, Sombra didn't have any major parts of it replaced or updated like the rest of her tech. The knowledge that one day it's bound to malfunction and she'll be left to scramble for a way to fix it looms over her every single time she puts a little too much strain on the mechanical parts of her body and feels a little warning tingle of electricity running down her spine.

Less related to any body modifications, but i think we can all agree that she has the most fucked up sleep schedule in the universe. Sometimes she'll sleep for 12 hours straight. Sometimes she won't sleep for 3 days. Whether it's because she's working on something important or because sleep simply seems to elude her matters little, she'll still be holed up in her bedroom with a few screens floating around her and a pair of headphones blasting too loud music.

[vashtijoy]

Today I want to rant at length about highlight a plot-relevant but otherwise rather dry line from Shido's Palace, simply because it's been living rent-free in my head for days and I'll die if I don't.

And up front I want to say: this is not intended as translator bashing, shit like this is rarely on the translator, though I will possibly get a little aerated at times. More about that at the end.

This is really long, and probably very boring. So to summarise quickly:

Ooe's "diplomat" and "president of some company" are the Minister for Transport and the railway company president from the 4/10 cinematic with Sae and the SIU director;

Shido wasn't "specially appointed", he's the Minister of State for Special Missions, likely with oversight for either the PTs or the psychotic breakdowns;

being a pro translator sucks;

something about a well.

my least favourite line so far

Shadow Politician 春先に地下鉄事故があっただろう?狙ったのは、あの運転士だからな。 harusaki ni chikatetsu jiko ga atta darou? neratta no wa, ano untenshu da kara na Do you recall the subway accident early last spring? The one I had targeted was that engineer.

nb—this "engineer" is the train driver. I didn't get this at all, but apparently train drivers are called engineers in the US? This is a good example of how something you think is a mistranslation may not be.

There is an occasion where the guy is referred to as a "driver", but this is actually 車掌 shashou—in Japanese, a conductor in the British sense, the member of staff who is not the driver, but walks up and down checking tickets. This is meant to hint to us, I suspect, that the NPC saying this may not be a reliable source—he's making some spooky claims, after all. Yet again, in America, the conductor can be the driver of the train...? IDK, confusion abounds.

But on to the important bit:

Shadow Politician 目障りな国交大臣と、現政権派の社長のクビを取るためだった。mezawarina kokkou daijin to, genseiken-ha no shachou no kubi o toru tame datta It was to take out the president of some company and a diplomat who sided with current government.

Full disclosure: I have never liked this line. It screamed of being mistranslated. "The president of some company"? Ooe had this guy destroyed, and he can't be specific? And "a diplomat"? This has come from nowhere—I can't think of another diplomat in P5. It just all seems so random. And it is random. Because this was meant to close up a background plot element from the start of the game, and it just... doesn't any more.

So, for this one, I'm just going to break out the big red DENIED stamp again:

The hell of it all is that I can see what they did here, so I'm going to go through it at excessive length, as like... an object lesson in what not to do. Not just for you, but for me.

And I need to be clear up front that I'm not an authoritative source on the Japanese language. I'm not fluent, my Japanese is barely passable (which is why asks, comments and discussion on my language posts are all always super welcome, btw, just like for everything else I post). I'm just a weeb on the Internet, who constantly posts assertions and theories that future me will hate. Bring your salt shaker.

Quick glimpse behind the curtain: this is from my Google doc for Shido's Palace. You have the textbox code, the speaker, then the text in Japanese, romaji and the localisation. Usually these days I don't add the romaji (it's not good for your reading), but lines that go into posts get it temporarily.

Words I don't know, or had to verify (like shachou, where I wanted to know if it was always a company president or if it could be a role within a political faction), or lore/grammar notes, all get comments, which are highlighted in yellow.

the peril of dictionaries

I'm bilingual English/Welsh-speaking; until I was fifteen, I was educated through the medium of Welsh. So I got taught very early on about the correct use of dictionaries. The exact example I remember is that a past pupil (probably apocryphal) wanted to put "Well, Dad was angry!" into Welsh. And they had looked up "well"....

ffynnon, roedd Dad yn grac! Well, Dad was angry!

This is a ffynnon:

It's a funny story. The point is that you should always flip to the other half of the dictionary to verify the meaning you found. Or these days, with the Internet and all, we get to check multiple dictionaries, corpuses and sources! And a riotously good time it is.

part one: who was that mysterious diplomat

The main phrase I want to focus on is 国交大臣 kokkou daijin. This is what has been rendered "a diplomat" in the localisation. On first glance, that's a string of kanji I don't know: country, the right-hand side of the second half of 学校 gakkou (school), something about a big man... is that read daijin?...

Maybe it's a yojijukugo—a fixed four-kanji phrase with an often-idiomatic meaning? Let's put the whole thing into Jisho and see what we get.

(Incidentally, I bash Jisho constantly, but it's still my first stop because it's fast and often good enough. You just shouldn't rely on it for anything critical; trust, but verify.)

B|

Well, there's no yojijukugo. But one glance at that tells us that Ooe's "diplomat" is not a diplomat at all. Ooe's "diplomat" is the Minister for Transport who was brought down as a result of this subway crash in April. You might have thought Shido had this guy taken out, but no. He did it for Ooe. He crashed a subway train, injuring 80 people, as nothing but a favour to Ooe.

But why is it using kokkou, "diplomatic relations"? Well, Jisho gives us a convenient "see also" link. Let's take a look:

You see what they did there? The full phrase is 国土交通相 kokudo koutsuu-shou, "Minister for (National) Land and Transport". But nobody wants to say that. So you strike out some of the kanji. The word becomes kokkoushou—but everyone still knows who you mean.

Let's do a bit of that verification I mentioned. Here's Wikipedia:

HmmMM. Notice how the Minister and the Ministry are read the same; only the last kanji changes. But we're still on track.

Let's click over to Japanese Wikipedia. What do they have to say?

And there it is again, highlighted: our old friend 国交 kokkou, "diplomatic relations". "In Japanese, this is commonly abbreviated as kokkoushou".

daijin

How about 大臣 daijin? It looks like it just means "big man" or "important man", but what does it actually mean? Again, let's start with Jisho:

... B|

Jisho offers us a bunch of "further reference" links, so I'm going to go straight to Japanese Wikipedia for this one—which sends you to an old revision of the page, by the way; be sure to go to the latest one:

大臣（だいじん）は、本来は皇帝や国王などを輔弼して国政を司る重要官職だが、今日では一般的に君主制か共和制かにかかわらず、政府を構成し、各行政部門の長に位置する官職を指す。閣僚ともいう。 Historically, 大臣 daijin referred to the high position of those responsible for matters of state, who advised emperors and kings on those matters. However, today it generally refers, regardless of whether the government in question is a monarchy or republic, to an official who leads a division of government.

... ... B|

In other words, a cabinet minister. Seems to sum it up pretty well, but let's just look at the invaluable ALC corpus on this:

So we have it. A daijin is unquestionably a cabinet minister. And Ooe is unquestionably talking about the Minister for Transport.

last-minute edit: I actually wrote this entire post, preened for completing it, then closed it in my drafts and forgot all about it. Until I opened my grammar text to a random page and found this:

EVEN MY GRAMMAR BOOK KNOWS.

Actual grammar books are a bit obsolete in 2023, but that is a great one if you're in the market. Just don't get the Kindle edition, it's illegible on Kindle which is probably not what you want.

Incidentally, yes, a Diet member is sensei—you can often hear people refer to Shido that way.

but we can also backreference this one

Another cool thing we can do is get context-relevant examples. That is, we can search the P5 script itself to see how it uses daijin and kokkou daijin.

Two lines use kokkou daijin. One is this line of Ooe's. The other is a news story, which gets it right:

Newscaster 国交大臣の辞任に伴い、与党への批判が高まっており⋯ kokkou daijin no jinin ni tomanai, yotou e no hihan ga takamatte ori... Criticism of the ruling party has surged, following the resignation of the Minister of Transport.

But people talk about the Minister quite a bit. What phrases do they use? Well, sometimes he's simply the daijin—"the Minister"; this usually becomes "Minister of Transport" for context. Sometimes he's the kokkoushou, as we discussed above. And often, on the news, he gets his full title—he's the kokudo koutsuu daijin.

Usually, daijin by itself in P5 is part of 総理大臣 souri daijin—the prime minister.

meanwhile in shidoland

In passing, the MoT is not the only one who gets translated out of the script. You might remember from the calling card cinematic that Shido is the "Minister of State for Special Missions".

Makoto tries to tell us this at one point:

Makoto 特命担当大臣現職の閣僚よ tokumei tantou daijin genshoku no kanryou yo He was specially appointed to the position. That's his current title. He's the current Minister of State for Special Missions.

(What is that, exactly? I'm not gonna do a huge research effort on this one right now, this post is already longer than the Nile and dry as sand, but they appear to be appointed to deal with things that are a big deal—the link gives you examples of some of the issues they've been appointed for. It's not inconceivable that Shido was appointed to the Cabinet to deal with the national crisis of psychotic breakdowns and mental shutdowns that he started. Either that, or the PTs themselves—he does talk about them an awful lot.)

and that's not all

There is, of course, a real Japanese Minister for Transport. We can put kokkou daijin into Google (with a little は on the end to filter Chinese-language sites), and what do we get back? The first hit is the Wikipedia page for the Minister for Transport.

My guess would be that the translator knew the word kokkou, but they didn't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese politics. So they read kokkou daijin as some kind of important diplomat.

part two: in which we invent time travel

And that was only the first of the two things that made me hate my life about that textbox. Let's bring the line back:

Shadow Politician 目障りな国交大臣と、現政権派の社長のクビを取るためだった。mezawarina kokkou daijin to, genseiken-ha no shachou no kubi o toru tame datta It was to take out the president of some company and a diplomat who sided with current government.

The second thing that got under my skin was this:

現政権派の社長 genseiken-ha no shachou

This means, in the terms of the localisation, "a company president who sided with current government". But... what is even going on here?

In Japanese, modifiers go before the things they modify, right? Like ... always. I'm going to cite the slightly-tongue-in-cheek but also inestimable Jay Rubin (probably best known as Haruki Murakami's English translator) on this:

... by about the middle of the seventh century, the Emperor, who still wielded actual power then, made a rule, maybe the one rule that really works in the language and never gets broken: “From this day forward, subjects will always come before their verbs. And, just to keep things neat, modifiers will always come before what they modify.” Never in all these centuries have there been any exceptions—at least not in normal syntax....

Shōmetsu shita zō is “The elephant that vanished”—a fragment, just a noun with a modifier in front of it. By putting it before the zō, we’ve changed the shōmetsu shita into a modifier. I’m going to go way out on a limb here and call anything that modifies a noun an adjective. Shōmetsu shita zō (literally, “vanished elephant”) works exactly the same way as utsukushii zō (“beautiful elephant”).

(That's from the book "Making Sense of Japanese", by the way, which y'all should totally read if you can find a copy. It's one of Kodansha's little books, which are all worth at least a glance; they published tons of them, with titles like "All About Particles" and "How To Sound Intelligent In Japanese" and etc etc etc.)

back to our sentence

So how is this translation breaking that rule? Let's look at it again, with the problematic parts bolded:

目障りな国交大臣と、現政権派の社長のクビを取るためだった。mezawarina kokkou daijin to, genseiken-ha no shachou no kubi o toru tame datta It was to take out the president of some company and a diplomat who sided with current government.

現政権派 genseiken-ha is the current government; the current administration. No problems there. It's just in the wrong place.

kokkou daijin, we established, is the localisation's "diplomat". genseiken-ha no translates as "aligned with the current government". But genseiken-ha is after kokkou daijin. It cannot be modifying it. It can't have been taken for a relative clause—what Jay Rubin framed as an adjective in the quote up there—because we still have the two people the sentence describes, the "diplomat" and the businessman; the sentence has not been read as talking about a diplomat who is also a government-boosting company president.

We should have, literally, "an eyesore of a minister for transport" and "a company president who sides with current government". But we just... don't.

Is it possible it doesn't make sense that a company president would be aligned with the government? Has the sentence been rearranged for that reason? But this is essentially what Okumura does: he's a company boss aligned with a powerful politician. So are the TV and IT Execs whose shadows we meet, for that matter. They are not in politics themselves, but they network with politicians. Big business and politics are always hand-in-hand.

All of this gives us the following working version of the translation:

It was to take down that intolerable Minister of Transport and a company president who supported the government.

And on that note....

who is that mysterious company president

"the president of some company", the localisation says. This seems a bit vagued up. Are there any company presidents we should be aware of here?

The answer is yes:

On 4/10, in the cinematic after the crash, the SIU Director talks at length about how this is the fault of "the company and the government". Of course he does—he knows very well what's happened, and he knows where the blame is to be assigned:

SIU Director: It's less of an operating accident and more of a crime of the company and the government. SIU Director: Site inspectors apparently reported all of this six months ago—the deterioration of the tracks and the ATC.

And the last two lines in full, since they diverge:

SIU Director それを会社が隠ぺい…国交省も故意に見逃したフツがある。 sore o kaisha ga inpei... kokkoushou mo koi ni minogashita futsu ga aru Seems the railway company and the Ministry of Transport both turned a blind eye to the truth. So the railway company covered it up... and the Ministry of Transport did what they do best: they turned a blind eye to it..

This is just a slight difference in emphasis: the railway company allegedly performed a deliberate coverup, and it was the Ministry that did their normal thing, and chose to overlook that coverup....

But note that "railway company" here is just 会社 kaisha, "company". Originally, it was obvious from context; the localisation clarifies it. But when Ooe later mentions a 社交 shachou, a "company president", in the same obvious-from-context way, it has not been picked up on—our very personal railway company president has become "the president of some company". Who was important enough for Ooe to personally destroy, but not important enough for him to remember where he worked.

SIU Director 隠し通せんよ。大臣の進退まで行くだろう。 kakushitoosen yo. daijin no shintai made iku darou There's no way they can hide. This will go all the way to the top. They can't keep this hushed up forever. By the end of this, the transport minister's job will be on the line.

... but here's the first real appearance of the Minister for Transport, with the SIU Director—who, again let's not forget, knows this crash was engineered in part to get that minister—not just saying this incident will "go all the way to the top", but that it will specifically end with them coming for the minister's job.

where did we come from, where did we go

Where does that leave us with the sentence?

It was to take out the president of some company and a diplomat who sided with current government. It was to take down that intolerable Minister of Transport, and the president of the railway company. He supported the government, after all.

We've broken that little genseiken-ha out into its own little explaining sentence, since it's hard to phrase as one sentence in natural English. And now you know.

btw, leave the translators alone

Look, this is far from the best translation I've ever seen. We should be mad about this, right? Well... no.

As a hobbyist, I have the luxury of focusing on a single fandom, spending hours, days, or weeks thinking about single scenes, researching context, language and concepts, confirming I've understood things to the best of my ability. Your average animanga/JRPG translator is not being paid well enough, or given nearly enough time, to do this. They cannot be expected to do this.

This is not, not, NOT on the translator. Read that ten times. We are supposed to go from our second language to our native tongue; that's how translation works best. So there will always be areas of confusion like this, things that need clarification and research. Japanese media translation requires a vast knowledge of differently arcane terms depending on the work; nobody will know them all.

Who is this on? It's on Atlus, for skimping on and rushing not only the translation but the editing; they did the English localisation of a massive property on the cheap. Something like this should have been caught by the editor, but honestly P5's editing (including the way things are finalised in English, and the overall polishing of the script) tends to come in for more criticism than the translation per se.

tl;dr: blame the company, not the poor translator who was most likely just one of us trying to make a shitty living with something they love, and a skill they worked their ass off for.

[jellypear]

I think you're worth holding onto PT3

Ayo wassup @wolfythewitch, I return. I started this like a week ago and I've already got 8 pages on google docs, this is going really well for me.

Also! I posted this on AO3, and I'm going to update these around the same time so if you wanna stay up tp date and don't want to deal with the mess that is my tumblr go check it out there <3

--------------------------------

On the third day, the storm finally calms. 

The third day is also when Techno grows ill. 

There are consequences to bottling one's magic. And while these include more fantastical symptoms as the magic tries to escape, which can range anywhere from chilling the air around you, to summoning storms to setting off a magical inferno, though that’s in extreme cases, there are also the mundane symptoms. There’s the constant achiness, decreased stamina and a weaker constitution. 

(Phil has a plethora of recipes that can help. Not all of them are remedies as not all the symptoms can be fixed, but they sure do help.)

And despite Phil’s constant watch, the cocktail of bottled magic, storm drenched clothes and extensive journeying can only lead to one thing for Techno, and that’s sickness. 

Which leads Phil, ever the bleeding heart, to be seated here next to Techno’s bedside. 

He’s dutifully changing the damp cloth on Techno’s forehead to keep his fever down, making sure Techno keeps his fluid and blood sugar levels up no matter how much Techno doesn’t want to and keeping Tommy out of the room lest he also grow sick. Philza doesn’t want two sick kids in the cottage. 

Though keeping Tommy out of Techno’s room (which is totally not a spare storage room that Philza speed cleaned after realizing that he cannot keep his young guests in the living room) has never been easier. After all, with the storm gone the crows are back. And Tommy fucking loves the crows. 

(Philza later regrets the day he introduced Tommy to the crows. They get along like a house on fire. Phil fears that one day they will influence each other to start a house fire.)

But as much as Phil fears the consequences of this action, he needs Tommy safely out of the way so he can focus on Techno. And maybe it’s not wise to make a six year olds only guardian a murder of crows and give him free reign of a forest, but quite honestly it’s probably safer for him out there.

With the sickness Techno’s iron control over his magic, which Phil has witnessed many times in the past three days, grows dubious. He’s more prone to magical flare ups, ones larger than the sparks of the first night and the flames of the second, and it’s easier for Phil to be damage control with Tommy out of the house. 

Thus Phil stays by Techno’s side, keeping his fever down, his fluids up, cleaning up the frosts and the dews that appear and ushering away the sparks. 

(It reminds Phil of simpler, kinder times. And even though he longs for them, he feels as if beginning to understand why events occurred the way they did.) 

(Phil’s not a big believer in destiny, but he’s beginning to wonder.)

--------------------------------

Tommy Careful Danger Kraken Innit may be the biggest man there is, but he’s really fucking bored. 

Yeah Chat, the crows that Phil introduced him to, are really fucking cool.

(“There’s too many of them for them all to get an individual name so I call them Chat. They’ll look after you while I look after your brother”)

And being able to run around the forest is also really fucking cool, but he misses Techno. Yeah sure it’s only been like a few days since he got sick, but Tommy isn’t used to not having Techno constantly over his shoulder like a fucking shadow. 

The first few days were fun. No Techno telling him what to do and he was finally let outside? So fucking poggers. 

He spent the first little bit of it chattering to the crows as he explored the forest, and honestly it’s only been a couple days but Tommy already feels like he knows the whole thing like the back of his hand. 

He knows where to find the best berries, ones that aren’t poisonous but are very sweet and he knows where to find the clean streams and ponds where he can wash his hands of the berry juice. He knows where to find the hill with the best view and he’s found where there’s a small meadow, hidden between the trees that has the prettiest flowers and so many bees. 

He’s found all the best spots and climbed all the best trees and now he’s bored. 

Tommy’s tried exploring further into (or out of depending on your perspective) the forest, but everytime he passes a certain spot, one he can’t figure out, Chat begins squawking at him. And he means like, really losing their shit. 

So he can’t explore the forest further, he doesn’t want to explore the same areas alone again and he’s not allowed into Techno’s room.

…

But Philza’s in Techno’s room.

So Philza’s not in his room.

--------------------------------

Okay so as it turns out, Phil’s room is really boring. 

It’s just like. A bunch of books. His bed. A desk. Closet. 

Tommy's not great at reading, he’s better than to sleep on another big man’s bed, he already played with the hourglass on the desk for a bit and he can’t reach up high enough into the closet to get any of Phil’s clothes down. 

There’s a really old looking mirror on the wall though, that’s kinda cool. 

Clearly the answer here is to bring the chair over to the mirror. 

So that’s what he does.

He clambers on top of the chair and looks into the mirror. It’s got a bunch of drawings and crystals in it, but it’s cracked. 

“Well this is fuckin’ boring innit,” Tommy’s words lay still in the air for a moment.

Then the glass on the mirror riples. It’s as if someone dropped a pebble into a puddle and then put it in a mirror. 

For a moment the face of the mirror shines and its light is reflected onto Tommy. And then a face appears in the cracks. But it’s no longer Tommy’s face. It’s another boy, older than Techno but younger than Phil. He’s got dark curly hair and tired blue eyes, the same eyes that Phil has. He looks surprised.

“Oh, you’re not Phil”

--------------------------------

Orignal AU by Wolfy | AO3 | 1 | 2 | Part 3 | 4 |